Monthly Archives: September 2012

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the Wicked Witch of the East set

16/09/2012 11:37 pm \ 20 Comments \

A new set!
I have made a new lingerie set using the very last leftovers from Craig’s hoodie; a lovely soft grey-and-black pinstriped cotton jersey originally from Spotlight.  The bra pattern is KwikSew 3300 (my review of this pattern here) and the undies are McCalls 2772… surprise! my old favourites.  The bikini pattern pieces are starting to get a tad fragile now and I really should trace them off; they have yet to see a lot more use  🙂
I used black underwear elastic, and a black bra closure to match.  The liners were cut from an old Tshirt.  Recycling, y’know! (pats self smugly on back)
When I had finished sewing the set I pondered what to use for decoration; anything black would disappear into the fabric, likewise something grey.  Frilly bits and bobs seemed unsuited to the utilitarian no-nonsense vibe of striped cotton jersey.  I doubtfully plucked these cute little red buttons from my stash and held them against the set.  These had been salvaged from off an old pair of PJ’s.  Once they were there, on; they immediately brought to my mind the Wicked Witch of the East, from the Wizard of Oz.  You know, the sister of the Wicked Witch of the West, on whose head Dorothy’s house dropped from the sky?

source
Hehehe….  I reckon she would have worn a set just like this, don’t you?!
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Macarons…

15/09/2012 5:14 am \ 18 Comments \

I’ve been experimenting with the macaron recipe; trying to perfect it and play with different flavours.  Sorry if all the recipes appear superficially identical, but I assure you there are subtle but important variations.
First up:

Macarons with white chocolate and raspberry ganache

3 egg whites, allowed to sit for an hour
30g castor sugar
5g powdered egg white (if you can’t get it, Pavlova Magic works)
125g almond meal
200g pure icing sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence
few drops cochineal

Sift the icing sugar and baking powder and stir through the almond meal.  Combine castor sugar and powdered egg white (or Pavlova Magic) in a separate little bowl.
Whisk the egg whites until firm and stiff enough to keep its shape when you turn the bowl upside down, I prefer to whisk by hand.  Gradually add the castor sugar/powdered egg white mix whisking continuously and vigorously after each addition.
Add the icing sugar/baking powder/almond meal mix in five batches, stirring until mixed each time.  Lastly, stir in the vanilla essence and the cochineal.
Transfer mixture to a piping bag and pipe rounds onto a baking sheet or baking paper, leaving an inch between each round, and let them sit on the bench for two hours or until they have developed a “skin” and do not feel sticky to the touch.Bake at 120C for 6 minutes, turn the tray around, bake for another 6 minutes then remove from the oven.  Slide the baking sheet off the tray and onto the bench; partly so you can cook the next batch, but also the cold bench stops the cooking process in its tracks.  When they are completely cold, peel them carefully off the paper.

For the ganache:  (this ganache recipe found here)
50mL whipping cream
100g white chocolate
45g frozen raspberries, thawed and smooshed lightly with a fork
Bring the cream to a boil, then take off the heat and add the broken up chocolate, let it sit for a minute then stir in thoroughly to melt.  Stir in the raspberry smoosh.  When mixture is lukewarm, spread a little onto a macaron like spreading jam thickly on bread, then stick another macaron on top.

Verdict:

Absolutely delicious!! and these disappeared very quickly courtesy of my family.  But if I am critical (and I am) I think the almond meal was on the lumpy side in this batch… the original recipe stipulates almond flour, not almond meal.  I’ve made a few inquiries and this is not commercially available in Australia but there are ways of making almond meal closer in texture and consistency to almond flour, so I am going to experiment with these next time… 
To make the almond meal more like almond flour; it has to be dryer and/or finer in texture.
So I took a bag of almond flour and baked the contents at a low temperature 100C for a couple of hours, taking the tray out to stir the meal around every once in a while… in an attempt to dehydrate the almond meal.
and made the following
Coconut macarons with coconut white chocolate ganache
3 egg whites, allowed to sit for at least an hour
30g castor sugar
5g powdered egg white (if you can’t get it, Pavlova Magic works)
125g dehydrated almond meal
200g pure icing sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp pure coconut essence

