Old and bright and late – Jalie 2682 as bike jersey

This project has been a long time coming. Not just in that I cut it out a full month ago, made it two weeks ago and am just blogging it now, but in that I bought this pattern and fabric literally years ago with this exact project in mind, and it took me until now(ish) to get around to it. When the Slapdash Sewist pointed out this waffley athletic fabric on FFC back in 2011 (egad!), I immediately ordered a yard with a bike jersey in mind. I had no pattern ideas until I stumbled across Jalie 2682 - I thought the zipper version would make a perfect bike jersey. And then I did nothing about it for a long time. I even made up the regular shirt version of the pattern in the meantime. But I was finally spurred into action (very leisurely action) by  Cation Design’s Vibrant Color Stashbusting Challenge last month. And was just getting warm enough for sleeveless bike jerseys! And then… April happened. And the jersey didn’t. But, better late than never, right? It’s still old stash, and it’s certainly a vibrant color. It’s just a little late.

And the verdict? Well, what I learned here was that the reason I haven’t made a previous foray into self-stitched bike-wear is a good one: the fabrics kinda suck. This is Poly with a capital P fabric, and the waffle weave that’s supposed to be cooling and wicking (I assume) in fact just makes the fabric thicker and poufier, not exactly traits you want in close-fitting athletic wear. It also pulls off that great double trick of cheap knits in that it manages to feel thick and at the same time still cling and show every lump and bump. In my test ride with the jersey, the word that sprung to mind was “cozy”, which, again, is not my ideal workout shirt descriptor. But I guess that means it will make a good winter jersey with one of my boleros! (Seriously, these bike boleros are maybe the best bike clothes invention ever. They don’t slip down like armwarmers and they California-winterize a sleeveless jersey perfectly. I have like three.)

But as for the pattern itself? I do think I was right that it’s a good candidate for a bike jersey. It has a sporty look about it to start with (this bothered me on the shirt version, and I think I’ve figured out what makes it that way – no bust gathers. If the bodice were gathered a little into a midriff band I think I would like it better. That’s totally my next hack of this pattern. But I digress) that works well for a jersey, and it has a somewhat looser fit through the torso, something that you sometimes want in a jersey, actually (or at least one that’s made from insulating waffle polyester). And it already has a zipper, obviously. So I didn’t really make any mods to the basic pattern. The only change I made was lengthening it in the center back about an inch to create the curved back hem all my favorite jerseys have. This is a pretty long top, though, so I ended up actually taking off an inch all around before hemming, still preserving the curved back edge.  I like my jerseys long, but not that long. (I also managed to sew a dreadful meandering hem. Oops.) The only other adjustment I’d consider making to the pattern if I attempt bike clothes again would be to try to figure out how to reduce the amount of fabric at the back neckline. I like a little collar on my jerseys, but this is a little too tall.

The main way I jerseyed it up, though, was to add pockets to the back. Back pockets are an absolute necessity for me, because I need a place to put my phone and any food I might need for the ride. I sort of drafted a pocket piece off an existing jersey, but it was really just a very slight trapezoid shape that was about 6 inches narrower than the back piece. I zigzagged elastic across the top edge of the pocket piece, turned it down and twin needled (all my jersey pockets are elasticized across the top). I attached it to the lower back piece by flipping the pocket piece upside down and sewing along the bottom, right sides together, then flipping it right side up and topstitching along the bottom for security. Then I topstitched along the side edges and up the middle in two places to create the pockets. I did this before I sewed the side seams of the jersey to make it easier. I placed the pocket piece about two inches from the bottom edge, but I find the pockets a bit low. Next time I’ll attach the pocket piece an inch and a half higher at least, so the stuff in the pockets will sit in the small of my back.

So, would I try this again? Honestly, it all depends on the fabric. If I ever stumble across a nice, real athletic knit that’s breathable and has food recovery (something this fabric definitely doesn’t have, hence the wibbly zipper), I would totally go for it. But I’m not committed to the idea enough to order dozens of swatches online in a quest for the ever elusive fabric-as-nice-as-RTW. And frankly, I seriously doubt I can find a fabric for sale anywhere that lives up to the awesome proprietary performance fabrics my RTW jerseys are made of. I mean, really, have you ever found yardage that you’ve touched and thought, hey, I could sweat in this for 100 miles? I know I haven’t. If something perfect does just walk into my stash, though, I have lots of ideas to real-jersey-up this pattern – reflective piping along the underbust seam, back pockets finished with contrast fold-over elastic, grippy paint along the inside bottom hem… But as it is I will wear this jersey occasionally, I think. And it’ll just motivate me to ride faster, so no one will be able to see all the terribly wonky topstitching!

On one last bike-related note, I can pass off at least a little of the delay of this post (just a little, mostly it was just my traditional procrastination) on the fact that I spent last Saturday riding the Tour of Long Beach Cruz Gran Fondo, a pretty flat 100 miles going down the coast and back. It was my third century and by far my fastest at 7 hours 20 minutes, mostly because it had almost no hills. (Though needless to say, I still did not wear this jersey.) I was very happy with my time, and even more happy about the craft beer garden at the finish! That, and the fact that when we rode past the Pageant of the Masters sign in Laguna Beach I totally yelled “There are dozens of us! Dozens!” Yeah there are.

Some things that are not finished garments

Well, I didn’t want to get your hopes up. Yes, once again the time has slipped through my fingers and I have not accomplished all the things I planned/hoped/thought I could in the last few weeks. So while the end of April has arrived and I have no further stash sewing to show for it, I thought I’d better fess up and also at least share something about what I’ve been up to besides sewing.

