Pattern Brands

Made myself an Endless Dress

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The rabbit hole has been a pit of sweat shop lately. I’ve never sewn so much. Not that I’ve gotten any quicker. There was just about time to tidy up before I had to move on to the next one. You see, I’m sewing for a dream holiday in the Maldives. So there was no time to rest.

endless_s1_4First off the assembly line…An Endless / Limitless Dress / Skirt / Asian Pants.

Because it’s suppose to be easy. And because as a convertible I’d have options even if I don’t manage to finish anything else.

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The Design & Inspiration

So this is the one I saw in Threads then stumble upon the instruction online by chance. The very clever Marybeth Bradbury had came up with the instruction for her Endless Convertible Dress after being inspired by the Limitless Convertible Dress by Danish designer Emami.

original_1Actually, I had came across Emami’s Limitless Dress before. Friends who were into fashion had discovered it years ago. I thought it was really clever. But as it was expensive, I didn’t buy one.

This time, I did feel pangs of guilt and wonder if I should buy one. You know, to support independent designers who come up with clever design ideas. For the art of this garment is in the wearing instructions, which Emami provides video demonstration for on their website. As Marybeth’s instruction shows, there’s very little sewing involved. Plus the price seems to have come down.

In the end I made one instead of buy one. Because the colors Emami offer were a bit too drab for my current taste. Sorry…

The Making

OK, so this is suppose to be dead easy. Depending on fabric you should be able to get away with 3 seams and probably finish in an hour or two. But as I’m fairly new to 4-way stretch fabric and to using a overlocker, it took me a bit longer. Also, being a visual person, it took me a little longer to follow Marybeth’s verbal instruction and quick sketch.

So here are my learnings. Maybe it will be helpful if you decide to make your own Endless dress.

Fabric & Notions Used

Mustard color Viscose Cotton Lycra 4-way Stretch Fabric from Tia Knight / Tissu Fabrics. I ordered 3 meters, but probably got like 3 m 16 cm because I had enough left over for a separate bandeau top and a sleeveless cowl neck top. It was the lightest 4-way stretch fabric I had and it has a lovely soft touch and fabulous drape – perfect for a dress like this.

Skin color lightweight Power Mesh from Tia Knight / Tissu Fabrics for the underlining.

Gutermann polyester thread, and some woolly nylon I got in America long time ago. 3/8” clear elastic.

Size Used

It’s kind of a one-size design utilizing full width of the fabric. Depending on your fabric and your waist measurement, it’ll come out differently length-wise.

Changes Made

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  • My fabric curled at the selvedges, so I cut off about 1-1/4” at both selvedges. I forgot to adjust the 30” measure to the center of the waist hole. So this leaves me with a slightly shorter skirt at the sides. Thankfully, the dress style make the mistake less noticeable.
  • I used one of the selvedges to make a matching spaghetti cord instead of buying separate cord.
  • My waist hole is slightly bigger because my fabric doesn’t seem as stretchy. You need to make sure the circumference of the hole for the waist will stretch to fit your hip so you can pull the dress / skirt on. But don’t make it so large that the skirt slips down while you wear it. It’s knit, so you probably want 0 ease or even negative ease at the waist (ie your waist measurement or smaller). I also reinforced the waist hole with clear elastic in the hope that this will prevent the waist from being stretched out of shape with wear and becoming too loose. We shall see if it works over time!
  • I made my waistband taller / longer thinking that I can then wear the band as a strapless tube bodice. Now having worn the dress I can tell you that it’s a bad idea. The weight of the skirt will pull the band down leading to wardrobe malfunction a la Janet Jackson. (Luckily I was wearing the draped part of the skirt as a haltered front at the time.) Separate bandeau top is the way to go.
  • I also added a layer of lightweight power mesh as underlining to make the waist band less flimsy as a tube top. This turns out to be a bad idea again. I didn’t tack the underlining to the fashion fabric at the fold. So when I wore it, the underlining wouldn’t stay up and instead bunched up near the waist.

