Second Time Around

Okay, when I make a dress twice in a short period of time, it's well on it's way to becoming a TNT. This is version 2 of BWOF 2/11 #101, made from a black and white border print I got a month or so ago from Gorgeous Fabrics. And it is indeed gorgeous. I don't usually wear much white, as it has magnetic dirt-attracting properties on me, but I managed to keep this dress clean all day. Hallelujah.

I changed the pattern slightly this time around - lowered the waist seam by about an inch, because the blue and white one was a teensy bit high (riddle me this- how can I be long-waisted at 5' 3"?), and I stabilized the neckline with fusible bias tape in addition to staystitching, because it gaps just the slightest.

And it still does, though not as drastically as the blue and white version. I may just take a tiny little discreet dart in each "corner" of the neck, to make it lay flat. Because it irks me just the slightest, and clothes that irk do not get worn.

Other than that, this is a quick and easy pattern (2 pieces - front and back, and a big old rectangle of a skirt).  Sleeves are cut on, looking much more sleevelike on than they do as pattern pieces.  Fully lined, with my favorite pain-in-the-butt technique of sewing armholes and necks together, then turning the pieces out through the open shoulder seam.  Love the technique but I can't be the only one who manages - almost every time, and despite fanatical marking and measuring - to have extra fabric either on the outside or the lining and have to fiddle that shoulder seam into submission.

I cut this out the other night because I couldn't be bothered to work on the dress I'd been thinking about all day, and, confession here, because I had white thread in the machine, and 2 other white bobbins standing by.  Whereas for the other dress, I would have had to dig out the dark brown thread and wind a bobbin or two, and find the brown lining, and . . . it was just easier, okay?

Delayed Gratification

Some of you might remember I've been going on and on about my two UFO Fatina dresses. I managed to finish one of them recently, but hadn't worn it because I wanted to make a jacket to wear with it, and was thwarted by my incomplete vintage jacket pattern. That pattern will get drafted, eventually, but in the meantime it was 90 degrees today and since the air conditioning in the office had been off for the long weekend, I figured I could go sleeveless at work without freezing to death. It was a good guess, but unless I schedule this for another day-after-long-weekend wearing, I'd better get cracking on the jacket.


I didn't do an official pattern review because this is like my 6th iteration of this pattern, changed again but still with the same bones.

Fabric Used:  Charcoal gray/light yellow windowpane RPL.  Originally bought about 3 years ago from Jomar, meant to be pants and a jacket.  Now a dress, and soon a matching jacket. 

Changes to TNT Pattern:  I added a bias binding to the neck and armholes. Originally I had planned a bias sleeve, which when it was inserted didn't look bias enough due to spacing of the lines on the fabric. It looked bias straight on, but toward the front and back, it just looked like a sloppily inserted sleeve. Off they went. Then I tried a short sleeve cut on the grain, and I didn't like it either. I decided it was meant to be sleeveless. This also might be that after removing 2 sleeves, the edges were a bit raggedy and doing a bias binding was the best way to clean up my mess.

I also cut the dress a good bit shorter than usual and added a bias band at the bottom. I really like the band - it wasn't intended to draw the dress in a bit, as it does, but I decided that I liked the effect after seeing it on. Besides, for a 2 piece unlined dress, this was giving me way more difficulty than it should have and I wasn't removing ANYTHING else.

After that, the dress was essentially done, but I kept fiddling with it. I had these roses from Pacific Trim in both charcoal gray and light yellow, and I wanted to use them somehow. I tried grouping them at the neckline in various ways, but couldn't find an arrangement that I liked.  The yellow didn't make the cut at all - they were way too "old lady corsage" looking.  Then I got the bright idea that I would do something all cool and designer-y and MAKE cap sleeves for the dress OUT OF THE ROSES. Thankfully I just pinned them on because when I tried the dress on that way, I looked like a halfback who'd had a collision with the FTD deliveryman.  

