Vogue 8648: Lace dress

 

 

 

I have a wedding coming up in October so needed a special dress for it (any excuse to sew some frosting!)

I bought this fabric a couple of years ago just after I'd started sewing. I found it in Spotlight and fell in love with it back then.....Well, now I look at it and mostly notice the fact that its a poly knit with the lace overlayed and the stretch runs opposite to how I'd prefer - I feel like the lace is on its side but that's what you get for poly knit from spotlight I guess.

Size wise: its a sz 20 with a 1" FBA, 1" swayback and a forward shoulder of 1". I sewed the underbust seam with only a 1/4" seam allowance, I've adjusted the pattern for in the future with another 3/4" of length to the front only to add a bit more length.

The waistband is pleated, easier than I thought even though I wasted a heap of paper trying to understand how to pleat it and how wide to do the pleats. I am pretty happy with my pleat matching at the sides though!

The bodice is lined, I didn't worry about lining the waistband, it seems quite sturdy because of the pleating.

Added pockets from Simplicity 2588. These are my go to in-seam pockets, I like how they attach into the waistband which keeps them in place.

 

I'm really happy with the bodice fit on this - after a couple more tweaks I think it will be my TNT dress bodice.

Vogue 1247: Denim Skirt

I feel like I'm the last person to make this pattern up - I've admired the skirt on so many of my favourite bloggers and finally picked up the pattern when Spotlight did one of their very rare $5 pattern sales.

The pattern goes up to a sz 18 (38-32-42), so I had to grade up about 8" - I did a really simple grade by just adding 2" to each of  the side seams. This made the pockets a bit too close together at the front so I widened them to make it look balanced. Lengthened it by about 4"

I took a wedge out of the front length for my tilted waist. Not sure if I should have taken more out or changed the front darts a bit though because it bunches up when I wear it over leggings, can't see it if I wear my top untucked though.

 

This is my second version of this skirt - first version was a lovely ikat cotton, it was just too thin though and didn't sit right. The fabric here is a medium weight denim I picked up from a clearing sale. Its lovely and soft, and I used hug and snug binding to do the seams inside.

 

Its a lot shorter than I'd usually wear a skirt, but since I normally wear skirts over leggings I thought I'd challenge myself!

Vogue 8940: Mens Peacoat

I've never sewn for my husband, he's very much a jeans and t-shirts man. However he doesn't have any coats and when I saw the new Vogue patterns I scooped this one up. It's a nice simple peacoat with some cool details.

The fabric is a navy coating I picked up from Spotlight on clearance. It's very soft and sewed up beautifully, the colour is true in the top 4 photos (the detail pics are a bit washed out looking). Lining is Sunsilky from Lincraft and the buttons were from there too.

I followed the instructions all the way through (for once!), they are very similar to the RTW sewalong with interfacing on the front, side, back yoke, collars and facings. The lining is semi-bagged with the hems being hand sewn. I actually enjoyed the control this gave me over how well it all fit together. It has inseam pockets at the front and a welt pocket inside.

I'm still disappointed in the inside welt pocket. I managed to sew the welts on the wrong way around and had already cut the slit in the facing before I realised.......plus I didn't have enough fabric to recut the front facing and of course Spotlight had sold out of it. So it was carefully unpicked and resewn but you can see some pulling in the lining and its a bit uneven so I'm still not showing any close ups, lets look at the nice notched collar instead!

Fit wise I cut a sz42 which matched his measurements. I muslined it up and had to add width in the arms and the upper back. I remuslined all the changes and then cut the main fabric. Once it was sewn up I got him to try it on and it was massive so it was all unpicked and recut smaller. The final product is a sz 42 with a 2" broad back adjustment and a 2" bicep width adjustment. The chest and length are all straight from the pattern and fit him fine (he's 5'11"). If/when I make it again I'll be adding a little to the forearms and to the pocket opening width (I always tell him he has bear paws not hands so the pocket openings are a bit too small)

Each time I do a decent size broad back measurement I usually gather the back shoulder seam and ease it into the front, this tends to make the upper back creep forward at the back of the arms. Because this jacket also has a dropped front shoulder seam it seemed to exaggerate this so I put in a topstitched pleat instead of the gathers which made it sit a lot nicer (pleated is on the left, gathered is on the right)

I did flat piping around the facings. I'd been given a big bag of my hubbies late Grandfathers ties so I used one of them to make bias strips out of for the piping. This worked really well and there was enough fabric in the tie to make the piping and the welts for the inside pocket.

Speaking of the facing, the pattern doesn't include a back facing so I drafted one. It also doesn't include a jump pleat in the back lining. Not sure if this is normal in men's jackets?? I added a 1" jump pleat anyway.

I did notice the pattern asks you to cut 2 inside pocket lining pieces but you only need one (only mistake I found in the pattern).

All in all, I'm really happy with it. I wanted it to look casual but neat and I think it does, best of all it fits him and he likes it!