When I get home, I’ll probably reduce the waist band to Marybeth’s original suggestion of approx. 6” finished height and tack the underlining or remove it completely.

Verdict on the Instruction

Marybeth’s instruction is a bit sketchy, so I think you do have to have some sewing experience to know how to finish the garment. It’s not difficult, but if you’re someone who like each step to be spelt out in details, you’d struggle a bit. I’m happy to muck about with pattern drafting and improvise the sewing, so it’s not a problem for me.

You can see how I interpreted her pattern instruction in the diagram above.

Sewing-wise, I used mostly my sewing machine to give me better control over the stretchy fabric. I’d sew on my sewing machine first with reduced pressure foot pressure, a walking foot, and my machine’s basic stretch stitch – a kind of narrow zig zag stitch. For the waist seam I then sew on the clear elastic, again on the sewing machine. For waist band center back seam and waist seam I then reinforce & clean finish on the serger with a 3-thread overlock.

The hem / casing for the cord is simply folded over twice and edge-stitched with the sewing machine basic stretch stitch.

For the rest of the skirt, I did consider doing a rolled hem. But the experiments on scraps weren’t promising. The fabric was stretching into lettuce edge hem which I didn’t want. It also made the hem stiffer which doesn’t work well with this drapy dress style. So in the end I left the hem as raw edges – as implied by Marybeth’s instruction. The fabric doesn’t fray, so the unfinished edges aren’t a problem.

Would I sew it again

Probably not.

While I do love the idea of convertible garments, the ones I tried so far have all been a bit uncomfortable to wear. The threat of wardrobe malfunction is always on my mind as nothing is firmly anchored.

It can also be difficult to make the garment look good from all angles. I love how this dress look in the front. But with the styles I’ve tried so far the back always seem to look the same and not reflect the lovely style promised by the front.

Here are the styles I tried on holiday. It was really too hot to experiment more.

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And here’s one taken before I went on holiday. It’s my Buddhist Monk look! 🙂

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I need to experiment more with the wearing options. In any case, making and wearing this one has given me ideas on styles that would look great with this fabric (hint: lots of drapes). And it goes to show beautiful garments aren’t always about complicated design and sewing. Simple can be just as beautiful.

Vogue Patterns 2686, a fitting guinea pig

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SVPD-frontSVPD-back

Having worked out my SVPD (Standard Vogue Patterns Deviations), I set to try out FFRP tissue fit and fit-as-you-sew approachon a proper fashion pattern.

I combed through my Vogue Patterns collection looking for one as similar to the bodice fitting pattern as possible, and preferably without bottom / skirt nor sleeves. Because I’m that timid. Baby steps dear, baby steps.

Unbelievably I had only one candidate. Almost all others were princess seams of one type or another, or complicated seaming, or too loose. So the top from out-of-print V2686 by Tom and Linda Platt it is then.

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I must confess I didn’t obey FFRP’s instruction to try on the tissue without alteration first. I went ahead and compare the patterns to my SVPD slopers and dived in for the kill. Which is just as well since the bust point on the pattern is weirdly low. Don’t know if it’s printing mistake or drafting mistake. In any case, my boobs may be maturing, but they haven’t head that far south just yet. To get into the Pattern Reviews habit, here’s my write up in roughly the standard PR format…

Size Used:

8, per my SVPD fitting trials and tribulation. I would have otherwise used a 10 if I go by FFRP / chest measurement, or even a 12 if I had went for the size that’s closest to my bust measurement.

Changes Made:

Fitting Alterations I initially made:

  • Forward Shoulder
  • Wide Shoulder
  • Narrow Back at Under Arm / Bust level
  • Repositioned Back Waist Darts towards CB
  • Sway-Back
  • Full Bust (B to C cup)

After reading reviews on Pattern Reviews site, I also made minor Style Alterations:

  • Added an extra row of neckline top-stitching at the neck edge so the neckline isn’t so wide that the shoulders won’t stay put.
  • Added another row of neckline top-stitching at the outer / shoulder edge and extended the shoulder seam so the outer rows of top-stitching aren’t cut off by the armhole. What’s the point of having this lovely details if it’s flimsily insubstantial I say!

v2686-top_0_pat-alt Final pattern: Black lines are tracing of the original pattern. Blue bits are additions. Red and Green lines are various iterations of my changes.

