McCall 6069, Knit Cowl Dress

More stashbusting!  It had actually been a really long time since I made an easy knit dress.  I had forgotten how quick and instant gratification they are!

I made M6069 for the first time in the turquoise polka-dot border print quite a while ago, in 2010.  I don't *love* that dress.  The double cowl is awkward to wear, and I made it a little too long but hemming it shorter would interfere with the border effect.  When I passed it up again last week, I decided it was time to rotate it out of the closet.  I contemplated my stash and ran across this polka dot knit that seemed the logical replacement.

I have a love/hate relationship with black and white.  I love the way it looks on other people, and any time I see someone in a really great black and white print dress I want to make one immediately.  But then when I'm getting dressed in the morning, I want to wear a bright color.  The thought of wearing funereal black, even with some white in it, is too much for me, especially right when I wake up (I am not a morning person).  I rarely wear my black and white pieces; I literally never wear all black.

This dress may have broken the spell.  I think the key for me is that the print is black-on-white; the larger proportion of white keeps it bright and fresh.  Prints that are white-on-black, with black the predominant color, feel too somber to me.  Of course, the first time I wore it I met some friends after work for happy hour and to watch one of their husband's band perform.  Of the six of us, five were in black and white.  I'm not kidding.  Two stripes, two polka dots, and one print.  I felt like a noncomformist, just like all my friends.














When I was packing for Portugal last Fall I unexpectedly found myself with time to make one more piece to go in the suitcase.  So I inventoried my packing plan and found that what I needed was a nice dress that would travel well but really sparkle at night and would be suitable for cooler weather.  I was surprised I didn't already have anything that fit the bill, but my knit dresses are generally pretty casual and my dressy dresses don't pack well.

This pattern came to mind, and I had some luscious silk jersey from Michael's Fabrics.  I used my TNT t shirt pattern to draft a plain back and made it up.  It came out gorgeous!  (If I do say so myself.)  The luxurious fabric, the saturated colors, the flattering shape.  When I finished it, I thought, "This casual elegance is exactly what I want for my entire wardrobe."   I don't know that I've managed to effectuate that thought, but I still love the dress.



Details on that dress are using the serger to attach clear elastic to the wrong side of the back neckline and then turning under and twin-needling for a neat finish, and cuffs on the sleeves (only because I didn't have enough fabric to cut the sleeves the length I wanted so I had to add scrap cuffs!).

When I drafted the back for the silk jersey version, I somehow made it an inch too short at the waistline.  WTF?  So I had to shorten the front to match.  This turned out to be a fortuitous error, as the dress is much more flattering on me with the waistline raised by an inch.  The sloppy waistline location is part of what I didn't like about the turquoise version.  So I retained that for this version.

Since I'd already drafted the back, it was really easy to make the latest iteration.  I finished in under four hours, and the only trouble I had was the shoulder length of the front and the back not matching up.  I was annoyed with myself for doing such a poor job of drafting the back piece.  Well, when I pulled the turquoise version off the hanger to put it in the giveaway pile I remembered that I was supposed to put some pleats in the front shoulder to take up that extra width.  D'oh!  The cowl lays fine without them, luckily.



My secret for cowl necks is to extend the self-facing as long as you have fabric for. My ideal preference is for the facing to extend all the way below the armscye, but that takes up a huge amount of fabric and I didn't have enough here (and it would have required drafting the facing piece).  Here you can see how much fabric I added to this project.  I also caught the cowl facing into the armscye for an inch or two so it would stay folded toward the front.  As a result, the cowl stays firmly in place in wearing.  There is no chance of all of that fabric flipping to the outside. 

I used the flutter sleeve from Burda 03-2008-113 for a little shoulder coverage from the sun without any added heat retention.  To make it really easy, I didn't hem the sleeve.  This jersey is lightweight without much body, and the thought of trying to wrestle a hem onto the circular curve was too much.  The lower hem was easy, though, as it is on the crossgrain and I used a line of dots as a guide to get it perfectly straight for my twin-needle hem.



I added a badge hanging loop to the waistline.  I am so into this right now!




