Simplicity 2512

I finished this Cynthia Rowley skirt a couple of days ago. It is a shape I haven't worn since I was much younger (and my hips were smaller) so I wasn't too sure how I was going to like it. Of course I have nothing in my closet to wear with it so I can properly see the effect on me. I want a top that will add width to my very narrow shoulders to balance out the hips. More on the top in a little bit...

The fabric is from my modest stash from PR weekend in Philadelphia and it turned out to be a strange fabric. When I first saw it I thought it was a woven but it turned out to have stretch. Once I washed it the texture change, it became spongier and very stretchy. I found out though that even with all that lycra it wrinkles by just looking at it. I also had to be careful since ironing left shine on the surface. The fabric cost all of $2 so I'm not that upset.



I used Bemberg rayon in gray for the pockets (like the pockets!) to reduce bulk. This fabric is considerably bulky; when inserting the invisible zipper the area where the facing joins the skirt was quite hard to handle, and I couldn't really pressed and pound with the clapper because the fabric showed it.



I'm not happy with the instructions in the zipper area. After you apply the binding you just turn the seam allowance in and place your zipper on top, you are supposed to leave the zipper top just hanging there? I un-stitched part of the binding and place the zipper top to be enclosed by it. I'm still not happy with how it looks but because I realized that this fabric was kind of a bust I let it go. For binding I used a poly brocade from Joann's to give this fabric some much needed...something...it just looked bland to me.



Okay so what to wear with it...I like the shape of the top in the envelope, so I went through my patterns/magazines and came up with this pattern. I thought the peplum will be hidden under the skirt and the top would "blouse" nicely .



The reason that I picked it is that I found the royal blue fabric you see in the picture and thought it might work. Now my fear is that this outfit will scream 1980's and I have been there, done that. I don't mind channeling the look but I don't want to go straight there. I'm also not the matchy-matchy type. What do you think? what color would you wear with it?

A surprise gift

Edited to add some clarification to the illustrations I showed.

A few weeks ago we visited my mother in law, and as always we left behind some things. Yesterday we received a package with our forgotten things and a few surprises. I am thrilled to have received her sewing book "Sewing made easy" by Mary Lynch with a copyright date of 1952.



I love the introduction "This is a book for the modern woman,..." And the illustrations! There is a note thanking Simplicity for the use of their patterns.


Illustrating how not to elongate your figure more if you are tall

I started to sew on my MIL's Singer(1950's vintage). When I moved to my present home I needed curtains and she offered me her machine since it had been many years since she had used it. I had it cleaned and fixed and it served me quite a few years until I got my Bernina.


Illustrating how "if you have an average figure" to "keep proportions according to your figure"

I am thrilled with this new addition to my sewing library!

Thank you all for the wonderful comments you left on my orange dress post. You are the best!!

Burda WOF 4-2010 Model 116

I had an outdoor photo session planned for yesterday afternoon, but when we got home after visiting the optometrist with my pupils dilated I couldn't stand the light so I had my son take a few quick indoor pictures. The camera is new and I'm still learning the best settings. The pictures are grainy but you get the idea.

On the above photo taken in Havana on my 12th birthday I'm wearing the dress that inspired me. My mom made the dress, it was orange with gold buttons and a dropped waist and pleats. I LOVED that dress! I'm sure in the future I will be inspired again to find a pattern that more closely resembles it but for now I'm happy.

To trace the pattern was harder than usual, since Burda decided to crammed all the patterns in less pages, I hope this is not a permanent change. I mentioned before that this was my first collar with a stand and of course I needed extra sources for construction information. I read Connie Long's "Easy Guide to Sewing blouses" but what really helped me was watching Sandra Betzina's Sew Perfect. I had an episode recorded on tape from when the show was on Home & Garden tv, that showed collar construction.



I had made a yoke once before and had to refresh my memory on how, so again I used Connie Long's book which has excellent instructions. Please excuse my wrinkly back, I had been wearing the dress all day at this point



One thing to note is that button placement leaves the last button pretty high. I had noticed it and lowered it but not enough. My plan was to add a button but I couldn't find more than nine in the style I wanted. I will keep a lookout for more, I work in the school system and this opening is just a tad "riske". By the way my son wanted to inform my readers that he did tell me to "act my age" when I was posing for the above picture. Where is the fun in that? Teenagers...

