Disco Fever!

As you may have noticed, blogging hasn't been a big priority lately. But I had such fun sewing this, I wanted to write about it. Let's see if I remember how to do this...

It all started with the jeans. I really needed jeans. I love my Jalie jeans, but you know, sometimes a girl needs something new and fun. So, this is Simplicity 7146, published in 1974. I seriously love all the fun details in this pattern. And that super high waistline! So me.

The back yoke is SO COOL! It curves down to the side seams in such a flattering way. It was not the funnest to sew... But worth it!! I did add the back pockets. They may not have needed a place for their phones back in '74, but I do! I echoed the yoke stitching in my pocket design. I didn't want to lose that nice curve. I also added star shaped rivets. Because fun.

Those wide legs!! I love them!!! Alexa has played so much disco lately, both as I sewed and then again for pictures. Gotta get into the groove, baby!

For fit, I compared the pattern to my trusty Jalie, and it was an exact match. Like, seriously, I'm tempted to go find every pants pattern Simplicity published in 1974. How often do pants fit right out of the envelope?? I have lost a few pounds since the last pair of Jalies I made, so I took out 5/8 inch from the side seams before I added the waistband, but no other changes were needed. *Cue chorus of angels*

I'm seriously loving the high waisted rear view. I think the higher pockets and stitching are really flattering. This 40 year old butt will take all the visual lift it can get!

Sadly, my wardrobe is deficient in appropriately retro tops!! Burda magazine to the rescue. A peasant top has such an awesome 70's vibe, I flipped through at least a decade of burda back issues before I found the perfect one in 02/2010.

I think the cropped, blousy top is a nice complement to the wide leg jeans. I love the waistband, which reduces the likelihood of wardrobe malfunctions that might arise in a cropped top, and does a nice job visually cinching the waist.

The fabric is a mystery synthetic given to me years ago. It's stretchy and reasonably drapey, so there's gotta be some lycra in there somewhere. The print is a paisley in muted pinks and burgundy, with pops of bright apple green. You can see here that the top is quite voluminous. I don't think it would be very flattering in a crisper fabric, but it works in this.

Since the style is pretty unfitted, I didn't bother with an FBA, but I did shorten the neckband by about 2 inches and gathered it in tighter so that the neckline wouldn't drape off the shoulder as the pattern intended. Worked a treat! The neckline shape is very nice and hugs the body well.

You can see the pattern details a bit better in back. The neckband and waistband are shirred with elastic to give the pattern shape. I used my Singer 127 treadle to do the shirring. It was quite a workout, but really fun. The sleeves are gathered into bands which gives them nice puffiness without too much volume.

I've already worn these jeans a ton, so I know they're going to be a wardrobe workhorse. I love it when truly retro/vintage items work so well in a modern wardrobe.

Alterations to burda style 02/2010-122A

I've had a couple of requests for a few more details about the alterations that I made to my burda style tee, so I took some pictures of the final pattern pieces.  I wish I had a few "in process" pics for y'all, but I'll try my best to describe what I did.  I'm not saying this is the best way, just that it is my way!

So, the alterations that I made were a 1 inch FBA and raising the neckline all around.  Since I made the neckline alteration first, that is where I'll start!  The first thing that I did was sort of tissue fit the pattern pieces to get an idea about how much I wanted to raise it.  I really wanted a neckline that was up to my actual neck in back, but tapering down to a nice vee in front.  It looked like I needed about 3 inches on the side and back to get me there, so I just added 3 inches to the height of the neckline on the back and sleeve pieces.  I just drew the seamlines out straight, since I knew I was going to muslin this, so I thought I'd just work out the shaping on the muslin.  For the front piece, I started with 3 inches at the sleeve side of the neckline, and tapered down to nothing at the neckline.  Now, the height of CF really has very little to do with the height of the front bodice pattern piece, but rather with the amount that you gather and what the height of the loop that holds it in front, so I drafted my own pattern piece for the loop, using the height I wanted my final front neckline to be, and doubling the final width so that I could make a tube.

So at this point I did an FBA.  We won't talk about that one...  OK, I will.  When I did this FBA I neglected to halve the amount that I needed to add for my bust, so I ended up with double the FBA.

Right.  So after I threw away that pattern piece...  No really this muslin was actually quite useful.  You can see how large the neckline is.  I used this to pinch out the raglan seams to give the neckline the shaping it needed to conform to my body.  I shaved the amount that I pinched off of both sides of the seams on my pattern pieces.

