The Crush and the Wrap

I've got two garments to share with you today, both finished a while ago and even photographed a few weeks back: a stripey wrap skirt that I'd hoped would be suitable for the office (that word "hoped" gives you a hint...), and a very simple boxy merino wool top that has turned out to be a bit of a wardrobe crush for me.


Let's start with the crush:

I've got a favourite, favourite bright green knit top that I wear all summer with jeans, skirts, trousers, you name it (you can see it on me here in day 21 of Me Made May from a few years ago) - and as I was reaching for it to wear out a few weeks ago, I realised (a) it was way too lightweight for winter, and (b) I needed to sew myself a winter version. The original number is RTW from ages ago and a very simple boxy shape, so I decided I'd just trace around it. The need was such that I couldn't even waste time with paper - I traced it straight onto my thick black merino wool with PINS! A few hours later (and a good part of that devoted to measuring all the symmetries; nothing is more annoying than a simple garment cut off grain, and I didn't want one side larger than the other either) the winter version was done.

And not only do I love this top (as is or layered; with jeans, skirts, trousers etc etc) but I also really want a few more of them... I wish I'd bothered to do my tracing onto paper now! I've got in mind a cosy quilted white version and am mulling over a houndstooth wool version too.  Yes, I will need to get out the paper and trace my summer top all over again, but I think it'll be worth it.

Pattern: traced from RTW
Adjustments: none
Fabric: thick merino wool from The Fabric Store
Rating: ACE!!!!

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And now for the skirt, view B of Vogue 9172, shown with the same top.

I'd seen a couple of versions of this skirt sewn up online - from memory I think participants in an online sewing comp all had to sew this up? - and it looked like it would make for a great work skirt.

I sewed up version B of the skirt, which is the longest version and supposed to hit below the knee with a demure wrap (judging by the drawings on the pattern envelope). I guess the length is correct on me, but the wrap is not nearly as office-friendly as I'd hoped. The wrap width is quite narrow and the resulting split is very high, so this skirt is never going to come to work with me.  I don't even want to imagine how revealing the split would be when I was sitting down!

I cut out and sewed in the side seam pockets, but their outline showed in the skirt front and I felt they wrecked the sleek lines of the skirt (as well as creating unnecessary bulk) so they were quickly unpicked.

As one of the reviewers noted on Pattern Review, this skirt doesn't include much ease. The pattern description is that it's "semi-fitted" but if you're used to sewing Vogue's designer patterns you might want to go up a size with this one. I sewed a size 16 this time around whereas I'd normally sew a 14 in Vogue skirts/ pants - it feels tight on me despite the stretch fabric, BUT in these photos I'm a several kilos heavier than usual (I changed doctor and my new doctor lowered my daily thyroid extract dose to the point where I was rapidly putting on a heap of weight and feeling like shit. Luckily when I got my blood re-tested recently I was able to prove this had brought my thyroid levels way, way, WAY too low, so my dose is back up and I should be back to normal again soon).

Apart from the height and width of that split - I should have measured first, I should have adjusted... - I think this pattern is a good design. I really like that it's fully lined, and the separating zip hidden on the inside of the wrap is a clever detail. If I made this again I'd use a much lighter weight zip - my heavy duty zip shows through the front wrap layers and creates too much extra bulk on the tummy. I'd also leave off the pockets (as I did this time), and would double the width of the wrap and extend the zip down a few inches. Oh I think I'd change the angle of the front wrap pieces of the skirt and taper in the side seams to better match the tech drawings for this pattern - the skirt is much more rectangular and the wrap much less than the drawings would suggest...

I'm happy enough with my execution of this skirt - I've lined up the stripes the way I intended, the zip looks neater than expected, and I've paired stretch outer with a stretch lining - but unfortunately this skirt is a wadder for me. I know it looks OK from a few angles, but it's too risque for my office, and I just don't feel drawn to wearing it outside of work.

Pattern: Vogue 9172, view B
Adjustments: skipped the pockets
Fabric: striped, stretch medium weight polyester from The Fabric Store and stretch lining from Darn Cheap Fabrics (via last summer's Frocktails trip to Melbourne)
Notions: separating zipper from Spotlight
Rating:  off to the charity shop

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Finally, to add a bit of colour to this rather drab post, can I show you some of my recent fabric purchases?  I recently found some lovelies at Tessuti Fabrics: lovely mulberry lace remnant and coordinating stretch viscose for a planned dress, and a gorgeous geometric remnant in some of my favourite colours (hmm not yet sure if this will make a top with a square neckline or a rectangular skirt). 

