Welcome the Gabrianna!

Oh yes, week three of TMS Indie Patten month and I've mashed up patterns from two of my fave indie companies; By Hand London Anna and Sewaholic's Gabriola. And so, I present to you Gabrianna!

My thinking behind the match... The Anna bodice I've made twice before and it's a lovely simple, easy to sew bodice, I also think it needs an elegant skirt. The Gabriola is new to my collection, and the elegant smooth lines of this skirt are a match made in heaven with this bodice in my opinion. I also love the fit of other Sewaholic patterns I've made up.

I actually cut the bodice and made that first before cutting out the skirt. Having not made the skirt before I didn't know how it would fit around my waist/hips, but thought I could play around with it to fit. So I measured the waist of the bodice, and cut the skirt to match that size. I still interfaced the waistband to keep it stable and give some definition.

This skirt is actually quite an easy pattern to make up. Yes, there are a lot of pieces, but it's quite a simple pattern to make up. Although I was in such a rush, that I actually stitched the side skirt panels the wrong way round, My skirt was very odd until I realised what I'd done! I wondered why I had enormous triangular hips sticking out! There was a lot of unpicking taking place!

I even put a pocket in the side seam. The in seam pocket pattern piece actually came from my Pauline Alice Cami pattern, so in theory, I've used three patterns in this dress. Perhaps it should be called the Gabricamianna? No, OK, we'll stick to Gabrianna ;-)

The zip is a navy blue dress zip which I had in my stash. So I was happy, I'm still not good at putting in invisible zips. Give me a centred zip and I'm happy!

I did find time to let this drop overnight. The fabric is quite stable and so I took a chance. I finished it by hand as usual.

I did not go mad to match the pattern, I think my poor brain has had enough pattern matching for now after my plaid cami! However, I did make the effort to try to line up the pattern. I would have been too obvious otherwise. So at least the colours line up on the skirt and bodice, etc.

It was pretty windy along the waterfront!

The fabric is a cotton which I got from Fabric-a-Brac in April. It's actually from one of my fellow WSBN ladies and when she saw this I think she was definitely happy to see how it had been made up. It cost me probably less than $5 and there's still about a metre plus left! As for choosing it for this dress, I wanted something which would show the lines for the Gabriola skirt. The best bit about this skirt is where the grainline is around the yoke and this fabric is perfect. It's not an obvious stripe, but I think the pink pattern lines show the yoke brilliantly.

The details

Fabric:  Blue, pink, green patterned cotton from Fabric-a-Brac, April 2014. I got just over 4m for less than NZ $5, that's about GBP 2.50 for UK folks and about US $4.30. Bargain or what?

Notions:   Thread (both white and blue from stash), interfacing for the neck facing and waistband, and a navy dress zip from stash. Lots from stash!

Pattern:  The Gabrianna = Bodice from By Hand London Anna dress + Gabriola skirt from Sewaholic. Oh, plus a pocket from Pauline Alice Cami dress! I think this definitely satisfies the criteria for TMS Franken-Indie.

First worn:  Photos, followed by WSBN dinner last Saturday. The photos were taken down on the waterfront here in Wellington with Zara, Laura, Kat and, later on, Sandra. As you can see there's always a bit of fighting to be had on who gets the best photographer :-)

OK, Kat and I are friends really...

Changes made:  I shifted the darts slightly with the bodice, but the rest is as drafted. I think I cut between a 16/18 front bodice, 14/16 back bodice. The skirt I cut a 12, but the waist I ended up taking in more at the back. I always think I've got a broad back, but perhaps not! Oh and I definitely cut quite a bit of length off the skirt, since this is a maxi skirt pattern.
Recommend?  As a franken-indie mash-up, this worked like a dream. I think the skirt lines suit this bodice perfectly. I love the way the skirt still skims my hips producing clear lines. I feel like the cat that's got the cream in this creation and would definitely recommend you try it. 

I call it a success. In two weeks, I've made two happy dresses - yay! I think I can get away with this on some of our warmer winter days. Purple boots and purple cardi? Yep, I think so!

Thanks to Zara and Laura who wielded my big girls' camera. Oh and the outtakes, cos I know how much you love them :-)

 Don't ask...

There's a naked man about to dive in the harbour here in Wellington, 'nuff said!

Plaid Cami

Yep, I've been busy sewing!

This is Pauline Alice Cami dress.

