Stella McCartney coat and the Burda version

Nordstrom ad for Stella McCartney coat in Sept Vogue issue

So I finally got to look at my Sept Vogue and came across this ad and of course the first thing I thought of was Burda's version in the September issue; they described it as a turned-up notch collar. If you like the style aren't you glad you sew?



I like Burda's version better, funkier and distinctive!

Here is a link to the coat with its nice price tag.

My present project

My plan is to make an outfit that will work well together to take me into fall, there will be three new pieces to coordinate with existing pieces in my closet.



The fashion fabric is a light weight knit from Emma One Sock (it was called onionskin back when I bought a few years ago). To line it I used a poly blend knit from Fabric.com from their Lavender label Vera Wang collection that was almost given away. The lining fabric has a nice weight that makes for a nice drape at the hem.



As you can see the skirt is done but I'm waiting for the other pieces to show you the whole look.

In my desire for giving myself enough ease at the waist and hip I made the skirt a little too big for me. I corrected some by easing some of the extra at the waist. I think the technique is called stay-stitch plus? Basically you put your finger behind the presser foot while you sew to gather in extra fullness. I learned watching Sandra Betzina doing it in her old Home and Garden tv show. I added stay tape also for stability.



I will also make a tank top from Burda magazine, it is basic but has a pretty neckline. I will give you the issue later. I will be using leftover fabric from this dress

Lastly I want to make the cardigan from this Vogue pattern, I hope I have enough fabric, I bought it a long time ago when I was a little skimpy with yardage, will let you know!

Burda Style Fatina dress

This dress while it is very basic in construction was difficult to fit. The pattern has the bust darts and some shaping in the side seams but because I'm a pear I needed to fiddle with the side seams to give me a good fit. I need to remember that while I can wear sheath dresses they need to have princess seams or fisheye darts so that I can get a better fit. Nonetheless I planned on this dress being casual and comfortable and it is. The fabric is a cotton stretch and I noticed that in both these pictures the neckline is not laying flat; it must have stretched a little when sewing but it didn't always look that out of shape when I wore it. I'm going to look up some techniques in how to handle better open necklines like this. Am I thrilled with the fit? No but it is the best I could do.


Did you put your sunglasses on? Pretty bright fabric!


I could have paid more attention to fabric placement in the back, but I don't think is that bothersome, besides I can't see it ;-)

I'm glad I tried a Burda Style downloadable pattern. They are really not hard to tape together (although I had help!) I read the instructions and they were good and of course using the bias binding in the neckline and armhole is a great technique that can be used to eliminate facings.

And the winners are...

The Butterick pattern winner is

Janice (tryitagainjan) who just got back into sewing!!

The Simplicity winner is

Connie!!

Thank you so much for taking part of the fun. I have emailed you both so that you can send me your address.


Mom picks the winners

Free to a good home

Yesterday I went through most of my patterns planning my next projects and I found these two patterns twice, well I guess I'm consistent with my likes I just wish I had better memory =)
Anyways, if anyone out there is interested let me know which one you would like, if I get more than one request I'll pull names, let's say by Thursday and they will get mailed at the end of the week (I'll mail anywhere, on Earth that is).

Here is the info

Butterick 5243 8-10-12-14

Simplicity 2816 6-8-10-12-14

Let me know!

New project - Burda Style Fatina

My nails coordinate with this fabric!

So after initial difficulties caused by my brain being on holiday, I got this pattern traced, cut and as you can see above I stopped short of binding the neckline because well, other duties took precedence.

Karen was very kind and sent me this downloadable pattern from the Burda Style site after I fell in love with the (3?) versions she had created. I thought it wise to first make it up as designed to determine the bones of this very simple pattern.

Parting shot...

DS2 who loves puzzles saw me starting to piece together the pattern and ask if he could do it, well of course!!

Rethinking the Patrones blouse

Since I started working on this blouse with this particular tight weave poly woven, I have had to force myself to work on it. I don't like the feel of the fabric and I was concerned about the wear since I don't like wearing poly silky wovens (cold in the winter, hot in the summer). Yesterday I noticed that one of the center front pieces had a defect, about 5 lines of color variation. I still forced myself to continue since I figures if I hadn't noticed it until now I could probably get away with it. I started finishing the armholes with the bias strips and then I noticed that no matter how careful I was so that my hand stitches didn't show on the right side (it wasn't an option to topstitch the bindings down) they were showing; the fabric has such a tight weave that is impossible to grab just a strand.

So I say "Basta!", my time is too precious to waste on an activity I'm not enjoying to produce a less than stellar garment. I'm moving on!!! I will however reuse the Patrones pattern I really like the fit and it will be pretty with a different fabric.

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Since I don't like pictureless posts, the above was the only thing sewing related that I found in my Yellowstone vacation. It was a picture hanging along with the many guns on display at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.

Progress on Patrones blouse

I got to work a little bit on my blue blouse this week. When I attached the ruffle which is cut as a rectangle, and sewn according to Patrones scant instructions I didn't like the way it ended. It is inserted in the princess seams and it ends about bust level. As you can see the end was just squared off and it didn't fall nicely.

I decided to round off the ends and now it looks much better.