Butterick 6222 - Done

I seem to be on an every other month blogging schedule. Ergh. I really don't like that. I miss blogging. I miss you all.

But back to the post at hand. Here's a dress I finished a couple of weeks ago. In order to get some photos of me in it, I resorted to work bathroom selfies. I'm so classy that way. I should sneak in my tripod. The lighting is awesome in here.

The pattern is Butterick 6222 by Connie Crawford. I'm into swingy dresses at the moment and I've always had a sweet spot for ruffles so this was a no-brainer buy during one of the Club BMV sales. I can leave Connie Crawford herself (I've met her) but I have to admit to the irony of actually liking a number of her Butterick patterns. Well, the styles anyway. I get irked at the actual pattern sheets since there's no layout of the pattern pieces. I love those layouts (both for studying shapes and for knowing which pieces I need to cut from the tissue) and miss them tremendously in her patterns. Butterick, I hope you're paying attention.

The pattern calls for wovens but I went rogue and used an ITY knit from either Fabric.com or Fabricmart. They both blend together at this point. Ha.

This is one of those non-numerically sized patterns. In other words, S-M-L-XL-XXL-3X-4X, etc. Another thing I'm not fond of with the CC patterns which are sized thus. Plus, the smaller range is in one envelope and the larger in another. I always opt for the smaller range in CC since I need that sizing for my upper body. For this dress, I blended from the M in the upper areas to the L/XL below. I probably could've gone just to the L below but a little more swing in the skirt wasn't going to be a bad thing so I erred on the side of more. It worked out fine, especially since I used a knit.

There's enough ease in my dress using this blended sizing to work for a woven if I ever decide to go that route. But I doubt I will. I'm a wash and wear girl. Ain't got no time for ironing before work. :-) Using a knit, though, added some weight/drag and made the neckline lower than I'm comfortable wearing in the office (or out of it) without a cami so a cami underneath will be the way I'll wear it. (I made this cami years ago from Ressy's Powerdry knit when my coverstitch machine was new. Does anyone remember that? It's still going strong. And I think I may even have more in the stash somewhere.) There are side bust darts since it's for a woven and they hit me at the exact right place. I might have to do a slight FBA in a woven, but maybe not. I'll probably never know. ;-)

I edgestitched the diagonal seams, front and back, to define them more. It shows up better in real life.

I also omitted the neckline facings and just turned and topstitched, running the stitching down the seam which joins the two front bodice pieces. Kind of a faux wrap effect. I actually was going to go with the facings but they didn't fit properly. I'm not sure yet if it was me, the fabric, or the pattern, and I haven't gone back to check, so just make a mental note for yourself to check if you make this dress.

There's a LOT of hemming on this dress between the circular skirt and the circular overskirrt/ruffle. I just sat myself in front of the TV with glass head pins and pinned about every 2 inches, eyeballing about 1/2" for the ruffle and 5/8" for the skirt. After pinning, I took the pieces to the ironing board and pressed the hems into place and then topstitched.

A little twirl action. This dress has lots of movement and it's fun to wear.

Trust  me, you're glad I cropped out my face on that one. What WAS I doing with my eyes?

And a 3/4 view, where you can see that I forgot to add a loop for my ID card. I was so mad at myself for the lapse but there was no way I was going back to unpick overlocking and topstitching. So I hook the card onto the ruffle, and it ends up sliding down by the end of the day, where it is in this photo. Maybe I'll add a loop under the ruffle. It's not attached in the side seam so this should actually be pretty easy to do. We'll see how much it bugs me without it.

Final verdict: I love my dress. It's comfortable. It's flattering. And it was an easy sew. I'd recommend the pattern. The worst part was cutting the flouncy pieces since they're so wide and I used slippery ITY, and then hemming it all. Nothing really hard, just more on the tedious side of things. Which reminds me of one thing I did hate about the pattern. The pieces for the front skirt and ruffle are actually just one piece for the skirt with a separate cutting line for the ruffle. I wish they were separate pieces because if I ever do make this again, I'll have to tape those pieces back together to cut the front skirt again. I did make alignment marks, but still.

I'd say that I'll see you in another couple of months, but I actually have a post in the works on McVoguerick pattern ease to address some conversations I've seen and/or participated in on Pattern Review. The Big 3 aren't undeserving of some criticism but sizing and ease are not one of the things they do wrong. It's Us, not Them, and I'll speak to that soon.

It's Time for More Crappy Photos

Maybe Santa will bring me a better camera, but for now we're all stuck with a simple Point and Shoot and/or my phone. But at least you get me and not Zillie, right? (cough:cough)

So here's what I wore yesterday, which is the newest Jenna cardigan paired with the Kwik Sew tank and the Butterick "Carolyn" skirt. Love! this skirt. I want two more.

