This and That Weekend Edition

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on the last post.  I'm actually leaning towards the oak tag solution and can pick up the supplies in the garment district, I just wanted to know what others thought and did.  So thanks for your thoughtful answers to the question.

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Second, I'm going with the houndstooth inserts for the Vogue 1370 dress. One because those insert pieces are bigger than you guys realize...remember I'm working with larger pieces than the size 8 pictured in the pattern art and two, because the outfit will work with these shoes...

Yes, I do sew based upon my accessories...

*Autumn - you are soooooo right!  I know that this is a houndstooth print but for some reason I keep typing herringbone!  I'm fixing the posts and thanks again for leaving the comment!

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A confession ~ the USPS boxes are still riding around in the trunk of the car.  I thought they had been dropped off but alas they are still in the car. I sincerely apologize to all who are waiting for things for me...life has been a little hectic lately and that's why the boxes haven't been shipped.  So I'm suspending this month's fabric giveaway.  I've got to get the other boxes out first before I can do another giveaway.

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I'm not in the mood to sew...and my current sewing list is not appealing to me. Right now I feel like just sewing separates ~ a skirt here, a pair of pants, a simple dress, a top or a cardigan.  Things that will work with my other garments but don't require a lot of involved sewing.  Things like this:

A top from my TNT dress made from a silk border print

This Ann Taylor dress using B5147

Rachel Roy multi-print pencil skirt

Jacket and skirt with pleather accents

None of this will get sewn anytime soon...it's just things I've been lusting after while I haven't been sewing. Will do a little work on the Vogue dress today...

....as always more later!

Transferring your most used patterns?

This is my Question of the Day - "How do you transfer your most used patterns?"

Do you use tissue paper?  Or the pattern paper with the letter and numbers? Oak tag paper like professional pattern makers?  Or do you fuse your paper patterns to lightweight fusible interfacing?

Photo courtesy of Sew Can Do blog

I would really like to know because my TNT dress pattern, pants pattern, skirt and a jacket or two really need to be transferred again to better paper.  But I'm wondering if maybe it isn't time to transfer those patterns to oak tag paper and stop remaking them every couple of years.

So I'm soliciting opinions, answers, suggestions, etc.  I think maybe it's time for the basic ones not to be folded anymore but along with that comes storage issues.  How to store them? Where to store them?  Because the present storage system I have is working pretty well.

I'm really interested and hope that you'll share what you do in the comments!

...as always more later!

Vogue 1370 - Pattern Alterations

This pattern appears to be a simple silhouette with a few inserts.  Let me start out by saying, yeah right! *LOL*  There are 14 total pieces for the dress that includes the front and the right and left back pieces. I look at a pattern by comparing it to my TNT dress pattern because I always think of that as the basis to make any changes to a new pattern.

Vogue 1370

I started with a Vogue size 24. I can honestly say that if I hadn't had my TNT dress pattern to compare the pattern to, I would be lost.  There are quite a few inches difference between Vogue 1370 and my TNT pattern...which I know fits me with the right amount of ease and the correct proportions for my body. 

There were a number of alterations made to the patterns:

Changes to the front ~

1.  After laying all of the patterns on top of my TNT dress front pattern (which is getting pretty worn and will need to be traced again soon) there were so many things to change.  Trying to match the notches and dots on the pattern pieces, made me a little crazy, but I had to see how the dress was suppose to go together before I made any changes to the pattern pieces. It truly was a big old puzzle!

2.  After getting everything laid down, I started on one side and worked my way across.  I pinned the center front of the pattern pieces to the center front of my TNT dress pattern to use as a guideline and an anchor.
  

3.  This dress is short.  There is a 5.5" difference between the hemline of the pattern pieces and my TNT dress' hemline.  At first I was going to just add it at the hemline but then I decided to use the lengthen/shorten lines and add the length proportionally.  2.5" at the lengthen/shorten lines and 3" at the hemline.

