New Look 6071 -- Blue Sweater Dress

While my daughter has been sewing for spring ever since January, I still had a couple of winter things that I wanted to finish.  First up is this blue sweater dress I completed in late February/early March.

The pattern is New Look 6071, a Workroom/Project Runway pattern that just went out of print, so if you're interested in purchasing it, do it soon.  I really was not that interested in it myself until I saw Andrea of Fabric Epiphanies great series on this pattern: number 1, number 2, number 3, number 4, and number 5!

Inspired by her flattering versions, I bought the pattern myself.  I had some blue sweater knit fabric from Joann Fabric that I thought would be a good match.  I cut a 14 at the neckline and added an inch to the side seams, tapering out from under the arms.  Tissue-fitting revealed that the sleeves were very narrow and I actually added almost an inch to the width all the way down the sleeve to the wrist.  I also added a little to the length of the sleeves and the skirt.

I liked the interest added at the bodice with the twist and the pleats.  Instructions were good on this.  The neckline is finished with a facing.  After reading some reviews and fearing gaping issues, I shortened the facing to somewhere between the size 10 and size 12.  I'm really glad I did, and if I make this again I will shorten that even more, which helps snug up the neckline.  The neckline still ended up a little lower than I am comfortable with, so I hand-tacked it together, giving me another inch of coverage.

The back fits very well.  I made no adjustments to that other than lengthening the skirt slightly.

All in all, this dress is okay.  I like the interest in the bodice, and the slightly A-line skirt is a nice change for me.  Definitely wearable.  The main thing I don't like about it is that it shows how thick I've gotten this winter while I was bundled up under my giant sweatshirts, and how much work I'm going to have to do to keep from getting thicker.  That's a little discouraging.  However, I do think I will try it again.  I think it might look nice in a stripe and as a top.

As for the photos, I didn't use the self-timer, but I set the tripod up and set the shots up myself.  Then I set my husband behind the camera and told him to just push the button.  I still don't understand how I can take more flattering shots of myself than he can take of me....... Anyway, these shots were taken outside, where I was constantly getting photo-bombed by my furry friends and my youngest son,

who was lovingly mocking me (now you can understand why it is so hard for me to look at ease).  But it's only fitting he should have his own photo (even though he's making a face), because this week he was the last of my offspring to pass from childhood into teen-age-hood.  Happy birthday - and yes, we did celebrate with ice cream cake!!

New Look 6035 -- A Good Top for Swinging into Spring

Finally spring is just around the corner!  In eager anticipation of this happy event my daughter began making warm weather clothes in February.  She finished this little sleeveless shell from New Look 6035 view C.  I say 'finished" because she started this top over a year ago and stalled out because she didn't know how to do the binding.  The top languished waited patiently in a little bundle until her skills and confidence caught up, and she felt ready to tackle it.  Plus, sometimes you just want to get that project that's been hanging over your head out of the way.

The top is made of a cotton fabric covered all over in tiny white flowers that I've had in my stash for well over ten years.  I don't remember what I originally thought I would make but I'm glad the fabric is finally getting to be worn:)  The cotton does wrinkle -- these photos were taken after it had been worn all day -- but wrinkles are a second consideration to comfort and coolness when you live in a hot climate.

Here you can see the tone-on-tone flowers, which add visual texture to the fabric. The neckline and armholes are bound with self-fabric bias, and the neckline also has small pleats.

Here's a view of the back:

And here is a view of the side.  The side seams are finished off with a slit, which gives the top a little more movement.  She made a straight size 10.  The underarms are a little snug, so next time we will deepen the underarm seams half an inch or so.

It's a great top for summer, but also for cooler weather because it's perfect underneath a jacket.

An all-around do-it-yourself-er, my daughter also made the swing in the photos:)  She used these plans from Lowe's, spent an afternoon or so on construction, and then hung the swing in the huge live oak tree that is in my front yard.  It's very sturdy (supposedly up to 500 lbs.!) so any of us can enjoy it, not just small kids, something that all my tall people appreciate:)

Happy Connections

Last summer I was contacted by email by someone who was searching for an out-of-print pattern, New Look 6751.  She had seen a review I had done of it here and asked if I might be willing to sell the pattern.  I wasn't quite ready to do that, but I suggested she could borrow it, and she took me up on that.  Little did I know that she was in Queensland, Australia!

So, I went down to the post office and sent the pattern off from Texas to Queensland.  I was not in a big hurry to get it back, but in December Christine contacted me saying she had put it in the mail.  We missed a week of mail in December due to an ice storm (hard to believe since this week we are in the sixties), but a little before Christmas I got a fat envelope from Queensland.

I was only expecting the pattern, but when I opened it there was a lovely notecard with a kookaburra and some Christmas paper!

