Take That, Anthropologie!

I can sew doo-dads onto my clothes, too! When Anthropologie first became popular, I remember thinking "Why do I want a bunch of nonsense sewn to my clothes that will require repair after the first wash?" Since then, I have kind of come around really like the look of some of the embellishment, especially ones like this:


Except....there's always an exception isn't there....it's a bit too much. I mean, I'm not that sweet. I think something like that would look comical on me. So, I decided that I could make a more subdued version. Fortunately, on the Hot Patterns website, Trudy has provided a video for spiderweb roses, which look very similar to the roses on this top. Watch the video, you will be amazed at how simple these are to make!

I had also recently purchased the Weekender Sunshine Top pattern, so I decided to give it a shot with a piece of black ITY knit that I had in the stash.


I started with a size 16 at the shoulders and graded out to an 18 at the hip. I had a little trouble with the instructions for the neckband so I just kind of did it my way. I sewed the interior and exterior neckband together along the inside neck, trimmed the seam allowance, turned it, and topstitched the neckline. I then treated it as a single piece in serging the neckline to the shirt. It does leave an exposed seam on the inside, but since it is serged, it doesn't matter. Were I doing this without a serger, I would sew the outside neck to the shirt and then use the inside to hide seam by turning under the edge and handstitching it to the seam allowance.

This knit was super-slithery (although for the drapes in the front, this is what you want, not a beefy knit) so I hand basted a lot. I did all the gathering by hand and then basted that to the neckline, as well as basting all the way around the neckline to hold the three layers together while I was serging. I am still not great with the serger, so I do this a lot just to keep my work from looking insane. The seam around the hem band is totally insane, but that is hidden by the blouson, so I guess that is ok.

Here is the finished product:


Initially, I was concerned about the gathers as they went across the bust and into the arm pits...I thought, uh-oh, I made the gathering extend to far. How did I manage that? It didn't look like that on the pattern cover. However, the pattern cover is an illustration, not a photo. So, I went and watched the videos for this shirt on the Hot Patterns website and realized...oh, mine looks just like the one on the dress form. One one hand, I could crab that Hot Patterns only uses illustrations and not photos, but then I would have to lodge the same complaint against Vogue, Butterick, and McCalls...who also often only use illustrations. And I still happily use those patterns. So, I have absolutely NO complaint about the illustrations, but just find the videos very helpful to illustrate the details of how the finished garments should look.

The fit on the top is excellent, no FBA required. Using the drapey knit, the top lies close to the body, and the gathers do not add extra bulk. I decided to do a subdued version of the spiderweb roses on the neckline, in approximately the position that you would wear a corsage. Here is the finished product:


I realized after I uploaded my photos that it looks like there is a tuck in the shoulder seam. There is not. The seam is caught on a pin I had shoved into the dressform. Now, I could go back and retake the photo, but that would require undressing (yes, I am wearing the shirt), charging the camera which is now dead, and reloading the photo. So, due to my laziness, you just have to imagine that it is not there.

To make my roses, I cut strips about a foot and a half long on the cross grain (so they stretch) from the fabric the shirt is made from. I cut them about 3/8 of an inch wide (not that I measured, I just took the rotary cutter to a scrap). I made a total of 9 roses all packed closely together on the shoulder. I may go back and add some more extending them further towards the center front, but for now I think that it is fine.

I also wanted to take a moment to answer a question from my friend Leezra. She had asked in the comments of the last blog why the black thread in the bobbin makes topstitching "pop." When the machine makes a stitch, there will be a tiny bit of the bobbin thread visible on the "right" side, because of the way that the stitch is made (for an animated illustration, click here).

For that reason, you can create a separation between each stitch by using a different color in the bobbin thread. For topstitching I use two spools of thread on the sewing machine (my 401 has two spool pins, so this is really easy), running them both through a single needle. Here are some samples of topstitching. The three rows on the top has beige thread in the bobbin, and the rows underneath those have black. The difference is small, but makes for a very clean demarcation between each stitch:


When topstitching, I set my machine for 10 stitches per inch, longer than I would use for construction seams. Wherever the end of a seam may be visible (like the hems) I don't reverse, but instead pull the threads to the back and tie a knot. To do this, grab the bobbin thread and pull it, the top threads will then be visible on the back, grab that little "loop" that they make with a pin, and pull the threads to the back. Tie them in a knot, and if you like add a drop of fray-check. For those seams that will be hidden in a seam allowance or otherwise under or behind something else, I go ahead and reverse the same way I would with a construction seam.

