Burda 7237: the end is nigh

There are several more things that need to be done before I put the lining in. That's assembled too, less an underarm seam that I left open for bagging but might decide to close.

The fabric wrinkles easily, but it's also being softened up nicely by all the (over)work. I'm told that the shiny coating is more decorative than waterproof; no big deal (she says as it pours here for the next week at least).

One small thing to note (the instructions don't make a point of it, although they're in the correct order for it to happen): you have to complete the pockets before topstitching 4.5cm from CF. That way, the pocket seam allowance will get caught into the topstitching, rather than bumping against it. It's a nice touch that'll hold the pocket bags in place.

The instructions tell you to sew the lining in by hand, but I plan to do it mostly or entirely by machine, although I haven't decided whether that applies to the CB vent as well. It may also get an inside pocket.

Flat/protruding abdomen alteration: theories on what it is and isn't

I have more than my share of fitting books, and I've seen several variants of flat/protruding abdomen alterations. In general, the protruding/large abdomen alterations add width and usually length over the abdomen, increasing the waist dart intake as well. The flat abdomen alterations do the reverse.

Now, I certainly don't have a flat stomach, so it had been in the back of my mind that I might benefit from the large abdomen alteration—that is, if I ever got around to bothering to do it. But on the other hand, I've often felt that skirt and pants patterns (and to a slightly lesser extent, RTW) feel too high in the waist in front, especially compared to the back. Besides, I often need more waist shaping in the back, not the front. So I couldn't quite square the two.

Since I've looked into it further, here's what I think: the usual large abdomen alterations work best when the front waist is small and indented in comparison. So the largeness has to be over and done with somewhere below the waist. As somewhat exaggerated examples, look at this Toulmouche painting or this Annie Oakley poster. In both cases the waist is quite small (due to the shape of corset worn at the time), and there would need to be quite a bit of front waist shaping to mold the skirt from the roundness at abdomen/hip level up into the narrowness of the waist. The same goes for Christian Dior's Bar suit, with its fitted waist and padded hips. Generally, the large abdomen alteration methods presuppose your pattern has the correct waist measurement already, and you just need more length and width further down—wider darts then take up all the excess at the waist.

But what happens if you have a large front waist too, or you have a posture that shifts your upper torso a bit more forward relative to your hips? Counter-intuitively, that might actually need a flat abdomen alteration, as it will result in less dart shaping at the waist. The problem is, most of the methods for those will decrease the front hip circumference as well, something you might not need unless you've started with a larger size than your hip measurement would call for. What some people do is simply leave any front darts unsewn, or sew them narrower (and maybe sew the back darts wider to compensate, if more shaping is needed there instead). The front waist may well need to be dropped too: if there's less of a curve then there's less need for length—though extra length may be needed for apple shapes.

Anyway, I'm currently applying this theory to a jeans pattern I'm working on. I've erred on the small side when choosing a size, shortened the rise length to get it shorter in front, and done a large derriere alteration to make the pattern proportionally bigger in back. I did add a dart in back, which isn't usual for jeans (normally that shaping's moved entirely into the back yoke) but I think it might look interesting; the tips will be hidden under the pockets. And I realized after all this that my fabric had stretch, something I'd forgotten about. We'll see how that goes.

Neue Mode 22716

This is my next project.

It isn't the first time I've considered sewing this pattern. For some reason I don't recall, the pattern cover and instruction booklet are water-stained. Or maybe it was tea or coffee. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have affected the pattern tissue.

Back when I used to stalk Neue Mode pattern numbering (there used to be a site selling their discontinued patterns, cataloguing them by collection, that made this much easier), I concluded this one might have been from around 1999-2000. Nonetheless, at time of writing you can still buy it, and see the instructions, here.

