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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63004102335690728942016-02-07T08:00:44.890+10:00kbenco's projectsA journal of sewing, knitting and fabric collection.kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-84341301135594266092015-12-06T21:21:00.000+10:002015-12-06T21:21:14.742+10:00Lace shorts, Burda Style 03-2011-131Lace shorts have been ubiquitous here.

I've been meaning to make some for my daughter for a year or two now. I even bought some nice sturdy cotton lace yardage about 12 months ago (Pittwater trading), and although I have only the slightest tendency towards keeping up with current fashion, my daughters are much more interested in being in style. I thought I'd better get around to making this type of garment before the fad disappeared completely from the shops.

The problem was, that I didn't really know how to manage the hems, lining and waistband, so easier projects kept rising to the front of the queue.

I looked at some ready to wear lace shorts.

The RTW available for my viewing were uniformly tacky, poorly made, mostly polyester - and pricey. $80-100 for shorts with raw seams visible through the lace!. This gave me some confidence. Mine could not possibly be worse.

I decided to try underlining with faux Hong Kong seams, as per Laura Lo's tutorial, a method that I had used with some success in a skirt a few years ago. The underlining fabric is a very pale pink imperial batiste.
Underlining shorts though, is not the same as underlining a skirt. That dratted crotch curve! There was a lot of fiddling before the seam width at the centre seam was even throughout the curve and not too obvious through the lace. I must have unpicked it at least five times, and that was before I started working on the zip.....

The pattern, naturally, was one I had tried earlier, an experiment with this project in mind, as usually, shorts in our house require a lot of fitting. This pattern is a very simple style with few pattern pieces, in order to avoid interrupting the lace. Burda Style 03-2011-131 seen previously in cotton twill.

I used a thick elastic, marketed as "elastic waistband" which solved all my waistband concerns other than the actual finishing technique- there's some RTW worthy overlocking there :) Originally, I used an exposed metal zip, but neither my daughter nor I liked the appearance of this, and the shorts were a little loose at the back, so I was able to unpick it and subsitute a lapped zip instead, with a little help from some black bias tape on the underlap edge. The waistband is closed with two buttons and an elastic loop. Fortunately black hair elastics are more readily available than black elastic loop tape
.
The lace fabric had a wide strip of cotton selvage on the edge. I cut out the shorts using this edge as the hem, and trimmed away all the woven selvage before overstitching the lace edge with a very fine zig-zag. This has proven quite a robust hem finish and has even survived being put through the washing machine by mistake. The batiste underlayer is hemmed with a machine embroidery stitch, so there is a pretty finish visible through the lace -however, in real life, this is one of those sewing secrets visible only to the wearer !
My daughter loves these shorts. I actually finished them a few months ago. Being mostly cotton, they are cool and comfortable to wear, and in fact they have been worn everywhere, from the beach to parties, and I consider them one of my most successful projects despite my initial trepidation about working with lace in a utilitarian garment. Sometimes its good to work outside my comfort zone.kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-78807717327929545262015-11-29T14:52:00.003+10:002015-11-30T05:30:14.195+10:00 Minimalist cycle touring travel wardrobeThe main problem with having a very interesting life with multiple hobbies is that they often compete. In my blogging absence, I have been trying to learn some French, and doing a lot of cycling, and have recently returned from cycling right across France with my husband and son, carrying all our camping gear etc. We cycled about 2000km, which I am still having trouble believing, then spent 4 days in Paris being proper tourists.

This was an amazing adventure, and has unsurprisingly cut into my sewing for the past 6 months or so, even though we were only away for 6 weeks. The preparation was a tad intense, and the recovery phase equally busy !Work will not just go away whilst I am on holidays, darn it.

So, you will want to see sewing. There was sewing, I promise, it just didn't make it to the blog. In fact I was almost about to leap into writing about my current project (a fancy dress, because you know I love to sew a fancy dress), when I was struck by a sense of blogger duty.

Its been such a long time since I wrote anything about sewing.This is a just-dipping-the-toe-in post about the minimalist, suitable- for- cycling- all- day- and- drying- overnight- whilst- hung- up- in- the- tent, yet co-ordinated wardrobe that I partly sewed myself for the cycling holiday, but as I forgot was a little too preoccupied to take photographs before I left, you will have to make do with mostly vacation/expedition shots. The clothes are pretty much worn out now. They were washed an awful lot, being worn in constant rotation.

You will see from the photos that I really didn't want to ride around France in lycra, but it is there underneath!.
To keep the sewing simple, I mostly used patterns with which I was already familiar

1. Shirt dress, heavily adapted from Burda Style 02-2009-120 (pattern first made up here)
mid/base layer
Liberty Tana Lawn, with contrast linen collar stand, plackets etc.

 I used french seams or felled seams for robustness, and also used Claudine's button instructions with Gutterman polyester thread. This method of attaching buttons I found to be less robust in 6 weeks of wear and wash second-daily, than a nice strong but admittedly sticking out knot, undoubtedly due to my poor stitching technique, but I had to reattch buttons on this garment whilst travelling, which I did not need to do with my other garments (alternative button attachment technique with Gutterman), or my son's shirt (hand made), which I had attached using Claudine's instructions with stranded cotton embroidery thread.. I also had to reattach buttons to my husband's purchased clothing.

Additions - internal passport pocket
Waist elastic gathering on either side at the front, and in the centre back because its not really comfortable to wear a belt on the bike.

 2. mid/top layer Merino cardigan, Burda Style 03-2012-122 previously made, described here. I don't have a great photo of this whilst on the trip, but I wore it nearly every day, in the evenings. I made this last year.

3. Long sleeved tunic blouse, Burda Style 2-2009-120 again. I told you I was making my life easy with familiar patterns! The fabric was a slightly translucent silk/cotton batiste, white on blue print ,I wore any of my 3 base layer tanks under this shirt. The coolest was a rayon knit tank (base layer 1) originally sewn several years ago to wear under a long sleeved lace t shirt.

4. base layer 2 Merino princess t with cut on cap sleeve McCalls 5890 (fabric blotched dyed itself in the washing maching, but the overall effect was pleasing to me). I hand stitched the princess seams and hand stitched the neckline and armscyes with a nod to Alabama Chanin techniques, in a toning embroidery thread, because I was hating the bare bones nature of this wardrobe. The embroidery helped a lot. Feeble, really, being so attached to embellishment and prettiness in clothing....
I wore this as both a stand alone top, and as an underlayer garment. I made this garment longer at the back for additional coverage whilst cycling.

5. base layer 3 Merino vogue sleeveless t, pink, Vogue 2925 made about 10 times so far. Review here
Hemmed with embroidery floss, toning colour
(Embellished with running stitch seam emphasis, DMC cotton
You can see this in the neckline of the cardigan photo and also in the one below, under my rainjacket. I wore this mainly as an undergarment, but this was also cut longer at the back to allow for the cycling position.

6. Merino buff, copied from RTW. This was an incredibly useful item, and took up hardly any room. I found it added considerably to my warmth, and from about the second week of the holiday was cursing myself for not making 2 or 3 (it was very cold at night whilst camping!)
Edited to add: I've been asked to identify a "buff". I did not use a pattern, but here is a very nice tutorial and some photographs by Melissa at Fehr trade, where she also describes the many uses of a buff.

7. Long sleeved merino t - made a few years ago. I used an older Burda pattern, and this was worn mainly as a pyjama top

Accessories:. Silk scarf A , blue, cream, pink, (not really sewing, but once upon a time it was raw edged fabric lurking in my collection.....Silk scarf B blue, dark brown, cream and an old, squashable sunhat which I intended to replace in France, but did not see a suitable subject. This was possibly because clothes shopping was extremely low on my husband's agenda- unless the clothing could be bought in a cycling shop.....
Not pictured:
Rayon knit "denim" leggings - I sewed these a few years ago, they're very useful for camping, both as pyjamas and as an underlayer for warmth.
Skirt/petticoat - silk cotton, purple, 2 layers, originally the skirt of this dress here. I loved this dress so much that I have to get every possible skerrick of wear from it. It makes a terrific petticoat skirt.
underthings
Not sewn :
-1 pair short cycling knicks,which I wore under the dress and skirts. Later on, as the weather cooled down, I looked for a long pair, but was not able to find these, so bought running tights instead, which I wore over the top of the knicks to keep my legs warm whilst cycling.
- 1 pair stretch woven cycling capris with under-knicks
-cycling gloves,

-1 metallicus A line grey knit skirt - merino/rayon blend
-1 rainjacket, blue/green
-socks

Purchased on route (planned purchases, as we started in warm weather and cycled through to cool weather).
 -1 thin, warm pullover, coral (very hard to find, and rather $$$, I should have taken one and carried it for 3 weeks without wearing it)
-1 new scarf to blend the coral jumper with my black capris and grey skirt and blue cardigan (yes, I needed the jumper and the cardigan at the same time)
-1 hideously ugly polar fleece beanie for 2 euros from the supermarket. - this was very painful as another buff would have prevented the purchase and been much more flattering.

 I sewed a very luxurious sand washed silk charmeuse double sleeping bag liner too :)

I also sewed a shirt, a buff, a merino long sleeved t shirt and some cycling knicks for my son.He took a previously made polar fleece jacket, now four and 1/2 years old, which I threw out at the end of the trip despite his vehemenent protests that it still fit (a lie!). I tried to steal his buff after a week or so as I hadn't seen him wearing it but he said it was extremely warm at night, so no chance Mum!

I had an exciting adventure holiday, but currently, I am greatly appreciating my extensive wardrobe, fabric collection and comfortable bed.
So in summary, I started with these clothes, which looked much more respectable before the trip.

 3 base layer tops - tanks
2 base layer bottoms, 1 batiste skirt/petticoat, 1 leggings
3 light mid layer tops - 1 blouse batiste, 1 long sleeved merino t-shirt, 1 shirt dress lawn
1 medium layer top - merino long cardigan (missing in action)
3 bottoms - 1 pr capris, one wool skirt, one batiste skirt
1 outerlayer rainjacket
2 scarves, 1 buff , 1 sunhat
(cycling gloves and helmet)

When the weather cooled further

 I added a mid layer top (coral pullover)
another pair of leggings
another scarf, and a warm hat. These new items did not co-ordinate with everything, but with enough of the travel wardrobe to make them useful purchases.

