One Pattern, Many Looks

My local ASG neighborhood group, which is fashion focused, had a challenge this fall. It was called  “One Pattern, Many Looks” .  Everyone was supposed to bring at least two completed items from the same pattern – one made just like one of the pattern views and a second (or more) with a change – embellishment, change the sleeve, collar, etc.  Seeing recent pictures of Chanel jackets and dresses trimmed in sequins like the one below reminded me of a similarly trimmed Burda jacket from 2010.



Chanel

Burda 11-2010-104

When I realized I had a UFO  from the same pattern,  the Tibi Jacket blogged about previously , I decided to finish it. Then I could make another jacket like the one in the picture above  and have my two garments for the challenge.  My second version of the pattern looks very much like the Burda Style magazine jacket.  The Burda jacket is made of boucle tweed and is trimmed with what is described as beaded tulle and three rows of zipper tape.
I auditioned several different trim combinations. I found a  poly netting fabric with sequins  at Hancock Fabrics.  What I liked about it was that the sequins were dull.  More texture and movement than glitter and glam.  As an alternative I also found some sheer black ribbon with embroidery and small sequins at Walmart.


chain and crochet sequin trim

Walmart ribbon and silver chain trim

Sequin fabric and silver chain trim

sequin band with ball chain trim

The pattern directions have you cut bands of the tulle and shape it around the neckline by gathering the neck edge. That was doable with the ribbon, but I wasn’t so sure with the sequined fabric. I decided to go with the sequin trim to emulate the  Chanel jacket.  But  I cut the sequin fabric in the shape of the front and back neck edge. like a facing.

cutting the sequin trim

 I trimmed the sequins from the seam allowances by cutting them across the middle through the hole, without cutting the thread that held them on to the backing fabric.  I did this with a pair of throwaway scissors from the dollar store so as not to ruin my good sewing scissors.  The last time I had to mess with sequins was when I made four bridesmaid dresses for sis’s first wedding.  Those dresses consisted of a sheer over blouse of embroidered beaded and sequined fabric worn over a slip dress of a matching color.  They were very pretty, but a lot of work.

band with sequins removed from seam allowance

I liked the look of the zipper tape trim shown in the picture.  It is made by overlapping the tapes of three black zippers, two with bronze teeth and one with silver teeth.  But zipper tape is heavy and stiff.  Again the thought of the weight and shaping around the curved neck was daunting.  Back when zipper trim was first becoming popular, I searched for it on Etsy and this trim came up.

ball chain trim

 It has a similar look but is made with 22.4 mm ball chain attached to a bias strip.  It is easy to shape around curves and has a similar look to zipper trim.  I decided to make my own.  I bought several colors of the ball chain and used  my cording  foot to zig zag it on  bias cut strips of  brown wool flannel .

making ball chain trim

 My sample looked very nice. Unfortunately I was running out of time before the Challenge show and tell date, so instead  I used some purchased trim that had silver chain zigzagged to brown woven strips. 

The sequin bands and chain trim make the jacket a  bit heavy in the front so I added a chain weight to the inside  back to make it hang evenly from my shoulders.   I  sewed the trim to the jacket edge and pockets by hand.  I did it the week my MIL was in hospice care.  It was good to have something to occupy my hands during that time.  I am totally sold on the value of hospice care, which I was not before.  It is end of life care  by health professionals and volunteers who provide medical, psychological and spiritual support. Their goal is to help people who are dying have peace, comfort and dignity. They can control pain and other symptoms with powerful medication not permitted in other situations, and can remove the uncomfortable hospital monitoring devices so the patient is as comfortable as possible. Hospice programs also provide services to support a patient's family.  Their explanations of what would happen really helped us accept and deal with the situation.  My MIL has passed and is in a better place now, but I know I will always think of her when I wear this jacket. She was the best MIL a girl could ask for.

Zoinks, Another Halloween Costume!

