SEWN: Vintage Pledge 1 - Cartoon Flowers

Does anyone remember when I wrote out my Vintage Pledge for the year? Yeah, I had to reread that post too just to remind myself of what I'd written! But the truth is that whilst I haven't been blogging much of my sewing of late, I have actually been sewing more than ever, so there's a little bit of a backlog. Naturally, a good blogger would start in order and blog older things first, so here I am blogging the latest thing I've made. Somehow it's just always more exciting to write about things that are fresh off of the sewing machine!

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The pattern I used was Burdastyle 7175, one of the vintage reprints that have been released recently. I recieved this one last year as a Christmas present from my mum, and admittedly I think if she hadn't bought it I would definitely have overlooked this stunner of a pattern. The brown material in the illustration certainly isn't doing it any favours! However, one quick look at the line drawing revealed far more potential than the illustration suggests - the princess seams leading to splits at the bottom of the top are a really nice design feature, yet still keeps the design simple and elegant. Can you tell how much I'm in love with this pattern yet? The skirt is definitely on my sewing list too - it's such a classic shape, and I get a lot of wear out of the pencil skirts that I've bought over the years.

However much I love this pattern though, for me the true star of this project was the fabric. I'd been eyeing up this floral check print from Textile Express for such a long time, that eventually I caved a couple of months ago and treated myself to 2 metres. I think I was originally planning a dress, not that I had a pattern or particular design in mind. After much debate, I decided instead to make a matching top and skirt that could be worn together to look like a dress, or apart. That's how much I love this fabric; I want to wear it every which way. It's a magical blend of linen and cotton, so it really is the best of both worlds - cool, soft, drapey, breathable. You'd think I had shares in this fabric the way I wax lyrical about it (even my non sewing friends have been dragged in to marvel at it), but I just can't recommend it enough for summer sewing.

Another reason for me deciding to make a top instead of dress was that I think this fabric is just perfect for wearing with denim (which makes up about 80% of my wardrobe!), and that's exactly how I've been wearing it in the past couple of weeks. I find it actually quite interesting blogging things that aren't immediately off the sewing machine (even if this is my last complete project), as it means I know a little bit more about how useful they are, and how much I wear them. Some of the things I blog are only worn every now and again, so I want to focus on making things that will get worn regularly. Although this is such a lightweight fabric that I don't think I'll wear it much through winter (sob!), I know I'll get a lot of wear out of it in warmer weather. The change in weather is actually what's kept me from blogging this - every time I stepped out of the house with my tripod it started to pour down!

And you've just witnessed my incredible ability to turn the topic of any conversation to the weather. A round of applause please! ;)

Apart from the princess seams, the construction process didn't really contain anything new for me, so I took the chance to concentrate on ensuring that my sewing was finished to the best of my ability. This might sound like a non-brainer, but there are times when I'm just eager to finish and things end up a little messy. So this time around, I forced myself to s l o w down, and whilst the end result is far from perfect, I'm happy knowing that it's the best I could have done with my present ability. I french-seamed every seam (my new favourite technique), and I'm glad I did because this fabric loves to fray.

Sewing the slits was interesting once I got my head around the instructions! The bottom hem was folded up on itself to stitch the slits, with topstitching and hand-stitching keeping it in place. It's something I want to try a bit more of in the future, and I'm thinking how I could incorporate this technique into other patterns.

Invisible zips are something I've dabbled in before, but this time around the pattern called for sewing it in a slightly different way; sewing the back bottom seam before the zip, whilst I've always done it the other way around (zip first, hem later), so I decided to try it this way just to see what difference it would make. I may be wrong, but I don't actually see any reason for doing it this way, and I think in future I'll revert to my old method. You can see in the picture below how the zip seam doesn't match up with the rest of the seam, something that I'll address by restitching the bottom seam. It's slightly annoying, but very fixable at least.

Another issue I had was some neck gape. I'm thinking that this could be for a couple of reasons - either that I chose a size too big (I've since read that Burda patterns run a little larger to size, and in this case the fit is relaxed all over) or something to do with my shoulders/back. In hindsight, I have had this issue before, but this was the first time I a) noticed it, and b) cared enough about fit to do anything about it. I added some darts around the front neckline (there are already some at the back), and also took in the shoulder seams a little. Next time I think I'll do some alteration to the pattern pieces to try to resolve the issue, but at least I know I can sort things out this way.

Overall, I really enjoyed making (and wearing!) this, and think there will be definitely be more made in the future. Perhaps in a plainer fabric so that the slits and princess seams are a little clearer, although I covet patterned fabric like nothing else, so we'll have to see!

I didn't actually intend for this to be such an in-depth ramble, but I guess because I spent such a long time sewing this top up, I've needed to offload some thoughts on it! Now that I've made the top, I definitely want to make a matching skirt so I have the option of wearing this as a 'dress'. The problem is I'm a little stumped on which pattern to use - it's a really light fabric, yet it doesn't need lining as it's still opaque, and I want a simple shape that is easy to wear on a casual, day to day basis. Any ideas? I'd love to hear pattern recommendations!