Two Shirts with Yellow

Hi kids!

I'm a little under the weather today - I think I've got a cold coming on.  But had a very productive sewing weekend, so I decided to get over myself and take some pictures while the sun is out.

I've been on a mini-mission to go back and adjust some of my favorite patterns, now that I have a slightly better handle on fitting.  One of these I mentioned last week in my plans for this month:  the Archer shirt.  I promised I'd only make a couple adjustments, but in the end, I did just one:  the forward shoulder adjustment.  After wearing one of my Archers last week, I felt that this was the one adjustment I needed above all others.  (Of course, I'd already adjusted the button spacing and graded out two sizes at the hip in my previous version, and I kept those adjustments.)  And I'm so glad I stopped there - I'm declaring this adjusted pattern perfect now.  I'm so happy with how the fit turned out:  it's comfortable and slightly slouchy, and the forward shoulder adjustment took care of the twisting of the sleeves I was getting, as well as the tendency of the shirt to drift toward the back.  Now that I've got this pattern the way I want it, I'm going to be making LOTS more of these.

Normally I wear shirts like this with the sleeves rolled up, but I'd done such a nice job ironing it, I didn't want to get it all wrinkly! 

You can see here that I've still got a tiny bit of pooling in the lower back, but it was interesting to me that the forward shoulder adjustment seemed to take some of it away with no swayback adjustment.  I think for the future I won't bother with the swayback - as I said, I like it now how it is, sort of slouchy.

One of the reasons I'd put off adjusting this pattern for a while is that the instructions in Fit for Real People didn't make a lot of sense to me.  The book recommends just moving the notch for the shoulder forward on your yoke piece.  On me, the yoke didn't even extend up and over the top of my shoulder, so I wasn't sure how well that would work.  I also wasn't looking forward to removing the seam allowance from the front of the sleeve and adding it to the back.  I stewed on it for a while, and googled around for some other methods.  I landed on this forward shoulder adjustment from Heather B, which also didn't make much sense to me - it seemed like it would angle the yoke forward too much, western-shirt style.  But I decided to give it a go, and it really worked well.  Also from Heather B, I learned this sleeve cap slide, so I was able to avoid the dreaded seam-allowance removal+addition.  So thanks, Heather B!

Here's a better look at the shirt itself - how lovely is this fabric?  I got it probably a year and a half ago from Fishman's, one of my local fabric stores.  It's a super-soft cotton lawn.  It just feels amazing against the skin.  And although it's grey, it's a very soft blue-grey, broken up by the light mustard yellow.  I just love it.

Encouraged by my Saturday success, yesterday I decided to do the same forward shoulder and sleeve cap adjustments on another old favorite, the Lisette Continental blouse (Simplicity 2059).  I've made this top three times before, and I wear all three of them often.  Again, a loose, slouchy, smock-like design - the type of top I reach for when I want to be cute but comfy.  My three older tops fit pretty well, but had the same problem of drifting toward the back, inching up my neck.  I'm happy to report that this adjustment has taken care of that, so this is another pattern I'll likely be making up again.

I found it very interesting  to see how the shoulder seam looks on the hanger:

It looks like it angles severely toward the front, but on my body, it exactly follows the line of my shoulder.  BTW:  on both these shirts I did a 1/2" forward adjustment.

This top was also made with a piece of fabric from Fishman's - a lovely remnant, bought at the same time as the fabric above.  It's a subtle plaid of the palest grey and almost acid yellow, another very soft cotton but slightly heavier than the Archer fabric.  Such a pleasure to wear. 

I didn't have enough of this piece to worry about matching the plaid, but it came out alright, and it's so subtle anyway that it doesn't really matter that it's not perfect.

Remember when I was talking about how I hang my mending on my dresser to get myself to do it?  Well, here's a little secret:  I also hang my most recent makes there, so I can admire them for a few days before they go into the closet :-)  I added a pretty vintage scarf in similar colors to the Continental blouse.

Do you guys admire your recent makes for a while before putting them into the closet?  I thought about wearing one of these today, but I have some messy work to do, so I'll just have to keep popping in to look at them.

