Self-Stitched September?

I thought about signing up for SSS, but really, what's the point? I already wear something I made every day. In the morning and evening (when temps are cooler) it's usually a maxi house-dress, sometimes yoga pants and a top. The yoga pants-top combo may be all store-bought, but I only wear it for part of the day. Here's a sample of the sort of sef-sewn garment I'm likely to be wearing at any given moment during warmer midday hours. None of these are new, I'm just throwing together a quickie post here ;-):

Mid-day reliably finds me in either a short dress or a skirt and top. Skirt-top combos are most often either top or bottom self-sewn, and the other half purchased. But a day in which I did not don anything self-sewn between waking and sleeping? Hasn't happened in a long time. If I had a real job, and challenged myself to wear self-sewn work clothes daily for month, I'd be in trouble. But I work at home, so comfy rules and goofy is welcome, and I've got a closet full of that kind of stuff.

My ONE BIG GOAL for September is to finish a pair of self-sewn pants. They have to fit, to count. I'm getting closer. I might even cut out the Marrakesh pants from a "fashion" fabric today, if I have any energy left after doing errands. And if I can decide on a fabric.

My Favorite Thing I Made This Year

... is my "butterfly dress." I made it about two months ago, but did not have a photo to post until this morning.

Ooops, I forgot to smile. I should have smiled, because wearing this dress makes me happy. I've given up on coralling Beloved Spouse into camera duty as he is rarely around and distractable at a time when I am wearing something I'd like a snapshot of and when the light is any good, so this morning I figured out how to use the timer function on our camera. How to pose attractively while waiting for the shutter to twitch is, clearly, a skill I have yet to master.

This is yet another rendition of my current favorite dress pattern, Vogue 8232. I was inspired by Cindy to make a long version (stretching the skirt to top-of-foot length, while keeping the hem width the same, results in a better hanging skirt on my body; at knee length the skirt is a bit full) and am glad I did. I'm eager to make several more as I wear long dresses around the house quite a bit and this one is both easy to whip up and very comfortable. Unfortunately, since I am on the tall side, it requires a good three yards of fabric and the largest pieces of appropriate fabric in my stash are around the two-yard size. I will have to either be creative or quickly sew up some UFOs and "earn" some new yardage.

I am quite sure that whoever designed this fabric (cotton, purchased online some time ago at half-price) had a nine-year-old girl in mind, but I have a fondness for the slightly goofy. And since this is for around-the-house wear only I can dress my inner nine-year-old, rather than my outer 51-year-old, if I want. How I got to be middle-aged (and pudgy!) are questions I am trying to ignore.
The best part of this dress is that if I do manage to lose some weight one of these days/years, I can nip it in along the side seams and it will refit well enough. At the rate my slim-down plans have been regressing I won't have to worry about that for a while. I do have a resolution or two in mind in that area, too, which I will blog about some other time.

Vogue 8232 - version 1

Finished this wearable muslin of Vogue 8232 last week, but didn't get DH to snap a photo until today. Fabric is a quilting cotton that has been in my stash for, oh, let's see, maybe 15 years? It's a water-color-y mottled abstract print, as you can see, with hints of aqua and lavender among the dark blue, and has a lovely polished finish even after several trips through the wash.

I think it needs some kind of embellisment (some fabric flowers at one side of the neck, perhaps?_ but fat chance I'll ever get to that. A silver belt and strappy sandals would dress it up nicely, too, but I don't own either of those and am not ever likely to.

The fit, after two bodice tweakings in real muslin, is one of my best efforts in the home sewing department. It could be tailored a bit more, but given the Hilo climate a little breathing room is a good idea. I narrowed the skirt slightly, by folding out about 2" (at the hem) of each quadrant, tapering to nothing at the waist. In a drapier fabric that wouldn't have been necessary.

My biggest question, now that I see myself in this, is: Where did my waist go?

I used to have one, a decade or so ago.

I can't decide whether I love the dress more than I'm appalled at how much I look like my grandmother.

Oh, those glorious days of youth, when I was only appalled at how much I look like my mother.

