The Toast Tunic

At what point does a Sorbetto stop being a Sorbetto? I’m not sure of the answer, but I do know Colette’s free tank top pattern hasn’t let me down yet.

One of my favourite discoveries in England has been the phenomenon of the Toast Catalogue.

Toast is clothing/homewares store that stocks simple designs in beautiful quality fabrics. Their campaign shoots are just stunning and have made them their own niche in the world of catalogues.

They are (somewhat humorously) described in the Guardian as

“[being] synonymous with an idyllic, relaxed and creative way of life where people breeze around their Venetian palazzo or Scottish bothy looking beautiful. The catalogues are famous for their photography, shot on location in Lapland, Argentina or Sri Lanka. And Toast customers from Notting Hill to the Outer Hebrides buy into that way of life when they order their Fair Isle wool socks or their faded floral silk dressing-gowns. “

Toast Catalogue

One of my favourite items are their kimono-sleeved tunic dresses which they do in several fabrics, so it was a natural leap from my kimono-sleeved sorbetto to this dress. I widened the neckline, added cuffs and lengthened it straight down.

The problem is that it was so quick and easy to make… now I want more in silk… and wool…  and velvet… sigh.

 

A Vintage Christmas Colette Macaron

This is my second version of Colette Pattern’s Macaron dress although the first, which you can see here, was really a wearable muslin. For this version I finally got to use this lovely vintage cotton floral twill I found at a cool vintage fabric store just off Brick Lane, simply called The Shop.

Image via thevintageguidetolondon.com

Every Thursday they get new deliveries, and while it’s not as cheap as a charity shop find (they specialise in fabric not clothing) there is plenty to hunt through and it’s still quite reasonable.This was a 3 yard length although very narrow (35in) and it cost £6.50.

I wasn’t sure what t0 do with it but I think the vintage feel of Colette Patterns make a nice fit and I needed something nice but still warm and comfortable for Christmas Day. The red and green of this print don’t shout Christmas but sort of give it a subtle nod, like Joni Mitchell’s River*, not a Christmas song as such but it sure evokes the season.

 I made a number of changes with this version:

• I kept the FBA in tact (detailed FBA posts here and here) but I shortened the darts under the bust by one inch.
• Lowered the neckline by 5/8in as I felt a little choked by the high neck.
• I had a problem of the bodice pieces not matching at the side seams of the last version so I adjusted the edges to make sure they were exactly the same length.
• I widened the midriff band to 3 1/2in.
• Made the skirt wider. I love the tulip shape of the original but I wanted something looser and longer for this to be a winter version.
• Lastly I lengthened the sleeves to elbow length and added a cuff inspired by Adey’s version of Vintage Simplicity 3074 on the Sew Weekly.

And in the end it’s the little things I love most about this dress, the cuffs, the pockets set into the pleats and the sweetheart bodice. I’m so glad I gave it another go and now I have something to wear for my very first English Christmas!

*Any excuse to include a little Joni.

The Sew Grateful Dress: Vintage Simplicity 4908

 

The gorgeous and gracious Debi, who I’m sure you all know from her blog My Happy Sewing Place and her work on the Sew Weekly, recently hosted a challenge in celebration of Thanksgiving.

The instructions were to use a piece of fabric or pattern you had won or been gifted or to use a tutorial from another blogger in the spirit of saying thanks to the collaborative community that we are all a part of. And lucky me, the day after reading Debi’s Sew Grateful challenge, I won a blogiversary giveaway of two vintage patterns from Amy of Sewing Through the Motions.

I decided to make Simplicity 4908, which according to the Vintage Patterns wiki is from the early to mid 60′s.

 

The dress has a princess seamed bodice and kimono sleeves. The front panel and the belt are all cut as one piece and it finishes at the back with a bow. Which makes me feel a little like I’ve accidentally made a bridesmaid dress…

Image via Aeva Couture

I blame Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Still, I think a 60′s vintage dress in coral sounds just lovely so I didn’t let that put me off. Nor did I get defeated by the amount of pattern alterations that were needed.

