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!

Pattern Mix and Match - The Penny Skater

How many of you guys are addicted to ModCloth like I am? That site is like crack and I'm lurking there at noon every day for my new hit.  "Inspiration, give me inspiration....and shoes."  Good thing for my wallet that I pin all the dresses to my board and only occasionally buy shoes. Occasionally I swear!

Last summer I pinned this dress.  Not too exciting, but I liked that it was made in a knit fabric and the use of stripes. Thumbs up for stripes!

I never got around to converting some random woven princess line bodice before warm weather ended.  As luck would have it Amanda drafted up her own princess line dress, the Penny Pinafore, during the winter. Hooray, now mocking up this dress would be as easy as pie.

As you can see my version doesn't bother mimicking the neckline and sleeves of the source dress. Instead I embraced the casualness of neck/sleeve bands and made no changes to those areas.  Part of this was laziness, but I also think the dark bands provide a resting place for the eyes after starting at all those stripes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I didn't have any stashed striped fabric with enough yardage, so I bought some Lillestoff blue/white striped jersey from my twitter pal Melanie. Her Etsy store is here if you're interested and she does still have this fabric in stock. It's virtually impossible to stripe match across the princess line seams so we're calling it a "design element." Otherwise you wouldn't know the seam lines were there....yeah that's it. (My lobster Fredrick agrees.)

The Penny bodice is then paired with the Lady Skater skirt.  I put a seam allowance on the CF/CB line so that a pretty chevron effect can be achieved. Now there's some decent strip matching.

The silhouette is pretty much the same as the Lady Skater, but the stripes make it interesting.  And who doesn't want a few striped knit dresses to add to the wardrobe? If you do than here's how..... (Spoiler - its super simple.)

Quick How To
1. The match point notches are a great guide line for turning the Penny Skater into a bodice.  I laid the CF pattern piece against my body to get an estimate on where my waist falls on the dress.  I found it was 2" below the match point line.  I then traced each pattern piece down to 2" below the match point lines and squared off the bottom of the pattern.

 2. The Lady Skater skirt gets a seam allowance added to the CF/CB line. Then you cut the skirt in 4 pieces and seam the CF/CB at a chevron.

3. I sewed the Penny skater bodice together normally, except that top stitching was added to the princess line seams. The Penny bodice and Skater skirt are then attached as directed in the Skater directions.

Add Luxulite Lobster brooch and make kissy faces at it while pretending to be on a boat. OK, that's just me.  Novelty brooches forevera!

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

Thank heaven for little girls, cause little girls need fun dresses every birthday. Thank heaven for little girls, cause aunty's get to buy more yardage and yell hooray!

You've probably figured out from my little ditty that sewing toddler dresses is one of my favorite things. Every year I wait with baited breath and credit card in hand for my niece's birthday. If you're buying girlie, girlie knits for someone else it doesn't count as stash. Froggie told me so.  I hear some of you saying, "Pffftt that frog is the biggest enabler ever." Well I must defend Froggie's honor and say that he gave me the purchasing limit of fabric for one dress, the fairy print.  Then we tossed the stash and pulled out the owls knit and some beefy pink spandex for dress number two.  See, see, just a little bit naughty with the fabric purchases. Don't ask about our chocolate intake.

Both dresses are the Kitschy Coo kids skater dress with a few minor alterations.  Froggie and I though we should shake things up a bit since the little girl in question already has a few regular skaters.  We also had the extra creative challenge of discovering there wasn't quite enough of the owls knit for a 3/4 T skater after cutting out the skirt. Oops, we are usually much better at laying everything out before cutting.  Must have been too hopped up on chocolate.

For the fairies dress a Comino cap like seam was dropped into the bodice. One of us is obsessed with that pattern and the other said he'd been told little girls like princessy clothing.

For the owls version Froggie and I did another sort bodice piecing to get around our yardage snafu. We though a big "belt" like waistband would look similar to woven dresses with wide ribbons around the waist.

Our original plan was to do a Katie MD flutter sleeve, but thought the dress needed a banded sleeve to balance out the waistband.  Instead we slashed up the pattern, creating a puff sleeve.

After completing these two cute dresses Froggie took a nap.  Sewing excitement really wears him out.  I remained awake and put in a little more elbow grease taking pictures of how to make these design changes.  Must....infect....you....with...more.....hacking.

Sweet heart neckline version
1. On the front make a mark on the side seam 3/4" down from the armhole.

2. Place french curve on the pattern like so. The tail in should touch the side seam mark.

3. Trace the curve from the CF over towards the armhole, but stop before you get to the side seam.

4. Flip the french curve the other direction and complete the sweetheart seam line.

5. Cut the pattern in two pieces along the line.

6. Add seam allowance to each side of the newly drafted seam. (I put 1/4" SA on these pieces)

7. On the back draw a mark on the side seam 3/4" down from the armhole.

8. At that mark, draw a straight line perpendicular to the CB across the pattern.

9. Cut the back apart on that line and add seam allowance to both sides of the new seam.

Puff Sleeve Version
1. The "waistband" piecing is the same idea as the cormino cap seam above.  Measure 2 1/4" up from the bottom of the bodice. Draw the line following the curve of the bodice waist seam. Cut apart and add seam allowance.

2. Trace a copy of the short sleeve skater sleeve.

3. Mark 1" along either side of the sleeve head notch.

4. Draw vertical lines through the sleeve at the new marks and at the sleeve head notch.

5. From the sleeve head edge, cut the pattern along these lines but not all the way through.  Leave a small hinge at the cuff edge so that the sleeve can be fanned open.

