Wrapped with my blouse

I loved this blouse when the September 2010 issue of BurdaStyle arrived in my letterbox, but, as is a common occurrence for me, I’ve taken over a year to make it up.

I blame part of this on getting the issues six months out of season, but it’s really because there are so many styles I like I couldn’t possibly make them all up in a timely manner.

Melissa’s recent silk version reminded me that I really did need to find the time to make this style.

I had some very lovely transparent silk cotton with an abstract design that I thought might look good made up in a draped style, and this pattern looked like the one to try.

Yes, success!

And this is certainly not a BurdaStyle with a plunging neckline. [The skirt is not yet blogged, but is made from lovely fabric from the same shopping spree )

This is a beautiful blouse to wear. Airy on a hot day yet covered up enough in front due to the crossover style and deep self facing and with a modest high neckline. The beautiful hand and look of the fabric helps too!

I prefer it tucked in but it can also be worn out.

This is a very easy pattern to make up. I can see more in my future wardrobe…perhaps some with long sleeves for winter…

Technical details

Pattern: BurdaStyle 09-2010-110

Size: 36-42, I made a 42 grading out to 44 to the hips

Fabric: Silk cotton blend

Construction:

I used French seams on the side seams but couldn’t get my head around doing French seams on the shoulders and integrated collar pieces. So the seam allowance from the front on the bias was stitched over the (trimmed smaller) seam allowance from the back (sort of like a self bound seam but with no hand stitching)

I added a small piece of organza to add some stability under the buttonholes and under the buttons. I didn’t use any edge finishes on the organza (apart from pinking) but because it is semi enclosed, and the blouse will be carefully laundered, I think it will be okay.

Changes I might make next time

The buttons at the hips are a bit clunky (even though I used nice thin buttons). Adding ties and turning this into a real wrap blouse could be good. Other clever sewists have already made this change.

Cinnamon cookies

Mmm yum, cinnamon cookies

A very easy recipe from Ms Gourmet at Gourmet Warrior.

 

Chewy Cinnamon Cookies

Ingredients

75gm unsalted butter
1/3 cup of brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup golden syrup
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ cups of self-raising flour, sifted
Icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 (180C in fan forced electric oven). Combine the butter, golden syrup and brown sugar in a saucepan. Over a low heat, gently melt the butter and dissolve the sugar and syrup together without boiling.
2. Set aside and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Then stir in the cinnamon and sifted flour and mix until well combined.
3. Roll heaped teaspoons full of the mixture into walnut sized balls and place 5 cm apart on a tray that has been lined with baking paper. Flatten gently with a fork.

4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until they are slightly browned. Carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool and lightly dust with icing sugar before serving.

Makes about 20 when you use the recipe correctly and about 46 very hard biscuits when you double the recipe and then realise you don’t have enough golden syrup so you substitute honey and maple syrup to make up the measure.

They are very yummy, with that slight tang from the golden syrup under the cinnamon deliciousness and a chewy texture.

And another good thing about them?

Minimal dishes!

Oh, and baking hasn’t overtaken my main love (sewing, just in case that wasn’t clear..) but I am considering taking up crochet after seeing these beauties around the streets of Adelaide:

image source: Bike Art Adelaide

Back to work

I’ve had a lovely short summer break with my sewing machines my family. But it has come to an end.

The dining room needs to turn back into a dining room from this:

I did a bit of reorganising on my break as well as a small amount of sewing. See that big neat stack of folders in the centre of the table?

Thats the pattern sheets of my BurdaStyle magazine collection all neatly in order. And the magazines themselves are neatly in folders in date order too.

See that big stack of fabric?

That’s all the projects I haven’t made yet. Too many plans, not enough time..

A table shared is a pleasure doubled

Whether it’s a ride in the country, an umbrella in the rain, or a heavy load to lift, a problem shared is a problem halved and a pleasure shared is a pleasure doubled. A recent invite to come up to the hills for a swim and escape the temperature 41^oC by some good friends was a true pleasure. The children had a great swim and us oldies enjoyed the cooler conditions and shared a sumptuous table.

Just nibbles the host said…. she had prepared feasts for Christmas and New Year’s gatherings and supposedly wasn’t going to prepare more!

Hah! I have heard that before!

In fact she had not one but two fantastic terrines accompanied by home-made pickled capsicum and onion relish, one a chicken watercress and tarragon beauty and the other liver and veal. Disappearing after a bit she returned with cassata …home-made ice-cream in the centre, fresh blue berries and raspberries…I always feel humbled in the her presence.

