My Handmade Wardrobe Inventory

Looking at my closet I wondered just how many of the clothes in my closet were made by me. A quick inventory is below, to see these items and read their reviews and construction details, go look at My Handmade Wardrobe.

Knit Tops:

• Mustard Burdastyle "Let's Twist Again..." top
• Pink polka dot Butterick 5429 twist top
• Autumnal floral Butterick 5429 twist top
• Black New Look 6838 short-sleeve boatneck
• Red, black & white New Look 6838 long-sleeve boatneck
• Magenta New Look 6807 gathered-sleeve top

Woven Tops:

• Grainline Scouts
  Brown print
  Red twill w/ full back
  Cornflower blue floral w/ gathered 3/4 sleeve
• Gray Grainline Tiny Pocket Tank
• Yellow gingham Colette Sorbetto
• Multicolor dots Sorbetto
• Swiss Dot Vogue 9772 bias top
• Cream Vogue 2068 gauze top
• Blue Simplicity BBW 3835 top
• Cream Simplicity 3835/Vogue 8392 gathered long-sleeve top
• Autumnal floral  Simplicity 3835/Vogue 8392 gathered long-sleeve top
• Cream Butterick 4632 gathered yoke shell
• Red Butterick 2564 cut-on sleeve shell

Interesting note: I like my clothing easy to sew and easy to wear. None have zippers, only two have buttons but only on the backs and all can be pulled on over my head, if needed. So, I probably should make at least two shirts with buttons or snaps for a more formal look. Maybe. If it ain't broke...

Skirts:

• Built By Wendy Sew U skirts
  Black corduroy
  Brown corduroy
  Gray wool
• Blue denim Simplicity 8126 wrap skirt
• Red twill Simplicity 5914* skirt
• Heather gray Pattern Runway gathered skirt
• Black floral Simplicity 9765 long skirt
• Iridescent purple Vogue 7058 ball skirt
• Purple Simplicity 2152 linen A-line skirt
• Teal abstract floral Paprika Patterns Jade skirt

Dresses:

• Pink polka dot SewStylish One-Hour Dress
• Heather tan Simplicity 2406 belted cotton dress
• Purple Butterick 4948 corduroy dress
• Orange plaid McCall's 6712 "maternity" dress w/ shoulder ties
• Green New Look 6939 shift
• Floral New Look 6939 shift dress
• Beige Burdastyle "Anda" shift
• Red floral New Look 6860 sun dress
• Autumn floral Simplicity 5190 faux-wrap dress
• Floral McCall's 5042 full-skirted dress
• Red Colette Oolong #1008 dress
• Black Vogue 9968 knit cowl dress

Note: Only one zipper in the bunch(!!), all others can be pulled over the head.

Special Occasion**:

• Blue Simplicity 8343 brocade full-length gown.
• Bronze Style 2448 velour 1920-ish gown.
• Blue/yellow shot cotton McCall's 9403 strapless dress.

Pants:

• Brown gabardine Vogue 9745 flat-front trousers
• Heather tan Vogue 2883 shorts
• Purple and green Vogue 2532 plaid shorts

Only one pair of pants but have fabric and supplies for four others. Must get on that for fall.

Jacket/Coat:

• Purple knit Simplicity 2560 cardigan
• Brown Vogue 1476 (Issey Miyake) coat

Misc:

• Peacock blue half slip
• Green/B&W stripe Indigorchid #705 panty
• Kwik Sew 2529 sleepwear
  Blue-gray fleece short-sleeve tank and boxer briefs
  Light/dark blue fleece color-block tank and boxer briefs
  Multi-color fleece night shirt

*Recently reissued as Simplicity 1560 with same photo & illustrations.
**First two no longer fit and the third is impractical for my life now.

