Purple Black Plaid Claire Wrap Dress

As soon as I finished my first Claire Wrap dress from Pattern Review I knew I wanted to make another, there were a couple of tweaks I wanted to make to see if I could get a bit better fit.

To make my second version I chose from my stash a piece of cotton fabric in purple, black and white plaid.    This is a material with no stretch so according to the pattern instructions I really should have gone up a size, however this totally didn't cross my mind when I started the project so I went ahead and again cut out a size 14.  This means that I've ended up with a dress that is just slightly to small.

I only had 2 yards of this fabric so I knew I was going to have to do a contrast, thankfully I managed to find in my stash just enough purple poplin cotton to make the yoke neckbands and ties.  I did have to piece the longer tie together to get it out of the scrap of purple and I also had to make the neckband and yoke facings out of a plain black cotton to fit all the pattern pieces on.

The changes that I made to the bodice pattern were to take a 1/2" out of the length of the bodice above the bust and through the arm hole.  I then added that 1/2" back in at the lengthen line where I originally took out 1", so that is back to a 1/2" adjustment. (Still a total of 1" taken out of the length of the bodice).

I like the way this sits around the arm holes better, but there are still some issues under my bust.  I'm hoping that most of them are just due to the the lack of stretch making the dress sit in the wrong place on my bust, but I'll have to try again at the larger size to see for sure.

Unfortunately that does mean that the dress has a tendency to gape at the neckline - I've pinned it together here to get it to sit nicely.

I made a mistake when cutting out the back piece.  I didn't have enough material to place the back piece on the fold so I planned to cut an extra seam allowance and put a seam up the back, but forgot when it came to cutting.

Thankfully I had one scrap piece big enough that I was able to cut an extra strip of fabric and pattern match it so that it's not too noticeable.

For the sleeves I again used the same cap sleeve pattern piece as last time rather than the sleeve that came with this pattern.  I cut the sleeve on the bias to provide a bit more contrast (and so I didn't have to worry about pattern matching).

As for the skirt I found that the skirt on my original dress poofed out a bit at the hips so this time I folded both the front and the back skirt pattern pieces straight down from the waist, taking about 2" off the width of the skirt at the hem.  What I didn't think about was how that was going to make the side seams sit.  I should have changed only the front piece and not the back.  As it sits now there's not quite enough material to go around my butt anymore.   If - sorry make that when - I make this again I think I'll put darts into the back skirt piece to provide more room for my butt without creating extra width at the side.

But back to this version - due to my lack of forethought, the side seams are now a bit too far back on my body, which makes the pockets a bit hard to get my hands into, and it means that the overlap in the front isn't quite as deep as it could be.

So overall I'm not 100% happy with how this dress fits.  It probably would have been better if I had gone up a size, as is I will need a snap/safety pin to be put in to hold the neckline closed, but I'll still wear it as a day dress I'm sure.

Next up I'd  like to try this pattern in a knit fabric to see how that fits.

Silver Batik Dress

In my last post I mentioned some more peacock fabric that I picked up on my last vacation.  My plan for this fabric is to make another dress similar to my Avian Dress.  However upon further wearing I've noticed a few minor issues with the fit of that dress  - specifically the neckline gapes a little and I don't like the racer back.  Rather than risk ruining my good peacock fabric I decided to try the design changes I wanted to make on another material first.

I've had this material in my stash for a couple of month now, I picked it up at my favourite store one day when I found it, but had no idea what I was going to do with it.  Its a cotton fabric in a grey colour with large splodges of bright colours randomly placed all over it.  On top of this is a silver embossed geometric design in stripes.

As far as the pattern goes I made a modification to the shoulder slope for the front piece to make the front neckline sit flatter,

And then in the back I removed the racer back and created a deep scoop instead.

 I cut out the bodice and tried it on and liked the way it was sitting so went ahead and created  an all in one facing for the neck line and arm holes.  I finished the bodice seams using the overlocker then cut two strips to use as the waistband flaring them from the bodice out by about 1" each side.

The skirt is two rectangles sewed together with the silver stripes running horizontally as opposed to the rest of the dress where the silver stripes run vertically.  The top of the skirt is simply gathered and sewed onto the waistband and overlocked.  Pockets were sewed into the side seams of the skirt as all dresses need pockets as far as I'm concerned.