The downside of the black-on-white print is that the fabric is slightly sheer.  I lined the skirt part only with tricot from Golden D'Or in Dallas.  The front bodice is essentially self-lined with the long cowl and with a flesh-tone bra the back bodice doesn't show anything.




This isn't super-old stash, but it's been lurking around for 3 years.  I got it from Fabric.com in May 2010.  In all, I used 1 3/4 yard black and white polka dot and a little over half yard (0.58 yard) of the tricot.

I'm so happy with this little dress!  I don't think it will get passed over like its predecessor, and I already know the style travels well.  I just need someplace exotic to take it...

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

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I used up all the full length yardage, which is the criterion for the stash contest (as I understand it).  But I had enough scraps left for 2 pairs of panties.  Or so I thought, until I looked at the bottom layer front piece.  You can see at left that there was a big divot in one of the side seams.  Curses!

I contemplated for a moment.  The missing part was too large to absorb into the 1/4" seam allowance of my perfectly fitted custom pattern.  Time for a random lace insertion!










I put the scalloped side of some stretch lace over the side with the jagged seam line, extending about 1/2 inch beyond the missing fabric.  I zigzagged over the scallops, and then trimmed away the polka dotted fabric underneath.









Next, I laid the pattern back over the piece and trimmed away the lace, leaving a perfectly shaped piece of fabric.  I constructed the panties as usual.

After all that, I truly did have only scraps remaining.  Well, scraps, a cute dress, and two new pairs for the drawer. The only downside of these is that it amuses me greatly to wear unmentionables I've made out of leftover fabric with the dress they match, but I'm afraid these will show through the skirt, despite my tricot lining. So I have to wear them with unmatching clothes. *sigh*

Raspberries and Cream Crochet Lace T-Shirt Dress

It's stash busting time!  PR's Fabric Stash contest started at midnight on Friday night (so, Saturday, June 1).  What better way to stash bust than to sew up double layer projects?  I have at least 3 planned.  This is the first, using my TNT tee pattern as I did for my striped sweaterdress.

Source: neimanmarcus.com via Trena on Pinterest

Lace is still hot!hot!hot! for summer.  I love that it is sticking around so long.  This one is Elie Tahari ($598), showing a contrast color underlayer.

Source: bhldn.com via Trena on Pinterest

Here's another one from BHLDN ($420), in a swingy A line shape.







I use the stash contest to try to use up older pieces that have survived multiple purges and yet still linger.  The lace is the elderly stashbusting here, I got it on the G Street $2.97/yd table over 4 years ago in 2009.  The underlayer is a mere two years old, an athletic knit I got from FFC in 2011.  It has a waffley texture and is fairly sheer, so it really wasn't good for much.  I made a top from it for my bike trip to the Netherlands, with a self-lined upper bodice, but it's just not that good.  The fabric doesn't stretch much and is fairly ugly.  However, it's the perfect underlayer for a summer dress!  It gives a pop of color to the otherwise bland lace, and will be nice and cool for hot days and nights.

I stayed up late and starting laying out my pattern and cutting at midnight.  I am more than a little proud of how completely plumb-accurate the motif of the lace falls at center front.  Not bad for the witching hour!

The back does not have the satisfying precision of the front with the CB seam, but it sits perfectly over the swayback.  I'd rather have the perfect fit than the perfect line, I think. I will go in and try to take out that weird bagginess below the butt, having seen the photo.




I sewed the CB, side, and shoulder seams of both layers, stabilizing the shoulder seams of the lace, and then went to bed.  I was beat and in no condition to tackle sleeves! For stabilization I used some stretchy jersey strips kindly sent to me by Yoshimi the Flying Squirrel. I usually use ribbon, but I thought it would be too stiff for my lace.





I added a little width to the side seams of my TNT as I was going for a shift shape rather than a skin-tight fit.  The hemline is *key* to wearing a shift.  Most of my skirts and dresses hover right around the knee, but this style must be fairly short or it is dowdy city.  I wish I'd thought to take a picture before I hemmed the underlayer, but even with just the lace layer you can see that this does my figure no favors at knee length.  Take off a few inches, and it becomes a thousand times more flattering.