4.  Thank goodness I had a plan because the alterations were really extensive all together especially on the front.  It took way longer to make them than I originally thought it would. I wanted to be accurate so the final dress will fit correctly.  Also, I needed to make sure that I added in all of the inches I needed without distorting the original style of the dress.

5.  Changed the dart where it appeared on the original right front pattern piece to where it is on my TNT pattern.  I just drew a new dart onto the pattern tissue after I'd enlarged the side seams so that they matched my own. But I didn't change the dart on the left side pattern piece ~ it fell into the same place on my TNT pattern, so I left it alone.

6.  There was only one piece on the front that I didn't change - #3 the insert piece.  Hopefully that won't bite me in the butt later! *LOL*

Changes to the back ~

*The changes to the back weren't quite as extensive as they were to the front.  It was more making sure that the left side and right side pieces were correct and adding a few inches to the sides.

*I also used the lengthen/shorten lines to add the 5.5" to the dress back.

*There are different changes to the left and right side back patterns.  One side required more changes than the other one did. There is a dart in the back left side pattern piece that I'm not transferring.  I don't normally use darts in the backs of my dresses and I won't in this one either.  This is a personal design choice. Another sewist may choose to use the dart.  I just hate back darts pointing at my bodacious behind. 


Final thoughts...
There was a lot of pattern alterations involved in taking this pattern from out of the envelope to matching the dimensions of my TNT pattern.  I used a lot of tape and small pieces of tracing paper.  There was so much work that I only did pattern alterations this weekend, never even turned my sewing machine on.  It took time because at times I stopped to think through what I was doing and I knew that I didn't want to rush the process.

Also, when I went to pull the fabric for this garment I ran into a small challenge. I couldn't decide between the black 'n white houndstooth or the black 'n white lace for the inserts.  I turned to Instagram for opinions but I'll ask here too since I haven't cut anything out yet.

Here is the collage. Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments on which combo you'd choose and why.

Top left - black double wool crepe and houndstooth

Bottom right - black double wool crepe and lace

I will let you know what I finally decide since I'll be cutting the dress and sewing it next weekend.


...as always more later! 

A Night with friends in "A Little Black Dress"

I had a great evening last night.  Sewing, good friends, new friends, designer fabric and food were involved ~ the perfect kind of evening in my book!  Well hey y'all know I'm obsessed!  *LOL*  I attended the Little Black Dress Party for PR Day at Elliot Berman's!

I'm gonna lead with pictures because thanks to my handy iPad I actually took a few...

Playing the "Name that Fabric" game

The contestants from the "Design It!" Contest

Kathleen & Liesl

Claudine, Kyle, Mary, Liesl, Bonny and Sharon

Liesl and Michael

I did have a wonderful conversation with Liesl who is the owner of Oliver & S Patterns about grading her new women's line, Liesl + Co., up to plus sizes. Thanks Liesl for putting up with me and letting me make my point!  See her new women's line, here!

Holding the winnings ~ fabric goodness!

Me, Clio & Deepika

 ...and this is what I won for answering a question...Valentino was the answer...

2 yards of amazing Missoni goodness!

Finally, Kathy Marrone, the Editor of Vogue Pattern Magazine and I spent quality time talking about sewing.  Peoples, this was truly the highlight of my evening especially when she said that she reads my blog!

It was a great evening with friends, however, please check out my fellow bloggers take on the evening....Clio - Clio & Phineas, Peter - Male Pattern Boldness, and my date for the evening ~ the awenessness herself, Oonaballoona!

A special thanks to Matthew and Eugenia proprietors of Elliot Berman Textiles for hosting such a wonderful event and giving away such great fabric gifts!

Matthew 

(courtesy of Oonaballoona)

and Eugenia

Peter's cousin Cathy won "The Best Little Black Dress" contest and won an awesome piece of Chanel Tweed.  Seriously Peter if you aren't making Michael a jacket from that tweed we really need to talk! *LOL*

I'll be spending the evening and most of tomorrow in the sewing cave, my Vogue pattern arrived and I'd like to have a new dress before the weekend is over!!!

