Sew, I've Been Thinking ...

I promise you this does look better on me than on Vera.  It hangs like a misshapen sack, but it looks good on, or at least I think so. It's Kwik Sew 3334, which I've made a couple of times over the years.  I like the shorter, fitted shape and I love the rounded shawl collar.  This kind of jacket is great for my face shape and I chose it for this collection as I think the higher collar tops sit nicely under it and the shape of the neckline matches those on the top and dresses. For a pop of colour and to add some weight to the body, I lined it with leftover geometric print from the dress.  I had hoped to have enough for another top but there was barely enough to do this. So that's another 11 piece SWAP collection added to my wardrobe and I've even worn some of the pieces already.  I am absolutely thrilled with these garments and I think this is the most cohesive collection I have ever made, which is pretty good considering I didn't plan it, did...

I've made the two final tops for my SWAP.   Funnily enough, the last one was not one I even intended to make, but it fits the plan better than the my original idea, or at least I think so. First up is the top Burda 05-109-103 which is the same pattern as the pink geometric dress from last week.    I lined it with a leftover from the geometric dress to and piped the waist band to tie it in with the initial other things in the collection.  The pink knit I used for the piping is leftover from a dress and top I made for the original Shetland Collection.   So with the pink knit sitting around as I sewed, I started to think that maybe I should use it up.  Whilst rummaging in my pattern box for a jacket pattern (which I only found today) I came across Burda 8715, which is one of the first patterns I ever bought.  The skirt pattern was the base for my TNT pencil skirt and I've made the jacket twice before, but I've never made the top. ...

  Here are some hasty and very bad pictures of my SWAP so far.  This blouse is BWOF 05-10-129 .  I've made this twice before but this time I left off the breast pockets and flaps. In addition, I lengthened both the bodice and the peplum by 2.5cm each.  You will recognise this fabric from the waistband facings and pocket bags of the skirt and shorts in my previous post.         Next up is a wildcard which is BWOF 05-09-103, which I've also made twice before.  I love, love, love this dress!  I dived deep into the Burda collection for this blouse.  It's so old, the Burda website doesn't go back this far.  It's BWOF 10-03-123 and I was surprised to realise I've been buying the magazine for this long!     This blouse is BWOF 05-10-128 and has the same bodice as the first blouse, but with a more full peplum, also lengthened like the first one.     I have one more top in prod...

It's funny how this SWAP has come together.  I had no plan, no idea at all of what I would make yet it is turning into the most cohesive collection I have made in my entire sewing career.  Nothing I'm making is earth shattering or life changing or even challenging. Rather it represents a shift in my fundamental and instinctive understanding of what makes a capsule wardrobe work. Sew, with that in mind, I present the most recent additions. These shorts are BWOF 07-09-113 and originally were cuffed but I chose to make them without cuffs this time. I've made these twice before and it's a great pattern; simple and fits well.    I've made them from silver sateen leftover from the dress in my last post.  I've also piped the pockets so they tie in with the dress.   The waistband facing and pocket bags are made from an animal print cotton that I used to make a dress some years ago.  It's hard to tell from these pictures but there is a...

Making this dress was a spur of the moment thing.  I had pulled this fabric out of stash late last year with a view to including it in my Shetland Collection, but I didn't know what to do with it.  It's a silver grey sateen I bought many years ago for a long forgotten SWAP.  Needless to say, it never got used. It's been sitting in a pile since then and last week I decided to make a dress out of it. To make things easy, I chose a pattern I've already fitted to me/   This is Vogue 8787  and I've made this once before a couple of years ago in black velvet.  I thought the grey looked a little bland on its own so I decided to pipe the waistband with black satin piping.    I trawled my stash and found this funky poly satin leftover from lining a red skirt and jacket made at about the same time as the original version of this dress.     So where's the SWAP, you may well ask?  I had so much of this fabric left that I c...

I seem to have given up on my SWAP sewing because this weeks garments don't go with anything I've sewn so far.  In dredging through my sewing room the other day I came across an inspiration picture I ripped out of a magazine a couple of years ago.  The spots on the original dress were bigger but I had fabric in my stash and a pattern that approximated the one in the picture and I was in the mood for combining the two, so this jumped to the head of the queue. The dress is M6699 which is apparently now OOP.  I made this dress the Christmas before last out of a retro Christmas print (and never blogged) and it just needed a little tuck taken in the neckline as the shoulders were a little wide for me and I left off the pockets and silly contrast on the vent, but otherwise I made it as per the pattern.  I cut a 10 on top graded to a 12 at the hips.  McCalls aren't a great fit for my shape, but this works out OK. I lined this with whatever I...