Craftsy Class Creative Darts and SeamlinesMcCalls 6696

I've been working on this class for a really long time. After two wearable muslins of the A-Line dress I think I have the fit sorted on this which I can transfer back to my sloper. Why did a custom drafted pattern take so long to fit? Who knows, maybe I didn't measure well. The areas where I had problems were the armholes. In the moulage draft it didn't look right. I cant remember exactly when but some point she has you use an industry standard measurement of placing a new bust line. This put this much too high and made my armhole too small. Is this method unsuited to ladies with larger busts? I'm not sure, possibly I just did it wrong. Suzy replied to my questions very promptly and was really helpful. So now I think I have it in this simple dress:

I took the sleeves from McCalls 6696, and altered the armhole by making a 1/2" armhole dart, which I left unsewn for a bit more ease as directed in the sleeves drafting course which I am yet to embark on. I thought going through this process would mean no more fitting, but I was wrong. You have to be able to fit to draft patterns, and if you have an unusual proportioned body in any way it is going to throw up problems in any method of making clothes. All my clothes, me-made or shop bought feel or look awkward in the sleeves. I often have extra fabric around the front arm hole and not enough room to move, more specifically play the double bass in.

This class gives directions for many garments, many of which are very fitted, which doesn't really suit my life in a very hot country. This is one of the looser fitting patterns, there is also a swing line top and baby doll line pattern. No finishing details are given like necklines or closures.

This dress is made in fabric called crepon de coton from les coupons de Saint-Pierre. This shop is in Paris but despite the delivery still fantastic value and quality. I couldn't work out what to do with this fabric for ages and then ordered some double gauze from fabric.com and discovered it is almost the same, slightly heavier but still light and drapey. I could then look up what other people were making with this and I knew it needed to be used in something loose and unstructured. I took the neckline from a pattern that came free with a magazine ages ago. 

So now I'm over the hardest bit I hope? I'm going to make this again in something firmer to test the fit again, hopefully it will still look ok, then maybe try and draft some sleeves, although I've run out of enthusiasm for this process a bit now, it is so time consuming!

Skirts, skirts, skirts

Over at the curvy sewing collective they are hosting a season of separates. This month is skirts so at the eleventh hour I am adding a few of my recent makes so wanted to add them here too. I've been getting my son to take pictures of me all week, I think it really adds a professional edge to a blog when the photos are taken by a nine year old! It is so useful to review them all together. All of these are self drafted, about five minutes after I sewed my first skirt I decided to start drafting them myself, that was a bit of a mad decision but I think I've got the hang of it now. The first sloper I used was from How to Adapt and Design Sewing Patterns by Lee Hollahan. There is some useful information in here, and some ideas for skirts too, but the slopers are awful. You have to size them up with squared paper and there was no size chart in my book so it just did not work for me. I made a couple of skirts that were Ok but I don't wear any more. For my next attempt I took a simple skirt pattern, the skirt from the dress in the burda style sewing hand book, and used it to make this first pattern.

This is the oldest pattern but the newest make, made yesterday. It is a 7 panel gored skirt and I used a tutorial like this. Its actually much too big, in comparison to the skirt below which give me a better defined waist, I will take it in 3-4 inches and it will sit higher on my waist. It is in a nice soft stretch polycotton from fabric.com.

Spot the difference! Dark colours don't really show the details do they? This is a half circle skirt and a much better fit on the waist. I think I just worked out the maths for my skirt from scratch, here is a great link with resources for making one. This is a linen blend from Minerva craft which I had to line with lightweight cotton or it was very floppy and shapeless.

A bit more colour now, these two skirts are both made from the same pattern based on this draft-along by frabjous couture. It is really good, she has you measure darts to where they should actually end, creating something quite different to what I had before. For instance, I am much curvier in front than back, so my darts are completely different lengths now to reflect that. I just added a bit at the sides to make it A-line. The first fabric is a beautiful Liberty light weight corduroy, the second is a cheap nasty stretch woven bought here in Jeddah that makes me statically charged when I walk in it.

