Another Linen Top

I'm slogging slowly forward on this Mini-Wardrobe Challenge over at PatternReview.com, and was all set to finally make something from some gorgeous stretch rayon in my stash. Until I realized that there was just enough -- maybe -- of the turquoise linen left over from making MWC garment #1 to make a simple tank top.

Inspiration credit goes to this top, with which I am much enamored, although I'm past the age where spaghetti straps in public are a good idea. Isn't that ruffled hem adorable?

Unfortunately, the Japanese pattern book it's made from is not among those on my shelf, and I don't have time to order a copy of it. Plus, I'm supposed to be making this challenge from stash, fabric and patterns.

Once bitten by this image, making a linen tank for my second MWC top seemed essential. Plus, it would use up that fabric. Which is a lot more appealing to me this week than putting a scant yard-ish size piece back in the stash. This is supposed to be the year of sewing from stash (and finishing UFOs, not that I'm doing spectacularly in either department, yet, but it's only April, I've got time). Plus, a sleeveless tank would be a nice counterpart to the long-sleeved Patricia tunic, and maybe even fit into a THEME for the challenge, which has so far been lacking. (More on theme later.)

I rummaged through the pattern stash, which yielded a couple of items that could be easliy altered into sleeveless tank-ish tops, but alas, not from the limited piece of fabric I had left. So I self-drafted one, very loosely based on a linen pull-on (no buttons or zip, yay) JJill top that fits well through the bust thanks to armscye darts.

So I copied that, sort of, adding to the length (aiming for lower hip area) and whipped up a quick muslin. Yikes. Okay on the top part, but wow, did I underestimate what would go around my hips with any kind of ease. So now it's more trapeze-ish in shape.

Then I trimmed the neck (very slightly gathered at center front) and arm edges with bias strips cut from the Anna Maria Horner "Guest of Honor" fabric left over from making my office curtains. So far so good. On to the ruffle. Which turned out not to be such a good idea. The cotton print is huge scale, and I planned a deeper ruffle to show just a bit more of it. But a gathered length of wider cotton, even quilting weight, was too heavy for the very lightweight linen. (Took a pic, but it was a dud.) So I cut the ruffle off drafted a straight lower border and went with that. Super-narrow double-turned hem, top-stitched at the seam.

It's okay, but not quite as super-delicious spectacular as I'd hoped. Which is about normal for my semi-experimental sewing. I'm happy with the fabric combo, though, and although there is still a yard-ish size length of the GofH fabric back in the stash, it was fun to use some of it for a garment purpose. Probably I'll make a simple skirt from the rest, but no tackling that until I've completed (or given up on completing) this mini-wardobe thing.

Finishing the white denim skirt is next. It's been hanging in the sewing room closet for a week, waiting for me to give it a waistband and a hem...

I'll post photos of me wearing this stuff when I have complete outfits to show off. Which will be sometime within the week if I'm going to make the challenge deadline.

Fabric surprises

I ordered some (okay, quite a bit of) fabric online and it arrived yesterday. As often happens with online orders, some of it isn't exactly what I expected. (Some of it's exactly what I wanted, but that's not the topic of the day.) I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but some main pieces aren't as good a match for the garments/patterns I had in mind as I'd hoped, and now I'm pondering what to do with it.

I'd hoped to whip up a skirt or two, at least, and possibly even a pair of pants, for upcoming mainland travel, but the "designer" twills that arrived are... really nice. Luscious, and light, with a nice drape now that they've been through the wash: out of the box one of 'em could only be described as "creepy" to the touch, but it's mellowed out now. The problem is, they're too nice for what I thought I'd make. They cry out for a something tailored and with a sort of minimalist fussiness to show them off, and whatever I make from them will need to be LINED. I did also purchase some lining fabric, but with something else in mind, so it's not the right color. Hmmmm.....

Somehow I managed to order a dark orange ("paprika") stretch twill...

...without realizing it's a polyester/lycra blend, not the cotton/lycra I was expecting. Totally my error: I checked the listing page, and yup, it's poly. If your first reaction is to cringe -- as mine was -- I have to say that this is a very nice poly indeed. This fabric is gorgeous! Anyway, there's a skirt in this book:

that would suit the fabric very well (view G, if you're curious, which just looks like a dark blob in a jpeg). I like the cover skirt, too. That's a Joel Dewberry home dec fabric in the background, BTW, which I will probably also make a skirt from, if it doesn't end up as a hobo bag or pillow cover. If I were a size 2 I'd make jeans from it, but I'm not, and I won't. I can dream, though.

