Birgitta Helmersson ZW dress pattern review

 This has been on my list for so long, and the fabric has been allocated to it, which I believe is a Meet Milk viscose.  Recent success buoyed me onward. I hate making zero waste things.  I need a lot of prompting.  I just so dislike measuring fabric on the floor and cutting it without pattern pieces.  I also feel like the end results are often shapeless dresses that suit larger women with curves and are uncomfortably airy on me.  

I'm going to cut to the most important part here. My fabric was chosen long ago and the vision was deeply embedded in my brain.  The designer notes in passing that the width of the fabric matters, but mainly to say it should be 140 cm wide, not to comment closely on how much that matters.  I absolutely needed to make this from a 115 cm wide fabric.  I recommend doing so to anyone who is a size US 6 or below.  My fabric just happened to be 150 cm wide and it's devastating, because all the effort gone into sewing this project is wasted as I need to be about 6 sizes larger to suit my dress.  

I suffered through the cutting and indeed, I had no leftover scraps except those ridiculous side-hem triangles.  Those are a joke right?  Who is actually going to randomly sew on a triangle to the side seam?

I made the version with the button bodice but no buttons on the skirt. Can't be bothered with that. 

I lengthened the bodice by 1" which was totally silly.  I shortened the hem by 15 cm which was a good starting point - it was below knee/calf length but had a very high low hem when worn by me.  I ended up snipping off the hem until it hung more or less evenly.  

I made the bodice which was fine, forgot the interfacing for the front button band.  This is bad as it carries a lot of weight.  I recommend interfacing it quite heavily.  

The sleeve, when loosely pinned on, came to my wrist, no thanks!  I put the sleeves aside for later 

The pocket situation was also off-putting. I ended up using my leftover pieces from part of the sleeves to make Bardon pockets (still the best ever) and just applied them as to any skirt.  

I put on the dress to even the hem, then still did a deep 2" hem, which caused some headaches due to the curves.  I can call it a success: there is nothing visible on the outside!  And it gives it a bit more weight. 

For the sleeves I ended up just double folding in the seam allowance at the top of the bodice, and did not put any sleeves on.  It's so very wide on me it already is like having half length sleeves.  

 

Despite trying quite hard to personalise the fit on this dress, it needs to find a new owner who is a lot wider than I am.  I do think it's a beautiful concept and the gathered skirt hangs and swishes really nicely.  I don't even have a suitable person in my usual recipient group, so it may be off to the secondhand shop, sadly.  The people who have successfully made this and posted on Instagram have had a few things in their favour: they are very tall, so they can make a longer length to balance the width, and they have used narrow fabrics.     

Goldfinch studio Simone overalls - zero waste pattern review

 This pattern has been on my radar for a long time - I had some really specific desires in a pair of overalls. I hate loose ties, so the Burnside bibs are not quite right.  I wanted something with an oversized feel, to wear over my tight cropped sweaters which are otherwise getting neglected in my wardrobe.  The zero waste feature wasn't my priority, if anything it made these feel more daunting. 

I did at some point realise they had reached the top of my list this winter.  I've tried to really focus on a few super important seasonal projects and this was one.  I had also been inspecting the linen options for awhile. I wanted a heavyweight linen that matched the sweaters.  A dark grey was tempting but I couldn't find one that was the right weight. Eventually I splurged on this navy from Guthrie and Ghani when I was already buying some knits from them.  It was actually slightly cheaper than buying linen in New Zealand even when I calculate the shipping charges.  

I used the smallest of the provided sizes. You have options to use provided sizes, or to measure yourself and create a tailor made pattern.  I hadn't realised this - thought the tailor made option was the only one - and it did make me relax a bit. I still am uncomfortable just measuring and cutting fabric without pattern pieces, but at least I was already provided with the measurements. 

I started right at the edge of my fabric, assuming that's what I was meant to do, and so I caught the selvedge in one side, visible in the pocket.  My fabric was slightly wider than the zero waste measurements and I could comfortably have cut off the selvedge before proceeding.  

