A walk in the rain. Style 2642 skirt, rambling

After the thoughtful comments on my last post, I have decided to be optomistic about my daughter's sewing future. I consider sewing a life skill, so I am prepared to "force" her to sew to the point that she can alter purchased clothes or make simple garments, in the same way that I will "force" her to cook until she can put a healthy meal on the table, but it is unreasonable of me to expect her to share my passion for sewing as a hobby. I do not have the same hobbies as my Mum! This does not stop me being wildly jealous of the people who have a fellow seamstress in the house. A shared interest is very good for a relationship. Did I tell you readers, that I deeply appreciate the internet sewing community?
Today, I worked quite hard at my sewing. I am making a coat. This means that I have very little to show for a full Saturday spent in the sewing room. (I do like having a sewing room, just let me gloat a bit)
Instead, I will display for you this quick and easy wrap skirt, Style 2642 (oop), which is my sarong alternative. I use ties instead of buttons as closures, which is very useful after Christmas.( There is still a box of chocolates left, but it will not last long)



I am the wrong shape for a traditional sarong, having child bearing hips and generosity of backside. I made this for my beach holiday at the beginning of December. I had intended to make the full length, A line, wrap skirt (with darts at the back) in order to prevent sunburnt legs. (Hmm, this was the skirt I made several times for early pregnancy, don't you love adjustable ties). Unfortunately, I had been cheated of fabric when I purchased this "sarong length" of Indonesian cotton batik on Arab Street, the Singapore fabric district. I had 1.7 metres, not the 2.5 for which I had paid, so made a knee length skirt instead, which is a very good length for walking in the rain.

I did not write about the Singapore fabric district after my visit in August, because I did not care for it at all - finding the vendors very pushy and the prices expensive. I also felt that I would have been stared at less, had I been wearing a bhurka. My husband pointed out to me that my calves were receiving a great deal of attention - I just wondered why I was feeling quite uncomfortable. (High necked blouse with near elbow sleeves, knee length skirt). I wonder how the Muslim men in the fabric district cope with the Chinese Malay girls in miniskirts? After discovering the fabric shortage,I now admire it even less as a shopping destination. Fortunately for my peace of mind, this was my only fabric purchase in Singapore, and now I have used it all up.

I very much like the batik print. I pieced it at the front as the panel of the sarong that is designed to fall straight down the front looked quite peculiar cut out as an A-line.


Behind me is the bridge to the South side of town, now 14.something metres under water.


My two younger children are now stuck in Brisbane with their grandmother until the river goes down. They think this is just fine, and are off to the movies tomorrow to see the latest Narnia film, which has not made it to our local cinema yet. City life is so exciting.
Here is the basketball court in our local park - you can just see the top of the backboard.

I dont' think I will be seeing many people at work on Monday. Maybe I could take in a bit of hand basting......

Burda Style 2-2010-103 Skirt. A sad story with a happy ending.

This should have been a super easy skirt.

It is essentially a circle skirt with some added pleats, and an optional sash.I had planned to make it after work on Monday last week, to nicely round out my endless combinations outfits, by giving me another 3 outfits. (I rather like this stage of capsule sewing)

I traced it out in the morning (3 pieces to stick together, yuck)and was proceeding very nicely until I tried the dratted thing on.
I feel that this is the most unflattering skirt I have ever put on. It looks fine from the front, but from the back and side it is considerably fattening.


For the sake of my vanity, I am compelled to point out that my abdomen is about the only part of me that is relatively flat. This skirt manages to give me apparent central adiposity, and also visually enlarge my behind, which does not need any assistance. (I can manage this much more pleasantly myself by consuming chocolate and mince pies).It looks far,far worse in real life than it does in these photographs. (My photographer was laughing too hard to take properly revealing pictures). Fortunately, it does have a few redeeming features. 1.It gave my teenage fashion panel a good laugh.2. There is a lot of fabric in the skirt, and recutting for another garment was possible.

I folded in the pleats at the front, sewed an enormous dart in the back of the pattern pieces, and tried cutting the skirt out again.
Due to fabric limitations, I had to make the skirt much shorter, more like view B in the magazine. I also had to add 6 darts to the back, and 2 to the front to make the waist fit.

It is much less fattening without the pleats.





