First SWAP pair: Vogue 8751 pants and Vogue 7903 blouse

So here is the first outfit that I completed as part of my Stitchers' Guild 2014 SWAP plan. It's a silk blouse and wide leg trousers in a woolen herringbone.

The blouse is Vogue 7903 by Sandra Betzina and the trousers are Vogue 8751.

I have made this blouse before in the short sleeved version so I don't have anything new to say about the pattern. This time, my fabric is silk georgette and I didn't want it too fitted so I didn't make all six waist darts at front, I only made two. The only other change I made was bringing the shoulder point up by ±1cm (no change to the sleeve itself). Funny how different the same pattern looks when it is made in a totally different fabric!

The trousers, I first saw them on the lovely Ruth of Core Couture. After seeing hers, I immediately went and ordered this pattern, foolishly forgetting that she is much taller and leggier than I am. Once I was ready to start sewing them, I luckily realized that I needed to make a muslin to see how they fit my body type. Us pears, we cannot just wear any kind of trouser...

And indeed, from the muslin I decided that the pant legs were too wide for me. I tried on my favorite trousers for comparison and the legs are narrower by 8cm at the hem!

So that's what I did, tapered each side of each pant leg by 2cm giving me 8cm less all around and I do like the proportions better on my body shape.

Now here is the funny thing about this pattern. I typically have to make a 1.5cm swayback adjustment, but not with this pattern. I'm not sure why not, but the back looked perfect just "out of the box". I'm guessing that the yoke pattern pieces are somehow responsible, but I am not sure how exactly.

Anyway, I don't often wear pants because I haven't found many that fit, but this one does so it is a welcome addition to my wardrobe! Oh and my review of Vogue 8751 is here at Pattern Review.

My radiant orchid coat, Vogue 1321 by Donna Karan

My new coat has been done for a couple of weeks now, but it took me a long time to get all the photos done. And then another while to write this post. It's just that I am so proud of this one that I want to give you more details. I hope you won't mind the longer post and gazillion photos.

We begin with a first impression photo. Came out nice, no?

Please forgive the sunglasses, one of my superpowers is to always know precisely when to close my eyes just in time for the photo. After so many tries I just decided to give up and make use of camouflage. Mmmmmhh, that hem needs another good pressing...

Anyway, my fashion fabric is a wool knit that was felted in some way and then bonded to a much thinner and silkier knit at the back. Its thickness and the backing fabric give it a stiff drape. It falls in wide folds, standing away from the body. With the silky backing I can easily get in and out of the sleeves without needing a lining. It also means that I cannot use any fusible interfacing.

All of these qualities make this fabric perfect for Vogue 1321 by Donna Karan, a full-skirted coat with a dramatic collar.

Before cutting into my fabric I made a proper full body muslin. I didn't have any muslin fabric as thick and heavy as the actual fashion fabric, but the muslin could still tell me about the fit, even if not so much about the drape. And I am soooo glad that I did!

In the muslin I could see that the sleeves were too wide and there was too much fabric around the sleeve at the bodice and especially at the underarm. In fact you can see this also on the pattern photo, but because the model is so thin, she still looks stylish even with all that extra fabric around. Me? Probably not so much.

So I removed a total of 6cm from the sleeve, making it narrower all along its length. I divided the 6cm between the underarm piece and the front sleeve piece, 3cm each, parallel to the grainline.

Then I also raised the armhole by 6cm. I also redrew the armhole shapes to match both sides, on the bodice and the sleeve. This was not much change at all since the sleeves are not deeply set.

All the seams are lapped, including the darts on the bodice and on the collar. I had never sewn darts using lapped seams so I made some tests. Lucky for me since the dart point ended up with a gaping hole because the overlap becomes too small for the stitching to grab the underlayer. Nobody wants holes like that, and especially not on an attention grabbing collar! I first tried sewing a normal dart and then topstitching it, but it looked too raised compared to the lapped seams. So in the end I just didn't cut the dart all the way to the dart point as the instructions said to do. I stopped cutting ±5cm before the end point and voila, hole averted!

With all those lapped seams to mark and sew do you know what was my absolutely unmissable tool? A 5/8" gauge, homemade out of cardboard. Completely free and totally invaluable :-)

Except for my choice to narrow the sleeve, it is a rather easy coat to make. There is no interfacing, no shaping with heat and moisture, no lining and only two buttonholes (which you could omit if you decided not to make the sleeve tabs). It did take me forever to hide all those thread ends, but then the inside looks sooooo pretty and neat, doesn't it?

For the pockets I used some leftover silk charmeuse for a lovely feeling on my hands. I used an overlock thread chain to keep the pockets from flapping too far around.

OK. I've tortured you enough with all these details, so here are the three views of my coat. I'm really loving it. The color makes me happy, the collar is actually very nice against the wind and the wide skirt goes perfectly with all my full-skirted dresses.

