Big Leaves: Vogue 9167

April 23, 2017April 23, 2017 ~ Tia Dia ~ 26 Comments

I’m supposed to be doing my taxes.

Meh.

I thought it would be more fun to share DD3’s latest sewing project with you instead. 🙂 We went shopping in my stash, and pulled out this fabulous fabric from EmmaOneSock, which I purchased with DD3 in mind a couple of years ago. In the latest Vogue patterns online sale, we also purchased Vogue 9167. She chose to work with View D.

We began with a toile of the bodice, using the 14-D cup bodice provided in the pattern, but it pulled in all sorts of unhappy ways, so I suggested that we do an additional 1.5cm FBA. She followed the directions from the 1982 Vogue Sewing book on her own, but decided to make it a 2cm FBA instead of a 1.5, hoping she wouldn’t need to make yet another toile. And we ended up with a really good fit through the bust, if it was a little loose. We didn’t need to lower the bust point at all. But it looked like something my dog found in the garbage with drag lines going on in every direction FOREVER.

And I couldn’t for the life of me think of where to even begin with this mess. DD3 has been in physio for a couple of years because she a) sprouted so quickly; b) went from a B cup to an F cup in less than 6 months (remember, she’s 13 years old), which affected everything from posture to self-esteem; and c) swims semi-competitively. Which, all put together, makes for shoulder issues, as you can see in these photos. Oh, and we’ve just learned that she has scoliosis – minor – only 1cm, or so – but it obviously affects the fit of a bodice. Soooo….

Because she’s a swimmer, I cut 5cm extra through the shoulder seams, in preparation for a square broad shoulder (remember, I’m trying to get her to work from a pattern, since that’s the way I work). Maybe it’s time to learn to work from a moulage… Ah, well, here’s a summary of what we ended up with:

Back: narrow back adjustment 1.5cm

Right shoulder: took away the 5cm extra, and sloped it 1.5cm. In effect, working from a size 14 pattern, it boils down to a 1.5cm sloped shoulder adjustment.

Left shoulder: left the 5cm extra on the front. Took away 5cm on the back. What is this called? Reverse forward shoulder adjustment? Backward shoulder adjustment?

Short waist adjustment: 5cm

R sloped shoulder — *perfectly matched waistband seam on an invisible zip*

This is the back of the dress. We still need more adjustments through the right shoulder… lower shoulder adjustment? narrow shoulder adjustment? sloped shoulder adjustment? Or maybe it’s a high neck issue?!?!?!

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!

Right shoulder still troubling me — *perfectly matched centre front seam, although the neckline looks kinda funny! Maybe we should have done a mirrored version of the CF panels instead of matching them.*

You can see it’s still a hot mess on the right side in this photo, but I’m not sure if she’s rolled her shoulders forward a little bit (something she is fighting on a minute-by-minute basis). However, this is so dramatically improved from her Christmas dress fiasco (we’re re-cutting the bodice for December 2017), that we both did major happy dances. It’s not perfect, but it is 1000 times better than it was. She didn’t want it to be fitted closely under the bust, so we left it with a little more ease than I would like. But it’s her dress, and she’s happy with it.

She loves the pockets.

We added an A-line lining to the skirt. Working with all those box pleats was a bit of a challenge for her, since she’s just done circle skirts to this point.

Thank goodness for Vogue’s wonderful instructions. She just followed them methodically and was so proud of herself when they worked out beautifully. And me, well, I’m super proud of her. My contributions to the project were some cutting, the back zip and colour-matching the thread for the hem. Because it just looked better that way. If you click on the photos, you’ll find yourself in my Flickr photostream, where you can zoom in and play Find the Stitches in the Hemline.

Well, now she’s working on the toile for her middle school graduation in June. And we’re going hardcore: foundations, boning, lace and petticoats!

Repeat: Vogue 2396 Wrap Shirt

April 11, 2017April 11, 2017 ~ Tia Dia ~ 8 Comments

Thanks for weighing in on my Easter ideas in the last post. I was shocked – SHOCKED, I tell you – that the option in the poll “Why make something!?” did not get even one little vote. I guess my DH doesn’t read my blog. 😉 The jumpsuit won hands down, and I’m currently working on that. The wrap dress is done and dusted, as they say, but I haven’t photographed it yet. Hopefully today sometime, so I can show you later this week. And the bouclé is waiting in the wings. I need to make a trip downtown into the Fashion District to find wool for the trim on it, because I’m thinking I’d like to try something like this for the jacket:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/6a/f0/62/6af06216b799bb580c1d27e4560a62b4.jpg — *Chanel, cruise 2017*

Over a dress cut on the bias like this.

Because in 2007, this outfit caught my imagination from the fall haute couture show (2nd from right).

But anyways, in my real world…

I’ve made another ivory version of this oldy-but-goody OOP wrap shirt from Vogue 2396 this time in a heavy linen/cotton blend.

I’m liking it. 🙂

Your opinions, please!