My entire wardrobe fit in this bag (up to the "stop" section), a bag only slightly larger in height and width to an A4 sheet of paper, and weighed less than 3kg, provided I was clad at the time. I admit that although this is a compressable bag, closing it was not terribly easy on a hot day, when I just wore a tank top and capris, but for most of the trip, I wore 2 to 4 layers, especially when we were not actually cycling.

So now that I am almost caught up, perhaps I will do some sewing.

P.S. I am such a rebel, in Paris, I forsook husband and son whom were visiting the Eiffel tower and went to the fabric district in Montmarte. I have never seen so many people in a fabric shop at once before.Surely that is a more culturally valuable experience than a second visit to a tourist icon?

kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-81954251813354061292015-07-11T17:32:00.001+10:002015-07-11T17:32:24.942+10:00Retrospective, mini wardrobeYou might have noticed that I've not been blogging lately. Primarily, this is because I have not been sewing quite as much, yet my sewing output has been greater than my blogging, so I've a few out of date things to show you a mini collection sewn earlier to write about.
These garments were sewn/knit for my older daughter, loosely according to the seasonal 6pac series planned by the fabulous Dr.E.

I started with a white t shirt, there is hardly any harder working garment in a young woman's casual wardrobe. This one is from Burda Style 11-2014-113, but without the undersleeves.

That might be why I made 4 of these, one for each daughter, and one each for my two eldest nieces, who (gasp) are now approaching regular Burda sizes, this up to date t shirt required only minor tweaking to work for young teenagers (some shortening and side seam slimming), whilst for my daughters I used the size 34 provided in the magazine. I used a robust cotton/lycra knit from Stretchtex for all four t shirts. I particularly liked the self fabric band at the hips, which is not only fashionable, but meant that I didn't have to get out my coverstitch for hemming.

The t shirt is shown with a RTW pair of mint green shorts, purchased by my daughter, which were the provoking factor for the mini collection.

Next up, naturally, was another top, this time another variation of the marvellous free Sorbetto pattern. I've made several of these previously. The fabric is an allegedly Liberty tana lawn (but no liberty name in the selvage), which despite its doubtful provenance is a lovely light fabric for a little summer top.

To actually transform these tops to a collection, the next item was Burda Style 03-2011-131 lavender drill shorts you've already seen, picking up the lavender in the print.

Followed by the self drafted crinkly woven singlet top you've also seen previously.

There was also this white sundress with pink and green in the border that I showed you a while ago too (self drafted, fabric is a 1950's sheet).

Taking much longer to complete, was the transitional piece, a casually loose jumper, knit from Sublime soya cotton, from a Sublime soya pattern book. Its an easy pattern, but my knitting is not terribly fast.

This jumper not only works with the shorts outfits and over the sundress, but transitions the tops to autumn/subtropical winter garments by also working with jeans.

The accessory was sewn by my daughter. Vogue 2907

3 bottoms (2 purchased)
3 tops
1 dress
1 overlayer
1 accessory = a wardrobe boosting mini collection.
If only I had been so organised for Winter......

kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-71645952325812036132015-05-09T08:22:00.002+10:002015-05-09T08:22:53.014+10:00VNA topsI made quite a few exercise clothes just lately, and now that it is extremely chilly at 5am in the morning (those who live temperate climates may scoff where I can't hear them, I admit that I live in a warm climate), I thought I would display some running tops of Summer before I start on cold weather exercise gear.
I made a VNA top for my younger daughter, because she had just about worn out the version that was made to test the pattern.

new one

old one

The test version was too big for her, although the size didn't stop her wearing it, so her new top is sloppily graded down by hand drawing a smaller size on Melissa's pattern. Fortunately for me, this made a nicely fitting top, other than a slight tightness at the bust. The top would be XXXS in Melissa's sizing scale.

I love the colour blocking options for this top. I had bought some "performance knit" from Spoonflower, in this very appealing Galaxy print, but as I foolishly purchased from a square representation of the print, I had not noticed that the 1 yard print included a break in the
panel that was unsightly to me.

However, by cutting the small upper front from the odd bit of the panel, the break in the pattern is not particularly noticeable, and makes a good feature for the top whilst only using a tiny piece of the pricey fabric.

 The back is plain old navy blue wicking polyester from Stretchtex, and the lower front is not-the-best-for-exercise-clothes cotton lycra, again from Stretchtex, as are the bindings, because this will do for short runs and also general wear, such as hiking in Carnarvon Gorge.

Naturally, having made one daughter top, another top was required. This one uses a more purple section of the Galaxy print,with different coloured cotton lycra for the bindings and bottom section, and has been made to the same circumference as the downsized VNA top, but a little longer, (at the hem) for my taller daughter.

Lucky last, I made one for myself in an XS. Having noticed the modest amount of room at the bust for my daughters, I chose to enlarge the upper bust piece, then ease this into the curved seam at the lower front, as an FBA. I also made a square shoulder adjustment, which is a common adjustment for me (Did I mention that I really like this pattern).

 Mine has an upper bodice made from performance pique, again from Spoonflower, with a pattern that amuses me greatly. See those ninjas in amongst the floral? My husband hates it. Fortunately he doesn't come running with me. It must be my (very deeply hidden) inner ninja that puts him off.

The bottom section of this one is made from wicking "space dyed" Supplex, which is more comfortable to wear when exercising than cotton lycra, but the business I bought it from is no longer operating.

The back is the same wicking polyester from Stretchtex that I used for the other tops. Although this fabric is practical, hard wearing and very comfortable for exercising, I find this particular colour is very difficult to sew, with constantly wearing thread and blunted needles. (The other colours were hard to sew too, but not to the same level as the dark blue) I bought 5 metres of it 6 years ago and I will be very glad when I've finally sewn the last of it!. I needed to mix it with these fun fabrics in order to have the fortitude to sew with it yet again.

The only change I made to the construction of these tops, now that I've made a few, is the binding of the v neckline. I don't like having to measure the neckline binding exactly before I sew it. I find the amount of stretch needed varies between fabrics, and I like to apply more stretch to the back neck, for example, than the lower front of the v. Melissa's instructions work, but I found them a bit fiddly, and not compatible with my ad-hoc neckline length preference. Instead I used Barbara's instructions here (except for the interfacing being ironed on- ironing and poly don't mix at my house), which were just as fiddly (v neck lines must be fiddly by nature), but gave me a neater result, and without having to get out my tape measure.
Disclaimer: Remember I got this pattern for free in exchange for testing? This is naturally not a completely unbiased opinion due to this exchange see Zoopolis, but you can see I've made many versions of this pattern now and all recipients are finding this a comfortable running top. The request cue is long. We like this pattern.

Stashbusting statistics, pitiful. About a metre each of blue wicking poly and cotton lycra, 30 cm of supplex print, and 50 cm or so of recently purchased performance knit, and performance pique

kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-60312149876483859302015-05-04T17:33:00.000+10:002015-05-04T17:33:20.177+10:00Tiramisu TwoI told you what a lovely surprise my last Tiramisu was to me, but I hadn't worn it much over Summer, as although the fabrics are light, with 2 layers, even silk/hemp and light as air rayon knit are too hot to wear in the subtropics from about mid October to mid April.
However, over the past few weeks, my very small transseasonal wardrobe has meant the last Tiramisu has been in high rotation. A dress is so easy to co-ordinate (you can tell I am not a fashionista, how sad).

Naturally, this discovery lead me straight back to my knit stash, and I have sewn myself another version of this frock.

Unfortunately, I had to wrestle a bit with the fabric. This particular rayon knit, although thicker in heft than the last type, has quite remarkable stretch. So much so, that although I used all my fitting adjustments from the last attempt, the waistband originally started at my 8th rib and finished at my hips. Dowdy indeed. I considered shortening it, but having carefully sewn lingerie elastic into all the horizontal seams, (for details of construction see the last post about Tiramisu), I could not bear to do it again, so just chopped off the lower seam, elastic and all, and folded over the waistband piece to sew the skirt directly to the upper bodice, with the waistband folded over the top of the skirt to act as a sort of belt addition. Very lazy, but I quite like the empire waist effect.

I wore this to work today, to do paperwork whilst hidden in a back office. It was very comfortable, and has held up well (photos taken at the end of the day), but in retrospect it looks a bit casual for the office to me, even a hidden away one where only staff would see me. I have to keep them suitably impressed ;). Maybe if I dressed it up with boots and a jacket - wait, that would mean Winter!
Currently, I plan to make another version in merino knit before the weather cools down sufficiently for me to wear a wool dress. I think it would look less casual in a solid.

Stashbusting statistics about 2m of rayon knit, 2013kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-7821890253112991902015-05-03T21:13:00.001+10:002015-05-03T21:13:47.549+10:00The blouse that wasn't and Burda Style 09-2011-128 turned into a tunicWith 1.1m of lovely printed lawn lurking on my sewing table refusing to return to the stash, I was on the hunt for a pattern for a blouse. After much pleasant perusal of my sewing magazine collection, I settled on Ottobre 05-2013-03, a peasant style blouse with set in sleeves calling for 1.2 m of fabric in my size. Everyone knows that fabric requirements are over generous (that was tongue in cheek), and I am shorter than the Ottobre block.

Ottobre 05-3013-05
However, no matter how I ignored seam allowances, there was no way I could fit that pattern on my 1.1 m of lawn and still have sleeves past my elbows. This was rather annoying after tracing it out!
Back to the pattern search, I was quite taken with the Burdastyle blouses made this Summer by Sue and Paola. I liked the covered shoulders and the interesting transition of the collar stand into front pleats.

Technical drawing from http://www.burdafashion.com/fr

This called for 1.1 metres of fabric also, but when cutting out this new pattern, there was plenty of fabric, in fact, it occurred to me that I would have a sizeable scrap left over, so I lengthened the blouse, despite reviews of this pattern commenting on excessive length of the garment. I am anti-scrap at the moment.

Its not quite long enough for a dress, but its not too bad as a tunic with a shirttail hem.
I don't usually wear this silhouette, and really wanted a garment with sleeves, but when considering my wardrobe balance it I felt that I would be more inclined to wear a second garment made from the same fabric if the garment in question was more suited to different time of the year than the first one. I thought I would wear my sleeveless lawn dress made from this fabric in high Summer ,and that a lawn tunic, even a sleeveless one, could be worn over trousers or tucked into a skirt, in Spring and Autumn.

You can see that I added a casing with elastic to the back (more casual than darts) for some shaping, and you can't see at all that I added bust darts via a cut and slide method in order to make a FBA.

