Laura's sewing room

The man who changed my life...

2011-06-28T00:55:00.000-07:00

... and my sleep pattern. The little guy is still waking a lot at night.

I will try, I promise, to write a bit more, but I don't know when. My days and hands are full with the little guy who's far from being a good sleeper and is teething canines right now.
I miss you all. And I miss sewing so bad that I'm dreaming about it at night :)

My baby is here

2010-07-26T02:11:00.000-07:00

My baby boy was in a hurry to come into this world, so on 25 June, at 36 weeks, he barely waited for his father to come back from Germany and take me to the hospital. His name is Matei (Matthew) and he is now 1 month old. It might take a while till I can sew and/or blog again, as he is a colicky baby, but here he is, my little one:

News

2010-02-26T01:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, 20 weeks pregnant and having a boy!

2009-03-06T00:20:00.000-08:00

I'm not dead nor sick. I'm just having a very busy and very hard time. I haven't sewn a single stitch since October last year. Please bear with me, I'm really not in the right shape for blogging/writing right now and the lack of time is also killing me.
Thank you so much for thinking of me, writing me emails and giving me awards, that does help a lot and it touches me deeply.
I'll do my best and try to post next week. I miss you all.

White and black trenchcoat

2008-10-02T01:51:00.000-07:00

Now, don't ask me how I got the idea for this trenchcoat because I really cannot remember. All I know is that it obsessed me my entire holidays, it was taking shape into my mind and I was really looking forward to get back and start sewing again. Funny because I used the last week of my holidays to give a very thorough cleaning to our apartment - you know, when you move every piece of furniture to clean underneath?. I sometimes get urges like that to clean everything and put it in order, it is a bit like putting order in my entire life or starting fresh and clean (I'm born in autumn and tend to view autumn as a beginning, I know it might seem strange). So I only started to work on the trench after I got back to work.

I really love trenchcoats (especially fitted) and can't have enough of them, plus I wanted very much a white trenchcoat. I love white coats (even if they have to be washed or cleaned very often) and I like how I look in white.

Taking into account that I spent a lot lately on sewing notions and gadgets, stocking up on things harder to find, I decided I'd better shop my own stash for fabric and patterns - I have quite a lot already. There was no trenchcoat pattern in my stash, not for a classic trenchcoat, but more modern interpretations. The only pattern coming close to what I wanted was this Burda pattern - coat 111 from BWOF 10/2007. A coat pattern. Now, I had to downsize the pattern anyway, I'm a 34 in Burda and the coat is 36-44. A coat has a lot more ease than a trenchcoat, especially a fitted trenchcoat like I wanted and one in a pretty summery/early fall fabric (a thin cotton twill). I normally would have pulled one of my patternmaking books and try to see what is the ease in a coat and what in a fitted early fall coat, but I have no idea what kind of ease Burda uses (I think there are several "schools" in the field...) I thought a solution would be to downsize another size, thus going from 36 to 32. I'm not really sure this is the wise way to do it, but it does make sense in a way. By going down a size, you decrease the width, you get higher armholes, you decrease the width of the sleeve as well etc.

I must confess, blushing with shame, that I didn't make a muslin. I know, I should have. But I had two reasons: 1) Burda patterns fit me really well and most of the time I have no alterations to make (except the petite alteration that I always do, using this Burda workshop); 2) I get so obsessed with a project that I literally cannot wait to see it starting to take shape.

So, now to the "technical" details. The coat is made out of a thin cotton twill. The topstitching is done by hand, using multi-strand embroidery floss (all of the six strands) and a 0.5 mm (approx 1/4") running stitch, situated at 1 cm (approx 3/8") from the edge. There's topstitching on the pocket flaps, the belt, the lapels collar, front edge and hem of the trench, the back center seam (including the vent), the back sleeve seam.

I've used Diva Ann's tutorial for making a welt pocket using an organza "window"- see the tutorial here and was very happy with the result. See below how clean it looks:

I've used my Tailoring: The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket book for fusing various types of interfacing to the garment, interfacing the lapels and sewing the collar. Great info, I really like this book.

For bagging the lining, I've used (again), Kathleen Fasanella's series of Nameless tutorials. Really, once you try her method, I doubt you'll ever want to use another. Look how clean (and entirely by machine, no handstitching) the finish of the lining+facing at the hem:

I simply adore it. It looks so professional and it is so easy to achieve. I've been using this method for a long while now, but this is the first time I've used Kathleen's book to draft my own facings and lining. Guess what? The way she has you drafting the lining, you get rid of that pleat at the hem. I don't know about you, but I always disliked that pleat. It is such a pain to iron (I never know exactly how much I should fold it when ironing it) and then when you wear the jacket, the pleat unfolds a bit and you have a rigid crease where you fold it. I strongly recommend Kathleen's book. Besides the info in it, it also gives you one-year free access to her members only forum - another wealth of information.

Take a look at the photo below...

See how the lining "blouses" at the hem? Drafting the lining as Kathleen instructs you gives you plenty of ease to allow movement, but no pleat.

For finishing the vent, see this episode of the nameless series.

Unfortunately, when I cut the lining, I forgot to allow for the vent, and cut the back traditionally (omitting the vent). I added then a rectangle to the right side of the lining and I left the left side as it was, mitering the corner.

Mental note to self: Stop cutting fabric when very tired .

The buttonholes are corded, using the same multi-strand embroidery floss that I used for topstitching. The beautiful buttons are a gift from Summerset.

Top made before holidays

2008-10-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

Front of top

Back of top

Top lying flat

This is a top made just before leaving for holidays. I used top 126 from Burda 07/2008 as a starting point and added some changes. I really liked the back of the pattern. I love the blousy shape that is trendy now, but be careful - your fabric must be drapey if you don't want to look like you put on weight. I also loved how the pattern doesn't have any side seams. It is interesting and it also speeds up the sewing.

First of all, I downsized to 34. I've used an insert in Burda magazine to do it, but there's also this tip on PR that I use a lot.

I knew I wanted a really sexy top to wear for salsa dancing and for hot holidays nights out. I made this top in a hurry to have it for holidays (it was made at the end of July) so I didn't have the time to take any photos, but I tried to show you on the pattern technical drawing what I did.

The red lines are the new design lines. The front and back band are cut away from the pattern. I used black cotton-lycra for the band and I interfaced them with soft knit interfacing. You must interface them, otherwise you risk a drooping neckline. And you don't want that, do you?

The back is cut to have a deep cleavage, showing your nude back. You cannot wear a bra with this - well, actually you could wear a very interesting bra that you feel like showing, if you want. The design is quite blousy so I don't think it works for insertion of bra cups. My fabric is drapey but quite thick so I can wear the top without a bra and I'm still totally decent. And after all, you can always purchase those little silicone patches that cover your nipples if your fabric is too revealing.

The center back seam is pivoted to make a cowl.

The green lines on the front show you where I cut and spread the pattern, to have little gathers that go in the neckline. I only spread my cuts about 1 cm away (approx 3/8'), I could have spread them a bit more, but as I told you I was in a hurry and didn't have time to experiment.

The back is gathered around the square insert (part of it shows in the left corner of the drawing - the dotted black lines show the gathering), that I also cut from black viscose lycra. That is from the original Burda design and it is a detail that I like very much.

Even if it's quite a particular top, I think I will sew it again, probably in a solid. I wore it to death during holidays and salsa parties and I got tons of compliments over it. While away on holidays, a girl wanted to buy it off my back and offered me 100 Euros for that. I took it as a compliment but kept the top :)

See this older post for sewing with knit tips.

Back to blogoland

2008-10-01T00:31:00.000-07:00

So hello there. Thought you were rid of me? :) Well, I'm still here.
I know I have promised to be back at the end of August, but somehow I didn't manage to keep that promise. Work and readjusting to work after a one-month holiday, and I also felt a bit low for a while. I'm definitely better right now and as one very special friend told me, it is good to indulge but then you have to snap out of it.

I did sew in the meantime, so I'll have things to show you. I'll post them one by one to make linking easier when I want to refer to a particular garment.

I also bought a new camera and you'll have to bear with the (poor) quality of my photos for a while. I'm still experimenting with the camera on one hand and I had to change the place where I used to take pictures on the other hand - for the simple reason that I cannot put this camera in the same position as the older one. You'll see in future posts that pictures are not very well framed (part of my head is missing, part of my legs are missing too). I'm going to buy a tripod soon but it annoys me that I won't be able to sit the camera in a vertical position (most time I prefer portrait photos to landscape photos).

With great delay, I want to list some beautiful things I received from dear friends in the last past months. So, in chronological order...

From Marji, during her 50 giveaway:

From left to right: beautiful double-faced wool, and two pieces of gorgeous silk.

From Summerset - she knew I had a tough time in spring so she sent me a little cheer-up gift. Please notice that everything, including the card is in my favorite combo of colours. She also got my postal address from another friend, without me knowing it, so I was blown away when I got the parcel!

It seems I forgot to include in the photo the most gorgeous black and white sequined button I've ever seen! (made by Summerset, of course). There were also some black beautiful buttons, you'll see them very soon. They are already attached to something :)

Sewing Diva Els helped me buy some very nice and useful notions (and I got another load coming). Not only she was incredibly helpful both in giving advice and driving to a store to get me some things, but she also threw in scraps of interfacing to experiment with, shoulder sleeves and a pair of shoulder pads. There's also some black seam binding not included in the photo, but you'll see it very soon - I used it on a recent project.

My sister surprised me and sent me all the way from Stockholm this gorgeous birthday gift

Everything is made by her own little hands. Can you believe this? Secretive as she is, I had no idea she was into jewelry making...

And this gorgeous black patent bag was a birthday gift from my husband....

And this handpainted bag is a gift from my co-workers. Even my cat loves it!

I also found out that I was nominated for International Superstar award on the Pattern Review. Wow, can you believe this???

And I got a prize from Mirela. If you're not familiar with her blog, go there right away. Mirela is a fellow Romanian living in the States. She's very talented, she sews, she knits, she crochets, she makes really beautiful things.

The rules for this award - prize are as follows:

1. Select 6 bloggers to whom you would like to give this award- prize
2. Put the award - prize on your blog and indicate who gave it to you by identifying her/his blog;
3. Paste these rules on your blog;
4. Write 6 of your most important values and 6 negative points you condemn,
5. Inform the 6 recipients by leaving a comment on their blog.

Most important values

Freedom
Honesty
Integrity
"Nurture people, not products"
Trying to be better all the time

Negative points

Hurting people and knowing it
Taking advantage of the weaker

I give this prize to all of you.

UPDATE: I've just ordered a tripod and it's going to be delivered to my home tomorrow in the evening. Can't wait!

Goodbye for now

2008-08-01T03:34:00.001-07:00

I'm going away for holidays and won't be back before the end of August probably.
Have a great summer, great holidays, and keep those machines humming :)
I'll post as soon as I'm back, as I made two other items but didn't have the time to take photos.
I'm leaving very early in the morning tomorrow and am still at work, going to be at work until evening and haven't even started packing.
Why can't cats pack your things while you sleep peacefully?... Although, knowing my cat, she probably can but won't :)

Can you take more knit dresses? :)

2008-07-23T02:40:00.000-07:00

I managed to buy some really nice pieces of jersey from ebay, both from individual sellers and shops. I'm a big fan of jersey, especially cotton/lycra and viscose/lycra (especially since I don't always like the colors or designs of store-bought tops) and it's almost impossible to find here. Ebay proved to be a great option, I found some great fabric (beautiful colors and good quality) at good prices too (2 pounds per meter?? I would pay at least double in a shop here!)

The first dress is made out of cotton jersey, no lycra and the fabric was bought from ebay seller sophie162223. I adored the mix of colors the moment I saw them. I chose Burda WOF 04/2008 dress 116 for this fabric.

I liked the way Burda has you sew double strips at armhole and back neckline, than turn them back and topstitch (see below) but I think I'd rather have simple strips. Double strips look more finished but they add bulk. I pounded the seam allowances with a rubber hammer to reduce the bulk but I would still prefer simple strips for next time.

I once again refer you to the Burda workshop about jersey - very useful, especially the part about stabilizing necklines and armholes with bias fusible tape, staystitched with a chainstitch, but I would like to add a few things about sewing with knits (I read all of them some place or another):

It is very important to cut your knits on grain (well, it is very important to cut all your fabric on grain). See the Burda workshop where they explain very well how to find the grain on a knit. Have you ever had one of those store-bought t-shirts that you really like but after a couple of washes your side seams are totally crooked? They become diagonal and you have one seam showing in front and another one showing in the back? That's because the knit was not on grain.
A walking foot helps with knits (that is my experience). It avoids stretching of seams (although you can also avoid that by reducing your foot pressure, if your machine has that option) and it crosses easier bulky seams (for some of them you don't even need to use a jig to level your foot with the fabric), thus keeping stitches equal (you know how your stitch length shortens when you sew on a bulky part and don't use a jig to help your foot?)
I always use a stretch 75 needle or Microtex needles (70 or 80) for difficult to sew fabrics (slinky comes to mind)
Since I discovered the stabilizing bias fusible tape (Vilene Bias Tape), I use it to stabilize the shoulders also and thus I don't need to catch a strip of fabric, nylon tape or other stuff in the seam. Love this tape, just ordered 50 m of it from SewEssential.
I really love the look of deeper hems and try to have 4-4.5 cm (1 3/5 - 1 4/5") hems if the amount of fabric available allows it.

For hemming, I always use a twin needle (I covet a coverstitch machine!), I prefer the needles with 2.5 distance between the needles but a 4 distance needle works just fine too (it gives a sportier look in my opinion). I have a separate bobbin shuttle dedicated to hemming knits and bobbin work. It has the tension reduced to 0 (unscrew the bobbin screw as much as you can without it falling). You can play with your tension on your bobbin shuttle if you have just one but I remember reading that if you do that too often you risk ruining your shuttle for good. I always use woolly nylon in the bobbin (I have black, white and beige and these go for almost everything; I would love to have coordinated colours, but that's what I could find). Wind the bobbin by hand or, if you're lazy and easily bored like me, wind it by machine, bypassing all the tension guides and setting your sewing speed to the lowest setting possible. Otherwise, the woolly nylon gets too stretched during winding and looses its stretchability. And you do want it in your hem for its stretchability! Since I hem like this, I never got popped stitches in my hem and believe me, I can get pretty brutal to my clothes when undressing, especially if I'm very tired or in a big rush.
also for hemming knits, I've been using this tip by Sewing Diva Gigi for quite some time now. Great tip, it definitely improved the appearance of my hems. Her tip is for a coverstitch machine, but it works equally well when you sew your knit hems with a twin needle, on your regular machine, like I do.
I used to cut 0.6 cm (1/4") seam allowances on all knits and sew them directly. I'm good with a serger (at least that's what I like to think) but still, this method is not the best for more complicated models, with draping details and so on. Now I cut 1.6 cm (5/8") allowances, sew them with a stretch stitch on my regular machine (I don't really like the specialised stretch stitch on my machine, the one that looks like a lightning; I prefer a zigzag stitch, 2.5 long and 0.5 wide) or with a basting stitch (make sure you take the stitching out after finishing your seams in this case) and then serge it away in total confidence.
For more difficult hems, I use Steam a Seam to fuse them in place. By the way, I don't know about you, but the European versions of Steam a Seam I found are the kind that you iron on the fabric, fold the hem in place and iron again. They do come apart most of the time in washing and you have to press them back. Well, my dear friend Marji sent me some genuine Steam a Seam and wow! It adheres to fabric without ironing. You only iron it in place to make the bond permanent. And it is permanent - it doesn't come apart in the wash! One remark however, whether you use Steam a Seam or other similar stuff for knits, make you sure you get the light version (Steam a Seam Lite), otherwise it makes your knit stiff. The light stuff is totally unnoticeable.

OK. Sorry for this long digression. Now for the second dress:

Front:

Side

Back view

This is the vintage swimsuit from Burdastyle, mixed with the bottom of the green Burda dress (without the back darts). There are several problems with this pattern, Cidell highlighted them in this post. There were (there are now, they updated the pattern) no notches for the gathering, so I did it "by eye" as we say here. The back straps should be cut on fold and if you want to tie them with a bow like in the Burdastyle photo, you should also lengthen them (you see that I can only tie mine with a knot). I also had to shorten the long strap by 9 cm (4 3/4") and the front strap that brings together the gathering in the bust insert by 5 cm (2").

The dress is made out of a gorgeous jet black viscose lycra bought from ebay shop fabric-fabric. I bought several viscose lycra knits from them and I absolutely love them.

I inserted bra cups (this pattern is so adequate for bra straps because you have that back tie strap that really helps, it give the effect of a bra: cups+back strap), again by using this very useful tutorial by Diva Gigi on the Sewing Divas blog. I only attached the cups at the underbust part and left the upper part unattached (because the insert is gathered at sides and center).

Wrong side

Right side

The viscose lycra is a heavy stretchy fabric and even if stretched the long band as much as I could, I still felt it would need to hug my body better therefore I added clear elastic on the entire length.

Remember to stretch the clear elastic a few times before inserting it, otherwise it would stretch in the garment and you end up with a wavy edge insert of a body-hugging one. Clear elastic is very good because it tends to adhere to naked skin (like those silicon strips on bra elastic, for strapless bras).

A deep hem again...

And because I will use this dress a lot for salsa dancing, I'm wearing it with my new dancing shoes in the picture. Here's a close-up from the manufacturer's website:

Two more knit dresses

2008-07-16T02:09:00.000-07:00

First dress is more of a wearable muslin. I had this cotton knit in red, a warm red with a tiny touch of orange. I normally prefer cotton/lycra to cotton jersey, so I decided to make a wearable muslin - I will make this dress again in black, for salsa dancing and going out.

It is Burda World of Fashion 05/2008, dress 104.

I don't have many things to say about this dress, it is easy to make, you can see more close-ups than I managed to take on my friend Tany's blog - the post about the saffron dress. A few words about changes made and changes that will be made:

I didn't insert a zipper - why does Burda plans for a zipper in a very elastic dress, it's a total mystery to me. You simply don't need it.
I once again refer you to the Burda workshop about jersey - very useful, especially the part about stabilising necklines and armholes with bias fusible tape, staystitched with a chainstitch (you buy it in notion stores - see a photo on Tany's blog, in this post) - they say how you should fuse this tape - the chainstitch must be placed on the stitching line. I didn't know that and have wondered how I should do it.
I made a mistake and cut a different pattern piece for the belt. The dress has a symmetrical belt, the asymmetrical belt that I cut was meant for the top using the same pattern - this top. I actually prefer asymmetry to symmetry in many cases, but in this particular case, I do think the dress would look better with the symmetrical belt.

