Sewing and lifestyle blog of a wannabe "full-time vixen"

Tag Archives: striped fabric

The French Vanilla Top – Plantain Variation #2

So here is my second variation on the Plantain pattern for the Deer&Doe sewing contest. I created a yoke with scalloped edges and changed the neckline to a bateau or boat neckline.

The scallops are kind of appliqued to the striped portion of the top by using a zig-zag stitch around the edge. I used a grey and cream striped fabric which is a bamboo rayon blend — oh so luxurious! It feels amazing and drapes beautifully. The cream fabric for the yoke and short sleeves is just a simple cotton interlock. Both fabrics were purchased at Dressew.

This was an interesting project for me to sew. Trying to figure out how to sew the scallops onto the striped fabric gave me a bit of a headache but I persevered. The knit fabric made it a lot more trickier than if it had been a stable woven fabric.

Anyways, I certainly had a lot of fun participating in the contest. I don’t know if I’ll try to participate in any more in the near future. What I really have to do is take stock of my wardrobe and figure out where my sewing focus should be this year; try to fill in the gaps and focus on what my personal style is.

I read this blog post on the Colette Patterns blog which is a part of their new Wardrobe Architect series. It really got me thinking and wondering about what my core style is. It’s definitely girly and whimsical with a touch of vintage, a touch of goth/rocker edge, and a touch of clean contemporary lines. It seems like such a strange mix but it works for me, for the most part.

It’d be nice to go through my whole wardrobe and figure out what the heck I’m actually doing with my personal style!

The Coco Top

So I made this top way back in June and finally got around to taking photos. I know my personal friends and family are always curious about what I get up to when it comes to sewing. So here it is!

It’s sewn from a Megan Nielsen pattern, the Briar pattern, which has a high-low hem and comes in a cropped length or a regular full length. I made the cropped length with 3/4 sleeves in a lovely blue and white knit fabric I got at Dressew. The fabric is a linen blend! It feels so nice and is the most luxurious knit fabric I’ve used ever. I’m afraid to get this shirt dirty in any way. It wasn’t very expensive either, it’s just that the linen makes it have such a great drape, weight, and texture.

You can see the back view here. It curves down longer around the back. I love the hem, it’s a great design feature and just oh so cute.

I must confess, this was the first time I EVER sewed with a striped fabric, let alone a knit striped fabric. I had a dickens of a time trying to match up the stripes but I think I did a really great job. I used Tasia’s blog posts on sewing a striped Renfrew top to help me along. They are a great online reference, I highly recommend them.

I think I did an alright job lining up the stripes. If you look closely, it’s not 100% perfect, maybe it’s 95% matched on. I did my best! I don’t think anyone else but me will notice it’s not 100% perfect and I’ve learned these days that you just have to let it go — nothing will necessarily be totally perfect.

Oh and look at my hair! The purple dye completely washed out ages ago and left me with this caramel coloured blonde. I’ve gotten so many compliments on my hair this summer. I’m so happy that I took the plunge to get it bleached and dyed in May. It’s turned out amazing and I’m going to keep it this way for a while. I’m going to need a cut soon and I’m thinking of getting a true ombre done to my hair as well. Either that or more purple dye! What do you think? Ombre or purple? Heh heh!

I have one more thing to mention…I named this top The Coco Top because it reminds me of the striped top Audrey Tautou wore in the film Coco Avant Chanel. I actually only just watched it last week for the first time and I thought it would be a fitting name for my shirt. Now I can feel like a French girl whenever I wear it, haha!

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