Summer is Here!!

It's the longest day of the year, the start of summer, the summer solstice.

My favorite time of year.  I love summer and everything that goes with it: the heat, going to the beach, summer BBQs, watching fireworks and many more things.  What special things do you like about summer?

One thing I can’t do, and it makes me sad, is eat ice cream.  I get terrible migraines. 

For the first day of summer, I always go out and get a milkshake.  I have to endure the migraine but I get my desire of ice cream and ice cream related items out of my system.

This is my fabric for my new summer skirt! 

It is lightweight and flows so it is perfect for a summer skirt.  Will probably need to line it.  I have had it for years tucked into the stash.  It is a polyester chiffon which ravels like the dickens so serging is a must!

Alas, I just don’t see this fabric working with any of my vintage patterns, so I think I am going a more modern route with it.  It should be a quick make, I just need to cut, serge and sew.  Sounds simple enough…..

Draping

A few of my dressforms

I am taking a draping class.  It has been not just a learning experience but a lot of fun.  It is hard but in just 3 classes, I can drape no less than 10 bodice darts.  Fun!

I also have a use for my dress forms other than modeling my makes.  I have something on which to practice. 

Now I need a duct tape dress form of myself so I can start draping something that will fit me.  I am excited!

Better Late Than a No Show

Polka dots on parade dress was finished in a timely manner.  It was worn to the event, very successfully I might add.  I went with a whole 1940’s flavor that I enjoy so much

What I love about this dress is the piping I added.  I think it just ramps up the dress from ordinary to a little special.  I am particularly pleased with the way the piping on the sleeves turned out.  Thanks to the incredible Carolyn for providing a tutorial that took me from huh to wow!

What I do not like about the dress is the material.  It definitely has polyester in it.  I danced for a couple of hours at the event and this material did not breathe!  Ugh and the room where the dancing took place was HOT.  Hey at least it doesn’t wrinkle too badly.

Courtesy of D'Nalof Designs
Yes, it's me.

Down the Pipeline

Lots of corded piping!

I have been  making a lot of black piping.  Do you make your own piping?  If so, what do you use for the piping?  Do you use straight strips or bias strips.

I use string for my piping.  Ordinary cotton string.  It is less than $2 at the hardware store and I use it for gathering and piping.  I love this stuff and it is so cheap.  I also think it makes the perfect size piping.

This time I did both bias strips for curves and straight strips for the sleeves.  It should come as no surprise, I do hand baste in the piping. 

I love the finished look piping gives an outfit!

Whew

Crazy busy week.  Too much going on with work to sew.  This weekend did see some sewing time.

Shoulder detail

The bodice came together like a dream even with the top stitching on the shoulder detail.  I did make a slight FBA but felt with the gathers and because it is a bigger size than I normally, I would probably be alright.  Fingers crossed this holds true.

Polka Dots On Parade

The next dress is going to be out of this white with black polka dot fabric.  This fabric is notable in that it was one of the first pieces of fabric I bought when I started sewing.  It is a cotton poly blend and was one of my $1 a yard finds. 

The dress will be this pattern.

It has a distinctly very late 30’s early 40’s look to it and very reminiscent of this one.

Off to trace the pattern.

Water Circles

Front

Its done, its done!!!  YAY!  My first dress using a modern pattern and modern fabrics.

Whew…it was challenging.  I know some of you out there can knock out a dress like this in a couple of hours but not me.  It took a while and I am not at all confident with these techniques.

Front - full length
What is that bump?

That being said, it is definitely wearable!  Which is really a plus since I do like the fabric.  I plan to give it a test drive at an art gallery thing tonight. 

What I did…in case anyone out there would like to know.  All hems are done on the serger as a rolled hem.  The front lap was pick stitched closed so there will be no wardrobe malfunctions but the back was left as is.  It is fully lined in a flesh colored tricot.  I gathered the midriff in various spots and then sewed down some of the gathers to insure this lightweight knit actually stayed gathered.  It seams to have worked.  Not sure what the bulge in the pictures is…probably just bad styling.

