CAbi Spring 2012 Part I

I have a friend that has one of those parties so I always go. It’s fun to try on clothing and fun to experiment with new silhouettes. I chose my favorites and thought I’d take a stab at knocking them off. I’m cheap, I’ll admit that and spending $70 on a simple elastic-waist skirt makes me cringe.

I took the CAbi pictures straight from their website.

#1 Bella Skirt $69

I really liked this skirt. Their version is a rayon challis border print. It has really large slash pockets across the hips that you can’t see in the picture. It’s really close to this Burda 05-2010-122 pattern below. The Burda one uses a woven and a side zipper where the CAbi one just uses an elastic waist treatment. Same pockets and everything. I would pair it with a rayon challis like the one below from GorgeousFabrics.com. You cost would be much cheaper than $69!!

 

#2 Dreamy Draper $98

Is this not Simplicity 2603?? The only difference is that this one has thumbholes and the Simplicity one doesn’t. Would this be great in a drapey fabric like these rayon slub knits? I’ve made a black one out of this same fabric and wear it all the time. I like all three of the colors below although the cream color isn’t a great one for my skin tone.

 

 

#3 Epic Tunic $89

This Epic Tunic is very much like this Burda 03-2012-122. There are some major differences though. The CAbi tunic is a dolman sleeve and the Burda pattern is set-in. The Burda pattern is longer, obviously.

I found some gorgeous silk chiffons too! I super-ty, duper-ty love that last black swirl chiffon.

 

I have a few more to show you but that’s a lot of searching and linking for one night! I do have a bit of sewing to show you as well. I made something from the May Burda. I think the Burdas from May are my favorites every year.

Burda 12-2010 #123 A-Line skirt with hip pleats

I decided to go with the third option. I liked the shape of the skirt, liked the height at the waist, and thought the horizontal hip darts were a cool feature. With the busy-ness of this print, you can hardy find them in the design.

I made a 1/2” double-folded hem at the bottom and topstitched it. I like the look of it.

 

I added a lining to this skirt and, looking at this facing, didn’t do a good job of matching everything up. I can tell you that the invisible zipper from the RS looks great, like really great. I am proud because I used a totally different zipper foot to do it and I think it turned out even better than the normal invisible zipper foot I normally use. I used a light pink rayon lining for the inside.

 

Why hello, Crazy Eyes, nice to meet you. Here is the skirt worn with my Simplicity 2603 cardigan. I love that thing. I want to make it a bit spring-ier but it’s still pretty cold out so boots and sweater it is. I’ll probably wear it with tights, flats, and a cute top later but not now, Sister. I love how the lining really makes the burnout sections pop.

 

Here’s the back. With the crazy print, you can’t see my awesome zipper.

 

Here you can see it sits a bit higher up on the waist. I’m doing Sassy Pose here but still have the Crazy Eyes so I cropped it.

 

I’m not in love with this but I think it’s mostly how I styled it. I think it’ll be much cuter with tights, flats/sandals, and a springy top.

ETA: For those of you who asking about the Burda Archives. I use this link to the Russian site.

Burda 10-2008 #101 Plaid Wool Dress II

I finally finished this Burda coat. It's actually been done for quite a while but I wasn't around this computer so I couldn't post pics. I always have my iPhone but I find the picture quality isn't great and the formatting is always really bad. I really like it. I do not like this particular belt. I think I need something "harder" if you get my meaning. This belt is too flowy, loose, and just all wrong for this coat. I sort of feel like a lumberjack in his bathrobe sometimes but overall, I love it. I really, really, love the snaps. It took for-EVER to sew them on but it was totally worth it. I need a haircut.

I did the belt loops on the bias and lined them up with the stripes in the plaid. I really like how they turned out. Dang! I know I have a photo of the back but where did it go??!!?

Here are the fun snaps. They are big. I used Gutterman upholstery thread to sew them on.

Here's a close-up of the snaps. My handsewing has gotten so much better in the last year.

Next up? Another Jalie cardigan. It's all cut out and ready to go!

Burda 10-2008 #101 Plaid Wool Dress I

I guess I'm back. I was able to accomplish a LOT on my coat today. In fact, it's all sewn up except for a belt, belt loops, snaps, and the inside seam where it needs a bit of hand sewing. There is one problem. I don't have enough to make a belt out of the same material. This is a purple wool belt from this other Burda coat. I am thinking that I may try to find some black leather and make a black leather tie belt. What do you think? I'm not sure if it will look too thrown together. Maybe with some nice plaid belt loops it won't look too bad. Maybe I can make them thick and do four of them or something. I'm not sure . . .