I've been wanting a pinstripe skirt for a while now and I'm so glad it's finally in my closet. I may go back to Hancock's for more of the fabric to make a pair of pants too. It was a steal at only $3.99/yard.

Bought these last night in anticipation of The Big Freeze today. Brrrr! They are very comfy.

I did finish the Hot Patterns Uptown/Downtown Knit Dress last night, motivation rising as the temps kept falling. It was in the THIRTIES people. Good god! This is what I wore today ... Yeah, you can't see the dress very well in these work bathroom cell phone pics, but I like it a lot and it was nice and cozy. New boots, check. Scarf I made last night from scraps of that dress I made and hated, check. And a RTW cardi. Gillian, if you're reading, this is the curved hem RTW cardi I mentioned. Somehow that curve minimizes my hips. I want more of these too. My head looks huge in these pics and I have no chin. Lovely.

 Here I was trying to show more of the dress not hang myself. Not sure it worked out as planned. :-)

And now I'm off to brave the cold again with some dinner out. And tomorrow night is our firm's holiday party for clients, at which I'm "working" (hello overtime!). Everyone says it's lots of fun. I believe them ... the caterers were in all day today setting up bars and food stations all over both of the floors we inhabit in the building. Nice! Staff gets its own party next month.

The start of a mini SWAP with my Carolyn Skirt

After the wadder from last weekend's sewing, I went in a different direction for the pinstripe skirt after finding this inspiration photo on Pinterest. I'm calling mine the Carolyn Skirt because (1) pinstripes are very corporate and Carolyn is all about sewing a corporate wardrobe and (2) she's also all about finding inspirational fashion pieces and interpreting them for herself.

My skirt didn't need much interpretation since I already had this Butterick 4877 pattern stashed and my skirt is pretty much a straight copy. But I did have to do a bit of pattern hacking, first for the size and then for design details. The pattern is from my bigger days and the size range I bought is too big for me now. I graded it down two sizes, using the pattern's actual grading upward as my guide downward. That sounds a lot more complicated than it actually was. Essentially all I did was to chop off  1-1/2" from each side seam and shorten the waist facings to match.

I had previously made this skirt 2-3 times in the larger size range in a couple of the different views and loved the fit of them all so I had high hopes for a new smaller version. I wish it wasn't OOP because it's an awesome draft for women with curves. If you're curvy, I definitely recommend picking it up should you come across it. 

So, anyway ... my Carolyn Skirt. I started with View A (the white skirt), shortened the flounce by 5 inches, and then traced it and spit it so I could make the chevrons at the seams per the inspiration photo. I had to cut the flounce pieces (there's 6 of them total after the splitting) single layer so I could be sure my seams would create actual chevrons and not almost-chevrons.

I think I did very well with the stripe matching and the skirt copying. I added topstitching which the inspiration didn't have, but I wanted to really set off the seams. My skirt sits at my knee instead of above it, which is more flattering on me. And I'm as happy with the fit of my smaller version as I was with the original makes.

I debated a machined blind hem but decided for the faster method of just topstitching a narrow hem, figuring it blends with the other topstitching and, really, NO ONE is going to be looking at my hem. I'm not aiming for couture here. ;-)

I did think to take a pic of the serged/overlocked edge for anyone that's new to sewing a curved hem where the outside edge is larger than the turn-up. The trick is to turn up the differential on the serger so it very slightly gathers the edge and then to softly turn the hem under without straightening out the gathers. You can see in the photo below that the edge is already cupping inward. Work with that cupping so you can pin a hem that turns smoothly without actual gathers/ripples. Then press (up and down motion) it in place and sew it right side up so the feed dogs help in easing the longer edge too.

Next up is another Jenna cardi (in progress below), which will go with this skirt and another skirt already cut and waiting.

I'm hoping to finish the cardi in the morning, and that will probably be it for sewing this weekend as I have a bunch of errands to run and then dinner with a friend. Plus I'm hoping to do a little housecleaning too. But that's last on the list because ... well, it's housework. No pics on me until next week at the earliest since it's supposed to be still raining tomorrow. And one of my errands is to hopefully get a hair cut.

Re-Make Modeled

Above is how I wore the outfit to the office this week. It's way too cold in A/C to go without a second layer. Plus, farmer's tan. ;-)

Here's the before (right) and after (left). It's not hugely dramatic but there's enough difference to see less sack and more shape.

I left the pleats at the center front of the skirt but it's hard to see them in the pic. Whatevs. They're there. And my tummy thanks me for that.

