I enjoy quirky stuff, especially in pants. Cynics may say this is because I don’t have the figure for pants, and classic styles will never look good on me, but why not think outside the box and forget classic styles?
When I came across the Arthur pants by Sew Liberated I couldn’t resist.
However, voluminous styles need to be adapted to make them suitable for my short stature. 161cm is not exactly model height, and as much as I wish I was 10cm taller, it is not likely to miraculously happen.
So I reduced the ease quite drastically. A lot of this is due to my fabric choice, quite a hefty bottom weight cotton, which is not recommended by the designer. Something more drapey like a mid weight linen recommended for the pattern could have taken more volume. The sewing details are on PatternReview.
I have been wearing these pants enthusiastically for quite a few days in a row, so they are not exactly freshly ironed, like you see in the fashion shots.
Quite forgot to take my elegant slippers off in the last photo. 🙂
Looking back on my recent makes i think that I like my dye painted tops best, like this one.
So why not keep going into this direction and make some more? I saw this painting by Samiro Yunoki and thought it could be adapted.
I drew something similar, turned 90 degrees and multiples of it, on my fabric with pencil.
Then I filled it in with thickened dye, front, back and sleeve pieces.
I used heavily thickened black dye which made nice sharp outlines, then filled in between. It probably took about 2 hours. Of course, if I had screen printed this it would have taken mere minutes, but I like the hand painting. Plus I only need one garment for me to wear, not lots to sell.
The fabric is cotton and meant to be a ‘muslin’, not one to try out a pattern but to try out a painting idea. I have a piece of linen in the same light grey colour which will be my ‘real’ project. I like the painting as shown above, with just the black, and think this is what I will do with the linen. Maybe only make the black design a little larger.
But for the trial piece I have added a colour wash to see what this will look like. This was in the interest of gaining more experience, as colour washes are a bit unpredictable, but of course I also don’t need two tops the same. Then there is the issue of cotton versus linen. With the simple black design there is a real difference in the final look of the garment between an upmarket fabric versus something more humble. The cotton wouldn’t look nearly as good ‘naked’ as the linen, so I thought maybe more colour would help.
It does, but as a certifiable fibre snob I still think the cotton looks a bit cheap. Fair enough when I am using a recycled doona cover. Maybe a heavier cotton would give a more upmarket looking result.
The colour wash turned out quite well, except for the spotty look that I suspect is due to water drops.
Never mind, let not perfection be the enemy of good. 😉