Surprise Casual Jacket

I truly still do not know why I am not sewing jackets more often because honestly, it does not take much more time than a lined dress.

Like this one - whipped in just a few days. Ok, so it is no tailored jacket but it was not the aim either. Actually, I never planned this kind of jacket, it just came in a thought of a moment.

It all started with the fabric: I did not buy this fabric, it has been passed to me by my mum. Truth to be said, my mum used to sew when I was a kid, but stopped years ago. However, she still kept buying fabrics and having some of her clothes sewn. When she moved to a new place a year ago, she found a few fabrics never used and gave them to me. There were only 4 coupons and mostly in colours totally not suitable for me, but I kept them for muslins (or maybe for a surprise x-mas present for my mum...).

But then, I saw this black fabric with little turquoise freckles, put it on myself and and thought that it could actually work for a little casual jacket/cardigan. And once the idea was in my head, I was sure I had to sew it - I had nothing to lose, the fabric was free.

I used a pattern from and old Simplicity magazine which I have always liked but never got sewn.

The fabric was free but not the easiest to work with. It is of unknown origin (probably some poly) and rather transparent, so I had to stabilize it: I used some black fusible interfacing on all the pieces and in addition interfaced it with some black cotton-silk on the body. The fabric remained fluid, but got stiffer and was much easier to sew with.
The jacket is fully lined, so I could use up some remnants of black silk lining (the sleeves are actually from a different fabric, but that is ok).

I traced size 36 as I do not know Simplicity magazine sizing. The muslin looked ok, even though I could maybe take away a few cm around the armscye. The sewing went without any major problems and I think the result is quite nice. I was surprised I did not have many issues with the shoulders/sleeves, as the sleeves are one-piece only.

Of course, I prefer the jacket casually open.

The Summer Dress Serie - The Last One

And probably the most successful pattern of this summer because I sewed it twice and wore both of them MANY times.

I usually do not check all the sewing magazines to decide whether to buy them or not, I only follow Burda's previews. However, a few of the bloggers I follow do an overview on the new collections - mostly on the Big4, but also Burda and sometimes others. So I need to thank Couture en coulisse for having sewn the Bella dress from La Maison Victor. Of course, by that time the magazine was no longer available in France, but I loved the pattern so much that I ordered the magazine.

I do not think there is something difficult on this dress, even the back opening is rather smooth to sew, so I will not go into much detail.

First, I sewed the dress in a remnant of red viscose, as a dress to be worn at home. And it has really become my home dress of this summer, cool enough to go out to the supermarket or a short walk outside. Here, I followed the pattern and used a facing.

The second one is in a very light black silk chiffon which sit in my stash for almost two years as I was looking for the right pattern. The silk was rather transparent, so I used it in two layers. Therefore, I used one layer as lining on the bodice and there was no need to use an additional facing and the dress is sooo nicely finished that you do not see a single seam on the bodice.

I really love the back opening, as it still hides my bra, while being cute and not too much. The dress is large enough to be light and breezy, but it still works well with jackets. Not mentioning that black goes with everything.

So, I am still little bit sceptical on the quality of LaMaisonVictor patterns - the tracing out is rather painful (compared to Burda!) and the magazine is really aimed to less experienced sewists, but I have since bought another number (and sewed another LMV dress), so maybe I will end up really liking them. Also, they consistently add men's and kid's patterns in the magazines, so it enables me to expand my pattern library (and maybe once sewing something for my man as well)

Summer Dress Serie - The Navy One

I wanted a navy dress for our little week-ends at the sea. However, I did not have a chance to wear it yet, it was finished before our big vacation and we did not have a free week-end yet. So maybe later this month.

Anyhow, this dress was a simple and quick one. I used the true and tested Cara dress from La Maison Victor, only with short sleeves this time. I used a dark navy ponte and that is about it.

Originally, I wanted to keep the dress as is, but I ended up putting the white rick rack as decoration.

I do not think there is really much more to say about this dress, but since it was part of my summer serie, so it is better to publish it now and not in two years :)

Hats for Vacation

I love hats, any hats basically - small, big, summer, winter, I am just so sad that hats are longer a standard accessory, as it was the case still in the 60s. In winter it keeps you warm and protects you hair; in summer it keeps my face in the shade and my scalp from getting burnt.

So when we decided to go on summer vacation to Peru, I read everywhere that the sun is actually very strong over there. Even though we went there during their "winter" season, it is important to note that the country is very close to equator and most of it is in high altitudes which means that the sun becomes even stronger. Which, for my Celtic skin meant: good sunscreen, glasses and hats are obligatory. But then, travelling with hats is not the simplest one, ideally, I would need fabric hats which I can fold in my little suitcase and take them whenever needed. Also, I wanted little bit of variety and it needs to go with rather autumn travel clothes, so sewing them would be the best option, as usual, lol.

