Beige Dress for Gaby

Last year I bought a large piece of viscose and made a Rhapsody for Gaby out of it. I had a fairly big remnant - probably half of the fabric, so this year I decided to use it to make a summer dress for Gaby.

I am modeling the dress, but it is supposed to fit Gaby, who is taller and a bit more broad-shouldered than me.

The pattern is a mesh-up of three dresses and it took me quite a while finally to cut it. The skirt is a slightly widened skirt from the Roliz dress by Vikisews. I love my Roliz and my only regret is that I didn't make the skirt a bit wider, as I had plenty of its gorgeous fabric.

The bodice is again Burda #104 02/2011 dress, but only up to the armholes. The back is cut straight and flat, and the front continues into Bailen dress by Pauline Alice, with wider straps, as I was aiming at strap width that could cover the bra straps underneath. The dress closes with a zipper on the side.

Pattern: Bailѐn Top by Pauline Alice, free pattern, Roliz by  VikiSews, Burda #104 02/2011 dress

Size: 34 

Fabric: 100% viscose for the outer dress, polyester for the lining

Time to make: 3 days

 

The dress is fully lined, as all of my woven fabric dresses lately, with simple beige lining fabric for the bodice and smooth poly-acetate lining for the skirt.

Beige Rhapsody for Gaby

While March was the month I sewed for the boys, April was Gaby's month. As we were expecting her on the first days of May, I wanted to make her a few new things to take with her to Vienna. 

The first is a viscose blouse, yet another Rhapsody. I made the size xs, but without the shortenings I usually do, as I thought the full length would suit Gaby better. However, she is not a fan of long blouses, it turns out, so I had to shorten it by 5 cm. I should point out that I agree with her and the shorter length does suit her better.

I took the pictures a few days before her arrival. We had planned to make a quick photosession with all the things I made for her, but time flew so fast, that in the end we gave up the idea and I was left with only these pre-shortened not-modelled photos.

Pattern: Rhapsody by Love Notions 

Size: XS, modified

Fabric: viscose

Time to make: 6 days

I made the blouse, using my favourite version - the 3/4 bishop sleeve with the inserted elastic. I plan to make myself one of these too in a viscose or polyester crepe for the summer, if I can find some fabric that I like.

Although the colors of the viscose fabric are a bit bland, I think it suits Gaby well and she did wear it during her stay for a meeting with her uni friend.

Red Bailѐn Top

The last of my red viscose fabric. So far I've shown you two of the items I sewed from my 2.5 m long piece of viscose  - a cropped tied shirt for Gaby and a blouse with ruffles for me. I also made a Burda 6840 sleeveless shirt for Gaby, which actually ate most of the fabric and which I hope to be able to photoshoot soon. And then I was left with literally bits and pieces, some fairly large, so I took out my Bailѐn Top pattern pieces and cut a new Bailѐn top for me. This is my fifth, if I am not mistaken, this pattern has turned into my go-to for utilizing the most of my viscose fabrics.

Alas, I could not place the pattern pieces on the bias, so this top is cut on the straight and it does make a big difference as far as fitting is concerned - the top looks less tailored, longer and more close fitting at the hips. It's just the way viscose plays with the pattern when it is cut along the grain and not along the bias. Still, I had plenty of fabric to cut the bias bands, that finish the neckline and the armholes.

And speaking of armholes, I made such a rookie's mistake, that I can barely believe myself - I skipped stay stitching the armholes after I cut the fabric and now one of my armholes is almost an inch larger than the other! It stretched while I was sewing the bias tape, but I only noticed it after I had completely finished the top. It's not fatal and I'm not going to fix it by undoing all the work on the straps, but I hope it will be a cautionary tale for me never to skip stay stitching!!!!

Pattern: Bailѐn Top by Pauline Alice, free pattern

Size: 34, slightly modified, cut on the grain

Fabric: 100% viscose poplin

Thread: cotton, red

Time to make: 3 days

I did two more modifications of the pattern - one intentional and the other out of necessity. 

The intentional one - I added straight wider straps. My straps are about 2.5 cm wide, sufficient to cover my bra straps (unless I'm moving, then one could glimpse a bra strap at the back, but so what :)

 And the second modification: my back has a seam in the middle, as I didn't have a second big piece of fabric, from which to cut it on the fold. All of my seams are french seams and I used exposed bias tape finishes of the armholes and the neckline (as I believe is according to the pattern instructions).

All in all, I am happy I utilized my scraps and I deem the top perfectly wearable. Out of all the viscose tops I made this spring and summer, my Bailѐn tops are the most worn!

Purple Shirt from Shkatulka

I started sewing this shirt way back in October last year. The pattern is from the Russian site Shkatulka and it is free for my size (Russian size 42, height 164 cm). For the shirt I bought a large piece of purple cotton viscose, which has very nice luster and drape and rich color, but turned out to be too thin, too much subject to wrinkling and with some defects.