Better Late than Never!

Remember back in June when Alicia and I went to Vogue and ended up each getting a remnant of the same border print?  We promised a co-blog project, each of us making a different project with our fabric.  We've both finally finished, and yesterday we had a nice outing to a yarn shop and then lunch, and we both wore our new garments.  Niecey-poo was kind enough to snap a couple of pictures for us.

We were laughing because we'd had a couple of funny outtakes before we got this picture!

I love Alicia's skirt so much, and I'm not the only one - when we were in the yarn shop, a girl actually came up to her and asked her how she made it!  So flattering.

I ended up making the Lisette Portfolio top, and I must say, I'm kind of in love with it!  Much more than I was expecting to be.  I had hoped to make the tunic length, but the fabric wasn't wide enough to make the print work, so I had to go with the top.  I was worried that it would be too cropped, but with a narrow hem, I think it came out just right.  I wore it with my red Clover pants, but I also like it with jeans.

I made this over 2 days right before Niecey-poo came, and took a bunch of great in-progress shots.  But somehow, they all got lost in the demise of my old computer.  I tried to take a few shots of the blouse itself yesterday morning, but it was very cloudy so they're not great.

 

 

front

back

I spent a long time on this top, and was very careful with all my details.  Consequently, I think it's one of the best things I've ever made.  I finished all the seams except the center back by serging both layers together.  But I'm most proud of my stitch-in-the-ditch around the neck.  That's a technique I find really difficult, so I did it very slowly, sometimes even hand-cranking at the curves, and got a result I'm very pleased with.  I decided to go with a machine-stitched hem because my thread was a good match, and I didn't think it would detract from the overall look.

finished seam and hem

front inset

This fabric was so nice to work with.  It's very lightweight - I'd call it a lawn.  The label just said cotton, but Alicia thinks there might be a little silk in it, and I agree with her.  It has a very nice drape that's almost floaty, and it doesn't press as crisply as a cotton would.  I love it so much, when I found three more remnants of it at another location of Vogue, I bought them!

For details on Alicia's skirt, head on over to Iron-On Maiden!

Birds of a feather

Yep, here we are, Alicia and me, in the remnant room at Vogue Fabrics in Evanston last Friday:

I swear she bought more fabric than I did!  I don't know how I ended up with so many bags!

A funny thing happened while we were there.  I ended up getting there earlier than the time we'd agreed to meet, so I spent a little time looking through the remnants while I waited.  There was one fabric I kept coming back to . . .   Later, when we were checking out the remnants together, Alicia went for the same fabric I'd been looking at!

There were two 1.5 yard pieces, so we decided to each get one and do a co-blog project.  Our mental wheels were turning as we ate lunch later, thinking of different ways we could use this lovely double-border print:

I finally decided a few days later that I'd like to make a loose top, and settled on the Portfolio pattern by Lisette.  I was hoping to be able to fit the tunic length into the print, but sadly it's too long, so I'll be going with the blouse length.  I'm hoping I can lengthen it a smidge, but I'm really set on having the navy and aqua flowers at the bottom, transitioning into the red flowers at the shoulder, so I'm not sure I'll be able to.

Alicia plans on writing a post today too, about her plans for her piece of fabric.  So hop on over there to see!  Hers is going to be much different!

Almost-toile Voile

On Tuesday, I shirked most of my duties and instead made this blouse:

This is the Lisette Souvenir Blouse, in a cotton voile print that is very like toile, except that there are no people.  I bought this piece of fabric a few months ago from Vogue, intending it to be for the muslin of this blouse - which technically, it is.  But I ended up really loving this print!  So I'm glad there were no unhappy surprises in the construction of this piece.

I cut a straight size 10, and only made one modification.  Rather than doing a deep hem like the pattern calls for, I did a tiny hem to make it longer.  Do you see where I'm going with this?  Yes, it covers up the wavy zipper of my Clover pants!  But to accomodate my hips, I ended up having to make side vents.  I just unpicked each side seam 3"  and then stitched 1/4" from the fold:

I love this blouse, but there's one tiny detail that I'm not too happy with.  On the front neckline, there's a part of the design that makes it look like I made a mistake in stitching!   See if you can spot it:

I swear, it's the print of the fabric and not shoddy stitching!