Sewingpatterns.com sells lots and lots of past Neue Mode designs, some of them almost as old as I am. They've now also got a small line called "Neue Mode USA"; I can't tell if those are new designs or if they're just new illustrations of old ones (which I'd almost prefer, actually, since they'd be more likely to have the same fit as before). Long story short, I really like Neue Mode's drafting and fit; I'm less enthused about Sewingpatterns.com's downloadable PDF system. I haven't ever tried ordering their printed Neue Modes, though IIRC I've heard they're fine. Almost all of my Neue Modes are pre-2007 paper patterns.

Anyway, the previous attempt was going to be a red printed linen, but somehow that didn't work out. I got bogged down in something or other having to do with alterations, which might be just as well, because that color and print wouldn't have been at all to my taste now. As I recall it was a fairly warm, saturated red, and the print might have borne a certain similarity to a tablecloth.

This time the fabric will be the dark floral moleskin I got from last November's Our Social Fabric sale, the one second from right. Not very spring-y, but then neither am I.

The weekend's Sewaholic/Fabrics Etc. meetup, and a new project.

This past Saturday I went to the meetup at Fabrics Etc., where Tasia from Sewaholic Patterns was speaking. Well, that makes it sound all formal; I guess I should call it more of a friendly chat/Q&A. I'd heard of her patterns but hadn't really been familiar with them. Although they are available both printed and in PDF, while I was in Germany I put off buying any: I didn't want them to go through customs, as printed patterns would, and I didn't want to print the PDFs if I'd be able to buy the printed patterns once I got back to Canada (which was "any month now" much of the time I was there). I'm not a big printing-PDFs person, though it does have other advantages and I'll occasionally go for it especially if the pattern is small (lingerie, for example).

Anyway. I like her thought process: my understanding is she's more interested in the construction, and making fairly classic designs that work well in real life, rather than creating very avant-garde or over-the-top styles. The patterns are proportioned for the (so-called) pear shape, probably more of a pronounced one than I personally have, so I might have to size down the hip area for once, rather than sizing it up. I'm most interested in the Granville shirt with its back princess seams (I need either those or a waist seam to fit into the small of my back nicely) and the retractable hood on the Minoru jacket.

As for what I'm starting at the moment, it's a slip from Kwik-Sew 2394. I got some Antron tricot from Bra-makers' Supply, plus some ribbon and lace from Dressew, and I'm making View B, but cutting 4" off the short length, my current problem being that most of my RTW slips are too long. I may do a tricot-vs.-Bemberg faceoff one of these days, but here are my thoughts on the tricot as of right now.

1. It only comes in a few colors, none of which are really to my taste. I'm guessing since the trend has been away from synthetics for the past several years, and it seems to be getting harder and harder to find even RTW slips, there's not enough money to be made by dyeing this in anything other than basic colors. They've got white, ivory, pink, and black. It's all nylon so it should dye well, but I'm very skittish about that, since I rent and my entire apartment is light colors.
2. If you're looking for opacity, you're not going to get much from the light colors (not that you necessarily would from Bemberg either).
3. It has some stretch. There are several older Kwik-Sew patterns designed for tricot that must make some use of that: they tend to also allow you to use wovens, but only if you cut them on the bias.
4. It should be anti-static. I'll need to give it a real-life test to know how it compares in that regard to Bemberg, but at least so far it's behaving well and doesn't seem to be sticking to itself at all.

New socks, catch[up|all] and some general plans

It seems that every time I move continents, I have to try out all the new colds the next winter. That and work have stopped me from doing my usual projects. Besides that, recently, I've been focusing somewhat more on knitting than on sewing. Here's what I have to show for it:

These are based on Cat Bordhi's Upstream master pattern, with the stitch pattern from Anna Zilboorg's Gemma (which in turn came from someplace else, IIRC, but I'd have to look up where exactly). They aren't blocked; generally I let wearing and washing do that for me, for socks anyway. I'm noticing Cat Bordhi's default arches come out very high, which is even more noticeable if the socks are oversized and have short cuffs, as in this case (they're oversized because they're meant as layering rain boot socks, and they're short because I couldn't make them any taller with the 100g yarn I had). She does tell you how to customize that, and I may look into it next time I'm making biggish socks like this. On closer-fitting socks I'd say the high arches are an advantage, though they can look odd when they're not being worn.

