Thank you note

Agradecimentos...

I've sent an e-mail to Shelley Gardner thanking for the the design and showing what I have made with it.

Here's her answer

"Hello Catarina,I love the idea of our design being used all the way in Portugal - the internet is so wonderful!

The top looks very good - we are glad you liked the pattern and we will be trying to put some more up soon - well done and thanks for showing us!

Go well,Shelley"

Embroidered Top Burda Style

I've finished yesterday close to midnight.

It took long, I had those set-backs, but I think it turned out ok.

During the weekend I undid the elastic cord, and put it correctly underneath my breast .
Yesterday, after I put in bet my son, all I had to do was sew the green ribbon in the bottom.

Does it show that I was very sleepy?!

What was really hard work were the sleeves, but I managed to fix them. I decided to make very small pleats to thight them up. They stayed like this... puffed.

Here's the detail of the sleeves.

It's a very fresh top and I'm looking forward for the summer so that I can wear it.

Embroidered Top - Set-backs

My finger indicates where the elastic is. The orange pencil indicates where it SHOULD BE, right under my breast.

In the next image you can see it better. The side seam looks ugly, but it's only basted.

And the sleeves... It seems that I'm preparing to fly. I also have to do something about them, so that they won't be too "stiff"?!

On the week-end I'll do the proper fix.

Top Burda Style Embroidered - Progress

I know I said that after the embroidery, all I had to do was sewing.

Just sewing...? Not just yet.

As the fabric was all white and it had only that emboidery in the front, my mother suggested that I put a green bias tape to give it another look. So far, so good.

Her it is.

It has a tube form. I chose the green colour, to contrast with the white of the top.
I decided to put in the sleeves, neckline and hem.


It was very hardworking, as I had to pin it, while I was doing the hem. In the sleeves, which are rounded, was also very difficult.


It got like this:

After I placed the bias tape, I sewed the cord elastic where the pattern indicated and I basted the top and I tried it on.

Here it is on top of the table. It will look like this.

But.... I still have to fix it.

As this time I used sleeves, and the sleeves are shorter than the straps, when I tried the top, the elastic was through my breast and not under my breast line.

That is to say, the top gone up.

On the side I also have to enlarge it, as with this modification, the breast area got too tight.

I also found the sleeves too large for the model. They don't fall over the arms.

I'm trying to find a way to fix them, so that they get smaller.

But as they are already sewed in the neckline, and as I'm a bit lazy I don't want to undo them.

I thought of making small pleats to tight them up.

I'll post later photos of top after the fix.

Embroidered Top

I put the shirt aside to do only on weekends. As it is my first shirt, I decided to do it with natural light and with no stress.

At the same time, and with a huge amount of white fabric that my mother gave me, I decided to do an experience: to embroider a top.
The model I already know what it was. I would use the pattern of the top which I made the summer pijama. This one, which is on the website of Burda Style. Unfortunately, the download is no longer free, (but I'll post about it some other time).

On the other hand, I'm glad I saved on my computer the pattern.

It was a model that I enjoyed doing, very easy to do. I decided that instead of the straps, I was going to put sleeves. I got inspired from the idea of a member of the website Burda Style, who made a Summer top our of this top, as you can see here.
The choice of the drawing wasn't easy. I went google and wrote "embroidery patterns". They were so many. But I lost myself over this one. Simple and pretty.
The original drawing is on this blog: Sweet William. Her name is Paula Mills, australian, her sister is an illustrator, and she got one of her sister's designs and emboidered it on canvas.
This one here.

I printed on paper.

Then I passed into a silk paper.

Afterwards I passed into the fabric.

I put it on the hoop and started to embroider!

And here is the result (with flash)

(without flash)

Details of the embroidery (in some flowers I've put beads)

Now, I only have to do is sew the blouse.