I’ve made a softly floaty blouse 🙂 of course just as summer is on the way out… o no, wait, actually summer is over! However we’re still getting days of 40C. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I love the warmth! Only thing is that I’m getting tired of all my summer things thus the decision to make a new summer thing, ha. #seasonallyinappropriatesewingforthewin It’s light and pretty and easily breezy; and delightfully cool. I fully expect the weather to turn cold now.
Pattern; based upon dress R from the Stylish Dress Book, by Yoshiko Tsukiori. I’ve always had luck with the patterns from this book. But this time … well the pattern is for a short dress, and it’s quite pouffy too, and in this particular fabric it looked just like a nightie! eeeek! this fabric is far too lovely to be a nightie! So I gave it just a little chop and now it’s a top. Much much better like this… I had also added some rather interesting gathered side pockets to the dress and managed to keep them perfectly intact. I pinned this picture of a gathered pocket a while ago and have been itching to have a go at incorporating it into a design at some time… And I have! with an added drawstring. I decided the drawstring was needed with this embroidered fabric, it felt kind of lacking without it.
Fabric; a rather gorgeous fully embroidered Japanese silk/cotton, bought from the remnants table at Potters Textiles, years’ ago. Probably about four years ago. Fully embroidered with a floral motif, the background is very light and fine, quite sheer actually; so a full and voluminous design is just the ticket. The yoke and bias cut ties on the pockets are ivory crepe from Fabulous Fabrics, cut from the leftovers of my studio faro dress.
Modifications; Shortened to be a blouse. Also the front and back are supposed to be gathered into the yoke… I tend to steer clear of gathering. Instead I folded the excess width into box pleats. There are four at the front, evenly spaced and close to the centre front, and one in the centre of the back. And I added those two gathered pockets at the sides. I love the design of these; interesting and practical, and pretty too without being excessively twee, and they’re a little bit different from your average inseam pocket and patch pocket. I think they add a certain visual “something” to the top that it needed.
I’m thinking of writing a tutorial to show how I made them… coming soon 🙂
Details:
Blouse; based upon dress R from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori, embroidered ivory silk/cotton
Shorts; Burda 7723, green cotton gingham, details here and my review of this pattern here
Thongs, made by me, details here
Sizing; they are moulded to my own feet, so obviously the sizing is good on me. They are sized to fit my just-slightly-larger right foot. My feet are a touch wide compared to the average so the shoes look a little wider than most you see in the shop; actually I was so worried about making them too tight I think I overcompensated and made them just a touch loose… ! This is ok though, since I’ll need to fit warm winter socks in there at some point and at least they are very comfy and totally not tight!
Yes, there is a next pair in the works, 
Woa, crack out the sunnies! So, my second pair of sneakers. Bit bright, eh?!
Hello! I’ve made some more shoes! floral sneakers.
n, I’m so happy with it!! It turned out just exactly how I hoped, and was the most wonderfully cuddliest, comfiest thing to have with me in our recent visit to Japan; I loved bundling up in it each day in Tokyo and used it as a snuggly rug while on the plane… without a doubt the warmest coat I’ve ever made formyself, evah. Like wrapping myself in a fluffy blanket, and I was perfectly snug enough even in the subzero temperatures of Hokkaido.
wrt this one; well I’ve wanted to make a shearling jacket for oh, about ten years now. Ever since the first time I clapped eyes upon one belonging to our friend S; a colleague of my husband’s who is always super suave and cool and has a slightly alternative, very hip and happening taste in clothing. He owns a beautifully thick, oversized shearling jacket that he’s had for years and years and trots it out every winter once or twice. Every single time I see it I’m struck all over again by how awesome it is and have harboured a secret desire for one of my own…
I made the sleeves extra long, so I could turn them up and have a woolly “cuff” on the sleeve ends, and also made wrist strips. These are sewn to the sleeve, then wrapped around and buttoned to themselves. The seam allowance of the cuffs are topstitched down for a neat look when they are turned back, and then I stitched-in-the-ditch of the sleeve seam down to the sleeve so the cuffs stay folded up permanently.
When making my shearing jacket I came up to the important matter of buttonholes… what to have? I’d googled and pinned a few shearling jackets when planning the details and features that I wanted to have in my new jacket, but it’s not always easy to make out the finer construction details of the nitty gritty like buttonholes in far-away, full-length pictures on the net. As usual, it came down to knuckling down and working out how to do it myself.
Hello!
That’s it, really!
