Up Sew Late

Lois Dress #1

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 06:46:00 +0000

Here's a recent make - and it's something I'm actually proud of!

This is the Lois dress by Tessuti patterns, and it's a pattern I bought relatively promptly after loving the pattern photos - but then sat on for ages. Same story for this lovely fabric from The Fabric Store - when I saw this fabric up sewn up quickly by a few social media friends (@clever_tinker for one) I rushed to Surry Hills to get some, and then brought it home and stashed it.

Maybe for 2019 I should try a bit harder to sew the patterns and fabrics I like earlier rather than later? What a ridiculous problem to have ;o.

Here's a quick close-up for a better view of the fabric and style lines - and FYI the fabric is a slinky polyester woven with a satiny back:

The dress is quite low cut, which I think makes this more of a special occasion dress than a work or everyday dress - I've nearly finished version number 2 and have plans for a couple more, but there's nothing wrong with a wardrobe full of special occasion dresses, is there?

Hmm... after reviewing the photos I decided it was actually a tad too low cut - so I've now sewn the lowest 2cm of the v-neck together on the inside of the dress, which makes it just the right depth on me for a low cut dress with complete bra coverage, and also makes the bust fit a smidge less loose.

By virtue of a couple of silly mistakes I sewed this up a size smaller than intended. I thought I was making the size 12, my size according to the pattern instructions, but I accidentally cut a size 10 for the bodice pieces and then cut out the skirt pieces poorly, necessitating wide seam allowances that took it down a size too. Luckily this has turned out to be just the right size. I wouldn't necessarily advise following my lead, but I would recommend basting your cut out pieces together to check the fit before sewing in your zip within the side dart / side bodice seam - if you do this you might also discover (like me, hooray!) that you don't even need the zip!

I should also mention that I have an extra CF seam in my skirt because my fabric was narrower than the recommended width and I just couldn't fit the width of the skirt front and sides across my fabric. This hasn't particularly affected the dress apart from making the CF bust intersection a bit bulky, but it did bump up the fabric requirement for the dress. I also lengthened the skirt pieces about 2 inches, and next time around am lengthening it a little more.

There's a step in the instructions (step 9) that asks you to ease the front skirt side seams into the back skirt side seams, but I couldn't think why you'd want to do that*, so I just sewed the seams normally and then cut off the resulting extra length in the front skirt.

* If you've sewn the Lois dress and followed this step, I would love to know how the easing step worked out - did it do something interesting to the skirt drape, or help the skirt skim over hips and butt?

Hmm and the only other change I made was to ignore the recommended steps to stabilise the neckline and waist with tearaway Vilene.

I've tried using tearaway Vilene before but haven't enjoyed using it - so instead I cut the relevant pattern pieces from a lightweight iron-in interfacing, and this worked pretty well. Before I started sewing the dress I was concerned that the v-neckline would gape, but on top of the tearaway Vilene the pattern uses a clever binding method to stabilise the neckline, and there's absolutely no risk of it stretching out.

This dress was intended to be my Christmas Day dress, but as it turned out I didn't need a Christmas Day dress - my kids both got sick on Christmas Eve and through Christmas Day - but perhaps I can wear it for New Year's Eve instead.

Finally here's the back view, looking quite old fashioned I reckon!

Thank you very much to those of you who replied to my last blog post - it seems that YES, there are still blog readers around! I still enjoy reading blogs too, but wasn't sure how many of us there were... I suspect that there are lots of people who intend to blog but just don't get around to it very often - it's obviously much more time consuming than instagram or facebook, but if you've got verbal diarrhea (ha, that's me!) those media can be a bit frustrating.

So - I'm going to try to keep blogging, and I need to build back up my own list of blogs to read. If you're still (or newly) blogging I would love to know where; please feel very welcome to leave your blog address in the comments :).

Thanks for reading and have a very happy new year

- Gabrielle x

Striped Linen Lacey

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sat, 08 Dec 2018 13:10:00 +0000

Does anyone write blog posts anymore?

Does anyone read them?

I made this dress over a year ago - it's a StyleArc Lacey dress sewn up in a gorgeous striped linen from Tessuti fabrics - and it's one that gets a LOT of wear in summer. The fabric was meant to be for a collared shirt for my son, but he doesn't ever choose to wear collared shirts, besides which he's been growing so fast that it felt crazy not to wait for all the growing to stop.

Hmmmm... come to think of it, he's now taller than me, so there may be a couple of years before the next growth spurt... (is that the way teenage boys grow? catch up to mum first, then a few years later catch up to dad?)

Whatever, we can call it selfish sewing ;). I have a very forgiving son. He takes pretty decent photos too.

The Lacey dress is listed as being suitable for knit, jersey, rayon or silk fabric - in other words you want stretchy or drapey. If you choose linen you may end up with something a bit Scandi retro reminiscent, and a quick internet search ("sasha doll striped blue dress") will take you to the dress I think I must have accidentally copied. I haven't become blond or doll-like, but the dress makes me feel good, so some subconscious desires have obviously now been fulfilled!

As usual, I should tell you about the pattern, right?

It's a very easy sew and a forgiving fit (ie just check the waist measurement and if that's big enough to get your shoulders through you'll be fine). The shoulders are dropped and the sleeves are then basically cut on, and the skirt is simply gathered. Because there's a "feature" panel on the front and back bodices, this is a pattern you could go totally Beccy Home Eccy on - or mock pinafore - but hopefully not. I only made very basic simple modifications in my version: extra length as usual in the skirt, and skipped the sleeve cuffs.

These photos were taken at a beach not too far from Byron in January this year. Just to the right of the breakwater is an area where you can watch dolphins surf. We didn't see too many - one couple catching waves to the shore, swimming back out, then catching the waves in again and again - but even watching two dolphins was pretty cool.

I can't wait to get back to the beach - but preferably a quiet one like this one!

I'll be back!

See you anon
- Gabrielle xx
Easy slip-on dress with an extended shoulder, square line bodice and slightly gathered skirt.

Named Esme Cardigan (How to Wear a Blanket All Winter Long)

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 01:51:00 +0000

In the winter when I'm cold, there is nothing I want more than to feel cosy - warm and snuggly despite the wind, wrapped in a blanket from neck to knee.

This particular Esme cardigan, made in a heavy double knit (and mostly polyester, I believe) is ridiculously cosy. It's as cosy as some of my coats, but it's also snuggly enough to stay on when I'm lounging around the house or sitting at a desk and working on the computer (unlike my coats). It's pretty much like wearing a blanket!

I absolutely love it.

Pattern: Esme cardigan by Named Patterns

Fabric: double knit (by which I mean double-layered knit) bought at a crazy sale at Spotlight for next to nothing

Overall: an easy and satisfying sew, slowed down by my need to:

match the direction of the houndstooth (yes, it's a directional print) and align the horizontals in cutting out
align the horizontals in sewing the main seams
align the direction and horizontals between the button band and the cardigan fronts
align the print in the pocket openings

I think you can see the pattern alignment / matching between the bands and the cardigan fronts in this flat photo:

And in this next photo you might JUST be able to see that the houndstooth pattern runs down the cardigan fronts right over the pockets without getting out of line :). It doesn't look like my pattern matching on that side seam worked perfectly though:

I made a few changes to the cardigan as I went:

omitted the interfacing on the band - a conscious decision, because I wanted the band to have the same amount of stretch as the main part of the cardigan, and I knew the fabric was heavy enough that it probably didn't need interfacing. I've seen a few Esme cardigans where the interfaced button band has stretched less than the cardigan body - I'm not sure how you'd avoid this is you interfaced the band, but I'm also not sure why you need the interfacing there when you're not adding closures.
omitted interfacing on the pocket openings - not needed with a cut-on pocket.
cut the pocket bags as part of the cardigan front (one pair of upper cardigan fronts with cut-on pocket bags, and one pair of lower cardigan fronts with cut-on pocket bags).

The pocket bags are recommended to be sewn from a lighter knit, but if you don't mind them being made from the same fabric as the outer cardigan, a cut-on pocket is sleeker. And because the pockets are quite slouchy (more slouchy than they would have been with interfacing, but I suspect they were always going to be somewhat slouchy) the pocket bags are exposed, so a difference in fabrics would have drawn the eye.

Here are a couple more pocket photos - and yes, those pockets were flapping around too much! Right after taking these pictures I tacked the bottom corners of the pockets to the inner layer of my cardigan fronts, and they now don't show.

Notes:

as drafted this cardigan is super long, and will grow longer in a heavy fabric. I cut some of the length off, and still have a deep hem. It's definitely drafted for tall women so I'd recommend checking how much of that length you want before cutting out (or buying) your fabric.
the sleeves are pretty narrow, and significantly narrower than I expected. Next time around I might make them wider to allow for more layering options - as they are I can only fit a thin merino or cotton layer underneath

Although I love this cardigan and wore it pretty much constantly for a few months after wearing it, I'm not sure if it reads "dressing gown"! What do you think? Does a dressing gown have to have a cord to tie around the waist? I keep thinking of those old fashioned checked flannel gowns!

I haven't shown you the back view yet, have I - from behind it's a very plain and boxy shape:

It took a while for this pattern to grab me - it looked quite boxy in the line drawings (and it is boxy), and I thought I was hankering after a cardigan with a bit more shaping. But as winter progressed I noticed people around me wearing cosy-looking, long boxy cardigans just like Esme, and I realized this sort of cardigan was versatile and practical (and sometimes even stylish).

I'm not convinced mine's particularly stylish, but with its muted grey/cream colours I've been able to pair it reasonably well with a black dress or trousers in the office, and even better with jeans and a merino top or t-shirt at home. No one's pulled me aside and told me to get dressed, though when I've asked a few family members they have agreed it's quite dressing gown-like.

Hmm... maybe it can be both a cardigan and a gown, depending on what you wear underneath?

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

- Gabrielle xx

Vogue 8945 with Lace Sleeves

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 07:02:00 +0000

Back when the weather was still cold, I stumbled upon a remnant of purple lace at Tessuti fabrics. Below I've got a close up of the fabric drying on the line alongside the coordinating stretch viscose I paired it with, and you can see the pretty patterns in the lace, but what you can't see is the straight edged selvedges on the lace.

The lace remnant was too small for a dress, large enough for a small top perhaps, but the perfect amount for a pair of bell sleeves with the selvedges in place of sleeve hems, woohoo! Aren't those selvedges cool!!

Vogue 8945 is a semi-fitted dress with two views: view A (this one) with bell sleeves, and view B with layered sleeve flounces. I made view B of this dress for Melbourne frocktails a few years ago (see dress post here, and post for the related cape here), and I'd been keen to give view A with its simpler bell sleeves a go ever since. V8945 is a good pattern for a statement sleeve - the dress itself is very plain, so the sleeves really get to star.

Speaking of sleeves that star, I entered these very sleeves in Helen and Diane's sleevefest2017 competition back in August (before I'd tried the dress on though!) and won a prize courtesy of Ryliss Bod - I won a copy of The Minott Method Total Pattern Fit. Have you heard of it? I hadn't, but it's basically a very comprehensive fitting manual. I've skimmed through the book (so time poor these days!) and it also has fitting tips in the form of handy wrinkle diagrams telling you what the various wrinkles mean - I will definitely be using those diagrams.

