Happy When It Rains Dress

This is the Happy When It Rains dress, inspired by Shirley Manson of Garbage. It also started raining here in Sydney after a dry spell as I was finishing making this, so the name seemed to fit. It even rained as I walked home this evening.

The fabric is a piece of Viyella a found at a local op shop for $2. Viyella a blend of merino wool and cotton that is soft, light and still fairly warm. It's no longer made so can only be found second hand. This means it's also often hard to find and not cheap, so finding some for so little I had to snap it up.

The piece was quite small - 1.3m by about 90cm - so I was limited in what I could make. I looked through my patterns and found this one. I've made this before and love the shift dress shape with the added detail of the bodice seam lines. It's a vintage pattern, which also seemed appropriate for the fabric. My copy is the original 1960s pattern, but it's been rereleased as Simplicity 3833.

The seam lines on the empire line bodice are definitely the highlight of the dress, but also require patience to do. Connecting the bodice to the skirt can't be done all in one go - it requires at least three steps. I sewed each side seam and bust dart, then sewed the curved front from seam line to seam line. It was a bit difficult to sew without it catching, and easier to start from the side and then sew to the centre, so that seam was also sewn in two stages.

The rest of the dress was very straightforward to put together, but I did get to use my new overlocker to finish off the seams. A few weeks ago Aldi had craft and sewing supplies as their special buys, including a Janome overlocker for $199. I've been daunted by overlockers, but it was actualy very easy to use. It did help that the machine was already threaded with small spools so I haven't had to work that out yet, but the actual sewing went pretty well.

The hem and facings are all finished by hand. Because the fabric is mottled rather than a flat colour, trying to match thread was going to be tricky. But by finishing by hand I didn't have to worry about that and was able to give the dress a clean finish.

I really like the shape of this dress. The empire line bodice is closely fitted, but the rest of the dress skims out from there making it very easy to wear.  There's also a long sleeved version which I would have made if there was enough fabric, so I guess that will have to be what I do next time.

The Spring Garden Pants

I've been meaning to learn how to sew pants. I have tried a few times, but it's always daunting and I'm never as happy with how they turn out as with my other makes. But I wanted some new pants to wear to work, so I decided it was time for my next attempt at them. I own a few pants patterns and am planning to work my way up through them by difficulty level. Fitted side zip pants seemd like the easiest place to start.

The pattern is Vintage Vogue V9189, a high waisted pattern with two shorts lengths and two pants lengths originally from 1960. The amazing floral fabric is a cotton sateen with a bit of stretch from My Hung in Hurstville. I've seen a few floral pants around lately, and given it is almost summer here I thought bright floral would be the best choice. Plus, being a plain slim-fitting pattern these pants can handle a print better than a more traditional trouser.

One of the really good things about this pattern is that it comes with three different lengths: short, medium and long. Given one of the problems I've had making pants before was where the curve of the hip sat on the pattern compared to where it is on my body, it was good to know when I opened the pattern up that I'd be able to use the different lengths to make those adjustments before cutting out if I needed to. In the end I made the medium without any adjustments, but for others who are taller or shorter, or who have different leg and waist lengths, this pattern effectively does those adjustments for you.

These are definitely the best fitting pants I've made, but that was partly by accident. I'd almost finished sewing them up - except for the waistband and hemming - so tried them on. With other pants I've made they have often been a bit loose at the crotch and inner thighs, and these were as well. Given the slim fit of the pattern it really stood out, so I decided I would sew the seam in closer. I had intended to evenly take in 1cm and see how it looked, but when sewing the crotch curve the pants back pulled a bit and I ended up sewing it in 2cm. I noticed because the seam was not straight just after I'd sewn across the centre of the crotch so I stopped stitching.

I was going to immediately grab my seam ripper and unpick it all, but thought I'd first try them on to check if I'd at least dealt with the loose thigh issue. When I put them on not only did the leg fit better but the crotch on the side I'd taken in was also fixed, which was great. Of course, that meant I somehow had to recreate my accidental fix on the other side. Because I'd started sewing from the thigh for my accidentally correct adjustment, I decided to do the same for the other leg. I also marked where I'd become uneven between the front and back, and very carefully sewed it, using my fingers to adjust the back until I reached where I'd initially stopped. 

