Procrastination project: New Look 6144 plaid dress

I may appear to be quite efficient and productive, popping up here on a regular basis to show off my latest finished creation as well as looking after two small children, a rambunctious dog, a part time job and all that is involved in looking after a house. Plus a husband to bear with too. But the reality is if I didn't procrastinate so much I could achieve so much more, but sadly when I get the slightest bit bored or frustrated I actively start looking for distractions and I really need rock solid deadlines to get back on track. You should see how clean my desk is at work.....

And so it is with this latest dress I've made. I should be sewing my August Burda project since it's coming close to the end of August, I've traced the pattern pieces out and pre-treated the fabric, but the thought of pinning and cutting out the fabric, lining and interfacing and then going onto block fusing all those pieces is just too much. So instead I decided to make a quick dress instead. Except it didn't turn out all that quick, and I got frustrated with it and procrastinated further by cleaning up my sewing room!

Anyway it's finished now, mostly - after seeing how it looks in photos I realise a few things need fixing that weren't obvious from looking at it in the mirror.  So, the finished dress:

I made New Look 6144, view B without a belt, from some teal green plaid cotton that I've had in the stash for ages and have been wanting to use for a while. Unfortunately I should have waited a bit longer to use this fabric because this pattern and this fabric are not the ideal match. I was so careful to match up the plaid on the front and back shoulder seams, the outside sleeve seam (it's a two piece sleeve), the side seams and the back seam. I did a pretty good job too, here's the back:

and the sleeves:

 but look at the front:

I was so concentrating on getting the plaid to match at the shoulder seam that I totally didn't think about what would happen to the plaid with all those angled darts at the front. As you can see those darts totally mess up the yellow line across the front and makes it look quite messy. It was about this point that I got out the vacuum and started to clean......

But I forced myself to finish it (no new UFOs being my mantra these days) and decided just to treat this as a wearable muslin if it looked ok. And mostly it does, except that the lining is peeking out at the neckline - I'll need to press the neckline again and understitch. I also concentrated so much on getting the plaid at the centre back to match (which it does) that I didn't do the top of the neckline very well - one side sits higher than the other so I'll have to resew that.

I also think that overall it's a smidgen too big, which is why the lower darts at the centre front of the skirt are a bit puffy. I cut my usual 8 at the bust, 10 at the waist and 12 at the hips which has worked really well for the other New Look dresses I made recently, but this time not so well. Usually I overfit my dresses to have minimal ease, but on this one I only reduced the ease a little because the fabric is quite thin and I didn't want the fabric to tear or the plaid to become too distorted from stress or pulling at the seams.

This fabric also wrinkles really easily, the wrinkles you can see in the front near the hem are just from kneeling down to set up for this photo shoot, so I'd hate to see what it's like at the end of a long work day. (Oh and please excuse the rather wild and bouffy hair - I took these photos this morning which is a non work day so I didn't straighten my hair.)

It is a lovely pattern though, it just doesn't suit plaids and probably not stripes either. I should have used the other view with the pleat at the neckline instead, but you live and learn. I will make this dress again in a solid colour so I don't drive myself nuts with all that seam matching again!

And now I would like to say that I will be getting on to my August Burda project next, but I've promised Anna a new dress for a birthday party on Sunday morning so I have to deliver that first. Luckily I'll be spending tomorrow at my local ASG group so I may be able to get it finished in amongst all the chatting that goes on at those days!

Finally what do you all think of the new background? It's just some bright fabric from Ikea which I thought was more attractive than my beige lounge and antique chinese wooden screen you normally have to see in the background. But is it too distracting or overwhelming?

Groovy baby: Butterick 4273

Thanks everyone for your positive and encouraging comments on my entry into the Tessuti Awards. The finalists were announced and sadly I'm not one of them - the ones that were selected are really outstanding and look like they came off a catwalk. I know that my dress is sewn perfectly, but it was very bland compared to the others because I sew what I like to wear, which I guess is the difference between a home sewist and a fashion designer. And let's face it, I didn't exactly spend a long time planning it and working on it did I? But as Vicki pointed out I do have a great dress, winner or not. And Meredith I'll definitely have to organise an occasion to wear this dress, as fancy cocktail parties are not a regular occurrence in my social life these days!

