PR Hacks - The Nettie Christmas Dress

As usual in December I disappear off the blog due to a flurry of Christmas preparations and the germs my child sneaks home in his pocket. However froggie is happy to report that all the Christmas present sewing got done and he helped me wrap the last box up. Such a helpful amphibian. We also did some semi-behind the scenes sewing for this month's PR pattern hack column.  If you follow me on IG you probably saw several poorly lit muslins of this dress show up on my feed.  Finally the reveal day is here and I can show you some decent and seasonal photographs.

This month's hack was inspired by a vintage jersey dress that popped into my own IG feed. The original was a feisty leopard print and which of course grabbed my attention.  I thought it was a nice combo of a sultry silhouette paired with the practically of pockets and comfy knits. So I went to my trusty copy of the Closet Case Files Nettie pattern and hacked one for myself.  Now you can find out how to do it too over the PR blog.  Happy hacking and a slice of pie for you all.

Ginger Jeans Part 2 - Leopard Party

Today I'm straining the edges of tasteful dressing in the form of leopard jeans. Yes that's right, leopard jeans.  Meooowwww. Jungle January has come early.

Last year Marcy Tilton posted this denim and I resisted it for a long time. A loooong time considering that my browser finds it's way to the website pretty much every day.  Then one week Marcy put this fabric on the "deal of the week" page and only a saint/lover of nothing but solids could resist leopard print denim on sale. I am neither one of those things and leopard denim came to live in my stash. I hear Pretty Grievances yelling "Amen!"

These were sewn right after finishing my first pair of Gingers and some further fitting changes were made.

1. Reduced the front rise by 3/8".  The rise was definitely too long on the previous pair. I'm a bit unsure if it's the correct length now, as this area is always hard for me to judge.

2. Added more width to the front waist area by cutting into the fly area and spreading 1/2". This gives more room for "post mommy gut" and the like.  I went a little too far with this adjustment and need to scale it back to half of that amount of ease.

3. Cut down the front of the jeans 3/8" at the zipper and graded out to zero at the side seams for my tilted waist.  This is a pretty regular alteration for me, but I talked myself out of it on the first pair.  Probably cause I don't notice pants cutting into my waist until actually sitting in them for any amount of time.

4. Extending front of waistband to match the full tummy adjustment.  I put 1/2" extra on the end of the waistband.

5. Moved pocket placement 1" lower than previous pair.....scouts honor. My pockets are hiding like leopards in the the veld.

I didn't think of any new changes to make to the back view until this pair was almost done. So you'll just have to avert your gaze at my drag lines again. Or we can all agree on the lie that the leopard print totally obscures them. Let's Sgt Schultz this affair up, "I saw nothinz, Nothinz!"

Side note - How weird is the premise of Hogan's Hero's now that you're an adult? "Let's make a show about American POWS in a concentration camp and make it a zany comedy.  Haa Haa Haa Nazis!" Ten year old Heather thought it was great. Fooled you again Colonel Klink, when will you ever learn.

Back to jeans....on this pair I broke out the rivets and then spent about 2 hours hammering on my cast iron frying pan and while cursing rivets and people who make rivets. AHHHHH, my inability to hammer a nail/anything nail like in straight strikes again. My kingdom for more upper body strength or maybe a berserker rage state. That would show those rivets who's boss.

So if you're like me and this is your first time battling rivets I'd recommend buying some extra packs. That way when you stupidly try to hammer them in from the front and the rivet bends sideways you can throw it away.  Then google installing rivets and find out you're supposed to hammer then in from the back. Oops. (Mine still bent side wise 75% of the time. I curse you rivet!)

So that's the skinny on this pair of Ginger jeans. Here are some of the fitting plans I have in mind for the next pair.
1. Take out some of that hip ease that I added to the original pattern. I tend to forget that denim relaxes as you wear it and end up with baggier pants than expected.

2. Try that trick up making the back inseam 1/2" shorter than the front. I never remember this one when making pants until it's too late.

