Pattern Review: BurdaStyle Magazine 4/2008 #107, Trench Jacket

30 Aug

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I’m DONE!

Whew.  The jacket is actually pretty straighforward construction. For this, I cut a size 40 and made a 1/2 inch FBA.

I added a center back seam to make my swayback adjustment.

The inside is finished with bias tape which I had to do when my serger died mid construction. But, it’s a beautiful way to finish an unlined jacket.

I made the back facing in the same contrast fabric as the undercollar and reverse of the chest gaurd.

The buttons were from a FabricMart.com bundle. The fabric is from a Michael’s clearance last year or the year before. Total project? Maybe $20?

I don’t know what happened to me, but my handsewn hem is terrible. If this jacket makes it through two weeks of China, I’ll have to even the hem out.

I do like all the topstitching. While cute, this fabric was all wrong for this jacket. It’s a very stiff denim – linen blend. It has no sheen whatsover and no drape. It was like making a jean jacket from canvas. The color is also pretty dull on me too. I’d like to find a summer scarf to spice it up.

I put the chest flap on the wrong side, not that I think it would make too much of a difference. I left off the pockets (made me look hippy) and the button loops. I don’t like this self fabric belt so I wanted the freedom to use a purchased one. I also placed the buttonholes too close to the front edge. My buttons overlap a bit too much.

I leave on Wednesday morning and for the first time in two months, I kind of don’t have anything to sew! I might try and make a sleeping mask. That could be done in an hour, tops. And, maybe an infinity scarf for the plane(s). LOL. I must be crazy.

The other fun thing I did this weekend was go to the drive in movie! Toy Story 3. I don’t know if I can go back to the theater after this.  So much fun!

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Feeling Hopeful

28 Aug

Last night during construction of my 4/2008 trench jacket, I broke a serger needle. And, I couldn’t take it out becuase I needed a missing alan wrench.  Last night I started improvising and decided to try and Hong Kong seam finish on the inside.

Not that I’ve ever done it before. But, I have these nifty bias tap makers. How hard could it be? Turns out it’s not hard at all. Just more labor intenstive that I need for jacket that has to be finished by Tuesday.

Around mid afternoon today I gave up and bought a new Alan wrench. Not that I didn’t like the way it looked. But, I realized I didn’t have enough bias to go around.

I’ve also settled on these buttons. Trena gave them to me two years ago. Of course, I’m three short. Argh.

I am hopeful I can knock this out tomorrow. For now, I’m done for the d ay. Toy Story 3 is at the drive-in theater!

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Pattern Review: Vogue 1086, Tracy Reese Dress in Ghanaian Wax Print

26 Aug

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I have to make a disclaimer here and say that I sew very infrequently from the Big 4 Patterns. I’m so used to the skeletal directions provided by Burda that I find myself almost confused when sewing from Big 4 patterns. So many words! So many markings on the pattern!

I pretty much buy every Tracy Reese pattern from Vogue that comes out. I love that she’s a young African American designer and I think if I want to keep seeing more from her, than I need to financially support her too. Luckily, her designs are worth every penny.

I decided to make a dress for my East Coast to Far East capsule because I have four days of business meetings and two banquets in Xiamen. Plus, I have a nice dinner planned for Saturday night in Shanghai.  A dress is perfect for these situations. There was some talk of business attire. I snorted. I *refuse* to take a business suit with me.

Alterations: I just raised the neckline up by 1.5 to 2 inches. I didn’t do a swayback and I didn’t make a FBA. I do find the top very roomy (I made a size 14) but suspect that’s partly the look of the dress. If I had thought about it, I would have piped the waistband as it gets a bit lost on this dress with my fabric.

For interfacing, I used a woven from Sew Exciting. It adds a wonderful crispness to the wax print. I used straight of grain interfacing on the neckline of the dress to stabilise it.

