Ottobre 5/2007 skirt

This skirt is a basic yoked pattern. It has a slight A line and hits about mid knee. One version has the tie as shown on the photo at the left. I wanted my skirt to be fuller so I cut and pivoted the skirt front and back four times and added 5cms into each cut. This gave me an extra 4(pieces) x 20cm = 80cms extra in the hem circumference.

This is a very poor photo of the pattern spread out. You can just make out the slashed pattern on top.


I used newspaper. Once spread I recut the front and back the larger size. Only the hem increases and not the top that attaches to the yoke. I also added about 5cms to the length.

The yoke is faced but I did not line the rest of the skirt. An invisible zipper is in the back.

For the hem I used the narrow hem on the overlocker - quick and easy!

I like the fuller look of the skirt and am very happy with how it turned out. It was an experiment to see if it would work - and it did! I cut the skirt with the straight grain down the centre front and back. Cutting with the straight grain running down the centre of the pattern pieces would give different folds. I remember this was covered in a Stitches magazine but I can't remember which way was supposed to be more flattering.

Pattern Review weekend 2007

I am back from our Pattern Review weekend Downunder. What a great time we had. Cheryl (my sister) and I stayed overnight in town even though we live in the same city. Lots more fun.

We had dinner out on Friday night, a fabric shopping tour (by bus) on Saturday, dinner Saturday night and a workshop (get together) on Sunday. It was very hot on Saturday and the cotton fabric of my latest outfit stood up well to the heat and excitement. Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments left on my last post about the outfit! :))

Here are a couple of photos but of course more can be found on my Flickr album

On the bus with our fabric purchases.

Me back in the hotel room surrounded by my 24 new pieces! Looks like I have a lot of sewing to do..................

It is so much fun to shop and get together with other "sewists". Highly recommend it!!

Vogue 8398 and Ottobre skirt

Here is a nice "arty" photo of me in the skirt and jacket taken by Sofie. I have a RTW cami underneath. I had photos with the top in and out. Out looks better but you can see the skirt better in.

The jacket fabric is quite stiff and does not want to play nice. The shoulders could be better. But its "good enough" especially for a casual jacket.

I don't have time to blog about the skirt today other than to say it is from Ottobre 5/2007 but modified to make it fuller. I am off now to our PatternReview get together dinner but I will be changing first - it is a bit chilly tonight. Tomorrow is supposed to be hot so I may swap the shoes for flats and wear the outfit on our shopping trip.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Vogue 8398 - finished

My green version of Vogue 8398 is finished! I made the uncollared version and top stitched with the triple stitch in black. I was going to use green but changed my mind at the last minute. This is the first time I have used this stitch and am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I changed the order of instructions. The pattern has you sew the under and upper seams of the sleeves before attaching to the body of the jacket. I decided to just sew the under seam and then attach to the body. This way I could pin fit the sleeves to the shape of my shoulders.
To help reduce the extra fabric in the back of the sleeve that I had in the muslin, I pinned the seam of the sleeve a little bit deeper.

I also sewed up the matching skirt today but still need to hem it. I will post about that another day. But here is a picture of the top of the skirt with the matching binding on the inside of the jacket.

PatternReview weekend

This coming weekend is the PatternReview Down Under weekend. This will be our second official PR weekend and I am really looking forward to it.

One of the things we will be doing is a fabric tour. We will be catching a bus that will be taking us all over Melbourne in search of that perfect fabric and wonderful bargain! Last year I won the dubious honour of the one with the most fabric ! Here is a link to my photo's of last year's event.

And the good news is that we have room for a few more on the shopping trip. So if you can get to Melbourne on Saturday and would like to join us, please come along. You don't have to be a member of PR. Just be willing to have a good time. We are a very friendly bunch and there is nothing like going fabric shopping with others that are like minded. Last year I had not met any other ladies before the trip, so don't let that stop you. Leave a comment if you would like to come or pop over to the message board on PR here.