I am doing Halloween candy handout duty. Sitting near the door listening for the sound of voices and feet shuffling through the leaves as the kids come up the front walkway.  We don’t get a lot of Trick or Treaters, so I have time to blog.    I have admired all the cute and creative costumes sewn in blogland these past few weeks, and exclaimed over those that are showing up at my door.  I am remembering all the costumes I have sewn for my sons in the past, starting with this one for my oldest son back when he was just over a year old. He was the cutest frog with his big fat cheeks. The costume is still up in the attic

McCalls 7842

 I was not surprised when he told me that this year, he and his roommates were going to dress up for Halloween as the characters from the cartoon Scooby-Doo.  This is a long running Saturday morning cartoon series featuring four teenagers and their Great Dane dog "Scooby-Doo" who solves mysteries. My oldest son, when he is overdue for a haircut and a shave, bears a strong physical resemblance to the Scooby Doo cartoon character Norville “Shaggy” Rogers.  People always comment on it.    Shaggy is the tall and thin, with wild looking brown hair, craggy features and whiskers on his chin. He typically wears a baggy green V-neck T shirt and brown pant.




Scooby Doo and friends

This has to be the most uninspiring, boring, “costume” I have ever made. For the T shirt I used New look 6084  which include a  “V” neck T shirt pattern for men, a separate and more fitted T shirt for women,  and unisex drawstring pants. The fabric was medium olive green poly cotton from JoAnn's.

 

For the pants I was envisioning bell bottoms, which gave me an excuse to peruse vintage patterns on etsy.com.  There I found Simplicity 9736, a vintage 1970 men’s bell bottom pants pattern.

 Why make a pair of pants, you may ask.  Because I swear it takes less time and money to sew a pair than trying to find size 32” waist, 36” inseam pants in a specific color at a reasonable price. I almost made them out of brown double knit fabric. I hate to admit it but I do have some in my stash, and double knits were recommended on the pattern. But instead I purchased some cotton/lycra corduroy from Fabric.com.  It was rather stiff for pinwale cotton corduroy, even after several washings.

Son #2 delivered the pants and shirt when he went to visit older brother for the weekend. Both garments fit fine and he looked very authentically “Shaggy”. So much so I have scheduled a haircut appointment for him during his Thanksgiving break.  Son  #2  was supposed to be the character Freddy, but he refused to wear the blond wig after someone told him it made him look like a drag queen.  This actually worked in his favor as several playboy bunnies came up to him at the party, asked if he was Hugh Hefner, to which he said "yes", and had their pictures taken with him.

Shaggy and Freddy Halloween 2012

I think I hear another group of  trick or treaters.   Got to go!

Pin Up

Fall has arrived here where I live, with lower temperatures and humidity, weaker light, fading flowers, lots of dead leaves falling everywhere and oh yes, hurricanes.   Can you tell I don’t like Fall?   I have had no motivation to sew any new clothes.   But I have purchased some fabric.   Sigh! Why does Fabric.com have to use box sealing tape on which their name is printed over and over again.  Gee, do they have to announce to my DH that another box of fabric has arrived.  I have a plan to train him to actually look forward to boxes of fabric, inspired by this 1947 calendar pin up girl.

Esquire Girl Calendar Feb 1947

 “Is that another box of fabric” He will ask grumpily. “Yes, dear,  I will reply, “and let me show you how it will look on me!”  as I dash from the room with the box in my arms.  “Ta Da” I say returning and proudly displaying the fabric à la the calendar.  When I asked DH if it would work with him, he leered and said “Why don’t you try it?”  Hmm, maybe this plan will also deter me from buying so much fabric.

Surprisingly, I have been motivated to finish some UFO’s (unfinished objects). Late last summer I decided to make a copy of  this Tibi Jacket. I got as far as cutting out the bodice fabric before I lost interest.  

Tibi Jacket

The fabric pieces, leather for the trim, and the zipper got buried so deep on my sewing  table  that I didn’t find it until a recently cleanup.

