Ageless Patterns #1006 (Part 5 FINISHED!!!)

Yesterday, we went to Trundle Manor in Pittsburgh to celebrate my husband's birthday. Trundle Manor is a private museum of oddities with a bit of Victorian/steampunk/rockabilly flavor. We had a great time and I highly recommend it!

Only a small taste of the wonders that await you at Trundle Manor!

I also got a debut the full outfit! But first, how cool is this idea? I'm stealing it:

And now, here we are all finished:

and some close ups for detail

BWOF 10-2008-114 Silk Jersey Knit top

This is a much-reviewed and widely loved pattern from the October 2008 Burda World of Fashion Magazine. I was really excited to work with this lovely silk jersey knit that I found in the silk bargain bin at G Street Fabrics in Rockville, MD. Viva la Bargain Bin!

For full details, see my PatternReview.com review, for now. More here when I get a chance.

My delicious fabric... that came in a tube. D'oh!


I needed one piece on a different fold... there was nothing for it but to cut the tube.


On the advice of other PR reviewers, I left off the seam allowance on the underbust seam to compensate for my short waistedness. I also narrowed the underarm bat wing a little bit. I also left off the seam allowances on the side seams. In the end, I probably could have used them. I blended down to a 1/4" seam at the sides.


And... I'm quite happy with the finished product.

Endless Combinations Wardrobe Contest at PR

In order to get myself sewing again, I have decided to join PatternReview's Endless Combinations Wardrobe Contest. I'd like to have some more clothes to teach in and I really, really like to get back to sewing.

Here is my proposal:


UPDATE 12/31
Both skirt and dress have been completed. Both were Christmas successes.

UPDATE 11/13
I traced off the BWOF patterns (Shirt 122 & Dress 111). I think I traced off the dress 2 sizes too big, but I will be making a muslin, so we'll see if I will need to trace it again.

UPDATE 11/21
Last night I adjusted the BWOF shirt pattern.

UPDATE 12/6
made muslin of the skirt (NL 6163). I used the pants sloper that I recently drafted in a class at G Street Fabrics. My pants sloper calls for two small darts in the front and no darts in the back (just a slightly shaped center back seam). That pattern has two small darts in the back and a flat front. I determined that I would probably get a pretty good fit if I just switched the front and back pieces. I then used my sloper again to determine that I needed to cut at size 16 front and a size 10 back. It worked like a charm! ::pictures to come::

UPDATE 12/8
I've completed the NL6163 skirt. I used a 100% cashmere wool and lined it with silk charmeuse that I had left over in my stash from a previous project. they both went together beautifully. ::pictures coming soon::

UPDATE 12/8
I made a muslin of the red dress (BWOF 11-2008-111). he muslin fit ridiculously well. I added 1/2" to the upper side seam for a FBA. I raised the arm hole slightly. I also shorted the front bodice by about 3/8". I also realized that I can move the zipper to the side seam, making this much easier to get in and out of.

I adjusted the pattern and cut out the wool crepe. Mid-way through the cutting process, I realized that I wanted to underline this fabric with some lining fabric rather than figure out how to draft a lining pattern. After I had the wool cut, I cut the pattern out of a silk bled that has been in my stash for ages and ages.

It went together like a dream. Now it's just waiting for me to get an invisible zipper, finish the arm holes, add facings, and finish the seams. That sounds like a lot, but I should be able to finished all that in another night of sewing.

hiatus update

So now I'm moved in to the new place in Hagerstown, MD. If anyone out there is in Hagerstown, I'd love to get connected to fellow sewers. I'm thinking of joining the American Sewing Guild, which I probably should have done years ago. I hear they meet once a month at the library.

My current problem is setting up a new sewing room. I need a good cutting table. I'm thinking of an IKEA model: This one.

Any other ideas? I want one that I can stand at and comfortably cut 60" wide fabric (so min width, 30").

Hiatus

I will be on a (hopefully) brief sewing hiatus. I am packing up my stuff and moving to a new home city to start my very first teaching position. This is really so exciting.

I just finished Simplicity 3678, but my camera has been packed away already. The short review is that I am very pleased, but my rayon jersey has more than the recommended stretch, so I have some minor fitting quibbles. On the whole, very cool.

Back soon!

McCall's 5480 Winter swing coat

This was my second attempt at making a swing coat for this winter. It feels odd to be making a winter coat when it is 95 degrees outside, but I know that I will soon have to return to a hectic schedule and I don't want to bank on finishing an unfinished sewing project come November.

This pattern got great reviews on PatternReview.com and so I was hopeful.

Due to the shape of the raglan sleeves, I did not attempt to adjust them for my shoulder slope. Due to the fact that this is a tent, I didn't bother raising the waist or making a full bust adjustment.

