Butterick Dress

Yesterday afternoon I started on the Butterick dress pattern. I had gone to JoAnn's earlier to pick up a navy blue zipper. I also ended up taking advantge of the $1.99 Simplicity patterns sale. More on that later.



I sewed all the darts in the front and back. I stitched the buttonholes and added the casing for the insertion of the drawstrings. Great progress up to this point. I sewed the drawstrings and attempted to turn them using my Fasturns that I have had since living in Florida in the '90's. I could not get the fabric through, no matter which I sized tube I tried. Not only that but I bent one of the wire inserts that is used to grab the fabric and turn it. I thought I could straighten it-NOT! I ended up breaking it. The next insert I used, I pulled too hard and broke the handle off it and fabric got stuck in the tube once it decided to start coming through it. I could not pull the insert out as I had nothing to grip with. Pulling the fabric back out from the other end, ending up with my losing another usuable wire insert.



While looking through my bias tape drawer to find tape to use for casing I found some navy ribbon that matched the dress perfectly. It was also 1/2 inch wide and would fit through the casing. So instead of cutting and sewing new drawstrings and trying to figure out how to turn them without breaking anymore sewing notions, I inserted the ribbon. At this point DH and I went to dinner and movie; so sewing was done for Saturday.



Before starting this dress project I had decided I wanted to try inserting a centered zipper using this technique from Fashion Incubator. It is good to learn new things as one sews. I printed out the bookmarked pages so that I could follow along on how to do this. I reduced neckline seam and CB seam as posted. I was truly happy with my ability to follow along and it was a gamble to do this on this project without testing it using the pattern sample and examples in this great tutorial. When I got ready to zip it up, I discovered that I had put it in backwards!!!!!!! So after spending a good hour on working to get this method down, I had to rip the zipper out. After fixing breakfast for DH and I, I returned to sewing and re-inserted the zipper. I am truly happy with the outcome of the zipper. I took photos and will post later.

I then attached neckline facing to the front dress piece and I am ready to attach front and backs at shoulders. I had to stop sewing at this point to do other required chores, etc. I will resume sewing and provide updates on this dress later.

Saturday Morning

Why I like Saturday morning--

1. I sleep past my usual week day wake up of 4:40 AM.
2. I make coffee and sit down at computer to read Pattern Review digest, check out blogs, sometimes go to Stitchers Guild.
3. Look at accumulated emails and find the Flickr photos from friends to view what they have made or have been doing in their lives.
4. Eat a light breakfast, drink my second cup of coffee and think about sewing for the weekend.
5. Then it is off to CURVES. That is where I am headed after posting this.

I have made some fabric purchases and have a few more planned. I am waiting anxiously for the UPS guy which will now probably be Monday :-( Will share more later.

What I wore

There have been several blogs posting garments made that the sewist has worn to work or other places. So I thought I would post some recent garments I've worn to work..

The dress and coat were made using PMB3. They were inspired by a Talbot's dress and jacket. The jacket fabric was either from Vogue Fabrics or Fashion Fabric Club. The dress fabric I can't remember where I got it; but I love how the dress holds up after wearing all day. These photos were taken before leaving to go to work.

This is a Vogue pattern. The fabric came from Sawyer Brooks. It is a lovely buttery yellow background with palm trees. There are palm trees woven into the fabric as well.

This is the first Jalie 2794 top I made. I wore this today with a purchased black suit with white trim. The suit is a Kasper suit from a microfiber that does not wrinkle. This is the end of the day look.

Second Jalie top

I completed the second Jalie top-does need hemming. I am truly pleased that I now have gotten the fit perfected for me. I retraced the front pattern piece again using Y for the shoulders and upper chest, then going to AA from under the arm to the hemline. I made a forward shoulder adjustment, an upper back adjustment and completed a FBA using the method described in Sandra Betzina's Fast Fit. I am beginning to like this method more and more. I also shortened the length of the top by almost two inches. I shortened it above the hemline in order to keep the nice waist curve in the original pattern tracing. I also raised the neckline 3/4 of inch and like where this falls on me.

I again used fabric from my stash. This is a knit that I purchased two years ago during the ASG National Conference in DC. I purchased it from a vendor out of Florida Keys. It is a heavier weight slinky that has great recovery. I made a Simplicity dress from this fabric originally and had a little over a yard left to make this top. The neckband is trimmed in some leftover black knit from my stash as well. Here is a photo of the top on Alma Marie

I plan to start on the Butterick dress next; followed by another Jalie knit top pattern. I then want to tackle a couple more dresses. I have yet to start on my coat for the Great Coat Sew Along!!!!

