A quick hot-weather top

I'm mostly working on my Burdastyle coat this week. Sewing wool, while trying trying to stay cool on home-made ice tea. It's almost finished now, but, obviously, I can't show it yet. I have to say, I had some doubts about the muslin, but I like the end result way better. I think it turned out well and I would wear it. Or make it if it was in a book I had bought.

This is just a small thing I made as well (hey, I didn't need my serger for the coat...). A halter top with a draped cowl neckline. I used the pattern of the orange drape-neck top as a starting point. I made the neckline a lot less deep, cut away the front shoulders and quite a bit of the back and just kept tweaking the side seams until the fit was right. I used a seam stabilizer with a thin cord in it on those side and back edges to keep them from stretching and gaping and that worked rather well. No indecent exposure so far.

I like these cowl-neck patterns. 'Normal' ones have a straight center front line, usually cut on the fold, these have the width for the drape added to the front by curving it outwards. Hence the center front seam. Fabric use it about the same (although you need more length and less width), you can make a high back neckline cut in one with the cowl (here used to make the back of the halter) and, quite importantly, you've got more control over the placement and the amount of drape throughout the garment. As long as you don't mind about having a center front seam.

Oh, and by the way, could anyone tell me whether or not word-verification is active for the comments on my blog? The set-up says it is, but I've been getting a lot of Chinese (?) spam lately. Quite annoying.

The tale of nine little dresses... recap

Remember this post? I made a line-up of dress ideas which I wanted to make in reality. Among other projects, I have been working on these especially on those I had fabric for (I try to buy less fabric than I sew up, to stop my stash from expanding even further, don't ask whether it works...). So I thought it was about time for a little recap: what has been made and what has changed?

Also, it's a very hot day today, and according to the paper it will get worse before it gets better. I had told myself to start cutting and sewing on my Burdastyle book coat today, but I'm procrastinating. It's too hot to even think about an autumn/winter jacket.

And I kind of wanted to show off some of my recent Illustrator practice.

This is the newline-up. As you can see, I've made quite a few of these already. Numbers 2, 3, 6, 7 and 9 to be precise. Five out of nine! That's better than I hoped for when I first blogged about this!

Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted my bits of cheating already.

I've got a very good excuse for changing dress number 4: I made that design especially for a specific length of fabric which has been languishing in my stash for too long. And then, after a while, I came up with a new, better design for it. And now, I'm actually quite excited about making it (after the BS coat, this dress doesn't look like a very quick project).

Number 5 is no cheating. It's the same dress, minus the yoke. It didn't seem right for the fabric I have in mind. Those darts from the center front seam may not be great for it either, but I've wanted to do those for ages so I think I just will.

It's in the bottom row that I'm really cheating. I may still make the original dress number 7, but it's more for autumn. Number 9 was dreamt up as a way to make a particular, rather boring fabric, look interesting, but in the end I don't think it needs this treatment. I thought it wouldn't hurt to replace it in the line-up with a different strapless design (Ok, 9 had straps, but the pattern would have had to be as if for a strapless dress)

First up now will probably be number 5. I've got a fabric for it which was sold as silk, but very likely has a bit of viscose/rayon in it. Between black and navy and not that glossy. If wonder if it needs to be lined. I hope not. I'm not such a fan of lining summer dresses unless it's absolutely necessary. Maybe I need a couple of slips...

I'd love to make the new and improved number 4, which, in my mind, has a bit of 1930's flair. The fabric I've got for it is a bit sheer, so I'm mentally crunching lining/underlining arrangements. To be made after the BS coat.

Number 1 won't be made until September or something like that. I've got a fabric for it but it's a warm one.

Last but not least: number 8 is still a design I love but I don't have fabric for this one so I think I'll just hold on until I find one that's perfect for it.

Meanwhile, I still love those big-skirted retro dresses and may make even more of those. I've also been thinking a lot about all sorts of things I could make from those pinstriped linens. Can you believe I've had to restrain myself not to buy more of it...

But what I could really use in my wardrobe would be one or two hot weather-proof tops. Simple ones. So maybe I should do that first.

Trouser-shape experiment

You may have noticed it by now: I love my dresses. Especially in summer. Most of all those with retro flair.

But... yes there is always a 'but...' sometimes I just feel like taking on a different kind of look. More casual. Or more tailored. Sort of cool, with a slight girl-dressed-as-boy effect... In one word: trousers.

A wardrobe mainstay in winter, but, at least for me, less so in summer (I really don't understand those girls who continue to wear jeans when it's

30 degrees Celsius).

If you've been following this blog for longer, you may remember having seen a lot of my self-made trousers in colder months, and you may remember how I experimented with the belt pleated look.

Now, it was time for summer trousers. And for an even crazier experiment. Last month, I made this sketch, and that what I set out to make.

I kept in mind how I like my belt pleated trousers, which have what the pattern making book calls a 'relaxed' crotch line. I actually both used the pattern for those, and the normal sloper as starting points for this new pattern.

I had made the sketch because I had come up with the crazy idea that it would be cool to make wrap trousers with pleats in the leg. So, I really wanted to incorporate those elements.

The pattern is rather simple (and exactly the same as for belt pleated trousers) at the back. The left front has, as its only strange feature, a wrap-over bit instead of a fly. The right front is where things get a little crazy. I slashed and spread pattern piece from the tip of the wrap-bit to three points on hip and leg. This meant crossing over the normal crotch line and I had

to make a pretty weird pattern piece to let it all come together.

