Wadder-Top not for me!

Well I am disappointed. The Simplicity top did not work for me. I pin fitted the pattern and made a FBA, but it was not enough. I also added to the bicep area of the sleeve. I cut a 14 through the front shoulder and back tapering to a 12 at the upper back area to accomodate a narrow back. On the front I cut a 14 through the front shoulder, upper chest tapering to 16 underarm and through the bust. In the past with Simplicity I always use a 14 through shoulders, taper to larger bust size through hips.

This is a form fitting knit top that should not be worn by a 55 year old female with a not so slim body form. This top is really made for a younger woman, look at the pattern photo! Perhaps making a larger FBA than I did would make for a better fitting front. But the underarm was very high. Normally underarms are not high enough for me, not so with this pattern.

When I started making pattern adjustments using the FFRP techniques, I also pin fitted knit top patterns. I then read from others at Pattern Review that you really cannot pin fit knit patterns. I know that knit patterns normally accomodate for stretch and you are working with negative ease. Before reading this, nothing was ever said in FFRP that you can't, I did and yes sometimes patterns were rather full/big. But I took deeper seams. I think I should have pin fitted this one more.

Others who made this pattern had issues with the neckband. I did not follow the pattern instructions for affixing the neckband. They are not very good. I normally use this technique. It works great and it did for this neckline. Thus I did not have the problems others wrote about at Pattern Review. Good for me! Shame I will not be able to enjoy my nice neckband. I also used my gathering foot that I never have use to create nice gathers.

I decided that I will give the top to Goodwill. Someone will be able to wear it. I decided to try a rolled hem using my serger and yes, by golly, the rolled hem was perfect. Let me tell you I hardly ever have this happen. So, a Goodwill shopper will get a nice top to wear. This is buttermilk knit that I purchased from EOS sometime back. It was great to sew.

Is this making lemonaide out of lemons? Perhaps. It is better to give this than to throw it away unfinished. That would truly be a waste.

Today's sewing

Angie, a fellow blogger and pattern reviewer on Pattern Review, made me aware of a great paint program that one can take line drawings of patterns and overlay a photo of your fabric onto the line drawing. I have seen others doing this but for the life of me could not get it to work with some of my photo type programs on my computer. She gave me some very helpful instructions and I have come up with two patterns I want to sew. They are both knit tops and should sew up quickly.

Here is the Simplicity 4076 pattern, line drawings.


I am making C. Here it is with fabric overlay.

This is a knit that has been aging in my collection for about a year, maybe two. I have adjusted the pattern for and have cut out the fabric. I hope to sew some on it this evening and of course tomorrow.

I'm So Excited

"I'm so excited"
"And I just can't hide it"
"I'm about to loose control"
"And I think I like, like it"

I've got that tune running through my head. I am getting very excited as I will be going on vacation midweek, next week and heading off to the National ASG conference. I am thinking about what I am going to pack, what I am going to wear, making a list of things I want to buy and hope that those things are there. I have had to refrain from buying fabric on line for several weeks as I am hopeful that I will find some great fabric to touch and feel while at the conference.

Some sewists from our local ASG are planning on going. I need to find out what times some of them are traveling and maybe we can have a caravan on the road. I am driving up Thursday. I hope to see some sewing friends from Florida. I lived there for nine years and developed some great sewing friendships while there. Hopefully I will meet some other fellow bloggers there as well. There are few sewists who have posted they will be at ASG on the Artisans Square boards.

I'm so excited!!!!

What's Next? Where did the time go?

In reading some other blogs this past weekend, many individuals were talking about and beginning to plan on sewing fashions for fall. Where did summer go????

Around May, I pulled out numerous fabrics from my stash, some aged more than others, and developed a sewing plan to make numerous items-knit tops, a blouse, a lightweight jacket, a coordinated outfit or two. It is now almost the end of July and I am asking myself what's next, what have I completed, and where the heck did summer go and the time I was going to sew?

I did make a Teal jacket and skirt with black and teal top from a Vogue and PMB pattern. I embroidered the jacket and skirt with design inspired by the blouse fabric. I made a knock off of a Talbots jacket and sheath. I made a purse from embellished fabric and I just completed my Duro Dress. I currently have two knit tops I want to make, which I will probably do this weekend. I have a blouse I want to make. A wrap skirt and I want to make a top to go with that. I have a jacket I want to make but want to embellish the fabric using the Embellisher before making it up.