Sift the icing sugar and baking powder and stir through the dehydrated almond meal.  Combine castor sugar and powdered egg white (or Pavlova Magic) in a separate little bowl.
Whisk the egg whites until firm and stiff enough to keep its shape when you turn the bowl upside down, I prefer to whisk by hand.  Gradually add the castor sugar/powdered egg white mix whisking continuously and vigorously after each addition.
Add the icing sugar/baking powder/almond meal mix in five batches, stirring until mixed each time.  Lastly, stir in the coconut essence.
Transfer mixture to a piping bag and pipe rounds onto a baking sheet or baking paper, leaving an inch between each round, and let them sit on the bench for at least another hour or until they have developed a “skin” and do not feel sticky to the touch.  I accidentally forgot mine and left them sitting for over two hours, but apparently that is a good thing  🙂
Bake at 120C for 6 minutes, turn the tray around, bake for another 6 minutes then remove from the oven.  Slide the baking sheet off the tray and onto the bench; partly so you can cook the next batch, but also the cold bench stops the cooking process in its tracks.  When they are completely cold, peel them carefully off the paper.

For the ganache:
180g white chocolate
50mL whipping cream

few drops coconut essence
Bring the cream to a boil, then take off the heat and add the broken up chocolate, let it sit for a minute then stir in thoroughly to melt.  Stir in the coconut essence.  When mixture is lukewarm, spread a little onto a macaron like spreading jam thickly on bread, then stick another macaron on top.
Verdict:
Again, voted extremely yummy by the family and they disappeared very quickly!  But I don’t think the dehydrating actually made any discernible difference to the consistency of the almond meal… and the macarons still had a slightly lumpy texture.  So it was on to the next experiment; sifting the almond meal.
Also, a friend mentioned that French pastry chefs age their egg whites for three days, so I decided to do the same…
Macarons with blueberry white chocolate ganache
3 egg whites, allowed to sit covered at room temperature for 3 days
30g castor sugar
5g powdered egg white (if you can’t get it, Pavlova Magic works)
125g almond meal
200g pure icing sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence
few drops of blue food colouring
Sift the icing sugar, baking powder and almond meal.  It takes a long time to sift the almond meal and you have to push it through with a spoon but it should mostly pass through the sieve eventually.  Discard the small quantity of lumpy bits that do not pass through the sieve.  Combine castor sugar and powdered egg white (or Pavlova Magic) in a separate little bowl.
Whisk the egg whites until firm and stiff enough to keep its shape when you turn the bowl upside down, I prefer to whisk by hand.  Gradually add the castor sugar/powdered egg white mix whisking continuously and vigorously after each addition.
Add the icing sugar/baking powder/almond meal mix in five batches, stirring until mixed each time.  Lastly, stir in the vanilla essence and the blue food colouring.
Transfer mixture to a piping bag and pipe rounds onto a baking sheet or baking paper, leaving an inch between each round, and let them sit on the bench for two hours or until they have developed a “skin” and do not feel sticky to the touch.
Bake at 120C for 6 minutes, turn the tray around, bake for another 6 minutes then remove from the oven.  Slide the baking sheet off the tray and onto the bench; partly so you can cook the next batch, but also the cold bench stops the cooking process in its tracks.  When they are completely cold, peel them carefully off the paper.

For the ganache:
150g white chocolate
60mL whipping cream

45g frozen blueberries, thawed and then smooshed with a fork
a few drops blue food colouring
Bring the cream to a boil, then take off the heat and add the broken up chocolate, let it sit for a minute then stir in thoroughly to melt.  Stir through the blueberries and food colouring.  When mixture is lukewarm and has stiffened to spreading consistency, spread a little onto a macaron like spreading jam thickly on bread, then stick another macaron on top.
Verdict:
finally; I am completely satisfied!  This batch is the most like professionally-made macarons I have produced…. so while sifting is a pain and the ageing of the egg whites takes, er, ages; I think this could be the way to go.
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Mustard Bandage

13/09/2012 4:24 am \ 41 Comments \

A mustard plaster is of course an ancient herbal remedy for bronchitis, but I have borrowed and blended the phrase, and named my new dress the mustard bandage, since it reminds me of the Herve Leger bandage dresses that have been so iconic since the 80’s.
The pattern is from the 09/2010 Burdastyle magazine, a gift in a recent giveaway from Alexandra Mason… thank you so much Alex!  This is dress 122, the cover dress.  It is a very modern, almost space-agey design, don’t you think?  The dress has no side seams.  Those curved front pieces wrap around the sides to the back and join onto the long, narrow, shaped central back piece.  And I really love the disparate shapes; the juxtaposition of the blocky geometric angularity of those rectangular sleeve bands against the more organic, gently curved, nesting seam-lines on the body; a very visually pleasing effect to my eye and so interesting!

