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pattern testing: the minoru jacket

time to talk about the minoru! finally! for those of you who don’t follow (the… three of you? ever?), tasia of sewaholic patterns recently dropped her 4th pattern, a darling sporty jacket called the minoru. i was chosen to be a pattern tester (out of 600!! geez louise!), which was awesome, except for the part about dropping all my sewing fun-times for 2 weeks :). this was also during the dark month that my truck had died & i hadn’t replaced it yet… so i actually rode the bus to the fabric store. it took an hour (for maaaaybe a 14 mile drive?). that is some dedication, y’all!

anyway, a few of the pattern testers have already posted theirs, so i will follow suit and post mine.

i’d actually been toying with the idea of making a cycling jacket – something brightly colored, to increase visibility now that the sun is setting earlier & earlier. when i saw that the pattern we were testing was going to be a sporty jacket, it was like god himself had sent the pattern down to me from the heavens. i initially wanted to make my jacket in a bright yellow corduroy, but the fabric store was lacking (and i didn’t have the means to shop around), so i stuck with white. in retrospect, this was not the best idea i have ever had – it gets dirty faster (duh!), my patterned lining shows through, and it is hard as shit to photograph. btw, i think i took over 150 pictures of this jacket. it was that hard to photograph.

anyway, the pattern itself was a total breeze to work through! tasia has it labeled as intermediate, but i think an advanced beginner could easily tackle this. the instructions are great & the pieces lined up nicely! i did have to make a few changes to get the pattern to work for me – the big one was a full bust adjustment. since these patterns are for the pear-inclined, there is not a lot of room up there! i had a bit of trouble since this jacket doesn’t actually have any darts in the front, so i had to add my own dart & then slash and spread from there. i also shortened the jacket, as the original length overwhelmed my short frame.
one thing i wish i had done was interfaced the collar – it doesn’t call for it in the instructions, but it is also assumed that you are using a heavier fabric. my corduroy was very fine & lightweight (hence the see-thru), and my collar just flops. i considered interfacing it while i was making the thing up, but i wanted to stay as true to the pattern/directions as possible so i could offer better feedback. so there’s my feedback – use a sturdy fabric, or use interfacing!

anyway, i love my jacket and i love all the fun details that make it so special – the topstitching (btw – buy 2 spools of thread. you will need them!), the fine gathering, THAT ELASTIC WAISTBAND THAT IS BEAUTIFUL AND GENIUS (sorry, i got excited for a second there), the inside pockets, the collar. i will definitely make this again – in my preferred yellow, with an interfaced collar 🙂 and a hood. i think i missed out by not doing the hood.

anyway, pictures!

lovelovelove the back

i am including this picture bc it cracks me up. i was trying to show the lining & i sneezed!

pockets!

and some detail shots…

ALSO one last thing…

minoru & bike.
you jealous? 🙂

Tags: bike, completed, jacket, minoru, pattern testing

Comments 33 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

completed: colette peony, in a floral explosion

14 Nov

first off, i realize i took way too many pictures of myself making the same pose/face in this dress. i’m sorry. i tried to edit them down as much as possible. i also apologize for the crappy lighting – i think i might be the only sewing blogger who’s not married to a photographer? just me & my tripod! and don’t tell me to move away from the coral wall, or i will hit you with the empty paint can 🙂

moving on…

i finished my dress! so happy with the final piece – it is AMAZING! let’s talk shop – i made this using a stretch velveteen fabric. stretch fabric is NOT my choice for this dress, the neckline sits kind of weird & i had to do all kinds of alterations to get it to fit (as it stretched too big, when my woven muslin was a perfect fit). i didn’t realize the fabric was stretch until i received it in the mail… my bad for not reading the description more closely, oh well. i added piping to the neckline & waistline, and interfaced the facing with god ol’ cotton muslin. instead of using an invisible zipper (i was afraid it would bubble under that stretch fabric), i handpicked a lapped zipper, stabilized with a strip of silk organza.

as far as the actual fit of the pattern, me likey! it did require a little tweaking – MAKE A MUSLIN – i had to move my vertical darts over and my horizontal darts up, but the overall fit is good! and it doesn’t use a whole lot of fabric. win win! i cut a size 4 and added a 1/2″ FBA… i think this made the shoulders fit better than if i had cute a size 4.

using the pockets

omg pockets!

back
the bunching on the cummerbund is due to there being no stabilization at the buttonhole (i used polyester taffeta for my cummerbund, fyi). next time, i will put some interfacing there.

want to see the dress without the cummerbund? you got it!

