Back into it, with a skirt and shirt

Well, its been a while, I know!  After so much sewing over the autumn and winter, I took a bit of a break to make the most of the brighter weather, and to spend time on other things.  Now that I'm getting back into sewing, I've decided to focus this year on making work wear garments to build up this part of my wardrobe, and to try and co-ordinate the pieces as much as possible.

I've started with a skirt and 2 tops, from the fabrics I bought back in Oz in March.  It's like the finished items will be a belated holiday souvenir! 

The skirt I've made before, Butterick B5249, however this time I made view A, a simple straight skirt.  I'd recommend this pattern to you all, it's quite versatile, and the different views mean it can be made over and over again.

The first top to go with this skirt is a shirt in New Look 6407.  I'm making view D.  The fabric is a silk poly and was a complete nightmare to cut out; real slippery.  I had to cut each piece from single layer, it took absolute ages to do as it kept moving about.  Luckily though, sewing the fabric was pain free.  I did french seams on all except the armholes, which I over locked due to the curve.  To set in the sleeves I used my usual process of spreading the ease manually with pins rather than by gathering.  And I decided not to go for a bow and cut-out on the sleeve, but to instead just have a band which I decorated with an overlap and button.  The sizing on this pattern came up small - I cut a 12 which fit my measurements, but I really could have done a 14.  This picture doesn't have the hem and buttons sewn on yet, but you still get the idea!

The 2nd top will be a self drafted pattern and is still in progress, so I'll save that for a later post.

BurdaStyle 01/2011 102 Blouse

I'm in love with this blouse!  But it was a hard slog!  I took a lot of advice from long time sewer of BurdaStyle, Sharon, who wrote a few great blogs on the fun-and-games she had making it, and I'm sure this advice was the reason mine turned out so well - thanks Sharon! :)

Here's the technical drawing:

And now my version (paired with my BurdaStyle 113 skirt):


I made Sharon's suggested construction alterations, and also made a few extras of my own.  They were:

* Omitted the button loops and replaced with normal button holes (mental note to self - practice stitching buttonholes before next project!).

* Removed 5/8" from each CF piece as such an overlap wasn't necessary due to the button change above.  However, I probably should also have increased the slope of the neck V as it's quite a conservative height now (a little too conservative perhaps...)

* Changed the front dart to a peplum and added 5/8" to the length to compensate.

* Brought the front top gathers closer to the CF.

There were a lot of difficult parts in the construction of this top - the square set sleeves, the yoke and the buttonholes - the first two were difficult because the instructions were absolute rubbish, the later was difficult because I was rubbish at it!

Now I'm certainly no pattern instruction writer, but hopefully these construction tips below will be more helpful than the BurdaStyle ones!:

For the sleeves - finish vertical stitch line 5/8" below the corner.  Clip the front or back piece (not the sleeve piece) from corner to end of stitch line.   When doing the horizontal seam, pull the fabric to the side, and ensure your stitch lines meet in a perfect right angle, otherwise you'll get an unfortunate pinch in the fabric at the corner of the sleeve.

For the front facing - cut a little longer than the front piece at the top so it's easier to finish.

For the yoke - when joining to the blouse, ensure the front neck edge of the yoke extends 5/8" past front/facing seam so that when the bottom yoke is sewn on the finished edges all meet.

Did I mention that I love it?!