Tag Archives: finished projects

July 12, 2014 · 10:26 pm

Faux-lodias

Melo-Phoenix, batik

Have you heard of Melodia Designs? No? Where HAVE you been? She only makes some the best dance/yoga activewear on the internet, duh. In particular, she pioneered (revolutionized?) the tribal bellydance wardrobe with her richly flared, side-slit dance pants, which in certain circles are the standard for awesome, high-quality dancewear, for practice or performance.

Icarus Melo-Phoenix Dance Pants

I have a single pair, a style which arose from a collaboration between Melodia Designs and Phoenix Rising (an equally cool dance/yoga/activewear line), Icarus-patterned Melo-Phoenixes. DIVINE. Here’s the current lineup, although it looks like Icarus is still available in their standard yoga-pants style. This pair of pants is probably one of my most-prized (and most expensive) possessions. And they are very well-made, with the kinds of materials and workmanship (hello, coverstitch) I can’t nearly match at home. If this kind of gear suits your lifestyle or tickles your fancy, I totally recommend it. In fact, looking at the websites just now I’m feeling all twitchy and consumeristic in a way that I rarely get over cut & sewn fabric these days.

I only have one problem—I don’t fall really well within the size vs. length ranges of these pants. For my Melos, I had to size up to a medium to get a 32″ inseam, which is tolerable but doesn’t give the kind of floor-swooshing grace that really knocks ones’ metaphorical socks off (since really, this kind of pants look ridiculous with socks.) And, while not loose, they’re not as form-hugging as they might be.

And, well, why would I buy when I can make?

Enter Jalie 3022. I was probably thinking of this pattern hack as soon as I saw the fun back-seam that makes this otherwise basic yoga-pants pattern unique—don’t ask me why it took three or more years to actually get around to it.

Melodia vs. Fauxlodia

I traced my flare off the side of my originals (I don’t have time to reinvent the wheel, or the flare, in this case. Yes, I do feel a little guilty about that.), and super-imposed it on the rear seam of my Jalie 3022 pattern. The best part was that, since the flare is a bit short for my legs, it sits lower on my really-long pattern, so the flare starts below the knee, not above, a sleek look I really like (although there’s less skirt-like movement this way than with pants that flared from above the knee.)

Jalie 3022, with back-seam

My fabric of choice here is red supplex, a wicking fabric that Fabricland used to carry, long and long ago. I found a single languishing bolt at my local store, and managed to follow it along through the mark-downs until it was finally at a price I could afford, and nabbed the last three metres. These took about two and a half, which tells you everything you need to know about how much fabric those flares eat up. Nom nom nom.

Flares from the back seam

I did all the construction on my spanky new serger, and finished the back slits and the bottoms with a rolled hem, with my differential feed cranked up to lend a bit of a lettuce-y effect; the stretchy, dense fabric doesn’t ruffle overly well, but I think it gives a bit of a hint. The only topstitching I did on this pair was on the inseam, where I used a triple zig-zag, for added strength. I will probably need to reinforce the seam at the top of the slit, too.

Nettie crop-top to go with

And, of course, what to go with my cute and fun pants, but another Nettie crop top. I haven’t managed to make a fully-fledged bodysuit yet (partly because it’s summer now and not really body-suit weather, so I haven’t felt terribly inclined to try), but I am loving the crop tops for dance practice.

The outfit

I confess, I am all squeally over how they look—better than I had hoped. I was secretly sure that the swoop would be disproportionate, or fall strangely, or something. It was a little long (my altered-for-me pattern is ridiculously long, but I like it that way.)

A different crappy mirror shot

I don’t think any of my photos really do them justice, but if I wait for great photos it’ll probably be next year sometime, so here we go. I just can’t wait for dance class next week. 🙂

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Tagged as Fauxlodias, finished projects, Jalie, Jalie 3022

July 4, 2014 · 10:31 pm

And something for Syo

Syo was a bit put out with all the work on Tyo’s grad dress. She didn’t even get her onesie yet (I know, major mommy fail.) and here I am working on another big project for her sister? (To be fair, Tyo doesn’t wear leggings or most of the other quickie-type makes that Syo benefits from, so over the course of a year it really evens out. Somehow this does not satisfy either of them.)

This little birthday suit (haha) doesn’t really make up for it, but maybe it’s a start. I took the day of Syo’s birthday off work (calloo callay!), and asked what she would like to do.

Jalie 3247

Since she knows me, she suggested I/we make her something. We spent most of the morning digging through my horrifically disorganized stash, and eventually settled on some denim knit remnants for the fabric, and Jalie 3247 for the pattern. I’m also planning (hoping) to make her a swimsuit with this pattern, but on this given day (which was, after all, her day) she wanted shorts and a sports bra.

We’ll start with the shorts, because I did make them first. I made the size 10 (N), the only alteration to make the back rise a teeny bit higher. I just added on at the top, but I think my usual Jalie alteration—adding a little wedge to the CB curve—would’ve been better, even if it’s a bit of a pain in a pattern with no side pieces.

Jalie shorts

Because we were using a denim knit (left over from the jeggings), and because Syo has no concept that leggings are not pants (one I struggle with myself, I confess.), I figured some topstitching was in order. There’s also an underlay below the mock fly, just like on my jeggings, which gives this bit a bit more substance. I used Gutermann jeans thread, a narrow zig-zag, and a long stitch. It’s not quite stretchy enough for around the leg, I thought, but should be fine for the vertical seams. I didn’t go as far as to add pockets, however.