I really did throw out and re-trace that front bodice pattern piece and redo the FBA.  I did the FBA on this top in the traditional way and then rotated the dart into the gathered area at CF, much like you would a princess seamed top.  For a great tutorial, check out Debbie Cook's.

So, the pattern pieces - in their final state:

This is the upper front bodice, which is clearly the most altered.  The pink lines represent the original pattern piece.  As you can see, I "shaved" off a significant amount where it joins to the raglan sleeve, but also raised the neckline quite a bit.  The purple lines are for my FBA and the blue line is the original grain line, just for reference.

Here is my sleeve pattern.  Again, the pink line is the original pattern line.  On this one, you can see where I raised the neckline and then shaved off both front and back where they seam to the bodice pieces.  I also took off about 3/4 of an inch from my original 3 inches that I raised the neckline, so the final change was really only about 2 1/4 inches.

This is the upper part of the back bodice.  Pink lines are the original.  As with the sleeve, I just shaved off what I had pinned out on my muslin and dropped the back neckline the same 3/4 inch as the sleeve.

So, I hope that helps anyone who is hoping to make some of these same changes to this top.  I am really pretty happy with how it all came out.  This is probably the most I have ever altered a pattern, so I am fairly pleased that it worked (eventually)!  If you have any questions, or if this isn't clear please leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll try to help clarify.

burda style 02/2010-122A

Item #2 for the Mini Wardrobe contest is done!  Sorry for the dark pics.  We had to take them in the AM before Mitch went to work.

After two muslins, I got the fit ironed out and the neckline is nice and flat.  I like the style of the top, but I'm not sure that I'm in love with it for the wardrobe contest.  I'm going to finish up my other pieces and see how I feel.  As you can see, Mitch talked me out of the boring solid lavender and into this stripe, which is how the top is styled in the burda mag.  You can see it here and here.  Since they made it in a stripe, burda included stripe matching markings on the pattern pieces.  Boy, were those awesome!!  You can see (I hope) in the above photo how well the stripes match across the side seams, despite the bodice being in two pieces and the back only one.  Pretty nice.

And the sleeves matched up beautifully as well.  You can barely see the seam!!  You can also see ow much I changed the neckline from the original.  I added 3 (!!) inches at CB and tapered around to 1/2 inch at CF.  Now it covers my bra straps!  I also added 2 inches to the length and did a 1 inch FBA.  After constructing this top twice, for the third I tossed burda's instructions entirely and did it my own way, which was much better IMO.

After wearing this top all day, I pretty much like it.  It's soft and comfy.  The only thing that bugged me about it was that it had a bit of a tendency to ride up over the girls, so I spent a lot of time tugging it down.  I'm wondering if maybe I needed just a tiny bit more length.  If I make this again, I think I'll add 1/2 inch or so to the length of the upper bodice.

Expo haul and burdastyle 02/2010-122 muslin

So, my mom and sister got to go to Expo this year.  Although I didn't get to go, mom was kind enough to do some serious shopping for me!

Clockwise from upper right - the modkids Kyoto top and dress pattern, cute owls and cupcakes flannel - soon to be more PJs for Myra, a couple of yards of a fun printed cotton - destined to be a full skirt for me, some Lightning McQueen twill tape - Logan's going to LOVE this!, and some cool jersey mesh printed with frogs and lizards.  I'll have to find a fun tee pattern for this one.

Mom also embroidered me a couple of tee towels.  Aren't they cute!?

Thank you!!
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Today also starts the Mini Wardrobe contest, and so naturally I'm kvetching about my choices!  I'm going to start with the jeans, since I'm very happy with my fabric and the pattern is already traced and altered.  But do I really want to make the capris or do I want a skirt??  A skirt seems so much more spring-y.  Of course, I have about 42 skirts in my closet, so I really don't NEED another one.  (Stay tuned for the one I just finished and will post tomorrow - LOL.)  And the all solid tops palette is making me a little grumpy still.  I'm thinking about swapping out the burdastyle top for a simple kimono sleeve tee in a fab print that I got at Gorgeous Fabrics.  I think I'll just make both tees and see which I like better.  Aaah!  Since I didn't want to start a new project yesterday, I decided to trace, alter and even muslin the burdastyle 02/2010-122 top.  I knew that I would need to seriously raise the neckline as well as FBA the upper bodice, so although I don't generally muslin knit tops, I thought all these changes deserved it - and boy am I glad I did!!

OK, done laughing?  I think I may have been a bit exuberant with my FBA...  At least I got the neckline pretty much figured out.  I  threw out that bodice pattern piece  and started over.  Muslin #2 is much better!