...as always more later!

Sunday Best

When I picked up this wool/poly blend gingham from Mood, I knew exactly what I wanted it to be.  A sleeveless version of my TNT dress with white piping...

I played around with several other options but I kept coming back to this simple silhouette which highlights the fabric because that's what I really wanted ~ to highlight the fabric.  Here are a few ginghams from the Mood online store.

I saw this picture of gingham style outfits in the November 2013 issue of Vogue Magazine and I knew I was on the right track.  Even when making my wool boucle jacket, I knew that I really wanted the two pieces to work together...

Notions ~
White bemberg lining
22" pink invisible zipper
White rayon seam binding
White bias binding
White satin piping

Construction Information ~
Since this dress is made from my TNT dress pattern, which I've made quite a few times already, it was a simple sew. After I pre-treated the poly/wool blend fabric, I had a few decisions to make. I couldn't decide whether to go simple and let the fabric speak or add some obvious embellishment like lace. I finally went with simple because it can be dressed up or down. So the dress is lined with white bemberg rayon lining. It has an invisible zipper closure and white piping at the neckline and armholes. All of these techniques have been reviewed here in other blog posts. Highlighting the amazing piece of fabric was what I really wanted and what I went for in the end.

At one point the boucle and the gingham fabric were laying on the sewing table together so it was just natural to make the dress to coordinate with the jacket.  Plus doesn't my pink hat look amazing with the two pieces?  And even though it's fall, I definitely have a pastel vibe going on which is also a trend for fall.

A few more pictures of the jacket, dress and hat...

I know that many sewists enjoy the challenge of making a variety of patterns. Me, I just wanna sew and own a lot of clothes.  Yeah I said it! *LOL* When a silhouette works for me and can be made on trend through fabric and styling, I'm going for it using a TNT pattern over and over every time!  Most people who don't sew don't even notice that it's the same silhouette/pattern anyway.

One more thing...about the photos.  These were taken with the new camera on the same day that the last post's pics were, so I had no opportunity to put the tips that everyone so generously shared into action.  I do understand about the shade/cloudy day, golden hours of photography giving the best pictures but I have to admit that I like the drama of the sharp background highlighting the garment. I can honestly tell you that we took 100+ photos last Sunday. Then my daughter and I sat in front of the computer and culled it down to about 30 pics. After that we culled again, then cropped and changed the exposure on some, that's how the final pictures were chosen. 

I won't belabor the taking of photos in too many more posts because it's getting colder and honestly I'm going to have to head inside soon. I felt so bad last Sunday because at one point my granddaughter kept going "Mama I'm cold!" to her mother, the photographer. So the bad is coming soon peoples ~ cause I still have to learn how to take pics with a remote by myself. I'm sure that's going to be an adventure unto itself! *LOL*

Lastly, I have one more dress that I want to make and it's not from the Five in Five collection.  I fell in love, seriously head over heels in love with this dress from the latest Vogue Pattern release...and I HAVE to make it now. 

Vogue 1370

I've ordered the pattern and am waiting for it arrive...I have an idea that I'm chomping at the sewing machine to make.  I'm also going to make a muslin, yes you heard me...a muslin for the Butterick coat.  I want to make this correctly, no jerry-rigging so look for that muslin soon!  Shew that was alot right? 

...as always more later!  

60s Inspired Wool Boucle Jacket

I found this awesome wool boucle on the Third Floor of Mood's NYC store.  I know people have favorite sections of the store but me, I love the third floor because it's magical!  You never know what you'll find there and every time I climb the stairs, I find the most amazing treats.

To be honest, I've had this piece for a minute.  When Todd pulled it off the rack for me, I squealed with joy because not only is it a beautiful creamy medium weight boucle but it's also backed with interfacing. And yes, Lauren this is the piece that I tried, begged & pleaded with you to buy but you passed.  Ummm, next time you'll listen to me about everything, right?!  *LOL*

Peoples when I find a fabric that's backed with interfacing it's like finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.  It's like the Holy Grail of fabrics - one to be wished and hoped for...to be ever in search of...because a pre-fused piece of fabric is so wonderful to work with that like a druggie looking for a fix...I'm constantly in search of it!  *LOL*

Now I know you think I'm being extreme but I'm not...cause I purchased 2.5 yards of this loveliness...

