Sunday, September 22, 2013

Dress progress

Front bodice and back bodice attached at shoulders, also bodice lining pieces attached at shoulder.  Ruffles sewn and right one pinned.  This is how it ended last night.  The fabric looks black but it is a rich, dark navy wool/rayon/gaberdine from Fabric Mart purchased in 2012.  Lining from EOS.

Side view of pinned ruffle.
Lining attached to right bodice piece and under stitched.
Right and left bodice attached to center front piece.  Lining attached at front also.

I ended there for the afternoon.  Skirt pieces as well as lining have darts pinned and ready to sew.





Indie patterns

I realized that I had not posted about my recent independent pattern purchase from across the pond.  I have seen several versions of the Anna Dress on blogs as well as on PR.  I also saw several versions of the Victoria Blazer.  Both patterns are from By Hand London.  I received this fairly quick after placing an order over a week ago.  I think that is one of the fastest deliveries from outside of the USA I have experienced.

Here are two photos of the patterns.  They come in a little box with instructions and pattern pieces included.  Very attractive presentation.

I hope to work on the jacket in the near future.  At least that is my plan today.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Yeah, it's the weekend!

Seems last week was a long, long work week.  It is called "budget season" and everyone goes a little nuts because we have deadlines thrown at us for completion of various portions of the budget on top of our usual daily job responsibilities.  So I am happy to have a restful and sewful weekend.

I am so ready to begin my new dress project.  Now that I have made the dress previously I hope it will go together well this time around.  Updates to follow.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Butterick 5917-take two

Yes, I am going to sew B5917 again.  I really like this pattern and having perfected the fit it is time to make a transition to fall dress.  This is my Little Navy Blue Dress-LNBD.

I like navy blue and use to wear it a lot.  I decided to give it ago again with this dress pattern.  The fabric is from Fabric Mart
Of course the navy blue is on the left.  I thought I took a better photo of this material.  I acquired this in September of 2012 so I suppose it is now seasoned enough to make something from this.

I made several notes after making this version of the dress.  I then made those adjustments to the pattern pieces yesterday evening.  The fabric has been cut out and next to do is to cut out the lining fabric.

My printer of late has been making several horrible noises of late so yesterday I purchased a new one with wifi/web connection.  It took me most of the afternoon to get this set up and running.  I am still getting an error message and decided to put it aside for now.  It will print except for when I want to send a remote print job.  Computers/printers/smartphones got to love 'em and hate 'em!

I will share more later.  Hope your sewing weekend has been a productive one.


Saturday, September 14, 2013

Progress and disappointment

I have had a terrible stomach virus; most everyone at work has had it and I hoped that it would miss me.  I was out of work for 2.5 days with this stuff.  I was sick enough to make my DH come home and take me to emergency care.  I am almost back to "normal" for me.

I felt well enough to baste the side seams of V8904 today and I was hesitant to show you the outcome.  I am disappointed in the solid color I used as it is a lighter weight than the striped fabric and where it is placed is not pleasing to me.  Some of what I dislike shows up in the following photos.  I edited to showcase the areas I don't like.

The underlying striped fabric colors shows through as does the stitched edge.  I think this is due to the solid fabric being lighter weight and not as opaque.  You can see it in both photos.   The top tier (striped fabric) I think needs a vertical bust adjustment also.

The side seams are basted and I sewed 3/8 inch seams from hip to the end of the sleeve, I think I could go with 1/2 inch seams.  From hip to hem line I sewed 5/8.  All edges are raw.

Here is photo of the back.  Even with adjustment made in the mid tier for swayback, I think it needs more or something?!
Perhaps it needs what I call a high hip adjustment.  I am not liking this look.

As others noted, all of these layers sewn to a base fabric becomes heavy.  The lighter base knit fabric I used was great for this and if it was darker color then the solid color may have looked more opaque. 

I am going to call this a test garment or muslin.  I am putting it aside for the time being and decide what the next version should be and the fabric it should be, maybe I will use a dark solid for each layer.

I am starting another dress project, Version 2 of Butterick 5917.  I am going to use the longer sleeve with the straight fitted dress.  I am using a navy wool/rayon gaberdine I acquired from Fabric Mart the latter part of 2012.  I am going to line the dress instead of just lining the bodice.  More information to follow.



Saturday, September 07, 2013

V8904 Progress

I took shots of the front and back of the dress with all tiers pinned or basted to the underlay. 
Per the instructions you are encouraged to lay the front and back pieces side by side; this is to aid in lining up the tiers so that when you sew side seams all tiers will line up appropriately.  This was rather tedious.  There are notches on the sides to help line up pieces as well. 

Here is a shot of the underlay knit lining.



I am concerned now about the weight of that piece.  When cooler weather hits, I may have wanted a heavier bottom knit.  It is true that the tier pieces do add weight to the garment.  We will see.

Next steps are to baste the side sides together to make sure tiers line up and to check the fit.  Once fitting adjustments, if any, need to be made then the instructions call for attaching the neckband by not stitching one shoulder edge, basically apply neckband  flat.  I normally attach knit neckbands differently and may decide to use my TNT method.

More updates to follow.

Monday, September 02, 2013

V8904

I read all the reviews of this pattern on PR which was helpful in knowing what to expect. I found a lightweight knit lining fabric in my stash that I either purchased from EOS or from Fabrique in Charlottesville, VA.  Several suggested going with a lighter weight knit for the front and back dress pieces so I decided to use this fabric for that.

I made several pattern adjustments to suit my fit and style.  I raised the neckline and added width to the shoulders.  I use the pivot and slide method to add to bust, just in case.  I made forward shoulder adjustments, took 3/8 inch horizontal tuck in upper chest and back to bring the under arm up closer to my arm join. I am making vesion A which is short, so added two inches to the length and added to the bottom tier fabric also.

Fabric is cut out except for sleeves and neckband.  Just getting pattern prepped for use, then washing the knit lining fabric for use took as much time as it will be to sew this dress.  More updates to follow.

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Next up the popular Marci Tilton dress-V8904

Next up
Pattern pieces are cut out and ready to pin fit.  Considering using a light weight knit for dress underlay to reduce heaviness and bulk of the many layers attached to body underlay; this was a great suggestion from a reviewer on Pattern Review.  Need to look through my stash to see if this is a possibility for me.

More later.

B5917

The dress is complete except for hemming.  I truly like this pattern and will come back to it to make a fall dress, perhaps using the longer sleeves but staying with the sheath style.  Here is a view of the dress hanging.
Some of the adjustments I made with this dress included forward shoulder, FBA, and sway back.  During the sewing process I made additional changes: upper back bodice adjustment-sewing this piece by adjusting from center to side seam by sewing the upper back piece at 3/4 inch with bottom back piece at 5/8.  Right shoulder was adjusted by sewing from mid shoulder to shoulder an additional 1/4 inch.  Back darts were let out and curved.

Some more photos of the dress

bathroom shot of dress front
Hem pinned




This dress is made from a vintage sheet from a give away contest from Lynn at Wonderfully Made.  The lights in my bathroom show case the fabric better than my sewing room.

The next version I will line fully instead of just the bodice.  I thought about doing that with this dress but needed to work through how the bodice lining worked per instructions and what I should do to adapt to full lining.  I will simple duplicate the dress.  Lining the skirt portion will help eliminate wrinkles with some fabrics.

August Sewing Simplicity 7295

 I am not doing well as a blogger. I have been working on this project since July 30. Today, I finally finished it. It has been a stop-and-g...