Almost a new year...looking ahead

This is a quirky little post. I'm so busy, getting ready to visit with my children for the holidays. Ashley and Darrin in Ft. Myers. David and DGS in Orlando. Have you ever noticed that an impending trip or visit really makes you stop and think...what will I wear. It's more than that. How will I be perceived. How do I want to be perceived.

This has been a challenging year for me. I didn't feel well for most of it. And I just kept making the same thing...a calico maxi dress that was almost pajamas.











But, and it feels so wonderful, I've gotten myself out of a terrible 9 month funk. I don't say that lightly. I was really struggling with health issues and the ever lurking depression that accompanies the latter. But I stretched (OK, my doctors are incredibly supportive and helpful), and I made some things these last three months that I really enjoy.

 So. Anyway. Surveying my wardrobe ahead of my visit with my kids. The biggest event, frankly, of my year.

Pondering..

This time, I'm meeting the family of my son's fiance. They were engaged last month. I'm thrilled - she's so lovely. They're so happy.

They will have a blended family. And my family expands. Such joy - I'm so fortunate.

Last week I did a bit of closet consideration (like that?) and removed everything that doesn't suit me now that I'm feeling soooo much better. And on Saturday, I'm off to Ft. Myers to spend Christmas with Ashley, Darrin, and those 4 adorable and entertaining kitties.

Then on to Orlando next Tuesday for time with David, Preston, Elizabeth and her children.

I am blessed. Life just keeps placing wonderful people and chances in my way.

I say chances - you know, getting older doesn't mean that life is without opportunity, chance, and fabulous circumstance.







I'm wishing each of you, my treasured friends, the joy of this wonderful season. I'm looking forward to new adventure in the new year. And I hope you are as well.

Best ever - Coco

Vogue 1297 Knit Dress - no-fear sewing...

No fear - I've had this Sandra Betzina pattern for a couple years (I think it was released in 2012), but I just couldn't commit to sewing it. I always liked it, but the pics on the envelope are not especially appealing. I don't care for the solid version, styled with a shirt, and I think the striped version is over-doing the look. I just don't like to feel like a dress is wearing me.

The design reminds me a little bit of the Marcy Tilton French Housedress, because of the drooping sides (the housedress has huge pockets). And also the StyleArc Toni Designer dress that I made recently. Feeling bold, I decided to take the leap and finally sew this one.

It helped that I had 3 yards of lightweight rayon/lycra jersey that I picked up from Fabric Mart's pre-cut sale - it was only $8.20. That's a great price for a knit muslin.

The fun here is in the details. I really like the side flaps!

Of course they fall down, as they should, and look pretty interesting. Coming...

and going!

The dress is really comfortable to wear, but it is surprisingly body-conscious. The weight of the skirt/side panels keeps the bodice close to the body. The pattern has bust darts, not always seen in a pattern for knits, and they really help to maintain the shaping in the bodice.

Some sewing notes:

• I sewed View B in size C (I'm 5'7", 35.5" bust). Betzina's sizing is a little funky - size A to I, aligned to a finished bust of 32" - 54".

• The bust darts are really really long. I shortened them by 1.5".

• And the side panel is huge! And the pattern for the panel is the same for all sizes. It's not proportionate. I was a little shocked - Betzina has such a rep for design, details, and patterns. And this is a high-impact  oversight.
  
  Another surprise - the cutting layout has the panel for View B going across the grain. Which means the stretch for many knits would be vertical, not horizontal. One reviewer mentioned that her panels dropped quite a bit due to the stretch being vertical.
  
  Solution to all of the above: I took 5" out of the center of the panel. The altered pattern fits on the grain with the fabric folded selvedge to selvedge, and the stretch goes the right way, around the body, not up and down. 

• Last change - I left off the pockets, and added long sleeves. I checked the armscye against M6747, and only had to extend the outside shoulder about 1/2". The sleeve from the McCalls pattern was a great fit.

