Obsessing Over: Woven Blouse "Tees"

After seeing it in Lucky a few months ago, I can't stop thinking about the shape of this JCrew brocade blouse.  It's so appealing to me because it's dressier than a knit tee, but less "office" than a button down:

While holiday shopping I saw it on sale at my local JCrew, but of course I couldn't buy it: the simplicity of its shape would make it oh-too-easy to sew.

It's suprisingly difficult to find a pattern matching this top's simple shape.  New Look 6808, View A, approximates the look:

 

The 3/4 sleeve version of McCall's 5661, which I've made before, comes close, though it's a bit too fitted.  I could leave out the back darts:

The best match may be to make a short, shirt version of the Burda dress I just made!

* * *

Did you receive any sewing swag from Santa?  My mother completely surprised me with a dressform!

I also received new notions in my stocking, and my aunt gave me "How to Use, Adapt, and Design Sewing Patterns" by Lee Hollohan.  It was a nice holiday, though it's also nice to be back home and back in the sewing room!

Carolina Herrera (fabric) Party Dress

It was a stressful week - this dress took hours to make! - but I was able to finish my Carolina Herrera (fabric)  Burda 03/2010 # 104 dress in time for the party Saturday.  I really love it!

The dress is meant to be essentially a pullover - the pattern's closure calls for only a loop and button - so it's supposed to be A-line and rather blousy in the back and middle.  I modified the shape significantly: I inserted back darts (see prior post)

Regarding the Happy Birthday balloon, I became further entrenched in the 30's by turning 31 on Sunday.

...and used a 12 inch invisible zipper instead of the loop and button (I had to add a 5/8" seam allowance to the back, and cut the pattern with a back seam), firstly because I didn't want to have to tug the rather delicate fabric over my head, but secondly, I took the bottom in so the skirt is more straight than A-line.  Because this made the dress more fitted, a zipper was definitely required. 

To counteract the still-present blousiness, I hemmed the dress pretty short.  I like the final effect of a less-fitted dress with a sexy short length.

Because I went luxe on the fabric, I had to go budget on the jewelry: the necklace is from one of my favorite accessory stores, Love 21, Forever 21's accessory-only sister store. 

I've bought pieces from that store, all <$10, that garner mad compliments!  Once, a lady at the airport asked if my necklace was from a foreign country.  I had to tell her the truth!

So my version is not as intricate as the dress Carolina Herrera made with this fabric:

Carolina Herrera, Spring 2011 RTW, from style.com

But hey, I think mine's allright, too.

* * *

I'm home in western Pennsylvania with my family for the week for Christmas.  Tonight I'm going to try a recipe for "Black Jack Gingerbread" recipe, which I found in my great-grandmother's recipe book that my Mom handed down to me last year. 

My grandmother, who had emigrated to the United States from England in the 1950's, must have brought it back with her at some point, and I'm so lucky to now have it.  It's a hand-written book full of traditional British recipes such as Sussex Potato Cheese Cakes, Christmas Pud, Breton Cake, Saint Catherine's Cakes, along with less-intriguing instructions for Minced Kidneys and Spanish Liver & Bacon (the addition of "tomato sauce" apparently makes it Spanish). 

I found a notation on the back that the recipe is Grammy Senior's recipe, so I think it's my great-great-grandmother's, or her grandmother's.  So cool! 

Then, it's off to the local dive bar for 25 cent wings...

Hoping that you're enjoying the holiday season!

Just Breathe, and Cut

Wow, it is scary cutting into $27/yard fabric.

I made sure to double-check, a few times, that all seams were lined up properly and.... cut. 

My cutting board, aka guest bed, and pattern weights, aka coasters and office miscellany. 

I'm working in a Christmas party dress from Carolina Herrera sheer copper fabric using Burda 03/2010 # 104 (downloadable on the website).

It is difficult to photograph this fabric, which has an embossed copper floral design over black netting.

This shape of this dress is so basic, but I have never sewn with Burda before, and because I don't know my size in this brand, I spent a long time tweaking the fit of my muslin.  I generally wear a size 12bust/14 hip in the Big 4, and determined that I'm a Burda 36.   Burda patterns do not include seam allowances, and I decided to add a 5/8" allowance rather than a 3/8" allowance as the pattern calls for.

I dropped the bust point down just slightly, by 2/8"; anal, perhaps, but it's an alteration that's just too easy not to do: draw a box around the bust point, and drop it down the length you need (for ex., here's a 1/2 inch):

I also added  darts to the back to remove excess fabric in that area.  As you can see below, the inspiration dress has back darts as well.

I did this by placing a blouse pattern that has back darts onto the Burda pattern, and tracing its darts onto the dress pattern.  (Yes, this is an alteration, beginner's style!  But it worked.)

I'm hoping to finish the dress - and my Christmas shopping - this week in time for a party Saturday!

Further Muslin Mayhem + Christmas Dress Planning

I'm having the worst time achieving a perfect fit on Vogue 1026.  After doing the FBA, I further scrutinized the fit and determined that while the bust width fits well, the chest or (perhaps cup?) area is too big: it is gaping rather seriously.  

Once I made little darts, tucking in the spare fabric, the area laid flat. 

The bodice needs to be raised a half inch as well - rather scandalous as is!

I tried to pinch out that fabric on the pattern, and made yet another muslin of the bodice, but this "alteration", if you can call it that, made the front bodice piece shorter, and it became too short to ease into the side bodice piece.  Argh.  Despite scouring Fit For Real People, I'm not yet sure how to fix this one.

Combined with the extra width at the waist (big thanks for your help on figuring that one out!), this project is becoming quite a pain.  I became stressed out and sad whenever I walked into my sewing room and saw the pile of fabric.

I'm going to have to put it aside for the meantime, because I have to make a Christmas dress for upcoming holiday events.  I had a pattern in mind, until I saw the Presserfoot.com ladies' idea for making this Milly dress with a Burda pattern:

I couldn't stop thinking about it!  I almost ordered the gold lace, but spotted this Carolina Herrera copper fabric at Emma One Sock, and fell in love.  The fabric's on its way.

This will be my first foray into sewing with Burda patterns.  I am concerned about sizing, and was even trepidatious about downloading and printing the pattern, but that process was painless.  The dress printed onto 25 pages (I used the backs of scrap paper) and the pieces are taped together matching numbers printed on each page.  So easy!

I'm first going to muslin this dress too, but with essentially only 2 pattern pieces, this one should be stress-free.  I hope?