Sewing on a Saturday

Today I completed two projects, one that I started last week, and the other that I started and finished this afternoon.

First up, I finished a version of Burda 7775, which I am beginning to fear is now out of print, since I can no longer find it on the Burda webpage or Sewingpatterns.com.

I had some of the magenta stretch sateen left from my venture into vintage sewing, so I decided to make the shirt version to work out any fit issues before embarking on the dress. Plus, I had these little buttons that I wanted to use:


Overall, I am quite happy with the way that it turned out:


The neck is quite wide, so much so that you need to be careful with what bra you wear. In tracing the pattern, I started by tracing a size 20, which fit my bust measurement. Because Burda patterns are drafted for a larger cup size, I did not do an FBA. I did, however, make some minor alterations. Because I have wide hips and a big bottom, I graded out to a size 22 just above the hem. I also graded down to a 16 at the waist at the sides and back. You can see that on my dress form, the shirt almost looks like it has a peplum. Trust me, it doesn't look like that on me! There is just no way to give my dress form my hips and ass.

Because the dress version in the illustration and on the model appears to have a dropped waist, I expected the shirt to be much longer than it is. Either I am long-waisted, or the illustration is inaccurate, but the shirt hits higher on me than it does on the illustration. On the other hand, in my mind this is a good thing, because the dropped-waist was one of the things that I was concerned about, and whether or not it would look good on me. Since it has been revealed that (on me, at least) there is no drop waist, I will forge ahead with the dress.

Here are some detailed photos of the construction:


There are both front and back princess seams. The instructions said to topstitch, but whenever instructed to topstitch in a situation like this, I just do a flat-fell seam. It ends up looking the same as a topstitched seam, but also hides the seam allowances.


Here is the topstitching on the collar. The collar is put together in a way that I have never seen before. Usually when a top has a collar and a lapel like this, the way it is constructed is to make the collar, turn it, and then tuck it into the top of the lapel while it is sewn. Then, when the lapel is turned, the collar is placed correctly. Instead of doing that, they had you sew the upper collar to the upper lapel, snip, and press open the seam. Then, do the same to the lower collar. Then you sew both pieces together and turn. It was a bit fiddly, but looked nice.


Finally, the sleeve band has plenty of room in it. I have chubby arms, and sometimes puff sleeves can be quite tight. But there was plenty of ease in this sleeve for me. I also managed to put the left sleeve in the right armscye, but by the time I saw what I had done, it was set perfectly, nary a crease or tuck in the sleeve cap, so the wrong sleeve got to stay there.

After I finished the top, my husband wandered into my sewing room with one of his shirts in his hand. I assumed that he needed a button put on or a mend, but he said no, he really liked this shirt and wondered if I would be able to make him another. I pulled a few fabrics out of the stash for him to pick from, and started tracing off a size large in Simplicity 4760, a set of men and boy's pants and shirts.


For a simple camp shirt this pattern is fine. However....I looked through every sheet in that pattern envelope and COULD NOT FIND the pattern for the pocket for the man's shirt. The pocket for the boy's is there. But either I am insane, or it is not there. Here is the finished product, in striped linen:


Now you may say, "Michelle! Those shoulders are too wide! And that shirt is too long!" and I would tell you, "Not to worry, he LIKES it that way." The reason for this is my husband is a professional jazz musician. He plays the upright bass:

When choosing shirts for performing, he wants them to be extra wide across the back and shoulders for freedom of movement. He also likes for his shirts to be long when he performs because he spends a lot of time with arms raised, which lifts the hem of his shirt. He doesn't like his muffin top hanging out any more than I do, so the shirts have to be extra-long. While it may look a touch sloppy without the bass in his hands, when he is performing, he is much more comfortable.

Tomorrow, I hope to get some more of the safari dress done. So far, fitting and cutting out are complete.

