Tag Archives: fitting

July 3, 2010 · 10:58 pm

Shoot!

Crappity crapola. Excuse my language.

In an effort to avoid sewing for my children, I cut out my second pair of Jalie jeans. The waistband on the first pair still felt a little flabby, so I figured I would put some twill tape in it this time (I meant to but chickened out last time). I tacked one piece along the top of the waistband (I used a curved waistband from another pattern) and another around the top of the jeans themselves (to be enclosed by the waistband once it was sewn on. I even tried them on to make sure I could still get into them with the stay tape eliminating the stretch in the jeans themselves. Snug, but doable. So I sewed the waistband on. It wound up being about an inch too long (it is from another pattern, after all), so I trimmed it down, turned it, and slipstitched the inside closed. Tried on again.

I could still get into them. No WAY that waistband was going to close. The extra inch that got trimmed off woulda done it, I’m sure.

/cry.

So, I guess I am running into a conflict between my desire for stretch jeans but a non-stretch waistband. I don’t know how it works in my RTW jeans… the waistbands still have some stretch, but it’s like 10% rather than 30% (yes, I’ve been testing these things). I don’t think they’re interfaced or anything, I think it’s just an effect of the heavier denim. Anyway, I guess if I really want a stretch-free waistband, I need to stretch the jeans as I sew them to the waistband (eww) so that I don’t have that extra inch. Otherwise, bite the bullet and deal with a stretchy waistband.

For now, I guess I’ll open up the waistband and see if taking off the stay tapes helps. If not… new waistband time.

Crap.

Update: removing the tapes seems to have done the trick. They are still snug, but no harder to wriggle into than my favourite ready-to-wear, and will definitely close. Tomorrow I’ll hammer them and hopefully pick up more topstitching thread so I can finish them off.

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June 22, 2010 · 12:33 pm

Danielle dress update

Danielle bodice---re-sewn, no longer caving in! Darts remain a little wonky.

Ok, quick post and then back to work!

I ripped and re-sewed the bodice-to-“waist” band seam; in my effort to match the darts in the top with the pleats in the skirt some ease had crept in, which was allowing the centre of the bodice to collapse over my not-so-generous bust. Re-sewing the seam helped, even though it required the sacrifice of my perfectly-aligned darts and pleats. The side seams are now slightly off as well. And y’know what—I don’t care as long as the bust looks great! Which I don’t know if I’ve quite achieved, but it’s a lot better (especially with the bullet-proof bra underneath. If I can get the whole thing snugged in properly with the zip, I think it’ll look fine.

Incidentally, it looks like I’m going to need inch-wide seam allowances on the

Danielle fitting---note the "design element" contrast pleat at centre front. 🙂

centre back to get it to fit snugly across the zipper. Considering I’ve already taken in the dress 1/2″ to 1″ at various places (bodice 1/2″ at each side, skirt 1″ at centre front (due to my cutting booboo, though I adjusted the pleats to gain some of that back), I almost wonder if I could’ve gotten away with a size 34. My measurements suggest a 36, but this is a dress that looks best FITTED (except at the waist, hence my love of the pattern!)

You can just see a peek of my “design feature” at the centre front of the skirt. Like? Also note my complete lack of pattern matching! I can just about wrap my head around trying to match stripes—I’ll give it a go when I use my wool or denim pinstripes—but a pattern like this? Not happening. I wouldn’t’ve had enough fabric anyway, right?

I am tempted to lower the neckline a bit, but if I’m going to wear it over a bra I’d better not.

If I make a dress like this again, I’d be really tempted to use my princess-seamed vest pattern for the bodice. The lines are the same, but the fit is tweaked to be perfect on me, and have I mentioned that I like princess seams? All I’d have to do is switch the opening from front to back and maybe mess with the seam allowances a touch.

What do you think—sleeves or no sleeves?

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June 14, 2010 · 9:46 am

That’s it.

I want a duct-tape double.

Not that I’d scoff at a fully-fledged dress form (most duct-tape doubles are a touch ugly, and not always as accurate as you would hope) but I’d rather spend my money on fabric (speaking of, the linings at Fabricland were on sale buy 1m, get 1 free last week, which is the sale I need to get my lining for my winter coat—and I had no money. Hopefully it will still be ongoing come payday. They don’t have black, but they do have oodles of a light grey that would work. Alternatively I could go for a crazy colour—burgundy, say, or teal—and have an awesome surprise inside my coat. I like that thought, actually).

So, doubles. I want to be able to fit stuff (especially in the back!) and that’s just hard to do on yourself. And I’m going to need something to hang my coat on for hemming—that big skirt is going to have tons of bias stretching out at the hem that will need to be trimmed before hemming. Not hard to do when someone else is wearing the garment, but hard to do yourself. If I make one over a coat-hanger, I can hang it in the closet and keep it out of the way when not in use, too.