3. Reduce my full tummy adjustment by half.

4. I may need to dart the yoke out just a bit. Again it's loosing up back in the area during wear.

5. Barter an unholy deal with the devil were in all my rear fittings issues magically disappear but I have to contend with a Rosemary's Baby situation.  LOL, Nope.  Never gestating again until it can be done in a remote location. Oh dear I've horrified Past Heather. Tell her to stop trying to hide against that wall to escape devil babies. We'll just eat some more cookies to fill out those wrinkles. Problem solved.

The Holy Grail of Jeans

In the past I've talked about my problems with pants fitting in general. The crux of the problem being my giant backside and the amount of pattern manipulation needed to cover it. Scotch brand tape probably sees their stock go up when ever I try to alter a pants pattern. Quick Froggie, bring me another roll....or maybe a 3 pack.

Despite fitting aggravations, I've been amassing jeans supplies for years.  I've bought every jeans related class on Craftsy and tried numerous patterns. Most of them were complete failures and I smashed the multiple muslins into the trash can in a hulk like rage. Why so many jeans patterns for people with flat butts?  Can't those of us with bountiful booties have one? Cause I've tried to reverse engineer a "flat butt" pattern and it always goes sideways once you start adding 3+ inches to the rise. Not even kidding about the numbers here, the big booty genes are strong in my family.  It had gotten to the point where I'd thrown my hands up in the air about sewing jeans and decided to purchase NYDJ jeans from now on. (Side note - Best fitting RTW jeans I've come across. They don't gape in the back and the rise is longer than most. Though if you've got a big booty don't size down like they tell you.)

So I was never gotta try a jeans pattern again until Heather posted that she was releasing one. Heather is a bootylicious lady like me! Does this mean that big booty ladies finally have a jeans pattern?  I creepily tweeted her that my butt was very excited about this new pattern. At least I didn't attach a picture.

My hope for a big booty friendly pattern turned out to be true. I selected the higher rise skinny leg version and only made a large calf alteration before making a muslin. It fit better then most of my "real" pairs of sewn pants. Ahhhh it's so good when the fit model is closer to your figure than not.

I did go back and make several more fitting tweaks before sewing up this pair.  The next pair will have a few more fitting tweaks. That's pretty much pare for the course when it comes to pants fitting on my figure. That and there will always be wrinkles in the back of my legs because I need that ease to sit down. Curse you butt, can't your fullness be higher? Nope. Also giant calves and skinnies don't really mix,. But that's the style of jeans I like right now so screw it!

Those unfixable fitting issues aside, these are the most comfortable pair of jeans I've made to date. For once I want to make another pair of pants rather than run screaming towards some knit jersey. That's like winning the lottery in my book, the jeans lottery!

Pattern
Ginger Jeans from Closet Case Files

Fabrics used
- Dark Navy stretch denim - I think this one was a designer roll end purchased from Hot Patterns. They don't sell fabric anymore but it was a good score at the time.
- Left over Chambury for the pocket bags and waistband facing.
- The top-stitching thread is Gutermann brand - Color 1870
- Jean's button from Cleaner's supply company.

Pattern changes/alterations
Quick run down of my lower body fitting problems - tilted waist, small lower back/sway back, large butt, post baby gut, full thighs, large calves and ankles.

1. Made a large calf alteration by slicing up the middle of the back leg. See Cation Design's pants fitting post for more info. This added about 1/2-3/4" extra circumference in the calf area. (My calf circumference is 15.5")

2. I also increased the calf circumference by folding the pattern up 1.5" to the knee and adding the same amount of length to the bottom of the pattern. (Most of that length was cut off later.)

3. Added 3/8" to the inseam of both the back and front legs since I carry a lot of weight in my thighs.

4. Increased the back rise 1/2" on the line provided on the pattern for my big butt.

5. Added 3/8" to the front side seams at the waist/pocket area and blended it out. This accommodates some of the post baby gut.

6. Took 3/8" off the CB seam of the yoke since my body starts narrowing as it goes to the back waist.

7. Darted out the back waistband 1.5". This the mid rise hits right at the narrowest part of my body and I needed to take a large amount out to get the waistband to lay flush on my lower back. Used 3 1/2" darts to reshape the waistband.

8. Reduced the length of the pants legs by 2.25". I cut it off the bottom rather of the pattern instead of using the shorten/lengthen point.