A couple more comments: 

• Betzina mentions that this can be done in a woven fabric, with attention to sizing in the bust. I think View B, sleeveless, would be lovely in a lightweight linen or rayon crepe.

• The instructions are decent, and they include lots of help with stitches, seam and hem finishes, volumes on attachment of the bindings. But they really fall down on the hardest part of the pattern, which is sewing the panels to the center front and back. Three pieces come together in peaked join - all those seam allowances get wonky and in the way of one another. It's difficult to finish the area cleanly. And she takes a pass on how to handle that area of detail...

But back to my dress - I really like it. I wore it out this morning, loved it, and felt pretty in it. Winner. 

Bye for now - Coco

Sewing for gifts - cutest cat houses ever!

Jingle bells!

Deciding what to make for the family this year was hard. They have everything (sound familiar?) so I try to think of the unexpected. Skull-print aprons. Kitty treat mats. Walking Dead PJ bottoms. Camo board pants.

It's challenging. But projects are well underway.

For Ashley and Darrin, proud parents of 4 kitties, I settled on a cat house pattern from SeeKateSew. I found it just cruising DIY cat things on Pinterest.




It's unique, and it's free. But Kate could easily sell this pattern. It's beautifully drafted, and the instructions are great. Here's a pic of her version with personalized fabric:

It doesn't require a lot of materials - but it can be a little pricey to make. Well, compared to a wood crate with a folded towel inside :-)

Materials for 1 cat house:

(I found all my supplies at my local JoAnns on a sale day. They're available online as well. No, JoAnns didn't pay me to say this - I only mention it because it can be hard to source things like foam, online or anywhere else).

• 1 yard shell fabric.
  I used a home-dec fabric, 100% cotton.

• 1 yard lining fabric.
  Mine is cotton/poly broadcloth - it's very smooth.

Note: I laundered both my fabrics before I cut out the pattern. After a little shrinkage, the 1 yard cuts were a little spare - I had to cut 1 back across the grain. It only matters if you're working with a directional print.

• Not on Kate's supplies list: I decided to cover the inside cushion in sherpa fleece, rather than with the shell or lining fabric. 1/2 yard was perfect for 2 cushions.

• 1 yard 1/2″ thick foam.
  Show me the money... Since I was shopping for two houses, I got a 24" x 90" x 1/2" roll of foam, on sale, and with a coupon, about $14. That little bit of leftover foam will be absorbed by a craft project at some point - it's not wasted!

• 1 seat cushion.
  I got a couple of these, on sale for about $3 each.  

My first house, ready for the cushion:

A few notes on construction:

The foam was easy to manage - I drew the pattern on it with a Sharpie and cut it out with my household scissors. 

Kate suggests using a whipstitch to sew the foam pieces together. Worked great. I used No. 12 perle cotton, quilters pins, and a 4" long doll needle:

It looks just like the outline on an embroidered pillow. Cute!

There's no way the foam ears will go all the way up into the points of the fabric ears. Once I had the foam liner inside the shell, I used a little poly-fill to stuff the tips of the ears.

Kate also suggests using a ladder stitch to sew the lining and shell edges together in the oval entryway. I tried it, but switched to a simple small stitch, sewn close to the edge. It adds a little more weight and definition to the edge.

These houses are not little! and are perfect for a little-bit or a full-grown kitty. The entrance is about 8.5" wide and 7.5" tall. The house is 18" tall at the tip of the ear and almost 22" across at the middle. 

Such a fun project. Ciao! Coco

Time for a knit duster ...

Who can resist a fun unstructured duster when the weather turns cool...

Not I! I've spent hours in the past few weeks, just cruising duster patterns and lots of wonderful makes by sewists in the blogosphere.

Irresistible. I especially like the new Berlin Jacket by Tessuti and the Esme Maxi Cardigan by Named Clothing.

But I didn't particularly want to invest in a new pattern. Trawling through my stash, I pulled out an oldie but goodie, the Heading for Adventure coat by Louise Cutting.

