spring Archives - Sew Wrong

Lucinda June 18, 2014

Pattern Reviews: Belcarra Top and Floral Pants [Sewaholic and Simplicity]

Patterns: Belcarra, Simplicity 1696
Fabrics: top – eyelet from Joann Fabrics; pants – stretch cotton from Metro Textile
Size: top – 6; pants – 10

Sandals: Tahari

Before I share two of my newest makes, I wanted to thank everyone for posting their thoughts on my last post about fast sewing – when it comes down to it, it’s really all about what’s right for each individual sewist, and we should (and do!) applaud each other for our efforts. Imma do what’s right for me from here on out, ya know?

So yeah – I made pants! Floral ones, to boot! The fabric is leftover from the dress I made for my trip to Florida earlier this year and these pants were intended to be a muslin for this pattern, but they ended up being a wearable muslin – even better.

I would say I have the fit about 95% of the way there. I went down a size than I would normally cut out for pants, based off of the way I wanted the pants to fit and to account for the stretch in the fabric. The fact there’s different pant blocks based off of body shape is great too, I used the slim block based off of my measurements and the adjusting I needed to do wasn’t anything major. I took in the inseam quite a bit in the back to get the butt to fit better, and took a small amount in at the front center crotch seam. I think the waist could still use some adjusting.

Here’s my problem with these pants – the longer I wore them, the more they grew!! When I left the house in the morning, they were nice and fitted, a bit loose in the waist. By the time I got to lunch, these pants were huge on me all over – maybe because of my body heat and sitting at my desk all morning? Luckily I had a pair of jeans to change into (I was travelling that day), otherwise I would have needed a safety pin or something to keep these up. I never saw a baggier-butt pair of pants in my life.

Why did this happen with my stretch cotton, oh wise sewists of the sewing blogosphere? I’m planning on making more of these pants in stretch cotton after I tweak the fit a little more. After I washed the pants, they snapped back to normal, but I can’t always change my pants halfway through the day when they stretch out again, hahahaha.

Can I get a “what what” for faux welt pockets?! They’re my new favorite sewing detail. I don’t need real welt pockets in my pants, and I never use my back pant pockets, but I like having the look of a pocket on my backside. They need to be lowered a bit on the next pair, they’re up a bit too high for my liking.

On to Belcarra – this is my go-to summer top this year. It’s a beautifully drafted pattern! The shape is really flattering – I don’t feel like I’m wearing an oversized woven top like some other patterns I made in the past. Raglan sleeves are always a winner with me as well.

Since I made this, I’ve worn it several times already, and I have plans to make a few more with some variations. This top goes together so easily (I think it took me two hours max to cut/sew this?) and can be paired with high waisted skirts, skinny jeans, jackets, you name it – this is a brand new TNT for my sewing pattern arsenal.

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Lucinda May 6, 2014

Finished Project: Anise Jacket [Colette Patterns]

You guys – I reached the finish line! Seriously, this is the most time-consuming, difficult garment I’ve made in my sewing career. But I did it!

Pattern: Anise by Colette Patterns
Fabric: main – wool from Metro Textiles in NYC; lining – stretch poly charmeuse from Fabric Place Basement
Size: 4 graded to a 6 at the hips

Shirt: Scout tee variation, unblogged
Jeans: Levi’s
Sneakers: Reebok

I want to thank everyone for their kind words and helpful comments as I struggled over the last month to make this. Don’t get me wrong – I loved learning about the tailoring process, and I can’t wait to sew more tailored projects, but this pattern just didn’t work for me. When I posted my last update on the jacket, I was actually 95% of the way done and too far beyond going back to fix some things that you all suggested, but they’re definitely worth exploring for my next go-round with tailoring.

So yes, this jacket isn’t perfect – but at this point, it really doesn’t matter to me. I made a freaking tailored jacket, with welt pockets to boot! I know my mistakes will be evident to experienced sewists looking at these photos, but I’m going to wear this jacket with pride, knowing that I learned soooo much doing this.