The top

If it looks like the binding is a slightly different colour, that’s because it is. I had only the teeniest scrap of the darker blue denim knit left (hence the centre-front seam, too), so I had to use my other jegging knit for the back and bindings. I don’t think it’s super noticeable in real life. I actually had to cut the two halves of the front on the diagonal to make them fit, and because the denim knit has a bit of a twill-looking thing going on, one of them actually has its twill “rib”, that usually goes diagonally across the fabric, going straight up and down. The other has it going roughly the opposite way. Not perfect. Although the stretch and everything is just fine, so I’ll be grateful for that at least.

Back Interest

Syo picked the view with the criss-crossy spaghettie straps at the back. It is the most exciting view, I will admit. The pattern suggests you make skinny straps and turn them (with a bobby pin! GO JALIE!), but I made these the same way I make belt-loops for jeans, only skinnier—serge the edges, fold under, and topstitch. At this width the serging actually made it much easier to get the folding evenly, although having both edges serged also added some bulk. I wish I had thought to inter-weave the straps at the back where they criss-cross but I didn’t. Next time.

Hard to photograph

As with the jeggings before them, getting good photos of this little outfit was not easy. Every photo here had to be lightened to get any kind of visibility, hence the washed out grass above.

Especially on a child who will only give you action shots.

Also, don’t ask me why a barely-a-step-up-from-a-swimsuit play outfit should be styled with mukluks. But apparently, this is how this outfit should be worn.

Tree climbing? Check.

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Tagged as finished projects, For Syo, jalie3247

July 3, 2014 · 6:15 am

A dress to end an era

The Avengers (not the Emma Peel variety) grad dress is done.

Quirkyy? Maybe.

Of course, it’s been ALMOST done since early May, just waiting on the zipper and hem. My motivation to finish anything so unselfish ahead of time? Zilch. But, with the grad only days away, I got it done.

Almost done (back in May)

I’m not sure how much resemblance my final product has to the original pattern—I replaced most of the details that make that pattern cute and unique with my own. But I do think it’s a reasonable take on what Tyo wanted.

Hmmm

Quick recap:

1) cut size 8; narrowed darts towards waist to increase waist size. (sewed the pleats on the skirt a teeny bit narrower to compensate)
2) removed fold-over “collar” bits, replaced them with bias “collar” strip.
3) added length at front waist, removed at back waist.

Pockets!

4) I added pockets. I just made up a shape, and tucked them in the side-seam. Tyo was VERY happy when she found them. It does take a bit of hunting, since they’re within a seam that’s covered by a pleat, but they’re there.

Skirt

5) I made the skirt straight (or rather, smoothly curved) along the hem, not petaled. I just cut off the bottom curves of the petals; it becomes really short if you do this, by the way. I took the teeniest hem with a facing, and it is none too long on my daughter, who is none too tall. It’s not a full circle as cut but once it’s pleated up it might as well be.

Grum!

6) black piping along both edges of the straps and around the “collar” strip—I imagine it’s like the black frame around a comic-strip panel.

Lapped zipper

7) I attempted to print-match only along the back bodice seam. This was generally successful, although not as impressive in a lapped zipper as an invisible zipper would’ve been.

Happy child.

Looking at photos, I can see a few tweaks I might make, but on the whole, the aim of the project was a happy teenager, and this was achieved.

Faced hem, my favourite kind.

I am, I think, out of things to say. But not out of pictures, so bear with a couple more.

Captain Wolverine

Tyo would like to draw your attention to this accidental bit of print-not-actually matching.

Happy dance

Tyo would also like to do a happy dance, which means that I, as a mom, am doing my own happy dance x1000!

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Tagged as finished projects, For Tyo, Grad Dress, McCall's 6331

June 8, 2014 · 10:47 pm

Attack of the blue roses

Blue. Rose. Pique.

There are few prints that make me as weak in the knees as blue florals. I talk myself out of buying them all the time. (I should perhaps note that most of the ones I haven’t talked myself out of buying, I also haven’t sewn up yet. I think this is the first blue floral that has made it onto the blog.) I’ve also been loving the wild print jeans that have been on trend. Actually, maybe that trend is past now? Oh, well.

So, since I actually had an entire weekend free last week (enough time to tackle a serious project), well, I finally succumbed to this blue rose stretch pique that has been taunting me at my local Fabricland for a couple of months now.

I’ve never used (heard of) pique before, but the waffly texture is neat and the weight and stretch seemed about right for jeans, although the stretch was on the low side of what I like. Being rather paranoid of white jeans (I have to be very careful underwear wise with this pair, for example), I wanted to line, or rather underline, them. Fortunately for me, there was also stretch cotton poplin available at Fabricland (not always the case)—so away I went.

So, it’s been a while since I sewed jeans. And there’s been a reason for that. Namely, that the Jalie 2908 pattern I traced off years ago now, and have used for every single pair of jeans I have made for me ever (OK, except one.), was getting pretty tattered. It had also always had some issues—notches that didn’t line up, alteration after alteration, some of them to fix previous alteration mistakes (all of which were my fault, I hasten to add, not Jalie’s). And, in a coup de grace, I had cut it intentionally small, for fabrics with c. 25% stretch. This fabric was in the 10% stretch range, tops—so I figured it was high time to trace off a new version that would work for low-stretch fabrics. And this time, I wanted it to be durable.

Freshly-traced pattern

So, I shelled out four whole bucks for a couple of metres of “Trace-A-Pattern,” which is basically a wide, non-fusible non-woven medium-ish weight interfacing. I did have to re-create my personal alterations, which I did rather differently this time, although the goal was the same; the first time I did a lot of switching between sizes at different lines; this time, I traced “my” size and just altered that. I made six changes:

lower front rise only, c. 1″ (this “simple” change actually involved changing five pattern-pieces, making it the most annoying one to actually do.)
raise rear rise, c. 1 cm
shave off 5mm at front crotch
curve in yoke by c. 3 cm.
add 5″ of length, distributed both above and below the knee
instead of the flares, make the legs go straight below the knee.