I also used a more stiff cotton for the facing, and for interfacing in the collar stand and front bands. (Thank you to the Spoolette who donated this fabric at last year's high tea, its the perfect weight and co-ordinates nicely )

This was an enjoyable garment to make, and I am interested to see how it works as a transseasonal garment. It felt quite an appropriate outfit to wear today to the Sunday markets.
(I bought lots of plants - its been raining.....)kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-26579242298881143942015-05-02T11:50:00.000+10:002015-05-02T11:50:06.603+10:00Very thrifty sewing, a skirt, almost instantlyI told you about the rejected skirt-front-with-a-seam in it from the last project, and after whinging about the wastefulness in the last post, it was clearly incumbent of me to use this left over fabric piece in a responsible manner - and straight away, as layer 4 of my stash is rather too large.

Fortunately, I have sewing blogs for inspiration. I fancied the easy wearing reputation of this skirt by Sewing Sveta.

I cut out another half skirt, a yoga waistband (well, actually I used the waistband from Jalie 2796, having just made a few of these and knowing the waistband fit perfectly), and ended up very quickly with this skirt for my older daughter.

The back centre seam is stabilized with woven cotton selvage.
There is not much else to say about it, except that it also helped with the offspring sewing balance levels.
Stashbusting statistics, another metre of that cotton lycra knit from Stretchtex in a loud colour for the April theme- only a teensy bit late in posting...
I am joining MeMadeMay this year too, in order to encourage myself to sew more clothes for work. I have exactly 4 blouses and 3 pairs of trousers for this purpose, and as I work full time, this is very hard on the laundry! I might post photos once a week - and change out of my grubby gardening clothes before I take a photo today...... kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-16461906084459036462015-05-01T07:14:00.000+10:002015-05-01T07:14:41.981+10:00The dangers of disposible fashion, not seriously

I sew. It would seem fairly obvious that disposable fashion is not my cup of tea, and I could provide all sorts of morally superior reasons for this opinion in order to impress the sewing community with my ethical standards and awareness of global issues, but a large part of my abhorrence of these garments is much more trivial. They are aesthetically displeasing and wasteful of one's clothing budget.

However, I am not in charge of all the clothes that enter my house.

My teenage daughter went to the beach for a week with her friends. They had a terrific time, and she came back with a $5 dress she had bought.

She usually has very good taste in clothing, I am sure that when she bought this little knit sundress, it was quite pretty. By the time I saw it though, it had been worn over a swimming costume for several trips to the beach, and had been washed. The print was faded, the fabric was pilled, the hem was grossly uneven, making it scandalously short in inappropriate places, the bodice draped in an underwear/swimming costume displaying manner, and the entire garment was about 2 sizes too big. (1 week of use)

The dress was, according to my standards, unwearable. I expressed this opinion, originally with some attempt at tactfulness, but as she continued to wear it - even out of the house! the expression of my opinion became increasingly forthright. To my undisguised horror, she even threatened to take the dress to Brisbane with her and wear it to University, where at least I would not have to look at it. This may have been a cunning, deeply laid plan on my daughter's part. What can a mother do about her daughter's clothing choices? I know I rarely took any notice of my mother's opinion of my clothing when I was 17 (or at least I pretended not to take any notice)
Eventually, we came to a compromise. She would agree to dispose of the dress (the rag bag was looking good), if I would make her a replacement dress. Hence my suspicions about my daughter's possible mother manipulation tactics.
It was ridiculously easy.

I traced off the stretched out, horrible gappy bodice, trimmed about 3 cm from each side of my pattern piece, added 3 cm to the length of the bodice in order to diminish underwear exposure, and traced off one section of the skirt, correcting the grain and hem, and adding more length than I was later permitted to use. This may have been a cunning daughter manipulation technique to ensure later sufficient length to the skirt. Despite the long sentence, this took about 10 minutes.

The construction and cutting out of the dress took at least 30 minutes. This was only because the first version of the dress had a seam down the front, and this was rejected in my version, the solid fabric (cotton lycra from Stretchtex) not disguising this sufficiently. I had to chop the skirt off, cut off the side seams and replace the front with a single piece.
The top of the bodice is bound with the same knit, and the straps are lingerie straps which I serendipitously had lying around in the same colour as the knit. I reinforced the waist seam with lingerie elastic to improve stability and to support the weight of the skirt.
I then insisted that the dress hang (by the waistline) for a week before I hemmed the dress, except that I didn't hem the dress, I just cut the hemline to an even length.

The dress was received with qualified approval (another 2 inches off the hemline, and some discussion about the next one having deeper armscyes)(did you hear that next one remark), and I was allowed to chop up the beach dress. It was very satisfying.
I didn't do my own sewing,and I am seriously low in the boring-blouse-for-work department. That was the locally dangerous bit about the disposable fashion
I paid a token to my environmental consciousness by cleaning the bathroom with my new rags and a biodegradable septic safe cleaning potion. It doesn't have any real effect, but I'm sure it made me feel better.
Stashbusting statistics, about 1.5 m cotton lycra knit, in a nice bright colour for the Stashbusting challengekbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-87399167700820952502015-04-19T18:40:00.002+10:002015-04-19T18:40:53.607+10:00Vogue 1152, Rebecca Taylor frocks and my good fortune in living where the climate encourages me to make Summer dresses well into AutumnI was inspired by the Stashbusting group to stash bust a pattern or two from my extensive and aging collection.( As usual for my sewing plans at the moment I am a month late in following the theme for March).This Rebecca Taylor frock, Vogue 1152 has been on my to-do list since I saw a few gorgeous versions, about 2 years ago. As the season, if not the weather, is now Autumn, I thought I'd make a last-of-summer dress from this highly appealing pattern. The piping and gathering at the front waistline was definitely calling to me, although I was not entirely confident that I could carry off the gathered sleeves.

For this frock, I did not make a toile, having no throw-away fabric of the correct weight, instead chosing to use a somewhat boring fabric for a hopefully wearable first version (internet colour surprize). I read the garment ease numbers, held pattern pieces up to myself and my dress form and made a few choices based on pattern reviews, with not entirely felicitious results.

When checking the fit at the bust, it seemed to me that the centre bodice pattern piece was rather short. Being almost resigned to endless FBA and feeling that gravity may have been acting in this region, I added 5cm to the depth and crossed my fingers that the generous wearing ease would take care of any circumferential dimension issues.
However, I had failed to take account of the extension of the yoke to the front. I blame the pattern photo on the envelope. What business has all that hair on the model, and the busy print, obscuring the shoulder! I ended up with an empire waistline design sitting pretty much on the waist, which was a tad annoying.
I had fiddled around with the front neckline, raising it 5cm, and also fully lining the upper centre bodice piece rather than using facings.

This was quite successful, except that I hadn't quite raised the neckline sufficiently for my personal aesthetic, so I made a petticoat from the same fabric, using Burda Style 05- 2009-124 , which took care of modesty both by avoiding excessive skin exposure in this region and reversing the translucency of the fabric.
 I kept the high/low shirt tail hem, with a little more added to the front to both hit my knees (I have short legs, so this front hem is quite high as designed - it is difficult to believe that the dress worn by the probably 6 foot tall model on the envelope is made to the pattern length), and to reduce the difference between the front and the back, which I felt was a bit dramatic for me. I also shortened the elastic in the casing at the back to reduce the waist circumference of the garment, and added an third piece of elastic here to manage the gathers more evenly.
I did try the sleeves, thinking of this as a transeasonal garment, but I felt ridiculously puffy and juvenile with the volume at the shoulders. I much prefer the dress sleeveless. The armscyes on my versions are bound with self fabric bias, trimmed to 1/4 of an inch, then folded to the inside and topstitched.

I also used a mixture of felled seams (princess seams on bodice), french seams (side seams) and bias binding on the zip. I'm quite pleased with the finishing on the inside.
This dress, even with an additional layer of petticoat, is floaty and cool to wear, being made of cotton voile, but I wasn't entirely happy with it due to the dull fabric and the waistline placement, so I made a second version.

This one has the advantage of a better waist placement, more personally appealing neckline depth and also a normal straight hem. Using a dark fabric, in lawn, rather than pale voile fabric, also means I do not necessarily need a petticoat, which makes the dress ideal for very hot days.

I wore this dress today for what my husband told me was the last day of Summer weather (tongue in cheek, to persuade me to accompany him on a necessary trip). After the dull and necessary activities we went to the beach at a tourist spot and had fish and chips for dinner. Perfect.

Stashbusting statistics, 3.5m beige voile print (2011) - all gone, yay!, 2.4 metres navy lawn print (2012)
scrap report 1.1 m of navy lawn left over

kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-30293130054579313452015-04-12T07:24:00.001+10:002015-04-12T07:24:43.855+10:00Burda Style 03-2011-131 Easter shorts stashbusting attemptI've had a lovely time patting all my fabric sorting out my extensive fabric collection and piling all the smaller pieces in a "must use up very soon" section. This is a fabulous idea for reducing the stash, except that sometimes you just end up with even smaller pieces that do not quite fit the "can throw out now" scrap stage. Your fabric size storage and throwing out tolerance may vary, but mine causes these difficulties frequently. It is highly annoying to me that scrappy pieces of fabric somehow take up more space than 2 metres x 150cm of the same substance in a tight roll.
I had a very nice pale purplish pink bottom-weight cotton from Michael's Fabrics, this being a byproduct of my regular collection of cotton for shirts from this source when they have a cotton bundle sale and the Australian dollar is feeling robust. There was about a yard of fabric, quite useable.

Being rather careless in my stashbusting efforts, I managed to cut out this cute pair of shorts for my daughter from about 60% of it, leaving a possibly useable remainder.

technical drawing http://www.burdafashion.com
The pattern is from Burda Style 03-2011, where the garment appears in a short and a knee length version, 131 and 132. This version is tapered out slightly from the hip, the original being rather straight and tight around the thigh, and given a slightly extended front lap for the waistband. The fitting changes are to slightly deepen the back rise, and to narrow the waist at centre back and at the side seams. To allow for this waist adjustment, I have given the constructed the shorts so that the waistband is sewn to the body before finishing the side and upper centre back seam, which seeing as Burda has left in a centre back seam in the drawing, but not the pattern piece, seems a better order than their sewing instructions suggest.
I left off the pockets, as my daughter does not care for side seam pockets and conveniently felt that welt pockets or a patch pocket would not add to the usefulness nor aesthetic appeal of the shorts (or maybe she wanted to wear them very soon, having brought insufficient warm weather clothing home from Brisbane)

I've used some very small scraps of allegedly Liberty print lawn, pattern Mirabelle, purchased quite some time ago from Fabric.com, and mysteriously missing both the texture of Tana lawn and the Liberty label in the selvage, to line the waistband, the fly, and to bind the seams and hem.
This secret inner detail is very pleasing to me, as even if the fabric has dubious provenance, the print is rather pretty. I used an additional layer of the bottom-weight cotton instead of a commercial interfacing, and stabilized the upper waistline with woven selvage of the same fabric to assist in the prevention of stretch during wear.
I've used a flower machine embroidery stitch for the fly topstitching, and used flower shaped pewter buttons. These sort of details were very pleasing to my daughter when she was 5 or so, and she still puts up with them, she is very kind to her mother.

