INSPIRATION:

I bought these items for DD for Christmas. I needed to make a skirt to go with it as well as a top that was more light weight. Note that THESE are the tights I planned on, not the ones DD is wearing in the photos... She has a mind of her own.

SKIRT:

I made the skirt out of silk charmeuse and some left over tricot lining and tulle. I cut 3/4 circle of both, and also used a button on the elastic in the waist casing so hopefully she can wear it for a while. I copied the flowers that are on one side of the vest, and also different sized dots and digitized them into embroidery. I used Madeira Lana thread, which is quite thick and 50% wool, and also some gold metallic thread. I digitized leopard track prints with regular Madeira rayon thread.

TOP:

I found an old Comme des Garçons wool sleeveless shirt in my stash. My DH bought it years ago (think it was from Barneys New York), and I was supposed to alter it... it still had the pins in it!!! Oh well, I’ll never get to it (need I say how much I despise alterations...) so why not put it to good use? The wool is exquisite, super soft, fine and drapey. I knew this is the kind of wool even I would have been able to wear next to my skin as a child, and THAT says a whole lot.

 COMME des GARÇONS

        HOMME PLUS

After fooling around with the layout of the pattern, I knew there wasn’t enough for the entire shirt. I cut the sleeve pattern apart as seen below. After adding 5 rows of pintucks to the silk, I cut the middle section about 2” wider on each side and also added 1 inch each to top and bottom and gathered.

Then I sewed the shoulder seams and attached the neckband.

Next I embroidered some more flowers on silk, cut them out and attached them to the front shirt using a zig zag stitch and metallic thread, and then assembled the rest of the shirt.

To fluff the Lana thread, I used a piece of velco.

 

The settings on my embroidery software (Xpressive) for using Lana:

Complex fill:

medium density,

stitch length: 80.0 pt

Underlay:

Perpendicular, 80.0 pt density.

stitch length: 80.0 pt

 

Needle size: 100/16

Medium wash away stabilizer, solvy on top

 

DD usually goes through about five outfits a day (true fashionista-in-the-making), but she has not changed today, so I must have done something right.