A productive sewing weekend

For a few reasons including migraine and Eurovision semi-final, I didn't get as much done as hoped but I did complete two older UFOS. Well one needs the hem length checked before sewing, and I can get that done this week.

A couple of forgot-to-pack items (elastic to finish the PJ pants, and red thread to sew on buttons) had me d'oh. I thought I'd packed the first but it didn't even occur to me that I needed red for red buttons on a print dress being sewn with grey.

Didn't get a photo of me in either dress so I'll get around to that later in the week.

The older UFO was from March 2016, and had been sidelined for a couple of reasons. I'd originally had black fabric for a contrast collar but it felt too heavy a contrast. I eventually realised that the fabric I bought for the mermaid print dress was far better for this dress. Preferring 3/4 length sleeves, I drafted a contrast + shaped band for the sleeve hem.  If I'd thought about adding more of the lapel fabric before the dress was cut out, I could have added a shaped angled fake-pocket flap to the skirt.  I'm the rare woman who doesn't like pockets, so it didn't occur to me when I avoided the pattern's pockets. I even remembered to include a loop in the waist seam for my work's building/printer pass.

The 100% finished dress is the  February 2017 dress in the Lost at Sea print, originally finished in the same room/retreat back in 2017.  It was very demoralising that it didn't fit, and when I tried taking in the bodice it became clear that the neckline didn't suit me. As it couldn't be altered due to already cut buttonholes, I eventually threw more money at it and got more fabric.  I think that one reason I've procrastinated on finishing the new bodice to attach the already made skirt, is the fear that it still wouldn't look good on me. But you know, even if it doesn't look perfect it's still better than I could buy in RTW. I've included the waist loop (nearly forgot) and as it was done just in time for packing up, will press it before getting a photo.

I need to make a cape/cloak before tacking the next UFO dress-a-month - the mermaid print.

Flip-flop thinking over which pattern to use

I've spent the past week+ dithering over which pattern to use for the linen fabric.

I had been thinking of  either of these Mail Order patterns but the first (4698) has a more enclosed neckline than I even want to think about.

 The second #3356 is more likely though I might scoop the neckline a little lower.

 The third  #9039 will take more work as I need to franken pattern it to a pattern that fits (as it's smaller than me).

I'm even more indecisive on the subject of sleeves.  I really don't like my upper arms - they've been beefy my whole life and the combination of them with narrow shoulders and I feel less like a weightlifter when they're covered.  The point of this dress is to not overheat so no 3/4 sleeves. Short sleeves kinda draw attention to my bust - it's like a solid line across my body.  Cap sleeve, hmmm, they're a bit irritating but perhaps an option.   I'm more than likely overthinking as until I've checked the fabric layout of either of the last 2 patterns (altered to fit me) then I don't know if I have enough yardage for sleeves.

Using the gifted button stash

I reminded myself to shop from the vintage button stash I was gifted by re-enactor friends. I have 3 sets, his mum's stash (that I got a few weeks ago) and her mum's 2 stashes that I got last year.    

The martini print fabric that I'm finishing to wear at CoCo - using a different bodice pattern - was incredibly difficult to find buttons for 18 months ago, and now I'm using a different bodice that uses more than 1 button.  I was going to psych myself to catch trains at lunchtime to go to Buttons Buttons Buttons at the Dymocks Building but reminded myself to look in the stash buttons first.

I looked in the 1940-1965 buttons and there were 3 that I really liked, but the 2 larger button designs are all in the photo and I need more than 1 or 2 for this bodice.  The other button has more than enough so I'm really excited to use them.

trying to clear the UFO dress projects

I've realised that as well as making costumes for JAFK & CoCo I need to finish some UFO dresses so I can pack them to wear in the states as it'll be summer there (and midwinter here at home).

One that isn't the oldest unfinished dress is the martini print, and it's unfinished because when I packed (like a drunken sailor) to move house somehow the front bodice pattern piece+cut out piece ended up not with the rest, and haven't been found so far. There's one tea-chest that's still unpacked and it will stay that way cos I'm still trying to downsize all sorts of things. Once I've got room to unpack the teachest, then I'll explore the contents.

On Sunday it finally dawned on me that I don't need to wait any longer if I change my pattern idea - and I have enough fabric for 2 dresses so I can still use the original bodice pieces on a second dress.

I've decided to use this half size Simplicity pattern and get the dress done.

My next problem is getting buttons - I didn't make any notes about where I got them and will have to try all the button options again. Including going to a button shop that relocated closer to Town Hall Station.

November dress plan

I'm flip flopping between making the vintage aqua cotton or the rayon print of blue flowers on black.