Also, I can spend way more time than I can possibly justify reading about tailoring.

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June 13, 2010 · 7:00 pm

A weekend without sewing :(

What an incredibly crazy-busy weekend. Not bad in anyway, but very busy. The first weekend in at least a month with no sewing done.

Fortunately, I have pictures of the gambeson to post finally. Apparently it is serving its purpose very well, though there are a few places where the outer fabric didn’t get caught properly in the seams, despite my best efforts. All in all, pretty nice though.

Jason's gambeson. With totally-non-period fedora.

There was no pattern for this. The materials consisted of an Ikea curtain, a white twill tablecloth (really nice!) and a gross old polyester duvet for the filler. I took his measurements and had him rip/cut various squares and rectangles for front, back, and sleeves. We tacked these together in their layers, pinned it together, and started fitting. At the beginning, it looked pretty much like he was wearing a large blue pillow. By the end, we had something that actually aproximated the look of a rather boxy shirt-pattern. I guess this is akin to pattern-draping, right? It’s much easier to do on someone else. Maybe I do need to bite the bullet and make a duct-tape double.

Side view. The sleevelets stick out like that when the arms are at the side, but when extended forward are flat. It seemed like the only way to get them to fill the gap and still provide enough freedom of movement. And he thinks they look kinda cool. And we can always change them later.

Once we had the pieces approximately the right shape, I set Jason to marking the quilting on the inside (in pen… you don’t want to see it.) We toyed with the idea of hand-quilting, as I mentioned, but went with machine. Because Jason’s sewing machine skills are limited (as yet) I did most of the quilting. I’ll make him pay for that at some point ;).

There were some glitches. The sleeves wound up being too narrow at the upper arm, so we inserted triangular gussets at the underarm (not padded, fortunately). They also seemed to be about 5″ too long, so we trimmed them down (from the narrow wrist end). He changed his mind and decided the body should be thigh-length rather than hip length, so we added the bottom panel (took some figuring out how to get the back slit attached properly. I’m actually kinda proud of how that part came out. When we got it actually put together, it was revealed that the sleeves were really about two inches too short (one slightly worse than the other). Oopsie. We were already not planning to attach them directly to the body, but we wound up needing the little leather cap-sleeves  to bridge the gap and replace the missing length.

The back, showing the rear slit (for riding, theoretically). The lining shows a bit along the edge where the crude quilting leaves a fold of the lining fabric. In my ideal world we'd bind the whole thing in black. Maybe someday.

Despite the general wonkiness and costume-grade-ness, there are a few points I’m quite proud of. The quilting on the collar is a thing of beauty; by dint of pulling the bottom layer and pushing the top I managed to keep the fabrics feeding evenly (though the stitch-lengths are awful). I did a pretty good job on the black binding, which is pre-packaged bias binding; I sewed the first side by machine and hand-finished the other side, which made a very nice, tight effect once I figured out how to do it neatly (the first cuff was a little wonky). Ok, that might be it. Jason did the leather sleevelets all by himself, and the strapping and attaching of the buckles. He’s quite happy with it, and it seems to have served its purpose admirably. Next he wants to make a surcoat. He will be doing a lot more of that by himself, I promise.

I am a little torn, though. I like making something from scratch. It’s the attitude that started me sewing, just looking at pieces of cloth and going ahead and DOING. But, it’s also the antithesis of the kind of precision and craft I’m trying to cultivate toward producing everyday-wearable garments. I’d rather avoid the little glitches than fix them.

I did start cutting out the Danielle dress. Still need to cut out the sleeves and “waist” band (contrast fabric) and underlining. Hopefully make some more progress this week as we have kids’ birthday parties next weekend and I won’t get anything done then, either. And I’d really like to wear it (assuming wadders can be avoided) to my friend’s wedding reception the weekend after.

Oh, and a quick fitting redux: it was finally hot enough here to wear my (still un-hemmed) capris. Yay! And… (surprise, surprise) with wear, they’re stretching out. They seem to be doing it more slowly than most of my other stretch jeans (this fabric is so weird) but right now I could happily take them in at least another centimetre on each side. The waistband also stretches more than I would like, but it also seems fairly resilient so it’s not bugging me as much as some of my less-elastic jeans. Next time I do a fitting I just need to remind myself that the jeans whose fit I like, when they’re unstretched, I have to jump up and down to get into.

I really want to make a pair with my new black denim, but I’m holding off until I can pick up a new double needle—denim weight, 1/4″ spread on the needles (I must be a sucker for the double needles) and some more top-stitching thread. I know the top-stitching is tricky enough without the double needles, so maybe that’s just asking for trouble… but although I’m reasonably happy with my manual topstitching on the jeans, it’s just not as crisp as the double needle would be. If, y’know, I can do it without destroying the needle. Or my eye.

