SewTawdry

No Jewelry Required - Vogue 8594 dress

2009-10-04T11:54:00.011-04:00

I had a business trip to Chicago earlier this week. It was my first visit to this city and I really enjoyed it. It had big city atmosphere and activities, but it was clean, with friendly people. Granted I saw a very small section, and from watching the local news, I know that things aren’t as nice in other areas of the city. All the direct flights from Richmond to Chicago leave early in the morning, so I had some time to kill before the conference kickoff reception that evening. I had planned to do some cultural stuff and fabric shopping. I took a taxi to the Chicago Art Institute and spent 3 hours walking around the exhibits. It was really exciting to see paintings and sculptures that I had only seen before in books, in person and up close. American Gothic, Monet’s Water Lilies, Mary Cassatt’s The Child's Bath,

Van Gogh, Frederick Remington’s paintings and sculptures, so on. The rest of the afternoon I had planned on fabric shopping at Vogue Fabrics and Fishman’s Fabrics. Some of the fabric stores often mentioned as the source of the lovely fabrics used by Chicago sewing blogger Cennetta . But my guilt over the amount of fabric I have recently purchased made me reconsider. Instead, it being a beautiful day, I decided to walk up N. Michigan Ave to my hotel, about 13 blocks , stopping in the stores and parks along the way. I did some snoop shopping in the designer clothes departments of Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom's for ideas to use up my fabric stash. Gorgeous garments! Paralyzing prices! Tired from all the walking, I finally reached my hotel late in the afternoon. My hotel room was on the 33rd floor of a building with a clear view of the lake, two blocks away. A strong wind was whistling against the window, and I could hear the creaks and cracks as the building flexed in the wind. It reminded me of the sounds I listened to the night that Hurricane Isabel roared through Richmond. I know the wind is not unusual in Chicago, nor I guess, is an out of town guest’s unease. Part of the bed turn down goodies included earplugs and a card stating "Pardon the Chicago wind noise… This building has been constructed to withstand high wind velocity, and like every high-rise building, it is designed to sway. Due to this factor, we do encounter creaking sounds in some of our rooms depending on wind direction and velocity. We hope that these unpredictable circumstances with not inconvenience you tonight. Should you hear the wind noise, the earplugs are provided for your sleeping comfort." Thankfully, by bedtime the wind had dies down and it was quiet.

The dress I wore the welcome reception that night was one I had made the previous weekend. Vogue 8594, a fitted dress with some interesting seaming.

I had really liked a simple brown sheath dress displayed with patterned tights and high heeled pumps on a mannequin at my local Macy’s store. I bought the tights with the idea of making the dress using this pattern. In my stash I found suitable brown fabric; a crepe type weave with multicolored threads of gold black and brown. One of the pattern illustrations, View A, showed contrasting fabric used for the triangular shaped sections on the side waist. I have a fondness for garments that combine fabric and matching leather. So I decided to see if I could find some matching leather to use for the side waist sections of my dress. I found some fake suede at JoAnne’s in a similar color, but later, digging through a box at Tandy Leather, I found 4 scraps of matching leather, just barely large enough to cut out the pattern pieces. The brown fabric, even with matching leather, was still a bit too boring for me. I don’t know why I decided to make a brown dress. I should know by now that I rarely wear clothes in earth colors like brown and dull green. I also liked the pattern view D which had "flexible trim" applied around the neckline. Finding trim that would curve around the neckline and match the brown fabric was going to be tough. And I didn’t have enough time to weave or braid my own a la Kenneth King. Instead I decided to jazz up the dress by using iron on metallic studs.

The studs were gold and silver, in various sizes, with an occasion small crystal thrown in, They were already arranged in a random pattern on a backing sheet. I cut small sections of the studs and arranged them in a 1.5 inch wide band below the neckline seam. I really enjoyed doing this.

I followed the package instructions, ironing the wrong side of the fabric with high heat to melt the adhesive on the back side of each stud. The adhesive held very well. I had to remove a few studs that I inadvertently placed too near the seam line. They came off when I reheated the glue using the iron. But they left glue residue melted into the fabric. After sewing the seam I affixed smaller individual studs over the glue spots to hide them.

I originally made a size 14 top and a size 16 bottom in this dress. A normal split of sizes for me when I use Vogue patterns. Surprisingly, the size 16 bottom was too big for me. Because of the seaming details I could not just take it in on the side seams like you would a simple skirt. If I had, the seams that started in the front and curved over the hips to the skirt back would no longer match at the side seams. Instead I had to unsew the skirt pieces and recut them to the smaller size. I highly recommend making muslin of the dress bottom if you think you might have fitting issues.

After adding the stud trim, I really liked the dress and I will wear it. And it doesn’t need any jewelry, what with all the bling at the neckline. A perfect travel dress! Alas, the patterned tights don’t look good with it. I guess I’ll have to make something else to wear with them.

Strong Shoulders

2009-09-24T21:23:00.014-04:00

One of the trends this fall, as reported by fashion sources, is Strong Shoulders. "Soft and billowing or big and dramatic, shoulders take a starring role this season." Here are some of the photo’s I have in my idea file.(click on picture to enlarge)
When I look at these pictures my first thought is "Oh my gosh! How did they do that?" Followed shortly by… "Is that wearable in my world?" The techniques used by the designers to create these strong shoulders include gathering, pleating, padding, folding and structural steel (just kidding). The designer versions are pretty extreme. But many of them, when scaled down a bit, are very wearable. Some of these big shoulders are created with big sleeves. Sleeves that create width at the shoulder line visually slim the waist and hips. Plus my shoulders are sloping and on the small side to start with, so I really like this trend!
Even the sewing magazines have articles about big sleeves. Sewstylish magazine had an article titled "High Style Sleeves" that had instructions for modifying sleeve patterns to make two styles of "exaggerated sleeves that capture the modernized shoulder style".

I appreciated the Sewstylish article because it explained how to make the dramatic expanded shoulder in a way I never would have thought of. The original sleeve pattern cap is enlarged considerably. To avoid problems making the sleeve fit into the armhole, the sleeve is sewn over the original armhole. I briefly considered making a dress with this kind of sleeve just to try the technique, but I just didn’t think I would wear it; too afraid something like this would happen.

To satisfy my urge for a wearable wardrobe update, I sewed a couple of blouses with unique sleeves. The first one was Simplicity 2633, a Project Runway pattern for a princess seam blouse with a variety of collar, and sleeve options. I made the version with the short sleeves with pleat details. The sleeves are a modified version of a tulip sleeve.

The fabric was silk linen blend. I originally bought the fabric to use in a bias draping experiment (more on that in a future post). It was too stiff for draping. I washed two yards to soften it up, which didn’t happen, but the fabric took on a slightly rippled texture, which I really liked.

My second blouse, with a totally different sleeve, was made from Simplicity 2501.

I made view D, which has elbow length sleeves with gathers at the cap and along the length, a neckline tie, inset waist band, and a peplum. The sleeve pattern is freakish elongated. The fabric is gathered to a shorter length by sewing a long casing to the center of the sleeve on the wrong side, and inserting a short piece of elastic in the casing. The armhole gathers extend from the armhole front notch to armhole back notch.

The fabric for this blouse was silk print twill. Not the easiest fabric to cut out and sew, but worth the effort. I used silk organza for the interfacing and the sleeve gathering casing. I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Now on to something different!

Mrs. McW's Patterns

2009-08-30T13:24:00.022-04:00

I accompanied my husband to several estate sales yesterday. This is a bit unusual. I find estate sales depressing. They are usually held when someone has passed on, or is moving into an assisted living facility and the family needs to liquidate the estate. I find myself studying the house, furnishings, clothing, and books, and thinking about the person they belonged to. This was their home, their cherished personal possessions, and I feel uncomfortable being part of a crowd of people examining and evaluating them for purchase. I went to the sales yesterday because I was up early, with makeup on, having dropped DS #2 off at football practice (yes, on a Saturday) and completed my grocery shopping.

The first two sales didn’t have much of interest. The third sale was at a home in Westover Hills, a neighborhood of unique, but small, brick and stone homes built in the 1920-40’s. The occupants had obviously loved antiques as evidenced by the furniture, clothes, pictures, and the accumulation of antique and doll magazines. And there in the corner of the musty basement, were several boxes of sewing patterns from the late 50’s through early 70’s. My heart started pounding as I started to sort through them. I purchased 50 of the about 70 patterns, paying $.30 per pattern. At home, looking through them at a more leisurely pace, I started to form an image of the person who collected and sewed these patterns. The first patterns were from the mid 1950’s. Spadea patterns that were marketed through a syndicated newspaper column entitled "You’re Sew Right". More info. about Spadea

All the envelopes are addressed to a Mrs. C.(husband’s name) McW at the address of the sale.The earliest postmark date was 1955. Gosh, she had lived in that hours over 5o years. In 1955, I imagined she might have been in her twenties, newly married, perhaps on a budget given that the patterns she purchased were modestly priced. She had probably learned to sew in school or from a relative. The patterns were for simple shirtwaist dresses, blouses, and jackets. From the same time period the patterns were mostly inexpensive non-designers Vogue patterns, and a few Simplicity and Butterick’s. These included both casual sportswear styles and dresses. My favorites include these dress patterns.

and a 1960’swimsuit designed to be made from denim or gingham with small darts in the bottom back to mold the fabric under the curve of the butt.