Vogue 8232 - muslin

I whipped up a muslin of Vogue 8232 this morning. I've been wanting to make this dress since seeing Cindy's version, so when Vogue patterns went on sale a few weeks ago I snatched this up. I'm not doing a maxi yet, but if this turns out to be the "TNT" dress pattern I've been looking for I will add a long version to the projects list for sure.

This is my first time adjusting a princess-seamed bodice pattern. I started by making the front a size larger than the back to accomodate my barrel chest, and added 1/2" length to the center front piece, tapering to nothing along the front-side pieces. This worked out better than I'd hoped. The waistline hangs perfectly all the way around, and the fit through the bust is good. And the skirt back sits well, so the "swayback" (i.e., big butt) adjustment was a good idea, too.

It does need tweaking, though. The front shoulders are too wide (which means they are really wide, because I don't have narrow shoulders), and I need to "pinch" about an inch out of the center front neckline. I'm going to have to play around with the center front pattern piece to figure out how to fix both those fit problems without messing around with the bust fit, which is pretty darn good for a first try.

The entire back is just a tad big, although the length is fine for once (thank you, Vogue!), I need to study my rear reflection in the mirror a bit more and ponder potential fixes. I think a minor adjustment to side back seams, and taking out a bit at the center top on either side of the zipper will do it.

Don't know that I'll get back to this today. It's midday, now, and a bit sticky for any more trying things on until it cools off a bit. I think I'll cut a new center front piece to get the adjustments right. Back torso fixes I think can be done by taking a slightly bigger seam here and there.

So far, though, this dress is showing tremendous potential, so I'm thrilled ... even though I'm horrified at the size I had to cut, and am feeling a bit like a whale lately.

I also don't know what fabric I'm going to make this from when I get the muslin tweaked to an acceptable point. I have a dark pink provencal print that's been in my stash for over a decade (!), but it's much crisper than the muslin and I suspect the skirt might not drape well. Which is why it's still in the stash.

I have a ton of fabric in my quilting stash, but no large pieces. I might have to go fabric shopping...

Japanese dress #1

I knew it would be a bear, going in: I'm tall, barrel-chested, and increasingly chunky as I move into middle age. In other words, shaped not even remotely like the typical figure for which these Japanese patterns are drafted (ISBN 978-4579111497):


Given all that, I did reasonably well adapting (with much measuring, head-scratching, and hoping for the best) a sleeveless version of dress #23 to my shape and size. Here's the cheap cotton "wearable muslin" for what I'd hoped would be a repeatable "ATR" (around the house) dress:



The skirt, back and midriff came out fine, but I flubbed the bodice front. I sized it up and made it longer (even American patterns are 1-2" too short in the front torso for me) which turned out to be too big. Then I butchered trimming it down again, which is totally because I was tired and impatient and I should have known better than to keep going at that point. The funny pleats at the shoulder are because at try-on stage I discovered the shoulders were much wider than I wanted and I was too lazy/slapdashy to recut them, and just took a quickie pleat in the middle of each instead.

Even with such a flawed, ill-fitting bodice it's a serviceable garment, which is what I was aiming for. I'm wearing it right now and it's comfy enough that I probably will attempt it again someday. The challenge of getting the bodice to fit is far from solved, though, and some time needs to go by before I'll feel up for round two of redrafting.

I am pleased that I (deliberately) cut the midriff a bit loose, because, combined with the deep V neck, it means this can be a pull-on: no zipper required! The loose cut was planned with steamy weather in mind, the zipper-omission a happy coincidence. Of course, I discovered that after I'd done an astonishly good job installing the invisible zip. But if I don't need the zip, why waste it, so I ripped that all out and stitched up the center back seam.

You may be thinking, as I am, that for all that work it's a remarkably unflattering garment (I may not be slim, but I'm really not as chunky as I look in this dress). The thing is, I desperately need more lightweight, "breathable" (in both fabric and cut) dresses to wear around the house all summer. So I'm aiming for steamy-day comfort here, with no intention of ever appearing in public in it. That's what ATR dresses are for. I've got some more in the works, as I slog ever-onward in my quest for a truly great "TNT" (tried and true) ATR dress pattern. This isn't it, but at least I've got one more thing to wear on a warm day.

