Oooooo Witchy Woman, she got the flounce in her skirt.

Happy Halloween everyone! Do you have any fun plans cooked up for tonight? We're planning on taking Desmond for his first real door to door trick or treat experience. Previous years he's been ecstatic about sitting on the door step handing candy to other kids. His brain might implode with pure joy when someone hands him candy instead. What ever happens I'm looking forward to raiding his candy stash later. We all know he's not gonna eat those Almond Joy's.

This year I was in the mood to sew a costume, but didn't feel like spending the money to buy materials for something that would hardly get any use. The extent of my Halloween celebrations are hiding in another room while my husband is on the candy distribution duty. Can't let those adorable kiddies have the chance to pass their germs on to me. I see you hiding that bubonic plague under your Iron man mask! Never trust a cad like Tony Stark.

So instead of a costumy costume I took a page from some Halloween lovers on instagram and hatched a plan to "Dress like a witch." Well not a Wizard of Oz witch, or a Hocus Pocus witch, or even a Stevie Nicks witch. No disrespect Stevie, I can't carry off a shawl like you. Instead I decided to focus on the basics, the color black and some stripes thrown in.  Everyone know witches love stripes, right? Probably cause they make your eyesight vibrate until your pupils go all crossed. Once you can see again it's too late, you're in the witch's sack. Muhhaaa! Cannibalistic Treats!

For my quasi witch outfit I chose the Kitschy Coo trifecta top and Burda 6834 for the skirt.  I've made the trifecta top a couple of times in more sweatery knits and liked the fit.  In this bamboo knit the upper sleeves and bust area seemed to be too baggy.  I went back and removed 2" total at the underarm and tapered that out to the waist and elbow area. The neckband was also reduced in width to 1/2".

Burda 6834 is basically a princess line pencil skirt with a flounce sewn to the hem. Mine is sewn in some light weight wool suiting that was laying in the stash. I'd been toying around with the idea of drafting some sort of flouncy skirt when JoAnn's had sale on Burda patterns. Natch, drafting averted! Now I can use my free time to carve intricate jack'o lanterns.

I do owe a big thank you to a lot of my lovely sewing friends on Instagram.  My first muslin of this pattern was less than stellar looking on me.  I wasn't sure what the problem was, but figured a picture on instagram couldn't hurt. Immediately you guys told me to shorten the flounce length and just like that the skirt was 100% times better. Thank you all!!!!

My final flounce length is between the two specified in the pattern.  I used view B's cut line as the hem turn line. A 5/8" hem was added on so that I could finish the skirt with a machine rolled hem. Might as well take advantage of black hiding everything and give Froggie the night off from hemming.  His paws were covered in chocolate anyway.

Pattern
Burda 6834 - Used a combo of size 16 for the waist and size 18 for the hips. People with normal sized rear ends most likely wouldn't to bump the size up in the hips.

Fabrics used
Shell - Lightweight stretch wool suiting.
Lining - Polyester lining.

Pattern changes/alterations
- Took in the back princess line seam 1.5".
- Cut down the front waist 3/8".
- Used the flounce cut line for view B as my skirt length. Added 5/8" hem allowance for a small rolled hem.

Confessions/Advice
- Instructions tell you to interface the top of every pattern piece.  I used a roll of fusible stay tape pressed into the seam allowance for this.

- I skipped hemming the lining because it is so far up into the skirt no one is ever going to see it.

- Skirts without waistbands are not my preferred construction. Would add one if I make this pattern again.

Husband Comment
"It's sexy and professional!" Now I feel like naming this look "Profession witch."

My Final Thoughts
OK, so I thought, "This is gonna be a special occasion type of skirt." NOPE! Gonna wear it allllll the time. Basic black, you always do right by me. However.....if I was to make another one in a bright color which one should I go with? Just don't say orange or brown because then Froggie will have to slap you. Sorry it's a house rule. The other house rule we have is "EAT ALL THE CHOCOLATE!" Hand over the bag of assorted snicker varieties and no one gets an evil hex placed upon them.  Happy Halloween!

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.

The Trifecta Top - it's Raglanrific

My obsession with Kitschy Coo patterns is no secret.  I'm always planning more knit dresses or hacking up the patterns into new garments.  There is nothing as versatile as a well drafted basic, which is why my brain has a dedicated Kitschy Coo hacking area that churns away while I sleep. "Configuring new pattern cuts....loading...loading."

Well the pattern hacker area has some new data to configure because Kitschy Coo has released a new pattern. A sweet raglan T - Shirt Called the Trifecta Top.  I yonked this pic off of Amanda's blog so you could see all the neckline and sleeve combos.

Pretty nice huh?  For my testing garment I made the lower scoop neckline with long sleeves and shoulder insets.  The main knit is a cotton/spandex jersey originally from Marcy Tilton and the insets... Lillestoff baby. Oh yeah, check out my frogs.

The only fitting I did was to blend the size 4 and 5, which made an almost perfect T-shirt. The one other change I should have made was adding in a sway back adjustment.  Bad Past Heather, no cookie....especially since this was your second test garment.

That's OK, this shirt is super comfy and Froggie has given it his seal of approval. "Can I eat this bumble bee?"

As a pattern addict it is my duty to inform you that Amanda is offering 20% of the pattern till Sunday with the code TRIFECTA at checkout. Go forth and increase your pattern stash.....or curse my name and stuff a few pins in a voodoo doll.  Ouch, my sewing hand!