To start with, I graded it from a 36in to a 41in bust before tackling the full bust adjustment. Frustratingly because of all the angles involved in the side front panel it just wouldn’t come together so instead I created a new pattern from a hodgepodge of ones I already knew fit.

The first pieces I needed were for the shoulder princess-line bodice, so I grabbed my Sewaholic Pendrell blouse. Next the kimono sleeves, which came from the white lace tee I made a few weeks ago.  I fit the pendrell pieces under the bust (it’s usually a loose blouse) then cut the side panel at the midriff to mimic the curve on the original piece. The bottom of the side panel attached to the front piece. The kimono sleeve addition was pinned to the side panel before tracing it off again and adjusting the seam allowance.

The back piece was the only originally graded piece I used, except for the bow. The only change made was to make the neckline scooped rather than V- or bateau necked. I continued the belt from the front piece around the back tracing the outline of that piece.

The skirt I adapted from Burdastyle’s Jenny Pencil Skirt, and the pockets came from another pattern.

You can see the original pieces above and below you can see how they sort of piece together.

 

In the end, it came together pretty well despite all the improvisations. By the time I’d made all the changes, a muslin might have killed me so I just went ahead and whipped it up but next time I’l remove a little length under the bust and definitely add more ease at the hips.

Still for my first attempt at sewing a vintage pattern, I’m chuffed.

 

Sewaholic Minoru Muslin/Sweater-dress + FBA

I find myself with a bit of a problem. Whilst my brain knows that making a muslin is not a waste of fabric I seem to be physically incapable of disposing of one once it’s made.

Which goes a little way to explaining this odd sweater/dress hybrid.

I want to make an all-weather version of Sewaholic’s latest pretty and practical pattern – the Minoru Jacket. Tasia’s sew-a-long begins in earnest in January but I thought I’d get a head start on the muslin being that it usually causes much feet dragging. I had some double-knit which would work and really I just wanted to check that the full-bust adjustment would work okay on the dartless bodice.

Here’s how it went:

(click to enlarge)

ETA: On regular version add the length created at Line 3 to the front placket and zip, too.

 It worked just fine and I now know when it comes to making the real version I’ll need a 34in separating zipper not a 32in due to the additional length from the FBA.

Still I didn’t want to waste a zipper I can’t really afford on a muslin so I thought to myself… what would happen if I cut the front on a fold (adding in the width of the button placket)? Answer is… a Sweater-Dress. It’s very comfortable despite being unlined and the fact I messed the collar up royally. I didn’t notice the front placket went up to the top of the collar so I forgot to add the additional length and then I went and sewed it on backwards. Oh well, good thing it’s just a knock-around for home.

 The pattern itself is so lovely to sew, and now I have my alterations all done I can’t wait for January.

The Brumby-Blue Dress: BurdaStyle 9/2011 #104

This dress is blue. Like, really blue. And you know who likes blue? One of my favourite blogging friends Brumby.

Brumby was the first blogger I got to know after setting up this blog. She writes on sewing, sustainability and a million other fantastically random musings over at utbwb. And she makes gorgeous jewellery like this.

If you’re speedy, you can enter the give-away she is hosting which encourages being good human beings (closes Friday NZT).

As soon as I saw this fabric my brain went directly there, though I think it was all the subliminal messaging of her summer palette pins. And so this dress is now known as the Brumby-blue dress.

The pattern:

We had a few disagreements, this pattern and I. Some parts were delightful like the perfectly drafted waistline pleats that aligned like a dream, and some, like inserting an invisible zipper into six layers of gathers and fabric were not.

The magazine version is made from chiffon so actually has even more layers than my dress as many pieces are double-layered.

I imagine if I’d tried to use chiffon I would still be in a corner somewhere rocking in the foetal position. As it was, the zipper almost killed me  it and I would have given up if not for all the lovely advice from you folks. You’ll have to take my word for it that it does up because it won’t win any contests and I refuse to take a detail shot of it.

Here is a picture of a puppy instead – believe me, you will feel better than if it was a picture of a zip.

via Cuteoverload.com

Once I got over my tantrum, the rest was straight forward and I’m quite pleasantly surprised with the result.

