Petite Republic

Hello! I hope most of you are doing well through this global pandemic. In my little corner of the world, we have a shelter-in-place where school, work and almost everything else has moved into our homes. I feel fortunately that for us, life has not completely stopped, but just slowed down a little. I get a little (okay a lot) more time with the girls, a little bit less time to myself (because homeschool + still a full load of work), lots of cooking (trying to avoid eating take outs) and walking around the neighborhood.

About 2 weeks ago I saw the Aquamarline sweater made by Alison and I fell in love, hard. I really wanted to knit one. Problem was, I had not knitted after the last project, and have already given all my knitting needles away, who went out of the country. But I had some really awesome scrape yarn (many cashmere blends) from a friend that i thought would be perfect for this project, and i wanted to get supplies before everything shuts down (which seemed like the direction we were going towards). So i ran to Joanns, grabbed all the needles I needed, and the day after, bam – shelter in place. I was equally happy with myself for getting all the knitting supples on time as I was with stocking the house with food before the shelter in place. (Side note, Joanns apparently is still open and considered essential service, which, had me raising my eye brows a little but hey, I have enough fabric stash to last me through 5 years of quarantine and if i didnt, i may have considered Joanns essential as well (70% /s). At least they did supply free mask making kits to the public!)

Anyways, i didnt work on any projects besides making masks and this sweater the past 2 weeks. This is such a easy knit, and such a fun knit too. I never thought about combining yarns together to create a marbled look before- but now i might be hooked!!!

I made 2 modification to the pattern – I made the cuff much smaller, as it was still very loose. I also started knitting the neck band ribbing in the round right at when the instruction said to separate necks. I wanted a slight off the shoulder look. I had to re-do the neck band 2 times – it was always looser than i expected. I had to switch down to a size 7 with very tight gauge to get it just right. In the end, the sweater overall came out a little bigger than i expected, but i love the oversized look!!

Here’s all the views of the sweater!

(The yellow and medium grey was scrape from two other sweaters; a dark and light thin grey from thrift shop; black and beige+black + thin fuzz white which made part grey area around my chest and upper arm fuzzy looking from my friend Nat, and the thicker grey yarn for the top part of the sweater in my stash).

The completion of this sweater got me out of my sweatshirt + sweatpants for the past two weeks. And i can tell you, lets hope i can still pull off this outfit after the coronavirus quarantine! Getting those pants on was a struggle! I am grateful that this is my biggest problem in this pandemic so far though.

Also, I might have bought a load of elastics to sew masks because the one spool with 288 yards was the only one that was going to arrive in a week. If you are sewing masks and need some elastics, i can mail you some (US only!). Leave me a comment and I’ll email you to get your address! Hope you are all surviving the pandemic okay out there!!!!

Lastly, above is “instagram” and below is “reality” 🙂 Not too bad, eh?

I usually buy my fabric online, but whenever I visit Joanns, especially the past year, they seem to always have the best knits. I went a few days ago and saw a knit that is thick, comfortable, good recovery and made from mostly rayon!! I had to get 1.5 yard to try it out.

The pattern is lengthened from a basic knit top, again, except i didnt add enough room for the hips as this fabric is not super stretchy for a knit. No prob;em, I just added a little gusset (basically a triangle) on the back seam and now it looks like a design feature! the little skirt is simply a half circle skirt, I added a half circle skirt and then trimmed it down to the length I liked. The fabric does not fray and is a bit thick, so I left the skirt unhemmed.

That’s it, a very simple, quick dress that looks great and is super comfortable. Thank you for reading!

I am so excited about sharing this project with you! I made a cropped trench coat!!

The inspiration for the cropped trench coat is from various cropped trench coats Ive been eyeing after on wendy’s lookbook. I figured that if it looks so fun on her (a petite), it may look good on me.

