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

Stretch fabrics...ugh

I am still working on that UFO Vogue 9277 dress I started in the early part of this decade.

I have found that working with this particular knit is worse than the one I just finished with. This one, a stretch velour, has a weird tendency when you place the fabric right sides together, to change texture and seem as if it is starched. I think the naps mesh and interlock. It must have something to do with the nap of the fabric laying against itself. However, it still shifts when I try to sew the seam allowances. While I can still stitch through it the fabric rolls onto itself and pulls away as you stitch it; no matter how many pins I use. The seam allowances are never even from one side to the other because there is such a drastic shift. I've taken the seams out and redid them (many times) to get something closer to how it's supposed to be. I am SO tired of frustrating sewing projects!

Can anyone explain why stretch velour does this?

After taking a small break from sewing, I searched for someone somewhere having a similar problem (and hopefully some advice) and all I found was here from Linda S, does anyone know of anything else?

Here are pictures of the offending fabric to help you a bit in figuring out the problem.


The back is slick like a satin.