Voom, Voom, Violet

Hey folks, I'm standing out on this patio in my sheath dress wondering when the cocktails will arrive. What? This is a state park and open bottles are frowned upon.  Well I never! I'll have you know that Smoky the Bear invited me personally and he mixes a mean chocolate martini. Only you can prevent forest fires and sobriety.

While I'm waiting for Smoky to bail me out of the drunk tank, let's talk about the dress. I'm wearing the newest pattern from Bluegingerdoll, the Violet dress.  This was actually the first ponte dress that was sewn during the Fall. The one that got me thinking about adding a few ponte pieces to my cold weather wardrobe.

Like the Bonnie pattern, you get a few mix and match elements with Violet. Choice of short straight skirt, long straight skirt, or flared circle skirt and 3 sleeve lengths.  You can see them all over on the Bluegingerdoll blog if you've got the itch. I've sewn a straight View A, long straight skirt with 3/4 length sleeves out of some rayon ponte. Queue the technical sketch!

Boom! You know I have a torrid love affair with technical sketches. That way you can see the yoke detail without squinting.  The separate yoke gives you a color blocking option or added visual interest in a solid colored fabric.  A little extra pizazz if you will.

Fitting changes I made to the pattern were...
- Standard Forward shoulder adjustment of 1/2".
- Sway back adjustment of about a 1/2". I could go back and take a bit more out there.
On a second version I'd probably narrow the back waist a bit or put some darts in since some fabric is pooling over my sway back.

Quick side bar discussion about ponte - After making a few things out of ponte fabrics of various fiber contents, I'm going to stick to rayon based ponte.  For one they feel really nice next to the skin. I can't say that about the polyester ponte used in the Nettie hack here.  Rayon ponte also is more forgiving on the lower half of my body.  The skirt widths are exactly the same size between Violet and the Nettie hacks, but I consider the Nettie to be too tight.  I'm happy with the fit on the Violet skirt in a rayon ponte. It shows some curves, but not more than I'm comfortable with. Side bar discussion closed. 

Getting back to the pattern, I would recommend ponte or another stable knit for the straight skirt versions.  For the flared skirt version, there's no reason you can't pull out some regular jersey and make yourself a swishy skirt. The only other notion you need for this is some clear elastic to sew over the bust gather. All in all it's a 2 hour sewing project once the fitting is worked out.

Violet is now available over in the shop as a PDF, with the paper version to arrive soon. If you're interested the code "Violet" will give you 10% off until 11/26. Until then I'll be staring at the horizon for Smoky the Bear.

P.S. Somehow Abby and I shared a hive mind and made this view in almost the exactly same color blue. Quite a feat considering this ponte has been in my stash 2+ years.

A Pair of Bonnies

If you've been sewing long enough I'm sure you've had the experience of thinking, "I'd really like a pattern for x garment" and then magically someone releases that very thing.  It's an Indiana Jones moment where it feels like a shaft of light might has fallen upon the pattern while heavenly voices sing. The holy grail!  Anyway I had one of those moments when Abby sent me the Bonnie pattern to test. Cropped sweater YEEEESSS!

Wait did you say sweater Heather?  Yes you heard right, Bonnie is the first knit pattern from Bluegingerdoll. I had no idea what Abby had up her "puffed" sleeves when she told me that the next pattern was going to be for knits. When the technical sketches arrived and I saw it was a mix and match sweater pattern, my little heart sang with joy.  Nothing like a quick knit project to make one feel productive. Because of that I might have whipped up more than one.

*Both of my Bonnies are the cropped length body, crew neckline and the full length sleeves.  I used a size 10/12 combo with a 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment. The crew neckline was lowered an 1" in the front, because anything higher makes feel feel a bit choked. Due to the neckline adjustment I added 1/2" more length to each end of the neckband for a total of 1"

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Version 1 - Sewn in rayon ponte with stashed medium weight rayon ribbing. 

After doing my test muslin in T-shirt weight fabric, I wanted to try a more "sweatery" fabric.  Trying the pattern out in ponte seemed fun, especially after finding this wild rose pattern on Etsy.  Bonus - if using a contrast fabric/ribbing for the bands, then you can get a 10/12 combo out of one 60" wide yard. I'm happy with the ponte version other than a touch more fabric could be taken out of the back. 

