Sutton and Flo UPDATED

UPDATED 13/2/15 Because I really shouldn’t have rushed it quite so much and left out a couple of things that I want to include.

Well that turned into a longer break than I expected. I have been doing lots of not very interesting sewing, including lots of alterations, which are most definitely not my favourite thing to do. I’ll come back to some of the not so interesting things in another post since I do want to remind myself of my thoughts on them.

But I finally made something worth a look. This is the True Bias Sutton Blouse teamed with another pair of Style Arc Flat Bottomed Flo.

And yes that is the best pic I managed to get of the front. This was the second attempt to photograph these and I’m not doing a third so this is what we have.

But back to the clothes. Thanks to Lara’s post, among others, I knew that the Sutton blouse ran large. Which is a good thing since my bust measurement is 3 cm bigger than the largest size. Of course this had to be a bit of a guess since I couldn’t find finished garment measurements anywhere. This is my pet peeve with patterns.

So I effectively went down one size and I added 3 inches since I am taller than the 5’5″ the pattern is drafted for. And I don’t know that either were the right choice.

I could definitely go smaller. Although I don’t know that I would want to go an entire size smaller in the hips. Which would then mean that I would be going from a 16 out to an 18 at the hips. Which would be weird because generally I go down a hip size compared to my bust.

And with the 3 inches added to the length, I made a deeper hem, 1 inch turned twice, instead of the recommended 5/8″ (if I remember correctly). Anyway I probably could have made it the length as drafted and it would have been fine.

I followed the instructions during construction except for two points. I used store bought bias binding instead of making my own. This was purely as I now have enough fabric left for another top so I was just being miserly with my fabric. Which I forgot to mention is rayon bought for the princely sum of just over one dollar a metre from a pop-up fabric sale. The yoke is local black cotton which is why the sleeves stand out a little.

UPDATE I thought I should include a better view if the fabric and my nearly pattern matched centre front seam. I didn’t attempt to pattern match – I don’t know why because it wouldn’t really have been that difficult.

One change I did make was to also use French seams on the side seams. The pattern has French seams everywhere else but then a ‘normal’ seam with the finish of your choice on the side seams. I presume this is because French seams are slightly more complicated with the side slits. But this pattern is listed as Intermediate so I do think they should have included French seams everywhere. It just seemed such a pity to have zigzagged side seams but I would probably feel differently if I had an overlocker.

Anyway, I used this excellent tutorial from Handmade By Carolyn. I thought I remembered that she had done this with French seams but the only one I could find  was for Flat felled seams with slits. But the principle is the same and it works well.

I know I don’t sound overly enthusiastic but I do like this. It’s exceedingly comfortable and looks good with jeans and shorts. There will be more once I ponder the sizing some more. Which brings me nicely to my jeans.

I made another pair of jeans from the Flat Bottomed Flo pattern. Not that you can see anything of them in these pictures.

This time I used black denim which is a little less stretchy than my first pair. This is a good thing. They fit really firmly when first on but soon relax and fit fabulously. The blue denim pair tend to get a little large after a couple of wears, while these hold up better. Mind you that does mean that I’ll be able to wear the blue denim pair for longer as that bit of room makes them much cooler

UPDATED A close up of the pockets and yoke topstitching. I used grey cotton thread which isn’t quite topstitching thread but works well. The pockets are smaller than my first pair but now I think they are too busy. And don’t mind the dodgy bartacks, I am going to add rivets to the top corners when I get some the right colour.

I don’t really have much to say about this pattern that I didn’t say the first time. I love it. There will be more. I am going to move the side seam back to well … the side. But only so that every pair of pants I wear don’t have this same design feature. I have more of both the blue and black denim so I’m planning on capri length or shorts depending on how much fabric I have. Then I have some bottomweight black cotton/spandex that will make a slightly dressier pair. I also thought I might use the crotch curve and flat bottom draft from the Flos on the Style Arc Barb pattern for some less fitting shorts. Again more room for air means cooler once the temps top 40 degrees.

Sorry this post is a bit of a ramble but I just need to get this posted.

So please chime in with your thoughts re the sizing on the Sutton blouse.