I had prepared a salad for everyone to share based on an old favourite from many years ago. It is a simple chicken mango avocado salad but the thing that sets it apart from the rest is the dressing.

Chicken salad with macadamia dressing and mango salsa

This is the original recipe; I have often taken many liberties and substituted or omitted several ingredients and maintained a measure of success.

3    cups good chicken stock
4    chicken breast fillets (see note)
1    tablespoon macadamia oil
1     handful of macadamias, roughly chopped
1    bunch of watercress, trimmed, washed well and broken into pieces.
Note: Baby spinach or any salad greens can be substituted for the watercress.
2    avocados, sliced
250g     sugar snap peas, blanched and refreshed

Dressing

1    tablespoon olive oil
1    onion, finely chopped
2    teaspoons curry powder
1    Tablespoon paw paw and mango chutney
1    tablespoon apricot jam
1/4     cup unsalted macadamias
2    tablespoons raspberry vinegar
2    tablespoons macadamia oil
2    tablespoons olive oil
1/2     cup whole-egg mayonnaise
1/4     cup thin cream

Salsa

2    ripe mangoes, finely diced
1    small Spanish onion, finely chopped
2    tablespoons light olive oil
2    tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2    tablespoons finely chopped mint
1    teaspoons honey
1     small fresh red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
For salsa, combine ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Cover and set aside so flavours can blend and develop.

Bring chicken stock to the boil in a deep Frying pan.
Reduce heat and gently poach, chicken fillets for about 8 minutes, or until cooked through.
Remove from stock and set aside to cool.

Note:    I normally cook the chicken fillets on a grill pan instead of poaching.

For dressing, heat oil in a small saucepan, and cook onion over medium heat until translucent.
Add curry powder and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat, stir in chutney and jam and mix well.
Set aside to cool. Process macadamias in a food processor until, well chopped.
Add vinegar and oils, process until well combined.
Combine with the cooled onion mixture, mayonnaise and cream.
Mix well. Set aside.
Heat macadamia oil in a small frying pan and cook macadamias until lightly golden. Arrange watercress, sliced avocado and Peas on individual serving plates. Slice chicken fillets and arrange in centre of salad greens.
Spoon over some dressing. Add 2 tablespoons of salsa to each serving and sprinkle with macadamias.

Non flattery 101: How to look older and fatter than I am

Small floral patterns, A-line knee length skirts, and buttons or zips over my stomach.

All things I generally avoid in garments for me.

I’ve learnt they are not usually flattering.

So what possessed me to combine all three of these elements into one garment?

Perhaps the fun of adding contrasting sleeve cuffs, button bands, undercollars and collar stands?

To further increase the nanna factor, the sleeves are elbow length, just like my daughters school uniform (last updated in the 40′s). Sensible shoes and a hat help with the nannification too.

Despite this, it has been a comfortable dress to wear all day at the Adelaide Zoo. We have Pandas, woohoo!

Technical details

Pattern: Burdastyle 04-2011-106

Size:

36 to 44. I made a 42, grading out to a 44 at the hips.

Fabric:

The small floral is a cotton from Spotlight. This is a chain store also know as BAL (break a leg), due to the untidiness of some of its stores, and is often only useful for notions. Sounds like Joann’s in the States might be similar. I’ve been surprised by the betterquality of some of the fabrics recently. This one tempted me, successfully.

The stripe is a stretch cotton that has been in my stash for a very long time. I love these colours.

Changes I made:

I only added one breast pocket, didn’t add the epaulettes and didn’t make the waist darts on the outside.

I used a contrasting stripe fabric for the left button band, the inner yoke, the inner stand collar, the under collar and added a contrasting band to the top of the pocket and as ‘cuffs’ to the sleeves (as 10 cm facings to the bottom of the sleeve, then turned the sleeve up so half the facing showed).

I added two extra buttonholes to the front band (and only one extra button until I have time to get back to the Button Bar for the last one!).

I couldn’t decide on lime green or kelly green for the buttons. So I compromised. Kelly green buttons sewn on with lime green thread. Buttonholes and top stitching on the inner right front band in peacock blue on the top and lime green underneath.

I added 5 cm to the length (the usual for me).

I used self fabric as interfacing, as inspired by David Coffin. I really like the soft but firm finish this gives.

Would I make it again?

Probably not. Certainly not with elbow length sleeves nor in a small floral. This is a great shirt pattern though (model 105 is based on the same top, without the waist darts), and the fit is good for me. I’ll use the pattern again for regular shirts, just not shirt dresses!