Starting in 1960 and through the early 70’s, all the patterns were Vogue Paris Original's or Vogue Couturier, some still had the woven labels in the pattern envelope. Many of them were purchased at Thalhimers or Miller & Rhodes, the elegant, rival, family run department stores that existed in Richmond from the 1800’s until the early 1990’s. Some of the patterns were stamped with the store name, and date of purchase, making dating the pattern easy. Either her finances had improved or her sewing skills and confidence were now at a level she felt comfortable tackling designer patterns. I would say 70% of the patterns had been used. The pattern pieces were trimmed, the dart lines were perforated by a tracing wheel, and they were neatly refolded when put back in the envelope. There were no signs that Mrs. McW made any pattern alterations. And she appears to have maintained her Bust 36, Hip 38 figure during the years for which there was patterns.This would have made her just slightly smaller ( 1 size) than me, though in all likelyhood a bit shorter. She even switched from a size 16 to a 14, staying with the same measurements, in 1968 when Vogue did some vanity resizing of their patterns.

On the back of some of the pattern envelopes, there were penciled calculations. They looked like yardage requirements multiplied by the cost of fabric in the 7 & 8 dollar range. Is this price level indicative that her fabric purchases were of high quality fabrics? I would like to think so. Mrs. C. McW certainly had a dressy, designer wardrobe in the 60’s. Where did she wear it? Did she work outside the home or did she have an active social life. The latter I suspect, based on the norm for women at that time. What did Mr. C. McW do for a living ? A Google search of his name did not return any info. He must have been successful, given where their home was, and the type of clothes his wife wore. I wish I could have seen her finished creations, touched her fabrics, talked to her about her love of sewing. Some more favorite patterns: This lovely draped Laroche.

This Pucci with a free hanging bodice.

A Pierre Cardin bias cut dress.

A Jacques Griffe dress styled to look like a vest and skirt, and jacket.

This Patou dress with matching cape.

Mrs. C. McW was obviously married and living in the house in 1955, based on the Spadea envelope labels. So the fantastic 1960’s ermine trimmed wedding dress pattern must have been purchased to make the dress for a non wedding event.

Were there any children? One, perhaps a girl for which she made this charming smocked dress in 1966. It was the only child’s pattern.

The last designer pattern was from 1973. After that the patterns were for Home Dec. items, Christmas ornaments, etc.. I didn’t buy them. If Mrs. C. McW was in her 20’s in the 50’s, she sewed gorgeous clothes through her 30’s and tapered off in her 40’s. There was no sewing machine or fabric included in the estate sale, supporting my hypothesis that she had not sewn for quite some time. I wonder why she stopped sewing? Did her lifestyle or body change? It happens. To see all of Mrs. McW's Patterns
My other purchase at the sale was this velvet, beaded, Victorian pincushion. It was so horribly over the top, and much too big (12" diameter) for my crowded sewing table. But it was red, my favorite color, and one of the beaded monograms is an "A". How could I resist?

Instead of Sewing...

2009-08-18T22:11:00.007-04:00

No sewing in the past two weeks. I thought Sunday there might be a chance, but DH suggested a day trip to Virginia Beach. I think he was trying to avoid the current task on his "Honey- Do" list - repointing the bricks of the front steps. I don't blame him. It was one of the first "cooler’ less humid days is several weeks. Gorgeous! I spent the 2 hour ride reading fashion magazines and planning fall sewing project. At our destination, on the beach, relaxing in my beach chair with my toes in the sand, I switched to Fundamentals of Fashion Design published recently in English by Bunka Publishing Bureau. The review is in the previous post. Reading about body size, shape, metrics, posture and aging issues and then to look up and have a large group of scantily clad bodies as real life examples really reinforced the reading, and made me resolve to pass on the boardwalk french fries. I looked up in the sky and admired the parasails being towed by motor boats just off shore. It looked like fun. Elder DS said he would do it with me, so I phoned in our reservations right then and there, before I could rethink my decision. Two hour later we were strapped into harnesses below a billowing sail, tethered at the end of 600 feet of nylon rope, being towed by a speeding motor boat. It was wonderful! It was very quiet up there and the view was spectacular. I highly recommend it. And just so you know, I am not a daredevil. I do not like standing on the edge of sheer drop-offs like the edge of the Grand Canyon and absolutely hate Ferris Wheel rides. This was totally different. The harness was not painful or uncomfortable and the landing and lift off is from a sitting position on the back deck of the boat. Here we are, just after being yanked off the back of the boat by the sail as the captain released the line.

I was not the oldest person on the boat doing this. There was a 60ish grandma that went up with her 10 year old grandson. His excitement and wonder at the experience had us all smiling. And I know exactly how he felt!

Review - Fundamentals of Garment Design

2009-08-18T21:34:00.005-04:00

The Japanese company Bunka Publishing Bureau recently published a series of dressmaking books from the Bunka Fashion College in English. I found this out thanks to this Pattern Review Discussion I ordered the first book in the series, Fundamentals of Fashion Design, ISBN978-579-11238-8, from www.Amazon.ja.com on a Friday and it arrived on the following Tue. Initially I wasn’t sure it was worth the purchase, as it appeared to contain basic info. that was covered in other books.

Chapter 1 - Overview if Fashion Design
Chapter 2 - Tools for Making Garments
Chapter 3 - Measuring the Body for Garment Production
Chapter 4 - Basics of Pattern Production
Chapter 5 - Garment Fabrics and Sewing Notions
Chapter 6 - Fundamentals of Cutting and Sewing

But Chapter 3 had some information I have never seen before about Human Body Proportions. How data is collected and used in designing pattern and flattering garments, even comparisons of body proportions for different races. And examples of a regularly proportioned body ( Japanese, but still interesting) in terms of the proportional relationship between width, thickness and height.
Then I got to page 88 and there it was, what I have been wanting since I first started using the Bunka published Japanese pattern magazines Mrs Stylebook and Lady Boutique. "Instruction for drafting the Bunka Sloper" …in English. Not only the bodice sloper, but the sleeve sloper and a section on Adjusting Various Parts for Larger Bust Measurements.

Reading the background information about the Bunka bodice sloper clarified the cause of some problems I had been having with my sloper. "The Bunka style bodice sloper is a way of making drawings based on a small number of measurements, the bust, back length and waist. The measurements of each part of the drawing sloper are mainly calculated with the bust measurement as a standard. Slopers produced in Japan accommodate mainly the standard body type of a Japanese adult woman 18-24 years of age (typically with bust measurement of 80 –89 cm)." Now I knew why my drafted sloper fit so poorly in some areas. It is drawn based on my larger 96 cm bust measurement, and my Anglo Saxon body proportions are not the same as a Japanese woman’s.
My drafted sloper fit fairly well, but the armhole area of the patterns drafted from it are consistently too big. Now I know this is because of the calculations used to determine the arm hole size and shape are based on my bust. Arm size does not necessarily increase in size in a linear relationship with the bust. I knew I needed to make fitting adjustments to the sloper, but it wasn’t clear to me how the sloper armhole should fit, especially in the underarm area. And there in the section on Fitting and Checking the Sloper was the answer. "The lower part of the armhole (the bust line) should be about 2 cm from the lowest edge of the underarm"

In conclusion: I would definitely recommend this book as an aid in drafting and fitting the Bunka ( Mrs Stylebook, Lady Boutique) multi darted sloper. As a stand-alone book on fundamentals of Fashion Design, I feel there are more comprehensive books already available.

Vogue 1025 Metal and Moss

2009-08-02T12:42:00.012-04:00

I had hoped to post about this dress before leaving for vacation the last week of July, but it didn't happen.

About the middle of the summer, when it becomes really hot and humid here in central VA, it is so much easier to throw on a lined sleeveless dress and sandals than mess with tops and bottom separates which I usually wear. Vogue 1025 has been in my "to sew" pattern pile for a while, since I saw Bloom's version. SewBlooms

This dress has "waistline" pleating that radiates out from a center point into the bodice and skirt. Waistline is in quotes because the horizontal seaming that joins the bodice and skirt is really located about 3 inches above the natural waist. This is not mentioned in the description on the back of the pattern envelope. It is clearly marked on the pattern pieces. Several reviewers ( at Patternreview.com) did not realize this and either made major alterations to lower the horizontal seam, or threw the dress away. A horizontal seam above the waist, where the body is smallest for many ladies, can be very flattering. Similar to an empire seam located just below the bust, it will emphasize the bust, while the skirt flows over potential problems areas like waist and hips. The fabric recommendations on the pattern all have the work "lightweight" in front of them. Using lightweight fabric for this dress is critical in forming the pleats and having them lay fairly flat to the body. The pleats all originate from a central point. There are a lot of layers of fabric to sew through at this point. Four pleats on the top plus the seam allowances from the center front seam and three on the bottom.

