June Capsule Contest and Great Finds

I decided to join the June Capsule contest on Stitcher's Guild. One of the reasons being that I need a pair of nice summer pants and the second reason that I need garments that coordinate.

Here are the rules of the contest:
The contest will run June 1 - June 30.

Rules:

1. The capsule will consist of four garments and one accessory (purse, belt, headband, jewellery, etc). One of the garments must be a top, one must be a bottom, all the tops must co-ordinate with all the bottoms and the accessory must co-ordinate with them all.

2. One of the items can be purchased and one can be made before June.

3. All the other items must be sewn, knitted, crafted etc during June.

4. Twist: no black items.

5. Everyone who tells me they want to enter the contest and makes at least one item can vote on the winner.

6. At the end of the contest people can send me photos and I'll post them in sets on Flickr. We should have four photos - one showing all the garments (composite or hanging or whatever) and three of the wearer modelling the items. No flat photos of the clothes please.

Here's are my fabrics for the contest:



I'll be making pants (bottom fabric) from off-white stretch cotton; and 3 tops. I haven't chosen the patterns yet.

Click here for the official thread.



I did some unintentional fabric shopping this week. One of my favourite stores also sells bolt remnants by kilogram. These are usually plain knits wonderful for T-shirts, but sometimes dull and in strange colours.
Well this week, they had these wonderful prints and I bought a few.

These are small pieces from 60cm to 1m (0.6 yards to 1.1 yard):



But these ones are huge. The largest is about 3m (3.3 yards) and they were super cheap:




These will make wonderful dresses, won't they?

This weekend will be my last weekend studying; after that I'll be free. I can already hear my machines calling me.

Happy sewing everyone!

Lesson Learned

Lesson Learned:

Yesterday, we had a party at my office as it was one year since our stores opened. As usually, I had nothing appropriate to wear. After I decided on the pants and shoes, finding the appropriate top became a mission. At 6 o'clock PM (I had to leave home at 9), I decided to sew the sleeveless version of the Burda WOF Twist top. I've made this top before, I should be able to make it again in three hours. Well, apparently sewing under pressure is something I need yet to master. Everything went well, until it was 8:30 and I still needed to hem the top and finish the sleeves (not to mention shower, put make-up on, etc.).
I decided to do the lettuce edge on the hem - looks nice, it's fast. It worked well. I tried to do the same on the sleeves but it looked awful. In a panic, I decided to trim off the lettuce edge, leave it unfinished and finish it the next day. Here comes the lesson: don't use shears in a hurry and a panic. I trimmed off too much and made a complete and utter mess: gaping and uneven armholes, reveling seams and fabric; you name it.

As it was time to leave, I put on a RTW top and a jacket. The funny thing is that I spent an entire evening outside with my jacket on. If I had known that before I would've saved myself a lot of nerves and fabric. Oh well....

Closet Cleanout

It is that time of the year when I usually take everything that has accumulated in my closet out, go through it with a critical eye and put everything in three piles: 'keepers', 'menders' and 'never-use-never-will' pile.

Ever since I started working in a clothing store my wardrobe became full of RTW pieces. Part of the problem is that my job requires me to wear clothes from our store. And since the store I work in sells mainly casual clothes, my work wardrobe is very casual - mainly jeans and T-shirts.
The other reasons for my wardrobe expansion are employee discount and sales.

So, after dividing everything into three piles, I assessed everything that was in the 'keepers' pile and realized the following:

CASUAL CLOTHES:
jeans - I have plenty - I get two pairs of jeans for free from my company every season
T-shirts - have enough
sweatsuit alternative (both tops and bottoms) - enough - I usually spend weekends and my free time in nature or doing somethings sporty, so I need and use plenty of casual wear
shorts - have a sufficient number
skirts - three
dresses - I have one single beach dress
outerwear - could use more, but it's not a priority


NICE CLOTHES:
In this group belong clothes appropriate for office work, interviews, parties, special occasions and events, etc. Basically everything that is not casual.
Now here I have a huge problem.

tops - I have two tops that could pass as appropriate
pants - one pair of winter pants
dresses - none
skirts - none
outerwear - one black winter coat

Quite bad, right?

My current job doesn't require nice clothes, but every now and then an occasion or event comes up where I need something nice to wear and then I sadly realize that I do own the perfect dress for the occasion, but it's still waiting to be sewn.

I need to focus on sewing nice clothes and I need a plan. I also decided to sew outfits instead of single garment pieces. That is because when I sew an individual garment, I have nothing to wear it with, so the poor thing just hangs in my closet waiting for better days.

I'm still working on a plan. I probably won't be able to focus on it until beginning of June due to my work and studies; but then I'll definitely start building a better, more functional wardrobe that won't allow me to find myself in one of those 'I-have-nothing-to-wear' situations.


I'm leaving you with a photo of a tulip I took on an annual tulip exhibition I visited recently:

Jalie 2682

I haven't completed a project in over a year. So this would be my comeback :-)

Jalie 2682





Pattern Description: From Jalie's web-site: Stylish V-neck top, raised neckline at back, with or without sleeves. View A has a zipper at front neckline for more coverage.
I made view B without sleeves.

Pattern Sizing: I started with size R, but ended up taking in a lot.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I love everything about this top, especially the neckline.

Fabric Used: Green jersey.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made: First I made a muslin and the top came out too big; not comfy big, but BIG. The only place it fitted right was across my chest. Since the fabric I used was thin and more on the fancy side and I also prefer my tops more fitted, I ended up taking over 3cm (= 1.2 inches) at the sides, but only on the lower parts, not the bodice. I also took in a little on back bodice part as well. If I were making it in a different fabric, especially thicker one, I wouldn't have taken in so much.

Second alteration I made was I lowered the bodice seams by 1.5cm (=0.6 inches) because with the original pattern, the seam came up too high on my bust. Naturally, I had to lower the back bodice seam also to keep seams in balance.

One thing I also noticed with the muslin was that serged seams came out too bulky, especially the ones between the bodices and the lower parts of the top. So I decided not to use my serger and sew the seams with my SM. I presses the seams flat and as you can see on the pics there are no bulky seams anywhere.

More pics:

Side view:


Back view:


Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Yes and yes. This just became one of my favourite patterns and I will definitely make it again.

Conclusion: As I said, I fell in love with this pattern. If you're looking for a quick and easy top that looks fab, this is the pattern you're looking for. And the best thing about it is that you can dress it up or down depending on the fabric you choose.
Big thanks to Leslie in Austin for sending me this pattern.