Inside the paper were some lovely gifts.  A beautiful tea towel with a map of Australia (whose photo needs to be rotated but I'm not blogging this from my computer so I don't have access to my photo files at the moment):

Also, this little pouch --

which unzips into a tote bag:

And these adorable little clip-on animals, all icons of Australia:

What a lovely surprise to open all these gifts!  My husband was quite impressed that I had received a gift all the way from Australia.  Thank you, Christine!

I have to say that making these kind of contacts through the internet has been so much fun and so nice!!  It really gives a boost to your day when someone on the complete other side of the world has given you a little thought.  I have always enjoyed making connections with people, and even though a lot of us may never meet in person, it has been (and is) such a pleasure to get to know some of you.

Here's to many more happy connections between us all for 2014!

New Look 6225 -- Sweatshirt Dress

A while back I saw this dress (at least I think it's a dress, it may be a tunic) by Philip Lim on pinterest and thought how I would love to wear that.  (I know, that may not be what you were thinking, but to each his own, okay;).  Sewing is changing the way I think about clothes.  Instead of thinking "Where can I find this?" "Can I afford this?" or "Will this fit me?" I think "Maybe I could make this."  That starts the wheels rolling, and I think about what fabric and patterns I could use.

There are not many dress patterns with raglan sleeves, so I decided to use New Look 6225, view D, which is a raglan top pattern with cap sleeves, and just extend the lines of the top down to my knees (one of the few times having a relatively straight figure is to my advantage).   I made a size 14, and added one inch to the side seams, tapering out from the underarm.  I also lowered the neckline in the front by 3 inches.  Because I was being a little experimental, I basted the side seams first to check the fit.  I found out that this is a good practice:  the fit check is much more accurate than just using pins, and if it needs to be fixed, basted seams are MUCH easier to unpick.  For the fabric I used a cozy charcoal sweatshirt fleece from Joann Fabric that has no stretch, which worked out since New Look 6225 is drafted for wovens.

I know this dress is a little 'out there', but I've worn it to an art gallery opening already, and it's very comfortable while being a little edgy.  I do wonder if I am on my way to 'crazy old lady' status; on the other hand, I have always loved that poem "When I Am Old I Shall Wear Purple,"  so I guess I'm okay with that. Life is too short to take oneself seriously all the time:)

Usually I am not a fan of asymmetrical hemlines, but I felt in this case it was necessary to add a little 'oomph.'  Instead of cutting each pattern piece on the slant (I was getting a headache trying to make sure each side was correct), I made the dress a normal length, then tried it on and marked where I wanted the hem to go on each side.  I then chopped it off, leaving enough fabric to turn up the hem.  (One note here:  I wish I had made the dress longer and given myself more room to work with, because the differential between one side and the other needs to be greater than I anticipated for it to have the right effect.)

This is not the most flattering view of my backside, but honesty in blogging and all that;)

The shoulders were unpleasantly constricting after the sleeves were sewn in.  I unpicked them -- every project needs a little seam ripper action;) -- and resewed them with a 3/8"  instead of a 5/8" seam allowance.  The sleeves are two pieces with a center top seam, so that gave me another inch of room (4 seams at 1/4" increase), which was helpful.  I'm not very experienced with raglan sleeves, so I'm not sure why the shoulders turned out too tight, and there may be a better way to fix this problem, but for now it worked.  I added a little interest to the sleeves by binding them and leaving the raw edges exposed.  I also added a binding to the neckline and topstitched the raglan seams.

Also I finally figured out how to mount my camera on a tripod and take photos of myself using a timer.  (I looked on the good old internet and downloaded a very helpful manual for my camera -- much more extensive than the booklet that came with it!).  I need a lot more practice with picture quality and height, etc. but not bad for my first try.

Of course, I did get photo-bombed by my furry friends:

(Note:  my little dog Penny, who has appeared on my blog before, disappeared under sad circumstances early last summer.  We got Luna, the little dog on the left, this fall from a rescue shelter.  Angus is our Australian Shepherd.)

I also got photo-bombed by my husband and older son, who hammed it up and danced grotesquely for the camera.  But those photos are certainly not fit for public consumption;)

Lessons from this dress:
It's fun (and possible) to copy -- or loosely adapt -- ideas from pinterest or other inspirational sites
A top pattern can be turned into a dress pattern
Basting seams is worth the extra time -- they are so much easier to unpick, and they allow me to check the fit before I permanently commit to it
I can take pictures of myself when necessary

New Look 6184 -- China Dress

I have been on something of a creative hiatus since early June, but my daughter has not.  On the contrary, she has been working hard on some beautiful projects.  This dress is the first one:

I titled this the "China Dress" because the fabric is reminiscent of blue china to me.  It is a gorgeous cotton with subtle metallic highlights (like gold or silver leaf on china:) purchased from Hobby Lobby.

