Vintage Vogue 1489: giant collared suit

After what seemed like an endless summer and non-existent autumn Sydney is finally having some cold weather. I love winter - wearing chunky knits and not having to worry about getting a sunburn from being in the sun for three seconds is definitely my thing! So it's timely that I finally finished sewing a new wool suit for work - actually I finished this about 3 weeks ago but it took me some time to find the right buttons and then get around to sewing them on.

When it comes to collars on suit jackets, I usually prefer no collar at all except it seems when the collar is HUGE! This is a 1960 Vogue pattern that is a pretty simple style except for that oversized notched collar.

Luckily this was a fairly simple project to sew because in true vintage style there was only one page of instructions for the entire jacket. I followed the vintage techniques as well, including hand basting in canvas interfacing instead of using fusible, and pad stitching that giant collar to support it.

I also lengthened the sleeves because my wrists get too cold to wear bracelet length. Apart from that I didn't make any changes - I even put in some slim shoulder pads. I used premade ones though - no one has time to make their own! I'm not sure about those shoulder pads though, they make me feel really bulky around the shoulders and I think my neck looks really short and stumpy in this.

The back view is fairly plain - darts at the shoulders and vertical darts to give waistline shaping. If only I had better posture and stood up straight then I wouldn't have those annoyng drag lines on the back! 

It took me a while to find some buttons, and I was very nearly going to make some fabric covered buttons when I stumbled accross these simple angled buttons in Spotlight of all places. I didn't do the bound buttonholes because I thought there was a high risk of stuffing them up and ruining my jacket when it was practically finished. The buttons cover the buttonholes though, and those buttons really make the jacket. At nearly $5 each they are the most expensive part of the jacket, because the fabric I've used was picked up from a Sydney Spoolettes fabric swap last year. It's a gorgeous wool, so I can't understand why anyone would give this away, but I think I've made very good use of it!

The skirt I've made to go with the jacket isn't from this pattern - I just used my favourite Burda high waisted pencil skirt because I know it fits me perfectly. This is Burda 2/2018 #119, which I've made a few times before, including this cute version in green floral barkcloth that I wear all the time.

Overall I really like this suit even if it makes me look like a football quarterback with those shoulders. Maybe one day I'll undo the lining and remove the pads, but knowing me I'll probably just keep wearing it as it is and just think about doing it everytime I wear it

Burda of the month: 9/2013 #130 a.k.a the skirt that tried to break me

So I have finally finished the evil sewing mojo sapping skirt. Not my finest work, for sure, but this is one of those projects where the whole is more than the sum of it's parts, because the skirt was made purely to form a suit with the red blazer I made recently:

I never imagined myself wearing a red skirt suit, it always screamed 80s power suit stereotype to me, but after pinning quite a few lovely red outfits (such as this, this or this) I thought why not try it?

 

Plus I had some left over pieces of the red wool crepe I used to make the jacket recently that were just the right size to make a skirt. And since I needed to do a project from the September issue of Burda I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make the designer pattern - 9/2013 #130:

Just a simple, pegged skirt with a bit of interest at the back (let's not talk about that jacket though shall we?). I've made a similar style skirt a long time ago with great success from Vogue 7937 that with hindsight I should have stuck with and made something different from this issue of Burda!

So what went wrong? Well it started with me not reducing the skirt length by 5cm when I traced the pattern (a typical change I have to make for Burda patterns), which meant that those back splits were about 2cm long when I folded the hem up which looked quite silly not to mention not achieving the function of a walking vent. One of the suggestions at the ASG sewing day was just to instead make them splits rather than lapped vents, which is what I should have done because my next mistake was to use the very last bit of fabric to cut out new centre back panels with the jutting out bit for a mitred vent at the right length instead of the side back panels. This meant that the centre back piece now lays under the side pieces and looks a bit strange in my opinion because it's not how I've seen any vent made:

So I may just undo that again and make it into splits anyway! Then again no one will probably notice and I should just get over myself.

The other mistake I did was to over fit the skirt because the wool crepe has a bit of stretch to it and having it too tight really highlighted my pear shape in a very unflattering way, but that was easily fixed by letting out each of the seams a little bit. I also stitched in the ditch down those side seams to anchor the skirt to the lining because the lining seams kept showing through if it wasn't aligned perfectly. I think if I had underlined the skirt to give the lightweight wool fabric a bit more body it may have prevented the lining being so obvious underneath the fabric. Again live and learn.

