White Boatneck Blouse

And one more blouse for Gaby. I've been eyeing this boat neck top pattern from Burdastyle 09 / 2021 for almost two months and I finally came to making it.

 It is a simple and straight forward t-shirt pattern with 3/4 sleeves and what makes it a bit more than a basic tee is the neckline, faced with a contrast bias band. The extended shoulder ends of the back and the front overlap and create an interesting visual effect. I sewed the extended back piece in place, as I didn't want the neck to gape and I find the resulting neckline quite comfortable to wear.

I cut the blouse size 34 without modifications, but I had to make some in the course of the making of the top, as the circumference of the sleeve head turned out to be smaller than the sleeve opening. Of course, I checked the paper pattern to make sure it wasn't my doing, but alas - it's a constructional mistake. In order for the sleeve to fit properly, its head has to be a bit bigger or equal (for knits) to the armhole, but not smaller. To compensate, I elongated the head and simultaneously took in the arm opening a little (some 8 mm on both sides of the side seams). If I ever decide to replicate the pattern, I should have this issue in mind and cut the pieces to fit better in advance.

My fabric is cotton jersey, soft but fairly thin, so I suppose the top will not be very appropriate for the coming winter months. However, I hope it will get some wear come spring, its white and black colors should make it easy to combine with bottoms.

Pattern: #102 of Burdastyle 09 / 2021

Size: 34

Fabric: cotton jersey

Time to make: 2 days

Striped Longsleeve

I love sewing T-shirts and longsleeves and luckily they are always in demand :)

This is my latest make for Gaby - a striped longsleeve. The pattern is a true and tried Burda basic tee 6820, with a few minor modifications.

Because the blouse is not made for me, the sleeves are a bit longer on me and it is a bit narrow around the bust - I hope it will fit Gaby better, as I've made it following her measurements and not mine; I'm just demonstrating it here with a few quick photos.

The pattern is very simple and if it wasn't for the stripes, one could make it with closed eyes. To ensure perfect matching of my stripes, I cut the back and then laid the cut piece on the fabric and traced the side seams, so that the stripes under the armholes would match perfectly. For the sleeves, I cut one of them and then similarly traced the other one, using the first as a pattern, to ensure that the stripes would be situated identically. I'm really happy with how my stripes were matched on this T-shirt.

The only new and interesting feature of this longsleeve is the neckline - I decided to try an interfaced neckline. I traced the neck of the front and the back, cut the pieces an inch wide, attached the interfacing to the neck and then sewed it down to fix it. I saw this idea on TomKat Stitchery's channel and I loved it! It is especially relevant for striped blouses, as it allows you to preserve the clean line of the stripes around the neck.

I have another Burda pattern - Top #117 from Burdastyle 07/2019, which I bought recently, but still haven't made. It turned to be actually absolutely identical to Burda 6820, apart from the interesting short sleeve detail and the wider neckline. There the neckline is also finished with an interfacing, only the pattern does not suggest sewing the interfacing down to the blouse, but I find this last step crucial, otherwise the interfacing would keep moving and poking.

Pattern: Burda 6820

Size: 36

Fabric: heavy cotton knit

Time to make: 2 days

Pasarel - Lanina Mogila 2021

 On the last of the Indian summer days this year we decided to hike in the Lozen mountain, to one of the interesting panoramic peaks there that we love visiting - Lanina mogila. The mountain is low, but the elevation gain is quite substantial, especially in the final part of the track, where we faced the southern slopes of the peak and went directly uphill without a path or trail, gliganing style.

The day was warm and sunny with clouds before noon and quite overcast in the afternoon, with almost no wind - extremely pleasant and fresh for a walk in the fileds of Lozen mountain.

