Reunion Dress

So, to say that I have left this until the last minute is a bit of an understatement....

My 20th high school reunion is on July 17th (if you are doing the math....in 10 days). I wavered and procrastinated, and couldn't decide what I wanted to wear. I finally decided that I wanted a retro-esque dress with full skirt made from the blue silk that I had purchased at Fabric.com when all the Vera Wang fabrics were on sale for $1.95 a yard.

I started by resizing one of the vintage patterns that I bought on Ebay recently:


About half-way through the muslin process I trashed it because needless to say, that full, pleated skirt on these hips?? NOT a good look. So, I decided to go a different route. And then, I dithered. And I wavered. And I procrastinated. And then I dithered some more. Finally I realized...oh, crap! I have less than 2 weeks! So a decision had to be made.

One of the things that I love about the vintage patterns is the shirt-dress styling...but what doesn't work with my shape is a gathered or pleated skirt. I can't even explain how bad this looks! Perhaps one day I will have the courage to don that muslin and have photos taken just to show how wrong this is. But I am not sure I have that kind of courage!

So, what I needed was a shirt dress...but with princess seams as opposed to a pleated skirt.

Enter the Hot Patterns Urbanista Coat Dress:


It has a lot of the aspects of the vintage pattern...shirt dress styling, exaggerated collar, and the princess lines that I need given my shape. In fact, doesn't that collar look a little like....


So, I decided that I would use the blue silk for a second version of the coat dress. However, the silk was very flimsy...it didn't have the body that I needed for the A-line skirt, and would probably outline every lump and bump on me. I decided that I needed to underline the dress as well. Today after work, I stopped by the nicer fabric store in my neighborhood and picked up some silk organza. The organza was only 45 inches wide, so I needed 4 yards. When I got home, I got all my pieces cut out and started the assembly. So far, ONE seam is finished!


Since I was underlining, I decided to not line the dress as well. Without lining, I needed to finish the seams in some way. It seemed like after all the work of underlining, that just serging the edges seemed....wrong somehow. I decided to do a Hong Kong finish on the seams instead:


I also picked up a buckle and buttons while I was there. The buttons were a STEAL at $.25 apiece:


Hopefully, I will be able to pull my nonsense together and get this thing sewn by the 17th! Wish me luck!

On another note....here is how a value fabric at $1.95 a yard can be turned into a much less economical dress:

4 yards Vera Wang silk: $9.80
4 yards silk organza: $48.00
9 buttons: $2.25
1 buckle: $4.50
3 yards sew-in interfacing: $12.00

Total cost of $10.00 dress: $75.55

Per Your Request!

Apparently, Blogger lost it's darn mind last night and ate a bunch of comments.

But based on a couple of emails, folks really wanted to see the dress on someone with a head, as opposed to my dress form.

Here you go!


I know the dress would look better with heels, but I have a lunch meeting today that I am going to have to hoof it to, so flats it is!


And from the back, I am at a loss as to how this photo ended up blurry...it was on the tripod! Oh well, maybe its me that is blurry, since this was before my coffee!

I Have Trouble Sewing...

Because something is always getting in the way:


It has been a nice break to have a long weekend after last week's marathon work conference. We didn't do much for the 4th of July...just went to my cousin's house for a bbq and to watch the fireworks. The rest of the time I worked on sewing projects.

The first project on the agenda was a pair of jeans for my niece. She helped to sew them, so the topstitching looks a little insane. But, I had wanted to use the Jalie pattern for her because she needs jeans, and is incredibly difficult to fit. She is very long waisted...or short-legged, but it does mean that RTW jeans need cut off and hemmed by at least 3 inches. She also has a large bottom, and because of that Grandma is always on her case to pull her pants up. The problem is compounded by the fact that she is 12 and thinks that jeans must be pushed as low on the waist as possible (which makes her look like she has a pot belly, something that I cannot get her to understand...pull your pants up, and you will look thinner!).

So, I decided the best way to keep her butt covered and her pants pulled up was to make a pair that actually fit her properly. The adjustments that I made were as follows:

1. A wedge added to the back of the pant to raise the back waist and cover her bottom.
2. I divided this wedge between the seat of the pant and the yoke.
3. Taper in at the back waist.

