Retro shirt from Silhouettes: Nancy Blouse

This is a pattern is one that I have been meaning to try for a while now. It is from Peggy Sagers Silhouettes line. I have attended several different classes given by her over the past couple of years at sewing expos. I like her methods and her garments.

The sizing on her garments are finished garment sizes and having known this I have bought patterns from her that resemble one or more of one of my favorite pieces of clothing already in my closet. Her instructions are clear and concise, the only negative that i have is that the pattern printing had some mistakes. The notches were not always correct and one of the darts were not printed very well, almost completely invisible.

The Fabric is a 100% cotton lawn fabric with a retro inspired print. I bought this at Mood in NYC over this past Christmas. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it! It is perfect for a warm weather blouse.

Close up of the fabric

Fabric


Brown synthetic suede cloth for the neckline detail.

I chose a size 4 with the b-cup front

All cut out and ready to go

Reverse facing front detail.

SO far I have the front darts finished, both bust darts and vertical darts,

the shoulder seams and attached facing.



I still need to embellish the neckline facing and finish construction, this is sure to be a fun shirt to add to my wardrobe!

Finished Shirt: SImplicity 4878

I finished the hems on my latest shirt. I used a very fine fusible straight tape on the hem of the body. I serged the edge and caught the tape in the edge of the serging. I then pressed up the hem 1 1/4 inches and did a line of stitching. I like using the tape on the hems of my knit shirts, I find that it keeps them from stretching out of shape and from getting wavy and it also gives just a tad bit more stability/weight to it.
The sleeve hems, I just serged the edge, turned up 1 inch and stitched.

Below are a couple of pictures of me modelling the shirt. Still need to work on the self portrait skills!! LOL not sure where I am looking at.,.

I took pictures at a variety of 'poses' so that I could see how the shirt looked. For the most part I am quite satisfied... As usual, it is the body underneath that I always end up critiquing!

And I did change how the collar was pressed, I had to fold in half and press when sewing it in and I did not like how that looked. To change it, I just set up my steam iron and pulled the collar apart and super steamed it so that it was nice and floppy and soft. So much better!

Please excuse the very bad hair... did not feel like doing it for the photos :)

Arms straight

arms up and still looks good

Kneeling down and no back gap between the waist of my jeans and the hem of the shirt! woohoo!

(although there is the dreaded back fat!! must do more exercises!!)

A new shirt for me, Simplicity 4878

I have had this pattern ready and altered and sitting on my sewing table for several months now. I finally got around to cutting it out and sewing it up :)

Simplicity 4878 from 2004 line. Style E and I used a multi size pattern with the 16 on top and graduated to an 18 through the hips and I added 3 inches in length. (I really hate when my shirt pulls up in the back and you get that strip of skin between my pants and the top and most shirts do that, I think partly from the lower waist styles of pants)

The fabric is all from my stash, I did not quite have enough of the body knit to do the arms and collar with so I decided to pull a basic black knit from the stash to make it in a color blocked version. The blue multi colored knit has been in my stash for probably 15 plus years... It is nice to finally have used it!

I really need some more casual, hang out, grocery shopping etc clothes. and this fit the bill. I am a little unsure of the collar, it is not a collar type I would normally wear but it looks good on and nice to have something slightly different.

I still need to hem the sleeves and body portion and then it is finished.

Basic knit T pattern with shoulders cut with the sleeves

I choose the most basic and did view E, the drawing shows the collar flatter than the picture on the pattern front, which shows the collar standing straight up.

My version

The collar here looks even floppier, but very comfortable on. Will make a great spring, summer evening shirt. the Knits are lightweight, 3/4 length sleeve and loose collar.

Side view

I finally got around to straightening up my sewing room! Too many things were beginning to accumulate all over the place!

On another note, I ordered swatches today of equestrian fabric. I am need of new show breeches and simply cannot afford the super high priced ones from the tack shops. Good show breeches can run anywhere from 150$ to 300$+. And of course since I am a real woman with curves it seems that only the super expensive ones ever fit me! I figure I have one pair of nice breeches that i bought on super clearance a couple years ago so I may as well take a try at copying them and sewing my own. Sure can't hurt to give it a try!

Thank You Kathy! For the Sunshine Award :)

Kathy over at Little Sewing Alcove sent me a Sunshine Award. Kathy is a very talented in garment construction and shares a love of great fabrics :)










The rules for this award are simple:

1. Place the logo within your blog or post.

2. Pass the award on to 12 bloggers. (I changed the rules... I only did 4!!)

3. Link the nominees within the post.

4. Let the nominees know they have received the award by commenting on their blogs.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award.



