Search Results for: navy blue riding trousers

Navy blue riding trousers

Jacquie made these trousers as part of her recent wardrobe collection (she’s “dingyadi” on PR) and I instantly knew I had to make them, too. Like her, I was put off by how skin-tight these looked on the Burda model in the magazine, but in real life, they fit really nicely! Unlike her, I left off the front patch pockets, though, as I figured there was enough going on everywhere else!

They’re from Burda magazine 08/2008 #120A:

They’re great trousers, but there’s just so many freaking pieces, omg! And the topstitching!!

Take the front leg, for instance. On a normal pair of trousers, it’s one piece (maybe three if you have a pocket). On these, the front leg is comprised of three pieces before you even get into the pockets (so 6 in total for mine, or 9 if you chose View B with the added pouch pockets with the flap!). There’s a scooped pattern piece at the inner thigh in the front and back, and lots of horizontal topstitching across the knees in addition to topstitching pretty much every seam of the trousers, too.

A plum tulip top and seamed silver trousers

I’m finally over my post-wardrobe exhaustion and able to sew again, so I carried on with my March mini-wardrobe plans and made the seamed trousers from KnipMode Oct 2010 (#8):

(hmm, why are they covering the waistband in their only magazine photo?)

I also thought I was due a “quick knit top” so I pulled out Jalie 2806 (a gift from LynnRowe on PR!) so I could try out those fantastic tulip sleeves, with the thought of maybe using them on the spring/summer version of my Burda September cover dress…

I had just enough of Ditto‘s wonderfully soft and supple plum bamboo/lycra jersey leftover from my plum and green lace top for this, so it was clearly meant to be! For the trousers I used the same Fabric.com stretch twill as in my navy riding trousers, though in different lights this goes from looking pale grey (nice!) to baby blue (not so nice!). But the combo of pale trousers and dark top feels very Spring-like to me.

Me-Made March

Me-Made March has been in full swing for a month now, and as I stated in February, I’ve been playing along at home, but taking photos of what I wear every day is just completely infeasible for me, so I’ve just kept a record of what I’ve worn instead.

I did something similar a few years ago and it was really helpful in observing what I tended to wear throughout the week and which items I turned to most often. I can’t actually remember the last time I wore an outfit that didn’t contain at least one “me-made” item (not counting weekends, where I live in grotty, boat-DIY clothes), so this challenge isn’t really that challenging for me! It’s what I tend to wear anyway!

March

  1. Tues. Navy blue riding trousers & purple cashmere turtleneck (RTW)

  2. Wed. Taupe corduroy skirt & turquoise mohair sweater (layered over a RTW white long sleeved top) (so yes, I am wearing the exact same outfit as shown in my citizenship post, right down to the same tights and boots!)

  3. Thur. First Jalie jeans & plum and green lace Patrones top

  4. Fri. Foldover wool trousers (so warm!) & RTW black long sleeved top

  5. Sat. Two 40th birthday parties! Burda September cover dress

Burda magazine December 2012

First of all, thank you all so so much for all your lovely comments on the vintage wiggle dress! Due to another crazy week at work plus coming down with a rotten cold, I’ve been even less equipped than usual to reply to as many as I like, but rest assured I do see every one of them (they’re emailed to me, so no matter how old the post is, I see what you wrote!), and I’ll try to work through the backlog of replies soon.

But rather than waiting on little ol’ me, have a look inside the latest issue of Burda magazine, because they’ve gone and ended this year with a bang, my oh my…

How much do I love this dress?!? It’s so good they’ve put it on the cover, and then again inside, with long or short sleeves, and floor-length, or knee-length hems. When I was shopping in the West End with my mom a few weeks ago, I swear I saw this exact dress across a crowded department store, so I’m pretty sure it’s a designer knockoff – maybe Christian Dior? Does anyone know? In any case, it’s a Tall dress (boo! so most of us have to remove some vertical length in a few spots), but there are illustrated instructions for this one (which you can view in the pdf here since the long version is up for purchase on the English BurdaStyle.com already).