Bonnie is paired with some Colette Clovers here. They aren't the best choice for the cropped length since the waistline on the pants is too low when actually moving around.  Some "at waist" cigarette pants would work, such as the Butterick 5895.  I also think the cropped length top would look sharp with some forties area full leg pants, such as Decades of Style Empire Waist Trousers.

Version 2 - Sewn in T-shirt weight organic cotton/spandex jersey with self bands.

Here the pattern is sewn in a plain jersey which let's you see the puffed sleeve detail.  I've used the self fabric for the bands on this version. Bonnie comes with different band lengths for ribbing and self fabrics so that you get a good fit with either. Nice not having to do that ribbing calculation in my head.

I've paired Bonnie with my latest version of the Betsy pencil skirt. (The yellow/white polka dot fabric is still available at Gorgeous Fabrics if you're interested) My growing collection of pencil skirts is one of the reasons I've had cropped sweaters on the brain. The length is perfect to show off a brightly patterned skirt.

Right now Bonnie is only available as a PDF, but a print version will be arriving later in the month and can be pre-ordered now. You can pick up the pattern at 10% off the pattern with the code BONNIE through 10-13-2014. Meanwhile I'll be whipping up a bunch of these since it's finally cold in Pa. Hot pink is up next!

New Bluegingerdoll Pattern - The Odette Dress

Oh my it's been a busy week around these parts, everything happened at once! Sorry about clogging your blog readers, but I have one more thing to share with you. Something I've been sitting on for awhile and has been staring at me from the corner of the sewing room. That's right secret sewing!  Abby, of Bluegingerdoll, is always hard at work making new patterns and I had a good time with this last one. So without further ado let me show you the Odette dress.

The Odette dress comes with a contrast bodice inset feature, waistband and 6 panel gored skirt.  The contrast panel is "buttoned in" right along the neckline split. This gives you the option of making several insets with different buttons to change up the look. (Confession - I made up more than one because I couldn't decide if yellow or black buttons looked better.)

This pattern also has several sleeve options, sleeveless, cap sleeve, and 3/4" with cuff.  I've close the cap sleeve on my version. Like all Bluegingerdoll patterns the bodice is fully lined for a clean finish on the inside.

For this sample I pulled out some stash cotton originally purchased from Emmaonesock.com. It's from Ascher Studio, a favorite fabric designer of mine, but is a little heavier weight then the other Ascher cottons in the stash.  I figured that the Odette pattern would work well with this fabric. The thicker weight would help make the cut out neckline stand up crispy and also look good in the gored skirt.  My fabric pairing instincts proved to be right and I'm really happy with the fabric/pattern pairing here.  Though I will confess that I could have done some work figuring out pattern placement.  The majority of the yellow flowers ended up on the back of the dress. Oops.

I really love the skirt on this dress. Gored skirts are such a nice way to get fullness at the hem while keeping the waist area nice and trim. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that it has inseam pockets. What's in your pockets, precious?  Why the other inset I forgot to take pictures of..... Blogger Fail.

Finally a quick list of my fitting details since they come in handy every now and again.
- I went one size up from the recommended size because I like more ease.
- I did all my standard fitting alterations to the bodice. Dropping side seam dart and waist dart point 1 ", forward shoulder adjustment 1/2", Upper back widened 1/2" and back waist dart intake increased. In this case the intake was increased to a total of 2.5".
- After all my standard adjustment the bodice was still a little roomy in the waist band area. I nipped out about 1/2" at each side seam for a total of 1" removed.  Adjusted the top of the skirt to match and then everything fit nicely.

To celebrate your purchase of Odette will be 10% until 9/14/2014 when using the code Odette2014 at the checkout. So head over to the Bluegingerdoll store if you're in the mood from some pattern therapy.  I love the smell of new patterns in the morning.

Fredrick invites Edith and Betsy on a lunch date

Hmmm sounds like an alternate reality "Archie" comic involving lobsters. But why lobsters Heather? Well because anthropomorphic lobsters are adorable and this outfit wouldn't have come about without one. I'm speaking of Fredrick my Luxulite brooch of course.