I've been feeling a little burnt out after that frantic bout of sewing, although it was exhilarating at the time and it's good to know if there's ever a sewing emergency I could probably conquer it in a short time! But I needed something simple to recharge, and since Anna has been asking me for a new dress every time I bring something new out of my sewing room it was about time I made her something.  And now she's become even more clever at asking, picking out a pattern using my ipad and putting in specific requests for how she wants it to turn out. So I let her pick out some fabric from the stash and quickly whipped up a dress for her so I can get back to my own sewing.

She picked out Butterick 4273 (now OOP) which is just a simple a-line dress with embellishment options and this rather loud pink and purple paisley print cotton fabric that has been a long term stash resident, origin long since forgotten (and possibly a vintage fabric given that it's only 90cm wide and the print is very 70s):

I did double and triple check with her that she understood that this wasn't a twirly dress pattern because I didn't want to hear any complaints about it being 'broken' later on, but she told me in a very serious voice that she would wear it on days she didn't feel like twirling. She's getting to be so grown up in her mannerisms now! But it didn't stop her having fun, twirling or not:

Because the fabric print is so busy I didn't add any embellishments or pockets, and I literally made this in about 90 minutes including cutting out and finishing. So I have no excuses not to make a few more really.

The fabric she picked out is quite a sturdy cotton, but is not really a winter fabric so it needed to be worn over a few layers, but it certainly brightens up a cold winter day don't you think?

Last minute craziness: Tessuti awards dress entry

I didn't think it was going to be possible, but I managed to make a cocktail dress in 8 hours over two nights to enter in the Tessuti awards by the deadline, and it doesn't look too shabby either!

I hadn't planned on entering this year because I was lacking in inspiration and they usually get so many brilliant and creative entries from very talented people. But when I read their blog post last weekend pointing out that they had received only a few entries, I decided to make an entry after all. The only problem being that I was in Brisbane visiting the inlaws last weekend, and I didn't get a chance to buy the fabric for the dress until Monday at lunchtime (seriously, check out that receipt below). And I might have accidentally picked up two other pieces while I was there - I can never pass by the remnant table!

So on Monday and Tuesday nights, working from 8pm to midnight on both nights I managed to finish my dress, take some photos on Wednesday morning and upload them to the competition website in time for the lunchtime deadline. Unfortunately with such a rush to get it finished it meant that I had to take boring self photos in my loungeroom again instead of some fantastic location, so I think that like the last time I entered I haven't presented my creation in it's best light. Oh well, I'm still happy with it.

Of course by the time I uploaded my entry there were lots of other entries added too, including some really stunning and detailed entries. But I'm not in it to win it, in fact I'd rather get third prize - $500 worth of fabric from Tessuti sounds far more appealing than the first prize of a $2500 travel voucher at this point in time (travel with two small children is just not fun!).

The competition called for a knee length cocktail dress, using either a specific black or red fabric from their store. I was going to sew a simple fitted sheath dress with a deep cowl on the back neckline using Simplicity 9218, now OOP, which is exactly the type of dress I would wear to a fancy soiree. But this is a design competition afterall that will be judged on design and creativity as well as fit and technical skill, so I thought that I should try a little harder to make some different. But not so different that I wouldn't wear the end product though.

So in the end I decided I wanted something with a bit of volume using pleats and darts and tucks because the fabric has a bit of stiffness to it and I thought a dress with structure would work better than trying to get it to drape.  My dress is a combination of the bodice from a vintage 1975 Simplicity pattern that I've been wanting to sew for a while, the pleated skirt from Burda 8/09 #128 (not online unfortunately) which is one of my favourite dresses of all time and some self drafted cap sleeves.


The triangular waist panel looks a bit Wonderwoman-ish, but unfortunately my chestal region lacks Wonderwoman's impressive assets so the top is a little puffy and the keyhole opening at the front is not so va-va-voom.

At the back I used an invisible zip, and made a keyhole opening at the neckline - not only does this echo the front of the dress, but it also solves the problem of those rounded edges I always seem to get at the top of invisible zips:

 

I managed to get a very good fit at the back and I lined up the waistline panels at the sides and the centre back too. I also added a vent at the centre back to make walking in this dress possible, the original Burda pattern doesn't have one and it's so difficult to take proper walking length steps when wearing it!

