Burda Yoga Top

Fabric:  Organic cotton jersey from Tessuti, that has been sitting in my stash for a while.

Pattern:  Burdastyle 7/2010/111.  Tany has posted a tutorial here and illustrated pictures here.

The instructions for this pattern called for Vilene / Pellon G 785 interfacing.  I thought that the right sort of interfacing might be important, so I held off until I could get some.  When I was at Spotlight on the weekend, they wanted $20 for a 90 cm square of this interfacing.  That seemed a little excessive for what has been described around here as a "glorified boob tube", so I went home and got sewing without it.  I did use some interfacing for the centre panel, but it was not a knit interfacing.  I didn't quite follow the instructions properly (can't seem to concentrate these days) and the interfacing was showing, so I stuck another piece of fabric between the centre panel and the straps, which is that bubbly bit you can see in the middle.  I admit that everything would probably be smoother with the interfacing, but it is okay, and less noticeable in real life than in the above photo.

I modified the pattern to incorporate a bandeau style shelf bra.  I know that shelf bras do not offer the best support, but it is enough to make me feel more comfortable wearing the top.  I cut separate pieces for the bandeau, but extending the fold-under facing would probably have done the job.  The depth of the bandeau is 14 cm, including the 2 cm wide elastic at the bottom edge.  I also put some elastic along the top edge of the top.

Now I am way too highly strung for yoga, so the top is unlikely to ever make it to a yoga class, but I think that it will get plenty of wear anyways.

Insa Skirt

When I pulled out these fabrics and the book "Sewing Clothes Kids Love", I asked my daughter if she wanted the Insa skirt or the Feliz party dress or the Manhattan Special Occasion Dress.  She replied that she wanted a skirt.  Of course, I was forgetting that all skirts end up as strapless dresses :).

I have also seen her wear a boob tube from her dress-ups as a skirt and a fairy skirt as a poncho.  I guess your wardrobe is more versatile when your chest, waist and hip measurements are all about the same.

Cynthia Rowley tank...

Isn't it a bummer when your favourite shot of a garment shows you with your eyes shut...

Or with some weirdo look on your face....

Or a person sleeping in the background....

Never mind.  Crap photos but I still like the top.

Pattern:  Simplicity 2593

Fabric: lightweight knit from EmmaOneSock.  Possibly it shrunk quite a lot in the wash, as the fabric width seemed unusually narrow, and I could only just get a tank top out of it.  EmmaOneSock has a minimum yardage of 1 yd and I have very little in the way of scraps, so thinking more about it, it really must have shrunk!.

This pattern was designed for wovens.  I cut a Sz 6 in the width, using the Sz 12 line for the neckline and length of straps.  I haven't sewn with Simplicity patterns much before, but usually I start with a 12 in the Vogues.  My neckband is a little narrower than the pattern suggested, only because I had a shortage of fabric.  Neckband and bindings were cut on the cross instead of the bias.  Instead of using the guidelines for the gathering, I just put the top on and adjusted the gathers to where I wanted them, overcoming my usual fitting problems in this area.

What more can I say?  Love the neckline.  Will probably use this pattern again.

How long does your sewing last?

I have made more than a dozen of these pencil rolls as gifts for my children's friends over the past few years.  I mostly make them out of remnants of my dressmaking fabrics, although some I do sew in brighly coloured children's fabric.

Each time I make one, I wonder how long it will be used and cherished.  I like to think that they will be used for decades; that some child will go on to become an artist, designer, achitect etc and will still be using this to store their sketching pencils.  Dreaming?  Probably.

Chevron

When this Japanese cotton print arrived from Tessuti, I was a little surprised at how stripy it was!  Of course, the on-line photographs show it to be stripy, but somehow my brain had not registered that detail.  Being pear-shaped, I am never quite sure what to do with stripes.  It seems no matter which way they go, they just emphasize that pear shape.  It took a bit of pondering, but I decided to discard my original pattern choice and go with Vogue 8184, with the skirt panels cut on the bias to give a chevron effect.

Here are front, back and side views, to show you the pattern matching.  The bodice panels were cut off-grain, to get a diamond shape of the pattern in both the front and the back.  I only used boning in the front princess seams.  I would have liked to not use boning at use, being a casual dress, but the dress was collapsing below the bust.  I'm not sure if this is because I am small busted, or whether I need to contour the seams below the bust more.

 I should have stabilised the seam allowance before I put in the zipper, especially because the bodice is off-grain.  I did realise part way through sewing the zipper, but I have little sewing time at the moment, and knew that if I didn't finish this dress that night, it may not have got finished for a long time, so I just powered on through.  The zip is a little bubbly, but not too bad.  I am only admitting to this mistake on the chance that somebody else wants to make a chevron dress!

 It pairs nicely with this cardigan and my favourite necklace.

 A close-up of the straps.  I took this idea from one of the designs in the Twinkle Sews book.  In this photo, you can see the lining peeking out, even though it is understitched.  I think this is happening because I cut the bodice off-grain and the lining on-grain.