Butterick 6486 in an Embroidered Black Rayon

As mentioned in an earlier post, I went by Chic Fabrics with Meg & Claire shortly before it closed the old location. Thankfully they have moved just one block over to 38th Street, near SIL Threads. It's sad though because there are now fewer and fewer fabric stores on 39th Street which is similar to what happened on 40th Street. 39th Street now seems like it's turning into eatery row...*sigh*

Anyway, I touched this fabric and knew it had to come home with me especially since it was similar to a voile embroidered piece I purchased from Stylemaker Fabrics earlier in the summer.

It's that time of year here on the East Coast where the mornings start out chilly so you need a jacket/sweater/topper which you remove around the middle of the day. I've found I like nice tops to go over straight leg jeans or leggings, now that the weather is cooling down.

Enter Butterick 6486...

The pattern combined with the black rayon is the perfect fall top!

Pattern Alterations ~
This is a loose-fitting top so I didn't need to make a lot of changes to the pattern pieces except for the sleeves. I added a wedge to the sleeve pattern with it being 2.25" wide at the largest portion.

I made the same alteration to the sleeve ruffle.  It wasn't necessary since you gather the sleeve ruffle onto the sleeve but I wanted to keep the original sleeve design.

Design/Construction Info. ~
I sewed the entire top together and it was huge. I started with an XXL based upon the measurements. I should have gone down one or two sizes because this is a really loose fitting top.

1.  That was just the start of the problems. 
2.  The neckline was too large. 
3.  The sleeves hung way too long.
4.  The top had too much space and I kept longing for a dart in it.

So I started with the sleeves. After ripping them apart I took 2" off the bottom of the sleeve and removed 1" from the hemline of the lower sleeve. Then sewed them back together.  The sleeves were still long but I added an extra deep hem to get them to the length I wanted.

One more thing, the pattern tells you to use french seams to construct the sleeve. I understand why they do...because if you hold your hands up you want a clean finish on the inside of the sleeve.  However, I skipped this step and was so glad I did when I had to make alterations to my sleeves.

To remove the excess space from the sides of the top, I ripped it apart.  Do you sense a theme here?! I then sewed 1" seams on either side of the top and on both sides of the bottom.  The top and bottom were then sewn back together.

Solving the too large neckline meant making a pleat in the front. Then adding a covered button from the embroidered fabric to make it a design decision rather than a fix of the loosey goosey neckline.

Pictures of the top ~

 

Conclusion ~
To me, it was a lot of work for a fast and easy pattern. I ended up with a wearable top but not without a lot of work. Also, it is a little difficult to get out of. If you already own the pattern and want to make it, I have a couple of words of caution.

1. Measure the pattern carefully and pick the smaller size. This is a very loose-fitting top.

2. Check the neckline. I was so worried about the shoulder seam, which works by the way, that I overlooked the width of the neckline.

3. Make sure the seam for the upper and lower sleeve hits you in the appropriate place. When I made it using the pattern & instructions, the sleeve hem was so far down my arm that it looked weird.  Shortening the upper sleeve by 2" put the seam back in the right place.

4. My version is longer than the pattern because I wanted to include all of the embroidered edge in the bottom. So I added 3 inches to the bottom and then hemmed it using a one inch hem.

BTW, I'm wearing the top with a pair of Spanx leggings. I love these and bought three pairs of them because not only are they comfortable but they suppress. You will see them again with more me made tops. I will wear this top because it's cute and it works but this pattern is a one and done. I have loads of top patterns and am moving on to the next one.

...as always more later!

A Pledge Broken...

...so I'm gonna dust myself off, confess my stumble, and move on making today the first day of my new pledge.

Here is my confession ~
I broke my fabric pledge. I had sewing friends scheduled to come to town this weekend and we were going to spend the weekend together fabric shopping in the garment district. However, this is not what broke my vow. I can shop the garment district and not buy since I now work in the midst of the district, I don't feel any pressure to buy. 

What made me break my vow is that Chic Fabrics posted to Instagram that they were closing at the end of January because they lost their lease. I didn't partake in the Paron's closing sale because I felt I should have done more to support them but I'm in Chic Fabrics at least once a month. So pledge broken.

Let me back up and tell you how I spent two wonderful days and one night with an amazing group of women. Cennetta and I had been speaking about her coming to NYC in January for a couple of months. Airfares and hotel costs are the cheapest to NYC during the months of January through March so we planned for the MLK weekend. 

During that time a few other sewists joined in but we ended up with a small group of four ~

Friday Evening ~
I get off work at 5pm and almost everyone was arriving in NYC after 8pm so I took myself to see Hidden Figures.  If you haven't seen this movie, please see it as soon as you can because it is AMAZING. The story it tells about these three women is awesome and the 60s fashions are all fantastic. I will be seeing this movie again because it was just that good!

Katherine G. Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan 

and the actresses who portrayed them.

A church scene with the women dressed in their Sunday Finest

The black computing staff at NASA

After the movie, I met up with Gaylen (Gmariesews, CarriageCornerB&B) and Andrea (knitknac) for dinner while we waited for Cennetta's (Mahogany Stylist) plane to arrive. I had the best dinner, dessert and conversation with these women.