I just love those waistline pleats. It seems counter intuitive that extra fabric at the waistline would be flattering, but somehow the angles of the pleats gives the skirt volume but not bulk, and they fall gracefully from the cinched in waistline so it is a flattering silhouette:

The sleeves turned out a bit more puffy than I wanted, I feel a bit like an American footballer with the exaggerated shoulder armour! I guess that's what happens when you self draft something and don't have time to muslin test them first....



If I had allowed myself enough time to make this properly I might have added some piping around the midriff band and possibly the neckline, but I think it has turned out alright for a spur of the moment, spontaneous project. I didn't prewash the fabric either, not having the time, so fingers crossed it doesn't shrink too much because it's already a very close fitting dress!

And now for a bit of a rest before I get back to my regular sewing. Although this demonstrates why I can never commit to SWAPs or capsule collections - something always comes up and I it seems I like sewing on a whim best!

Burda of the month: 7/2013 #110 Cowl neck top

After running late in finishing my June Burda project, I managed to finish sewing this one about a week and a half ago but it's been sitting on my dress form with various trims pinned on it while I was waiting for inspiration to strike. It just seemed to be a bit bland and needing something more, but funnily enough it was only when I gave up on it and just decided to photograph it purely so I could blog about it while it's still July that I realise it's fine as is. Actually more than fine, I'm happy with how it looks and I'll probably wear it.

I made the cowl neck top 7/2013 #110, which you can download from the burda style website here:

The pattern suggests sewing it from a softly draping jersey fabric with satin for the contrast straps, but I sewed mine from a silver lurex knit that I had in the stash because it was very drapey and I was hoping that the fabric would be a bit sparkly in a dressy but a not too over the top way.

I should have used some satin or other fabric for the straps as per the pattern suggestion because my fabric did not press or gather very well at all and when I tried to do rows of decorative topstitching it stretched out in all directions even with interfacing. I thought about putting some beading on the straps or some other form of trim but in the end I decided to leave the straps plain. I think they look extremely home made - a bit puffy and amateurish:

I probably should have also interfaced the back neckline and reduced the width significantly, because it gapes a fair bit although it sort of looks like a mini cowl to match the front so I can live with it:

But Burda's instructions are also very amateurish in my humble opinion. They instruct you to sew the straps on after you've sewn the cowl down and sewn the front to the back, just pressing and topstitching the seam allowances down, although they do suggest finishing the front strap by hand. They also instruct you to turn down and topstitch the seam allowances of the back neckline and back armhole edge, but the front armhole edge has the self facing of the cowl so that's two different finishing methods for the one armhole.

Instead I drafted a facing for the back neck edge to match the front, so that it not only enclosed the ends of the straps but also finished the neck and armhole edge much neater than I could achieve by turning under and topstitching. And I also ignored the pattern directions as usual and sewed it so that ends of the straps were enclosed in the facing at both the front and the back. 

For the front I slipped the ends of the straps in when I sewed the cowl down to the front at the shoulder seam and armhole edge right sides together, but not down the side seam yet:

And for the back I slipped the other ends of the straps in when I sewed the shoulder seams, armhole edge and back neck edge of the fabric and self drafted facing (right sides together), and again not down the side seams yet.

And then I flipped it all out the right way, and sewed the side seams in one seam starting from the top of the facing and continuing down the side seam:

It's certainly not rocket science or haute couture, but it's a much easier and neater way than the simple but crude way that Burda suggests. I sometimes don't understand why Burda does the things it does - it wasn't much harder to sew it the way I did and it only involved one extra piece but it was a much better and easier way of doing it.

best sewing patterns of the year: New Look 6808

So here we are half way through 2013 and I've only just noticed the list of the best sewing patterns of 2012 over at Pattern Review which went up in February - clearly I live in my own little world for most of the time (and happily too, I might add!). Maria - I love your black and white print Peony dress featured there, and Melanie's Renfrew top pictured in Machu Picchu no less!

Anyway when I spied New Look 6808 there - a top designed for wovens with a variety of collars I knew I had to try it. Lately I've been thinking that I need a variety of tops in my wardrobe, and since knit fabrics and I are warming up to each other but are still not BFFs a woven top is just what I need.

