The Bundle Challenge

Each contestant was sent a 6 yard bundle of fabric. We were instructed to use the 6 yards to make a  2 piece garment, and to be sure to  incorporate the three fabrics in some way.

The fabric bundle I received contained  a 2 yard piece of stiff grey woven with a faint shadow stripe.    A 1.5 yard piece of bright fuchsia slinky (acetate/lycra) with a defect down the length of the fabric and a 2.5 yard length of rose colored polyester knit.  All of which I would have normally relegated to my “fabric for muslin” pile, the knits because of fiber content and the woven for its hand/lack of drape.  But as a result of being forced to use them and liking the results, I may be more open to sewing these types of fabrics in the future.

My Bundle

I love the way slinky fabric looks and feels, but I had a memorial incident in my early years with acetate that makes me averse to using it for garments. I must have been about 12 years old and one evening  I was dressed in my silky grown up nightgown (as opposed to kid stuff flannel) sitting cross-legged on the floor, removing the nail polish from my nails. I over poured the polish remover on the tissue I was using and a large quantity splashed down on my nightgown,  dissolving the fabric and leaving a big hole in my lap.   A rather startling example of science in action.   Yes, nail polish remover, acetone, will dissolve acetate.  Acetate is also highly flammable, it flares up when it comes in contact with flame.  On the other hand these two characteristics make it easy to test mystery fabrics  for acetate content. I would recommend it for sleepwear.

The rose  knit and the fuchsia slinky clashed horribly in daylight,  but looked okay in indoor light. I thought small doses of the fuchsia on the rose would look planned and dilute the color intensity. Looking in my pattern stash for a very different pattern,  Vogue 1135 a Ralph Rucci dress, caught my eye, and I immediately thought that  instead of the  tucks in the bodice, appliqued strips of the fuchsia fabric  would look really neat. Coming up with a way to create and attach them took a lot of thought and samples.

Vogue 1135

The raised bands on the bodice are made using an applique quilting technique for make padded flower stems. A strip of fabric is folded in half with wrong sides together.  I serged the raw edges of the slinky strips to reduce curling and prevent slippage.  The strip is sewn to the background with the stitching line about 1/4 inch from the raw edge.  The opposite side is folded over the seam allowance to cover it and hand sewn to the background fabric resulting in a slightly raised, even width strip.

cut strips

  What a challenge this dress was! It has under arm gussets, lots of tucks which have to be marked then sewn, and an invisible zipper in a curved seam with matching of 3 bands and two tucks across the seam (hand basting required).

gusset and bands

 All the versions of this dress I have seen have  been sewn in dark colored fabrics which makes it hard to see the details.  Well, here it is in all its pink glory.  It is floor length dress on me and I am 5’8” tall. Usually I have to add to the length to Vogue patterns. The dress is actually very comfortable and fun to wear.  It swishes wonderfully.  I wish it was more fitted in the lower back. The fabric is loose and pools on my tush, but there are no seams to do alterations in that area.



being goofy - action shot

I had seen a lot of jean jackets worn over feminine dresses, a balance of structure versus unstructured.  So I used the gray fabric to make a short collarless jacket with jean jacket styling.  The jacket was top stitched in white. My serger developed repair issues between the dress and the jacket.  I resorted to finishing the inside seams with bias cut strips of silk. This jacket is a copy of a white denim RTW jacket I already own. 

jacket - copied from RTW

Jacket inside seams finished in silk bias strips

Jacket and dress

T.

Fabricista Fashion Challenge 2 - Confident and Classic

This pattern that we had to use for Challenge 2..... Not a  style that is very flattering to my body shape. The sweetheart neckline with attached yoke is a gold standard of the party and bridesmaid dress category.  I was very amused in past years to see it brought out by the independent pattern designers and marketed  toward the younger sewist demographics.  I am constantly fascinated with marketing, and how it can be used to take a pattern or style that has been around for years, and suddenly make it new and refreshing with a “custom” drafted pattern, the latest Amy Butler print, and a pretty young model.  But I guess there is a large and profitable market for this type of thing;  the sweetheart neckline fit and flare dresses, the cowl neck knit tops and the "new"  perfect T shirt  Those of us that have been sewing awhile know that no pattern is perfect and alterations will be needed.   My first impulse was to change everything about this pattern. I made myself keep some of the style details, so at least it was evident that I used the pattern.

