In search of the perfect t-shirt style dress pattern

I did a workshop at Sewisfaction a while back. I do workshops for a lot of different reasons – sometimes it’s for a thing I particularly want to try making, or a skill that I want to work on with a teacher’s support, sometimes it’s because I want to kick-start my sew-jo, sometimes it’s because I want to give myself some focus time.

This time, I joined because I wanted to make the Beginners’ Jersey Dress. I’ve been trying to find the perfect jersey/ponte t-shirt style dress pattern. I’ve been using my much adapted Simple Sew Shannon dress, but I’m really after a dress with a more set-in sleeve, even if I’m setting it in flat. I was hoping this workshop would give me a pattern that I can reproduce a few more times. I have to say, I’m not quite there with it yet, but I’ve definitely moved a big step forward with it.

The workshop was fun, with people with a wide variety of experience, which Sheona (teaching the workshop) dealt with brilliantly. She organised it so that we all started together with measurements and pattern cutting, then regular demonstrations where we all came together, so even if we had diverged in how far along we were, we all knew what we were doing.

Of course, my dress fell into the upper size range and, having a bigger bust, required an FBA. So I learned how to do an FBA for knits when there’s no existing dart in the dress. Always a useful skill. Having Sheona as a fitting buddy, to spot what could be tweaked and to explain how, was excellent! One of the difficulties I always seem to have had with jersey dress patterns, is that they all seemed to have very gapey necklines, and Sheona was able to show me how I can adapt the pattern without tinkering with the shoulder line, which was working fine. So that’s another useful technique to be aware of.

We didn’t get all the finishing done in the workshop. So I did the top-stitching of the neckband at home, and tried the dress on. I’m not saying I hated it, but it just didn’t feel quite right. It was looser than I liked. I feel that the whole point of a jersey/ponte dress is that it conforms to your body, not that it flaps over it loosely. But that’s OK, because this was always going to be a toile, to see how this pattern worked. I was able to re-sew the sleeve seams to make them narrower , which helped it feel more “me”.

I was wondering what to do about the dress length. I’d cut the dress quite short in the workshop, because that’s how the pattern comes, and I knew this was just a toile. I’ve got some dresses that I prefer short, but this one didn’t feel right for me with so much looseness in the body, and at that length. So I chopped it into a top, and it’s looking a lot more the thing.

Getting there!

So I’ve moved a step further towards my perfect stretch t-shirt dress. I did all the FBA adjustments to the pattern directly, in the workshop, and now I need to reverse engineer it to make the adjustment smaller, to make the dress narrower, more snug.

More on this, as the changes get tried out…

The rosy pink, or is it ruby red, dress – Part 1

I decided to try another online workshop, a couple of weekends back. This time it was with Sew Different.  It was taught by Tree of Stitchless TV. It was to sew Sew Different’s Everyday Chic dress.

The premise of the workshop was to sew a pattern-hack which would turn it into one of these new Buffet dresses, by making it more gathered below the bust line, and adding an extra flounce. I had bought a length of fabric to do this with, as I didn’t have a stash piece long enough to cope with the gathering and flounces.  It was a floral viscose from Fabricland. But on the day, I realised that although the pattern does go up to large sizes, it was still going to need some alterations. I didn’t want to waste my lovely fabric on a toile that might not be wearable.  I did a quick stash dive, and settled on this cotton which I had bought in France about 3 years ago.

Officially, it’s a khaki/beige colour, not really me at all. But it has a beautiful wrong side, which is a deep ruby red. At least the thread is, but the way it’s woven with the khaki, it’s two-tone and comes across as a rich pearly pink. And just look at that selvedge… There’s no way that was going into the recycling bin – I had to find a use for it somehow.

The change of plan on fabric did mean that the dress in my head stopped being a buffet dress and started becoming one of those loose floofy dresses that I had been eyeing up during Me Made May.  So I wasn’t feeling so bad about that change.

So the first thing, after taking measurements and decision-making, was to make the various alterations to the pattern. I basically needed to add 14cms around the bust.  Tree’s suggestion was to add 2.5cms to the width at the side seam and to add 1 cm on fold. Once that was multiplied by 4 (the two front and two back halves) that gave me my 14cms in total. But… it meant that I had to add 2.5cms to the raglan sleeve pattern piece.