And then it is fall! So like others I need to be making some transition clothes to go from here to there. I do have the fabric for this, where can I get some time?

Me Wearing Duro

I tried to do this yesterday but Blogger was being stubborn and not allowing me to post photos. You asked and here they are, photos of me wearing the Duro Dress from McCalls. Trust me as you can obviously see, I am not a photographer. It is most difficult to take a photo of yourself in the mirror and hold the camera steady with one hand. These were the best of the shots I came up with using this method. My DH is never home when I get dress most mornings, and in the evening, I normally am not in the mood to put on my newly sewn clothes and model them.

So here goes!

Photos-Duro Dress- See post below this one.

Completed dress, front view.


Back view.




Gathers converted to pleats. Smoother look, I think.

I forgot to post below, that I also shortened the dress by reducing the width of the bottom skirt band. I also took 3/8 inch tucks in the front and back bodice areas in the shoulder area. Otherwise the dress would hang even further off my shoulders. I still need to add a modesty piece after raising the v-neck part by 1/2 inch, it is still rather low, lower than I normally wear items.

I will write a review at Pattern Review this week also.

Duro Dress-Done!

My dress is done!!!! I have to serge finish two areas-where the top attaches to bottom and the bottom band attaching to skirt.

Will I make this dress again? Probably not. Was it worth making this one? Yes! Will I wear this dress? The right moment or occasion.

This dress is getting a lot of attention. I first read about it on A Dress A Day Blog. Since then I have seen several dresses made up. Now Simplicity Patterns has a similar dress. I decided to give it a try, even though I know that this is a style that perhaps is not the most flattering on me nor is it something I would normally run into a shop to buy, much less sew.

It was worth making though. Mostly because I used some sewing techniques I have not used in awhile-gathering fabric and attaching to another piece. Changing gathers to pleats when not planned and doing it to solve a problem.

The dress top is gathered to the midriff section and the front skirt area is gathered to the bottom of the midriff section. After sewing the dress top to bottom, I tried on the dress and OH MY GOD! I looked like a pregnant woman. No way, no how would I go out in public much less wear this around the house like that. At this point, I might have said, forget about it and stop working on the dress.

I have read where others converted gathers to pleats and thus I decided to do the same. I removed stitches from the front skirt piece attached to midriff piece, removed the gathering stitches and then pin fitted pleats attempting to match up pleats on both sides of the center skirt front area. I think I did a great job with this simply by sight and pinning. This worked great and dress is not all gathered in the center front. If one is skinny and has a flat tummy, you can wear this with all of the centered gathers.

I also did not follow the pattern instructions for sewing bands, facings, etc. Those instructions assume you do not have a serger as they never say anything about serging edges for finishing. If you don't have a serger, then I think you can still do it differently but you will have a nicer finish using them. Since I do have a serger, I simply sewed facings together and then attached pieces to each other, serge finished edges and eliminated a lot of slipstiching which I just hate to do.

I will wear the dress to some "girls night out" or "girls luncheon". I will take with me to ASG in a couple of weeks, I think I will have an opportunity to wear it there. I could use some new sandals though-coral or yellow ones!! Hmm, got to find a shoe sale.

Here are some photos of the completed dress. I will have to put my "game face on" as Carolyn, A Diary of a Sewing Fanatic did and showed off some of her fabulous completed clothes. (Note: I cannot get photos to post at this time. Blogger says they are, but they are not. Hopefully later.)

Where does the time go when you work all the time?

Wednesday we had a super employee event! It was special recognition for achieving and exceeding sales records. After work I had an appointment to get my "hoofs and paws" done. (Manicure and pedicure). It had been weeks since I gave myself this treat. While in the middle of this, we had a terrible storm and power went off! At least my feet were out of the water at that time. The manicurist was just beginning to paint my toes. The safety lights were on, though all other power was out. Of course, this place has great windows and so there was some light. But candles were lit and I have to say that I have never had my toes painted by candlelight before!

Of course, my home is near this place so I called DH on my way home to learn that our power was out also. My plan had been to have soup and sandwich and then go into my sewing room for some creativity and R&R. Our power remained out for over 5 hours. During sleep I awoke to lights coming on and of course, blessedly the A/C.

Yesterday I worked late again as did hubby. We met up for dinner and got home around 8:00. By the time we do those things one must do to prepare for the next day, I decided I had no energy to go into the sewing room. I did check some blogs and got my sewing fix through others before going off to sleep.

