Sneak Peek: Peplum Top

Even though this is another summer top, I was really determined to finish it this year, as opposed to make it a UFO for another year.

 

I'm hoping to have a chance to take modeled photos soon, but in the meantime. here's a sneak peek...

I also finished a knitted sweater and am now working on a skirt that will incorporate leather, as well as a knitted cardigan for B. So many projects!

Sneak Peek: Spring sewing

I have a few finished projects that I haven't had a chance to take proper photos of. So in the meantime here's a quick sneak peek:

My neon dress - so happy with how this one turned out, especially since I only had 10-15 hours over two days to make it.

My new denim skirt. It's actually a refashion project since I used thrifted jeans and turned them into a skirt. Probably one of the most classic refahionning there ever was, but again I,m quite happy with the result.

This one had been one my list for a couple of years. It's copied from a RTW sweater I own. It' only missing button-holes (and buttons) on the back, which hopefully I will do this week-end....

That's it for now. I have a couple summer projects that I was going to start on, but now I'm obsessed with figuring out my wardrobe for the 5 weeks trip we're taking to New Zealand and Autralia in just a couple of weeks. Since it will be Fall there, but should still be quite nice, I'm dreaming of layering, with long sleeve shirts and have been digging around the intranet and pinterest for all those free shirt patterns.  I'm hoping to make a couple of lose long sleeve shirts and maybe a maxi dress.. We'll see!

Sneak Peek: Summer Shirt

I started this shirt back in the fall, but because I knew it would be more of a spring item, I put it away for a while. But now it's finished and it's pretty much exactly what I had in mind.

Well, to be honnest, it's not 100% finished. I have to add buttons to the sleeve vents but I couldn't wait and I've already worn it to work with the sleeves rolled up... I'll be sharing pictures of me wearing it soon I hope.

Sneak Peek: The Summer of Piping

Here's a sneal peek of my last two finished projects:

The piping on the shirt was part of my original vision, as opposed to the one on the dress, which I might not have thought of if I hadn't done the shirt first... But in the end it felt almost natural to add piping to it as well...

The dress is BWOF 101 from february 2011, mixed with Pattern Runway's Sundress skirt part (as blogged about here.
The shirt is also from Burda: 114 from April 2010

So here they are,  my two completed projects of the summer. More details and photos to come..

Sneak Peek: Last Year's Spring Jacket

The jacket is done, woo hoo!!
The twill tape I ordered from Masterstroke eventually came in (they source it in Japan so it took a few weeks to arrive), and I was able to finalize this jacket, which had been waiting for about 6 months...
No biggie, it was intended as a spring jacket and guess what...it's spring! (well, according to the calendar anyway).

I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to do a proper shoot so in the meantime here's a little sneak peek:

The fabric is a medium weight cotton twill from Fabricland. I've only been there once and I wasn't impressed by the selection - a lot of it was loud polyesters. But I did find this fabric and it was exactly what I needed for the jacket.
The pattern is model 121 from the April 2010 issue of Burda magazine.

Because the fabric frayed so much, and because I like and neater finish, I added a lining for the bodice. It also makes it a little warmer which is good as I,m quite sensitive to cold and temperatures drop easily here in Vancouver. I didn't line the sleeves except for the cuffs because they are meant to be folded over. 

I made a few adjustments to the pattern:

-the sleeves were made narrower by about 2 cm (3/4")

-I raised the armhole by .8 cm (3/8")

-lengthenned the sleeve about 1.5 cm (5/8")

-I widened the wrists by about .8cm 

-Lenghtenned the body about 2xm (even though it is a "tall size" already)

-Added a lining with a pleat at center back for ease.

- I think the neckline on mine is a bit higher than the original as I added 5/8" seam allowances which the tape is now covering.

-And i just realized, looking at the Burda picture, that I didn't do any of the topstitching on the neckline. Oh well...

The lining is a stetch cotton. I finished the sleeves/shoulder allowances with white bias tape

 

And here you can kind of see the twill tape over the neckline and zipper. I can't believe it was such an ordeal to find the right color, but in the end I did and I am quite happy with the result.