 

I first saw this dress on Dolly Clackett's blog and when I looked at it, I decided it was the shirt dress pattern I needed for this fabric. The fabric has been hanging around in my stash for a while and I was supposed to use it and give what was left over to fellow Wellington sewer Mel, but I was so long getting a pattern, she gave up and got her own and made up a dress ages ago!

Even so I still procrastinated... My muslin of the bodice was wrong, all wrong and in the end I decided I had to do my first ever FBA! HELP! Where's that book, website, etc, etc. Why was I so scared, it was easy! This pattern only has waist darts and for me I need a bit more which was why I did the FBA and gave the bodice bust darts too.

Then due to my fabric choice I had all the fun of pattern cutting combined with pattern matching! I'm after something easy next, what a headache this was with some of the matching it required! The skirt is just two rectangles and so I didn't use the pattern pieces for those, I just cut two widths of fabric so I could match the pattern perfectly. I even put in an in seam pocket...

Can you see the join?

I went for version B with the longer sleeves. These have a really cute cuff which is shown folded up, although I have seen some versions online where the cuff is left down. I had to cut one of these again as I realised I'd sewn it upside down and the pattern wouldn't match! I think I will now just add a couple of catch stitches to the tops on the inside seam to ensure they stay in place.

The pattern became quite an obsession in the end! I was so obsessed that each piece was the right way up and that it matched where it possibly could. I even recut one of the cuffs because it didn't match. Just check out this front placket!

The dress has a side seam zip and did I say it had pockets? Oh yes, it has pockets! I only put one in, as I decided I could cope matching the pattern with an inseam pocket and the bottom of the side seam zip!

One think I rarely do is top-stitch, but I decided with this dress that I would. There is top stitching down the button placket, around the sleeve cuffs and also around the collar.

The hem however is hand stitched. I think many of my regulars will know how much I love a hand stitched hem. Even when I was little, Mum used to sew and the last thing she ever did was hand sew the hem, I think it must be some kind of obsession or something which means something isn't finished without hand stitching the hem. Yep, I know there are two widths of 1.5m wide fabric, but that's no excuse for letting standards drop...

Oh, did I mention the pink grosgrain I used to finish it too?

What else can I say about this?

Fabric:  Blue, black and pink plaid cotton from Fabric Warehouse Jan 2013. There was 4m of this which I got for $30. Bargain! I think I've got about 1.5m left.

Notions:   Thread, interfacing for the collar, cuffs and placket, buttons from Spotlight and pink grosgrain ribbon for the hem from Made on Marion.

Pattern:  Pauline Alice Cami dress
First worn:  For photos at Truby King gardens, Wellington. Worn with a bought black belt, black tights and my bright blue snakeskin pumps. I also wore a petticoat to help the skirt stand out.

Changes made:  I did an FBA which meant I ended up with bust darts. The front waist darts will also have been shifted to fit my shape better. The skirt pieces I didn't use the pattern pieces for, I just cut two widths. No other changes made.
Recommend?  Definitely. Even doing the FBA was not a problem and only because I've perhaps a bit more than the pattern asks for around the bust! The drafting is great. The sleeves are not too tight, which can sometimes be an issue, but the fit of these is great. The instructions are really clear and easy to follow, with pictures for most steps. What I really like about the instructions is that for the version you want to make, Pauline has said exactly which pieces need printing to save printing the whole pattern. Each pattern piece states which pages are required to piece it together, eg the long sleeves are on pages 4, 5, 8, 9. Such a simple easy thing which is a great touch as far as I'm concerned as it certainly saves on the printing costs.

Can you tell I like this dress? Not obviously the the number of photos is it? It also fulfills another of The Monthly Stitch Indie Pattern month challenges. You can now vote for me to win even more awesome patterns here

I've never made up one of Pauline Alice's patterns and this is definitely New to Me.

Thanks to one of my fellow WSBN ladies who took these for me. Of course, it wouldn't be a post without a couple of outtakes...

Eva in the Pink

I've made another knit dress...

This is the Eva dress from Your Style Rocks, which is a free pattern when you register on their website.

I loved the style of the dress as soon as I saw it on the website, but it's actually taken me about 2 years to make it up! I eventually found some ponte knit from Spotlight which I decided would fit the bill perfectly. I've made this up for the Dresses contest for the first week of The Monthly Stitch Indie Pattern month.