McCall's 4826

I went to the fabric store Friday to pick up something inexpensive to make a wearable muslin of this halter-top dress, and couldn't resist the navy-white gingham. Now I don't know which to do first in this dress: bake a pie or go milk a cow?

Yeah, it's totally farm-girly, but I'm kinda tickled with it, in spite of the fact that I'm 25 years too old and 25 pounds too heavy to wear anything like this in public. Which is fine, as it's intended for around-the-house wear only. I took a little bit of fullness out of the skirt, made pleats instead of gathers at the skirt top, left out the pockets, and made the halter-top fronts about an inch wider and overlapped more to reduce the extreme decolletage, which you can see in the pattern envelope here:

That skinny model can get away with a deep V neck, but I've got too much boobage for that. I went too far, though. If I make this again (which I might; I've got three yards in the stash of a gorgeous green and brown big fern print that cries out for a full-skirt treatment like this) I'll overlap a bit less. I briefly considered resewing that part of this one, but just couldn't be bothered.

I'm amazed, given the minimal attention I gave to pattern placement on the checks, that the gingham lines up so well. The sewing gods must have smiled on me as I threw this together, because the length turned out well, and it actually fits. All of which is amazing considering my utterly slapdash approach to this project: sew first, press later, didn't even press or pin the hem, just eyeballed it with a lickety-split, get-it-done-quick attitude.

The only downside to this is the gingham -- a poly-cotton blend -- is so lightweight I lined the entire thing with some white cotton lawn from the stash. So it was not only a lot more work, but is no longer the super-cool hot-day wear I was aiming for. If I do make this again I will use a more opaque cotton and only line the bodice (with the lightest, most breathable fabric I can find).

Challenging Myself

Somewhere around the beginning of the year I decided that 2009 would be the year I learned to sew knits/stretch fabrics. I've got a good machine now (still no serger), and the two of us should be able to handle the learning curve.

It was with this goal in mind that I just spent $100 (not in the budget this month!) on rayon/lycra fabrics at EmmaOneSock.com: 2 gorgeous prints in sufficient yardage to make a dress of each (or skirt + top, which will not be worn together), plus a coordinating solid for trim and/or a top:


This mini-splurge was inspired by today's Vogue pattern sale. I seem to be in dress mode, plus I can't resist the interesting skirt:


There's only one problem. I can't possibly stitch on, or even cut, this (indulgent) fabric without a couple of practice runs. So now I have to go find some super cheapo but reasonably similar fabrics to mess up and make muslins from. Which I really don't have time to do. Have I mentioned we're probably moving soon (late May, early June)?

Why am I increasing the stash BEFORE the move? Duh!

Plus, I just spent a horrific amount of the morning on this... must go get some real work done!

Butterick 5179 in progress

It says right on the pattern envelope: "fast and easy!"

Oh, so not true, but that's my fault. First, I dithered for about 4 months on what fabric combo to use. These are all Amy Butler, BTW (my obsession continues). Funny, the main fabric was a last-minute choice. I had yard and a half of it, barely enough to cut the main body pieces from and needed wide borders to make it just-above-the-knee length.

It looks shorter than it is because it's so wide. Which I'm kindof okay with. I did baste it all together and try on, because I want it to have plenty of ease in the hips. Headslap moment: for some reason it totally escaped my mind, at that point, to check the underarm fit.

So then I unbasted all the seams and redid them as french seams, and fussed with getting the bias tape finish to the armscye just right (including ripping out one and redoing it), and then fussing with the yoke. Especially in the back, where I had the ridiculous idea to extend the two sides of what should be a center seam (oh, right, I left out the zipper... seriously, why bother when you can pull this on over your head?), lap them, and add two not-functional buttons just for fun:

It wasn't fun, really, getting that all to come out right. But it's a nice touch.

Anyway, after all that, and then deciding it was too long and cutting two inches off the body and reattaching the borders... this was not even close to fast or easy.

