Vintage sewing - Butterick 5208

You may remember me mentioning a haul of vintage patterns and a dressform that I excitedly got my hands on a few months ago. I have looked through the patterns many times and now, inspired by the vintage sewing contest, I've made one!

I chose this Butterick 'Misses' one-piece dress' pattern. I can't find a date on it but, comparing it to the other patterns I bought from the same lady, I estimate it to be from somewhere in the 1960s, the 70s at the latest. That's round about my vintage actually - perfect!

The pattern was a size 14 and had been cut out very neatly by its previous owner. Although I'm usually a size 10, the bust measurement was right for me so I went with the size as it was. This is my first time making a vintage pattern, but I'm guessing that the sizes have changed over the last 40 years or so!

I loved the lines and in-seam pockets of this dress pattern and, actually, it isn't a million miles from some modern patterns I've seen. However, I did want an up-to-date look, so I decided to leave off the collar and to use a knit fabric for the side panels. My main fabric was a gold linen-like fabric that I'd bought as a remnant in Textile Traders.

I drafted an all-in-one facing for the front and back neckline and armholes, according to this very helpful tutorial. This gives a nice finish on the inside when the zip falls open.

I topstitched all the seams and added a little diamonte charm to the zip pull.

The back has vertical shoulder darts, which give nice shaping and fit. The bust darts needed moving downwards and the side, knit fabric panels were taken in for a better fit. I didn't have enough gold fabric to make the dress any longer, so I added an interfaced panel of the knit fabric around the hem.

 Otherwise the fit was pretty well spot on!

 I must say that I'm well chuffed with my first vintage pattern. It took some minor tweaking to get it right, but I don't think it looks too out of place as we move into 2014.

It's so merry and bright, I might just wear it on Christmas day.

Pants the right way and the hack (Burdastyle 04/2013 #114b)

I love raiding the remnant baskets at fabric stores. I often pick up fabrics that I would not normally look at twice on the shelf but, because it's cheap, I give it a go and sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised.

Such was the case with these pants. I found this piece of fabric, approximately 1 metre, for $2 at Textile Traders. I had just made some grey floral pants (below and here) using Burdastyle 04/2013 #114b and still had the pattern out. I decided to make another pair with this thin, woven, snakeskin-like print fabric for the warmer weather. I'm wearing them above with my Twinkle Sews 'On the sidelines' top and below with my Christine Jonson 'Princess wrap' top.

But I was feeling like making something quick and simple so I cheated a bit with this second pair. I just left the darts unsewn and added some knit fabric for the waistband - done in no time.

They are so comfortable and I've had several compliments on them. This was very shortcut sewing, but with a surprisingly useful outcome.

 I never really reviewed the pattern properly when I made the grey floral pair of pants from stretch, woven fabric. I was actually not all that thrilled with the fit. They were a bit baggy in the wrong places. Also, the design has a side zip and no waistband, a combination that feels less than sturdy when I bend over. Actually, in a burst of morbid curiosity, I find myself deliberately bending in a certain way so that the zip starts coming undone. This does not make for a comfortable or dignified outcome and I must rectify the situation with a waistband and other adjustments at some point. One day. If I get a chance between making more new and shiny things!

Here's the pattern photo from Burdastyle.

Source

So, which is best, following the pattern or the hack? I think in this case it's the hack. And somehow, doing it the wrong way even looks more like the pattern picture. Weird.

Polka dots and ribbons - Jamie jeans and Burdastyle top 05/2013#101

A new outfit!

I recently had my arm twisted by Bronwyn to venture into a spot of online fabric shopping from the US. Well, to be honest, it didn't take too much arm twisting before I was gleefully adding items to my shopping basket at Gorgeous Fabrics. It was all very exciting when the parcel arrived and we oohed and ahhed over each others' purchases.

One of my choices was this grey polka dot stretch suiting fabric, which I bought on sale, but seems to be back at normal price now. I bought it with the Jamie jeans by Named clothing in mind and, I was so in love with it when it arrived, I put my little French jacket to one side and got cracking on the jeans.

