Sybil Illusion Skirts by Love Notions

I have purchased several patterns from Love Notions.  I had not sewn any of those patterns and last week I decided that I wanted to make a skirt using print knit fabric I recently purchased from JoAnn's as seen on Stitches and Seams blog.  Fabric not shown on JoAnn's website, perhaps sold out.

One of the Love Notions pattern I acquired was the Sybil Illusion Skirt Collection.  One has several choices to choose from with this collection and I decided to make the Swing style skirt.  I even decided to make a midi length which is about as close as I will get to making a maxi skirt.

I read through information about this skirt collection on the Love Notions website and was intrigued by the use of  a control top method for the waistband.  There is an alternative method as well.  The article also provided several sources for the control top fabric.  I ordered a yard from EOS several months ago.

The instructions for this for control top method are excellent and include photos of the process as well.  I like the layered printing for this pattern as you print only the size(s) you need.  I followed the directions for selecting the size for this particular skirt choice and they were spot on.  For this skirt I printed out the medium and large, flat pattern measured and decided I did not need to trace the pattern and just cut using the printed and taped pattern piece.  I needed large for waist and medium from hip down and for skirt length though I also shortened the length by one inch.

I only posted a picture thus far on Instagram and you can see the skirt by looking at the Websta Widget on the right side of this blog.

I tried the control top method for making the waist band for this skirt and it worked beautifully.  I only need to hem this skirt and will use coverstitch machine to hem.  I cut and sewed this skirt yesterday with some interruptions planned and unplanned, DH was home also and there were a lot of "Honey can you help.......!  This is the fastest sewing I have done of later, going for immediate gratification and got it!

Most of the skirt was sewn using my serger.  More updates with photos to follow.

Jalie 3461 and Freaky February

I have been participating in the Make a Garment a Month group on Facebook.  The February theme is Freaky February.  The 'freaking' is what you hesitant to sew as it freaks you out to do so or in my case sewing pants freaks me out and thus I avoid it almost like a plague.

I am fortunate that I can usually purchase well fitting pants and jeans in the petite department at several retailers.  So I like to spend time sewing other items that I can get a better fit than RTW or I want be wearing the same top as one of my staff members or a friend because I made it myself.

So for Freaky February, I am going to make a pair of pull on jeans using Jalie 3461.  I just spent a good 1/2 hour reading all the reviews at PR about these jeans.  Some more helpful than others.

Last night I traced my size according to their instructions and then pin fitted them earlier today.  I then freaked as the pin fitted pattern really did not fit very well.  One issue is paper does not stretch and these jeans are designed for fabric that stretches 20% at a minimum.  The second issue was the back area which I know needs more tweaking-they need to come up higher than what these did.  I decided to not let this freak me out to where I would not continue with the project.

I am smart enough to know that I will need raise the back length (rise) and pretty much know how to do this after giving it more thought and reading PR reviews.  Tomorrow is a holiday so I plan to make pattern adjustments and cut these out.  I do plan to add 1 inch just in case seams at the side seams.  I did shortened the length by one inch but may need to take another inch off.

Fabric is a recent end of year purchase from JoAnn for stretch denim.  There are some nicer stretch denim fabrics online that if these prove to be successful and I feel like I should no longer freak out over pull on jeans after making these then I will order some.

That's all for now.  It is snowing tonight and tomorrow promises to be more weather issues with sleet and freezing rain!  Nice that I have the day off anyway!

More later.

Presto Popover Top

I have been working on the Presto Popover Top this weekend. I printed this pattern several days ago and Friday evening I taped all of the pages together. I then traced around the medium and large sizes that seem to fit my measurements. I then pin fitted the traced pattern and decided I needed to make a small FBA.

My first attempt at the FBA was to use my usual method which results in a bust dart. I then decided to eliminate the bust dart and take off the extra from the side that was created. However something went wrong in this process and the side seams did not match up. I really did not want a bust dart. I decided to try another method using fitting book by Sandra Betzina. 

If you click on the photo you will be able to see how this method works to create a FBA. Here's what the front pattern piece looks like using this method.

I decided to use another fabric to test so this pattern. This is a piece that is from my stash that's a burnout rayon knit that I purchased from JoAnn's Fabrics. I made some adjustments to the shoulder as well as a sway back adjustment.  Because of these adjustments I decided that it was best to test the pattern. From reading reviews at PR, I know that there is a tricky part with the neckline and attaching it to the back. And of course it took me three tries to finally get it correct. In doing so my cheapo fabric stretched out a shape somewhat. I am happy that I have figured out how to do this so when using other fabrics I should not have this issue.

I still need to attach the sleeves and during the pin fitting process I determined that I had traced the wrong size and had to trace another sleeve pattern. It does seeing from the reviews that the sleeve may be tight so I adjusted for that as well. Once you sew in the sleeves flat you then sew up the side seams and hem.  Then presto!  you have a completed top.

Here's a picture of the fabric that I'm using; it's hard to see the burnout areas and the knit is very thin. However it has served its purpose as a test for this pattern.

BurdaStyle Magazine

I stopped in at JoAnn's Fabrics to pick up a separating zipper for the jacket I am working on.

As I am making my way to check out, I stopped to peruse sewing related magazines and saw this.  I I have not purchased a Burda pattern magazine in quite some time.  I stopped my subscription a few years ago as I felt the price was too high for the number of patterns I ended up making from the magazine.