The pieces are all cut out on the flat, there are no cuts on the fold here! I did however find it a tight fit. I had enough fabric, according to the pattern requirements, but had to play around with the placement to get the dress cut out. At least I'd access to a large format printer so I didn't have to join the dots with the pattern pieces.

The instructions are very brief. There are few images - I think just two to show you how to do the front draped piece, but apart from that, there are none. The pattern recommends adding a bias cut piece of interfacing to the shoulder seams and back neck. It seems very odd to add a bias strip with a knit fabric, so I've used knit interfacing on the neck and added cotton tape to the shoulder seams.

The instructions for the back neck are very confusing. I understood that the back neck facing was meant to be folded in half and attached to the bodice and then stitched to the inside. This was where I found the double knit was the wrong fabric. I couldn't stitch the facing to the inside as it was too thick, so I attached it and left it on the outside. I did have to slightly trim the sleeves to fit having done this.

The front draped piece is double fabric. It has a "lining" which ensures the draped piece keeps it's shape. This is a nice touch and I like it.

The seams are all double stitched. The sleeves I hemmed using the machine, but I hemmed the skirt by hand.

The touch I really like is the pleat on the back. This really adds definition to the back of the dress and adds a lot of shape. It's easy to sew, the back is pleated across and stitched by hand.

The details
 

Fabric:  Raspberry coloured ponte knit (double knit) from Spotlight, April 2014.

Notions:   Thread, interfacing for the neckline and tape for the shoulder seams.

Pattern:  Your Style Rocks Eva dress
First worn:  Here at MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) in Auckland this last weekend. I got a bit carried away with the mirror maze :-)
Changes made:  None as far as I know, unless the back of the neck, but this was due to the lack of instructions.
Recommend?  The dress looks like it does on the tin, which is certainly a good thing in my book, but I would recommend something other than ponte. The knit is great in some ways because it has so much more structure, but for the draping on this dress, it doesn't really work. The cowl neck just seems to fold to one side unfortunately. It is quick to make though.

And an outtake from the museum photos...

Miss Bossy finally speaks

Way back in March, the lovely girls at The Monthly Stitch came up with the Miss Bossy challenge. What a great idea. Post three patterns with accompanying fabric up on your blog and get readers to vote on which you should make. Here's the results of my poll.

Vogue 8728	17 (27%)
By Hand London Elisalex	17 (27%)
Gather The Mortmain	27 (44%)

Mm, something makes me think Gather The Mortmain won! Miss Bossy has spoken...

I muslined the bodice first. Good job I did.

The darts on the right of this pic are the darts as per the pattern, those
on the left are approximately where I decided to stitch the darts. As usual, the pattern had them far too high and also slightly to the outside. The bodice was also short, so that was lengthened by half an inch.

I went with the sleeved version. Very few of the sleeved version have been made, most of those out there are the sleeveless version. It's coming up to winter here in NZ and I wanted something bright and cheerful to wear for winter.

The great thing about this dress is the waistband, not that you can really see it with this fabric; but the waistband adds great definition to this dress. The skirt is pleated onto the waistband, which is always a big win with me, I much prefer pleated skirts to gathers.

The sleeves have a cute little opening, but either I transferred the position incorrectly or they are just placed slightly in a strange place. They ended up practically on the inside of my arm.

They are a really nice touch though, corded elastic is used as a button loop and this works well, giving the sleeve the stretch it needs when moving your arm about. The slight gripe is that they don't lay particularly flat, this could be the placing of the opening or my placing of the elastic/buttons.

I had fabric spare and so inserted an inseam pocket in each side seam. Well a girl needs pockets, even in a dress :-)

Oh and I nearly forgot la piece de la resistance...

Oh yes, we have an exposed zip! This is the first time I've inserted an exposed zip and the instructions from the ladies at Gather were fantastic. They were so clear and easy to follow. The zip is stitched close to the teeth first, then again down the edge of the tape once the seam allowance has been trimmed.

I used a new double-sided zipper foot from one of my good friends in the WSBN, me like, thanks Sandra. As you can probably see in the image above, I took in more than 5/8" on the back. Although the front fitted, as soon as I put the zip in the back, it seemed enormous. I think I ended up taking 1.25"!

I am happy though and the fit is now great.

