shelving my UFO Lilly Rose floral dress

Last Saturday I went to the sewing guild group and took my Lilly Rose ufo, and the December dress.

Yes, December dress is still unfinished in March! No progress pics because it has zero hanger appeal. It looks like a shapeless sack with cute pockets. I hate pockets, but the collar on the dress will look ridiculous without the pockets.  On Saturday I moved up the 3/4 waist belt up to a more flattering place and shortened it as I'd marked. The new placement is ideal BUT the carpenter's mantra of measure twice, cut once holds true for sewing.  As I shortened the waist belt I did think "huh, that's quite a bit" and lo, behold it was far too short ... an 8" gap in the back. What was I thinking? I realised I marked the wrong end of the belt pieces. So I need to recut, stitch and re-insert them. I got some 1cm or narrower bias tape for the sleeve hem, and 1.5cm bias tape for the hem itself. Oh, make the collar pieces too. Plus I need to cut a neck facing - the pattern says to use self bias but I'm not going there.  I should finish it this month HAH.

The Lilly Rose is a bust. I finished the second side seam, inserting the zip so that I could try it on. Whatever issues I had with cutting it out that included having to let out skirt seams so the skirt wasn't too narrow for the waist yoke, well it's too tight overall so grabby in the wrong way. The only fix I can think of is to unpick the skirt/yoke seam, lower the top edge of the skirt (so it's wider), reshape the panels so the top edge fits the yoke but the hip is wider and get more contrast fabric to add a border to the hem.  TBH I'm just not feeling the love after all the hassle. I want a pretty new dress that doesn't have so much UGH and potty mouth associated with it.

The January dress hasn't even been mocked up. I'm staring at the front bodice pieces going umm, full bust alteration how?  Need to mock up and finesse that but I'm needing something easier than that right now.  No more fiddling and trying to fix things.

I compared my (unblogged cos I haven't even mocked up January's) February dress pattern to a blouse pattern that fits and all I need to do is the FBA and get cracking. Oh and raise the underarm level by half an inch, but not the bodice length cos YAY half sizes!

I also bought another vintage half size pattern on The eBay a couple of weeks ago, and it's just as cute. I see it in my future ... if only I can cure my procrastination. but hey, I'm no longer anaemic after an iron injection in my "hip" that for the next week felt like I'd been kicked in the *ahem* by a mule. Is this going to be my March dress?


Okay, I've stopped buying fabric and aiming to use stash, stash and more stash.  However today I bought another half size vintage dress pattern. This time on Etsy ... I love that half sizes fit plus I love vintage cuteness so I'm sure that I'll be getting more of them. I like the mail order brands eg Anne Adams or Marion Martin because they're very much RTW rather than high fashion.

Not quite abject failure but not much to show so far

A combination of summer heat (I don't have air conditioning at home, and my main windows face west) and a suddenly active again auto-immune disorder (aka The Evil) has impacted on how much sewing (and other real life things) I've been able to do this year. The first is beyond my control, and the second is a bit demoralising.

I planned to head up to the Roaring 20s & all that Jazz festival last Saturday in a fancy new 1920s dress, and got very close to finishing the dress before another bout of The Evil flared up. Instead of going to the Charleston Challenge, high tea and visiting a pub with a dixie jazz band, I went straight for the high tea in 1930s clothes.  Nothing like wearing a pretty hat and fun with friends to feel better about yourself. Bygone Beauties were even able to have a variety of gluten/dairy free treats for me.

I still want to finish the 20s dress this month as there's a historic dress picnic in early March. A fresh deadline means it won't hang around to become yet another UFO.

I thought I had some photos of progress on my UFO and January dresses but the only thing on my camera is this adapted sleeve for my Lilly Rose UFO.  I eyeballed the extra for a small puff at the top of the sleeve, as I'm fairly sure it's what I did with my first dress in this pattern. Hoping to finish that dress this weekend as the flare-up seems to be over.

Progress on a couple more UFO garments

Despite not feeling too well today (auto-immune so not contagious) I went to my sewing guild meeting and managed to be productive.

First up I bitched & moaned getting the group's overlocker re-threaded. The lower looper thread kept snapping, so in the end another less cranky person sorted it out for me.  I'd even rethreaded it from scratch and the !^$&* snapped. Too early for medicinal alcohol - overlockers (aka sergers) are the only thing I relax my zero alcohol & sewing policy for.

First thing under the needles was a UFO skirt. I first finished it at the end of last winter, but had to shorten it dramatically from the waist to make it fit my now tubby-guts.  Since my gallbladder surgery I can't tolerate firm waistbands any more. The pressure on the right hand side starts tipping from uncomfortable to painful, so for the first time in my life I now prefer elastic waistbands.  And I genuinely mean a waistband from lingerie elastic.  I even use a replacement bra back in lieu of a button, being very careful to hand turn near the hooks & eyes so that I don't break a needle or throw the timing.  Seeing as I'm too short waisted + overweight + boobular to wear a top tucked in, nobody is going to see it in public.

Back on topic, I've had this waiting for me to finish since spring, but I've finally got it done, a week from the first day of autumn.  I'll get a pic of me in the skirt during the week.


Next up I started working on my 5 month acknowledged UFO floral dress.  Today for the dress I achieved:
- overlocking shoulder seams
- drafting pattern pieces for neck facing
- cutting waistband pieces and neck facings
- sewing and applying the external neck facing to bodice
- seaming waistband
- stitching to bodice
- pinning to previously completed skirt section

I

So, I'd added a smidge to the front bodice width and to the waistband front (6mm or 1/4 inch), but wasn't sure if I'd done the same to the skirt back in September. Of course I hadn't, so I will let the panel seams out 3mm each and it should be close to fitting. The back is fine, as I didn't change that as it was cut out back in September, the bodice front is what caused the procrastination. Took months to actually cut the bodice front pattern in full out of interfacing, so that I could ensure no targets dead on bust points.

