Burda 7576 - Jacket, muslin

I've encountered a problem with the dress.  It's now on hold until more material arrives in the post!  I seem to have miss-calculated a pattern alteration and cut the skirt front piece too small, disaster!  However, crisis was averted as luckily the fabric store had some left - 75cm left to be precise, but I only need 64cms luckily!

And so I've moved onto my next project in the meantime - the suit jacket to match the skirt previously made.  I'm using a Burda pattern for the first time - Burda 7576:

I want this to be a proper tailored jacket, and so am using a book to help me - Tailoring, a step by step guide to creating beautiful customised garments.  I'm going to use their machine method which combines many of the hand tailoring techniques with the sewing machine to make it faster.

Today I made the muslin.  Following the book, I cut the front, side, back, under collar and sleeve pieces only and constructed it.  I'm pretty happy so far; sizing is good (for once), darts and waist line in right place and lapel seems to sit well. 

I need to make 2 adjustments only - first is to mark on the under collar roll line (Burda seem to have omitted this from the pattern) and secondly, eliminate the back peplum gathering and replace it with a pleat, which I think looks less homemade, what do you think?

Simplicity 2440 - Part 4 - Bodice Boning

Its been a few weeks since I've posted, and a few weeks since I've even done some sewing.  Oops!  Finishing this dress for Christmas day is going to be a bit touch and go now...

My next step is the bodice boning.  I'm using some thin 7mm wide reinforced flexible plastic boning which is suppose to resist twisting.  I moulded the boning into shape by holding it over the kettle spout as it boiled, this made it pliable for a few seconds whilst I bent and straighted.   Shaping the boning will help with the fit and look of the bodice; you can see below, the one on the right is as sold and doesn't sit nicely in the bodice channels when worn.

Next I need to cut out the taffeta, the good fabric, a step I am quite nervous about this time, cross fingers!

Simplicity 2440 - Part 3 - Fitting woes

Lucky I made a muslin first.  This is a bizarre fit for me - strangely this pattern had a LOT of gaping around the neckline.  It comes with different cup sizes - B, C & D - so yes, us small busted women have been forgotten - again!  Even my google search on how to alter the bust area resulted in FBA help rather than SBA help!  Sigh.  In the end, to alter the cup size on the princess seam, I drew a new line on the front side pattern piece about 1/4 inch in and graduated it back out to the usual line once under the bust.  No idea if this is the right thing to do...

The pattern ease is once again way too large - who wants 4 inches of ease on a spaghetti strapped dress?! I cut a size 10 and not the guideline's 14! 

And after all this, as you can see, a good 2 inches needs to come out of the top.  Cutting a size 6 out in the top half of the bodice should sort the 2 inches. 



I did add 3 inches to the bodice length, but after fitting this on, I'm going to reduce that by 1 inch as it's a little long and the boning may not sit nicely when I'm sat down.  Taking all my alterations into account, I'm going to cut out my lining next...

Simplicity 2440 - Part 2 - The Fabric

I have been umming and ahhing over this pattern for a few weeks now; I bought it, but then decided perhaps it wasn't for me.  And let's face it, even if I made this dress an exact replica of Danniis, I still wouldn't look like Dannii in it!  But I've finally decided I'm going to make it, just in a more 'Mrs C' style type of way.

I've chosen this pretty taffeta fabric whilst up in Norfolk this weekend.  You can see its pretty print in pink yellow and black.

I'm going to adjust the pattern to have a side zipper rather than a back one - most of my shop bought dresses have side zips and this will keep the fabric print unbroken in the back.  My zipper skills aren't quite mastered yet either, so this is probably best as it will be more hidden under the arm. 

Next step is the muslin....

Butterick B5249

For something nice and quick to make whilst pondering on my dress alterations, I chose skirt B in this Butterick pattern.

The material used was a polyester wool mix in a tiny checkered multi brown pattern.

I used my new toy - a Juki MO 644D over locker for the edging, pocket seams and waistband seam - I discovered that I could over lock the seam, then under stitch using the sewing machine, it was a very neat and compact finish. 

