Cute plaid top with back tie detail

Hi, I am Lucia. I am a fabricholic.
I still buy and buy but a sewn wardrobe is beginning to materialize, yay! Here is to keeping that up.

I have been a good girl lately and have been making good progress on all those UFO's you saw in my New Year's resolutions post. Two of the dresses are already finished. Hooray! By contrast, I have made very little progress on blogging the considerable backlog of garments from last year. Ug! My bottleneck is definitely the photo-making. The indoor photos are just appallingly bad and I don't get home early enough from work to still catch the daylight outside. Which leaves only the weekends. At least until the days get longer. Maybe I'll just have to do multiple garments in each photo session...

Anyway, today I want to show you a simple top in a pretty plaid print that I made last summer.

The pattern is Burda 08-2012-122. It is a very simple top, it doesn't even have darts! The only thing that makes it special is that scarf on the neckline that ties at back.

I made mine with french seams and bias binding at the armholes and it still went together very quickly. It does take a lot of fabric because of the scarf on the bias. I pieced the scarf differently from the pattern, with a diagonal seam to save fabric. I still made the scarf as long as I could. I always do this, as I love looooong scarves. But in this case I think it was a mistake because the scarf is heavy and it pulls the facing out. I had to take a few stitches to hold the facing in.

The fabric is a polyester georgette with a satin stripe and it does not wrinkle no matter what I do to it. Perfect for work! I do love the top, and I feel all chic walking around with that scarf at my back. But I have to tell you it is only for summer. That knot at the back is somewhat uncomfortable under a jacket and even a little when leaning back on a chair. But, come summer I'll wear it as much as I can.

My review of Burda 08-2012-122 is at Pattern Review.

A pussy bow blouse!

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

Burda 10-2010-118 blouse with Burda 01-2009-112 skirt

I am almost done with my spring SWAP! I have always wanted a pussy bow blouse, now I have one. This 100% silk georgette was my first luxurious purchase, definitely out of my price range as a grad student. But I couldn't resist the happy color mix and the great drape. When I spotted the perfect white silk organza to underline it I took it as a sign and bought both. Fifteen years later it finally gets to see the sun again as a pussy bow blouse!

Burda 10-2010-118 line drawing

I used Burda 10-2010-118 but I lengthened the neck scarf to be as long as my fabric allowed, to an extravagant 182cm. The bigger the pussy bow, the better :-) The entire blouse, including both sides of the scarf, are underlined with white silk organza, against transparency and for drape. 

This was my first time sewing silk georgette and I was terrified because of how slippery it is. But I just took my time carefully pinning pieces and especially carefully guiding the fabric under the presser foot, not letting it be pulled in the slightest. I loved doing this actually, I realized how much control one can have on the sewing and it was very enjoyable to handle the fabric in such a careful and yet firm way. In fact, because of this my seams in this blouse turned out better than previous seams in easier fabrics. How about that? I am actually improving! Practice does make perfect.

One more thing I tried with this blouse may be a bit unorthodox: many books and blogs will tell you that sleeves in knits can be set flat, before the underarm seam is sewn. I've never read an explanation for why this is okay with knits and not with wovens. I figured it is related to how stretchy knits are. Then I thought that since this georgette is also stretchy and since I couldn't bear the thought of trying to ease in a sleeve head in this georgette, I figured why not try the flat insertion method? So I did and it worked great! No puckers anywhere, no waving, just a great fitting sleeve. Is this heresy? Should I be ashamed and promise never to do it again?... until someone explains it to me, I'll just enjoy my silk blouse with perfect sleeves.

Finally, I am big on variations, and I love the fact that I can wear this blouse with the pussy bow or with a lower, looser knot. 

two ways to tie my blouse from Burda 10-2010-118

Ah yes, I almost forgot. I am now addicted to the Pattern Review contests, so I entered this top in the Natural Fibers Contest. That's three in a row!