Elbe Textiles Botany dress & more tops

After making two Botany tops I finally went for a fabric I've been very excited about and cut out the dress. I thought my chances of success were high - the top fits great.  And I was really curious how the dress would fit considering the amount of ease.

I barely eked this out of my fabric and used some scraps of black silk noil for the bias taping. Because it didn't quite match the colour, I ended up flipping it to the inside, instead of keeping it on the outside.

The skirt was really easy to make, not adding much time to construction at all.

But in the end, this was a total sack - exactly because the same amount of ease is present in the dress as is in the top.  To make it fit, I'd have to remove 2 vertical inches from front and back of all pieces, and maybe add a zip.  Indeed, maybe I'll do that one day, because it's still very cute.

I debated removing fabric from the back, or removing the skirt and having another top.  But in the end I decided to send it to my sewing partner Tessa in New Zealand.  It's summer there!  And she loves it and looks great in it!

As I perused my photos, I thought possibly adding the ruffle would improve the dress even without changing the size.  Another option would be using a very fine drapy fabric that might appear shapeless but would shift with a breeze...I still haven't given up on this idea.

The top is an upcycled linen dress from goodwill.  When I saw the ankle length dress I thought I could make anything out of it!  But in fact with side slits I lost a lot of potential yardage so I just went for a botany top with some fancy pockets. I wore it quite a bit and then donated it to my cousin with the excuse that it's summer in the northern hemisphere (now I can make myself another one with a ruffle...)

The final top is made from a fantastic scrap of Marimekko fabric I got on etsy. Every now and then I have warm memory pangs from my time living in Finland, and I buy some Marimekko fabric or Moomin mugs...The pattern is too huge to make a little bag, and I love it too much, so I managed to fit it onto the front of a Botany top. The back is some stretch silk-cotton mystery blend from the sale bin at The Fabric Store in Auckland.

I didn't quite get these done before I left Arizona, hence the delays and the change in scenery!  The mushroom top is really fabulous, because the stretchy back gives it more movement. I did a micro hem by overlocking the hem and folding it over 3/8" because I wanted to save as much of the woodpecker as possible. I'm really happy with how this came out, I put quite a bit of effort into saving all the best graphics on the fabric scrap - a tiny bit more woodpecker would be nice but as it is I think it's a good balance with a touch of red on each side.


There's still one more Botany that I cut out in the States and haven't sewn yet, but I think you get the idea...

Arenite pants by Sew Liberated, again

My first version of these pants got some decent wear (see them here) but had a few issues:

-the fabric colour ughhhh
-They caught on my calves whenever I moved and made me feel like I was going to rip them
-the horrific drama of trying to sew those cuffs

A friend wanted them and so I passed on the love.

For take 2, I went forth with a silk-cotton-linen (?) blend that was definitely a bit too heavy for this pattern.  Same size, 4.  I lengthened the legs at the lengthen lines, possibly the second time I have EVER lengthened anything... I wanted the calf to be wider for longer so it wouldn't get caught on my muscular calves.  I didn't bother flat-felling, as the first go round took forever and looked bad.  I just seamed them and topstitched the seams down.  I feel more secure this way.
 

The make was straightforward. The fabric is beautiful though somewhat heavy.

I finally realised why I had problems with the cuffs.  The cuff is the same width as the base of the pants - not larger. So obviously you can't put elastic in it and expect it to stretch to be greater than the base of the pants leg!  This seems like a total pattern piece fail.  There should be a pattern piece that is larger than the opening at the ankle, so that when you add elastic, you are actually shrinking it down to ankle size.  Maybe there is such a piece and I never saw it? I know there's a piece for using a KNIT cuff but I didn't see a piece for a woven + elastic cuff.

So, beware of that!

In the end these are way too big.  I think in the lightweight silk twill the drape made them fit, but in this more structured fabric they are just too big.  I know that Meg has made a tutorial to narrow the legs and I'm keen to try that.  I quite like this pattern despite having some issues with it, and having gotten the length right I might do it up in another drapey fabric eventually, but at the moment the look of the narrower fit is interesting. 

(I hunted it down -)
The tutorial is a video on Instagram which is a pretty annoying place for it and it involves a LOT of steps...but I do love the result. 

Tilly and the Buttons Zadie dress review

I was enthusiastic about this pattern when it came out and bought it shortly afterwards.  It was separated from me for a long while and I just got it back! 

I had read many reviews on this and knew that it runs large, but still went ahead and sewed a size 3. The measurements for a size 3 on the envelope: 34-28-37 so I was already being generous sizing up.  I'm 33-27-37. Caveat there - My front bust is probably more like 32, the rest is my wide back.  Unlike everyone, my upper bust is larger than my bust, thanks to my fondness for upper body calisthenics (ie surfing.)

I used upcycled tshirts for this venture so some piecing creativity was needed. I can note a few things: the shoulders hold the weight of the dress, so it's best if that fabric and seam is strong.  (I used a rather worn tshirt for that bit, unfortunately.) Also it's good if the pockets match the dress because the pocket fabric does peek out a bit, though that might depend somewhat on how precise you are when sewing the 3-way seam at that juncture.

I found the instructions annoying - I really don't like colour photos as instructions - but they were fine. I didn't have any trouble with any steps, though that could also be that this was a muslin and I didn't care.  Things always go better when you aren't trying hard...

Possibly the colours of the V at the side seam are supposed to match up, though mine don't.

I'm not sure why I'm gracing you with so many photos, I don't really find this project that exciting!

Finally: this looks surprisingly ok in the photos, but it is huge.  It fits decently through the shoulders and is way too big from there down.  I will make a size 1 for my next version.  (More upcycled tshirts.)  I do worry that the size 1 will look small across the shoulders, but I think overall I'll be happier with it.  I'll also shorten by 4 inches or so. 

i am patterns Magdala dress aka The Layer Cake Dress

This pattern came out in October, when I was thinking about the sew frosting challenge.  In theory, I would have whipped up this fantastic ruffly dress in time for the challenge!  In reality, nope.

First of all, it's actually a top (here.) The dress is an add-on extra.  And I was committed to making this dress from literally the first minute I saw the pattern.  It had nothing to do with sensible, or with what I needed, etc.  I mean, clearly what I needed was...the layer cake dress.

Thus started an odyssey.  In Flagstaff, there is no fabric, and I didn't need just one perfect fabric but two perfect matching fabrics in different materials. I started out with the silk-cotton voile that later became a Metamorphic dress (here) and some dun-coloured cotton twills which were too thick and didn't match well. I considered silk noil to go under the voile, but it was not quite the same shade of blue and I wasn't convinced.  In December, my cousin asked me to make him pants and so I bought some random fabrics at Mood, including a perfect forest green cotton poplin.  Now for the voile...I hunted far and wide and knew my goal was in sight when I discovered cotton-silk voile at The Fabric Store. The Colourway is Abbey Pool Y.

I went by my measurements on the pattern envelope and planned to cut out a 38, forgetting that I have made i am patterns before (here's the Cassiopee) and they are boxy and oversized.  I did spend a lot of time looking at the model pictures before I decided to lop off a good 6" I think of the length.  I took half from the bottom and half from the middle of the bottom layer, meaning I also shortened the bottom ruffle.  I didn't make any other changes to the pattern.

I wasn't in any rush to sew this up.  I hemmed all the ruffles manually with a micro hem, that took a day or two, then I put the dress together -it's quite fun to see the pieces come together, and see how far I've moved from my ruffle-and gathering-hating stance?

The collarstand and collarfell (what a perfect name for it!) were fine though I suspect instructions elsewhere are better (the Deer and Doe Bruyere comes to mind as having very nice instructions).  Mine is fine.  Not quite perfect.  I topstitched the collar to make it look neater, as I also did on the button bands.

As for the buttons...the shitty sewing machine sort of made most of them ok.  Enough that I could get the buttons into them once.  They are definitely the worst buttonholes I've ever made.  The best news is that this dress is so huge, I can pull it on over my head and will never open the buttons.  Success!

The worst quality bit is the armhole binding.  I was using store bought binding and despite that it gathered all over the place.  There's a funny angle at the depth of the armhole that I struggled to get around, and if you look at it with any attention you can see that it's not well done.  I tried to iron everything flat, with limited success.

I was a bit fragile feeling after some of these weak efforts - bad buttonholes, only ok collar, terrible armholes...

Then I realised once I put on this massive dress that no one will ever notice any of that because I have created a masterpiece of ridiculousness.  To prove it is streetworthy, I applied my cardigan and smooshed the ruffles into compliance.  The wind also arrived, to help keep things interesting and show you the way the ruffles shift about.

Apologies for so many photos, I had a lot of fun and figured I'd share them all.

Everyone at work deemed this dress adorable.
But I will make the next one in a size 34. When it's time for the next one.