Pinstripe Barb Pant

I apologize in advance for what is a fairly boring post: a pair of pants that I have made before, in a color that is difficult to photograph!

Sewing Dare Part 2: Gertie's Cigarette Pants

Between my Style Arc Barb pants and these babies (with a sprinkling of the Jutland shorts I made for my husband), I am considering my sewing dare from Gillian done and dusted!

Sewing Dare Part 1: Style Arc Barb

OK, Gillian: I am following through with your sewing dare to make pants, but I am doing it in baby steps. Yes, I made pants. But are elastic waist stretch pants really daring? The rules state, "A good dare should be a fun challenge, just slightly outside your comfort zone." I'm thinking this gets me a quarter or maybe halfway to completing my dare, because although technically pants because they cover the lower half of my body with two tubes, these pants have no zip, no button, no pockets, and thus are completely within my comfort zone.

Judges?

Morris!

Finally finished my Morris! I'm not sure why it took me so long to finish it up, as it's a really simple project. Sewjo blockage + long weekend trip = drawn out sewing project.

Stretch Denim Megan Dress

When Tilly, of and the Buttons fame, first released her book, Love at First Stitch, I was super pumped about the patterns, particularly the Megan dress. But I was also sad because I couldn't figure out how I was going to get my hands on it here in Thailand.  It's not even released in the U.S. yet!  Then it   occurred to be that I'd had lots of good luck finding English-language sewing and crafting books at the Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya.  Sure enough, there was exactly one copy of the book at Kinokuniya in Bangkok, so I rushed to get my hands on it. Woop woop! Sorry, not sorry, other BKK sewists!!* I probably overpaid for it, but it's mine, all mine!

The fabric: Tim brought back a bunch of fabric he bought on a recent business trip to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. When he told me that his hotel was near Ben Thanh market,  a lightbulb went off in my head: I remembered that Jenny of Cashmerette has written a post about fabric shopping in HCMC and had spotted some cool stuff at that particular market.  I casually mentioned it to Tim and shared the blog post with him, not thinking anything would come of it.  Much to my surprise and he returned with oodles of fun fabrics: floral printed stretch denim in two weights, dip-dyed gingham, super lightweight and breezy madras plaid... Dude definitely got the husband of the week award!  And thanks to Jenny for pointing him in the right direction!  I used the lighter weight floral stretch denim for my Megan dress.

Anywho, back to the Megan dress: so cute! I really love the dart/tucks on the bodice, and I dig how they meet up the the darts on the skirt... nice lines!  Sleek, but not tight in any way.

Here's a close-up of how the the darts of the skirt and the dart tucks on the bodice meet up at the empire waist... good stuff:

I muslined it using an old sheet to make sure the bodice worked and because I was worried about the skirt being tight in the hips.  But the skirt pattern has a great curve to it, so hippy ladies rejoice!  The bodice was great for me, no changes made. The sleeves are a wee bit poofy for my taste** and I was nervous that the gathered sleeve heads would be too bulky in the denim.  

Here are the changes I made:

- Because I was using stretchy fabric, I determined that I didn't need a zipper and I omitted it, cutting the back skirt and bodice piece on the fold, minus seam allowances, of course, to eliminate the back seam (yay! two cheers for stretchy fabric)

- I added 1.5 inches to the skirt length

- I ultimately left the sleeves off and used bias tape facings instead

- I used bias tape on the neckline and skirt hem, too.

- I topstitched the waist seam to tack the seam allowance up towards the bodice because it kept rolling down

I was worried that the light-colored printed denim would give the dress an unfortunately trashy '80s or early '90s look (google "floral denim dress"... whoa, not for me!), but I think the final result is quite cute!  It helps that the denim is more grey than blue. Paired with a cardigan or blazer it's good to work for the office.*** Plus, it goes with my wedding jewels (which I made, see here).  They haven't seen much action since I got married, which I was feeling bad about, so, winning!

* PS: are there any other BKK sewists out there? I know Adrianna of Crafterhours and Hey June was living here until recently, but anybody else out there?

** PPS: Anyone have any good recommendations for a tutorial on how to remove gathers from a sleeve... i.e. how to change a sleeve pattern to have a smooth head?

*** I wore my stretch denim Megan to work on Monday and got 3 compliments within 15 minutes of arriving!  And it was super comfortable all day, so, double win.

Floral Charlotte

Since my Me Made May adventure revealed that I need more me-made bottom coverings, I decided to sew up By Hand London's Charlotte skirt:

I used a floral printed stretch bottom-weight... maybe it's technically denim?  I got it from a local fabric store here in Bangkok, Hieng Yoo Huat.  Not sure why everything I am posting this week is pink, considering pink is not normally my jam, but here it is, in all its rosy glory!:

I shortened the length by about 7 inches by very scientifically holding my Colette Mabel pattern pieces up to it.

My two issues: one, for some reason my waistband was very short as compared with the skirt, so rather than having a couple of inches of overlap, I only had about one inch.  Hmmm.  Not sure what happened. Next time I'll have to lengthen it and maybe widen it, too.

