A diary of all my mad projects.

I am glad that you stopped by - welcome to my world. Its a little mad and hectic as I sew, knit, embroider and generally craft my way through life. My newest resolution is to spend more time sewing - less time dreaming about it. I love to read comments so I am looking forward to hearing from you all.




Thursday, April 21, 2016

Winter Mash up – feeling the love for Ottobre





Winter is not far away here but we are enjoying a wonderful warm autumn so far.  DD the younger needs some T-shirts so out came Ottobre Summer 2/2007 Design 3 Short-sleeved T-shirt in size 44.  So successful was this pattern I have not been able to get them off her to photo.  The neckline was raised slightly to DD specifications.







Autumn/winter 5/2015 on the right, Spring/summer 2/2007 on the left.








While trolling the net we found this striped top from Salasei on Superette website. 
DD loves stripes and her last navy T has fallen to bits it was worn so much.   We found Ottobre Winter 5/2015 Design 17 Colourful Concrete is a close match to the top.






 Fabric was found at the wonderful Bernina Shop in Tauranga, an interesting combination of cotton knit stripe and lace insert.  In our search for stripes, which are meant to be big this winter, I also purchased a khaki and pink viscose and spandex knit from the Dreamstress viaTtrademe.




At first I traced the lines of Design 17 onto the shoulders and armhole of Design 3, but DD really wanted the dropped shoulder so made a muslin in Design 17 to test how this would look.  I also had a go with adding an accent using the red bobbin which is needed for Bobbin Work on the Bernina 780. That was fun but DD nixed the look as a bit “blingy”.


The muslin to test out the pattern - what you cannot see is the dark brown glitter lines running down the front and back and around the neckband.




The inspiration top is raw edged sewn on the outside of the garment but in the interests of a lasting garment I overlocked the raw edges, sewed the seam as normal and then chained stitched a pintuck at the seam.  I liked the final look and so did DD.  The neck line was raised and rounded similar to DD’s Tshirts and she loves the final result.  









Look at that stripe matching! Great care was taken but I was very thrilled to see how it paid off. Win!


The striped viscose was made up in the mash up t-shirt as I felt the fabric needed a more structured shoulder.  Both versions shoulder seams were sewn with tape to help stabilise the seam and it has worked a treat.  The Tshirt was shortened about 2.5cm (about 1”) in the body and about the same in the sleeves.
















  DD was a little over the photos but was very tolerant of my attempts at a “photoshoot”.  I am off to make myself some T’s for winter but will avoid duplicating these for myself as the mother/daughter look is banned in our house (by DD’s orders!!).