To trim the lace to the proper length for the hem, I found it easiest to put the dress on the dress form inside out, and then trim the lace as it was hanging down below the hem of the underlayer.

I constructed the two layers separately, treating them as one at the armscye for setting in the sleeve and at the neckline.





To finish the neckline and sleeves I used foldover elastic.  I had some beige, but it was too dark, so I tea-dyed some white instead.

I steeped 2 tea bags in 1 cup of boiling water for 5 minutes, then removed the tea bags.  The first batch of elastic I dyed for 5 minutes and it came out way too dark!  The second batch I did for 1 minute, and it was the perfect match for my lace.  My FOE shrank during this, which was good to know because now I will pretreat all of it.








I did my usual method of applying FOE:  lay the wrong side of the FOE over the wrong side/inside of your edge, aligning your fabric edge juuuuust below the fold.  Zigzag.  Moving very quickly, because if your iron lingers it will melt the elastic, and press and steam the elastic at the fold over to the right side.  Use the blind hem foot and move the needle one click to the right, and topstitch on the right side.  My elastic didn't need to stretch, but if it does, you can stretch while sewing the topstitch, and/or use a slight zigzag to get more thread in there.











I decided against FOE for the hem, thinking that it would be too stiff.  When I first sewed elastic the width of the sleeves on the sleeve hems and ended up with sputnik arms, my suspicion was confirmed.



I sampled a couple different methods for finishing and decided to go with washaway stabilizer film, serging, turning under, and zigzagging.  Without the stabilizer, I couldn't get a really narrow turn under; I wanted it to be just the width of the serged edge.  It also made zigzagging the turned under hem a million times easier (though I still had to use the walking foot).  The washaway stabilizer does not like to be pressed, but I was able to use the iron--be sure to turn off the steam or you'll have a gummy mess on your hands!

After I stitched the hem I soaked it for 30 minutes and the stabilizer dissolved.  Do not try to skimp on time, because again--gummy mess.  I wouldn't do it in the washing machine either, at least not with other items.  I don't want the dissolved stabilizer stiffening the other things in the wash.

The only challenging part of this project (other than having to rip the elastic out of one of the sleeves THREE times; there was some bad language coming from the sewing room and this added about two hours to what should have been a fast and easy project), was remembering to change the settings on the serger when switching between the raspberry and lace layers.  For the lace, I used a short stitch length as I needed a lot of stitch density to create fabric in the air between motifs.  However, that much thread in the underlayer would have made the seams too stiff.  I also needed a lot more differential feed for the lace.




I am delighted to have these two pieces out of stash!  And I somehow found a project that used up all of each piece.  I am always having small amounts left of everything, just enough for a tank top or a pair of underwear or a hat or whatever thing I don't really want to make but "should."  The raspberry knit has only shreds remaining, and the lace is not enough for anything, not even a tank top.  Two yards down, another thousand or so to go...

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

Burda 06-2013-102, Pleated Bodice Downton Abbey/Gatsby Dress

A couple months ago BadMomGoodMom stumbled across her local jobber selling silks at $2.99/yd.  She very kindly facilitated my purchase of some of them, including this print.  It's so wacky-cool, with not one, not two, but THREE different animal prints (blue cheetah spots, green zebra stripes, and the pinkish/brown wings) and such excellent quality (thick, fluid, doesn't crease too badly) that I think it has to be designer.  It immediately made me think it was going to have to be a 20s inspired look.  Although the cheetah/zebra isn't very period-correct, the wings seem just about right.

I had been thinking possibly Burda 03-2013-113, but when I got June's issue I had to make Burda 06-2013-102 right away.  It's even a petite (though I've mentioned before that I don't think Burda actually has/uses a petite sloper), meaning I didn't have to grade to a 34 in the bodice.  I cut my usual 34 at the bust, 36 at the waist, and 38 at the hips (or 17/18/19 in petite).  This fits as a true 36 at the waist, with around an inch of ease at most; I wish I'd cut it as a 38 for more ease because it's a summer dress and in the DC heat I'm going to sweat wherever fabric touches me.  I just can't seem to get the waist size right in Burda; occasionally, I will decide to start cutting a 38 at the waist because 36 is too close fitting, but then everything comes out huge.   