I'm leaning towards the cotton, so the next decision is the pattern. I'm tempted to wait for #4936 to arrive but instead will frankenpattern #9039 bodice, with 3/4 sleeves. As soon as I've finished the mermaid (July) dress then I can franken pattern and cut out my November dress.

January (Lost at Sea) dress revisited and getting closed to finished. Again.

This dress seemed to have limped along until I finished it at a sewing retreat in May - when I was very disappointed that it just didn't fit. I don't have a photo to share or I would, of the first version where I look like I'm a child playing dress ups cos it's a size too big everywhere, and after I tried to take in the bodice enough for me to be happy.  Not only was it still too large, with the neckline not a clear V shape to suit me but the sleeves were too long, and the underarm too low.

I ended up completely recutting the bodice after buying more fabric. I did unpick the sleeves and recut them - the finished edge of the old sleeve is the new cutting line, along with the header showing how the armscye was too low for me.

The yoke placement that I took so much care over got completely omitted, and the collar is from 9137 instead without the bows at centre front.  In fact the finished dress will look like this if it was button through to the hem (though the skirt is fake buttons).

Tonight I'm hoping to cut/fuse interfacing to the facings and under collar, and finish assembling the bodice.  I didn't unpick the waist seam on the badly fitting dress, instead simply cut the seam off forgetting to rescue the loop for my security pass. So I also need to make another loop, and If I get the bodice done quickly, then for the 3rd and final time I can repleat the skirt to the bodice and insert the zip.

Insomnia resulting in etsy searches and another chance for half size pattern 4936

In May last year I was so disappointed when an Etsy seller contacted me to say the pattern I'd ordered was missing and refunded my purchase.

The last couple of days my brain has woken me at 5:30 am (horrible, foolish brain) and yesterday I used the extra time to start folding laundry and clearing up my sewing mess on the table/sofa so that it's neat & tidy before starting sewing again.

Today I wasn't as productive and instead got my tablet out and looked up vintage mail order patterns on Etsy again.  I found another copy of 4936 and made myself think hard about buying it.  Yes, I did.

More half size patterns added to my stash/collection

It's been a while since I updated my half size pattern stash, and here's two of my most recent purchases.

This Marian Martin  9137 arrived in the post a couple of months ago - a sop to my desire to sew.  Once I use it I should get a photo of me posing like the cover.

Today I ordered this Simplicity

November July Dress already cut out

Editing this post cos I picked/named this dress in July when I cut it out.

I cut this dress out about 3 months ago on a meeting room table after work - and my statement that the print is NSFW (not safe for work) amused the two colleagues who walked past and wanted to see what I was doing.  I may dress less conservatively than I did in the past (lobster print and strawberry dresses) but I'm not sure they knew that I completely grasped the NSFW filter.

I'm using the same pattern as the strawberry dress, but cut slightly shorter to fit onto the 5 yards - yet again a one direction print means a less frugal layout.  I was also very careful how the mermaids were placed on the front & back bodice pieces. I don't want to end up with a starfish placed on bust point!

I got the microdot in navy/teal for the undercollar. Not only do I like the visual contrast, fabric yardage was tight.

October dress is finished

I don't have a full length picture as yet - I'll have to figure out how to set up a timed photo on my phone.  I'm really happy with it, and it's had a lot of appreciation from my colleagues - including from strangers in the lift. I remembered to snap a pic on the train at the start of my commute.

I had to seam the centre back of the upper collar as it's a 1 direction print and I didn't want an upside down cat/bowl on one side.  I carefully placed the upper collar so that there's a cat+bowl in the same spot on each lapel and didn't add a button as it would have looked awkward with this print.

Thankfully I got this finished within 2 weeks of the fabric arriving - as that was a self imposed condition of buying it.

getting back to sewing - an almost finished October Dress

It took me longer than expected to reshuffle the bed & sewing rooms, as I ended up buying a long neglected art deco bed and restoring it as part of the drawn out process.

I'm also looking at my options for 3rd party photo hosting as I'd used Photobucket for over 10 years and they suddenly changed their conditions of use. They're entitled but the complete lack of advance notification, and the dramatically higher than others annual fee ($US400 vs $US40-50) means that I'm going elsewhere.  I know I'm not going to use flickr.

In the past week I've cut out and almost finished a dress - that I'm intending to wear tomorrow.

The fabric is skeleton cats playing with skeleton goldfish bowls.

The pattern is a revisit of mail order 4866, with a pleated skirt, not gores.  This time using the bodice pieces of the strawberry dress as the lobster print dress is a size too big even after taking it in!

I'm making and wearing it an admittedly eccentric In Memory of my father.  That it was a difficult relationship because he was an alcoholic makes it no less sad that he died young - 30 years ago today.

