Bright burgundy tiered skirt from pesky crinkle rayon.

One final project in the bright burgundy/dark red thread is a tiered skirt.

When I was looking for fabric which would use this thread I found a length of crinkle rayon/viscose. I've tried to use this type of fabric a few times in the past but had all kinds of difficulties with it. The one successful project was a midi length tiered skirt so I thought I'd make another one with this fabric.

This is it after sewing it up

And this is after washing in cold water and hanging to dry.

I didn't use a pattern, but here are the measurements of the pieces.

1. Waistband - 3 1/2 inches wide and long enough to go around my hips.

2. Main skirt - 18" of full width of fabric cut in half

3. First tier - 2 x 9" of full width of fabric.

4. Second tier - 3 x 9" of full width of fabric.

5. Inseam pockets - 4 approx 10" x 8 1/2" (self drafted)

Constructions order:

1. Sew pockets to front and back skirt pieces. Finish seams. Sew round the pockets and down the side seam. Finish seams. Fold the pockets to the front and stitch in place along the waistline.

2. Sew ends of waistband. Gather skirt onto waistband, insert elastic, stitch closed and finish seams.

3. Sew the two pieces of the first tier together. Gather. Distribute fullness. Stitch tier onto skirt.

4. Sew the three pieces of the second tier together. Gather. Distribute fullness. Stitch second tier onto first tier.

5. Hem.

Burgundy Frill Neck Blouse.

If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know I like to sew multiple things with the same thread colour where possible. I really like to have the overlocking (serger) threads inside my garments all matching and to this end have 5 drawers of thread, much of it Coats Moon sorted by colour.

So whilst I had bright burgundy (Moon M0055) on the machines I hunted in the fabric boxes for other fabrics I could sew up.

I found a remnant of a lovely bright burgundy viscose (rayon) with a very slight crinkle texture and beautiful sheen. I had cut other things from it previously, so it was an odd shape and not much yardage. It looked like it would like to be a blouse.

I ironed the fabric and laid it on my cutting board, and decided to try Simplicity 9200 again only to find I couldn't quite get the front shoulder out of the fabric (big funny shaped thing had been cut out). I then decided to move the shoulder seam forwards. So took 1.5" off the front shoulder and added it onto the back shoulder (and left myself a note in the project tray*, so I didn't get confused putting the sleeve in).

Once I'd cut out the front and back, I was able to cut the sleeves single layer, but then realised I didn't have any sections large enough for 2 collars..... After a bit of pondering I cut two collar stands and then cut lots of pieces 2 1/2" wide and varying lengths, which I pieced together to get a strip about 3 times the length of the collar stand. I then seamed the ends, pressed in half, and gathered onto the collar stand as a frill.

Here's the blouse paired with the floral trousers

(* I have two shallow plastic baskets, slightly larger than A4/letter paper. As I cut out I put the pieces into the basket along with any zips/buttons etc I might need. It stops me losing pieces in the jumble of the sewing room)

Burgundy and cream Roses blouse

 

I used some weighty viscose (rayon) from my stash (just a remnant) to make this burgundy and cream blouse with stylised roses from my TNT shirt pattern.

I put all the buttons on but will likely wear it open at the neckline.

It's not really a summer blouse, but could be great for the 'wear red' dress code for choir at Christmas.

Pattern Information.

This is my current favourite shirt pattern. It is adapted from a shirtdress pattern which was in the March 2020 Prima magazine (UK women's magazine).

Dark Burgundy (Aubergine) Trousers and a SWAP

 

As you know I love to sew in colour families, so after the border print items, I carried on with Dark Burgundy and made my first pair of Delta Cargo Pants by Style Arc.

As I was quite short of fabric I only put the slant pockets in the front, leaving off the cargo pockets and back patch pockets.

Instructions from Style Arc

I had altered the pattern before I cut it out using my preferred crotch curve, but I'd not allowed for the deeper waistband on these so they came out too high on the waist. I cut the waistband off and reattached a narrower waistband lower down to get this pair to fit reasonably.

The legs are quite narrow at the hems (and don't look much like the drawing IMO) so I've altered my pattern to allow extra for the back calf as well as reducing the rise. These are alterations specific to my body so may not be helpful for anyone else!

I do plan to make these again with my alterations and all of the pockets.

I seem to have semi accidentally made a good chunk of a SWAP, the two knit tops were previously made (from the same fabric) but match beautifully with the newer pieces.

Dark Burgundy Border Print Shirt

 

Here's the shirt made from the same border print fabric as the trousers. I only had a very limited section of the border left and decided to use it vertically on the fronts rather than round the shirt hem and I'm really pleased with how its worked out.

