Despiration and Inspiration

After my disappointment with Butterick 4988, I decided to return to a style or similar styles that I have worn in many times past. It's about time to revisit one of my favorite styles, the sleeveless, halter style top, that is not quite a halter.

I think Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) wears the halter style well, actually better than her formalwear on the red carpet.




From NeimanMarcus.com for $180 (what?)


From Macys.com for only $59, an INC top:



I remember that I purchased New Look 6655 because of the halter styling and the side tie at the neck. I have a sleeveless Guess knit top with the similar sideways tie at the neck. I thought it would be interesting to create a non-knit top with halter styling at the sides, but with a mock turtleneck.





Pattern Description
Misses' sleeveless tops with neck variations (v-neck and mock turtleneck with side ties at neck) and back ties.

Size
Misses' 6-16. I sewed a 14.

Fabric Used
Floral printed type in seersucker cotton from Wal Mart.

Features
*The two bust darts (I nearly wrote 'dust barts'. My daughter laughed at me last year for asking her, "Do you want a spork and a foon?" I had not realized what I said until she pointed my error to me!)
*The bottom front and the back are cut on the bias
*Option to place trim at front bodice seam.
*Back ties. They could be omitted to expedite construction. For me the top is not baggy that I could do away with them.

Modifications
* None
I decided to sew it altogether using cheap fabric for the first time before deciding to alter. The top fits better than what I expected!

Likes
*Nice fit (darts, pieces cut on bias)
*Flattering silhouette (slight aline).
*Allusion of a longer torso (I need it!)
*Few pieces involved (Bodice, bottom front, back, front of neck tie, back of neck tie, and the back ties)
*I anticipate that this top sews very quickly after the first try.
*Trendy, yet timeless style

Dislikes
*The only thing is the somewhat confusing directions for attaching the neck tie (front and back sewed together) to the front and back necklines of the top. Instead of referring to "dots above the armholes", the instructions could have mentioned to "line up each pair of clipped dots of the tie to the front and back neck edges."

Conclusion
I highly, highly, highly recommend this pattern. This pattern satisfies the quick and trendy category. After making it once, you could whip up another and another in such a short amount of time! Another type of fabric along with trims and other embellishments would immediately change the mood and tone of this top.


Prequel
I had high hopes for this Butterick pattern:


It just did not work for me!



Easy parts
* Creating the bodice (sewing all the princess seams and the side seams)
* Creating the sleeves with gathering on top and bottom.

Challenges
* Bottom armscye of gathered sleeve did not match up with the lower armscye of the blouse after the elastic casings and seam allowances. My bottoms of the sleeves were supposed to extend a little beyond the princess seams (in reference to the envelope). Although I created the sleeves' bottom and top casings for elastics a little wider needed for a 3/4" instead of a 1/4" wide elastic, this is still not enough to account for the missing 4" in each of the sleeve's armscye!

As a result, the sleeve puffs seem like they would slip sideways from my shoulder, because they got set further apart than they should be.

*Facing the top of the blouse. The instructions asked to append the front, the side (faces the sleeve heads) and back facings. The problem was related to the sleeves not placed where they should be placed with respect to the bodice because they came short. I did not understand why there was a facing piece for over the sleeve heads (they look fine the way they are) that attached to the front facing and the back facing. I omitted the two pieces for over the sleeve heads and kept the facings disjoint (two fronts, then the big back facing attached to two small pieces that I cut out to face the back sides where the sleeves failed to reach (past the back princess seams).

* Created all but the bottom hems and the button and buttonholes after some frustration.

* Bust area - Top edge needs to be taken up in my case or so much will show!

* I am not sure whether or not to try this again. It's a good thing that I did not use more expensive material!

Eva Longoria on the cover of April 2007's Cosmo. Her top looks like a morph of all of the view of this Butterick:

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Dr Tropicana
From Nordstrom, an Amber Sun Linen Silk Tunic for $118:


This pattern is now in the out of print section of Butterick.

I decided to try something that was "fast and easy"


Lab Coat?


Peek a Boo!


Pattern Description
Misses'/Misses Petite semi-fitted jackets with long sleeves.
I sewed View B, the hip length version. On me, the jacket hit well past my hips!

Sizing
Misses' 12-14-16. I sewed a 14. A 12 would have fit much better, but I wanted a slightly loose fitting long jacket.

Features

* Pattern piece: front, back and sleeve.

* Bias tape are used to finish the front and neck edges.

* Darted bust.

* Darted sleeves (at elbows)

* Darted back and backs of shoulders.

* 5/8" narrow hem on lower edges of sleeves and bottom edge of jacket.


