Fabric stash find for my annual birthday dress

One thing we probably all have learned during this extended stay-at-home time is the value of a good stockpile of fabric. I have the usual stash of notions, fabrics and other sewing supplies. I tend to buy fabric at stores such as Stone Mountain that I'm going to sew up right away. When I find fabric at garage sales, swaps, sewing guild fabric destash events, or even fabric that is given to me, that goes in the fabric storage closet for just the right project to come along. 

However this fabric is something that I bought around seven years ago? maybe longer. I was on a cotton sateen kick then and Fashion Fabrics Club had a lot of nice printed sateens so I ordered quite a few one year. Slowly I've been using them up and this seemed like a good match for a pattern I've also had for a while.

This is a pattern I bought ages ago on the BurdaStyle website, and I knew that I printed out the PDF but I couldn't find it. I searched all through my desk and closets, combed through my computer and yet it was still missing. One day earlier this summer I mentioned to my friend Halyna (@zigzagstitching) that I was searching for a Burda sundress pattern and she replied "oh the one that you gave to me?" Aha, that's where it went! I knew I had printed it out. So she gave it back to me and I finally sewed it up for this year's birthday dress.

Yes, my always near Labor Day birthday has come and gone, and no tropical beach vacation this year so I will have to make up for that in the future. To be quite honest - 6 months of this stay-at-home, life isn't back to normal is taking a toll on my mood, and the stress of approaching winter, the election on the horizon, and the gloom and sadness of all the west coast fires are combining to make everyone even more on edge than before. It almost feels like a year without summer - we had the heat and sunshine but not much of the usual fun of travel, seeing friends and family, going to barbecues and just enjoying things. Fellow Americans - get your act together!! so we can go back to normal(ish) life. 

Back to sewing details. Here is the pattern which I think is no longer available on the website. 

I did change the straps, and also added a belt. Otherwise it is just like the pattern. I think they also had a version with cap sleeves which would be nice. 

Who doesn't like a dress with nice big pockets that are part of the design? Kind of irresistible.

Note that I took some of these photos with my iPhone and others with my digital camera, it's interesting to see how different the color comes out. I think the camera ones actually have better color and the iPhone does too much auto-correcting which I suppose I could adjust but will probably ignore. 

These pockets are ideal, they remind me of those on my favorite Butterick 5455 pattern, a dress I've made so many times, (here and here). And now you can see the interesting detail on the back bodice, which is a section of shirring that is intended to give a nice snug fit. It worked OK on this, I think because cotton sateen is quite a thick fabric the shirring with elastic thread didn't draw up the fabric as much as it would do on a thinner fabric. 

There's a good look at the back shirring, that center back piece is a separate one, that you sew with the elastic thread and then attach to the side back pieces. The front and then the side backs have a facing. The shirring section is turned under and stitched to finish the top edge. 

I thought it needed a bit more tightening in that section so I stretched and stitched on a piece of quarter inch elastic which did the trick. I am all about the quick no one will ever see them fixes on my summer dresses. 

One of my favorite things to make with certain dresses is a belt from the same fabric. My sister found that nice pearly white belt buckle so I had that in my box of notions as well. Save those belt buckles - they can be very handy. Sometimes I buy a belt at the thrift store for a couple of bucks just for the hardware. The proportion seemed to call for it so I made this belt a bit wider than the buckle and just pleated it where it attached to the buckle. I think this is one of the fun things about making your own clothes, these little details that you get to decide, where to stitch, how big a hem, pleats or ruffles, a pattern hack here or there. It's the customization that makes sewing really fun to me. 

The buttons are not a perfect match but they were also in my button box, and I feel very virtuous and thrifty when I use vintage buttons I have instead of making a special trip to buy some buttons. My sewing machine has the setting to make those little eyelet holes and it's very fun to do. I always make a few test ones just to make sure I like them. The key to a nice belt is plenty of interfacing. I also make at least one loop for the end of the belt to go into. Sometimes on a very fancy dress I will put a snap underneath the end of the belt so it stays exactly in place. 