I have to say, I already feel a bit conflicted about raglan sleeves. I’ve been coming to the conclusion that they don’t do me any favours at all.  They always seem to have quite a lot of spare fabric flapping around around the bit between my shoulder joint and my armpit. This just draws attention to my upper chest, making my bust look even bigger than it is.  I’m all for body positivity, and I love my breasts, I think they’re amazing. But generally my aim is to try and balance out my silhouette because I’m top heavy with narrow hips, and it looks a bit weird.

I was also concerned about the size of the sleeve. Even before adding an extra 5 cm to them, the armscye (armhole/sleevehole) was very low, a good 8/9 cm below my actual armpit. Freedom of movement is a good and fine thing, but this was running the risk of turning into Shapeless Sack-ery. With a floppy viscose it might have been ok, but this cotton had structure, it wasn’t so forgiving. But I decided to trust the process, make only the necessary amendments, to see how the basic pattern worked out. It’s just a toile, a hopefully wearable one, but this is why I’d changed fabric.

Because I was making all these alterations to the pattern, I was trailing behind everyone else in getting my fabric cut and prepared. It was starting to be stressy. It was a really hot day, and I hadn’t eaten, because I was trying to catch up on the fabric cutting during the official lunch break.  By the time we started some sewing I was already feeling pressured on time, and still playing catch up. It was starting to turn into an Unfortunate Experience…

As a group we took the decision to sew the bodice first, rather than the skirt.  My own reason for wanting to do this, was that the bodice was the part of the dress that needed the most fitting. The first thing we sewed was the facing for the front of the dress.  I’m not sure mine turned out brilliantly, but it’ll do.  Then it was on to the raglan sleeve seams.  We were leaving the side seams until last, but I pinned my sides together to see how the bodice had come out.  I was pleased to see that the bodice sat quite nicely.  But oh my stars, the sleeves were… humungous. They stuck out like Dumbo’s ears.

Sorry about the light – it’s supposed to be midsummer, but you wouldn’t know it. Also sorry for the grumpy expression!

Too bad, there was nothing I could do to rescue them at this stage. Tree suggested elasticating them. Nah! Not my style. Too Little Girly. And again, it’s just pointing out to the world: Hey look – Béa’s got massive norks! Though to be honest, even without elastication, the sleeves are still broadcasting that message. Tree explained how you could create a dart in the sleevehead of the pattern piece and rotate some of the excess fabric out of the arm that way, but it was too late for any of that with this make, it was already cut out. I hated those sleeves. But I told myself I could find some way to fix them, later.

Tree then moved us on to the remainder of the facing. I don’t know how, but when I tried to add the back facing to the front one, my facings were too short. I had next-to-no seam allowance. I must have stretched the fabric somehow and/or sewn with a wrong seam allowance… Again Tree made some helpful suggestions, sewing the facing pieces by overlapping and zigzagging together, or overlocking them together, but there wasn’t even enough for either of those. So I wasted even more time cutting out a new back facing piece with longer “arms”, so they would actually join up.  I was so behind already and with having to cut this new piece I was even more behind, so I missed pretty much everything that Tree said about how to actually sew the back facing on. I’d have to do that based on my own skill & judgment. More stress…

At that stage I really did feel like throwing the whole bundle into the bottom of the cupboard, never to be spoken of again. I was getting really hot and bothered. The Unfortunate Experience was turning into an Impending Disaster.
I decided to call Time Out on the sewing of the bodice.  If I continued with it, I would be out of time for the rest of the entire dress. Also, I needed to do a load of overlocking for neatness, and I wasn’t set up for it. And it was making me stressed and angry with myself, and I could feel the distinct possibility of bursting into tears in front of everyone.
But then we were going on to the skirt. Trust the process, Béatrice,  trust the process… 

Things went a lot more easily with the skirt.  We created the pockets first and I really enjoyed that technique. It worked, which put me in a better mood. The only thing I worried about was that the pockets themselves were possibly too deep and at some point I’d have to shorten the pocket bags so that I can actually reach the bottom of them.  But until I’d actually sewn the skirt on to the dress and tried it all on, I wouldn’t know how  far down the pockets went.  Once the pockets were done, I was able to get the skirt front and backs gathered, and stitched to the bottom of the bodice front and backs.

