self-drafted

Kiddy Tiered Skirt Yeehaw…Gathering Hell

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Excuse #4: Verdict on the Instruction, continued

OMG, how could I have forgotten about this other very important key make-my-life-harder feature…

You may gather (haha) from my previous projects that I’m not much of a gatherer. But this project has miles of gathering to do.

tiered-skirt_1-3I do own one of those weird contraption called a ruffler foot. But given the type of garments I tend to sew I’ve never used it on a project before.

I thought I’d try it out. Unfortunately, it eats fabric for breakfast, lunch & dinner. I’m not sure if I got a defective unit or not – it was a cheap eBay model – but even at the least-gathering setting, 18″ of test fabric was promptly reduced to 5″ at best. What with the calculation hell I was already in with this project, I had to abandon this route. It does make some lovely gathers though…(see bottom sample in the photo below).

tiered-skirt_1-2

The other route I’ve read about is using overlocker’s differential feed to gather & sew at the same time. Way too advanced for me – the second part that is. I tried the first part on a sample. The result wasn’t spectacular (see top sample in the photo above). Maybe 2-thread overlock isn’t the right stitch to do overlocker gathering – the instruction did specify 4-thread overlock stitch. But I was worried about having too much thread built up as I was going to gather, attach, then overlock again.

In the end it was back to good old fashion route of pulled basting stitch. Which of course took ages. Urgh.

So here’s a question for all you Master Gatherers: What’s your secrets for expert gathering? Is this one for Patience or am I missing out on some Fast Track Insider Tips?

BTW, a couple more styling ideas for this skirt if I had one in my size… Biker Chic with a leather jacket … Or Senorita style like this clipping…

tiered-skirt_3-1

Lucky for my niece this skirt doesn’t fit me. Otherwise she might not be getting this in the post!

Kiddy Tiered Skirt Yeehaw

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Next off the kiddy clothing production line is the pile in the middle.

For a simple tiered skirt this one took me embarrassingly long to complete.

Excuse #1: The Pattern

What pattern? Precisely.

Originally I was going to use the Burda 9547 view E skirt that I had already bought. But then I decided I’d prefer the tiers to be free-floating like the out of print McCall 5920 pattern.

So I ended up improvising as I go along. And being an indecisive type, this was not a pretty sight with many a redo and tweaks along the way…despite this being essentially 3 rectangular strips of fabrics!

Catalogue Shots

tiered-skirt_2-finished

Fabric & Notions Used

Excuse #2: Size Used

Obviously no standard sizing was involved in the making of this project.

My main criteria was the waistband / top piece has to be big enough for my niece’s hip (+ a bit for growth spurt) and once done small enough for her current waist but elastic enough for the aforesaid growth spurt (or one too many scoop of ice cream). The lower tiers are basically multiples of the fabric width.

Length is where a lot of dithering comes in. Was knee-length too uncool? But too short a skirt will definitely get a veto from the parents.  The skirt ended up a 17-1/2″, which I think is maybe 1-2″ above the knee. Fingers crossed.

Excuse #3: Changes Made

Now with no commercial pattern nothing counts as change right. But if I were to start with McCall 5920 A I would still have had to…

  • Convert the fitted top band with zipper to elasticated waistband.
  • Account for the sort-of-underlining (which was no walk in the park because of the free-floating tiers, especially as I didn’t want the top of the bottom tier to be so wide that any gust of wind would make her indecent) .

Excuse #4: Verdict on the Instruction

Yeah, the instruction – that would be mine – was pretty poor. Good thing I’m no indie pattern designer then! ;o) Too many back & forth between sewing machine & overlocker, brown threads & orange threads, brown on top & orange on bottom, and vice versa!

But let’s get to the key make-my-life-harder features of this skirt:tiered-skirt-1-construction

All 3 tiers are sort of underlined. “Sort of” because they’re not really basted to the shell & treated as one. I wanted the underlining to be free-floating as well, especially for the bottom tier. So underling & shell side seams were sewn separately. They were only treated as one when joining the tiers. Let me just say this (+ the aforementioned modesty preserver) complicate things t-r-e-m-e-n-d-o-u-s-l-y. Highly not recommended.

