Sewing Indie in June

This month I am joining The Curious Kiwi and Macskakat for Indie Pattern Month.

It just so happens that my next project was going to be the Cordova Jacket by Sewaholic - good timing girls :-)

I had purchased a piece of fabric at the Fabric-a-brac which I thought would be ideal for the Cordova - more on that later.

My stash of indie patterns current contains quite a few from Sewaholic - Tasia's style just appeals to me although I am a rectangular body shape rather than a pear.  A small reduction to the hips and I'm done which is proving easier than having to adjust the waist and hips out-ward when sewing one of the big 4.

Recently I have added others to my list (more parcels in the mail - fun)
Tiramisu Dress by Cake Patterns
Rooibos by Colette Patterns
April Pant by Stylearc
Go Anywhere Dress by Sewn Square One

I also purchased Newcastle Cardigan PDF download from Thread Theory, which I thought would be fun to sew for either my husband or son.

I'm not going to get all these patterns sewn up this month but I'm looking forward to each and every one of them.

A Good Wardrobe hosts an extensive list of Indie Patternmakers which is like my own little index to sewing fabulousness!  Thanks Lizz.

For now back to my the sewing machine to progress my Cordova.  I'm posting progress on Instagram (http://instagram.com/sandra_stitch) if you want to follow along.

Quick Fix with Merino

Yay for quick fix sewing projects!  After the Burda Sew-Along in May and with by Robson Jacket hung on my "I'm not impressed" hanger I was looking for some instant gratification! 

First off the rank was McCalls 5006 which is a pattern I've had in my collection for a few years and never ever sewn!   I've had my eye on this merino for a few weeks now, specifically to pair up with my Cambie.  But for today I've paired it with my shirt dress and jeans. 

I lengthen the body by one inch and opted for long sleeves for winter wear.  I really like this pattern and after wearing the top all day today it is really comfy and warm.  Next time I make this I would consider adding a band to the bottom and shortening the ties by about two inches.

Then I thought I would make the Meg McElwee Surplice Dress, shortened to a top.  Again I opted for long sleeves (original pattern had short sleeves).  Clear elastic is used around the neckline, for modesty and again around the empire line to hug the body. 

I had my first Renfew all lined up with another piece of merino, however it wasn't quite enough fabric for a true Renfrew, so with a slight modification to the pattern here is my third quick fix merino.  I used the front neckline and bust from the surplice, because it's not required to be cut on the fold and the result: a Renfrew with a twist  :-)

I really enjoyed making these garments and can't wait to return to the shop for more fabric to make a 'proper' Renfrew.

Sorry no photos wearing these last two, they just got completed today so they are about to be washed.  I'm looking forward to enjoying these basics in my wardrobe.

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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