Wide Strap Maxi Dress revisited: Peppermint x Elbe textiles

 

I made this dress in some lovely lemon fabric a few years ago and my big comment was to use a nice floaty fabric that draped well if I did it again.  That first version suffered because the elastic was too tight.  I put a lot of effort into getting the straps to sit well and the elastic just right but I overdid it and the tight elastic bothered me.  I thought ended up with the straps too short - the bust darts were a ways above my bust.  I think a looser look matches the silhouetter better - he dress rather should loosely skim rather than grabbing around the chest and then it will billow out less over the bum.

So despite my fabric thoughts, at some point I decided to make it again using a beautiful scrap of waxed cotton.  The, you know, least drapey fabric.  I was really cheated when I bought this most beautiful piece - I paid for a meter and I think it's 80 cm x 80 cm.  I needed a dress that would be a full length canvas for it.  The Tessuti Claudia dress (which I literally have printed out but have never sewn) would have been a great choice...but I have some weird aversion to making it. Every time I look at the pattern I think oooh!  I would love that!  So I am not sure why it never makes the cut. 

I needed a fabric for the back.  Some thought here, went for a dark navy linen, but something about it was not quite right - it was really quite heavy.  After awhile I went shopping again and this time got a linen/viscose, a bit lighter weight, and matching the deepest navy parts of the design.  

Sewing the dress is very fun, it's one of those patterns that come together with satisfying neat angles.  Yet again I put a lot of time into getting the elastic at the back to be just right and the straps just right.  I have very sloping shoulders which are not symmetrical, so these wide straps need to be separately angled and sewn in.  

I think the dress is so pretty and the pockets of course are amazing.  I wore it to a wine festival and got lots of compliments, but I noticed right away that the right side strap is way too loose- I haven't quite got the angle right.  This is fixable, and probably expected considering my shoulders.  It is annoying enough that I'll put the time into fixing it.  Unlike last time I think I left the entire length of the straps inside the lining so I could adjust as needed, but I also didn't need to cut much off to make them fit - suggesting they are about 2" longer this time.  

Overall a relative success (I have NOT done the fix yet) but a bit tricky to get a perfect fit as I really need the straps just right or I get very annoyed.  I'm looking at these photos and suddenly realised I should cross the straps across the back.  Not at all bra friendly but it would solve my problems! 

 

Merchant and Mills Jack Tar bag x 2

It seemed totally sensible to make two of these at once! I was going to make one for a friend then after that, make one for me, with a few additional clever modifications.  It did work out just as anticipated, except that in the end I liked the first one because the strap was subtly longer and I could wear it as a crossbody...so I sent the cute modified one to my friend.

This is really a 2 hour project.  I had the rivets from Merchant and Mills, two different scraps of oilskin - the grey is leftover oilskin, the yellow is dry oilskin, both are from Miss Maude.  The strap leather was bought awhile ago, it is the stuff in Merchant and Mills kits and in fact I possibly had bought one of the Jack Tar bag kits, very very thick solid stuff, I think good for bags but it feels rather unpleasant to start out.  One of the pieces was harvested from my previous little Merchant and Mills Field Belt.  I decided to replace that strap with an oilskin one because it was too heavy for the little bag.  

I didn't have any problems.  I used one layer of interfacing on the lining for the yellow bag and two on the 2-color bag.  I thought a lot about where to place the colours on the grey and yellow bag because I didn't have enough of just one colour, and I am happy with the results.  The 2-colour bag is much heavier though.  It has 2 layers of interfacing, plus I interfaced the internal pocket, and the normal oilskin is heavier than dry oilskin.  A heavier bag can be nice - it holds more and maybe lasts longer, but I was surprised, after all my efforts to make it my dream bag, to like it less than the simple one.  In the future if I made it again, I would stick with the simpler plan and lengthen the strap about 15 cm to make it a true crossbody - it is doable but tight as things are.  I will definitely use a bag more when I can wear it crossbody.  An external pocket is also necessary, and easy enough to add. 

I think to make both of these really took about 4 hours. 

