A Quick Spring/Summer Dress

Burda 11/08 #118

I will be the first to admit that I am not super trendy.  Although I like keeping up with the trends and staying fairly current with my style, I am not a slave to the trends.  One spring/summer fashion trend that I saw that I liked and knew I could work into my own style was the trend of brights.  This is a nice trend in that if you're bold, you can wear brights head to toe and if you're not into that look, a simple bright belt or purse or other small accessory can easily update a look. 

Keeping up with new season's trends is good idea, especially if you're buying fabric off season for the next season.  When I saw the aqua and blue striped knit fabric at the Fix this winter, I knew it would make a great piece for spring/summer.

Considering the stripes on the fabric, I knew just the pattern to use, too.  From Burda 11/08 #118:  While this model is a few years old, the style lines are still good, but finding the fabric was the problem.  I have the right fabric now!

The actual construction of the dress was easy - there are only five pieces.  It was a bit time consuming because of all the matching of the stripes on the sleeves, raglan seams and side seams.  Careful pinning and basting ensured that each seam was correct.  That means that each seam was basically sewn twice because I basted before running it through the serger.  It was definitely worth it, though and if you're making something like this in a solid or print then you'll have less worry about lining up a pattern.  One thing I did do differently was to make a Jalie-style neck finish rather than a traditional binding (like a quilt binding) as Burda recommended.  In knits it is much easier to finish the edges the Jalie way.

I only made a couple of fitting adjustments to the dress.  One, tapering out a size or so to have extra room in the thigh area.  I could have worn it as drafted, but didn't want a dress that was too clingy, especially since this is a knit.  Second, I ended up taking a little out of shoulder seam after trying it on - there is a seam over the center of the shoulder and there was a bit too much fabric there, which didn't hug my shoulders nicely.  Taking out an extra 1/2" total on both sleeves did the job.

I'm really happy with the dress, although I probably could have picked the stripe placement a little better.  I should have cut the neck and shoulders with the really, really wide aqua stripe.  That way, I wouldn't have those oddball stripes at the top of the shoulders that don't match in color; it would have been solid aqua there.  I forgot that in order for the shoulder pieces to go up and over the shoulder, they were drafted longer, and the aqua stripe I chose was a bit narrow.   At any rate, this is not enough for me to not like the dress - I like it a lot and will keep it.

It is a great dress and I can wear it styled like the magazine photo with a black turtleneck and tights, by itself with a cardigan, or just without the cardigan.  With this fabric, when the weather is warmer, I can go white accessories or even another bright accessory just for fun.

Parting Shot:  Fabric Goodies.  More stuff from Fabric.com for spring/summer items.  You'll be seeing some of this stuff pretty soon!

Flash and Trash - Part XI

Fun With Flowers!

Now that the vest is assembled, I can get to one of the more fun parts of the whole project, the embellishments.  To start, I'll need to attach all the fake flowers.  Usually I make my own flowers with  my own templates, but I had all these silk flowers in my studio that weren't being used and the colors worked with the fringe and the velvet so that's what I'm using.  I've pinned the flowers in place with the help of the dress form.  This was nice because I was able to back up and see if I liked the arrangment of all the flowers and leaves.

Before attaching the flowers, I had to decide which threads would look right with which flowers, as I'm going to do a little free motion embroidery/thread painting to attach and enhance the flowers all at the same time.  This is fun because I get to pull out all the metallic and sparkly threads that I have and then find bobbin threads to go with them.  The smaller flowers only needed one color of thread, but some of the larger flowers have up to four different kinds of thread on them. This is only a small selection of the threads I've chosen:

Once the flowers were pinned in place, I dropped the feed dogs on my sewing machine, loaded up the thread and bobbin and attached the flowers. 

I concentrated mostly on the centers, leaving the edges free.

This is very easy to do and works up pretty quickly.

