I love fall. I love all the colours as they change, and the different shades that the changing light provides on the same tree throughout the day. They make me happy!
My top is a mix of Vogue 1412‘s front bodice, the back bodice from Burdastyle 09/2019 #111, and the sleeves from Burdastyle 09/2010 #136. I didn’t know what to do with this fabric, so I draped it around my sewing area on and off for what seems like a good 12 months, trying different ideas, laying out different patterns (not enough fabric), trying to work around a pattern repeat that I ended up completely ignoring, and generally second-guessing myself until I was struck by lightening (or courage), and laid out the pattern for the front bodice and started cutting. I would have preferred to use Vogue 1412’s back bodice, too, but I didn’t have enough fabric and wanted a more fitted back.
This is the third version of Vogue 1412 that I’ve made. I really like the front neckline, although this iteration, due to the slightly dropped shoulders of the back, and because I didn’t stabilize the shoulder seams, required a shoulder pleat, extending from a dart in the upper back through to a pleat in the front. It’s quite hidden with the busy pattern, but if you look closely, you can see it.
The fabric is a treat. It has a very fine herringbone weave, which just makes this that much more luxurious.
a modal-wool-cashmere challis
And it goes with so many different items in my wardrobe, just because of all the wonderful colours.
these are not the shoes to wear with jeans
This is probably my fifth pair of Burda 01/2016 #135, the skinny jeans with the interesting seaming details. I have worn this brown pair to the point of the colour fading, so I over-dyed it with Rit in my front loading washing machine and couldn’t be happier with the result. They don’t look faded and yucky! 🙂
My youngest, DD3, loves tank tops of all kinds and varieties, which makes for fun use of shorter lengths of fabric. Enter the gathered top from OOP Vogue 2923, a DKNY design.
The first version is in a polyester pebble crepe, which I purchased from Fabricland. Every now and then there is a winner of a fabric to be purchased from my local store. I also made a second version of this top with this fabric. Arctic icy blue is DD3’s favourite colour.
And another version in red rayon jersey from EOS, which is worn very often, even now that the weather has changed.
And here’s the back. The pattern directions call for jersey, but there is so much ease that it works just as well with a woven fabric. Confession: I salvaged a wadder cardigan project to make the red top, and had to piece it together down the CF and the left back. Funnily enough, the piecing isn’t noticeable when DD3 is wearing it, unless one looks hard for it.
One caveat for this pattern: when made up in jersey, the straps, which are supposed to be cut on the bias (I cut them on the straight grain) stretch out like crazy. For the red version I ran a length of piping cord through in order to keep it at the correct length.
And that is the last of the summery tops for this year. On to garments suited to the cooler weather.
Tell me, do you have a favourite go-to tank or tee or top pattern for 1m lengths of fabric?
I’ve used two lengths of silk from my stash for a couple of new tops for late summer wear. The first is a silk chiffon, but it’s a bit more opaque than chiffon. The lack of weight to the fabric makes this floatier than the second version, if there is such a thing. (Spell check says no, there is no such thing.)
It was so nice to wear these wedges today!
The second is a lovely silk crepe – exactly what the pattern calls for – and the drape of it justifies the fabric suggestion on the back of the envelope.
The top is supposed to have a CB seam, as per the pattern, although I prefer to cut it on the fold.
This pattern has been sewn, reviewed and posted about hundreds of times in SewingBlogLand, so I have nothing really new to say about it except for the following:
This top can be squeezed out of as little as 1.2m of 140cm wide fabric, which is less than what the envelope recommends. Speaking of which, when I learned to sew using Vogue patterns, I was taught to always purchase a little less than what the pattern envelope recommended in order to avoid having small almost-useless leftover lengths of 10 or 15 cm (instead of cutting scraps). I don’t follow that advice anymore, for some reason, but I can manage to finagle garments out of shorter lengths than what the patterns call for, pattern matching excepted, of course. Do you do this, too? I must admit it sometimes make a project more work, more involved, more mentally challenging (exhausting?) that it need be. Sometimes I wish I just had enough fabric to lay out the pattern pieces without trying to make it a perfectly-fitted puzzle, eking it out of whatever I have decided should work. On the other hand, it is very satisfying to use up an entire length of goods.