Sewing is so therapeutic - I feel happier for having made something that's worked out.  It's giving me the motivation to finish the tattoo print, and start making my NSFW mermaid print dress.

Demoralising dresses that didn't fit.

I've been training my left foot on the sewing machine pedal. Both the lobster print and Lost at Sea dresses are finished, but only the lobster is wearable.

Foolishly both dresses were a size too big, and too long in the torso and didnt realize until they were finished.

The lobster: after taking out the zip and removing the skirt i was able to alter the bodice enough to wear it. I had to increase all the vertical darts & the back almost appears to be princess seamed. It also needed to be shortened 2cm across the back, and 4cm for most of the front. After reattaching the skirt + zip its wearable tho not ideal. I forgot to add a loop in the waist seam to hang my work security pass from, and fixed that after wearing it a couple times. I need to get a decent photo or two and post them.

The Lost at Sea is a sorrier case. The same bodice issues as the lobster, but similar fixes haven't helped enough. So disappointing that it is still a size too big. As the ship motif is on the back, I didnt want to incease the vertical darts as per the lobster's back as it would break up. The sleeves are too long, and I could tell there was something hinky with the collar area. A second opinion was the collar isn't too small, the neckline is too filled in by the curve and it needs to be a sharper V. Pluss a size too big.

The thought of removing the zip and skirt a second time was bad enough. I can shorten the sleeves about 4cm easily, and gritted my teeth at the idea of taking out the sleeves and recutting the sides down a size. Where my unpicking stalled was the neckline. The buttonholes are already made so I couldn't finesse the new shape to be what I need. So I uttered some profanities, tossed the dress across the room and ordered more yardage from the states from the same seller. Hopefully its a close enough dye batch cos I'm making a new bodice & collar, reusing the existing skirt & shortened sleeves. Hoping it arrives in the next week so I can wear it soon.

Edited to add that I just gave myself the horrors cos I couldnt remember if I'd changed my address on etsy, and there's just enough time for it to already be on the way back to the states from my old address. Heart attack avoided cos its heading to my new home and it may have sat in Sydney from Monday to 4:58pm on Friday doing nothing, but I should get it next week.

So long without sewing [so another vintage pattern]

My ridiculous ankle sprain/plantar fasciitis has been looping around and around for so many weeks it started to feel perpetual. Every time it was close to going away, it didn't. I now have so many different exercises and stretches that it amuses me.

Anyway, I managed to use my left foot on the pedal and am a whisker away from finishing Lost at Sea. The buttons and overlocking the armscyes.

I'm taking it and my 3 other half made dresses to a 3 day sewing retreat this weekend. I have to remember to pack every thread and notion as the nearest sewing shop is a half hour drive away ... and I dont have my own car. I also need to patch the strawberry dress thankfully its a small tear at a button, so wont be visible once mended.

If I can quickly put my hands on my hello kitty nightie I'll finish it on Friday and sleep in it that night. Plus take some lingerie & lingerie bags to cut out and sew if I run out of dresses to complete.

Some self control helped me not shop for vintage patterns or fabric as a sewing substitute, though I bought two last week. The first arrived today and I got for the collar/neckline which will get frankenpatterned onto another vintage dress, the size 50" bust will be too big everywhere but the bust. The brand is Sew-easy.

March dress plan: vintage aqua abstract + 9392

My work is relocating later in March and I'd mentioned to a couple of colleagues that I had the ideal fabric to go with the colour scheme in the renovated floor in the new building.  So I'd like to have this to wear on my first day in the new building ...

I like this bodice, and will do a quick mock up to see how high that neckline is. I'll probably have to move it down a little, as too high a neckline doesn't work with the family chest. I like the skirt also, but will add more pleats to the back skirt so long as I have enough of it.

The forecast but abandoned plan for January would also work, however I think that pattern will take more altering to fit, so I'll possibly make that in April.

Vintage buttons for Lost at Sea

I raided the stash for a zip, and begrudgingly settled for a white zip. I don't have a pale blue thread, which I find hard to believe. I have a memory of being so excited when this fabric arrived that I raided the stash for thread + zip. I know that I had them, but they weren't with this fabric. Mind you I hadn't put them all in a ziplock bag together so it serves me right. I have another "current season sewing" box to look in before I buy thread.

When it came to buttons I looked first in the gift bag labelled 1940-1965.

Thank goodness there's enough of this navy ridged button, plus it's the right size. The ridges are reminiscent of the lines in the background and ship so it's a clear winner.

Trying to make the February dress sneakily safe for work

I managed to avoid the extremely hot Saturday by going to stay with a friend who has air-con. Friday was hot enough, but Saturday got to a crazy 46.9C or 116.4F. Yes I'll admit that I've become a little obsessed with the heatwave this summer. This is that day's low / high.

