finished projects

Teal + Brown Floral Print Reversible Moto Jacket – Burda 2013-11-117 part 2

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So with the pattern sorted next up is fabric prep & construction…

Fabric & Notions Used

This being a jacket to match my new reversible(ish) pencil skirt, I used mostly the same material as the skirt, namely…

The only new ingredient was Bronze Poly Lycra Leatherette from Tissu Fabric, a cheap fake leather for the collar edging – because I can’t be bothered with non-washable real leather! I do wish I used a better quality faux leather though. The leather-like coating is already rubbing off after a few wears. Oops. I do like its look while it lasted though – it’s more copper (my favorite metallic color) than bronze.

2#Now the main fabric from Mood I love more and more. It was quite easy to work with. And the color while a bit dull on the bolt has proved to be a real team player in my wardrobe.

However, for this pattern, I was still a bit worried about whether this  sweatshirtish fabric has enough heft. Many reviewers complained about the huge collar not standing up right like in the cool Burda photos. Burda’s recommended fabric – ponte knit – simply doesn’t have the heft to keep the single layer collar standing proud and tall. Nancy K suggested that the leather edge binding might provide the requisite support. But then the inner part of the collar – the stand & turn part – would still be a bit wimpy. I could have added facing to the fronts and collar as Allison C suggested. But I was a bit unsure about the fabric initially, so didn’t buy yards and yards of it.

Anyway, I decided to try felting the portion for the jacket. Big mistake. Even though it’s suppose to be wool acrylic blend, it didn’t felt at all after being put through hot wash & tumble drying. It just pilled. And softened further!!!??? Oops. Thank goodness I had this pill shaver gizmo in my sewing gadget cupboard. It managed to get rid of most of the fuzz, though it could do nothing about the slight softening. Lesson learnt: don’t be stingy – test on a swatch! BTW the fabric does take gentler wash cycle & air drying. I like to pre-wash almost everything to weed out divas from my closet.

See those little white pills on the upper right! The left is the unmolested skirt fabric.
The shaver gizmo to the rescue!
Almost as good as the unmolested skirt fabric!

Construction Notes

As you guessed it, I’ve ignored the pattern instruction again. It’s more atrocious than usual. I’m tempted to rewrite it even though I have no need of it. But that of course wasn’t why I ignored it. With the pattern changes I made (eg cut on peplum) & the techniques I’ve already chosen for the matching skirt, the instruction would have been useless to me anyway. So just some construction notes below in case you want to try out some of the same techniques…

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  • Like with the skirt I’ve flatlocked almost everything – even the sleeve / armscye. The only seam that’s not flatlocked is the left front princess seam with the zipper tape. I think theoretically it could have been, but the zipper teeth wouldn’t feed properly. So the fabric edges was flatlocked first, then zipper & seaming basted in place, then topstitched along either side of the flatlock edge finishing.
  • Sleeve zippers are attached in the same way as the skirt. The bodice front zipper tape is covered with the leatherette rather than left exposed like on the sleeves.
  • As I’m using leatherette rather than real leather, the front & collar edging is only done on one side of the fabric and applied like bias facing tape (so with seam allowances). But I had to use Stitch Witchery to fuse this leatherette to the fabric and to itself to keep it flat. Rather than top-stitching the tape, it’s machine sewn on the outer edge & hand slip-stitched on the inner edge.
  • The hem is again 2-thread wrap overlock edge finishing like on the skirt. There’s no peplum facing on my reversible version – the whole jacket is single layer.
  • Instead of snaps for the right front princess seam closure, I added hook closures to match the one on the skirt AA side. So again, I folded petersham ribbons in the same way as on the skirt to act like frog closures, fell-stitched these in place, then sewn the hook & eyes to the ribbons. These were placed just below the waist, at the underbust, above the bust, and at the chest (spaced evenly of course).

Style Shots & Mug Shots

So how does it look? Before the reveal let’s have a reminder of the design & pattern photo again for comparison…

 

And here’s my finished version…

 

J_4-style1-1
J_4-style2-1J_4-style2-2J_4-style2-3

J_4-style4-2J_4-style3-1

J_4-style5-1
J_4-style5-2J_4-style5-5J_4-style5-6

J_4-style7-1J_4-style6-3

Final verdict

I was planning to reuse the pattern, but I’m on the fence about it after my collar turned out just as floppy as everyone else’s (apart from those smart Russian / Polish ladies who made theirs with fabric worthy of cold weather coats).

