Sewing Workshop -- Plaza Jacket #2

Last August I bought a very interesting novelty fabric – a black chiffon fused with quarter-sized denim dots, making the dots very rigid but also taming their raw edges. This narrow fabric was more expensive than most at my favorite discount fabric store – I think it was $13 per yard – I did not know how I would use it, so I bought two yards. On one side of the selvedge there was a 4" strip (approx) of denim. I bought the beginning of the bolt, so there was another 8" of denim at the start of the bolt.

I loved the fabric's drape with the slightly fraying denim circles but, when I got it home, I was very perplexed by how to use it. I wanted to somehow frame the dots with the included denim, but was having trouble imagining the right pattern. I realized I needed more fabric for the type of design I was considering, especially given the fussy cutting I wanted, so I went back to the fabric store, but the remainder of the small bolt was gone. I asked and it turned out that they had another bolt they hadn't brought out yet. This time the beginning of the bolt had about 10" of denim – yay for me! I bought another couple yards from this second bolt and let the fabric sit while I auditioned patterns in my head. I finally narrowed it to two patterns – the Sewing Workshop's Plaza jacket and a cropped, funky Mizono from Vogue.

In the end, I decided to go with the Plaza jacket, and I tested that pattern out using a handwoven-like fabric. I tweaked the pattern to remove the fullness at the back and to straighten out the back hem so I could include the denim selvedge.

For this particular jacket, I also removed the self fold band from the front pattern piece and omitted the neck pattern piece. Instead, I used the full width available from the narrower piece of denim from the beginning of the bolt (it wasn't much) to make the front band, which is just a long strip, seamed at the CB. The front and back pieces were cut to use the full width of the selvedge to include that perfectly coordinating denim. I used most of the denim from the other bolt cut for the sleeves.

This fabric was not easy to sew or iron. Alternating every few stitches between insubstantial chiffon and the very rigid glued denim could have confounded a sewing machine, but my old Bernina handled it just fine. It was very difficult to turn under edges and iron open seam allowances – just pinning into the denim circles was very difficult and I had the pricked fingers to prove it. But I think the end result was worth it.

I am happy with how it turned out. It's fun to wear – I've worn it to Thanksgiving, DD2's Winter Concert, my sew group's holiday luncheon, and I plan to wear it several more times this holiday season.

Self Drafted -- Tote

My sewing group has a longtime tradition at their annual holiday gathering. Imagine 25 women or so, each bringing a gift, either purchased or hand made, and placing them anonymously under a Christmas tree. Each person draws a number (a higher number is luckier than a lower number) to determine the order of play. Person Number One selects a gift from under the tree and opens it. Person Number Two can either select an unwrapped gift, or she can take Number One's gift, and so on. If a person loses her gift to someone else, she can either select an unopened gift or she can take someone else's gift. (However, a gift can only be "stolen" once per round.) I first played this very fun game with this group close to twenty years ago – I had never heard of it before then. This game has become more popular in the intervening years and I sometimes hear it called Dirty Santa, though I have known it as Greedy Gift Grab.

I was very much looking forward to the party, but it took me awhile to figure out what to bring for my gift. Obviously, one wants to bring a gift that will hopefully appeal to several people, but I hadn't attended the sew group's holiday party for at least 16 years and felt a bit out of touch. Finally, on Black Friday, I headed to Britex to seek out interesting (and affordable) fabrics. Well, I had no luck with the affordable part, but I did fall in love with a home dec fabric at $40 per yard. I bought more than a yard, and a half yard of a coordinating fabric, and headed home to spend the evening figuring out exactly what to do with it. I have very few purse or tote bag patterns (I don't generally enjoy this sort of sewing) but I do have a purchased Sally Spicer tote bag that I like very much. I spent some time studying the tote bag and I finally decided to copy that. This bag is lined, has internal pockets, and is closed with a magnetic snap, which I wanted to recreate.

I went back to Britex on Saturday to get all the necessary notions for the tote (magnetic snap closure, heavy duty interfacing, polypropylene strapping, rayon grosgrain ribbon, seam binding). I had spent so much time at Britex on Friday, several sales people recognized me, or maybe they recognized my Olympia coat, (which one salesperson actually groped :) ), but I was able (for more money than I wanted to spend) get the necessary supplies. (Oh well, the kids don't need Christmas gifts. :) )

I matched the seams. :) The bottom fabric is home dec velveteen, interfaced with a stiff horsehair type of interfacing.

Shown here inside-out, it is lined with a black double voile from my stash, and there is a pocket secured between the straps on both front and back. The exposed seams, and the top of the bag, are covered with a rayon grosgrain ribbon, and the bag closes with a magnetic snap.

All wrapped up!

The holiday luncheon was a success and really fun. My tote bag was "stolen" something like ten times, which was fun to watch. I brought home a gorgeous set of handmade note cards.

