Tag Archives: Sienna

Tear drops top

11/01/2014 2:05 am \ 43 Comments \

White tops, and particularly if lace or broderie anglaise or any wildly impractical snowy stitch-festival are part of the equation, have always been a weakness of mine.  Not just during summer but any season.  One of my earliest pins as a freshly minted Pinterest-er was this Isabel Marant top.  It was immediate love at first sight.  The perfect summer top; feminine and chic, cool and blowsy, romantically pretty and casually easy-breezy.  I wanted one, and began plotting…
At first I thought to re-create the style using plain white cotton and finding some sort of broderie border to attach to the lower edges.  Then during my long weekend away in Melbourne with Mum and Cassie I chanced upon this fabric in Tessuti; white cotton voile with beautifully intricate broderie anglaise borders already in situ.  One selvedge had very wide embroidered borders, and the opposite had a narrower border in the same design.  Utter perfection!  I used the deeper edge for the body of the blouse and the narrower edge for the sleeves. 

The pattern I used is top X, from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori.  A big oversized loose T-shirt/peasant blouse thing, slightly gathered into a narrow neckband with a faced front split.  

A plain and simple top with very little shaping, designed to showcase to best effect a gorgeously bordered fabric.   I only very slightly altered the side edges of my pattern pieces so the motifs and the scalloped edge would match up seamlessly.

The shoulder seams are French seams but for all the seams within the embroidered borders; I just overlocked the edges, stitched the seams then pressed them open; that broderie is just too thick with stitches to attempt any fancy seam finishes!

So; a nice easy project but I still had to steel myself to take the scissors to my fabric.  That awful first snip!  Of course, ruining beautiful fabrics is terrible and the fear of that can spiral you into major second-guessing, but maybe it’s worse to hold back forever and never allow yourself take the chance on making something beautiful with it.  Give yourself permission to try… that is why you bought it, remember?  
I have to repeat that to myself, like a mantra, every time I’m faced with special fabric that I totally and utterly adore.  And I’m so relieved that I didn’t ruin this lovely fabric!  

Details:
Top; top X from the Stylish Dress Book by Yoshiko Tsukiori, broderie anglaise cotton voile
Skirt; Vogue 7303, lime print cotton
Sandals; Misano

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on the Map

25/11/2013 7:46 am \ 68 Comments \

I saw this awesome world map fabric in Spotlight and just couldn’t resist.  Novelty fabrics just make the best mini-skirts for summer.  Simple and understated but still interesting and quietly eye-catching.  Best worn with a plain white top.
The fabric was sold by the panel, and I used Vogue 1247, splicing the pieces together to make one solid front and one solid back.  I put the invisible zip closure in the left side seam, so as to have as much seamless and uninterrupted flow of map happening as possible, and wrapped the button closure just a bit further along from the side seam and around the corner to the back.  Believe it or not, this looks much better than having it right boom on the side seam, less bulky and gives a more streamlined look. 

 The waistband is faced with plain ice-blue lightweight Rowan cotton, bought from purl soho about two? three? years ago.  Unlined, because it’s practically summer; overlocked raw edges and a bias-bound and hand-stitched hem.  Australia is on the front.
That’s it.

Oh, and also, um, so yes.  It can be seen that my Constant Companion has had a haircut.  A rather drastic one.  The tail.  That was a shock.  Did not expect that.  I’m still not used to it, and am hoping it will actually grow back!  Think I’m going to have be a heap more specific when liaising with the dog-groomer from now on!  In the meantime, she’s answering to Miss Rat-tail O’Skinnypins, thanks very much.
But what do I know; she’s pretty happy.  Puppy-like frolicking ensues  ðŸ™‚

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 1247 modified, printed cotton drill, my review of this pattern 
Top; the bamboo shoot top from Pattern Magic, white linen, details here
Sienna in summer attire

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Sagittarius

16/11/2013 7:44 am \ 84 Comments \

 … the sign of the centaur/archer.  
My new dress doesn’t have a centaur, but it does have the next best thing… a horse!  Plus; the requisite bow.  And two arrow(head tab)s. 

