Saturday, June 24, 2017

Update on my inspiration top sewing

Well-I am a little flustered with my progress!  The fabric I am using is very similar to the inspirational top, the fabric content is probably not the same at all.

 I am using a semi sheer rayon that was a pain to cut out as it was a little slippery.  Not difficult to sew, just more fiddly than I prefer to sew.

I was going to use the sleeves with elastic at the hem but that was frustrating for me and after two attempts to get the elastic just right using a casing, I gave up.😒  I had enough fabric to cut out the sleeves with the ties and there is where I stopped for now.  It should not be that difficult to insert elastic into a casing but trying to then stitch down the remaining edge was frustrating and turned out to be unkind to the fabric.

Back to the sewing room after a short break.😏




Saturday, June 17, 2017

Next up-- Pinterest Inspired top

I am feeling my sewing mojo again.  I started working on my next project this morning.  I saw this on Pinterest recently

I have some very similar fabric that I purchased from Cali Fabrics last year.  I had planned to use it for another top pattern, when I saw this I knew that the fabric would become this.

I am using M7543 recently purchased during $1.99 sale at JoAnn's.

Back to sewing room, updates later!



Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Marilyn and Me

Yesterday I wore my new dress-Marilyn Dress by Style Arc Patterns.  With all the fitting adjustments I  made, the end result was worth it.  The dress passed the wearability factor.  I took a few pictures of the dress before work yesterday morning.

My camera battery was not at full charge when I took this picture.  I like this picture over others I took of the front view, the brightness and colors are off no matter the editing I did. Pictures below are much better and very much like the actual fabric in real time.

Here is the back view:

The fit is good and will be better as I need to take a deeper seam at the back waist area for my swayback.  I doubt if others noticed it much; I could see it when standing side ways and just a tiny seam adjustment will do it.

The fabric wore very well; hardly any wrinkles at the end of the day.  Yeah! As I mentioned previously this fabric was purchased years ago when a local Walmart still had a sewing/fabric section. That WM was closed and they built a super store down the road from that one and eliminated the fabric section when they did so.  I am not sure of the fabric content, but it looks similar to a linen but obviously not as the lack of linen-wrinkles during and end of day proved to me that it wasn't.

I made numerous changes to this pattern. A comment on a previous post stated that SA patterns for her have a lot of ease in the shoulder upper body area and not enough in the bottom.  I found the same.  I sewed 5/8 inch seams for the shoulder and side seams using a 12-14 size for this pattern. I could have gone with 10-12 and used the 3/8 seam allowance.  I ended up taking about 3/4 inch seams in center back in the upper back above waist and tapered to 5/8 from waist down.

After figuring out how to sew the sleeves and attaching, I basted one sleeve in and decided to take a 5/8 seam from shoulder area down to notch in the front and only use 3/8 seam in the back arm area. I made notes all over the pattern instruction sheet so next time I will follow those details.  

I received lots of comments from co-workers and I loved the feel of the dress walking, sitting and standing.  I think the best fabric for this dress is a light weight fabric that has some drape to it.  I have some crepe fabric that I am thinking about trying next.

I am not sure what I will make next but most likely it will be a top pattern, though I am also thinking about some shorts.  More later.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

New Patterns

I photographed new patterns I purchased over the Memorial Day holiday with all the sales going on. It may become apparent that I am somewhat obsessed with cold shoulder patterns.




B6355 is a colder shoulder pattern for woven fabrics.  I like the review of the pattern on Pattern Review and since Club BMV was having a sale I just added it to the shopping cart.  I like a few of the other views also.

Another pattern with interesting sleeves.  This is the year for a variation of tulips and flounces for sleeves.


I liked how these patterns were presented on Closet Case website.  I ordered this from Hart Fabrics as they too had a sale going for patterns.  I have CC PDF patterns for jeans and a jacket, yet to tackle.

I also added a KS pattern from Club BMV.  I had this pattern previously and remembered making a jacket similar to the white one and was disappointed.  Years have passed since I made that jacket and I saw a similar one at our local Macy's and have some fabric that I wanted to use to try this again.  It is the front drape that I am trying to achieve; I don't want a fold back lapel and all patterns I find with similar drape have that.  This does not, so hoping to achieve the look I am seeking. 

Lastly-I have completed the Style Arc Marilyn Dress.  I really like the look of it but the sleeve instructions and drawings were confusing to me.  I finally ignored the illustrations and read the instructions 100 times ( a little exaggeration here) and finally got it right.  I do like the outcome of how the sleeve looks, but what a pain in the butt it was to get there.  Next time, it should go much better; I do believe there will be a next time as I have the fit just right!  Post to follow soon.


Sunday, June 04, 2017

Progress with Marilyn

This weekend I was able to do several things sewing related.

Saturday morning I attended an ASG sponsored program teaching young people how to sew.  I presented on pin fitting patterns and demonstrating a little of how that works.  Another member spoke on sewing a muslin for fitting.

Later that day I began working on the Style Arc Marilyn dress.  I cut a 12 in the upper chest/shoulder area and expanded to 14 at the bust area to hemline. After edge finishing with the serger, I then attached the shoulders together and basted the sides and back center seam for fitting.

The dress was huge!!!The seam allowances were for 3/8 inch seams.  I ended up taking 5/8 inch seams on the sides.  For the back seam I actually took in an inch from the top edge down to the waist and from there took 5/8 seams.  This truly made a difference in the fit.

I did not do a forward shoulder adjustment as I when pin fitting the shoulders seemed to be forward. That proved to be correct.  I also thought the dress may end up being too big through the body just the way the tracing paper hung.

For me, Style Arc patterns run large for the most part.  Though that was not my experience with the cold-shoulder top I recently made.  I used a 12 for that and it proved to be too tight through the bodice.  I also had a fitting issue with the back shoulder; I had made a FSA for that and given that I did not need to do for this pattern, perhaps that was a factor for the gaping at the back shoulder. Here is a picture from yesterday showing work in progress.


Today I attached the facings. After reading some reviews of this pattern, I realized that I had not cut out enough sleeve pieces.  The sleeves are lined by sewing to fronts together and two backs.  I have finally figured out how to attach the sleeves.  Instructions and drawings seemed to be different but I decided to re-read the sleeve instructions and believe I will get these inserted easily.

I will share more latter.


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...