My Top 5 Best Makes 2016

I'm joining Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow in the top 5 of 2016

Given that I spent most okay all of the 6 months leading up to my daughter's wedding designing and making dresses,  it's no surprise that wedding day finery tops my list - though I ran out of time to make my own outfit. After the wedding was over, I had no sewjo, so my output for the year to date is not great. I found that I needed the impetus from a contest, with a deadline, to achieve anything. Sad, really! I do have some other items, including items for me, that are not yet finished so I can't include at the time of writing this - I'll save it in draft to see if I do achieve anything else.

With all of the following, there are things I could improve. One of my resolutions, though, is not to be so hard on myself.

1

Helen's wedding dress

I think it is simple looking and sophisticated,  yet with that youthful edge. It's so totally Helen.

Helen had a large part to play in deciding what she wanted, modified by my lack of skills - some things were never on the cards! I learned a lot. I struggled a lot.  But I came through.

This was a self drafted pattern - unfortunately,  Helen didn't want one of the standard available patterns. (She was right,  though)

We chose a beautiful quality sandwashed silk crepe as the main fabric and this was underlined and lined with silk,  too - charmeuse and habotai.

It fitted her beautifully.

She loved it and she and I had compliments galore.

No, sorry, I have no plans at all to set up any kind of business...

You really couldn't afford me...

Cost of dress - priceless!

Blog post link: here

2

Bridesmaid dresses times 2

Helen and her two sisters were heavily involved in deciding what they wanted.

Again, these were self drafted patterns, each slightly different to take account of figure differences. Alison wanted a wider band while Joanne preferred narrower to emphasise her waist. Alison is a carrot or inverted triangle and Joanne is an hourglass.

The fabric was a lovely quality crepe back satin in the exact shade of the groom's tie. It was lined and interlined.

The skirts were circle skirts. After hanging, there was some (a lot!) unevenness in the hem and because a fair bit got cut off,  a band was added to increase the length to that desired.

I ran out of time and the final dresses were sewn by a dressmaker,  including the necessary band, but I very much consider them my makes as I had made and fitted so many toiles and of course designed the pattern.

Successful. Blog post here

3

Still on the wedding - groom’s waistcoat

This was made using a Burda pattern. The pattern was slightly lengthened and slimmed down a lot to fit my son-in-law and meet his ease preferences.

The fabric was a beautiful wool silk chosen by my daughter and sil for its colour as well as its quality. The colour exactly matched his Cambridge blue tie  (the bridesmaid dress fabric was bought at the same time). The fabric sewed beautifully.

The back of the waistcoat was a surprise for the wedding guests - it was silk printed with a slightly reduced version of our family tartan. The silk was rather slippery and difficult to get the checks to stay square and lined up properly - I got help from David. I had never made a waistcoat but enjoyed this and it looked good.

A has worn it since and has further plans for it in 2017.

I'd certainly make another waistcoat.
Blog post here

4

Shorts/culottes for Joanne - times 2

At Joanne's request, I hacked her favourite pair of shorts (she calls them shorts, I thought of them as culottes but others on PR didn't agree and shorts they were!) for her birthday.

First toile after tracing 

Working toile - I needed to work out the various factors

I used double georgette for the body of the shorts and the same double georgette for the lining. The lining was bagged at the bottom, with guipure lace inserted between the layers. The shorts had side pockets and the pocket on the left had a concealed zip hidden inside. I was very pleased to master that particular skill as I can see it being very useful in future.

Blog post here and here

I was very pleased with the shorts and posted them off to Joanne - then less than 2 weeks later, PR had its Sewing Bee contest and the task for the first round was to create a pair of shorts! I had to make another pair!

This time, because of time constraints (there was less than a week from announcement to submission), I wasn't able to send off for the same lovely double georgette. I was able to buy georgette locally-ish but it just wasn't the same quality and was more difficult to cut and to sew. Unfortunately, too, the local shop had guipure lace of a different design, but not enough of it, so the second pair had identical lace.

Joanne agreed to model the shorts for the contest (a requirement was that they were photographed on a model) but again, because of time constraints, this wasn't possible and I borrowed a model from my sewing bee! I was surprised to get through to the next round.

I still haven't seen Joanne in either pair! One problem was the shorts were so similar (she did want black!) that she's a little concerned, I believe, that others will think she's wearing the one pair of shorts continuously. But no, she didn't agree with my suggestion of a different colour, or longer etc.