There is a lot of wearing ease in the pattern. Everywhere! I made it in a size smaller (14) than the size 16 I use for Vogue patterns. I always check the finished garment measurements printed on the pattern pieces and compare them to my own measurements and the amount of wearing ease I like in my clothing. The size 16 had way too much ease for me.

I made this dress in two different fabrics. Version 1 was to be a "little black dress". When I considered the fabric possibilities, I kept coming back to lightweight black foiled linen. "Foiled" was the description on the Jo Anne Fabrics sales slip, as in a thin layer of metallic foil applied to the surface of the fabric. A plain black linen is probably more wearable, but I wanted to see what the dress looked like in the foiled linen, and it was on sale. It is the same fabric that I used on the Badgley Mischa jacket and it was easy to work with. I love the metallic look, but I think it avoids the disco queen aura because of the dress style, and the linen fabric with its inherent texture and wrinkles. The belt is a vintage belt made of black elastic with a bronzy arrow head buckle design. With the fabric and belt I call the look "dusty warrior" as depicted in moves like Conan the Barbarian, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Apparel with lots of dull copper and bronze metals, leather, coarsely woven natural fabrics, and dust. This version is more a going out to dinner dress.

Version 2 was made of a light mossy green wool crepe from Hancock Fabrics. This fabric was very textured and surprising lightweight and ravelly. I used twill tape to stabilize the shoulder seams and waist seams. And fusible interfacing on the back seam where the zipper was inserted as well as the neckline edges and the sleeve edges.

Both dresses are lined with Bemberg rayon. On the pattern envelope, the dress is shown with a belt. I have a collection of belts, but most are from the 1980’s (sigh I don't know why I keep them), when they were big worn with pleated pants. I tried them on with my dresses. One positive was that belts that no longer fit at my waist did fit at the higher horizontal seam line of this dress. The negative was that the average belt does not work with this dress. After a lot of trying on, I came to the conclusion that the best belt for this dress was about 2" wide with a closure that serves as a focal point accessory. I have only one belt with a buckle/closure like this.
So I did some Internet shopping at Etsy and vintage jewelry sites for other belt buckles I could use for this dress. I found some really neat ones and most were priced under $10.00.

For the buckle at the top of the picture, I made a turned 1’ tube of distressed looking brown pleather (it took me an hour to turn the blasted thing), threaded 1” elastic through it and attached D rings at both ends. The D rings were needed because the buckle had two hooks underneath and it was the only way I could figure out how to attach it to a band. The elastic inside the band keeps it in place on the dress. Though the belt buckle looked fine with the dress, the 1" width band does not look as good as a wider 2" belt does. So someday, when I have a lot of time and patience, I will make a wider band to use with this buckle.

I am not sure what my next project will be. It's the classic late summer dilemma. Should I sew for summer or sew for fall??? My order of new Vogue fall patterns arrived last week, but the weather is still hot and humid and the stack of summer fabrics I had planned to make into clothes is still quite high.

Burda WOF 5/09, Dress 117 - Michael Kors look alike

2009-07-03T11:39:00.017-04:00

I really loved this Michael Kors dress when it was featured in numerous fashion magazines last fall.

But I couldn’t fine a similar pattern in my stash and I really couldn’t find any similar fabrics. Large abstract floral prints in intense colors. Then the May 09 Burda WOF magazine arrived with a very similar pattern, dress 117B. The dress is described as having cap sleeves, draped front bodice, and a fitted skirt with side slits for walking ease.

and I found the perfect fabric, a gray and orange floral print cotton sateen from Denver Fabrics/FashionFabricClub. Here is my version of the dress and I love it. The colors in the fabric make me feel happy just looking at them. The cotton sateen fabric was easy to sew and press, but it doesn’t wrinkle. I lined the skirt of the dress but not the top, so it is very cool to wear, despite the hot colors of the print.

This dress has a unique inset side panel that can be a challenge to sew. I needed a refresher on how to sew this type of panel so I thought I would share my research in case it would be helpful to others.

Kimono Sleeves and Gussets

The sleeve on this dress is a kimono sleeve. A kimono sleeve is actually an extension of the bodice or body of the main garment. It is frequently cut as one piece with the garment, producing a T-shape bodice.

Because a kimono sleeve has been cut with the bodice, the fit is very different from that of a set-in sleeve. The shape and width of the sleeve will determine its comfort. If the sleeve is narrow and slopes close to the body, a gusset (diamond shaped fabric insert) may be used in the underarm area to reduce strain and allow freedom of movement. A gusset is a triangular or diamond-shaped piece of fabric, which is set into a garment at a slashed location. It makes a longer, slimmer-fitting kimono sleeve possible with an armhole fitting closer to the body.

As a general rule, the gusset provides a more sophisticated fit than a fitted kimono sleeve without a gusset. Comfort is an additional feature since there is increased flexibility in the sleeve and armhole area. Regardless of the kimono sleeve fit, some form of seam reinforcement is recommended.

The gusset for this pattern is cut as part of front and back side panels. Instructions for inserting gussets can be found in many sewing books. But there are very few sewing books that show the side panel “gusset” insertion. Burda WOF’s written sewing instructions on this part of the dress were a little sketchy, and difficult to understand. And I always prefer pictures to text. I had made this style in a jacket and I remembered that reinforcing the internal slash point is important, as is careful sewing.

To refresh my memory I got out the pattern for the jacket, Vogue 2390. It is about 8 years old, but still available in the Out of Print patterns on the Vogue pattern web site.

I also found two other sources for instructions especially for this style. One was a special tip insert with pictures for a jacket in BWOF 2/98 Burda Tip sheet . It was pretty similar to the Vogue pattern instructions. The second was the Mrs. Stylebook (MSB), issue 145 (2007) MSB Instructions , which had a slight different method with much better pictures. Below you will find both the written instructions from Vogue/Burda and the MSB illustrations with English text that I added.

Vogue/Burda Instructions:

Important: When cutting out the fabric pieces, leave the area of the slash uncut until after the seams line are marked and the slash is reinforced.

The first step is to reinforce the point of the slash on the front and back pieces where the gusset/side panel will be inserted. There are generally two different techniques shown for reinforcing. The Vogue/Burda method uses iron on interfacing.

1. Iron a small piece of interfacing onto the wrong side of fabric front and back pieces, over point of slash.
2. Pin pattern onto back and front fabric pieces again, and transfer the pattern piece outline (seam line) on to the interfaced side of fabric.
3. Reinforce slash by stay stitching slightly to inside of marked stitching line (shorten stitches around the point).
4. Start at wide end, stitch up one side to point, pivot, take one stitch across point, pivot again stitch down other side.

5. Slash between stitching lines up to reinforced point. S

6. Stitch side panel to front and back piece starting at bottom edge and sewing towards slash point, along marked seam lines. Pivot at slash point and sew side panel underarm seam to sleeve underarm seam ending 1/4 “ before the side seam.

7. Stitch side seams and sleeve bottom seam.

MSB Instructions

Final note: If you like this dress style, but don’t have access to Burda WOF, you are in luck. Just out is Vogue Pattern’s version of this dress, published under the Michael Kors name. Pattern number 1117. It is in the Fall 2009 issue of Vogue Pattern Magazine, which I received yesterday. As I write this, it is not yet up on the Vogue website. Typically the new patterns show up there about a week after I get the magazine. The Vogue pattern has the same side panel gusset styling too.

Vogue 1099 Badgley Mischka jacket

2009-05-27T21:28:00.013-04:00

I am easily distracted from sewing projects, especially when they are in the planning stage, and the pattern and fabric for another project is sitting at hand. The shirt dress mentioned in the previous post is still a project. But one night I had an hour or so before I had to shuttle a bunch of teenage boys to the movies. So I took advantage of the time to cut out the jacket from the Badgley Mischka Vogue Pattern 1099.

It is a swing jacket with some interesting sleeve and collar details. The sleeves have a horizontal pleat over a separate gathered section in the bottom half of the sleeves. This makes the sleeve quite bell like.
The shoulder seam extends into the sleeve as a dart. The sleeve fits into the armhole with some inset corners.

The collar has two separate layers. Both are rectangles cut on the bias, folded lengthwise with the cut edges eased into the curved neck seam. The outer collar is longer than the neck hole seam by an inch or so and the inner collar, cut of a contrast fabric, is actually longer than the outer collar. So while both collar pieces was easy to fit onto the neck hole seam because of the bias cut, they do not lay flat. Especially the inner collar being longer and more eased onto the seam. The end of the collar has a pleat and the under collar appears to wrap around the end and go into the upper collar. I have seen the open end collar detail on a number of designer tops and the Japanese pattern magazines.

For the fabric I used a blouse weight linen from Hancock Fabrics. It has variegated threads and a subtle metallic coating of some sort on the good side. I half expect the coating to wash off in the laundry, but it was still there when I pulled the fabric from the dryer. The fabric was easy to work with and hangs softly. Other reviewers recommended using soft rather than stiff fabric for this jacket. The lining is Bemberg rayon. The under collar is some sort of sheer green metallic mystery fabric from ‘the table" in Walmart. It looks and acts like a metallic silk organza. It can be ironed on high heat with no ill effects, other than smelling like my husband’s workshop when he is sawing fiberboard (lots of adhesives in fiberboard (MDF)) so I suspect it is a synthetic. It feels fine against my skin.