Do you have piles of UFOs or do you diligently finish everything you start?

 

Temper Tantrums + Invisible Zips

 I considered putting myself to bed with no supper and here is why…

I’m making a dress from the September Burda Magazine. This one to be precise.

Only I’ve graded it up 10in and made a full bust adjustment and it’s not chiffon but it is an equally shifty fabric which I don’t really have enough of.

And it’s been one of those projects where the first step is follow the burdastyle “instructions*” and step two is to use your quick-unpick to undo step one.

But I got there in the end… or atleast almost there. I’ve put the invisible zipper in but that bastard just won’t play ball. With a lot of callous creating effort I can just get it up when I’m not wearing it, however, I’m not dexterous enough to manouver it once I put it on.

Much swearing and scowling, ensued. I may have stamped my foot.

The problem lies at the waistband where at one point there is effectively 6 layers of fabric, gathers and interfacing to bend around.

I’m sending out a plea for help, has anyone found a miracle cure for this? Or will the dress simply fail at the final hurdle?

I’m going to sleep on it before it kills me.

Progress… I promise!

Woops, didn’t mean to dissappear like that!

I had a few days up in Edinburgh at the end of the fringe festival, then my BFF and former roomate from Vancouver was visiting and ended crashing here for 2 weeks rather than the few days I thought. Which, don’t get me wrong, was freaking awesome because she’s the coolest chick, just not so conducive to sewing.

And, now my camera charger has gone walk-abouts, so no photos but I promise I made headway on my rooibos yesterday. In fact, it’s one of those patterns that looks like it would take way longer than it really does – even when it involves a first attempt at piping (and leopard print piping at that!)

So instead here is my artists poor (knock off) photoshop impression of the finished dress.

 

Rooibos Sew-along: Muslin Two

 

Today is just a brief one as I’m off to Edinburgh for a couple of days, but I’ve adjusted and re-cut the bodice of my Rooibos muslin so I think I’m ready to roll on the full version, hurray!

Going back to the first muslin here is the photo showing the length issue in the bodice.

The pins indicate where the midriff line should fall.

To make the adjustment I measured the additional length needed (1.75in at the full bust + 1in at the  centre front).

Then I cut a line from beneath the underarm bust dart to the full bust point then vertically down (avoiding the under-bust darts). I left a hinge at the side seam stitching line so the side seam length remained unchanged, then pivoted the bottom piece down 1.75in.

Then I drew a line from the full but point to the centre front (perpendicular to the CF) and slide that piece down 1in before filling the gaps with paper and truing up the line.

This seems to have added the right amount although I had to play with the dart position and length a fair bit in the muslin form because the angle had pivoted down. I think now though, the problem is solved.

Here is the first muslin:

And here is the second:

It certainly feels like a better fit even if the process was somewhat of a guess

Colette Rooibos Sew-along: First Muslin

More muslining today. This time I’m catching up on Colette Pattern’s Rooibos Sew-along. For the first go around I made a 2in full bust adjustment following the CP tutorial here. Then I graded to an 18 at the midriff and 18 +2in at the skirt.

The pattern itself was surprisingly quick to construct – less than 90 minutes – although being a muslin there’s no facing, zip or hem.

As for the fit, the FBA worked well in terms of width but as usual there’s not quite enough length.

Here I’ve used pins to mark where the bottom of the bust should be.

I’m hoping that bringing the bust down and the midriff properly flat under the bust should fix the slight boxy feeling from the side.

The back’s okay but I’ll add a little more length. Where it finishes now is probably the length I should hem it at so I need to add the allowance to the bottom.

All in all it’s not too bad and I’m loving the little details like the pockets and the neckline at the back. Very excited to get started on the proper one this week.

 

MMM Catch-up

Woops got a little behind there and lets face it most of this weeks outfits were total repeats – so unexciting!

Here’s two I hadn’t worn yet this month though…

Hehe… I was half asleep when I took this one. Luckily this double-knit mash-up of New Look 6824 & BurdaStyle Jenny doesn’t require a lot of thought.

I seem to be on a purple kick – today I wore my me-made suedette skirt with a rtw shirt.