Fatty top FAIL!

I have been horrible in keeping up with this blog - my excuse, as always, is that real life is being positively overwhelming, and is crowding out my virtual life. Bleh. The day job demands absolute commitment just so I can make it out the door at a decent-ish time (though admittedly I still like it), and I return home to two little girls who, obviously, eat up whatever I have left of the night. Plus, I have the awful grey EXAM cloud looming over my head - bleh, what a life.

Not that my needle hasn't been busy. A girl needs to stay sane, right? Friday and Saturday nights after midnight is my me-time, for however long I can stay awake (shamefully late, most days!). Though it's been mostly alterations and repairs, the fastest way to get a dress back into circulation again. Not a lot of fancy sewing for myself.

What I did get around to making (and photographing, and posting) was this top. Tunika 115B from the Burda magazine May 2009.

I found the pattern from Burdastyle.de, though for some reason it is no longer there now. You see how long it took for me to make it up! It was free, and it looked easy, so easy I thought I'd be able to wing it, in case I wasn't able to make out the translated German instructions. As it turned out, I still don't speak German (in spite of 2.5 years of weekly classes in secondary school), Burdastyle still does lousy instructions, and Google Translate still doesn't work.

I used a gorgeously light cotton lawn from the neighbourhood fabric store - completely fell for the robots! and envisioned a deliciously lightweight, floaty top.

It didn't take very long to make, the only trouble I had was with the neckline facing. Many bad decisions are made at 3 in the morning when my brain shuts down without my knowing it.

I started with a full  neck facing, but found that the fabric was so sheer the pattern from the facing piece showed through on the front. Of course I didn't have any plain white light cotton on hand, and of course (at that point) I had to sew NOW! NOW! and couldn't wait for when I was next free to visit the fabric shops. So I cut the facing off, leaving only a thin band around the edge - much like a curved seam binding. Brilliant idea, no?

Not for this fabric, which, as it turns out, was too light to withstand even that teensy weight of extra fabric. Look at how it gapes at the neck!

I also forgot how horribly PREGNANT these floaty tops make me look. Short, not-very-thin people shouldn't wear floaty tops. Simple rule, right? Bleh. I forgot.

I have since worn this top out twice, and both times:
1.Couldn't help looking in every mirror I passed by and thinking how frumpy I looked in it
2. My underwear peeked out of the neck hang when I had the girls in my arms
3. I kept tugging on the back hem so the neck wouldn't gape so much.

The back is the only decent looking bit, though it's a little long. Probably I should walk around backwards more when I wear this.

Summary - it's off to the cutting bin with this one. At least I like the fabric enough to even want to save it.


Adjustments: I cut my usual size 38, omitted the neck closure since it was wide enough to pull over my head. That explains the strange un-utilized back seam. In future (if I ever make this again) I will shorten the hem 7cm (about 3 in) and perhaps change the front pleats to a single inverted box pleat.


Fabric:
A $10/yard lightly slubby cotton lawn. I wonder if this style might look better in a thicker fabric, say a jacquard?

The Pseudo-Complicated Front Knot Dress

And here I am popping my face into Blogland again...hi there!

 I've been awful about keeping up with this blog - excuses excuses, yes I know, but it's just gotten so BUSY around here. In the last three months I've submitted and defended my thesis (yay! glad to have gotten that behind me!), gone back to 'real' work yet again, and taken another postgraduate exam (it so doesn't end there), the results of which are still unknown. And of course there are always my two little munchkins at home whom I can never spend too much time with!

I wish I didn't need to sleep.

As far as sewing goes, it's not been too difficult snatching bits of sewing time here and there. The babies sleep occasionally, and since my left brain often shuts down some time before my eyes shut down, I'm rather partial to little bursts of late-night sewing. It's blogging that's the issue - it takes a surprising amount of effort to actually get a post up! *whine whine whine*

First things first.

Many thanks to Cation Designs for the Liebster Blog Award! You are too kind :)

The origins of the Award are murky but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany ('Liebster' means favorite or dearest) to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. According to award rules I'm to pass it on to five more blogs of note. But because I'm a brat, and a busy one at that, I don't follow too many blogs. And eh, most of those on my reader have way more than 200 followers. So I'm only passing this on to:

1. Far at Memoryseed - she was my very first friend at Burdastyle when the virtual sewing community was still new and strange to me (ok while no longer 'new', it's still 'strange' in many ways).

