Sew & Pattern

New Look 6415
Grabbed this fun ombre knit during the last fabric haul from Sewfisticated in Somerville. I has hesitant at first because it looked like it might little difficult to work with but I wanted to give it a go. The soft fabric stuck to itself like velcro and it was extremely stretchy and loosely knitted.  It actually was really hard to work with; but I went slow, took my time, and made sure everything was correct before cutting or sewing anything.  It was a challenge, but I feel rewarded. This simple knit top came out perfect.
I believe I may have gotten the hang of the most challenging parts of working with knit. This is my third knit project and the collar sits good, the hem is clean, and shape is symmetrical.
I’m impressed with how clear and simple this New Look shirt pattern was. A+ on the directions! I’ll be utilizing this pattern many more times. I’m excited to try the main image shape. While creating the ‘D’ option, I took a chance and cut the tissue paper pattern between small and medium. “Smedium” as we call it at work when we’re working on apparel. This is definitely the best size for me for loose fitting knit and I’ll be cutting more patterns this way. Perfect size!

I’m so happy I decided to start sewing. At first I thought I’d focus on Spring apparel because it would take me so long to make each individual garment. I thought that it would give me plenty of time between now and then to create some fun pieces and it would be an interesting winter project to distract me from art for a while. But I’m so happy to discover that I can make simple tunics and shirts like this in just a couple hours. Even with going super slow and triple checking everything.  I’m hooked on sewing and I’m done with fast fashion from stores. From now on it’s perfect colors to compliment my skin tones, silhouettes and details of my choosing, and (of course) Smedium! If I had known sewing my own clothes was going to be this easy and rewarding I would have started it long ago.

If Simplicity 1520 is the Hyundai of pajama pants, McCall’s M7875 is certainly the Mazda. Sporty, fun, and just the right amount of zippy bells and whistles (without sacrificing practicality). After S1520, M7875 was just as easy, but with a greater reward. Pockets, piping, drawstring, and bottom cuffs. I have to say, this McCalls pattern had the same section of confusing, convoluted steps that Simplicity’s had. I was kind of bummed because I was hoping McCall’s version would be easier to decipher so that I could finally understand what the heck-a-roo they wanted me to do. But, nope. I resorted to applying the different technique I had learned from Youtube and I had no issues whatsoever doing it that way.

I did make a couple changes to these pants. First off, while cutting, I decreased the length of the bottom cuffs by two inches and then I extended the main body of the pants to supplement the total length. I just knew on my legs and tiny feet that a smaller cuff would be more flattering. After I completed the pants, I also did something a little different to the drawstring area. The drawstring just didn’t feel like it was enough support to keep my pants up around my waist and hips. It felt loose, unpredictable, and I was very conscience of the string and how it felt tight against my body. So I took a trip up to my bedroom and removed my two favorite, store bought, pajama pants from my draw and took at look at them. They both happened to be Victoria Secret and they both had something else in common. They both had a drawstring, but underneath the drawstring, hidden behind, was an elastic. These store bought PJs had both an elastic and a drawstring! So that’s what I did to my new flannel pants. I removed the ribbon, threaded an elastic through, sewed it in so that it fit snug and comfortable, then I re-threaded in the ribbon. Perfect PJs! I showed my husband (who was wearing the S1520s that I had made for him the other night). He was, of course, green with envy over my pockets and drawstring.

I loved these so much I made two more pairs the next day. They’ll be Christmas gifts for my mother and Godmother. I had an amazing long weekend sewing these PJ pants. It was a superb mix of lazy, yet productive. Oh! Also, while sewing these 4 PJ pants.. I didn’t get a single thread jam! Not one!

Well, I thought that I wouldn’t bother with Black Friday ever again, but 70% off of fleece for a newly addicted sewing junky is just too hard to resist. First, I traveled back to Somerville and filled my arms with fabric from Sewfisticated. Then I immediately drove to Joann’s and picked up some of the ‘door buster-riffic’ fleece. I also picked up Simplicity pattern 1520.

My poor husband had a nasty cold and so I had to keep my distance from him. He had the couch to himself.. and I had, you know, .. a mountain of new fabric to wash, iron, and sew.  I took a quick peek at Simplicity 1520 and it seemed ridiculously easy. I mean.. laughably easy compared to the other patterns I’d been experimenting with. 4 pieces? Really? REALLY?

