Greetings sea turtles! I finally got around to taking pictures of my recently-made jeans and I’m starting my seasonal binge of utilitarian sewing and have a stack of cheap jersey and a New Look t-shirt pattern ready to go. Let’s just jump to the first picture, shall we? Here are the jeans and my first t-shirt from the New Look pattern.
Showing posts with label New Look. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Look. Show all posts
The day 3 outfit was a hangin' out at home and doing errands and going to the doctor outfit. I'm not sure it was quite working for me - evidence that I clearly need to get to work on more hanging out at home and errands clothing and less having tea with the queen outfits.
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| New Look 6808... with boots? |
So. I am RELATIVELY focused on the fall wardrobe project. I'd like to finish it... I'd even like to finish it on time. And I'm puttering away and think it still might happen (although the RTW option is increasingly looking better. I have the perfect white cardigan that goes with EVERYTHING...) But I have other plans too. Plans for dresses that I'd be making if I weren't making what I'm making...
First up. While at the local anxiety inducing, cluttered, dirty, staffed with grouchy ladies, fabric warehouse, I came across this BEAUTIFUL piece of greenish, tealish wool blend. It's nice and thin and drapey and it's a color that I always think would look good on me, but don't buy. It's very, um, different from my usual palette of brown, black, cream, dark green... here it is with the lining that I found (on the roll - with RIBBONS tied on the end! The girl who cut that fabric was obviously new and not beaten down by the steady stream of blond middle aged women carrying a throw pillow and asking how much fabric do they need to recover their sofa...) I also picked up just a bit of funky brocade to do some nice hem facings and whatnot. And the perfect pair of cognac colored shoes that I never wear will go perfectly with the dress....
First up. While at the local anxiety inducing, cluttered, dirty, staffed with grouchy ladies, fabric warehouse, I came across this BEAUTIFUL piece of greenish, tealish wool blend. It's nice and thin and drapey and it's a color that I always think would look good on me, but don't buy. It's very, um, different from my usual palette of brown, black, cream, dark green... here it is with the lining that I found (on the roll - with RIBBONS tied on the end! The girl who cut that fabric was obviously new and not beaten down by the steady stream of blond middle aged women carrying a throw pillow and asking how much fabric do they need to recover their sofa...) I also picked up just a bit of funky brocade to do some nice hem facings and whatnot. And the perfect pair of cognac colored shoes that I never wear will go perfectly with the dress....
I'm thinking that this fabric will be great for Vogue 8648. I'm not sure if I'd rather do view F or view C - I'm leaning towards view F. I do love a full circle skirt!!
My other recent dress obsession is, not very surprisingly, a Joan Holloway inspired obsession. The red bow dress from this season's second episode...
I can't get over how awesome this shade of red looks on her! My hair is a similar color, so perhaps I would look good in that color too? Perhaps? Please, let it be so?? In addition, I'm loving the scoop neck, and, of course, the bows. The neck bow more than the bow in the back, though.
I'm thinking of adapting New Look 6808 which is actually a shirt pattern that I recently made. It has the collar, although I might want to lower it a bit, the sleeves and the bow. It doesn't have a lower back, though, which I would like and am a little nervous about just going off and designing on my own as I'm sure I'll end up with serious gaping issues.
For the bottom of the dress, I was thinking of extending the shirt pattern into an a-line (possibly beyond my drafting skills), using the bottom from the Vogue pattern I have for the green dress in either the straight or circle skirt versions (hmmmm.... do I want a midriff piece as well??) or using the bottom from the dress that's part of Simplicity 2703 which has a nice a-line shape. Here's the line drawing...
And of course, I'll have to find the perfect fabric in the perfect shade of red! Lucky for me, I have lots of time to plot while finishing the fall wardrobe!!
Next up... back to the series of unflattering photos and fitting a shirt in 3 pieces!
Project number two of the fall wardrobe contest is COMPLETED!! I moved on to New Look 6808, a cute little shirt with basic shaping and a nice little bow... here's the finished version!
I picked this pattern because I thought it looked pretty and basic, but still had a shape. I don't have a lot of shirts in general, being drawn to stretchy tank tops in the summer and ribbed turtlenecks in the winter. I wasn't quite sure about this one - I thought it might make me look blocky. I'm reasonably happy with the results.
