That Jacket in My Senior Picture...

 The pleated velvet skirt is turning into one of THOSE projects in which every time I put the needle in the fabric something goes wrong.

So I'm taking a pause from my stitch-picking-out to post a wee bit of sewing joy that came my way today.

I have been hunting and hunting for a pattern I used back when I was a (koff koff) sophomore in high school.  Yeah, that would be age 15.

It was the first time I made myself an honest to gosh capsule wardrobe.  Nobody called it that back then, of course, but that's what it was.

I bought two chunks of poly double knit from the local Ben Franklin store...one a navy blue crepe and the other a blue and white micro houndstooth...and made

1) a jacket and gored skirt from the navy

2) a pair of pants and a skirt from the houndstooth

3) a reversible vest...navy on one side, houndstooth on the other

I bought two ribbed knit turtleneck bodysuits, one white, one navy, from JC Penny and I was set.

I wore the jacket for my senior portraits...we didn't do that drape thing in our neck of the woods...

This is the best pic I have of it.  You can't tell much about it; that was a sleeveless turtleneck top under it, if I remember right (pics were taken in June...).

I have no idea what happened to that pattern; I had been kinda low key looking for it on vintage sites for, well, a really long time. it didn't help that I couldn't remember which pattern company it was. One night last week I found one of those sites that has a bazillion patterns and just started scrolling through the 1970s listings, just to see if I could find it.

I found it, and found an Etsy seller that had it in a size 12, which was the largest I could find.

It came today.

It's cut, of course, but it's all there and 'm going to trace it and see if I can alter it up to fit my current shape.  It has such interesting lines; the back is princess seamed.  It's unlined, and the pocket flaps are fake, so I may actually upgrade it a bit and make a lining and put pockets in.  We'll see how it goes.

If I ever get that (grumble grumble) velvet skirt done...

A little testing, a little sewing...

Well, a few months back I got some Brussels Washer Linen, in a nice light cross-woven gray, for some drapey, comfy summer pants.

I  knew, though, that I'd need a fairly loose style.  And I didn't think my TNT Oxford pants were quite drapey enough.

I thought about just altering that pattern, but, goodness gracious I've got something like 600 patterns stashed in an old Simplicity cabinet; SURELY there was something?

Well, I pulled out this OOP Simplicity pattern, copyright 1996:

 Y'all.  That's the year the Flute Player was born.

But that top could be in today's pattern books.  And the pull on pants...well,  it was a possibility.  Unlike 85% of the patterns in the cabinet, which were purchased when I was a much smaller me, this one had a wide enough range of sizes that I thought I could make it fit.

But I didn't trust it enough; didn't want to use my nice rayon/linen on an unproven pattern.  So I went rummaging through the 'bottom weight cottons' bin and found a 1.25 yard remnant and cut out the shorts.
I trimmed a pinch off of the front and added the wedge to the back as a compromise low-butt alteration that, surprisingly, worked.

Sorry for the flat photo.  I've no idea when I'll actually get to wear them.  Certainly not on a work day.

These are an otherwise unaltered Medium.  MEDIUM.  I didn't even use my cheater adjustment of using skinnier seam allowances; full 5/8" on these puppies, because of the inseam pockets.

I will say this:  were I  a skinnier me, there would be ENTIRELY too much fabric collected around the waist.  But, being post-menopausally absent a true waistline, these work just fine.

I can trace off the longer version (I'll probably just trace the legs and overlap the pattern, lol) and cut away.

And, you know, I may look for some drapey something woven to try that top.  Just for fun.

Ack! Full Speed Stop!

At long last, I get to sit down and sew a project for myself.

Still not up to the 'just for my pleasure' projects...I need some tops for choir this month; our colors are brown and teal. Brown I have...teal, not so much.