You know what, for the most part, the pj pants were that easy. However, the instructions were difficult to follow and, as with the patterns I’ve made before, I found myself wasting a lot of time trying to decipher a handful of the steps. I can’t help but notice that I continue to run into poorly written instructions in these patterns. It always catches me off guard and I’m forced to take to the internet and search for a YouTube savior to rescue me from wasted hours of trial and error. It’s like when someone with a thick accent is really drunk at a night club… and they keep trying to tell you something or ask you something and you don’t understand so you try saying ‘excuse me?’ asking them to repeat themselves, but then they just say the same thing, in the same way, only louder. It starts to get awkward because they’re not making any sense and they’re getting closer and louder to you. You’re starting to think maybe you should just pretend to wave over their shoulder at an imaginary friend, and then you can excuse yourself because you’re needed elsewhere for something. Just as your about to falsifying an attempt to disengage from them someone next to you chimes in, ‘she wants to know if you’re waiting to use the bathroom’. ‘OOOHH!!! No, go right ahead.’ (gestures with arms to the bathroom door). Then you realize you’re embarrassed by how difficult that situation was when it didn’t need to be. Plus, you STILL don’t know exactly what words she was using.

I’m becoming more and more interested in how these sewing patterns are created and produced. What is the process? Who is involved? As a designer who has designed consumer directions for everything from shampoo to step-by-step assembly directions to giant, industrial tubs; I’ve often has to work with copywriters on communicating instructions. (Actually my husband freelances as a copywriter during the summer.) I’m baffled by how difficult the written instructions in these sewing patterns make the project appear and then I’m continuously surprised with how simple and obvious the solution really is. I’m so eager to learn and I’m hoping, someday, I can know how to create the project just from the instructions and not having to try, fail, try, fail, go to youtube, succeed.

My husband wore his new PJ pants to bed that night. Despite the set back from trying to follow the overcomplicated directions, they only took a couple hours to make. Thank you Youtube.

After completing the maxie dress from the previous post; I still had a bit of the Everglade colored fabric left. Encouraged by my not-so-failing-as-I-think-I-am experience with stretch it seemed fitting to keep going and see if I could keep improving. I had picked up Butterick B6418 during an amazing sale. Like many others before me, I recognized it’s potential and saw all the numerous ways it could come in handy in the future. The opportunity for different fabric variations seemed like a lot of fun; but since I’ve never made a tunic with real sleeves like this, and so it seemed the wise thing to do would be to make the basic silhouette as a sample. That way I could be sure it would fit and that it actually look good before spending the cash on coordinating knit and lace.  I used all of the remaining Everglade fabric (Guess I’ll have to get back to Sewfisticated). I have pretty much nothing left except some scraps to make scrunchis or something.

Butterick B6418 in it’s simplest shape is only 4 pieces (front, back, and two sleeves). I started cutting at 6:30, and I hung up the completed shirt at 9:30. That’s including setting up the machine, thread jams, mess-ups, and having to constantly move the pattern around on the scrap fabric to try and get all 4 pieces out of it. I also stopped for dinner of course! I loved this pattern and I’ll definitely be on the look out for more stretch fabric that I can use with Butterick B6418. The possibilities are endless with this flattering plug-and-play pattern.

Psst.. I wore the shirt to work the next day! Rewarding? You better believe it!

Pantone color Everglade. You’ve seen it. Deep, jewel toned, aquatic bluish-green that is boldly taking up space that used to be reserved for black. I’m sure you noticed it creeping up in stores and even home decor. Since Pantone named it’s younger sister ‘Greenery’ color of the year in 2017 this deeper blue/green color has slowly made it’s way to becoming a supporting actress in many trend-based pallets. While it’s full of personality and drama, it’s still versatile enough to masquerade as a replacement for black when smartly coordinated into a wardrobe or color-scheme. It also looks great on all skin-tones (including my olive skin).
Since black is out of the question for next Spring, I set out to find the perfect combination of silhouettes and colors to replace the staple ‘little black dresses’ in my closet. That’s why I grabbed See & Sew’s B6437 on the spinner rack. Seemed really straight forward and classic.