I used a piece of thick ponte knit given to me by my mother; the fabric originally given to her by a lady in her sewing group!  I just love the rich tobacco/mustard shade, a colour that is one of my best.
I finished all the raw edges for stability by overlocking before I started,  and I like how this makes the insides of the dress look.  That excess fabric in the seam allowance in the small-of-the-back (below right) was removed later on; I just included this picture to illustrate how I adjusted for fit through those long vertical seams in the back

The instructions to finish the sleeve bands are vague; and if I read them correctly, seem to result in an unsatisfactory (to me) finish with raw edges showing.  I finished mine in a way that the raw edges would be neatly hidden inside the sleeve band instead.  Described in more detail in my review below, if you are interested  🙂

There is one small issue with the dress, not enough to stop me from wearing it:  Comparative
to the cover shot of the dress; the second seamline falls high, right on my
bustline, and the neckline also sits a lot higher on me.  When I tug my dress down it looks like
the cover shot, but then it slowly and inexorably migrates back up again, all
by itself, like a sneaky puppy-dog onto the couch.  Sure, I am not a petite, admittedly for whom the pattern is
designed, but I didn’t think that would make a difference up that high!  Although, when you check out the shot of the dress inside the magazine (at right), that seamline is sitting at exactly the same point on the model as it does on me.  So (shrug) mmm.  Maybe they just tugged it down real firmly for the model in the cover shot too?  😀
Anyhoo, I don’t know if that says anything about my figure at all, but I don’t really care.  Because:
I feel goooood in this dress!  It is a modest dress with plenty of coverage, and yet it still manages to be sorta svelte and sex-ay.  That’s gotta be a very good thing, right?

Details:
Dress; Burdastyle 09/2010, dress 122; mustard ponte knit
Tights; Kolotex
Boots; di Sempre, from Zomp shoes

Pattern
Description:
Sheath
dress with armhole bands that look like sleeves and avant-garde seaming.  There are no side seams and all the
shaping is achieved through the unusually shaped, curved seams.
Pattern
Sizing:
Burda
petite half sizes 17-21; I made the size 19
Did
it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished
sewing it?
Yes.  Except that the seamlines fall on my
body in slightly different locations, ahem, which could be due to the pattern
being sized for a 160cm tall woman?
Were
the instructions easy to follow?
Yes,
the dress is an exceptionally easy construction; all the seams are numbered and
you pretty much just sew them in order from one to ten.  The second-last step, the instructions
for adding the armhole bands, were verging on being head-scratchingly
convoluted in that manner Burdastyle sometimes employs… and seemed to indicate
that you ended up with a bias strip on view inside the finished armhole band,
which I did not like.  I finished
mine in a way that meant all the seams allowances, including the armhole band
and upper armhole edge seam allowances; were nicely tucked away inside the band,
and hidden out of sight.  Much more
pleasing!
What
did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
It is
such a flattering dress; with an interesting and very well thought out design.
The
pattern is exceptionally well drafted. 
While I was sewing together those front bands I was just marveling at
how well the unusual shaped pieces went together so perfectly and achieved
“shape” with no darting or tucking needed.  So clever! 
The
pattern is sized for the Burdastyle petite woman 160cm tall.  I am 172cm tall which does not put me
in the petite category so I had concerns about how the pattern was going to work
out for me.  My piece of fabric was
barely big enough to squeeze out the pattern pieces, so I could not make any
major adjustments to my pattern pieces, but because it is a stretch knit and
the pictured dress was so long I figured that I could work out any little body
fitting issues as I was sewing it up.  I needn’t have worried though, since it fits just fine  🙂
Fabric
Used:
Ponte knit.
Pattern
alterations or any design changes you made:
I had
to adjust the two vertical back seams to get a good fit for my sway-backed pear
shape; but this was pretty easy.  I
took out about 4cm in total the lower rib cage area and the small of the back,
and graduated out to a fairly narrow hip seam allowance.
I sewed
the armhole bands on my own way, namely the right side of the armhole bands sewn
to the dress in one single seam, and no trimming but simply turned under the
seam allowance of the self facing (like you would a waistband facing) and hand
slip-stitched it back onto the band, enclosing the upper armhole seam allowance
inside the band as well, out of sight. 
My way seemed simpler than the Burdastyle instructions, and ends up with
a neat clean finish.
Would
you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I
wouldn’t rule out sewing this one again, although I think I need just the one
for now.  I do recommend this
flattering and smart dress to others. 
Conclusion:
I
love this design; very reminiscent of the Herve Leger bandage dresses of the
eighties, with their distinctive horizontal ‘bandage” bands making for a
slim-fitting, body conscious silhouette…
This
pattern is in the Business wear category, and I agree, this would make a great
little number to wear to the office; modest, smart and stylish, not too out-there
but still with unique lines and details. 
I’m planning for mine to be an integral part of the coming Spring party
season; comfortable and easy to wear, while still edgy and interesting.
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Stripe-ly

