Sewing brush strokes

A two-piece... aka set-acular sewing, organised by Sophie from Ada Spragg. I'd like to share this set I made a while ago.

Now, a two-piece could be classic and all business-like, but I'm not usually one to blend in - so spectacular is the operative word here! Oh, and all claims in that department go to the fabric, obviously: a beautiful, basket weave fabric, featuring a wide, dark blue brush stroke on a white background. And which frayed like crazy.

The jacket is based upon a pattern from an old Modellina magazine (as usual, making life difficult for myself by choosing a pattern that comes with instructions in a language that I do not understand), which I then lengthened in order to accomodate the self-drafted welt pockets.

The skirt is a Burda pattern (#118 from the April 2012 issue) and it initiated one of those moments that ask for a "Yay for sewing!" cheer!

You see, I am definitely a pear-shaped specimen, so finding a RTW pencil skirt that fits is just totally, completely, utterly impossible... (Want the hard facts? Okay: 35-28-42, or if you are metrically inclined: 87-72-105.)

Yet, there are those times when a woman wishes to channel her inner Joan and when a pencil skirt becomes a necessity.

So, a sewist does what a sewist does: she empathically flings clothing sizes right out of the window, grabs for the nearest curved ruler and draws one smooth line from waist to hips, linking a waspy waist to a well... somewhat more pronounced hip section. Ha!

Both jacket and skirt are fully lined with a silver grey Venezia. And yes, I am actually quite proud of the jacket lining and even remembered to add a 'movement pleat' in the center back (okay, this is one of those instances where my command of English tragically fails me... I am not at all sure that 'movement pleat' is an official term! Don't be afraid to steer me into the correct linguistic direction here. Thanks!)

As far as pattern placement goes: I tried to match the different types of strokes as well as I could, but that wasn't always easy. As you can see, the strokes have a certain 'height', more or less mimicking a painter's armlength, I suppose. But just as in real life, the strokes' height isn't even, so it really was a process of make-do.

The pattern pieces for the welt pockets were carefully picked: I looked for a similar distribution of blue and white, but not the exact same part of the print. This way, the pockets would stand out a little from their background, but not so much that they'd turn into an eye-sore.

A trip to the local haberdashery's provided me with a set of matching blue-white buttons. And yes, I did consider bound buttonholes, as they give a much cleaner finish, but the fabric was fraying so badly that I just didn't dare to take the risk.

So here we are!
One two-piece, which may propel me right back into a career woman's life. Heck, it even has power shoulder pads! And if not, welllll... the jacket happens to combine really well with a pair of indigo blue jeans - which is, as we all know, the standard uniform for a work-at-home mom :-)