Painted Portrait Blouse: Two Ways

Another successful top made!  And immediately made again!

I've admired this cute blouse and dress pattern from Anna Maria Horner, the Painted Portrait, for a while now.  I like all of the possible variations, particularly the fun pieced yoke option.  I think it would be a pretty awesome use of random scraps from other projects.

The first version I sewed up this week is basically a wearable muslin made out of some machine-printed batik.  I love it!  The empire waist style fit is great and it was really easy to put together.   I'll definitely make it again, maybe using one of my fancier, hand-printed batiks, or perhaps some of Anna Maria Horner's beautiful fabrics.  The details of the blouse get a little bit lost with the busy print used for the whole blouse like this one...  Another idea: a solid yoke (perfect for displaying a cool necklace) with a patterned body.

My only complaint is that I am not a fan of facings... I find them bulky and awkward, even after I tacked them down on the inside of the blouse.  Thus, for my second version, I eliminated the yoke facings and use bias tape to finish the neckline.  Also, I skipped the button and slit in the back of the yoke- I don't need it to get the blouse over my head and the one I made on the batik version was pretty ugly (totally user error on my part).  Now that I've made the second version, I may go back into the first and replace the facings with bias tape.

So, my second version is made from some old school fabric that the Real Martha sent me... I'm not sure what you would call it.  Rainbow striped, funky textured, fairly sheer and flowy... I love it.  It is even better than I imagined in Painted Portrait blouse form.

I cut the yoke pieces so that the stripes were perpendicular to the remainder of the body to make it stand out.  The front looks great, but the back is a little funky because I forgot to pay attention to whether the two sides matched up.  Really I should have just cut the back yoke in one piece, on the fold, and skipped the seam since I wasn't making the back slit.  Live and learn.

I love how it turned out; love the fabric texture.  Perfect for hot Indonesian weather... flowy and light. It has a bit of a late '60s, '70s hippie feel to it.  As if Milla Jovovich might wear it in "Dazed and Confused."  Love it.

Scraptember: Figgy's Stellar Tunic

Hurrah!  I've finally gotten my act in gear to actually participate in a Sewcialists theme: Scraptember!!

Painted Portrait in Lawn

When she was in town earlier this year, Martha picked out a few colorways of this pretty cotton lawn at Belleboo. I offered to sew her up a top from the fabric and she chose the Painted Portrait blouse pattern from Anna Maria Horner. I'd made a couple of these tunics before, so she was able to try them on to see if the style worked for her, which it did!

Rocking the Rayon

My first foray into sewing with rayon... dudes, this stuff is slippery.  Pins slide out, it slips off the cutting and sewing tables, the edges shred like crazy.  Definitely a learning experience, sewing this dress.

I bought this batik print rayon at Toko Sariniah here in Jakarta.  It had a border print along one selvage edge, which required some funky cutting to make it work.  I decided to use it with the Painted Portrait pattern that I used for a couple tops a few weeks ago, but this time I made the dress version...

 

I added 4 inches to the bottom of the dress so that it hits me at the knee and I cut the back yoke piece on the fold, skipping the button.  I finished the neckline with bias tape instead of facings.  Also, I sewed French seams throughout since the fabric was so shreddy.

I think it came out pretty cute- ridiculously comfortable due to the slinky rayon.  It does have a bit of a nightgown feel to it, but I think if I find the right skinny belt to pair with it, it would give it some more shape.  Here it is with a thicker belt, which I don't love:

Me Made Made: Update #5 + An Extended Challenge

So, my first Me Made May is over, and I successfully wore a handmade garment every day for the whole month! The photos from my last week of outfits are below and the earlier updates are here, here, here and here.

Wearing my handmade stuff everyday was really fun (taking selfies daily: less so), although it definitely showed me that I need more me made pants and skirts in my life. And perhaps a couple more casual dresses.  I started filling in those gaps a little bit, though, by making a couple Mabel skirts throughout the month.

I had been hoping that the start date for my new job would be mid-month so that I could wear both my casual and work-appropriate clothes, but that didn't happen: my start date is June 2.  As a result, I am extending my personal Me Made May challenge into the first two weeks of June: for the first two weeks of June I will endeavor to wear a me made garment every day!  This way I can show off some of my dresses, blazers and dressier blouses as I head back to work in an office, and maybe also assess my work wardrobe for holes while I'm at it.

May 27 and 29: Photo fails. Oops!  I think a month of selfies wears thin and I purposefully forgot to take photos. Sorry I'm not sorry.  But I didn't fail on wearing me-made... I repeated my vintage fabric Painted Portrait blouse on the 27th with jeans and my neon popcorn Plantain on the 29th.  That Plantain may have to be retired because it is irrevocably stretched out horizontally (and yet too short vertically??)... zero recovery on that knit fabric, apparently!