This pattern wasn't too difficult; I'd say the whole thing took me about 4.5 hours, and that includes tracing the pattern and cutting the fabric.  The construction of the sleeves and yokes is interesting, and I'll admit the directions didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.  But I was able to figure out how it was supposed to go together and just ignore the instructions.

Yesterday I wore it to run errands and do chores around the house, pairing it with the Clovers for their test run.  I'm pretty happy with the fit of the pants, and they didn't loosen up (read:  get baggy) as much as I'd suspected they might.  And with this top to cover up the zipper, I felt pretty darned cute, even though allergies are keeping me from wearing any makeup these days.

Are any of you thinking of making this top?  When the new spring patterns from Lisette came out, I was a little underwhelmed, but they've really grown on me! 

Grey Wall, part 2

OK, the truth is that yesterday I put on three different outfits for my photoshoot, because I had three FOs I hadn't blogged yet!  Sooooooooooo lazy!

Here's the Traveler Shirtdress, at long last.  The day after I finished it, the weather here returned to what is normal for this time of year:  i.e. too cold to wear this dress outside yet!  I'm kind of bummed, because this dress is Cake*.  Like I said before, I'll definitely be making more of these.  But not striped!

*Isn't Tasia the cutest?

Four pockets!!

Outfit details:
Boden sunglasses, circa 2009
infinity scarf
 Traveler Dress, View A
Frye Blair Peep in Coral 

What fabric should I use
for the next one?

Back view is pretty good!
And by that I mean slimming!

Sans scarf, so you can see
the neckline.

Are any of you planning on making this dress?  I really recommend it.  My notes about my experience with it are here.

One more Grey Wall to go!  And it's a good 'un . . . it has vintage jewelry!

The Zebra Effect

My BFF loves zebras, and she's told me more than once about how their stripes keep them safe(r) from lions and the like:  when they run as a herd, the stripes create such visual confusion that the predators can't really pick any one animal to attack.

My new dress is a lot like that.

This is the Lisette Traveler Dress, view A.  I worked on this little by little over the last week, but did the majority of the sewing over the weekend.  And friends, it was not easy.  But only because of this cotton/poly seersucker I used.  My eyes just couldn't stay focused with all those stripes!

But the pattern itself was great!  This one has been on my list for quite a while, and I bought the fabric over two months ago.  I really love shirtdresses, but if you're curvy like me, you know that the RTW ones are not always suited to our shapes.  I was really excited to be able to make my own shirtdress, in a size that fit me.  I cut a size 10 on top, grading to a 12 in the hips.  In reality, I'm more like a 14 in the hips in Simplicity patterns, but my experience with them has been that they have a fair amount of ease, and at least with this pattern, it worked out for me.

It fits great, and on a day when I've washed my hair and put on some makeup, I'll put it on and take some pictures for you.

You probably can't tell, but this dress has four patch pockets:  two on the chest and two at the hip.  I won't lie: they were kind of tedious to make, but honestly, I can't imagine the dress without them.  Plus, now that allergy season is in full swing, I need a place to put my Kleenex.

No, I didn't even try to match up stripes!

I'm thinking that when I wear this for real, I'll pair it with that voile infinity scarf I made a couple weeks ago, and roll up the sleeves for a little more insouciance:

I like how the stripes and flowers look together:

I will be making this again for sure, in a fabric that won't fight with me.  In all these months of sewing, I've really only been using cotton and silk (with my first Jasmine being the only exception).  When I was prepping the fabric, after it came out of the dryer I was really excited because it was so wrinke-free!  (Well, except for the seersucker wrinkles that are supposed to be there.)  That should make this a pretty good traveling dress.  But after I cut it, man, did it fray!  Good thing Sergio was there to help me out with that.