No promises now, but I took flat photos of a bunch of other clothes today and I'm going to make an effort to blog again before another month passes.

In the meantime, wishing you more sewing successes than failures!


See you soon




Gabrielle xx

Swish: Vogue 1466 Donna Karan Skirt

Swish: that's the word I want when I think of this skirt:

No, not the posh, stuck up sort of "swish":

OOPS... 

The other kind - the movement kind of "swish"!

I wore this skirt to work the other day for a trial run and if felt amazing, the fabric echoing the movement of my legs as I walked or swayed (just to get some more of that swish).

Just soooo swishy... and cosy too!

Although it feels amazing on, there is one problem with the way I've made this skirt, and it's at waist level.

I really don't know why I do this, but when I measure myself before cutting out, very often I will stick my stomach out. Crazy! And I don't realise I've done it till I sew up the garment and discover everything fits except the waist, which is too big.  So I cut this skirt out as a size 14 with a size 16 waist - and should have stuck with the straight size 14.

I'd like to think it's not as glaring an error as it appears in these photos - but even if it is, well I have to admit I wear RTW with bigger fit issues!

It's also a tad shorter than I'd like... I would have loved an extra 5 or so centimetres of length to get to midi length, but I simply didn't have the yardage - from recollection I had 1.5 metres bought for a top for my son*, and the pattern pieces looked to fit IF I trimmed the skirt length by a centimetre or so.

* his polite response along the lines of "thanks, but you don't have to mum" meant "I don't like it"

But the hips fit nicely, so there is that:

And it's a really easy skirt to sew!

 

I did make one addition to the pattern: I added a lining to the skirt, simply using the flared skirt pattern pieces cut a few centimetres shorter: 

The lining fabric is a soft sort of mesh, which I really like as a lining for knit skirts and dresses (like this one).  It doesn't add much in the way of bulk but it stops the bumps of underwear lines from showing and makes the skirt feel more upmarket than its unlined cousin. Oh and no need for hems or seam finishes, as it doesn't seem to unravel!

As you can see, I didn't finish the seams on my outer fabric either - that also doesn't ravel :). The outer fabric is from Tessuti Fabrics, I think a cotton elastane mix. It's a really lovely weight in a skirt like this - not too heavy, not too flimsy. The colour hasn't come out correctly in these photos though (that bright winter sunshine!); it's a khaki rather than a brown, and goes really well with the Donna Karan drape jacket I showed you about a month ago (blogged here).

Basically it's a great pattern, lovely fabric and a user error or two combining to make a skirt I love :). So many photos, and so little to say!!


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Pattern: Vogue 1466 (skirt), Donna Karan

Fabric: cotton-elastane, mesh lining from Tessuti Fabrics

Notions: elastic, hidden within the waistband

Final verdict? This skirt is going to get a LOT of wear. The pattern is a really good one - I'm considering making the skirt again, and I've already got the jacket cut out from some gorgeous dark blue boiled wool from Tessuti Fabrics.  I wish Donna Karan was still designing and doing patterns!

My next post is probably not going to be for a few weeks - but I hope then to be able to share some swimmers with you. I've had an orphan bikini top for years, and have FINALLY got around to sewing bikini bottoms to go with it using the ruched, high waisted bikini bottoms from McCalls 7168.  So far they seem a bit tight but we'll see...



Happy sewing!

- Gabrielle xx

A StyleArc Duet, Featuring Fay and Esme

All my plans went out the window - here's what I've actually sewn up next; a StyleArc Fay skirt and a StyleArc Esme top (shown with the mini water gun I found in the garden when I was taking these snaps):

I picked up the Fay pattern from a pattern and fabric swap at a Sydney Spoolettes get-together at Home Industry in Balmain a few months ago.  It wasn't quite my size, but the pattern is such a simple one that I thought it would be easy to make wider (it was).

The Fay skirt is described by StyleArc as being a Fabulous figure hugging pull on skirt, and works in jerseys, pontes and similar stretchy fabrics.

The skirt sews up as a double layer of fabric, so I didn't want to use too thick a fabric - but on the other hand, I thought a thin cotton jersey might be too clingy.  I didn't have anything suitable in my stash (the stretch fabrics don't tend to stay in my stash for long!) so I had to buy something - and how unimaginative of me, I went for black! This is a stretchy polyester from Tessuti fabrics (sorry, no idea of the name of this one), with a nice density and weight that I imagine would work well for active wear.

