unseasonal skirts

I've done quite a bit of sewing during COVID working from home, but have been slow to post things here. I aim to add a few of my makes before the end of the month, starting with these two skirts which were both made about three months ago.
First up is the Dolores Skirt from Le Maison Victor magazine in May Gibbs Flannel Flowers fabric in midweight cotton from Nerida Hansen. The May Gibbs print is lovely, and such iconic Australiana. This is the midnight shade - the fabric also comes in pink, summer blue and lemon, but I felt those paler shades did not show the print as clearly. This deep blue allows the flowers and bush babies to stand out.

This skirt is a very simple style and straightforward make, just a gathered button up skirt with a waistband and pockets. The gathering is uneven and almost pleated at parts, but because it's relatively full I felt the imperfections don't really show up enough to be worth redoing. The attention is drawn to the print, rather than the size of the gathers.

The buttons are dark wood from Spotlight. I considered white buttons to fit with the print but in the end the wood buttons suited the fabric better, by matching both the tone and feel of the print. 

I really like the length of this skirt. I have a few skirts in this below the knee length, all with moderate fullness. They're relaxed and easy to wear and dress up and down.

This second skirt is from Burda magazine, issue 12/2016, pattern 105. The pattern is a very basic fitted skirt shape, but with the curved zip closure. The pattern actually suggests also having a hidden side zipper, but it isn't necessary so I omitted it. The zipper is a double slide zipper, with slides at top and bottom. I've had it in my stash for a while after picking it up for 50c at an op shop a few years back. When I bought it I didn't have a pattern to use it for, but it really seemed like it would suit a skirt. The zipper is slightly shorter than the pattern asked for so doesn't quite reach the hem, but it didn't affect the making of the skirt.

Construction was mostly straightforward. Inserting the zipper along the curved seams was a bit fiddly, but mostly just required careful pinning in place and sewing slowly to ensure it remained even. It was slightly bumpy when I finished sewing it but that was easily fixed by pressing the stitching. The harder part was attaching the facing behind the top of the zipper curve. The extra bulk meant that the front of the skirt sits about half a centimetre above the back to accommodate the seam allowance even after it was trimmed back. If I'd thought beforehand I might have made the right front (the lower curve) finish half a centimetre lower to help the waist align properly, but it's a minor imperfection.

The fabric is a Liberty of London cotton twill bought from the fabric store, although I can't remember the name of the print and it doesn't seem to be available on their website anymore. The weight is perfect for the pattern, because it has body and holds shape but was still able to handle curved seams. I liked the print as well - it's colourful but still pretty simple and versatile and works well with a lot of things.

Gathered Traffic Blouse

It's Me Made May once again, so with lots of sewists around the world I'm aiming to wear me-made clothes every day this month. Hopefully it will also prompt me to post my unblogged makes here as I wear them. Like this blouse started late last year and finished last month.

The pattern is the Gather Blouse from Japanese pattern book She Has A Mannish Style (English-language version now called She Wears The Pants). The oversized shape gives it a more masculine line which is softened by the gathered back, curved hem and close-fitted round collar. The fabric is a Liberty tana lawn from The Fabric Store. The print is Hunter Truck C which The Fabric Store don't seem to have in tana lawn anymore but the corduroy is still on their website. I thought the more stereotypically masculine car print in feminine pinks made it a perfect match for the pattern.

The piece of fabric was not quite large enough to fit all the pieces on it. So I had a look through my stash to see what else I had that would work with the print and match the weight of tana lawn. I'm not sure when or where I bought this basic black cotton, but it was exactly the right fabric to complement the cars. I decided to cut the front yoke, placket, sleeve cuffs and collar stand out of the black fabric so that it would be enough contrast but not become the focus. I think using the black for contrast helps the blouse not be so overwhelming with its print and also highlights the design lines of the pattern.

I made most of this blouse last year, except for the collar, buttonholes and buttons. I really wanted to make this blouse look as polished as I could, and collars and buttonholes have tripped me up a bit before so I put them off initially. The collar includes a collar stand, not just a basic top and undercollar piece, and my copy of the pattern book is entirely in Japanese with just illustrations to guide me, so I was a bit daunted. I did it very slowly over a number of days, doing one step or part step at a time, then taking a step back to look at it and check it looked right. Sewing the front and back collar stand down evenly was difficult and I had to redo it because my first attempt was uneven and didn't catch both layers. The curved edge at the front doesn't look fantastic, but it's not really visible so I'm happy enough with it.

