M7019 Version 2

I thought that this project was going to do me in or I was going to do end this project!!!!

This is a simple, easy to sew pattern that I made previously. So all adjustments were made and I thought quick and done.  That also meant that my other project to do over the holiday and extended weekend would be complete.

An earlier post showed my original plan to use this royal blue fabric from Fabric Mart with Girl Charlee Aztec knit.

The Aztec print just doesn't do much for me at this time.  Also it was a different weight and blend of knit that I decided would not do well with the solid knit.

So I went to my stash and pulled this fabric, from Vogue Fabrics.

This knit was similar to the solid yet was a little thinner texture.  It proved to be somewhat of a nightmare to work with.  I have learned over the years to purchase more fabric when buying online than what a pattern calls for as you never know what may happen during the sewing process.

Removing stitches from this knit was terrible, the least little pull on a thread could easily create a small hole.  Not knowing that when I began the project I decided that I would serge this top for all the seams and then I had issues with the serger, more operator issue than the serger.  The issue required that I restitch one shoulder seam that led to one to many holes in the that shoulder seam and then a big rip.  Thus I re-cut the pattern pieces again and thankfully I had enough of the print fabric to do this.  I almost ended the project but persevered and completed the project.

Here is the top on a hanger, photos wearing to be produced later this week.

Back View

Front View

 I am pleased with the fit and the final outcome.  Getting there was a heck of journey.

Holiday sewing

This is what I started working on this weekend-Simplicity 1072.

I am using these fabrics.

The red/white/gray/black circles is stretch lace fabric that I purchased from Vogue Fabrics a second time. The first attempt at using it was back in August when I was working on the Paulina Top by Itch to Stitch.  I still plan to remake that top as I used the wrong sizes and this fabric was not quite right for that project.

Fast forward to November/December I ordered the suede-look knit in a cranberry red color from Vogue Fabrics and the stretch lace was still available.  So I ordered more to use with the knit, not really sure what I would make.

I went back and forth over what top to make using the cranberry red knit, thinking I may make another Renfrew top and decided that the lace would not work.  I then looked at other patterns and while reading through blogs or sewing reviews on Pattern Review I came across another version of Simplicity 1072 and decided that this was what I would make.

I am using the stretch lace as an overlay to the knit center piece.  I hand basted the lace to the knit fabric.  Let me say that the suede look knit fabric is clingy and fiddly to work with, adding the lace was challenging.  The hand basting I treated like quilters do when layering base fabric to quilted top fabric.  This was the only way to get the lace laying right and the knit from moving and puckering.

I have sewn the front pieces together requiring some undoing of stitching because of the fiddly knit. I have attached the sleeves which are HUGE-WAY TO WIDE! I suspected that when cutting around the pattern and went down in size.  I normally use a 14 for upper chest and shoulders, should have gone with a 12 as I am having to take a deeper seem at the front where it is attached to the sleeves.  This will help draw up the front area so that the neckline will be better fitted.

I will end up taking out a lot of width with the sleeves.  When you look at the model on the front of the envelope, her sleeves are crunched up and twisted, plus she is holding them close in to her sides.

That is where things were left for the moment.  I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon and a few errands to run in the extremely cold weather we are experiencing.  It was 17 degrees F with wind chill of -4!!!  Too cold for my liking.

More later!

New Fabrics

I posted earlier that I took advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. I took some photos of recent fabric purchases that I thought I would share with you.

The following are fabrics that I purchased from Vogue Fabrics. I have been a member of this swatch service for several years.

Brick red faux suede knit

green white sweater knit

Muted green sweater knit

These two items are from EOS

pink gray variegated sweater knit

rayon knit montage

and the recent purchase from Mood is fabric I purchased before but the garment I made did not turn out as I liked fortunately they had more in stock. It is a metallic gray double knit. I will post a photo of that later.

