Project 10 of 50: Flower Girl Dress Test #1

Well, here goes nothing!

My favourite brother is getting married in September. I've offered to make the flowergirl dresses for my daughter and my niece. The bride has chosen a style for the girls which is both easy to sew and cute.

Here's a picture of what she wants:

Upon close inspection, the original dress is lined and has an invisible zip - no elastic anywhere. Fortunately, my soon-to-be-official sister-in-law is very laid back and easy-going. She's not fussed if I make some changes.

I'm using, as always, an Ottobre pattern (02-2005-11) as the base for this dress. It's a peasant style blouse with shirring at the empire line to give it some shape.

I'd already raised the armholes a little to stop any modesty issues when I used this pattern for Erin last year for her Red Riding Hood costume. To make it more closely resemble the dress, I've lengthed the skirt portion by 8" and cut the front and back apart at the empire line. I'm going to add in another 6" evenly across the front and the back to emulate the fullness of the original dress. I think I may need to add some fullness and length to the sleeves as well.

It will be sewn from white chiffon and some kind of white shiny fabric. I think I'll bind the neckline and sleeve edges with a satin bias binding and insert some skinny elastic through the bias. I'll have to find some kind of sparkly stretchy trim to be sewn over the empire seam, otherwise, I may have to insert a zip in the side seam. I'd prefer not to do a zip, so I'm guessing a trip to the local dance supplier is in order.

First things first, though. I have to test out the pattern. I'm making a test dress for my daughter, to be fitted when she comes home from her visit to her grandparents. I also have to make a test dress for my niece to be fitted when she comes down to visit next week. That one is the most important because I don't have easy access to her for a lot of fittings. It shouldn't be too hard, though, it's a pretty simple dress.

Test Dress #1: Tropical Sundress for DD

I made this one up in a gorgeous (what I think is a) rayon/cotton blend that my daughter picked out when we visited Vanuatu a few years ago. Originally, I think she just wanted a little shirred sundress, but this has turned out much cuter.

Obviously, the actual flower girl dress will be made from two layers of fabric and will have a trim around the waistline, but this is a nice little dress for summer.

I'm not too sure about the neckline. It's rounded, where the inspiration dress is straight across. Now, I'm not going to get that straight across look with an elastic casing around the neckline. I hope the bride isn't too fussed. I'll find out tomorrow if it's not going to work.

I also have to lengthen the dress for the 'real' one. Another 3 - 4" should do it, I think.

And one more close up shot. I LOVE this colour on my daughter!

Project 8 & 9 of 50: Monkey Pyjamas

My daughter and my husband have a running joke about monkeys. Hence the monkey flannel for these pyjamas.

I looked hard through my collection for a really simple shirt that I could use for a pyjama top. Ottobre didn't have one in all the issues I own. I didn't have one in any of the envelope patterns I own, so I turned to Burda. I found one potential winner, but it was probably going to be too small. I was ALMOST going to buy a pattern just so I could make up this monkey flannel and get it out of the stash, but I held strong and stayed true to my original goal (not to buy any fabric or patterns until I've sewn 50 projects). I came close, I had all the justifications happening in my head, but, thankfully, didn't follow through on that impulse.

So, here's the next two projects (and I'm totally counting these as two projects):

PJ Top

Pattern: Burda Style Magazine 12-2010-135
Size: 128, with added 1.5cm width at hip, blending up to armscye
Fabric: Monkey Flannel

The pattern worked well for a simple PJ top. The instructions weren't even too bad, for Burda. They are too short in the body, but that's my fault. I normally sew a 134 in length for DD, but forgot to make that adjustment on these PJs. It's OK, though, she always wears a t-shirt under these kind of tops when she goes to bed anyway.

I made some piping from the chocolate Stella knit that I used for the yoga band on the pants, just to tie in the two pieces more effectively. I hadn't made piping with a knit before, so I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.

PJ Bottoms

Pattern: Ottobre 06-2011-40 (TNT pattern for 2012)
Size: 134
Fabric: Monkey Flannel

I didn't have quite enough fabric to cut these according to the pattern, so I folded out 2" at the top of the front and back pieces. I then sewed a yoga style waistband made from stretchy cotton lycra to the top.

Lessons Learned

I learned a couple of lessons while sewing these PJs...

1.     Just because there are SOME elements of the pattern printed both ways, it doesn't mean the print is multi-directional. It pays to take notice of how many go each way. I think there are three or four monkeys in total on both garments who are right way up.

