Princess Seam Blouse Again

About a year ago I made McCall's 6035 button-up blouse with princess seams in five different colors and by the time I finished the last one I was way super sick of the pattern. Well, apparently it takes me a year to get over that because I just finished a new blouse. 

This one is made from the cotton lawn left over from lining my wedding dress. It is rather transparent so tank-tops underneath are an absolute must. So was fully finishing the seams because you can see them through the shirt. At first, that annoyed me, but I've successfully convinced myself that it's just a design feature. I do wish that I had realized how visible they were going to be. I don't think I like how lumpy the clean seams look on the princess seams. I don't know how hard it would be to do a flat fell seam on a princess seam, but I really want to try it now because I can't think of anything else that has a hope of laying prettily and working as a design element. I did french seams on the sides and flat fell seams on the shoulder and arms. The collar and cuffs are both slip-stitched from the inside. 

I did lengthen the shirt by two inches this time around. I have found the when I am working I'm constantly tugging on the bottom of my shirt because they feel a little short. This shirt is a bit too nice to wear to work but I might make a couple more at this length because it does fit better and the whole point of making my own clothes is to have clothes that fit like they were made for me.

One of the reasons that I keep coming back to this pattern is that it has multiple bust sizes. I really like that I can easily achieve a tailored fit without having to do a full bust alteration. It just makes life so much easier. 

I'm not sure that I'm ready to whip out another five of them, but I would like to make one more in a purple lawn because I want to try the different seam finish on the princess seams and because I found some beautiful purple buttons when I was looking for buttons for this shirt. I was inches away from sewing them onto this one but that would have limited what I could wear it with and the point of  a white button-up blouse is that you can wear it with just about anything on almost any occassion. 

Sometimes the Fabric Speaks

On Saturday I made an a-line skirt. I ended up having to draft the pattern for it myself because when I looked through my stash of patterns every skirt that I had was very full, but the flower pattern on my fabric had really clear verticle directionality that just wouldn't work with a circle skirt, at some point somewhere on the skirt I would have ended up with sideways flowers. It's hard to see in the picture, but the flowers all have stems.

I'm glad that I realized that before I started cutting out skirt pieces.

I was going to write something up about how I drafted the pattern, but I forgot to take pictures of that part of the process. The skirt was pretty simple, basically just the front and two back pieces. I made a facing, rather than do a waistband. I used french seams on the side seams and a clean seam for the back seam with the zipper. Because I drafted it myself I gave myself very generous seam allowances, The back I used a 1" SA so I could turn over the edge of the fabric and still have plenty to work with while sewing in the zipper.

I did end up having to finagle the fit a little at the end, it was good through the hips, but a little loose at the waist. Either my math was bad, or my measurement. I'm not sure which.

All in all, I am really pleased with my finished skirt. 

I had a heck of a time taking pictures though because it was super windy. 

Also, I love this outfit, everything I am wearing here I made myself, and that is a really incredible feeling. I talked about the sweater here, the collared shirt here, and the cami under that shirt here. I'm also wearing a rayon slip that I know I made within the last year, but that I apparently never bothered to write about, so it looks like I've got another post about my underwear coming up.

Fiance's Flannel Shirt

I thought today I would take a break from home decor projects and share a shirt I recently made for Fiance.

It fits him really well, but he hates having his picture taken, so I elected to model it instead. It's a bit long on me, but it has that comfy wearing my boyfriend's shirt feeling. I like it so much I might make myself one too! When he put it on he pointed out that the pockets are not level, but they really aren't off by much. Oops. I probably should have measured before I sewed them on, instead of eyeballing the marks on the pattern.

The pattern is Negroni by Colette Patterns. I really enjoyed making it. The instructions were easy to follow and they actually tell you how to make a fully finished garment, which I appreciate. The pattern uses flat fell seams. I did make one modification, They call for a 3/8" seam allowance on the shoulders, but I used 5/8". I though the stitching on the flat fell looked prettier that way, it seemed disproportionate at only 3/8" and Fiance has fairly narrow shoulders, so the extra 1/4" on each shoulder wasn't detrimental to the final fit. 

