My Pattern Competition - The Skirt Toille

Drafting the pattern
The back
I traced off the back block and raised the waistline using the instructions given in Sew Stylish from Fall 2007. I added 6cm at the side seam and the centre back seam. I tapered the side seam of the skirt to take out 2.5cm at the hem edge (I saw a Sandra Betzina video ages ago and I remember her saying something about this being a good amount to take out – I think). Next I added seam allowance of 1.5cm and a hem allowance of 4cm.

The front
For the front I traced a whole front pattern by flipping and tracing the block to get a left and right front pattern. I raised the waistline as for the back except I raised it by 8 cm at the centre front and 6cm at the side. The front seam falls not on the centre front line but 2cm to the right of it, which means I have to cut separate left and right front patterns. The front band will be laid over the right front and joined in together with the front seam, giving the appearance of a fly front without having too much loose fabric or too much bulk in the seam.

Constructing the Toille
I sewed the darts in the back, sewed the centre back seam and inserted a zip (I keep a bunch of recycled zips for this; it makes fittings heaps easier when you’re on your own!).

Next I sewed the darts in the fronts. I made a snip just above the split opening on the left front, turned in the seam allowance and pressed it down (this will be sewn invisibly in the real skirt).

I laid the band piece onto the right front, right sides together and matching the stitching line. I sewed down the stitching line and across the top of the split.

Next I folded the band back along the fold line (a pleat of about 1cm will form on the band piece), lining up the raw edges and pressed.

Then I laid the fronts together and stitched all the way down, making sure not to catch the finished split edge of the left front as I went. The finished result is of a fly front, which actually forms a split at the lower edge.

Fitting
The fitting went pretty well. The dummy doesn’t do it justice as she is a little smaller than me these days, but I hope you can understand but for reasons of modesty I can't model the toile myself!

The only changes necessary were to pinch in the darts at the top of the front and also taking in the very top of the side seams to make it a bit snugger around my ribs. I also decided to lower the top edge by 1.5cm at the centre front tapering to 1cm around the sides and back. The belt is not the one I'll actually use - I'll have one made, but it is about the right width.




I'll be working on the jacket pattern this week. I really hope it goes just as smoothly!

My Pattern Competition - The Blocks

I have completed the blocks for my entry into the Pattern Review 'My Pattern' Competition.

First up, the jacket block.

I used Winnifred Aldrich's method for all my blocks. I usually use these as 1. they are metric, and 2. they give a really nice garment. I've used Aldrich on many body types from teeny tiny ballet dancers upwards and I've always found that I get a reasonable fit first time.

All the basic blocks for this project are from Metric Pattern Cutting (3rd edition, revised).

The jacket uses the Tailored Jacket Block, with standard (fitted) waist shaping. I made a straight size 12 as this fits my shoulders well but still has enough ease (I hope) to accommodate my waist and hips.

The two piece sleeve block is from the same book. I cut a straight 12 again and lengthened it slightly.

The skirt block is also from Aldrich. The difference here is I cut it to my personal measurements rather than my nearest size. I followed the instructions for a small waist in proportion to hips - which basically entails increasing the width of the darts to minimise the waist curve. I like this method as it makes the outward slope from waist to hips a bit less obvious.

My next steps will involve tracing off the blocks and constructing the patterns. Then I'll toille the patterns in calico and, with luck, go straight into fabric after that. Of course I'll have to draft my facing and lining patterns once the main pattern is sorted. So, plenty to be going on with!

Inspired by Dior

I am very excited to share my idea for the ‘my pattern’ competition. I am calling it ‘Inspired by Dior’. I searched and searched all week and found heaps of ideas, but I never felt as if any of them were ‘the one’. After spending some time researching 1960’s tailoring, and especially Andre Courreges I finally settled on a coat worn by Carla Bruni-Sarkosky on her trip to the UK with the French President earlier this year. The coat was designed by Dior (as was her entire travel wardrobe – lucky thing) and there are several details that I hope to capture in my interpretation.

I won’t be making a coat but a suit, a jacket and pencil skirt. Here are my preliminary thoughts on how I’ll try to replicate the key features:

The pleated collar – this is the most distinctive detail and it will be important to get this right. On the close up picture it looks to me as if the collar is completely constructed, then pleated and the ends turned under. I don’t like that so I’ll only be pleating the upper collar before I attach it to the under collar.

