Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Patrones 310

Happy Christmas!

And here is the Festive Season Patrones - of black clothes.  That's unusual isn't it?  A little gloomy but very practical.  
As you would expect, lots of dresses for the party season. 
Ok, here we go.  The first section is cocktail dresses.  I love this one but...cough.... it takes 17.05 metres of fabric!  Look at the interesting cutting layout.
This little jacket is nice too. 
This one is a bit dubious though.
Next we have Rebel Without a Cause which I think is party separates with a Western feel.  A strappy dress, singlet, 2 suit jackets, bustier, jumpsuit, tie neck blouse, frilly lace blouse, baggy crotch pants and this frilly blouse, waistcoat and skirt.
And next Tango Attitude, which has a lingerie-ish feel.  3 petticoatish dresses, a waistcoat, jacket, top, topper and skirt. 
And these very smart looking trousers.
Next (the best bit I think) is a section on Little Black Dresses. 8 in all, with different styles and some very smart ones. My favourite is the draped black dress below.  Isn't it nice?
And finally - colour!  The larger size section with 3 dresses including this lovely red one. 
The next Patrones is the advance Spring. 
Have a lovely time everyone!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Blouse 109 Burda 8/2011

Calling Darby!   The Patrones you won is still here.  If you email me by the end of the week I'll send it on to you.   

I've been a bad, bad blogger and blog reader!     

There hasn't been much sewing mojo around my sewing room for a while.  After a few things on the trot that went awry and looked awful, I decided to hang up the scissors of doom for a while and concentrate on other things (mostly blobbing in front of the TV).  But it's time to get over it - I'm running out of summer work clothes.

Moderately successful is blouse 109 from August Burda.  
It's a lovely design.  It's a very basic pattern with the addition of a raw edged frill.  My frill is slightly less frilly than it would normally be as I didn't have enough fabric to cut it fully on the bias but it looks fine.  There are a few blouses in the same mag made out of this pattern.
I used navy silk charmeuse.  The body is made on the non shiny side.
The blouse is quite roomy so I didn't do a full bust adjustment.
It was a lot longer in the back than the front.  I had to shorten the back a bit as it looked weird.
The frill is raw edged and I suspect you need a rotary cutter to get the edge looking totally straight.  The blouse has rather interesting concealed buttons. 
I didn't follow the Burda instructions as their way of neatening the frill sounded a bit fiddly.  I did the hem last rather than first and made the frill in the following way.
Sew along fold line on right side.
Trim, turn and sew. 
And then when you turn the facing back and sew a line to create the placket, it looks like this.
Something colourful next time methinks.  I bought these great cottons a little while ago at Potters Outlet store.  Yummy.  Now... what to make?

 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Patrones 309 and the winners

Ta Da...... the winners of Patrones #308 are:
Gypsy Love
Darby
and Katherine H.

Yes, I lugged not 1 but 3 extra copies back from Spain.  Congratulations to the winners and if you send me your details, I will put them in the mail for you forthwith. 
A couple of people mentioned the weirdness of my comment settings in the last post.   I'm afraid I'm stumped how to fix it.  I'd prefer that it be like other blogs where the comments are shown under the post on the main page.  I've played around with the settings but can't get mine to do anything but the current set up.   I'm mystified.   

To leave comments - if you click on the pink post heading above it will take you into the page with the comments and the comment form.   So I'm afraid the comments arrangement is not very user friendly,  but I do love comments and I'd love to hear from you!
Patrones 309 arrived yesterday.  Has Patrones been a tad drab of late with some dubious styling or am I imagining it?  Mind you, Patrones #309 has some patterns I will surely make.
They first have a 'Rustic Elegance' section with this dress and a top, plaid anorak and jacket.
Next we have neutral coloured urban styles and oh yay, a couple of patterns from the COS brand.  I always look out for those ones.  They are usually a bit different and interesting.  
This section has the 2 coats shown plus 4 pairs of trousers, 4 jackets, long shirt and a couple of blouses.
Next up is Trends, which includes a couple of waistcoats, shirt dress, blouse and a suit. 
Hmm to the boots but this dress is quite interesting when you look at the line drawing.
The next section is rainwear.  It's not often you see a pattern for a rain poncho.  There is a lovely single breasted trench coat too.
There is also a good section on pencil skirts with 7 different styles. I really love No. 37 below, check out the details in the line drawing.
Last but not least is the Plus Size section with 3 winter coats including this lovely red one.
Next months magazine looks like it is the Party Frock edition. 

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Patrones #308 Blouse and a giveaway

It's time for another giveaway - Patrones #308.  If you entered for the last one (#307) but were unsuccessful I'll add you into this one.  Otherwise, make a comment expressing your interest before midnight next Wednesday Perth time and you'll be in the draw. 
Summer has arrived as has the need for some new work clothes.  I've made a couple of things from this Patrones.   The first is Model 32 worn with skirt with tucks 14.  I'll review the skirt in another post but here's the top in a black, white and red silk. 
This is in the plus size patterns which are from Patrones sizes 50-58.  I figured it is meant to be loose fitting in any case so used a very untechnical method of leaving off the seam allowances all over and taking a couple of centimetres off each of the side seams to grade it down.  It seems to fit ok. 
This is an easy top, well except for the collar which bamboozled me.  I'm sure there is a sensible way of making the collar that has escaped me but with for anyone else who is making this top this is how I made it, copied off a RTW top.  First the right hand side.
 Is this making any sense?
Now the left hand side. Make loops.
And then finally sew to the neck. 
And finally hand sew the turned under edge to the neck seam.   So it ends up looking like this.
I'm very happy with this one and now onto making another blouse from this Patrones.