New Look 6808

I made this version from yet another shapeless shift dress that my grandmother had started but not finished, in a lovely crisp white cotton with blue polka dots. She had only got so far as cutting and pinning the pieces together so unfortunately there were quite a few rust marks in random spots after being folded and stored for many years with the pins in place. Another reason not to let your UFOs linger? An initial wash and soak didn't remove the rust spots, so I had to carefully place the pattern pieces to avoid the worst of the rust marks. This meant that I couldn't cut both the front and back pieces on the fold, so I had to move the zipper from the side seam to the centre back, which also meant that I had to split the back collar piece and back facing piece into two pieces. But it all worked out fine, if you didn't know the pattern you wouldn't even glance twice at the back:

Size wise I found this pattern to run a little large. I've made quite a few successful New Look patterns lately that needed little adjustments, with New Look 6000 and New Look 6968 being my favourite dresses fitting wise (see here, here, or here), so I just assumed that this pattern would fit as well as those two. I cut out a size 8 at the top grading out to a size 10 at the waist and then a 12 over the hips, but I probably could have gone down a size overall. This top is also very long - I cut four centimetres off the bottom before I hemmed it, and it still finishes at my lower hip which being my widest part is not so flattering unless I always wear this tucked in with whatever I pair it with.

Speaking of which, I did a quick refashion to this poly-wool blend knit sunray pleated skirt in a yummy caramel colour that I found in an opshop ages ago to wear with this top. It was mid calf length but I lopped off about 15cm from the bottom and did a narrow hem, and then I used a blunt disposable razor to shave off all those annoying pills that certain fabrics get and re-pressed all of those pleats to revitalise it and now it looks as good as new.

I decided to make view C with the bow neckline, which is a bit different to my usual corporate, plain minimalist look but I guess every now and then you need to let your inner librarian out to play! Plus I am loving the caramel coloured skirt look, from my pinterest pins I found these outfit inspirations:


from left: maisouivintage.com, perfectsuits.tumblr.com, hautesplainesgirl.blogspot.com

Overall I agree with this being included as one of the best sewing patterns for 2012 (although it has been out for several years now) - it is an easy make, could be a well fitting top if you took the time to fit it better than I have here, and it could look dressy or cute depending on the fabric you choose.  I can see myself making a few more versions of it. Sometimes it is worth following the crowd.......

Sewing and technology

Wow, thanks everyone for taking the time to leave a lovely comment on my dress in the last post - I'm glad you all like it as much as I do! And I'm glad that a few of you are thinking of doing a colorblock project too, because I'm planning at least one more myself and it's good to know it's not considered passé.

But first I'm contemplating the need to have my sewing machine serviced because it's running quite loudly and seems to be skipping stitches quite a lot even with new needles. I did give it a clean, even taking the needle plate off and vacuuming out all the dust that gets in around the bobbin, but it doesn't seem to have helped. With modern computerised machines there's just not that much you can do yourself really.  At the recent high tea several of us were talking about whether older or newer sewing machines were best - the argument for the older mechanical ones is that they are able to power through any fabric and whilst the newer computerised ones having the fancy stitches and automatic buttonholes that make life easier. When it comes to overlockers though, the new models with their fancy self threading and automatic tensioning are hands down the winner - I just couldn't live without my Babylock and it's sanity saving technology!

I'm the same with my Ipad - before I got one I doubted very much whether I needed one at all since I already had two computers (one desktop and one laptop). But after having one for a while I realise how many uses they have, such as being able to watch helpful Youtube tutorials while sitting at the sewing machine, or using apps to keep track of your fabric stash or patterns. I've put all my scanned sewing pattern covers (saved as jpegs) into photo albums sorted by type, so that even if I'm not sewing I can swipe my way through my pattern collection for inspiration:

 

Unfortunately my two kids are avid fans of my ipad too - little Toby knows which buttons to swipe and which ones to tap already at only 15 months! They are way too rough with the ipad though, always peeling off the plastic protective screen so that it's now annoyingly bubbled and frequently dropping it so the hard plastic cover has cracked at the corner (but not the ipad so I suppose it's done it's job!).

I have been looking to get a cool cover for it, when serendipitously the lovely people at Snugg asked me if I would like one of their products to review. What great timing! Now you all know I very rarely do product reviews because this is a personal sewing blog and not the home shopping network, but since this is  relevant and something that would be very useful at this point in time I jumped at the chance. So while I was supplied with an ipad cover for review the opinions here are my own.