The fly front – I don’t love fly front jackets. They are fiddly to do up and I really can’t work out how to make it go all the way to the neckline. I don’t really like how the actual coat is constructed here, so I’ll do it my own way. I’ll be making a mock fly front and closing the jacket with covered snaps. I’ll also be putting a mock fly front and front split into the skirt to mirror the look of the coat.

The sleeves - This is really interesting to me and I’m not sure how it will work out. There is a seam down the top of the sleeve; and the front and back upper sleeves are cut in one with the front and back panels of the coat. The problem is that there may not be enough movement in the arm for me. It looks great when posing for photos but I want to wear this to work! I’ll do a trial but sadly may have to abandon this feature. I’ll also have to try out different shoulder pads – I’ll probably have to use raglan ones for the style, but it is hard to get this type of shoulder pad in a smallish size.

Otherwise the jacket is quite straightforward, the centre front panel has a dart and I am guessing there is no side seam, so all the waist shaping will have to go into the princess seamline. I cannot find a back view, but I’ll probably do a normal princess line. I’ll finish the jacket at my high hip (which is my best length for these things) and the skirt will just cover my knee (as usual). I may make the skirt a little high waisted and add a skinny belt but I am not decided on that one yet.

Here’s a picture with some of my notes. I plan to document my processes pretty thoroughly so if any one feels they’d like to have a go at this project too – please feel free. Any questions will also be welcome as it helps me to figure out issues too! Remember, there’s no such thing as a stupid question (with the possible exceptions ‘Are you sure you should be eating that?’ and ‘Does my bum look big in this?’).

This weekend I’ll get the blocks done and try to get the first draft of my patterns up and running.

Taking the Plunge

Here is me wearing the BWOF skirt I just finished. Please bear in mind these photos were taken after work and a journey on public transport, which I hope will explain the slightly spaced out /cranky expression!

On to other news. I have finally taken the plunge in a big way. I've been meaning to post some reviews on Pattern Review, but I've always felt a bit shy about it. Anyway, I've decided to enter the my pattern competition that's currently running. The deal is, you have to make a garment from your own pattern (it can be a knock off of RTW, but you can't use a fashion pattern). I love pattern drafting and don't do nearly enough of it... Only problem is, I can't decide what to make! Also, whatever it is has to come from my stash since I'm not buying fabric until June 30 at least (I may have to make an exception for the sake of art though ha ha). I have quite a few ideas, but nothing that has got me really excited. I'm thinking it will probably be something for work although I do have an evening function coming up so maybe I'll do that. It's keeping me up at nights! I hope inspiration comes soon so I can get some sleep.

BWOF 01-08-109 Pencil skirt

Now, I am a hippy girl. And by that I don’t mean peace love and mung beans – I’m far too uptight for that! I do mean that I have child bearing hips, a low-slung behind and jodhpur thighs. Not to be self critical, it’s not that bad, but it is a reality.

Current thinking (for example Trinny and Susannah) would probably slap me about the head if I even thought about wearing a pencil skirt, but this was not always the case. If you go back to the early 90’s, most people believed that tapered skirts were slimming on bottom heavy figures. Even a recent BWOF (sorry can’t remember which one off hand) stated that ‘pencil skirts look better on those with a bit more figure’. Ha, I love that ‘a bit more figure’. It reminds me of a newspaper article from the Edwardian period that I read about fashion which made suggestions for ladies with ‘an abundance of figure’ how polite.

But I digress. All this got me thinking that I might try a pencil skirt. A style that I haven’t worn since I was about 17 years old and a size 8-10 (that’s Australian sizes, I think it’s a 2-4 in the US) ie a long time ago. If my experiment works it might just get me out of the rut I’ve been in with clothes. This pattern really got my imagination going, even though I worried that the panel lines angling the way they do might make me look ENORMOUS, but it seemed to be such a nice construction challenge that I’d just go for it and see what happened.

This is the result:

Please ignore the strange hip lump on the back photo - it's one of the dials on my dummy. I am hoping to convince my fella to take a pic of me wearing the skirt but it could be a little while before it happens!

I’m pretty happy with this overall. The only alteration I made to the pattern was to lengthen it by 7cm. As usual there were a couple of issues, but seriously tiny ones that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of making the skirt at all.