First awesome news: I was lucky enough to win Amy’s Drape Drape 3 giveaway! I’ve been casually entering these giveaways as they’ve popped up around the sewing blog world because I’m morbidly interested in making at least one of the designs – I’m fascinated by crazy knit draping methods and this would definitely fit the bill! A quick flip through the book (it came so fast – thanks, Laurence King Publishing!) shows that my all my complicated pleating needs have been forever met, and I’m already daydreaming ways to modify the giant crazy pattern pieces to make the garments more, uh, my everyday style. It’ll certainly be an education in draping, if nothing else. And happily, the knot-neck dress seems to be just my thing as-is (though of course it’s one of the non-jersey patterns, so I suppose it’s not totally perfect… but I do so like to make woven patterns from knits), so hopefully I will be attempting at least that one sometime this summer.

Thank you Amy!

But the arrival of this book (by the way, as the third book in the series I keep feeling like it should be called Drape Drape Drape, right?) is not what has been keeping me from my sewing machine. No, sadly, it’s this: I have discovered another new hobby. And unlike my last new craft adoption, knitting, this one I’m really excited about! (Sorry, knitting, I just don’t think we’re going to work out. It’s not you, it’s me.) So what is it, you ask? (Or maybe you don’t – apologies, sewing will resume shortly, don’t worry.) I am making jewelry! Simple, modern silver jewelry! And it’s (relatively) easy!

I never intended to make jewelry. I’ve made some forays into beading in the past and it’s never caught my fancy, probably because I don’t wear beaded jewelry. I’m pretty picky about my jewelry – I basically only wear necklaces (no pierced ears, watch instead of bracelets), it must be silver, and I gravitate toward simple, modern geometrics. It never occurred to me that I could make that kind of jewelry without taking up silversmithing or something, so I was totally satisfied amassing said jewelry slowly, mostly at museum gift shops and local craft galleries. Then, last month in LA at one of said local craft galleries, I bought a necklace that the clerk informed me was made with “silver clay”. I had never heard of such a thing, so I googled it. It’s totally a thing. It’s actually called precious metal clay, or PMC. There is even – get this – a Craftsy class on using it. (Man, there’s a Craftsy class on everything now, isn’t there?) Basically, tiny particles of silver are suspended in an organic binder material that makes it a clay-like substance that can be rolled out and shaped, then it’s fired with a handheld torch for a couple minutes, burning up the binder and fusing the silver together. You then shine it up (or not) with a series of fine sandpapers. It’s pretty cool. So I took the Craftsy class and went for it. Here are a few of the things I’ve made so far:

On the left is a shiny square with a brushed circle on top of it – they’re two separate pieces on one jump ring. On the right is a string of three circles, the center one is shined up and the outer two are matte, though it’s kind of hard to tell so I just may make them all the same (and I need to get smaller jump rings to connect them, but this was all I had at the moment). In the middle is a piece I textured by stamping the clay with a rubber stamp before cutting out the square shape. After firing I patina-ed the piece using the hard-boiled egg method and then scrubbed the patina off the surface with fine sandpaper for a brushed finish, leaving it in the indentations to make the pattern more obvious.

I must say I’m having fun coming up with all the jewelry designs I’ve always wanted but have never been able to find for sale. With sewing, I’ve never considered myself to be a designer at all – I’ve always been good at seeing something and duplicating it, or modifying something to be what I want, but not ever pulling a design wholesale out of thin air. So it’s been interesting that with the silver clay I do seem to be thinking of a lot of original designs, which is exciting for me. Or maybe it’s just a subconscious backlog of all the jewelry I’ve ever seen and liked but not bought? Who knows? It’s cool either way. But seriously, like I really needed another crafty suck on my time… gah.

I’m hoping anyway that the jewelry making and the sewing can happily co-exist. And after spending the last couple weeks immersed in the world of PMC, I miss sewing. So return I shall to the two items I cut out before the jewelry lark began (one of which is where the scrap of gray doubleknit the necklaces are sitting on came from). But I think I’d better stop making promises about when things are going to be done, since I just seem to break them immediately. May will be a mixed bag, with another Los Angeles work trip dominating the month (meetup, anyone?), but I’ve also signed up to participate in the curious kiwi‘s Burda Sewalong, to attack that magazine I bought last month. So there will be clothes, sometime. That’s as specific as I’m willing to get right now – for your own protection.

And finally, here’s some proof that not everyone in our house is sad about my temporary sewing hiatus:

How nice of the Orange Terror to help initiate my newest fabric into the stash! Because, obviously, it’s not real stash fabric until it’s been shed on. Thanks, buddy.

Vogue 1179: my kind of sack

Is it still stashbusting when the fabric has only been in your stash for 3 weeks? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Luckily the pattern at least was unearthed from cold storage, where it has lain lo these many (well, maybe three) years. In what I think is the true spirit of the Pattern Review Pattern Stash Contest, I’m making up old patterns that I’ve remained really excited about, even though I’ve for whatever reason not ever turned them into garments. Usually that reason is that I’ve never found just the right fabric for them. That was certainly the case with poor Vogue 1179. I really liked this pattern, and had the perfect, beautiful silk jersey for it, purchased a few years ago at Michael Levine… where I didn’t notice that it was only 45 inches wide, and therefore I did not, in fact, buy enough for this dress. So into the stash box/pile they both went.

But as I was sifting through the pattern box for oldies but goodies, I pulled it out, and immediately my eye was drawn to the turquoise poly knit on top of the pile of my recent LA haul. You know, that fabric I bought with no project in mind at all? The fabric I assumed would be the last of the haul I’d get around to? Yeah, well, suddenly it had to be this dress. right. now.

