Out of Alberta - Part Deux

I have to say that I love long weekends - and I managed to make this Easter weekend a five day sewfest.  And where to begin?  To start with, I picked up some lovely linen/viscose blend (Azalia Natural Prints and Solids) from my local fabric shop (Fabricland).

You can just about tell from the photos that the fabric has a lovely linen texture, but doesn't crease quite so much.  It also is a great weight and drapes beautifully.  I wanted to add some more colour to my Tina Givens Collection, and thought that these would go well with the mostly neutral pallette that I have so far.

And this is what I made:

Let me talk you through these goodies.  From the left is a white Zelda dress, the Peplone jacket from before - but now with buttons (!), two pairs of Jaqueline trousers, one pair floral and the other from the same fabric as the Peplone, a green Kika top (minus the frills) and a fushia Jacqueline slip.

Here are all the garments so far:

The very first white slip that I made, from rayon, is not included here - I plan on making a better fitting slip out of white cotton - the same fabric as I used for the longer skirt on the pink and white dress.

Now some photos and details!

White Kika dress made from the linen/viscose fabric.  The top is based on my 'Sorbetto' top and and I added the pleat and some pretty buttons.  I am wearing it here with another pair of Jacqueline trousers made from the same fabric as the Peplone jacket.

Green Zelda slip - without a frill!  Again with the same traousers as above.

Pink Jaqueline slip.

Peplone jacket from my last post worn with some floral Jaqueline trousers.

And with the fushia slip . . . .

And the green Kika.

I then thought that the Peplone and matching trousers would make a great TG suit, so I paired them with a green Sorbetto that I made a couple of years ago - looks pretty good I think/  And then my camera battery ran out!!

I have loads more to write about - close ups, comments on the patterns as well as playing around with 'looks' using these garments, but it is getting late and I need to go to work tomorrow (something to do with earning the money to pay for the fabric . . . . !)

Out of Alberta - My Tina Givens Style

I mentioned in a couple of previous posts (here and here), that I was exploring Lagenlook and in particular, the patterns by Tina Givens who describes her style as 'Out of Africa with a 1920's twist.  I am paraphrasing here and there is more involved, but this is what I am drawn to!  Would you like to see what I have been up to?!

I have made six pieces so far, one pair of cropped trousers, three slips, one dress and a jacket/coat . . . . but first, a couple of apologies.  I can only take photos after work (I could take them at weekends, but I am too busy sewing, c'mon!) and our deck is west facing so it gets very sunny, so I am wearing sunglasses in these photos - it was that or a squinted up face.  I know which one that I prefer!  Secondly, I have been a bit boring with accessories and shoes . . . . I used the same throughout.  OK, photos:

Tan rayon trousers with the first white rayon top.  This was the first top and the armscye is too big, however, with a jacket or top on, it is perfect.   Jaqueline pattern:

And with the Peplone Jacket in a lovely, soft cotton.  I need to add some buttons to the front of this:

Tan trousers and tan slip.  This slip was supposed to be a different dress, but I cut the neckline too big so used the Jaqueline pattern as much as I can.  This top has a typical 'Tina Givens' feature - a scrap of fabric stitched to the front.  I also used my TNT Sorbetto top so this fits me better on the shoulder, bust, neckline and armscye.  I was also running short of fabric so had to add a centre front seam:

It looks great with the jacket as well!

The coral slip is made out of linen, and was mentioned with the white slip and tan trousers here:

And finally, I made the Briare Dress.  It is actually a free pattern, but I have linked to the version that you pay for as you need to sign into the website to get the freebies.  The top is a loose fitting vest top with two layers pleated and attached for the skirt.  Both fabrics are cotton - the pink has a slub finish and the white is almost a 'pulled thread' type of fabric.  Both are very light and airy:

It was really sunny outside - gorgeous!

The dress can be worn both with or without the trousers, and I was lazy here and kept them on!  I may be moving a little into milkmaid territory here, but I love it!!!

So there you go.  These are the first six pieces for the 2015 SWAP and I am rather liking how it is turning out.  I have lots of close up details and other info, but this post is getting rather long, so that will follow in the next couple of days.

As ever, my faithful boys were watching the 'shoot', checking that all was well!  My tripod was balanced on the iron table, in case you are wondering what the contraption is!

Have you started your Spring sewing yet?  Could you be tempted by loose, cool layers straight Out of Africa?!