I also use a curved waistband, self-drafted with no particular method, but I didn’t actually redo that piece.

Underlining

I cut pretty much everything (except the waistband… we’ll get back to that) out of both the pique and the poplin, slapped the two together and treated them as one. Which made for a nice, beefy fabric, and the poplin is a lot smoother against the skin than the pique would have been. So I call that a win. (Oh, I was also completely Instagram-happy while sewing these so the construction process is remarkably well-documented. Well, sorta.)

Rear view

So, pockets. In my previous pattern, I used a really tiny, child-sized pocket, in the theory that small pockets make your butt look bigger. (Yes, this is a goal in my world.) But, I thought a bit bigger wouldn’t hurt. I still cut a couple of sizes smaller than my “official” size. I didn’t try to print-match their position on the butt, but I did cut them out singly, trying to get one nice, big flower sorta-semi-centred on the pocket. Since I was lining everything, I figured I’d take the opportunity to to try making my pockets lined patches, so I didn’t have to fuss with folding the edges under evenly or making a template.

Lined patch pockets

Seems very simple in theory, right? Stitch wrong sides together, leave a little gap, turn. Except, I knew I didn’t want the lining to show on the outside. So, trim the lining a little smaller, plus a good bit shorter so the 1.5 cm seam allowance at the top of of the pocket will be folded over. And, then you go to sew it and you have to ease the pique to the lining and oh, crap, those didn’t line up and what was my seam allowance again? And, let’s just say it was a nerve-wracking ten minutes until I got them turned right-side-in and realized they were, pretty well, still symmetrical and the same size. Whew. So in the end I’m actually really happy with how they turned out.

Turned pockets

pockets

Back detail

I had a lot of fun topstitching these on my Pfaff. I usually use my Featherweight, but it’s been living at my sister-in-law’s since last fall sometime, which is tragic but really useful on the rare occasions we do manage to get together to sew over there. (I don’t invite people to come sew at my house, the setup is kinda ridiculous. There’s machines in the computer room, one in the living room, cutting must be done on the kitchen floor, and the ironing board generally lives in the basement, although I did bring it up to the kitchen for this project, once I had the cutting-out done.) Anyway—I use a minimum of three machines when I’m making jeans, one for construction, one for topstitching, and the serger for finishing.

Topstitching the waistband

Normally I follow Peter’s advice and use a straight-stitch foot for topstitching. But, the Pfaff has this really cool edge-stitching blade that just slips in onto the presser foot, and its regular zig-zag presser foot has a really great shape:

Pfaff presser foot

It all comes down to the shape of the toes: the inner sides go straight front and back, which means you can follow a line of stitching right up them, as I’m doing in the photo above. My biggest problem in topstitching is usually “falling off” the edge of the seam, usually due to small variations in how tightly I’m holding the fabric. Using the stitch-in-the-ditch attachment, with the needle set off-centre, made it really easy to stay “on track” during that first edge-stitching pass. Of course, the fabric was lovely to handle, too, but then most denims are.

Front detail

I went for quite a wide spread between the lines, rather than my usual 1/4.” I really like it, although I did occasionally “fall off” the seam allowance, since this pattern only has 1 cm seam allowances. I did three lines of topstitching on the top of the pockets (because it looked cool) and on the belt-loops; I’d like to say I did it on the belt loops to echo the design detail on the pockets, but actually my edge-stitching wasn’t catching the edge of the folded-under fabric, leaving me with floppy serged edges on the underside of the belt loops. I really like the three lines, though. I may do that always.

Fit?

Fitting is the eternal question, especially since in jeans you can’t try on until you’re pretty far along in the process, and I was re-vamping my pattern. And with stretch jeans so much comes down to the individual fabric and construction. I was pretty worried about whether this pique would have enough stretch. On the other hand, on the waistband of the last jeans I made, I intentionally made the waistband non-stretchy, but I didn’t stretch the pants beneath when putting the waistband on, so the waistband is kinda uncomfortably tight. (though it stays up without a belt, which is nice.) This time, I think I went too far the other way—I didn’t do any stabilizing to the waistband, though I did cut it with a back seam, so that the front portion would be on the cross-grain. This = maximum stretch. As a result the jeans are very comfy, but will need a belt to stay up. Which means I’ll have to find a belt that works with them—all of mine are pretty scruffy-looking. I may end up moving the button over some more, too—as it is the stretchiness allows the the fly to gape a bit.

There’s no gaping at the back, but I feel like I could still add a bit more height; it still seems like there’s just a little bit of a dip at the middle back.

Mini-flares

As I said, I traced my pattern with legs straight below the knee, but what I actually wanted (which I tweaked in the cut fabric) was a bit of a skinny taper with a mini-flare at the bottom. Also slouchy ankle wrinkles. I always envy other people’s slouchy ankle wrinkles, but when I’m making skinnies for myself I keep cutting them off to the “proper” height, = no slouchy ankle wrinkles.) It took some serious self-control not to do that here, too, especially as when I first tried them on the legs were too wide and the mini-flare didn’t really show at all. Once I got it taken in along the outseam, from just above knee to the ankle, though, life got much better. And I *think* I quite enjoy the slouchy-ankle-slipping-over-my-shoes look, although I’ll get back to you after they’ve been worn out and about more.

Happy.

All in all, I’m going to call these a success, although they were bloody hard to photograph for everything but the fine details. The trick is going to be wearing them—I think I like them with a white top, but I don’t have that many options. I’m not loving it with the navy stripes in the photo above, although the colours are ok.

Styling?

Still, they were a fun experiment.

