Bird Dress

I think my hero worship of Gertie Hirsch is pretty well established at this point seeing as I've written about her at least four other times on this blog. I bought her newest book, Gertie's Ultimate Dress Book* the day it came out and spent a happy few days reading it cover to cover and picking out pattern pieces. I absolutely love that the skirts, bodices, and sleeves are interchangeable so you can mix and match to get way more than the 23 styles that she features. Although I don't love every dress in the book I do like most of them. When I bought the book I didn't know what dress I was going to make first, but I did know what fabric I was going to use.

Back in November, I bought a pretty quilters cotton with a surprisingly soft hand and good drape featuring a blue background and stylized birds. I originally thought I would use it to make a skirt, but then it came time to move and in the chaos, I never got around to using the cotton. Later I decided to make a dress instead, but I didn't want an all over pattern of the birds because the fabric had a distinct horizontal stripe and I didn't think it would look good in a bodice so I picked up a yard of plain light blue cotton and 5 yds of navy blue piping. Then the fabric sat for another month.

Finally, this week I made myself a dress.

I was going to make the Floral Surplice Dress, but the pleated skirt that it called for would have had my birds sitting sideways, which would have just looked wrong. So instead I used the Surplice Bodice and the All Around Pleated Skirt - basically more like the Floral Chiffon Dress, but I left off the cap sleeves. I added pockets because it's me and I will always add pockets. 

Yay pockets!

One of the big challenges of this dress was the piping that I used to outline each section of the dress. I love the finished look, but I had a heck of a time sewing it in place because it was smaller than my seam allowance so it was invisible once it was sandwiched between pattern pieces. I have no idea if there is a "right" way to sew in piping, but what I did was machine baste a line on each dress piece at 5/8" then I hand basted the piping to that line. Then when I sewed the pieces together I sewed over that line again so that my piping was exactly where it was supposed to be. 

This technique actually ended up helping me fit the bodice too. When I made a muslin of the bodice I noticed a couple of fit issues. Not surprising seeing as Gertie even warns that for those over a C cup an FBA will probably be required. I didn't have to make major modifications, but I did have some gaping at the neckline. I solved that by making small tucks along the neckline while I was hand basting the piping. 

From the front, the tucks are nearly invisible and now my bodice sits nice and snug to my chest. 

The other fit problem I corrected was the bottom edge of the midriff piece. The pattern nips in pretty sharply at the waist, but my actual waist is straighter than that so I drew a new line from the armpit of the back boatneck bodice and the front surplice bodices pieces down to the bottom of the front and back midriff pieces so I could smoothly add the extra 3/8" that I needed on the bottom edge of each piece. Because the skirt pieces are pleated I didn't add anything to them, I just adjusted the pleats until everything lined up correctly.

One thing I wish I had done was make the arms a bit bigger, they are a little snug under my armpit. I didn't notice on the muslin, but I do on the finished piece, which makes me wonder if it has something to do with the piping. It doesn't bother me enough to try and fix it on the dress, but I will keep it in mind when I make another dress out of this book (and yes, I am totally already thinking of the next couple of dresses I'm going to make). 

Another change that I made was to line the midriff. The Floral Surplice Dress uses a facing instead of lining the bodice. I am so used to lining the bodices of dresses that I forgot about finishing the seams (which was totally dumb on my part because Gertie talks about seam finishes and lining versus facing in earlier chapters of the book and reminds you to finish your seams in the instructions). I was super bothered by the unfinished seams and didn't want to try and pink them because of the piping caught in them, so I partially lined instead, and in the future, I will stick to fully lining my dress bodices. 

One last note: I did not bother trying to perfectly match the patterns for the skirt side seams, but I did line up the branches that the birds are sitting on. The first time I cut out the back skirt pieces I didn't think about the pattern until I laid it next to the front skirt piece and realized it was off. So I cut my pockets and front facing from the skirt back and recut the skirt. I am glad I took the time to do so because I would have just been driven batty if I had sewed them together and the pattern didn't flow.

All in all, I am really happy with this dress, and I cannot wait to make more dresses from Gertie's Ultimate Dress book. I think I am going to make the Blue Wool Work Dress next. 

