Groovy, baby . . .

I just finished this blouse and am in love with it. . . The vertical wavy lines are very slimming.   The buttons don’t exactly match (they are black and cream and the blouse has black, two shades of gray, and white) but they are vintage 60’s from Sawyer Brook and they are called “Ann Marie”, which is the name of Marlo Thomas’ character on That Girl.   I am such a fan of That Girl and have watched the first three seasons on DVD from Netflix–and drooled over her wardrobe  . . .  But I digress . . . Anyway, here is the blouse:

And here you can better see the “Ann Marie” buttons:

This is the same pattern from the June 08 BWOF that I used for the flower power blouse and the bicycle dress.  I don’t think I’ll use it again this summer, but maybe next one.

 

Hmmmmm:

I can’t really tell you if this project is a success or not.  I’ll wear it, but I doubt I’ll make it again.   There are many other styles that are more flattering to my figure.  Here it is:

and here it is on me:

I did get this top to work for me as much as this style will ever work for me.  I will wear it and I love the cowl:

Here are the pleats at the front, although they are difficult to see with the print:

The top as pictured is shortened 10 inches from the pattern.  I originally shortened it 7 inches which put it below my hip area (unhemmed) and that would have been a nice length if I had thin enough legs to wear skinny jeans.  But, I’m a hippy pear so I decided a shorter length would be more flattering on me. 

Now for my issues:  This top had way too much ease in it, at least for my taste.  I looked 20 pounds heavier than I am, and the sleeves were too low, the bust area was so wide that when I raised my arms I had mini batwings under my arms.   The model in the magazine is wearing a vest over her tunic so it’s hard to tell how much ease there is, and she has on a wide belt which also hides the ease.  When I basted the side seams I found out that this top has a ton of ease–way too much.  Part of this may be my fabric, which is a stretchy rayon lycra jersey.  I should have been suspicious when I tissue-fit the pattern and the sleeve fit around my bicep: I almost always have to make a wide bicep adjustment.  I decided to sew the sleeve in flat, instead of setting them in, which made fitting easier.  I had to take in from the bottom of the sleeves all the way to the hip .  The hip ease is good, at least for my ample hips).  It took me about 5 bastings to get a decent fit, taking out 4-6 inches of ease.    There is still plenty of ease for the pleats to drape, but it fits better in the sleeves/armpit/bust area and there is at least a hint that I have a waist. 

As I said before, I won’t be making this again, but if I did, I’d start with a smaller size and ease out to my regular size at the hips.  And I should have made a muslin. . .  But I will wear this top with some straight legged black jeans and try to figure out what to wear until the loose tunic fashion is over and done with. 

Mini wardrobe complete!

Here are the final two pieces for my daughter’s back to school mini wardrobe.  They are both from April 2008 Burda World of Fashion (views 136 and 139).  It’s hard to tell from the photo, but I’ve used the Alexander Henry print as an accent in both garments:  for the top I used it in the bow, covered buttons, and bias facings

; and the bows for the pants.  I did change the patterns a little:  they both had drawstrings (the dress at the waist and the pants at the top of the ruffle) and since I dislike drawstrings in childrens’ clothes I l inserted elastic in the casings instead.  I used buttonhole elastic in the dress:

so that I can adjust it to the way my daughter likes it.  She did want it looser than I had it, so there isn’t as much of an elastic tail as in the picture.

One edge of the casing I sewed to the seam allowance of the skirt so the seam allowance is completely undeer the casing–it makes a nice neat inside finish.  I also serged the edges of the casing instead of folding under.  It would have been too bulky to fold under the edges with the linen I was using.  I did the same for the casings on the pants

My daughter loves the outfit–yay!  I was a little worried that she wouldn’t like the pants because they have ruffles (she recently told me, after years of liking twirly clothes, she liked PLAIN clothes now) but I think the browness of the pants offsets the ruffles.  I think in pink or a floral, the pants would be too much. 

I’m thinking about doing a mini-wardrobe for me now.  Patternreview is having a mini wardrobe contest in August, which would be fun to enter.  Although I have no idea how to make a storyboard.  I love looking at the storyboards the contestants always make and keep promising to pick up a “Photoshop for Dummies” book one of these days.  I have two ideas for mini wardrobes:  one using “mod” pucciesque prints for tops  and black solid bottoms and the other idea is for a wardrobe with gray, white, and pink as the colors with solid tops, a gray with pink pinstripe pants, and a gray, white, and pink linen floral 10 panel skirt.  I want to use a neue mode pants pattern for the pants in either case, so I can work on the muslin for that  . . .

Simple Sewing . . .

After all of those projects with buttons, collars, etc., it was time for some simple sewing–something to cleanse the sewing palate, so to speak.  I’d traced these patterns from the April 2008 issue of Burda WOF and finally got around to sewing them up for my daughter: 

 

Isn’t this lovely fabric?  It’s Alexander Henry cotton from a few years ago–the “Pixie” collection.  I bought several different fabrics in this line (including one with fairies on it, which became a sundress for my girl many years ago).  One of the prints I used for this blouse I made for the vintage sewing contest last fall.  This is the last of the pixie fabric–it does feel good to have used it all.