My dress is calling for me and hopefully this evening, yeah it is FRIDAY!, I will be spending some sewing time this evening. When I look over what's left to do, it is really only the skirt part, attaching to bodice, hemming, WEARING! Dress will be complete in time for ASG.

Work and Fun

This week my work is taking me away somewhat from sewing. I have not touched my dress in progress. I worked after dinner on Monday night. Yesterday was CURVES, I scheduled this in on my calendar. I have to so I will get back to a regular routine. I have not toned up for nothing! But can't maintain if I don't go. Besides through diet and exercise I lowered my cholestrol by 10 points!!! So for now I am not on cholestrol medication and that's okay by me.

Today I am MC'ing a special event for our retail employees in my division. Our "Get 'Er Done" team put together a great event and I am truly proud of them. So I need to outline my words of "wisdom????!!!!!!" and prepare for todays luncheon celebration.

Here is a photo of a "Duro" Dress that I read about on Pattern Review and went to Sharon Sews blog to read more about. I think she did a great job. She used the Simplicity Pattern.

Photos of dress progression

This is the pattern:


This is what I completed this morning, the center front pieces with facings attached to bodice with midriff pinned to the top part. The next photo is the finished front with midriff attached.




Here is the back facing attached to the front. I have only sewn the one shoulder the other was basted in.



Here is the front and back on the dress form.




More to follow, stay tuned.

Dress Progress

I am making some progress on my dress. I hope to post a few photos of this journey. I took a few this morning before DH woke. I have moved further along in the sewing process since then.

Yesterday I stitched the front contrast center piece to the front bodice. I did not follow the pattern instructions on this. I am glad as it would be too fiddly to do it that way. I sewed the center front contrast piece center seam and the center facing (same pattern piece) center seam. I then stitched the facing and front piece together at neckline. I then basted the raw edges. This combined piece was then stitched to the front bodice pieces, then serge finished those edges.

This morning I pulled the gathering stitches on the front bodice and pin fitted the midriff pieces to the front bodice/contrast pieces. I then basted midriff edges together. I then sewed the back bodice pieces together. Stitched back facing to this piece then basted front to back at shoulder seams. It is important to refer to the instructions for this part due to the way they have you open out the back facing over the front pieces. Once sewn together, you turn back facing to back and shoulder seams will fold to the back as well.

I decided to baste this part as I wanted to be sure of the fit to this point. I thought it would be easier to adjust through shoulders if necessary after basting and trying on. I suggest this to those reading this and contemplating making this. I am glad I did. I discovered that even though I added a half inch to the center v-neck pieces, my dress was still lower than I prefer. I could take a deeper shoulder seam, but then would make the midriff shortwaisted. I will add a modesty piece to the center. I did discover that my midriff and the size 10 I cut out will be snug, so I let out the center back seam from upper back to waist. This is a 5/8 seam, so I tapered to 3/8 at the waist area. I used 5/8 seam for sides when I basted, I will reduce to 3/8, this will make the dress fit looser and better. It will give me some wiggle room.

After this, I removed basting and sew and finished edge of one shoulder. More to follow.

Duro Dress

I started the Duro Dress this evening. I first saw this dress on A Dress A Day blog. Then I saw another version on Behind The Seams blog. Then Erin posted a couple more versions of the dress on her blog, adding versions made by others. Several have been reviewed on Pattern Review. McCall's had the first version of the pattern and now Simplicity has a version. I purchased McCall's pattern and this evening I started on the dress. In a previous post, I showed photos of the fabric and pattern.

In the newest issue of Lucky Magazine, they have numerous versions of this dress. Not sure this is really me or not. But it will be different.

Yeah, it's done!

The project is complete! Here are photos-the jacket, close up of the sleeve vent and topstitching and of one button.

The buttons I used I acquired from Hancock Fabrics. They look somewhat like a basket weave. I thought the color was great and in my mind palm tree leaves can be used to weave baskets, thus the buttons.






I said this before but I truly loved sewing this fabric. I am currently write a review of the pattern for Pattern Review. I should post it sometime in the next few days. Be sure to view it and if is very helpful, please rate it as such.

Closer

For a simple, very easy Vogue pattern, this outfit is taking forever to complete. It is me, not really the pattern. I think sometimes I am becoming too much of a perfectionist again when it comes to clothes I am making and when there is a small fitting thing that makes me unhappy, I start putting the project aside. I then play around with something else or don't go in the sewing room.