The long-suffering rayon crepe georgette dress is finally done, but it's already been worn once and washed, and needs ironing before it'll be ready to photograph.

I've cut and started McCall's 6996, which is shaping up nicely. It might make a good test for my coverstitch machine.

Finally, I've been thinking over what kinds of projects I want to do in the near future and over the course of the year. Current ideas:

• I'm not sure I will do many (any?) Patternreview contests. At any given time, chances are good they won't match what I really want or need to sew just then, and it's too easy for me to get off track and disappointed with something I wasn't all that excited about doing in the first place. I'm certainly appreciative of and impressed by the people who plan and manage the contests, but they may just not be for me.
• I'm not planning on posting about my stash every month (whew). I still do keep track, but it's not too interesting to write about, and must be very dull to read about.
• The temperature range here is far more limited than it was in southwest Germany, not to mention any of the East Coast/Midwest cities I've lived in. I'm finding I have too many too-warm clothes and not enough middling ones. Some long-sleeved tops/shirts may be up next.
• I have a large collection of lingerie fabrics I stocked up on in Germany and Holland, plus a few newly acquired here. Anything made from that might or might not make it here; we'll see.
• Last year, I've decided, I was trying to control too much of my sewing. While I think some wardrobe planning is worthwhile, this should be a hobby, and I shouldn't get too caught up in sewing the ideal thing at the ideal time.
• I do want to continue with my pattern-drafting nerdfest to some extent, but I'm a little desperate for finished clothes right now, so it may be a while before I get back to it.

That's all for now. I'm off to the Fabrics Etc. meetup early (for me) tomorrow; Tasia from Sewaholic will be there!

Back, slightly discombobulated

I haven't done any appreciable sewing in the past couple weeks, and to be honest, probably not in the past few weeks. Instead, I've just been working on something vaguely like these Gemma socks, and lately, playing more video games in my free time. I've now become concerned this might be slow-roasting my poor onboard graphics chipset, and I don't really want to end up having to replace a whole lot more hardware (or in some ways worse IMO, software) if I can help it. So I'm giving it a rest until I get a new card, at least. Hopefully that means I get some other things done, like this:

• A cut-and-sew knit cardigan from a dark red fabric I just got from Fabrics Etc. last month.
• Finishing up the handknit greenish cardigan. I'm thinking the front edges could just use a plain rib finish, and then some sort of closure, maybe a zipper. I want something that will tighten those edges up rather than splay them out, and anything much fancier won't really show up in the nubby yarn anyway. Besides, I can just pick up the stitches and keep knitting that part as wide as I want, or until I run out of yarn. If it ended up being wide enough, I could end up with a foldover collar too (maybe with some short rows).
• Finally finishing up that rayon georgette dress. Really, it just needs the hems, figuring out what to do with the bow/collar piece, and maybe fiddling with the sleeve hems a bit if it turns out they won't steam flat.
• Probably some other cold-weather stuff. For example, I got rid of several long-sleeved T-shirts in the move and could stand to replace them.

In general I'd just like to pick up the pace enough for there to be something worth writing about more often. Other than that, I do need to update some things regarding the last couple months: I finished an additional project in November, which I think I completely forgot about and need to re-review; plus, I got several more fabrics from Gala's closing sale in December. I want to update my inventory before I make any grandiose plans for this year.

Next knitting project

While I agonize about what to do with the front edges of the cardigan, I've started one pair of the sort of socks I've been meaning to get to before winter's over.

These are dark brown Sandnes Garn Perfect wool/nylon at around 6 stitches to the inch, so a medium weight for a sock in my opinion (though I have to say, it seems relatively difficult to find sock yarns in sport weight or thicker).

