Vogue 1051 trousers

I haven't seen many of these in the blogs, and a short inspection reveals that the pattern is already out of print.  I bought it when I started sewing about 16 months ago, and it's been sitting on my pile ever since.  It was with me when I came to Switzerland, and therefore at the top of my list this month.  I found this amazing green wool in Frankfurt while I was slumming and waiting for my visa.

However it had passed me by that I usually wear a size 12 in Vogue, at least according to the pattern envelope...and the sizes of this pattern were 4-6-8-10.  So I cut the 10, not completely sure it would fit.  I tried to do a full frontal thighs adjustment.  It seemed to me like it might be doing absolutely nothing.  This is it:

It really only struck me now looking at this photo that I should have opened one side like a wedge...

As seems to always be the case, I thought the welt pockets wouldn't be too bad.  I mean, I suffered through them with the Rigel Bomber, I should be ready by now right?  No such luck.  And of course with finicky pants like this, you have to do four entire welt pockets, plus the zip, before you get to find out if the pants fit.  The result is that I didn't finish all my seams as I went - I zig zagged them later.  The welt pockets had me fussing and whining, and for the back welts, I put the welt piece upside down because I couldn't figure out what the pattern was doing.  I have sewn those shut to hide my shedding welt bottoms.  Anyway, I would never use butt pockets on these pants, and in fact I will not make the back pockets again.  My final lesson is that when you are doing welt pockets, you need mathematically precision, drawing out every step in chalk on the fabric before you move.  Because I still have no decent sewing supplies, I winged it, and got crap results.  

Bulgy waistband!

Is there any way to decrease the everpresent underbutt wrinkles??

some whiskering there.  And I know I don't have enough hooks on the waistband.

I will make the pants again though!  They fit just like on the model!  (er, except for the 6 inches of the hem that I hacked off - beware, these are really long.)  And I have the same little front whiskering like the model, too.  I guess the crotch curve could use a minor adjustment, if I ever figure out how.  In a loose trouser like these I think it's not a major concern, unlike in tight or stretchy trousers where my bar is higher.  I'm overall surprisingly happy with these pants.  They are my second decent pants from Vogue, my first ones are so straightforward that I am planning to buy that pattern again (I left it in New Zealand.)  However, I have the same fit problems with all pants and I am still struggling with how to fix them.

The waistband is high waist, ie they sit just covering my belly button.  On me that is a great, flattering style, but beware if you prefer low waists.  Also, the bell-bottom is pretty pronounced.  Maybe less if you are really tall, but I am 5'4" and removed at least 6" from the bottom of the pants.

Now however, I have made enough pants to notice one more trend - my Thurlows definitely had this issue, as did my Datura blouse when I sewed down the lining. When I sew the waistband to the pants, all is good.  When I fold over the waistband lining and sew it down, suddenly my waistband itself is floppy and ballooning all over the place.  Why?  What should I do to fix this? Why do I have a terrible fear that it is because I don't iron anything enough? 

Named patterns Kielo dress

I had this project in the back of my head for the past few weeks.  A lot of my stuff is in the black hole of The Courier that will Never Arrive, so I have had a shortened list to work with this month.  I had the Kielo pattern, and I had a very specific idea of what I wanted: a nearly transparent light cotton...I considered using light jersey but a knit just didn't match the picture in my head.  I considered this a muslin project to see if this weird dress fit my style, and to see what the fit of Named patterns is like.

First complaint: I think Indie patterns should put on a seam allowance.  We pay more money for these patterns, and it pisses me off to have to make my own seam allowances and trace the pattern off overlapping sheets.  I buy other people's patterns in order to NOT figure out how to make my own!

While I was trying to remember if any of my fabrics matched my specifications, and debating buying something, I happened to dig through my current little stash and realized this lovely eggshell blue cotton-silk voile by Rag & Bone was exactly the right thing AND the project it's for really needs a piece about 8 cm square.  So I cut that one piece out and set it aside, and got to work.  The fabric was beautiful to work with, although it's so delicate that my pins left holes.  It ironed well and the cheap Singer didn't have any issues with it (although my stitching tension isn't great -the machine never seems to have good tension.)

I cut a size 38 going by my bust measurement, since that seemed the most important.  Although my other measurements were closer to a 36 I figured it wasn't too relevant to this shape dress.

Also, obviously, I hacked it off at knee length.  No tulip business or slits for me, I want to at least be able to walk, if not ride my bike in this baby. On me the tulip shape is always unflattering!

Because of the fine fabric and simple design, I decided to french seam everything.  This caused some confusion upon installation of the belt, and finishing the sleeve.  One side was the trial side, and the second side was invariably better.

This was a very easy project, as others have mentioned.  I expected that finishing the neck and sleeves would be really grueling but with careful ironing everything came out smooth.  I recall the last time I did this - on my silk Saiph shift, and wonder what changed...have I learnt something?!  This dress came out very flattering, and is probably one of my favourite projects to date, although my nude slip is in the black hole and it's snowing, so I am not sure when I'll wear it.  (Sorry for showing in my photos just how see-thru it is!)  I somehow feel very ancient Grecian with the straps wrapping around me!

My only gripe is in the chest area.  I feel like my chest is somehow shorter above and below the widest part of the bust...as though either the dart isn't quite right, or like my boobs should be higher or lower to fit the space.  Where they actually sit is the narrowest part of the chest instead of the widest.  It leads to some bagginess which doesn't detract from the dress, but later trials showed that wearing a bralette or a tshirt bra that is relatively minimising does fix this problem.