The fabric is a lightweight cotton twill from A Fabric Place in Baltimore and the buttons are from Joann's as is the belt buckle. More detailed pictures in my previous post.

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I'm working on the Simplicity skirt. I found a fabric for the binding around the waist and hem that I think I like; the fabric I'm using is a little strange, sort of spongy and very stretchy although it's a woven.

I don't know how much sewing I will get done during the weekend we have plans for some day trips so I'm hoping for nice weather (it has poured the last few Memorial Day weekends in our area).

Happy holiday to those in the US and a good weekend to everyone!

What am I working on?

Well the Burda magazine shirtdress (April issue, 116) is done. I love it! I think it will be one of my go to dresses. Here are some details, full review later when I wear it. The above photo shows the color better.

I have worked on a pattern with a yoke before,another Burda, but it was my first collar with a stand, I'm proud of my results.





I had picked out the fabric to make this Simplicity skirt but I realized that it was too flimsy to get the pretty high waistband to look right. I now have to find something else in my stash...




I have also been knitting the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan from Interweave Knits spring 2008. I loved it when I first received the magazine and bought the yarn from elann.com especially for it. I started this spring and I hope to finish it to wear this summer. The yarn is splitty (I don't think it is a real word, but it describes the yarn well!), so I can't go too fast or I'll end up with lose pieces. Once this front band is sewn I can block the pieces, sew them and add the cuffs. There are lots of nice details in this pattern.



And No everything I make is not orange, even though you might think otherwise from this post!

It is a rainy day today, I'm glad I did yard work yesterday. Kids have homework to do and since we won't be going for a hike today I might get some sewing done.

Enjoy your Sunday!

PR weekend in Philadelphia

A front door garden on a Philli street

What fun I had! I just wanted to start by saying that the best about this past weekend was meeting all my fellow sewists; I really enjoyed talking to everyone and finding out about their backgrounds and families, we are such a diverse group and what fun to get together and be able not just to get along but so enjoy each others company. My only regret is that I missed meeting some of the 50 or so participants and it was only due to lack of time.

I left early on Friday by train. Trena and I coordinated taking the same train so we could share a cab to the hotel, this also gave us the opportunity to chat for a while.

Kenneth King was very entertaining and the workshop was informative. Having everyone together in one room where we could relax and chat was a great way to start the weekend. I also met my roommate for the weekend, Shirley, for the first time. Thanks Shirley for being a great roomie!

Sample from workshop


Entrance to the Perelman building where the garment collection resides.

After the workshop we split up in groups to go have lunch and then go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see a fashion exhibit and to get to see some of the designer garments in their collection. I did not take pictures but you can see some of the garments here (My favorite was the Chanel knit coat) I did take some pictures of the surrounding area of the museum. While at the museum I also got to see an amazing collection of Indian quilts.


That evening we had a wonderful dinner and while we waited for the rain to stop we had a fashion show. I enjoyed seeing everyone's creations up close. Connie you convinced me to make the Michael Kors you were wearing!


Pyracanthas shrubs trained as espaliers!!


On Saturday we started early. I enjoyed an early morning walk before our shopping trips where I found myself on beautiful cobblestone streets in the surrounding area.




Our first stop was 4th street also known as Fabric Row. I only had a chance to visit two stores because the line at PA Fabrics lasted about an hour but that is the one place I wanted to visit to get hair canvas, buttons and miscellaneous supplies. I also got the beautiful purple wool/acrylic knit at Kinkus.

Our next stop London Textiles in Cherry Hill, NJ was a madhouse of women pulling cuts of fabric from huge cardboard boxes. I only found the above navy wool crepe (3 yards) of beautiful quality.



Next came Jomar. Talk about low prices! I found two cuts of nice lining and the light blue which is a woven with lots of stretch.

And of course you know that women like us who are so conscious of fashion would only travel in style...in a bright yellow school bus!!!!