Ha!  (mutters sotto voce) nailed it…  ðŸ˜€
This is made using pattern number 35, from Patrones 7, a magazine given to me by Merche in a little exchange we did last year; thanks Merche!  Cassie got to the magazine first and made this little top, and now I have something from it too  ðŸ™‚

Um, so the dress turned out very… retro, I think.  This was not the effect I was going for, btw.  I was going for modern and summery.  I think I got WW2 era and autumnal.  Slip on a handknit woolly cardigan, put flesh-coloured nylons on my pegs, sensible brogues or wellies on my feet and victory curls in my hair; and this is exactly the kind of ensemble my grandmother would have worn as a young Englishwoman in the 40’s.  I didn’t think the pattern “looked” retro when I picked it for my dress, in fact I thought it rather modern and timeless.  Funny thing.  Seriously I have no idea what happened, twixt design and execution, but something sartorially timewarp-y happened.

The fabric is a mustard silk crepe, originally from Tessuti’s in Melbourne? I think?  I spray-printed a negative-space horse on the front skirt, and random spots all over the remainder of the dress pieces.  The dress is fully lined with silvery grey silk habotai from Fabulous Fabrics.  The greyness of the lining filled me with anxiety at first.  I could have got a perfect colour match if I’d chosen polyacetate lining but I had my heart set on silk habotai and grey was the least offensive choice.  I just went for it… and y’know? I’ve worn it a couple of times, and am so glad I did go with allover silk, because it is seriously sooo beautiful to wear!  We had 34C yesterday, and no kidding I felt like I was wearing nothing, the silk habotai is sheer heaven; divinely light-as-air and fluttery and slinkily gorgeous against the skin. 

Also; the colour.  (Sings) love it!  This project was an obvious contender for my swap, but I’m not going to count it since something else is going to be my one allowed thing before Christmas.  But of course the excellent thing is that both the colour and the style of the dress will fit in beautifully with my autumn wardrobe too.  And I can just enjoy wearing it on its own for now.  Yay!

The bodice is cut on grain, but the skirt pieces are cut on the bias.
Bias cut silk; for both dress and lining.  So yeah, ok; bias cut dresses look great and hang gorgeously, but they hog the fabric like nobody’s business and make for a dang masochistic sewing project!  Now I remember why I only make these very occasionally  ðŸ˜‰
I sewed all seams as French seams, using strips of tissue paper to prevent those bias side edges from stretching out.  The closure is by invisible zip in the left side seam, and I stabilised the bias edge first by stitching a strip of the silk habotai selvedge to the seam allowance, like so.  Before hemming I left it hanging up for five days, and it was interesting that the bias didn’t drop out very much.  But it did just a bit; just enough to reiterate the old rule of thumb; yes, always hang a bias cut garment for several days before hemming!

I hand-sewed the sleeves and lower hem in a narrow rolled hem, but I got lazy with the lining and just whizzed it up on the machine.  Not a total masochist, then!

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White trees and buttons

23/10/2013 8:51 am \ 40 Comments \

I’ve sewn up my white trees fabric… into a top! I drafted it myself but it is a pretty simple silhouette; basically a big oversized T-shape, with something interesting in the form of the completely open top edge.  The top edges of front and back have a full length button and buttonhole placket respectively, stretching from sleeve hem to sleeve hem along the whole neckline, and it’s partially buttoned up to close the top of the sleeves.  Technically, you could button the top edge up all the way, except that the neckline is curved as an anti-strangulation measure.  It’s funny though, when you’re wearing it you can’t really tell the neckline is curved, it reads as an almost straight edge.

It is based on several different sources of inspiration: years ago I had a Metalicus Tshirt that had an open top with snaps, that could open like this from sleeve right the way along the neckline; and also a few months ago Kirsty posted plans for her gorgeous top from the Japanese pattern book She has a Mannish Style, a top with a wide buttoned neckline although with separate closed sleeves.  I sorta combined those concepts in the design of my own top.

Most time consuming bit: I fiddled for aaaages with the spacing of the buttons/buttonhole, so it would both look “right” and also that I could have a button placed just at the point on my shoulders where I wanted it to go.

the back view is unexciting, but I know those of us who sew like to see this bit too….  