So that's the latest on my not quite last summer dress. I have one more that I just finished which is a winner but will also be put away until next year. 😞

I hope everyone is staying well and coping with this stressful summer - my fellow west coasters - let's pray for rain and an end to these terrible fires. Little danger here near me but the air is incredibly bad over all of N. California and Oregon going on for a week now. Wednesday was the weird day when we actually had to use lamps at noon and the sky was a dark and eerie orange all day. What else? NO don't answer that.......

Last week was my first session of our Hello Stitch Sewing club class, it was really fun to get back to teaching some classes. Not sure what we will do in October, maybe a button front shirt or cozy stay at home separates - haven't decided yet. In any case we plan to do a different garment every month so I hope you can join in. Hello Stitch Studio , you can get their newsletter or follow in IG for updates. 

The state of my garden is dry and fading. I hope to get out there and do some cleaning up if our air improves. By the way - I think this is my 5th quarantine haircut, self-administered. I think I will make it for the duration! 

See you soon, stay well and happy sewing,

Beth

Today's garden photo - a beautiful hydrangea from June. 

Vintage DKNY dress, Vogue 1958 in cotton sateen

My love for the Vogue patterns by designer Donna Karan runs very deep, and I have a secret mission to sew up all of them. Which will never happen but I can pretend. However my late night eBay pattern browsing brought me to what can only be classified as my perfect DKNY pattern, and it landed in my shopping cart with not a moment's hesitation.
As soon as it arrived I wanted to stitch it up but alas, where does one wear a nice new dress these days? I was feeling a bit weighed down by our current societal situation, and slightly exasperated with sewing silly things I don't need, and then I decided - a red dress! There is something about a red dress that just cheers me up and the inspiration was right there on the pattern envelope. Not to mention that I had this red cotton sateen in my fabric stash for several years so it seemed a good time to use it.  So a red dress it was, and I love it but due to trying to outsmart myself it was a lengthy fitting journey to get here.  





Of course I decided to make View B, shown on the pattern envelope on the right in black. My preference for that armhole cut is well know, but I did think the center front neckline looked a bit high. This pattern was a 3 size one, so it included sizes 12-14-16.



I thought perhaps by using the size 16 lines at the neck I could then cut it down at the neckline so I cut out a bit of a mish-mash on the sizes and figured I could shape and adjust the upper part of the dress in the fabric. Which is what I did but it probably created way more work, and a lot of pin something, try on, take off, make small adjustment and repeat until I liked the result.

Here's the technical drawing for this pattern. which shows the seaming. The upper part of the bodice is continuous with the skirt front and then there is a waist inset, with a dart forming a pleat. I love patterns with interesting seaming and construction, to me they are so much more visually interesting and much more fun to sew.






I did some pin fitting of the upper part of the bodice and decided (1) to add a bit of length to the center front so the waist seam would land in the right spot. This shifted the angle of the front and added to the horizontal width of the front neckline, so (2) I pinched that out with tiny folds to retain the width of the neckline. (3) Since I was cutting out the size 16 at the shoulder I raised the underarm about 3/4". (which I often do on sleeveless dresses, it can always be removed later but I don't like when they land too low).  I used the size 16 on the side seams so I could adjust the side seam later, the markings of the pleats and dart are the same for all sizes so no change there. Also, to do this adjustment I cut off the upper part of the pattern, traced and adjusted it on tissue and then attached back to the bigger pattern piece. So just FYI - no need to trace an entire pattern. You bought it, you own it, cut it up and work with it, and if you are concerned with fit adjustments just trace the pattern pieces that will need adjustments.




All my outdoor photos are a bit out of focus, which is something I didn't notice until days later, but hopefully you can see the dress well enough.




There is a look at the dress front, you can see how the waist inset is attached to the bodice side front and then the dart is sewn in order to make the pleat.