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Tagged as finished projects, Jalie, Jalie 2908, jeans

June 1, 2014 · 8:19 pm

Spring Demands Lace II

I’ve been flicking through my photos for over a week now, and I keep thinking “I can do better!”

But the question, really, is will I do better? Or will that perfect photo-op keep receding into tomorrow, next week, next month?

Sewaholic Gabriola Skirt

So, in the interest of removing obstacles, to blogging and sewing, here is my sweet and lovely, if not particularly well-photographed, Sewaholic Gabriola skirt.

So, I like sweet. I do. I’m good with cute, too. But I may have overdone it a bit with this project. This skirt is so sweet it almost makes my teeth hurt. It’s also a bit fancy, to the point where I kinda wonder where I will wear it, as my summer is surprisingly wedding-less thus far. I’ll have to get back to you on that front. I was going to wear it with a lacey Nettie, but that’s been put on hold while I contemplate a) whether I actually can (will) wear anything high-waisted over something tucked in (even a bodysuit) and b) whether I can figure out the stretch-interaction of two layers of body-suit fabric. (Because so far this is eluding me.) In the meantime, I really like it with my lace-fronted bodice, though, which has largely languished for lack of appropriate bottoms in the two years since I made it. So it’s successful on the front of helping wardrobe orphans.

rear view

Arguably the scariest part about this project was grading between sizes so that something by Sewaholic would actually fit me. Especially with all those different pieces at the hips. However, it turns out this is really simple, and Caroline even has a post all about it on their Sewalong (which I did not follow in the least, by the way, /sniffle. I’m sure it’s excellent, though.) I needed to go from a size 2 at the hips (rounding up) to a size 6 at the waist (rounding down.) Now if you follow the link, she shows how to grade across both the lace pieces and the upper hip yokes; I did all my grading on the upper hip yoke only, none on the lower lace bits; your mileage may vary. Regardless, it was very simple. I also lengthened the snot out of the pattern—3 cm at the lengthen-shorten here line, and then cutting all the way to the longest size at the bottom. In the end I cut off pretty much all that bottom extra, so I suspect that the 3 cm was more than enough on its own; although, as you can see in the shots with the heels, I could’ve hemmed it longer if I just wanted to wear it with heels. I want to be able to wear it with flats, as experience has shown that heels-only clothing does not get worn around here, so shorter it is.

Matching up the points

The second-scariest part was matching those lace points at front, back, and sides. Some unpicking was called for, although I allowed myself only one un-pick per point, otherwise madness was a real possibility. As it is, I think the un-picking contributes to a bit of unevenness in the side-seams—probably a wee bit of hand-basting would not have gone awry here. Ah, well.

Waistband construction

I should perhaps mention that my fabric is a suit-weight, rayon-poly blend with a bit of lycra. I loved the weight and the drape of it—swishy rather than floaty, without being too heavy for summer. I should, however, have stabilized the waist of the skirt pieces a bit more (like, at all). As it is, with handling it grew to the point where I had to take the side-seams in an inch on each side, and the waist was still a bit big for the band, leading to not-enough-overlap in the button area (and a button that is strictly for show.)

Stitching in the ditch

After hand-picking the zipper (see below) I got lazy and did everything else by machine: stitching in the ditch on the waistband, hem by machine. The ditch-stitch actually turned out not too ugly on the inside! OMG! … and of course I forgot to take a photo. I love the stitch-in-the-ditch attachment for my old Pfaff. It’s not even a whole foot, just a little keel that fits into the regular presser foot, and it is the awesome.

Decorative button, not much overlap on the waistband.

I was going to do a functional button. But there wasn’t enough underlap for it to really look good, and also it was going to be tricky to do a nice buttonhole in my bulky waistband. Speaking of which, you can see here the biggest change I did make to the pattern: instead of doing a simple one-piece fold-over waistband, I added a top seam so I could have the lace overlay only on the outside. I thought it would be bulky and scratchy against the skin on the inside. Though the waistband is still kinda bulky with the seam.

Hand-picked zipper with imperfect fold at the bottom.

As I mentioned above, I hand-picked the zipper. It worked pretty well except for that little ripple at the bottom. Fortunately I don’t have to look at it myself. 😉

Machine-stitched hem. Boo, couture fail.

The zipper exhausted my couture-juice for this project, so I wimped out and did the hem by machine, using blind-hem technique with the same stitch-in-the-ditch foot, but just using the longest zig-zag the Pfaff can handle since it doesn’t have a proper blind-hem stitch and I was too lazy to swap it out with the White, which does but isn’t nearly so much fun to sew with.

Voila!

All in all? Fit is good (would’ve been better if my waistband were the intended size and not rather elongated); skirt is pretty. Wearability has yet to be determined.

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Tagged as finished projects, Gabrjiola, Sewaholic, Spring Demands Lace

May 19, 2014 · 8:52 pm

The Crop-Top Conundrum

Value Village Haul

So this morning we went for breakfast with some old friends, and afterwards the female half of said friends (who is also sewy, although she’s been at it hardcore far longer than I) and I abandoned both spouses and all children and made for the wilds of the East Side Value Village. It was a fun trip, and got a trunkful of excess stuff out of my house, and I came home with a small but pleasant haul: a few patterns, some really cute and surprisingly comfy shoes that are totally not my usual colour scheme (my mom will be jealous, though, or rather she won’t because it would take far more than one pair of shoes to compete with her fabulous Collection.) The fabric section was mostly disappointing, but there was one, tantalizingly tiny piece of gorgeous black and white striped spandex—barely half a metre, for a $0.99.

For a dollar, how can you lose?