Getting Started on the "Urban Safari" Dress

My next project in queue is Burda 7827, described by Burda as a sporty dress with safari-style details:

I got a gray/beige lightweight twill for the project, as well as all 3 million of the buttons required (buttons on the shoulders, on the pocket, on the belt loops) for the dress:


But, before I cut, the first step in most of my projects is "Snoop Shopping" to make sure that the idea that I have for a garment has a parallel in current clothing. One of the things that often mark clothing that is handmade is not the quality (which is usually better than ready to wear) but the style. Very often, home sewists select styles based solely on personal likes and dislikes, sometimes using patterns that have been in "the stash" for years, and this will mark a garment as homemade.

Other things that will readily mark a garment as home sewn are things like fabric choice and buttons. While I happily make shirts for my nephews in all the goofball prints that I can find, I would never make a dress for myself with cartoon skeletons on it. Besides, they are babies, what do they know from fashion? As for the buttons, look at the size button recommended by most patterns and then COMPLETELY IGNORE THE RECOMMENDATIONS. Most patterns recommend buttons that are much, much larger than what can be found on most ready to wear clothes. Also, as fun as cut glass flower buttons, buttons with rhinestones, or painted enamel may seem when in the throes of "fabric-store-induced-stupidity," when was the last time you saw something like that on a garment available at the mall (and you weren't in Chico's)?

So, before embarking on my "Urban Safari," I spent some time doing some online "shopping," and came up with some interesting results:

Ralph Lauren at Nordstrom, $144.00

JCrew, $69.00

Elizabeth and James, $495.00 at Net-a-Porter

Burberry, $495.00 at Nordstrom

Ann Taylor, $145.00

Based on this, it would appear that the "safari craze" is not something that Burda is trying to create by insisting on putting SOME Safari-styled dress in every issue of the magazine (that may be an exaggeration, but only a slight one).

Since I am now satisfied that I will not be "outed" as a hot mess, I shall cut out the safari dress this weekend.

Final Photos and Recap of Vintage Butterick 2315

This morning I had an opportunity to take final photos of the Vintage Butterick 2315, as I decided I would wear it to work today. So here you have it, Spanx pulled up to the neck, hairs did, and face on:



And from the back:



Overall, I am very happy with the way the dress turned out. However, I did learn a few things over the course of my fitting adventure:

1. I don't really like kimono-style sleeves. I much prefer the appearance of set-in sleeves. To me, the wrinkles that are simply unavoidable I find distracting.
2. I would also lower the bust darts somewhat. My taking up of the shoulder in fitting also raised the bust darts. They don't look bad, they just don't look the way I want them to. But, it also serves to illustrate that if you take fabric out somewhere, you have to add it back in somewhere else.
3. I have a forward shoulder. The shoulder seam sits slightly back on my shoulder, and if I did this pattern again, I would add about 1/2 inch of tissue to the back, and remove it from the front.
4. I would also do a very, very small sway-back adjustment were I to make this again. I never noticed the need before, but then...I never sewed anything that was this fitted around the waist, either.
5. Finally, would switch the way that the gathers at the top of the skirt are distributed. Following their markings, they gathers extend about one inch past the bust dart. If I were to do this again, I would confine those gathers a bit more so that they extend only as far as the bust dart. I would also finish the shirring on the side with a bit left to go before the waist to prevent those gathers from getting caught up in the waist seam, something that I had to pick out a seam to prevent. You can see the gathering in the photo below:

If you are interested in the "Complete Adventure," the old blog posts can be found here and here, but I'll summarize what I did to the pattern so that all the information is in one place.

The first step was to trace off the pattern. Since it was a vintage pattern, I wanted to preserve it should I want to return to it, or pass it on later. This pattern had never been used, was in the factory folds, so it was very easy to work with. I traced it off using soil separator cloth because it was easy to see what I was doing that way.

Once the pattern was traced, I began doing flat pattern measurements. The pattern was an 18, so overall it was very close, I did not have extensive alterations to make. However, I did read through this website, which gives complete instructions in how to grade up (or down, but lord knows I'll never need that!!) a pattern. Had this pattern had set in sleeves, I might also have considered pulling out a multi-size modern pattern and tracing off a sleeve and armscye, rather than trying to wrap my brain around how to re-size a sleeve to fit into a re-sized armscye.

