Berlin T-Shirt

A photo posted by Charlotte Boul (@cboul92) on Sep 17, 2016 at 7:01am PDT

This is the first thing I made after perfecting my bodice sloper. And for my first foray into pattern drafting I can say that is pretty good. 

The fit is spot on and I've worn it so many times since I made it! The fabric choice really helps here as it's so comfy and soft and goes with so much of my wardrobe AND it had subtle sparkles 😍 

The actual pattern is pretty straight forward. It's a darted, kimono sleeved, T-shirt with side and back seam shaping made interesting by the slit in the front and raw edged neck binding. I used [book] to draft the pattern from my sloper and I used this tutorial [link] to make the placket in the front.

The binding is probably by favourite part. I sewed the binding (a strip of self-fabric jersey) to the inside of the T-shirt neckline and folded it to the outside to cover the seam allowances and stitched it down leaving the edge of the binding raw. I stretched it a bit so it rolled back on itself and just love how it looks. For the sleeve hems I folded the edge to the outside rather than in and tacked in down in 4 places to give a turn-up effect.

Faux Wool Kennedy Bag

Last week I took a day off work so I could have a sewing day at a friend's house. I took a few half finished projects hoping that I would be able to get some of my many many WIPs finished.

All in all it was really productive day. I cut out my new Kommatia dress pattern and made my usual alterations to the pattern by shortening the bodice between the waist and bust and then adding the length back in between the waist and hip. I have some great sparkly geometric jersey from Abakhan for this dress - I can’t wait to get it cut out!

I also finally finished the Kennedy bag that I’ve had cut out since last April. Luckily, past-Charlotte had been really rather organised for once - all the pieces were labelled and stacked so putting the bag together was a breeze.

My favourite thing about this bag is the lining. It’s made from really soft, 100% cotton lawn with a gorgeous matryoshka doll print and it makes me so happy every time I open the bag.

I’ve was also very impressed with how well my machine coped with all the layers. The only part where it started to struggle was where the straps attached to the bag. There are about 14 layers there and 12 of them are pretty thick (the outer fabric, interlining and leather). In the end I switched to a finer needle instead of the heavy duty one that I had been using and after that there were no more skipped stitches, go machine!

All in all I’m pretty pleased with how the bag turned out. The strap is a little short and the body isn’t quite a stiff as I would like resulting in a bit of a floppy bag but in my opinion, the lining more than makes up for it.

Here's another close up of that lovely lining for your viewing pleasure <3

Don't you just love those little Matryoshkas?

What's your stance on linings? Do you love prints and bright contrasting linings? Or are nice matching linings more your thing? - I'd love to hear your opinions.

Until next time,

Charlotte

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