9. Moved the pocket placement up significantly. My muslin showed that the pattern's pocket placement was too low for my butt shape.  I might have overcompensated and put them too high. They are 1.5" down from the yoke on the side seam side and 1" down from the yoke on the CB side. For now I'm holding off on putting in rivets until testing out placement on the next pair.

Confessions/Advice
- Since the stitch quality on my old machine is pretty crappy, I sewed these all on one machine. Pre-reading the instructions and grouping top-stitching verses regular thread tasks is the way to go.

- Didn't mention it on the blog, but due to a sizable donation from my sister I was able to get a new Bernina sewing machine in the middle of the year. It proved it's worth on this project as it chugged over multiple layers of denim without a problem. I did find that increasing the bobbin tension a bit worked well when using the top-stitching thread on the top of the machine.

- The instructions for Ginger Jeans are excellent. Each step has both a written instruction and pictures. Despite sewing numerous fly fronts the order of assembly is never retained by my brain. Heather instructions for this are easy and give you a great finish. Have no fear of fly fronts!

Husband Comment
"Looks great from the back." Which made me think of the 30 Rock "Brooklyn without Limits" episode. Don't think Tracy Jordan would have a problem with my butt size.

My Final Thoughts
I pretty much feel like my search for the perfect jeans pattern "for me" is over. I could jump up and down....so I did. You'll be seeing more of this pattern since all that hoarded denim can finally be sewn up. So, so, so much denim.

Nora - Beta version revamped

Thanks for all the feedback about blogging repeats everyone.  The consensus seems to be that it's fine in moderation and if the patterns are made up in different colors/fabrics. That's good because today's post also is a bit of a repeat. Just kind of repeat I'm more comfortable blogging about.

Remember the pattern mash up of Nettie and Flora, or the Nora as I liked to call it?  Well today I'm showing you slightly tweaked version of that pattern love child.  It's my Nora muslin revamped.

Most of you probably know that I'm a serial musliner.  It's my way of working out not only fit problems, but any dumb brain farts that might happen when I'm sewing a garment for the first time.  And let me admit that I still make A Lot of dumb mistakes when sewing. Enough that it's a tad embarrasing. Therefore it's no surprise that I whipped up a muslin of the Nora idea before cutting into the precious tree knit.  The knit muslin stores are a bit low at the moment, so I used the left over chuck of green polyester jersey from last summer's favorite dress.

The muslin Nora was close to being perfect but for a few things.  First the neckline was too low and secondly using a facing to finish the neck and armhole didn't work well. The only reason I'd put in a facing in the first place was that there wasn't enough fabric to cut a full self lining.  But whatever, it's just a muslin right? I threw the muslin in the corner and went off and made the "real" tree print version.

If I'd used some crappy knit that probably would have been the end of it.   Instead I keep starting at that pile of green knit thinking, "It's almost wearable and there are decently sized fabric scraps to work with. Why not use those problem solving brain cells?"

First bit of business was to rip out that crappy facing. Next I shortened the shoulder straps by about 1/2" to counter act some stretching and take care of part of the low neckline problem.  To further fix the depth of the necking I decided not to reinvent the wheel and used the Nettie neckband. Due to the width of my fabric scraps the neckband had to be made out of two pieces, but who's checking for extra seams at the shoulder anyway.  Now the dress wasn't too low cut, hooray! Why not continue with the theme and finish with some bands at the sleeves?

Yeah, I did put bands on the sleeves and it looked horrible! The proportions of the shoulder area were wrong for a banded sleeveless finish.  Hmmm, cut into the bodice blindly or put on some sleeves that would probably work? Sleeves it is then.  Due to my fabric scrap constraints the shortest sleeves in the pattern stash were chosen, the shortened skater sleeve used in this dress.

When I tried on this dress to check the sleeves it was instant love, just like the dress in this fabric last year. Oh my lord, the fabric is magical! Why hadn't I bought 10 yards of this fabric? What am I gonna do next year? Crap, need more magical fabric and or a time machine to buy more of this magical fabric.

For now I'm contenting myself with wearing this dress on a weekly basis. It goes with half of my Luxulite brooches and is comfy as all get out. Note to self, buy solid colored jerseys once in a while.  It's not a crime to have a layering base some times. Don't you agree Desmond.....Desmond?  (He just runs off to play with worms.)

