Orageuse Lisboa silk top

This fabric was a single meter panel with a design incorporating the taupe sky, a watercolourish Italian scene, and flowers at the bottom.  For some reason after making my beautiful Lisboa dress (here), I thought that this one meter of fabric would be enough to make a reversible Lisboa top.  No chance of that!!  As it is, I had to use the bottom of the fabric for the strap that goes across the back, which I find rather jarring.

I used a size 38 with no modifications except to raise the armhole slightly.
Sorry no head, I stood too close to the camera, and didn't feel like taking more.

Otherwise, my construction proceeded as the first version did.  I admit to being a bit lazy with this.  I did use french seams, but I didn't iron it very well as you can see by how the shoulders don't lie quite flat. 

The truth is, this fabric had some unfortunate memories associated with it.  I quite like the top although I would increase the depth of the slits next time.  I still find it very challenging to finish this kind of split hem.   Maybe there are things that just don't get fixed until you have a serger.  Because of the facing, I really think a lined top would be the best way to make this, still in a very slippery fabric like silk.  

So I gave this to my friend Regina who loves it and reported back to me that she has received compliments at work.  We are both happy. 

By Hand London Elisalex in French flowers

I first tried to sew an Elisalex during the year I was learning to sew.  I went for the version with sleeves and sized up to the 8/12.  It was awful and I was never able to salvage that dress.

I became more interested when I saw that By Hand London had released a revised version of the dress, with improvements for the sleeveless version and a bit less tulip in the skirt.  Since my original version was on paper, I emailed them and very shortly received the updates as a pdf.

This time I went sleeveless, 6/10.  I removed about 8" of the skirt pattern - 1 entire sheet of paper in length.  The fabric is cotton with a brushed feel, which I got in Paris a few years ago.  It is beautiful fabric although I tend to avoid too much in the way of flowers, and I thought it had stretch and was going to make a Morris with it ages ago, but alas, it doesn't.  So it is an Elisalex instead!

I noticed the irritating mirror pattern across the butt quite awhile after I made this dress, which must be a sign of how much I love it.

The pattern is straightforward.  I had no problems with it.
And then came the real shock - this dress fits.  Like for real fits.  This is amazing.  I made no changes and the straps aren't too long and the bust isn't puffy.

No effort, magic dress.  I'm in love and I already have a version planned involving lemons.  (Who doesn't, these days?)  I hope I will have enough time to make it before I move! (Update: no chance.  See you next year...)
 

Cali Faye Gardenia dress in merino

This dress caught my interest when I first discovered Cali Faye's patterns.  I pondered it at length and was so excited to make it!  I went through a variety of fabrics in my head.  It seemed to have a lot of plusses - cool orientation of the fabric, knit, interesting shape, etc - this is close to the sort of thing I often cave in and buy so I pinned a lot of hopes on it.

As I started to feel the stress of another impending move, I cut out any plans for a muslin and inspected the pattern pictures closely.  The model in the photos has basically the same measurements as I do and is in a size S.  Based on the fact that I didn't want the dress too loose, I went for an XS instead.

Merino jersey: from The Fabric Store, this time from Dunedin just because I happened to be there visiting a friend.

I also changed the neck binding as I didn't really like the idea of applying the binding as thought it's a woven - after all I hate doing woven bindings and that's part of why I like knits!  I did a foldover knit binding like from the Megan Nielsen Briar - and initially I thought I had done it too tight and ruined the dress and my mood was low.  But I persisted.

I put in so much work to get the pockets in.  The instructions are ridiculous here.  I think usually you attach the pocket to the front and back of the skirt, with right sides together, and sew with a small seam allowance.  Then you flip the pocket out and align the front and back, and sew the entire thing together, turning nicely at the corners.  That way you don't have any funny gaps all over the place.

The instructions here had you sew the pockets separately from the skirt, and left all those gaps where things didn't line up the first time around.  Luckily knits are forgiving and all those gaps were closed eventually....

And then I tried on my dress and was in horrors, because those awful, hideous pockets ruin the dress!  They add width directly over my hips and are too low to be useful.  It took me a week with my Gardenia in the time-out pile before I picked it up and realised all I had to do was take off the pockets and the dress would be fine.

Sry forgot to iron hem

I did that.  And it was.  I like it now!  

Papercut pneuma bra in upcycled feather print

I was keen to try out some swimsuit sewing.
My starting point was the pneuma bra, and the soma bottom and bra top.

Unfortunately, although I did finish them all before I left, I only photographed the pneuma so I'll talk about that.

