These are both repeat sews – Tessuti Mandy boat tee and Style Arc April pants.

The Mandy boat tee is made exactly as per the pattern. The body is a striped ponte (a remnant from The Cloth Shop Ivanhoe) and the sleeves are in a black viscose knit. It’s really important with this pattern (and any with a very dropped shoulder and fitted sleeves) that you choose a fabric with plenty of four-way stretch. Otherwise it will be way too tight across the biceps, and uncomfortable to wear. Fortunately both of these fabrics were fine in that regard.

The pants were also sewn from remnants. They are a mixture of jacquard bengaline (also from The Cloth Shop Ivanhoe) and ponte (scraps from stash). It’s hard to see the texture in these photos, but if you squint a bit you can make it out!

These patterns have plenty of seams, which makes them great when trying to use up remnants. Style Arc describe this pattern as follows: Up to minute stylized knit pull on pant, make it all one fabric, or contrast side panels as seen on the cat walk and in the fashion magazines.

I’ve sewn these quite a few times – you can see previous pairs here, here and here.  I made my usual adjustments of shortening both above and below the knee, but that’s it.  They’re fast to sew, mostly on the overlocker, and comfortable to wear.

The above photo shows the fabrics a little better, although the colour is more accurate in the other photos.

This outfit was definitely a scrap/remnant buster!  I recently delivered two huge bags of scraps to Clare’s school, but usually keep larger ponte and bengaline scraps precisely for these types of garments.  I think that the April pant pattern will get a few more outings soon – there is a fair bit in the ponte/bengaline scrap tub needing to be used up!