*P.S. I am totally not getting paid to promote Gertie Hirsch, her book, her patterns, or her blog. I just think she is rad and I totally want to be like her when I grow up. :)

Strawberry Curtains

My grandmother passed away in April of 2014. She taught me how to knit and continually inspired me to keep at my other fiber related passions. She was also a great sewer and quilter. When she passed I got one of her sewing machines and I've been happily sewing on it since then. I also got first dibs of going through her stash. Grandma was not the fiber snob that I am, and she had very difference taste in colors than me, but I still managed to bring two large totes worth of fabric home with me. One of the fabrics that I picked out was an adorable vintage cotton with strawberries and leaves printed on it. I picked it out intending to make kitchen curtains out of it, for like a hot minute when I saw the yardage I had visions of a full skirted 50s style dress, but common sense prevailed and I made curtains.

I faced several challenges while designing my curtains. The first was that my lease states that I cannot hang curtain rods. Fortunately, my windows have nice deep frames so using a pressure rod instead is not a problem, but it does sort of dictate the look of the curtains.

Secondly, my windows are relatively small, 41"x45" on the inside of the frame. Because I can't use curtain rods I can't use curtains to visually change the size of the window, so I needed a curtain design that wouldn't visually overwhelm the window.

Thirdly my strawberry fabric is only 36" wide, but the muslin that I was using to line it (also out of my stash) was the now more common 44" wide. I let the strawberry fabric dictate the width of my curtains, and got a little creative with the lining on the back, working on the basis that I'll never really have to look at the back of the curtains.

I decided to let the width of my fabric largely dictate the design. Because it's so narrow I didn't want to make two panels of curtains, I felt the window would end up looking overwhelmed. So I cut three panels of my strawberry fabric 50" long and sewed them together with a 1/2" seam allowance to get one panel 106" wide by 50" long. My mom taught me that curtains should be between two to three times the width of the window. Twice the width can look a little bare, but three times can be overwhelming on narrower windows. My curtains are almost exactly 2.5 times the width of the window.

Isn't the fabric cute? Anyway, then needed to make a lining so I cut two 44"x50" panels out of the muslin, then one 19"x50" piece, then I had to sort of piece together the remaining muslin to get a second 19"50" piece.  I then sewed all of those together to get a second rectangle 106" wide. 

From the right side, I don't think my Frankenstiened lining is that noticeable, and when it's hung no one can see it.

Then I put my fabrics right side together and sewed around the right, bottom, and left sides, leaving the top of the curtains open. I turned the fabric right side out and very carefully pressed the edges. I used a knitting needle to poke out the corners to get them nice and square. I wanted to make sure that only the strawberry fabric was visible from the right side so I actually turned it about 1/16" in towards the back, instead of trying to press right down the middle of the seam. 

So when I top-stitched the edges from the wrong side you can see just a little bit of the strawberry fabric.

And from the right side you can't see the lining at all.

Then I sewed the curtain rod pocket. To do that I turned down and pressed about 1/2" of the top, then I turned it over and pressed down about 2.5" and sewed the channel. 

Next, I cut two more rectangles from the strawberry fabric, this time 6"x36" to act as ties for the curtains.

Because I chose to make only one panel instead of two, but I also like symmetry, I decided to attach the ties to the top of the curtain and use the to tie the curtain up instead of to the left or right. 

I sewed the rectangles into a tube using a 1/2" seam allowance, turned it right side out and pressed it. I chose to press the seam to the center instead of the side so it would look prettier from the front.

I then top-stitched all the way around and sewed a buttonhole on one side of each of them and sewed the button to the other. The cute pink buttons also came from my grandmother's stash.

I carefully centered the ties over the two seams on the front of the curtains from sewing my original panels together, then I sewed the tie down following the stitched from sewing the curtain rod pocket. Had I thought about it in advance I think I would have sewed the ties on at the same time I made the pocket, but I was careful enough that I think you have to be looking closely to see where the doubled stitching is. 

I think it drapes beautifully when hung, and the button is a cute, subtle detail. 

And here is my finished curtain, hung in the window and looking rather adorable if I do say so myself. 

I am really happy with the final product. The red in it goes well with all the other red accents in my kitchen without being too overwhelming. I think it makes my kitchen look more "finished" and because the fabric was all out of my grandmother's stash it didn't cost me a dime, and now I will think of her whenever I look at my window. It sure beats our charming view of the parking lot. 

Canvas Boxes

Remember the canvas boxes I posted the other day? I finally have time to write up how I made them. I'm not sure this was the best method because I was pretty much making it up as I went along, but it worked! Here they are:

To make 5 of these 5"x5" boxes I used 1 yd of 9 oz canvas, 1 yd of quilter's cotton, and 1 yd of the stiffest interfacing I could find. 

