Draped, pleated skirt

A woke up in a pre-dawn panic this morning.  I knew I was in a panic but I couldn't remember what about.  By the time I remembered, I couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up and finished this skirt and got some quick pics taken.  They are to my usual bodgy standard, and I wasn't going to show them to you.  I was trawling through those hundreds of self-timer photos trying to find one that was okay when I realised that the main problem was not the quality of the photos (although bodgy), but the quality of the skirt hem.  The exposure problems of dawn photography were highlighting the fact that my blind hem is not so blind and not particularly even.  So I returned to the sewing room trying to figure out how to fix it until I was left with only 10 minutes to make lunches and still no hem solution.  So here I am showing you the best of the bodgy photos.  I will tell you about the skirt and hopefully somebody can help me out with the hem.

The pattern:  Vogue 8455, given to me by a friend.  I think it may be discontinued now.  It is a mock wrap skirt with assymmetrical pleats in the front panels.  I shortened the pattern by 6 - 7 cm and tapered the side seams in 2 - 3 cm at the hem.

The fabric:  Initially I bought this silk charmeuse on-line to make a slip.  It is a gorgeous fabric and drapes beautifully vertically, but did weird things when I draped it on the bias, making it not so suitable for the slip I had in mind.  It frays dreadfully in the vertical threads but not so bad horizontally.

People often ask me how I go buying fabrics without seeing and feeling them first.  I reckon I have about a 70% hit rate of the fabric turning up as I expected.  The other times it may be a different weight, or drape differently or maybe just be not the right colour or be a fabric type that I have never seen before.  However, because I buy from good suppliers, (Tessuti and EmmaOneSock are my favourites), the fabric is almost always great and I just add it to my stash for a later project.  I need a stash because the fabric available locally is so limited.  Probably as many times as I am disappointed I receive a fabric that is so much better than I was expecting that I can't stop smiling for hours.  So this fabric was one of my "misses", but the other good thing about buying on-line, is that often I end up with fabrics that I wouldn't necessarily choose in a shop but ones that I love anyhow.

The pattern called for a narrow hem.  I don't think that a narrow hem would work for this fabric unles the hem was cut perfectly cross-grain, and being pretty slippery and already sewn into a skirt, I can't see me cutting straight enough to end up with a narrow hem that wasn't rippled.  I don't have any farbric left over, so I can't make a bias binding faced hem.  I went with a blind hem.  The hem depth is about 6 cm, which is a little tricky to turn up on a tapered skirt.  Only the blind hem is not so blind, even though I have pressed it.  So does anybody have any other suggestions for a hem technique?  Perhaps I could just re-do the hem with a finer needle?

Anyway, if anybody is interested, the tops are reviewed here and here.  That's the other fun part about unplanned fabrics...trying to work the finished garment into my wardrobe.

Sewing Along

Dawn started another jeans sew-along at Pattern Review.  I have a lovely piece of denim sitting in my stash.  I was just undecided about whether to use my previous Marfy jeans pattern (which I love, love, love) or have a go at the famous Jalie jeans.  There are plenty of glowing reviews for the Jalies, but Mary Nanna's warning was lurking in the back of my mind.  I decided to make up a muslin in a striped stretch denim that I bought years ago, when I returned to sewing.  Back then I wanted some groovy clothes and decided stripes would be the way to go...I have since found much better ways to get groovy clothes and have been wondering what to do with the stripes.

Here are some lessons I learnt along the way.


1.  Starting to stitch - I'm a bit of a lazy sewer, I don't often hold my threads when starting to stitch.  I have found that top-stitching thread wants to be held when sewing jeans.

2.  Matching Stripes - I have never needed to match stripes on pockets before.  An old article by Angie Zimmermann in Autralian Stitches came to the rescue.  She showed had to place the pocket pattern piece on the cut-out pants, draw the stripes on the pocket pattern and then use this to cut out the pocket.  So simple when you know how.  Look at this beautiful stripe matching, from yoke to back to pocket.

 

3.  Re-inforcing pocket corners - in the above photo you can see how I re-inforced the pocket corners with the diamond stitch on my sewing machine.  I don't have many fancy stitches on my machine, so I would think most machines have this stitch.  I like it.

4.  The waistband.  I learnt a new method to put on the waistband.  LauraLo adapted a cuff method she learnt over at Fashion Incubator for applying waistbands.  No stitch in the ditch, no hand stitching the turn-under, no binding the waistband edge.  THIS IS BRILLIANT.  Check it out.  I wasn't sure that it would work, so I only sewed it in regular thread, not top-stitching thread.  In the photo below, you can see both the inside and the outside of the waistband.  It think it will work for contoured bands as well.  I will use this for a lot of waistbands from now on in.

5.  Rivets - There was a thread at pattern review on where to get rivets in Australia.  I got all excited and bought some with an antique nickel finish.  Then I saw another thread at pattern review about rivets and nickel allergies.  Then I had a brief panic because I have a nickel allergy and did not take this into account when I bought the rivets (I also forgot to take this into account when starting work at a nickel refinery...hmm, you think I'd remember this...but really, the only impact it has on me in my everyday life is not being able to wear all the groovy earrings).   Then I thought some more and realised that jeans in the past have not caused me problems because rivets are typically positioned over underpants.  Now I am wondering about the underwear wearing habits of people at pattern review!