Blog post here and here
PR Sewing Bee entry here

5

Shirt for my older grandson (aged 7)

Last year, I saw a shirt Deepika on Pattern review had made and fell in love with the fabric., which I was able to buy from the US, the only source I could find at the time. I loved the Modern geek fabric. This fitted so beautifully with my grandson's interests, that I bought it and planned to make shirts for him and for hos younger brother. That was supposed to be around Christmas last year but it didn't happen, needless to say.

The the PR sewing for Children contest came up. This time I had a month, as is usual with the contests other than the sewing bee. I made up a toile in age 9 but ended up increasing the real thing to age 10. I haven't done the shirt for his little brother as yet, but hope there will still be enough fabric left.

I made no changes to the pattern (see what I mean - it's so much easier to sew for others - especially children). My grandson likes the shirt and has chosen it to wear on a few occasions. I don't have a great photo of him wearing it. There are a couple of photos but, well, they're not very good.

PR Contest entry here
Blog post here 

6

Okay, I'm cheating - I'm including a garment number 6 in case you don't feel I should have included the bridesmaid dresses (I didn't ever put these on PR)

Garment 5/6 is the most recent skirt I've made for Helen.

It's my most recent blog post.

I like it and would make it again.

I think it is a good practice for the tartan skirt which I will eventually make Helen using our family tartan.

For Christmas, I have a few other garments on the cards. A hacked silk dress for Helen and kimonos for Joanne and Alison. I hope I will get them done but as I draft this doc, they're not even started. I was going to save this post until later, but it's probably better now as we're all busy in the next few weeks.

I've noticed, as I'm sure you will have, too, that all the above are garments for others. I've come to realise that I actually prefer sewing for family than for myself, I think due to fit issues. I do have a few of the things I've made for myself that would be better in the 'disaster, dahling' section. I think the 'misses' section will be next!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hacking RTW for Joanne; culottes

Hacking - clothes not computers. I did get a reply in connection with my previous problem (previous post) and have been advised not to worry, ignore it. It'll go away after a while. Okay. At least,  I'll try.

Joanne loves a particular pair of shorts she has. They look like French knickers but are intended as outerwear. 

I forgot to take a photo of her wearing them!

The fabric is drapey and crepe-like and self-lined. I don't know what it is (the fabric content label is blank I assume due to repeated washings) . It is edged along the bottom of the legs with fairly heavy wide lace, caught between the bottom fabric layers, has a waistband, an in-seam pocket on each side and a side zip closure inside one of the pockets. There are no darts. These shorts are fairly easy fitting. She wears them a LOT. She has tried to buy a replacement pair with no success.

I have repaired them previously. I found it difficult to nicely repair the zip/pocket junction. 

Invisible zipper in inseam pocket
Tearing at bottom. Again. 

This has again come apart. I didn't previously replace the zip,  although it needed replaced,  as I didn't feel up to that task (also I would only have had them for the briefest of time) The crotch seam is also showing signs of the fabric separating and the zip doesn't pull up properly at the top due to distortion and fabric separation.  They are very much at the end of their life now and Joanne asked me if I could make her a similar pair.  

Zip opened. Zip and fabric distortion  clear

We decided to try to make a copy of these. There are different terms in use for this process. Reverse engineering. Hacking. Tracing. Copying.

The zip and pocket area will present me with the biggest challenge in both tracing and in making up.

I know that as these shorts have been well worn, it's likely that the seams will not be as they were.

When I made the hack pattern of my RTW potential MOB dress, I failed to properly true the pattern. I started to make up the dress and it isn't right. I need to go back to the pattern and measure and true up in general. Also,  with it I actually measured the dart pleated areas and reproduced. While these looked good on the patterned fabric of the original, they didn't on the plain fabric of my copy - they just looked as if I had got my measurements wrong as the distance between the middle dart and the dart on each side of the middle were different. That will need to be modified too. I had actually cut out the whole dress and its lining and don't know if I can salvage it. At least the lining is fine,  apart from some inequality in length but I need additional fabric at the bodice sides in the main dress. I'll modify the pattern and recut sometime... 

So with Joanne's shorts I can put some if what I have learned so far into practice, I hope. Joanne was here for the weekend and we traced out the shape of the shorts using pins/awl onto paper.

We had a bit of difficulty with the crotch seam which didn't lie equally on both sides so we lengthened on the basis that it's easier to shorten later than to add in.

We then measured the shorts and the length on the paper to check they were the same.

There were some seam distortions and we smoothed these out.

We added a 1. 5 seam allowance to all seams.

I cut out the pattern in calico to test for fit. No waistband,  zip or pockets.

Joanne wanted the shorts (I might call them culottes) to sit below the natural waist, as did the originals. Indeed she wanted an identical clone.

