Vogue 8363 Archives - Page 3 of 3

LBS

17/12/2012 11:00 pm \ 28 Comments \ Carolyn

The amount of Christmas “creating” going on around here has been insane lately! I have been sewing like an absolute madwoman… !
but this Little Black Skirt is not a part of that. This is a sorta urgent extra! aiyiyi…
My daughter has completed her undergraduate degree and successfully secured her first “real” job. She will be returning to uni next year to do her Masters, but will probably continue to work concurrently in the firm she has just joined…
So, just prior to her interview we attended to a detail of paramount importance: her wardrobe.
For the past few years she’s been a university student, with an appropriately fun and funky colourful casual wardrobe and lots of crazy shoes… hmmm. We assessed everything and came up with one or two smart and stylish little separates that she can wear in the office, but identified a few holes that I will have the pleasure of addressing over the next few weeks… the biggest of which is the ubiquitous LBS.
So I made one for her. It may not look very earth shattering, but I wanted this skirt to be a long-term goodie, a wardrobe builder; a simple, streamlined and smart basic, high quality enough to last for years and years; and also sturdy and practical enough to cope with being tossed in the washing machine.
I used Vogue 8363, and a very nice quality washable wool-mix suiting fabric from Fabulous Fabrics. The skirt is fully lined with black polyacetate lining fabric, also from Fabulous Fabrics, and I juggled the various views of the pattern to give the skirt a one piece darted front, to have those satisfyingly deep, slanted hip pockets, and to have a central back invisible zip opening. I shortened the skirt to hit at a very workable just-above-knee-length. This is both mine and Cassie’s favourite skirt length; suitable for both summer and winter wear.
An easier-to-see view of the pockets can be seen on another version of this pattern I made previously; here.

The hem is finished with a black bias-cut cotton strip.

I adjusted the lining pieces to incorporate an extra few inches of width at the widest part of the hips: since in my experience this is the first part of a pencil skirt to show strain, particularly in a skirt that one is seated in for long periods of time. The darts in the lining are not stitched, but simply folded in position and stitched along the top, for that little bit of extra wearing ease.

Below; the inside view of the lining, skirt back.

The skirt has one shaping dart at the front, two at the back; all the better for that slight sway back adjustment

I worked a bound buttonhole (seen above) for the single waist button.

She owned literally one pair of suitable shoes for the office, so we also bought a new pair of Misano ballet flats in beige and caramel, with black feature strips. These are exactly the same as my own ballet flats, just in a different colourway. These neutral shades are going to be the backbone of her new working wardrobe.
Cassie made her charcoal jersey jacket herself, and blogged about it on her own blog here.
I’m actually rather excited about helping to add to Cassie’s working girl apparel! what to make next, what to make next? but any new pieces may have to wait until the seasonal mayhem has subsided….. 😉

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 8363 modified, black wool-mix suiting; my review of this pattern here
Camisole; supre
Jacket; made by Cassie, and blogged here
Shoes; Misano, from Hobbs

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, shoes, skirt, Vogue 8363

Burnt-orange skirt; 6 different ways

14/10/2011 9:25 am \ 23 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve been playing with my recently finished burnt-orange skirt, styling it up for a variety of seasons and the different degrees of formality that my lifestyle requires. When I bought this silk hessian I knew its autumnal shades would go with a lot in my wardrobe. But I had such fun putting together outfits based on this skirt… OK, sure I always have a lot of fun playing in my wardrobe, but this time was an easy breezy spoilt-for-choice kind of a fun; because this skirt really goes with just about everything I own! I could have had twice as many outfits as I have pictured here… either a sign that I have far too many clothes (a distinct possibility), or that I am getting a lot better at colour matching my fabric purchases to each other, and to myself and my own colouring. The latter can only be a good thing; the former… hmmm, well we won’t go there…
I made this little skirt during the tail end of winter and styled it then with charcoal grey and black here, and I thought the colour of the skirt added a nicely rich yet still citrus-y zing to those sombre winter-y shades. Naturally the orange will also look fresh and tangy with a pure white top during the warmer months, so I avoided that obvious choice here, with just one exception which I’m guessing will be a much harder item to mix-and-match in my wardrobe…
namely this avant garde white dress, at left. It’s quite short on its own so really needs at least a little skirt underneath. To be honest, I’m already re-thinking this white dress (it’s pretty ….er, voluminous) and have a few new plans… watch this space. But in the meantime, wouldn’t this be a good choice for a half-way glamorous, semi-formal summer do? Just imagine the champagne glass in my hand… yes?
At right; for a more casual kind of a summer’s day, well my top here is of shot silk, with an orange warp and a blue weft, so its resultant drab pink colour is actually a mixture of the other two colours in the skirt and scarf of this outfit… how’s that for painterly colour analysis of an outfit? Sorta impressive…huh?

