Pink ZigZags!

Country Girl ;)

I actually planned to have more sewing time after all the wedding preparations were done. But no, we went straight into our next big adventure: house hunting! So that's how we spend most of our Saturdays - looking at other peoples houses. So far nothing has come along that both of us really like. That means more searching and less sewing.

But I've found some pictures that we took in August in which I wear the first dress I made after finishing my wedding dress. I wanted a quick no-fitting sewing project and thus made my third version of Simplicity 1803 (see versions one and two).

The fabric is a liberty copy print on cotton lawn. I bought it on Goldhawk Road and it is one of the first fabrics I ever bought. So it felt really good to finally use it. I tried to match the Zigzags as best as I could and am really happy with the result.

Sewing the dress was quick, but there was some fitting involved. I hadn't made the yoke version before and didn't anticipate any problems. But having pinned the yoke to the dress, the yoke was strangling me. So I had to take it apart (Does anybody enjoy to take out understitching on trimmed seams? No me neither) and then deepened the neckline curve by 1cm. I couldn't go deeper because then I wouldn't have been able to turn the yoke right side out. The fit is better now, but still not 100% comfortable.

Due to my square shoulders the yoke is not sitting smoothly. You can see the fabric bulging next to the armpit. I tried to handstitch the bulge down but couldn't get it to lay flat on the right side, buh.

Gathers at the front.

Other than that the dress came quickly together. I used my overlocker for the first time to gather a seam. Just amazing: so fast and even gathering. The good thing is that you don't need a special foot for it. So if you have an overlocker and haven't tried that feature yet, I can only recommend it!

Now the big question: Have I worn it? Yes I have, but not very often. The problem is that if I'm not standing straight and don't push my shoulders back, the yoke is bulging massively. See the evidence below. I've worn the dress with a pink boat-neck wool jumper. It is a really nice outfit but I don't like to wear wool on my skin. And also I'm in autumn mood which means I want to wear brown, orange or red colors.

I wonder how it would look like without the strap of the bag?! Probably worse.

Hepburn Dress in Chiffon

Finally, I'm back online and my life slowly settles into a routine - I hope. I'm not sewing much at the moment, because coming home from my new job just leaves me exhausted and yearning for bed. But nonetheless I have a few makes to share with you that I made before moving :)

So let me show you my version of the Hepburn Dress, which is a pattern by Audrey & Me. Audrey & Me patterns are designed by my friend Charlie from thisblogisnotforyou. Maybe you have heard about them, if not you are definitively missing out ;) I was lucky enough to test the Hepburn Dress pattern before it's release---actually I was getting on poor Charlie's nerves asking "Is it ready yet? Can I test it? I want to make it before I move, please". Haha...

I was especially thrilled to sew this pattern because I wanted to sew with Chiffon. Sewing with Chiffon was on my 2014 sewing list. I was super terrified of sewing with Chiffon and thought it would be a good idea to learn to sew with it. Charlie's pattern came to the rescue...

Pattern: Hepburn Dress by Audrey & Me pattern. PDF pattern. I made version 1, which has pleats at the neckline and boxpleats at the skirt. The pattern comes with lining instructions for the bodice.

Fabric: Butterfly Chiffon for the outer shell and a pink polyester rayon for the lining. The butterfly chiffon I got from Goldhawk Road and the rayon I bought from Minerva Crafts, when they were having a sale a while ago. I was really curios about what rayon is, as I can't get it at Goldhawk Road. And I love it.

Alterations:  Surprisingly enough, I hardly had to do any alterations! I only did my standard forward shoulder adjustment and moved the bust dart in the lining down by 1". I cut a size 10 for the bust and graded to size 12 for the waist. I think the dress sits a bit snug around my bust, so next time I will cut the bust at size 12 as well.

