Tag Archives: finished projects

January 1, 2015 · 5:43 pm

Watson!

Watson!

Sometimes ya just gotta jump on the bandwagon, right?

I bought Cloth Habit’s Watson pattern shortly after it came out. Then, of course, realized that my home printer was dead out of ink, so actually making it up had to wait. (Although at one point I was seriously considering tracing the pieces off the computer screen. It’s a small pattern, you could totally do it.)

Once I did get ink, I promptly made up the bikini (panties! Yes, I come from a pantie-saying family.)

My first pair isn’t overly pretty (due entirely to my choice of elastic), but the fit was bang-on; it might be the first pair of home-made undies I haven’t wanted to lower the front on after my first go round*. The only thing I wasn’t over the moon about was the three-piece exterior construction. I know some people love this because it lets you get a really neat finish on the crotch, but I don’t love the look of the front crotch seam. Purely a matter of taste. I would have photos but my kids made fun of me for taking pictures of my underwear so I didn’t take any. Darned kids. As I said, they don’t look terribly pretty anyway, but the fit and feel is great. (Actually, they look fine on, but are kind of scrunchy when not being worn, and I don’t have a chic underwear-modelling-mannequin to demo on.)

Watson bra: closeup with elastic and cup seams.

Next up was the bra. Bralette. Softie. Whatever you call those things that look like bras but don’t have underwires. I should confess that I’m not a huge fan of this type of bra; OK, I am not a fan of bras in general, really; as a teen I refused to try one on until I could reasonably fit something that didn’t say “A” for the cup size (that was the end of high school), and then after I had kids I got annoyed again and really didn’t wear them until, well, I started sewing and discovered that a nice, padded foam-cup could shift me from needing small-bust adjustments to being bang-on in pattern-bust-sizing. So basically it was sewing that got me wearing bras again. And of course, if I have to wear it, probably sooner or later I’m going to want to try to sew it, although the bras you can easily sew are, of course, not the kind of hard-cup I usually go for. The first bra pattern I bought was the Marlborough, back in the summer, but though my trial was pretty successful, it keeps getting back-burnered. Watson, not having underwires, was a lot less scary for my first “bra” type experiment.

I will pause to voice one small complaint about sizing. Both the Watson and the Orange Lingerie Marlborough suggest that you find your cup size by taking your full-bust measurement and then subtracting your high bust measurement. I gather this works for many people.

It does not work for shit for me. My high-bust is the same or (at most) 1/2″ smaller than my full bust. Blame it on broad shoulders or well-developed pectorals or who-knows-what, but according to this method I am an AA cup. (I did, however, go with Amy’s recommended band-size based on my ribcage measurement. That worked fine.) For the cup size, I went with the one that corresponds to my “cup volume” for pretty much every storebought bra I’ve ever owned—the one that corresponds with 34B/32C/30D. Now, cup size on this bra is pretty forgiving so maybe I would’ve been just fine in a the 32AA cup, but… I’m kinda doubting it. Anyway, /endrant. If you know your cup volume, just go with that.

Emergency mail rescue!

So I made up almost the entire bra, in the long-line view, then realized what I already knew, which was that trying to fit the long-line onto any bra hook sets that I had on hand was not going to even remotely work; with the elastic finishing I had used, my back was a full 3″ (which is about 3/4″ longer than drafted for—I was using foldover elastic to finish the band top and bottom rather than folding it behind, so I wasn’t getting rid of my seam-allowance. It’s not that I was unaware of this so much as that I liked the wider band, until I actually had to think practically about how I was going to finish it off.) So, I got me to the Bra Maker’s Supply website to order some wider bra hooks (and some other doodads while I was at it). (Also, hooray for in-Canada shipping—it got here regular mail from Ontario in three business days! I couldn’t drive the distance in much less than that.)

Why do I keep making stuff in black?

Happily, the 4-hook bra-back fit PERFECTLY on my band. I used Tasia’s trick of hand-basting the back bits in place before bar-tacking—genius! Flawless attachment the first time. (Yes, this is my first time attaching any kind of bra back, really.

Ermagerdbra!

Since materials are such a big deal when it comes to bra-making, I should probably go over them: I used a standard, fairly heavy and very stretchy cotton-lycra knit, a single layer everywhere except the front band (“cradle.” I’ll figure this bra terminology out one of these days. 😉 ). I had just enough strap elastic left from my Gertie Slip to make the straps, and as mentioned above I used a wide plushy fold-over elastic (1/2″ when finished) to finish the bottom and back of the band. For the top and cups, I used my crappy-but-quick-and-easy method: serge clear elastic on to the inside, fold over, and zig-zag. Not the prettiest, but it works and doesn’t show. For the cradle, I used a double-layer of my cotton knit, and interfaced one side with fusible knit interfacing. I made this side the inside, but in hind-sight I kinda wish I’d made it the outside; since the interfaced side has no vertical stretch, but the un-interfaced side does, the un-interfaced side tends to bubble a little bit. Something to think about next time. 🙂 I didn’t line the cups in any way and I’m a bit torn—I feel like the stretch helps the fit, but on the other hand there isn’t a lot of support or shape. Not that I need much of either, really, so perhaps that’s just me being used to hard-cup bras. But the band feels very solid with the elastic and interfacing and the industrial-grade four-hook back, while the cups feel much softer and lighter. Maybe a double-layer for the cups would’ve been the way to go.