Hmm. And unfortunately, although this dress is one I adored on the hanger, on taking these photos I discovered it was a sausage casing dress. Isn't photography a killjoy! And it turns out the prize is very apt for a dress that fits this badly :(.

I've deleted most of the sausage photos, but I'm willing to share one piece of proof with you:

This pattern is recommended to be sewn in a faille, crepe, challis or linen - so a woven fabric with some drape I guess? but both times I've made it I've used something quite different, and to do the pattern justice the dress really needs a drapey fabric OR a looser fit.

First time around I used a bonded polyester for the sheath dress and a combination of merino wool, more of the bonded polyester and silk organza for the sleeves - that version was a much more successful incarnation of the pattern, most likely because this dress size was a looser fit on me back then:

The two dresses are the same size (12 top half, 14 bottom half), but those couple of years apparently resulted in a couple of extra kilos, so even though I'm crazy about the sleeves, this dress hasn't had a single wear since being made (hangs head in shame).

The sausage casing factor is not so obvious in the shade, but shade isn't something you can rely on here in Sydney. It looks fine in these next two photos, right?

Gah I do wish I'd checked my measurements before cutting into the fabric!

I'm keeping this dress for next winter - just in case I shrink a little or the dress grows a little - but next time I sew I'm definitely getting out the measuring tape first!

Happy sewing and see you soon

- Gabrielle xx

StyleArc Tully Pants

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 02:15:00 +0000

I only meant to step away from the blog for a week or two while work was insane, but somehow that turned into a few months - oops!

Anyway, I'm back now, and I've got a backlog of sewing to share. I'm keen to get everything blogged by the end of the year, so please excuse my too quickly edited writing and photos - and let's start with these Style Arc Tully pants:

This fabric BTW came from Jen's glorious stash - she has an amazing eye for op shop fabric! It's shirting weight with a bit of stretch, and I suspect its composition is a blend as it didn't respond well to a hot iron.

The balloons in all these photos are left over from my recent birthday party - seemed a shame to pop them all, so although I've taken them down I'm leaving them around the house for now :). They also make good props for people who've forgotten how to take blog photos...

I liked the look of this pattern when I saw it as a new release on Instagram, but I was a bit concerned that the paper bag waist and bow on the tummy might not look great on my rectangular shape. And to be honest this is not the most flattering style of pants I've ever worn, but I like that they're different to all the other pants in my wardrobe. Actually I think a few frills on the shoulders or bust might help - or alternatively a strong sleeve could do the trick (I'll try that next time!).

The pattern is a straightforward one to make because the pants have no closures: no zips or buttons whatsoever! Basically you need the pants to be wide enough at the waist to get on over your hips, and then you bring in that extra width with elastic - easy. The distinctive ties on the front are decorative, and slot neatly into pleats.

The elastic is only supposed to be set in around the sides and back of the pants (ie not over the tummy) but I set it in all the way around, stitching the elastic in place under the ties so it doesn't gather on the tummy.

Oh - and I should mention the pockets! The pockets are very comfortable:

I believe Style Arc drafts for a women 168 cm tall and I'm about 5 cm taller than that, but my body is a little short for my height and my limbs a little long, so these pants feel a bit short :(. I sewed a rather narrow hem on the cuff, but it I'd still like another 5 cm or so in length, and preferably added higher in the leg, so next time I make these I'll be chopping up the main leg pattern piece and inserting about 7cm of length there.

OK, one back view for my sewing friends:

I've seen a few fashionable women wearing this style lately in the CBD, in both stripes and block colours, and if I can find the time I'd really like to make these pants again in a block colour. The style is also really comfortable to wear, and the pants are a much easier sew than they might look.

That's it for now!

I'll be back soon with another quick post - till then, happy sewing!

- Gabrielle xx

To Work: Vintage Calvin Klein

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Fri, 04 Aug 2017 02:09:00 +0000

Ta daaaa! Yep, it's another top...

This one is sewn from a vintage pattern from my 80s/90s pattern collection (which is NOT a "carefully curated collection", though seriously, what even does that phrase mean? Does it just mean "a group of things I like"??). The pattern looks pretty boring in the envelope photos, but it's a designer pattern, which I find usually guarantees good bones, and the back of the envelope shows three very different tops, one of which (this one) only needs a metre of fabric.

The pattern is described as follows:

Loose-fitting pullover top or wrap blouse has cap or full-length sleeves. A and B mock bands, A: buttoned shoulder and sleeves closing. B: dropped shoulders and side-buttoned closing. C: extended shoulders, front pleated into self-lined yoke with forward shoulder seams and two-piece sleeves with buttoned cuffs shown pushed up.

I have a few of Calvin Klein's top patterns from the 70s, 80s and 90s and they seem to have quite a consistent, minimalist aesthetic, but this pattern is from 1986 - even though it has no shoulder pads. Vogue magazine anticipated the 1990s Calvin Klein designs would inspire Raf Simons' 2017 Calvin Klein collection (article and links to collections here), so maybe this is nearly fashionable?? Probably not, haha!

Anyway, these next photos of the pattern come from an etsy shop (linked) that had the pattern for sale as at the time of writing, but I can see it's available in lots of other online shops too if you like the look of it.

So obviously I made view A, the one that takes only a metre of fabric, and I left off the lovely buttoned shoulder detail - with my drapey silk twill I was worried I'd mess up, and the top gets on and off without any closures anyway.

This little top is intended to slot into my work wardrobe - black pants and skirts mixed with more interesting tops and jumpers - and though it looks summery with its fluttery cap sleeves, I think it's going to suit winter too in my current, very warm office.

These pants by the way are RTW, but if you could see them in person you might notice they're quite similar to Vogue 8909, with a loose fit (looser than the Hudson pants) and elasticized waist and ankles. I'd make a pair except I already have a pair!

Vogue 8909 pants

Not Vogue 8909 pants, but a similar style

Because I left off the shoulder and sleeve buttoning closure this was a very straightforward top to sew. The fabric, a gorgeous Italian silk twill from Tessuti Fabrics (sorry but it was purchased ages ago so I doubt it'd still be in stock) was a bit shifty to sew so that made things a little slower, but it was still only the matter of a few hours.

I used French seams on the shoulders and side seams and a rolled hem on the sleeves, and I should have but didn't use Lena's gelatine trick for shifty fabrics (here's Lena's original tip blogged in 2011, and here's the link to the 2012 Threads article inspired by Lena's blog post). The rolled hem is wonky over the French seams, so perhaps French seams weren't such a good idea - that seam area was such a lot bulkier than the rest of the hem.

And I'm not sure if you can see this in the first of the detailed photos below, but I also used Debbie's trick for neat interfaced facings with no messy edges.

One of the nice things about a pattern like this is that it's really easily adjusted up or down a size. My copy of this pattern was a size 10, but by widening the neckline and adding to the width of the top (including sleeve length) my top was effectively made as a size 12.

Not smug but happy - and that's all!

Happy sewing

- Gabrielle xx

Vogue 8877 in an Unnatural Animal Print

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 14:04:00 +0000

This print is not the sort of print I would normally wear, and these are not the sort of colours I'd normally wear either, but when I came across the fabric in the remnant bin of The Fabric Store on a visit with Nic, I found it strangely irresistible. I may be making a heinous style error (who cares!) but I love it, and I think it's going to "go"- or at least "pop" in a way I find appealing - with lots and lots of the duller characters in my wardrobe :).

Speaking of the duller characters, in these photos I'm wearing my new top with a grey merino dress (Vogue 1338, blogged here), and I'd just taken off an aubergine boiled wool jacket (Vogue 8930, blogged here) - Vogue trifecta for the win! I feel too self conscious in the grey merino dress by itself, but I realised today I'd be perfectly comfortable and cosy wearing it with an extra layer.

Here's Vogue 1338, photographed a few years ago:

and Vogue 8930 looks like this on:

What's with the hands on hips all the time, hey?

This top is view C of the Vogue 8877 sewn from a single fabric, sewn in a size Medium (12-14) and with a narrowed neckline. As I've mentioned before, this pattern is intended for wovens but can also be sewn with stretch fabrics. The dropped shoulders and curved bust seam are potential fitting challenges, and the first time I sewed the top (from a cotton lawn, never blogged) I thought the fit was a disaster. Version number two was a t-shirt (loved it, and the fit was of course more forgiving in a stretch fabric), version three was made from linen - no fit issues that time around for some reason, and version four was a merino wool jumper.

Version two, the crazy bunnies t-shirt:

Version three in white linen:

Version four as a merino travel jumper:

This time around my fabric is a white cotton waffle weave with purple, yellow and grey splotches printed on one side. The fabric doesn't really drape, so Vogue 8877 wasn't the ideal pattern - but I wanted to make something oversized and sweatshirt-related and V8877 seemed like a decent representation of that idea.

To be honest the only hint of sweatshirt I've really managed is that ribbed neckband! It's a bit subtle, isn't it!

And speaking of unnoticeable, that curved bust seam isn't even visible in this print, is it - it would have been a good idea to pick it out with some piping, but the idea didn't occur to me till I saw these photos.

So this is version 5. Apart from the rib neckline, the only change I made this time was to play around with the hemline. Again, I don't think you can really see it, but I cut into the length of the front bodice and curved the sides down to the (original length) back. I included a really deep hem this time too with what I thought might be noticeable black top stitching but it just blends into the print. Who'd have thought? Turns out subtle doesn't work with fake animal print!

I'll leave you with a couple more photos of the new top - I can't think of anything more to say about it!

Happy sewing, and see you soon!

- Gabrielle x

I Will Follow (McCall's 7542)

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 12:48:00 +0000

Well I won't usually. Usually I'll apply my utmost self-discipline to avoid following the social media trends, because I reckon I'm usually tempted to follow only because everyone else is (peer pressure, yes, the force is strong), and that's not a good enough reason really :).

However, this time around the trend was a pattern (McCall's 7542) that looked to tick a lot of boxes for me:

Great sleeves: tick
More than one variation I'd like to wear: tick
Easy without looking like fast fashion: tick
Mashable with other patterns: tick
Different from other patterns I own: tick

This time around (I'll definitely use this pattern again, even if only for the sleeves) I sewed a variant on option E, which is the option with lower bubble sleeves gathered into the upper sleeve with an exposed seam (no idea of the correct terminology, sorry!). In my version the border between upper and lower sleeves is a regular seam, and that lower sleeve isn't a bubble but a single layer of fabric.

As you'll see I used a couple of fabrics for this top. I had small and rather lovely piece of geometric wool from The Fabric Store, and it wasn't quite enough for the top, so I coupled it with a small remnant of black ponti for the back of the top. I love this geometric fabric so much - and it reminds me of a beloved geometric silk from The Fabric Store that I sewed into a summer top a couple of year sago (post here). The top only needs a single button, so the small purple button comes from my button stash. I think this particular button was inherited from my mother-in-law, who used to wear quite a bit of purple.