Construction: To make sewing with Chiffon easier, I followed the instructions of how to sew with Chiffon by Andrea posted on cation designs. Thus I soaked my massive amount of fabric (I think it was 2.5 meters) in a bowl with corn starch and water. Which should stabilise the chiffon. I then ironed the fabric dry. Which was a total mess with the starched water dropping everywhere and soaking my ironing board despite me constantly changing the towels beneath the fabric. It took me one hour to get it dry and the fabric seemed to become stiff. (The stiffness didn't go away after washing so I guess I melted the polyester???)

The actual sewing wasn't a problem at all. I finished all seams with french seams to achieve a nice and tidy finish. I even managed to put a french seam below the zipper thanks to the description from Mercury-Handmade fashion. However, there was one point that I didn't think through when choosing my lining fabric: You can see the darts and seams through the shell because I chose a contrast lining, buh. I also managed to put the lining wrong way in. With the darts looking towards the shell. I don't mind too much and next time I will know better.

To line the skirt, I just assembled two skirts - one made from shell and one from lining fabric. So you can say I sewed the dress twice :) I hand stitched lining and shell together at the waist seam, which took me 2 hours. I attempted first to stitch in the ditch by machine, but due to the slippery fabrics, the stitches were not at all in the ditch!

The hems are finished with the rolled hem function of my overlocker. So quick :)

Have I worn it yet? I did several times. It goes perfectly with my Hetty Cardigan and white tights and these cute pink shoes I bought recently (which you can see only in the first pic).

Will I make it again? Yes I will for sure. Maybe not this year, because I'm feeling already to cold to wear sleeveless dresses, but definitively next year :)

Delphine Skirt and Bronte Top for Autumn

Now that the weather is getting colder in the UK, I have the strong urge to start sewing warmer clothes. Especially after I realised that I have hardly made any clothes for colder weather. Because we are moving, I had to pack all my staff and when going through the garments I thought "Where are my me-made winter garments" - there were none. That brings me to the problem, what fabric and patterns should I use to make winter garments? If you have any suggestions, please let me know :)

But as a start I think a denim Delphine Skirt and a long-sleeved Bronte Top are a good idea. So let's talk about the skirt first.

Pattern: Delphine Skirt by Tilly and the Buttons.

Fabric: Grey denim bought from Clothes House in Soho, London (so pricey fabric). I had bought this denim when I started sewing (so about 4 years ago) and I made a pair of trousers from it. Although you can't actually say they were finished trousers, because I realised they were massive on me and never hemmed them.

I think 1.5 me would have fit in there, haha.

For the last 4 years they lived hidden under my bed (as many other items that I made before knowing about fitting and muslins). A few weeks ago I remembered them and thought I might be able to refashion them into a skirt. So I unpicked all these pesky seams, cut out the zipper, gave the fabric a wash and waited for the right skirt pattern to come along. And the Delphine came along and I decided to muslin the pattern with the denim (you can see my second version here).

Cutting: Can you imagine that one half of the trouser leg was bigger than one quarter of the skirt? I managed to cut each skirt panel from one trouser leg. To be sure to be on grain, I pulled one thread from the denim to get a straight edge and used this to align the skirt panels. The front panel of the skirt is cut on the fold. But I didn't have a piece big enough to cut on the fold. So, I just added a 5/8" seam allowance to the center fold and cut two front panels that I sewed together.

Fitting: As said in my last post, there was a lot of fabric bunching in the back due to my sway back. So, I just kept shifting the waistband down at the center back until the bunching was gone = instant sway back adjustment.

Embellishment: I couldn't resist to add a pink piping that I made with some bias tape from my stash. Don't you think pink and grey are a match made in heaven? And yes I know that the pink piping will limit the versatility of the skirt. But never mind, I love it. I added even more pink on the inside where I used a lovely pink quilting cotton with mannequins on it as a facing. The fabric was a leftover from one of my first quilts.

Almost perfect invisible zip if it wasn't for the bulk added by the piping.

Now before the post gets to long, let's talk about the Bronte Top.

Pattern: Bronte Top by Jennifer Lauren Vintage.

Fabric: I'm not 100% sure what kind of fabric it is. It looks knitted on the front and has little loops on the back. And it is super soft :) I could be a French Terry Knit. However, I somehow doubt it because I bought the fabric in Walthemstow Market. I can't remember the price, but it will have been under £3.