I used a metal buckle (the only one I had in my stash) but a plastic one would be better. The metal is heavier and pulls a bit the belt.
Next time I make this dress I will make the neckline wider, shortening the shoulders at neck by about 2 cm (approx 0.8") on each side. A wider neckline would look better on me. I might draw a deeper neckline as well, since this dress will be for going out. As it is, this is a very non-Burda cleavage, meaning very decent as compared to their regular plunging necklines :)
For the next dress, I will lengthen the self-lining part of the bodice to reach under my bust. I plan to insert bra cups in the lining and finish the end of the lining with elastic.

Even if I'm not totally happy with this dress, it got me plenty of compliments at work (probably because of the colour too).

And now, my absolute favourite dress so far:

This is Burda WOF 02/2008, dress 103.

Once more, go to Tany's blog - this post - to see more close-ups and explanations concerning the construction of the front knotted/draped detail. I read the Burda instructions a couple of times to understand how I'm supposed to do this. It is not that difficult actually, pretty straightforward once you get it.

I made the short-sleeved version but I'm totally in love with this dress - it was such a success that a woman stopped me in the street to ask me where I bought this gorgeous dress - so I'll definitely make the 3/4 sleeve version too, probably for fall and that one will be underlined.

I made a petite alteration to the pattern and that's all. The fabric is cotton/lycra, a lovely shade of green. Even after the petite alteration, the dress was quite long, therefore I made a wider hem and I love this look. I think I'll only use wide hems from now on on knits (about 5 cm = approx 2"), they give such an elegant appearance, especially when used in a dress.

This dress is the perfect example of instant gratification. Three hours for making it (including cutting the pattern, as it was traced, but not cut) and maximum impact because of the very interesting design. I could see this dress made again with the top part changed to a cami style - the raglan construction would be so easy to turn into a strap-design.

And for hemming knits, I've been using this tip by Sewing Diva Gigi for quite some time now. Great tip, it definitely improved the appearance of my hems. Her tip is for a coverstitch machine, but it works equally well when you sew your knit hems with a twin needle, on your regular machine, like I do.

What I've been sewing lately

2008-07-15T03:42:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me thank you for welcoming me back in such a nice and warm way. Believe me, I missed you and missed blogging a lot. I especially want to thank all the new-comers and delurkers. I'm glad that you are here and hope you'll visit and "speak" often. So a hearty welcome to Dei, Catherine, Rose, Gwen, Lelah, Ingrid, Chris, Christy, another Rose, Tracey.

And now let me show you what I made lately, only the skirt was made during my silence period, the rest was done after that. I wanted to sew dresses because I love dresses and I have few. It's more versatile to have blouses and skirts for the office. But I decided to remedy that, with the help of my beloved Burda - I love this magazine, the patterns are so well drafted and I rarely need to do any changes at all besides a petite alteration.

This skirt that I made (please forgive the very poor quality of the picture, I tried to lighten it in Photoshop so you can see the topstitching better, but with very bad results; you'll see the close-up which is a lot better; as I've told you before, my camera takes strange pictures when on self-timer and in artificial light) was the beginning of a capsule that I wanted to make. A summer capsule inspired by this mix of colours in a Burda magazine:

I love these strong colours mixed together and I am going to sew that capsule at some point (not now, because the capsule will be rather for office and everyday life and right now I want to sew for my holiday at the seaside!). The colours are going to be burnt orange, purple, green and turquoise blue. I have fabric for 6 tops and 6 bottoms, plus a viscose chiffon in a print with all the colours mentioned above.

Without further ado, here's the skirt - Burda WOF 02/2008, skirt 111:

This skirt being an important piece in my colourful capsule, I decided to topstitch the bands with the colours of my wardrobe - green, orange, purple and turquoise. I used topstitching thread for that. Unhappily when I graded down from 36 to 34 it seems I didn't grade the front band very well (see it in the close-up below) and the last lines of topstitching don't go all the way around but stop somewhere in the middle (the band was a bit wider at the center than at the end, arghh, why didn't I think of checking that after grading down??).

The photo includes one of my favorite bags, that will go nicely with the entire capsule. And here's a beautiful necklace that will also go with everything.

The fabric is a stretch cotton sateen. A word of caution if you think of making this skirt: you need quite a bit of stretch in your fabric because it is a pencil skirt with no back slit or pleat and it is quite tight around your knees. I like the skirt as it is and it is not uncomfortable, but the next one will have a center back seam and a slit or kick pleat of some sort.

The next dress is a very easy dress from Burda WOF 07/2008, dress 120.

It is made of silk jersey, a beautiful panel bought of UK ebay. This was my first time working with silk jersey and I strongly recommend reading this factsheet on emmaonesock. Very useful tips. If only I read that before pre-washing the fabric! In my ignorance I line-dried the fabric instead of drying it flat and I managed to distort it. It took a very careful steaming and pressing to get it back in shape. See, I told you practice makes perfect! After so many weeks without sewing, I made a mistake at almost every garment that I've sewn.

The front is cut on fold, but the back has a center seam. I wanted to match the motifs on the remaining pieces as well as possible.

And here's a close-up of the not perfect but alright match in the back, as well as the teardrop beads that I used to embellish the end of the string that ties the dress around the neck.

The upper front is self-lined and I also inserted bra cups. I cannot imagine wearing such a dress without a bra and I don't like strapless bras so much. I always feel they are not exactly secure on me (maybe because I'm a B cup). Normally I would have lined or underlined the entire dress but this is a dress for dancing and for hot summers (summer is really hot in Bucharest) therefore I didn't want a tricot lining or underlining and I didn't have silk jersey to line it. So the dress is left unlined.

I also inserted clear elastic in the back. I did remember to stretch the elastic a few times before inserting it (to eliminate some of the stretch) but I still would have liked it to hug my body better especially after some hours of wearing. So next time I will insert regular elastic, or clear elastic, but sewn to the already hemmed back - this way, the clear elastic is in direct contact with the skin and it tends to adhere to it (I know because there's clear elastic sewn to the top of the cups, with this purpose in mind).

To insert the bra cups, I used this very useful tutorial by Diva Gigi on the Sewing Divas blog. I attached the cups only partially (the black lines in the photo below show you where the zigzag stitching stops) because I needed to check if the cups won't prevent me from sewing the ring. I had indeed to cut a bit from the front part in order to accommodate the ring.

Despite the need to match the motifs and the insertion of bra cups, it still was a quick dress. I love knit projects, they are so rewarding! Tomorrow I'll show you two other dresses, both knit. You can easily whip one in one evening.

Alive... but not exactly kicking

2008-07-08T00:56:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been already two months since I last posted. But if you thought I fell off the face of the planet, well, I'm still here. I didn't go away on a holiday, I didn't suffer from SWAP hangover (as Marji put it so well). These past two months have been incredibly busy, it is the first time in my life when I felt constantly that I'm struggling to keep the pace with all the things that I had to do and I'm behind most of the times.

You don't know me (in person I mean), but I can tell you that I'm a highly energetic person. My level of energy, including physical, is naturally very high. I don't take any credit for that, it's just the way I've been since I was a kid - plenty of energy to spend and normally, positive energy. This helps me a lot when under pressure. Usually pressure (well, short and medium-term) stimulates me and makes me faster and most of the times better. So it is very unusual for me to feel that I can't manage all the things that I must do.

So what happened? Think lots and lots of work to do, a very important conference with high officials and important people from the artistic world to organize, a 2-weeks visit from my mother in law and her husband (they live in Dallas, TX) which brought plenty of supplementary household chores, trips to make all over the country to visit relatives and so on. A 5-days teambuilding that was mostly work - my organisation is preparing for the first excellence star (read more about the committed to excellence concept on the EFQM site) and I was leader of one of the groups doing self-assessment and improvement projects. Serious conflicts in my department at work, serious personal problems in my department... As head of this department, many of these problems have a direct impact on me, both professionally (as conflict mediator) and personally (things that happen to people in my team affect me) as you can imagine. On one hand I can't believe it's been two months since I last posted, on the other hand it feels like one year and not just two months.

I've tried to keep up with your blogs as much as I could, even if I rarely (very rarely) had the time to comment or drop a line and I know I have been quite an absent friend... But I'm back, even if quite tired and hopefully the month of July will be a bit easier (there's plenty to do anyway, more than "normally", but compared to how it's been, it does seem a breeze!). I managed to sew a skirt almost a month ago and two easy knit dresses this past week but couldn't bring myself to take photos or blog about it. I guess I just needed to take it easy and come back to the sewing world step by step :)

But it felt so good to have a sign or a small line from some of you, thank you for writing me, thank you for worrying about me! Thank you, Melissa, Designdreamer, Val, Isabelle, Dinah, another Melissa (who doesn't have a blog), Robin Denning, Carolyn, Winnifred from PR. Please forgive me for not having the time to give a reply, however your messages meant a lot to me. Hope I didn't forget anyone who wrote me... Which reminds me, it has come to my attention that during the last 6 or 7 months, there's been lots of problems with our email server (changing the server, changing software etc) and friends tell me that they sent me messages I never got or I know I sent them messages but they didn't get them. So, if you sent me an email and never got a reply, please forward it to me again, because I never got it!

I'll come back with photos. Promise :) It feels good to be back already.

Hopefully not Oscar-like

2008-05-07T02:54:00.000-07:00

I've been away for ten days - Orthodox Easter and then the 1 May holidays. 2 May was the birthday of my grandmother, who turned 80 and we went to see her and tried to make her feel special and spoiled.

When back, the first thing I did was check the Timmel page, to see if the votes were counted. Surprise! Julie said the votes were counted indeed but she won't post the results until Monday (5 May morning). However she did email the five winners to let them know about their prizes. I checked my email... nothing. So I thought I didn't even make it among the top five. I was sad and kind of disappointed but then I came to terms with it because I looked at what I made for the contest and was quite pleased with it - which doesn't happen so often.

And then... the shock! The votes were posted on Monday morning (in Canada, it was evening here) and I found that I have got the first prize! I nearly died and fainted :) It was the biggest happiest shock ever.

Check out the Timmel SWAP page, if you haven't by now. There are great-great wardrobes in there and I don't speak only about the winners. There are at least two wardrobes that I liked very much and aren't among the winners.

I wanted to write about something for a long time but haven't got the time before going away for holidays. It feels kind of stupid and pretentious to write it now because I hate Oscar-like speeches, but please bear with me. I hope you know by now that all that I write comes truly from the heart. And this is especially true for the following.

You have been giving me such heartfelt appreciation during the past year. Every one of your comments and every new person coming to my blog or delurking makes me so happy. After I post something, I check my blog every 5 minutes to see what you think and what you say :) And every word means something for me, even if unhappily, I don't always have the time to thank you for that.

So a big thank you and a big, warm virtual hug for all of you. Your feedback encourages me and pushes me forward and I feel that it is also thanks to this that I have evolved so much during the past year. YOU make me want to be better. YOU make me strive to do more.

But this post is also about giving special thanks to a few persons that have stood by me along this SWAP and whose words and encouragement meant a huge deal:

My beautiful friend Marji - Marji, your warmth, straight-forwardness, sense of humour, great sense of style and I could go on like that for a while... You will always be somebody special for me.
Carolyn - you can't imagine what a great feeling I had whenever I saw your "just checking with you" messages in my inbox. And you know very well that your email when I really felt like giving up encouraged me and pushed me forward.
Lisa Laree - your "you can do it, keep sewing" posts on the SWAP thread and at my blog brought a big-big smile to my face. I felt instantly energized and optimistic.
Cherie - You wrote me your first very nice supportive message when I was participating in the PR wardrobe contest last year and since then, I constantly felt your presence through your emails and your comments at my blog. Your confidence in my talent gave me confidence in my talent and made me feel I could make a difference.

And last but not the least... Julie, the organizer of the SWAP contest. Besides being such a great host for this contest, besides putting a lot of heart, a lot of time, effort and money in it. She and the first SWAP I was in last year catalyzed my evolution. Because of Julie and her 2007 SWAP I started a sewing blog. And starting this blog, as I've tried to explain above, meant a great leap for me so I feel I owe Julie a LOT without her even knowing it probably.

I usually am really good with words (it is part of my job too ha ha) but when I am very emotional, I don't seem to find the adequate words to describe what I want to say. I am quite an intense and warm person (my Latin temperament partly accounts for that) and intense feelings are hard to render. I hope however that even with modest words, I managed to make you feel, you all and not just the five above, my love and my gratitude.
Thank you.

People, this is literature

2008-05-07T00:39:00.000-07:00

Marji tagged me for a literary meme. This is how it goes:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Turn to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you.

The book I've been reading is in Romanian and I'm going to do my best to translate... It is Beauty and Sadness, by Yasunari Kawabata (one of my favorite writers ever). And here's the quote:

"... You do know who Sanetaka was, don't you?
- A nobleman, right?
- Everybody knows that!"

I tag Isabelle, Berry, Sigrid, Carolyn and Summerset.

Not Your Usual Basics - Final wardrobe

2008-04-21T08:05:00.001-07:00

Not your usual coat – pattern 115 from Burda World of Fashion no 11/2007 - described in this post (first garment in that post) and this review

Not your usual little black dress – Vogue 8280- described in this post and this review

Not your usual white shirt 1 (with black piping) – pattern 108 from Burda World of Fashion no 1/2008- described in this post and this review

Not your usual white shirt 2 – pattern 109 from Burda World of Fashion no 3/2008- described in this post

Not your usual pintuck shirt – Vogue 2813 Donna Karan (wardrobe pattern)- described in this post and this review

Not your usual wrap top – pattern 116 from Burda World of Fashion no 1/2008- described in this post and this review

Not your usual silk blouse – self-drafted using the instructions in Pattern Magic vol. 2 and the bodice sloper from Mrs. Stylebook - described in this post and this review

Not your usual A-line skirt - Vogue 2813 Donna Karan (wardrobe pattern)- described in this post and this review

Not your usual pencil skirt – pattern 122 from Burda World of Fashion no 12/2007- described in this post and this review

Not your usual jeans – copied after one of my RTW pairs - described in this post and this review

Not your usual black pants - Vogue 2813 Donna Karan (wardrobe pattern)- described in this post and this review

This year I really felt that there was a strong idea behind my SWAP. I recently discovered that I don’t have enough basics in my wardrobe and an initial list of things to sew started to form in my head. Then the idea went further and I decided to make my SWAP a wardrobe of basics… now, part of those basics are to be found in any book or list of things you should have and others, like not your usual pintuck shirt or not your usual silk blouse are my own idea of basics :)

I knew I wanted to sew a basic wardrobe but at the same time, I knew I wanted each item to be one that I would wear a lot if not to death, therefore it was important to add a personal touch to all the items. Hand embroidery on a skirt, pintuck embellishments on another, delicate handmade roses on a dress, piping and covered dotted buttons on another blouse… All this to make these items speak about me and to result in a wardrobe of not your usual basics. Or basics with a twist.

Last SWAP item

2008-04-21T07:12:00.001-07:00

A second "Not your usual white shirt"

This is pattern 109 from BWOF 03/2008. Thank God for Christina, who made this blouse - here's her beautiful version - and warned us all that the hem of the cap sleeve cuts into your arm. At her advice, I cut the sleeve on the bias and it is quite alright.

What I like about this blouse is the very trendy design, the feminine shape, its versatility (it can be worn both outside or tucked in, with jeans or a dressy skirt). Oh and the eyelet from Julie is absolutely gorgeous. I have enough left for another blouse and I am really happy about it.

In case you make this pattern, a word of warning: the bias-cut belt is seriously shorter than the bodice, therefore when you pin it on the top, it won't lie flat. Don't worry, this is how it should be. When you wear the blouse, the belt cups your bust in a great way. It's very flattering. And not tight at all.

The blouse lying flat.

No inside fancy views for this one. It's just cleanly serged and that's it.

I love this top and see a lot of tops like this in my near future - I have some pieces of beautiful flowery viscose chiffon that would look great for this pattern, and I'm thinking of using batiste or nylon sheer for an underlining - doing it the "Hong Kong" way :) of course. See here what I mean if you're at my blog for the first time.

SWAP item #10

2008-04-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

OK it's been more than a week since I've finished the SWAP but haven't blogged about it. I didn't have the time to take pictures until yesterday and to write a short text until right now. I sent them to Julie and now I'm trying to catch up a bit with my own blog.

I felt like this year's SWAP was cursed for me. Work was busier and more stressful these last months than ever, leaving me very little time to sew. I can't recall a time like that for me in the past 10 years! One week before the end of the SWAP, I had the 10th item half-done and I felt really burned out. I wanted to give up, really, I wanted all the stress to go away. Luckily, I've received encouragement (there will be a separate post on this) and I decided to go on. I said to myself: OK, I have a week, I will take my time to finish this blouse and my final item will be a blouse that I've sewn in January (see it in this post, scroll to the end). It's black and white, it goes with everything else, that's it! And then, on Tuesday night - that Friday was the deadline to end the SWAP - it suddenly dawns on me and I nearly had a panic attack! I hadn't use the fabric I bought from Julie and that was a requirement for the contest! Awful! So I had to gather all my strength and make a final blouse from the beautiful eyelet that I bought from Julie. I took that Tuesday off (I had a very bad cold anyway, my sewing table was filled with aspirin and paper handkerchiefs) and I cut and sewn a blouse...

To make things short, I will introduce you to my SWAP item #10 in this post, there will be a separate post on SWAP item #11 and another one presenting the composite photo and some outfits.

Not your usual silk blouse (sorry, I ran out of inspiration for titles :), but then in my book a silk blouse has become a basic, a must-have)

This blouse is made out of a very beautiful silk, with a texture, you'll see that in a close-up further below. This silk was part of my second price in the PR Wardrobe Contest 2007 and it comes from Textilestudiopatterns.

The pattern is self-drafted, using one of the models in Pattern Magic volume 2 - see here some pictures included in the book. I've used a Mrs. Stylebook sloper to draft the blouse and I was happy to find scans of the sloper, for download on Twistedangel's Studio blog - go here for the sloper in bust sizes 77-89 in cm (approx 30-35 in inches) and here for bust sizes 89-104 cm (35-41 in inches).

Speaking of the sloper, I made a muslin and here are my findings: the Japanese are very petite, the bodice was a bit short. The armhole length was OK, but you should add a bit (I've added about 6 mm - approx 1/4") either between armhole and waist, or simply at the waist seam (that's what I did). The sloper runs a bit large, I tried size 83 (although my bust is 84) and I finally went down a size and used 80 which was fine.

I drafted a short sleeve using the instruction for another blouse from Pattern Magic (my blouse was sleeveless) and I added the "peplum" (I guess it's not exactly a peplum but I really can't recall the appropriate word) from Simplicity 4047.

Here's my pattern (without the peplum part):

The front part extends into the back, forming a yoke. That yoke also forms a fold at the neck that gives that folding effect in the front. It's all folding!

See the front of the blouse lying flat and how the fold is formed at the back neck, extending into diagonal folds in the front.