I then still needed to do the buttons and buttonholes. At first I delayed because I hadn't decided what buttons to use, then had to go and buy some black buttons to match the placket. But I'm really not a fan of doing buttonholes, and had just finished making a skirt (not blogged yet) with a button front that my machine had some real issues with, so I wasn't in the mood to do another set of buttonholes. In the end when I pulled this back out last month the buttonholes were very quick and easy. The placket is interfaced and the black fabric has a slight stiffness to it which meant it was stable and smooth through my machine, so the buttonholes were all done in about half an hour. It took at least twice as long to sew the buttons on!

I used a twin needle to do black topstitching along the around the pockets, on the front and back yokes and along the hem. Because the pattern is quite busy the topstitching is not particularly visible - with the possible exception of around the pockets - but it gives a much neater and more professional finish, especially in keeping the seams flat along the yoke.

It took a long time but I'm incredibly happy with how this blouse turned out. I think the fabric and pattern complement each other perfectly. The style is also good for the current social distancing work from home situation - it's not a formal workwear blouse, but it is dressed and a few steps above pyjamas. It's a relaxed style but with professional touches, and I'm sure it will get lots of wear for many years.

The Embroidery Skirt

This is my second Me Made May post, but this skirt is not a new one. This was made last year in October. I even took photos of it, but didn't check any of them until after finishing when I discovered none of them were full sized or properly framed. For some reason it has taken me until now to get around to photographing it again even though I've worn it frequently.

The fabric is from The Fabric Store and is a gorgeous embroidered linen cotton. It was such an eyecatching fabric that I picked it up. I knew the fabric needed the be a skirt to take advantage of the print without the garment being overwhelming, and I didn't want to make anything complicated to take attention away from the embroidery. I thought a simple skirt, that was gathered or pleated in some way, would be the right way to use the fabric.

I bought a one metre piece, and the fabric was about 1.5 metres wide. Because my idea for the skirt was something fairly simple, the only decision I needed to make was which way to cut it. The embroidery is in staggered rows down the length of the bolt. My original thought was to cut lengthwise in between the rows because I was nervous about cutting through the flowers, but when I held the fabric against me to check how it looked it just didn't seem quite right.  When I turned it the other way, it looked great.

I had been very nervous that cutting through the embroidery would cause it to fray and fall apart. But using my overlocker to finish the edges of the fabric on all sides helped to stabilise the print. I decided to pleat rather than gather to minimise the bulk around the waist, and to allow the embroidery to feature as clearly as possible.

I inserted the zipper first and then used pins and my dressmaker dummy to pleat until the skirt fit. The skirt has a circumference of almost 2 metres but my waist is only 60cm, so there was a lot of pleating to do. The pleats had to be overlaid on each other to get it down to the right size. There was a fair bit of trial and error in the size of the pleats and how far to overlap them until I got it right. To hold it all in place I hand basted, machine stitched two rows of stitching, and then covered the waist with blanket-width bias binding.

Because there's a lot of fabric the skirt is quite heavy to wear. But it is fitted well so doesn't slip down. The pleating also gives the skirt a slightly full shape which swishes and moves when I walk. This skirt should have made it onto the blog ages ago, and has already had many wears. Hopefully it will have wears for many years to come!

Pop Art Patti Dress

My blogging hasn't been happening much this year. I have quite a few things I've made over the last six months - some even photographed - that I haven't posted yet. So this dress is my first start in changing that around.

The skirt is the Patti Pocket Skirt from Amy Nicole Patterns. It has front and back pleats and large pockets - the white whale of dresses and skirts. These pockets are cut so that they're slightly wider than side skirt piece, making them pretty roomy and much more functional than pockets often are. I also like that the placement of the pockets is in the front rather than in the side seams as it makes them much more practical.

The fabric is a light cotton sateen from Pitt Trading with diagonal stretch and a good sheen. I love the print, it's a check but nothing like other checks. It's very pop art, or like almost cartoon-like with the roughly drawn think black lines and deep and vibrant greens and blues. It's lightweight but has just enough body to hold a bit of shape and keep the pleats sharp. I decided early on the skirt half I wanted for this fabric and had an image in my head for the bodice, so looked through my patterns to find what matched the picture in my head.

