Hola peeps! How are you all doing on this fine Friday the 13th? Things were going pretty well for me until I had almost completely finished this blog post and Safari crashed and I lost it all. UGH!! (It actually happened twice, so I switched over to Google Chrome and that seems to be better.) And I don't remember everything that I wrote! I guess it's a sign to start over. Anyway, I'm back with surprise, surprise: another pair of jeans, but not to worry, there are some other new me-mades in this post too. Woo hoo!
So this ensemble consists of another pair of Ginger-Angel Hybrid jeans (Angers? Gangels? Ginangels?), a sleeveless Granville, and a Hemlock Tee. All worn shamelessly with my slippers! What can I say, I love my fuzzy slippers!
So let's start with the jeans. I don't really have anything new to say about the pattern, as this pair is pretty much exactly the same as my last pair. What does make this pair special is that they are made from a gorgeous 9oz Cone Mill's Denim from Threadbare Fabrics. There is just nothing like a good quality denim. It's so much nicer to work with, it presses nicely, and the best part, it's recovery is amazing. I can wear these baby's for days and they totally maintain their shape. (And by days I mean, I can comfortably wear them four or five times before I need to wash them, unless I spill something on them, ahem coffee, which is pretty common for me đ). The 9oz denim might actually be a little light for a regular pair of jeans, but I just couldn't resist the colour. It's a slightly lighter shade than the regular indigo you usually see in denim. It's not showing up very well in these photos, but it really is a bit lighter. While the weight of this denim might be a little lighter than what I'm used to, it makes these jeans extremely comfortable, and stretchy (they almost feel like leggings)! I do miss the (ahem) support that a slightly heavier denim would provide though. Plus because I used a quilting cotton for the pockets, you can sort of see the pocket outline through the denim, but that is mostly my fault as I should have went with some lighter scraps, but who can resist surfin' cats?
When I got my hands on this denim, I debated making something else out of it due to it's lighter weight. I thought it might make a lovely Chardon or Brumby skirt, a shirtdress or a jean jacket, or even quilted with flannel for a cool Tamarack jacket, but in the end I decided a pair of jeans would probably get the most wear. I almost tried out this pull on version (which I think would be perfect in this weight), but I was too lazy to try a new pattern this time, and I really wanted to make another pair of Ginger-Angels as I wear my first pair a ton!
For something a little different I decided to go with some red topstitching. I remembered Amy's pair and I loved how the red looked against the dark blue. I'm not sure my red pops quite as well as it did on her pair, but I still really like it. I think one of the really cool parts of making your own jeans (and your own clothes for that matter) is that you can change up those little details. I'm also planning to add rivets, but I haven't decided on the colour yet. Any thoughts? (I have brass, gunmetal, silver and copper.)
Anyway, enough about the jeans, let's talk about the tops. The lovely striped number is a Grainline Hemlock. I made a Hemlock months ago, and decided that the boxy, one-size fits all pattern just wasn't for me. It seemed too shapeless and long for me, but then I kept seeing cool ones pop up in my Instagram feed, so I decided to give it another go. I mean, the pattern's free, so why not? This time I decided to forgo colour-blocking, shortened the body by 2.5", and made it out of a stripey fabric. I mean you can't go wrong with stripes, right? I am so happy that I gave it another shot. I have been wearing the two that I made pretty much non-stop. It's amazing how something changes when you get the length right. The other one I made is striped too, but I haven't blogged about it. I think this fabric came from my February Knitfix pack from Girl Charlee. It's a french terry, but it is on the thin side; you can easily see the pockets of my Granville coming right though it, so it might not be the best for layering over tops.
All summer, I really wanted to make a pale pink Granville top. I even found the perfect fabric at Blackbird Fabrics (it's a beautiful Italian Linen just like this one), but for some reason, I never got around to making one . So in my recent fit of cutting out 5 Granvilles, I decided to include the pink linen. It's a little seasonally inappropriate, but I figured it would work well under sweaters, and worst case scenario: it just hangs in my closet for a few months and then I know it will get a ton of wear when it warms up in the Spring and Summer. I had planned to use some cute little buttons, but when I spotted these cool marble snaps in my stash, I knew it was meant to be. I know they came from Snap Source because they were still in the package, but I couldn't find them on their website.
It still looks a little stiff, as I have't washed it since I made it and I starched it like crazy so it would be easier to work with. Linen always seems to stretch out and go wonky on me, and I found that spray starch really helped.
Anyway, I hope that you all are having a lovely night, and please hug your loved ones tight and wish or say a prayer (or whatever you do/believe) for peace and the people in Paris. I don't really "pray" myself, but after crying while watching the news, I am trying hard to hold a space of love instead of fear (which I know is really hard), because a big point of these attacks is to evoke fear.
