Return of my sewing mojo (sew-jo??) - Vogue 8555

The pink Burda dress horror was doing my head in - I decided to put it to one side and get on with something else. I was inspired by a recent trip to Joel's Fabrics up by Edgeware Road (more on that in another post - I am still recovering from the BEATING my AmEx took that day) and I bought a load of patterns (with the awesome Sew Today 50% discount - huzzah!) which got me all enthusiastic again.
One of my amazing purchases from Joel's was some gorgeous purple floral cotton. This stuff is cotton the likes of which I have never seen, it feels so smooth and almost silky - and as it was a bolt end (at two metres!) it was in the 50% off section (which was frankly just as well as I think at full price it was about £25 a metre - that place is NOT cheap)... then when some of the patterns I had ordered came at the weekend, I spotted Vogue 8555 which I thought would be fab for my lovely purple cotton. I am making view B (the yellow dress in the link). The dress is lined and I had some beige silky lining which is perfect. On Saturday I did a quick muslin of the bodice in size 10 which seemed generally ok though might need taking in at the centre back when I put the zipper in.

I have so far finished the bodice which looks good so far - I really like the pleats on the neckline and the sweetheart shape at the front is pretty cool. I am really keen to finish this dress as professionally as possible - and I wanted to understitch the lining to the seam allowances as per the instructions (which say to understitch 'as far as possible'). The annoying thing is that the instructions said to do that after I'd sewn the lining and the fabric together at the neckline and armholes - and the curves just wouldn't let me get the sewing machine all the way around. I couldn't just go part of the way and stop - it would look odd on the inside surely??

What is the best way to do this properly?? Advice please!

On the length, I was going to have it above the knee (the is the most flattering length on me) but now I'm thinking if I taper the skirt in towards the hem a bit more to make it a bit more pencil-y, it might be ok just over the knee... hmmmm. To be continued.

Lovely Lisa

So yesterday I managed to finish Lisa - I had a total nightmare with the zipper... I bought a plastic invisible zipper foot and put the zipper in but I think I must have sewed too close to the teeth because the zip got stuck fast and I had to unpick all the stitching, take it out (the zipper was broken after that), buy a new zipper and start again... that was a nightmare. The second attempt was better but still not perfect.

Also because the finished size of the bodice according to the pattern was too big for me, I had to adjust it at the sides and centre back of the bodice to make it smaller (I made it up in Vogue size 10 which as it turns out was about two sizes too big) - by that point I had already stitched on the grossgrain ribbon decoration so the adjustment meant the ribbon didn't quite meet at the sides and back. A bit annoying but not too bad.

Always a bit mystified as to the best hem finish - I usually do a double folded hem (which is what I did here) but need to experiment with other finishes. Same for seams - takes ages to finish seams... think that will be what prompts me to get an overlocker...

And I shall call her.... Lisa

Long time no post... I have been away on hols (hooray) but am back now and raring to sew... (geddit??). Jackie was a hit at the wedding - though annoyingly I soon found out that my strap adjustment was a little over-zealous... and the bodice wasn't as close fitting as it should have been at the back - forcing soldier-like posture to keep it all flat. Some pics to follow when I find some nice ones (could be some time)...

So today I wandered down to Goldhawk Road to buy some fabric for some of the millions of dress patterns I appear to have bought but been too nervous to try.... It's the first time I've been down there - happily it is only about 20 mins for me on the tube. There were some gorgeous Swiss voiles in one of the shops for £25 p/m, I was going to buy some but didn't have a good pattern in mind and am not yet feeling confident enough to draft my own.. but I managed to find a lovely maxi dress pattern which would be perfect for some of the bordered fabrics. Very Cavalli... I did managed to get some lovely blue cotton with a sort of woven stripe, and another blue cotton with a fine purple satin-y stripe. I thought it would make a lovely dress, but then realised loads of the patterns I have say 'not suitable for obvious stripes'. Goddammit. Also got a heavy woven cotton in lavender and a sort of aqua / turqoise colour. And some lovely wooly boucle type stuff of which I have grand plans to make a Chanel-style suit for the winter... Though given I have made about four things in total so far - none of them involving sleeves in any format - that may be a bit ambitious... Anyway onto the current project.

In a massive pattern splurge in Peter Jones on Sloane Square, I found Vogue pattern V8232 which I thought was a really nice simple design that I could make up in loads of different colours / fabrics. And it was in the 'Very Easy Vogue' section. Hurrah! I am going to make it up in the plain blue cotton (and think I will line it) and then maybe do some funky decoration-type-thang with grosgrain ribbon... And I shall call her 'Lisa'.