...and this is what I made!

Patterns used to make this jacket ~
Vogue 2285 - circa 1999 and vintage 60s Simplicity 5144

Notions ~
White bemberg lining
Black & White polka dot silk used in the faux pockets 
White rayon seam tape
3/4" shoulder pads

All of the construction details regarding the sewing of this jacket are included in this post.  I didn't make any changes from my first version of this jacket but it was wonderful having a road map to assist me with it.  I made this one closer to the pattern envelope's illustration...not including any closures.  My original version did have closures on it ~ buttons backed with fabric covered snaps.

The thing I love the most about this jacket is the faux welt pockets with the black polka dot fabric inserts.  Aren't they kewl?  Of course, the instruction sheet for the Vintage Simplicity Pattern explains exactly how to accomplish this so that even a newbie could handle making these.  It's one of the things I love about vintage patterns, they have the kewlest details that really make the finished garment special.

Here is a close up of the details of the jacket modeled on Lulu.  Not only is this jacket on trend ~ vanilla is hot, hot, hot for fall/winter ~ but it goes with so many garments already living in my closet.  Another plus!  And doesn't that pin look fantastic with the jacket?!  I have loads of pins collected over the years that will work well with the jacket too.

A few more pictures of the jacket in action...

Thanks for all of the photography tips on my last post. I will be putting them to good use. Amy & Marce I will remember about direct sunlight but all that talk about lens was like alien speak to me!  LOL!  And here I thought direct sunlight was better than shade or a cloudy day even...not to mention ignoring the fact that all of my neighbors were staring at me like I was crazy cause you know people stand in the street posing with two little kids running around screaming and the photographer going don't move, don't move in a very loud voice! 

Finally here's a sneak peek at my next make which will be featured on The Mood Sewing Network tomorrow.

...as always more later!

Learning my new camera...

Illusion:
I thought that if I just put the camera on automatic it would shoot and I'd have wonderful pictures.  I mean I just held it up and took some in the sewing cave and they looked so much better than the pictures on my Canon Elph did. I also thought since it's a better camera that I should be able to get a couple of decent sunset photos.

Fact:
Here's what I got...

...ummm not so good!  You can't see any of the details of the jacket or it's real color.  Which is better depicted in this collage...

Illusion:
I would be able to read the manual understand the settings, play with the camera and make it work thus taking great pictures.  My daughter who is handier than I would make it sing right away.

Fact:
I've spent the weekend watching a series of videos on YouTube cause I'm really more of a visual learner than learning by reading something. I even follow the pictures on the instruction sheet and in my sewing books better than just reading the text.  

My daughter did come in this afternoon, read the manual and had a better familiarity with the camera.  I also think she got over her fear of using the better, more expensive camera.

Result...
These are photos that my daughter and I took this afternoon.

• With the help of my friends, I'm realizing that natural light is the best light...even in the house.
• My picture size should be larger - I don't know how that's going to work with Blogger's space requirements but I'll worry about that later.  
• The auto setting can be used but it's best used in natural light.
• It's going to take me much longer to learn how to work all of the functions of the camera.
• There are a lot more YouTube videos in my future on how to make this camera work! *LOL*

I've ordered another tripod and a remote so that I will be able to take pictures by myself.  My daughter's schedule is getting tighter and with two little kids running around and getting in the shots, it takes a lot longer to get some pictures than it use to.  Also I don't like imposing on my daughter's precious time like that.

There is definitely a learning curve involved with this camera and I hope that you won't mind putting up with a few less than wonderful photos here as I learn how to make my camera sing.

Oh and review of the 60's Vintage Wool Boucle jacket will be up soon...

...as always more later!