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 .

I finished a summer dress from Burda 6/2020 (pictured). I love the fabric (viscose from Fabricland) which was really cheap and probably a bit too thin. But it’s such a nice cool dress.

Today I cut out a Charlie Caftan (Closet Core Patterns) in some yellow viscose which I need to finish before I go away in a fortnight.

So frustrated for you Jins.

Hey, has anyone made a cocktail dress?

@Wildernesstips I love that fabric. I also love the dress. Wish I could wear something like that.

Well my availability for sewing just increased - both my adult but living at home offspring tested positive so I have 10 days at home with nothing but a significant stash to entertain me.

That's a lovely dress @Wildernesstips. I love the fit of it.

Shame you aren't going to get much wear out of your blouse @Jins and it's really unfortunate your having to self-isolate but hopefully you'll spend your time productively. You seem to have lots of ideas and patterns and fabric to get through!

How's the fly zip going @PickAChew, not something I've done.

I've never made a cocktail dress but it sounds fun. Do you have a pattern in mind? Actually the closest thing I've made to evening wear was the Joni dress from the Tilly and the Button stretch book. Mines was a polka dot print and more day wear but I've seen a few versions made in stretch velvet. It's a nice dress for showing off a bit of décolletage.

Thanks @Ulysses. I’m not exactly unhappy about ten days at home. Just hoping they both have a mild dose. Covid took my FIL back in March so we’re all a bit sensitive.

@NutellaEllaElla I’ve had the Loretta wiggle dress in my downloads forever. Is this the sort of thing you mean?
www.lovesewingmag.co.uk/Loretta-wiggle-dress

I have sewn cocktail dresses in the past and my own wedding dress. The difficulties lay with the fabric. My wedding dress was shantung silk with a lace overlaid bodice and unpicking showed so I ended up chalking the seam lines

Not had chance to attempt it, yet, @Ulysses. Ds2 has had a very screechy, anxious, weekend and my back is really sore, so not good conditions for concentrating on anything new.

I'm really sorry to hear about your FIL @Jins. It does rather take the shine off what could be a rather nice rest at home. That's a lovely pattern, i've saved it for another time and with the right fabric it could be a good option.
That Joni dress is super cute as well @Ulysses.
I'm not completely sure what i'm thinking, but am having a party in a couple of months and if I were aiming rather high , i'd say that I like Bond girl dresses like this one and I think that this might be the pattern for it although I think I wouldn't do it full length and I don't know what I would do about boobs. I dunno, it might be too ambitious. I just hate clothes shopping...

Thanks @NutellaEllaElla. The offspring are doing ok but the timetable of their grandfather’s illness is in their minds. So far DH and I are testing negative - vaccine must be doing what it’s supposed to do - but it’s early days.

So yesterday I fiddled with the blouse a bit and it’s now hanging ready for buttonholes and hem. The stripes are a mess on the placket but no worse than shop bought. DH said it looked good on me so maybe I’m being over critical.

I moved on to my toile for the poppy pants using some patterned polycotton that seems to shed creases easily. I’m making the Capri length and hoping for a wearable garment. I’m very impressed with the instructions - might have to check out the rest of the Sinclair patterns. Today I’ll concentrate on fitting and I don’t think I’ll need to make too many alterations.

Next up has to be the Lyric dress but I’ve just received my last Love Sewing and both patterns have gone onto the to do pile.

DH

Sorry you've been through the mill like that @Jins. Here's hoping for an uneventful few days.

No sewing for me other than making up a knitted cardigan which is proving torturous. I can't wait to get it off my plate so I can get onto dressmaking.

I really need to print out the Lyric dress while I wait on my fabric. The kids are on school holidays now so it's difficult to carve out time now that routines have gone out of the window. I hope you get some time for yourself @PickAChew.

That dress has the Wow! factor @NutellaEllaElla. I think with evening wear it's the fabric choices that make all the difference and they seem to be more slippery or difficult to handle, which is perhaps why I've avoided it.

Hi can I join in to ask a question?

I have a dress pattern for a dress for dd (aged 13) It is a osrt of slouchy style, straight, with a waist tie is wanted.

It is an American pattern downloaded.
She is size 0 on bust, size 4 on waist and size 6 on hips.

Can I just seamlessly (see what I did there) cut the pattern out from the 0 line at the top to the 6 line at the hips? Will it look odd?

If I make it all in size 6 the top half will swamp her.

Thanks

Thanks @Ulysses. We’re making the best of it. DH is catching up with stuff he just hasn’t had time for and I’m nursing via text between bursts of sewing.

So Capri length hopefully wearable muslin is a winner. The Poppy pants pattern lives up to the reviews - I made it exactly as instructions and the fit is great. I usually have to make loads of adjustments to the rise but not this time. I’m going to hold off making the linen version until I’ve worn these a few times.

Today I’ll finish waistband, hem the bottoms, force myself to do the buttonholes on the blouse and print out the lyric.

@steppemum I think you’d get away with that for a style like that. I think for a slouchy style there’s more scope to make adjustments as you go along as well

The shoulders are the bit that you can't adjust later - you can take out/in the waist/hips but if you cut the shoulders too wide you are stuck.
So I would do as you say and then you can take in the waist and hips later if they are ridiculous.

