Drape Drape 2, no 4 in stripey rayon

I bought a bunch of lovely fabrics to make into these tops - I was really surprised to find a variety of interesting rayon blends at Joann Fabrics, and they were all cheap.  But I thought I could eke out 1 meter of fabric...for a one piece pattern that calls for 1.4 m?  Oops.  That didn't work.  So this is the only fabric I had enough of.  It's a nice drapey rayon, with quite a bit less stretch than the cotton that I used for the first version.  It's a bit heavier as well.

I was going to raise the front neckline, but totally forgot.  Also, I had the fabric face down on the floor, meaning that the drape moved to the other side.  I forgot that a non-symmetrical pattern can't be flipped over at will...luckily I didn't care about the drape side.

I was going to do a nice Renfrew style neck binding...but I again forgot my sides and I sewed it to the inside.  Sigh.  I folded it over and sewed the edge down just to have a clean binding but it still looks rather nicer on the inside than the outside.  On this version I made an effort to clean up all my seams, because my first version feels very flimsy.  I still didn't sew the bottom at all since it is snug.

It ended up a bit tighter.  I might loosen the opening for the drape side armhole next time so that it doesn't cling to my arm.  It's still amazing! 

The best undercover hood ever - in double face Italian wool

Me Made May was a brilliant idea for about 4 days while it was warm and sunny out...but then Seattle got all rainy.  It does that sometimes.  So in order to stave off the cold I was inspecting my me-made wardrobe for gaps.  That's what me-made-May is for, right?  Makes one reflect a bit on what things we ought to be making, instead of, say, dresses....

As I noted in my plans for the year, I need to make more cardigans.  I also have a weird jacket fetish, and probably I should make some jackets too, not because I need them per se but because it will distract me from buying them.  But anyway right this minute, the solution was a warm, fuzzy Undercover Hood by Papercut.  I've done it so many times that I couldn't go wrong, and now I know to use a heavier weight knit.  So I went off to Nancy's Sewing Basket, in the rain, to see what they had.  Naturally, what they had was exquisitely expensive double faced Italian wool, and after sucking in a breath and going for it, I rushed home to roll myself up in it for a day or so.  The outside is grey/heathered navy with a normal knit face, and the inside face is fleecy/almost felted soft navy.  I stuck a tiny square in the wash but I didn't like how it took away some of the fleeciness, so I washed this in the machine on 'ultra-delicate' and that seemed to do ok.  I air-dried it.

I made my usual alterations to the Undercover hood.  I cut an XS, 2" removed from the sleeve length, 1" from the middle front, and shortened the front pocket about 1" accordingly.  I cut two pockets, so that I could sew them together for a clean edge, but I kept the fleecy side facing in on the inside layer.  Same thing on the hood- I sewed them together so that I would have the woven outside and fleecy inside even though it's two layers.  

I was terrified to iron this, although ironing made it just shiny enough that I got worried, it flattened it out quite a bit and that might have made it easier to sew at times.  Overall the fabric was very well behaved.  It cut easily, shed only some bits of fluff everywhere, and it flattened as I sewed so even though I was sewing 4 layers, it didn't mess up the Necchi.  (We're on better terms now, since I stole him from my parent's house and took him home.)

What I didn't anticipate is how the thick wool makes this sweatshirt a lot smaller than in the stretchy past versions.  It fits me perfectly but if I start to warm up at all it gets really hot.  In this fabric I could have left it a bit larger just so it would air more.  I am already starting to dream of a version with a zip up the front...

Grainline Maritime shorts in wool

Are you shocked that I'm finally making a summer item when it's near summer?  Never fear...I started these in February.  It's only on accident that they're being finished in a season-appropriate fashion.

This fabric is a lightweight wool that I found as a scrap from Nancy's Fabric Shop on Queen Anne in Seattle.  It's a lovely shop to go into but similar to Global Fabrics in Wellington it can quickly eat up your money!  The ladies there really know what they are doing and give thorough advice. 

I figured this pair of Maritime shorts would be a muslin for another pair that I want to make in another heavy fabric - a beautiful tweed that I have found...but first things first.  Everyone else had some fit issues with the shorts so I wasn't sure how mine would go.  Based on chats I had with Lizzy, I cut out a 6 to start.  I had some trouble figuring out the front pockets and I didn't feel like the Grainline photo tutorial helped at all.  It just showed more pictures of the same confusing thing!  Eventually I put all the pieces together in the right way, at least of the pockets, and I didn't have more trouble after that.

The rest of construction was straightforward until I got to the fly.  I was making my dad's Burda trousers at the same time, and with similar pieces, but the very confusing instructions led me astray.  (The Burda instruction should have helped, but didn't.)  Something about my fly is wrong.  It took me ages to figure this out, but shouldn't the zip be hidden by that bit of fabric?  

Oh and that bit of striped ribbon?  Yeah, that was where the waistband was totally not the same length as the lining...