This pattern, along with the ubiquitous 1250, were the popular 3-piece Vogue designer dresses that everyone and their mother were making a year or two ago. And with good reason – who doesn’t want to whip out a dress in a day? I certainly do. I washed and cut the fabric one day, and sewed it all the next, though certain fiddly bits did keep me at it for more than just the couple hours the three pattern pieces would seem to indicate it should take.

I started off quite well, whipping out the five pleats at the neckline in record time. Sidebar: does anyone actually do pleats as instructed by the pattern companies? These instructions would have you “crease” along the line with small circles (how do you crease poly jersey, pray tell?), bring the crease to the other line, then baste on top of the pleat close to the crease. What? I just fold along the middle of the pleat and baste down the marked lines. I don’t generally even mark the lines on my fabric, I just baste straight down from my clip marks a little ways. Then I unfold the piece and press the pleat in whatever direction is indicated by the instruction illustration and baste across the top. I feel this is not only easier than the instructed method, but makes a neater and more accurate pleat too! I know I didn’t come up with this method myself, which means that at least some patterns instruct you to do it my way, so why the “crease” rigmarole here? Vogue just trying to be obstinate, I guess. Anyway, end of rant. Here’s a comparison shot of crazy complicated instructions and super fast easy pleats (and you can also see the cool textured stripe this fabric has):

I attached the cowl easily (again ignoring the instructions to just attach one side then slipstitch the inside down… not gonna happen. I just folded the cowl in half and attached it as one; the seam is totally hidden when worn), but where I got bogged down was the armhole finishing. The armholes as drafted were way too high and tight for me. I first attempted to finish them using clear elastic as instructed (hadn’t I learned not to trust these instructions yet?), but that just made them tighter. I cut them down a little and tried again, same thing. After yet another trim and elastic attachment I called uncle, cut them down another half inch and just turned and twin needled, which is what I should have done from the start. I probably took the bottom of the armscye down about an inch in all (my low armpits strike again!), but in the trimming process I also whittled away the sides of the armscye too much, making the section between the armhole and the neckline narrower than I’d like. Whoops.

The hem that’s called for is a full 4 inches, and I like the idea of a deep hem on this design a lot. However, a 4 inch hem is not easy to twin needle, let me tell you. My hem is a little wonky, since even though I pinned the heck out of it, that still didn’t make me good at keeping my stitching line straight without a seam guide. But I don’t think the slightly uneven hem is too obvious when worn. I added an inch and a half to the length when I cut it out, but once it was together and I pinned up the hem I wanted it shorter so I took the extra off again, so it ended up the drafted length. Any longer and it exacerbated the flowy-fabric-catches-on-giant-thighs-and-pooches-out-over-stomach problem I’ve been having a lot lately. It’s still happening even with the shorter hemline, but to be fair I can kind of see it on the pattern envelope picture and I think it’s just a tendency of the design. I really should have cut a bigger size from hips to hem, I guess.

Overall I’m not sure this is the most flattering dress in the world (all the back pictures were appalling with the amount of fabric pooling above the butt, but how can you do a swayback adjustment on a sack dress?), but I sure like it. It’s a sack, but it’s a really elegant sack that can be dressed up with heels or down with leggings. I’ll admit that I’m a bit puzzled by the idea of a cozy cowl neck on a sleeveless dress, but it works. Of course, I’m totally going to be putting sleeves on it come fall. A girl needs a fancy sack for every season, right?

My full pattern review slash contest entry can be found here.

The opposite of stashbusting is fun!

So, March happened. Yep. In a whole month I managed to make one whole garment. And I’m so glad to hear that you didn’t find yet another knit dress boring, because really the only other sewing-related thing I accomplished in March was – wait for it – buying even more knit fabric! Because I need more fabric like I need a hole in the head. But it was LA! It was the fashion district! It was Mood and Michael Levine Loft and yeah, I have a problem.

As you may have gathered, I was down in Los Angeles for work for about three weeks in March. My schedule there leaves me free in the evenings, so I did my best to cram in as much LA-specific stuff as possible. Which mostly amounted to buying things. By things I mean fabric. Oh, what, you want to see it? Well okay then:

The pieces on the left are from F and S Fabrics, which is a lovely store along the line of Mood but not as big. They also offer sewing classes, one of which was happening when I was there – I’m glad the fabric stores are making an effort to secure their future by luring more folks into sewing. I managed (not on purpose) to buy two polka dot fabrics: the pink dot is a rayon remnant that will probably become a flowy sleeveless top (if I ever sew a woven fabric again, that is), and the other is the graduated dot poly knit I mentioned that I will certainly use to copy Amanda’s awesome dress. And what’s that behind them? Why, it’s my very first Burda mag! Found at the newsstand next to F and S. The stand was like a Burda jackpot, actually, with multiple copies of the January, February and March issues. I chose March because it contains a gathered front cardigan pattern that I’m dying to make up.

The middle row is my haul from the Michael Levine Loft, where everything is $2.50 a pound so you don’t have to count your yardage! Turns out this is important when you’ve arrived at the Loft only 20 minutes before closing after literally running there from the Metro stop. (Yes, LA has a very nice Metro, that will get you within about 7 blocks of the heart of the fashion district. Provided you are starting from somewhere with a Metro stop.) From top to bottom: an avocado doubleknit for a summer version of my sweatshirt dress, a textured deep turquoise poly knit for some kind of dress or other, a random colorblocked stripe fabric that will maybe be a Cation dolman top, and like 4 yards of a striped rayon knit for a Tiramisu finally (that pattern needs kind of a lot of yardage – I mean, not that much, but better safe than sorry, right?)

