Lacy top = instant gratification

For this super-quick project I turned back to Jalie 2805.  Considering that I made it a few times already, this morning's project was all the quicker for not having to start by tracing a pattern.   Since the rayon tees I'd made before seem to have grown over the few washes and wears, I took a 5/8" bite out of the SA while serging, and this improved the fit nicely, though it's still very loose in the waist. Just to be a little different, I shortened the sleeves to bracelet length and the hem by 2 cm.

The fabric's some sort of poly-lycra stretch "lace" with rayon embroidery, another freebie from Fabric Mart. 

I intended this top as casual wear, but the pics suggest it has enough coverage to be suitable - with a jacket - for work wear.

Knit-wit!

Just three more weeks, just one more little excursion, and my traipsing round the world will be over for the season (any tips on good fabric stores around Los Angeles?).  In the meantime, I've a hankering for a quick and easy one-day project.  Like a merino wool knit top.

Say hello to my little Christchurch collection.   I sort of overdid it, rationalizing that this sort of stuff isn't readily available at home, and I certainly don't have to use it up all at once (perish the thought!), and the other skiers in my family might also appreciate a cosy layer when the temps hit -20C or less.  And and and.  Having had the opportunity to, ahem, "enjoy" the balmy and humid weather of Virginia - can you believe 106F (42C!) - during the past weeks, I can't wait for our beautiful and bright, crisp, white winter.  Soon enough, I know.

Where did I get these?  Four came from Fabric Bonanza on Bedford Row, and the rest from Global Fabrics on 223 Tuam Street. 

 Both are good stores. FB is attached to a couture shop, and their fabrics reflect what is being sewn there.  GF is much larger, and boy, do they have merino knits! Every weight, every colour of the rainbow - two giant double-tier tables of it, can you blame me for having had a very hard time controlling myself?!

The dark grey at left, the bright tomato red, and the silvery grey at extreme right are rib knits of different weights, and the bright blue plain knit is quite beefy.  My favourite is probably the heathered black-brown next to the red.  The collection has been through the wash now, and is back on the hammock playing chicken with the thunderclouds.  And if it starts to rain and I can't play with my hostas or go for a bike ride, I may just have to sew something!

I leave you with this charming little couple of bronze sheepdogs. 
I heart New Zealand! :)

Global geometry aka Visiting The Antipodes

Did you know that you can Go to the Antipodes, but you can never Get there?   By definition, your Antipode is the opposite side of the globe from where you stand - you can aim yourself at it, but never, no matter how fast or far you travel, actually attain it.  Your own personal Antipode will always elude you by 180 degrees longitude, and as many degrees to the south as your current point of existence is to the north, of the equator.  Your Antipode reaches you via the centre of the globe you happen to be standing on - be it Earth, Moon, or Mars, for all you past and future explorers of our Solar System and, ahem, hopefully beyond.

I'm heading for my very own, Ottawan antipode.  Strictly speaking, it's located in the drink: somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, between South Africa's optimistically misnamed Cape of Good Hope and Australia's southwestern tip.  Amazingly, to a very good first order approximation, it all but falls on a145-km  pimple of land: the French Southern And Antarctic Lands, barely jutting out of said drink, 4000 km from either of the above continental corners and 2000 km N  of the nearest coastline of Antarctica. Napoleon's Elba was a bustling metropolis in comparison.  The capital of this fine French territory, Port-aux-Français, is a collection of Wylie Coyote-worthy Acme-like prefab structures, although with no beep-beep Roadrunners to be seen.

Thankfully, my actual destination is some 7300 km to the east of PaF.  Had I actually started at its Antipode, it would've been  Playa de San Bartolo, España:  yes, the beautifully balmy NW coast of Spain. Alas, instead of lounging on a gorgeous white beach in the middle of a balmy summer day, I'm reluctantly heading to a cold & drizzly winter. 

Any guesses as to what sort of fabrics I'll be aiming to find? 

Regretfully remiss

Aka caught up in my so-called life. 

