Summer Wardrobe

Daughter No2 has a list of things for me to make her.  (This is the time to warn you that this post is photo heavy!) It’s updated and renewed every couple of months as she adds things from new Burda magazines and changes her mind depending on the current weather (season).  I’ve done fairly well, but I’ll never get them all done, mostly because we don’t have suitable fabric in the stash.  ( And the length of the list!)  So, I can get started on the projects for which we have fabric, but the others are either shelved or put on hold while we look, and don’t find exactly what she’s got in mind.  At a price we’re prepared to pay! 🙂

However, there was a skirt on her list from last autumn (!) that’s been on the list constantly, and a couple of weeks ago she decided it would be the perfect summer skirt.  I’d already traced it out, so I set to work making a toile.  I traced the 36 and the 38, going with the 36 around the waist, grading out to the 38 over the hips.  This is when I realised that the skirt had no pockets!!!  The pattern is 117A from February Burda 2017.  This has been a very productive magazine, with lots of useful patterns.  The style lines are rather nice, and it looks like it has pockets with flaps, yes?  Nope!  Just the flaps, inserted into the seam.

So I changed that!  I altered the shape of the side panel to include a facing, added pocket bags and now we have pockets, with decorative flaps!  Much more practical.  The toile was approved, even the length!  I was sure she’d ask for it to be made 3-5cm longer, but she was comfortable with it as it was.  Now to allocate fabric…  In the stash, she identified 6 possibilities.  One in dusty pink floral fabric please, one in pale blue Hawiian print fabric please, one in black embroidered linen fabric please, one in leaf print canvas please, one in rust coloured stretch denim please, and, finally – one in vintage floral fabric.  Please.  *take a deep breath*  OK…  this in addition to a couple of dresses, tops, shirts, etc.

So I told her to get her machine out and help!  There’s no way I can get all that done on my own, with the other things I need to do!  I did the cutting, she did the overlocking and started to sew.  We started with the pink cotton with floral circles.  Without the addition of the pockets, this is a quick and easy pattern to run up, although I have also changed the exposed zip in the back to a normal one.  We felt it wouldn’t look right on a cotton fabric.

I like this little number, and she’s right, it will look good in all the fabrics she’s chosen, and will be a very useful addition to her wardrobe, summer and winter!  There’s not really much to say about the pattern, or the fabric really.  The cotton print has been in the stash for rather a long time, so I’m very glad to be using it, although this didn’t take very much!  Although the blue Hawaiian print fabric was made into another skirt before she jetted off to Italy for a week, I hadn’t managed to get photos of it on, so that’ll wait till the next post.  Be prepared to see this skirt often…

The little sleeveless blouse was another item on the list, but it wasn’t originally!  When I came back from South Africa in May, I decided to finally use up some of the smaller stash pieces that had been hanging around for a while.  I had a piece of pale sage green cotton poplin (no idea when or why I bought it) that I paired up with a vintage Style pattern  (1958), and used that fabric to make a wearable toile.  Daughter No1 liked it, but it didn’t fit her well at all, and really didn’t suit her.  Enter Daughter No2, on whom it looked just right!  So she got the toile and I found another small bit of fabric (left over from the wavy back top) to use up.  This time, she did the making, and the cutting!  The pattern is vintage Style 544, dated 1956.

The pattern consists of a front, back, and two facing pieces.  The dart tucks at the waist give it a great shape, and eliminate bulk when tucking into skirts and trousers.  The high neck looks fabulous and really suits someone with a longer neck.  (that’s me out!)  She managed to make the blouse fairly quickly, only running out of time to choose buttons and finish that part off, before heading back home.  So I found a selection & sent her photos to choose from.  The vintage covered buttons were duly chosen and I made the buttonholes and sewed on the buttons.  This is another of those patterns I can see being used a number of times, especially as it needs so little fabric!  I love those.

Another quick make for the summer is a cami.  In this case, it was a couple of Ogden Camis – and the fabric came from the scrap box.  The first up is a pale blue soft linen.  There wasn’t quite enough for the full facing, and really, I should have shaped it or cut it higher (I still might do this) because it sits at an akward height and you can see it though the outer layer.  Honestly, if you couldn’t see it, I probably wouldn’t change it.  I love how quickly the pattern comes together, and I love that I managed to make something useful out of a small,odd shaped piece of left over fabric.

As you can see, all three of these tops go pretty well with the pink skirt!  I think this means this skirt is going to be well worn this summer, not just one of those summer flings.