What should I have used that small floral for (apart from little girls dresses)?

A simple shell top- Collette’s Sorbetto would be perfect. I might even have enough fabric leftover…

Gifts from Canada

The postie delivered a parcel from Canada today. No it wasn’t snow, but it wouldn’t have lasted long if it were!

It was MezzoCouture‘s give away chiffon PLUS two Vogue Designer patterns!!

Lucky lucky me!

Thank you TiaDia!

More Ikea fabulousity*

We went to Ikea to buy a bookcase last week. Two metres of fabric come home.

I am ridiculously pleased with how this has turned out.

The back story to this is a white A line sleeveless shift that I have worn to death over the last 15 years. Its a bit small, the lining has ripped but I still want to wear it in hot weather.

The pattern was a Vogue Designer Someone now OOP that is in that box of patterns that I haven’t seen since we moved house eight years ago. Its a very simple style that I should have drafted myself but I hadn’t got around to it

The February 2011 BurdaStyle had a similar pattern in it, in the Plus section. I normally make a 42 in Burda (top of the regular size range), but lately I’ve been drafting out to a 44 at the hips. Perhaps a 44 from the Plus section would work?

So this is what I had

• The hottest New Years Day since the 1900′s; 41°C(106°F), reminding me I needed a cool dress
• Ikea fabric on sale
• The February 2011 pattern.

It was all lined up!

Technical details

Pattern: BurdaStyle 02-2011-141

Size:

44-52, I made a 44.

The fit through the shoulders is good but it is a bit loose everywhere else, and quite tent like in side view. The stiffness of the fabric is helping this impression!

This was what I was looking for in a hot weather shift, but if you look at the fashion photo, you’ll see that this is not the intended fit by Burda either for the dress or the tunic with cap sleeves (model 140).

Fabric:

Ikea cotton twill. I had enough fabric to place a circle in the middle of the bust and to avoid inappropriately placed circles on the back, but not to match anything at the seams, as you can see both above and below.

I used an orange invisible zip.

Changes I made:

I didn’t add the separate front band. My fabric had enough happening without that!

I was slapdash and left out the interfacing on the neck and armhole facings. Upholstery weight fabric seemed ‘interfaced’ enough.

I shortened the dress by 5 cm. This gave a finished length of 55 cm.

Excuse the wrinkles (on the dress as well as me). The dress had its debut lounging by our friend’s gorgeous pool up in the Adelaide Hills last night.

* This is not a paid endorsement nor do I work for Ikea. I just like their fabrics.

2011 Sewing Year in Review

So much for blog stats. The four top viewed posts all time are still all about cooking. The Jacket that took Forever only just squeaks in, in fifth place.

So lets get the focus back to where it should be. On sewing.

Patterns used

BurdaStyle still reigns supreme.

Almost 30 garments made from Burdastyle patterns this year. One from La Mia Boutique. One from KwikSew. None from the big 4.

Do you think I have a liking for sewing magazines and tracing off patterns??

Just in case you’re not sure about the answer to that, I can also report that I also purchased two issues of MyImage, picked up some issues of Patrones when in Spain for work and I’ve just organised a subscription for Manequim…

Stash maintenance

Some lovely fabrics came to live with me from overseas (France, United States) and from local Adelaide sales (Gay Naffine, thank you again!) and local Adelaide shops (Ferrier Fabrics on Fullarton Road is still a favourite but, as other Aussie sewists have noted,  Spotlight seems to be lifting its game). One particularly lovely fabric is on its way to me from Canada. Thank you TiaDia!

2011 ended with 4 metres more in stash than it started with. Not bad given all the purchasing that went on (some 80 metres…) Not all of it was sewing, some of it found a new home whilst still in flat pack.

It’s all mostly about me

I used to be able to provide the Selfish Seamstress with competition. Last year it was only twice as much sewn for me than for others. Don’t mention that Winter Coat for Felicity from Parisian mohair wool that took no time at all.

Success to failure ratio

This is looking a bit better than 2010. Only one total wadder (so bad it didn’t get blogged about), one UFO (still taunting me in the sewing room) and one that never got worn (donated last week)

The Team

A Bernina, Janome and two Elna’s are now part my sewing machine fleet. The Bernina was a Christmas 2010 present. I still haven’t been to the shop for my free lesson, or to buy an invisible zipper foot.