Burda gave these patterns one dot, and they were truly easy.  The front and the back of the tunic are the same, there’s a facing and ties.  No topstitiching even (although it certainly could be added).  There is no pattern for the skirt, only dimensions given in the instructions.  The original called for the skirt to be one piece of fabric with a single side seam but I was using 44 inch wide fabric so I cut two identical pieces and had two side seams.  I’d only advise this skirt with a thinner fabric so it will gather nicely when the elastic waist is inserted.  For a heavier fabric, I would make the skirt less wide so the gathers wouldn’t be as bulky.   These really would be great for a beginner trying to get used to BWOF’s sparse directions. 

I’m intending to make the child’s dress and pants from this issue too with coordinating solid linen, for a mini wardrobe.  I may add a t-shirt too, probably from an Onion or Ottobre fabric.   Up to this point, I’d only made one summer dress for my girl this year–but don’t feel too sorry for her because she has 16 mommy-made summer dresses and skirts in her closet that still fit her from last summer.  Although, some are rapidly approaching tunic length and can only be worn with shorts . . .

Finally . . . a shirtdress

I have been meaning to make a shirt dress for a very long time.  Well over a year, in fact.  I have several cuts of cotton fabric that call out to become shirt dresses and this fabric was one of them.  I love this fabric, a quilting cotton, because from a distance it looks like an abstract polka dot print, but up close you find that it is really . . .

bicycles!  Check out the buttons–vintage from the 60’s.   I am not a bike person myself (at the moment, at least) being more of a walker/hiker type person, but I adore this print.  I love the retro/vintage-y pattern and I really like that most people will look at my dress and just see dots and lines.  It’s almost like having a secret in plain view.  The pattern is from the June (08) issue of Burda World of Fashion (my favorite issue so far this year) and is a dress version of the flower power blouse that I posted about recently. 

I’m going to have to make more shirt dresses, I’ve found that it is a flattering style for me.  But oh, sewing on the buttons . . .  

Flower Power

I love this fabric–it’s Pimatex by Robert Kaufmann.  It’s hard to see the details of this blouse because of the busyness of the fabric, but there are some nice details to it.  There are two sets of two pleats in the front and back, a casing with elastic at the side waist (it wraps from front to back) and pleats in the sleeves.  There is a double folded facing at the front edge, to add additional support to the buttonholes or snaps without having to add interfacing.  I added some flower buttons, which you can see in one of the photos below (if you look closely you can see the pleats and the part the elastic is under).  The other photo is a close-up of the sleeve, which is very lovely and has a bound edge.   My muslin was for dress 108, which I intend to make a real version of, but the really nice thing is that this blouse, view 107, is a shortened version of the dress– a 2 for one deal after I fitted the dress.

I really wanted to use the flower buttons (yes, the buttons have 4 petals and the flowers on the fabric have 5, but I still liked them together) but I only had 5 so I left off the top two buttons/buttonholes on the blouse.  I would never have buttoned them anyway and since I made it as a casual, novelty blouse I think that it looks fine.   Plus, I got the approval of Sewing 911,  which is a wonderful book that I love because it’s message is that mistakes and problems are not the end of the world, be creative and you may find you like your solution better than the original design. 

My 40’s factory pants . . .

After a disastrous muslin of Folklore’s Rosie the Riveter pants (I like the style, but the pattern just wasn’t made for my figure type and I didn’t want to do too many alterations), I decided to take a burda pattern with a similar silhouette to make my retro denim trousers.  Burda pants fit me the best, so I figured that I could make them with fewer alterations.  And here they are: 

A back view: 

And the front pocket detail: 

 Anyway, here’s a link to my review on Patternreview: 

It’s been one of those weeks . . .

I have been busy sewing every spare minute I can find in order to complete my last project for the vintage sewing contest.  Well, make that two projects.  I was making a blouse and co-ordinating jumper from this pattern.  I’m nearly finished with the blouse which is made from fabulous Italian batiste from Gorgeous Fabrics.   I picked out a black and tan houndstooth from my stash to make the jumper.  I’ve had this fabric for years in my stash.  It was listed on the website I bought it from as being black and tan; I’ve always thought of it as black and tan.  But after I’d sewn a good deal of the jumper I happened to look at it under an OTT light and saw that it really wasn’t black but very very dark navy blue.   Logically, I know that if the color is so dark that it appears black that I could wear it with the black blouse, black tights, and black shoes or boots.  But now that I know it’s navy blue I just can’t pair it with black.  Navy blue is a color I avoid so I really have little to match.  I was thinking that red tights and shoes would be cute, but I’m not 100% certain that I could get away with that look (not to mention that I own neither).   I do have a cream turtleneck to wear underneath.    This jumper is turning out to be a trial–there were fitting woes and other fabric issues (the fabric has lycra in it and is stretchier than I originally thought which has made fitting a little tricky).  And with a jumper there is a fine line between stylish and, well, I’ll just say not stylish.    Speaking of jumpers, I love this one from the October Burda WOF

August Burda WOF preview

 

click here for the trousers link

Simply delicious! 

Finally cleaned up the sewing room . . .

I have really very little time to sew so keeping the sewing room tidy is a chore that I put off as it cuts into my sewing time.  But I did it last night!  It’s not “selling the house” tidy, but it’s “will let people not related to me see it” tidy.  Actually, it had been at the point at which I really didn’t want people I am related to seeing it either . . .   Well with a tidy sewing room I have no excuse to put off making the laundry bag so I hope to start it tonight, but what I really want to sew is some stuff for myself from the June Burda WOF like . . .