Next year, I will definitely plan my gift much earlier!!!

Burda World of Fashion -- Knot Front Top (#111 from 5/2004)

Years ago I compulsively bought Burda sewing magazines and never once made a pattern from one. Those magazines are long gone, along with my entire fabric and pattern stash from back then, but last August I saw this post on Ruthie K's blog and I loved that Burda top with the twist. So many twist tops position the twist at the fullest part of the bust which creates a plunging neckline. Even with a cami underneath, this is not a good look for me.

So when I saw her blog entry, I asked Ruthie which issue contained this pattern. After learning it was Burda World of Fashion (WOF) May 2004, I was on the hunt. Ebay had no copies, but I managed to get a copy when Patty B, on Stitcher's Guild, was clearing out her back issues. Thanks so much, Patty!

Even though this pattern comes only in sizes 34 - 40, I was not daunted. I figured if I could see how it's made, I could draft it in my size. So, when DD2 needed a black outfit for her winter concert, I decided to make this top for her. I traced it off in a size 34 (my first time tracing a Burda multi-line pattern!) and made up a sample. You can see on the photo that the top has a front slit under the knot and, yes, it went well below the bra, so I sewed it up higher. Other than that, it was perfect so I made it up for her in a wool jersey. (This pattern requires a thin knit with good drape.)

Note that the back and the upper front of this top have no seams. I believe that is why Burda only offers it in small-ish sizes. Even in a wide fabric, I had trouble cutting out the back and upper front pieces because the fabric has to be wide enough to span the body, from wrist to wrist. Luckily my daughter has short arms or the sleeves might have ended up as three-quarter length, and the dress code for the concert required long sleeves. I list some possible ways to overcome this limitation below.

With that one caveat, it is very easy to draft this top in any size. I was planning to do just that, when I noticed a pattern released from Butterick last week: Butterick 5429. This top is the same design as the Burda top, except that it is sleeveless. Again, this makes sense given the fabric width limitation. Butterick can offer this pattern for all sizes because they have avoided that issue. However, if you want to add long sleeves to the Butterick pattern, you could do one of the following:

• Attach the sleeves separately (so they would be dropped sleeves).
  
• Extend the armholes to create a dolman sleeve (like the Burda pattern) and convert the back pattern piece to use a CB seam and the upper front piece to use a CF seam. (Although adding a seam on the upper top piece would add undesirable bulk to the knot and the wrong side of the seam might show, so be aware of this.)
  
• Cut out the back and upper front piece on the cross grain of the fabric. This only works if the knit has 4-way stretch.
  

Pattern Review has some very helpful reviews of this pattern, though I didn't think to look them up until I had finished the top. Some sewists refer to this design as a raglan sleeve, but it is actually a dolman sleeve.) I still may draft this in my size (rather than buying the Butterick pattern), because I have a dolman top I drafted for myself that fits well. I definitely wouldn't want it as tightly fitted as the original Burda design. :)

Anyway, here's the finished outfit:

I'm sorry it's so hard to see the top, but that's black for you. She is wearing the skirt I made for her from the same pattern I made for myself: the pencil skirt with flounce I blogged about a couple days ago.

The performance was great. My daughter plays the vibraphone in the orchestra, but we also heard the chorus, the guitar class, the drumming class, the world music class, and the jazz ensemble. They performed in a church near the high school where the acoustics were amazing!

New Pattern Company -- Au Bonheur des Petites Mains

Woot! Edgy new patterns from a new (to me) company in Paris. A friend sent me this link and I admired the patterns then moved on. I couldn't see buying untried (and unreviewed) patterns in a foreign language, and incurring expensive shipping fees, as much as I liked the look of them. But try as I might, I couldn't get these designs out of my mind and I decided it didn't matter what the patterns were like, or whether I could understand the instructions (if they even exist, I have no idea).

Check out the Patron de Couture. It turns out I still have just enough high school French to get me into trouble. (Note: Acheter, meaning "To Buy" is the equivalent of the Add to cart button. ;) )

Here are some of my favorites:

Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard. :)

Once my order was complete, I used Yahoo's Babelfish to translate the final message. The translation said:

Your bank card was accepted. With the happiness of the small hands was informed.

Yes, it's early Christmas for shams!!! :)

Self Drafted -- Pencil Skirt with Flounce

Last October, I saw a skirt similar to this at a boutique for over $100. This skirt is fairly easy to draft – the pencil shape is a simple rectangle and the pattern piece is then divided into two with a diagonal seam. The flounce is added to the bottom pattern piece. The top has a casing for elastic.

The bottom pattern piece, showing the flounce.