Enough, I Give Up...on the Pastille

Whew, it took two years for me to make that decision, but my last go at alterations got me so upset. It is to the point where I doubt I could ever enjoy wearing this dress even if I got the fit perfectly. So, I have taken the entire bodice apart, saving the faced neckline, and will use it to cut out a bodice from another pattern. Here are the gory details:

Pattern: Colette Patterns Pastille* from the Colette Sewing Handbook (2011)

Pattern Description: Fitted sheath dress with sweetheart neckline and unique cap sleeves.

Pattern Sizing: I cut out a size 6 above the waist and a size 10 and 8 below.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes. The Colette patterns' instructions take you through each step and have helpful illustrations.

crisp facing edges

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I loved the shape of the neckline and how well the facings for both the neck and sleeves gave a professional finish to the dress and hid the raw workings. Unfortunately, I had other problems with the dress. The back was both too long and wide resulting in excessive fabric in the upper back. The skirt was too wide right below the widest part of my body, basically saddle-bag height. Not good.

Fabric Used: 2 1/4 yards black and white patterned spring suiting (64% polyester, 34% rayon, and 2% spandex) from Jo-Ann for $11.23 (at $4.49 per yard, orig. $5.99), 20" black regular zipper, and Pellon Sheer-Knit fusible interfacing (my new favorite notion!).

Pattern Alterations or any design changes you made: Unfortunately, this pattern unaltered did not work for my body at all. The back had far too much fabric in the upper back. After becoming increasingly frustrated with trying to fit my dress in the fashion fabric version (I even had my sister pin fit me at the holidays to no avail) I finally made the muslin that I should have made months before! After taking my full body measurements, I had discovered that the back neck to waist measurement of a misses pattern  is around 16" while mine is almost 1.5 inches shorter. Therefore, I had to take almost 2" out of the back piece (see below). I found that the back pattern piece was already longer than the front, so there was definitely too much fabric.

In the muslin, I was able to see that cutting the back pieces from the bottom or even altering the pattern at the shorten/lengthen line was never going to correct the back length. The extra length was not along the bodice side seam but in the upper back and sleeve area. When you placed the shoulder seams together, the underarm curve of the back piece was far below the front curve. After pinning up 2 inches in the area above the side seams and the start of the cap sleeve I had a corrected back which even placed the neckline lower (see above) and where it properly should lay on the body.

I used a design ruler to redraw the underarm curve. The bodice seam angled down at the sides and then back up to the middle in the back. I sewed in the darts and used a ruler to straighten the bodice seam line so that it would match the skirt. The red lines in the second photo above show where the pattern piece will be altered.

The skirt portion of the dress fit very well at the waist and over the rear, however, the curve below that was too extreme for my body, strangely reminiscent of the now popular By Hand London's Elisalex dress. However, that is not the look I had in mind. So, on the skirt I kept the waist at size 10 but had to shave off the hip curve which brought them to a size 8. Cutting out a hip size smaller than the waist size has never happened to me before since my hips are ten inches larger than my waist. It doesn't seem right.

Marking the precise pleats

However, after all of this, I decided that since I would probably not make this dress again I abandoned the muslin and decided to go ahead and make further alterations on the actual dress.

Therefore, the last alterations I subjected this fabric to were: taking the back in with two vertical tucks, essentially connecting the waist and shoulder darts and disguising them as princess seams. I cut an inch off of the back bodice length. In the front, I moved the waist darts closer to the center and used a high side bust dart to take up some more fabric. The final bodice change was an attempt to cut off the cap sleeves which were a bit awkward and didn't fit under my cardigans.

And the result? Project Fail!

04.08.2013

All that work and it still looks like this? It's not much better than it looks here, in November 2011! Remember the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? Yeah, done with that. Without recutting the back and starting all over this will not improve.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? No, I will not make this again. For some body types this pattern will not work, it is made for a full-hipped hourglass with a C-cup. So, knowing that it can make a beautiful dress and the instructions are excellent. There also have been questions about the accuracy of  the draft since the majority of the people who made this dress had the same baggy back problem that I did. Therefore, I strongly suggest that you construct a muslin first.

