Silk Blouse

 

I used a silk satin with a bold print, I bought in 2010 and Simplicity 9200 Misses Shirts. I was hoping by using a TNT pattern and a little more knowledge I could manage silk! I spray starched the fabric before cutting out. Allowed it to dry and then ironed it. I sewed slowly with a Microtex needle and used a lot of pins!

On this version I sewed the centre fronts together to make a pull on blouse (I checked on an earlier version that this would work!) and changed the sleeves to be wider at the hem and go into a narrow cuff. I debated adding front pockets to break up the print a bit but haven't done so at this point. (I've saved the scraps in case I change my mind).

I thought after lots of working with viscose (rayon) that I was ready for silk abut I still found it really tricky. The spray starch reduced the fluidity but didn't address the slipperiness of the satin. I think I'll allow a bit of time to pass before I tackle the next silk in my stash, but I'm so glad I'm no longer avoiding the silk.

Co-ord sets

I remember back in the early SWAP (Sewing With A Plan) they advised sewing a matching skirt and top from a print fabric as a core to the 11 piece collection. Now many years later there's something called a co-ord which is a matching top and bottom from the same fabric!

I got a lot of wear from the Blue Culottes and Blouse Co-ord Set I made in June, particularly when it was hot. So I decided to have a go at making some more. The best thing about a co-ord is that it's like a dress, wear the two pieces together and you have an instant outfit! But even better you can (theoretically) split the items and wear them separately.

 

In both sets I used the same patterns.

The blouses use the body and collar of Simplicity 9200 View C, and then a sleeve adapted from NewLook 6669 with a self drafted band.

This was in order to use the fabric in the most economical way.

For the culottes I again used the trousers from NewLook 6438, though altered for my crotch curve, and elastic waistband and slash pockets. The pink floral are self fabric, though a modified pocket shape to suit the fabric scraps.

I had slightly less of the navy print, so the waistband and pockets are from scraps of a plain navy viscose I'd kept for such a scenario.

Once completed I noticed that the puffed sleeves pulled on the shoulder seams causing the sleeves to fall off the shoulder - not a good look. However viscose can shrink unpredictably, so I've added stitched tucks - 1 in each shoulder for the navy, and 2 in each shoulder for the pink. If the fabric shrinks widthways I may remove these later. If not the tucks are a nice detail.

Really neither of these co-ord sets would make a good base for a SWAP for me. 

The navy and white is only 2 colours, so doesn't meet the SWAP guidelines of  2 neutrals and a colour, but will be easy to mix and match with plain navy, plain white or any bright colour. 

The pink print was a charity shop purchase. A dark grey background with ochre, white and 3 shades of pink. I could wear the culottes with a plain white top and the blouse with some grey linen pinstripe trousers, but that's about it. I'll have to see if I have any suitable plain pinks......

Cheering up a grey day

Cheering up a grey day with some dopamine dressing, yes it's another polo neck top (turtleneck).

The fabric was from a closing down sale of a UK based online fabric store at the end of last year. It's a lovely quality viscose jersey

Once again I used I used OOP New Look 6008. I've altered the sleeve for a full bicep and the back piece for a high round back. 

Travel Capsule Wardrobe for South Africa Garden Route

Do you remember me sewing things for my Start With A Scarf Wardrobe? I used those clothes along with a few RTW pieces as a travel capsule wardrobe for a trip to South Africa's garden route. I even took the scarf with me though I didn't actually wear it!

I also took footwear - walking shoes, walking sandals and silver flat sandals as well as sunglasses, underwear, PJs, socks and toiletries. Everything packed up into the packing cubes nicely. DH and I both had some clothing in each other's checked luggage and spare undies and top in our hand luggage (rucksacks), though we didn't have any issues with our checked luggage.

I did wear everything, and as we were away 3.5 weeks, we visited a laundrette half way through and had a service wash done of some items (underwear, socks, tops and dirtier bottoms/layers).

All my bottoms and layers were plain colours, as were some of my tops, and I stuck to a colour palette of black, sage green, burgundy and pink, this let me mix and match whatever was clean and suitable for the weather that day. We had rain, sunshine, heat and cold, so lots of different combos were in operation!

Coat

I took a Craghoppers lined waterproof jacket with hood and pockets. In the pockets I had gloves, beany hat, tube scarf/buff and a lightweight peaked cap. These fold up small, but were great for protection from the sun (peaked cap) 

Bottoms

I took seven bottoms, perhaps it could've been slightly fewer. They were

Black stretch woven trousers, worn on all flights and over the joggers on cold morning and evening safari drives.

Dark grey slim leg joggers, worn for relaxing in the room/cabin, one night as PJ trousers when it was cold and as thermals under the black trousers.

Black stretch jeans, worn for evening meals and some around the town days.

Stretch woven tan shorts, worn a lot on the hot days. The internal zipped pocket was great, though banged a bit on my leg when I put too much in it.

Black culottes skirt, an alternative to the shorts on hot days.

Olive green Craghoppers trousers. Worn for hiking with a belt but not good for a boat trip - the fit isn't  right when sitting.

Sage green stretch woven trousers. Worn for wine tasting, some evening meals and etc. Fit not right on these either.

Layers

2 lightweight fleece jackets from Craghoppers (one burgundy, one pink), and a self sewn cardigan in sage green. I wore all of these but could've probably managed with only 1 of the fleeces + the cardigan.

Shirts

I took 4 shirts, 2 self sewn (sage green and floral) and two purchased Craghoppers in Pink and Regatta in Burgundy check. More shirts would've been good and the ones with pockets were more useful. The floral shirt was worn the most and washed twice (once by hand, once at launderette).

3/4 sleeve tops

Wore all of these and washed them too.

Short sleeved tops

Useful as layers under the shirts, as well as self sewn I took quite a few RTW t-shirts, mostly from Decathlon.

Summary

Overall things worked well. Secure pockets were definitely useful. My self sewn items worked out quite well. My RTW pieces have been bought over the years and were not expensive. I have pieces from Regatta, Craghoppers and Decathlon. The better my sewing gets, the less RTW I wear :-)

Cotton floral shirt

For this version I used the pocket pieces I'd used on the olive green shirt, only twice this time. These are large enough to be useful without being too large (as per the previous floral blouse).

I used a 100% cotton fabric which I bought from Economy Fabrics in June this year.

The buttons are shell buttons from the button drawers. Fortunately I managed to find a dozen all the same size.

The pattern is Prima March 2020 cut off to blouse length. I've also added a continuous placket for the opening rather than using the sleeve seam.

Pink "Core" T-shirt

This is the Core T-shirt Pattern, which is a FREE pattern from Closet Core Patterns.

I used leftover pink single jersey fabric which had little stretch so as I was between sizes I decided to size up, I also added 1cm to the neckband.

I'm really pleased with the outcome and will be using this pattern again.

Here's how the wardrobe is looking

Pink Print Pair

Here's a pair of tees cut from the same fabric.

First of all I cut my favourite drop shoulder top with curved hem.

There was lots of fabric left over, but it was a bit of a funny shape. Using my TNT New Look 6735 I was able though to cut a front with the upper area missing and add the missing section to the back pieces.

The finished tops look remarkably similar despite one having a curved hem and dropped shoulders where the other has the forward shoulder seam, set in sleeves and a straight hem. Probably because I have almost the same print placement on the front.

Emma One Sock fabric

A Ruth print?