I Owe You a Post: New Look 6130

Hi Everyone!

I can't believe how long it has been since I've posted on here.   I moved 2 days after my last entry in January and it's been a little hectic around here since then.  The Boyfriend, Pearl, and I moved into a cute 2 bedroom apartment closer to both of our jobs.  I have a dedicated sewing room, but it took me 2 months to get my life together and set up the room!  One day, when it is cleaner, I'll take some pictures. I haven't sewn all that much, but I have some projects from last fall that I'm going to post.  I'm so tired after work and on the weekends I like to spend my time with the Boyfriend because our work schedules are out of sync and I never see him in the evenings when I get home.  He keeps encouraging me to start blogging again so here I am.

Okay, so my last sewing related post was about NL 6130.  And here's what I made:

I seriously can't remember much about the construction of this top.  The fabric is a poly. crepe that was a pain to cut and sew.  I'm fairly happy with the fit though.  I did some contouring to get a closer fit.  The invisible zip was pretty darn easy to insert and the hem took a very long time to do, but I am very pleased with my baby hem.

Not sure if I would make this again, maybe in a ponte knit and I would change the neckline and the peplum style.  I did get a few unsolicited compliments at work though.  One from my boss who is an expert patternmaker, seamstress, and fit specialist.


In spite of my lack of blogging, thanks to my new followers:

Eliane
Danielle
Sarah C
la_magnifique

Also, I had my blog anniversary about a month ago.  I've been blogging for 3 years.  That is a long time!

I'll post a giveaway soon (I promise this time!!!).

Should I even keep blogging???

I've decided that I suck at blogging.  I'm sorry readers, but since college I haven't had to write much and my skills have deteriorated.  I thought blogging would help, but it did not. I thought I would enjoy making tutorials and sharing new information that I learned in school and at work.  Tutorial writing is a pain in the ass!  Those of you who do it know how tedious it is and I think you are AMAZING for creating them.    I'm also just not motivated to write anymore.  I do like tracking my projects, but it is very hard when I wait so long to post.  

I think I'm going to keep the blog going for a while longer.  Any thoughts or suggestions?

Just because...

Despite my absence from the blogosphere, I have 6 new Followers:

Hot Mess Heifer
BigChoc
Jenny
Kat Campbell
Kathy of Kathy Sews:  She made some cute dresses and has a giveaway going on!
elianeBatalha

Thanks Ladies!

Peplum Top Pattern Adjustment Tutorial

I promised a picture of the New Look 6130 peplum top facing pattern I redrafted and here it is:

Front facing.

Back facing.

The idea of having a neckline facing and an armsyce facing flapping around inside the shirt was gross to me, so using the main body pattern pieces I drafted my own facing and I think it worked pretty great. 

Here's how I did it:

1. First, draw on the sew lines on your pattern pieces.  In commercial patterns, this is usually 5/8."  I, however, changed all my seam allowances before I cut the pattern so my seam allowances were 1/2" for most seams, and 1/4" along the neckline and armsyce.  I also left a 5/8" SA at CB where I was inserting the zipper.  
2. Match up your sew lines on the front bodice pieces.  See my pattern below.  Can you see how the armhole matches up perfectly on the CF and SF bodice pieces?
3.  Place a piece of tracing paper over the pattern and pin/tape down. 
4. Your front facing should be  2-2.5" wide at the CF neck and 2-2.5" down from the bottom of the armhole, depending on how you will finish your edges. This is 2-2.5" from the sew line, not the cut line.  
5. Make sure your facing is square (at a right angle to) the CF vertical line.  At the sides seam, square a line the distance down from the armhole that you decided upon. 
6. Trace the shape  up the armhole 2-2.5" from the armhole, until you get to where an armhole notch might be.  That is where the shape starts to get a little wonky.  (the dashed lines curving around the armhole are 2.5" away from the cut line)
7. Use a french curve and/or a hip curve to connect the two lines (one starting from CF, one from the bottom of the armscye).  The shape should look smooth and natural.  See how it didn't on the back facing and I corrected it.  
8. At the sideseam,  mark 1/8" in at the bottom of the facing. From that 1/8" mark to zero at the underarm, draw a line.  This will be done on both front and back.  this small removal of fabric tightens up the facing a bit and prevents it from creeping out of the bodice.  
9. On the back, I did everything above, except the facing is wider (or longer?) at CB.  I like (and was taught) to make wider facings in back.  4 inches is a good length down from the neck on this pattern.  The back neck drop is fairly shallow, so this will work well and it won't be too deep.  Basically you don't want the facing overlapping your scapula bone (your chicken wing!).  Just like you don't want a tight facing going over your boobage!  
10.  One thing I forgot to do, but do it all the time was to decrease the shoulder width on both sides by about 1/16 - 1/8" depending on fabric thickness.  What you will do is mark both sides of the shoulder seam (on front and back facing) and blend to zero to about 2/3 the way to CF and 2/3" down the armhole, whatever blends naturally.  It's easy to see once you are doing it.  

the first step.  

That's it!

Let me know what you think!


Thanks to my newest followers!

scherimm
Becky Ensinger
Nina
Angie Newell

180! That's Amazing!

Here's a fun picture of Pearl:

Pearl modeling Fritz's Halloween costume...A Giant bath sponge!!! Yup, I made this one too in about an hour for $3.00.