The only other change I would make is to the buttons. I think it would look much more handsome with 7 buttons placed closer together, instead of the 5 that it called for. I also wouldn't place the buttonholes so far in on the facing, just because I think it looks a little funny. All in all, I like this pattern very much, and I'm pretty sure I will be using it for more flannel shirts in the future.

"Retro" cherry shirt

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love Gertie Hirsch's patterns. I'm just warning you now that the next three posts will all be about her designs. I'm going to start with Butterick 6217 because I modified it the least.

I fell in love with this shirt for the neckline and the sleeves.

Aren't those sleeves awesome?!?

(also, please ignore how filthy my mirror is, there is a bunch of construction going on in the apartment and the plaster dust just keeps reappearing no matter how much I clean)

The only change I made to the pattern was the leave off the big bow thing that went over the front. I feel like my girls are big enough without adding any extra frufru. Also I didn't have enough fabric. That cherry fabric shrank like crazy in the wash, I should have bought an extra 1/4 yd. 

Speaking of, how cute is the cherry fabric? I felt like the shirt had a vaguely retro feel, like most of Gertie's patterns do, so I wanted to play it up with a rockabillyish fabric. 

I will say, there is something a bit funny in the fit of the shirt, but I can't put my finger on what it is exactly or how to fix it. I've been reassured that it looks fine. My mom even said that if she didn't know that you can't buy shirts with cherries on them at the mall she would never have guessed I made the shirt. So I would give this shirt four out of five stars. It's not perfect, but I like it and I will totally wear it.

Done with McCall's 6035

I am not a big fan of shopping so when I bought clothes I tended to find a shirt that I liked then buy it in about 5 different colors. Apparently that tendency does not go away just because I'm now making my clothes rather than buying them. 

And I can now definitively say that I am 300% DONE with this pattern. 

I don't regret making five of them because they are absolutely perfect for work. But I am way sick of the pattern. I talked about the green shirt here, and in that post I mentioned the blue and purple fabrics. I made the blue shirt almost immediately after finishing the green shirt. Then I went to the store looking for some other fabric and came home with the white and black cotton fabrics (they were 50% off and I am a sucker for sales) so I made the white shirt next. 

Going to work, whee!

From 7th grade through college I pretty much lived in all black all the time. I was really surprised when I started working on this shirt and realized that I didn't actually own any black shirts anymore. Then I realized it's because black is hard to see when you are working on it. Especially in a dimly lit basement. I had to go outside to get a picture of the shirt that didn't just look dark. 

Despite the difficulty, I think my love of black has been rekindled, so expect to see more black clothes in the future, especially as we head into the winter. Side note: what is it about shorter days and colder weather that makes darker clothing more appealing?

And here is the purple shirt. I took the picture the moment I sewed on the last button so it's still all nicely pressed and everything.

A few last construction notes: by the time I got around to the black and purple shirts I was tired of the clean seams, so I just overcast the edges. I don't like the amount of bulk it added to the seam, but I did like that it took way less time and effort to do. I'm calling it an experiment to see if any of the various seam finishes hold up better or worse to repeated washings and wearings. 

I also slip stitched the collar band and shirt cuffs rather than top-stitched them. I think they look prettier without stitches showing on the right side. I am honestly not sure why I didn't do that on the first three shirts because slip stitching is normally my go to for finishing collars. I was so over these shirts by the time I made them that I didn't take detail pictures. Sorry. I'll be better next time because next time I won't make fifty-million of the same shirt. 

Unless it's t-shirts. Then all bets are off. 

McCall's 6035 Revisited

In my last post I wrote about McCall's 6035. I was attempting to make view A: a short sleeve button up with princess seams and a mandarin collar. As I said in that post the pattern was fine, but my own need to complicate my life lead to me literally screwing up every seam and calling my shirt a muslin. Today I revisited the pattern and am proud to say that this time I am very pleased with the results.