May 28: A two-for... Balinese ikat Meghan blouse plus my french terry Mabel skirt:

May 30: Plaid Belcarra blouse for an outing to get my nails did, then for a drink with the Timster:

May 31: Ending the month with a bang. A trifecta of me-mades... first my color-blocked Scout for running errands in the morning, then one of my batik Anda tunics as an afternoon poolside cover-up, then my not-yet-blogged Vogue 8904 for evening beers!

Cheers to a month of me-mades!!!

Floral Lawn Washi

My sister really liked the last Washi top I made her, so I whipped out another one for her in this 

pretty floral lawn.

Testing, testing: Tilly & the Buttons Stevie Tunic

I love a simple, boxy woven top for summer!

Me Made May Update #2

Me-Made-May: my second update!  A little more variety this week, for sure, but still a casual week of working at home, running errands and some sewing stuff.

May 6: Vintage fabric Anna Maria Horner Painted Portrait blouse, paired with a jean pencil skirt:

May 7: Almost forgot to take a photo, but got a nighttime mirror selfie of the outfit I wore to run errands around town (and tape together some PDF patterns), my batik Anda tunic and some leggings.  Plus a me-made turquoise bracelet!:

May 8: a double me-made day... after a round of errands in my sheer polka dot Josephine blouse, I got so sweaty (as one is wont to do in Bangkok's sweltering heat!) that my leather purse strap started bleeding on it (boo!), so I changed into my green Meghan peasant blouse for the remainder of the day:

May 9: Most of the day I spent at home sewing (in my non-me-made pajamas) and avoiding Bangkok's latest round of protests, but in the evening I threw on my wearable muslin By Hand London Anna dress (why I have not made another one of these yet?!) with some flipflops and went to the local bar for some (sweaty) streetside beers:

May 10: Brunch in the neighborhood in my batik kimono frankentop, paired with a stretch pencil skirt:

May 11: Bumming around the house on a Lazy Sunday in my neon popcorn Plantain... some truly awful photography for which I apologize:

May 12: Photo bombed by Lincoln while wearing my linen-y Scout t-shirt with skinny jeans:

Josephine Blouse: A Wearable Muslin

I didn't jump on Made by Rae's Josephine pattern when it first came out, but for some reason this past Sunday I couldn't get it out of my head. Later that afternoon: an impulse purchase, a download, some printing, cutting and taping, a quick sew and ta-da! 

A wearable muslin Josephine blouse by evening's end.

I used some polka dot mystery fabric that Martha gave me (you might remember it from this Maggie Mae top or the lining of the plaid patchwork dress I made Zoe).  I think it's vintage stuff from her stash.  It's quite sheer (hence the camisole in these pics), very soft, and if you turn the iron on too hot it melts a little.  As such, it doesn't press very well and my pleats are not as crisp as they could be, but the shirt is really comfy to wear. 

I am really digging this pattern... it's super simple and quick to put together, but the pleats make it look really polished and professional.  It would go well with a pencil skirt or cigarette pants for work, but it could also be worn with jeans.  I can imagine it in lots of fabrics... I've got a pretty piece of batik silk from Indonesia that has Josephine written all over it!  I think perhaps next time I might go with sleeves that are slightly less... um... pirate-y. Maybe the straight 3/4th length sleeves from the Painted Portrait tunic?  

My methodology consisted of following the directions for view B with the exception of a few areas:

• I staystitched and sewed the binding on the neckline immediately after sewing the pleats and attaching the shoulders together (before sewing on the sleeves) because I didn't want the neckline to get distorted.  Also, I sewed the binding on the inside like a facing rather than have it show since I was using store-bought bias binding.
•  I basted together the side seams and tried it on without the back elastic to see if I wanted to add that feature or not...  I wasn't sure it would look good with the sheer fabric and I didn't feel it needed more shaping, so I omitted it for this version. 

As an aside, the slightly pink hue in all my photos is due to this pretty sunset in the other direction:

Japanese Josephine

Since I have already given you sneak preview of my latest project in my last post, I might as well tell the full story!

After my successful wearable muslin of Made by Rae's Josephine blouse, I quickly cut out and sewed up another one, switching out the sleeves for a slightly less poofy look.

I used some cool Japanese fabric I bought in Bangkok's Chinatown (that's a mouthful of international-ness, eh?).  The selvage is labeled "kimono chintz poplin. made in Japan" and it's deep red with a really light grey... the design is stylized mountains (or maybe clouds), but occasionally when I look at it too hard, I see a certain part of the male anatomy.  This is particularly funny because when I Googled "kimono chintz poplin" to see if I could find the name of the company that manufactured the fabric, the first hit was another sewist bemoaning the fact that she saw "hot steaming piles of crap" in her kimono chintz poplin and that she couldn't unsee them. Ha! I am trying my hardest not to see the man parts in my fabric because I love the shirt.

I switched out the sleeves that came with the pattern in favor of the narrower 3/4ths sleeves from the Painted Portrait pattern.  I think they work ok... still a good deal of poof at the shoulders, but less fabric around the lower part of the arms.  A better style for me as well as a fabric saver, so win-win.  I probably could have just shortened and narrowed the Josephine sleeves, but laziness set in.

