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 .

No suggestions from me I'm afraid but my DH can never find shorts the right length that fit him properly etc so I'm interested.

I’ve bought it. The line drawings are so close to his favourites and I can use them to make amendments. I’ll have to check my stash again though as I’m not sure I have anything suitable

My machine has been having a few issues with the main thread getting caught on the outside of the bobbin housing. It seems to resolve itself if I take the thread out completely and then redo it, but it needs a service and a blooming good clean.

I'm now sewing a Simplicity top (8601) but on trying it on before I put the sleeves in, it seems huge. I might have to grade it slightly and recut the sleeve holes a bit closer in. Annoying, because I went with my measurements on the packet and was a bit that it put me in an 18 when I am usually a 14-16 top. Anyway, it was a toile in some old fabric so no biggie. Really nice pattern though.

I have the opposite problem.

I measured DH accurately and checked against body and finished measurements. He doesn’t carry any weight but he’s tall (6’4) and in shop bought he’s in a L, occasionally an XL. So he had a right strop when he was on the XL/2XL boundary. Welcome to my world 😂. As the XL is designed for 5’9 and the XXL for 6’2 I thought we’d start bigger and take in if needed. Toile complete and they are rather too snug. It’s a 3/8 seam allowance so there isn’t much room for manoeuvre.

That’ll be me printing out another 35 pages tomorrow then 🙈

I've made my toile of the Lyric dress and still make bias binding for the neckline and do the buttons - 18 it says!.

I've made a few immediate alterations, I lowered the neckline by 1cm and used a 5/8" seam allowance rather than than 3/8" given. There's a lot of ease in the pattern and I wanted the bodice to be bit more fitted.

I'll see how it comes together when I get all those buttons on.

For my final garment I want to make the bodice and a couple of cms longer and add a few inches to the skirt so it's more midi length. At the moment it's falling to my knees.

I'm going to make the flutter sleeves a bit longer so they make more of a a statement and I would never normally sacrifice pockets but the one in the pattern are so teeny I doubt if they could hold my phone. I could make them larger but it adds unwelcome bulk to the dress which is rather delicate.

All in all I'm really pleased with it. The instructions are terrific and I really must remember to sew all my sleeves flat as it made it so easy.

That's a toile??!! It looks 100% wearable.

I'm close to completing the denim over the head dress. It is looking baggy at the high back though. Is that inevitable? It's annoying and I think too late to fix.

Often when I make dresses I need to pull the centre back seam in a bit as I get a gapey bit at the back, particularly with a zip. To get around this I simply adjust the placement of the zip but this tutorial shows how to do it properly. If it's one that you need room to pull over your head that's not going to work obviously but it shows how how to reduce the bodice pieces.

I rarely make a toile for anything and I just so happened to buy the wrong fabric which was suitable for this dress. It's not really my colour/print but now that I'm making it up I think it will be nice for the autumn when I can wear it with thick tights and ankle boots.

I noticed that the pattern says it needs 2yds of bias binding but I've measured the neckline and it's only 35cms long so I'm going to work with that in the meantime.

Having to take a break from attaching bias binding. I don't think I've done a neckline before and it's testing my patience. Also pattern says I've to staystitch the neckline and I've assumed this to be less than the 3/8" given for the pattern throughout but the allowance for the binding is only 1/4", so when I turn it over the staystitching can be seen. The pattern actually does state to staystitch it at 1/4" so i've not read it properly. The fabrics that way you can see where's stitches have been unpicked so don't want to risk that.

@Jins, you've been warned!

Thanks for the warning! I’m a dab hand at bias binding now - love notions use it in a lot of their patterns. The worst was the rhapsody blouse but it does look lovely when done.

Day off sewing today. Everything is going wrong. I’ll put a lyric bodice together if I find some scraps because I think it’s going to be too short and possibly too tight at the area nominally called my waist

It was grateful for the You Tube link they provided. I hadn’t got the configuration of the placket quite correct.

I’ve unpicked it now and it seems okay. I’m hoping to get it finished it today but only have 10 suitable buttons to hand. Hopefully it’s enough to assess the fit is correct before I work on my next one.

I found the waistline quite high but I often do with patterns and usually end up lengthening the bodice if I think the style needs it.

Where will you lengthen the bodice? I’m pretty sure I’m going to need another couple of cm

It’s awful. Awful I tell you. Too tight on the waist, gaping round the shoulder, too wide at the side seams yet wrinkled across the bust. The bodice is way too short.

I’m ditching at this stage. Yours looks lovely @Ulysses. I have lyric envy

Can you use a different combination of size and cups for a better fit? It'd be an awful shame to give up on it.

