A White Ponte Cardigan Top

Not a knitter, I've been on the lookout for cardigan sewing patterns to try out for a while. I think right now I have 3 cardigan patterns which I fully intend to work on until I get my TNT (tried and true) pattern. I chose the Silhouette Patterns #311 Victoria Top to start off my cardigan TNT exploration, and as my 2nd top for the Essential Top Sew-A-Long.

Pattern: Silhouette Pattern #311 Victoria's Top

Sizing: 1-4 & 5w - 8w with Exclusive B, C & D cup sizing

Fabric: White ponte knit 

Notions: 6 pcs 7/8" thrifted pearl buttons and thread

This is my first Silhouette Patterns make, and I must say that it is very easy to follow! I purchased this pattern (along with 3 others) after attending a seminar by Peggy Sagers on Tissue Issues at the recent Sew Expo in Puyallup, WA.

 The pattern came with cup sizing for B, C and D. The measurement given were for finished garment measurement and include ease. Just like in the class, the patterns remind us to measure the circumference of several of our favorite blouses and use those numbers to select our sizes. I measured my favorite purple cotton cashmere cardigan, and chose to cut the size 6w for bust and tapered to 7w for the high hip. 

The fabric I used is a white ponte knit I got online from Vogue Fabrics a while back with the intention of making skirt/pants. So it is a nice beefier ponte i think, hence the stretchiness of this fabric is not the same as my RTW cotton cashmere cardigan. It has much way less stretch (something I only realized after the fact... I bet a more experienced sewist will notice this right off the bat). 

While I like the fit of my white ponte cardigan on the shoulder and bust and sleeves, it will benefit from an inch more fabric around the upper hips/tummy. This won't be necessary if I have used a different type of fabric, like a proper sweater knit fabric for instant, and not a white ponte knit :) I also had to recut my fabric for the collar. The pattern piece was too small and due to the less stretch, I was't able to force fit the original collar without a lot of puckering. I added 4 extra inch to the collar... Still look like the pattern envelop pic i think...

 p/s: it looks fine on the dress form, coz the dress form does not have my tummy. ;)

The pattern asked for 8 of 3/4 to 1 inch buttons, but I only had 6 of this pearl buttons. I left out the top 2 buttons and buttonholes.

This was also my very first self made buttoned up top, and my first using the overcast stitch. My machine is not so good on sewing a straight overcast without missing out on some stitches...  But still, I like it (the stitch). I don't like that the pattern show my overcast stitches on the top part (unbuttoned collar) though. If making this pattern again next time, I would leave it as it is if using a sweater knit where the stitches can disappear, or plan to cover it by adding ribbons.

I think this cardigan is too long on me. I would probably chop the bottom off just above the last button so that it will sit on my upper hip (i do have a short torso after all). Pictures below are with my tardy floral skirt from Vogue V1082 that I made for Faye's Carnival of Skirts Sew-A-Long. I haven't worn the skirt out yet since I have nothing to wear it with, but now I do! It's more fall color than spring though, but better late than never. At least now I have an outfit than just orphan pieces yeah? :)

Other than it is too long, I am not sure I like the shape/style on me. The collar and that the white ponte fabric made me feel like I'm wearing a shirt, and I don't like collared shirts. Hmmm... I am kinda worried that I might not want to wear this often. Such a pity tho since it is sooo easy to sew. We'll see how I feel when I make some tweaks to it later on...

This top achieved the following for me:
1) First buttoned down cardigan
2) Test towards finding my cardigan TNT
3) Something to wear with my floral skirt
4) Meet the gap for plain white tops in my wardrobe
5) Fabric stash busting? :)

:) Happy sewing!

2013 Refashion #4: Spring Silk Chiffon Blouse

Earlier today I completed my spring silk chiffon refashion. I can breathe easier now, and hopefully become more productive in the coming week for the remainder of the Essential Top Sew-A-Long that's concluding on April 7.

As a recap (previously blogged here):

The original garment was my 5-6 years old long dress from Zara Basic. It's silk chiffon, empire waisted with spaghetti straps and (originally) lined with acetate lining.

I wanted the look of View D, but without hem band, and short flutter sleeves (since I have to consider the available yardage here). For the sleeves, I used the pattern for View B's sleeves but left out the band. No need to accentuate my biceps with a band there methinks ;)

The pattern didn't come with pieces nor instructions for lining, so that added up to the time of thinking, plotting and whatnot (not including pattern resizing/alterations that came way before). I basically  just follow the instruction for adding the back bodice button placket.

 

Notice that the neckline gathers are not uniform? Bigger gathers on the right side (colored side) than the one on the left (white side)... Oh well... 