I made the same construction changes I made for my first Josephine (besides the sleeves, of course), which is to say not many: skipped elastic and bound the neckline earlier in the process.

Here's me GIFed again, because one can never have enough GIFs of oneself floating around the interwebs:

Josephine in Lawn

Here's a Made by Rae Josephine blouse I made for my Mom. I've made Josephine for myself several times in the past. I love the pleats (pintucks?) and the wide (but not too wide) neckline and thought my mom would like it, too.

Liebster Lovin'!

Exciting news!  The lovely Masha over at The Itinerant Seamstress was kind enough to nominate me for a Liebster award, a blogger-to-blogger award meant to recognize blogs with small readership and to help widen their audience.  And here's how I feel about this nomination:

Translated: yesssssssssss!  Also, a sneak preview of my latest make...

 Masha and I just recently discovered each others blogs as well as a connection we have: husbands who were in Peace Corps together.  Thanks for the shout-out, Masha!

So, when nominated for a Liebster award, the process is that the nominee must answer the questions from the nominator and provide 5 random facts about her or himself.  Then the nominee pays it forward by nominating more small blogs for the award and sending them more fun questions.
 

Here are my answers to Masha's questions:

1) How much time do you spend on blog photography?

Not much... I go with natural lighting on my balcony or the kitchen table for clothes I am sending to my nieces.  A little cropping, perhaps some color adjustment and then I post the photos.  I could probably stand to find some more inspiring or interesting spots for taking photos, especially considering there is a wealth of interesting backdrops in a big city like Bangkok!

2) What is your idea of a perfect vacation?

Scuba diving all day followed by happy hour beers.  Since moving to SE Asia, my husband and I have become mildly obsessed with diving and trying to document all of the amazing underwater wildlife we see.  We only occasionally succeed on the documentation part!

3) What fabric are you currently drooling over?

I am sucker for prints and have been drooling over all sorts, mostly the ones out of my price range (Liberty, anyone? Also, Art Gallery fabrics are pretty amazeballs.), but I am trying (not very hard) to bring some solids into my life.

  

4) What is your favorite candy?

Anything sour or with a chewy consistency.  A childhood favorite that I never find here in SE Asia is Charleston Chews.  Mmm... so chewy...

5) What is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you? 

Eek... I don't really like thinking about the absolute scariest things that have happened to me, but I will say: as a kid we had bats that somehow found their way into our old house during the summers... you know what's scary?  Waking up to a bat flying circles around your bedroom.  Makes me shudder just thinking about it.

5 random facts about me:

1. I love chili peppers but hate bell peppers, particularly the green ones.

2. I went to law school at night while working full time at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

3. I am trying really hard to stop biting my nails.  I have been unsuccessful since middle school, but don't count me out yet. Fun colored nail polish helps...

4. Sewing zippers intimidates me.

5. I adopted a street cat in Indonesia.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't understand English.  Or Indonesian, it seems.

My nominations!:

When trying to decide who to nominate, I realized that I don't read enough small blogs. Time to remedy that!!  In the meantime, here are a few that I follow that I think deserve some recognition for the cool stuff they're making:

1. Climbing the Willow:  Teri blogs about sewing for her kids, and she is also dabbling in pattern design.  I recently made a tunic for my niece Anna based on Teri's free Izzy top pattern and tutorial and it is freaking adorable.  I can't wait to see what her next pattern will be!

2. Ivy Arch: Daniela posts about her beautiful handmade clothing as well as the cool totes and toys she sells out of her Etsy shop.  I loooove her fabric choices, funky style, and use of Japanese patterns. Check out this amazing Painted Portrait dress she made. I absolutely adore the pieced bodice.

3. Stitch Parade: I recently discovered this blog via Kollabora.  Sewing AND knitting AND jewelry making?!  My three favorite things! Yes, please!

4. Needle and Ted: Another Kollabora discover (I love Kollabora... can you tell?)... Olu blogs about her effort to create wardrobes for her kids that go beyond pink, sparkles and glitter.  From what I have seen on her blog, she is definitely accomplishing that in spades!  The clothes she makes for her daughters are impossibly cool also very cute.  Check out her bad-ass refashioned sweatshirt dress, or her goes-with-everything grey harem pants.

My questions for the blogs I nominated, should they choose to accept!:

1. Why do you blog?

2. What's your all-time favorite item you've made and why?

3. What's a good book you've read lately?

4. Besides sewing, what other hobbies do you partake in?

5. What's been your favorite moment of 2014 so far?

Thanks again, Masha! 
Looking forward to learning more about my nominees!!

Testing, testing: Birkin Flares

This is latest pattern from Lauren at Baste + Gather, the Birkin Flares. The Birkin Flares are described as "high-waisted, flare-leg, classic jeans that are equally perfect with your comfiest tee or a flowy, silk blouse." You can read about the pattern release here on Lauren's blog.