I know what I’ll do to bring these ones in a bit in the leg. My daughter’s friend has the coolest detail on the back of a set of her jeans, a fold taken out and topstitched down, with a rivet at the top end. Hers run from below the knee, but on my carpis I could do that from the bottom of the pocket…

Anyway, enough rambling? More sewing!

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June 6, 2010 · 11:34 pm

Measurements

So it just occurred to me… I am usually about two sizes larger in the waist than in the chest/hips. I am resigned to that. But I’ve been musing about trying to make a vest for my hubby (he likes vests), and I can’t find any free patterns for men’s vests, but there are several for women’s. And then I go to check the sizing, and it dawns on me.

My husband has a 40″ chest and a 32″ waist. This proportion fits much more squarely with women’s sizing than men’s… and much more with women’s than mine.

/sigh.

Damn man.

So maybe he will get a vest made from a woman’s pattern after all ;). As long as I don’t tell him…

PS: I have actually been sewing madly this weekend, just nothing completely finished. The gambeson I am helping a friend make is almost finished (and actually got worn today… aparently it served its purpose well) is almost finished… we’ll get pics once he has all the buckles on it. For something that looked pretty much like a pillow when we started, I’m kinda impressed with how it’s turned out. And I am working on my third JJ, in black cotton this time, which is shaping up nicely and will hopefully be done tomorrow evening. And I want to make jeans. More jeans. (I don’t actually need jeans now. Nor do I have money for fabric. Ok, maybe one pair of dark, “presentable” jeans so I can give the crazy-eighties washes a rest would be nice. And a pair of boot-cuts… everything I have right now that doesn’t have holes in the knees are skinnies. And there might be enough of my stretch-denim left to whip up a pair of short shorts… just to practice my pocket stitching, you understand ) And jean jackets for my kids. But I think I’ll have to actually buy a pattern for that.) And I want to make a Danielle dress up for a friend’s wedding reception at the end of the month, but really I already have LOADS of formalwear that would be appropriate that gets very little use) Anyway, I keep hoping that the sewing bug will wane so I can get back to something else like, oh, cleaning my house… but no luck so far.

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May 18, 2010 · 4:29 pm

Fit

Figuring out my body has been a long process, and not one I think I’m done with. When I was a teenager, I knew I had nice legs and a hot tummy; I couldn’t figure out why jeans that fit at my waist (this was before I had figured out low-rise) so often had flaps hanging loose at the hips. I was confused over whether I had a big waist or small hips. A lot of things just didn’t make sense.

It’s taken a while, but here’s where I am:

I have what you might call a “boy figure”. I’m slim, reasonably tall (5′ 7,” 120 lbs).  My bust is small—though still technically a B-cup—but my ribcage is fairly large and my shoulders are broad. My waist is large compared to the rest of my frame, and my hips are quite narrow. Paradoxically, my butt isn’t particularly flat (though it is, as my husband often reminds me, on the small side), and I stand with a slight swayback. My arms and legs are long for my height—I need at least a 33″ inseam in jeans, and mostly don’t wear long-sleeved shirts because they are always too short. I’ve been thrilled with the trend for hooded sweaters designed to cover the hand, with the loop in the cuff for your thumb, because they are actually long enough in the sleeve. And, since so much of my height is in the legs, my body is actually fairly short—almost petite. In particular, I’m short waisted—there’s only about an inch between the top of my hipbone and the bottom of my ribcage.

The back... still a bit of swayback puddle.

I’m thinking about this partly as I struggle with the thought of doing a swayback alteration with the JJ. There’s still some horizontal puddling across the back. BUT—is it because of the swayback alone, or is it exacerbated by the short waist? It doesn’t fold as obviously in the front, but it still seems improved a bit just by shortening. Except overall I like the length—so if I raised the waist I would then need to lengthen the hem. Weird! Does it matter?

I’m also a bit confounded over the swayback thing for the Jalie jeans project. Mostly with regard to the waistband (and the back yoke). A lot of the other people complain that they need a curved waistband because they have a big difference between hips and waist. I don’t have that at all—but I still do have a bit of swayback, and what little padding my bottom has is all squarely to the rear. I often do have trouble with jeans gaping right at the back waistline, and all the RTW I own have a curved waistband. So did most of the ones I was checking out in the mall the other day, too. So I’m really thinking a contour waistband is the way to go. I’m just not sure about how to draft the pattern. I can’t tell from looking at my existing pants how intense the curve is (and it seems to vary… some have the grain on the true bias on the front, some don’t make it all the way there). I guess either way they’re definitely not making a 90-degree turn  over the curve; at most a 45-degree one. I should probably start by measuring the length of the waistband on the pattern. Then decide how much curve, how much at the back should be straight (I can probably get some of that from my existing bands), that kind of thing. Then make a test waistband and see how it fits (and where on the hip… another thing I’m picky abou). Damn, I wish I could just go and get the fabric to start this. /sigh

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May 10, 2010 · 6:50 pm

Jalie!