Blog stats

The actual number of comments and views is not so important but I do sincerely thank the online sewing community again this year for making me feel included. That a great bunch of people you all are! You make an obsessive sewist feel ‘normal’! You don’t just notice a beautifully crafted buttonhole and perfectly matched plaid; you understand the pleasure in it!

Happy New Year!

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

From Dress-Up Box to By the Pool

Many, many years ago I made up a fun quilting cotton into a Sixties dress pattern of my Mum’s. It was a fun and cool summer dress for teenager me, but eventually found a home in the dress up box.

Last week, Felicity wanted a cover up for the pool.

I thought I still had the pattern but when I went to look in my pattern stash, this is what I found.

I was pretty sure this was the pattern I had used (love that hair on the model!) but the neckline didn’t look right.

But, inside the envelope, there was a traced and altered front yoke piece, with my cute high school writing on it. I don’t remember what had inspired me to change to a V-neck and buttons, but I’m guessing it was because I didn’t want to put in a small zip at the back.

Out of interest I had a good look through my pattern stash and pulled out the old ones from my Mum. A lot of hers and mine were lost in a move but I still do these few from the Fifties (some have a copyright date of 1953 on them).

Butterick 6297 and McCalls 3253.

Vogue 7924 and Simplicity 2847. My mum was still using the Simplicity pattern into her late sixties, along with other styles from the Eighties. She wasn’t easy to pigeon hole with her dress patterns!

Simplicity 2258, not in such good condition, but isn’t that illustration gorgeous?

I also have two Sixties styles of hers from a local newspaper pattern service 7601 and 4880. I well remember 4880. Mum had quite a few in this style over the years. It was a good pattern to showcase an interesting button.

These patterns are all in a size 34″ to 36″ bust. Pity I’m not the same size as Mum.

Jenny Ruffles Shoulders

Last seen in subtle cream on a slender tween. Now appearing in bright red on a middle aged woman.

This pattern scans across the generation and style divides!

This blouse was made possible due to the kindness of Jenny who allowed me to stop by and get that one last piece of fabric from Gay Naffine’s sale (we were on the way to the bank for legitimate work stuff) and the generous allocation of time on the weekend by He Who Cooks to pursue my sewing addiction hobby at the expense of housework.

Isn’t it a great colour! And I love the crazy ruffled shoulders, the crinkled texture and the slight sheen to the fabric. You can see this better below with the photo taken in the bright sun.

Technical details

Pattern: BurdaStyle 07-2010-121

The skirt is BurdaStyle 04-2010-125. Yes, its become a wardrobe (and blog photo) staple

Size: 36-44, I made a 42

Fabric: A polyester cotton blend with a crinkled surface (this doesn’t wash out but I can flatten it with the iron). It has an almost silk-like sheen, but a very prosaic fibre content.

Changes I made:

As with my daughter’s version, I cut the ruffles on the bias rather than the straight grain and left the edges unfinished.

I gathered the ruffles using my “ruffling foot”. This is the plastic embroidery foot for my older Elna machine with the stitch length at maximum. Lex has posted a tutorial on this and how to get this to work with probably just about any foot and machine. I couldn’t get my new Bernina to do this (but I didn’t try very hard, because the Elna was just sitting there, waiting for me!)

I didn’t use any interfacing on the collar, cuffs or front facings. The fabric is reasonably stiff, the buttonholes worked okay without an extra layer, so I felt that this blouse would be okay without the extra support.

It’s a fun blouse to wear, but not crossing the line into too quirky for the office …I think…at least not for my office…and the ruffles are easily disguised under a jacket, where they take on a second role as shoulder pads.

Italian style + Swedish curtain fabric = interesting blouse

What am I doing making a top out of Ikea fabric when I have just bought all that lovely designer stuff?

Well, it was a project that was not finished when I went shopping, a style I wanted to try and a pattern company I needed to sort out my sizing for.

Conclusions:

I should have bought eight new buttons rather than using four red and four black ones from my stash.

I like the ruched shoulders.

I need a sway back adjustment.

Linen is lovely to sew, even when it is course Ikea stuff that is probably meant for curtains.

Next up is the new stuff!

 

Technical details for this one

Pattern: La Mia Boutique 07-2010-21

Size: 38-44, I made a 44. Apart from needing a swayback adjustment, this fits well, although with not much ease. I cut it out with 13 mm seam allowances but only sewed 10 mm ones (not on purpose, I’m just getting used to the guide on my rotary cutter and didn’t get it quite right this time). This would have added another 3 cm or so of ease. I might be better with a 46 in La Mia Boutique patterns. Or I should make a muslin with each new pattern..