Letting it out a little means the skirt is a little looser than the Burda model version:

but it's comfortable to walk in and I can sit in it without showing too much leg (this is a work skirt after all):

What's not shown in the line drawing is the deep hem - it is about 8cm deep which is a nice touch. I topstitched my hem since my thread matched the fabric almost perfectly and I wanted the deep hem to be a feature on the rather plain front. Overall the pattern is ok, nothing special, so if you want to make it go ahead but I for one shan't be tempting fate with this pattern again in case it tries to rob my sewing spirit again!

And did you all notice that polka dot top I'm wearing with it? Well that is a success story in it's own right - I salvaged it from another Burda of the month project and remade it into a wearable top that perfectly matches this suit. The cream with grey polka dot silk was far too nice to remain as this abomination I made in September last year (Burda 7/2012 #116):

Using a shell top pattern from Vogue 1826, an OOP Michael Kors pattern, which is a TNT of mine because I've made it quite a few times now (here and here) instead turned it into this with a bit of help from some left over pieces of the fabric (yay for holding onto scraps):

I used some buttons from the stash that happened to match perfectly as closure at the back seam rather than a zipper:

It's the perfect top to be worn under suits, and since I fully lined the silk fabric with a thin cotton shirting fabric it will be nice and cool to wear during summer and our so far very hot spring. Plus I've made a complete outfit so there's no risk of the red skirt or jacket becoming orphans and rarely worn - how very grown up of me!

Burda 9/2009 #127 and Burda 1/2009 #128: the green suit

I've finally finished my green skirt suit, green in both colour and eco credentials because it's made completely from thrifted materials. Seriously, the fabric, lining and buttons are from op shops, the zipper is pulled out of a doomed project and even the interfacing was bought at a garage sale. Only the thread is newly purchased, because I've had heartache in the past using very old thread and it's associated snapping, tangling and fluffing as it passed through my sewing machine.

So if I just ignore the cost of the pattern, which is probably astronomical given how little I use the Burda magazines compared to the cost of the subscription, overall this suit cost me next to nothing but turned out fantastic:

The jacket is from Burda 9/09, pattern 127. This jacket is so easy to make, particularly if you're wary of setting in sleeves or dealing with notched collars. The sleeve is in two parts, and the sleeves get sewn on to the front and back pieces separately, and then you sew one long sleeve from the neckline along the shoulder seam, down the outside arm seam to the cuff. This makes it very easy to construct, but I found it hard to get a close fit. The Burda description is that this is a loose fitting jacket, but while I got the front to sit well, the back is a little baggy:

I guess a muslin would have come in handy here! Oh well, I have to keep reminding myself that I don't normally stand around in a photographic pose, and in real life it may not be noticeable.

The fabric is a wool or wool blend possibly, and it presses easily especially since I block interfaced all of the jacket pieces. Interfacing and putting in a back stay was about the extent of proper tailoring techniques I used, because I couldn't tell where the roll line was for the collar to do any padstitching, but there is an internal button just under the collar point on the inside which holds the collar in place properly anyway.

The skirt pattern I wasn't overly enthused about. It's the exclusive design from Burda 1/09, which is the first time I've sewn one of the exclusive designs in the magazine. Even though they are supposed to be designed by international designers and not Burda designers, I didn't find much difference in terms of pattern design or instructions really. I picked this skirt because of the vertical lines to match the jacket, and so that the tabs at the waist would make the skirt interesting if worn on it's own. The tabs at the waist are just decorative, and are actually sewn to the front skirt panel. They were super fiddly to sew on. Even with a thorough pressing and clipping the curves they still look a bit dodgy.


I also found the skirt to be very boxy, the side seams had hardly any shaping to them whilst my body has lots of shaping! So I ended up taking the side seams in a few centimetres above my hip and below my hip to the hem line just to give it a little more shaping.

I underlined the skirt with organza because the fabric is a loose weave and I hope that interlining will help prevent it bagging out as well as reduce wrinkling. The real test will come when I wear it for a full day at work next week. I used fabric covered buttons on the skirt to match the jacket, but they are hidden by the jacket when worn together.

