Beating the heat

I’ve been enchanted with this Burdastyle 2-2011-101 since I saw it in February.

 I love the cap sleeve, and the retro styling and it just looked cool.

I’ve been wanting to make a sundress, and as I went shopping in my stash, I came up with a nice piece of voile that I bought last year from fabric.com and meant for another project that got nixed in the muslin stage.  The pattern calls for organza (cotton perhaps from the picture?), but that sounded far too warm for the 95+ temperatures we’ve been dealing with here lately.

To beef up the voile and keep down the wrinkling, I fused the bodice with Pro Sheer Elegance from Fashion Sewing Supply (lovely stuff if you haven’t tried it).  I cut out the interfacing at the waist darts which I lengthened and widened for my full bust.

Sandra Betzina was here for the sewing expo a couple of weeks ago.  I couldn’t muster up the nerve to ask her for a picture for the blog because I was so in awe of her as she poured out her knowledge and expertise non-stop for a solid 3 hours.  As she looked at my muslins, she mentioned doing a broad back adjustment for me.  Who knew?  The good news is that with that little bit extra, I don’t have to add as much across my bust!  And it does take out the teeny bit of wrinkling that I have never really noticed around the bottom of the armscye in back.  Still and all, by the time I added for the broad back and my full bust, I probably added more than I usually would have.  But again, a little extra ease helps with the heat.

As for the skirt, I was less enchanted with Burda’s suggestion of using two big rectangles and gathering them to fit at the waist.  To eliminate all that bulky, shapeless mess, I instead pulled out the skirt piece for Vogue 1027.  It hangs on the bias, and I had already fit it–well sort of…  Because the bodice is much closer to the bust in the Vogue dress and because it’s a knit pattern, I had to add at the side seams so that it fit the bodice.  I kind of guessed at 5/8″, but 7/8″ ended up being about right (I also folded out some of the flare in the skirt and added a CB seam because I despise side zippers).  I like this skirt much better–it still has a nice flow because it’s on the bias, but it lacks the bulk of the original pattern.

I wore it all day on Saturday and it kept me quite cool.  We took the boys up to Tiny Town , which is a huge collection of big doll houses–some furnished, some not.  There’s also a mini working steam engine.  Noah and Nathan rode it while Sam and I took pictures.  Sam did NOT like the train whistle, but we still had a good time.  Noah and I are here (of course) by the Opera House.

As a note, I would not recommend this dress for nursing–it’s possible, but not horribly practical.  My full review is here at Patternreview.

What is everyone sewing to stay cool?

Magic Beans and big teal chickens

I end up sewing for myself mostly because we’ve been given most of the boys’ clothes and because my husband is so not a clothes horse.  But once in a while I come across a special piece of fabric that I set aside for somebody.

The last time we were in North Carolina visiting Nathan’s grandparents, Nathan’s grandma graciously allowed me to sift through her stash.  I found some lovely treasures including a dress that only lacked finishing, some fun canvas, and some scraps from this really pretty shirting that perhaps had been used to make up a shirt for Nathan’s grandpa.  Nathan’s grandpa passed on just a few days after Sam was born, so i thought it’d be a fitting tribute to make up a shirt for Noah.

Noah’s been super into robots of late, so I asked him if he wanted a robot on his shirt.  Seeing scraps of this Jack and Beanstalk fabric leftover from his apron, he decided he’d prefer that.  So we’ll save robot appliques for another day.  He woke us up this morning at a quarter to 6, saying, “Jack and the Beanstalk! Jack and the Beanstalk!”  It’s a good thing I’m a morning person…

This is my first jaunt with pearl snaps, and I must say that I’m a fan.  I keep forgetting to buy a snap setter when I’m at Denver Fabrics, but the good ole wooden spool/rubber mallet combo did the trick anyhow.  The pattern is from New York Kids’ Style vol 1, that I’ve written about before.  It’s a great book–totally worth the price as every single pattern is usable, and the drafting is fantastic.  My only complaint of this pattern is that the buttons are marked really far from CF, which is easily fixed (I might have traced the 3T markings instead of the 2T too).

As for Sam, he pretty regularly sleeps through the night provided that his arms are covered.  He loves to break his arms out of his swaddling, and if he’s short-sleeved, you can bet I’m nursing at unholy hours of the night to warm up those cold little hands.  This is my first Ottobre pattern (from the 1-2009 issue).  Either Finnish children are rather large, or my children are rather small because this shirt (I lengthened it from a romper pattern to make a big sleep shirt) is enormous.   And because I used an old cotton/super spandex t-shirt that will fit over his head when he’s Noah’s size, it should last him a long time despite being too big now.  I also managed to find a scrap of felt from a wool blazer I used to make my diaper bag–it was just the right size for the chicken applique.  I really enjoy making appliques though I steer away from them on my own clothes.

