Fall Fundamentals: Tunic Tee for Thanksgiving

Where's that Pattern? Out of Print Butterick 3383
Many Available Still on the Web
Classic Tee Shirt Pattern

Every Sewist Needs a New Outfit for Thanksgiving 

No Matter How Little Sewing Time S/He Has!

This minimal Rayon-Lycra (3%) knit found inexpensively at "Fabrix" in San Francisco - A Discount Fabric Store - Kind of place that has what it has - has 

Fun stuff - Good Low Princes

It feels good on - Breezy

I added bust darts and also front tucks - which I stitched by hand once I saw how the shirt draped on me

Extended the sleeves from 1/4 to 3/4

Lycra Knit a little tricky

Despite doing a stretched neckband I still had some gap - So I stitched on a strip of black elastic underneath -  just in the front 

Original pattern was a basic tee. I lengthened and added side vents to make it more tunic like

Goes well with the basic black cropped pants in my last posting

Summer New York Travel Essential: Poppy Top adds California Spirit to a New York Trip (Altered M6078)

Yes, another trip to see my daughter. She is working on a graduate degree at NYU and living in Manhattan. It's only 6.5 blocks to walk from her apartment to Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). As I have on the other several trips I took this year, I went to the Met numerous times. I also spent a day at my favorite-all-time-anywhere Cloisters museum and enjoyed a lovely day at the wonderful Bronx Zoo with my daughter - but those are too much to squeeze into this collage!

In addition to packing my new princess-seamed top - Floribunda Bouquet- and Floribunda's new black linen ankle-length pants, I squeezed in sewing up another new top, a  cowl necked California poppies bedecked cowl neck in challis. I used a favorite knit pattern (M6078) for this woven, so I made a muslin first to check side and shoulder seams. I did add some more length to the shoulder seams. It was lovely having this along, as it made me feel just a tad dressier when I went to museums and shopping with my daughter.  Also those poppies showed off my California style!  Floribunda's new pants went great with it as well. In addition to this top, cottony princess-seamed Floribunda, I packed two light tee shirts for this 8 day trip. As I rinse tops out at night and hung them to dry, I could have left one of them at home - must remember that...

Images in this collage include: street scenes, Central Park arches, Natural History Museum, a Saturday Farmers Market two doors from my daughters apartment, and The Metropolitan Museum. Oh I have so many more photos!

Countryside scenes are from Natural History Museum exhibit on Dutchess County - A place I've long wanted to go during apple picking season.

Natural History Museum, New York City - Wouldn't it be great to have walls like this in my own home?!

I love the sense of how big a blue whale would actually be - What a challenge getting a full-sized photo!

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Terminado - The Bramble Blouse - Another Semi-Fitted Sleeveless Summer Blouse

You don't hear the term brambles used to refer to berries much these days.
I think it dates more from times when lots of berries grew naturally
in woods and fields, and folks just went out to pick their own, come summer time.
Nowadays most of us find our berries in a box or frozen bag.
The birds and squirrels score most of the ones I have in my yard.
Oh well, they can't run to the grocery store like I can! I don't really mind.
And it saves me a bit o' trouble in those prickly bramble bushes.

Hey! Do you remember the podcast I did in July, where I talked about creating my sleeveless, pink and white seersucker blouse Amaryllis blouse from my much altered tried-and-true shirt pattern (it started out life as B5586)? Well I enjoyed wearing Amaryllis so much (that gal has been a real go-to summer wardrobe choice) that I made another blouse from my same much altered pattern.

And doesn't it look pretty durn cute with my sage'y green shorts from two summers ago? I think so! I've also been wearing it with my new Midnight Sky black denim skirt, but I don't have a really cute photo of that combination yet :-)

Oh yeah, I altered the pattern a little more!  I just can't get enough of altering now - no pattern is safe from my fideling fingers.   Blame my wonderful dress form buddy Conchita for that! Because this crisp bramble printed cotton doesn't hang off a woman's body in the same way as the loosey-goosey seersucker I used for Amaryllis, I made a few changes to my Bramble Blouse as I was creating her. . . 

i) I took the long front darts I'd created from the hem, up the princess line, to the bust apex, and extended them up above the bust apex. 
ii) I also took those darts in more - so my Bramble Blouse is all together narrower than Amaryllis.  
iii) In addition I added long darts along the back princess seam. 

My dress form Conchita was really useful
when it came to making the
Bramble Blouse more fitted

These alterations resulted in a semi-fitted blouse that's just a little more fitted. 

OK, I admit it. I used good old
safety pins to try out that extended dart.
Because just after I tried this out on
Conchita, I slipped it on
me and checked out that new dart in the bathroom mirror.

Amaryllis is somewhat fitted,
but less so than my Bramble Blouse
That works because she's made out of a non-crisp seersucker

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Web Resources

Audio/Podcast Summer of the Blouse - Amaryllis http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/07/ench-by-sew-022-summer-of-blouse.html

Blog Posting about Amaryllis http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/07/amaryllis-my-new-semi-fitted-blouse.html

Wardrobe Builder - The Midnight Sky Black Denim Skirt http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2014/08/terminado-wardrobe-builder-midnight-sky.html

Creating Conchita, my Dress Form Friend  http://enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com/2013/09/ench-by-sew-12-dress-forms.html

Terminado! My CA Summer Skies Seersucker Shirt

I talked about the techniques I used, and what I learned about working with seersucker in the June Enchanted by Sewing Podcast.

Yeah! 

You know the joys of completing another project, don't you?

Love my new blue and white checked seersucker shirt. It's just made for summer. Well in fact it is! That's what I made it for :-)

And it's perfect with that new denim, elastic waist skirt I finished a few weeks back and have been wearing all the time. No, I don't think of myself as a skirt person but this garment has changed my mind. It's both comfortable and flattering. Nothing beats being able to design for my own figure.

I drafted the skirt myself but the shirt is an altered version of B5526, that infamous pattern I've made four times now and talk about all the time in my podcast. Yup, it's the one my buddy Susan originally altered. It started out life as my No. 1 Ladys' Detective Agency shirt. It's so great having a pattern that fits well, and lets me move on creatively from there.

Alterations on B5526 this time, in addition to Susan's original alterations to fit me

- No collar band. Oh I like that!

- Cut ends of my 3/4 length sleeves straight. Then rolled them up and hand sewed them into a permanent just-above-the-elbow roll. I'm the kind of person who always rolls up a sleeve, so why not make it permanent?

- Added pockets on either side. I varied the original pocket on the pattern, taking out the tuck. Lined the inside of the pockets with silk organza. I also used silk organza for the interfacing on the front facing (not included on the pattern), and the collar.

-Less topstitching this time because of the seersucker. I just did one row on all the edges - the hem, collar, and front facing. On crisper fabrics I do 2 or 3 for more of an edge. One row on the seersucker gave it enough definition. I continued to use commercial bias tape on the inside hem, to define the hem edge. Gee that works great.

More about sewing this shirt in my June Enchanted by Sewing podcast.

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Web Resources

The Enchanted By Sewing Podcast http://enchantedbysewing.blogspot.com