Overall? Well, I love it, of course. Nothing screams Dawn like RED, PLAID, and BRIGHT!

I fixed the Luke Skywalker sleeves.

I love how the plais lines all come together in the back. I put the collar on the bias because, well, why the hell not?

I think I'm going to use these big sew-on snaps. They are fun and I've always wanted to use them in something. My iPhone is there for reference. These puppies are big-uns.

Here's the intersection of the facing, lining, and hem. Usually I can never get this area to look decent. I used this Thread's tutorial this time. It seems to work really well and it doesn't look bad. I've tried the Fashion-Incubator tutorial for bagging a jacket and it never works for me.

This is another Gorgeous Fabrics fabric. I was planning on doing an Ann fabric every week while she was doing her hospital visits but then the bottom of my life fell out. I was still thinking of you Ann!

Other Choices for my Coat . . .

This is a trencoat pattern from March 2009.

This is from 10-2008. I would make the sleeves full length and add a belt to it. This might be a good basic pattern for my BRIGHT plaid.

Possible Coat Patterns

I looked through some of my back issues of BWOF and found these promising patterns.

BWOF 11-2008

This isn't exactly the same but I really like the lines of the coat. Probably not the best match with my plaid.

This is from 10-2009. I love it but want it to be more fitted. I may stick this hood on another pattern.

10-2008 This isn't like my inspiration coat but I think it would be fun with the wool.

11-2006

09-2006 I like the big lapels.

09-2009

08-2006 Double-Breasted Coat. There is no image on BWOF even though there is a link.

And thank you to Digs who put up a nice digital Burda archive!

Wool Coat Inspiration . . .

Here's my second installment of what I like to call, "Ann kicks much ass." See this blog entry over at Sew Random for more details. If I tackle this jacket I won't be making it in a week but, well, maybe I might. I think already a week behind . . .

I have had this delicious piece of wool coating for about a year now. It's one of those "it's too perfect to cut" pieces in my stash. It is, of course, from GorgeousFabrics.com. I don't even know how to describe how perfect this wool is. It's thick, sorta drapey, warm, and soft all wrapped into one. I want to make a thigh-length wool jacket out of it. I think I have three yards but there might only be two. I'll have to prep it and measure and see how much I have once that is done.

I picked up a Women's Health magazine this evening and saw these coats. I love this collar.

I love this jacket.

And I super-dee duper-dee love this yellow and brown one. I think my coat will have toggle fasteners because I love them. I want a slightly fitted shape like these two coats. I'll comb through my back issues of BWOF and see what I want to make. They have so many great jacket patterns! Hmmmmm, notice how the plaids don't watch from the bodice to the sleeve?

Got any favorites you think I need to make?? I have BWOF from March 2008 to present and a few older issues. I think tomorrow I'll post some possibilities.

KS 3740 - Cowl-neck Top - Another one . . .

I am still working on the KwikSew dress but whipped this up while I alter the pattern pieces. It's another KwikSew cowl neck top. I made this one from a Gorgeous Fabrics fabric I've been stashing for a year or two. It's a rayon and it's fab-u-lous. It was really hard to use because it's a border print. Forever I tried to use it to make something symmetrical. I could never find anything that I really loved. But, I think this cowl-neck top and the print is a winner. I was careful with pattern placement so the print wrapped around one side of my body. The black sleeve is actually the "wrong side" of the fabric. ETA: I did add two inches to the sleeve length at the elbow. I like my sleeves looooong. Otherwise, it's the same as the other one.

 

 

The only part I don't love is where the back cowl connects. It's pretty abrupt. But, I'll never see it and I don't think there was any way to avoid it.

 

 

 

I wanted to show you the two sides. I really like the asymmetry.

 

 

 

 

I'll wear this a lot. I wore the striped cowl-neck top yesterday.

 

Have you guys seen this post by Lisa over at Sew Random?? This top is for Ann. I'll be holding her in my thoughts all day and sending positive thoughts her way. :) Rock on, Ann! I don't know if I have enough of Ann's fabric to make it 12 weeks but that just means I'll have to buy more. Shucks.