Butterick 6183

I am grateful for a long weekend!  After putting aside the Itch to Stitch top, I decided to make a woven top I had been planning to make for some time now.

I have read some reviews on Pattern Review as well as reading some blog posts also.  Most all seem to be positive and some mentioned the tight sleeves.  I cut my ususal 14 cap for the sleeve and then expanded to size 16 for bicep.

I pin fitted the pattern yesterday, made my usual adjustments-forward shoulder, upper round back adjustment, swayback adjustment.  No FBA as this pattern has cup sizes and I went with the size 16 from bust to bottom.

Here is where I stopped a little while ago

The front pieces are sewn together.  I finished the edges using my serger.  The fabric is from Vogue Fabrics purchased in May.  It is a cotton fabric with a denim look, light to medium weight.  I washed it once prior to sewing it. It presses well and was easy to cut and handle.  I sew so many knit fabrics that I forget how woven fabrics feel and sew.  When I purchased this fabric, my intent was to make a top/blouse;  this pattern was not my choice at the time.  I thought this looked like a cropped top with seaming.

I wish I had cut the center back piece with an add of a 5/8 seam allowance so I could use an invisible zipper. This pattern as it is has the back on the fold with markings to cut an opening for an exposed zipper.

More updates later.  Plan to grill hamburgers soon.

Next project-Itch to Stitch

I have acquired several independent patterns for the past couple of years and have made up a few. My most recent was the Kirsten Kimono Top and made two of those with good success.

I am now working on another indie pattern, the Paulina Top from Itch to Stitch.

I have prepared fabric I purchased from Vogue Fabrics early this year for this top, washing and drying it last night.

The black, gray, red and white fabric is a knit lace fabric and I wanted that to be the underlying fabric, yet the lace is very open and will not work for me as that underlying fabric.  So I will make it the top fabric and the red will show through.

I printed the pattern pieces.  The one thing I truly like about this pattern is that it contains layers which allow you to print only the size(s) you need instead of all the sizes making it more cumbersome to trace your size.  I printed only the 12/14 sizes.  All the taping was put together last night and tracing was started and now completed.

I pin fitted the traced pattern pieces and determined that I only need to make a swayback adjustment for the bodice pieces.  The sleeves with this pattern are very full.  I don't care for all of that fullness. If you look at the above photo of the top, the sleeves on the model are very full looking also.  I took out 1.25 inches from the width of the sleeves from under arm to hem.  I also reduced the length by 1.5 inches.

Off to cut out the fabric, set up machines and sew.  More information to follow.

Recent fabric purchases

I mentioned in an earlier post about some recent fabric purchases.  I finally got around to taking pictures of those.  These are from Vogue fabric.

Denim look cotton

Border print knit

Red jersey knit with red/black/white mesh knit

close up of the mesh knit.

This is from EOS

Avocado green rayon knit

I used this as the sleeves and neckband for the recent McCall's top

Back to work today to earn more money to buy more fabric.

I Finally Wore This

Last week I finally wore the New Look top and the McCall's skirt. Both fabrics came from Vogue Fabrics a few years ago. As you may recall I had enough of the boucle type fabric to make two skirts as my first version of another pattern had some issues.

The knit top I made previously was a better quality knit than this knit top. This knit top fabric is a mesh type fabric; it continues to stretch as you wear at and does not seem to recover as well.

The skirt fits well and wore well. I have made this skirt pattern several times.

Here are a few photos of the skirt and top together.

Penny Pinnafore Pattern

I acquired this pattern sometime ago.  After making the decision to use the EOS fabric-solid royal blue with striped floral print-I wanted to be able to showcase the two fabrics.  Looking through various Vogue, Butterick and Simplicity patterns, I thought about some indie patterns I had ordered and downloaded. 

I printed out all pattern pieces and then taped the pieces together.  That is time consuming but the pattern draft seems good.  The pattern instructions include a pictorial tutorial (say that three times fast) for those who may need additional help in sewing the pattern and there is a condensed version for those who have more experience.  The pattern is rated intermediate.