At that point, it was officially past the end of the session, and Tree had said she’d stay on a while longer. But I decided that I’d quit while I was ahead(ish), and do the finishing work another day. I promised faithfully to let her know how I finished it.

I still have quite a lot to do. I have a bodice shell, but it still needs overlocking on the raglan seams, and the facing added. I have to decide if I’m going to do anything about fixing the humungous sleeves, and if so, what possible options I have. The waist seam needs to be overlocked, and it turns out that yes indeed the pockets are massively too long, and the bags will need to be shortened. Once I’ve got all of that sorted out, I can sew the side seams and do the hemming. And I want to try and use that selvedge as a hemming decoration somehow or another.

There will be a Part 2, when I’ve worked out how to fix the things that aren’t working for me. I’ve got some ideas, so it’s not all doom & gloom. In fact, trying it on a week after the event, it’s not quite as horrendous as I was remembering, so giving it a bit of distance has already helped. I’m sincerely hoping I can rescue this. I don’t want this dress to hang in my wardrobe unworn, because it has horrible associations for me. Or worse, end up on the WIP pile, never to be heard of again.
(Edited some years later, to confirm there is a Part 2, and it’s here.)

So, see you on the other side!

Online sewing

As the weather warms up, as the sun brightens our days, as the evenings stay light for longer, my creativity is waking up. I did my usual thing to kick-start my sewing, and booked myself on a course. Naturally, it wasn’t a face to face course, we’re not out of the lockdown just yet! But I didn’t know how a Zoom course would work, so I thought I should at least try one.

Claire Tyler has a wide selection of Online Sewalongs. I picked the Nina Lee Mayfair Dress course. This pattern is right in my wheelhouse. It’s designed for jerseys, so it’s comfortable, and it looks smart so it will work for when I have to go back to the office (one day…). And it’s got an interesting neckline, so it works for all those Teams meetings while I’m still working from home. It’s got a stand up collar, grown on to the front, with loose pleats, that give you the fullness for the bust, without darts.

Image from Nina Lee Patterns website

At the start of our Zoom, we had a bit of social chit-chat, much as you would in any face to face course. There were six of us, and the others had all done quite a few of Claire’s courses, both in person and online. We turned to discussions of which version of the dress we were planning, and what fabric we were using.

I was using a fairly recent purchase, a viscose jersey from the Textile Centre – we all know what I’m like with a floral print! It’s light-weight, with a beautiful drape, and it has 4% elastane, giving it really good stretch recovery.

Pretty but a little bit edgy, maybe?

I was going for the knee length dress with the 3/4 sleeves, basically the blue one in the image above. I don’t like having fabric flapping around my wrists! I was seeing this as more of a transitional Spring/Autumn dress. Some of the others, including Claire, were making the maxi version with short sleeves, as a billowy Summer dress.

One thing that some of the others were doing was adding in-seam pockets. I’m one of those weird sewers who doesn’t actually care one way or the other about pockets, so I wasn’t planning on adding any this time around, but I did pay attention to what those others were doing at the time, so if I decide to go ahead with pockets on a new version of this dress, or indeed any other dress, I’ll know how to go about it.

The first thing we did was check our own measurements against the finished garment measurements, to make sure we were cutting the right size, and to see what adjustments we would need to make. The great thing I discovered when I was buying the pattern was that Nina has expanded the size range for her patterns up to a size 28! Hooray for not having to do a massive grading exercise! I thought I’d have to do some kind of FBA, but when I measured up the pattern pieces, and compared them to my own measurements, it was all looking fine, no FBA needed. As it turned out, the main adjustment I needed was to lengthen the bodice of the dress, by a massive 15cms, to cover my expanse of bosom. That was straightforward enough. Claire checked in with everyone to make sure they were clear about what their adjustments were, and made sure we knew what we were doing. Then it was a matter of cutting it out, and marking it up. That always seems to be the longest part of any sewing project.