Since the front neckline has a lower dip than the back, the buttons are spaced a little more wide apart along the front curve than the corresponding buttonholes at the back.  I sewed up the rest of the top completely, before doing the button/buttonhole plackets along the top edge, this was the last step.  The top edges were interfaced with similarly shaped strips of iron-on interfacing and then I sewed the plackets on.
What else.  Oh, and it’s got pockets, too  (blush)
I fear I have some sort of weird pocket obsession…  is pocket-aholic a “thing”?   Guess I should sign myself up  ;D

Details:
Top; my own design, coffee cotton broadcloth, screen-printed by me with little white trees here
Skirt; Vogue 1247, blue damask, details here and my review of this pattern here
Sandals; c/o Misano

LATER EDIT:
this tee has received a bit of a makeover! Basically I hadn’t worn it in over a year, so I gave it a rejuvenating dunk in a pink dye bath… voila!!!  I love it all over again and it’s back in rotation…. yay!!!
wearing it with:
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Gunmetal linen trousers to jacket-y thing

10/10/2013 3:02 am \ 36 Comments \

So new top…  well, new? not really, this funky little jacket was until recently a pair of menswear-inspired, wide-legged, linen trousers, that have been sitting in my re-fashioning bag for a coupla years now.  True!  I took them out to wear as fancy dress last year, but they went straight back into the bag afterwards!
I originally made these trousers back in 2009 using Burda 7944, and they have been good trousers.  I wore them a lot and even featured them in a 6 different ways post forever ago. 

 But eventually they got to the stage where they looked like a dishrag practically as soon as they went on and got “knees” in them instantly.  That’s linen for ya; I love it to bits but if it’s not a quality weave it does tend to lose its integrity quickly.  This linen was not particularly fine-grade in the first place.  Some linen trousers can get away with the dish-raggy look but not a tailored design like this one. 
I’ve re-made them into a loose-sleeved jacket thingy.  I’ve done this very same re-fashion once before, making a boxy little jacket out of a pair of Mum’s old cast-off three-quarter pants, but these trousers started out with quite a different shape to those pants so have ended up as quite a different shaped jacket.  The waistband is close-fitted, not loose, and those long wide legs with a satisfyingly deep cuff have resulted in long wide sleeves, still with that satisfyingly deep cuff on the ends.  You put it on with unzipped fly, and then zip it up down! and do up the buttons, just like when it was trousers but upside down.  Cool huh?  I really like it in it’s new identity.  Making something like this is deeply satisfying to me.  Taking something old, unwanted and un-chic and making it into something different; and I use the term different as in the kind of thing you rarely see a pattern for.  It’s hardly mainstream, is it?  This is why I sew; to make things for myself that are individual and unusual.

A quick run-down on the procedure…
Firstly, you cut off the legs to give a “body” section, and cut open the inner leg seam from one inner leg to the other.

as my son says; ironing is for the weak!!!

Re-stitch both the front and back crotch seams to be straight lines from the waistband(back)/bottom of zip(front) to the old-crotch/new-neckline opening,  Cut off excess fabric (the old-crotch curves).

My trousers had pockets; stitch the opening closed and trim off the pocket bags inside.  I know I know, it’s slightly painful to remove pockets, even useless ones, but they just do not work in this design.  I also switched the old plastic, colour-matched buttons I had used previously for nacre buttons sewn on upside down with the mottley-brown underneath showing, just because.

Stitch up the shoulder seams and cut armhole curve on the body section, and a sleevecap curve at the top of the cut-off legs, now sleeves.  If you have a great fitting shirt pattern then use this as a guide.  I just tried it on a few times, pinned it and winged it, being sure to keep both sides symmetrical.
Set the sleeves into the body section.

Fold in a hem around the neckline and stitch it down however you choose, I used a short bias cut strip of silk, leftovers from this top, invisibly fell-stitched.