FInally, the last piece is the one thing I allowed myself at Mood. I only had about a half an hour for Mood, and without a specific need for anything I told myself I would only buy something if it was a statement fabric that I loved. And when I spotted this modern graphic ITY I knew I had to have it. I got enough for a maxi dress, and I’m excited about it. Black/white/gray/chartreuse modern art print? How could I not?

But hey, I didn’t just shop. (Well, mostly I did. Discount Swedish furniture is almost as hard for me to resist as discount fabric.) But I did manage to get to LACMA, the Los Angeles Museum of Art, which is a really, really nice museum. It’s open til 8 on Fridays and after 5 LA residents are free! And if you’re visiting LA, I highly recommend you skip the tourist junk in Hollywood and go to LACMA. They have a huge, very diverse collection and a lovely facility. I love their contemporary art building in particular, and was thrilled to be able to see the super cool sculpture/construction Metropolis II in action. It’s basically a little city that has thousands of Matchbox cars rushing through it. It’s loud and beautiful and complicated, just like a real city, but less stressful since I don’t have to drive in it. (Man I hate driving in LA.) Anyway, I can’t recommend LACMA enough. I also recommend the restaurant/bar at the museum, Ray’s/Stark Bar, where I had a good pizza and a fantastic cocktail afterwards. Do it!

But the best part about being in LA was that I got to hang out with a fellow sewing blogger! I met up with Ms McCall at F and S (where I convinced her to buy a totally awesome red-orange stretch velvet, under the condition that if she hadn’t turned it into something in one year that it would pass to me!), again (brief as it was) at the Loft, and on my last day we checked out Golden Road, a great brewery/restraunt in Glendale. Sadly, my only photographic evidence of our awesome time is this really embarrassingly bad picture. Was I already 2.5 beers in at this point? Entirely possible. Anyway, the magic of the internets never ceases to amaze me, and I’m so glad I live in an age when sewing can connect two people who end up having a lot more than sewing in common, to drink beer and talk for hours and have a great time. Hooray for technology! And I know there’s more of you sewing-types in LA, so I hope I can meet up with you too the next time I’m down.

As fun as it was, I’m glad to be home and back with my sewing machine, though I’ve been sadly neglecting it since I’ve been back. But this month? April’s got a lot of potential, I can feel it. And though my new acquisitions are sorely tempting me, April is the stashbusting month – Cation Design’s Vibrant Color Stashbusting Challenge and the Pattern Review Pattern Stash Contest are calling my name! Now let’s see if I can undo some of my March Madness…

McCall’s 5974, or: I’m so predictable

This is maybe the most unsurprising post ever. What? I made a knit dress in a bold print from one of the most popular knit patterns ever, and I love it? I truly apologize for being so predictable. I suppose the only slightly unexpected thing about this dress is that it took me so long to get around to it.

The pattern is, of course, McCall’s 5974, the Palmer/Pletsch pattern that they actually call “the perfect knit dress”. Ordinarily I would take umbrage at that sort of labeling, but you know what? It is pretty perfect. It’s the classic crossover bodice with just the right amount of pleating, a skirt with lovely front pleats that give it the perfect amount of swishy fullness, and a tapered tie/belt/thing that defines the waist nicely. The only thing that’s not perfect about this pattern is how much fabric it requires! This sucker, with its long waist ties, cannot be squeezed out of 2 or even 2 and a half yards. Ask me how I know that. The reason it’s taken me so long to actually make it up is that the 4 or 5 previous times I thought I’d found the perfect fabric and laid it all out to cut I’d come up short. Finally, when I saw a bolt of this awesome print rayon knit at the crazy Solvang store, I thought of this pattern and cut off 3 yards and some change. Just to be safe. And so the perfect knit dress finally happened!

I made only one adjustment: on Amanda’s sage advice (sidebar: I love her graduated dot version! I thought I would have to be content with admiring it, since it’s such a unique fabric, but I just happened across a very similar fabric down here in LA and I nabbed it! I feel a copycat dress coming on…) I narrowed the wide end of the ties so they don’t come up as high on the side seam. I cut a 10-top-12-bottom as usual and I just took it in a little in the upper arm/armpit/upper bust area. I do wish that I had done my usual wrap top SBA by pinching out an inch or so along the neckline, since it does gape a bit when I slouch. Well, next time! I finished the neckline my usual way, by zigzagging clear elastic to the wrong side along the edge, then folding it under and twin needle topstitching. It’s by far my favorite v-neck finishing technique because it’s very easy and much more foolproof for me than a self fabric binding (and I sure hate cutting long skinny strips of fiddly stretchy rayon knit).

The back is not broken up by a midriff, and has a center back seam, both of which I thought I would be annoyed by but I’m not. If I ever make it without the tie belt, though, I would probably want to add a back midriff for balance and eliminate the seam, since the midriff would serve the same swayback-shaping purpose.

One last thing of note about this pattern – it may be the perfect knit dress pattern, but it’s far from the perfect knit instructions. As it has been extensively noted on PR (wow, I’m pretty sure I’m the last person on earth to make this dress), these instructions are like out of 1988. I mean, I am not slipstitching the midriff lining down over the skirt seam, thank you very much. And in what universe would this dress need a zipper? Honestly, I really only glanced at the instructions anyway, since I’d heard they were not great and I’ve assembled about a million of these type of dresses anyway. One thing I did notice was that the layout diagram told me to attach the two pieces of piece 8, the tie, together before cutting, but my tie pattern was all in one piece. I must have gotten a newer printing of the pattern tissue and an old instruction sheet. I was suspicious because I felt like the tie was a little short, but it’s like that on the pattern photo so I think I cut it the full length. (Not that you can see it in this busy print, but trust me that it’s on the short side.) I may make it a smidge longer next time.