I sewed this top in a size 14 - a size bigger than I'd sew in a Vogue designer pattern - because I suspected the McCall's sizing might be more consistent with the Vogue basics line, and I'm more of a 14 than a 12 there. It's still looking a little tight in these photos, but I expect the fit will be looser when my thyroid levels get back to normal.

A few people have mentioned the top length in their reviews, and this is something to be aware of before you cut your top out: as well as being quite fitted, it's short! My version of the top is cut out in the longer of two lengths, but it's not that long. Before whipping this up from a special fabric I'd really recommend measuring the bodice and sleeve widths and lengths. The fact that I've used a stretchy fabric for the back of my top effectively gives me more width, but my lower sleeve is nearly twice the drafted length of the bubble - the original would have hit me at just below elbow length.

All up, this one's a fun and versatile pattern - highly recommended, and I look forward to trying the trumpet or tulip sleeves soon. For more examples of this pattern sewn up have a look at Alex's striped viscose version here, Kabunta's blue and pink versions here, Carmen's teal tulip-sleeved version here, and Erika's pale pink accordion pleat sleeved version here. And there are loads more on Pattern Review of course :).

Ahhh I love geometric fabric...

See you soon!

- Gabrielle x

PS apparently it's become just about impossible to comment on my blog lately - I'm so sorry if you've been trying to do so. I do have Disqus installed, so this should be working, but apparently it's become twitchy. Short of uninstalling Disqus and losing lots of lovely interactions, do you know of a good solution for Blogger? For now, I'm contactable via email (corbettgabrielle .at. gmail .dot. com) and through the bloglovin comments system. Thanks in advance!

PPS I just went over to the Disqus site and had another go at fixing things - and for now it seems to be working. If you're having similar issues, I logged in to the Disqus site and then under the Settings menu selected Installation. My Disqus widget looked OK, so I moved on to step 2 (import Blogger comments to Disqus) and then cicked on the button for a one-time import followed by clicking to sync comments. Can you please let me know if things go pear-shaped again? Thanks!

Guy Laroche Top (Vogue 1450)

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 14:39:00 +0000

Vogue 1450 by Guy Laroche has been waiting in my filing cabinet for a few years... I love the Guy Laroche Vogue patterns, but they often look too "Fashion" when they're first released for me to contemplate them in my wardrobe. I'm not sure if it's that the designer looks gradually filter down to the high street, or if staring at the designer patterns for a few years makes them eventually look more normal, but I've now made the top and the skirt is on the shortest of my "to sew" lists (the physical version of the list, where fabric is matched with patterns and piled next to my sewing machine - still no guarantee it'll be made though).

This top was designed for summer, but I thought it would look great in a cashmere-wool blend. Possibly that thought was triggered by the fact that I had a nice little cashmere-wool remnant in the stash, but does that even matter? My remnant was pretty short - just 0.7 metres long but 155 centimetre wide - but it looked to me as though the top could be squeezed out of that limited yardage despite the pattern's stated 1.8 metre fabric requirements.

I measured myself and checked the finished dimensions, and went down a size to a 10. I couldn't fit the length of the fronts on my 0.7 metres, so I also cropped the top by an inch or two.

It turns out that the 10 fits when I'm wearing the same lack of layers as when I measured myself.

In all these photos I'm wearing a warm singlet and a high-waisted skirt, and in some I'm also wearing a long-sleeved merino wool top, just because it's cold here at the moment. With extra layers on, the top is definitely a bit snugger than I'd hoped, and I haven't tried it without layers... I think I need to have another go at making it in the correct size and length, as I suspect I'll love the larger version more than this one. Bigger is better!

The Sewing Details
Pattern = Vogue 1450 by Guy Laroche:
Very loose-fitting top has asymmetrical snap closing, extended shoulder forming cap sleeves and bias (lining) binding finishing seams and facings.

Fabric = wool-cashmere mix, a remnant from Tessuti fabrics, along with a small piece of magically coordinating silk also from Tessuti fabrics

So, although this looks like quite a simple loose top, the design is stellar. There's a curve to the shoulder that sits beautifully when worn, and the armholes are perfection: low enough for layering but not so low as to reveal much, but also a great shape. Can you see too the front half of the armhole is a different shape to the back half? The front is slightly lower cut than the back and follows a different curve - and that means a much better fit than the common symmetric armhole, with no excess fabric getting folded under my arm as I swing it forward.

There are these lovely darts in the back of the top too - no partying in the back, but some interest for sure! These darts are replicated in the lining to the top. Since I'd bought insufficient lining I rotated the darts into a new horizontal seam line at the same height as the darts - but I don't seem to have a photo of this.

Anyway, check out my dart alignment in the wool! (I had to have three attempts at the centre back seam before I was happy with their alignment, so a bit of basking is permissible isn't it?)

The top is supposed to be sewn with three large snaps and two buttons, but I got cold feet about the buttonholes, so my top has five large snaps. I'm super slow and not the neatest of hand stitchers, but I love the control you get with hand stitching. With the snaps I decided to start from the bottom and work my way up. The hemlines really need to align, but at the neckline there's a crossover that would definitely mask a bit of length discrepancy if required. For the left hand side, I sewed the snaps to the wool (and not the lining), using the snap half that has an indentation (I think this may be upside down, but it seemed like this orientation would cause less of a bump to show through when the top was fastened.

On the right hand side I sewed the snaps to the lining, but before doing so I cut out some small squares of wool that I positioned under the snaps as I sewed them in. The snaps are quite strong, and I didn't think the silk lining on its own would be any kind of match for them - with a wool backing the lining has a chance of surviving! From the photos on the pattern envelope I assume the snaps aren't supposed to attach to both layers of fabric, though perhaps the designer garment was just sewn by someone with incredible, invisible hand stitching? In any case, sewing them to just one of the layers means a bit of movement can happen without creating too many creases on the outside (and any creases you do see in my top are therefore more likely to be related to my wearing too many layers and wearing the wrong size!).

The pattern has you use a bias binding seam finish using your lining fabric but I didn't really have any spare lining fabric, besides which my lining was too heavy, so my lining seam edges are overlocked and my wool edges have been left raw after neatening them.

I'm trying hard now to think what could possibly be improved in this pattern - and the only thing I can come up with is having separate lining and outer pieces, with the lining pieces slightly smaller to ensure it didn't show around the edges... not a big deal with wool as the outer layer as it stretches a little when steamed, but I can imagine this being annoying in a fabric with less give. And other than that, nothing!

Thanks for reading!

See you soon

- Gabrielle xx

Vogue 1392 for Melbourne Frocktails

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sat, 01 Jul 2017 15:00:00 +0000

The dress I have to share with you is one I'm proud of (carefully planned and successful pattern matching, and a dress that really looks the way I'd intended), the event it was created for was a LOT of fun (Melbourne Frocktails, October 2016), and in fact just thinking about this dress reminds me of the awesome weekend I had with wonderful Melbourne sewing friends.

I don't know why it's taken me so long to post this dress!

Posing before Frocktails with the very charming Nicole of The Somnolent Dachshund

The dress is Vogue 1392, a Kay Unger designer pattern, described on the back of the pattern envelope as follows:

Lined dress has close-fitting, bones, bias front bodice extending into back band, no shoulder seams, concealed, elasticized shoulder straps and ribbon hangers, front pleated skirt, side pockets, attached petticoat, and invisible back zipper.

The dress is really tricky to photograph - even for the professional photographer at the event - I guess because my brocade fabric is so pale and shimmery. I've darkened all of these professional photos to make it easier to see the fabric, and later in this post are some photos I took in shadow that I think give you a better idea of the fabric colour without the shimmer.

My original idea was actually to sew this dress in either a hot pink designer silk or a vibrant orange silk-cotton, but I wanted to check the fit first - and I'd found a roll of brocade on the nature strip, as you do (apparently my neighbours changed their minds about their curtains). So I cut out the skirt in this brocade and combined it with some leftover stripey teal and cream upholstery fabric for the bodice, made a few adjustments for fit, and... realised I rather liked the brocade. I quite like the stripes too...

And that's how it became a brocade dress!

Cutting and Sewing

Although this isn't a complex pattern (it's rated Easy), the dress took a reasonable amount of work, comprising as it does a boned lining and a petticoat and in my case a truck-load of pattern matching.

Pattern matched brocade on the back of Vogue 1392

The pattern matching was of course the first step - I don't have a cutting table, so I basically laid the fabric out over every bit of floor I could claim in the study, decided which way was "up", and then got to work on the priority areas. For the skirt I placed vertical lines at the centre back waistline, with more lines angling outwards lower on the skirt backs, and vertical lines on the front waist darts, with hip-like curves about half way down the skirt fronts.

For the bodice I wanted strong lines to wrap over the shoulder straps parallel to the neckline, and wanted the shoulder straps to look as though they "grew" out of the centre front.

Although I do sometimes fuss over side seams too, in this instance the fabric was too complex for me - I just couldn't do any more than make the sides symmetric.

I'm not super speedy at pattern matching, and my knees don't enjoy scrambling around to move the pattern pieces again and again, but for me this part of sewing is really worth labouring over - I get so much satisfaction from a nicely placed (and matched) print!

Dress front, Vogue 1392 in brocade

Dress back, Vogue 1392 in brocade

Once the fabric was cut out the sewing was pretty straightforward. I made a few changes along the way (summarised below), but all the steps in the pattern were logical and easy to understand. I hadn't ever sewn boning onto lining fabric before, so that was a worry, but it turns out not to be at all tricky :).

Modifications:

Ignored the grainline recommendation for the bodice fronts so I could get the pattern layout I wanted
Lengthened the skirt pieces by about 8 centimetres (I'm about 8 cm taller than the drafted height for Vogue patterns)
Skipped the step of fusing interfacing to the bodice front and back pieces because my fabric already had plenty of body
Moved the invisible zip from centre back to the side seam as I was concerned that the thickness of my brocade would make it tough to get that zip looking truly invisible (I was right)

Skipped the boning in the side seams of the bodice, though looking at the photos now I think I should have left these in. The bodice is crumpling a little at the side seams and boning would have helped it keep its shape. I might see if I can add this in retrospectively! I did leave the boning in place on the bodice front linings (and it wasn't nearly as tricky to execute as I'd expected):

Oops, the waist seam in the lining should be facing in towards the wrong side of the brocade

Skipped the side pockets - I just wanted smooth side seams
Removed the elasticized shoulder straps after sewing them in - they didn't seem to make any difference, perhaps because I'd done my bodice fitting without factoring them in
Skipped the ribbon hangers as I thought they'd show

Challenges:

The pattern matching was a challenge of course (d'oh), compounded by stretched out selvedges (grrr!), but there was another challenge: the neckline! I trimmed those neckline seams aggressively, under-stitched them assiduously, and pressed them hard, and yet the lining persisted in peeking out. I think the huge difference in weight and flexibility of the two fabrics (hmm upholstery-weight brocade vs flimsy lining) is the problem here - are there any other tricks you know of for keeping the lining on the inside? I did think about pick stitching the neckline but ran out of time before Frocktails (and then just couldn't be bothered afterwards), but I'd like to sort it out before I wear the dress again.