I altered up the cap sleeve longer version of Simplicity 3624 and cut it out of some yummy soft teal rayon-blend jersey, then charged into the sewing room thinking I could whip it up tonight, only to find that, um, all the teal thread in my thread stash was a green-leaning teal; my fabric leans more towards blue. It doesn't match.

Hancock's is closed for the night. So I'm bummed. So guess what I'm gonna do first thing in the morning... ;)

But I'll talk a moment about the alterations. Aside from the 'drop the bust' and the fba, I had to do a bit of style adjusting. Click through on the above link and use Simplicity's nifty little magnifying glass to compare the line drawings of the pattern to the photo of the garment. Notice any difference? I've skimmed a few times through the reviews of this pattern and didn't come across anyone who mentioned this in the review.

The line drawing shows all the front gathers to be directly under the little vertical band on the bodice. It's a nice vertical line. The actual garment, though, as shown on the photo, has the gathers extending for a couple of inches on either side of that center front band. To my eye, that loses some of the impact of the vertical.

The finished band is one inch wide, so I took my fabric, before I cut anything out, and sewed a couple of ease lines on one end for about 8", going across the grain as it would be on the top. Then I pulled the ease lines up to gather the fabric as tightly as I could, measured one inch of the gathered up fabric, then pulled the gathers out.

I can gather 4" of fabric up to 1". So, I went back and adjusted the pattern so that 4" on the lower front would be gathered up into the very center only. Since I needed to add a pinch of ease to the overall width (doggone that middle age spread!), I just used the un-gathered width to add it in.

And I was all pumped to whip it up and see if it worked. Oh well. ;)

Pin Fit Report

I finally got the Flute Player's Fancy Dress pattern (Simplicity 5561) traced and pin fitted yesterday.

Interesting, to say the least.

By way of a SBA (small bust adjustment), I shaved just enough of the curve off the side front bust so that the notches matched the center front piece w/no easing. That worked pretty well (Couldn't believe they drafted it such that it needed to be eased - in a shiny formal wear fabric, that'd look AWFUL. Just MHO).

The front fit fairly well. She needed just a pinch more in the waist; I think I let the side front seam out about 3/8 on either side.

I had to take in the top of the side seam a bit...about 1/2" on either side.

But the back...omigosh, the back was WAAAYYY too small. It was 1 1/2" short of reaching to her spine at the top, and a full 4" too tight at the waist. That's for just one side.

I need to go back and compare the measurements and see if it really measures what it says it's supposed to; that was unbelievably small. Or...maybe the pattern isn't nested as I expected; that is, perhaps the smallest size isn't necessarily the innermost lines? That might make sense, although...the front was reasonable. But I was watching the Olympics (first time we'd turned them on all week!) and I might've been just a teeny bit distracted.

Anyway, my plan for tonight is to alter the pattern to match the pin-fit, then cut out the lining and sew that up quickly for a fit check. If the lack of ease in the tissue paper is what caused the strange fitting issues, that'll show up and I can tweak it however I need to before I actually cut the dress out.

We don't have choir practice this week because there is an audition for prospective choir folks (um, believe it or not I started choir before they started auditioning folks, so I'm grandfathered in. Whew.), so I'll have all Thursday evening for sewing.

Hopefully by then I'll be well into construction. If not...I'm in trouble ;)

Fancy Dress Fixin's

This year's Quest Force Awards dinner is a masquerade...formal dress, with a mask, not a costume. The Princess gave The Flute Player a fancy mask for Christmas, so, of course, The Flute Player desires a dress that will match her mask, which is purple, silver and black.

I had hopes of running down a grey/purple cross weave taffeta...hence the road trip to Sir's. I knew it was a shot in a million, but, well, I had to try.

They had three cross woven fabrics; orange/brown, orange/lime green and red/blue, but no grey/purple.

And they had a table full of lovely woolens, including a couple of very nice boucles, that I drooled over. I picked up a couple of other pieces...black/white stripe cotton/lycra jersey and a black/gold pinstripe cotton/lycra shirting...and carried them around a while before I shook myself into remembering that this trip was JUST for the dress. But the only thing they had that would work was bridal satin...and I just couldn't do a dry-clean-only fabric. So we had lunch at Cahoots and headed back south.

