A skirt from My Image Magazine

A new skirt from the dutch pattern magazine My Image.  I sewed M1103 from the Spring/Summer 2011 issue.  It was high time I quit sewing the same old same old skirt, the paneled Vogue pattern skirt that took quite a bit of time to sew and 2 1/4 yards 58" fabric minimum.  This My Image skirt took much less time to sew and uses just barely over 1 yard of 58" fabric.  Of course I did my usual and used a knit with a designed for woven pattern.

I like to start with a size or two smaller than my size when I use a woven pattern and sew it in a knit.  The My Image size chart says I would use a size 40 and since this particular pattern only goes down to a size 38 that is what I used to make a muslin in a woven.  The muslin fit, maybe a little too body skimming but it did skim, not hug.  Hmm, no smaller size to use and with all those panels I knew I did not have the patience to try to size it down.   I decided to sew it anyway in the 38, I really liked the effect of the panels.  The result is maybe a bit loose but it still fits well enough to make me happy.  

The back hem of the skirt is longer than the front.  This I had to think about for a while since I wasn't sure I liked that look.  The phrase "mullet skirt" came to mind.  It is a couple of inches above the knee in the front and just grazes the bottom of the knee area at the back. It grew on me this high low concept and I kept the feature instead of evening out the hem.

I found it interesting that there is very little shaping happening in the panel seams around the hips.  This made the panels pretty easy to sew together.

A few changes were made to the pattern to make this better in a knit.  

• The center back seam which would accommodate a zipper was eliminated.  It was a ruler straight seam with no shaping.  
• The back darts were eliminated and side seams above the side panels were shaved off and shaped a bit to take care of the then missing darts' shaping.  
• I added two or so inches to the top so I could use an elastic waist finish in place of the waistband of the pattern.

The hem is about 1/2 inch folded under, pressed, and coverstitched which worked well to handle the curved edge.

The fabric is a bamboo/cotton/lycra french terry from Vogue Fabrics.  It is a lovely soft french terry with just enough body to make a non clingy skirt.

My Image has a nice website where you can browse the magazines.  I ordered the current issue and a pack of three back issues from the site which arrived from the Netherlands within two weeks.  I like the styles, they are on the casual side and remind me of my favorite danish Onion patterns.

I leave you with a screenshot of the magazine page (full magazine here) zoomed in on the skirt where you can see the nice side panel.  The shape of this panel really helps the high low hemline work.  The impression from the side view is a natural hem slope instead of a "who forgot to hem the back of the skirt" thing.  

Altering my way back to start

A cotton jersey top.  It's a comfortable fit scoop neck tee with bell sleeves.

Now this could have been an easy and quick project but, no, I had to go about it in a most time consuming way.  The story starts with KwikSew 3295 (now apparently out of print).  Last year I tried the top in a woven making the bust area smaller and experimenting with a center back seam for shaping.  After a few muslins I decided a woven top was not for me, at least not in the cotton lawn I was considering, so the project got put aside in spite of the several days I had invested in the process.

Then one day months later I thought of the sleeves and how I liked the bell shape.  I wondered how those would work in a knit.  I pulled out the KwikSew pattern I had already altered to fit and decided to make it work for a knit.  I removed the darts and took out a bit of width in the center front and center back.  There were a few fiddly alterations at the shoulder and front armscye that I don't remember the details of but they took more time.

I traced a fresh pattern of what I had created through my alterations and stepped back to look.  Omigosh, it looked so familiar, what was it?  I thought for a while and then remembered one of my favorite patterns ever that I have made nearly a dozen times, Onion 5025 (also appears to be no longer available).

Placing my overly altered KwikSew pattern on top of the Onion pattern I saw they were nearly identical!  All that time I has spent altering and muslining the KwikSew, more days in the sewing room that I care to admit, and I just end up right where I should have started, sigh.  Moral of the story:  productive time in the sewing room does not include reinventing the wheel over and over.

The top got sewn in spite of my foolish activities with the pattern and I like the result.  I wanted to have a somewhat less than plain binding at the neckline and sleeve hem so I placed a folded strip of the fabric on the inside under the raw edge and sewed with the cover stitch machine from the front.  This was completed back in the fall and the funny thing is after all that I went through to create the top I have yet to wear it.

The fabric, unlike the patterns, is still available.   Hart's Fabrics  Plum Jersey  Soft and light but far from sheer, a lovely tee shirt fabric.

Pantone declares spring colors

It's not even 2013 yet, winter is still settling in, even the shortest day of the year (here in the northern hemisphere, that is) has not arrived yet and some bossy thing called Pantone has declared what colors we are to wear and live in this coming spring.  There is even a "color of the year", like a Miss America chosen and crowned, that reigns over the season's palette. 

The very wonderful thing about a group of colors chosen by good colorists is the inspiration it can provide.  The limitations are the freedom.  Parameters can spur creativity where an endless abyss of options can be paralyzing.  Ten colors, only ten, but how much fun those can be.  Here they are.

Emerald, the tiara wearing winner of color of the year.  Dusk blue, grayed jade, tender shoots, lemon zest, african violet, linen, monaco blue, poppy red, and nectarine.  Not very exciting as a line of colored dots on paper but quite amazing as the palette for a pleasant room, or perhaps a wardrobe.  And just what do these colors look like in practice?  In a room, like this, from House Beautiful's December/January 2013 issue.  If you look closely you will see all of the ten colors.

Grayed jade in the barrel type side table and the lamp in the distance gives the monaco blue and poppy red.  Nice proportions of the amounts of color.

The neutral of linen calms everything and sets it off at the same time.

Emerald, the color of the year, in modest spots that make the room lovely and interesting instead of a place consumed by trend.  How pretty these are together!

In my wardrobe:

Unwittingly I followed Pantone's rulings when I recently bought the "Shimmer Me" jacket by Columbia for my winter wardrobe.  In emerald, it was the color that was to my eyes the least of the evils and was offered at the best of the discounts, things that rule my shopping much more than current fashion.  I know the Pantone police will not be patrolling the wilderness where I will be wearing this jacket but the ideas that are forming in my head about colors to wear with this emerald are invigorating.  A dusky blue top, a bit of poppy red somewhere, just a tiny bit like the painting above, perhaps with african violet grounding it all.  Yes, winter might be more than just keeping warm this way!     

Wishing you creative thoughts and happy sewing!