I am pleased to have this shorts pattern fitted, as I have a few more small pieces of fabric lying about.

To co-ordinate with these new shorts, there is some experimental sewing.
I have some pre shirred fabric, from Pitt Trading, previously used for the bodice of a sundress. This fabric is a fine cotton woven, but acts like a 2 way knit due to the shirring. I traced off a ready to wear knit singlet and sewed it from the shirred fabric, binding the neckline and armscyes with cotton/lycra knit.

The hem, which is unfortunately not pictured due to wanting to display the shorts waistband, has caused great self back patting. Last time I used this fabric, hemming caused considerable time in the crying thinking chair, as the fabric, being crinkled, stretches out when sewn in a highly annoying and unattractive manner. This time, I cut a thin strip of the cotton lycra knit, and sewed it the to the very edge of the fabric using a narrow 3 step zig zag and a walking foot. The knit rolls up slightly, giving a textural appeal that looks quite deliberate, and also has sufficient recovery to prevent a lettuce effect to the hem, and the zig zag stitch stops the woven fabric from fraying.
Overall, I feel I have made quite a successful singlet, which is cooler to wear than a similar style of knit top, but still requires no ironing. I felt quite clever about this whole outfit, until I realised that I now possessed about 40cm scrap of cotton herringbone and about 70 cm of shirred white voile, less useable sizes than before I started sewing, and not really reduced the stash volume at all.

I will have to sew more things, how terrible!

kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-45925326172943786232015-03-25T20:31:00.001+10:002015-03-25T20:31:10.732+10:00Dressed. An adventure with a happy ending.

My husband's aunt had a difficult job quite recently. Her very elderly and terminally ill mother- in -law, resident in Detroit, Michigan, USA made her promise, not to dispose of any of household goods by a garage sale, estate sale, or anything similar. My aunt and her husband (an only child) were to ship the entire contents of the house back to Australia on her demise, and to distribute the goods amongst family members. This lady had been living in the house since she was married, some 60 years previously, and whilst working at department store Hudsons, had collected an amazingly large assortment of everything one could think of- much of it still in original wrappings. It is fortunate that my uncle in law (this is getting confusing!) runs a business involving importing things from the United States, or this exacting job would have been even more complicated.

This is how my daughters obtained, between them, 5 sets of beautiful quality, 50's cotton sheets, and several sets of thick, fluffy, vintage printed and tiny (by today's standards) towels for their shared flat. They had to decline further items, or would have a flat full of vintage china, bric a brac and soft furnishings and no room for anything else. They like vintage, but not as a 100% decorating theme.(They also scored a few items of beautiful vintage clothing)
I don't need any more sheets, but after rashly commenting in the hearing of my aunt-in-law, on the appeal of some really wide floral border printing and tiny rosebuds, ended up with several sheets with which I was to make something to wear.

This dress was inspired by a 19th century petticoat my daughter and I saw at the"Undressed" Undercover exhibition at the Queensland Museum. The original garment was gathered with fine rouleux cords, acting as drawstrings in the approximate spacing I have reproduced on the dress. What particularly appealed to us was the negative spacing between the pairs of narrow gathering cords, with a clear difference between the front and back. Shirred sundresses are ubiquitous at the moment, but these details make the dress subtly different and more flattering.

I prepared the sheet by holding it up to my daughter to get feedback on the desired neckline depth , waist placement and finished length, then snipped and tore across to have a straight grain, placing the most densely printed part of the border print at the hem. Fortunately for me, the fold over finish of the sheet was on the grain. The dress is a single width of 1950"s standard "twin" or double bed. This is a little less wide than standard double bed width today.

I used a rolled hem foot for the top edge, which worked very nicely, and I was suitably appreciative of the industrial revolution as I did this, thinking of how tedious several metres of hand rolling must have been when this was the only option.
I then applied shirring elastic in pairs, using the bridging stitch as shown in this earlier post.

I placed the shirring so that the wide spacing allowed for the bust, and closer spacing for the lower ribs, to just above the waist. At the back, the spacing is even throughout, although the pairs, then negative space pattern is maintained.

The shirring was adjusted to have more gathers at the front and back than at the sides, then the single seam was sewn as a french seam under the arm. I then added 3 narrow straps, made from the plain white part of the sheet,attached about 5mm apart at the bodice, then joined at the shoulder,before being fitted on my daughter before cutting to length and attaching at the back.
The dress was very simple to make, and I think using the different spacing and a shoulder strap variation distinguishes it from the mass market shirred dresses owned by nearly every teenage girl in our district.

The hem is the original top folded edge of the sheet.

My daughter is quite happy with this dress, and whilst hoping that her distant relative would have been pleased with the use of this pretty sheet, I am personally planning not to leave disposal of my personal collections to be a burden to someone else. Sewing from stash is my continuing mantra...if only I can stick to it.

kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-48255176315874371442015-03-21T20:56:00.002+10:002015-03-21T20:56:53.092+10:00 Liberty shir,t Burda Style 03-2013-147 Somehow, when my son was selecting fabric for his next shirt, he honed in on a piece of Liberty lawn, that I had bought specifically for myself whilst shopping with Sharon of Petite and Sewing when she very kindly took me to Tessuti in Surrey Hills.

Despite some reluctance to part with this fabric, I felt that such natural good taste should be encouraged. Considering that a lawn shirt is one of the very few items of cool-to-wear-in-hot -weather clothing socially acceptable for a young man, and that Liberty prints have so many colours in them that they co-ordinate with almost everything, I gave in to the inevitable and made him this luxurious garment.

The pattern, Burda Style 03-2013-147, which I have made previously in a smaller size, is modified slightly by making a short sleeved version for high summer temperatures, and discarding all the contrast bits. I also changed the placket.

 technical drawing from http://www.burdafashion.com

Instead of commercial interfacing, I used a medium weight cotton twill both inside the collar, and as the outer collar stand. This is cooler to wear than the polyester used in most interfacing. There is some hand topstitching around the collar stand for my own amusement, and to pick up the lovely blue shade from the print.

The blue just happens to be exactly the same shade as his hand knit cable pullover from last winter, which due to some forethought in making long cuffs, still fits. One has to take advantage of these serendiptious happenings.

My son selected glowing orange buttons, rather than the neutral ones I was expecting. By using a triple fold placket, as per David Page Coffin's Shirtmaking instructions, instead of Burda's, I was able to follow Claudine's detailed instructions for sewing on the buttons with a waste knot, hiding the thread in between the layers of the placket. I hope this will hold up to the vigours of boy wash and wear.
Despite the expression, this is a favoured garment, and I will undoubtedly be making more, probably in the next size up, for increased tracing opportunities.

kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-64056782466790903912015-03-16T12:31:00.001+10:002015-03-16T12:31:33.132+10:00No inseam! Steeplechase exercise leggingsI pattern test for Melissa at Fehr Trade.That's my disclaimer about these exercise bottoms, as my testing pattern was free to me.

A good thing about pattern testing, is that it makes you sew,. You might have noticed that there has been a long blogging pause here. I have sewn a bit over the past few months, but increasing time demands in my real life have led to blog writing neglect and also blog reading and commenting neglect. Thank you to the lovely people who sent blog-missing messages. I hope to post more regularly again now, things have calmed down elsewhere!

 Melissa has a 10% off coupon at her post about these. Excuse me for gushing, but her latest pattern is possibly my favourite yet (although I have a soft spot for the VNA top, more about the new ones later)
There is no inseam in these leggings.
Not only does this completely eliminate chafing (for me, in running, your mileage may vary), but there is very flattering curvy seaming everywhere else.
There are only minor fitting changes for these for my daughters (an XXS and an XS).
My main problem was working out how to draw attention to the very cool, curvy seaming.

One pair has contrasting coverstitch (the pair in the top photo). This looks fine, but not sufficiently bold for my taste in exercise gear.

This pair has stretch knit "piping" (I just folded over the fabric, no cord) in red cotton knit with lycra, and I was so pleased with the effect that I made the next pair just the same, but with purple. I had to hand baste the crotch seam where the "piping" meets to have it line up nicely, but otherwise this was an easy addition to the pattern.

All of the pairs for daughters are taken in at the waist - for one daughter by actually doing some fitting changes, which were included in the pattern instructions, and for the other by just having a smaller elastic circumference at the waist.
I also made myself 2 pairs (S). My pair needed enlargement at the backside and taking in at the waist, but no surprises there, this is what I usually do for trousers - usually more painfully.
All the versions I made are at the capri length. There is a "biker" length above the knee, and a full length version also included in the pattern.
I used a heavy supplex woven called "Titanium" for all the leggings. I bought it at Stretchtex. I used a walking foot and a stretch needle in construction on my conventional machine, with a narrow 3 step zigzag.
Steeplechase Leggings

 This is a unique and interesting pattern,that was quick to sew, providing beautifully practical and, of their type,flattering garments, and making these has really fired up my sewing mojo. What more can you ask from a pattern?kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-36764629660626805702014-12-05T10:46:00.001+10:002014-12-05T10:46:29.396+10:00Prosaic sewing, boy's pyjamas, Burda Style 02-2013-146Not so long ago, I went to a sewing social event, Frocktails, with the Brisbane Spoolettes. I thoroughly enjoyed this evening, despite my usual introvert inclinations, but being recognized by my blog, although highly flattering, was also a bit strange, particularly as the impressions people hold about my life from my blog are not quite what I expected. For instance, apparently in the blogsphere, my offspring are my 2 daughters, who sometimes are only 1 daughter.

 Just for the record, here is my poor sewing neglected son, in one of his favourite photo poses - headlessly unidentifiable. No wonder he has a limited virtual presence.