Having said that, I’m very pleased with this particular make. The fabrics, the pattern, the details just came together beautifully. It’s got the perfect blend of edginess & femininity for my cup of tea. And like its matching skirt it’s reversible-ish too! Perfect for a style commitment-phobe like me!

Teal + Brown Floral Print Reversible Moto Jacket – Burda 2013-11-117 part 1

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OK, there’s a fair few photos to show for this project, so I’m mixing things up a bit and splitting this into two posts. First up, the pattern & alterations.

The Design & Pattern

Doesn’t the jacket look so cool in Burda magazine’s photos? I was seduced. Ever since I sew Marc Jacob’s pastel moto jacket I wanted one in non-traditional color & fabric. I like the simple style lines. It offers a load of possibilities for showing off my double-face fabric: color-blocking, visible reverse side.

Size Used

34 rather than recommended 36. Because it’s closes to my Jacket Block which I’m using to guide fitting changes.

Changes Made

Fitting changes

I’m still trying to work out the best way to use my Jacket Blocks for altering commercial patterns to improve the fit. Here’s my current not so scientific approach:

  1. Lay the commercial pattern over my Jacket Block aligning at CF / CB waist. I’ve traced the pattern onto tissue paper, but also kept my Block on tracing paper to make this easier.
  2. Compare & decide what needs changing, and by how much. Now the how much is a bit of a dilemma, especially when my Block is currently more a Sloper with only the wearing ease and no design ease. There’s the risk of removing all the design ease and end up with the same jacket over and over again. So I decided to try this: Where the pattern doesn’t match the Jacket Block, I check if it at least matches the Moulage & Top/Dress markings before deciding whether to change or not. (My Jacket Block also has markings for the Moulage & Top/Dress Block’s key reference points like bust & shoulder points, bust/waist/hip widths.) For example, I didn’t increase the CF  pattern piece’s bust width to meet the Jacket Block bust points because it already meets the Moulage & Top/Dress Block bust point. And while total front bust width (after FBA) is less than my Jacket Block, it’s close to my Top/Dress Block bust width; add to that the back Bust width is slightly wider than my Jacket Block (at princess seam), so I think I have enough bust ease.
  3. Where the shape is really different from my Block, and standard alteration doesn’t get it close enough, I sliced & diced the innard of a pattern piece to pull the seam line into a shape that more closely resemble my Block. See the changes to the Front & Back side bodice pieces for example.

So using my Fitted Shoulder-Princess No-Shoulder-Pad Jacket Block (what a mouthful!) as the yard stick, these are the changes I end up making:

  • Short Waist Adjustment: This time shortened at the chest level so the armhole is smaller / higher like on my Block. Sleeve cap height also shortened to match.
  • Low Bust Adjustment
  • Front-Back Body Shape / Full Bust Adjustment: Done the unorthodox way mentioned in my previous post. So shifted some of the dart shaping from side seam to the front and back princess seams.
    Splicing & dicing to pull the seamline into the right shape.
    How my unorthodox approach compares with the standard FBA approach.
    My unorthodox approach to get side front to match my Jacket Block.
    Standard FBA result in less width at the bust & armhole area that’d need more fiddling.
  • Sloping Shoulder Adjustment
  • Uneven Shoulder Adjustment: Done the Cabrera-Meyers “Classic Tailoring Techniques: A Construction Guide for Men’s Wear” way, except with tissue pattern rather than the actual fabric. See my summary in a previous post.
  • Short Arm Adjustment: Partly done in the lower sleeve area (not hem), and partly in the sleeve cap area to match length removed from bodice armscye for Short Waist Adjustment. So the sleeve cap is shallower.
  • Widen Sleeve slightly to give me 2″ ease at bicep level. A few other people have complained that the sleeve is too narrow for them, even with stretch fabric. So you may want to check the widths. I have thin arms & could have gotten away with no widening. But 2″ sounds more comfortable for a jacket. I widened at the back sleeve seam. This also gives me a bit more ease in the sleeve armscye – the original pattern doesn’t seem to have any ease. I also followed Jeffery Diduch’s instruction in Threads July 2013 for guidance on how much sleeve armscye ease to include where. I kind of winged this as the pattern doesn’t have as many match point as in his pattern. But I subsequently found his online instruction on how to check the ease of these commercial pattern sleeves.
    Checking the sleeve shaping & ease at underarm…
    Checking the sleeve height…
Design changes
  • Shortened sleeve further: Removed the extra 3″ length in sleeve as I want a more traditional Moto Jacket sleeve.
  • Added sleeve vent & zippers.
  • Removed the waistline seam by cutting the peplums as one with the bodice pieces. I was worried about thickness of multiple layers at intersecting seams.

