Lace & Peter Pan

Well there is never any Punch without Judy in my house.  So after the Lace Dress for daughter #1, here is the requested Lace Top for daughter #2.  We both totted off to Fabric Warehouse and she selected the underlining and the lace, to create her vision.

This is my second project for the Burda Style May Sew Along (quietly pleased that I managed to get two projects completed).  I used the same pattern as I did for the Lace Dress - the featured sheath dress in the 09/2012 magazine.

My daughters are different sizes, so for the this top I had to trace off the pattern again - so no shortcuts for the second project!

The number one request was for a Peter Pan collar, for which I followed Gertie's tutorial to draft a collar specifically for this pattern.  It didn't look anything like Gertie's draft, but it sits perfectly.

This was nice and easy with great results.

I inserted a lap zip in the back - not that you can really tell, because the lace hides this quite well.

I really loved sewing this pattern because there were features of the dress that I hadn't seen before.  First was the side darts which run from the breast to the high hip - hopefully you can see this in the picture below?  This dart provided bust and waist shape all in one - easy and effective.

The second was the shoulder seam, which has a dart in the top of the sleeve, but the dart isn't sewn prior to inserting the sleeve.

The side seams of the sleeve are sewn together then the sleeve is inserted and finally the shoulder seam and dart are sewn in a single line.  I've never inserted such an easy sleeve.

I really enjoyed sewing this pattern and I'm now thinking about making one for myself!

Daughter #2 is in love with her top and hasn't really taken it off since I finished it last Thursday :-)

Finally, THE Lace Dress

Wow, talk about take forever to finish this one.  But finally, after my stretch lace dilemma,  the dress is finished!  And looking damn fine, if I do say so myself. 

The dress was made for my daughter (that's her and our mochi "Jayjay" in the photo), in an effort to build her wardrobe of stylish black clothes (also see the Peephole top made for her).  Why black?  Because this year she is studying make-up artistry and the dress code is black.  But black doesn't have to = boring, right!  Lace is all in, so a lace dress it was at the top of the list.

Early in the year I has purchased (on impulse) the 09/2012 edition of Burda Style magazine and it so happens that the front cover is a lace dress - perfect starting point I thought.

I hadn't actually traced a Burda pattern from their magazine before.  Even though I had sewn other Burda patterns I thought it would be good to start with an 'easy' pattern while I get acclimatised to the magazine instructions, which by the way I read more than a few times to really understand what it was saying.

I was all set to whip this up in a day, easy pattern, lace would be underlined with a cotton and sewn as one, couple of darts and a zip.  So straight forward I didn't even bother to make a muslin.

Well ... then the customisation requests began. "Can the underlining stop above my boobs; can there only be lace across my chest; it must have sleeves (dress code) - but lace only sleeves; can it hug my body, I don't want it to just hang".

No problem -  I put two darts in the back to give it a fitting silhouette and ran the side seams in a little.  I traced the sweetheart neckline from the Cambie bodice and shaped the underlining, tacking the lace to the underlining around the top of the sweetheart neckline.  At this stage I thought I was doing great.  We were up to the next fitting so I could see everything was sitting in place before I tackled the top of the dress.  Yep, construction didn't go according to the instructions because usually you would sew the shoulder seams first, but I had to leave the shoulder seams until now.

It does fit better - but she insisted on holding the dog!

Here is where I hit my conundrum - for the the shoulder and sleeve seams I had lace on lace, and stretch lace at that.  What to do, what to do?  Oh I know, procrastinate!

It's quite hard to photograph this lace!

After some great suggestions from the blogisphere and some more thinking I finally finished the dress ... I inserted some stay tape into the shoulder seams, so they wouldn't stretch over time.  I then eased the sleeves in by hand basting so I could get another fitting and decide whether it needed any additional support.  What would you know, it looked and felt fine, so I proceeded to overlock the seam edges, providing support that moved and then a row of zigzag over top of my hand basted stitches. To provide some support for the lace top I also inserted some shoulder straps made with the underlining fabric - this will prevent the lace across the chest being stretched out of shape because of the weight from the dress.

I may have started this project back at the beginning of April but because I finished it in May, I wonder if that counts towards the Burda Style Sew Along May 2013?  I hope so :-)  Although there is another that I want to make.

Peephole Jumper look-a-like

I spied this peephole fabric at Moreland Fabrics on one of recent visits, but couldn't quite image anything other than some 1980's trashy crop top!!! 

Not less than a week later the inspiration was found in this jumper from the Storm NZ website.

My immediate thought 'seriously how hard could that be to make', my daughter's immediate thought 'I want that'!  How lucky is she to have a mum who can sew, right!