Vogue 1364: ponte jacket

 

I ordered a couple of patterns in the latest vogue sale and this was one of them. It didn't look that great on the pattern cover but I did like the line drawing and I do wear a couple of waterfall front cardigans a lot to work in the cooler weather.

The pattern does say its a loose fitting jacket and it really is. I cut a size F and graded in at the waist to a size E, which is 3 sizes smaller than I should have cut. I didn't make any bust adjustments and it looks ok, so it is pretty forgiving in the front. Material is a ponte knit from Lincraft

I really, really like the pockets, they are a single pattern piece which is sewn to the front of the jacket, you do see the stitching lines on the front but they sit beautifully flat and are a really neat idea, I will be using it again on casual jackets and I think they would work well on pants too.

I did shorten the length and the sleeves by a couple of inches. The collar was a bit of a pain, it sat beautifully before I did a rolled hem around it but then it just wouldn't sit smooth. I ended up stitching down the collar from shoulder seam to shoulder seam to make it sit properly.

However, I don't like the shape on me. It has no waist definition and I don't think the front drapes as nice as a basic waterfall front cardigan, it looks kind of bunchy where the darts release. The proportions are a bit off too, It needs to be a fair bit shorter I think, but then I would have to cut the pockets in half so this was as short as I could hem it. It was well drafted and sewed up really quick but I can't see myself making another one.

Vogue 8774: Corduroy jeans

 

I've had this stretchy thin wale corduroy in my stash for awhile, I got it on the clearance table at Spotlight ages ago. Its got a lot of stretch and is a purple/burgundy colour.

I used Vogue 8774 again and since I only did shorts on the last pair I didn't realise the legs were so straight. I shaped them a bit to be tighter on the thigh and flare slightly from the knee but next version I'm going to frankenpattern on the Thurlow legs.

I did an adjustable waistband again, I stuffed up somehow though and did the waistband narrower than the last pair and couldn't do any topstitching as I could only barely fit the elastic through!

I used a metal zipper and the facings are cotton that was from a garage sale.

I've never had a pair of corduroy pants before and they feel funny to walk in, its like the cord acts like Velcro on itself! They are seriously comfy though and something different than the usual denim jeans plus it was stash fabric!

Vogue 8774: Denim Shorts

At the risk of disagreeing with everyone in the sewing world I have to admit I like this pattern so much more than Jalie 2908 *cowers*. I just think on me its more flattering and I had to do a lot less adjustments to it (in fact the crotch curves were nearly identical and the rise was only slightly off compared to my pants block) and no fisheye dart! I did stuff the front pockets up though and next pair will have them about an inch higher.

The denim is a mystery one from the op-shop. It has a bit of stretch and is nice and thick unfortunately I only had enough for shorts not jeans. Facings are a cotton from Spotlight.

I'm still on a mission for the ultimate waistband so this idea is stolen completely from my son's jeans! I added in extra seams when piecing the waistband facing and then threaded through elastic that I put buttonholes in. I like this so far, its adjustable, stable and is very easy to take out if I don't like it and slip stich up the openings. I actually saw a pair of high end RTW jeans while op-shopping that had a similar set up and a friend just bought a new skirt that had wide elastic as the actual facing which I found quite interesting. (a quick update - I have been wearing these around for a couple of days now and can report that the adjustable waistband is working a treat!)

Topstitching is done with upholstery thread which my machine likes a lot better than actual topstitching thread. Next version might have the yoke wider too.

I did faux felled seams and used bias tape around the hem as I cut the shorts too short!

The photos were taken down at Robe, SA at the Obelisk on a day out at the beach, it was beautiful down there!


BREAKING NEWS!! If you haven't yet seen BeaJay's blog head over and check out the Plus size pattern pyramid. A way for everyone to join in the pattern pyramid fun even if you don't fit in the smaller sizes!

Vogue 8333: WIP front

I've been wanting to make this for a while and seeing PoppyKettle's version got it to the top of the project pile!

(Pockets and pleat)

I did a muslin and had to do a few adjustments;
1.5" FBA, 2" upper arm adjustment, 1" broad back adjustment, 3/4" forward shoulder adjustment and took some out of the front of the armscye.
I wanted it to have a fairly exaggerated waist so I took it in at the waist and widened the hips as well.
I've still got some bunching at the back of the armscye, I don't want to take too much out in case it restricts arm movement so I suppose I'll just live with it? If anyone knows how to fix it please tell me!
I'm a bit worried I should have widened the arms more too, I wanted to cut the under sleeve on the bias but ran way too short on fabric, one of the facing pieces I had to join but it shouldn't be noticeable *fingers crossed*

I'm following the version A, so the couture tailoring method and I'm using a silk tweed I got from fabric.com. Strangely I found horsehair canvas at Spotlight of all places and the lining is just sunsilky lining in a mauvey colour out of the stash

This is the first time I've done this type of tailoring and while its pretty slow it is very precise which is a change from my usual 'she'll be right' attitude, lol. I'm up to step 32 out of 105 so this jacket going to take me a couple of weeks!