More progress on December Garment of the Month and Happy New Year!

No new pictures for now.  I made the final fitting tweaks to the dress this afternoon.  The Italian wool fabric has some Lycra and the double knit also has some stretch.  Because of this I had to take additional deeper seams than I did for the lining fabric which had no stretch.

I am pleased with the fit now.  Next steps are stitching lining to dress, inserting sleeves and a small shoulder pad as I think I need it as there is some droop to the back shoulder area and a shoulder pad helped.

I don't think I will finish this dress tonight so it will be my first completed project for the new year.

Wishing everyone

Progress in pictures

This is front with a too small peplum attachment.  I wrote about this previously.

Here is the revised peplum that now aligns with the right front bodice:

Better looking this way.

I have inserted the invisible zipper and sewn the side seams.  Lining was completed first and glad I did it that way as I ended up taking 1 1/4 inch seam for the zipper in the upper back area, tapering to 5/8 just above the waist to zipper stop.  I really have a narrow upper back.  I also shortened the back bodice by 5/8 inch from center back tapering to nothing at side seam.  I also sewed longer back waist darts to get a better fit.

In addition I sewed 1 inch seams at skirt bottom tapering to 5/8 from waist up.  I have yet to try on the dress after sewing.  Hopefully these adjustments are enough.

Here is a photo of the center back seam with zipper inserted.

I am pleased with the alignment of the back waist seams.  Below is my suggestion on how to do this, click on the photo so you can read what I typed:

That's all the progress at this time.

Progress

I was able to fix my error after adjusting pattern piece and thankfully I had enough of the fabric left over to do this.  This is why I buy more fabric than the pattern calls for when buying online.  Actually after writing that statement, I buy more in store as well.  There are no stores where I live that I buy fabric from that much as I only have JoAnn's and I don't seem to find much there when I go.  Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised.

I have now sewn the darts in the back bodice and skirt fabric and lining pieces and attached the back lining pieces together. I basted in a zipper in the lining and will soon baste shoulder and side seams for fitting.

Photos and more updates to follow.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!  Ours was relaxing and then yesterday visited family about 2 hours away.  I am definitely eating way too much and made it to the Y this AM to work in some exercise.  Today I rode a stationary bike.  Time to change up my routine.

Later!

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Can you spot the error?

I am sure that many of you have seen and/or played a game where you look at one picture and then you look at the same picture and find the differences.  I am going to show you a picture of the pattern envelope and the front of my dress.  Tell me by leaving a comment if you spot the difference.

I did not catch this until I had stitched the bottom of the dress to the dress bodice.  Fortunately I can fix this.  Whew!

Thanks for playing along!  I will share with you my fix later.

Afternoon sewing

I finished all of my last minute shopping as well as grocery shopping for Christmas dinner.

DH was off from work today also and had a doctor's appointment; he was out by the time I got home so after unloading everything we went for late breakfast.  When we returned I headed straight to the sewing room as that was my plan for the day.

When I sew garments with linings, I normally start sewing the lining first.  This allows me to make fitting tweaks and then transfer those changes to the fabric.  I basted all the darts  and the princess seam and attached front bodice to back bodice for fitting.  I had to make adjustments to the front bodice darts.  The waist dart was too long and hit the bust area to high; I reduced the length by one inch.  The side dart was pointing up and was too short.  I had to change the direction of that dart and lengthened it.  In a previous post, I showed how I made the FBA for both sides of the bodice.

I also reduced the width of the waist dart as well and took 1/2 inch seam at the waist area of princess seam and then increased to 5/8 inch right below bust to shoulder.

I took some shots of the bodice and lining bodice pinned to Alma Marie.

Front bodice

Left front side with princess seam

Right front side with side and waist darts

Front lining bodice

Next step will be attaching the lining to the peplum piece and then attach that to front skirt portion and then attach that to the front bodice.  More later.

Lots of pieces

I finished cutting out the fabric and the lining.  Whew!.  I find that cutting out single layer pieces can be very time consuming; getting the fabric opened and straight of grain is for me more time consuming that cutting out double layer of fabric.  

With this pattern, I needed to make sure that the single layers are laid out correctly so the right and left pieces stay right and left.  Then you need to make sure the lining pieces which are the same as the fabric are laid out the opposite. Not truly difficult but needs to be top of mind and checking twice before cutting.