Still, quibbling aside, it was fun to make and is pretty fun to wear. I also made Tyo try it on, and it fit her pretty well on a tighter hook—I’m actually kinda liking the idea of making her bras (especially if I can sell her on simple soft ones like this), since finding storebought ones in her (itty bitty) band-size is either tricky or very expensive.

And now, back to those men’s jeans… >_<

*I like the front low on my underwear—your mileage may vary.

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Tagged as Cloth Habit, finished projects, Watson bra

December 17, 2014 · 4:00 pm

Simple, practical, superfluous.

I’ve had Burda 8855 for a long time—it was one of the earlier thrift-store patterns I picked up. And, frankly, it’s pretty damn near perfect: a long, not too full skirt, one of my favourite styles, and one I wear a fair bit when I’m in a “look at me!” point in my fashion cycle. Amidst all the craziness of Hallowe’en sewing, I was yearning to make something for myself, and traced it off. (A 70s vintage pattern, it doesn’t have seam allowances added. Which means I got to add my own, favourite 1cm seam allowance. YAY 🙂 ) Incidentally, the most fun thing about the pattern itself was discovering that it was printed on tissue paper identical in every way to the big Burda-brand tracing sheets I buy by the package at Fabricland, right down to the one shiny side and the precise folding scheme.) As I was auditioning black fabrics for Batgirl’s jacket/cape at Hallowe’en, I pulled out this mystery suiting, a sturdy twill weave that feels like it might have a hint of wool in. While I went with a leather-look knit for Batgirl, I knew this fabric would make a great, sturdy, plain black skirt.

I traced and cut a straight size 38, adding a wide hem allowance to the bottom both because I like wide hems and just in case the length as drafted wasn’t enough (though 70s long skirts are generally fine, for some reason). Once I finally got it constructed enough to try on (there was some sewing together of incorrect sides and other humorous blunders) I trimmed a wee bit off the top to allow for the fact that my waist definitely not size 38, and a wee bit more off the top back in a teensy-tiny swayback adjustment. I often do this in dresses with a waist-seam, but it was interesting to see it happen in a solo skirt, especially since it’s not terribly fitted over the hips. Anyway; side-zip and a waistband. On reflection, while I am coming to terms with skirts that hit at my waist (at least if I don’t try to tuck a top in), I still prefer the look of a facing to an actual waistband. Less bulk in the area where I least need to add bulk. 😉 Especially since this pattern has no back seam so the zipper is at the side. Next time I try this pattern, I will try making a facing for it. Or maybe add a back seam to put the zipper in. Or maybe both.

Once I had the top finished to my liking, I tried it on and decided that while the length at the back was good (allowing for a nice 2″ hem), the front could be a wee bit shorter. I trimmed about 1″ off the front, tapering to nothing just past the side seams. To make the turn-up on the flared skirt, I tried something new to me: I cranked the differential feed all the way up on my serger and serged the bottom edge of the skirt, gathering it somewhat as I went. This wound up being pretty much perfect for pressing it up; then I hand-stitched the hem, as I usually do. It’s not terribly smooth or pretty on the inside—a seam binding or other tape would help with that—but it was quick and functional. Quick being a big deal these days.

It was a deliciously quick project; IIRC, I traced the pattern on Saturday night, cut and sewed on Sunday, and finished the hem Sunday evening, to wear the skirt Monday morning. Now that is a win.

I did a lapped zipper. That probably didn’t help with the whole side-bulk thing. >_<

So I’m quite happy with the skirt, aside from some funkiness about my buttonhole on the waistband (buttonhole is not centred but button is, which causes some bubbling at the side, just where you don’t want it.) And It’s been worn a number of times since. I was quite pleased with myself for finally adding such a versatile basic piece* to my closet. Then, while digging through that closet for things to wear with the skirt, I found not one, but two long black skirts from my pre-sewing days that, um, I had kinda forgotten about. So apparently it’s a staple that I already possessed.

I still like my new skirt best, though.

*your mileage may vary. 😉

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Tagged as 70s, Burda 8855, finished projects

November 24, 2014 · 6:40 am

Angel Wings

It’s been a while since I made anything for Osiris. I think the last thing was a pair of indifferently-fitting fleece pants for last Christmas, distinguished only by the fact that they were the only thing I sewed anyone for Christmas. He’s not really demanding in that department, but he was definitely starting to pout, especially after all the Hallowe’en sewing I did for the kids (hopefully I’ll manage to post about that eventually, if not check my Instagram feed. :P). And it’s certainly not that I don’t have lots of ideas of things to make him. I have the Thread Theory Strathcona henley printed out but still needing taping. I’d still like to try jeans, but I didn’t think I had the energy for a major project. Turns out the joke is on me since this simple sweatshirt spiraled well out of control.

So, why a sweatshirt? Well, Osiris is many things, but foremost among them is an 80s boy. I can’t explain it, but there’s something about that decade that appeals to him. And there are few things he likes better than a warm, cozy sweatshirt.

Which, it turns out, is actually pretty hard to find these days outside of a thrift-store. Everything is hoodies with zippers. On the other hand, though, a sweatshirt is dead simple to make.