Because the cut lace is a bit scratchy, I decided to cut the elastic casing separately in lining fabric to make it more comfortable to wear. But I was a bit worried the thin lining might wear out too quickly. So I reinforced the casing lining with light-weight interfacing.

The fabric doesn’t come with scallop salvage. But I wanted scallops. The lacy pattern screams out for scallops. So scallops I will have. And of course the underlining being free-floating it must have its own scallops too. And of course the fancy scallop stitch that came with the sewing machine was not good enough: It was too narrow even if the length was adjustable to match the cut lace’s pattern repeat.

So a template was made. And fabric stiffened and double stiffened. And countless hours lost to rows and rows of manual satin-stitching. The result immediately after stitching doesn’t look half-bad. But once the stabilizers were washed out, the scallops were a bit underwhelming to be honest.

tiered-skirt_1-1tiered-skirt_2-finished-detail-2

I suppose it gives the skirt a bit of Vivienne Westwoodish 16th century cut lash look, all rough & delicate at the same time. (She says delusionally.) Of course any fashion reference would sadly be lost on a Tweeny Bopper. Poop.

Would I sew it again / Would I recommend it to others

Would I! Not for a growing kid I won’t! Maybe for myself, if I’m high on paint fume or something.

It is awfully labor intensive. But I already have a few styling ideas for one my size! Country-western… Aforementioned VW cut & slashy… Maybe even classy pearls, mohair, & pumps. (No wonder kids thinks home sewn fashion are so uncool – we sew for our own grownup taste after all! 😉

Franken-patterned Burda 013-02-121

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inspiration-jigsaw-sweaterNext on my write up list is this attempt to recreate a beloved but shrunken sweater with a 60ish vibe. It  always reminded me of this scene from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. And who can resist anything from that film right?

0-inspiration-bat-2

Knitting would have taken too long and require skills that I don’t have. So sewing with a sweater knit fabric it is then.

The Pattern

I went through my growing collection of patterns and of course nothing match exactly. So I had to resort to Franken-patterning. This one from Burda comes closest to what I want…

 Style Shots & Mug Shots

4-style2-10 4-style2-14-style2-4  4-style1-4 4-style1-3  3-mug1-1F 3-mug1-3B3-mug1-4SR

Fabric & Notions Used

Size Used

I graded down to a size 34, ignoring standard instruction for a 38.

Changes Made

Fitting changes

You’d thought a loose-fitting garment would be easy to fit. But I actually find it harder. All my reference points – the darts, the bust point, etc – all gone. Where do you begin? (And anyone who thinks a sack is a good idea should read fit for a queen‘s recent “Let’s Be Honest” blog post.)

So I tried a variety of things. And of course the project end up taking longer than it should.

First was comparing it to my WIP woven sloper. No idea how to align the sloper against the pattern. It doesn’t help that Burda never has bust point indicated on the pattern. In the end I tried aligning the underarm levels and roughly check the widths to ensure they’re at least as wide as my almost easeless sloper.

As insurance, I tried tissue fitting too and ended up with this:

2-pattern-alt-1a 2-pattern-alt-1b
…which seemed alright. It has some ease, but it wasn’t like a tent or anything.

2-fit3So I started sewing it up. But when I tried it on after basting the sleeve & side seam, I decided it was a bit too loose for the design I wanted, and the shoulder point was neither here nor there, so over all a bit frumpy.

I decided to take it in from shoulder point through the armscye and down the side seam. And also shorten it a bit in both bodice and sleeves.

But oops, I forgot that with the shoulder seam shortened, the sleeves will be shorter too. So in the end I had to sew back in a fake cuff to make up for my over-zealous shortening.

Here’s the final pattern with the final seam lines in light blue.

2-pattern-alt-2a 2-pattern-alt-2b

I won’t go into the usual tedious details of all my changes. The only one really worth pointing out is how massively wide the original sleeve was. I must have taken in at least 2″ with the vertical tucks.

Design changes

Apart from shortening and making it slightly more fitted at the bust, the key design changes are obviously…

  • Changed sleeves to standard narrowed sleeves.
  • Adding the cowl / giant turtle-neck collar. This is simply a rectangle the width of my head circumference and about 9″ in height + seam allowances. The finished height is 4-1/2″ double-layered.