I am tickled pink with how it turned out. I used a wool/cashmere blend I got last year at JoAnn's on an early spring winter fabrics super blowout, sunback lining, and a 3/4 yard double-sided silk satin from Thai Silks in Los Altos, CA. I picked up the remnant at least 2 years ago, but it might have been even longer.

I pattern does not call for contract cuffs, collar, and buttons, but I thought it would be a nice way to subtly spice up the blackiety-blackness. That pattern went together very smoothly and accommodated the fabric and lining which were slightly heavier than the recommended weight with ease. Even the collar went on right the first time, which might be a sewing first for me.

I also created fabric covered buttons for the first time and I was amazed at how well the little Dritz mold worked. It was $2.19 well spent!

And now... the pictures. I took my dressform outside because black clothes just do not photograph well inside.





trim details:




The lining...

Scarf Dress Part II -- SUCCESS!

The dress went together eerily easily. No, really. Just buy some scarves and make these.

As you can see from the photos, I need to work out some kind of bra solution. Right now, I'm thinking about the tape bras. I've used them in the past with great success. I want something to make me feel covered and somewhat supported. I don't envision ever having to wear this dress for more than a few hours at a time, so all day support is not that important.

New Look 6728

I picked this pattern up during my pattern binge and I have to say that this was a GREAT purchase. I have a newfound respect for New Look patterns. This shirt pattern might serve as the basis for many, many shirt patterns to come. I was really able to adjust the pattern to my needs very easily and I enjoyed going so.

Here is my process:

My back waist length is a ridiculous 14". This is 2.5" shorter than most standard back waist lengths for my size (14-16). However, due to my bust size, this front waist length is usually only about 1" shorter that the pattern. So I've been experimenting with adjusting patterns unevenly. You can see here how the excess is taken out of the pattern.



When I make this kind of adjustment, I have to do more than just blend the waistlines back together. I also have to readjust the grainlines. I did this by drawing a line that matched up the grainline arrows on the traced pattern. This splits the difference between the two lines. My hope was that this would provide a reasonable new grain. This seems to have worked well.

I made a muslin from this pattern that came out looking list this:



I was pretty happy with this as a starting point, but notice the gaping at the armhole and the high hemline around the butt. The back waist was now sitting over my natural waistline, but I wanted the back hem to hang even with the front, so I simply added back 1" and the back and tapered it out through the side front, trying to match the proportional amount of the waist tuck in the pattern:


to compensate for the gaping armhole, I "rotated" a dart that was forming at the armseye into the princess seam line and the extended the shoulder length out 5/8" so that the front shoulder would match the back shoulder. This seemed to solve the problem.


I then went ahead and made th top in a blue handkerchief weight linen that I had left over from making the godet skirt. I used red thread for a design choice because the best buttons I had in my stash were the red ones. The pattern only calls for 5 buttons, but I used all 10. This makes the shirt very secure across the bust. I can reach and move without is gaping open, which is great for teaching. I made button thread button loops because I had trouble making fabric loops with the linen. It was just too thick.

The linen was also much more "wiggly" than the muslin fabric, so my tucks are not exactly symmetrical. This is kind of disappointing, but I don't think it's too distracting. The pattern piece for the front tucks is preparing first and then cut out, so in the future I might try different tuck arrangements when I figure out how to sew pintucks with my machine. All in all, this pattern in a keeper.

McCall's 5274 Godet skirt

So my latest project was this godet skirt by McCall's. I was intersted in doing a godet skirt because I originally wanted to play with pinning the godets in interesting arrangements to mimic a skirt I had seen on the street. Sadly, I didn't take a picture, so after fiddling with the godets for a day I had to admit defeat and just make the skirt as shown.

I used some blue handkerchief linen from my stash and the skirt went together without any problems. The only slight snag was the the waistband was not well drafted for the curve of my lower back. It either gapped in the back or sat unattractively low, giving me a Homer Simpson look:



My next sewing class is really going to be a skirt and pants sloper class, but until then...

I decided that I could fix the problem by just adding a drawstring in the waistband to pick up the 1.5" of slack and keep the waistband fairly smooth. A stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. :)

I made the drawstring by attaching two pieces of 1/4" ribbon to about 8" of 1/4" elastic and tying cute, small buttons to the ends so I wouldn't lose the drawstring in the casing (hopefully):



I then used a slightly smaller button as the guide for my machine buttonhole guide and added a buttonhole to ease edge of the waistband on the outside only:



I then sewed the waistband closed while making sure that I did not catch the drawstring in th stitching. Yes I know, I should have sewed this by hand, but it was getting late and I wanted to finish the project. Given my shape, it's unlikely that I will ever be highlighting the waistband on this skirt, so it should remain hidden most of the time.



"I love it when a plan come together."
This totally fixed my waistband gaps without distorting or adding much bulk to the waistband:





And here's the final shots with the seams finished and the skirt hemmed: