Vogue 1351, in wool

I saw Lizzy's version of this and coveted it instantly.  I saw it in person shortly afterwards and this dress jumped to the top of my list.  I oh-so-cleverly went for some plaid directional wool that I found at Tessuti in Melbourne...thinking that it would be edgy and cool.  Rather regretted that- Lizzy's version in crepe is much better suited to the pattern.

I have always cut a size 10 in Vogue patterns and they are always too big.  So I cut a size 8 this time, forgetting that some of the designer lines for Vogue have less ease.  I lined the dress with bemberg in purple (which as you can see I had not hemmed in the pictures.)

Construction is rather confusing because you sew the lining to the inside part of the cowl, and then sew the lining in the rest of the way.  Lizzy's post on this shows the lining.  I had to lay it on the floor and move stuff around quite a bit until I got it right, but I was waiting for my invisible zipper foot and didn't have the zipper in, which made it more confusing as you are supposed to do that first.  It was not too difficult to figure out but a bit time consuming.  My only real gripe was at the end when I couldn't completely figure out how to shut the shoulder seams.  Vogue seems to have a tendency this way - to expect you to finish something perfectly by separating the lining and the fabric, and sewing them separately even though you haven't got room to do it, when I by then only have little straggling ends that won't meet up properly.  I tried to do it the Vogue way on one side and on the other side I just folded the mess together and sewed it as one (it leaves the ends hanging out at your shoulders), and actually the Vogue side looks much better even though I thought I was doing it terribly.

Anyway it got to that point and I finally tried it on...and the top half is too small.  So I guess I should have made a size 10, or maybe a 10 on top and an 8 on the bottom, after all.  I was quite disappointed which is why I just had my lovely friend Dana snap the photos before I bothered with the hemming.  Luckily I found the dress a new and enthusiastic owner so all has worked out well.  Next time (there will probably be one eventually as I still like the style and it does end up with a great finish if you take more care with the seam allowance on the shoulders ahead of time...as the pattern suggests) I would use a finer, drapier material and I would obviously avoid the diagonal directional print - although with a belt this won't look so jarring, I don't actually own any belts and am not keen to acquire them.

Papercut Peter and the Wolf Pants, salvage operation

I was sewing these at the eleventh hour before I left New Zealand.  Literally - I sewed until the minute I had to pack up the sewing machine and take it away.  I got all the way to the waistband and at that point there was nowhere to go, they were so huge.  I had really expected a lot out of these pants, and while I knew I am not advanced enough to manage the amazing fit of Lauren's spotted pair, I had even made a muslin!

It was time to take a long break, so I did.   A looong break.  And finally I felt ready to just do whatever had to be done to make them fit and get rid of the butt wrinkles from hell.

-Removed about 3 inches from the front crotch, tapering out at the sides.  This wasn't done quite evenly and one leg is a tiny looser than the other.  But whatever.
-Removed about 1 cm from the upper sideseams, tapering to nothing above the pockets since I didn't want to change them at all.

Those two changes made these pants fit.  Then I put on the waistband and I stretched it out a lot as I sewed.  The fabric has a lot of stretch, and this way the waistband ended up nice and snug - I had removed the zip for the fitting process and just basted the sides, and I called it a success when I had to put the zipper back in!

I still don't consider these the ultimate Peter & the Wolf pants.  They are particularly unflattering due to the pockets visually widening the hips - I think this might be minimised in a finer fabric.  Not to mention the butt, I'm not even sure how to conquer the butt-fitting problems.  But they are wearable and cozy, so I will not be sending them to the secondhand heap quite yet.

Final summary:

Papercut Patterns Peter & the Wolf pants
Fabric: Marc Jacobs Herringbone wool from Mood
Size: XS
me: always an XS in Papercut
Changes: lengthened the legs slightly so they would be full length pants. 

Drape Drape 2, no 4 in stripey rayon

I bought a bunch of lovely fabrics to make into these tops - I was really surprised to find a variety of interesting rayon blends at Joann Fabrics, and they were all cheap.  But I thought I could eke out 1 meter of fabric...for a one piece pattern that calls for 1.4 m?  Oops.  That didn't work.  So this is the only fabric I had enough of.  It's a nice drapey rayon, with quite a bit less stretch than the cotton that I used for the first version.  It's a bit heavier as well.

I was going to raise the front neckline, but totally forgot.  Also, I had the fabric face down on the floor, meaning that the drape moved to the other side.  I forgot that a non-symmetrical pattern can't be flipped over at will...luckily I didn't care about the drape side.

I was going to do a nice Renfrew style neck binding...but I again forgot my sides and I sewed it to the inside.  Sigh.  I folded it over and sewed the edge down just to have a clean binding but it still looks rather nicer on the inside than the outside.  On this version I made an effort to clean up all my seams, because my first version feels very flimsy.  I still didn't sew the bottom at all since it is snug.

It ended up a bit tighter.  I might loosen the opening for the drape side armhole next time so that it doesn't cling to my arm.  It's still amazing! 

The best undercover hood ever - in double face Italian wool

Me Made May was a brilliant idea for about 4 days while it was warm and sunny out...but then Seattle got all rainy.  It does that sometimes.  So in order to stave off the cold I was inspecting my me-made wardrobe for gaps.  That's what me-made-May is for, right?  Makes one reflect a bit on what things we ought to be making, instead of, say, dresses....

As I noted in my plans for the year, I need to make more cardigans.  I also have a weird jacket fetish, and probably I should make some jackets too, not because I need them per se but because it will distract me from buying them.  But anyway right this minute, the solution was a warm, fuzzy Undercover Hood by Papercut.  I've done it so many times that I couldn't go wrong, and now I know to use a heavier weight knit.  So I went off to Nancy's Sewing Basket, in the rain, to see what they had.  Naturally, what they had was exquisitely expensive double faced Italian wool, and after sucking in a breath and going for it, I rushed home to roll myself up in it for a day or so.  The outside is grey/heathered navy with a normal knit face, and the inside face is fleecy/almost felted soft navy.  I stuck a tiny square in the wash but I didn't like how it took away some of the fleeciness, so I washed this in the machine on 'ultra-delicate' and that seemed to do ok.  I air-dried it.

I made my usual alterations to the Undercover hood.  I cut an XS, 2" removed from the sleeve length, 1" from the middle front, and shortened the front pocket about 1" accordingly.  I cut two pockets, so that I could sew them together for a clean edge, but I kept the fleecy side facing in on the inside layer.  Same thing on the hood- I sewed them together so that I would have the woven outside and fleecy inside even though it's two layers.  

I was terrified to iron this, although ironing made it just shiny enough that I got worried, it flattened it out quite a bit and that might have made it easier to sew at times.  Overall the fabric was very well behaved.  It cut easily, shed only some bits of fluff everywhere, and it flattened as I sewed so even though I was sewing 4 layers, it didn't mess up the Necchi.  (We're on better terms now, since I stole him from my parent's house and took him home.)

What I didn't anticipate is how the thick wool makes this sweatshirt a lot smaller than in the stretchy past versions.  It fits me perfectly but if I start to warm up at all it gets really hot.  In this fabric I could have left it a bit larger just so it would air more.  I am already starting to dream of a version with a zip up the front...

Grainline Maritime shorts in wool

Are you shocked that I'm finally making a summer item when it's near summer?  Never fear...I started these in February.  It's only on accident that they're being finished in a season-appropriate fashion.

This fabric is a lightweight wool that I found as a scrap from Nancy's Fabric Shop on Queen Anne in Seattle.  It's a lovely shop to go into but similar to Global Fabrics in Wellington it can quickly eat up your money!  The ladies there really know what they are doing and give thorough advice. 

I figured this pair of Maritime shorts would be a muslin for another pair that I want to make in another heavy fabric - a beautiful tweed that I have found...but first things first.  Everyone else had some fit issues with the shorts so I wasn't sure how mine would go.  Based on chats I had with Lizzy, I cut out a 6 to start.  I had some trouble figuring out the front pockets and I didn't feel like the Grainline photo tutorial helped at all.  It just showed more pictures of the same confusing thing!  Eventually I put all the pieces together in the right way, at least of the pockets, and I didn't have more trouble after that.

The rest of construction was straightforward until I got to the fly.  I was making my dad's Burda trousers at the same time, and with similar pieces, but the very confusing instructions led me astray.  (The Burda instruction should have helped, but didn't.)  Something about my fly is wrong.  It took me ages to figure this out, but shouldn't the zip be hidden by that bit of fabric?  

Oh and that bit of striped ribbon?  Yeah, that was where the waistband was totally not the same length as the lining...

Unfortunately these shorts languished while I was in Switzerland and so they became a bit of a UFO.  They were finished in short order, with no real further problems.  The waistband was too short.  And funny shaped.  I had initially put it together wrong but I'm pretty sure I fixed that, but still it has a few wrinkles - and again I found the directions less than helpful.  I left my Thurlow pattern in New Zealand but I think I'll buy it again because it has the most straightforward pants explanations, and I prefer to do the stupid fly first and get it over with, rather than leaving it for last.

Sorry about the spots, my mother fixed the camera afterwards but didn't take any more back views.

The size six fit fine, and I didn't make any adjustments. I am not sure I love these enough to make a lot of them (mainly because I don't wear very many shorts except one hideous pink pair that will last me another 20 years) but I might try lengthening them first into knee-length shorts and see what I think.