(no idea what my face is doing here)

ooh i love piping.

per usual, i finished the edge of my facing with rayon seam binding. i actually found this in my stash – the color is called “toast,” but i think it looks more like “baby shit.” anyway, it matches my dress (should i be unhappy about this?). oh, the red lines are from my markings. they won’t wash off this fabric, awesome.

more baby shit at the hem!

taffeta cummerbund. i love that this pattern only uses one button – awesome if you’re a button hoarder like me and have jars and jars of awesome buttons and only one of each.

so yep! that’s my peony! i really love this dress, the pockets, the fit – everything! so much that i’ve already cut out my pieces for peony #2… and i know y’all want a little sneaky peeky, so here you go 🙂

😉

Tags: completed, dress, peony, sneaky peeky

Comments 31 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

completed: the galaxy dress, a loving ripoff

8 Nov

i know we’re all familar with the roland mouret’s galaxy dress:

although i did not discover it until last year, it became an instant “must-have.” lucky me, vogue 8280 it an absolute, blatant rip-off, making this dress completely obtainable for my greedy hands.

let me preface this post by saying this pattern is confusing as shit. it’s not necessarily difficult, per se, but the instructions jump around a lot and i noticed many people were complaining that they inadvertently caught themselves sewing up the wrong view. so, fair warning, y’all. i went over the instructions before sewing, circled & highlighted what i needed, and wrote things like “STOP!” and “DON’T DO THIS!!!!1″ under the ones that were unnecessary.

that was my smart moment.
my not-so-smart moment was skipping the muslin. oops. i ended up having to open up the shoulders & remove about 5/8” from each piece. this is an adjustment i ALWAYS make with vogue patterns – why i didn’t make the adjustment to the flat pattern, i have no idea. sometimes i just refuse to learn from my mistakes.

the pattern calls for lining only the bodice and self-facing the flanges with the fashion fabric. since my fabric is a super wooly, super itchy tweed, i interlined them with cotton & faced with my lining. i also lined the skirt and covered the sleeve heads as well. the whole thing is pink on the inside! yay pink! i also stitched down the flanges to the bodice, as otherwise they would have have just been flapping around, and no. the pattern calls for no interfacing or stay-stitching (right??), and i was afraid those seams around the neckline would stretch, so i stabilized them with strips of silk organza – both the bodice neckline & the curves of the flanges. nothin’ sadder than a gapey neckline, amirite?

i used the aforementioned itchy wool tweed (yard sale score – $3 for 4 yards OH YEAH) and watermelon-pink bemberg rayon (left over from my circle skirt) to line. i actually stashbusted the shit out of this project; the only things i had to buy were the seam binding and a spool of brown thread. basically, my galaxy dress cost me less than $10. take that, mouret!

this is a *very* fitted style, as evidenced by the booty protrusion

i put a lapped zipper in the back since i was afraid an invisible zip would have trouble zipping over those layers. i like the effect, but i got a small bubble at the waistline. ugh.

had to lighten this photo, but check out the sleeve detail! yeehaw!
also, i know i kind of look preggers here but i promise i’m not 😉

here’s a little progress shot – the sleeves are giant & droopy without support, so i made a sleeve cap to give them some lift. i used horsehair crinoline and stuck it between the sleeve & the sleeve lining. the instructions wanted me to put it on top of the lining… why?

happy sleeve!
i ended up tacking my down by about 1/2″ at the sides – they were super huge & too footballesque, otherwise!

the lining took forever because i had to keep changing out the thread from brown to pink. i think it was worth it, though.

put a little seam binding at the hem

the neckline also had it’s fair share of problems (something i could have dealt with if i’d bothered to make a proper muslin!) – it is wide. too wide to wear a normal bra with! i don’t do strapless and i don’t do braless, so i sewed these little snaps inside the V to hook my bra to.

and here is the bra i sacrificed to the galaxy dress. it was the most low-cut out of any bra i own, and uhhh it’s teal blue.

so yep! there’s my galaxy dress, and another outfit down for fall/winter 2011! next up: the peony. i’m working on my muslin right now 🙂

Tags: completed, dress, fall 2011, galaxy dress, ripping off your shit, vogue

Comments 36 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

completed: ceylon v2.0

1 Nov

picking up where we left off…

this turned out to be one of those “add-on” projects. you know – the kind that start out relatively simple (TNT pattern, easy fabric, no embellishment, etc) until you begin to branch with a bunch of “oooh, let’s add THAT to it!” i decided i didn’t like the way the fusible interfacing acted when i used it last time, so i used muslin as a stabilizer (basting it to the facing pieces, then trimming it out of the seam allowances). i decided to hand-embroider the yokes – this was actually really really easy, just time-consuming (done during my lunch hour over the course of a week or so. and yes, my coworkers are used to me doing this kind of stuff in the lunchroom :B). then i decided that i didn’t like the way the facings looked serged, so i trimmed all the edges in straight lace. i hand-hemmed the sleeves & skirt bottom. and i covered all 16 buttons, using the shittiest coverable buttons i could find (aka in my stash), without a tool. my fingers hurt and i should have learned my lesson from my last ceylon, but nope. at least i used all the buttons up – and i won’t be buying them again. at least, i don’t think so. ha.