 These are some of his thrilling new pyjama shorts, made from recycled business shirts. This particular pair are made from a custom shirt I made for my husband (who also may or may not exist in my blog identity, according to my Frocktail sources) The other 2 pairs are mostly composed of fabric sourced from purchased shirts. My husband is very fond of luxurious shirts. One of the shirts was made from gorgeous Italian cotton, far too nice to throw out just because the collars had become shabby, and the other is a boring regulation cotton chambray. I sort of used the trousers pattern from Burda Style 02-2013 (146)

http://image source:www.burdafashion.com/images

I eliminated the front pockets, the pleats, the darts, the back welt pocket, the fly and made my own waistband, but the crotch curve may still be the same ;) For the first pair (pictured) I added a draw string to the elastic in the waist, but I was told this was an unecessary detail.

These trousers run to a size 158, which is not terribly common for Burda, smaller boy sizes are much more common. I cut the fronts of the shorts from the sleeves (size 12 boy, size large shirt) and the backs of the shorts from the fronts or back and front of the shirt. There were a few shirt backs left over - these have been used for the waistband of the shorts and also as the lining for a hat. The much washed cotton is beautifully soft for both these purposes.

 Woven cotton sleepwear is far superior to any knit things or poly wovens you can buy for the subtropics. Sewing is so useful. That was my mantra. I had to keep telling myself how thrifty and useful I was being the whole time I sewed these.

My son, despite his overall lack of interest in clothing other than for practical purposes, is quite particular about how his clothing feels. I have used flat felled seams throughout the main part of the shorts, and enclosed all other seams. Hopefully this will give the pyjamas frequent use and some longevity. You may notice that they are perhaps a tad large, this is also for longevity. I have heard that growing out of all their clothes overnight is an issue with 12 year old boys

Making pyjamas should give me a very good excuse for some sewing frivolity, but not just yet. I am in deadline December, despite telling myself I would not sew any presents for Christmas this year. Apparently my nieces feel that I have to live up to my reputation as the sewing Auntie!kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-67738761660297987522014-12-02T06:02:00.001+10:002014-12-02T06:12:09.673+10:00Vogue 9207 Patricia Underwood Hat. Desert Island SewingDo you remember Desert Island Sewing?

 No, neither did I, until I was doing a little, much needed, tidying in my sewing room and unearthed a few patterns.

 I have been meaning to make this for a very long time. It is a terrific hat. Version B. The first one I made from an old denim skirt and an ex-shirt of my husband.

The crown was too tall, which was easily fixed by a tuck, but I didn't get to wear the hat, as some other people kept stealing it.

 It is always flattering to have one's clothing approved by the teenage fashion panel to this extent, but to actually add to my own wardrobe, I had to make myself another one, from purple denim (Gorgeous Fabrics).

These hats are lined, with grosgrain ribbon covering the somewhat unsightly seam joining the crown and brim (Next time I may join the lining and outer crown separately to the brim)

There are two layers of heavy interfacing in the brim, which was still a little floppy until the many rows of topstitching were completed, and then it behaved beautifully.

 I objected strongly to losing the first hat, and guess what, someone listened to me!

Here is her version, even better than mine, possibly because she used cashmere/cotton twill from Michaels Fabrics for the outside, how luxurious. I love the contrast lining and how she has turned it over to form an edge on the outer brim.

I am pretty sure there will be many more of these hats in our future - or maybe I can find the more recent Patricia Underwood hat pattern, I'm sure its somewhere in my pattern collection.
kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-7271787130789664152014-11-24T08:07:00.001+10:002014-11-27T18:09:44.807+10:00Project Formal. Culmination. Burda Style12-2013-122, 123 and 01-2014-113frankenpatternProject Formal was a success. This dress is a frankenpatterned construction of black silk chiffon over ice blue silk twill, appliqued with lace motifs, and supported by an inner corselet. It was designed by my daughter with multiple revisions. I stretched my abilities with this frock, and am pleased with the outcome.

See my beautiful daughter graduating from high school. I am so proud of her.

I've written about some of the construction earlier:
dying lace
 underpinnings
day version
The basic construction of the frock was relatively straightforward after the trial versions. I made a silk twill layer with cotton batiste lining at the bodice, and a silk chiffon outer layer. These layers were constructed with the silk chiffon layer and outer silk twill layer as a single fabric, with the bodice neckline attached right sides together to the batiste lining for a neat upper edge finish.

I used the silk organza pattern piecing /underlining technique I learned from Susan Khaljie's Craftsy class to construct the bodice, making the marking of seamlines and other details very easy. The bodice has has additional rigilene boning in the side seams to aid stability.
 The skirts were basted together at the waistline with a selvage stay of silk organza, I hung the basted skirt up for several days weeks whilst I worked on the bodice, so the hem would not drop after I eventually hemmed it. When constructing the dress, I left in the selvage at the waist for added stability. The skirt is also attached together at the centre back at the zipper and centre back seam, with a tiny detatched section at the back hem.

I hand appliqued lace motifs to the bodice before attaching the skirt, through the top two layers of fabric, then continued hand applique of the lace motifs to the skirt attaching the lace to the outer silk chiffon layer only below the waist seam, to allow free movement of the outer skirt.
The hand applique was the most time consuming part of the project, taking approximately 30 hours. It looks pretty good even close up. My daughter really wanted a soft flowing skirt, hence the silk chiffon, in retrospect, hand applique on silk chiffon was not my cleverest idea, but I could not think of another method of attaining the soft flowing skirt with the lace applique she wanted. The inspiration dress had lace machine appliqued on organza and tulle, which would be much less time consuming!

Inside, all the seams are tacked to the silk organza underlining.
Unfortunately, I had a little trouble with the upper bodice, despite all the fitting work on earlier versions. After adding the lace applique, the added stiffness of the fabric make the neckline stand away from the body, which was not at all modest. After considerable trial and error, some of which may have been slightly fraught, this was fixed by first gathering the upper front bodice by hand, slightly, through the bottom two layers of fabric , then machine stitching lingerie elastic, on stretch, to the upper border of the bodice to draw the sweetheart neckline in towards the body.
This adjusted upper bodice was then stitched to the inner corselet at the centre front neckline.

Here you can see the elastic and gathering after I have removed the corselet in order to wash the dress and its underpinnings separately.

My other fitting adjustment was very last minute. In a not entirely unexpected manner, my finishing-her-exams- for- year- 12 daughter somehow managed to reduce her overall circumference by about an inch in the last two weeks of school. Fortunately the corselet was originally fitted on the outer fastenings, so on the afternoon of her formal I sewed the back of the dress by hand to the back of the more tightly fastened foundation, gathering rather more than slightly. I may have spoken sternly to my daughter about increasing her ice cream intake and decreasing her exercise regime whilst I did this.

The other effort of note was the hem.
My daughter is petite. This was just as well, as she wanted a full length 1/2 circle skirt from a narrow width of silk twill, 114cm (The Fabric Store, Auckland).
We could not quite manage this, until she came up with a brilliant idea of a nod to the current high/low hem fashion. She chose to have a higher curved hem in front, of the inner fabric only, to both accomodate the narrow fabric, and also to display her pretty sandals.

Here we are working on hemming. I used a machine rolled hem for both layers. I machine rolled myself 6 new scarves whilst I was practicing ;).

 The frock was successful.She was happy.

I am hoping this dress gets another outing at a University Ball or even two.

kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-60782869519453744272014-11-08T05:32:00.001+10:002014-11-08T05:35:18.127+10:00Almost Frocktober: Burda Style 05-2013-124 Petticoat and Frock versions. Sewing with silk-hemp and sheer fabric.

When I inadvertently sewed a see through Tiramisu, I developed a sudden need for a petticoat with a deep v neckline. Naturally, thinking of such a requirement, my mind instantly turned to Burda, who seem to specialize in chest exposing garments.
Fortunately for me, there were some magazines with possible frocks with sticky labels on them lying about on my sewing table, so it didn't take me long to find a candidate, Burda Style 05-2013-124.

 Technical drawing from http://www.burdafashion.com
The only thing was, that I had no idea what fabric to use for a petticoat under a knit dress that would not cling, and would not be too hot to wear for a Spring to Summer garment. I was leaning towards silk charmeuse, this working so well under my merino knits for winter, but really, this is rather a warm fabric for our climate.
Delving deep into the what-was-I-thinking layers of the stash, I came up with some slippery, semi-translucent,slubby, bouncy fabric that I vaguely remembered was silk/hemp. I posted about this 2011 purchase here. (In the interest of unusual fabric reporting, the hemp/cotton sheets are wearing nicely and are now beautifully soft, and the hemp/cotton knit top is now just like a rag but I am still wearing it around the house because it is so comfortable- this made me more willing to try this unused fabric, which is really quite unusual - my husband said "plasticy")

I had some fun making this. I cut out a single layer (and used the Tiramisu skirt, without the center seam - its a similar shape but the skirt is more full). I used several different seam and edge finishes.
At the neckline, I used fold over elastic, slightly stretched. This worked really well, or would have worked really well, had I noticed that I had sewn one of the front bodice pieces on backwards before I applied the elastic.
I am now very practiced at unpicking 3 step zig zag stitch at 1.0mm length from fold over elastic. Sigh
For the underbust seam ( I gathered the bust instead of darts, as I'd enlarged to a D and didn't want to redraw the darts) I folded the gathered seam allowance over the waistband allowance by hand (the gathers were too fiddly by machine) and whipstitched.
For the waistband, side seams and shoulder seams, I used french seams.
For the armscyes (these are trimmed to make the petticoat sit fully underneath the outer garment), I used a fine bias finish - applying bias binding to the right side, turning the bias over the trimmed seam allowance and edgestitching at 1/8 inch, then turning the bias to the wrong side and topstitching. This gave a very neat, thin edge on the silk hemp.
The silk hemp ravels very easily. As it felt so plasticy, I did a burn test, where the fabric burnt like paper, and left long strands of ?hemp after I blew out the flame. This is definitely all natural fibres!

Having finished the petticoat, all the sheer fabrics in my stash suddenly looked very appealing as a frock.
Somehow, I cut out another version of 124 from a mere 1.3m of silk chiffon print that I may have bought to make a scarf.

