Thanks to SG (And RuthieK)

Holiday Clothes Part 1

I've read, followed and took gratuitous advice over the years from Stitchers' Guild but only recently have I started to join in, share and reply. There is an absolutely overwhelming amount of information on this sewing forum but the links, personal communication and support have been invaluable recently - mostly from Ann Rowley's Chanel jacket make. However, RuthieK started a new thread the other day about boiled wool and it reminded me about a dress I made for Christmas two years ago - before I started blogging. I can't, therefore, display "work in progress" pics but I can show you the final item and a few details. I didn't wear this dress at all last year, so bringing it out again this year almost made it feel like new.

Fabric is not quite white but a pale ivory and I was concerned that it was too thick for a dress preferring to be made into a coat or jacket. But for a winter dress it turned out fine.  The boiled wool was purchased at my local fabric shop - Craftswoman Fabrics - and cost an arm and an leg per metre! There's 2m used here. 

The pattern, I think, is McCall's 2401 - an easy, very basic dress with neck and sleeve variations. I wanted the v.expensive fabric to do the talking here, not the design. I like this simple dress as it has no cut-in-half waistline and can be as fitted or relaxed as you want. I made the V neck style but lengthened sleeves to 3/4 length.

Have I told you how much I love 3/4 sleeves? Shows off bangles and bling; don't have to push up when washing dishes and covers the upper arm - perfect in my book.

When making this dress, I seem to remember that it kept growing as I was sewing. I darted the fronts and back and then made bigger darts. With a bulky fabric, such big darts were not not going to be as svelte as I had envisaged. To over come the bulk, I sliced the darts open to within a hair's breadth of the ends and then topstitched the excess flat. This sort of created a design feature, while doing what I really wanted - smooth lines.

Boiled wool doesn't fray or unravel - a blessing but it does seem to stretch while working it. The neckline gapped and sagged when I kept trying the dress on, so there was nothing left to do but make more darts. I added four along the back edge, two long and two short and seemed to do the trick. If I remember correctly, there wasn't that much to take in, just enough to make the fit better.

The dress is fully lined in a slightly stretchy lining. For such a bulky fabric, it was see-through when worn and I still wear a slip underneath too.

Mince pie, anyone? (My Mum made these ones!)

The dress is still growing BTW. I love my food as evidenced by my womanly figure, and the frock fully accommodated my increasing midriff as the day progressed.

On the actual day - Christmas Day this year that is, I seem to remember more of this....

 .... and in reality, I think this is how I looked most of the day - no-one saw the dress until 7.00pm! And by then they were all dozing and sated and didn't really care.

 Come to that, neither did I.

Happy Mac

Thank you for all your help in choosing a summer rain coat pattern. In the end I opted for the German Pattern Company's linen one with kimono sleeves and belt.  The fabric I bought is a linen and cotton mix so you get the look and feel of linen without the millions of wrinkles. It is a creamy buttermilk colour that will go with anything. You may remember I wanted a colourful, happy lining and found this lily flower in a pink colour-way locally. I loved this fabric so much I bought enough to do the lining and make a dress!!!!  The problem with the linen though was it has a loose weave and the flowers showed through, so I had to underline the jacket with a cream cotton. This jacket therefore has three layers and became a little more substantial than originally intended. Oh the joy and unexpected outcomes of home sewing! Anyhow, three layers should be enough to protect me from summer showers. I'll maybe spray some Scotchguard on a sample to see how it turns out. Have you ever 'waterproofed' fabric? What happened?

Cotton underlining, patterned lining and shell linen mix fabric.

The pattern is for an unlined jacket so I just cut the same pieces minus the front facing for the underling and the lining and sewed these as one. It's actually the lining that over lined, the shell fabric is separate if you see what I mean? I made two jackets - one in the linen and one for the lining and then bagged the whole lot together.

 The underlining worked a treat and there's no 'show through'.

I topstitched the whole way around the edge of the jacket by using two threads in the one needle. I added a white thread to the colour coordinated cream one to make the topstitching stand out a little more. Instead of using a thicker thread which tends to tangle in my machine and saves re-threading every time you want to do topstitching.

The belt system is great. I had reservations about a belted coat but this is just marvellous. There are two slits in the side seams and the loose belt threads through these on the inside. The effect therefore, is a neat belted front (with a waist) and a loose, straight back - no sway back visible. Of course, the belt can be removed or even worn around the back and loose at the front - what ever takes your fancy.

 

 The jacket is an easy make, especially as there are no sleeves to ease and insert. As it is meant to be casual and loose, fitting is not an issue either. I opted for patch pockets but the pattern comes with side seam pockets too if you want. The pattern is also marked for different lengths so you could easily make a short bolero-style as shown on the pattern photo. As usual, the instructions are in German but this time I just followed instinct and didn't try to translate or decipher.

Now you see the reason for fighting with the dress - matching lining!  

And my solution to all the dress sewing headaches - a little pink draped cardi made from leftovers of the twisted front jumper and the pattern from Three Hours Past

Under collar and turned back sleeves reveal the matching fabrics.

coutureallure - 1950s coat and fitted dress

I bagged the lining of the jacket so it has quite a neat finish - almost reversible - and if I really feel like it I can go for all out chaos. It's a bit much and too matchy-matchy but reminiscent of 1950/60s coat and dress suits.

The dress turned out OK in the end - by no means perfect but wearable. The jacket though I'm really pleased with - it almost ticked every box in my very specific Mac wishlist.......

 .........and would you believe it - it's NOT RAINING! Ruth