The fabric store was out of the pretty robin's egg blue cotton that I used last time, so I went with more of a Kelly green. I also picked up a nice purple and a light blue with brown polka-dots, both of which I also intend to use for short-sleeve button-up shirts. I decided to cut the green first because 1) it was the cheapest fabric I bought ($4.99 a yd 40% off) so if I screwed it up again I wasn't out much money and 2) it was my least favorite of the three fabrics so I wouldn't be that upset if it didn't work out.

I am really happy to report that I didn't screw it up this time. Here is a picture of the flat fell seam on the sleeve cap. As you can see I did still get a little bit of puckering, but it is world's away better than my last attempt. I think it even looks better than the shirts that I made with plain seams. 

And here is a picture of the shirt turned inside out. I used the clean finish for the princess seams this time and I have to say they are not bad. They don't lie perfectly flat, but then what would? They do look better than the mock french seams and they were easier to execute. Unexpected bonus: they were also easier to deal with when hemming and attaching the sleeves because they are less bulky. Not that I was surprised by that, I just hadn't thought about that aspect. 

All in all, I am totally pleased with this shirt. It fits well and I managed to have all clean seams with minimal headache. I'm calling it a winner. I am going to make it again, although I think that next time I will add a folded down collar.

McCall's 6035 Pattern Notes

I know this isn't what I said I would post next, but I was working on a new shirt today and managed to screw up so many things that I'm now calling this one a muslin and I wanted to jot everything down before I forgot and screwed up the next one too.

I was trying to make McCall's 6035 view A. Now I want to start off my saying there is nothing wrong with this pattern. Everything that got messed up was just me screwing up!

So, the first thing I did was decide to do a mock french seam for the princess seams. My justification was that french seams don't work well on curves, but I had read that a mock french seam would.

The mock french seam really doesn't lie well on the curve either. I thought it would at least look okay, but it just isn't as pretty as a real french seam either. Next time I make this shirt I am going to just do a clean finish on the princess seams. It will probably be easier, quicker and prettier. Sometimes I have to remind myself that the most complicated solution is not always the best one. 

I do think I'll stick with the french seams at the side seam because they seem to lie well enough and they are still my favorite seam finish. 

And speaking of seam finishes: the next thing I screwed up was the flat fell seam at the shoulders. The first shoulder went well enough, but when I was trimming the seam allowance to finish the second I managed to cut a hole in my fabric. The picture is from the inside of the shirt where the hole is still visible. 

I was lucky that I cut the hole before actually cutting any of the seam allowance so I "solved" the problem by trimming the other side and pushing the seam toward the front of the shirt instead of the back so from the right side you can't see the hole. Unfortunately, I had already done the other side of the shirt and had pushed the seam allowance towards the back on that side, so now my two seams don't match. 

I know most people wouldn't actually notice it, but I think you can see it even in this picture, and I would know it was there and it would bother me. Not enough to not wear the shirt, but enough that I might not enjoy wearing it. 

It's about at the next picture that I started thinking this shirt was not going to be wearable when I was done. 

I've done flat fell seams on the sleeve cap before, but I've never done one where there was actually extra sleeve to ease in. I had it in my head that the seam should push up onto the shoulder, rather than down onto the sleeve. Not only did that emphasize the horrible job I did easing the sleeve, it actually made the puckering worse. 

Here is the second sleeve. I pushed the seam allowance down onto the sleeve for this one, and as you can tell the finished seam looks much smoother. I don't know why I thought I needed to do it the other way. After I did this sleeve I pulled out one of my boyfriend's ready to wear flannel shirts and saw that on it the seam allowance was on the sleeve. It also pushed the shoulder seam allowance forward toward the front of the shirt, but I think it looks better facing the back. I guess the big thing on that one would just be to have them facing the same direction. 

