Vacation Challenge - Weeks 2 & 3 complete

The beautiful knit dress is finished. It hangs so softly and drapes so well. I'm proud that my first effort with this difficult fabric came out so well. Thank you, again, Sarah Veblen! I'm looking forward to wearing this on my soon-to-begin vacation, my first in 2 years. What I learned in the process of putting this dress together is that the fabric you make your test garment out of should have about the same stretch as your fashion fabric. My test fabric was not so stretchy, and I found that the dress grew a bit as I sewed it. My alterations in the back worked out well. Moving the two bodice pieces closer together got  me some more back coverage, which was exactly what I had in mind. And because I didn't add on to the outside edges what I took from the middle, it also succeeded in tightening up the dress, which really helped due to the "growth factor."
I am looking forward to sewing more with jersy single knits. Now that I know a bit more about their behavior, I'll be willing to feature them as choices for t-shirts and simple dresses for my sewing business.

Week 3 took a bit of doing.  After many hours of trying to coax my serger into making the decorative edge, I had to surrender. I will spend some time perfecting this technique after vacation. I broke down, went to the fabric store, and bought bias binding. The wrong size of bias binding! I ended up cutting my own from a lovely printed burn-out I had in the stash. It was so pretty I decided to do an exposed binding to show it off.

You can see the binding at the cuffs and bottom edge. It disappears where the lapel rolls. I couldn't quite figure out how to make a smooth transition at that point. There are a lot of fabric layers to deal with where the bottom edge of the collar turns back.

I found an issue with the pattern design when I rolled the cuffs back as the illustration shows. The seaming for the sleeve pleat shows and just looks tacky. I added rectangles of the binding fabric both to cover and to keep the sleeves turned up. There are buttons sewn on to keep the tabs in place.

My husband picked the front button out of my mom's old button box. It's probably older than I am, which makes it an antique button! The cuff buttons also came from that box and are miraculously color-coordinated.

I feel the need to digress about my mom's button box. This wonderful woman learned to sew on a treadle machine. She lived through the Great Depression and the rationing of World War II. The button box is a classic demonstration of that background. There are tons of men's shirt buttons, cut from my dad's shirts when they could no longer be repaired and went off to the rag man. Ditto for teeny-tiny buttons removed from baby clothes and doll clothes. At one point, she even tried to put them into matching sets by tying bunches together with thread. All the single buttons left over when the sewing project needed 3 buttons and the button card had sets of 2. Buttons cut from robes and coats. I think the big orange button was a robe button. Decorative buttons from sweaters and dresses went into the box. I am blessed to have this collection from my mom, but I don't hesitate to use the buttons. She would have!

Vacation Challenge - Week Three begins

I'm counting days until vacation now. "And the number of the counting shall be 10." Week Three is off to a great start. I found some off-white linen-look cotton poly fabric in the bottom of a pile. It was just enough to make the short version of L.J. Designs Versa Jacket. I've had this pattern for years. Got it before I had a serger, so that tells you how old it is.

It's only 3 pattern pieces and my roadblock is the "decorative serged edge." At this point, perhaps the bias binding would have been a better choice. Because of the way the jacket is constructed, the decorative edge requires changing serger settings and threads at least four times. I found a beautiful, shiny, heavy-weight thread in the same color family to use for the upper looper and fiddled around until I got the look I liked. Then I changed thread and settings for regular sewing. The second time I set up the decorative stitching, the identical settings did not produce the same results. That's where I quit for the evening. There will be more work tonight. That bias binding just might be in my future!

Vacation Challenge - Week One complete

It took until 11 PM Monday, but the top is finished - almost. I discovered when I tried it on that the ruffle is heavy and wants to pull the back neckline down. This makes the back opening gape. I'll be adding a second closure to the back to help that problem a bit. I also need to sew the waistline elastic. At the moment it's using the yo-yo dieter's best friend - the safety pin.

I don't have a lot of in-process photos of the top to share. I was too eager to get it finished on time. Before I started, I traced the size pattern I was using onto tissue. I knew I'd be making alterations and didn't want to ruin the original pattern. That way I can always go back to the drawing board.