Alterations: I made the same alterations as for my first Bronte and this time just sewed the long-sleeved version. For the sleeve, I traced the sleeve in size 10 and the sleeve cap (between front and back notches) in size 12 to get a slightly higher sleeve cap. I love the fit of the Bronte top. Usually sleeves are twisting on me because of my forward shoulders. The Bronte, however, fits perfectly! The sleeves are a bit long, which I actually like because that means I can cover my hands with them :)

Some closing thoughts:

I love both the skirt and the top, although I have to admit that I'm not really sure that they fit both perfectly together. The styles go well together, but I'm a bit unsure about the colors (me kicking myself for adding pink piping). Actually when getting dressed for the photos, I kept changing my tights and top until I came up with this outfit. I think because of the pink the skirt doesn't look as wintery as the top. But when paired with a summer top and my woolen tights (yes I'm that cold already - that's why I have issues sewing winter clothes) the top looked out of place. Maybe the tights are the problem, haha.

On other news, I have moved to Cambridge and started a new job :) I'm not having internet yet. Other than on the bus to work (and it might stay like this for another two weeks, thanks internet provider) hence my absence from the blogging world. This post was actually half written before my move and I had luckily added most pictures. I'm saying most here, because there are a few missing such as a pic of the facing. But hopefully everything will settle in the next two weeks and than you can see a few more makes that I have already finished :)

It's still summer: Time for a second Simplicity 1803!

I made this Simplicity 1803 dress as part of Heather B's Summer Sundress Sew-a-long. Which is a great encouragement to make more summer dresses, especially because we have lovely warm summer weather in the UK. It means I can actually wear my summer dresses, yeah. I also wanted to have a second version of this dress with a patterned fabric, because with my white version I'm constantly worried about stains and dirt.

You might notice that I added cap sleeves this time. I intended to make a muslin with sleeves first, but couldn't wait and decided: when they fit -> sleeves, when they don't fit -> sleeveless. However, when assembling the dress I realised that I liked the sleeved version more. For this particular fabric, the sleeve version looks cuter :) 

But there was a small problem, the sleeves didn't fit. Because of my sloping shoulders, the pleat was sitting towards the back and it looked awful. I then moved the pleat forward towards my shoulder point, which looked much better. It took me two hours (and loads of ripping) to get the fit right, but it was so worth it.

This time I didn't line the bodice and skirt, because I wanted to sew a thin summer dress. As the fabric is not see through, this is fine. But the problem I have now is that the skirt is clinging to my panties! In most of the photos I took for this dress, it was actually clinging to my front and back. Awful. And I wasn't wearing a cotton pantie. So this means a) I go nude (not going to happen, haha), b) buy an anti static pantie (does it even exist?) or c) wear a slip (which will be hoooot in summer).

I have worn the dress with a slip already and it was fine. No clinging. However, the slip was a really cheap one from ebay and thus I'm thinking of making my own from silk. Maybe in black with a little lace trim.

 I didn't insert a lapped zipper this time, but went for the invisible one. I think I did a good job as you can hardly see the zipper and it was the first time that I put one in without using any instructions, yeah. *Me so proud* I'm always stabilising the zipper seam with fusible interfacing, which works like magic - no puckering!

You might notice that I didn't match the pattern. I tried at first and would have loved to place the four roses on each front panel. But because of the directionality of the print it didn't work. And then I got frustrated and couldn't be bothered to match anything. But I don't think you really notice, because the pattern is so busy.

I had some fabric leftovers and cut two stripes from it to make a long belt. I can wrap the belt twice around my waist and depending on my mood either tie it to a bow in the front or in the back.

Now I bet you really want to know what fabric I used? It was a liberty copy print that I got for half the price (because end of roll = 4£/m) from Goldhawk Road. I fell in love with it when I saw it and had to have it. That was 1.5 years ago. I couldn't decide what to make from it, but think it is a lovely pattern for a summer dress. I'm not sure you can see it on the photographs, but the leaves and flowers are outlined in gold. Love it!

