obviously it is tried on just for photos here because it is BEYOND FREEZING in the tundra!!! :)
I cut a size 42 and did a 1" bicep adjustment and sewed the horizontal seam at 3/8". This top is SHORT! I mean, it's obviously meant as a layering piece but still. (ooh, I wonder if it would work over a dress!) The hemming...on and on and on for forever! Even with the coverstitch I found this tedious. I didn't have a great option for thread choices, even in my regular stash. So I just left the black in the needles and change the looper to olive. I figured the black might clash a bit too much with the density of the looper thread vs the needle threads.
The sleeve opening is teeny-tiny. So small. But they aren't tight.
DO NOT stretch the back neck binding! LOL! The front has a cut-on facing, I chose to finish it like you would a cowl top.
It was on my dress form for two whole days before I tried it on!! I liked it but was worried the ties were too fussy based on me trying repeatedly to tie it on Lily. I figured it out though.
The bands form the lower portion but also the ties, but there's no opening in the side like a true wrap. You have to wrap it below everything in back and bring it back around.
The top has darts in front and back and is close fitting. I've had this on the radar for FOREVER and am so glad I finally sewed it even if hemming it took a veritable eternity!
The skirt. Gahhhhhh. The skirt comes with a slit. The piece is shaped the same as a vent but they just have you sew it open, not like a traditional vent. Also, the skirt is straight and not a pencil. So, there was one lined version where I didn't sewn the slit at all; and another where I hand-sewed the slit and sewed the lining to the slit. This time I decided to properly sew a vent and line it.
The skirt tried to take me out y'all.
I have often waxed poetic about Colleen G. Lea of Fashion Sewing Blog TV. Her tutorials are so good. But the lining piece she showed had this crazy shape that I had never seen before! I found a tutorial on a blog, Clipped Curves, for drafting a lining - or in my case, altering the existing lining (since I've lined this skirt before). I had pieces that looked similar enough and I was ready.
Well, the slight issue with the CC tutorial is that it's hard to know just how to adjust the curve of the piece and so I had a harder time putting mine together. And with FSB TVs tutorial, there was no mention of hemming everything and so I ended up doing some unpicking. The inside is a little messy but the outside is decent.
I was sewing the side seams of the lining and for some unknown reason, one side seam on the back was short. The center backs matched...the other side matched the front...but this one side was like an inch short. Okay fine, it's a lining. So I laid it out and shortened the rest of the lining an inch.
IT'S STILL AN INCH SHORT! LOL!!!!! I said, Nope. and hemmed it as is. I did not have time for that noise.
My zipper went in *perfecto*! For invisible zippers, I iron the tape flat, use my handy-dandy invisible zipper foot, and sew one side. Close it up, mark the the place where the waistband needs to meet, line it up (always using WonderTape!!) and stitch. I almost always have to true the top of the skirt, but the seam across the zipper is perfectly aligned.
Also, every single tutorial for understitching I read when I first learned what/why/how had you press the seam allowances toward the facing and topstitch. Well, at our last MinneSEWta meet up, I was wowed, WOWED by the incredibly flat waistband on a sewing friend's skirt. (WOWED!!!!) I would not unhand her skirt! I looked between the lining and skirt and was all, huh. Interesting.
The seam was pressed open and under stitched on the facing side. So only facing seam allowance stitched to the facing.
I tried it on my plum Burda pants and it worked a treat. And here, I am also incredibly happy with the outcome. Now, I forgot to trim my allowances here (because this skirt was trying to take me out and I just needed to finish it already), but it really produces a nice, flat waistband. SOLD!
Okay, maybe you can't tell how flat it is here but...it's flat!!! :-p
This skirt comes with a 2" hem allowance and I hemmed this one at 1.5". I did a blind stitch by machine which worked out well.
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Currently in progress is the blazer from Burda 11/2007 and another TNT, Vogue 9032. Both from the same black wool blend suiting as the skirt.
I need to construct the entire lining. Tomorrow, hopefully!!
These are ready to have the side seams basted for fit
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LASTLY (whew!), I wanted to share something that I've wanted to do for forever--create a booklet of the tech drawings of all of my magazines! I often have an idea of the type of garment I want to sew. I check my paper pattern stash and know that more often than not, I can find what I need in a Burda issue. And then I'm trying to remember approximate issue or trying to search keywords, and it's frustrating!!
I ordered thin sheet protectors from Amazon, about $6 for a box of 50. Most mags have the tech drawings over 2 sheets so you can get 2 years worth of issues in one box - I bought 2 boxes as I have near complete years of 2013 and '14 and all of 2015-2017. Binder came from Target (obviously any binder will do), mine is 1.5". The cover was created on my Cricut because I am a crazy Cricut lady now! :)
The magazine names are printed on white cardstock with the Cricut pen.
The dress form and scissors were cut from printed scrapbooking paper.
The title was cut from black card stock.
I used double sided tape to attach to the white cardstock and trimmed it down to size.
Every month a thread is started on PR for the preview of the new mag. Some time ago, someone discovered a one-page summary of tech drawings for an entire year. I have only found them for 2014-2017 on the Russian site, but someone told me on IG that the Polish site has them back to 2011.