Taylor Tailor Desmond Backpack, a masterpiece after much planning!

 After years planning this backpack it was December and my make 12 for the year was down to 2 things: a backpack and a Kalle top.  Add to that selling my house and an upcoming move...I knew I needed to buckle down for a last few important makes before my head scattered and my stuff was packed away (and turned into a total catastrophic mess, but that was later...)

I had accrued a total of 8 types of webbing.  8! types of webbing!  Because I needed the Just Right match, webbing, you will agree, makes this backpack.  Nothing was ever just right, until finally the vision had coalesced and the right option was there.  I had bought green and cream cotton webbing, cotton magenta webbing with silver in it, grey nylon webbing, I forget the others now...and then at David's one day when visiting Hamilton I saw this webbing, a dark maroon nylon webbing with a subtle pattern in it. YES!

The silver bits are from MacPherson's in Seattle which is always a fun little bike ride.  However it's proof of how long ago I bought them...I don't have a bicycle in Seattle anymore (parents complained about it taking up space) so it must have been when I was visiting circa 2017.  That means these bits which are quite heavy have travelled a lot ways with me!  I've moved about 6 times since 2017...

The fabric is maroon cotton oilskin, I think it's Merchant and Mills, and I bought it from Miss Maude.  Only about 2 years ago!  

Then I was totally stumped regarding linings.  I was stumped about linings basically all year this year.  It was only as the year came to a close that I felt a certain pressure to just Do the Thing!  I went to Spotlight and bought a fabric to match.  It is, yet again, perfect, showing that sometimes waiting for a project to come together is worth it. 

During my many years of thinking, plus the actual reflecting on the pattern over the two weeks before I made it, I focused on 2 major changes.  Front pocket needed to be bigger, and the side pockets for the waterbottles needed to be bigger.  I had this very complicated vision for the side pockets including accordioning the bottom with a pleat, adding a front grommet and a pull so that you could snug the top of the pocket shut...

Then I watched this video.  

I figured out that I could increase the size of the main pocket by only increasing the outsides along the dart edges - so the pocket pieces were unchanged on top in terms of how the pocket would sit on the pack, but all the edges would be longer.  

And finally I had some waterproof oilskin liner left over after using it for my Merchant and Mills Field belt.  This was just randomly lying around but when I realised I had enough, it was genius! 

I sallied forth and underlined the entire pack in the oilskin liner, and used the lining separately which I block fused.  The front pocket and waterbottle pockets also are underlined.  It means the inside of the pack and the inside of the pocket are impervious to rain (which has been the case.)  This did make it harder to sew.  Oh, and it was like 28 degrees in the sewing room, which means actually the oilskin itself was melting.  

In order to make this project happen I proclaimed to some of my work colleagues that I would be making it the next day so they would hold me to task.  I cut it out that night and sewed for an intense chunk of time the following day, getting the backpack to the point of starting the lining, then I went to a work party and was able to show evidence that I had made some pretty good inroads into the thing.

Everything including the lining and finishing was the following day.  So basically this was about 2 days of pretty intense sewing.  

I used the youtube tutorial for my side pockets, realising it was a WAY better idea that messing around with grommets or extra bits.  My pockets were wide enough and high enough to fit a Swell bottle, which I used for measuring.  I pleated the bottoms of the pockets to fit in the allocated space.  My elastic is a super heavy stuff, was a bit tricky when folding over on the edges, but I managed.  When my sewing machine just couldn't deal I switched over to the Bernina and that was really amazing.  Most of the project was managed by the little Pfaff, but it just hates anything heavy duty so it was perfect to have a back up machine that didn't baulk at those parts.  I did also wield the hammer to flatten my seams since I wasn't ironing the oilskin.

Extra details on the main pocket are for bicycle safety - a hook for a light and a reflective strip.  I wanted to add some details but not too many.  The patch is from Klum House and it was random luck how well it matched!  