I'm not having a great time with the neckline. When I made the first unsuccessful version I've trimmed the placket down so much that there's nothing to sew into this time.

I'm going to give it up on it as there's so many distractions around today. My concentrations going to pot so it's not the best time to figure how to fix it.

I was on a roll yesterday but this has tested me big time. Hopefully I'll learn from my mistakes when I do it properly.

I’m looking at a few options but I’ve fallen out of love with the whole idea of a fitted waist when I don’t have a waist. First of all I’m going to lengthen the bodice to high hip, miss the waist darts out completely and go with the gathered skirt. Hopefully that will disguise the pot belly. It won’t be the dress I liked but it will be a V necked dress I’ll wear.

It’s been a bit frustrating having DHs shorts and now the Lyric needing so much work. Especially after the poppy pants were perfect without any adjustments. It’s still better than buying clothes that don’t fit

@Ulysses love that Lyric dress. Sorry you are having problems with yours @Jins.

I finished my Closet Core Charlie Caftan - it was a rush job to get it done before I go away on Friday. The central panel was a bugger to sew but I’m past caring now. It’s very yellow!

so I've printed dd's dress, stuck it all together, cut it out, making adjustments for her requirements. (different pockets, V neck too low etc)

Now I've cut the fabric.

I liek the printed PDF files, but blimey charlie it has taken ages to get to fabric cutting point!

It will be a slow sew, fitting it in where I can. I work Mon-Fri on my table which I sew on, so I have to pack away...

Lovely Kaftan, i'm a big fan of yellow.

My heart goes out to Jins. It can be really demoralising can't it!

I've 'finished' a denim dress but i'm not sure that i'm happy with the fit. It's a slip on dress but perhaps because of this, it's kind of baggy and not very flattering. Maybe I just used the wrong pattern but i'm wondering about improving the fit. I would need to add a zip to get into it, do you nip in the waist at the side seams? (no princess seams, just a front panel and similar back effectively).

That's cracking @Wildernesstips, I love everything about it.

I hope your plan works out for Jins. Those waist dart are very long. I can't figure how to extend the bodice because of the way they are. I noticed that there are no lines to shorten or length so I'm not sure where the best place to extend it. I might forgo that part now that I've tried it on. It could do with an extra cm but that's less than I normally extend by so the weight of the skirt is perhaps helping with that.

Bias binding could do with sitting a bit flatter now that I've finally stitched it on. I should have eased it a bit better around the curves.

The neckline and button band of the bodice and skirt is top stitched in one go and I ended up switching to my walking foot as the fabric was beginning to warp a bit, so that helped a lot.

@Jins

I have the opposite problem.

I measured DH accurately and checked against body and finished measurements. He doesn’t carry any weight but he’s tall (6’4) and in shop bought he’s in a L, occasionally an XL. So he had a right strop when he was on the XL/2XL boundary. Welcome to my world 😂. As the XL is designed for 5’9 and the XXL for 6’2 I thought we’d start bigger and take in if needed. Toile complete and they are rather too snug. It’s a 3/8 seam allowance so there isn’t much room for manoeuvre.

That’ll be me printing out another 35 pages tomorrow then 🙈

Noooooo! So annoying. I'm going to baste the sleeves in and see what it looks like but I think it is likely to be too wide under the arms.

I’ve ditched the lyric and DHs shorts for now as I can’t face printing off and sticking together all the pattern pieces in different sizes. The lyric especially is going to need a lot of work.

So I’m now planning a ‘palate cleanser’. It’s either another Laundry Day Tee in some jazzy viscose spandex that’s been hanging around for a while. Or it’s another pair of poppy pants in black linen. I’m leaning towards the poppy pants as I really need a pair of semi smart lightweight trousers.

I still haven’t found a match for my 1.3m of vibrant viscose challis. It feels as if I should be able to get a strappy sundress out of it but I’ve tried the Ogden cami pieces and that won’t work.

Some lovely makes, here.

Meantime I have just spent over an hour carefully attaching and re-stitching the outer waistband on my burda pants until everything lined up right. Then wondered why it all splayed out when I pressed it.

It's upside down, isn't it. I've only got about 3' of this bloody stitch to unpick. Doubled in places where I've fixed wonkiness.

Oh gutted for you Pickachew! I've made some adjustments to my denim dress and am considering putting some darts in the back. It just looks and feels big on me. I don't need all my outfits to be tight or even fitted but I don't want to look drowned in them either

I'm now back where I was around 2:30.

Frustrating. We’ve all been there I guess.

I’ve gone with the practical option and cut out the linen poppy pants

The poppy pants sound a good move, @jins, if only for the linen.