Ive had this fabric in my stash for a few years, its a cotton gabardine from Crooks Brook that I hunted down and ordered 4 years ago (it was hard to find cotton gabardine!). I wanted to use the same type of fabric as Burberry, though this is a cotton gabardine and repels water a bit, the Burberry fabric is a bit thinner but stiffer. However, its still a very nice weight and feel for a trench coat, I’d highly recommend this source! The color was a bit drearier than I expected, so I left it in my stash for a while. That’s why I decided to use some bright red as a pop!

I used 2 heavily altered patterns – the base of the coat is a cropped and front-altered Burdastyle Talea – as usual. Years of slow alteration evolution made it pretty easy for me to just crop the bodice, as I used the same the altered front of this Talea. The outer caplet thing + collar is an altered I used BurdaStyle trench coat 09/2012. #103,which is what i used for this coat here. I debated whether to make it a true caplet or sleeves, and ended up doing sleeves, making it a more faux caplet.

The inside Is lined with bright red rayon Bemberg lining, it feels really amazing on. Of course, I have to add my usual logo embroidering.

I chose to use 4 pairs of magnet buttons as closures, as the red stuff is making this little cropped trench quite busy already. ITs kind of fun to wear magnet buttons.

After I made this little trench, I couldn’t stop wearing it. There are so many new fun outfits to be had with a new silhouette, I love it.

Those are just a few random ones I have with a bunch of me made dress/skirts – this goes well with pants and sweaters too!!

thank you for reading!

Its the end of the year and I realize I am sooooo behind in my posting of this year’s creations. Let’s see if I can catch up in the next few days!

I got this super thick, cotton sweater knit from fashion fabric a few years ago, and I didnt quite know what to do with it. It felt like it would be too stiff for a sweater, and too thick for a body con. At the end, I decided to make a skater dress. It turned out REALLY well, I’ve been wearing it with boots quite a lot this winter.

The pattern is just a basic knit top, with a slant cut to make it asymmetrical, and I attached a regular circle skirt to it, and then trimmed the hem to make the skirt hem even to the floor. Having a cover stitch made making of this dresss a breath! This thing was simple, easy, fast, comfortable but such a chic dress!

Thank you for reading!!

Hubby loved my red poka dot dress a lot – I decided to make another with more work friendly prints. It’s pretty much the same pattern but longer sleeves. I made it with a rayon crepe and let me tell you- this is one amazing material! It’s crisp, drapery, and cool to the touch. Swishing around in the wind in it is the best!!

I love having a flounce on this material – it is really bouncy. I needed to hang the dress and let it hang for a bit before cutting off some area due to how drapy it is – its also a pretty weight-y material and would pull the flounce down one area more than the other.

I have been wearing this dress to work a ton! I love how comfy it is and now I am on the hunt for more rayon crepe!

As mentioned in previous post, I made a black version of the peasant dress. This one is much more like the original inspiration. It has much more skirt, and asymmetrical gathering, and a longer top. I ran out of fabric at the end, so the ruffle is made from a slightly different rayon.

Not more more to say about it except that I had been wearing ti to death this summer. It is super fun to swish in, and the asymmetry makes me feel curvy and hip-py 🙂 Plus it goes really well with my favorite elephant bag and Greek sandals!

I made this:

A few years ago I saw a dress in Pinterest and I finally got around to making it.

I decided to make a red version, and while it didn’t come out exactly as I had planned, it looks pretty good on me!

I made it using a red rayon crepe, which is a wonderful material to swish around in. (It is as soft as rayon Challis but feels more opaque and slightly heavier). The top part I used McCal 5039,, and the bottom is just a half circle skirt connected with a wide elastic band. There are elastics around the neckline and armhole. Then a bunch of frills on the bottom.  I do like to pair it with my black leather belt, black Greek sandals and black elephant bag.

After making it, I knew I had to add a few inches to the top part and not have a elastic band around the middle, and this needs a fuller skirt. I’ve already made a black version that is closer to my inspiration.  In any case, i do love wearing this version, and red is always a fun color to swish around in!