Sorry I look like these pictures are my jailbird photos, life is a work in progress, etc. (Someday I'll smile for the camera.)

Papercut Rigel Bomber

This is the project that seemed doomed.  I had all these jacket plans for the summer, hatched on that bed in the hotel room in Arizona in May.  It looked, from that vantage point, like I'd have so much summer time to sew jackets!  You may note this is only the second jacket.  There is a third one still out there waiting to happen.

Fabric: Marc Jacobs grey wool tweed, from Mood.
Lining: silk from ramieandlinen on Etsy.
Bands: Pacific Fabrics in Seattle.
Zip: my new local shop 'Nählädeli', after the worst, longest hunt ever.  Who would ever believe that a shop open for about 12 hours a week in a village of 1000 people would be the one place I would find this zip?

Size: XS or XXS?
I sized down (XXS) after reading all the blogs.  I figured I wanted this jacket to fit pretty closely and I didn't want the bagginess issue many have had.  Also I thought wool would be relatively loose.  The blogs were very helpful regarding lining, but because I read so many I ended up confused.  Overall I followed Anna's lining recommendations, but I think I was confused by Kim, who drafted her own lining.  I assumed I had to do that, which made this project slow to begin as I was nervous about drafting anything. Not to mention it was unnecessary, and ended up complicating things later on.

I assumed that I would have no problem at alllll with the welt pockets, since no one else did.  I didn't do a lot of prior research.  Um, oops.  I had everything ready, including a US-purchased 35cm zip that has since vanished during the move.  I attacked my jacket front with scissors and installed my first ever welt pocket to discover...a huge honking hole, because you are not supposed to cut your hole longer than the welt covering bit.  Which the instructions, I must say, did not explicitly comment on!  (Don't tell me it's obvious...)

After that I took a break, read up on welt pockets, found out nothing useful, and anyway managed to do most of the second one successfully while trying to figure out what I was going to do to salvage my hopefully amazing jacket.  When I start a project I am always full of this zeal that it's going to be the best thing I've ever made, and whenever I make my inevitable first mistake, comes the sad downfall that it might not, after all.  That made me hesitate for a long time, because my expectations were so high and my huge mistake was so early.

Contrary to all other bloggers, I found ZERO useful resources on welt pockets.  Who knows - maybe I need scientific diagrams and words instead of pictures, but I did not return to my jacket edified.  So it sat.

And then I finally was ready to try again and...my sewing machine (the Necchi that I stole borrowed from my mother - divine retribution?) broke.

So I packed this baby up in plastic bags, assumed it was hopeless forever, and shipped it to myself, where in a new, leisurely mood and fully freed from any expectations, I faced down the big massive hole in the front of my jacket, and realised there was no way I was going to undo everything and make a new front.  The hole had to be hidden, and it was doable thanks to the loose weave of the tweed and well matching thread.  There's a bit of a fold where I had to pull the fabric around the hole, but I was saved by how the tweed eats the thread so it's invisible.  I sewed a zig zag over the remaining hole and then sewed the last bit by hand.  Salvaged!  And I still really have no clue how welt pockets work : /

The rest of this jacket went along in the same leisurely fashion.  Because of my self-drafted front lining, but normal back lining, I didn't know exactly where to attach the facing to the lining, since they didn't share a seam.  The bottom front where the binding, lining, facing, and front come together was also a puzzle that got pinned and repinned many times.  I sewed it only just before putting in the zip.

It is not as baggy as it looks in these pictures!

Thanks to my coworker Isabelle for the photos!  Many of them are taken at the side of the hospital heli-pad, which at least has a nice view.

I sewed it mostly like Anna, as I said above - normal jacket together, lining together, attached them by sandwiching the hem band in all layers.  After that I diverged slightly.  I sewed the facing and the lining together by pinning everything into place and approximating where they should overlap.  Next I sewed the sleeves in using the Sewaholic method from the Minoru, so my sleevebands were also fully enclosed.  I sewed in the zip and finally sewed the facing to the zip and all the way around the neck.  My technique maximised what I could do without a zip, since I didn't have it until the very end.  Also, my final seam ended up being along the zip and then the neckline, and therefore basically invisible, while sealing everything in.  The most finicky spot was the bottom of the facing/front beside the zip, which just had to be very well tucked together and ironed before I could sew it shut.  This worked nicely in my wool, but if you were planning less visible topstitching on finer fabric, it might not look as well.

What I would do better:
-the thin silk pockets, I would interface the silk.  They are important in a jacket like this and I feel like they are going to fall apart, especially since my welt pocket skills are still just about zero and I'm not totally sure how I attached the pockets to the jacket.

-On size and fit: If you are not short waisted, and if you don't have proportionally short arms, then make the arms longer.  I changed nothing, and this baby hits just above my hips, and the sleeves hit exactly at my wrists.  If I wanted it cozy, baggy, or to go over sweaters, I would need to size up.  To go over a tshirt, it's perfect.  The binding does make a blousy effect at the bottom, no matter what fabric you use.  If you don't want this, then make the binding longer than the instructions ask for.

Ok but, shockingly enough and despite everything, my jacket is totally amazing.  Of course, it snowed yesterday...