Category: blues

Decisions

~ velosews ~ 1 Comment

Happy New Year to everyone. It’s been a big ‘get organised weekend’ (kitchen, bathroom, sewing room, pending US sewing trip) and eventually I did manage to make some progress on this one-shoulder dress. And I have an event to wear it to at the end of the month – yipee!
Below on the left is the first idea I had. The blue centre piece is on the back and the left is the front. I prefered the front, so I replaced the centre back piece with the pattern fabric. On the right is the other issue – I realised the centre front print was not in line with the flowers on the centre side pieces. I cut this dress out last year and this year is my year of ‘considering the details’ in life.

As you can see, on the left I replaced the centre back piece with the printed fabric and on the right I tipped the centre front upsidedown.
The built-in bust was way off the mark (no photo). It looked ‘un-real’, so the bra pieces were taken out! I wore a bandaue instead so my bodice went back to looking ‘natural’ not ‘Las Vegas showgirl’.

On the left the armhole will be finished with a bias strip in the printed fabric. On the right I’ve since adjusted the top of the zipper (see the yellow pin) to overcome the gap. The hemline was at the right level so I also need to handstitche the lined bodice and centre back vent. 

The printed fabric is a poly with spandex and the blue fabric is also a poly with no ease. I have some black strappy heels to get me through the event. Fingers crossed. 

New knit dress – M5752

~ velosews ~ 4 Comments

Yesterday was a good day sewing, hosted by Sharon (thanks Sharon).

Our weather is still warm but not humid anymore, and it’s autumn. This knit dress is a Palmer/Pletsch classic fit that has some really good reviews on Pattern Review, so I used this blue printed knit bought at Lincraft (50% off) in February ($6).

I didn’t try to match the print because this is a toile dress. As you can see below, I used a dark blue fabric as the midriff stay. The midriff gathers requires two layers over the midriff stay, so i only used one layers of gathers.

Now that I’m getting more practice at adjusting patterns, I will keep ploughing through the new patterns I bought last year. The great feaure in this pattern is there is a whole section dedicated to adjusting this pattern. Bonus for anyone who is making this up without any help or reference material.
Lots of the previous reviews mentioned the fact that as some points, you are sewing through more than six layers of fabric. The reason for this is that the front piece doubles onto itself, so the picture above shows where I’m cutting the pattern back, so there’s less bulk in the front bodice.
The midriff gathers also requires two layers over the midriff stay, so I only used one layers of gathers.

So this dress has:
– sway back adjustment
– dropped the back skirt hem to cover my rear
– full bust adjustment – c cup
– roll shoulder (2 cm)
– waist adjustment to fit the size 12 for my waist.

I’ve also made the short sleeve version in a zebra knit now.

colour break – Kwik Sew 2683

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As you can see, I’m taking a colour break.


This was the first top I made today. There’s no science in the pattern placement and the neckling on the pattern was tight around my neck, so I’ve dropped it a bit.


When I sewed on the FOE on the neckline, that’s when I had used the one step process with a ‘few tears’ when I had to resew the FOE on the back neckline.
This pattern has my usual adjustments. I got this knit last month when Pitt Trading had their 50% off sale.
By the way, this is a really comfortable top to wear to work with my purple skirt. My work mates have been very supportive as they usually see me in greys and blacks around the office..

Design learning – Kwik Sew 2694

~ velosews ~ 3 Comments

As you can see, I had to take my own pic and this design worked.
I’ve used a two-step process to sew on this FOE.
These photos are proof that this two-step process and it worked. No tears. 
The key design suggestion was to use part of the fabric border under the bust. The picture above is the before shot.
This is the after shot and the shot at the top is the finished product.
This pattern has had all the alterations to make it work on me – sway back adjustment, neckline gaps, shortened shoulder line, lowered back hem edge.
Tonight ACDC is playing and they’re not playing as loud as they were two nights ago. I can still hear every word – and they’re still good.