Rather than testing the fit next with muslin I cheated with pinned pattern tissue. Looks OK on Q me thinks…apart from that humongous collar which needed slight shaving / shaping near the collar points so the fabric wouldn’t get all bunched up when the front is zipped to couple of inches above the bust (like in the Burda catalog photo).

So here are my final patterns. I thought I was going to reuse this pattern, so transferred the patterns to card stock (minus seam allowances) to use for fabric cutting.

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Tomorrow: The fabric, construction notes & reveal!

 

Teal + Brown Floral Print Reversible Pencil Skirt

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Pencil skirts should be dead easy once you got the fit sorted right? But the Artiste in me obviously can’t live with a life that easy. So the first 3 pencil skirts this year will all have torturous kinks to them & take indecent amount of time to make.

First out of the studio…a sporty reversible (almost) skirt that will have a matching Moto Jacket based on Burdastyle 11/2013 #117. And maybe even a matching Aviator Cap!

Style Shots & Mug Shots

S_4-style1-1S_4-style1-4

S_4-style2-1S_4-style3-1

S_4-style4-4S_4-style4-5

S_4-style5-2S_4-style5-4

S_4-style6-2S_4-style6-5

S_4-style6-8S_4-style6-9

A side – front
A side – side
A side – back
AA side – front
AA side – side
AA side – back

Fabric & Notions Used

  • 2Teal & Brown Wool Acrylic Print Novelty Knit from the sweater knit section Mood NYC bought during my pilgrimage there last year. I was a bit unsure about it to start with. It feels like sweatshirt material on the teal side – and I don’t really do sporty. But the contrasting brown print on the other side made it irresistibly edgy. So I took the plunge. Sadly it’s not available from the Mood online shop.
  • 2013-sewing-bits-2YKK Excella #5 (5mm teeth) Metal Zippers from Sil Thread. They have these in a range of tape colors which don’t seem to be available anywhere else. I bought two long separating zippers one and had Sil Thread split them into 6 zippers ($1 per cut / bit added on). Should have ended up with 2 separating & 4 closed end zippers, but I only got 1 separating one in the end. Forgot to check before I headed back to London d***it.
  • Petersham Ribbon for facing / reverse side contoured waist band. Mine was gifted to me by my thrifting friend. It looks like grosgrain ribbon, but is made of shapable fiber (cotton, acetate, rayon; not polyester) & the ribs run edge-to-edge, so look scalloped. MacCulloch & Wallis in London carries them.
  • Vilene Bias Tape interfacing. Skirt hook & eye. Stitch Witchery fusible bonding web.

The Design & Pattern

Design:

0plans-skirtsUsed princess seams for color blocking with both sides of the fabric. I was a bit unsure whether to have the print on the side panels or center panels. Initial design has it on the sides on the assumption that the darker color at the sides creates a slimmer look.

Block Used: One Dart Pencil Skirt F&B

S_0-pat-block
My original Pencil Skirt Block has 2 front darts & 1 back dart per side (ie 6 darts altogether). And you can see in the design I was going to convert the back dart & one front dart into princess seam. But because the fabric seemed a bit thick for darts I ended up drafting a one-dart front. It doesn’t fit as well as the two-dart front – I have tummy & hip bone bulges. But I reckon it’ll do fine in this slightly stretchy fabric

Design Changes Made

S_1-patf

  • Converted the darts to princess seams. The back princess seam has shaping above & below the hip – basically connecting the waist & hem darts. The front princess seam has shaping only above the hip (waist dart). Below it was just a style line which slant slightly towards CF to add illusion of more shaping. I ended up shifting the front princess seam slightly towards the CF to get a more balanced color blocking effect. Hopefully the slight stretch of the fabric will compensate for waist dart shaping not in exactly the right place.