This shows the back, with the new empire seam, already serged, and the new sideseam sewn pre-serging.Yes, I was lazy and sewed it all the way down through the finished hem. And, of course, this would be the week that Carolyn posts about slow sewing and nice interiors. Hah. This ain't no couture dress. Never was. Never will be. But it's being worn, and no one but us is going to see the inside anyway, so I count that as a win.

There will be slower sewing this weekend because I think I'm going to be fitting a new dress pattern, for a woven. Good thing I have 3 days to procrastinate and over-analyze.

Happy Fourth!

A Couple of Round Tuits

The cardi make and the dress re-make have been on my To Do list forEVER. I made the dress 3-4 years ago and shortly after it became too big. Since I love the print and colors, I've wanted to re-do it. I've also wanted a lightweight short-sleeved brown cascade cardi for far too long. I need the extra layer in an air-conditioned office and brown goes with so much in my wardrobe (and matches this dress too, actually, although the colors are off in the photo).

I'm happy to report that both items are now in my current wardrobe.

The cardi is a quick sew, using Simplicity 1945, which I had used once before for a beige winter version. I had it cut out last weekend but needed to get some more dark brown thread before I could sew it. Both of which I did yesterday. There's no pattern indication for short sleeves so I just eyeballed it and folded up the pattern pieces evenly so all the seams would match.

The dress re-make was a little more convoluted, especially since I also wanted to shorten it about 4 inches but without losing any of the brown "stripe" at the bottom, which meant taking the length from the waist, which meant ripping apart almost the whole dang dress. I cheated and cut the seams apart. I was making it smaller anyway, so losing seam allowances wasn't a big deal. But since this knit is kind of spring-y with a mind of its own, I had to cut very slowly to keep things even or else I would've ended up with very jagged cuts.

The original make had a front empire seam but no matching horizontal back seam. It does now, because I had to remove the unwanted length that way. Along with shortening the length about 4", I removed about 10-12" in circumference, split across the sideseams.

I took a before pic but haven't taken the after yet, since it's lazy Sunday and I'm not camera-ready. I'll do that when I wear it and show you the difference.

Butterick 5849 - Almost There

The dress is pretty much done. I just need to stitch the sleeve hems and decide on the overall length, probably chopping at least 6 inches off the bottom. But I'm going slow with this because I'm not highly motivated at the moment. It's still 90+ degrees outside and this dress is (1) moleskin and (2) high- and closed-necked, which is kind of suffocating in these temps. It will make a nice autumn/winter dress ... when we finally have those seasons in about 2 months. :-)

The fit is almost perfect. The only thing I'd tweak if there was a next time (not sure yet if there will be) would be an erect back tuck since the back neck does hit me a little high. But my hair covers it so I'm not going to sweat it. As long as I wait for the temps to drop. ;-) I thought about that alteration as I was cutting the tissue because it's fairly standard for me with wovens but then I forgot so I really only have myself to blame. I didn't do aany other alterations to this except to morph between cutting lines and make my usual square shoulder fix before cutting the tissue. I started with a straight 16 at the shoulders/neck, blended to a 20 at the waist and then 22 for hips/butt. I figured with all the panel seams (they are not really true princess seams in the front), I'd have room to adjust. I basted it together and, of course, I needed NOT ONE seam adjusted. Of course we all know that iIf I had skipped the basting, I'd be cursing that. Murphy's Law. No FBA was done or needed in case you're wondering.

The back also has panel/princess seams which are invisible in this print, and calls for a center-insert zipper. Part of my basting was also to see if the zipper was really needed, since the moleskin does have some stretch and the wrap front allows some wiggle room. After trying it on basted but without sleeves, I decided the sleeves would mean a zipper would be needed if I didn't want to work myself into a lather wiggling into the dress in the morning.

It's not a fancy zipper application and I debated a lapped zip instead, but laziness won out and it came out perfectly, which is what I was after.

The pattern calls for a 22" zip. I didn't have one and didn't feel like hitting Joann's on the weekend. The one I had was just fine. I think it is about 16".

I toptstiched the panel seams front and back. It doesn't stand out too much in the print but it does keep the seams nice and flat.

A somewhat better shot of the tucks at the side.

Inside shot where you can see the underlayer of the wrap is not double-layer all the way down. This is per the pattern and works just fine.

For the collar pieces, instead of turning under a narrow hem and then slipstitching per the pattern (a/k/a icky handsewing), I stitched in the ditch from the right side to catch the facing edge underneath.The ditch sewing would show a whole lot less on the underside if I bothered to change my bobbin thread to match the collar. This should really be in the instructions instead of the slipstitching method.