More fitting reality. The trouble with taking an iPhone photo of the back view in the mirror is that you have to raise your arm to hold the phone and it distorts the garment :) although with a sleeveless dress it's not such a problem. I've included this picture as it included the shoulder seam pinned together (follow the green arrow). People often ask how to fit yourself, by yourself and my answer is "carefully" haha. For something like this it's almost impossible to pin the shoulders together as a seam, so I just overlap and then it's much easier to pin. Also you can pin both shoulders and often find the seam amount might be different so it's more of a custom fit. I also don't worry about the edges, if the inner neckline edge matches then I will just shave off extra at the outer edge.






Now that I'm looking at all these pictures I realize that this dress is kind of difficult to photograph. Also it looks quite wrinkly but that's cotton sateen, it's never going to be entirely smooth. This fabric is probably a bit too stiff for this pattern, looking at the envelope it seems their fabrics are more drapey, I think a crepe would be ideal. This red version was intended to be a wearable test but I like it enough to call it good for this pattern. So many other patterns calling my name right now.




I'm very happy with the fit across the upper back however I think the back waist seam is a tiny bit low. You can't tell in this photo but I think the pleats would hang better if it were shorter.

Here I've pinned up the center back with a horizontal tuck to show how that raises the waist seam. I usually do this on most patterns but looking at the pattern pieces it didn't seem necessary. Or perhaps I meant to do it when I attached the skirt but I forgot!



And in what can only be described as a very sad oversight, this dress pattern did not have pockets. Which I am not obsessed with but in a dress with smooth side seams and plenty of room for them it seems like it would have been nice.



I don't really use pockets in dresses much - what are you going to put in there? plus whatever you do put pulls too much. However for standing around and taking pictures then pockets are a must, right ???








More fitting adjustments, I did sew up the front, back, finish the shoulder seams and neckline, and then sew the side seams last with adjustments and basting along the way. This view B is finished with bias binding on the neck and armhole, which is a bit of a surprise but I decided to go with it as it made the fitting easier. The view A has an all in one facing.



Did you take ballet when you were a kid? Looking at these photos I kind of laughed as I did ballet for years and had a built in advantage of having turned out feet before I even started! And obviously still do, have the turnout I mean :)

So that 's the scoop on this Vogue pattern, a while back on Instagram I asked if anyone could guess the copyright date, and the answers were varied. Which I think goes to show that styles are constantly repeating and good ones are timeless.  The answer is: © 1997, so this pattern is 23 years old. I wonder what other pattern gems are waiting for me?

Up next, more cotton sateen from the stash which I've turned into a strappy sundress, and a post on sewing things that didn't work out. Yes it happens! thankfully not often.

Soon I will have some class listings on the Hello Stitch website for virtual classes via Zoom that we will be offering. To start the first one will be more for beginners, so I will ask you to forward to your
"sewing curious" friends and push them to get started on this fantastic hobby/obsession.



Happy Summer Sewing,
Beth

Today's garden photo, I think this rose is Tropicana. No blooms right now, as all the roses get a bit tired in the heat but it will probably put out a few more blooms in the next month.  

House of Pinheiro Brasilia dress, version 2 in cotton sateen and some info on ribbon

To my great surprise a lot of you commented on my previous post - adding your voice in the debate between ruffle or trim. And the vote was fairly evenly split with perhaps a slight majority for ruffle. Which really surprised me - I didn't think anyone would like that at all.

Speaking of voting - it's a long way until November with only a brief interlude of the Olympics to distract us. Please distract us!!! Thank goodness for the Olympics, I love them. The hunky swimmers, the amazing gymnasts, the split second drama on the track and so many other great contests. The broadcast does have a lot to get through but I do wish they would show a bit more of some of the less well known sports. Like synchronized swimming. Weird but fascinating. What sport do you like to watch?

OK back to sewing. This is another item that I sewed in order to illustrate the topic for a Craftsy Sewing blog post. And a pattern repeat. When I first sewed this dress I did plan to come back to it and it has taken me 2 years but here it is.

This is the Brasilia dress by House of Pinheiro, also know as Rachel, if you read her blog. I made this in 2014 and did a lot of pattern fitting. Here is the link to my fitting post and then the finished dress post is here. It is only available in one size but it is not all that difficult to fit, plus it has that interesting seaming in the front.