The thing about these Japanese patterns, which I drool over, is that I'm a size larger (at least) than their idea of a large, and at this precise moment I am not convinced I really want to tackle sizing it up. Maybe. I'm going to think about it some more.

Other options include view C (on the left) or B (on the right) of Vogue 7910:

I have made muslins of both of these, and like them a lot. The angle-pocket and side-inset details are very nice, and these fit quite well right out of the envelope (!) without a lot of fussing, which is a huge plus. Except I'd like them even more if they were streamlined (they're quite full at the hem), which will involve fussing. I might tackle one tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm deep into my first attempt at altering a pants pattern to fit, and it's driving me nuts. More on that later...

Japanese dress #1

I knew it would be a bear, going in: I'm tall, barrel-chested, and increasingly chunky as I move into middle age. In other words, shaped not even remotely like the typical figure for which these Japanese patterns are drafted (ISBN 978-4579111497):


Given all that, I did reasonably well adapting (with much measuring, head-scratching, and hoping for the best) a sleeveless version of dress #23 to my shape and size. Here's the cheap cotton "wearable muslin" for what I'd hoped would be a repeatable "ATR" (around the house) dress:



The skirt, back and midriff came out fine, but I flubbed the bodice front. I sized it up and made it longer (even American patterns are 1-2" too short in the front torso for me) which turned out to be too big. Then I butchered trimming it down again, which is totally because I was tired and impatient and I should have known better than to keep going at that point. The funny pleats at the shoulder are because at try-on stage I discovered the shoulders were much wider than I wanted and I was too lazy/slapdashy to recut them, and just took a quickie pleat in the middle of each instead.

Even with such a flawed, ill-fitting bodice it's a serviceable garment, which is what I was aiming for. I'm wearing it right now and it's comfy enough that I probably will attempt it again someday. The challenge of getting the bodice to fit is far from solved, though, and some time needs to go by before I'll feel up for round two of redrafting.

I am pleased that I (deliberately) cut the midriff a bit loose, because, combined with the deep V neck, it means this can be a pull-on: no zipper required! The loose cut was planned with steamy weather in mind, the zipper-omission a happy coincidence. Of course, I discovered that after I'd done an astonishly good job installing the invisible zip. But if I don't need the zip, why waste it, so I ripped that all out and stitched up the center back seam.

You may be thinking, as I am, that for all that work it's a remarkably unflattering garment (I may not be slim, but I'm really not as chunky as I look in this dress). The thing is, I desperately need more lightweight, "breathable" (in both fabric and cut) dresses to wear around the house all summer. So I'm aiming for steamy-day comfort here, with no intention of ever appearing in public in it. That's what ATR dresses are for. I've got some more in the works, as I slog ever-onward in my quest for a truly great "TNT" (tried and true) ATR dress pattern. This isn't it, but at least I've got one more thing to wear on a warm day.

Pattern Frenzy

OMG, I'm supposed to be saving up for a new sewing machine and I just LOST IT (self-control, that is) at this etsy shop.

I've ordered five (yes, five) Japanese dress pattern books. And that's just what I found on the first two pages of the shop. I'm especially eager to explore "Chinese Style" because I'm loving this:

I got the last one in stock of three of these books, which is how I rationalized part of the purchase. With shipping, it's way more of a splurge than I can justify unless these are Christmas gifts to myself. Every year I swear I'm not gonna do that again and, oops, here I go and it's not even December yet. Then again, last year's Santa gifts included a ton of fabric that's still in the stash pile. Surely it's time I made something from it? With these new pattern books maybe that will happen. Except for this wrinkle:

As best I can tell (sizes are in centimeters), even the size large in these books is going to be a size too small for me (I'm a 10 off the rack, which I guess is gargantuan in Japan). Plus I'm 5'8" and even American patterns need some length adjustments on me. I'm either going to spend a huge amount of time/effort redrafting these to fit, or will have to settle for browsing/inspiration only.

I should know the size thing was going to be a problem: one reason I've given up clothes shopping in Hilo is that so much of what's available is sized for the petite/scrawny Asian ladies who outnumber (tall, well-fed) caucasians here. Even our local Macy's has a huge petites section, more muumuus for both the slim and the oversized than you would believe, and not much for me.