The bust dart being rotated at the center front, this blouse must have a center front seam. I didn't want such a seam, nor did I want the blouse to button at front. Therefore I made button loops out of the silk and simulated a fake button closure, by covering buttons in silk. See a close-up below (you can also see the special texture of the fabric).

The blouse has French seams, the armholes, zipper opening (invisible zipper on the left side) and hem are bound in silk charmeuse.

Front of the blouse wrong side out

Back of the blouse wrong side out (see how it is unfolded in this photo, in the photo showing the blouse lying flat, the fold at the back neck covers my label).

Close-up of binding and French seams.

I love this blouse although I think this kind of pattern might be better in a stiffer fabric (I'm planning to starch that back part that folds anyway). Pattern Magic is an amazing book, it got me hooked immediately. Adding the peplum to the blouse and making it in silk gave it a vintage feel in my opinion. And I love that. You'll see in my SWAP post that this blouse, tucked inside my high waist pants gives a very 40s feeling.

Rose tutorial

2008-04-02T07:03:00.001-07:00

Before showing you how I made the roses, I'd like to thank you all for your comments and appreciation. They did a lot for my morale, especially since when I feel tired, I tend to feel a bit down too. So thank you, my love goes to all of you!

Now, to answer some comments... Melissa, I did insert a link to the nylon sheer on Elingeria, it is in the underlining post, just at the beginning when I'm talking about Powerdry and nylon sheer.

Leslie, I think you're new to my blog (sorry if I'm mistaken) therefore welcome! You're perfectly right, point 3) in the underlining tutorial should read "right sides together" not "wrong sides together". Thank you for bringing that to my attention, it is now corrected.

Vicki, this underlining method supposes that you fitted the pattern first. You can cut larger seam allowances on the fashion fabric and underlining, but you cannot (or it supposes ripping most of your work off) adjust the darts. I'm lucky to have an average figure and patterns usually fit me more or less right out of the envelope. I only do a petite alteration and I'm fine. For this particular pattern however, there is a reason why there are wider seam allowances. I usually cut a size 6 in Big 4 patterns and many times I thought that I could even cut a size 4. This pattern was the first to come in size 4 so stupid me, I challenged my luck and cut directly a 4 (I don't trace patterns, I cut them directly, I know I shouldn't....). The 4 was a wadder, it fitted me but it was too tight for my liking. Therefore on this dress, I cut wider seam allowances to make sure I'm ok. I should indeed buy a new camera pretty soon but it hasn't been top priority for two reasons: 1) I'm spending a lot on sewing books, notions, gadgets, fabrics etc; 2) when I take detail pictures, those are really ok, only pictures of myself wearing the garment, taken with the self-timer are blurry.

And now, this is how I made the roses. First of all , it's not an original idea, I had a rose like that on a hair clip. I just unglued it and took it apart, copied the pattern and tried to figure out how it was made.

Download the rose pattern here. You'll see that there are two pieces, A and B, to be cut both from organza and silk or satin, on fold and on the bias. There is a third piece that I forgot to include in the pattern: piece C (for the ruffle) to be cut on grain, only in organza, it is a long strip, 6 cm wide ( approx 2 1/8") and 40 cm long (approx. 15 1/3"). I'm now looking at my pattern and am not sure if the foldline is clear, therefore the fold is the longer side of the trapeze on piece A and the longer side of the triangle on piece B.

For one rose: Cut piece A one time in organza and one time in silk. Cut piece B four times in organza and four times in silk. Cut piece C one time in organza.

Now, take the two pieces A (in organza and in silk), fold them and press. Don't press too much, you don't want a very crisp, dead fold. Put the two pieces together, the silk one on top of the organza one. Fold both corners and press like in the photo below:

Starting from one of the folded corners, roll the bud (piece A is the bud of the rose, pieces B are the petals) around itself until you're satisfied with the shape:

Tie a piece of thread around the bottom of the bud, to secure the shape:

Trim if needed, apply a bit of Fraycheck.

Now for the petals: again, fold all the pieces on the fold line and press in place. Put one piece in organza and one in silk together, with the silk on top.

Thread your needle and sew running stitches through one of the small sides of the first double (organza and silk) triangle. When you reach the top (peak?) of the triangle, place the second triangle on the first, with the right corner of the second triangle overlapping on the top of the first triangle. Continue with running stitches until you sewed together all the triangles. Hope the picture below speaks for itself, I'm not sure that my explanations are very clear.

Once you're finished, pulled the running/gathering stitches and form the shape of the rose around the bud, by wrapping the petals sewn and gathered together around the bud:

Gather more or less, as you wish. Once you're satisfied with the shape obtained, secure it in place at the bottom of the rose, with several hand stitches.

Fold piece C lengthwise and press in place. Run gathering stitches through one of the lengths. Gather forming a ruffle. Be careful, the ruffle is not a full circle, it is only a part of a circle, you need to leave clear the part where the two roses join, as below:

Glue a rose on each ruffle.

Glue the two roses on a piece of velvet ribbon for a belt or a choker. Sew them on a headband. Glue them on a hair clip or get crazy and sew dozens of them on the corsage or hem of a dress. Sky is the limit :)

Not your usual little black dress

2008-04-02T05:50:00.001-07:00

Many beautiful dresses have been made using the Roland Mouret-inspired Vogue 8280 pattern. I won't mention any in particular, cause I'm afraid I might forget anyone and not do justice to them.

This is my interpretation of this pattern. I chose the sleeveless version, because I want to be able to dress it down too, by wearing a white t-shirt underneath or a black long-sleeve. This is one of the things that I absolutely love about basics: you can dress them up or down so easily and transform the respective item completely.

The fabric has tiny white dots, I think you can see them in some of the close-ups.

The entire dress is underlined with nylon sheer. The step-by-step tutorial can be found here.

Underlining the top parts was a bit more difficult and this is how I did it: the flange is overlapped with the front and I didn't want that much bulk. I therefore cut the respective part from the front piece, so I can simply sew together the flange and the front.

After sewing the darts on both the fashion fabric and the underlining, I assembled the flange and the front pieces, thus obtaining two finished front pieces: one in the fashion fabric and one in the underlining. I then assembled the shoulders, leaving the side seams opened.

The next step was sewing the side seams of the fashion fabric and underlining together, using the above-mentioned technique of underlining and Hong Kong seam finishing in one. Turned and pressed but not stitched in the ditch yet.

Wrong sides together, I joined the fashion fabric and underlining at the neckline and the armholes. I turned it right side out (you still have the waist seam open), understitched as far as possible. Gave the entire thing a good press and then I sewed in the ditch, finishing the Hong Kong at the side seams. Treating the fabric and the underlining as one, I sewn the back part and the front part at the side seams. To keep everything in place, I stitched in the ditch at the shoulder stitching, thus securing the fashion fabric to the underlining. Kind of hard to explain in "not your maternal language" :).

I added a satin polkadotted ribbon at the waist. It is not meant to be a waist stay, because the dress doesn't need one, but to cover nicely the serged seams. Plus I really love the mix of tiny-tiny dots with bigger dots. I've used the same ribbon to cover and finish the end of the zipper. The hem is bias-bound, as always.

The zipper is put in by hand, using a small backstitch and inserting a small black bead at each stitch - the technique of hand-picking a zipper using beads or not is described by Susan Khalje in this online extra from Threads.

And here's a close-up of the belt.

The two roses are made from white silk and black organza, cut on the bias, plus a black organza ruffle. They are then glued together on a piece of black velvet ribbon. A tutorial and pattern for the roses will follow either today or tomorrow.

Underlining and Hong Kong seam finishing in one

2008-04-02T04:01:00.000-07:00

I promised some time ago that the next time I'll be making an underlined garment, I'll take pictures and try to describe the process.

Recapping things said previously:

I'm very partial to underlining lately, I think I said it before on my blog, I like how the underlining moves with the fashion fabric, instead of having two separate garments joined at some seam, like in the case of lining. It is a subjective things, of course, but I'm going to use underlining instead of lining for most of my projects
Part of my great liking of underlinings is this gorgeous knit lining (nylon sheer, sold in many online stores as bra cup lining; my beautiful friend Marji also recommends using Powerdry - which I don't know but from what I read about it, it is marvelous because it keeps your skin dry when you're sweating) that I'm using - it is stretchy, thin, it does not alter significantly the drape of pants and anyway it improves it, and it has a silky side that feels absolutely luxurious against the skin. Plus it really minimizes the wrinkling which is very important, taking into account that I spend long working days sitting at a desk.
IMPORTANT: I buy this nylon sheer locally and none of the stores sells online. But by looking at pictures on the Elingeria website, I think this nylon sheer is what I use.

Technical details:

I've used this tip on PR for underlining and giving a Hong Kong finish to the seams at the same time. I'd like to explain a bit this method, insisting on the turn of cloth. This method has you cutting the underlining fabric with a supplementary seam allowance of 5/8 (aprox. 1.6 cm) . Therefore the fashion fabric has a 5/8 (1.6 cm) seam allowance and the underlining fabric 5/8 x 2 = 1 1/4 (aprox. 3.2 cm). You then join the fashion fabric wrong side to the underlining wrong side with a 1/4 seam allowance. I must stress that it is very important: 1) to be able to cut accurate seam allowances (I use my rotary cutter and its guide arm); 2) to be able to sew accurate 1/4 seams - use your 1/4 foot if you have one, your zipper foot (mine sews an exact 1/4 seam allowance if I align its edge to the fabric edge). I use my normal foot and a special setting on my machine which allows me to sew an 1/4 straight stitch seam. Now, from the supplementary 5/8 (1.6 cm) seam allowance, 1/4 is caught in the seam (0.6 cm), another 1/4 (0.6 cm) wraps over this 1/4 seam creating the Hong Kong finish and the remaining 1/8 (aprox. 0.3-0.4 cm) is for the turn of cloth. Now, if your fabric is especially thick or thin, you should increase/decrease the turn of cloth and the respective supplementary seam allowance of the underlining fabric. For a thick fabric, you'd cut more than 5/8 supplementary allowance, for a thin fabric, less.

My fabric for this project is a medium weight one, therefore I used 1" (approx. 2.5 cm) supplementary seam allowance on the underlining.

1) Cut your fashion fabric with "normal" seam allowances. Cut your underlining with another 1" seam allowances, or a bit less or a bit more (see above). I use my rotary cutter and its arm to cut accurate seam allowances. This is very important. See here the difference between the two pieces.

Warning: you only add the 1" supplement to vertical seams! The horizontal seams can be finished either using the method described by Shannon in this post, or by simply serging them, treating the fashion fabric and the underlining as one. Teaser pic... see how I serged the horizontal seams on my dress and then applied a ribbon, not to act as a waist stay (this dress doesn't need one), but just to make the seams look more beautiful.

2) Sew the darts in both the fashion fabric and the underlining. Most of the time I press the fashion fabric darts towards the center of the garment and the underlining darts in the opposite direction, to minimize bulk:

For my current project, there are quite large darts at the bust. I decided to slash and press open both the darts on the fashion fabric and on the underlining (only for the top part, the skirt, as you can see above, has the darts pressed in opposite directions):

3) Now, with the right sides together, sew all the vertical seams with a 1/4" (approx. 0.6 cm) seam allowance. I have an 1/4 foot now that makes this job easy. Before, I used my zigzag foot and adjusted the needle position or my zipper foot.

4) Open your seam allowances, then press them towards the underlining.

5) Wrap the underlining over the seam allowances, creating a Hong Kong finish.

6) Press in place and sew in the ditch. Ta-daaa, you're done!

Here's how it looks on the right side:

And the wrong side:

SWAP item #8

2008-04-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

My final item from my wardrobe pattern - Vogue 2813. I made the shirt from red silk twill.

I love the look of the high buttoned collar and the long cuffs. I think the shirt has a bit the look of a groom shirt and this is one of the things that made me think of heirloom embellishing. My problem is I don't know what "not your usual" is this... not your usual silk shirt? Please suggest anything if your brain feels more rested and creative than mine right now :)

So, I added a double pintuck with lace, sewn with my pintuck foot, a double needle and cording. See here a factsheet describing this technique. The pintuck and lace where thus placed as to camouflage the waist dart (you can see it in the pic where I show the wrong side of the shirt). After making this pintuck, the shirt looked like it needed something else, that unique pintuck looked a bit... isolated. Therefore I added two more corded pintucks. I knew that the shirt had plenty of ease around the chest and waist so I could afford to loose the bit that was taken into the pintucks.

And wrong side of the shirt - you can see the cording in the pintucks. You can also the finishing of the seams - not French this time, but baby seams (as described by Claire Shaeffer in High Fashion Secrets - see, buying all those books really pays off).

The hem is finished with store-bought satin bias (the same that I used on the hem of my not your usual A-line skirt).

Here's a close-up of the lace and the double button stand (loved this one, first time I try it).

And here's a pic of the collar, I find it really clever: the upper collar is in one piece and cut on the bias, the under collar is made of a collar and a stand and is cut on the grain. Thus, you do have a stand incorporated (and you can see the collar standing quite high on the neck) but you also have the advantage of the bias upper collar wrapping so nicely over the stand.

There's a buttonhole in the under collar (and my advice, if you make this pattern, is to read the instructions very carefully; otherwise, you risk messing up both the collar - the buttonhole must be sewn very early in the process, and the double button stand). The collar can be worn both buttoned or unbuttoned, but I prefer it buttoned. Likewise, the cuffs can be worn as in the picture or turned and looking like French cuffs.

The placket of the shirt is described in this post.

That's it for now. Please give me ideas about naming this shirt. And stay put. I have a little black dress to show you, together with two more small tutorials.

I'm back...

2008-04-01T01:59:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you missed me or not and sorry to be absent so long. I've got a huuuuge amount of work lately, worked late and used my time rather for sewing than blogging. Plus, the NATO summit starts tomorrow in Bucharest (presidents from all over the world arrive today) and the city is a mess because of that: security restrictions, many institutions closed and an awful-awful traffic.

Thanks to all of you who commented meanwhile and sorry for not being able to answer. A special thank you goes to Nedra who delurked and noticed a very important error in my placket tutorial: the placket should be 1" wide, not 1/2! (the imperial system is sometimes a handful for me) . Thank you, Nedra, now it's corrected.

Dawn, thank you so much for tagging me and leaving such a nice comment at my blog. I promise I'll try to name 7 random things about me as soon as possible. Please bear with me!

I've finished meanwhile three SWAP items and I'm going to show them to you, each one in a different post (so it's easier to link to them in my final SWAP review) . I would also like to apologize for the not so good quality of some of the photos (in this post and the next ones). My camera is quite old and I don't know why, some of the pictures took with the self-timer are a bit blurry or too dark. I know I should try taking them in natural light, but I only have natural light during weekends in my home and weekends are already filled with many other activities.

SWAP item #7 - Not your usual A-line skirt

This is the skirt from my wardrobe pattern, Vogue 2813 - a Donna Karan pattern. It is a very interesting pattern, as you will be able to see below. The front has some very interesting details, (see the drawing), there is a slotted seam effect. Each front piece has facings that are sewn and turned under, then front pieces are joined by means of an underlay and topstitched, once at 1/4" (approx 6mm) and the second time at 3/8" (approx 1 cm). The back darts are treated the same: cut open, faced and then joined with an underlay and topstitched. Well, it is a bit hard to explain, hope the drawing and the pictures will speak for themselves. If not, tell me and I'll take a photo of the pattern pieces.

Side view of the skirt:

View of the front slot seams:

Back (the line of the front seams continue in the back):

Back darts

The skirt doesn't have a lining. I chose to underline it using the same nylon sheer that I usually use for that. I laid the nylon sheer over the assembled skirt (yet unclosed at the center back seam) and carefully traced the shape of the skirt on the lining, then pinched the excess with pins, shaping darts.

Tip: If you want to sew an easy hem on a flared skirt and you are willing to bind the hem, here's what I did: I used bought bias tape and when sewing it to the skirt's hem, I stretched it as much as I could. Doing this, the excess flare in the hem was eased into the bias. After pressing, you get a nice binding and when sewing the hem, you'll discover there's no more fabric to ease in, gather, make little darts etc.

I used a decorative stitching on the binding. The same stitching is repeated on the waist facing.

The zipper is finished with satin ribbon (I don't remember right now if I read about this in Roberta Carr or Claire Shaeffer).

Not your usual shirt placket :))

2008-03-19T03:22:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm working on my second blouse (and third top) for my Timmel SWAP entry, which is the shirt from my wardrobe pattern, Vogue 2813, made in red silk twill (necktie silk).

The shirt is far from being finished (I added a bit of embellishment to the front, and I'm making French seams again) but I'd like to show you how I treated the shirt placket.

Regarding the placket, I know that some bloggers find it difficult, therefore I'd like to point you to two extremely useful tutorial (at least they were for me):

Kathleen Fasanella's tutorial: part 1, part 2, part 3 (I've tried this tutorial and loved it, it works great and it is easy)
Rusty Bobbin's tutorial for a shirt placket with continuous lap: I haven't tried this one but am looking forward to trying it. It looks easy, logical and the result is beautiful. Her method inspired me for the placket treatment that I'm showing today.
I'm waiting for David Coffin's Shirtmaking. It's going to be here soon. As a parenthesis, I bought a few books lately and am currently reading them (Claire Shaffer's Couture Sewing Techniques and High Fashion Sewing Secrets from the World's Best Designers: A Step-By-Step Guide to Sewing Stylish Seams, Buttonholes, Pockets, Collars, Hems, And More, Roberta Carr's Couture: The Art of Fine Sewing and Tailoring: The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket). When I buy a sewing book, I read it page by page. I then re-read it many times, by sections, according to the project I'm working on and the information that I need.

Not your usual shirt placket

First, cut a piece for the placket. This needs to be cut on grain, the width is 1' (approx. 2.5 cm), the length is twice the length of your placket slit plus 1' (approx 2.5 cm).

On the wrong side of the sleeve, draw around the slit a rectangle, adding 1/4' on each side of the slit and a supplementary 1/4" at the top, where the slit stops (see my picture below; look at the indigo lines, drawn with my vanishing marker. The white chalk marks are the original pattern marks. And sorry for the wonky lines, they are actually straight, but I moved the silk by mistake before taking the picture).

Now cut your slit open with really sharp scissors. You cut a straight line which is the length of your original slit (without the additional 1/4" at the top) and then, at the top, you cut diagonally to the top of the rectangle, like you would for a welt pocket.

You can see the cut below. I spread the sleeve so you can see accurately how I cut.

Now, take your placket and fold 1/4" on one long edge. Press.

Put the placket's right side (the unfolded edge aligned to the slit) to the sleeve's wrong side , and sew continuously: one side of the slit, the cut triangle, the other side of the slit. See the result below (the circle points you to the sewn triangle).

Press your seam allowances towards your placket. It should look like this:

Now fold the placket and wrap it over your seam allowances, bringing the pre-folded edge to the right side of the sleeve (make sure you cover the stitching).

