Vogue 8854 - Upcycled Sweatshirt

This is a higgledy-piggledy VERY casual top I made last year, repurposing an old maxi tube skirt and matching oversize top I'd had for probably twenty years! The dusky purple waffle weave fabric obviously has seen better days, but back in the day I had loved the original outfit and wanted to find a way to reuse it. I should have taken a photo before deconstruction began, but didn't:(

Anyhow, I am a big fan of Carolyn at Handmade by Carolyn, who, as just one of her many talents, has made some wonderful clothing out of scraps and castoffs (for a few examples, see here, here, here, and here). It is because of Carolyn that I now have a large plastic tub filled with discarded clothing that has the potential - maybe - of becoming something else.

This top was my first venture.  I used Vogue 8854.  I've seen several appealing versions of this top made up, some using a more drapey knit, some more stiff.  I really wanted to make the hooded version, but as I've said before, when you are making something out of something else, you never have quite as much fabric as you thought you would.  In this case, there was an embroidered and appliquéd design on part of both the top and the skirt that was very worn and unsalvageable, and had to be cut away and discarded, leaving me with minimal fabric. So I went with view B instead.

As far as the pattern goes, I made a medium, which corresponds to a size 12-14.  I did add one inch width to each of the side pieces, tapering out from under the arm.  I also added one inch of length to the back hem, tapering to nothing on the side seam so that front and back would still match.  I liked that bit of high-low and the longer bottom coverage helps keep my seat warm:) This top has a shirttail shaped hem, which I had not done before, but the instructions on how to do it were excellent and worked, even on this extremely bulky fabric.

Side view of the shirt tail hem

The pattern does not really have a back seam, but I was using the back of the original skirt here.

The collar can be worn up or down, but if you plan to wear it up, you probably will need to cut the height down.  I have a long neck, and when the collar is extended it is up under my chin.  When it is extended you can see the pretty button I used to fasten it, but I omitted the snaps on the collar because  99% of the time, I'm going to wear the collar in the down position.

There are two large snaps hand sewn underneath the front flap. It also has a kangaroo pocket, which is a feature I like.  I did lower the placement of the pocket; the pattern had it up quite a bit higher.

The sleeves are reused from the original top, so I can't comment on how the pattern sleeves do.  Because of converting already sewn up pieces of clothing, there are extra seams on my top - some in less than ideal places.  Here you can see - if you squint through the blur - the double shoulder seams:

Because this was an experiment, I decided not to let any wonkiness bother me, instead hoping  pretending that it adds a little note of whimsy.  This is a very casual top, but hey, sometimes I need that in my wardrobe.  I made three tops last winter: a cozy pullover, a brown leopard print tunic, and this one.  I have worn them all a lot, which shows me that tops are worthwhile sewing projects.

I had planned to make a few more tops this winter - I'd love to try the hooded version of this pattern - but my coat used up all my sewing time.  That's okay; I'm trying to enjoy the process of my sewing/crafting and keep it pressure-free. I have to confess that I have just started a project that is definitely NOT pressure-free: a formal dress for my daughter.  I will be working on that for the next few weeks -- wish me luck!

In the meantime, I hope all my U.S. friends are keeping warm. Even here in Texas we are planning to be holed up for the next couple of days.  I hope to get in some sewing, cooking and maybe even a jigsaw puzzle:)

Vogue 8994 -- Last Dress of Summer

I finished this loose summer dress just in time for summer to be over.  That is because things take me WAY longer than I think they will.  I have a bit of a self-imposed guideline, allowing myself to sew spring/summer items from March through August and fall/winter items from September through February.  However, that last item tends to take its sweet time, so I think I need to back this up and sew for fall/winter in August-January and for spring/summer in February-July.

This dress is made from Vogue 8994 - a pattern labeled 'Very Easy.'  Patterns labeled 'Very Easy' should come with cautions -- very easy IF not one thing goes wrong.  In this case, a lot of things conspired to make it 'Not So Easy.'  In defense of the 'very easy' rating, there are only three pattern pieces, a front half and a back half and a back neck band.  But they are large.  And all the work is doubled because the dress is lined.  (That does allow you to use a sheer fabric on top, however).