The chiffon was pre treated in a gelatine bath to improve its handling qualities. I cut out using a rotary cutter, and continued using the size 60 universal needle I had used for the sheer silk hemp garment. This time I used the fine bias edge finish on the (raised 5 cm) neckline as well as the armscyes, but the other seams are mostly finished in the same manner as in the petticoat version.
For both versions, the fabric under the invisible zip is reinforced - in the petticoat with a woven nylon ribbon, and in the chiffon frock with a strip of silk organza selvage.

 The silk chiffon dress was a challenge for me. I tried finishing the neckline with the same technique as the armscyes in the petticoat.
Unfortunately I neglected to first stay stitch the neckline, and the neckline rippled in an unsightly manner. (The armscyes in the silk chiffon, finished in the same manner, behaved perfectly)

I tried to fix this with clear elastic, but this attempt failed.
Eventually, I took 2 small pleats from the neckline on either side of centre front , handsewing these, and was content with the fit and finish. However, it is not my best work. I anticipate becoming a better seamstress with my next silk chiffon frock!

I was pleased with my other seam finishes on the sheer fabric. Having just practiced on the silk hemp, I was able to make french seams throughout, including the curved underbust seam, which contains gathers. I pat myself on the back a bit for this.

In the end, I have a pretty, floaty dress in time for seasonal socialising, which does not photograph to advantage on a windy day.

kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-48146665874961148242014-10-21T06:02:00.000+10:002014-10-21T06:02:14.759+10:00Frocktober: Tiramisu

It is highly unlikely that a dubious not-what-I-expected internet purchase fabric and a pattern-bought-for-other-than-aesthetic-appeal would, in combination, turn into my new favourite at-home dress, but somehow, 2 wrongs have made a right. How did this happen? Sewing serendipity is not a frequent occurrence under these circumstances.

I was making a not wearable muslin, out of a sense of duty and thriftiness. The pattern, you have already read in the title, was Tiramisu from Cake Patterns. I bought this pattern last Spring in the pre release sale, thinking that although I had several wrap and mock wrap knit dress patterns, and I loathe cut on sleeves, it would be a Good Thing to buy a pattern from a relatively local blogger- newly-turned-sewing-businesswoman in the initial throes of her start up. My vague thought that I would make up this dress straight away and get it over with was instantly killed by the teenage fashion panel, who thought the pattern illustration looked dumpy. Dumpy is not a good word. I realise that there is a unwritten rule in blogging that when a micro pattern company is deliberately using "realistic" illustrations you are not supposed to criticize them, but there you are, Dumpy. We must be indoctrinated by the fashion industry to expect 6 foot underweight imaginary models for pattern illustrations, very sad.
This is also why I gave in to the commands took my teenage fashionista photographer's advice to pose in a "look at me" manner as above. I am astounded by the apparent skinniness of the first shot. How deceptive! I shall have to stand side on and leaning backwards for the rest of my life.
Unfortunately I do not think this is possible.

I knew that there were many, many completely non-dumpy versions of this dress on the internet, but one's personal teenage fashion panel is fairly influential, and the pattern had a dumpy aura in our house that was hard to shake off.
I have a long term goal to use all my patterns and not have lurking fabric stash dwellers. To try out this dumpy dress, that could possibly be a dress-about-the-house if my daughters were not at home to despise it, I used a striped rayon knit that is very thin. This was not a fabric I would have purchased in a shop, but on the internet it was called medium weight and suitable for t shirts. Some people must like to wear see- through t shirts. I really thought I would be using up two dubious possessions at once, and clearing out my sewing materials oversupply.
I sort of fancied the illustration of the stripey version of the dress, although personally I usually think that cutting out a knit on the bias is a waste of fabric. Knits already drape and stretch rather a lot. Increasing the drape and stretch on my thin and not-very-stable knit by following the bias cut out was possibly a bad decision, but I did it anyway.
However, I did not throw caution completely to the wind. I stabilised a lot - more than suggested by the pattern instructions.

The horizontal seams are stablised with lingerie elastic, no stretch. The bias vertical seams are stabilized with woven selvage ( I used woven selvage where the pattern instructed fusible interfacing as well). I added clear elastic (slight stretch) when topstitching the neck binding.
 I didn't use the pockets. Pockets in a knit have a tendency to stretch whenever you put anything in them, which I find unappealing.

I quite liked this pattern as I cut it out - several cup sizes, including A as different from B, and up to D, check. Draw your own waist measurement, check. However, having only one size for high bust 30 (inches) to 34 (inches)? Uncheck. I am the smallest size, and so are my daughters? Come on, I am 43! I am not skinny! My daughters are not the same size as me, and yet are fully grown and quite normal sized young women, and this dress does not come in their sizes, as the smallest size was fine on me, and like a sack on them - that would be the 10 cm of extra ease they don't need at the bust! Taking in this much at the side seams as suggested is a lot of distortion, and when I pinned it, still looked awful on them. In my opinion, this pattern starts at a size 34 high bust, which would be about a size 38 in Burda, a size 12 in big 4 patterns (or 10 really, as Big 4 have a lot of ease). This is limiting.

I did not like this pattern as I sewed it up. 1/2 inch as a seam allowance simply meant that I sewed all seams at 5/8inch, 1.5cm, as this is what I am used to sewing, and where the guidelines are on my machine. Using a non standard seam allowance just for the sake of it is annoying.Knits don't need this much seam allowance, but what is wrong with using other standard measurements such as 1cm,( 3/8 inch) or even 1/4 inch. Grumble, grumble.
It was with the full expectation of being about to throw this in the the bin that I tried on the dress after wasting and afternoon sewing it indulging in some experimental sewing.
It looked much better than I expected.
Only see through.
I made a petticoat (more about this later).

I am eating humble pie.
It is a terrific dress pattern.
I even like the cut on sleeves, how strange.

I will consider buying more of these patterns - but not for my daughters.

 Stashbusting statistics 2.3 m or so of overly thin rayon knit from an unmentionable internet source, 2013 + 2.3 m or so of thicker rayon knit from the remnant warehouse 2013.

kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-2946556990413384142014-10-11T09:34:00.001+10:002014-10-11T09:34:29.715+10:00Threshold shortsMelissa was very apologetic about sending all her pattern testers a running shorts pattern to try out in September, but it worked out just fine for my family. Sometimes it is a benefit to be in the southern hemisphere. This pattern was released a few weeks ago, Threshold Shorts.

I wanted to write about these shorts previously, but although I've made several pairs already, they have hardly been out of the laundry for photos.

Here they are running past.

See, I almost caught them (That's an XYT top, also from Fehr Trade)

This, you might notice, is the first pair belonging to Daughter the second, who trains most days, and competes in middle and long distance running and triathalon at regional and state level (school athletics). She likes these shorts, and compares them favourably to her many pairs of RTW running shorts including those from high end brands. (She might be a bit spoilt with athletic gear). Her only request for successive pairs is that I include a drawstring at the waist in addition to the the elastic.

This is easy to add - you just need to make buttonholes in the cut on waistband before sewing it down as a casing with a gap, (you don't use Melissa's elastic application instructions) and you thread through both the elastic and drawstrings through the gap in the casing, then sew the elastic to fit).
Fabric: woven nylon supplex (2oz) from The Rainshed (2009 or so), piping and binding from prepackaged polycotton bias binding.
Most of the other versions I've seen on blogs are in stretch fabrics, so I am pleased to have tried them in the woven so I can let you know that they work very well in this fabric too.
These are a lot of fun to sew, with beautiful curving seams that just cry out for piping. I could not resist this even in the test pair.

I also really like the binding and the shaping of the bottom of the leg.

I embellished this with some machine embroidery for sewing amusement.

Personally I find it very exciting to have a utilitarian garment, tested in the activity for which it is intended by multiple end users, that is actually interesting to sew.

I am very impressed by Melissa's dedication to making a pattern work for everybody. She sends out an already really good pattern, then graciously listens and responds to all the whinging about very minor issues and personal sewing difficulties, then changes the pattern to accommodate lots of tweaks and expand the already comprehensive instructions-for-the spatially challenged (my words, not hers), and also to include a variety of fitting tips. If it were my precious pattern I'd spent months making, I know I would be feeling rather protective about it.

I love new patterns, and have quite the addiction to them, so I quite enjoy testing patterns, but I am quite ruthless about them. I have tested things for another new pattern company, and not blogged about it, as it is not my intention to provide pseudo advertising in addition to making up a "free" pattern with my own fabric and in my precious sewing time (see, I am a nasty cynical person). I didn't blog about the other pattern company because a) I had nothing particularly nice to say about the very simple pattern and b) I thought there were major faults in the pattern, and noted that there were no changes at all to the finished product - making me think that the pattern "testing" of this other new business was a lie. I won't be wasting my time or stash testing for that particular company again.

 Melissa has an unusual ability to listen to her testers, and it seems to me, that she is dedicated to providing patterns that not only look like up to date athletic RTW, but are ideal technical garments for vigorous activity. I have multiple garments in 3 of the patterns I have from her line, and will continue to use them for our exercise gear. Had I bought them, they would be some of my most value-for-money patterns (I have A Lot of patterns) due to the number of times they have been used already. Please note, this is unsolicited admiration. Melissa provides a pattern pdf to those who test, but no conditions are attached to receipt of this pattern other than a request to test it and to provide feedback.

Here is my second pair for me, in which I tried out all the pockets. For me, the pockets need to be deepened - instructions for this are in the final pattern.

 Unfortunately, this pair is not yet up to vigorous activity.
I lengthened these a tad (instructions for lengthening in the pattern), for middle aged legs, but made no fitting adjustments as yet (I did also increase the waist height, prefering a wider elastic here). As is usual with my trouser-resistant-figure, there are some fitting changes needed to make these practical for running - notably a front thigh expansion adjustment, which Melissa has now included in her pattern. Surprisingly, I do not need to change the back crotch depth, which I usually do for my generosity of backside, but this may be due to the large amount of ease at the waist - controlled by elastic and drawstring.

These however, after additional lengthening for my personal preference for leg coverage, have proved very useful to wear over my swimmers during a sedate walk to the local swimming pool - and also as board shorts at the beach, so quite useful after all.

