Winter in Sao Paulo and the Jennifer Lauren Bronte top

Today was the first day in a long while (a couple of weeks really) where it really felt like Sao Paulo winter.  Most of you are like what?  Winter in Brazil?  No way, that doesn't happen.  Well to the vast majority of the my readers, winter in Sao Paulo is what would be considered fall in say NYC.  It's about 55 degrees, gray, and rainy.  It only feels colder because most buildings do not have central heating and tend to trap the cold (or in the summer the heat).   For the most part, I enjoy the change in weather, except for when it's too cold to sew.

Enough of me rambling, I'm sure you're here just for the sewing.  This is what I wore today, a fall inspired outfit, that oh so conveniently uses two of my recent makes.  

Let's start with the oldest make first, the jacket is Burda 7576.  It is one of the few patterns that I made the entire outfit.  The jacket is a bit modified, first of all, I took in the ridiculous cuffs on the sleeves.  They were seriously absurd! And the I also took in the collar quite a bit, it was very giant.   I also added extra buttons. After I've worn it for several months, if I were to make this jacket again, I would shave off some of the shoulder (they're a smidge too wide) and take in the upper part of the jacket as it's also a bit too big.  Back to the buttons I added, I'm sure you're wanting to take a closer look.

 

So, about those buttons.  I made them!  I have mucked around with making buttons a couple of times, and I think these are the most successful ones I have made.  I used shrinky dink, cut out circles about 3x larger than the button you want, then punched holes into them.  For these I think I used the luster shrinky dink, and colored pencils for the design.  I put them in the oven per the instructions, I think at 350F (180C) until they shrink and lie flat. I wasn't thrilled with the result, they looked to Becky-homecky, so I went and found some pearly cream nail polish. A thin coat later, viola! Cool right? 

 

Moving on, you can see what side of the Russian fabric I used, but I have enough to make another skirt with the purple side out.  I'm thinking having the design come up from the bottom when I get to making it.  The deciding factor, was that I had a golden zipper, but not a lavender one.  There is nothing much to talk about the skirt, as it's my tried and true V2514 and we've discussed it all too much.  When I make the purple sided one, I will underline it, so then hopefully it won't wrinkle as badly.  (By the way, in case you're wondering, the boots are from Duo, a British boot company that sells boots not only by shoe size, but by calf size as well.  They are a little pricey, but if I can get a boot that fits well around my muscular calves, I'm willing to shell out a little extra.  And/or have boots custom made, which is a whole other blog post, once I get to Kyiv and unite with my custom made boots from Colombia.)

Back to the clothing.  The top-

The top is a hacked Jennifer Lauren Bronte top.  I know, I know, I've never discussed the first Jennifer Lauren Bronte top I made.  Here's a reminder of what it looks like:

 

And there is a reason for that.  The color of the first one was so meh, it felt like a baseball tee when I wore it, so I didn't get any good pictures of it.  

(I wore it with my Luffa Jacket which helped how I felt about it, but honestly all day at work it was like I was going to go work out.)  It wasn't the top itself, because the pattern is awesome, but a matter of it was light gray Swiss 4 way, and well meh.  Anyway back to my messing with the pattern- I decided that I wanted a sleeveless version without the binding.  I'll be honest, this was actually my third Bronte top, the second one was a a sleeveless version with the binding, and it just did not work out.  It went into the trash and I started again.

If you would like, I took enough pictures to do a tutorial on how to make it binding-less and sleeveless.  It involves using a lightweight jersey to line it.  Are you interested?  Even if you aren't, I'll probably still do the tutorial.  I think it turned out pretty well, and the color is much better on me.  In my sewing plans are a white version and black version, as I really do need more plain tops in my life, to go with all my printed skirts.  Anywho, my V1353/2514/8630 is calling my name.  Until next time!