A little experiment...

I'm going to mix two patterns.

I got this really pretty royal blue stretch charmeuse.
I wanted to make a top for my son's birthday party this weekend.
I thought about making a dress, but I thought it's probably not a smart idea to wear a dress when you have to chase a 1-yr-old wanting to play with her brother at his bday party.
So I wanted something that's cute and comfortable but nice enough.
I'm thinking about combining Burda magazine 6/2011 top. #101 with Vogue v1152 sleeves.
I think #101 is cute but it seems too plain to use with a charmeuse... It needs a little more "umph".
I love v1152 dress that I've made a muslin in the past but never got to make it in real fabric...but it's too complicated to make it in a week!
I love the sleeves on this dress, so I thought about just using the sleeves.
I have a t-shirt in similar style (v-neck facing with gather, long puffed sleeves) and it's one of my favorite, so hopefully it works.

I traced and cut the patterns out today.
I was expecting to do alot of adjustment to the sleeves to fit the shirt, but it actually fit!
The shoulder curve seams fit just right, it was just a little longer width.
I didn't want to just cut it yet, so I decided to adjust it after I stitch them up. (My good o' sewable tracing paper!)

Oh yea I also raised the neck by 5cm.
Just by looking at the picture in the magazine, the neckline seemed too low.
I'm getting tired of all these low necklines that I have to wear a camisole underneath.
I traced the neck facing and put it on me, and yup, it was too low.
It took me awhile to figure out how to raise the neckline on the gathered v-neck, but I thought "oh heck, let me just try it out... The placement of the shoulder shouldn't change, so I would just raise the center of the neck facing and the bodice by 5cm and connect the line to the shoulder seam.
It seemed to work... I just really wished that I had. French curve ruler.
I wonder if the fabric store here would have it?
I also hope I can still fit my head through! Haha
Since it's a stretch charmeuse, it should be ok...

Anyways I will be stitching my muslin tomorow...
Hopefully it doesn't take too long to make this top. I want to make a trouser to match this!
( the muslin has been done on this trouser pattern)

1/25/2012
So here's the result, and I love how it turned out! :)


Her'e's me wearing it. (...over my pajama pants...)


I ended up raising the neckline by 4cm, as i could barely fit my head through with 5cm.
I think this was the perfect position. I could fit my head but it's still high enough that you can't see anything even when I bend down.

I ended up using the wrong side of charmeuse.
The shine on right side is pretty, but I thought it would make it too formal, and I would get more use out if it's not too flashy.
The wrong side still has a nice dull sheen too it (i heard it's widely used as "reverse charmeuse"), that it's not too boring.

I also wanted to make a belt for this top, as the hem is too long (but I didn't know if it would look good shorter), but unfortunately I ran out of the fabric. : p

Overall I love this top and the pattern.
I like #101 pattern. It's simple but still looks good.
I want to make another top with the sleeves from the same pattern, and also in sleeveless.

BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook dress

I made this dress using a dress pattern from BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook.
I've been impressed with Burda's patterns... They just fits so good.
I cut my size 37 (in between 36 and 38) and it fit finr, I just had to ease around the waist because my waist is about 40 but it was fine with 37.
I like how it's figure-flattering with princess seam and not-so flaring skirt.
I'm used to skirts more floay, but I actually like this style.

The more I sew, the more I'm amazed with all the small details that goes into garment making.
Since I didn't want a lining, I made a facing for the front and back so I can turn over the neckline with cleaner finish.
But I've attached the front and back separately, and now got a little gap between the front and back shoulder seams.
I realized "ohhhh, that's why you need to sew the front and back facing together first, then attatch to the main fabric."
This is what happens when I venture out of the instruction. :p

The only thing I don't like is the hole on the chest.
It's a cute design, but it shows the cleavage (and everything else if I bend down) and I'm just not used to it.
I'm wearing it with a tanktop underneath but since the fabric is thick enough, I really don't want to wear anything.
It bothers me so much I'm thinking about taking it apart and put in a new front, maybe with v-neck.
It's daunting to think about ripping apart all the work I've done, but I'll probably get more use out of it if I fix it.

By the way I made this with a quilting cotton fabric that I bout when www.fabric.com was having a sale.
It was $1/yd and I only used about 1 1/2 yd, so The zipper cost more than the fabric.
So far this has been a $4 dress!
I wanted to make a matching fabric belt for this.

2/10/2012
Here're some updates on this dress...



I ripped apart the front pieces and made the keyhole smaller.
I like it MUCH better. Now I can wear this alone without wearing anything underneath, and it's more comfortable.
I was dreading it but once I got the hang of unthreading the stitches, it wasn't too bad.
And once I got them off, it was only few steps and not the entire dress, so it went pretty fast.
I'm glad i decided to fix it, rather than have it just sit in the closet because I didn't like the keyhole.

BurdaStyle Handbook dress

I am constantly impressed with Burda's fit.
I just made a muslin (tracing paper) of the dress from BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook, and it just fits me so right!
The waist was a little tight, but that was expected...
I made a straight size 37 according to my bust, but my waist is about 41 so it's actually surprising that it still fit.
I'm making this in a mauve pink cotton and want to make a matching fabric belt. :)
Once again I'm excited to make this!