This dress is pretty simple, it only took one morning to make.  It slips on over my head so no closures are required and is a bit more relaxed fitting than my avian dress, I think because the waistband is a bit more flared.  Its cool, its comfortable and I really love wearing it.  I still don't love a gathered skirt and will go back to pleats on my next version, but for this dress I'm happy with the gathers.

Another Simple Tank

During our latest vacation we spent a couple of days in the Amish country in Pennsylvania.  This of course required many stops at quilt shops to look at the beautiful quilts.

There was one quilt pattern in particular that I was really drawn to,  the Cathedral Window Quilt.  I'm not a great fan of the muslin white as a background as was typically found in the Amish quilts, but I was really intrigued by how this went together so I allowed myself to be talked into buying the pattern.

Once we were home I grabbed a few scraps of fabric and started sewing.  This was done all by hand sitting in front of the TV at nights which was very relaxing.  I'm not sure what I can use this for, I've run out of the scrap material I was using and can't find any more so I can't make it any bigger, but I really like the way it turns out. (mind you there was no pressing involved here, this was just a trial to see how the pieces go together.)

Out of all the quilt stores that we went into (and just ask my kids - it was a lot)  my favourite was also a fabric store.  Of course most of the fabric was quilting cotton but I had to look anyway.  I found two pieces of fabric that I just had to have.

The first is another peacock design.  I don't love the light background colour, but I just knew I had to have this material, the colours on the peacock are just so bright and vibrant and me.  I bought a full 3 yards of this material and have plans to make another dress similar to my Avian dress.

The second piece of fabric I found is probably not me, but again it was an "I have to have this" fabric. I think more than anything I love the metallic gold print with the purples and blues.  Add to that the combination of floral and geometric design and I really love this.

I only bought 1 meter (sorry yard) of this fabric.  I knew that it was going to be another little tank top like my peacock tank.  I used the same pattern, although this time I skipped on the front wrap/overlap and just cut the front piece on the fold.

I modified the neckline a little too making both the front and the back into a deeper V.  I also cut the top a little longer, but an inch or so, and skipped using a band at the bottom.

As I only bought 1 yard of the fabric I ended up having to put a seam down the back.

Not too bad a job on pattern matching.

All openings were finished using facings which were then turned under and top stitched in place. I used french seams throughout the top for a really clean finish inside.

This top somehow ended up being a little tighter than my peacock top, but not in a bad way.  It's still comfortable and easy wearing.   I think one more iteration on this pattern and I should have it down, there's still a little pulling at the back I want to get rid of.

A Peacock Tank

I've been playing around with a lot more woven fabrics at the moment and I've been trying to create a basic tank pattern.  After a couple of disasterous draping attempts I decided that rather than reinvent the wheel I'd start with a free tank pattern and decided on the Sorbetto Tank from Collette.  I knew that there were a few issues with the pattern but I also knew that I was going to have to do a lot of adjustments anyway so just decided to start with that.

To begin the process I used a piece of satin left over from making a pajama set for my mum. As I was limited with fabric I eliminated the front pleat.

I cut the sorbetto to a size 12 all around and then basted it together and tried it on.  Quite a few modifications were required.  Once I was happy with my modifications I trimmed all the seam lines down, took everything apart and compared it to the pattern.

The shoulders and neckline were cut to about a size 6.  On the back piece I graded between a 6 under the arms, a 12 at the waist and a 10 at the hips.  On the front piece I graded between 10 under the arms, 8 at the waist and 12 at the hips.

Of course I couldn't leave it there though. I decided to try and make the pattern into a cross over top. I made the back neckline into a shallow V  and brought the front neckline down from the shoulder to about 3" across the center line.

To make the shirt I used a peacock fabric that I picked up at Walmart of all places.  I've noticed that my local Walmarts have started stocking Pellon interfacing really cheaply and I wanted to pick some up and I saw this fabric on the shelf.  I  have a love affair going with peacocks and couldn't resist buying this.

 I used a 1.5" band folded over and clean finished to complete the front and back necklines and 1" facings on the armhole that I turned under and stitched down.  After trying on the shirt the cross over gaped quite a bit so in the end I top stitched the whole neckline down.

I added a 3" band to the bottom of the shirt, but after trying it on decided I didn't like that length.  Rather than take it all apart I just turned the band up and stitched it in place. I like the way the extra weight makes the shirt hang.

I love the way the shirt feels.  Its cool and airy and very comfortable so I find myself reaching for it quite a bit.  I just need to make more shorts to match it!

It looks from these pictures like I need to do a few modifications to the back piece - it seems to be pulling up in the center a bit.