Lots of Sewing! Part 2

Gray Knit Shirt and Pinstripe Pants

That is my little helper, Lily, in the bottom left. She really wanted to be a part of all the excitement!

The shirt's first incarnation was in the form of an ugly blue polyester. Like the polyester from the 70's, although I think it was a relatively recent style. In other words, cheap. I got it at the thrift store for about $6 and took it home to demolish it and pick apart all the seams. I created a pattern from the pieces and first (stupidly) used a knit without the same amount of stretch. Obviously it didn't fit right, which I could tell from the start of the fitting process. I found the gray stretchier knit and gave it a second try. Perfecto!

It crosses across the breasts, like it's a wrap style. The midriff on the original had the grain running crosswise, and I liked the detail, so I did the same. All in all it shows a bit of cleavage, and you do need to watch your position depending on what you're doing. But, for normal movement it doesn't gap or show any bra, so I'm happy with it.

The pants are Simplicity 2860 "Amazing Fit" pants.

They give 3 options to choose from, depending on your body type; "slim", "average" or "curvy". Obviously I had to use the "curvy" option. Overall I liked the pattern. It enabled you to really make a perfect fit in the waist, crotch and butt. The instructions were great and they make it so your have a 4 piece waistband which helps you fit your waist better. What I didn't like was that the pant legs were SO WIDE! Like, flopping when you walk wide. As you can see from my body type, I'm big in the middle and thin at the legs. I had to chop off a significant amount from the side seams to get it to look right. They assume, like most patterns do, that if you're large in the bust or waist, you need large in the shoulders or legs. Not true!

But despite that, you didn't need any special books to help fit; the instructions covered what you needed to know for the most part. The rest is pretty intuitive if you've sewn a bit.

One last shot of the pants, a close up of the zipper and closure. The pants use a regular zipper insertion, which IMO goes faster than something like a side zip on a dress. It also uses a button and hook and eye closure. I didn't have the larger kind at the time and used a smaller hook and eye, but I actually like it better I think. It gives a more secure closure for me, as opposed to the kind you just slip into the "eye". Plus it gives a little satisfying click when you secure it!

So, my final decision? I will be making both the pants (with thinner legs!) and the shirt again! I really love the fit of the pants and may fiddle with it a bit and add pockets or something next time.

I wish I could find better knit fabrics here. I may have to break down and order something online, but I have reservations about that since I LOVE to fondle fabrics and it really does help with the decision process.

Stay tuned, there will be more! I have that pesky pair of short to post about that I mentioned in a previous post and another shirt from a Simplicity pattern.

Lots of Sewing! Part 1

I have a huge update to do and here is the first parter:

The Little Girl Dress



I made this dress for my niece, before I left on a rather short-lived vacation. I ended up coming home early, but I was still able to give her the dress. This is a size 3, although she is a little bit smaller than that, but the pattern didn't go to a size 2. It's McCalls 3949 View C. It is lined in the bodice, and has a petticoat in a contrast color. Ed actually picked out the dress fabric which is a polka dot chiffon. The lining fabric and what was used for the petticoat was simple broadcloth.
Ed also picked out the buttons:



The ruffle took the longest to do, but it was just from the quantity of fabric used rather than it going wrong or anything. It actually went rather quickly since I used a technique I learned on Sewing With Nancy tv. You take a thick button or upholstery thread and do a small zig zag over top of it, without catching it in any stitching. Then once you're done you use that to pull along to gather the ruffle. It was the first time since I watched it that I was able to use it. It came out perfect the first time!

Has It Been That Long?

I've been absent a while. I have been having some medical problems, some from my recent surgery and some totally unrelated. It's been hard for me to get around, but I did manage to sew a few things and will show them in my next post. Ed is a much better photographer than I am, so I try and get him to take the pics.

I will say that I worked on Simplicity 2860 and 2705.

On the pants pattern it went along very well but I came to a few problems with 2705, the shorts view in the middle. That one made me want to scream, not from difficulty but because there was an error with my pattern pieces. I don't know if it's in them all, or just mine but the waistband was too short for the waist. I made some alterations, but only by adding a little to it, so it shouldn't have been short at all if I did that, even if I messed up by NOT adding to the increase to the shorts pieces. I ended up adding the width of the pocket to the waistband (it's an overlapping waistband that secures on the side). Obviously, Simplicity neglected to do that to the original piece.

Pictures will come soon! I'm also in the process of remaking a very, very nasty polyester shirt that I found at the thrift store. I took out the seams and made pattern pieces of them. I've actually made most of the shirt but realized too late that I needed a stretchier knit than I had used. I've pulled out one with the same stretch as the original, so my next one should turn out better. The shirt itself, originally, cost about $6, but $6 for a pattern isn't too bad!