Press. At the top of the rectangle, form a peak with your finger and press in place. It should look like this:

Now you're ready to sew. Edgestitch (an edgestitching foot helps) the placket and you're done.

Finished placket

Wrong side of the placket

SWAP item #6 - Not your usual white shirt

2008-03-12T04:14:00.000-07:00

Not your usual white shirt - Burda WOF 01/2008, blouse 108

Untucked (I prefer it tucked in)

Blouse lying flat

I had another shirt in mind for this fabric but Christina's blouse (which I liked very much) and a blouse worn in Dirt 113 - Ite missa est by Laura Allen (cream silk with black piping) "fermented" in my brain and led to the present entry.

The fabric is white silk (I don't know what kind of silk, but here's a close-up of the fabric):

I did a petite alteration to this blouse. If you speak or understand German, here's a link to a pdf file explaining petite alterations on the Burdafashion website. Actually even if you don't speak German (I don't) I think the drawing speak for themselves. Also, here's a link to a thesis for a master degree. It is titled "Petite women: fit and body shape analysis" and it provides a lot of details concerning petite alteration. It's a very interesting paper, if you have the time for it.

I decided to use French seams for this blouse - I like this type of clean finish plus my silk is a tiny bit sheer.

The armhole seams are finished with satin bias binding. The same satin bias was used to finish the hem.

I've used Dawn's tip for perfect darts (I've been using it all the time since she posted it) - so logical and clever to position your fabric to have a straight line from the needle, to the dart tip, to your nose!

And I've used Sigrid's tutorial for the collar with stand. Great tutorial, the result was a very nice collar.

I wanted clean lines of piping and didn't want any topstitching (either white or black) near my piping, therefore the sleeve cuffs and the button stands are finished by hand on the inside, with the tiniest slipstitch possible and silk thread.

Close-up of piping

To add piping to the button stand, I cut two separate pieces for each stand instead of cutting the stand on fold. I've also made oblique buttonholes.

I've used black satin piping (store-bought) and for the buttons and tie, a piece of polkadotted satin that I used for pipings and bindings (see my toreador pants)

This was a time-consuming project, considering the French seams and the hand finishings. But the most time-consuming and annoying task was to cover the buttons in satin. The buttons were metal and the satin was sooooo slippery (starching didn't help too much). It was a pain to center the white dot on the buttons. I used temporary adhesive spray and it helped a bit.

I didn't care for the bow at the neck (showed in the Burda magazine) so I'd rather wear my tie straight, without any bow. However, a word of warning for those wanting the bow: my tie is already 7 cm longer than the Burda tie and it would still be a bit too short for a bow. So if you want a bow, you should add about 10-15 cm to the tie.

SWAP item #5 - Not your usual coat

2008-03-04T03:16:00.000-08:00

More than two weeks have gone since my last post. My working life has been so busy and stressful that I ended up having some health problems last week, that got me a bit worried. I'm quite alright now, taking some pills, lots of vitamins + minerals. A discussion with my boss concerning my workload and stress levels also helped so I do hope that the next weeks will be a bit easier on me.

I've worked on this coat on and off for two weeks. The pattern is BWOF 11/2007, coat 115.
You can see the jacket version of this pattern made by Paco Peralta here.

(I was in a playful mood last night when I took the pictures and I decided to imitate Jackie O :) )

Why is this not your usual coat?

First, because of the print. The red/white/black boucle from TimmelFabrics gives a different touch to this coat. It looks more cheerful and less formal to me, plus it ties in beautifully with my SWAP wardrobe. I only have coats in solids but this coat made me think about other prints (well, plaids, houndstooth) for coats.
Second - it is all in the lining. The lining is a wool jersey, very soft and thin (I've read about Coco Chanel using wool jersey in her jackets). I think I've said it many times lately that I've become very partial to underlinings. After making my Chanel style jacket, I was absolutely thrilled with the softness and lightness of this jacket (after all, the Chanel technique of quilting the lining to the jacket is closer to an underlining than an actual lining), with the way the lining moves together with the garment, and not as a separate body joined at some seams. Read here an online Threads article by Sandra Betzina about lining versus underlining.
I therefore decided to use for this coat a technique described by Shannon Gifford - click here for the Threads online article. She calls this technique "Line and Underline in one step", but I've also saw it called "flatlining". I won't insist on the technique as it is clearly described in the article but feel free to ask if you have any questions. I did however some things differently: 1) I didn't cut the seam allowances to 1/4 inches (approx 4 mm), as I'm using boucle and this ravels so easy that you don't want to take that chance; 2) In my opinion, topstitching the seam is not absolutely necessary. After pressing the seams well, I could have left them like that. I decided to topstitch because I thought a supplementary stitch will help even more in stabilising the boucle and preventing raveling and because the boucle is forgiving and all the stitching is "burried" in it any way. 3) I wanted to get closer to the Chanel technique, therefore after lining the entire coat, I quilted the lining to the coat. Yes, I get crazy ideas like that some times, must be all the work stress :) This time I spaced my quilting lines at 2 inches apart (approx 5 cm) instead of 1 inch (the way I did in my Chanel style jacket) and I've used again silk thread and my walking foot. And lots of pins. There are three rows of quilting on each panel, this makes for 24 long lines of quilting. It was difficult and time consuming because this time I was working with the entire coat sewn, not with one pattern piece at the time and my sewing table being quite small, my pins kept hitting other things on the table and coming loose and the coat was hanging all over the place. Well, I managed and to my surprise, the wool jersey burries the stitching even better than the boucle!
What was different from making a Chanel style jacket: I taped the roll line, I taped the center fronts and the neckline, I staystitched and taped the armhole, I've interfaced the hem, extending the interfacing past the hemline. I didn't use a chain in the hem but still I needed something to weigh down this very light and drapey coat. Therefore I borrowed another technique of Paco and inserted a curtain weight cord in the hem - see here the photo on Paco's blog of the cord and the way it is inserted.
The facings, the hem and the sleeve seams are bound with satin bias tape. The facings are slipstitched by hand to the coat.

Changes made to the pattern: I ditched the pockets (you cannot have in-seam pockets with this underlining technique). I first thought of making patch pockets but I didn't think they would go very well with this design so I gave up pockets altogether. I don't use coat pockets very much anyway, they go out of shape so easy. I also ditched the zippers inserted in the sleeve seam.

The result is an incredibly light coat, feels lighter than a cardigan and is very good for spring. Despite the lightness, is surprisingly warm, due to the wool jersey used in the underlining.

Timmel SWAP items #3 and #4

2008-02-12T03:27:00.001-08:00

The top that I'm going to show you was done a week ago but I was under a very tight deadline with a boring and loathsome report and didn't take pictures. The jeans were done over the weekend.

So, without further ado, item #3 - NYU (not your usual) wrap top: Burda 01/2008, top 116

It's a blurry picture, sorry for that. I say it is not your usual wrap top because the panel in front that simulates a camisole is cut out of a black cotton/lycra, the rest is cut in a black and white knit and, to tie it on with my general black-white-red theme and in order to avoid too much black, I bound the entire neckline and the sleeves with red cotton lycra. I took a picture to show-you a close-up of the binding but I don't know how, the picture simply disappeared from my camera! How is that possible?

The ties were a bit too short (wished I read the reviews on PR and found out about that before I cut it... ) so I'm tying them in the back not the front. Also, I wish I didn't finish this top before Debbie Cook finished and published hers - look what an ingenious idea for the ties! This is great, Debbie, I'll surely use this for the next top.

And here is a better picture of the top. For a more extravagant look, it can be tied in front, with a bow.

Even with the application of binding, it still is a quick and rewarding project. But... it does require quite a lot of fabric, I had to be really creative about it as the black and white knit was a remnant.

Item #4 - NYU jeans

These are copied from my favorite RTW jeans. I had them for more than 4 years and I wore them to death. The most flattering jeans I've ever had. They will soon be unwearable and I plan to make at least two more pairs this year. I decided to make the first pair in black, with tone-on-tone topstitching and embellishment (see below for embellishment) because I wanted a dressier pair of jeans, one that I could wear with anything, including my Chanel-style jacket.

Why are these not your usual jeans?
First, because of the fabric - it is denim but made out of linen, viscose and elasthane. Looks pretty dressy and has a bit of sheen.
Second, because of the back pocket treatment. Stole an idea from another pair of RTW jeans and instead of applying patch pockets, I made inseam pockets (in the seam joining the back yoke to the back jean), with a pocket bag in the shape of a jean pocket and with only partial topstitching on the right side - take a look, pictures speak better than my English :)

The wrong side of the jeans, showing the pocket bag

And third, because of the embellishment done on the pocket, using heirloom/hemstitch techniques by machine. I found this great resource, containing a wealth of fact sheets (pdf format), I've printed almost all of them and made a separate file. They are so great that last night, when I finally got my copy of Handsewn by Machine (ordered at the end of December) I found I already knew almost everything in the book, thanks to these fact sheets. Here is a link to the techniques (you'll get a list of files not your usual website, but the name of those files is pretty relevant). And here is the link to the fact sheet that I've used - it is a heirloom hemstitched applique.

What I did: starch well (I finally found a good spray starch) a piece of organza, hooped it (if I don't hoop it, I get a lot of channeling), drew with chalk a rectangle that would fit into my machine (that rectangle was enough to cut out two leaves - I've used the leaf in the fact sheet as a template) and covered the rectangle with a Venetian hemstitch (sorry, but I cannot find a drawing of this hemstitch), using silk thread in the needle. The first rectangle took forever (you need some practice) but the second rectangle took only 30 minutes. Oh, and I couldn't find a wing needle here (I absolutely must find an online supply for wing needles and white silk thread, they are impossible to find here) and I used the largest needle that I have - size 11o. Worked just fine - the idea is to have a needle large enough to leave holes in the fabric.

Here is the unhooped rectangle, with the stitching done:

I then drew the leaf shapes on the rectangle, stitched around them with a straight stitch and cut them out, just outside the stitched outline. Used a spray adhesive (another thing that I must find online) to attach a piece of wash-away stabilizer to the back of the pocket. I then appliqued the leaves to the pocket. It is a corded applique and for that I've used my three hole cording foot, a strand of black pearl cotton and a satin stitch (2.5 mm width, 0.4 mm length) to stitch the leaf to the jeans. I then outlined the entire applique with a pinstitch. Isn't it beautiful?

And a close up of the front pocket. I used again snaps instead of rivets - can't find decent jean rivets here, but these snaps work just great.

My famous blue raincoat :)

2008-02-11T06:23:00.000-08:00

(title of a Leonard Cohen song that I love)

Now... some girls have a Birkin bag. Some girls have a Kelly.
But I am the happy owner of a Tany trenchcoat!

When I saw this picture, I thought immediately of the midnight blue taffeta that Tany sent me a while ago. This is one of the reasons for which the trenchcoat is named after her. The other reasons... do I really need to mention them? Besides being an inspiration for many of us, she is such a warm, supportive, lovely person.

Burda WOF 02/2008, 117 Coat:

I loved the "runway" look of this trench the minute I saw it. The volume in the skirt (a big trend for this spring/summer) , the shirring in the waist, the lapels with a collar with stand... all these details attracted me. The 20 rows of topstitching on the hem portion of the coat give the effect of a petticoat underneath. If you don't want that much volume on you, you could easily skip the topstitching on the hem. Without it, the coat drapes at the hem instead of standing away from the body and it looks beautiful that way too.

Speaking of topstitching, this was a very time-consuming project (I again forgot to keep track of the time I spent on this project):

There are 8 rows of shirring in the waist. I used a tubular elastic for that, encased in a zigzag stitch (4 mm width, 3 mm length). My pearl and piping foot helped a lot, the elastic fitted in it perfectly
There are 20 rows of topstitching on the hem (spaced at 1 cm apart/approx 3/8 inch), plus 10 rows of topstitching on each sleeve cuff. I used a silk thread for the topstitching.

To make my life even more beautiful, I decided to add another 10 rows of topstitching on the collar and 10 rows on each lapel. It did seem like this project will never ed (sooo much topstitching) but it was worthwhile to add topstitching on the collar and lapels. Not only it ties in with the hem and cuffs, but it gives better shape and structure to the collar and lapels. If you look in the Burda pictures, you can see that their lapels are a bit floppy.

This coat is unlined. At first I wanted to line it with a beautiful blue satin I had in my stash, but I realized that with all the shirring at the waist, lining the coat could mean some bulkier stiff gathers and I didn't want that on my petite frame. The coat being unlined, I used a Hong Kong finish on the seams (cutting bias strips from the blue satin) and I bound the pockets.

The trench is fastened with snaps, handsewn. I eliminated the first two pairs/rows of snaps because I knew I would never wear my coat buttoned to the collar, I want it to have lapels. But I did add another three pairs of snaps after the last one (the Burda snaps stop at mid-thigh) because guess what... This trench can easily be worn as a dress as well! I wouldn't want to show that much thigh :), so more snaps were in order.
I've added another snap at the waist, at mid-way between the bust row of snaps and the second one, which is a bit below waist. If you look at the enlarged Burda pictures, there is some strange gaping at the waist. I got the same gaping, it is due to the snaps placing, but the additional snap at the waist solved this problem.

Not MIA

2008-02-11T03:18:00.001-08:00

Have you seen the Spring and Summer 2008 Fashion trends report on the Fashion-Era website? If not, go here. And go here for the Wardrobe planning tips for 2008.

I've just finished a project (non-SWAP related) that really got me hooked and I hope to take pictures tonight.

I'll also take pictures of two SWAP garments and post them. Tomorrow hopefully.

How did I manage so far without underlined pants?

2008-01-29T00:33:00.001-08:00

So I've managed to get back (partially, because I'm not sewing with my usual passion) my sewing mojo and finished the first two items of my Timmel SWAP the past weekend. If you remember, my provisional SWAP title is "Not Your Usual Basics" and my first two items are NYU (not your usual) black pants and NYU pencil skirt.

The NYU pants are part of my wardrobe pattern (a requirement for the Timmel SWAP is to make at least three different items from the same wardrobe pattern) - Vogue 2813, an out of print Donna Karan. I don't like pants that sit at my natural waist (I don't like how they look on me) but I do like these pants - they have a really high waist and I call them my "toreador" pants. It is precisely this high waist that made me call them "not your usual black pants". The pants look great with a blouse tucked in or over them (see at the end of the post for a white Burda shirt worn over them) and I finally get to wear my older shorter T-shirts without flashing my panties every time I bend to pick up something :)

Fabric: gorgeous wool with a bit of elasthane.

I must say I find that the pants look better in real life than in photos. Worn them in the office yesterday and at least 6 people asked if I lost weight recently. Believe me, I haven't lost one gram!

Back of pants

Now, regarding the title of this post, I have two things to say: I'm very partial to underlining lately, I think I said it before on my blog, I like how the underlining moves with the fashion fabric, instead of having two separate garments joined at some seam, like in the case of lining. It is a subjective things, of course, but I'm going to use underlining instead of lining for most of my projects. Even for jackets, I'm thinking of using the flatlining method - described by Shannon Gifford in a recent Threads article.

Part of my great liking of underlinings is this gorgeous knit lining that I'm using - it is stretchy, thin, it does not alter significantly the drape of pants and anyway it improves it, and it has a silky side that feels absolutely luxurious against the skin. Plus it really minimizes the wrinkling which is very important, taking into account that I spend long working days sitting at a desk. The result: I cannot wear unlined pants anymore! :)

I've used this tip on PR for underlining and giving a Hong Kong finish to the seams at the same time. I'd like to explain a bit this method, insisting on the turn of cloth. This method has you cutting the underlining fabric with a supplementary seam allowance of 5/8 (aprox. 1.6 cm) . Therefore the fashion fabric has a 5/8 (1.6 cm) seam allowance and the underlining fabric 5/8 x 2 = 1 1/4 (aprox. 3.2 cm). You then join the fashion fabric wrong side to the underlining wrong side with a 1/4 seam allowance. I must stress that it is very important: 1) to be able to cut accurate seam allowances (I use my rotary cutter and its guide arm); 2) to be able to sew accurate 1/4 seams - use your 1/4 foot if you have one, your zipper foot (mine sews an exact 1/4 seam allowance if I align its edge to the fabric edge). I use my normal foot and a special setting on my machine which allows me to sew an 1/4 straight stitch seam. Now, from the supplementary 5/8 (1.6 cm) seam allowance, 1/4 is caught in the seam (0.6 cm), another 1/4 (0.6 cm) wraps over this 1/4 seam creating the Hong Kong finish and the remaining 1/8 (aprox. 0.3-0.4 cm) is for the turn of cloth. Now, if your fabric is especially thick or thin, you should increase/decrease the turn of cloth and the respective supplementary seam allowance of the underlining fabric. For a thick fabric, you'd cut more than 5/8 supplementary allowance, for a thin fabric, less.
See below the finished seam. I bound the hem with a band cut from the same knit lining, to go nicely with my Hong Kong seams.

The method works for vertical seams and I wasn't sure if I could use it on the center seam of the pants, therefore for those seams I used a method described by Shannon in this post. See the center seam below. The method described by Shannon (and coming from a Threads article I think) is a lot like Sandra Betzina's method, that I used for this pair of pants. I must say I like this one better than Sandra Betzina's, first because the underlining is cut with the same seam allowance as the fashion fabric and second because it has a 3/8 (approx. 1 cm) seam allowance instead of 5/8 (1.6 cm) which for me, looks better and cleaner. See it below.

I've used a self-made polkadotted bias binding for the facing (goes well with my SWAP colours - black, white and red and with my love for polka dots) . The same polkadotted satin was used to finish the end of the zipper. Perfect match with my label too :)

The waist facing is boned, I've inserted (see below the wrong side of the facing) 7 pieces of Rigilene boning, quite wide (almost 1 cm/3/8 inches, I think). After boning the waist of this skirt, I'm in love with this Rigilene boning. You don't feel it at all, because it is flexible and it molds to your body (it is sensitive to body heat). I wore this pants yesterday in the office and believe me, I forgot there was boning in my waist. Totally comfortable, no poking, no rigidness - but enough support not to have those horizontal strain wrinkles in the waist. The facing is also interfaced with a strong woven fusible (hope you can see it in the picture).

And now, my NYU pencil skirt - Burda WOF 12/2007, the skirt from the ensemble 123.

Not so usual, because the skirt is cut on the bias and also, because I've added a black-on-black handsewn embroidery near the hem.

Let me tell you, this pattern is gorgeous. The bias cut is form-fitting and curve-enhancing but at the same time there is enough ease over the hips to be comfortable and enough stretch at the hem to be able to walk (there is not slit in the back of this skirt).

The skirt is underlined with the same knit lining and using the same method described above of underlining and giving a Hong Kong finish at the same time.