Fancy Pants

Today I finished a pair of jeans that I made using Burda 12.2009.116. I have been wanting to make the Jalie jeans, but have had some trouble finding stretch denim that I like the weight and color of. On the other hand, I have had this dark (non-stretch) denim in my stash for a while. I have enough yet to make the denim dress that I picked the pattern for in the previous post.

As for these, I have made these pants before, from khaki twill, but I thought that this would be a nice pattern to practice my topstitching on, given all the seams going in so many different directions:
This time I did not use the side-seam pockets, given that they gaped open and I just sewed them closed in the last pair. Instead, I used horizontal pockets in the seam between the yoke and the pant front:


Given the interesting seaming, I decided to topstitch using beige thread. To do this, I threaded my Singer 401 with two spools of thread, running both threads through the needle. I also used black thread in the bobbin, so make the topstitching "pop." The stitch length was set at 10 stitches per inch:


I did not use flat-felled seams, but just serged and pressed the seam to one side and then topstitched through the seam allowance. One of the reasons that I did not do any flat-felled seams was because of the intersection of so many seams, and that would have been too bulky for flat-felling. Also, the curved seams would have been difficult as well. But, the two rows of topstitching looks the same as if the seams were flat-felled. Here is the leg piece with all the topstitching done, laid out and ready to be joined:


When setting the zipper, it is important to make sure that the seams from the front yoke are lined up:


To reduce the bulk of the thick denim, I used cotton left over from a shirt I made for my husband for the inside of the waistband and the pocket bags:


Here are the finished pants from the front:


And from the back, you can see the curved yoke seam and also the split back leg. I decided not to do any topstitching to the crotch seam, because I figured there was enough attention being called to the rear end with the back leg seams:


The back leg piece actually curves around the side of the leg to the front, I also topstitched the hem with two rows of stitches:


All in all, I am fairly happy with the results and feel confident enough to embark on either the denim dress, or if I find some nice stretch denim, the Jalie jeans. Now, I just need to go bleach my hands to get rid of all the blue dye on them. Two pre-washes, and I still have blue hands!!

Since I Haven't Been Sewing....

I have been planning.

Ever since I first started sewing with Hot Patterns patterns, I have loved the look of the Metropolitan Urbanista Coat Dress:

The one thing that I don't like is the revers and collar. I prefer a collar with a stand and no revers because it doesn't require a facing. I hate facings. The only facing that I have ever made peace with is the facing in Butterick 5331, because you essentially just cut two center fronts and the facing extends all the way over to the front princess seam and is stitched down there.

But, I still love the look of the denim coat-dress. Recently, one was featured in BurdaStyle:


But again, revers and facings. Not to mention, the plunging neckline that turns up in every Burda. I don't think that the light denim looks very current, but it could be very pretty in darker denim. I prefer the looks of this denim dress from Tahari:


Except it suffers from a lack of darts, seaming, or anything other than a belt to provide shaping and would just look like a giant sack on me. Some more examples from NetaPorter and Kenneth Cole:



I like the looks of the RTW examples, but again the lack of shaping would be a problem. So, what I need is a princess-seamed shirt dress, like the Hot Patterns dress, but with collar and stand rather than revers and facing. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Fortunately, McCall's recently released this pattern:


Check out the top in the bottom left hand corner:


Sure, it's another pattern cover that suffers from completely blah pattern illustrations, but the bones of the shirt are good. If you look at the line drawings, the long sleeves are even drafted as two-piece sleeves.


I think just lengthening the longest version by a few inches would make for a dress very similar to the Hot Patterns dress, but lacking the facings that I want to avoid. Now the decision remains, do I do a "real" FBA on the dress, starting with a 16, also requiring alteration to the width, front and back? Or go ahead and cut a 20 and just take it in under the arms? I think I'm going to compare the pattern pieces to the Burda princess seamed shirt I just finished, and see how close they are.

Now just to decide about the details....topstitching? Flat-felled seams? Metal buttons? Snaps? Belt? Pockets? Oh, so many things to decide!

What Has Been Keeping Me From the Sewing Room....

As you may know, the midwest has been experiencing some extreme weather the past few weeks (thanks, global warming!!!). Unfortunately, we have not escaped unscathed.

The photos above are the crappy little garage at the back of my property. The tree lying on it belongs to my neighbor behind me. Unfortunately, rules in our city require that responsibility for clean-up lies on the person whose property the debris is on...so regardless of the fact that the tree actually belongs to my neighbor, it is my insurance company that pays for the damage to my property. Yes, I know that is twisted, but that's the way is in MO. How do I know this? Because this is not the first time this has happened....