These were done in time to wear them for Me-Made-May, hurrah! 

Drape Drape 2, no 4

Similar to the first drape project, the onerous part was sitting on the floor tracing out these big rorschach-blot monster pieces and sticking them together.  The piece was easy to cut, and then again I sewed it in the order I liked.  Basically it just gets folded over and then all the loose parts are sewn.  I did not pay attention to how you are supposed to roll and sew the drape side sleeve opening, and mine was a bit messy.  The Singer really showed how it didn't like knits here - I had to constantly tug my stitches to get them straight, and my final seamlines are wavy.  I attached the neckline as I did on the first drape project - I sewed the inside like a bias binding and then folded it over with the raw edge out.  I did initially hem the opposite sleeve, but my hemming was too tight, and so I cut the sleeve edge off.  I left the bottom raw as well.

I cut the S/M again here.  
The fabric is a mostly-cotton, very very thin knit, from one of the shops in Milan.

This turned out to be an amazing tshirt that I loved right away.  Lizzy was right!  I already have about three more planned, most of them in stripes.  I am not sure how to finish the neck and the sleeves better, though. 

By Hand London Georgia dress

This wasn't a pattern I jumped on but my interest rose when I saw Ladybird's version - short!  And of course I saw it on Lizzy in person, and hers was fabulous.  During my perambulations around the city, I found some stretch twill on sale and it seemed just the thing for a simple dress that wouldn't require too much equipment.  I wasn't exactly enthralled by the idea of hand sewing the entire thing, but I suppose it could be done... (nah, there's got to be a sewing machine I can borrow somewhere, right?)

Since I had so much time to think about it, I thought about the bust, and about my history with BHL bust problems.  I thought maybe I should do an FBA.  I bought a pair of shorts to rip up and - crazy! - muslin the bodice!!!  Before I did that I read the sewalong that the lovely ladies at BHL have done.  They advise that an FBA is needed when the high bust is >2 inches smaller than the bust, because that would correspond to a C-cup.  Hm....wait a second.  My big problem is that my high bust is 1+ inches greater than my bust, although some of that is because of my back muscles.  So should I actually be doing a SBA? I decided to be smart and just muslin the normal pattern.

normal size

I can easily pinch out an inch

SBA of about 1 cm, I only pinned it, but it's much smoother and fits more closely

There is still a bit of excess, but it's less.

This is what I got, see top photos (after I hand sewed my first muslin like a good 14th century frau).  Empty pointing boobies...I guess I do need that SBA, although I'm not sure what happens at the bottom of the cups where they attach to the dress.  Because I didn't totally believe in it, I shrunk it by only 1 cm.  And because I was getting lazy, I just pinned it instead of sewing it.  But already I can see a huge difference - the bodice lies flat against my chest and there are no empty cups.  I can also see that I might have gaping at the top of the bodice, but that will be easy to fix by just sewing a bigger allowance at the top of the centre front.  After all this, I also think I better find a sewing machine, because my stitches don't look very reliable to me, but at least I can get on with cutting before my flatmate comes home and needs the living room floor.  (Yeah!  And the iron is in the basement!)

This is more true to the actual colours.  My camera hates purple, apparently.

I found construction to be straightforward, although I had slight trouble with the centre back point.  The front was off but even after taking out about a 1cm wedge from the centre top front, it still gaped, so I gathered it there, similar to what Lizzy did on hers.  Then you can't see my slightly off-kilter centre.  Compensation came later: no zip!  Since this is a shoulder-free dress and my fabric is very stretchy, I didn't need it.  Hurrah!

I did as suggested by others and tried the dress on inside out.  My heavy fabric doesn't show marks, so I drew lines down the side to flatten out the extreme-hip shape (my hips are low?)  I considered pulling in the back a bit too but I didn't want to overdo the changes.  Because I know that I have a short strap-distance, I planned ahead and left the back straps out.  Once I tried on the dress, I inserted them into their holes and sewed these shut.  I wasn't bothered by having sewing marks on the back of the dress, although I could also have sewn it on the inside as you do for the Sewaholic Cambie.

I cut a 6/10.  This is my usual size for BHL.
I still don't know if the SBA mattered at all.  The bust fits ok.  But the bottom of the bust is high.

A finishing touch - the BHL label!  None of my previous patterns came with the labels so I suffered from envy of everyone else with their amazing labelled By Hand London projects.  Now I finally have one of my own!

I think this dress, because I worked on it so slowly and attentively, has come together much better than my rushed projects in the past.  I put a lot of effort into what I personally needed so that I would consider this a "wearable" dress, and that truly makes a big difference and is something that you don't learn right away.  In some ways it was also a more enjoyable process because I didn't rush.