It was a little tricky to photograph - so apologies in advance if you can't see much, but there aren't really any details to show you:

The pattern came in a size 10, which corresponds to a waist measurement of 75 centimetres and a hip measurement of 98 centimetres. My waist is currently 80 centimetres and my hips 101 centimetres, so I just split this difference (5cm, 3cm) between the 4 seam edges and added the difference (1.25cm at waist level, down to 0.75cm at hip level and below) to each edge.  Easy :). I left the length as is - the skirt is drafted to be about 65 centimetres long, and that looked like it would be an OK length on me.

And I like the finished skirt - so simple, but quite a classic-looking skirt!

The sewing of this skirt is ridiculously easy.  I had a cold when I was making it so I took my time so as to avoid silly mistakes, but second time around I suspect it'll be a half hour piece of sewing...

The only thing I need to do differently next time is to make sure I'm not pushing my stomach out when I measure my elastic around my waist - I have no idea why I do this, but it means the skirt is slightly loose at the top. Oops!

= = = = = = = = = = =

And the Esme designer knit top pattern is one I bought from StyleArc's Etsy shop ages ago, then felt compelled to sew quickly after seeing a few lovely versions on blogs, including Sarah's here.

It's described by StyleArc as “The Wanted” garment of the season. This knit top has a fabulous bias cut collar that can stand fashionably high or turned over. Make it sleeveless or with sleeves for the cooler months.  

Obviously the pattern is designed for knits, but when I pulled out the pattern pieces in my size (10) I thought it looked looser than the tops I usually make from knits. And I didn't have any suitable knits in my stash anyway, so I decided to give it a go in a non-knit fabric.   

The fabric I've used is a reasonably thick polyester brocade-style material (I think that's what you'd call it, though it doesn't have loose threads on the wrong side) from The Fabric Store. It's a fabric that has quite a bit of body - I hoped this would help the collar sit nicely without any floppage - and that I don't love, so no great loss if the top was a wadder.  I think I've used the wrong side of the fabric as my outer, but that's the side that I preferred.   Oh and I might also have the print upside down!

The fit is OK in a woven - I can get it on easily enough, it's loose everywhere but the hips, and the collar does what I want it to do - but I've missed out on the drape I would have got from a knit.  I'd love to give this a go in a chunky sweater knit...

You can see what I mean about missing out on the drape of a knit fabric in these next photos - my fabric tends to bunch up and stick out in the front when I raise my arms.  Ah well, next time I'll have to use a knit, won't I!

I'm calling this a success too.  Not necessarily my most flattering top, but another quick sew, and with its loose shape and dolman sleeve, a good layering top for winter.  I ended up wearing this top with jeans all day after taking the photos, and it was surprisingly warm and super comfortable - I like it!  

Happy sewing

See you soon


- Gabrielle x

StyleArc Rosie and a Vintage Vogue Skirt

I'm back! It has not been a great month between posts... 

A couple of days after my last post my mother-in-law became suddenly very ill, to the point where she needed to miss one of her beloved early morning rowing sessions.  She still felt able to pick my son up after school, and to dash off to meet friends and see an opera concert, but in between those activities she lay on my couch (a shocking  first) and declined a cup of tea (unheard of!). Within the next couple of days she was in so much pain that she took a taxi to hospital where she was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian / peritoneal cancer, and promptly had several rounds of chemotherapy scheduled to try to halt the cancer's progress.  Mr UpSewLate and his brothers alternated in staying with her day and night, at home and at hospital, but she was so weak from the "stomach bug" (her GP's diagnosis) she'd been enduring all through February that she didn't survive the first round. She was very brave and stoic, but it was a terrible shock - she was so active and bright, sociable and community-minded that we'd thought she'd live to be a hundred! She died peacefully with her three sons by her side, listening to some of her favourite music. We held the funeral and wake on her birthday last week, and the night before last we attended a beautiful farewell ceremony at her rowing club, with shared stories and message boats on the water. It's been an incredibly emotional month - there's a big gap in our lives now.  

So now you know... 

BUT I'm sure you're not here to read about my life, so let's move on to the much easier subject alluded to in this post's heading:  sewing, and two completed garments.