I used this slightly juvenile cotton sateen with 2% spandex. Which has been marinating in my stash for a while because I could only envision it as a children's dress. But one day I decided the flowers were hibiscus, which is tropical, which is just my style. Kind of a Tori Richard look (my favorite Hawaiian designer - their fabrics are so gorgeous). Plus I had the right color of ribbon in my ribbon box - purchased for something else but nice for this project. That is how my Craftsy blog posts go - either I am making something already and use that for a post or I want to do a post and then rummage around for the raw materials among stuff I already have.



Here is the dress form pic so you can see the actual colors. I did make one change which was to lower the front neckline about 1/2 inch, since I felt the original was a bit high for my comfort, and then I decided to add the V neckline detail, which is super easy as there is the center front seam.




In case you can't tell - my post for Craftsy was about sewing with ribbon. I have a lot of ribbon which I always think I will use but so far not so much. The occasional ribbon sash or something like that but doing this post got me thinking about it and I have some ideas for incorporating a ribbon accent into a shirt.






I read a post by Nakisha recently and she was commenting on the type of ribbon found on a ready to wear skirt that she had. I am pretty sure it is petersham ribbon which is quite different from grosgrain in how it behaves. You can shape petersham ribbon with the iron as you can see in the photo above, you could not do it with grosgrain. It is kind of hard to find petersham in chain type fabric stores but I am lucky that Stone Mountain has lots, plus I think you can find it at various places on line. Be sure to get petersham if you want to do this treatment.

On the left, mint green is the petersham - see how the edge is not finished. The grosgrain (light blue) on the right has that distinctive ridge and you could not bend or shape that no matter how hard you try.






Other than adding the ribbon this was a very straightforward project - my pattern was all fitted and I just had to sew it up. I put an all-in-one neckline and armhole facing of white cotton which I sewed, pulled the dress through the shoulder seams to have a clean finish and then under stitched where possible. I am a big believer in under stitching, never skip that. I sewed the ribbon on the neck edge first and thought that would do it, thinking maybe some on the hemline. But once it all finished but the hem I thought it needed the ribbon around the armholes as well. So that is sewn through the facing. Not that it makes any difference. And no ribbon on the hemline - just didn't need it. I do a lot of evaluating as I sew - sometimes walk away from things or leave them on the dress form so I see them as I walk by and get ideas for changes in proportion or shaping that way. In any case - I rarely sew up a pattern as is so those ideas need a little time to percolate:)

Back view, it is a simple sheath dress with waist darts. I did tighten up the center back seam about an inch at the very top as the first version gaped a bit there.



This is such a perfect summer daytime dress for me - great for hot weather which we are supposed to have plenty of this weekend. I tried to make it a bit more fitted, sometimes I think I make things a bit too loose as I have a mania about stuff that is too tight, so like Goldilocks says - this one is just right.



Just to prove that now and then I do like a ruffle, and that I am no stranger to wild tropical print cotton sateen, here is a link to a previous summer dress. Which I really like but every time I think of wearing it I feel that I will be dazzling people with the bright colors. So what, right?

Sports. Ribbon. Wild tropical fabrics. All over the map in this post. As I said I have more ideas for using ribbon - as embellishment and also to create a lattice detail. Not sure if I will get to them but it's good to have those ideas swirling around.

Happy Summer weekend - unless you are in the southern hemisphere, (talking to you Australia) where I have a sneaking suspicion that your winter is a lot like ours here in the bay area. In the sense that you can sew and wear a cute coat and get those gloves and scarves out, more for fashion than anything else but don't have to worry about frostbite or the polar express. Or maybe I have that all wrong. Anyway - we are heading in to the 100's ˚F so I plan to float in the pool and maybe catch up on some novels.

