What Else I've Been Sewing

I've been working the red jacket/dress ensemble for a while now, but I've also been sewing and refashioning a few things for myself and my daughter.

First, a skirt refashion for my daughter. This skirt (made last year) was not long enough for her to wear to school, so I had to add length to it. I did not have any of the original fabric, but did find some corduroy and some ribbon in the collection that would coordinate.



I first cut off the old hem. There was no point in taking out the hem, as there would be some pretty permanent creases and lines. I then cut lengths of corduroy, approximately three times the circumference of the hem, seamed them and applied the ruffle. Once that was on, I did a rolled hem with the serger to finish the ruffle. I suspect this skirt might not fit next year, so a quick and easy finish was the right choice.

After that, I added a little ribbon with horses to tie the fabrics together a little better. I bought the ribbon in Mass. on a shopping trip a couple of years ago with VickiW. and SueB. The fabrics don't exactly match, but they do work together. She likes the result and will be happy to wear the skirt again.

Second, I've made myself a few more things with some Elan patterns. I am very, very pleased with the fit of Elan, which seems to work better for me than some of the other patterns I've tried. Just like other apparel, some pattern companies work better for certain body types than others.

I made this one from Elan #645:

This one is from Elan #511:


I have new beginner's kits for these patterns, plus Elan #520 for larger sizes available in my Etsy shop. Starting next week, I'll be doing step by step tutorials for making these on my other blog, Hooks and Wires. If I get my new dyes soon, there might be new colored kits coming in the next few weeks, too.

This weekend, I'll be making my husband a fleece top, per his request, which will require some fitting as he's losing weight and is now a size smaller (he is blogging his journey on his weight loss blog, Losing Fifty). Should be interesting . . .

Parting Shot: Raking. Yay. The trees sure are pretty, but amount of leaves is just incredible!

Patrones #282, Model #36 - Red Print Dress

Part Three, Baste and Stitch

After carefully cutting out the dress, it was time to baste the underlining to the fashion fabric. This fabric needs an underlining because the beige areas are a bit sheer, you can see my onyx ring through the fabric fairly well in the photo below.

Bunny asked what type of fabric this is. Well, I bought it at Metro Textiles in NYC, and saw it later on EmmaOneSock (long since been sold out) and found it is was from the designer Milly and that is a blend, partially polyester is all I can remember. The beige areas are a bit gauzy and the red is woven in and then cut at the edges of the motifs, like cut velvet. This is one of the better photos I have of the edges:

You can see the difference between the wrong side (on left) and right side in the photo below. The wrong side actually looks like a burgundy or cranberry color, but the right side is a vibrant red.

Anyway, after cutting, I started the basting. I basted around all the edges and then basted the darts down the center before carefully pinning and stitching them.

All of course, under the watchful eyes of my assistant:

Once the darts were completed, I stitched the shoulder seams.

Normally I would insert the zipper first and then sew the shoulder seams, but today was not the day and tomorrow isn't looking good either between appointments, leaf raking and dinner at a friend's house. It will probably be Monday or Tuesday before I have some quiet time to work on that zipper, which will take my full concentration to make sure the motifs all line up properly. At any rate, I wanted the feeling of a little progress, so I figured those two little shoulder seams couldn't hurt!

Notice I have left the side seams unsewn. This is part of the preparation for inserting the lining. There are a couple of ways to do this in a sleeveless garment and I'll show you one way next week.

Parting Shot: Approval. Seems like Wellie likes the Milly fabric, too. He's got good fashion sense like his companion the Fabric Princess.

Patrones #282, Model #36 - Red Print Dress

Part Two, Carefully Cut Fabrics

I've finished fitting the dress muslin, which was easy to do since I knew what sizes to cut and where I'd need extra room. I ended up adding an extra 1" in the thighs, just in case I need the extra room. I can always remove the extra fabric later, but if the dress is too tight to start with, there is no helping it. I also removed another two inches at the waist in the front only at the darts. The waist fit everywhere but there - that's where it was very baggy.

This fabric is a bit sheer to be used by itself, so I'm going to underline with a nice silk/cotton batiste I found in my collection. I'm not sure where I got it, but it is really nice feeling, lightweight and perfect for underlining the dress. I am also going to line the dress and will show how that is done in a later post.

