Pattern Magic twist top; take 3

So, I had originally bought this heavy cream knit stuff with the intention of re-creating exactemente the dress on the cover envelope of Vogue 1087 (below, right), and obviously got disenchanted with the idea since it sat in my stash uncut... and I did start to think, do I really need another dress, when my winter lifestyle is more oriented towards separates, and since doing Me-Made June I have identified a need for tops not dresses... Luckily, creamy coloured stretchy stuff is not that sort of demanding fabric that is only going to suit one and one only type of garment, and so I changed tack.  Hehe, actually not a hugely surprising turnabout since this twist top from the Pattern Magic book is a pattern I have made up twice before and adore, and the colour is hardly a break-away for me either, but still!  I'm in love with this new top already...
I'm sure you are wondering what this intriguingly sculptural one-pattern-piece top looks like when it is laid flat...  no?  Well, since I have just brought it up and no doubt piqued your curiosity, I shall now proceed to satisfy it... kind of me, no?  Below is my older, but the same pattern, charcoal top, now washed and worn for about a year now so maybe has got a tiny tad mis-shapen over the last year, but you get the idea....  When it is on those skewiff details pull the top in to hug one's body beautifully and make for a very flattering silhouette.   The cream jersey I have used to make this new version is quite a bit stiffer than the charcoal, and has less stretch, so getting it on is kind of a struggle.  But once it is on it feels great!  I do love a firm snug top, especially in the winter time.


Details:
Top; the twist top from Pattern Magic, by Tomoko Nakamichi, heavy cream knit stuff from Knitwit
Skirt; skirt "d" from Unique Clothes Any Way You Like, by Natsuno Hiraiwa, silver grey crepe, details here, and to see this skirt styled in 6 different ways go here
Tights; Kolotex
Shoes; Django and Juliette, from Zomp shoes

(below; a spectator...)

Pattern Magic, revisited

This is my second attempt at this pattern; the design from page 10 of Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi; my first was here.  I loved the design, but unfortunately that first dress was kinda disastrous.  Firstly, I didn't love the fabric I had used, which was a super-cheapy thick-ish polyester selected for its colour only from the remnants table.  On top of the doubtful quality of the fabric and the fact that it didn't drape very well, my finishing off of that dress was of equally doubtful quality...  I didn't have enough of the blue to cut facings, and used instead a tobacco coloured fabric, a too-thin and also-nasty scrap of polyester.  And I didn't fit the dress properly to myself, and allowed too much seam allowance around the armscye, but sewed a normal width seam allowance, resulting that the dress dug into my armpits in a painful and irritating way, and to unpick the stitching plus understitching around the armscye just seemed all too difficult, since I had sewn them up scrupulously well, and combined with the nasty fabric quality... (deep breath)  I guess in hindsight I was treating the dress like a muslin, which is how it turned out as I wore it precisely two times.  I know, I'm embarrassed by my wastefulness, too...  I can only hope that someone at the Salvos with smaller arms than me saw something good in that thing...
Enough with the saga of sewing failure...
The good news is that I still loved the design enough to really want to have a go at a better one, using nice fabric.  Et voila!


side views (one is more interesting than the other...)

Details:
Dress; drafted from the Japanese pattern book Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi, in slightly nubbly, charcoal-marle polyester/wool suiting
Petticoat; (honestly can't really remember the pattern I used for this), black satin, another picture here
Top and tights; Metalicus
Boots; Andrea and Joen, from Uggies in Dunsborough


back view

Dressmaking details:
There is only one front piece and one back piece, but the shape of the pieces is such that the bodice area is on-grain, but the skirt section is on the bias.  Resulting in that lovely ripply drape. 
This time I carefully measured the bodice area, armscye and the hip area against an old favourite Burda 8511; and made the necessary fitting adjustments to the armscye.  The fabric is a rather nice thin and very drape-y, but still a bit nubbly wool/polyester mix suiting fabric in charcoal marle.  For the cord casing around the "hole" I made bias tape from the same fabric.  The cord is a 120cm brown/black bootlace.
I cut the facing pieces from the same fabric so that the fabric selvedge edge forms the lower edge of the facing.  These pieces are not interfaced; I think the fact they are cut on the cross-grain, while the bodice is on-grain will provide enough stability to this area, and I love the softness of the finished bodice.  The neckline and armscyes are under-stitched and not topstitched.  The other raw edges inside the dress are overlocked to finish, and the hem is hand-stitched.

Girl-y, with a bit of black

My sister in law S's birthday today, so I took her out for afternoon tea; cake and a chin-wag.  Girly stuff. We would have liked to squeeze in a bit of shopping too, but we both had had a jam-full day... hopefully next time.
So far I've just worn this very girly pink lace dress with light soft neutrals for spring and summer, and I wanted to see how it stood up to being mixed with darks, for the cooler months.  I think it works OK with charcoal and black, what do you think?  I think the trick to mixing a powder-pink very delicate spider-webby lace like this with strong darks is to keep the touches of charcoal/black equally as light, delicate and feminine as possible, because a dress like this could easily be overwhelmed by strong colours.  So I picked my strappiest black sandals, a very light and little charcoal cardigan, and my necklace of graduated polished iron-ore balls, a noir twist on the more traditional ladylike pearls.


And for Perth readers, Janet very kindly left me a note yesterday to say that Pattern Magic 1 and 2 in English are available at Subiaco Books.  Thank you so much for your comment, Janet!  
I will add that I have also seen the English version in Dymocks in Melbourne, so maybe they are in the odd Dymocks store elsewhere too...   It made me smile to have a look through it, as I have only the Japanese version myself.  All those mysterious and very intriguing Japanese notes and instructions dotted everywhere throughout the book, which seemed to promise in the artistry of the script all the secrets of sculptural pattern manipulation and Japanese couture that I felt if only I could divine their meaning I would gain some sort of sartorial enlightenment and rise up to a new higher plane of sewing mastery...  Well naturally upon reading the English version I was highly disappointed to find out actually translated to things like "back", "dart", "fold" and "cut 2" and so on and so forth.  Absolutely no earth shattering to be had...  Laugh!  
But seriously I still recommend this series to the serious seamstress.  The garments are not all conventionally wearable, but that is not the point.  I think of them as like sewing textbooks, akin to a musician practising scales to improve technique.   Working through the Pattern Magic books is sure to increase your pattern manipulation and adaption skills, as well as understanding the ways in which interesting sculptural details can be incorporated into a garment.
Also thank you to everyone who has left a link to the pattern for Pippa Middleton's bridesmaids dress.    


Details:
Dress; modified Simplicity 3745, pink lace and pink border lace, sewing details of dress and petticoat together here
Petticoat (underneath); Burda 8071, pink silk satin
Cardigan; Country Road
Sandals; Micam by Joanne Mercer, from Hobbs shoes
Necklace; iron ore orbs, souvenir from Egypt
Bag; Louis Vuitton
Nail varnish; Blackest Black, Revlon