In other news, I also did a fair amount of knitting over the weekend, but not on Miette!  I felt like I needed to get going on Winnie, because even though I told everybody to buy extra yarn for their Miette sweaters, I didn't buy any extra for Winnie!  (In my defense, I usually do buy extra, but I was already buying 9 balls, and I felt like that should really be enough for a short cardi.)  Anyway, after I finished the first front, it looked like my supplies were dwindling a little too fast.  So I powered through the second front and almost half the first sleeve, trying to gauge if I'll have to order some more.  But I think I'm going to be OK!

For the knit along, I know that Heidi has cast on, and I think by the time I publish, Jo will have too!  I'm really hoping to see some pictures other than mine on the Flickr group soon!  I think I won't need to do any more posts on it for a little while, until we get closer to removing the sleeves.  But if anyone has any questions they'd like me to address, please let me know!

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig . . .

Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

I set myself some crafting goals for the weekend.  I've got too many unfinished bits and pieces laying around, and it's making me uncomfortable.  So today, I finally finished my muslin for the Lisette Market Blouse - I began it almost a month ago and completed all but the second sleeve and the hem in one afternoon, then set it aside! I didn't feel very inspired to finish it, because the fit isn't what I'd hoped it would be.

Now that it's done, I'm finding the fit isn't as bad as I'd first thought, but it's not super-flattering either.  I cut a straight size 10 with no modifications.  The shoulders are a smidge too wide (and I have wide-ish shoulders to begin with) and although there is some shaping at the sides, the overall effect is rather baggy.  Still, it might look cute with some rolled up jeans and ballet flats, in a farm-girl sort of way.

I dug through my button jar and chose 3 different buttons to complement the colors in the print:

I think part of the reason I'm not 100% satisfied is that I'm not in love with this fabric.  Which is why I chose to use it in a muslin.  I bought it on impulse during the Sorbetto Craze of 2011, but I'm not really sure why.  It reminds me of pajamas;  but I didn't buy enough to make pajamas.

The other thing I'm not happy about with this one is that I rushed through it on Day 1, so there is some uneven stitching.  And then I ran out of thread, so the stitching on the second sleeve and the hem is a different color pink.  I wonder if anyone will notice it other than me.

I will wear this for knocking around the house, but I think if I want to use this pattern again I will have to do some adjustments in the shoulders.  And honestly, I'm not sure if I feel it's worth it . . .

Yesterday

. . .  I spent the afternoon making up my third Continental Blouse.  This should just about do it for now!

The fabric is Anna Maria Horner's Coreopsis voile in raspberry.  I fell in love with this print as soon as I saw it.  It calls to mind all sorts of things I love:  Neuland type, the artwork of Aubrey Beardsley (it's not all perverted), and the woodcuts of modern artist Nick Wroblewski, of which I'm lucky to own a couple examples.  What it doesn't call to mind is coreopsis - at least not any of the varieties I've ever had in my garden!  Beautiful, nonetheless.

It's going to be a while before I can actually wear this - the voile is very fine, so this top is quite lightweight.  I'm hoping to be able to wear it when we take our little "get away from winter" mini-vacation in a month or so.

This is the first item I've crossed off from my Spring Sewing list!  My plan is to start work on the Pussy Bow Blouse next.  I had to get a new printer to print out the pattern:  my (ten-year-) old one broke as I was trying to print it out last week!  I even dug out my paper cutter for the occasion!  So I'm hoping to spend some time this weekend assembling the pattern.  I don't know if I'm in the minority, but I really enjoy assembling PDF patterns!

A big week.

Hello, folks!  I hope that everyone who celebrates Christmas or Hanukkah had/is having a wonderful holiday.  We played it low-key and had dinner with some friends.  For the occasion, I wore the new Continental blouse I made on Friday:

We were running a little late, so I only had time to snap these photos in the guest bathroom mirror.  Once the sun goes down, the best light is in there!

I am absolutely in love with this Anna Maria Horner fabric.  It's called "Turn of Events" from her Innocent Crush line, in a very luxurious-feeling voile.  This fabric has such a fine hand, and the print is so beautiful, it was really a pleasure to work with.  On this one, I did hand-basting not only on the sleeves, but also on the bias neck facing.  I'm stunned that it makes such a difference in how easily and how well things come together.  I'm a convert!