Unfortunately these shorts languished while I was in Switzerland and so they became a bit of a UFO.  They were finished in short order, with no real further problems.  The waistband was too short.  And funny shaped.  I had initially put it together wrong but I'm pretty sure I fixed that, but still it has a few wrinkles - and again I found the directions less than helpful.  I left my Thurlow pattern in New Zealand but I think I'll buy it again because it has the most straightforward pants explanations, and I prefer to do the stupid fly first and get it over with, rather than leaving it for last.

Sorry about the spots, my mother fixed the camera afterwards but didn't take any more back views.

The size six fit fine, and I didn't make any adjustments. I am not sure I love these enough to make a lot of them (mainly because I don't wear very many shorts except one hideous pink pair that will last me another 20 years) but I might try lengthening them first into knee-length shorts and see what I think.

These were done in time to wear them for Me-Made-May, hurrah! 

Drape Drape 2, no 4

Similar to the first drape project, the onerous part was sitting on the floor tracing out these big rorschach-blot monster pieces and sticking them together.  The piece was easy to cut, and then again I sewed it in the order I liked.  Basically it just gets folded over and then all the loose parts are sewn.  I did not pay attention to how you are supposed to roll and sew the drape side sleeve opening, and mine was a bit messy.  The Singer really showed how it didn't like knits here - I had to constantly tug my stitches to get them straight, and my final seamlines are wavy.  I attached the neckline as I did on the first drape project - I sewed the inside like a bias binding and then folded it over with the raw edge out.  I did initially hem the opposite sleeve, but my hemming was too tight, and so I cut the sleeve edge off.  I left the bottom raw as well.

I cut the S/M again here.  
The fabric is a mostly-cotton, very very thin knit, from one of the shops in Milan.

This turned out to be an amazing tshirt that I loved right away.  Lizzy was right!  I already have about three more planned, most of them in stripes.  I am not sure how to finish the neck and the sleeves better, though. 

By Hand London Georgia dress

This wasn't a pattern I jumped on but my interest rose when I saw Ladybird's version - short!  And of course I saw it on Lizzy in person, and hers was fabulous.  During my perambulations around the city, I found some stretch twill on sale and it seemed just the thing for a simple dress that wouldn't require too much equipment.  I wasn't exactly enthralled by the idea of hand sewing the entire thing, but I suppose it could be done... (nah, there's got to be a sewing machine I can borrow somewhere, right?)

Since I had so much time to think about it, I thought about the bust, and about my history with BHL bust problems.  I thought maybe I should do an FBA.  I bought a pair of shorts to rip up and - crazy! - muslin the bodice!!!  Before I did that I read the sewalong that the lovely ladies at BHL have done.  They advise that an FBA is needed when the high bust is >2 inches smaller than the bust, because that would correspond to a C-cup.  Hm....wait a second.  My big problem is that my high bust is 1+ inches greater than my bust, although some of that is because of my back muscles.  So should I actually be doing a SBA? I decided to be smart and just muslin the normal pattern.

normal size

I can easily pinch out an inch

SBA of about 1 cm, I only pinned it, but it's much smoother and fits more closely

There is still a bit of excess, but it's less.

This is what I got, see top photos (after I hand sewed my first muslin like a good 14th century frau).  Empty pointing boobies...I guess I do need that SBA, although I'm not sure what happens at the bottom of the cups where they attach to the dress.  Because I didn't totally believe in it, I shrunk it by only 1 cm.  And because I was getting lazy, I just pinned it instead of sewing it.  But already I can see a huge difference - the bodice lies flat against my chest and there are no empty cups.  I can also see that I might have gaping at the top of the bodice, but that will be easy to fix by just sewing a bigger allowance at the top of the centre front.  After all this, I also think I better find a sewing machine, because my stitches don't look very reliable to me, but at least I can get on with cutting before my flatmate comes home and needs the living room floor.  (Yeah!  And the iron is in the basement!)

This is more true to the actual colours.  My camera hates purple, apparently.

I found construction to be straightforward, although I had slight trouble with the centre back point.  The front was off but even after taking out about a 1cm wedge from the centre top front, it still gaped, so I gathered it there, similar to what Lizzy did on hers.  Then you can't see my slightly off-kilter centre.  Compensation came later: no zip!  Since this is a shoulder-free dress and my fabric is very stretchy, I didn't need it.  Hurrah!

I did as suggested by others and tried the dress on inside out.  My heavy fabric doesn't show marks, so I drew lines down the side to flatten out the extreme-hip shape (my hips are low?)  I considered pulling in the back a bit too but I didn't want to overdo the changes.  Because I know that I have a short strap-distance, I planned ahead and left the back straps out.  Once I tried on the dress, I inserted them into their holes and sewed these shut.  I wasn't bothered by having sewing marks on the back of the dress, although I could also have sewn it on the inside as you do for the Sewaholic Cambie.

I cut a 6/10.  This is my usual size for BHL.
I still don't know if the SBA mattered at all.  The bust fits ok.  But the bottom of the bust is high.

A finishing touch - the BHL label!  None of my previous patterns came with the labels so I suffered from envy of everyone else with their amazing labelled By Hand London projects.  Now I finally have one of my own!