To begin I used my rotary cutter (oh man to I love that sucker) to cut the interfacing into 5"x5" squares. I cut the canvas into 6"x6" squares and the quilter's cotton into 6"x7" rectangles. You will need five of each per box. 5 of my lining pieces are 6x6 because I messed up when I was cutting, but if you pay attention the entire time you shouldn't have this problem.

Then I sewed the interfacing to the center of each canvas square. I made them smaller than the canvas because the interfacing was so stiff that I didn't want it in the seam allowances, but this does mean the stitching holding it on is visible from the right side. My fabric and thread are both black, so you really have to be looking closely to find it, but if you chose a printed canvas or your thread wasn't a perfect match these stitches will be visible. 

Next I sewed four of the squares together in a line using 1/2" seam allowance. These are the sides of the box.

Then I sewed on the fifth square to make a sort of 'L' shape.

Now comes the slightly tricky part. Between the canvas and the interfacing you end up having to kind of manhandle the box to keep it under the pressure foot while you sew. Start sewing the sides of the box to the bottom (the small leg on the 'L')

When it is all sewn together turn your box right side out.

Now sew your lining pieces together the same way you did the box. They will be much easier because they are nice and limp. If you are using a patterned lining make sure you orient your pattern in the same direction for each side piece.

With the wrong sides out fold down the top edge 1/4" and sew. This will be easier if you have the kind of machine with a narrow arm, but it's not hard even without one.

When you are done with the hem put the lining into the boxes. Poke the lining down into the corners of the box. 

Then fold the top down over the edge of the box and admire how cute it looks!

If you want to you could sew the lining to the box by pressing the top 1/4" but not sewing anything until the lining is in place, but I knew I would have make-up and lotion in at least some of these and I wanted to be able to throw the lining into the wash if need be. 

One of my boxes is 1/2" shorter than the others because my lining was shorter, but I still wanted the cute folded down visible lining so I trimmed the top of the box down to be even with the interfacing before putting in the lining. If each box was next to each other I might be able to tell one was shorter and it might bug me, but with stuff in between each box on the shelves it's not obvious that one is smaller. 

I've been using my boxes for a couple of weeks now and I totally love them. This is the most organized and the cutest I think my bathroom has ever been, and next week I can start sharing non-bathroom related home decor projects with you!

Welt Pockets and Wool Vests

Anyone else ever have one of those weeks that just totally slips by you? I really have no idea what happened, I blinked and I missed it. Well, I have plenty of projects to tell you about, so hopefully I will do a better job posting this week.

My biggest project has been a fully lined wool vest with three welt pockets for Fiance. I had never sewn welt pockets before and I looked up a bunch of tutorials, decided none of them made sense and just made stuff up until I got a reasonable pocket.

It took me three tries before I got one I liked. I'm really glad that I decided to practise on cheap cotton first because the part where you cut a hole in your fabric is a bit scary.

The first one the welt didn't cover the pocket entirely, the second one I somehow managed to sew the pocket shut, but the third one come out okay and with a decent looking welt. I felt a bit like Goldilocks.

I'm pleased with how the vest turned out. It fits Fiance well too, but he didn't want to model it for photos. I made a size down from the pattern recommendations. Yes, vests are meant to button over layers of clothing, but I thought three inches of positive ease was a bit excessive. This size gave him an inch. It fits in the arm holes, but is a big snug across his stomach, so I might try grading the pattern a bit when I make it again.

I will definitely make this pattern again because it's the same one I will use for his wedding vest, but I'm going to make it out of linen for a summer weight. 

The only thing I'm not happy with is one of the side seams. I think I managed to catch some extra fabric when I was sewing it up because it tucks in at the very bottom. When I look at the inside of the seam though it looks fine. I used a ladder stitch to close the lining which is so quick and easy that one of these days I might just take it out and try and fix that tuck.

All in all, both Fiance and I are happy with the vest. The welt pockets were fun to learn how to do and the vest itself was pretty quick and easy. It took me two days only because I started it at a friend's house who has such dim lighting that I couldn't see what I was doing with the black fabric so I had to stop and finish it when I got home instead. 

The outer layer is 100% wool, the lining is Bemberg rayon, the pattern was originally Simplicity 2346 but I changed the pockets, and left of that tie in the back.