Vogue 1408 jersey dress

So in keeping with my fast-fashion muslin making of late, I decided to overlook the fabric recommendations and make this seamy dress out of a single layer of jersey.  I reckoned it would be a distressed look and easy and would give me an idea of whether it was worth buying some expensive stretchy wool stuff to make a more serious iteration.  The pattern calls for "medium stretch" fabrics.  Plus a "medium stretch" lining - could get expensive... 

I cut a size 10 but didn't prewash my fabric (hm, does fabric shrink in an irregular way?? This could become interesting.)  I assumed it would be a bit too big because my fabric is stretchier than a thick ponte, but I don't love the pattern enough to trace it so I wanted to make the same size as I would in a less stretchy material.  The fabric is a soft viscose jersey from the market in Berlin, and cost something like 5 Euro.  At the end I had to take in about 1cm at the shoulders, and 1cm at each side seam.

I found attaching all the pieces to be very easy, although of course I was not stabilising the edges of every piece like the Vogue instructions advises.  I did one row of topstitching on all the seams, not two.  Unlike the other Vogue top of late, 1247, the jersey means that most seams can be convinced to match without a lot of effort, especially with my high-stretch jersey.  Without trying at all, every single seam matches perfectly except one.  My 2 meters was enough for this dress, but I didn't have a lot left over.  I don't make dresses with wide skirts very often and I think it's because I'm weirdly stingy about how much fabric they require.  I did forget that jersey is heavy!  I realised early on that the dress needed the support from the arm and neck bindings.  I just barely had enough fabric left over to cut some strips which I sewed into loops, folded over, and sewed it on like making a Renfrew.  I cut each of them short enough to have some stretch, especially along the neck as I wanted it to stabilise all this fabric.  I was happy with the result.  Hemming was terrible.  My new Pfaff sewing machine seems to be bad when it comes to knits, and especially when it comes to using the stretchiness of knits to advantage - the IDT pulls the knit fabric against the direction of sewing, and creates huge bubbles.  So, ugly hem.  Not too obvious. 

By avoiding the lining and the zipper and the extra staystitching, this was a pretty quick but still interesting jersey project with a nice set of lines.  It took some effort and I think it looks cool!  I also reckon you could do some pretty neat colour blocking with all of the pieces.  It has been a reminder to me that more effort is sometimes worth it.

As for fit, I think this size would fit me better in a less stretchy fabric.  I do feel like the body is too long - the skirt starts at my butt.  With so many pieces and no shorten-here lines, I wouldn't be tempted to shorten the torso length, so overall I recommend this pattern for longer torsos. 

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.  

Vogue Paris Original, V2323 - muslin

In love with this dress pattern!  Here is the cover of it.  It's my first seriously vintage pattern and I really had no idea how things would progress.  I decided to do a full muslin, underlined in silk, to see how (whether) it would fit and also to get the hang of using gelatin to make the silk easier to work with.  I made the muslin from a leftover piece of herringbone black wool with silver lurex threads in it.  The underlining was a silk chiffon.  I used this technique with gelatin prior to cutting and ironing the silk.

Because this was my first ever muslin, I mean an actual one, I did it in stages so it kind of felt like it took forever, although sewing the pieces together was easy.  I ignored a lot of the subtleties in the instructions and didn't do any gathering stitches except on the sleeves.

The pattern is slightly small for me according to the size chart, but came with all its pieces and they were in great shape.  It seemed like a relatively straightforward construction.  The puzzle piece on the front creates most of the three dimensional shape, and I love how clever it is (although after lots of pinning of Polly tops, I initially suspected it would be very tiresome to sew together!)  In actual fact you are supposed to gather the curves (which I didn't do on my muslin) and it is supposed to hang flat.  (Mine really doesn't since I didn't put much effort into that puzzle piece front.)  I had forgotten that in the 70's, dresses were shapeless sheaths.  Also I think it looks much better in 2 colours!

I was surprised how huge the dress ended up.  The silk underlining, which I sewed onto EVERY SINGLE piece, meant my pieces held their shape - the wool would have definitely started to stretch alone.  So there wasn't distortion increasing the size.  Seems that Vogue in 1970 already ran big!  I cut off 7 inches of the bottom (and I'm thinking of cutting off more), and I considered cutting a bit off the side seams but ended up leaving it.  On my final version I'll just cut my fabric shorter to start with.  Not sure what I will do with the side seams.

My final version is planned in silk velvet.  I was planning to underline as I did on my muslin, but my facings were really annoying and it has you hand sew down the wrist seams and such...so I think I'll just do a normal lining so I can have a neater inner finish.  I was also planning to use cotton voile for the underlining, and now I'm considering using silk or even bemberg, just to make sure it doesn't stick to me - since the velvet is quite heavy this won't be a summer dress!

I was really hoping that I wouldn't need to make any big modifications because I wasn't sure how I would face the puzzle front if I had to do an FBA, for instance.  Luckily I don't need to change anything.

Papercut Peter and the Wolf Pants

I put these off until after my Thurlows because I wanted to try a full fly and get some practice with pants fitting.  But I was soooo excited and it was hard to hold off.  Then at the last minute I decided to do a wearable muslin made out of leftover brown hemp-tencel.  It's great feeling fabric with zero stretch.  That is a key fact, and maybe not a very smart choice.

I shorted the pattern by 2 inches and made an XS.  I didn't make any other changes although my side seam might have been 5/8 on the left due to my zipper (I'm not actually sure.)  My invisible zip is not very invisible...

lots of extra fabric in the butt - what modification do I need?

These pants are a mixed bag.  On many they are not very flattering because of the width presented in the hips.  Totally the case on me!!  They are suuuuuper tight across the thighs due to that zero stretch, but I think the hemp will relax, so I'm not going to let them out.  And the length is really not flattering.  I think for my real pair, which is going to be made of a stretchy fabric, I will keep the original length.  On me that will make them normal pants-length, and I think that balances out the hip width.  I guess a curved waistband would be nicer, but I don't know how to make one and I'm not too bothered.

The positive?  I adore the pockets.  I love the topstitching.  These pants, when done well, clearly have the potential to look professional.  And they are super easy to make.