The cutting out revealed something I hadn’t realised. I had assumed I had 3m of my fabric, because that’s what I’d ordered, when I bought it. But it turned out I actually had 3 yards, i.e. 2m75. That would have been enough, if I hadn’t had to add the extra length to the bodice. I was wondering if I’d have to go for the short sleeves (as per the pink version above), but I decided I could get away with cutting the waistband tie pieces on the cross-grain, using the bits left over from cutting the front, back and sleeves. This wouldn’t have worked if the fabric was much less stretchy along the grain that across it. Fortunately there was a reasonable 4-way stretch, so I could keep those mid-length sleeves. I’m a bit annoyed with the Textile Centre, but I should have measured the fabric as soon as I received it, and raised it with them at the time, so it’s my own stupid fault. And there was a workaround, so it was ok in the end.

We got started with the collar, which is probably the trickiest bit of the whole dress. And as I said, it’s a nice feature. We had to create pleats, and then do one of those seams where you have the shoulders joining straight onto the collar, which involves some tight pivoting on the intersection between shoulder & then we had to sew the collar facing to that seam. Nina’s instructions use the burrito method, but there’s quite a lot of fabric to try and roll into it, especially for the ladies doing long dresses. So Claire suggested either a straightforward stitch-in-the-ditch join, or just hand-stitching the facing down. I love a bit of hand stitching so that’s what I opted for. We finished the session with the centre front seam, and that was it for day 1.

Day 2 had us working on the gathered front. The instructions that come with the pattern say to use an elastic to create the gathers t, or to gather in the traditional way with thread. One person had already tried the elastic method, and she’d found it a bit fiddly, but also she pointed out that the elastic would be straight against her skin, so she was planning on unpicking that and doing a traditional gather. I think once she’d mentioned that, most of us decided to go with a thread gather. Then we created the belt, and attached it over the gathers. The last major jobs were then to attach the sleeves (flat), sew the side seams and do all the hemming. Claire was demonstrating how you could use a coverstitch machine to do the hemming, but I was going for a basic twin-needle hem. Claire had some really useful hints for working with twin-needles, to avoid “tunnelling”, including using a specifically stretch twin-needle, lengthening the stitch a bit, and the big lightbulb moment for me, loosening the tension on the foot (using the little wheel at the back of the machine). It worked an absolute treat! Nice flat twin-needling.

And here’s the finished article… 

I love the neckline, the soft pleats are so gentle and flattering, and the collar stands up which lengthens the V for those of us with short necks.

I’m now treating this version of the dress as a wearable toile, and I’m planning to make another. I’ve got my major alterations done, and now I can fine-tune the details. I want to tweak the length of the shoulder seams, as the shoulders are a bit dropped on this version. Claire has shown me how to do that, and I think I can stand to lose 3 or 4 centimetres there. And if I’m shortening the shoulder seams, it will mean the sleeves shift up, so I will probably have to lengthen the sleeve pattern. I’d also narrow the sleeves a bit, as I like them a bit more close-fitting. 

I always love the social element of doing courses, and I feel like this was a reasonable substitute for being in the same room with other people, given that we have no other choice. It kept me focussed and “on target”. It’s nice to see other people’s sewing spaces. – some of them had beautiful sewing rooms! I don’t have a lovely sewing room, with cutting table, and shelves full of stash. I have to do my pattern adjustments and my cutting out sitting on the floor, and my sewing machine is in a different corner of the room than my desk and laptop, so all that people would have seen of me is my wall most of the time! I was perfectly able to ask questions when I needed to, but once I got working, it didn’t really feel like I was working “with” everyone else in quite the same way as you do when you’re all together. Hopefully we’ll be back to that soon – I’ve got a Sewisfaction Swimming Costume workshop that’s been booked since January 2020, and keeps having to be reorganised, so I hope it will be sooner rather than later. But in the meantime, thank heavens for Zoom, and the internet, for giving us the next best thing.

 

A Coatigan and more…

Radio silence for months, then two posts in a row… As I mentioned in my previous post, I had a visit from the inspiration fairy, who doesn’t normally come calling in the Autumn and Winter. While I was planning  my sweatshirt dress I received an email from the Sew In Brighton School (I’m on their mailing list, they didn’t just spam me! They wouldn’t do anything of the sort) about the courses they were running. And one of them was to make a coatigan in a day. This was appealing enough with my Winter Sewjo in full flow, but then I realised there was a massive discount on the workshop price. That sealed the deal for me, it was the kind of discount that would be rude not take up!