For days of middling temperature:
At left; Casual required? I would wear this outfit, and thus serendipitously be sorta colour-blocked. The current fashion buzz-word.
At right; going somewhere nice? Mixing the burnt orange with milk chocolate brown, khaki and rich brown leather; and getting into those toasty autumnal sorts of shades here.

Going winter-y:
At left; I wore these denim-y blue garments with my rusty red skirt during SSS11, and I really like them with the burnt orange skirt too. Will definitely wear this on a cold and casual day next year… hopefully these tights will hold out that long, fingers crossed :S
And lastly at right; for a semi-smart winter’s occasion, the burnt orange colour works beautifully with the rich jewel shades of ruby red, purple-y red and with the chocolate brown in my tights, boots and bag… well rugged up, and these colours are psychologically half warming me up already!

What am I wearing today? well I met with a friend for her birthday lunch, and I wore the “brown” outfit with my slouchy boots. It was perfect for visiting a cafe, and for these pleasantly warm but not hot days that we are getting now.
Which outfit here do you like the best?

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: 6 different ways, skirt, Vogue 8363

Burnt orange skirt

12/09/2011 7:02 am \ 24 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve seen a couple of other little orange skirts just like this recently, namely Gail’s and Yoshimi’s, so you will have to take my word for it that I bought this fabric a couple of months ago and have had this skirt at the nearly finished stage for a few weeks! So, I claim immunity from copy-itis, but instead invite you to marvel for a minute at the like-mindedness of great minds…
Now actually there is an element of copy-itis going on. I saw a skirt in the window of Cue with an interesting waistband, pleat and pocket feature. I am always on the lookout for interesting ways to incorporate pockets into straight skirts, a silhouette that I think suits me but is often difficult to put a pocket in successfully. I thought the Cue team had done a marvellous job. All Aussies will know how Cue along with its sister store Veronika Maine are veritable goldmines for interesting little features a seamstress can think about incorporating into her garments. I just love browsing these stores, and if I wasn’t making my own clothes I would be wearing their designs. Along with my all-time favourite Metalicus, of course… Anyhoo, I digress; so, I went home inspired, then it was a week or so before the next visit to the fabric store, then it was another week or so before I got around to constructing my skirt. So I was doing it from memory and it turns out mine is quite different from the Cue one, which on my next pass by the store window I noticed had two pleats, both situated between the front middle panel and the pocket. Mine ended up having but one pleat, situated underneath the front middle panel. Oh, OK OK, a fairly miniature difference that only a nit-picking detail-maniac like me would notice… but, doesn’t matter the design still works for me…
I adapted one of the Vogue 8363 variations, modifying by redrafting the front waistband piece to have a lower curve (I wanted this shape as opposed to a flat straight waistband) and drafted a middle front panel and re-drafted the skirt front piece accordingly to accommodate these two changes. The two front darts of the pattern were partly integrated into the middle front panel, and partly transformed into the small pleat. The beauty of this pleat is that it enables some “hand-room” for when one is using the slanted front pockets. Voila! I’m extremely pleased with how it turned out. I can shove my hands down deep into the pockets and the discreet little pleat enables one to do this comfortably, while still maintaining a nice little straight skirt silhouette.