Partly because the yoke assembly is a bit of a bear. Yes, they way they do it means you don't have to edge-stitch, which is a nice clean look if that's important to you. But this is my third curved-yoke pattern recently, and the worst yoke assembly process of the lot if you ask me. Won't do it that way again. One problem is it makes any bodice width adjustment at the yoke impossible. Argh to that, because I'd like to move the point where the bodice meets the yoke at the arm out just an inch. Can't.

The other problem is the horrific, mind-boggling, record-setting gaposis at the underarm, especially the front. Yikes, it's awful. How is it possible I missed that when I tried this on and posed and peered and turned in front of the mirror? Note to self: Raise your arms next time, and check what's goin' on under there!

Anyway, if this were just for around the house wear I wouldn't care, but I want to fix it. And that means ripping out the bias tape (again!) and putting in a dart, 'cause there's too much extra to ease away, and then re-doing the bias finish. I've been waiting a week now to collect the fortitude to tackle that, and haven't found it yet.

Maybe this weekend, if I'm not too busy playing with Burda 8280.

Procrastination = Progress (?!)

All my free time this week has gone into two monster UFOs:

1) The first draft of what I am starting to think of as "the never-ending novel," blogged here.

2) Completing the ZigZag quilt before house guests arrive next weekend because it's cool at night and the house is one blanket short for the number of beds that will be slept in. I'm using a flannel sheet as batting, machine quilting in a random meander that roughly follows the implied grid of the zigzag. That description will make sense when I post photos, which I will do when it's done.

This means I've done nothing toward troubleshooting Butterick 5210. It's been hanging in my dressing room (where I will see it daily and therefore, one hopes, not forget about it for months), and whaddayaknow... the fabric has relaxed a bit and now the pooching isn't so bad. Still there, but now the side silhouette is only slightly distressing, not downright horrifying.

It appears I should be blaming my fabric afterall (I checked the envelope and it says "lightweight broadcloth" which I misinterpretted as "lightweight cottons" in general). I suspect that there's just enough traces of wax in the batik fibers to keep the weave from relaxing sufficiently to resolve the pooching problem. Oh well. I'm going to go ahead and finish it. When I have time. That may not be for a while.

But this gives me hope for trying again with a looser fabric. Like all that leftover home dec I've been highlighting recently. Not as "lightweight" as the batik, but a loose weave that should relax very nicely.

Oh, wait. If I use that fabric, I'll want to underline it. I wonder if that will cause problems, too?

Only one way to find out.

Problems with Butterick 5210

I’ve started on this dress (view B), using the combo of brown and blue batiks that I test-drove in my fave housedress recreation.

Want to make sure it's a keeper before cutting into my good fabric.

I’m this far into construction:

Side seams are basted for initial try-on, and the yoke and shoulders are done (including hand-sewing facing inside, done while watching a Netflix movie last night) arms not hemmed yet. It will have a blue band at the hem, too, eventually, but I’m going to make sure the rest of it is okay before adding that.

I’m thrilled with the boat neck yoke. It was easy to do, looks even better than I’d hoped, and sits perfectly on my shoulders. Yay. THIS part of the dress so far is a great success:


It’s THIS part that’s the problem:

You can’t see it well, ‘cause the batik print is camouflaging the folds, but the pleats at the front yoke are causing a poochy bubble of fabric over the ribs and belly. I’m poochy enough in that area on my own, thank you, don’t need any additional pooching from my clothes!

Here it is from the side. Sorry for the crappy shot, but you can see the problem:

My fabric is partly to blame, I think. I love the look of batiks, but they’re on the stiff side. Probably a nice drapy rayon or wool challis wouldn’t hang so horribly, but I live in Hawaii and challis of any kind is just too hot.

I wonder what kind of fabric the dress in the envelope photo is made from? (I notice neither the photo nor the fashion sketches show an alarmingly unflattering fabric bubble in the belly area; thanks for leaving that detail out, Butterick.) Does it look ghastly from the side on their skinny model, too, or is it just me?

I concede that the bubble might also be due in part to the fact I’ve got a few more curves than the typical model. But hey, my measurements exactly match the size I’m making (not telling you what size that is, but according to the chart I’m a perfect size [XX]). So shouldn’t this dress fit a little bit better?