I chose a lovely deep red coloured leather cover, and I was pleasantly surprised at how light and slimline the case is. Plus it has an elastic strap on the inside cover that when it's open you can slide you hand through to make sure you don't drop it when you're carrying a wiggly toddler while trying to check out Pinterest.

 

It comes with a handy stylus pen holder at the top which will be useful because I recently downloaded a free app called Paper by 53 which I've been using to try to sketch clothes and outfits, especially when I've been people watching or snoop shopping.

 

 

There's a little flap at the back which securely holds the cover folded so that you can prop the tablet up to watch the screen, and it holds it really well unlike my previous magnetic cover which always used to collapse on me.

 

The cover I chose is a textured red leather (although only PU leather). And the white topstitching is a nice touch too.

Plus I just love a company that uses cool retro typography in their packaging:

I've had this on my Ipad for a week now, and I'm pretty happy with it. Toby has had a chew of one of the corners and some of the red PU leather layer has come off, but frankly there is very little that stands up to his chompers - his timber cot is testament to that! So if you're in the market for an Ipad cover I can recommend the Snugg products - the price is about what you would pay in the shops but is a nicer choice in my humble opinion, it arrived pretty quickly from the UK and they offer a lifetime guarantee.

Ok so time to get back to my regularly scheduled sewing posts - believe or not but I've already finished my July Burda project but I'm a bit non-plussed with it. I'm thinking of doing some beading to jazz it up, which is completely unlike me but there is a first time for everything isn't there?

June Burda of the month: panelled dress 6/2013 #117

Ta da! June Burda project finally completed.  Yeah I know it's actually the middle of July, but the good thing about a self imposed challenge is that there's no real harm done if you miss a deadline by a little (or a lot!).

I realise the colourblock trend has been around for quite a while now, and I've probably either come in at the tail end of it or have missed the boat completely, but I don't care because I quite like the look. I was heavily inspired by these dresses that I had pinned sometime ago:

I used Burda 6/2013 #117  with a few changes to take it from a summer dress to a winter dress which is more befitting of our current weather:

As soon as I saw this pattern I immediately thought of a colour blocked dress, the only problem being what colours and fabrics to use.  I've proudly made this all from stash fabrics - a grey wool flannel and a white textured wool/polyester blend both bought from Spotlight ages ago, and some black wool crepe leftover from some other past project. I lightly interfaced the black wool crepe to give it the same weight and body as the grey and the white fabrics, and while there's a lot of texture within the one dress I think it works pretty well.
 

Sewing this dress was just like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle, albeit a fiddly one. Getting the yoke and the white side panels to line up at the side seam and zipper required some hand basting to get the panels to line up and not slip when I sewed them. And sewing those white panels in to the grey fabric was really hard to do - the corners are a bit more rounded and not as pointy as I would have liked, and now that I'm looking at these photos I can see that the left side front corner is puckered which I'll have to redo although it's not as obvious in real life.

I changed the pattern to have a centre back seam with an invisible zipper instead of cutting the back piece on the fold and putting a zip into the side seam. I did this mainly so I could do a small swayback adjustment, but also because I don't like side zippers all that much.  I only did a small swayback adjustment because the body of the dress was quite narrow at the waist line, and instead I treated the vertical seams of the white panels as darts, and deepened the back seams a bit to get a closer fit. The dress fits like a glove as you can see from the side view, although there is a little bit of fabric pooling/rippling at the back:

For the sleeves I just used the pattern pieces from a previously traced Burda pattern. I did check whether I needed to alter the armscye to fit, figuring that it would be a slightly different shape for a sleeveless dress as opposed to a sleeved dress but they were exactly the same. I guess Burda uses the same basic block for their pattern designs which is useful to know.

The original pattern is for an unlined dress, with the neck and armhole openings simply turned and top stitched down. Because I've made this from wool and I always wear pantyhose during the winter I lined the dress from the yoke down in a light grey lining fabric from the stash, making the black yoke doubled so that it also acts as a facing to the neckline.

It took me such a long time to sew this dress, thanks to a cranky toddler letting me only sew in short spurts here and there. But overall I quite like this dress, and might make it again in summer from a cotton fabric in a sleeveless version as per the original pattern.

And now onto the July Burda, hopefully done in July and not August......