And here is the initial tissue fitting:

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To my untrained eyes it looks darn good to me. Apart from the slight gap in the back arm hole. I’m not surprised by that, but I’m not sure what to do to fix it. My SVPD back sloper shows that I needed a deeper shoulder dart. In fact, it’s twice the width of the fitting shell shoulder dart. FFRP call this Slightly Rounded Upper Back. In my other fitting book it’s closest to a Prominent Shoulder Blade. Regardless, I needed shaping for curvature there. But this fashion pattern doesn’t have dart there. Nor do many other. So what do you do?

I decide to go ahead with fashion fabric pin fitting and see how bad the gap is in fabric.

Here is my first fabric fitting:

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A bit baggy here and there I’d say. And the back armhole gap is definitely there. Even the front armhole gap a little. Here’s what I ended up doing:

  • Increase front side bust darts to get rid of front armhole gap.
  • Extend back darts upward closer to my blade points to get rid of mid back bagginess.
  • Made back shoulder slightly more sloped and extended it towards neck and armhole a little bit for dart-wannabe that will be converted into ease when sewing. Any further gap I’d stay-stitch and ease into a slightly shorter back armhole binding.

Here’s my second fabric fitting:

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And here’s the finished result:

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Hmm, where did all those back wrinkles come from?!?!?! Is this a fail? Or can I blame it on the fabric? Speaking of the devil…

Fabric & Notions Used

v2686-top_3_det-03The weird pale blue-cream two-tone silk dupioni that I got 11 yards of for some unfathomable reason ages ago. I figure I wouldn’t cry if it didn’t work out – I’d still have yards and yard of it, even if the fabric wasn’t cheap. It’s Twilight Como Silk from Wolf Home (formerly Silk Trading Co. in the basement of ABC Carpets) in NYC.

Contrasting Guterman topstitching thread in a lovely orange. I think recent sewing room makeover color scheme is really getting into my head. I can’t get away from orange-turquoise combinations!

Lovely plastic button with irregular clear and milky stripes in a pale green that matches the two-tone dupioni perfectly!

Cotton sew-in interfacing.

Verdict on the Instructions

I did read through it. But I also took advice from Pattern Review and sew the top-stitching after joining the shoulder seams. Because frankly my dear, my seam matching and parallel straight-stitching skills aren’t up to par. (Glad I’m not a Quilter.)

I also deviated from the instruction on how to finish the facing edges. I was concerned about bulkiness showing through my light weight dupioni. I did tests with the layers that the instruction would have landed me with, as well as 2-thread overlocked edges with both overlock thread and woolly nylon. All too heavy for my taste.

So I resorted to that hallmark of home sewing – pinking, reinforced with a straight-stitch 1/8” from the edge. This I used to finish all the seam edges as well.

v2686-top_3_det-07Whatever rock your boat I say. I mean it’s not like I’m going to take the top off to show you the pinked innards!

I wouldn’t dare telling professionals using specialised machinery to make things my way, but when it comes to my own sewing, my own machine’s quarks, my own skill shortfalls…Anything goes as long as it works – better than it would have if I had followed instructions to the T that is.

Would I sew it again

As a Basic Block, yes. I’ve invested in all that fitting effort after all. But probably only as a Block. Or if this one wears out.

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Back buttoning isn’t exactly easy. I can just about reach the buttons right now. But you know what they say about age and flexibility. And oops, I missed one button in my photo shoot. Point proven.

