Stripped Cotton Rib Bodyshaper

This is a simple and practical project. One of those you repeat again and again, because it is a basic base in our wardrobe. I love these tight bodices that go under pinafores, dungarees wool pullovers and jackets... I wear them half of the time in winter, and I have a collection in different colours. 

I found this fabric in Tygverket shop, Stockholm, in our last holidays. It was a tubular piece of ribbed stripped cotton. The measure of the tube was just my torso, so I put it on in my dress form and cut the neck, the shoulders, the armholes and the crotch areas with my scissors directly. 

Then I used the sleeves from my bodyshaper pattern, which I constructed from Aldrich's book.

All in all, a success. It is comfortable, sweet to the skin, tight but with very good recovery to the stretch, despite being 100% cotton, thanks to the ribbing structure. I love it!

Tartan Wool Rub-Off Dress

 I bought this wonderful tartan wool from Dïtto fabrics back in December, thinking about a long skirt, but when it arrived I realized I had ordered too little to make it bias as I wanted, so I finally decided to replicate a mini dress or pinafore I have and I love to wear. 
Well, I cannot say it has been a total success or that I am super happy with it. No. And that is a second semi-failure in a row... still the black wool jacket I did before is being a total success, I have a plan to recover the pink pinafore, and this own is not so bad. I will still wear it, I think. 

Well, I copied my old dress by the rub off method I learnt in this book. I do not know what it went wrong, but the bust dart were all wrong and I had to undo them twice. Finally, I put the bodice over my dress form and mad the darts there. I decided to make two bodices, one of them as facing, so the darts were replicated in this second bodice. I had also to correct the shoulders' seams inclination.

 Finally, there was another problem which I could not get rid of: the gaping of the neckline. It is not very bad, and i am probably the only one noticing, I have only to give the shoulder straps a tug outwards and it disappears, but it comes back soon enough. It is wrong and I cannot repair it,because I had cut the fabric at the shoulders when I noticed, at first fitting. 
And yet another problem, I do not like how it looks on me. My bust appears to be too big proportionally to my hips. I hate that. The bias cut skirt clings to my legs when I walk and I think it would be wider. 

What a pity of a dress, a gorgeous fabric gone to almost waste.
The truth is that I wore it at work and I was super comfy in it, so I will probably wear it, but somehow the rubbing off has not worked this time, and I have to make a mental note to be very careful and precise next time. And not to cut the neckline fabric completely until first fitting. 
That is all. 
I have a lot of trust put into my next project, so let us be 
optimistic and resilient!

Pink Corduroy Pinafore - A Failure Story

 Not all makes are successful. Sometimes they become art masterworks and sometimes they are a loss of time and money. Like in this case. 
I found this gorgeous dust pink corduroy in Soff & Still in Goteborg, in our last holidays. I though it would be perfect to replicate a black corduroy pinafore I made many years ago and I totally love.
So I dig in my pattern stash to look for the pattern and there it was, a thin tracing paper bundle with saying "pinafore". 

I enjoyed making it, felling the seams, topstitching it with pink thread, putting the buttons with the hammer... everything was fine... 
... until the moment of wearing it. It makes me fat, probably because of the colour, becasue the black one makes me look slim as a spaguetti. 
Why did I think I needed another version of the same piece? Only changing the colour is not reason enough to have a duplicated pinafore, becasue I will always choose the slimering one. 

So please, future me, learn your lesson. One piece of each is enough. So when you think, for example, that that wonderful Joni dress would be lovely in a dark blue velvet, remember: nope.
See The Pink Corduroy Mini Skirt Modification