The stitch pattern will come from Gemma in Anna Zilboorg's Socks for Sandals and Clogs, but the overall structure and method will be based on Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters, my favorite sock knitting book. These are cast right on, with no grafting and no ridge in the toe. I do find her socks default to having rather high arches compared to most, but she gives instructions for customizing that, along with many other things. To summarize my attitude about the book: it's a bit different from common sock knitting methods, so it isn't the easiest way to familiarize yourself with those in order to use other people's patterns and know instantly what you're looking at... but having done both, I find myself reworking other patterns to function more like Bordhi's.  (Zilboorg's are a whole other story — they have features, like removable soles, that I haven't dared try yet.)

Progress on leftover project 2 of 3

I have only been able to work on some things off and on, but I have sewn together this cardigan I knitted from Lion Brand Homespun. It isn't my favorite yarn to knit or to wear, but aside from the washability and the price, I couldn't resist this particular color. It's a far subtler tan, yellow, and steel-blue blend than it probably looks in this acid-greeny flash photo... winter solstice, eh?

Next I will have to decide what exactly I'm doing with the neckline and fronts, because I don't like the stockinette curl in the lower part. The simplest thing might be to add a separating zipper, but that may look terrible if worn open. I will research some edgings.

On the third of the leftover projects, the Kwik-Sew dress, I have hemmed the sleeves, and that's about it. It feels like more of a spring dress, so it's been hard to get motivated.

Happy holidays!

A little bag progress, and a realization about the topstitching

I've only done a few bits and pieces of sewing lately, but I got the side zipper into the bag, and the pocket bag partly attached.

 

The zipper is sewn into a window in the side of the bag, somewhat like (some ways of making) a welt pocket or bound buttonhole, but since the strap will cover the ends, those do not need to be neatly turned under. To avoid bulk there I just cut vertical slashes.

The zipper is overly long because it was the only way I could get one that would match the top zipper as well as meeting other criteria: the color looks reasonable with this fabric, the coil is fairly wide, and the pull is decorative and will hang down vertically, even with the zipper placed horizontally.

First one edge of the pocket bag is held onto the lower zipper tape by a double row of topstitching. The wrong side — if there is one — of the pocket bag fabric is up. I tacked it on with whipstitching beforehand, since this was sewn through from the right side where I couldn't keep an eye on it. There is no need to remove the basting, if it doesn't go through to the outside.

I suspect this was done with a twin needle in the original, but I'd have no way to be sure without taking it apart. I did two rows with the single needle, which are not as perfect but will have to do. The thread is Gütermann Mara 30; this is a bit beyond the weight my machine will readily sew, and even if I'd had a large enough double needle, my machine doesn't do all that well with those either.

Then I flipped the pocket bag down. I gave it a quick hand understitch too, to really make sure it doesn't ride up into the zipper pull, though this shouldn't be strictly necessary.

Then the other end of the pocket bag is folded up to meet the top edge of the zipper tape, and the topstitching will be repeated there. Again, I will hand baste it first to avoid any nasty surprises. Finally, the attachment of the straps will catch the sides of the pocket bag.

By the way, this pocket bag is cut all in one piece, with the bottom being a fold. It saves some work, if your cutting layout will allow it.

The fact that the pocket bag can be constructed and attached entirely by the topstitching led me to realize how the handles of the original could have been attached and topstitched in one pass, without the stitching being visible on the inside of the bag.

It turns out the lining was not bagged out at all, in the sense of being sewn on with a hole left for turning. So my proposed construction order was not correct. Instead, the handles must have been attached/topstitched with the top edges of the bag sides already turned under, at least where the handles crossed them. The lining and shell were each assembled completely, their top edges turned under, the lining put into the bag, some parts of the bottom seam allowances were sewn together from the inside so that the lining can't be pulled out, and then finally the turned-under top edges were lined up perfectly and edgestitched together. (I can confirm that the topstitching is all that's holding those top edges together, because I can run my fingernail between them.)

I will try to do the same, because it will be much easier than wrestling a bagged lining around my stiffly interfaced fabric. I will probably add a hand-basting step to make things easier for myself.

