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Showing posts from September, 2013

Can I please just check ...

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... has anyone else encountered this message on PatternReview.com today? I am a tad reluctant to pop my email addie in, just incase this is bogus! But I can't seem to get to any page without this delightful message appearing. Hope someone else has had the same message ... thanks for your help ... J

Burda 06-2013-128, Double Layer Tank Dress

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For some reason I was struck by Burda 06-2013-128  when the magazine arrived.  It looked cute and easy to wear--and easy to sew, too, which can be a bonus sometimes.  I decided to add it to my sewing for my trip to Greece. I didn't do the waistline casing (actually, I couldn't even tell from the instructions whether you were supposed to do a casing or use elastic thread in the bobbin).  The waistline shaping here comes solely from the sash, which I tied loosely in the hot weather for more wearing comfort. I finished the neckline of the pink underlayer with bias binding made from the floral outer layer.  I ironed it so that one side was longer than the other so I could put the longer side on the wrong side and sew it on in one pass. I didn't do *perfectly* at sandwiching the body of the dress and had to rip it out in a few places where I'd missed the dress altogether, so I'm not sure it was any faster than my usual two step process, but it was an interesting experime

Vogue 8940: Mens Peacoat

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I've never sewn for my husband, he's very much a jeans and t-shirts man. However he doesn't have any coats and when I saw the new Vogue patterns I scooped this one up. It's a nice simple peacoat with some cool details. The fabric is a navy coating I picked up from Spotlight on clearance. It's very soft and sewed up beautifully, the colour is true in the top 4 photos (the detail pics are a bit washed out looking). Lining is Sunsilky from Lincraft and the buttons were from there too. I followed the instructions all the way through (for once!), they are very similar to the RTW sewalong with interfacing on the front, side, back yoke, collars and facings. The lining is semi-bagged with the hems being hand sewn. I actually enjoyed the control this gave me over how well it all fit together. It has inseam pockets at the front and a welt pocket inside. I'm still disappointed in the inside welt pocket. I managed to sew the welts on the wrong way around and had already cu

Lekala 4163: Knit jacket

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  After the wadder that was Vogue 1364 I downloaded this pattern to give it a go. It has all the things that I've learnt to look for in a knit jacket pattern, cut high at the back and with a waist tie to give some definition. I used the rest of the blue ponte I picked up at the last Lincraft sale. Its a medium weight ponte that doesn't wear too badly, I stock up on it and the knit interfacing when the big 50% off sale is on each year. I made a 1" FBA which was rotated into the front folds and a 1" arm width adjustment. I'm really happy with how it fits, Lekala has been a little hit and miss for me but I sent off my exact measurements for this one and its spot on. I've had trouble in the past because they go off the full bust not the high bust which is a problem if you normally have to do a FBA because the shoulders end up too wide and the armscye is the wrong angle. But I think maybe because this pattern is so close fitting (its got either none or slightly neg