Rose Tee from Ottobre

I actually made these in June but didn't get the finishing details done until after our move in August. Of course, thats when I realized they were too big. Mind you, I'm still wearing them. In fact I'm wearing the Rose Tee now (green one).

Overall I like the pattern, fairly easy to put together. The V-neck on the Rose Tee gave me fits and still doesn't look great. I used a satin and it was so slippery I just did not get it lined up right. For the next one I'm going to try a less slippery fabric. I do like the woven and the knit together. I did cut the sleeve bands on the bias since I have larger arms and thought a bit of stretch would be nice. Surprisingly those are great. I love the way the sleeves turned out, which explains why I'm ignoring the neck and wearing the shirt anyway.

The maroon Tee was made with the sleeves of the Rose Tee since I liked the puffy sleeve. Its the scoop neck from the same issue. Really easy to put together. I made a 46, which included the gathering on the side which was easy enough but too high for me (ie I guess my cans aren't as perky as they should be). Turns out, though, that the 44 does not include the gathering so I won't be dealing with that on my next version. I did a thin binding for the neck instead of doing their way and then coverstitched, which I think turned out great. I'm getting so much better at that!

I'll definitely be making a few more when I get back, with my new knits.

Big Intentions

So I had to leave the country for a family emergency so I went ahead an uploaded a bunch of pics of some sewing I had been doing so that in my "spare" time I could update my blog while I was here. Yes, you can laugh now. Oh well. I'm going to try and do some today, we'll see how it goes.

On the upside, I was able to alleviate some of my sewing withdrawls with a bit of shopping. I found some old issues of Burda, one in English and a few in Spanish, and a couple, so far, of Patrones! I'm surprisingly excited about the Patrones issues. I didn't expect to be so excited since I tend to wear more simple stuff. I'm itching to get home and see what I have in my stash to try out the patterns. I also raided my mother's stash for 3 fabrics that would be prefect for a dress from one of the Burdas and a blouse from one of the Patrones. Funny thing is those 2 fabrics were originally mine! Her stash is made up of my casts-off, but then since she rarely sews, they tend to just hang out there. I did get a third fabric which is a purple/cream/lime green Boucle that is really great for a short jacket from one of the Patrones. I'm still combing the newstands and mercados for more issues, wish me luck.

I also bought a ton of plain Pima cotton knits in various colors, its just beautiful. Very, very soft. I'm hoping they wash and wear well since the closest in quality I've found stateside is about $12 a yard, this was far less. Thats the story for now. I'll post pics later.