 So, the sleeve bands managed to have three issues (which I personally think is pretty impressive for such a small section of the shirt). First, at a 5/8 seam allowance the band is too tight around my arm, so mental note add half an inch to the band when I cut it out next time. Next, normally on a sleeve band or cuff I would stitch one side than slip stitch to secure the other side, just like bias binding, because I really don't like the look of top-stitching and I can't ever seem to get a nice straight stitch 1/16" away from the seam. In the fist picture, you can see that I was way too far away. What is harder to see in the picture is that the band is also trying to twist, like it was off grain, even though I know it wasn't when I cut it out.

For the second band I managed to get that nice 1/16" edge stitch, but when I attached the sleeve I realized that I'd attached the band backwards, so the wrong side was up with the sleeve put in correctly. 

I'll admit that was when I really decided that I was calling this shirt a muslin and not doing anything more with it. I safety pinned the front to determine that the bust did fit, so at least I made the right size, but I just did too many things wrong to try and fix it all. At least it was cheap cotton bought with a coupon so I'm out less than $10. Especially if I use the buttons I bought for this on my next attempt. Still, totally frustrating headdesk moment because I can blame no one but me for everything that went wrong. If I hadn't tried to be so fancy with my seam finishes I would have a wearable shirt right now.

Focusing on the upside: now I know how not to finish the seams for this shirt, and next time I will do better. 

My Newest Button-up

It took me ages to get around to writing this post. I guess this week I've been more focused on crafting than writing about said crafting. I finished up the button-up that I mentioned in the last post.

I know it isn't a great picture, but I didn't have anyone around to help me take a better one. I'm pretty content with the way it turned out. Next time I am not going to bother top-stitching the collar band because I just don't think it's necessary and I don't like the way it looks, but it doesn't bother me enough to pick it back out. I am very happy with the two inches of added length because I can wear it tucked or untucked to work and know that the tattoo on my back will not be putting in an unexpected appearance. Grading from the size 18 to the 16 from bust to waist was also effective because I don't have even a little bit of pull on the top button (which is a bit of a miracle at my bust size).

I didn't use a proper shirting material for this one, instead I just went with plain old "country cotton" from Jo-Ann's. Although it is thinner I actually think I like the drape of this a little bit more than the shirt I made with shirting. The shirting is nice because it's thick (no worries about a colorful bra showing through) but I also don't like it because it's so thick, it doesn't feel as nice to wear. Plus in my world 100% cotton will always beat fabric with spandex. 

There is a linen-cotton blend with a floral print at Jo-Ann's that I really want to use for another of these tops, then I think I am going to try making the version with princess seams. I don't really care for tight tops, but I think I would like to try something with just a little more fit/shape to it. 

I'll be back tomorrow to talk about finishing my pi-shawl.

Today was a Good Day

Today was a good day for crafting. I didn't finish any projects, but I did make headway on a couple.

I didn't get my pi-shawl done by the 13th like I had hoped. I was going to wear it to a friend's funeral, but by the fifth chart it was taking about 45 minutes per two rounds, and I would have had to skip either work or sleep to get it done. I've got 14 rounds of the sixth chart and the bind-off left to go now. I got 8 rounds done today, so I'm pretty sure I'll finish it this week. I'll post a picture when it is blocked, but right now it just looks like a funny black pile of yarn because I've got it all bunched up on circular needles.

I'm especially eager to get it done because my knit-picks order came today and I try very hard to only have one big project on the needles at a time. Last week I ordered yarn for three new cardigans, I really wasn't expecting it to show up until next week.

I am particularly excited about the light colored yarn in the front of the box. It is 70% linen and 30% cotton. I don't normally do anything but dish-clothes out of cotton because I don't think it has enough recovery for sweaters and I don't like having to wash a sweater every single time I wear it just to shrink it back to shape, but I've never knit with linen before and I'm really excited to give it a try and see what happens. All I know about it is that it's supposed to get softer with every wash. I've picked out a 3/4 sleeve cardi pattern and I think it will make a nice summer sweater. As I make the sweaters I'll link to patterns and talk more about the yarn (oh, and I'm sure it goes without saying, but I am in no way affiliated with knit-picks).

