Dress Up Party

Have you ever tackled a pattern that you should have left well enough alone? One that you were pretty sure wouldn't work with your figure, but decided to sew anyway because it looked great on other people? Yeah we've probably all been there once or twice.

Last month I made this mistake when sewing a dress for Sara's "Dress up Party" series. It was one of those, "seems like a good idea at the time" ideas that snowballs into a project that fights you every step of the way.  Oh pretty eyelet, why did you have to be so bad? Read my entire sordid story about Colette's Hawthorn over on Sew Sweetness blog.  

Dusting off the Pattern Stash with Beignet

OK dish, how many patterns do you have in your stash that you've never sewn up?  10's, 20's, enough that you're getting a bit shifty eyed right now? What you want me to answer my own question?  Well I'm gonna have to plead the fifth on that and ask that you direct any further questions to my lawyer Esquire Froggie. Meanwhile I'll be throwing patterns in the air and cackling. Mine all Mine!!!

I was "making it rain" with patterns the other week when the Beignet pattern landed on my head and I though, "Skirt pattern gooood, must sew."  Now this baby has been in the stash for at least 2 years, maybe more.  I probably bought it because some other blogger made up a cute version....as you do. Then realized I'd never tuck my shirt in to wear it and threw it in the back of the pile.  But segue way to 2014 Heather who is all about Nettie bodysuits and tucking things in willy nilly. Short-waistness be damned, I'm making a Beignet skirt.

Recently there was a twitter conversation about buying fabric with plans and how those plans get changed. Now I'm not a planner. My buying technique is "OMG I must have this to hoard and occasionally pet. It can not belong to someone else!" This works great with fun prints, but when it comes down to buying basics I "usually" have a plan. (Have been known to go bat shit crazy over wool.)

The plan for this stretch cotton was a Springy pair of Thurlow trousers. Mmm yeah, I can still picture it in my brain and it looks good. If only pants fitting is wasn't still my Achilles heel.  I spent a solid month trying to get Thurlows to fit and ended up with nothing but 5 muslins too tight in the backside. Curse you ginormous butt!!! Two Spring seasons later this fabric was still in the stash and I had to sit down and seriously reconsider my plans. Did I want to go through the cycle of pants fitting hate right now?  No.  How much wear would a pair of spring pants get anyway?  Maybe 2-3 weeks max? Now a skirt, that could get a whole lot of wear during hot weather.  I waffled a bit until Froggie pulled out the pair of matching wedges and whispered, "Dooo Itttt." One must always follow the advice of their spirit animal/sewing helper.

Wow, can I say this pattern is time consuming?  Totally worth it, but for some reason I had the thought that this was going to be a "quick skirt project" in my head. Days later I was bemusedly wondering why this sucker wasn't done yet. Crap, I need a lining....sew, sew, sew.  Belt carriers...where's the stupid quick turn? Wait I have to sew 12 buttonholes? Burn a sacrifice to the sewing goddess!!

The sewing goddess must have been pleased because only 2 buttonholes had to be ripped out and resewn. Then she reminded me that there were two packs of self covered buttons in the stash.  Sweet! Froggie approves the self covered button.  One more pack of buttons had to be purchased to complete the skirt. Other than that all the materials were in the stash, including thread/interfacing/needles and such.  I like to think of this as a 4 dollar skirt and giggle like I'm clever.

Pattern
Colette Beignet

Fabrics used
Light weight stretch cotton sateen for shell - purchased from Emmaonesock last year.
Polyester silk like blouse weight for lining - inherited from my grandmother's stash.

Pattern changes/alterations
I sewed a straight size 10 straight out of the envelope. No Fitting Changes at all. I have never typed that sentence and fully expect a catastrophic event to occur.  Watch out for raining frogs unless they look slightly furry and prepared to hem clothing.

Confessions/Advice
- I did move the buttons away from CF about 1/2" more than the suggested placement.

- Was going to skip the lining but decided with all the facings it was a better idea to have one to keep everything in place.

Husband Comment
"I like it. It's the color of the Florida Marlins uniforms.....well until they changed them."

My Final Thoughts
Confession - Wasn't sure that I'd like this pattern on me until it was completely done. When I put it on the first thought that popped into my head was that I needed to make another.  The second thought was, "Sure thing, but not back to back. Go sew a quick project first."  Ahhh good advice. I'm still 100% sure there's a denim version in my future. Won't that look cute with fall tights and boots? In the meantime I'm going to wear the crap of out this one with my Nettie bodysuits. Just give me a hand when I fall over next to you in these wedges.  Maybe I should invest in a pimp cane.