If I have ever have enough of one fabric to make this pattern again, that is.

Knit Three-peat: Vogue 1194, Butterick 5346, and Vogue 8511

First of all, thank you all for your nice comments (and votes!) for my RTW knockoff dress! I really love figuring out how to use existing patterns to replicate things I’ve seen in stores. (Is anyone interested in a post about my method for picking patterns for knockoffs? Planning them is half the fun for me, even if I never get around to making the actual garment.)

But it’s funny how after a mad rush to finish something for a deadline, I almost always fall into a slump of inactivity… I have completed a couple things, but a random cold sidetracked me from finishing (or, ahem, well, starting) my trousers before I was separated from my machine for a couple weeks working away from home. So to make up for my sad lack of posting in the last two weeks, pants or otherwise, here I present three garments in one post. Shocked? You should be. But probably just by the terrible, terrible pun I have committed in the post title. I apologise, but it had to be done.

Because, yes, these three knit dresses are all patterns I have made before! Also shocking, I’m sure, (well, mostly just to me) since I’m generally not a pattern-revisiter. Too many shiny new patterns out there! But for some reason, in January I pulled out three patterns I’d made before and took another stab at them.

Let’s start with Vogue 1194:

This was one of the first knit dress patterns I ever made, into maybe my first true-love-success! knit dress. I made it up in a nice ITY print from Gorgeous Fabrics for an anniversary dinner a couple years ago (almost exactly 2 years ago, since my anniversary is at the end of March), and I have worn it a ton since then. It’s my go-to cool-weather-dress-up dress. So when I was looking for a practical winter work dress to make from this super nice jersey I got at the FIDM store, I thought this pattern would be perfect. I mean, I didn’t want to screw up a great fabric on a pattern that didn’t work! So I went for it. And it worked, for the most part. I cut the same size as before (including cheater SBA – folding out length in the neckline), but somehow the elastic in the waist bands ended up tighter. Stiffer elastic? More careless with measuring? Both possible. It’s tight but still wearable, though since the front band is somehow much less wide than the dress front, it pulls and gathers the sides of the bodice a bit so it looks like there are more pleats than there are.

Also, I used the pockets on this version, omitted in the first one because my fabric was so light. The instructions for sewing them are really weird, but I went with it because, well, it must be like this for a reason, right? Wrong. They have you sew one pocket piece to the skirt front, understitch it, sew the other pocket piece to the first one, then sew the skirt sides, catching the back pocket piece while avoiding the front. Not necessary at all. I should have just done the usual sew-the-side-seams-including-around-the-pockets method. Because of the weird construction as well as the understitching stretching out the pocket seam on the front, the pockets gape and stick out a bit. Oh well. Another keeping-hands-in-pockets-at-all-times dress.

FInally, I think this pattern is better in a heavier, more drapey jersey. This fabric has the most wonderful soft and smooth hand, but it’s still on the light side so it poufs just slightly more than I’d like it to rather than falling flatteringly from the waistline. Still, it’s a solid pattern and I’ve already worn this version a bunch.

Next up, Butterick 5246:

I made my first one of these last winter out of a random cheapo jersey and I wear it all the time. It’s a really good casual dress to wear with leggings for a bike commute in cooler weather. One such day in January when wanted to wear it and it was dirty, it suddenly occurred to me that I should make another one (duh)! I had a thick, super stretchy striped jersey from Girl Charlee that I wasn’t sure what to do with, and equally suddenly it latched itself to this pattern in my mind. But when I washed the fabric, like several other striped knits I’ve gotten from them, sadly, the different colored stripes shrunk at different rates and I ended up with what looked basically like seersucker. That was still heavy and super stretchy. There was also almost not enough (it went from 2 yards of 60″ to like a yard and a half of 45  inch!) to make this pattern at all, but I did some of my best desperate pattern puzzling and barely got it all cut out. I made the sleeves as long as the fabric would allow, which was not very long, so I added bands to the sleeves to lengthen them a little. (The contrasting stripe direction was more about available fabric scraps than a design choice, but a happy necessity. The fabric is so stretchy in all directions that I didn’t need to worry about grainlines!) I did not line the bodice, instead finishing the neckline with a self binding strip.

Ultimately, though, this fabric proved a little too heavy for this pattern. The weight of the skirt pulls both the empire seam and the neckline lower than they should be. And because it’s so stretchy, even after taking it in on the sides a bunch, it still pulls away from my body at the underbust seam because of the weight of the center gathers (which makes it maybe the least flattering dress ever from the side). I wonder if going back in and sewing elastic to the seam allowance would pull it in a little? I may try it at some point, but for now I’m just wearing it as is. It’s more casual than I was envisioning, but the thick fabric is warm, anyway.

Finally, here’s Vogue 8511, a pattern for woven fabrics that I (quelle surprise!) made up in a knit:

I was inspired to pull this out when I saw a houndstooth doubleknit version pop up on PR, and I was reminded of a similar baby houndstooth doubleknit I had gotten from Fashion Fabrics Club eons ago that I didn’t know what to do with.

Again I just cut the size I had cut before (since my previous version was in a stretch poplin, and this fabric was a stable knit, they stretch about the same). Bonus to reusing patterns: you don’t have to cut through the pattern tissue when you cut your fabric (yes I cut out my pattern tissue. For commercial patterns that I get on super sale, who cares? Also I am lazy, in case you hadn’t noticed). I saved the center back seam for last, basting it first to be sure I could squeeze the dress on over my head, and success – no zipper necessary! I did sew the waist seam with a legit “stretch stitch”, the triple straight stitch, to make sure it didn’t pop with the stress of pulling it over my chest (luckily there isn’t much chest to strain it). I didn’t line the bodice, just turning the neckline under and topstitching to finish it.

I will say that this version has the same problem as the last version: the waist seam allowance is annoying. It wants to lay facing up because of the bulk from the skirt pleats, but then it’s visible slash creates unnecessary waistline bulk. This dress really wants a belt, I think, but none of my belts look good with this fabric. So I wore it without and tried to forget about the bulky waist seam. Just goes to show that I almost always prefer a midriff on my dresses!

So what did these three dresses show me about remaking patterns? Well, honestly, that I can see why I almost never do it. I have to say that I don’t like any of these dresses more (or even as much as) my original makes. Maybe it takes three tries at a pattern to get it perfect – the first to get you excited, the second to show you what you did wrong or need to fix about the pattern, so the third time’s the charm? Oh boy, I’m pretty sure I don’t have the patience for that.

Frankenpattering a RTW knock-off

I’ve lost a little of the sewing mojo lately. After finishing a bunch of things in January that I just wasn’t that over the moon about (and I will post someday, really), and studiously ignoring the two projects that I’ve started cutting and really need to make (pants and a jacket), and quite frankly just lazing around (two whole days spent reading Gone Girl, for instance – warning: it is exactly as un-put-downable as everyone says it is), I was looking for a project to get me going again. As usual in this case, I turned to a PR contest. The RTW knock off contest is one of my favs, since I enjoy figuring out how to modify existing patterns to copy designs I’ve seen in stores (and also because it enables my terrible habit of going into shops and scoffing “well, I can make that“).

But February was passing fast, and nothing was really jumping out at me. Of the likely RTW candidates I had chosen from my inspiration file, I either didn’t have a suitable pattern or the right fabric in stash. Then, miraculously, a week and a half ago I pulled a lavender doubleknit out of a pile at the crazy fabric store and was reminded of a lavender ponte dress from Banana Republic that I had seen in the store last winter, scoffed at, and then actually went home and saved the picture to my computer for distant future knock-off purposes. Looking at it again I also finally realised that I had the perfect pattern(s) in stash to use for it, so I tossed the fabric into the wash and started it the next day. And, you know, it actually kind of worked out.

I started with Simplicity 2219 as my bodice. It’s funny, after I first saw the dress I remember scouring the pattern websites for a dress or top pattern that mimicked the neckline shape, with the two bands meeting in a V then continuing straight down to the midriff. And somehow I missed this one. Huh. I guess it took actually making it up this summer to lodge it in my brain, because it’s basically the exact. same. shape. The inspiration even has the slight racerback style of this pattern. So I really didn’t have to modify the bodice at all. I used the bodice lining piece for my main front piece, since I just wanted the shape but not the gathered overlay of the original pattern. I didn’t line the bodice (though I did line the bands) because my fabric was heavy and also I only had a yard and a half. I finished the armsyces with narrow bands as a nod to the inspiration piece, though its bands are wider. It was a bit of a brain puzzle to figure out how to assemble the bodice without the lining, but eventually I figured it out. I left the side seams for last for fitting purposes. The midriff pieces came from Simplicity 3503. I could doubtless have nicked a midriff from any number of patterns, or just drafted one myself, but I grabbed this one and it worked perfectly. If I make another 2219 sometime this summer (and I might, I like this bodice pattern) I’ll use this midriff again, because frankly I think this pattern kind of needs a midriff. I topstitched the midriff again as a nod to the inspiration (which might actually have piping? I can’t remember nor can I tell from the picture).

But then came the skirt, and here’s where my Frankenpattern monster got away from me a little. At first I was just going to draft a rectangle skirt and pleat it front and back, since I prefer a fuller skirt generally. But the inspiration had more of a fitted pencil skirt, with back darts and what looked like slash pockets, and I had McCall’s 5927 in my stash, so I figured, why not? I should have gone with my original plan. I suppose I assumed that the bottom of the midriff would hit at my natural waist, where the skirt of the McCall’s dress was supposed to start, but it wound up being a little higher than that. I think this threw off the curvature of the skirt, so I’m getting drag lines above the pockets and there’s some weird wrinkling near the midriff at my natural waist. Not helping is the fact that my, well, ample bottom and hips are a little too big even for the size 14 that I cut in the skirt, so the sides are pulling toward the back and preventing the pleats from falling straight. It might be exacerbated by the fact that I converted the pattern’s two pleats per side to just two big pleats, like the BR dress has. Ah, well, that’s what I get for being a slave to the inspiration. The problem is solved, though, if I just keep my hands in the pockets!

I saved the ruffle for last. I had cut three lengths of fabric that were 3 inches wide, a half inch wider than the bands. They seemed really wide when I cut them, but after they were turned into ruffles and attached to the bands (by sewing straight down the middle of the ruffle, and having the seams of the ruffle at the shoulder seams), I kind of wished they were just a little wider. I can still see the neckline bands peeking out behind the ruffle sometimes. I thought the ruffle would be the hardest part of the project, but it turned out to be the easiest! Tedious, but straightforward.