I'm so glad that I don't know what that feels like, cos both times I've sweated through 45C with no air-con it was more than hot enough. She was actually going out on Saturday, and had no problems with me staying and sewing (or even just sitting & reading).

I took my lobster dress to sew if my back was OK with it, and it was whingy enough that I felt it best to let the ligament heal a little more before stitching. Part of me grumbled as she has an overlocker set up with black thread. However getting it out of the wardrobe and moving it could have been much more trouble than it was worth in this instance. Instead I slowly worked my way through cutting out the February Lost at Sea dress. 

It was obvious that Lost at Sea is an one directional print so I had to carefully cut it out with a nap style layout. The pleated skirt was going to be the main issue, as I typically top and tail the side front and side back pieces (sliding one down as otherwise they'd overlap. I might not be phrasing this clearly). I decided to cut the bodice & sleeves out, and other than the collar & front facing which didn't fit, the overall layout had very little wastage. Then I measured the remainder (308cm) divided by 4 and at 77cm, this was about 3cm shorter than the strawberry skirt. So I got the CF and CB cut out from a 77cm each, and the collar fitted next to the side front and the front bodice facing next to the side back.

Remarkably few scraps, especially when I tried very hard to not have the mermaid's "assets" clearly on the bodice, in the hope that although they couldn't be avoided in the skirt, if they weren't obvious on the bodice I could wear the dress to work.  On the back neck her chest will hopefully be covered by the collar, and on the front it'll be in the yoke's seam allowance.  Sadly I didn't notice the right front has a mermaid that isn't under the arm ... we'll see how the darts go.  I'm also hoping that an anchor isn't on target at a bust point.  If it is, then it'll be weekend or social wear only.

I cut the skirt out so that the dress looks like a fake button through - there will be buttons, but it will be sewn as an interfaced fold/pleat, with buttons sewn through all 3 layers.

I hadn't noticed until I got home on Sunday and looked at the half size pattern #4685 that it's a false button through. My reason for looking at it was to see the skirt facing width, except it has no facings. I'll be doing more than 2 false button holes/buttons on my dress.

February dress plan: Lost at Sea nautical print + 4803

Hopefully I'm back on track to making a new dress each month this year. My easy choice for February - because I committed to sewing it for Canberra is the vintage nautical print cotton, and the bodice from the half size pattern 4803.

I could do yet another FBA directly on [a copy of] this pattern, but as I've just done one for my January lobster dress so I'll morph the collar & yoke details onto #4866

Martini dress neckband is in hiding

I noticed while I was looking at the martini dress with a view to finishing it this weekend, that the neckbands weren't with the rest of the dress. I know they're in the sewing room ... which is yet to be properly unpacked let alone organised.

Posting this in the interests of honesty. Seeing as February is due to be a record "hottest February on record", I'm not even going to attempt that until its not hot & humid.  Martini dress can wait, and I have other fabric+patterns that are visible at hand.

Lobster dress gets Vintage buttons from the stash

The only sewing thing I did on Sunday (in the air-con at my friend's place) was to separate out all the red buttons from the vintage stash I was given last year. These are pre-1965, and as much as I like the larger button, they're coat size and far too large scale for a dress.

Given my sewing deadline, I shouldn't be so excited that I slept in until 6.30am today, but I am. The cool change has made it easier to sleep, even though the heatwave returns on Friday.

Edited to add: In my lunch break I pinned all the darts, so that I can start stitching as soon as I get home. I'm fudging the waist dart on the front bodice, partly because I did a dodgy split of the side dart, which meant something creative to keep the arms of each dart the same length. Ultimately I'm doing this by the seat of my pants. I also cut out the interfacing for the collar and facing, so they're also ready to go.

January dress plan: rocking the lobster print

The B-52s concert is only 2 weeks away, so I need to start the dress this weekend, as the following Saturday I have a baby shower to go to, and I don't want to be finishing this dress the day before I need it - I've done that far too many times and it's no longer an exciting buzz but a dread of not finishing.

Last year a mid 20th century vintage button stash was passed on to me by historical costume friends who thought I could use it. At least one of the buttons in these will be perfect for this fabric. As I can't remember pre-shrinking the lobster print - thinking I did isn't certain enough - I'll try to do that tomorrow, and hope the predicted showers don't interfere with it drying.

Hopefully I can squeak this dress in as finished before the month ends, but at least it's not going to add to my UFO list.

I'm fairly sure that I'm going to use this bodice, and the multi pleated skirt of my Strawberry Dress. I really like all that fabric in a skirt.