There are slanted side pockets which are angled very close to the side seam making them slightly hidden. The pockets are understitched to try and stop them from turning out, but for some reason the righthand pocket facing doesn't always stay down. The side zipper was nice and easy to put in, just like a skirt's. The waistband also went in well - I have had patterns in the past where the waistband piece was too short or too long, but this one was just right.

As a finishing touch, the button is from my tin of vintage buttons I inherited from my grandma. I like that it's vintage, so fits with the era and style of the pants, the colour matches perfectly, and it's nice to have that connection to my grandma, who sewed a lot herself.

 I am really proud of how these pants turned out. The fabric and the fit are just right, and they are just fun to wear. They've improved my confidence in making pants, and I plan keep working my way through the other patterns I own increasing the difficulty, including doing fly finishes. In the meantime, I'll be wearing these as much as I can.

The Pais-Liberty Skirt

I've been a bit slack on posting for a while, and very slack on my Vintage Pledge for this year but with this post I'm starting to rectify that with this colourful paisley print skirt.

This skirt is a very simple and classic A-line. The pattern is Simplicity 8363 from 1969. I made version 1, without the pockets or suspenders. It's a teen sized pattern which are sized a bit differently (they generally have a wider waist and narrower bust) but I didn't have to make any adjustments. Given the skirt is A-line, it simply needed to fit my waist and the shape would be fine on the hips.

This was a very straightforward sew. I've made this skirt before, version 4 in a fabric almost identical to the envelope. This time it's the plainest version of the skirt possible. I've done French seams again, so everything is neat and tidy inside. The waist facing was hand sewn for neatness, but the hem is machine done. I don't tend to like visible stitching, but the fabric is so busy that the stitching doesn't stand out.

The fabric is from The Fabric Store. It's Liberty Darlington Twill. I haven't sewn with Liberty much because it is pricey and I don't want to mess it up, but it is so lovely to sew. It cuts easily and evenly and glides through the machine, and the colours are so wonderfully vibrant. The fabric also simply feels great, unlike some others, especially cheap polyester. I have a few more pieces of Liberty in my stash, so maybe I will be motivated to pull them out and use them.

The jumper I'm wearing with this skirt is another new make, which should be up very soon too. And I have a few more things finished, partly made or ready to go, so hopefully this blog will become a bit more active - at least for a while.

Friday's Frock

Just to be different from my last few posts that have gone on about how hot Sydney has been and how I've had to make something new that's cool enought to wear this summer, so this time...
I have a dress I made because it was so hot and I needed something new that was still appropriate to wear to work.

This dress is a vintage McCall's pattern from 1968, number 9438. I picked it up at a Sydney Spoolettes fabric swap in November (thanks whoever's pattern it was!). It's a very simple dress, with a semi fitted bodice and lightly gathered skirt to just above the knee. The style is classic and unfussy and the pattern was my size, so I brought it home with me.

The fabric is a Japanese cotton from Tessuti in Surry Hills. It has a texture that's a bit like linen, and is beautifully soft. It's a denim blue with a slight grey tone and a linear geometric pattern in black that looks a bit like stars, a bit like flowers, and a bit like tiles. It's neither casual nor formal, so is very versatile to wear, and the print has hints of a late 60s feel without being costumey. I cut the skirt on the warp and the bodice on the weft, just them look a bit different to each other.

I made a few minor adjustments to the pattern. The bodice originally had two sets of bust darts, both side and waist seam. I don't need both sets of darts, and also tend to find my ribcage is narrower than many bodices, so I folded the side dart in, which straightened the sides and brought the bodice in. The second change was one I made fairly late - lowering the neckline. The round neckline was originally very high, which was both a little tight and too warm for hot weather. I lowered it by half a centimetre all the way around. It's still high enough to keep with the original style of the pattern, but not so high that it feels uncomfortable.