Fabric: Ikea medium to heavy weight linen. I’ve had several coordinating pieces in my stash for A Long Time. I’ve made at least three garments from this ‘collection’, pre blogging and before Pattern Review. I still have some left.

The skirt is BurdaStyle 04-2010-125.

The even more boring technical details: Construction order

La Mia Boutique is an Italian sewing pattern magazine*. Every thing is in Italian, the description, the fabric recommendations, the instructions. I do not read or speak Italian. So I recorded how I made the top, in case I want to make another one. It’s pretty easy, but not super quick.

Interface front band and stand collar. I used a very light weight interfacing and did both the inner and outer stand collar as well as the entire front band (i.e. not just to the fold line).

Staystitch the curves ( ‘armholes’ on upper front , ‘armholes’ on upper side back and neck of centre back). I didn’t staystitch the almost bias edge of the front neck. I should have.

Sew upper side backs to upper centre back.

Sew upper backs to upper front at shoulder seams.

Sew inner back shoulder/sleeve to inner front shoulder/sleeve.

Run a double row of gathering stitch to outer shoulder/sleeve on both the concave and convex curves.

Sew inner shoulder/sleeve to gathered outer shoulder/sleeve on the longest edge (the convex edge). Trim, turn and understitch.

Sew gathered outer shoulder/sleeve onto the upper front and back “armhole”. Trim, turn and press.

Sew lower side backs to lower centre back.

Sew lower side fronts to lower centre fronts.

Run a double row of gathering stitch to upper front and then sew onto lower fronts.

Sew lower back to upper back.

Sew back to fronts at side seams, sewing all the way through outer shoulder/sleeve to the inner shoulder/sleeve.

Turn inner shoulder/sleeve to inside and attach to stitching line of outer shoulder sleeve and front (by carefully stitching through from inside).

Attach front band.- before sewing the band to the front, hem the garment . If you go ahead with my construction order without doing this, you’ll end up with a problem that you have to fix with snipping. Ask me how I know. Sew right side of band to wrong side of fronts. Turn under seam allowance on the free edge of band, fold band along the long foldline right sides together and stitch across the bottom. Turn out and then topstitch band to the front, and on the other long edge.

Collar: Sew collar pieces together on long curved edge, trim and turn. Turn up seam allowance on the outer collar piece (I picked one based on pattern placement, both were interfaced with a very light weight interfacing. If only one piece is interfaced, the interfaced piece is the outer collar).

Attach inner collar right side to wrong side of neck. You will probably need to clip the collar piece. I staystiched the back neck but not the front. I should have. Lucky that linen is easily eased and pressed! My mistake with seam allowances would have added a few extra mm too, to ease in. Trim and turn. Topstitch outer collar onto neck and topstitch other edges too.

Make button holes.

Sew on buttons.

Press and wear!

* Melissa at Fehr Trade and Kaitui Kiwi at The Curious Kiwi regularly review the new issues of La Mia Boutique, and other sewing pattern magazines. They also provide advice on subscribing and purchasing, which is important when you live at the Edge of the World (aka Australia)

Nothing is not what He Cooks

He who Cooks has been asked a lot what he’s been cooking lately.

He says “nothing”.

This means only everyday cooking. Otherwise we would have starved, or eaten junk food, or .. even worse… She who Sews might have been cooking.

Seeing as I’m the lucky recipient of “nothing”, I thought I’d let you see what “nothing”, aka a simple weeknight meal, looks like.

Lovely Aussie lamb leg steak on a warm salad of grilled eggplant, grilled haloumi cheese, chickpeas, tinned four bean salad mix, diced tomato, Italian flat leaf parsley, dressed with garlic infused olive oil, salt and pepper. No recipe of course, just out of his head. Yum!

She shops again

In the interests of appropriate fabric stash maintenance, I made myself go to Gay Naffine’s and Lucy Gill’s disposal of unwanted fabrics from their summer fashion collections.

Really I’m doing Gay and Lucy a service aren’t I?

And giving some unwanted and unloved fabrics a new home where they will live happily with other fabrics. Instead of living sadly with the knowledge that they missed out on an outing as a high fashion garment on a gorgeous and perfectly groomed socialite, these fabrics will get made into garments worn over and over again by ordinary members of society. Now that has got to be better than sadly accumulating dust at the back of the fashion workroom, being mocked by the current seasons fabrics as the younger, newer and hipper stuff get constructed into garments.