The pattern envelope picture shows the jacket worn with very wide leg pants. For my size, the pants on the pattern have a bottom leg width of 32 inches. I tried the jacket with a pair of RTW pants that have a 30 width. The silhouette is sort of a tall triangle. I also tried the jacket with a pair of slimmer cut cropped pants and high heeled sandals. I think I like the second look better than the first, but it is a more casual look, not suited for work.

Shirtdresses for Spring

2009-05-18T20:36:00.011-04:00

After two weeks of no sewing, I wanted to make something fast, and easy. So I made view D, the sleeveless version of McCalls 5661 blouse. using 1 yard of a 60 wide poly print from the G Street $2.99 table. I loved the print of circles in brown, beige, teal and citron green. If it had been in silk or even cotton I would have had been in fabric heaven, but it was in shiny finish polyester. Oh well. I eliminated the back opening with the plan to use an invisible zipper in the side seam if I had needed it. It slips on over my head easily. I have been thinking a lot about sewing dresses lately. I don’t know why. It doesn't seem like women wear dresses that much anymore. At least not the ones I work and play with. But dresses make summer dressing a snap, especially shirtdresses in comfortable breathable fabrics. I am currently enamoured with this one, which is from the Newport News catalog. For some reason I really like the simplicity of a simple shirtdress in a solid khaki colored fabric, embellished with self fabric roses.

The price was actually pretty reasonable, but they only had it in one very small size. It must be a popular item. The "roses" look more free form than ones for which I have instructions. So I am currently collecting information on making fabric roses from internet sources and books. I have found some interesting techniques that I had not seen before. I have a lightweight twill blend fabric that I am considering using. It is cross woven tan and black so it has a slight iridescence when it moves or changes direction.I thought that effect might be interesting when made into the roses.
I'll keep you updated.

Blog Diary - Grand Finale

2009-05-18T20:06:00.005-04:00

I finally named my SWAP, which I have been blogging about since December, The Drafting Demon Swap. By the time I submitted the pictures for the contest voting I was so tired of every aspect of it; the garments, the fabrics, the colors, pattern drafting, etc. I felt that all the other SWAPs were fresher, more coordinated and better executed than mine. I had to prepare and sew samples for a ASG presentation the same week the photography had to be done. I was a bit stressed. In fact I seriously considered bowing out of the contest at that point, and not sending in photos. So I was totally shocked that it won the Grand Prize in the SWAP contest sponsored by Stitchers Guild the sewing discussion board over at www.Artisanssquare.com.

Pictures of all the SWAPs, every single one of them a winner, can be viewed at
2009 Swap Photos

I just want to say a very heartfelt "Thank-You" to everyone whose vote contributed to my receiving this wonderful award. And for all the hard work the Stitchers
Guild folks did in planning and running the contest. I know it took an enormous amount of time. And thanks to the very generous sponsors who made it possible for every one of the contest participants to receive a prize.

Now on to spring/summer sewing

SWAP Diary April 30th, 2009 Done!

2009-04-30T12:13:00.013-04:00

Yikes, it has been almost a month since I last posted! April has flown by.

We had a lovely vacation in Barbados, We rented this house, complete with pool and a car, in Holetown. It was a block from the beach. My husband found it while doing Internet searches for rental villas. It had rave reviews from previous renters and they were accurate.

It was a lovely base to explore the island. The beaches are very different depending on what side of the island they are on. My sons preferred the waves of this Atlantic side beach, to the tranquil scenic and tourist populated Caribbean Sea beaches.

We were the only people at this beach and the waves were quite strong. I sat on the sand admiring the view and at the same time praying I did not have to use my rusty lifesaving skills.

We toured caves, watched monkeys swinging through the trees, went sailing, swam with enormous sea turtles, and ate a lot of fresh fish. We ate in a couple of nights and I cooked some of the unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, like christophenes, and breadfruit ,we found in the local grocery store. I downloaded recipes off the Internet (the rental house had a computer with high speed access). I especially enjoyed that.

Barbados is one of few Caribbean islands, of the 17 or so I have visited, that has fabric stores. I had hoped to visit the stores and write about my visit. Unfortunately with the limited time, and being the only vote for "fabric shopping", I wasn’t able to visit any of them.

I returned from the beautiful tropical weather, and the bright colors of the houses and flowers, to the task of finishing up the jacket for my SWAP. A jacket made of brown wool. It was a bit of a chore. I so wanted to be sewing summer clothes in bright colors and light fabrics. But I got it done. The instructions are in the Dec 08 issues of Lady Boutique magazine.

.The jacket style is a slight variation of the jacket wearable muslin I made earlier. The same collar, which goes with the tops beautifully, but more fitted, with a piped sewn on belt. I also added piping to the front edge. I originally made the piping out of a weathered leather look vinyl, but the belt with the vinyl piping proved to be so heavy, it affected the hang of the jacket. I made more piping of brown silk dupiani. It worked much better. The jacket fits fine and coordinates with all the other garments in my SWAP. Now I have to take pictures. The clothes in my SWAP are winter clothes. Last weekend, which would have been a great time to take pictures, the temperatures were in the low 90’s. I have a tentative agreement to pay my teenage sons to take photos of me wearing the garments in locations or doing activities where I would wear them in a typical week. But I didn’t want be red faced and "hot and bothered" in the outside pictures. So I pushed my luck and put off the photography sessions, hoping for some cooler days before the submission deadline. Looks like my luck is good, as it is in the 60's today. I hope the cooler weather will continue tomorrow, which I have off for the company "Derby Day" holiday. A tradition left over from the time the company I work for had a plant in Louisville, Kentucky. Rather than deal will high absenteeism, and on the job intoxication the Friday before the Kentucky Derby race, they closed the whole plant. The Louisville plant is long gone, but hurray for traditions!

SWAP Diary April 3rd

2009-04-03T22:12:00.008-04:00

I finally finished the next item in my SWAP. A pair of brown denim jeans. In preparation for drafting a jeans pattern, I did a lot of reading and research which included the following;

1. Measured favorite well fitting jeans.

2. Studied the instructions for drafting jeans in various pattern drafting sources to see how patterns are drafted for different shapes. These included;
Weekend Designer Jean Draft
Metric Pattern Drafting for women’s wear, by Winifred Aldrich.

3. Took my own personal hip and waist circumference measurements in front and back segments, not just full circumferences. Anna Zapp describes this in her book “The Zapp Method of Couture Sewing” and sewing instructor Cynthia Guffey also demos this in her pants fitting classes. But Cynthia advocates takes measurements every two inches from waist to hip. From this I learned I need more fabric in the front at 2 inches below my waist for my tummy, and then back equals front until 8 inches down from waist when the back need more fabric because of my butt. This is shown below on a dress form. Put a piece of tape on both sides from waist to hip. Mark 2 inch increments.on the tape starting at waist. Measure from centerline of tape on one side to centerline of tape on the other side, on both back and front at each 2 inch increment.

4. Turned a few pairs of well fitted RTW pants inside out, with one leg inside the other, so I could look at the shape of the crotch seam as well as the amount of space between the center back and front seams.

5. Re-read Threads magazine articles "Making Jeans that Fit" (Mar 2004) and" Design Your Own Jeans" (May 2008), The lengthy answer to a Fitting column question about crotch length in the March issue was very helpful too.

I made a muslin of the pattern out of a red and tan checked fabric so I would have woven vertical and horizontal lines in my muslin. They looked like clown pants. During one fitting session, DH happened to see them and asked diplomatically "Where are you going to wear those pants? I assured him they were not going to be worn in public. My personal shape is a low flat butt, high rounded tummy, and no leg curvature below the widest part of hip. Many RTW pants, and especially McCalls and Butterick patterns, which fit in the waist, have too much fabric in the butt and outer thigh. Sure enough the muslin had excess fabric in the outer thighs, and at the top back center seam. There were issues in the crotch area and I ended up adding 3/4 inch to the front and back crotch length at the crotch point. On all the LB pants pattern drafts, the center line of the pant leg is equal distance from the crotch point and the side, and it is used as a reference for all dart and styling detail. So I also had to re balance the leg patterns around the new center line and redraw the darts and pockets. I really need to draft only the basic shape and fit it, before drafting style details. It would save me a lot of time and effort.

The finished jeans fit okay. I think they need some tweaking; scoop out the front crotch to address the wrinkles there and remove even more excess fabric in the back side legs. They are a little long in the crotch, but I can’t change that easily with all the top stitched yokes near the waist. I may slim down the legs even more.

But all this will have to wait for a couple weeks, until after we return from our spring break trip to Barbados. Right now, I need to find out if my bathing suits still fit, check the expiration date on the sun block lotions left over from last year, sort through the snorkeling gear,…….later guys!

SWAP Diary Mar 10 2009

2009-03-10T22:51:00.010-04:00

Awards and Recommendations

I have been nominated for the Sisterhood Award, first by Linda and also by Kim. Thanks so much, ladies! I want to take some time to nominate some deserving folks who haven't received the award yet and that will take more time than I have right now. Look for them in the future.