I started out with Kwik Sew 2133, a stylish gem all the way from 1991 (Which, let’s face it, from a style point of view was still firmly 80s.) I wanted the classic raglan-sleeve style, if only because the two other sweatshirts in Osiris’s current collection (yes, both from the thrift store) are set-in-style sleeves.

Being (justifiably) wary of late-80s/early 90s sizing, I rounded down and made the size 38 rather than the 42 (Osiris has a 40″ chest), although looking at the finished product I could have gown down another size easily (It occurs to me that I may just prefer seeing him in form-fitting clothes. 😉 ) Like me, Osiris is long-limbed, and I wound up adding a full four inches to the sleeve length—body length was just fine.

Then… things start to go a little sideways. I didn’t want to make just a plain sweatshirt… it needed something a little special. A wee bit of bling. But something subtle, classy*… Maybe some white-on-white appliqué? Something unique, special, Osiris.

Next thing I know, I’m ogling tribal angel-wing designs on Pinterest and sketching out an angel-wing/cougar design to go down the back of the sweater. That pretty much killed a weekend; then there was another pause when I figured out I was two inches short of having enough steam-a-seam to do both wings.

To do the appliqué, I traced out my design on Steam-a-Seam (lite) and fused that to the thin satin I had chosen for the applique (only because it was the best match for colour & sheen in the store. I wish I could have found a beefier satin in the right shade of white, but them’s the breaks.) I traced the internal lines out in my blue wash-away pen. Love that thing. Cut that out and fused it in place on the half-constructed sweatshirt. The design spans the back raglan seams, so I had to sew those ones first. I was a little worried about how my stitching would look when crossing those seams, but it didn’t end up being a huge deal.

I like this open-toed foot for doing appliqué. You can see everything, and there’s a groove on the bottom for the satin stitch to slide through.

For the first time, I tried underlaying the applique with a cut-away stabilizer; in the past when I’ve applique’d on sweatshirt fleece the edges have often been a bit wavy, and this takes care of that nicely, although it does add some stiffness (and probably reduces the cuddly factor of the sweatshirt, too.)

After that, it was all over but the zig-zagging. And more zig-zagging. And more zig-zagging. I’d like to think I’m getting a bit better at making my curves smooth… it’s sorta like driving, no sharp corrections, kid.

I used my Pfaff 360, (my main machine now that the White is out of action), which worked quite nicely as it has this handy little lever on the stitch-width control that lets you narrow things down to nothing (or widen them), then pops right back to the set width when you let it go. Very handy when you are applique’ing something with lots of points like, oh, feather-tips.

I was pretty relieved once he could actually try it on and the shoulder paw prints fell more or less where I hoped they would and the whole thing seemed fairly proportional. I stitched the little pawprints last, and I was terrified the whole time that I was going to ruin the whole thing, as they’re the smallest bits with the tightest curves. They’re not awesome and they are a little bit wobbly, but I guess they’re ok in the end. (Well, it’s not like I’m going to redo them! 😉

I did want to make sure I added the little triangle on the front neckline. Also, I am incapable of sewing white without it getting dirty. >_<

Other than that, it’s pretty standard but pretty much what I wanted. The applique has a bit of crinkliness (do I dare say cardboardiness?) to it that I think is due to the satin being too thin for the weight of even the light Steam-a-Seam, but I’ll deal (although I do worry about how it will hold up over time, especially since this is made with the good heavy-duty fleece that will probably be going strong years from now.

Incidentally, this may be the first time I’ve actually used proper rib-knit for bands with a pattern that called for it. The pieces are TINY compared to the fleece pattern pieces, but they stretch out just fine. It is nice working with the “right” fabrics for a knit pattern… 🙂

Anyway, here’s hoping that Osiris is warm and snuggly for a long time to come… (and that he can keep all that white clean. >_<)

*OK, maybe the word I was looking for was kitschy after all?

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Tagged as finished projects, For Osiris, Kwik Sew, Kwik Sew 2133

October 14, 2014 · 6:10 pm

Quick Weekend Therapy Sewing

It was probably inevitable that I would end up with a fabric stash problem. I’m a pack rat by nature, I like to have things around that just might come in handy someday. I don’t mind having some basics (and not-so-basics) kicking around for when the urge strikes. What I have more trouble coming to terms with is the scraps. I can’t seem to throw away anything bigger than a square foot, so a frustrating portion of the stash ends up being these pieces lingering from finished projects. They do come in handy—for contrast details, bias tape making, piping, pocket linings; and the kids will dive through them from time to time, especially when Tyo is in a monster-making mood, but in general the amount generated is more than the amount used, and they’re frustrating.

The best way I’ve found to deal with them (when I have the time) is to just keep making stuff from the fabric leftovers until it’s all gone. This often gets derailed by other priorities, of course, but one can try (and at least the machine is all threaded up in the right colour.)

I had not quite a metre (very oddly shaped) of this stretch lace left from a far more exciting yet less practical project that has yet to be blogged, pending a proper photo-shoot. >_< Anyway, I having already cut some Rosy Ladyshorts (cute pattern, free, go make some) from it, I figured I would see if I could squeeze a simple long-sleeved tee out of it using my handy-dandy old knit sloper.