After printing and taping, I took Swedish tracing paper and traced what I consider to be my sizes from the measurements included.  You use your high bust measurement to determine the bust size and can easily transition from one size to the next if you find you fall between sizes, which I do.

The pattern lines are printed in various colors to help in viewing and cutting your size.  Reviews seem to be good for this pattern and hope I have the same success.  As usual I will pin fit the pattern once I finish tracing, I still have one main dress part to trace.

In addition to working on this, I decided to wash several knit fabrics that I want to work with on some knit tops soon.  Two pieces I want to make up soon

EOS thin mesh knit-red floral with blue white stripes

Steel blue bamboo knit from Vogue fabrics

I plan to use this Simplicity pattern

I am going to use the mesh knit  as the black lace fabric is used in the black and gray top above. I have not pulled the pattern pieces for this yet.  Long weekend coming up next week so want to get a jump on the sewing if I can.

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It's a skirt

I completed, except for hemming, McCall's 5523.  I added a lining which added to the sewing time, the fabric I used needed it.  Here are a few photos of the skirt on the hanger waiting for me to hem.

Skirt front

Skirt back

Close up of back godets

McCall's Skirt and New Look top

NL6150 Complete

I was able to complete my second version of this pattern.

The knit fabric I used is similar to a rayon slub knit.  At times it was rather fiddly to handle.  The fit  was a closer one than the previous version I made.  I did test the fabric against the stretch gauge on the back of the pattern envelope and it passed the test; my first top had more stretch than this one.  As a result I had to reduce side seams from 5/8 to 3/8. 

Here is photo of the completed top on a hanger.

 Here is a close up of the ruched sleeves using elastic to make the gathers.  I lost the pattern guide piece to determine the length of the elastic piece to cut.  After measuring the area to gather and testing the stretch of the elastic, I was able to obtain a look that I liked.

The fabric that I ordered from Fabric Mart arrived yesterday.  It is a lovely cotton lace but not quite the shade I was hoping for to use as a panel insert for the Vogue skirt I am trying to salvage. 

I have decided to cut out the remainder of the Vogue fabric left over from making the other skirt.  Patten is laid out and ready to cut.

The pattern does not call for a lining but I plan to underline the fabric.  The fabric is a sturdy boucle type and I think that it could stretch some without provide some extra support.  I had lining fabric in stash that I can use.

I hope my red denim fabric will arrive next week.  I have so many sewing ideas and not enough time to do them all.

More later.

Now for a top--NL 6150 and maybe some lace

The skirt is hemmed.  Needs to be pressed.  After hemming and moving on to some other home chores; I kept thinking how can I salvage this skirt.

I returned to the sewing room during the afternoon and checked to see how much of the fabric I have left. Enough to make another skirt using a skirt pattern that I have sewn several times previously; thus no real fitting adjustments to make.  It is a pattern well liked by many sewist if you read reviews on Pattern Review.
It is McCall's 5523.  I have made it in cotton stretch woven and wool.

I decided to cut out New Look 6150, another knit top pattern I sewed last year using a mesh knit fabric seen below.  The fabric I used this time is similar in weight. It too was purchased at the time I bought the skirt fabric and I planned to use it with that fabric.

This is what the fabric looks like

Because NL 6150 has a cross over of fabric in the front, I chose the pattern for that reason.  This way the front will be more opaque and I won't have to have lining knit for this fabric.  The fabric is cut out and ready to sew.

So how to salvage the current skirt?  I thought about lace.  I see many skirts with lace as well as leather.  I am thinking a lace panel to attach somehow.  Now I need to research lace fabrics.  If you have suggestions for sources with a variety of colors, please leave a comment to this post.

Next up- a skirt!

This is an idea for the skirt I plan to make.  I actually saw a similar skirt in an earlier Nordstrom catalog; I thought I had scanned the page from it but I am not finding the photo scan or the catalog.  This is close enough.

