Jalie 2794 and a Bit of Boho

Oh, thank you for the wonderful compliments on my poppy skirt!  It is already a favorite of mine and a couple of you noticed my shoes.  I just love them with the skirt.  They were a fantastic buy at Payless Shoe's and I had been wearing them quite a lot as my house shoes. 

This weekend I began work on Jalie 2794.  I had a beautiful cut of a plum-colored rayon lycra from Marcy Tilton, and while rummaging through my stash I also came across a crinkle polyester print I have had for at least 7 or 8 years.  It still had the price tag on it and it came from Mill End in Portland, Oregon.  The plum of the rayon and the plum in the skirt were a perfect match.  Another outfit was born.

I didn't really use a pattern for the skirt.  For the wide ruffle at the bottom, I just cut 2 rectangles the full width of the fabric and sewed them together end to end, matching the print, and gathered the top and hemmed the bottom.  Then I cut two longer rectangles for the skirt body and lined it with a mauve-colored bamboo knit.  I attached the ruffle to the bottom, but left the lining hanging free, and made a 1" elastic waistband by zigzagging the elastic to the top and lining, then folding it down and topstitching.  The skirt was finished.  It has a bit of a bohemian feel to it.  I love that and think it will look nice with my jean jacket too. 

Jalie 2794 is destined to become one of my favorite knit patterns.  The sweetheart neckline turned out better than I thought it would.  I wasn't sure the style would work for my frame, but I really do like it on me.  The pattern is well drafted.  I made a size "S".  The only thing I changed was to make the sleeves extra long and tight like the sleeves on the recent turtleneck pattern in the Burda Style magazine (issue 9/2010). Dawn has posted a couple of cozy versions of it.  Living in HI, I don't need the turtleneck, so a little pattern morphing was in order, to take advantage of using the gorgeous lines of the Burda sleeves!  Also, this Jalie pattern uses 1/4" seams and my sewing machine handled it nicely without stretching the fabric this time.  I didn't use my serger on this top, but I used my coverstitch machine to hem it.

 Here is a close-up of the sweetheart neckline:

I have some blog reading to catch up on this evening.  Looks like a lot of inspiration is just waiting to be discovered!