We bounced around ideas for swimsuits and booty shorts, but, by the time I was home with my prizes, I knew what I was going to do. The scrap of spandex was going to become a Nettie crop-top.

So, can we talk about crop tops? It seems like they’re all over the place* this year. Certainly they were all over the costumes at the kids’ dance competitions. Oona’s been wearing them, so they must be stylish. Usually with a high-waisted skirt this time, which I gotta admit throws me a bit.

Now, crop tops are a style that’s easy to hate, not least because they’re so unforgiving to the vast majority of us (although with the high-waisted bottom they’re arguably more forgiving). And I won’t blame anyone who does—I feel kind of ambivalent about their revival, if in fact they are experiencing a revival.

Bathroom selfie crop top love

But back in the day, oh, damn, crop tops were ME. From the age of fourteen until I was pregnant with Tyo, I was an early adopter and a long-term fanatic. From May until October, it was highly unlikely on any given day that my tummy would be covered. (Yes, I wore them while pregnant, usually with the giant Mickey-Mouse overalls…) I was so pissed off when, shortly after Tyo was born (and I recovered about 95% of the pre-baby tummy, yes I got off easy), fashion moved on and it was pretty much obligatory for a top to come at least to your waist or a little below. Just a sliver of flesh around the hip, not that wide canvas of tummy I had been so fond of.

Yeah, I know, y’all are full of sympathy, aren’t you?

Front view, with mudgie.**

Which brings us to the next conundrum, the part about if you wore it the first time around, you’re too old the second time. You see, my mostly-flat-if-not-actually-washboard tummy, after surviving two pregnancies, finally deserted me about five or six years ago, part of a combination of a more sedentary lifestyle (we moved to the Big City and I could no longer walk everywhere, plus I had my driver’s licence) and the transition from mid twenties to late twenties to early thirties. While I still wear a two-piece bathing suit, and I don’t have an issue with dance costumes (bellydance tends to bare a lot of belly), it’s not something I’m really comfortable with in my everyday wardrobe anymore. And I gotta tell ya, I’m not at all convinced I will wear this one for everyday life anyway—but I have been needing some cute and inspiring things to wear to dance class, and this will definitely fit that bill.

But I also wonder. Maybe a crop-top doesn’t have to be about flaunting that perfect beach-body. Maybe it can be about loving the tummy that you have already, jiggly bits and all?*** And why are those jiggly bits just fine with a bit of fabric over, but unacceptable without?

So, as soon as I got home, I tried on my new shoes (Yep! Comfy!) and set to cutting out a Nettie crop top. Yes, this may be the fastest turnaround from fabric purchase to finished object ever. I used the same size eight Nettie I’ve been playing with all week, cutting it off at the bottom “lengthen or shorten here” line on both front and back. This is actually below the waist of the pattern, but without a bottom half pulling it down, I was pretty sure the height would be about right for what I wanted—and it is.

Back!

So, I’ve been futzing with a lot of wriggly, thin, and otherwise annoying knits lately, and I have to say, sitting down with a really nice spandex to play with is so awesome. It’s beefy but not overly thick, it’s smooth yet stable, and it handles gorgeously. I sewed the entire thing by regular machine (my old Pfaff, actually); I wanted lots of control when sewing those stripes, which I wouldn’t have on the serger.

Binding

I cut the neck binding lengthwise. Actually, I made sure I cut out the binding strips first, from the longest part of my scrap. I still had to piece the neckline band, too. And I may have to take a sharpie to the stitches where they show on the black stripes, though.

With high-waisted skirt. Not the right skirt, I know. I actually don’t hate this look as much as I thought I might, although this photo is probably as good as it gets.

I tried to match my seams as best I could without wasting more than an inch or two of fabric. I succeeded fairly well on the side-seams, not so much on the sleeves. Actually, we’ll call that a complete fail on the sleeves.

Stripe-matching

Not too bad for just pin-basting. Definitely need a sharpie. You can also just barely see the teeny zig-zag hem. I’m not sure how well that’ll hold up over time as the thread definitely has less give than the fabric there.

With jubbly tummy

So, out of my comfort zone? YES! Pushing things? YES! And yet, I feel totally cute, jubbly tummy bits and all.

Full view, with shoes

Also, I think I may have just fallen back in love with these jeans, which are my very first pair. I am loving how they look cuffed up with heels, even with the raggedy knees. Maybe especially with the raggedy knees.

So, I don’t know if I’ll be baring it all, or even a high-waisted sliver, this summer. My latent teenage self is screaming YES YES YES! while my more sedate thirty-something side is saying hmm, maybe leave that to the kids, Tanit. We’ll see who wins. And I have a new dance top in the meantime. So we’ll call that a win.

And, I just might have enough spandex left for some booty shorts…

*This link is not an endorsement, I have no particular familiarity with this site or its content, it was just the first hit that looked relevant on my google search, and it talked about the “current crop top trend.” Although, it’s talking about a trend from two years ago. Which might explain why it’s only now making it to my little backwater corner of the world, but anyway.

**mudgie is like pudge, but on a mommy, and is also, according to my husband, adorable.

***And, yes, I do know, in the grand scheme of things my jiggly bits are pretty minor. That doesn’t really change how I feel about them, though.

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Filed under Sewing

Tagged as body image, Crop top, finished projects, Nettie

April 22, 2014 · 10:13 pm

A dress almost in time for Easter.

Almost an Easter dress

I made another dress. If we need an excuse, let’s call it an Easter dress, though it wasn’t done in time for Easter, nor was it dress weather.

