A gift sewing endurance event lap 1 Burda Style Magazine 11-2009-134

Mary Nanna wrote, in a glow of virtue I could see from here, that the theme at 1/11/11 was "not- for- me- November". Fortunately, she did not berate the sewing internet community with stern instructions to sew-a-long. However, this little aside raised some guilty feelings here (all self inflicted) as I too, feel that I should be sewing from my gift list instead of wallowing in new dress patterns for myself. You may notice that it is the 10th of November already, and so far there have two dresses and no present sewing. Oh well.

This is a birthday present for a friend. I gave her a piece of fabric for her birthday (silk charmeuse from Global Fabrics, Wellington), with little sketches of possible garments. Last week she gave it back, having picked out the camisole. (Burda Style 11-2009). This is my favourite sort of gift sewing, because a)it was my idea b) I got to pick the fabric and c) I was in charge of the pattern selection. I may just be a control freak.

The advantages of this pattern are that I have made it numerous times previously, and it is possible to make it adjustable, so one needs only a rough idea of the measurements of the recipient. The bust drawstring is intrinsic to the pattern, and the strap length is changeable.

I had not made it in silk charmeuse previously, but was quite keen to try it in this fabric. The charmeuse was rather wriggly. I used a walking foot with microtex needle, French seams, and hand stitched all the bias binding.
I used adjustable lingerie straps (Greenfield's, Sydney), and wound thread around the drawstring tube ends to keep them neat.



The camisole lower bodice is cut on the bias. I let it hang for 3 days, and the hem stretched far more than I had expected.
I am glad I did not just finish it off without hanging. I lined it up on the cutting mat grid and sliced off the excess with the rotary cutter.



I hope she likes it. I think is is more pretty in real life than in the photographs.
Next up we have mostly- niece- November, starting with a birthday dress due this weekend, which seemed like a good idea whilst I was making birthday dresses for her sisters in August - or maybe I will put a zip in my Liberty mumsy dress.