Floral, Beach, Summer, Holiday ...

Happy New Year!  Hope you all ate yummy food 'til your heart was content. I know I did.

I'm looking forward to what 2017 brings, which must be much better than 2016.  I started last year sick and missed the wedding of my very good friend and I ended the year sick, for three weeks if you please!  In between that it was just a big pile of life stuff that I didn't enjoy at all.  By default the blog went into hibernation.

Life is settled again and I begun this year in Rarotonga celebrating my eldest 21st birthday on new year's eve.  Being on holiday called for drink lots of tropical cocktails

 

I had hoped to get a full holiday wardrobe sewn, but work demands and being sick meant that those plans fell apart.  I did get to finish two pieces, so all wasn't lost.  If you follow me on Instagram you would have already seen these plans.  You will also know that both these fabrics a quite different, really bold, compared to my usual choice of fabric.  But hey, it's a tropical holiday!

The Holly Jumpsuit I had made before with a short leg. I really wasn't sure about the wide leg pants in this floral, but Sewbusylizzy said that I should image that it's the same as a maxi dress, which instantly removed any doubts I had.

I really wanted to have pockets, so I drafted some pockets using the Moss Mini pattern as a guideline for the angle and where they should sit in relation to the waist and side seams.   They are perfect!

Although I've worn this jumpsuit a few times (including Christmas Day), I haven't taken the opportunity to get some good photos:-(  For now it's this mirror selfie, but you get the picture - great fit, pockets and I love the full length pants.

My feelings about the holiday dress are a little different.  This is the Mid Summer Nights Dream wrap dress by Papercut Patterns.  I am a Papercut fangirl, and I've had this pattern in the stash for a few years now.  When I finished the dress and hung it on the dress form I was in love.

But then when I tried it on, the side fronts forward of the armpit were gaping, like really gaping! You can get a glimpse of this in the above picture.  This meant I had to unpick the binding and insert a downward dart. Luck the fabric is so busy and the gathers whether the bodice meets the ties disguises everything. I also find that the shoulder straps are too close of the neck.  Otherwise it fits and is really comfy to wear.  I am totally in love with the fabric now it is wearable.

How was your Christmas/New Year holiday?

Smitten by Holly

When By Hand London released the Holly Jumpsuit I was rather smitten by the wide legged, cowl neck version and every one I saw in the blogisphere convinced me it was a pattern I needed to sew this summer.

While I agree a jumpsuit can leave you feeling rather vulnerable when you need to visit the loo, I figured that I would probably only wear it during the summer months and it wouldn't be any worse than going to the bathroom in a bikini!  Totally normal for summer right?

I decided that my first version needed to be beach/weekend wear, so went with the top of version 1 and the shorts from version 2 - lengthened to me more age appropriate for me.  I added 2" to the length of the pattern shorts.

The real scary thing was the pant - cause I so haven't got my head around what part of the pant pattern needs to be adjusted when it doesn't fit properly/comfortably, arrrrgh!  The girls at By Hand London held a sew-along not long after the pattern was released.  I didn't sew along exactly but I was paying attention when they covered 'full and flat butt adjustments'. This is an interesting one, because while I don't have the outward curve of a 'young' butt I have really wide hips.

I made a 1/2" flat butt adjustment, and then added 1/8" to the side seam at the high hip. The fit seemed to be good but the crotch felt a bit low, although I wasn't really sure where it should be!  So after wearing my muslin around for a little bit I thought I needed to remove 1/4" horizontally, which I did across both the front and back pattern pieces at the high hip.

Is it weird to say 'look at my butt'?!? Maybe the more appropriate thing to say is 'look how well the pant falls over my backside', lol!  I'm pretty happy with the final fit, although I now realise that the back crotch could do with some more depth - I can feel it tighten when I bend over.

The flat butt adjustment also fixed the side seam which was leaning toward the front instead of staying perpendicular to the floor.  I still haven't got my head around the engineering of it all, but it worked for me and that is the main thing :-)

I chose this really dreamy rayon from my stash that I picked up at the Arthur Toye closing down sale earlier in the year - the drape is ideal.  I wasn't going for perfect pattern matching, but I did attempt to look at the pattern placement on the fabric before cutting.  As it turned out the pattern matching across the back three pieces was pretty bloody fantastic!

The fabric was kinda transparent, especially if I stood in the sunlight, it almost became completely sheer - and given I'm planning on wearing this to the beach I opted to line the whole jumpsuit with a really light weight acetate I had in the cupboard.  As you can see from this picture you can almost see through the lining as well.  Together they provide just the right amount of modesty while remaining light weight.

I constructed both the shell and the lining, then attached them across the neckline of the front piece, understitching on the inside.  The back and the armholes are encased in the bias binding, with the short lining is hemmed 1" shorter than the shell.

I interlined the back pieces with some poly/cotton scraps to give it a bit more structure.

Overall, I am pretty happy with my first Holly playsuit.  I've already got a second one in the pipeline - this one will be the long pant version, staying true to version 1 of the pattern.

More photos on my Flickr -->