I used Lynda Maynard's alteration technique. It was a bit confusing at first, but once I got the idea, the adjustments went well. One thing I did differently was laying my tissue pattern on top of my moulange. I think it's much easier than lifting up the plastic moulange to make changes. Careful measurement showed me I needed to lengthen the pattern above the waist by 1/2 inch and change the angle of the shoulders.Once I did that, I didn't need to move the darts at all. The  most common complaint about this pattern on Sewing Pattern Review is that the darts are too low. My length adjustment took care of that. The pattern has different front pieces for "B," "C" and "D" cups, so I didn't need to increase the bust at all.

With the adjustments made, I cut a trial top from similar fabric that had been in my stash forever, possibly inherited from my mom. Whipping it up quickly showed me I needed to narrow the shoulders by about 1/4 inch. They passed my shoulder point by enough that it might have looked like a cut on cap sleeve. I also discovered a case of the dreaded "butt Velcro." My top was hiking up in the back and would have settled itself somewhere around my waist eventually. I pinched out a tuck at center back, increasing the size until the back hung freely, and pinned that in.

To transfer the change to my pattern, I split the tissue horizontally just below the waist from center back to the sideseam, being careful not to cut through the seamline. Then I measured the size of the tuck and raised the center back by that much, making a triangle that tapered to the seamline. It throws the center back off grain below the waist, but that little bit of bias adds some extra swing.

Because I shortened the back, I added the length back at the hemline by measuring down the tucked distance and making a gentle arc that tapered to the sideseam.

I took a bit of time placing the pattern on the fabric. I wanted the pattern to line up horizontally at the hemline. Because it's an all over pattern and quite busy, I didn't worry about trying to match center back. The match across the hemline came out as I anticipated it. The diamonds are not drifting up or down in relation to the hem. If your fabric has a definite geometric aspect, keeping the pattern straight around the hem will be most visually appealing.

As far as sewing goes, I mostly followed the pattern directions. I was skeptical of the armhole finish, but I did it the way the pattern recommended. I won't repeat that. Their directions make for a very bulky finish. I tried to remedy it by topstitching twice, but the edges still want to curl outwards. I will change that finish the next time I  make this top. It's a simple, versatile pattern - a wardrobe basic.

The End Result

Vacation Wardrobe Challenge

It's about time I sewed something for myself. And what better reason than my upcoming trip to Cancun to celebrate two years of being married to my soul mate. Actually, I've been sewing instead of exercizing and I can't really fit into any of the honeymoon clothes right now, so new gear is in order.

My objective - 4 pieces in the 4 weeks remaining before departure. Fabric must come from stash! Pieces must coordinate with some existing clothes in turquoise & purple. Must be lightweight, versatile and easy to pack because my goal is a week's worth of everything I need in a carry-on. I will not start my stay with my beach clothing still in Chicago this time!

This is what I have on hand:
 

Plum skort & ivory top

 

Add turquoise shirt



Top fabric with golf shorts

 

Maxi with Pashmina





Pashmina up close



Shorts with light tank & sarong

   

Dress fabric



 

Dress fabric up close

  

Top fabric up close



I need 2 tops, one a bit fancy and one camp shirt or similar style, a nice dress and a neutral shrug or light cover-up. So far, I have fabric (above) & patterns for the fancy top and the dress.





The dress, cap-sleeve short version

 

The dressy top - View on model



Sewing Pattern Review rated the patterns among the Best Patterns of the Year, the dress in 2008 and the top in 2010. I still need a camp shirt pattern. I may resize my Kwik Sew men's bowling shirt for that. Then there's the shrug.

So far, I've washed the dress & top fabrics and traced out the top pattern. Friday I redrew the pattern based on the moulange I created in Kenneth King's workshop and made a fitting muslin. If you ever have an opportunity to take one of his in-person classes, jump on it. Otherwise you can be content buying his CDs. My advice - start with The Moulange. I'm using Lynda Maynard's "Demysifying Fit" CD, which takes the moulange and uses it to adjust commercial patterns, to adjust my top.

So far I am very close to on schedule. Only the ruffle & the hem are missing from the top. Check back tomorrow for constructing the top, with a tutorial on drafting a one piece neck facing. Tonight I'll be correcting the dress pattern and doing a step-by-step at the same time. Look for a tutorial on using Lynda Maynard's method, probably after Cancun.