The collar is also not the same as the pattern. It's shorter/thinner, not  gathered and pieced with the back (loop-buttoned) section of the original garment.

The sleeve was 1) pieced - not enough fabric to cut as one, and 2) fully lined before attached to bodice.

Hemming was tricky since I had to hem the main fabric and lining together. I hide the hem stitching from showing on the outside by catching it to the lining side only... Kinda ripply no?

These shank buttons were thrifted, and was sewn onto a thrifted cardigan last year but I unpick them from the cardigan (the cardigan needs regular flat buttons). For the loops, I used the spaghetti strap of the original garment.

It fits "perfectly" enough (lol). In my book that means I feel comfy and not worry that my bits are unflattering-ly showcased. I would definitely be wearing this a lot. For the next make of this look, I would add more (will start with an inch) to the shoulder seams though to make space for the french seams.

Kinda thinking that white pants would be nice with this blouse... Maybe I can find one at the thrift store... I am going to make my very first cardigan top for my next 2013 Essential Top... More on this later.

;),
Far

p/s: Happy Easter to all who are observing the holiday :)

Linking on to Refashion Co-op, Recycled Fashion and Cation Design's March Stashbusting!

work in progress: essential top #1

I'm starting off my 2013 Essential Tops sew-a-long with a refashion project. Of course :)

I have the tendency of getting side tracked whenever I'm in front of the pc (i also read blogs on my phone and once a while on the kindle fire, but most of the time i have the Law & Order on that) so am trying to keep this short and simple.

Here is my old silk chiffon maxi?/sundress from Zara Basic. Last time I wore it was when I was 6 mths pregnant:

I've cut off the original acetate lining and used it when making one of my muslin parts for the Peony Pink M6702 top since the picture was taken.

Isn't the print very spring-y? It seems to have some of the Pantone's 2013 Spring Color in it IMO...

This is the pattern I'm working from:

The neckline would be like View D, except that there won't be gathers on the collar and I want to incorporate the back/button loops of the original dress on the back side of the new top collar. And adding more button loops by using the original strap which matches the existing button loops...

I am planning to incorporate some sort of a sleeve based on the pattern piece for View B's sleeve, but will omit the band. No hem band like View D either.

Needless to say I've cut and slashed and taped the pattern pieces so much to accommodate sections of the dress.

Fully lining it with silk lining since it's chiffon and sheer, so it's quite fiddly. No pattern for the lining, so after a lot of thinking, I basted the chiffon to the silk lining and treated them as one. Chiffon is  tough and time consuming. I might have to rethink my initial plan of sewing up all silk chiffons for this sew-a-long. Maybe sew something else after this and then go back to chiffons. We'll see.

Stay tuned. With some luck, I might get to finish the top later today... Man... This post is not that short and sweet is it?

Liebster Blog Award and 2013 Essential Top Sew-a-Long

Sometime last year two of my sewing blog pals, Faye (of Faye's Sewing Adventure) and Deborah (of the now inactive blog The Tropical Sewist), presented me with the Liebster Blog Award. Thank you so much!! I am a follower of Faye's blog since I gave birth to the Bean (before blog) and got to know Deb via Burdastyle (also before blog). I think both of them must have been my very first back and forth with sewing bloggers (I usually just read rather than comment before...). They have always been very kind and encouraging to me. :) 

Back then I was not familiar with blog awards and then my family moved from the midwest to WA, with moving stress, apartment hunting and so on, naturally I forgot to send back the award out to other "new" bloggers.

Fast forward to 2013, it has been almost (but not quite) a year since the awards from Faye and about a year from the Starting at the Top (Spring) Challenge sew-a-long that she organized. Alas, the challenge blog is no longer there, but I think we (the participants) all were quite productive during Faye's 2012 Top challenge. I know I was! I made 4 tops during the 2 weeks sew-a-long:

• #1: Spring Gingham Peplum Blouse (refashion project from a men's shirt)
• #2: Draped front neckline top (from pattern Vogue 1282, Donna Karan Collection)
• #3: My 3rd take of V1179 (My TNT, i converted this dress pattern into a top with long slim sleeves)
• #4: A franken-top, with contrast piping. Initially was supposed to be an anniversary dress, but the print of the fabric screamed murder at me, so I saved it by chopping it off and layering it with contrast red fabric. ;) Since then, the red fabric bleeds into the main fabric in the wash.... Hah.

