Color Opinion, Please

Muslin #2 of the raglan sleeve bodice top has been completed, and it has more red sharpie marks on it. I'm contemplating going back to the original, making it without any alterations (as a muslin), and altering the muslin from that. I think I may have distorted the original just a wee bit too much, and it's starting to be weird.

When I was going through some old fabric of my mom's though, I found one that might be a good match for the top. To refresh your memory, this is the pattern:

And the new color combination, with the blue for the bodice:

Yes? No? Are you crazy? And if I can find it, a patent yellow wide belt, and yellow shoes? It would certainly be colorful! But, would it be too much?

Toaster Cover

I've taken a little break from the shirt dress to make a custom toaster cover for a friend. This has given me the opportunity to try out a new finishing idea that will work on tote bags and purses as well as the toaster cover. OK, it's not a new idea as the purse designer interviewed on Pattern Review mentioned that her designs are finished with French seams, and I thought, hey, that would work with this! And, yes, it did!

Often these home dec kind of projects cover their seams with bias tape, but that seemed a bit time consuming and fussy to me. French seams worked fabulously! And now that you've seen the inside, how about a look at the pretty outside. And yes, this is for the biggest toaster I've ever seen!

I just have it over a small box, so that explains the saggy top.

A close up of the double fold bias tape that I did use to cover the bottom "hem".

 A close up of the machine embroidery. And you can see the machine quilting I did here. This was a great opportunity to practice my machine quilting skills. I used super thin batting and a bleached muslin backing, and the walking foot for great results!

Parting shot:

Shirtdress Muslin #1

I knew going into this vintage shirtdress pattern, I would have to make some pretty substantial changes to get the top to fit. I did buy it close to my bust size. OK, maybe one size too small, but that shouldn't stop anyone. Here are my pattern pieces after making some changes that I knew I needed to make (i.e., widen at the waistline, and drop the armscye (is it still called that with a raglan sleeve?).

The changes are done in red. I did the back piece first, and then discovered a better way to widen the waist for the front by slashing a diagonal cut from waist outside the dart, up to the top point of the sleeve seam. It made it much neater and more predictable. I decided to go with the changes I made on the back anyway. And the muslin front:

Keeping in mind that my dress form is not quite my size (she has bigger boobs), you can see that there aren't too many problems with the front. The side dart I changed can actually be changed back. The main problem is with the raglan sleeve that is really much to narrow. Did they have stick arms back in the 50s? But, oh no on the back:

As you can see by the multiple lines, I can't really decide where I want the sleeve seam to be. I'll probably go with the middle line. Also, the darts were way too long. This dress, although slim, is actually drafted for someone who is about 6 feet tall! The original owner wrote on the outside of the envelope that the skirt is too long, and she shortened it about 4 or 5 inches, folding up the pattern. That hit on my lower shin. If I made it as is, it would be floor length! Those are some mighty fluffy crinolines that they were planning for I suppose.

Fabric update: I'm going to use the stripe, but I'm leaning toward a solid color top in the darker gray brown color. Hard to tell from the computer screen, but in the paint world it's probably called putty. Matching it may be a problem. And, I'm off to snip and rip. Where is my Fit for Real People book when I need it?!!

Stripe Angst

For my next trick project, I want to try another vintage pattern. I bought this Simplicity pattern from eBay, because I love a good shirtdress, and I also love the raglan sleeves. But I've been agonizing over the fabric a little, and then decided to buy another stripe, mostly because it was on sale. I'm thinking that maybe wasn't a good reason. It's an Amy Butler twill and was a ridiculously low price at fabric.com. Hmmm, maybe there was a reason for that low price. People thought it was ugly.

Before you scroll down more and see the picture (oh, of course you've already seen the picture), I'm thinking of just using the stripe for the skirt, and doing a solid color for the "shirt". Maybe even in a cotton jersey? Maybe the light blue?

Oh, well, in the meantime, I know I'm going to need to make some alterations to the pattern, so I'll get to that and await your valuable advice.