The only thing about the design I’m not completely happy with is the middle front panel. On the Cue skirt it looked really good, on mine I think it looks less so, and wish I had kept it as part of the front skirt piece. I think it is do do with my fabric choice, the flatness of the fabric means the less seaming, the better it looks. The Cue skirt was made of a quite textured fabric with a very busy multicoloured weave, which looked very good with the separate panel pieces… if I do this again I will try to remember this…
When I bought the burnt orange, there was no matching lining fabric nor zip to be found, so instead I went wild and bought a contrasting maroon lining and zip, and also for the cotton to make my HongKong seaming tape and hemming tape. You can see I went happily all out on the HongKong seaming there… this silk hessian is one of my favourite fabrics but frays like a madman… so raw edges are a big no no. I covered a button with some of the fabric, and also made a bound buttonhole, but took absolutely no close-ups of this. For a reason… After viewing Sherry’s superb bound buttonholes I’ve decided mine is nought but a travesty of a bound buttonhole. I salvage my pride by saying humbly yet again that this fabric frays like a monster… I did my best but it is sadly far far from a perfect thing.

Details:
Skirt; my own adaptions of Vogue 8363, burnt orange silk hessian, my review of this pattern here
Top; the bodice part only of Burdastyle magazine 08/2009, dress 128, charcoal wool mix, details here
Scarf; my own design, details and my pattern here
Tights; Kolotex
Shoes; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: daily outfit, own design, skirt, SSS11, Vogue 8363

Layered rusty-red wool skirt

28/07/2011 9:41 am \ 15 Comments \ Carolyn

So, using the leftover bit of fabric from my rusty-red wool skirt, combined with the cut-off from when I decided to make my long skirt shorter, I made Cassie a little layered skirt. Using the same pattern as I did for my own skirt, Vogue 8363. I even managed to reuse the cut-off lining as well for the lining for this skirt, and covered a button the same way… and now I really have used all of this gorgeous Japanese wool/silk fabric!
I only had tiny scraps of suitably coloured thin cotton left; so not all of the seams in this skirt are Hong Kong bound, but the most visible ones are. I really debated whether or not to even go this extra step, for my daughter, being a typical teenager, is still learning respect for her clothes. I can almost guarantee that this skirt will be discarded in a little puddled heap on the floor of her room unless I am there to explode and guilt-trip her into picking it up immediamente! However, I eventually decided that the fabric was indeed worth the small time and effort put into finishing off the seams properly, and that it was high time she experienced a bit of sartorial classiness in her apparel. Plus it might inspire tidiness and respect. Plus it might inspire her to try doing this in her own sewing creations. Plus I could use the practise…
So anyhoo, I went there, and finished off most of the inner seams.
She has shown her approval by wearing it out with her friends already; high praise. So I’m happy!

Now I’m sure the thought has occurred, are matching mother/daughter outfits a common occurrence in this household? Well, actually no. I’m not that sort of a Mum that needs to have a mini-me… this is only the second time in her life I have made us matching garments, and this has been for the same reason each time, a largish bit of leftover fabric that was of too good quality to leave.
I think we will probably both take good care to not wear our skirts at the same time!
Oh, and on a sewing note I have gone back to edit my review to include the following… another reason I really like this new Vogue skirt pattern.
The skirt front has four darts, two each side of the centreline, and each skirt back has two darts each also, making eight hip-to-waist darts into the waistband overall. For somebody with mine (and Cassie’s) figure type. a small waist compared to our hip measurement, or pear-shaped; this is a very helpful feature for getting a good fit. I sewed in an extra 3mm off the waist-end of each dart, which left only about 1.5cm extra to be taken in off each side seam at the waist. With my usual Vogue 7303, which has only four darts overall, each dart has to be much more drastically taken in, and the side seams also. Having those four extra darts meant for a much more even distribution in removing the excess.
To illustrate: below is my skirt; not Cassie’s that is pictured above, but hers is very similar… the hemline with the bias finishing is at the left of the picture and the waist band is at the right underneath the lining which has been pulled up to reveal that side seam. See how much excess width is taken in off each of those side seams from the hips to the waist? Well, about twice that is usually required when the pattern has less darts on the fronts and backs. Yes, I could just measure out and put in some extra darts myself, but I’m an extremely lazy seamstress in many ways, and have always just gone for removing the extra width off the darts and seams already there! Having this pattern, with the extra darts marked in, all evenly spaced out ready for me is a much more attractive option to me! And yes, I sometimes do opt to leave that excess seam allowance there like this, and not cut it off. Especially in the case of a special skirt like this that I intend to last most of my life anyway. Just in case I ever do need to let the skirt out.

Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: Cassie, skirt, Vogue 8363

Rusty red wool/silk skirt

25/07/2011 4:52 am \ 23 Comments \ Carolyn

I’ve made a new skirt…
I found this yummily coloured, beautifully textured wool/silk mix fabric in a remnant bin in Tokyo, the day of our shopping trip with Yoshimi and Novita. At the time I just picked it up instinctively, with only a quick check to see it was enough for a little skirt. When I got home and actually laid it out however I could see there was quite a lot of fabric, too much for just one little skirt.
Oh well, maybe I could make a longer, almost-ankle-length skirt…?
I had originally intended to go for my ol’ favourite Vogue 7303, but here’s the thing; two years ago I bought another plainish skirt pattern Vogue 8363, and have rudely ignored it because of my steadfast and loyal allegiance to Vogue 7303; the poor thing has languished uncut in its packet. I decided it was high time to try out a different skirt pattern, gave myself a strict talking to and bravely took out the new pattern. And set to making a three-quarter length skirt (actually view C, lengthened)…. but by the time I had reached the point of hemming I knew that a longer skirt was not the right choice for this fabric. It is such a heavily textured fabric, and is so visually impactful that the big unbroken expanse of it in a longer skirt was just too overpowering… so I ended up cutting a big chunk off to finish up with the very same little skirt that was my original vision for this fabric. Full circle!
Because this fabric is quite special to me, a memento of our Japanese trip, I went all out to fit and finish the skirt as well as I am capable. The skirt is lined with raspberry acetate lining fabric, the inner raw edges are finished with HongKong seaming and the lower edge is hemmed with bias tape. I searched and searched for a suitable button and failed dismally. So I tried out something new to me; covering a button with my own fabric, using one of those kits you see in the haberdashery section. Super easy, and the perfect finishing touch! I don’t know why I’ve never even had a go at this before!
I do have one teeny tiny regret… I have read somewhere about how iron-on interfacing is never used in couture construction, so I decided to go for sew-in interfacing in the waistband. This was basted in and the waistband was finished, but I could feel the interfacing was waffling loosely about on the inside of it, so I decided to topstitch the waistband to hold everything firmly in place. That worked, but now I kinda regret doing this, I think this style of fabric and skirt together suits a much more clean finish without any topstitching, and the loosely woven fabric is not the sort to take kindly to unpicking… I’m more afraid of damaging the fabric in the unpicking stage than I am of the look of that topstitching, so it stays. This does not diminish my love for the skirt; buuuut… should have stuck with the iron-on interfacing!
And no need to worry about that cut-off leftover fabric, it has been put to good use already too! Results to appear here soon…

Details:
Skirt; Vogue 8363 with modifications, rusty-red wool/silk mix bought in Tokyo
Top (not seen); Metalicus
Cardigan; Alannah Hill (bought damaged, and repaired)
Tights; Kolotex
Boots; di Sempre, from Zomp shoes

My review of this pattern…
Pattern Description:
Skirts A, B, C, F have front and back darts and back zip. A; ruffle. B; lace overlay and back vent. C; side buttonhole closure. Skirts D, E have front pockets and front and back darts. E; purchased trim and snap closure. F; front stitched pleats and back vent. Skirt length is 5cm below mid-knee.
Pattern Sizing:
6-20 overall, I bought the AA (6-12) and custom-fit to myself during construction, as usual
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you had finished sewing it?
Essentially yes, except that my version is a simple short skirt incorporating none of the variations pictured…!
Were the instructions easy to follow?
very easy!
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
I like everything about this pattern. Super easy, stylish, a basic wardrobe builder. It might even be my new favourite skirt pattern! Without a doubt I will use it and use it over again.
Fabric Used:
Wool/silk tweed, polyacetate lining
Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
This version pictured is a short version of view C, without the button/button band at the bottom, the only other adjustments were fitting alterations. Also my skirt pictured is fully lined, provisions for which are not supplied in the pattern but is an easy alteration.
Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Definitely yes, to both!
Conclusion:
Very easy, very basic, therefore a very useful pattern. It has no standout or trendy features, so it will never go out of style. This pattern is a winner that I will hang on to forever…!
(below; going for a fashion magazine pose…)