Tiramisu #2, the Amex Dress

I've finished my 2nd Tiramisu knit dress, and I'm calling it the Amex dress, not because it was super expensive, but because the fabric reminds me of the green American Express card, and I won't want to leave home without it.

But when it was initially finished, it should have stayed home. It didn't, and when I wore it the first time, I was actually pretty mortified that it looked as horrible as it did.

Exhibit A, Tiramisu 2.0:

It doesn't look that bad on the dress form, although you can see the incredibly drooping hem at center front (and yes, it does that at the center back as well). You also can't see well that I added an approximately 1-1/2" band at the hem because I wanted it a little longer, and that from the midriff on down, it hung like a sack.

The bodice is a smidge short, but I can live with that. The midriff was too short (something I did on purpose and totally regret) which drove me crazy in wearing. So... how to fix these issues when I only had a small pile of scraps left over.

Introducing the Tiramisu 2.1:

I happened to have scraps of a Michael Miller interlock knit from the same colorway used in another project. Let's go to the bullet points:

• I'm living with the too short bodice. Will print out the revised bodice pieces for my next version.
• Cut off the skirt at the seamline between skirt and bottom of midriff.
• Added a 2-1/2" wide strip of the "new" fabric to create a belt-like look to the bottom of the midriff. Used a 1/2" seam here.
• Took in the side seams beginning at the midriff. A bunch. Didn't take photos, but angled down from the midriff-bodice seamline toward the waist approximately 2". That adds up to 4" per side! Maybe a little more.
• Trying to preserve the pockets, I took extra width out of the center front and center back of the skirt, using a 2-1/2" seam allowance per seam.
• Reattached the skirt.
• The pockets looked terrible with the new, more snug fit. Sewed them shut, serged off the pocket bits.
• Put the dress on the dress form, measured up from the floor to get an even hem, and used my coverstitch to hem.

End result: it's not perfect, as I would have preferred a solid color, and a bit more length both to the bodice and overall, but it is now a dress I will definitely wear. My previous experience with this fabric is that it will continue to shrink, so it probably has a limited shelf life as it is anyway, so I'll just enjoy it while I can.

With a belt:

Naughty Knits

So, I'm in the process of making Tiramisu version 2. It will be awesome. It should be done. But I suspect every sewist worth her (or his) salt, has had best laid plans go awry. A snip here, a rip there, a miscut piece. And where the hell did the facings go, right? And you only had 30 minutes and wanted to get to step 12!

Let's back up. Version 2 is going to be a thicker jersey that some of y'all would call beefy. For the record, I had that term. I love a steak any ol' time, but I don't want to wear one. I'm going to go with spongy. Which behaved in a rather unexpected way when I stitched the center front seam of the skirt. With the lightning stitch, which is a bitch to rip out, by the way.

Yep. The edges are supposed to be even. It's the bias. It's the fabric. I even used a walking foot. Ok. Fine. I put it aside to do the back, with a decision to baste first. As I basted, I decided that really a straight stitch would be fine, because I didn't have the movement when it basted. And this seam is just hanging. No real stretch needed, or even wanted really.

So, I just spent 40 minutes ripping that lightning bolt stitch out, and it's ready to re-do tomorrow. Let's see if I can finish (or get closer to finishing) tomorrow morning before work.

Have you ever had a fabric do something unexpected?

Butterick 5495 -- Cotton Jersey Knit top

I'm not reviewing my recent creations in order of being created, but this is the knit top that I mentioned in my last post. The fabric is a fun cotton jersey that I bought from Gorgeous Fabrics. (By the way, for those interested, that's where I got the green, black and white knit for my recently reviewed dress.)

Again, my experience with knits is limited, and this one is so lightweight and soft, it was like sewing on kleenex. However, that makes it sound like it was difficult, and it really wasn't. As for the pattern, I did do a little tinkering. Changes I made:

• I chose the short version, and still took 3" off the length as I wanted more of a top, less of a tunic.
• I traced the pieces (there are only 4), and started with a 12 at the shoulders, tapering out to the 14 as I worked my way past the bust to the waist area. The back piece is incredibly narrow, and completely utunic-like, in my opinion. Once past the bust area, I pretty much just took at the nipped in at the waist feature, straightening out the side seams. In the picture, you can see on my dress form it is still a bit tight, and that's how it fits on me.

• The V. Holding up the pattern tissue, it didn't seem that low cut. Um, well, when I tried it on, whoa! I ended up whipping together almost 3 inches, and still wore a black cami underneath.

 Before I started, I read the other reviews on Pattern Review, and several mentioned the facings, but I didn't really mind how they were designed. You can see that I serged the edge, and hand basted it to hold it in place during the construction stages. This cotton jersey made a lovely crease, so perhaps that helped.

I'm not sure if you can tell in the close up, but there is a little loop that draws together the front, forming the gathers. It is inserted through teeny holes, and I didn't have any need to do any extra stitching to close up the holes. It fit in quite snugly.

All in all, I love this fabric, and will probably wear this quite a bit, and the gathers are pretty flattering over my currently roundish tummy.

Vogue 8575

I have been dying to make this dress for a couple of months now, and the timing was finally right, i.e., no more wedding activities. Plus, it is so darn hot here in Atlanta, that a flowy, knit dress is just the right thing. I think I've mentioned before that I haven't done much sewing with knits in my entire sewing career, so I just want to share some observations I made while making this dress.

I used a needle specifically for knits, the Schmetz Jersey Ballpoint 80/12.

Sometimes I used a straight stitch, and sometimes the stretch stitch (#9 on my Bernina 440). For the majority of the seams, I used the walking foot. That seemed to work the best, and I think the stretch stitch should probably have been used for any seam with stress (i.e., most of them).

 That picture is of the walking foot, in case you're unfamiliar with it.

I only made one alteration to the pattern, and that was to add 1-1/2" down the center of the front and back skirt piece. In other words, the pieces were cut on the fold, so I just moved the entire piece 3/4" away from the folded edge. I just wanted a bit more gathering for tummy camouflage. Since I made the sleeveless version, I discovered later that I hated the way they had you hem the armscyes, which was just to turn it in and make a narrow hem. Mine looked floppy and homemade, and since the back was too wide there anyway, I used the bias tape method, just guesstimating where I wanted the top of the shoulder to be. Not terribly precise, but it worked for me.

After stitching each seam, I serged the edge for finishing. I think it makes it look more like RTW:

Finally, I had the devil of the time with the hem. Any hints for hemming jersey? I tried serging the single layer edge first, and that was a disaster, and luckily I stopped after only about 10". I ended up then trying to press down 1/4" to finish the raw edge, and pressing is pretty impossible. Next I just eyeballed the 1/4" and stitched it down. Then I folded it up 5/8" for the final hem, and pinned extensively. Still, it looked like it would shift all over the place when I pulled out the pins as I stitched.

I remembered reading this post recently by fellow sewing blogger, Carolyn, and pulled out what was probably a vintage roll of stitch witchery, inserted it between the folded up hem and the dress and pressed. Yay for stability! I then used a twin needle (any tips for using those?) to achieve the RTW cover stitch type hem.

The top row has some skipped stitches, and I'm thinking when I threaded it I should have threaded both spools at the same time. Lazy me just threaded the second one on top of the first. Any thoughts on that? Of course, no one will know but me (about the skipped stitches, that is)!

This dress is SO comfortable. I need to make another one, maybe with short sleeves, and that may be all you see me in the rest of the summer!