To determine your flat pattern measurements, start out by taking your actual measurements and then adding the amount of ease that you want in the pattern. Since this dress was not only fitted, but made of a stretch sateen, I was a bit stingy with the ease. I added 2 inches of ease on the bust, 3 inches at the waist, and 4 at the hips.

When doing flat pattern measurements, don't forget to subtract 5/8 of an inch for every seam you cross. For example, in measuring the front and back for the bust measurement, I took out 1 1/4 for the back and 1 1/4 for the front...this accounts for each side seam.

The waist was a little trickier. I had to take out 1 1/4 for the back side seams, and additional 2 inches for the for the back darts, but then also 1 1/4 for the side seams at the front, and an additional 2 1/2 for the bust darts. Confusing, right??? Not really, just keep a pad of paper handy to write down what you are adding, and what you are subtracting and you will be fine.

Next, I actually added this additional tissue to the pattern. Here are some photos of the soil separator fabric on the muslin pattern pieces.

An additional inch went into the skirt. Based on flat pattern measurements, I needed 4 additional inches to go around the hips, but since you cut your pattern pieces in pairs, you must take that into account....4 inches...4 separate pieces (two back, front cut on fold)....1 inch in each pattern piece will make 4 inches total:

The top was a bit more difficult, because I needed to lower the bust point as well as add some width to the waist. When doing multiple alterations to a single piece, it is best to start with the top and work down, so I started by adding tissue to lengthen between the armpit and the bust dart. I then split the pattern vertically and added a wedge of tissue extending up from the bottom:


From there, I actually constructed the muslin and discovered that there were some additional changes and fine tuning that needed to be done. Here are the changes to the bodice illustrated, and all the changes are documented in a previous blog:



You can see that I shortened the bodice slightly below the bust point, added some tissue so the sleeves wouldn't bind over my chubby little arms, took out some fabric on the sides to make the waist fit more closely, and took out some fabric from the top of the shoulder. I also tapered the skirt and shortened it. When you do these alterations, it is important to add and subtract the bulk of your tissue in the middle of the pattern piece, and when you do this you have to make sure that you add or subtract in the same place in both the top pattern piece and bottom. Otherwise you run the risk of making unintended changes to the nice details of the pattern, such as the kick pleat or where they have perfectly aligned the dart in the back of the bodice with one of the darts in the skirt:

And a little trick for setting the invisible zipper? I always have trouble doing the seam above or below, depending on which I have left open. I always have problems avoiding a little bubble at the top or bottom of the zipper and extending the seam so there is not a gap between the bottom of your zipper and the start of your side seam.

My solution? Your regular zipper foot. One of the reasons I have problems with those seams is because the regular presser foot pushes the zipper tape out of the way and shifts the seam over. So, use your standard zipper foot and you can get right up close without the foot itself trying to shove anything out of the way.

Overall, I am very happy with the way that this vintage pattern turned out. The dress is not readily identifiable as "Vintage" and looks contemporary with the changes that I made (shorter, more pegged skirt, trendy color). While I may not make this particular dress again, this has definitely given me the confidence to not only delve into some of the other vintage patterns that I have, but also to be braver with the alterations that I make to modern patterns.

If anyone reading this blog is at all hesitant to give these kinds of things a try, I say go for it! If I can do it, anyone can. Start by tracing off your pattern rather than altering the original, and make a muslin from some dollar a yard uglies from the sale table at the fabric store, or even some sheets from the Goodwill. Come on! What is the worst that could happen? You still have an intact pattern and you throw away the muslin in the dead of night so no one can see the atrocity you made? On the other hand, you could come away from it with a nice dress that is nothing like you can purchase in the store, and a greater level of confidence in your sewing skills.

Updates and Upcoming

Wow, I can't believe I finally got that vintage Butterick done! I might even be brave and wear it to work tomorrow. If I do, I'll be sure to have one of the girls at work take a good photo. You know, a photo without work-out hair and with some actual makeup on my face.

I still need to finish up two more dresses for weddings, parties, and other events that I have yet this summer.

