DVN skirt finished

Pff, that took me an aweful long time to finish, though it’s not very difficult.  I’m very happy with the result. Carolyn asked in an comment why I hadn’t used a fabric with print or flowers, as that is more “Dries van Nooten” inspired. The simple answer is that I couldn’t find matching fabrics in a colorscheme I like. I was inspired by the boucle fabric and found matching fabrics for that.

In the first picture I’m wearing it in combination with a rtw jacket. All pictures have too much shadow from the flash.

 

To start with I used the skirt of Vogue 8781, a pattern I want to make a few other items of as well. The skirt has a high waist and I had of course to blend between sizzes.

I made a full pattern for both the back and the front and sketched the lines for the different parts. The faux leather part for example is a part without seams, it goes from the front around the back and then to the front again, so it was a bit careful thinking and planning. As said, I’m happy with the skirt now, though halfway I wasn’t sure about it.

It’s been a while

Not talking about my unfrequent blogging right now. It's been a while since I last showed you some lingerie I made. These were made in December 2011, as a break from other sewing.

The first one is a Merckwaerdigh pattern, BHS10. I made it years ago and have worn it till it almost fell apart, though it took me till last month to make it again.

The pictures show the bra without shoulderstraps, I thought I had everything I needed, but those were missing. In the meantime I have finished this one, only didn’t make new pictures.

   

The V center front is part of the pattern, a nice detail, though it made construction a bit harder. Next time I will make the center front a bit less wide, just a little fit detail.

 

This brown one is the TNT Sewy Rebecca bra. I made this so many times now, nothing new, except playing with the lace placement a bit.

 

 

Most fabric and notions as always from Kantje Boord in Amsterdam.

2011 almost gone

DVN skirt

The skirt inspired by a Dries van Nooten skirt is still a work in progress. I did some sewing in the past weeks, made two muslins and a knit top and a cardigan. I’ll show them later, they’re not very special and I didn’t find the time to blog.

In real life the faux leather doesn’t have as much shine as the picture suggests, but  I’m thinking of unpicking it and make it with another fabric. I’ll give it some thought, have the skirt hanging in my sewing room and just not sure what to do. Doesn’t matter, I’ll do a few other things before finishing this.

One and a half week ago I had the great pleasure of meeting Pauline in The Hague. She was the one who inspired me to sew the lace twinset. This is her blog: P’s thrifty sewing blog. It was a real pleasure, we had a lovely chat, a lot sewing related of course. She showed me some wonderful things she made herself and took with her on her travels. Her own lace twinset among them. Thank you Pauline for a lovely evening, hope we’ll meet again.

Thank you

Thank you for all your kind comments on my last posts on the lace twinset, the blouse en the fabric for the skirt. It’s good to have my mojo back and I had hoped to make the skirt this weekend, but I’m having a terrible cold and stayed in bed for quite a while today. After a shower and dressing I do feel a bit better, but not clear enough in my head to sew. Hope the cold will go away quickly.

A few answers/reactions on the comments: Kathererine H, thank you for your ideas about fitting the blouse, I will use the ideas on my next verson.

Karin wondered about postage and the time the Style Arc pattern took to arrive: the postage was 25 Australian dollars for 3 patterns. I ordered them on a Sunday and arrived on the Thursday one and a half week later. Postage is something a supplier can’t do anything about, but it’s quite expensive.

Belinda, thank you for your observation on the issue of the sleeve. It’s something I must think about, it might very well be that is an issue.

And I agree with Marie-Christine, that the back might be a bit large on me.

The skirt: the first picture is the favorite for most of you, and mine as well. So that will be the combination I’ll use. I did make the pattern on Thursdaynight, so when my head is clear again I’m ready to go.

For those interested in the Style Arc patterns: I have the Chelsea pants pattern and want to try that soon.

Dries van Nooten inspired skirt

One of the goals of fabric shopping at the fabric market last week was to find fabric for the Dries van Nooten inspired skirt. I wanted something with either black or navy. Brown is not in my wardrobe any more.

Of course I couldn’t find the exact fabric, or even fabric that came close. What I did find was a bouclé fabric in red with black, a plain red and a structured black fabric. Today I found the fourth fabric. The pattern will not be difficult, the base is a pencil skirt, plenty of those in my stash or in Knip or Burda magazines. The combination of the fabric is the more important issue. Some variations below. The top part will be the boucle in red and black, the variation is in the other 3 fabrics. The plain red must nog be too loud in my opinion, therefor I think that either the first or the last picture gives the best impression for me.

From the structured black I bought enough to make something to go with the skirt, though I own a black jacket that will probably work as well.

Style Arc – Jenny blouse

The Australian pattern company Style Arc gets a lot of (mostly positive) attention lately on blogs and reviews on Pattern review. Of course I couldn’t resist and ordered two patterns and got one free. The shipment arrived last Thursday, and you can tell the sewing bug hit me again, as this has been finished on Sunday!

The Jenny blouse is a classic blouse with darts in front and back, collar with stand and cuffs with a sleeve placket.

Some features of the Style Arc patterns:

• Patterns are in one size only. For this blouse no problem for me, but might be more challenging in the pair of trousers I’m planning to make.
• There are no detailed sewing instructions for every step, but a sewing order is given.
  For this pattern detailed instructions were included for collar with stand (good) and the sleeve tab/placket (couldn’t understand it at all, I tried on a scrap, gave up and used David Page Coffin’s placket from his book shirt making). The instructions are on the site too (heading Tutorials)
• A little piece of suggested fabric quality is sent with the pattern, which I like
• Seam allowances are included, but can be different on several points. In this blouse the general seam allowance is 1 cm (3/8 inch), but on the collar, stand and neckline only 6mm. I LOVE this, as I don’t like the large 1.5 (5/8 inch) seam allowances and having the collar with narrow seam allowances from the start worked very well for me too.
• Four levels of difficulty are given: easy, medium, challenging, experienced sewer. This was in the challenging category. In my opinion the last two categories could be switched, this is a pattern for someone with more sewing experience, but I don’t find it challenging.

The result on me, I will wear it tucked in, so I included a picture for that as well.

I used size 12, based on bust measurement. It is just a bit too snug for me, as you can see by the lines in the front. Also my fabric was a bit too thick and I had difficulty pressing it well. Good quality shirt fabric is very hard to find here.

I used a ribbon with a little shine and sparkle on the front.

As said above, the placket by David Page Coffin, not from the pattern. The sleeves are less “puffy” than the drawing suggests. there is one pleat, but no gathers.

The back, also some lines that shouldn’t ideally not be there. Suggestions for improvement welcome!

I do like the end result. For a first, unaltered pattern this is pretty good. It needs a small fba in the front and some change in the back too, but the length of the blouse and the sleeves are good. Or should I have used a size 14?
Also the pattern pieces are drafted well, the notches are correctly placed. My first experience with Style Arc is positive, though the cost of patterns and shipping will make that I won’t buy a lot of them.