If I didn’t like the dress from the front so much I might just give up at this point, rip out the side seams and reuse the fabric for something else (placemats?). But from the front it’s so nice, simple yet sophisticated. Comfy, too. I really want to love this dress.

So, I’m gonna try to fix it. As a barely-above-beginner seamstress this threatens to be beyond my capabilities. I hardly know where to begin.

Add a bust dart to the side seam?

Taper the side seams more?

I’m realizing how much easier redoing this would be if I had a dress form.

But I don’t. I’ll have to wing it.

I can already see two issues I’m going to wrestle with:

1) Although this is essentially a loose and roomy dress, it’s not voluminous. There’s some wiggle room in the side seams, but not enough for major reconstruction, especially if the solution is to let a seam out more.

2) I skipped the center back seam and zipper, and just cut the back on the fold. (Lost a teeny bit of shaping there, but not much, and the back looks fine. It's the front that's the problem.) I checked with a measuring tape before cutting: unless you have a ginormous head or Dallas-sized hair this can be a pull-on. But now I’m limited in how much I can take in anything at the sides if I’m gonna be able to get in and out of it. I could, if I have to, split the back and put a zipper in, but that would be a pain in the tush and I don’t want to.

I’ll keep you posted. Hate to put this dress in the UFO pile – had thought I’d just whip it up over the weekend – but other things demand my attention. I’ll get back to it, but not today.

Dress and Blouse Patterns are Here

Yay, the sewing patterns I ordered online have arrived! At the rate I get through projects these will keep me going for months.

Waffling on what to make first. It's gonna be one of these two, with contrast yoke and hem panel:



Fabrics... oh I've amassed so many to choose from. Amy Butler for sure, but which to feature and which to trim with... could take me days to make a decision.

If I decide to go with 5179, I prefer the lower yoke and pleated bodice (vs. gathers) of this version (Simplicity 2962):
... which I'm gonna make at least one top from. But a dress comes first.

Actually, meeting my noveling goal for the day comes first. No sewing until that's done.

Favorite Housedress, Replicated

Here’s the original ‘favorite housedress’ again (well-loved, much worn, and falling apart), and my recreation using blues from my stash: Well, mostly blues. The dark tones in the brown batik are really more purple than blue, and the waterlily fabric used for the bottom border is black/green/purple, no blue at all. But it’s sufficiently floral it’s a good companion for the hydrangea print up near the top. The new dress is about 2 inches narrower than the original; it looks so much wider ‘cause the fabric is years of washes away from being as soft and drapey as the inspiration garment, but that’s okay.

Fabric choice was mostly influenced by desire to make inroads into the stash. I chose and paired the blue and brown batiks because I have several yards of each and wanted to see how well they play together. I think they go together very well. These two will make a return appearance together in a future garment, for sure:


This was quite easy to make. Cut the basic fabric blocks on Saturday afternoon, stitched it all up on Sunday, easy peasy. Could have done the whole thing in one day, but I don’t know that my sewing stamina would have been up to it.

I measured the original dress color block dimensions plus a little extra for seams, shaping, to get the overall block sizes needed. The fabric piecing is identical on front and back, so just do it all twice and you’re set. I traced the outline of the neck/arm/shoulder shaping onto a piece of freezer paper – including marking where the first fabric block seam goes), then narrowed the shoulders, lowered the neckline just a bit, and tidied up the lines to make smooth curves, added ¼” for edge seam.

Each side (front, back) is essentially three sections: the long fabric piece on left, the pieced section that matches it on the right, and a border piece that goes across the whole width at the bottom. The top of the border piece is straight across the straight edges of the top right-left sections, curved slightly at the hem.

I started by stitching the pieced righthand pieces –as rectangles, no side or shoulder shaping done yet. Pressed seams down and top-stitched to control inside raw edges (serging would work, but I don’t own a serger). Then I put the right section with the left fabric, stitched the center seam, pressed to left, and top-stitched.

Pressed everything well one more time, folded on center seam, spread out nice and smooth on my worktable, and lay the shoulder pattern on top, matching the block seam line.