Simplicity 1547 Girls Dress Pattern Hack - Button Back to Elastic

Its been International Day here in our community! I didn't realise until a couple of days before that is quite important. A casual email from my daughters teacher said 'please send your child in national dress or in the colours of their flag'. Well, my kids are half Irish, half British, we don't really have a national dress from either side. We are not sports fans so we don't have any sports kits. I could have pulled together some sort of blue white and pink but that would not have addressed the green white and orange side and that would have upset the apple cart a little so at the last minute I realised I needed to make something. Living in Saudi Arabia means we have much less access to shops so I am planning on making much more for my kids and had even planned this elastic backed pattern hack already, it just wasn't going to look like a flag. I had even made a muslin. I wanted an easy-on easy-off woven dress for light cotton sun dresses and comfy dressing up dresses. I find shirring elastic a bit of a faff and not really resilient enough for my kids and I wanted to be able to embellish the front.

This uninterested scruffy creature is the same child that looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth in the picture above, honest!

From the front the pattern is not altered. This alteration would work on any dress with a fitted bodice and gathered skirt.

I chose this pattern as it has lots of pieces to work with for a whole range of looks that I am planning to make, watch this space, using a loose fitting sleeve, a collar  and various ruffles.

This back photo shows the 3 channels of elastic I added.

For the flag dress I used:

1 yard white cotton batiste/voile

1/4 yard green cotton broad cloth

1/4 yard gold quilting cotton

1 yard 3/8" wide flat elastic

1/2 yard red ribbon

1/2 yard navy ric rac or other trim

To alter the pattern I traced off the side, arm hole and shoulder of the back bodice,

Then widened it to match the back skirt. I also lengthened it by 1 1/2". I took 3/8" off the neckline all the way around as well.

I added all of my trim on the front bodice and gold ruffles on the bottom and I sewed the front bodice to front skirt as the pattern instructions, by gathering the green skirt. I didn't need to gather my back green skirt pieces as these are now the same width as the back bodice I just sewed theses as a straight seam. I sewed my shoulder seams as normal and repeated for a lining. The back lining does not have a waist seam, I overlapped the pattern pieces and cut it in one piece to save time.

I laid the lining over the outer shell right sides together and sewed around the neckline, clipped the curves, turned right side out and pressed.

I then sewed through the lining and outer shell to form channels for the elastic. I wanted 3 rows of elastic. Because I was using very sheer white fabric I did not mark my channels but I did switch to my walking foot which has a wider foot so I could use it as a guide to make sure my channels were exactly 1/2" wide so the elastic would fit through them nicely. I measured the elastic from a well fitting dress but the original pattern pieces would also work as a guide. I threaded it through with a safety pin.

After this I turned the dress inside out and sewed the side seams making sure to leave the front lining and back skirt lining free. I then checked the fit. This is really important even if the pattern is familiar as the elastic might need adjusting to get the fit right around the neckline.

I then turned it inside out again and flipped the front lining over to the back. I stitched the side seams together again as far as the waist. I could then pull it back to the front side covering the raw edges of the bodice. All that was left to finish now was the lining skirt side seams and hem, outer skirt hem, and I bound the arm holes. The binding was very fiddly for such a small garment so for my next dress I will add short sleeves.

Fancy Pants in Abu Dhabi

Ok so these aren't that fancy, but they are finished, and I am in Abu Dhabi! 

I made these using the Craftsy class  Pant Fitting Techniques with Sandra Betzina which come with vogue pattern 2948.

I have written a full review of this pattern for the Curvy Sewing Collective which is up on their site now. In brief, this pattern is great for apple shaped figures with princess seam details which with added top stitching can really lengthen the legs and are useful for a flat seat adjustment. They are also useful for a simple flat seat adjustment.

The class has lots of useful information except for on measuring the crotch, you are directed to measure a pair of well fitting trousers that you already own, a problem for many people who struggle to buy well fitting trousers. She offers no alternative method and only demonstrates minimal crotch adjustments which is a shame because the rest of the class is very good.

Finished Vintage Day Dress, Burda 01/15 126

My first vintage pattern. This was reproduced in last months Burda Style, but unfortunately didn't make it to their website. Here it is in the magazine:

The recommended fabrics are silk chiffon and pongee for lining. I used cotton voile for lining and polyester chiffon like fabric for the shell which are both a bit heavier but I think it worked equally well. Here is the line art:

The skirt is a full circle skirt and as drafted came to my ankles so if shortened before cutting this could be made in a lot less than the 3.1-3.2 metres suggested.

I did an FBA which was tricky as I didn't want to add a side dart as there was already a lot shaping the seam attaching the front yoke to the front. I did it in two stages, first adding width:

I cut as shown,

then moved the right side section along, overlapping the left so it laid flat. I redrew the dart, but should have left it to the end as I did it again then any way. Then I attempted to add some length. I spread the pattern in half horizontally keeping the side seam intact.