I also need to thank Elizabeth J., a reader of the Australian sewing magazine Stitches who wrote to the magazine and recommended my blog as well as those of Tany, Shannon and Gretchen. We were all included in the regular "Internet Sites" feature of Vol 16, No 11 issue, complete with pictures and a short write up. I’ll tell you it gave me a heart fluttering shock to be reading my new issue of Stitches’ and come across that. The noise I uttered made my husband, who was calmly reading the newspaper nearby, think I needed medical attention. No, just terrifically and pleasantly surprised. Thanks Elizabeth!

SWAP Update

On the SWAP sewing front; I have completed another top and bottom. The bottom is a flared calf length skirt with 8 panels. It is made out of a brown twill woven polyester fabric.Here is what the drafting instructions look like. The picture in the magazine wasn't good enough to post.

It has the flare and swirl I was looking for. I wanted to wear it out to a play with the Missoni knit top from the previous post, so I sewed it up quickly with very cursory measurement checks and no fitting. My diet and exercise must be working. The skirt is very loose in the waist and hips. I need to go back and sew slightly larger seam allowances on each panel to make it more fitted.

The top is a deep V neck T-shirt with a neck band and modesty panel. The drafting instructions were in the 10-08 issue of Lady Boutique.It is made of rayon/lycra knit purchased from Lucys Fabrics. This website is a good source for rayon/lycra knits at very reasonable prices. Though their new web site is not loading on my computer very well. Hope they get that fixed.

The style appealed to me because it was a interesting variation on a basic V neck T-shirt pattern and it was made in a striped print similar to my fabric.

I have one bottom and the jacket to complete. The bottom is a pair of brown jeans. I can't decide whether to make a fitted straight leg jean or a looser trouser type jean. The first will require more fitting efforts. As to the jacket, do you remember that foot of snow in last week’s picture? Well, the weather flopped back to the other extreme this week, it was 83 degrees yesterday. I am not real motivated to make a lined wool jacket. I want to pull out my spring and summer fabrics and make something for warm weather.

Swap Diary 3-2-09 Missoni Madness

2009-03-02T17:21:00.011-05:00

I really enjoyed helping with the packing tape dress form double class last weekend. I think the best part of it was chatting with the person I was wrapping and getting to know them better. One of the participants, Kim has posted some pictures on her blog. Warning, she is a trim young thing that looks good even wrapped up in paper.

Last Sunday, I was hoping to get in a little sewing until DH mentioned he wanted to go to a HAM Radio show and a computer show in northern VA (2 hour drive north). The computer show was .25 miles from the Chantilly G Street Fabric store so I printed some emailed G Street coupons, and reluctantly (not) agreed to ride along.

I found some very nice fabric at G Street. In particular the $2.97(dig through the crap for treasures)/yard table yielded pieces of gold and teal knits, both colors in my current SWAP. The teal was a super stretchy rib knit. I purchased them to use as possible trim pieces with a Missoni type knit I wanted to use for my SWAP. This knit was purchased from an on line vendor years ago before the “authentic” Missoni knits starting showing up on fabric sites. It is a blend, which includes a lot of acrylic. I really dislike acrylic knits. There is no recovery in this knit. I wanted to make a casual sweater to wear on the weekends, but whatever I made out it had to go under the SWAP jacket. I have been collecting inspiration pictures for this fabric. Here are a couple.

I decided to make a cross over top, and use the teal knit rib knit as binding on all the edges to keep the fabric from stretching out of shape and sagging. The style would work under a jacket because it was close fitting, and it would work proportion wise with the pants and long skirt in my SWAP. I used a basic V neck. T-shirt pattern with set in sleeves, from Lady Boutique magazine, morphed with the front cross over curves of this New Look pattern. I did modify the bottom curve of the front to starts 2 “ lower on hip than the NL pattern.
I ironed a very lightweight interfacing to all the outer edges of the sweater and the arm hole edges to prevent stretching while I sewed on the banding.

It worked great. The finished width of the bands is 1” wide, which was the same width as many of the color bands in the fabric.I did stretch the banding slightly as I attached it. Though the front “V” is a little plunging, the rib knit trim holds the edge against my skin. I will be wearing a scoop neck T-shirt or turtleneck under this sweater on most occasions.

Today was a snow day, no work or school because of a record snowfall last night. However snow days are not much fun when the electricity is off for 8 hours. This picture was taken on the deck and you can see the accumulation on the railing. I know you northerners are scoffing, but this is central Virginia, and this is a lot of snow for us. In fact my two gleeful sons have interrupted me to report that school is officially closed tomorrow also. Alas, the roads are clear so I will be expected to show up for work.

SWAP Diary Feb 20

2009-02-20T19:58:00.010-05:00

Stitcher’s Guild published SWAP 2009 Posting and voting guidelines last week and a mild panicky feeling started up in my stomach. Only 2 months to go. If I am going to complete this SWAP, I need to get into production mode, to
"motorvate" as my kids say. I actually sew faster than I blog about sewing. So far I have 6 items completed. 1 blouse wearable muslin that I have decided to include as a top, 3 other tops, 2 pair of pants and wearable muslin of the jacket that could actually be used as the SWAP jacket in a pinch.

Items remaining: brown jeans, skirt, official SWAP jacket and two tops.

Blouse No 3 is fitted with multiple vertical darts front and back, and a “V” neck trimmed with ruffles. From the Nov 08 issue of Lady Boutique, page 251. Another fitted blouse drafted this time using the angled bottom sloper. The magazine picture shows it made up in striped shirting fabric. I liked the use of striped menswear type shirting, for a fitted woman’s blouse with ruffles.
I felt confident enough about this blouse to skip the muslin. The front is rather clever, the outermost ruffle starts just above the waist on the right side, goes around the neck and back down the left front to end 4 inches above the right side. At the center front there is a band between the outer ruffle and the inner ruffle. It narrows to nothing as it approaches the shoulder seam. In the front, the band and the offsetting of the ruffles causes them to overlap from alternating sides and they lay fairly flat. Along the back neckline the two ruffles are sewn one on top of the other and they stand up. It is hard to describe, Hope the picture show it. I really like the blouse, though it might be a bit too frilly for some.

I have also completed a pair of teal wool gabardine pants from one drafted pattern and a pair of brown wool flannel from another. I will post on the "adventures" of pants pattern drafting and fitting later.

The proposed SWAP jacket is a basic style with princess seams and a collar (Oct 08 issue, page 237) This jacket is designed to accommodate removable fur trim, between the outer fabric and the facing, around the front edge. I wasn’t quite ready to mock up that detail in the wearable muslin. The fabric for the wearable muslin was a teal and black wool tweed. During the time I was planning the jacket, I read a couple of blogs where the writers were using silks from www.fabricmartfabrics.com silk bundles.
Shannon to line a skirt and Renee to make ties for her friend. Post showing ties is on her old blogspot blog,which she did not replicate, sorry Inspired by them, I decided to use two pieces from my silk bundles, a teal gold stripe for piping, and gold jacquard for facings on the turn back cuffs. The jacket fronts butt up to each other which means the piping on the edges would be next to each other. I wanted the stripes on the center front piping to be mirror images of each other. To do that I had to cut strips of the striped fabric at 45 degree angles from both selvedge edges. So on one side the stripes went from left to right and the other from right to left. I assembled the bias strips so that the stripes were symmetrical around a seam that would be placed at the collar center back. I hand basted the piping to the garment front and collar to control the placement of the stripes and to prevent stretching, and then attached the facings.

I tried on the jacket bodice and it appeared to fit fine. But once I inserted the sleeves and tried it on again with shoulder pads. I discovered the shoulders were too wide and so was the back width between the armholes. Sure enough, in a comparison to a RTW jacket, the SWAP jacket shoulders was 1 inch wider and so was the back width.
I took the sleeves out, including sleeve heads (grr), moved the armholes in ½ inch on each side, and inserted the sleeves again. It was worth it. The jacket fits much better. But know I am not so sure it will be my SWAP jacket. The style just seems a little boring.
.

I hope to sew a this weekend, but Saturday I am assisting with a packing tape dress form double class for 10 members of our ASG Fashion Focus neighborhood group. It should be fun for me and hopefully worthwhile for the participants. I find my packing tape dress form double, Verite, invaluable for working out pattern fitting issues. She is my second custom dress form. Back in the early 80’s my mom wrapped me in plaster impregnated cheesecloth to create a dress form. And plaster releases heat as it cures. Hey mom, remember that? I think there are some pictures stored away somewhere. I had the same basic body shape (notice I did not say size), including the asymmetry, forward shoulders, etc. when I was in my 20’s; pre kids. So the theory that carrying kids on your hip, and a career spent hunching over computer keyboards changes your bone structure is not valid for me.

Vogue 1087 Donna Karan Dress

2009-02-03T22:49:00.012-05:00

I was working on pants pattern drafting and fitting for SWAP and needed a break . Okay, a bit of honesty here. I am not happy that the Christmas cookies I ate are still residing on my hips. So while I step up my exercise and decrease my food intake to dislodge the pesky things, I decided to sew something else. I had a whole pile of new Vogue patterns lying on my sewing table. Vogue 1087 was on top.