Conclusion:

I don't think my choice of colours and fabric were ideal (too pale on me, and probably too thick for a dress), but if you happen to have a smallish amount of fancy fabric, Vogue 1392 may be the one for you. There are so few patterns for cocktail dresses that don't require crazy amounts of fabric, but with this pattern you only need around 1.5 metres depending on the size you sew. Even without swathes of fabric, this dress with its boning and elasticized shoulders and layers of lining and organza feels very upmarket. A big tick from me!

Next up I am going to TRY to get some photos of my exciting new Guy Laroche (Vogue 1450) top - and I'm tempted to make the matching skirt, though I suspect as is it'd be another in the not-suitable-for-work series...

See you soon!

- Gabrielle xx

The Crush and the Wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 08:40:00 +0000

I've got two garments to share with you today, both finished a while ago and even photographed a few weeks back: a stripey wrap skirt that I'd hoped would be suitable for the office (that word "hoped" gives you a hint...), and a very simple boxy merino wool top that has turned out to be a bit of a wardrobe crush for me.

Let's start with the crush:

I've got a favourite, favourite bright green knit top that I wear all summer with jeans, skirts, trousers, you name it (you can see it on me here in day 21 of Me Made May from a few years ago) - and as I was reaching for it to wear out a few weeks ago, I realised (a) it was way too lightweight for winter, and (b) I needed to sew myself a winter version. The original number is RTW from ages ago and a very simple boxy shape, so I decided I'd just trace around it. The need was such that I couldn't even waste time with paper - I traced it straight onto my thick black merino wool with PINS! A few hours later (and a good part of that devoted to measuring all the symmetries; nothing is more annoying than a simple garment cut off grain, and I didn't want one side larger than the other either) the winter version was done.

And not only do I love this top (as is or layered; with jeans, skirts, trousers etc etc) but I also really want a few more of them... I wish I'd bothered to do my tracing onto paper now! I've got in mind a cosy quilted white version and am mulling over a houndstooth wool version too. Yes, I will need to get out the paper and trace my summer top all over again, but I think it'll be worth it.

Pattern: traced from RTW
Adjustments: none
Fabric: thick merino wool from The Fabric Store
Rating: ACE!!!!

==================

And now for the skirt, view B of Vogue 9172, shown with the same top.

I'd seen a couple of versions of this skirt sewn up online - from memory I think participants in an online sewing comp all had to sew this up? - and it looked like it would make for a great work skirt.

I sewed up version B of the skirt, which is the longest version and supposed to hit below the knee with a demure wrap (judging by the drawings on the pattern envelope). I guess the length is correct on me, but the wrap is not nearly as office-friendly as I'd hoped. The wrap width is quite narrow and the resulting split is very high, so this skirt is never going to come to work with me. I don't even want to imagine how revealing the split would be when I was sitting down!

I cut out and sewed in the side seam pockets, but their outline showed in the skirt front and I felt they wrecked the sleek lines of the skirt (as well as creating unnecessary bulk) so they were quickly unpicked.

As one of the reviewers noted on Pattern Review, this skirt doesn't include much ease. The pattern description is that it's "semi-fitted" but if you're used to sewing Vogue's designer patterns you might want to go up a size with this one. I sewed a size 16 this time around whereas I'd normally sew a 14 in Vogue skirts/ pants - it feels tight on me despite the stretch fabric, BUT in these photos I'm a several kilos heavier than usual (I changed doctor and my new doctor lowered my daily thyroid extract dose to the point where I was rapidly putting on a heap of weight and feeling like shit. Luckily when I got my blood re-tested recently I was able to prove this had brought my thyroid levels way, way, WAY too low, so my dose is back up and I should be back to normal again soon).

Apart from the height and width of that split - I should have measured first, I should have adjusted... - I think this pattern is a good design. I really like that it's fully lined, and the separating zip hidden on the inside of the wrap is a clever detail. If I made this again I'd use a much lighter weight zip - my heavy duty zip shows through the front wrap layers and creates too much extra bulk on the tummy. I'd also leave off the pockets (as I did this time), and would double the width of the wrap and extend the zip down a few inches. Oh I think I'd change the angle of the front wrap pieces of the skirt and taper in the side seams to better match the tech drawings for this pattern - the skirt is much more rectangular and the wrap much less than the drawings would suggest...

I'm happy enough with my execution of this skirt - I've lined up the stripes the way I intended, the zip looks neater than expected, and I've paired stretch outer with a stretch lining - but unfortunately this skirt is a wadder for me. I know it looks OK from a few angles, but it's too risque for my office, and I just don't feel drawn to wearing it outside of work.

Pattern: Vogue 9172, view B
Adjustments: skipped the pockets
Fabric: striped, stretch medium weight polyester from The Fabric Store and stretch lining from Darn Cheap Fabrics (via last summer's Frocktails trip to Melbourne)
Notions: separating zipper from Spotlight
Rating: off to the charity shop

==================

Finally, to add a bit of colour to this rather drab post, can I show you some of my recent fabric purchases? I recently found some lovelies at Tessuti Fabrics: lovely mulberry lace remnant and coordinating stretch viscose for a planned dress, and a gorgeous geometric remnant in some of my favourite colours (hmm not yet sure if this will make a top with a square neckline or a rectangular skirt).

No promises now, but I took flat photos of a bunch of other clothes today and I'm going to make an effort to blog again before another month passes.

In the meantime, wishing you more sewing successes than failures!

See you soon

Gabrielle xx

Frocktails Sydney: Dark Floral Vogue 1228

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Fri, 26 May 2017 06:27:00 +0000

Frocktails always feels to me like an opportunity - and close to an obligation even - to make a new dress. So although I'd made a formal dress (not blogged, barely worn) late last year for Melbourne Frocktails, Sydney Frocktails called for something new.

Plan A was another formal dress in a divine duchesse satin layered with tulle and boning and organza and lining (hmm sounding a bit like my Melbourne frocktails dress...), but the pattern I had lined up for all these materials was the wrong size. Cold feet and procrastination ensued - I will make this dress another time though.

Plan B was to make something quick, with fabric from the stash, and using a pattern I'd used before - learning from Blogless Anna, who always rocks up to the Melbourne Frocktails in simple, elegant garments made impeccably from beautiful fabrics.

Here it is then: Vogue 1228 (previously blogged here, in what I admit was NOT a particularly useful review), sewn from a small length of gorgeous fabric from The Fabric Store that I'd previously earmarked for a mildly flared midi skirt:

Apologies for blending into the background in so many of these pictures (but that's introverts for you, right?) - I don't know when I'm going to have the free time to re-take them, so I hope they're good enough for you to see where the dress starts and ends.

Pattern:

This Vena Cava pattern is rated easy in the Vogue rating system, and is definitely rated correctly. Mind you, Vogue's "easy" is not the same as Simplicity's "easy" - there are still some interesting techniques going on! This pattern is described as follows on the envelope:

"Close-fitting (through bustline), above mid-knee length dress has front and back stitched pleats, kimono sleeves with sleeve band and narrow tabs, stitched facing at neckline, invisible side zipper, very narrow hem at lower edge."

Between making the dress way back when and now I misplaced a crucial page of instructions (yes, the page that tells you how to make the front and back stitched pleats and how to then finish the front neckline without showing the pleat), but luckily for me another blogger had documented these exact steps in her review.

I found the fit to be consistent with other Vogue patterns I've made before, but if you do sew this up, as usual, I'd recommend measuring the pattern pieces. On me the dress is a little close fitting through the hips because I just assumed I could still wear the size I'd cut out last time :(.

Sadly the pattern is way, way OOP, but there look to be lots available on eBay and etsy.

Fabric:

This heavenly fabric is from The Fabric Store, though they don't have it in stock anymore. It has a lot of body, which I love in the sleeves of this dress. Although the right side of the fabric is very dark with a lovely sheen, the underside is a pale grey and matte. I don't recall the fabric composition but perhaps it's a viscose-silk blend? It's beautiful up close but the right side is quite fragile; I ended up snagging the dress on the sequins of my handbag while we were out.

The handbag - which I didn't make, though it'd be an easy sew - is another story. Those big sequins show different colours when you flip them, which made for lots of fun with certain cheeky people writing messages on my bag while I wasn't looking :). Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if Christy made a bag just like this one day...

Modifications:

Having made the dress before I knew I could skip the side zipper (one benefit of being slightly pear shaped!).

I also knew the neckline was a problem - as drafted, the neckline is quite low. This is a problem on me because the square shape is also quite wide, and the corners of the neckline end up showing a triangle of bra cup on each side. Obviously this is not going to be an issue for people with a lower set bust, but I needed to either raise or change the shape of the neckline to remedy this issue. If I'd raised the neckline, this would have raised the point where the bust pleats release, and I felt those pleats need to be quite high to do their job. So my solution was to narrow the neckline by a centimetre all the way around (back and front) and then also to taper the sides of the square inwards from the shoulder line to the lowest point on the bust, changing the shape from square to isosceles trapezoidal (I love a bit of geometry in sewing!).

Fabric limitations brought the hemline up several inches, but I was then able to make up some of this length with a hem band sewn from fabric cut on the cross grain (and it doesn't hang quite right, but since this dress is generally worn in the evenings I don't think this is very noticeable).

And instead of making tabs to hold the sleeve bands folded over I used small, invisible hand stitching to hold the bands in a permanent fold.

Yay or Nay?

This dress is definitely a "yay" dress!

Give the fancy fabric I thought this dress would end up languishing in my wardrobe with all the other fancy dresses, but it's had heaps of wear - I don't go out much, but this dress has still managed about half a dozen outings over the last couple of months! I'll have to remember this for future dresses: a simple design makes for a more adaptable dress than a complex one.

This particular dress shape is also perfect for running down the street, catching the train, playing with the pup... it's not voluminous, but there's enough width in the skirt for lots of motion. Alternatively you can pretend you're running for a train while your pup lies around in the grass:

And the frocktails event itself? Well, it was every bit as fabulous as you might imagine :). The venue was cool, the cocktails and snacks were delicious, there was a surfeit of frock inspiration, and too TOO many people to chat with - locals, Queenslanders, Canberrans, Melbournites - these events always go too quickly! You can see lots of portraits from the night on Caroline's Instagram feed (thank you Mr Usefulbox for this lovely photo of me!), and you can read Caz's wrap-up blog post here.

I'm already looking forward to the next frocktails, and if you're even slightly tempted, I'd encourage you to come along too! see you soon

- Gabrielle xx

D&G Sundress: Vogue 8974

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Mon, 01 May 2017 14:35:00 +0000

There was an icy wind blowing down the street the other night as I walked home from the station, trying very hard to imagine being warm. Despite the sunshine in these photos, Sydney weather has turned the corner, and the evenings have a bite to them.

I thought about this summer dress, waiting to be blogged, but frankly it didn't warm me up at all...

...all it did was remind me I needed to get cracking and write the blog post!!