It feels as pretty as it looks

For her pattern she chose New Look 6184 view B and made an unaltered size 10.  Features include pleats at the neck, darts at the waistline, and a circle skirt made of several panels sewn together.  She tried adding a white belt and bow out of satin (per view B), but it made the dress feel too little-girly and took away from its effect, so she left it off.

The dress is not lined.  The neckline is finished with a facing, and the armholes are finished with bias tape, which makes the inside tidy.  She did finish all other seams by sewing a line in each seam allowance and then pinking the edges.

It closes with a lapped zipper at the back.

She didn't add any to the length (she is 5'9" for reference), so there was not much room to turn up a hem.  A circle skirt should have a very narrow hem anyway, so we used hem tape sewn to the edge and turned up.  I think that also added a little weight and helped the hem to hold its shape.

As sometimes happens, a new dress necessitates new shoes and purse:), but thankfully we found both quickly and very reasonably.

I love the retro feel of this, and the fit is spot-on.  Truly it looks lovely on her. As I did not make this dress myself I cannot offer my opinion, but my daughter says that this pattern is quite easy and not hard to understand at all.  I will let her results speak for themselves.

New Look 6119 -- Pillowcase Dress

This dress was definitely a case of the fabric driving the pattern choice.  This is a purple/gray silky fabric with a ribbon-like texture from Joann Fabrics (you can still order it here).  Normally I don't advocate going out and buying pretty fabrics willy-nilly, BUT if you are drawn to a fabric over and over again on several fabric store visits till you finally buy it even though you don't know what in the world you are going to make with it, well, there are certainly worse things you could do with your money:)

Sooo, after I bought this fabric it took me awhile to figure out what to do with it.  Because the fabric itself is rather complex, I wanted something simple but dramatic.  I thought about Vogue 1240, but it had mostly negative feedback on Pattern Review, and it was maybe a little TOO dramatic to get much wearing time.  But when I saw Barbara (of sewing on the edge) in her pillowcase dress the little wheels in my head started turning.  I did some searching of pillowcase dresses on pinterest and then I bought New Look 6119 to use as my starting point.

I really like this pattern.  I did make just a few changes (you knew that, didn't you?).  I cut a size 14 but added an inch to each side.  I sewed the front panels all the way up but left the keyhole in the back because I wanted to tie a big bow back there.

This is probably a more typical expression for me

Because some of the ribbons in the fabric were sheer, the dress needed a lining but I didn't want to mess up the drape and the "floatiness" of it.   However, I ended up with quite a lot of leftover fabric, and while it is lovely, one project out of it is probably enough.  So I decided to just cut two dresses and layer them on top of each other.  This added a little time, especially since all the seams are French seams (a nice feature of the pattern), but it was worth it.

After making the two dresses, I treated them as one at the neckline, and attached the seam binding to both layers at the underarm (1/2" seam binding) and at the neck (1" double wide seam binding, which I opened out to give me more room).  I used a wider seam binding at the neck than the pattern called for because I wanted the neck tie to be wider and that gave me more room to thread it through.  Fabric for the neck tie was leftover lining from my lace dress.  I cut it 6 inches wide and maybe 90 inches long (as per here) then sewed it in half longways and turned it, then topstitched it.  Ninety inches turned out to be way too long so after I had it made and tried it with the dress, I shortened it.  I wanted to tie the bow in the back and have it be rather large, but I didn't want the tails to be so long that I would sit on them if I sat down.

Here's a lopsided view of the back:

I added a little drama to the hemline by hemming the top layer a couple of inches shorter than the bottom layer.

I need to get some sun on those legs

This is not a dress that can go just anywhere, but so far I have worn it to a wedding that had an outdoor reception and to an art show opening night.  It does have a little bit of "caveman chic" going for it.  But it's fun and comfortable and forgiving, and just the thing for hot summer nights here in Texas.

Sometimes these nights are windy, too:)

New Look 6096 -- Bohemian Dress

Are you up for some sewing posts?  I have a few things I did before Christmas that I would like to share.

First up is New Look 6096, the long-sleeved View A.  This pattern was chosen by my lovely daughter (tip: if you are sewing for a teenager and you want them to actually wear it, THEY need to pick the pattern or the fabric).  She liked the style of that dress, and I happened to have some fabric in my stash that I thought would work. Because this fabric was from the thrift store, I'm unsure of the fabric content, but it is thin and cotton-esque -- think about lawn-weight (lawn the fabric!) or slightly heavier.

I made a size ten, adding length to the sleeves and the dress.  My daughter is long and lean (5'9"), so this is pretty much a standard adjustment for us.  I had never made anything quite like this.  The sleeves are actually part of the bodice.  There is elastic around the sleeves, the neckline, and the waist.  The skinny bow at the waist is merely decorative.