The bodice is from everyone's favourite pattern in 2010-11, Simplicity 2444, sadly now out of print. It has been a while since I made this pattern, so I'd forgotten that the sleeves have very little ease meaning I can't entirely raise my arms in this dress. I'm hoping that after a few washes the fabric will soften and I'll get a little more movement.

I've made both the skirt and pattern I used for the bodice before, so it was straightforward to combine the two. The only major change I made was moving the skirt zipper from the side to the back so that it matched the bodice. I don't think I added in quite as much extra fabric at the centre back for the zipper and seam as I as meant to, so the back pleats are a little close together and I had to be careful not to catch the pleat as I stitched the zipper. Other than that this was a quick and easy make.

I made this dress to be able to wear to work or casually, and to wear all year round - with tights in winter and bare-legged in summer. It's a versatile dress and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

The Geometry Dress

Last night was Sydney Frocktails 2019, where the sewing ladies of Sydney (and beyond) get together in our fancy handmade makes to have some drinks, some fun and feel each others' clothes without it being weird. This dress, the Geometry Dress - named for both the construction and the print - was started last weekend and finished at 4pm yesterday. In total there's probably around 20 hours of work in this dress.

The fabric is one I bought from Tessuti somewhere around 5 years ago, I think. It's a cotton sateen with a very high sheen. In fact, quite a few people at frocktails were surprised when I told them it was a cotton, thinking it was a satin or even an African wax print. It's surprisingly lightweight despite the look, and is wonderfully soft and smooth with a small amount of stretch.

I decided I wanted to use a fabric I already had for my frocktails dress, given I have a very large stash. I've had this fabric for a while and always thought it would make a great cocktail dress of some sort. Having two panels of the print, I figured I'd use one for the skirt and one for the bodice, but didn't have any ideas of how I'd actually do it. I looked through all the patterns I own but nothing grabbed me, so went to Spotlight to look through the pattern books. I still had no idea at all of what shape or style I wanted so came away empty handed. Then I saw a sundress pattern that was too casual but had a nice minimal bodice which inspired me to find something with some form of cut outs. So I went to Lincraft in my lunch hour a week and a half ago with a half-formed thought, searching for the pattern to complete the thought.

The pattern is a Vogue designer pattern by Rebecca Vallance, number V1545. I changed the pattern to a plain pleated skirt to show off the fabric print. I really should not have chosen to make something so difficult a week out from the event, but I never pay attention to the difficulty rating on patterns. My thoughts were simply the pieced bodice could work with the almost patchwork nature of the print, but without really considering how exactly that would work out.

Working out the pattern placement took about four hours to get right. The print is a panel, and I had two panels so figured I'd use one for the skirt and one for the bodice, using the different designs in the panel for the different pieces of the bodice. The print on the fabric isn't actually symmetrical, so I couldn't just fold it in half and cut the pieces together. Instead, I cut one of each bodice piece out with the fabric print side up, then laid it print side down on the fabric matching the lines as well as possible and cut out the opposite side. It was a laborious process, but the final result made it worthwhile.

The pattern is relatively difficult, but the biggest issue was how time-consuming it was. Obviously the four hours of pattern placement was the biggest single amount of time. The blue and red triangles and stripe on the edge of the panels were an obvious choice for the front overlay and the waistband. Then I kept changing my mind about whether to have the geometric shapes for the front or the back. In the end the back and side back pieces fitted better on the floral, and the finished diamond shape on the back is better than I could have planned. I also tried to get the skirt to pattern match, which worked pretty well at the top with the invisible zipper, but got slightly out of alignment near the hem. But the teal stripes match up, so the bit of unevenness in between doesn't really matter.

The bodice is fully lined and all seams bar the armscyes are understitched. I do love how understitching keeps the lining from peeking out, but it does significantly increase the amount of time it takes to sew. The lining, which is just a heavy cotton, gives the bodice much more structure than the cotton sateen alone, but the different weights of the fabric definitely benefited from the understitching.

All the finishings are done by hand, apart from the hem. But hand stitching a neckline, waist, and 15 inch metal zipper takes a long time. And zipper tape for a heavy metal zipper is not good on needles or fingers - my left pointer finger has a callus and also a bit of a hole where the needle pushed back into the skin when it didn't want to go through the tape and fabric. The waistband, in comparison, was a very easy sew. Although the hem ended up being sewn by machine, I luckily had a forest green that perfectly matched the narrow stripe between the teal and mint stripes so the stitch line is only visible when looked at closely.