Lastly, there are butterflies, one on the front and one on the back.  These were leftover from a project a many years back which had a butterfly print.  I've had them stored with the silk flowers and funky fibers and never used them.  They even still had the Steam-a-Seam2 backing still on them, so I fused them to the vest and embellished them.  I used a gold glittery thread and outlined all the veins in the wings, and then added a black body in black metallic thread.

Once all the flowers are done, my favorite part will be next:  the beads and sequins!

Parting Shot:  New Glasses.   My daughter got new glasses today.  I noticed a few weeks ago that she was having trouble seeing the television and she admitted to not being able to see well.  After an eye appointment and finding out that her eyes had really deteriorated quite a bit in a 9 month period, we were able to get new glasses that she likes and that improve her eyesight.

Wear Test: Fail

But With Two Happy Endings

I made myself a new black skirt about a month ago, loved the idea and pretty much liked the style up until the moment I tried it on.  It fit, the workmanship was nice, but for some reason it wasn't working for me.  I'm not sure what it was about it, but I just did not connect with the skirt for some reason.  Now, I know you think that's a bit insane, connecting with your clothes and all, but this piece just did not strike me as right.  If I'm going to have something in my wardrobe and go to the trouble of making it, I should love it, not be all "meh" about it.  So, it was a fail for me.

Fortunately, I have a daughter who now about my size and she gets first pick of any clothing that I'm getting rid of.  She was delighted to have the skirt.  She's always needing black skirts for choir, handbells and flute performances, so I was thrilled to give to her.

That left me still needing a black skirt to replace skirts I was getting rid of.  I pulled out Vogue 2925, now out of print, I think.  I've made every piece in this wardrobe and have made the skirt twice, once in black with the matching jacket and once in brown, for which I intended to make the matching jacket but it didn't happen.  Now that I'm not teaching high school, I don't need the suits and may or may not ever make the jacket!  Anyway . . . . I've made the skirt for the third time, again in black.  This skirt is actually a circle skirt, but is nice because it is fitted through the waist and hip and then flares out.

I made this one, the easy way without a lining, a very narrow hem (serged and turned once), and with a petersham waist facing.  I had some real petersham that I had been saving for a project and this turned out to be it.  The fabric isn't anything exciting, just some poly blend suiting, but I know that this fabric will wear like iron and withstand the abuse of being washed and dried at home.  I expect this skirt to last as bit longer than the last black one, as I know when I was teaching I wore the skirt at least once a week. 

So, although we had a fail, we also have two happy endings.  My daughter has a new skirt and so do I!

Parting Shot:  Deceptively Cute.  Isn't he so cute?!?  Yes, of course, he's sleeping.  Most you know by now that he can act like toddler and can has a habit of chewing up anything plastic.  I prefer to think of him sleeping like this, though!

A Sporty Khaki Jacket - Burda 9/08 #139

Finished!

With an early start yesterday morning by checking the sleeve length before my son went to school, I was able to finish up his jacket.  I think it looks pretty good and he's still happy with just the pockets on the front and not all the other details. 

I will have to say, this is a slim cut jacket, and my son isn't exactly a slim cut.  He's not fat, but he's a solid kid and I think I could have added a little around the body and it would have been fine.  That said, he can still wear it this spring and summer to school and church and be just fine. 

The finishing was pretty easy, especially since I was able to do almost all the stitching, including the hems and lining hems on the machine. 

Although this jacket is officially the first project of spring/summer,  I do have one more winter/transitional piece to finish.  It is a remake of something I made recently because it didn't pass the wear test and was passed on to my daughter.  I'll show you on Monday.  After that, some fun stuff!

Parting Shot:  New Knitting.  I've had this yellow yarn for quite some time and every project I tried to start with it didn't quit work.  I think I've finally found a project for it - a scarf.  Not very original, but I think it will be a great shot of color for this spring and next winter's outfits when I need a little color.  I'm knitting this pattern from Knitpicks.

Flash and Trash - Part VIII

Construction!  Yeah!

Now that I've actually got all the components, the construction is underway!  Actually it takes very little time to put the vest together.  It only has four darts, shoulder seams, side seams and the peplum to attach.  Not hard at all.  The green pieces only add a few extra seams and they're pretty small.