I compared the pattern to my sloper and made changes that are typical for me in any pattern that isn’t Burda or Vogue. I lengthened the bodice, square up the shoulders, reduced width of  the front, added to the waist.  I sewed it up and it was …not good. 

So I went to work.  I made the top much more fitted, taking up extra fabric in seams over the bust and in the middle back so it is more like a bustier.

  I shaped the seam where the skirt attached to the top from” slice me half just above my widest part” to have a slight downward curve. The skirt flared out from my hips  like I had panieres.  I shaped it to hang straight down from the hip.  This dress required a incredible amount of fiddling and fitting. I have a dress form made from being wrapped in adhesive backed packing tape.  The result is a Paper Mache double of my body.  It is lumpy, bumpy and shaped like me.  It was invaluable for the fitting of this dress.

My design image for this dress kept veering to a fitted bustier in menswear fabric worn over a dress shirt, which I have seen and admired in Vogue and Burda magazines.  I kept trying to go in the direction of lightweight prints, cute little collars, and lace over solids. But the winter fabrics stacked in my sewing room were also wielding their influence.   So I went with my vision. The fabrics were a very light weight gray wool/lycra for the skirt, a burgundy with navy pin stripe wool for the vest and the contrast yoke was made in a  gray & burgundy stretch lace with floral motifs.  The pinstripe wool came from a pair of pants I cut out over 20 years ago and never sewed up.  I found the pants pieces during a recent foray in the attic.

 The dress is constructed with a full lining and faced along the bustier top edge.  I used a facing to give extra weight and stability to that edge.  The lace yoke is made like a cropped boat neck T shirt and attached to the facing. It can be easily removed and the dress can be worn strapless or over some other type of top. There is an invisible zipper in the side seam extending from under the arm to high hip.

 
I really like this quote  “Confidence is sexy and so is wearing clothes tastefully and with style.”
 Not sure where it came from.  So the two words I am submitting that  describe me  to inspire my  look are “classic” and “confident”.

 

The other contestants' versions of this dress really are awesome and varied. Be sure to check them out and vote for your favorite.  Fabricista Challenge

Fabricista Fashion " Recycle" Challenge

All the entries are posted, and voting is in progress for the first challenge of the Fabric Mart Fabricista Fashion  Challenge. Go to the site, check out the entries and vote for your favorite. Voting ends at midnight on Wed, Sept 18th.  I am delighted and amazed  by the creativity and resourcefulness of the participants.

Fabricista Fashion Challenge


Challenge 2 was announced and started yesterday.   The timing of this a bit odd, in that we are supposed to start on Challenge 2, but one of us is going to be eliminated by Challenge 1.

The next challenge is to use the Salme Dress pattern  that has been selected for us, and create a unique garment that reflects our personality. We can alter the pattern or add to the patterns to make it more us.  We have to think of one or two words that describe ourselves to inspire our look. We will be judged on creativity, craftsmanship, fit,  and how well represented the description words are in our design, and difficulty.

 Hmm it looks very similar to the like the Sewaholic Cambi dress, doesn't it?

 

 

Meshed Up

  In honor of National Sewing Month, on line retailer Fabric Mart Fabrics is sponsoring a 2 month event with a fashion sewing related challenge every week.   One winner is chosen for each challenge, based on a combination of viewer’s votes and judges’ evaluation, and one is eliminated.

 The contest is called the Fabricista Fashion Challenge  and I have been selected as one of the initial 10 participants.

 I email my interest after a lot of waffling between “Boy would that be fun”   and “Girl, you have a full time job. Are you ready to dedicate your evenings and weekends to this?”   What the Hey!  I hit the "Send" button.   My baby, son # 2,  is now in college along with his older brother.  And Hubby is working on a big project that requires him to be out of town Mon thru Friday.  It is just me and kitty in the evenings.    When I found myself staying later and later at work, which will never be rewarded in any tangible way, I knew I had to do something drastic.
 