I ditched all the inner pockets, just putting one zipper inner pocket and not against the back, where its contents are very irritating, but on the other side.  YAY win for DIY.  The only thing I knew I would miss (and I do) is a panel against the back to add structure.  You could simply add a full height pocket then put a piece of foam or a notebook in there and voila, it would be much less crumply.  I'm tolerating it ok but that would have been the one thing I added if I made this again.  I just couldn't quite figure out how, and it was one thing too many to think about.  This pack really did take my full bandwidth of figuring out and thinking how I would use the pack to make it a genuine replacement for my previous, totally waterproof pack. 

Out in rain: doesn't soak through.  If you don't towel it off it does soak through over time, but the contents don't get wet, the bag exterior just feels damp.  I have worn it in heavy rain with this effect.  I do have a backpack cover that I will most likely use in heavy rain because I don't see any reason to challenge the oilskin, but it's great to feel secure when rain is not heavy or changes suddenly that I don't need to stop and put the cover on my pack halfway to work. 

This pack is pretty spacious in a way I don't always like.  I'm a structured bag kind of girl.  However, it is working fine for going to work where I take a notebook, various bottles of water and tea, a lunchbox, maybe my climbing clothes, and have space to buy a few groceries on my way home.  If it is not full at all, the straps fail to hold down the roll top, because you can't cinch them tightly enough, so it's a bag better at medium capacity.  It has certainly given me the confidence to make a few other little bags in my queue (once my sewing stuff is up and running) and to try out the Klum House backpack pattern which I have also now acquired in a kit with all sorts of backpack making goodies!  Sewing feels far away right now as I am just dealing with moving in, but I'm sure eventually I'll be back.

Landgate by Merchant and Mills, a review

This was a huge effort.  I'm really glad I made the Arare jacket first, which was similar in many ways and which helped me to understand the process.  

Interestingly I had made a muslin of this a few years ago.  I noted from my muslin to either shorten it or raise the pockets by 2".  I did want the length so I opted to just raise the pockets.  Other than that, it's a size XS without changes.  I added a front pocket and was debating where it should go - above or below the drawstring? There's not really a natural place for it, which is probably why these pullover jackets either have a drawstring or they have a front kangaroo pocket! 

The instructions are oddly sparse and then even more oddly sufficient.  It's one of those patterns where you read all the instructions and half of them seem to be missing, but once you are there in that step, it's all quite clear.  I really like the way the drawstring for the hood comes out of a nice tunnel rather than out of grommets.  

I lined the back of the little zipper protector with fleece to make it cozy against a chin.

I had way too much drama with this fabric.  It's called Millerain waxed cotton (Sahara) and I got it from Guthrie and Ghani.  It's a colourway called peacock.  The peacock side feels like a heavy canvas or twill.  The other side is a bit darker in colour and feels rubbery and kind of grips to your fingers a bit.  So, which of these sides is the outside?  Overall the fabric is solid and firm and there was much wrangling of it around the sewing machine (it was heavier than my machine so it could lift up my machine when I was moving it around, annoying!)  I looked everywhere online and then kind of bowed to the name and assumed the prettier, and slippier Peacock side should be out, but that meant I had this kind of stiff, sticky side on the inside.  AND I get claustrophobic pulling things on over my head.  So after all the work to make this amazing and beautiful I really hated putting it on.  Bad decision...

I added a pocket on one sleeve and then a patch, initially on the pocket but I had not aligned it in a pretty way so I moved the patch to the other side for some character.  

Because of raising the front pockets I no longer had helpful topstitching lines to follow from the outside, and my kangaroo pocket was kind of in the way.  I topstitched the pocket top and bottom, and those side pockets are made out of wool plaid which is very nice and cozy feeling.  

Stitching down the channel for the drawstring was the hardest, and it's not really straight, though you can't tell.  Basically this jacket was a study in things not being straight or even, but I am actually super proud of the result.  Merchant and Mills manage to create beautifully finished items - whether they fit is another issue, but the quality of each thing I've made by them is undeniable.

The XS is a good size for me, the pockets being higher is comfortable - overall I worked really hard to create a jacket I would be happy to wear, but I was foiled by my fabric.  I have just discovered the wonders of oilskin and must say, this would be SO AMAZING in oilskin.  So you know.