And I did choose to use a sheer fabric, a gray and white crinkled chiffon purchased from fabric.com.   Chiffon is not-so-easy to sew; it is slippery and it frays, and you need to use a pressing cloth when ironing it.  The one smart thing I did was to soak the chiffon in heavy starch and let it dry (by hanging it over the shower rod).  That made it stiff and easy to cut out and relatively easy to sew, and I will definitely be doing that with thin fabrics in the future.  I used a Schmetz size 70 universal needle, which worked fine.

I lined the chiffon in a silver gray broadcloth from Hobby Lobby.  I was going to use white but the gray looked better.  The broadcloth is a poly/cotton blend, so not much wrinkling and it's definitely cooler in the heat (which is where this dress will be worn) than straight up polyester.  Also, it's washable, all important things to me.

Because the chiffon is sheer and frays like crazy, all the seams (front, back and side) were French-seamed.  I also French-seamed the lining.  I was careful and did a good job.  But something was terribly wrong.  When I tried to sew the lining to the chiffon, they did not match at all.  After puzzling through this for some time (Did I cut the pieces that horribly off?  Did the fabric stretch? Did I trace the wrong size?) I realized that I had made a gigantic mistake:  I had sewn the armhole seams together in the center instead of the center seams!  Three long lines of French seaming had to be painstakingly unpicked.  The pattern had to be put back together properly and then painstakingly re-French seamed.  (This is where I was very glad I had starched that chiffon so thoroughly.  Even with all the unpicking it held up pretty well.)

The neckline scoop is on the left and the deeper scoop on the right is the armhole, opposite of what I wrongly assumed

In addition to that colossal mistake, I ran into a few other issues.  One: if you are anything above a B cup, you will need an FBA.  I definitely do not have a figure that normally calls for an FBA (full bust adjustment), but a reviewer on Pattern Review had warned that this pattern was snug in the bust.  So when I traced the pattern out I traced my usual size 14 in the shoulders but under the arm I went out to a size 16 and then used that for my side seam.  I am glad I did, too -- I needed that extra room, and it was barely enough.

Second, the armholes are very low.  Maybe not too low for the runway, but if you are an everyday woman making this dress to wear in your everyday life and you don't like your bra showing, then you are definitely going to have to raise the armholes.  Unfortunately, because of the way the neckband is constructed, it is difficult to tell exactly how the dress is going to fit until it's almost sewn together.  I was almost finished (I thought), but those low armholes were unacceptable, putting the bra band and hitherto unnoticed underarm fat on clear display.   It would have been better (and easier) to redraw the armholes higher on the pattern pieces before cutting out the fabric, but it was too late for that, so I had to settle for shortening the front and back.  I removed the neck band, raised the armholes by shortened the back by one inch and the front straps by a little over one inch, and resewed everything back together.   I probably overcompensated the front bands by a quarter of an inch, but good enough.

Third, either the shortening of the back piece resulted in a problem with the neck band or the neck band is drafted too narrow (which is what I think is the problem).  The neck band should extend on either side by a 5/8" seam allowance past the back neck piece (step 11).  Mine didn't; in fact, it was exactly the same width as my back neck.  I rechecked to see if I had made the neck band the right size according to the pattern, and I had.  However, it needs to extend.  You have two choices:  either redraw a longer neck band, or narrow the back neck piece.  I chose to narrow the neck back piece because I didn't feel like cutting a new pattern piece, especially since I had already underlined and interfaced my neckband.  So I had to take it off and resew the upper back seams (making them more narrow), then reattach the neck band. (I sewed the neck band on three different times -- thankfully the chiffon held on, but it was feeling the strain).

The back looks like it's pulling a bit on the left side, so I need to check that before sewing again.  Also, the neckband is hidden under my hair.  I should have gotten a better photo of it.

All of this raising of the back and the front made the neckline too high for my liking, so I lowered the neckline at center front by two inches.  This entailed redrawing the neckline curve, which was harder than I expected and made me wish I had a French curve -- it was not so easy to get an exact mirror image.