I possibly will make this jacket again in a funky colour or fabric to wear casually with jeans, although I will pinch out a fair amount of excess in the back and probably make the sleeves full length. I meant to make these full length sleeves, but somewhere between deciding that when looking at the pattern photo and tracing out the sleeves I completely forgot! I think it looks ok though with a long sleeved top underneath poking out, my wrists get far too cold at work otherwise.

And for my next trick, I've threaded my overlocker with red thread so be prepared for some primary colour happening here soon!

in progress.....

I don't normally post about things I'm in the midst of making, I'm much more of a 'ta da' look what I've made kind of blogger. Probably because I have such a high rate of UFOs, but also because I did start this blog to share my latest creations with friends (RL and new virtual ones too). However I'm comign to realise that perhaps by posting what I'm working on it will not only encourage me to finish them but also if I hit a stumbling block and a project is in danger of becoming a UFO I just know that all you clever clogs out there will come up with suggested solutions to finish them!

So here's the jacket I'm working on that I alluded to in the previous post:

It's pattern 127 from Burda issue 9/2009. I've practically finished it too, aside from doing nine (gulp!) buttonholes and handstitching the lining down. The skirt I've started to go with it is pattern 128 from Burda issue 1/2009, part of the exclusive design pattern in that issue:

I chose this skirt pattern because it will look good on it's own, what with the front seams and tabs, but also because the vertical seams on the skirt sort of line up with the vertical princess seams of the jacket. Told you I'm a matchy matchy kind of person!

As for a blouse (geez, Ms Carolyn you are demanding!) I'm not sure because the wide shawl collar of this jacket precludes a button up collared style I think, just too much going on there at the neckline. But we are coming into winter now I will wear this with turtleneck knits for the next few months until I think of something else to go with it.

How funny that so many of you remember that 'Goodbye Tonsils' golden book! I guess it is a pretty memorable title. And yes Judy, the doctor in there is Dr Constantinople, I can't believe you remember that. You either have a very good memory for useless facts or you read that book many many times....

I wear what I sew part 4: caramel skirt suit

I'm glad you're all enjoying these posts - but here is the last of the skirt suits that I have made (well winter suits anyway, the summer ones will have to wait). This is the outfit I wore to work last Thursday.

This jacket is also made from Simplicity 9839 - the pattern I used for the maroon suit, but I modified the wing collar to a shawl collar, by redrawing the collar piece with a gentle curve using my French curve rule. This jacket I did line, with a bemsilk lining, because it was very fraying and I wanted to serge the seams rather than bind then, plus I learnt my lesson re lining jackets after the maroon wool jacket. The skirt is made from Vogue 9615, which is an a-line skirt with a wide yoke (but I left off the pockets, because I didn’t need any excess fabric over my saddlebags!).



I made this jacket early last year, and have worn it quite a bit. It is made from polyester - yes I’m admitting it, I don’t ordinarily use polyester fabrics because I prefer natural fibres and I find sewing and pressing polyester a bit hit and miss sometimes. But when I saw the lovely colour and pattern of this fabric in Lincraft, I purchased it (when it was on sale of course) regardless of the polyester-ness of it. There are quite a few pulls in the fabric now due to the loose weave, so I may have to retire it soon. It also wrinkles quite badly for a polyester suit – check out those creases in the sleeves after a day of wear, almost makes me want to keep my arms straight at all times to prevent them!

I wore this suit with a RTW boat neck top in a maroon knit, and matching maroon patent leather peep toe heels. So for last week, by Thursday I was at eleven made garmets from twelve worn garments, with my percentage dropping to 92%. But that is still pretty high, so I'll have to see how long I can keep it up past this week that I'm documenting.

And in response to the question asked on the last post from Lucette, winters in Sydney are very mild. Definately no snow or ice, barely any frost even, and if the temperatures dipped to 10 degrees Celsius it would be on the evening news as a cold snap! Sydney is on the coast, and many people still swim in the ocean during winter (not me though), and in fact many Sydney women despise giving up their flesh baring summer clothes during winter so much that they still get around in open toe sandals, thongs (aka flip flops), skimpy dresses and their fake tans, with their only concession to the cold being a scarf!

I wear what I sew part 3: polka dot wool skirt suit

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the previous wardrobe posts - I'm glad you're liking them and I hope I'm not boring you with all the details. I do love blogs about what people wear on a daily basis, particularly Kasmira's What I wore today, because she has such a great sense of adventure and colour combination skills. But boy is it hard work to take a photo everyday, particularly now that it's nearly winter here in Sydney and the light is pretty bad, hence all my indoor photos.