Today I also spent some time sewing. I started with the blue button-up shirt that I cut out a couple days ago. I just need to put the cuffs on the sleeves, attach the sleeve to the body, and do the buttonholes/buttons and then it is ready to go. It's probably only an hours worth of work at most, but I just ran out of steam to finish tonight. I'm sure I'll get it done tomorrow though. 

I do want to call attention to my sleeve placket. This is one of the modifications I made to the original pattern. Instead of doing the sleeve placket the way instructions call for I use this tutorial. It's easy to follow and makes a beautiful placket every time. I used to hate making button-up shirts because I couldn't do buttonholes and I couldn't do the placket. Well, now that I have an automatic buttonhole foot and this tutorial I have no fear anymore.

I think it looks pretty handsome if I do say so myself. I'll post another picture when the cuff is attached/the shirt is done. 

That's it for today, I've got to go make dinner now (stir-fry, yum). I'll write more about my shirt when I finish it tomorrow.

Cutting Project Pieces

As I mentioned yesterday I've been sick. I'm finally starting to feel better, but now my boyfriend's got it. I've got a bunch of sewing projects that I've been meaning to get to, but he was trying to take a nap, so I didn't want to actually run the sewing machine. As a result, I've spent my afternoon cutting out projects, without actually doing any sewing.

Top left is a new cotton button-up, top right is a denim pencil skirt (view C if you zoom in on the picture) and the bottom pile of white fabric will be sewn into two pillowcases. I'll give more details on each project when I actually sew them up.

I've also got a knit that I'm planning on making into a skirt. It's got 3/4" white and 1/4" black stripes. I was originally planning on making it into an a-line, but I hadn't really handled the fabric. I inherited it when my grandmother passed last spring. I love the stripes, but I hadn't realized the fabric was a knit until I shook it out to cut it. Now that I know it's a knit I'm thinking about making a second of my favorite knit pencil skirt. BUT the directionality of the stretch is such that I would end up with horizontal stripes. Not sure I want that in a pencil skirt. Now I'm conflicted. Would you make a horizontally striped pencil skirt?

Pattern Tracing

From what I've seen on some sewing forums tracing pattern pieces can be a surprisingly contentious issue. Some sewers think that it is a total waste of time, while others can't imagine using a pattern without tracing a copy first. I fall somewhere in the middle. If I have a pattern that I know I'm going to use a lot I trace my size onto a separate piece of paper. If I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it once and never again I don't bother tracing. I trace for a couple of reasons, first and foremost because I hate trying to cut my fabric underneath the pattern, but I refuse to just cut out the size that I need because what if I gain or lose weight latter? I certainly don't want to have to buy the pattern all over again because I destroyed the size I need. And speaking of destroying, I don't want to wear out a beloved pattern by using it too much. And the third reason I like to trace patterns is that it makes alterations easier.

At the end of January, I made a button-up shirt (Butterick 5526 view B if you are interested). I made the size 16, and it fits well enough to wear, I'm not going to pop a button or anything, but there is a little more pull across the bust than is ideal. So today I pulled out the tracing paper to try and alter the pattern a little bit.

As you can tell in this picture I had to tape two pieces of tracing paper together to make it wide enough. I bought the 18" roll of paper because it was cheaper, but when I finally run out I'm going to get a 24" role because the tape is annoying. I laid my tracing paper over the pattern and just traced the lines with a sharpie. It's very important as you are tracing to copy all of the pattern notes and notations as well. You can see in the picture that I copied the button placement, and ease marks. It was super easy, and this way I could easily taper from the size 18 bust to the 16 waist. I also added 2" at the waist. I have a long torso and even though the first shirt I made was long enough to wear, I'm not convinced I could tuck it in and have it stay. I very rarely tuck in my shirts, but I like to know it's an option. 

I'll post more about the actual shirt later. I'm sick right now and just tracing the pattern used up all of my energy. I've got a nice blue cotton fabric waiting to be made into this shirt, and if I like the way the alterations go there is a gorgeous linen/cotton floral print at Jo-Anne's just calling my name.