P.S. I took these photos right off the "main drag" of my local town center. It was the first time that I had a lot of foot traffic and consequentially gawkers around while taking blog photos. So if I look kind of stiff or weird in these photos that's why. 

Second verse, same as the first

Don't mind me, just lurking in an alley in the exact same outfit I blogged about in June. Different fabrics, different colors, and print usage reversed....but nothing new or ground breaking.

Generally I don't blog repeats much.  Both because the drive to try out new patterns is strong and because the things I remake are usually simple basics. Wouldn't want anyone's head to rage explode over having to read yet another blog post about a new Renfrew. (At this point Renfews just breed on their own like rabbits. There's some questionable fiber mixing happening.)

At the same time many of my favorite bloggers, Gillian and Roisin for example, often remake patterns and I enjoy seeing how they look sewn in different fabrics. So hopefully you'll indulge me in a little pattern rehashing today.  I picked a pretty alley to make it go down better. ;)

In recap I'm wearing the Nettie bodysuit and the bottom half of the Emery dress turned into a skirt.  This time Nettie is made up in a rayon knit, still in stock, from Emmaonesock.com. The fabric is described has having a dry hand, which I can say is completely accurate after fondling it in person. In the future I'd prefer to buy rayon knit with this sort of finish. The texture is very pleasing and it's more matte looking on the right side than standard rayon.  Mo matte, mo better. Is that what the kids say?  Probably not.

Just like my previous Emery skirt, this one is a rayon woven. I bought this last year from the now out of business Waechters. (It still hurts) It's hard to see in the pictures, but the color is not solid. If you're into knitting, it's similar to a semi-solid yarn.  The fabric looks like it was over dyed with a hue very close to the original, giving it small areas that are a slightly lighter or darker blue.

A big thank you to Twirl Designs for suggesting using spray starch on the rayon before cutting.  I found that it made my cutting and sewing process a lot less stressful. There was a slight bit of shifting in the fabric during cutting, but it was loads better than cutting starch free. After finishing the garment I washed and dried the skirt and my rayon returned to it's normal billowy self.  Made me momentary consider stock piling more rayon wovens....but stash busting. It's for the better anyway. Those pesky rayons are always making my stacks of cottons fall over out of the closet. Usually right when my husband is entering the room which makes him give me the side eye. Too much fabric? I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Just step over it and carry on with your day.

Annnnyway, it's great having some patterns that can be considered a "seasonal uniform." Items which coordinate and make me feel put together. Certainly helps on those days were I'm strapped for time or don't really know what to wear. However what's great for your closet isn't always what great to read about on a blog.  So what are your thoughts on repeats/blogging about them and so on?  OK in moderation, or horribly snooze inducing and when is the crazy frog going to show up again?  You know he's got talent.

Sundress Hacks - The Nora

Oh No, some hooligans have been graffiting the blog again. Well they must have tapped into my brain because I have a special sew-a-long installment planned today, a sundress pattern hack. "A hack you say? I would have never in a million years thought Heather would hack another pattern." is what no one said ever. You come for the hacks and stay for the crazy. Yes? yes.  So let me take off my lab coat and present you with my latest Pattern McFrankenstein creation, the Nettie/Flora knit dress - Nora for short. Frogore, throw the lights.

This particular hack did not jump fully formed from my head and thank god cause ouch!  Instead I was inspired by Sown in Brooklyn's instagram feed. Nettie posted a picture of a great dress that immediately called two patterns to mind. Nettie on top and Flora on the bottom. It's comfy, it's sexy, it's Nora. And apparently if you start binge watching "Mr. Selfridge" then you think of everything in terms of marketing.  Do you think Mr. LeClaire will design me a window? What if I tempt him with the back view?

The bodice of this dress is the front scoop neck and the medium back view of Nettie with the straps narrowed. Instead of finishing the neck and armholes with bands, I cut two front and back pieces and made a self lining.  To get a clean finish on those areas I used the handy technique posted by Colette for the Moneta dress.  The Flora skirt was attached with a few "on the fly" changes to pleat depth to get the two pieces to match in diameter.  On my size the back skirt fit perfectly, but the front knife pleats needed to be deepened by about an 1".