I made 2 small pattern alterations - I took the waistband down by 1.5 inches so that it sat more on my hips which I prefer, and I also lined the skirt.  All up, this took me about 8 hours, which for me is pretty good (I'm not the fastest sewer!).  I like the pocket pleat detail as it's something different for a work skirt, and also the edge finishes from my over locker was pretty satisfying too. 

Perfect for the office, and today I bought more of that fabric to make a matching jacket in this Burda pattern:

Simplicity 2648 version 2

I'm sewing this 2648 pattern again, this time though I'm making view A with the sleeves, but without the belt.  I'm also going to line it so that I can wear it to work over winter.  The material is a polyester fabric that's really smooth and silky.  This is the pattern up close:

And the dress so far:

Yes, all just a bit matronly really, not good.  The neckline is much higher than I thought it would be, so before I progress anymore I've got to figure out how I can make the scoop bigger and then make new facing pattern pieces to match.   Stay tuned.....

Simplicity 2440 - Part 1 - The thought

I'm going to make myself a Christmas party dress.  I haven't actually got a party to go to yet, but I'm sure it'll happen! 

I was watching x-factor last weekend (don't we all?) and the lovely Dannii wore one of her own designs from Project D - jingle dress - it was just amazing. 

I'm thinking I could make this with Simplicity's 2440, view D, with some adaptations to get the ruffles on the skirt, what do you think?

Jalie 3024

I'd never heard of Jalie patterns before coming across them in Pattern Review.  I checked out their website and found this dress pattern:

I like that necklace as well...

This will be the first time I've made something in a knit fabric.  The pattern's suggested fabric was a 40% stretch across the grain AND lengthwise.  Yes, the pattern actually put the word 'and' in capitals.  So it must be important right?  I set off searching all my fav online fabric stores, but none of them had this type of stretch description - not a good start.  Gorgeous Fabrics website had some great knit prints though, so I emailed and asked their advice; within 5 minutes I had a reply (very impressed) that went:

"I don't know why Jalie puts 4 way on all their patterns. You need 4 way stretch for leggings and leotards, but not for that dress. You only need stretch in the cross-wise direction to go around the body."

Not that important after all then!

Buying from GF unfortunately didn't work for me with the expensive postage costs from the US, but I found some lovely fabric on The Remnant House website, and on sale too.  We all love a bargain! 

This fabric is a single knit medium weight jersey.  Laying it out and cutting it was really difficult - it probably was not a good idea to use a print for my first foray into knits, but after a while of fiddling and trying to match up the print repeats down the fabric, I was happy enough to lay the pattern pieces on.  I also put sheets of newspaper underneath and pinned that in as well to try and stop the jersey moving when cutting.  That seemed to work pretty well.

This was a really easy pattern to put together taking about 4 hours all up.  Beware though - there is no ease at all.  Mine only just fits! 

Knitting & Stitching Show London 2010

Today I went to the knitting and stitching show held in London's Alexandra Palace.  It was a big day, really tiring, but enjoyable.  It was predominately knitting and craft related stands, but there was quite a few stands dedicated to dress materials and notions too.    But I can't believe I didn't buy anything!!

There was a lot of space dedicated to displays of all things wool and fabric related.  I loved the hand knitting area, this stuff is really impressive:

I also did a 2 hour workshop to learn a technique for pattern making.  It's based on building the pattern on the dress form so as to be creative with seam placement and design.  The technique consists of wrapping tape around paper on the form, then drawing the design onto it.  Once the paper is cut off the form, it's flattened out in order to trace it out to make a pattern piece. 

I think my design needs a little (well okay, a lot!) of work, but this really is a great concept and it would be brilliant to actually use it and make something by it one day.

McCall's M5759

This McCall's coat should help to see me through the chilly autumn weather.  I've made it in a wool mix, so it may even see through some of the winter...

No major dramas with making this jacket.  The instructions where quite good and the pictures helped out when the words got a bit brief in sections.  I made a size 12, which was probably one size too big.  The shoulders were also a really wide fit and I had to bring in each one an inch.

I really like the funky button hole placement on this pattern - they sit within the seams so it looks clean.  However the bottom front of this jacket is too high for my liking - the cross over sits around belly button height, so it can really only be worn with high waisted skirts.  If I made it again, I would take some of the curve out which should bring it down.  I also left the pockets off as they just didn't sit right.

Bring on the chill!