Spring Break Sewing

Long time, no post. Life has been busy lately. Stuff like odd work schedules. I am too old to work the 11:00 PM to 7 AM shift. I end up feeling horrible and getting sick. And then there were several weekends spent visiting colleges so my eldest son can make a decision on where he will go to school after his June high school graduation. In my sewing class, I gave up on an "inspired from nature" design. Instead I drafted my own pattern for this Giancarlo Ferre jacket, which is what I really wanted to do , and sewed it up. The jacket has some interesting seam lines which are hard to see in the photo. I will describe that process in a future post. It is time for our spring vacation. This year we are staying domestic, but we are going to the southernmost city in the continental USA. That would be Key West, Florida. Followed by a couple days in the South Beach area of Miami. I suspect my travel co-coordinator, DH, is trying to revisit a favorite trip we made 30 years ago. He denies it though. Do I need any new clothes for this vacation? No. But I like having an excuse to sew garments that are not what I usually sew which is work clothes. So I made the one shoulder T shirt from McCalls 6326 out of a some pink and turquoise cotton lycra knit. It is left over from the 80’s when I made leotards to wear to my aerobic dance classes. But I still like the colors in the print. McCall’s pattern have so much wearing ease, I normally drop down a size when sewing one. On this pattern I had to drop down two sizes and make SBA. I like negative wearing ease in knit garments i.e. the finished measurement of the garment is slightly smaller than my body measurements. This was especial important in keeping this top up. It is a quick to make pattern. And the Burda “Mila” dress. a free downloadable pattern from http://www.burdastyle.com. The fabric used in the dress is a piece of white and blue cotton lycra print from a FFM free bundle and a blue/white cotton oxford from Hancock’s. What I liked about this pattern is the contrast top front and placket creates a strong T shape that breaks up a large print used on the front sides. You can leave the front closures open and see the under top. The Burda free patterns can be printed out on 8.5 X 11 inch paper on your home printer and them taped together to create the full pattern. The sewing directions, on a separate download, are good. The only disappointment was that there are no layout directions for the contrasting fabric version shown in the pictures. There is a fake front under the placket which can be seen by leaving the placket unhooked at the top. The necklines of both the outer front and the inner front are to be finished by bias binding. I used the bias binding only on the outer top neckline. My fabric, being mostly white, was slightly see through so I lined the dress with a rayon fabric including the under top, This dress seemed to run large. I made a 42 which is normal for me with Burda patterns. It was reminding me of the shapeless cheap cotton house dress like those worn by some of my older female relatives when I was a child. So I converted the pleats in the back to long darts, and took in the side seams in the bust area. I still need to sew the 12 pairs of hooks and eyes to the front placket of this dress. I hope to get some photos of these two pieces on me in situ, and give you a review of the two fabric stores in Key West.