So far I have cut out the fabric - am about to start on the lining. I am sooooooo slow....

Jackie part II

So I have just finished the bodice! I lined and stitched it all on machine - no hand sewing whatsoever - thanks to this awesome tutorial I found on BurdaStyle which shows you how to do this cool inside-outsidey magic seam thingy. In the end I found it easier to follow than the one on Threads I referred to in my previous post.. not sure if they even do the same thing, but I will be using this method a lot going forward.

I did use the Threads quick-lining technique to start with - it basically involves cutting your lining from the garment pattern pieces and sewing the facings to the linings and thereafter treating it as one unit. Here is a pic of the lining with the facing pinned to it. I have never sewn lining fabric before - slippery little sucker...

The inside-outsidey magic seam thingy I used for sewing everything together. The picture to the left was taken after I'd sewn the neck and armholes and before I'd sewn the side seams. I have left the back open as once I have made up the skirt bit (hopefully that will be a lot less fiddly and time-consuming) and joined the skirt to the bodice there will be a zipper there. Hopefully I've left enough of a seam allowance. The lining technique is awesome and for this project has worked well - I'm really chuffed with the results of my first attempt at lining something! I think when I sewed everything together I should have trimmed the seam allowances down at the armholes as there is a little bit of bulk there... but I gave it a good iron and it seems fine. I've been amazed at how easy the silk dupion has been to iron. Which makes up for the fact that it FRAYS ALL OVER THE GODDAMN PLACE. Ugh.

I'm really glad how the straps turned out - I hate hand sewing (it's always slipstitch isn't it?!) and the pattern for Jackie calls for hand sewing at the shoulders. Yawnarama. But the inside-outsidey magic seam thingy lets you sew the whole lot on the machine then turn it the right way and press it. It looks much neater and more professional than my hand sewing, that's for sure...

I didn't do anything with the seams on the inside - just pinked the edges - maybe I should have used some seam binding or something? I did that for the seam joining the silk bits of the upper and lower bodice and it looked very neat but you can't see it as it's hidden by the lining. Hopefully it will be ok, I can't see me wearing this dress every day! Though if I can finish the skirt bit I'd like to wear the dress for my cousin's wedding at the end of May... but first I have to figure out how to make the skirt...

Jackie

So I am part way through my lovely oyster silk version of the 50s delight below. Actually, I think I need to name it - how about Jackie? I decided that I didn't want a button fastening at the front but instead a zipper at the back, and though I haven't got as far as the skirt bit yet I am thinking of having a more tulip-style skirt instead of the full skirt the pattern uses; the silk dupion is quite voluminous and I don't want it to end up looking like some sort of 80s wedding dress… But for now I am just making up the bodice.

When I made the practice version, the gathered seam under the bust did not lie quite under my bust but instead sort of across it (a factor of my freakishly long upper body as opposed to the size of my bust, sadly) so I needed to make an adjustment for this in the silk version. What I ended up doing was extending the length of the upper bits of the back and front pattern that make the straps. So far it seems to have worked but I haven't sewn everything together yet. To remove the button closure facing stuff from the front of the bodice, I just folded the front bodice pieces back to the 'centre front' line and cut them on the fold. Again, seems to have worked so far but I haven't really fitted it properly yet. Is really hard to do with pins sticking everywhere… perhaps I should buy one of those Lady Valet dress forms… For the back, in order to leave enough fabric for sewing in the zipper, I added an extra 2cm to the centre back seam allowance.

Anyway, the cotton version of Jackie was a cream colour for the bodice, and it was quite translucent and you could see the folded darts a bit. So I wanted to line this version - also to make it nicer to wear. As I have only ever made two other things before - both of those being massively simple - and the dress pattern does not have instructions or patterns for lining, I am having to figure it out by trial and error. After a bit of searching I found an awesome tutorial on Threads which shows a great quick-lining technique . If this is the quick version, don't know that I'll ever get around to the 'slow' method…! I have sewn the facings to the lining pieces (which are just cut out from the same pattern as the bodice pieces) and now am about to sew the lining/facing unit to the front fabric… it is all pinned and ready, hopefully will get around to doing that tonight. Am a bit nervous about turning it the right way in (which involves pulling the back sections through the shoulders - sounds confusing to me) and pressing it but watch this space….