A Quick Post for a Quickie Top: Burda 130c

I took an inventory of my wardrobe recently, with disconcerting results: I have no clothes.

Ok, so maybe that's an overstatement. (I do write a sewing blog, after all ;) )

What I should say is that I have I have a lot of eveningwear, a lot of jeans and pajamas, and a bunch of school uniforms. But I'm missing interesting, casual garments for wearing around on a daily basis, which is problematic, since I'm going to college next year and that's all I'm going to be wearing.

So I'm making shirts!

This is the first time I've used a Burda pattern, and overall it was a pretty good experience. The actual pattern was easier to put together than the Lekala one I just tried. The instructions weren't as detailed as a Vogue pattern, but the shirt was simple enough that I didn't have trouble putting it together.

 

The pattern is #130c from the Burdastyle website published on 02/2014, "Long Sleeved Keyhole Top". (I'm not quite sure how to refer to Burda patterns by number. Do I use the edition date or the number next to it? Is there a convention?)

The fabric is a stretch jersey from the stash. It was originally navy blue, but my mom and dyed it (and by dying, I mean throwing it in a tub full of purple water and salt, crossing our fingers, and being delighted to realize it came out slightly purpler than it went in!).

The only alteration I made was on the strap (the piece that is attached to the back neckline and threads through the front piece). The pattern called for it to be gathered to 4 inches, but I gathered it down to 2-3 inches so that it would connect to the neckline farther to the back of the garment, making the cool neck detail more obvious. Oh, and the sleeves were WAY too long, but I decided to gather the bottom section instead of lopping them off.

So for about 2 half-days of sewing, I have a new shirt. Not too shabby!

A New Twist on the Turtleneck (and my first Lekala Pattern)

This started off with good intentions, I promise.

I wanted my next project to be something easy, simple, wearable. A top that I could actually put on on a daily basis.

But all that went down the drain as soon as I remembered about Lekala patterns.

I learned about Lekala only a little while ago when Anne from The Clothing Engineer made a really neat sweater from one of their patterns. Lekala is a Russian pattern company that--get this--generates customized, pre-fitted patterns based on the measurements that you input! Their patterns are bought and sold entirely online. You order in through their website and soon thereafter are emailed a PDF pattern that you print and assemble yourself.







The first time I went on the Lekala website to browse oggle, I was immediately drawn to this.

Lekala #5217, a draped wrap dress.

What a pattern! I love high necklines paired with big shoulders, and this dress takes it to the next level with horizontal pleating that creates a ribbed effect.







The thing is, I'm not in the market for another dress right now. What I did need, was a shirt. I decided to cut the pattern off at the waist and get rid of the pleated draping across the chest to create a seriously funky top.

Thus was conceived the most complicated black turtleneck anyone has ever aspired to!

Sunset Dress

It's summer! And as you can probably tell from the setting of my most recent blog posts, I'm enjoying it.

I love summer sunsets. The quality of the light in the late, late afternoon, when the sun has mellowed out from its bleached, midday glare but is still powerful enough to drench everything in a rich, coppery glow, has this beautiful, latent energy that reminds me why I look forward to summer so much.

That was the inspiration for this dress.

My fabric

I remember being hesitant about buying this piece, because I have an automatic (and, I know, undeserved) bias against orange fabric. I don't really find orange a pretty color, and I can't imagine that as a color family it goes well with my skin tone, and it just seems a counterintuitive choice. And yet I keep finding myself drawn to orange textiles.Orange is a very rich color, especially when mixed with other shades, like gold or magenta, when it can take on the natural, luminescent gradient of the sunset.

As you can see along the fraying edge, this gentle tangerine color is created by weaving orange threads in one direction and yellow threads in the other.

This specific fabric is an orange chiffon. It's delicate, but resilient at the same time. The threads are interlocked so loosely that the fabric had the tendency to snag or leave visible holes if I had to remove a seam, but by gently massaging it I was able to pull the threads back into place and it looked as good as new.

The fabric is composed of two different colored threads running opposite directions, which give the textile a beautiful multi-hued sheen. Depending on the angle at which you view it, it can appear fiery dark orange or shiny yellow. It makes the color (and the slight sine of the textile) very dynamic.

The orange chiffon with the lining fabric under it

After buying this fabric, the design of the dress fell miraculously into place. I was driving home with about three new textiles to add to my stash, none of which I had a very good idea what I would do with, and discontent with having beautiful unassigned fabric, so I dreamed up an ideal garment to go along with my orange chiffon.

Anna Sui in Time for Summer

I know summer has started...

...when I have time to sew again!

Welcome to my first project of the summer! Even if it's a blouse that I've been imagining for a good year and whose commencement dates back to before APs...(how tragic!).