Don’t know if it’s obvious or not, but it was crazy windy while I was taking these photos.  My tripod actually blew over once!  Goodness knows why I pick the absolute blasting-est days to get out and photograph my makes.  I must be some kind of freaking masochist.  Hair; styled by gale-force winds.  Lovely, not.  But, seize the moment, and all that.  After all, this is what I actually look like here.  Keeping it real.  Man, I’m a loon.
This one gave me a laugh when I saw it!

Details:
Jacket; refashioned from a pair of Burda 7944 trousers, gunmetal linen
Shorts; Burda 7723, themselves refashioned from an old skirt, details here, and see my review of this shorts pattern here
Tshirt (underneath); self-drafted, white cotton jersey, details here
Sandals; c/o Misano

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Sandy top with gold bits

04/10/2013 11:09 pm \ 43 Comments \

OK, so I’ve made a top.  Simple, fairly plain, unexciting even? but I’m totally happy with it anyway.  Hard to see in the photo above, but the front and back neckbands have little golden swirls, twirling and tumbling sinuously around it.  Screen-printed by me!
The neckbands are of pale grey silk/linen from Fabulous Fabrics, and the remainder of the top is made using a pale sand-coloured cotton-linen from Spotlight,  the leftovers from after I cut out the pieces for my giant polka-dot dress.
I used the pattern for top 136B from Burdastyle magazine 07/12.  Sam gave this mag to me for Christmas last year, but this is the very first thing I’ve made from it  (oops!)  No matter, I reckon Burdastyle patterns never really go outta style  ðŸ™‚  When planning my top I knew exactly what I wanted; a pull-over loose top with a big wide neckband for screen-printing, and either a wrap-front or something to define the waist.  I searched through, only like every single one of my patterns, the lines of this one leapt out as pretty close to the vision I had in my head.

Technical blah-dy blah: I have to confess that while stylistically the design was perfect, technically it was far from a perfect fabric/pattern match: the pattern was designed to be tight for stretch knits and came graded for Plus sizes 44-52 only; and I wanted “loose” in a woven and I generally go with a 38.  But I reckoned it could work; those factors have the opposite effect to each other so it’s like they cancel each other out right?  It was worth a try, anyway.  I’ve never let fabric inappropriateness get in the way of my creative vision! and was pretty sure it would be OK.  
I traced a size 44 and just cut my pieces with quite big seams allowances, plus a touch extra at three areas just in case: the underarm points on the front and back, around the widest part of the sleeves, and with extra width at the hips; essentially, the places where you might expect extra ease would be required.  Basted the pieces together and tried it on, ensuring the raglan seams matched the notches on the neckband pieces as a set-in-stone point of reference and just made a few little adjustments in and out and here and there to some seams.  I reckon it turned out OK!
The waist ties are meant to be attached inside the centre neckband seam, from the top to the bottom of the seam, which means that not only would it have covered up part of my print, but when you wrap it around your waist it would have dragged the V-neck right down, thus rendering it a very cleavage-tastic top indeed.  How it is, is quite cleavage-y enough for me already, thanks!  Burdastyle’s coy description is “Impossible to ignore!”   Ahem, so I sewed mine on further down, only just covering the very lowest tip of the neckband.

The neckline is a flatteringly wide portrait neckline, which means that my bra straps are showing.  But I’m cool with that, since I just happen to have a bra with straps that just about perfectly colour-match this top.  Now is that good wardrobe planning, or what?!  I reckon they just look like little camisole straps.

And; I have a pair of new flat sandals for summer!  these gorgeous cheerful bright coral sandals are going to pep up my wardrobe so nicely!  They are practically neon!

Details:
Top; Burdastyle magazine 07/2012, 136B modified, with neckband screen-printed by me here
Skirt; Vogue 1247 modified, ivory curtaining fabric, details here and my review of this pattern here
Sandals; c/o Misano

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A Hunter Miette

02/10/2013 7:16 am \ 52 Comments \

Hello!  I’ve knitted the Miette cardigan.  This is a free downloadable pattern by Andi Satterlund
This design first caught my eye when I saw Carmela Biscuit‘s utterly perfect LBC (little black cardigan) during me-made May.  So perfect!  Everyone needs a cardi like this one, I thought.  I mentally filed the name away to check it out sometime… and when the Handmakers Factory announced a Miette knit-along, I discovered it was not only cute, but a fabulously free! pattern!