12/09/2012 12:43 am \ 19 Comments \

After I had finished Craig’s hoodie, I had quite a lot of leftover fabric.  I had originally bought 2.5m of this lovely grey-and-black striped cotton jersey from Spotlight.  Turns out that this was stacks.  Loads.  Well ahem, I didn’t want to fall short 🙂  When I am making something self-drafted, for the first time; I worry so much about stuffing up somewhere along the line, and so I think I need way more fabric than I usually do.  And buy accordingly.
So I reckon the hoodie only took something like 1.5m in the end.
Unfortunately the remainder was not quite enough to make a second man’s Tshirt.  Just a man’s shirt sleeves alone take up acres of fabric… don’t they!  I mean, who knew?  It never fails to amaze me how a man’s shirt sleeves are each about as big as the front or back!
Anyhoo a second man’s shirt was out; and I already have a grey-and-black striped Tshirt, so I made one for Cassie.  It is just a plain little Tshirt, but we all need plain Tshirts too.  The plainer the better when it comes to basics!

I used my own self-drafted Tshirt pattern, sewn slightly slimmer in the body.  I cut a wide scoop-neck, and sewed the neckband using this method, and the sleeve and lower hems are sewn in a shallow zig-zag.

Since the back neckband of a Tshirt is a straight-ish line with not very much curve to it; I’ve noticed that it often does not lie up as nice and flat as I would like and sometimes has a tendency to flip out and down.  This does not occur in the neckband front, the sharper curve of the front edge keeps it sitting up properly.  So I have taken to sewing the seam allowance down to the shirt just a few millimetres in from the back/neckband seam, from shoulder seam to shoulder seam.  This seems to do the trick when it comes to helping the neckband sit up and the seam allowance stay down; and the line of stitching is pretty much invisible when the shirt is worn.

Cassie is wearing the new shirt with a skirt she made herself using Burda 7370.  I have made this same pattern up for her previously too, posted along with my review of this pattern here.

Details:
Top; self-drafted, grey and black striped cotton jersey
Skirt (made by Cassie); Burda 7370, beige crinkly cotton

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Blue-grey hoodie

10/09/2012 6:51 am \ 33 Comments \

I have made a hoodie; this one for Sam.  
Sam is my quiet one; he never asks for anything, on the contrary he will firmly and testily deny that he ever needs new clothes or any new belongings at all.  But one of the fabrics in my stash was this beautifully soft jersey; a very fine quality knit in a shade of cool grey/blue that I think really is perfect for Sam’s fair colouring.  So I set about making him something new anyway.
The fabric is part of a fabulous stash I bought at the Morrison remnants sale.  This particular “remnant” was about 5-6m and cost $15.  I know, right?!  That Morrison yearly sale is well worth checking out!!