Obviously, I could. Not much to say, just a few details—for a light neckline finish I serged a band of white jersey to the neck, folded to the inside, and topstitched down with a zig-zag; it’s soft, a little tidier than just adding clear elastic, but not too heavy, so I think it pretty much hit the mark for what I was going for.

The sleeve hems I just serged and folded over and topstitched—nothing special.

I added a band for the hem, as I have for most of my recent knit-top makes, because it’s both easy and nice-looking, which is a rare combination. 😉

I then needed a camisole of some kind to make the thing wearable. I made one from some cream cotton-lycra jersey; this is really a wardrobe staple I’ve been avoiding making for probably as long as I’ve been making clothes here.

I hacked my knit sloper into a wide-necked curve, (maybe a little wider than ideal, but it echoes the scooped neckline of the lace overlay well) and made a little tank-top.

I didn’t have any fold-over elastic in the right colour, however, so I made bands using strips of jersey. If I had been willing/able to to make them as bindings, with the edges folded in, it would’ve worked really well, but with bands turning into knit tubes for the straps… well, there’s an ugly spot at the join. Some hand-stitching could probably pretty it up, but it’s not an ideal method.

On the whole, though, it works, and both will be useful (if not terribly seasonal) wardrobe staples.

The only tragedy is that I burnt out the motor of my White, which is my go-to machine for knits (other than the serger) about halfway round the hem of the camisole. That was a lot of hand-wheeling to get it finished. >_< Next question: is it worth it to fix such a machine? A new motor can be had online for about thirty bucks (although Sew Classic won't ship them to Canada, apparently. Boo.) and my father-in-law has the know-how to attach one if I can get the right size and mounting-brackets. (This is still more money than I spent on the whole machine, by the way.) It's an internal motor, but still belt-driven and looks just like the external ones, to my untutored eye, anyway. /sigh. It was also my favourite machine to do buttonholes with the buttonholer attachment on. Double sigh.

Of course, there’s still a little bit of the lace left. Time for another pair of ladyshorts?

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Tagged as finished projects, knit sloper, lace

September 2, 2014 · 5:33 am

Jeans for the Cool Kid

The Happy Teenager

Tyo’s been making out like a bandit this year. I mean, really—Syo got some yoga pants she doesn’t like and a quick stretch-knit birthday suit, and Tyo has racked in a pikachu onesie, an Avengers grad dress, and now this. I realize in terms of project numbers they’re similar (and both low… but my sewing time is at an insane premium these days, peeps), but if you look at hours committed… Tyo is way ahead. Obviously I have some parental imbalance to redress. (In my defense, Syo has benefited from at least a couple of other things that never made it on the blog, but still nothing that required more than a couple of hours to knock out on the serger.)

But anyway, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and Tyo was so very, very squeaky about this project. She was starting high school (which, in our neck of the woods, starts in Gr. 9, or roundabouts age 14), and very nervous, and determined that she had to make the most badass first impression ever. Her father was committed to drive her to school for the first day on the motorcycle. She campaigned for (although she didn’t get) freshly-blue hair. (I like the blue hair just fine—it’s the pain in the ass of getting it applied, followed by the days of blue-getting-everywhere (blue towels. Blue bedsheets. Blue bathroom. Blue clothing.) that drive me nuts.)

But she did get a pair of jeans.

I haven’t made Tyo a pair of jeans in, um, a long time. There were these shorts, over two years ago. The last pair of Jalie jeans was 2011. This was around the time Tyo became a reluctant (but eventually fervent) convert to the Cult of the Skinny Jeans, at which point the lifespan of a pair of jeans on a growing child became numbered in months, rather than seasons or years. Handmade disposable pants? Even with a little sister and littler cousins for hand-me-downs, this was Not Happening—I declared a jeans-for-kids moratorium. Actually, I declared a moratorium on any jeans that cost more than $10… thrift store scores only, it was.

But, lately, that pesky growing thing that children do has slowed down for Tyo, and this was a big occasion, and she had a very specific idea she was very excited about. And, well, she’s been stealing all my shorts for months. So I had her go try on my most recent pair of jeans for myself. And, while she’d probably rather be shot than seen on the internet in floral jeans, the fit was pretty much spot on except for length.

It’s a very weird feeling any time someone else puts on your carefully crafted, custom-fitted handmade clothes and they FIT—it’s even weirder, IMO, when it’s your daughter. At least I’m still taller than her, unless she gets a grade-9 growth spurt, anyway.

So the good news was, I didn’t need to trace another copy of my pattern—just take a few inches out of the length. And Tyo wanted her vision completed badly enough she was even willing to help cut the fabric.

The cutter. (In my floral jeans, although you can’t actually assess the fit in this picture)

Which is not a thing that happens, ever. So yeah.

As for the Vision behind the Pants? Well, we don’t have Hot Topic in Canada (at least, not in my backwater corner of things), but Tyo has a dear friend whose parents are, um, a little more well-heeled than we (mind you that does describe a fairly large chunk of the Canadian population) and tend to take their children on cross-border shopping trips of fairly epic proportions (Fellow Canadians should note we are not part of the 80% of Canada’s population that lives within a two-hour drive of the US border. Such trips require hours of driving and hotel stays). And said dear friend had a pair of Hot Topic jeans that were one colour on one side, and another colour on the other side. So we scoured the stash for the best black denim, and then went through all the purples (how on earth did I end up with four different lenghs of purple denim? I may have a Problem.) to find one which best matched, which turned out to be this totally-intense primary (OK, secondary) purple. That I couldn’t photograph in true colour to save my life, but anyway. It’s a very bright, clear purple.