From left Connie, Karen, me, Touran and Lee

Saturday ended with a visit to Karen. As you can see we enjoyed dinner and wine and great conversation. As Mario was trying to take our picture he kept saying "Say patterns" "Say Burda"...He's a keeper Karen! We also had Karen modeled for us her latest creation, the Burda Mag Plus shirtdress she graded down to her size, it is gorgeous!

On Sunday morning we got together at the hotel for breakfast and then my roomie and I went for a walk and ended up back in Fabric Row where Fleishman's was the only shop open. I found belting material and the larger military style buttons I had been looking for. Back at the hotel we waited with Jackie and Jaeng making time to go to the train terminal, of course even waiting can be fun in company of new friends.

Thank you Connie, Karen, Lee, Annette, Andrea, Mimi and Elaine you all did a wonderful job!

I will soon update my blogroll to include all the new blogs I discovered this past weekend!

Mother's day weekend

This past weekend my family and I went to south New Jersey to visit my MIL. Since we usually visit a garden for Mother's day I did a quick search of the area and I found the gardens at Georgian Court University.

Sadly the pictures on their site did not reflect the state of the gardens presently. The garden has good bones, lots of beautiful fountains and sculptures but they have been neglected for what it looks a while. Flowers were hard to find and weeds proliferated. The Japanese garden was the best looking, we were glad that it was the last one we visited.





My son had a photo assignment so this trip was perfect for him.

I hope all my readers who are moms enjoyed our special day!

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

This weekend was the MD Sheep and Wool Festival. I went on Saturday which is the most crowded day but also you get better selection if you have something in mind. I wanted yarn for a cardigan, DK weight. I found a beautiful wool in a lilac color, which I don't have in my closet. The caramel color alpaca was an impulse buy, the price was wonderful, and I plan to make a stole/shawl and wear it with my new glass pin.

I ate delicious lamb and got to watch some of the sheep judging. I also admired the 4-H entries and did a lot of people watching when I took breaks to rest from the hot sun.

There were more vendors that I remember from previous years. There were a lot of beautiful hand dyed yarn most of it sock weight and I'm not a sock knitter. I still have some of this yarn that I bought before and have to figure out what to make out of it other than socks.


Isn't this a great haircut?














I got a new phone and since Clio doesn't know that it has a camera I was able to take her picture. Isn't she a cutie?


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My shirtdress is coming along but the garden has been occupying me so the progress has been slow.

McCalls 5752

I finally finished "the perfect knit dress" a few days ago, but the weather got cold and I hadn't worn it to show you. I wore it this morning not paying attention to the weather, I was cold.

As I said before I had construction issues because the knit I picked was very lightweight and stretchy. I added length to the bodice which I had to remove by taking a 1 1/2 inch seam allowance where the bodice joins the waistband. I also made the same alteration Amanda did on her dress which worked very nicely to remove the sagging of the neckline(thanks!). This pattern had a lot of extra instructions for modifications which was very nice, one thing it did not mention is that different knits will need different considerations.

This print had a lot going on vertically and horizontally and I'm really happy with how the dress turned out.



I had to share a picture of how the dress looked before I added the stay recommended in the directions. I had omitted it thinking that with the ruching there was a lot of bulk already in the waist, but oh! my! Didn't it look terrible? In the next picture you can see the stay; I used a rayon knit leftover from another project. If you look closely at the ruching in the back (it is hard to notice in my busy print yay!)you can see that it is a little droopy; I think that if I had made the dress with less ease the waistband section would have stretched and removed the droopiness, but with such a thin knit I didn't dare do that.




I now have a break between interpreting assignments and I'm changing my outfit. I believe in making some sacrifices for fashion, but I can't stand being cold =)

In progress...

I just finished cutting Burda Style 116 from the April issue. The fabric is from A Fabric Place in Baltimore, a light weight twill; I'm reproducing a favorite orange dress my mom made me when I was 12.

Simplicity 2472

This was a very easy pattern just two pieces and the binding. Although the original pattern has no shaping on the side seams mine has some to accommodate for my pear shape. Even so the dress is pretty loose as you can see in the pictures with no belt. The fabric is a poly knit I bought at Metro Textiles about a year ago. Not much more to say, this pattern was easy to make and it is very easy to wear.



From some angles it really looks sack like