More cutting, not sewing

I have guests coming tomorrow and the weather is going to be great to go motorcycling with DH and guests. So much of the AM was spent doing some housecleaning. Then it was off to the grocery store.

Returning late afternoon, I decided to cut out one more pattern. Since I have been in the pattern fitting and cutting mode, I decided to go ahead and cut out another Jalie pattern, one of the new releases. I am using a knit I purchased probably a year ago from EOS. It was called "Why the long face?" The pattern is this one.

The Butterick dress pattern is ready to sew along with Jalie 2794 knit top.

Yesterday and today vaca time

Yesterday was a shopping day for me. I traveled to Greensboro, NC to go to a fabric/sewing machine store called Sew Heavenly. It was a nice trip as I also made sideline trips to Four Seasons Mall and Friendly Avenue Shopping Center.

The trips to the mall resulted in my trying on several suits of which only one fit. Three of the four suits were of the same brand-Kasper. Kasper petite suits have always fit me well and until the past few years. I believe that they along with other brands no longer have a standard for the same size clothing. All suits were size 12 petite and all were pant suits. The one I purchased require no alterations. The other three would have required that the pants be taken up in the front which I don't do, but I have someone locally who does a great job on alterations and has done this for me before so I could have purchased them with that in mind. However the jackets on the other three were too tight. I found this annoying which always reminds that I sew and can make garments to fit. The only thing is I don't necessarily like to make pants and normally petite pants have always fit in length and two of three above would have required hemming. Either I am shrinking or pants are just longer due to style.

I also found a great pair of shoes to go with the blue jacket. They too were on sale and were an inexpensive brand to begin with. They were a wedge slingback in a blue patent that blended well with the jacket. On more serious business days I will wear a black pump. (Could not find a web shot of the suit to show.)

Besides being a pattern,fabric and shoe-aholic, I love cosmetics. Locally I can get Lancome, Estee Lauder and Clinique (I call them the big 3 and they are good products), but I love Chanel and Bobbi Brown and when I went to the Belk's at Friendly Center, I was in cosmetic heaven-there was Chanel, Bobbi Brown, Benefit, Laura Mercier, Origins and Mac plus the big three. I went there for Bobbi Brown's new fall collection in Mauve. I got a makeup session on the spot and of course walked out of there with more than I planned to buy. Those sales people spot me a mile away as do the shoe sales people. Hey it is my vacation!!!!!

At Sew Heavenly, I had hoped to find some fabric but I left without any. They have gorgeous fabric and cater to smocking and more of the Martha Pullen children fashions, yet they also have other wearable art type patterns as well as numerous purse patterns. They carry Husgavarna and I got to see the new sewing/embroidery machine released in mid June. Great looking machine with a huge sewing/embroidery/quilting bed. I am still making payments on my current machine that is only a little over 18 months old. I did buy some pre-wound bobbins, embroidery stabilizer and a skirt pattern. I also got some help with Pattern Master Boutique. So no sewing yesterday but a fun shopping day!

This AM I cut out the Butterick pattern after making several fitting adjustments to the pattern. That in itself can be time consuming part of the sewing journey. I then went to CURVES and now I am writing this while eating lunch. Off to the shower and then I have some ASG treasurer's work to do as tonight is our ASG meeting. Hopefully I will get my sewing machine and serger set up for sewing as tomorrow AM will be sewing time before I do the normal Friday grocery shopping but will get that done early.

What I have been up to this AM

I hate to cook but love to grill! Does that make sense? I purchased a new grill this weekend, upgrading from the one I had been using. Lowe's was to deliver today between 12 and 4. So I showered early, went to Starbucks for a latte fix and returned home. I decided to cut out another Jalie 2794 pattern again using fabric in my stash. Once that was done I decided to trace another Jalie pattern, one of their new releases.

While doing that the doorbell rang and it was Lowe's about two hours early, but okay by me. So grill was unloaded from truck, set up, propane tank hooked up and ready to go. I returned to sewing room, completed the tracing of the new pattern, made my usual adjustments and now ready to cut out this pattern.

Meanwhile I had pulled some knit fabrics from stash (collection) that needed washing and preshrinking and put those on to wash. Yesterday I also pulled some other fabric from stash that I want to make up into dresses. All are fabrics that have been purchased over a year or more ago. One is from EOS, one from Textile Studios and one from Sewing Studio.

