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.
Underneath the base, I glued a layer of tough rubber floor matting, which is a very tough sturdy base, very hardwearing, which will hopefully keep the thongs going and last me for this summer, even *crosses fingers* next summer too!
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.
Hello!
That’s it, really!
That townhouse print though; it did cause me a wee bit of angst… how on earth to make it into something that was going to look cute and fun and funky and stylish? You know with some prints the subject material is absolutely perfect for a person, but the print itself is kinda messy and busy and so has the potential to be disastrous? It’s one of those prima donna prints, I felt it would look overpowering in a dress with a sleeve, also I knew it would not play nicely with many other colours/prints; likewise any design details like draping or … well anything at all, was OUT. At first I thought about making a very simple plain sleeveless shift, but still worried that it would look a little naf.
Once the raglan lightbulb had popped up it was all super easy from there… I used my own raglan sleeve Tshirtpattern, that I’d worked out years ago from laying down and drawing around an old Tshirt … in a time when patterns for raglan sleeve Tshirt were non-existent! Yes, it’s hard to believe now there are tonnes of patterns available everywhere, but for a long time and until quite recently some design features were very difficult to get hold of. We had to hunt for them, and be creative and innovative and sometimes very devious in order to get what we wanted. The elusive Raglan Sleeve tee was one such rare beastie. I think it was often assumed that patterns for basics were something you either had already, or could work it out yourself with no pattern by cutting up an old one.
Collar band, simple folded band 