This fabric was also a Sewfisticated Discount Fabrics find. They had this material in piles of different tonal shades of blues, greens, pinks, grays, and purples. Again, this fabric and the colors it came in had no business in a discount store so for only $3.99 a yard this fabric was a steel. The color is rich and the material is soft and luxurious.  While I was waiting in line to get my mountain of fabric cut, the woman behind me (who was wearing a home-made maxie dress under her winter coat) reached out and touched the bolt in my arms. “This is just perfect. What are you making with this?” I told her my plans and even showed her the picture of B6437 on my phone. She nodded with approval but then put her finger up to the screen and pointed to the collar. “That collar is not for you” she said. “You should make it boat neck.” “Really?” I asked. “Oh, yes. Think about it like a Greek Goddess type of dress”. She then moved her hijab a little to one side and showed me the collar to her maxie dress which had no attached piece, just a simple scoop neck hem. “Like this. You’ll see.”

So, off I went to sew my simple, trendy, easy to sew dress (passive aggressively rolling my eyes at myself as I type this). I did a little research online about the difference between sewing with woven fabric and stretch knit. There’s a lot of great advise out there and although I retained it, I naively decided to just wing it and give it a go on stretchy material. I originally thought ‘eh, you just sew with a zig-zag instead of a straight stitch and then no zipper at the end. No problem!’ So I grabbed some different, super-discounted, one-way stretch knit I found on the floor in the back aisle of Joanns and gave it a go. Wholly Molly! What a disaster. First off, I cut the one-way stretch fabric incorrectly. I cut the fabric so that it stretched length wise instead of horizontally. So even if I had sewed it right, I wouldn’t have been able to get it up over my head. But as you will learn to know, when I fail, I fail in more ways then one. I tried, and tried but I just couldn’t sew the v-neck collar to my practice attempt of B6437 properly.  Finally, after wasting 3 yards of stretch knit, and spending about an hour on youtube, I properly sewed in a collar. It was mangled, crooked, and torn in two places where it had gotten stuck in the machine, but it was a collar. At that point there wasn’t even enough material to make anything out of the bodice. But I had done it and I felt ready to move onto the Everglade material. If only for the sake of failing and moving on.

So, armed with the knowledge that I had no idea what I was doing, I started to apply the advice from youtube heros. I purchased a twin needle, used tissue paper under the fabric (so that it didn’t get caught in the machine), and lowered my expectations.  Here is what it looked like when I was done. A couple of little dimples here and there (unnoticeable in dim light really) but the worst part was (as expected) the collar. I looked upon my dress with tired eyes and realized it was just too wonky to wear. But, my memory went back to that day in line at Sewfisticated and the advice from the woman behind me. Taking up my shears. I did a little surgery and removed the cursed collar.

Bam!! What a difference! It’s like a whole new dress! Can you believe it? With just that one simple change this dress became one that I’m super proud of and can’t wait to wear. In February my husband and I are traveling to St. Lucia with friends. Immediately after I took this picture I carefully hang up this dress with the rest of the resort wear that I’ve chosen to pack for the trip. I can’t wait to wear this dress in February as well as to parties and outdoor lunches this coming spring (and into summer!). B6437 had become a project that I was dreading and embarrassed about. It became something I needed to ‘get through’ so that I could learn, fail and move on. I was (in all honesty) calling it ‘The Disaster’ to my friends and husband. Now it’s an elegant dark horse that has won it’s spot in my closet usually reserved for my little black dress. Thank you mysterious woman at Sewphisticated Fabrics. You were right.

Simplicity 2917
Princess Seams? Sure! I’ll give ’em a go. This may not have been the first dress pattern I sewed, but it was the first one that I picked out and purchased. It resembled many of the dresses I already have and love in my closet so that was encouraging.

This pretty material was from the fabric haul I took home from Sophisticated Fabrics in Somerville. I fell in love with it immediately. It’s a great apparel cotton as it has that slight, silky sheen to it. The poppies were licensed from artist Cynthia Coulter and it appears this is an older fabric pattern that is unavailable online. Lucky me to have come across an out-of-print treasure! It really is a beautiful fabric and I’m so happy to have obtained enough to make a dress. Although, it’s a simple, classic floral there’s just something about the execution and technique of the painted poppies that makes it feel fresher then the average quilter granny print.

Most of this Simplicity dress was completed before the big McCall’s Fail from my previous post, but since I was waiting for zippers to come in from a Wish.com order (15 zippers for $2? I’ll take 3 orders!) I started failing on the McCalls before being able to really try on and wear this princess seamed sundress.
I made the majority of this dress from start to finish in one night. Starting by ironing the fabric and cutting the pattern at about 6:30pm and then finally going to bed at about 1am. I did have to go to Youtube to find some tutorials on how to do the sleeves, but the rest of the pieces were relatively easy to sew together.