1. According to my measurements I am a 42 in burda sizes. In fact one of the key selling points of this pattern for me is that I was a consistent size from waist to hips – not usually the case at all! In practice I had to take a truckload off the side seams. Like 2cm off each side, front and back from the waist down to mid thigh. Luckily this was really easy to do and I’d rather take in than have to let out. Next time I think I’ll cut a 40.

2. The pockets don’t lie flat at all and I get a slightly strange belly look. I followed the (quirky) directions which weren’t hard at all but I think next time I’d ignore the part where you sew the top of the pocket from the top to the top marking(!) essentially joining the pocket and facing to the side front panel of the skirt but down the pocket opening edge for a little bit. I’d rather have the opportunity to correct the lie of the pocket in fittings a bit further down the construction path. I can live with this though – especially now I’ve joined a gym and will very soon have abs of steel (lol).

3. The 12 cm zip is a touch too short for the opening. I managed to get away with it, but next time I would buy a 15cm zip and shorten it.

4. This is just a note on construction. I didn't follow the instructions for hemming the back vents. Threads #137 FINALLY got to Australia (we have to wait so long and pay so much but it's worth it! I am still waiting for the March BWOF to show up in the shops :( but I digress again). I followed the Threads instructions to mitre the corners. I was super easy and looks great, vent hems can often look bulky and amateurish, but the mitre give a really professional finish.

Actually that’s all I can think of. Everything else was really smooth and I love the way the skirt looks. I’ve never bothered much with BWOF patterns as I am essentially lazy and I always figured I may as well draft my own patterns rather than trace off, then add seam allowance. I am now converted, it hardly took any time and the result is way more stylish than most of the skirts the big 4 put out. I have a pair of BWOF pants cut out too, so they are next up. I cut these in a 42 as well, but I think it will be okay.

The Black Birthday Jacket

Even though I was sick for my birthday party, at least I finished my jacket (although I think I already mentioned that I finished it about 10 minutes AFTER I was supposed to leave home and half the buttons are tied on - for now!).

The pattern I used was McCalls 5525, view B with the belt from the other views. The fabric is a black paisley-ish flock fabric with a little stretch. This was not the ideal fabric because of the stretch and it is quite lightweight but I just loved it so I went ahead and I am pretty happy with the result. The jacket is lined in a beige/brown/cream floral satin.

I had no major construction issues with the pattern only two small niggles.

As usual, the pattern instructions only included interfacing one layer of the collar - this is almost never enough. I used two layers of fairly lightweight interfacing - one sew in and one fused (long story!) and I still would prefer the collar to have a bit more body. This is my fault as I didn't have any heavier interfacing on hand - but I still think most collars look better with both sides interfaced.

My second niggle is that the sleeve flounce/frill thing isn't lined. What the! I'm not really sure why you would go to the trouble of fully lining a jacket and then miss the one part that is almost certain to show. Anyhow, I added a lining to the sleeve flounce/frill thing.

Small note: See how the back vent doesn't hang closed - I hate that, but I neglected to cut the back 'off grain' to compensate. Note to self: MUST ALWAYS DO THIS!
The belt and covered buttons I had made.
The (not quite stiff enough) collar
The sleeve with band.

I am planning to send this jacket to the dry cleaner for a proper press as I was just not able to get a really good finish without rubbing off the flock (although there is a risk the dry cleaner will do this too). Overall, it's a cute jacket and I'll probably get a fair bit of use from it.

Up next a couple of patterns from BWOF

Another week goes by...

Well, not much time for sewing this week! And it’s starting to show. Does anyone else find they get cranky and tense when they can’t sew? I think that when we get really busy, it’s more important than ever to make the time to do something for yourself; and for me that’s sewing.

My new job is going well, it’s taking a lot out of me but I am settling in okay. On top of that my fella has been pretty sick for the past few weeks. We’re not sure what’s wrong but he’s had a bunch of tests now and I hope we’ll have the solution soon. My birthday was on Tuesday and it was a bit of a non-event, I had a tough day at work and fella wasn’t well so the day just went by like any other. Then to cap it all off, I have fallen quite ill with a cold. My birthday party was last night and I was dosed to the eyeballs just to get out of the house. I had a great time but am very unwell today.

