Sparkling new dress

I wanted to sew a new dress to wear out to dinner while we are on holidays. Every year DH’s family and my parents, who are mostly all down the coast holidaying, go out to dinner the night before New Year’s Eve.

 

I had bought this gorgeous blue fabric online intending to make Burda 05-2008-115, which is a flared sheath dress with a twist front. When the fabric arrived, the width was a lot narrower that I had thought (107cm wide) and I did not think I had enough for that particular pattern. Well, I sure did not feel like tracing a pattern to check out whether there was enough. Cue getting out the patterns and searching for something different.

 

In my mind, I wanted something fitted through the bodice and flared in the skirt. The fabric was thin and drapey but I only had 2.5m of it. I remembered about a pattern I had already used, the bodice of 107 with the skirt of 116 from the 05/2009 Burda. Being lazy, it was lovely being able to see that I had enough fabric without tracing a new pattern. The only other change I wanted was to ditch the sleeves. After trying on the dress that I had previously made, I saw that it would be easy to change the sleeve pattern.

 

 

The fabric is a linen/cotton/lurex blend. It is quite silky and likes to misbehaves. You know, you look at it and it crushes...or stretches out of shape. Even with stabilising interfacing tape, the fabric near the zipper looks puckered. And I am not talking about the hem (which seems much longer in the back but fine when I look in the mirror.) But is it such a delightful colour and the perfect fabric for high summer.

 

 

In hindsight, I would have bound the entire armhole rather than lining the “sleeve” and sewing the rest of the armhole seam with bias. It would have created a cleaner finish. And if I would do it again, I would have chosen a slightly thicker fabric without a mind of its own.

 

Here is how I did the sleeve alteration. First I pinned the pattern together.

 

Then I eyeballed where I thought the armcyce should go, using the rest of the armcyce as a basis.

 

 Trace a new pattern and see how it looks.

Burda 125-10-2009 - I think I am on to a winner!

I had the help of Steph. She drafted up a pants block and showed me how to tweak it to produce a better pants pattern. Let’s just say she was very patient in dealing with me. I can certainly recommend her pants block service. Just don’t be like me and jump to the wrong conclusion. It will certainly not help with the email communication.

I chose this pattern because it worked well with the requirements of Steph’s simple pants pattern. My usual pants patterns have yoke/waistband. But then agin, the Jalie patterns I use have a straight waistband so this is like the best of my favourite patterns. I had to change the waistband to a curved on when I tried on the pants with the waistband. There was just too much ease there and it was not a good look.

My main issue with fitting pants was the rear view. There was always these lines under the butt. Not a great look. These are gone with the adjustments that I had to make.Woohoo. It is a little baggy back there, but I put that down to using a very stretchy wool blend fabric. I had no idea how much stretch there was when I selected the fabric to use for the first-after-fitting-the-muslin. I had to take in the waist significantly because of the stretch factor.

 These pants are so comfortable. I can't wait to wear them to work.

More work pants for me, an essay on buying fabrics online and some fitting issues

This is another version of the straight legged, fly front Burda pants, with slanted pockets. This time I used a wool blend from Fabric Warehouse Sydney. I have been doing a lot of online fabric shopping of late. It can be the only way to access some quality fabrics without travelling too far. The only problem is having to rely on the descriptions to be accurate, and being willling to work with something that is not exactly what you envisioned.

Take this wool blend fabric. I have been looking for a black wool fabric that is not too exxy for a while. I was hoping to stumble across a black wool crepe. The first time I purchased some (also from FWS) I ended up with some very lush but heavier weight than I wanted fabric. It is going to be a jacket in time, but I needed black pants. While I did not manage to win the auction, I was given a second chance (woo hoo). And while the fabric is fabulous, again it is not exactly what I wanted. Actually, when I first recieved it, I thought it was navy. After comparing it to some navy and black thread, it is not navy, but I don't think it is quite black either. A very dark navy maybe.

Anyway, I am pretty happy with the results. I have some whiskers happening here - I did not clip under the fly, so maybe that has contributed. When I look at the pictures, I am thinking maybe the straight legs are not the best choice for me after all. Or maybe it is okay in a casual fabric, but not a dressier fabric. I am halfway through sewing a red version, but my next pair might be the wider leg version again.

Okay, fitting now. Most of my fitting issues I can live with. They are not uncomfortable so that is why I have not tried too hard to address it. Yesterday I was researching how to fix the pooling of fabric that happens in my lower back in tops.

It looks a little bit like I have swayback issues, but I don't have a swayback. Through reading, I have found people have similar issues when they have a small waist and large bottom. That sounds like me. I took some pictures of the different alterations* I tried. (*only pinned out).

First I pinned out a diagonal wedge, as that is how the back looked like it was pooling to me. More is pinned out at centre back and it tapers out at the side seam. It did get rid of the wrinkles at the back pretty well, but I was unsure if I did the right thing because I did not find any alterations done like this online.

Above I have pinned out a wedge going down the centre back. I could still see wrinkles pointing up and out with this, but again I have only pinned it so it is not really a true indication.

Above is the traditional sway back tuck. It worked pretty well too from the back, but not from a side view. Actually, none of these look any good from the side and they were affecting the front as well.

I had a look at some of the dresses that I had made earlier and realised I did not have any pooling problems with them. They had darts in the back. So I tried pinning out some darts. Yes, they are in the wrong placce.

While it doesn't look brilliant in the photo, it was the only method than looked decent from the side view.

So maybe for now I will choose shirts and jackets with princess seams or back waist darts or add shirring there until I figure out the best solution.