The pattern is Vogue 8928.

I plan to make View C/D.  The wrap portion is a little too open for me, so I added to the front edge of the under portion of the skirt.  If I was young and had legs like the model then maybe; maybe not.  I am going for the angled wrap look not the sexy blonde look.

The fabric is a purchase from Vogue Fabrics in 2013.  This is labeled as suiting fabric in a warm rose color.  I also purchased two knit fabrics with this suiting fabric.  One knit is a ruffle knit in the same color; the other knit is very light weight floral print with the flowers being a warm rose color on an off-white background.  If I use the lighter knit it will require a knit lining.

I have the perfect lining fabric in stash for this skirt.  I acquired this last year from a donation to our local ASG chapter; I purchased three lining pieces and have used one in an earlier skirt pattern that did not turn out as expected.

The one in the middle goes very well with the fabric, though in this photo it looks like a different color.  I am not sure of the content, did not do a burn test.  It feels like Bemberg rayon.

The pattern adjustments have been made after pin fitting.  I hope to cut it out tomorrow.  I discovered some kind of "oil" leak with my car and may have to spend time at the car dealers after my much awaited mani/pedi tomorrow morning.

More fabric arrived earlier this week and will share with you in an upcoming post. 

Blouse update

I am making slow but steady progress on the M5522 blouse.  Here are a few photos:

The blouse has been hemmed, required to do before attaching front band.  Front band attached and edges topstitched.  The piping truly added some depth to the ruffles.  Here is a close up:

I have also stitched the collar and is read to attach to the collar stand, no photo yet of that.    Not sure what color buttons I will use and need to purchase.  I am thinking black.  The princess seams are to be topstitched and I am holding off on that until the end in case I may need to take in the princess seams.  My second fitting created a doubt in my mind that the blouse was fitting enough; and if taking deeper side seam would work or not.  I still have some time to complete this for the PR contest, but feeling a little pressured now.

I love this fabric but it can be fiddly.  I found when I attached the front band that  fabric "crept" into that stitching and I had to go in and remove stitches and fabric that got caught up in the sewing of the band. 

Will add more photos later.

Blouse progress

I pulled out the pattern pieces for M5522 to see what adjustments were made previously.  I made one additional adjustment-a 5/8 inch high round neck adjustment. Other than this adjustment, I felt all pieces were adjusted correctly for my usual changes.

There are 12 pattern pieces!!!.  Here is the start  of the layout of the pattern onto the fabric.

The fabric is from Vogue Fabrics purchased 2011.  There have been several times that I pulled out this fabric with the idea of making a blouse.  Now was the right time.

Since taking this photo of the beginning layout I have not cut out all pattern pieces.  Next step cut out interfacing for appropriate pattern pieces and for the fabric weight.  Updates later.

Fabric photos

I mentioned a few posts back that I had purchased some fabric and thought I would share those with you.
From Vogue Fabrics, I purchased the following pieces.  The solid is a suiting fabric and the other two pieces were swatches together with this suiting and both are knits.

This fabric I recently purchased from Nancy's Notions; it is a cotton lightweight for a blouse or top of some sort. Floral prints seem to be every where so thought I will make up a few floral garments.

Great progress

I was able to cut out the fabric yesterday and sewed all the front and side front pieces together along with the back and side back pieces.  Yokes were basted to both front and back pieces with sides and shoulders still to be basted for fitting.

This is a real easy to sew dress and the fabric I am using is easy to sew as well.  This is fabric I acquired from Vogue Fabrics last year.  It has a look of fall to it; though I think we will get a few more cooler days between now and April.










I made a Magic Pencil skirt from the same fabric in a different colorway.  I chose to line the skirt but did not line this dress fabric, hoping I made the right decision about this.   I have another fabric piece I am considering using to make another dress from this pattern.

More later.