Joanne tried on the toile and was overall very happy with the fit. This was with the lengthened back crotch. 

Tried on inside out. Back higher than front. 

I later clipped the crotch seam - not done here- and that helped the way they lie. 

I thought the back was a little tight but J didn't want it changed

They were a bit too high at the back (?because I had modified the crotch seam) but okay at the front

We made the necessary adjustments to the paper pattern. I trimmed off at the top of the back seam tapering out to the side seams. I made sure all the seams were trued.

I thought the shorts were a little tight at the back but Joanne didn't want them any looser. I removed a touch at the waistline at the front crotch seam where they were a little loose.

Then I asked Joanne to draw out the pocket shape she wanted and I drew out a waistband. I've drawn patterns for both. I discussed with Joanne the various waistbands possible but we concluded I'd try to do it as close to the original as possible - invisible zip going right up through waistband. This was the zip treatment in her bridesmaid dress but future alteration are more difficult.

I have lots of books but one of the disadvantages of books is that when you can't remember what book has what you want, it's very difficult to find it. I wanted a method for sewing an invisible zip inside a pocket. I know I had one but could I find it! I used the internet and quickly found a good tutorial from the dot to dot studio link http://www.dottodotstudio.co.uk/tutorial-adding-pockets-into-a-side-seam-with-concealed-zip/ (sorry I tried to leave a message unsuccessfully). I've read it through a couple of times and looked at all the photos. I think I'm ready to give it a go.

So now I needed to find some suitable fabric. I have some black single crepe but is too thick as the fabric is doubled. I wondered if it needed to be doubled? The fabric isn't underlined as such as the pockets sit between the front fabric layers - but they are joined at the bottom as lace is inserted between the fabric layers. I thought I might use a lighter weight fabric such as cotton batiste which would be cooler. Joanne knows I might have to make some changes for this first version - she plans many more!

I asked advice at my sewing class.  Dan thinks the closest fabric type is georgette. We decided the single crepe wouldn't work doubled and was a little too transparent to be single. She advised me on likely construction order and picked up that I had drafted my waistband incorrectly so I redid that.

When I got home I ordered some double georgette fabric and some guipure lace trim from Minerva. That has arrived and I've pre-washed the fabric and lace trim. The fabric looks pretty good but seems slightly crisper than the original - but that's been washed over and over again.

The lace against a double layer of fabric

I can't start the shorts just yet as I'm away for a few days on golf duty (not playing) but hope to get them done, when I get back, for Joanne's birthday which is in August.

She'd initially asked me to make her a kimono like I made for Helen (she decided that as I was making the shorts no to the kimono but I'll do later)

Longer than original pattern

Joanne likes this fabric. She'd also like a big,  bold but not necessarily colourful fabric

 I'm happy to do this;  it's a simple make.  More difficult will be finding suitable fabric. The  local choices are far from inspiring so I’ll have to look further afield. A bold pattern. Cotton? Joanne and I had a look online but didn't see anything suitable so I'm putting this off until after my next trip to London. Possibly the Knitting and Stitching Show in September (that's where Helen got her kimono fabric) - I'm not sure yet as I prefer the Harrogate show in November. Joanne would come with me.

My older grandson’s birthday is the day before Joanne's and I hope to make him a shirt (which I’d enter into the PR contest ) but I need to get some sizes first. 

I'm doing view C shown here. 

I do have the fabric which I bought last year but didn't get around to making up. I bought a pattern, burda 9419, last week, see above. I've made a shirt before - for my college course - and Rory says that one was absolutely fine and so I'll have no problem doing a shirt for J. Hopefully. Note that one didn't have nice seam finishes, just overlocked edges.  I've never done a proper shirt with good finish.

He's visiting next weekend and I will have a toile done. Nothing fancy,  just reached together to check for chest size, neck and length. I'm making age 9.  He'll be 7 but is very tall. My husband thinks the size looks good but the size 8 may be better. I don't have recent measurements and he and his brother have shot up each time we see them.

Toile started. 

The making up instructions don't talk about the types of seam finishing required. I'm thinking that shirts usually have fell seams? This is a burda pattern and looking through the instructions, I'm a bit confused though hopefully as I start to construct each stage it will be clearer.

I found out what the syllabus is for our level 3 class in September. Exciting!  I'm looking forward to it. This won't be through the college as the college isn't running a level 3 course;  Rory will be running this from her studio, with Dan's help. It won't be a certificated course with lots of irrelevant (to us) content,  just the practical techniques, as all of us on the course last year would have preferred.

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