Yesterday, DH and I went to Danville on our motorcycle. The morning weather was perfect, nice and cool. Afternoon warmed up but not bad. When we got back home, I could have gone to sewing room but just chilled out in front of the TV. I purchased a Burda WOF Magazine from Natalia on PR and it arrived yesterday. Spent time thumbing through this, imagining what I wanted to make from a few of the patterns that I really liked. Some of which have been reviewed on Pattern Review. After that DH and I watched a movie -Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I admit I am a HP fan of the movies. We have no children so I didn't watch it because the kids wanted to see. The kid in me wanted to see. Having ON DEMAND on our cable TV system makes movie watching a breeze!

No work on the jacket yesterday. I was just too busy with the above.

This AM however, I did hem the jacket and topstitched around front and neck. Only thing left to do is sew buttonholes and the buttons. It will get done today as I am off to the sewing room in the next 15 minutes.

Close to finish!

I worked on my jacket some this evening after dinner with DH. He has to travel to Baltimore this evening, so I spent some time in my sewing room working on finishing my Vogue 8004 Pattern. I decided to let out the center back seam in the jacket, I thought it felt tight. This helped. I inserted the other sleeve without too much issue this morning and tried on this evening and I think it looks good. I serge finished the sleeve seam edges as well as the hem edges.

I then decided to play with my Babylock Embellisher, playing around with some fabric pieces and yarns to see how these fabrics are felting to each other. Some worked okay others didn't. I still need a few more lace or other fabric sheers to embellish onto the material. This is my practice piece for the Chico Jacket replica.

I then took some pictures of my finished skirt and a photo of the back of the jacket to show how the darts look compared to the pattern drawing shown on a previous post. I don't know if you














can see the details of the fabric background. Embossed on this lovely and great to sew fabric is a palm tree.
Here is the jacket back, look at the placement of the dart compared to the dart placement on pattern drawing from post from yesterday. The dart is to the right of the side back piece,














left of the center back seam. It does not point to the neck line at all, as in the drawing.

Here is the McCall's dress pattern of the Duro dress and my fabric for the dress-yellow flowers, the contrast is the solid color. Both purchased from Hancock fabrics last month.

PPSD

It has been a nice easy day. I was able to turn it into a PPSD-Partial Personal Sewing Day. I say this because I really had to take sometime to clean some of the house. After getting up and drinking some coffee, I then sewed on my jacket for Vogue 8004. I had worked on it some last night as well. This morning I let out the high hip area in the center and side back seams. I then sewed the facing to the jacket front, trimmed, pressed and stitched the facing to keep it from rolling out. When DH woke, we had breakfast. DH did some more work on our muddy basement that did not get completed over the past weekend. The basement is semi-finished and only houses our washer/dryer and "stuff". It has cement floors so cleaning up dried mud is a chore.

Let me say I hate housecleaning! In my previous life in Florida I had a good friend who had a housecleaning business and I was one of her customers. She came twice a month to clean house. I loved it. Her name was Pam and now when things get cluttered, dusty, etc. my DH or I will say "where is that Pam, she hasn't cleaned in awhile". So today was a major overhaul cleaning of the master bathroom. This was done between working on my jacket.

I have made several fitting adjustments as I sewed the jacket and I think I over adjusted the front shoulder area. As Carolyn of Diary of a Sewing Fanatic wrote not to long ago on her blog about wearability test, I will see if this over adjusting may impact the wearability test.

Because of said shoulder adjustment I had to reset the sleeve insertion on the first sleeve I sewed into place. After taking out some of the front, sleeve top and back areas twice, it now fits appropriately. I have pinned in the other sleeve. I decided it was time to take a break.

While working on the project, I looked at the pattern drawing and almost panicked as my back piece does not look like this drawing.



The drawing shows the dart at back neck area. In fact the back darts are closer to the back princess seams. On the facing piece the darts are placed at the back neck. When I first looked at this, I thought I had really traced the darts badly. This was not the case at all. Not sure if where the darts are in reality and where they could have been if like the above affects the fit or not. We shall see.

Once I insert the other sleeve, I then only have to hem, sew buttonholes, buttons and install shoulder pads. I have a McCall's dress waiting in the wings.

