No sewing

It’s been quiet on my blog in the past two weeks and I’ve been very absent on the internet in general. The reason is that I’ve lost a dear friend last week who I’ve known for 30 years . Not exactly the time to do a lot of sewing, let alone writing blog posts.  I just felt sad and still am not my old self.

But sewing will help me getting back in the normal routine and it’s always good to find something to do. So I might plan sewing 4 garments and join the mini wardrobe contest on Pattern review.

But first I’m sewing a denim jacket (I know I had other jacket plans before, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen the way you think it will). I’ve sewn the muslin and my sewing teacher helped me fitting it. I still have to draw the alterations to the pattern, but otherwise I’m ready to start.

It’s from the January 2007 Burda issue, no. 110. I’m morphing it however with no 112 from the June issue from 2004 for center front and collar.

On the German site there always were archives back till 2004, now I can’t find archives on the German site at all! The English site still has the archives, but only back till 2006. Does anyone know whether I’m just missing a link or have the archives really been removed?

Haute couture exhibition in The Hague

A post mainly directed at my Dutch readers. In  the “gemeentemuseum Den Haag” (museum of The Hague)  a Haute couture exhibition opened today and will last until June. Below the two only pictures from their website. The Dutch version had a link to other activities connected to the exhibition, but it didn’t work :(

I will certainly visit the exhibition in the coming weeks, it looks very promising, and being within easy driving distance from my home town, I have to go. Here is a link with a few more pictures.

Blouse Vogue 1054 finished

Pictures of the finished blouse. Because I wanted a bit of spring feeling, I took out a pair of summer pants to show the blouse. They are a bit too short for the high heels I was wearing, but you get a better idea of how this looks.

I used size 12, tapered down to 14 at hip level. The pictures show a few lines, but it’s quite ok I think, As usual more space in the back, but it’s supposed to be loose fitting.

Unfortunately the pictures don’t do the lines of the pattern any justice, therefor on the end a few details taken on my dressform. The shoulders are described as “dropped shoulders” but they are far less dropping than the Burda blouse I made last year (and never wore). Wish DH had a bit more feeling for photography and the way a garment drapes. The belt look is a bit strange.

The back has a small pleat, such a nice detail.

The pattern is drafted beautifully, lines are matching perfectly.

Detail on dressform

A nice pattern to get into the mood for spring sewing. I bet this fabric wrinkles like crazy, but that’s part of the deal with linen.

I’m quite happy that I’ve managed to sew something else than a knit top or a pair of pants. Hope to get a bit more sewing done this weekend.

Happy (sewing) weekend to all of you.

Vogue instructions

I’m trying a new pattern, Vogue 1054. It’s a blouse pattern by Chado Ralph Rucci. I’m taking quite a few shortcuts in construction. My version is far less elaborate than the pattern instructions, that call for a lot of hand topstitching, finishing of all seams with bias band (hong kong finish) and a variation of bound buttonholes (behind a hidden placket!).

I can barely get my attention to sewing, and my handstitches are no good. Not enough practise, I admit.. Therefor I opted for serging the seams and topstitching by machine and machine buttonholes. My fabric is not a crepe either, but linen/rayon. I hope my version will be a comfortable spring/summer blouse (whenever spring will arrive, even my helleborus doesn’t have flowers yet, normally that’s early January).

I’m making good progress, and only the sleeves still have to be done. But I was surprised at the drafting of the button plackets and facing. There are seams at the edges, where they are not necessary in my opinion, and only make for more bulk. I cut the fabric with my mind elsewhere, so I only found out during construction. I fiddled for an hour with the pieces for the hidden placket before I knew how construction was meant. When I then realised I could have cut it different/better, it was too late, no fabric left to cut new pieces. The horizontal lines in the front make it difficult to cut it all in one piece for the right side, but I think it would have been better to have a fold there, and no seam.

In answer to a few comments on my previous post about the notched collar: this really was a sample, there will be no finished jacket from this fabric. Though it looks nice in the pictures, it’s quite an itchy linen that I bought for making muslins. The pattern was no. 112 from January 2007.

Sample notched collar

Nancy K wrote about the jacket she’s making for her daughter and referred to a Threads article she uses from issue no. 68 “the foolproof notched collar” for constructing this.

Notched collars are not the easiest to make, and though my last results with the technique from Claire Shaeffer were good, I was tempted to try this technique. This is my sample. I did interface (with some left over interfacing of not too high quality) but did not make a roll line. That I’ve done before and will do on a real jacket.

The pattern is from Burda, a collar with that goes very deep, almost to the waist, just one of the patterns with this collar that was in the issue that on my desk.

The result. I love it.

And this is the back, like Burda often does a separate piece for the stand of the collar, which makes it roll beautifully.

And perhaps I will be sewing for real soon: these are Vogue patterns I received from Nancy in exchange for two issues of Knip Mode. Thanks Nancy.

I will be making a few of them soon (I hope).

Drafting a pattern

As I think I mentioned some time ago, I am taking sewing lessons again. It’s a course where the participants work on skills of their own preference. For me that is solving fitting issues and pattern drafting. Not that I think I don’t have anything to learn on sewing anymore, far from that. But it’s only 10 lessons of 2 hours, and I learn techniques pretty easily when following a description in a book/magazine/on the internet. So I’ve been working on skirt patterns to start with. I’ve done some pattern drafting in a distant past, so it’s not completely new to me.

I’m trying to make a pattern for this Marfy skirt (from a previous catalogue, not the new one).

It looks not too complicated, but gives somes headaches in the way the top part is constructed. Is it one pattern piece with the skirt and a waistband sewn on top? If it is then how is the pocket part constructed? Is there a seam? Or is the part above the waistband a separate part resulting in a lot of seam allowances in the waistband area?

I’m not asking to have answers on this, these are just the questions that arise when closely observing the drawing. And as there are no line drawings with Marfy, this is up to me to figure out.  And it sure was good to be able to discuss these points with the teacher. I’ll be drawing a 1/2 scale pattern piece and try to construct it. When I succeed in solving this, I plan to sew this skirt for myself.

burda march

For a hiliarious review of the March issue of Burda, look at the Selfish Seamstress blog (though I bet you have seen it already).

I had a look today at the preview and was not impressed either. I’m quite sure the top I like best is a rtw top. Don’t you think? There’s a pattern for the “shrest” (thanks Elaine for the word). I won’t be making that one. I do hope Burda has an inspiring issue again soon. Could definitely be me, but I didn’t find the last issues very good.

Otherwise no sewing here, mojo has gone missing and I can’t find it.