Reptile Prints

Reptile prints fabrics seem to be very popular and two slithered (sorry I couldn’t resist) into my stash recently.

The first was a remnant of 1.25 yards,  45 “ wide,  shades of blue,  100% silk surah from Fabric Mart.
And the print was linear, running from selvedge to selvedge. I really should refrain from buying remnants. I spent so much time digging through my patterns  to find just the right one  for the style of the garment I have in mind, but so many had to be eliminated because they required more fabric than I had. It took a bit of searching to find a top pattern that would fit on this print fabric and allow symmetrical placement of the light “stripes”.  

 McCall’s 6515, circa 1993 ( does 25 years old qualify as "vintage"), a sleeveless, V neck dress with dramatic fold over collar. The armholes, collar and front edges are accented with piping. I cut off the dress pattern 8 inches below the waist mark to shorten it to a blouse length. I looked through my scrap bags for a dark navy silk I thought might be used for the piping, but instead I found a perfect matching blue silk left over from a blouse made back in 2007 Blue Blouse. 

It is scary to find out how old some of my scraps are.

I used a combined piping/facing to finish the armhole.  I made the piping with a 1 inch seam allowance. I  applied the piping and  trimmed the armhole opening seam allowance and lower seam allowance of the piping. The other piping seam allowance was left  untrimmed and hand tacked to the fashion fabric, hiding the armhole seam allowance. 

piping and facing in one.

The  style is very unfitted, with no darts or side seam shaping, which resulted in a surprising cool top on a hot humid day. If I had had more of the fabric, I would have shaped the hem edge to be more flattering.

Print two was purchased because I  wanted to add some yellow to my wardrobe.  This silk reptile print, in black and white, has ombre “stripes” of pale yellow. Source: DenverFabrics.com

 I had plenty of this fabric so my pattern and style choices were larger.  I chose a pattern I had made before and really liked to wear.  Previous Make Vogue 1412 view B: very loose-fitting, raised neckline, front extends into back collar, front buttoned one-way pleat, and continuous lap on sleeves.

Vogue 1412 front

Vogue 1412 back

The front pleat in this top allowed me to create a double wide stripe of yellow in the center front. I was so proud of my color placement but when I pointed it out to my DH, he said it looks like I dribbled chicken soup down my front. Sigh! Remember Audrey, you did not  marry him for his fashion/style sense.

Autumn Activities

This post has been in draft mode for almost two weeks waiting for better pictures, links to instructional info and more witty prose. Those are never going to happen so here it is, short and sweet.

This time of year my husband would have us road tripping about the countryside every weekend. I convinced him to do one day trips so I could have the other day for sewing. And he would have a day for his "honey do" list. I warned him if I didn't sew, I would be grouchy and compensate by buying more fabric. He knows that is not an idle threat.

This past weekend we visited the Shenandoah National Park and hiked the same trail we did 35 years ago on our honeymoon. The weather and autumn leaf color were great, but the trails and roads in the park were packed with people. I guess everyone had the same idea for a weekend outing. On the way home, we stopped at an orchard and bought a variety of apples. Virginia has an apple growing region. When I was a kid and our family vacations took us through Virginia during apple harvest time, we always stopped at an apple orchard where my mom would buy a couple bushels to take home. The problem was the only place for the apples, in our overcrowded car, was on the floor in front of the back seat; where my brother, sister and I sat.. The last four hours of the trip home were spent trying to find a place to rest our feet comfortably among the baskets of apples, and  whining and complaining loudly. We were allowed to eat as many apples as we wanted, probably to keep us quiet.  The memory of the taste of those just picked apples is one of the reasons I can always be talked into a trip to an orchard.

Thorton Valley Orchard, Sperryville, VA

 My latest makes are a blouse, Vogue  pattern 1412,  in an animal print silk spandex, and pants in an irregular pinstripe cotton poly bottom weight. Both fabrics are from Fabric Mart Fabrics.

 

The blouse is a tunic style with faced V neck, shirttail hem and gathers at the shoulder and back neck. The button closure on this blouse is fake. And while I am always up for unique details, I am not sure all the effort to mark and press the pleats that make this closure were worth it. The back neck gathers meant I did not have to do my normal alteration for the high back curvature. Not that you can see any of these style details in the print fabric I used, but I think they would be very flattering in a solid color fabric. The blouse can be worn out or tucked into pants or skirt under a jacket. The V neckline is fine on me, but I have no cleavage so I  rarely have the issues with low necklines on Vogue and Burda patterns which seem to bother other sewers. To check neckline depth, be sure and fold out the tuck on the pattern and hold pattern to your body. The front pleat's sides overlap, making the lowest point of the V about 1" above the bottom of the finished neckline opening .

The pants were a copy of a favorite pair of RTW pants. The RTW brand is FOCUS which is a rather inexpensive line. I try on many different RTW brands, both inexpensive and high end, to find brands whose pants fit me well. I have found good fit at both ends of the cost spectrum. The original pants were made from a poly rayon crepe type fabric and had none of the excess fabric in the back beneath my butt, where I normally have it. When they got ratty from wear, I took them apart to make a pattern. I found that the front crotch extension was very short and the back crotch extension very long and tapered sharply from the inside leg. From reading drafting books, this draft is used to snug in the back crotch area to the body and is more typical of jeans than slacks. I still had to tweak the copied pattern a bit. My butt is so flat and wide; I shorten the center back seam 5/8 at the top tapered to nothing at the side seam, and remove the back waistline darts. The small amount of shaping I need when going from the widest part of my hip to my waist can be done in the center back seam and side seam darts. I would have never thought to do this, but when I had a professional fitter help me tweaked a pant muslin years ago, she made these changes and explained why they worked for my shape.