By Hand London Anna, version 4

With version 4 I think I'm finally tired of working on Anna.  This version was supposed to be the summary of everything I learnt: V-neck is better, size 6/10 is better, lined is better, and short is better.  Plus pockets!

Fabric: silk-cotton blend from emmaonesock, lined with Bemberg.
Zip: too short, more on that later.
Technique: Did everything for each bodice, then sewed the neck and sleeves together.  Understitched, and the pulled it through, and sewed the sides shut.  I added the skirts after that, then the zip using the Cambie method of applying it to the outside, then sewing the lining to the zip tape in between the layers.

Honestly, it was a straightforward make...

The caveats:
-The lining changes the way the sleeves and neck drape.
-Because of the lining, I forgot to take that v-chunk out of the middle back, and so it slides off my (broad) shoulders in an unflattering way. I look like a pear!
-I didn't make any attempt at pattern matching and I'm disappointed in the results. 

I have made this so many times but I was never able to assess whether I just simply *liked the style.*  I do like the pleats in the bodice, but I think a big part of my trouble fitting the dress is that I hate how tight it is on the upper abdomen in order to create this effect.  I guess that's an area I don't like to have emphasised.  My first Anna was the most creative, and in some ways still my favourite even though I couldn't breathe in it.  (I gave it away, and sort of wish I hadn't. Who cares about breathing?)  The third Anna, my first v-neck, was the one that fit the best but I gave it away when I moved because I was too lazy to cut the skirt off.  The length was too much for me.  (Hm, sort of wish I kept that too, sigh.)

Sorry for photo overload, I tried to get some with hands in pockets and some without, but I look like a zombie despite my best efforts. 

As for the zip: I just happened to choose the shorter instead of the longer zip.  It goes about 2 inches past the waist seam.  Because of it I can barely get into the dress, it gets hung up on my shoulders.  I'm still trying to debate whether to fix it or give it away.

This project has made me think about the comparative joys of sewing things I planned a year ago (when I could have worn this dress) versus now (when I am unlikely to keep things I don't need due to space constraints.)  The projects planned awhile ago don't have much sense now, and as a result I don't put the same effort into them.  I tend to assign a pattern to a fabric and then write it in a list, where it becomes fixed - lately I've been attempting to undo the list and reflect on whether I actually want the item that might result - and take things off the list if the answer is no.

Marlborough Bra by Orange Lingerie

I'm on the lingerie bandwagon.  I don't wear normal clothes at work (ugh, white scrubs!) and it's a bit depressing to give away nearly everything I sew lately.  My sewing projects have been things I thought up ages ago, or things I'm making for other people.  I'm finally at the crossroads when I'm starting to plan new interesting things that are more relevant, and the underlayers are a nice part of that!

I read Demystifying Bra Fitting & Construction and bought a few kits to make this less confusing.  I referred to nearly every one of Anne's posts.  She is so detailed and helpful.  Seeing her bras improve over the past few months has made them feel achievable.

I did as required by the book, and made my own bridge - the center piece between the cups.  I wonder if I overdid it and made it too small.  I wasn't sure what size to go by.  My usual bras are 32C, occasionally 32D.  Instructions say to measure the difference between your high bust and your bust and go by the difference.  My high bust is about 2 inches bigger than my bust.  Nobody says what to do in this case.  It's due to muscles, I guess, but it seems mystifying that no patterns ever mention it.  I decided to do a 32C and see what would happen.  I used a makebra kit, because Anne recommended them and recommended the foam.  I hate foam bras but I thought it was still helpful since I had no clue which fabric was best where. I was also amazed how well the foam compresses when you sew the seam allowances down.  (It didn't make me like the foam.)  

It comes together very fast.  I used wires from spitzenparadies webshop. I got two of their bra kits as well. I bought one set of every underwire that had similar measurements to my current bra wires.  I ended up with a huge variety, many of which clearly are wrong.  Presumably once you find the right wire you can get a bunch of the same size.

Stitching the seam allowances down made a big difference in the appearance of the cups

You can see on the left seam how nicely the foam compresses

This bra was completely a muslin because I couldn't assess whether the size was right.  You really can't tell until you put the wires in and that's the last step.  It fits!  Next step is to make one that I will wear and see how it feels.  I'm not going to use foam, that's for sure.  I'm curious how different it will be.

Waffle Dropje vest

After making this vest, this company is my new current favourite.  I spent a lot of time thinking about the Dropje.  Carrie's double-sided version seemed very shapeless, and I suspected I wanted something more fitted.  I had some (highly unrealistic) ideas about skiing around in this vest on well-groomed ski slopes, but we have had almost no snow this year, *and* I never "ski around," I whimper and cry and then do everything possible to avoid actually facing downward on a ski slope, so I'm not completely sure what I'll wear it for. 