Needless to say tops must be what I sew most, and love to sew most. I wear them with my thrifted pants/jeans/skirts. Since I have not mastered (and my last attempt to make some skirts during Faye's Carnival of Skirts came out short) le bottoms last year, I need more of these nice, pretty tops/blouses to be the highlight of my outfit come spring and summer (when I can no longer hide under my black down jacket...). Again, our kind and dear enabler (or fearsome leader?), indulged her own needs and mine (and yours?) when she announced her latest sew-a-long:

Faye's amazing new button!

Do I want and need color and excitement in my wardrobe? YESSS!

Do I feel that tops are mostly easy to make? YESSS! More so than bottoms, most definitely!

Do I think that sewing tops going to wake me up from sleepy sewing motivation? Judging by the pile of UFOs that recently piling up (and just mentioned in passing) of non-tops, OHHHH YESSSS!!!

If you feel the same way as I do, and want to join us in Faye's 2013 Essential Top Sew-A-Long that's starting this weekend, just click on the picture above (or the button I am adding to my side bar after this post) and it will take you to Faye's page and explanation. :)

Oh yeah, and back to the Liebster Blog award... I was googling the award and stumbled upon this post discussing its origin. It seems like there are many different ways that people do with the award, but I am just going to do as Faye and Deborah asked: 

Nominating 5 blogs that has less than 200 followers :) 

unknown source to credit...

So the following are the blogs I nominate for this Liebster Blog Awards, in no particular order ;)

• Liz - Haphazard Musings and Creations (Liz is a fashionista who probably never wears the same outfit in a month, let alone a week! In her blog she shares with us her knack of combining outfits (thrifted, non-thrifted, self made, etc etc), her food (she cooks!) and currently her new 1920s home revamping projects. I look forward to see her sewing room!!!)
• Ellen - Button Lover (Ellen is a geologist who migrated to Australia. I wonder if she faced immigration blues like I did? Anyways, she sews, a lot, and even has a pin-up apron pattern that she shares for FREE on her blog!)
• Njeri - The Cute Kipepeo (Njeri is a very very busy working mother of 1 son, who makes time to cultivate her love for card making, sewing and cooking. She shared some of her self-made cards on her blog, and gosh they are sooooo pretty!)
• Agy - Green Issues (Agy is another fellow refashion enthusiast who writes about green issues (of course) and concerns about environment, features other bloggers who shares the same refashioning interest, and now also runs upcycling workshops in her adopted country Singapore!)
• Sarah Liz - SarahLizSewStyle (Sarah Liz's blog is the latest blog I follow. She just started her blog in January, but she's been blogging diligently ever since! She documents her sewing experiments and shares with us her steps, and I can learn a lot just by following along her journey. She also shares with us her reading - currently sharing this 1928 styling guidelines book, which indeed drew a few LOLs from me, hehe)

There you go, 5 nominations from me. Maybe you ladies already received this award before, but that is not an impediment to accept this one. And on the same token, by no means that you have to accept even if you never received one. :) But if you do, I'd ask that you also nominate up to 5 new blogs (by "new" I am taking it to mean blogs that have not more than 200 followers. It will be a great opportunity for us to discover new blogs to read and find inspiration from, eh??? :)

Mucho love,

Far

MMM'12 Week 2 Recap

Here are pics of what I wore for week 2 of Me-Made-May 2012:

 

Click this to read re my MMM'12 pledge.

More MMM'12 group pictures on Flickr.

Old Refashion Revisited II: My First Project Ever

Day 8 of Me-Made-May 2012 challenge saw me wearing my very very first refashion ever! It was a t-shirt project, where I took a thrifted 2XLT men's long-sleeved cotton t-shirt, and made it into a top for me. However, the night before that I did make considerable tweaks on that original version.

Here is the original refashion that was done not quite 2 years ago:

Version 2010

It is longish (I wanted a tunic, so I retained the original t-shirt length), also retained the original round neck (with its neck bind), cut off the sleeves, and cut up the sleeves into strips that I then sew back onto the t-shirt's front in a swirly design. 

I did not come up with this idea though! I was just looking around online and stumbled on sewing and craft blogs (for the first time), and found this amazing tutorial by Suzannah of Adventures in Dressmaking (fyi she was blog swapping with Alli of One Pearl Button for this particular tutorial) and thought that since I had by then, during maternity leave, finally mustered enough bravado to tackle the sewing machine I should try it. The tutorial I mean.

It's quite a straight forward DIY project, so I think if you just click on the link above, read her how-tos, you'll get the gist of it and can go on your merry way. Which was what I did. 

I am not familiar with Anthropologie (still don't) but I get the benefit of seeing the pretty things from the many fabulous bloggers that get a lot of inspiration from them (and other fashion brands, especially now with people sharing on Pinterest). 