I made a sash using the bottom section of the original skirt, so the back of the sash is curved. I really like the bow, it is nicely frivolous.

The fabric is a very thin, but crisp, cotton batik that my Mum bought me in Indonesia. It is possible that the pleats would look much less fattening if you used a more drapey fabric, such as the voile suggested by Burda for the longer skirt, but Burda also suggests taffeta for the shorter version. It seems to me that this skirt would produce apparent stomach enlargement on most figures in skirt fabrics with much body. I think it works much better without the pleats.

Purple is practically a neutral - Limited Combinations

I really like my purple skirt, but did not have much in my wardrobe that I wanted to wear with it. Inspired by Carolyn's comment, that purple is practically a neutral, and the many helpful suggestions as to what would work as an outfit, I started making co-ordinates. I fully intended to make a few more tops, and a few more skirts, so as to make a capsule wardrobe for Summer, but have not got terribly far at this point. Despite this, I am entering my efforts so far in the Endless Combinations challenge at Pattern Review. I just wish I was better at composite photographs!

Lattice smocking on a t shirt Burda style 08-2010

I have made several of these t shirts, does this make it a TNT? Anyway, after thinking this super soft and clingy bamboo viscose jersey from Gorgeous fabrics was only useful for super soft and comfy knickers ( which I make, but tend not to expose on my blog for some Victorian reason of reticence), I have to eat my words. I love, love, love this t shirt with lattice smocking on this super soft fabric(North American smocking, or counter change smocking - lattice pattern - sources Threads Magazine 2010, Australian smocking and Embroidery magazine 2009, smocks and smocking published 1972 - etc etc)

The last time I smocked a t shirt I used the traditional English Smocking method of applying the smocking to the pattern - lying the pattern piece over the smocking and cutting it out, on grain.
I have worn this t shirt frequently, and it is one of those garments that other people notice, and comment about favourably. Naturally this meant that I was inspired to make another one. :)

This time, I felt that a less traditional method would be appropriate, which really means that I did not want to smock 8- 10 rows before cutting out. I smocked two rows of horizontal, rather than vertical lattice smocking,using a one inch grid, then draped the neckline using my dress form, Genevieve, to achieve a pleasing fall of fabric.

Not trusting this draping at all, I overlocked the upper portion of the bodice to an on -grain stay, cut from the same fabric, cut out using the pattern piece photographed here.

It took about 10 minutes to sew the rest of this t shirt.

Getting out the overlocker and the coverstitch machine is hardly worth it for one garment, so I whipped up a t shirt Vogue 2925 (oop) from a more stable cotton-lycra knit.

20 minutes max. I love tested t shirt patterns.
It looks better with the scarf that my mum gave me,

but this sort of sewing is sooo much faster and more satisfying than shopping. It's a pity I prefer fiddly sewing with wovens.

Simplicity 3789 blouse -Khaliah Ali Collection with ranting

Thank you for the commiseration and encouragement re the Patrones failure. I threw away the traced pattern and toile in a fit of pique, so I may require considerable enthusiasm before attempting it again.
Today I have finished my "easy" Simplicity pattern. I made this up in a purple floral print, cotton, to co-ordinate with my purple skirt. I am very grateful for all the more adventurous suggestions for colour co-ordination, but my fabric stash is surprisingly limited in these colours, considering the size of it! I have exciting purchasing plans in the pipeline.

I bought this pattern as my last choice in a "buy 3 for $21 sale" at my local fabric shop, which is what passes for a pattern bargain in Australia.



My thought, when selecting this pattern was useful work blouse.