I made only two small adjustments to the pattern based on my first pair of Jamie jeans and that was to add approximately 2cm to the lower leg of the jeans so it wasn't quite so tight fitting on the calf and to add approximately 12cm to the length.  Also, this time round I referred extensively to the excellent set of photos by Jennifer R, particularly those concerning the fly insertion. Seriously, Jennifer R deserves a medal for her work explaining this process, which I really struggled with last time. This time, it was perfect! The zip is slightly down in this pic, but trust me.

I do like the detailing on these jeans.

And the fit is brilliant.

I'm loving this fabric too with its flocked polka dots.

I was very excited to put these on at the first opportunity, but when I got dressed I tried on and flung off several tops in different directions before realising that I had nothing to wear with them. Minor panic!

After a quick hunt through my stash, I found this ribbony, grassy border print remnant from Textile Traders. I decided to make the embroidered top #101 from Burdastyle 05/3013. There wasn't quite enough fabric for the top so I added some blue to the sides, which actually seems to improve the balance and make it look less like a nightie. Win!

The pattern consists of two pieces, front and back, with some straps and a dash of bias binding. I chose to make the straps from the same fabric as the top and just made a tube, which I then embroidered with little beads. The top is gathered front and back. The instructions say to gather the front to 10cm, which is far too narrow, so be aware of this if you make one. There was supposed to be a little keyhole opening at the front, but I left that out.

It was difficult to get the finish really neat on the top, but still I'm pleased with it. I love the fabric and the style is very cool and comfortable.

So happy with my new outfit and my first foray into online fabric shopping. Also huge thanks to my sister for taking the photos and directing my poses. It was so nice not to take selfies for a change.

Little French Jacket progress report 1

Many of you have probably heard the buzz about the little French jacket (LFJ) sewalong with Thewallinna and A Challenging Sew. I have admired these jackets over the years as they popped up on various blogs along with 70+ hour estimates of the time taken to make each one. 'Ha!' I scoffed. 'Surely it doesn't take anything like that amount of time'. So when I saw the sewalong I signed up pronto.
I had bought a Patrones magazine (Patrones Extra Dos Piezas, No. 24) earlier this year containing several drool-worthy LFJ patterns. I eventually chose this one. It has a matching skirt, which I may also make in the time left over from the 70 hours!  

It's just as well I'm doing the sewalong as all the instructions are in Spanish, which I don't speak, although I am compiling a handy list of Spanish sewing terms. I've stuck it up above my sewing machine to study at my leisure!
First step was a muslin. I traced the pattern in size 42 (note: the sizing is different to Burda, in which I am 38) and used carbon paper and a tracing wheel to transfer the markings, stitching lines, grainlines etc. to my muslin. Would you believe I actually had some old sheets of carbon paper from my typewriter days? Well, if you knew me you probably would believe it! Everyone else is using newfangled sewing tracing paper in large sheets of fabulous colours. Pah!
Here is an early fitting of my muslin before I made a few additional tweaks. I didn't sew the back collar piece on the muslin. Bit of a sneaky time saver there!

The fit at the front was not too bad.

The back needed a bit more length and flare in the peplum and some fitting in the lower back. Once that was done, I drew all the new stitching lines with red and blue marker pens and unpicked all the seams (below right). Next, I had to cut all the seam allowances off using the red and blue guide lines (below left).

Ok, don't get excited, but we're about to unfold the actual jacket fabric!
I'm using a pink boucle with stripes that I have decided to place horizontally. When I went to take this photo I noticed that the stripes were completely wobbly. I fixed that up quick smart before anyone noticed. Here I have all my upper (non-peplum) pieces that are carefully placed so that hopefully the stripes will line up on the finished jacket. I did the same again with the peplum pieces. The sleeves will be cut after basting the jacket together to better match the stripes. The pieces are placed far apart to make room for huge seam allowances, which enable fitting adjustments later and allow for fraying of the fabric.

I feel like my boys on a long car trip. Are we there yet?
No, we are not!

