Otter space dress

Hello in 2018! 

It's good to start the year right so I thought I would blog for a change. 2017 was a bad year for sewing - I lost my sewjo, went on longish holiday and when I got back I had to focus heavily on studying for my exams. I still made some clothes but took no photos and no blogging happened. This year I'm hoping on sewing more and hopefully also blogging regularly. Oh, and keeping better sewing notes so I know exactly what I made and when.

Anyway, back in October I needed something to keep me motivated - I was studying for hours and hours after work and my spirits were low. I decided that a new piece of fabric was what I needed! I visited our local craft store Made Marion and found the most amazing cotton print - otters chilling in space on teal background (fabric designed by Tula Pink). 

I had the perfect pattern for this fabric - the Chai dress by Itch to Stitch has been released few months before and I got it the moment I saw it. I have a weakness for shirt dresses and I really like Itch to Stitch patterns - they fit me very well and they come with different cup sizes which means no FBA required! 

The hardest part of making this dress was actually cutting it - I wanted the print to match across the bodice front which meant making sure that all 6 pattern pieces are cut the right way. Surprisingly this took forever! The front is pretty well matched - not perfectly but I can live with it.

I chose size 16 with a D-cup. I only made one change - I shortened the sleeves. Initially I wanted to make a sleeveless dress but after couple of tries with a bias bind finish I just couldn't get it to sit nicely, hence the sleeves. The pattern is designed well and the fit is pretty good - I could have sized down in the waist and I was contemplating making size 14 with a DD-cup but decided against that - mainly because I can always take the dress in but it's much harder to make  it bigger ;) The instructions were very clear and I followed most of them but I used Four Square Walls method for sewing the collar - I find it less fiddly and gives me nicer finish than the method suggested in the instructions.

I'm very pleased with this dress- I love the shape! The dress gets a lot of comments, especially when people realise the print is space otters :) I'm thinking about making another one, maybe in solid, drapey fabric but I need to search my stash first - I'm going to try to reduce the insane amount of fabric in my house!

 Photos were taken by amazing Emma :) Some photos of details to follow!

Shirtdresses forever!

It took me quite a lot longer to blog about this dress than expected, but here it is - my second M6696 shirtdress. I had some issues with my first one but I started wearing it more often and I think it might be my summer office staple. I decided it was time to have a sleeved version.

This time I took 5 cm out of the back piece. Looking at the photos I should have shorten the length by ~2 cm or so to stop blousing. But I am so much happier with how the back looks now. The other major change was the sleeve head shape. Thanks to some fitting issues with my coat I figured out how to fix my sleeves to be less restricting and more comfortable to wear. You can see the changes in shape on one of the photos below. Such an easy fix but the difference in wearing is colossal! I also changed the pocket piece to be bigger and deeper - the original pockets are way too shallow. Now I can actually carry my phone with me. And because I was too lazy to get my pattern out and trace the cuff piece I just finished my sleeves with a mini band.

The fabric came from a fabric sale - it's some sort of shirting cotton mix in tiny grey and black stripes. It was really nice to saw with - pressed well, didn't move too much and holds the pleats quite well. I used a medium weight interfacing, which it a bit heavier than my usual. I quite like it, the collar is nice and stiff. Unfortunately I forgot to trim the waistband and button band seam allowances and there were too many layers for my sewing machine to handle the buttonhole at the waistline. I had to do it with normal zigzag stitch and it's a bit messy. Luckily it is covered by a belt so it's not a big deal. The buttons came from my tin of random buttons - luckily I had several sage buttons that were the right size and they look alright with with my fabric.

Needless to say I am very happy with this dress. It fits nicely and it is very comfortable to wear. I also don't think it's my last M6696 - I think the pencil skirt option will be next ;)

Tencel shirtdress

I can't seem to stop making shirtdresses! This time I went for McCall's M6696. It seems that everyone has made this one already! And I think I know why this pattern is so popular.

To be honest I made this dress back in November so I can't even remember the size I made! Since then I started a sewing journal where I note the size, the sort of fabric used, all changes made and potential future changes. It will make blogging easier, especially when I have a bit of backlog to deal with. The dress came together nicely, having an option for a D-cup meant no FBA needed which is always a good thing! Although if I ever make this dress again I'd add extra 1 or 2 cm as the dress gapes. After wearing it for the photos I stitched the button bands together so that solves the problem.

The dress is not perfect. While most of my dresses are sleeveless I did want this one to have short ones. Unfortunately the sleeves didn't work out, as I could barely move my arms. I wasn't in the mood of trying to figure them out so I ended up having yet another sleeveless dress. The other thing I don't necessary like is the back, or rather the fullness in the back. That's probably the reason I haven't really worn this dress much. But I think it deserves to be out more often and it could work as a casual Friday dress ;) While sewing the collar I followed the pattern, which meant stitching the collar and collar stand together and then attaching it to the dress. And I hated this method! The collar stand edge is not sharp and it looks messy. In the future I'll stick to my usual - stitching both collar stands to the dress and then stitching the collar in.