1. I Have Narrow Shoulders – This is something I should have remembered from all of the blazers my Mom made for me for my first job. She had to alter each pattern because the shoulder seams came way past where the shoulder seam needed to be. This wasn’t evident when I made my muslin, but going back to try it on again, I could baaaarely see it. Which also brings me to another learning – make my muslin in the same fabric weight as the final garment. I’m sure if I had, the fit issue would have been more evident in a heavier weight fabric than light, flimsy cotton.

Having said all of that, I explored how to make my own shoulder pads, drafted sleeve heads for my jacket, and studied different kinds of shoulder pads for different types of garments (definitely need to give raglan shaped pads a try). Maybe if I didn’t have this fit problem, I wouldn’t have learned all of these tidbits of knowledge.

Also, I could not for the life of me figure out why there was so much ease in the front of my sleeve cap. No, it wasn’t inserted backwards. I’m just…perplexed, and it’s not as smooth as I’d like.

2. Stretch Fabric Isn’t a Great Idea For a Lining – but this one sure looks pretty! The color is why I picked it, which is kind of silly, I know. I thought the stretch would be an added bonus to give my jacket more movement and ease in the inside, but it ended up being more of a pain to cut out and stitch properly without getting runs in the weave. It was anything but fun when it came to setting the sleeves in by hand, yuck!

However, this lining is an improvement over my original intended lining – a light gold acetate. Acetate is a terrible idea for a jacket lining: it shows water marks and sweat stains (not good for my armpits, no way), doesn’t breathe well at all, and shouldn’t be used for garments with lots of wear. I plan on wearing this jacket a lot, so no dice with the acetate. I know poly isn’t a whole lot better in terms of breathability, but it was in my budget for this project.

3. Press, Press, Press – I originally thought I did a great job taking my time when it came to pressing, really taking my time and pressing every seam like The Pressinatrix recommends, but I guess this jacket could have used a little more based on the above photo. Having the right tools is imperative as well, I’m so glad I asked for pressing tools like a seam roll, clapper, and a tailor board last year for my birthday – they made getting to every area I needed to steam a lot easier.

4. Creativity Is My Friend – you may have noticed in an earlier photo that I have snaps on the inside of my jacket. This wasn’t the original plan, I had every intention of making buttonholes on my Mom’s wonderful Bernina (the automatic buttonhole feature is killer) when I was visiting a few weeks ago. However, the bulk at the edge of my jacket front threw off the calculations of the machine and I ended up with some wonky looking, uneven buttonholes that wouldn’t pass muster. That’s when the light bulb went off in my head that I could use snaps instead to close the jacket, and my Mom suggested covering the snaps in a coordinating lining fabric. Problem solved, and a new technique under my belt.

5. Perfectionism Is My Enemy – I was really close to not even finishing this jacket when I realized the problem with the shoulders, and the fact that how I made my welt pockets caused the front to pull. There were tears, I threw the jacket in the corner, and I didn’t touch the project for over a week. I wanted everything about this jacket to be crisp and perfect, I wanted people to ask me where I bought my jacket – I didn’t want it to look “home-made.” But in the course of trying to achieve something “perfect” looking, I realized I needed to cut myself some slack – this was my first ever tailoring project. How could my expectations be set so high for something I’ve never done? I trudged on with the shoulder pads, the lining, the hand hemming. There was way too much time invested in this project to give up – I steadily worked on this for a month, and to not have anything to show for all of that time would be sad. From here on out, I need to chill and just enjoy the process of making clothes, and not get all hung up on details that will probably be evident to only me.

I’m so glad I didn’t let my perfectionist tendencies when it comes to sewing prevent me from finishing this jacket! I wore it for the first time this past weekend, and it may be my last until fall since the weather is finally getting warm in Boston. I never thought I would sew a project like this, let alone enjoy something that seemed so tedious to me like tailoring. But now that I’ve taken my first step with this project, I’m determined to master the skills it takes to tailor well.