Sewing it was quite easy by comparison. Although I had to deal with those weird shapes and a lot of pieces coming together at the bottom of the

wrap, this pair of trousers doesn't include any of the usual fiddly, time consuming details like fly and pockets. The fabric, dark blue linen was fine to work with: easy to press and not too prone to fraying and creasing.

I'm fairly happy with the end result. I'm proud I pulled it off and the trousers are really comfortable. I would have liked to see the pleats a bit more, but I already know how I could change the pattern to achieve that. Not that that would have worked very well in soft linen. I was a bit surprised at how low the crotch looks at the front. The look had to grow on me, but I think it's Ok. Sort of cool and carefree. I guess. And thanks to my crazy pattern, I don't have what, in my view, is often the worst feature of all those harem and other low-crotch trousers: diaper backside.

By the way, I'm well aware that crazy trouser shapes are not for everyone. I'd agree with those who say belt pleated trousers almost only work for skinny women. And harem trousers can depending on their exact shape, be worn by different kinds of people, but you really have to be the 'type' for it.

The best advice I can give to anyone wondering about that strange new world outside the realm of skinny or bootcut jeans is this: go a store which stocks a variaty of styles and just try out. Try to go there at a quiet time and without impatient people (having help and second opinion at hand is good, nagging or whining is not) and pick any new style you come across (especially if you know you can get or make a sewing pattern just like it). Don't worry about the exact fit. You'll be sewing so you will be able to get it right.

Focus on the silhouet, you might be in for some surprises.

Problem solved

Remember this dress? I made it last month (and blogged about it here), but it suffered from 'bias hang', by which I mean that the skirt stretched out in those places where it, being a full circle, happened to be on the bias.

Yesterday, I fixed it.

After having let it hang for over a week, I unpicked the hem (which I had serged pressed to the inside and stitched down narrowly), marked a new hem, the length of the shortest straight grain seams, serged along that line and sewed it down again. I'm much happier with it now.

Of course, I had already worn the dress to a friend's party, where nobody noticed anything wrong with it, and received some nice complements for it... However, I just knew the skirt-issue would put me off whenever I'd consider wearing it. I'll consider it lesson learnt.

Guess what I bought?

My earlier posts, here, here and here, must, by now, have convinced all of you of my hatred for the pinstripe. So, let me please show you my most recent fabric purchase...

Pinstripe. Black and white, two different widths, in linen.

What possessed me to buy this stuff, you were wondering? Especially since I still haven't started to make anything from that other pinstripe fabric?

Well, just for starters, this stuff was only 1 euro/meter. The width of the fabric is normal, so that makes it cheaper than anything I would normally buy to make muslins.

Secondly, did I whine enough about how that glossy sheen is what really makes the pinstripe look cheap and nasty in the other fabric? This is linen. Matte and with a fairly rough, textured weave. Ok, the wide stripes may look a bit questionable none the less, but the narrow ones...

Which brings me to my third point: the narrow stripes are actually so close together that it doesn't look like 'cliche pinstripe' anymore. I will make a shirt for E out of this. He already saw it and thinks it would work (E seems to be getting more adventurous in the way he dresses, now that he's over thirty. Especially when it comes to colour. Just don't say I said that...)

Ok, reason number four: I've had the most amazing suggestions on what to do with pinstripe fabric. Too many for what I had. And some of them needed a fabric with a different hand. Like these ones. These will drape quite differently when cut on the bias, for example. Unlike my original pinstripe fabric.

And, finally, closely connected to the previous, I sometimes stumble across such great things as this on the wild, wide waves of the internet (this comes from the website of a vintage pattern seller, but I forgot which one. If you know, just leave a comment and I'll give it proper credit). Now, be honest, don't you think that would rock in mob-tastic pinstripe linen?

Glum ballerina to take on summer heat

I know I should be hard at work, making my Burdastyle coat. However, today may just be the hottest day this year, here in the Netherlands and I had already started on this little number.

Stash fabric, bought two years ago on sale at the end of summer. It's black cotton with eyelet-like embroidery (without the eyelets, obviously) in lengthwise 'stripes' and scallop-embroidered selvedges. The kind of thing you buy because it looks so nice on the bolt, but remains unused because it's just not very practical. A bit stiff, the pattern's too rigid, you want to use those scalloped edges but don't know how, etc. This week, inspiration struck: a strapless dress with a dropped waistline and a big gathered skirt! I managed to use the scallops along the entire top edge as well as along the 'hem' (haha, no hemming needed!). That meant having to cut everything on the cross grain and the back pieces even quite far that. However, this fabric is, as said, a bit stiff and therefore doesn't stretch as a result of that.

I thought about added thin straps, but I think I will leave it like this. Oh, it's self-drafted, based on my personal sloper, as usual.

The secret is out!

I've been really good at not revealing anything about this for the past months... But now, after the announcement has been made, I'm happy to reveal that I'll be making a coat for the up-and-coming Burdastyle book!

And if the posts popping up all over the blogosphere are anything to go by, I'll be joined by several of my favorite seamstresses in this exciting project.

I just received the pattern, and got all of the supplies last week, so I'm really looking forward to things to come. Note to self: Must remember to document each and every step in the process...