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Lucinda May 24, 2012

On My (Mom’s) Cutting Table

I’m home visiting my family on vacation this week and I’m taking full advantage of my mom’s sewing room set-up…huge cutting table, nice sewing machine and iron, good lighting, etc. And for my birthday, she got me new scissors! I’ve wanted a pair of Gingher dressmaker shears for a long time and I finally have my own pair – they’re a dream to cut with and I can’t believe I’ve gone so long cutting with my trusty orange Fiskars (not to knock them or anything…these are just nicer).

The above is fabric I bought last year from Mood for a top that I started and finished yesterday – love it when that happens! I’ll post pictures of the finished garment next week.

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Lucinda May 1, 2012

Pattern Review – Simplicity 2369

Pattern: Simplicity 2369
Size: 10 graded to a 12
Fabric: Knit ITY from Joann Fabrics

Jeans: Mek Denim
Sunnies: Bulgari
Necklace: birthday gift!
Wristlet: Michael Michael Kors (birthday gift to myself!)

I’ve had this top finished and in my closet for about a month and realized that I never had an opportunity to share it here, partially due to my “photographer” not being available when I was as well as the hours I’m working for my new job (I got a promotion!). It was cool in Boston on Sunday and I wanted to feel comfy but look cute for my birthday mini-golf outing – it was definitely a jeans and tee kinda day.

Yes, it was my birthday! I noticed a fine line forming on my forehead in the bathroom that morning and my roots need to be colored since my grays are showing through. Hooray.

Construction

I was apprehensive about how this top was going to fit since wrap tops are always too big on me due to the cross-over piece being too long. This isn’t a “true” wrap top since it’s only a half piece that wraps across the front, and I think that attributed to the correct fitting of this top. I did my usual mods, a 10 graded out to a 12 from waist to hip, and I think I could have gone a bit smaller up top. But I was too lazy to re-cut the top and take in the sides, it wasn’t that major of a fit issue.

My machine, however, did not care for the ITY I was sewing with. I never sewed with an ITY before, even though I have heard rave things about them and it seems to be quite the fabric in the knit fabric world, but I’m not sure I would sew with it again. I love my little Bernina 1005 but it had a hard time stitching consistently and kept skipping stitches, zigging when it should have zagged. I changed the stitch length, even switched to a straight stitch and stretched while I sewed, but it didn’t like that either. Maybe someone reading this has insight into this problem?

I decided to do a neck band instead of a facing for this top, figuring I could benefit from additional fabric being added to an already low neckline. I followed the instructions to make the binding and opted not to turn it to the inside. The only downside is that since I didn’t plan ahead to do this, I have raw edges on the inside. I also have to tie this top pretty tight and watch the neckline during the day, but having worn this top twice now, I haven’t had any gap-age issues. Whew, what a relief!

I loved this pattern – I made the pants to go along with this top as well – and I definitely want to make the dress, too. Since I already attempted to make a test garment for a wrap dress that failed, I bet this pattern will be the pattern I pick to make the wrap dress off of my 12 in 2012 list.

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Lucinda March 25, 2012

On My Cutting Table: Vogue 1250

It feels like I’m the last sewing blogger to attempt this DKNY dress pattern that came out last spring, but I kept my eye on it until I found the right fabric. It’s not often that I find a sewing pattern that a) looks good on all body types, b) is super easy to make, and c) is a designer sewing pattern.

I took the pattern out of the envelope this afternoon and marveled at the construction of this dress: it’s essentially only two pieces (minus the neck facing)! The whole front and lower back skirt are one piece that join in a seam in the back, and the upper back piece is then connected to the shoulders, lower skirt, and sides. It’s a brilliantly constructed pattern and I can’t wait to cut this one out – looks like it’ll be a quick enough sew for me to wear to work this week with a blazer.

Also – I must be on a black and white kick. The last dress I made was b&w, I just finished my Simplicity 2369, a black and white top with black pants (pics to come), and now this dress. Plus, I bought fabric for two button-up tops that are black and white floral prints! Now I know I need to inject some color into my sewing!