I also didn't really know how much fabric I needed - since I thought I had to measure myself, I hadn't read the instructions closely, and so I had too much. I can't really tell how close to zero waste it was. I believe I needed 2m and had bought 2.5. 

Once I did the measurements and cut my fabric out things definitely stopped feeling stressful. I used chalk on the linen and it all was pretty straightforward to measure and cut.  

Sewing was fun and simple. However more instruction on the ties would have been nice. How are they supposed to be tied? Are they better as two ties or as one long one?  I don't really understand!  I threaded one tie through the back, and one through the front.  I have tied them on each side. This gives me the ability to tighten the front and back to different amounts, and the ties don't make too obvious bows which would drive me crazy.  However, I always wear bags and purses on the right side and that tie is painful when it hits my bag, so if I made this again I might prefer a single long tie that only came out on the left side.  I have managed to tie the top so I can get in and out of it without untying. 

 

The front pockets are too shallow. I am going to sew the pocket opening higher a bit, as it's too big anyway, but I agree with the recommendation I have read to make the pockets about 2" longer. 

A bib pocket would have been useful.  I would actually put things in it.  Now I know. 

Learning moments aside, these have been great.  The crotch is too droopy for long walks but aside from that I really like these overalls.  I've experimented with various fitted tshirts as well as my sweaters to wear under them.  In the winter I can wear tights under and in summer the linen is like a nice cooling tent (I went to the States for two weeks, hence getting to experience both summer and winter within a month.)  The droopiness is a problem though as my legs rub together and so that limits their usefulness, and my crossbody bag rubbing over the right side tie has been pretty uncomfortable too.  Still they were a fun experiment and something I will definitely wear for lounging and short social outings. 

Criswood Parasol dress, again.

 Made two of these last year.  Reckoned the long one was a bit too long but then after I sent it to my friend I looked harder at the pictures and thought it actually had felt pretty lovely on.  Yes, oversized, but in a subtle way, as long as the fabric choice is very drapey and light. So out of the blue I decided I wanted another one and I wanted it in this fabric I had earmarked for something else.  I wanted a kind of grown up (not pink, not highly patterned...) dress.

I think the fabric is from The Fabric Box.  It is a crepey textured rayon.  It's heavier than the bird print rayon of my first version and that led to some pocket dramas.  Up to the pockets things were going ok. My sewing machine was serviced last year and the results of that service...are that I wouldn't recommend those guys to anyone.  It doesn't seem to be any different than before the service (still barfing furballs, still hesitating and mis-stitching all the time like it got lost along the way, arg!)  I noticed that led to some missed stitches and very obvious stitching, but I don't really mind the look, it creates a kind of obvious facing look at the bodice which is ok.  Possibly my thread wasn't a perfect match but I did use a new needle.  

 

I put the pockets on and they sagged down to the bottom of the universe.  I went ahead and made the whole dress, even let it sit while I debated whether to cut the hem straight.  Decided not to.  I think the hem having a high-low look adds to the dress.  The huge pockets cutting up the flow of the dress, not so much.  With a sad sigh I went forth to remove them and retrofit in side seam pockets.  It's painful mainly because you can't get the insides as pretty, but perfectly serviceable anyway.  Wore dress the next day.  Happy with it!  It is heavier than the pink one was which should have been foreseeable, but that doesn't pull the front or the back down in a bad way, the back tie keeps the dress from falling forward to show too much (nonexistent) cleavage.  I really like the feel of this dress. 

Criswood sews Parasol dress review

 I was inspired to make this dress by Instagram and by a week of warm weather, suggesting that winter might someday end and I might actually not cover my entire body when going out.  (That weather didn't last.  Winter is not over.)  