I think this dress, because I worked on it so slowly and attentively, has come together much better than my rushed projects in the past.  I put a lot of effort into what I personally needed so that I would consider this a "wearable" dress, and that truly makes a big difference and is something that you don't learn right away.  In some ways it was also a more enjoyable process because I didn't rush.  

Drape Drape 2, no 2

I admit it, I'm a follower, at least when it comes to sewing.

Lizzy got me interested in Drape, Drape - book by Hisako Sato, in case you haven't heard of it - in January, when she was overflowing with her plans to try out some of these patterns.  Initially I had zero interest, but while in Bern my interest grew since I was seeking projects that weren't equipment intensive.  (I got a sewing machine at least!)  I managed to buy some cheap mystery stretch fabric in Italy and got to work.

The most intensive part about the Drape Drape projects is tracing the pieces.  As others have mentioned, the pieces for all the projects are overlapping on 2 sheets, and so they must be traced.  Luckily, for this project the tracing is mainly straight lines and simple curves.  I used a 1cm seam allowance, not whatever was marked.  My measurements would have me be a M/L but I cut the S/M as I know people have said these patterns run large.

I basically folded the dress in half and then sewed everything in my favourite order (shoulders, side, hem) leaving the bindings for last because I do not like sewing them.  I found the lengths advised by the pattern - 80 cm neck and 60 cm armhole bindings - to be generous and ended up cutting off 10 cm from the neck and about 6 from each sleeve.  My technique for sewing these on is not very glamorous, I just started at one side, pulling some tension until I got to the end.  I didn't fold my "bias tape" over for a clean finish, just folded it once over to the front and sewed with the fabric edge out.  I think this look matches the style of the dress pretty well.  On the sleeves I decided to try just sewing the binding on the outside and letting the jersey curl naturally, but it required then finishing the seam inside and I may still later sew it down, so that wasn't more efficient.  I know others have used a variety of different options for these bindings but my goal was to avoid walking allll the way down to the basement to iron anything so I wasn't keen to actually iron my bindings flat.

Initially I wasn't sure what to think but sure enough this dress has really grown on me!  I love the drape after all.  I gave it a generous hem, which I just eyeballed (and yeaaahhh, I didn't iron it)  but even the ridges in my hem, um, match the drape.  When I put this on it was super comfortable so I'm thinking it's going to get quite a bit of use.  Especially if I can make it work-appropriate, as I'm being shunted back into the office for the summer. I definitely think of this blah taupe version as a muslin for a more beautiful set of stripes though.

I did finally learn why many people are afraid to handle knits.  My old Janome My Style 20 was not well known in New Zealand - it must be a model that has gone by other names - but it was a hard working beast and never caused any trouble with knits.  My stitches stayed even and I didn't have trouble getting good tension.  With my little plastic Singer, I had huge issues with tension.  I had to sew everything once normally on a straight stitch, pull it until the fabric flattened and the stitches snapped somewhere, and then resew the spot where the stitches snapped.  I'm sure that's not what you are supposed to do.  I've noticed that it left my seams very shaggy looking.  I don't know if it's because this fabric is a super super thin knit, or if it would happen with all knits.  I used a 70 ballpoint needle.

On the topic of the cheap mystery stretch fabric: fabric shopping in Italy is not, actually, a wonderland of cheap amazing things.  I tried out my luck in Como and in Milano.  In Como I found an expensive shop with some lovely wares (Chanel fabric!) and ended up with a few silk and linen scraps to try making into pants, but they weren't really cheap.  In Milan I checked out three places: Self-service dello Scampolo near Porta Genova, Tessuti Raponi, on Via Panzeri, and Tessuti & Scampoli, at Via Lario.  My experience was similar to shopping in LA.  I think I'm just not really keen on shopping for fabric when I don't know what I'm getting, and the huge bins of different coloured stuff turn me off really fast.  Luckily this time I had the drape projects in mind and so I concentrated on finding fine cotton or rayon jerseys. There is some great striped viscose in Bern, but of course it's 39 franks/meter.   

From Milan I ended up with 4 different pieces of stretchy maybe-mostly-cotton.  The sum total of my shopping was about 40 euro for these four pieces (a total of about 6-7 meters) plus the silk and linen pieces that I mentioned above.  Definitely cheaper than Switzerland...but still not very dreamy.  

Me Made May 2014!

I wasn't going to do it, because in Bern I didn't have enough me-made items to make it possible.  But my plans changed and I'm in Seattle, at loose ends.  So I made a decision and I'm joining me-made-May. 

I vow to wear one item of me made clothing every day for the month of May 2014!

I'll be posting to Instagram as soelimano.  You can follow me there.  I am already starting to reorganise this month's sewing plans because I don't think I can live in dresses after all.  I guess that's what it's for - reflecting on what I wear and how to make that me-made.  But I have a lot of half finished and sort of in progress things that I've carried all the way from New Zealand so hopefully I can also clean up some of the disorder (finish projects!) while waiting for some more secure life plans to hatch.