I bound the hem too at the beginning but then I found that binding made it too tight for walking therefore I ripped it and serged the hem. The underlining is cut on grain and not on the bias, because the knit lining is stretchy enough. This eliminated all the problems you normally have with bias-cut garments and made it beautifully stable. See below that there is no rippling in the side seams and no bubble at the end of the invisible zipper. And that with no special effort, simply due to the underlining cut on grain.

This skirt made me change my mind about my most-flattering skirt length. This year I preferred to hem my skirts just to cover my knee. Now I find that hemming them at mid-knee is much more flattering. Maybe because the skirt stops at one of my thinner parts instead of ending at a wider part.

And last, a blouse made two weeks ago (before losing my mojo) which will probably be a SWAP extra. This is blouse 120, from Burda WOF 01/2008.

Fabric: high quality stretch poplin, black cotton lace

Sorry for the blurry picture... Blouse over the NYU pants

Blouse tucked in my NYU skirt

There is a collar underneath the collar with the lace. It has a bit of a different shape and it acts like a support for this decorative collar. Burda actually has you put two of these decorative collars, not sewn to each other, just two pieces of fabric, one with lace and the other one with a serger finished edge. My fabric having quite some body, I preferred to make only one "floating" collar instead of too. If I make this blouse again, I might ditch the support collar underneath altogether and only put the two "floating" collars.

I've used black lace instead of white. I love the contrast...

Also, I didn't have the special closures required by Burda, therefore made loops out of fabric bias strips and used some mother of pearl vintage buttons for the closure.

The inside of the blouse is secured with two ties, one caught in the side seam, the other one attached to the left front.

My first two bras

2008-01-09T01:08:00.000-08:00

Sigrid was my inspiration for trying my hand again (I did it some time ago with good results, but not very satisfying) at bra sewing. She was also very nice and sent me some starting notions for bra sewing. The white padding that you'll see in the striped bra comes from her. Thank you, Sigrid!

Turquoise and brown bra, from elingeria kit.

Close-up of lace overlay.

Black and white bra, made as a SWAP extra :)

Inside of the bra (you can see the padding). I chose nude padding for the turquoise lace and white padding for the black lace. That way, the lace is better showcased.

Close-up of the lace and the white padding underneath.

Matching panties

The pattern is Merckwaerdigh BHS10, from Elingeria.

Pattern Description:
The pattern includes: 1 sports bra, 2 bras without wires and 2 bras with wires and underbust band. One of the wired bras is padded.

Pattern Sizing:
(US sizes) 30 A up to 42 A; 28 B up to 40 B; 28 C up to 38 C; 28 D up to 36 D
In European sizes, 65A to 95A ; 60B to 90B; 60C to 85C; 60D to 80D

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes, with the changes made.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
The instructions are quite concise and they require previous experience in bra sewing. Most helpful to me was my previous reading on bra making. I found a wealth of information and tutorials on the web:

Sigrid's bra tutorial 1
Sigrid's bra tutorial 2
Sigrid's bra tutorial 3
Sigrid's bra tutorial 4
Bra making and FAQ
Threads - Bra Dilemma Solved
Sew News - copy your favorite bra
Crossing the channel - a very useful post on Beverly Johnson's bra making blog. Beverly Johnson is the author of the Bra-makers Manual. I've also ordered a classic bra pattern designed by her, but it's still in the mail.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I liked very much the three piece cup, with the third piece extending as a strap. I've also liked the the wider bra band on view A, with a curved

Fabric Used:
For the brown and turquoise bra, lingerie kit from elingeria.de containing microfibre, stretch lace and all the notions required except padding and underwire. For the black and white set, cotton/lycra, guipure lace etc from my stash.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:
First of all, it's a question of size. I"m a 70 B in RTW so logically, I started with a 70 B in this pattern as well. The resulting bra was nice, but not perfect. First of all I made view D of this pattern and I didn't like the design of the cup as much as I like the cup of the view C. Second, without being too tight or really small, the cup seemed.... not perfect. Therefore for my second and third bra (the ones shown in this review) I've decided to trace a 75B for the cups and a 70B for the band. Perfect! The only adjustment to make was that in the brown bra, I found the fabric strap a bit too far away on my shoulder - not uncomfortable, but anyway. I therefore rotated the strap on the pattern piece, moving it 1.5 cm closer to the center front.

I've altered the bra band piece, preserving the design of the centre front and copying the design of the side and center back from view A. As mentioned previously, I liked the wider band, it is very comfortable. I've also liked the treatment of the centre back, the curved decoupage of the band and the insertion of the elastic strap beginning at the bra closure and curving along the decoupage. See a photo of what I mean below.

I've also combined the lace and the fabric as I wanted, not as the pattern said. For instance, in the brown bra, the center front lace overlay was my idea - I was looking for a creative way to use as little lace as I could (so I can have lots of stretch lace left for the waist and legs of my boyshorts) but with a maximum effect. For the black and white bra, I've decided to join the two bra band halves at the center front with a bit of fagoting, using the respective stitch on my machine and a bit of wash-away stabilizer underneath - see it below

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
As you can see, I made this bra twice already. I actually can't wait to make it again. Sigrid warned me, lingerie sewing is addictive!

The brown and turquoise bra doesn't have matching panties yet but I do have enough fabric (elingeria.de kits are designed to make a bra and two pairs of panties). All my bras will have two pairs of matching panties, like the black and white one - a low rise thong and a pair of boyshorts. Both are copied from RTW.

These two are the best-fitting, most comfortable bras that I have, so I won't stop making lingerie any time soon. Let's see, I have three kits from Elingeria at home, two more in the mail... some other interesting fabrics in my stash. One of my next projects will be a camisole with incorporated padded bra. Possibly made out of remnants of cotton/lycra from my "geisha" top, with matching fuchsia red stretch lace.

Can't find a title, can't make a plan :(

2008-01-08T06:16:00.000-08:00

OK, so I wanted to show you my first two bras today but first I couldn't find my camera then I did find it (in a drawer where I looked a dozen times without seeing it) but managed to take really crappy pictures. I'll try again tonight.

What I want to write about today is my plan (or lack of it) for the TimmelFabrics SWAP 2008. The contest takes place between 1 January 2008 and 11 April 2008 and it is about sewing a perfectly coordinated wardrobe made of 11 garments: 1 jacket, 4 bottoms and 6 tops. You can substitute a maximum of two dresses for two tops. In case of jumpers, these would count as bottoms. All the tops must work with all the bottoms and the jacket must go with everything. You can use two previously sewn garments and one garment that was purchased. You must also use a print in this wardrobe. Every year, the contest has a "twist" to make it more interesting and this year's twist is that three garments must be made from a "wardrobe" pattern. The entire text of the rules can be read here. There's also a SWAP discussion thread at Artisan Square, here and see the storyboards made until now here.

It's been at least one month since I'm trying to come up with a plan for this SWAP and I keep changing my mind or hesitating. Therefore I've decided NOT to make a storyboard, at least not for the time being.

My provisional and painful SWAP plan:

My colours will probably be black, white and red (how very innovative, right?)
I'll probably make a coat instead instead of a jacket and the coat will be made out of my print - the red, white and black boucle from TimmelFabrics

I'll probably make 4 bottoms - two skirts and two pants, five tops and one dress
My provisional title is "Not your usual basics", as I plan to have several basics (a little black dress, a pair of lined black pants, a pair of jeans, a white shirt) but I will try to give them a little twist.
My wardrobe pattern will probably be Vogue 2813, an out of print Donna Karan

My second bra and the two matching pairs of panties are my first SWAP extra :)

Happy holidays

2007-12-28T09:42:00.000-08:00

To all of you, my dear virtual friends, happy holidays. I wish you the happiest New Year ever, full of love and joy...

I've been sewing up a storm (pic-heavy)

2007-12-12T01:11:00.001-08:00

I didn't vanish into thin air nor died, in case you worried about me not posting :) Just had a very very busy time at work and spend every spare second sewing. Florin was in Brussels for a week and I took advantage of it. But before I show you what I made in a week (looots of things), here is my Chanel style jacket "in action", at the conference. It looks rather interesting with the black pearls doesn't it?

Last night I had one of the happiest moments ever. Thanks to Sigrid, I've discovered Elingeria, an online shop in Germany, selling bra kits, bra notions, patterns and lots of great things (you'll see below what I ordered). I'm very happy with this shop and they provide great customer service. So here is my Christmas present for myself:

Two big cutting mats(90x60 cm). First time I have a mat and I can finally use my rotary cutters - have two and one of them even has that distance arm (how do you call it??) but I couldn't use them because I didn't have a mat!

Bra patterns (one of them by Beverly Johnson, author of the Bra-maker Manual), bra padding in various colors, bra kits: black/silver, chocolate/turquoise, emerald green/gold, hot pink/purple, dark red. Every kit has all the notions (except bra padding) and enough fabric and lace to make a bra and two pairs of panties.

And now, I proudly present you the result of a week's worth of sewing. Beware, I did nothing else this week but go to work and then go home and sew!

Coat, Burda 10/2007, 119

This is the best drafted coat pattern I've ever seen so far! I made it like it was (it is a petite pattern) and I didn't have to alter or change 1 mm of it! It's amazing! Look how elegant this side panel with pocket included is:

And I love the shape of the sleeve. It has a center seam and not cap ease - I think the pattern is cut down the center and all the cap ease is taken out in a dart. The shape is beautiful and as usual, I didn't even need to insert shoulder pads.

Back detail :

The coat is made out of the same wool knit that I used for my Chanel style jacket. The wool if you remember is very stretchy, therefore I underlined the entire coat with white cotton batiste. I love underlining, the coat is so soft and supple and so light!

Burda, 04/2007, blouse 114 with the sleeves of blouse 101 from Burda 09/2007. The original sleeves of the blouse were short and puffed. I copied the sleeve, measured from front (back) notch to the shoulder notch both on the bodice and the sleeve. The resulting difference (that allows for gathers in the sleeve) I took it out slashing the pattern and taking out 1 cm at each slash. The resulting cap sleeve was copied to the sleeve pattern of the other sleeve. The blouse is made in pure silk and I can wear it both with long ties or with a bow.

Burda 09/2007, dress 117

Dress unbelted

Dress belted

The dress is made out of two cuts (about 0.5 m each) of pure gorgeous wool. Those cuts were given to me by my mother, are at least 20 years old and come from a Romanian factory that used to make only wool fabrics.

See how gorgeous this fabric is, and it has the name of the factory (Libertatea Sibiu) woven in the selvage. "Lana pura" means "pure wool". Have no idea what "London shrunk" might mean. Christina reminded me that Carolyn describes in this post the London shrinking method. Thanks Christina! So this fabric was pre-shrunk in the factory. This amazes me.... I guess it means good quality, doesn't it? I also assume this fabric is wool crepe. I don't know the word in English, in Romanian we call it caşa (pronounced "kashà" - the word comes from German).

The dress is underlined with a great knit lining, silky and slippery (no static of any other problems over stockings, no wrinkling and practically inconspicuous). I used this tip on PR to underline and give a Hong Kong finish to the seams at the same time.

Jeans, Vogue 8202

These jeans are very low rise in the back and I noticed that good jeans are normally higher in the back. I therefore altered the waist seam of the yoke, raising it by 1.5 inches at the center and tapering to nothing at the sides.

I used two spools of topstitching thread threaded in the same jeans needle, as I didn't have any dark blue jeans thread. I'm not sure that I like that tone on tone topstitching, maybe I would have liked a rusty jeans thread better, but I wanted a pair of jeans to be worn with dressier jackets and thought that dark blue thread would be better.

Detail of the decorative stitching on the back pocket

Simplicity 4020

Chanel jacket is finished

2007-11-26T23:53:00.001-08:00

Vogue 7975, sizes 6-22. I made size 6, view B.

Not only I wanted to make a Chanel-like jacket for quite some time (since I saw Marji's jacket - read her review here) but I was absolutely fascinated with this jacket) - it is from the Threads online extra to Susan Khalje's article about making a Chanel jacket. This particular jacket is not quilted, but mine is, because I tried as we say in my country "to shoot two rabbits with one bullet) - make this jacket and try the Chanel techniques as well.

I chose this pattern because it was recommended by many (including Susan Khalje) as a pattern adequate for a Chanel-like jacket.

Fabric: Wool spongy very stretchy knit, silk serge for the lining, white wool/poly for collar and cuffs, chain for the hem, silk thread and beeswax.

First of all, I should have made a muslin. I know I should have but patterns do fit me out of the envelope most of the times and I was so obsessed with this jacket that I wanted to start working on it right then. After quilting the entire jacket, I discovered that the jacket was a bit too large and the armhole was not as high as I would have wanted, plus the shoulder was 5/8 too long. See this post about the problems that I had.

See this about how I solved the problems:

1) I took in another 5/8 at each center front
2) I took in the shoulder with about 5/8
3) Dawn gave me great advice about inserting a gusset that would solve my too large armhole problem. She later published a great post about raising armholes and inserting sleeve gussets - read it here. My fabric being very spongy, you cannot see that gusset even if I raise my arm and you're really close :)

My fabric is not exactly the fabric you would use for a Chanel jacket. It's not boucle, but a spongy wool knit - it is very stretchy so quilting it to the lining was a challenge even with my walking foot, because the knit kept growing. What helped was pinning and holding the fabric taut crosswise. Steaming the knit also helped to make it go back into shape.

I would have never thought about making a Chanel quilted jacket out of something else than boucle, but I was inspired by Carolyn who used the Chanel-like quilting on a Jackie O inspired jacket that turned out absolutely gorgeous - see her jacket and read her posts about it here, here and here.

Therefore I used this spongy knit, I sewed the quilting lines with silk thread and afterwards brushed all the sewing lines with an old nail brush, to stimulate the "sponginess" of the fabric and make it cover the sewing. The quilting is quite inconspicuous as a result, as you can see below

The quilting was done 1.5 inches apart (it is usually done at 1 inch apart but I didn't want too many quilting lines on this wool).

I've used Burdastyle Eva 4102 pattern for the collar and the cuffs.

The pockets are not quilted, but lined and attached by hand, with very small fell stitches

Attaching the collar and the cuffs: I left both the neckline and the sleeve ends not quilted for about 2 inches. I interfaced with a soft knit fusible both pieces of the collar and both pieces of the cuff, sewed them together, turned, understitched and then attached them (together) to the fabric part of the jacket, keeping the lining away. The lining was then attached to the cuffs/collar with small fell stitches (see below).

At the time that I bought the pearl trim (more than 6 months ago in Brussels) I didn't know there was such a thing as pearl piping and therefore bought a string of pearls. I sewed them by hand, one by one, to the collar and the cuffs. See how I did that in this post.

I've tried the jacket on before pinning the chain to the hem and it fitted really good, which made me wonder if I need a chain at all. I pinned the chain and tried the jacket on again. A revelation! The jacket hangs so much better with the chain. I was lucky and got both the right chain weight and the right pinning (not too tight, as to gather the jacket and not too large, as to make it flare). Each chain link is sewn by hand to the hem, attaching both the upper part and the lower part of the link with fell stitches, securing the chain perfectly to the jacket.

I'm really very happy with my new jacket and can't wait to wear it. I leave tomorrow for a very important and official meeting outside my town and it will come in handy.

Too bad, but the photos don't show the tiny white dots on my skirt and the little pearl earrings that I wear.

Read my PR review here.

Sewing the string of pearls to the collar and cuffs

2007-11-14T00:44:00.000-08:00

I use a double thread, waxed and then pressed to melt the wax into it. This gives it strength and it also reduces tangling and knotting. First, I insert the needle in the fold (the fold of the cuff in this pictures) and take it out, making sure the needle and thread are in the back of the string of pearls.

I then bring the needle and thread to the front. What I do is actually a blanket stitch (see a drawing below), but I take care to thread the needle through the thread that joins the little pearls. Hope the pic speaks better than me :)

And this is how the stitch looks...

And now I put the needle in the same spot where I started the blanket stitch, thread it through the fold and take it out near the next pearl.

More on the Chanel jacket and some other stuff

2007-11-13T00:52:00.000-08:00

OK, as promised, another progress report.

After all the problems encountered last week and a good lesson learned (make a muslin, you lazy idiot, even if patterns usually fit you out of the envelope!!!!) I'm finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

What I did:
1) took in another 5/8 at each center front opening, that was easy to do, because that seam is stitched by hand anyway.

2) redrew the armhole, as shown in the picture below (sorry for the poor quality of pictures, they're taken with the phone)

3) inserted a gusset to make the armhole higher, as advised by Dawn. Dawn, thank you very much for this great idea, it worked wonders plus as the fabric is indeed spongy, you don't notice it at all.

I've worked like a slave on this jacket, the entire last week, the weekend, yesterday too. It takes quite a lot of work (didn't count the hours and I wish I had) but not only it's worth it, but I discovered that hand sewing is very relaxing for me. I've been hand sewing for ages (four years of Home economics in school plus helping my grandmother with hand sewing - she was the seamstress of the village and she only had one of those ancient Singers, with a mechanical pedal and doing only a straight stitch. Therefore, even if I mainly taught myself to sew, I did have lots of practice on doing fell stitches, slip stitches, catch stitches and buttonholes in my childhood) and therefore am faster than I would have thought. The fake fur coat that you see below is done recently by Livia, my sister (including the hat) entirely by hand. No, I'm not kidding, they moved to Sweden in January this year and she cannot afford a sewing machine yet.

Back to the Chanel jacket: so far, the sleeves are inserted, the cuffs are there too, collar is inserted, the entire lining is closed everywhere with fell stitches. I attached the pearl trim to the collar and center fronts and I still have to attach it to the cuffs. I sewn the patch pockets by hand (it's sooooo good to have a spongy fabric), the hem is done too. I still have to attach the hooks and eyes, but I tried the jacket on and marked their position. I also have to attach the chain at the hem. And let me tell you: last night I tried the jacket on and I said to myself: why should I attach a chain? It fits very nice the way it is. Then, I pinned carefully the chain to the jacket's hem and tried it on again. Boy, what a difference. I can't even explain it, it is a different jacket! I'm so glad that I managed to get the right weight for the chain. I had no idea what kind of chain I should get but I just weighed several types in my hand and let my sewist gut decide for me :)

And now, about my recent addiction: lingerie. It's only Sigrid's fault! :) Sigrid, good luck with the blouse. Don't despair just yet, I'm sure it will turn out great. I had some elastic lace and some cotton/lycra in my stash, I took apart a pair of boyshorts and here you are:

Wide stretch lace

Cotton/lycra and symmetrical stretch lace cut in two lenghtwise and sewn to the fabric with a small zigzag (2.5 width, 2.5 mm length)

Cotton/lycra and scalloped stretch lace

Love these boyshorts, they are super comfy, they show no visible panty line and I think they're sexy too. It takes 30 minutes to make a pair and I cut 4 pairs at once. I now have to find the time and energy to take apart (with lots of care) an old and very well-fitting bra. Then, once I have a good pattern, sky is the limit as one of my friends likes to say.