Here are the adjustments drawn on the pattern:


She is certainly happy with the pants:


Here you can see the increased rise in the back, but the front remains fairly low, so it appeals to what 12-year-olds consider "fashionable" while not being indecent:


The second project that I finished was the Hot Patterns Metropolitan Urbanista Coat Dress (HP 1006).


Here is the finished product:


I made this from denim, just like the illustration. My denim is on the heavier side, and as a result the dress is very A-line. I suspect that after it is washed a few times it will "calm down."


I really like the fit of the dress, and the drafting of the pattern is very nice, with a two-piece sleeve, princess seams, center back seam, and no side seams. However, I will say that this is no beginner project. The pattern itself is rated "advanced beginner," but I would say that the pattern instructions are very sparse, and assume that one has assembled similar garments before. However, Hot Patterns does very clearly say on their website that "...we assume that our customers have a reasonable knowledge of basic dressmaking techniques; our patterns won’t teach you to sew, and they’re not suitable for complete beginners, although sewers with just a little experience can tackle our beginner level patterns with confidence." Therefore, I don't think that a lack of detailed instructions is a problem...as it is simply what is to be expected with Hot Patterns.

One of the things that I especially liked about this pattern is that even though it uses facings, the facings do not end at the shoulder seam as in many similar patterns (with collar and revers), but there is also a back facing. This back facing is very deep, so the facings will not "flip out." In addition, the facings extend all the way to the armscye, and are caught right into the seam while setting the sleeve. As a result, the facings will lie properly.

Here is a view of the back facing:


And the front facing that extends to the armscye:


Some other nice touches include hem facings for both the skirt hem and sleeves, pleated sleeve caps, and a very wide collar. There is also a belt made of the same fabric as the dress. I used a buckle with prong, so made very tiny buttonholes for the holes in the belt:


I also used blue jean "buttons" for the dress:


The entire dress is topstitched, as well:


Here is the sleeve:


The instructions do not direct you to use a button on the cuff, but I added it just because I liked the look. Overall, I am very happy with the way the dress turned out. I really like the slight vintage "vibe" and am considering using this pattern for my blue silk. Can't you just see it in silver-blue silk with self-covered buttons and a rhinestone buckle on the belt?

I must dig out the blue silk and make sure that I have enough....

Nothing to Update...

It has been a fantastically crazy week, and starting today I will be at an academic conference that lasts through Friday. I am really looking forward to the conference, some of my colleagues and I will be attending the National Academic Advising Association Summer Institute. It is a week-long, intensive workshop in which teams from various universities bring topics that are of concern to them, and during the week each team will develop an action plan for their particular department or university. Fortunately, the conference is right here in town, so we can take a large team from our university...since we don't have to be concerned about travel and hotel costs.

This weekend was a bit mad, so I didn't really have a chance to do any sewing. On Friday, my cousin hosted a 30th birthday party for a friend, and my brother and I went. The party was at a bowling alley that looked like it had been transported from the 1950's. All the score-keeping was done on paper. I hardly remembered how to keep score! It must have been a funny sight to see a bunch of 20- and 30-somethings who hadn't bowled in about a decade without computerized scoring, clustered around a score sheet, scratching their heads over how to score two strikes, a spare, and then an open frame.

On Saturday we went to my dad's family reunion. We have the reunion once every three years, and my cousin and I are always the organizers. We had a really nice turnout, although I could have lived without the 98 degree temperatures (and that was in the shade!). I'm a little sunburnt today, but other than that OK!

Next weekend, my niece and nephew want to come over, so I doubt much more will get done than this weekend! My niece, of course, will want to sew. She has been bugging me to learn how to make jeans, so I will probably let her give the Jalie pattern a try. I suspect I will be doing all the topstitching, but it will give her a chance to make something that is a little bit more complex than the other projects she has been working on.

If I have the machines set up for top-stitching, I may go ahead and get started on my coat dress, a la Hot Patterns:


I am still trying to decide whether to do it as a shirt-dress with collar stand and placket, or the facings and revers. The denim is thick enough that I am re-thinking the collar stand and placket...I don't want it to be like a denim straight-jacket. I also don't know whether to do the short sleeves or long sleeves. I am leaning towards long because with the weight of the denim it will be much better as a fall dress. Although I can hardly think about sewing for fall right now, it is so darn hot!