Material
Cotton/linen woven with floral/tropical print from Joann's clearance section.

Modifications
* Used a fabric other than the recommended novelty sheers, crepe and shantung.

* Eliminated the long darts in the back. I did not find the jacket flattering to my back side with the darts. Actually, the darts made the jacket look strange from the side. Out comes the seam ripper! Maybe the darts would work better with a different fabric and/or a shorter jacket.

* Added two pockets in the front.

* Added a large button and buttonhole at the front. I am now getting used to the buttonhole feature on my new machine.

* I added a dart just below the the front shoulder before sewing the shoulder seam.


Conclusiom
Very easy jacket to sew. The only thing that bothers me about the jacket is that it reminds me of a lab coat with the exception of it made out of a purple/pink fabric with a tropical print. But nevertheless it is comfortable, covers up figure flaws and is a good transitional piece from winter to spring.
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Poetry in "Loca"Motion
(Thanks Ricky Martin)


I want this "cha-cha" looking blouse!

I just need to find the $1910!

Cavalli poet blouse made from Italian silk retailing at SFA for $680, now on sale for $272. Wow, what a bargain!!!


I finally pulled this out to sew it after glancing at several times before!








Blouse hanging against a mod op background:


It seemed fairly low for me. But on the picture, it seemed fine.


Heather insisted on another photo op!




Oh my gosh! Heather sneakily took these with my cell phone!

Side view:




Pattern Description
"Semi-fitted blouse, above hip length, has back pleat, snap front closing, sleeve variations and stitched hems. A: long sleeve with ruffles. B: long sleeves with cuff and ruffles. C: bell seleeves. B, C: neck ruffles and bow with unfinished edges.

I sewed view A. I originally intended to do view B. But I changed mind because I did not feel like gathering and working with more pattern pieces!

Sizing
Misses' 6-8-10-12. I sewed a 12. I normally wear a RTW 12. After sewing and trying on the 12, a size 14 pattern would have been too large, especially at the neckline and bust.

Features
* Only five pattern pieces: front (cut two), back (cut one on fold), neck facing (this is one strip, cut on the bias), sleeve (two of each, of course), and sleeve ruffle (guess how much?)

* Back pleat

* Hip length (on my frame, the blouse came to about three inches below my hip)

* Low neck line. If I bend forward enough, more than cleavage will be revealed! The blouse seemed to be slightly loose at the edge of my neck and came lower than I had expected. Maybe this was meant to be really low cut as pictured on the model and I have not been accustomed to wearing low cut tops for some time. I lifted the blouse at the shoulders and could see that if I had a longer torso, the neckline would not come that low. Next time I plan to add about 1/2" above the neckline. I am wonderfing if it would be better to gather the edges or add invisible elastic to a woven fabric.

* Darted bust, front, and back. The front and back had long darts.
Wow! The darts were spot on! I usually omit darts for fitted blouses from experience. I would recommend to keep the darts for a very flattering fit.

* Both front edges are lined with a long strip of interfacing about 1 1/4" in width.

* Nice silhouette.

Fabric used
A slighly stiff printed woven cotton (probably great for quilting and other crafts) which cost $1 a yard from le Wal Marche. This fabric was very easy to work with and is great for making muslins!

Modifications
* I omitted the back pleat because I do not like an extra fold of fabric on my back. I cut out a strip alongside the back while it was still folded at the center, one inch from the center fold. Then I stitched the ends together to form a center seam. I found this more flattering to my backside!

* Instead of snaps, I sewed 4 small buttonholes (my right front) and attached 4 1/2" clear buttons (on my left front).

* I was not comfortable with how Vogue wanted the sleeve ruffle attached to the bottom edge of the sleeve (the illustration showed a sleeve ruffle facing downward attached to an end of the sleeve, wrong sides showing. So, I used a technique which I usually use to aew on a ruffles to a pant leg or cuffs to a sleeve. With the right (visible side of fabric) side of the sleeve showing, I sewed the gathered part of the ruffled sleeve cuff (wrong side showing and hem facing up, towards the top of the sleeve) to the raw ends of the sleeve. Then I brought the ruffled cuff down (right side of fabric now showing) and topstitched about 1/4" above the seam of the sleeve and cuff, while catching the raw edges of the inside seam are facing up.

Conclusion
A great basic blouse that does a good job of camouflaging some figure flaws. I plan to make this blouse again in a nicer fabric and another without the ruffled cuffs, both with minor adjustments in the neckline. From my experience, I am having much more luck with current Vogue tops in terms of fit among the top 4 pattern makers!

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