I asked my friend R if she would volunteer as a muslin-recipient.  The fabric is a scrap from my Georgia dress last year, and I searched high and low for bright pink fleece, but didn't find any.  The lining is the fuzzy inside of sweatshirting that I got in Chur.  I made a size 34, as R is small.  I didn't make any changes to the pattern.  After what felt like a lot of thinking about the pattern, construction was amazing.  The instructions are fun and straightforward and they made a beautiful finish possible.  I enjoyed the construction a lot, and it made me want to try other Waffle patterns (I have the Caramel but am daunted by the long instructions and by making more welt pockets.)

In order to make the lining, I copied all body pieces and only the armhole facings.  I attached the hoods right sides together, after sewing both jacket and lining according to the directions (no pockets in the lining!) Then I sandwiched the zipper between the layers to get a clean zip finish.  I suspect that I could have then sewn the armholes together...but instead I basted them and used the armhole facing.  Finally I folded the hem over the lining and sewed (mostly) in the ditch for a clean finish.  I got excited near the end (cause I wanted to mail it to R!) and my sewing in the ditch was all over the place. 

Interestingly enough, it fits me ok.  I would have made a size 38 going by the chart.  I will shorten it by 1" for me, but I'm debating whether to make the same size, or a 36 for some extra room.  I tried it on with a sweatshirt underneath and it was still fine.  However, I want to make a quilted version.  The fabric I'm planning to use is flannel and wool tweed, which don't have the stretch of the cotton.  I have read that quilting shrinks fabric, so to avoid that I thought I would quilt before cutting out the pattern pieces.  Originally I was going to quilt the lining and the exterior together, but the lining on R's jacket is sooo nice as it is, and that clean finish is great.  It makes me consider just quilting one layer - but the outside, or the inside? 

Republique du Chiffon Lucie

One day last week I suddenly got tired of waiting to make this dress.  I put together the pdf, traced, cut and finished it in about 2 days while also being on hospital call.

I bought it last summer when it came out, which means I have the pattern in French.  Also, no seam allowances.  I was so very excited to make it!!  But ugh, so many things to make me pause - the pdf cutting and pasting, the french, the seam allowances.  So although I really wanted to make one exactly like the model in the black Atelier Brunette fabric, it didn't happen.

Now that I'm on the other side of the Black Hole of Moving, the fabric choice is a very rough rayon from Anna ka Bazaar - disappointing, as I wanted to use it for some Tania Culottes and it has a terrible drape and a rough weave.  It feels like linen.  That's why the fabric was set aside until a different project came along.  The lining is cotton on the top and silk on the bottom, just because I had a piece of white silk in exactly the right dimensions.

My hesitations about this dress were all about the gathered waist.  I generally avoid gathering.  I find it irritating and frumpy looking in sleeve heads and I have a psychological block about it everywhere else.  With exception when it's in very small amounts, like in the Anouk (which is even borderline.)  Also, it seems like a gathered waist is difficult to finish nicely.

I cut a size 34 after measuring the pattern pieces and myself a few times.  I would be a 38 according to the measurements but the final dress measurements of a 34 still gave me some room in the bust, and I wanted it to be a bit less loose and hanging than on the model.  I am 165 cm so I didn't lengthen or shorten it at all.

The technique for putting the top together is the same as the Datura blouse - namely that you sew the neck and armholes of the lining and the fabric together for the front and for the back, and then you place the back inside the front with one of them right side out, and you sew together the little tube of the shoulder.  I find this method completely absurd and crappy.  There's no way I can sew a perfect 2" tube.  I end up with lumpy and uneven shoulder seams and that made me think this dress was a mess early on.  Because of that I didn't do the extra work of sewing the lining and the dress skirts separately.  I think the pattern has you sew them together, but if you sew them separately then you have a clean finish on the inside.  Because I was suspicious about this Lucie, I didn't want to do the extra work of gathering twice.  I basted the bodice and bodice lining together, and then I gathered the front and the back of the skirt separately and sewed them to the bodice one half at a time.

I thought the dress looked totally stupid when I tried it on, but after a solid pressing of all those gathers and finishing the hem it seems to look better.  I'm still on the fence.  I can't see the shoulder seams anymore so they don't bug me like they originally did, but I would LOVE another method for sewing a clean finish on a lined tank top.  (BTW I think this would make a nice tank top too...with a french dart for some shape.) When I wear it I like the feel of it.  Nothing like some silk lining to make anything have a nice swish.  But I still feel like it's very unflattering. 

Papercut Saiph, take 2

When this pattern came out I snapped it up.  It was right when I was getting confident with modifying patterns and identifying my own taste.  I made it in silk charmeuse with the fluttery skirt, using an XXS based on other reviewers size assessment.  I skipped all the facings, and learnt that it's not wise to try just folding silk armholes to finish them.  That was one of my first truly successful patterns - I wore it a lot for the last two summers.

So, back to this pattern.  I felt like it deserved a try as written.  However, let's review why I had made all those changes above...
-I hate facings.
-The waist seam is exactly on the widest part of my hips, aka very unflattering
-I own NO woven dresses with long sleeves, because they don't fit my shoulders or upper arms at all.

