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.

More Stash Busting Contest Makes

I promised/threatened to do another post of all my PR contest makes, so let me show you what else the frog powered sweatshop cranked out.  We had to close the sweatshop up a little early thanks to a freak storm that blew out our power for a few days.  Now that power is back on, we find ourselves only interested in laying in front of the air conditioning and surfing the internet. Oh internet, never leave again.

We still cranked out a lot of clothing during the middle of the month, including another Advance 9441 that will get it's own post. Mainly because I took so many pictures and can't whittle them down to one. So you have that pic heavy post to look forward to.  For now feast your eyes on a plethora of tops and a few bottoms that are no longer stashed fabrics.

1. Comino Cap
Finally decided I was keeping this yard of mermaid jersey for me. Sorry/Not sorry kids in my life. No changes to this baby, just hot pink mermaid goodness.

2. Maison Fleur 1301 Top View 2
This was supposed to be another version of View one, but the cotton sateen seemed a bit too thick for shoulder ties.  No worries, it's easy to convert the top to view 2 mid project.  All you need to do is cut off the ties on the back an put some buttonholes in the front ties.  A few self covered buttons were added to the front for a decorative element.

3. Nettie with cap sleeves and gathers.
Somehow I didn't make a short sleeve black Nettie last year. What! Well that oversight must be fixed immediately.  To spice the pattern up I added a few minor tweaks. First the normal Nettie short sleeve was swapped out with a cap sleeve that I'd drafted way, way back for the Fauxneta.  Second I gathered up the CF with a 1/4" x 1.5" piece of black elastic.  Easy, Peasy.

4. Edith and Self Drafted circle skirt
Yep, I really like the Edith pattern and keep adding them to my closet. More prints! More Colors!  And what could be better for summer than a sea themed vintage cotton version? Nothing! After that was finished, I decided to sew another self drafted circle skirt for a snazzy new outfit.

 

5. Several pairs of Barrie Briefs.
At long last a use for those Lillestoff remnants that are too big to throw away! I've been sewing the mid rise version because I'm turning onto an old lady who likes her underwear bigger and bigger.  They have excellent "check coverage" for those of us with plenty of junk in the trunk. I'll be sewing up a least a week's worth and while chackling with delight.

The stash busting contest was a fun challenge and did make me sew up more yardage than I normally do.  Nothing like a good dose of competition to get one cranking out all those things on the sewing list.  Still I'm looking forward to July, using new fabrics and not feeling guilty about picking up my knitting.

Sewing with the Pattern Stash - The TNT

Confession - This outfit was sewn last month before I'd even given any thought to the this month's stash busting theme. It just happens to fit into one of my suggestions of sewing TNT patterns. Errr I mean that I'm soooo good at planning that I keep it secret from myself. But Frog knows...he knows everything.

Before you get ideas of bribing Frog for my dark secrets, let's talk about the two TNT patterns that I used. The first is the Nettie bodysuit, a pattern that gets worn on a weekly basis.  My wardrobe has needed a longer sleeve red version for months and I finally got around to filling that hole. There's nothing new to discuss fit or design wise here. It's the high back/scoop front version with the back and shoulder mods that were detailed in my review of the pattern.  It was also sewn in the same Lillestoff red jersey. It turned out to be exceedingly hard to find bright red cotton jersey in the middle winter.

TNT two is a little bit more fun to talk about. See I bought this Micheal Miller print, "Out to sea," last year after loving it on both Roisin and Jo. There were no exact pattern plans for it at the time, I just snagged 3 yards from Hart's fabric and stashed it. Then last month I stumbled across a lady on Instagram that was wearing a circle skirt in this exact fabric. Yes, Yes!!! That is precisely what my fabric wanted to be.

However a straight circle skirt pattern wouldn't do because of the 45" width of the fabric and the horizontal pattern motif.  I did a bit of brain storming and decided the best way to solve the problem was to use a gored skirt pattern and increase the amount of sweep to the pieces.  So I grabbed the skirt portion of the Odette dress and New Look 6056 to use for my experiment. Thanks to photographer Frog it's also been documented for you. He wears many hats and all of them at a jaunty angle.