I also have a huge pile of shirtings that I need to work on. About half of them are summer weight, and if I don't get to them soon they will just have to wait until next year. Not to mention, my husband wants more shirts as well. He has been wearing the plaid one to death. I have two really wonderful cotton shirtings that I bought for a ridiculous sum when I was in Portland. One is so fine and silky, I am afraid to cut into it. But, I have been making enough shirts for him that I feel like I am confident enough about finishing that I could justify going ahead and getting to them. I'll probably start with this blue and white stripe:


I also have some lime green lawn that I found little square MOP buttons for that have been dyed the perfect color green. I am thinking about making another version of this tunic:


But possibly adding pintucks to the bib portion of the front. Alternately, I have a purple and green madras of a similar weight that I could use as a contrast. But really, I am leaning towards the pintucks.

I hope everyone has a great week ahead of them, and I'll be back with updates as soon as I have a spare moment to finish anything!

Blue Jeans: Version Two

Today I finished up a second version of the Jalie stretch jeans from the previous post. If you recall, that version was overly tight through the thigh:


You can see the horizontal pulls across the back of the leg because the leg is too narrow through the thigh. I found the jeans to be otherwise flattering, however, so I wanted to make these work.

To improve the fit, I needed to do two things:

1. Widen the back leg and
2. Raise the rear waist band to cover the bottom
   

To widen the back leg, I made an alteration to the back pattern piece in the same way that I would do a large bicep alteration (see this link for a diagram). Once that alteration was made, I then made a wedge alteration to the back of the pant (see page 37 of the same text linked above). One issue that I did have to consider is that if I added a wedge that was too large, it would make the yoke seam horizontal rather than the "vee" shape that it is supposed to make. To keep that vee-shape in the back, I added a small wedge to the back pant pattern piece and a second small wedge to the yoke itself.

Here is the new version:


You can see how close to horizontal that yoke seam is due to the addition of the wedge to the back pattern piece. I may work on redrafting where the yoke and back meet to make that more vee-shaped.

And from the front:


And the side:


You can see in the side view that the side seam does tilt to the back a bit just under the waistline. This should be fairly simple to fix. The major issues, the too-tight legs and the panties peeking out of the waist line, have been fixed in this version.

This version reveals that there are a few small issues that I could fix if I wanted to. Among them:

1. Making the yoke seam more vee-shaped as opposed to horizontal
2. Transferring some of the width of the front pattern piece to the back to keep that seam from swooping backwards on the hip
3. Possibly replacing the straight waistband with a contoured waistband, although that would do away with the super-simple sewing of the flat waistband.
   

Overall, I am very happy with the simple alterations that I was able to make to the jean, which resulted in a very comfortable and flattering pant.

While the pattern is drafted to be very close-fitting and slim, I think that with these small alterations they can work well for plus-sizes as well.

Blue Jeans: First Attempt

This past week I worked on Jalie 2908, the women's stretch jeans pattern that has been so popular on PR (if you filter for the pattern number, there are more than 50 reviews).


Because I have such a difficult time fitting pants, I decided that I would start with an unaltered pattern, simply cutting to the size indicated by my measurements, tracing a size "Z." I wanted to start with a "blank slate" rather than just blindly making alterations given that I don't really know how Jalies generally fit, what their ease typically is like, etc. Well, I'll tell you, they suuuure don't fit like the "Big 4!" Talk about limited ease!

Even though this was a muslin, I had never before made a pair of jeans, so I followed the instructions word-for-word...so that even if the muslin was unwearable I would have an opportunity to practice all the topstitching and other aspects of construction.

I am very happy with how these went together, the instructions were exceptional. To construct the pants, I actually had three machines set up. The serger was threaded with white for finishing seams. The 401 was threaded with navy for constructions, and the 503 was threaded with two spools of beige thread for the topstitching. This worked out very well, rather than having to rethread machines as needed.


I wasn't really sure what to do with the back pockets, so I just made a grid with straight lines up and down the pocket:


For the pocket lining, I used leftover cotton madras from a shirt I made a few weeks ago:


The denim was a mid-weight denim with 3% lycra purchased at Jackman's Fabrics here in St. Louis. They have a limited ammount of garment fabrics (mainly, they sell quilting and upholstery fabrics) but what they do have is generally very high quality.

