Well, this is a story about a salvation.
I found the Pink Pinafore not very becoming and it threatened to be a dead piece in my wardrobe.
One day I wore a green corduroy mini skirt I love, and I decided to give the pink corduroy a second life, transforming it in a mini skirt.
I used the straps to make the waist band, and the back upper part to make the pockets.
I cut it in the middle front and applied a zipper.
And that is it. This fabric make me fatter than I am, that was the problem to begin with. So, if I use it in my lower half, which is more conatined, the effect is not ugly...
I have doubts about the flare, it may be too much... my hubby thinks so and he has good taste... but for the moemnt, I leave it like this... I have time to reduce the A-shape.
Now, I love it!
Wonderful pattern (and book) and gorgeous fabric. I found it in a local shop and I fell immediately in love. Some weeks later, when I bought the book Breaking the Pattern , I saw this gorgeous shirt pattern and I had a match.
The process has been smooth and nice. The book is gorgeous, all the patterns are special and I have plans from some of them in the near future. Now that I have tried my first one, I can say the pattern is awesome. The neck has a nice weird curve that made me suspicious at first, but once finished I realized it was cute and perfect. The idea of the gathered piece attached to the waist is original and very becoming, and the rendition of it is spot on. Princess seams, darts, sleeves and cuffs are also perfect.
I made the size matching my measures and made no modification at all.
Regarding the instructions, I did not follow them much. To begin with, I took the 1 cm seam allowance off the tracing paper all around the pattern pieces, I pinned them to the fabric (1.5m x 120 cm war VERY tight), cut it leaving more or less seam allowances depending on the area and proceeded to mark it with tailor tucks. I then basted the upper bodice for the first fitting and I saw it was perfect, in the bigger side, which was OK for me, being it a woven fabric, and being it for work, I wanted to make it comfortable to wear.
Long sleeves are from a pattern variation, and they match perfectly this one, which had short sleeves.
The fabric is a double gauze attached together by small threads, which can be cut because they are integral to the weave. So I decided to fell all the seam allowances after discarding the idea of making it reversible, with small checks in one side and bigger ones at the other.
I wore it at work and I was really happy with its feel. Being it 100% cotton, it was soft and breathable, but warm with the double layer of fabric.
I a proud of this one...
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!
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!
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
I am specially proud of this project because it is both my design and my pattern.
I
needed a warm black wool jacket and when I found this fabric in
Amsterdam for only 40 Eur the metre (wool and cashmere) I knew I had hit
the jackpot.
I wanted some cool design, and I found these in Pinterest:
I
did not know any pattern like that, so I decided to ask in The Foldline
FB forum for ideas. As usual, they helped a lot with patterns and
ideas, I was so happy! Amanda Syslvester gave me a very good idea of a
pattern, and I used it to hack of one mine.
Using my jacket pattern,
which I drafted using Aldrich's book, I enlarged it 10 cm, extended the
central pannel to the princess seam minus 4cm for the zipper, and I
also extended the neck, copying Amanda's pattern.
The
construction was slow, becasue I like to sew well. I applied
thermofusible interlining to the whole bodice, attached the pieces
together, applying the zipper on one lapel and machine stitching the
other just next to the opposite princess seam.
I decided to do some pockets with welts, so I followed Shaeffer's book to do them and they became perfect.
Then
I ensambled the sleeves and attached them to the bodice and finally, I
lined the whole jacket with a quality lining. I have always regretted
cheap lining fabrics, so I have learnt my lesson now.
The
jacket is lovely... it could be more flattering to my figuere if it
were tighter, but I this is a winter garment and I wanted it to be roomy
for thick layers under it.
In the pictures you can see there are three possible ways of wearing the jacket: open, semi-zipped and totally zipped.
What a wonderful book, Tilly and the Buttons's STRETCH, what a great pattern the Joni is, and what great fabric from Stoff & Still.
Seeing my massive boobs in the pics I don't know if this apropiate to work in my school, but it feels great and cool (temperature like). I am gonna repeat both, fabric and pattern, although I am proud to announce I have convinced myself of not doing them together.
Well, nothing special to report here... the neckline is tricky, mine came up looking good, but it is bulky inside, and I used a really thin cotton jersey, and applied it no as the instructions tell us, but as a facing, and then encaging all seam allowances inside a 2cm ruleau, hand sewn to the wrong side of the dress, invisible. No big ugly zig zags for me in a dress like this. Too sporty, I think.
The same for the sleeves and dress bottom, all hand sewn.
I copied the pattern to tissue paper minus the 1.5 cm seam allowance included. I basted and tried it on to fit (it was perfect at first trial) before machine- stitched as advices. No overlock. No iron.
For the rest, I followed the instructions, which are great.
I think the twist in the middle front (gorgeous design hit) is too high in most of the pictures I had seen of it, and the waist tended to be very high. I decided to lengthen the soulder seams 1.5cm. Not too much, it could become too open, but this is a dress to show cleavage, do not try to make it modest.
I made it some 5cm shorter, becasue my fabric was scarce and the pattern too long, too. In fact, I pulled out with 1.5m, hahaha! It is a wide fabric. Did I say it is a wonderful fabric? And they sell it dark blue, and it is even better. (In a mid day excursion to the shop in Goterborg, I had a weak moment and let my boyfriend pick up the colour. How sweet of me)
Well, it is a great dress, maybe not very practical for work. I plan to make a black jersey version as a night summer dress.