Butterick 5317

The pattern is Butterick 5317, which is reminiscent in silhouette to the Danielle Dress of yore. Or at least reminiscent of my version of it, which had an extra pleat in the front. Or maybe they’re only reminiscent in my head… The skirt on this one is more full (more pleats). I must admit, although this style ticks a lot of my boxes—scoop neck! Empire waist! Just-above-knee-length!—the pleats had me a bit worried. That sudden release right at the waist seamed like it would be T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Which wasn’t enough to keep me from tackling this dress ind fairly-stiff cotton sheeting and sateen. Sensible, I am not always.

Side zip (very short… long story) and piping. Did I mention I love piping?

There is no back seam, so I presume the pattern expects you to insert a side zip. You may presume, from my presumption, that I did not actually read the instructions. Probably this would’ve been a good idea, as it probably covered how to insert both the satisfyingly giant pockets and a side zip in the same seam. I know this can be done, but I’ve never done it, and didn’t feel up to the challenge of figuring it out myself. Or the challenge of reading, apparently. So I just made my zip really short, ending above the pocket bag, which is approximately level with the waist. This works because a) my waist is pretty big, and b) my fabrics, even the 100% cotton print, had quite a lot of give.

Hem band. I was kinda surprised this wasn’t doubled. If I hadn’t decided to line the entire skirt, I would definitely double it.

I do love the hem band.

Can you see the pleats here?

I made my usual suite of alterations—shortening both the straps and between underbust and waist. The strap thing may have been unnecessary, as it’s quite high under the arm, and while the waist does sit in a good spot, the “waist” on this dress is defined much more by where you release the pleats than by the slight shaping at the side-seam. Although I do think that slight shaping is quite helpful. After an initial try-on, I lengthened the stitching on all the pleats by about 4 cm, and I like it much better where it is now. I think it contains the poof nicely. I should add before I forget that the straps sit a bit wide, and I don’t have narrow shoulders. VBS chic is a real probability.

I tried to get a shot that showed the pleats, but it was very hard. I guess that’s the goal?

I decided early on I wanted to line the skirt, not just the bodice. Not long after that, I realized that I would have to stitch the pleats in lining and top skirt as one, or languish in bulk forever. (Bulk at the waist is what we are trying to avoid here, peeps.) The way to do it, obviously, was to construct the cylinder of each skirt, sew them together at the hem, fold the lining to the inside, and then add the pleats. I did accomplish this, although there was definitely some head-scratching about the pockets and the zip.

Hem.

I wrangled with myself about doing a swayback alteration, since there is no back seam and no waist-seam; I did in the end shave some off top and bottom at the raised waist seam, and there is very little tendency to wrinkle in the back, so I’ll call it a win, and the under-bust seam is more “level” than it would’ve been without.

Back view, just like the front view.

Did I mention I went down a size? The pattern has a full 2″ of ease at the bust, which isn’t bad but is a touch more than I like for a fitted style. I think my down-sizing was successful in the fabrics I chose, stretch cotton sateen for the bodice and stretch poplin for the lining, but would’ve been uncomfortable in more stable fabrics. I did grade back up to a size 12 at the hips, although I suspect given the volume of the skirt in that area that it didn’t make a lick of difference.

The pockets are large and functional, although somewhat hampered by my decision to sandwich them between the two layers of the skirt.

But those really are some excellent pockets.

I am content.

I must admit, I’m kinda curious what the pattern would look like in a softer, flowing fabric; the example on the envelope is very similar to mine, crisp and rather blocky. Which isn’t necessarily bad, especially with those pleats, but I think it just might be really lovely in a soft satin or something else equally evil to sew with. For now, though, I’ll just be happy if we can get weather that actually allows me to wear it outside!

(Also, I feel like I should add, the dress is navy, not black. I was attempting to kick my black-and-white-with-occasional-red kick. Probably this is futile, especially when I keep choosing colours that read as black half the time…)

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Tagged as Butterick 5317, dress, finished projects

March 31, 2014 · 8:56 pm

Gertie Slip

Gertie’s Slip Pattern—Butterick 6031

So I wanted to make a slip. OK, frankly, I’ve needed a new one for a few months now. The beat-up old blue storebought one I have (which I’ve had longer than I’ve had my husband, having purchased it in the golden age of vintage shopping, aka the 90s) broke a strap not long after Christmas, and I’ve just been pinning it in place for lack of a better option. Because if one wants to wear a dress, in the winter, in Canada, a slip goes a surprisingly long way towards making a ridiculously-not-warm-enough outfit just borderline wearable. Especially when it facilitates the wearing of thermal tights. And I really, really, really wanted to make Gertie’s new slip pattern, because, well, ERMAGERDCUTE. Confession: I really really wanted to make it just exactly like the cover, in black with cream lace. Although I knew I needed a light-coloured slip, badly, too.

Well, Fabricland had absolutely no plain, black, slippery, stretchy knit fabric. They did have the old-fashioned nylon knit (the stuff your grandma’s slips were made of. Ok, the stuff my dying blue slip is made of), but I didn’t think that would work for this particular pattern (I think I was right, by the way.) So instead I walked out with some ERMAGERDCUTE nylon swimsuit fabric, and half a metric ton of black stretch lace. And some ivory old-fashiong lingerie knit, but that’s another story.

So, you may have noticed how Gertie’s selling kits for her slip? That’s SUCH A GOOD IDEA. Because figuring out everything you need from the bloody teeny text on the back of the envelope is not. easy. I read it fifteen times and still missed half of it. Like the 1/2″ lace for making the front half of the straps. It turned out all right because I found a really nice lingerie elastic I wanted to use for the whole straps, but still. I did remember the strap-sliders kit. I messed up on the lace pretty badly, but we’ll get to that.

Once I cut everything out, I decided to start with the briefs, since that seemed a little simpler (and easier to recut if I really screwed it up.) Which, by the way, I did. I wasn’t paying too much attention when I grabbed my lace—I knew it called for a couple of different widths, and just grabbed one wider and one narrower that I liked.