My main difficulty was that I wasn’t sure about the sizing of the coat. The details on the website talked about the sizing going up to a generous Medium, but I’m definitely a large, and I’m even more large across the front. I emailed the Sew In Brighton team, and the lovely Kat (Sew in Brighton’s owner) was super-understanding, and was able to grade the pattern to a large size for me (and for future plus size sewers).

I didn’t have any fabric in my stash that was suitable, so I looked around for possible options. The information about the fabric needs suggested 2m80 of boiled wool or sweatshirting. I know that the first make of a pattern isn’t always my best version, so I wasn’t going to spend £25 per metre on boiled wool, just in case it was a disaster. So I searched for sweatshirting instead. But then I came across this gorgeous black and white fleece-backed knit from The Textile Centre, and I was hooked. I wasn’t sure if I’d need extra fabric, beyond what the course information said, what with the extra width of a larger pattern, and with the possible need to pattern-match, so I went ahead and ordered 4 metres, just in case. I figured that would be plenty, and if I was able to be frugal with my cutting, I could do something with the leftovers.

This is a mahoosive check – each square is 8cm x 8cm!

The workshop was on the Sunday after Lockdown 2.0 was announced, so I was really grateful that we had the chance for one nice thing before we all have to stay home for weeks on end! The studio was well set up for social distancing, and we wore masks whenever we were moving around. It all felt very safe. 

The teacher was Jo, who was great. She was able to explain really clearly the techniques we were using to get the shawl collar of the coatigan, so you knew what you were doing, but also why you were doing it. I was giving her an extra headache, with my pattern-matching. But again, she was able to explain it really well, and make it make total sense to me. I’m definitely going to be practising this more.

The morning part of the session was all about tracing off the pattern, and cutting and marking the pattern pieces. The afternoon part was for the sewing. Sure enough, we all had our brand new coatigans ready by the end of the afternoon. I wore mine on my way back to the car.

I managed to organise myself to take pictures while it was still daylight

This coatigan is SO COSY!!!!

I have to be honest, the effect of the cosiness, together with the big checks, and the unlikeliness of being out and about much this winter is leading me to think this might become more of a dressing gown than a coat!

I was thinking about how I could reuse this pattern, and I’m half thinking of adding a triangle side panel to make the shape a bit more swingy, get a slightly 40s vibe to it. 

 

… And as I intimated above, I did indeed cut frugally, and even with the pattern-matching, I was left with about 1m 20 of the fabric to make something else with. It wasn’t that much to play with (especially with the pattern-matching again), but I thought I could make some sort of boxy sweater. I turned to my trusty Simple Sew Shannon pattern. I’d drafted a sleeve pattern for it about a year ago, to make the top/dress winter-wearable. I gave my pattern pieces an extra centimetre of width, to make the top a bit looser, and take into account the thickness of the fabric. I created a wider neckband, and made the top slightly longer (because no-one wants a chill on their kidneys).

I practised my pattern-matching a bit,

And here’s my new favourite jumper:

It’s got a slightly sixties vibe, don’t you think?

I’m getting better at pattern matching – I’m shocked!

I’ve got quite a few scraps left over, I’m thinking I could maybe make some mittens…

Goals

One of my sewing goals for the foreseeable future was to make something with buttons, well buttonholes really, and I’m a firm believer in using courses, to push me out of my comfort zone and try something new in a controlled environment with an expert teacher on hand to rescue me if I cock things up. So when I saw that Sew Over It were running a course to make the Alex shirt/shirtdress from Lisa’s My Capsule Wardrobe: City Break e-book, I booked myself onto it without delay.

I was shopping my stash, and picked this chambray to work with.

Beautiful chambray with little red green and yellow dots woven in.

This had been hanging around in the stash for far too long. I’d won it in a giveaway three years ago, and in my head it was always going to be a shirt, so it finally had the chance to fulfil its destiny! I wasn’t sure there would be quite enough to make the shirt dress, but I reckoned I could cut it as long as my fabric would allow, and see how it went.

