Summer Tops

Hi everyone,
Don't get surprised with the amount of tops I made lately. I made five! Yes, I need them all to wear during summer :) I was lucky to have all the fabrics inside stash, most of them are the leftover from previous garments.
Before I show you the pattern and detail, let's take a look of the finished tops. I love them all, they are really comfy and easy to wear with anything.

The fabric are all one meter of knits, knit cotton (red, black, yellow and emerald blue) and denim jersey knit.
I used BurdaStyle Triangle Cutout Dress pattern to make this top. I cut the length right in my hips, skip the triangle cutout and lower the neckline 3 cm. Except the one with denim jersey knit, the neckline is just like the original pattern. Also, I used 1 cm seam allowances in all edges and 1.5 cm hem allowance.

The sewing process was very fast, I did each top in two hours including cutting the fabric.
As usual, I started by sew both shoulders right sides together followed by sew both top sides right sides together.
After that I sew the sleeve hem by folded the seam allowances to the wrong side and carefully sew around.
Then I sew the neckline by folded the seam allowance to the wrong side and stitched around with twin needle. And the last part was sew the hem allowance with twin needle. Done!

Well, all my tops are basically the same but I decided to add a little touch to make them slightly different. For my first version - the yellow top, I added high-low hem instead of usual hem. I just cut the back piece longer than the front. The result is cute and I like it, hope you can see the high-low hem in the picture below.
I wore this top for mmmay'16 day 5 with my flounce skirt.

The denim jersey top was my second version, I made the neckline exactly as the original pattern finished with normal hem. I wore the top for mmmay'16 day 16 with my orange shorts.

Now let's talk about my third version, emerald blue. I made it with girly touch, cut 10 cm and knotted at the side. The idea came up suddenly because I planned to wear it with my tea-length skirt (not yet blogged). The result is nice and I like it :)
I wore the top for mmmay'16 day18

The red top was my fourth version, I decided to sew a small pocket. Hope you can see it :)
I am wearing this top today with my refashioned polka dots skirt. We are having bad weather, raining and typhoon signal 1. The picture taken in the middle of the rain after lunch :( Hope the typhoon will go away...

The skirt was made out from my old dress, I just cut 8 cm on the top of the waistline and carefully picking up the invisible zipper to use again. Then fused fusible interfacing, folded the skirt at the top that supposed to be the waistband. Stitch around the band and I am done! Here are the two pictures of the skirt, front and back views.

Finally we reached the fifth version of the top, nothing special about it. A plain black top that I am planning to wear with my culottes. I will be posting the culottes in the future post :)

P.S. I am joining MMMay'16 through Flickr.com, I will be posting my final roundup in the end of this month but you are welcome to see my album Velvet Ribbon, MMMay'16

Happy Sewing everyone!

Love,
Hana

Easy Shift Dress

Hello everyone,

Today I'd love to show you my new dress that I made last week. It is a lovely shift dress with pocket and easy to sew. The original pattern has triangle cutout in the front, but I skip it. Before I explain more about the detail, let's take a look of the final dress. I am wearing it today for MMMay'16 Day 12, the picture taken in one of the small streets in Old Taipa Village - Macau :)  

For the fabric, I used 1.75 yards of light weight denim jersey knit and for the pattern, I used BurdaStyle Triangle Cutout Dress 08/2014#117 size 36. Beside skipping the triangle cutout, I added 1.5 cm in the shoulder at the neckline and drew a new line of the neckline. Also I added 2 cm at the waist, then drew a new line from the armhole down to the hemline. As I want the dress length right on my knee, I added 3 cm from the original pattern with 2 cm hem allowance and 1.5 cm seam allowance in all edges.

image source from BurdaStyle

I really enjoyed sewing this dress, it was an easy process because the dress came with three pattern pieces, front-back and pocket.

The process started by sew both shoulder right sides together followed by sew inseam pockets. Then I sew the dress sides very carefully so I don't sew the pockets.

After the pockets done, I sew the sleeves by folded to the wrong side 1.5 cm and topstitched around.

For the neckline, I folded the neckline fabric to the wrong side 1.5 cm and sew around with twin needle.

After all above done, I sew the hemline with twin needle as well. In this case I used 2 cm hem allowance.

The dress finished! But after I tried it, I felt something was missing. Honestly, the dress doesn't have a shape, it looks like I am wearing a potato bag :)

Then I decided to sew two pieces of tape 60 cm long x 2.5 cm wide with pointy end. I inserted the tape 16 cm in the top of the pocket and sew it. After that, I tied them in the back, as shown in the picture below. 

Well, the result is great! It does add the volume in the dress :)

After all, I really love this dress! It is very comfortable and perfect to wear in summer. Beside this dress, I already made three tops based on this pattern with a little change in each top. I will show you in the future post.

Okay, here are more pictures of the finished dress. Front, back, side, the closer look of the neckline and pocket :)

Happy Sewing!

Resource:

How To Sew Inseam Pocket from Warehouse Fabric Inc.

V-neck Floral Blouse

Hi everyone, I am wearing my V-neck floral blouse for the second day of Me-Made-May'16. Me and my family went to the Venetians Macau this morning. Are you participating? If yes, happy MMM'16 to you :) I am posting my daily outfit through Flickr, you can pop over the group to see all the lovely participants.

I made this blouse in October last year but never had the opportunity to publish a blog post :(
For the fabric, I used kind of transparent cotton voile with lovely bright floral and I only bought 1.5 yards which is just enough to make sleeveless blouse.

For the pattern, I used BurdaStyle Simple Blouse 04/2013#104A size 36 with modification in the neckline, front piece and skip the sleeves. The original pattern is a long sleeves blouse with high collar and high low hem.

I started the process with the front piece, make the V-neckline by measure 11 cm from CF down to the chest and drew a new line of V-neck (I did the same as my first blouse). For the back piece, I just leave as it is.
I also skip the bands for buttons and button holes, I just added 1.5 cm seam allowance and sew both front pieces right sides together.
After the front piece done, I sew the front and back pieces right sides together at the shoulder. And then sew both sides of the blouse.
For the finishing neckline and armholes, I sew bias tape right sides together then flip it inside and sew along the neckline and armholes.
The last part is sew the high low hem and I am done. You can see the details of the finished blouse in the picture below,

And here are two more pictures of me wearing it. These pictures were taken in October last year :)

Happy Sewing!

Love, Hana