2. J at Making Mum - my favourite non-sewing blog. She's a mama extraordinaire who cooks up a storm, scraps, and photographs.


And with the housekeeping done I can talk about my new dress.

 Behold the pseudo-complicated wonder of Burda 03/2012 #108B!

I was totally cheapskate and waited for the pdf pattern rather than buying the mag, since it was the only thing I wanted to make from that issue. I realise that I actually prefer pdf patterns to the traditional tissue ones - sure, you have to cut and stick the printed ones up, but since my vintage patterns always need grading, and I'm loathe to cut into the multi-size modern ones, I always end up tracing the traditional ones out onto more tissue. No time saved there. And I enjoy the heft of printed-out patterns - they keep better and sit better on the fabric.

Is that just me?

The dress was really quite simple to make. I wanted the border of the voile to form the neckline, so I chopped the front piece into two right in the middle at the knot. After that it was easy to lay the neckline of the bodice and the hemline of the skirt on the border.

And since the pattern was originally for tall girls, I chopped 5 inches off the hem (yes I'm THAT short, stop rubbing it in!), and also made the armhole shorter? smaller? how do you say it? by 3/8 inch. Because I don't like armholes that show the top bits of my underwear. But that last alteration turned out to be unnecessary.

I didn't like the way the fabric slides up and down the knot hole in the middle. Ordinarily that wouldn't be an issue with this pattern, but because I'd made the bodice and skirt from two pieces, the midline seam didn't look too pretty peeping out of the hole. So I sewed the gap and the fabric shut. Unfortunately I must have done it weirdly, because the fabric does this strange bunching-up thing that makes me look unnecessarily pregnant. I'll have to rip and repeat.

 Of course I was also a total boob-head and forgot that the Burda patterns have NO SEAM ALLOWANCES, and of course I forgot to add any on my fabric. So after I did the yell-and-stamp-around-the-room-and-tug-at-my-hair thing, I sewed the thinnest 0.5cm hem I dared - two rows of stitching for strength and thank you SO much Mum for my serger!

 It turned out not too badly, although just the weensiest bit tight around the chest. Maybe I'll re-sew the gap in the front and give the dress to my sister. Then I'll have an excuse to make another for myself muahahaha! 


Question. 
While the embroidered border is certainly very sweet and all, do you think it's a little too girly? I'm not much of a girly-girl, and a picture like this just looks a little wrong, somehow (yes that's my bra-strap - stop lookin'! don't you wear one too):

I have the option of folding the scallopy bits in, to tone down the Girl Effect. Though that also ups the Cleavage Effect (rather obvious in this pic), and I do work in a conservative environment. Which is the two evils is lesser - the Girl Effect, or the Cleavage Effect?

Adjustments: I cut size 38 and chopped up the front dress piece into two at the slit so I had separate bodice and skirt pieces. Shortened hem by 5in and took up armholes by 3/8in (last was unnecessary).

I ended up doing strange things with the lining. The front bodice had to be lined, obviously, since the embroidery had little holes in it and I didn't want to put my boob-skin on public display. Since the lawn is a little sheer, I also started out by lining the skirt. But the extra layer of fabric wreaks havoc with the knot front - bunches and poufs out crazily, and generally makes me look ultra-pregnant. I cut away the lining at the front skirt, but was loathe to not line the back. So I ended up with a weird contralateral half slip - front bodice and back skirt lining!  

Fabric:
A $12/yard cotton-blend lawn with a lovely embroidered hem. It has just the right amount of body to keep its shape while still flowing nicely enough to cover up all my horrid lumps. I managed to squeeze this dress out of 1.5 yards of it - there was really nothing left over!