Butterick 5450

Is it gone? Do you still see them? I'm trying to put those shorts behind me, and thanks to those who were brave enough to say NAY. You were all right. I've moved on, and made a new summer dress, Butterick 5450. The pattern claims to be Fast & Easy, and yes it is. Only, I'm a notoriously slow sewer.

So, what do y'all think?

I did make a muslin of the bodice (well, the lining anyway), and made a small sway back adjustment. And, while I cut out a 14 for the top, I morphed it into the 16 for the waist and hips. I love the way it fits! I also moved the zipper from the side seam to the back and used an invisible one, and gave the dress a full lining because 100% cotton just kind of sticks. To legs, to cotton underwear. Is that TMI? Anyway, I used a bemberg lining that I had prewashed, so the whole thing is washable. Yay!

Oops, looks a little wrinkled. Forgot to say that I added an inch to the length, too. Forgive those glaringly white legs. I think I need a PSA at the beginning of the post reminding people to wear sunglasses when looking at these pictures.

Do you notice the stripes? Kyle says there is an elegance in the mismatching, and I'm going with that.

Beyond that, I think I'll be wearing this dress a lot, and I think it will be a great transitional piece to wear into the fall.

By the way, when I wore it yesterday, I wore the wedges in the "fall" picture instead of the sandals. I just liked that look better. My next project is a vintage shirt dress, and the fabric I chose has stripes. Wildly uneven stripes. What WAS I thinking?!

Stripes

What rich, gorgeous color on this 100% cotton Kaffe Fassett woven from Fabric.com. What was I thinking?

Like some plaids, some stripes are uneven, and in their unevenness make matching very challenging. Add in pleats and darts, and you might find yourself in matching hell. That's where I found myself yesterday, and I decided to let the stripes fall where they may. Possibly not the best decision, but I'll let you be the judge tomorrow when I finish a cute Butterick sleeveless dress.

Are you just dying to know which pattern? Well, I'll surprise you tomorrow, but I don't have too much left. The lining is completely made, so all I have left is the invisible zipper, shoulder seams, side seams, insert the lining and finish the armscyes, hem and voila. New dress. Hmmm, when I type it that sounds like a lot, but it's not really. Til tomorrow...

Simplicity 2370 -- Yay or Nay?

I've made my denim shorts, and am kind of ambivalent about them. Are they a true wadder? Not really. Take a look:

So, maybe it's my hips I'm ambivalent about, but in this picture they (the shorts) don't look too bad. I did end up making 2 muslins, and thought they fit pretty well by the second one. One design change I made was to change the large, single pleat in the front to 2 narrower pleats, essentially using up the same amount of fabric, but spreading it out a bit. I'm not so sure it helped or made it worse.

Something I learned about making a muslin: when you aren't 100% sure about the size, go bigger. The biggest alteration I had to make was to shorten the length of the center crotch seam. I shortened the front center seam a whopping 1-1/2", and the back one 1/2". I probably should have shortened the front one even more, maybe 2".

There just seems to be too much fabric. Is it the pleats? The too long center seam? The width (which I narrowed, by the way, after I had finished them)?

One major mistake I made, and shouldn't have, was that I forgot to staystitch the upper edges of the front and back pieces. Does it really matter, you ask? Heck, yeah! I couldn't figure out why the waist had "grown" so much after seemingly fitting pretty well with the muslin. I finished these yesterday, and when I woke up this morning, the lightbulb went off. It has to be the staystitching. Duh. A beginner's mistake.

I did do a superb job inserting the invisible zipper, though. So well, that you couldn't even see it in the picture. The bad news about it is that it's a side zip, and I didn't want to rip it out to make the legs narrower (lazy me), so my post production alterations are somewhat limited. Oh, and I love the waistband/binding technique, primarily because I love a narrow waistband.

No matter what level your sewing skills are, there are always things to learn with each new project. And as much as I love to see the perfectly sewn garment, sewing bloggers, show me your mistakes and wadders as well, so that I can learn from them, too!