Back view......same as
the front

I think I need another 1940s dress to relax with as next up in the queue.  

Evil Ease

The Water Circles dress is almost complete.   There is one major hold up….inserting the sleeves.  I just can not ease them in without lots of gathers showing.  Now, I don’t think these sleeves  are supposed to be gathered on the sleeve cap…I certainly would prefer that they were not.  However, after a couple of tries using different methods, I am about to give up. 

The irony is that I did take out some of the ease from the sleeve caps but obviously not nearly enough.  I cannot imagine what these ease monsters would have been like if I had left those extra 2 inches in.

Sleeve pinned in

From the back, a sleeve pinned in

It Makes Me Smile

I had a vintage event last night after work which meant if I was going to dress up, I would have to wear something to work.

I chose this dress…..

partly because it makes me smile and partly because I rarely wear this dress.  I packed my petticoat and nice shoes in a bag and off to work I went. ( You can read about the construction of the dress, here, here, here and here).

Action shot

While wearing this dress yesterday, not including while at the vintage event, I received no less than 5 compliments on the dress.  I was surprised…nay almost shocked.  Yes, I like the dress but I have never worn anything that I made that received the sheer number of compliments I received yesterday from this dress.  The compliments crossed many lines, young and old; men and women.  Two women actually waved me down in a train station to tell me how much they loved my dress.

Wow…no wonder this dress makes me smile.

Serger Wars

Front.  I moved the overlap for
more coverage.

Back
A little plunging

I have am losing the battle with the serger.  I think this dress will be about 1/2 serger and 1/2 sewing machine.  I guess you need to start somewhere.  One shoulder I was able to gather beautifully on serger, the other not so much.  For the necklines, I have to admit I gave up and used the sewing machine.  I really did not think it would work well.  I have a problem with seam allowances on the serger but then I am terrified of using the knife and almost always have it disabled.  Really, you could lose a finger with the knife.

On to the midriff pieces …….

Breaking Needles

So, I had to get my serger out and ready to roll with this dress which will hereinafter be named the bubble dress cause the fabric looks like bubbles.  I inserted my stretch needles and started in on some scrap pieces of fabric.

Blammo…right needle breaks.  Ok, that is unusual.  My serger needles never break.  Re-thread, put in a new needle and away we go.  So far so good.

Change the stitch length to figure our how to gather using the serger….blammo…right needle breaks again.  No biggie….re-thread, put in a new needle and away we go.

Blammo…right needle breaks again.  Stop, do not re-tbread.  Do not insert new needle.  Stop now before injuries occur.

Any ideas what is going on with the serger?

Sewing Outside of My Comfort Zone

I have a serger and I would like to make something using my serger.  A lot of the blogs I read have sewists who use their sergers to construct garments.  I only use it to finish seams.

Soooooo….for something completely different I am going to make a dress with t-shirt material (I have no idea what it is called….jersey? knit?) and I am going to try to use the serger to construct it.

Here is the fabric…..ooooohhh pretty.  My favorite colors, blue and brown.  It seems this is a remnant of a designer fabric.  Note the seam allowance notes.

You might ask what pattern?  Well I do not have patterns for knit materials so I am going to try and use Vogue 8182,, View B which I do have in a size which is too big for me.  When checking out pattern review for this pattern, a number of people made it in a knit and omitted the zipper.  So, I am going to try and do that!

Victorian or Art Deco

In making the 1930’s dress, I want to make a belt to go with…..so off to etsy I took myself to look for an appropriate looking belt buckle.

Imagine my surprise when I found this advertised as a Victorian belt buckle.

Ummm……really…what gave it away as a Victorian belt buckle….maybe the “made in” stamp on the back?  I knew when I looked at the picture it was not Victorian but would could be Art Deco…if not originally it certainly passes.  But Victorian?? Really?   I bought it because I liked the way the design echoed the dress fabric.