On the pocket-less side, I got as far as attaching the handles with edgestitching. I will do the same on the pocket side before deciding what further topstitching to do, but I think it will follow the pattern rather than involving a big X shape as on the original.

Bag construction order

This is probably more of a note to self than anything of particular interest to anyone else. But here's how the bag I'm copying might best be constructed:

1. Make the outside zipper/pocket assembly. (The zipper is exposed and appears to be topstitched in place.)
2. Assemble straps.
3. Attach straps to bag sides, leaving the top seam edge of the bag free. So far as I can tell they were topstitched both to the bag and also along the handle portions in a single pass. For the life of me I can't see how this was done without breaking the stitching or having it go through the facing strip on the inside of the bag; there is no doubled stitching and the topstitching definitely seems to be what is holding the straps onto the bag sides. I will take a closer look at this again later on, but if all else fails I will just break the stitching.
4. Sew bag sides together.
5. Assemble interior pockets and lining, leaving a hole somewhere on the lining side seam.
6. Assemble zipper strips (the "lid" of the bag) and zipper tab end; sandwich and apply bag top edge facing.
7. Insert lining; turn in; tack down corners; close up hole.

I have decided to put the straps on the outside, as on the original. That will cover over the ends of the zipper/pocket area, so I won't have to be exceedingly careful not to make a mess of them. I couldn't find two different lengths of zippers in a color and with a pull I liked, so both of my zippers are long separating ones, meaning the one for the pocket needs to be shortened. It's a nylon coil so I won't be able to pull the excess teeth off like I could on a metal zipper, and sewing a neat window over the teeth on the one end seems like it would be more of a pain than sewing a strap on over them.

Knockoff bag progress

After what seemed like endless agonizing on the owl placement, I've cut the two main pieces of the bag. Here's one, fused and ready to go.

I couldn't bear to have partial owl faces that would show on the finished bag, so I cut a jog on one side of each piece, which I will appliqué over the other piece. Here it keeps the yellow owl complete. There are other incomplete ones, like the purple one on the other side, but at least those will go almost entirely into the seam, and the eyes won't show.

The coordinating fabric is shown at left, and I've laid two ends of a strip of herringbone tape on top, more or less where the straps should go. I had considered using the tape alone for the straps, but here it looks much too blindingly pale against the other fabrics, I think.

I had also considered sewing the straps onto the inside of the bag pieces, instead of the outside, where they are on the original bag — that will show more of the owl pattern, but maybe won't bring enough of the contrast fabric in (they will be cut from the contrast, since the herringbone tape looks too light, and besides will probably get noticeably dirty with use).

I do think it is necessary to have the straps continue down this far regardless, since they are part of what holds the side pocket in place on the original. They will also help hold the interfacing to the fabric permanently. I won't do the grommets, though; I haven't found any that I like, or that match the pulls on my zippers. One other thing: I'm cutting each side of the bag in one piece, rather than using the wide contrast band at the top. I probably don't have enough of the contrast to do otherwise, and it was much easier to place the owls this way.

So far I haven't cut anything else out, though I do have all the pieces measured and copied. I will need to decide how best to use my limited amount of contrast fabric.

Kwik-Sew 3473 almost in one piece

Do you track your sewing progress by how many separate pieces your item still has? I do. Right now I have this dress, technically, all in one piece except for the optional bow.

The floppy strip around the neckline is the bias facing. I've made much more bias than was necessary, obviously. I now have that slipstitched to the inside on one half of the front neckline, but that will be slow going. The hems remain to be done, the waist seam needs to be pressed and finished, and the armscye seams need to be finished in some way too. The French seams in the outer skirt might be acceptable enough not to re-do. I did finish the optional bow piece as well (one big bias strip), but it will need to be tied attractively and tacked on, should I decide to use it.

I'm glad I rotated part of the waist dart to the side seam, by the way. It makes for less of a cone shape. The original dart looked rather obtuse and although I didn't try actually cutting and sewing it, I think it might have been a little pointy even in this relatively lightweight, limp fabric.

