Astoria & Toaster Sweaters

Recently I've made a couple of simple, speedy projects. They're both repeats of patterns I've made before, meaning I might not have as much to say about them as a completely new project, so I thought I'd combine the two into a quick post to share with you today.

The first is a Seamwork Astoria top. This project was really inspired by the fabric. It's a very colourful (as you can see!) French terry from Flamingo Fabrics, which sadly no longer seems to be in stock. I thought it would be good for brightening up the duller days of autumn and winter so I treated myself to a piece without knowing quite what pattern I was going to use it for.

When the fabric arrived, I decided it would be perfect for the Astoria. I made a few versions of the pattern not long after it was released (here and here) a couple of years ago, and they're all still in fairly regular wardrobe rotation. It's a style that works well with lots of my dresses and skirts/culottes so I knew that it would get a lot of wear.

The Astoria is a simple and quick pattern to make, so after a couple of hours of sewing I had a nice new top to wear - and it definitely brightens up my day when I put it on!

The second top I have to share today is a Sew House Seven Toaster sweater (version 1). This is another pattern that I first made not long after it was released, and thankfully it's another one that has been a success for me.

This time I bought the fabric specifically with the Toaster pattern in mind. It's a quilted cloqué jersey from The Textile Centre. It's also no longer in stock (sorry, I'm not being a very good fabric buying enabler today!) but they do have other similar fabrics available. I'm slightly in two minds about the fabric - I really like the textured pattern and I think it looks good as a Toaster, but it does get a bit bulky at some of the seams and it definitely feels fairly synthetic to me when I'm wearing it. I tend to lean more towards natural, more breathable fibres and this definitely doesn't feel very breathable, but on the plus side it does keep me warm.

In case anyone's wondering about the pin I'm wearing in these photos - it's a super sparkly glitter heart that I bought from Claireabellemakes not long ago. I'm wondering if I can justify gradually adding a whole rainbow of them to my brooch collection!

Overall, I'm calling both of the tops a success and I know I'll definitely be wearing them over the coming months. I've paired both of them with needlecord Winslow culottes in these photos (navy pair blogged here and teal pair here). I wear these culottes loads at this time of year - definitely more than I would have expected when I first made them. Hopefully my new Astoria and Toaster tops will be just as well loved!

Astoria, online fabric shopping & block printing

After the success of my first version of the Seamwork Astoria sweater, I knew I wanted to make a couple more. The style works really well with my many full-skirted dresses and having layering options means that I'll get even more wear out of my lovely dresses than I already do. Combine that with the fact that the Astoria is a really simple and quick pattern to make, and really making more was just sensible!

This first one is made using some really lovely cream flecked cotton fleece from Guthrie & Ghani. It really is great fabric, super soft, nice to work with and perfect for the Astoria. They have it in a few different colours, and I'm slightly gutted that the navy is now out of stock but I'm definitely tempted by both the turquoise and the fuchsia.

This version is cosy enough that I know it'll be great for next autumn/winter, but at the same time it was also perfect for throwing on over my blue roses Emery dress (one of my favourites) on a sunny but very windy (hence the state of my hair) afternoon on the beach. On that note, excuse the wrinkles in the sweater - my dress was a bit ruckled up underneath and I didn't realise until after we'd taken the photos.

I'm really pleased with this Astoria. As it's a neutral colour, it'll go with pretty much everything. Now, onto my next version....

I buy most of my fabric online, and usually that's fine, but I wasn't so impressed when this jersey arrived. I bought it from UK Fabrics Online, who describe it as turquoise heavy jersey. I was a bit dubious about the colour when I ordered it, because it didn't look anything like what I would think of as turquoise but I went ahead and bought it anyway because it was a good price I wanted to use it for a bit of an experiment.

The colour of the fabric in the photo above is pretty accurate, and I don't think it's either turquoise or the colour shown on the website. I also wouldn't describe the fabric as heavy jersey, I'd say it's medium weight at best.

On the bright side, given my gravitation towards all things blue, it's still a colour I like and it's a decent fabric, even if it's a lighter weight than I thought it would be, so I went ahead and used it anyway - it just means that this Astoria is much more of a t-shirt than a sweater. Still perfectly wearable though!

By now you may have guessed that my experiment with this Astoria was giving block printing a go. Have you ever tried it?

I bought the tea cup block from The Arty Crafty Place when Outlaw craft fair came to Bristol at the start of May. They were demonstrating block printing and selling starter packs - it looked fun and I thought it would be a good way to make garments even more unique. I did a couple of practice prints on scrap fabric to get the hang of how much paint to use, and then decided to go very basic and just use one single tea cup print on my first "real" attempt.

I love how it turned out and I think the one single tea cup is really effective on a top like this. This won't be the last you'll be seeing of this tea cup print though - I've got definite plans to use it to create my own border print round the hem of a skirt/dress which I hope will work out as well as it does in my head!

So there we have it - two nice new tops for my wardrobe! I realise now that I've mainly been waffling on about fabric and printing and barely mentioned the actual sewing, but that's because the Astoria is so simple that there's not a lot to say about the construction (and what there is to say, I said last time). The cream version in particular will be a great basic piece for me and I suspect that they won't be the last Astorias that I make! What are your go-to wardrobe staple patterns?

Seamwork Astoria Sweater

My sewing machine has been quieter than usual recently because I've been engrossed in my current knitting and crochet projects, but I did also find time to sew this quick little project last week. It's the Astoria sweater, which is one of the patterns included in this month's issue of Seamwork from Colette Patterns.

I subscribed to Seamwork from the first issue, so have a little collection of patterns building up ready to sew now, but the Astoria is the first one that I've actually made. The cropped style instantly appealed to me because it's a great length for wearing with my many fit and flare dresses (yes, I'm looking like a bit of a Colette fan girl in these photos and wearing it with my Moneta), and a little sweater is a very welcome addition to a pretty dress on spring days like the one in these photos which look lovely and sunny but still aren't exactly warm.

The other thing that drew me to the pattern was that the blue sample in the pattern photos reminded me of the warm jersey I used for my latest Bronte top, and I remembered that I still had a fairly sizeable chunk of it left. Thankfully for me, there was just enough there to make the shorter sleeved version of Astoria - yay for "free" fabric!

I made a medium at the bust, grading out to a large at the waist. I compared the length with the pattern pieces I altered from my second Enid sweater, and on the basis of that I also added an inch to the length for the Astoria. The length is now just right for me, and I'm pleased with the fit in general.

The Seamwork patterns are all designed to be fairly quick projects to create staple wardrobe pieces, and the Astoria definitely fits into that category for me. I think I might need a whole rainbow of them to go with various dresses and skirts.

The pattern is rated as taking one hour and, if you exclude the time taping together the PDF and cutting the fabric, that was fairly accurate I think. Everything goes together nicely and the instructions are thorough and clear so there's nothing to cause any problems here. Another reason to make more of them!

Have you sewn any Seamwork patterns? I'm definitely keen to make a Bristol skirt - it looks so comfy and, as an added bonus, it's named after my home town so it must be good!