I was at the Clapham shop this time round, and it was a different teacher, Dominique. The course was over two Monday evenings, and as anticipated, the first class was mostly concerned with the preparation, choosing the right size pattern to use, and cutting out. We got going on the first bits of the sewing, and I managed to get as far as having the fronts and back sewn into the yoke, by the end of the first session. The second session whizzed through, with the collar, side seams, sleeves and sleeve insertion, and finally buttonholes. I was really happy that this class gave me the chance to practise using the buttonhole foot, and to work out how to space the buttonholes correctly. I do feel a lot more confident on this now.

The class was really good fun, and it’s always lovely to see how six people can make six very different garments, even though you’re all working on the same pattern.

The only thing I had to do to finish the shirt at home was to slip-stitch the collar down, hem the sleeves and the bottom, and sew on the buttons.

Before doing all that, I had to decide whether it was worth the candle. I had my doubts about the grading of the shoulders and/or sleeve head. Dominique had assured me that this is a drop shoulder shirt, and the yoke extension over my shoulder was right. But I wasn’t convinced. When I got home, I took a few pics to check, and whatever the pattern is *meant* to be, I personally feel like the sleeves bouffe out too much at bicep level, making me look like I’ve got massive man-shoulders. Or at least that I’m boyfriending the shirt of a man with massive man-shoulders.

It wasn’t so bad if I had my arms down, but as soon as I lifted my elbows, I looked like I had huge eighties shoulder pads.

I COULD have undone all my sleeve sewing and redone them, but as I didn’t have enough fabric to recut the sleeves, it would have meant shaving only a tiny bit off to reduce the ease, which wasn’t going to help a great deal. I decided “stuff it!” and kept them as they are, with the proviso that this shirt wasn’t going to be something I wear outside the house. It is therefore now officially a nightshirt, which is good actually, because it’ll come in handy for my summer holiday. It also resolved the issue of whether I would need to shorten it to more of a shirt length, because it’s definitely too short to wear as a dress, but it’s the perfect length for a nightshirt.

Having decided that, I went ahead with the rest of the finishing off work. I had already decided that the buttons were going to be red, green and yellow to match the woven accents in the chambray. Rather than trying to find buttons that would match in style and come in the three different colours I decided to go random, and bought three bags of colour matched buttons in various sizes from Ebay. I picked out eight that were about 12mm across, and sewed them on.

Tada!!!

And since I’ve got three bagfuls of buttons left over, I decided to string the yellow ones together to make a bonus necklace.

I might do the same with the red and green ones now

Sew Over It Zoë Dress – the bonkers print

I had promised myself, in the new year, that I was going to treat myself to a Sew Over It course. I’ve heard nothing but good about their courses, and I like Lisa Comfort’s aesthetic. So when I saw the list of new courses, and spotted the Zoë Dress, I felt it was meant to be. I signed right up for it.

It was running over three Thursday evenings. The first session consisted mostly of trying on toiles, working on Fit, and getting the pattern pieces cut and marked. I’d notified SOI of my measurements in advance, because I’m a plus size. The teacher, Julie, had graded a pattern for me in readiness, and we spent quite a bit of time on getting it just right. I can’t tell you how nice it is a) to have somebody else do your pattern grading! and b) to have somebody checking your fitting!

We all brought fabric to work with, and in keeping with my Stashwatch commitment, I shopped my stash. There was really only one piece that fitted the bill, a truly bonkers cotton print, with a sort of Paisley design.

The CD is there to demonstrate the scale. The pattern is mahoosive!

It was a fabric that I’d acquired at a fabric swap. I don’t know who contributed it, but Thank You! It’s fab! It’s a good crisp cotton, easy to work with. I’ve seen it on the FC Fabric Studio website, if I’ve sold you on it. I’d already decided that I wasn’t even going to attempt any pattern matching, and Julie suggested embracing that and going for a full-on asymmetric placement, which was a brilliant suggestion. So my main concern when cutting was to avoid massive boob targets.

The second session involved more actual sewing, including fun with overlockers! I love how much more finished they make your garment. There was more fitting, and learning how to put the in-seam pockets. I’ve never been a big one for pockets, I don’t need them to hold stuff, that’s what handbags are for.  I can take ’em or leave ’em. (Does that mean I have to turn in my sewing blogger card?) So I was thinking they were a bit of an unnecessary extra process, but actually I really like them now. I might even put pockets in other things.