So, thus far, this is what we have, plus a lining, not quite put together, but getting there:

Remember that this is tribute piece, so there are elements here that I probably wouldn't have normally put in the piece (the green part), but when you're trying to convey the essence and spirit of someone else, that's what you do.

Once this is is done, then I can begin the real fun - the flower and butterfly embellishments.  Getting to pick out all the sparkly threads and stitching the flowers will be fun and even better than that, I'll get to pull out the beads and sequins, too!  Let the fun begin . . .

Parting Shot:  Boxed Wellie.  I can't put anything down without Wellie investigating.  This box is just his size, but unfortunately is intended to be shipped elsewhere!  I know cats have survived being shipping in boxes by mistake, but that's one mistake I hope not to make.

Flash and Trash - Part VII

More Quilting!

Now that the main quilting is done, I realized that I wasn't quite done with the quilting part.  The green portion had to be quilted, too!  Sigh.  There were only six pieces, so that was nice!

As you can see, they're done, trimmed and ready for assembly.

Maybe now I can get to the construction!  I know I keep saying that and then I find a few more things I need to make or do before I can get to the construction.  Some projects are like that - you think you only have a few more steps to go and then you keep finding one or two more things that need to be done.  That's how it seem to work for me - and then a "quick" project turns into a week long project!   Tell me I'm not alone on this one!

Parting Shot:  Fabric Love.  My cats love, love, love the velvet fabric for F&T.  It has been hard keeping them away from it.  I'm not sure what it is about it, probably the warm, fuzzy, pile surface, but Wellie is very happy on it.

A Sporty Khaki Jacket - Burda 9/08, #139

Most of the Construction Done!

I've have less busy week this week and have most of the construction on the jacket finished.  I've got the entire shell done, plus started adding the collar:

I bought lining yesterday and was able to assemble the entire lining today:

That leaves me with finishing the collar, attaching the lining, hems and buttonholes/buttons. Not too much work, but I'd better get moving on this one, as I've promised him he could wear it on Sunday! I think that between tomorrow and Friday that can happen, but we'll see.

Parting Shot:  Momma's Boy.  Wellie has taken to sitting with me in the evenings.  Last night he was happy just snuggle up close and take a nap.

Flash and Trash - Part VI

Muslin Time

Now that I've got some components made, it is almost time for construction.  Before I actually get to the construction part, I need make a muslin because I'm not going to use the pattern as is.  That shouldn't be a surprise, as for this sort of thing I'm always doing my own thing!

I am using a pattern that I've made before, Burda 2/08, #116.  You saw it in the photos in a previous post, the red vest I was using to pin all the flowers to for placement ideas.  One change I'm making is to change the peplum as drafted to a peplum made from two circles.   This will really give the peplum fullness and flounce.  That part I really don't need a muslin for.  The part I need a muslin for is the bra part.  Cathy is known for wearing a green one over her clothes as a joke at some fashion shows, so I wanted to incorporate that into vest, too.  That's why I chose the green thread for the quilting, in case you wondered, as it was a pretty unlikely partner for the orange/red/yellow velvet.   I have made plenty of bras, too, as stand alone garments, but for this I need to incorporate it into the vest.  What I've done is to take my standard pattern, make it a bit larger and then play with where it needs to fit into the vest to be in the right place on the body.  Once it was in place, I drew the seamline, cut beyond the seamline for seam allowance and then put the two pieces together.

The side in the left of the photo was the first try, but the second try to the right of the photo is much better, so I went with that half when transferring the changes to the pattern.

After that, it was just adjusting and playing with the muslin a bit to get the look I wanted.  With that part done, the muslin came apart to be transferred over to my second set of vest pattern pieces (no need to destroy the original traced pieces).  All I had to do then was to make sure that the shoulder seams were the same width on the back as the front and scoop out the back neck a bit for a nicer look with the narrow "straps".   A little truing up of the lines and the pattern was all done.

