The irony of the last Demeter dress

So after months working on this pattern and multiple variations, I returned to the exact fit of...the first Demeter dress, which I strongly regret giving away.  That rayon!  That print!  (It sold out.)  The shyly oversized fit somehow worked better than all the alternatives.  Actually I did shorten the hem another inch. Have realised that you can't shorten it too much as the length creates weight which keeps it from being as puffy.

AND I decided it was time to cut into one of my precious Liberty Tana Lawns stashed since 2013.  I have been a fancy fabric whore from the start, but for the longest time I couldn't figure out how to really showcase these lovely birds, thus this piece has remained with a few other favourites in deep-stash.  I was reminded recently that one of the features of Tana Lawn is that it drapes quite well for a lawn, so I was hoping it would be more like the rayon and not puff out like my other versions did.

Reckoned I should line the bodice, but that the skirt has enough volume and gathers that it won't be too transparent. I underlined the bodice with a scrap of soft cotton voile in my stash (after going shopping for appropriate fabric and buying a bunch of things I didn't end up using - too stiff, to shiny, too whatever...)

I tried to put my favourite birds in the best spots, so they wouldn't be beheaded by darts or nipping at my nips, etc. 

 

That's it, I've made this dress so many times, what else can I say?  It's winter so took awhile to get any photos.  It is not quite as drapey as the rayon was but it's still a very satisfying fit and once the weather warms up I'm sure I'll wear it heaps as the pockets are roomy!  After making this pattern 4 times, this is the only version I have kept.  However, reviewing my previous has made me reconsider a tank version but cutting very deep armholes.  Might do that. 

Louis Antoinette Janis jacket

 It's funny how sometimes I have to actually settle in and sew a lot of variations on a theme, and then I come out of that space and look at those items and how they FEEL on me and I say OH!  I really *don't* suit this style!  All the dreaming about pattern and fabric combos doesn't prepare me, at least (maybe you are different) for the reality of the item.  And despite it being my 11th year sewing, I'm still constantly surprised by what I really could just skip making (if my goal is to curate a wardrobe for myself, which of course is not always the point.)

Hehe 

So I got this pattern in 2015 when I lived in Switzerland.  I was really super keen.  So much that I did a wild, unheard of thing: I made a muslin.  I made notes on the pattern about the crappy fit, didn't blog it, and moved on.  I just did NOT know how to deal with my shoulders.  

Now this fabric.  While I was sewing I realised it would have been great pants, oooops but in the past few months I had mentally attached it to the Silvia Coatigan.  And despite having the pattern printed out and ready, I hesitated.  Something was not right.  While riffling through my patterns I saw this and thought it was a much better fit for the fabric than the Silvia, so that has been folded up and put away.  

I was left with my cut out pattern pieces - size 38, still what I would choose now, and these vague instructions to remove 1cm at the bottom of the armscye.  I figured it must be my sloping shoulders, and the instructions I gave myself are consistent with a sloping shoulder adjustment. Luckily all these adjustments can be done to the cut out fabric - so I removed 1 cm from the front shoulders at the sleeve edge - just cut off a triangle tapering towards normal at the shoulder seam, and I recut the front armscye  1 cm deeper following my old, mysterious instructions.  

This was a really fun pattern to sew together - it's simple, the fabric was well behaved.  I took the time to topstitch a lot of things down (the pattern didn't instruct on finishing) and I added a little hook for a button since I hate things that can't be shut.  I was very surprised by the great fit.  My shoulder adjustments worked!  I even learned how to catch stitch the hem up.

 

 

It's winter and this is a light jacket.  The sleeves are slender.  I can fit one layer under it.  Thus, this is a jacket for a very different season, and I suspect it will go into my collection of cool jackets I like, keep and never wear.  (Like my jean jacket, my Deer and Doe Nenuphar, and the adorable Waffle Dropje vest that I keep thinking of adding sleeves to....)  I think I need to actually just step away from all the blazers.  I have bought blazers and then sold them.  I have made blazery type things and then gotten rid of them.  Non-structured, woven layers just don't seem to make much sense to me if I can't zip them up.  But anyway, this was fun to make. 

i am Artemis jacket pattern review

 I planned this quite awhile ago. It was something like, I saw the fabric in the shop (Draper's in Auckland), I knew that a large scale plaid would be a terrible pain in my arse, I still for some reason couldn't resist, and I thought of this pattern which I have considered for other difficult fabrics a few times.  It doesn't use too much yardage (though the width is important for the attached sleeve).  Also, it's unlined.  That has made it tempting for a number of challenging fabrics, but anyway I bought the plaid.  And it's a huge thick fluffy pile, which is annoying as it takes up a lot of my sewing fabric shelves.  That meant the project stayed near the top of the list.  I got a lot of sewing done this winter because we were moving and I wanted to clear out some projects!  

Many details: buying the pattern. Buying tracing paper for the pattern.  Tracing paper doesn't exist in New Zealand and sadly, the sewing tracing paper sold by Miss Maude is terrible - it's not actually transparent at all but I bought it together with the pattern.  I am patterns all need to be traced.  I made size 38 per the pattern chart.

 Once I committed, I really put pattern matching as the priority. Sewing this is extremely easy. Pattern matching, meh. Not so easy.  B for effort.