One good thing about cutting jeans this way—you pretty much have to cut in a single layer, which is a good idea anyway if you want jeans that hang straight, but I am lazy and always talk myself into cutting folded. Sometimes I get away with it, sometimes I get really annoying twisty seams.

Other than that, I don’t have much to say about the actual construction, except that I did modify things for a stitched-on fly extension, which I think I prefer to the cut-on one all my other jeans have had to date (storebought jeans always have one that is stitched on—I think the seam gives needed reinforcement to the fly edge, especially in stretchy jeans). It’s obviously not a make-or-break detail, and I’m still not terribly comfortable with how you do a fly this way, since it’s a bit different and I did end up having to do some unpicking… but it’s a thing to work on, anyway.

Back Pockets

Tyo specified that the main construction should keep colour to its appropriate side—probably a good thing. Left to myself I would probably have colourblocked everything, and it would have ended up looking really busy. As it is, I couldn’t resist swapping the back pockets and the belt-loops, and I’m not sure if it adds to the overall look or takes away. Minimalism might have been a better idea. Oh, well. I do like the doubled belt-loops at the sides as well as the back.

Two buttons

I finally remembered, after regretting it my last couple of projects, that my currently-favourite-waistband pattern piece is a bit wide, and the jeans buttons I can get a hold of here are a bit small, so a single button results in a rather insecure attachment that lets the waistband roll over in weird ways. Two buttons, however, is perfect. (I also made Tyo try them on while I marked the button location, so I don’t THINK I need to move them over, which I still have to do with my flower jeans, because the position that looks like it’s lined up nicely when the jeans are laying flat is actually too “loose” when the jeans are on a body and the waistband is under tension—leading to chronically-low-flying flies.

One final detail, which you probably noticed in the earlier pictures, was inspired by some jeans a character in one of our favourite family TV shows, Lost Girl, wears. I can’t find any good shots, but I screen-capped this one:

Kenzi’s laced-up jeans

The Kenzi character wears at least a couple pairs in this style, with the sneaky inner-thigh lacing, which I knew Tyo loves as much as I do. And, Fabricland recently started carrying some fairly sturdy grommet-tape (where was this stuff two years ago when I was looking for it for the steampunk Hallowe’en costumes?!?)

Lacing!

So I added some. It was ridiculously simple to do, although its obviously a bit of a different look than the inspiration. Still, a fun, unique detail, and definitely one no one else has.

We took a bout a bazillion photos of Tyo in the jeans, but it was the end of the day and we were rushed so there was a lot of blur and not a lot that did the jeans justice.

I’ll still subject you to them anyway.

Back view, with pockets and blur.

I should note one more thing: these are not true “skinnies.” They were made according to my personal favourite leg-style, which I would call a stovepipe—tapered and form-fitting to the knee, absolutely straight below it, which creates jeans that are snug through the calf but not actually skinny in the ankle. I asked Tyo if she wanted them skinnified, but she said she likes this shape, and it doesn’t seem to have decreased the cool factor (although it has its drawbacks when we get to stuffing-pants-into-winter-boots weather).

Great pose, plenty of blur.

‘Tude.

I did try them on, but lucky for Tyo, they’re just a little bit too short. 😛

Obviously this first-day-of-school project is a bit out of date at this point >_<—I’m currently working on a Hallowe’en costume for the Stylish sister-in-law, and hating it mostly because it’s not for MEEEEEE, and dying to work more on ridiculous historical clothing projects that I have no actual need for. Not that I have a need for much clothing, at the moment, other than perhaps warm fuzzy things to get me through the impending winter. Hopefully I’ll manage to blog some of that in a more reasonable time-span… hah.

In the meantime, I’ll just be happy that my kid still thinks the things I make are “cool”.

At least sometimes. 😉

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Tagged as finished projects, For Tyo, Jalie, Jalie 2908

August 31, 2014 · 10:56 pm

A quickie

I’ve been starting a lot of projects but not finishing much. /sigh. Never a good sign. But when this scrap of knit jacquard (can knits be jacquards?) threw itself in my path last week, I thought that maybe it would be something quick enough that I could actually get it out. It was a piece as-is, a cut barely over half a metre, but it had the most gorgeous roses pattern, and it obviously needed to be the world’s simplest knit skirt.

Simple knit skirt.

It didn’t end up being quite as simple as I might have liked. The wider feature of the roses wasn’t centred on the panel, but I wanted it centred on the skirt—I figured I’d cut the panel so the roses were centred, with a single seam at the back. As it turned out, this wasn’t quite wide enough, so I had to add a narrow panel to the back. We’ll call it a feature.

I took the opportunity to use a bit of snuggly-soft grey elastic I’ve been hoarding as an exposed waistband. Possibly black would’ve been a better choice as the grey is a bit lighter than the charcoal in the skirt, but I think it works, and it’s every bit as comfy and snuggly as I had hoped it would be.