I really like the hem sweep on New Look 6056 and wanted to add the same amount to the Odette skirt.  Before beginning the drafting, both pattern's hem lines were measured to find out the difference between them.  I found that NL 6056 hem sweep was 14.5" bigger on the half.  That meant 7.25" needed to be added to each of the Odette panels to get the same sweep. Here's how you go about doing it.

Step 1. Trace the CF panel of the the Odette skirt.

Step 2. From the hem area of the skirt measure out 7.25" and mark. I usually line the ruler up with the angle of the existing hem for now. We'll edit that later.

Step 3.  Draw in a new edge to the pattern. (Since I already have a waistband drafted for Odette the new seam was started 5/8" down from the waist edge. That way the waist circumference is not increased.)

Step 4. Next draw in the seam allowance.

Step 5. Place the Side Front pattern on top of the stitch line and mark were the bottom of the pattern falls.

Step 6. Adjust the hem sweep curve so that two pattern pieces will have the same seam length. If you have a hip curve ruler use that. You can also fudge it with a french curve.

Step 7. Trace the side front pattern piece.

Step 8. Add the 7.25" to the non side seam side edge. (The side seam has two notches for pocket placement if you get confused.)

Step 9. Draw in the new pattern edge and seam allowance.

Step 10. Place the already modified center front on top and use it to adjust the hem sweep curve like before. (Also double check that you have a seam notch that matches between the two pieces for assembly.)

Step 11. Repeat these steps to the Center Back and Side Back pieces. After you are done altering all the pieces the skirt can be sew together in the same manner as outlined in the Odette directions. Bonus you'll have pockets if using the pattern.

With the added sweep the seam lines disappear into the folds and you get the look of a circle skirt.  I was just able to squeeze out the size 12 skirt on 3 yards of fabric. The boats aren't exactly matched across the CB, but there was literally no more fabric to tweak that. Slightly irksome, but at least I can't see my backside when wearing it. ;)

So there we go, two TNT's and a little hack to start out the week.  Spring is in the air and it's going to be pretty dress sewing season soon. Can't wait!

Retroish Nettie Dress

Ponte dresses, they've been around for awhile right?  I have to say they've never struck my fancy until this year. Maybe the Ponte Fairy visited me in the middle of the night and smacked me up the side of the head with her double knit wand. Heee heee hee that tickles!

What also helped my ponte conversion was stumbling across a few lovely retro inspired styles on the net.  The Joan dress by Outerlimitz and the Joanie dress by pinupgirl clothing to point out a few. Oh if only we could all be Joan for a couple of days. I'd give my eye teeth to always have a witty bon mot ready to put people back in their places. Alas this is not my lot, instead I'll be over in the corner giggling about some weird crap I just made up in my head. Frog tutus, Bam!

Anyway, let's just talk about the dress, shall we?  I really liked the pleat detail on the Outerlimitz dress and decided to drop that into a Nettie dress with a few style mods.  To make the dress a little more retro looking I gave it a boat neck and lengthen the skirt 5".

Full disclosure here, the dress came out little shorter and tighter than I'd envisioned. I'm also wearing a Rago girdle in these pics to suck everything in a bit.  This ponte is 100% polyester and had a much firmer recovery than the rayon based pontes I've worked with in the past.  Does anyone find judging knit ease needed more tricky in pontes than say regular jerseys? Is it just me?

View of the side pleats.  Looking at the pictures of the Outerlimitz dress makes me think that they might have sewn down the pleats a few inches. Something similar to a shoulder tuck cluster.

Skirt vent on the back annnnd me being reminded how big my back end is. Better pop on over to youtube to watch "Baby got back" a couple of times.   P.S. - Crazy windy on picture day so enjoy some weird hair.

I need to size this dress up a bit to be comfortable wearing it, but that doesn't mean I can't give you some hacking instructions in the meantime. Oh yeah, hacky, hack, hack.