I finished the hem with the rolled hem function of my Bernina (did I say that I love this function?!) and used black thread because it matches the fabric. So overall I'm super happy with this dress and think it will be great for autumn as well, as I can wear it with black tights. 

So how about you? Are you still sewing summer clothes? Or are you already preparing for the colder seasons?

Part I of the Outfit Along: The Dress

We have amazing 26 degree C in London today, so perfect time to take my Outfit-Along Dress out for a walk! I only finished the zipper and hem this morning - and yes my sewing machine is working again! Apparently, a broken needle caused the bobbin tension to go all crazy and the guy from the sewing shop had to adjust the little screw on the bobbin case. Now she is behaving again :)

Pattern: As most of you might know, I made this dress for the Outfit Along 2014 hosted by Lauren and Andy. I decided to make Simplicity 1803, which is the dress Lauren recommends to make. I could have made another pattern, but I couldn't resist this amazing dress pattern. Actually, when I was fitting the bodice last week with Thea, we realised it is super similar to the Cambie dress from Sewaholic (that's what I was fitting on Thea). So I can cross the Cambie from my to sew list.

Pleats and eyelets.

Fabric: I got this fabric from Leschas mum the last time we went to Kiev. It is an eyelet cotton that was very beautiful to sew with. Because of the eyelet I had to underline the whole dress. I used a off-white cotton lawn I had in my stash for ages. I had only 1.30 m of the eyelet and managed to squeeze the dress out of it, yeah! I had even less from the lawn and thus had to cut the skirt underlining 10 cm shorter.

Alterations: As always, nothing fits me out of the envelope and I had to make two (only!) muslins to get the fit right. The pattern has princess seams, which should be easy to fit. I say should, because that is not the case for me. To avoid tediously fitting the princess seams, I just took the already fitted princess seam pattern from my Simplicity 1882 dress. Luckily, both dresses are armhole princesses and it was easy to transfer the changes. I only had to tweak the princess seams in the first muslin and voila they fitted :)

I also did a sway back adjustment and took out 1" at the centre back seam, tapering to nothing at the side seams. My armholes were also gaping, which meant I had to do a round back adjustment of 3/4" to get that gape closed. Lastly, the side seam was angeling forwards and thus I graded the bodice front to size 12 and the bodice back to size 4 (!) at the waist. It is straight now, yeah! That meant I also cut the skirt back in size 4 and the skirt fronts in 12! This was a bit scary because I was worried the skirt would not fit over my bum. But I hoped that it would fit because the skirt is originally gathered.

Straight side seams and pleats

Construction: I first underlined the whole dress: bodice and skirt. For the skirt underlining, which was 10 cm shorter as the shell, I first finished the hem with my overlocker before stitching it to the shell pieces. I didn't attach the hem, because I wanted it to float freely and not to appear bulky.

I followed Laurens tutorials, which were amazing!!! The pictures are so detailed and great to follow! So if you are going to sew the dress, I can only highly recommend Laurens tutorial! I decided to pleat the skirt as suggested by Lauren. Because of the eyelet fabric the dress looks quite elegant and I think a pleated skirt looks much more elegant than a gathered one.

Then was the questions, what kind of zip should I use? I decided against an invisible zip because the fabric would have been bulky. Also I have read several stories about breaking invisible zips which makes me a bit more cautious. So a lapped zip it was - my first lapped zip, which didn't get in that easy at all. It took me some unpicking and handstitching before it looked ok and I am still not 100% happy about the overlap.

One of my shoulder is lower thus I shortened one of the straps when pin fitting the dress.

Do I like it? I love it. I think it is a nice little summer dress (although some people might argue it looks like a wedding dress - hi mum) that will get plenty of wear as long as it stays warm here. I imagine it will look great with my knitted cropped jumper. And I can tell you already it looks great with the knitted cardigan for the outfit along. You will see it soon :)

Will I make it again? For sure! I have a beige fabric with a button pattern in my stash that I think would look great. But then I would go for the version with the short sleeves. I haven't muslined the sleeves yet and from experience I know, that they will change the fit of the shoulders massively. So it will take some time...

