I had been noticing people talking on social media about ‘secret seams’ – patching bits of fabric together to make sure there is minimal waste.

Helen’s Closet Arden pants in needlecord

Thinking of autumn/winter, I had cut out two Helen’s Closet Arden pants, one in the blue needlecord and one in the dark red and there was some fabric left over. I got this lovely cord from Ann Marie at http://www.craftystudio.ie

LB Pullover gets the patchwork treatment

So I decided to make use of it and decided a simple pattern would work best. I went for one of my very favourite patterns, the LB Pullover by Paper Theory (https://papertheorypatterns.com/products/copy-of-lb-pullover-pdf-pattern). I was excited about the patchwork top so tackled it first.

Piecing it all together

I had some fun working out how to do it. I added centre seams to the front and back. And half the front is made up of three blue pieces and one of the dark red patched together. This cord has a one-way stretch, but I didn’t worry about that, or the nap, when piecing it together. I did have to trim the ends of some seams as I went along – where a non-stretch bit met a stretch bit.

The collar is made of two pieces of stretch cotton from the blue Arden pants in stretch cotton sateen that I’m wearing in the pics. I made these last week. I interfaced the collar with stretch interfacing.

I top-stitched the fabric patchwork together before assembly, and then top-stitched all the other seams as I went along.

I’m wearing the Arden pants I had already made in that stretch cotton.

Next on my list is to sew up the two trousers!