Hacking Instructions
1 - For the front trace the skirt portion of Nettie and mirror it so that you have the whole front. Add seam allowance to the waist since it will now have a seam. If you want to lengthen the skirt do it at this time.  I've added 5" of length here. When all your changes are done, cut out the pattern piece.

2. Chose which side of the skirt will have the pleats. Measure down 2.5 inches from the waist and mark the location of the first pleat.

3. Mark 3 more pleat locations 2" apart from each other.

4. Using the pleat location marks, draw 4 lines across the whole pattern.  Keep the lines parallel to each other, but they do not need to be completely horizontal across the pattern.

5. Cut the lines from one side seam almost all the way to the other. Leave a small paper hinge.

6. Place paper behind the cuts and open up the slashes to the width you want your pleat. On this dress I've spread them apart 1".  Tape down the pleats at your chosen depth.

7. Cut off all the excess paper to complete the front skirt pattern.

8. For the back trace the pattern on the half. Add seam allowance to the CB and draw in a vent intake.  I made mine 5" high and 1.5" wide.

9. I used the same technique for converting the neckline to a boat neck as outline in this renfrew tutorial.  The shoulder seam doesn't need to be narrowed on Nettie. Place the french curve on the edge of the existing shoulder seam and redraw the neckline higher.  Here's a quick look at my back bodice.

10. On the front add two pleats in the same manner as you did on the skirt.  The lower pleat is 2.5" from the waist and the second is 2" away from the first pleat.

Sewing Notes
1. When sewing the dress, fold the pleats up towards the waist. Secure them with some basting before sewing the side seam. Once the side seam has been sewn the basting can be removed.

2. The neckline is finished in the same manner as the previously mentioned boatneck tutorial.

3. The back vent is top-stitched just like you would on a woven garment.

Sorta Fall Sewing with Nettie

Back in June I mentioned that Nettie was going to become a wardrobe staple. Boy did it ever! If I was the sort of person that took stats of daily wear and created a pie chart, then it might look something like this.*

* All data has been made up. Also goal for next summer - more lobsters.

I probably wear a Nettie about 4 times a week, which is why they got added to the Fall Essentials Sewing plan. Yeah baby, I'm gonna milk this cow until she runs dry. Or until I'm freezing and nothing but wrapping myself in yards of wool will do. Wool mummy, grrrr!

Despite the rampant germ sharing in the house, and I was able to bang out a Fall-ish version out of some stashed soy/cotton jersey. Here it is paired with an Odette skirt and a snazzy peach brooch from Luxulite.

If you want more info about the skirt, click on through to the Bluegingerdoll blog where I talk about waistband options.  Over here it's all about the Nettie.  Now I call this version Fall-ish because I went for the medium scoop back. Not exactly cold weather wear, but my husband was thrilled.

I like this view a lot too, it's sexy without being overly so.  No one is going to point and gasp, "My Stars!" at your exposed scapula.  At least they won't until I made it "a thing."

Just like in my Nettie/Flora dress combo I didn't make any changes to the body of the Nettie pattern. Thanks to the lower back scoop a width adjustment isn't necessary.  I did add a 1/2" extra width through the entire sleeve by splitting it down the center and adding there.  The width change is small enough that the sleeve sets in the armhole without any trouble.

I do have some trouble with the shoulder area of the top wanting to slip off  my shoulders. This isn't present in my dress version, so it surprised me a bit.  Guessing that the weight of the skirt pulling down keeps the shoulder area in place on the dress.  This soy/cotton jersey is also a bit softer, making it sag more than the polyester jersey of the "Nora dress." That's OK. I make sure to wear a nude bra and adjust the shoulders from time to time. Maybe I'll go back in and add some bra keepers if the mood strikes me.  Odds are that I'll be covering up the shoulder area with a cardigan soon enough anyway. Till then hijinks at the local law offices....hmmm that sounds like a fun Nancy Drew story.

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.