The only way in which the dress actually seems petite is the very high waistline.  I have a high waist and Burda's waist placement is usually spot on for me.  This is actually about 1/2 too high, which contributes to the just-exactly-right size at the waistline.  I'd recommend measuring and possibly lengthening the bodice if you are not extremely high waisted.

This was a fairly simple project, which I needed after about a month of not really being able to sew.  I had to take my time and be a little bit slower than usual because I'm a little out of practice.  I didn't have any major mishaps or "I coulda had a V8!" moments, so my plodding caution paid off.



The dress is drafted with a facing, but I prefer to fully line silk because it makes me sweaty.  I lined the bodice with cotton batiste, and the skirt with a flowy rayon.  For the front skirt, I overlapped the left and right skirt pieces, making the skirt as wide as possible, and cut it in one piece rather than seaming. I considered trying to draft a regular darted lining instead of using the asymmetrically pleated front piece, but decided it would be a lot of trouble for not much reward.  The batiste is lightweight enough that it doesn't add any distracting bulk. 

I knew the drafted shoulders were going to be too narrow for my taste, and that the neckline would be too wide (further evidence that there is not a real petite sloper).  I pulled out my altered bodice pattern for the Burda 08-2009-128 boatneck dress since they have the same neckline.  Based on that pattern, I widened the shoulders in toward the neck by 1 1/2".  I still get plenty of boat neck effect, but without any bra strap show-through or danger of shoulders falling off.

I thought I would need to lower the front neckline quite a bit for chokiness and flattery--I have a proportionate but short neck and really high necklines aren't the best for that.  However, I only needed to lower the neckline by 1/2" to get it to a nice spot.



To up the vintage vibe, I used the drapey sleeves from the Burda 03-2008-116 Duchess of Windsor dress (previously made in knit).  Rather than sew the shoulder seam of the sleeve (the sleeves are cut in two pieces), I finished the edge with a serger rolled hem for a split sleeve.  To stitch it in place, I put the edges flush together when putting in the ease stitching.  It worked like a charm!

I had trouble keeping the sleeve seam allowance pressed toward the bodice, so I hand stitched the seam allowance to the lining.


For further vintage-ness, I shamelessly ripped off Kristy at Lower Your Presser Foot and put in a keyhole neckline above the center back zip (I should mention that as drafted the dress has no CB seam and a side zip).  I just sort of sketched the opening onto the interfacing using a Frixion pen, mirrored it on the other side, and followed the line when stitching the lining to the dress.

I used a rouleau loop for the button, tacking it into place on the fashion fabric before adding the lining.



To get a neat finish at the zipper, I marked the position of the upper zipper stop on my lining and stitched my keyhole, keeping the upper edge of the zipper to the right of the presser foot when I got there.  Just above the zipper stop, I put down the needle, pivoted, and stitched two stitches over to put the zipper teeth to the left of the presser foot.  Then I stitched down the zipper tape as usual to enclose the zip in the lining.







I used one of the buttons I inherited from my grandmother's sewing room as the closure.  I don't know if the photo is clear enough to tell, but the brown dots are actually tiny flowers.  I know these are meant to be buttons for children's clothes, but I look for every opportunity to use these special buttons.  I sew so little brown that I didn't think I'd ever use these.









One thing I often forget to do, but thank goodness remembered this time, was to add some interfacing to the lining at the neckline and down through the keyhole opening.

On the fashion fabric, I interfaced the zipper area.  I also interfaced the waistline of the bodice, as it would be supporting a fair amount of weight from the skirt. So as not to interfere with the drape of the waist pleats, I broke the interfacing line there.