The last pieces to be cut out were the backs because they needed to be carefully matched at the back center zipper. Here is how I cut out the backs so that the motifs would line up perfectly:

The first thing is to figure out where in the repeat the center back will be. After looking at the design, I decided to have the center sort of in between two vines. The center back will be at the top of the ruler.

The pattern piece then goes on the fabric, lined up with where I'd like the center back to be. My pattern pieces do not have seam allowances, so the edge of the pattern piece is the center back. This is one reason I don't add seam allowances until I cut out the fabric.

Once the piece is cut out (with seam allowances, of course!), it is taken to the ironing board and the center back seam allowances are pressed to the wrong side. This prepares the pieces for the matching of the motifs.

The pattern piece is then removed, and the fabric piece is placed back on the uncut fabric to match up the motifs. You can see the pressed edge of the back in the photo below.

Once the motifs are lined up, the paper piece is flipped over and lined up right along the pressed edge of the already cut piece. Since there are no seam allowances on the pattern, the second side is now ready to cut with the motifs perfectly lined up. Remove the already cut piece and cut out the second seam, remembering to include the seam allowances.

Now that the whole dress is cut out including the lining and facings, I am working on thread tracing and basting the underlining and fashion fabric together. Maybe tomorrow I'll get some more work done on this in between sewing up some little projects for the family. I'll show you those later!

Parting Shot: Mmm, Oatmeal. For some reason Kiwi was attracted to the empty oatmeal bowl. Might have had something to do with the butter and honey I put on the oatmeal.

Vogue 1132 - Red Jacket

Part Six, Retro-Fit

I did have time today work on the jacket due to an appointment being rescheduled for tomorrow. This version is much better with just a tiny bit of wrinkling , and I'll leave the red jacket alone at this point and make the changes above in the plaid version. What I've done is to add a front chest shield made of two layers of hair canvas, which supports the shoulder area in the front. I did not add any additional padding to the shoulder, although it probably wouldn't have hurt to do so. At this point, I will just make changes in the next version of the jacket.


Here's what I did to create the chest shield, getting ideas from the tailoring section in Claire Schaeffer's book, Couture Sewing Techniques:

First, I made a pattern of the front by tracing off the result of pinning both the front and side front together.

Second, I cut out two layers of hair canvas and quilted them together with a one inch grid. I also trimmed off the seam allowances at the shoulder, armscye and neck edge.

Third, after getting into the interior of the jacket, I pinned the chest shield in place, with the raw edges along the seam lines.

Fourth, I catch stitched the hair canvas in place along the armscye, shoulder and neck edge, keeping part of the stitching on the seam allowance and part of it on the chest shield. At the neck edge, I stitched through interfacing only, but not the front of the jacket.

That leaves the curved edge free, which was tacked just at the side front/front seam.

For the plaid version of this jacket, I am going to do this same thing in addition to taking out just a little bit of the side front piece from the bust point to the shoulder and using a slightly larger shoulder pad or sloped shoulder adjustment.

The dress is almost cut out - just the backs to cut out, but I'll wait until tomorrow when I have some quiet time to carefully cut them so that print matches.

Parting Shot: Here She Is . . . Miss Kiwi. It seems that my other cats have had more blog time recently than dear little Miss Kiwi. So here she is, hanging around the studio, checking out the underlining for the sheath dress.

Patrones #282, Model #36 - Red Print Dress

Part One, Make a Muslin

I won't have enough time all at once to properly work on the jacket until Thursday, so in meantime, I've made the muslin and started to fit the dress. I need two or three uninterrupted hours in which to work on the jacket and with appointments/practices tomorrow I won't be able to do work on it.

Let's see, this is a sheath dress, so that means there will be quite a bit of fitting, as this isn't the first style I'd pick for myself but I think it will work with the jacket. Right away, I traced the hips two sizes larger than the bust. I went ahead and shortened the pattern through the neck to waist area by 1", too.

I chose this particular pattern because there is potential for no center back or front seam and no waist seam. Without these seams the pattern of the fabric is less broken up - the pattern is pretty large and the more seams and darts there are, the more cut up it will be. I had planned to use a side zipper for this one, but I'm rethinking that because I have a pretty pronounced hip curve which isn't the best for side zippers. I'll probably have to do a very carefully matched center back invisible zipper.