March 30, 2017March 30, 2017 ~ Tia Dia ~ 12 Comments

It’s been years since I made outfits for Easter. The last dresses I made were for my girls when they were small, somewhere along the lines of this picture.

I remember sitting for hours achieving a near zen state smocking those dresses. I still have all three (four, counting the one for Felicity, the American Girl doll). I do miss smocking, but my right arm and hand don’t miss the repetitive motion that goes into rows and rows of smocking by hand.

Anyways, I am wanting to please myself this year (such selfishness that implies) in making an outfit for myself for Easter that I will like… something from my sewing list that just got pushed to the side over and over again because I ‘didn’t need something new’ or could ‘make do with what I already have’ or would be completely overdressed for a casual family function. We don’t go out anywhere special, but rather celebrate with family, and the mantra I hear from year to year is ‘no pressure: casual dress’.

But I am totally SICK of casual dress.

I dress casually as a matter of course, and I don’t particularly like it. It’s not my default comfort zone. But I do jeans and shirts, yoga pants and tees because it’s crazy being overdressed compared to the rest of the population.

OK, OK… I’m completely exaggerating, but that’s how I feel.

I have two ideas rattling around in my head, which I’d like you all to vote on, since I don’t think I have time to make both. First, a jumpsuit out of stretch crepe, either green, wine or curry.

*BurdaStyle 04/2016 #130; fabrics and Vogue 1308*

Or something along those lines…

Secondly, a bouclé or tweed ensemble, comprised of a bias-cut dress and a LFJ-style jacket.

*vintage wool; BurdaStyle 02/2010 #130; Vogue 1180*

Or, just don’t bother with the fitting and the hand-sewing and the WORK and whip up a new Vogue 8379 wrap dress.

Please tell me what you think!

Burda 6838: Arctic Icy Blue

March 29, 2017March 16, 2017 ~ Tia Dia ~ 4 Comments

When I found the wool/tencel jersey mentioned in my last post, there were 5 colours available: dark brown, brown, grey, ice blue and lime green. DD3 fell head-over-heels in love with the ice blue.

So I made her own version of Burda 6838, at her request.

Here’s the back view. You can see how lightweight the jersey is in this photo.

DD3 requested a matching camisole for extra coverage, so I cut one out of the remnants using the slip pattern from an OOP Donna Karan pattern, Vogue 2874…

…and slap-dashed it together for her.

vogue-2784-camisole

DD3’s feedback? It’s warm, comfortable and she *LOVES* the colour.

Wool & Tencel Jersey Tops

March 22, 2017March 16, 2017 ~ Tia Dia ~ 10 Comments

I love winter.

I freeze in the winter.

But the cold air is so much easy to breathe and the sunlight is crisper than in summer, somehow.

So I love winter.

Crave winter.

I usually wear cashmere turtlenecks with down vests in my house during the winter. We keep the house deliberately cool – around 19C – which means that it feels cold in my double-brick constructed insulation-free 1950s build of a house. So imagine my pleasant surprise when my local Fabricland, of all places, had bolts of wool/tencel jersey. IN SHADES OF CHOCOLATE BROWN!!! I bought enough for three tops, but ended up with enough to make four. I’m so in love with this fabric I’ll probably buy more when it goes back on sale…. 😀

First up, the Sewaholic Renfrew. I must be the last person in the sewing world to make up this pattern. As it turns out, I really like it. I didn’t at first try-on. I thought it was shapeless and completely unflattering. But it has grown on me. It’s comfortable and has a lot of room in its rather straight cut, and that is just perfect for me these days. This is a beautiful rusty orange.

Oh! Before I forget, remember those made-a-few-years-ago-worn-almost-every-day brown jeans I mentioned in my Jalie jeans post? Well, they feature in all these photos despite their front fitting issues.

I made no changes to the pattern other than making the back in a double layer of the jersey, as it is rather lightweight. It washes and dries beautifully, too, although the Tencel in it tends to make it a bit prone to wrinkling.

The next pattern was Burda 6838 I love draped tops. This replaces an old RTW version that got worn and washed so much it started to look ratty.

I made no changes whatsoever to this pattern. WYSIWYG straight out of the envelope. Surprising.

Next up: Burda 11/2014 #114 in a lighter brown. I love the back yoke with the integrated draped front.

I made two changes: shortened the sleeve and, instead of doing an FBA, I lowered the attachment points of the drape at the side seams by 8cm so they fell under my bust instead of above it. And I left all the edges raw. The sleeves on this needed to be shortened by a whopping 8cm. Seriously. I’m not 100% in love with this. The dropped shoulders aren’t particularly flattering, and it could be taken in a little through the waist/hips, but I’m shying away from snug-fitting clothing these days. And I think shortening it about 2cm would be a good plan.

So! Make, wear, photograph and learn. It’s cozy for living in my house in the winter, and that was the point! And it’s also getting a lot of wear these days…

And lastly, this bi-coloured two-layer top from Burda 7/2010 #137. It’s a plus-sized pattern (44-52), which I can use because I make up size 44 in Burda. Lucky me – I can choose regular or plus size patterns in their issues. 😉

This is my second BurdaPlus knit top pattern, and as flattering as they are in pictures, they are not fun or easy to wear. It’s a very flattering look through the shoulders – which is probably the point in a plus-sized garment… drawing the eyes up and away from the goods… but keeping those shoulders in place is a nightmare.