Safe to say, I have way too much shoulder for something like that. If I were one of these stick-figure girls with little shoulders and thin arms, I would have kept the rose sleeves in a heartbeat. But on me, that just looked awful. And ridiculous. But more awful than ridiculous.  It's never good when your sewing makes you laugh until you're sick to your stomach.

I ended up with three gray roses at the neckline. I thought that added interest without making it too fluffy, and then of course I had to bead centers in the roses with yellow beads, just so they weren't QUITE so plain.

Nothing succeeds like excess, right?

Fatina Fatigue

I think I may be suffering from a strange malady that I heretofore did not know existed. This would be a strange, wasting illness brought on by repeated sewing of a favorite pattern, something ostensibly a TNT and therefore a pattern that should not cause strange symptoms like multiple UFOs in the sewing room.

I have two unfinished Fatinas right now. One is the dress with the holes, to be explained fully whenever I finish it, and the other is my most recent UFO, a Fatina made from a charcoal gray and yellow windowpane plaid with bias accents. On the first, I misplaced my silk organza that I needed to make the holes, and by the time I found it, I'd lost something else - my interest in the dress. It'll come back, just not sure when.

For the second one, I had originally planned a cut-on kimono-style sleeve. This involved a minor change in the cutting out of the bodice, a change that failed to happen because I was cutting fabric at 10:00 p.m. and I was being very, very careful not to screw up and so I cut exactly around the pattern pieces. Thereby screwing up, since I needed to cut outward.

No biggie, I decided. I'll add sleeves instead. I had a perfectly good sleeve from my wedding dress that fit the Fatina bodice. I dug out the sleeve, I adapted it to the length I wanted, I cut. To make it interesting, and to match the bias band on the skirt, I cut the sleeves on the bias. I'm not sure if this was my mistake, or if simply adding a sleeve to have a sleeve was the mistake. The bias sleeves looked wonky. They fit perfectly fine, but I didn't like them. At all. So I cut them off, and bound the armholes with bias strips. That worked. And binding the neckline with bias worked. Right now, I'm not happy with the bias at the bottom. I think it may not be wide enough, but I'm letting that idea percolate for a while because I really don't want to recut the bias band and waste a ginormous amount of my remaining fabric, which has since informed me it would like to be a skirt.

I'm on the verge of making a quick knit dress to get over myself and see if that makes it better.

Have you had that happen before? A perfectly good pattern that you've made multiple times just suddenly up and misbehaves? Or worse yet, threatens to bore you?

Clearing my head

Okay, sewing for others is over for a while. After I finished the theater costume (which is actually back visiting so that I can make minor adjustments), I quickly knocked out one of my favorite skirt patterns to make myself feel better.

BWOF 10/06 #117 is my go-to pattern when I want a quick skirt fix. I know it fits and it takes a yard of fabric. What's not to like? The simple style lines make it nearly perfect for some of the prints that I can't seem to resist.

Remember last year, when everyone was making wonderful things from madras patchwork? I saw the fabrics, I liked the fabrics, I didn't buy any of the fabrics. However, when I was in NYC a few months back buying fabric for my wedding jacket, I stopped to visit Kashi at Metro and picked up a piece of the patchwork that had ended up in his remnant bin. He actually gave it to me for free because it was slightly under a yard and he said I probably wouldn't be able to do anything with it.

Don't tell me I can't use a piece of fabric, it'll jump the line and end up on me before many other, more worthy fabrics!

Turns out there was JUST enough fabric to not only make the skirt, but also to make a change to my TNT pattern.

After I realized I would have some excess (nice wide fabric), I laid the pattern pieces on the folds, then pulled them back by about 2" and cut. The excess fabric in the center was pleated and stitched down, and added some extra fullness to the skirt. Since the pattern has a narrow yoke instead of a waistband, the pleats weren't sitting right at the waist so they don't make me look puffy. I did 6 pleats in front, 4 in back - same amount of excess, I just wanted it spread out a little flatter in the front.