 I think resuming a project takes more effort than starting a new one. First  I have to remember why it got set aside. It was usually because of an issue or problem. So  I need to solve that problem to move on.  It actually helps me get started by writing everything that  needs to be done as tasks or steps. Seeing them as individual  tasks makes them much more achievable. And if I start with easy ones first, the momentum to tackle the hard one is usually there,  For this jacket project  step 1 was draft a pocket pattern.   Easy peasy.  A square with bottom corners rounded.  That was done quickly and it was easy to move on to the next step.   Step 2. Modify the sleeve pattern to add pleat and shorten length. This took me a whole afternoon. And  lastly, Step 3. Figure out how to apply the leather binding and zipper to center front.  As this was the last thing I had to do before the jacket was complete,  the motivation to work through it was there.

 The pattern I used for the starting point was jacket pattern 104 from Burda Style magazine from Burda Nov 2010.

Burda 11-2010-104

The Burda pattern is for a shoulder princess seamed front and back, with full length set in sleeves. 
The Tibi jacket had shoulder princess seams in the front, and chest pockets with flaps.    Leather is used for the binding at the neck, center front, sleeve edges, hem and shoulder yokes. The ¾ length sleeves have a large pleat at the shoulder. The back is gathered below a yoke. Obviously some changes had to be made to the original pattern to get where I wanted to go. 
• Bodice - trimmed off seam allowances on center front and neckline.  Leather strips were used to bind  and finish edges.
• Self drafted pocket and pocket flaps patterns.
• Self drafted  pattern for leather shoulder yoke
• Shorten sleeves to ¾ length, tapered to 11” circumference at bottom edge  like other jackets with similar sleeves
• Add large pleat to sleeve cap.   I used instructions from Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear 

Leather binding  is a favorite way of finishing an edge and adding a bit of contrast.  I have used it many times over the years. The leather binding  is made from strips of lambskin.  The stretchiness and thickness of lambskin  reminds  me of a  medium weight double knit. Nothing to be afraid of if you have never sewn it before. Leather has no true grain, so binding stripes can be cut in any direction on the leather skin.  I use a rotary cutter and ruler to cut accurately.

 For my  3/8” wide  trim, the width of the strip was 1 5/8 “ I suggest determining the width of your binding strips by sewing some samples using scraps. Leather takes more width to wrap around an edge than fabric,  because of it's thickness. To get the longer strips needed for the center front edges and neck opening, I pieced short lengths of the leather using diagonal seams to make longer pieces. I also used the diagonal seams to make the binding bands for the bottoms of the sleeves.

Binding bands for bottom of sleeves

 Clip (rather than pin) the binding strip of the garment edge with right sides together and raw edges aligned.  Stitch the binding to the garment fabric .  Wrap the strip around the raw edge.  Stitch in the ditch from the right side, catching the raw edge of the strip on the back side of the garment.   

Finished sleeve edge

For the zipper and binding on the center front opening:  First  I  sewed the leather binding strip to the garment. Then I sewed the zipper tape to the leather binding strip so that when the binding strip was wrapped around the raw edge, the zipper teeth were located just beyond the bound edge. It took a lot of preplanning and testing, but the sewing was easy and the results exactly what I hoped to achieve.

 

Jacket Front

 

Closeup  mitered corners

 

Jacket Back

 

I made the princess seamed back of the Burda pattern rather than copying the Tibi back.  The backs of my jackets on a dress form will always look loose and a bit bumpy because  my back has way more curves than the dress form back.

 



Most of my summer clothes and shoes are packed away, so when it came time to take some pictures of the jacket on me, I just grabbed some compatible garments that were within easy reach, and opted for the barefoot look. Probably not the way I would wear the jacket to work, but fun for a backyard photo session with Miss Ashley.

The prerequisite Twirl picture

Sis Sews a Dress

I have two younger sisters that I’ll call Sis and lil Sis.  While we were growing up, my mother sewed garments for us or for herself.   I enjoyed watching my mother's projects and eventually took up sewing clothes for myself in my teens, since  I was tall and RTW garments were always too short.  Sis and I took Home Economics (sewing and cooking) in junior high school ( grades 7-9). It was required.  When Lil Sis came along 8 years later, I think it was optional.    Lil Sis found her vocation in fine art, with hobbies that include yarn bombing.  Sis works in IT like me, but as a hobby sews gorgeous quilts, but not clothing.   Family legend has it that Sis was so traumatized  by a sewing disaster during  high school, that she never attempted garment sewing again. It is told that she sewed set in sleeves into a blouse upside-down.  When she modeled it for the family, it looked great when her arms were held up in the air, not so good when they were at her side.  The whole family thought was enormously funny.   And teased her about it.