Walking like an Egyption Mabel

Way back in the Spring when Colette announced they were going to release some knit patterns I was pretty excited. After all I'm an equal opportunity knit/woven pattern hoarder collector.  Weeeeell, you can't please everyone all of the time and the two patterns didn't really "do it for me."  As explained in my Fauxneta post, the dress was something that could easily knock off with my existing pattern collection.  As far as Mabel was concerned I figured the sight of a fitted knit stretched my rear end was something the world should be spared from. Yet here I am wearing a Mabel.......hypocritical much?

So how did this happen?  First I was seduced by fabric, really, really awesome ponte fabric. Secondly when cashing in my Sew Dolly Clackett winnings at Harts and could either pay shipping or throw in a pattern and get free shipping. Hmmmm let me see here, what would anyone do in this situation? Yes, buy another pattern.

So I made version 3 out of my awesome, awesome ponte, put it on and went "Meh."  But why? Like all Colette patterns, Mabel had excellent directions and the drafting was great. I like pencil skirts and knits so all this should add up to another pattern that makes me froth at the mouth.

The only thing I can put my finger on is that the skirt feels like it might fall off at any moment. This has got to be my brain messing with me, cause I have enough ass to keep any kind of fitted skirt in place. My "knit sewing instincts" feel that there's not enough negative ease in the pattern when using the suggested size. On the other hand, I don't want a lot of negative ease in this area of my body. AHHHH my kingdom for a stretch woven!  At least my brain knows how it likes those types of pencil skirts to fit.

Pattern
Colette Mabel I sewed view 3 in a blended size M/L.

Fabrics used
Coda Ponte from Marcy Tilton. (Still in stock)
Rayon Scraps for waistband lining

Pattern changes/alterations
1. Blended the size medium at the waist into the size large for the rest of the skirt.

2. Took in  1/2" at waist on CB skirt seam.

3. Cut down side seams of back waistband to match the ease taken out of the CB seam.

Confessions/Advice
- I didn't read instructions again and assembled the waistband in a completely different method that was not better.

- Seems that with a busy print you can accidentally walk around with your skirt on sideways without noticing.  Even after you take about 30 pictures. Classic Heather.

Husband Comment
"Why aren't you making the shorter version?"

My Final Thoughts
OK, despite my apathetic feelings about this pattern, I feel like it deserves another go. My plans are to trace a smaller size and see if I like that fit better. My brain still thinks that a lot of negative ease around my lower body is a bad idea, too many lumps and bumps around there. I might have to admit that this pattern is not for me and stick to stretch woven skirts.

Semi-Boring Basics

Poor fashion basics, they're like the steamed vegetable of the sewing world. But you can't eat dessert for every meal or run around in chiffon dresses when it's 50 degrees. Some times you just have to knuckle down and sew a boring pair of navy pants.

Sewing pants really isn't the problem, it's fitting pants.  Most of you know this cause I like to rant about pants fitting on a regular basis. I'm like an old man yelling at the TV, just replace the TV with pants muslins.  The language is equally salty.

My lower body fitting issues include, tilted waist, post baby fat shelf, giant butt, narrow upper back, full thighs and large calves. That's just the stuff I know about at the moment, because the list never seems to stop growing.

For my foray back into the "cycle of pants fitting hate," I decided to use a pattern that already had some of the kinks worked out of it, Colette Clovers.  Past me had done a pretty good job with the waist area and I thought those changes could be copied over to another size. For the legs I wanted to try some of the fitting adjustments that Cation Designs detailed in this very informative post.  Some of those alterations I'd never seen before and I'm always looking for the magic key to great fitting pants.

Much like every pair of pants I sew, these feel like they fit a little better but aren't perfect. But first lets do a quick rundown of my alterations broken down for each fitting problem.

Large Butt - Raised the rise at CB 2.5". Extended the back crotch hook an 1" and also scooped out the crotch curve about 3/8".  The front crotch curve was extended 1/2". On the side seams  1/2" extra ease was added just in the butt area.

Narrow Upper Back - Increased the back dart to have an intake of 1". Shaved off about 1/2" off the CB by making the seam line more diagonal.  The back waistband was reduced in width to match.

Titled Waist - this means your waist is lower in the front than in the back.
Cut down the CF seam line 1/2 and blended this out to nothing at the side seams. Raising the CB for my butt also takes care of the higher waist in the back.