I had a particular problem with the fit. I made three muslins. The first was alright, but needed more room across the hips and needed the bust/darts dropped about an inch. The second was better, but had a serious puddling in the small of the back which caused a lot of confusion. The back was just one piece with two two-ended darts, and the puddling was BETWEEN the darts - it looked great when I cut a straight line up the center back from the hem to the widest part of the darts. To fix, I decided to add a center back seam, so I could add in a wedge where I needed it. The finished product lies very nicely -
The real focus of this particular project was details. I wanted to learn a few new things and make the inside look perfect!! For seam finishing, I used french seams on the straight seams - sides, shoulders and arms. I pinked the horizontal darts and just sewed some double fold bias tape around the sleeve seams (where I connected the arms to the bodice...)
I ended up using the gold brocade I've used on other projects for the sleeve and arm facings and on the underside of the collar.
I also put a little button right at the point of the little vent on the sleeve - I couldn't get it to turn cleanly (bad sewing skills, again) and had to snip the stitches and then sew the seam with a couple of hand stitches. It wasn't perfect looking, so I found these little covered buttons in my stash to hide my sloppy work.
For the hems, I did a blind catchstitch on the shirt hem, and a slipstitch on the sleeve facing. I'm not sure what I think of the results, especially with the sleeve facing. You CAN see it from the outside, and I don't know if I thought sewing it on the machine, like the instructions suggested, would be TOTALLY home-made looking. Jury's still out.
The detail I spent the most time on and was the happiest with was the zipper! I used Gertie's method of inserting the hand-picked lapped zipper - I used the same gold brocade to make the placket and LOVED the results - I didn't realize how much it would show! I also wanted to do an underflap - partially because I think they look cool and partially because I kept having a visceral reaction to my wild imaginings of zippered up side flesh! To make the underflap, I cut a piece of grosgrain ribbon I had on hand (7/8" wide) the length of the zipper. Then I cut a piece of the brocade about three and a half times wider than the ribbon - between three and for inches. I folded over one edge and ironed, then sewed the unironed side to the ribbon, wrapped the ribbon and the just ran the sewing machine over the folded over edge. I turned under the ends a couple of times for a finished look and sewed down with the machine. I also stabilized away - I did a couple of strips of iron on interfacing on the edges of the garment before I even started. I used sew-in interfacing on the placket. Here's a picture of the zipper to get an idea of the finished product...
So now for a few different looks - not all so different, I actually think the shirt could be a little more versatile if I shorten it by a few inches. But here it is a few different ways!
On my first wearing of this project, a friend commented on Facebook that it looked like I was going to church. Not a bad thing, but not QUITE the response I was expecting, since I was on my way to a Saturday night cocktail hour, not Sunday morning church!
Project... I was looking for a fitted jacket with a little bit of Chanel-like-vibe.
Pattern... Even though I was looking for a fitted jacket, I still wanted a neckline that would flatter and dip - not choke me! New Look 6911 looked promising...
Fabric... OK, so the pattern wasn't very Chanel-like!! Apparently, in my head, when I'm thinking Chanel, it's the fabric I'm thinking of. I found an impossible to work with loosely woven boucle. Strands of gold, cream, pale yellow. The most ravelry fabric in the universe. Promises to add bulk to my already bulky frame... I found it in the wool section of S.R. Harris, a local, messy, overwhelming fabric warehouse. But the price was only $11.99 a yard, so I'm relatively certain that it's not actually wool....
Alterations and other frustrations... For a full rundown, check out my review on PatternReview. Suffice to say, I cut a smaller size, did a major FBA, widened the hips and waist, lengthened the bodice. Lengthened, then shortened the arms, narrowed the shoulders. My poor little franken-pattern.
Finishing... I thought fabric covered buttons were the only way to go. I love the look, but MAN this fabric was difficult to use with the Dritz self-fabric buttons. Too thick, too prone to coming undone. I had to buy 12 buttons to get 3 usable ones, and the top button actually comes undone pretty often, but lets me stick it back together. I also fashioned some fold back cuffs with contrast lining and interfaced with craft weight interfacing to give them their own personality. Finally, I added a bit of vintage lace around the neckline.
Final thoughts... I really love this jacket - so much so that I'm thinking of making it as a denim jacket for over summery dresses.
Details...
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