This is a gorgeous little design, subtle lacework around all borders but with plenty of stocking stitch so you can knit happily in front of the telly and not miss anything.  I really like how it is knitted top-down and all-in-one so that you can try it on as you go to check for fit.  Plus you can keep knitting to add length, using up excess wool should you so desire.   I did so desire, and added an extra two pattern repeats  ‘cos the original is a tad on the tiny side. As in cropped-tiny, not tight-tiny.  More like a bolero than a cardigan really.
Knitting all-in-one-piece also means that once you’ve finished knitting there is not even one single seam to be sewn up.  This is Smart knitting; a new-ish concept for me knitting-pattern-wise but one that I am absolutely head-over-heels in love with already.  Let’s face it; sewing up the pieces is a bit of a pain and everyone hates that bit, right?  Really, a clever designer can easily dispense with all the seams in any knitting pattern, since your garment ends up as a one piece thing then logically there’s no reason why most designs cannot be knitted as one piece as you’re going along.
This should have been a super quick and easy knit, but I still managed to take forever.  It was just one of those projects where nothing seemed to go right.  Following is the truncated saga of my Miette…
Did tension square.  Tension just slightly off but hyper-enthusiastically got going anyway.  Three entire balls later had to admit it was going to be too small.  Unravelled in entirety.  Started again in larger size.  Ran out of wool.  Wool shop sold out.  Wool shop not ever getting it in again.  Searched a coupla real life shops.  Searched online.  Ordered from the UK.  Waiting on extra ball.  Missed end-date for knit-along.  Waiting.  Waiting.  More waiting.   Ball finally shows up, cardigan finished mere hours later, worn and photographed same day, bam!  
Phew, mission accomplished!!!  (air fist pump)

Note to self: SIX balls of the yarn are needed!!

Details:
Cardigan; Miette in Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran, in col.Hunter (360026) … SIX balls!
Skirt; my own design, stretchy layered lace, details here
Tshirt (under); self-drafted, white cotton jersey, details here

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Snowy-white Nougat

27/09/2013 11:35 am \ 42 Comments \

The clever AnaJan of Stepalica is designing patterns now!  and I was honoured when she very kindly sent to me her debut design, the Nougat dress to try out.  Thank you so much Ana!
The Nougat is a classic, waisted, sleeveless A-line dress with a pretty swirly-skirted silhouette and closure by invisible zip in the left side seam.  Where the pattern is extremely clever however, is that it includes three variations of various degrees of difficulty, meaning there is a something for all skill levels.  If you want a challenge then version A with its multiple curved seams will give you a good one; if you want a pretty, A-line dress then version C delivers this too.  I went for the trickiest version A for my first go, but the one pattern includes all pattern pieces and instructions for the two progressively more simplified versions B and C, and there are comprehensive instructions to walk you through constructing the more fiddly bits of the more advanced version A.  I was a bit late for the Nougat sewalong, but I consulted Ana’s posts when I did get around to making my own version, and I found all her sewalong instructions to be detailed, thorough and very helpful.

Ana suggested for the bodice and skirt yoke pieces to be cut from different colours of fabric, to enhance and showcase the swirl effect of the piecing.  The seaming can be seen far better on Ana’s very impressive blue version of the dress here with absolutely perfect seam joining!  However, I really just wanted a lovely fresh plain white dress to ring in summer, so used a small portion of an embarrassingly ginormous quantity of white fabric that I have stuffed in bags in the cupboard under the stairs  (mwahaha)  This fabric originally spent a few years as pictured below.  Until I decided that big white swags of fabric decoratively framing a bedhead were a haven for spiders as well as pretty passe.  I took it down many years ago, but obviously I kept all that wonderful fabric!  It is actually very nice fabric; a mixture of synthetic organza and chiffon which means of course that the dress can be just tossed in the washing machine, will drip dry, and will never ever need ironing.  Yeesssss!