What's wrong with the sleeves?

  So back in June we were at the Quilters Unlimited quilt show, in the SewBatik booth.  Sis loves batik fabrics and uses them in her quilts.  In the booth there were display garments sewn from batik border print fabrics.  One was the Amy Butler Liverpool dress pattern that looked very much like the lovely one Kim made.    And the other was a dress made using Simplicity pattern 2588 and their double border print. Sis called me over to look at it. "Do you think I can sew a dress?" She asks. "Yes" I reply, noting the raglan sleeve. "Would you help me?" "Sure."  I reply. "And I'll make one too.  We could work on it during beach week."

Simplicity 2588

Beach week is an annual family vacation where we rent a big house at the beach and everyone comes to visit.  Theme meals are planned weeks in advance, but daily activities are whatever you want to do.  So we commit to the dress project by buying the required lengths of fabric and make note of the pattern number.

Batik Fabrics for Dresses

About a month before the  vacation, the emails start.

From: Sis
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 3:17 PM
To: Audrey
Subject: What was the pattern number?

I know I wrote that Simplicity pattern down twice.  Lost it.  What was the number?

From: Audrey

Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 8:32 AM
To: Sis
Subject: RE: What was the pattern number?

Simplicity 2588.  There are 38  good reviews of it on the PatternReview web site . Put 2588 in search box on LHS of screen.  None were made in batik border fabric though.  I can buy the pattern at one of the fabric shop sales. The regular price is $16.95, but they go on sale for 1.99 sometimes.

From: Sis
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 3:49 PM
To: Audrey
Subject: RE:What was the pattern number?

OK.  I will watch Jo Ann fabric sales too.  I will get it before beach week.

From: Audrey
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 7:59 AM
To: Sis
Subject: Pattern Size

Important thing to know when buying patterns. A pattern size is not equal to a ready to wear (RTW) size  You have to know your measurements and buy the pattern size that corresponds to those measurements.  Generally the pattern size is 2 sizes higher than RTW. For example I can buy a size 12 RTW top, but I sew a size 16 pattern.  Patterns come with multiple sizes in one packet   (8,10,12,14) and (14,16,18,20)  I buy the pattern in the  second grouping (14,16,18,20)   of sizes.

From: Sis
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 3:49 PM
To: Audrey
Subject: RE: Pattern Size

I was wondering about that, when you wrote on your blog that you sewed a size 16.

 Shouldn’t I also wash the material?  I don’t typically do that for quilts, but I was trying to remember what the rule is for clothes.

Can I sew on my little portable sewing machine for that dress?  I bought the pattern, but haven’t done anything with it yet.  Should I trim the pattern?  Should I see if it needs a (God help me) zipper?   Should I wash the fabric is cold or warm water? Now that you have announced my endeavor to everyone,  I’ll probably have an audience, like on a golf tournament.  “The audience is hushed, holding their breath on this approach…”  

From: Audrey
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 8:32 AM
To: Sis
Subject: Question

About the dress, your description of golf tourny commentary cracked me up.  We could do it at your house so Urs can play with your cutter.  I don’t have anything to cut this year. 

Wash the fabric in the washing machine and dry in dryer.  Mine went through just fine with no color loss.  You can cut apart the pattern pieces, but don’t trim to a specific size until we figure out which one you need.  Warning, there are a lot of pattern pieces in those Pattern Runway patterns because there are many different styles.  You can pick the style we want to make (think it was straight skirt with sleeves) find those pattern pieces and separate them from the rest or just wait. 