Waistband

Since it’s visible, I didn’t just want to overlap my elastic; so I sewed it right-sides together and then topstitched the seam allowances down to the sides to flatten them. This may not have been the cleanest way to finish the waistband, but it’s serviceable, and it won’t likely be seen often anyway.

I used Steam-a-Seam in the hem and finished it off by hand with catch-stitches for lots of stretch. And that’s about as complicated as even I can make a simple knit skirt.

It’s almost nice enough to make me excited for fall…

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Tagged as finished projects

August 17, 2014 · 3:44 pm

The Ultimate Sundress

Fabric, Pattern

I’m getting so I have a lot of sundresses. This is mostly OK, since I wear them quite a lot when the weather cooperates (although a lot of them are white, which is less good). But one can never have too many of a Useful Wardrobe Item, especially something distinctive like a sundress.

I bought this fabric more than a year ago, because I fell totally in love with the stylized floral print. Totally, completely in love. It’s a fabric I have sat and patted many a time in the months since, a stretch cotton sateen, which has to be one of my favourite fabrics of all time, by the way. I knew I wanted it to be a flared-skirt sundress; I bought three metres, figuring that would be enough for most anything I could decide to make with it. Then a few weeks later, I found the last metre folded up in the remnant bin. A week or more after that, it was still there. It came home with me. Butterick XXXX was a real possibility, except after I made the Picnic Dress I didn’t really think my wardrobe needed two. Vogue 2429, in the simple flared skirt version, became the new plan. And then it sat. And sat.

Back on Canada Day (July 1st), I checked my schedule and realized that, between my two jobs, I had no days off before July 20th. Faced with the grim reality, I managed to wrangle a personal day (so, one day off!) and committed to self-care in the meantime. Which, for me, means mostly sewing. So I was determined to make something satisfying, simple, and self-indulgent. This sundress fit the bill.

A simple little dress

I usually make a size twelve, but knowing that my fabric was a stretch, and wanting the option to wear it sans-bra, I made the size ten at the bust, grading up to twelve at the waist. I shortened the bodice a wee bit (though the darts are a bit high so perhaps I could have shortened more), and did my usual sway-back adjustment. I keep resolving to skip this on a full-skirt pattern and see what I can get away with, but the skirt for this one, which looks flared on the envelope, is really not much more than a gentle A-line. .

Front view

It’s actually the only thing I wasn’t super-thrilled with about the dress—I didn’t want a full circle skirt, but a half-circle at least might have been nice. Anyway, I didn’t fuss around with pattern-matching or any of that, so I got this wee little dress out of 1.5m of fabric—meaning I have enough left to try again if I should feel the need. It actually looks really good from the side, but I feel like the skirt looks a bit narrow and flat from straight on.

Piping!

The only fun detail I added was a touch of self-piping just along the top of the bodice; since it’s a straight seam I didn’t even bother cutting a strip on the bias, just on the stretchy cross-grain.

Innards

The bodice is lined with white stretch poplin (left over from the flower jeans), and I used some wide flat-fold bias-tape for a narrow faced hem since I may have cut the skirt a bit on the short side, and I like facing curved hems.

Faced hem

The skirt isn’t lined, but I often wear it with my half-slip as it seems to sit over the hips just a bit better with something slippery underneath.

Hem

I love how invisible the hem is.

The best shot. /sigh.

Good dress. I intend to wear the snot out of it, for the few more weeks that the weather allows…

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Tagged as finished projects, Vogue 2429

August 10, 2014 · 5:00 pm

Happy stripey dancey fun.

It’s been a dancey-sewing summer around here. Probably inspired by having some fun performances happening, although the vast majority of the sewing wasn’t related to that—it has still been fun to have some exciting new gear to wear to class. And, it’s all knits which are quick and satisfying, which is important for me ~~right now~~ always.

Anyway, one of my sewy friends made the mistake, a few weeks ago, of lamenting over a black & purple striped spandex fabric she’d picked up some ends of a few years ago, and never actually used (her sewing has been rudely interrupted by that whole having-children thing the last few years). And then yesterday, while ogling her stash during a visit, she said if there was anything I wanted to use desperately, just let her know—she’d rather see it used than languish in her basement.

Dancey pose!

Moments later I was cradling two or three metres of gorgeous fabric in my greedy little arms. I did leave her the other end piece (a metre and a half or so) for some future swimsuit.

It was time for some more Fauxlodias, and, of course, a matching crop-top,

Pants. Jalie 2033 hack.

For the pants, I pulled out Jalie 3022 again, plus my add-on swoosh.

Swoosh.

I didn’t want any extra seams in the back to have to match stripes across, though, so I attached the swoosh to the outseam and fudged the two back pieces into one. The back seam is pretty much straight except for a tiny dart incorporated into it at the top—i just shaved an amount equivalent to half the dart off the outseam and centre back seams. Not terribly scientific, but these are knits we’re talking about. Yay, knits. Oh, and after checking that the stretch lengthwise was similar to the stretch widthwise, I decided to run my stripes up the legs of the pants vertically. Less stripe matching to do that way. Also looking cool.

Ruched foldover waistband

I wanted to add a ruched, fold-over waistband/overskirt thingy, for a bit more interest and because my hips need all the oomph they can get. I got the inspiration for the construction from the mini-skirt on Jalie 2920, but I didn’t actually use that pattern because it’s over at my sister-in-law’s house since the last time I made leggings for little girls.

