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.

Papercut Coppelia

This was made with an incredibly stretchy bamboo rayon from Mood - a wonderful friend brought it for me when she came visiting from the States.  It's super stretchy!

I followed a lot of lladybird's advice and commentary before making this.  I made a size XXS, and lengthened it by 2 inches (which honestly considering how short waisted I am, was unnecessary and I won't do it again).  I considered taking 1 inch out of the back but decided to leave the pattern alone, I guess I am still a bit burnt by all my unnecessary Thurlow changes...I knew that I could shave a bit off the side seams if I needed to.  I also cut the neckband about 3 inches shorter than it was supposed to be so that it would be a bit tighter.  With the incredible stretch of my fabric I knew I couldn't go too wrong.  What I did notice is that there's a limit to how tight you can pull it because the waist tie is attached at the bottom of the front - you can only overlap up to the edge of the front, which wasn't quite enough.  That makes this a rather loose wrap top, not something I could wear alone.

Construction was straightforward and I didn't have any problems.  I used a stretch needle and I finished the seams with a zig zag stitch.  It's easily a one-day project but I spread it out between other things so it took a few days.

This is definitely another pattern I'd be comfortable making a few of, and tweaking the fit a bit!  I don't mind how loose it is in the bamboo but for my next, Merino version I might take that inch out of the back.  I noticed in the photos that it looks very sloppy and that's pretty annoying - I am tempted to wrap it on the side but that doesn't seem to be very flattering. 

Voila, Coppelia!

Rainbow lined Colette Crepe

This sat around for awhile and I read about it online quite a bit before I got annoyed with the pile of fabric and dove in.  I wasn't sure what to expect - both with the vertical striping and with the pattern itself.  I didn't make any effort at stripe-matching.  I also didn't know whether my silk lining would be solid enough to function as facings.  I played with the idea of ironing on the facing pieces to the top and armholes of the dress but then decided that was too much effort. It was my first Colette pattern and I have read a lot about people having fit troubles so I wasn't anticipating a perfect dress on the first go round.  On the other hand, my Vogue wrap dress just feels too big and I do not love having it open all the way up to the waist every time the wind blows.  So I thought the back wrap might be a nice change.

I cut a size 4 which matched my dimensions exactly. I do not like facings so I decided to line this dress with some lime green silk.  Also, I treated the silk with gelatin so it would behave (an example of how to do that is here, and this certainly made it less shifty.  That's currently my favourite method for dealing with lightweight silk.  Less shifty does not = zero shifty, so it was still a bit off, but I just made some little folds along the shoulder and that was taken care of.  The shoulders are funny shaped anyway!

 I followed this tutorial for the order to sew with a full lining.  What it neglects to point out is that the wrap belt also has to be done and attached prior to sewing the lining onto the bodice, but I remembered that from my Vogue wrap so it wasn't a problem.  Sewing a wrap dress is easy and the Vogue dress with lining had super instructions, so this time around felt a little bit like deja vu even though I was adding the lining myself.  I sewed it in by hand at the waist, and I have to say, this dress is gorgeous inside.  I did notice that my needle make little lines in the silk - even when I switched to a microtex needle.  I don't know what that's a sign of. 

As for fit...meh.  I don't actually like the loss of control that I get with the wrap in the back.  And I think wrap dresses just feel like too much fabric or something.  The bust of Colette patterns is bigger than in the big 4, and in this case it's too big for me.  The dress is cute and I really like the one piece sleeves.  It's possible that I would make it again, but I'm not totally sure. 

Kitschy Coo Lady Skater in Merino

This is the Lady Skater pattern by Kitschy Coo.  It's such a nice, simple design and all the reviews have been pretty spectacular.

Once I got through the boring pdf cutting/pasting, I cut out a size 3 based on my high-bust measure of 34.  I was using a very stretchy thick brown merino wool to start, and I have a second skater planned in a tighter knit.  I wasn't sure if I'd need to go up a size, but in fact I'm wondering if I should have gone down a size!  I used a stretch needle as recommended (I didn't notice any difference from the ball-point needle I usually use for knits.)