Anyway, on to the outfit that I wore to work last Wednesday:

You may recognise both the skirt and jacket from this suit. The jacket is one of the four that I have made so far from Vogue 2641, the Donna Karan pattern that I posted for the blue wool skirt suit. The skirt is the flared yoke skirt that I made for the Burda WoF skirt suit posted about here, which is Simplicity 5914.

The fabric is 100% wool purchased from Lincraft when it was having a sale, because the original price was $39.95 per metre, but I think I bought it at $19.95 a metre. It is a very smooth and soft wool, not at all scratchy like some wools can be, in an olive green colour, with white and pale brown polka dots. It really is striking, whilst still being subdued because of the soft, autumnal colours.

Because this fabric is a bit thicker than the wool flannel I used in the Burda WoF skirt suit, the hem of the skirt sticks out a bit rather than sitting in lovely folds around my legs. But it does get that glorious swishy action when I walk, so I still like it just the way it is.

I wore this with a white cotton shirt that I made last year, from a sloper pattern that I made after doing a pattern making course at the Sydney Community College. This shirt pattern is brilliant, I get such a good fit and am able to churn out a shirt very quickly using it, so I guess it is another TNT pattern. You know I have so many more TNT patterns than I ever thought I did now that I am documenting what I’ve made.

That would be my messy office in the background - I think all the papers laid out strategically fools a lot of people into thinking I am super busy!

So I am now nine garments worn from nine garments made, still 100%. I have to admit though, because I knew I was going to keep count I did deliberately wear more of my made clothes than RTW clothes, but I still think that most weeks my outfits would consist of around 60 – 70% of made clothes, so it does justify my pattern and fabric stash (are you reading this husband?).

I wear what I sew part 2: maroon wool skirt suit

So continuing on with the experiment of seeing how many of the clothes I make I wear each week, last Tuesday I wore a skirt suit I had made, with a cotton shell top that I also made, so now it is six from six, still a 100%. Yay for me!

I made this suit in 2005, and it is practically my favourite suit out of all my RTW and self made suits, even if the collar style is a little dated. It just fits so well and the fabric is absolutely lovely.

The jacket is made from a 1981 Simplicity 9839 pattern, purchased from an op shop for the princely sum of 50c (which is the most I will pay for a pattern from an op shop by the way!). It has princess seams which result in a well fitting body and a very 1980s style wing collar. The sleeves also have a dart at the elbows for wearing ease. It also has a waistband facing that extends from the front facing around to the back, which gives a nice, curved finish to the hem.

The only thing I dislike about this pattern is that it is for an unlined jacket, and stupidly (plus a bit of laziness) that is how I made it. I finished the seams with bias binding, but since this is a wool suit made to wear in winter, I should have made a lining, and I plan to do so soon.

The skirt is just a pencil skirt which I can’t even remember which pattern I used, but there is nothing fancy or special about it.

The fabric I purchased some time ago from a garage sale, where a lovely old Italian woman invited me in to her lounge room which had fabric draped over every available surface. She made me a cup of tea and told me about a lot of the fabric and picked out bits and pieces for me, and I ended up buying quite a bit of her fabric for a very reasonable price. This fabric has a small scale white and maroon check and was so easy to sew with because it pressed nicely and generally did what I wanted with it!

On Tuesday I wore this to work with a white textured cotton shell top, made a few years ago from Vogue 1826, which also has princess seams and a rear centre back closure, which I used a line of buttons instead of a zipper (and as a result requires contortionist moves to do it up!). You can only see the top of it peeking out in this photo, but I'm sure it will make another appearance sooner or later because I wear it a lot - it fits superbly and goes with practically everything. The shoes are very tall heels to make up for Monday’s sensibility, in a beige linen with brown leather straps and buckle.

Burda WoF 12/2007 #115 and Simplicity 5914: swishy skirt suit

Finally here are some photos of the skirt suit I made using Burda WoF 12/2007 #115. Firstly the jacket:

As I mentioned in a previous post, the jacket is 115A in the 12/07 magazine, which is shown in the magazine made in a bright fire engine red, but I chose a far more subtle charcoal wool flannel, with white topstitching to emphasise the seam lines. I made a size 38 which fits very well, despite the jacket sticking out there under my arm due to my awkward pose (this photo was taken at 7am in the morning on the way to work, hence the grimace!).