Once I decided to sew them, I had to find the right pattern for my bucket hat. And while there are a few of them for kids, finding an adult bucket hat pattern was not so easy. I had found one at OliverS, but when trying to understand the paper pattern, the pieces did not fit right.
When I was getting desperate, I looked through the last Burda magazine (June 2019) and saw a pattern for exactly what I wanted. I traced the pattern out and sewed a quick muslin from a very stiff fabric and I got excited by the result. For my vacations buckets, I only had to shorten the brim slightly and extend the diameter (yes, I have a large head and this is probably the only measurement, I have to extend).

In the end, I sewed up two bucket hats in coordinating fabrics. I used a little scrap of the brown plain fabric and found a corresponding colored one in my local quit shop. The red/grey one was entirely from new fabrics. However, half-meter was largely sufficient, so no additions to my stash needed.

Verdict: the hats got worn almost everyday during our vacation and I was really happy to have them, I did not get burnt one single time and my hairdresser said my hair was not damaged at all when I came back.

Summer Dress Serie - The Paisley One

I have quite mixed feelings with this dress, which is probably due to the context of its making, the fabric etc. I cannot quite decide whether I love it or not.

So, first the fabric: I must have bought this fabric the first year of my sewing because I reaaaaally liked the paisley on it. It is a raw silk, little bit scratchy and fine at the same time. I had 3m of it, but I think of only 1,2 m width. I was in love with this fabric for 2 years, but never sewed anything from it. Then I completely forgot about it for another two years. And I rediscovered it this summer again. So I decided to finally make something from it, before I completely fall out of love of it.

Then started my search for the right pattern. I ended up buying Burda 106 from July 2016 issue. I have always liked the lines, even without the pockets. A quick muslin later and I was cutting my fabric carefully to make sure the paisley matched. 

And honestly, I am really proud of myself because apart from 1 vertical seam and some slightly rounded seams, the pattern matching is quite good actually.

I have used up all my fabric, even though I still have quite a lot of scraps.

Another issue was the fabric transparency. Once you folded the fabric (e.g. for seam allowances), you could actually see through the dark parts of the paisley - no good at all. So instead of purely lining the fabric, I have interfaced the pieces with white silk-viscose. It is also helping significantly with the scratchiness.

Overall, I am happy with the fit of the dress - not too large and not too narrow, just what I like. However, me being very pale, I feel it is just too white and pasty for me. Maybe with a black jacket, that might work better. I will have to try.

Summer Dress Serie - The Origami One

I have bought this fabric little bit by chance this summer - it is a linen/viscose mix and it has such a nice feel and shine that I just could not leave it in the shop and had to bring it home and find a project for it. I also quite love the violet colour, so the dress had to be something special.

I had the Burda pattern 101 from last year June edition bookmarked for "when the right fabric comes" and I figured this was the right combination. Seeing the top part of the dress, I had to muslin it, and I was right, I narrowed the "Star-Trek" flying bands and narrowed the bodice in general so that they fall in the shallow part of m shoulders, not on top of them.

When looking at the pictures, I think I could have done it even more, but once everything was cut, it was hard to play with the pattern.

The dress is of course fully lined and has pockets. I have recently been lazy and did not add pockets on some dresses which I definitely miss when wearing them, so the rule now is clear: add pockets whenever possible :)

The dress came out very nice, as the structured bodice fell into pieces just perfectly, the only thing bothering me a little bit is the fit of the dress: I think I could have fitted it little bit more, but at least I have a dress for eating huge lunch when at my in-laws.

This dress might be a great example of a frosting sewing, as I did not wear it to work yet, ad am looking for the right opportunity (maybe just because both the fabric and pattern feel so special and maybe I should just get over this and wear it :)

Summer Dress Serie - The Easy One

From the whole serie, this one was probably the easiest one.

It is actually an exact copy of a silk dress sewn some time ago which always gets worn when the high temperatures arrive. So it was kind of obvious I needed another one.

Also, last year I found this fabric. It is actually the same as this one, just in different colours. The violet one was used for a very nice Anna dress which I considered too short to wear last year and gave it to my sister.

So I was really happy when I found this fabric in green and I just had to sew another summer dress with it. So there we go: Burda 115-07/2015 back again.

I do not think there is again much to say about the pattern, it is an unlined dress, I only line the little sleeves as it enables me to enclose the shoulder seams and finish it nicely. It is all sewn with French seams. And contrary to the pattern, I sewed on the belt. I tend to do it all the time, as I am afraid I would loose it anyhow and it works pretty well, so why not.

In the end, it is also kind of relieving to just pull out a pattern from your stash, have all the adjustments done (including the skirt length) and just whip up the dress in a few hours. It does not happen often to me and I would not want to sew everything like that, but yes to the instant gratification of this make!