 

Sneak Peek: Sorbetto

I finished my first version of the Sorbetto top, which will certainly not be the last as it is soooo easy to put together, and such a great base for many alterations!

I used a thrifted man’s shirt purchased a while back, and that I had already started to deconstruct. I was trying to reproduce an Anthro top but it wasn’t turning out quite the way I wanted, so it had landed on the UFO pile for a while. But recently, while going through my blog roll I cam across a bunch of Sorbetto versions and all of a sudden, like a lightbulb over my head, I knew what to do with the discarded shirt.

I made a few adjustments:
I cut a size 0, but used the length of size 18. I managed to position the pieces so that I could keep the shirt’s bottom hem as it was.
I recut the armholes along the size 6 line as 0 was a bit tight and I also shortened the darts by about 1 inch (I probably could have used lower darts too).

I did make one mistake when cutting the pattern, as I lined up the pattern’s center front (without the pleat) with the edge of the shirt's button plaquette, when in fact it should have been lined up with the center of the plaquette (total rookie mistake!). This made me lose about ¾ of an inch all around, so I took it out at the side seam.

When I first tried it on, I was pretty happy with the overall fit, but I found the fabric to be underwhelming at best, so I decided to add a couple details: a Peter Pan collar, self-drafted and attached with the help of Gertie’s and Laurie’s tutorials, and a cute little pocket on the left chest. I basically used the pocket piece from the shirt, cut it to a ¼ of its original size and reproduced the edging at the top.

I thought about lining the top with white broadcloth, so that the fabric print would pop a bit more (very thin horizontal and vertical lines, alsmost like a tiny plaid), but that’s more work than I wanted to put into this “quick and easy” project.

I used baby blue bias tape to finish the armholes and neckline, and sewed French seams for the sides and shoulders.

Overall I’m very happy with the result. Like I said the fabric isn’t all that exciting, but in the end I think it makes for a cute summer top and it was a great opportunity to learn new techniques. I will refrain from wearing it with pigtails and white shorts though…

I'm flying out tomorrow morning for a week of vacation in San Francisco(!), and this top is coming with me so the final "in action" photos of it will be taken there!

Sneak Peek: Refashion Project

Although I have 4 muslins on my table waiting to be transformed into wearable garments, I decided last week-end to "whip up" a little impromptu project.

It was one of those occasions where two synapses in my brain suddenly connected and the vision of a certain, popular, free-download pattern, came to me...

Do you ever find yourself staring into the void, oblivious to your surroundings, while thinking about a sewing project? I do it all the time and it's actually funny how this project has been a succession of one Eureka! after another, all happening in my mind while pretending to pay to the real world around me.

I need to finish the neckline and armholes but it in the meantime here's a sneak peek of my dressform with her needle necklace...

Sneak Peek and potential projects

I almost finished a new dress.

Made from Quick Butterick 6528, with a couple alterations, it was indeed a pretty fast project, nothing too complicated about it.

I really liked the bold print of the fabric at first. I was going to make a top but I had enough to make a dress. When I showed the fabric to B, he said he tought a dress would be fine.

But halfway through the project I started to question whether this was in fact going to look like the cute and funcky dress I had envisionned...or like one of these long shapeless shirt dress the lady at the cafeteria wore when I was in 3rd grade...Anyway, I finished the dress, and I will take pictures shortly. I think this one will require careful accessorizing to achieve the proper look but I still have hope.

But this project actually has me wondering what I should do next, and if my fabric choices are the right ones. I'm often attracted to a fabric because of the color and pattern, but finding the right project, and making a garment that looks good on me isn't always that easy. Sometimes I look at my purchases and find myself hesitating and wondering if this is really "me", if I would dare wearing the finished garment. But I guess this is what sewing is also about, it's about pushing your style in directions you wouldn't normally go, right? So, I'm not sure what to do next, even though I have 5 if not more pattern/fabric pairing all ready to go.

This is a mix of recent purchase and stash fabric:

B.told me right off the bat he didn't like this fabric. The pink is what bothers him. I, on the other hand really like it, even though I admit the pink could be tricky for the completion. I think a nice summer tan would be required to avoid looking all washed off.
For this fabric I was thinking of Butterick 5209:

Next, this is a silk chiffon from Dressew. I'm feeling pretty confident about making BWOF blouse 105 from April 2010. What I'm not too confident about is the fabric being slippery and hard to work with...