Tomorrow/during this week I'll:
- let out the skirt front panel seams
- stitch the waistband to skirt
- left side seam including zipper
- hem skirt
- cut out sleeves /stitch/insert.

I also plan to make a plain black skirt (need a new one for dressing up as Edna Mode to go & see The Incredibles on next Sunday). After I check my black shirt still fits - I don't have time to make both.

A flower will NOT mark the spot

A couple of months ago I started sewing another summer dress version of Lilly Rose.  The print fabric was from my stash & bought on hols during a fabric shop tour with my Brisbane posse. The plain fabric bought earlier this year to go with it.  The skirt is assembled and the back darts stitched.  Thought I'd cut out the sleeves but hadn't - so I must find the shirt pattern I've taken them from.

What ground production to a halt?  Realising that I didn't want a flower on either (or both!) bust point like a target.  Who needs their clothing to say "look at my acreage".


So on Saturday, at the Australian Sewing Guild group, I stopped procrastinating and traced the full front bodice pattern onto see through non-iron interfacing. Next I placed the full pattern on myself and marked BP (bust point) on each side. Only to startle when someone said to look out that the ink didn't bleed through onto the top I was wearing. Yep, I was a bit tired & silly yesterday. 

Then with a full pattern piece I could cut a single layer piece after shifting it around to make sure it was on grain and dodging both BPs.


Having made sure that there isn't a target on either ... a + marks the BP spot.


That's pretty much all I did all day, I was tired and thought I was bound to make a dumb mistake if I stared sewing & cutting.  If I got this wrong I still have enough fabric to cut another bodice piece as well as the sleeves.

the next dress is almost cut out

I've already cutting out the next dress from this pattern - using stash fabric this time. I've not yet cut the bodice front - you can see why I need to make sure there isn't a target on each bustpoint.

fitting changes made to Lilly Rose

I should have started with a bodice 1 size larger.  However I had already cut the pattern at a size that was right post-surgery, but sadly I've gained more weight in the past 10 months than I lost in the 5 months I was waiting (that was only 3kg) and in this pattern range it definitely made a difference.
I took out the usual 1cm between underarm & bust and 4cm between underarm and waist.  Added my usual FBA and it wasn't enough.

Because I didn't start with the right size (just toiled the one I'd cut & altered), instead I added to each side on the front (2" at underarm tapering to 1" at the waist), and filled in the armhole. Probably should have slashed and spread but my brain grasped this instantly and I didn't want to have to think.

I needed to change the  back waistband as I need a curved not straight - I think it's lower on me than intended and I am a short hourglass - the curves aren't the same as they would be on a taller person with the same measurements.  The front edge of the neck line had to be adapted to match my neck shape.

I did cut the back on the fold, and changed the neckline to a much lower V and completely redraft the neck facings. Now I'm not sure if I have the beta version of the pattern, but the front waistband is shorter than the bodice - I had to make the waistband 6mm or 1/4" longer on each half.  The neck facings don't match. Not only do they not match at the shoulder, but the front is not mirror imaged.  Plus the side front skirt panel has a small dip in it that I smoothed out (badly drawn on the pattern piece but smoothly cut on the fabric!).





I completely abandoned all thought of cap sleeves - my bingo arms say NO.  I used a fitted sleeve and added a couple of inches in height only to the sleeve cap to get a little puff.

I've already got more fabric to make this, and may alter the waistband - make 1" shallower to be more proportional to my height.

finished the Lilly Rose - with a superhero themed dress

My friend held her superhero themed birthday party yesterday, and I got my dress finished in the squeak of time.  I still want to tinker (a couple of seams are a little puckered, and it needs small shoulder pads).

On the bus there I rememebered that I have a vintage 40s hat in red wool that would be great with this, or I wanted to make a rockabilly style headband but didn't get there in time.  Anyhoo, on to my dress


I'm dog minding for friends and forgot to pack the right shoes for this, and despite going home for some forgot to put them into my bag.

I altered the neckline and made that up on the fly. Originally I wanted a W shape but thought it wouldn't work and went for a deeper V - until I realised the V would meet the waistband, and that wasn't the look I was after with such a narrow band.



and I was so excited to find an affordable massive gold star brooch on ebay.  As idea of scale, I take size 9 gloves


Oh and a full length pic -- which I've borrowed from Dee

MAGAM: February gets a dress

I've already got a plan for February's MAGAM - a superhero themed vintage dress, for a friend's party.

I'm not sure if you'll guess which character it will be, but the pattern I'll be using is the Lilly Rose. I've had it for 18 months, and finally taped the pieces together last year while my knee was in a brace. Sheesh, I finally found something I resented about sewing. I'm hoping Lorna will provide the option to print on A3 paper, not just A4. See ... months later and I'm still whinging about it.





Editing on 16thFeb to add fabric photo:

paper tiles+ sticky tape

I'm trying to do something sewing every day - the past 2 days that's meant half an hour each day sticking a tiled pattern together. I really find this tedious, which I wasn't expecting. So tedious I'm unlikely to use a downloaded pattern again, unless it's a small item.

Today I'll cut out the pattern pieces so that I can start the alterations. I think this is why I found it so blerghhhhh - I always have pattern collage wtih alterations so to me this was a pointless collage even though it resulted in a pattern. I think if the overlap had been greater (even though that would have resulted in more pages) and had been able to line them up through the overlap it wouldn't ahve been fine, but my printer margin was at least 6mm or 1/4" bigger than the overlap so I had to use a ruler to ensure it was done properly. Maybe I'll have a pic of the next stage for you.