The dress was made with black, denim looking tencel. It was a dream to sew with! To make my life harder I decided to do some decorative top-stitching. Last year a family friend gifted me a huge bag full of zips and random spools of threads, including some viscose in several neon shades. Black was a nice background for fluorescent yellow and I'm glad I went through that extra effort! It made it a bit annoying to constantly switching the thread in my sewing machine but it was worth the trouble. Anyway, it's time to take this dress out of my closet because it's not fair to spend all that time sewing it up and not wearing it!

Dress of a million seams

And I'm not even joking about the number of seams! Just look at the technical drawing ;) Melissa dress is super lovely and has many interesting design features (just check out those little pockets!) I was one of the testers for this pattern last year and I've been meaning to give it another go.

I made a huge mistake with my fabric choice... Poly-rayon suiting looked alright and had nice drape but frayed like crazy! It has also absolutely no give and I was too afraid of clipping it around the curves. All the seams are finished with a combination of black and mint bias tape which added a huge amount of extra work but super tidy finish. My poly-rayon wasn't easy to press either, there was a very fine line between pressing and melting the fabric.

As for the dress itself - the back V insert is a great opportunity to use scraps of lace or "statement" fabrics. I used some black lace generously given to me by Sandra. As for the fit - I chose size 40 with D-cup and there was no need for FBA :D  The first time I made Melissa I didn't change anything and the waistline was way too low. This time I moved it up by 7 cm (I think) and it's a too high! The other change I made was getting rid of a top V pocket. I almost always have to adjust shoulder line and scoop out a bit of the top of the shoulder princess seam and that pocket would make the fitting quite hard. And there was just one more change - I made my dress sleeveless. I couldn't face dealing with more bias bound seams! The collar took three tries to get it right - including me sewing the collar inside out *facepalm* By that time I was a bit over and the dress ended in a naughty corner for a few weeks.

When I got over the collar, the rest went nice and easy. I used black buttons with gold metal ring and I like the way they look. Overall I like the dress but I'm not crazy about it. Lower waistline and different fabric would make a huge difference and I suspect I might give this pattern another try ;)

 

Cover dress

Ever since I saw the McCall's 7084 I wanted to make the cover dress - stripes, sleeves and a full skirt. Finding the right fabric took a while but I managed to grab 2,5m of cotton/elastane stripes in navy and white, although I could have sweared that they were black when I bought the fabric! Anyway, navy is nice too.

2,5m wasn't quite enough - the pattern cover suggested 4,7m! I guess it's because of placing parts of the pattern on bias. To make it work the only change I had to make was narrowing the skirt inserts. They ended up being almost half the original size. It's actually quite fortunate - I would't want to have it any fuller.

It took me a while to finish this dress as I decided to do some fancy finish. Every seam allowance was folded over and topstitched. I lined the stripes where needed. The waist seam is finished with mint bias binding - it adds a pop of colour that makes me happy every time I wear this dress. There are pockets and sleeve tabs and even a label! I even managed to find navy press snaps to match the colour of the stripes so I could avoid buttons and buttonholes.  I think this might be one of my favourite makes this year!

Painted Summer dress

Yeah, I made a summer dress just before winter started in Wellington! I am that kind of person! Somehow it is also my first dress made in 2015 - I've been making shirts and pants and tops last few months. I'm quite happy with it although dresses are usually my favourite garments to sew.

Photobombing are Nikki and Penny 

So I've been bit obsessed with shirts lately. Only two of them made it to my blog so far but there is more of them. So to have a break I decided to make... a shirtdress ;) McCall's 7084 to be exact.

The pattern is lovely and I'm so in love with pattern cover illustration. I bought some striped cotton with an intention of making an exact copy of it in the future. The pattern comes with 4 sleeve and 2 skirt variations.

All those photos were taken by lovely Laura

I decided to make view D with sleeve tabs. I really really wanted skirt with godets but I didn't have enough fabric. Instead of that I managed to add extra flare to the skirt pieces (2-4cm on each seam) I also had to shorten the sleeves and cut pockets out of some scraps in my stash. The whole arranging pattern pieces on my piece of fabric was like playing tetris!

My fabric is actually a 3 yard piece of quilting cotton by Lida Enche called painted summer. I love little hummingbirds among those flowers! It was my Trade Me score. It was great to sew with :)

It took me almost half an hour to set on the size. Considering my body, patterns and finished garment measurements I just confused myself. I assumed I needed a FBA and that didn't make things easier. I finally decided to just stop thinking and start doing and traced size 18 onto pattern cloth. After pinning it and checking the fit I decided to add a 2 cm wide wedge to the bust line of the side front piece and I added 0.5 cm to the length of the front. After basting the back and front pieces I had to take out some fabric above the bust - it seems that I have hollow upper chest ;) I think it worked well - dress fits nicely and there is no gaping and no extra fabric anywhere.

Just because I always mess things up I got the bottom pieces the wrong way around so the seams don't meet at the waist. Busy pattern hides it so I'm not very worried but next time I will be labeling my pieces with greater care. I added polka dot pockets - I had no fabric left for the pockets!

I wanted blue buttons to match my birds but I couldn't find any suitable ones in my local notions shop. So I got some pearl, white and silver, and chrome buttons but I couldn't decide! I asked for opinions on Instagram and went with majority of votes - chrome buttons. I'm happy with it.

And a close up on pockets, buttons and sleeve tabs :)