The Octave Coat

Hello all!  

My blog posting habits seem to definitely fall under the category of "feast or famine" don't they.  I all but abandon ship for weeks on end and then I'm here every second day.  I've often envied those bloggers that could put out a post on a regular schedule.  Alas, that is definitely not me.  I'm sure if I were to impose some sort of schedule on myself it would most likely end up with me staring at the blank screen feeling as though I had nothing to say.  So, it is, as they say, what it is.

I realized I posted about my new coat over on the Minerva site (by the way, have you seen the new site yet?  I absolutely love it!!!!), but I don't think I so much as mentioned it here.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out, so I wanted to take a quick moment to show it off to all of you here as well!  It was my last project of 2020, and I finished it the afternoon of New Year's Eve.  

The pattern is the Octave Coat from Love Notions and I used a wool blend coating (provided by Minerva in exchange for the project) and a silky polyester lining that I purchased from Minerva to go with the wool.

Sewing the Octave was such a treat!  It went together amazingly well, and the instructions were easy to understand!  I did watch a quick YouTube video they link to in the pattern instructions for the pockets, just to make sure I was doing them correctly, but I probably really didn't need to worry!

I can't wait to start wearing my Octave on a regular basis.   I didn't take advantage when the weather was mild and now it's a bit too chilly to wear (we're suddenly having real prairie winter temperatures or at least on and off anyways - yesterday was back to above zero, then it plummeted again today).  As soon as things warm up sufficiently I'm going to be getting lots of use out of it I'm sure! 

As I mentioned I did post about it over on Minerva.  You can head over there to read all the details about my wool coat sewing adventures!

If you do hop on over to the Minerva site, feel free to follow me there too!

The Lamma Hoodie and Sweatshirt

 Hello again! It’s been awhile.  I’m popping in today to tell you about the newest pattern I tested for Itch to Stitch* 

It’s the Lamma Hoodie and Sweatshirt, which is a raglan sleeved, princess seam top with the option of either a hood or cowl neck as well as either thumb hole or regular cuffs. The Lamma also has in seam pockets. I can understand if you’re thinking it sounds like at least a dozen other patterns already out there already, but the difference with this one is that it has the perfect potential for colour blocking which is perfect for using up those pieces of fabric in your stash that are a decent size, but not quite big enough that you know what to use them for.  It also comes in regular and full bust sizing from 00-40.

For mine I chose to use a heavier cotton lycra paired with a sweater knit that was actually left over from the Blackwood cardi I made for my daughter for Christmas a couple of years ago.  I sewed a size 18 (full bust) and graded it down in the hip to a sixteen.  The only change I made to the pattern was to add 1 " of length.

I completely forgot (I'd forget my own head these days if it wasn't firmly attached) to take photos of the back of my sweater, and it's currently in the washing machine, so I'm including a photo of the pattern line drawings here.  I did my back centre panel in the sweater knit and the yoke in the black cotton lycra.

Lamma is on sale for the release week for $10.40USD for the release week over at the Itch to Stitch site.