Sunday, March 29, 2015

Kwik Sew 4085 With overlay in place

Linda LaMona @danvillegirl Kwik Sew 4085 in ...Instagram photo | Websta (Webstagram)

Another link to photo of KS top with the overlay attached.  This is an interesting pattern and with Kwik Sew patterns, normally the instructions and drawings are most helpful.  I have found one error with attaching the overlay to the front and back.  It tells you clearly to place the overlay wrong sides to right side of the right front and back.  However it never tells you to baste or pin for before turning inside out to sew shoulder seams together.

The drawing shows basting stitches of the overlay to the front and back of the top.  I knew to do that but for a beginning this could be an issue.

I made one mistake (so far) in that I did not adjust the length of the overlay front and back pattern pieces.  I shortened the front and back top pieces by one inch between waist and hip.  Never thought to do that with the overlay.  It will be an easy fix to trim off the bottom of overlay (at least I hope so). I made all other adjustments to those overlay pieces for the shoulder.  Will definitely make this adjustment to the pattern pieces before putting it away.

I really like the construction of this pattern and will make more in the future.

KS Progress

Linda LaMona @danvillegirl Front under overl...Instagram photo | Websta (Webstagram)

The link above will take you to photo of the front pattern piece that is under the overlay.  Not the best colors to show the actual fabric.

I have made some good progress on the top since Friday, when I finally had/took time to actually do some sewing.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Making progress on KS top and new fabric.

I have had a few minutes to be in my sewing room off and on during the week. I would take the time to make some adjustments to the Kwik Sew pattern. Because of the overlay pieces I had to make the same adjustments to them for bust and shortening the length from shoulder to underarm.

This weekend I was able to finally get all of the adjustments completed and have now cut out the fabric.  I have threaded the serger and the sewing machine; it is my hope to be able to do some sewing this afternoon.

I realized I have not shown you the new fabrics I recently received from EOS.

All three of the fabrics are knits. I still have the plastic wrapping around the fabrics so they look a little shiny. The bottom fabric is a rose pink color and the print above it is a rose pink, gray, white and dark gray. My thoughts when purchasing the fabric was to have a skirt and top; now I'm leaning toward a dress.

The green is also an 14 ounce  rayon knit. I had purchased it with the thought of using it in place of the brown knit for the Kwik Sew pattern I'm currently working on. It would definitely add some color as the overlay piece. However I've now decided to stick with the brown.

I also purchased two fabrics from Fabric.com. One of the fabrics was a blue scuba knit that is very much like the scuba knit I purchased from Fabric Mart. Both pieces are rather shiny and that was not what I had in mind for the scuba knit. I'm not sure how I will use these as it was not my intent to have a shiny garment.I will have to think about this further.

The other fabric was a blue faux leather called Perfection Fused Faux Leather. This piece I truly like and have several ideas of how I want to use it.Unfortunately I have not taken any pictures of the fabric at this time. Will post something later.

Monday, March 16, 2015

March Garment of the Month

I am finding my way back into the sewing room.  With warmer weather slowly arriving in my neck of  the woods, I feel like sewing more again.   My Make a Garment a Month for March is a new Kwik Sew pattern.
I am going to make the top on the left.  I purchased a digital knit fabric from EOS last year and some brown to go with it.  The brown is a hybrid fabric that has some stretch but more of woven stretch and not enough for this fabric.  I purchased some brown knit fabric recently from Fabric Mart to go with the digital knit.

This is great design-silhouettes, trees, buildings, bridges.  This photo does not begin to show all the detail nor all the colors.

I have begun the pattern adjustment process using a combination of flat pattern measures and pin fitting.  Not only does the main front and back pieces have to be adjusted so does the overlay!  Time consuming but necessary and I hope worth it.

More later.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Missing

I have missed blogging; some life things have kept me from blogging of late.  I am back.

I have finished one garment since I last posted.  It is knit top using Simplicity 1199.
I used fabric from my stash.  This is my first version of this top and let me say this pattern runs large huge!  Using the finished pattern measurements was not reliable.  Having read reviews on PR I was prepared to make adjustments as others said this ran large.

I was able to make fitting adjustments with princess and side seams.  All of those adjustments have produced a wearable top for around the house and quick trips to store.  It is still to large in the shoulder area and bra strap will show as it is also rather wide neckline.  The neckband with my knit fabric did not work well and I ended up using bias tape at the neckline.

Some photos of the finished top.
Back

Front and back hemline


Front
More later.  Off to get dressed for work, work, work!

Sunday, March 01, 2015

On the mend and sewing

Thanks to all the well wishers from my last post.  I am much better than I was last weekend.  I went to the doctor on Monday and got some nose drops and cough syrup; much improved.  Still have a nagging cough.  Doctor says this virus takes about three weeks to fully recover, heading into week 2.

I worked on Simplicity 1199 top yesterday evening and most all morning.  Let me say that this pattern runs large.  The first review I read on Pattern Review said there was a lot of ease with this pattern and the reviewer was not kidding.

I cut the pattern after doing some pin fitting of the pattern.  The problem with pin fitting for knits is that the fabric has stretch and the pattern does not; I did try to factor that in.  I also used the finished measurements for the bust and cut accordingly and did make a 1/2 inch FBA.

I made a forward should adjustment of 5/8 inches and swayback and adjustment for length of one inch.  That worked well.

I even raised the neckline about an inch in the center front.  Now that I made this top, I am going to raise the neckline both front and back by an inch as the top is falling off my shoulder using a Medium which is my normal size.  I will go back and use a small after making all the fitting adjustments on the current top.  I will still raise the neckline just for personal taste.

I like how the pattern is sew.  The sleeves look like set in sleeves but are more kimono style after you sew the side seams.  The front and back pieces are sewn at the shoulder first.  They then have you sew the neckband.  You then sew the side back and side front to the sleeve, you then sew the sleeve to the front and back pieces and then you finally sew the side seams.  It really goes together well.  I do suggest serging the edges of the fabric before stitching together because if you serge the seams the side seam has an opening near the bottom edge that is kept separate,

After sewing most everything together and then basting the side seams for fitting, I found out how large this top is.  I ended up taking a full once inch seam through the sleeve and side front/back pieces where attached to the front and back pieces.  The way this pattern is constructed this is an easy fitting place to adjust.  After doing that I took an addition 1/2 inch through the upper front piece.  I ended up taking a full inch seam allowance with the side seams and took even deeper seam at the under arm.

It fits better now and will soon take some photos after I hem everything.  With 20/20 hindsight I wish I had used the print pieces for the side pieces instead of the center front and back pieces.  The off white is not very slimming being used on the side as a darker color would be.  Even with all of these fitting adjustments, the neckline is still too low and too wide.

I am now gone back and trimmed the pattern to a small in the neck, shoulders and upper chest switch to medium throughout.  This may prove to still be large but my fitting adjustments for the next top will not be so much as this one.

Here is a pic of the top on the cutting table.
This view is of the front, front side and sleeve.

I forgot to mention that the neckband was too narrow and too fiddly to deal with so I used bias binding for the neckline.  It worked well.  Next time I will cut a wider neckband to hopefully make it easier to attach.

More later.  Hope your sewing weekend has gone well.

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...