Vacation Sewing Progress: Black Top

I had a rest of cotton-silk black muslin crying at me from my stash. I had used it as a dress lining but with mitigated results, it is very smooth against the skin, but does not have a great drape. However, I thought I would use the muslin for a summer top. In order to get rid of the transparency, I double-layered the fabric and must admit that the silk gives it a very nice glance.

I used a Simplicity 51-02/2014 which was quite simple and quick to sew. No big adjustments, the neckline is gathered together with an elastic band and covered by the fabric. I used French seams everywhere, as even on the double layer, it does not bulk.

Strangely, I considered this fabric slippery when sewing the simple layer as a lining, doubled it was obeying like a simple cotton.

The top was ready in one afternoon, so I could wear it the other day. And it feels so nice on. In the meantime, I managed to buy some more of this fabric, in dark blue and dark brown.

Inspiration: use the remaining fabric

Pattern: Simplicity 51-02/2014

Pattern changes: sleeves are not gathered, top narrowed by 3 cm

Fabric: black cotton-silk

Notions: gathering

Time to Complete: 1 afternoon

Total Cost: 11 EUR

First Worn: June 2014

Grey Linen Shorts

The objectives were clearly set, so I whipped up a linen shorts in about 2 days. I cut it out during the week-end when my BF was having his afternoon nap, sewed up really quickly during Sunday evening, ordered the buttons on Monday, received them on Tuesday and finished the buttonholes the same day. 

This was the first time working with linen and I must say I will buy some more soon as it was a real pleasure to work with. Ironing went smoothly, sewing went smoothly, it was just fraying a lot. I was also afraid that the seams would not be pleasant on the skin so I decided to treat them with bias. You can also see my new etiquettes: 

I reused the Ruby shorts from Burda which I had already tried and adjusted, so no further fitting issues, yeah! :o) This time, I omitted the front welted pocket but made 2 pouch pockets with buttons on the back. Also, I put the buttons only on the right side, because even on my Vichy short I never open the right side. 

I really enjoyed topstitching the waistband and the hem and feel very satisfied with the result. Perhaps it is not such a bad idea to see the stitches on the outside from time to time. 

My aim was to create a pair of very neutral shorts to be able to wear it with all the colored tops.

I really like the idea of making the muslin, adjusting the pattern to my body (which in the end distinguishes my creations from the RTW), but when a project takes time, either because I do not always have a lot of time for sewing or because Iose motivation to finish it, it might become frustrating.

A quick project with a known pattern helps me to remotivate for a more complicated things to come.

Inspiration: previous success with the Ruby Burda pattern

Pattern: Ruby

Pattern changes: changes in the pockets, added 2 buttons

Fabric: grey linen

Notions: buttonholes/buttons

Time to Complete: 2 days

Total Cost: 21 EUR

First Worn: not yet

Vichy shorts

I wanted a quick project before attacking yet another dress. The summer is still not coming and we are wearing sweaters and coats, but I figured out that I should be ready for the high temperatures when they come.

Last year it was quite difficult to find shorts for my summer vacation, most of all because I am not used to buying trousers at all and finding the correct fit is far from easy.

I have seen the Burdastyle Ruby shorts in a vintage version on Wesewretro.com and thought the black&white combination was actually a good plan.

The original pattern is Burdastyle Ruby 6005. As I have totally no idea on the Burda trousers fit, I sew up a quick muslin and realized that it did not fit AT ALL. I ended up taking my favorite winter short and adjusting the pattern according to it. Basically, I only kept the idea of side button closing, the waistband and the pockets.

Another quite disturbing thing was the included seam allowance. Usually, I tend to cut little less than the 1.5 cm seam allowance, but I count with the same when sewing. Not having the seam lines marked on the fabric was somehow strange. As I redid the pattern, I got rid of the seam allowances and worked my usual way.

I might not be a fan of pockets on skirts and dresses, however, on my shorts I did not hesitate a minute. The Burda shorts have one welted and one pouch pocket, so there we go, two things to learn on one project.

The instructions for the welted pocket were totally incomprehensible to me so I ended up watching a tutorial on Youtube to clarify the problematic. I realize that I could have done even better in pattern-matching, but basically I think the pockets are pretty neat.

From the outside, as well as from the inside. Ok, they might not be very large, but a metro ticket gets in. 

As for the pouch pocket, that was much easier to sew and match correctly on the shorts. With the same detail inside. 

The pouch pockets, the button closings and the waistband asked for topstitching. I am not used to that but just following the pattern helped me a lot to make clear lines.

Then comes the story of buttonholes. So far, I have not managed to sew a complete buttonhole on my machine which is supposed to be fully automatic. It was out of question not to do it in this case: there are 10 buttons on the shorts! Going back to google and to the machine manual I thought doing everything correctly, nothing helped, the machine got the left part correctly, only to continue straight on the right side. After an hour of desperation, I found 2 Dutch videos which showed ALL the settings in detail, and there I had it: the complete buttonhole done in a few seconds. All ten in 5 minutes, yohoooo. 

When the shorts was almost ready, I tried it on only to realize the big mistake I had made. The buttons are supposed to be sewn on a piece extending the shorts part. However, when attaching the waistband, I pinned this part inside the short and sewn it in. Result: I was missing a few centimeters needed to close it up. Fortunately, I had enough fabric to cut the back waistband again (I always have a lot of fabric remnants - see here)

 and redo the whole thing, including the topstitching.

In the end, the shorts took me some time to finish, due to the form adjusting, numerous details and my big mistake, but it is good to know that I do have nice and simple shorts pattern which I will do again for sure. 

Inspiration: We sew retro

Pattern: Burdastyle Ruby 6005

Pattern changes: deeper crotch, narrower waist

Fabric: Vichy cotton

Notions: welted pocket, pouch pocket, buttonholes

Time to Complete: 1 week

Total Cost: 17 EUR

First Worn: Not yet, too cold outside...