Lisette 1878: diplomat dress in wool

I know I need to retire this pattern, and after doing it one last time, I'm sure of that.  But the "one last time" was the leftover piece of luxurious Marc Jacobs pink herringbone wool that I used for my Peter & the Wolf pants.

I did a 1" shoulder widening.  Otherwise I cut out a size 8 without any adjustments.  I initially cut the little collar V smaller, and was considering not doing it at all, but at the last minute I (unfortunately) caved in.  I sewed the dress without any problems until I got to that.  I got the facings on and then attacked the underneath of the facings and dissected them so thoroughly...that when I turned out the top points of the V, I had totally cut it open at the bottom and it was full of fraying ends.  Ugh.  Also it seems I've forgotten how to put in a non-invisible zip, and that took a few tries.  I was reading through some of Fiona's recent posts and she commented on sewing the zipper from the same direction on both sides instead of sewing up one side and down the other.  I am not sure I knew that, and it definitely helped! 

But once I got the dress on, it fits so amazingly that I knew I had to salvage that stupid little neckline problem.  So I stabilised the loose fabric on the underside with iron on stuff (like Stitch-witchery, but Swiss!), and then I passed the project on to my mother to do some thinking.  A lot of her ideas involved lacing, frills, or 1970's style details, which I nixed.  But the points of that dumb V were sticking out a lot.  I gave it to her to think about while I was in Arizona for a month and this is what she came up with.

I'm still not totally convinced and I did realise I could just cut that entire V shape more and make a new facing to fix it.  I'll probably wear this a few times and if I still love it, I'll do that.  The centerpiece is ok but it's just off center enough to drive me crazy.  This is now version 3 and I think I'm confident that there won't be any more in my near future. 

Deja vu: Grainline Scout, now in silk velvet

I couldn't part with my silk-velvet scraps when I left New Zealand so I quickly did the wide shoulder adjustment I'd been putting off and cut the project out.  It was my first thing to set up when I arrived at my parents and surveyed the Necchi.

Welllll, how did that go?
It ends up that velvet is made up of all these hair-like fibers that stick up.  Remembering to iron it with two layers of velvet stuck together - that was pretty easy.  But getting things to line up for sewing was tricky.  It ends up being nefariously shifty, not like silk, but like suddenly shifting a 1/4" as the fibers all simultaneously bend.

Put this together with some bias tape and I was screaming bloody murder and blaming it on the machine.  The poor plodding thing wasn't really at fault though...so I'm really glad I did a velvet practice project.

Moral of the story: don't sew with velvet.  Hah!

Luckily the Scout is easy and until I got to the bias binding I didn't have real trouble.  A walking foot would have been nice but the tin full of feet is full of weird feet (except for a rolled hem foot, I recognised that one, yippee!) and none looked like a seamonster-walking foot.  I zig-zagged my edges and then for the hem and sleeves I just folded that over and sewed it down.

In the end even the neck isn't too terrible, because once the bias tape was attached all the mess disappeared inside the shirt.  However I am really dissatisfied with the final fit.  My best friend, Dana, taking the pictures insists that it looks great but the sleeves seem to downright droop off my shoulders (was 1" too much?) and the usual shapeless Scout looks particularly shapeless in velvet.  Or is it just me?  This is the same size 2 that I have made for all the other versions, except that I idiosyncratically lengthened the hem, more in back than front for a bit of asymmetry. 

Not sure about this one yet, but it was a good practice project.  And I'm done with Scout tees for awhile!


Pattern: Grainline scout, size 2, slightly lengthened, 1" shoulder widening.
Fabric: silk velvet with a touch of nylon, from Global Fabrics in Wellington
 

Unexpected V-neck Sewaholic Renfrew

I was planning to do a patchwork Vogue top, view 3 of Vogue 8755 (and in fact on the model it doesn't look that long til you see it covers her butt and she's probably six feet tall) but when I pulled the pieces out of the envelope they looked suspiciously dresslength.  As I am in a total moving-induced panic, this was too much to handle.  The patchwork wool scraps got instantly relegated to a different project, leaving me a luscious pile of gray heathered merino...so I decided to make a long-sleeved Renfrew.

I used my v-neck pieces as I was too lazy to fix the lengths from my last round neck version, I'm afraid I've been cutting and folding my pattern pieces rather than copying them, because I ran out of tracing paper!  I cut and sewed this in a single-day frenzy and then put the finishing touches on it the following morning, prior to leaving for a 3-day tramp in the rainforest.  But...I hadn't tried it on and I couldn't just leave it, so I took it along and it became my most awesome rainforest top layer (except when it was raining.)  I was alone otherwise I'd have some action photos for you.

Fit was perfect, top is lovely, I just wished that I had cut all my threads before I left!

If I still had my Vogue 8755 I would totally use the rest of this incredible merino to make lounge pants.  Moving is hard!  I have to let go of projects, empty my scrap-stash...and the final things I'm working on are starting to make me stress with the feeling that I have to finish everything NOW!  Luckily I have a friend who's passing on allll my scraps and leftovers to a just-starting sewist friend of hers who can't afford fabrics and such, so I feel like everything is going to a great cause. 

V-neck Sewaholic Renfrew

To start out, I widened the shoulders 1 inch.  I cut 1 inch off the final length (I had taken 2 inches off the previous Renfrew and kept trying to yank it down a bit, so....)

The v-neck was a bit challenging but super fun!  Hah!  Everything is fun after the Minoru : )  I was pretty pleased how my v turned out, it's about 1 mm off centre and it is mostly obvious when I look down.  Also my sewing machine isn't too fond of the very very stretchy knit and it seemed like I had to pull the fabric through the machine, and lengthen my stitch length a lot so it didn't snaggle up in the feed dogs.  I was using the ball point needle and I did wonder if I should give that stretch needle a try.