I've already worn the skirt this week, and I can see this one in heavy rotation all summer and into the fall, because of the colors.

Next up: finished a set of curtains for a co-worker, so it's going to be a dress for me! I'm using another TNT - the Burdastyle Fatina - combined with some 3 year old fabric and trim purchased at the PR NY shopping day last year.

Personal best

Fabric, $20,

Burda Magazine subscription, $80.

Finishing a September pattern in August with fabric purchased on August 28th? Priceless.

I tried to post the patternreview last night, but the 3 month long Wardrobe Contest was ending, and it was just taking too long. Plus, I have to admit . . . I have dialup, and it doesn't deal well sometimes.

There. I said it. I have dialup. I also don't have a laptop, a phone that does anything more than make phone calls, or a serger.

It's okay, you can call me low-tech. I've been called a luddite by the really creative.

Here's the review:

Pattern Description: This turtleneck pullover with extra-long slim sleeves looks great with trousers/pants and skirts as well as underneath dresses. We suggest you sew up this simple style in several colors.

Wow, I actually agree with every word in that little blurb. That's a first.

Pattern Sizing: I used my standard BWOF size 38. I tend to make their patterns in 38 in knits and 40 in wovens. This fit true to size.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes, except theirs were in solid white and black. Where's the fun in that?

Were the instructions easy to follow? Surprisingly, I looked at them and they made sense. How often does BWOF do that? Of course, they still have you sew the shoulder and side seams, then ease in the sleeve. Why? What's wrong with setting sleeves in flat in knits? Which is what I did, and it worked. I mainly looked to see how they handled the turtleneck, which was to tell you to fold it on the fold line, pin it and then turn it back outwards so that the seam allowances can be sewn together so the collar doesn't roll. It makes sense when you think about it.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? It's a great basic, and I thought what I wanted to do with it was make a few solid color tops for use under dresses and jackets in my very cold office. But then the fabric took over and it became something slightly different.

Fabric Used: Rayon/lycra blend from Metro Textiles, purchased during the PR NYC Shopping Day on 8/28/10. Wow, a late August fabric purchase and a September BWOF pattern, done by August 31st. This might be a personal best.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: Nothing substantive. I would note that the sleeves are REALLY long on this one, longer than I would have expected given their description. I cut some excess off at the wrists and re-tapered them. I also took a little off the sleeve cap because I wanted to set it in flat instead of ease-stitching it, which always strikes me as pointless in a knit.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I'll definitely make this again - maybe next time in those practical solids I had planned to use. I like the fact that this gives the illusion of a turtleneck without actually being snug around my neck, which I find very uncomfortable, or having a seam at that point. This is actually more of a modified funnel-neck or mock-turtleneck, and I think it's more flattering than a classic turtleneck.

Conclusion: BWOF does two things well, really on-trend interesting pieces, and great basics. This would definitely go in the great basic category. I can see myself using this pattern over and over.

Time to pay the piper

For all the piping on this dress.

Did I ever mention I love piping? I don't even mind installing it anymore, though I used to hate it. My regular zipper foot isn't a big help, but the adjustable zipper foot Kenneth King recommended when I took his Piped Pocket and Buttonholes class on Patternreview does the trick.

This is yet another version of BWOF 2/09 #113, the dress I wrote about recently. This is my fourth version of this dress, and while I could keep going, I think I'll give it a rest for a while and think about other things.

Besides, I'm out of piping. I bought 5 yards of this at Pacific Trims some time last year, with every intention of knocking off a perfectly adorable Tracy Reese dress. That may still happen, but I'll have to restock first.

This may be my favorite version of this dress so far. I went upstairs to Mario's office to get him to zip me all the way up, and he who never really has a comment on what I make said that he really liked this one too. "The lines are good on you." I don't know if he means the lines of the dress, or the lines of the piping, or what - and I decided not to ask. Sometimes getting into in-depth conversations with a non-sewing man who just wants to give a you a compliment defeats the whole purpose.

