FTA collar
Martha asked about the collar that I used on the Farewell To Arms in the last post.
It’s a plain band – a rectangle cut on the straight grain. The finished collar is 2 inches wide.
Here’s a photo (tried pinning it to hold everything flat. The neck opening has a pretty tight curve, so it gives shape even to this straight collar.)
And here’s a diagram…again, it’s not very neat, but sometimes a line drawing gives better information than a photo:
The collar was cut all in one long strip. First the short ends were seamed together , then the upper edge was stitched. The seam joining the two short ends was positioned to be at the center back, on the inside – no extra bulk where the edges meet the front, just like the collars that Louise designs.
I hope this answers your question, Martha!
SAM #3
Another one that I pushed to finish so that it could go in the Stash Contest. There’s always a continuous “sew the stash….sew the stash…” loop running in the background and I kind of have the feeling that this will be the year that I actually do it. My pattern is generally that I buy a heap of fabric in January when everyone has new year’s sales on. This year I’ve pretty much resisted and am making a game of picking the fabric on the top of the pile and making it up, without regard to a master wardrobe plan. I think it will be fun.
This is another version of Cutting Line Design’s Farewell To Arms, one of the old patterns in the line. It may be out of print by now. It’s in the style of the 80′s big shirts, which I still enjoy wearing. The fabric for this one is a tencel blend, I think. It has that tencel feel, which is kind of like a heavy peach fuzzy silk. Yes, it is nice on the skin. You can’t see in the photo, but the basic blue is shot through with gray threads, so it has a subtle texture to it.
Pattern alterations: I changed the camp collar to a little band collar, which I am partial to lately. The other alteration was to take some volume out of the sleeve cap. They are positively huge on this pattern, so even with the alteration they are very roomy. Here is the method -
please excuse the rough hand drawing. I truly appreciate anyone who takes the time to read my blog, but this time around I just didn’t feel like firing up the drawing program to make a neat diagram. You can get the gist of it from the sketch. On the sleeve, I folded out an inch from both the back and the front of the sleeve, on the dotted lines, for a total of two inches. This pattern has a great big old sleeve cap that tapers to relatively dainty wrist openings. The lack of volume at the wrists is good for us hippy girls – lots of fabric flopping around at our sides right at that latitude is not flattering. Then, to make the armscye match, it was raised an inch on both the front and back. This low-tech alteration worked just fine.
Here’s the back. One of the options with this pattern is an elastic casing in the back to take up a little of the fullness. I gathered it, but didn’t make it snug at all. The placement of the casing seems awfully low, even on long-waisted me. I think I’ll pick it out and move it up a couple of inches.
The fold on the shoulder is from carelessness in the photo shoot – nothing wrong with the pattern there.
There’s another change going on in my sewing thinking these days. I have always been an avid SWAPer and thought in terms of total wardrobe. That made lots of sense since most of my clothing was for office wear. However, I am now looking beyond the office. In a year and a half I should be retiring from corporate life and concentrating on my own art biz. Looking forward to that, I’m thinking in terms of outfits. For each shirt or top I sew this year, I am also trying to sew pants or a jacket that specifically co-ordinates with the top. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to the coming purge of office wear! Meantime, I am no longer sewing for the office. More on all of that later.
SAM #2
I hustled up on this shirt so that it could go in the PatternReview Stash Contest. Other contestents, be afraid…I have sewn a whole 2.5 yards.
This is basically the same pattern as SAM #1, but with lots of tweaks. Thoughtful Ottobre gives you lots of options with the basic shirt/blouse in their 2-2006 Women’s issue: sleeves, no sleeves, camp collar, collar with stand, lots of darts, fewer darts, and so on. This time I made the version with the collar and stand, and further refined the features and fit from SAM #1.
Alterations: The yoke was made deeper both into the back and the front, and the shoulders were made just a wee bit narrower. Altering was easy since seam allowances were never added to the pattern tracing.
Other changes: The pattern has a simple cut-on facing which is just what you want sometimes. I wanted to experiment with a cut-on mock band, and used the instructions provided by Liana in her tutorial. One of the nice things about this method is that the band is self-interfaced – saves time, aggravation, and gives a very pleasing result! In addition, there were cosmetic changes like the spade hem, the angled shape of which was echoed in the shape of the pocket and cuffs.