"Hello beautiful ladies. Yes, my body is red like I have been cooked and yet I still cling to life. Let us talk no more of this complicated set of circumstances."

I was smitten with Fredrick's googly eyes and possible tragic back story. How can I fix you and make you smile again gentle lobster? Regular outings to the grocery store to look at the lobster tank? Nautical themed shoes? I'm sure Dolly Clackett has some to spare.  A warm butter bath? Name it and it will be yours. Fredrick thought a moment and said, "The frog has informed me that you have lobster fabric in your stash. I would like to frolic on it and relive my carefree youth." Why dear Fred, I can do one better than that, I can make a lobster shirt. *Queue 80's sewing montage ending with me in front of a fence shouting TA DA!*

Wooo look at that, I "almost" make a googly eyed lobster shirt look classy.  The secret is the toe point.

It came to my attention that my wardrobe was lacking any sort of button down shirt in my current size. What? How could this have happened? Am I not the the self crowned "Queen of Archers"? This state of affairs had to rectified and fast least my button hole attachment decide to runway from home.

A couple patterns were considered, but I found myself in a retro mood and pulled out Maria Denmark's Edith pattern. The more fitted body seemed a better match to go with the stretch denim Betsy skirt I'd just finished. What's better than lobsters and denim? Pie and chiffon?  Cake and Corduroy? Wait let's not go down that road. It's making me hungry.

LOBSTERS, MAINE!

Some of you might remember that I made Edith last year around this time. Having to retrace the pattern was a bummer, but at least most of the fitting work could be transferred to the B 40 size.

Like last year I needed to....
1. Drop the bust dart an inch".
2. Shorten the tip of the front fish eye dart 3".
3. Take 1/2" off the top of the shoulder seams which was graded out to nothing at the collar. Then I dropped the bottom of the armholes 1".
4. Made standard 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment.
5. Curved the hem line up at the side seams for personal preferences.
6. Widened the facing about 5/8" after rereading my previous review about it being a bit narrow.

*I did not need to add ease to the hips on this size.  The top was short enough that it does not reach my wider 40" circumference area.

Once again I bias bound the armhole edges instead of turning and hemming.  As much as I hate sewing bias bindings, they do look nice once they are finished.

Some lobsters were traumatized by the sewing of this blouse.

Last year I wore Edith with Clover capris, but decided it looks equally well tucked into a Betsy pencil skirt. And I might not have sewn any Clover capris. Yes I am avoiding pants at all costs for as long as possible.

Someone tell past Heather to tuck in her shirt.

This Betsy is a combo of view's A and C.  Instead of tracing the regular vent on view A, I moved the paper over to view C and traced the pleated vent. Easy Peasy. Now a girl can have a pleated vent and a waistband. Natch. Don't know why it took me a couple of months to sew another denim pencil skirt. They go with about half of my wardrobe and I find them very comfortable in stretch denim.

Show us the money shot!

Fredrick was delighted with the blouse made in his honor.  I think a tiny tear of joy welled up in his googly eye.  Then he said, "Hey baby, let's go paint the town red like my skin." We hit all the hot spots, the grocery store, JoAnn's and of course Target.  People started at us with delight...or confusion/horror. I like to think that they were just jealous of our love and our sweet dance moves to Rock Lobster out in the parking lot. My Fred Schneider impression is tight.


P.S. You know Gillian, our favorite sewicalist of rainbow knits. She's moved her blog to wordpress and wanted to get the word out since no one using blogloving would know. So go refollow Gillian cause she knows how to wrap up a blog post unlike some people. *cough, me, cough*

Billie Jean Sundress

Last month I did a fun little hack of the Billie Jean pattern and finally got my shit together and wrote about it. Can I blame waiting for the right accessories to arrive in the mail?  Cause cherry shoes and brooches are awesome. All hacking details and some fun wind blown photos are over on the Bluegingerdoll blog.

P.S. This hack is so darn easy. You'll spend more time trying to turn those devilish spaghetti straps than altering the pattern.