I'm pretty pleased with this dress. I used up my entire 5 yards of piping, which is kind of annoying because I would have liked to pipe the skirt's side seams and around the armholes, but then again, the armhole piping would have probably just ended up with deodorant on it anyway, which would have been really annoying. I should just shut up and be glad that it all came out evenly, including across the back at the zipper where I had issues last time I did a piped version of this dress.

The fabric has been in stash for a week, which may not be a speed record for me, but it's definitely approaching one. It was $2.99 per yard at Karlin's, the local store who recently kicked up their stock and lured me back in after several years of lackluster thread-and-zipper buying. The owner says it feels very Lily Pulitzer to him. Not so sure about that, but it's bright and summery and - at $2.99 per yard - the whole dress cost me about $5, including zipper.

This is absolutely getting worn to work tomorrow, first of all because it deserves a test drive and secondly because it's the perfect dress to wear with my new shoes I got on Saturday.

The second triple

As a follow up to my "One Pattern, Many Looks" post the other night, here's my other favorite dress to play with - BWOF 2/08 #113. I've also made this one three times, the final striped version just this weekend.

It wasn't like I needed another dress; I've been on a bit of a dress roll lately. But I felt like sewing something, and I wanted an easy project.

Because things don't always work when you want easy, this project presented a few problems, but nothing that couldn't be worked out. I cut the pattern pieces as a single layer so that the stripes matched on the top and bottom. I measured and marked my invisible zipper placement, and of course when I sewed it in, the bodice seam was 1/4" higher on one side than the other.

I thought about taking the zipper out and starting over, and then I looked at my leftover fabric and started cutting bias strips. I pressed it and then sewed it over the seam, and somehow - don't ask me, I think the gremlins were working this weekend - the bias tape ended up being 1/4" higher on the opposite side.

Profanity was heard in the sewing room. And outside the sewing room. And probably out in the yard.

Had a moment of thinking about it, and then I took some of the leftover bias tape and made a bow, and hand-sewed it over the crooked portion of the tape. It covers both sides of the zipper without making it hard to zip, so I'm calling that one a design element.

I still had some bias tape left over, so I stitched it down right above the hem to add a little interest.

Here are the other two versions of this same pattern - a stretch woven cafe print from last summer, and a cherry-printed cotton (non-stretch) from later in last summer. You can't see the bodice structure in the other two versions, but the cherry drses has all the seams outlined in piping, which not only feels vintagey to me, but shows off the detailing of the design in a way that I like.

The cafe print is basically the same version as my current stripe (although the new fabric is a little lighter weight and stretchier, and so the front neckline is a little unstable and wants to turn down). I may make lemonade out of that one as well, and actually turn down the part that wants to turn down, stitch it down and enjoy the visible contrasting stripes.

On the non-sewing front, we've gone from near-drought conditions to near-monsoon in a matter of days, and my house is taking on water like the freaking Titanic.

It thundered and rained last night, but other than the leak in the front porch roof that I've been avoiding dealing with, nothing major happened. This morning, the wind changed and when I came downstairs, it was raining in my dining room. Horizontally, spraying out across the room from the bay window frame. WTF? It was also raining in between the interior and storm windows, which brought on a fishtank effect and caused the water to run out - over the windowsill and down the wall.

After much swearing, some panic and every available bath towel and several old blankets, I had to go to work. My housemate checked later, after the rain stopped, washed and dried all the towels and reinstalled them for the rain expected tonight and tomorrow. She then called me at work, told me what she did and mentioned that oh, by the way, the attic was dripping as well, and is now spread with a fashionable blue tarp and several plastic fabric tubs to catch the water.

So, tomorrow. I have a hot date with my roofer at 8:00 a.m. Does it get any better?

And does anyone wonder why I've been stress sewing?