The overall fit was what I expected: almost perfect in the bust, too big in the waist and almost perfect in the thighs. That's just how it is with my figure type. I need to remove 1 1/2" to 2" total from the waist in the front only and add 1/2" to 1" to the thigh area. These are easy and no big surprise to me.

Parting Shot: Warm Enough. You think Pix is warm enough in all those blankets?

Vogue 1132 - Red Jacket

A Big Thank You to All of You and A Big "Duh" for Me

Thank you all for the compliments on the jacket and for all the suggestions as to what could be the problem with those wrinkles. I have come to some of the same conclusions after taking a look at my fitting books: Fabulous Fit by Rasband and Liechty and Fitting & Pattern Alteration by Rasband, Leichty and Pottberg. (That last one is not cheap, but an excellent book.)

A big "duh" for me because I've had this very issue in the past - just this past winter, in fact - and forgot all about a few new alterations I need to do. I have a set of standard petite alterations I do, but as I've become more educated and pickier about fit I've realized that there more alterations I need to make things fit better. The shoulder thing is a newer one, and I should have picked up on the fact sooner!

So, what are some of the problems/solutions? I actually think that in my case, it is a combination of several of these things, suggested by one or more of you:

• sloping shoulders
• narrow shoulders
• not enough interior support of the fabric in the shoulder area
• shoulder pads not thick enough, this goes partially with the sloping shoulders
  

With that in mind, I tried a few things to remedy those wrinkles. I added additional padding at the shoulders and that did remove some of the wrinkle. I currently have a 1/2" shoulder pad in there. I used to not use shoulder pads at all, but my shoulders are too sloped at this point to continue without shoulder pads. I think it was just a fear of those linebacker-like ones from the 80's, which were hard enough to carry off if you were a normal size, let alone a petite.

I tried pinning out some of the excess of the side front piece. That helped some, but then limited my mobility at the shoulder and made it too tight. I'm on the fence about this alteration. The side on the right of the photo is pinned out and has extra shoulder padding. The side on the left has nothing.

I then pinned in a couple of layers of hair canvas to the side on the left of the photo and the problem was much better even without the extra shoulder pad.

At this point, I think I'm going to use a thicker shoulder pad and retro fit the front shoulder area with some fusible hair canvas. This is not, of course, included in the pattern directions, but neither is underlining or some of the other finer tailoring techniques that this jacket could benefit from considering how tailored the style is.

I'll get that stuff done and show you the result when I show the dress and jacket together. Maybe tomorrow I'll get the current set of costumes finished and the dress muslin started!

Parting Shot: Needs A Costume? No. The play does not include a character described as: Cat. Large, orange and exceptionally nosey.

Vogue 1132 - Red Jacket

Part Five, Finish and Reflect

I finished the red jacket today - all that I had to do was to stitch the sleeve lining hems in place and stitch the opening shut on the jacket.

I'm very happy with the jacket, except for the wrinkles at each shoulder circled below. I noticed this in the muslin stage and thought it was just the fabric and would go away, but obviously it hasn't. I've had this problem with other jackets in the past and taking fabric out of that side front section just creates other problems. I'm going to dig out the fitting books tonight and see if I can figure out a solution. I can still easily get back into the inside for any fixes. If you've got any ideas, let me know. If this isn't a problem and I'm just crazy, let me know that, too.

The directions indicate to leave part of a side seam open in the lining for turning the jacket, but I left part of the back hem open. I felt I would have more space that way to do inside finishing work. The jacket is lined all the way to the hem, so the lining choice will show. I chose plain red lining partly for this reason. You can actually see a little lining in the back shot, below.

Now that the jacket is done, I think I need something to wear with it, or more accurately, under it. To complete this ensemble, I will be making a sheath dress of this fabric:

I'll be using this Patrones model from a recent magazine with some adjustments, obviously length is one of them.

Just to due to my shape and the shape of the dress, a muslin is a wise choice. I hope to get that traced tomorrow and a muslin made on Monday.

Parting Shot: Not Mine. It isn't Wellington's' either, although he did try to climb into the box to sleep on the fabric. Isn't this a great shade of rayon jersey? I ordered this up from Gorgeous Fabrics for a client and it is so much nicer in real life than the pictures shown on Gorgeous Fabrics. I also had on hand some cheaper rayon jersey from a local chain craft/fabric establishment so that I could show the client the difference in quality and what you're really paying for.

