A Caftan Top

The Vogue 1181 misses' caftan that I converted into a top is completed. Working with silk charmeuse has been super tricky and the thing unraveled on me on quite a few occasion (the bottom part before it finally got hemmed). 

This was a slow project for me because of that (and the fact that the 20 mth-old Bean likes to climb on my chair while I work, or pull things off the table), despite it being an okay  to follow pattern. I think it probably took me a week at least, eversince the conclusion of Faye's Starting at the Top Challenge 2012.

As the pattern sleeve describes, this top have overarm dart, front opening and shaped middle section. I left out sewing hook and eye for the opening closure, hence the gaping at the neck. I am going to test wearing it this way with a tank top underneath of course and see if I am going to need a closure or leave it as it is. Either way is good of course, but with such a print, it is going to closely resembles my Malay traditional dress too much and I want a more casual easy breezy type top in this project.

Front view:

The caftan looks like the pattern sleeve IMO, other than the fact I left out the bottom panel and adjusted the middle panel. It now falls around my upper hips I think.

Back view:

So... :) One more top to wear in May for the Me-Made-May'12 thankfully...
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added:
Verdict is that I will sew the hook and eye at the top of the opening as suggested by pattern. It's such a hassle without :)

My test V1250 dress

Earlier this week I was able to finally be done with hemming my 1st version of Vogue 1250 dress. I used a thrifted jersey type fabric I have in my stash for the project, it's brown with cream colored roses.

V1250 has only 3 pattern pieces, so it should be easy right? Ha ha. :) The pieces are 1) front & back, 2) back neck facing and 3) upper back. I cut a size 14 for the upper back and the armhole of front and back pieces, however I added 3 inches to the middle of the front and back by pivoting and sliding.

The thing is, whenever I buy RTW (ready-to-wear) clothes in the past, things never fit me right. If it fits great on the shoulder it means it's too small over my bust, and so on. Sewing for myself means I am able to have clothes that fit me better, in fabric I like, and patterns and shapes that flatter me better than RTW. And hopefully with better quality finishing than the RTWs. I'm still learning re fit. I think i'm not progressing as much on that, but maybe once i'm done wanting to sew a lot of "basics"(Right now I'm into making loose outfit that fits great on my shoulder and bust and then flow over my tummy - a problem area that I need to work A LOT on post c-sect.), i will then progress into accomplishing better fit by attempting different silhouettes...

This version will be worn with a belt definitely. For my next version (yes, there will be next versions, the first one probably in black - i still have tonnes of the black ponte knit!!!), I will change up the pattern by separating the front and back as that will work better for me rather than the original pattern that has the front and lower back in one fabric piece. (those who has worked on this pattern will know what I'm talking about re the pattern pieces for this. sorry, i don't have the pics to show what i mean...)

This weekend I am going to work on my wool knit fabric... Winter will end soon so I better get cracking (However, as I am typing this, it started snowing out there! hehehe)

Linking up my dress @:

Gratifying sewing - V1179 part deux

After patchwork sewing for days on end I was super ready to sew clothes for me! Didn't want to mess with having to make muslin, I settled on V1179, a pattern I made before. It did took me the 3rd day to finish it though. Didn't do anything on the second day coz being hogged by the little Bean and was too tired. Sure glad to be able to work on it a lot yesterday.

I use my stash of black ponte de roma knit (still have probably 5-6 yards left! no problem,i have a lot of patterns to try and a girl needs lots of black outfits.. at least this one does since she (moi) is building her own handmade wardrobe from scratch...). I added a long tapered sleeves, and made sure that the inside is as neat as the outside as possible. A lot of topstitching. .

I also made the cowl collar thicker, i like the snood look. Also, i stitched down the pleat at the chest a little, i think I read that this was what Carolyn of Diary of a Sewing Fanatic did too? My first version i just basted and let em out as per pattern instruction/picture on packet, and i liked the look, decided to try stitching for this one, and liked it too.

Haven't worn it yet, so here's photo of it on hanger:

This V1179 is definitely a pattern that I can make more and more of! However, for the sake of learning, i will attempt other shapes... :) Another dress or 2 i think. After all it's the holiday season,hehehe...

Vogue 1261 - view B

I'm a slow worker. It took me 5 hours to cut the fabric for this project. Then abandoned this project for 2 days. And then spent the whole afternoon and night of Saturday sewing this. Why it took me this long? Because I decided to work while watching all the episodes and seasons of Say Yes to the Dress that are available on Netflix, and the latest Project Runway on their website (we don't have cable). And got distracted big time. That's why.