Beth

Alameda Dress from Pauline Alice Patterns

Enough with the sneak peeks on this outfit, right? I put the last stitch on the hem about 2 weeks ago but it took a while to get some photos organized, and I thought this deserved something better than my usual photos. My pal Alice can be counted on to take my best blog photos and she is always on the lookout for a stray thread or the odd wrinkle. Now that is a good friend, right?



This is the Alameda dress from Pauline Alice patterns. I actually didn't take any photos of this while sewing, it is fairly straightforward in construction. Most all of the fitting was done as I sewed it up. I chose a skirt size based on my hip measurement and it was a bit on the big size, both all over and especially the waist - however all those princess seams in the skirt allow you to shape the waist/hips to get a great fit. After doing that it was a smudge big around the hips also, but since the zipper goes in last its an opportunity to take a larger center back seam.



If you have read my blog for a while then you know I don't sew very many indie patterns, I don't see many that are interesting or different from patterns I have. But I always noticed the Pauline Alice patterns and thought they had some interesting details, a little more complexity than is often seen. By the way, her patterns are very high quality, the paper is bright white and a good thickness which makes it easy to trace onto tissue (which I always do when using this type of pattern). The instructions seem thorough as well, and in 3 languages.



When she came out with this Alameda dress/2-piece pattern I thought it was very pretty but noticed that on her website there was no line drawing. So I just figured I would email her and tell her that as a  long time pattern buyer I would not buy a pattern where I couldn't first look at the technical drawing and she should consider putting those on her site. Maybe that sounded a bit, I dunno, pushy? or helpful? Anyway - she wrote back immediately and uploaded the technical drawings. And then we became acquainted via email. Long story short she asked me to be a tester for a new coat pattern and I usually tell people no, but she enticed me by sending a photo of her own test version of the Quart coat pattern. So I replied Yes! as that coat is so fantastic. I did test it and gave her some info on the pattern, particularly in the sleeves which she appreciated. And then I did make a real version of the Quart coat for a friend of mine.


I have had this pattern for a while and decided that as soon as the weather warmed up I would make it. Which sent me searching through my fabrics to see if I had anything suitable, and this cotton sateen I bought at Stone Mountain last summer seemed like a good choice.



The colors are more visible here and you can hopefully see the seaming and pockets. The fabric is actually navy blue, green and white. I think it is one of those "you either love it or hate it" fabrics but now that it is finished I love it. I chose to make the two piece version of this pattern as I figured I could wear the skirt on its own with a solid top.

Yes, it is the two piece version of the pattern though it might not appear so in that first photo. See, I'm showing you here. The things I do for you!



The only major modification on this outfit sticks with the idea on the pattern, but in practice I didn't use all the pattern. Because I had the pattern pieces out which I used for this dress - which you should go look at as it is one of my favorites and has a lot of fitting info. Anyway...I thought hmmm, that top part fits so well, the shape is similar, and I figured out the shoulders/armhole etc. so oh heck, why not use that for the crop top portion. So I did. Any I bet you would not have noticed had I not told you.
Although I did modify those pattern shapes to match this pattern more, by deepening the front neckline, and then making it a pull over the head top with the zipper opening at the waist. You can just see the zipper tab at the bottom there. Which gives a super clean finish on the neckline and armholes of the top. So another clever idea. And apologies to Pauline Alice for not using all her pattern pieces but close enough.



Too many pictures?



I should have taken some without my hands in the pockets. But you know that pockets like these are irresistible. And if you like skirts with a flounce then I highly recommend. I know the flounce is not for everyone but I have always liked it and this has a great amount of flounce. Is that a thing you can measure?  maybe not, but sewing satisfaction, this one is a winner.



Happy weekend sewing, I am off to our Bay area Sewing meet up group on Sat. where myself and 3 other local seamsters will be talking about blogging (how we got started, surprises, challenges, changes over time, advice and then some show and tell of things we have sewn). Always fun to talk sewing with like minded obsessives!

Beth

Today's SunnyGal garden photo, one perfect gardenia. The fragrance by the front door is intoxicating when the bushes are in full bloom. They only last a day or so, which maybe makes them all the more beautiful.