I made it in linen way back in 2010, but it was very large on me, even thought I sewed the size Small. And the linen really bugged my skin - I never wore it.




Nonetheless, the design details are so appealing. I love the piecing and topstitching. And Cutting's techniques, which are beautifully articulated in the pattern instructions, are incredible.

 

It was a great starting place. But I wanted to go with the lines of the dusters I mentioned above - a softer neckline, an attached band, and slim-ish sleeves. And I wanted to use a knit fabric - a very lightweight rayon/spandex French terry that I purchased recently from Fabric.com. 

I was impatient to do all the re-drafting at one go, but I decided to be cautious. I actually sewed this in three steps. First, I cut out and sewed the entire coat from the Cutting pattern, using the size XSmall this time. And then I changed it, using the Jalie Cocoon Cardigan to redraw the neckline and draft an attached band, 

and the Grainline Studio Driftless Cardigan to alter the sleeves (I removed almost 6" from the width at the upper arm - the sleeve was voluminous). 

This sounds like a lot of tweaking, but it was not difficult, because the Cutting coat is all right angles. It was easy to lay it out and draw on it with chalk.

Time for pics (this gray is hard to photograph - it almost shimmers here. Squint, please)...

I love the back drawstring! It looks very similar to the back of the StyleArc Winsome Designer Dress (posted here), but the construction is not the same, due to the placement of other pieces in the back.

The patch pockets are very over-sized and long. Fun! 

I'm off to JoAnns now, to get supplies for Christmas gifts. And I have to remember to tell my kids to stay off my blog for a couple weeks :-) Check out this adorable cat house from SeeKateSew! My weekend project...

Hope everyone enjoys a safe weekend, with lots of sewing therapy time...bye for now, Coco

StyleArc Winsome Designer Dress - into the unknown...

I'm on a StyleArc roll!

And you can tell from the twirly pic that this worked.

When StyleArc released the Winsome Dress pattern recently, I was sold immediately - I love the drawstring detail on the back. I would have bought the pattern just for that - I smoosh and hack patterns all the time. But I was also drawn by all the piecing and seams. And draped pockets and asymmetrical hem. There's a lot going on in this pattern...

I'm always more comfortable starting a new pattern if I can find reviews and tips from other sewists. In this case, I couldn't find any. There are just a couple photos on the StyleArc site, and the dress shown is done in a woven fabric. The suggested fabrics: Crepe, silk, rayon or any fabric that drapes.

So of course I chose to do this in a thin rayon/lycra jersey with 4-way stretch! No-fear sewing for the holidays...but it worked :-)

The fabric looks wavey in some of these pics. But it's really just heathered, no waves or stripes.

My sewing notes:

• I purchased the PDF version, the 10-12-14 bundle, and sewed size 10.

• I lengthened the dress pieces by 2" using the lengthen/shorten lines on the pattern (I'm 5'7", and the extra 2" are perfect). 

• And I added 4" to the sleeve, just because I didn't want to come up short. A couple inches would have been enough. 

• As usual, I drafted my pattern with 1/2" seam allowances everywhere (StyleArc includes 3/8" seam allowances in the main bits of the pattern and 1/4" allowances at the neckline).

• I didn't sew the front button placket - that's scary sewing on a thin knit. And IMHO, the placket is kind of  the wrong vibe for this dress - it seems so sporty. Instead, I trimmed about 1/4" from the neckline (I tested to be sure it would go over my head) and finished it with self-fabric binding.  

Sewing the back drawstring casing was easy and fun. Those buttonholes - practice, practice. Putting a buttonhole into knit fabric can be challenging. I settled on a mid-weight fusible non-woven interfacing to stabilize the area, then trimmed away the excess once the buttonholes were done.

A couple pics of the casing and drawstring - so pretty!

The sleeves were way too wide, although they might be fine in a woven fabric. I trimmed away quite a bit (1" or so) from the sleeve seam, continuing under the armscye, and down for about 5". In my next knit version, I'm going to use the armscye and sleeve from a knit dress, maybe M6747.

