Simplicity 5683, circa 1973: ruffled sundress

In early February I suddenly needed to prolong summer by making a backless ruffled sundress...and conveniently I had just the pattern!  This wonder was printed in NZ and says it is misses size 12, with a bust of 34".

I haven't sewn any big 4 patterns in ages!  I just kind of hoped this size would fit...forgetting that you are meant to size down from the envelope not size up.  My bust is in the 32-33 range.

I made this dress in the short version, with a ruffle.  There was no ruffle length for the short version so I basically made it as long as I had fabric for.  I also made the ruffle less high because I thought it would overwhelm the short dress at the current length - I did about 2/3 of that length.  I guess this all means I'm over my hatred of gathering. I also learned just how much you need to gather a thing to make it look good - in my opinion the ruffle would be better if I could have made it longer and gather it more.

The bodice was self lined after you apply the ruffle, and then there are more gathers under the bust!  The waistband is two layers, and the skirt is a true wrap skirt, with the right side going under the left.  It felt like it took forever but that's just because I had a bunch of couchsurfers so I wasn't sewing all the time.

My fabric is a loom woven raw silk from Nepal that I brought back.  It has a lot of texture because of the handmade nature of the fabric, but overall I took that into account and didn't have trouble gathering it, though it became very dense in the gathers.  It is generally well behaved and pressed well.  I hand washed it for prewashing, which is what I do with all fragile silk.  I tend to machine wash other silks like charmeuse that I think can handle it, as it makes an easier to care for final garment - I generally hand wash those garments but I like the security of knowing they can tolerate a machine wash.

The bodice looked pretty small to start with so I couldn't judge by that - but the final product is just way too big.  There's no one spot - the bodice has too much fabric, and in my pictures I have the waistband wrapped really tightly to keep everything in place.  I just feel overwhelmed by this dress.  Luckily I have a friend who is taller than me and just a bit bigger everywhere and who doesn't feel a need to wear a bra, so she has won a new dress, yay!!

Sew house seven slacks, 2 variations

Version one was a success, I've worn them all summer. See here.

I wanted to make some changes to the pattern to turn it into my perfect lounge-linen pants pattern.

-Shortened the waistband by an inch total
-shortened the rise by a total of 2 inches in two separate locations

When I did this on the wide leg version, I had to do it on the short leg version too because I was too lazy to unpick my tape.

The wide version is out of a relatively loose weave silk from Nepal.  I'm pretty sure it's silk.  Once I put them on I was surprised by the heavy, clingy feel, which is what I'd expect from silk.  Also the only other fabric that I would have bought in Nepal is hemp and it doesn't have that texture.

But the loose weave - I thought it might be transparent so I added all the pockets and their excuse of a double layer.

The sewing up was straightforward, it's annoying that I can't write notes into PDF files!  So I had to read through my emails to find the seam allowances for the places in the pattern where they were missing. (I think I missed a chance to download an updated file.)  Otherwise, I have done this before so it was straightforward.

The elastic that fit in my casing was 1".
The changes are good. I suspect I need to be careful not to overfit this pattern - it's meant to be loose and drapey, after all.  Possibly because I am a lazy cutter-outer, the hems were totally mismatched, literally no two pieces were the same length.  So I cut each leg to be even, then matched the two legs and cut them even, and hoped that was right.  I didn't actually measure anything.

The clingy silk makes these into a kind of luxury wear, actually!

On to the narrow leg: well, why not some plaid, so they will be fancy winter sweatpants?  I have a new ruler and it makes shortening patterns amazingly easy!  No more hunting for straight edges and measuring things in 10 places, seriously, why didn't I have a ruler before?

These came together easily as now I'm a pro at this pattern.

I think honestly the linen is the best match for this type of fit.  In linen, it hangs down and the drape really advances the style.  In clingy lightweight flannel I don't think this is my most flattering effort.  Never fear, it'll be worn, it makes me instantly feel scruffy and cool, which is my favourite look.

I don't really like the shape of the narrower leg compared to the wide leg pattern - I think the wide leg pattern is basically perfect.  I did feel like I'd kind of overfit this one - also I might have been better off sizing down to the 4 instead of up to the 6, and it is possible that in a more drapey, heavy fabric, or in something with stretch, these pants would be totally fine.  Anyway now I have all the loose pants!  I will probably revisit this pattern for more linen pants in the future, but now I'm turning my attention back to jeans and work pants.  (And now I realise these would be perfect work pants, if only I had bought some black softshell fabric instead of all the greens...oops.)

Various bags, some of which are free

Ugh, why is everyone, me included, so desperate to get our hands on fancy bags to store our knitting?  I've become really disillusioned with this; I'm happy that independent human beings who are making things are able to drum up so much business that we are lemmings for the literal second that the items are posted online...but I hate being the lemming that didn't get the bag, month after month.

I tried to make my own.
(In truth my Ida bag, here, is going strong! I really should just make more big Ida bags.)  

Bag one is a wee drawstring number.

The drawstring isn't done properly because I only had one strand, and you are supposed to use two strands, one exiting on each side.  As long as I remember that and only pull the one side I can shut it just fine.  This project really mattered to me because it's made from scraps leftover after I made my first, failed metamorphic dress. I really love this fabric so I was happy to make the bag and at least get a little bit of the fabric in use.  Now, two years after the fact, I've finally harvested that fabric into a Sorbetto top so all is good in the end!

Here is bag 2, the Summer Madras Tote.  Here is the link.

This took forever to make because I am allergic to cutting out big squares.  It got trapped in moving mess. I had to buy extra solid interfacing for it...I pulled it out and then the idea of making my own bias binding stopped me.  Finally I got annoyed at having it sitting around.  This one is more of a grocery type bag.  All of that interfacing was Really thick!  I didn't have a problem sewing it, but it is a stiff bag, at least now before it gets broken in.

And then there is, of course, the Stowe bag.  I had the pattern away in my luggage in Australia but I couldn't wait *2 MORE MONTHS* and so I bought the pdf as well.  Sigh.  I experimented with some Stowe bags, made a bunch, got kind of irritated with them, and on my final version, bagging the lining so that it would be cleanly finished on the inside.  I store my knitting in it.  Haven't made the large size yet.  It seems bizarrely huge! 

This white one is the first one that I made, following the pattern, no lining, and I got a kit from A Verb for Keeping Warm (here are the kits, which are sold out) and did the sashiko stitching (my first!)  This kit consists of fabrics grown and woven in California.  The blue and striped one is the only other one I kept after I dispensed them among friends - it is two layers with no pockets.

Deer and Doe Nenuphar review

There are pattern companies that just suit each of us, and Deer & Doe is that for me.  It's so rare that I need to make adjustments to their patterns, and their style often really suits me. 

Also, I had a huge idea for my Nenuphar, and I needed to do a muslin to make sure that my vision was realistic.  This has been in the plans for awhile but I needed a second fabric and I kept struggling to make a colour match that suited me. (Has since been found, hooray!)  I finally got too curious to see this pattern put together, so I did a version out of Japanese seersucker for a friend of mine. It's view A with no changes. I made size 36.  In general that is what I wear in D&D though occasionally it's tight across the back. I assumed the ease built in would be enough.  Initially I thought the upright pockets on this would be impractical to put hands in, but they are actually just right.

This was a pattern that was just a total joy to put together.  Despite the fact that the seersucker, being wrinkly, stretched at times, everything came together just right, and quickly and the final fit is perfect.  It has totally inspired me to go ahead and make the one I've planned for myself!