Outfit Thinking

I am not always best at thinking in terms of outfits. My decisions on what to sew come basically from "oooh, what a nice fabric, I need a dress from it" or "what a cool pattern, and I have a fabric which would work with it". Only rarely do I say "oh, I would need a brown skirt to go with this sweater".

And I know that it has become really popular over the blogosphere to create and think in terms of capsule wardrobes. Not my style.... the reason I am sewing is to wear things I like, even though they do not much others in my wardrobe. And yes, it is not always easy to pack a suitcase for a few days vacation. But I also sew a lot of basics which helps in the end to bridge the gaps.

But, from time to time, I just pick an outfit and I try to reproduce it entirely, even if it means sewing all of the pieces. And this was exactly this case - sometime in summer last year, I have seen a cute combination of shorts and jacket sewn in seersucker which I loved. However, seersucker is always sold in some light colours, not quite something for a complete outfit for me. But I realized that I could just recreate it with my linen-coton jacket sewn last year as well. I still had some remnants from this fabric (such a lovely colour) and shorts seem like a great idea.

I used Burda 05-06/2018 so as to justify this year's purchases. I did a few adjustments - made it narrower and shortened it as I do not like high-waisted shorts. The sewing was rather smooth, I hong-kong-bound all the visible seams because the fabric frays quite a lot. The pocket is created as a sort of facing which helps the stability as well.

All in all a cute pair of shorts.

I tried it on with the jacket and realized that the jacket is just waaaaay to large for a summer frock. I almost knew that already when I was sewing it (I made it in a sewing class) but the instructor kept telling me the size was ok. I have probably lost a few pounds this year, so it became really big.
At that point of time I did not have a better idea than deconstruct the sleeveheads, take away a few centimeters and reconstruct the jacket again. I also narrowed the sleeves.

If I am honest with myself, I would take away something also on the hip area, but I will just say it is fine and live with it.

Nettie Dress

Sooo... my sister is a big Argentinian tango fan. She takes lessons, goes to milongas, she even lives with a tango professor. So when I asked her what I could sew for her, her answer was not some normal dresses, jeans or whatever, but her tango outfits. “And you can use any scraps for that, do not worry,” she added.

Hmmm, that was not an easy one. The thing is that after a little pinteresting and discussing on what a real tango outfit is, I realized that I do not have many stretch or jersey fabrics at home and that basically I have never sewed with really stretchy jersey. But little internet research and I figured out that it was workable with my sewing machine if I have the right fabrics and a few jersey-special tools.

We ordered a bunch of jerseys during the July sales period which arrived quite in advance, so I thought I would just test sewing with it beforehand. I have actually ordered little more fabric, saying that I could definitely use it for something for me. I then pulled out some black jersey ponte di Roma (viscose/poly/lycra) for testing.

In the end, I had actually the same issue with patterns, till I found the Nettie dress pattern. Not sure if I am ready for the bodysuit, but the Nettie dress is actually a great bsic block for jersey dresses. Once the fit is done on the dress, you can reuse it for a top, or a skirt, or another, more interesting dress. Also, if I fit it to myself, there is a high probability the fitting to my sister will not take much time.

And again, I was so surprised by the speed of sewing a jersey garment. I was really happy, I did not use a Burda pattern, and the instructions were really, really helpful! I was worried I would stretch the neckline or something else, but in the end, it all worked perfectly.

The only thing I need to change for the next Nettie is a shoulder adjustment (shortening) which I should not do. The dress is slightly shorter in the armscye area and tends to stretch under the arms. I will lengthen it to the original size again.

The final dress is quite different from what I am used to but I like it a lot. Simple and secret pyjama, so will definitely get worn. And I am even planning on sewing another one. Or another jersey dress….

Tango outfits - vol 3

And the last article, at least for this batch of tango outfits. Basically, I made the tops to use little scraps and my sister wanted tops to have more colour combinations, so there we go. All the tops are very simple, I used a tube pattern (based on Nettie dress) for all of them and then did a few variants.

All tops are from jersey, the only support is an elastic on the upper border to keep things in places.

Soooo, we have a simple tube:

A tube with little ruching in the middle:

A top with additional ruched piece over the breasts, to add volume ;o) :

I also did one with one with more fabric around, but we forgot to take picture of that one, as it was the last one, made really at a last minute.

At some point of time, I was rather fed up with all the tube tops and I wanted to try something else, so I chose Burda 105-07/2015 top of the dress, adjusted it little bit to the stretchy cotton I had bought mainly for myself and whipped up this little cutie.

I must admit, that I was happy when the top sewing was over, there is this instant gratification of quick sewing and using up scraps, but I definitely prefer taking more time making my garments.