I am really overdue for a blog post! The kind where I actually write about what I made. Life has been all sorts of busy. As you may be aware, we went away on a trip to Georgia, where my cousin got married. It was a blast! Also, our new house has been keeping us very busy. We bought our place at the end of May and moved in at the end of July. The new house is absolutely beautiful and is everything we wanted, but it is a product of its time and requires renovations. This year we decided to concentrate on upstairs, including removing the carpet and extra mirrors from a very interestingly designed bathroom, and next year or so, we will hopefully deal with the main floor.
For Short and Sweet version scroll down to the end of the post.
Although we are not doing the renovations ourselves, we did decide to do all the painting. I actually enjoy painting and we figured it would save us some cash to do it ourselves. So as the renovations are coming to a “mostly complete” stage, the time has come for us to roll up the sleeves, pull out the paint rollers and brushes to paint those walls and ceilings before everything else can get finished. As I am quickly finding out though, it is one thing to paint a room to update a color, and it is a completely different animal to sand the walls, prime them, paint the ceilings, paint the trim and doors and paint the walls… Oh, and I am forgetting the long wood paneled wall we have upstairs that we will be painting off white. But it will all be worth it in the end! So there you go, a little update for you on my life and the happenings. Now you know why I am missing and why it is hard to snap photos these days. But I will continue to do what I can and hopefully in a couple months it will all come to completion! In the meantime, I am trying to be as active as I can on my instagram.
Now that all of the updates are out of the way, let’s talk about the Emerson Trousers and the Linden Sweater I made last week! To say that I am excited about them is to say nothing at all. I am in LOVE with both of them.
Our contractor left his construction lights and it just occurred to me that they will work pretty damn well for blog photos! Besides, construction mess provides for an interesting backdrop.
I had an idea of lengthening Emerson Pants to full length trousers as soon as the pattern came out. I love the cropped length, but I just didn’t see myself wearing it during the cold winters here. It was very easy to lengthen the pants. The pant leg is pretty straight, so I just added the extra length I needed at the bottom. To calculate the extra length, I measured my inseam, added the heel height of the shoes I was planning to wear the pants with and calculated the difference from the current pant length not including seam allowance. I then added the difference to the pattern. It was very easy.
I have made a pair of Emerson Shorts in summer and I knew the way they fit, so I wasn’t too worried about that. However, when I was makign the shorts, my hip measurements put me square in between size 12 and 14. For my shorts I went with size 14, just to be on the safe side, and they turned out quite loose. Not the wrong kind of loose, but I did want the pants to fit a little less loose. So this time around I decided to go down to size 12 and it worked out great. Other than that, I made my regular seat adjustment by scooping out quite a bit from the seat curve to accommodate my full behind.
As for the Linden sweater, I have no idea why it took me so long to try this pattern! I have looked at it for a while but I couldn’t quite make a decision to buy it. Then this past week all of the sudden I felt like I had give it a try and I couldn’t wait any longer. You know, the kind of feeling when you simply have to make it now and nothing can stand in your way? I went for the view B, which is slightly cropped sweater that hits at high hip and has short sleeves. I figured it would make a rather versatile sweater I could wear with many things. I love the way the hem of the sleeve is rounded and the slight high/low hem.
I didn’t do any modifications to the Linden pattern, other than adding a couple inches of length to both body and sleeve to make sure it would fit my height (I am 5’10”). It fits pretty true to size as well.
For fabrics I used a rayon suiting blend I found at FabricLand for pants. This fabric sews up and behaves like a dream! It has such a nice feel to it and it is fabulous to work with. I bought enough to make a dress out of it as well (I am hoping to come back and show you my slightly hacked Willow dress soon). And for Linden I used burgundy wool knit blend I got from Cali Fabrics. I believe they are sold out of it, but they have other lovely knits in stock. The wool knit is so nice! It is medium weight and feels very luxurious. It is also super warm! Being more or less stable knit it was also pretty easy to sew with.
I see both of these patterns repeated in my future. I was planning on making another pair of wide leg pants using a Burda pattern, but I think I will be sticking with Emersons. They look great and feel like a pair of pajamas on. What else could I possibly want?? As for Linden, I already made another one and I have a couple more in plans. It is such an easy make and a great basic!
Short and Sweet:
Emerson Trousers
- Pattern here
- I fell in between sizes and ended up cutting a small size
- Lengthened the pant leg by adding length right to the hem of the pattern
- Scooped out seat curve for better fit (alteration I always have to do)
- Fabric is rayon suiting blend from FabricLand
Linden Sweater
- Pattern here (view B)
- Fits true to size, I cut my measured size
- Added length to the body and sleeve to fit my height (I am 5’10”)
- Fabric from Cali Fabrics (sold out)
There you go! Are you thinking of lengthening Emerson into full length? It seems like this idea is on a few people’s minds. I hope my photos help convince you to go ahead and give it a try.
Until next time,
Anya
P.S. My necklace is from here. I just discovered this shop and I was pretty happy with my purchase 🙂
Girl, I love this outfit! And what great use of the contractor’s lights!
Thank you!! It is definitely in the category of “secret pajamas” 😉 As much as I want the construction to be over, I will make sure I use the lights for all I can!
This is getting a tad ridiculous! At the risk of sounding repetitive, I want this entire outfit! I’ve been eyeballing the Linden for a while too but was wary it might be too boxy. Yours is perfect; that wool blend drapes perfectly and I’m all over the colour. I love wider leg trousers that hide a heel – a great way to disguise being a wee 5.3!
haha you should make it! They are both very easy patterns and pants are so comfy… It’s pretty awesome. They look elegant but are in fact secret pajamas. I thought Linden may be too boxy too, but I am very happy with how it turned out! haha yes, wide leg trousers are great! In my case I can pretend I am wearing high heels when in fact I am in flats… lol
Can you provide more details on scooping out the seat curve? I’ve recently starting doing full seat adjustments instead of just grading out a couple sizes, and I still haven’t quite nailed accommodating my large behind.
I definitely can! It’s hard to describe it in a comment and I will try to do a post on it soon here. I find this adjustment together with FSA work best for me. Note that with this adjustment, you have to trim your seam allowances off every time you “scoop” a little out, otherwise it will be hard to see the difference 🙂
Great outfit!! I love the lengthened Emersons- great idea! They’re a totally different pair of pants in that suiting fabric, too! I’ve been resisting the Linden, too, until I bought it a couple weeks ago. I like your short sleeved version!
Thank you!! The fabric really does something for them, I agree 🙂 Yes, Linden changed for me when I stopped thinking about it solely in terms of “sweatshirt” and started thinking of sweater type pattern. It’s a great pattern!
Love your emersons. I’d been thinking about hacking them with woven hudsons to get full length trousers. Now I’m thinking I probably need both wide leg and tapered leg emersons
Oh, now that is an interesting idea to hack them with Hudsons… I am really curious to see how they would look! I agree, you probably do 🙂
I love the entire outfit, so chic!
Thank you very much!! It is also super comfy 🙂
Very chic outfit!
Thank you very much!!
Wow you guys are doing a ton of work! I’m sure it will be amazing in the end!
I love this outfit! The colours are so perfect and so classic! I imagine you’ll wear both of these a lot. Now I want to make a bunch of Lindens too. 😉
Thank you! And yes, we are… It definitely didn’t seem like it in the beginning!
Thank you! I have been wearing both of these as much as I could. They are such secret pajamas!!