Mabel and Cool Cowl - the Orange Sherbet outfit

I bought these two fabrics together at Fabricland, and yes, they are hilarious together. I rarely pair them, but I do get compliments.

The In-House Cool Cowl, I think I bought this because she is a local pattern maker, and I wanted to support that. I do like it, but wow is the cowl scandalously deep. In another version, I reduced the cowl substantially, but this one is as-is, and I had to tack it together at the neckline for modesty.

The Mabel is good. I screwed up the kick pleat, but had trouble unpicking, so I left it that way. :) I need to fix the hem stitching. For some reason my twin-needling was unravelling.

But I do like both of these pieces.

Why yes, that does look like a giant scarab beetle climbing up my chest!

I took care to center the pattern at the front, but it's a giant fail at the back. Oh well!

Colette Sencha 1 and 2

At some point in this personal sewing renaissance, I decided I wanted to do like, a proper shirt with buttons. So I picked the Colette Sencha. Not sure why. The fabric store which happens to be conveniently (or dangerously, depending on the day) in the same block as my office has a "Garage" section where fabrics go to die, or be purchased by people to make wearable muslins. This brown was one of these. I think it was $3 a meter. I did the keyhole version.

I actually kind of love it. It turned out really soft, and the print is fun. I did french seams, since it was a bit thin for serging, which changed the sleeves slightly. I was reasonably happy with the fit on the front, although it needed some tweaking.

The fit on the back though, was not good:

Gaping at the hips, way too much fabric above the waist on the back. Many changes were in order!


So for Sencha #2 I decided to do an underlined white eyelet, and just put a zipper in the back. (Which is generally unnecessary, since I can pull both versions on over my head.

French seams again, and instead of a facing I just used bias binding at the neckline. The underlining I think was cotton batiste. I wear this one a whole lot!

The back is better, but still not perfect:

Still some more fabric above the waist to take out!

I put the Sencha pattern on hold for a while, and moved on to other things.