The dress is Vogue 8974 which I imagine you've already seen blogged here and here, or in one of its many other blogged incarnations. I started sewing this dress back in 2015 (!!), tweaking a muslin till the fit was perfect, but when I applied my adjusted pattern to the good fabric (Dolce & Gabbana textured cotton from Tessuti Fabrics - and no, pretty sure they don't have any more of it), the fit was completely off, and much looser than in my muslin.

I focused on aligning the centre front and back chevrons, then put the dress aside till the following summer.

In 2016 I got thinner, and when I came back to this dress the fit was even looser.

I sewed the main seams, set in an invisible zip in lieu of side snaps, moved the shoulder straps to line up the stripes (oops, a cutting out misalignment) and then spent hours and hours pinning and re-pinning the dress to take in all the saggy areas.

And then I put it aside again, wary of committing to so many adjustments.

I got it out AGAIN a few months ago, and hooray, I'd gained lots of weight and the dress now fit me perfectly! #silverlining

Unfortunately by the time I'd finished up all the hand stitching on the inside of the dress (sewing opened seams flat, attaching facings to seams,sewing up the hem... ) I'd gained yet more weight, so in these photos you are not seeing that wonderful moment of perfect fit; you're seeing my "this is slightly too tight but I'm smiling anyway" version of fit :(. Bugger.

At this rate though I am hopeful it could fit brilliantly next summer ... or the one after?

Pattern

Vogue 8974 is a nice little pattern - the dress has interesting lines, a fit and flare profile that's a bit different from the usual, and I think it looks good on a variety of figures. It's a fun one to use with a striped fabric, and it's not super hard to sew. The pattern includes instructions for side snaps to fasten the left side of the dress, but this is easily swapped for a zip, and you can also omit the belt if you don't happen to have belt-making paraphernalia to hand.

I haven't tried the little unlined jacket pattern that comes with the dress but I think it looks pretty sweet too. I was originally thinking to make a matching jacket with the piece of fabric I have left over from the dress, but then that might just be stripe overkill.

If I make the jacket, or make the dress again, there is one point I'd like to change: I'd add interfacing. How modern, right? The pattern only shows the belt being interfaced, and while I noticed this vintage feature in time to retrospectively interface the dress facings, the upper edges of the bodice and the side seams, I wish I'd noticed before sewing the strap tubes.

Fit / Size

Arghh. Well, fit is the real challenge with this dress pattern. I found it was a bit of work to adjust the bodice to fit nicely, with darts in the right place, straps laying flat (I didn't quite achieve that - I needed a fitting friend for the back) AND side bodice not too low or high under the arms. You might be lucky and the dress might fit you out of the envelope, but I think it'd be realistic to go into sewing this dress expecting lots of try-ons and adjustments as you go. For the record my dress is mostly a size 12-14, but ranges from size 10 above the bust to size 18 at the waist.

Modifications

I made a few "modernification" modifications to the pattern:

An invisible zip instead of side snaps - I'm too lazy for side snaps!

Front straps without buttons (couldn't think of what sort of buttons I'd want)

Moved the front straps to align the stripes (they shouldn't be set back from the "V" but should continue its line), and next time I'd angle the back straps to make them sit flush against my back

Used my overlocker instead of turning under and stitching down seam allowances on the facings

Used interfacing on bodice edges, side seams and facings

Added height to the bodice as when the dart was in the right place the bodice cut looked too low

Skipped the belt in favour of showing off the chevrons at the waistline

From memory I think I also changed the grainlines of the pattern - I really, really wanted those chevrons down the front and back, but that meant cutting the centre front (CF) and centre back (CB) seams on the bias. I intended for the chevrons from the bodice and the skirt to meet at the waist in a double ended point, but I mustn't have measured carefully enough when I was cutting out, and that double point doesn't quite work out.

MIA

On a completely different topic, in case you were wondering where I went between February and April... I went nowhere; life just got crazily stressful, both at work and at home.

The full time job I mentioned towards the end of this post grew a couple of months ago when my colleague in the team left the company for an amazing overseas role, and I've been stretched trying to cover both our roles ever since. We've recently been interviewing to fill the position, which was going to report to me (yay, a manager job!), and I was hopeful we'd be making a job offer in the next few days, but on Thursday night I was given the bad news that my Department has decided to save money by not filling any vacant positions for the rest of this FY. I'm not sure what I'm going to do now, but I know I'm not prepared to kill myself for another 6+ months doing two jobs.

On the home front things are going nicely at the moment, but that's after a couple of pretty intense months with my daughter spending a few weeks in hospital, my son starting high school, the cat developing severe allergies, and my dad and his partner both in and out of hospital for surgery and tests. My daughter is hopefully having a preventative operation in a few weeks, and dad's having more surgery next week, but hopefully after that the health worries will ease off.

So - that's why I was MIA! I used to think sewing was my form of relaxation, a contrast to the frustrations and stresses of work and family life, but it turns out that when the stress is ramped up I just don't have the mental bandwidth to sew.

#VintagePledge2017

And back to the sewing... Marie of A Stitching Odyssey has been running the Vintage Pattern Pledge since 2014, and I joined in last year (somewhat unsuccessfully, you could argue) and the year before.

Here's all I managed last year against my vintage pledge:

Vintage Vogue skirt

Vintage DVF dress

This year I'll be having another go at pushing myself to sew from my vintage patterns - and I'm delighted that after three attempts this dress finally counts towards my pledge!

During 2017, I, Gabrielle of Up Sew Late, will sew up or finish sewing at least four of my vintage or reproduction sewing patterns.

I'll try to blog again soon - I've got swimmers, frocktails dresses and a couple more tops to share with you as soon as I can get my photos in order :).

Happy sewing

Gabrielle xx

Irregular Checks Collared Shirt (Vogue 2634)

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:40:00 +0000

I intend to get through several of those items listed in my New Year's Resolution post, but with Sydney frocktails less than two weeks out I'm not letting myself go near any sewing that isn't The Dress.

And accordingly let's move onto the blogging backlog.

This one is an oldie but a goodie - a collared shirt I sewed up years ago but which I'm still wearing every now and then :). To be honest, the shirt's fit these days is not what it used to be (it used to be loose) but no buttons are actually popping, so it's still passable. I used Vogue 2634 for this shirt: the pattern was issued in 2002 so would definitely be out of print by now, but if you do come across it in the second hand store it's worth at least considering for purchase. That is unless you want long sleeves on your shirt, in which case please read Katherine's review of this pattern. Actually you should read it anyway - she is not such a fan of this pattern, but a second perspective is a good thing!

The pattern describes itself as follows:

Loose-fitting top (three-lengths) has collar, collar band, slightly forward shoulder seams and short or below-elbow sleeves with stitched hems or long, two-piece sleeves with pleats/button cuffs. A: shaped hemline. A, B, C, D: pocket variations. B, D: flaps. D, E: sleeveless, side slits.

Mine shirt is hip-length with short sleeves - it's essentially view D with the short sleeves of view B.

I used a lovely white linen with irregular checks in navy blue - I think the occasional breaks in the navy blue lines probably represent a printing flaw, but I don't mind the way it looks. Oh and there's a small navy blob on one shoulder because all along one edge of the fabric was a navy shadow print of figures playing sport, and I didn't have quite enough fabric to entirely avoid them. I think my small blob is the top of a baseballer's head :).

The navy blue thingamabub hanging on the coathanger is a half-baked idea - yeah, that's what they look like :). Back when I made the shirt I had this idea it would be cool to have a sort of reference to uniforms and epaulettes that I could wear with the shirt when I so desired - and I sewed up this little thing with D rings only to find I couldn't attach it to itself or the shirt. So now it hangs with the shirt so I can remember what I was intending, even if I can't fulfil that intention - and that's OK, it amuses me to think I was that impractical!

Because I made this shirt a long time ago, at a point in my sewing career when I hadn't realised you didn't have to sew straight sizes and when I hadn't realised sewing pattern sizes didn't correspond to RTW sizes, I sewed this as a straight size 12. I also hadn't realised you were supposed to wash your fabrics before sewing them, so while this shirt started its life lovely and loose, over time it's gotten quite fitted as I've grown and the linen has shrunk.

My seam allowances are finished with a 3-step zig-zag but it's held up really well over the years - I won't show you the zig-zags, but here are some close-ups of the button front (which looks like it needed more interfacing!) and the side split:

With all the crazy, non-stop, exhausting heat we've been having in Sydney (and many other parts of Australia too I gather) I'm thinking the sleeveless variant of this shirt would be ideal for work. [Just how do men cope in summer with their suits and long sleeved shirts?] Possibly a size up though, and with pre-washed fabric...

See you soon

- Gabrielle xx

Inari 2: Adjusting the Sleeves

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 22:32:00 +0000

Way back when (well here...) I blogged an Inari dress I was feeling equivocal about. It was made from a medium weight cotton, and despite the pattern's fabric suggestions ("light to medium weight fabric, inelastic or with stretch") the fabric just felt wrong for the dress and exacerbated sleeve fit issues that would probably have been less noticeable in a knit fabric.

Ever since, I've been meaning to re-make the Inari with a modified sleeve, but also to re-make the Inari in a knit fabric without modifying the sleeve, to see how the sleeve felt when the stretch of the fabric took on the role of accommodating arm motion. What I've finally got around to is a hybrid re-make; the Inari dress with a modified sleeve, in a knit fabric.

Spoiler alert: this one's a keeper:

I put this modification off for a long time, but it's actually super easy. I took a couple of photos to illustrate how I applied a different sleeve (the sleeve and arm scye from Simplicity 1366), but I'll also describe the process in words of course.

So first of all I cut out the sleeves from Simplicity 1366, with the only change being a reduction in sleeve length. I measured the length of the Inari sleeve (based on that short straight seam under the armpit) and folded up the S1366 sleeve to a matching length.

Below you can see the difference in the two sleeve shapes. The Inari has a much higher sleeve cap, and I figured that since I was flattening this out in the S1366 sleeve (and also since the S1366 sleeve sits on a slightly dropped shoulder) I could forget about the curved hemline - the total sleeve length from the shoulder point should be very similar. Here are the shortened S1366 and Inari sleeves laid on top of each other (I have the Inari front sleeve sitting on top of the S1366 back sleeve):

If you change a sleeve so radically, you of course need to change the arm scye it'll be sewn into. To do this I aligned my Inari and S1366 front and back pattern pieces along the shoulder line, with the grain line arrows parallel to each other. Since S1366 makes a pretty loose top (a couple of centimetres wider than the Inari in the sizes I've made) I didn't align the pattern pieces on Centre Front or Back, but instead had the pattern pieces matching on width at the underarm - and this means I didn't have to change the side seams of the dress at all. You can see below that the biggest impact of this change is that the arm scye is raised significantly - ie the sleeve now sits closer into the underarm:

This process is super easy to do, but it does rely on your having a pattern that fits the way you like. The two areas I'm fussy about when I do this are (1) the shoulder line - I want to keep the shape of the shoulder line from the pattern that fits me, and if it's very different from the shoulder line of the pattern I'm adapting I'll spend a bit of time working out the point at which the two shoulder lines should meet (near the neckline vs near the arm), and (2) the grainline - the grainline of the pattern that fits reaaly has to be parallel to the grainline of the pattern being modified. But I'm sure most of you already know this and more!