I cut XXS which usually is the size in Papercut that fits me the best.
The fabric I used was a slightly stretchy, massive and shapeless top from the op-shop.  It was mostly nylon and didn't have too many holes, which were easy to work around.  I lined it with substantial, black swimsuit lining from Tessuti.  This stuff is serious - it's strong and compressive and everything fit tightly when I used it - I would consider that in future sizing.

Sewing this was pretty easy.  I really don't like how much the neck part of the top folds outwards though - did I pull too much tension, or not enough? I was also not convinced that four little tiny pieces of foldover elastic would be enough for the straps.  It requires some contortion to choose where you put those straps too - this is a great place to have a friend who can help and mark your back for you!

The fit: is tight and actually a bit too compressive.  I would wear this swimming more likely than running because in the water it would loosen up a bit.  For a future version I'll add 1 inch to the center front.  That would both give me more room, and would widen the neck a little bit.  As it is, the straps are a bit too close together too so that should be a perfect fix.

I'm not sure if in a more giving fabric, like ordinary knits, it would be loose enough on its own, but I do appreciate how compressive the swim lining is!

As for the straps, I would switch them out for 1" heavy duty elastic in the future.  That would be fine, at least, for a jogging or yoga bra top.  For a swimming top I'm not sure elastic does well in the water so I'm still not sure what I'd use instead.  The idea of trying to make straps out of slinky, misbehaving swimsuit nylon doesn't appeal but I suppose it is an option.  I don't think I would use FOE again.

Megan Nielsen Eucalypt dress in lemons

I have made this dress before, but it was so bad that it was just a muslin and I never blogged it.  I cut a size XS, I believe, and it was too tight over my hips.

Recently I pattern tested for another one of these slip-dress styles, and had lots of opportunities to see how sizing around the hips changed the fit of the dress.  It made me willing to be more flexible and size up in the hip area as a way of managing my swayback.

So when I decided to cut into some lovely, summery lemon fabric, I went from an XS at the bust to an S right around the waist.

The dress is very simple, lending itself to french seams.

I was, however, still not satisfied with the amount of fabric pooling in my back.  The solution would be to add fish darts to the back, if I were so inclined.  Another option would be to use drapey fabric like rayon that might make the swayback less obvious.

I gave this to my friend Regina who says she loves it, and who lives in a hot clime where she can wear it a lot! 

Orange Lingerie purple lace Marlborough bra

This bra is the story of thinking you know what you are doing and forgetting all the details.

I made this beautiful bra awhile ago.  Too bad that it seems 32 C really does not fit me these days.  So my solution was to cut a 30B, to decrease both the clearly too big cup size and the clearly loose band.  That was a bad move.  Next, I went on to cut my pattern out in lace using glue, that honestly isn't my fault is the absolute worst sewing glue on the entire planet. Pick your spray glue wisely!!  If I had taken a picture of the glue I'd post it but I didn't, sorry.  Madalynne recommends Odif's 505 (here) and I would go with that next time as I reckon she is the lingerie guru these days

Then buoyed up by all that tension and anger from dealing with the glue, I popped all these tiny pieces of lace into my sewing machine, where the feed dogs had a lot of fun.  This bra looked too small to me - the cups just seemed small.  And my drive to actually produce a nice bra hit zero really fast.  Which shows.

The cups are not even because I couldn't see my snip marks and didn't try very hard.  Other than that it looks ok.  It is too small, both in the cup and in the band.  I think a 32 B might have given me the best result.

The lace and notions are from Tailor Made Shop.   I generally like everything I get from there, but this was actually a kit to make a Madalynne bra, and as kits go I think it doesn't match very well - it looks good when the pieces are just lying out but as a bra it has too many jarring elements - why are the straps so dark?  Nude closure?  It would be better with a dark coloured underlining instead of the pale white.  I also didn't underline the top panel of the bra, and I think that would lead to it being very flimsy and falling apart faster. 

And I have finally been on the verge of a bramaking breakthrough: I do not wear lace bras.  Why do I keep trying to make them?  It may be time to get over my anxiety of foam and make a foam bra - ironically the very first bra I made was foam and then I reread a bunch of blogs and thought I should be not using foam, so I stopped and never tried it again.  However, the duck billed shape of the Marlborough is even more apparent in this smaller size, and so I think it is also time to start making different patterns - I have in mind the Harriet to try, plus one of Madalynne x Simplicity 8229,  but I believe that Anne from Clothing Engineer had a lot of advice that I might read up on prior to my next foray into bras.