6. Decide how much extra ease to add to the sleeve. I decided to add 3/4" to each slash line for a total of 2 1/4" extra ease.  Each slashed area was then taped open at 3/4".

7. Smooth out the new sleeve cap with a ruler and cut off all the overhanging paper.

Ta Da! You are now prepared with patterns for outfitting adorable bounty hunters. Watch out, she's packing suds! Don't encase me in a bubble. Noooo!

My Quick and Dirty Hollow Chest Adjustment for Comino Cap

As I sat writing the meat of this post I kept thinking of a twitter conversation I had with Jo_Sews. She mentioned that he mother sewed for years, but had no idea about fitting.  She assumed that if a pattern didn't fit her out of the envelope it was because there was something wrong with the pattern. This stuck in my brain because it made me think, "How many people out there right now think the problem is with the pattern? When actually the problem is that they aren't aware of their own fitting issues?"

I distinctly remember in high school making a red brocade dress. (Tone on tone floral from JoAnn's. Probably polyester.... uggh) It was Asian inspired with a neru collar, frogs along the neckline (the decorative kind you know, not the fluffy kind that sits on my table) and a long slit up the leg. Even though the pattern measurements clearly showed I should have been blending two sizes, it never occurred to me to do so. I made the size that fit my hips and which made the bust area was way too big. The fit on the final dress was horrible and I never finished it, but didn't really put two and two together about why the project was a disaster. It was college that made me realize that garments need to be fit to particular bodies, even if they didn't really show us how. It took a lot of book reading, experimentation and muslining for me to figure out how to solve most of my problems, and I'm still learning new things.

Guess this is the long way of saying, "This is why I talk about my fitting changes all the time." I don't want someone to think there's a problem with the pattern, when the real problem is that we're all differently shaped. Showing my fitting fixes is something I like to do because I've been helped by other people doing the same thing. Sew smarter, not harder. :)  So let's actually get to the sew smarter part and talk about my hollow chest adjustment for the Comino Cap. Sorry for the unplanned long winded detour.

I think it's safe to say that we all have indie favorites based on style, but also based on how close our figure is to the designer. After all the designer is the "fit model" used for the drafting of the pattern. If our figure is close to theirs, then the amount of alterations needed to get the pattern to fit us are minimal.  I'll freely admit that this is one of the reasons I'm a big Kitschy Coo fan girl.  I need to make very few adjustments to Amanda's patterns because our body type is fairly similar.  But there is one area were we are completely different and that is where our bust fullness is. Amanda's bust fullness is fairly high on her torso, where as mine is working it's way down to my waistline. (Thanks for the genes great grandma.) On a one piece top I don't really notice this. However with the added visual interest of the sweet heart princess line the excess ease bothered me.  Cue the visual examples.....

Comino Cap without any changes - I get some pooling of fabric at the mid point of the bust and over towards the arm.

To figure out how much ease to remove for the seam line, I pinched out the amount of fabric naturally folding up on the seam. On me that was 1.5" of extra ease.  Then I went back to the pattern and removed that amount from the sweet heart seam.

Comino Cap with sweet heart seam line ease reduced - Smooth baby, smooth.

So now I'll show you the "quick and dirty" method used to reduce the ease on this seam line.  It's quick and dirty because instead of slashing and closing the pattern, I'm darting out the excess ease.  You can do this kind of half assed alteration to knits because the stretch gives you a larger margin of error. But It's not the "correct way" and my pattern drafting teacher would dock my grade.

This fix will work on bodies with large busts with lower fullness like mine.  I'm not so sure it would work well as a SBA type of adjustment. Amanda is going to write up a tutorial on adjusting the pattern for small busts on her blog. If a SBA adjustment is one of your standard alterations then you might want to wait for that.

It might also be helpful for everyone to know that I did not make any kind of hollow chest adjustment to the one piece version. Without the seam line to attract the eye to that area the extra ease didn't bother me.

How to Modify the Comino Cap for Hollow Chests
I'll be demoing the fitting changes on the dress bodice pattern piece. The process is the same for the shirt version.

1. Trace off a copy of the front contrast piece and the front dress/shirt piece.

2. We'll be marking out the amount of ease to be removed on the lower piece first.  The amount of ease I'm removing is 1.5".  Because this is a rather large amount for on "dart", I decided to break it up into two 3/4" segments.   The first is 1" away from the side seam.  The second is measured from the bust matching point. I used the notch as one side of the 3/4" marking.

3. Fold the first marked out area like a dart and tape it shut.

4. Repeat step 3 with the second marked out area.

5. Now we need to remove the same amount of ease from the top contrast piece. Mark out the two 3/4" (or your measurement) in the same areas of the pattern.

6. When folding the first marked out area like a dart be sure not to take very much length out of the armhole. You might want to angle the fold like this.

7. Fold the second marked out area like a dart, letting it go up into the shoulder like so.

8. The fitting adjustments are done but the patterns "as is" would be a real pain in the butt to cut. You'll want to trace new copies.

9. For the lower piece I suggest first tracing the vertical fold line, then trace the modified sweet heart line off of the adjusted piece. "True" the seam line so that it is nice and smooth and remember to transfer the center bust matching point

10. Now take the lower piece and place it on the original pattern. Trace the waist/hem seam and then blend the original side seam from the bottom up to the new edge of sweet heart neckline.

11. The upper contrast piece is relatively flat compared to the bottom, but you might still want to retrace it to smooth out the sweet heart seam line and the armhole curve.

12. Cut your new traced copies out and you're ready to make a spiffy new Comino Cap.

Ahhhhh, doesn't fixing fitting problems make you feel good? Like dancing? Then get down with your bad self. "She's a fitting freak, fitting freak, she's super freaky now...Yooewww."