before…

 The bodice and skirt yokes are made of double layered organza, with the inner/lining layer a plainer version of the pattern, relatively un-pieced apart from a few basic shaping seams and darts.  Because all my fabrics are pretty fray-tastic plus see-through, I put quite lot of thought into how I could stabilise all those raw edges.  There are so many of them in this multi-pieced design!  I didn’t want to overlock because the stitching would show through and be super obvious on the outside of the dress.  So for the organza bodice and skirt yokes I sewed the seams, pressed open, trimmed the seam allowances quite narrow with my cutting wheel, and then double top-stitched each side of each seamline.  I posted a close-up picture of the seam detail on photo maisonette last week. 
The skirt is actually three separate identical chiffon skirts, layered.  One is attached to the shell of the dress, the other two sandwich the lower edge of the lining.  Each side seam is sewn in French seams, and I finished the lower edges of each skirt using the rolled hem stitch on my overlocker.  I do really love the romantic ripply look of the layered skirts.  The design is a very lovely shape.  Very twirl-tastic, yes?  I did a twirl photo, just because.  Hehe, one of my pictures revealed that I am a fairly grim-faced twirler.  I am so impressed by people that can twirl and have a happy, carefree facial expression at the same time.  Me, I need to concentrate on not falling over!

I am wearing my new ivory summer sandals too.  Aren’t they lovely? Obviously ivory is one of my favourite colours anyway, no matter what the season, and I really like the woven wedge heel too.  These will be appearing in lots more summer piccies to come!
Making my dress was not all plain sailing.  There are boo-boos.  I didn’t notice at first that the two halves of the back bodice were different to each other and so mistakenly constructed it as a mirror image of one side; therefore three of my seam lines on the right side of the dress do not join up.  One on the shoulder, one on the bodice and one on the skirt/bodice seam.  Rats.  But since I did use just one colour you can’t really tell without super up-close inspection, hehe.  My other seams all mostly join up  ðŸ˜‰

Details:
Dress; the Nougat dress by Stepalica patterns, white organza and chiffon
Sandals; c/o Misano shoes
it’s hard to know what to do with your arms when taking side view piccies… 

Pattern
Description:
The Nougat is a classic, waisted, sleeveless A-line dress with a pretty swirly-skirted silhouette and closure by invisible zip in the left side seam.  The pattern includes three variations of various degrees of difficulty, the most advanced option has a complex swirled twisted diamond motif in the front bodice, with sunburst seamlines radiating out and then back in again to join together at the left hip. 
Pattern
Sizing:
European size
32-44. I cut a size 34 in the bodice, grading out from the waist to a size 38 at the hip level.  Because of these personal sizing changes I also cut the skirt pieces to be a bit more flared going down to the hemline than the pattern to give a better look proportionally.
Did
it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished
sewing it?
Yes.
Were
the instructions easy to follow?
The instructions are very clear and well written, and very helpful.  I definitely needed them for that complex diamond motif! but I did use some of my own preferred sewing construction techniques for some of the basics.
What
did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
The silhouette is not one I would normally go for, and I quite thrilled with how much I like it.  I really love the line of the skirt.
I really enjoyed the challenge of sewing the diamond motif and in spite of a few boo-boos I am pleased with how it all came together.
Fabric
Used:
Synthetic organza for the bodice and skirt yoke and chiffon for the skirt 
Pattern
alterations or any design changes you made:
I stuck pretty closely with the original design, and just cut the skirt a bit more flared for my version.  I sewed double rows of topstitching flanking each seamline on the bodice and skirt yokes, both to visually define them better and to anchor and stabilise the seam allowances and guard against fraying.
Would
you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
I think I only need one of version A in my wardrobe since it is quite a distinctive design, but I would definitely sew either of versions B or C again.  I recommend version A to the advanced seamster looking for a challenge.
Conclusion:
I am very pleased with it!  I really wanted a white dress for summer which is why I went for a solid colour version of the pattern, and now it reminds me of an old-fashioned tennis dress.  There is something quaint and ladylike and yet still sporty about the silhouette that I really like.  The seaming is really interesting, and I am in love with the swishiness of the skirt.
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