In the final session, we set in the sleeves (or rather a sleeve – we didn’t have time to do both) and we learned about concealed zips. I thought I knew how to do them, because of Gail’s instructions, from when I was going to regular sewing lessons. But Julie has totally changed that, I’m a complete convert to her method. This is the most invisible invisible zip I’ve ever done.  OK OK I’ve only done three… But this is far and away the best I’ve done, ever. The trick is to iron the coils, and to use a concealed zip foot. I tell you, I was straight onto Ebay to find myself one of those babies when I got home.

By the end of session 3, there wasn’t too much left for me to do to complete the dress at home. I had to insert the second sleeve, and neaten those seams, stitch the ends of the facing to the zip and add a hook and eye, and hem the sleeves and the skirt. I finished it on Sunday, and was wearing it to work on Tuesday!

Tada! And here it is…

Behold the asymmetric pattern placement. And the pocketses… 

 

And that zip! I do realise you can tell where it is because of the pattern placement, but you’ve got to admit, you can’t see the actual zip. 

By the way, I’m wearing a daffodil brooch made by learners on our Supported Learning Textiles courses, to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

What would I do differently next time? Shave a little bit off the shoulder and sleeve head, as I think it could happily come in a centimetre or so and be less gathered. Move the bust darts out a smidge, as they are slightly on the perky side. And maybe a quieter fabric! I’m very happy with how this one works, but maybe something plainer would make more of the pattern lines.

What do I love about this dress? Well I’ve already banged on about the pattern placement, the zip and the pockets. I love this sleeve length – long enough to cover my elbows, short enough not to make me want to push them up. I don’t like having sleeves that cover my wrists.

This is going to be a brilliant springtime dress!

A Blanket Coat, and a lot of overlocker love

With the hibernating sew-jo mentioned in my last post, I decided to kick-start my dressmaking for 2017 by booking myself on a couple of courses. I find that if I have paid good money for something, I will definitely do it.

So I made a coat…

I spotted Sew Me Something’s Blanket Coat workshop on Instagram, and I really liked the look of it. I couldn’t quite believe we could make a coat in just three little hours, but Jules assured me it was possible! Never mind that they’re based in Stratford-Upon-Avon, which is over a hundred miles away from Guildford! My trusty Nissan got me there in good time.

All you needed to bring with you was fabric (although if you didn’t have any, the Sew Me Something Emporium was open to us!). Since I am on a Stash diet, I pulled out the black & white wool-mix bouclé which I’d bought in November from the World Famous Man Outside Sainsburys, in Walthamstow. I’d originally thought I’d use it for a jacket, but when you are shopping from stash, you adapt your plans according to what you’ve got available. The wrong side is lovely and soft, as it’s brushed and smooth, compared to the more textured right side. I hope this photo captures the difference between the two sides.

Can you see the soft fleecy wrong side?

The cutting took a little while. I found that my fabric was ever so slightly shorter than I needed, but I shortened the length of the pattern by 5cm to be safe, and all was fine. I have to confess, I hadn’t thought about working with the nap of the wrong side of my fabric, but thankfully the pattern layout is all “one way”, and by merest chance, I managed to align my fabric so that the nap strokes downwards throughout. Next time, I would be more aware of that particular aspect.

The construction was done almost entirely on the overlocker. The collar is ingenious, and when the penny dropped about how it worked, it felt very satisfying. It was astonishing how quickly it all came together, but I guess that’s the joy of overlocking – it’s quick. Also, the edges are all finished on the overlocker and there are no fastenings. I’m toying with the idea of adding a great big statement button at the collar, but I think that would only be if I come across a suitably superb button.

I opted for red thread for the overlocking, as you can see. I do love a dramatic contrast. But also, it’s a kind of an homage to the Sherlock overcoat with its red buttonhole!

So warm and toasty!

