Two layer Renfrew

This project was growing in my head as I reflected on the clothing that I like to wear, rather than following the knee-jerk impulse to make another pretty dress.  The only problem with this plan is that the silk-viscose was originally going to be a Plaintain and a pair of ooh la leggings.  Once I cut out the leggings, I was working with scant fabric to make a double layered shirt.  I got everything done...except the sleeves.  And Mood was out of the original fabric.  Ugh.  So I went back and found a stretch silk for the sleeves that was a similar colour but I had to wait for it to come in the mail.  It is a more expensive blend with a dry harsh feel, whereas the body of the shirt is a soft and cheap viscose that I think has only a bit of silk in it.  

My adjustments for size were to shorten the waist 1".  The longer layer on the 2-layer tee was about an inch longer than that but of course didn't have the waistband on it.  I didn't do the shoulder widening that I have done in the past because I really like the fit of my first Renfrew (where I shortened it 2" and didn't widen the shoulders.)  I cut a size 4. 

This required a bit of puzzling out as I did it.  When I got to the underarm seam (which is after sewing the sleeve in the flat) I realised it had to be contiguous with the outer layer of the shirt.  So I cut the underlayer seam allowance out of the way and sewed the outer layer first.  I then sewed the underlayer and used a zig zag finish that I continued up into the sleeve a bit.  The result of this was that the under arm area is tighter than I would like.  Probably I should have used a 3/8 seam allowance to be safer (it always seems really wasteful to use a 5/8" allowance on knits!!)  That viscose of the sleeves is not as stretchy and also makes the arms a bit tighter than my other versions.

And I didn't think ahead...I made notches in the bottom front and back of the shirt!  Um, design feature!   But the biggest "design feature" deserves some mention.  I have been noticing lately how knits respond differently to different sewing machines.  My cheap machine in Switzerland wouldn't even sew a straight line in a tissue-paper fine knit.  My current cheap machine hashes my zig zag seam allowances but I just assume that's extra stability...with the fine viscose of the shirt, it had trouble sewing straight on only two layers.  So, no problem with the neckband, 4 layers, or sleevebands (as the sleeve fabric was heavier)  but a bigger issue on the sides.  I didn't pull any tension on the sides as I sewed.  I had loosened the tension previously from my usual.  Of note, this Necchi is totally messed up and I sew everything with a stitch length of 4 because anything smaller than that creates micro stitches and thread birdsnests.

So - ruching!  And it looks great!  Hurrah for unplanned improvements! (The ruching settled down a bit after washing, too - on my instagram you can see how much more there was on the side seams right after I made it.) 

Deer & Doe Plantains: birds and stripes

I was excited about this top ages ago and was even thinking of making it in Switzerland, but the onerous task of printing and cutting and taping held me back (although it wasn't terrible in the end).  When I finally made the first one, it was for a friend but whetted my appetite...so since it's my birthday and I can do whatever I want, I made two!

BIRDS!! Charley Harper birds!!!  What could be more amazing?

My coworker Alexx wanted some attention too!

Thanks to Chris the xray tech who took these nice photos. 

This is a super easy pattern to make.  It depends basically on your bust measure and is free flowing from there.  I cut a 38, which is the same as my Belladone.  (I'm 34.5, 27, 37)  I made the vireos up in a day in between working on two other projects, and did the stripes later the same week in between 13-hr shifts at work and surfing for my birthday! 

Westport, WA.  My local surf beach, and my birthday!  Best combination : )

The pattern is four pieces and comes together like basically all simple knit tee shirts: front, back, sleeves, neckline.  The amazingness of it is in the cut - dips a bit low in the front, and with this fabulous flare at the waist.  My evil Necchi did fine with the very stable knit vireos.  I sewed it up with a straight stitch and a ballpoint needle, and zigzagged to finish each seam. 

I used the recommended mid-length sleeves for the vireos, and so I lengthened it a bit on the stripes because that fell at an awkward spot for me.  I skipped the elbow patches because I don't care for them.  I made a single effort at stripe matching but cutting the stripes with the underarm at the same spot.  You can see that it just about worked.  I was disappointed in the striped version - it's so me that it feels a little too much like me circa 1996.  In fact, when I pair it with navy jeans, I think I had just about the same outfit in 1996...

I can see making this up in a sweater knit...hm...in fact...I have an idea!  You may see another Plantain soon. 

