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!