Verdict on the Instruction

Again instruction ignored because of my design changes. If I didn’t have to make fitting changes half-way through this would have been sewn up in no time. I was terrified of the fabric because I’ve never sewn a sweater knit. But it was in fact a dream to sew with. For this one I used only Bernie the serger and finished the hemming by hand.

Here’s how I constructed this one:

  1. Overlocked shoulder seams with clear elastic stabilizer, collar CB seam, sleeves and bodice hem edges. Shoulder SA finger-press towards the back.
  2. Overlocked collar to neckline in the round, collar CB seam matching bodice CB. SA finger-pressed downward & hand back-stitched in place. (Could have machine top-stitched in place instead.)
  3. Overlocked sleeves to bodice armscye. Finger-pressed SA towards bodice.
  4. Overlocked sleeve and side seams. Finger-pressed SA towards back.
  5. Catch-stitch sleeve & bodice hems.

And there you go!

Except for my cuff extension of course. As it was a fix for a boo-boo, there’s no point going into how I did it. The result isn’t bad, but given the choice I’d left it as regular hem.

Would I sew it again / Would I recommend it to others

Hell Yeah. Especially if I find another lovely sweater knit in that weird shade of grayish white like the original sweater I shrunken. This one is a keeper.

And I think I will also try the pattern as originally designed – a tunic with front slit and hem slits and border and all!

Franken-patterning

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So, winter has returned to London again after a week’s break. And despite my recent ‘achievements’ I still feel like I have nothing to wear when I dress for work in the morning.

With that in mind I decided my next projects need to be practical winter tops that I’ll be able to wear immediately. I have a light weight wool jersey and a sweater knit I want to use up.

fabric-lt-wool-jersey-001I’ve been eying Burdastyle 2011-11-114 for the light-weight wool jersey ever since the pattern came out. But I’m not convinced by the weird upper back, the dropped shoulder with skinny sleeves (is that a weird bump I see at the shoulder tip seam?), nor the length (seems like it’d only be good with skinny pants and pencil skirts). But I love the wrap front drape. So I’m thinking of a Franken-pattern with shortened Burdastyle Blumarine 2011-06-139 bodice and sleeves (what I originally planned for the turquoise leopard print fabric – I might still make it yet) + the front neckline of Burdastyle 2011-11-114.

bs-2011-06-139_tech-mod + bs-2011-11-114_tech-mod = goal-lt-wool-jersey ?

fabric-sweater-knit-001And for the sweater knit, I’m thinking of a silhouette like this Jigsaw sweater I got from a friend during a cloth swap.

inspiration-jigsaw-sweaterI loved that sweater. I didn’t think I would. But its 60ish vibe worked really well with both skinny pants and this A-line skirt I also got during the cloth swap. Oh how I cried when I accidentally shrunk the sweater. I was considering knitting a replacement, but knitting takes too long and my knitting skill is unreliable.

So, I’m thinking of using Burdastyle 013-02-121 Flared Tunic as the base, drop the front collar slit, tame the sleeve flare a bit, shorten the tunic, and add a wide tube collar.

bs-2013-02-121_tech-mod  =>    goal-sweater-knit   ?

What do you think? Would either of these mashups work? Or am I mad like Frankenstein? 🙂

And you, do you do much pattern mashing / Franken-patterning?

Psychedelic Leopard 3: Modified M6078c cowl neck top

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So this was suppose to be a shortened Burdastyle Magazine Blumarine 2011-06-139 wrap dress. But after I traced out and altered that pattern, I just couldn’t squeeze the wrap top out of the leopard print fabric. And I laid out pieces for all 3 projects at the same time to conserve fabric too. No luck. So another sleeveless cowl top it is then.

As V1282 has all the drape from bust down, I decided this one should have all the drape from bust up. Just for variety you know. So people don’t think I’m wearing the same stinking top day in and day out! (Not that my DOH could tell the difference.)

The Pattern

I made M6078 view B before and was quite pleased with the result. So I’m sort of using this as a TNT pattern / design block for cowl neck tops in moderate stretch knit fabrics.

Style Shots & Mug Shots

Fabric & Notions Used

Size Used

XS (4-6) like my last make of M6078 view B. Recommended size for me would be M (12-14).

