Stitch and bitch thread #2. Sewing aficionados gather here!

[IDontMindMarmite]

The previous thread is coming up to capacity and as ever your wisdom, screw ups and accomplishments are appreciated!

I think I’ve found my pattern for a floaty summer dress
peppermintmag.com/sewing-school/bardondress/

It’s going to need a few hacks. Only one tier as I remain rubbish at gathering and I’m thinking about a v neck. Possibly a few pin tucks.

@StatisticallyChallenged snap then! I can't wait to get sewing both. Any tips? I agree stock levels at TFG were a bit low but what they do have is still beautiful. The colours are so clever and nuanced and I love the relative absence of overpriced cutesy Jersey that even my toddler would turn her nose up at.

@Jins that's lovely. And would be amazing with pintucks. I want to sew the ByHandLondon Tamzin dress with pintucks this spring.

Tbh the angora was pretty easy to sew with, it's a bit slippy and very stretchy but clips worked well.

They do have a great range- I'm pretty sure it is Brexit, I had to hunt just to get black CL! But the nuance is great, I have loads of their shades on my shelves.

As I'm sewing it just now here's alpine fleece - both sides shown

That looks cosy @StatisticallyChallenged.
I'm tacking together the pieces for a hat. The brim will need topstitching and I want to be able to do all the machining in one go, because I it's fiddly and if I don't get it done I'll just keep on putting it off to do simpler things!
At the moment I seem to be awash with half finished projects

@Bogoroditse the Tamzin dress can take as many pin tucks as you can throw at it I think. I love pin tucks. I have a much loved summer top that I’ve kept in the hope of replicating one day.

Today will be tidying up the workspace and hopefully I’ll find a suitable piece to get the Bardon bodice cut out. Reviews seem to imply it runs larger and some have sized down. Finished measurements put me squarely between sizes so realistically I do need to do a toile

@IDontMindMarmite Re. the doomed top, the shoulders and neckline were too big, both in width and amount of spare fabric around the front. I tried to bodge it by pinching the shoulders to raise it all and pull it in, as I didn’t want to have to take the neckpiece off. That didn’t work so I tried a couple more things, the last being to actually cut through the neckpiece so I could open up all the shoulders. Then when I re-sewed it the sleeves were all wrong and somehow there were pulls in the back panel. It’s a lovely cushion!

It sounds like a nightmare!

Hey everyone, are these markings on the bodice pattern notches?

Indeed they are.

Thank you. It's annoying, all guides on the internet tell me that notches are usually indicated as little triangles.

On standard tissue patterns they are, on anything else all bets are off.

Yeah, they're only triangles on big 4 patterns. At least it sticks with the convention of 2 notches for the back of the armhole, 1 for the front. Saves a lot of headaches.

Not enjoying this French terry much. Firstly, I expected "printed on a black ground to signify black fabric, not white, so it looks awful stretched. It's also getting dots along the seams where the white fabric is showing through. It was a pig to cut, too, as the pattern wasn't quite true along a section of it.

So I think I'm going to save labour and just press the seams open, even though I know that will annoy me when they roll up. It'll get worn around the house.

@PickAChew

Yeah, they're only triangles on big 4 patterns. At least it sticks with the convention of 2 notches for the back of the armhole, 1 for the front. Saves a lot of headaches.

Not enjoying this French terry much. Firstly, I expected "printed on a black ground to signify black fabric, not white, so it looks awful stretched. It's also getting dots along the seams where the white fabric is showing through. It was a pig to cut, too, as the pattern wasn't quite true along a section of it.

So I think I'm going to save labour and just press the seams open, even though I know that will annoy me when they roll up. It'll get worn around the house.

The white base fabric is super common, most of the printed terry and cotton jersey seem like that. Do you have a jersey/ballpoint needle? That helps a lot. As long as you don't have a lot of negative ease then the white when stretched seems to be ok when it's on ime.

Not true patterns are a monumental pain in the ass. Had that so many times, worst was with expensive Voyage curtain fabric!

Oh and a good steam can help with the white dots too.

Yeah, it's a sweatshirt with a good 4"of positive ease around the bust. I also had to be careful about the placement of the white flowers :o

I'm using a ballpoint needle at the smaller end of the recommended size to minimise the holes and hopefully the steam will reduce them.

And, yes, even the eye wateringly expensive "art gallery" single Jersey is printed on white and that is annoying since you often want single Jersey with stretch for something that is much closer fitting.

I have some see you at six french terry that is black all the way through but it's not quite big enough for a long sleeved top, so I shall have to be creative with it.

Toile complete and the smaller size will be fine which makes fabric juggling a tiny bit easier. I may lift the darts a tiny bit and I may lengthen the bodice a little as well.

I made my toile out of some luminous lilac fabric that came in my mystery box. I thought initially it was some kind of woven polyester but I’m now convinced it’s cotton lawn. It has flaws throughout and the colour makes me look ill but it’s found a niche

Just wondering whether anyone here has used cashmerette patterns. I wouldn’t say I’m over enamoured with the style of the dresses, but as a relative beginner I’m wondering if they are a good place to start and would help me learn how to make adjustments re large bust and grading between sizes for larger waist etc. They seem to offer a lot of support on their website, but I’m hesitant 🤷🏻‍♀️I’d be really grateful for your opinions! 😀

@UtterPiffle I'm interested too, having breastfed 4 babies I don't fit the standard cup size and everything isn't quite where it used to be!! When I've sewed other patterns that distinguish cup size it has been a dream not to have to do FBA and shuffle everything around. I have sewed the Untitled Thoughts Mathilde dress a few times and that has different cup sizes which fit without adjustment, miraculous! I'm interested in the Cashmerette Upton dress just because of the squillion variations you can make from the one pattern. What do you have your eye on?

I haven't although also think the Upton has potential - it's the sort of dress that could look drastically different depending on fabric choice.

I was think about the Upton, but not really sure. I don’t think I suit most styles of dress and really struggle to get anything to fit off the peg. I was attracted to the Upton because of the many variations, but I’m not sure about either of the two skirt options. I really like the look of the Princess seams version. I was also looking at the Appleton dress this evening, Usually wrap dresses are just too gapey at the bust for me. I wondered if anyone had actually made any of the cashmerette patterns up and how they’d found them. Are the alterations for bust etc as easily done as they claim? @Bogoroditse I’m going to have a look at the Untitled Thoughts Mathilde dress now, and snap to the breastfeeding 4 babies, although mine were many moons ago now!🤣😂

There's a sew along here but I think you just cut it out differently and sew an extra dart.

There's a couple of cashmerette patterns that have caught my attention but I'm about a inch under their size range. They're working on smaller sizes but keeping the curves and I'm looking forward to that. Even at a 32GG I'm only a dressmakers C in most of my bras but that's enough to make some patterns sit so badly.

Itchtostitch and charm patterns have cup sizes on some. The person who designs for charm also has a patreon (subscription) which seems to get a new pattern about once a month. I signed up a couple of weeks ago as you can access the previous ones and there were a couple I fancied so it was worth subscribing for a month to get it. Worked out well as the next one for the website was announced days later and subscribers will get it free so result for me as I'd have bought it at 3× the price