Construction Notes

This project has a few firsts for me. I tried a few different seaming techniques on scraps. But in the end decided to go with the following combination which was inspired by a Jean-Paul Gaultier knit skirt I had in my youth.

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  • First time I used flatlock seaming. And boy was it scary. For the vertical seams one side has no seam allowance and the other side only 1/4″. They’re sewn wrong sides together on the overlocker with 2-thread flatlock (so seam allowance sticking out). Then pulled in opposite direction to flatten the seam. Not sure if I did it correctly, but mine end up overlapping that 1/4″ & I had to use blunt sweater needle to coax the underlayer’s 1/4″ SA flat – it was folding in half, so won’t lay flat. Flatlock seam just look so delicate. Fingers crossed the seams won’t pop open during wear. (Maybe I should carry a back up skirt around if I’m wearing this outside the house?) You could theoretically reinforce the seams from the inside by fusing a thin strip of interfacing over the seam as recommended by various serger books. But then it won’t be reversible. And I can’t decide on which color blocking design I prefer.
  • First time I used 2-thread wrap overlock edge finishing. Again scary with no seam allowance. And the thread loops around the edge look so vulnerable to snags. Plus stretchy fabric means waist & hem risk stretching out of shape. So I tried to stabilize both waist & hem with Vilene Bias Tape fused so it wrap over the edge (1/2 on outside, 1/2 on inside). Then I did another layer, but this time basted it so that the adhesive is facing out. Next came the overlock. And finally pressing to fuse the overlock stitches to the 2nd layer of Vilene Bias Tape. Hopefully it’ll tame the loopy treads.
  • First time I sewn an exposed zipper. I’m usually an invisible zipper fan, but decided to go with exposed zipper because (a) the matching moto jacket will have 3, and (b) I couldn’t figure out how to make flatlock seams work with invisible zippers. I’m not a fan of the type of exposed zipper that has the tape on the outside. So for the planned version, the tape edge is hidden. But now that the skirt has turned out reversible (almost), the reversed version does have the tape on the ‘outside’. I mostly followed this tutorial on exposed zipper with a seam, though Husqvarna’s animated tutorial for a slit version is pretty good too. The seam allowance is trimmed, then the tape edge fell-stitched on the reverse side, the bottom of the tape folded under. BTW the CB is a fake flat-lock seam because I wanted to extend the flat-lock look to the CB slit. Each side was flat-locked separately as a single layer. Then the stretch between the zipper bottom & the slit joined with top-stitching. (Except I didn’t plan properly, so the reverse side wasn’t psuedo-flat-locked all the way from zipper bottom downward.)
  • First time I used Petersham ribbon for skirt waist facing. I was hoping it would act as interfacing to stabilize the waist. In this case it also act as a nice belt / waist-band like finishing for the reversed version. It was steam pressed into a slight curve before being fell-stitched in place over the the 2-thread wrap overlock edge finishing. At the zipper, the ends were folded under and overlapped slightly so a flat skirt hook & bar can join the ends unobtrusively. I added a extra fold on the top end so that it mirrors the overlap and make a box feature over the zipper end to mimic a fabric belt buckle.

The Verdict

I’m pretty pleased with the skirt. The pattern is basic enough to be reused with different details which I hope to demonstrate with the next two pencil skirts planned.

And for a commitment-phobe, I’m relieved that it turn out reversible, almost. What keeps it from being properly reversible is the zipper. So I have to be really careful zipping up / unzipping when I wear this inside out.

So it’s onward with the matching jacket. Let’s see if I can also make that (almost) reversible too shall we?

Jungle Cocktail Dress…aka Burdastyle 2012-04-128A

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Jungle January 2014And just before time is called on Jungle January 2014, this tortoisey snake finally slither its way into the party with its ratty tail barely clearing the closing door.

