Yet more previews....

I apologise in advance for this teaser of a post. I promised you photos of the new creations on me, but time has run away. I am off for a short easter break tomorrow and I didn't want anyone to think I was face down in a rugby pitch or anything after the madness of the HK Sevens. It's holiday bonus time here in Hong Kong as in addition to the western public holidays on Friday and Monday for easter we also have the chinese Ching Ming holiday on Tuesday, also known as grave-sweeping day, when the chinese pay respects to their ancestors.

I have literally just finished hemming the sleeves on the floaty top from my last post and in the last week have also made a pair of black cropped pants and a dress to take on my trip. I really, really do promise that I will take some photos on location in the hopefully exotic and warm Philippines, but here is a very sneaky preview of bits of the dress - a ruffleless version of Simplicity 2497 by Cynthia Rowley.

Sewing preview...

I have a crazy weekend coming up, it's the Hong Kong rugby sevens tournament which is THE event of the year in HK - kind of our little equivalent of the superbowl. But with rugby. For 3 days. And - I am guessing here as our American cousins are far more sensible than Brits, Aussies and the bulk of the other attendees - considerably more beer. So in preparation I am doing a bunch of cooking and shopping to make sure we don't suffer from malnutrition and chronic hangovers.

But I have been doing some sewing and some thinking about sewing so I thought I would share here, and take the time to do proper photos next week if I don't look too shattered!

BWOF 02/2006 113 Skirt

This pencil skirt is to go with the Rachel Comey knot blouse, it has some interesting design lines.

BWOF 07/2007 122 Top

I still need to finish the sleeves on this one, which is going to form the starting point for my Pattern Review mini wardrobe entry if I can get it all done in time.

Vogue 1170 blouse finished

Here is the finished blouse, it's unusual and I am still figuring out how best to wear it, but I love it.


I did end up changing the back from fully buttoned to just a single button and loop at the top. And I also got to do a bit more of that fun narrow hemming on the opening! There is enough ease to be able to get the blouse on over your head easily, I just left it open above the back yoke seam.

Here are some other views of me wearing the top. I'm also working on a new coordinating skirt so I can get more mileage from it - Burda 02/2006 - 113, more on that next post. I do like the Vogue skirt in the pattern also and I may make this one up in the future. It looks too short for me on the envelope photo but the models legs are probably significantly longer than mine.....




Some of you noted that the bargain basement jacket looked like it would go with this top - good suggestion! Actually the jacket is gold and the top a darker khaki but I do still think they could be worn together as I think of gold as a fairly neutral colour. Am I crazy and colourblind? Here are the 2 pieces together, the jacket does match my sofa pretty well!

Vogue 1170 taking shape

I'm really enjoying making this blouse, once all the narrow hemming is done (and yes I really must learn how to do a half decent one by machine) it takes shape pretty fast.

At the end of step 11 you have something that looks like this;

i.e. nothing like a blouse and everything like a cat mat

And then magically once you tie a knot at the centre front, just like knotting a ribbon, and stitch the remaining centre front and side seams, the beginnings of a blouse appear!

I'm now thinking about how to finish the back, it's supposed to button all the way up, but I may replace this with a short opening and a single button/loop opening at the top (making sure it fits over my head!). Once that's figured out and the hem is done I'll be finished, not bad going for me.

In todays non sewing spot, yesterday I went to one of HK's high end department store outlets and had one of those rare OMG retail moments. I've already bored my husband to bits about it so I will share here:- I found a soft, distressed, metallic leather jacket by Elie Tahari in my size reduced from HK$ 11,500 to HK$ 500 - thats around US$ 1,500 to $ 60 - BARGAIN! It didn't actually have the new price on the label just a coloured sticker - I rechecked the board explaining the what the stickers meant about 50 times before I went to the cash till I can tell you.

Vogue 1170 in progress (just about)

A huge thank you for the encouraging words on the dress in my last post. I promise it will not become a UFO and I will try not to stress about the inside too much. A little break from it is what I need.

So instead of being sensible and whipping up, say, a knit top I decided to start on one of the most time consuming blouses on the planet - Vogue 1170 by Rachel Comey.

It's in the very early stages as there is a lot of narrow hemming to be done on slippery fabric. The instructions are clear enough on how to do this, but you really need pixie fingers to be able to narrow hem shapes like this.

The sleeve ties, which are cut onto the front and upper back pieces.

My somewhat pointier sleeve ties ready for machining.

I would love to see how this is made in the factory, I'm sure they don't sew a line of straight stitches, burn their fingers pressing it, trim it, fold again and handstitch in place before machining the hem. If they do, then this is will be one expensive blouse to buy!

The fabric I am using is an olive coloured silk with purple flower print that I bought in Shanghai about 7 years ago. I cut the front out in a single layer to try and avoid any unfortunate bullseye pattern placement, but it was hard to see how it's all going to turn out at this stage as the front pieces are unusually shaped.

Unfortunately just as my sewing mojo is returning, last night while washing up I managed to cut my finger on my right hand so sewing (actually almost anything) is a bit painful right now. This was caused by a brand new knife, clearly all my life I have been using blunt ones!