I couldn't see the sense in buying a pattern when really it should be straight forward to draft myself.  I discovered this image on good ol Wikipedia, which was all I needed to get started.

We had to make some decisions based on her body and preferences.  The front neck was to be 2.5" lower than the back neck; we decided to slope the shoulder seams slightly; the sleeve cuffs were 4" deep and the body band 5" deep with the peephole finishing at the waist so the band would hug her hips.  We added 4" of ease in total to the circumference of the top to get the desired loose (but not baggy) fit.   With the plan in hand it was time to fabric shop (my favourite part).

We chose a white singlet to wear hoping that it would show off the peephole better.

Perhaps it could have been about another 2" longer in the body?

Very happy with how the neckline sits - not too high!

Drafting the pattern was the most time consuming part of this project.  Once that was done cutting and sewing took no time at all - love those kinda projects :-)

Now back to finishing her lace dress.

Stretch Lace Dilemma

I'm a little bit stuck on how I might go about attaching sleeves to this stretch lace dress, so I'm hoping my sewing blog friends might be able to lend me a helping hand (pretty please).

Doesn't look much just on the hanger!

The story so far:  using a pattern from a Burda Magazine, some beautiful stretch lace underlined with a cotton/lycra that stops at the sweetheart neckline but the lace carries on to cover the chest and shoulder blades - I've achieved the desired look for the dress, however .....

a clearer picture of the sweetheart neckline

My daughter wants the dress to have sleeves - lace sleeves!  The lace is easy to sew when attached to the cotton/lycra underlining but on it's own it's a different story ...  it's probably more like a stretch mesh to sew.

I'm going to finish the neckline with some clear elastic, just enough so the neckline sits against the body and I'm sure this will be easy enough because the elastic will provide a bit of stability for the lace.   To provide some strength over the shoulders I've got some thin straps attached to the underlining which will remove any pull on the lace over the upper body (good plan I think!)

But I am stuck on how to get the sleeves in place.  I've thought about using the stretch clear elastic, but I think that would just feel funny to wear.  Next, maybe using some 1/4" stay tape, apply to the sleeve edge of the dress then fit the sleeve into place.  I am a bit worried that this will be too stiff for the stretch lace and will make the sleeve seam look rigid when the dress is worn.

This has been sitting on my sewing desk for a month, while I ponder.   I'm now getting pressure from the daughter who wants to wear it.  Soooooo I would really appreciate any recommendations that you might have on my sleeve dilemma. 

Thanks in advance :-)

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Cotton Eyelet Couture

I feel in love with this cotton eyelet fabric on one of my visits to Global Fabrics.  I wasn't too excited about it being brown but immediately found this dark chocolate cotton lycra blend - it just seemed perfect for my next couture dress using my skills acquired from the Craftsy Couture Dress class. 

The end result ... a beautiful fitting dress that I absolutely love - the only question now is what shoes to wear!

However, I must fess that I only put the silk organsa interlining on the top and midriff band.  I felt the cotton lycra fabric I used for the skirt was already heavy enough that it just needed a lining.   Doing this also balanced the weight in the two fabrics. The inside of the dress is also two toned. 

I inserted the lining completely by hand - although this takes longer it gives me far more control than trying to machine it in ... and far more satisfying (for me anyway).

Both were taken from my fabric stash.  The top lining was left over from my pattern morphing top and the bottom, I'm not sure what I originally bought it for!

The pattern is this Vogue Options Misse's Dress V8633.  Because I'm more of a rectangle shape I had to make adjustments to the midriff band and skirt.  While the pattern isn't recommended for the rectangular body shape I think that it has given my body some shape and gives the illusion that I do have a waist!

 

More photos - just 'cos I can

(shoes are undecided so none at this stage)

Love the stand up collar

The shape of the sleeve balances up the hips

When it gets a bit cooler I can pair this with my Minrou Jacket :-)

Robson Pattern

I'm sure by now you've seen the new Robson Trench from Sewaholic Patterns.  I'm so exciting my pattern arrived today in the mail (having a party on the inside!)

Super impressed with the delivery times from Canada to NZ - less than a week I think!  So I guess you will all know what I will be doing this Easter Holiday!

I've taken a bit of inspiration from Katie Holmes for fabric, but want to go for a darker bronze brown, and most definitely shiny :-)

I really like the idea of lining the coat so I can wear it in the winter months as well, so thinking of using the same technique as Novita (Very Purple Person) and sew the lining to each piece as you would an interlining.  This may also give the coat the 'special' feel that I'm looking for.  Once I've made the first one I might be brave enough to attempt to line the coat with a full lining or hope that Tasia has enough requests for this that she might blog some tips on 'how to' before then.

Okay, just need to find some time between now and Thursday to get o the fabric store.