A view of the back:

I have to say this is one of the easiest dresses I have made so far (even though the pattern itself is not designated "easy").  Her brothers teased her about looking like she was from the 60s, but I love how it looks on my daughter.  It also looks great with a jeans jacket thrown on top.

I am also happy that I finally figured out how to use this loop turner:

I have had this for awhile and never got the hang of it, but this time I realized that you have to get it started (vs. just giving it a yank, which always resulted in tearing the fabric).  But once I got it started,  it turned the narrow trim for the tie in probably five seconds flat.  AMAZING!  Now that I have figured  out the secret, I LOVE this tool:)

New Look 6751 -- Tunic

(I neglected to get prior approval from my model, and she has requested I take the photo down. -- Let that be a lesson, Mom.  I will replace it when I get a better one.) [Ed. -- I FINALLY got some better pictures:)]

 This tunic is a dress pattern from New Look 6751,  just cut shorter.  This pattern is now out of print, but you can still find it on etsy or ebay.  I used a green jersey knit fabric chosen by my daughter.  While the fabric feels wonderful, this is the most difficult knit I have worked with so far.  It was extremely difficult to get that neckband on correctly.

The first time I tried it was impossible.  I like to keep the original patterns intact, especially since sometimes my daughter and I can use the same pattern just different sizes.  So I trace my pattern pieces onto a thin paper.  Tracing it also gives me a cleaner piece that I can alter and make notes on.  But you do need to be careful.  When I laid the traced neckband on top of the original pattern I realized I had been sloppy and it was off by around half an inch.  So.... I retraced the pattern piece, recut a neckband piece and tried again.  (This was AFTER I had sewn and unpicked the neckband, and unpicking the seams in knit fabrics is a PAIN).  LESSON:  Check your traced pieces against the originals BEFORE you cut your fabric out.

Two more issues here:  this pattern was not rated "easy" and it is a pattern suitable for wovens and some knits, but the directions are more suited for the wovens.  Also, because the bodice was not gathered into the neckband, it needed to fit exactly.  Easier said than done.  I never did get it exactly, but close enough. This was my first time using a solid knit, and I did find out that it is much harder to disguise mistakes on a solid than on a print.  Prints cover a multitude of sins, shall we say.

The neckband was really the only super difficult part, and I think it was exacerbated because for some reason I thought I had to use a straight stitch.  For the rest of the top I used a narrow zigzag (my normal setting for knits) and had no problems.  If I make it again, I will definitely use the zigzag on the neckband as well.

Also, if I make it again I will be sure to add a couple of inches to the sleeves.  My daughter is a little disappointed how short they came out.  I should know to do that automatically.  The first shirt I ever made -- in Home Ec class when I was a freshman in high school -- was a button-front woven shirt and the sleeves were way short on me.  Seldom does a RTW shirt have sleeves long enough for me, and my daughter's arms are even longer than mine.

However, keeping in mind MY goal (not necessarily my daughter's goal) for clothes-sewing success -- wearability, I deem this tunic wearable this winter -- sleeves can be pushed up;)

New Look 6095 -- Shift Dress

This pattern, from New Look 6095, was chosen by my daughter.  It looked very easy, and she found the fabric she wanted, a missoni-style knit stripe, at Joann Fabrics.  She liked the dress featured on the front as well as the giant tote bag, which is still on our to-make list.  But after I got the pattern home and looked at it more carefully, I saw that it was for a woven fabric, and not for a knit like we had assumed.

That made me a little uncomfortable as to how it might turn out.  Sewing for your daughter is already fraught with danger.  It's very difficult to exactly match those exacting expectations, especially when you are just an average seamstress like me.  I didn't want the cards stacked against me before they were even dealt.  But there was no changing her mind about the fabric.  I did know that it was a bad idea to use woven fabric with a pattern drafted for a knit, but sometimes you can go the other way with acceptable results.

So.....I tissue-fit the pattern (pinned the pattern to her to see any corrections I might make at this point).  I used the size 10 but took 1/4 inch out of the front and back width.  I checked the darts to make sure they were in the right location (they were), and I checked the length (even though she wanted the dress to be short, my daughter is 5'10" so I added some to the length just to be on the safe side).

I lined up the stripes by lining up the BOTTOM of the skirt pieces before cutting them out.  This was because if I had lined up the TOP, the darts would have messed it up.  Lining it up from the bottom kept the unmatched portions up under the arms where they won't be as noticeable.

Since I was using a knit, I left off all facings and using my iron-on knit tape folded the edges under and stitched.  I left off the back zipper and stitched the center back seam up because it was easy to get on and off. (I did a better job matching the center back seam.)

Thankfully, the dress turned out cute as a button, although more credit goes to the lovely wearer than to my dressmaking skills.