Tanit-Isis Fail.

The wider lace was about 2″ wide. The pattern called for 1.5″. That 1/2″ is a big deal, as you can see above. On the left—great. On the right, um, not quite such a good look. Yes, I sat and picked that out. A frickin’ teeny little zigzag in swimsuit fabric. Did I want to kill myself? Only a little. On the plus side, once I had it all fixed, they fit like a dream; I did lower the front rise about an inch (a personal preference, I think), but the rear coverage was just right.

(PS, any of you who remember my last attempt at lace-trimmed undies, remember how wide I found the crotch after? You will not have that problem with this pattern. Teeniest little skinny crotch ever. Very comfy, although I wouldn’t recommend wearing pads with these. Also, the crotch-liner piece ends up pretty funny looking. Yeah, I also forgot to buy any cotton jersey for that. Fortunately I’m a fabric ~~hoarder~~ stasher and have enough white cotton knit bits kicking around for a small army of undies.)

I like Gertie’s option for using lace for the front of the straps (though I wouldn’t use a stretch lace, and I’m not sure this is specified, and the rest of the lace in the pattern has to be stretch), but I have been lusting after this lingerie elastic since it came in to my local Fabricland last fall sometime. You can just about see, in the photo above, the cool shiny/not shiny designs on it. I like. And clear plastic sliders and rings, because that’s really all Fabricland has. Silver would’ve been perfect.

Figuring out how to thread a slider for an adjustable strap always takes me a few tries and a lot of looking at an existing bra for reference. I started by sewing the rings on the back (opposite of how Gertie’s instructions have you do them, solely because I didn’t have the ornamental separate front portion of my strap.) But, I managed to get them on and the fancy side facing out. Also, starting at the back makes it much easier to get the strap length right when fitting on yourself. Although that’s not nearly as important for adjustable straps like these, anyway. I sewed my straps in two places, at the top of the lace and where the lace joins the main fabric.

I did the vast majority of the construction (everything but the side-seams) on my regular sewing machine using a zig-zag. The only thing I don’t like is the black zig on the white fabric on the inside—kinda highlights every little inconsistency in stretching, stitch-speed, and trimming. I considered using a white bobbin thread, but that might have shown on the outside unless I fiddled with the tension, in which case the black would still have shown on the inside. So I am sucking up the black. I won’t give a flying anything once I’m wearing it.

Fortunately, the way the pattern is designed lets you swap in pretty much whatever width of lace you like, because you apply the lace then trim away the fabric behind. I had to get more of my “narrow” lace (because that was working much better for most of the pattern), but I was still able to use the wider lace in a couple of places—under the bust and along the hem. I will note—there are a lot of different seam allowances in this pattern—none, 1/4″, 5/8,” and I think maybe a 3/8″ as well. I forgot to double-check and sewed my front cup pieces together with a 1/4″ seam allowance that should’ve been 5/8″. So my top front was too wide for my bottom front. Not figuring out what was going on until after, I just eased this in and went with it (which is easy with such a stretchy fabric), but it means my straps and darts fall just a little wider than they should. Not a big deal for me, but if you had narrow or sloping shoulders I bet it would not be great.

Lace finishing

I had a lot of fun piecing the lace for this. It’s very basic. Overlap the lace in the shape you want. Zig-zag it down. Trim off the bits you don’t want on either side. (Optional: follow the pattern of the lace so your zig-zag almost disappears).

I didn’t do much to tweak the pattern, other than my reckless use of inappropriate lace. I made a slight shortening adjustment to the length between underbust and waist. I didn’t even attempt a swayback alteration on the back (it would essentially have ended up being a wedge taken off the top of the back piece anyway). I did grade out to a size 14 for the back skirt, because I often find the side-seams trend to the back for me (this is another side-effect of swayback, more than the actual size of my butt), and this did help a lot with the problem. To the extent that it is a problem, anyway.

Slip: back view, with lace. If you wanted to continue the lace panel on the back, you could just mark where the front lace would match up with it, sew the lace on top, and trim away the slip fabric behind it.

I really did want to add lace across the upper back, however. As drafted the pattern is kinda coffin-clothes, with all the lace (except at the hem) on the front. I just removed the seam-allowance from the top of the back piece, placed and zig-zagged down the lace, and removed the fabric from behind. Now, stretch-lace does not make the sturdiest of finishes, as we’ve discussed before, which I’m sure is why Gertie didn’t put it all across the back. For a modicum of extra elasticity, I added some clear elastic right at the join of the lace to the back piece. I also chose to live dangerously and skip the really-skinny elastic supporting the edge of the stretch lace in the front. Probably not a good idea for the longevity of my slip, but I can always add it in later, when I learn the error of my ways. So I tell myself.

So, can I just say, I love this pattern just as much as I thought I would have? In particular, it’s drafted with the perfect amount of negative ease! (For my fabric, anyway.) As I said, I made my usual size 12, and I put it on, fully expecting to have to take in the side-seams (as one normally does with Big 4 knit patterns). NOPE! PERFECT! Snug through bust, easy skimming through the hips. YAAAAY!

It looks better on me

And if I do say so myself, it looks considerably cuter on me than on my dress-form. The only problem is, it may be too cute to put clothes over top of. In which case I suppose I’ve made myself a new nightie, not a slip. I guess I might just have to make another…

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Tagged as Butterick 6031, finished projects, Gertie's Slip, lace, slip, Underwear

March 24, 2014 · 9:06 pm

That 70s Dress: Cream & Red edition

Because I am creative with titles.