Ooo look at that lovely hem sweep while I'm checking out an open trash can of hornets just out of frame. The things we do for sewing/blogging/decent backgrounds without too much sun. At least I wasn't wounded in action. I do appreciate hornets that respect fashion.

Nora is my favorite kind of knit dress.  One that is comfortable to wear, but still makes you look put together. Even better the pattern hack for making it is super simple.  I've outlined the steps so you can start making your Nora today. Yes, TODAY. You won't regret it.

*Note - I went one size up on the recommended Nettie size for this dress.  Mostly because of my wider back issues with the higher back neckline. You may not need the extra ease so muslin, muslin, muslin.

How to Adjust Nettie
1. To start, trace the front scoop neck and the medium back view on the Nettie pattern.

2. Use one of the lengthen/shorten lines as your waist seam for the patterns. I used the upper line.

3. On the front shoulders mark 1/2" in on either side of the strap. Then repeat this step on the back pattern piece.

4. On the CF raise the neckline at least 3/4". You need to fill in the neckline a bit because you won't have the added coverage of the neckband . Also the weight of the skirt will pull the bodice down giving you a deeper plunge then you might expect.  You may want to raise the neckline further depending on the vertical stretch of your fabric.

5. Raise the CB of the back scoop 3/4" for bra coverage.

6. Using a french curve redraw the neckline.

7. Then redraw the armhole.

8. Repeat the last two steps on the back pattern piece. Cut off the excess paper on the armhole and necklines to get finished pattern pieces that look like these.

Optional Bodice Step - You may also want to shorten the strap length to counter act the weight of the skirt pulling it down. The more vertical stretch the fabric has, the shorter the strap length should be.

Optional Skirt Step - If we are being good little pattern drafters, then the final step would be to compare the length of the waist seams between the Nettie and Flora patterns.  Then adjust the Flora skirt to fit by either making the pleats deeper for shaving some of the side seam off.  
If you want to be lazy like me and do it on the fly, then do the following.  Notch both the CF and CB on the bodice and skirt.  Pin the skirt to the bodice at these notches and both side seams.  Now you can see how much fabric needs to be folded at the pleat to make the two pieces fit.  You can fold the correct sized pleat and sew the skirt to the bodice.

Quick note about fabric - Because of weight of the skirt I'd recommend using a jersey that doesn't have too much stretch in the vertical direction. However it should be light enough to have some drape for the skirt. Something like an ITY would work great for this sort of design.  The fabric I used has been stashed long enough that the fiber content is a little hazy in my mind.  I believe it's a cotton/lycra blend, due to the hand. It's a lot more stable than a rayon jersey, but I still needed to shorten the straps to keep the neckline from getting too low.

Now that it's back to the sewing machine to work on my Cambie hack. Can't stop, won't stop. :) There's still plenty of time to join the sew-a-long if you get the itch. Just pop on over to the flickr group and join. I'll have Froggie mix up a fresh batch of daiquiris when you arrive.

The dream of the 80's is alive in my sewing room

Why yes I did repurpose that song from a Portlandia sketch.  It was running through my head the whole time I was sewing the new Nettie bodysuit pattern. There's just something about bodysuits that remind me of the 80's. How else were you gotta show off your rad gathered yoke mom jeans? You don't wanna cover that ass enlarging design detail with a boxy tee. Bodysuit all the way.

But enough about my deep seated traumas about 80's fashion. Nettie is a modern take on the bodysuit designed by Heather over at Closet Case Files.  And you know that girls named Heather won't steer you wrong fashion wise.  We might band together to kill people, but we'll make sure you look good first. (Wait did the Heathers get killed in "Heathers"?  That's bogus.)

My first Nettie was made during a time crunch, so it had no fitting alterations other than combining the 10/12 sizes. The turquoise version is a good wearable muslin, but I wanted to have another go at the pattern before reviewing it on the blog.  It also seemed sensible to put some thought into how I would wear a bodysuit in a "causal" outfit.  To be honest I'd never thought about wearing a bodysuit again.  My torso is very short and with a low set bust I literally have 3" between my bust and natural waist. My natural inclination is to hide that fact with long shirts that visually lengthen the area.