:Pasarel reservoir

Hike info:

Destination: peak Lanina Mogila (1188 m)

Mountain: Lozen

Total length: 12.6 km

Elevation gain: 490 m

Total duration (plus picnic): about 4 hours

Average difficulty: 4.5 / 10

:Lanina mogila in the distance

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: men's boxers, Knip Mode cargo pants

I:  lingerie, socks, Teal Boatneck tee, in the backpack brown cc copycat beanie, fingerless mitts

:Uphill climbing

:On the top, with a view to the big Iskar reservoir in the far distance

:The forests were gorgeous, right in the middle of the autumn color bonanza

:Lanina mogila from the southwest

:The water mirror of Pasarel reservoir

Movie Night Pajamas IV and V

As I've mentioned, the Movie Night Pajamas by Sew a Little Seam, a free pattern!, is my absolutely favourite pajama pattern. I had already made two of these for myself and one for Gaby and I knew I wanted more of these. Last week, while fabric hunting, I came upon a 2.5 m precut piece of viscose knit, which looked perfect for a pajama set with its deep dark blue and purple colors and yellow moon-like circles. Fitting two full size pairs of pajamas into a piece of fabric 2.5 m at 1.4 m width was a bit tricky and I had to play quite a lot of pattern tetris, but I was successful in the end, without having to resort to compromises.

The original pattern comes with two necklines - crew neck and scoop neck with or without plackets. So far I've always made my pajama tops with plackets - probably the most difficult and time consuming feature of the pajamas. Although the plackets are operational, I never unbutton them, but I consider them essential for the esthetics of the pajamas, otherwise the set would look to me like a simple T-shirt with a pair of leggins (which it basically is :).

From experience I found that the scoop neck is a bit too low for my taste and the crew neck is a little too high, so my Goldilocks neckline is somewhere in between the original two necklines. I made both of the pajama sets identical, with the middle ground neckline and a placket, the only difference is the color of the buttons (yellow for Gaby) and the length of the pieces - full size for Gaby and 2-3 cm shorter for myself.

I believe both of us have pajamas to last us the year:), but this last one is definitely my favourite!

Bistritza - Simeonovo 2021

Finally, after two weeks of rain, the weather cleared today, and even some shy sun showed like for a minute behind the clouds. The temperatures rose to above 10C and we grabbed our backpacks and went for a hike along the low-altitude circuit trail on Vitosha, in the section between the villages of Bistritza and Simeonovo. We've been there many times before and it is still one of my favourite trails for a quick and brisk hike not far from home - it is only about 30 min drive to the start of the trail.

Hike info:

Destination: Simeonovo lakes

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 11 km

Elevation gain: 130 m

Total duration (plus picnic and rests): 3 h 15 min

Average difficulty: 3 / 10 

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Knip Mode cargo pants

I:  lingerie, Burda joggers, Hounds-tooth Hoodie, CC copycat hat, fingerless mitts

:A mushroom, growing in a niche on the trunk of a living tree

Lounge Pants

I made a new pair of lounge pants for myself. On Wednesday the rain stopped like for a minute and I ran downtown and indulged in a fabric shopping spree. My alibi was that I was buying fabric for a pair of lounge pants for my husband, who politely asked for a  new extra warm pair. The temperatures in Sofia dropped significantly this week and even Alex put on long lounge pants.

Long story short - I bought some 10 m of various fabrics and some sewing notions and happily returned home. However, husband did not approve of the french terry I had bought for his joggers - he found it too thin. Ah, never mind, I liked it, so I immediately browsed through my Burda jogger patterns and found one I still hadn't tried, but wanted too.

This is #135 from Burda 11 / 2012. The pants are low cut, with long ribbed cuffs and side seam pockets. As I read that they come a bit too wide, as most Burda patterns, I cut size 34, the smallest size, though I'm closer to 36 according to my hip measurements.

I made a few small adjustments to the pattern - I raised the crotch part of the pants by 1.5 cm and made the ankle cuffs shorter - mine are 8.5 cm instead of 18 cm. I like the long cuffs on the original, but my rib knit turned out to be too stiff and wouldn't fold like in the magazine photo.

For the pockets I followed again this video tutorial, mostly because I couldn't quite get my head around the Burda instructions.

I made the waistband as per instructions out of rib knit, without an elastic, but I made an opening and I might add an elastic, in case the rib knit proves insufficient to hold them in place.

Pattern: # 135 Burda 11 / 2012

Size: 34

Fabric: lightweight french terry, 100% cotton; rib knit for cuffs and waistband

Time to make: 1 day