Two, I am getting some poofiness in the front area, not necessarily when standing still, but when I walk, the fabric bunches up. You can kinda see the weird hip-to-hip horizontal wrinkle below, although the print obscures it a bit.  Any thoughts on how one might go about fixing this problem?  When I look at images of other ladies in their Charlotte skirts, it appears others may have a similar problem, to varying extents.

I'm pretty happy with my Charlotte!  I'll definitely have a few improvements to make on my next iteration, but it's a pretty cute and wearable skirt as is, too!

Black Mabel Pencil Skirt

When I made my Me Made May pledge, I knew in advance that my me-mades mainly consisted of tops, with a few dresses and scant bottoms thrown in.  Making more skirts and pants (beyond just elastic waist pants) is on my to-do list.  I thought I'd start simple: the new Mabel knit skirt from Colette.  Easy, basic, comfortable...

My new skirt is made from some black french terry that I bought at L.GEmini on Sampeng Lane in Bangkok's Chinatown (same place I got the cool grey knit for Tim's Strathcona t-shirt, which I aso used for the waistband lining).  I went looking for a stable knit as required by the pattern, but there was a little communication difficulty on my part, so I ended up walking around the entire store feeling and stretching each roll of knit fabric until I found this black french terry. Sewing with the french terry was great... stable knits are so easy to cut and sew!  Zip, zip, zip on the serger and I had myself a skirt within a few hours.

Unfortunately, in black, the details like the cool seaming, are completely invisible.

The skirt turned out pretty great!  I made the longer pencil skirt with the kick pleat (view 3), the one with the seams down the front of the thighs (like princess seams on your legs? is that a thing?). The fit was good in the hips, although next time I might make the waist just a tiny bit smaller... The only thing I noticed is that the bottom hem seems to have flared out a bit.  Maybe I stretched it out when doing the twin needle hem?  Who knows, it might settle back into place after a wash. Or it might not, because I don't have a dryer and knits with poor recovery don't fare well here in BKK. Hmmm.  

All in all, a great pattern and a great basic skirt, good for work or bopping around town. I definitely want to try making the version with the button placket in the front- so cute!  But I'd like to make it the length of the pencil skirt since minis are not my thing.  I could also see making the pencil skirt version with a fun contrasting front panel.  I've also got some ikat print ponte left over from my Tessuti Anita pants... that could be a fun Mabel, too!  Lots of options.

Spring Top Sewalong: Simplicity 1666 aka Lisette Attache

Under the wire here for Made by Rae's Spring Top Sewalong: Simplicity 1666, the Lisette Attache peplum blouse!

Still on the hunt for a great white blouse, I opted to sew up the Attache blouse in the same slightly stretchy, textured white woven fabric from Bangkok's Chinatown that I used for my version of Liesl and Co's Weekend Getaway blouse (blogged here!).  This time the fabric was a much better fit with the pattern, though.  Fabric choice: it matters!  (A fact I have learned the hard way a few times.)

I always worry about sheerness with white fabric, so I skipped the facings and used store-bought bias tape as a facing instead.  The sheerness factor may become problematic with those princess seams, though... the seam allowances show through, which is fine because it shows the nice lines of the pattern, but the ones on the curvy part of the bust won't lay flat.  I pressed them open.  Should I have pressed them to one side?  Hmmmm.

Since my fabric was stretchy, I skipped the zipper and cut the back piece cut on the fold, minus the seam allowance, mais oui.  I think, perhaps, that one might be able to get away with no zipper even for a non-stretch fabric (but don't quote me on that).

I love this pattern!  I like how the front and back are flat, but the sides are peplum-y!  It looks kinda neat with my fabric choice because the texture runs vertically on the bodice portions and then diagonally on the bias cut peplums.  The pattern is super easy to put together, too.... I am definitely considering making the dress version, too, which looks like a great basic.

Also, this happened during the making of this blouse:

Weekend Getaway Blouse

Recently I realized that literally everything I have sewn for myself to date has been made from printed or patterned fabric...  with all of that pattern in my wardrobe, what I really needed was a simple white blouse.

I liked the new Weekend Getaway blouse from Liesel & Co. from the minute I saw it and only got more anxious to make it after seeing so many cute versions pop up on the interwebs. 

For white fabric, I wanted something light with a little bit of texture, but not something too girly like lace or eyelet.  Chuck and I found this fun textured, slightly stretchy cotton in Bangkok's Chinatown.  In retrospect, it might be juuuuuuust a little too stiff for this pattern, but really not too bad.  I had originally intended to sew the pockets on, but they were too bulky in this particular fabric, so I skipped them this time.

My next Weekend Getaway will be in a flowier fabric, I think, like voile or rayon challis. Now that I see the photos of myself in it, I might go down a size,too, because there is a ton of ease (also maybe due to the stretch factor in my fabric).  In fact, I might take the sides in on this one right meow.  I dig the pattern, though, so I imagine my next one will be sooner rather than later!

(As an aside, check out my Thanksgiving burn on my arm... ouch!)