CANADIANA Tuque
I needed some properly fitting tuques with winter coming so I took it upon myself to create a design that was extremely warm, durable and had some flexibility for design. This was the first of three very different looking design tuques that I made, but which was essentially all from a one piece pattern to yield a double layered fleece tuque.
I had some scrap fabrics left from a short sleeve set of pajamas I just realized I’ve never blogged. Anyway, it was an “unofficial” Avengers print. Bunch of Marvel superheroes that were on the Avengers at some point. Doesn’t say much, I suppose. Just about every Marvel superhero has been on the Avengers, it seems.
With scraps and separate characters, an idea came to mind to make a toque since those have small pieces so each one could display a character! I used a McCall pattern but it was terrible for fit so I won’t bother mentioning it here. What it did mean, though, was that I gave it to my cousin’s little boy as it barely fit me but didn’t cover my ears fully and was not completely functional as a result.
The finished product is shown below in photo and video that was fun to improvise, but isn’t as clear as the photos. Brought out the geek in me. 😉
Ah, men’s dress pants. What can be done with them for design without getting disapproving looks for “unprofessionalism”? Not much, really. Even a stripe down the side or something makes them athletic and too casual. Flashy colours makes you look like you’re going dancing, even if it’s a hip look. Colour block you look like you’re going out dancing or for a fashion show. Even jacquard style tone on tone is regarded as being a bit much by some. So what can one do?
I got into sewing because of lack of choices I had for nice clothing for men 5’2″ and 108 lbs. On the traditional side, there was lack of quality and choices. I was limited to basically altering youth’s clothing, which wasn’t great in terms of style, nor quality. The few things there were made for vertically challenged men were hard to find in a small city like Halifax, expensive, and not all that great, either, for lack of anything interesting, mostly.
Now, were I to dare to try and find anything just a little out of the one style of menswear that’s basically out there, I not only hit all those challenges of lack of size and quality in my size, but I also get ridiculous choices like this!
One of the first patterns I ever tried sewing was Simplicity 5386, which was the duster coat copy from one of my favourite movies, The Matrix. Nice pattern. Horrible sizing. There was so much ease in the pattern I could have fitted a woman inside it along with myself, which would have been great for another type of garment but I digress…
Digital Citizen 