My VintageModern Design Challenge Entry

I toyed around a bit with the idea of entering the Indygo Junction x Burda's VintageModern Design Challenge. On one hand I'd wanted to join a contest of some sort this year just for the fun of it - it was even down on my Sewing Resolution List. Plus this one was actually feasible sounding - no entry barrier to internationals, and the potential to result in something I might see myself actually using. With my super-limited sewing time, I'm fiercely stuck on the admittedly narrow idea that I only sew directly useable things. After all, I got into this sewing thing because I: (1) need clothes, and (2) can't buy useable RTW. Not because I have lots of time to make corsets, costumes and frills to sit pretty in my wardrobe. Although my naive mind at the time failed to consider UFOs.

So anyway, I was a huge cheapskate and downloaded all the free e-patterns from Indygo Junction, and just sat on them for a couple of weeks.

I finally bit the bullet in mid-Feb, and told myself I'd make up that nice looking little Sateen Blouse, so that even if I didn't end up in the contest, I'd still have a template for some nice basics.

Was I so wrong.

Muslin #1 was made directly by following the directions on the printout, and showed me that either my measuring-my-own-body techniques are way off, or that women of the time wore REALLY, REALLY loose clothing. The thing was slipping off my shoulders - bleah! I had to hide that hideous thing at the bottom of my scrap pile to stop myself feeling guilty about wasting fabric. Yes, I know...it's a muslin, right? Made of 'scrap' fabric, right? Well mine was. But I can't make peace with the idea of wasting any sort of fabric, which explains why I'm being slowly overrun by tiny fabric scraps for that crazy quilt I'll never make. And so far, I've been able to use all my muslins for casual wear, or least for lounging about at home!

I made some major modifications to the blouse, took in the width by ~3 inches on each side, reduced the bat-winginess of the sleeves, and put in some darts. There. Muslin #2 wasn't bad at all.

And then I decided to kill myself by adding a little puffy skirt to the bodice, to make a dress.

I will admit that I was originally inspired by the great Mary Katrantzou's lampshade silhouette.

Why would anyone want to add inches to their hips, you ask?

I thought the same way at first, though the prints! the prints! how gorgeous art thou, oh prints! And in a bit the lampshade shape grew on me too. I found myself thinking about how I could bring the skirt up just above the umbilicus (that's bellybutton in normal-speak) to cover my yummy mummy tummy - of course I'd try to turn it into a way to cover up bits of myself I don't like, wouldn't I?

That lampshade thing was HELL. I started drafting one from scratch and of course it didn't work. THREE muslins and I was ready to tear my hair out (and also worship even more abjectly at Ms Katrantzou's pedestal)!

TWO WEEKS into the thing, I finally gave up the fight and decided on a skirt based loosely on Burda's Marie pattern, modified to look like one on a lady I saw on the train.

This is the final product. I used 1.7 metres of a mid-weight green quilting cotton that was on sale for $7/yard at Spotlight (yes, these are the sorts of 'sale prices' people in my parts are used to paying), one package of blue piping, and an 18inch invisible zipper for the centre back closure.

It doesn't look like awfully much of a dress, actually, does it?

I'm a little upset that the bodice creases and doesn't even fit me perfectly - I'm going to make excuses for myself and say that it's just difficult pinning fabric on yourself, as opposed to a dressform. But considering the time+blood+sweat+tears that went into drafting it, I'll still wear my dress out.

This is what it actually looks like all naked and beltless.

And this is the back. The print is a little busy to see, but I divided each back dart into two, and matched up the skirt and bodice darts. That took quite a lot of fiddling with too, since I'd already sewn up the bodice and had to fold and match the darts on my body.

Here's a close-up. The double darts really made the fit very good, though I couldn't line them up perfectly.

And here's a shot of the details on the sleeve and collar. The piping went in surprisingly quickly (or maybe I thought so because I'd already spent so much time on the other stuff!).

This is my favourite shot of the nude dress and I'm a little sad it's blurry. Mr Tropical was out on a run so it was just lil ol' me with the self-timer rushing for the deadline, and I just couldn't replicate the shot. Like my green Westwood x Melissas? :)

Oh, and in case you're wondering, my bangs are assymetrical ON PURPOSE. My nice hairdresser likes having fun with my hair whenever I visit, and this time I told her, 'I want a shave and assymetric bangs', envisioning Rihanna. But this sinusoidal fringe was what she came up with. It looks kinda like a pudding bowl, but I kinda like it. I think.

Darth Vader Prosperous Audacity

I wanted a dress to do the traditional visiting rounds in, for Chinese New Year. The traditional female dress for such occasions is the cheongsam. Well, this isn't a true cheongsam in that it isn't super tailored to my curves (I don't much want to show off the front curve anyway). Though I did make it a little oriental-inspired with the high collar and chinese knot (which I learnt how to do following multiple YouTube vids).

It's in auspicious red and orange colours, so it's very New Years-y indeed, never mind the Darth!! It was great, because all the non-traditional younger folk recognized him, and all the traditional old folk just thought it was a nice red auspicious dress. Hah!

I've never enjoyed New Year visiting - it's basically just going from house to house smiling stiffly, making small talk, and generally being respectful to seniors. It's not a meet-up at all, oh no. It's probably the modern equivalent of the victorian habit of 'making house calls'. But this year, I was giggling all the way - watching my kids receive their red packets from genial old people, while I strutted around the houses in my Darth dress, past all the open-mouthed youths who were too polite to comment (it's an asian thing). What ho!

This is made from an old bedsheet off Ebay which wasn't cheap. I loved the Darth and the colour though. It's very well used, so it's all washed and a little faded, though super comfy. Darth was all up the lower right corner of the sheet, with flames across the lower left corner, and his name splashed across the upper left corner. I had to cut off his saber to fit him on my dress (boohoo!). I used bits of his name across the collar, and the flames for the back. The button was a leftover yellow bit, and I used leather cording inside to make the button puffy and stiff.

The cut-out was just for fun. I'm on a run with the cut-outs!

There wasn't nearly enough to make the whole of the back, so I covered up with a bit of orange chiffon. It was my first attempt with chiffon - the slipperyness was scary, and not being able to rip the seams also bothered me somewhat. But I'm glad to say it turned out ok. Just ok, not great. I need more practice with the curves. And now I feel a little sad that I didn't make a bigger, sexier see-through panel! Grumph.

I used my trusty shift dress pattern for this again. I really like the way this fits on me, now that I've got it exactly the way I like. It hides many a flaw and is quick to sew, to boot. I'm in quite a dilemma now, actually - should I go for the 'signature style' thing, and make a wardrobe fill of shifts? I can think of literally a hundred different ways to sew this up. Or should I be brave, and challenge myself with another pattern, another material (KNITs! *shiver*)?

Here is the dress in action at First Aunt's house. I'm brandishing two mandarin oranges - the dialect word for them, 'kum', sounds like gold in the language. Yes, the Chinese are only concerned about money. Haha.

Birthday Hippo Dress

I'm a little belated in posting this, since I made this dress for the Big Bub's birthday in December! Eh eh, tardy as usual.

The Big Bub has been completely head-over-heels crazy about hippos since she was given a security blanket in the shape of one, when she was a wee thing. They're inseparable now, Hippo and she. He's even more precious to her than Mummy or Papa are!

I looked for ages for cute hippo fabric for the dress until I came across this Japanese linen. Not knowing what colour she would like, I bought half yards of pink, yellow and blue. Only the blue has been made up so far, though :)

I traced this off one of her existing dresses, adding a bit of ease to the sides because I was lazy to sew in a zipper. Come on, it's a lined dress (since I was afraid the linen would be scratchy) and I didn't want to deal with zipping up two layers! I think it was rather too much ease though, since quite baggy around the sides. But oh well, I guess she'll just be able to wear it for longer.

I made it in a drop-waist style, just because I thought it'd be cute. She wore it on her birthday weekend and was pleased as pleased. So I'm happy my efforts were appreciated! One little step to getting my girls to appreciate handmade (an uphill task considering the pervasive consumerist culture and easy availability of cheap stuff in these parts!).

Fabric:

1/2 yard of hippo print japanese linen. 1/2 yard of fine-wale corduroy, 3/4 metre of velvet ribbon, 2 vintage red buttons, 1/2 yard acetate lining, all from the stash. I have a serious problem with the size of my stash.

