A skirt for all seasons and Simplicity 2594

After my wool skirt was shrunk beyond hope by my well-meaning laundry-doing husband, the need for a cooler weather skirt arose.  I passed by this pattern at first because it looked rather plain in the modeled photo.  As I looked back at the line drawing, I found it much more appealing.

I like the hip yoke, but the topstitching and the 4 vents at the bottom of all of the seams really suckered me in.

They add movement to what would otherwise be a simple skirt as well as giving some walking comfort for fall boot-wearers like myself.  As it is lined, it adds another layer against the elements and makes it an easy piece (vs. a slip) for my 30 seconds to dress that I often get in the mornings.

The fabric itself is pretty interesting.  It’s an teal overdyed denim that I bought from Denver Fabrics.  In one of my visits, I had seen it on the bolts, but I passed by it because I hadn’t started the pants journey at the time and because it looked rather ominous wrapped in plastic with big signs on it saying how it would stain.  For $8/yd I didn’t want to deal with that hassle.  On another occasion I came across it in the flat folds.  At $3.97/yd I was willing to take the risk.  As it turned out, it didn’t bleed dye on anything.  It does have some poly in it, so it frays perhaps a bit more than denim should, but as a lined skirt, I could care less about that.  Because the teal is rather subtle and I already own a denim skirt, I decided to use the wrong side of the fabric as the right side.  The darker side of the fabric feels nicer against your skin anyhow, and it fits in the color scheme of my wardrobe well.

This pattern was written for leather, but it worked well in denim as I imagine it would in other heavier fabrics.  I think a fine corduroy would be rather cozy.

The top is the much-loved Simplicity 2594.  For all of the PR love, there’s only 1 other review of the straight-grain version with the split neck.  I need to tack down the facing along CF because as it is it tends to pull the neckline off-kilter a little.  I certainly see why it’s been a favorite pattern.  It’s fast and easy, there’s no fitting really required (though I wish the smallest size were a tidge smaller in the neck because again I have silly undergarment issues), and the shoulder pleats are a nice touch.  Ooh, you can use fancy silky fabrics too.  This was my first time using serger-assisted French seams (you make the first seam with the serger so that when you sew the second pass, the sewing machine has something to grip)–wow, what a great option for floppy fussy fabrics.  This will have to be a layering top for me as it is heat deflecting rayon challis.  I’d be a little popsicle wearing this without a topper right now, but it’ll be great come spring and summer.

My skirt review is here, and

the top review is here.

Adaptation

As I said in my last post, I’m starting to understand how you can take certain elements that worked from other patterns and apply them to new ones.

When I realized that I was in great need of some basic tops, the first thing I pulled out was my Jalie scarf collar top.  I love how it fits.  It has a nice slim fit in the arms, and the rest is body conscious without being tight or tacky.  But how many scarf-collared tops can you really have?  For me–2–one non-pregnant, and one maternity version.  But don’t toss out this pattern because the scarf is limited in use.  The scarf is just a glorified binding–change it a little and you have a v-neck.

So I pull out Butterick 5386, which is now unfortunately OOP.  It has some nice neckline options.  I’ve made the shawl collar mock wrap and wore it to pieces, and the basic v is so handy.  What’s not handy about this pattern is how much extra fluff there is in it.  When I made it, I was just learning about fitting myself and did a full-on FBA and ended up having to take something like 5″ out of *each* of the side seams and it was still large on me (clearly I had no idea what I was doing then).  Even without an FBA, there’s way more extra room in this pattern then in the Jalie.  But I wanted a v-neck.  How to make it work…

1.  Mark the stitching lines on both patterns.  In this case, Jalie has 1/4″ SA’s, and Butterick has 5/8″ (which is so so silly in knits, but I digress).

2.  Overlay the patterns, lining them up at CF.  What I noticed was that the neck edge is pretty similar in both patterns–there’s a little more fabric AT the neckline on the Butterick, but that’s mostly because the collar takes up some of that room on the Jalie pattern.

3.  Tape some extra tissue to the pattern you’re changing and trace the stitching line of the neckline from the other pattern.  I raised CF by 1″ because without the covering benefit of the scarf collar, CF is a little too low for me on the Jalie pattern.

4.  Add a seam allowance to your new neckline.  It took a while for me to like 1/4″ sa’s, but I’m a fan now.

5.  Change the back shoulder seam to match the front.  I needed a little wedge that I blended into the back neckline with my French curve.

