Friday, December 30, 2011

On the Border

Wow, I was really surprised how many of you had gone through similar job layoffs. Your comments really helped me shake my bad mood.
The holiday guests have gone on to Fla. We live a short distance from I95, the main north/south road on the east coast, a good stopping point between Fla and northern locations. Hubby and oldest son are out shopping for a used car with good gas mileage and storage capacity for a duffel bag full of ice hockey gear and sticks. Yep, they took the bag on the test drives. I pity the poor salesman. The smell of a bag of used (sweaty) hockey pads is indescribable. No amount of soaking the pads in a tub full of bleach solution can erase it. Phew! The reason for the new car is that as of Jan 1, younger son is a legal driver. He will inherit the “loser cruiser” an old, mud colored, no horsepower, mini van. And older brother gets a “new” car in preparation of going off to college in the near future.

As for sewing, I have been working on the final pieces for my 6 PAC wardrobe. The one inspired by my misty morning drive to work.

I order this double georgette silk fabric to make a blouse.
and got this


A border print! Not along one selvage edge, but every 26 " in the print. This is the 2nd time DenverFabrics has surprised me by sending me a border print when I thought I was getting an allover print. There was no mention of this in the product description and the border was not shown in the online picture. This annoyed me greatly because I had ordered a specific quantity assuming an all over pattern. And they always ignore the border placement when they cut the length specified. So each cut end was a different distance from the border. Grr. When life deals you border prints, you’ve got to get creative. I found the Purrfections 1039 modern poet blouse pattern in my collection and thought the border print could be used for the cuffs and cross over band.


Oh and the border was not printed on the cross grain. It was about ½ inch off at one end. Better to have the fabric of an interfaced band cut slightly off grain, than to incorporate the border on the bottom of a garment piece and have to cut the piece out slightly askew for the border to be straight.  After reading the patternreview.com reviews of the Purrfection pattern, I felt it would require too many alterations in the back, sleeve and shoulders for me. Those are my problem areas. I still loved the style though. I looked through old Burda Style magazines for a similar shoulder princess seam blouse pattern that I could modify to look like the Purrfections blouse. I found the perfect one in Jan 2008 blouse 105/106.
I overlaid the Purrfection center front  pattern over the Burda center front pattern and traced the deep V neck line with a 2" overlap at center front.

The  neckline is on the bias. To make sure this edge did not stretch during sewing, I did several things.
1. I used light weight fusible interfacing on the facing.
2. I made sure to cut the interfacing using the pattern piece (accurate) rather than the garment pieces or the pattern piece with the garment fabric still attached (inaccurate) and yes, I am guilty of doing this.
 3. I used fusible straight grain iron-on stabilizing tape on the neck line of the garment front pieces. I pinned the fabric to the pattern, wrong side up, to ensure it was the exact shape of the pattern. Then I applied the fusible tape over the seam line.



Since the neck band I wanted to use was much wider than the one on the pattern, I moved the neck/ band seam outward towards the shoulder seam, otherwise the band would have been covering my ears. I added some thin flexible trim at the band seam to accent the V neck.


I will post pictures of the blouse on me when I finish the new pair of pants I am working on now.

Does my blouse match your kitchen? DH and I remember the color scheme and pattern of the border as being very popular in the tile selection at the Do-It-Yourself stores a couple of years ago.

21 comments:

  1. Ahhhhh, annoying fabrics DO sometimes inspire us to get REALLY creative, don't they?

    It looks to me like you made some great lemonade out of those lemons! I'll look forward to seeing how it looks as part of an outfit.

    Happy New Year!

    Sandy

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  2. I like how you made the fabric fit your vision. This piece definitely works with your theme. Does it have closures?

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  3. Though you were unhappy with the fabric as it was not what you thought it was going to be, you have turned it into a lovely garment. Look forward to seeing your pants.

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  4. It must have been so frustrating when you received the fabric - it is lovely though and I think you've used it beautifully in the finished blouse.

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  5. Well you certainly made that fabric "mistake" work for you! It's gorgeous!

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  6. That garment looks beautifully tailored and should suit you well. Very nice work. Have a great2012.

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  7. I just love this blouse, color, print and fabric are so rich and beautiful. Lovely!

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  8. Wow! Your blouse looks gorgeous. I think you made the perfect use of this fabric, the blouse turned out really beautiful.
    Happy New Year! May it bring joy, happiness (and salary increase ;))!

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  9. Nice save! I love border prints, but I want to know what I am buying. Not very good of DF.

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  10. Nice save, Audrey. The fabric really is beautiful and by golly, it sure does match my kitchen!

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  11. I think your blouse is gorgeous. You certainly found a great solution to an irritating situation.
    happy New Year and happy sewing in 2012.

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  12. Gee that must have been irritating! I love your misty morning vision, and agree with everyone else - a great and very creative save!

    Happy New Year!

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  13. Very nice work!

    I live very close to I-95 in Laurel, but I rarely see morning fog because I don't do mornings.

    Barb
    :--)

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  14. Wow, I think you hit jackpot with the border print. You have really worked your magic. I like the cute little buttons too.

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  15. Beautiful! Your work always inspires me. I love the way you worked the surprise border print and added the trim to truly set it off wonderfully.

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  16. Oh my goodness, the fabric may not have been what was ordered but you have turned it into a stunning blouse. It looks amazing with the way you have used the border print. I've never ordered patterned fabric from D Fabrics but I've found with the plain fabrics there can be quite a disparity between the colour on the website and the actual fabric. They have such good prices though, just wish their website was a little more accurate.

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  17. How annoying to receive an unexpected border print! You really made the most of it, though. Love the kimono reference in the style and your use of the border.

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  18. I wrote you a comment on how great I think your blouse is and I think I flushed it :-(( Again, you have used this border printed with so much talent. You end up with a very beautiful blouse. You can wear it with black, beige, off white, dark brown, etc. Wonderful workmanship !!!

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  19. It is a beautiful blouse. The best part is that you came up with such a wonderful solution to an annoying problem!

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  20. Wonderful! Border prints always stymie me. I'm currently mulling over an end of matelasse that has a metallic copper border on BOTH edges. I love how you made the borders work in your vision for the top. The blouse is beautiful!

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