Anyways, I wanted a longer top and not a tank, and did not want the strips of t-shirt fabric to hang off my chest and tummy (errmm, I just gave birth at the time y'all. And 2 years on, I still feel the same re this).

Since my t-shirt strips curled up immediately after cutting (and my guess was of heavier/thicker cotton material than theirs), it gave me a different look and texture than what the tutorial and its inspiration top did, and an opportunity to have them (the sewn strips) stay closer to the t-shirt fabric (also because I sew in the middle of the strips instead of more to one side). A reminder though, a thicker t-shirt material means all those additional material sewn onto your front = heavier/warmer top.

You can of course further personalize your top when you decide what design you want to have. I tested a few variation (by pinning the fabric this and that way) before settling on what I considered the best for me. 

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So that was what it looked like when I made it back in 2010. I wore it often but mostly at home, or buried under down jacket and scarfs. The color of the t-shirt is what my mother will call poo color :) and being clueless re fit and proportion, the way I sew the sides, the length plus the weight of the top made me look like stuffed sausage or cylindrical... not flattering much.

The hubby was more hesitant when I told him I'm about to refashion my first refashion. More nostalgic and said that I should keep it for posterity. Hmmm? Say what? At least I think that was what he said. I said, okay I will just take pic of it for documentation and put it on this page :) Taraaaa...

I ripped out the neck binding, and just stitched down the opening. A much better frame for my face, and I can breathe better too. Would have done this sooner if I knew what was wrong....

Close up of neckline and the sewn up swirly strips:

I cut off the bottom/hem by 7 inches, and used all that fabric to make the bottom sides wider. It gives a better shape/proportion to my body.

Version 2012

And here is my pic for MMM'12 day 8! IMO an interesting, casual top....

 You can check out what the other MMM'12 participants put together on our Flickr group.

Old Refashion Revisited: My Favorite Top

<------------ I wore one of my very first refashions (but not my ultimate first) last week for the Me-Made-May 2012 challenge. It is my most favorite ones to wear, and I've worn it a lot of times. 

 

[I pledged to wear at least one me-made items per day for the month (made from scratch/refashioned item/accessories) and so far it has been great for me. I don't usually document what I wear or do, especially not on a daily basis, so this has been an exercise that require some sort of planning (and cooperation from the hubby to take the pictures :) ... I usually prefer to be the person behind the camera than in front of it...)]

I made this long time ago (probably sometime after the Bean was born, and he is turning 21 months old soon). 

Before:
A huge Ralph Lauren long sleeved t-shirt (super soft thick cotton knit) that I thrifted from Goodwill.

The t-shirt has a boat neck, and 2 gold marine buttons on each shoulder, which I took out to keep.

Back then bib/ruffled top like this was everywhere, and I think I stumbled upon this great pictorial tutorial from which inspiration my version was then given birth to. :)

What I did:
I cut off my t-shirt's sleeves, and used the fabric from that to make my ruffles just as the tutorial instruct us to. I had enough to make 3 rows of ruffles from the sleeves. I wanted a bigger ruffled bib than the one made in the tutorial and its inspiration top (I don't want it to jut out off my chest) and always love the green-brown combo, so I used a thrifted weaved cotton pre-made ruffles (it's actually like a pre-made pre-packaged bias strip, but it has sewn in ruffles on the other end) for my middle and last row (as in my pic above). I have wooden buttons from my stash - used them to replace the original gold buttons on the shoulders to round up the look, since I wanted to keep the original neck detailing there. I finish off my armholes by binding it with the remainder of the brown ruffles (I ripped out the ruffles part).

So that was how my favorite refashioned top came to life. Thought that I'd share it here and link to the great tutorial that I found. :)

MMM'12 Week 1 recap & Thrifty Find

Above are my week 1 Me-Made-May 2012 (my pledge) outfit recap. Click each pics for the corresponding blogposts.

 

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Thrifty Find - Embroidered Clutch Bag

Pinned on one of my bulletin boards is this embroidered clutch bag. I had it for the past 2 years at least and I just love to look at it... It is approx. 4" (H) x 6" (L) x 2" (W), deep orange shades embroidery on what once must have been white satin (now look like tea stained, or merely yellowed a bit).

Purchased at my favorite thrift store for just $2, it has a mirror in it, and space to put lipstick, and some moolah. Can even fit in your mobile phone is so desired, but it has to be one of the smaller ones though.

Both sides of the bag are embroidered with different motifs. The right picture is too yellow than it actually is, no thanks to my tinkering around on Picasa today...

I've never used it as a bag before (i usually carry a huge carryall), and so it's been my constant eye-candy/inspiration :)

So that's it. :) Just thought that the ladies at




would enjoy the pics of my treasured thrifty find...