It's a novel process as you measure yourself and then build pattern pieces based directly on your measurements.  Thus, everyone has a one-size dress.  I'm seeing so many benefits from my foray into quilting, and one of them is that I've gotten over my fear of measuring things.  I would have found putting together a pattern of rectangles to be traumatic a few years ago.  Now the main problem was taping together sheets of paper to fit.  You end up with a bodice piece, a skirt piece, the pocket, and a facing/tie piece.  I duly noted that the gathering would probably be better in a lightweight fabric.  Then of course my stash failed me, because I couldn't get this dress to fit on 1.5m of fabric and I have a very bad habit of never buying more.  This toucan print rayon has been in my stash for so long I no longer love it - my eyes have kind of gotten bored of looking at it.  And so it was time!  

The dress comes together very neatly and is a fun, satisfying sew.  I popped it on and was sort of fascinated.  This dress also is probably much better suited to a taller, wider and more full-figured person.  I don't think it's flattering on a small body.  I don't have any bra visibility at the front or back, though the sleeves are low they don't show much.  The drape makes it quite fun to wear.  I think for summer when a muumuu is just the thing - this is a good classy muumuu.  It is going to my friend R in Tucson since she lives in the land of permanent summer.  When I saw my pictures I did think harder about this dress as I feel good moving in it and I think it has a subtle grace to it with an almost cocoon look at full length.  I'm not rushing to make another one of a drapey fabric, but it's in my head. 

I decided to move on directly to the vision I had had.  I knew perfectly well that this might look like a toddler's dress.  I shortened the dress 8" and managed to stripe match only because it's so easy I would have had to work to not match them.  My striped fabric is heavyweight linen from The Fabric Store and I bought the end of the bolt when a lady walked in the shop wearing a dress made of it and made me totally covet my own.  I also shortened the width of the skirt piece a little bit, about 2", so the gathering would be less. 

 

It does match my vision and it's wearable, and I suspect once summer comes I will wear it a lot.  But it does kind of look like I'm a toddler.  The dress is not actually as short as it seems, or at least when I wear it I don't feel uncovered, maybe because of the volume.  The pictures make it seem super short!  

This was a really fun project even if not quite seasonally appropriate...

Maynard Dress by Elbe Textiles

I decided to dive in with my first version of this dress and use some Liberty yardage that has been sitting around for so long.  I planned to make this for a friend because I am short and I expected to need to shorten the pattern for myself, but I wanted to try it out just as the pattern was meant to be before modifying.

I made a Size B. I think size C matches my measurements a bit better but I expected to be pretty overwhelmed in this dress with so much in the way of crisp folds, and so I sized down.

I was very excited about the Maynard when it came out - cool concept!  Interesting design lines!  For some reason I wasn't that excited anymore when I cut it out - which I did awhile ago in a free moment.  My lack of enthusiasm persisted and means that the process dragged on.

It is not difficult to follow the instructions but because you have no idea what happens next it requires concentration (or is a constant surprise!)  It is important to use fabric that will behave with a double fold hem, as each piece is basically hemmed all the way round prior to uniting them.

The waist straps are cut out of the sides of the yardage, and as my fabric was EXACTLY the width required by the pattern, the selvedge included a frayed edge which wasn't very solid.  No way could I turn loops made from this right side out.  I did two of them like jeans belt loops, with one side overlocked and folded over the raw edge.  I used two random other scraps for the inside two pieces.

I was a bit confused with overlapping the fronts over the backs because you are told to use the same stitch lines as before, and that seems to be a big overlap (of more than a cm.) I ended up just stitching kind of randomly because my fabric is pretty busy!

I skipped the pockets, not because I dislike them, but because after trying this on it was a total no-go.  It seems too large in all ways.  The straps are tied at the very limits of as tight as they can go.  I should do the shoulder adjustment using pieces of the pockets to add a part to the shoulder - that would help the shoulders sit better, but the waist is loose, the top overwhelms me and the right side pleat poufs out in a funny way.  I feel very thoroughly wrapped up, but I honestly wouldn't wear this dress.

I'm sending it over to my friend Tessa to see if it fits her better - she's been very curious to see how the pattern went! Chalk this one up as an interesting experiment.