So - Black Friday. I did my part,  and the stash will be much fatter for it. I also got the Nook Samsung Galaxy Tab A, a Barnes & Noble special offer!! It's terrific. Small, light, slips easily into my handbag, and I can do everything on it! Much better than my old IPad and original Nook. I'm feeling so spoiled.

Bye for now - Coco

StyleArc Toni Designer Dress - start, stop, start again...

Another StyleArc journey - my love affair with them has been intermittent at best! Their wishful line art and drawings are right up there with Hot Patterns. What you see is not always what you get.

I'm a forewarned and an experienced warrior.

However - I've been looking for alternatives to my 'usual' maxi dresses. I get bored! And this dress has intrigued me. I read as many reviews as I could find. And explored images online. I finally took the plunge, bought it (PDF version), and spent a morning with tape and scissors.

I knew going in that I would not do the collar. I don't like collars - not on me and not on most people. Oops - that's a lot of sewists. But it's a personal hang-up. My father insisted that I wear pointed collar shirts in a time when all my friends were wearing peter pan collars. It was painful, and the feelings apparently linger.

Anyway - on to this dress. Fortunately it has a lovely v-neck opportunity without the collar.

I also had to think about fabric. StyleArc suggests 'silk, crepe, rayon, suitable knit'. Since they don't provide examples, I looked at what others had done, and decided that the defining factor was drape. So I decided to try a rayon crepe - read that as drape with a burst of color!

I love how colors vibrate on rayon fabrics. Much more than on cottons, linens, and wool.

Working with this large print - the vertical repeat is a whopping 34" - I decided to cut both the front and the back on the fold. I just didn't want to break up those definitive blossoms.

The fabric is from Fabric Mart, one of their pre-cut buyout offerings. This one was 4 yards for $16. Incredible.

A few sewing notes:

• I sewed the size 10. I'm 5'7, with a full bust of 35.5"  - 36". The hip measurement on this pattern is not a defining factor, as there is lots of fabric in that area. 

• But I did add 2" to the length, using the pattern's lengthen/shorten lines. 

• The biggest change I made was to the line of the side drape. And I have to credit Ruth at CoreCouture for this one - I followed her lead and changed the pattern at the sides, removing some of the outward 'poke', as below.

• Several sewists suggested that the pattern is a little narrow at the hemline and might benefit from a back slit for walking ease. So I extended the hem outwards by 1", all side seams (as above in my draft), adding a total of 4". And the result works great. It's comfortable in all situations.

• I also drafted all my pattern pieces with a 1/2" seam allowance. StyleArc uses 3/8" for seams and 1/4" for necklines and collars. Their reasoning is beyond me, but because I use the PDF versions of their patterns, I can suit myself. 

• I used the facing from the pattern, but did it in cotton lawn, interfaced with knit tricot fusible. I really wanted to stabilize the neckline, something a self-fabric facing would not have done. 

Lots of clipping and basting to turn the facing at the bottom of the v-neck...

About the fabric. I sew with rayon challis a lot, and love it. I enjoy sewing it, and I enjoy wearing it even more. I was curious about rayon crepe, new to me, and I found that it sews pretty much the same as challis. It slips around, moves on any bias, ravels a little more than challis, and has a mind of its own! 

I don't write tutorials myself - I get very irritated by the raft of sewist who do, with poor technique and, often, worse sewing examples. (BTW - I 'unfollow' any blogs that start doing tutorials - I'm that irritated!) But I do try to find good sources and information that I can share. Here's a link to an article, on Sew4Home, that is a nice discussion of fabrics like rayon crepe:

http://www.sew4home.com/tips-resources/sewing-tips-tricks/happy-holidays-freespirit-rowan-working-rayon-and-linen

Time for a pic:

The start, stop, and start again...I tossed this dress in the bin twice while I was working on it. It was decidely awful before I got the side seams done and got a good look at it :-)

But I really like it! and I plan more. It's delightful to wear, fun and a little off-beat. 

Ciao! Coco