Conclusion: I loved this fabric, the weight was perfect for a three-season dress, it took to pressing wonderfully (check out that crisp sleeve facing above) and the 2% spandex was very much appreciated as I could put the dress on without a zipper. So, I may not have a completed Pastille, but I'm also not giving up on making a dress out of its remains.

* Was meant to be item 4 of the 2011 Palette Challenge.

Red Retro Dress - Colette Patterns Oolong #1008

Finally completed UFO!!

Pattern: Colette Patterns Oolong #1008 (2009)

Pattern Description: Lined bias-cut dress with central ruched bodice, v-neckline, slim six-gore skirt, and no closures.

Pattern Sizing: Using their size chart I ended up using a size 6 for bust and size 10 for waist and hips. As it turned out the bodice was still too tight across the chest.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes, minus the sleeves.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Yes! Colette produces very detailed and well illustrated directions with their patterns.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I loved the slinky 1930s feel of the dress and its bias skirt.A very va-va-va-voom kind of dress. However, I found that the sleeves cut in my size were too tight to be comfortable.

Fabric Used: A lovely red cotton twill with a wonderful drape and Pellon Easy-Knit fusible interfacing.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: As seen in these posts, I had issue with the back neck to waist measurement being too long (16") for my strangely petite sizing (there and only there!) of 15.5". As I did not notice this even when constructing the lining I had to make adjustments on the final dress by changing the seam allowance on the back bodice piece and altering the darts some.

Note: I completed the dress in 2010 as designed. However, the sleeves were too tight, so I re-cut the sleeves with more width but they were still constricting. Finally, I decided to remove them completely, remembering how sultry the dress looked before the sleeves were originally constructed. Therefore, I took out my handy seam ripper and not only took off the sleeves but decreased the seam allowance on the upper shoulder of the bodice to provide more room. Turning some fabric leftovers into bias tape I then enclosed the raw edges of the dress and lining, slip-stitching the tape by hand to the lining on the inside.





Would you sew it again? Probably not. It is very unique and I would have to deal with fitting the back again because I did not transfer my changes to the paper pattern.

Would you recommend it to others? Yes, it's very flattering and easy. Just make sure that you are honest about your measurements. The dress has scant wearing ease so even a fraction of an inch can make a big difference. Therefore, do not over fit, there are no closures to this dress and it must go on over your head and shoulders. If too tight it will put too much stress on the seams. I had to reinforce some seam intersections with fusible interfacing.

Conclusion: The resulting dress from this pattern is a lovely curve-revealing, date-ready red dress with a strong 1930s vibe.

 
Images: my own photographs

Progress Being Made

New pattern piece is a mash-up of Simplicity 4111 and New Look 6836

1. I made up a muslin for the "milk maid" blouse using my adapted pattern. I used the new front piece which is a size 14 with the 4111 pattern's back piece in size 12. There was some gaping at the v-neck, so I pinched about 1/4" from the inner shoulder seam and the neckline then laid flat. To the back I added shaping through two small darts at the back neckline, much like those used in vintage patterns.
   
   
   The bodice fit seems good but there is a pretty severe twisting problem with the sleeve. So, I have to deal with that before I can move on.


2. In a break from that project, I had a sudden desire to work on the Pastille pattern alteration some more. Instead of my haphazard way of decreasing the bodice back length, this time I used directions straight from "Perfect Fit: The Classic Guide to Altering Patterns." Luckily, the pages concerning these type of alterations were available online through Google Books. The first time, I had just folded out the amount I thought I needed, at least 2 inches.
   
   This time, I first taped all of the darts closed on both the front and back pieces. I then pinned them together at the shoulder and side seams. With this 3-D model, I could see exactly where the extra length was located in the pattern; midway between the shoulder and bottom of the armhole. Strangely enough, it looks like this discrepancy is built into the pattern and not just a problem for me because of my short (14.5" long) back measurement.
   