I thought this top would be rather twee, but it’s so pretty. And I didn’t need to seam the centre back on this version, thank goodness. I like it better without the designer’s CB seam.
Anyway, these two tops have several adjustments:
Centre front has been raised 4 cm
Each of the seam allowances under the arms have been taken in by 1.5cm.
The front has been shortened by 2.5cm in length, along the hem, grading to nothing at the side seams.
Also, for reference, the lower centre front panels (triangles, really) of the green top have not been cut on the correct bias grain, in order to maintain as much of the horizontal dashy design of the fabric. I had cut it out as instructed, but the bias grain looked completely absurd with the fabric’s design. I’ll spare you the photos. Here’s the amended, altered version. Truth be told, I was quite displeased when I took photos of this top the other day, so I dismantled the centre bottom panels, turned them around and put it back together so the fabric’s green dashes were more or less running horizontally.
much more pleasing to the eye, trust me….
Each of the necklines has been finished by hand because I feel like I have more control over the outcome than with a machine, as carefully as I know I am capable of stitching. Besides, it’s good practice. 🙂
The pink top’s understitching along the neckline was also done by hand because I just felt like sitting at my sewing table quietly stitching by hand.
Both hems have been hand rolled.
Left: hand rolled hem. Right: pick stitched neckline.
Honestly, every time I try to do a narrow hem on a silk top with the machine I hate how stiff it feels, so I just do them by hand now and don’t bother with machine stitching.
hand rolled hem shown step by step, counterclockwise from top left
Both these tops have seen a lot of wear over the last few weeks. They’re comfortable and a nice alternative to a T-shirt. And I love how they’ve been made from roll ends I’ve collected over the years.
Are you making up anything from little ‘ends’ in your fabric collection?
It’s been my goal to work through my stash as much as possible, instead of buying new fabrics to only have then sit and wait to be made into wearable garments. These skirts for DD3 have put two lengths of denim into her closet for wear, and gotten them out of the dreaded stash! Yay! DD3 doesn’t really wear a lot of skirts, but I think she’s probably finished growing, so making up these two made some sort of sense. I have purchased various sorts of denim in a variety of blue shades for DD3 over the years because she prefers custom jeans to RTW. She is short-waisted, but her waist-hip length is 5cm longer than the usual 23cm RTW typically is drafted to accommodate, so every pair of trousers or jeans or shorts or leggings rides low, which she dislikes.
However, skirts never seem to present a fitting problem. Hopefully she will wear these as a casual alternative to shorts next summer season. She wanted a plain ‘jean’ style skirt, and so I pulled Burda 8680 out of my pattern stash.
The first version is the View A from a black stretchy denim from EOS. I initially used this denim to make a pair of capris for DD3, but didn’t cut them in a single layer, and the grain of the right front was off and caused a lot of twisty annoyance during wear, so they were thrifted. I suppose I could have made them into a skirt back then, in perfectly 20/20 hindsight as I type this, but I didn’t. Someone else is wearing them; hopefully, happily.
It’s a rather plain, utilitarian pattern. I added the belt loops and didn’t bother to add back pockets for her phone.
She was nonplussed about the omission, as the front pockets on this pattern are plenty deep. I finished the interior with gingham scraps leftover from a Dorothy costume I made for her three years ago.
No back pocketses….
But I did add the pockets on the second shorter version in blue denim.
yes, it’s truly a dark navy, despite how it looks in this photo!
And, for a lark, because I felt like hammering studs, I added studs for all the pockets. It was a very simple make, and the fit is really good on this pattern.
This is an old make. It dates from 2017, and I confess I have never worn it except to take photos… well, perhaps I wore it once? But I absolutely love the dress, so why haven’t I worn it? I don’t know. I tend to reach for the easy and familiar in my closet which usually doesn’t mean a dress like this. I need to just decide to wear it.