One thing I did manage to do was add to my stash without breaking my pact! My dad gives me cash for my birthday every year and this year was no different. I went down to the shop to pick up the buttons and belt for the coat I wore to my birthday party (which weren’t there as I had mis-calculated the timings) and lo and behold some fab new suitings were in. I bought two – a houndstooth and a window pane plaid and since the money was a gift, technically I wasn’t doing anything wrong!!!

I got my coat finished in the nick of time (a couple of the buttons are literally tied on!). I don't have a finished picture yet, but I'll try and write up the project tomorrow.

Cute top and what's next

Here is a quick and easy top I made during my week off, but I was only able to finish it this weekend because I needed to buy narrow elastic to go in the sleeves (I could have sworn I had metres of the stuff lying around)! I really like the leopard print, it’s fun and not too ‘barmaidy’. The pattern is McCalls 5388. It went together super-easily and there were no construction issues at all – and only 4 pieces to cut!

I’ve also written up a sort of plan/inventory of current projects.

As you can see there are a lot (and in terms of my stash it is the tip of the iceberg!). My plan is to work on only these projects until they are all finished. I may allow myself a little break to make simple tops and the like but I'm sticking to my promise to not buy any new fabric until June 30.

My only disappointment so far is that I didn’t have enough chocolate suiting to make the jacket I had chosen to complete a three piece suit, but that’s ok. Once I put together the skirt and pants I’ll judge if a more abbreviated jacket will suit and if not I’ll make a waistcoat or something. It’s not as if there aren’t plenty of jackets on my list!

I’ve never been much of a planner with my sewing – I usually react to need or special events – but I must say I feel very motivated by being able to tick things off. I have been so inspired by the blogs I read. Some of the wardrobes and mini wardrobes look amazing. I've also been inspired to make some patterns from BWOF. It always seemed too much trouble before, but I think it's worth it for the results having seen garments posted in blogs.

My name is Jo and I'm a fabriholic

The wedding was last Saturday and it all went off well. The bridal party all looked stunning, especially the beautiful bride and the service and reception were both lovely. Unfortunately, with all the excitement I didn’t manage to get a photo of me in my outfit – so you’ll have to wait until it comes back from the dry cleaners – sorry about that.

My new job is great so far, everyone has been really friendly and welcoming. I have been given three pretty interesting projects to work on but at the moment I’m mainly reading old reports and trying to acquaint myself with the Department.

On the sewing front, I’ve done nothing this week except plan in my head. I think my next project will be Kasia (6012) from the Burdastyle website. I’ll use the same black suiting I used for my previous skirt and I have enough to make this jacket as well. I am hoping to get just a little bit more to make these pants. If I can’t get any more (there’s only 7 metres left at the manufacturer so I have to be quick as soon as it comes into the shop!) then I’ll make the skirt in grey and try to squeeze the pants and jacket out of what I have left. Also, out of the same fabric but in its brown colour I intend to make a three piece suit comprised of this jacket, these pants and this skirt. As if all that wasn’t enough, it’s my birthday in just over a week and I am hoping to make this short coat (view B) out of a black flock printed fabric.

I am in the process pf preparing a status update of my current and pending projects. I wonder if this is what it’s like for addicts when they have to confess the depths they’ve sunk to? Seriously, my stash is out of control so I have decided to make a little pact with myself. No new fabric except linings, interfacings, trims and other essentials to finish existing projects until the end of the financial year (June 30). Shouldn’t be a problem(!).

Silk jacket - done

Ta Da…


ooooh shiny!

The finished silk jacket... I must say I’m really happy with the result, not to mention being happy with finishing it more than 5 minutes before I walk out of the door! Here are some photos and I promise I will post a picture or two of me actually wearing the whole outfit. I will have had my hair and eyebrows attended to by then so I’ll be looking presentable – I hope.

On to my other project for the week – my new work wardrobe, lets just say FAILED! Well to be fair I have spent the time going through my existing wardrobe and seeing what I have that’s useable, altering some stuff that was almost okay, and finishing some projects that I cut out ages ago. I also bought a couple of basics to get me through in the short term. I realised I’d rather spend my time sewing more challenging and fashionable styles than rush things I ultimately won’t be happy with; and it’s actually cheaper for me to buy the basics. I have prepared a few patterns so I’ll post soon about my upcoming work.

So I have a new job!