 

So it was done pretty quickly and here we are.

 

 

It's very soft and cozy. The pockets droop a bit more than I would like, and the sleeves are relatively narrow compared to the rest of the fit, though I think that's good as otherwise it would look sloppy.  I think the grown on sleeve is a bad fit for me due to the width of my back.  I need to size up but then it's not proportional.  There is overall nothing really wrong with this but honestly, this is one of those projects I make not because it will suit me at all, but because I am just sort of artistically curious how the fabric and pattern will go together.  There's no chance of me ever wearing this, even though it's cute and cozy.   

Though honestly I might come back to the pattern with a cozy and boring fabric and make a sweatshirty jacket thing.  That might be more my style.

Jalie 3352 dolman tee experiments

 My friend Tessa loves this top and finally I couldn't resist any longer. I have this amazing, soft, alpaca knit and wanted to make a tee that wouldn't mess with the fabric too much.  Tessa is long waisted and she doesn't need to lengthen this top - with that intel I went for size R, my size by the measurements table, and I only shortened it about 1" as visually it didn't look that long.  Easy to put together and it didn't require handling the alpaca too much, which was good - it definitely was as curly and annoying as merino, but even lighter weight so harder to feel under my fingers!

Because Tessa only makes the tshirt, I hadn't considered a long sleeve version until I was actually making this, and then I was for some reason immediately inspired to use some leftover fleece to try out it out.  It came out pretty crappy and went straight to the op shop.  Needs more stretch than the fleece had, and the super stretchy bindings just didn't go with it very well.

Thought I didn't love the tee because it feels a bit long (high-low tees can be hit or miss on me since the back is too long but the front shows too much, ugh, being short waisted), but then I wore it to bed...and every evening, and months passed and honestly it was two months before it even got into the washing machine because I just kept wearing it to lounge in.  (It has since been washed!)  So I guess it's a win.  And then I thought it would be an interesting pattern to turn on the bias and use for woven fabrics (like those silk scraps I can't quite allocate to a project).  I got all excited about that and then realised I should leave it for summer!  I do think I'll make this again as a standard knit too, but I'll crop 1.5" off the bottom or even out the high-low hem a bit - anyway definitely a fun easy pattern to come back to and play with a bit.  I can see some sleeve action in my future too, but obv not with weird thick fabrics...

Vikisews Leora dress - my first vikisews encounter

I have actually moved on to making things that are more winter-appropriate.  But I bought two vikisews patterns and I wanted to at least sew one of them this year.  The Oona was planned, but I didn't have enough fabric.  So I moved on to sew the Leora.  

I would never have looked twice at this from the model photos.  It was an instagram picture from @maisewdelic that got me - cropping the dress, the sleeves, and putting the tie only through the channels rather than up and around your neck.  NOW I was sold.  

I dove into the weird world of Vikisews fit.  I got the size 36, height 162-165 cm. Because of that I made no additional pattern modifications, assuming that the petite fit would be allocated just as I need (hmmmm).  Cropped the sleeves randomly halfway down.  Removed 45 cm of the skirt. And cut the tie half as long as required.  

The instructions were really cool once I got over the question of what knit bias tape is.  I used strips of an old tshirt because it seemed more stable than the rayon of my main fabric and I had it handy.  I love the finish that provides, actually.  Creating the channel was very cool.  Overall this was a super fun one day project.  

Finally get to try it on. Hm, interesting. 

Now, this fabric is from Tessuti, it's another stash special fabric, and yet again there's me splashing out on an untried pattern.  The fit of this is good (does anyone like looking down at your own belly?  But I think it's not really something another person can see) except oddly the right shoulder. The left is a little bit better for some reason.  The right seems like the sleeve was put in wrong, though it wasn't.  I need to try to just overlock off the top curve of the shoulder - actually this is where a sloping shoulder adjustment would have saved me, enough that I might consider just doing it on everything in future. There's a huge amount, maybe 1" of dead space at the top of that shoulder, and this is quite a wide chested cut, so that's important to keep the top from falling off. I would have done it right away but I changed my overlocker thread and my overlocker is broken so changing thread is currently a bit dramatic.  Alternately, that fit is due to me also being short across the upper chest.  I've never shortened a pattern at that level, but the straps on tank tops are often too long, and I've often noticed taking a wedge out from the front horizontally above the bust would have helped things fit better - unfortunately this isn't a fix you can do once you have sewn a garment together, so I rarely consider it. 

Sorry about the particularly bad photos.  My usual outdoor location was blocked by a car and I got really frustrated with my camera's autofocus. 

Aside from the right shoulder, the fit is great.  It looks nothing like on the model.  Because I'm so short waisted (I presume that's why), the skirt comes up past my belly button and the ruching lies over it - no hole!  Very demure. I had the exact same fit on the Papercut Axis dress.  Possibly if I did do the tie over my head I could change where the ruching lay but I will never do that because I think it is hideous.  I'm fascinated by how consistent this is - I have a couple more front-hole dresses to try next year and I wonder if I will continue to find that they sit very differently on me due to my short waistedness (or some other reason?) 

This counts as a win. It's cute and wearable and actually very flattering.  (I got around to fixing that shoulder as planned, and it's better.)  I would love some Fasanella style analysis on why my fit is so different from the expected fit though!