Introducing Ava and Betsy

Guess what peeps?  Not only is it a holiday Monday here in the states, but it's also new Bluegingerdoll pattern time. Woo Hoo, let's party with grilled burgers and sewing! Just don't mix the two unless fire and grease stains are how you like to unwind.

But enough of my nonsense, let me introduce you to the Ava Jacket and the Besty skirt.

The Ava Jacket is a slightly cropped kimono affair with 3/4 length cuffed sleeves. You can make it with a contrast collar/cuff, like I have, or use the same fabric for the entire jacket. My Ava has a 100% viscose shell and silk charmeuse collar, cuffs and lining.

Oh hello, pleased to meet you gallant prince outside of my photo frame. Check out my cufffffs.

Betsy is a pencil skirt with 3 different views. I'm wearing the high waisted view C, made up in silk satin. As you can see this baby has several style variations to tickle your fancy. Mmmmm so many pencil skirts, so little time.

I like multiple darts for my butt and I can not lie.  Sadly this pic doesn't show the great detail that is pleated kick pleat. Let me assure you that it is awesome.

For more in depth descriptions of the patterns and much better pictures than mine, hop on over to the Bluegingerdoll blog.  If you like what you see, you can pick up the new patterns in PDF and paper form over at the store at 10% off through the 28th. Hot patterns right off the printer, YUM!
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P.S. I'm wearing the Closet Case Files Nettie bodysuit with Ava and Betsy.  More on that later cause it deserves it's own post.

Winifred Sans Collar

Just a quickie post to say that I've written a little Winifred hack over on the Bluegingerdoll blog.

Same great pull on style with 100% less collar.  Perfect for all those giant necklaces your father has purchased for you....well that might just be me.  I'm pretty sure my shopping/stashing gene came straight from him.  Anyways if you're interested pop on over there.  In closing here's a goofy pic of me embracing the wind that was trying to blow me and the camera over.  "I'm the king of the world!!!"

New Bluegingerdoll Release - The Winifred Shirtdress

All weekend I've been mercilessly teasing my instagram followers with glimpses of the newest Bluegingerdoll pattern.  Well release day is finally here and I can finally reveal my Winifred in full. Here she is all sewn up in luscious Liberty Lawn.  Mmmmmm lawwwwnnnn

Head on over to the Bluegingerdoll blog to read about my pattern tweaks. I even went outside and took pictures in the cold cause coordinating shoe shots are a must. ;) 

Bonus Bluegingerdoll Hack

Those of you who follow me on instagram will remember the hot pink Peggy skirt I made in January.

To get around the fact that A-line skirts and my figure don't mix, I redrew the side seam shape to that of a pencil skirt.  A few inches of length was chopped off and the "Pegged Peggy" was born.  Full tutorial on this process is over on the Bluegingerdoll blog. I'm working on my girl scout tutorial badge. ;)

Stella Blouse and a Little Announcement

STEEEEEEEELA!!!!! Now that I've gotten that out of my system, let's talk about my new Stella blouse.

I know it's cruel of me to parade completely awesome deep stash fabric in front of you. Especially if you'd just put it on your "to burgle list." Gotta act fast people, we be stash busting around these parts. If you're thinking, "Haven't I seen this fabric before?" then yes you are correct. I used the majority of the yardage in 2009 to make Burda 117 which I wore during Me Made May last year.

I started Stella in early December before everyone came down with germs. I "hilariously" set the sleeves in while the germs were over taking my body. Let me tell you, sick Heather can't set in a sleeve for shit. It looked like a drunk money had a go at the sewing machine.  In fact I'm pretty sure it was a drunk monkey that set those sleeves. Curse you drunk monkey, I had to rip those things out and do it again.

Happily the sewing goddess felt I'd paid my dues dealing with drunk monkeys and the rest of the construction went well. I even managed not to cut half my buttonhole threads when cutting out the button hole tab.  Take that drunk monkey!

Pattern
Stella from Bluegingerdoll

Fabrics used
Feather print was an Italian cotton remnant. The yardage originally from Emmaonesock.com
Black tabs are a stretch cotton twill, also a remnant.
In fact the only thing I bought for this project was the 7" invisible zipper. Go stash buster go!

