Coordinating Safiya Trousers & New Look 6217 top

It's a measure of how my style has changed in the last couple of years that I bought the fabric featured in today's post to make a swishy summer dress, and instead it has become a coordinating set of Tilly & The Buttons Safiya trousers and a New Look 6217 top.

A couple of years ago, my wardrobe was mainly full of dresses, with a few skirts and tops for a little bit of variation. While I do still love dresses and skirts, particularly if they have a good twirl factor, gradually more trousers, jumpsuits and shorts have been infiltrating their way into my garments of choice. It has to be said, this is in no small part due to me moving to a coastal town and getting fed up of battling against the wind to prevent skirt-related wardrobe malfunctions on breezy days!

Anyway, the reason for this shift isn't really important, but it doesn't show any sign of stopping yet. Having bought this fabric for a dress, the more I thought about it I just couldn't shake the feeling that it would get more wear if I turned it into a coordinating top and trouser set, a kind of fake jumpsuit - all of the ease that a jumpsuit brings of having a ready-made outfit with the added benefit of not having to get almost completely undressed whenever you need the loo, and of being able to combine the two pieces with other garments as well.

I debated various pattern combinations for a while - the Winslow culottes and M7131 were both strong contenders for the bottoms, and I considered the new Helen's Closet Reynolds and the Sew Over It Silk Cami for the top - but in the end I decided on the Tilly & The Buttons Safiya trousers and the New Look 6217 top.

The Safiya trousers are one of the patterns from the book Make It Simple. I blogged about making the dungaree version of Safiya last year, and also made a pair of Safiya trousers but apparently they never made it to my blog. They're definitely on my Instagram though. Anyway, I knew it was a nice, simple pattern to sew and that the trousers fit me well and are comfortable to wear.

The New Look 6217 top is one of my most used patterns - although the pattern itself is one of the commercial patterns that features a collection of separates and I've only actually made the top (view B) and not any of the other three garment options. I've definitely got my money's worth out of the top though and by now I've lost count of the versions that I've made for both me and other people since I first made it back in 2016 (enjoy the old photos there!). It's a great simple top for showing off a pretty print, and works particularly well with viscose fabrics.

The fabric that started this little experiment is a light blue leopard print viscose (still a bit in stock as I write this!) that I got from Like Sew Amazing. I'm not much of a fan of traditional leopard print fabrics because the colours just don't suit me, but in these shades of blue and off white it's definitely something I can get on board with! The fabric is that lovely kind of viscose that has great drape, but isn't horrifically slippery to work with. 

So what's the verdict on the finished set? I think the Safiya trousers and New Look 6217 top work well together and pull off the fake jumpsuit look I was going for. There is a small part of me that's slightly concerned that they might look a bit like pyjamas, but the majority of me feels great in them and doesn't particularly care about that! So much so, that I've already got another coordinating set underway - albeit with different patterns and very different fabric. Stay tuned for more soon!

Make It Simple Safiya Dungarees Sewing Pattern Review

Hot on the heels of my first project from the book Make It Simple by Tilly Walnes, here's my second. These are the Safiya dungarees, and I'll give you a spoiler from the outset - I love them!

Safiya was the pattern that first tempted my to buy the book. The main version of the pattern in the book is for wide-legged slightly cropped trousers with an elasticated waistband, and there are variations of a fun wrap-front playsuit and these easy-fitting dungarees.

The dungarees have a relaxed fit with no fastenings, darts in the bodice section for a little shaping and a tie belt for as much or as little waist definition as you want.

When I ordered the book, I'd intended to get some light denim/chambray to make the dungarees so that they'd go with everything, but then I realised I had a much more interesting fabric option already sitting in my stash waiting to be used!

It's a cotton viscose twill from Seasalt (no longer in stock, but their other fabrics are here), and the combination of an excellent sale discount and a gift voucher that I'd been given for my birthday made it somewhat irresistible even though I wasn't sure what I'd do with it at the time. For a while now I've been trying not to buy fabric without a project in mind, but sometimes you have to bend the rules don't you?!

Anyway, it occurred to me that the weight of the fabric would be perfect for these dungarees. I had a feeling that the somewhat bold print might make them a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it kind of garment, but I was fairly confident that I'd end up loving it so I was willing to take the risk. Plus, spending lots of time at home due to being on coronavirus lock-down is a good time for sewing risk-taking I think!

The Safiya dungarees are slightly more time-consuming than some of the other projects in the book, but simply because there's more to sew rather than because they're complicated. If you've made a pair of pyjama trousers and can sew a dart, then there's nothing to be scared of about making the dungarees.

The instructions are very thorough and easy to follow. I did make a couple of small changes though - just for personal preference really. I've always found turning small tubes of fabric the right way out to be a bit of a hit and miss process (it either works perfectly or takes ages!), so when it came to making the straps I pressed the pieces in half WS together, pressed the seam allowances to the inside and then just topstitched them together. I also made fabric belt loops instead of the thread loops in the instructions, just because I prefer them on garments.

Sizing is a bit interesting for this pattern if, like me, your bust measurement puts you in a smaller size than your hips. As the dungarees are a pull-on style and have no fastenings, the bodice needs to be able to fit over your hips. Tilly recommends in the book that you don't grade between pattern sizes but I knew that if I did that then the top would end up being too big for my liking. My bust measurement is a size 5 and my hips are between a 5 and 6 so I thought it was worth trying grading between the sizes and making a toile. Thankfully it worked nicely - I can just get the dungarees on over my hips. If I couldn't, I'd probably rather make the pattern more complicated and put a zip in the side seam than make the top any bigger, as I think it would just look baggy on me.

Other than blending between sizes, I also lengthened the bodice by 1.5 inches and added 3 inches to the legs to make them full length. I really should have lengthened the legs a bit more though - they have a teeny tiny hem on them and are just about long enough. Next time I'd add at least an extra inch or maybe a bit more.

As I said at the beginning of the post, I love how these dungarees turned out! I wore them for the first time the other day and they're so comfy. My only slight problem as that I don't seem to have any short-sleeved t-shirts that go with them, but thankfully I found a piece of jersey in a charity shop a little while ago that I think will help to solve that problem! Isn't it good when that happens?!