Zipper would be easier.

v2686-top_3_det-back-zip-1v2686-top_3_det-back-zip-2I’ve done a couple of above hip length fitted tops before with back zipper that zip down instead of up so that I can get through the fitted waist. The zipper stops about shoulder blade level and I find that manageable to get into.

So that’s probably what’ll happen to this V2686 top in future incarnations. It’ll also avoid interrupting the top-stitching line with button and button hole. A happy win-win then.

The ever festering dress

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I’m on route to my brother’s graduation with nothing to do on the flight. So finally, some time to catch you up on the gazillion projects I always seem to be working on (if not finish).

First off, a lemon.

It started life as a RTW dress from Camden Market. As expected of the Camden aesthetic it’s a bit Lolita Goth. It’s an interesting combination of a thin stretchy knit that clings for the long sleeve top and a floaty soft muslin for the A-line gore skirt. Inside the skirt at each vertical seam there’s a twill tape that allows you to draw up the skirt to form irregular bubble hem.

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I liked the dress well enough, but that knit top was never going to keep its shape with a full skirt dragging it down. So I decided to multiply my investment and turn each section into a separate garment.

First off, the skirt. I thought I’d keep to the Victorian Undergarment feel and keep it light and airy in thin China Silk and as a pull on with no zip, no closures. After much agonizing I settled on a spaghetti strap camisole top with empire waist in the front slopping to a natural waist in the back. I didn’t have the right shade of matching off-white, so I went for what seems like a complementary shade light mocha, along with a lovely organdy ribbon with gold scroll print for a border.

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For pattern, I base it on my most recent bodice sloper result. camden-dress2-patternThe bust darts have been pivoted into one single French dart, and bodice cropped at under-bust in the front. The back waist darts have been pivoted out, resulting in a continuous curved back piece. But I then had to pivot the dart back in to make the waist big enough to slip the dress on. OK, no big deal I thought and continued my merry way finishing the damn slippery top and attached it to the skirt.

Boy was I wrong. The result was less than stellar. The combination of the color and silhouette just does not work for me. Especially in the back where the unflattering puffy band of the back bodice cuts my body into unflattering proportions.

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The angle of the straps also look a bit weird. But I had to shift them so close to the CB to prevent the straps from falling off my sloping shoulder / muscular neck.

I tried my best to style it to no avail. So it’s a case of “Sounds Good In Theory…”

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But fear not. The dress isn’t going to be binned. camden-dress2-detail-2

The doubled spaghetti straps with matching bows are too pretty to bin. I’m just going to dissect and multiply the dress again and turn this lemon into a lemon meringue. Stayed tuned to find out what becomes of 1 that became 2 that then became 3 dresses.

 

Make yourself an Endless Dress!

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When I saw this red convertible dress in Threads last year, I Googled the Virtual Earth looking for it. But there was no cigar to be had. Not even close.

So imagine my delight when tonight I accidentally found the blog of this elusive “Marybeth Bradbury”!

This is her interpretation of an Emami convertible. And lucky for us she has shared the instruction for making yourself an Endless Dress. So what are you waiting for?

 

 

 

FFRP Odyssey: Bodice Part N (as in eNd)

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Bloggers who do illustrated tutorials have my full admiration. Because it’s bloody hard to do well!

I started out with the best of intentions to make my FFRP Odyssey a tutorial of sort. But I ran out of patience. Sewing is supposed to be fun. This bodice fitting is turning out to be a chore. So I’m going to wrap this up and park further fidgeting with fitting for the future, when my patience returns. Brace yourself for a long post though.

Hurdle Squared: 1 step forward & 2 steps back

I must admit I haven’t been exactly faithful to FFRP when it comes to the actual alteration. Some of the diagrams just don’t add up to me. So I turned to my Fitting & Pattern Alteration book at times (eg initial back width & high round back alterations), and resorted to smooshing and transfering à la Kenneth King at other times (more back width alteration).

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This is the closest I got to what looks like a good fit, in tissue anyway:

So imagine my dismay when the first gingham try-out turns out like this:

It felt a bit too loose around the bust and in the back. Pinning out the looseness I arrived at this:

Hmm, over-fitted. Again.