To finish the neckline, I cut a crossgrain strip of fabric 1.25″ wide.  I folded it over, pressed and applied it per Sarah Veblen’s method in this video.  If I had used a wider binding, I might have used Sandra Betzina’s wrap over technique that I wrote about here, but since my finished strip was so skinny, I sewed out a teeny dart in the binding only at CF as I’ve seen on some of my RTW tees.

The best part of this whole process was that start to finish, I had a t-shirt in 90 minutes.  It probably would’ve been quicker even than that but I was flustered for being in the middle of packing for San Diego while I was making the shirt.

To finish it, I used Sherrill’s lovely knit flowers tutorial and had me some nice hand sewing time in the car around San Diego.  I need to tack them down some more as they look kind of droopy after the wash.  How do you launder embellished shirts without them going to bits?

I forgot to mention that the fabric is rayon jersey from Elliott Berman that I got when they had their 50% off anniversary sale some months ago.  This is the best quality rayon jersey I’ve used besides the Milly print that I got from EmmaOneSock.  It’s dense and light and drapes ever so nicely and feels like silk against your skin.

Instinct

I’m starting to understand how to use other patterns to make new patterns better/more successful for me.  I know now, for instance that Burda armscyes and me is happy-making and that Jalie’s drafting is exactly what I like in a t-shirt.

Ah, but when I pulled out this Butterick dress (I’ve been looking forward to making it since my second trimester), I didn’t even think to pull out my most favorite Vogue 1027 which has a similar crossover bodice.  It’s too bad because I could have saved myself a lot of time and headache.  Instead, I winged it, and actually believed what the pattern tissue told me.

What did the pattern tissue tell me?  That for a size 8, at the bust measures 43″ on the final pattern.  That’s 9.5″ extra for me.  I did not want to be swimming in that much fabric, so I took 1/4″ off of the side seam and folded out 1″ parallel to the grainline per Trena’s method for a SBA though I am a DD.  I had my doubts about this, but the tissue wouldn’t lie, would it, even though it didn’t look overtly large across the bust?  Theoretically, even with all of this, I’d still have plenty extra room.  Not so much.  It fits, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a little more room.  I haven’t flat pattern measured it, but my guess is it’s not close to 43″ even without changes.  In addition to this, the bodice is really short lengthwise.  I added 1″ to the bottom of it and subtracted an inch from all of the midriff sections (and there are many due to overlays, so this was an easy, but more time consuming fix), which would normally work fine for me on any given empire with a midriff bodice.  This one is still about an inch short.  I had a hunch it would be, but I ignored my instinct and forged ahead.  I could have easily pulled out another pattern with this construction to compare–and I should have given that the length of the bodice always needs to be longer, and midriffs always need to be shorter because my waist is so short.

Blargh.

I’m not horribly sad about this dress.  It’s still wearable, but it won’t get as much use as I had hoped.  It’s not tight, but I do wish that it had a little more ease, and I’m not crazy about the lack of shoulder coverage along the neck edge.  Garments that require undergarment strap adjustment are annoying and one of the first reasons I started sewing for myself in the first place.  And though I love the print, this is not the nicest quality ITY–it’s slightly metallic, so it has a kind of crunchy feel that’s less than lovely.  I think it’s still a good pattern–I think the less than stellar results were entirely user error.  As much as I sew knits, I know a nice length of something or other will come my way and I can try this pattern again.  And when I do, I will for sure be pulling out other patterns to help me.

My full review of this pattern is here.

Fall jacket

I planned to make this jacket forever ago.  To be precise, I made a muslin for it in June last year.  With pregnancy and all the weight changes, I decided to not put it off until I got back to my fighting weight again.  I figured that I loved the style too much to not be able to wear it for a year, so I hung up my muslin in my sewing room as a happy reminder of a project to come.

Now that I’m to my fighting weight minus a few more pounds, I pulled out the stretch cotton sateen I had reserved for this jacket.

Burda 2-2007-104

Tested patterns make for quick work.  Having already traced and altered the pattern ages ago, I cut it all out lightning fast.  The width of this fabric was just shy of what I needed to make a proper belt, so I pieced it, figuring that my topstitching would cover the seams in the back.  The only thing I wished I had done is interfaced the belt like Burda told me to.  Normally I wouldn’t on a self belt, but because there’s stretch in this fabric, I think it would’ve helped it hold its shape a little better.