I planned to line the entire dress, but couldn’t figure out how to do the bodice. Well, I could figure it out, but I didn’t have time so just the skirt was done. I thought for like three seconds about trying to match up my print to cut out. But, I didn’t bother. It’s not a huge scale and I made sure to avoid having big flowers on my bust apex.

As I was sewing this dress, I was a little worried that it would be too ethnic looking. Not that it’s bad. But, I wanted the fabric to stand on its on and not look like I was misappropriating a traditional cultural print. The busy print of the fabric makes the details of dress hard to see. But, there is some lovely gathering in the shoulders and waist.

The fabric was purchased three years ago when I went to Ghana. I bought an OBSCENE amount of material. I salivated at the beautiful colors and tradition. I definitely purchased far more than I should have in retrospect. I have one last piece left and am still waiting for the perfect project.

So, in my last post I said I should rent a Kindle. Well, I went to the bookstore to get a guide book for Shanghai and made a TOTAL impulse purchase and bought the Nook. I loves it. I’m still taking my netbook with a few movies loaded. Thanks for the tips regarding iTunes. It sounds like the rented movies should work since I don’t have to login to the internet to watch them on my netbook.

And, now that I have a remote control for my camera, I take an OBSCENE amount of photos. And, you can think I’m vain, but I’m going to post them because I LOVE THIS DRESS. I feel fun and cute and skinny.

This is my Trena picture. Because I’m wearing my lime glasses, LOL. Totally retro, right?

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Setting Myself Up for Failure?

24 Aug

I’ve been sewing like a bandit the last week because I’m a little behind in my China sewing. I lost a solid 1.5 weekends of sewing because the Vegan and I stopped seeing each other and I was actively engaged in perfecting my ability to eat popsicles in bed while in the fetal position. Of course, this took place in between wondering if I was ever going to sustain a long-term relationship and marathon watching of Being Erica. Happily, Trena came up to visit snap me out of it . We made pizza, drank some wine and now I’m generally back to my regularly scheduled life. Luckily, I tend to wallow for about a week and bounce back with vim, vigor and acute sarcasm. At anyrate, early in the planning process I planned to buy a blazer but never found one I liked. Now that my dress is done, I want to try to squeeze in one jacket. It’ll be cold on the plane, over air conditioned in my week of meetings and in the convention center at the trade fair. Plus, a jacket will extend my wardrobe from touring to business.

I’ve been obsessed and I mean OBSESSED with this trench style blazer from the April 2008 Burda for two years now. Oh, who am I kidding. I love trench and nautical. Period. I have the fabric on hand. A lovely linen cotton blend on clearance from Michael’s fabric a year or two ago. I just don’t know if I have the time. The Tracy Reese dress was finished last night  (photos to post on Friday or so) and this pattern traced out.

So, here’s the sewing plan:

  • Tonight, alter the pattern (unpetite, FBA, swayback adjustment) and get my fabric cut 
  • Wednesday night I want to interface and make the pockets and sleeve pleat thingies.
  • Thursday through Sunday. Sew in fits and spurts.

Ambitious, yes. And, I won’t beat myself up if it just doesn’t happen. I fly out in one week. Crazy, right?

On another note, does anyone know the answer to this? If I load my netbook up with rented iTunes movies, will I be able to play them in China? Netflix didn’t work in Canada, but I assume that is because streaming was needed. It seems to me that iTunes will be physcially on my computer and it shouldn’t matter. Anyone know?

Sigh. I should probably look into a Kindle soon. But, I’d rather just rent one for two weeks.

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Argentina’s ‘Look’ Sewing Magazine (in Russian)

24 Aug

I just re-upped my subscription to the Russian ‘Pattern’ sewing magazine that a friend originally brought me from Ukraine. Each month they publish in Russian either selected patterns from the Italian La Mia Boutique or new to me Spanish language Look. This magazine has been hit or miss for me and this month is no different.

A few cute dresses

A few innaproproate tops

And a lot of kind of ugly


I have four more coming to me. If they don’t improve, they’ll be my last.

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