Then I had a go at installing rivets.  Very bodgy.  More help from pattern review where I was kindly directed to Brian's tutorial.  I have had another go on these jeans (click on above photo for close up), but I'm not too thrilled with the result.  I think they are a bit like welt pockets.  You have to weigh up the risk of failure versus the effect if they work out okay.  For me, rivets don't add much in the way of looks, so I will be leaving them off my final pair.


Pattern Review:
This pattern has been reviewed so many times already that I won't write up my review over there.  But for anybody who visits me here...my 2 cents worth.

The instructions / construction method

Mostly I like the construction order, which is different to the way I traditionally put pants together.  I didn't like the method for the fly zipper.  It results in the zipper being very close to the CF.  I remember one of the Alice & Olivia Vogue patterns beign criticised for having a fly close to the CF even though it reflected RTW.  Personally, I always thought that this was one area that RTW jeans could improve.  Then folding the washing last night (during the final of SYTYCD - wasn't it fabulous) I noticed that Peter's jeans did not have the fly so close to the CF.  So then I had to do a survey of all jeans in the house at the time...I can report that Lee, Ben Sherman, Sportsgirl and Pumpkin Patch all have their zippers well and truly away from the CF fold so that they are not easily exposed during wear.  I think I will go back to my standard fly zipper method for my real jeans.


The fit
 At first I thought the jeans looked terrible.  Then I finished the hem, put my heels and a different T-shirt on, stood nicely and admitted that the front did look like the photo on the pattern cover.  My waistband did have a little gaposis, which has been well documented at pattern review and the blogs, but it was not significant enough for me to want to correct it.  Then the back view and thumbs down.  I won't even show you a picture.  Not very flattering and too much fabric under the bum.So I dug out the Marfy pattern for comparison.


The front shows little difference in the crotch and leg.  The Jalie pattern is the one with the lower front.  I like the lower front for non-stretch, but for stretch I think I need a higher front to hold it all in!

Comparing the back patterns, you can see that the Marfy pattern has a few less centimetres across the inner back thigh.  I think I need this.  From memory, I think when I compared them to my very close fitting Sportsgirl jeans, the Sportsgirl jeans curved in even more at this inner back thigh.

 The Jalie pattern is a bootcut.  I think I am the only person in the whole wide world that does not think the bootcut is universally flattering.  I knew this, but I am clever enough to change the leg shaping...I was more interested in the fit of the Jalie jeans across the back.

The verdict is in.  Marfy has won.  I just need to decide the leg shape for my pair.  I love the flared leg I made last time, but am thinking I will try the straight leg that the Marfy pattern came with, not sure about the button detail on the side of the hem though.
 
Now I'm not sure what to do with the striped jeans.  I will never wear them.  It seems like a lot of work to throw out, even if they were a muslin.  Perhaps I should put a button on them and send them to the local op shop.  Do you think anybody will want striped jeans???

DKNY LBD

I love this photo.  It was taken to show you the dress that I have only just this minute finished.  You can also see the home dec projects that have been keeping me from sewing dresses.  And there on the right, you can see a child in tears, after fighting with his brother for the camera, which is typical of my photoshoots.  Atypically, I am smiling, and not yelling at the photography team.

This dress is Vogue 1179.  I don't wear much black.  I didn't even wear black when I lived in Melbourne.  Excluding underwear, the only black clothes that I own are the LBD that I made last year, the denim leggings I made last year and one blouse that does not get much wear.  This dress pattern called for matte jersey or silk jersey.  Then I saw that EmmaOneSock had a black silk matte jersey, which is a fabric that I am not familiar with, so I ordered some out of curiosity.  The other colour was oyster, which I think suits me even less than black.

This should have been a quick and simple project, but the armholes caused me much grief, which I will detail in my pattern review.  I think I prefer my zebra print dress, which is made from a very similar pattern, with no armholes to contend with.  This pattern is part of the Vogue spring/summer line-up, but I am finding the collar all a bit hot in my autumn climate.  Might have to be a winter dress for me.  On the up-side, the narrow, deep neckline, cowl collar and CF pleats all create a strong vertical, which is very slimming.  I had to remember not to take the dress off in front of the mirror when I was checking the fit, as the reality was spoiling that slimming illusion.

Well, this is not my usual attire, but I am hoping to get lots of wear from it, as it is very easy care.  It would be a perfect travel dress, if I ever had need of a travel wardrobe.

Breaking the drought

Sadly, sewing clothes for myself has dropped down the priority list lately.  However, we all know that sewing is essential for mental well-being, so I put Wednesday aside just for me-sewing, picked an easy project, turned the computer off and got started.  My plan was to sew up the new Vogue 8655.  Go on, click on the link, because I think you could very easily overlook this pattern.  It is just a tank top and elastic waist pants.  Made up in the wrong fabric, it could look very, very ordinary.  In the right fabric, it could look luxe resort.

I was sewing from stash.  For the tunic, I chose a silk-rayon blend knit (at least, that's what I think it is).  For the pants, I chose a mulberry coloured silk charmeuse.  And that's where my plans came unstuck.  I didn't have enough fabric for the pants and nothing else in the stash seemed quite right.  So this post is not as exciting as I would have liked.  Sorry I can't show you pattern complete (and sorry that I can't smile and use the camera timer at the same time). Here, I am wearing the top with my silk-linen pants.

 I spent the rest of my time working on a drapy skirt, but did not get it finished...hopefully it won't be too long before I get back to it.