I kept the Inari sleeve cuffs (but because I sewed the dress with my own order of construction I can't turn the cuffs back the way the pattern intends):

And I used the neckband intended for knit versions of the dress:

Happily even with my sleeve changes the dress still looks like an Inari - and I can finally join the Inari fan club! Happy happy days...

And what's more, I managed to eke this dress out of ~~1.1~~ 1.5 metres of 150 cm wide fabric (!!) and now have only the tiniest scraps leftover - that makes me even happier!

Now with my previous Inari I talked a bit about mitred self-faced hems, but if you look at the examples in my "how to" for this sort of finish, you'll see that it's more commonly used with woven fabrics (stretch wovens included). My very stretchy viscose (an Italian viscose/ lycra from Tessuti fabrics which looks to be sold out in their online shop - but this link takes you to their other printed jerseys) didn't feel like it would support the weight of a mitred self-faced hem without the dress stretching out, so I used the narrow hem finish suggested in the pattern this time around. And because my fabric was a bit shifty, I used steam-a-seam to keep the vertical and horizontal hem edges nice and straight:

The corners DO sometimes flick out in motion:

but mostly they're well behaved:

Thank you to my lovely daughter for taking these terrific photos for me (and some gorgeous floral close-ups)!

And I'll see you soon!

- Gabrielle xx

Vogue 1496 Cocoon Dress

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 12:23:00 +0000

While the light is good (hello Summer!) I'm trying to ignore the disgusting heat and get photos... so a couple of evenings ago when mum was over visiting, I asked if she'd mind going for a walk with me to take photos of this new dress. These photos are much nicer than what I would have been able to get with my tripod and remote...

You may have seen this dress, Vogue 1496, sewn up already - there are some amazing examples around (like Lara's, Erika's, Lauren's...) and it's been around for a little while. I sewed it up on a whim the weekend before last with a drapey polyester from Spotlight, and have been VERY surprised at how much I like it. I like it enough that I'm seriously contemplating making another very soon - despite my insanely long to do lists!!

Size wise I cut out the dress that best matched my measurements, a size D. The pattern comes with a lot of tips, including a tip as to how to pick the right size - basically because the dress is a tapered cocoon shape, the lower edge width is the key measurement to check; this width needs to be bigger than your largest body width to ensure you can get the dress on and off. That means too that there's a lot of leeway with the fit of the dress - you can sew the dress too big or too small, and so long as you can get it on and off you can call it a fitting success :).

This is a shortened version of View B of the pattern, which is the version that doesn't include an inset neckline. But because a few other people had mentioned that the neckline on this dress is pretty low, and because the pattern includes instructions for raising the neckline, mine is raised. I raised it about 5cm at the lowest point, and I diverted from the instructions to raise it by about 0.5cm all around because I was also concerned it might be a bit too wide. I should also have top stitched the facings in place as Lara did - my facing moves around a lot and in all these photos you can see it had folded over itself on one side.

The only other change I made was to use the length of View A plus about 5cm.

In the next couple of photos I think you can see the unusual way the armholes are formed in the back of the dress - the front dress piece wraps around the neckline and forms the back yoke, with the armholes set between this yoke and the back dress pieces.

The other detail I really like on this dress is the pockets. Instead of being in-seam side pockets, they're pockets that are stitched onto the inside of the dress - and the look of these pockets reminds me very much of a particular type of funky 1960s patch pocket :). The pockets are attached to the dress with a clever technique I hadn't tried before involving steam-a-seam; I found the process a bit fiddly, but the alternative as suggested by Erika Bunker would be to use a glue stick to lightly fasten the pockets before top stitching them in place. I hope my single row of top stitching is strong enough...

All up I think this is a lovely and very informative pattern, and one that makes for a flattering and very wearable dress. If you're tossing up whether to sew this, my vote is to go for it!

Thanks for reading, and I'll be back soon!

- Gabrielle xx

Summer Blues: Floral Bomber & Big Denim Skirt

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sat, 14 Jan 2017 07:50:00 +0000

Two for the price of one today!

What I'd like to share with you today are a modified Butterick bomber jacket (B6181) and a Vogue Nicola Finetti skirt (V1486), with thanks to my daughter for the happy photos :).

Let's start with the jacket - top down, as it were!

I started this floral bomber jacket several months ago - in fact I think it was in October, back home from our Italy trip - after being inspired by some online images of oversized, 90s style canvas bomber jackets. This jacket is very far removed from my original inspiration, but that's the way it usually seems to go for me - I start at point a, get sidetracked to point b, and end up at point c. I'm sure that's pretty normal :). I can't find my original inspiration images any more, but basically I'd stumbled across some waist-length canvas bomber jackets with a boxy, minimalist style. I've got my own sketches of what I found (point a), and to be honest they're closer to the Falda jacket than to what I've made here... I'll have to make the Falda later!

So starting with my "point c" sketches I went trawling through the technical drawings of all the possible contenders from my pattern stash. Although the cover art on B6181 is very boring and dated-looking to me, the pattern had the raglan sleeves, zip front and simple shape I was looking for - and it was already in my stash :). Here's what the technical drawings and illustration look like - and I went with View D:

I thought it would be pretty straightforward to make this more cropped and more fitted (oh so different to my original inspiration!), and it was. All I did was to go down 1 size from the one that fit my measurements (getting rid of the looseness), and remove length from the sleeves, body, facings and pockets - about 10cm, removed starting from the bottom of the pocket working upwards, and removed from the lower arm section of the sleeves.

Because this interpretation was so different from my original idea, I didn't use canvas - instead I used a lovely textured Japanese cotton from Tessuti fabrics (the indigo / cream) floral coupled with a little bit of denim from a large piece bought at The Fabric Store (and the same fabric as used for the skirt). The denim collar and waistband (and facings) came about because I had slightly too little fabric, and I thought the denim coordinated reasonably well with the floral and would also go with most other garments I might wear this jacket with. The zip is one that was in my stash - how handy is a stash! - but was originally bought at Spotlight when I thought I might make a few bags (didn't happen).

I'm pretty happy with the way this jacket had turned out - for example, the collar worked out very nicely after a few passes:

but there is one detail I need to correct - I made the elastic in the waistband too loose:

In the next photo you can also see that the pockets innards show when I use the pockets and the jacket is unzipped... I think the jacket would be improved by top stitching the pockets to the jacket outer. I guess I can still go back and do this if it bothers me, but the pockets are set slightly too high to be practical on me, so this may not be an issue.

And now for the skirt.

The inspiration for this skirt was my fellow blogger Rachel, who posted a terrific photo of herself wearing this pattern on Instagram (here) - and I wanted a skirt just like hers!

My version of the skirt also uses denim from The Fabric Store (copy cat! I hope you don't mind Rachel, but at least we're in different States, right?). I've done a terrible job in ironing my fabric after pre-washing it, but my current iron just doesn't get very hot - I recently used its cotton setting on polyester and the heat was just right, which seems wrong. Please excuse the wrinkles...

I sewed this up in a size 14 with a size 16 waist. I would normally add about 10cm to a skirt or dress, but this time I cut the length as designed because it *looked* long... Anyway, the skirt has turned out a bit shorter than expected (I'm about 5'8" and have a short upper body) so I've left the hem raw and am hoping it will eventually acquire a cool slightly frayed look.

Here's a look at the technical drawing for the pattern:

The waistband is just a rectangle (my waistband facing is navy blue cotton voile, as are my pocket lining pieces) and unfortunately that's not the right shape for me; I need at least a little curve in there. I forgot to ask my daughter to take photos without the jacket so you'll have to trust me on this, but the waistband needs a couple of darts to fit better. I think it looks OK with the jacket open, but there's definitely some gaping at the sides.

The skirt has in-seam pockets and the most awesome pleats in the lower tier - at the front and back, but also along the side seams:

I haven't sewn anything but invisible zips for ages, and I didn't think I could sew regular zips in neatly, but I followed the steps in the pattern and I'm happy with the way the CB zip has worked. The Vogue skirt instructions included more steps than I previously would have used for a regular zip, so I expect that's why it's better than usual for me - it's centred and even, and although there are bumps where the skirt meets the waistband, I can tolerate that because I know there were a few layers of denim in the seam allowance there...

(Oh and I should say I'm pretty happy with the zip on my jacket too - it might be time to branch out from invisible zips!)

Here's the side / back view:

All up I'm happy with this outfit - not perfect, but pretty good. And even though I don't think the skirt style does my thick waist any favours I'm considering this skirt pattern as a contender for the upcoming Sydney Frocktails - that's crazy though, isn't it?

See you soon

Gabrielle xx

New Year's Resolutions 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 11:57:00 +0000

Happy new year everyone - and I hope your 2017 is off to a promising start!

I don't really believe in new year's resolutions so I don't have any general "life" resolutions for 2017. In the weeks before Christmas I was talking to a colleague, and she claimed using a theme for the year had worked well for her over the past few years - so if I can think of a useful and not too annoying theme I guess I might try this. Her example was that in 2015 she'd used the theme of "yes" to force herself to get out and socialise more, and to take on new work challenges: she said "yes" to invitations and requests instead of saying "no" by default. I'm not sure that I would be able to stick to a theme for the year though...

On the sewing side it's a bit easier. I do have sewing resolutions, but they're easy to remember because they're things I already think about ALL year:

Finish off more WIPs and UFOs

I'm pretty sure I always say this, don't I? In 2016 I did manage to get through a few UFOs (unfinished objects), but the list remains very long - and it's crazy long when I add in the WIPs (works in progress).

I'm going to embarrass myself by publishing the list here, and hopefully that will give me the impetus to either finish things off or get rid of them. Oh and if I come across any more (which is highly likely) I'll add them to the list later:

Floral modern McCall's dress (Gail's fabric as seen in colleague's Zara dress)

Blue and white striped shorts (Vogue / self drafted)
Khaki shorts (Vogue / self drafted)
~~Blue and white floral vintage dress (McCall) in 80s fabric~~ - donated to charity with unfinished seams
Cream lace and wool vintage dress (McCall)

CR dark blue dress to skirt
Khaki wool tie jumper (Vogue)
Donna Karan blue wool jacket in Tessuti boiled wool

~~Child's music bag - donated~~
Lined black crepe dress (Tessuti Gabby dress as base)
Teal and white swimmers McCall's

Wrap Vogue DKNY dress (muslined)
Fitted Vogue button front dress (muslined)
~~D&G vintage Vogue midi dress~~ - blogged here

Fitting alterations for DD's dress
Jeans from Vogue designer pattern (muslined)

Blog more regularly

My blog posts were very infrequent through 2016, and each of those infrequent posts took ages to write, but when I was writing daily posts at the end of December to try to catch up on some of my unblogged garments, the posts got written really quickly - in other words it shouldn't take me that long! So my aim this year will be to blog more efficiently - take photos before starting to write, and don't overthink the words!