For the placket, I used the two-piece method shown here by Pam Erny. This photo set from Sigrid seems to show the same technique more clearly. This was a lot easier for me than the usual one-piece placket and less bulky than the “magic plackets” where one fat binding strip is used.
Other details – the collar band on the pattern is squared off, not rounded, which is much easier to sew. Yes, I want to practice the standard rounded collar stand, too, but am saving that for later. The collar itself was re-drafted to one piece like the collars in Cutting Line Designs patterns – less bulk in the points, and puts the undercollar on the bias. With this method, you end up with a seam in the center back of the undercollar, and if anyone ever sees it, they will see cool chevrons because of the bias.
When cutting out, I skootched the CB away from the fold so I could make a pleat. 
When I was putting in the hem, I thought of those little triangles extolled by David Page Coffin as part of classic shirtmaking. I’ve never seen the little triangles in real life, so wasn’t sure how they were supposed to look. In this application, they’re supposed to cover the transition from a flat-felled seam all pressed over to one side, and the hem where you have to snip,flip, or fold the uppermost seam allowance in order to turn up the hem. This is what I came up with. Does anyone know if these look right?
This is now the 4th time that I’ve made this pattern, and the fit is refined to the point that it’s a solid TNT. Actually, I should get some photos of it on me so I can see the back before giving it that status. When the photographer is in the mood, I’ll do that. If it looks good, I’ll make a new tracing WITH seam allowances and maybe get it a special colored bag to live in. It really deserves the best.
Additional details:
- fabric is very nice cotton shirting that came from Super Textiles, I think.
- interfacing is Fashion Sewing Supply’s sew-in Pro-Woven Standard. I interfaced both sides of the collar, stand, and cuffs – two layers gives the right amount of body for me. The front band was self-interfaced.
- Cuffs attached using the Fashion Incubator’s tutorials – links are included in the SAM#1 post.
- Collar attached using the Debbie & Belinda method, which is has a lot in common with the Fashion Incubator cuff. Worked great, and I don’t know if I’ll search for any other collar methods.
And now to critique time.
The fabric has lots of pretty colors but is an irregular stripe. I turned my brain inside out trying to match it, but did a bad job. Neither the front band nor the sleeve plackets ended up matching the way I thought they would. Does anyone know of any tips for matching irregular stripes?
And I still need a bit of practice on the plackets. Looks like I didn’t get them absolutely straight, and there are small tucks on the inside that I was too lazy to unpick and re-sew. I never like re-sewing things with small seam allowances – seems like they just get more raggedy and can look worse when “fixed” than they did before re-sewing. Besides, they don’t show on the outside.
Next up: jeans to go with this shirt. Starting from scratch.
one last jacket
Finishing 2011 on a high note….the Paco Peralta T-Coat! This is my first pattern from Paco and it was a joy to work with.
Back when the JAM started around this time last year, Fabric Mart was running a special on their Shetland wools and it seemed like everyone was buying some. There were some awesome coats made at the time. I got a piece of the alpine green, because I’ve always wanted a loden coat and this is probably as close as I’ll get. It was the only piece of fabric I specifically bought for JAM, so it gives closure on the project to actually make it up.
For the style, I wanted something classic. Coats don’t get a lot of wear here, and it needs to work for many years. I also wanted a hint of folkloric flavor. Paco’s design, with its straight T shape, front yoke, and stand-up collar, has both those qualities. This and other patterns are sold in Paco’s etsy shop – you can see his sample coat and more information about the pattern there.
About the pattern: It came hand-drawn on vellum-type paper. Sizing is S-M-L. 5/8 inch seam and hem allowances are included, and there are separate lining pieces. There are no instructions.
I was pretty cocky about the no-instructions part, since there were so few pattern pieces and because the pattern is so well-drafted and marked. In the end, it was fortunate that Tany had already made this coat and posted her order of construction in her review. I also followed her recommendataions for interfacing.
Construction notes – a back stay and thin shoulder pads were added.