New shipment of fabrics.

I received some fabrics from www.fabric.com today.
I love fabric.com! They have a free shipping over $35, and I normally find some kind of online coupon, normally about $10 off.
This time I got about $40 woth, and that was tons of materials.
It's normally a hit and miss, since it's online shopping and you can't really touch them.
But this shipment was really nice!

I'm into royal blue right now, and I got stretch charmeuse and ITY knit in royal blue, and they both turned out to be a really nice fabric!
I'm thinking about making a wrap dress in ITY knit and a top with charmeuse.

I also got micro brushed twill (I knew I like this since I've had it before), stretch cotton poplin to make trousers.

One of my favorite was smocked shirting in brown and white plaid. I bought this just to make the coupon limit and it was on sale for $2/yd. I thought it was the cutest out of all.
I was going to make a short pants just to wear it aroun the house, but I think it would be cute to make it into a bermuda shorts.

One "miss" was the cotton blend lawn. I wanted to make a wrap dress in cotton lawn (the one in the magazine was in Tana lawn, but I couldn't see myself spending $50 for one outfit...), and this was on sale and thought it was cute online, but when I received it was REALLY pink!!
I thought about returning it, but I think it still works... I just don't know if it'll go with my skin tone.

Overall I am very happy with what I got today... Now I need to get started!

Burdastyle 12/2011 #111 trouser

So I'm off to making a trouser... Burdastyle 12/2011 #111.
Blah.
I already foresee some trouble coming... Perfect pants are so hard to make.

Today, I traced the pattern on my good friend sewable tracing paper, cut them out, then stitched them for a rough fitting.
First of all, according to their sizing chart, I'm size 41 (in between 40 and 42) at the waist, and size 35 (once again, in between... 34 and 36).
Hmph. No wonder I can never find a pair of pants that fits me perfect... I have too big of a gap in between my waist and the hip.
So I traced the pattern accordingly, size 41 at the waist and tapered to 35 toward the hip. (actually pattern only went down to 36).
I stitched it up and tried it... And the waist was too big. :(
This is what happened with my pants last time... I had to do like 7 fittings to get things perfect.
The hip was even a little too big, but I think I stitched the front and the back a little off.
But from hip toward the legs were actually nice.

I'm excited that I can make a nice fitted pants in this style.
I kept alot of my pants from the past (my weight actually hasn't changed for the last 10 years or so...) but they are all "youngster" style since I bought them when I was in my 20s.
I thought I should start wearing some "grown up" clothes...
Hopefully this turns out nicely.

1/16/2011
Overnight, I was trying to alter the pants for a perfect fit.
Since the waist was too big, I redraw the pattern to size 35-36 overall.
It fit good, except for the gaping back.
I took in almost an inch from the back center seam, and after I attached the waistband it was still gaping. :(
I took in about 1/2 in from the waistband back center.

Then fine tuning...
It loked baggy here and there, so I took in about 1/2 In from the hip to the kneew on the side seam, and 1/2in from knees to the bottom inseam.
Wow, I must have a funny body shape, but after these alterations the pants looks great.
My waist-hip area fits me, and legs go straight down.
I don't think I've had a pair of pants that fits me this good.
This is the reason to sew!

I just hope that the pants will be as good once it's in the actual fabric.
And I hope I can attach the zipper ok!

1/25/2011
Ok, I'm back to this pants after getting side tracked with other projects.
I got to cut my fabric tonight.

Looking at the instructions, I just didn't get how to attach the pockets.
Then it just hit me... "oooooooh, hip yokes with integrated pocket pieces means I have to cut the pocket pieces separately from the hip yoke!"
Ok, I got it, now the instruction makes sense.
Ugh. That means I have to go back to cutting... I'll continue tomorrow...

Eureka moment.

When www.fabric.com was having a sale on Cyber Monday, I bought a whooole bunch of fabrics.
This was one of them, although iI don't think it was on sale.
(I can't find it on their site, so it must've been a clearance)

I also bought this "silky knit in silver grey".
When I received it it was really light weight, almost sheer, and had a slight glitterish shine to it.
I really didn't know what to do with these...
As for the silk habotai, I figured I'll make some kind of a top...
But the knit, I almost returned it but decided to keep it thinking I can use it as a liner or something.
Besides, it was only like $1/yd. It's not worth going through the hassle of returning it.

Then today, I was going through the fabric stash, and realized the grey in habotai print matches exactly with the grey of the silky knit.
I'm thinking of making dress #102 from Burda style magazine 12/2011.

I've already cut out the patterns on my swedish tracing paper and did the adjustments. (although I didn't make any notes on what adjustments I've done... Shame on me. :(

I'm so excited!
This might turn out really nice, that I might wear to my son's birthday party at the end of the month. :)

1/13/2012
Here's the result...


I wrote a review on www.sewing.patternreview.com.
http://sewing.patternreview.com/review/pattern/70950