So let’s get straight down to businesses and boogie down to that last five minutes of the Jungle wailings…

Style Shots & Mug Shots

BS 2012-04-128aBS 2012-04-128aBS 2012-04-128aBS 2012-04-128a

BS 2012-04-128aBS 2012-04-128a

BS 2012-04-128a BS 2012-04-128a BS 2012-04-128a BS 2012-04-128a

BS 2012-04-128a BS 2012-04-128a BS 2012-04-128aNext up must be the fabric of course. Says so on the party invite dress code.

Fabric & Notions Used

I got this snake print fabric 2-1/2 years ago, and by the time I realized that I’m in love, I couldn’t get any more of it 🙁 Thankfully I got 3 meters originally. So there should be enough for another garment.

It has a lovely drape and isn’t too difficult to sew. But it does feel slightly plasticky (hence the delay in attempt to get more). And – my pet hate – like all jerseys it curls at the edges. Normally I’d starch the hell out of these curly edges. But this time starch has no effect. Maybe it’s 100% water-hating petro fiber. Who knows.

As a non-snake person – I’m terrified of them, even earthworms & eels that remind me of them – this first foray into snake print is suitably timid & subtle. Maybe next year I’ll be bolder. In fact I already have a couple of loud prints with splashes of snakes from my last NYC trip. And it might be a good idea for me to start preparing them early. Who knows, I might even come to Jungle January 2015 on time!

OK, on to the hangover drone that is the pattern review…

(Or if you prefer more jungle action, check out the Jungle January 2014 Flickr photo stream!)

 The Pattern


Burdastyle 2012-04-128

I actually didn’t get the magazine when it came out – much to my regret now – so had to download the PDF version from Burdastyle website. And while I do appreciate the second chance, downloadable patterns are a royal pain. It’s better than not being able to get the pattern at all. But given the choice, I’d take pre-printed patterns any day. Yes, even Burda’s unwieldy jungle of  overlapping pattern lines.

So the pattern itself…I was rather surprised to find virtually no makes out there on the interweb. Nada on Burdastyle.com. And a paltry one make on Pattern Review which unfortunately featured only action shots, so hard to see the dress clearly. Burda Russia of course have a few more – including the longer view B, but still not as many as this pretty dress deserves I thought.

Size Used

This time I went with 36, which happens to be the recommended size for me according to the sizing chart. But this is only because 36 matched my new Basic Top Block most closely in the key measurements.

Changes Made

Fitting changes

For a change I didn’t use my Block to gauge alterations needed. Instead I pressed Q into tissue-fitting service. I started with the lining pieces because it has less drapes / is more fitted, so is easier to fit. Once I figure out the main changes needed, I apply the same changes to the shell pieces.

Lining side front
Shell side front
Shell side
Shell back

The alterations this time are fairly minimum.

Front lining & shell
Back shell & lining
  • Short, aging body shape adjustments: Shortened between bust & waist, waist & hip, and hip & knee. This kept the widths at all the key levels unchanged.
  • Small hip adjustment: Graded down at the side seam from waist down.
  • Front-back body shape adjustment: Shifted a little bit of the waist shaping from the side seams to the darts. In other words, made the darts wider at the waist and added the amount this removed back at the side seam waist. So side seam is straighter. (In Frabjous Couture‘s recent discussion about shape & pattern drafting, I’d be a less dramatic Liz.)
  • Shortened bust dart for my low hanging girls, and lengthened the back darts above waist for my narrow lower back.
  • Sloping uneven shoulder adjustment: I narrowed the upper back a little bit so the straps won’t hang too close to the edge of my shoulders. The strap then had to be adjusted in length to accommodate this. I also shortened the left strap to accommodate my lower left shoulder. Hopefully there won’t be any jumping off the shoulder cliff drama with these precautions.

There’s one more change I’d make if I were making this in bias woven. And that is to take account of bias stretching when assessing the pattern length. Kenneth King mentioned a rule of thumb of 1/4″ stretch per 6″ length in his Moulage book. If I were to cut on the bias as instructed, then I might want to shorten everything accordingly – including the darts and torso shaping. In a shapeless dress you might be able to just shorten at the hem as needed. But this dress actually is a body skimming sheath. So I’d want to make sure the torso shaping hasn’t elongated after gravity has worked it’s lousy magic.

This time I didn’t make this adjustment because my fabrics were all knits, so I cut on the standard straight grain.

