Jungle January's Giorgio's Top

I decided to partake in Prttynpnk's Jungle January  over at Pretty Greivances and here is my contribution! It is another version of Silhouette Patterns Giorgio's Top. I made this version before out of a slinky knit and while it turned out looking fabulous, it did not have quite the flare I was expecting from the pattern envelope. So this time I tried it in a lighter weight fabric...only problem is it has sort of a plasticky type feel on the top--not like vinyl but something weird...so I don't think this is the right type either. I bought some tissue weight rayon knit for the next version...no mistaking that fabrics lightweight-ness!

This version turned out fine, it looks good and there were no construction problems, it just is not as peplumy as the pattern cover either...same problem as last time. In any case, I wear my other version tons so I have no reason to think this version won't get just as much wear. And how fun is the animal print?



I got a couple yards of this red semi plasticky type polyester knit in a bin at Michael Levine's loft...and I think after this garment, it should probably be relegated to muslin or t-shirt type pattern status...because of the weird plasticky overlay...it definitely affects the drape. I still love the fabric...which is weird because I am NOT a fan of red...but combination of knit and fun leopardy jungle print and I am all over it!

Oh and because of the last version being a tiny bit big, I took larger seams on this one. Of course I did not think ahead of time about how compounding that over the million seams this thing has (princess seams) would make it significantly smaller....so this version is a little small...it is only really noticeable on the arms because the flare at the bottom makes this garment very forgiving.

side view--look a little bit of peplumyness!

back view

You can check out the pattern review here.

In other news, I jumped on the sewing dares that are going around started by Crafting a Rainbow. Leila of the Three Dresses Project dared me to sew some trousers! (and we also had some awesome Buffy discussions in the comments as well...)And would I back down from a dare?? No way! So I'm in. I'm sewing trousers...at some point. There is no time requirement.

Anyone else want to be dared???? Leave a message below and I will scope out your blog or your pattern review/Burdastyle and come up with a dare for you....just as Leila did for me!

Don't forget to follow along either by email, friend connect, rss, or blog lovin'....I've got some big news in store...you don't want to miss it!

Giorgio's Top

Part of the new Spring line from Silhouette patterns included this top, called Giorgio's Top. For those of you who are not familiar, Peggy Sagers (designer of Silhouette patterns) makes no secret of how there are no copyrights in fashion and she picks clothing items she likes from designer lines and remakes them as patterns for her line. (Check out her trench pattern---its the Burberry design!) This top is one from the runway of Giorgio Armani--hence the name Giorgio's top. It is essentially a basic princess seamed t-shirt with a cute flared peplum at the bottom.

I made the smallest size, size 1, and it is slightly big. I also made it completely on my serger. I just lined up all the pieces and serged down the seam. Next time I might take slightly deeper seam allowances...but it is probably only big because I used a slinky knit. I used this sparkle pumpkin slinky knit from fabric.com. I bet it will fit perfectly when I use a regular knit next time. Also, I am long waisted and love my shirts long...but even this one is a little too long. I may take off 1/2 of an inch next time. I also think my slinky knit was a little heavy (huh? normally they are so light!) to convey the peplum to the extent on the pattern picture. I will use a real lightweight knit next time as I love that feature. So hmm...maybe it wont pull down as long in a lighter weight knit so maybe I should not cut off any length until I see how low it pulls.

Per the instructions, I just folded under the sleeves and neck hem and top stitched using the coverstitch on my serger. For the hem, I used this 1 inch knit tape from Emma Seabrooke, and put it fusible side UP (away from wrong side of fabric), on the inside of the hem, and serged all around. Then I folded up that 1 inch hem, and fused it in place. Next I took it to my serger and cover stitched. (Please note that this tape does come in double sided fusible, I just happened to have this one sided in my stash already) I like the feel of hems on knits with this tape because it gives them a little body and keeps them from rolling in light weight knits.

back view

side view

Close up of front--that weird pucker is the shirt going over the button on my jeans

Stay tuned for my next post which will be a tutorial on the great method I used to coverstitch the hems. It makes everything line up perfectly on the back! No trimming required.

You can see my review of Giorgio's Top here.

Black Ponte Pants

I recently decided to participate in the Wardrobe Basics Sew-Along put on by the wonderful Girls in the Garden blog. Our first order of business was what was called the black ponte pant!  Now this could not have come at a more opportune time. I had just received my Silhouette Patterns 3 Piece Yoga Pant pattern and had some gorgeous black rayon poly lycra knit left over from what I used on my bridesmaids dresses (more to come on that later!).

There is the front silly shot of me wearing my new Yoga pants. They fit perfectly and work well with heels which is important for work. Also, they are elastic waistband so they are extremely comfortable. Just like the description of the pattern, the pattern is 3 pieces. A front, a back, and a waistband.

Now I have made tons of pajama pants and I am perfectly comfortable at putting on an elastic waistband. In fact, I make all my pajama pants entirely on my serger. (It is a Babylock Evolve so it has coverstitch capabilities) So I did the same thing here. I used my serger for the entire yoga pant. Only my attempt at putting in the waistband was disastrous! It definitely was not the patterns fault, I think it was the elastic I was using. It barely stretched at all. I got some heavy duty stuff called waist band elastic or something. In the future I will just use the regular pajama or underwear elastic.

back view

So as a result of this heavy duty elastic, the waistband didn't stretch to fit quite properly. So I had to undo the waistband and I stitched it first on the sewing machine and then took it over to be serged and that worked just fine. I do not think I will need that extra step when I use the different elastic next time.

Ok so now for the fun stuff! Any of you who do not yet know about Silhouette patterns, Peggy Sagers, or their webcasts need to go over there stat! I say this because not only are all her webcasts amazingly useful, but she has one specifically on yoga pants! She shows you some neat tricks to get cool different waistbands and even describes how you can use this pattern with a woven for a more professional looking yet still comfortable pant! Now I know you all want a back view to see the fit so...here you go!

I cut a straight size 4 (the smallest size) and made no alterations whatsoever. I thought for sure I would need to shorten the crotch length or make the waist smaller or something! But nope! Not a thing. She even mentions that repeatedly that there are so few alterations people need to make with these specific pants because they are so forgiving. The one thing to take note of though is that the 4 is not marked on the waistband piece for some reason. All the other sizes are. But easy enough, I just used the same measurement as is between all the other sizes and used that to measure where the 4 cutting line would be.

All in all, I had a great experience and I am so excited to have the first item done in the first sew along I have ever participated in. I hope this inspires some of you to make your ponte pants! Lastly, I will leave you all with....

a silly picture of me in my new pants! You can see my review here.

P.S. The pictures on the front of Silhouette patterns displaying the garment are horrendous! HORRENDOUS! Just ignore them and look at the line drawing or a review on PR or on her webcasts. These garments can be truly gorgeous!