What I want to do is cut out the size closest to your measurements in muslin and sew it up for fitting. I can do that before beach week. Once we get that fit the way you want, we can transfer any changes to the pattern pieces and cut out the fashion fabric. Simplicity has a lot of wearing ease built into the pattern. So if your bust is 38 and you chose a size based on that measurement, the fabric will be 42’ around the bust. This info is printed on the pattern piece at the bust, waist and hips. That is a really loose fit. Sometimes I make a size smaller in the bust so I don’t have gobs of fabric where I don’t want it. Fitting the muslin will tell me what kind of fit you like, and if we have to do any length changes for short or long torso, etc. So measure your bust, waist and hips and tell me which size you are closest too. It may be a combination 16 on top, 14 on bottom or vice versa.

From: Sis
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2012 8:32 AM
To: Audrey
Subject:  Re:Question

I will measure myself tonight at home and send you the measurements.    I like the idea of sewing at my house.  That would work.  

I plan to wash the material this weekend.

From: Sis
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2012 8:32 AM
To: Audrey
Subject: Arggg!

OK – I am officially old and fat.  I measured myself and also have officially quit eating.  40 35 43.  That’s a size 18 on the pattern.  Also I think a black zipper would be best for this dress.

From: Audrey
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 9:00 AM
To: Sis
Subject: Size is just a number

Remember pattern size in no way correlate to Ready to Wear (RTW) sizes.   Those are real close to my measurements. You always were more busty that me!   The size 16 will probably work just fine.    Do you want to line this dress?  It is not necessary but might be nice at least on the skirt so it skim over underwear and such.  

I will find a black zipper, I had set aside a tan one.

 So I cut out  and sewed up a muslin for the fitting.  It was my first time fitting a person other than myself.  Sis wouldn’t stand still. She wanted to socialize with the other gals in the kitchen or kept wanting to check on her daughters.   She was probably as nervous as I was.  Big sis was armed with pins. We got the fitting done and made a few adjustments.  She carries her famine reserves in the same place I do.   Ah genetics, they make fitting siblings easy.

We laid out the pattern pieces  on the fabric so the  border was at the bottom of the skirt. Sis cut the pattern pieces out. She remembers being taught to cut the notches out.  Clipping the notches was new. She remembered how to do darts.  She kept complaining about the big ugly 5/8 “ seam allowances, having always sewn a ¼ inch seam allowance.  She was a wiz at matching seams, being  an experienced quilter.  Marking and  fusible interfacings were all new.  So was edge stitching.  But she did all the cutting and sewing on the dress.  As she finished sewing the under arm seams,  Urs and I announced "You have just sewn in the sleeve!   On the last day of vacation, I put the zipper in for her so we could finish the dress and get down to the beach.  We really hadn’t thought ahead to pictures so they were sans makeup and with flip flops. Hence the cropping you will see below. Overall I thought it had been  a positive experience.  I let a few weeks go by before I asked her about it. 

From: Sis
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2012 8:32 AM
To: Audrey
Subject: Re: will you clothing again?

I did enjoy the process of making the dress.  It wasn’t like when we were teens and we HAD to sew something to have a nice outfit.  Now we want to sew something to have something different and more flattering then if you bought it off the rack.  Plus the selection of material is so much more colorful and of better quality these days.  Also, I can see the immediate reward potential of a dress making project, vs a king size quilt project. My attention span is sometimes challenged with the larger projects. 

You have my permission to tell your readers why I was traumatized by my teenage blouse sewing event and it only took, what 35 years or so to try sewing clothes again. 

I have not worn the dress yet.  I am waiting for a cool fall day that coincides with a meeting where I meet others outside of my department.  It is front and center in my closet.  You can post the picture of the dress. I am betting the picture of me in it is icky.

It was odd, sewing the larger seam allowance.  The curved parts weren’t too hard to do with the darts in place.  I do believe my quilting experience of lining up the seams helped with that. Urs asked if I would sew another dress on my own, and I said no, because I wouldn’t have you close by to make it look so easy.

I bought some material to make some pajama bottoms so we will see if my skills have improved at all. 

