Ready to Sew Pekka Jacket, Calder pants, and OOP Simplicity 2741

I am back to work this week. Feeling a bit conflicted about it, but overall glad to be well enough to go back. I am at 4 bad migraines a month now with a higher dose of my preventative meds (Aimovig). I still have few headache free days, but more small headaches than anything else. I use a migraine tracker and tag them as red, yellow, or green for their severity. In December, I had 11 red, 4 yellow, 12 green and 4 migraine free. My worst month was definitely October with 12 red, 10 yellow, 8 green and 1 migraine free. January is 4 red, 8 yellow, 19 green, and no migraine free days (this is normal to see a massive increase in green days before the migraine free days increase). It’s tough for someone who doesn’t have chronic migraines to understand what a relief that is and how much more functional I am, because it is a migraine every day of the month still but let’s break down what those migraines colours mean. Red means I can’t function at all and need to rest or be in quiet and dark all day. Yellow slows me, means I need more rest, and need to avoid my triggers, which can push it into the red zone. Yellow is a pretty delicate state and can cause me time off work, too, because it affects my concentration majorly and gives me brain fog/cognitive impairment. Green means I might have a headache, but am still functional. I won’t have cognitive impairment and can concentrate on work or other things. That said, I need to be careful in the green zone, too, because a green can go into yellow and red easily if I push myself.

Let’s review those numbers again. In October, I had 1 day in the month where I didn’t need to be careful about causing a migraine. I had 22 days where I was either on bed rest or significantly slowed and 8 days were in pain but cognitively okay. In December, I had 4 days where I didn’t need to worry about triggering a migraine and 15 days on bed rest/slowed with 12 in pain. Those are significant portions of my life. In January, I had 12 days where I was on bed rest and the larger portion of that was just needing rest. I would definitely prefer for those numbers to be lower for returning to work but they are getting there and I have accommodations to help me in my return. I think my major issue is that I have neck instability (thanks EDS) that often triggers the migraines so I am working on that in physio/home exercises. I will probably also be getting some neck scans to see if there is a structural issue, but I need a different specialist for that.

Just an FYI, I don’t need extra medical advice so please refrain from suggesting herbal or vitamin remedies. I have a skilled neurologist and nurse practitioner who are on top of that and have me on many different vitamins. Their goal is to get me to a better place and then slowly we will consider whether I need to continue the meds, but I need stable migraines that are caused by clear triggers and more migraine free days first. I do as many non-med remedies as possible first but sometimes meds are best.

On to the outfit!

 

Doesn’t this outfit give you Annie Hall/Diane Keaton vibes? I love it. 

Calder Pants

These are my first version of the full pants for the Calder pattern. Fabric is from Minerva here and you can see my Minerva post here. I’ve made three pairs of shorts now:

The Watermelon version, a neon yellow poly terry knit version and a version using Kick Ashe Fabrics printed knit called Xenomingos (I received both the knit fabrics for free in exchange for pictures; here is my post on Minerva for the yellow terry knit). Both the knit versions actually fit a bit large even with the interfacing in the waistband so I had to take them in in the centre front. I love all three versions and really wanted to try the pants version.

 

After all the versions, I will finally be altering the back to remove a bit of volume in it to get a better fit there. My reasoning before was that it wasn’t that big of a deal, but in the full length versions, it is a bit more obvious that there is too much fabric back there. I’ll update you on that once I make another version.

Here are some more pictures of the neon yellow and Xenomingos because I love them:

And some seated pictures too!

So cute! 

Simplicity 2741

Simplicity 2741 is an out-of-print gender neutral pattern for a button shirt, vest, and boxer shorts. I’ve made the boxer shorts a few times for my partner. I cut the shirt out for myself ages ago. Possibly 2+ years ago and it languished in my to-sew pile because I didn’t feel confident tackling it and I wasn’t sure it would be a top I even liked. When clearing out stuff I didn’t need in the Summer, I came across it and decided to try it out. If anything, it gave me a muslin for me to try on my partner and practice collars. The fabric I used is a white rayon fabric. 

Now here is the hilarious part. I totally forgot what pattern it was and started sewing before without instructions. I finally figured out what pattern it was when I went through my paper patterns to decide what to keep and what to throw and found it. It ended up being okay. I didn’t know the size of the seam allowance, though, so I had used my usual 1 cm, but it was more like 1.5 cms. Oops.

It’s a very long shirt on me since I am 5’3″. It will probably be the perfect length for my partner, though, once I remind myself to get him to try the top on! LOL. The collar is a bit tall and large for my neck, but again will likely work for my partner. 

I like the curved hem, even if those are a pain in the ass to sew! I used some clear buttons from my stash for this and didn’t add buttons past my hip line for comfort. Orginally, I was going to crop this, but then I thought, why not go for the longer version? So I did.

The shoulders are meant to be drop shoulders, but are a bit more drop on me. Overall, it’s pretty over-sized. I made a size XL or 46-48 inches in the chest and 47-49 inches in the hips. I did as 2 inch bust adjustment and then pivoted the dart to eliminate it. Finished garment measurements definitely would have fit me as is, but I think 2 years ago my bust was a bit larger so I wanted the ease added in. The result ends up being an oversized shirt, which fits in nicely actually with my current wardrobe. 🙂 I can’t really comment too much or do a review on the pattern since it was mostly done without the pattern by my side. I will see if it will work for my partner and post a full review next time.

Ready to Sew Pekka Jacket

I originally posted this one as a Same Pattern, Different Bodies on the Curvy Sewing Collective. I received the pattern for free but again my opinions are my own unless you want to make me less food and housing insecure. (cries in capitalism)

I made a size 54 with the narrower front band of view 1. I didn’t do any alterations at all since the fit is meant to be over-sized. The fabric I used is all scraps or small pieces from stash fabric in linens, linen cottons, or cotton canvas. It’s lined in a soft rayon fabric of mint with little purple flowers. 

I’ve never felt a garment was more “me” in my life. It’s got a pastel rainbow and my fav shade of turquoise. It’s linen, my fav fabric to work with, it’s lined with a soft mint floral fabric, and the POCKETS ARE MASSIVE. They are designed to also fall open a bit, too. I love the style lines on the pattern and the potential for colour-blocking that I fully took advantage of in this version.

I love it so much!

Instructions were easy to follow. There is also a sew along on the Ready to Sew site. I want to try it out with sweatshirt fleece at some point, too, like Martha (GariChild‘s) version, or a quilted fabric or double gauze. 

TL:DR Review

• Pattern: Ready to Sew Pekka Jacket
• Pros: Good size range (up to 59.5 inch hip). Nice style lines. Massive pockets.
• Cons: Not really any cons. I don’t love the aesthetic of the pattern images on their site, but that’s just a silly comment. My aesthetic is pretty different from them. LOL. It’s like minimalist versus I dunno pastel rainbow unicorn? LOL. But just to say the pattern images kind of made me think that the pattern wasn’t my thing, but it definitely turned out to be my thing!
• Make again?: For sure. I really want to try it in different fabrics.
• Rating:  5/5 stars

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