It was a pleasure to make this coat. Everything went together so well! It was so much fun that I’m thinking of how to adapt the pattern to be a top and maybe a robe. One of the really nice features is the way the sizes are drawn out on the pattern paper. You know how with most multi-sized patterns, if you cut out one size, you loose important cutting lines for the other sizes? The way this pattern is drawn, the sizes are nested. If you cut the largest size (yes, I actually cut it!), all the smaller sizes are still there, intact. So if I want to make a top, and think the size M has enough ease, it’s all there for me. Nice touch!
The only change I will make in future is that I would lower the pockets. I didn’t think to check the position of these before making up, and they’re a little high on me. That’s a pretty small quibble.
Here’s a happy girl in her new coat, ready for 2012!
(Thinks she’s an extra in The Sound of Music)
SAM #1
New year coming up, with a new sewing challenge. Sewing shirts will be a good way to work on precision sewing skills. If you mark accurately and sew accurately, it’s all going to come out right… right? And there are many tips out there in the vast internet for doing a better job on collars and cuffs, which I have to admit have been hit or miss operations for me so far. I want to turn out reliably good details.
If you’d like to follow the sewalong, it’s happening on Stitcher’s Guild.
- glamor shot of the first shirt
Here is shirt #1. PeggyL might have seen this fabric before….maybe even have a piece of it? It’s one of the silks I picked up while visiting her.
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Made a fresh tracing (I’ve made this shirt before) without seam allowances.
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Did a few alterations based on the previous shirt. Ottobre fits me really well so there wasn’t much to do; just a forward shoulder adjustment, narrow the shoulder a tad, raise (!) the bust dart a bit, and widen the sleeve bicep.
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Taped the front and back together at the shoulders and marked the yoke. I made the yoke so it goes over the shoulder line into the front a bit. That mark was made parallel to the shoulder line. The back yoke depth was marked perpendicular to the center back.
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Cut out the yoke on the marked lines.
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Easy! This is why it’s nice to have patterns without seam allowances. They were added on as I cut out. I plan to work a lot with this pattern over the next year. Once I get a full suite of variations worked out, I’ll probably go back and trace the pieces with s/a, but for pattern manipulation this is the way to go.
Other design changes – because the silk was lightweight and fluid, I kept the horizontal bust darts but left all the verticals out. Changed the shape of the cuff, and that’s it.
My Rocketeer has a previously un-used straight stitch plate and my, that made a nice difference! When I put the plate on, I also put a piece of tape on the zig-zag controls so that I’d remember not to mess with them.
The cuff method was a success! Before attaching the cuff, a placket binding was applied using the instructions from Clare Shaffer’s sewing shortcuts book. Again, it seemed like trying for a real placket was asking for trouble.
Kathleen’s cuff method includes a little trick when constructing the cuff. Then once the cuff is done, you sandwich the sleeve in between the two cuff sides, and topstitch. Everything is attached with the single row of topstitching. You can add additional topstitching if you like.
In the photo the cuff is held together with a pin and threads have not been trimmed yet, so it’s a little messy. The contrast in the photo is pumped up so that you can maybe see the line of stitching. NOTE TO SELF: DON’T USE BLACK FABRIC WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO LEARN THINGS! It was hard to see the details while working.
That about wraps it up except for a poor hanger shot of the back, so that the yoke is visible.
Merry Christmas!
My best wishes to you, whether you keep Christmas or not.
This is a little nativity scene which I designed and made way back when I was young and ambitious. The idea was that I would add a new figure or animal every year. As you can see, I didn’t get very far, but it’s the sort of thing I can always pick up and start again as long as DMC keeps making embroidery floss.
I used the byzantine mosaics in Ravenna as my inspiration because the tiny needlepoint stitches reminded me of the stones of mosaics. The figures were roughly sketched out on a fine canvas and worked with the floss. I just picked out different stitches to use as I went along. The canvas was stitched onto felt stuffed felt forms that have heavy cardboard in the base so they can stand up. If I was starting this 
now, I’d just cut out some thin board and mount them flat. If St. Joseph ever gets to where he can’t stand on his own, I’ll fix them all up that way.
In keeping with the byzantine style, I used some conventions from early Christian icongraphy: the baby’s one hand is raised in blessing, and the other holds a fish, just in case you d
on’t realize who he is. He is also differentiated from the other holy figures by his nimbus.