I shortened the hem nearly two inches before cutting.  I probably should have only taken off one inch, as I think this could have worked at a slightly longer length.  However, I like the length it turned out so that's fine.  I did a fairly terrible job on the hem, doing a toddler (or even teenager)-sized baby hem where you stitch the raw edge under and the turn it under again.  For the lining, I serged the lower edge, then used the serging as a marker for turning under twice.  The lining hem is much nicer than the dress hem.  *rollseyes*





My "special feature" on this dress is a loop hidden in the skirt pleat to hold my work badge.  I didn't want to put pockets into the side seams due to (1) laziness, and (2) I didn't want to add weight to the side seams that would interrupt the flow of the dress in motion.  Mostly (1) though.





For dresses without pockets, I put a safety pin into the waist seam of dresses to hang my badge on.  For silk, I didn't want to be poking a safety pin into it all the time.  I've been intending to add a small hanging loop to dresses for a while, and with the inverted pleats in this one it was the perfect opportunity.

The skirt has essentially a really big inverted pleat that you layer into two inverted pleats.  I put the hanging loop inside the innermost inverted pleat.

When I finally had some time to sew a couple weekends ago, I couldn't concentrate on one thing for longer than a few minutes.  I wanted to do all the projects at once and was paralyzed (I ended up making a bias half slip, a hat, and some pot holders).  For this weekend, I realized that PR was having its Natural Fibers Contest, which gave me the impetus to focus on one project.  I am happy my brain calmed down enough to concentrate on one thing for more than 12 seconds!



I like this dress.  I'm not 100% sold on my print placement.  I didn't want to have a wing motif anything like centered on the bodice front, as it would look like a strange superhero costume.  But I didn't think about it being right at the neckline; it looks a little like a bib.  Hopefully I will unsee that at some point.



At any rate, it's fun to dress up.  You can embrace the vintage and go all out, but it can be styled more modern as well.   It's one of those pieces I'll keep in the closet long after the current Gatsby trend ends in case a vaguely 20s look is ever needed.

I think this pattern would work equally well in a more casual cotton, and of course  you could easily put a different skirt on the bodice to change up the look.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

Variations on a Tee # 8: Kwik Sew 3915 Collared Tee

Now that Kwik Sew has been taken over by BMV, it is included in the sales so I have acquired a number of their patterns.

Source: shop.nordstrom.com via Trena on Pinterest

One of the patterns I picked up is Kwik Sew 3915, a t-shirt with two neckline options.  I've seen this style of collar in a number of ready-to-wear pieces, including this St. John's Knit ($295).  You know how much I love t-shirt variations, so I had to give this one a try.  I used one of the athletic knits from Fabric Mart.  This is a really nice thick and beefy knit with good recovery.  I almost regretted using it for regular clothes because it is definitely athleticwear-worthy!

Full disclosure:  it's unfair to call this a review of Kwik Sew 3950, because the only thing from the KS pattern in the finished top is the width of the collar.  I used the body of my TNT tee so I wouldn't have to worry about fit, copying the KS neckline onto it, and then ended up altering the neckline substantially.








There is a printing error, or at least a printing weirdness, on the pattern sheet.  There are two neckline choices for the top; the collar is View A.  So I traced and cut where it says "View A" and has arrows pointing to the various sizes.  When I went to sew the collar in place, it wouldn't fit.  Then I realized that I shouldn't have cut where the arrows point to View A, but where "View A Neckline" is printed.  I was pretty annoyed.











As drafted, I am way not into the KS collar.  The neckline is super high, which is not a look I find flattering or comfortable.  After sewing it up as drafted I thought about trying to live with it, or maybe adding some hand gathering to the collar to widen the neck opening, but finally decided, Nope, not happening, and ripped off the collar.

I went back and looked at my inspiration piece and saw that the neckline opening in the body of the shirt was much lower than in the KS.

I cut a new square neckline in the front with the bottom of the square at the lower edge of the bridge on my bra (the collar fills in the space, raising the neckline higher; there is no chance of bra show-through).  I made the lower edge of the neckline opening 2 1/4 inches wide, based roughly on the proportions in the St. John's tee.  The folded Kwik Sew collar, minus 1/4" seam allowances, is 3 1/2 inches wide.  The St. John's collar seems softly gathered into the opening, so I kept the original width of the KS collar.

