Miss Celie's Pants

If you recall, I made the 2-2008 #116 Burda ruffle vest for the DC Seersucker Social and it was saggy in the bust and big in the waist. I over did my FBA by a good 1.5 inches.  I said I needed to find someone five inches shorter with huge tatas. Well, I did.

Meet our high school intern M.! Let me apologize now for camera phone pictures. She wore the vest to work today and it was all I had. On principle, I abhor camera phone photos for viewing any place else other than a phone. But, I digress.

I brought the vest in a few weeks ago with her in mind. She says we’re the same bust size. Considering I was able to fit a tee shirt into the vest to fill it out, I think it’s fair to say she needs to be refit for underpinnings.

How adorable is she?

I’ll be honest, this is also the first time I’ve seen her in anything that fits her upper body and she wasn’t spilling out of. And, she told me it’s the first time she’s had a shirt button in years.

I normally hate giving sewn garments to people I know. I always worry they won’t appreciate them. Or get annoyed if I don’t see them wearing it. But, here is a teenager that’s already wearing it and understands that it fits her differently than RTW. She’s been telling people it’s a ’designer vest’. And, she doesn’t care about those wonky wonky pockets. I’m so happy it went to a good home!

Tags: 2-2008-116

Well, I’m definitely going to have an outfit come Saturday. As you can see, I’ve added both pockets and futzed with the crazy ruffles. I love welt pockets. Such a fun banker look.  It’s just too bad I like to put them in too close to center front and slightly askew. In my defense, I took an inch from CF so the pockets were further back when I started.

Now that I use Kathleen Fasanella’s tutorial on How to Sew a Single Welt Pocket, I don’t even sweat making welt pockets.

Her original tutorial makes about a 1/2 inch welt. I wanted to just show how I altered the pattern to accomodate for a larger welt. I won’t reblog her tutorial because it’s excellent. Go there first and come back here.

click to enlarge

The length of my finished welt is 1 inch wide by 4.5 inches in length. The 2 inch wide section becomes your welt. Folded in half, that is one inch.

When sewing, you’ll sew with right sides together (the interfaced piece will be up). The welt portion should be sewn point down. Because it’s the welt, that’s what needs to come up to show in the welt window.

You also need to increase the size of the welt window from the original. On mine, it’s one inch. On the original pattern Kathleen has, it’s 1/2 inch.

I’ve sewn in the ruffles at the shoulder. They are so cute! But, there’s a lot of bias between the armholes and the ruffles. So, I used selvedge to stablise the curves.

It was a breeze to sew on. I eased the armholes to the selvedge to make sure it would snug up and not show my bra from the side or gape.

Whew. So a few more hours and I’ll be done. I have commandeered hats from coworkers and literally have a selection of six. I’m just about set!

Tags: 2-2008-116

Thank you for the comments on my mini-skirt. It’s too bad I don’t play tennis I read someplace that women over 35 shouldn’t wear minis so imma embrace it for the next 10 months.

Now that the skirt is done, it’s time to tackle the actual seersucker portion of my Seersucker Social outfit. I’m making the Burda Magazine 2-2008 #116 vest above for a second time . I thought it would be helpful to take a look at the  current state of the vest I made the two years ago. Let me warn you. Is bad.

Ugh. I told you it was bad! Hehe. Sadly, I only got to wear it twice. I washed it and it shrank (which wasn’t so bad because it was a little big) but it also seriously faded. Now, it’s too small, shows my bra and the inner structure is bunchy (because of the shrinkage). As my mom would say, “It’s tired looking!”. That’s my bra you see peeking out in both photos too.

The first thing I needed to address in the old pattern was an FBA. I decided to stick with my old 38 and make a 1.5 inch FBA. Lately, I’ve been making a 40 and a 1 inch FBA and things are coming out a bit big.

For this, I added a side bust dart and deepened the waist dart. I did a quick pin fit  below and things look *ok*. Possibly too much space in the FBA. I think this because I’m not as pert as the paper when I’m laying down

Since I’ve ‘grown’ the last two years, I added an extra inch on all sides so I would have room to make adjustments if needed.  I’d like to line the vest if there is time, but the ride is Saturday and I’ve got some real sewing to get done still.

Tags: 2-2008-116

So, the DC Seersucker Social is this Saturday. Originally, I thought I was going to make a dress. But, decided a skirt and top would be way more versatile. I remembered this skirt from the February 2011 Burda, #120

I mean. Really. She’s already got a bicycle. I was powerless to resist. It’s going to be a bit boxy on me in the twill I picked out. But, will be great for the ride and this summer.

I’ve also decided to make a vest out of seersucker. It’s from the February 2008 Burda. Seersucker is not mandatory for the ride But, thematically I sort of have to do it.

Actually, I’ve made it before. The black version faded and shrank in the wash.  Still in my closet because I refuse to let it go. So, I’m going to make it up again in seersucker.

I made some headway this weekend but, I’m not done. So, I’ll be sewing every night this week and some on Saturday morning to be ready by Saturday afternoon. And, if I don’t finish in time, I can just wear a pretty dress.

Tags: 2-2008-116, 2-2011-120