i made one small adjustment to the pattern fit – tapered in the waist & hips to a size 0. i kept the bodice at a 4. i love the fit & i didn’t have to make any further modifications after cutting! yay! i also narrowed the skirt a little, to get it to fit on my piece of fabric. i had 2 3/8 yd of 44″ fabric (which is more than a yard less than the requirements on the envelope), but i managed to get everything cut, on-grain (!!), using some very creative cutting layouts & narrowing the skirt side seams.

i put a tag in… makes me happy 🙂

OH GOD THOSE COVERED BUTTONS

lace-trimmed facing 🙂 you can see it in the sleeves, too – look closely.

embroidery detail – forgot to take a close-up on the finished dress, whoops
here is the embroidery pattern i used – it’s free! i used 2 strands of cream-colored embroidery floss & outlined everything in a backstitch. there are a few french knots, those used all 6 strands.

lace hem

oh! i also made a covered belt to wear. it is the same shade of cream as the embroidery. i used muslin and a self-covered kit. i had high hopes of putting in cute eyelets & making the whole thing super jazzy & special, but i didn’t realize i needed a tool & those eyelets were shitty 1-piece eyelets anyway and now i’m pissed off. so have a slidey belt:

what do you think? can’t decide if i like it or not. i wanted a green belt but i definitely did not have enough green wool left over after cutting out the pieces.

overall, i’m very pleased with my new dress. the fit is perfect & the wool is very warm – which is great for a southerner like me who thinks anything below 60*F should be against the law :P. the only thing that bothers me is the lace is white, and my embroidery is off-white. i considered tea-dying the lace, but it’s polyester & also i’m lazy.

special thanks to my kitchen wall for being such a gorgeous & colorful backdrop xoxo

Tags: ceylon, completed, dress, embroidery, fall 2011

Comments 42 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

completed: colette violet blouse

12 Oct

i know what you’re thinking – how the heck did i finish this blouse so freakin’ fast!? lol if by “fast” you really mean “slow.” let’s start this post with a confession: i started this blouse over a month ago, stitched up to the point of near-completion, then set it aside for other projects. for a MONTH now it’s been staring at me, one-sleeved & pathetic. i’m so glad i got this out of the way – i was beginning to think i could actually hear it whimpering!

so here is my second piece for my fall wardrobe! colette’s violet, made with a vintage cotton-rayon blend (that i picked up for a dollar! nyah nyah!). i interfaced the facings & collar with muslin, rather than fusible interfacing – i hate that stuff! hate hate hate! the inside seams are bound with self-bias tape, and i rearranged the buttons to include only 6, since that’s all i had and i reeeeally like these buttons a lot.

i only made a couple of changes to the fitting – for some reason, the darts were hanging out next to my underwire. lolwut. of course, i’d already sewn up/serged the blouse (aka my ~wearable muslin~), so i unpicked as best i could & repositioned them to reach the sky. they still aren’t *quite* in the proper place but i just can’t deal anymore today. i also took in the side seams a little – maybe another 1/2″ or so?

to be honest, i’m not thrilled with the fit of this blouse. i don’t like the loose fit, i’m more of it if-i-can-squeeze-into-this-then-it-fits kinda girl. i may end up redrafting the back piece to lay un-gathered & then pop a few vertical bust darts in the next version.

here’s my outfit – with my ginger skirt!
my expression in this picture cracks me up. “well hi there!”

remember those handmade tags i was working on? snuck one in 🙂 i used speedball screen printing ink & muslin.

awesome buttons!

self-bound in bias tape

untucked. i don’t plan on wearing it this way – see how sad it makes me? so sad!

FUN FACT: this pictures were taken in the same room as yesterday’s pictures. it is amazing how different this wall color looks depending on the light! today is rainy & grey, meh.

aaand i’m outta here.

