Mrs. Depew 1940s Tap Pants, Butterick 3810 and a Knitted Lumber Jacket

In my sewing plans post I mentioned that I hoped to join the HSF challenge so I had plans to join in with challenge number 3: Pink. I figured it would be a great opportunity to combine this with my sewing plans to make tap pants and full slips in a lovely peachy pink. I almost forgot that I purchased Mrs. Depew's 1940s tap pants, a draft at home pattern, about 6 months ago. I've been eager to try one of these draft at home patterns so I decided to have a crack at it.

My mother had just send me another box, this time with a few of my fabrics (my fabric stash is still back in the Netherlands, sob) and one of the fabrics was a silver (poly) satin remnant I picked up once. Prefect for a first round to practice with slippery fabric. I will reveal the result in a separate post.

After my half baked attempt at the tap pants, I realized joining the HSF challenge isn't financially viable. Money will be so tight for the next month or so that I can't purchase any fabric or patterns at all. So I'll have to sew with the fabrics and patterns I have right now. I sure miss the fabric market in Arnhem, where I purchased all my fabrics for just €1 per meter..

So I moved on to another project on my list that I had both the pattern and the fabric for: Butterick 3810. I have this lovely dark burgundy/aubergine-ish color that seemed destined for it. It is a medium to heavy weight fabric with a lovely drape.



The pattern is a size 18 - 36" bust - way to big for me with my 31,5" bust. So I took 4 inches off overall, and 4,5 at the bust. I had this 'floppy' black synthetic stretch fabric that isn't really good for anything but now I could use it to test out the pattern. I quickly whipped up a muslin - this pattern is really easy! - and assessed the fit. It was still way too big and made me look huge. I pinned out a shocking 3 inches at the waist! I need to loose a lot more width at the waist than the bust and the hips so now I'm scratching my head, trying to figure out the best way to adjust the pattern. This pattern certainly seems to have a lot of ease.



Moving on to knitting, I just finished knitting the last piece of my bottle green lumber jacket from The Australian Women's Weekly March 1946. I still need to sew in ends, block, sew up and do some crocheting. Hopefully I'll have it finished in a few days. I'm thinking of knitting a dress for my next project, or something else that's bit more difficult/time consuming. I'm finishing these cardigans way too quickly! (And I already did my best to drag this one out.) Frustrating, if you don't have the money to buy yarn often.