I'm not dead and here's a new one

Haven't put up anything new lately, because there hasn't been anything new made.  Last week though, I decided to do something with the growing stack of fabrics, so I resorted to this quick & easy project to see if it would get my motivation going again.  

Burda 08-2009-117, the Parisian Chic flouncy top:

Parisian chic indeed.  At least the model is.  Mine?  Well, take a lookie here:

Wrinkles are not Parisian Chic.  I'm really bad at pressing.  So, pardon me.

The pattern is a loose fitting one, so I went down a size (40 to 38) because my figure doesn't take loose fitting very well.

I used chartreuse - my new favorite color - Radiance silk-cotton blend that I splurged on a while back (You're welcome, Britex).   This fabric is really amazing.  It's lightweight (perfect for the warm weather), soft, silky, with a little bit of drape, and it's washable.  The right side of the fabric is shiny and the color richer, however I used the wrong side because I'm opposed to shiny things.

If you notice, the outer edges of the flounce are raw, because I didn't cut the seam allowance I did it on purpose.  If J.Crew can get away making (and selling at $80!) tops with unfinished edges, I can too!  No, really, I got confused by Burda's direction and thought, the hell with it, let's just cut the outer edge without the seam allowance and see what happens.  Luckily I think it turned out okay.

Here's me modeling it:

And again with a ribbon belt:

For some reason, the flounce follows the shape of elephant ear/trunk.  Not very Parisian chic.

Anyway, I wore this with white jeans to showcase the color.  I rarely wear green and do not own many green clothes, so as a result I always get punched on St. Paddy's day.  (Is it pinching or punching?  I always get punched).  Well, no more!  Now I have something visibly green!  Or chartreuse!  But it's green to some people!

This is a very easy project and I'm quite happy with the result.  In the process I actually started thinking about the next project (a summer dress), so this quick top turned out to be just what I needed to get back in the sewing mode.

So... what do you think?

(PR review here)

Burda skirt 11-2008-110

This is Burda 11-2008-110 skirt, an 8-gored flared-hem trumpet-y number.  

 

I used the wool suiting fabric from the stash and this nightmare of a lining, worked on it for three weekends, finished it last week, and wore it to work.  It's a very feminine skirt, a lot more than I'm used to.  All of a sudden all these curves just show up!  Wearing the skirt made me feel odd, giddy, and girly that my voice went up an octave or two.  My coworkers thought I was sick.  So I went home early and took some pictures.

 

 

 

The last picture I'm just showing off my shoes. 

Please don't be offended by the bad pressing job.  It's not my forte.  I don't  forte in everything I do no matter what people say.

(Edited:  Here's my review of the pattern on PR)

Drunk-sew much?

No, actually, I do not.  Despite evidence to the contrary.

The following pictures are of the rayon Bemberg / Ambiance lining for my current project.  Not a friendly fabric, I tell you what. Made quite a few mistakes and learned some lessons that I'm sharing here:

1) Do not scrunch, wring, or stomp on the fabric to get the water out, and leave it to air dry.  NO.  It results in what seems to be PERMANENT wrinkles.  Wash-and-dry in delicate cycle, or just dry-clean it.

2) Rayon Bemberg is slippery as hell!  It is difficult to sew straight!  Look at this hella crooked topstitching job!  Try "taut sewing" where you pull the fabric from the front and back of the feet.  Of course, cut the pieces on-grain in the first place!

 

3) Getting a nice pinking is even harder with slippery fabric!  Look at this one!  It looks like it's been gnawed by a mouse!  I don't have a "lesson learned" on this issue, other than "don't pink it!"

4) Use a sharp, small needle!  Otherwise you get stripe-y pulls across the grain like the above.

5) Nobody other than you needs to see the lining.  So if you have a bad lining, do not show it to the world like what I just did! 

Bitching aside, I'm looking for ideas for alternate lining fabrics that are more user-friendly.  Some folks prefer poly, others mention silk.  What's your preference, and why?

Somebody out there likes me

My blog is featured as a favorite blog on We All Sew!  How cool is that?  Very, I think.

We All Sew is central go-to for all things sewing, my favorite being growing list of links to freebies!  Go check it out!

No Pink & Red

BurdaStyle is having the Pink & Red challenge.  I thought about entering when it was first announced, but the 20-day notice is too short for me, since I sew only on the weekends.  This is what I was going to make...

... which is inspired by this gorgeous Trina Turk Algonquin dress (looooove the design but not so much the price):

I will still make this dress in different colors (not too crazy about pink-and-red combo anyway), and most likely without the big lace. Any suggestions on color combo, anybody?  What should I put on that curvy style line... Top-stitch?  Bias strip?  Some kind of small lace? 

Oh no, where did it go?

I lost my sewing mojo.  Looked everywhere... under the bed, in my closet, in the car, inside the coat pockets....  It's nowhere to be found, not even at the last place I looked (the refrigerator).  Maybe it flew south to escape the winter.  If you find it, please tell it to come home... I promise I won't yell again.

When I was not looking for mojo in the last few weeks, I was busy sketching on my new Fashionary.  Well, not really sketching as much as awkwardly drawing self in various clothes that I want to sew.  Drawing instead of writing down my to-sew list really helps making the ideas more concrete and it's always fun to see myself in model-like proportion adorned in such stylish outfits. 

 

About the helmet hair on the first two (and on all of my previous) sketches...  I was really going for the Anna Wintour look, but apparently it looks more like this cat, who may or may not be amused with having some giant orange peel plopped on his head:

So naturally I changed it on subsequent drawings to a more realistic 'do.

Purple knit dress

Good thing I used the cheap polyester knit for this one. 

As predicted, I did some wrong math on the pattern drafting effort.  The armholes ended up very tight.  The book says to up the armsyce by .75 inches, so I did my usual .5, which in retrospect wasn't necessary (might actually need to lower it instead).  Also, the pattern calls for a straight silhouette, but I cut mine on the curvy side.  So the resulting drape looks a bit funny.

Construction-wise, it's a mixed result.  I didn't have any idea how to attach the roll collar, so it was pure improvisation, full of turning inside out and stretching here and there.  At one point I actually heard "rrrip!"  Thankfully I saw no sign of broken stitches, just a very stretched collar.

I used French seams for the sides.  It's my first time using French seam and I love the finished look, so I think I'll be using it a lot from now on.

Some pictures:

Full length (the stripe effect is from the window blinds):

I lightened up the picture a bit so the draping would show better:

I think I will make this dress again in the future, with a straighter silhouette, corrected armsyce, better construction know-how for the roll collar, and of course, nicer fabric, because apparently polyester melts when pressed.