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Lucinda March 31, 2014

8 Days to Anise: Days 3-5

What I learned last week: I really love tailoring. Never thought that I would! I like fast, simple, quick, easy, instantly-gratifying projects with not a lot of fitting, and it’s not often that I work on something for more than a week. I think that’s part of the reason why I put off making this jacket for over a year – Chris bought me this pattern for Christmas 2012 and I bought the fabric shortly thereafter, but looking at all the steps and hand-sewing, I just didn’t want to devote the time to it that I knew I needed to.

But I can really, honestly say that I’m enjoying the entire process so far. Even cutting out the fabric I didn’t mind as much as I usually do (my hands said otherwise)! It took about two nights to cut out everything since I needed to cut out the wool, the lining, the underlining, and the interfacing, plus fuse the interfacing and sew the underling to the wool. Whew! That definitely would have been too much in one night for me to accomplish.

I’ve been reading a lot about the proper way to press while sewing, because after all, pressing IS sewing – The Pressinatrix has some great tips on tools and pressing techniques for sewing with all types of fabrics. Since I’m doing soft tailoring on this jacket, I’ve found that I’m spending just as much time at my ironing board that I am at my sewing machine. My trusty little Black ‘N Decker iron is holding up just fine, and I’m so glad I asked for pressing tools last year for my birthday, they’re really making the difference.

Enough chatter, onto the photos!

Shhhh, excuse my dirty mirror!

I love how this is turning out. I hand-basted everything yesterday afternoon while re-watching season 3 of Game of Thrones – it was a rainy, miserable day and was the perfect excuse to be a bump on the couch. But a productive bump!

I still need to press the edges of the collar and jacket fronts, but I was amazed at how the basting really made everything look so nice. And I figured if I need to hand-baste with silk thread, it might as well be a fun, contrasting color!

The collar is looking good. I was worried about how it would turn out: I fused the interfacing to the collar piece instead of the undercollar. Whoops!! When I went back to Joann Fabrics, they were all sold out of fusible weft interfacing. The solution was to use my leftover interfacing to creatively fuse together a big enough piece to cover the undercollar – problem solved! The collar may be a little stiffer and more structured than it’s supposed to be, since the entire collar is now interfaced, but I’m ok with how it’s behaving. And it seems to be rolling under ok as well.

So far, I’ve worked on this jacket for five days – I’m right on track! Now, to hunt down the perfect buttons…

Do you enjoy tailoring? Any good book recommendations on the topic?

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Lucinda March 24, 2014

8 Days to Anise – Days 1 and 2

Image courtesy of Colette Patterns

If I was going by the temperature today, I wouldn’t believe that we’re in the spring season – it’s a balmy 30 degrees this morning. Ah, such is New England weather, and my fingers are crossed that things warm up in the next few weeks in April (I’m running my first 5K in three weeks!). I figured now is the time to get over my fear of jacket sewing and jump right in to making an Anise for spring – by the time I’m done, the weather will probably be warm enough to wear it.

I’ve owned the pattern and the fabric for well over a year, and had every intention of sewing this last year, but the time got away from me and when I was ready to sew it, the weather changed and I was in no mood to sew with wool in the heat. My last few projects have been quick, crank-’em-out garments that I can make in a night or two, and it’s been a long time since I made a project that I can really bite my teeth into and spend a decent amount of time constructing.