Vogue 1132 - Red Jacket

Part Four, Make and Add a Lining and a Few Other Things

I got the lining made yesterday, so I was able to get it attached this morning but not before deciding to make a bound buttonhole. Here's the buttonhole:

There was only one, so I thought it would be a nice touch rather than a machine made one. I chose to make the lips in a fabric that does not shred as easily as the jacket fabric - it wasn't too hard to find a red among my collection that would match.

I also found this vintage button among my collection that is just the right size for the jacket:

The jacket so far looks like this, which is pretty much how it will look when done, minus the blue threads marking center fronts and the pins in the one side holding the shoulder pad and sleeve hem in.

There's not much left - just finishing some handwork, and tacking down the sleeve lining hems. I think I'll be able to show the finished jacket tomorrow.

Parting Shot: Costumes, Part I. After going through the costumes we have and doing some try-ons, we have a pile that need altering to work for the current production and that need laundering.

Vogue 1132 - Red Jacket

Part Three, Add Sleeves

Yesterday was extremely busy - between all the errands, chores, client work and meetings it was just busy. I did manage to find some quiet time to insert the sleeves into the jacket. I'm actually taking my time with this jacket and enjoying the whole process of just cutting out and making something rather than the complexity of the wearable art.


Since these were one peice sleeves, they were fairly easy to construct: just an elbow dart and a seam. Once pressed they were ready to be set in. A sleeve board really comes in handy when pressing the sleeves, and if you don't have one, a wooden dowel works well too when pressing sleeve seams:

These sleeves set in very easily, and even with narrowing them a bit there was still a little of ease to work with at the shoulder cap.

Once set in and pressed, I trimmed the seam allowances between the notches and of the sleeve piece only all the way around the armscye.


I will be adding shoulder pads later during the finishing, but I don't think I will use sleeve heads for this jacket. This is the shoulder without shoulder pads:

Today I'm working on the lining and a muslin for a client. If I have some extra time, I'll attach the lining and jacket body.

Here are a few Q/A I need to get caught up on:

From Bunny regarding the jacket, "Is this cut on the cross grain?". Not according to the pattern, but this jacket was. When you have a small amount of fabric, you have to get creative.

Gail asked, "Noticing a few riding jackets in the making - is this the season trend in the Northern Hemisphere?" I believe so - it seems like peplums and partial peplums are in for fall this year or at least that it what the pattern companies are offering. I've noticed a few on the blogs recently, too.

MJ asked regarding the red knit scarf "Would you be able to post the pattern source for the scarf and where I might purchase it? " The pattern is the free pattern for the Triumph Scarf from Smariek Knits, who was quite a few free patterns that she has written on her blog. You'll have to scroll way down on the right to find them, but there are not only scarves, but also mitts, too.

Parting Shot. The Play. Looks like we have our work cut out for us for this year's play. Last night the costume director and I went through the productions closet searching for costumes/fabrics/patterns. Tomorrow we will sort and start to formulate final plans, as we've got probably 30 or more costumes to make for Ben-Hur. Yes, that's right, we're producing Ben-Hur this year. Should be fun.

Vogue 1132 - Jacket

Part Two, Construct Jacket Body

Since I'm not sewing any art garments at the moment and I only have a few custom pieces/alterations to work on, I've been able to spend a couple of hours working on the jacket. This morning I was able to get the body constructed. So far, so good:

Since the fabric I'm working with is rather drapey, and actually would have made a great quilted Chanel-style jacket, I decided to underline the whole thing by using a fusible interfacing. I've chosen two different weights because the body pieces and the tailored pieces (front and collar) need different support. All of the body except the front has ProWeft interfacing fused to it (on the left below), the fronts and collar have ProWoven fused to them (on the right below). The ProWeft is really nice as it adds body but does not cause the fabric to become extremely stiff or board-like. The fabric still drapes nicely, but is not limp. Both interfacings are available from Fashion Sewing Supply, just use the link on the right.

Tomorrow is a short day due to ensemble practice and a play meeting. I am the assistant director for the high school play this year, so I'll be devoting some of my time this fall and winter to that. I think I'll be able to get the sleeves assembled and set in with the time I'll have to work on it tomorrow.

Parting Shot: Good Start. I've got a good start on my scarf and the pattern isn't too difficult. Cables are my favorite thing to knit, so between the color and style, I'm really happy with how this is turning out.