It is discribed as a fitted dress, below mid knee, with pleated and tucked front forming wrap effect. Front extends to back at sides, back with zipper and hemline vent. No side seams. My initial thoughts about this dress, while studying the picture on the front of the pattern envelope, was "what a neat dress, but is it wearable by the average woman?" Then I noticed that the dress has a fairly fitted bottom, like a pencil skirt, with long fabric extensions, straps with tucking and pleating, which crisscross the body and go over the shoulders forming an X shape. The eye follows the straps up and outward, or at least mine did, so I thought there might be a good chance that this dress would give an hourglass shape to my pear shaped one. And the recommend fabrics are stable knits, which are easy to sew. I have lots of this kind of knit, including a red piece donated from a friend that was reducing her stash (no preconceived plans for it and it didn’t cost me a thing ) And I have a Valentines day event coming up. All the justification I needed!

I verified flat pattern measurements and I pin fit the pattern on my paper tape dress form before cutting it out. I had to make a full center front piece to do this.

The draped/tucked pattern pieces looked pretty crinkled and messy, but it gave me a good idea of the construction and fitting issues. It showed me that the dress is truly fitted and that I needed to make a size 16 top/18 bottom combo.And that I was pushing the limit of the built in ease on the bottom.(those darn cookies again). I added some length to the bodice center back as I always do to any top pattern. And two inches in length at the skirt "lengthen/ shorten here" lines. The lengthen/shorten lines cut right through the seam for the center front piece which curves from center front to back hem, so I had to realign the curves using my curve sticks. Curve sticks are pattern drafting tools that have long gentle curves. Great for this kind of alteration, and crotch to knee seams when drafting pants.

The "Advanced" rating of this pattern is well deserved. There are so many matching marks, squares, little circles, big circles, and triangles on this multi size pattern. I resorted to coloring the ones I needed for my size. I had to reread the directions many times, study the pictures and do the folding on the pattern pieces before actually doing it on the fabric. The instructions were fine. It was just that the pattern pieces were so odd shaped and the pleating with hidden tack stiches so unfamiliar, it just took longer for my brain to process it all.

The issue that puzzled me the most was the front bodice pattern piece. This is a piece with the horizontal neckline that is under the crisscrossed straps. It has four darts in it for bust shaping and attaches to the side seam of the bodice back pieces. It hangs free in the center like one of those triangular modesty panels that you can put in a deep V neckline. The picture below is the dress on the dressform before the straps are draped over the bodice.

The paper pattern piece is full width, but I assumed it was symmetrical until I cut the interfacing and didn’t bother to make sure the pattern piece was face up on the non fusible side. It is not symmetrical. The two bust darts on one side have different dimensions and are different distances from each other.

One side seam is also ½ inch shorter than the other.

Now I could understand one short side for a dress like this where there is some asymmetry. The two strap pieces are different shapes and lengths, because one goes under the other. But I would think that on a pattern piece that has a horizontal neckline and is shaped around the bust, the bust points should be the same distance from the center line and from the top edge and the darts should create the same cup shape. Also the markings on the back side seam are the same for left and right and the instructions do not differentiate with text or pictures between the left and right sides. I puzzled over this for quite a while. Here is what I chose to do. I determined which side of the bodice piece matched the bodice back side seam (the LHS). I used that side of the pattern piece, putting the center line of the pattern along the fold of the fabric, to cut out symmetrical front bodice pieces. It seemed to work. I don’t know if this pattern piece is correct or not. I have sent a copy of the pattern piece and my questions to Vogue.

I finally got the dress together and the drapes/pleats actually look like the picture on the pattern. Only dislikes are the back darts are made to the outside, which doesn't seem to tie in with any other details of the dress. They poke out funny on me. I think I will resew them to the inside. And I think I will make a lining/slip of some red tricot for the skirt, attaching it to the waistline seam in the back and under all thr crisscrossing in the front.

I enjoyed the challenge. I think the dress turned out well and looks okay on me. I think it would look stunning on someone with a youthful hourglass figure.

SWAP Diary Jan 27 2009

2009-01-27T22:30:00.012-05:00

Blouse 2 - Pleated Back Collar.

This pattern uses the Lady Boutique rounded bottom sloper as the basis for the drafting instructions. I had previously drafted this sloper to my personal measurements.

I drafted the blouse pattern pieces using the diagrams in the magazine. I shortened the shoulders by 1.5 cm. and raised the armholes 2 cm. on this blouse too. I see a trend here with LB drafting instructions ….. Either I will have to do this for every pattern I draft from this magazine or working backwards I can adjust my personal sloper to factor in the assumtions that there will be an armhole enlargement in all drafting instructions.

I was still not feeling confident enough to skip a muslin. This one was made in a cotton blend. A tie dye print with multicolored couched threads on top. It was one of those fabrics that I bought because I thought the color and texture was interesting up-close. I really need to remember to step back and view fabric from a distance, like it would be seen by someone else if it were a garment on a body. After I got the fabric home, it turned into one of those “what was I thinking” fabrics

When I tried on the completed muslin I got a bit of a surprise. With all my measuring, it hadn’t occurred to me to make sure the sleeve cuffs, formed by sewn pleats, would fit over my hands. They didn’t.

So the pleats are a little skimpy on the muslin and the appropriate changes were made to the sleeve pattern. Once I could get the muslin on, I was pleased to find that the neckline fit well. The neckline worried me the most going into this project.

The fit in the torso was loose. I had envisioned a semi fitted over blouse because the fabric I planned to use was a stiffer silk dupianni.

So to get the shape I wanted, I shorten the bodice pattern pieces by 2 inches to end at the high hip, and deepened the darts in the waist area extending them down to the hip to get a smoother look. Since the dart now took up fabric at the hip area, I had to add the same amount to the side seam. I took out about 2 inches in the bust area at the side seam. And because I did not want to change the arm hole shape (requires redrafting the sleeves) I pivoted the arm hole from the shoulder point to match the new side seam. (A technique found in Nancy Zeiman’s Busy Woman’s Fitting Book) I also added a center back seam for more shaping and faced the hem edge instead of using a turned hem as suggested. I am not a neat pattern drafter/modifier. When I got done with all these changes, I had so many different lines and bits of tissue paper taped to the original pattern, it is a real mess. I have to work on being neater.

The blouse turned out just as I envisioned.

The fabric is a rather light weight silk dupiani print purchased back in 2005 from www.fabricmartfabrics.com according to my Stash Inventory database. Because of the weight of the fabric, I decided to line the bodice with camel colored Bemberg rayon to prevent wrinkles and reduce stress on the seams.

SWAP Diary Jan 14 2009

2009-01-14T22:29:00.015-05:00

I decided to start with a simple blouse for my first SWAP drafting attempt. It is semi fitted with front and back vertical darts, a stand collar, and long sleeves with cuffs.

There are several different ways the patterns are presented in Lady Boutique (LB) magazine.
1. Instructions that specify the pattern measurements for each size
2. Pre printed patterns in limited sizes on a tear out insert
3. Drafting instruction which give dimensions for style details (collars, sleeve type, darts, pleats, etc) that you add to one of the 3 different slopers you have already drafted to your personal measurements.

This blouse was type number 1. The drafting instructions were specific measurements for Japanese sizes 9 and 13. (Not to be confused with US Jr. sizes). Based on a comparison of my body measurements to those in the size charts, I was a combo of Size 13 on top and 15 on bottom. But when I added up the finished pattern measurements in key spots, like bust, waist and hip, I found there were huge amounts of ease built into the pattern. Over 6 inches in the bust. Way too much for a fitted blouse with darts in my opinion. My favorite RTW blouses have at the most 4 inches of ease in the bust. So I used the dimensions for a size 9 on top, and a size 13 below waist, lengthening the torso and sleeves. I drafted all the pattern pieces including sleeve collar and cuffs. When I tried on the muslin, the torso fit great. The darts hit the waist and bust correctly. But the bottom of the arm hole was below my arm pit.

I measured the arm hole opening on some RTW blouses and a BWOF blouse and found that LB pattern arm hole opening was about 2 in (5 cm) larger and almost an inch lower. So I extended the side seam up and redrafted the armhole opening to be about the length of the RTW blouses. Then I had to redraft the sleeve pattern. I checked that the drafted sleeve in the bicep area was as wide as my RTW blouses and long enough to reach my wrist. Everything looked good.

An important lesson I learned from this experience: Draft and fit bodice patterns before drafting sleeve and collar. Believe me at this point the urge to go back to my TNT ( Tried n’ True) patterns was strong.

The fabric for the wearable muslin was a floral print of a roughly 50/50 blend of wool and cotton in a twill weave, which I believe is called Viyella. This was from my stash. It was purchased from Imaginations fabric club (some of you will be able to date it using with that info). It was very soft, surprisingly wrinkle resistant, and a real joy to sew. I am surprised that more of this type of fabric is not available now.