So, I’m calling this project my “8 Days to Anise” challenge – according to the companion book (which has a lot of helpful tips!), this jacket can be broken down into bite-size sewing chunks over the course of eight sewing sessions. This makes sewing a tailored jacket a lot less intimidating and more manageable! Let me show you my supplies so far:

It was hard to get the colors right, but the left is a dark violet/indigo wool (from Metro Textiles), and the left is a lilac poly sateen for the lining (from Fabric Place Basement). I originally bought a white gold acetate for the lining, but learned from some research online that it’s a weak fabric, should be used on garments that won’t be worn often, and shows water/sweat marks. No thanks! I’ll save that fabric for lining skirts. As much as I really wanted to use silk charmeuse for the lining, I couldn’t justify spending that much money on the lining, and I’m pretty happy with what I found instead. I preshrunk my wool using the dryer shrink method Sarai explains on the sewalong page, and washed my poly in cold water with some of my other clothes. This jacket is going to be drycleaned, so I’m not too worried about shrinkage (and I’m notoriously bad about taking my coats to the cleaners).

All that’s left is to find nicer fusible weft interfacing than what I found at Joann’s (not convinced that it’s right for my fabric), and buttons that will coordinate. Grey’s Fabric has some weft interfacing that I’m going to pick up this week, and the buttons can always wait until I’m finished with the coat – no bound buttonholes for me on this project.

On to the fitting photos! I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, but I have a few concerns. There’s quite a few iPhone photos below:

The front looks pretty good! Not too tight in the bust and plenty of room in the hips.

Further away, full front photo. Yes, it’s hair up/glasses on on the weekends, hahaha.

View from the back, looks good. No extra fabric or bagginess, definitely easy to move in.

This is where I’m not sure about the fit – the sleeves. Granted, I did a crappy job inserting the sleeves, there was soooo much ease in the front of the sleeve cap and I didn’t do the greatest job inserting them. However, it seems like there’s excess fabric at the cap because of the drag lines I’m seeing. Here’s some other views:

Lololol bitchy resting face.

See? It’s dragging in the front. I pinned my shoulder pads in to the muslin as well to see if that would help. I’m hesitant to make any changes to the cap, and if it’s really because I didn’t distribute the ease properly (it seemed like there was a ton of ease up front and a little in the back, according to how the markings lined up), I may go back and redo the sleeves to see if that changes anything. When my arms are relaxed, it’s not as apparent. I’m also going to make a sleeve head when I sew my final garment, so maybe that will help.

Suggestions on the sleeves? Anyone else run into this when making their Anise?

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Lucinda March 21, 2014

It’s a Coco Party!

Pattern: Coco by Tilly and the Buttons
Fabric: denim print ponte from Fabric Place Basement
Size: 3

Scarf: J Crew
Tights: Hue
Boots: Nine West

Today is the day, it’s a Coco Party around the world! This is actually my second Coco dress – I’ve been too lazy to finish the hem on my first one, and this fabric was so perfect that I had to make another one in time for today.

What’s playing on my party playlist? Happy by Pharrell Williams, because that’s how I feel wearing my Coco!

This is just a fantastic, basic little dress pattern from Tilly, and I see so many of these in my future – this is a perfect transitional weather garment. I couldn’t pass up this denim-like ponte fabric – some may have thought “jeggings” when looking it at, but I saw “chambray-esque knit dress” instead. Think something like this cute shift dress, which I pinned to one of my outfit boards on Pinterest:

I cut a straight straight size 3 and like the fit, but I may use 3/8″ seams instead of 5/8″ next time since the armholes go up into my armpits a bit. Going up a size could be an option, but I don’t want a whole lot more ease – I think changing the seam allowances a bit would solve the problem. I also added an inch onto the length of the dress and turned up the hem half an inch. I plan on wearing this dress with leggings or tights this spring, but if I wanted to go bare legs, I think another inch would be necessary – it’ a little tricky bending over!

I whipped up this whole dress on my serger in under an hour, and then used a twin needle on my hems and neckline. It didn’t seem necessary to use fusible hem tape to stabilize the neck or hems since this fabric is pretty beefy as is. And for a cute little detail, I sewed some silver buttons onto the shoulder seams for a nautical look.

This dress is absolutely cute and so easy to wear! I love that it’s a great base pattern with endless customization options, and I see some others in my future – funnel neck, color blocking, striped.

Have you made a Coco yet?