Anise Sew-Along: Delayed until further notice

Dear readers,
I originally planned to join the Colette Anise Sew-Along!

I fell in love with Sarai's version. 

So, I planned to make my own version as well with the green wool below.

Oops - only 2.5 yards rather than the 4.5 3 and 3/8 yards the pattern calls for (ed.  oops!).

So, this project is (sadly) delayed until I find a fabric I'm equally in love with.  I am going to make a flowy skirt with the green wool from a self drafted pattern.

Has this ever happened to you?   True, I normally buy 2.5 yards when I'm out and about - I never think about 4 - 8 yards.  I guess I need an attitude adjustment while fabric shopping and stashing.

P.

Finally - Review Colette Violet #1015

Dear readers,

I apologize for the delay in blogging - I've had some family medical problems, coupled with an extremely busy work schedule involving five weeks of travel this fall!  Again, no excuses -  I finished this blouse early November, and I am just now getting around to blogging it.

Here is the creation, I darkened the hue to magnify the colors. . .

 First, I used my sloper to modify the pattern - which is very well executed.  The pattern directions are a dream.  The collar method was a bit different than I've used before for peter pan collars.  I made a mistake.

Yep.  As you can see below - the shirt contains no dart at the bustline.  My sloper is based on a princess seam.  I rotated the dart and added length at the bottom; unfortunately I measured incorrectly and the front was 1" shorter or more than the back.  So I took out the dart, leading to the blousey front as you see below!

Other than this - a wonderful pattern.  I must have been tired when I cut this.  I used Japanese linen blend fabric, and I will post a review on Pattern Review.

By the way, I went out to make some Home Dec. (yuck!) projects and found that holiday fabric was extremely scarce - I must have missed the rush!

Hope all is well and I hope to sew quite a bit more over the Holidays.  I have bought some amazing fabric on my travels and online and I'll tell you all about it!  In the meantime, I've been amazed by all of your creations!

Happy Holidays!

Colette Macaron Second Version Finished at Last!

Hello Readers!

I've finally finished the Colette Macaron - despite a blunder with my blind stitch hem this morning.

I'm fairly pleased with it.  I made it out of Echino Fabric (from the fabulous Sew-LA). . . which is a very thin cotton linen blend.  I took my time to make the dress - and I think the two mistakes I made were:  (1)  the upper band isn't totally straight (I'm thinking of re-attaching), and (2) the side with the invisible zipper doesn't match!

(Update:  Late morning day of post - the pictures on this blog convinced me to re-sew/re-attach the upper midriff band - it looks a lot better now!!). I've posted the pix below:

I did some new techniques on this dress - I stabilized the neck with silk ribbon and did the armholes the same way.  I lined the dress with a very thin high quality cotton - although I've had a hard time getting the lining perfect.

I topstitched both the neckline and sleeves because of the light weight quality of the fabric and lining - I couldn't get these areas to lay perfect despite a large amount of steaming and pressing. I even understitched, to no avail.  I believe the topstitching corrected this tendency of the fabric to roll.

Here is the side of the fabric where I actually matched the sides correctly.

I also bought a rolled hem foot and I LOVE IT!  I blindstitched the hem and then used the rolled foot on the lining - wow!  I need to perfect this technique but I really do like it.

I also used a cotton thread (rather than polyester) in sewing the rolled hem and I believe that helped!  Ah, the wonders of feet.

Finally, I include a picture of the garment on my dressform!

For the pattern review, click Here.

Progress on Macaron

Dear readers,

Yes! I've finally 90% done with the Macaron.

All I need to do is press and hem tomorrow!  

Here I am below lining up the skirt to the bodice. . .

Here, I actually took the time to line up 

and mark the straight lines so that the

waistline is seemingly straight. . . 

I am doing a quick lining.  Which means lining to the

neck and sleeve line.  So to reinforce the neckline and sleeves

I have not only used my lightweight interfacing but also

sewing in some silk ribbon I had bought "just in case" for this

project!  It has worked out wonderfully.  I also used the silk

ribbon to line invisible zipper to reinforce it.  

Of course, every project has its mistakes it seems.  Two of mine:  I couldn't figure out the lining!  For example, my last dress I lined easily - but now I remember that it has a back zipper - this dress has a side zipper.  I must have forgot how I did the lining on my other macaron!  

And, I made my usual error of cutting a hole in the lining by mistake, so I patched it on the inside with a good luck shamrock - it didn't alter the pattern, thankfully, and it does not show!  I have more to report when this is finished . . . . almost done!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. 

Macaron Again!

Dear readers!
I'm attempting to refine my sewing.  Hence, I am only completing the bodice and lining and working on precision.

This is the bodice to Colette Pattern Macaron.  Although I made it before I was not happy with the results!!  This is a basted version with a stitch size of 5.0.  It still fits well!

The skirt will be made of the material below:

It's a Japanese fabric called Echino (it's a linen cotton mix) that I bought from Sew-LA.

I am lining it - although the pattern doesn't call for it.  I chose a very light cotton material to line it.  It is very thin - so  hopefully it will work out well.

I am working to slowly fit the bodice and line the bodice (sleeveless) and I hope that this brings more precision to my work and more tailoring techniques.  I need to improve my technique! Today I plan to finish the bodice and lining and attach to the bodice only!  I am trying to slow down.

Finally, my dressform is exactly my size with the exception of the waist - which I padded.  Thanks P90X!   I am going to start working out for another 90 days of that program - so I guess it's conceivable I could get smaller than my dressform (oops!!).  I hope so:)

Colette Macaron Finally Finished!

Finally!  I finished the Colette Macaron on Sunday.

Really, the difficult part was putting the lining in and having to construct the dress with a fabric with squares on it (plaid-inspired).   Bottom line:  Love the pattern; initially, I didn't love the result - the lining was a bear - but today (the next day) I do like it much better. . .if I can look past the flaws....Colette Patterns did excellent drafting - it's my sewing skills that need improving.    Maybe I'll add a belt (like Gertie's Macaron ). . .or a thick belt . . .