Saturday, April 5, 2008

No Longer An Orphan Skirt



You knew I was going to make the coral top, right? But I couldn't just zip through an easy Ottobre tee. Noooooo! I had to get inspired. ;-)

I saw this green RTW tee in this thread on Pattern Review.



In that thread, Jaeng shared sketches showing what she'd do to recreate that tee from a TNT pattern. I decided to turn what should have been a fast coral tee into a "project" and make my interpretation of the RTW tee and Jaeng's sketch.

I started with the Rose (I think that's pattern #5) tee from Ottobre Woman 02/2007 since it is TNT and has a nicely shaped vee neckline and neckband.



I spread my pattern a little more since I wanted deeper pleats spaced farther apart, which would be stitched down.



Overall, I'm happy with this first attempt. If I make another, I think I'll spread the pattern at the hem end a little too when making the pleats so they "flow" nicer to the bottom. It's not as billowy on me as it looks on Zillie since she doesn't have my tummy.

I had to cut this fabric (cotton/Lycra) on the crossgrain since it has striations that run selvege to selvege and I wanted them to be vertical. The fabric has 4-way stretch so it worked out fine.

I did cut out the lavender/lilac tee when I was cutting the coral fabric and it's mostly done. So everyone that voted for both, you convinced me. ;-) This one is straight from the Ottobre gathered front pattern. I'll sew in the sleeves and hem it tomorrow.



And then will I start the denim capris? No! I've decided I need one more sidetrack — a slip to wear under some of my summer skirts so I can avoid show-through. But after that, denim capris are next. I think. ;-)

19 comments:

  1. That's so pretty, Debbie. Love it!

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  2. Debbie, nice tee! I like what you did with it.

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  3. Beautiful interpretation, Debbie. I really liked that RTW top when I saw it on PR too and funnily enough, (lol) I'd thought Ottobre morph as well. Thinking was as far as I'd got tho. I can always count on you to show mw how it's done. :)

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  4. That's a great tee. I like the stitched down pleats. Very cute! g

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  5. Very, very cute top, Debbie. Thanks for the link to the PR discussion, the picture helped tremendously. I might have to do a top like this, too.

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  6. Debbie, you're amazing! Get an inspiration and run with it! Wow!

    That's a really, really cool t. Wear it with pride!

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  7. Beautiful. You are such a great teacher. You always have pictures and words that make more sense than some of the professionals out there.

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  8. Debbie, what a great "tee"!!! That is a terrific outfit.

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  9. I love it! I think it looks better than the RTW version with the pleats sewn down.

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  10. Love your new tees. Gotta live vicariouslly through you as life is too busy at the moment to sew, wahhhaaaaa.

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  11. it looks awesome, that style is so on trend right now!

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  12. Very nice! Funny thing, when I saw that green tee on PR, I thought "That looks like something Debbie Cook would like!" Good work!

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  13. I think its kewl that you went with both tops! Now you have versatility. Thanks for sharing the close up pics of the construction of the coral top!

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  14. Mea culpa. I couldn't see the lavender in the picture, but sure enough, there it is. I love what you've done with the tees, especially the coral one. You really figured out how to copy that RTW one to a tee.(Groan.) Sorry about that.

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  15. They are both fantastic! Wow! You're good!

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  16. Love what you did with the coral tee!

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  17. Wow! I love the top! I wish I could sew as good as you.

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  18. Oh I like this one! Definitely snurching this idea. :D

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  19. That's a very lovely top! I love the deep pleats. The colour is beautiful too

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Thank you for each and every comment. I appreciate them all, but I have to be honest and let you know that I'm usually bad about answering questions. I hope you understand that there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.

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