Embroidered Linen Dress: Tie Construction

I decided on "beetroot" charmeuse from Mood for the tie. Can I tell you? I am in love with this fabric. I want to have one of everything in it. I want to live in it. This is definitely my color this year. It really makes the blue of my eyes pop and I just love wearing it.

The pattern called for the ties to be cut on the lengthwise grain, but I wasn't interested in buying 2 yards of silk just for a tie around my waist. So I cut ripped it on the cross grain instead. For the longer tie, this meant that I needed to splice two lengths together. I had done this once before on an improvised tie for a maternity top. I used my quilting ruler to draw a 45% angle on the intersection of two lengths pinned perpendicular to each other.

Then I stitched on that line. I was pretty pleased with my accuracy!

When turned to the right side and pressed, it makes one continuous length with a strong angled seam.

I trimmed and pinked seams and trimmed the corners down tight.

I sewed the seam allowances of the join down into the seam allowance of the tube. I decided it would make the join seam stronger. Then I used a fancy tube turner tool to flip the tubes right-side-out.

There is a hollow tube that goes inside the tube, all the way to the stitched end. Then there is a stick that fits inside the tub that is used to start the turn into the tube.

I am very pleased with how these ties look, however, I do have some pressing marks... You can see it at the top of the tie in the picture above. the pinked edge of the seam allowances is showing through. I thought pinking the seams might help to blend the seam allowance line, since it would be at different lengths. I think next time I would use some sort of interfacing. Also, I wasn't sure how to apply the pressinatrix's pressing rules on a tube, and didn't look for help on the internet until I had already trimmed the seam allowances. So my seams aren't as perfectly pressed as they could be. Next time I will press the seam allowances back before I turn the tubes.

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Frivolous photo: My husband and I packed the kids off to go camping in the mountains not too far from home a couple of weekends ago. It was in a wonderfully wooded area. I could have moved in. The kids were fabulous! The biggest challenge with camping in the mountains near Denver is that the lows will be in the 40s even at the height of summer. In the morning, we had to get under a blanket to stay warm.

In other sewing news, I am close to having my medieval dress and my cloak done. The cloak just needs a hem and the medieval dress only has the trim left to add (and an underdress to sew up). Seems too close to the finish line to share photos...

Embroidered Linen Wrap Dress: Tie Choices

I mentioned in my last post that my local favorite Colorado Fabrics didn't have just the right color of pink silk for the tie of my in-progress wrap dress. I ordered some color samples from a couple of sites and still couldn't decide. So I made a mock up in Photoshop.

I'm seeing the dark pink as more modern. The light pink is a little too cutesy for the already pretty feminine pair of both the style of the dress and the fabric. My husband isn't convinced, but that's okay. I'm the one that will be wearing it. "Beetroot" charmeuse is on the way!

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Frivolous photo: My youngest (2) loves playing in the dirt. Plus a peak at my tomatoes. The summer's been a little slow with the heat this year. Great for people, not as great for tomatoes.

Embroidered Linen Wrap Dress: Cutting

I've started yet another new project. Should I be embarrassed? The cutting is the part that I normally dread the most, and I was in the mood for it, so I just went with it.

The project is a wrap dress from Vogue 8784, labeled "Very Easy Vogue." No buttons, no zippers. Sounds like a good project for the first me-sewn garment that I might actually wear to work. I picked up this embroidered linen about a year ago in a sale at JoAnn's. I got enough for a dress, but wasn't sure what.

The pattern runs perpendicular to the selvedge, so I had to cut the dress on the cross grain. You can see in the picture below that I cut out the bodice back pieces with my rotary cutter and mat, but my mat is only about 2' x 3', not big enough for the skirt pieces. So I pinned and cut those pieces with scissors.

Canned goods or pattern weights, you decide.

The front bodice pieces are cut on the bias. I have seen instructions in the past that recommend drawing a different grainline on your pattern pieces when cutting on the cross grain, but I just used a quilting ruler to line up vertically with the grainline and horizontally with the selvedge. I think it worked pretty well.

This print is crazy, at least in terms of trying to match the print between pieces. The print doesn't mirror, so I couldn't just flip the pieces over one on top of the other as I have done with plaids in the past. The flower stems kind of meander horizontally. It was really tough to figure out conceptually how to even go about matching the print. I didn't have much in the way of room to work, either. I did manage to save a seam by cutting the back skirt on the fold instead of having a center seam. That way, too I know the back will match with itself at least. In the end I just tried to match up the pink flowers as best I could. I'm sure it will not look fantastic to the trained eye, but I decided to just go for it. Sometimes you have to learn by making mistakes.

The pattern has pleats in the front instead of darts. I did make a muslin of the bodice, so I'm confident that the shaping will work for me. I didn't want to just draw all over the front of my bodice, however, like I did on the muslin, so I thread-traced instead. I cut open the pleat boxes so that I could accurately mark my fabric. I think it worked well. Of course, time will tell...

I have some pink silk swatches on the way for the wrap belt. My local fabulous Colorado Fabrics just didn't have the right color pink. For the lining, I decided to go with a cotton voile. I have just one ready-to-wear (would it be overly pretentious of me to go with prete a porte instead? You have to admit it sounds so much better) sundress that I ever so occasionally wear, and it has a cotton lining. I thought silk might be a bit too... clingy.