Post Baby Fat Shelf - Straightened the CF seam line and added 1/2" to the front side seam area only.  Front waist band was increased to match the new width.

Full Thighs - Did the Full inner thigh adjustment shown on Cation Design's blog to the front pant piece only. A 1/2" was added through out the leg, up to the crotch curve. I skipped this alteration on the back because I always seem to have excess fabric in that location. Adding more fabric to that area seemed dumb.

Large Calves - Did the hyperextended calf alteration also on Cation Design's blog.  I split open the lower leg a 1/2".

*Other alterations were, 2 1/2" of additional length to the legs and "Excess Fabric at the Crotch" alteration to try and remove some of those back thigh wrinkles.*

Conclusions - Transferring my fitting changes for the tilted waist, narrow upper back and baby gut to the new size worked. I'm pretty happy with how the whole waist area fits and feel those like fitting problems are solved.  The full inner thigh adjustment and hyperextended calf adjustment seem to be an improvement over what I was doing to the legs before. (A knock knee adjustment and adding extra width to side seam.)  I may need to increase the calf adjustment a tad since wrinkles still stack on top of them.  The back rise, oh the back rise, will forever be the bane of my existence. It's a little too short and gives me the slightest of wedgies.  I do prefer that look over the "looks like I took a dump in my pants" thing that happens when I start extending the back rise.  I've also come to terms with the fact that there will always be wrinkles under the butt.  I need a lot of "sitting down ease" for that butt, so it's gonna have to hang out on the back of my thighs when I'm standing up.  For now I deem this pattern "done with fitting alterations."  I'd rather spend my time on more fruitful occupations, like plotting new shoe purchases.

Hey guess what? I sewed up another basic, but one that's a classic instead of being boring. It's a semi-sheer striped Trifecta Top.

One of the good things about having a large stash is that fabric can disappear until the perfect pattern arrives.  I recently unearthed this roll end from the deep stash level and immediately knew it would be perfect for the high scoop neck version of the Trifecta Top. The fabric is an extremely stretchy jersey with a sweatery hand.  It seems to be some sort of rayon blend, making it perfect for transitional weather. I traced a straight size 4 and made no alterations.  The extra stretchiness of this fabric worked in my favor and disguised any fitting problems that might have happened with a more stable fabric.  The stuff was a bit of a pain in the ass to sew, but I'm really happy with the finished top.

To be honest, this is the sort of thing that gets a lot more wear than pretty pretty dresses.  But don't worry, I have more pretty pretty dresses to show you. So many dresses.....so little time.

Me-Made-May Day 26 - Backyard

I'm hiding from my son who has the hose and is spraying everything in sight.

 Spray the flowers but not my feet!

Haaa haaa I'll get you mommy!  Right after I spray myself some more. Wheeeeeeeeee!

Oh yeah? I'm gonna go play in the tree by myself.

Me Mades from head to toe today, another Renfrew in what could be a feather or leaf print. 

Also some denim clovers I put a fly front in and the pretty Ophicleide cardigan knit in 2009.

Master Des was nice and gave me a bird sticker that coordinates with my outfit.  Good job son, now put down the hose.

Me-Made-May Day 22 - Knit Queen

Bow before for me mortals for I am that Knit Queen.....

Hey what are you doing, back away you tiny monster.

How dare you disrobe me!  You will pay for your insolence!

Today's me mades, Colette Iris shorts and Hotpattern's Rivera once, twice, three times shirt.

Me-Made-May Day 6 - Dinosaur!

There seems to be a pesky infestation in my back yard. At first I was happy cause they took care of the squirrels, but then they developed a taste for human flesh. Now the damn things are trying to take a bite out of me when ever I take out the trash. Maybe I shouldn't tempt them with bare ankles.

Ahhh the tiny T-Rex is right behind me.....wait if I stand still he can't see me right?  Steven Spielberg wouldn't lie to me.

Oooooouch that smarts!

Ok me-made deets.... Snow Leopard Sewaholic Renfrew that I LOVE and will cry big salty tears when it meets is eventual death.  Red Colette clovers which I also love but need to be taken in and I'd rather stick a pen in my eye then do that. Most likely new red fabric will be bought some time to replace them.  For now I'll just be hiking them up intermittently.

Oh drat, I left the door open....

I iz in ur sewing space, scaring ur machine. Rwwwarrrr!

