I've avoided plaid until now. I've never sewn with patterns that need to be matched before. But, there was a nice plaid at work. And it was the end of the bolt, so I got it at 75% off. So I decided to give plaid a shot.
Well, I cut very carefully. And went to pin it together, only to realize that the fabric must have stretched at some point. There was nothing I could do to get the horizontal stripes to line up perfectly. But. half an hour later, I did in fact have a passable side seam. And I am fairly happy with the skirt overall.
I think perhaps the pleats could use an ironing. And I wish there was a little bit more fullness to the skirt.
Final Notes: Don't expect to see a lot more plaids around here... I like the look, but half an hour for one side seam just isn't worth it!
Today I bring you the long overdue reveal of my portrait blouse. This is the first pattern I attempted from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing, and I've mentioned my trails with it briefly before.
The Portrait Blouse.
I made at least 2 muslins, and am fairly sure, though have no evidence, that there was a third in there somewhere as well. Admittedly my fitting process was not particularly methodical, however, by the final muslin I was fairly happy with it.
To the left is the version that Gertie recently posted to her blog, made from a stable knit, which is likely the best comparison to what mine should look like. You can read more about it here. I also used a fairly stable knit. It has some stretch to it, but hangs and feels much like a cotton. During fitting I lost the cap sleeves. This was, I'll admit, accidental. I did a narrow shoulder adjustment while fitting, because the shoulders seemed broad and I was getting pull lines. However, I think that these are just part of the style, not necessarily a fitting issue. In any case, by the time I moved into my fashion fabric I was happy with the muslin.
I'm not entirely sure what changed, but I'm significantly less happy with the final version. The biggest flaw I think is that no matter which I do, the bust darts stand out and make an unattractive point. They also aim to a point far higher than my bust point. It doesn't seem particularly noticeable in the picture, however, it is one of those flaws that can be all I notice. Luckily, it isn't a complete scrap, as I can still wear it layered under other things, such as the cardigan in the first image (which I don't really like as I think it hides my waist, but will keep wearing until I replace it with something nicer).
The other flaw in the top is that I didn't do a narrow hem, as instructed. Instead, I used some narrow twill tape as hem tape. And while it looks nice, and would have worked perfectly on a slightly heavier fabric, here it just turns the hem out a little bit, making a tiny ruffle. Luckily, I usually wear it tucked in, and when I wear it out over jeans the ruffle is almost completely unnoticeable.
Conclusion: I'd like to try this again, with a lighter fabric (like a crepe), before passing final judgement. I''m not sure if my issues with the pattern are completely from my haphazard fitting methods, or not, but I do think at least a few of my issues are from the pattern. I'll discuss that a little more when I post my full review of the book.
In all of the kerfuffle around the holidays I forgot to show you the circle skirt I whipped up. It was a quick job, finished the morning before the family Christmas party. I'm fairly happy with it, though I did learn an important lesson about sewing machines.
Photographer-fiancee is still in training... I'll remind him to back up next time ;)
I've almost never sewn on machines that weren't a similar price point and technical level to my own. My best sewing friend has a machine that's similar to mine, though a different make. And the machine I learned to sew on was my mother's vintage machine she inherited from her aunt, but that hadn't been for a tune-up any time in my memory.
As was bound to happen eventually, my mother's sewing machine finally bit the bullet. She doesn't sew a lot any more, so she decided to replace it with one of the super-cheap Walmart sewing machines. I didn't discover this until I couldn't find the sewing machine in the basement because I was looking for the wrong one. Now, the new machine does in fact sew, and even has a few different stitch options. However, I did notice some things were lacking, primarily the foot pressure and the feed dogs (that move your fabric through the machine). This resulted in uneven stitches that tended to jump around at little bit. I also noticed some skipped stitches.
Now, to be fair, this was fabric I had gotten at Walmart to test out. The fabric itself worked fairly well for this project though. It was really more of a canvas-type fabric, which helped give the skirt a lot of body I think. However, it frayed terribly, so I do need to go back and add bias binding to the waist seam. The waistline also seemed to have warped quite a bit between when I cut it out and when I unpacked it at my mother's to finish sewing. I had probably an extra 4-6 inches, so I added some gathers while attaching it to the waistband, which I think turned out nice enough.
I used a pattern generously posted here by Casey of Elegant Musings. The pattern is from a 1954 Smart Sewing booklet. Instead of the traditional circle, the waist line of the skirt is a little bit more of an oval, which makes the skirt hang a little bit differently. It is still just as quick to sew up though.
Now I just need to make a day wear petticoat to go under it. The one I have is shortened from my step-mother's wedding dress, so is a little full to wear from day to day!
I don't really want to show you this dress. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had a project that just doesn't seem to work no matter what you do? Well, this was one of those dresses. I did have it 'finished' but I couldn't wear it to dinner Saturday night.
It also occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to submit this as my Historical Fortnightly entry this month as it was no longer made from a printed pattern. More on that later.