Deja Vu? That photo is from 2006.

Anyway, my poor little garage needs help...not that it didn't need help before, I am surprised it hasn't just fallen down of its own accord...and truly astounded that the tree did not just crush it flat.

A "Real" FBA

This weekend I actually made an attempt at an FBA, rather than my normal "lazy FBA" which just involves using Burda patterns because they are drafted for a larger cup size, and adding to the center front if I have to. But, that sometimes doesn't work and I end up having to take a lot out of the side seams, and shaping the waist.

I have been looking for a pattern for a simple shirt, I bought some madras plaid cotton and wanted a shirt that didn't involve princess seams because I didn't want to match THAT MUCH plaid. So, I dug into my pattern stash and found a copy of OOP Simplicity 4487. But, I opened up the pattern and found....gasp....I had purchased the wrong size range. The pattern was available in 2 ranges, 8-16 and 16-24. I had purchased the 8-16 size range. Why? Why would I do that? Even at my thinnest I still sewed in the 16-18 range. I must have had a brain fart. Or maybe I bought it for my niece. Who knows? One way or another, the largest size that I had was a 16.


I looked at the pattern measurements, and decided...you know, maybe I should finally learn how to do an FBA? So, I pulled out the measuring tape. First step, high-bust measurement. My bust measurement is a 42. My high bust? 37...or 36 if I pulled it really, really tight. That is a 6 inch difference (yeah, I guess the lady at Nordstrom was right when she laughed at me when I said I was a 38C. Not so much. 34DDD). Looking at the pattern envelope, a 36 inch bust fell in the size 14 range, and the 37 inch measurement fell right in between 14 and 16.

I thought about it, did some flat pattern measurements (back width) and decided to go with the 16. Mainly because I found the idea that I should cut a 14 laughable (Fat Guy in a Little Coat, anyone?). But yeah, a 16 it was.

The shirt had darts extending up from the hem to the bust, but no side darts. So...I added some. I marked the bust point and started slashing the pattern, filled in with tissue, and then drew on the new darts. I also made the necessary changes to the front facing, and added some room to the sleeve band (I only had enough fabric for the short-sleeved version). I also cut out the pockets shown on the short sleeved top, but wonder if perching tiny pockets on top of an extreme FBA may be a bit....much.


I used the method described in Fit for Real People. I hate tissue fitting, so I just ignore that part. But, FFRP is an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to do a better job fitting their clothing. I swear that they have a special team that choses the most unflattering patterns and fabrics for the photos (kind of like the fump-tastic images on the Kwik Sew pattern envelopes), but if you can look past that, the methods are sound.

After making the changes, I found that the darts that I drew in needed to be moved, since the side dart was too low, and the bottom dart was too close to the side seam. I then drew new darts onto the tissue (the green lines):


I am pretty happy with the results of my first "real" FBA. Here is the finished shirt:


I feel like there is some extra fabric just under the bust at the waist, or that could just be the way I am standing in the pic. I didn't see that in the mirror, but I often see much more in photos than I do studying the mirror. I also didn't put the bands on the sleeves, I may go add them later. I didn't alter the sleeves, and didn't end up with enough to gather into the band. so, I just hemmed them. The back fits very well:

The only remaining issue is that the side seams swoop back:


To fix this, I slashed the back pattern piece vertically and added 2.5 inches, and then slashed the front in the same way and overlapped, transferring the width from the front to the back....since the overall circumference was fine.

I have quite a lot of shirting fabric around, I will definitely continue to tweak this pattern. Although, I am torn as to whether or not this was easier or a better fit than what I normally do. Usually, I just cut an 18 or 20 and end up taking in the side-seams under the arms and at the waist, and then recut the armscye. This way, I don't have to do that, but instead I have 45 other alterations to do to make the full bust adjustment, and then the other tweaks to get a pattern 4 sizes too small to fit me.

I will need to ruminate further on this....In the meantime, I have about a million 99-cent-sale patterns that I can hack into willy-nilly to see what works better for me.

Oh, Burda, Burda, Burda.....

When the May preview for Burda went up on the website, I immediately fell in love with this blue dress:


I thought this would be a perfect dress for the office in the summer. Especially since our "business casual" completely falls apart in the summer. And since graduation was last Saturday, I anticipate the swift downward slide in office wear to be commencing in about an hour...when everyone arrives at work.