How are you getting along with your outfit-along? Or have you ever sewn/ knitted two pieces that you knew would go perfectly together right from the start?

The dress that almost didn't happen...

The dress that almost didn't happen is my butterfly Colette Parfait. You might remember from my last striped version that I had fitting issues: When doing the small bust adjustment (SBA) I had to take out 1.5" from the back and front bodice, which resulted in the back sitting to high and the appearance of a "propeller" at the back skirt. To solve this problem, I took out the too much "propeller" fabric. But because of this, the dress is bunching around my belly when sitting down.

The final dress

My first attempt in solving this problem, was just to make the backstraps 1.5" longer. This perfectly solved the propeller issue. And because the waist seam was not sitting on the waist, I also added another 1" to front and back waistband. I also decided to make a colour blocked version by adding a white waistband, which would be a nice contrast. Contrary to my usual "I make a muslin first" attitude, I immediately cut the fabric (and made my butterfly Sorbetto Top from the leftovers).

That's the first version I took apart. 

It took me two weeks to assemble the dress, because I was not really convinced by it. And only when I had inserted the zipper (and the only thing left to do was the hemming), I admitted to myself that I didn't like the dress: The colour blocking looked awful with putting all the emphasis on my bust - but not in a good way. And because I had lengthened the straps, the back bodice had dropped so far that you could actually see my bra closure.

. 

The waistband proportions didn't look good either. There was no way I would wear this dress. But the fabric I used is the most expensive cotton lawn I ever bought. So I put the dress away for a few days and decided the day before my PhD viva (and encouraged by a 35°C weather forecast in Germany) to adjust the pattern and cut a new bodice. The fitting and sewing kept me from freaking out :) and directed my thoughts away from the viva. Sewing IS good for you . . .

The only problem I haven't solved yet is that the backstraps don't cover the bra straps.

First of all, I unpicked the zipper and also separated skirt, bodice and straps. The skirt was good to use further, as were the straps.

Added centre back seam at bodice pieces.

Button details.

Adjustments: I started from the beginning and this time used Shaerie's flat pattern method to do a SBA - I removed 1" from the bust. The advantage of this method was, that the side seams were not changed at all and I could keep the original back bodice. I made a muslin of the bodice.  I pinned the skirt to the bodice muslin and checked that the waistseam was on my waist and I didn't have a propeller. I noticed that my front waist seam was riding up over the belly and added a wedge of fabric there: 1" at the centre front that tapered to nothing at the side seam. I made another muslin and it turned out fine and I was ready to cut the fabric.

Pockets with contrast detail and stripey buttons.

Cutting: I still had some butterfly fabric scraps left and managed to cut the front bodice pieces on the fold. But none of the scraps were big enough to cut the back bodice on the fold. Thus I added seam allowances to the centre back, cut the pieces twice and stitched them together. They do have a centre seam now, but it's on the back, so I don't mind. I cut the facing from white cotton lawn because there was no butterfly fabric left.

The hem is finished with a narrow hem.

Construction: As I had skirt, pockets and straps already assembled, it took me only a couple of hours to finish the dress. When stitching skirt and bodice together, I took out 3/4" at the centre back tapering to nothing at the side seams on both bodice and skirt. This accounted for my sway back. I stitched the whole dress with my sewing machine, but finished the raw edges with my overlocker first. I finished the hem with a narrow rolled hem, also with the overlocker (I love this function of my Bernina).

Have a worn it? Twice already. I had my PhD viva on the forth of June and I am now a Doctor of Philosophy  :) A day later I went to Germany to celebrate with my family and spent there an entire week. We had up to 35°C the first few days and I was wearing both of my Parfaits, yeah! They are both the perfect summer dresses and I felt very happy to wear them. So, although having troubles and almost not finishing the butterfly Parfait, I am so glad I did!