Winter Tunic and Blouse

This outfit was inspired by a street style shot I saw on pinterest. It was a tunic with this sort of crossed neckline, paired with a pussy bow blouse. This outfit was not quick to make! It took me over a week to finish it. I used really nice fabrics, so I wanted to make everything perfect.

I used a wool ponte knit for the tunic, and a stretch silk chiffon for the blouse/dress. I got both fabrics from The Fabric Room (they sell designer Lida Baday's overflow textiles). They were both really beautiful fabrics and a dream to work with. I've worked with the ponte knit before and already knew it was amazing, but the silk chiffon really blew me away. It didn't shrink at all with the heat of the iron as some similar fabrics do. I feared the hem might stretch and go wavy as I passed it through the sewing machine, but I didnt even have to worry about it, it was amazing! I really wish I could get more of this fabric. That's the thing with buying designer's overflow textiles, you usually can't get anymore once its gone. 

I used a basic blouse pattern I already had (Simplicity 4112), and altered it form there. I love to design my own patterns, but usually if its just a garment for myself, I don't start from scratch. I just look through my old patterns or Burda magazines and look for something with a similar basic shape of the design I want to achieve. This way half the work is done for me and all that is left to do is change up parts of the pattern and fit. For this blouse I replaced the collar with a long rectangle of fabric for the bow, I also took out the CF placket and just cut the front on the fold and added a slit down CF. I then lengthened the blouse into a dress length. I converted the sleeve pattern into one piece and added fullness to the bottom of it. I also shortened the sleeves and added a long, slim cuff. So much quicker than making the pattern from scratch! Plus I had made this blouse before so I knew it was a good fit on the bodice.

I made a bias cut slip to go under this, but after I had tights on and the tunic over it, it really didn't need the slip. I suppose if I ever chose to wear the blouse alone as a dress I would wear the slip under it.

The neck tie opens up at centre front, then once I have it on, I cross the ties, wrapping them around to the back and tie them into a bow. I can also keep them in front and tie them into a bow as well. Before putting the tie on, I hemmed it all the way around except for exactly the seam allowance I needed to sew it onto the neck of the shirt. I have a tiny rolled hemming foot for my machine, and I've heard a lot of people have trouble with it. It really is a fidely foot, but worth the hassle because it makes such a tiny beautiful hem. On fabric that is thin and hard to control I spray the edges that I want to hem with some spray starch and iron them. It stiffens them up so its much easier to handle and get it through that rolled hemming foot nicely. Then before I put the tie on, I rinsed it out in water, just to get most of the spray starch out. After it air dried, all I had to do was sew it to the neck edge and voila! 

I did all french seams on the blouse, except for the armhole seam. I trimmed it down to about a 1/4" and did a fake serging stitch I have on my sewing machine.  

I draped the tunic pattern on my dress form. I took a couple draping classes in university, but I never really practiced it much. So this was my first project since! It was simple so I figured it was a good place to start. I draped it in muslin first, because even though this fabric has stretch to it, it doesn't really need it because of the design. Really I could make this tunic again in a woven and it would probably work out just as nice. I couldn't seam to get around making a dart around the bust area on the tunic, but at last I tried just shifting the dart into the upper band to get rid of it and it worked beautifully!

This tunic doesn't have side seams, I chose to leave them open. The sides are only tacked for 2" (the width of the upper band). The rest is hemmed and left open. That is why I made the blouse into a dress, so when the tunic swings open theres no surprises!

I used a double needle to finish all the edges of the tunic. I wish I had a cover seamer! But I can fake it nicely enough. I slip stitches all the folds and edges to keep them closed and neat.

I dont do my own designs often enough! I usually tend to use a commercial pattern since its easier and there are so many great ones out there on my to do list. But I am really glad I decided to make this outfit. It was so much more work but totally worth it! I can't help but love that its completely one of a kind.

Bug Shirt

I have bugs on my shirt! 

I was so excited to make this shirt! I got the fabric on my trip to London, England last year from Joel and Son. They have the most incredible collection of fabrics I have ever seen! If you ever get a chance to go, I definitely recommend it! Being from Canada, and the with the British pound being almost double the Canadian dollar last year, it was a huge splurge! For this shirt I used a Built by Wendy Simplicity pattern 4112. The Built by Wendy patterns were some of my favourites, its really too bad they don't have them anymore.

I almost didn't have enough fabric, I had to be really careful cutting, and I couldn't really match too much of the print. I would have needed double to fabric to match the centre front, and I can't even tell it doesn't match so I'm glad I didn't bother. I really just made sure it was on the same level and was going to flow relatively well from left to right.

The shirt was actually pretty quick to sew up and the fit was great! The only thing I would do next time, would be lower the centre front neck a scant half inch, since it sits a bit high on me.