But it's all done. And I wore it the next afternoon on Sunday - impromptu picnic with my family at the park.

About the tunic:

Pattern: Vogue 1261 - I made View B (the white tunic with cowl collar).

I decided to just cut the pattern size 16 after adding 3 inches to the length. When I cut the fabric, I added 2 inches to the abdomen area to by sliding and pivoting... I didn't make any muslin this time...

Fabric: Black ponte knit from FabricMart.com. (Still have at least 8 yards left)

Notions: 2mm twin needle & 2 1/2 yds of black ribbons (i used 5/8" rayon ribbons that was meant for seam/hem finishing from my stash that I got from thrift store). The ribbons to be used for the back seam for decorative purposes like so:------------------------------------>

The black ponte knit I used made the tunic feel nice and warm as it is a little heavier than cotton jersey and such. The tunic does look like the pattern picture even though in black it's difficult to capture the details in photo.

detail on the shoulder-sleeves seam

However, I think I needed a smaller size for my shoulder (and I will alter that part in my future version if I make any), but the chest and so on fits me well. I even like how the sleeves fits me, just not the shoulder. I still need to learn more about fitting obviously. I will also take out the 3 inches that I added to the length. Current length made me look shorter. I didn't mind the 2 extra inches that I added to the abdomen area. But next version I will can leave this out.

Ribbon detailing on the back seam

The cowl collar turned into mini hood! (who knew) Next time I will make this collar deeper, so that I can have the hood covering my whole head. Good for windy days...

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Until the next project!

Completed - DKNY Vogue 1179

me in silly hat

Hello! Here it is, my very first from-scratch knit dress all done, worn (trip to do our groceries and Goodwill - I lead such exciting life, yawn) and laundered.

I actually completed the dress very very early Tuesday morning (which is why the hemming is atrocious, but I can live with that for my very first knit attempt).

The pattern V1179 is very easy to follow, very beginner friendly (and just 3 pattern pieces) and I can see myself making more of this (I do have 10 yds of black ponte knit I bought from FabricMart.com recently!) in near future.

I first saw this dress on the Sewing Fanatic blog and thought that it looked great on the author, and subsequently saw a few other equally lovely versions around the blog world. So, when I stumbled across the recent BMV sale (i wasn't a member or anything, so I probably found this out from one of the blogs i read, or saw the ad somewhere) I had to have it (and 11 other patterns :( ) For someone who has only started, i have a huge stash of patterns (i haven't count them though, but believe me, it's a lot, like at least close to 50). Most of them I got for a quarter each at my favorite local thrift store (this is my favorite thing about US: thrift stores! we don't have them back in Malaysia).

Anyways, I think I follow the instructions okay, although I made some judgement call on the order of things. And I also added some stay tape on the neckline. I don't think the pattern ask you to, but i read that some others thought that it needed it and my heavy knit fabric sure does.

The fabric i used for this dress was from my stash. The color is very light yellow with bluish gray swirls, kinda look like lollipop i suppose, but it's not. I can't remember what type of knit it is (probably poly with lycra?) but it has a heavy drape. I did not fancy it as fabric when it arrived (bought this from Fabric.com a year ago along with lots of very very nice quilting cottons) and my thought was to use this as a muslin (since i never sewn knits before) but I like it okay as a finished garment. :D

Eventhough it is now fall and midwest winter is harsh, I can see me wearing it year round. I am all for layering anyways (unfortunately I still manage to feel a bit cold in the summer too!), and winter just means more layers for me.

So there. It took me days to finally put this up - the taking pictures part is my problem. But I did say i want to have a space to "document" my projects. I want to have a blog for a lot of reasons but i don't want people I know in real life to see it. That's silly i guess, what with Facebook and all the other social networking thing we got. But if I can, I'm keeping them separate.

Anyways, thing is, I have a bunch of projects going on in my head at a time, so once I'm done with one thing, I go straight into another. Right now I'm working on what I can consider as my winter staple: sweater dresses. I realise that when I was working, I practically live in the 2 sweater dresses that i had (but since I wore my down jacket even indoors at my desk in my office it didn't matter if i wear them everyweek), I know that this year I definitely have to make some. But that will be for another post.

Till then!