One Pattern, Many Looks

This contest starts on Patternreview on July 15th and runs through August 14th. It's one of my favorites, and a contest I would absolutely enter if I could (Contest Committee members can't enter contests, for obvious reasons, although I did get special dispensation for the Menswear Contest last year).

This contest always starts a lot of discussion on the boards about what can and can't be done and what changes can be made, but sometimes I think people just overthink it. Sometimes you don't need to do anything drastic to a pattern to turn it into a completely different dress - sometimes all it takes is fabric, or a different neckline, or even a different attitude.

One of my favorite patterns to do this with is Burdastyle's Fatina dress. I've made this pattern three times now, and none of the dresses resemble each other in the slightest, and I made no major structural changes to the pattern for any of them.

The first, the black and white pinstripe, wasn't altered at all, I just added the amazing floral trim.

For the second version, the plaid, I separated the bodice from the skirt so that I could cut the bodice on the bias and added a ribbon over the seam. I did add a short sleeve, but I don't consider that a major change either.

The third version is the most recent, and for the chocolate swirl dress, I kept the separate bodice and I sliced the skirt into thirds and added a hem band.

Three distinctly different dresses from a very simple pattern, and a very roundabout way of saying I made another dress yesterday, from another summer TNT (BWOF 2/08 #113), and all three iterations of that dress will appear shortly.

I'll try to get a picture of me in the new dress tomorrow if I wear it to work.

BWOF 1/2007 #111 Plaid Pencil Skirt

I love a good pencil skirt pattern, and no matter how many of them Burda puts in their magazine, I just keep tracing them. I have pencils with applied bands, pencils with strange piecing on the sides, plain pencils, pencils with walking pleats, pencils with pockets. You name it, I've got a pencil for that purpose.

This particular skirt, 1/2007 #111, is one of my favorites. I've made it once before, in black, and I've worn it to the point where I'm ready to make another one.

But this time, I used a special fabric that I've been holding onto since PR Weekend 2006. It's a wool/lycra blend (extremely minimal stretch), gray and black plaid with just a tiny turquoise metallic thread running through it. I got it at Paron's, and as seems to be the case there every time I fall for a fabric, it was the end of the bolt so I got the last 1.5 yards of it.

I've been holding onto it ever since, waiting for a project that would use the plaid to its best advantage.

Last week I wore my black skirt, and partway through the workday it struck me that if I cut the U-shaped insert in this skirt on the bias, it would display the plaid nicely and I'd get a really cute plaid skirt out of the deal. Sold!

This pattern doesn't even use a yard of fabric, but because I was being fanatical about the plaid matching down the back and on the yokes, and because of the size of the bias piece, I really only have scraps left from my 1.5 yards.

I also made the inside yokes from the plaid - it's not the heaviest fabric, so I thought that making the entire lining from lining would make the skirt feel too insubstantial.

This is a pretty easy pattern, but for once Burda actually includes a few helpful hints in their instructions, reminding you to interface both the curved top of the insert and the curved opening it gets sewn to, so that the curved seam sews smoothly. I also used twill tape at the waist seam to keep it from stretching out when I sit all day.

For the lining itself, when I went into the deep drawer of lining fabrics, I came to the shocking realization that I had no black lining fabric. How does this happen? The elves don't come in at night and do my sewing; do they instead come in and steal my lining fabric?

Then I kicked myself because while we were at Paron's last Saturday, I pulled a bright turquoise lining and showed it to Elizabeth as an example of the color in this plaid. Why didn't I get a yard? Anybody?

Thankfully I had some of the blue lining left from the theater costume I made last month, so that got put to use. It's not the right blue, but it works well enough.

I've posted pictures of the lining so you can get a better idea of how the piecing works in this skirt; my old link to the Burda line drawing isn't working (when are they going to fix their website?) but this shows it pretty much. There are no side seams on the skirt, only on the yokes, and the from the center back seam the side pieces wrap all the way around to the front where the inset is put in.