Kwik-Sew 3473: bodice underlined

So, the bodice of this dress is all backed and sewn together, and the seam allowances serged. Here it is, albeit not quite in focus.

I'd like to have been able to place the print in less of a near-repetitive way, but it was difficult getting everything cut from of my yardage, especially with the big bias skirt pieces. It could be worse — at least I don't have two round motifs each precisely centered you-know-where.

Here's the plan for the rest:

• The sleeves are unlined and have been French-seamed. They have elbow shaping, which is nice. I have yet to decide exactly what I'll do with the armscye seam allowances.
• I will probably do a bias facing on the neckline, but I may put that off until I put the dress together and see how low it is. It's staystitched so at least the stitching line area shouldn't stretch. Fusing something to it might have been more effective, but that's the problem with not knowing in advance where the neckline is going to end up — I wouldn't want to have to rip the fusible off if I had to change it.
• The two skirt layers are each assembled, the lining with plain seams and the shell with French seams. The latter are not wonderfully well done. I gave them a good steaming, which might or might not be enough of a save. If I think they still look too objectionable, I will redo the second pass of each seam. I also need to decide whether the plain seams on the lining are enough. Because of the (near-)bias cut they don't seem to fray, but this should survive hand washing at least.
• Once all those issues are decided, the layers should be sewn together at the waist and onto the bodice. I am somewhat concerned about bulk here, though the darts are also four layers and don't seem too bad.
• Both skirt layers and the sleeves will have to be hemmed. I will have to decide the relative lengths of shell and lining for the skirt. The whole thing looks quite long at the moment but we'll see.
• The CF may get the optional bow. I have the pieces cut in self fabric; I'll sew it up and see how it looks.

By the way, I recklessly used the iron shoeless on this, with no press cloth, on the silk setting (well, not that recklessly — I did test first, briefly). There was no problem with shine or anything. Both layers are rayons, the shell supposedly viscose and the lining definitely Bemberg.

Lotsa contests

Over the past week I participated in the PR Sewing Bee, which is modeled on the Great British Sewing Bee. I'm not advancing to the second round, but then I rather pointedly ignored the creativity requirement in favor of making something I could easily and immediately use in my wardrobe. Here that is.

The red boiled wool coat went into the Natural Fibers contest, which you can vote in (middle link below) until the end of today if you like... though I feel somewhat uncomfortable asking for people to vote for me, as I don't feel people should be judged on whether they bother to have a blog. Of course, that ship has sailed.

The Handbag Contest is also on this month, and I've got stash fabric for that, so I figured I might as well join it too.



I've also restarted sewing my rayon print bias dress, which had become a bit of a UFO in the midst of all this. I'm happy to report it fits over my head even with the sleeves basted in, so I don't have to decide how exactly I'd put a zipper in given the layers, sheerness and bias cut. Now I just have to unbaste it all and sew it for real.

October results

To get this out of the way: October was a net stash gain month, and I completed only the Schnittquelle Oslo coat. I'm going to consider the boiled wool in question gone.

I do still need to swatch from the scraps for my shopping swatchbook, and it's possible there are enough scraps that I could make a hat or something. On the other hand, it's probably little enough that I wouldn't feel bad if I didn't use it. That's 2.22 yards out.

Incoming:

1. A cut of navy linen from Fabrics Etc., 2.56 yards 58" wide. Should be more than enough for trousers.
2. Gray-violet mystery-synthetic jacquard from one of the Our Social Fabric sales, 3.69 yards 44" wide. The thought was to use this to line some sort of raincoat, though I don't have fabric for such a thing yet. It survived washing and drying with no trouble, so I presume it isn't acetate.
3. Moleskin print from the same sale, 2 yards 44", for a skirt. It's a nice weight with a satin back, and seems not to cling at all. It must be synthetic, which is just as well for wet weather IMO.
4. Silk charmeuse from the same sale, 2.19 yards 42", for I-don't-know-what-yet.