I didn't take the time to write for several days, but I wasn't slacking.  In the last week, I finished a total of six projects!  If you take a look at my list tabs, you'll see lots of things crossed out.  This blouse and the failed Jasmine were the two sewing projects I did, and you've seen the hat and cowl I made for Hubby.  But I also finished my 1958 sweater, and another sweater I've never even mentioned!  So my aim is to get those photographed and up in the next few days.  I'm really happy with both of them.

And now on to the next thing.  I've started a new pair of socks for Hubby, but I'm thinking I'll be starting the Still Light  dress in the next few days too.  I can't wait to dig into that alpaca!

The Secret of My Unsuccess

Well, on the heels of some projects I've been very happy with,  come a couple of disappointments.  Life always finds a way to keep it real.

I still haven't resolved Hubby's hat problem.  And then the other day, I made a mess of a dress.  Spurred on my my success with the Continental Blouse and encouraged by Silaibunai's lovely version on flickr, I decided to try out the Continental Dress. Despite pretty much knowing that this is not a good dress shape for my figure.  So here it is, with my unhappy face cut off:

You may recognize that fabric.  The tie I made was from the leftovers of this dress. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this fabric.  My first impression when I saw it at the store was that it looked like a men's tie; my second thought was that it looks like camouflage.  But I was drawn to the colors because I have handknit cardigans in all the colors in the print, and my idea was to make a lightweight silk dress for layering with them.

So I made up the Continental, going (somewhat) by the measurements on the envelope and cutting a straight size 10 again, just like the blouse.  What you see here is my amended version; the finished dress was way too big in the chest, gaping at the armholes and neckline.  And before anybody says, "You should have made a muslin!" let me just say that I felt going in that this would be my muslin.  At $5.99 a yard, I was able to make this dress and Hubby's tie for $19.18 (which includes tax) - about the same price as real muslin when it's not on sale.  And less than I usually spend on a single tie at Macy's.

I guess it doesn't look so bad, although I'm still on the fence about the print.  But as I said, this is after I did some pretty drastic modifications.  Slap-dash modifications. We were going to a concert last night and Hubby was wearing his new tie; he really wanted me to wear this dress so we could coordinate (isn't that cute?)!  I'd thought I could just throw a sweater over it and be done, but the neckline kept poofing out and making all my business open for everyone to see.  So . . .

I'm not sure if you can see it, because I think the print hides it pretty well, but I made a tuck along the neckline and sewed it down using the same blind stitch as I used to close up the back of the tie.  And because the armholes were so large, I did the same thing at the top of each side seam.

Hubby likes this dress and thinks it looks good on me, but I'm just not crazy about it. It doesn't make me feel pretty or proud of my skills, so it may become something else at a later date.

For reference, I think I have a very pear-shaped body:  my bust is one size, then my waist is 2 sizes larger than that, and my hips another two sizes larger yet.  I think people generally think I'm slimmer than I am because I've learned which styles are flattering on my body shape and which aren't, and I knew that this type of dress was a gamble, although it's the kind of thing I'd like to be able to wear.  Because the size 10 worked for me on the blouse, and I needed the room in the hips, I thought I could get away with the size 10 for the dress (a size less than my usual in sewing patterns).  But for me to get a good fit with this pattern, I think I would have had to go down another two sizes in the bust, then grade it up in the hips.

Also, this dress took me far more time than I'd anticipated, because I ended up hand-stitching the bias border to the neckline and armholes.  I had already made up the pattern pieces, so all I had to do was cut it out and sew it.  I used Sunni's method of laying the slippery silk on some muslin for cutting, and that worked like a charm.  I also did French seams at the sides and shoulders.  Still, it took me 5 hours from start to finish, which I think is too much for a pattern with 5 pieces, 3 of which are bias bindings.

So:  maybe too much information, but I'm putting it down in case anyone else who is considering using this pattern can be helped by my experience with it.   I almost always search finished projects of patterns I'm planning to sew.

At least Hubby likes his tie!

Now I'm going to console myself with some knitting.

As promised.