We hit paydirt at Hobby-Lobby; they had a good selection of (washable!) crepe-backed satin and we found both the purple to match her mask and a nice silver to go along with it. Back to Hancock's for the patterns and for trim and notions and then we headed home.

I tried to get her to let me do a variation on last year's dress, but it was to no avail. She wanted something more sophisticated, and she wanted sleeves. I thought a sleeveless dress w/a shrug would be nice, but as we perused patterns looking for a shrug she spotted the shorter, flared skirt dress in Simplicity 2251 and it was all over but the begging.

Fortunately, it comes as small as a 4, so I *think* it won't take too much alteration to make it work.

It had better not; the dinner is Feb. 26...a week from Friday...

Tried 'Em All

This may very well be the first time I've made *all* the styles in a particular pattern envelope. I haven't made all the variations, and I've thrown in elements (such as long or 3/4 length sleeves; the sleeves on this came from Christine Jonson's Basewear 2 pattern) from other patterns, but I have now made all three of the different styles on Simplicity 4076...the twist top, the scoop neck top and the surplice top.

I *should* update the review...but, to be honest, I traced off this pattern so long ago I don't remember right off the top of my head what alterations I made to it. If I get a chance, I'll pull the pattern out and see if I made notes (sometimes I do!). Actually, I made this top because I saw a poly matte knit surplice top in Coldwater Creek that was very similar...and I remembered that I had a chunk of rayon/lycra matte jersey left over from last year's LBD project. I forgot to cut the neckbands, so I used a strip of black nylon lycra as a facing; my neckline may be be just a pinch lower/wider as a result.

Anyway, for the curious, I put all the photos of the various iterations of the top in a Photoworks album, so you can see how it's been used. Definitely a TNT!

The purple tank underneath is Jalie 965...I eventually hope to have a whole stack of these in different colors. So far I've got cream, light blue, black, brown, purple...and I have red and orange in the queue. They're Very Useful Tops. ;)

I Goofed

So, after I finished the purple shirts, I changed the thread in both machines to black and proceeded to work on the cardi-wrap. Got it to the point of finishing all the edges and set it aside until I put double needles in the machine and picked up my rayon matte jersey Simp. 4076 wrap top, which is intended as a knock-off of a poly matte jersey top I saw at Coldwater Creek.

And I discovered I had missed cutting a piece; in my enthusiasm, I didn't notice that the neckline actually has a band finish. I thought it was just a over-wide topstitching. Anyway, I didn't cut the band. And the scraps I have left are not nearly enough to get one.

So, looks like I'm going to be using my lycra-knit strips as a facing. With a 1/4" seam allowance. I think that'll work....

A Me Project...

I pretty much just grabbed the top piece off the 'new acquisitions' pile and made an from-the-gut snap decision as to what to make from it.

It was one yard of a graphic printed rayon/lycra jersey, and in pretty short order it became a scoop-neck Simplicity 4076 T.
I didn't think about how the neckline gathers would affect the print, so the curve-emphasis was something of a surprise.

But it's a comfy t for errand running...days when I need to be out but not dressed up much.

It was kinda fun to just whip something out. I need to do more of that. ;)

Sewing on the Blogging Break

Y'know, you really can get a lot done if you don't spend two (um, or more...) hours a day on the internet.
First project:
I made another one of the Burda twist tops. I had a remnant of burgundy slinky...and since burgundy and black are the choir colors for next month, I thought I'd try a few tweaks and see how it turned out. It's still a cheap top...about three bucks...so I didn't try to do all the changes at once. The knit did make a difference; this is real acetate/lycra slinky and it didn't curl. I did make a few notes on the construction though and I updated the review to reflect my more careful note making ;)

Also, I traced a new pants pattern...Simplicity 4366and made a test up. I know, what kind of doofus uses glen plaid for a test garment? I was very careful to match the plaids...after all, if it didn't fit I intended to donate it, and if it DID fit, I intended to wear it. I did, however, lay my TNT Vogue 7881 contour waist pants over the pattern, so I had a *reasonable expectation* that they would be more or less wearable.