The first challenge started last Monday - The Recycle Challenge.

Make a garment out of recycled materials or materials that would have otherwise been thrown away, such as scraps from your sewing room or grocery bags. You can reconstruct a garment to make it more fashion forward and utilize unconventional items to add accessories and embellishments. Be creative!

This post is about my entry for the challenge.  It and the wonderfully creative garments of the other participants can be viewed on    Fabric Mart Fabrics Blog    sometime on Monday, Sept 16th.   Please visit and vote for your favorite, which I am hoping is me.

I keep my sewing scraps and I stock pile unique “found” materials for creative projects. Neat stuff like bottle caps, corks, packaging material, ribbons from candy assortment boxes, old lace and leather, moss, skeletonized leaves, palm fiber, shells, vines.  I always have lots of ideas, but not the time to execute or experiment. I was hoping this contest provided the motivation.

One of the items I have stockpiled are  the mesh bags that large quantities of apples,  oranges, onion and limes are frequently packaged in. I love the different  woven textures and the flexibility of these bags. They come in many colors, usually matching the fruit or vegetable they contain. They can be used as stencils or printing material and I often thought it might  be interesting to weave strips of fabric through them. I immediately thought of them when the challenge email arrived.

mesh fruit bags

Monday - Day 1

Somehow I get through work so I can rush home and get started.  I find and sort through my mesh bags. The largest ones are the orange and apple bags. (Orange and red).  I watch TV and rip out the serged stitches around the side and bottom of bags, so that I have large rectangular pieces. My next ”normal” sewing project would have been a bomber jacket, so the inspiration pictures and patterns are close at hand. I decide that might be good choice for this mesh fabric. A bomber jacket has no shaping and all the garment edges are finished in a way that will anchor the loosely woven mesh fabric.

 

 

I pull scraps from scrap bags.  I have fun remembering the garments I made from the original fabric. I decide to limit scraps to solid colors that contrast with the red and orange color of the  mesh, specifically browns to creams. Most of the mesh has openings of about 3/8 inch. I tear or cut strips roughly 3/8 wide or in a width that was a multiple of that if  the fabric was lightweight and would need to be folded to fill the space.

Sewing Scraps

Tuesday Day 2 - Researched material that mesh is made of  - polypropylene.   OK , no irons or prolonged exposure of UV rays.  I hold a scrap to candle flame to see what it does.  It melts away from heat source. A good way to seal loose ends that may unravel.  I trace bodice and sleeve patterns onto paper that can be taped to work surface and  mark some lines for suggested color changes.  I   put mesh on top of pattern. I overlap smaller pieces to make  them big enough to cover the pattern.

mesh over pattern

 I weave using  a bobby pin as a needle.  I learn that bias cut rayon chiffon shreds.Torn strips tend to have a lot of threads on the torn edge. Knits and  lace works great. The rougher the fabric, the harder it is to weave through the thin strands of polypropylene. I like the look of the weaving,  lots of texture, but pliable.  Note to self , extend mesh past edge of pattern because ends shred, and be gentle.  One sleeve takes 3 hours to weave .  I estimate the two front  pieces and back will take 5 hour each,  Start to panic about limited time. Decide to have a solid back.

woven sleeve piece

Wednesday - Thursday Day 3, 4 –  after work, weave my fingers to the bone,  over and under, over and under

Friday Day 5  I cut lightweight red fabric for underlining.  This fabric is basted to the mesh along seam allowances, then the raw edges of the  mesh/underlining  are serged  to catch the loose ends of the strips and mesh.  And to cover the mesh cut ends, which are a bit scratchy.

Sleeve underlining pinned to woven piece



Underlining pinned to front woven piece

 Finish assembling the  jacket. -  I need a separating zipper in a coordinating color.  Local sewing stores have a pathetic selection of separating zippers.  So  I find a boxy brown 90’s suit jacket, with a front separating zipper at the thrift store. I remove the zipper and cut the bomber jacket back from thrift store jacket back.   Red wool ribbing is from my stash.

