Lekala 4099 - ahoy there, mateys :-)

I am finally getting around to posting about my newest Lekala 4099. My husband has been occupying the computer lately with his desire to learn SQL.

I had originally planned for the jersey to be used for a Humming Bird top, but it is more of a cosy jersey that was asking to be made into a winter top. I had been thinking about making a long sleeved top like this for a while although as I finished it I realised that it might be a bit pirate costume like ... never mind though, everyone needs a bit of adventure in their life ... so ahoy there, me mateys. (I realised after I had taken the pictures that I had forgotten to press the shoulder seams, so ooops)

This version has a centre front seam as I couldn't fit is otherwise. I wasn't so sure about it at first, but it seems unobtrusive, so I'll see how I feel about it in a couple of weeks. I made it a little tighter then the black one, because the jersey relaxed and I need to resew that one as part of my next mending Monday maybe.

I am not very good at this taking pictures of myself business really. I am looking at my back thinking 'Why oh WHY, for goodness sake, didn't I smooth out THOSE wrinkles in the back"

Onwards to the cape ...

Lekala 4099

I wanted to thank everyone for the kind comments on the Pumpkin Scone Recipe.  In fact, the comment from velosewer about Greek pastries led me to the conclusion that Greek cuisine is mostly ... well ... Greek to me. Brisbane does have a wonderful Greek community and they just had their festival, but, alas, various Kindy fetes, birthday parties and sleep overs conspired against me actually attending it. Thus I have declared next weekend to be a Greek weekend ... I shall research the menu extensively (i.e. spend a leisurely hour surfing velosewers food blog when I really should be doing other things) and let you know how I get on with this. Hopefully we'll end up with something all children and adults will eat and maybe like to eat again :-)

Anyway, back to Lekala. I love them in theory, no seriously, the idea of having made to measure patterns for my measurements is great. Their website is like a candy store that offers new surprises every day. However, like a candy store, it has a few drawbacks. The biggest, I think, is the instructions. They are minimal, translated somewhat questionable from Russian. The PDF pattern fits together mostly, but that could very well be a printer issue. Over all the PDF is not onerous though. Having downloaded a skirt pattern from somewhere else and ended up with 60 odd pages, the Lekala patterns I have range from 17 pages for a T-Shirt top and 24 pages for a coat. The price is great. Once you register on their website you get a 10% discount on the pattern and you have to register to buy, so the pattern is like $2.10. I keep reading about the $0.99 US sales, but that never quite happens down here ... sigh ... it's probably a good thing as I have no self-control :-)

Lekala 4099 is a dolman sleeve jersey top with a gathered wide sleeve. I had intended to use Cation Design's free Dolman Sleeve top and modify it, but I thought it might be a good way to try out Lekala. I had read some bad reviews, about their sizes being too small (no ease etc), so I was a bit weary.

I used Spotlight's new brushed Jersey for that (yes, I know it was not in my stash), but I really wanted a black top and there was nothing in my stash. I lowered the neckline a bit and shortened the sleeves, but looking at the pictures now, I didn't actually need to shorten the sleeves as they ride up a bit.

This might well be the white sponge of cake sewing. It is perhaps the most useful thing I have sewn so far (except for the sleep masks that we use daily).

It's not as fitted as some of my other tops, which probably means I wear them too tight usually. However, Jersey and I am going to become best friends in the next few months, because I have started to exercise in the lost month of April. I can see some results already and I don't really want to go through the pain of fitting things that don't fit right a few months later. Overall, I was really happy with the pattern and the fit. I didn't need any instructions really and I imagine I will make many more tops from this pattern.