We are popping into a fabric wholesaler during the day, and I can promise you that the prices are wonderful! On past visits I have bought wool blend fabric made for Ojay for less than $10 a yard! And wonderful knits for $3. Ooh, I hope they have some nice summer weight suiting this year........

This is a photo of a coat I made using a beautiful cord fabric (for around $4 a metre) from the wholesaler. The knit at the neckline was about $3 a metre.

Our expected itinerary for the day is:

Darn Cheap (Heidelberg) - more of a bargain type place, with a variety of different fabrics. They do roll ends & I've found some great stuff here.Cloth Shop (Ivanhoe) - very nice quality Materialise (Camberwell) - a clearance outlet for Tylers which is really upmarket. I went in there last week and I was really taken with some of their stuff, particularly I liked the brocades that I have zilch opportunity to wear. Cutting Edge (Malvern) The Button Shop (Malvern) - these two are almost next door to each other. Gotta have buttons!Frou Frou Fabrics (Glen Waverley) - this is one I've heard heaps about, they have interesting garments around the shop. There's a bakery next door where you could grab something to eat if you didn't bring anything. Then we're travelling over to the other side of the city, & these shops are more for the bargain hunter. By this stage of the day bargains will be looking good!Our first stop of the afternoon is at a place that does wholesale. The retail shops we're visiting in the afternoon are:Rathdowne RemnantsGJs FabricsSydney Rd Shops - Anne's Discount Fabrics no 363 - Unique Fabrics - Sari fabrics & good for silk dupioni- Brunswick Fabrics - Vonne's favourite from last year

Another film from Ellen

Today I am off to Shepparton for a couple of days so no more work on the Jacket. Thankyou for the encouragement. I really want to get it done now!

In the mean time, Ellen wanted me to share this with as many people as possible. She has made a short film (about 90 seconds) for a competition initiated by a company that travels to schools to perform and educate on Shakespeare plays etc. The competition entails interpreting a line of Shakespeare any way you like. She has chosen the line "Out damn spot" from Macbeth, the play which she studied this year. In a nutshell - Lady Macbeth is feeling the guilt's for her part in the murder of the king. I really like what she has done with this.

There are lots of good prises, so if you would like to vote for her she would appreciate it very much.

If you go to this link, Ellen's film will show up (eventually) and then you can watch and vote for it (if you like). Make sure you have the sound on as that adds to the film.

http://www.makeascene.spikemobile.com/?mediaid=23253

Enjoy your weekend!

Vogue 8398 - how many muslins does a girl need?

Thankyou to everyone who gave me fitting tips here, on Stitches Guild and via email. All were much appreciated and considered.

The overwhelming majority of you suggested I stay with size 8 and work from there. Well.....I did consider this but if you can see from the size 6 and 8 back views the size 8 is far too low and I would not be able to wear a tshirt underneath without it showing. The line drawing of the jacket does suggest it is low to account for the collar but I don't think it should be that low...anyway I don't want it that low.

Here is another photo of the size 6 where I have pinned the centre fronts to my top. They meet fine at the neck - just a problem with the bust! I measured about 5 cm short across the centre of the bust.

So off to Fit for Real People - page 150. But first I moved the bust point down 2cms - page 149 of the same book. My first FBA and what a fine job I did -


I adjusted the muslin just on one side - I think my face says it all...........

Oh no! My bust could not in a million cream buns time fit that cup size!!!!! lol

Somehow doing the FBA after dropping the bust point, dropped it even further. And you can see the jacket still will not sit together at centre front. I suppose it never will unless there is something to keep it closed - eg hooks and eyes.

Ok back to the drawing board. I prepared another front with just the dropped bust point and fitted that to myself. No photo as by this time I was just in my bra! (easier to take the muslin off and on). Much better. It still did not quite meet at centre front so I pulled apart the princess seam until it did and measured that gap - about 1cm. So I adjusted the patterd with the "alternate alternation for just a little extra room" on page 153. I added about 1/2 cm to each piece - the side front and the centre front.

