Marfy 1640 Top Finished

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We have 4" of snow on the ground, and I just finished a thin, summery top. I'm not usually this far ahead of the season, but it's getting close to time to order Marfy patterns from the new catalog, and I thought I'd better get with it and use one of the ones I already had that I hadn't tried yet. I'm very pleased that I did as I think it turned out quite well.

I was procrastinating on this because I needed to do a major FBA on it, and I was worried about the empire seam being unflattering anyway. Luckily, I decided to do a muslin-method to alter the pattern, and it turned out well. It gave me more of a real look at what the final effect of the changes would be than a flat pattern alteration.


You can see the lines of the pattern here. I ended up adding width to the Side-Front panel at the bustline, and at the CF. I added quite a bit of length as well, which would happen automatically with a regular FBA. Since I added width at the bustline at the side-front/front seamline, I needed to add width to the Side-Back panel too. I ended up taking some of the hip room out again, but only on the right side.

You can see the side and back views below.


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The trickiest part of the construction was the neckline. They only give you a pattern piece for a ribbon to run through the casing, but I knew as soon as I saw it that it was going to need more than that to hold its shape, etc. I used 1" elastic which I secured to the back of the casing only at each end. I then ran 1 1/2" satin ribbon, doubled at the ends, through the casing over the elastic, and secured it invisibly through all layers. I may yet stitch the sides of the doubled ribbon together to make it work as a single layer, but I thought I'd try this first, as the stitching may make it stiff.

The buttons on the pockets and under the tabs are sewn on with backer buttons for strength. I can't imagine I'll ever be unbuttoning them, although they're perfectly functional. I did skip the tiny pocket bags under the tabs.


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Summer Sewing in the Snow

Yes, it's snowing here, and not just a little bit.

I'm just about done with the Marfy #1640 blouse I started recently. I just need to hem it, sew on a couple more buttons and do a few finishing touches. Here's a close-up of the pocket, flap and tab on one side. I think all the details turned out really cute.

Originally I thought I'd have to leave some of the details off, but with my lowered empire seam, it worked out perfectly. The fabric is a very light voile I got from FabricMart last year. I think it's perfect for this design. The print is very large scale and abstract, and there's no question of needing to match it, which makes it all kind of fun and spontaneous.





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You may remember the cabled sweaters I knitted for my brother and one nephew for Christmas 2 years ago, using a pattern from Drops. I am now ready to knit one for the older nephew. I didn't want to do his until he was a little older because he was close to 'growth spurt age' and I wanted this to be wearable for more than a year or two. He's going to get a somewhat oversized sweater anyway, but he'll soon grow into it, I'm sure. Boys don't generally mind wearing things that are a little big anyway. He chose the color, Delta in the same wool I used before, Bendigo's Rustic. Lovely yarn, and I ordered it yesterday. I'll be interested to see how soon it comes because they generally send things very, very quickly.

Fit, or Lack of It

I've been following the Fall 2009 RTW shows, and in general I haven't been too thrilled by much of what I've seen. There are a few things I like, but nothing overwhelming. I was looking at a trend report this morning on how the one-shoulder trend seems to be growing, and I saw this close-up of a Calvin Klein look. I was kind of surprised by the big fold in the front where the piece doesn't fit the model at all. It doesn't really look like it is some great design element either, just a poor fit fold. It may have fallen down from where it's supposed to sit on the strapless side, but that's still poor fit.


I don't know that the full length photo makes it much better.


I've always felt like Calvin Klein depended on having very flat-chested, boyish-figured models as there's not much shaping in evidence, and the people you see successfully wearing the designs generally seem to be that body type.

I did like the L'Wren Scott show. Nice, wearable things; mainly dresses, and mainly with sleeves, which seemed very fresh and very ladylike, especially after the years of sleeveless things shown for winter. Here are a few of her dresses.


Dresses are looking very good to me all of a sudden.

I did one of 3 mini-seminars at the local Sewing Guild meeting on Monday. I showed how to do a hand-rolled hem, (the other seminars were on Hand-Picked Zippers and Tailors Invisible Hems) and I provided little chiffon rectangles prepared with machine stitching on the edges so everyone could try it out. They brought their own needle and thread and shears. It turned out to be fun, and I had decided that instead of doing a swatch with the group, I might as well do an actual scarf, and I am still working on finishing it. It's close to half done, and is a pale gray lengthwise-crinkled chiffon with a tiny dot floral print. The lengthwise edges are harder to roll than the ones that go across the grain/crinkles, which surprised me. Not a big problem, but it just takes more determination. It's nice handwork when I'm just sitting around. I suggested to the group that scarves done this way are a great gift idea.

I gave up on the sweater vest. It's the first thing I've just pitched for a very long time. It was too short, and to make it longer in the way it needed to be longer, I would have had to rip most of it back. I think it should have been done in a much drapier yarn, and so it would have only been marginally good had it been longer. I decided to cut my losses and just give it to the Salvation Army. It will work for someone, just not me. I also think if you're planning to make this, and it is a very nice pattern, you should leave the bobbles off on the back. It just looks kind of silly having all those bumps in the back. I had even found something that looked good under it. A fine-gauge men's polo sweater in cream with a CF zipper about 10" long. Maybe I'll find something else I like over it.

I've also been working on a semi-muslin of a Marfy pattern from last spring. It's been an interesting challenge to do a FBA on it. I didn't do a flat-pattern version, but made a muslin and slashed and spread it. One thing that happened was that the underbust seam is lower on my version, which I think I like a lot, as empire lines give me the shelf effect a lot of the time. I need to figure out what to use for the ribbon/tie next. For the blouse itself I'm using a very thin, printed voile and it looks and feels so summery. I think I'm tired of winter. It's going to be 60F today, but then it's supposed to snow again tonight.