The inside seams are all finished using pinking shears. One thing I did in addition was to stitch a duplicate waistband to the inside. I felt the seams top and bottom of the waistband weren't tidy and needed to finish them more neatly. It certainly looks better on the inside.

The sleeve armholes aren't perfect on the back. They seem to be cut in too far on the armscye on the back bodice. I've definitely cut this to the pattern, so this is possibly something which needs looking at.

And so the details...

Fabric: Stretch cotton sateen from the Arthur Toye sale in Wellington, December 2012 (can't remember the cost) Stashbusting!

Notions:   Thread, an exposed zip, two buttons, interfacing for the neck facing and a wee bit of corded elastic for the button loops.

Pattern:  Gather Kits The Mortmain - the one with the cute drawings on the envelope :-)

This pattern has beautiful packaging. Caroline and Sandra at Gather Kits have really taken their time over this. The line drawing on the front is so cute. The tissue is a really nice thick tissue which doesn't tear easily. The instructions are really clear and easy to follow in a booklet. I love it.
First worn:  To frocktails with the WSBN at the beginning of May. These photos taken last Sunday by the lovely Kat up by the National War Memorial in Wellington before going to high tea at Logan Brown with Kat and Mel (well it's hungry work taking photos don't you know)! Worn with some shoes I bought from Marks and Spencer in the UK, not long before we left the country.
Changes made:  Shifted the darts slightly, lengthened the bodice by half inch and lined the waistband.
Another one?  This is a great pattern and I love the shape and fit, so I'm tempted, sorely tempted to make up a sleeveless version. It may happen yet...

At least when someone else takes the photos, you get lots, even outtakes :-)

Autumnal Butterick

Well it's a while since my last post. I've actually been sewing up a storm, the problem is that now autumn is here and we're into daylight savings, I can't seem to find time to get photos. I also seem to have lost my blog-jo. The sew-jo is quite happily going along, but the blogging isn't. I've even got hundreds of unread blog posts in my Feedly roll. So apologies for all those who've missed my comments on their posts.

But here is one make and it's made in time for another TMS challenge - woot, woot! This month the TMS challenge is for knits and yes, that sewer who a year ago shied away from knit fabrics is now happily pushing out knitwear with so much more confidence. I never realised how much quicker knit garments went together. This dress was no different.

 

This is Butterick 5523 and it's a great pattern, perfect for something which you want to throw together quickly.

The fabric is a rust coloured merino bought from what used to be Global Fabrics in Wellington back in 2012, not long after we arrived in NZ.

This pattern is perfect for newbies to knits. The cowl neck means there's no facing to worry about for the neck, just a rectangle folded in half and stitched to the neck of the bodice. The pleated skirt makes the whole dress so much more elegant. These pleats worked like a dream. I had no problem attaching the skirt to the bodice.

I like the way the sleeves are attached at the shoulder with a tiny pleat. It's a really nice finish. I haven't got a photo unfortunately, but it's a nice touch. The sleeve hems are just finished with a double row of stitching using a double needle. I also used this to hem to skirt too.

The waist is stabilised by creating a tube with the seam allowance and threading elastic through. The pattern suggests clear elastic for some reason, I didn't use that, I just used standard elastic. It certainly helps the waist keep it's shape and not sag.

The tab on the back is attached to the dress when you sew the buttons on. This tab was probably the worst part, the fabric stretched a wee bit while I was sewing the layers together. I managed to recover it, but I had visions of it not working at all.

The buttons I got from a sewing shop in Kerikeri when we were away at Easter. Kerikeri is in the far north of NZ and is one of the main centres up there. I managed to convince Mr N to let me have a ten minute look inside :-) Anyway, the buttons are black with a grey pattern on which reminds me of the patterns I used to draw with my Spirograph when I was little!

The details...

Fabric:  Rust coloured merino knit from Global that was (Fabric Store), Wellington, June 2012

Notions:   Thread, elastic, interfacing for the tab and buttons from The Sewing Shop, Kerikeri, Northland.

Pattern:  Butterick 5523, view A
First worn:  To work at the beginning of May, worn here at a WSBN trip up to Levin on 3 May, with boots from Overland. These photos were taken by the lovely Sadie von Scrumptious who wielded my big girls' camera in Mama Gypsy's garden between the showers!
Another one?  This is so easy to make and so easy to wear. It is very tempting to make another version. It's so good when something looks exactly like it does on the pattern envelope! :-)