Pattern changes/alterations
1. Normal 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment to shoulder seam and sleeve cap.
2. Normal 1/2" board upper back adjustment with added shoulder dart.
3. Sway back adjustment of 3/4".
4. Increased dart intake of back dart to 1 7/8".
5. Dropped the point of the front waist dart by 1 1/2".
6. Dropped the bust dart by about 1 1/4".  I just crossed out the existing dart, drew in a new one at my position and then trued up the side seam.

7. Dropped the armholes 1/2".
8. Added 3/8" to each side of the sleeve to increase the sleeve diameter by 3/4".
9. Lengthened the sleeve by 1 1/2" cause I was in the mood for 3/4 sleeves.

Confessions/Advice
1. After measuring the pattern I decided to size up from a 10/12 combo to a 12/14 combo. I like a little more ease in a garment where the fabric has no stretch.  This worked out well except in the shoulder area, which I should have kept at a size 10.  I completely forgot about fixing this until putting the blouse on to take these picture. Oops!

2. I've lost around 4 lb since fitting this blouse and it probably needs to be taken in a bit.

3. I recommend cutting down the seam allowances on the tabs to at least 3/8". It's much easier to sew a nice curve with smaller seam allowances. In this pic I've just cut them down on the the top side around to the notch. That way I didn't have to cut down my pocket edge that was already serged.

4. I ran into a problem with the front dart when pinning up the hem. I think the dart intake is a bit too big for the hem to sit flatly with you sew it.  Before you cut your real fabric I suggest you make a change to the pattern like this.

- Take the front bodice and draw in the hem line. 

- Fold the pattern up on the hem line and measure the difference between the dart lines.

- Adjust the dart legs so that they are closer to the width of the dart at the location where you fold it up. 

Husband Comment
"That's a nice utilitarian tunic with functional pockets. Feathery Heather.....those are supposed to be feathers, right?" I think my husband needs an education on what tunic is and only he would call this garment utilitarian.  However my new mini frog agrees about the pockets.

My Final Thoughts
This is a great design to showcase a bold print and it's super simple to sew. I'm also pretty exciting about it's hacking potential.  Muhaaa haaaa Plans!  But first I must raid that hidden cold war bunker to get the top secret pattern drafting book.  Operation Stella is a go.

Announcement
I'm pleased to reveal that Abby asked me to be a part of Bluegingerdoll.  She's still the designing brains of the operation, I'll just be taking a few housekeeping tasks off her hands. My main job will be generating content for the Bluegingerdoll blog. Tutorials, pattern hacks, stuff like that.  And of course I'll be sewing up all the Bluegingerdoll patterns, but I was gonna do that anyway.

My Sew-A-Long Mae

What do you get when you cross polka dots, birds, and my favorite color red?  You unlock triple amounts of awesome that make up my sew-a-long Mae.

I had to take part in the Mae sew-a-long cause A - I like this pattern, B - chance at prizes, C- I bought a card of bakelite buttons that had just the right number for Mae.

Changes to this version.
1. The neckline is the one Abby drafted and not my modified larger one. They both look good so why not switch them up.
2. Took off the extra ease I'd added in the sleeve area during my lazy fix adding extra east to the entire side seam.
3. Increased the width of the button placket an 1/8" because these buttons were a bigger and I needed more width for the button holes

I also underlined this version with some siri lining, because you could clearly see the black polka dots through the white areas. Facing shadows, no thank you!  Putting in an underlining is a pain, but you do get the added bonus of being able to sew down all those facings.  I whip stitched down the armhole facings since sometimes they want to flash people. Dirty, dirty armhole facings.

The fabric is from Gertie's Etsy store this summer, a cotton with a touch of spandex in it. The underlining cancels out the stretch factor but that's OK, I've got enough ease to be comfy.

Also from Etsy the cute embroidered felt bird patch.  Check out Dahlia Soleil if you're looking for something like this.  She has many different designs - plants, animals, etc and you can chose from different colors of felt. I ordered an iron on patch but ended up hand sewing it on for a more vintage look.

"Tweet, tweet, I'm making your blouse that much more awesome." Right you are red bird, even the 3 year old thinks you're the bee's knees.  Already got complements in this version while running errands, so all around a great make. Hooray for Mae!