Design changes
  • I had to lengthen the lining and add another layer of underlining to preserve my modesty. My snake print was way too see-through. The lining was lengthened from hip length to just below my bum. The underlining is knee length & just slightly shorter than the snake print. The underlining pattern is the dress pattern minus the front neckline pleats and the skirt side extension. I left a vent where the side extension would have been.

Verdict on the Instruction

The instruction is OK, though mention of length extension was confusing. Maybe it was referring to the magazine pattern. The PDF version looks like the full pattern, so I didn’t lengthen anywhere. Other than that, I did the usual thing of giving the instruction an once over, then doing my own thingy.

Theoretically this should be quick to make. But I ended up sewing each layer with slightly different seaming technique because, well as you know, knits are temperamental divas. And I have 3 of them to deal with:

  • The lining is stitched & top-stitched on the sewing machine with stretch stitches.
  • The underlining has stretch-stitched & hand top-stitched darts, and 3-thread narrow overlocked side and back seams.
  • And saving the best for the outside, the snake print has hand-stitched darts to minimize stretching & wavy seams. But the side & back seams were again done in 3-thread narrow overlock to keep the dress floaty. Unlike the under layers, I didn’t cut off the dart seam allowances on this layer because I like how the shading adds slimming vertical style lines to the dress.
  • All three have 2-thread rolled hem done on the overlocker. I like the lightness of the result. But there were lots of oops with the rolled stitch not catching the fabric edge. Urgh. Hand blanket stitch to the rescue.
  • And the straps I had to stabilize with stay tapes to prevent it stretching & showing off more of me than intended. Lots of hand sewing here too.

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

With all the fussy fabrics it’s no wonder I’m so late to the party! One thing for sure: There’ll be no swinging like Tarzan in this delicate dress with all its Oops. But I like the result well enough to want to wear it to a relative’s summer wedding coming up soon.

I think the pattern would also be really pretty in the recommended bias georgette (or even chiffon). But I’d only make it in those fabrics if I can figure out a way to avoid the wavy seam like on the pattern view B photo:

1-fit-lining-fAnd those double french darts – I just love how they looked on Q in the stiffish tissue paper. It gave Q sideway curves where she and I have none. This detail is a bit lost on droopy fabrics like georgette or mesh jersey. So I just might adapt the pattern to work with a crisper fabric like silk shantung. I’d have to do away with the neckline drapes and pleats, and the skirt side extension of course. It’d make a nice little cocktail party dress for ladies who lunch! 🙂

TNT Knit Block…or is it?

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So, while we’re on the Knit Block detour we might as well finish this conversation.

As you know, I’ve been using my adjusted Burdastyle 2012-09-123 T-shirt as my tentative Knit Block. And it’s been working OK. No major complaint apart from the sway-back type puddle in the lower back. So I thought I’d try designing with it.  Nothing fancy, just a simple U-neck T.

bs201209123mod1_0dsgn-1 I was going to make it with 3/4 sleeves. But the fabric I had in mind was a $1/yard remanent from FIDM’s Scholarship Store in LA, so not enough for long sleeve. No problem I thought. I’ll just make a short sleeve version.

Straightforward right? Sadly no.

See those pulls emanating from the neckline towards the shoulder? I had no such problem with the previous makes based on this Knit Block. It could be the fabric, though this one seem just as stretchy. My bet though is on the short sleeve. All my previous makes were long sleeves. I think maybe the weight of the long sleeves pulled the shoulder seams in place. So I hadn’t really noticed that the shoulders were really too short.

Here’s how it compare with my zero-ease Moulage pattern:

bs201209123block_1fit
Apology for the confusing extra lines – they’re for the blouse/dress, jacket, & coat slopers. I’m waiting to test them out with muslins before separating them into heavy paper Blocks. The heavier red lines show the Moulage.

The shoulder is about 3/8″ too short. Waist is zero ease, and Bust & Hip are both currently negative ease (even accounting for the bit taken out by the Moulage darts).

I think I need to redo the Knit Block, get back to basic principles. Specifically, where it’s OK to have negative ease and where it should be kept at zero ease. And maybe figure out a totally zero-ease Knit Block for those less stretchy knit fabrics.

And I thought I was saving time by starting with a commercial pattern for knit! Sometimes there’s no substitute for learning properly, especially if one intend to get creative with pattern making.