Changes Made

Fitting changes = Adjusted M6078 view C pattern
m6078cMod-2

M6078 view C pattern (minus SA) on top of my final pattern (with SA)

  • Wide Shoulder Adjustment: 1/4″
  • Rounded Upper Back Adjustment: additional 1/2″ on back shoulder, eased during sewing
  • Misc shoulder / upper-back adjustments (based on fitting assessment of my last make):
    • Raised front shoulder/neck point by 1/4″
    • Lower back shoulder/arm point by 3/4″
    • Raised CB Neck by 7/8″
  • Narrow Lower Back Adjustment: 1/4″ at under-arm to 1/2″ at waist
  • Sway Back Adjustment: Slashed across waistline & overlapped 3/4″ lengthwise at CB. Redrew CB below waist and removed 7/8″ width from back hip as a result. Added back 3/4″ lengthwise at CB hem.
  • Narrowed bodice for a more fitted look: 1/2″ at under-arm to 1″ at waist
  • Shorten hem 2″
  • Raised armhole by 1/4″. In retrospect I think I should have left it alone. The result was slightly tight. I raised it because the armhole of my previous make seemed a bit low. But that could have been because I laid the patterns on the crosswise grain which is stretchier, so gravity might have pulled down the armhole.

Now before you say “Woah! That’s a hell of a lot of changes” I just want to say “not this time”. I’ve already made most of these changes when I made view B. There were only a couple of tweaks this time. But I listed all the deviations from the original pattern so it’s clear I’m not using the unmodified pattern. As you can see in the photo above, once I got a good fitting version of the pattern, making design changes is Play not Work! 🙂

Design changes
m6078cMod-1

Final pattern with design changes

  • Added a pleat in the front shoulder – like view B
  • Added a rectangular tube-like cowl collar by extending the facing outward from shoulder-neck point half the amount of back neck width
  • Raised CB neck / straighten back neck so the collar / facing wouldn’t sit too low in the back
  • Pleated the back collar vertically so more drape is on the collar outside than collar inside
  • Omitted the shoulder area loops
  • Used self-fabric binding tapes for armhole finishing

Verdict on the Instruction

OK, I didn’t follow the instruction this time as I was too clever for my own good. I thought I’d streamline the process and make 3 projects simultaneously production line style. I probably ended up spending more time on each than if I had followed instructions and done one at a time. But with my design changes I would have had to figure some steps out on my own anyway. The original pattern instruction is pretty easy to follow though.

Here’s how I constructed this one:

  1. m6078cMod-3Stabilized back neck line and armholes with Vilene Bias Tape.
  2. Sewed & overlocked side seams and collar / facing CB seam.
  3. Sewed & overlocked shoulder – back neck / collar – shoulder seam, applying clear elastic in the process to stabilize the shoulder seams.
  4. m6078cMod-4m6078cMod-5m6078cMod-6

    Turned CB collar / facing edge inside and slip-stitched to CB neck seam (like I did for my Golden Cowl Neck Tunic – are you getting the same sense that I LUV COWL??? :-D)

  5. Pleated the back collar / facing vertically, leaving only the desired collar height on the inside (in my case about 1-1/2″ on the insTextide). Secured the outside pleats to the inside collar / facing portion with a vertical stitch along the collar CB seam.
  6. Oops. Tried on the top and discovered the armhole was a bit tight. Ripped out the Vilene Bias Tape to allow the fabric to stretch naturally.
  7. Sewed binding tape to armhole (in the same method as instructed by V1282 I was making at the same time).
  8. Overlocked hem edge then turn and sew hem in place.

The usual Walking Foot and stretch stitch advice applies. I didn’t bothered with twin needles for hems because I always get a ridge between the two stitching lines and it drives me crazy! One day I’ll treat myself to a cover stitch machine. But I haven’t earned it yet.

This time I also omitted the interfacing for the hem and hoped for the best when overlocking. Unfortunately my fabric was too stretchy / difficult to control. I ended up spray starching the hem to temporarily stabilize fabric for overlocking and heming.

Would I sew it again / Would I recommend it to others

Probably not this particular pattern modification. It didn’t turn out exactly as I envisioned. Then again my visions tend to be a bit hazy! }:-)

I do like the concept, so I’ll probably play with this type of cowl neck again. I just need to figure out where exactly I want my drapes and where I want it snug.

I would most definitely recommend the original pattern, and for the more adventurous amongst you, playing with this type of modified cowl neck.