I ended up running elastic through the neckline to the CB and CF points to snug it up a bit and stitching layers together the below the centre points to keep the shoulders from sliding off, and the CF and CB settling into a lower meeting place. Of course this is just lazy non-fitting, but after seeing this in photos, I’m not crazy about the use of the different browns, anyways. And it’s not very warm, which was the point of the wool jersey, precisely because the neckline is so wide and open. So, like this earlier BurdaPlus make, it’s been donated.

Plaid shirts: Burda 02/2013 #101

March 15, 2017March 4, 2017 ~ Tia Dia ~ 13 Comments

plaid-shirts

DD3 has wanted big, oversized plaid shirts for a while, but we’ve not been able to find any that both fit properly and that she liked. And, since she’s taller and much more shapely than most 13-year-olds, it just is a whole lot easier to make clothes for her. Initially she was going to do the sewing after I did the cutting, but that wasn’t happening as the weeks passed, so I just decided to get on with the project and let her finish them by sewing on the buttons.

She shopped my pattern stash and decided on the boyfriend shirt from Burda’s 2013 February issue.

burda-02-2013-101

I asked if she wanted interesting touches like a bias front binding, or bias cuffs or a bias back yoke.

No. Plain as day. Nothing ~~interesting~~ fancy. Thanks, Mom!

But I cheated. I deliberately offset the front bands on both shirts, although it fit the check pattern perfectly in the blue.

Burda 2/2013 #101 front placket — play “find the pocket”…

And added a bias pocket to the blue check.

From these photos you can see how much wearing ease there is in this design. I did a 2cm FBA by cutting away the seam allowance spreading the front armscye, hinging at the outer shoulder point.

And I decided on a bias yoke simply because it meant no matching stress. Lots of room in the back. The red fabric is a rayon, and it hangs beautifully. The blue is a cotton flannel.

plaid-shirt-backs

I’m stating the obvious, but this is not a fitted shirt, so DD3 usually wears it open over a tee or tank.

Burda 2/2013 #101 — I’m so pleased with the CB matching!

I have nothing special to say about this straight-forward pattern. The sleeve plackets are a simple bias binding, not a fancy placket. I must say, though, as someone who is used to the very precise markings on a Vogue collar/stand pattern, Burda leaves a lot to be desired. These collars took a lot of checking and double-checking because there was no point on the collar stand marked where the collar edge should be. Just a personal (slight) annoyance. Vogue spoils their sewists with their markings, that’s for sure.

Burda 01/2016 #114: Boho Blouse

March 8, 2017March 12, 2017 ~ Tia Dia ~ 13 Comments

Remember my discouraging post about overthinking? How elusive and brain-numbing playing with a patterned fabric can be? Well, I got over the hurdle and jumped into this blouse from Burda’s January 2016 issue.

The gorgeous silk is from EOS, and when she first posted it I started drooling. She’d suggested the purple denim as a coordinating fabric, and, since I needed new jeans, thought I would happily splurge on the combo. I am so happy with the colours in these fabrics. So gorgeous!!

I cut the sleeves out first, because I wanted them to be symmetrical. They don’t get in the way even though they are incredibly full.

Burda 01-2016-114 sleeves — *first sunny day in a month of Sundays…*

The next cutting challenge was the back. The design is printed in a slowly squiggling line, so centering the design took some effort. One of the yokes was cut slightly off centre, so I used it as the yoke lining.

Burda 01-2016-114 side — *not sure about the tucked-in-at-the-front look*

The front of the blouse has a slit opening. I disregarded Burda’s suggestions and used a strip of fabric cut on the straight instead of the bias and finished it by hand. And for the life of me I couldn’t find a button I liked, so I made one using a strip of bias tubing and the instructions from Vogue 1107.

The neckline and the sleeves are bound in a narrow bias binding.

Burda 02-2016-114 binding — *no, I didn’t remove the gathering stitches…*

And the yoke has little interesting bias ties that serve no purpose whatsoever. I don’t even think you notice them much in this fabric, but they’re a unique decorative touch.

Did I mention I really love this fabric? I had a little less than 1m combined of various-sized pieces left over after cutting and matching, and I just couldn’t bear to see it sitting in my trash bin. So I pieced together a tank top using Burda 4/2015 #103.

103-042015-b_large

In order to make some sense of the fabric design and to accommodate an FBA, there’s a seam down the centre front, one side front, and the left shoulder is pieced to the depth of about 8cm.

I wasn’t sure when I made it if I would ever wear it – I just wanted to use the gorgeous fabric for something! But, as summer is around the corner, who knows? I’m sure it will get worn.

burda-04-2015-103 — *Yes, you’ve seen these pictures before… in the Jalie jeans post!*

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