Style Arc Lorie jacket

This is the first pattern by Style Arc that I have done.  I knew ahead of time that the instructions are sparse but sufficient.  Many people don't like that you only get one size with Style Arc, so the first few patterns are needed to test out fit.  I have heard that the sizing is consistent, so once you do settle on a size, it generally fits well.  I used my measurements to order a size 8.

I expected this jacket to be quite an involved process.  It isn't a full Chanel style jacket with interlining or any hand stitching, but it does involve block fusing the pieces (which I learned is when you interface every single piece of the jacket except the sleeves!) and topstitching.  I also mitred my first corner - when you make a 90 degree turn while sewing two pieces together.  It went quite well, but does require a bit of preparation because you have to cut the corner right after you turn it, so that the second side will go smoothly.

Because the instructions are very sparse, it's important to cut every notch very well.  I had trouble adding the hem band to the jacket because no matter which way I flipped up, the notches didn't match.  I was concerned because it's supposed to be fitted at the waist with some flare, and I thought if I got it upside down, it might not have the desired shape.  Other than that, I did find the instructions sufficient.  The only other place that I had trouble was the final step - attaching the sleeves inside out.  I recalled from my Minoru that this can be tricky but I sewed them up with no problem...only after I tried to turn the jacket right side out it had become a Mobius strip...

I learned something about fusing in general during this process.  I had block fused my pieces following the instructions.  I was using a very stable double knit cotton twill, and the fusing is probably most important if the main jacket fabric is loosely woven, Chanel style.  My lining, however, was a very light silk-cotton.  I thought it was probably too light to be a lining, and so I used bemberg for the sleeves to make sure they could take the stress.  In retrospect, I would have done better to not fuse every piece of the jacket, and to fuse the silk-cotton pieces instead. 

The main stopping point was waiting for my special order lavender 19" zipper to arrive....what a pain! It still wasn't perfect but I was so sick of looking for zippers that I finally decided to go with it and see how the jacket would turn out.  I was considering this a muslin project and when trying it on without the lining I was suspicious of the fit - it seemed very boxy and not at all as fitted or shaped as I expected.  I didn't get to see the final fit until after I turned the jacket right side out with the lining in place.  It was better than before, but I found a few major fit issues that make me totally not interested in ever wearing it.  I guess this is where a muslin might have been a good idea, but without the lining I couldn't perceive how it would fit.

the lightweight lining actually is not an issue once it's in place

mitred corners!

Looks like it needs those shoulder pads!

...yet I have no shoulder room to move at all!

much nicer on Pam!

she's happy - she just got a new jacket!

Major issues:

-extremely narrow through shoulders. I expected my shoulders to fit in the shoulder pad space.  But you see that is vertical space above the shoulders, which looks stupid. My shoulders fit in the sleeves and so I feel like I'm in a straitjacket.  For this to fit, I would have needed about a 1.5" shoulder widening.  Now I truly believe that Style Arc makes narrow patterns through the shoulders.  My lesson associated with this is more general - I think I need to watch what happens with sleeves on me.  I suspect I need some kind of sleeve adjustment but I haven't learned enough about them to know.  Almost any woven that I sew with sleeves has something funny in the sleeve area - enough that those are generally finished projects I pass on to friends. 

-second to the wide shoulder issue, total bust minimizing.  I thought this jacket would be shaping but it's totally shapeless.  My bust is hidden and there's no nice narrowing at the waist (which I expected from the pictures.)  This is improved on a person with narrower shoulders like Pam, and actually was a useful lesson to me about the shoulder widening.  I don't need FBAs, because a shoulder adjustment will add the room for my large upper chest (as I recently discovered, instead of having a high bust measurement that is less than my bust, I have a high bust measurement that is about 1.5" larger than my bust.  I haven't taken the next step of figuring out how much of this is frontal and how much is on the backside.)

-Length is ok, I could for once have preferred it a touch longer.  I'm very short waisted so this is unusual.

As you can see, I found a grateful recipient of this purple jacket at work.  Pam is happy!  She is slightly taller than me, with a larger bust and narrower shoulders.  She loves the jacket!

Batik Belladone

This is my second Belladone - quite awhile after the first one.  Luckily I have a good memory for all the things that went wrong the first time around and was determined to make this version as near to perfect as possible.

Size 38 again, in beautiful green batik cotton from www.emmaonesock.com.  It became important to note that it's really hard to tell which is the right side of this fabric!

On the darts: I shortened the bottom bust darts about 3/4" and lowered the upper bust darts by about 1/2".  I did this after assessing how my first Belladone fit. 