Well I'm finally done with school, tests, and don't have to think about summer reading for a solid two months, which means that I'm going to be pumping out garments for the rest of summer!

CHECK OUT THIS CRAZY FABRIC

The first time I picked up this fabric, I said to myself, "This is kind of tacky but it's soooo cooooool." Well you should have been there to see it folks, because that is a once-in-a-lifetime-statement from Anelise Newman whose attitude is usually more like

Polka Dots and Matchy-Matchy

There's this term I've picked up from Project Runway. It's called matchy-matchy and it refers to when your garment, or your accessories, are excessively color-coordinated to the point of--

Well, that's the problem. I've never really comprehended the perils of matchy-matchy. (That period in middle school when I refused to coordinate my knee-length shorts and baggy T-shirts, doesn't count.)

Why does perfect coordination appeal to me so much? A few reasons.

1) I've been brainwashed by my mother. Haven't you ever been told that you are not allowed to walk out of the house until you rectify the color discrepancies in your outfit?

2) To me there's something glamorous about having a perfectly coordinated outfit. It's much easier to find accessories that clash than accessories that match. It takes consideration to pull together an ensemble with perfectly aligning elements.

3) The surest way to produce a flawlessly coordinated outfit--styles, fabrics, even the smallest details like beading and thread color--is to make it yourself!

I did not originally design these pieces as an ensemble. I made this blouse last summer not because I fell in love with the design, not because I was launching a crusade to redefine the polo shirt for uniform purposes, but for the boring and indefensible reason that I needed a new shirt. :/

I found this fabric at <3 you guessed it Mood! My camera really has not done justice to its color.

It's bright turquoise cotton; the polka dots have texture, as if they are sewn into the fabric or ironed on, not printed. I like that it's playful and yet ordered at the same time--it's got a lively color and quirky polka-dots, and yet the pattern is made up of uniform shapes in a linear arrangement. I wanted to mirror that dichotomy in the pattern I chose.

Sparkly Springtime Separates

There's this event at my school called Founders' Day. It's this big schoolwide ceremony that is deemed so important that the students are instructed to forsake their uniforms in favor of semi-formal "mass dress".

Lots of people "hate" Founders Day, because we get out late and you have to sit through an outside mass with all its unpredictable weather. I pretend no such reserve. If I can wear something I've made to school, I'm sold!



I realized two days before Founders' Day that the garment I had been planning on wearing instead was asking to be stopped by the deans on account of "modesty". Under other circumstances I might have braved spaghetti straps, but not bright yellow ones.

Here's a conversation between me and mom about this grave issue.

Me: My yellow Cynthia Rowley dress won't work, it's got exposed shoulders and it's too short.
Mom: What are you going to wear, then?
Me: Um, that sparkly green Anna Sui blouse.
Mom: *Gasp* You have fabric to make a skirt to go with that! You haven't made it yet!
Me: Yeah, well, that's ok. I'll wear the blouse with some nice pants.
Mom: When is Founders' Day?
Me: Tuesday.
Mom: That's in TWO DAYS!!! You have to get started!!!
Me: Well I don't really have time, I have homework and I'm making you a pie for your birthday.
Mom: Forget the pie! Forget homework! You should make that skirt!
Me: But I want to make you a nice dessert! And I don't really have the pattern figured out!
Mom: Leave those limes and get started for the Love of God!

I love my mom :) We have the same sewing sensibilities.

As you've probably gathered if you read the above dialogue, this outfit is not a dress, it's actually separates. The whole outfit together is actually cobbled together from FOUR different patterns :O

The main blouse is an Anna Sui pattern that I made a while back at the end of summer, shortly after purchasing this SUBLIME sparkly sea-green silk chiffon.

Perks of Sewing: A Perfect Outfit for Every Pair of Shoes!

Let's be honest, there is nothing more bitchin' than topping off a stunning outfit with a perfect pair of shoes.

Black-on-black checkerboard created in squares of different fabrics, like leather, velvet, satin, all molded around your foot...TOO AWESOME

Most people try to match their shoes to their garments; but a seamstress can match a garment to her shoes ;)

COULD THIS FABRIC BE ANY MORE PERFECT?!?!

I pretty much had to get some of this just so I could wear it with my boots. Don't get me wrong--the fabric is inherently gorgeous; it's slippery, shiny, fluid silk, with this subtle but intriguing pattern; it almost reminds of Alice in Wonderland, in the most sophisticated sense possible. But yes, it really caught my attention because of these boots. When I went to show my mom the bolt, she pointed out that she had extracted it from the heap of surrounding silks in the first place on the strength of the same correlation. (She was also quick to remind me that the boots are actually her boots, and I just borrow them occasionally because she is the best mom in the world and shares my shoe size.)

I rushed home to choose a shirt pattern from my mom's stash.