I've worn this dress a few times, but took the photos last Friday, when it was almost 40 degrees. Normally we have casual Fridays, But last Friday there was a workshop I was involved with so I had to be dressed appropriately for a meeting with  external people, but that would be comfortable in the heat and running back and forth to make the workshop happen. This dress fit the bill perfectly.

Just a quick mention of my shoes too. They're Rollies, a Melbourne brand that I've seen around every now and then for a few years. A new shop just opened up around the corner from me and stocks them, so I finally decided I  could afford them. This pair are side-cut derby punch in rose gold, and they are wonderfully light and comfortable, even in very hot weather.  

The one drawback of this dress is that the fabric does fray a lot. So I'm going to have to do a bit of fixing to cover the seams, and especially along the zipper. But apart from that, this dress is great. And sure to get lots more wear.

Birthday Pants

It's been a few weeks. I have been sewing, but haven't been photographing. But now I have a new make to show.

Today's my birthday, so these are my new cosy birthday pants. It's a very sewist thing to do, isn't it, to have a new creation as a present for yourself? Although these weren't really made to be such, they were just made this week because I needed them.

I made them over the last two nights so that I had something warm to wear in the Antarctic blast Sydney and much of southeastern Australia has experienced these last couple of days. In fact, this morning when I photographed these it was 3C, with an apparent temperature of freezing. But luckily these pants and the (not yet blogged) merino jersey top I had on were warm enough while I took pictures.

The pattern is from the late 1950s or early 1960s. It's Simplicity 4290, and is a highwaisted pant or short pattern with a side zip closure. I've used it before for my casual cotton summer pants. That time I made them looser and lowered the waistband, this time I kept the pattern almost as-is apart from lengthening the legs just slightly so the hem sits at the top of my feet rather than grazing the ankle. I wondered a bit about the high waist at first because it is very high - I'm longwaisted and the waistband sits above my belly button - but apart from it being a silhouette I'm not used to I am liking them.

The fabric was originally bought for a colour blocked dress I was planning to make with some remnant wool I have, but it turned out to be the wrong weight. It's a poly wool blend from My Hung in Hurstville. It's a slightly odd fabric, medium weight but with an almost fleecy underside. It's less scratchy than most medium and heavier weight wools and wool blends are, which makes it nice and comfortable. And it glided through my machine beautifully, which is always a plus.

It's an incredibly simple pattern to make, being just two front and two back pieces, two darts on each, a waistband, with trouser bar and zip to close. It's all very straightforward construction, and generally pretty quick. This pattern is vintage, but a modern pattern with a similar construction would be perfect for a beginner to making pants.

Although I have to admit I did have a little trouble with the waistband the first time around. My first go of stitching it looked terrible. The problem was I sewed it looking at the inside rather than the outside, and when I turned them right way around I discovered my stitching line wandered all over the place. And the one drawback of this fabric was it is terrible to unpick stitching from - the fleeciness makes it so that you basically have to undo each individual stitch, so it takes a bit of time. But once I undid it I was able to sew on the outside of the waistband and it was much better.

I'm not sure how much wear they'll get because they are warm fabric and Sydney generally doesn't get a lot of really cold days. But in today's cold I was very glad I'd made these.

The Bishop Sleeve Dress

It's really too cold right now for this dress. Made a few weeks back, even though it has long sleeves it isn't meant for winter days, so it's unlikely to get a proper wear for another few months.

The fabric is a rayon from Tessuti Fabrics that I've looked at a lot of times I've been in there but finally bought earlier this year. It has a nice wavey/shell print in pinks and greys and purples, but is still fairly muted. Initially I'd thought it would make a good maxi skirt, as it's very soft and drapey and has the right sort of breeziness. But I'm not really a maxi skirt wearer. So I found a dress pattern instead.

The pattern is another vintage re-release, a 1969 Simplicity Jiffy pattern this time. Being a Jiffy pattern, it was incredibly easy - they really are great patterns, especially for beginners. There are few patter pieces and none are complicated shapes, unlike my last make. The Jiffy patterns all seem to date from around the 1960s, and are all variations on classic shift dress shapes. In addition to the bishop sleeve this pattern's variation is deep shoulder pleats which gather it in at the top and open to fullness at the bust. Overall, the pattern has a last few seasons of Mad Men vibe.