The first one I plan to sew is a navy linen blend fabric I purchased from Sewing Studio perhaps two years ago during one of their sales. I am going to use a Butterick pattern (4812) that received good reviews at PR. I am looking to make some simple items that don't require a lot of extras. I think this will fit that need. I want to make a simple jacket to wear with it to keep the AC at bay while at work. The inexpensive fabric that I purchased at WalMart a few weeks ago has navy stripes in it and I think it will work with this well.

More later. Off to grocery store to buy some steaks for grilling, maybe. The weather is overcast and some bouts of rain. These may have to wait until later in the week.

Jalie 2794-redone

Here are photos of the Jalie top. I shortened the length. I found I had not incorporated a swayback adjustment for the back pattern piece thus the resulting back fullness/wrinkles. By shortening the top, I think it is a little more wearable. It does not pull over the hips as it did as shown here. Here are two photos with the adjustments. I will wear this top. Now that I have made adjustments to pattern pieces and know what changes are necessary I am ready to cut out and sew up another one.

Sewing today-July 7

My vaca days started off well. I completed the Marcy Tilton T-Vogue 8794. It was a great sewing challenge, BUT, I am not real happy with the outcome. It has nothing to do with the pattern I really should have used a different knit.



I am not sure what would be the best pattern to use for this knit. It is a jersey knit that I purchased from Gorgeous Fabrics. This is the softest and very tactile pleasing knit I have handled. It just was not the right knit for this pattern, IMHO. It was difficult to sew without the aid of some sort of stabilizer to get a good topstitch. This is a clingy knit as well and I think one needs to be slimmer and toner than I am to wear it well.


Having said all of that, here are some photos of me wearing the top before I fully changed to go to CURVES. The back is designed to be longer than the front so that is not an alignment error!





Here is a photo of the pattern laid out on the fabric so you can get an idea of what one of the pattern pieces look like.


Each piece is cut on a single layer of fabric and as the photo shows it is oddly shaped. The pattern instructions are very good and I referred to them as I went along. The front pieces are overlaid onto each other and you have to match up markings so you need to make sure to make good marks on the fabric by whatever method you use. These markings make sure that each piece gets sewn together correctly. Marcy suggests using adhesive spray on the fabric edges to assist in overlaying and aligning. I did not do this until I got to the hem. I just pinned and marked and this worked okay for me. I think using the adhesive is good idea but you need to be cautious in spraying the fabric edges so as not to over spray and need a protective box or something for the spray.

I found the pattern to run large so I adjusted the width and length of each piece. This requires making sure that the corresponding piece aligns and adjustments match on each piece. If you like puzzles, and I do, then you will enjoy this.

The pieces are overlaid, stitched and raw or unfinished edges are left exposed. With the knit I used I just don't think the unfinished edges look good. With my classic style, the exposed edges is a strong contrast to what I normally wear. This may be impacting my feelings about this top. Yet, that is what appealed to me when I purchased it.

The sleeves are cut on thus result in a kimono style sleeve. I am not sure that is a good look for me either. I may give this pattern a try again later. I will wear the top for very casual wear and see if it grows on me.

Sew Far this weekeend

Well so far this weekend, I have made adjustments to Jalie 2794 and will post a photo later. I found that I did not do the swayback adjustment I normally do so those back wrinkles are mainly due to that. I shortened the top length as it was just too long and that eliminated the diagonal pulls somewhat. Just was not enough enough fabric to go over the back hip area. I am fluffy there.

With those changes I adjusted the pattern pieces and traced a new front piece. This time in doing the FBA, I decided to use Sandra Betzina's bust adjustment technique. Not sure if this is want what some bloggers are calling the "y" bust adjustment. But the results were better than my usual FBA that I know that I flubbed up. I have been making FBA's for a long time now using FFRP and following Debbie Cook's great tutorial. This was definitely my error.

I also started on the Marcy Tilton Vogue Pattern for three unusual t-shirts. This has been a fun but time consuming project. It is truly like putting a puzzle together. Not sure that the knit I used was the best for this project as perhaps the knit should be a little more stable and "beefier" but I like the "differentness" of this T. I will post photos later.

It has been a nice, long, and rather restful holiday weekend. But it does not end today for me. I am on vaca next week. Lots of sewing and housecleaning plans in the works.

Hope everyone is having a great July 4th. A little overcast here in Virginia. Hamburgers on the grill later today. Off to do some sewing.