I first made it for myself in a drapey black knit. I didn't bother to hem it but used the selvedge of the fabric. I made it a second time for my daughter in a black wool jersey to wear to her winter concert. (photos to come)

I am wearing this with the sweater I bought from one of my favorite designers -- Jane Mohr (Dressed to Kill) at the Artistry in Fashion sale. The darker areas on the sweater are actually mesh and you are seeing my black TeaGarden T underneath.

And here is the one I made for DD2:

This is an easy one!

Phew!

I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a great one!

This was a productive weekend for me. Of course it helped that I didn't have to hostess the Thanksgiving meal but, instead, enjoyed a gathering at a friend's house. For the meal, I decided to make two items. First, I made maple cheesecake, which I overcooked by at least 10 minutes until it was golden brown – it then collapsed (that has never happened to me before!) so I couldn't bring that. My second contribution was the dinner rolls, but the yeast (which I had just bought) was expired. The dough did rise, kinda sorta, but it took all day and was definitely lackluster, so the resulting rolls, while edible, were a bit disappointing. My friends graciously overlooked my cooking foibles and it was a great evening. I want to track down the Chipotle Sweet Potatoes recipe one friend brought – those were truly yummy!!

The rest of the weekend was dedicated to holiday sewing. I completed the gift for my sew group's upcoming holiday luncheon. (Phew!) Some of them read this blog occasionally so I can't post it quite yet.

DD2 has her Winter Concert performance next Friday, and she has to wear black: a long black skirt or slacks and a long-sleeve black top. How funereal. For the bottom, I made a skirt that I had drafted for myself, but scaled down to fit her. For the top, I made my first pattern from Burda magazine and experienced the joys of tracing off a pattern with zillions of lines in different colors. Getting DD2 to dress up is not unlike herding cats, so I had to make it as easy as possible for her, meaning I didn't get as many fittings in as I would have liked nor did she have a lot of input. (She prefers a line item veto sort of approach.) I hope to post photos later this week when she dons the whole outfit.

I have one more Christmas gift to sew, and the fabric is on order. So I feel like I'm doing pretty well, all in all. :)

I'm still dithering on whether to enter the 2010 SWAP (Sewing With a Plan) contest on Stitcher's Guild. I think about my own [potential] plan every day. The swap would require me to sew more bottoms than I really want to, at the moment, and it limits me a bit. For example, I would like to sew up a few jackets and I couldn't make more than one for the swap, so I don't know... On the other hand, it could push me a bit and would be satisfying to complete it (I have no illusions that I would win any prizes)... I may just sew alongside the SWAP participants without actually entering, so we'll see.

The Vogue/Butterick/McCalls pattern site is having a very good pattern sale tomorrow, Monday, only. Butterick and McCalls are $1.99 and Vogue are $3.99, before the member discount. And shipping is free for members. The sale ends tomorrow night (Monday) at midnight CENTRAL time. That has bitten me more than once, when I sat down to finish an order after 10pm Pacific, but it was too late to get the sale prices.

A Great Day!

What a great Saturday!!

First, I attended a PenWAG meeting, where Sandra Betzina spoke and showed many of her current, out of print, and a few upcoming patterns sewn up. Wow, so many of her patterns are really better in person. Vogue typically makes their own size 2 samples for the pattern cover, but I prefer the size 12s she has sewn up herself which better reflect her detailing and sense of style. She gave many tips on adapting her patterns for different looks and there were some I had ruled out for my body type that I will now reconsider. I can see I need to buy a few more patterns the next time Vogues are on sale. :)

For the event, I wore my Sandra Betzina skirt, my Teagarden T top, and my Sandra Betzina sweater jacket. I consider it a personal failing that I didn't have a coordinating Sandra Betzina top to wear and I will remedy that. :)

Before the meeting, I met Marlene H. We have some mutual sewing friends and she had seen my blog and knows I love Issey Miyake. She had a surprise for me – two OOP Issey Miyake patterns I had never even seen before! I was so touched by her generosity. Vogue 2437 is a 2pc dress and Vogue 1836 is a very interesting coat. It has a button flange that looks like a vest. Thanks again, Marlene!!

After the meeting, Susi L and I had a very enjoyable lunch where we talked Issey Miyake and fabric until the waiter informed us they were ending lunch service. :)

When I returned home, I had a package from Cordell with several Miyakes! Once again, it included several I have never seen: Vogue 2088, a jacket (cropped and regular length), Vogue 2572, a great top (similar to the SW Cascade?) and skirt, Vogue 2651, a jacket and pants, and Vogue 2485, a very interesting coat. There were also some tracings. Thanks SO much for your kindness, Cordell!!

I am really touched by the generosity of the Issey Miyake community.

Today I finished my holiday jacket. I would love to show pictures, but some of my sew group friends read this blog, so I won't be posting it until after the holiday luncheon. :)

I'm still stressing over the gift I need to make/bring to the sew group holiday party. Oy, so many ideas, but none seem perfect. :)