Stitch and bitch thread #3 Sewing is harder than it seams

[NutellaEllaElla]

And i'm very glad to have you clever sewists to selvedge what's left of my dignity .

Ulysses your dress is beautiful.

Gorgeous dress, @Ulysses.

Been on a fabric and pattern buying splurge, this week. Took the 4 hour round trip on the bus to the good fabric shop and scored some lovely cotton lycra for the trousers in the current burda mag, some double gauze, which I'm turning into a summery Fielder top and a couple of top patterns. I've ordered chambray for both of the tops, one a light cotton and the other one a cotton/hemp blend.

I'm joining in, I've recently been reunited with my sewing machine after it spent two years in storage and I've been inspired by the sewing bee too. Bought Megan Nielsen's Ash jeans pattern as I'm sick of trying to find jeans that are long enough (am a 34" inside leg) and the colour/thickness I want. Happily my local fabric shop has the perfect denim in so I'm doing a test run with my machine and then I'll do a toile to make sure the fit is right, given the denim is £15/metre!

Welcome welcome @dubyalass!

Luckily for me the weather forecast for Sunday is stormy so I might get relief from garden landscaping work and have time to sew instead!

Thank you! I've been scribbling down the tips on people to follow and fabric shop recommendations but I already have a mountain of inherited fabric to get through! Also pondering an overlocker.

Ooh I'm jumping on the thread! Nice to meet you, I've been making a very easy skirt with a waistband. Measured my waist and hips. Made waistband.
Cannot get waistband over giant arse so I just turned the top of the skirt into the casing for the elastic.

Does anyone else know how to alter patterns so they fit someone properly, stupidly, hourglass? Or know of a YouTube video that explains how?

Welcome @BishBashBoshBush as well! I wish I knew the answer to your question as I have similar. So far I have just been blending between sizes from the pattern but can imagine running into similar difficulties as you . Generally I recommend looking at the Made to Sew YouTube channel. YouTube generally has been a godsend. I also found local sewing enthusiasts on Facebook groups related to seeing who so generously have offered their knowledge and experience.

More mending. 3 tops DS chewed the sleeves of, my tops keep shedding buttons, and DD shorts I didn't stitch properly 🤦.
Going to cut out two more pairs of extra long shorts for DS next and hide his joggers.

@BishBashBoshBush the curvy sewing collective is a great resource to start with for fit issues curvysewingcollective.com/curvy-tutorials/

Great dress @Ulysses. I have that fabric as well. I bought it a while ago with no plan in mind but I’m now thinking dress. Something like the Orla but without a zip. Possibly a Lyric.

I’m going to go through my Facebook marketplace box of 80s patterns today. If I remember the 80s (and I do) it wasn’t all about rara skirts and there could be some adaptable patterns in there

Oh thank you! Will check it out

Is the Lyric a Love Notions pattern @Jins, so the button up tea dress. It's really lovely. I was going to get the Shelby dress by True Bias which is very similar but I am tempted by all the sleeve variations you get with that one.

The blue and white viscose fabric would work really well with it. The Jenna cost only £7.50 to make plus pattern and thread which I had anyway. - a real bargain as no zip.

I am going to focus on repairing a couple of Olive jumpsuits by Untitled Thoughts. Both are made in viscose and both have badly frayed at the shoulder straps. Unfortunately they have a lined bodice which I've overlocked so will have a job of unpicking that. They really are comfy to wear though so I'm hoping to fix them and get use out of them.

Overlockers are great @dubyalass, they are so speedy and make a great job of finishing things. Not so great for unpicking but you live and learn!

Hello to the newcomers too .

The lyric is indeed a love notions pattern @Ulysses. I really like their patterns for me as they don’t need a lot of tweaking to improve fit. Getting the free laundry day tee pattern has cost me a lot of money 😂

Having said that I have picked most of them up as feature Friday offers for $5 but even at full price they are worth it for all the options they offer.

I have an embarrassing amount of viscose dress lengths so it’s time to use some up

I've just subscribed, see if I can grab a bargain myself

I’m waiting for the melody dolman, the lyric dress and the ballad blouse. 😂

I absolutely love the rhapsody blouse although I’ve made a mess of the little v on my most recent version. Striped viscose refused to play ball. I’ve made a sleeveless cadence top and I’ll be making a few more of them

I managed to grab a bit of time to sew the side seams up on my dogs dinner dress. Now just fiddling about with the straps. I also finished my shift dress toile. I nipped in the waist and it still guess on over my head which is great. I've never transferred markings from a toile back to the main pattern before, do I just put it on top and draw round it? Sounds like such a silly question

Goes on

I usually measure from the existing seam line to the new seam line and redraw the pattern. If the alterations you made are reasonably straightforward then drawing round it may work. Make sure to include seam allowance

I don't think think this will apply, but make sure you adjust any facings if needed. I've lengthened bodices and forgotten to do the same the same for the facings/interfaced pieces too until I've cut them out .

Good advice, thank you!

Hello wise seamstresses. I am trying to make sense of this instruction. I've sewn on the facing at the top of the dress, understitched and am wondering why it wants me to baste the facing at the top but doesn't tell me to subsequently remove the baste stitch. What do you think?

Aren’t the basting stitches to hold it in place while you hand stitch the facing to the relevant vertical seam allowances - 3rd picture. Once that’s done you’ll be able to remove them. I’d say you need to baste the bottom of the facing rather than the top though.

Sorry if I’ve missed the point!

That would make more sense. I should finish this one tomorrow! I've very gingerly cut out my next dress - is anyone else terrified of cutting fabric? Everything else can be undone, unpicked, whatever. Not cutting out though.

Gah problem. The top of the dress is square across the neck and is gaping at the front and back a bit. I think I need to take it in at the sides, just at the top. Thing is, it is really quite bulky now being faced denim. What would you do?

I'm going to take in the side seams. Answered my own question