   Next step will be constructing another dress muslin using this new altered bodice, and shaving the bell-shaped skirt into a straighter skirt by reducing that unwanted width at the upper thigh.
   
   C-curves


3. I did go and do the comparison of the c-curves of my pant pattern possibilities, Vogue 9745, Vogue 2883 (these shorts), Vogue 2532, and Vogue 1922. Next I will do a comparison of the more jean-inspired patterns, the Colette Clover and Built by Wendy's Sew U jeans.
   
   Images: My own pictures

Fitting the Pastille - A New Approach

Yes, it still isn't finished. Surprised?


It's getting closer, right?

The back of the fashion fabric version was still not working, there was too much fabric in the back length-wise. After becoming increasingly frustrated with trying to fit the dress, as cut (I even had my sister try to pin-fit me at the holidays to no avail) I finally made the muslin that I should have made months before!


Major Improvement!!!

What did I learn? After taking and recording my true body measurements, I discovered that the average misses pattern has a neck to waist measurement in the back that measures 16" while mine is almost 1.5 inches shorter*. Therefore, I had to take almost 2" out of the back length (see below).



In the muslin, I was able to see that making the back shorter by cutting from the bottom or even altering the pattern at the shorten/lengthen line was not going to correct the back length the way it needed to be. The extra length was not below the armscye but throughout the back shoulder and cap sleeve area. When I placed the shoulder seams together, the underarm curve of the back piece was far below the front curve and it billowed out. After pinning up 2 inches in the area between the side seams and the cap sleeve I could see that the back neckline was now lower and in a more natural position. See the very 1st photo to see how high it was before the alteration. I also extended the back darts up to the alteration to take up some of the extra width.



I needed to change the bodice waist line to even it out from side to side. Because of the front angling down to the sides it made the dress seem like it was rising up in the front. Therefore, after I sewed the darts I used a ruler to straighten the bodice seam line so that it would match the line of the skirt.


The red marks in this photo show where the paper pattern piece will be altered.


The new bodice


The skirt portion of the dress fit well over the rear, however the curve lower on the hip was too extreme for my body. So, with the skirt portion I kept the waist at size 10 but brought the hips down to the size 8(!) and will shave some more off the hip curve so it no longer sticks out like fabric saddlebags. I might need a wee swayback alteration, bring in the waist some more and lower the bodice darts about half an inch.



Though the back alteration helped immensely, there are still three sets of drag lines on the front of this dress. I thought that altering the waistline of the bodice would eliminate the drag on the skirt, but it seems I need to bring it up even more. Perhaps I should make the side darts larger and use those to pull up the bodice sides? The third set of drag lines are just a given with cap sleeves.

Hopefully, the next time I write about the Pastille on this blog will be to reveal the finished version. By the way, the Vogue duster coat; still in its muslin phase, is being put on the back burner. There are a few separates (like my latest skirt) that I feel are more important to finish sooner than later. More on those later.

*Yeah, I don't get it either. Why 16"? Does anyone else have this problem?

Taking A Measure...

Sorry, no progress to show. All of my garment construction has been happening in my head...I have been researching fitting and adjustment materials to improve the fit of my garments.

I was first looking for info on narrow back adjustments for the coat, which lead to looking in those same sources for remedies to the fit issues of the Colette Pastille (too-long bodice, narrow back adj?), my potential Colette Clovers (full belly adj, crotch length, sway back?) and instructions on grading my Vogue 1922 pants pattern up two sizes.

It led me to decide to wait a bit on alterations. The research led me to the conclusion that what I really needed to do first was the basics: I needed to record my personal measurements. This is also the first step to drafting my own patterns.