I read and follow many great blogs... however these are some of my favorites! Hope you enjoy them.



My sister's blog. She makes interesting and beautiful art! Jen Torres Sculpture

lower your presser foot This lovely lady is down in Australia and creates beautiful garments for both herself and her little girl!

Sew and Sew She is very talented in garment sewing and quilting.

Weekend Crafting She is very talented and a busy girl!! Crafting, cooking, traveling and has a huge fabric stash!

Bargello Art quilt is done!

The Final product! Now I just need to hang it up!

Sorry for the lack of updates... the last week was spent working on the actual quilting part as well as attaching the binding.

The quilting on this piece is pretty basic, I just followed the flow of the pattern and decided to use a variety of colors in metallics to make it interesting. The border I quilted in a very basic double row of lines. My thought was to 'frame' the center portion where all the interest is.

The threads used in the quilting.

The left most was used in the bobbin and the rest were used on the top.

The binding took me a couple nights to do. I first attached it to the front and then wrapped it to the back and hand sewed it on. Probably took about 4 or 5 hours of hand sewing which was done on the couch while watching TV.

Close up of the back with the binding hand sewn in place.

Now all that is left to do is to sign it and hang it. I think I have a perfect spot in the living room and will make sure to take some pictures as soon as it is up!

It was a fun project to do and now I am actually thinking of making another one! First though, I have a bit of 'other' sewing that I want to get done. The arrival of the spring like weather has me itching to make spring tops as well as get out into the garden and get the beds ready!

So many things... so little time!

The quilt topper is done!

I have successfully completed the Art quilt topper. The border has been added and I choose to do mitered corners for the border fabric. On this particular quilt the mitered corners add the least amount of distraction from the pieced body. I just took my time, used some patience and all 4 came out beautifully.

I then spent a large amount of time on Sunday evening pinning the three layers together. The 3 layers are the topper, polyester batting and the back fabric. I like to do a safety pin basting on my small quilts. All I can say is that I must be getting old because my hands actually hurt on Monday after putting in the 100+ safety pins. And I even used the curved pins that are supposed to be more ergonomical and easier to put in place.

For my backing fabric I choose something out of my stash. It is a cotton dyed fabric. It gives it a little bit of interest.

The 3 layers pinned together, with part folded over to show the background.

Up close shot of the pins at the nicely mitered corner.

Next to be done is the actual quilting part, maybe I will start on that tonight.

More Art quilt work

I ended up working on my Art Quilt again today. I was originally planning on letting it sit for a while so I could ponder. However, I was just feeling inspired... so I went with it. (it;s always so nice when you get that inspired feeling!)

I decided to couch on 7 different strands of fibers, some feathery, some metallic, some like fat yarns, just a nice range of interesting embellishments to add some interest. I had picked these up quite a few years ago at a quilting show because I liked them and was glad to have had them in my stash. :) They came on a card and were called Adornaments: Fun Fibers for Fabulous Effects.

I sewed them down using a 7mm wide x 4mm long zig zag stitch in clear filament on front and off white all purpose thread in bobbin.

I also decided on border and binding fabrics. You can see them in the photo's.

couching in upper right half of quilt

(Hard to see in the photo... 3 lines of fibers along the gold colored fabrics)

couching in lower left corner


close up of fibers

The border and binding fabrics.

A little Friday evening sewing

My dear hubby is sick... and even dosed up on Nyquil he is still coughing and tossing and turning. I put him to bed early and I headed into my sewing room, iPod set eith some Norah Jones, a cinamon candle going and the nice satisfying hum of my sewing machine.

I have been able to slowly work on piecing the quilt strips together. I put them together in groups of 5. I did the first group last week before the trip to NOLA. (for more on the NOLA trip see my other blog) Yesterday I got another grouping done, and today I was able to finish up the last 3 groups and put them altogether.

I am quite pleased with the result so far. There are definitely some 'oops' spots where the seams don't match up perfectly, however for my first quilt of this type I am happy with it.

Partly finished top

The completed top

The next steps are to decide if I will add any borders or just trim and bind, what type of quilting do I want to do, and whether or not to add any decorative stitching...

All good things for me to ponder, I have some very good ideas on how I am going to proceede. I just want to 'think' on it for a while until the picture comes clear.

In the meantime I have some other projects sitting on my worktable and begging for my time.