I'm wearing my new Continental Blouse today, and I feel pretty darned cute!  Wearing it with some pants from Anthropologie that I've had for at least 5 years (likely longer) and BC Footwear wedges that I've probably had for just as long.

front

back

blowing a kiss, just to be silly

better view of the shoes

So here are the particulars.  I cut a straight size 10 with no modifications.  I generally take a size 12 to accommodate my wider hips, but this design has plenty of room in the hips, and I didn't want the bust to be too overwhelming.  I'd say this is a good fit without any modifications.

The fabric is a design by Anna Maria Horner.  I wasn't too familiar with her fabrics until the other day, when I (finally) took a trip over to The Needle Shop.  After long deliberation, this is the fabric I chose to come home with.  I think it's such a cheerful print.  Here's a closer look:

I googled it when I got home, and it seems to be a print called "Shattered" from a line she did called "Innocent Crush."  This is a pretty heavy cotton, which is what I wanted for this top, since I want to be able to wear it all winter.

I did two new (to me) techniques on this top.  I finished all the seams with the "Pinked" finish I learned from Sunni's blog.  I really liked this one; it took a fair amount of time, since you're essentially sewing each seam thrice and then trimming away the excess, but it is very neat and doesn't create extra bulk.

The other technique was to use three rows of stitching for the gathering, a la Colette.  This really does create a much more even gather.  I'll be doing it this way from now on!

So what do you think?  If you sew, have you made this top?  Is it on your list?  I'm sure I'll be making at least one more!

Later the same day.

.75 hours ironing and tracing pattern
.75 hours marking and cutting fabric
.25 hours making and eating peanut butter sandwich
3 hours sewing and ironing

I. Love. This. Top.

Styling tomorrow!

Today

I'm working on the Lisette Continental Blouse.  I've been wanting to make this for a couple months, and finally got some fabric for it yesterday.  Stay tuned!

My Portfolio

Finally got to wear my Lisette Portfolio Dress today:

Note:  corduroy sticks to tights, even if you wear a slip.

Groovy!

I finished my Portfolio Dress yesterday!  Hurray!

front

back

I have to admit I've only tried it on with a sports bra, so I'm not really sure yet about the fit.  It is definitely a little loose, but I'm not sure if it's loose enough that I would go down one size.  This is the first non-Colette pattern I've done since I started sewing again, and it seems there is a bit more room between sizes than with Colette patterns, so the next size down may fit me more snugly than I'd like.  It's probably not the most flattering style on my pear-shaped body, but I was looking for a loose, comfy dress that I could wear with tights and boots, and this one fits the bill.  For reference, my measurements fell in the US 12/EU 38 range, so that's the size I made - it's meant to be caftan-like.

I spent all afternoon yesterday sewing this, having finished making the pattern and cutting out the fabric on Saturday.  So in all, the sewing took me about 5 hours, with short breaks for making coffee.  It was a fairly easy and straightforward pattern to sew, although the directions seemed a little "foreign" to me since I've only been using Colette patterns for the last six months.  The only part I found challenging was sewing the pink neck band onto the patterned fabric; I find it very hard to sew curves.  Oh, and also, "stitching in the ditch" is a lot easier said than done!  I had to unpick and redo in a couple of places.

neckline treatment detail

The pattern called for interfacing the yoke tab, neckline and bottom sleeve bands, but I didn't interface anything, since I was using corduroy.  It is a very lightweight corduroy, but my goal was to have a  really soft, cozy dress - I didn't want any stiffness anywhere.  I'm really glad I left the interfacing off; the fabric has enough body on its own.  I really loved sewing with it - it is so soft, and so NOT slippery!  A nice respite after the Jasmine blouse!

back neck detail

You can't see it in my photos because the fabric is so busy, but there are two good-sized pockets on the front of the dress.  The back has a simple button opening with loops, so there's no need to make buttonholes.

By the way, the color in the bottom two photos is pretty accurate.

I was anxious to finish this dress because - as I'd mentioned - my guest room is my staging area for all my sewing.  But come Friday, I'm going to be using it for guests!  So this week, all the sewing is going to get packed away into the closet.  Which means no more sewing for at least two weeks.  But maybe I can get my Wavy-Line Sweater done . . .