Complete: Giveaway Dress

Hello again :) Hope you're enjoying the festive season in your particular area of the world. My December seems to be calming down a bit now, thank goodness...and now I'm officially on holidays I'm hoping to get stuck into my projects pile. Major holiday goal: to make a wearable pair of shorts. Actually I have fabric for three different pairs, so I'm hoping all the wonderful reviews of Pattern Runway's Scalloped Shorts prove true in my case. (I'll keep you posted)

Before that though, here's my latest make: my Giveaway Dress. I'm calling it that because I won both the fabric and the pattern, along with lots of other goodies, in Sarah of Fabric Tragic's giveaway earlier this year. This fabric was the main reason I entered. I love its slightly retro feel, and to me it was a perfect match for the shirt dress pattern that came with it. Oh, I do love a good shirt dress!

Slightly dodgy, last minute, night time photo there, sorry. Navy, red and white always suggest summer to me - maybe it's that nautical connection - so I decided to do without the sleeves and finish the armholes with self bias binding. There was a generous three metres of fabric, but even so I only just had enough. There's quite a bit of fabric needed for the skirt - it's not a circle skirt, but it's not far off. Plus even though it looks random, the pattern is actually repeated; there's a fairly strong diagonal "line" happening there. I matched it up fairly well on the skirt, but miscalculated somewhere along the line with the front pieces; you can see that the red "Ls" (for want of a better term!) are bit off along the centre front. Still, I can live with that. If anyone points it out I can just tell them to stop staring at my chest...

Would you believe it? The bodice fit perfectly straight from the pattern! Hurrah for low-maintenance patterns :) You can see from the pattern envelope it blouses at the waist a bit when belted, but there wasn't quite enough fabric leftover to do the matching tie. I'm fine with that though; I can always add a belt. And it's really comfy like this. I did take it in a bit under the arms ( about 1.5cm I think), and I took the shoulders back by 4cm, but that was just to make it sit well without the sleeves.

I also took 1.5cm off the width of the collar. It's still substantial, but it's a bit less obviously "of it's time" now. They did like them big in the seventies, didn't they!

I've decided I really like the seventies' aesthetic. I haven't sewn many vintage patterns, but I think I may have found my decade :) I always thought it was the forties, so there you go! Thanks, Sarah ;)

One thing I really like about this pattern is the fit of the back. Like I said I'm no expert at vintage patterns but all the ones I have sewn seem to have little fit-related details that you don't typically see on modern patterns. This one had shoulder darts at the back, and I love how nicely that shapes the bodice. 

  The other "vintagey" detail I liked (but didn't actually do since I would've run out of fabric) was the generous hem allowance - 7.5cm / 3". Does anyone know why that was done? Does it make the hem sit more nicely, or help the skirt hang better? I'm curious...

The only other modification I made was to add pockets into the side seams. Because a summer dress absolutely needs pockets.

I'll definitely make this again sometime, perhaps in something a bit drapier like rayon or silk. And I very much like the contrast collar in the example. In the meantime, this version will be getting a lot of use. It makes me feel like going on a picnic, or on a beach walk....in short, it's an ideal summer dress!

Before I get started on my shorts I have a bit of unselfish sewing and knitting to do. Several family members have December birthdays, and the baby quilt for my nephew is well overdue. Not too much more to go, happily.

Are you sewing/knitting any gifts this year? Hope they're all going smoothly... and quickly!

Have a truly wonderful Christmas and festive season,

Danielle oxo

An Avian Ginger and Me-Made May '13

Hello again! I've been playing around with my Ginger skirt pattern lately, in the very little spare time that I haven't spent on costuming, that is. (All outfits are coming along nicely; I'll post photos once the show opens in a few weeks. Don't think I'll be doing any beading for some time once I'm done with this lot!)

Can I make a small confession? I'm actually a tiny bit nervous about posting this - have you ever had a skirt/dress/any item of clothing that you weren't quite sure whether you actually loved or hated it? Well, this is mine! I'm still not sure about it. I found this fabric at a vintage fabric shop and something about it caught my attention. (I'm not sure how vintage it is; maybe 80's if that.) It feels a bit like rayon, but I'm no expert. I liked the colours and the slightly painterly feel, but I don't wear a lot of prints, and those I do tend to be fairly conservative - stripes and florals, and fairly quiet ones at that. So it's not a very "me" piece at all. Plus (and I'll whisper this so I don't hurt their feelings) the birds (herons? cranes?) are actually pretty ugly.

But for me a big part of sewing my own clothes is an attempt to have more confidence in my own taste and judgement. And you can't become confident in anything without practising it. So, when I thought about the worst case scenario - i.e., someone else might not like my skirt: hardly the end of the world! - I decided it was worth having a try. And here 'tis:

I really love my first Ginger skirt, but I was interested to see how the pattern would work in a softer, drapey-ier fabric. Plus I wanted to see if it was possible to make the front in one piece. This was a little trickier, because the centre seam isn't straight, but instead curves inwards at the top where it meets the waistband. This meant there was about 4-5cm of extra fabric to fit in. I took in a little bit at the sides, but taking too much out would have spoiled the line of the side seams. So I tried the same technique I learned with my peplum top; pinning for dear life and using steam from the iron to shrink it to fit.