And before I go ... a teaser :)

Let me tell you, when I bought this pearl trim, I didn't know there was pearl piping. Therefore my pearl trim is actually a string of pearls. I had to sew it by hand, little by little, catching each little knot between pearls in my sewing. I'll show some pics of how I did that in my final post showing the jacket.

Answers to your comments

2007-11-12T02:29:00.001-08:00

First of all, thank you so much for your support!
I'm happy to report I've solved the problem and I'm working like crazy on the jacket. Dawn, the gusset was the answer, I hope I will post more about this tomorrow, I took 2 or 3 pics with my phone and I will tell you about my progress.
Carolyn, I know yours is not exactly a Chanel jacket, but I wanted to mention your blog because it was you that decided me to make this jacket in another fabric than boucle!
Johanna, thanks a million for the drawing, I didn't have any drawing of an actual Chanel jacket except the one provided by Claire Shaeffer in her article.
LMH, thank you, I'd like to have that quotation. I have the article mentioned and another one, also by Claire Shaeffer, on making Chanel skirts.
Donna, I've never worked with silk boucle, believe me this knit wool stretches sooooo much. Thank you for giving me the link to your blog, I'll check out the entire archive, your tips seem so very helpful.
Until tomorrow, happy sewing everyone!

Chanel-like jacket (2)

2007-11-07T00:26:00.000-08:00

I worked on the jacket the entire evening and another hour and a half this morning (woke up earlier with the jacket in mind). I'm done quilting the entire jacket, stitching the side seams and shoulder seams in the fashion fabric - the lining seams are not hand sewn yet, because of the collar and cuffs that need to be attached first to the fashion fabric. I've pinned the lining seams in place and they will get sewn later.

I've also inserted one of the sleeves, only to discover that I pinned my sleeves wrong - the left sleeve to the right part of the jacket ouch ouch ouch. Never made this mistake before, why did I have to make it now of all times when the sleeve was inserted by hand? Lots of work to insert it and now I will have to take it out. That should teach me not to sew/pin when I'm tired!

Regarding quilting: my fabric being a tweedy wool knit, not a boucle, I've decided to space the quilting lines 1.5 inches apart instead of 1 inch. Let me tell you, working with a knit (one that is quite stretchy both lengthwise and crosswise) is a pain. The knit kept growing. Pinning the quilting lines helped, using a walking foot helped but the knit still grew a bit. I found that holding the fabric taut crosswise helped. Using lots of steam also helped, as the knit is wool and the steam shrank it back to its initial shape.

After quilting and pressing, I found that the quilting lines are almost inconspicuous. To hide them even more, I brushed the lines in both directions (from top to bottom and from bottom to top) with an old nail brush and then pressed again, holding the iron at about 1 inch from the fabric and using lots of steam. This fluffed the knit a little bit and the quilting lines are now buried in the fabric. Pictures later. So far I've tried to put "normal" batteries in my camera and they don't work, I really don't know why.

Another lesson learned: when working this much on a jacket, make a muslin!! I don't make muslins because a size 6 or 4 in Big 4 patterns fits me right out of the envelope. Now, I should have. First, when trying it on, the jacket was a bit too large and I will need to take out another 5/8" at the center front on both sides. No problem, this is easy to do since those seams are not finished yet, but that means that I will also have to shorten the collar which is already cut and interfaced. Second, I would have liked the armhole to be a bit higher - it fits very well, but I really love high armholes and I read so much about Chanel jackets having really high armholes that I'm probably picky without having much reason.

Third (and last), I think I would have liked a shorter shoulder but am not sure yet. One, the sleeve was inserted backwards when I tried it on. Second, I think that the neckline grew quite a bit. I will have to do some crowding on it, especially on the back neckline. That will make it hug my body closer and probably (hopefully) solve my problem.

UPDATE: Looking again at Marji's photoset, I see the the shoulder is a bit dropped, so I might not need to shorten the shoulder. Look at this picture to see what I mean. I just need to reinsert the sleeve correctly, press it in place and maybe crowd the neckline and see how I like it.

Progress on Chanel-like jacket

2007-11-06T02:27:00.001-08:00

Ten days and one conference (I was the organiser, so it wasn't easy) later, here I am, back in business. I would have liked to take some pictures to show the progress (and the various stages) but my camera's rechargeable batteries seem to be dead so I'll have to get some new ones.

All the pieces of the jacket and the lining are cut, I used normal seam allowances (5/8) as my fabric is a tweedy wool knit and it doesn't fray a bit. All the pieces are thread traced and I started quilting last night. I'm using a new needle, silk thread and my walking foot. So far, so good. Tonight I'll keep on quilting and I will also interface the creamy white collar and cuffs.

My step sister in law brought me 3/8 clear elastic (can't find it here and I use it a lot for my knit tops necklines) and a mini-vacuum attachment kit so I'm really happy.

Another reason to be happy: Tany sent me the most wonderful midnight blue taffeta. I absolutely love this fabric, both the colour and the appearance (I don't like that shiny type of taffeta that much and this one is pretty matte). I'm thinking a trench coat for spring but I still cannot decide. A shirt woulde be nice too. Too bad I can't show you pictures, maybe later. Thank you, Tany!

Sigrid sent me some bra foam, together with a gorgeous stretch wide white lace, two types of elastic (for bra straps), bra sliders. I feel a lingerie-sewing addiction coming... bras, boyshorts... hmmm. Thank you so much, Sigrid!

I am also trying to organise my projects, decide what I want to sew in the coming months (I need a coat and some dark denim jeans and I've got the fabric for those) and make a storyboard for the Timmelfabrics SWAP 2008 - the board is here. My qualifying purchase for the SWAP is a gorgeous eyelet fabric, can't wait to get it.

Resources for sewing Chanel-type jackets:
Making that Classic collarless French Jacket thread on Artisan's Square
Marji's photo album and her PR review
Carolyn's Jackie O' jacket - read her posts here, here and here
Sewing Diva Phyllis's post
Chanel sew along on PR
Susan Khalje's article in Threads no 121 - see an online extra here
Claire Shaeffer's article in Threads no 23
Cherri Dowd's article in Threads no 128

Inspired by a Chanel jacket

2007-10-24T00:25:00.000-07:00

Remember this post? Well, last evening I managed to cut the jacket (just the fabric, the lining not yet). The fabric is a very stretchy wool, a bit tweedy. The collar and the cuffs are cut from a creamy white wool. The pearl trim is there (bought it in Brussels six months ago, having this jacket in mind), I've got a very nice black silk lining pre-washed and pressed but still have to cut it. I've got silk embroidery thread, hooks, chain, everything is there.

I've used Vogue 7975, the shorter buttonless version (view A, B, C). I've used Burdastyle Eva 4102 for the shape of the neckline and the collar.

I won't be sewing however for the next 10 days, even though my fingers are itching for the sewing machine. Tomorrow Florin and I are celebrating four years of marriage (when did those go by?) and then my step sister in law is coming from the US to visit us. Step sister in law? Is there a such a word? I mean the daughter from the first marriage of my mother in law's second husband :))

Four knit tops

2007-10-23T01:19:00.000-07:00

Two of them are part of my capsule wardrobe (the black and the gray one). They are Burda WOF 08/2007, top 105A, with some modifications:

The black top is without the collar, just the V-neck and I've added the sleeves of Burdastyle (free downloadable patterns) Idit 6003

The gray top has plain long sleeves (copied from my favorite knit pattern, Jalie 2449 and lengthened)

The purple top has the collar and the sleeves of Idit 6003 (I really liked the gathered sleeves, they make the tops a little more special and more blouse-like, not just T-shirts). All three tops are made in cotton/lycra. The gathering of the sleeves is done by serger and I've used this tip, which made it really easy. And I stabilized the necklines with 3/8 clear elastic.

Read my PR review here

And since I've tried the sleeves of Idit 6003, I wanted to make the entire top. And here it is, in a wool/poly interlock. Apologies for the camisole, it's not the best one for this top plus I had a black bra underneath, but the photos were taken after a very long and busy day at work and I really didn't have the energy to find another camisole and another bra.

I'm not sure I really like this Idit blouse on me... Read the PR review for Idit here.

I love sewing knit tops, they are so quick. I've cut the three first tops on Friday evening, I sewed them all Sunday. Sunday evening, I cut and sewn the Idit top. So one weekend, four new tops... not bad!

Sixth and seventh wardrobe items

2007-10-18T01:22:00.000-07:00

The dress is Burda WOF 09/2007, dress 121. As I said some time ago on an Artisan Square board, I get these style crisis from time to time when I feel like my wardrobe is too conservative and I want funkier things. This dress is an example of a funkier garment for me - maybe it's pretty classic to you, I don't know :)

Dress lying flat

This was really easy and quick to make, I cut it and finished it in about one hour and a half and it is done entirely by serger, including the hem which is blindstitched with the same serger.

The fabric is a nice cotton knit with a texture (you can see it in the photo above) and the back of the cotton is a bit fluffy, you know like in bathrobes. I'm sure there is a name for this fabric but I don't know it or can't remember it.

The entire top part is lined with self-fabric and this is how I did it:

Cut 4 fronts and 2 backs
Sewn the shoulder seams on the garment part and the fabric part, pressed the shoulder seams of the two in opposite directions (for the garment part, they are pressed to the back and for the lining to the front), in order to reduce bulk, especially at crossing seams.
Sewn the neckline of the garment part to the neckline of the lining part. I didn't want to understitch because too lazy and in a hurry (I did this the evening before I flew to Brussels and the plane was at 7.00 a. m.) so I took care in doing everything to avoid seams showing on the garment part. Turned the two pieces right side out, pressed the seam towards the lining part and then pressed the two of them together, making sure the seam is a bit on the underside.
Turning the seam a bit to the underside made the lining part a bit bigger at side and armhole seams therefore I cut the part peaking outside the garment part.
I then stitched the two armholes together, turned and pressed. Making the lining part smaller keeps all the seams on the underside and they don't show at all. Pressing carefully makes them lie flat even without understitching.

For hemming knits, I've been using this tip by Sewing Diva Gigi for quite some time now. Great tip, it definitely improved the appearance of my hems.

This was more of a wearable muslin (I'm not that crazy about this cotton knit and I think the colour will fade during washing) and I plan to do another one in a green interlock, but it looks very nice. I've worn it in Brussels (with a black turtleneck and my houndstooth jacket) for a visit to the European Parliament and it was perfect!

Read my PR review here

The pants are Hot Patterns Denim Diva Pipe Jeans, made in a stretch black denim.

I cut a size 6 and they ended up loser than I thought but I decided to keep them this way. I find that, especially for clothes that follow closer the body, I like them to be a bit loser - they make you seem slimmer and more ... I don't know, classy??

This time I used a twin needle (100, space between needles 6 mm) to do the topstitching.

Sorry for the wrinkles, the pictures are taken after wearing the pants in the office for an entire day.

Side seam, topstitched, and hem (wider, I like a wider hem in jeans)

Read my PR review here.

Fifth wardrobe piece and Salsa pants for my husband

2007-10-08T23:46:00.000-07:00

Salsa pants for my husband - a combination of the Classic Men's Jeans from e-sewingpatterns.com (see the jeans I made from this pattern in this post) and the Grey pants pattern from m-sewing.com (see the pants I made from this pattern in this post). I used this last pattern for the leg, a wider leg is very good for dancing Salsa and as the fabric is drapey, it worked great.

I underlined the fronts, going well below the knee, to minimize wrinkling at crotch and knee level.

I've used the RTW finishing detailed in this post, including the pre-made waist band (I found a nice black one, with no Christian Dior logo :))

And I've used again Debbie Cook's tutorial for the double welt pocket and am very pleased with the result.

Read my PR review here.

And now, my fourth wardrobe piece... one that I totally love, I think this is my favorite skirt pattern ever! Vogue 8246.

Back of the skirt lying flat

Front of the skirt lying flat

The fabric is a black washed stretch denim. However, I cut with the stretch on the length of the pattern pieces, not the width. I thought I might have to grade down and didn't want the additional stretch to make the job tougher.

I did a petite alteration, took in the side seams by 1 cm (3/8") each and shortened the skirt, because I wanted it to hit just below the knee. I also reduced the hem allowance from 3.2 cm (1 1/4") to 1.3 cm (1/2"). The back hem is rounded and it is so much easier to get a neat hem with a narrower hem allowance.

Other changes that I made are due to not having enough fabric. I had 1 m of fabric (for a straight skirt I normally need 50-60 cm) and it wasn't enough. Therefore I had to make a center seam to the center front piece instead of cutting it on the fold. In order to "camouflage" this seam, I zigzagged over all the seams (5 mm length 2 mm width) with black topstitching thread. I like very much the final result: all those vertical seams, topstitched in black give a lot of vertical lines that lengthen my petite frame. I thought about topstitching with a straight stitch (like in jeans) but my seam allowances are butterflied and a straight topstitch works better with seam allowances together.

See the pleat underlays below.

The other change due to lack of fabric is that I cut the pleat underlays from black cotton sateen.

To cleanly finish the facing and join it to the invisible zipper, I've used a great tutorial written by Jinjer Markley and posted on Kathleen's Fasanella's website, Fashion Incubator. Part 1 and Part 2 of the tutorial for inserting an invisible zipper, making and using a pressing jig and sewing the the zipper to the facing in an RTW way. I bound the facing with some polkadotted bias. The rest of the seam allowances are serged.

This is a great pattern, easy to sew (especially since there's no lining, it was a breeze after all the underlining and seam binding I've done lately). I want to sew it again, I will try it in some suiting. I'm also thinking about using this pattern without the underlays, maybe keeping the center one for walking ease and eliminating the rest but keeping the contouring seams.

So one or two skirts from this pattern will follow :)

Read my PR review here

New SWAP

2007-10-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

TimmelFabrics SWAP 2008 is ready to start. It's starting on 1 January 2008, but: 1) you can cut and fit everything until then; 2) you can use TWO previously sewn items. And a bought one too. There are several interesting things, and the yearly twist, so go and read the rules here.

The SWAP 2007 photos and commentaries are here.

The article that started the contest and several other wardrobing articles (very interesting reading!!).

And the SWAP 2008 discussion has started already, at the Artisan's Square - go here for the board.

I'm ready to start planning this SWAP, ordered some patterns today (one is Vogue 7975 for my Chanel-type jacket), but it's going to take a while. I would like to incorporate as much as I can from my already existing storyboard, plus I'm still hesitating between a jacket or a coat for this SWAP.

I'll tell you more as soon as I'm having some plans laid down. But until then why don't I go fabric shopping and you go read the rules and prepare to join this year's SWAP? :)

A woman possessed

2007-10-01T06:46:00.000-07:00

Yeah. Me. By the ghost of Coco Chanel :)
Carolyn from Diary of a sewing fanatic reminded me of my dream - sewing a Chanel-like jacket. See this post and this one on her blog, about sewing a Jackie Kennedy inspired suit, using the Chanel technique of quilting the lining to the fashion fabric.
And now... let me show you the exact piece that haunts me and then, I will say no more... except that I will be trying my hand at this, including the quilted lining and everything, even if my fabric is not a boucle and is not tweedy, therefore it is harder to "hide" your quilting. I did some tests and hope I can pull it off.

Free designer patterns (downloadable)

2007-09-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

You might know about these, because they've been around for a while, but in case you don't or forgot where to find them, here they are:

Free AlexanderMcQueen pattern (kimono-like top)
Free Martin Margiella pattern (dress)
Free Junya Watanabe pattern (dress)
Free John Galliano pattern (pirate jacket)
Free Yohji Yamamoto pattern (mysterious jacket)

Have fun with them!

Fourth wardrobe item

2007-09-28T00:12:00.000-07:00

I proudly present you... Hot Patterns Artful Dodger Slouchy Man Pants (what a handful of a name :))

Pants lying flat

Back of pants

The pants are fully underlined in organza

I've used Sandra Betzina's method of underlining and finishing the seam allowances at the same time. This gives the pants a couture look.

And as I said in this post, I've applied everything I discovered by peaking inside men's trousers.

Special hem band at the hem

Facing of fly extension is cut from lining, on the bias and on the double and there is a buttonhole to secure the extension to the pants. The button (you can't see it in the picture) is sewn to the bias binding of the fly facing. Pocket bags are bound too.

"Fake" (meaning there is no pocket bag) double welt pocket, secured with buttonhole and button. I've used Debbie Cook tutorial for this and I absolutely loved it!

For the fly front, I usually follow Sandra Betzina's method. This time I followed Sigrid's tutorial and I liked it a lot.

And this is the pre-made waist band. Remember the yuck Christian Dior logo? I hated it and covered it with a silvery bray pre-folded satin bias ribbon. And I finally managed to order labels!!! Do you like them? I got 144 for 7.95 sterling pounds. Not bad, isn't it?

Read my detailed PR review here.

IMPORTANT POST

2007-09-26T02:43:00.001-07:00

Dear all,
There seems to be a problem with my feeds so those of you subscribing to my blog haven't received the feed with my post yesterday.
Hope I solved the problem but I'm not sure yet and if not, I might have to change my feeds location which would mean that all of those subscribed will have to subscribe again. I would hate that but it's not up to me

Third wardrobe piece

2007-09-25T04:20:00.000-07:00

So, here it is, Vogue 8425....

Back,

I love the high waist and wanted to keep it unwrinkled and nice-looking, therefore I've decided to add a sturdier fusible (fusibles that I buy here in notion shops don't have a name or code or whatever, therefore you've got a photo below) and boning (for that I've added a center seam to the facing instead of cutting it on the fold).

I chose that type of boning that you can sew through, because it is practical, flexible, it keeps its shape and it doesn't need any end treatment, because it doesn't poke.

I've sewn the boning to the seam allowances with a wide zigzag

Then topstitched the seam allowances closed to one side

This is how it looks from the right side

I added lace at the lining hem, to make it look nicer. And in case the lining peaks, at least you have some nice sexy lace to show :)

And I've secured the hem of the lining to the hem of the skirt with finger-crocheted thread

And this is the facing stitched to the invisible zipper

To sew an invisible zipper and to cleanly join the facing to the zipper, a great tutorial by Jinjer Markley on Kathleen Fasanella's site: part 1 and part 2 of the tutorial

Since I've read this tutorial (two years ago), I've only used this method!

For more details, read my PR review of the pattern.

Learning from RTW (2): Peaking inside men's trousers

2007-09-24T05:14:00.000-07:00

I've just finished Vogue 8425 (the high-waisted skirt) in a black Italian suiting (a mix of wool, rayon and elasthane). I will take pictures tonight and hopefully post them tomorrow, together with a full review.

