Helen’s Closet is a new to me pattern maker and I instantly loved her Blackwood Cardigan and Avery Leggings so of course, they had to be adopted.
I made the Blackwood from a quite lovely piece of fabric from Knitwit. It is a wool blend and is nubbly but not a bouclé, I don’t really know how to describe it, except to say that it’s warm.
This was the perfect cardigan to wear for coffee with a friend when we had a cool day recently. I teamed it with my self-drafted trousers and my Stockholm blouse from Atelier Scammit, previously blogged here. My pendant is skewing the blouse a bit, but Archie gave me the pendant so I tend to wear it whenever I can. There’s a lot to love about the Blackwood as evidenced by the large number that pop up in my various feeds: the various features I love are the large pockets, the length and the way it is so easy to make – the pattern comes together beautifully.
One slightly weird thing about this fabric is the line that was on the fold line and is now down the centre back. I didn’t notice it until the cardigan was made, but feel as though it just looks like a seamline.
The cardigan goes really nicely with the Avery Leggings, which is only fair given that they were designed by the same person!
I read the reviews on the leggings and most people seemed to be sizing up, so I thought I would too. Except… I forgot to! Luckily my fabric is extremely stretchy and these fit me to perfection. I made two pairs from the same fabric, with a third pair possible. I really like the fact that these actually fit my legs properly. There is no bagginess anywhere, except around the ankles because I made the view with the longer legs.
On the second pair I had a play with the coverstitching, just to make them a tiny bit more interesting. I also found that I struggled to identify the front and back so embroidered a “B” on the back, only to find that it was in fact the front! Whenever I wear these I have to pretend that it’s opposites day and relive that game that my children played.
I really wanted to coverstitch up the inside leg, but these leggings are so narrow that there was no way to get the machine in there. However, I have a cunning plan for the next pair so we shall see how that goes.
These two pairs of leggings are pretty much in constant rotation in our home gym. I thought you’d like a shot of me giving them a workout with a giant Stolichnaya bottle behind me – compliments of one of my children!
I took them to the bush at Easter and they were fabulous for walks. Here I am admiring a giant Snottygobble
I really like both of these items and you may see more of them in the future.