I should really finish this out some day – the style was absolutely made for depicting resplendent figures like the wise men.
JAM #12
Jacket a month is finished! There are still plans for a coat, but more about that later.
This is McCall’s 6775, that has been with me since I first made it circa 1979. I liked it back then, enough that I’ve preserved it through many moves and purges. It’s one of those “Make it tonight, wear it tomorrow” patterns – 3 main pattern pieces plus a facing. Even the pockets are cut on.
Well, I didn’t exactly make it overnight, but it was easy and pleasurable. The fabric is a wool blend herringbone with several colors that are found in my wardrobe – teal, black, beige, off-white – so it will go with lots of things. I bought it originally with another pattern in mind, the Cutting Line Of the Moment. I want to make that one, but just can’t find fabric that seems right. Anyway, it got cold a couple of weeks ago, and I needed a light coat. I decided to use this fabric and then remembered the old pattern.
I added some width to the bottom, figuring that my shoulders were pretty much the same as in 1979 but my hips are not. Turns out I didn’t need the extra. Why does flat pattern measuring never work out for me? Also added 1 inch in length.
Interfaced with Fashion Sewing Supply’s Pro-Tailor Deluxe and that was just right.
There was some gray Ambiance in stash for lining (pattern is designed to be unlined). At first I thought I’d be putting shoulder pads in there, but the shoulder is surprisingly fitted, and there was no room for a pad.
Leather buttons, also from stash. I harnessed up the old Singer buttonhole attachment since I knew the coating would never fit under the Janome buttonhole foot. Turns out it was a really tight fit even under the Singer, but the buttonholer easily handled maneuvering the fabric once it was in place.
That’s it – nice lightweight coat with a swingy hem.
The Jacket-A Month challenge was such a great idea – thanks to Marciae on Stitcher’s Guild for suggesting it and starting the sewalong. My skills improved, and beyond that I learned a good lesson about my personal style. Here’s a composite of all the jackets (some are mere cardigans since we all agreed that any 3rd layer could count). A couple are outlined in red…because I ended up wearing them only a few times and then deciding they just weren’t me. Note that they’re the ones that are the most “fashion-y”. I liked the styles, thought they were darling on other people, and really wanted them. But in the end I didn’t feel good wearing them. The jackets that were either classic or casual get worn all the time. LESSON LEARNED.
What’s up next? There are a couple of things I’m really excited about. I still need a warmer coat, and have purchased Paco Peralta’s T-Coat pattern. Paco is a Barcelona designer who is making patterns available through his Etsy store. Looks like he has taken the store offline for Christmas vacation, as it’s empty right now. I can’t seem to swipe an image to insert here, so you’ll have to go to the blog to look. Isn’t it beautiful? I have a loden wool, one of those Shetland wools from Fabric Mart, earmarked for this and hope it make it up over Christmas break. I don’t have a (nice) heavy coat right now, and even in Texas you need one sometimes.
The other thing I’m excited about is a new XXX A Month challenge. I’ve been feeling like shirts lately and mentioned on Stitcher’s Guild that I’d like to do one a month in 2012. Turns out that sounded good to other people, too, and there’s a pretty active thread going on here. Join us and perfect your shirt/blouse patterns and work on precision sewing skills!
PatternReview Anniversary
Last weekend I was down in Austin for the PatternReview shindig so ably planned and managed by Leslie in Austin, and returned home so exhausted (and happy!) that it took the week to recover and get to this blog entry.
I met so many wonderful seamstresses whose work I look forward to following on PR and anywhere else I can track them down! There were a total of 40 people who participated in at least some of the events.
And they were super duper events. A pants-fitting workshop, a very timely class at Sew Much More demonstrating some hems and specialized feet, fabric trunk show by Fabricker with some really exciting stuff, shopping at The Common Thread where everything was sooo elegant, a visit to Silk Road, and unexpected finds at Stitch Lab. And the social events – we had a fabulous celebratory dinner on Saturday Night, with space and cocktail hour sponsored by Sew Much More, which really added to the festivities, and gave us all an excuse to wear our fun party clothes! Fabricker contributed to our dinner, too. Texstyles gave us a patio party the following night and everyone loaded up on their extremely well-priced knits. Texstyles also gave away fabric for a Project Runway type challenge, so I’ll be looking for the results.