The completed wearable muslin fit well. But I felt the collar stood away from my neck in the front too much. So for the official swap blouse I raised the center front neckline to be closer to my neck, and because I did this, I had to redraft the collar to fit the new neckline.

The SWAP blouse is made of a silk print and was quick to sew once all the pattern alterations were complete.

I actually like the muslin so much I plan to add a different collar to it and use it for the SWAP. Not the same experience I had with the next blouse. More on that soon.

SWAP Diary Jan 11 2009

2009-01-11T19:35:00.006-05:00

I started sewing my 2009 SWAP garments during my 2 week holiday vacation. I spent a lot of time and effort planning prior to that. Some of it wasted on daydreaming about the lifestyle and the clothes I would like to make versus what my lifestyle really requires.Digging through my stash for coordinating fabrics, and perusing pattern magazines. I was ambivalent about churning out 11 garments for my current lifestyle and size again this year. I decided to incorporate a personal sewing/development goal into my SWAP. I want to improve my pattern drafting skills, so I challenged myself to draft all the patterns from instructions in the various Japanese pattern magazines I have accumulated. I chose the challenging "SWAP Trail". Most of the garments I chose came from issues of Lady Boutique, a Japanese monthly pattern magazine that features garments for the "housewife". The styles in Lady Boutique are a bit more conservative and traditional (Western style) than the other well known Japanese pattern magazine Mrs Stylebook. The quality of the photographs and printed pages are not as "glossy", and the age of the models is older (30, 40 and 50’s). There are lots of jackets and skirts, with a smaller number of knit tops, blouses and pants. The styles I selected are similar to those found in the big four pattern brands; Vogue, McCalls, etc., and that is actually my safety net. I wanted to be able to compare my drafted patterns to ones I had already made or that I knew would fit me based on past experience. And if I really start struggling with the drafted patterns, I wanted the option of abandoning them and switching to the big four patterns. Here is my storyboard.

and my fabrics.

Drafting instructions and pictures from the magazine are in my Flickr SWAP 2009 folder (link is on sidebar)

So far I am doing well. I have made wearable muslins of 2 blouses, 1 pair of pants and the jacket. And have completed one blouse and pair of pants. All were "learning experiences". More to come in the near future.

Christmas Eve 2008

2008-12-24T20:20:00.006-05:00

Whew! All the gifts are wrapped including two pairs of these boxer shorts which I finished sewing this morning. The pattern was Kwik Sew 7672 and it is fairly easy. It took me about two and a half hours to make both pairs. But I have made the pattern before. Now the recipients can be fan-tastic down to their skivvies. In addition to what they typically wear when watching a game which is the jersey of a favorite player and goofy hats with black and gold fleece dread locks. All the while waving their “terrible towels”. I am usually sewing at the other end of the house during these football games. But I can usually tell how the game is going by the cheers and groans. Since both pairs of shorts are the same size, I stamped the name of one recipient on the inside waistband of one pair in permanent ink. Otherwise neither owner will claim owning the dirty pair laying on the bathroom floor, but they will both claim the clean pair in the laundry basket. While making these, I got to use the new Gingher dressmaking scissors which were an early Christmas gift from my MIL. They make cutting a pleasure. They also made me realize how dull my regular sewing scissors are. I really need to be more conscientious about getting my sewing scissors sharpened every year. It is time for me to relax with some mulled wine and listen to holiday music. Wishing everyone a happy holiday season!

Another Party Dress

2008-12-09T20:44:00.023-05:00

The past two weeks have been busy. Several visits with family members and another holiday party. One more week of work and I am off until the new year. I can't wait.

Thanksgiving was very enjoyable. My parents, MIL , 2 of 3 siblings and their families came to visit for a few days. The absent sister called while we were eating our Thanksgiving turkey dinner, so we put her on speaker phone and acted like she was sitting right there with us. Which meant we all talked at once and she couldn't get a word in edgewise. She is a couple hours behind us, living in AZ, and she had just put her turkey in the oven. My brother chose the adult beverages for the occasion and we were all very amused by the label of this particular wine he had chosen.

The wine was very good and after a few bottles we were ready to do reckless, irresponsible things like the label suggested. Not really, we had to be role models for the teens in the family, but it was a very nice wine for a reasonable price.

Three days after my family departed, my SIL and her family arrived for an early Christmas visit. It was fun, but rushed. My nephews have an internet business and holiday sales are brisk, so they had to get back home to PA and fill orders. We did appreciate the effort they made to be part of this visit.

As I mentioned before I enjoy making dresses for holiday parties. In the midst of all the visits, I had another holiday party. The Cotillion Holy Ball. I wrote about Cotillion last year. My youngest son enjoys attending the dances and this one, in Dec, is used to collect money for charity. Parents attend and dance the last dances with their children, mothers with sons, fathers with daughters. My husband and I were official chaperones for the event and our son was a March Leader for the first dance (He got his name in the paper). But the best part, from my point of view, is that chaperones have reserved seats in the balcony where they can watch the dancing. All other parents have to stand around the periphery of a very crowded dance floor for an hour. So I got to wear some killer heels. Right after my Thanksgiving guests’ cars backed out of the driveway, I flew to the closets where I have hidden my sewing stuff and pulled out some potential dress patterns. After much indecision, I picked McCalls 5746, a fitted sheath type dress with lots of darts. They all originate near the center front/back and radiate outward.

I chose a dark teal blue wool crepe and lighter colored acetate lining from my stash. I made the version with the gathered sleeves because they create horizontal lines on top to balance out my larger bottom half. The top was a little big on me. I had to shorten the bodice front. I also sewed the bodice side seams straight up, taking out the extra fabric at the under arms. These are the exact same changes the Palmer Pletsch fitting instructor did on my McCalls Palmer Pletsch fitting shell pattern. I lengthened the skirt 5 inches because I am 2 " taller than the height of the pattern model and wanted a slightly longer skirt to cover up my knees. I am amazed at how well this dress fits. The darts are in all the right places for my shape. The center front seam was handy for shaping the front neckline to prevent gaping. This dress even looked good before I put on my "hold it all in" shaping undergarments . The teal is dark enough to give a sliming effect, but it isn’t black, which I don’t like to wear near my face. The sleeveless version, before the sleeves were sewn in, looked good too. Danvillegirl was working on the sleeveless version of this pattern at the same time I was working on mine.

The belt was made from a jacquard woven ribbon with metallic threads. The ribbon was hand tacked to the waistline seam and I used two snaps to hold it closed in the back.

The sleeves are self faced. Made of two layers of crepe, they tended to droop. So on the day of the event I scrambled to find instructions for making sleeve heads. I used the instructions in Couture, The Art of Fine Sewing by Roberta Carr. This book was published in the early 1990’s when big shoulders were in fashion. It has a chapter devoted to different sleeve heads to keep the shape in gathered, pleated, or darted sleeves. They were actually quick to make and worked great. They basically looked like this.

I see gathered sleeves starting to appear in RTW and patterns again. While most aren't big enough to require sleeve heads, those of you that sew costumes, or little girl's heirloom dresses might be interested in the instructions for making them.

Sleeve Head Instructions

Source: Couture, The Art of Fine Sewing by Roberta Carr

1. Measure distance between gathering points. Mine was 7.25 inches.

2.Cut a rectangle of organza 2 times the length of the distance measured in step 1. and 5 inches wide. So mine was 14.5 by 5 inches.

3.Fold rectangle lengthwise so that one side is 3" and the other 2"
4.Gather folded rectangle along folded edge using two lines of gathering stitches>
5. Sew along gathered edge with straight stitch or serger to hold gathers in place.
6. Hand sew gathered edge of sleeve head, with 3 inch side to the sleeve, to armhole seam using catch stitch. This keeps the sleeve head from adding bulk to the sleeve seam.

Plethora of Purple

2008-11-16T13:27:00.015-05:00

I finally finished the purple wool jacket. It was a lot of work. Here is a picture of it worn with the matching pants. I like how the lighter purple looks like a short cropped jacket. But together the pants and jacket are a lot of purple. I would not normally wear it without a blouse. Though my photographer thought it was a good look, and actually wanted the zipper pulled down a bit. Boys, don't they ever grow up? I had to put up with his wise cracks because I dragged him away from the football game, during the commercials, to take the picture. I have quite a few blouse fabrics that coordinate with this color purple. They include the purple/orange and purple/green prints shown below, and a purple/sky blue stipe and a purple/red print.

This time of year is very busy. I am hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner this year, so a lot of my spare time has been spent painting, removing wallpaper, recovering dining room chairs, etc. "Spiffing" up the house in preparation for the guests. Holiday parties are starting to appear on the calendar and I always want to make a new dress for these events. The first one is tomorrow night. The young engineer, that my husband mentors at work, is receiving an award. My husband and I have been invited to the award dinner. I thought that was very nice. I whipped up Vogue 1056 yesterday in a magenta wool knit that has been in my stash for at least 15 years. Despite being stored in a box with moth balls, it had some holes and fading . Cutting it out took the most time. In addintion to working around the fading and holes, there are some odd shaped pieces that have to be cut out of a single layer of fabric. But it is quick to sew , including the slip like lining , which is included in the pattern. I am not putting on makeup or proper undergarments today so a picture of me actually wearing it will come later.