I made view C, which is supposed to be the 'bootcut' view. Maybe my definition of 'bootcut' isn't quite accurate; I would expect 'bootcut' pants to fit fairly slimly through the leg and then flare out below the knee...y'know, to go over a boot. However, these are a little fuller through the leg to the knee, and drop straight down from the knee (you can see in the side view that the plaid does not angle back out below the knee). These are a nice cut and I like them, but it's not exactly what I was looking for. I may try the slim leg view, and then angle that out below the knee.

I need to tweak the back crotch just a bit; I left the original curve there, only adding to the point of the crotch to match my TNTs ( and I had to add about an inch). Next time I need to scoop just a teeny bit out of the back curve and add it on the back outseam and I think they'll be close to perfect.

I obviously don't do enough fly zippers to be good at them; I followed the directions on this one and it was *ok* but tedious. Next time, I'll try Peggy Sager's version.

Good Enough for Growing

Ok, these aren't absolutely positively dead perfect...but, considering they could be outgrown before Christmas, I'm calling it good enough to replicate. There's room for her to tuck in her tops, but the back doesn't gape at all.

I can't remember the last time she had pants that didn't have some sort of elastic in them that even came close to fitting.

The pattern is Simplicity 4839; I should have the review up soon.

If only I had been correct in my thinking that she had some knit tops w/lavender in them...sigh, she doesn't...

One Done; One...Still in Salvage Mode...

Ok, I know it looks like I'm wearing a table cloth...or maybe some recycled curtains here...but I *love* this tunic! The rayon/Tencel fabric is soft like butter and heavy and warm and... I can see myself wearing it w/leggings after the Christmas Eve service whilst playing Santa. Anyway, it really feels good. There are slits in the sides up to about mid-hip; this can't be worn stand-alone, for all that it looks like a dress over jeans, it isn't.

But, as much as I love this, I really think it's the last time I'll make it long (Unless I do the other long view with the beading and the front slit. Wow, how long would THAT take?). All in all, the shorter tunic would probably be more practical.

It made up quite easily with no issues; the only tedious bit is the collar (I added a facing for the slit). No buttons, hooks or zippers...I'll get a review posted later today. Oh, did I say I love this top?

The Pleat Top is still having issues, however. I laid the pattern back over the garment and recut the neckline down to the original size, finished it out, slit the back neck and rolled that edge, sewed a very nice hanging snap. It went over my head quite easily and then... I found that the neckline was too tight on my neck. I could barely snap the snap, and it was not pretty. Doggone...I didn't think about the neckline needing to stretch around my neck. Grumble, grumble. I let the shoulder/neckline seams out as much as I could and tried again. Better; at least it wasn't visibly digging in to my neck, but it was still too snug to look good. It hung up and made a weird pouf in the front. So I took off the snap and trimmed 1/2" off the top of the neckline. I rolled the edge and left the fray check drying on the corners last night. I'll sew the snap again and see how it works. If that doesn't fix it, I'll just have to take Peggy up on her offer of more fabric. I'm determined to get this right...if I can, it will be a killer blouse to wear under a black jacket on a Black and White choir Sunday. Besides, I'd like to pass along fitting tips in the eventual pattern review...

When Patterns Lie

DD's Easter Outfit is done to the hand sewing on the jacket, but it was a trial.