This fabric was much looser than the blue cotton.  Because of that I think all my changes were unnecessary...I really should have left the length a bit shorter.  The wide vneck totally compensated for my shoulders.  If I do this again I will probably leave off the sleeve and bottom bindings for a more normal tshirt look.  But it's still fabulous!  I made my own tshirts : )

Lisette 2209- Passport jacket

This is the last of my Lisette patterns!  It seemed like the most daunting project and because of that I left it for last of the batch.  Of course in the end it was pretty straightforward and the fabric was incredible to work with.

For this one I used some lovely green silk-linen that I got at the Global Fabrics while passing through Dunedin.  I was planning to line it with pale blue chiffon but it ends up that I hadn't read the pattern very thoroughly and it doesn't require a lining.  Next decision was whether to use same-fabric facings or to use something else.  I didn't have anything optimal in my stash - plain black or white silk seemed a bit silly and I did end up having enough of the fabric itself so I just stuck with that.  After reading through Tasia's sewalong for the Lonsdale (an upcoming project!), I was super keen to go get some seam tape and make my seams beautiful....but the local shop didn't have any : (  Stupid small towns.

I cut a size 10.  I had cut the previous Lisette designs in an 8 and on this I had initially considered doing a wide-shoulder adjustment but I thought 4" of wearing ease might be enough to take care of that.  I know I'm mixing up design ease and wearing ease but the pattern is cut in enough pieces to make me hesitate before changing the wrong ones.  (And the various types of ease are a subtlety I'm only now starting to understand, I'm not sure if they matter in practice.)  I also hesitated because the front is cut in two pieces and I wasn't sure where to add in the shoulder width.

A lot of cute variations online made me consider more than one button and after trying it on before I put the facings in, I saw how totally shapeless the back was and went for three buttons.  The third button down is the key one in holding the jacket together so it's not too boxy (er, and so I can lift my arms...)

The ruffle went on without a hitch.  I ran out of thread near the end and used bright blue on the facings though...not sure if that looks stylish or tacky.  I had to give in and buy more so that I could sew the hem.  Hand sewing practice notwithstanding, I don't have enough faith in my abilities to slip stitch an entire hem.

The final word is that I truly have to work on putting in more effort into fitting my garments.  This is a project I put a lot of time into and it's really cute, but the shoulders are just too narrow.  I have only recently noted that my dresses and tops are all either tank tops, or are stretch knits.  There is a reason for that!  I actually don't fit into standard size shoulder width tops!  This is always obvious for me when I buy things in stores, but when I'm fitting patterns for myself, somehow I imagine I will fit just fine...by the end of the first day I noticed that the back seams were pulling apart just a little bit.

Also, my pictures are very unflattering.  I probably need to figure out the self timer because I'm too self conscious when others are taking pictures of me and I clearly haven't got much sense of what angles I need to actually show off the good work I've done. 

This jacket would definitely be awesome if it did have a lining.  I'm quite sad not to get to use seam bindings - etsy came through so some are on their way but I ended up just using shears on all the seams, and I will eventually seam bind the bottom. I will get some wear out of it, but the shoulder limitation means it's uncomfortable to bicycle in and that's my primary mode of transportation.  Seeing how one day damaged it makes me hesitate to put it through my usual rough wearing.  Also, silk linen is nice and shiny in certain light but it wrinkles a lot!  This would be really cute in corduroy.  And this fabric might make a nice Scout!  Hah!

So, are handmade garments inherently more fragile?
How do you decide what fitting modifications to make?  I know that making a muslin is the obvious answer but it seems like I don't figure out a lot of things until I wear the dress/shirt/jacket and see what happens.

Lisette 1878- Diplomat dress, take 2

I worked my way through the cutesy fabrics and now I'm finally on to some cheaper stuff that I got on a whirlwind first visit to Spotlight (=Jo-Ann Fabrics).  I had immediately envisioned a long sleeve version of my first dress in a cozy, sleepwear-like plaid flannel.

I'm also trying to slow down a little.  The first wild projects careening through my head are taken care of and I thought before I move on to the next ones, I need to actually start doing something well.  I have a host of Liberty fabrics in mind for upcoming attempts and I don't want to mess them up! (Heh - although that said Ebay pulled a trick on me and some fabric I ordered went to my parents house in the States!  So much for doing that dress for awhile...)

So on this dress I wanted to focus on matching up the plaid (arrrrgh no one told me that flannel sticks to itself, and shifts around, and never matches!)  and also on making a wide-shoulder adjustment.  I stuck to the same size 8 even though it was small because this fabric has more give than the muslin, and with the wider shoulders it will fit much better since the shoulder area was the main problem.  This time I also wanted to do the facing correctly.

Other than the plaid really not matching up that well (I tried!), this went smoothly.  It's definitely easier to do a project the second time around - I had a lot more confidence and there were no surprises.  With the shoulder adjustment - I added 2 inches across using the Colette online tutorial - it still pulls slightly in the front chest, but the back chest feels better.  If I hadn't done this I think the long sleeves would have been uncomfortable.  

For some reason I also placed the zipper in too low, so until I get around to sewing in the hook and eye, it gapes a bit.  Since it's winter that doesn't matter for now, I'm always wearing a cardigan over it. (But it's quite obvious in the pictures.)

I do like this dress now that I'm better at making it, but I don't think it's anything special - not enough to do again.  I've read a few posts by those incredible sewing bloggers creating multiple variations on each dress theme, but I haven't found a pattern I like that much yet.  I'm looking forward to getting on the bandwagon and trying out some of the popular things I've seen up lately!

It's taking awhile to get coordinated enough to photograph my projects - trying to get quicker at it but I've chosen to keep everything chronologically accurate even if I'm behind a bit on posting.