I used simple mother of pearl buttons as all my burgundy buttons were slightly off in some way, and I like how the buttons pick up the palest colour in the print - a sort of ecru.

The collar is from a somewhat denser area of the print, with the sleeves and back from a sparser area of print.

I used View C from Simplicity 9200 omitting the ruffle from the sleeve as I felt it didn't fit with the clean lines. I also omitted the back darts as I thought they might pull in this very soft viscose/rayon.

Dark Burgundy Border Print Wide Legs trousers

I've made some Palazzo pants (wide leg trousers) in one of my border print fabrics.

the trousers

the fabric

I cut these out crosswise to get the border print running round the hem.

I used New Look 6438, but replaced the shaped waistband with a straight one 4 inches wide. The front is interfaced, but the back is elasticated (I sized up and omitted the back darts).

As always when making trousers I reshaped the crotch curve to make it more L shaped and much longer at the back to fit my body.

I've also cut out a matching shirt, but not started sewing that yet.

Burgundy 3/4 sleeve top

As I already had the machines threaded up in burgundy I cut into a remnant in a similar colour, though I did change the needle of the sewing machine to a stretch needle.

As the fabric was a weighty 100% cotton knit with no stretch I chose a simple boxy pattern - The Closet Core Tee - which is a free pattern.

I made the 3/4 sleeve version, in a length somewhere between the cropped and the longer length. Due to fabric limitations my 3/4 sleeves were not quite long enough so I drafted up some shaped cuffs to extend the sleeves.

Before I constructed the tee I embroidered a heart in contrast pink thread to add a bit of interest.

Using precious fabric (Irish Linen)

I put all the buttons and buttonholes on even though I'll probably always wear it with the top two open.

There's a challenge doing the rounds at the moment to use your precious fabric. After a bit of thinking I decided to pick this linen and make one of my TNT shirts.

This was a gift in 2008. It's Irish Linen, and was originally its natural colour, a warm beigey brown which did not flatter my skin tone.

In 2013 I included it in a dyeing session using Dylon Flamingo Pink machine dye after which it came out this lovely dusty pink colour.

I still hesitated because I wanted to make a shirt and wasn't sure my skills were up to it. I made a test of a pattern I wanted to use and it was not a good outcome. I parked that idea.

Time has passed now and I've made quite a few shirts from a Prima shirtdress pattern so I feel happy my skills with that pattern are OK.

My alterations to the pattern are:-

cut the dress down to shirt length

add a continuous bound placket to the sleeve.

replace the gathers at the cuff with two pleats

make the cuff deeper

add patch pockets with buttoned flaps.

Love Notions Rhapsody Blouse

The Love Notions Rhapsody Blouse is a very popular pattern, and I picked it up recently on their Friday $5 special offer.

I printed out the size XL which matched my bust/high bust measurement. I used the layers feature to turn off all the other sizes, also turned off Letter and had the A4 page marking. When printing in A4 its not truly trimless, but not a lot needs removing on each page.

I made the view with 3/4 sleeves with cuff and kept the 'strings' on the neckline.

I used a very fine cotton lawn which the sewing machine didn't want to sew. I need to get some sharp/Microtex needles, but until then I used tissue paper and spray starch to tame it which improved thing a lot.

I struggled making the bias tape, but this was before I'd got going with the spray starch so I'll try to remember that for next time.

The instructions in the pattern are good and very thorough though I also watched videos on You Tube.

Other than working with the fabric, my only other issue was that the cuff didn't fit onto the sleeve as per the diagram. I thought that this was because the pattern pieces for XL didn't match up, however it turns out I was confusing the 3/4 length Bishop Sleeve with the 3/4 length sleeve, so my error. (The cuff prints out with the Front body piece, so is a bonus you don't need for the bishop sleeve).

As I'd already cut the cuffs out, I altered construction, ran a basting thread around the bottom of the sleeve and eased it to fit the cuff which I folded over and topstitched rather than folding up.

I have a couple of queries on the style. 

First of all I'm not a strings person and I don't know what to do with them when I wear this blouse - loose knot, flying free, twee bow? - so I think for future versions I'd skip that and have the view with the neat neck.

The other style query is that the shoulders are quite set in (more apparent on some of the tester blouses than others) and I'm not sure if this works with my shoulders, the shoulders feel too narrow and my shoulder is sitting in the top of the sleeve instead. 

What do you think?

Updated to add, I didn't like the way the sleeves were hanging so I unpicked them, recut them with a really tall sleeve cap and reinserted them.

I've not re done the overlocking yet....