Heidi top for spring

Heralded by beautiful pink cherry blossoms in our back yard, spring has officially arrived in Northern California.  All the gorgeous wool and plaid fabrics I purchased this winter, with unrealistic dreams of making warm and toasty work clothes, must be packed away for another couple of seasons.  But remember this fabric, purchased on our trip to Zurich, Switzerland, last summer? 

With the beautiful, crinkly yet crisp texture, I envisioned a structured, yet pretty blouse.  With only one meter,  a pattern with separate sleeves wasn't an option.  So, I used the bodice of this Vintage Vogue dress pattern V1044, with cap sleeve integrated into the yoke, and drafted a basic peplum.  (Yes, another peplum.  It's really becoming a signature staple in my wardrobe and I still love them!)  The yoke lining and inside button placket were made from white cotton lawn, to get more mileage out of my meter.  Yup, mixing my units of distance right there :)

In my mind, this top reminded me of Heidi, and then I did an image search to refresh my memory.  Clearly, it's only vaguely referential (at best!), but I'm sticking with it; I like the idea of making a Heidi-inspired top from Swiss fabric.  On an previous trip to Switzerland, we stayed in Hirzel, within walking distance to Johanna Spyri's childhood home.

For the pattern, I lessened the depth of the waist darts and made some fitting adjustments (I cut a Size 10, but ended up taking in the sides about 1/2").  Overall, I like the design, but this pattern was not simple!  The pretty pleats were about the most straightforward bit of the whole top.  The directions for the button placket seemed unusually complicated, and sewing the yoke to the bodice (and then the yoke lining to the bodice) was absolutely curse-inducing. 

I used to avoid garments with buttonholes, but my new(ish) machine makes them truly effortless.  Love that. 

Super happy to have finally put this lovely fabric to the machine (and especially happy that the result is worth wearing!).  Happy Spring!

Back from Zurich, with fabric

I'm now almost fully recovered from our trip to Zurich, Switzerland with my 2 and 7 year old.  We were accompanying my husband on a business trip, so I spent the two week vacation going on road trips with the kids around Switzerland and surrounding countries, visiting any location that displayed animals (as per the interests of my sons).  It was tiring, to say the least!

The one thing I wanted to get while out of the country was fabric, so a quick Google search landed me at SewChic with listings for several stores in the area.  I didn't make it to Luzern, but took the short 15 minute walk from our apartment with the kids to the Bernina store.  By the time we got there, the little one wanted his boots off (then on...then off...) and the older one couldn't have been more unhappy to be stuck in a tiny fabric store instead of at the zoo, so I made a quick selection and paid for my purchase:

In my haste, I didn't look at the designer or other important information on the bolt, so I know almost nothing about this fabric other than that it's cotton, very thin, with a permanent wrinkle to it.  Coming from the US, I'm accustomed to a certain price range for fabrics, but at the equivalent of $29/meter, I was pretty floored.  And it was the cheapest price tag I looked at.  But it was my souvenir of the trip (well, along with a ceramic fondue pot...:), so no regrets!  I only bought a meter, so it's going to be a top, and likely sleeveless because I'm not sure I have enough yardage for even cap sleeves.  We'll see!

On our last full day in Zurich, after a shopping excursion on the famed Bahnhofstrasse, our walk home took us past what looked to be another fabric store.  It also had gorgeous gowns in the window, so it was unclear to me if you could buy the fabric by the yard or just order something custom made.  When I walked in with my 7 year old, someone was instantaneously by our side insisting "Do not touch anything!".  Perhaps they were only warning my child, but I truly felt that it might be directed at both of us. Since it would be flat-out impossible for me to buy apparel fabric without touching it, I browsed for a few more obligatory seconds and then left.  Plus, the one price tag I saw was $250 CHF/meter (about $250 USD), so it was an order of magnitude out of my price range!

While I was away, I had my sewing machine serviced, so both the machine and I are ready to start sewing again.  Now I just have to figure out on which project to start...