 2.     Life is TOO SHORT to sew button-up PJ tops, but I wanted this fabric out of my stash and my DD wanted some monkey pyjamas. Going forward, there will be PJ pants sewn and paired with a long-sleeved t-shirt - more comfortable and easier to sew. :-)

Just to show that I wasn't kidding yesterday about my DD always climbing! Apparently, the monkey pyjamas are highly appropriate! Sometimes, I really wish we had trees in our yard. Unfortunately, DD has to settle for climbing up these pillars unless we go to the park.

This is what makes it all worthwhile. She is still at that age where she loves the clothes I sew for her. I'm milking it for all it's worth at the moment. I know it won't last forever.

Project 7 of 50: Another coat

If I thought I was going to whip up 50 quick projects to satisfy my goal, my daughter had other ideas.

In the wake of my niece's coat success, my daughter decided that she wanted one "exactly the same". Well, there was no more of the red floral fabric, and the pattern didn't come in her size. Thankfully, she was willing to 'settle' for one of the other cute corduroys I had in my stash, and I could easily grade the pattern up. This was her final selection.

The coat pattern: Ottobre 06-2008-17

When I went to cut out the main pieces, I realised I actually didn't have enough of the corduroy! Oh No! In the end, I had to buy some coordinating quilting fabric to cut the facings from. Believe me, I shopped the stash first. I did have a piece that could have been OK, but it wasn't quite long enough and DD didn't like it anyway. If it was a smaller project, I probably would have used it anyway, but I figured that I was putting in some serious (for me) hours on this coat, I wanted it to be just right. So a small purchase was made.

I took this project along to a couple of sewing lessons. I'd already made this pattern before, so it was the perfect vehicle for learning a few new techniques. Normally, I'm a bit slap-happy when it comes to the actual sewing of garments (I tend to obsess over fit), but this time, I was more careful.

For this version of the coat, I learned how to attach a coat lining properly (leave it loose at the bottome! Whoops!), how to join the lining, facing and coat neatly at the bottom of the coat, how to attach the sleeve lining and the coat sleeve easily and how to apply a Hong Kong finish to the coat hem.

Get ready for the picture show. We took a LOT! And, for your reading pleasure, the captions have been written by Captain Obvious!

Proving that the coat was a success, it was on with seconds of her arriving home and hasn't been off for hours! :-)

Front view

Back view

Front view (with hood up)

Back view (with hood up)

Demonstrating the use of pockets (and leaning on a post!)

Just generally looking cool!

Now that's the kid I know! :-)

Sure Fit Designs: Pants Kit - Part 3

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting to Fitting Nirvana. I must say, Glenda has been very helpful and encouraging through this process. I've taken it fairly carefully, not wanting to "do what I've always done". That clearly hasn't worked so well for me in the past, otherwise I'd have well fitted pants, wouldn't I?

I think I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to try taking the wedge out lower down the leg, to avoid messing with the crotch area. Well, Glenda confirmed my opinion this morning, so I've gone ahead and pinned in that change. As you can see in the photos below, this was obviously a good move.

The large dragline has gone from the front.

The back is looking much better than it did yesterday with the higher wedge. I suspect there are still some wrinkles in there, but I'm not sure which ones are caused by the pins and which ones will need pattern alteration.

From here, I will transfer this change to my blueprint, then cut another test pair. I'm fairly happy with the fit of these pair, so I'll use some reasonable fabric so they will (hopefully) be wearable in public when I'm done.

Sure Fit Designs: Pants Kit - Part 2

I heard back from Glenda this morning. My goodness, people aren't kidding when they talk about the excellent customer service Sure Fit offers. Glenda has been very prompt and generous with her personal assistance when drafting and sewing these test pants.

After looking at the photos from the first test pair, it was decided that I pin out a horizontal wedge across the hip area to reposition the legs in a more centred position. This worked fairly well on the front, but then threw out my beautifully fitting back! Waa!

In the photos above, I've only pinned the wedge in the right hand leg. There are a mess of wrinkles on the pinned front leg, but I'm fairly certain this is due to the rough nature of the pinning.

But have a look at the back! Now they feel majorly uncomfortable and I have a massive wedgie going on. I'm thinking I may need to scoop out the back crotch seam, but I've (yet again) asked Glenda for advice. The pant leg is definitely more centred, but the back crotch is pulling. That's a bit weird to me because the back crotch length hasn't changed. It's almost like I need to take a wedge out of the front, but not the back.