I wasn’t looking but I was getting a bit stressed about my finances, especially since interest rates have gone up three times since I started working full time at the fabric shop! One day out of the blue I received a phone call from a friend of mine asking if I wanted to come and work with her. It’s with a Government Department doing market research (which is what I used to do before I went to study costume) and it’s a massive pay rise. Of course I said yes…

The issue is, I haven’t worked in an office for five years and fashion (not to mention my body sadly) have changed in that time. Therefore I have nothing to wear! I have this week off to relax and prepare and make a whole wardrobe of work clothes.

Obviously I am limited as to time so I can only focus on the barest minimum to start with, and it’s about now I wish I had a set of TNT (tried and tested) patterns to fall back on. Still I’ll give it my best shot. I have almost finished the jacket for the wedding and then I’ll be straight into it. Wish me luck!

The Jacket Part One - Interfacing and Underlining

The jacket is made from a very fine silk dupion. Like the dress, the silk is not of great quality and so is quite fragile. I decided to underline the whole thing in silk organza (which incidentally cost more than the dupion!). Normally I avoid this kind of process because, let’s be honest, I’m really lazy and underlining can be fraught with difficulties such as buckling, and pulling. Anyway, there was no option here so it had to be done.

I cut each jacket piece from silk organza and basted the layers together by machine (I’m on a schedule so no time for hand basting). On the larger pieces I left one edge un-basted to allow for any discrepancies to sort themselves out.

On the pieces with interfacing I basted a lightweight shapewell to the organza along the seamline and cut away the seam allowances before applying the organza to the fabric. I generally use fusible interfacings where possible as I like the look better but, again, there was no option but to use sew-in on this project. In addition to the interfacing pieces given in the pattern, I also cut the upper collar and a brace for the back which I applied after I sewed the centre back seam.

For the under collar I sewed the centre seam in the underlined fabric then overlapped the interfacing seam, trimming out the seam allowance and sewed it flat (I’m not sure that makes sense!). I hand basted the roll line then pad stitched by machine, up and down in the stand and across on the main section.

Next step is construction – the bit I like best!

M5466 A success!

Here is the finished dress I’ll be wearing to the wedding next Saturday. I am so happy with the result, most importantly it’s really comfortable so I won’t have any problems a) sitting through a Catholic mass and b) packing away my dinner later :). The pattern was really simple and only took me a few hours to run up (after all the time I spent making the toille, trying to lose weight, giving up on that, cutting the thing out then putting it off for as long as possible!). Anyway I have some news which means I am about to undertake a marathon sewing effort this week (more on that later) so I have to clear the decks first.

Alterations to the pattern:
I bought the pattern to fit my upper bust measurement as I always do but that ended up being the top size in the envelope (12). Now I always have to add for my hips (and more recently my waist) but I usually have larger guidelines to follow. This time I worked out the difference between me and the body measurements on the pattern, divided it by the number of vertical seams and added that amount at the appropriate places. On the bodice I was able to just swing out the side seam at the waist the required amount and join it back to the existing armhole. The skirt was a bit more complicated because of the pockets and pleats so I just slashed the pattern in a clear space (between the pleats and the pocket) and spread the pattern the required amount. It wasn’t that hard but as usual I put WAY too much thought into it! It fits the bottom half of my body and the pleats look to be in the right place so that is good enough for me.

After my toile I made the following additional alterations:

• Lengthened the dress by 8cm (it finished well above my knee – not a good look with high heels or sitting on a church pew with your thighs exposed, yuck!)


• Made a full bust alteration (fba) which allowed me to lift my arms, and I filled in the front armhole ‘scoop’ a little as it looked a bit funny to me and brought the sleeve too far onto the body. Now the sleeve hangs nice and straight from the shoulder line. I am always wary of sleeve alts as they can be a bit of a can of worms but this turned out well so yay!


• Removed the pleats in the back bodice and skirt. On the skirt I converted the pleats to darts, I think there was an article in Threads a while ago if you need instructions on that but really I just extended the pleat lines until they met at a point and then fine tuned them after the dress was together. On the bodice I started a really complex process of closing pleats and swinging fullness into the darts (there’s me over-thinking again!), in the end I figured there was plenty of room in the bodice with the pleats pinned out so I just pinned them out of the pattern place and kind of squished the piece flat. That could have been an absolute disaster but fortunately it wasn’t!