For a pattern, I used the same old hoodie of Craig’s that I used to draft his new hoodie, altered slightly to custom fit Sam.  Namely, I narrowed the body and shoulders, and raised the height of the hood.  The hood on the original Tshirt is a bit short, not really sized to be actually worn comfortably over a man’s head.  However I know Sam probably will want to wear it up every once in a while, so made it a touch taller than the original.
kbenco and Rachel both expressed an interest in seeing more specifics of that interesting combined collar/hoodie, thank you for the request, ladies!  So I took a few snaps to illustrate how it all goes together…

The hood is composed of two shapes; a hood piece cut less wide than normal, and a U-shaped collar piece, slightly wider at the bottom of the U than at the edges, that forms a combined hood edging and collar.

Sew the two hood pieces right sides together just like normal.

 Sew the two short ends of the U-shape together, right sides together, on each piece.

Lay these two pieces together, right sides together, and sew together around the entire inner shorter edge of the curve.  Turn out and press.  One layer is the outer collar; the other the facing.

Measure and mark for the holes for the drawstring in the collar; mine are situated 1cm below the lowest point of the inner curve, and 12cm apart.

You can make life easy for yourself and hammer in some eyelets, but if you are me and like to make challenges for yourself where none need exist; embroider some nice little eyelets using embroidery thread…
Only in the outer collar layer of course!  snip a tiny X for the drawstring hole.  Leave the inner (facing) layer un-snipped!!
With a double strand of embroidery thread, sew a running stitch circle around the snipped X

Back where you started, commence embroidering tight blanket stitches, situated hard up against each other, around the hole.  When completed, run the thread around underneath the stitching at the back to finish off.

From now on treat both collar layers as one; lay the right side of the collar piece against the right side of the hoodie piece, lining up the top centre seams and ensuring the hood edges join at equidistant points from the centre front of the collar piece.  Stitch together, and press.
Again treating both collar layers as one; lay the completed hood right sides together against the neckline of the top, ensuring centre fronts align and the hood seam is in the exact centre back.  Stitch together and press.

The drawstring is simply a 1m long, skinny strip of the fabric, with the long raw ends folded in on themselves, and topstitched down from the centre out to each end with a wide zig-zag stitch.  The original had fancy cover-stitching to finish it off, not having a cover-stitch machine this is my best it’ll-do.  And a perfectly fine and dandy option too, in my opinion!  Thread it through the collar and up around the hood edging with a safety pin, and tie each end off with a little knot to stop it slipping back through the hole.

The hoodie has a kangaroo pocket and a wide self-band at the lower edge.  The sleeves are hemmed using a twin needle.

Once it was finished and Sam put it on; he quietly, briefly, but spontaneously, mentioned that he liked it.  I count that as a fairly enthusiastic expression of approval of the new hoodie.

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Melbourne; a travel wardrobe….

09/09/2012 4:51 am \ 20 Comments \

Last week we popped off for a short holiday to Melbourne… and since I know how much we all just LOVE to see what other women choose to pack for a holiday away … or is that just me?  Well I like to have a good old squiz at the capsule wardrobes other ladies put together for going away, but that’s because I am an incurably nosy busybody, hehehe.  But just in case others secretly like it too, I am sharing.
Plus, for myself for future holidays, I like to know too how successful was a particular selection and how well it all worked together.  So:

Time away: 
5 days
Where to:
Melbourne
Season:
the first days of spring.  Going by previous sojourns in Melbourne at this time of year I anticipated pretty cold conditions and was not let down, but we were pleasantly surprised by a few almost warm afternoons… The mornings were very brisk and the daytime highs ranged from 16C to 21C
Expected activities:
lots of city walking, art galleries and shopping
wining and dining each night
Colour scheme:Mostly muddy neutrals of charcoal grey, chocolate brown and khaki; with ivory, and just one spot of colour in my mustard cowl.

What I packed: (each garment is linked to its original construction post)

(left to right; top to bottom)

Ivory twist top; doesn’t impress laid out flat like this but I assure you it looks real nice on  🙂
Charcoal grey coat; worn every evening and most days

Ivory stretch velvet dress; worn every evening
Mustard cable-knit cowl
Charcoal grey twist top; again, not so good off , but looks great on
Black motorcycle boots; worn every day
Chocolate brown leather gloves from DJ’s
Chocolate brown tights

Black tights
Black high heeled suede pumps; worn each evening
Charcoal grey top with obi belt
Chocolate brown cardigan (below; I forgot to put this in the main picture, woops)

Not shown, but obviously I also packed the pj’s and my bathers.  I always take my bathers on each and every trip away, they don’t take up much room and you just never know!  As it turned out, the hotel had a sauna and a spa so taking them was a good decision  🙂