The resulting neckline is 28 3/4 inches long.  Based on my pattern measurements, the KS collar is drafted to be about 90% the length of the neckline.  However, I felt that even this gentle gathering was creating pulling lines, as you can see in the photo above.  Every line is very obvious in this shiny fabric, even though I turned the shiniest side in.  So I cut the St. John's collar the full length of the neckline.



I folded the collar in half (wrong sides together), gathered the lower edges, and stitched it into the neckline.  I had a hard time getting the square corners perfectly square.  I did my usual inset square method of reinforcing the inner corner and then clipping to the seamline.



Once it's clipped, spread it out flat for stitching.



The corners ended up a little rounded but I can live with it.  There are 5 layers of bulk with the double layer gathered collar laid over itself and the body of the top, which also makes the corner difficult.  Here is a view of the inside.










This top was a comedy of errors to make and took way too long for a t-shirt.  However, the final result was worth it.  It makes for a dressier, more sophisticated tee and now that I've figured out how to do it hopefully the next version will go a little quicker!  I can see myself with a whole wardrobe of this style.  It will be a nice change from my default cowl neck (not that I don't have one of those to show you soon).



The only thing I will change is to consider lowering the front neckline opening even more.  I feel the collar still comes a touch high.  However, this fabric is thick and quite substantial; a lighter-weight fabric might relax and open a little lower.  Cidell found some more of the "major brand manufacturer" base layer fabric and kindly picked some up for me in both black and navy.  The only decision I have to make is which color to choose in making a fancy summer tee!

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

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Thank you so much for the good thoughts for my dad.  It looked really dire for several weeks, but then it was determined that he had an undiagnosed infection.  Once they began treating that, everything turned around in a truly miraculous way.  He has been in a hospital or nursing home for over a month now, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel (we hope).

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Alert:  Sew Confused is giving away a copy of Cal Patch's patternmaking book.  Visit her blog for details--it's supposed to be an awesome resource. 

Kwik Sew 3968, Slipper Socks

I have very cold feet and have one particular pair of fleece socks that I like to wear to bed in the winter.  I haven't found another pair of commercial socks that I like as much, and the socks I like were a gift many years ago so I can't get more of that particular one.  I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands, using Kwik Sew 3968.





These socks are well-drafted and easy to sew.  The notches line up perfectly--as you can see on the pattern as drafted at left--and you can cut and sew a pair in well under half an hour.










That's the good news.  The bad news is that the symmetrical draft that makes them so easy to cut, sew, and grab a pair to put on any-which-way makes them too uncomfortable for anyone to wear.  They flap around in a way that made me feel unstable.  If you want socks strictly for sitting on the couch or going to bed, they will be fine.  But if you'd like to pad around the house at all, you will need to make them conform to the non-symmetrical shape of the foot.





You can see that the first pair gives me major duckfoot.  They felt very floppy on the feet, like they'd fall off at any second.  The last thing I want to do when I'm hanging around at home is think about whether or not my socks are falling off!

I sewed the first pair up as drafted, then put them on with the seam allowances in the outside and pinned out the extra along the inner arch of the foot, as well as at the ankle.  Then I altered the pattern to fit the foot.



The altered pattern makes a great pair of lounging socks.  They conform to the shape of the foot and passively stay in place.







Be warned that if you are going to alter the width around the ankle, you definitely need a stretch fleece. I thought all fleece would have adequate stretch, but with a pair I made out of a less stretchy fleece I had a hard time pulling the narrow ankle over my foot.











You can't make fleece socks attractive, but it amused me to try.  I love that they have the female model on the envelope with her feet in a "sexy" pose.  I wish they had shown her face, because I'd love to see the expression on it.  "All these years of calf raises and pedicures, and *this* is where my foot model career ends up?!"

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.


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As I mentioned in my last post, I haven't been able to find much time for blogging lately.  Well, then things really got hard.  If you can spare any good thoughts for my dad, I'd really appreciate it.  He appears to be on the mend now (but it has been a rollercoaster for the past month and I don't want to get complacent).  There will be a lot of going back and forth to Texas and not a lot of blogging for the foreseeable future.