With this one I totally went copycat on Tasia from the Sewaholic. I purchased it after she'd shown it on her blog, and I'm pretty much going with the same dress idea she suggested:

Next is a linen/silk blend, brown with some faint white pin-stripes. I am envisionning a wide-legged pair of pants, with a paperback waist. I have yet to find the right pattern for it, but this is my inspiration:

This top is also on my list, with a very similar fabric I've had in my stash for quite a while:

There you have it, all projects I could start tomorrow...I would start with the first dress if I wasn't afraid of the outcome, and that the print might be too overwhelming on me...Maybe I'll start with a few muslins to be on the safe side, and then we'll see...

Sneak Peek: Pendrell Blouse

I finished my Pendrell blouse last week. I was hoping to take pictures of me wearing it but the weather hasn't been very cooperative, and I've run out of ideas for indoor pictures in our little one-bedroom...

So here's my version of the very popular Pendrell - or a sneak peek of it inside-out. It's actually kind of exciting to be sewing "local" as this pattern's designer, Tasia, also lives in Vancouver.

The pattern is super easy to put together, and it's a great project if you're a beginner, with still a nice original design.

I made french seams all around for a neat finish on the inside. The instructions were very easy to follow, although I would just do one thing differently: for the armhole binding, I would saw the biais strip's ends together, the same way as for the neck binding, and then attach it to the armhole after sewing the side seams together. That way the side seams are enclosed in the binding at the armhole and not sticking out...

I first cut a size 6, based on my bust size, but I should probably have cut a 4. This blouse is meant to be loose-fitting, so I was careful not to overfit it, but I have a rather skinny, even "bonny" figure - I'm not what you would call voluptuous - and on me loose might sometimes look like I'm wearing a sac. Fortunately, I had no problem tweaking the fit a bit to make it more flattering without overfitting it. I took 1" in at the armholes, tapering at the waist, I also took 1" at the princess seam on the shoulder, tapering at the bust apex in the front and the shoulder blade in the back. The princess seams made it really easy to adjust the fit, and in the end I'm very happy with how it turned out.

*Update*: As I'm writing my review on Pattern Review, I realized I actually traced a size 6 at the bust, a 4 at the waist and a 0 at the hips. This is meant for a pear-shaped figure, and I'm more of an hour-glass so I cut a smaller size at the hips.

The other change I made was to the sleeves. I was going to make view A, with draped pleated sleeves. But once put together the sleeves looked huge on me. I have very skinny arms, and it just didn't look right. I tried cutting size 0 of these sleeves, but i stil wasn't happy with the look. So I decided to cut view B instead. I recut the sleeve flounce in the same piece as the view A sleeve.

It looked a bit better, but I still wasn't 100% satisfied so I tweaked them a bit. In the end, I made them into little pleated cap sleeves, which I'm happy with.

It made me a bit sad that this sleeve design wasn't right for my figure, as I had seen so many lovely version of this blouse on the web. But in the end, it's still a very good pattern to have and the princess seam allow for many variations, so I am sure to use it again for other projects...

Sneak Peek: Vest BWOF 01-2009-124

I'm almost done with my vest ! It is the following pattern from BWOF January 2009:

All I have left to do is finish the bound button-holes on the lining side, sew the buttons on and close the center seam of the lining.

I made a slight alteration to the pattern by redrafting the neckline to be a bit rounder and wider (though looking at the burda photo, the difference isn't really obvisous).

For the lining, I used a piece of fabric that I got at Fabricana. It's was also a roll remnant but I got a larger piece of the same fabric from a new roll with the intention to make a dress.
Using it for lining was a good way to get an idea of how to handle it. I'm not so sure that I want to use the bigger piece for the dress anymore. It's polyester, and it's got major static. It also frays BIG TIME, so much so that I zigzag-stitched all the edges, even though it's on the inside of the lining and won't show, by fear that it would fray up to the seams and the whole thing would eventually fall apart...