This is tauted as the premier issue of BurdaStyleUS.  Perhaps others have seen this but it was new to me.  There are patterns to trace included in the issue; there are also instructions for sewing other patterns that have to be downloaded from the BurdaStyle website.  The price was steep ($14.99) I thought yet I paid it anyway.  There were a couple of garments that appealed to me.  There were two sections with patterns to trace so the overlaying of several patterns on pages were not has cluttered.



I thought I would share this and if interested it can be found at JoAnn's.


   

V8799 Dress

I pin fitted the pattern this AM and found I needed my usual adjustments:

• FBA-1.5 inches
• FSA-5/8 inch
• Swayback-1/2 inch
• Reduction of waist to hip by 2 inches
• 1/4 inch horizontal tuck in upper chest, upper back and sleeve
• Raised neckline-1 inch

I have almost completed the cutting out of the dress fabric.  Have to then cut out the lining fabric.  I am lining in white.  For the jacket with only close by resource being JoAnn Fabrics, I ended up buying the lining in pink that matches the pink color in the dress.  There was no orange or tangerine lining fabric to be found.  I may look online as it will take me a little time to make the dress and by then lining may be shipped from some source.

I was looking online for some tangerine colored shoes and white as well. Neither color exists in my shoe collection at this time.

Update later.  Off to cook some steaks on the grill.

It's beginning to look like a dress

Spent time this AM working on the red and black dress.  I skipped Curves; it was so cold this AM that I just could not get my mind set around going out in cold cold weather.  I admit that this has been the better winter in a long time because of no snow, no ice and not weeks of extremely cold weather.  We even had snow showers off and on today.   It is now evening and we are under a wind advisory and the temps will be in the teens.

But I digress.  This morning I serge finished all edges of the skirt portion of the dress and then sewed the front and back side panels to the center front and center back.  By then DH was up and wanting some breakfast as did I.  Then showered and went to buy a few household necessities.  I then went to JoAnn's to get some needles and zippers; spent some time looking around and walked out of the store with no fabric or patterns.  It wasn't hard to walk out of the store with no fabric.  This JoAnn's is truly lacking in garment fabrics.  I have purchased some on occasion but to day the pickings were just horrible.

Returning home, I then completed the sewing of the neckbands and facings to the bodice front and back. I totally ignored the pattern instructions for doing this.  I write about my method later.  I just basted the shower seams and now I am hungry.  Off to fix oyster stew, perfect for a cold winter evening.

More info and some photos later.

JoAnn's Vogue $3.99 Sale

I took advantage of the Vogue pattern sale at JoAnn's this weekend. Here are the four patterns I chose that they had in my size.  Club BMV has a sale this weekend also, that I should take advantage of as there are a couple of Butterick patterns that caught my eye. 

Sewing holiday

I love holiday weekends!  Time to rest, play and sew.

I have made great progress with NL6000.  One night last week while drifting off to sleep, I had the thought that I should add a lining to this dress.  The red/white houndstooth fabric ravels a lot; and I thought that a lining would help with some stability and protection of the serged seams.  I did not want to do a Hong Kong finish.  So Friday evening I cut out the lining fabric.

Yesterday AM and evening I sewed the lining fabric first for test fitting.  I then started on sewing the dress stopping when all darts were sewn.  This AM I inserted the invisible zipper completed the back seam sewing, sewed the shoulders and have now basted the side seams for a fitting of the actual dress.

Sewing to resume later today. 

Yesterday while out and about doing some shopping, I stopped at JoAnn's to pick up a red zipper for the dress.  While there Simplicity patterns were 5 for $5 and took advantage of that sale to pick up a couple of patterns that I have had an interest in but not enough to pay full or half price.  Love a $1 a pattern sale!

More later

Checking in

The front darts have been sewn into the jacket front and jacket lining.  The dart was created due to the FBA made and I decided to incorporate the dart into the design.  I had real issue with getting the darts marked on the fabric and then getting them sewn going in the same direction.  A rookie mistake that I should not be making.  Both front darts now match.  And that is where I left the jacket on Sunday evening and have not touched it since.

Monday, I went to our local JoAnn's to check out what is left at the store.  The store will be relocating to another location and claims to be moving into a larger store.  The store they were in was large, IMHO, and was always understocked looking.  Hope the relocation will be truly be an improvement.  I wanted to get some sewing notions and marking paper.  I ordered some marking paper from Create For Less but thought it would not hurt to check locally as well; JoAnn's being the only local source at this time.

There is hardly anything left in the old store and as far as I can tell, they are not replenishing until they open the new store in APRIL!  The old store is bound to close before the new is ready as there is hardly anything left in the store including patterns.

Speaking of patterns they are running a huge sale with McCall's and Butterick selling for 4 for $2, and Vogue/Burda/Simplicity selling for $1.99.  Being a patternaholic I took advantage of the price and purchased a few patterns.  There were a few that were on my list of patterns to buy.  Some were patterns that were discontinued some time back, at least I don't see them on the BMV websites.

I am feeling the urge to start sewing for spring and have a few tops I want to make that will work for transitioning from winter to spring.  More later.

Vogue Dress

I also plan to pin fit this dress pattern later today. I think and hope that this will be a quick and easy dress to make. This is fabric from JoAnn's acquired in 2009. It is like a faux silk dupioni on the right side, somewhat satiny feeling on the wrong side. I think the fabric design warrants just a simple, minimal seams dress.

Another fabric purchase

I needed another fabric to make a top for the print skirt. The pale yellow fabric is rather thick/heavy and I had always planned to make a jacket or overblouse from it to go with the skirt. So I purchased the soft aqua fabric from JoAnn's on Saturday. It was labeled Baby Silk. It feels good to the touch and I am considering making a pull over top from a Simplicity pattern I recently purchased.