Little knot top

I fell in love with this fabric while poking around at Spotlight (my fave big-store haunt) for grommets. For some reason it was on the quilting clearance table for $6/metre. I can't imagine why such PRETTY fabric should have to go on clearance. Anyway, all the better for me :):) I snatched it up and out came the credit card. In my haste, I forgot about the grommets. Bleah.

This fabric takes honours as one of the few pieces I actually cut into within a week after purchase. It certainly wasn't a hasty decision - oh no! I thought about what I wanted to make a fair bit (a week's worth of travel time, shower time and dream time surely counts) but couldn't come up with anything better than a very simple top, because of the gorgeous pattern I wanted to showcase, and because there was only a metre of it.

Or maybe there's just a problem with my imagination.

The pattern was loosely on the top half of a shift dress pattern I already use. I had a grand time fitting and fitting the back darts to give it a bit of shape. I have quite a swayback, but I managed to make it fit quite well at the back (even Mr Tropical agreed!) so I'm proud of myself.

I also had to fit the back straps (on myself, since I haven't a dressform) with my bra on, to make sure they covered up the bra straps. That wasn't very difficult though.

I had to figure out the knotted-neck-hole thing myself. I was ambitious and wanted to line it and all with contrasting melon fabric, which turned out to be a bit too much for my low skillz - it doesn't sit flat, though it was a thin cotton fabric strip that I cut on the bias. But oh well, I think it looks okay.

I did take pics of the whole process so if anyone is interested in making a similar one (less the contrast strip, since mine turned out sucky) and wants to see my clunky inelegant method, let me know and I'll post.

I've worn this on a few casual outings already and really like it very much. My little bub loves pulling at the ribbon too :)


Fabric:

1 metre of mid-weight quilting cotton 'Happy Owl Petals' in melon from Spotlight. Originally $14.95/m, I got this at 30% off = $10.50. This is actually an ok-ish price to pay for cotton in these parts. Very slightly pricey, but I made an exception because I couldn't resist its cuteness! 

On a run with the shorts

Since the first pair fit pretty well and went together so fast, I was greedy and sewed up another pair :)

Really, I was completely powerless to resist the pull of that fabric. I mean, look at all those HORSES! I'm a huge sucker for 'subtle' prints. I love it whenthe garment is a solid colour or nondescript print from a distance, but when you get up close, ooh look! pink umbrellas in a storm! little men with hats! eyeballs!

It really makes my day when the person I've been talking to all of the last 20 minutes suddenly stops mid-sentence and goes, "Oh my! *gape* Are those small grenades you've got on your dress?"

Ha. I'm such a nerd.

Or maybe I should just stop living around blind people.

I was looking through my scrap bag for a contrasting-yet-matching piece to make the back pocket and button trim, and came across this nice scallop-y piece that reminded me of grassy plains.Just for the challenge, I made it puffy - this is my first try at a bit of quilting. The batting looked kinda thick at the start though, so I ripped it in two and only used a half thickness. I kinda regret being chicken now - I think that pocket could do with a leetle more puff!

The other thing I love about this pair is the vintage zip :) I got a bunch of them from some good-hearted eco soul who was ripping them out of old garments destined for the landfill. There, my good deed for the day :)

A curious thing I noticed is how my two pairs of shorts sit differently. The first pair is a really fine, soft corduroy, so it falls straight down. This pair is a mid-weight quilting cotton, a little stiffer and crisper than the corduroy, which make my bot look way perkier. I don't know if I like the look or not. And I haven't any idea what sort of sewing thing to do about it! Take in the sides? It'll become too tight. Taper the legs? I wouldn't be able to walk. Right?

Any ideas?

Fabric:

1 1/2 yard of mid-weight quilting cotton from Etsy, courtesy of a really nice Canadian lady. The pattern actually gets by fine with just 1 yard, but of course I needed that extra 1/2 yard just so I could be stupid and cut out a piece or two with the horses facing upside down.

Oh and if you would excuse the graffiti on my left arm. It's not a tattoo. I just couldn't find any paper when I was writing out my grocery list.

Oh yah, I have legs

I am so past the whole short-shorts-and-high-heels thing. No-one can pull that look off without looking skanky (yes, I'm in a catty mood).