Thrifted Jacket

Sat  Day 6 - I take jacket for its first outing,  to the  ASG meeting . This group of ladies is my sounding board.  Did I go too far into Bizart  - Art too (bazaar) to Wear?  Their reactions are favorable and they do not call the orderlies to come take me away. Our ASG group meets at a convalescent center, so this was plausible.

Mesh Jacket front

Mesh Jacket Back

detail

 

Day 7 – I take pictures and write blog post.  I discover the advantage of using scraps is that the jacket coordinates with other garments I have sewn. And guess what I found yesterday...decorative gourds in a purple poly mesh bag.   A new color way!

Seeing Stripes

Fall can be a lovely time of year in VA, the  warm temperatures continue without the oppressive humidity of midsummer.  This time of year is the best for flower garden fragrance. I let the autumn blooming clematis scale two stories, to the roof line of our house, just because of it's fragrance.

autumn blooming clematis

 The faintly fruity scent of the osmanthus (sweet olive) tree hidden in the back corner of the property perfumes the whole yard and greets me when I get out of the car after a long day at work.  I love being outdoors this time of year, which make sewing projects slow down a bit.  I did manage to finish a blouse.  It was inspired by a striped blouse on my favorite style blog,  Wendy's Look Book

  To replicate it, I looked for a loose fitting shirt pattern with no darts and shirttail hem. I found one in the Burda Oct 2010 magazine. Pattern 110.  The blouse has a yoke and deep inverted pleat in the back, cut on front facing and two part sleeves.

Burda 10-2010 #110

  The fabric is a printed strip silk from Fabric Mart. I prefer woven stripe fabrics.  With printed stripes there is always the chance the print is off grain.  As this one was; about 1/2 inch from selvage to selvage.  It was small enough I decided to go head and match the stripes even if this caused the garment pieces to be slightly off grain.  The stripes are uneven and the length of fabric had only two repeats of the pattern.  Both the front and back pattern pieces were fabric hogs; the front because of it's cut on facing and the back because of the pleat.  I was able to fit the upper sleeve in the same band of stripes as the bodice pieces so they would match, but there was no extra fabric for the under sleeves.

Layout

   On a whim I decided to cut the under sleeves out of a different  fabric. I love the surprise of it when the blouse is seen from the back.

Yes, it is lace.  I shortened the shirt tail about 2 inches. The majority of the time I will wear this blouse tucked into a skirt or pants and I don’t like having blouses so long I have to stuff the shirttails down the legs of my pants or worry about them showing below the hem of the skirt. Just kidding on the latter situation, I don't wear my skirts that short.  I will also wear it out over jeans. Friday work dress code in the summer is jeans.  I don’t consider it a perk to be able to wear jeans to work. They aren’t as comfortable as a well fitted pair of dress pants. They aren’t always the best look for anyone over the age of 35, and as a coworker of mine said. “I went to college so I wouldn’t have to wear jeans to work.” But everyone comments if you don't wear jeans, so I'll wear them, but with a nice blouse on top.

Hey Sew Sister.

The annual family beach vacation was almost a month ago. As always the weather, food, and friends were wonderful.

 

Sunrise  - East Coast!

 


DS's and friends playing Volleyball

Beach house at dusk

The sewing activity this year was to copy a favorite garment from RTW. My sister had purchased a pair of Tommy Bahama capri pants for $10.00 at her local thrift shop. Sis loved the fit of these pants, which had a fairly fitted  waist, with just a tad bit of  looseness that could be cinched in with a drawstring, and legs falling straight from the hip. They also had an invisible zipper on the front center seam and waistline darts. The fabric was mid weight 98% silk 2 % lycra print with the texture of bark cloth. 

Sis is a experienced machine quilter who is interested in learning to sew garments. So for our family vacation each year, we try and choose a garment sewing projects that is at her skill level, and that she is motivated to sew.   Pillow cases and tote bags won't do. Last year she sewed a dress out of her favorite batik quilting fabric. This year I offered to make a pattern from her capri pants which she could use to sew another pair.