I made view A, which is the shorter length.  I am 5'8" and I usually add length, but this time I didn't, and even with the shortenings that happened, this dress is plenty long.  Like the reviewer before me, I felt the high-low hem needed more exaggeration for it to look right, and since I didn't have the option of adding to the back hem I redrew the front hem one inch shorter at center front, tapering to nothing at the side seams.  That little bit of change made a big difference.  I hemmed the dress with a narrow machine hem, enclosing the raw edges. Then I washed the dress to rinse all the starch out.

Before I rinsed the starch out, so it's hanging a little stiff here

To be honest, I thought I was never going to be done with this dress.  And I'm probably not going to get but one wear out of it this year.  Up until the last minute I just did not know if I was going to have to toss it despite all the work.  It is very tent-like, so if you don't like that, then don't bother with this pattern.  But surprisingly I do like it.  It is good to have a few loose dresses in your wardrobe if you live in a hot climate (like Texas in the summer).  I like that it is simple, but the chiffon gives it a slightly floaty feel.  It's a pull-over-your-head-and-go dress, which is a plus for me.  I think that I ended up with an okay fit. Now, am I going to make it again?  Mmmm.......not anytime soon.

Happy to be done

And, fearful of missing the season again, I have gone straight from finishing this sundress to working on a winter coat.

My little photo bomber Luna 

Vogue 1390 - Brown Pleated Shift Dress

While I have been lax on blogging, I have been sewing here and there.  I sew because I like being able to make things to wear, and also because it is a good, constructive, creative way to occupy my mind and body, which makes it fun for me.  Unfortunately, my projects have piled up unblogged because it is difficult to get them photographed.  Even though for the most part I do the photographs myself, it still requires a block of time to take the photos, and another block of time to edit.  I do like to have a record of my projects here, however, so I'm not going to worry about the order and go ahead and blog what I can.

Anyway, my most recent make is this Sandra Betzina dress pattern Vogue 1390.  It looks like I made view B (and I did use the 'v' neckline) but I used view A's directions because my pleats were already on my fabric.  This is because my fabric is a cotton pleated shower curtain that I purchased for $3.99 at the thrift store:

Sorry for the blur

I had purchased the pattern when it was on sale and was keeping my eye out for some kind of panel printed fabric.  When I was trawling the thrift store linens section, I came across this shower curtain with its chocolate brown pleats (I am very, very attracted to texture in fabric), a little light bulb clicked on in my head and I thought it might work instead.  For $3.99 it was worth a try!

One thing I will say about refashioning items from one thing into another:  you never have as much fabric to work with as you think you will.  I had to cut the heading with the grommets off and I had to cut the hem off, which reduced my yardage.  I carefully cut the lining away.  The pleated section was on the edge, so I had to cut off some plain yardage and sew it to one side of the pleats so that the pleats would actually be centered and be wide enough for my center sections. The pleats were pressed down in alternate directions, and because I used the pleated section on the front and back panels of the dress, I couldn't play around with the placement -- my main concern had to be actually getting the yardage I needed.

These pleats are much narrower than the ones given in the pattern directions for view B, but as long as you pleat your fabric before you cut it out, I'm sure you can make your pleats any size you want.  Again, I didn't do any of this because my fabric came already pleated; however, if you are interested in doing these alternate wavy pleats yourself, I found this tutorial that explains the process.

Here's a view of the back.  It's wrinkled but that is because I've worn it all day (and at least three other days now -- one was my day of flying to Tennessee.  It's a great travel dress).

This is a substantial little dress.  The cotton itself was sturdy, the panels are pleated (which adds fabric heft) and the yokes, the bottom bands and the side panels are all doubled (which further explains why I barely had enough fabric -- I had to do a little creative piecing with the side panels).