I needed to keep the centre front straight so I slashed up through the dart again and moved the bottom right piece up and in. My dart is now taking up all the excess. A bit improvisational but it worked! I laid the back over the front to check the side seams. Although I didn't alter the side seam the back was longer so I added to the bottom of the front to match.

There is a lot of nice neck shaping in this pattern but I couldn't get it to fit me nicely, it needs to be a really close fit in the back of the neck to work as it is supposed to hug the back of the neck. Perhaps it is just the shape of my neck and shoulders but I had to cut it much straighter as the fabric was drooping down not sitting on my neck as intended.

The instructions were hard to follow, no diagrams at all. I'm not sure if they were reproduced exactly from the original from the 50's, if not they certainly didn't add much. One tricky point was when stitching the front yokes to the front the front is supposed to extend past the edge of the yoke but there is no direction for how far. This is to create a small underarm seam. I copied the shape on the back piece and used that as a point to start stitching.

Easy Peasy!

Completed Shirtdress!

So I made a shirtdress. It started off as Mccalls 6696. In admiration of Mary at Idle Fancy I decided to join in the Autumn of 1000 shirtdresses.

I planned to use my newly drafted bodice sloper to assist in fitting. The shoulder was quite different so I decided just to use the sloper, despite the fact I hadn't even begun to watch the sleeve drafting class I signed up to. I manipulated the front darts to match the pattern and cut off a back yoke then roughly slashed and spread the remainder to form the gathers. I used the original pattern for the sleeves with a small fitting change for a bit more room in the bicep, and original collar and placket. This was not such a great idea, the armhole needs work and it would definitely have made sense to have started with a simpler garment with no top stitching. I had to take the waist in by 4", not sure how that happened! My placket was too short so I had to slightly shorten the dress, the collar fitted ok.

I am pleased with it overall, and pleased to participate in the challenge. Check out the flickr group to see the other participants.

The fabric is a mid weight cotton from les coupons saint pierre, a fantastic shop in Paris which sells great value 3 metre lengths. The quality is always lovely and this fabric was only 10 euro for three metres. I still have not found anywhere here to buy buttons, hundreds of fabric shops selling polyester in every colour of the rainbow, but no buttons. Our sea shipment has arrived so I now have all of my sewing supplies and these buttons were in my stash.

I knew I would not have access to my fabric and sewing supplies for a few weeks during our recent move to Saudi Arabia so I decided to use the time to do a project that needed few supplies. I signed up for Craftsy's Bodice Sloper Class with Suzy Furrer. I think these classes are ridiculously overpriced, I paid a quarter of the list price by waiting for a sale, I would recommend to anyone to do the same as they come around quite frequently.

Lots of bloggers have put this a New Year's resolution, so I felt very clever to have started this in November! Every dress or top I made in 2014 had fit problems in the neck and I ended up pulling it in with gathers and finishing with bias. This is my chance to fix these problems. The class is very good, Suzy is incredibly thorough, she is completely clear at every step and makes sure everything is checked. She answered my questions promptly. I was concerned at first that despite all the measuring we were still using industry standards for measurements such as waist to hip, this felt to me to defeat the object, but I now  think she is right about this. As a first attempt at drafting it is helpful to keep some consistencies as a starting point and to make it easier to evaluate the fit. First we drafted a moulage:

This is supposed to fit like a second skin, much closer fitting than a sloper. It has 4 darts, shoulder, arm hole, side and waist. We bowed out the waist darts for a closer fit and I bowed out my shoulder dart and managed to get a really good fit in the neck, which is brilliant. I realised that this shaping is only possible with some sort of shoulder dart or seam so that is really useful to know and seems so obvious now, not every pattern or style line is going to work for everyone. We did a bit of dart manipulation to make a princess seamed pattern to sew this up.

Then we turned this into a sloper by adding ease in a few places:



It still has 4 darts in the front, 2 in back, you can see where I marked in the shaping of the shoulder dart I did, I took in quite a lot. I realise now I have forward rolling shoulders which cause this, it is nothing to do with having a large bust. I'm not sure if the armhole will need some refining. She doesn't suggest making a muslin of this, maybe a simple garment would be better to test it. There is very little information on drafting in this class.

I initially want to use this for fitting patterns, to do this I will have to make a new version with 2 or 3 darts as a better point of comparison.

This process is quite dry, I found myself desperate for colour after this, but it is so worthwhile, a very good class despite the price.