Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Cadena

Recently I have been looking into the different fabric sources I have where I live (180 km. from Barcelona). Karen, the blogger behind Did You Make That? published an article where she shared her best options living in London. I would like to share a Spanish fabric company I love, Cadena. It is expensive (very expensive) but the quality of their fabrics is top, and their designs as well. 
Here you have their website in English: I recommend you to click on "BOOK," for some inspiration. The designs are created and executed by Spanish professional dressmakers, and the results are amazing. You can find this catalogue in any atelier, they use it for inspiration to make clothes for their clients. I've always admired their ability to choose a design in a catalogue like this, and be able to draw a pattern to reproduce it, choose the wonderful fabric to imitate it, and make money out of it!



Monday, January 6, 2014

Cowgirl Shirt Dress



Hello! This is my last creation. I had been wanting a long shirt for some time now. It might seem an absurdity, but I like it! I decided to use a commercial pattern this time. It is a Burda pattern for a normal length shirt, which I simply made longer. Where I live, in Catalonia, we buy "pattern magazines," which can have 15 to 20 patterns in multiple sizes, for a total price of 4 or 5 euros. It is a good deal if you only use one of the patterns of the magazine, and then save it for future projects. Sometimes, I buy a magazine only for one pattern, and then when I am looking for some dress or blouse or whatever I want to make, I look at all my magazine collection and select a few suitable patterns, until I choose the one I like best. We buy a magazine almost every month, and just collect them. We have Patrones, Spanish, and Burda, from Germany.
 

As I have explained in previous projects, I prefer to draw my own patterns now that I know how to do it. They are far better than commercial ones, specially for tight clothes. But in this case, which required a lot of ease, I decided to use a model from Burda. It was perfect at first fitting, I did not have to modify anything. And of course, this is faster than drawing the block, all the special details, like neck, cuffs, yoke, etc.
In general, Burda has great patterns. You can observe how sleeves fit perfectly.


As I always do with shirts, I made all the seams encased in themselves, except the ones in the yoke that are encased inside it. Here I am wearing it with my Timberlands, which are beautiful, comfortable, warm and waterproof: just perfect.



In this close shot you can see the details, and the clip buttons, which are super fun to apply.