My next project is a pair of slouchy men's pants. I've been hesitating between Hot Patterns AD Slouchy Men Pants and McCall 4926 and I've finally decided for the HP. I've made them before (although my natural inclination is towards new patterns). Secondly, I did a quick comparison between McCall 4926 and one of my favorite pair of pants and the McCall seems awfully high-waisted (10 cm higher than this pair of pants!). Also, their leg is perfectly straight, while the HP leg is more shaped, giving a tighter fit on the hips and the beginning of the tights - which I like and find flattering. What is essential, in my opinion, for a pair of wide-leg pants to flatter your figure is: 1) very drapey fabric (forget about making them in twill, corduroy and the like - from my experience, the stiffer the fabric, the wider your thighs will look); 2) a closer to the hips and thighs pattern. That doesn't mean I won't try the McCall pattern. Only this time I must make a muslin to see what they look like. I've got this horribly green fabric anyway (what did I think when I bought it???)....

I want to copy all the details found in a men's pair of pants therefore decided to have a look at the inside of one of my husband's expensive RTW pants. Here's out I found:

1) The fly extension has a different shape, flaring to the upper part (the one connecting to the waistband). This extension also has a buttonhole, and there is a button for it, on the inside of the pants. This secures the pants.

2) The fly extension facing is cut on the bias and on the double. It also extends over the waistband facing.

3) The fly facing is finished with foldover bias tape.

4) The waistband facing is replaced with a special waist band, which is made out of lining fabric, cut on the bias and, folded in two and wrapping inside a piece of canvas or sew-in interfacing, also cut on the bias. A cross-grain tape is then sewn on the middle, to stabilise, I guess. I can find this kind of waist band, pre-made, in notion store. I can also find another kind of waist band, resembling Petersham ribbon and specifically made for pants waistbands (see the last photo in this post)

5) There's also this nice little trick to keep your belt buckle in the center of your pants and not allowing it to slide to the side....

6) The center back seam allowance are a lot wider than the rest. The waistband has a center seam too and each half of the waistband is sewn to the pants and then the entire center back seam (pants and waistband) is then sewn. This allows for easy alteration of the pants (can you tell I took in my husband's pants many times?)

7) There is a welt pocket in the back and I intend to copy this detail. I will make a fake pocket (welt but no pocket bags) as I don't really need a pocket in the back, nor do I need the supplementary bulk. It's interesting that in this pair of pants, one of the welt pocket lips (do you call them that? I can't remember the word) is wider than the other. I've never seen this before.

8) There is a special band reinforcing the hem and giving it weight. That I already knew and used for my pants.

I've hesitated a lot before deciding if to underline or not the pants with organza. I've received great advice on the Artisan's Square board, I can't thank enough everybody for being so helpful and supportive. Why did I hesitate? I would like to underline to minimize wrinkling and to give my pants that expensive look. However, I don't want the pants to become less drapey. Also, I'm not sure what kind of organza I have. I don't think it's silk, because it melts when burning with a lighter. I don't think it's poly either, because it doesn't scratch the skin a bit. You can see it in the photo below, it's very-very silky to the touch, smooth, sheer and a bit shiny. Could it be viscose? I really don't know... I think I will give it a try because I put it together with my fashion fabric and it didn't seem to change the drape. Speaking of polyester, have you read this post on Diva Ann's blog?

So, here you are: fashion fabric - another great Italian suiting (wool and viscose), mystery organza, pre-made waist band (the one with the yuck Christian Dior logo), the other waist band (Petersham-like), pre-folded bias tape, tape for the hem of the pants, a strip of bias canvas and cross-grain tape in case I decide I want to make my own waist band, men's trousers hooks (there are two types, one that you sew in and one with tiny little things that go in and are then bent - cant' explain it better than this, sorry :(), buttons.

Second piece of my capsule wardrobe

2007-09-20T01:24:00.000-07:00

The jacket that I talked so much about...

The jacket lying flat

The sleeve without cap ease... It looks pretty good and rounded to me and I can tell you it feels perfectly comfortable. I have plenty of moving room.

I've added some polkadotted binding...

As I already said in this post, I used techniques described in Marcy Tilton in her "Inside an Armani jacket" article (the link is in the post mentioned above). Below is a picture of the floating chest piece (attached to the roll line with a bias strip, catchstitched). I cut my own sleeve head, copying the sleeve pattern between the two notches. The sleeve head is made out of polar fleece (very good for that) and is about 2 inches wide.

For bagging the lining, I've used this tutorial on Kathleen Fasanella's site and obtained a perfect, clean finish without any handstitching. This method is great and I'll keep using it.

Also, for the sleeves, I used Bagging tutorial #1 and Bagging tutorial #2 also by Kathleen Fasanella. Very useful, the sleeve hem folds by itself and is cushioned, the tip about tacking is great. I'm not sure what wigan is, but I've used this canvas (also used for the floating chest piece), cut on the bias:

I also did my best to match the check on the houndstooth at the seams and at the sleeve (having no cap ease helps). It was very difficult, because this houndstooth (from TimmelFabrics, as my SWAP second prize) is a mix of silk and flax and it distorts very easily.

More about this jacket in my PR review.

The shoes are new... A (bit of an) early present for my birthday, from my husband.
Have I ever told you that I love shoes beyond sanity? :)

Free Vogue pattern!

2007-09-13T02:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, you can have a free Vogue pattern or if you buy several, the highest priced pattern will be free. Of course, you still have to pay the shipping. The offer is valid worldwide and excludes designer patterns.
The offer is made by Vogue Patterns and you can go here to take advantage of it.

Interesting links

2007-09-12T01:20:00.000-07:00

If you want to have more colour in your wardrobe, here are some very interesting tips, from Kasmira's What I Wore Today blog: Colour Yourself Happy
How to pack a travel wardrobe, from the Wardrobe Oxygen blog
What to do when... (getting a run in you stockings, are prone to losing buttons etc) from the same Wardrobe Oxygen
Want to SWAP? Want to trade? Go to the SWAP and Trade forum on Supernaturale
Want to design a nice-looking storyboard for planning a wardrobe? Want to see how a pattern would look in your actual fabric? Storyboard tute on Taking back the quality of my life blog.
Cleaning your closet? Want to get items from other girls cleaning their closet? Go to MyGirlfriendCloset
Planning some Fall SWAP-style sewing or see what others are planning for their wardrobe? Go to the thread on Artisan's Square

How I attach the collar to the jacket

2007-09-10T06:47:00.000-07:00

Here's my method, which I like because it seems bulkless to me. It is a combination of several methods, some picked many years ago from the Burda illustrated course, some from sewing tips in a French magazine. I think it was Marie Claire but I'm not sure, this was 20 years ago!

First of all, my apologies because I forgot to take pictures at the beginning, therefore I must replace them with sketches.

1) If your pattern doesn't have a separate piece for the undercollar, make yourself one, by copying the upper collar and trimming 1/8 inches (3mm) all around. Sew the upper collar to the undercollar (my undercollar is cut on bias), stretching the trimmed undercollar to match the upper collar. Stop at the notches (marked with "stop here" on my drawing). Trim seam allowances if needed, turn, understitch and press. If you match the neckline seam on the uppercolar and undercollar, you will see that the uppercollar is bigger. Now fold that collar, still matching the neckline seams and put it around your neck. See now why the uppercollar is bigger? To adjust for the so called turn-of-cloth. The collar folds and rolls beautifully around your neck.

2) Sew the uppercollar to the facing (the collar's neckline seam to the facing neckline seam).

Trim, clip and press that seam open, like me:

3) Sew the undercollar to the jacket. Again, trim, clip, press open:

4) Sew the facings to the jacket.

5) Now, fold your collar and put one seam allowance of the uppercollar and one seam allowance of the undercollar together (the other two seam allowances are inside the collar). Sew those seam allowances together, either by hand or by machine (using a zipper foot in this case). Turn and press. Isn't it beautiful? Light and without bulk.

Peaking inside my WIP jacket... I've used Marcy Tilton's article for Threads, Armani jackets: The inside story:

I taped the lapel roll line with fusible tape, about 1.5 cm shorter than the roll line. The majority of the ease is in the middle third of the lapel line and the easing is done by steaming.

I stabilised the center front edges with 5/8 (1.6 cm) tape which is actually a lining selvedge. Tha tape was sewn with a basting stitch, without stretching. The tape is clipped at roll point, to allow the lapel to roll.

The armhole is stabilised with 1/4 (6 mm) twill tape - the tape is slightly stretched while sewn, thus forcing the armhole to "hug" the body - and at the shoulder, the seam allowance is pressed open for 2 inches (one on both sides of the shoulder point).

I'm also planning to attach a floating chest piece made out of canvas cut on the bias and a wigan strip (also cut on the bias) at the sleeve hem.

Stay put for the completed jacket and more inside pictures.

A very nice surprise...

2007-09-10T02:18:00.000-07:00

I've been nominated by Lisa from Blackwater Park. What a nice surprise, I like her blog very much and find it so useful. And I really didn't know she reads my blog... Lisa, I'm honored to pass it on to (I can't keep track of everybody who's been nominated, sorry if it comes to you twice):
1) Isabelle from KittyCouture
2) Robin from Robin's Mostly Sewing Blog
3) Liana from Sew Intriguing
4) Rosanne from She's Sew Unusual
5) Sigrid from Sigrid's Sewing Projects

Happy sewing everyone!

Updated:
I've just discovered that I've been nominated also by Linda from Patterns, Fabric and Thread - Oh my. Linda, thank you very much, it's good to get good news twice on a Monday morning :)

I've got mail

2007-09-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

As a bonus for subscribing to Burda WOF - Romanian version, I got the Burda supplement containing designer patterns (Burda Exclusiv Designer-Schnitte).

It contains the following patterns:

A top and skirt by Tristano Onofri

A suit by Orwell:

A trenchcoat and dress by Bogner

A trenchcoat by Aigner

Men's sportswear by Pal Zileri

And a gorgeous tuxedo jacket by Karl Lagerfeld

What's really nice is that the patterns come separately in a cardboard folder and they are ready to cut/trace, just like Big4 patterns or other patterns and not like the patterns in Burda WOF, where several different patterns are printed on the same sheet.

Learning from RTW: deconstructing a jacket

2007-09-05T03:44:00.000-07:00

As I've told you, I took apart my favorite jacket. This jacket comes from a Romanian designer and it fits me beautifully. However, the fabric is horrible. 100% polyester, with quite a cheap look to it (this designer usually has beautiful fabrics, I don't know what happened this time). The advantage is it never wrinkles and you don't even have to iron it. The disadvantage... I completely hate it!
Therefore I took it apart, to copy the pattern and learn from the construction as well.

This is what the pattern pieces look like:

I forgot to take a picture of the jacket before taking it apart, but here is a photo of the half left, still in one piece, except for the collar:

As I already knew from Kathleen Fasanella, seam allowances are 1 cm (3/8 inches), the allowance of the seam joining the facing to the fronts and the lining to the hem is 0.6 cm (1/4).

What I've also noticed:

The entire fronts are fused (but then I'm doing this all the time)
The side panel is fused too, even if it extends into the back as well
The back has a fused panel, covering the entire neckline and the armholes
All the hems (back and sleeve) are fused and the interfacing extends past the foldline (I was doing that too)
There are little cut slits instead of outward or inward notches
THERE IS NO EASE IN THE SLEEVE CAP! But then, Kathleen Fasanella says that sleeve cap is bogus - see her post about it here. There was also a discussion on PR - go to Message Boards, Creative Sewing, and then Making Clothes Look Less Homemade - the discussion starts on page 11 of that thread. The sleeve looks perfectly OK and suits me perfectly.
The sleeve cap is fused too! (I wasn't doing that nor was I ever instructed to do it) - see below what I'm talking about:

Also, I like very much the shoulder pad. It is the best I've ever had in a jacket. It gives shape without being too bulky (I have round defined shoulders and I really hate how I look with shoulder pads thicker than... let's say 1 cm).

See the pad below, compared to the best shoulder pads I can buy here (they are Italian and cost a bit more than 2 euros per pair, which is about 3 times more than "normal" shoulder pads):

Notice how the shoulder pad from the jacket doesn't have a symmetrical shape, like the bought one. The part going in the front is longer and thinner (lower part of photo), the one going in the back (upper part of photo) is shorter and fatter. Also, the pad is made out of three layers, assembled with pad stitching:

The bought pad is made out of foam, one layer and covered in soft knit mesh.

I'm thinking of making my own shoulder pads from now on. I must find foam for that. The foam piece in the picture above is thicker in the middle and thinner at the ends, but I can achieve this by layering several pieces of foam, in different sizes.

My houndstooth jacket from this pattern is coming along in a great way so far. I'm taking this opportunity to use all the tailoring techniques that I know of: shaping the lapel with an additional piece of interfacing and using stay tape for the lapel roll line; taping the fronts; adding a chest shield; adding a wigan strip to the sleeve hem; sewing the collar in a bulkless way etc.

When the jacket is finished, I'll post links to what I've found online about tailoring and also some pictures showing how I sew the collar to the jacket (a bulkless method, I think).

But... the International Salsa Congress starts tomorrow in Bucharest and it will keep me very busy.

Despite the pompous name, a salsa congress is an informal and fun event. You have workshops (about three simultaneous workshops in each time slot) the entire day, led by the greatest international instructors/dancers, and parties at night. People come from every corner of this world.

At the end of the congress (Sunday night) I'll probably be half dead, but it's definitely worth it!

Ta-daaa... first wardrobe piece

2007-09-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

Between interfacing my houndstooth jacket (well, not jacket, pattern pieces) and trying to finish my red McCall jacket (I still have to hem the jacket, hem the sleeves, sew the buttons and sew the lining closed, but I really don't feel like it), I've finished my Modern Sewing lace up skirt. It seemed like quite an easy quick project and I wanted a pencil skirt therefore here it is.

Front

Back

Close-up of lacing detail

Read the pattern review written for PR here.

Updated storyboard and fabric photos

2007-09-03T02:14:00.000-07:00

Storyboard version 1.1 :). I've decided to give up (or postpone sewing) one of the BWOF jackets and replace it with a copy from RTW - for this purpose, I undid my favorite jacket ever. It comes from a Romanian designer, it fits me beautifully (I'm sorry, but I forgot to take a picture before undoing it, pictures of the undone jacket will follow) and I hated the fabric of the jacket - therefore it was a perfect candidate for undoing and copying it. I've already cut it out of the houndstooth from TimmelFabrics, interfaced it and prepared it for sewing. I still have to cut the lining.

Fabrics: Top row, from left to right: Italian black suiting (wool, rayon, elasthane); houndstooth in silk and flax from TimmelFabrics; black cotton/lycra; dark grey suiting; off-white suiting
Second row, from left to right: light grey suiting; autumn red suiting; black and white krinkle cotton from TimmelFabrics; white stretch cotton; dark grey knit viscose/lycra; white cotton/lycra
Last row: white shirting; white and black stripped cotton/lycra.

Coat fabrics: red, white and black boucle from TimmelFabric; black stretchy wool; red mystery fabric

And now, my accent colours:

Red:

Yellow: I would like a jacket in the same shade, but it's absolutely impossible to find a doubleknit or suiting in that coulour :(

Emerald: I will buy a bag in the same shade. The fabric is a doubleknit.

Purple. The fabric is a knit.

Strings of fake pearls that will go very well with the retro trend of this season:

And before I go...
Have you ever seen a cat sleeping like mine??

Provisional storyboard

2007-08-31T00:16:00.001-07:00

This is just a first draft. You'll notice for instance that there are patterns who don't have a fabric assigned (I have to pull out fabric during the weekend and decide). There are patterns I'm not yet sure I will make for this wardrobe (Burda WOF 06/2007, jacket 107) put I put them here anyway, awaiting a final decision. The Loes Hinse Hepburn pants are going to be in or out, depending on how the muslin will look. I've got the Burda WOF 09/2007 yesterday but so far, I'm not that enthusiastic about it.

The Modern Sewing Lace skirt will be sewn in a black suiting with very tiny white dots, but I forgot to take a picture of the fabric.

I need more tops, but these are the tops that I like so far. And anyway, this is not a contest with strict rules, this is me wanting to have a wardrobe, therefore I can add bought tops as well, as long as they go with at least three other items.

This weekend I will pull fabrics and take pictures of them. Pictures of accesories will follow also.

Until then, have a fun weekend!

Planning for fall sewing

2007-08-29T05:10:00.002-07:00

Well, I'm back from holidays and trying to re-adjust to going to office :) My brain still refuses to get into "work" mode and office hours seem unusually long, but little by little I'm hopefully getting back on track.

After getting the second prize in the PR Wardrobe contest for my summer wardrobe, my mind was already set on fall sewing the entire holidays, so like every season these past two years, I've started reading a lot about fall/winter trends. This means buying tons of magazines, reading them, cutting (hm, tearing) away pictures that I like and gluing them in a big notebook. My favorite website for reading about fashion trends is (surprisingly maybe) not style.com, but Fashion Era. Why? Because Pauline from Fashion Era not only does a comprehensive and informative synthesis of key trends (read her trend report here), but always has a Wardrobe tips article, telling you what to keep and what to get every season if you want to be really trendy, as well as providing tips for updating your wardrobe.

Other articles that I found useful are from Stylediary:

Fall Fashion Strategy - what to add, what to rework, what to stash
Cues from the Runway
Fall Shopping List

Even before holidays, the idea of sewing capsule wardrobes haunted me. I know I want to do a Salsa dancing wardrobe, but haven't planned in detail. And I want to do a Fall/Winter wardrobe as well. I might be doing a storyboard soon, but here is what I've decided so far:

It's going to be a black, white and grey wardrobe. I'll add accents in red (jacket, skirt, trousers planned; white, black and red dress; I have lots of red jewelry; I want to buy a nice red leather bag; I found gorgeous Italian patent shoes on sale during my holidays - photo soon)
I'll also add accents (jackets, jewelry, bags) in bold bright jewel colours: I'm thinking yellow (already bought a necklace and a bag - pictures soon), green and the star colour of this season, purple.
I want to make cropped retro jackets, I like bell sleeves worn with long gloves (have to get or make long gloves)
I want pencils skirts, high-waisted
I want A-line dresses (worn with opaque tights) and slim dresses
I want more slouchy pants and maybe men's pants too (without the pleat)
I haven't decided on how many items I will sew, but there are going to be more tops than bottoms and each item will have to go with at least three other items.
I want to sew one or two coats. Maybe a trench too if I find the right fabric.

A storyboard with fabrics and patterns will probably follow quite soon, but I want to do a more careful planning (even if I will change it many times) and maybe wait for the September issue of Burda WOF as well.

PR Wardrobe Contest -- Composite review

2007-07-28T12:25:00.001-07:00

2007 Wardrobe Contest - Fleurs de la Mer, LauraLo
16 items

Combo 1
Combo 2
Combo 3
Combo 4
Combo 5
Combo 6
Combo7
Combo 8

Initial storyboard. As you will see, I changed many things compared to the initial plan, but stuck to the fabrics and colours chosen initially. It is very normal for me to keep changing my mind, I'm a Libra :) Well, all kidding apart, I do change my plans often when I sew. To sew well, I need an idea that challenges me and absorbs all my creative energy, transforming me into a little sewing maniac, therefore if I get such an idea, I tend to change my initial plan and give up other "less-inspiring" things.