My New Sexy Love...Cobalt

Hello Cobalt, I was minding my own business when you walked into the room and gave me that look. Oh you know the one.  I tried to resist you saying, eyelets aren't for me.  But you sidled up along side me and whispered, "This time they are."  Then you might have winked in a rakish manner.  It was then that I realized I had to have you.

Sure our relationship hit that rough patch when I didn't do a proper muslin. I get very cross with you and needed some time alone, but let's face, it you're too beautiful to throw out of the house.

When I pulled you out of UFO box last month you gave me that saucy grin again and I remembered our torrid love affair.  This time we could get it right....this time we did. Fin*.

*Actual sewing details.
The pattern is Colette peony with some style changes.  Using the A line skirt as a base I drafted a pencil skirt with a back vent.  The front tucks were converted to darts and lengthened a bit. The boat neck was scooped a tad lower on both the front and the back.

I got the idea to line the cotton eyelet with some silk chiffon from a RTW top tried on at Anthropolgie.  This allows the wearer to have more opacity but still retains some of the lovely airiness of the eyelet.  It also feels divine as a lining.  The entire bodice and skirt were lined but the sleeves were left as a single layer of eyelet.  I removed all facings, understitching the lining to neckline instead. (Both fabrics purchased from Gorgeous Fabrics last year)

There was a bit of trouble fitting this dress for two reasons....

Fitting problem 1 - I did not read any PR reviews before starting and did not know the back was rather wide .  My standard 1/2" of additional back width was added as well, making the problem even worse.  On my muslin I did not install a zipper and did not notice the excess fabric in the back.  It was not until a zipper was put into the real dress that the fitting problem was noticed.   At this point I got frustrated and put the dress in the UFO box for about 4 months.

Fitting problem 2 - I lost 12lb in those 4 months so now the dress was too big all over.  Now some semi-large amounts of fabric needed to be removed to size the dress down.

Final fitting changes as follows.
1. Connected the back dart and neck dark to create a princess seam in back.  This allowed me to take out some of the extra back width, about 1/2" here.
2. Took in the side seams an 1" on each side.
3. Also reduced the diameter of the sleeve 1".
4. Took in the CB seam 1" in the bodice tapering down to 3/8" in the skirt.
5. Increased the back dart intake to 1 1/4".
6. Made a 3" sway back adjustment on the bodice.
7. Took about a 3/4" wedge out of the remaining shoulder seam.  The slope of my shoulders did not seem to match the pattern with the boat neck shape changed.

The back still isn't exactly right, but it works in a pinch.  If I was to make this dress again, I'd start over again with the correct size for my current measurements and go from there.

 But for now I'm gonna enjoy my sexy new love, Cobalt

Summer Sewing - Colette Iris Shorts

I've had a personal ban on wearing shorts for a couple of years now.  My legs are not one of my personal assets and I prefer to keep them covered with capri pants or knee length skirts.  However due to global weirding, summers on Pa are becoming 100 degree affairs with only short bursts of lower temps.  Add to that an almost 2 year old that I have to run after, shorts suddenly seemed like a necessity.

If you have to make shorts why not make cute ones? Enter Colette patterns Iris short.  Yeah I bought it when it was released, even though I don't like shorts.  They were just tooooo cute.  So here they are in Kelly green on a size 16 girl.

It actually was 100 when taking these photos.

Was able to take all my pants fitting changes from Colette Clover pants and transfer then directly to these shorts. 

My final alterations were....
- Scaling back the crotch length to an additional 1/4" on both front and back.
- Adding 3" to the center back, while keeping the side seam the original size. Changing the darts to be 3.5" long and an 1" wide. Also angled the CB seam line in to shave off some ease. The flat pattern looks disgusting but the pants fit me great.
- Lowering the crotch curve on the back about 3/4".
- Straightening the front crotch seam for a full stomach.
- Adding 1/4" on the top of the side seams as my waist is a bit too wide for the size 14 measurements. (Size 16 is way too big on me so I use the size 14 and scale up the waist a tad)
-  Added 2" of length to the legs.
- Reducing the flair of the legs by taking in at the side seam 1/2" and 1/4" at the inseam.

I really love the inseam pockets, which have an optional detail of a button closure. Cute retro flavor and a place to keep your keys.


Thanks to some left over scraps from a recently completed blouse, my Iris shorts got some sweet coordinating pockets.


I'd highly recommend this pattern.  The shorts are simple to make, very comfortable to wear and a little different than what you'd find in a store.  Another winner from Colette Patterns!