Jalie Jeans Pattern!

The Jalie Jeans pattern came! The joy, the glee…

The crushing realization that I can’t afford to buy fabric for at least two more weeks, despite the Fabricland sale that’s on right now… /cry.

Ah well, at least I can read the instructions, maybe trace out my pattern, and fantasize.

Next question… should I make some trial versions for the kids?

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May 8, 2010 · 10:37 pm

JJ update

Wore my JJ blouse all day yesterday. Poopily, the crinkle in the crinkle cotton relaxed as it was worn (especially across the back) so by the end of the day the back was VERY saggy and loose. The front was still fine (and still gaping slightly :P). Not sure if I’ll try and take the back in more or just chalk it up to a learning experience… maybe I’ll see what it does after the fabric’s washed.

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May 5, 2010 · 9:14 pm

JJ… (presque) fini

Almost done... possibly even wearable!

I am trucking along today (actually, I’m egregiously neglecting other things I should be doing… but anyway, here!) It still needs buttons, buttonholes, and the hem finished, but the look is there.

From the back... can you see the little closures on the sleeves?

The sleeve alteration, definite oopsie. Not the effect I was trying to achieve. It also pulls the band of the sleeve up higher on my arm than intended, making it a touch tight. I think I may try taking the princess-seams at the back in, to see if that helps with the saggy back problem… 1/2 inch on each side, tapering to nothing at shoulderblades and hip, maybe, seems like it would do the trick. But all in all, it looks pretty good, I think. Lots of little oopsies (although I think not as many as my last attempt at a wearable shirt, and the seams are completely unfinished inside, but I think I am getting better at at least SOME of my weaknesses: the cutting was reasonably precise, and I managed to catch the inside on both the arm-bands (not the collar, but I can tack it down by hand inside if I’m actually going to wear the thing. I can’t finish it all the way until I pick up some buttons, though…

I've never done little trims like this before... a bit fiddly, but turned out surprisingly well.

Edit: Yup, taking in the back seams did the trick, although I think my quick seams weren’t quite as smooth and even as they could be. Will post the photos when I get some buttons on and actually have a finished project!

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May 5, 2010 · 5:40 pm

JJ Blouse

For practice, or maybe just to have a project I can actually WORK on (as opposed to just obsessing over, like the coat and the jeans), I am going to make the JJ blouse. Without ruffles. So the other night I went down and dug through my “stash” for something light-weight that I had enough of. My stash is not at all impressive. It is mostly hoarded or scavenged… old curtains and bedding, bits and scraps my mother or other people were giving away, a few remnants bought here and there. Not a lot of actual substantial bits of fabric. I tend to hang on to even the littlest bits… dance costuming often doesn’t use very much. But it did yield just under 2m of a reddish crinkle-cotton left over from my second tiered skirt. It seemed like a nice weight to try for a summery blouse. So I ironed, and started cutting.

Issue # 1: the crinkle. It’s not an issue with the tiered skirt at all, but that’s a very different kind of construction (and doesn’t require a pattern). But the problem arises when ironing, and putting pattern pieces on. First, how much do I iron it? Do I try to get it completely flat, knowing that it will “shrink up” as it re-crinkles itself? Do I aim for some medium-flatness and just try to get it as even as possible? I don’t know, either… I went the latter route, and we shall see if I pay for my foolishness.

I cut the pattern out pretty much as is, aside from shortening the sleeve a bit. We’ll see how that works out… it was the sleeve cap which was shortened, which will reduce the pouff (it occurs to me that this line on the pattern corresponds to the shortening-line on the body of the shirt, which I did not shorten. Ah… oops. Well, that’ll be interesting. What I REALLY should’ve altered (if I wanted it shorter but still pouffy) was the bottom edge of the sleeve. Silly girl. Ah well… we reap what we sew. And I still don’t even know if the blouse will FIT me… it should be the right size in the bust, and it doesn’t look TOO fitted in the waist, so I’m hopeful, but generally these things either fit in the shoulders, the bust, or the waist, but never all three (which is why I don’t OWN any tailored, fitted blouses). On the upside, sewing with the crinkle-cotton is basically like sewing something with a 2-way stretch.

[photos will be added when I manage to charge my camera]

Edit: First try-on

The fit is surprisingly good; I could probably even have gone down a size, but this is all right. The only real “issue” is that eternal swayback. I really have to figure out how to do a proper sway-back alteration. It’s not mentioned in my only sewing book, and I’m a little confused by the accounts I’ve found online… I should dig around Pattern Review’s message boards a bit more, maybe they have something in there… But in the mean-time, looking surprisingly good.

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