This is my first time making a Sandra Betzina pattern.  Her sizing is different, but a size C is roughly equivalent to a size 14.  Although I usually add an inch to the side seams at the waist of size 14s, it was a little confusing how to do this with this pattern, and the dress is supposed to be loose-fitting, so I cut a straight size C and hoped for the best.  I did shorten the length by two inches (I'm 5'8"); I was afraid a longer length might look too dowdy.

The most time-consuming part was cutting out the dress, and that was because I had to reconfigure the fabric and sew pieces together just to have enough.  Once I finally got everything cut out, I sewed the whole dress up in a single afternoon (except for ten minutes), which is super fast for me.  It may have been because I was working with a sturdy woven cotton, which is very cooperative.  There is also no hand sewing on this dress, no turning up of a hem, and no zippers or other closures, all of which make it faster to sew.

The construction of the dress was a little different, so I was afraid to deviate from the directions very much.  Sandra advocates finishing all the seams with a serger, but I just stitched and pinked all mine, which worked fine.  I finished the sleeve seams by sewing purchased bias tape to the edge and turning it to the inside and topstitching it down.  The final silhouette has a bit of a bell shape.  I took a little of the hip curve out (the hip curve on dresses and skirts always hits me mid-thigh, I need to make some type of fitting adjustment prior to cutting out), but I left some of the bell shape in.  It's subtle (and hard to see in these photos), but it's another fun element to the dress.

I have to say this is a very useful and comfortable addition to my wardrobe. So far I've worn it for a day of traveling on a plane and through airports, to an outdoor military ceremony, and to church.  It could go to the grocery store just as easily, and to be honest the most needed clothes in my life are things I could wear to the grocery store.  And I love that it's made out of a shower curtain!! But my favorite thing about this dress is that it goes with these shoes:

Crown Vintage Peony Wedge Sandal

I bought these (as well as a brown pair) from the online DSW clearance section with a birthday gift card from my husband:)

Vogue 1228 -- Shift Dress

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This is the first woven dress I've made in a while; it is Vogue 1228.  I believe it's also the first Vogue pattern I've tried (although it's a designer -- Vena Cava -- it's still labeled 'easy').  I liked that it was a little artsy but wearable.  (The artsy part is not the fan blades emerging from my head.  A lack of willing and able photographers has reduced me to mirror self-portraits.  I think I need to get a tripod.)

The pattern I had only went up to a size 14.  I thought I had read that Vogues ran a little smaller than the other big pattern companies, so after cutting the 14 out (I didn't trace it since it was the largest size and all the other sizes were still preserved on the original pattern), I pinned the front to the back along the seam line, and "tried it on," so to speak. I just did not feel comfortable that it was going to reach around me all the way without being too tight.  So I added an inch to each side, front and back. I also added two inches to the length, just to be on the safe side.

You can see where I added along the side (top) and where I cut the pattern apart to add the length

I had also read the neckline was too wide and low, so I redrew the neckline in another centimeter or so on either side, and drew it a centimeter higher.  After making it, I think the low factor is more of a problem for women with a bigger bust.  Not sure that was a necessary fix for me;) I also left out the side zipper because it is easy to just pull on over the head.

The fabric I used was a blue paisley-ish polyester peachskin from Joann.  I used a microtex needle and had no problems with any of it except for the hem.  This is the second time I've tried to hem a peachskin dress (I never got the first dress right and it ended up in the giveaway pile).  I could not get this dress hemmed right either.  After ripping out the hem I did by hand -- which was lumpy and bumpy -- I finally just turned it under and sewed a narrow hem by machine.

As far as the sewing directions, there are a few unusual details that I had to think through, mostly the horizontal pleat that runs across the front and the back.  If you change the depth of the neckline that changes it a little bit.  Most of the seams are French seams, which I liked, but that makes it a little more difficult to fit as you go.

A close-up of the sleeve detail --the horizontal pleat is at the bottom of the neckline

I may make it again in the spring, with a silkier fabric that has a little more drape.  The peachskin worked fine but has more structure when sewn up than you might think.

And here's my forgot-to-turn-off-the-flash first photo:

Blogging is no simple activity.  In addition to working on my computer skills, I now need to work on my photography skills.  Maybe it will sharpen my brain:)