I have copied RTW many times,  mostly simple garments like T shirts, woven tops, pants and shorts. It is so frustrating to buy a RTW top in a flattering style and then buy a pattern for the same style and have it fit horribly. Why not make a pattern from the RTW garment?

This summer I copied a cowl neck top - RTW top on  the dress form

 

A tank top, with wide bra friendly straps and flattering neckline. Pants and shorts- various brands and styles of  pants that fit well. One designer brand has the perfect crotch shape for me.   RTW top and pants on the dress form.

 

And a favorite sleeveless blouse. The original RTW blouse was too tight across the bust and gaped so I made the copy larger in that area.

I use different methods of copying for different types of garments.

For knit tops with simple bodice and sleeve shapes, the method I use is to lay the garment section ( front, back or sleeve) flat on a large piece of paper and trace. – the Craftsy.com Pattern Drafting from Ready to Wear class, taught by Steffani Lincecum, is a good explanation of this method.

For pants , I prefer to lay the pant leg flat on a surface, lay translucent tracing paper over the pant leg, mark the seam lines with pins, and mark pin lines with marker. I have not seen this method on the Internet or in magazines, but in works for me

I have also drafted patterns of a RTW garment starting with my sloper, and using key measurements from the RTW garment for style details like  bands, yokes, collars, etc.
 
I used my paper on top method to make the  pattern from the capri pants.

We could not find any woven silk/ lycra fabric similar to the TB pant fabrics so Sis purchase a drapey rayon print from Nancy’s Notions.

It is always interesting to observe what quilting sewing habits Sis has to overcome to sew garments. It  was the humongous 5/8" seam allowance again,   and cutting out fabric with scissors. When I gently commented on the raggedness of her cutting, she replied that  she never uses scissors except to trim threads,  and that she was really  missing her rotary cutter.  We assured her she could use a rotary cutter to cut out garments at home with the appropriate mat, but not on the kitchen table of a vacation rental.

 

The pants were a success. And they also provided an opportunity to explain another sewing lesson - the impact of different fabric types on the fit of a garment. Amazing that 2% lycra of the original garment fabric made a lot of difference in the wearing comfort of the pants. We had to add  ½ inch on the side seams of the woven rayon version to get the same comfort level.

Another girl activity during vacation was coming up with new, sewing related lyrics for songs. This activity was instigated by me in preparation for some comedic entertainment at an upcoming sewing guild meeting. Songs like The Eagle's Witchy Woman  morphed into Stitchy Woman and Lady Marmalade - Labelle 1975 whose  refrain is  Hey Sister, Go sister, Soul sister, Go Sister  was changed to ...you guessed it .


Badges we wore all week.

Hey Sister, Go Sister, Sew sister, Go sister.
Hey Sister, Go Sister, Sew sister, Go sister
She gave up her stash and she went to the mall.
Hoping to find something new
But when she tried on a bit
and none of it fit
Gitchi Gitch Ya Ya Da Da
Gitchi Gitch Ya Ya Here
Mocha Chocolata Ya Ya
Crafty Lady sew a Lot.

Voulez vous coudre avec moi, ce soir, Voulez vous coudre avec moi?
Her friends filled their blogs with the best they could make
But she had nothing to post
So she went shopping online
And it was all fine
Gitchi Gitch Ya Ya Da Da
Gitchi Gitch Ya Ya Here
Mocha Chocolata Ya Ya
Crafty Lady sew a Lot.

Touching charmeuse feeling silky smooth
Color of café au lait
Made the savage beast inside
Roar until it cried
More, More, More

Now she’s the envy of everyone
Notions and bolts fill the floors
And when she gets a little urge
And thinks she needs to purge
She just cries ‘more, more, More!
Gitchi Gitch Ya Ya Da Da
Gitchi Gitch Ya Ya Here
Mocha Chocolata Ya Ya
Crafty Lady sew a Lot

With much thanks to the creativity and wordsmithing skills of J. Jarvis.