My Sassy Librarian Blouse

I took a class from Craftsy! And I loved it!

My reason for taking the class was to get my hands on the pattern of the Sassy Librarian Blouse. 

When I last checked, they were having a sale, it ends today!

On Glee Rachel describes her look as "Sexy Schoolgirl Librarian Chic". I guess this blouse would suit her wardrobe just fine. (Her wardrobe has improved dramatically since moving to New York, although I think she went through a little slutty period there as well). 

Source

I figure I could have made this without taking the video lessons, because I have made shirts before, but I was eager to find out how a professional would tackle some of the construction details, so I followed the video lessons.

I swear I payed attention in class!

 So to the blouse. There are a few options:

Collar/Bow and Tab/None of the above

As I am a bit tired of seeing collars without collarstands on everything for women and girls alike, I went for the Bow and Tab option. I made a black bow first but when it was time to attach it I couldn't find it anymore and the black fabric was really slippery, so I then changed it to a red one, from a scrap from the red skirt.

I swear my skin is a bit more tan than the horrible skintone showing in these pictures!

Pleats in the front or not

This was the feature that drew me in in the first place, so I totally went for this.

 Sleeves or Armbands

As fall is approaching fast and my upper arms are not the most attractive part of my body, I added sleeves and lengthened them because I didn't really like the look of the sleeves of the original. For this I just extended the seam of the sleeve to +/- 30 cm. This worked out just fine for me.

I liked the way the class almost forces you to slow down and really pay attention to all the details. Believe it or not, because of this, I didn't have to use my seam ripper one single time! Not once! Two things that did go wrong though. First of all, there is neck gaping! I have the seam issue with my Peony. I should start paying more attention to this. Second of all, I tried attaching the buttons with my machine again. Every single one fell off. Any idea how to make sure the buttons actually stay on?

Although this class is clearly for beginners, I still learned a few things and seeing someone doing things in a video is just so much better than following a photo tutorial. 

This is what I had in mind when I bought the fabrics, a red skirt with a tucked in blouse.

I asked a few questions on the Craftsy Platform, and they got answered really fast.
I love the concept of these classes so much, that I have already enrolled in my next class 'The Couture Dress'. I am pretty sure this will be a lot more challenging, but I have been watching a few of the lessons and I already now that I am going to love this one too.

 

At the end of the photoshoot my ladybugs got hungry so I fed them some Sproutplant. They were happy after that because sprouts are delicious!

Vote for Colette Patterns in the Great Martha Stewart American Made Contest

Everyone can vote, even if you don't live in the US.

If they win the 10,000 USD prize, they will give it to their employees as a bonus, because they consider their employees their greatest asset. I love this kind of thinking!
Colette Patterns is currently in second place, vote every day up to 6 times and show Martha Stewart the power of the sewing community!

Vote here!

That's it for today! Hope to show you something new very soon!

I started a dress - I finished a skirt

Last weekend I started on my next project for The Monthly Stitch, a vintage pattern. I have a 70s pattern for a knit dress that seems very promising on the envelope. I also had this fabric from my latest fabric binge. I thought they would be a perfect match. In my opinion they still are. My sewing skills are just not good enough when it comes to knits. A lot of changes and tweaking is going to be necessary on this one... I hope I can get it right before Summer 2014.

All this got me in a negative sewing-mojo-spiral, so I decided to abandon this project and start on a new. A rebound-project if you will.

In red, because I would say any rebound is worthy of that colour.

I wanted a pencil skirt like Rachel Zane wears all the time in Suits. For those of you drooling over the amazing dresses in Mad Men, you should really check out Suits! They have fabulousness draped all over their bodies but very contemporary, honestly, they have dresses I would actually commit several crimes for. The costume designer shops at Prada, Burberry, Victoria Beckham, Boss, Prada, Donna Karan, Dior and the list goes on and on. One of the Donna Karan dresses featured on the show can be yours, if you buy lovely red fabric, this pattern and invest a good amount of time in stitching it together. If I had an occasion to wear it to, I would...Could I get away with wearing this around the house?

Jessica Pearson in a stunning red Donna Karan dress

Check out this site for more goodies!

For my skirt, I used this pattern. The reason I bought it is because there are a few variations, including one with gathers, which I am so going to make one day soon.

I made a muslin first, because I bought my pattern in the small sizes when actually I needed the big sizes. Blame it on my vanity. In the end I added 6 cm to the back (3 cm on both center back panels) and did no other alterations. I think it would be nice if it was a bit rounder in the butt-area, but I'll leave it as is, because those side panels are topstitched and the stitches sink to deep for easy unpicking. Next time...

I cut the long version, so I could decide what I wanted later on, but went for the shorter version anyway. Dress your age and all that crap.

I have always wanted a high-waist skirt and this is just perfect. I love the fact that there is no waistband and thanks to the side panels there are NO darts. I actually prefer princess seams because if I can avoid darts, I will, I hate sewing darts.

There was a Lamborghini in the street and my nerd husband insisted on taking a picture with it...

I inserted a lapped zipper! I learned to do that from the free Craftsy class Zipper Techniques. I love free classes!

Don't worry, I did have fun!

It's not as pencilly as I would like, but still, it looks great. I will be wearing this A LOT this winter. Just not with my Watson-cape, ´cause those two fabrics would look like a devil's spawn together...

So, did you ever abandon a project that was getting you down to get a quick win? And what 'architectural' dress would you sew if time, money, occasion to wear and difficulty were no objection?