Once the dress was done it was very loose fitting although it would have been fine enough to wear with a belt or sash (like the pattern suggests). Since I’m already making the dress from scratch however, there’s no reason why I couldn’t get in there and really custom fit it. I took in at all of the seams at the waistline. Gradually sewing out from the seam allowance and towards the center, middle of the dress. Although I did this carefully enough that I could have trimmed the access fabric from the first fit, the extra couple inches of fabric are undetectable from the right side of the dress so I decided to keep them incase I ever need to .. sigh.. let it out around the waistline. Overall, that worked, but no, it’s still not ‘perfect’ despite multiple attempt to reinstall the zipper. Just like the previous dresses, the back is still a tad wrinkly and baggy. I have no idea why. I even tried making this dress according to the ‘petit’ instructions but it still bags up on the small of my back.

All-in-all this dress was a breeze to make following the one size and it would have been fine as is with a belt or sash. Taking in the dress carefully took a little more time and some extra thought (because of the princess seams), but was well worth it. Again, I skipped the lining and fancy-schmancy zipper. I can’t wait to wear this dress come spring. It’s so pretty! My husband has let me know that this dress is his favorite so far.

McCalls 7599
Who’s ready for an Epic Fail? This girl!
So.. I messed up. I was so excited to do this 1950s dress pattern from McCall’s only to have my dreams cut short. Literally.

So this story begins at a tiny discount fabric store in Somerville Massachusetts called Sewfisticated Fabric. I first read about it online and just had to get there to experience it for myself. And I did experience it. And yes, it lived up to it’s reviews on Yelp. I came across some really special fabric and never paid more then $3.99 a yard (as little as$1.99). I left the store with armfuls of fabric that frankly, did not belong in a discount bin.

The crowing jewel of this mother load was this blue watercolored floral that was obviously a product sample. When the store owner commented on my purchases she pointed out this fabric and claimed it was for 2020 spring. I’m not confident if it’s for 2020; but I would not be surprised if it was intended for 2019. I wish I could tell you who produced or designed the fabric, but as it was just a manufacturer’s sample, there are little to no clues. The salvage is just a secret code which was misprinted anyways.  It’s scary to think, but quite possible, that this fabric was passed over by the merchandisers and it won’t be moving forward to the market (hence why it wound up in a discount store). That would be such a shame. I mean LOOK at it.. it’s beautiful!

So, on to the fail..
I had purchased my usual 4 yards thinking I had more then enough material to create this dress.. but HA! Nope.. First of all the bolt was mislabeled (fair enough because it was a discount store and it was just a sample. They probably just threw it on an old bolt that was empty. So instead of the 60″ wide fabric, I only had 45″. So even if I wanted to make dress A (which um.. confession, I didn’t. I wanted dress B. Another mistake), I didn’t have enough. I was WAY, WAY off. I needed about 6 yards. If only I had realized this before cutting the first half of the full circle skirt. But I did not. Because lets face it. Mistakes are inevitable when you’re learning. So please feel welcome to learn from MY mistakes and double check everything. I got cocky and thought I knew what I was doing after the success of those first few dresses.

So there I was.. With half a full circle skirt cut out and not enough fabric to even make another full circle to complete the skirt. Not wanting to waste this exquisite fabric, I took to Youtube and came across this tutorial by Oaishe. With a few adjustments I was able to still walk away with a wearable piece.

I cut as much of the second half circle skirt as I could then trimmed both halves so that they were pretty even angles up to the waist. Then I sewed them together down one side and took a look. It was somewhere between a half-circle and full-circle skirt and it looked like it would work out just fine. I used an old invisible zipper that I had on hand. Although I still have to adjust/alter the waist to fit a little snugger, I have to admit it looks pretty cute. Perhaps this was a ‘happy mistake’ as we used to say in art school.

The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.
Theodore Roosevelt

I still have this dress pattern ready to rock for the next time I come across an extra special 6 yards of heaven.

I’ll have to come back to 7599-B.

New Look pattern #6447
The second time utilizing this dress pattern. Instead of the sweet, flouncy skirt and country floral I went with this form-hugging pencil skirt and unconventional paisley.
The two dresses don’t even look related in the least bit! I have to admit, the night I made this dress, I laid it out in my bedroom eager to wear it to the office the next morning.