In the end, though, I don’t know how I feel about this dress. I’m pleased that I (mostly) successfully knocked off the Banana dress, and it got me sewing again, but ultimately why did I do it? I mean, it’s an awesome contest, but I certainly won’t win (still, do vote for me next week if you’re so inclined – the prize is Mood money!). I don’t really need a dress like this right now, and I bought new fabric for it rather than sewing from stash, as I really need to do. Well, if nothing else, perhaps it will guilt me into finishing the Thurlow trousers I started cutting out before Christmas, and that I’ve been putting off because they seem slightly daunting. But hey, if I can frankenpattern a ruffled dress into existence in a week, surely pants can’t be any harder. And it’ll be kind of a relief to have some instructions, at least.

My pattern review slash contest entry can be found here, and all the contest entries are here, check it out. It really is my favorite contest. Voting begins on the 3rd!

“Stashbusting” silliness – sewing my strangest fabric

The Stash Monster is eating our office. Seriously, I have so much fabric it’s ridiculous; stacks and stacks in teetering piles on the floor and the sittables of our spare room/office, with only a semicircle of clear floor around the desk unencroached upon. So of course I wanted to participate in the Stashbusting Sewalong co-hosted by Cation Designs. Each month has a theme, and of course February’s is “love” – that is, make something from stash for a loved one. Add needing a special Valentine’s gift to the equation, and I finally had the motivation to sew up what is possibly the Most Bizarre Fabric I Have Ever Encountered.

I picked this up at (where else?) the Crazy Fabric Store a couple years ago. I mean, how could I not? I always intended it to become something for my husband, but I didn’t really know what. I only had a yard of it, so there weren’t a lot of options. I considered making a tie, but that would only showcase a sliver of the awesomeness (plus he sadly almost never wears ties), so I finally decided on boxer shorts. Really awesomely weird boxer shorts:

Why yes, that is a Hawaiian-style print with all Russian things! I’m particularly fond of the poorly illustrated caviar in the bottom right corner… Please, tell me, why does this fabric exist? Why can I find Russian-Hawaiian-shirt fabric but not a nice chevron print jersey? And why was there enough of this fabric in the world that not only did a bolt of it show up in a discount fabric store in Solvang but also online at Fashion Fabrics Club? (I actually saw this exact print, in two colorways, for sale on that site last year. I had a minor freakout at the time, but couldn’t tell my husband why I was convulsing because I was keeping the fabric a secret from him until I made it into something. So of course I have no proof. Wait holy crap I found it! It’s still for sale! That means you too can make bizarre Russian boxers for your special someone!) At any rate, I’m glad it does exist, because my husband has a random affinity for all things Russian, so this fabric seemed like an in-joke especially for him.

For the boxers, I used the Simplicity 2317 pajama pattern as a base. I used the XL in the regular pajama pants pattern, and cut them off just under the crotch (I made them as long as my fabric would allow, which is to say not very long at all. The inseam on these is no more than 2 inches, hence the very narrow serged-and-turned hem.) Since it’s a pj pants pattern, the crotch is rather low for boxers; I’d raise it if I used it again. I measured the elastic for the waistband off a pair of his RTW boxers. And I cut an appropriate piece of the print (my husband loves chili peppers) from a scrap, serged the edges, and stitched it on the inside back as a tag so he could more easily tell front from back. From cut to finish I’d say these took no more than an hour and a half. I can see myself making more boxers in the future – they’re a good way to showcase a wacky print that, well, perhaps I may not want featured in a garment that my companion wears on the outside… Anyhoo, he loved the finished product, even though they’re far from perfect. It’s the thought that counts – and the bizarro fabric, of course.

So that’s my “stashbusting” for the month. I say stashbusting in quotes because, really, sewing up a fabric that took up probably a millimeter of space in the stack (it’s rayon, so it’s super thin and folds up to be almost nonexistent) is not exactly making a dent in the Monster consuming the office. Sigh. I may not be capable of busting the stash, as evidenced by what’s on my sewing (/dining) table now: two dresses using fabric from my most recent visit to said crazy store – they didn’t even make it into the office at all! (One of them I’m trying to finish for the current PR contest, which ends – gasp – day after tomorrow! Best be getting on that.) Not to mention I just found out that I’m being sent to LA for work again next month… and how could I not partake of the fabulous fabric offerings of that great city when I’m living there for two and a half weeks? Especially not when I could have the opportunity to do so with awesome local sewasauruses? (And I now can track you all down, thanks to this totally brilliant map!) So what do you say, anyone in LA want to meet up and support my totally unhealthy stash habit? Or, ya’ know, just hang out. But surely our office can hold just a couple more cuts of fabric…

Simplicity 1716 – a cowly win!

It may be (just slightly) clear at this point that I enjoy a cowl neckline. While I do like the sew-on-a-tube variety of cowl, my favorite is the all-in-one-drapey-bodice type cowl (is it called a “cut-on cowl? I think it is). I have a couple of this type of shirt from Gap a few years ago that I love, and I’ve been on the hunt for a pattern to make more. I like McCall’s 6078 (oh, it’s out of print now! Sad.), but it’s sleeveless (could I add sleeves? Well, yes – in fact, I did once) and the cowl is a little lower than I like. Enter Simplicity 1716. And you know, it’s pretty perfect.

I had my eye on this pattern since it was released in the fall, and even though I was excited to try it, other projects kept pushing it down the queue. I actually cut it out back in December, but ran out of time before the holidays so I didn’t sew it up until the new year. But once I finally sat down to sew, I had a shirt in about an hour. Easy but not boring is my absolute favorite combination! A couple of pleats at the shoulder, back neckline finish, then just sleeves and side seams. I omitted the strange additional pleat that comes out of the armscye (I just folded it out of the pattern before I cut) because I thought it was odd and I don’t need the extra room in the bust (plus one less pleat to sew!). Bonus points: it fit well with no adjustments (cutting my regular 10-grade-to-12). And it’s really long, something I like in a top.

