BWOF 06/2009-119, a near miss with a UFO

Well sorry for the long gap, must be that time of year when the brain wants a vacation- I have been sewing, but really not in the mood for taking photos and blogging, but now I am back!

First some comments to respond to;

Ann of Ann's Fashion Studio awarded me with a lovely blog award and I just want to say a huge thank you.  I feel bad that I dropped off the face of the blog planet as soon as she had given it to me.  Go check out Ann's blog if you haven't already seen it, she has been busy with a move recently too, but there are some gorgeous sewing projects in there, you have to see the Chanel style jacket.

Divitin asked where to get the pattern from my last post - Divitin, this pattern (and most of the things I make) are from a monthly magazine called Burda World of Fashion, or BWOF for short.  Actually I think it is just called Burda now - there is more information than you will ever need about how to use it and where to get it over at Pattern Review - click here.

Onto sewing, I promised co-ordinates, of course I ended up with separates that do not co-ordinate (yet)....

Here I am wearing the linen 122 shirt as promised;

Then I decided to make another top from the same issue - the ruffled blouse 119 in a brown and teal silk print (this is where I envisioned my co-ordinating pieces - brown, cream, teal, maybe a splash of coral - ah the best laid plans...). This is an unusual print that I won't describe as I don't want to be responsible for disappointed google searchers ending up on a sewing blog, but it's subtle, arty and tasteful I think!

I'll be honest I absolutely hated making this and it so nearly became a UFO, but now that it is finished (hooray!) I am happy with it and can hopefully wear it without bringing back painful memories. The main problems I had, in a nutshell were;

- using fabric which moved and slipped around so much it was practically alive.  However for this style to be successful it really does need something very drapy. You have been warned!

- not reading the instructions and cutting layout first. If you make this note that the back piece needs to be cut in two pieces - upper and lower. I've seen Burda have pieces that need to be joined but never separated, I guess the same blouse back must be used in another pattern without a seam.  I just put the casing over where there should have been a seam at the back so my top is slightly shorter than it should be.

- the instructions for the concealed button opening were absolutely terrible and made zero sense to me. I knew what it needed to look like when it was finished so I played with pins until I figured something out. It's a bit messy on the inside and I had to leave it several days while getting annoyed but it looks OK now.

OK enough whinging here it is;



Next, the skirt that was supposed to go with these two.

BWOF 06/2009 - 122 Top

I'm working on (or at least planning on working on) a few pieces from the June issue that might even coordinate so I will take pictures of me in the outfits when they're all done.  

In the meantime here is the completed tunic blouse 122, first the technical drawing (incidentally I had to pull up the German version of the site to get this issue from the archives and there I noticed that the German archives go all the way back to 2004, rather than 2006 as on the English site).

I made this in the cream and brown printed linen I bought recently, the busy print makes it hard to see all the details, but it is just like the line drawing.  I think this makes a very flattering casual summer top with the wide shoulders and drawstring waist, just as Toy promised!  The only change I made was to use snaps instead of hidden buttons and only up to where I needed them as I doubt I would wear this top buttoned up to the neck (or snapped up I should say).  Easy enough to add more later if I prove myself wrong!

The only part of the instructions that might be a little vague is finishing the unusual sleeve detail at the inside corner.  Basically the sleeves are just doubled bands which are attached first and then the raw edge under the armscye is finished with a strip of bias fabric.  To get a clean finish there you need to make sure that you only sew the bias up to your sleeve band stitching.  You see, it is hard to explain to be fair to Burda so I took some photos which hopefully illustrate what we are both talking about!

From the outside of the garment after sewing the sleeve and bias strip, but before turning strip to the inside, sleeve on the bottom, bias strip at the top - note that the two meet but do not overlap.

The same thing from inside the garment, except here the bias strip is at the bottom of the photo, the edge of the strip is folded in and held in place by the armscye seam finishing which can be done in one step.

The bias strip is then turned to the inside and stitched in place, leaving a neat corner with no raw edges or wrinkles.

Sewing in Small Spaces

We've been in our new place for a couple of weeks now and I have finally got my sewing room set up.  This room also doubles as a guest room and office and although small has been cleverly designed so it can meet all these needs (though not at the same time!).  The room is too small to be able to take useful pictures of the whole thing, but has a few nifty design ideas that I will share here;

I have a cutting table built into one wall, to use it I just flip out two horizontal supports and pull down the table.  I can also store all my fabric inside the cupboards behind the table surface.  

There is a sofa bed underneath that pulls out when we have guests staying - currently being made hairy by cats!  I also purchased a small tabletop ironing board from Ikea which is just right for pressing seams etc. and I can hang it up on a hook on the back of the door.

On the other windowless wall are more storage cupboards and a desk.  The back wall of the desk is a magnetic whiteboard which will be useful for scribbling and posting notes and ideas.  The left hand desk drawer is not a drawer at all, but a small pull out surface for my serger and I have an office chair on wheels so I can swivel between the two machines easily.

I have windows on the other 2 walls so lighting in the day is great.  For night sewing there are lots of ceiling spotlights and also a fluorescent tube above the desk surface.

So I am loving my little sewing space and am currently working on a top from the June issue of Burda in a brown and cream printed linen from my last post, you can just see it in the photos above - it's nearly there so more details on that next post.

On the Move

We are finally moving into our recently purchased and newly renovated apartment this weekend and I cannot wait.  I'm really happy with how it's all turned out - I think we only kept one of the original internal walls so it's quite a change.  My little custom designed sewing studio/occasional guest bedroom is just right for me and I can't wait to show you that next time.  

Meanwhile, just to give myself more stuff to move I went on a fabric shopping spree with a friend who is leaving Hong Kong shortly - she forcibly dragged me there I tell you.  This is the fabric market in Sham Shui Po - it's either heaven or hell depending on your mood and the weather, but the prices are unbelievably cheap so now and again it's worth a trip.  There are around 8 long aisles piled floor to ceiling like this with totally random stuff.  I think it's basically excess purchased from garment factories in HK and China so you can find some interesting things if you are prepared to dig!

Here's my booty, I've already given one piece as a gift and made the brown and pink paisley up into another version of the dress from my last post - I will take pictures of that after the move.

BWOF 05/2009 - 114 Dress

Firstly thank you so much for the encouraging comments on my jacket, it definitely spurs me on to keep trying new things and be a bit braver with colour and details.

Now you only need to look at this blog for 5 minutes to realise I am not one for planning my sewing.  However as I have been looking at everyone's projects it's clear that I needed/wanted the following;

- clothes for dealing with Hong Kong summers, I'm always unprepared

- more colour and prints

- more dresses

Well tick, tick and tickety-tick, here is a great little summer dress from BWOF that I can see me making again.  

On the hanger (can't wait to get my dressform out of storage - 10 days to go!)

On me - this is a night shot and I can't decide if it's easier to see the details with or without flash so here's both.

This is very easy to make, the pattern is supposed to be cut on the bias and I didn't have enough fabric for a bias layout, but this is a stretch cotton so I figured it would be OK.  It does look closer fitting on me than the model but I think that is more my, erm non-model shape than the bias vs straight grain.  

I used a self fabric drawstring in this version, and remembered to read the cutting instructions this time so I could add in the right seam and hem allowances.  However I didn't read the sewing instructions and incorrectly put in the zipper before adding the neckband, so I had to finish the top of the band with 2 hooks and eyes.  Bit fiddly to do up myself, but better than taking out the zipper I thought!