The bust points are now a little bit too high. This together with the horizontal wrinkles in the lower back make me think I might have pinned out too much length in the front. I had deepen the side bust darts and took a horizontal tuck between bust points to follow what I thought was the contour of my bust. I probably should have made the side bust darts more shallow instead. Just one of those paradoxes of fitting that gets you.

After correcting this mistake and experimented with different back side seam angles and side seam height alignments, I arrived at this:

The slight tug under the bust I think is just due to the curved under-bust darts not being properly clipped to the curves.

The front armscyes look a bit too scooped out. But they feel more comfortable this way, especially when I reach my arms forward and the whole shoulder areas seem to move with my arms, creating those vertical wrinkles next to the armscyes.

There’s an interesting discussion on Pattern Review about this which I can’t seem to find anymore. Someone had claimed that for comfortable arm movement the front armpit to armpit width (at about the notch level) should have zero ease, but the same width in the back should have about 3/4″ ease (or 3/8″ per side). The only problem for me is that when my arms are by my sides, they tilt backward a bit, so extra fabric at the back armscye notches binds. So my armscye now look a bit like a tear drop shape. Weird.

The back I just can’t seem to get right. It doesn’t help that I don’t have a fitting buddy for this hard to reach (and see) area. I ended up shifting the dart points inward closer to my blade apexes, pinning a horizontal tuck between the blades at blade level, vertical tucks at the darts and deeper bottom darts, and horizontal tucks in lower side backs to pin out excess lengths at the back side seam.

By this point, I have so many markings on this gingham that I can’t see what’s what anymore. So I transferred the latest alterations back to the tissues. Then I traced off a copy that removed any extra vertical and horizontal tucks and darts by pivoting and sliding.

After truing things off I made a fresh gingham off the new altered patterns:

Apart from needing to lengthen it slightly all around, I’m declaring it Good Enough for now. Well, good enough for a Hold-Your-Breath Bodice anyway. There really isn’t enough ease to breath easily in this. I’m speculating this won’t be a problem for stretch woven, but will be a problem for standard woven fabrics.

I’ve made one garment too many like this. All the ones based on my old Big Bertha sloper were like this. They really were fit only for a Dummy that doesn’t need to breathe. Or sit. Or move in general.

So the Billion Dollar Question is: Where to add that wearing ease. Seems like I wasn’t the only one asking the question. Someone had already asked on  Pattern Review about where to add ease when creating a sloper. There doesn’t seem to be a straight answer with clear explanation of why. The closest was Don McCunn’s reply “Ease is almost always added to the side seam because that is where the maximum amount of movement occurs as you move in a garment.” So that’s what I intend to try.

Maybe I should also try out Kenneth King’s Moulage class / CD book. Because what I’ve got is essentially a second-skin moulage without all the measuring nightmare. But I still need to learn how to turn the moulage into sloper and blocks.

The scenic route back

Out of curiosity I compared this final (for now) version of the bodice with Vogue 1004 Fitting Shell size 10 and size 8. And guess what, I’m back to a size 8! (I was a size 8 in my twenties. Then I got married and too well fed.)

Here’s the front comparison with a size 8 C-cup.

I needed a bit more width in the bust area and waist, but the bust darts all seem to be the same size as the size 8 C-cup front.

Here’s the back comparison.


Again the dart in the lower half seems to be the same size. Interesting how the width added to the lower front is taken away in the back, resulting in a net gain of zero. But then again I have still have to add a bit more ease.

I did have to make adjustments for rounded upper back,  prominent shoulder blades, forward shoulder joint, and forward head. These along with the bigger cup size all point to one thing: Aging 🙁

But at least my frame is still size 8. All those expensive Designer Vogue Patterns I bought ages ago and cut out to size 8 have not been wasted after all! 🙂

So off I go with more fun summer sewing. I’ll sort out the sleeve fitting when autumn / winter comes again.