This isn’t the dress I wanted to make. That is, I figured I would make this other dress: (yes, just exactly like the envelope) but I couldn’t find the pattern. It’s around somewhere. >_<

So, fall back. Simplicity 7806 from 1976. Equally cute, and almost as high on the (admittedly rather dusty) “must make” list. The fabric is deep stash, an ivory-coloured stretch suiting bought from a thrift store in my first year of blogging. (I just totally missed my fourth blogiversary last week, by the way.)

I think it looks kinda Regency. Which is pretty fun, actually. The pattern is a size 10, a size smaller than I usually make. Since my fabric has a fair bit of stretch (although I didn’t notice until after I had cut it out that there was a lot more stretch lengthwise than widthwise… headdesk), I figured it would be workable. I made my usual bodice-petiting and swayback alterations, and added some extra width on the side-seams of the skirt. I love these 70s A-line skirts, but they need to skim, not cling, and last time I made a size 10 there was, ah, clinging.

Anyway, I got the waist in the right place, but arguably it might’ve been better had I taken less height out of the yoke (which is a single piece that wraps from front to back—now that I’ve made it it’s pretty simple but I was having a hard time visualizing how to alter it beforehand) and more height between bust and waist. Although I think I like where the underbust seam sits, even if it technically is a bit high. It’s hard to say with that curved seam, though—it feels perfect in the middle, high at the sides. But if it were perfect at the sides, it would probably seem too low in the middle? It’s a funny shape, anyway.

I paid a bit more attention to fitting the back than I sometimes do; I wound up taking in the back waist by over an inch on each side of the zipper. It clings fairly well, now, and then skims, although the bottoms of those darts could probably use a bit of fussing over. Hard to say—this fabric is heavy on the polyester, and while it presses fairly well, it does love to pucker.

I got lazy gave the blind hem stitch on the Rocketeer a try. As with everything on this damn machine, you have to look up the settings—intuitive it is not—but once I figured out the recommended setup it was pretty easy. Although not particularly invisible in this fabric. Except in the places I completely missed the hem. /sigh Wel, it was fast. I love how the manual assures us that the blind stitch is “comparable to hand-finishing.” The hand hem is the gold standard. As it should be. 😉

In this photo you can see (maybe) the main fit issue with this dress—pulling across the shoulder. When I saw this my first thought was “I overdid the petiting,” which is certainly possible, but I think actually this is a problem of either a) my size 12 shoulders in a size 10 shoulder-piece, or b) that I didn’t bother with a square shoulder adjustment. I generally try to avoid them in these sort of cap-sleeve styles, especially since I couldn’t really visualize how to do one, but now that I have it finished I think cutting a slash along the shoulder line of the yoke (once I determined where the shoulder line should be) and then adding in a wedge at the outer edge, narrowing to nothing at the neck, would’ve been just what the doctor ordered.

Overall, I’d say this was the perfect fabric for this dress—drapey, with lots of polyester ;). The spandex may not be period, but the pattern does suggest lightweight knits as an option. I used the piping to finish the upper central neckline and back; below you can see my overlocked edges, and the hand-finished interior of the yoke. Overlocking anywhere near the red piping may turn out to have been a really bad idea, as that stuff frays like (words I won’t say on blog). Fray Check was my friend. I didn’t notice the problem so much on the Butterflied dress, where I used the same piping, but then that was more short, straight seams and it all ended up lined anyway. I don’t think I did much grading of seams, which I had to do lots of here.

The biggest problem I have is that, being white (ok, ivory), my fabric isn’t, um, quite as opaque as another colour in the same weight would be. I think a white or nude slip is going to be in order before this one leaves the house. Which is too bad, because it really deserves better than headless bathroom selfies. And I will be really pissed with myself if I’ve made another dress I can’t wear, just for lack of proper undergarments.

Of course, now I need more cream stretch suiting, for when that original pattern turns up…

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Tagged as 70s, dress, finished projects, Simplicity 7806

March 15, 2014 · 10:49 pm

Draping for Spring

I had a few scant hours this morning to spend sewing. In search of something quick, but more exciting than yet another pair of leggings, I pulled out Drape Drape (vol. 2).

I have been wanting to make top # 4 since I got the book, a year and a half or more ago. I actually attempted it last winter, but made the mistake of using a border-print knit with almost no stretch at all, and didn’t modify the neckline, despite reading warnings of its depth. The result was too low for decency (and I am not shy of cleavage) and way too tight in the hips. It gets worn to bed once in a while, but otherwise was basically a waste of a really cool fabric. Bah.

Anyway, take two is in a much more suitable lightweight knit, which claimed to be a cotton but I think has a fair whack of rayon, or maybe just a nice polyester.

Either way, it’s soft, drapey, and just right for this pattern. I re-traced (man is that a big pattern-piece!) and tried again, raising the neckline by two inches and widening the scoop of it a bit more. I also added a tiny bit of width to the hip, straightened the hem (since I figured this would look better than the curve with the stripes) and straightened the hem of the left sleeve, again to look better with the stripes.

I tried to take my time with the construction, reinforcing the shoulder seams with strips of fusible knit interfacing and taking time to press my neck band and twin-needle my hems (after reinforcing them with steam-a-seam).

I am not a big fan of the double needle for knit finishes, despite it’s superficial RTW look. It tends to tunnel, often doesn’t stretch enough, and, most importantly, I tend to kill the needles quickly. This one bit it right as I was finishing the neckline. I had to do two lines of straight stitch across the back of the neck. BLERG.

I wasn’t sure, given the odd shape of the pattern, that matching the stripes across the seams would be possible, so I didn’t try too hard. This is kinda too bad, because it turns out they actually could mostly have matched up really well, if I had tried a little harder. They’re not terrible, but definitely not awesome.