I was a slacker in the picture-taking department, so all I can show is what I bought.
The versatile confetti knit came from The Common Thread, and we bought every inch they had. I think most of the ladies in our group bought some of this fabric and it’s going to be so much fun to see what each person turns it into.
From left to right, starting with the dark blue:
Blue linen/cotton blend from Fabricker
Beige/Taupe stretch cotton and taupe linen from Silk Road
Retro cotton voile from Stitch Lab. I loved the 30′s style colors in that print, and the hand is lovely. Common Thread also had some beautiful voiles.
This is a very special find from Stitch Lab. The fabric on the top is from my mother’s cedar chest. There is only a small piece, and it’s quite brittle, especially where it was folded. I wanted to do something with it, but am a bit afraid to work with something so fragile, and would be very upset if I ruined it.
Check out the fabric below! The very same print, just slightly different colors. It brought tears to my eyes when I saw it. How often do you weep in a fabric store? Stitch Lab had a bolt and several remnant bundles of this fabric (and several other sewing-themed prints). I am so glad to have this. It can be used for sewing-room decor, and the original can be preserved unharmed.
I made up a couple of unique sewing-related items for door prize gifties. If you have a stitcher on your Christmas list, or if you would like to gift youself, I put these up in a Cafe Press store. The store itself is under construction and doesn’t look as pretty as it will someday….steep learning curve there….but the items are available and I’ll be adding more.
Check these and other products out at Mooney Designs! I’d love to hear what you think about them. (At the shop, scroll down below the Dachshund Christmas cards to get to the sewing stuff.)
fancy schmancy
Firstly, it’s been a surprise that several people have subscribed to this blog lately! Thank you! Since this is mainly a personal sewing journal, it’s really gratifying that anyone finds it interesting enough to follow. I’m glad to have you here…and knowing that you’re reading will prod me to up my posting game. Now, on to the topic at hand.
Sometimes you have a need for dress-up clothes. Gala evenings are not part of my life, nor is the nightclub scene, but there are concerts and holiday evenings where a little bling adds to the festivity. An outfit with something sparkly, that can still be worn comfortably and somewhat casually is a nice wardrobe addition.
In making an outfit for those occasions, I used two treasured pieces of stash – heavy, drapey 4-ply silk for a pair of CLD one-seam pants; and the beaded silk chiffon I got from Britex that I wrote about here.
There’s not too much to write about the pants. The pattern is a re-issue of Cutting Line Designs very popular One-Seam pant. The pattern is basically the same, with instructions for a closer fit if desired , optional darts , and new pocket and tab details which I haven’t tried yet.
There is a straight leg version and tapered in the envelope. For evening pants, the fuller straight leg seemed like the way to go. The idea was that I would make fitted tops to wear with them. To make these up, I followed the step-by-step fitting instructions in the pattern, using the darts and removing a little width. They are still loose, all the better for sitting through concerts in comfort. If I succeed in loosing some weight, I’ll take them in by adding a side seam straight up the grainline.
The sleeveless shell top took much more time than you would think, 
given the simplicity of the pattern. This is the closest to couture sewing that I have ever done, and there was heaps of basting, thread tracing, removing basting, and hand stitching. Very little machine sewing. Special thread was bought for this project – japanese cotton basting thread, and silk thread for the hand sewing. I got those goodies at Shibori Dragon.
The pattern was in the fall/winter Ottobre 2009. Ottobre fits me pretty darn well and I have been very happy with the nice drafting and basic styles they offer. Two muslins were made: the first one to make fitting adjustments and the second one just to be sure that the adjustments were right. Adjustments: lowered the bust point a tiny bit; took a small gaposis pinch at the front armscye and rotated that into the bust dart; also took a very, very small pinch in the neckline so it would snug up; and adjusted the side seams to add width at the hip. That neckline pinch was so small it didn’t get rotated into anything.
I didn’t photograph all the construction steps, but here they are for any interested parties. Thanks to the members at Stitcher’s Guild for coaching in how to handle the project!