Verdict:
This was a near perfect cold-weather wardrobe for a short city getaway: I had plenty of choices, everything went together really well, and I felt appropriately smart and urban enough for Melbourne  🙂 
The shorter sleeved charcoal top with a self obi belt I packed just in case of a warm day, but  the weather was never warm enough for this top and it didn’t get worn even once!  Everything else got worn on at least two days each; I mixed and matched the two tops with both the little chocolate skirt and the khaki jeans, sometimes with either my grey coat or chocolate cardigan; and the mustard cowl on the one really cold day.  I wore the boots each and every day; and I confess here my feet did get a bit tired of wearing the boots! but they were comfy and practical and they went with everything.
I wore my ivory dress and the mustard cowl in the evenings out to dinner, with black tights and the high heeled black suede pumps.

Now onto the most important question uppermost on everyone’s mind; yes! I did pay a visit to each of my favourite Melbournian fabric stores, and yes, fabric has travelled home with me … plus this!
The Japanese version of drape drape by Hisako Sato was half price at Tessuti’s, how could I possibly resist?  It is a birthday present from my son, which I was to choose whilst I was over there  😉  Yes we are very practical gift-givers in my family…

I was pretty thrilled when a lady working in Tessuti’s recognised me and greeted me by name, and complimented my blog: thank you for serving me just into your lunch break, and also for your kind words!
Also Kazz was more sharp-eyed than I, and spotted me around and about too…   Kazz makes fabulous things showcased on her gorgeously detailed blog … hi, Kazz!  It would have been nice to hang out!

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Pretty in Pink

07/09/2012 4:38 pm \ 43 Comments \

It’s been gorgeous here lately.  Fresh and exhilarating; cool and sunny and clear.  Everyone including moi is in high spirits, the days are sparkling and I’m even feeling the urge to clean out kitchen cupboards and wash curtains and eiderdowns, for heaven’s sake.  Wooee, spring casts some powerful magic, yeah?!
And I am in the mood to create like mad…   I’ve made a lightweight pinkie-wink thing for my light pinkie-wink daughter  🙂   More specifically, a loose over-sized jacket in a boyfriend style that we both reckon is tres chic, oui.
I used a new-to-me pattern Burda 7401, and the jacket is made of a lovely shell-pink hessian silk that I spotted on the $4 table at Fabulous Fabrics about a year ago, put there because it had some faded patches.  I looove the faded patches! and I think this soft and pretty colour is just glorious on her  🙂
The jacket fronts are supposed to meet in the centre front and tie closed, but because I made it oversized as opposed to fitting, I made it so she can fold the fronts over each other and wrap herself up in it; tie the long ties together at the back, to look like a more fitted style if she wants that.  I did this by leaving a small gap in the right back/side seam, for the tie to pass through to wrap around.  At first she preferred it wrapped up like this, but she now informs me she likes it open.  So she can shove her hands in those pockets… aah, a daughter after my own heart  😀
The silk hessian frays like billy-o, so I finished all the raw edges inside with HongKong seaming, in a lightweight cotton voile.
She is wearing it with a little denim skirt she made herself.  She is a pretty accomplished little seamster herself, and I reckon she should update her own blog one of these days and add in all the cool stuff she has been making for herself.
Details:
Jacket; Burda 7401, pink silk
Top; supre
Skirt (made by Cassie); Butterick 5488, lightweight denim