That's 10.44 yards in, for a net +8.22.

In other news, today I graded down the Butterick Retro '36 skirt pattern I mentioned yesterday (I have a copy that's a too-big size range, either because I thought I was that size at the time, or more likely because it was part of a group of OOP Retro patterns I got on eBay, several of which were too big or too small.) I suspect an excessive amount of the waist shaping is being done at the side seams, but I'll have to play around with it to be sure. It remains to be seen whether I'll get that all done in time for this week's contest deadline.

Catch-up and some possibilities for what's next

I don't feel like I got a lot of sewing done in October. Schnittquelle Oslo is finished; Kwik-Sew 3473 is still sitting patiently on the dress form just as it was almost a month ago. I still need to do some inventory before I can figure out my stash turnover for last month, but certainly more came in than went out.

For November, there are a couple of Patternreview contests that I might or might not join. First, there's the sewing bee, for which the first project is an A-line skirt. I tend to avoid these, so I don't have many patterns for them; plus there are a number of other restrictions that complicate things. (Incidentally there was another meetup at Fabrics Etc. today, and I could've shopped for this if I hadn't been playing where's-my-wallet instead of reading the PR message boards this morning. But I digress.) Anyway, one I do have is Butterick 6330:

It describes itself as an A-line skirt, which I hope suffices. My plan had been to make the entire thing, i.e. also the jacket, in one of my navy suitings. That seemed like a huge commitment, but then I remembered I also have some sort of moleskin print I got from Our Social Fabric a few weeks ago, and I'd specifically meant to make just such a skirt out of it. Thing is, will it really need a lining? I'll test that out next time I'm wearing tights.

The other thing going on is the handbag contest. Now, I have this old thing from H&M:

I've never quite liked the color, and the straps have a disconcerting tendency to fall off, but the size and shape of the body have been extremely useful. So at the moment I'm working on copying the pattern, though I'll probably change some things about it. I have two upholstery fabrics that may work.

Or I may skip the contests and try to finally get the Kwik-Sew dress done.

Aside from all that, there's been a lot of rearranging and some additions to the sewing room. More on that later.

Kwik-Sew 3473, all tacked together and ready to hibernate

It feels like I've been dragging my feet on this project. Partly it's that what I've been doing on it just takes a long time (single layer cutting, lots of basting) but I also dithered on what sorts of finishes to use. The shell fabric probably has a lot more shear than the lining (we'll see in the next several days) so I didn't think I wanted to flatline the bias-cut skirt. I could have done so with the bodice, but what would have complicated things is the CB zipper that the pattern would have you use.

But. It turns out the zipper might not be needed. The bodice isn't that fitted; the waistline seam angles up in front, so it's on the bias there; and the entire skirt, again, is bias and flared. So it seems there's enough give in the waist to possibly make a pullover work. At least, it seems to so far, without the sleeves; if those cause a problem I think it would work to have the zipper in the bodice only.

I should mention that I'm somewhat used to struggling into vintage dresses with side zippers, so this may not work for everyone, but I had no trouble getting it onto my non-collapsible dress form. Apologies for the dizzying combination of print, mirror, and background stuff. The skirt may look crooked, but really, it isn't. I'm a little disappointed in some of the motif repeats, but there isn't a whole lot I could have done without running out of fabric.

And... this is about as far as it's going to go for the next week, at the very least. I want to give the skirt ample time to drop. The whole thing is hand-basted together, with machine staystitching at the appropriate edges. Both lining and shell fabrics are in there; the bodice layers are tacked together and the waist seam sewn through all layers, but the skirt layers are independent of each other. The skirt seams are basted with long single threads knotted only at the top. I hope this will let both fabrics drop freely in the skirt, without weighing down the bodice excessively.

There are a couple of reviews of 3473 on Patternreview already; I think at least one of them mentioned that the skirt came out far longer than it looked on the pattern envelope. I agree; this should have been a bit more than knee length judging from stated measurements alone, but that's bias for you. I think the results could be very different with, say, handkerchief linen.