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Lucinda March 12, 2012

Vogue 8138 – Three Hour Dress

Pattern: Vogue 8138 (OOP), View C
Fabric: Matte jersey from Gorgeous Fabrics
Size: 10 graded to a 12, with fit modifications

Cardigan: INC
Lipstick: NARS Manhunt

This dress sprung from an idea one night on a train ride home from work. I work in retail, and on that particular day I was in my dress department for most of the day – organizing racks, putting out new merchandise, etc. So while I was sitting on the train, listening to my iPod, I kept thinking about all of the cute spring dresses I was playing with all day and how I really wanted a new dress to wear. As in, to wear to work. Tomorrow. Hmmm….

I ordered a swirly matte jersey from Gorgeous Fabrics a few weeks prior and couldn’t remember what I bought it for – it was probably one of those “ooo I want to put that in my shopping cart!” kind of purchases. One thing I’ve learned about sewing with knits is that simplicity is key: a busy print like this doesn’t demand a complicated garment design. It seemed like a simple pull-over dress would be the right choice, and lucky enough, I had a basic pattern in my collection.

For some reason, I felt it necessary to post on Facebook, ” I’m crazy…sewing a dress tonight to wear to work tomorrow. ” And of course, the follow-up comments were “can’t wait to see!” and “pics plz.” So it was on! People knew and there was no turning back!

Honestly, I can’t remember a time I made something this quickly, and I really think I am the world’s slowest stitcher. The dress is only a two piece tank dress with four seams total: the side seams and shoulder seams. I think the most time consuming part was fitting the dress since my typical cutting mods (10 graded out to a 12 from waist to hip) ended up fitting too loosely, or at least, not how I wanted this dress to fit. I pulled it on, pinned it how I wanted it to fit, and marked stitching lines to take it in. I probably ended up making the top a size 8 and the skirt a size 10 based on how much I took the dress in, but I’m not certain.

So yes, I pulled it off and wore this to work the following day! It was slightly not in dress code (I’m supposed to wear mostly black), but I think I sneaked by because when asked about what I was wearing, I told everyone that I whipped the dress up the previous evening – that was enough to distract from the fact that really, I was out of dress code. A little. Maybe.

This pattern has been hanging out in my stash since 2008 when I first sewed the failed convertible cardigan, a very popular cardigan at the time. It’s nice to go back and resurrect a pattern that didn’t work the first time, kind of like what I did for my Vogue 1020 pattern. Sometimes patterns are worth a second shot, especially if it’s a wardrobe pattern with multiple basic garment options. I can definitely see making this dress again in the summer with a bright floral fabric, or maybe altering the neckline and coming up with an entirely new design. This dud is now a keeper.

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Lucinda March 6, 2012

Adventures in Dropping Stitches

There are few things that terrify me when it comes to knitting, such as steeking (I could never cut my knitting!), size 0 needles (I’ll never finish anything on those teeny things), and skinny, laceweight yarn (goes hand in hand with the teeny needles). Taking on the Clapotis, a project that has been in my queue for years since it was published in Knitty, is tackling one of those fears: dropping stitches

Dropping stitches has a stigma attached to it: as new knitters, we learn to fear it because it seems like something that impossible to fix. To all knitters, it’s sign that oops, you made a mistake. So to incorporate the concept of intentionally dropping stitches into a design seemed to blow my mind. How could it be possible that doing that wouldn’t backfire and ruin a loved project?

The Clapotis is such a lovely scarf and oodles of knitters have made it in the last eight years since the pattern was published – that should be testament right there that this is a project with risks well worth the result. And you know what? Dropping that first stitch was ok. I may have panicked when I sent down the stitch to be dropped, watching as it created a ladder down the edge of my knitting. But when it got to the very end of the column and stopped unraveling, I breathed a sigh of relief that my knitting didn’t fall apart, that the pattern designer knew what she was doing when she wrote the pattern. Since then, I have sent many other stitches to their dropped-down fate and the outcome of each dropped stitch has been just right. I will say, there’s almost a rebellious feel to it – it’s making what would traditionally be a mistake into an intentional action. Take that, knitting perfectionists!

I can’t say that I’ll be tackling any of my other knitting fears soon…especially steeking. I shudder at the thought of taking my scissors to something that I spent hours working on.

So you know what mine are now – what are your knitting fears?