As well as changing the skirt from the original pattern I reduced the front opening of the dress. In the original pattern the front is open all the way down to the waistband, but that's really not practical to wear, so I hand stitched in the back to keep them together. I also added a quick stitch where the overlay crossed the front bodice pieces to keep them from gaping apart. These were quick minor edits, but meant I could be comfortable and confident wearing the dress knowing it was going to stay where it was meant to.

One of the best things about frocktails is seeing the great variety of styles people wear. Getting to make something that's just fun to dress up, rather than making practical clothes for work or everyday wear. Seeing women in velvet, sequins, brocades, circle skirts with petticoats and all sorts of colours and prints was great, and a great reminder that sewing is not only a practical skill, it can reflect each person's individuality. And it's a wonderful community to be part of. Ready to do it all again in September!

Lorenzo Jungle Dress

This is the Lorenzo Jungle Dress, a casual winter/trans-seasonal dress.  The fabric is a Liberty Lantana called Lorenzo from The Fabric Store. It's 80% cotton and 20% wool, so it's a similar weight to a flannelette but nicer feel and quality.

My initial thought for this fabric was to make a pinafore. But the fabric is very colourful and the print pretty kitschy so I was concerned it might be a bit too childish made into a pinafore. I flicked through my patterns to see what else I had that might work for the fabric and saw the dress on the cover of Stylish Dress Book (pattern E in the book) and thought it could work. I couldn't decide between the two so posted both options on Instagram asking for opinions, and the stylish dress book pattern narrowly won out.

I have made this before in a wool a number of years ago and retired it from my wardrobe earlier this year. So I knew it was something I could make easily, and knew the changes I'd want to make sewing it up a second time. Given how loose and full the dress is I decided to lengthen the hem and also narrow the pieces. The front is pleated and the lower back of the dress is gathered, so it was easy to reduce the bulk by placing the pieces over the fold line so that they were smaller. I also cut the pieces straight up the sides as the weight of this material didn't need anything extra.

This dress is an incredibly easy make. There are very few pieces, one for the front, two for the back, sleeves and patch pockets. The sleeves are cut a little narrow and do not have much in the way of fullness and the sleeve cap. Combined with the loose trapeze shape this can mean that the dress rises up when lifting up your arms, another reason why I lengthened the hem. For the hem I added around 10cm so that I would have enough extra fabric there to do some trial and error on deciding the right length.

In the end I think this dress struck a good balance in using the kitschy fabric but not turning out too childish. It's a fun print, and while it's probably designed with childrenswear in mind, I love a great print and don't think there's any problem with adults wearing something bright. This definitely isn't work wear, but I think it will find a good place in my wardrobe.

Drifting Dress

First completed make of 2018. This is the Adrift Dress from Papercut Patterns. It's very simple, and feminine but not fussy. It also feels very cool and comfortable which was great given these photos were taken on a hot and humid day.

The fabric is a rayon from My Hung. The mustard yellow is a colour I would have walked straight past a few years ago because I wouldn't have thought it suited me. But sewing has made me more adventurous in the prints and colours I'll wear. Plus, there has been a lot of mustards around in the last few years so I figured I'd at least pick it up to look at. I was looking for a rayon for this pattern because it needed something with that drape, and this was the nicest rayon on offer. I held it up against myself and it actually didn't look too bad, so I bought it.

The pattern, as with all Papercut Patterns I've made, was very straightforward and easy to follow. There aren't too many pieces to deal with, and the construction is pretty simple - the only darts are plain bust darts, the sleeves are flounces like the skirt, so there's no gathering, and the waist is elasticated. The pattern actually calls for a cord tie for the skirt, but I didn't have any so just inserted elastic.

The long curved hem on the flounce is hand stitched, which took about three hours. I decided to stitch it by hand to ensure it was neat and even as curved seams can be tricky, but did regret it a bit around half way through because of how long it took to do. But having finished it off, it is even and probably neater than it would have been if done by machine - I just might wait a while before doing another project that requires so much hand stitching. 

Papercut patterns are always written very well and easy to make, but I did have one issue with this one - the bodice is very short. I'm 5'6" and the length is alright, but anyone taller would need to make adjustments to this pattern. It wasn't until I'd finished sewing the bodice together that I realised its lack of length, which sits a little above the waist. Especially when combined with the front skirt which is relatively short where the two pieces wrap over each other. If I make this again, I'll add an inch or two to the bodice to give it a better length.