Let's face it - there are times for hobbies and there are times for life. This summer's one for the latter. My black (yes finished and yet to be photographed) Burplicity jacket hasn't even been worn (thank you, Madame Early Summer, for that!), but my sewing schedule's been swamped by a deluge of other obligs. You know how I asserted sewing is soft materials engineering?  well, this summer's being consumed by rather larger scale hard materials engineering, for which I'm also the main mover & shaker around here.   This isn't a complaint, and neither is it a brag. Just a fact of life - sometimes shelving and fencing (not of the rapier wit kind) along with splashes and dashes of paint, not to mention a good dose of sandpaper all round (breathe deep, but do it  through a face mask!) can be almost as satisfying as that trench coat I WANT and NEED and am NOT going to make this weekend.  Have a great stitchin' summer, ladies! Come September (or October?) I shall return.

Digs.

Burda+Simplicity: a Happy Marriage

Some time ago - maybe last year, maybe even before that, it's now lost in time - I made Burda top 2008-10-116.  I used a very fine checked wool that I found at Fabric Fix in Manchester, New Hampshire (!), thanks to one of the dreariest August vacations in living memory - steady rain is not conducive to canoeing, swimming, hiking or biking, so I dragged the family around the state for a day of fabric shopping.  Great fun was had by all! (heh, and I've a bridge to sell you, too).

So, the top:  I made my usual 38.  I didn't want a zipper, so I added 1.5" to each CF, ditto to the neckline yoke, and instead, made a passel of tiny buttons & buttonholes, and overlapped the two CFs.   As it turned out (it often does, with Burda sleeves - Burda seems to think real women sport matchstick arms) the sleeve hems were too narrow, so mine have only two pleats instead of three; if I ever make this top again, which is not out of the realm of possibility as I like it very much, I'll widen the bottom of the sleeve by 1", to allow for the 3rd pleat.  But, let's hear it for husbands with reasonable heads on their shoulders:  he soothed my aggravation, and made me see that no one except myself (and now you!) will ever know that these sleeves are supposed to have three pleats instead of two.  Yep, they have just two, but no one's called me on them yet.

The last little tweak I added to the top came after I test-wore it, and it consisted of hand-sewing two small vertical pleats into the back, just next to and inside the back belt loops.  Why?  because it controlled the blouson factor for a much nicer cinch.  I'm short-waisted, with substantial differences between bust-waist-butt, so controlling the fabric around the waistline enhances it in a nicer way than just cinch-as-cinch-can.

The top is lined, btw (with beige bemberg), so that makes it a jacket, right? 

Here comes the marriage bit.. Confetti, please:

I've had my eye on Simplicity 3631 for a long time - SewStylish indeed! Jacket B, to be precise, with its six exposed pleats and wide bell sleeves.  I really NEED this jacket NOW, I thought a couple of weeks ago. Then I thought (you know what's coming, don't you?) - why should I fight with a brand new pattern when all I really have to do is add the exposed pleats and bell sleeve to top 116 I have and love so much already? 

No, the two patterns aren't identical, because the Burda top has a front plus side front (and ditto back and side back, all for better shaping), but the raglan sleeves, waist belt and neck yoke are dead ringers.   So all I had to do was convert Burda's centre front pattern piece to one with three darts, and Burda's too-narrow sleeve to a gloriously, scrumptiously wide Simplicity bell sleeve.

So that's what I did.

Here is the Simplicity sleeve, its upper part re-cut to match the Burda jacket armscye.  Notice how much lower is the Simplicity armscye!

And here are the two Burda fronts, the original underneath, the top with darts and cut-on facing added.  Should I make it again, and I well might, I'll move the darts a little closer to CF. As with my original 116, I pleated out the excess back yardage under the belt.

The Simplicity jacket, if you  notice from the envelope photo, has all-too-obvious shoulder pads - massive ones.  RRrrrrridiculous!!! I omitted them.

My new Burplicity jacket is basic black - a nice wool crepe, Bemberg lining, just about all finished except for a good pressing, a tad of hand-finishing, and the buttons.  Once all that's done, I'll show you both - soon.