The overall construction was pretty straight-forward and din't present any difficulty.
The only tricky part was attaching the lining to the outside. While keeping the center seam of the lining partly open, you're supposed to sew both layers, right sides together, around all the edges and then turn the vest back to the right side by reaching through the lining opening. Sewing the shoulder seams for both the outside and the lining, requires a bit of attention if you don't want to sew the wrong parts together.

This is the shoulder seam from the inside. All you can see is the fraying ? My point exactly...

Also, I realized I really need to get some proper pressing tools. A sleeve board and a few wooden spoons are ok, but not enough to get perfectly pressed seems, especially as you get more edges sewn together and it becomes harder to get anything between the layers. And it's a lot of back and forth between the iron and the machine as you want to press each seam before you sew the next one, otherwise you won't be able to press anything.

I also decided at the last minute that I wanted to do bound button-holes. I followed Gertie's very clear tutorial. The process is very similar (if not identical) to making welt pockets except much smaller. I used scraps of black polyester lining instead of the organza. To figure out the positionning, I cut little pieces of paper of the size of the button-hole and placed them on the vest lying flat, then I pinned them on and put the vest on to check the position on the worn garment. Then I hand-basted around the paper with contrasting thread so that the positioning would be visible on the wrong side.

The whole process would have been way easier if I'd made them before attaching the lining, but like I said it was a last-minute decision. In the end think I did pretty well.
Hopefully by the end of next week I'll be completely done and able to post final photos...

Sneak Peak: the New Job Dress (BWOF 2008-04-118)

My "New Job Dress" is finished !!!

I plan on having a proper photo shoot of the worn garment over the week-end but for now I thought I'd post a little sneak peak and a closer look at the details.

It didn't actually take me that long at the sewing table, but I just had NO TIME in August to do any sewing. Between 12-hour days at my new job and a crazy busy summer week-end schedule with relatives visiting from France, the pieces of the dress sat sadly on my form for weeks...

But now it's finished and I am SOOOO Happy.
This was definitely the most detailed garment I've made so far, with a lot of construction and other details: one exposed zipper, one invisible, a standing collar and armbands with facing, pocket constructed both of a hip yoke and a welt type opening, pleats in the front.... and lots of "opposite curves" sewing on the bodice part which made me so glad I got to practice on my flowery tunic first and on the muslin.

But here it is and I have to say I am psyched about the result. The fit is really nice and I love the way the fabric feels. It's a 97% Cotton/3% Elasthane and a bit on the heavier side which gives it a nice body and makes the whole thing very smooth looking.

I went with a white invisible zipper because the dress is mostly white.
I'll have to find a way to make the pull-tab black though...

I omitted the decorative topstitching as I used a fabric with a print. Instead I just used the basic "stitch in the ditch" method to attach the inside facings.
I was hesitant at first because the collar and arm bands looked very nice and crisp and I considered hand-stitching all the facings with an invisible stitch. But finally I went with the faster way, and it still looks pretty good (thankfully black is forgiving and you can barely see the few stitches showing where I failed to guide the needle/fabric properly).

On a side note, I was researching on presser feet recently and read about a special "stitch in the ditch" foot that I guess is helpful to guide the fabric and keep the needle in the ditch. Has anyone been using it and do you think it is a useful tool for a neat result, or do you think it's more of a "gadget" accessory that doesn't really work that well anyway? I guess when you're an experienced sewer you don't really need that kind of accessory...

I did my first ever french seam (which by the way in french is actually called an english seam - "couture anglaise" !) on the right side of the dress, and I love how neat it looks.
I bias-binded the pockets seam allowances, also an oportunity to try my hand at mitered corners for the first time, as well as the left side seam which includes the invisible zipper.
The pattern didn't include a waistband facing but I added one for a neater finish on the inside.

I bought some pink double-folded bias tape that matches the pink squares. I could have gone with black since it's the color of the inside facing but I thought this would be more fun...and it doesn't show at all from the outside.

Burda instructions have you press the seam allowance of the collar and armband pieces inside the bodice as opposed to inside the facing. I guess this makes sense if you do the decorative topstitching on the bodice and attach the facing at the same time, but because I omitted those, I pressed all allowances inside the facing as you would normally do (for a clean result anyway).

I'm really happy that I took the time to make this one right and it definitely payed !