Sometimes convenience tools mock you.  Because this was a solid, rather boring fabric, I added a lot of topstitching.  I had two spools of Mettler cotton silk-finish thread I had bought for topstitching–one coral, one magenta.  I tested them both on a scrap to see which one I liked better.  This blue leans ever so slightly towards purple, so the magenta looked really nice, but the coral was so pretty.  In the end, I liked them both equally, so I hitched up my denim double needle and went to town.  I like the spacing of the double needle, but I would have been more accurate on corners (especially on the belt carriers and sleeve tabs) with a single needle.  The double needle zigzaggy bobbin show is also on the wrong side of the belt–it doesn’t show when I’m wearing it, but it’s also not the prettiest thing.  Some extra time with a single needle would have made for prettier topstitching on the belt.

Use the right notions.  I finished it all off with some denim snaps instead of sew-on snaps because I had them, and the scale was right for the jacket.  While I like the sporty look of them, denim snaps fasten more firmly than sew-on snaps.  That’s good for keeping your pants up, but with all of the taking off and putting on of a jacket that happens, normal snaps are a better choice.  I have to be pretty careful undoing the snaps here so they don’t rip out.

Overall, I love this jacket.  The me-without-kids-living-in-some-European-vista version of myself would totally be wearing this whilst riding a teal Vespa carrying bread, wine, enormous greens for soup, and a costumed dachshund.  The high collar is a fun feature and surprisingly practical.  It kept my neck safe from sunburn all day as we walked around the San Diego Zoo though I forgot our sunscreen.  I think it will also be a practical wind shield, but I have yet to test that.

My full review is here.

Fabric abroad and October goals

Readers, I am woefully behind on posting.  Like I haven’t written in 4 garments behind.  I will try to remedy that this week.  Writing will be on my to do list a little every day this week to try and catch up.  In the mean time, I will phone in a post about fabric shopping away from home.

We just got back from seeing my husband’s family in San Diego, and somewhere between going to the zoo and the beach and enjoying our time with family, my mother-in-law and I popped out to check out a couple of fabric stores.

Our first stop was Discount Fabrics.  It’s located in an old theater.  The reviews tend to suggest that the employees are rude, but the lady helping me was very nice, and I tend to ignore such comments because I believe that if you go in with a sour attitude you will probably be treated in kind.  It’s kind of divey but the ambience was fun and they had a nice selection of random bits of this and that.  They had quite a lot of silk–a lot of charmeuse (would that my wallet and lifestyle could justify being wrapped in fabric butter) and dupioni (wouldn’t you know I passed by a perfectly lovely aqua piece only because I have a darker teal dupioni that I have no idea what to do with).  I picked up a chiffon to line a blouse I’ve had in the queue and some denim that was $3/yd.  The denim was a flat fold that was up in one of the balconies where there were lots of tables of remnants which were all very reasonably priced.

Next we ended up at the Clairemont Yardage Town as it was not too far from Discount Fabrics and also close to my husband’s grandmother’s house where we stayed.  They had a really good selection of all sorts of garment fabrics with very very little quilty stuff (is it snobby of me to be excited about that?).  There was lots of nice heavier weight knits, mostly solids and a really beautiful silk chiffon that I regrettably parted ways with because I only budgeted $30 for both stores (I was over that by a quarter–I impressed myself).  Instead, I picked up a fun small wale corduroy for some wintery jeans.  I like the splotches of green in the gray.  And I was over the moon when I found this light cotton knit.  I love the gray on the green, I love that it’s a zebra print, I love that the pattern runs diagonally, and most of all, I love that it goes with the corduroy.  This will not last very long in the stash at all.

If you’re in San Diego, I would highly recommend both places.

Remember my hand-written goals of yore?  I’ve gone back to doing them the past couple of months and have been doing quite well with them.  I like drawing if for no other reason than I get to use my beloved Prismacolors, and I find it helps me to have a general idea of what I’m working on rather than a nebulous sort of queue.  This month I’m starting work on a winter coat, and I would like to get to Butterick 5677

because I think it’s fantastic, but I’m purposely leaving those off of my written goals because I’ve noticed an incredible lack of casual clothes in my wardrobe.  A recent post by Cidell left me thinking about what indeed DO you wear to watch football ?  I’ve been sewing as if I was still teaching, and while I like wearing nicer clothes while I’m at home, the sweats and pajamas inevitably come out when I’ve acquired enough layers of spit up on the nice clothes.  I just don’t have anything else that’s casual.  So on the printed goals are some wardrobe basics this month, and when I finish those I’ll add more details about the coat and other things to the queue.

I like to be able to finish what I set out in the time period I give myself.  If I get too ambitious, I just end up feeling overwhelmed (I’ll be honest though and say that I’m so motivated to blow through this queue because that Butterick dress is eating up my head with its awesomeness).  What time periods do you all like to work within to help you achieve your goals?