I topstitched the yoke seams and around the inset with black thread. I couldn't find my topstitching thread - I'm sensing a theme here - so I just used regular black thread and the stretch stitch on my machine so I had a continuous line.

I'm going to have to make this skirt again, because the pleat in the back came out so much better this time than it did in the black skirt.

Thinking this one deserves to join the TNT pile - it's definitely something I'd make again, and you can either hide the piecing in a solid, or show it off.

For every action

There is an equal and opposite reaction. Isn't that what they say?

Well, apparently the reaction to two highly structured, interfaced and fitted jackets in a row is a knit top binge.

Two days, two tops . . . and a third top on the table on the third day. Somebody stop me!

I did give myself this weekend to start the year off right, though, and sew to my heart's content. Mario's had plenty of his own stuff to do, so we've been meeting up over dinner and for an hour or so on the couch before bedtime, but he's been puttering on the computer (being off work for the holiday is getting to him) and I've been happily sewing.

Since I ordered some new knits from Fabric.com, clearing off the knit shelves seemed like the obvious thing to do - and besides, I wanted instant gratification here. Which I got, except for the twisted bands on the first top. BWOF's instructions there made me a little batty.

It's based on a BWOF plus size pattern (4/2008 #128). I was thinking about using this style for a dress with one of the new knits, so I decided to give it a test drive with this remnant that I bought last year from Spandex House. The smallest size the pattern came in was 44, and I'm generally a 38 in BWOF, so I guessed/ graded it down to my size. Fairly successfully, but I don't know that my half-assed technique would work as well in a woven. Knits are much more forgiving.

I also pulled a Carolyn and decided not to reinvent the wheel and grade the back pattern piece to my size when I already had my TNT tshirt pattern (KS 3338) on the table. It's already fits, and I could guesstimate the accuracy of the front pieces by it. I also ended up using the KS sleeves, leaving them at 3/4 length because of fabric limitations and adding a wide band of the same contrast fabric I used for the twist.

One modification I made which was not entirely intentional: the gathers/drape under the twist aren't meant to be there. I'm not sure if I made the the lower panel too wide, the twist band too short, or somehow misjudged in between, but as I was pinning the lower to the upper I found this extra fabric in the middle. I debated taking the pieces apart and narrowing the lower panel, but then I thought about how the whole top would look as snug as the upper bodice is, and decided that a little extra fabric might actually be flattering. The top is seriously boobs-on-a-plate, but without obvious cleavage. Interesting.

The second top is KS 3338, straight out of the envelope. I also ended up with 3/4 sleeves here, because I had not quite a yard of this fabric. There was enough left over along the sides that I could cut 2 pieces, gather them and add flounces to the sleeves for a little something different.

Obviously I'm not going for shy and retiring on either of these tops. The second top isn't a keeper, in the long run. The fabric is a fairly cheap t-shirt knit from my local shop. I bought it because of the colors and the print reminded me of something I had when I was a kid, but the quality isn't as nice as I thought and I'm not sure how many washings it will survive.

BTW, on a completely different topic here, can I ask you all where men come from, and why their brains are so different than ours?

Mario has been obsessing about the Menswear Contest over on Patternreview. Is it done yet? Is there voting? Can I see how many votes his jacket has gotten? Yes, the contest is done. No, voting isn't over, and no, I can't see how many votes your jacket has gotten, and if it doesn't get any, or it doesn't win, is that going to invalidate the jacket completely so that you won't wear it?

Why do they judge things differently? I entered the contest so I'd have to finish the jacket; he's all about the competition. And money. Can't forget that - of all the stuff I've made this year, he thinks the craft show items were the best because I got money for those. I could get money for anything I make, if I felt like working my butt off for sweatshop wages. One of the women in my office admired my new plaid jacket the other day and asked if she gave me $40, could I make one for her sister.

Honey, that wouldn't even cover the fabric.