Something I really wanted to do before my trip to the United States was to make a new outfit for meeting with other seamsters… with two days to go; I did! I made a skirt and a little white top ensemble… each piece was actually pretty simple and the whole process from go to whoa took about half a day each. Bam! I really love sewing projects that just whizz together super quick like that.
I used Vogue 1486; a Nicola Finetti design. Nicola Finetti is an Australian designer, and when have I ever seen an Australian designer collaborate with Vogue?? I’m pretty sure, never. I decided this was a collab I absolute needed to support by buying the pattern…
For the skirt; I’d ordered 3m of cotton from Minerva. I thought the print looked quite divine on the website, when it turned up it was actually a bit of a surprise, to be honest! The print was divine; however it was also far far smaller, I mean, on a smaller scale, than I had imagined. I’d sort of pictured the squares being each about 10cm, sorta like real Moroccan tiles, actually they’re more like 1cm. Hey ho though; I still had hopes it would work out ok… The colours are quite luscious, and very very me! Mustard, terracotta, burnt orange, turquoise, green, a tiny dash of coral pink… honestly could this possibly get any more my sort of palette!
The fabric is beautiful quality, as good as I could have hoped for; soft, and still crisp enough, densely woven and yet still with a very nice drape. It was also very generous width, however I still didn’t manage to cut the skirt pattern pieces out from my 3m length!! I know, right?! You’d hardly believe it to look at it, but it’s a HUGE fabric hog!! I had to piece a smaller section onto the end in order to cutout the back lower skirt piece. The join is not perfect, but pretty good; plus it’s positioned so it’s hidden inside a side pleat, so it’s really quite invisible.
For the little crop top I used some slubby white cotton I bought years ago, from Fabulous Fabrics, and a navy blue chunky metal zip from Spotlight. The top was super easy and fun to make. You had to shorten the zip; and the instructions showed how to do this with a pair of pliers.. however I just could not pry the metal teeth off of the zip tape. I struggled and struggled with this, but eventually gave up, and in the end simply cut the zip off at the right point and stitched a good solid bar tack in the gap between teeth to keep the zip pull firmly trapped where it needed to stay. And I lOVE how the zip looks at the back of the little top!
innards…for some reason this sight is enormously pleasing to me….
You were supposed to put an exposed zip into the skirt too; however I decided this might all be a bit too much; overpowering the delicate print. I just used a dark green invisible zip here instead.
And just saying; the skirt has fabulous pockets. Fab -U -Lous…!
So I’d mentioned I whacked this outfit together in a matter of days… of course I haven’t made this pattern previously and didn’t really bother to do a careful fitting on myself either. I’d picked a size 12; my correct size according to the size chart. Usually I pick a 10 for Vogue patterns. And I don’t know why I decided upon a 12 because, of course, turns out I should have picked a 10 for this one too… I knew I usually go a 10 for a reason! the waistband is a little bit baggy on me, and – is it my imagination? – but I feel the top looks quite big on me too. Not that this is going to stop me from wearing it, but just; you know. For next time.
The day we’d planned to meet with sewing girls in San Francisco was a lovely warm day of 28C… so I felt so lucky I could wear my new outfit!! however we only had the one warm day during out entire visit and that was it! I was happy that I could wear it for one sewing meet-up, but just a wee bit disappointed it didn’t get another outing. Like, the days we met other sewing peeps in New York city it was just too cold for it (sob) so I had to make do with other things I’d packed…
from left: Yoshimi is wearing Vogue 2900, Beth is wearing one of her favourite dresses, a Butterick pattern, and Shams is wearing her Style Arc Stevie jean jacket
Later on we headed over to a cafe where Shams had organised an afternoon tea..
from left: and I apologise I did not catch what everyone was wearing this time … I think Rose is wearing a Cashmerette top and Jilly is wearing a tessuti patterns Lily dress?? 
Wendy, Shams, Yoshimi, me, Rose, Jilly, and Catherine is taking the picture… I knew I should have taken over the camera so she could be in the photo!
And that brown paper bag, clutched in my pawsies?? Yup, you guessed it… it has a nice little stash of fabric tucked away…;)
Yoshimi took this picture on the train platform, after fabric shopping in the Bay Area with Shams and Beth. I thought it was such a nice picture! In fact the whole day was such a fun day!! I wish I could hang out and gossip and chat and go fabric shopping with all these ladies more often!
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