However, I suspect that my denim did not have the stretch that was intended for these jeans....or maybe I'm just a fatty, either explanation is equally reasonable! Anyway, on to the photos. I have not yet hemmed the jeans, I want to run them through the laundry one more time before I hem them.

Here are the pants from the front:


And here they are from the back:


As you can see, there are some horizontal pulls across the back leg, the legs are too narrow and I will change that in subsequent versions. However, the front fits fairly well. These are a bit too tight to be comfortable, but that doesn't mean I won't keep them...I have lost 10 pounds since the last time I posted photos of myself and fully intend to lose 30 more. I think another 10 pounds and these pants will fit fairly well. So, they will be set aside for later.

In the meantime, I still need some jeans! So this week I think I will make some alterations to this pattern and make another version. First, I will raise the back waist by adding a wedge to the back seam. I will also widen the legs throughout the thigh, as well as the hip. The waist, however, fits fine and will remain as-is. Essentially, I need to add more room for my bottom, so will do most of the alterations to the back pattern piece.

Hopefully, I will have a chance to get to these this week with another length of denim with 3% lycra that I have from Fashion Fabric Club. This will be quite the adventure, because I normally have to make a ton of alterations to make pants hang without various odd wrinkles. However, you can't do that with jeans, especially stretch jeans, because they have zero ease means that wrinkles are just a fact of life.

While the jeans are tighter than I would wear, there are some things that they have going for them, mainly I don't have a wedgie, I don't have those sideways creases across my lap, and I really like the shape of the leg. If I can add some more room for a full bottom and full thighs without changing those aspects, this pattern really has the potential to be a winner.

More Doo-Dads, A Self-Drafted Skirt, and News

I have been working on summer clothes, and last weekend purchased some gray linen with a white pinstripe to make a pair of drawstring pants. I had wanted to make the drawstring pants #144 from the June issue of Burda Style. They are a from the plus section:


I really liked the gathered paper-bag waist and thought they would look nice in linen for summer. Except, I am not very observant and the linen that I bought for them was not 60 inches wide. When I went back to the fabric store today, I could find brown with gold pinstripe, beige with white pinstripe, but no gray with a white pinstripe was left.

So, I decided to make a drawstring skirt with a paper bag waist. I didn't use a pattern, I just cut a giant rectangle, serged the edges, and started sewing. To make the paper bag waist, I folded the top edge under 1/2 inch to hide the raw edges, then folded a second time making a 2 inch casing. I then added two button holes for the drawstring, and then sewed the casing with one seam at two inches from the top edge and another one inch from the top edge. Here is how the waist turned out:


For the drawstring, I just cut a strip of fabric from selvedge to selvedge, serged one edge and then turned it by threading the serger chain back through it. I didn't hem it because it has the selvedge ends on it and looks fine, if a touch rustic.

I also added a kick pleat to the back, and machine hemmed using white thread:


I had wanted the pants (now skirt) to match another shirt that I made from the Hot Patterns Weekender Sunshine tops, and again loaded with Anthropologie-like doo-dads:


I decided to use multiple colors of fabric for the roses, since it looked nice in the Anthropologie version:


Here is a closeup:


Since I did not add the band to the bottom of this one, I started by cutting it to the line indicated on the pattern (see photo above) but then decided that that was overly long, and cut 3 inches off...essentially shortening it to the length of the first shirt, before the band was added:


I am seriously thinking about adding a big cargo pocket to the side of the skirt...but don't know if this would just be too much. I will wear it once and think about it. I still have enough fabric to make a bellows pocket.

In other news, my desire for drawstring pants is unabated. So, I picked up some beige linen with a white stripe, to go with a white shirt:



And also a super-preppy seersucker embroidered with anchors and ship's wheels to go with a navy blue shirt:


Hopefully they will go together super-fast and be super-comfy for summer.

In other news, this blog now has 100 followers. How awesome is that??? That there are 100 people that find my ramblings useful simply floors me. Thank you to each and every person that follow, that read and comment, you all make me feel fantastic!