Back View

It’s a short skirt with side-seams, mirrored at the hem, so the hem ends up being on the fold. When sewing up the side-seams, I added clear elastiic, stretched as much as I could, so that they would gather themselves up. Then I sandwiched 1.5″ wide elastic between the two layers at the top, and serged the whole thing to the top of the pants. I decided to put the serged seam on the outside, so that it’s covered by the fold-over of the ruched-up “skirt” when you’re wearing it.

Pensive.

The crop-top is the top of the franken-pattern I put together for my red velvet dress, which is largely Kwik Sew 1288, with a few modifications for fit based on my Nettie, cut on the bias with CB and CF seams to make that fun chevron.

Crop top. Looks better on.

Because I’ve been aching for a good striped knit to try that chevron design. (OK, I could perhaps have tried it with my black and white striped spandex, but I didn’t think of it in time.)

Chevron!

This stripe isn’t quite as nice quality-wise as that black-and-white one, by the way, although it’s close. The fabric is a little thinner, and the stripes were a bit irregular in some places, which is really weird and makes it really hard to stripe-match. Fortunately it’s a knit, so the fit is fairly forgiving. For a finish, I just serged the edges, folded under, and topstitched with a triple-step zig-zag. I feel like this is a legitimate finish for dancewear, at least, if not for regular clothes. 😉

Back view (full)

Of course, the best part is how excited I am to go to dance practice this week, so I can wear my new outfit… 😉

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Tagged as Fauxlodias, finished projects, Jalie, Jalie 3022

July 26, 2014 · 2:31 pm

Cover Up

Cover Up, AKA Caftan

I made a cover-up. Better known as a caftan. We have some major (major by my standards, anyway) dance performances coming up and my instructor was giving me a rough time about my habit of throwing a tablecloth over my shoulder and calling that a cover-up. Sheesh. But it’s not as if I don’t have plenty of fabric in stash already earmarked for just such a project.

With gold dress, for effect. Without head because I am too lazy to do makeup today.

I got the fabric from a friend who quilts; someone brought it back to her as a souvenir from India, but of course although cotton, it’s not at all a quilting fabric. Her loss. 😉 It’s a very crisp, but thin and sheer fabric—I’ve never seen a cotton organza in the threads, so to speak, but this might be something like that, though maybe a bit heavier than organza ought to be. It’s a shot cotton, with warp threads of gold and weft threads of purple (or is it the other way around? Too lazy to look up my weaving terms right now, sorry), with a darker purple print overlaid on top, and I absolutely adore everything about the iridescent, multi-hued look that gives it, right down to the golden selvedges. I actually have a gloriously-70s caftan pattern, but it involves somewhat shaped side-seams, and I couldn’t bear to cut those gorgeous golden selvedges. So this one is made of whole cloth.

Edging with bias tape.

Not all forms of dance have the concept of a cover-up—an easy-to-remove, all-engulfing piece of clothing that hides (or at least obscures) the costume before and after performance. Maybe because not all forms of dance have you, um, baring quite so much skin as bellydance can. Being a high school drama alumnus, I like to think of it as our version of “not breaking curtain,” since only rarely do we have a show with an actual backstage where we can hide before performance. Ideally, a cover-up is great to look at, without being so eye-catching it detracts from another performer.

Closeup, with selvedge and trim

It’s the simplest form of clothing construction after the toga—fold in half, slit one half up the middle for a front opening, widening into a space for the head. I finished the neck and front opening with bias-tape, since I had some that was the perfect gold to match the selvedges. It’s a bit heavier than I might have chosen, but when else am I ever going to use harvest gold bias tape? I attached it with the “applique” stitch, and then got cocky and figured I’d add another row of applique stitch with the meandering vine in between (I have a very limited array of decorative stitches that aren’t strictly zig-zag based). The White did not like doing the applique stitch along the outer edge of the bias tape, and whenever I got too close to it the stitch dissolved in a mess of edge-wrapping and skipped stitches, and I’d probably be picking them all out except that I’m pretty sure trying to match up those stitches would look just as bad (and it’s a costume so theoretically no one is looking closely anyway. Right? Right? K, I’m glad I’m not being graded on this. My gorgeous Indian cotton deserves much better, I know. *hangs head in shame.*

Bias-tape neckline, actually not completely standing up.

My biggest fear, when it came to the bias-tape finish, was that it would be too heavy and end up puckered or stretched out and just ugly-looking. While it’s far from perfect, I think I managed pretty well (helped in no small measure by the lovely, crisp cotton), and while I didn’t have the foresight to try to pre-iron my neck-surrounding portions into shape, a bit of stretching and squishing while sewing, plus a little more than a bit of steamy pressing after sewing, and it’s all lying a lot better than I thought it might, really.

Although not really inclined to, the front is capable of overlap. I could pin it if I really needed to stay shut, but mostly it needs to be something that can come off and on quickly.

For the side-seams, I marked a point under the arm (12″ down from the shoulder-fold and 10″ out from the centre, for those who might find such minutiae useful), and then angled out to the bottom corner. This gives me more width in the “skirt” at the botton, and something vaguely resembling trailing half-sleeves at the top. So it works.

Back view, showing sleeve.