I was so excited about this dress, that weeks before my magazine arrived, I had already trotted off to the fabric store to pick up 3 yards of navy blue cotton interlock. I had everything figured out...it was going to be perfect! A fabulously comfy t-shirt that just happened to be a dress. Then the magazine arrived:


WTH?? Is that even the same dress?? Why is the skirt so tight? Why is it so....Eighties??? I can't make that! If it makes the scrawny model look that bad, what is it going to do to me? I shudder to think.

But...now I had three yards of cotton interlock. Really, how many blue t-shirts would my nephews need? Because I had no other use for it...it was too heavy for the beautiful and dramatic cowl front tunic that was living in my head. So...I made my dress anyway. Except I did not use the pattern for BurdaStyle 05-2010-105, I used the Uptown Downtown Knit Dress that I have already made about 8 times:


I have made these soooo many times, I am down to about an hour a dress. So, even though those rotten boys had sucked up all my sewing time this weekend, I still managed to sneak upstairs to make this:


I am perfectly happy with how this turned out, and will gleefully slip into my downward slide, re: summer office wear. In the meantime, I have to say that my initial excitement about this month's Burda has waned now that I have seen the model photos. Another one that I won't me making?


Seriously, who wants to leave the house wearing a teepee? (Especially when you are already fairly teepee-shaped even without a huge, conical dress?) And again, that is NOT what I saw when I saw the preview:


Although, if I were pregnant I would probably be all over that pattern. Oh well, no chance of that!!! Perhaps this month's Burda will just be "inspiration...."

Rotten Boys!!

The last week, I have been sewing for rotten boys. Not a single thing for myself, just shirts for my husband and one for my nephew who has been growing like a weed and completely outgrown the shirts that I made for him last year.

The first shirt was another Kwik Sew 2777 for my husband. This time I used a blue, white and orange plaid cotton:


I did a bang-up job of matching the plaids, if I do say so myself (please ignore the chalk marks on the placket). Check out that pocket....if you can find it!


I really like this pattern. It goes together well, and it fits him great. The only thing I am not happy about is the back yoke, but that was totally me not thinking ahead. I cut the yoke on the opposite grain from the back...like you are supposed to...but because the plaid is a perfect square it looks like I just didn't take the time to match. I should have done it on the bias instead:


My husband doesn't know it should look any other way, so it's just fine. He loves this shirt, though. I have at least 4 more to make for him, one with a wonderful silky cotton shirting with a blue and white stripe that I paid an exorbitant amount for in Portland.

Second, I made him another gig shirt, using Simplicity 4760. I have made shirts for him from this pattern before (he loves the one I made from laundered linen and wears it constantly).


To do the stripes on the front, I split the pattern front into three pieces. To do this, I draw lines on the original pattern where I want the stripe to lie. Then I trace the front in three individual pieces, and add seam allowances. The first thing I sew then is the front, and once it is reassembled just treat it the same way that the instructions would have you do the front piece.

The stripe has a print with musicians on it:


Finally, I made a shirt for my nephew. He adores anything that has skulls, flames, or some type of camouflage. If it were possible for a fabric to have all three in some manner, then he would be thrilled.


Since he outgrew Butterick 3475 that I had been using for him, I got McCall's 4164 instead. To make the stripe, I did the same thing that I did with Jeremy's shirt. Hopefully this one will fit him for a while!

I have one last thing that I need to sew for someone else, and then I can go back to sewing for me. I owe my mom a pair of pants. I have traced the pattern, sewn a muslin, and made alterations. Now I just need to cut out the fabric (a stretch twill) and put them together. If I hustle I can do it tomorrow and them back to my projects! The first thing that I want to do is a Hot Patterns Uptown Downtown Knit Dress in navy blue cotton interlock.

When I saw this dress in the current Burda:


I fell in love. I couldn't wait for the magazine to arrive so that I could make it. Then, the magazine arrived and:


Is it just me, or it that a TOTALLY different look than in the first photo? I hate how tight the skirt is. And all that fabric bunching under the armpits?? So, I decided that I could get a similar look, and a look that would be significantly more flattering by using the Uptown Downtown dress.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend, and a Happy Mother's Day. Jeremy and I are taking the family out for dinner this evening to celebrate. There is a good chance that everyone at the table could be wearing clothes made by me! That's kind of funny, actually!

ETA: Besides me, there were 4 people at dinner wearing clothes that I made. Here are all those rotten boys!