At the end of the day, sewing for the boys, at least I know I have a satisfied customer.

Two heads

are indeed better than one at times.

At intervals I have been working with a few ladies from the pants fitting class I took in February.  I didn’t have much luck in the class, and I haven’t had much since then.  Last week though, I rewatched the Threads Fitting DVD on pants and I was inspired to try again.  For a flat seat, they tell you to pin out the excess below the bottom and transfer it to the inseam.  It looked really slick, so I thought, why not?

Well, dear Linda, who has been my main fitting partner had just watched Peggy Sagers’ webcast on jeans (I linked them all because I think there’s something to be gained from each one.  She says a lot of things I think many would disagree with, but her construction methods produce great results and she’s just funny.), and she had instead took out a sort of horizontal dart from the inseam tapering to nothing at the side seams on the front and back. 

Here on me, you can see the beginnings of the Threads alteration on the left and the darty thing on the right.  It may well be that once I did the transfer all those weird wrinkles would go elsewhere, but why fuss, when the darty thing looks SO much better.  It was kind of a break through.  Actually, Peggy Sagers’ whole approach of make a muslin and work with it until the wrinkles go away seems a great deal more intuitive than anything else I’ve seen or tried.  And there’s less guess work involved–how much do you scoop out the back crotch–well, on a flat pattern, it seems like a big old mystery, but if you pinch it out until it looks right, well, it’s not so mystical.

I tweaked the final pants a little, but more on that after I wash out the spit out from them.

Happy Leftovers

I’d been eyeing Burda 7508 for a while.  It just looks cool.  I mean beyond the asymmetrical neckline, it just looks like you won’t expire in it in 100 degree heat.  I like the princess lines too and it seemed like a good pattern to venture out of my normal comfort realm of knits and start figuring out how to dress my changing body.  And, it’s too hot for knits.  Thank goodness for cotton and linen in the heat.

When I got around to working on a muslin, I noticed I was a little low on my usual stash of old sheets and I’ve been a bit tired of them with the whole pants muslining business.  I thought I’d look in my leftover fabric stash to see if I could put something together.  As luck had it, I had more than enough of this leftover poly-I’m-not-sure-what-you-call-it-but-it’s-pretending-to-be-silk from JoAnn’s that I had had for a blouse that I made for my art teacher friend I used to teach with.  Black and grey aren’t normal colors for me, but hey, if it turned out bad, it’s a muslin, and if it worked out, it’s a wearable top for a night out with my sweet husband.

Burda 7508

What I learned:

Princess seams and the full bust:  I’ve said it before that traditional FBA’s don’t work too well for me because of my waist being smaller.  When Lorraine Henry came last year to the sewing expo and showed the seam method’s way of dealing with princess seams, I was intrigued.  It truly only adds across the bust, and it fits great.  On my muslin before this one, I slashed across the bust line between the side front and front pieces and allowed it to spread to where it relaxed, which was about 3/4″ on each side.  On my pattern, I cut along the seam line and spread it the same width at the bust level.  To get the pattern to lay flat, you cut it at intervals to but not through the cut line and overlap as you need to.  Here’s what the whole thing ends up looking like:

See how much rounder it looks?  It makes sense that it would fit better, right?  On this particular top, I need a little more room.  It fits, but there’s not enough ease to be comfortable for day to day wear.  I added an extra 1/4″ to the side front and front pieces for version two.

CB seams and zippers: I hate hate hate side seam zippers.  Did I mention that I hate them?  I sew them poorly and they bubble out on my body and they poke my underarms.  Argh, but I dislike them intensely.  So I added a CB seam instead and moved the zipper.  You can’t finish the yoke via the most excellent and cool burrito method (or can you?), but it still works well.

Poly fabric masquerading as silk is horrid:  This shouldn’t be a big surprise, but this fabric is awful.  It frays unattractively, it stretches as it is sewn, it gets needle marks (so your construction has to be 100%), and it’s hot.  This version is not getting out of the closet in the summer for sure.  I did forego my pattern weights and pinned my pattern pieces while cutting out which was slow but did allow me to not have a cry fest over slippadeedoo happening while I was cutting out the pattern.  But given that this is leftover fabric, I wasn’t going to be too picky.

What I want to learn how to do is finish the vents more nicely.  I just kind of guessed at the whole matter and did what made sense to me, but I’m sure there’s a prettier way to do it.  I feel like vents are like mitered corners–one of those things that make your sewing look so much better when you know how, but something that takes a little practice to get good at.  But maybe they’re easier than I think.  Does anyone know a good source for finishing vents?

I haven’t reviewed the pattern yet as I just finished the *real* version last night, so it’s forthcoming.