SWAP - Sewing with a Plan

This year, Stitchers Guild Sewing Forum SWAP Discussion is sponsoring the SWAP contest. The rules are pretty generic. Make eleven coordinating garments, 1 jacket, 6 tops and 4 bottoms between Nov and April. The garments must reflect items that you would wear in a typical week of your life. I do plan to participate, but will not do any serious sewing until after Thanksgiving. I have a couple of piles of coordinating fabric in different colors sitting out in view, auditioning for this years SWAP. To make the contest more interesting for me personally, I am considering making all my garments from patterns I draft myself. For the most part, they would be from the instructions in the Japanese pattern magazines Mrs Stylebook and Lady Boutique. I have subscriptions to both and want to motivate myself to use them more, and justify the expense. Speaking of subscriptions, I received the Patrones Especial Fiesta magazine yesterday and just love, love, love this Versace dress. Ignore the way is it worn in the photo, what were they thinking? and look at the line drawing. I love the look of a black sleeveless dress with the pleated tuxedo shirt bib in front and back. I wonder if it could be worn with a cropped black jacket. Something to think about while I paint.

Small Thrills

2008-10-24T09:23:00.010-04:00

Some of my sewn garments were professionally photographed yesterday. It was totally unplanned. The company was updating it “Employee Pictorial Archive”, the collection of employee photos used in company brochures or booklets, typically published around subjects like Diversity, Key Values, Benefits, or Work/Life Balance. A very persuasive co-worker was trolling the offices looking for volunteers. Evidently the email solicitation effort wasn’t successful. And I, thinking it was the regular company photographer said yes. I didn’t even check hair and makeup. Rounding the corner and seeing two unfamiliar photographers and two assistants slowed my steps, but I figured what the heck, if the pictures are crummy, they won’t use them. Ha, Ha, my husband laughed later, as he told me about one of his coworkers, whose unflattering picture had appeared in every company brochure in the past 5 years. I was dressed “business casual” because I was in the factory, having presented to the Factory Management team earlier in the morning. I had on a wine suede jacket sewn from Vogue Pattern 2679 back in 2007 for an ASG meeting presentation I gave on sewing leather; a black turtleneck and the black wool tick weave pants with the pleather yoke made from Vogue Pattern 2987.

They had me pose leaning casually on the balcony railing, both smiling at the camera and staring pensively off in the distance. All the time they were enthusing about the quality of the light coming through the 3 story glass wall opposite the balcony. I was just hoping it was flattering to middle aged features. Then they had me in the same pose holding a folder with the company logo. Like I’d just read something profound and was pondering the implications. Perhaps decreasing sales and possible workforce reductions? Which is actually happening here. No, No! Happy thoughts please, no furrowed brows. Then they did close-ups of my hands and the folder. Fortunately my nails were clean and all the same length. Those who know me know that I am very much an introvert. Doing this kind of thing takes an enormous amount of physical and mental effort in order to overcome my inherent reclusive tendencies. Sometimes I do things to that require me to get out of my comfort zone, but it has to happen impulsively like this did, or I over think it and retreat. All in all it was fun. And I hope they are kind when choosing pictures for the next company brochure.

Double Faced versus Double Cloth

2008-10-14T20:08:00.014-04:00

I think there is sometimes confusion between "double cloth" and "double faced" fabric. The best definitions I found were in the book "Sew Any Fabric" by Nancy Zieman and Clair Schaeffer. Double cloth is a reversible fabric which can be separated into two pieces of cloth with completely different weaves, colors or patterns. Like this burgundy/oatmeal wool. If you look closely you can see the black threads that hold the two layers together.
Double cloth fabrics are particularly attractive when used for unlined garments. Two good articles about sewing double cloth are Sewing Double Cloth by Claire Shaeffer in the Feb/March 2008 Vogue Patterns magazine. Back issues can be purchased at the Vogue patterns website. Anna Mazar wrote an article on Reversible Techniques for Double Cloth that was in the March 2006 issue (123) of Threads Magazine. Ralph Rucci is a designer that uses this fabric in very unique garments, as Mem commented on the last post.

Double faced or two faced fabrics are reversible fabrics with two attractive sides that can look the same on both sides or have different colors or patterns. Unlike double cloth, they cannot be separated into two pieces of cloth. They also are well suited for reversible and unlined jackets and coats. But very different sewing techniques are used for the seaming and edge finishing of these two fabrics.

My purple fabric is double faced. I chose to use both sides of the fabric for the same jacket, but it will not be reversible. I also plan to line it because the fabric is wool and itchy. I did not line the pants and they are really uncomfortable to wear. I have to insert a lining before I can wear them for any length of time. I have always wanted to make an unlined/reversible jacket, using double faced fabric, from one of the Vogue patterns by the designer Adri. Like this one, Vogue 1055.Her jackets are unlined, with one piece collars. All the seams are finished by turning under the raw edges of the seam allowance and top stitching or with bias binding. So one side of the jacket would be all one color but the other would have the 2nd color showing as part of this seam finishes.

Purple Progress

I chose to sew jacket design 4 from the previous post. I still like the others a lot, but plan to make them in different fabrics. Option 1 in a tan/black linen for summer and Option 2 in a two color grey wool.
The jacket I chose is proving to be rather labor intensive. I had to make two jacket fronts, one a no collar "v" neck, and the second with a collar and lapel. The lapel front is laid over the "v" neck and they are attached to each other at the princess seam and the shoulder seam.

This means there are up to 3 layers of fabric on the front shoulder area and at the princess seam. The Burda directions were difficult to understand, but once I realize that I had to make two separate fronts, and how they were attached to each other, it became much clearer. The instructions for applying the front zipper are different than any method I have ever used before or seen in a RTW garment. It says "make rectangular faced slots for the zip in the front facing edges." and then goes on to give step by step instructions to do so. Like you would make for an exposed zipper. But just in the inside. On the outside the zipper teeth are hidden under the fabric on either side of the center front seam. I would think a slot in the facing would leave the back of the zipper teeth exposed to catch on a blouse or against bare skin. I plan to try it first on a sample to see if there is an advantage or more professional look to this method. I will take pictures.

Jacket Patterns for Double Faced Fabric - Too Many Choices!

2008-10-02T19:45:00.010-04:00

I am trying to decide on a pattern for a jacket to be made of a double faced worsted wool that is a deep purple on one side and a muted magenta on the other. I want to use both sides/colors in the jacket. I am a sucker for woven fabrics that are one color on one side and another color on the other. My justification for buying them is that it is doubly versatile; two fabrics in one! I have a piece with a light grey side and a dark grey side, a piece with forest green on one side and olive green on the other, and another with a muted orange on one side and grey on the reverse. And that is just the wools. I won’t list the knits and linens. You get the picture. Burda World of Fashion Magazines often have jacket patterns that call for two coordinating fabrics. The patterns could also be made using both sides of double faced fabric. Here are 4 possible pattern choices for jacket that I like. I printed copies of the jacket line drawings (scanned and enlarged 100%), cut them out and colored them. The colors are not exactly like my fabric, but they are in the right color family with enough contrast to illustrate the idea. I made pants using the dark color last year, and I plan to wear the jacket with the matching pants.

BWOF Jacket May-2002 No. 104

Light color on top would make it look like a cropped jacket when worn with the matching pants. And I could accent the collar and waist line seam with hand stitching in the darker color.

BWOF Jacket Feb-2004 No 104

The princess seams on the bodice and the sleeve seams are sewn so that the seam allowance is to the outside. Then the seam allowance raw edge is turned under and top stitched, resulting in contrasting bands accenting the seams. Top stitching could be done with a decorative stitch or additional trim could be inserted under the turned edge for added interest. I am concerned about how flat the seam allowances on the princess seam will be when turned under and top stitched. Part of the seam is on the bias and part on the straight of grain. They are wrinkled on the jacket in the magazine, but the fabric appears to be a poly satin, which doesn’t press as nicely as wool.

BWOF Jacket June 2007 No. 107

The magazine jacket is in the same color scheme as my fabric. The contrasting bands are actual separate bands sewn onto the facing of the jacket edge. This makes for a lot of layers along the collar roll line. The photographed jacket is turned away from the camera, but from what I can see of the collar, it is not rolling smoothly. Hmmm

BWOF Jacket May 2006, No 107

The jacket styling makes it look like a jacket over a vest with zipper closure. If I used the darker color for the bottom band and vest front, it would look like short jacket worn over matching vest and pants. I could also add embroidery or stenciled designs to the fabric used for the band and fake vest front, to add more interest.

I am having a real hard time with this decision because each jacket has a technique or style I would like to try. I am going to sleep on it for a few nights. Feel free to tell me which one you like best.

I am taking off work tomorrow to spend the day at the Sewing Expo with some friends. I am looking forward to attending classes taught by favorite instructors, seeing the independent pattern designer fashion show during the lunch break, shopping at the vendor's booths, plus a stop at G Street Fabrics on the way home. It should be a lot of fun.