Now, to get the green pieces quilted, and then I'll be ready to put the whole thing together!

Parting Shot:  It's Back.  This is why I don't put winter gear away until the first couple of weeks of April.

ColleenP. and LoisK. :  Yes, I live with a network guy, too.  We survived his getting his CCIE (on the first try of the lab, too), and yes, we have a *real* network rack in the basement that he salvaged from somewhere and brought home which is now full of equipment.

Flash and Trash - Part V

The Flash and Trash Part

Now that the quilting is done (thankfully, a vest has few pieces!), I can work on something a little more fun:  another embellishment component, the fringe.  The fringe *is* the flash and trash of this garment - it is what Cathy Franks calls the flash and trash - lots of yarns, fibers, serger trimmings, etc.  So, out of my collections came the stuff for the fringe.

One of the major components of the fringe is yarn.  I have quit a bit of yarn that has been given to me and that has been left over from projects I've knitted.  Most of the leftovers is sock yarn and I really didn't want to make some mish-mosh socks using up all the leftover bits anyway. (VickiW, you should recognize that bright green yarn in the top of the picture.) Between that and some stuff in the right colors from my funky fiber collection and some shiny serger trimmings, I had enough stuff for fringe.  To make the fringe, I simply wound all the yarn and stuff around a DVD case and cut through the yarn strands to get even lengths.

I then laid it all out trying to distribute the colors evenly, but randomly.  I know that doesn't make sense, but I didn't want big clumps of orange or purple with no interesting fibers or shiny ones mixed in.  I guess you could call that "selective randomness" or some such crazy thing, but I just wanted a nice distribution without really trying too hard or counting numbers of strands.

Once the fringe looked pretty much how I wanted it, I stitched a section of it at a time to a piece of twill tape, using a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine.  The twill tape is necessary to hold the fringe together during the construction process and will be trimmed away once the seams are complete. 

The whole process was actually pretty quick and easy, and now there are about 2 or 3 yards of fringe ready for the construction process. 

Once the construction of the vest is done, I can add the flowers - that promises to be fun, because I can pull out all my shiny, sparkly threads!

Parting Shot:  Epic Battle.  Serious military strategy is going on here.  Since the computers are networked, playing these sorts of games against one anther is easy.  Not to mention time consuming, but at least they're busy!

A Sporty Khaki Jacket - Burda 9/08, #139

Pockets!

I was able to work on my son's jacket a little today and got a few of the pockets made and attached.  It really isn't hard work, just careful work and with the busy week, I wanted to wait until I had a few hours to really work on the pockets.

So far, I've got two pockets on, one in the process of construction and the flaps for the lower pocket still to make.  I still need to ask my son what kind of buttons he wants, so that I know how to finish the flaps.  Burda originally called for snaps, but I'm not sure my sons wants them.  We'll see.

I should be able to finish those pockets up tomorrow and then finish the construction on the jacket itself by Monday or so.  Then it is lining and finishing, so it looks like this will be done by the end of next week or so.  No major hurry as this is the first garment of spring/summer and in reality spring isn't quite here yet!

Parting Shot:  Mud Season.  With all the snow melt, it is now time for the season after winter, mud.  Our driveway now looks like most people's driveways, with a lot of water and mud.

Flash and Trash - Part IV

More Playing, Less Doing

I've been really busy the past few days with judging at a fine arts competition, so not as much quilting has been going on.  While I've made good progress, I do need larger portions of time to work on it.  Maybe tomorrow or this weekend!  At any rate, I've been able to do a bit of playing and planning.

Since I'm using materials I already have, and I already have bags of silk flowers that are doing nothing but taking up space, I've decided to use them in this project.  They will be part of the embellishments for the body of the vest.  So, I've pulled them out and tried out a variety a colors and shapes on the traced pattern pieces and settled on the flowers below.  I also had some extra butterflies cut out of fabric left from another project, which I can use, too.

