Why stop at just one?

Here I am, looking very matter-of-fact in my second version of BWOF 10-2008-115. This was cut and sewn in one evening.

Fabric
Wool jersey from Textile Studio, purchased during PR Day in Seattle on Monday. I strayed from my typical neutral color comfort zone with this great orange-y red.

What I did different this time
As drafted, the dress hem hit me just below the knee. It didn't look great with the knee high boots I wear all winter, so I chopped ~5" off the hem (I ended up shortening my first dress also).

I stitched the center front seam about 1" higher for a little more cleavage coverage.

I probably won't make another dress like this, but never say never...

Thanksgiving week notes

Blogland has been busy this past week! I am slowly catching up with reading everyone's posts, and trying to get back into the sewing groove myself. I spent the past week in the San Francisco Bay area, here are a few notes:

1. My niece was born on Tuesday :) About a week earlier than expected. This meant that Tim and I were able to meet her in person and spend her first Thanksgiving with her. I'm not posting any paparazzi photos of her at this time, but take my word for it, she's adorable.

2. My sister-in-law, who is also a seamstress, took me to a couple of wonderful stores in Berkeley. Fortunately I brought the Butterick 5316 pattern (my new years eve dress) along with me on this trip just in case an opportunity like this came up :) (Little did we know during this outing that in another 24 hours she would be in labor. Good thing we went fabric shopping when we did.)


Our first stop was Stonemountain and Daughter. Okay. I want to move to Berkeley and get a job working in this store. The fabric selection is amazing! I wasn't able to decide on any of the silk prints for my dress, so I settled on a solid silk charmeuse in a jewel tone purple. Although I had promised myself I'd stick to fabric/notions for the new years gown, I couldn't resist picking up a little something else. They have a great selection of knits - I was drawn to this black/white/mustard print.

Next stop, Lacis. What an incredible selection of trims, ribbons, beads, lace, embroidery, millinery supplies, etc, much of it vintage. My primary goal here was to find trim for the shoulder straps of my new years eve gown. I selected this silver rick rack style trim, and I also got enough to use as a belt. My SIL told me there is a special room of laces, trims, etc in which you must be escorted and wear gloves to protect anything that you touch. She got lace for her wedding veil here.

3. Remember the two knits in my recent post "One Sunday, Two Garments"? Well, I like the two garments so much, I decided to morph them. I used the Burda 8771 dress pattern and replaced the collar with the cowl neck from BWOF 10-2005-114. The fabric is a camel color wool jersey that I got a couple months ago at the Pacific Fabric Outlet. I made this right before we left for the trip, and here I am modeling it at a walkway in the Oakland Airport on our way home on Friday.

My sewing machine is going to be ready to pick up from its regular checkup/cleaning on Monday. Since the shop closes before Tim gets home (and we have just one car which he drives to work), I reserved a car with Flexcar so I can pick up my machine in the evening. There are two vehicles parked a few blocks from my house, and they just switched out the minivan for a Mini Cooper! Look out, Seattle.

Comfy tee

Gotta love instant gratification sewing... Today I made a knit top from the October 2007 BWOF, style 115.

BWOF offers this pattern in sizes 38-46. I graded to a 36, and I'm glad I did, there is a fair amount of ease. If you want something more body-hugging, just go down a size or two from your normal BWOF size.

BWOF describes this as having 3/4 sleeves. They are more like bracelet length on me.

Fabric:
Super soft, super stretchy jersey of unknown content, it was a remnant I bought at the Pacific Fabric Outlet last month.

Likes/dislikes:

I like the simple style, and how fast it is to sew up.

I dislike the directions for the front pleat! I didn't make up an entire test garment, but I knew I needed to test out the pleat construction. I messed up what they tell you to do in the very first sentence! Fortunately I figured it out and now it just seems obvious.

The first sentence in this instructions is: "Fold front on fold line, wrong side facing in." They are referring to the center front fold, not the horizontal line marked "fold". If you are planning to make this pattern, this info should spare you several moments of confusion. I have photos of the whole process if a picture tutorial would be useful to anyone, just let me know.

Alterations/design changes:
I added seam binding to the shoulder seams to keep them from stretching out.

Conclusion

Easy to make, easy to wear version of a basic tee.

I'm not calling this my "BWOF project of the month" because I'm planning to make blouse 117 in a snazzy fabric; I think that top will be more deserving of the title.