BWOF 5-2008-103

This is the first BWOF garment I have made and besides a few fitting issues that I have found now I am wearing it for the first time, I am really happy with the outcome.

First of all I really appreciate the Reviews at PatternReview so before I even traced the pattern I was aware of a few issues.

1. The neck line was a bit lower than most of the reviewers liked, so I added 1cm.

2. The bottom hem on the front of the top is actually curved at the bottom (you can see the curve line that I drew when tracing the pattern) it ends up following the edge of the bottom of the band. This is not how I want to wear my tops, so I added to the bottom of the front pattern so that it was the same length as the back pattern.

3. Others commented about the fullness in the front gathers, so I took out 1cm in the width above the horizontal dart to reduce this fullness.


4. The band is rather wide so I took out two lots of 1cm from the width to make this smaller as well.

These adjustments are in addition to my standard adjustments e.g. rounded shoulder, high round back, sway back and gaposis on the front neck edge.



So without further ado, here is the finished top



As you can see it is pulling in the front around the armholes and I need to deepen these as they are “cutting” into me and I’m not sure if this will fix the pulls in the picture, I will have to see. This will be a bit of a challenge as I have sewn the seams with my overlocker and can’t afford to make this top any tighter LOL.

My Janome CP1000 was christened for this project, and after doing the first lot of hems on the band, the sigh of relief that resulted with no tunnelling that I continually suffered with twin needles on my sewing machine was immense and even though I did have to "frog stitch" the hem, after reading Debbie Cook's Coverstitch Tutorials I found the secret to doing these.

Yellow Blouse Finished

This blouse was started for the July Sew Along on Stitchers Guild, however it just didn't want to play and I finally finished it last week. I'm wearing it with the skirt and jewellery from the JCC contest.


This is the same blouse pattern Vogue 8572(OOP)that I made for the JCC contest and this time I wanted to try a piped neckline and shortened the sleeves to 3/4 to wear under my Channel jacket. I am reasonably happy with my first attempt of using bias strips and "rats tail" to make the piping and then getting it to sit nicely around the neckline.

I had a wonderful teacher at the ASG Convention in Brisbane last October who kindly sharerd some of her tips on piping so I am keen to try another as I really like the look of piped edges on necklines and sleeve hems.

This fabric is heavier than the Oyster Chamois I used for the JCC and somehow the top has ended up tighter (don't think the gym sessions would be making this much difference) so not sure what has happened here.

SWAP 2009

Story Board

Well here is what I have decided so far:



A number of the patterns are TNT's and the two pants patterns have been toiled although this was before I gained the extra weight from the gym.

As you can see there are two pieces of fabric that don't have a pattern with them so far. I'm desperate for tops and really don't want to make the same 3 styles all the time, so am trying to find new patterns.

The red woven is partialy completed and hope to have it ready to show by the end of the weekend.

I then think I will do a wearable toile of the casual pants in a mustard colour stretch cotton that I picked up in Brisbane during the ASG Convention.

Australian Stitches - Volume 13

Here is the Index for Volumne 13

I have also sent a copy to Lynn Cook, Editor of Australian Stitches.

Enjoy

Planning

Okay the stash has been spread around the sewing room and as most of my sewing buddies will tell you there is a lot of brown in there LOL.

Working on the twist of “Real Life Week” I can say that my week is working in an office full-time (although not corporate) and then on the weekends I sew with my sewing buddies or go to the Australian Sewing Guild Meetings as well as shopping. We enjoy going to the Sydney Theatre Company’s Plays on a regular basis so I have included this as well as this area is lacking in my wardrobe.

On that basis, I have chosen the following fabrics:



Now to go through the pattern stash and work out if I have any TNT patterns for these fabrics or whether I need to get moving on some toiles.

Sewing with a Plan

A Challenge to make 11 Garments in 5 months!

I’ve been reading about the Timmel SWAP over the years (first saw it in the Australian Stitches magazine Volume 14, Issue No. 7) and have often thought I would like to do this as it was based on the article by Lynn Cook in the Australian Stitches magazine Volume 5, Issue No.3 titled the "Perfect Wardrobe".

Just as I was getting caught up in the internet world of sewing buddies, I found out that Julie from Timmel was resigning and that she wouldn’t be running the SWAP contest again.

In stepped the lovely moderators from Stitchers Guild who posted last week the Rules for the 2009 SWAP and here they are:

Each SWAP must consist of 11 garments, which all work together to form a basic wardrobe. All garments must be handmade. You may knit, crochet or weave if you please, but they must be your own creations.

The garments are:

4 bottoms - jeans, pants, shorts, skirts or kilts.
6 tops - t-shirts, shirts, blouses, or camisoles.
1 jacket - a tailored blazer, jeans-style jacket, sweater or shawl will do, as long as it looks right with everything else.

* A dress will qualify as a top, if it can be worn with all the bottoms (tucked in or worn as a tunic) *

* Recycled garments are fine, as long as the new item is entirely different than the original, such as old jeans made into a jacket, or a wool coat made into a skirt. Before and after pictures are required, if you do this. *

All the tops must work with all the bottoms; and the jacket must work with everything. Dressier clothes require a dressier jacket, and vice-versa. Traditional clothing such as salwar kameez qualify, too.

2009 Twist: A wardrobe which reflects a week in your REAL LIFE. If you're a stay-at-home mom who lives in jeans and tees, that's what you'll be sewing. If you're a rock star who lives in zebra stripes and pink hot pants, that's what you'll be making. The finished wardrobe should consist of the pieces you'll be grabbing to wear for the rest of the year. Whether you work in an office, or spend your days eating bon-bons, your SWAP should reflect your current lifestyle and weight.

All garments must be made between November 1/08 and April 30/09.

The fact that we have been given an 2 extra months to complete this and the fact that I completed 3 garments in the month of June, (so at that rate I should be able to complete 15 garments) I am going to do it!!

The mind is going overtime trying to work out what I’m going to do so:

1. The notebook has been purchased
2. I plan to pull out the fabric stash (not so large) tonight and see what I can come up with.

Australian Stitches Magazine Indexes

I have been MIA recently, not sure where the time has gone, and thought I had better let you know that the Index for Volume 13 is at present being proof read and the Index for Volume 14 has been started, so they are on their way and haven't been forgotten.