Stashbusting statistics about 2 m of remanants, nylon supplex The Rainshed, 2009 (3pr shorts) kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-81845827005672262832014-10-02T20:18:00.003+10:002014-10-02T20:18:46.207+10:00Wardrobe sewing: The winter work 6pac demonstrating unusual virtueI think a lot about my wardrobe. I find this an engaging pastime. Unfortunately, most of the thinking seems to avoid the fact that I spend a considerable part of my time at work, which necessitates trousers. I have not yet overcome my aversion to sewing trousers. Thank goodness, I can force myself to sew them by joining in a sewing project. (I assure you, buying them would be more work, and with no chance of success, but still, wasting valuable sewing time on trousers is deadening to the sewing enthusiasm)

To entice myself to sew dull work clothes, I started with my fabulous-almost-a-disaster winter coat. I told myself in October last year, when I finished it just in time for warm weather,(as one does when the sewing ambition outstrips the available sewing opportunities), that I would definitely wear-it-all-the-time in order to distribute the cost of the fabric over many occasions of use. This is how I manage to convince myself that pricey designer Winter fabric fits into my tightwad fiscally responsible life in the subtropics.
Unusual virtue 1.
Completing the entire project

I report success. Not only have I actually (although belatedly) completed a dull work 6 pac mostly according to my plan, I wore the coat nearly every work day for 2 months (assisted by a particularly cold Winter), on my pleasant, short but sometimes frosty walk there, because these 3!! pairs of trousers all co-ordinate quite nicely with it. (Sewing trousers is the second unusual virtue - I can't bear to write a post solely about the trousers so they are previously unblogged -2 Burda Style 04-2009-118 variations, one self drafted and all tropical or lightweight wool, all lined with cotton batiste).

technical drawing from burdastyle.com.fr
 You can probably see that my personalised versions are rather different, I don't do cuffs, and the zip is on the side (blue pair) or at the back (grey pair).

 I do admit that the third pair, grey, has been languishing in a partially sewn manner on my sewing table for at least 2 months and has not actually been worn with the winter coat- yet. I wore them today though.

Fortunately, you can't see any of the blouses when I wear the coat, so I didn't have to think hard about that element of co-ordination. Blouse 1 here, Blouse 2 here and 3 here, Burda Style (when it was BWOF) 01-2008-106/7
(I have also worn the coat quite often over my lone pair of denim trousers in my soccer mum role). I am loving having a knit coat that bears no relation to polar fleece other than its flexibility.

Unusual virtue 2.
Stash and scrapbusting
The blue and grey trousers are not my usual colours, but I am quite happy with them for work clothes with some warmer shades in the blouses to prevent a terrible sallow appearance from scaring off all my clients. As I have purchased a few fabric bundles (see fiscally responsible self reporting above - it takes creative self accounting to convince oneself that purchasing a fabric bundle is really saving money, but I am quite accomplished at this aspect of fiscal irresponsibility), there are beautiful quality fabrics in my stash that are not necessarily perfectly suited to me, and I don't want to palm them all off on my long suffering daughters. All the fabrics used in this wardrobe (cough, except the fabric of the coat) are from 2010 or earlier stash - or are remnants from other projects.

Unusual virtue 3.
Wardrobe culling
I actually threw out one dismally faded pair of trousers and one pair with unfortunate signs of insect affection. I don't think I've ever thrown out a pair of trousers that fit me and had mostly intact fabric/hardware before. This unfortunate tendency to retain clothing has led to occasions of unsuitable scruffiness in the past. I now only have respectable and presentable work trousers in my wardrobe - not even an laundry emergency pair lurking in the top of the cupboard.( I may regret this)

 Unusual virtue 4.
Thinking about the accessories. As my (inside whilst at work) work wardrobe is invariably a pair of trousers and a blouse, my opportunities to accessorise are limited.
I made an accessory. This is a leather version of the Hot Patterns Nombad Hobo Bag. My accessory mostly co-ordinates with my new work wardrobe. This is much smarter looking than taking one's lunch to work in a supermarket bag. I also already have work shoes to co-ordinate with the trousers (one pair black, one pair dark brown). There will be no new trousers languishing in the wardrobe because I don't have the right shoes.I may be learning something from all these wardrobe planning threads after all.

Unusual virtue 5.

Cutting my losses when the inner layer cardigan did not look good with a collared shirt and trousers. - Formerly, I would have made a different cardigan, or different tops, or gone off on a tangent to force the cardigan into the 6pac. Instead, I worked out that I did not really need it to complete the wardrobe for my needs, and kept to the core plan of trousers and shirts for work with something to wear as an outer layer for commuting. I virtuously made a third pair of trousers to make sure it really was a 6 pack. See my halo?. I have left the inner cardigan in the "wardrobe" shot because it will remind me not to make it again in a work colour.

Unusual virtue 6
Not starting a new project in the middle of the schedule. Unfortunately this is a very unusual virtue for me, I failed to display this virtue.
I was very distracted by the Vivienne Files posts about a starting from scratch wardrobe, and the discussion concerning this that started in July. I feel it is an unusual virtue to have restrained myself from instantly starting a 4 piece collection in the same colours that I would never wear for work anyway. However, I did make the blue trousers without any pockets, belt loops or details, to make them unnoticeable, as the Vivienne Files suggest, and unfortunately, I find them not only boring, but impractical.
The other pairs of trousers have at least one pocket for my phone, which sometimes needs to be on my person whilst both hands (and shoulders) are free. This is how I did it. I think my pleasure in wearing hand made clothing is more "non boring basics" as described in Imogen Lamport's post here.

To reward myself for all this virtue I am planning a lovely virtual shopping trip with some vivid prints- or maybe I should put in some more work on that formal dress.

Here is the walking to work look, which I probably should not admit to, as I allow my hair to dry on the way there.... I promise it looks OK by the time I get there (you can see why I wear a hat in the top photo ;)

kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-40237733364063679712014-09-27T20:32:00.001+10:002014-09-28T05:28:54.965+10:00Project formal: The day version, frankenpattern Burda Style 12-2013-122 and 123 with a dash of Colette ParfaitWhen I made a formal dress for my older daughter, two years ago, she wanted a lattice smocked bodice, so I made a practice version of her formal dress in linen,as a day (or casual evening) version, so as to test the properties of this never-seen-anywhere lattice smocking application.

 This time, as I am not manipulating fabric and drafting my own bodice pattern, I saw no need for this step in the process. However, daughter the second, pointing out that the day version has been an extremely useful garment for her sister, described a sense of unfair garment distribution when I disclosed my intention to move straight into tracing pattern pieces on organza for the evening extravanganza version after fitting her dull calico toile. Being putty in her hands when she fancies a dress I fancy sewing, I have obediently made a more casual version of her frock, as a trial, using the pattern pieces I had selected for the evening gown, and practicing my techniques and finishes for sheers with a lace overlay.

technical drawing from burdastyle.com

The bodice is taken from Burda Style 12-2013-122, which conveniently comes in a size 34, so only needed petiting and taking in at the waist.

technical drawing from burdastyle.com

The skirt, which I really did want to try before wrestling with the chiffon, is from 123A of the same magazine issue and starts at size 72, which is the tall version of size 36 - too big, and my daughter is petite, so normally I would avoid a "tall" pattern like the plague. Fortunately, as this is a simple half circle skirt I was able to merely add a big seam allowance at the waist line ( 2inches) and to draw a line parallel to the long-legged hem length at a more appropriate level to make this skirt approximate my daughter's measurements. The skirt was a bit difficult to handle due to using slightly unstable lace. I cut out the lace and thecotton batiste underlining in one layer (as I did for the bodice) then handbasted a strip of silk organza to the waist at both the cutting line and the seamline of the lace and the batiste separately, whilst the skirt was still lying on my cutting mats to minimize distortion. To fit the skirt to the bodice, I marked centre front and back of both pieces, pinned, then draped the skirts around my daughter whilst she wore the bodice, and took in the single seam at the side (where I had chosen to place the invisible zip opening)

The bodice pieces were sewn with the lace and batiste together as one layer, and lined with another layer of batiste ( the pattern gives a bias layout for many of the lining pieces). I used silk organza to interface the upper edge of the finished outer bodice layer before applying the lining,and understitching the seam to prevent the lining showing to the right side.

The two layers of the skirt were sewn as one at the waist, but separately in the skirt itself, below the zipper. I reinforced the lace seam with a strip of silk organza selvage.

The straps are from the Collette Parfait sundress. I like these wide straps for lingerie coverage, and also because the shaping at the shoulder keeps them actually on the shoulder. Instead of having the seams at the sides, I moved the seam to the underside of each of the front and back shoulder piece for a clean finish at the edges of the strap.

Having bias sections, the frock was hung for a few days before hemming - lace layer with a 3 thread rolled hem on the overlocker and batiste layer with a machine rolled hem.

She is very pleased with this frock, and although she plans to leave it languishing in her wardrobe until after the formal so as to keep her fancy dress a Big Secret (although really, I don't think any one who doesn't sew would guess that both garments are from the same pattern), I am allowed to show it off for the blog. You are under strict instructions to ignore her sock tan line and to instead admire her beautiful shoes from Grandma. Isn't she lucky?

I am also lucky, because fortuitously, this frankenpattern frock has been made within the time frame when there is a frankenpattern challenge on at Pattern Review, so I shall enter this concoction (which was very easy to franken) just for fun. I am in favour of adapting patterns.

Stashbusting statistics: about 2 metres lace yardage (Jan 2014 Remnant Warehouse, about 2 metres of cotton batiste, 2009)kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-37074339445790926842014-09-21T06:22:00.000+10:002014-09-21T06:22:09.290+10:00Sorbetto second serving. Lace.One of the advantages of taking on an ambitious project, is the opportunity to stretch the sewing repetoire. Having lace in The Formal Dress means that I have been making practice garments with lace in order to refresh my skills. This has led to some very pleasing garments as a (much more useful) side effect.

I made this little top to use up some remnants, but ended up liking it just as much as the practice dress (which I haven't shown you yet due to henious inavailability of the model)

The pattern is Sorbetto again, this time made in its original sleeveless version, and with the centre panel folded out.
The underlining is poly/cotton batitste, and the outer lace a non-stretch but mysteriously non-ravelling lace yardage I bought a few months ago from The Remnant Warehouse.

I sewed the lace and underlining as one( using a size 60 universal needle) except for a few centimetres at the side seam, where I sewed the pieces separately to allow a free hanging, shorter hem for the lining.

 The neck and armscyes are finished with bias binding made from the batiste, turned to the inside and sewn to the underlining by hand - as per the excellent pattern instructions.

To finish the lace hem, I sewed the trimmed scalloped lace edging to the lace yardage using a zigzag stitch, following the inner curves of the lace motifs. This also makes the top a more suitable length for my tall daughter-the-first.

