Deepika Blogs…

Last minute sewing

March is almost finished and here in New England we are still wearing jackets! Oh well, I love MA anyway 🙂 Atleast we get to see all 4 distinct seasons. I am so close to falling off the wagon this month but I am determined to finish my March project, which is not too exciting, but it’s a blouse I’ll get a lot of use out of and it fits my goal of sewing more wovens and blouses this year.

It’s another version of the Burda Magazine Blouse I made last month.

This one’s as close to a white blouse (sorry I dont do white) as it gets. Its a lovely natural linen from Fabric.com

I experimented with wing needle top stitching and I love it! Birgitte, I took some closeups to show you what it looks like.

The only parts left for this blouse are sewing the sleeves and the collar which I intend to finish tonight. Oh yes, the buttons and buttonholes too. I can do it!!!

Sorry for such a bad photo. I snapped it with my Blackberry before leaving the house today.

I can do it, I can do it. I figured if I post it here, I am more likely to finish it 🙂 More on my travel plans later…

February Project – Muslin Paid Off

I am loving this muslin process actually. Wonder why I never did this before. Anyway, I wanted to show you the finished shirt. The only thing left was to make buttonholes and sew the buttons which I did last night.

Muslin Process

Full Review on PatternReview.com

Here are the techniques I learnt in this process
1. Button Band – love it. Any future shirts I make will have button band instead of the facing.
2. Puff sleeves – Also love them. So cute, so springy.
3. Collar and collar band – I’ve done this before. But next time I am going to find a better way of constructing. It gets easier each time.
4. Lots of alterations – Well not lots, but it was amazing how tiny little things can make such a big difference.

Now I am trying to figure out how many more blouses I can make from this pattern 🙂

Year of the Muslin

I am calling this the Year of the Muslin. That’s right, I bought a whole bolt and not afraid to use it. I am taking the time to explore the possibilities. Starting with this cute Burda WOF Blouse everyone was making last year. I am a little late to the party but enjoying it neverthless.

Reviews on PatternReview.com

Step 1: Muslin Making
Making the muslin led to some fitting discoveries. Almost all the Burda patterns have too wide of a shoulder. So I have to shave off about 1/2″. I was also getting some wrinkles right under the bust which were driving me nuts.

Shannon and Heidi both recommended taking out the excess fabric right under the bust. So I did that and it looks much better. There are still some wrinkles but I dont want to overfit so I am willing to live with this.

Now comes the fun part. Sewing it!

I cut it out from the lovely cotton I bought in Costa Rica.

Because the fabric is very thin, following the advice of one of the reviewers, I made the bib double layer. And guess what? I hand basted the layers together with a silk thread. You can see that I am indeed taking the time on this. I am breaking it down into smaller steps and sew a little bit every night. So it’s quite fun actually.

Here’s what I have so far. The back and the front are done, the sleeves are gathered up and ready to go. My interfacing is getting pre treated and tonight I will be able to do the collar. I am going to NYC this weekend so I should be able to find some treasures there for this blouse. Or who knows, maybe I’ll wear it to NYC. Still too cold for it though.

My next version from this pattern will be in Linen. I bought this handkerchief linen from Fabric.com but the cranberry turned out to be too dark. So I am thinking, maybe that should be a skirt. I’ll make the blouse from the oatmeal Linen. What do you think?

review