I'm staring here at the problem I always have with woven sleeves- this tightness right at the front bottom of the armhole.  It pulls a lot.

What could one expect, then?  No surprises here, this dress is a fail.  My camera decided to wash out my pictures and make me gain some long legs, but that's only because the skirt is about 4 inches long.  It doesn't look good in reality.  And I think I was supposed to move those darts somewhere. Also, I found the instructions for the pockets to be confusing.  You sew the pockets on to the skirt front, then fold them but how much are you supposed to fold up?  Are you supposed to sew the pocket top into the seam allowance? Something was off, and the result is that they gape open and have messy corners.

Stylearc Sharon Sweat Top

This was a freebie pattern that came when I ordered my Lorie jacket.  It was well timed, because I had been eyeing Stylearc zip-front knit jackets for awhile.

The fabric is merino sweatshirt fabric - I haven't seen anything like it very often.  It's like cotton sweatshirting with the fleecy inside and flat outside, except it's merino!  I got it at The Fabric Store, which I visited in LA.  It was a labor of love because I was in the States to deal with the Black Hole of my luggage and this was bulky stuff to lug back to Europe.  So I was totally fantasising all the way home about this jacket.

It came together slowly partly because I really wanted to do a good job, but also because I was dogged by lack of equipment.  It took awhile to get the main zip and bindings, and I hadn't brought a fabric swatch with me.  Then I had to get the pocket zips...then I ran out of thread...the instructions were crap, as expected, but unexpected too: the instructions refer you to an "in-seam zipper tutorial" which I could not find on the Stylearc website.  I browsed various other sites but couldn't get a straightforward demonstration of putting an inseam zipper into a knit pocket.  I figured it out but I didn't put any interfacing in, which I later regretted.

My friend Joana did the photoshoot in Bern (Urban chic?)  It gives a better sense of the colour, I think, as my camera was doing funny things at home that day.


I got a size 8 as before in Stylearc.  I measured the back length and the shoulder breadth (it's about 14.5") and shortened the sweatshirt by about 2", trying to do it at the same height on the princess seamed side pieces.  The breadth seemed the same as a sweatshirt I have, so I didn't widen it.  Because I hadn't brought a swatch with me, I got heather grey bindings.  I was working on the blue Undercover Sweatshirt at the same time and suddenly decided this would look nicer with self bindings, so I used the Undercover Hood sleeve binding (but the Stylearc pattern's bindings for the bottom and neck.)  I have only recently realised how much stretchier ribbing is, and that might have been nice to have, but I do like everything being the same colour.

Final thoughts:
-zips in the pockets are not beneficial and just weigh the jacket down.  This is partly because I have all riri zips (it's hard to find anything else!) and they are heavy metal.  Plastic zips might be less bothersome. 
-topstitching makes everything look much more professional and it holds the seams down on the inside.
-why is there a facing?  I didn't use it.
-...but if you don't use a facing, how do you finish the inside zipper edge neatly?  (I used two layers of topstitching and zigzagged.)

Despite shortening this sweatshirt, and it does fit fine, and I love it about 92% as much as I hoped, it is still very shapeless.  I know two projects is early to make global judgments, but so far Stylearc seems to be Queen of Shapeless.  I am about to order three more Stylearc patterns...we shall see how they go. 

Papercut Undercover not-a-Hoody

This is another basic project.  I learned some neat things though - this was a hoodless version of the Papercut Undercover Hood. It's an XS with no modifications.  I forgot to pinch 1" out of the center front as I had done on the hood versions, and that makes it more baggy and a bit more batwing.  Luckily it's a lounging sweatshirt for a friend and she is curvier than I am so I think it will still work just fine.

My main experiment was with bindings.  I didn't realise until I made this sweatshirt how much stretchier and softer ribbing is compared to using self bindings.  Because I have made this sweatshirt a lot and always done self cuffs, I never had an equal comparison.  The ribbing is honestly so much softer and stretchier, and will make me reconsider using self binding on future projects.  However, I wasn't prepared for that and so I think I could have cut the neck binding a lot shorter.  I cut it about 3" shorter than the neck hole.  I used the pattern piece for the bottom binding and just cut it a bit shorter as well, and I used the pattern piece from the Style Arc Sharon sweatshirt because I was planning to use these cuffs on that sweatshirt and had already cut them out, so this is a shorter arm cuff than the pattern usually has.

I noticed while doing the Style Arc Sharon (blog post soon but it deserves nicer photos so I'm waiting for a camera operator...) how much topstitching added to the appearance of a sweatshirt, so I did lots of topstitching here to make it look nicer.  Added benefit - it holds the seam allowance down on the inside.  I'm still sewing everything with my cheap Singer, which means I straight stitch and then zig zag the seam allowance.  

I wouldn't consider this the perfect raglan sweatshirt quite yet but I will likely tweak a few more versions when tempting knits fall into my hands.  (Ginger has made a nice one.)