I've also changed the name of my wardrobe to "Fleurs de la Mer" - Flowers of the Sea, because of the flower motive that comes in two skirts and the jacket and because the colours make me think of the sea.

I made 7 tops (four needed for the contest and three extras - top 6 and top 7 do not go very well under the jacket, but at Anne's advice, I post them as extras, therefore they do not have to go with everything, 5 skirts (three needed for the contest and two extras), 1 pant (extra), 2 dresses and 1 jacket (counting as accessory).

Here they are:

Jacket - white cotton with blue and lime green cotton/lycra knit flower appliques, satin bias bound patch pockets, bound collar

Top 1 - flowery viscose top, with trim at the bust line
Top 2 - a second flowery viscose top, with trim at hem
Top 3 - lime green cotton/lycra knit top, with "homemade" trim at neckline and bound armholes
Top 4 - aqua cotton/lycra knit top, with homemade trim at the bust line and dolman sleeve
Top 5 - aqua linen top, with homemade trim at the bust line and bound armholes
Top 6 - lime green cotton/lycra top, with knotted straps
Top 7 - blue cotton/lycra top, with cross-stitch embellishing

Skirt 1 - A-line, white cotton with blue and lime green flower appliques and satin bias bound hemline
Skirt 2 - kiwi organza bias skirt, underlined with self-fabric
Skirt 3 - aqua satin bias skirt, with hand embroidery and sheer square sequins
Skirt 4 - kiwi stretch cotton batiste skirt, with homemade trim and satin bias binding at the hemline
Skirt 5 - aqua stretch cotton batiste skirt, with hem band and waistband in blue cotton satin and flower appliques. Underlined in self fabric.

Pants - slouchy jeans in blue stretch denim

Dress 1 - mock wrap-up dress with bias skirt, in white linen/silk
Dress 2 - sleeveless Cosmo in white cotton/lycra with lime green waistband, ties, and neckline and armholes binding

I really enjoyed this contest, even if I change my mind a lot or get sidetracked, even if at the end I feel a bit bored of the same colours. But it keeps me disciplined and makes me accomplish things. If I would set myself the goal to sew a capsule wardrobe, I will probably get sidetracked a lot more and finish in 1 year. If finishing at all.

I've also discovered that I really enjoy writing reviews (maybe that's why my reviews keep getting longer, sorry if I am boring), I like sharing things with potential readers, I like the idea that what I know or discover might me helpful someday to somebody else. I've also made lots of friends here at PR and via my blog and I'm grateful to all the people who encouraged me, offered advice, suggestions and compliments. Not only this feedback is very rewarding, but it also makes me want to get better.

And thirdly, it seems I have two fears less after this contest: working with bias, especially sheer fabrics, and sewing jeans.

I'll be leaving for the seaside on the 3rd of August and guess what, I'm taking this entire wardrobe with me! I've already worn everything in this little wardrobe and I love and feel great in all the pieces. They do say something about my taste, about my lifestyle, they do say something about me... therefore I'm happy!

My Burda 08/2007 is here...

2007-07-26T03:59:00.000-07:00

Just in time, I'm so ready to start sewing for fall.
I glanced through the magazine and so far I wanna make these:

I might do that in a dark grey or black cotton/lycra. And another one in a print?

I'll do this in a very good quality cotton batiste or in a white shirting (cotton plus a bit of elasthane)

I think I will do this as a jacket and not a rain cape. I'm thinking the silk and linen BW houndstooth from TimmelFabrics. Got to find a black glossy buckle.

These pants, in dark grey drapey wool suiting. Maybe a second pair in beige.

I adore this. It's so... me. Got to have this. Red or white suiting. Or light grey? Got to find a nice closure for this. Or maybe make one if I can find D-rings. And to go with that, I want a high-waisted pencil skirt, like the picture below. Will use boning.

I want to use fabrics from my stash. During the past two days, I organized my fabric using a tool created by Deepika from Patternreview. I now have two folders with sheets of yellow thicker paper, full of fabric swatches. It's great, I can look at them all the time and combine fabrics or take them fabric shopping to find matches. Or just to discover I have fabric I forgot about :)

For this jacket, as well as for the cape above, I want to make a pair of long gloves, I found some tutorials and patterns on the Internet (will post the links soon). Don't know if I can find leather anywhere here so maybe I'll order some. Or just make them in a nice stretch velvet. Any suggestions?

Classic jeans for my husband from a new pattern company

2007-07-24T01:10:00.000-07:00

Copy of my PR review

Pattern from e-sewingpatterns.com, Classic Jeans (it was a free pattern for test. You can download one pattern for free and then, if you want to download a second one, you must comment on your download - if the downloading process was ok, if collating the pattern was ok etc. I commented that I had some problems in assembling the pattern - some columns made out of A4 sheets didn't exactly match other columns and I received good feedback. They told me that I should set my printer for Letter size, even if I print on A4. Haven't tried it yet, but it might indeed solve the problem I had).

Pattern Description:
Men's traditional 5-pocket jean, slim fit that´s narrow through the seat and thigh, have zipper fly, waistband with belt carriers, back yoke, back patch pockets, front pockets, a coin pocket, flaring below the knee to a well-defined boot cut, sits at the waist

Pattern Sizing:
First I downloaded size 32 and made a muslin, and it was really too loose on the waist and hips, and the crotch too long. I've then downloaded a size 30 and it's funny, even if it's for a waist measurement of 76 and my husband's waist is 84 cm it fits perfectly at waist (I measured the waistband when closed and it's exactly 84 cm)! They do say that the pattern is constructed for 3% x 3% shrinking fabric, but this would mean that the actual waist would be 78, not 84. Don't get it, but I'm glad it fits. I might download a size 28 and discover to my amazement that it pretty much fits without modifications! :)

It's the first pattern I see that it's designed for fabric which wasn't previously washed. Now, my fabric was washed already. And not only that but I discovered lately that almost all fabrics I buy do not shrink or shrink infinitesimally. I don't know if it's because they are pre-washed before selling (kind of doubt it) or because we seldom use dryers in my country and in many European countries that I know (I never use one, I hang everything to dry)...

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes, it does.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Instructions? You must be kidding me. Here are the instructions (all of them): "1. Serge edge pieces. Add fusibles or interfacing to respective pieces. 2. Prepare/stitch waistband. 3. Prepare/stitch belt loops. 4. Prepare/stitch back pockets and stitch them at each back piece. 5. Prepare/stitch facing pocket at lining pocket pieces at the each front. 6. Prepare/stitch the minipocket and stitch it at right front. 7. Join/stitch back yoke pieces at each back piece. 8 Stitch back pieces at back center. 9. Stitch zipper at front center and close to crotch. 10. Close/stitch by side edges. 11. Stitch waistband at waistline and stitch belt loops. 12. Close inside legs. 13. Stitch hem. 14 Do buttonhole and add button. 15. Do final details and press"

The translation is quite poor of course, but I do not mind that as much as I mind the shortness and ambiguity of instructions. I'm also a bit amazed that they instruct you to stitch the waistband to the pants and add the belt loops before sewing the leg inseams but... whatever. My advice is not to attempt to sew these if you do not have an idea what you should do, because you cannot count on the instructions.

Anyway, I did it my way and used again Sandra Betzina's method for a fly-front zipper. Everything was ok. Not a very complicated pattern, just lots of topstitching. The notches were off too but this might be because of me printing on A4 sheets instead of Letter.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I wanted to try a classic five-pockets jean, especially after making some jeans for me and discovering I can manage quite well the topstitching (previous attempts at jeans, many years ago, failed exactly because of my topstitching).

Fabric Used:
Very nice and smooth cotton twill, medium weight.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:
Took in the side seams, starting below the yoke with about 1 cm. Took in the back crotch with about 1 cm. Shortened back and front crotch by about 2.5 cm.
Also, the pocket bag is far too big, it extends far beyond the front fly, so I've cut out a big part.
Shortened the pants with 5 cm (and they say the pants are designed for a 176 cm height. Well, my husband is 178 cm and the pants are faaar too long). They don't say how much the hem allowance is, but I made a 3.5 cm hem. Go here to see how I've modified the pattern - you'll see the actual pattern pieces and the thin black lines are my modifications lines. The extra will be cut away.

See here a close-up of the front pants, with three pockets, studs instead of rivets, topstitching etc.

See here a close-up of the back with yoke, back pockets embellished with topstitching, waistband, loops etc

See here a close-up of the hem and the double topstiching on the leg inseam.

Regarding the waistband, I sewed it using the tutorial made by Kathleen Fasanella - see it here. She designed the tutorial for sewing a cuff to a shirt's sleeve, but believe me, it works wonders for a waistband too! What a unbulky, simple application, I really liked it.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Well, after making these changes (not a lot of them and not very painful), the pants fit really nice and I would love to make them again. I love their line and I think that this pattern could be easily adapted to linen for instance, for a pair of nice summer pants (ditching the pockets, yoke and all the topstitching, of course).

I must say that I'm really very proud of these pants, my mother told me that it's not nice to brag about yourself, but I really find they are one of the most professional-looking items that I've made. The topstitching looks really good. I used a special jeans needle (size 100), extra strong jeans thread in the needle and regular thread in the bobbin. No twin needle, just two rows of topstitching. My stitch guide foot was a great help in this - see it here, together with my jean-a-ma-jig - see it here.

Slouchy jeans

2007-07-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

I'm having an awfully busy time at work and the heat wave (50 Celsius, 122F yesterday) is making me tired, irritable, unfocused and letargic :) Still, sewing relaxes me so much that I've tried sewing in small portions (like 1h30' every night) so I can still get something done. Those small portions are however difficult, because once I'm started, I get so involved in what I'm doing that I don't want to stop.

Made from the denim that came from TimmelFabrics, using Hot Patterns Artful Dodger Slouchy Man Pants.

I'm not sure I like them very much on me, but it's probably my fault too, I should try them on with a t-shirt and a belt and I might like them, but I was really very tired last night, plus I wanted you to see the waistband.

PR review copied here:

Pattern Description:
Slouchy-fit pants sit on the hips and have a classic waistband, with belt loops, front fly, and angled pockets. Pants feature front and back leg creases and turn-ups.

Pattern Sizing:
Slinky Girl 6-14. I made size 6.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes, with the modifications I made. See pants flat front and back. See back of the pants with me wearing them.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
I didn't follow the instructions, especially since I prefer to use Sandra Betzina's technique for a fly-front zipper - see a video of this technique, if you want, here.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I like the classic shape of the pants, the wider leg (quite tendy right now), the turn-ups. The rise is a bit low however.

Fabric Used:
Stretch thin denim.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:
First of all, I've raised the waist by 1.5 cm, the pants previously made from this pattern being a little low. I've also lowered the crotch for about 1 cm, change made at the last part of the crotch (the curved one that joins the inseam).

Using my Denim Diva Pipe Jeans pattern, I made rounded jean pockets in the front, the yoke in the back and one jean pocket in the back (thought that one pocket might be funkier than two). See a detail iof the front pockets, fly and wastband here.
See here a detail of the back yoke and pocket.

Obviously, there is no crease. Also, no turn-ups, just a wide hem (5.5 cm), with double topstitching (I haven't used a twin needle, but a normal one and sewed two rows of topstitching). See the hem here

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I will definitely sew it again. As you can see, this is a very versatile pattern that one can easily change. The first version of this pattern is a black wool office pant that I like and wear a lot. Now, this second version is more casual, in denim and with a slouchy relaxed look. I'm already thinking of making another wool pair and possibly some in linen too. I think the wide leg would drape quite nicely in linen.

I'M DONEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-07-13T01:18:00.001-07:00

My last PR contest item and of course... an extra :)

Copied from my PR review

Burda 03-2007-120

Pattern Description:
Embroidered lace fabric and satin ribbon accentuating the empire line upgrade this romantic top into a trendy highlight.

Pattern Sizing:
34-42. I made 34.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Yes, it does.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
I don't read nor use Burda instructions, I just do it my way. Plus this pattern is really not difficult.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I like the flowing bottom part, very much in trend nowadays, the feminine cut of the top and the ribbon detail.

Fabric Used:
Aqua linen and pre-folded bias tape for binding the armholes and making the trim.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:
As I made this top before and discovered it has quite some cleavage, I decided to add for this one 1.5 cm all around the neckline. Good decision, it fits beautifully and I like this wider shoulder, it covers my bra strap very well.

I bound the armholes with pre-folded bias satin tape (I cut away the armhole seam allowances previously) and I used the same tape to embellish and make a trim for the underbust line of the top. I have used variegated metallic thread and a decorative stitch.

Close-up of the binding and trim here.

I used a stretch stitch to sew the trim in place, giving it a handpicked look. See this review for details.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I will definitely sew it again, I like it very much, it is both trendy and feminine.

And the extra is a skirt...

Copied from my PR review:

Tip: Hand picked hem for fine fabric - by Machine though

Butterick 4233
Pattern Description:
Lined, above ankle, below mid-knee or mid-calf A-line skirt has side seam zipper. B: contrast overskirt. C, D: godet. E, F: flounce. I made view C but without the side godet. I made view C without the side godet and some modifications.

Pattern Sizing:
6-20. I made size 6.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Well, I made quite significant changes, so I don't know how much it looks like the drawing on the pattern envelope.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Very easy to follow and this is an easy skirt anyway.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I've tried three different bias skirt patterns in the past two months and I think that this is my favorite. Why? It doesn't have darts (bias skirts made out of thin slippery fabrics fall better on the body if they don't have darts - well, this is what I've noticed). It doesn't have an elastic waist, but a "normal" waist and a zipper (I don't like elastic waists that much), it comes in two different widths, an almost straight skirt and a wider one. I still have to try the pattern in bias, I did two skirts and both were from very stretchy cotton batiste, cut on grain.

Fabric Used:
Stretch cotton batiste, cotton satin and cotton/lycra knit.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:
I ditched the side godet, added a wide (10 cm) cotton satin band at the hem and I did appliques on it, using the same flower template that I used for this jacket and this skirt, only this time I cut a hole in the middle of the flower, to change a little bit the template and not get very boring. Close-up of the applique.

I've underlined the skirt using the same fabric. The underlining stops just before the band at the hem.

The wide band at the hem was cut twice because I preferred to have a self facing instead of a hem, I wanted the skirt to have weight at the hem. Both the hem facing and the waist band are finished using this tip mentioned at the beginning of the review. Very helpful tip, even if it is for hems, believe me, it works wonders for facings and saving you time because you don't have any handsewing to do. See here how this hand picked stitch by machine looks on the right side of the fabric and click here to see how it looks on the wrong side. Pretty neat, huh?

I added a 4 cm wide waistband, in the same cotton satin and finished it as mentioned above. The invisible zipper extends into the waistband - it is a treatment that I like and use all the time I decide to make a waistband. See a close-up here.

I've used wash-away tape to make sure I match the seams - go here.

My fabric didn't take serging well, no matter how much I played with the tension, the fabric was rolling into the serging, making a bulky finish. After trying for an hour, I've decided on a vintage seam finishing that Marji detailed in this review. See my seams here. They look pretty ok, even after washing, don't you think?

The back of the skirt doesn't have any appliques, I was kind of tired after sewing the 5 flowers on the front, plus I think it makes an interesting contrast. See here the back of the skirt.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I will definitely sew it again, next time I will cut this same wider version, but on the bias. . I am curious how it will drape on the body. I think I have real winner here and it could definitely be my favorite bias skirt pattern, that I will sew over and over again.

Conclusion
I like to have some simple, well-fitting patterns and change them as I like. I think it is important: 1) to have a TNT pattern; 2) to have basic, classic and simple patterns that you can alter and embellish as you like. When I see a new style, a trendy cut, an interesting garment, I don't jump and buy the pattern, but first, I think what pattern in my stash I could change to do that garment. Think that all the more sophisticated garments start from a classic, simple shape, which is then manipulated and changed.

Yummy fabrics

2007-07-13T01:14:00.001-07:00

My fabrics from TimmelFabrics, representing my 2nd prize for the 2007 SWAP are here!
Aren't they absolutely lovely?

Top row, from left to right: black and white krinkle, houndstooth suiting, silk tweed, boucle
Second row: aqua linen, turquoise linen, thin stretch denim, green linen, ocean linen
Pattern: Lois Hinse's Hepburn pants

Fourth top done

2007-07-11T00:28:00.001-07:00

Aqua knit top using Butterick 4737 - I changed the sleeve to a dolman sleeve - see how I did it here.

I used a home made trim again, this time by embellishing a piece of sheer organza ribbon.

I bound the neckline....

And used a triple stitch for the hem, as I was getting a bit tired of my twin needle topstitching.

Copy of my PR review

Butterick 4737

Tip: "Home made" trim

Tip: Drafting a dolman sleeve for a knit top

Tip: Sew a non-stretch trim to a knit top

Tip: Wrong and right side of staytape

Pattern Description:
Close-fitting, pullover top has neckline and sleeve variations, purchased ribbon bows and trim. I made view C, but changed the way trim is applied and drafted a dolman sleeve.

Pattern Sizing:
6-20. I made a 6.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
It did, with the modifications mentioned above.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Yes, very easy.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I liked the wrap bust part and the underbust seam. it gives the top an Empire waist touch, plus the bust part is very flattering for my B cup.

Fabric Used:
Aqua cotton/lycra.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:
I took in the side seams for about 1 cm, I think the pattern is for moderate stretch knits and my fabric was quite stretchy. I changed the sleeve into a dolman sleeve (see my tip with photos on how I did that, if you would like details). I sewed staytape in the shoulder seam (which was longer after "merging" the sleeve and the bodice.

I bound the neckline instead of sewing trim. I cut away the neckline seam allowance for that. I first staystitched the front necklines and I crowded the back neckline (it was a bit large so I wanted to draw it in). I then sewed a piece of knit, about 3 cm wide, cut on grain to the neckline, stretching very gently, just a tiny bit to cup the neckline. Pressed the seam allowance, turned the knit tape under and sewed in the ditch using my stretch stitch (zigzag 1 mm wide 2.5 cm long). Pressed again and trimmed the tape. It is a non-bulky very clean way to bind your knits.

I used a piece of sheer organza ribbon, embellished with a decorative stitch and sewn on the underbust seamline. See my tips on making your own trim and sewing non-stretch ribbon to stretch fabric, if you're interested.

I was getting bored of my twin needle topstitching, therefore I decided to topstitch the hems (sleeves and bodice) using a triplestitch (it's a stretch stitch so it's ok) and I'm quite pleased with the result.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I will definitely sew it again, I think it's my third top using this pattern and everytime I found something to change or to embellish. I like this type of versatile pattern, that you can embellish, morph and so on.