I'm also wondering whether I need to add a little to the inseam in the thigh area. There is a little bit of pulling happening there, too.

Or, maybe, I've pinned the horizontal wedge in the wrong spot. What would happen if I pinned the wedge lower down, barely under the crotch line? I might try that in the morning and see if that makes a difference.

Sure Fit Designs: Pants Kit - Part 1

On the recommendation of one of my fellow PR members, I bought the pants kit from Sure Fit Designs. It's a drafting system that allows you to develop a range of slopers (depending on what kits you buy) which you can then modify to make a whole raft of different designs. The other use (and this is what got me) was that you can use the slopers to help you fit your commercial patterns to your body. Sold!

Anyway, I did a bit of research and there was a LOT of positive talk about this Sure Fit Designs, particularly with regard to the fit of the pants pattern and the customer service offered by the owner, Glenda Sparling. So I placed an order.  It took a little while for it to get here, but nothing extraordinary when you compare it to other orders coming from America.

In my order, I received the Pants kit, the Dress kit, the Stylus and the Pants that Mix'n'Multiply booklet. I opted to start with the Pants kit, as I'm really keen to develop a reliable pants sloper that I can modify to make a range of different styles.

After watching the relevant videos in the Learning Center, I got my husband to help me take my measurements. The kit comes with a DVD which leads you through the process of drafting the pattern. It's terribly dated, but the information is still good. However, I do best with written instructions so I mainly used the instruction booklet which is quite comprehensive.

I did run into one problem as I was drafting up the pattern. I have a large, tilted waist. When establishing the CF point, you are meant to find the intersection between your waist measurement and your front crotch measurement. Well, mine didn't intersect. That's OK, after confirming with Glenda that I was on the right track, I extended the lines downwards until they did intersect.

After drafting the pattern, I added seam allowances and cut and sewed my first pair of test pants. I have to say, I am impressed. The back is virtually wrinkle free. The front, however, has a big dragline and the legs are swinging inwards.

There are some suggestions in the instruction book about fine-tuning your pants pattern. I think I know what I need to do to these to remove the draglines, but I've just asked Glenda for some advice, just to make sure. I obviously need some hand-holding through this process.

Project 6 of 50: Perfect Plus Pants

I have been on (and am still on) an epic journey of finding a TNT pants pattern. I'm getting close, but I'm still not there.

I had been fiddling with the Style Arc Linda Stretch Pants that everyone is raving about, but I just couldn't get them to work on my body. This was after months of trying by myself and two sewing lessons where my fabulous sewing teacher helped me make adjustments. I'm retiring them for the moment. I may return. It bothers me that everyone else says how good they are - I must be doing something wrong.

Happily, these Perfect Plus Fly Front pants are the closest I've found so far.

The pants are drafted for a shorter, rounder (plus sized) figure. That fits my body shape perfectly. Do I want it to? No. But it is what it is. For now. And I need clothes for my body right now. Enter the Fly Front Pants. These brown pants are my (wearable) muslin.

Amazingly, I didn't have to do too many alterations. In fact, I just shortened the rise in both the front and the back and removed the front darts. I'm fairly happy with the fit. There are still a couple of drag lines in the back that I want to work on and and they are baggier overall than I'd like, but they're wearable. For a 'real' pair, I'd definitely make them out of a drapier fabric. This fabric is just too stiff. I'd also add a couple of inches to the length. These were already so short, I had to sew a hem facing rather than just turning up a hem.

I converted this pair to elastic waist (using the waistband from the Style Arc Linda Pants) and sewed a false fly front. I wasn't going to be fiddling around with a proper fly front on my muslin.

I'll definitely be making another pair of these, but I really want a slimmer leg pair of pants that I can wear with loose tops. These are just too baggy, however, they'll look fine with a more fitted top.

I'll have to work on a top to wear with these. This ensemble is the best I could come up with. LOL. I was trying to work the 'inner column'.

Where to from here? Just last week, my Sure-Fit Designs Pants Kit has arrived. My plan is to draft a pants sloper that fits me beautifully, that I can then use to adjust my commercial patterns. That's my dream, anyway. We'll see if it works out. My husband helped me take my measurements the other night and I'm ready to draft up my pattern this weekend.