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For my frivolous photo: I have been traveling for work a bit lately and found myself in Anaheim, California, with an opportunity for a discounted ticket to Disneyland after 4pm. I didn't have anyone to go with, but I couldn't pass it up. I have to tell you, Disneyland is pretty amazing by yourself (especially with a kindle in your purse). It's so easy to talk to total strangers when you are by yourself and there are many rides that allow "single riders" go straight up to the front of the line to fill in when there is a party of five and the ride holds six. I had a really fabulous time. I sooooooo love Disneyland!

Plum Cloak: Piping

The cloak pattern calls for a facing from the fashion fabric that abuts the lining fabric. I have a ready-to-wear coat that has this construction with piping between the facing and the lining. It's a look I like, so I decided to use it.

I picked up some 1/4" cording and white silk charmeuse from my local favorite Colorado Fabrics. I cut 1 3/4" bias strips from the silk, intending on 5/8" seam allowances. I tried to be as precise as I could with my somewhat limited cutting surface and skills. I knew that as long as my strips were roughly 1 3/4" wide and the angle was bias-y, it shouldn't matter too much. Then I stitched one time down the length of the cording with my zipper foot. I didn't start with the needle flush against the cording, but I found that to work much better. Then I basted the piping to the facing, seam allowances roughly matching so that the piping was just past the 5/8" line.

I am incredibly pleased with the result! More pleased than I ought to be probably, since it certainly isn't perfect. But I think it looks very classy. I love the iridescence of the silk and the polish of the trim.

On the downside, I continue to struggle with my lining pieces having stretched out of shape. I actually hung my lining pieces from a trouser hanger after stitching the first seams. I don't have space to leave out my sewing projects in between my hour-or-two sewing sessions, and I was tired of having to iron them over and over again. I hung them up for about 10 minutes before I realized that probably wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done. Boy did they stretch out of shape! I let all of the excess go to the bottom, figuring I'll just hem it out. Hopefully it won't come back to bite me later. I did hold it up to the cloak outer fabric, and the opening for the arms seem to match up still. So maybe it'll all work out. I'm not pulling on the fabric in the below picture, just holding it out for dramatic illustration.

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Frivolous photo: My three-year-old got a hold of my camera the other day. Luckily he didn't cause any damage, but he did take some interesting photos.

Plum Cloak: Interfacing

The instructions call for the facings to be interfaced. I picked up some medium-weight, fusible interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply. I cut the interfacing first to the pattern pieces for the facings. But the pattern instruction looked like maybe the interfacing didn't go into the seam lines.

I did some research and found support for the idea that the interfacing not go into the seam allowances, especially where bulk is a concern. This fabric would definitely be classified as bulky. So I decided to remove the seam allowances from the interfacing before fusing to my facings.

After some further digging on the internet, I found a suggestion to sew a quick stitch at the seam allowance line all around the interfacing and then use that as a cutting line. I sewed a scant 5/8" seam, which somewhat awkwardly pulled the interfacing and gathered it slightly.

Not to worry! Once I cut off the stitching line, it laid flat again.

I then merely eyeballed centering the interfacing on the wrong side of the facing pieces and ironed on, pressing both sides before I was done. I didn't get a picture of the interfaced pieces hanging, but the drape is definitely stiffer. Not tons, but enough to make it feel kind of firm. More stable.

Next up is making my own piping for the seam between the facing and the lining. Then just a few more lining seams and then I get to put the whole thing together. I'll probably finish just in time for the cold weather to be done until October. Or maybe it will be October before I get it done, who knows...

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For today's frivolous photo: My boys playing in a cradle that my grandfather made for my dolls when I was a little girl.

Narrow Rolled Hem

I picked up a narrow rolled hem foot from Amazon a few weeks ago with the intent of hemming the silk organza square that I have been using as a pressing cloth. I gave it a whirl today in full impromptu style, and I was moderately pleased with the results. I knew that I wouldn't get consistent results with an impromptu style, but I wanted to just play with it and wasn't worried about the appearance of the narrow hem on my presser cloth.

I had a hard time keeping the appropriate amount of cloth feeding into the curl of the presser foot. I think next time, I would fold up and press the fabric to aid in guiding.

When the distance was correct, the hem looked great! Too much or too little fabric left things looking pretty messy!

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Frivolous photo: Two frivolous photos in one day! My toddler loves tooling around the house on his tricycle.

Plum Cloak: Bound Seam Allowance

I sewed the next lining seam this weekend. I had picked up some seam binding at JoAnn's, and I think that worked much better.

The seams didn't line up very well between the two pieces. When I lined up the seam notches there was a ton of extra fabric towards the shoulder on one piece and extra fabric towards the hem on the other. I decided to skip matching notches and just lined up the two pieces as best I could. I compared the pattern pieces, to ensure that I didn't notch something incorrectly. I'm reasonably sure the cut pieces distorted, which probably contributed to the problem. I was a little dismayed to see that the pieces appeared distorted even where I had stay-stitched.

I used my 1/4" seam foot to sew on the seam binding, and I think it worked very well.

This seam looks way cleaner, and I think it hangs a bit better than the overstitched seam. I'm reluctant to press the seam again now that the binding is in place, because of fears of pressing ridges into the fabric. This method took forever though. Partly because of the confoundation of the mis-matching seams, partly because I had to sew the entire length five times and press ~8.

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Frivolous photo: I took the boys for a hike last weekend at about 7,300 feet. There was around 6 inches of snow for most of the hike. We made it a short hike, but it was glorious!