The construction of the skater is very fast and the instructions are available in a long or a short version, as you prefer.  I went by the short version, which means I didn't finish most of my seams...I had a lot of trouble getting the clear elastic to actually sew onto the dress.  I'm wondering if using a straight stitch instead of a zig zag would help, or if it would then not be stretchy any more  My elastic kept zig zagging straight off the wool!

Otherwise, this was super fast and easy.  I cut it in the morning and sewed it in the afternoon!
For my next version I will definitely be making it shorter both in length and in the bodice, but I think that with my less-stretchy knit, I will not go down a size. 

By Hand London flowered Anna

Time for another Anna. Size 8/12 this time.  I luckily only had to trace/guess at one piece because I had mostly traced out my size 6/10.  Construction pretty straightforward.  I lowered the front neck slightly, and skipped the facings to try out self-bias tape instead. I waited to put that on until after the zipper, since I was anticipating some gapping at the back.  There wasn't!  I guess that in this rather loose variant of the Anna, when there is no pull inward below the bust, it doesn't pull outward on the back??

My size 8 Anna is pretty loose, and the pleats are the only thing that give it shape.  I'm feeling rather frumpy lately with my loose Belladone, and now my loose Anna.  But I do love breathing...

This was my first attempt with the invisible zipper foot.  Which is apparently not a Janome specific foot, or my needle is not centred in my machine.  I could only use the left side tunnel.  Then I realised I hadn't matched the waist so I had to redo it.  I used the normal zipper foot on the second side.  The invisible zip foot also isn't creating a very invisible zip.  I wonder if I'm doing something wrong...anyway it's still been a much nicer zip installation than usual.  I was very tempted to take out an inch at the centre back but finally restrained myself. 

I actually love this dress!  It may be loose and frumpy but it has no facings, no loose threads, no sticking out funny bits...it's about the best construction ever, and makes me love Anna all the more!  I have one Anna left to do...my long, sleek, v-necked black Liberty Anna. So...is this size too big and frumpy for that??

Sewaholic Thurlow Jeans

It just happened that my first Thurlows would be jeans.  The awesome dark Theory jean fabric (with some stretch) was on sale during my visit to the States...and I'm actually quite glad because I think that I'm much more exacting with jeans compared to other pants.  My Vogue pants, for instance, are a miracle because I can wear them.  The idea of getting them to fit precisely was so far beyond me when I made them! 

Jeans aren't like that!  They have to fit just-so.  Quite awhile ago I read up on making trousers, measured my crotch depth and length, and measured the crotch depth and length of all my favourite trousers.  Interestingly, the variation was less than an inch!  I also tried to spy ahead of time what sort of changes I should expect to make.  I read some of Katherine Fasanella's diatribes about camel toe and I can even admit to spying on butts in the city identifying flat-butt-jeans (made that way because it uses less fabric).

With all that behind me, when I cut out my Thurlows I felt (rather mistakenly...) like I already knew something, and added in all these changes.  I deepened the J of the crotch for what I diagnosed as a low-slung butt (no perky cheeks for me, sadly) by going from the size 4 line down to 0, then from there I extended the crotch depth by continuing out to the size 8 line, and then smoothed that back to a size 4 about 3 inches down.  Haha, so see what happens next...were my changes good or stupid??  It was almost torture to go through the sewing piece by piece!

Those butt wrinkles are nothing compared to what I started with.

WTF that stupid fly is going to fly away it's so far to the right!  ARG!!!

I prepped by reading lladybird's sewalong two or three times, so that I had a better feel for what each piece would be doing, and it was a very very helpful crutch along the way.  As a few have mentioned, the explanations in the instructions are sparse.  About 12 steps are listed in each numbered "step" and if you haven't done trousers before it can be rather puzzling.  With the sewalong providing pictures along the way it was easy not to get confused. Tasia never tells you whether the lining fabric should be face up or down!  Nobody really gives advice on finishing stuff - like when/how do you actually sew the back butt/waistband together without crazy mismatching?  Should I just know this?

I had heard that the Thurlows run big, but in the end...my changes were so very irrelevant.  Big was not quite the word.  Once I had sewn everything together and got my mind around the architecture of a crotch seam, I started taking in fabric.  I took in about 2 inches at the inseam extending to about 5 inches below the knee.  Then I took in as much as I could from the bottom of the zip to the end of the butt along the crotch seam.  Then I took 1 cm off each side seam (I wanted to keep my pockets!) starting just below the pocket and extending that to 2 cm below the knees.  After all this I still took about 2 more inches out of the final centre-butt tab.  I almost overdid it once I got the waistband on - tried to taper the waistband and got a weird poofy bit.  In order to straighten that I had to take another small chunk out of the middle butt...and in the end it's crazy!  They fit!!  Oh yeah - this is why you do a muslin...I should have cut a straight size 0 and gone from there.  If my fabric had zero stretch a size 2 might have been good.  I would have a really hard time putting all my changes to paper though.

The main thing that drives me crazy is that the fly is on the wrong side, so when I look down the jeans look lopsided with the right hand fly.  Also the 4-way butt intersection where the waistband meets is still puffy due to my last minute ridiculous tapering idea.  I couldn't fix it quite enough, apparently.  But they are comfortable to wear, so I will chalk them up as a success.  I think a non-stretch, non-jean version of Thurlows would get a very different result!

My super sexy silk Papercut Saiph

Oh I was soooo excited to do this!  And whoooa I went out on a limb with creativity.  Seems to have come out ok despite that.

It was the perfect pattern to use for some silk - charmeuse I think?  It's dull on one side and shiny on the other, quite heavy, and it was the lining for my Victoria blazer, soooo at the end of it all I have a matching jacket!  I did have a few stray thoughts about using the dull side to make a nice contrast but I just stuck with shiny this time around.

Thanks Jennifer for an awesome lunchtime photo shoot!  We went urban chic: 

Yeah that's right...photo shoot at work and the rabble is getting restless!

Matches so well with my suede Victoria blazer

This was a size XXS.  I made some changes for summer -- omitted the facings and the sleeves.  Also although I adored working with this silk when I had been sewing suede, the truth is that it is shifty and it is shedding everywhere so I aimed for simple.  I wanted a dress with a nice finish and I still don't have a good idea how to make a good finish.  I just pinked the back seam and the skirt seam, and used french seams on the sides and shoulders.  My french seams got a bit big as they had to contain a bunch of shedded fibers.  I was worried that would make it smaller than I wanted but it is just barely perfect.  The hem length could be 2" longer so it would be more "dress" and less "shift" and I was rather sad to finish them hem as that made it even shorter...but it looks and feels awesome as it is so I don't mind in the end!

I considered bias binding the neck and sleeves but again the shedding silk made me reconsider, and I just rolled the edges in as I did for the back keyhole.  This came replete with some trials.  Maybe bias binding is better, because it's cut on the bias...right...the first armhole I folded-ironed-folded-ironed, and then pinned it down.  That was difficult and messy.  The second one I folded, ironed, and then did the second fold at the sewing machine.  The silk was easier to manipulate that way and I got a better result.  Still had to go back at some of the tight corners to fix them.  And it wasn't until I got to the neck that I remembered to grade my seams. Nonetheless, I naturally have a bunch of funky looking gathers at the front of the neck, hissss.  I will probably try to go back and loosen them up.  How to sew a rolled hem/neckline without making it look bad??

Finding a matching button was mainly luck.  I don't have a stash, since I'm transient, so my button stash consists of buttons from purchased items (all those spares.)  Luckily I had a nice green one, thanks Anthropologie!

At the end I went back and shortened the darts by about an inch.  No 1950s bullets for me (I don't think my boobs have ever sat that high!)  I'm considering shortening them some more.  I usually seem to have a slightly lower bust compared to darts in dresses, so that might be me.  And they are very pointy still...sigh.