I cut the fabric without making any height adjustments to the pattern, as it was stated to be for a smaller height (164 vs. the usual 168). I'm not quite certain what was my thinking at the time, but at 156 I'm still far from the stated height and two centimeters adjustment above the waist would have been beneficial for the fit.

Where I hit the rock were the sleeves - the pattern did not envision the usual cuts and cuffs, and though I've made already half a dozen shirt sleeves, I felt uncertain how to proceed. I abandoned the project, thinking it was only for a while, but the hiatus extended to January the next year, until I made Gaby's latest hooded shirt. It turned to be the make that kicked my behind to get a grip and finish the wretched thing.

And I'm glad I did. The fit is not perfect, the collar is not placed with the greatest attention to precision and the fabric is somewhat cheaply thin, but the overall garment is wearable and I adore the color, I've even already worn it a couple of times in public :)

Burda #114 5 2015 Pants

This is the second pair of pants I sewed for Gaby last month. The fabric is natural viscose, very fluid, light and breathing. The pants turned out exactly what she wanted for home - wide enough and comfy for lounging in the warm spring and summer days.

I made a few small mods to the pattern - the waist band has triple elastic and a string. I think I used 12 mm elastic band. For the string openings I installed two small rivets.

 Of course, the pants have pockets - probably the most complicated part of the design.

The cuffs are also with triple elastic. I used narrower elastic band here, I believe it was 8 mm. The triple elastic bands were the new skill I learned with this project and they took me almost a day to finish, but I'm quite pleased with them.

I love the colorful design of the fabric - the tropical birds and flowers have that bright summer vibe I was looking for.

The Chocolate Color

Let me start with the ascertainment that ever since I started dyeing yarn, I've overdyed every beige yarn I've bought, as well as a beige cotton shop bought sweater I had :) Beige turns out to be a color I'm drawn to buy but not to wear - neutral drab colors are not for me, it seems.

A few months ago I came upon Hipster - a shawl pattern by Joji Locatelli and I immediately fell in love with it. I've been following Joji's podcast and admiring her creativity a lot, she's one of my main inspirations to start sewing again, as apart from a talented knitter and designer, she's also a fearless beginner seamstress.
So, when I was browsing my favourite online yarn shop for tweed for another project I came upon a sale of this beige Italian bobbin tweed and I grabbed 200 g of it for Hipster. But the moment it arrived I knew I had to overdye it (again!). I experimented with at least a dozen of small cuttings from the yarn, shifting it from tobacco yellow to dark purple, until I settled on chocolate. And I'm loving it. This is my current WIP, but more about it and the yarn in (I hope) a coming soon posting :)

And while I still had chocolate color on my mind I finally decided how to overdye the viscose yarn I had bought for my mother. The result of another sale purchase - 6 skeins of baby blue viscose-acrylic yarn, three for me and three for my mother, were waiting to be overdyed. The yarn is very soft, the color is nice, but neither mother nor I would wear this baby blue. I had been struggling for a week with the decision, having in mind, that unlike the wool, which is so easy to dye, viscose acrylic blends take dye differently and more difficultly. And of course they require dyes for cellulose based yarns. 

To ensure good cover of the blue, I dyed these skeins in two steps - first I dyed the three skeins solid brown, washed them and hung them to dry to ascertain that they had the color I wanted (wet viscose looks much much darker than dry viscose and I wanted to be sure). Then I dip glazed them in concentrated black for a more variegated final color.

I think they turned out quite nice, with deep saturated color. Because I dyed each skein separately, there are some variations between the skeins and as with all hand-dyed yarns it would be recommendable to be knitted with alternation.

I was curious, so I made two samples to check the gauge. The yarn is thin - 400 m / 100 g, so it could be knitted with a single thread or with two threads held together. I was leaning towards the thicker option, but in the end I like the single thread sample better. Of course, it's up to my mother to decide which she prefers.

Now I'm off to pack all the yarns I dyed for my mom lately and send them to her to keep her busy during the coming months.

Sea Nymph Modeled

And here it - the promised modeled photosession of Sea Nymph. The sweater is mine, but Gaby will wear it occasionally, like this weekend :) Anyway, it fits her marvelously and does look better on her slender body.

Pattern: Sea Nymph by Drops Design
Yarn: Charlotte, Bulgarian cotton-viscose, 300 g
Needle: 3 mm
Time to knit: exactly one month

Modifications:
Because my yarn and gauge were very different, I used only the general idea and the chart for the lace and did my own calculations for the raglan and the body. It's a simple raglan sweater, so recalculating everything to fit me was not that difficult and I am happy to report that I knit it in one go, without any ripping - a genuine miracle for me. Despite my dislike for the magic loop method I knit the sleeves in the round, so the sweater is entirely seamless.

I finished the body symmetrically to the beginning, which is the most logical decision, instead of the rolling stockinette stitch edge, as in the pattern.

A word about the yarn - not bad, gives good and heavy texture, but I don't think I'll use it again. I'll have to wait and see how it will hold on to wear.

All in all - a nice, feminine, easy pattern and a satisfying result. Now I can move on to another project :)