Construction:
As I fully lined the dress I didn’t cut the facings. I put in the pockets and sewed the skirt and skirt lining (without pockets of course). Then I sewed the darts in the bodice back and front and constructed the bodice. Next I sewed the dress and lining waist seams.

The next step was to insert the invisible zip and the lining. (I cut off the seam allowance from the lining cb seam in the zip area, tapering back to the original edge at the bottom, then I sew the lining to the zip tape before I do anything to the neckline. Having trimmed off the seam allowance makes the lining pull back into the neckline and you never get fabric stuck in the teeth. This is an industry method I picked up somewhere and I use it all the time on facings and linings now. I might do a tutorial on this one day if anyone’s interested, but I never remember to take photos as I go!

For the neck I laid the fabric and lining together before forming the pleats. I sewed the two layers together at 1.5cm then used this as a guideline for applying a bound edge. That is I laid the raw edge of the binding to the stitching line, sewed a 0.5cm seam and trimmed back to the first line of stitching (essentially removing the seam allowance). I then flipped the binding over, tucked in the raw edge and hand sewed it down.

I hope you can see the binding well enough here.

I made up the sleeves and lined them, then sewed them into the lined armholes. I bound the raw edges to neaten them.

This fabric is silk, but not great quality so the vertical seams frayed like a bitch. I didn’t want to risk a ridge from overlocking so I used a zig zag stitch to finished the seams, the lining is a tightly woven habutae so it didn’t need anything. On the hem I cut some bias lining to make a Hong Kong finish then hand sewed the hem. The lining had a machine sewn hem and finishes about an inch shorter than the dress.

In conclusion:
This dress came out really well, it’s flattering and was very easy to put together, I would probably make it again (in a day time fabric for work) but there are a couple of similar styles in recent Burda magazines that I am more likely to try!

Now I am on to the jacket, which I’ll post about very soon, and my news…well you’ll have to wait a couple of days for that too (Must. Finish. Jacket. First.)

New knitting project

Here is a picture of my new knitting project. It’s a lace cardigan from the Rowan knitting magazine number 35, design number 14 called ‘Alice’. I can't find a link to an image so here is a scan.

I’m using a bluish/greenish I suppose you’d call it spruce for the body, the yarn is Jaeger matchmaker 4ply. The frilled edges are in Rowan Cashsoft in a purple colour. I bought the yarn in 2005 when I was in London doing work experience at the costume department of the BBC (ah, good times...).

I really like lace knitting, if you haven’t tried it you should! Most patterns are intricate enough to keep you interested (especially since I like to knit with really fine yarn) and repetitive enough to be relaxing. Plus it has that retro style thing goin’ on that I really like. I can see myself wearing this to work with smart trousers and a white t-shirt, or even with a pencil skirt and slightly frilly blouse. I hope it will be this winter not next – lol!

An autumn work outfit

This is a t shirt and skirt I whipped up pretty quickly. The t shirt is from New Look 6731, view B but with the cap sleeves from Views E and F. The skirt is from a Vintage Vogue pattern which seems to be discontinued and I no longer have the envelope so I can’t give the number – sorry.

The t shirt is made from a knit burn-out called ‘Camden’ – I think it’s a poly viscose blend or something like that. It’s really light, easy to sew and I am very pleased with the result. The cowl collar gives it a bit of something different and when I wore it to work the other day I got several compliments. Can’t complain about that! I will definitely use this pattern again and it doesn’t need any alterations beyond cutting a 12 at the top, blending to the 14 at the hip.

The skirt is made from another poly viscose blend that we at the shop are calling ultra soft suiting, I love this fabric. In fact I bought enough of it in the brown colour to make a jacket, skirt and pants I love it that much. It has a really nice drape and a little bit of stretch so it’s comfortable and flattering. The pattern is as close as I have to a TNT (tried and tested) pattern as I’ve now made it twice, but I will make it again – my version is graded up from a size 10 (that’s how long ago I bought the pattern, It’s been a while since I was a 10!). It's a normal A-line at the front,but the backs are cut with the straight grain down the middle of the piece, rather than the centre back, giving a nice flare to the back without it sticking out. I have to take it in a tiny bit at the side seams and I may lift the front waist a bit higher. I’m also not quite convinced about the length so there is a little perfecting to do on this one yet.

These are versatile pieces that can be worn together or with other garments, I also like that I can wear the top tucked or un-tucked with a belt.