The material is actually ‘home decor’ fabric that I purchased on clearance for a whopping $3 a yard at Hobby Lobby. Most likely on clearance because it was more of a soft, lightweight linen then the durable, thick canvas one looks for when picking out upholstery fabric. When I saw the robust raspberry and windblown paisleys fanned out against the warm neutrals, my hand reached out to touch the silky material and I knew immediately that this fabric was on clearance because it was exclusively merchandised in the home decor section of the store and therefore overlooked. Seriously though, never be afraid to walk unconventional aisles to uncover some great deals and interesting finds.

Transformed into a sophisticated silhouette, this fabric looks like it belongs in a mall boutique store. The best part was having all my notes from the first time I made dress option D. The back fits much better the second time around because I knew from way ahead of time that it would need to be adjusted. After adjusting my tissue paper pattern I shortened the sleeves and extended the V in the back just a little to compensate. It still scrunches up a little at the waistline when I lean back slightly, but it looks great when I’m standing or sitting. My new millennial power dress took about 6 hours to make. I did have to watch a youtube video on how to create the skirt vent and honestly I think I only got it correct the first time due to a little dumb luck.

I also took the time to measure twice and think four times when cutting out the skirt from the provided pattern. I’m slightly exaggerated in my upper and lower assets (wink-wink nudge-nudge) and so I usually steer away from pencil dresses in stores. Usually if the bottom fits it means the waistline is going to be too loose. So I went ahead and created the skirt 2 sizes up on the tissue paper outline. I basted the zipper in place temporarily . Then, after trying it on, I adjusted the seams by sewing in an inch here and a half an inch there to make a comfortable custom fit.

Once again, I skipped the lining and used a less expensive zipper then what the directions called for. Although I created this dress with the intent on wearing it early Spring 2019, I went ahead and took it for a test drive to the office last week. Being complimented on a dress you pick out and purchase from a store is nice and re-assuring; but being complimented on a dress in which you chose the fabric, the cut, length… that is a new kind of special. At the time of me writing this I’ve already worked on a handful of other dresses for Spring 2019 and I have to say this will not be the last time I sew NewLook 6447. It’s simple to assemble, easy to adjust, and oh.. so flattering.

New Look pattern #6447
First dress pattern ever! Not bad for a first go. I’ll be spending this winter sewing dresses and apparel for Spring 2019. I’m a novice and have no real professional training on how to sew. As a hobby, I have been sewing off and on since I was little.

Overall creating this dress took about 10 hours. It was my first time using a purchased pattern and my first time adjusting to my own measurements so I’m guessing that I added about an additional 2-3 hours for mistakes, machine jams, and learning curve. Time will tell if that was excessive I guess. I chose this NewLook dress pattern for it’s seemingly simple construction combining 3 main parts: bodice, midriff, and skirt.

I chose this sweet ‘Meadow Flowers’ apparel fabric from Hobby Lobby. It seemed a great choice to utilize the simply stated, dittsy floral to compliment the classic, feminine dress pattern. The print is very forgiving for a vertical reaching pattern as it flows with natural, soft curved lines of leaves and stems. Unlike rigid, vertical stripes which would have given away the adjustments I made altering away from the initial fabric cuts. The color is spot on perfect which I really appreciate as I myself am a fabric print designer and color is extremely important to me. It is sweet, innocent, and a fresh take on a classic floral. Very New England Country. Perfect for spring in my coastal New England town.

This biggest adjustment I needed to make was in the bodice back. It had a large gap between the fabric and the curve of my back. Even after cutting away a few inches from the back straps you can still see a loose wrinkle in the first picture. I also had to adjust the darts in the bodice as it was designed for a 36 B cup and I’m .. well I’m a 32 D. I was able to foresee this problem early enough and I adjusted easily by just not extending the darts as far as the pattern suggested. I cut them short by about 1/3 of the suggested length. Bingo! Plenty more room without adding to the waistline.

I have to admit, despite the fact that I had little experience with following a pattern, I was blow away with how easy it was to make this flattering dress.  Although I skipped the lining and used a regular zipper (instead of the invisible one), I followed the rest of the directions with little to no roadblocks. I went on to create the dress again using a different skirt and fabric option. I’ll share that next!