This post has been sitting in my "draft" folder all month, ready to publish. Here it is, as drafted back at the very start of March - and apologies in advance for the abrupt change in tone, but it was written before the month turned awful:

StyleArc Rosie and a Vintage Vogue Skirt

I have two Autumn garments for today's show and tell (blogging can feel like that, can't it!): a sleeveless StyleArc Rosie top and a vintage Vogue flared skirt in stretch cotton sateen. 

Autumn?

Yes, that's right, it's Autumn in Sydney, and yet on the day I took these photos the temperature was probably still hotter than peak of summer weather in many places. HOT and MUGGY! The hot weather (about 35 days in a row!) seems to have finally broken, but we'll have to wait and see...

Maybe the European-style 4 seasons don't really fit with our weather patterns though? The D'harawal country calendar looks a better fit to Sydney's weather, and it classes January to March as the hot and dry season.

I've had my eye on the StyleArc Rosie top for a long time - the pattern came out years ago - but Kristin's fitting woes with this pattern put me off.  Then I finally twigged that since we're very different shapes, the patterns that challenged us in fit would be very different too.  And it turns out that for me at least, the pattern is a winner.

In all these photos you'll see that the fit isn't perfect, but please bear in mind that I used very unforgiving fabrics for this version, which is really only a test garment.

The centre front panel is a cotton twill left over from my Blinder peplum top of a few years ago, and the rest of the fabric is a cheap cotton that I must have bought a long time ago, as it's not really suitable for clothes being stiff, rough to the touch and very crease-prone. 

I think at least some of the creases will disappear in a better fabric, and I'm hopeful that by adjusting the shoulder line and adding a little bust width in the princess seam I'll get rid of the creasing and pooling at the front underarms.

Here are the line drawings and tech drawings for the pattern - it's hard to see the design lines in my white fabric: 

The Rosie top goes together very, very quickly; it's just a matter of a couple of seams and a folded pleat in the back. with no darts or edge binding.  The pattern does suggest an opening in the centre back seam but I found I didn't need one - the top *just* fits on with a little contortion, and pulls over my larger than normal head easily.  I particularly like the shape of the neckline facing, which is quite deep in the back, the shaped front "skirt", and the panelling that would make this pattern great for mixing fabrics. I'm not so keen on the finish on the armhole - just turn and stitch - so I'll probably cut myself a deeper hem allowance here next time I make the top. 

I sewed the Rosie top in a straight size 10, as the size 10 looked to be a very good match to my current measurements (36", 30", 39") in StyleArc's size chart, and the overall fit seems good. StyleArc doesn't add much ease though, so if you wanted a looser top I'd recommend going up a size or two.

I'm looking forward to making this top again in better fabric - I've got some lovely pieces of silk organza that I think would look great mixed up with other fabrics, but I need to work out exactly which other fabrics :).  

And now for the skirt. The skirt comes from an 80s Vogue pattern, Vogue 1387, that I thought I'd used before - so many similar skirt patterns in my stash! - but which is actually a new one for me.  

The skirt is described as being a "bias, flared skirt, below mid-calf... waistband and side zipper" - in other words, your basic bias cut skirt.  It comes with a very loose, big shoulder jacket (zero appeal to me) and a loose short sleeved top that looks a bit like the Maria Denmark kimono tee in shape - though presumeably lots looser. 

I sewed this in a straight size 14, and left off my usual skirt lengthening as I had only just enough fabric to fit the original skirt length. Because I didn't add any width at the waist I have to wear this skirt at my natural waist rather than half way to my hips :(, and of course that also takes away some potential length. Those two facts mean my skirt isn't below calf length, but that's OK - I do prefer a longer skirt but some variety in the wardrobe is probably a good thing.   

Actually there wasn't quite enough fabric even for the original length - I had to cut the back skirt piece with a narrow triangle of fabric missing at the base of one of the side seams and then insert a similar triangle (matched on colours and grainline) to fill the gap.  Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the patch - I didn't get the chance to take many photos before a neighbour came out to see what I was doing, which of course meant the end of photo taking :(.   

Fitting this sort of skirt shouldn't be tricky, but I think I need to adjust the hip curve if I make this again - I've got some pooling at hip level on the side seams, as you can see in the next photo.  You can also see my cute blue buttons and a super-invisible zip, made more invisible by my camera's inability to cope with the whiteness of the white areas of fabric.

And here's the back view - not very exciting, and no, you can't see the patch:

I'm very happy to have another skirt in my wardrobe, even if it is currently on the tight side of fitting.

Happy sewing, and I wish you and your loved ones good health 

- Gabrielle x