I am very pleased with the effect. Sorbetto is rapidly becoming one of my favourite patterns, and I am keeping to my goal of restricting small pieces of fabric in my stash.kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-90044426206612513812014-09-08T06:06:00.003+10:002014-09-08T06:06:53.953+10:00Hobo Bag in leatherBack in April, I bought myself leather to make the Hot Patterns Hobo Bag. I nearly made it straight away, in fact it got to 3/4 completion in a week, then I wrecked it, so it had to sit in the sewing room in disgrace for some time before undergoing rehabilitation of sorts.

First the good parts.
I thought I'd made the bag before, but actually, I had previously made the Soho Slouch Tote, for a reversible linen/hemp bag that was definitely on its last legs by April, as the denim hemp was disintegrating -just like the jeans I made from the same fabric. I found the Soho Slouch very useful, but seriously lacking in pockets, and I much prefer leather bags to those made of cloth.

It could have been a very bad decision to make my first version of the Hobo Bag pattern in leather, as having very large pieces, is probably less suited to a leather bag than the Soho Slouch- it took 4 kangaroo skins, and the scraps were legion. Had it not been a shape I like, this might have been rather an expensive experiment. I must have been feeling very confident when I cut this out (I used a rotary cutter). As lining, I used a thick shirting cotton from Michael's fabrics
I enlarged the internal zipped pocket of the pattern, in cotton, then continued with the following additions

1. Leather sunglasses pouch in the strap - the top is gathered with elastic in a casing.This was a little difficult to construct with the edges turned in with the leather, and I decided to have all the other pockets inside the bag on the lining - however, it is in a particularly useful position for quick access to my sunglasses and I would repeat this pocket in leather for a second version.
2. Leather loops, one for a pen, one with a small clasp for my keys and an USB. I would add another loop in a second version and possibly also a loop strap with buckle - It is amazing how many things I carry about that need to stay upright!

3. Cotton pocket with a buttoning flap made to the dimensions of my phone in its wallet case.
4. My best addition, never found in a normal handbag - a waterbottle pouch made like a poacher's pocket with folded expanding corners and elastic at the top in a casing. I have found with recent use that this pocket is also remarkably useful for a folding umbrella on days so wet that no waterbottle is necessary ;)

Construction:
Having previously sewn kangaroo leather, I was all prepared to glue and stitch with my handcranked Singer as previously, but a bit of trail and error allowed me to construct this primarily using a size 100 needle and jeans topstitching thread at 3.5mm stitch length on my Janome after my 1933 Singer had an episode of o ring disintegration that required ordering a new part from the U.S.A.
I didn't bother gluing, and used a teflon foot, but made no other concessions to sewing with leather. Things went swimmingly, even when sewing and turning seams in the leather through 4 thicknesses, until I came to the topstitching of the incorporated handles. At this point, the extra thickness over joining seams led to horrible stitches and stretching of the top layer of the leather. I was not happy.
Now most sources about sewing with leather say you cannot unpick. This is completely true, unpicking does leave holes and marks, however, I unpicked, and I have decided that these damaged areas are mostly apparent to myself, rather than the casual observer.

Here is the unpicked, then hand sewn stitching around the edges of my bag. Yes, a little bit unsightly, but not too bad for for use in my opinion. The hand stitching took ages, and was very hard on my hands - I used some of the original needle holes, but for most stitches had to force the needle through at least one layer of the leather, and as there were several already sewn layers to get through, it was not possible to use an awl. I rested the needle on a nice thick Ikea catalogue and pulled the leather down over the needle for each stitch. Its not a technique I recommend! and was the main reason this bag took a long time to complete.

Overall, I am very pleased with this bag. It has room for all my bits and pieces, even a nice large knitting project, some groceries of the bread+milk- has- run- out variety, or a parcel-to-post, yet my phone and keys never fall to the bottom. I love the colour and softness of the leather, and it is comfortable over my shoulder.
I will use this bag until it wears out - then I might make an even better version with beautiful topstitching the first time around. kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-45732529589847067702014-09-05T07:34:00.000+10:002014-09-05T07:37:26.429+10:00Project formal, the foundation. Burda Style 01-2014 113 + Patternmaking for Underwear DesignI've made a couple of formal dresses before, but somehow, this is turning into one of my most technically challenging projects. Most of this is self inflicted! Some of my blogging absence has been due to a lot of unblogworthy thinking and planning time. (The rest was knitting.....)

 Most strapless dresses need a foundation to prevent wearing malfunctions. For my older daughter's formal dress, also strapless, I made a traditional princess line bodice foundation, based on Claire Shaeffer's somewhat scanty instructions in Couture Sewing Techniques, and was happy with it. However, daughter the second has a more curvaceous figure, and more exacting requirements, and wanted more shape and structure in the bust of her foundation to emphasise the sweetheart neckline of her dress. She wanted something more like a long line bra or corselet.
Unfortunately, the bust section of the Burda bustier toile I made earlier was not at all flattering, nor supportive. I decided to add bra like cups and bridge to the bustier, for more structure,and went looking for either my Kwik Sew bra pattern, or my Leanne Burgess bra making book. 2 days later, my pattern collection and fabric cupboard were unaturally tidy, and I was forced to realise that I had carefully put all my lingerie sewing references in a Safe Place, from where they would only emerge again when they were not immediately required.
My long suffering family (one of whom suggested that I buy a corset!) was greatly relieved that I was rescued by Kristina Shin's Patternmaking for Underwear Design, a book that has been lurking on my sewing shelf since Christmas, after my inital perusal filled me with disappointment. I had bought it with the intention of drafting myself a bra pattern, but the only bra drafting instructions in the book are for a 75B, which fits no one in our house, and the measurements for each drafted line are given within the instructions, with no tables for any other sizes, making the usefullness of the bra instructions quite limited - but we decided to increase the cup size of the foundation for illusionary purposes, and decided the given cup size of 75B would do for the size 34-taken in bustier, with a bit of discreet curve enhancement.

I drafted a 3 part T cup underwire bra cup and bridge, following the instructions without undue difficulty (although having 2 unlabeled markings that were only identifiable by reading two separate earlier chapters of the book was annoying, as was the tendency to constantly refer back to the basic bra block- which uses the same letters as point markers as the 3 part cup, only in completely different places!).

This was not quite the shape we wanted, so I then rotated and split the lower cup and drafted an upper cup to fit a slightly higher bridge and not require a strap - a shape that is not given in Shin's book.
The cup was larger than expected, despite being cut out in a woven rather than a knit, as assumed in the instructions. This could have been operator error and was fixed with a bit of trial and error trimming. Fortunately I do not plan to make a lot of these garments in the illusionary size.
I used foam bra lining (cut out and pieced to fit from an existing bra, and added a small "fillet" made from 2 layers of cotton/wool quilting batting to the lower third of each cup. The "pad" or "cookie" shape given in Shin's book was not the correct size nor shape for the cups, so this was again made by trial and error.
As the upper cup was still too large, and we did not want excessive padding, I applied 3 rows of shirring elastic by this method through the outer cup fabric and foam lining at the top of each cup and gathered these to fit. Although producing the desired effect, this looked rather messy, so I lined the corset with a rayon knit (I draped this over the finished outer corselet and cut to fit - much easier than applying all the fitting changes from the woven outer pieces to a woven lining)

The entire upper border of the corselet is finished with slightly stretched lingerie elastic for added security. I hand appliqued a stretch lace to the upper cups to cover the shirring (this is practice for the actual dress), and also to most of the upper border of the remaining corselet because it looked pretty.

The remainder of the construction was much more straightforward. Each vertical seam is boned with rigeline on both sides of the seam. The outer fabric is a firm weave silk (from my grandmother's silk painting supplies), and the underlining is silk organza. The boning casing is herringbone weave linen.
As it is still 9 weeks to the wearing of the dress, I wanted to allow some room for girth changes. so I used a commercial elastic fastening (Prym) instead of the right centre back section . As you can see, I actually used two of these, as the fastening is designed for a long line bra. The two fastenings are abutted, joined with zigzag stitch, and a ribbon applied over the seam for prettiness (she doesn't need the stretch at the waist). I chose to fit at the wider of the two hook and eye loops as my daughter tends to lose weight when under stress, and is currently finishing her final year at school, with constant assignments and exams. If the opposite occurs, well there is a bit of stretch in the elastic ;).

The lower border of the corset is zigzagged to attach all the layers, then non stretch lace was applied to cover the zigzagging. I did not want to add bulk with a hem or binding.

The finished foundation met with approval, and I am well into the next stage of the dress.

kbencohttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-6300410233569072894.post-75962736027900208712014-07-04T16:29:00.000+10:002014-07-04T16:29:13.503+10:00Project Formal: Dyeing the laceAll this prosaic sewing has been very useful for halo shining, but today I had the day off, and have devoted the sewing portion of it to delightful frivolity. (There has been a small amount of hinting, increasing in frequency, that there are Only 130 something days until I have to come up with the formal dress)

I've dyed the lace.

I'm not sure that the outcome is successful, as the recipient is not home yet, and may reject this black and pale purple combination as not being true to her vision, but I think its quite interesting in its new shades

When I burn tested the laces (there are 3 differently sourced laces), I had a quick ignition, bright flame, a woody smell and an ashy remnant, no beading, which I thought indicated a natural fibre, such as rayon or cotton. As this is elderly lace and was quite costly at the time, this seemed a likely fibre for its composition, so I dyed it using a fibre reactive dye, by the tub dyeing method, using these techniques from Dharma fabrics specific to black.
Note: Soda Ash is called Washing Soda in Australia (sodium carbonate) and I bought mine very inexpensively from the supermarket.
I had several dyes, and chose #300, as it is described as having a blue cast, and the under fabric for the dress is a silvery blue. I now strongly suspect that the netting of the lace is a polyester, and in my opinion, the cast is purple, rather an attractive purple, but definitely not blue.
At the same time, my older daughter threw in a cotton/lycra singlet to tie die.

Quite interesting again, and much more purple than blue.
In the left over dye bath, I soaked some some allegedly Irish Linen placemats that my mother retrieved from a church garage sale in case I might need them.

They were a pastel blue that I find hideous, and I much prefer their new colour. They may end up in a garment, or we may have new placemats.
All this dyeing took 3+ hours of activity, and 30 minutes soaking time in dye fixative solution. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'll be doing it regularly.

kbencohttp://firstname.lastname@example.com