Patterns with a lot of ease can be quite forgiving, steppemum. Take a look at the finished garment measurements (or measure pattern pieces, allowing for seams, if not given. You might find you don't need to taper all the way up to the 6 at the bottom.

Thanks all.
I bought the fabric and pattern before lockdown 1 and still haven't made it. If I don't get a move on she won't want it anymore, and she asked me again last week, so I've been busy printing out the pattern and sellotaping it together.

I finished some jeans last night - Megan Nielsen's Ash jeans - and I'm delighted with them. My machine just about coped with the thickest bits but I'm not sure I could use a heavier denim without doing some serious hammering to flatten the seams!

A really good pattern and she's done a sew-along online that shows exactly what to do at the various points. They fit perfectly.

Finally got a picture of that border print top on.

Oh wow! Stunning projects there @dubyalass and @drspouse. I love that border print and the jeans are amazing.

I’ll not post a picture until we’ve moved on a few pages 😂

I finished the poppy pants and I’m wearing them. I decided to handwash the blouse before doing the buttonholes and that’s now drying. I was a bit worried that the wavy stripes at the placket were potentially more serious than dodgy sewing but all looks ok so far.

It really is lyric dress today although I’ve a hankering to do an overlocker project. Love sewing has a 90s style sundress to download and they recommend using an overlocker for the seams

Thanks! I've got a couple of tops in mind for the weekend. Damn work getting in the way of sewing!

I'm not completely sure what i'm thinking, but am having a party in a couple of months and if I were aiming rather high grin, i'd say that I like Bond girl dresses grin like this one and I think that this might be the pattern for it although I think I wouldn't do it full length and I don't know what I would do about boobs. I dunno, it might be too ambitious. I just hate clothes shopping...

That's what got me into sewing in the first place - I could never get formal /occasion wear to fit me. I'm a petite extreme pear. And back then you couldn't get the petite range in shops you get now. So I started to make my own dresses to go to weddings.

I love that pattern and it would be perfect for the party - plus it's got pockets!!

I'm doing well on my coat. Absolutely flummoxed for ages on how to do a notched collar with a collar stand but a few YouTube vids and lots of thinking I've cracked it. So hopefully by tomorrow I'll have the collar on, shoulder pads in, seam allowances graded and trimmed, front facing basted and be ready for it's first fitting - I know I've to take in the side seams a bit, but wanted to do it in the final stages rather than at pattern stage in case I screwed up.

Thank you for your thoughts and advice ladies. I'm going to be running low on time to make something so i'm going to have to decide on purchasing a dress vs making my own quick smart! And i'm reluctant to budge all the other projects out of the queue, or back at all in case I get to go on the long awaited holiday in September that I planned a few items for.

I'm going on a weekend break from tomorrow and - I must really have got the bug- i'm taking my sewing stuff 😂 😆 I thought screw it, why not? We planned to walk in the mornings and rest in the hotel in the afternoons. Why read when I can sew?? I want to complete my denim dress. I stupidly tried overlocking the seams (lazy) but it looks terrible, didn't work at all, so i'm thinking of ripping it off and doing flat felled seams instead.

Those jeans are impressive @dubyalass, you must be so proud to wear them!

Nice fabric there @drspouse

Great work @dubyalass and @drspouse.

I'm making a start on my Lyric dress. I'm going to toile the bodice first, perhaps make the peplum blouse version. I'm really impressed with the PDF @jins. It's made lighter work of a tedious chore and I like the way you are given the page ranges to print out. I always end up with misaligned pages when it's given as one giant sheet to stick together.

Thanks!

I don't have a printer so I've never attempted a PDF pattern but it seems like a good idea. I tend to trace my paper patterns because I'm usually between sizes and so I need to grade them.

This evening I'm making a start on Simplicity 8601. I need some nice summer weight tops - all of mine are either ancient or the wrong size. Determined to sew my own wardrobe this year; although having started to follow various fabric shops on Insta I feel this could bankrupt me...

I've got a few printed patterns and I've used an A0 printer service but normally I'm PDF all the way as I'm not patient enough to wait on delivery.

I like the idea of projecting directly on to the pattern though I guess it makes it harder for recording adjustments.

I've seen quite a lot of fabric on Etsy that is sold for a bit cheaper than some of the online fabric shops so that's worth a search as well.

@Ulysses I really like the way they set out their pdfs. I also like the way the instructions have clickable links.
I’m impressed with the Sinclair pattern instructions but my heart sank when I had to stick together all the pages. A small misalignment at the start can cause chaos further down.

I stuck my lyric pattern together yesterday as well and I’m hoping to make a start today but I got distracted by a 1.3m length of viscose that I wanted to work with that minute 😂.

Nothing has gone to plan today. The numbering hasn’t printed properly on my lyric so I’ve shelved it for another day.

DH has requested some shorts to replace his favourite pair which aren’t fit for much any more. I’ve found this one which is very similar in style but I’ve never used their patterns before
wardrobebyme.com/products/mens-summer-pants-sewing-pattern

Anyone any views on them? Or suggestions for an alternative free one?