Progress

I am so pleased with the progress I made this weekend on my jacket and skirt. I love the fabric I am sewing because of the ease of sewing it.

I had to make some fitting adjustments to the jacket. I think I need to revisit my body measurements again and adjust. Of late I am finding that the upper chest area is too full on numerous patterns. Thanks to CURVES or age????

With the jacket for this pattern I had to take up another 3/8 inch in the arm area down to curve of princess seam in the front. I also ended up taking up an additional 1/4 inch at the shoulder seam for the front jacket. I just offset the seam by the 1/4 inch and tapered to the initial seam mid way through the shoulder seam. I did a forward shoulder adjustment originially. By doing this it did pull it up in the front some and also improved the bust fitting under the arm, it was gaping there and thought it would still gap after attaching sleeves. I thought also I would have to use a thicker shoulder pad and did not want to do this.

I hope to complete this tonight or tomorrow since it is a holiday and will have some sewing time!

Yeah!!!

Permission to sew

Most Saturdays I get up around 6:30 or 7, drink a cup of coffee. Then go to CURVES. Today I gave myself permission not to go! I have two sewing projects on my cutting table that I am dying to get to. Sundays, I have more time to sew off and on during the day unless we go visit family or friends in our hometown. Tomorrow, my DH and I are having lunch with a nice gentleman and his daughter. He is 90, she is 62. He is sharp as a tack and an interesting person to visit with.

I completed the skirt that I started last night while DH was surfing the TV channels. It was a very simple skirt with two pieces-front/back only. Has no zipper, elastic waist. About an hour project if not interupted during the sewing. I then interfaced all the jacket pieces needing to be interfaced and pinned darts for sewing. Progress! I will sew some this evening and a little tomorrow so my outfit should be complete by mid week, I hope.

Response to Janet

I am so inspired by all that you do, and the fact that you still find good
blocks of time to devote to sewing. So I have to ask, HOW do you do it all? I am
a full-time program mgmt consultant, with a husband and two daughters, ages 13
and 11. I gave up sewing when the girls were little. There just wasn't enough
time. Now, I'm "dipping my toes back into the pool" so to speak, because both of
them have expressed an interest in learning how to sew. But I honestly don't
know where I'll find the time. Please share any strategies or tactics you use to
make time for sewing for yourself! I'm tired just thinking about how you do it
all! : )Thanks,Janet in MN

Thanks, Janet for commenting! I have thought about my response because I don't think anyone has every asked me how I find the time to sew. I am always thinking I need to find more time to sew!!!

One of the first things that came to mind was I own and have read Nancy Zieman's "10-20-30 Minutes to Sew" book. There have been times when I was really pressured for time to complete a project because I was probably making an outfit for some special event. I thought about what I had read and decided that it made sense. I then organized my project(s) using some of Peggy Sayers advice on sewing using "industry techniques". She advises to cut fabric, lining fabric if using, and interfacing at one time and if possible stacked on top of each other. I normally can cut fabric and lining together. Interfacing I normally end up cutting seperate, because of the variance in width of interfacing I can acquire. I then interface all pieces that require it. I then sew all darts and body or skirt seams. Then proceed to pockets, collars and sleeves. This method has you doing similar steps at one block of time.

I have to allow myself those short time periods to sew as my preference is to go for hours on end working on projects. I don't have those hours during the week too much as it if filled with work, exercise, cooking and family time. It was hard for me to do sewing in short bursts at first, just was not my style. But mentally setting aside the time and doing what I can in a 10 minute time periods, if that is all the time I have, allows me to do get a small part completed. All those 10 minutes do add up and the project gets done.

My family consists of my husband and me. We have no children and thus I have more time than someone like yourself because that children time is important as it time with the spouse. I know when I need to come out of the sewing room or away from the computer for "husband" time. MyDH is a big child sometimes. My work takes a lot of my time, as a senior executive staff person, my work day is not always 8-5. Sometimes I allow myself 10 minutes of sewing time between work at home "stuff".

Since your daughters have expressed interest in sewing, please give into that interest. We need future "sewists" out there. I think you could get them involved in sewing projects by assigning them to do a certain task.

I feel like I have rambled on a bit but basically I am saying block sometime to do a small part of the sewing process. Pattern fitting time, cutting time, fusing time, dart sewing time.

I just read on another blog today something similar to what you wrote and one response was the NIKE saying "Just Do It". Go for it, Janet.