The last thing I sewed before we moved was meant to fill the gaping hole in my wardrobe that is casual warm-weather gear. This is rather like attempting to deflect a hurricane with a small oscillating fan, but y’know. Sometimes you gotta try.
I made up a version of Burda 6794, which promised easy summer comfort. I’m not very good at casual these days—I don’t have much chance for it. I’m not even really sure what I like, which is unsettling.
Anyway. I made up a super-quick version out of the scraps from my grey Vogue 1312. To the best of my recollection, since this was about two months ago, I sewed up a straight size 38 (aside from a small swayback adjustment), and I was rather distressed with the results. It’s snug through the bust and just way too tight in the hips—and this is a garment that’s meant to be crisp and skimming. I’ve been wearing it, but only by not buttoning the bottom two buttons.
To be fair to Burda, this may have more to do with a certain drift in my own measurements rather than an issue with the pattern sizing.
Aside from the marginal fit, I didn’t make all the best choices in my construction. The button band would have benefited from interfacing. I opted to finish the upper edge with bias binding for a facing, which is not my best skill, and it would’ve been smarter all around to just line the entire bust section, since the striped fabric’s a trifle sheer.
On the other hand, I’ve still worn the snot out of it. Mainly because, as mentioned, my casual wardrobe is almost nonexistent. And it’s workable, just not quite right. But I think with a teeny bit of up-sizing, it’s a style I really like. Except of course summer is on its way out now so really I should be making some long-sleeved shirts instead.
In other news, the house is shaping up, but has been way more of a time suck than I expected. We refinished a floor, which may have been a mistake, but it’s done now, along with rather more painting than I had wanted to have happen.
And yes, it’s purple.
Tanit-Isis Sews 
Wow, the house looks great – so crisp and contrasty. I can imagine that was a huge time commitment, all those edges.
ceci
The summer top is cute and the fit not too bad. Perfect for the beastly heat of late summer!
The house looks stunning! The purples are quite dramatic! I like it! (And I am not generally a ‘purple’ person.)
Love that wood!!
The house looks great. I am happy for you.
The top is perfect for hot, hot days and you have a good jumping off place for next year’s hot-weather gear.
I love your floor. I admire your floor. It kinda scares me how much I think about your floor. We have a mixed set of wood floors and old dented fir paneling on the first floor, plus one floor that is bits of vinyl. We really can’t put down carpet and totally stripping the floors is not in the cards. But this dark stain…….it’s so damn elegant! I’ve been feeding my spouse photos of your house progress….”so honey, whaddya think?” He’s not taken the bait yet.
Well, the secret of our floor wound up being deck stain! The full saga was quite traumatic (the ancient maple did not take the actual stain we meant to use at all well, plus applying with anything other than an old fashioned brush went terribly wrong every time.) we wound up with about three coats of deck stain followed by three coats of high-gloss floor polyurethane. The sanding itself was slow but not as bad as I had thought. We rented a big vibrating sander from Home Depot, which was slow but much less terrifying than the giant belt sanders that gouge everything.
I don’t know if I can recommend the whole process, honestly. On the other hand with your mixed floors you could probably do small parts at a time. If we were doing it again we’d probably use one of the tinted polyurethanes designed to go over other stain (but not designed for floors) and then the clear floor poly on top of that. I don’t know if I’d go super high gloss again though. All the little imperfections are highlighted, not to mention every speck of dust. đŸ˜‚ makes for good photos though.
“Aubergine.” Sounds classier than eggplant purple.
A very livable color … my favorite lipstick for a long time was a color advertised as “a startling but surprisingly wearable violet.”
Now that you’ve refinished the floors, you can mark that off your life list. You need never do it again, if you don’t want to.
I love the purple, but then I’m a fan of colour; our bedroom is a very deep wine colour.
I am privileged to have an entire workroom — and it’s walls are painted almost the exact same purple.
I think you could easily adapt a men’s dress shirt to this pattern. Looks good.
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