As I mentioned, I'd decided to use the jersey fabric I had in my stash and drape a pattern myself. Well, it took me a little while to realize that I could trace a tank top that I already know fits me to make the pattern for the base of the dress. And then, being so excited by this brain wave, that I forgot to widen the straps into kimono sleeves before cutting the front piece out. Fine, I thought. That's fine I can work with that.
Not what I had envisioned, but so far, it doesn't look that bad...
I got the base sewn together, and could not for the life of me get the gathers to lie flat on the base. I did the best I could and moved on. The skirt went fairly smoothly, which was nice, because that means at least something did with this dress.
But once the skirt was sewn on the whole dress pulled forward from the weight. Well, that's ok too, I can just add a waist stay. I'm not sure if my fabric stretched, or if I added less ease to the waist stay than to the waistline of the dress, but the stay was a few inches shorter. So, rather than sewing it in, I just tacked a few places across the front and at both side seams. Which, lead to a lumpy and unflattering waistline.
Sadly, it's back to the stash for this...
So, I wore a back up dress to dinner, and will likely be taking this back apart and making something else. Perhaps I'll try something with a pattern...
For those of you who don't remember the earlier posts of the Snood Saga, the thrilling tale can be found here.
Selfie before Honey is up to take pictures for me.
There was a sneak peak on Monday of the finished snood. Overall, I'm really happy with it. No, my stitches aren't even. No, I didn't manage to follow the pattern perfectly. However, I did manage to crochet my first pattern. And I did manage to make myself a snood that is comfortable and looks fabulous.
The other side. Sorry, it's really hard to see anything here...
As I mentioned originally, I found the pattern online, and then followed along with a tutorial on YouTube. It turns out, the pattern I chose was wonderfully simple. There were a total of four types of stitches. The Chain, the Long Treble, the Double and the Single Crochet, and the last two were only used at the end for the boarder. Since so much of it was the same, it made it really easy to learn the stitches.
It wasn't on the original pattern, but the tutorial showed how to add a row that lets you feed a ribbon around the edge. There is a ribbon on the pattern 'envelope' picture, but it doesn't seem to go around the edge, just sits on top. I did follow the extra step, but I haven't had a chance to get a ribbon yet. In part, because I haven't decided what colour I want to use. I could stick with black so it still matches everything. Or I could go with white, which will still match everything and give it a little bit of a pop. OR, I could go with red, which won't match everything, but will certainly be eye-catching...
I did manage to produce a passable version of the hair do I looked at in the second post. I skipped the curl set, in part because by the time I had it finished it was time for bed and I didn't stay up late to set it. However, I think everything still worked out alright. I still need to work on my Victory Rolls. But, I'd say it was a victory for me, because I was able to wear my hair done up for work, and not only did it stay done, I didn't feel like it was a total mess.
And, to conclude on a completely unrelated, but amazing note: Bill Nye is on Dancing With the Stars:
I've begun putting more care into the construction of my sewing, now that I'm sewing clothing that I'm hoping to wear on a day to day basis. I finished the seams in my Kasia Skirt. I'm actually pressing seams, not all of them yet, but as directed. Before, I'd just finger press the spots that needed it to continue sewing. So, I'm not the star pupil yet, but I am working on it. And one thing I've discovered, is that its easier to do things properly with the proper tools.
Enter the Tailor's Ham.
It looks a little like a hat, before it's stuffed
I found this pattern at Tilly and the Buttons. Its quick to print off and super easy to put together. I will admit, I did have to take all the darts out and redo them because my points were off though. After I fixed that, it was just a quick fill with shavings, stolen from Lindy Bunny, and we're off to the races.
I used leftover fabric from Kasia. I'm really happy with it, it's working well. My only problem is I don't know how to get all the dust off from when I was filling it...
The first piece of my new wardrobe, the Kasia 6012 Pencil Skirt is finished. I'm not entirely satisfied with the fit, I'd make some changes if I were to make it again, but I'm happy enough with this one. I used a black cotton blend as the main body and a leftover black satin for the yokes. I had been planning to use a slightly heavier red crepe-back satin, but apparently I'd used that for something else.
Front View
I talked about the pattern changes I made in my earlier post. I think that the fit I got was pretty good. There is some extra room across the hips, but it gets fairly tight when I sit because there isn't much stretch in my fabric. I think I'd peg in a little bit more at the hem if I make it again. My last issue with the fit is the way the yokes puff out. I think that if I'd used a heavier fabric, closer to the main fabric, I wouldn't have had this problem.
The only change I didn't talk about last time, because I forgot I wanted to do this until partway through, is that I converted the back slit. I turned it into a kick pleat using this lovely tutorial from A Fashionable Stitch. I made the pleat in the satin that I used for the yokes, thinking that it would peak out occasionally and have a nice contrast. Unfortunately, using bias tape to finish the edges (because the satin frays like you wouldn't believe) left it a little out of shape and thick in the hem so it tends to just stay open. However, I kick pleat is definitely something I'll be tackling again.
It's surprisingly hard to take mirror pics from behind...