I did like that auto up and down needle stop feature on your sewing machine you brought to the beach.  I took my machine in for maintenance last week.  And like a bee to a beautiful flower – I spied the Janome 12000 on display and bought it to replace my 11000.  I was able to trade up.  It has the up and down feature like yours.  That does speed thing along. I do like new toys.


Hey sis, remember when we were little, and Mom used to  dress us alike?





Shades of Gray

Oops, I forgot to mention....Several commenters asked about the fabric I used to make my bright blue pants shown in the previous post.  Sorry about that. I always want to know about the fabric used too.  It was a lighter weight 20 rayon, 80 poly gabardine purchased at Hancock Fabrics. The perfect weight for summer pants. It doesn't wrinkle and was easy to sew.

Last Saturday we returned from a lovely week at the beach. I believe it was this week of  sewing deprivation that caused me to rush headstrong into fall sewing the minute I got back. As I was going through the week’s accumulation of mail, I found my package of new Vogue patterns. I really needed to start the laundry loads of dirty beach towels and sheets, and restock the refrigerator with essentials,  but I took just a minute to look at the patterns in the package. This pattern was one of them. 

Add caption

It appears to be an exact copy of the original Rebecca Taylor dress which was made from wool flannels and retailed for about $400.  I loved the subtle color blocking in shades of grey and brown and all the neat seaming.  Looking at the back of the envelope, I read that men’s suiting fabric were recommended, and that four different colors were needed. Note the colors shown in the line drawing are the opposite of the colors shown in the finished dress.  That's a bit odd.

 I have always been attracted to the idea of using menswear fabrics for unexpected purposes, like  the ultra sexy dresses  in the picture below and as upholstery fabrics for chairs and sofa's.

 I remembered a menswear fabric bundle I had purchased from Fabric Mart some 15 years ago. Fabric bundles are such fun; like sewing surprise packages. This one had worsted type wools in shadow stripes, subtle plaids and pinstripes in black, navy, camel, and brown.   At the time I received the bundle, I was really disappointed to find most of the fabrics were in 1 yard lengths. But for this dress, that length were perfect. Surprisingly, I knew exactly where in my stash these pieces were to be found. So I dashed downstairs to my climate controlled fabric vault, aka The Basement. There were four lengths of fabric in the same hues shown in the pattern picture.
  On a roll,  I decide to cut out the pattern pieces, pin them together and check them against my sloper to see if there are major fitting issues that needed to be resolved.  The front V was a bit low, but still decent. I would need to raise the front shoulder seam, lengthen the back  in the  armhole area, and shape the upper back, all typical changes for me. Pinning the pattern together also let me check the accuracy of the drafting, which was excellent.

pattern compared to sloper

  The dress was a bit short. I decide to add additional length at the hem. The thought of lengthening the skirt through the curved seams, and redrawing them was too much to contemplate. Since I had the fabric and pattern pieces handy I decided to do ahead with the cutting out.  DH came by to say he was going to bed as I started the  dress assembly. The best part! I waved goodnight. This dress was so much fun to put together that I stayed up way past my bedtime  to do it that night. I stopped when I couldn’t find a suitable zipper in my supplies.

There are lots of curved edges on the pattern pieces. Surprisingly there are no instructions to stay stitch or interface any of the pieces except for the side front hip piece.  I interfaced the zipper seam and the front and back yokes. I made sure I cut the pattern pieces accurately and handled the cut pieces carefully during assembly.  I did not have any seam matching issues. I did have slight stretching in some places, it was easily eased back into place.  I added 2.5 inches to length of the dress, which turned out not to have been enough. I would have preferred the hem of the dress to have  hit just below my knees.

Closeup of Fabrics

Front View



Putting in the lining seemed to take forever. Not because it was particularly difficult but because I want to finish so badly. Oh and I had to go back to work.  When I pirouetted in my finished dress for  DH, I proudly told him all the fabrics were from my stash. He mumbled something like ‘I’ll bet that really made a dent!" to which I replied "Small steps, honey. Rome was not conquered in a day!" I will have to wait for cooler weather to wear this dress. I was miserably hot while DH and I looked for a suitable locations to take pictures.

Vogue 1316

Back Vogue 1316