I tried to zoom in so you could see it.
Didnt work.
But it does say: "Made In" and a word
that looks like otto.  I cant figure out
where it was made.

Perhaps it is a tad naïve of me but I was simply shocked with the number of items clearly not Victorian advertised as Victorian.  I wonder how many people have been taken in by such false representations?

All I Need is a Hat

The 1930’s dress is done.  YAY!! For a relatively painless make.  That hand basting saved a lot of trouble.  Though I do think the collar area might be reworked; I am not happy with how it lays.  I can say I am pleased with how it turned out!  It is exactly what I envisioned.

It looks ok on the dress form but it really looks better on.  I thought the skirt would not be nearly as full as it turned out to be because the skirt is quite full.

Some details.  The hem is hand rolled as are the sleeves.  The v neck collar thing was hard to put on.  It took me longer to get that thing (not sure what to call it) on the dress than it took to make up the dress.  I do like the button accents on the pintucks and the sleeves…ah the sleeves are perfect and much better than the cape sleeves. 

Check out the buttons!!
Love that detail

Back view

What would I do differently?  The v neck thing I think needs be sewn starting at the v each direction.  I may try that because the left side is rippling.  Otherwise, the only thing I can think of is making the FBA just a tad bigger.  The bodice fits but I like a little looser more modern fit.  Amazingly, that is it!

Side

Now, I need to get some pictures of me in the dress.

Fluttering By

First take a look at the teeny tiny vintage buttons that I am going to use.  

Pretty and vintatge

I bought these years ago but had no idea they would be so very small.

Blurry but check out the button next
to a dime.  See ....super small!!!

 Because I am not doing the cape, the pintucks will be on display.  I am going to punctuate the pintucks by using these buttons.

Also because I am not using the cape sleeves, I need to draft new sleeves.  I want flutter sleeves which are still correct for this era.  How to draft the sleeve?  First, I grabbed a dress I own with those types of sleeves and traced it off.  It looked odd.  Next, I started going through the pattern collection looking for a pattern with that type of sleeve.  Luckily I was able to find one.  Traced it off and what do you know it looked odd.   

Weird sleeve pattern

But it also matched what I traced off my dress so I took a deep breath and went for it!!

Taming Silk Chiffon

Last time I made a 1930s dress out of silk chiffon, I had a blog post entitled “Silk Chiffon is Evil.”  I know this because I tried to use the same title again simply because silk chiffon is evil.  It is slippery and difficult to both cut out and sew.

Look at those sweet pintucks!

This time, I was prepared.  I tackled that silk chiffon and beat it into submission.  Last time, my silk slipped all over the place when I cut out the pattern pieces.  This time, I took care.  There was no placing on a fold; there was no laying out all the pieces.  Each piece was cut out individually one at a time.  If a piece needed to be placed on a fold, I traced the piece off twice and taped it together.  A lot of work…yes indeedy but worth it.  Each pattern piece was correct and not morphed by the cutting process.

I hear you…big deal you are thinking so you managed to cut out the pieces.  What about the sewing???

The sewing was incredibly easy going this time.  No ripping out of seams.  No seriously no seam ripping happening on this dress for one simple reason: I hand basted everything tighter.  WHAT??  Hand basted every seam??  You heard me….hand basted.  Not as much work as you would think.  The hand basting was quick since there really is no need for precision…I am removing the basting.  However, the end result was perfection in sewing.  The basting stitches kept that silk from slipping around while sewing.

Front bodice with pintucks

I am a convert.  I raise my right hand and pledge to hand baste all seams in silk fabric from here on out.  It was worth it!!!!

Resolved

At least I hope all of my computer issues are finally resolved.  Ever since the power went out in a wind storm on December 1^st, I have been having significant computer problems.  Basically, the computer has been not working more than it has been working.  That makes blogging tough since I cant download my photos onto my work computer.

A flippy little number made with
a modern pattern....ooohhhh bad
of me, I know

However, it now seems that the problem has been fixed ….something with the hard drive.  Let’s hope so.