To help others here are some sources I have found interesting:

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Pattern Alteration series

Threads articles on measurements

Sew Stylish Ready...Set...Measure!, p. 80, Volume 1

Fast Fit by Sandra Betzina

Kwik Sew Measuring and Pattern Alteration Guide

Design It Yourself Clothes: Patternmaking Simplified Taking Your Measurements, p. 30.

The biggest thing I found was that different sources have different ideas on what "the" essential measurements are and also have different ways of correctly measuring them.

So I am going to pick one source and follow through with that system's plan for doing adjustments since those personal measurements are essential to make the correct changes. I will be using the AgriLife Extension series for both my measurements and for alterations for Vogue 7714, the Pastille and the Clovers. I will use the Threads instructions to grade up my Vogue 1922 pants pattern.

The best thing is that once I have my measurements recorded I can compare them to paper patterns and make some changes even before the first muslin is made.

Save time and fabric? Sounds good to me!

Fitting The Pastille!

Pastille Fridays, part 2

Fitting Issues with my Pastille



Doesn't look that bad from the front, right? That is if you didn't know my waist was smaller than this, you wouldn't be suspicious. However, the dress is too big at the waist and directly above and below despite my measurements exactly matching the pattern measurements. Just goes to show you, it really is proportion and how your body is distributed, not the size numbers or the weight.

However, check out the back.* Despite how pretty close it fits in front that is some truly excessive fabric pooling back here. I had no idea about that until I went ahead and basted in the zipper to check. Thankfully, I do have more of this fabric if I need to cut two new back pieces (and there is still some in the stores too) However, I really don't want to redo that neckline and facing. I did a great job the first time.



I can't say this is a sway back problem because it fits great over the rear. This is more a back length problem, I think the bodice is too long for my body. The zipper is only hand-basted so I can remove that and maybe bring in the width by at least a 1/2" on both sides, deepen the darts and shorten the back bodice.

Side view. Ugh.

Also, can you see how the waistline dips down towards the back? It's even more obvious when my arms are down. At that side seam, my actual waist is at least one inch above that line. Though it might have stretched while it was on the hanger. I like the way the skirt fits so I only want to alter the back bodice pieces. Any suggestions?

These two pictures show where my actual waist is located compared to the waistline of the dress, a more than one inch difference. This is where comprehensive body measurements or a muslin could have really helped me out.*



That is why I started to look up information on taking your correct body measurements that can be compared to pattern pieces before a muslin is cut out.* I will be writing about that in another post that will include all the online and print resources that I have found.

*I promise I will never NOT make a muslin again!

Stitching The Pastille!

In honor of The Colette Sewing Handbook showing up in stores and mailboxes a bit earlier than expected (NOW!) I am going to let you in on my time constructing one of the new dress patterns in the book. In fact, it just happens to be the dress on the front cover. Enjoy the journey.

Part 1

In the spring, I responded to a request from Sarai of Colette Patterns for pattern testers. I had tested the Oolong dress for her before. This time I was offered two patterns from her upcoming book, The Colette Sewing Handbook. Licorice, a loose shift-like dress with sash and draped collar and Pastille, a fitted sheath dress with a modified sweetheart neckline and petal-like cap sleeves.

While I liked both designs, Pastille called out to me because I could see it fulfilling an important purpose in my wardrobe. I saw it as a potential job interview dress. Professional, non-fussy, classic, but with a non-corporate vintage edge. Styled with a cool vintage enamel brooch this dress would be great in my wardrobe, pretty and feminine enough for a dinner date but also appropriate for more serious occasions.

I will be posting a traditional review of this dress (see the teaser at left) later but I wanted to write in more detail about what I learned while making it. As it turns out I found myself trying out some new techniques when constructing my version of the Pastille dress.


My new pattern weights

My first move was to go to Home Depot and buy some metal washers. These would be my new pattern weights instead of straight pins. At first, I only saw the small ones that weighed nothing but eventually I found the heavy steel/zinc 5/8" size which were perfect. I now have 14 of them at only $.46 each! They work wonderfully in holding down your fabric and I've already used them on stretchy Lycra knits. In addition, re-positioning of the pattern is now quick and easy.