I really want some shorts, though. My bubs are at the zoo-and-outdoor-walks age and I'm tramping around outside way too often. That's always a hot and moist exercise in these parts, and my mood isn't made better by my usual denim knee-length bermudas.

I need shorts.

As usual my rushed shopping jaunts left me severely depressed. Enough already with all those crack-y, cheek-y shorts! You fast-fashion bosses too cheap to give me an extra couple of inches of fabric for my 39.99?

So off I went in search for a pattern. And found this, #111 in my copy of the Burda mag 6/2011.

Yes, it's really basic. Nothing fancy, nothing too difficult. It did fit perfectly, though! And it went together like a dream. A week of free time, including drafting and sewing the scallops, and appliqueing the flower on - which for me is lightning speed. Here are the results:

I love the skirty-ness!

The scalloped hem!

The high waist! (I'm surprised it even works on my tum!)

The scalloping went ok, except I cut too close to the seams in some parts, before flipping out. There are a couple of frays at scallop-points already, so these shorts mightn't last too long *cries*
And because the fabric is thin, and I folded in the hem, you can see this ugly 'layer' on the front side, where the hem comes up to.
I also made a huge bunched-up mess in the scalloping on one of the inside leg seams. It doesn't show of course, but boy does it ever chafe my thigh. Bleh.

More close-ups, just because I'm happy:

The back pocket is a piece of sari silk I bought off Etsy a long time ago. The colours matched almost perfectly. Decided against two back pockets, so as not to look too busy around the derriere.

And I used the remaining bit of silk for an applique. I was anal as usual, so I both slip-stitched as well as top-stitched. Behold my abysmal top-stitching skills!

Oh yah, this was my first attempt at inserting an invisible zipper, and thanks to three or four Youtube vids and print tutorials, it turned out perfect. The first time! I'm so not afraid of invisible zippers anymore.

Overall, I'm really quite pleased with them. Although it's been so long since I wore going-out shorts as short as these, that I have to get used to showing my legs again!


Interesting fact: Ironically for Hubs and I labouring in the sunny garden shooting and shooting pics, the older bub got the best shot of all. She picked up the camera to play with, and I was racing across the grass to 'rescue' it when she clicked the button.


Adjustments:
I cut out a 38 (to make sure it fitted over my abnormally large tum), and instead of tapering it to a 36 at the bottom like I usually do, decided to go for the 'skirty' look instead. And I shortened the hem by an inch.


Fabric:
1 yard of really soft wine-coloured fine-wale corduroy. I snatched it up from the remnant table at Spotlight - only $3!

The Tropical Dilemma

It always happens around this time of the year.

Northern hemisphere winter = coats, coats, coats!
Every magazine and every style/shopping website is stuffed to the gills with delicious wools! nubbly tweeds! fluffy cashmeres! ooh!

iwantiwantiwantiwant!

But living in Singapore = no need for coats. Permanent summer, 'winter' temperature (Nov-Jan, around now) of 26 degC (80 degF)!

Augh. What is a girl to do?

Improvise, that’s what :)

I tried sewing up this coat pattern in summer-weight fabric. It was by far the most complicated garment I’ve tried. The ‘Easy’ label on the package is completely misleading - such a lot of pattern pieces, and a completely un-skippable lining! Hello Vogue patternists! What on earth were you thinking??

I originally intended for this chocolate broadcloth to be a muslin, but was too lazy to sew it up again so happy with how it turned out, that I thought this would be IT. Since I was hardworking and lined my muslin and all.

So I added blue top-stitching and rick-rack. I adore rick-rack! Although I've found precious few occasions to use it without looking juvenile.

Plus I dug out my precious baby-blue vintage buttons...which mysteriously faded in the sun/washing machine, after just one wash. Grr.

I could do with the brown being just a touch darker, and swingier, and drapier (i.e. generally a lot woollier), but eh... it didn’t turn out all that bad. I do rather like that back pleat :)

Adjustments:
Shortened the sleeves and hem by an inch, as usual. No round-tummy adjustment needed on this one.

Fabric:
Brown broadcloth and some thickish black acetate/polyesterish thing for the lining (it was $1.50/metre from a garment boutique, and the shop girl gave me a giant blank look when I asked her about the composition).