I purchased the fabric specifically for this dress from EOS, at least 10 years ago. It was one of my first purchases from Linda, and one of my first forays into sewing knit or jersey fabrics. This is a printed rayon, and it behaved beautifully while I was working with it: no curling, no stretching out of shape. And despite hanging in my closet for three years, it hasn’t stretched out, either.
The dress is a fabric hog: just over 3 metres of 150cm wide fabric. It’s the skirt, of course, and I don’t begrudge it a centimetre because it moves and hangs beautifully.
I love the back of this skirt!
I love the sleeve cuff detail. It isn’t perfect pattern matching, but, if you look at the first photo, you can’t really tell. I actually had to rip these cuffs off, not once, not twice, but three times (!) because I put them on wrong. So much for accurate markings; and by that time, I was so sick of trying to get the cuff on correctly that I couldn’t be bothered matching the patterns perfectly. But I love the split cuff.
split cuff, not perfectly turned or pressed
Some construction notes: I serged the seams for quick and stable construction, and simply turned up the hems and used my knit zig-zag stitch. I love using this stitch for knits, as it is strong and yet has enough give for the stretch in a knit.
It looks like a loose sloppy stitch, but the stretch zig-zag stitch works so well!
This is the second silk dressing gown (because it seriously looks like a dressing gown with that rolled collar) that was made from stash because…. well, because my girls need robes for walking around the house.
The pattern is Vogue 8888, a well-loved much-made pattern in all corners of the sewing online world. I made View A for DD3.
The sleeves were a lot longer than they look on the model. I had to trim off 15 cm from the length so they would not drag through breakfast. Definitely more a ‘dressing’ gown, not an all-around-the-house robe with the longer sleeve length.
DD3 chose this purple silk charmeuse from deep stash that I had purchased several years ago with the hope of purple silk pajamas for myself, but I have no regrets sewing this up for her. It has gotten a tremendous amount of use.
The pattern was sewn up out of the package with the exception of a 3cm square shoulder adjustment, as DD3 is a swimmer, and her shoulders bear testament to that. As a note, I made the garment two sizes larger than what Vogue’s size tables recommended at my young client’s request. It fits her well with room for swanning.
Since handing it over, finished, it has not come off. And I have to say I am so pleased to meet DD3, walking down the hallway, in a pretty purple robe rather than her schleppy tank top and fleece Christmas print pajama bottoms. I’ve got two more of this pattern in the longer length scheduled, selfishly both for me, and am hoping there will be another one in her future, perhaps in a Liberty tana lawn print or some other stash-busting fabric choice.
I have a goal: to work through as much of Mezzo’s Fabric Store as possible, hopefully using most of the goods for other people, not myself. Here we have the first completed garment that meets the goal! Yay!
My DD3 and DD1 like to lounge about the house in shorts and tanks or crop tops, and, in my opinion, have been sorely in need of ‘grown up’ robes since outgrowing their fuzzy cute childhood versions. Enter the tote full of silks with the instructions to find one or more lengths to their liking, preferably for robes. DD3 chose this gorgeous silk charmeuse. Here’s a closer look.
I actually sewed this version for DD3 up prior to my linen version. I was so impressed with the fit and simplicity of the design and how little time it took to make (even in fussy, slippery silk charmeuse!) that I had to make one for myself. The pictures do not do this fabric justice. It is a stunning robe in person.
I have nothing interesting to say about this, except that Burda’s instructions do not include details like a hanging loop at the centre back or belt carriers at the side seams. There are pockets, but I didn’t have enough of this silk, and DD3 didn’t want them, anyway. I left them off my version, too.
Here’s to swanning around in silk kimonos instead of schlepping around in scruffy shorts and crop tops!
I have been in sore need of decent summer pajamas for a while now, and finally made some up from old stash linen, using cotton scraps from this old pair for piping and the shoulder straps on the tank top.
I used the Sewing-Universe-Famous Carolyn Pajama top, which I haven’t yet worn – it’s just too hot! But I see this getting a lot of wear in the spring and fall. The bottoms are Burda 12-2014-135, which I’ve made several times for myself and DD2.
I have a pair of Bedhead pajamas and like how the front facing is stitched down to keep it from flopping around. I did the same on this top, although the instructions did not include this step.
