Sewing with the Pattern Stash - The Frankenpattern

In the last post I talked about a few ways to sew with patterns that are already in the stash. Like many of you, this is an area that I have problems with. A brand new pattern often seems more exciting than a pattern bought last year. That new pattern doesn't have any "planning baggage" yet or been mentally sewn it up in my head several times.* It's new and shiny and I love it soooo much, until the next thing comes along.....and there's always a next thing. Ummmmmm, it's a bit problematic.

Since I'm the Stash busting theme host it seemed only fair to put my "money where my mouth is" and sew only stashed pattern this month. Luckily for me a really fun Frankenpattern idea popped into my head and got the ball rolling. Let me present a mash up of the Elisalex bodice and Burda 6834 flounce skirt. It's business time flamingo dancer.

Now you all know my fabric stash is large, but I have a pretty good memory about what's in there. Rarely do I stumble across something that I have no memory of purchasing.  However during this fabric cull I found 2 yards of red wool crepe that was a complete surprise. As frog is my witness I did not buy this fabric. Most likely it came from my grandmother's insanely large stash and she sneakily stuffed in a box for me. Well played grandma, well played. Also you knew what I liked and I wish you were still around to give me side eye about what I pay for fabric. Grandma didn't pay retail, she bought auction lots. Lots of them.

Grandma's wool crepe knew what it wanted, just like grandma, and told me to combine these two patterns. Not that I needed to be talked into it. Slim red dress with a fun flounce? Yes please! Since both patterns have princess line seams they were pretty easy to fit together.  Here's how I went about it.....

1.  The first version of Burda 6834 I made sits below my natural waist. It seemed prudent to add some additional length to the pattern if it was going sit higher. Two inches of length was added to all the skirt pieces at the lengthen/shorten line. (I could have gotten away with half that length.)

2. The Elisalex bodice was walked along the waist seam of the skirt to compare the princess lines seams. The skirt princess line seams were moved to match the bodice's.  The front skirt matched without any changes and the back needed a slight tweak.

3. After the princess lines were adjusted, the side fronts/backs were walked along the waist seam. A sizable amount, around 3/4", needed to be removed from the skirt side seam.

4. The skirt has an angle in the princess line as a design feature. I decided to smooth this out into a curve by adding a bit to the side front seam line and removing a little from the center front seam line.

After doing that bit of pattern making work, the two patterns matched perfectly.  I had very little trouble sewing the dress, other than some goofy mistakes sewing back skirt pieces in the wrong way. Oh the hazards of fabric with no wrong side and late night sewing. If the flounce seams hadn't lined up oddly I might have never noticed the problem.

This baby looks great in photographs, but there are a few confessions that need to be made......

1. The lining shows through.
I didn't even think to check this since there were no issues with lining my Christmas dress. It's not too noticeable in the photographs, but in real life you can clearly see it.  As fate would have it, the see through affect wasn't noticed until the entire dress was almost finished. At that point I decided it was a "design element," like a lace overlay or something.  Yeeeeah, I know the lining should be switched out but I'm not gonna do it.

2. Not all fitting changes were transferred to the pattern.
OK here's the deal. The Elisalex bodice was made in a larger size for the red roses dress in October 2013. Some time last year I'd traced a smaller size and "thought" I'd sewn it up into some garment. Wrong, the smaller size never got sewn up till now and I certainly forgot to transfer over some armhole adjustments. The armhole is very tight and lining it didn't help the situation. Oops.

3. Stretch woven and non stretch woven do need different amounts of ease.
Another big oops on my part since this fact didn't cross my mind pre cutting.  Both of these patterns had previously made with a stretch woven, but I'd forgotten that fact. When I put on the red dress there was a moment of, "Why is this tight across the back and the hips.....oh yeahhhhh no extra stretch."  In hindsight I should have muslined this dress to double check the fit in a regular woven.

4. No amount of under stitching, clipping or pressing would keep the lining from rolling out of the neckline.
I finally had to top-stitch the edge of the neckline to stop the lining from peeking out.  Growl. Having top-stitching in one location seemed odd. I decided to top-stitch the sleeve hems and skirt hem to balance out the garment.

So that's the knitty gritty on my slight fitting fails. What I should take away from this is to always muslin pattern mash-ups just to be sure. Now you know why I make all those muslins and have a quality control Frog. Wait....shouldn't he have told me to drop the armholes? Lazy frog.

Other than a bit of tightness in the arm holes, the fit isn't that far off. It's probably only something I'd be concerned with. "Oh no, it's 1/4" too tight, The Horror!" This dress is still going in the win column since it makes me want to do something like this all the time. Wheeeee dancing!

Hope everyone who is participating with the theme is having good luck so far. Many of you commented with excellent plans. May the sewing goddess bless you with plenty of machine time to crank out these projects.

*Why doesn't mental sewing result in a real garment? Science get working on that. Not like you need  to cure cancer or anything. Sewing is now your Top Priority.