I could actually have lengthened the torso on this pattern - probably the only pattern on the planet that is short for a short-waisted person!  But it's not a big problem, and I didn't really notice it until it was too late. 

I made sure this time to improve on my bias binding.  In fact, I decided to do all invisible bias binding, to see how it changed the fit.  My bias tape was weird double fold, so the results are that everything bound lost about 3/4" - I cut off the extra layer when I folded it to the inside but it still was slightly wider than usual bias tape.  I was concerned this would take away too much fabric but it seems to be ok.  I can attest, however, that invisibly bias binding armholes is no fun.  All the bias-goodness of bias tape isn't enough to make that tape want to go around a tight corner.  I had to stop often, cut my curves, and iron as I went in order to get it not to bunch up.  Interestingly, on the first version where I left the bias tape bound on the outsides, I did not have the bunching up in the back that others have complained of.  On this version, I did, but only a tiny bit.

As before, I bound all my loose seams on the inside.  It took forever, but was worth it.  I still don't know how to bind the seams of the zipper though. I thought I could add some seam tape after I put the zip in, but when I tried it I had no success.  I will probably zigzag it eventually as it's the only open seam.

The only change I made to the pattern was that I lined the skirt.  I used bemberg in teal green that matched my invisible bias tape.  Now the insides are secretly gorgeous!  This is the first time that I've made a lining for something that didn't have one - isn't that crazy?  So I was actually nervous to get the pattern pieces right.  The back is the same as the main fabric but for the front I taped the pocket to the front pattern piece, and then cut that whole thing out, avoiding the seam allowance from the pocket.  I also didn't know how to deal with the zipper.  I treated the two layers as one when I installed the zip, but below it I had to separate them and seam them independently.  It is a little messy but is hidden between the layers. 

My close attention to detail meant that this dress - which could easily be done in an evening, actually took forever...in my parlance that means more than a week.  And one reason was because of that little problem with the fabric right and wrong sides.  I accidentally made the back skirt darts on the same side, so I didn't have two symmetrical backs.  I noticed it after I had sewn one side on, and already cut the seam down...then I realised the other panel needed to go on that side, because the sewn on one was definitely wrong-side out.  So I undid it and had to do a lot of shenanigans to figure out how to match up my uncut with cut seams.  Then I redid the one offending inside-out dart.  This ate up my sewing time and I had to leave for a weekend trip with the dress unfinished, grrrr.

Finally it's done, a testament to a great dress after aeons of effort.  I know it's good because I wore it to work, and had multiple patients pause while complaining about how sick they are to say, "Um Doc, maybe this is inappropriate but that's a beautiful dress!"  It seems like you can make a lot of easy dresses in less than a day, but if you want to finish a dress beautifully, a simple dress can take weeks.  A lesson to reflect on, as lately I'm getting stressed by how much sewing I plan into my life, and I'm not always sure I want to be doing all of it.  

Lisette 1878: diplomat dress in wool

I know I need to retire this pattern, and after doing it one last time, I'm sure of that.  But the "one last time" was the leftover piece of luxurious Marc Jacobs pink herringbone wool that I used for my Peter & the Wolf pants.

I did a 1" shoulder widening.  Otherwise I cut out a size 8 without any adjustments.  I initially cut the little collar V smaller, and was considering not doing it at all, but at the last minute I (unfortunately) caved in.  I sewed the dress without any problems until I got to that.  I got the facings on and then attacked the underneath of the facings and dissected them so thoroughly...that when I turned out the top points of the V, I had totally cut it open at the bottom and it was full of fraying ends.  Ugh.  Also it seems I've forgotten how to put in a non-invisible zip, and that took a few tries.  I was reading through some of Fiona's recent posts and she commented on sewing the zipper from the same direction on both sides instead of sewing up one side and down the other.  I am not sure I knew that, and it definitely helped! 

But once I got the dress on, it fits so amazingly that I knew I had to salvage that stupid little neckline problem.  So I stabilised the loose fabric on the underside with iron on stuff (like Stitch-witchery, but Swiss!), and then I passed the project on to my mother to do some thinking.  A lot of her ideas involved lacing, frills, or 1970's style details, which I nixed.  But the points of that dumb V were sticking out a lot.  I gave it to her to think about while I was in Arizona for a month and this is what she came up with.

I'm still not totally convinced and I did realise I could just cut that entire V shape more and make a new facing to fix it.  I'll probably wear this a few times and if I still love it, I'll do that.  The centerpiece is ok but it's just off center enough to drive me crazy.  This is now version 3 and I think I'm confident that there won't be any more in my near future.