I didn't make any substantial changes to the pattern, only those arising from not understanding the instructions or minor stuff ups.... As mentioned last post, I substituted a traditional double welt pocket for the one piece bound pocket that the pattern calls for, simply because I couldn't understand what how to do it (I wasn't the only one, a reviewer over at pattern review left the pockets off altogether for the same reason). My cuffs weren't wide enough to overlap for some reason, so I didn't follow the instructions but rather I sewed the cuffs to the sleeve, sewed on the grosgrain ribbon and made a button hole for the tab closure instead of a welt because I was too lazy. I've also discovered that I have sewed the sleeve lining in twisted which makes the sleeve very wrinkled, so I'll have to take this apart and resew it. What a PITB....

The skirt is View B from Simplicity 5914 (the one in the photo), which has a marvellous swishing action around my knees when I walk! It is made up of three panels across the front and three panels across the back made identically, so to achieve a better fit across my rear I tapered in the top half of the gores in lieu of darts because my rear is not as flat as my front. The only other changes I made were to include a lining, and to use an invisible zip. To match the lines of the jacket I topstitched the seam lines with white cotton and whilst the vertical seams of the skirt and jacket do not really line up I think it is a rather good effect.

And here is an action shot, taken by one of my work friends in the restaurant strip in East Sydney after a verrrrry long lunch which explains the wrinkles in the skirt. I suppose I could take the skirt apart and underline it to minimise the wrinkles, but I doubt I will so I'll just live with it as is.....

Christina asked in the comments to my last post what I would wear underneath the jacket. Well here I have worn it with a scoop neck RTW top which has reached the end of it's life 'cos it's a bit stretched out (as you can see in the first post) but I love the colour so I gave it one last wear. But it's a good question because with the shawl collar and wide opening to the jacket I don't think a collared shirt would work, but maybe a boat neck top or just a round neck top would be fine. Or if I'm feeling particularly over the top, possible a blouse with a bow around the neck!

And to everyone else who left such lovely comments on the previous post - thank you so much!

another weekend, another skirt suit

I am mildy obsessed with suits - I have about twelve already and I just can't seem to stop making more. I do have enough reasons to suit up to come to work: I work in a corporate environment, I feel more in the mood for work when I'm wearing a suit, I don't like getting caught out for surprise meetings or presentations when I'm not dressed the part, and it makes me seem older (and therefore wiser) because I am relatively young to be in the managerial position I am.

And whilst I love a sharp black suit with a killer pair of heels, appropriate for work meetings (I do work in the government in the Sydney CBD afterall), that sometimes feels too much like a uniform and I need to break free. Plus I love colour and unusual styling....

Hence, my own made suits are either vintage fabrics or vintage inspired styling. The Louis Vuitton inspired suit in the post below has made it into my regular summer work wardrobe, and with it's full skirt and little jacket it never fails to elicit comments from colleagues.

Next up is this suit, made from gasp! modern fabrics and modern patterns, although I tried to give it a 60s mod feel with black piping and a black button:

The jacket pattern is Simplicity 3874, which loads of talented bloggers out there have used made the dress, although I've not seen the jacket in action yet. I modified the jacket by pleating the jacket body at the collar instead of gathering, lining the jacket, adding the piping and the single button at the front. It was very simple to make as the jacket has raglan sleeves and it sewed up in no time at all. The skirt pattern is Vogue 9615 (OOP), a lovely A-line shape skirt with a wide waistband, which I modified by adding the piping around the waist to match the jacket. The only thing that held me up on the skirt was two, yes TWO, invisible zips breaking on me and hence requiring the skirt to be taken apart to install a new zip.

The fabric I used is an Australian wool, tropical weight, in a beige colour with fine grey threads running through it. I purchased it in 2005 from the fabric market in Shanghai of all places, because even though I am in Australia, Australian wool is verrrry expensive and the fabric, which is milled in China from raw wool shipped from Australia, is verrrry cheap there!

It turned out very well IMHO, due to the simple lines of the design, the lightweight fabric which didn't too much interfacing to make this design work, and the little details of the button and the piping.