Once the pieces were roughly cut (above), each one needed to have the outline of each pattern piece hand sewn in running stitch in a contrasting coloured thread (visible below). The shoulder seams then had to be strengthened by cutting a piece of organza to fit the shoulder to the lower armscye and then these boucle pieces were used (still with the muslin pinned in place) to cut the lining for every pattern piece, being careful to match grainlines.
Deep breath. Then came the quilting.
After some trial and error, I decided to quilt in straight lines parallel to the stripes in the fabric. This is done by machine (thank gawd), but has to be an inch in from all sides and 2 inches in from the hem. I used my handy inch gadget thing to measure as I went. The quilting lines were 2-3cm apart and, I'm pleased to say, are invisible in this example (to the right of the inch gadget).

Here we are with the quilting done (not yet ironed) shown from the back and the front, ready to have the threads pulled between the boucle and lining and hand knotted. Yes, every blinking thread. Yes, it took hours. The organza stabiliser is also visible here, as are my sticky labels identifying each piece.

Hooray, we're finally ready to sew something together.

Oh, and just quietly, to the diehard readers who made it this far, that 70+ hours....I think it's an underestimate!

Jalie 3132 Hoodie

After seeing all the lovely Jalie creations popping up on Pattern Review in honour of Jalie's 30th birthday, I couldn't help feeling inspired to make a Jalie myself. I chose 3132, which I have made before as a nursing hoodie and as a t-shirt (also this one). In true Jalie spirit, I am also wearing a pair of my many Jalie jeans.

I had this stripy knit fabric that I'd bought from Textile Traders in the half price sale recently. I think I bought a metre for about $5. There wasn't quite enough fabric to make the hood, so I used some black knit fabric from my stash for that.

I was keen to try to match the stripes as much as possible, even though they were a bit wavy. I spent much time placing the front, back and sleeve just right on my fabric. To get the sleeve placing right I matched the sleeve notch with the notch in the armhole and I think it worked pretty well (below).

However, there was a slight fail when I happily held up my cut fabric and realised that, with all my precision, I'd only cut one sleeve and didn't have enough fabric for the second. Oops!

Enter another scrap of black knit fabric.

Hey, what can I say - it balances the hood! I cut the lower section of the second sleeve as best I could to keep the stripes in the right place. It's not perfect, but it'll do and I'm sure I won't make that mistake again. The sleeve cuffs were finished with a strip of black lycra used as foldover elastic, stretched slightly and zig-zagged into place. I used silver grommets/eyelets for the hood tie. These needed reinforcing with some thin vinyl on the inside so they didn't fall out of the delicate knit fabric of the hood. The tie is a shoelace from my box of string-type things (I have many assorted boxes of sewing treasures just waiting for the right use).

And there you have it - a well-fitting, stripe-almost-matching top to take me through spring. I don't think I've ever had a failure with Jalie.

Green stripes - Burdastyle 06/2013 #113

Perhaps I'm slightly late getting on board the emerald green Pantone colour of last season, but let's throw caution to the wind and the sparkly water. What better than a fresh dollop of green for spring? I found this green and beige stripy knit fabric and matching plain green in Textile Traders recently. I think it was only about $5/m in the sale. I bought a bit of each and some in red stripes too - not sure what to make with that yet. I had this t-shirt in the back of my mind when I bought the fabric and, on closer inspection when I got home, it did seem that it would work in two fabrics.

Burdastyle 06/2013 #113

The fabric has a wrinkly, casual look to it and is very soft and comfortable. I used the stripes for the front, back and sleeves and the plain for the sides, neckline and cuffs.

 

I changed the direction of the stripes on the sleeves, just for fun and because the two-way stretch of the fabric allowed it. In retrospect I'm not sure I love the vertical stripes on the sleeve, but they're ok. I added cuffs to the sleeves, which weren't in the pattern, just to balance the colours. I also lowered the neckline.

This was a quick and simple top to make. I used Burda size 38 and ended up taking the seams out to the edge of the seam allowance in the tummy area as I just don't need stripey bulges around there.

These pictures were taken in the morning at Peppermint Grove in Perth, WA, a very pretty suburb with the river on one side and the sea on the other. This is the river side. I met my parents there for a coffee and a long walk admiring the views and the houses. It was the first warm day for a while and we saw our first snake of the season - luckily only a baby! I'm not sure what species it was, but it would have been poisonous. And look at me living dangerously in my sandals. We're a tough lot over here.

No snake pictures I'm afraid, I was too busy keeping Truffle away from it. I don't think he even noticed, he was having too much fun.