Dressing Like a Parrot
Burda 6146 floated to the top of my pile of patterns, so I took another look at it:
When I bought this pattern, it was with the plan to make view A, on the left, minus the fussy cuffs. However, I also like view B. I compared the bodice pieces to my perfect (for me) woven tee pieces and they were so similar that I decided to make view B.
I think this will end up being another tried-and-true pattern. I still have to add the second sleeve, finish the cuffs, and hem it, but I’ve already found much to love about this one.
It fits very much like my woven tee pattern.
The V-neckline is nice and modest.
I love the sleeves, and that sleeve cap was drafted so well that no ease stitching was required or even included in the pattern. I followed the instructions to pin in the cap as directed and sewed with the cap on the bottom so that any excess was eased in by the feed dogs. I still think that the sleeves in most patterns, except those on very tailored garments, are drafted with too much ease in the cap. It’s not that there should be no ease; it’s that I shouldn’t have to work so hard to set in a sleeve as I have to with some patterns.
I used a Kaffe Fassett cotton sateen wideback (108"). This is the closest I can get to using Kaffe fabrics for clothing. I believe they may have produced some rayon wovens at one time, but no more. The 44" wide quilting cottons are just that—quilting cottons—but the widebacks are a silky, drapey cotton sateen. I used one yard of a cotton sateen wideback for view B.
I always block fuse the fabric for my facings. There is a bit of fabric waste, but the results are so much better. Block fusing means that I fuse a piece of interfacing to a piece of fabric and then cut out the facings, rather than cutting out the facings and the interfacing and trying to fuse them together:
LOL, my pattern weights just happen to coordinate with the fabric.
And these are the facings:
I need to thank Kaffe Fassett at the workshop in the fall for enabling me to dress like a parrot. I think I have two more Kaffe widebacks in the stash earmarked for tops.
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The chicks have reached the Baby Velociraptor stage of their development. They really do look like miniature versions of the velociraptors in Jurassic Park, and they chatter to each other like them, too. We will move them to the coop this morning.
And I think this is the easiest group of piglets we’ve ever had. They come back to the Piggy Palace to sleep at night, they figured out right away how to drink from the nipples on the watering system, and they spend their days rooting around the pasture. “The pigness of pigs,” as Joel Salatin says.