I think this is what I have. It would be quite reasonable to suppose, that having achieved the planned outcome with this pattern, I would be a happy seamstress. Unfortunately, today the only seamstress in this house is very grumpy. Be warned. Read on at your own risk.
I have made many Simplicity patterns in the past. I know how to alter them to make them fit me, knowledge that has been acquired painfully and expensively, through the production of many wadders. This pattern did not fit like a Simplicity pattern.
I should have read the 13 reviews at pattern review before trying this pattern. These are mixed. There are a few give away raves "Usually I make a lot of alterations but this one fit straight out of the envelope" and several give away dismal failures "far too big" " shoulders very wide" "did not finish the shirt".
The Kahliah Ali pattern seems to use a different draft that is loose, very loose, and has enormously wide shoulders, extra large, boobies with considerable separation, and is very long in the body. This is probably the perfectly fitting blouse for Kahliah Alia, if she is the lady in the pattern photograph, without a peg at the back of the blouse, but why doesn't the pattern envelope say that the draft is different?
According to the pattern envelope measurements, I should make a size 12 in Simplicity patterns, using my high bust and hip measurement. The finished measurements for size 12 D in this pattern would give me 7 inches of ease at the bust. I prefer a more fitted blouse, as IMO 7 inches of ease in an allegedly semi-fitted style garment increases apparent fatness.
My extensive wadder experience has taught me to make a size 10 in Simplicity patterns, with a full bust adjustment.
This blouse has separate bodice pieces for different cup sizes, which was the deciding factor in my purchase. This would suggest a size 12 D for me (continuing to use my high bust measurement- otherwise a 16D, using full bust measurement, which would be quite ridiculously large). According to my previous experience I made a size 10D. It was a very poor fit.
I took 5cm from the front princess lines at bust level and above, 3 cm from each shoulder line, and took the waist in by 5cm. I also made the blouse to my high hip level, which required removal of 10 cm from the length.



(I also made 5 small pleats instead of 3 big ones next to the button placket, and fiddled around with the horizontal stitching across the pleats, but this has nothing to do with the fitting)



There are some pleasing things about this blouse. It was very quick to make. The dressmaker collar has a surprisingly pleasant shape, and overall, this is a Useful blouse. It even looks O.K. with the purple skirt. There are several pattern styling options, I may even use it again, but I remain grumpy about this pattern. Boo to Simplicity from me.

Overcoming fabric remorse, BWOF 4 - 2009-101 skirt

My fabric hogging Jacaranda coat gave me fabric remorse. Not purchasing remorse, which rarely afflicts me, due to my fondness for fabric collecting, but use remorse. This purple linen had been dozens of beautiful garments in my imagination, and I mourned every one of these after I had finished the coat. I have never claimed to be rational about sewing.



After considering the pitiful remnants for a few weeks, I decided that I almost had enough fabric to make BWOF 4-2009-101.
It took some squeezing, and a centre back seam, but I managed to cut it out. This was a great balm to my fabric remorse.
Even better, I could use the same oddly shaped pieces from the coat lining for the inside of my skirt.

I have made two of these skirts previously, which I have been wearing frequently for over 18 months, and the inside of both annoy me each time I put them on. I had already sewn the back side pieces to the centre back when I decided to take more trouble this time.
I tried underlining. I had never done this before for a whole garment, due to my frequent need for post construction fitting, but I felt confident that I could manage with this pattern. I see from the date on Laura Lo's tutorial, that I have been thinking about trying this for more than 2 and 1/2 years.
I did not measure precisely, which is the recommended technique, just cut out the underlining approximately 1.5cm bigger at the horizontal edges, using the cut-out, outer fabric pieces as a pattern. The back pieces I sewed together as a detached lining, but the centre back and side seam as underlining. This was fortuitous, as there is a huge curve for me in the seam I had already sewn, and I did not want to clip my pretty faux bound seams. There were several advantages to using the underlining - pre-finished seams, increased seam allowance, and a bit more body for the top of the skirt.

I was pleased with the effect of the underlining, so kept fiddling with new techniques. I am very fond of invisible zips, but felt that there were too many layers of fabric to use one. Instead I used the new-to-me insertion technique from Kenneth King's Cool Couture for a lapped zipper.

This was terrific - fast and easy, even the hand picked bit, but I overlooked a small problem. The technique expects a waistband to be attached, and there is no waistband at the back of this pattern. I bound the top of the underlap with bias binding, and added a tab and button on the inside to keep the top closed. It is not too bad.

I have looked up a better way of doing this for next time (Australian Stitches Vol 9 #8)

I was not sure how to finish the bottom edge of the underlining. I should have finished them before sewing the seams. To disguise this oversight, I hand-stitched lace to the hem.


I used the same buttons for the skirt as for my coat. I am quite certain that the skirt will show them off more frequently. This whole project makes me happy. Now I just need some tops to wear with it.