Step one was to baste the beaded chiffon to a silk underlining. Baste, baste, baste, all over the areas where the pattern pieces would lie. There was only ¾ of a yard of that chiffon because it was expensive. The pattern just fit with single layer cutting. Facings were cut from the underlining fabric and a fusible interfacing was applied. I used Pam Erny’s xxx.
Step two: Lay the pattern on the fabrics and thread trace all edges and darts (did not add seam allowances to the pattern to make this part easy).
Step three: Cut out, adding seam allowances. Crush the beads in the seam allowances, hem, and darts.
Step four was the actual construction. All seams were hand basted before stitching. Seam allowances and hems were overcast and tacked to the underlining by hand. Facings were understitched by hand and tacked to the underlining, too. 
Underlinings are wonderful and I’m going to use them more. Hand picked zipper – my first; I did what I could to make it perfect, including measuring my stitches with tiger tape; but it’s still a good thing that textured fabric hides a lot. To finish up, there was a lot of basting to pick out.
Whew! As I kept telling myself, “If you’re going to buy those fancy fabrics, you have to do what it takes to make them up.” I’m glad to have had the experience, and am really happy to have fitted the shell. It’s another good classic to have as a TNT.
So here it is on me in a bad photo, and you can see a little of the pants. Hard to photograph black, and it does sparkle which isn’t showing up in the photo either. When I wear this in real life, it will be with a wrap of some sort.
This outfit gets its debut at cocktail hour next week – at the PatternReview anniversary get-together in Austin! I’m looking forward to meeting lots of sewing enthusiasts there!
JAM #11
Jacket #11 is another Anything But Ordinary. This is such a simple jacket which lends itself to interesting fabric. And since it’s simple, it goes together quickly.
In one of her newsletters Louise suggested making an ABO ensemble, using the pattern for both a shirt and jacket, but cutting the collar of the jacket a half inch shorter so that the shirt collar peeks out all around. Since I had bought this lovely Japanese cotton from Louise specifically to make an ABO, I went stash diving to see what there was for the shirt portion. There was a nice mid-weight silk that reminds me a lot of chambray. They looked good together!
I made the shirt first. Simple pattern + plain fabric can be pretty boring, so I decided to channel stitch the collar and center front openings. All was going smoothly until…..slice….I had my first serger accident and nicked a three-quarter inch V out of one of the sleeves. What to do? If it had been in an inconspicuous place I would have darned it and figured no one but me would ever know. But there it was, right on the front of the sleeve, saying “Hi, I’m your big fat mistake and I’ll be your design opportunity this evening”.
So, the nick got patched. To make it look more intentional, I duplicated the channel stitching from the collar on the patch. And to keep the fluidity of the silk, the edges were frayed instead of turned under. To further the illusion that I did it all on purpose, patches were scattered randomly over the top.
I was pretty disgusted with myself when I made the boo-boo, but now I’ve gotten over that and actually like the way it turned out. Three cheers for cooling-off periods!
Here are the front and back views of the shirt.
With patches. And the CF is fastened with snaps.
On to the jacket. Even though this was planned to be worn over a silk shirt, I wanted to line the jacket to give it a little extra substance and so I could wear it over other things. I just loooooove the print and think it will be worn a lot. Around this time, Sewing on the Edge had a post about her “cheater” lining method that she used on her fab corduroy jacket. Just what was needed!
The lining meant that I could put shoulder pads in and they would be hidden. Louise is a big shoulder pad fan…that is, a big fan of the pads, not a fan of big pads…and always recommends them. What a difference it makes! Sets the jacket squarely on the shoulders and improves the hang.
My main issue with many Cutting Line and Sewing Workshop patterns, the ones without darts, is that they hike up in the front and I don’t know how to do a FBA without adding a dart. I tried adding a bust dart on a previous iteration and did not like the outcome at all. It went in the trash. So for this one, I decided that I would go for an angled hem, and cut it about 2 inches longer at center front. Well, it hangs straight. So I am pleased with that but would still like to know how to do an FBA and maintain the perfectly perpendicular CF and hemline that these designs are supposed to have.
Here’s the stacked collar shot. I love these buttons on this fabric!
I feel like I’m getting a handle on art to wear that I’m comfortable in. This ensemble has had its first outing and I didn’t regret wearing it one bit.