And now a little confession and a rant ...

The thing I like the absolute LEAST about sewing woven garments? Setting in sleeves with cap ease. I can do it. I can even do it well. It just bugs the crap out of me that I have to ease in a sleeve when it's something the pattern drafters can, and should, eliminate. These sleeves went in fairly well. But there were 3 puckers total that I had to pick and restitch because there was 1" of cap ease. Stupid. I know I've sewn a pattern or two with a woven sleeve and armhole that  fit together perfectly. I need to rack my brain and remember which and use those for every future woven sleeve/armhole.

The sewing community seems to have spoken loudly enough for the pattern companies to offer more and more vari-cup sized bodices. I'd like for us to be heard about the unnecessary cap ease drafting.

Sunday Wrap Up

So I made these shorts (S3768) a few weeks ago and have been living in them every weekend. Love. Them. Still can't believe they needed no alterations. The last you saw, I was contemplating back pockets. I tried to get a modeled shot, but no flash, and aiming into the mirror while facing backwards results in much blur. Here's one of the better ones. I use that term loosely.

So I just stepped out of them and laid them on the floor for a photo, weekend wrinkles, dog hair, and all.

The first "tester" pair was from a much-loved repurposed linen but I totally spaced when sewing the waistband on by not stabilizing it and I could only wear them for about an hour before the linen stretched, which meant I was constantly tugging my shorts up like a teenaged boy. I fixed that yesterday. It ain't pretty, but it works. I added some twill tape to the inside of the waistband (right after they were pulled from the dryer) by stitching in the ditch from the top and praying I hit the twill tape underneath. I did, but it's not straight by any means. Lazy sewing at it's laziest. :-) The important thing is, it works. But ... the TOP of the waistband still gets a little loose even if the shorts now stay in place so if I get really motivated to fix this properly, I'll need to also rip out the stitching holding the slapdash twill tape in place. But for now, I'll also be living in these shorts on the weekends and chances are good that I won't fix them properly, because who's gonna know anyway?

My next project is this dress. It took me a while to settle on it because I'm having a real hate with my fabric stash and matching patterns to fabric I want to use is becoming harder and harder.

The main problem is I don't really want most of my fabrics anymore. Many are solid non-Lycra knits, bought when I was sewing more for my sons and other family. But I can't just toss or donate because ... what if I NEED something there? Right? The bottom line is it really means that out of a very full closet, only a few stacks are anything I will actually sew and even some of those are yawners to me. So now I'm contemplating sticking most of it in bins and storing it in the garage. Basically starting over, but with a lot more thought, less quantity, and a lot more sewing fabric before it becomes unloved. 

Here's where the dress progress has stopped for now. The fabric is drapey sueded moleskin, both the print and the contrast solid. I do like *this* fabric but I wasn't really wanting to sew such a fall/winter look yet. Still, if it works out, it will be a nice addition. My office is freezing most days anyway.

I haven't done a muslin for this. Just a quick tissue evaluation (not even really a tissue fit) and a few usual minor alterations as I cut the tissue so this may end up being a pretty wadder. Hah. But I don't think so ... there are many princess seams for adjusting as I go, but that means I have to baste instead of really sew. The back is together too, although I'm also trying to find out if the back zip is really necessary so I haven't done that seam as final yet either. Hopefully, I'll have some energy and mojo for sewing after work this week.

Because if I don't, my sewing table is going to look like this all week.

Take 2

While the patterns (Butterick 5429 and Simp 2185) were still out, I went ahead and made another 2-piece "dress." This time I added the flounces to the skirt. I figured they would be mostly lost in the print in case I hated them but would still add swish and movement. I do like them. Per the pattern, they are single-layer and raw-edged but hang in such a way that the wrong side of the fabric barely shows. In other words, a quick/easy addition to the skirt. Can't beat that.

This skirt has definitely moved into my top 3 knit skirt patterns so I should probably leave the pattern out a little while longer. I like how it fits closely at the hips even though it has an elastic waist (I changed it from a casing to a serge/turn) and then flows into a swishy bottom. Treena had commented on the first skirt that (paraphrasing) she wouldn't want to sew all those curved seams in the panels. Don't be afraid ... in a knit, it's a breeze. You barely know you're sewing a curve. And the pattern notches are spot on if you want a little more guidance.

I was stupid when cutting out the top, though. I have the pattern marked to add an inch to the bottom when cutting but for some reason I completely spaced. I decided to add a hem band to make up the needed length and to create a blouson effect so this top wouldn't be *exactly* like the last one. It's hard to see on Zillie through the print, but it hangs differently on my body/hips. Once I get pics of me in the new outfit, you'll see.