I made three small changes to the pattern. First, I shortened the length by about 2 inches. Second, I didn't use a cuff band for the sleeves. Instead, I just folded over the end of the sleeve to make a channel, leaving a small opening to insert elastic. Once I'd done that I stitched the channel shut. In the end this has the exact same look as on the pattern sleeve, but with less effort. Finally, the original neckline was quite a bit more plunging, which combined with the loose shape wasn't exactly practical. So I pulled the neckline up and in about an inch each so that it sits flat and fitted.

The dress is quite loose, with a tie belt. I did take a photo or two without the tie belt which you can see below, but don't think I'll wear it that way normally - it's a little too sack-like for me. But for others who do like the loose shape it would make a good sack dress.

Although it isn't the right time of year to wear this dress right now I do like it. It's probably going to be a good trans-seasonal piece, the sleeves give a bit of extra cover but the rayon is lightweight and still fairly cool. And it was a very easy make, which I definitely recommend for less experienced sewists.

Mum's Escher-esque Print Dress

Most of my sewing is selfish sewing. I started sewing to make things I wanted to wear because I found what was in shops boring or expensive, and have pretty much kept to making things just for me. But this year I've made a couple of things for others. This is the first one to make it on to my blog: a dress for my mum.

This fabric, as with that used for my beach romper and casual pants was bought in Benalla years ago when I was doing fieldwork there. I bought it even though I knew the colour really wasn't me - bright orangey-tomato red doesn't particularly work with my paleness - but the print, which looks like some sort of Op-Art/Escher mix is just amazing. And at $5 a metre, too hard to resist, so I bought some.

The fabric was always going to work best on my mum. Her skin tone, hair, and eyes really suit reds and oranges. But it's taken me a long time to get around to making this dress for her - the fabric was even sitting out near my machine for a good three months before getting started on making it. Part of that was choosing the right pattern. Obviously I wanted to keep the seam and dart lines to a minimum so they didn't distract from or mess up the print. That meant choosing a simple shift dress, but surprisingly I don't have many of those, and none that were quite what I wanted. In the end I used Simplicity 7380, a vintage 1967 pattern, as a base and made some changes.

What I liked about Simplicity 7380 as a pattern were the double darts, with both a normal bust dart and French darts, which give just a little bit of extra shaping while remaining relatively unstructured. But the pattern is also high-necked and with sleeves, neither of which I wanted. Changing the neckline was simple, I just cut the piece lower in the front, but for the armholes I wanted little fake cap sleeves. To do that, I used my French curve to taper the shoulder pieces out and down, and redrafted the armscye from the side seam up to the new shoulder seam. The pattern was also a smaller size than needed, so I did the terribly lazy upsizing by simply placing the two pattern pieces about an inch back from the fold and cutting it out like that. Horribly bad practice, I know, but it worked, so all's fine, right?

Another reason it took a while to get around to making this dress was that the fabric frays a lot. It's fairly structured with a thick but loose weave (a cotton duck, maybe?), so I definitely had to do something to stop it fraying. I decided the best option was to cover the seams in bias binding. And for the zipper, I double folded the fabric so that the raw edge is hidden inside the stitching. It meant it took longer to make this dress than it would have otherwise, but it should also mean it's wearable for longer and doesn't need repairs. And it means the insides look much prettier, too. The arm and neck facings and hem were also hand sewn so there would be no visible stitching distracting from the print of the fabric, to keep the clean lines.

I also did my best to try and pattern match the print when putting this together. I couldn't quite get it perfect to the point of being invisible, but I at least made sure the horizontal lines matched up for the back seam and the side seams below the darts. If I'd had more fabric I might have been able to match with the diagonal lines and triangles as well, but I didn't. And it would have been quite a bit of extra effort for something only noticeable if you look really closely. But the horizontal lines did come in handy for the hem - I didn't have to do any measuring, I could just fold with the line and knew it would come out evenly.

This dress was a simple make, even with the resizing and adjustments. And I'm really glad that I was able to put this fabric to good use, in making a dress in a style and print that suits my mum so well.