I used lining fabric that was in my stash and used every piece of it with just a small square left over that could be used to line a pocket.  The same with the Italian wool fabric. There is enough of the faux lace looking double knit fabric left over for me to make something else from it.    

The double knit fabric is rather heavy/thick and not sure what I should make from it.  Maybe a skirt or a peplum top or both.  I think there is enough fabric left to make both.

Back to the sewing room, updates and some photos soon.

 

Making progress

I cut out the fabric for the Vogue dress.  I still need to cut out the lining fabric.   It's laying on the cutting table.  Imagine my husband thought it was time to eat.  I can just nibble if I was home alone, especially when I am focused on a sewing project.

I have to work Monday and then I am off the rest of the week.  Plan to get some sewing time in before Christmas.  I am doing some cooking as well.

I did take advantage of some Club BMV pattern sales this past week.  I am going on a pattern fast come the first of the year.

More later.

Fitting adjustments

As mentioned in other posts, I have a short depth from waist to hip and so I normally raise the hip line up two inches on most patterns.  I did so with the skirt portion of the V9024 dress.  This then requires truing up the seams.

For me I usually true up the seam by adding to the pattern as I did with the skirt right front pattern pieces.  Some people may reduce this.  I think it depends on what the pattern piece is and where it will line up on the body.  As you can see I had to add to the seam, tapering to nothing near the notch on this pattern piece.  If it is too wide then I can adjust by taking a deeper seam.

Because of the shape of the front and side front bodice pattern the FBA was a combination of how I do adjustments for patterns with darts and princess seams.

Again there are seam and dart opportunities for making additional adjustments if necessary. I think I may have to take deeper dart or deeper princess seam if I have over adjusted.

Fabric is still waiting to be cut out.  I had to do that on Sunday but shoulder and neck were giving me fits so decided best to wait another day.

I love a challenge

I began the pin fitting process for V9024 yesterday and continuing today.  So far I have shortened the length from waist to hip, requiring quite a bit of truing up the front skirt pieces.  Next was the forward shoulder adjustment and high round back adjustment.  I had to stop at that point to do other tasks.

I have to make a FBA, no surprise about that.  This will be an interesting adjustment to make as one front piece has waist and side dart and the other side piece has princess seams!!  I know that I need to make 1 1/2 inch adjustment and will take half of that and adjust each front piece by that amount.  I also need to make a swayback and perhaps back length adjustment; I think I can do some of that while attaching back bodice to back skirt.

My plan is to get all of this completed so I can cut out the fabric.  Maybe even get the lining cut out as well.

Updates and photos later.

Decisions Decisions

I have had sewing on my mind most days this week trying to determine what I wanted to sew next.  I pulled several dress patterns last weekend trying to decide what to make.  The fabrics calling out for attention were two recent purchases, one from Mood and one from Gorgeous Fabrics.

Today my earlier decision about one of several dress patterns just went out the window.  I put all those patterns back in the Vogue dress pattern file box and pulled out this one.

The fabric on the left is a black/white Italian wool tweed from Mood.  The fabric on the right is lace look double knit from Gorgeous Fabrics.  I think the mix of fabric type will work together.

I have cut out the pattern pieces and began the pin fitting test to determine any adjustments besides my usual ones.

I am also trying to determine the main versus contrast fabric to use.  I have more of the double knit fabric compared to the other. I have enough of each to use either way.  The back is not color blocked. Updates later.

Tidbits-12-2014

Last week I wore several garments that I made earlier this year or even last month as well as one over a year ago.  The recent wears were:

 M6996.  got quite a few compliments about this jacket.  Most everyone spoke about the back peplum.  It was extremely cold the day I wore this and I wore a heavier sweater knit top (purchased years ago) with this and I stayed very warm.

I also wore this McCall's top my second one from this pattern.  This fabric was so easy to sew and though a little light weight it felt good next to the skin.

I also wore my first version of this top another day.  I posted about this top previously.

I had to attend a board meeting Thursday evening so I wore my reunion dress that day.  It wears well and not much wrinkles develop during the wearing; this is the kind of garment(s) I wear on the days that I will put in a 10-12 hours day.

I have decided to move on to making another dress or two or three as well as some skirts.  I just need to decide on what fabric and what pattern.

I need to take some photos of my new fabrics from a new to me fabric source and one I will defintely purchase from in the future.

More later.