I pulled a vest out of my closet so that I could experiment with flower placement, too.  It was fun and easy to work on even in small time increments. I could leave it on the dressform and see if I still liked it over time.  Another bonus is that I've been able to photograph the flowers in place on the vest and will be able to reference the photos when I actually attach the flowers later.

Here's what the flowers will look like on the actual vest fabric:

Once the quilting is done, I'll get the vest constructed and then get to actually attach the flowers!

Parting Shot:  Glacial Retreat.  At least it seems like it!  The temperatures have been warm here and the snow is starting to melt.  It looks like spring might be coming soon!

A Sporty Khaki Jacket - Burda 9/08, #139

An Easy Start

I was able to a little time this weekend working on my son's new jacket.  I'm pretty sure this jacket will be slow to construct as I have another really busy week ahead, with three days out of the house, two of them due to judging a fine arts competition.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, slower construction is good to do as you're only focusing on one small task and not trying to rush the whole process.  I find that rushing the whole process isn't as much fun, and leads to work I'm not happy with. 

At any rate, I decided to start work with some of the easy stuff, before tackling the pleated pockets and other details.  I made the back first, since it was pretty straight forward, two side back seams and a yoke, plus the topstitching.  This also gave me a chance to get a feel for the fabric before having to make some of the smaller details. 

This morning I spent about 30 minutes constructing the sleeves.  Again, they were pretty simple with two seams, one of them being topstitched.  Since my son did not want the sleeve pocket or sleeve tabs, this part was pretty easy.  Of course, he could change his mind and then I'd be unpicking one of those seams, but he seemed pretty sure of what he wanted. 

The next time I work on this - either really early or late tomorrow or even Wednesday afternoon, I'll start work on the fronts.  There are darts to make and I'll try to get the top pocket made and in place.

Parting Shot:  Finished Garbage Truck.  My husband and son finished up the garbage truck Friday night and took it to the race on Saturday.  Surprisingly, it did fairly well, coming in 5th overall out of 41 contestants.  He just missed getting into the top four and the final race by fractions of a second.  He was really happy with that and is looking forward to next year, his last year to race before moving on to Jr. High youth group.

Flash and Trash - Part III

Some Quilting, Although Very Little Quilting

Well, some quilting is better than no quilting, so here is a small section that has been quilted.  This piece is for the hat:

The picture above shows the effect of the embossed stripes but doesn't show the quilting really well, so here's a close-up.  There are two lines of double needle stitching down the outer sides of the embossed stripes.  I've chosen to use some lime green Sulky Holoshimmer for this because there will be a lime green component to the whole piece (more on that later) and I want to tie that component to the background fabric.

Bunny asked whether the velvet was hand dyed or discharged, so I should fill you in on that.  The fabric originally was white silk/rayon velvet.  While beautiful by itself, I really wanted something more unique and different, hence the choice to dye it.   I could have dyed it myself, but I decided to have a professional do it instead.  My friend and professional dyer, VickiW, dyed the velvet for me, but could not guarantee any results.  I was fine with that and sent the fabric down, with the only stipulation that it not come back pink or purple. 

We both knew that the rayon part would be fine with the same dye process used for the fabulous cottons she dyes, but the unexpected element was the silk component.  The silk needs to be dyed with acid dyes, which are different and is a different process than what she does (acid dyes also dye nylon, which I am familiar with) for cottons.  What happened was that the rayon base of the velvet absorbed the dye, which is what you see on the wrong side.  The pile is actually the silk part and did not absorb the dyes.  What I ended up with was a really neat frosted, muted effect, which showed up really well after embossing.  At any rate, I've had the fabric in the closet hanging around for the better part of six months or more waiting for the right project.  This happens to be the right project.  I needed a luxe fabric in a bright color.  Cathy Franks (the inspiration for this project) often uses velvets in her garments, so this is perfect choice!

Now, back to quilting those other pieces!

Parting Shot:  Speaking of Trash.  We almost have a garbage truck.  We put the finishing artistic touches on this afternoon, and my husband will take over this evening with finishing the wheels and weighting the truck just right - there are strict weight limits!