In my last post, I mentioned the pattern keeper ziplock bags I use for my patterns. I used to buy them from Nancy's Notions, about 50 at time. But they've discontinued them. Boo. I knew Clotilde used to sell the same bags but with their logo instead of NNs. I had received one or two as a sample on a past order, so I wasn't imagining it. Well, the Clotilde company has been bought out by Annie's and the Clotilde website redirects to Annie's. I found this out when needing to order more bags. Since NN didn't have them, I decided to give the Annie's bags a try thinking they'd be the same. They are functional but they are definitely not the same and are of much lesser quality. I found other possibilities after a Google search and might try something else when I'm ready for more. In the meantime, here's the link to Annie's. http://www.anniescatalog.com/detail.html?prod_id=93028&cat_id=1520 I'm not affiliated and theirs are definitely NOT the same as the Clotilde pic you'll see at the Annie's link. Kind of misleading. 

Can you see the pocket outside the bag?

Finally, for Meredith ... here's the link to the PR discussion that inspired my last post:

http://sewing.patternreview.com/SewingDiscussions/topic/80323

ETA: I've been checking out new blog posts and it's amusing (in a good way!) to see that my questions post inspired your own posts.

WIWT

I finally wore my new outfit today and just snapped a pic after work. I *love* this!! The skirt is swishy, the top flatters, the fabric is my colors, and I received many unsolicitations in the office. What more could a girl ask for?

I made my billable time goal again for last week so I'll be getting an early start on the weekend at 2:30 tomorrow. Love that perk! We have a big trial coming up next month so I'm guessing I'll be putting in some extra hours throughout the rest of the next few weeks, but I think it will actually be fun ... in a work sort of way. There's lots of camaraderie and team effort in this place and it feels good. No BS, no drama. It's great not to have to worry about that stuff and just do my job.

I'm thinking about making another pair of shorts this weekend in some denim this time since the trial pair went so well. I'd also like to make another top like the one in the pic above, but from a different fabric of course. It's a great little shell with a literal twist, which will fit into an office wardrobe quite nicely. Or even a casual one.

I'm glad my sewing mojo is back.

But right now, I'm READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL! :-) Sorry Project Runway ... you are relegated to the DVR tonight.

Unintentional Fall Sewing

It's still quite summer here and will be for a long while yet so I don't really know why I was drawn to this fall-colored fabric today. But I was, and this 2-piece "dress" is the result. I think maybe I just wanted to finally get it out of the stash. And even though the colors are autumnal, I will probably ignore that and still wear it to work this coming week. A good thing about a new job is that all your clothes are new again, but, really, they aren't to me and something new and colorful will be fun.

The patterns are Butterick 5429 for the top and Simplicity 2185 for the skirt. I've made the top before, but with the sleeves. This time, I left them off per the red version on the envelope. I like it a lot and am already planning another. I wonder if I can get away with a few in solid colors for layering in "winter." I haven't hemmed the bottom and am still deciding if I will leave it raw, use a hem facing, or add a band. I'm leaning toward leaving it raw since it lays nice and flat which adds to the dress illusion. The fabric is a border print slinky. The real slinky ... ribbed, acetate blend, liquid and cool to the touch. It's been aging in the stash a few years. I think it came from Fabric.com.

The skirt has separate pattern pieces for both knit and woven versions. Of course, I chose knit. I live in knits. The knit version has a sewn-on casing for an elastic waist. I omitted that and just serged elastic to the top edge, turned it down to the inside, and then coverstitched it in place. I also added about 3 inches to the length at the bottom. The long and short version both use the same pattern pieces, so I just drew a line (it's a curved hem so I had to actually measure) and cut 3 inches below the printed cut line for the shorter version and tossed the extra tissue. I figured if I ever actually want the long version, I'll just use the pieces for the woven view and sew with smaller seam allowances.

This is the skirt pattern I had cut the tissue for last weekend and then set aside. I'll be making this one again too. It's a very easy sew and I really like the version with the ruffles, although I would probably only use one at the side. I don't need a flounce starting at my belly.

I tried to line up the border "stripes" at the sideseam as best as I could, but the front pieces are shaped such that it's impossible to get a perfect match. Still, I managed to do fairly well and visually from a distance they will read as matching and I'm happy with that.

Here's a closer view of the twist. This top goes together very quickly. It's only 3 pieces if you leave off the longer sleeves. Four if you add them. No facings or bindings - just fold over a narrow hem where needed and stitch. The twist adds visual interest and with the top yoke, is high and modest. Many twist tops do their thing at the center bust, which can result in work INappropriate boobaliciousness.

* * * * *

Parting shot: Puppy love.