I did flat felled seams everywhere except for the armhole seam. I usually would do a flat felled seam on the armhole, but with the fullness it was going to be difficult, but not impossible. The real reason I didn't do it, was because with a flat felled seam I would press the seam allowance toward the body, but it looked much better pressed toward the sleeve. It seemed to fill the gathers on the puff sleeve, so I just serged it.

For the collar I added in a pretty stiff interfacing. I like the crispness of the collar and it stands up really nicely. I had trouble with the CF placket. The placket is created by folding the fabric over twice, so that meant a layer right side facing up was sitting right below the front of the shirt. So all the bugs were showing through to the front, and it was looking pretty bad. I debated weather or not to interface the CF, but since I came to this problem I decided to add interfacing. I added 2 strips the width of the finished placket, one directly behind the fabric that shows in the front, and a second one behind that. This really helped hide the pattern from showing through. I was afraid it would make it too stiff, but in the end it was just right!

Originally I was planning to use white buttons, but I didn't have any. I loved these flat purple ones I had but I thought they might be too busy, with the already busy fabric. But they were actually way better than the white! They blended right in and were the prefect colour to match.

And..... I got new glasses! I couldn't resist showing them off! :P

I've been sewing and knitting up so many things lately, I'm thinking I might have enough to post every Sunday! So sometime you might see more than a post every two weeks! Thanks for reading! :)

Bohemien Maxi Dress

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One of my favourite clothing brands is Free People, and this dress was definitely inspired by the brand! I made this dress using Simplicity 1939, a Cynthia Rowley design. I found this pattern for 1$ at Fabricland since it was an old pattern, but I think it's still totally in style! I am definitely feeling a boho sort of Fall and Winter! Now all I need is a Mongolian lamb fur vest to complete the outfit! 

I looked up pictures of the original dress on the runway and I was completely sold! I used a semi sheer polyester print, and I lined it with a bit of brown silk charmeuse. I made a few changes to the pattern. I was really surprised when I started reading the instructions that the entire dress, from head to toe, was lined. I wanted a more floaty and sheer dress, so I did away with most of the lining. I still lined the skirt yoke, and I drafted a flared mini skirt lining. I didn't want the outer fabric and the lining gathered in together on the skirt, I thought that might be bulky, so I just made the skirt lining flat. I then made the camisole from V1462, which I had originally planned to sew into the waist seam, but it turned out really pretty on its own, so I just wear it tucked into the waist of the dress. I was glad I had bought some extra of this fabric because I had to do some matching.

For the hip detail, I was hoping to find a wide, brown or purple velvet ribbon, but I couldn't find any. Instead I found a 1/4" velvet purple/black ribbon with sequins on it, and I layered that on top of bias tape I made from the brown silk fabric. Sometimes when you can't find what you had envisioned and you have to be creative you come up with something even better!

Halloween just passed and of course I made my costume! I found a Burda (7443) dirndl costume pattern at Fabricland for 1$ as well and that's all it took for me to decide what to dress up as this year! I sewed it up quick-and-dirty and it turned out surprisingly nice! Usually I read through the instructions, see what crazy things they say to do, before starting to even cut, but since it was just a Halloween costume, I didn't bother. So I was pretty horrified when it was too late and I realized I had no clue where the zipper was going to go. Turns out they just put it down centre front, but there is no seam down the CF skirt??? ................so they just cut a slit, slap the zip in, and do a messy dart thing to cover up the end of the zip! But it was too late to do anything different, so I did it and thanked goodness an apron was gonna cover up that mess!

The top is made out of a shirting cotton. The bodice of the dress is made out of a velvet remnant, which was the perfect opportunity to practice using velvet, since its a such a tough fabric to work with. The skirt of the dress and the apron are made from polyester taffeta-like fabrics.

Another strange instruction I didn't quite understand was that they tell you to interface all the bodice lining pieces, instead I interfaced the self fabric pieces, but only because it was a stretch velvet and I wanted to eliminate the stretch. I lined it in some left over kasha lining so it would have more structure.

I also changed up the sleeve on the cotton top, mostly because it was Friday night and I was getting lazy, and the Halloween party was Saturday, but I also didn't really love the giant poofy 3/4 length sleeve and that wide cuff. So I chopped it off short and added an elastic casing to make a short and cute gathered sleeve.  The apron is pleated using pencil pleating tape, which I had never heard of before. And inconveniently they didn't mention it as a notion on the back of the pattern envelope, so I got home without it. Pencil pleating tape is an upholstery notion, that is used to pleat up the tops of curtains. I found some at Fabricland and it worked out alright, but was a lot bulkier than I had hoped for. I'm guessing it must come in other widths and pleat depths but this one was all my Fabricland carried.

Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of my costume! I got ready at my friends house and we were having too much fun to stop for pictures!

I couldn't help myself, I made my little man a costume too! A tiny knit dinosaur hat! I found the pattern for free on Lion Brand's website........he did NOT like it, neither did my other cat :(