Here's the list of finished garments from 2016 or earlier that I still have to blog - I am still so behind:

~~Butterick floral bomber jacket~~ blogged here
~~Big denim skirt (Vogue Nicola Finetti)~~ blogged here

Frocktails dress (Vogue Kay Unger)

School uniform Tessuti Libby skirt
Merchant and Mills Bantam singlet

Vintage Vogue cropped stretch top with peplum
~~Pale pink Vogue cocoon dress~~ blogged here
Old fashioned school girl costume (vintage pattern mash-up)

Genoa tote (Blogless Anna)
Princess dress for niece's bat mitzvah (vintage pattern)

~~Vogue button front linen shirt with short sleeves~~ blogged here

I was also intending to blog about the following, so we'll see if I can catch up on these posts too:

Liebster awards
Pants crotch curve comparisons
~~Inari dress adjustments~~ (blogged here with a new stretch viscose Inari dress)

Be conscious of the treasures in my stash and buy less

My huge stash is currently stored in plastic tubs (the fabric) and filing cabinets and boxes (the patterns), and sometimes I forget exactly what I already have. I'd love to be able to track everything in a spreadsheet, but I'm not prepared to invest the time in listing all my fabric and patterns. I've tried using Evernote and a few other apps on my phone, but I only managed to get a small proportion of my stash loaded, and my mobile phone has recently started complaining about too much of the storage space being used. For fabric tracking I like Christy's idea of snipping little pieces of all the fabrics and clipping them together so I can see them all, but pattern tracking with minimal effort escapes me. Even without a means for tracking patterns, there is hope: we're planning to renovate the study / sewing room soon, so hopefully with clearly defined storage and work spaces I'll (1) cull my stashes and (2) be able to see what I have more easily.

This piece has finally been used for a vintage Vogue top - yet to be blogged

Reply to blog comments, and comment on other people's blogs

This one is getting harder: I changed to a more demanding job in June, then went full-time in October, and my free time has become quite limited. My drive to create is still really strong, so when I do have free time I tend to want to get cracking on sewing things. I'm sorry!

Donate or alter clothes I don't wear

Hard. I did manage to alter a Tessuti Gabby dress into a top this year (not blogged; it was my Picnic Dress Gabby), and I also managed to donate plenty of clothes to the second hand store, but I have to admit I hate alterations, and I'm a hoarder by nature.

=========================

And finally, just to add to the lists, here's my current sewing wish list:

Cropped Vogue top to go with big denim skirt
Jumpsuit (shorts)
Loose shorts
Striped pants and top eg Tessuti Chloe pants + Ruby top
Wide legged pants
Atelier Louise sandals - in progress
Tessuti Ruby dress
Carrot leg pants eg Burda
Pattern Fantastique Falda jacket
StyleArc Gabby jacket
More swimmers for DD, me - swimmers for me completed
Rashie tops
Ralph Lauren 80s pattern
Squirrel D&G dress
Linen shirt for DS
Vintage (80s?) kimono sleeve dress
StyleArc Mary dress
~~Frocktails Sydney outfit~~ - completed, blogged here
~~Pencil or fitted wrap skirt for work~~ - completed
Fun clothes for DD

Phew - lots to keep me busy!

See you soon

- Gabrielle xx

New York Liberty Top

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 12:53:00 +0000

Now when I said the other day that I had taken pictures of 4 tops I'd recently made, I lied.

I have recently made 4 tops, but I only photographed 3 of them - the 4th top I photographed was one made by my mum. I know this is a blog about the things I've made, but the top is just too lovely not to share!

This top is made using Simplicity 1366 combined with a delectable Liberty tana lawn mum bought on her trip to New York a few months back. I love this particular print - it looks like an art nouveau design I think? - and the scale of the print and colours are right up my alley too. I love the way the blue pops out against the orange, brown and white, and the careful symmetric placement of the print really pleases me. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen this print locally (and I can't even find it on the Shaukat Fabrics site!) but if I do ever see it I'll definitely be tempted to get some more.

If you remember, this is also the pattern I used for this top - and based on a comparison of the fit and lengths of the two tops, I think it's safe to say this version was sewn in a size 12 (note the size 12 is supposed to fit a bust of 34" but has a finished measurement of 41.5" - so size down on this pattern!) and cropped significantly from the original pattern length (just like my striped version - see photo below).

This pattern is one that just about everyone seems to have success with, and I'm very pleased to say it worked out for mum as well. Oh except that it didn't really, did it - it worked out for me instead! The only reason I have the top is that is turned out too tight across mum's shoulders.

There's not too much to say about this pattern that hasn't been said before by the squillions of people who've sewn it up, but I do want to say a bit more about the fabric.

Liberty tana lawn is such pretty fabric, but to me the truly wonderful thing about it is that it's so lightweight without being fragile. We've been having quite a steamy summer, so this top and my old sleeveless Liberty top have been perfect for looking decent without feeling super sweaty.

Oh and on the subject of lightweight fabrics, there is one other thing... Now that I have an overlocker I tend to serge the seam allowances on everything without really thinking about it, but looking at the finish on this top reminded me that serging is not always best. Sometimes a serged seam allowance can be too weighty or too thick for your fabric - and in such cases a pinked edge or a lightly stitched finish can work better. Mum doesn't have a serger; she finished the seam allowances on this top with a three-step zig zag stitch and the light touch feels absolutely right for this fabric, so that's something I'm going to try to remember next time I'm sewing a lightweight fabric myself.

And that is all for now :)

See you soon

- Gabrielle xx

Top 5 of 2016: the Misses

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 02:08:00 +0000

Following on from my recent Top 5 Hits post (thanks again Gillian!), I've just gone back through all my 2016 posts identifying the "misses", and as it turns out they fall neatly into two categories: fit and fabric (or both).

Let's start with the fabric fails:

This Vogue 1129 coat - love the style, the drape, the colour and nearly everything about this coat, but the fabric is insanely scratchy. I've managed to wear it just once. A silk scarf helped, but I have other softer coats. It's on the list of things to re-sew in a nicer fabric - wish I'd had the guts to start this in a good fabric, but then I did start it years ago...

Next up, there's this StyleArc Esme top (already donated to my local second hand shop). The fabric is an interesting and warm double sided material from The Fabric Shop, but I just don't like it. My recollection is that I bought it when I was looking for something very specific for a party dress and thought this might be close enough - the print was similar to what I wanted, but the colour and fabric type weren't right. I will have to try this pattern again next winter in a merino wool - perhaps down a size too depending on the fabric. I do love the pattern though - check out the cool collar:

And then there's the floral raglan sleeved top (Vogue 1389) in this post - I really like the pattern and intended to sew the top again in a plainer fabric but never got around to it. The fabric is one I bought to make my daughter a winter fit-and-flare dress, but she had no interest in it, and I should have just passed the fabric on to someone else. Oh and I'm not sure why I look so smug in this photo:

And now for the fit fails:

This dress, adapted from Vogue 1314 - urgh, I'm too old to be dressed up as a sausage, even if the fabric is a divine colour. Not sure what I was thinking when I made this - perhaps I was daydreaming!

More in the sadly "too small" camp: this StyleArc Rosie top and vintage skirt:

I still intend to make the Rosie top again with more width, and I've got the skirt fabric back in the stash so it can become something else one day.

And then there's the accidental compression bikini pants (and I can't believe I've got a bunch of horrible and quite cheeky photos of myself wearing them on the internet!):

Finally these Burda 7214 mustard pants are the cross-over - the fit looked OK in the photos but loosened with wear (and felt wrong), and the fabric was too thin and stretchy for this type of garment. Disappointing, but the pattern itself is excellent and I really should have another go at it with a heavier stretch fabric - and maybe if I give myself belt loops and a higher waist the pants won't feel like they're falling down:

That's more than 5, isn't it - it's 7 garments by my count! I should also include a failed skirt I never blogged - the fit failure (too tight, too short; I couldn't fit it for blog photos) that was my version of Vogue 1389 (close ups posted on Instagram here, and here). And then there were the umpteen garments I started and didn't finish - but they don't count, do they?

Looking on the bright side, there were no dud patterns in there, hooray! - but obviously I still need to work on my fabric choices and fit. Maybe those areas can be my 2017 new year's resolutions....

How was 2016 for you as a sewing year?

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy year with plenty of successful sewing in 2017!

- Gabrielle xx

Stripey Tee

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 04:32:00 +0000

Another top, yes. And I've already got so many, right? Are you wondering why I haven't branched out and made other garments lately?

Well despite (blog) appearances to the contrary I have; I've made a frocktails dress and a little jacket, and I'm mid-way through a skirt, but the question is absolutely valid - why am I making so many tops?

Well to be honest the reason is very boring: it's easiest for me to fit tops at the moment. I've put on weight recently, and my upper body size doesn't change as much as my lower body when I gain (or lose) weight. See, boring! Pants are on hold for now, but I will make some more dresses and/ or skirts soon.

So back to the top. This one is "self-drafted", but it's based on tracing around a RTW t-shirt, the same one I used for the citrus yellow travel top in this post. So not much drafting skill involved really! I was working with a very small but lovely viscose remnant from Tessuti fabrics - quite wide but less than 0.8 metres long - so I didn't have room for anything but these short kimono sleeves and this slightly cropped length.

Basically I used my earlier tracing and just folded the sleeves and body length back till the pattern width doubled fit my fabric width and the pattern length fit my fabric length. The stripes are across the top because I like the idea of drawing the eye upwards.

Oh and if you like this shape and don't have a similar RTW top of your own to trace around, I suspect it's very similar to that of the Maria Denmark Kirsten Kimono tee (which I have, but cannot be bothered to unearth - sorry).

So many wrinkles! I would normally iron a garment before photographing it, but without forethought (or ironing, obviously) I was just madly trying to get photos of as many of my unblogged garments as possible while everyone (including crazy puppy) was out.

I'm not sure if you can see it even in the close ups, but after a failed attempt at sewing twin needle finishes around the folded over neckline and sleeves I opted to instead finish these edges by hand. My pick stitching isn't invisible but it's even enough and I like the fancier-looking finish this gives on the outside of the top. I was a bit concerned the neckline stitches might pop as I put the top on and off, so I've sewn a bit loosely and added knots every now and then around the neckline so that if stitches do pop, only a small section will come undone.

So, not much to say about this one - a very simple sew - but as it turns out, this little top slots into my corporate wardrobe very nicely. The beige/light brown colour is not one I'd normally choose to wear, but maybe I need to rethink colours - besides which the top is as comfortable as you'd expect a t-shirt to be, and its lack of sleeves means it fits smoothly under even my more tailored jackets. Sold!

I've got one more top I want to try to post before the end of 2016, along with my top 5 sewing misses (I haven't yet checked - not sure how many misses there were, so perhaps it will be top 3, and perhaps top 20). And then I expect my normal (irregular blogging) program will resume in 2017...

See you soon!

- Gabrielle xx

Top 5 of 2016: the Hits

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 00:28:00 +0000

Taking a lead from Gillian, here are my personal top 5 from 2016:

The flying squirrel Rachel Comey dress (V1482) - I don't wear this that much but I LOVE it; it feels really special on and is incredibly comfortable and eye-catching (in a good way, I hope).

