Burda 10/2008 Blouse 118

 We are back to having to take pictures indoors since I won't brave 40 deg weather to photograph a silk blouse. I need to do some research in how to take better indoor shots.

Anyways, this is my first silk blouse. I have been terrified of tackling slippery fabrics and while it will take me a while to recover, I'm so glad I made it!

 I think this blouse looks much better in person, between the indoor lighting and the fact that black is so hard to photograph, I struggled to get some good pictures.

I used covered buttons, it seems like the right thing to do with this kind of garment. As well as doing French seams, quoting Trena "it's the right thing to do with silk". I serged the first pass and then enclosed the serged edge. Thanks Trena!

 The fabric came from Metro Textiles, NYC a few years ago.

I don't know what I'm making next. There are so many things I would like to make that I can't decide what to work on first.

An old dress gets a new life

My 32 year old prom dress made its debut on stage, Thursday this week, as Olivia's wedding dress in the very modern interpretation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night presented by my son's high school.

My mom made this Vogue pattern in 1980 and I wore it to the prom. As you can see from the picture I accessorized it with royal blue (peep toe pumps, clutch, belt, bracelet, even the orchid!), remember it was the 80s! I don't have the pattern any more but I know it came with a short and long version.

The dress came with me when I moved to MD after college and I used it at least once for a Halloween party, I thought I made a pretty good Greek goddess ;-)

I thought the dress would be perfect for the production so I altered it to fit the actress. She is shorter than me and bustier so I shortened the bodice and added a panel on the left side where the dress fastens to give her more coverage. The skirt length worked since she wore her stage shoes that have a heel.

Doesn't she look stunning?

I took my mom to see the performance today and she was thrilled to see the dress on stage. She happily posed with the actress for a photo after the performance.

Some things are worth preserving, don't you think?

Road trip to Fabric Mart

Layla, Mary, Claudine, Cidell, me, Trena and Diane at Fabric Mart

I waited to the last minute to decide to join in at the fun at Fabric Mart. Cidell and Trena had invited their readers to join them there (near Reading, PA) Monday.

The trip there was not bad about 2 hours for me; Cidell, Trena and I kept asking ourselves why it had taken us so long to make this trip.

You can read all about what we did over at The Slapdash Sewist. I had no camera and Trena did a great job documenting our excursion. I did borrow the group picture ;-)

Everyone working at the shop was so nice and helpful; I was surprised to read Trena say we had spent 3 hours browsing, it really did not feel that long!

I fell in love with this fabric and could not leave without it. I originally thought of making a simple shift dress but I now I'm also considering using it for the ruffled pencil skirt of Marina's sew along. I will decide later... My other purchases included some basics to make skirts for work and ITY print that Cidell flaunted so I caved in ;-) At PA fabrics, in Lancaster, where some of us stopped at on our way home, I bought zippers and closures.

And look there is actually a collar fresh out of my sewing machine, and it is for me!

And as a refresher here is the line drawing of the pattern

Hopefully more to come soon!

Narciso Rodriguez at Kohl's

I love Narciso Rodriguez graphic designs so when  I heard that Kohls would carry a line by the designer I wanted to check it out. I had some time early this morning so I went to my local Kohls.

I have narrow shoulders in comparison with the rest of my body, as reference, I use a size 8 at the shoulders, a 12 at the chest and 14-16 at the waist/hip area when I make my garments. I also need to add 1 to 1.5 inches to length of the bodice to get the correct fit.

All the dresses were snug below the waist (size M) but the shoulders were too wide. I think part of the problem on me with the dresses that since they are shaped to follow ones curves they need to fall exactly in place; with my longish torso the waist was higher and therefore the hip placement was off giving me undesirable wrinkles in the waist/tummy area and then not having enough ease at the hips. Also the sleeves are very snug in all the long sleeve garments.

 The skirt (size 10) fitted fine at the waist but was too snug at the hips. Which is funny because the tuxedo pants, which I purchased, in the same size gave me a great fit.

 I tried on this dress but shortened as a top. I went down to see if the shoulders would fit better in a S, but they didn't and then the hips were tight.

 This cardigan I considered but the fit was not perfect and the fabric not very good quality, so it stayed at the store.

 This jacket/coat was available in a purple at the store, the quality of the fabric was poor, very scratchy wool.

 This top I also tried, again I had the issues of the ill fitting shoulders in sizes S and M

Looking through their website I can now see that the selection at the store was limited. I included the pieces that I took to the fitting room with me for some snoop shopping.

Because we sew we know that we can get better fitting clothes in general than RTW, but it is always fun to snoop shop and once again reassure ourselves that we can do better!

A quick update

We are winding down in theater, I've done myriads of hems, attached do-das to costumes, helped in picking out costumes, recovered a few chairs, made cushions, recovered cushions, gone shopping with two teenage girls, made bow ties, etc. The best of all: teaching students to use needle and thread. I loved watching their faces as they concentrated to follow my instructions and how proudly they showed the others what they had done.

Here are a couple of pictures of apparently the last of the work. Dress rehearsals will start soon and some repairs might be necessary =)

Added a veil to a 1950s pill box hat

I made a yellow one earlier and now these 3 black ones

I got to look at my silk blouse the other day but couldn't move forward.

I have been knitting since I can do it while watching tv at night when I'm too exhausted to do anything else.

Hopefully I'll have something more exciting to show soon!