The second new thing I did was use clear tape to help out my dart making abilities. I have never been able to sew a straight dart, they always veer off course and end up where they're not meant to end. This time I replicated the dart lines from the pattern using a straight piece of tape instead of straight pins. Then I could just sew along the edge of the tape. So fabulous and my darts for this project were perfect.

Then I used my new friend (adhesive tape) to mark the three horizontal pleats along the bottom half of the skirt. The instructions say to thread trace the lines but I first wanted to make sure my lines were straight. I didn't have any fabric markers that would show up on this fabric so I used my design ruler and laid tape exactly where the lines were needed. With two contrasting colors of thread I then hand basted across the three skirt pieces right next to the edge of the tape, resulting in perfectly straight lines of stitching. For maximum visibility, I used yellow and orange thread to mark the different rows and I loved the resulting contrast on the dark gray fabric. Perhaps I'll use the same technique as a permanent feature on a future project.

However, this project used up a lot of tape, so next time I will be using painter's tape. It has a very low adhesive factor so that it can be used again at least two more times. Not as wasteful.

Coming up: Fitting issues with the Pastille.

What's Going On In My Sewing Room

I have three of my Fall Palette Challenge pieces completed!


1) Simplicity 2406, 2) Vogue 2883, 3) Butterick 5429
Unfortunately, gray days have now arrived in Richmond so all the pictures I took of Butterick 5429 are too grainy to publish. I am really happy with how this top came out. I made a major alteration to the pattern that improved the overall fit.

I am still working on item 4, which has multiple issues. Too long bodice, too big in the waist, and too much excess fabric in the upper back. Maybe it's time for Fit For Real People to help me out? I'll have to check the libraries in town for a copy.

So, as a break from that I am starting on a muslin for item 5, the Vogue 7714 long coat. Finally, right? I have read the few reviews that exist on Pattern Review and am ready to go. It's really a easy sew but the fit is tantamount before cutting into that moleskin.

I have updated my Fall Palette Challenge board. I've moved that Swiss dot top to spring/summer 2012 and included more pants for winter. I have purchased Colette Pattern's new Clover pant pattern and thanks to a $1.99 sale on stretch poplin at Fabric Mart (and four sales from my Etsy shop!) I now have enough fabric for two pairs in dark chocolate and claret, a rich red color.


Click image to see larger
So three out of the nine are done. Not bad at all.

2011 Fall Palette Challenge (with a change)

Yes, I am participating in the Colette Patterns Fall Palette Challenge. My plan; however, is for all of 2011 and includes projects for both summer and fall.

Summer: Simplicity 2406, Vogue 2883, Vogue 1922, Vogue 9772
(last three, all OOPs)
Fall: Butterick 5429, Vogue 7714, Colette Pastille*, McCall's 5042 and McCall's 5686 (Vogue & McCall's all OOP)
My goal, of course, is not to make everything here within the eight-week time period (puh-lese!) but to complete at least four of these garments during the Challenge. I have three of them near completion, I just need to...well, finish them!



Here is my convenient year-round, all-season palette that I've been working from for the last few years. It's from a Crate and Barrel catalog spread for linen drapes. I found that this line-up represented all of the colors that I liked to wear and are also flattering. The only colors missing are an orange-red/brick shade, pale grey, and a strong, rich purple.

Three of the cold weather pieces are from last year's sewing plan. I have worked on muslins for two of the dresses and the Pastille is stitched up but I ended up having some fitting issues so it is not completely finished. The new fall project is another Butterick 5429 with long sleeves in this beautiful matte jersey print from Jo-Anns. I can't believe I never noticed it before as it incorporates so many of the colors that I like.

Tribal Rayon Jersey from Jo-Ann's

* I was a tester for the Pastille dress from Colette Patterns.