Finally sewing again

I've had longer breaks from sewing but this time even though I thought about sewing I just couldn't get myself moving to do it. I thought about sewing when I'd buy Burda or Ottobre or Sabrina or Meine Nähmode or Fait Main or any other addiction-fueled pattern magazine purchase. I thought about sewing something right before the Stoffmarkt (fabric market) came to town because I felt wrong buying more fabric when I haven't used any of the fabric I bought at the last two markets. As the day of the market drew near I got as far as pulling some of that fabric out to make a shirt but then I got bogged down searching for the right pattern. The day of the fabric market arrived and I walked down there, toting my wheeled grocery cart with me, prepared to buy some fabric even thought I hadn't sewn anything. It was SO crowded, thanks in part to the car show and Easter market going on near by, but oh my goodness I was impressed by the numbers of women (and some men) buying fabric. I almost left because it was so crowded. Almost. But I didn't leave and instead went to some less crowded booths and the shopping commenced.

 

Clockwise from bottom left the fabrics are: a gray and white plush cotton knit that will make a snuggly pullover, a blue sweatshirt knit, black and white jersey for a top or dress, a crinkly textured olive green cotton for which I envision a loose top, dark green and traditional blue denims, half meter cuts of blue and white striped and white cotton knit for a top, half meter cuts of brown and beige cotton knit with a coordinating striped ribbing for a top, and a black and white cotton with an interesting pucker texture for a short sleeved blouse. On the right are notions: two packages of interfacing, snaps, and zippers.

I know...that's a lot of fabric. Add it to some travel fabric I picked up in Madrid in early March:

 

Blue and white rayon for a short sleeved blouse and a colorful knit for a top or dress.

Whew! I better get my sewing mojo back 100%!

Alas, my knitting and spinning fiber addiction was also fed thanks to the Easter market downtown:

I couldn't pass up the angora fiber for 4 Euros (package says 100 grams but I weighed it and it's more like 135 grams). The lovely alpaca yarn also jumped into my hands. Even though I wasn't sewing, I was knitting. I'm just about finished knitting a sweater and will reveal it when it's done. Hopefully that won't be next fall.

So back to the top I sewed. It's an Ottobre pattern from spring 2013 that is super easy with just two pieces and binding strips for the neck and arm hems. The shape has a bit of an exaggerated curve over the hips and it's a bit long so that the bottom hem sits on your high hip and the extra fabric pools at the waist.

I wanted to make a top out of t-shirt knit and liked the look of this pattern but decided to make it first out a flowing rayon knit I had on hand. I'm glad I did because the rayon fabric is much more suited to this pattern.

Since this was my first Ottobre pattern I've ever made, I traced off the pattern exactly according to my measurements. I cut between a 44-46 for the bust and graded out to a 48 in the hips. I have to be honest and tell you I didn't like those numbers because they're bigger than I wear in German sizing (I have no idea about Finnish sizes), but then I'm used to that with U.S. pattern companies. We all know that a size 12 in those patterns is much smaller than a size 12 in manufactured clothing. I wear a 42/44 in German sizing and that's actually what I end up using for Burda patterns, so I was tempted to do the same with Ottobre. With Burda, when I go with my measurements the results are too large. Ottobre seems to be accurate to their measurements, at least for me anyway.

I like the way the top fits and may make more, but now I need to find a different pattern for the t-shirt knit. I think it will be another Ottobre pattern because I really like the look of their clothes and the fact they show them on models with bodies closer to the average size woman. They also include the size and height of the model too.