Without further ado….yes I have been sewing.

I whipped up this skirt while manning a costume repair station at a local Doctor Who convention.

I also started this dress a typical 1930s cape sleeve dress.  But, I dont like the cape bit, I think it is too young looking for me.

Using this fabric:

Perfect for a 1930's dress

Silk chiffon, a favorite of mine but so hard to sew….

But more to come on this little dress.

Pleating a Plaid

Why pick a plaid if I want a pleated skirt?  I don’t think I realized what I would be in for and not having directions certainly does not help!

My not so dainty slip stitching but it
seems to be doing the job

Once I cut out the skirt, only one pattern piece cut twice, the fun horror began.  Pinning the pleats….easy, matching the plaid not so hard.  Brain strain over how to get the pleats with the matched plaids to stay in place during sewing.  Basting think I.  Wrong, did not work for me.  After the steam started streaming out of my ears from the strain I determined I would slip stitch the two pleats together.  Great, I suck at slip stitching!  Fun times.  Though about 1/2 way through the second pleat I got to wondering…why do this.  Yes, I would like the plaids to match and I certainly don’t want my friends pointing and laughing at my mismatched plaids.  But, would slightly off plaid matching stop me from buying a similar ready-to-wear skirt.  Nope!  Not unless the mismatch was glaring.  So why put myself through this exercise?  I guess simply because I am making the skirt and want to do the best job possible.  I wonder if anyone else struggles which the high expectation you place on yourself when sewing versus not as stringent rules for RTW clothes?  I then had to stop thinking and just do because I knew I would not be happy if I did not ensure my plaids matched.

One side pleated and stitched together.
Not bad.  But now I notice one pleat is off
and that I should probable do it over.

Off I went slip stitching away, ripping out the slip stitching, and trying again.  I think it turned out ok.  Lets hope it holds in place during the actual sewing.  

Match Made In Heaven

Mmmm pleats

Or just influence by the picture on the pattern.  I have had Simplicity 4547 for year having purchased it in a lot of other patterns on ebay.  I love the pleated skirt pattern and when trolling through my fabric stash I came across a relatively new purchase which screamed to me pleated skirt. Subliminal programming perhaps.

I have to admit that my subconscious may have been at work given the closeness of this fabric to the picture on the pattern. 

Yike…really close just different colors.  For me, this fabric also seemed Christmassy.  I am not a lover of a red/green Christmas palette preferring greens and blues.  Weird, I know.

Mmmm plaidy goodness

So whip out the pattern, check to see if the pieces are all there.  Yup….only one piece for this skirt.  But all the other pattern pieces were accounted for…..except wait a second…what are these 2 extra pattern pieces for?  They are for an Advance pattern …hmm….cool….but wait there is something missing.  The instruction sheet is not in there.  Oh boy, I am going to wing it on a pleated skirt in addition to matching plaids.  This should be fun!

Technical Difficulties

For the past little while, I have had some horrific technical difficulties.  Life was moving by, but you wouldnt know it by looking here mostly because of a break down in my computers.

While I had the good fortune to be forced to take a business trip to New York....yes forced or so I told them, but how were they to know that I was doing a happy dance just waiting for the weekend when I would be let free to come the New York fashion district, I did run into some problems upon my return.  That is my main computer was fried during a storm.  I have as yet been able to determine if it is good and truly dead......oh no....or if I will be able to bring it back to life.  Unsure what happened but upon my return, I could only get a black screen with a sort of dos prompt for my username and password.  I tried to start it in safe mode but that would not work.  I have not yet tried starting it with the system disk or taking it to my local Apple store for help.

To make matters worse, my lap top which barely works anymore will not let me upload picture.  Oh, there are pictures that I have downloaded but when you try to upload them or attach them to an email, nada...it just doesn't work.  And who really wants to read a blog with no pictures/

But I have been working to come up with some solutions so that posting can re-occur......and I think I may have figures something out....fingers crossed.