A darling cape for the darling Miss J.

In my last post I talked about this startling piece of  fabric I bought. Well this is what I made with it:

I made this for a challenge from the Designer III group I belong to. The challenge was to use either a plaid or striped fabric and match the pattern. To see what the other ladies made, go on over to the Designer III blog.

I'm really not much of a gut grinder, but I was really at a loss for what to make at first. I didn't have a plan, a pattern or any suitable  fabric. I was almost ready to use my usual fallback position, which  is: make a skirt. 

So I went shopping for fabric at the nice fabric store in my area (Haberman's) and got this fabric. I really wasn't crazy about it. So I over dyed it with regular old Rit dye. I liked it better, but I still didn't know what to make with it. Then *Ding* I thought: a cape! The stripes would do that cool chevron thing like a skirt, it would be almost as easy as a skirt, but it wouldn't be as lazy as me making another skirt.

I used New Look 6227 for the pattern and its pretty easy, as you can imagine. It's all bias. The only change I made to the was to let the lining hang free instead of bagging it, due to a recent bad experience I had. Originally, I had planned to make the button tabs and epaulletes in leather, but it just didn't look right to me so I used the arrow motifs from the fabric. I did buy a walking foot just for this project and it really was a huge help matching the stripes. 

Although I started making this for myself, it really suits Miss J much better and its her's now. I have to get her to model it.

That fabric is hurting my eyes!

Its been a bit since my last post, but I have not been idle. I've been working on a project challenge for
a sewing group I belong to. This is the fabric I chose. When I first brought it home and hung it on Annie, it snarled at me every time I walked past it! I have since tamed it into submission.

I also made this:

Not the greatest example of sewing skill ever, huh? Probably the least challenging thing I've ever made! Its the Samui Suite pattern by Stitch in Time. You're thinking "She needed a pattern for that?!--It's a circle with a hole in the middle!"  Cut me some slack, I have a cast on my foot. I've had to learn to sew with my left foot. 

I'll let you see what I did with the fabric up top tomorrow.

Butterick 5300

This is my latest effort toward finding the Holy Grail of shirt patterns. Although I do like this one, I will also be trying out the other two unused shirt  patterns in my collection. I know everybody talks about their fabric stash but,  personally, I think my pattern stash is way more out of control!

As far as this particular pattern goes, I'd recommend it pretty highly. It is a Connie Crawford pattern and once you look past the terrible illustrations, its a pretty nice shirt. It has a nice feminine shape to it and the pattern comes with seperate cup size patterns. I cut between a M and L and used the D-DD cup pattern.

I did my usual slope shoulder adjustment, but did not shorten the bodice or the sleeves. I think the length is just fine and I'm not quite 5 feet. 

Speaking of the sleeves-- the fashion illustration shows a vent at the outside of the sleeve, but on the line drawing it's on the inside. The pattern itself also has the vent on the inside (underarm seam). I don't know why you'd want a vent under the sleeve, so I put mine on the outside. I folded the cuff RS to RS, stitched a triangle then clipped it and turned it.

One more pattern oddity:

Isn't the dart supposed to point at the bust point? My BP is the pencil mark, so I left the dart where it was, which was perfect. 

This fabric shredded like crazy and I believe I lost a bit of my seam allowance. Because of that, I think it's a hair smaller than I'd like. And beware, the collar and stand have only 3/8 inch seam allowances. 

The fabric up close: doesn't it look like there's pandas hiding in there!?

The fit of this pattern was pretty darn good and it could have come a bit closer to perfection if it had had a long sleeve version, so I will be moving on for know. I'll see how it stacks up against the two other 

candidates. 

Dusting myself off

After my recent failure with Butterick 8910,  then its partial redemption , I was left with nothing to show for my sewing efforts. Whenever this happens, I  turn to one of my tried and true patterns to make myself feel good again about myself as a sewer. "I do know how to sew!"

Besides, its getting fallish here in these parts.


This is the Textile Studio Monaco shell that I made a dozen of this summer. I added the sleeves from Kwik Sew 3658. I really love this pattern. I'm happy that I can make it year round now.

These two are the rest of Kwik Sew 3658. I love this pattern too and have also made it a dozen times. Both of these patterns are in my personal Sewing Patterns Hall of Fame! 

This one matches everything I own!

In the meantime, I am working on a woven shirt. I have 3 patterns in my collection I'm trying. Hopefully, one will become the Holy Grail of woven shirt patterns.

Just to prove a point

You can make Vogue 8910 work out quite nicely, if you use a knit. I don't recommend this particular knit though!

This is just a down and dirty muslin: I didn't finish the edges or match the pattern. I'm sure I must have some fabric suitable for it that I would actually wear!! 

I had my suspitions

I bought this pattern (V8910) on impulse recently when JoAnn was having a sales on Vogues. I'm not sure if it's new to the catalog or not, but I didn't see any reviews on PR for it. It looked simple enough & has a nice feminine shape to it. I love a shawl collar and especially liked the addition of the pleat in it.

It wasn't until I got ready to cut it out that I noticed it's cut entirely on the bias. I spent a couple days thinking about if I should do an FBA on it or not. (View C does have a dart in it). I decided not to, reasoning the downward drag from the bias would make it difficult to determine the proper placement and that it might continue to lower itself over time anyway.
Soldiering on, I cut it out using this vintage suiting fabric that I didn't care a whole lot about and started sewing. I have to admit I was somewhat perplexed by the directions for sewing the pleat in the collar, but I figured it out.

After the front and back were joined together it was actually looking and fitting pretty nice. I then let it hang out on my dress form a couple of days to relax. Oddly, according to the directions, it was not yet the time to put the sleeves*. It was time to put in the lining. This necessitated a trip to the fabric store for lining. (I think I left the pattern envelope there, so if anyone finds it, please throw it away for me.)
Now, I've done a lot of sewing and I can't say I've ever seen a Vogue pattern attach a facing like this: the front and front lining are cut from the same pattern piece and the facing is placed on top of the lining and stitched onto it applique style!! Then the assembled lining is stitched to the assembled jacket. This is when things started to go horribly wrong! The suiting fabric had about 20% more give on the bias than the lining fabric and the lining ended up about 2 inches too short!

Maybe I could start a new trend: the balloon hem on a jacket!

*At least I didn't waste any time putting the sleeves in. Another odd thing about this pattern is the way the sleeves go in. The assembled sleeve and lining are joined at the cuff, then the sleeve is set in keeping the lining free, and the lining is hand sewn into the sleeve opening of the lining. I have seen this before and I just don't care for this method.

I am really ambivalent about trying this one again. It really fit quite nicely before the lining went in. Usually when I get a bad taste in my mouth about a pattern, my impulse is to just get rid of it! Its not like I don't have a dozen other jacket patterns I can try.

I shouldn't have to lift a finger...

when I'm wearing this gown. I certainly can't get near a stove wearing it. Hell, I can hardly walk in it. I need to lie down. Somebody should bring me a drink and a box of bonbons.

This lovely and impractical garment is the Decades of Style 1926 Negligee (#2601)

Its one of those projects that takes longer to cut out than to sew. I'm not quite five feet, so I did shorten it quite a bit. It's supposed to have ties on the back (that's that horizontal line on the back), but they end up in a very awkward place, so I took them off.  I finished all the edges with a narrow rolled hem on my serger. This was so easy to make I feel lazy wearing it!