My image cowl top

I bought the Winter 2011/2012 issue of the My Image sewing magazine after seeing Melissa from Fehr Trade's version. I had made a few muslins of  different cowl top patterns looking for the one but since Melissa was so positive, I thought it was nearly worth making a wearable top straight away. I did choose to cut into this skin tone, not a great colour but with a lovely hand cotton lycra, because I wasn't sure about the sizing, as it is a lot smaller in the waist then my Jalie patterns.

 It turned out awesome. Extremely quick too, being only a knit top.

The back view shows less wrinkles there than normal. Maybe I need to try reducing the waist ease on my other tees. The shoulders are a little wide,so I will make an adjustment for next time.

This photo is just me playing with new settings on Picasso. I took the photos before work so never got anything else than a hands on the hip shot.

Burda 125-10-2009 - I think I am on to a winner!

I had the help of Steph. She drafted up a pants block and showed me how to tweak it to produce a better pants pattern. Let’s just say she was very patient in dealing with me. I can certainly recommend her pants block service. Just don’t be like me and jump to the wrong conclusion. It will certainly not help with the email communication.

I chose this pattern because it worked well with the requirements of Steph’s simple pants pattern. My usual pants patterns have yoke/waistband. But then agin, the Jalie patterns I use have a straight waistband so this is like the best of my favourite patterns. I had to change the waistband to a curved on when I tried on the pants with the waistband. There was just too much ease there and it was not a good look.

My main issue with fitting pants was the rear view. There was always these lines under the butt. Not a great look. These are gone with the adjustments that I had to make.Woohoo. It is a little baggy back there, but I put that down to using a very stretchy wool blend fabric. I had no idea how much stretch there was when I selected the fabric to use for the first-after-fitting-the-muslin. I had to take in the waist significantly because of the stretch factor.

 These pants are so comfortable. I can't wait to wear them to work.

Shirts - fine at the front, funky at the back

You know, this is the first time I have ever made a long sleeve shirt. The few short sleeve shirts get worn regularly to work but I have always made long sleeve or 3/4 sleeve knits tops since they work better with layers.

This shirt is #109 from Burda 9/2005. I know, another old pattern. I have tried to warm up to new Burda patterns but they leave me cold a lot of the time. Plus I have a collection from 2005 at home ready to use all the time. So much easier that going to the library to borrow out newer copies. I chose the pattern because of the tucks and the shirt collar that is drafted ever so slightly off to the side so that the collar is not meant to button all the way up. Not a huge fan of the curved hem though but too lazy to change that this time around.

 I was surprised with the tucks - I thought they were pintucks but the pattern has you topstich 7mm away from the fold, so that is about 1.4cm per tuck. I thought that was yuge and the tucks would stick out but with a good steam press they sit beautifully. The blouse ends up extremely close fitting, so much that I had to let the sides out a little. In the future, I would only make the tucks this big if I was using a stretch woven. Otherwise it will be pintucks all the way.

 The back looks terrible. I am pretty sure it is because it is probably too tight on me. The fabric above the tucks just puffs out. See it - yick. I will have to make the pattern again to see if making it with a little more ease will take care of the puff or whether the tucks make it do that.

 My favourite part was how crisp the front band looks. The collarband is not sewn perfect since it was really hard to see the white thread on the white interfacing. As usual, I followed Gigi's instructions. Well, without the topstitching.

 I used those intructions for the cuffs as well, though I handsewed inside.

I thought I would link in Sherry tutorial page - I used quite a few on them on my shirt (turn of cloth, continuous bound sleeve placket, block fusing,


When I saw that Suzy has the same problem as me with pooling in the back waist that a sway back does not solve, for some reason I thought I would give it another shot, using Sherry's easy way. When I hitch up my shirts at the back shoulders, it seems to work. Anway, I needed another white top for the cooler weather.

 This is a cross of Jalie 2805 and 2806 - a scooped neck without gathers and with 3/4 sleeves.

See the wrinkles again in the back - this is with the sway back adjustment of about 12mm. It does not bother me too much, but if anyone has any ideas, I am keen to hear from you.