Études in Jade

Two quick makes for Gaby out of cotton fabric I was gifted last year. Though the pictures don't show it, the color is very loud jade, which none of us liked much and I've been racking my brains what to make out of it. Then came carol's suggestion to try lekala.co and I was inspired to cut a pair of simple pajama style bottoms out of it for Gaby, to be worn at home.

The pattern is the free pyjamas pants, customized to her measures. I am absolutely blown away by the idea and I'll be definitely trying the site with more interesting and complicated patterns soon. As for this pair of pants, they came quite as advertised,  very easy and straight forward to make, they fit her well as for pajamas, probably just an inch short. I should have checked the length in advance, but I had so firmly decided to try the pattern as is, that I didn't take any of my usual preliminary measurements. There is only one piece of pattern, which is cut twice, no pockets, no waistband. As the front and the back are quite similar, I added a little red tag to the back to make putting them on correctly easier.

As I had some piece of fabric left, I decided to make a little top too. While the color is too loud for dressy pants, she reckoned a little summer top in this color could be wearable.
The pattern I chose is Easy smock top by lovesewingmag.co.uk, a free pattern, which I already made last year. It is another easy pattern, which comes out enormous, but I "hacked" it by adding elastic shearing to the waist. However, my first top was made out of soft cotton gingham, which gathered beautifully, and this jade cotton is much heavier and creates a bit too much volume. I should have reduced the width of the front and the back by at least a total of 8 cm, which I will probably do, if I decide to make this a third time.

Gaby wanted the top to be crop top, so I cut it just above the waist and experimented with the finishing by folding the edge in half and hemming the blouse with the same elastic thread as the shearing above. I was lucky to have a sewing thread in the exact color of the fabric. All my seams are flat felled seams and I did add a little red tag to the back of the blouse too.
I need to find a way to make my own tags real soon!

Purple Gingham

Two more items I made recently, out of purple gingham fabric I was gifted. Both of these were made for Gaby, but she is not very enthused about the color and the fabric, so they might turn to be only muslins for more wearable clothes next summer.

The first is a free peasant blouse pattern - Gypsy Top by www.lovesewingmag.co.uk
I made the smallest size - 8-10, the instructions are very clear  and easy to follow, so it was an easy project. However, the resulting blouse was very, very wide and formless. To make it at least somewhat wearable I added the elasticated waist and now it is quite pleasing in front, but still too balloony at the back. All in all, I do not recommend the pattern.

I turned the rest of the fabric into another button down dress. The pattern is again from the Russian site Shkatulka, WD240418. They offer size 40 (xs) for free, plus a video tutorial. I changed the pattern, turning it into a button down dress at the front, eliminating the zipper at the back. I also reduced a bit the length and the width of the skirt, as I didn't have enough fabric for the whole dress as designed. But I had big enough cuts to add pockets to the dress and I am so satisfied with them :)

The dress is supposed to be size XS and height 168 cm, but it fits me - size S and height 156 cm, so bear that in mind. It is just a tiny bit tight at the bust area (I was making it for Gaby), but I intend to make another dress for myself, following the pattern and I'll be adding just a couple of cm to the width.

Next time I'll make the dress as is designed, with a hidden zipper at the back and without the button placket at the front.

Second Peasant Skirt Burda 3/2013 #123

This is the second peasant skirt I made for Gaby, based on the pattern in Burda 3 / 2013. The fabric is nice high quality cotton with a little stretch. The top part of the skirt is lined with the same fabric and the skirt closes with a zipper. For the first skirt I used a visible zipper, which I placed using the squared method. For this skirt I decided to use the overlapped method, following this excellent tutorial. However, I hadn't thought it through, as adding the lining to the skirt with the overlapped zipper turned to be quite troublesome. I managed it, but I'm looking into invisible zippers now and next time I'll stick to centered zippers, invisible or not.

I'm pleased with how the skirt turned out and it has been quite in use since I sewed it at the end of last month. Now I'm thinking of a pretty white lace top to go with it.

Peasant Skirt Burda 3/2013 #123

The third project I finished these days is a peasant skirt. I actually made two of these, based on Burda 3/2013 #123 pattern. The "pattern" is mostly a description of the straps of fabric you need for each layer, which I totally ignored and calculated on my own, based on Gaby's height and I only used the drawings for the upper part of the skirt. Although the pattern is marked as easy, I found it quite labour intensive and the double upper yoke with the zipper had me banging my head over it the whole evening, until I figured the correct sequence of putting it together. Nevertheless, this particular feature of the pattern - the fitted yoke, makes the skirt very elegant and draw me to the pattern in the first place.

The skirt in the pictures is a wearable muslin I made out of a piece of fabric I was gifted. I am not quite sure of the content of the fabric, but the burn test showed that it is mostly if not entirely artificial. Still, the muslin turned out quite well fitting and the skirt might even get some wear later this summer. I missed the opportunity on Tuesday to take pictures of the second peasant skirt I finished this weekend and which Gaby already wore to Uni. I made it out of cotton poplin and I'm truly pleased with how it turned out, she even got some compliments on her outfit :) I hope I'll be able to take a picture or two of it some day.

And I'm carrying on ... I bought more fabric and more Burda style patterns and magazines, I'll be busy sewing this summer :)))