I know the tech drawing for this sequin tank is pretty plain and boring, but it’s all about optimising a very special (or expensive) short piece of fabric, and this sequin version reminds me of a RTW Express navy blue tank seen here. I also quite like the stretch leather trousers, but the likelihood of finding stretch leather outside the NYC garment district is quite slim…

I like the pairing of this peplum jacket and jodhpurs but those trousers mysteriously look like the exact same trousers from the recent Burda Easy magazine but with an extra inner leg seam cutout… Sneaky Burda, sneaky.

Hungarian holiday report

We’re back from our Hungarian holiday and feeling wonderfully relaxed, though it’s debatable how long that’ll last! This was my fourth time in Budapest in the last ten years (and James’s third!), but it was the longest we’ve been able to spend there and our first trip outside the city.

Our main reason for going was so we could celebrate our first anniversary at our favourite restaurant, Karpatia (last time we were there, Michael Palin and his film crew were in the other room!), but to also soak away our boat work aches in the city’s plentiful hot spas! In four full days in Budapest, we visited three different hot spas: Szechenyi, Palatinus Strand on Margaret Island, and Hotel Gellert. Think swimming pools, but filled with bath-water warm mineral water (no chlorine!) with assorted jets, bubblers, massaging fountains, wave pools, slides, and whirpool baths and you’re still only halfway there…

In an astounding bit of coincidence, we enjoyed amaaaazing traditional Hungarian food, tokaj, and palinka stalls at the Nemzeti Vagta (“National Gallop”) festival. It was mostly about Hungarian horsemanship with incredible costumes, chariot races, and Heroes’ Square set up like a Ben Hur set, but there were also stalls representing every region in Hungary, some showcasing amazing embroidery:

I really like that you can focus on the stitching when you only use one thread colour! Unfortunately, I didn’t see any needlework kits for traditional designs on sale anywhere.

Then we took the train out to Balatonfured on Lake Balaton for a few days, and I made great use of the train time to finish the last hand sewing on my trench jacket! (I’m also wearing my silk jersey Lekala cowl top here.)

While we were there, we rented bicycles from our hotel and cycled the 6km to the next town, Tihany, and back along the river. My trench jacket and my navy riding trousers came in very handy here as it was the only cool and cloudy day of our trip!

Steel grey cords

I had a bit of a photoshoot backlog, but I think you’ll be pleased to hear that I’ve got lots to show off this week, and you’ll only have to forgive the GALE FORCE WINDS whipping everything around while I tried to pose and smile sweetly (hence the headband keeping my hair out of my eyes!).

First up are my pleated corduroys! You’ll remember seeing these in their “in progress” state, hanging on my sewing room clothesline, and also that this steel grey corduroy wasn’t my first fabric choice, but was the only suitable fabric in my stash. I’d bought this stuff back in May 2009 on Goldhawk Road for a total of £5, so if it didn’t work with the deep pleating on these trousers, well, then I wasn’t too fussed.

The pattern for these is KnipMode 08/2010 #13, modelled by a mother/daughter pair and looking fabulous on both of them!

And here they are on me!

Patrones 294, 296, 297, & 298

These issues of Patrones are a few months old, but I only just received them so I thought it was worth a brief whirlwind tour of my favourites (even if it’s only to jog my memory later when I’m looking for patterns to sew)!


(Top: 297, 296. Bottom: 298, 294)

First up is a surprise summer issue – James’s parents visited Portugal in December and I asked if they would keep an eye open for Manequim or Patrones while they were there, and despite looking everywhere, they only found this copy at the airport on their way home! Considering it’s 5-6 months old, I have no idea how it was still around!

Patrones 294

This issue is nearly entirely wispy summer dresses that can’t really cope with our bold and brash English “summers”, but I do think this Hilfiger-esque shift dress would work well in our climate. With a cardie.