Pattern
Description:
Semi-fitted unlined jacket with unusual seaming; long underarm gussets, a short rounded stand-up collar, front pockets that are separate pieces patched together with remainder of the jacket front.  View B has longer sleeves, a tie front and peplum.
Pattern
Sizing:
Sizes 36-50 (US 10-24).  I made view B in a size 12 for my daughter, aiming for an oversized boyfriend jacket look.
Did
it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished
sewing it?
Yes.  Except that I adapted it so the ties can, if my daughter desires, become a self-belt that wraps it around around the body to cinch in the waist in a blouse-y way; an aesthetic that suits her style.
Were
the instructions easy to follow?
Yes: except that steps 4 and 5, inserting the side pieces, is not as simple to do as it makes out in the instructions.  You have to clip the heck out of those tight front and back underarm curves in order to sew those seams!
What
did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
For a casual jacket I think it is really chic; with slightly unusual seaming and an edgy style.  I love the shape of that softly flared peplum, it looks lovely either with the jacket wrapped or unwrapped.  There were no instructions to interface the front facing, which I thought about defying and rebelliously applying interfacing.  But I went with no interfacing on the front; which does make the jacket beautifully soft and unstructured, very casual and easy to wear.  I did apply interfacing to the back neck facing and to the collar to the foldline.
The jacket is designed to be unlined, but if you wanted to line it it would be pretty easy to do so.
Fabric
Used:
Hessian silk, and lightweight cotton voile for theHongKong seaming
Pattern
alterations or any design changes you made:
I bound all the raw edges inside with HongKong seaming. 
I left a small opening in the right back/side seam to allow the left front tie to pass through, wrap around the back and tie to the right front tie like a skinny self-belt.
Would
you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I made this one for my daughter; and yes, I would very much like to make one for myself sometime… if I’m allowed to   🙂
Conclusion:
I love it and my daughter loves it, so it is a great success!  I’m glad I made it oversized, with the long body and  the loose unstructured sleeves rolled up it looks like a boyfriend jacket and very “now”.  The unusual seaming and pocket construction is a nice exercise for a seamster who is looking for something out of the ordinary.
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White-y tighties

06/09/2012 12:05 am \ 49 Comments \

hai there  🙂
oh sorry, were you expecting some fashion??
My set-up photo with just one lonely loyal dog sitting there really made me smile, so I had to put it in here.  For fun.

I’ve made some new jeans  🙂
These are made in a thick but stretchy denim from Spotlight in a lovely warm vanilla ice-cream shade, and using Burda 7863.  This is the seventh pair of jeans I have made using this pattern; it really is such a winner in my book!
I thought and thought and thought about the legs, whether to go skinny this time or not.  Whilst I looovee my khaki skinnies, I really do think that a slightly flared leg is actually way more flattering to my figure type.  And the reason we sew is that we can have clothes custom suited to our figure type and not be needlessly restricted to the silhouette being forced on us by the fashion powers-that-be for that season, yes?  Yes!
So I cut the legs based as closely as possible on my purple flares, which I have to confess are (whispers) my favourites.  Shhhh!  I never say so out loud, for fear of hurting the feelings of all my other pairs of jeans, but yah… my purplies really do make me feel extra specially good about myself every single time I put them on.  I can’t exactly put my finger on it; what is their secret.  They just work.  I am hoping these new ivory ones will be just as successful.
I cut my new jeans with the legs about 10cm longer, and with the slight flare, about 5cm in total from the knee out to the hemline.  I did a small alteration to pull in the waist at the small of the back also, a standard adjustment for me in jeans, and made very easy with the two-piece, shaped waistband in this pattern.

For the pocket decoration; there are two intersecting curves of closely-spaced zig-zag stitch done in mirror image on each pocket.  It’s hard to see them in the picture, white on white is hard to photograph! but I super highlighted the picture so it shows up as much as it does in real life.  It does, btw.  Show up, I mean.  The pure white top-stitching thread I used throughout highlights the warm, slightly yellow-y creaminess of the ivory fabric.
Oh, and yes, in case you’re wondering; it is quite difficult to take a photograph of your own be-hind, oh yes indeedy  🙂
I washed the fabric before cutting, then I made the jeans; then I washed them again before hemming to really guard against shrinkage.  I want these jeans to be plenty looong enough.  I think all the washing really helped with the fit too.
I added a coin pocket and a zip placket and also slightly altered the order of construction of the jeans, as outlined in this post for my purple jeans; which results in a more ready-to-wear look.  The pocket lining and waistband lining are cut from a sturdy but lightweight white cotton.

windy? o yeah…

Details:
Jeans; Burda 7863 with minor modifications, made of ivory stretch cotton denim; my review of this pattern here
Top; based on top “a” from shape shape (or Unique Clothes Any WayYou Like) by Natsuno Hiraiwa, made of blue shot cotton, details here
Cardigan; “wearing a square” from Pattern Magic 2 by Tomoko Nakamichi, blue/grey knit stuff, details here
Shoes; Francesco Morichetti, from Zomp shoes

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