HAHAHAHA!

It's Halloween Time! Ch-Ch-Ch...

CHIA!

When I was a kid, I loved Halloween.  As an adult, I'm not a huge fan of it.   But I do like dressing up my dogs in ridiculous costumes every year.  This year is the best by far.  I would like to introduce you to the newest knick-knack to adorn my bookshelf:

Ch-Ch-Ch-CHIA PEARL! *

It's like playing "Where's Waldo?"

Here's how I started:

A long time ago I drafted a onesie pattern from an existing dog outfit.  I made onesies before here and here. I redrafted the pattern this time, making it a little more professional.  My sewing has greatly improved since the last time I made Pearl's onesie so the construction method changed.  It went together fairly quickly and the fit is a lot better than before.

Here she is before her pjs became Chia-fied....

Pre-haircut...

 I then took apart fake hydrangeas I bought at Michaels and glued the individual buds to the base.  This process too two nights.  I used a stuffed animal roughly the size of Pearl to make it easier to glue the flowers. The glue and the flowers formed a hard shell.  I was not expecting this, but the outfit still fits the dog.

 I  couldn't resist placing her on the bedside table. She looks just like the real deal.  I wish I had video of her scurrying around on the floor as a chia pet.  It's almost eerie because at first glance it looks like  ceramic dog

And lastly, a close-up of Pearl.  I couldn't resist.  Her face is so cute in this picture.

I'm entering Pearl in the Pattern Review contest again this year.  Vote for her!

*Coming to a Walmart near you.

Lavender Waste of My Time

Please ignore the shoe choice.
I threw on the first pair of heels I found just to give me some height.
Also the wrinkles are atrocious.  The dress was balled up on my desk for
over a week before I took these pictures.  Excuses, excuses, excuses...

Eww. 

I'm still here, just not making as many things as I would like.  I've been working for 2.5 months as a Technical Design Assistant (woohoo!) and spending the evenings with my family and the Boyfriend.  This dress took me 2 weeks to make, just because I would work on it for a little bit, quit for a few days, work on it some more, quit, etc., etc., etc....  

I bought the fabric for I believe $2/yd. at the FIDM Scholarship store in L.A.  It is a yummy rayon/spandex blend I think.  Feels great, but wrinkles like crazy.  It was purchased with the intention of it being "muslin" fabric, specifically with this dress pattern in mind.  Oh, I forgot, the pattern is McCall's 5974, the Palmer/Plesch Faux wrap dress.  I thought I would try the pattern and if I liked it, I would use it with a gorgeous bird fabric I purchased from EmmaOneSock.  The pattern was good, but I don't think I will ever use it again.  

I'm calling this dress a wadder.  It just isn't flattering on me.   The style and the color feel very "mother of the bride."   I made the smallest size and I feel it is still too big in the bust, arms, and waist, but it shows all my lumps in back!  In this fabric (and the potential bird fabric) I would need to grade down another size or two.  The ties were also entirely too much around the waist.  Wanna here something funny?  I asked my mom to try it on and it fit her really well and flattered her figure.    

My review will be up on PR in a day or so.  In sort, I didn't follow the directions on the tie construction and used a self binding instead of hemming the neckline.

I'm currently working on New Look 6130, the peplum blouse.  I'll share pictures of how I redrafted the facings to be an all-in-one armsyce/neckline facing soonish.  On the blouse, I have to just take in the side seams a little more and hem it.  Almost done....

Thanks to the new Followers! I'll give a proper shout-out next time when I'm not falling asleep as I am typing.

She Sews Seashells Down by the Seashore

With the leftover fabric from this dress,  I decided to make myself a maxi skirt.  I bought a simple black maxi last winter and it is probably the most comfortable thing I have ever worn.  For a while now, I've been wanting to knock it off, and that is exactly what I did!  I used the skirt to make a pattern and now I can make a million replicas if I want.  Hooray!

The skirt is only 2 pattern pieces because the front and back are the same and the fold-over waistband is made with just two slightly trapezoidal rectangles.

This skirt was one of the fastest things I've ever made.  It seriously sewed up in about a half hr.  I started before dinner, ate yummy mediterranean food and drank too much wine and then serged on the waistband when we got home.  So easy a tipsy person could do it!

I waited a week to photograph it because I wanted to do it on location and just didn't have the time or energy to do it before now.  After work, my brain is fried.  I get up around 6am every morning and by 9:30 or 10pm I crash.  I've only been doing little sewing projects like this on the weekends.

Thanks to the Boyfriend for going to the beach with me for literally 5 minutes!  We couldn't find a parking space and parked illegally just to get these pictures.  :)

The "Everyone and Their Mother Dress," Part II

Last Christmas I made my mom a black double knit dress using Vogue 1250 and she requested another one a while ago.  I definitely owed her a present.  Months ago we went to Michael Levine's to find a suitable knit and she fell in love with the sea shell fabric.  It has the loveliest hand and drape.   We weren't quite sure what pattern to use and settled on another V1250.  It worked out great because my mom had been wanting a summery version of the dress.

The dress sewed up very quickly with no major problems. My Brother NX250 hates sewing stretchy knits, so the tucks and the neck binding were a challenge.  I constructed almost the entire dress on the serger and used a double needle for the hems.  

I think my mom likes the dress.

There was a little more than a yard left over and I made myself something too.  Photos to come!