I tried to get a closeup of my hem (I used my rolled-hem foot on the regular sewing machine, with a long, wide zig-zag for a soft effect), but none of the photos seem to have made it onto this computer, so you’ll have to live without. No one in the real world will be looking at it, either.

I still love this fabric (which is good, because I don’t love caftans in general), though, and now I will get to use (wear) it, while also not getting accused of wearing a table-cloth. Win!

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Tagged as belly dance, bellydance, caftan, finished projects

July 20, 2014 · 1:57 pm

Sew All The Red Things

That way you don’t lose time changing thread.

You may have noticed I’ve been making a lot of things in red. There’s at least one more in the works, too. It’s convenient, I guess.

Red.

I’ve been petting this dense, glowing, glorious stretch velvet at my local Fabricland since, oh, last fall sometime. But even marked down to half price, it was still $11.00/m, which while not expensive, is still a little richer than my impulse-buy limit.

But then I saw another lady carrying it around the store, matching it up with drapery trims and talking curtains. There was plenty left on the bolt, but CURTAINS? That can eat a lot of fabric.

She put the bolt down and said she would come back later. I pounced, and made off with about three metres.

At least I had a project in mind already.

Pattern hack.

In regular life, I really don’t have any use for red stretch-velvet (especially in July), but one of my dance teachers had made a request that we attempt to acquire under-bust velvet dresses, for dance performances where tummy-cover is appropriate but you still want to wear a snazzy belly dance bedlah (highly decorated bra & belt) set. Most people are doing this via the thrift store and a bit of hacking, which is almost certainly cheaper, but, well, I was in love with this velvet already. And I like sewing more than I like altering.

I realized going through my pattern-stash this morning that I didn’t have a good, basic knit maxi-dress pattern of the kind that’s basically a tank-top extended into a skirt with a nice sweep. Lots of fancier ones, but not this basic style. And I have about three other pieces in-stash, beyond this red velvet, that are begging to become maxi-dresses this summer. I promptly ordered Jalie 3246, because impulse, but that wasn’t going to help me this morning.

Bring on, once again, my long-suffering Nettie pattern. Please note (or maybe don’t) that I still haven’t actually made a bodysuit version of this pattern. >_< But it sure is useful as the basis for about a billion other things…

I basically traced off the top of my Nettie, measured the length I wanted the dress to go down from my shoulder, and guesstimated a width that looked good. For this particular dress, I wanted a fairly narrow skirt to the knees, with a bit of a mermaid-flare below that. Rocket science, this was not. I also pulled out my copy of Kwik Sew 1288, which has a super-cute cap-sleeved leotard pattern, and morphed the cap-sleeve on, because while I didn’t want full sleeves on this one, I wanted something to pull the Nettie shoulder-straps out, because the Nettie shoulders are WAY narrower than my shoulders (this is why there is that fold toward the armpit in these makes, by the way. It’s probably something I should actually alter for, but the miracle of spandex makes it not a huge deal.

Over bust.

You may be thinking, now, that I had mentioned “underbust” dress before, and this dress is definitely over-bust. You would be right. I wanted to have a wee bit more versatility in the dress (because, y’know, there might be some possible universe where I would need a slinky red velvet dress for a non-dance-related purpose), so I traced front and back the exact same pattern (not that there is much difference between the upper body of the Nettie, front vs. back, except for the neckline); I made one side the standard Nettie scoop-neck, and lowered the mid-back-scoop-depth a further 4″ cm on the other side. (That is, 4 cm lower than the back in this version, but not as deep as the backless Nettie version.) So, if I want to wear the dress over (or under) a dance bra, I can wear the low scoop in the front, and if I want it for something a little more mundane, I can put the regular scoop in the front.

Closeup

I’m quite happy with how the cap-sleeves turned out, really—it’s probably my favourite length.

Side view

I have precious little to say about the construction of this dress, because there is precious little to actually construct. Two pattern pieces; not even bands for neckline or sleeves. I am a little in love with that differential feed thingy on my serger—a bit of twiddling the settings on some scraps and I went from having a bit of a wavy seam to one that was totally, perfectly, professionally smooth. WIN! Why can’t regular machines have that?

Shoulder

I used clear elastic to stabilize the shoulder seams; however, I put a wee bit too much tension on it so there’s a bit of a gathered effect. I kinda liked it, though, so I wasn’t going to be bothered to pick out serging plus elastic. (Also, my camera hates red, these were the best closeup shots I could manage. Terrible. Not that there’s much to see. For the neckline finish I serged clear elastic onto the edge (carefully using less tension this time—with the feed dogs set, no added tension was needed), then folded it under and topstitched with a triple zig-zag on my regular machine. For the armhole, I did the same thing except without the clear elastic, as I didn’t think I’d need the added stability.

Back view

For dance purposes I wanted it slim through the hips, but for a real dress more ease around the derriere would definitely be a bonus, so I’ll be tweaking that for the next version.

Hmm

I am also pleasantly surprised that the length turned out more-or-less bang on. I haven’t hemmed the bottom yet—torn between trying a rolled hem and just leaving it.

Most practical make of the season? Probably not. But it was fun, and fudging up the pattern took more time than the actual sewing did. And now I have the pattern I can use for some more, mmm, every-day versions.

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Tagged as belly dance, dance, finished projects, Frankenpattern, Nettie