And to keep cool during the summer, I made a linen version of Burda 5-2013-101, which is also comes as a dress pattern.
image burdastyle.ru
As far as style goes, linen isn’t the best choice for this top: a drapey silk or viscose would be a better choice. But it’s cool and comfortable and plenty roomy for pajamas.
And, just for fun, I added little ‘tags’. Actually, they have a practical use in the tank and bottoms, as they indicate which side is the back!
And because I needed one, I made a quick kimono robe from some printed linen that I’ve had lying in stash for a few years. The pattern is Burda 2-2012-116. Honestly, trying to find pictures on Burdastyle.com is such a hassle. Whoever designed their new website should be fired, because it’s absolutely terrible. The Russian site is far superior, imho. You can search images and issues all the way back to 2004. They even have the year 1987 listed!
And here’s my version. I’m not modelling any of these, because, seriously! I am past putting pictures of me in my pj’s up for public consumption. Be thankful.
I must be an idiot, because I really hate the new WordPress block editor. I don’t want to add a block. I want to type and have the option of embedding photos without clicking on a plus sign.
Ok. My frustrated little rant is done, and now on to the reason for this post: a shirt dress made last summer from a lovely cross-dye medium weight linen. I confess I have so many fabrics. My stash is an embarrassment of riches, and I really loved this linen when it arrived in the mail a couple of years ago. I originally had planned to make summer linen trousers with this, but I had two lengths, one of which wasn’t quite a metre, so trousers were out.
What to do with it?
I decided on the very popular shirt dress pattern from a few years ago: McCall 6696, dictated by the lengths of the two pieces of linen. It was my version of a muslin, although this is definitely not a muslin. I wasn’t sure I would look good in the style or be comfortable wearing it. It’s a little more ‘office attire’ than I had intended, but that is a result of the fabric. And, typical of how I work, when I make the dress again, I will change a few things: raise the armscye 5cm, and forgo the short waist adjustment. These will both be necessary in a sleeveless version, which I would like to make.
My favourite part of the pattern is the blousing in the back.
And I used up some bemberg from a previous project for lining the skirt and binding the armscyes. I always like a lined skirt, and it helps the linen to not be too wrinkled by the end of the day.
I added extra hooks and thread loops to where the waistband and the front band intersect to help it lie closed, instead of flipping (or straining) open.
I like to finish the interior of my garments as nicely as I possibly can because it makes me happy when I put them on, and when I wear them. And bemberg feels so amazing to wear. I know people prefer crepe de chine or, in the case of a linen garment, cotton voile or batiste, but there is nothing that feels cool and slippery in the heat, or keeps wool from sticking or itching in the winter, like bemberg, imho.
I’ve only had a chance to wear this dress once, but I am very impressed with the quality of this linen. The photos were taken after wearing for the day, and you can see for yourself how little the linen creased. Oh, and as for the rant about the WP blocks, a little reading soon made my life easier. Ha!
It’s been an entire four months since my last post. Who would have guessed the world would turn upside down since then? I haven’t been sewing very much. I haven’t had the strength or inclination. I haven’t even been thinking about sewing lately. And this is a problem, because I need to start sewing my stash. I asked DD1 and DD3 to pore over my box of silks, choose a few lengths for kimonos or robes (dressing gowns) and once they had, the fabric sat on my sewing table for weeks before I washed it (yes, they will wash the garments, so I pre-washed – and in two cases, dried – lengths of silk charmeuse for their robes).
I’ve set small goals for myself: trace or cut out a pattern one day. Make adjustments to it another day. Lay it out on the fabric and, if it’s a good day, cut it out. Sew a few seams another day. I have found that limiting my sewing time to around an hour is best, as I feel energized and happy with work well done. So that’s my modus operandi these days.
But in the meantime, I thought I’d share this quickly-made tee from Simplicity 4076. The fabric is a rayon jersey from EOS which was purchased a few years ago. There’s not much to say. The pattern is a quick make, and I made up my usual size without any alterations.
One little successful sew under my belt is the ticket to more stitching, I think.
Mezzo Couture 