Things I have learned from this workshop:

• The overlock stitch has a front and a back, so you need to think about which side you want to sew on. You consequently need to be aware of which side you are pinning on. As well as being very careful to pin well away from anywhere that might come into contact with the needles or the blade.
• I was feeling quite comfortable when using the overlocker. Obviously the small amount of use I had of the one on the dressmaking evening classes I did last year has given me some confidence.
• I don’t need an overlocker. I don’t need an overlocker. I don’t need an overlocker. I don’t need an overlocker. I really *want* an overlocker…

One of the reasons I was keen to take this workshop is that outerwear is one of my me-made wardrobe gaps. At last I will have a proper coat to take me into Me Made May. It’s also met one of my personal sewing tick-boxes, and it’s a good starting point to build towards sewing a more structured coat or jacket in the future.

Jules is a fab teacher – she walked the tightrope between making sure each of us knew what we were doing, and allowing us to get on with it. There were six of us and each of us came away with a beautiful coat/jacket. The workshop itself was extremely good value for money and I am more than happy to recommend it. Jules will be running the same workshop again on 22nd March and on 29th April. Go! You’ll have fun and make a well funky coat- what’s not to like?

Totally loving it!

Sewing with Knits

Yesterday, while all my sewing friends were at the Sewing Weekender (at least, that’s how it seemed!), I was having my own sewing weekend.

I signed up on Thursday night for the Thrifty Stitcher’s workshop on Sewing with Knits this Saturday. It was an impulse purchase, based mainly on the fact that I had 3m of dark pink double jersey in my stash. The universe conspired to encourage me in this, and I generally tend to go along with what the universe tells me. And let me tell you, the universe wasn’t wrong on this one. I learned SO much.

The teacher was Layla Totah, and I would heartily recommend her classes. She knows so much and was a really giving and generous teacher.

We learned about how grainlines work with stretch fabrics, how massively varied stretch fabrics are, how temperamental they can be with different needles (just because it says it’s a jersey needle, doesn’t mean your jersey with accept it!).

I learned about some excellent gizmos: we were using chalk wheels for marking fabric so I’m definitely getting myself one of those babies. My neighbour on the sewing machines was having difficulty keeping her seam allowances even, and Layla offered her a magnetic seam allowance thingummajig, which also looks like a useful thing.

We learned how to add a neckline binding, and why it’s essential to get the amount of stretch right. We learned how to use a twin needle (and I LOVE it!).

I did a banging neckline binding, both on my practice piece and on my garment.

Here’s my practice piece

And here’s my neckline binding in action on my working project

About that finished garment… We were working with a New Look pattern, 6301, which is a pretty cool pattern, a fake wrap dress- all the benefit of cleavage enhancement, with none of the risk of accidental leg or undies flashing.

NL 6301 wrap dress pattern – I like it a lot

Layla had graded it for me, beforehand (which meant she was working on it on the Friday night, bless her heart), but there wasn’t any time to do proper toiling and fitting, so it was a case of seeing how it went. And it was all going fine, apparently, until it came to adding the skirt to the bodice. I don’t know how, because it just doesn’t make any sense, I cut the patterns correctly, but somehow my skirt pieces seemed to be way bigger than the bodice pieces, I had to take them in by an inch or so on each side. And then as if that had triggered my project to start playing me up, when I tried it on, the wrap element which had behaved perfectly fine before I added the skirt was pulling the side seams forwards badly, it just wasn’t stretching enough. My personal theory is that it’s a bit like when you try to pull one elastic, it’s good & stretchy, but if you pull ten elastics together, it’s much more difficult. I think the combination of several layers of jersey which wasn’t massively stretchy in the first place, made it stretch even less. It seemed evident to me that my back pieces need to be narrower and my front pieces wider. The pulling was making holes in the fabric at the seams, and while everyone was saying it was ok and wearable, I knew fine well it wasn’t.

I was disappointed, I won’t deny it. The other ladies in the class all had lovely wearable dresses that they were going home with. I kept assuring Layla, who felt dreadful that I wasn’t happy, that it was ok, I’ve learned the skills, I can treat this as a toile, and make the dress again, with changes, so that it works. But it stung!

I think I can salvage a skirt out of it, and practise my new twin needle stitching skills when I hem it. It’s going onto the To Be Fixed pile for now, and we all know by now, that it’ll be a fair while before I get around to fixing it. But it *will* get fixed, I am determined.