My D&G inspired polka dots and carnations dress - a great work dress, and one that gets a lot of compliments too:

My Japanese seersucker checked Gabby top - I wear this soooo often, and I don't care that Mr UpSewLate hates it (too shapeless apparently, but I won't listen to that!):

My Tessuti Chloe pants and Vogue 8877 linen top - love these as a combination but also as separates. The pants go with everything, and the top feels very designer-ish even with basic jeans:

And another Rachel Comey dress, the super summery Vogue 1501:

I'm sensing a colour theme here... I seem to be a bit obsessed with blues!

Honourable mentions also go to my StyleArc Edith top (worn very frequently), the Vogue 1264 black pants shown in this post (a work staple, and I should really wear the cute vintage top more often), and the Vogue 8993 dress that I would be wearing now if I hadn't put on a bit of weight - these are all favourites too - and in terms of post popularity, I guess I should include my only "how to" (on mitred self-faced vents).

It may look like 2016 was all beer and skittles, sewing-wise, but that's of course not the case - I made several garments that I'm not at all interested in wearing, and I'll share that list with you soon.

Till then, happy sewing!

- Gabrielle xx

StyleArc Ethel Designer Top

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 00:42:00 +0000

And here's another StyleArc top, also sewn from a pattern bought at StyleArc HQ over the Melbourne Frocktails weekend. This one is the Ethel Designer Top, and this time the pattern is one size too big :).

I was really drawn to the seam and stitch lines on this top - angled seam lines front and back, and deep facings top stitched in place around neckline and armholes. The top is pretty boxy looking though, so I wasn't sure if I was being foolish sewing this up in too big a size - hence the use of rubbishy Spotlight fabric for test purposes.

Apologies for the horrible camera angle - I didn't really think when I was taking these pictures, but obviously I'd positioned the camera way too low!

I think it would be better a size down, BUT I like this top anyway. It's very airy and comfortable, and I think the excess ease looks OK with narrow pants, though I should probably wait and see how the top looks when the fabric softens after a few more washes.

The pattern is intended to be sewn in linen, so I'm thinking of making it again in a beautiful orange linen that I got as a remnant from The Fabric Store when I went there with Nicole on her not-so-long-ago weekend in Sydney. I think to pair it with the Ethel Designer Pants (made last summer - see this post) I'd need to size the top down to bring the waist in - otherwise I think the combo would be too voluminous all over. Hmm looking back at that post is reminding me how lovely and loose those pants are... I think they would be fabulous in a very lightweight cotton or silk!

In the next photo I've pinched out the excess ease at the waistline; I think the top looks better like this....

StyleArc actually gave us printouts of diagrams showing how to grade their patterns up and down (ie how much per size for tops and bottoms), so it should be perfectly do-able to size this top down.

If I remember correctly a couple of others who've made this top have said something about the instructions for the facings being a little confusing - maybe I'm mis-remembering, but in any event I was mentally bracing myself for making mistakes when I sewed the sleeve facings. If I understood the instructions correctly, what StyleArc suggests it to sew the armhole facings with facings right side to the right side of the top, then to flip the facings to the inside before top stitching in place, and then finally to sew the side seams. This order of construction might be what makes the approach a little different? I guess I would normally hide the side seam within a facing, but I can see that StyleArc's approach would be good if you want to avoid puckering from discrepancies between the lengths of the facing and outer armhole edges - sewing instructions are really just a suggestion though, aren't they?

There's not too much more to say about this top - it really is quite a straightforward sew, and if your fabric is wide it doesn't take a great deal of length. The pattern indicates you need between 1.7 and 1.9 metres for the top, but from recollection I got it out of 1.5 metres with lots of fabric left over. So as I said earlier, I'll probably be making this one again in a smaller size and a nicer fabric :).

Gotta go - we're heading to the beach again this afternoon!

See you soon

- Gabrielle xx

StyleArc Alannah T-Shirt

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 12:57:00 +0000

Hooray for summer holidays! I have a significant backlog of unblogged sewing but I've got time off work and the evening light is fabulous, so the other evening, while Mr UpSewLate was at the local dog park with puppy and kids, I took the opportunity to race around the garden snapping pictures of myself in four of the tops I've made recently. This top is the one I snapped last, and I was getting weary of my own forced smiles, so when the family came home and my daughter offered to take over with the camera I was extremely relieved.

I bought this paper pattern when I visited StyleArc's HQ on the Saturday of Melbourne Frocktails weekend (still impressed that they would rock into work on a Saturday to open up their office and show us around, let alone sell us patterns at a huge discount!). Not all patterns were available in all sizes, so although I think of myself as a size 12 in tops and a 14 in bottoms, I picked up a couple of patterns that were a size larger or smaller, and this was one of them. This is the Alannah t-shirt in a size 10, and while it's a little snug across the bust in my cotton jersey from Spotlight I think it would be a good fit in a viscose stretch fabric.

I'm happy to report that the Alannah t-shirt pattern is a very straightforward and quick sew without sacrificing shape: the sleeve is not symmetric between front and back (thank goodness!), back and front aren't identical, and the pattern nips in slightly at waist level. You could sew this top entirely on the sewing machine, or do the whole thing on an overlocker and cover stitch machine. Mine was sewn predominantly on my overlocker, with just the hems done on my sewing machine.

The only deviation I made from the instructions (which are brief, but not at all tricky) was to skip the tape in the shoulder seams. I do use clear elastic in the shoulder seams (and neckline, and anywhere else I think needs it)) when I'm sewing with drapey or heavy knits, but this cotton jersey didn't seem to warrant it - and the proof is in the pudding; my shoulder seams haven't stretched out at all.

I might need a few more of these, I reckon...

Happy holidays!

See you soon

- Gabrielle xx

Vogue 1501: The Birthday Dress

noreply@blogger.com (Gabrielle) — Sat, 10 Dec 2016 13:51:00 +0000

A couple of months ago now my mum brought me back several delectable fabrics from her trip to New York (no, not from Mood Fabrics, if you were wondering), and we agreed they could be an early birthday present - hooray! This pebble-patterned crisp cotton was one of them - such a great pick, given my current obsession with blue fabric - and I'm delighted to have been able to sew it up in time for my birthday, early last month.

The pattern is of course the very recognisable Rachel Comey dress, Vogue 1501 (aka the Delane dress, and related to the Klein dress).

I wasn't sure of the fabric composition of the original dress as shown on the pattern envelope, but then I did some searching on the internet, and interestingly all of the RC Delane dresses looked to be made from 100% polyester! So I guess the dress on the pattern envelope is polyester too; maybe a polyester crepe. Mine is cotton :). For our humid summers I will always choose cotton over polyester, and I suspect the sewing's easier this way too :).

Here are a few of those original polyester dresses - although I'm not a fan of polyester in summer clothing, I have to say the design does look great in a drapey fabric:

And apart from using a very different fabric I stayed pretty much true to the pattern.

I sewed a size 12 in the bodice, size 14 in the waist and below, and then made just a couple of minor deviations: I lengthened the skirt a couple of inches (I'm around 5'8" with an average torso length), and while I tried and liked the idea of the shoulder pads, I left them out so as not to lose any bodice length.

Oh and I didn't have quite enough fabric, so my facings were cut from a contrasting white cotton, which feels very summery.

Looking at these photos, perhaps I should add those shoulder pads back - I thought the bodice was verging on too short and pulling up the front hemline, but if anything the opposite looks to be happening! Hopefully that's just my lazy posture...

The bodice is roomy (hell, mine's even puffy in the front!) with a loose hanging back bodice over a more fitted back skirt.

I'm not convinced this is a particularly flattering garment, but it feels breezy without being revealing and I really like that - it's a pleasure to wear on a hot day, and that's the main thing!

In case you're tempted to make one of these dresses for yourself, let me get into a bit more detail in reviewing the pattern.

Firstly, you've probably noticed the pattern is rated Easy - and I think that's a fair rating, as there are no complex acts of sewing involved. Having said that, this is the sort of pattern that requires patience: there are a lot of little steps involved, and several of these demand you pay attention to your cutting and/or stitching. Which is absolutely fine, but if you're in the mood for slapdash sewing you might want to delay the attachment of your bodice to the skirt at the front waistband, for example :).

The instructions are pretty comprehensive: they show you how to make and attach a button loop, how to prevent your pockets from flapping around, where to understitch, which stress points to reinforce, how to insert an invisible zip without a bubble at the end, and how to include a bias bound finish on the inside of your waistband. I suspect the instructions wouldn't be quite detailed enough for an absolute beginner, but I think they'd be sufficient for someone with a few garments to their name.

My only quibble is with the suggested seam finishes in step 19. The pattern suggests you finish your raw edges on the bodice side seam, but I think this can make for too thick a finish on light fabrics so I just overlocked these edges. The recommended fabrics for this pattern are crepe, linen blends, jersey and chambray, so maybe I've just used an inappropriate fabric, and maybe bias tape would work on less summery fabric.

One quibble isn't much (not from an analyst!) and there is LOTS to love with this pattern: roomy and well placed pockets, hidden under the folds of the pleats; armholes that are not too low and not too high; an interesting design that keeps you cool in summer without resulting in horrendous sunburn; lovely facings; neat finishes; a choice of a tucked in bodice or a loose and breezy one; and great instructions. That's heaps!

I should also say I'm also pretty happy with my own sewing on this dress :). I restrained myself from bolting ahead and taking shortcuts, and I even unpicked some of the narrow hems and resewed them when they weren't looking neat and symmetric, even though I abhor unpicking! I really like the look of the pebble print on this dress, and I'm pleased to have had a go at balancing the pebbles over the front bodice and on the waistband - though I'm not sure if this is at all noticeable to anyone else :).

Hmm I think I like the side back view best - there are no idle thoughts of Teletubbies creeping into my subconscious from this angle:

So will I make this dress again? I might! I'd like to make it in a white linen jersey, with the skirt lengthened and the darted, zipped up back skirt replaced by an elastic waist and just enough gathering to get over my hips. I know the narrow hems would be a bugger to sew in a jersey though. I'd also like to play with the shape of that loose back bodice with a more structural fabric...

If you're thinking of making this dress, here are my final thoughts on what to pay attention to and what to skip:

If there's plenty of fabric you can skip the centre front seam on the skirt
There's no need for bias bound seam edges except at the lower edge of the waistband
The shoulder gussets can be omitted if you're not using shoulder pads
The pleats need to be carefully aligned above and below the waistband, and should be symmetric on either side of centre front.
Don't skip the understitching
The neckhole is not huge - you will probably need the back button and opening
Pay attention to the waist band and hip sizes, but the rest of the garment is loose
Check the front bodice length if you are taller or shorter than average
The front bodice has very visible, angled hems so don't skip the ironing steps here
Follow the directions for reinforcing, stitching and clipping the front bodice carefully so you don't get a mess at the junction of the waistband and front bodice

I hope that doesn't put you off!

Oh and once the dress is sewn, there's one further challenge - how to hang it in your wardrobe! By the shoulders, like a regular dress? From the waist, like a skirt? Folded over a hanger, like umm... like a tricky thing?

Thank you and goodnight!~

See you soon

- Gabrielle xx