I did have to rummage through my belt collection to find the longest possible belts since all that fabric requires quite a few more centimeters than usual. And this is not a coat you want to wear without a belt. Saying it looks shapeless doesn't fully describe the mess of fabric swinging all around.

I've submitted my review of Vogue 1321 by Donna Karan to Pattern Review.

BTW, tomorrow is the last day to sew for the Stitcher's Guild 2014 SWAP and this coat is only my second garment posted! Yup, I'm afraid I'm not going to make it... I've actually sewn 6 of the garments in my 2014 SWAP plan, but it is obviously not the full eleven. From the beginning I knew that SWAP was too ambitious for my skill level and speed, but you know what else I discovered? I got a bit bored. Bored of working with the same fabrics and color scheme, but also bored with knowing exactly what I was going to sew for the coming 3 months... I kept getting new ideas that I really wanted to get to, instead of these old ideas I had long time ago. So, I'm officially bowing out, though I will still try to post the rest of the garments I sewed for the SWAP. Here's a sneak preview. Thanks for reading!

Vogue 1117 by Michael Kors

OK, 2 posts in 4 days is hardly a "whirlwind of activity", but that's the speed for which I'm known I'm afraid. So without further ado, here is another dress I've been happily wearing for a few months already, I just hadn't blogged about it.

The pattern is Vogue 1117 by Michael Kors, and it was the last garment from my Spring 2012 SWAP, the one piece dress. I originally wanted the dress for that SWAP to be made using Vogue 8648, but I could never get rid of my worries about the side skirt pieces being on the bias, so I went with this gorgeous Michael Kors model instead.

Making this dress was a bit tricky because all the pleating is fiddly. I kept checking and double checking, and wouldn't you know it? In the end I still made a mistake! I ironed the pleats on the left skirt towards the top instead of towards the bottom as I had done on the right skirt, aaarghhhh!!! I only realized this once I had attached the skirt to the bodice and serged the seam closed. Ug. So I left it alone and have been wearing it like that quite happily thank you very much...

The truth is that what bothers me now the most is not the pleating mistake but the fact that this polyester blend is rather "spongy" and it makes the pleats stand out a bit too much. I think I may try again this dress in a tropical wool fabric or maybe even a nice cotton sateen where the pleats might behave better. But that's a bit nitpicking, actually. Until I make a version 2.0, I'm quite happy keeping v1.0 in my work clothes rotation.

My review of Vogue 1117 by Michael Kors is at Pattern Review.

Me and my McQueen

Hi, I am Lucia, I am a fabricholic. I buy and I buy and I never make anything. Here is to changing that!

Three weeks ago, in a moment of confusion, while browsing through Pattern Review, I signed up for my first ever contest: the Ready-to-Wear (RTW) Contest. You see, for my spring SWAP I had planned to make my poorman's version of one of those dreamy drapey Alexander McQueen's houndstooth dresses from 2009, so I figured, "Why not?". Two minutes later, with my heart still pounding in my chest I was sure my procrastinating and contrarian natures would take over and I would sew anything but. Miraculously though, the contest actually had its desired effect and I was super motivated. I even got the dress (my version is two-piece) and an additional black skirt done in time! Here is the official photo for the PR contest. I am the one on the left, obviously and not the creature with the ghostly pallor... (ahem!).

Me and my McQueen, Paco Peralta draped top and Burda 01-2009-112 skirt

Anyway, the top half is Paco Peralta's draped top which sewed like a dream. What a nicely drafted pattern. Even though I made a muslin I was finished in no time, with only three pieces. My fabric is heavier and less drapey than Paco recommends, but still the top falls very nicely. Here is my review for Paco's pattern in PR. I did insert the back zipper, but it wasn't necessary and I plan to omit it from now on because yes, I am definitely planning to make this top again.

Plus look how versatile Paco's top is, with so many ways to wear that neckline:

Paco Peralta's draped top, my favorite neckline variations

The skirt is Burda's 01-2009-112. For my houndstooth version I made the pocket flaps 1/2" bigger all around than the pattern calls for, echoing the bigger flaps in the real McQueen dress. Indeed I found that they were needed to bring some balance to the huge area of on-grain houndstooth pattern. Here is my review of the skirt in PR.

I liked the pattern of the Burda skirt so much that I decided to make the black skirt from my Spring SWAP also with this pattern. This time I left the pocket flaps out, I pegged it more and I added a kick pleat at back. Here is my review for the black skirt in PR. One of the reasons I always planned to make my version of the McQueen dress a two-piece is that I knew I would want to break up so much houndstooth. Here is the top with the black skirt. This is most likely how I will wear it to work: tucked in. Heresy?

Paco Peralta draped top and Burda 01-2009-112 skirt in black twill

Conclusion, this contest gave me soooo much energy that I think I might just enter another one. Thank you Pattern Review for being my catalyst! I have a couple of free days coming up and I was thinking of sewing up Donna Karan's Vogue 1250 anyway, so... why not join PR's The Best Pattern Contest? Why not indeed....