The pattern back states that it is for woven fabrics; however, I beg to differ.
It turns out the following mini-rant may be premature; see the update at the end...
There is no zipper, button, snap, anything in this dress to provide an entry. DD's bust and waist measurements were *lower* than the size 8, which is the smallest on the pattern. I decided to make her an 8 anyway (she needed a 14 in length), figuring it would give her some room to grow. I made the bodice and the skirt separately, as instructed by the pattern, and was alarmed as I saw how truly smallish the skirt looked. I called DD in and had her try the pieces on separately...she could *just* wriggle into the bodice, but she couldn't get the skirt over both shoulders.

This was a wadder in progress.

I dug through my zippers and found a 9" cream invisible zipper. Not exactly what the dr ordered, but it'd do. I opened the left seams on the bodice and the skirt about 5" each before I sewed the bodice to the skirt so I could stick the zipper in the sideseam. The bodice wasn't too bad; I'd serged the seam edges and stitched the seam conventionally, so I could press it open and reduce the bulk at the armsceye binding, but the skirt I'd serged...so I had only 1/4" seam allowance to work with.

All I can say is, thank God for Wonder Tape.

It's not the best and neatest zipper application in the world, but it worked. DD can get into the dress and, surprise surprise, her reaction was "I LOVE this dress!!!".

So I guess it was worth the hair tearing moments. She hasn't seen the jacket yet.

I've got some very interesting comments to make when I get around to reviewing it, you bet!


*Update after the Photos*

Is this an egg-on-face moment or what?

I finished the hand sewing on the jacket and sent DD off to try on the whole ensemble. When she came out, dressed, she complained,
"Mom! You sewed up the zipper!"

Um, I most certainly did not. I demonstrated to her that it zipped and unzipped just fine. Apparently she'd had some problems.

Wait. Did you mean to say you got into that dress without unzipping it?

*sheepish look on her face* Um, yes.

Did you have to wiggle and work to get into it?

Now she laughs. "No! I didn't! It was fine!"

Could someone please direct me to a brick wall...I think I'd like to bang my head on it for a little while...
But here's the photo of the finished product. And yes, she will wear a slip under it. If I'd've had time, I'd've underlined it....

On to the Easter Choir Shirt...

I debated several things. If I'd've had some black stretch lace, I might've tried for something a little bit edgey. But I think I've decided I'm going to wear my black eyelet skirt, so instead of edgy I wanted something just a little girly. The nod went to Simplicity 4076, the scoop-neck version w/the front gathers. I had to alter the pattern a bit from the size 10 I used last year for DD's top, but I think it will add just the right feminine touch w/the black skirt and under one of my Loes Hinse designed black jackets.

Not to mention that it will be very quick to make.

Whilst the cutting table was out, I went ahead and traced/altered Simplicity 4528; I decided I'd use that tunic pattern with the green jacquard rayon blend I got at the Expo. I've been wanting to make that for ever-so-long; now's my chance! I haven't cut it out yet; I'm hoping there's enough to make the long version but I'm afraid it's too narrow and I'll probably end up with the shorter one. We'll see after I get the fabric pressed out well. I'll probably actually sew that first, since there's still green thread loaded up on the machines :D

"Another Crazy Thing"

That's what My Sweet Baboo said when I asked him to take the photo of the Simplicity 3775 dress. Not the dress itself, mind you, it's the fabric.... Yeah, kinda wild. I'm not terribly happy with how it looks made up; to me, it just looks like a cheap dress. Something about the way the prints almost match up at the midriff seams; something looks a little wonky. Which may be because that really is a Dreaded Diagonal Print...something I didn't really think about at the time. When I first tried it on, I figured I'd finish it and donate it...this really was a test, after all. But when it was done I decided it might be ok. Anyway, I put it in the closet. If I don't wear it in the next few months, then it'll be a donation. There are slightly more details in The Review, if you're interested.

Now I'm working on the green Neue Mode jacket. I finished a green Bible costume yesterday and have another to make (different shades of green, all, but they work w/grey thread in the serger loopers); I'm squeezing the shell of the jacket in between them. I'll line it after the second one is done.