Ombre silk cotton blend, light grey through to french navy. Not sure what this will be, perhaps a floaty summer tunic or top.

Silk cotton sheer with abstract pattern in green, brown, and lavender on white. Not sure about this one either, but I love the colours!

Medium weight ivory cotton poly metallic blend tone on tone loveliness with shiny slightly raised dots. This will be a great office basic, either a sheath dress, or a top.

Medium weight lavender poly cotton, great sheen to it. It looks like the warp and weft are different shades of lavender. This might end up as a shirt or it could be a skirt.

Medium weight cafe latte and ivory cotton poly metallic blend, same as the ivory tone on tone one above. This one is going to be a pencil skirt.

Viscose knit with an abstract pattern in red, lavender, beige and white. Not sure about this one, but it feels as great as it looks. I have 1.5 m so I might make a dress but more likely it will be a top

Blouse weight red crinkle poly cotton. A top to go with the cafe latte skirt

Graphic olive, red, pink and dusty light green silk charmeuse. A simple but gorgeous top. I need a red skirt too! Should have bought some more fabric…

Medium weight white stretch cotton self stripe. You can’t have enough of basics like this!

Turquoise linen nylon blend. I had purchased this at a previous sale and made the jacket that took forever. Now I can turn the jacket into a spring suit ( yes I know,its summer in a few days time, just sayin’)

Black cotton nylon blend with sheer stripes (almost like a burnt out stripe).Button up shirt perhaps?

Black and white graphic reversible jacquard polyester cotton. This I truly love. It will make a great dress suit for the office. What side to use?!

I also purchased a white cotton voile with silver metallic circles, but I forgot to take a photo before it went in the washing machine. This is going to be a summer top.

Beautiful blue butterflies

This was an experiment gone right.

The pattern is sized for me and it’s for a knit. The dress is made for my daughter, two sizes smaller than me and with different proportions to me and the fabric is a woven. The fabric was also one of those too-good-to-use fabrics that both she and I had been lovingly caressing in my stash and dreaming about for several years.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster doesn’t it?

Luckily, it was not my turn for a disaster for this project.

Technical details

Pattern: BurdaStyle 05-2008-121

Size: 38-46. I made a sort of 38.

Fabric: I’m not sure what I would call it. It’s like a discontinuous brocade but out of cotton: the blue threads all end at the edges of the butterflies: they don’t extend all the way across the fabric. It’s not completely opaque, so I lined the waist insert with white cotton batiste. It was one of my first purchases from Gay Naffines designer fabric sell off that happens twice a year in Adelaide. It’s been in my stash for at least three years. I still have almost 1.5 metres left, so perhaps there will a garment for me too from this delightful fabric?

Converting from a knit to a woven:

I had already converted the pattern for the wrap skirt to a regular skirt and raised the V neck by 3 cm for the version I made for myself. Also from Gay Naffine’s fabric.

My knit version was in my usual Burda size of 42. Felicity is a 38. When she put my knit version on it was a bit too long through the bodice but otherwise looked okay. So I figured all I might need to do to convert it to a woven pattern that would fit her would be to shave some height off the shoulder seams and make sure there was enough ease through the waist. I could have retraced the pattern in a size 38 and added extra ease to all the pattern pieces to account for using a woven instead of a knit, but that seemed like more work and unnecessary. No, I’m not slapdash. Why do you ask?.

Changes I made:

I took 15 mm off the shoulder seams (this made the bodice a size 38 in the shoulder seams but a size 42 in terms of width).

I measured the waist insert pattern piece (a rectangle) and made it a bit longer so that it fitted Felicity’s waist measurement plus 3 cm for ease. It seems surprising that a waist for a size 42 would be too small for a 38. Either I made a mistake when I converted the waist from the wrap style or, because it is for a knit, there was negative ease built into the pattern piece. My dress fits well, but it is snug through the waist.

I checked the measurement for the top skirt pieces to confirm they would still be larger enough to sew onto the waist insert. They were. Again, another example of patterns for knits differing for patterns for wovens. In the knit version, the waist insert piece is stretched to fit onto the skirt.

I added a centre back seam allowance so that a centred zip could be inserted. There is enough stretch in the knit version not to need a zip.

I also made a tab for a button for the back neck over the top of the zip. And the seams do line up better in real life!

PS Felicity does know and approve of the photo. Goofy as it is, it was the best of a not-very-serious-but-a-lot-of-fun photo shoot

PPS More Gay Naffine loveliness is probably coming up. Her summer designer fabric selloff is next weekend.