One of the dresses that I wanted to do was this Burda:

And I have a length of purple cotton twill that I think will be very nice. But, I am making a "practice run" first, with the leftovers from the fabric I used for the vintage pattern. I had about 1 1/4 yards left, plus a few other scraps. I was able to get the whole thing cut out but had to cut the sleeves on the cross-grain. Hopefully it will still work out. I was glad I had enough left of the magenta sateen, because I had these pink faceted buttons that I thought would look cute with it:


I also want to sew Burda 7827, a safari dress, from a lightweight twill:


It takes about three million buttons, but I found some that I think look nice with the gray/beige fabric that I selected:


I also have a few quick shirts that I need to whip up for the boys in the family. If you follow this blog, you have probably seen the little shirts that I make for my nephews:


They love them, and apparently so do their Daddies. I was cornered last weekend by my brothers who begged for shirts of their own. As "payment" for the shirts, I made them go to the fabric store with me (heh heh heh). They did make some cute selections though:



I also joined a Chanel Jacket Sew-Along, and in September I'll be working on Vogue 7975, the pattern I selected for the sew-along:

I had been hiding a length of black, pink, grey, and white boucle that I bought from Gorgeous Fabrics. I had no idea what I was going to make with it, but when I saw it I couldn't think anything but "Must. Have. It." As I was rearranging the stash to find it, I discovered that the charmeuse that I still cant decide what to make with matched the colorway PERFECTLY, so it has now been set aside as the lining:


My order from Fabric.com also arrived this past week, and now I have a new set of lovelies to add to the planning. Here is the fattest tuxedo cat in the world showing his appreciation of the wool jersey:


Here is the wool jersey, sans housepets:


I think that it will be perfect as the Hot Patterns 1013, the Iconic Shirt dress:

But, I think that I will put off working on this anytime soon since I have no need of a wool dress in the middle of the summer. In fact, I think it will probably wait quite a while, since I need to get a bit more competent with the serger before tackling it.

I also got this GORGEOUS silk charmeuse from Fabric.com, which feels fantastic. It is so light, whatever I make from it will feel like pajamas:


I think that I will make Vogue 1120, a Donna Karan dress with it:


I like this pattern so much, it might jump in the queue for the summer dresses. I also have enough of the silk that I can squeak out a version of the shirt from this suit pattern:


I think that would be great under a black suit. Finally, I got a beautiful ice blue shantung that is such a great color:


I may save it for another attempt with a vintage pattern. In fact, I think it would be great for this wrap dress:


Alternately, I also have this Badgley Mishka suit pattern, which would be perfect for the blue silk:


But where the hell would I ever wear it? Oh well, who cares! It will be FANTASTIC!! It makes me want to sew NOW, but I had to stop earlier today because I was making too many mistakes. Now I'm watching one of my guilty pleasures, Ice Road Truckers! But, I'll have plenty to keep me busy this week. I'm so excited to get started!

Vintage Butterick: The Adventure Continues

I have been struggling through my first vintage pattern, Butterick 2315, a great 60's dress with either a full-skirt option, or a wiggle-skirt:


At a size 18, there was not a lot that needed to be done in terms of grading up the pattern, but much of my fitting struggle had to do with the fact that today's proportions are different than in the 60's. Today, we don't wear girdles on a regular basis, or bullet bras. Styles today have a more rounded silhouette. Also, skirt length preferences have changed. The tea-length that was so common through the 50's and 60's is now something that we see as "frumpy." The changes that I made to the pattern are documented here.

Overall I am very happy with the progress so far:


Please ignore the bad hair, the photo was post-shower, pre-medication. While I have been having to use the cream on the rash, I haven't been working on anything because I don't want it to stain the dress. What still remains to be completed is the hem, the back vent, and adding binding to the neckline and sleeves. If all goes well I will be able to complete it this weekend.

While this has been relatively easy to alter, it was a great place to start to get used to working with vintage patterns. I am excited to get started on another, I am thinking my next effort may be some ice-blue duponi, that I think would be a great choice for this pattern: