First Garment of 2013-Magic Pencil Skirt

Yeah!  Completed my first garment for 2013.  Hopefully this is good omen for sewing for 2013.  My review is below and will post on PR.  I have not posted much there in the past several months.

Pattern Description: Pamela’s Patterns-Magic Pencil Skirt

Pattern Sizing: Small

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Super easy instructions to follow.  The instructions include fitting suggestions, how to attach elastic, etc.  Excellent pattern for any beginner to try.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?  I love the ease of making this skirt.  There is not much to dislike at all.  Once you have perfected the fit you could sew up several in one setting.  I have made three skirts thus far; the new one I added a lining.

Fabric Used:The fabric I used for this one is a printed light weight double knit from Vogue Fabrics.

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made:  The only change I made this time was to add a lining.  I attached the lining at the waistline by serging the edges together.  I then attached the elastic at the waist.  I also do not totally stitch around the bottom edge of the elastic, preferring to attach by stitching in the ditch of the darts and side seams.   This way when I wear it there is no tell tell elastic waist should I have my top tucked in.  I don’t wear belts much so prefer this method.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?  I have sewn this skirt three times now and I am sure I will make additional ones in the future.  I highly recommend this pattern whether you are a beginner or advanced sewist.

Conclusion Easy to make skirt pattern.  Suitable for skirt wearers of any size.

Here are some potential looks with this skirt and other garments in the wardrobe.  The first one is a purple sweater jacket from Macy's with the skirt.  The second one is teal top that blends to black at the bottom of the top and sleeves.

Next two projects.

My next two projects.

The top fabric will be another Magic Pencil Skirt from Pamela's Patterns.  I cut this out two days ago.  Because fabric is not as stretchy as some other double knit fabrics I added just in case 1 inch seams. 
This will be easy peasy to whip up and I have a beautiful sweater jacket purchased from Macy's that goes perfect with the purple in this skirt.

The bottom fabric is faux suede that will become a KS jacket pattern.  I just finished tracing all of the pattern pieces last night and now need to pin fit for adjustments.  This will be lined.  I will do a pattern reveal later.

A little sewing, a litte of this and that.

Yesterday was the annual holiday celebration for our local ASG chapter.  As always it was good food and good fun.  When the event was over it was household shopping and then home to make dinner.

Late Saturday evening I began sewing the Boat-neck top from Pamela's Pattern.  I did not get very far with this.  Today was not much sewing going on as housecleaning was in order for an expected delivery of a washer and dryer, Santa's gift to DH and me.  To make a long story short, the appliances were too large to get into our basement as the only entrance is through the inside of the house and house was built in 1949.  DH did not measure twice and cut once!!!  So back to Lowe's to pick out a different set and the folks there were so accommodating and great to work with on this.  They had to order the set as I wanted a chrome color.  So Santa will come back next weekend.  And no extra cleaning on my part will be necessary.  DH measured and measured some more to be sure these appliances will fit through all doors.

Upon returning from Lowe's I decided to attach the sleeves to the top and then sew up the side seams.  Done!  Only thing left is to set up the cover stitch machine to hem the sleeves and the top.  That will have to wait as I just simply ran out of steam.

Here's a not so great photo of the top laying on the sewing machine bed.  It was taken with my Samsung Galaxy Player.

The fabric is much prettier than this photo and is unusual as well.  I will model it later when finished.  There is still an issue with folds forming at the bust area even with an added dart.  I need to figure that out.  Not bad, just noticeable to me as a sewist.

Pamela's Pattern perfected!

I thoroughly reviewed the fitting issues with the tested boatneck top.  I realized that I needed to align what becomes the shoulder seam with the shoulder point at the top of the arm on the base pattern and not what I had done previously.  In doing that the armholes lined up correctly and this allowed for the forward shoulder adjustments made on the base pattern.

Once I did that, I tested a second top from a lighter weight knit fabric that I had purchased from Fabric.com several years ago.
I never liked the color or the look of the fabric once I got it. It is has been in stash waiting for the right moment and it was just enough to make the front and back test garment.   It worked well for the test garment and after making the correct shoulder alignment, I have found a perfect boatneck top for me!!!







I cut out another top this AM using fabric acquired from Gorgeous Fabrics several years ago. (Sorry no photo of the fabric at this time.)  It is an unusual looking knit with a someone ombre look to it yet all the color shading is on the diagonal.  It goes well with a recent crepe fabric purchase that will become a skirt.  I have enough of this knit fabric to make several more tops, or a skirt, or perhaps dress.  The back of this knit could be used as the right side as well.

I had planned to use another fabric but decided that the boatneck was not the right style for this fabric.  It will become a top eventually.  Perhaps better as a cowl neck.

I also have another pattern waiting to be cut out and pin fitted to make another knit top, more of sweater knit.  This knit has been around for over 12 years; it is now aged enough to make a casual knit top using this Butterick pattern. I purchased the pattern to make the one the model is wearing; my fabric is a lot like the color of the cowl neck tunic and somewhat thicker.   The tunic pattern is very long and would need to be shorter for me.  The short version is not long enough.  I am a long waisted, short/petite person.  The length from waist to hip on me is very short.  So the shorter version I would have to lengthen by at least 1-2 inches for it to fall just below my waistline.  I am not sure that the boxy look is right for me and will have to see what  works best after pin fitting the pattern.

More updates later.

From cowl to boatneck

I made Pamela's Pattern #104 top earlier this year.  I have the fit pretty much the way I like it.  As always there are some tweaks I could make.  I decided to trim out some of the fullness in the waist and hip areas.  I decided to try #107 that has some different necklines--ballet, square, boat and funnel.

I decided to try the boatneck.  I like this look but I have not always had good fit when I have made a Burda and Jalie boatneck style pattern.  I have even had issues with Pattern Master and drafting one using that software program.

I decided to test the pattern using some fabric that would not offend my sensibilities if it did not fit the way I wanted.  Per instructions you use your basic pattern from #104 and overlay the neckline template over this aligning at the shoulder and center front.  Because I made some additional adjustments to the base pattern at the shoulder, I think this created a slight fitting issue.  I also made an unnecessary dart adjustment when sewing the test garment that resulted in a poor fit through the bust area.

The knit I used was also thicker than the knit I used for my previous two tops.  This also changes the fit.  I had taken a horizontal tuck in the base pattern that I think now is too deep; at least it was with this test garment and again some of the issue may be with the beefier knit used.  The real positive though is that the neckline fits very well!!!!  With all of the known issues now,  I plan to tackle a new draft of the the pattern.

I also plan to cut out another Vogue 9771 top using fabric acquired a year ago from Waechter's.  I do love the look of that pattern and the fit is now perfected.

Updates later.

V9771

I was able to make adjustments to this pattern and cut out the fabric late afternoon into early evening.  I am making view A which is the short sleeve version. I had enough to make the long sleeve version; I decided that the short sleeve would be more usable for several seasons.  This is another rayon challis fabric I purchased from Fabric Mart a month or two ago.  Yesterday's wadder was from fabric from FM purchased at the same time.

Below is a photo of the fabric I used.  It is black and white with small gray dots.  I have had this pattern for a very long time and decided it had aged well enough.  The front and back are cut on the bias.  I only made a sway back adjustment.  The finished bust measurements seemed to indicate that a FBA will not be needed.

Tomorrow I will sew this up in between preparing some of the Thanksgiving meal for Thursday.  I have plans for making another Pamela's Pattern Top using either a funnel neck or a boat neck.  I made a few tweaks to this pattern this AM.  The fabric is a beautiful knit I purchased from Les Fabrique in Charlottesville several years ago.  It too has now aged enough to be use.  I have plans for a third top using a knit purchased over 12 years ago while living in Florida.  I plan to use a Butterick pattern purchased last year.  

More show and tell soon.

Magic Skirt

I completed the Vogue 8750 skirt; the bias did not grow.  I only need to add the hook and eye.

I started on the Magic Pencil Skirt.  I am using a knit fabric that has been in my stash for so long and don't remember when I actually purchased it.  I do know that it came from Fabric.com.  There are two sides to this knit fabric with the predominantly white background most likely being the "right" side.  I decided to use the "wrong" side for this skirt.

This is a scrap of the fabric

Not sure why I have been on this black and white kick of late, perhaps because the machines are set on this.  Yet I keep seeing a lot of black and white in the magazines which is also an influence.  Once this is completed, I am switching to pale yellow.  This is the fabric up next.

I also plan to use this knit fabric from EOS for a top to wear with this skirt as well as some others in my closet as well as planned.

It goes nicely with the crepe fabric above but the photo of the yellow fabric looks washed out and could not get the edit of the color correct.  

Have to give the neck and shoulder a rest.  Sewing in spurts helps but frustrates me when I am on a roll.

Next up Magic Pencil Skirt and Simplicity

I completed the Vogue skirt except for the hemming.  Because the bottom side pieces are on the bias I thought I should let it hang over night in case the bias pieces start to grow.  Not sure that they would with the type of fabric I am using but possible.

When I cut out the Vogue skirt, I also cut out a knit I have had in my stash for ever and ever.  Since I was working on black background skirt I would not have to do anything to serger or sewing machine except change the needle since both are threaded with black thread.  So this will be my immediate gratification skirt.

Next up is a Simplicity skirt that has been on my sewing list for a long time. I plan to use a wool crepe fabric that I am not sure how long it has been in my fabric collection.  I am planning on making the skirt style that the model is wearing.  I also pulled a knit fabric from EOS, that has not even been washed nor taken out of the packaging that EOS uses to wrap their fabric.  It has the same light mustard yellow in the pattern along with green and brown, rather fall/autumn looking.  I thought I had a photo of the fabric.  I am somewhat hit and miss when it comes to taking photos of fabric purchases.

Photo updates

Today I wore the Magic Pencil skirt to work along with Butterick knit top made a month or so ago.  So forgive the wrinkles-

I wore the top outside of the skirt and with belt acquired from Chico's several years ago.

Here is the skirt with top tucked in

and one more shot, back view

Since I was taking photos here are a few of the Butterick Tangerine and Fuchsia dress

The back view is showing some wrinkles that I am not sure of the cause-will have to analyze this further.  The lighting with these photos do not show the fuchsia color very well.

Quick and easy

After spending my stay/sewcation working mostly on Butterick 5602, I needed a quick and easy project to tackle next.  I decided to try Pamela's Pattern #109 the Magic Pencil Skirt.  I followed the directions to a T.

I had enough red double knit fabric to test sew and if necessary cut another skirt from what was left.  I took the three measurements as suggested in the instructions- high hip (tummy), hip, and fullest part of thighs from this you chose which size you should  make.  I actually measured out at the upper end of the xsmall size range.  (I love some of the independent patterns size measurements; I have not considered myself a xsmall or small in a long time.)

I decided however to go with the small size.  I am glad I did as the skirt would have been too snug otherwise.  Snug is not the look I was going for.  I basted the darts and side seams as suggested and then tested the elastic again following the instructions for this pattern.  I found I needed to add a little to the front of the waist line area and do the usual swayback back adjustment for the back.  I then traced the pattern piece again as the front and back is the same piece.  I adjusted this one for the front changes I needed and the original tracing was adjusted for the back for my fitting needs.

I then cut the remaining red double knit to make my second skirt.  I kept the front darts but as suggested in the instructions if you have hollow space or dimpling you may want to eliminate the darts.  Next time I will try that, for now this works okay for me.  The instructions have you attach the elastic, turn and then stitch just below the elastic.  Using Pamela's method for sizing the elastic and using a quality elastic you should have not the gather elastic casing look.  I decided at this point to not stitch it per the instructions but to stitch in the ditch at the side seams and at the darts.   You can see how that looks with this photo:

Here is another photo of the finished skirt.  It is not as orange red as it looks in the photos.  I tried adjusting the color temperature to try to get it closer to the red it is, but results are still lacking.

I used the blind hem stitch on my sewing machine to sew this skirt.  Now that the pattern fit is perfected for me, this skirt can be made easily within an hour. 

Top completed

I completed the brown knit top this evening.  This is the second Pamela's Perfect T pattern completed.  This one I changed the neckline to a scoop neck.

The two other patterns I ordered from Pamela's Patterns arrived today.  I want to make the cardigan jacket soon.

I am moving forward with my plans of making a dress next.

More tops

I had a J Stern knit top pattern in my pattern collection for a long time.  Yesterday I decided I wanted to try it.  I said before I started you may want to trace sizes and not cut up the pattern.  I did not listen to my inter voice.  Cut to the chase--the pattern sizes I used were way too small!  I did not want to fiddle with making a lot of adjustments.  Lesson learned.  Trace first!  Most independent patterns tend to run large on me so made that assumption with this one.  Not a good assumption.  Will order another one soon.

Thus I decided to cut out another Pamela's Perfect Knit Top.  That fit has been perfected and I tweaked a smidgen more yesterday.  Using brown knit fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics that has aged appropriately, I cut out another top.  This one I am changing neckline to scoop neck, keeping 3/4 inch sleeves.

I did order two more patterns from Pamela's Patterns last night.  I have enough brown knit left to try the tank top pattern that I ordered. 

More later.

Productive day for my last day off

Today has been very productive sewing wise.  I decided to make another Vogue 8669 now that I have got the pattern tweaked to for a better fit.  I had some black crepe knit in my stash, acquired from Les Fabrique in Charlottesville, VA.  It is at least three years old.  I love the rich black color of this knit and the texture.  I had enough of this fabric to make two tops.  So the second top I made was Pamela's Perfect T-shirt pattern #104.

I was surprised about the fit of the Pamela's Pattern.  I had made one from this pattern before, but it was huge.  I decided to give it a try again though and went with the small due to high bust measurement and then made a one inch FBA.  This turned out well.  I did use the front pattern piece with the dart.  This resulted in a good fit.

I wear a lot of black for my job.  I never seem to have enough black tops., either RTW or custom made by me.   One of my favorite black tops is one I made from a Sandra Betzina pattern that it is now looking fairly worn.  I decided to give it to Goodwill.

So now I have two new tops to start the new year.  Photos later.