The Pattern Review Mini Wardrobe Contest - Anchor's Away!

Nothing like a challenge to inspire one. Well I decided to enter the Pattern Review Mini-Wardrobe contest. The idea is to make five pieces that can be combined into six outfits. I've never tried sewing with a plan for more that maybe three pieces before so I thought this was a really good time to challenge myself. I chose some very tried and true patterns from Bernina My Label.

What I chose was:

A sort of camp like shirt made out of the anchor fabric I found at Grey's Fabric and Notions on a recent trip to Boston. This was based on the My Label tailored shirt but without the vertical darts with the sleeves widened and cuffed. I also put a pleat in the center back. I could not resist the buttons I found at G street for this:

A black T shirt but in a really nice knit and with 3/4 sleeves - perfect for summer air conditioned DC area offices. The fabric was knit with a light terry underside which feels great.

Same T shirt pattern with white but with a boat neck and slightly ruched sleeves. This fabric came in a bundle from Michael's Fabrics.

A skirt made of a khaki colored cotton twill. This has side pockets sort of like jean pockets and a fly front. I kept the original slit in the back per the pattern. The fun part was making belt loops with my newly aquired Baby Lock cover stitch machine.  That fun little machine also made short work of the two knit tops.

The last was a nautical inspired skirt using the same basic pattern of the khaki skirt but with a faux flap on the front, welt pocket on the back and invisible zipper as the real closure. The flap was actually two shallow pockets just about big enough to put buttonholes and then buttons on the under portion. I also kept the slit in this skirt as well. This is made of denim and once again, could not resist the buttons I found at G Street:

I wanted a water backdrop for the pictures but I also needed a place to change. I realized that the town of Occoquan which is literally just down the street had a visiter center. I asked the nice guy in there if I could leave the clothes there and use the lady's room to change. He said of course!

The first was the combo of the khaki skirt and black tee:

Then I put on the anchor shirt over the khaki skirt:

After that it was the white shirt with the khaki skirt:

The over to the naval inspired skirt, first with the white shirt:

Then with the black shirt:

Then with the black shirt and anchor shirt over it. And the goofy captain's hat I found on Amazon:

So there are all six! This contest has a lot of fiece competition but the real winning felling was I actually finished and have quite a few pieces of new wearable clothes!

The essential trench coat

One of Tim Gunn’s essential looks is a classic trench. Bernina My Label to the rescue! A recent pattern release was a classic trench coat. What a project but so worth it!

The fabric came from Michael’s Fabrics. It’s a Zegna 100% cotton rainwear fabric. So luxurious… I decided I needed to put leather buttons on it and found the perfect ones at MJ Trim in New York. Finding the leather buckles were another story. The only place I could find them was at Klein’s Haberdashery in London, England. I email them the link for the buttons and asked if the buckles they had would be a match. They said they would be suitable – now that does sound British!

How they got here was really interesting. They couldn’t ship to the US but my cousin is engaged to a guy in England and he said I could send them to his house and he would bring them on his next visit. On the way back to the airport they stopped by to drop them off to me. Now that’s service!
The pattern had the front gun flaps. I also lengthened the coat as I wanted it to be full length.

I lined it with some very nice coat weight lining from Atlanta Thread. I added a back vent and the rain shield to the back.

Needless to say this turned out to be a very lengthy project! I bought some light colored fabric from Michaels for a winter version on this with a quilted lining. I think it will be a while before I do that one.

A nice little wrap skirt that won't unwrap

I’ve been really happy with working with My Label patterns and like to take creative license with them. I wanted a wrap skirt, but not all the quirky problems with a true wraps skirt. This was done as a "faux" wrap. The fabric came from a remanent I found at G Street Fabrics. 100% linen and a true steal!

Between where the basic skirt ends and the wrap starts I inserted a hidden invisible zipper:

I also added a slit right below that for walking ease:

Also I used a combination of the multi-hoop program in the Bernina Designer Plus 6.0 and the giant Hoop-it-all to create the embroidery design as this one was done on my Bernina Artista 165E. The embroidery design was from the “Dressed in Damask” package from Emblibray. Had I used my Artista 630E (which I did not have at the time) I could have auto split it with the mega hoop.

I then added buttons for the faux closure. I really like the versatility of the My Label patterns. It’s amazing what

The kimono jacket - perfect for an over air-conditioned office

As anyone who works in the DC area knows offices are notoriously over air-conditioned. When it's hot and muggy outside you can count on freezing in the office. That's why having some nice Summer jackets are a good thing.

This was a pattern for Bernina My Label that was released after the original package came out. There have been six more patterns released, free to anyone who has the program. I've been really happy with My Label and have tried just about every pattern so far.