Tags: completed, fall 2011, shirt, violet

Comments 13 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

completed: tweed circle skirt

11 Oct

and i’m back to sewing! betcha thought i was gone for reals, huh? too bad!

who participated in the circle skirt sew-along? i had a little issue with time – aka, life got in the way – so i wasn’t able to finish in time for the first ’round of circle skirt party 2011. i was able to finish last night, though! and i’m wearing my new circle skirt today! and lucky me – i spilled coffee all over it this morning so it even smells good! /sarcasm.

this was a really easy pattern to draft & put together. i was able to smoosh mine out of one piece of fabric & eliminate any side seams (well, on the shell fabric – the lining was only 45″ wide, so there are seams in there!). although i was a tiny bit ambitious with my original length, and ended up cutting about 5″ off the finished piece. yikes! longer skirts & i just don’t mix, i’m afraid.

my shell fabric is a lovely wool tweed i bought at the flea market for $3. it actually has a herringbone pattern, which you can see on the swatch. it is lined with silky bemberg rayon – my favorite! i went with a pretty pink because, well, pink lining! the zipper is a faced slash zipper, hand-picked. i ran out of my original tweed fabric (or, rather, i had already done away with the scraps because that is how i roll), so it is faced with brown cotton… which i’m thinking was probably for the best, as the tweed is a slightly loose weave & tends to unravel. dropping in the lining was easy: i slashed a zipper opening & slipstitched it to the zipper. the top was basted to the top of the skirt shell, which is covered by the waistband. the lining is hemmed with a rolled hem and the shell has 2″ horsehair braid all around the edges – i used a little over 4 yards of braid! and i hand-stitched it all because i clearly have nothing better to do with my time.

lol ~twirl

lining! 😀

i really love the shape the horsehair braid gives the hem. it has a very nice subtle flair. i actually have a petticoat i made using sugardale’s tutorial (which is AMAZING, by the way. this is a good ‘un, people!), but i prefer the way the skirt looks with the braid. also, i made my petticoat with horsehair crinoline, so it has great body but EW ITCHY.

so there you have it! my first circle skirt!

Tags: circle skirt, completed, fall 2011, skirt

Comments 19 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

another rooibos – v2.0

29 Aug

well, big moving day is this week – september 1st, which is this thursday! everything is all packed up, which is why i’ve been nonexistent as of late. no worries, though, i left my two current projects unpacked… so here’s a rooibos for y’all’s troubles!

i loved my first version so much, i decided to follow the rooibox sewalong on the colette blog for v2.0! well, “follow” is loosely defined – it was kind of half-ass. but it’s done! and – bonus! – my first garment for my fall 2011 wardrobe 🙂

i used very lightweight/fine wale corduroy – you can’t even tell that it is corduroy in these pictures, but i promise it is! the facing & pocket piping are sewn up with soft red plaid – from the ~plaiditude~ line at joann’s. i’ll be honest with you, i mostly bought this plaid because the name was so awful. haha! i was apprehensive because it is very thick & soft – almost like flannel – and i was afraid it would be too bulky with the corduroy. fortunately, the corduroy is very lightweight, so this fabric works as a facing. and it is sooo soft – the pockets are especially luxurious!

i kept the bodice at a size 4, but cut the waistband & skirt down to a 2, since it was a little loose the last go-around. should i make this dress again (and i probably will! i love this dress!) i will cut it down to a 0 – the 2 was still a little big! i took in as much as i could but i do feel like it’s a little loose. the belt helps a lot.

other than that, pretty straight-forward! too bad i can’t even wear it right now since it’s NINETY FREAKING FIVE DEGREES outside. oh, nashville. never change.

ameeeeeeeeerica!
it looks awful with my harlot-red hair, i know, but i’m pretty sure i’m going back to brown within the next month or so. don’t judge me!

my only issue with this fabric is that i can’t get the darts points to lie flat, no matter how many times i resewed them. they are almost completely flat irl, but the nap of the fabric highlights the point and, well… i look cold. oops. and it wrinkles pretty bad – i even ironed it before taking these pictures. oh well.

pockets!

i made the belt with lightweight belt backing & an old wooden buckle i found ages ago at the flea market.

facings are trimmed with red bias binding – the very last of my stash!

i love how the pockets turned out :3

love this dress so much! if you haven’t hollered at the rooibos yet, definitely give the pattern a chance – it’s a great shape/style & it’s sooo easy to make up!

seeya!

Tags: completed, dress, rooibos

Comments 13 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

completed: colette sorbetto, v2.0

3 Aug

sooo i tried another sorbetto over the weekend. after my disastuh of a first version, the second version is kind of “meh” so i really don’t think this pattern works for me. which makes me sad – everyone else’s sorbettos are goooorgeous.

my version fits me weird – i don’t think i have the body shape for it – and maybe i just got too excited about the promise of a 1 hour/2 piece pattern because the construction is shoddy as hell. i’m not going to show you that. i’ll show you pictures of it on me, though.

first, look at the fabric i used:

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Tags: amazing fabric, completed, meh, shirt, sorbetto

Comments 11 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

completed: colette patterns rooibos

2 Aug

can you believe that i actually started this dress a little over a month ago? i got halfway through the construction – completed the bodice, basically – and then sadly put it aside to work on lladybird duds. i was so excited to finish it, i went straight home after the big event & had it completed in time to wear it that night! yay!
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Tags: completed, dress, piping, red-headed stepchild, rooibos