Then I lay out the original dress on top to trace the general outline of the rest of the dress from underarm down.

Cut the neck/arm line and outside edges, then added the bottom panel pieces to both front and back, trimmed sides to continue outside line, and trimmed bottom edge to curve up slightly toward sides. I stitched up the sides using a French seam to enclose raw edges, leaving 12” open at the bottom of the side seams to be slits (the original doesn’t have any, but I like them). Turned back edges of slits and bottom hem, and the bottom part was done.

Stay-stitched around all the neck-arm curves, using a basting stitch for about six inches up the front from the underarm seam. That enabled me to gather up that short piece of armhole just a bit, thus preventing gaposis on the side of the upper bust. The original had a very handy short strip of ¼” elastic sown into the lower front armhole edge hem, to accomplish the same thing with a lot more work. Plus, I don’t have any ¼” elastic lying around (that I could find, although I think there is some somewhere around here. One of these weekends I should postpone sewing long enough to clean out the projects closet!).

Stitched up shoulder seams, then finished neck and arm edges with narrow bias tape. My first try at that – mostly because I wanted to use my new bias tape maker. Initial results looked a little wavey and not right, but a good press on the tailor’s ham with my super-duper new iron and it shaped up beautifully! My track record with first attempts at new sewing techniques isn’t all that great, so I’m thrilled the bias tape finish turned out so well. Was a bit of a pain to do, required a monster pinning job (I usually try to avoid pinning whenever possible, but here it was a good idea) but worth it. Will definitely do again.

My favorite detail: the original plan was to cut the back neckline a little higher than the front but I completely spaced on doing that, oops, so they’re identical now. Since the high-bust ease I put into the armhole is subtle, I needed some way to tell front from back at a glance. So I made this fake tag and edge-stitched it into place at the inside center back.



Cute, huh? I’m gonna put one in everything I make from now on, just for the fun of it.

Am wearing the dress right now, and rate it a great success. No drape to it yet, the fabric has all only been washed-dried once, to pre-shrink, so it may be years before it’s as soft as the original, but I’m going to enjoy it a lot in the meantime, anyway.

I already have plans to make a shorter version – maybe an inch or so above the knee, and maybe with a different shoulder treatment – for midday wear on steamy days. And with a different color family. Reds and pinks, maybe…

Stay tuned.

My Favorite Housedress

... is falling apart. Funny that I love it so much, because brown is totally not my color. I'm a blues/pinks/greens wearer usually. It was that big bold leafy print that hooked me. That and the fact that it's a size too large, ankle-length, huge and loose and oh, so comfy. I've been wearing this around the house in the morning and/or evening for 9 years now, year 'round, so it's been both worn and washed a lot. Even cold water/gentle cycle/line dry, that's enough trips through the washer to have taken a toll. Plus, I've literally worn it out.

The neck looks funny in the photo because it originally had a button holding a key-hole opening closed. I like that look, but unless I had my hair pinned up my braid kept catching on the button, which was beyond annoying, so I just cut the button off one day, and let the tabs hang there. Even at that point, which was years ago, the dress wasn't worth putting any repair work into. But I've continued to wear it. And now close-ups look like this:

I'm going to try making something like it out of the dark blue fabrics in my quilting stash. I've got at least one nice batik, and some florals, and an abstract or two. Nothing as big and bold as the leaf print in the brown version, but enough variety that I can replicate the general look.

Gotta get some birthday gifts (mom and sis) finished up and in the mail, but once those are done I'm gonna turn my attention to this, because I don't have a backup. My next favorite housedress is in even worse shape: one of the spaghetti shoulder straps shredded in the last wash and is literally hanging by a thread. The fabric has completely disintegrated, and all that's left is the seam stitching. (Tried to take a pic of that, but it didn't come out and my camera battery is just about defunct.) These impending disasters on the wardrobe front were a driving force behind my deciding to start making some clothes, which is what led to this blog in the first place.

Anyway, I'd better stop futzing around with too-pretty-for-around-the-house things like that Amy Butler peony skirt, and make something loose and comfy I can wear the h*ll out of.