 This komono jacket was quite challenge in construction. I found some really nice stripped texture linen at G Street Fabrics and some turquoise linen to make the trim with. The embroidery as a fairly inexpensive download from Emblibrary. It's worth checking every so often with them. They frequently have $1 designs that are fun to use. I used a giant Hoop-it-All for the design with assistance from the multi-hoop program on my Bernina Designer Plus software. That's the way I could split designs on my Bernina Artista 165E. On my Artista 630E I can use the Bernina Megahoop and the softwear will auto split it for me.

The back was actually one piece at the top but I liked putting the strip across it to give it more interest.

The sides are slit with hidden pockets - I love to hide pockets when I can because I never seem to have enough!

So I'm really happy with this program  - I haven't had to buy a pattern since I started using it!

The essential LBD

I don’t know what took me so long but I’ve always wanted a little black dress. It seemed kind of ridiculous that I can sew and have virtually anything I want but didn’t have one of those. Well, the Tim Gunn challenge on Patternreview.com was just the motivation. I have the princess dress My Label pattern drafted specifically to my measurements. I used it for the day time dress but I thought it would work well for the LBD. I had some black on black striped silk fabric from Michael’s Fabrics that I had received in a bundle a while back. Those bundles are fun when offered! Any fabrics I don’t like become muslins and any I do are a great bargain. Anyone interested in this watch out on the MichaelsFabrics.com website.

I also lined the dress in black silk charmeuse I ordered from Mood.com. I made the sleeves ¾ because that way it would work during either Winter or Washington’s over air conditioned Summers. There is a slit on the back. This might be the first of several black dresses. Now that I’ve made one I’m inspired to make more!

Day Dress

This is the day dress I did for the Tim Gunn Sewalong on Patternreview.com. He suggests a day dress and when I got this fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics I knew that’s what it had to be! I think this fabric really has a Tommy Bahama feel to it.

It was the Bernina My Label basic dress pattern but, of course, I had to change some things. I put pockets on the front because I always wished dresses had pockets! Hey, I made it so I can do whatever I want with it! I put the slits in the front as opposed to the one in the back and added a placket neckline. I finally mastered doing plackets so now I want to use them more often!

Black dress pants for the Tim Gunn Sewalong

These are my completed black pants. I used the Bernina My Label flared pants but narrowed the leg. I also omitted the back pockets as I didn’t see any reason for them. The back is much smoother this way. I used a classic fly front and belt loops. The fabric was a black on black stripe silk suiting fabric I got in a Michael’s Fabric bundle a while back. This is how they look in the front:

 And this is the back:

Gotta love those My Label patterns!

White shirt for Tim Gunn Sewalong

This is my interpretation of the white shirt. I used the Bernina My Label tailored shirt pattern and using David Coffin’s book and DVD I flat felled the seams and did the placket the way he instructed. It’s much more professional than the one that came with the pattern. The fabric came from G Street Fabric and is a white on white stripe.

I could not resist using the embroidery on my Bernina Artista 165E to do a monogram on the cuff. When I originally got that machine I didn’t realize how much I would use the embroidery but it’s great for things like this.

Rain, rain, rain....

Well, what a soggy day! At least I have the perfect jacket for keeping dry! I made this using the Bernina My Label Barn Jacket pattern and the fabric was a combination of raincoat fabric from Michaels Fabrics (which suspiciously resembles Burberry) and a very nicely coordinating Bamberg lining from G Street Fabrics. The lining was a dead on match for the inside of the raincoat fabric.

I did the front zipper as a concealed zipper and put some snaps on to finish the closure:

I made the hood detachable so if I care to remove it I can. I used buttons to attach the hood.

I did a pretty interesting welt pocket, great as I always need a place for keys and such:

This made me feel pretty stylishly dry today!

Adventures in denim...

I wanted to make a denim jacket and perfect timing - Bernina My Label released a yoked pattern jacket. For those who aren't familiar with My Label it's a custom pattern drafting pattern and includes a virtual you to try clothes on before printing. This gives you an opportunity to check the fit and preview the fabric. This was the same technology shown on Tim Gunn's show Guide to Style.

I copied the front pocket detail from a Michael Kors denim jacket I have. I also borrowed the idea of quilting a lining with fusible batting and fusing it to the inside of the jacket.

I added some embroider to the front and a coordinating design to the back. This was done using the multihoop program in the Bernina Embroidery Designer Plus software and using a Hoop-it-All to position.  This was done on my Bernina Artista 165E but on the Artista 630E I could have used the Mega Hoop and auto split it. I didn't have that machine yet.

I did find one really useful thing about pattern software. As I hate to tape stuff I invested in a 24" HP plotter so I can print pattern pieces whole. What a time saver! Colin likes the plotter - he calls it the muscle car of printers!