Saturday in the Garment Center ~
Cennetta is one of the Mood Sewing Network Bloggers but she'd never been to the Mood Store in NYC. She purchases her fabric from the Mood website. Because of that we made Mood our first stop where we spent a good portion of our time.

Cennetta with Eric, Owner of Mood Fabrics

Here is what I bought at Mood with a lot of enabling from my fellow sewists ~

L to R - Lt. Blue Tencel Denim, Paisley Print Cotton Stretch Twill

Roberto Cavello Denim w/Lycra that three of us purchased

Our next stops were SIL Threads, Spandex House and Pacific Trimmings. After that we took a quick break at Pret A Manger to rest and regroup. While there it started to snow, so in the snow we headed over to Chic Fabrics, our last stop of the day.

Here is what I bought at Chic Fabrics ~

L to R - a white pique ponte, a printed stretch jersey

and a border print ponte in black, red, grey and white

We talked to the owner about his situation and future plans. Of course, the Landlord has raised the rent, but an offer was made to make the space smaller and let him stay. If it's not accepted, he will move all of his stock out at the end of the month to a warehouse and look for another space in the district. Though after speaking with both him and Eric at Mood Fabrics, the rents that are being charged in the district are rising at alarming rates. We may see other fabric store closures in the future.

In the snow we trudged back to the hotel to wait for our dinner reservations at Rosa Mexicano. I have no pic of this although Sheila (sheila-ctz) and Olgalyn (O! Jolly! Crafting Fashions) both joined us for dinner. This is because while Rosa Mexicano has great Mexican food, the lighting is not conducive to taking photos. When we hit the street, it was still snowing, cold and dark. Yeah we were making it to the subway back to the hotel.

A few selfies that I got from Andrea ~

Andrea and Sheila

Gaylen and Andrea

Gaylen and I headed out after that. She graciously drove me home before heading back to the Inn. It was a wonderful couple of days. There were so many great conversations, a lot of fabric buying and quality time with fellow sewing sistahs who love our craft as much as I do ~ even though there was a lot of knitting going on! *LOL*

I'm headed back to my sewing machine since our offices are closed for MLK Day tomorrow. I have to finish up the cardigans that I started weeks ago.

...as always more later!

I think I left some for you!

My fabric buying has been off the chain!  I don't know if it's because I didn't buy a lot earlier in the year or if the sales have been especially great this fall, but quite a few boxes of goodness have arrived. 

Some of it is my Christmas fabric buying - I always purchase flannel for kid's pjs and some fancy fabric for scarf gifts around this time of year - but there's a whole lot that arrived that's just for me.

I haven't done a fabric post in awhile so let me share some of what's new to the sewing cave.

Now while I know that some people abstain from the Black Friday sales, as someone who has worked in retail and understands how those sales fuel the entire Christmas season for some stores, I happily participate. However, all of my purchases were from small businesses, so there is that!

First up purchases from Fabric Mart ~ 
Yeah, yeah I know. I'm addicted to Fabric Mart and their sales. I have to admit that I don't even remember what the sale was, oh yeah Black Friday! I wanted velvet - so I bought a few pieces - and one more piece of shirting.

Grape velvet, black/brown animal print cotton velveteen 

and blue/white check shirting from Fabric Mart

The gray velvet (2nd from top) is from Chic Fabrics

Next up Michael Levine ~
I saw this amazing denim on their site about a week before the Black Friday sales and waited for the 20% off offer.

As you know I'm currently collecting denim and whenever I find something spectacular I'm purchasing a few yards of it. Three yards of this amazing fabric now lives with me!

The final Black Friday purchase was from The Smuggler's Daughter ~

2 yards of cut out blue/gray pleather & gold/black burn out velvet

Another weakness of mine is unusual pleather fabrics. I have quite a few of them in the collection - usually only a yard or two - because I want to primarily use them as accent pieces. You don't need 5 yards of accents ~ well I don't! *LOL*

So I bought these three pieces from fabric.com ~
After my daughter and I decided we wanted to sew pjs for the grand babies (yes we're sewing together! kinda excited about that!) I pulled out the flannel supply and realized we needed to add a little to it. 

One more Fabric Mart purchase ~
My last purchase the one that I had to get permission from Miss Gaylen to buy was again from Fabric Mart. But I have a really good reason, they are having their pyramid sale and if you buy $100 worth of fabric you get 60% off. That means you only pay $40 for $100 worth of fabric - it was too good to pass up so I bought these ~

Rayon knit for t-shirts for the grandbabies

5 yards of midnight blue denim with spandex for my denim collection

Burnt out olive green velvet for Christmas Scarf gifts

Some discounts ~
As mentioned above The Fabric Mart pyramid sale is going on now. Check it out here. BTW, today - 12.9 - is the last day for the pyramid sale so if you're interested, check it out now!

Also Smuggler's Daughter is offering 30% off all regular priced fabrics until December 31st if you're a member of their email listing. The discount code you need to add at checkout is included in the email.

Conclusion ~
A couple of days ago I wrote on IG that I was done with fabric purchases for 2016 and hopefully that's true...cause there are 23 more days left to December and the Sewing Cave is bursting with fabric!

Thank goodness I will have 11 days off during Christmas with quality time to sew! I'm not making a list this year...I'm going to work from the very long one that I'm presently toting around.

...as always more later!