WIP: Kwik-Sew 3473 in "chiffon-crepe"

Having dug myself out from a lot of work, I've started cutting this pattern. The fabric came from Alfatex back when I was in Germany:

I don't like the print as much IRL as I did in their pictures, for two main reasons. Firstly, the colors are clearer, brighter, and cooler than they looked on the site. Secondly, though it's meant to be a tossed (i.e. somewhat random-looking) design, the repeat is not very big, and it isn't offset diagonally, so you can see obvious motifs marching down the length. I'm hoping that the bias cut of the skirt in this pattern will mitigate the latter problem to some extent.

The print looks imperfectly registered, too, but since there are other white outlines in it that are clearly meant to be there, I can't tell if that's intentional or not.

Notwithstanding all that, I'm sewing this anyway because I do like the drape and fiber content (supposedly viscose, and I believe it; the selvedge fringe looks very much like viscose threads). It doesn't seem that easy to find high-quality lightweight woven rayons these days, so I might well settle for something like this in RTW, even if I wasn't completely happy with the color. The actual, structural quality of this fabric seems nice enough. Alfatex called it "chiffon-crepe"; I might call it georgette.

The pattern is odd in that the bodice, and only the bodice, is lined. Evidently it's their way of finishing the neckline without needing a facing. Because this fabric is semi-sheer, it will need a lining or a slip anyway, so I'll line either the whole body or none of it. For a lining I'd use dark gray or navy Bemberg from stash. That should complement the outer fabric, and with luck, tone down the colors slightly.

I don't have quite as much fabric as I'm supposed to for the long-sleeved version, but we'll see — I think I can get the skirt cut out more efficiently than in the given layout. If it comes to it I'll use the short sleeves and/or leave the bow off.

Like RTW?

I've been putting off doing anything more on my boiled wool coat. There isn't, strictly speaking, that much more to do; the only major thing is the pockets. But I want to add fusible interfacing to the hem, and that always feels like a big obstacle: I have to cut more out. Given that someone was coming to look at the apartment, I had another a reason not to want to make the whole cutting mess.

The reason I do want to interface is it's usually done in RTW,* and it seems to keep the hem looking decent (not ripply or stretched out) for a lot longer. I can see just from doing a light press-up of the hem that it'll be worth it on this fabric.

I've also just noticed that the flats for this pattern don't show any topstitching on the front edges below the collar. I haven't decided whether to respect that or not. I did understitch, so that may be enough, especially if I do attach the facing edges to the princess seams inside.

At any rate, I don't have that much more time to use my machine before it gets packed up, so if nothing else, I plan on trying to get all the machine sewing done in the next couple of days.

* For coats, at least; not for knits or shirts, say. Not that I do things purely because RTW does them; I often pick out more interesting non-plastic buttons, for example, though I'm now trying not to make them stand out too much as too-nice-for-the-fabric.

More on the coat

I've done nothing that looks like much, just reshaped the side seams as I'd planned to, lengthened the princess darts, and started blind-catchstitching some seam allowances down; with no lining and the fairly long length, I think there's a good chance they'll flap around otherwise.

I also pressed up the hem allowance. Here the instructions didn't seem terribly clear (though maybe I missed something by reading only the steps that seemed relevant); I think you could easily end up thinking 5/8" was intended, if you didn't look at the pattern pieces.

Well, I didn't look at the pattern pieces, but I thought 5/8" would be terribly skimpy; 1 1/2" looked about right, so I pressed that up instead. Only later did I look at the pattern pieces and see that 1 1/2" was in fact the intended allowance.

Anyway, I think the fit is about right (or as good as it can get without undoing more than I care to; a length alteration for shoulder blades-with-respect-to-back-armholes probably would have helped) so what remains is to tack down all those seams, finish the hem, put on the pockets, give the collar a good steam, and maybe make up some sort of inside pocket and/or shoulder pads.