Sigrid - sewing projects

Spring is coming! The sun is shining here, also yesterday was a very sunny day. It makes me feel so much better. Looking in my closet it also means that I want new clothes in lighter colors. I've been preparing a few things this weekend. More about that later, I still have to finish (sew on buttons) a shirt and a pair of pants (trousers? confusing to me) in black/grey. Promised myself that is the last of the winter sewing I'll do for now.
The pants I'm working on are the StyleArc Chelsea pants. The StyleArc pants patterns get a lot of praise on the blogs and on Pattern Review. And I'm the next one. Not perfect right out of the envelope, but with my figure that is not what I expected anyhow. But the tweaking wasn't too bad. The muslin had a bit too much space in the back leg and of course the waist was too wide. The front was good from the start.
After removing the extra space the back still had too much wrinkles. After stitching the crotch line a bit deeper it wa…

Thanks to JillyBe's post on the dreadful word verification Blogger has put up I did check and found out that the verification was still on, while I thought it was not. Appears that when you are logged in, you don't see this verification on your own blog. Well, I've changed that, and the verification should be gone.

Hoping it will not result in too many spam comments. Speaking of spam comments: now I was in the layout mode for my blog, I found that a number of comments were marked as spam which were not spam but just kind comments from my readers. I did not get a notification for those, so there were even some comments from almost a year ago that were in "quarantaine".
So sorry I didn't notice and your comment didn't come up on the blog. Like everyone in blogland I do like and appreciate every comment.

A special neckline always gets my attention, either in a pattern or in a (web)shop. This week I made quite a few screenshots of the new Claudia Sträter collection. A Dutch brand I like, mostly good quality fabrics and beautifully sewn as well. I own a vest (waistcoat?) that has a finishing that you hardly see in rtw. Their prices are reflecting the quality, so mostly I go there when there’s a sale. But snoop-shopping in the webshop is fun too.I LOVE the neckline of this jacket (retail price 249 euro) and would like to copy it.It’s that I promised myself to make a few spring basics first, otherwise I would be browsing my magazines now for a basic jacket to start with.

Guess what my next project is? A blouse.  This time I’m making the sleeve slit that is more common in womens blouses/shirts. Which made me think to write this little tutorial. It is way is a little different from what I’ve learned to do, but I think it’s very easy.
For my Dutch readers: the same tutorial is available in Dutch here.
1. Basic pieces: the sleeve (in my pictures a piece of cotton that was near) and a rectangle 4 cm wide for the slit facing at least twice as long as the length of the slit. My piece is a bit longer because I find it easier to work that way.

2. Pin the sleeve on the facing, right sides together. The ends are matching, the middle corner is 0.5 cm from the edge. Fold the sleeve in a way that no real fold is made. 3. Stitch 0.5 cm from the edge. At the center the stitches just touch the fabric of the sleeve. 4. Press the seams towards the opening 5. Press a seam in the split facing 6. Fold and stitch-in-the-ditch from the right side of the sleeve.  This is h…

Pictures of the finished jacket. I love the style of this and might make another one. This time I made a jacket without making a muslin, because of starting it in a weekend with sewing friends and not having any muslin fabric with me. Also trusting Burda’s consistency in sizes. I’m quite happy with it, though the neckline could have been a bit smaller I guess.   And being honest: the hem band is a bit snug. I did not expect this, as the jacket is well above the widest part of my hips and normally the size 42 which I used is perfectly ok in this area. It is a close fitting jacket. Also the sleeves are not very wide. For perfect fit I should have traced a size 38 at the neckline and widened the band a little AND have made a muslin first. But it’s certainly good enough to wear, this is not a wadder.I did lengthen the body 3 cm above the waist. This was needed there, in the end I took the 3 cm off again from the bottom so that the finished length is the same as the pattern. The sleeves lo…

Two buttons to attach, then the jacket is ready for making pictures. As it’s 11.30 pm now here, that will be for tomorrow. Below are pictures from the jacket as it was about a week ago, still unlined. I had a problem with the color of the zipper tape. I decided on an impulse to make this from the fabric I had taken with me to the house of my friend Valerie. Then I had to buy the necessary notions like the zipper after starting construction. Difficult, the color range of (separable) zippers is not very large here. Burda’s instructions let you cut a piece of fabric and press that in 4 layers (front + back + 2 times seam allowances) and fold that around the zipper tape. Too bulky anyway, but think of the top and bottom of such a construction. Valerie suggested using a ribbon instead, which was a good idea. But also difficult to find in the right color, as my fabric has difficult “pearl/oyster?” shades.The first picture is the zipper without ribbon. Too dark but the best I could get! The …