But I loved how Nettie looked on so many other bloggers. They all looked like chic ballerinas playing hookie from the theater.  My brain started playing the theme to "Fame"* and I thought, "Hmmmm ballerina chic? That might work."

The stash was consulted for inspiration and it did not disappoint.  This rayon parrot print almost flew at me and squawked, "Sew me into a gathered skirt! That will look great with a bodysuit"  But parrots, I replied, I don't really like gathered skirts.  The parrots gave me the evil bird eye** and said, "Oh yeah? Why do you like that Anna/Emery dress so much then, you punk?"  Crap, the parrots did have a point and they looked like they might get ill tempered if crossed.  I took their advice/orders, attaching the Emery Skirt to a self drafted curved waistband to make a light swooshy skirt

Since the parrots were back and white, (fine ivory. Damn computer screen fooled me again) it seemed right to break out my other favorite neutral. That's right peeps, the color red is a neutral in this house.  So I "liberated" some Lillestoff from the kids stash and made myself Nettie #2. This time with fitting alterations!

Did I nail the ballerina chic? If so can I join the "Flashdance" gang?  Word on the street is that they run around dosing people with buckets of glitter.

Pattern
Nettie Bodysuit from Closet Case Files with enough of the Kitschy Lady skater bodice grafted on to mention it.

Bonus Pattern - Christine Haynes Emery.  No changes were made to this other than attaching it to a waistband.

Fabrics used
Lillestoff cotton jersey.  You can get a 10/12 sized combo out of a yard of Lillestoff and still have enough over to color block a T-shirt for your son. You know, if you feel any guilt about stealing fabric earmarked for him.

Pattern changes/alterations
My biggest fitting problem with Nettie was that the upper back width was much too narrow for my figure.  I felt constricted when moving my arms forward and the shoulder seams would pop up off my shoulders in an odd manner. There were two ways a girl could go about fixing this. Slash and spread, then make up a few muslins to check fit or use a pattern I knew fit me and trace off the shoulder/armhole position. I went the easy route and pulled out the Lady Skater to trace off the back dimensions.

1. Lining up the shoulder seams I traced the shoulder/armhole/side seam area of the Lady onto Nettie. This gave me 4 extra inches across the upper back. Awesome, that should be enough room for the sweet dowager hump I'm working on.

2. However, the change to the back meant that the front now had to be modified to get the shoulder seams to match.  I went the easy way and traced the lady skater front into Nettie.  This gives about 2" more width across the upper part of the bodice.

3. Then to complete my cycle of lazy fitting, I changed the neckline to the Lady Skater neckline and used the LS sleeve.

4. The LS sleeve did look a little big with the tightly fitted body.  I took 3/4" out of the circumference at the underarm sleeve and also made them a cap length.

5. The crotch length was reduced by 1" because it was a little long on me.

Confessions/Advice
1 - The directions are really well done, but I've been full of the "sewing dumb" lately. One of the crotch pieces/snaps got sewn to the wrong side of the garment before I noticed.

2. Guess who's still in denial about needing a sway back adjustment for all garments?  This girl. Next version will get one.

3. I'm pretty pleased with this version but would like to tweak the pattern a bit more.  Next version I'm going to lower the neckline back to it's original position and try the Nettie sleeve in the narrowed lady skater armhole.

4. Bonus skirt confession - I really hate cutting and sewing rayon wovens.  But wearing them is makes you forget all that just like childbirth.

Husband Comment
"You look puuuuurty."  Then later the same day he said, "What do you wear that bodysuit thing with?"  Ummmmm with a skirt.....like I was wearing a few hours ago.  He was distracted by the color red. It happens.

My Final Thoughts
Oh man, is this outfit comfortable.  I was really sad when the bodysuit had to be taken off to get some detail shots and, confession, finish sewing on the snaps.  Comfy and cute......I need 4 more.  Can I get a summer wardrobe staple alert. "BEEP BEEEP!"

P.S.  The necklace and earrings are from Bluehourdesigns on Etsy. I picked them up last month with some birthday money and couldn't be happier.

*The "Fame" theme song still makes me want to enroll in ballet classes immediately. Too bad I'm horribly uncoordinated.
** I'm sure not all pet parrots are evil spawns of satan. However every one I've met tried to take a chunk out of me for having the gull to enter their human's house.