I have now cut out the fabric!

Other great fitting advice I was given...
Vonne said to raise the armhole as Vogue often has low armholes. I checked this but found that the armhole on this pattern is right up at my armpit - maybe because as I am using the size 6? So no changes needed there.

Patsijean felt that the size 6 had stress marks across the back. I agree there are some and I had not noticed that before. I will be using a stretch woven for the jacket so that should fix that. If not I can tweak the shoulder seam to give a bit more room. She also suggested I look at a tip in "More Power Sewing" on page 52 by Sandra Betzina for raglan sleeves. Thankyou for that - I do have that book but hadn't referred to it for a while.


For the back, a lot of you suggested scooping out the back sleeve but not the back itself. I will do this when I pin fit the fabric.

I may not get back to this for a few days as I need to go up to Shepparton over the weekend to see mum. And remember on my last post I was going to make the skirt up? Well I seem to have lost my pattern. I had a Burda WOF pattern I traced from a library copy so I can't retrace. But it is very similar to a skirt in the latest Ottobre, so maybe I will try that.

Vogue 8398 - muslins!

Yesterday I made a muslin in size 8 based on my high bust measurement. It fit well across the bust - but that is all. The neck was too wide and the shoulders a mess.

Warning - you may want to look away as some very unflattering photos follow.......

So I then made a size 6. Much better across the neck and shoulders but it does not meet at the centre front - maybe my first ever FBA? I am a C cup so I suppose I need one. I also need to move the bust point down.

But the back still has issues and I am not sure what they are. To me there is still too much fabric around the armhole.

It fits Eames much better than me (which of course is telling me something...lol). But she still needs to lower the bust dart and do something with the back. Normally I would need a sway/straight back adjustment but I haven't done this as it does not go below the waist. Maybe I need a centre back seam so that I can adjust from there? Or maybe you just need that extra room to reach forward?

Today I will move onto the skirt and wait for some feedback as to where to go next...

Yesterday Summerset commented "...make yourself a simple, fuller skirt like you suggested out of that purple/white flower print, then make that little jacket in a solid purple or a solid white with purple topstitching. Then wear a close fitting t-shirt or tank with it in the opposite color (either white or purple), maybe with a little lace on it. Pretty, feminine, and spring-like! It is getting to be spring in your part of the world, right?" Yes, it is spring and I love, love, love your suggestion! Thankyou very much Summerset! I want to make the green up first as I have all the fabric for that. And if I can get this jacket to play nice I can certainly have more than one! ;))

Need some motivation

I am missing the sewing mojo. I think those couches have driven the fun of sewing out the back door!

However, I have two exciting weekends coming up - the second last one in October I am going to Sydney for a work conference. We will be conferencing by climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, cruising on the harbour and having cocktails enjoying the city view.



The last weekend in October is the PatternREview Downunder weekend. Dinners, fabric buying trip etc. So maybe I should sew up some of the gazzillions of metres of fabric I bought last year?

But I am thinking of starting on some recent fabric purchases:
From left..
. Olive jacket weight- 62% cotton, 35 poly and 3% elastine
. Green flower on white for skirt- 100% cotton
. Sparkle jersey for a top - 65% poly, 35% viscose
. Green cotton for dress - 100% cotton
The last fabric is not part of the mini wardrobe but was purchased at the same time - Purple flower - 97% cotton, 3% elastine

I am planning on making the jacket using Vogue 8398 - the centre view.

So what sort of skirt? And what top? For the skirt I am thinking a half circle type on a yoke. Simple. And for the top........a T? The sparkle jersey does not have any elastine so will not fit closely. I notice that the silhouette with the jacket is slim. I think full will work as long as there is the slim directly under the jacket. So no full top.

I have to say I am not feeling the love with this, so any feedback would be good! I will start with the jacket and see how I go.....