There’s not much more to say about this one, but it’s a keeper! I will certainly make another of these (maybe a couple) and I’ll give the weird twisty neckline variation a try at some point (even though some clever blogger that I can’t place right now thought it looked like the neckline was eating the model’s head, and now that’s all I can think of when I see the pattern envelope… still, might be worth the risk of head-consumption).

My pattern review can be found here.

Oh, yeah, and about the fabric: this is another piece I dug from the bins at Michael Levine Loft back in November, just a regular ol’ cotton-lycra jersey that was a pretty color and had a nice hand. Or so I thought. Those wrinkles you see in the picture if you zoom in (or, really, just look closely)? They’re permanent. Although it looks like I’ve just left the shirt at the bottom of a pile of dirty clothes for a week, in fact this is what it looks like fresh from the dryer. And it’s totally impervious to ironing. Not only does the iron not remove the wrinkles, but it makes the fabric turn a darker shade of purple for several minutes. This is a crazy thing, right? Is my fabric possessed? Well, it’s lucky I really really like this shirt. ‘Cause this sucker’s getting worn a lot, even if it makes me look like I just rolled out of bed.

Adventures in sweater knits: Vogue 8634 and Jalie 2682

I’m still playing catch-up with posts (which is good since I have not sewn a stitch in over a week! – too crazy at work), so here’re two tops I whipped up before Christmas. I had never sewed with a sweater knit, so when I came across a couple pieces in the piles at Michael Levine Loft in LA I picked them up, thinking they’d make good cozy tops for my holiday travels to colder climes. I wasn’t sure about what patterns would pair well with sweater knits, but I theorised that tops without neckband finishing would be ideal, since sweater knits are not the most elastic of the knit fabrics and I didn’t want to mess about with neck bindings or bands.

To that end I started with Vogue 8634 for the thicker magenta piece. I’ve had this pattern for forever (purchased, obviously, because it features two of my favorite design elements: cowl neck and empire seam), but somehow I never managed to get it to the top of the queue. The cowl neck is my favorite solution to the I-can’t-bind-a-neckline-in-this-fabric dilemma, so it seemed a no-brainer.

And, well, it’s okay. I thought I would like this pattern more, given the legions of positive reviews on PR, but it just doesn’t quite work for me. The raglan sleeves, which are usually a feature I like, seem to slide off my shoulders somewhat, and the neckline seam where the cowl attaches hits wider than my bra straps, which seems a bit wide. I’ve got a bunch of fabric pooling between my armpit and my boob (any ideas why this is? It happens to me a fair bit. Is it a small bust thing? Wrong pattern size?) and the armsyces are rather low for my taste. The empire line serves no purpose, it’s just a design detail (and one I like, so I didn’t omit it as many folks have), but in this thickish fabric the topstitching just looks kinda amateurish. I’m not sure if a different size or some fitting or a different fabric would make me like the pattern more, but the whole point of this kind of pattern is to make a quick knit top without much futzing, so I don’t know that it’s worth the effort to find out. There are a thousand cowl neck top patterns out there (and I may actually own about 900 of them), so I’ll probably just move on.

For my second piece of sweater knit, not wanting to make another cowl, I cast about for a different no-neckband style pattern. Enter Jalie 2682, which I bought a long time ago when I had a coupon at PR and then promptly forgot about. Well, that is, I forgot it could be used to make a normal top, since I bought it to try my hand at making a bike jersey using the sleeveless, zippered neck option (I still hope to get to that this summer!). But when I pulled the pattern out again and really looked at it, I realised it would be perfect for a fabric that’s tricky to work with.

This pattern is frigging ingenious. When I finally deciphered the instructions (which are printed sideways in a corner of the pattern sheet, in small print, with all the diagrams separate from the text and labeled with numbers to correspond with the steps, which I hate), I totally fell in love with the construction method. Basically you cut two identical front pieces, lay them right sides together, stitch a line right down the middle, then fold it over (like a butterfly) and the line of stitching in the middle becomes the center seam and the fold the finished the neckline. Brilliant. Plus it goes together super fast. I so loved this pattern when I was assembling it, but sadly I liked it less once I put it on. Don’t get me wrong, I do think this top is a win, I’m just not as over the moon about it as I thought I would be. I wanted slash assumed that this top would end up a little dressier, but the pattern is kind of sporty to begin with, and with this fabric it turned out more casual than I’d've liked. Not helping matters is the fact that I had to finish the sleeves with cuffs since I wasn’t paying attention when I was cutting and the bottom of one sleeve got placed on an already-cut-out section of fabric… oops. I think I would like to revisit this pattern at some point, maybe in a drapey knit to see if the neckline behaves differently and if I can get it to look a little fancier. Meanwhile I’m going to see if I can incorporate this bodice construction into, like, everything I make ever. Mind. Blown.

My full reviews on Pattern Review can be found here (Vogue) and here (Jalie).

But now some thoughts on sweater knits: I’m not sold, I have to say. The thicker fabric made both of these tops not look as dressy as I wanted, and while casual tops are fine, they should at least be cozy, which these tops aren’t really either! The looser knit of the fabric makes the shirts slightly drafty, unfortunately, and despite feeling thick and springy to the touch, when worn the fabrics are both thin enough to show every lump and bump (I had to scrap a whole set of photos taken with another pair of pants because the fly and beltloops were showing right through the shirts). So I’m glad I gave sweater knit a try, but I think I’ll be sticking to regular jersey and doubleknits in the future!