It still puckered a bit - see below - but it could have been worse. And I probably won't wear it with a tucked in top anyhow - this is for just for the purposes of unvarnished documentation!  

My only regret is that I didn't have enough fabric for pockets, but I was scraping to get all pieces cut out as it was. But I guess I can live with that ;)

So there you have it. I'm still not entirely sure about it, but I'll wear it a few times and see if it grows on me. We'll see!

In other news:

"I, Danielle of One Small Stitch, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to wear one handmade or refashioned garment each day for the duration of May 2013. I also pledge to finish four of my queued projects."

Yup, it's official! I'm in - and I'm really looking forward to it. Like I said last time, it's not a huge selection to pick from, but I like the idea of finding new ways to wear the things I have - I tend to play it fairly safe most of the time. And hopefully I'll finish costuming this week, so I can make a few more things before 1st of May...

Have a wonderful week :)

Danielle oxo

Sew For Victory Sewalong...Complete!

Hello all! I didn't get a chance to post last week I'm afraid, but it was in a good cause - I realised just how close the Sew For Victory Sewalong deadline actually was. (insert slightly panicked gulp here.) I have to confess I'd fallen into my usual pattern best described as yet another Head vs Heart conflict: Head likes to be organised and on top of all projects, while Heart prefers to adopt a policy of Blind Optimism. But last Thursday night, when I'd usually blog away merrily, it became inescapably clear that unless I sat down and did some actual sewing there would be a full-scale panic over the next week.

So I skipped the posting in favour of sewing, and after a couple of days hunched over the machine I got it done. I'm extremely grateful to whatever sewing gods there may be that there were no modifications needed, because Blind Optimism left no time for venturing off the beaten track!

So here 'tis, Reproduction Vintage Vogue 2569 with an approximate attempt to look suitably period-appropriate:

I really, really enjoyed this challenge! I more admire vintage style rather than actually sew and wear it, so this was something new. I used a silk and hemp blend which was lovely to sew with, and feels glorious to wear (or will, once Autumn here behaves itself and cools down a good 10deg or so). I used the matte (wrong?) side, which has a beautifully fine corded texture. It does fray a bit though, so next time I use it I think I'll finish the seam edges first. (The pattern didn't mention seam finishing at all, so I was going at the inside of the dress with the pinking shears at the end. Not ideal.) Plus, it wrinkled more than I anticipated - is this just to be expected with hemp like it is with linen? They're cousins of sorts, aren't they?

The construction techniques listed in the pattern were so different to anything I've attempted before. I LOVED the asymmetric panels, which are cut both on the grainline AND on the bias (where they angle upwards); they gave an amazing and effortless fit - snug and structured. And the actual construction of them was something I hadn't come across before: the lower piece has the seam allowance pressed under, then is lapped over the top of the upper piece and topstitched down 3/8" from the fold. Tricky at first, especially since these seams were also curved, but really satisfying to get right! See below:

There were several little design details like that, things you simply don't find in modern patterns. Things like the shoulder darts or double bust darts that take a bit of extra time and effort, but give an elegance to the fit that's often lacking today. Definite food for thought in approaching future projects... Oh, and my favorite of those little design details? The elbow pleats on the sleeves!

Moving on: here's where I ran into my main difficulty: bound buttonholes. I'd never attempted these before, and in hindsight really wish I'd given myself enough time to practise before doing them on the real thing. They're passable, but not immaculate like the ones in my reference book (which to be fair had probably been sewn by someone who'd done them once or twice before...) So there's a skill to master in the future.

The back of them aren't too bad though:

The other main difficulty - and this really was irritating (and self-inflicted) - was because I was using the "wrong" side of the fabric as the right, I kept sewing seams together inside out, i.e. with the satin side as right. Grrrr! I discovered how often I sew on "auto-pilot" though - far too much! I did actually like the effect of the satin as right side of the facings though - decided that after I sewed them that way accidentally on the bodice and didn't want to unpick yet again  - so went with that on the sleeve facings too:

I was surprised by how much hand-finishing there was to do. I've never really bothered with that much before - I always thought it would make garments look a bit "homemade" (in a bad way...), but I actually really like the control it gives over hard to reach areas. So here's my first hand-picked zipper too:

 I'm really, and possibly excessively, proud of that one!

I'm so glad I had a go at this challenge! I feel like I've learnt a lot from this one, in terms of construction techniques, design details and finishing. I've also learned to allow plenty of time for future projects, and (perhaps more importantly) to actually use that time to get familiar with the pattern and practise any new/never-before-encountered techniques. So we'll chalk this project up as a success!

Now I just have to work out how to add some of the photos onto the SFV Flickr page - an as yet unattained skill....Wish me luck!  Then I'm going to spend a happy few hours catching up on some of your lovely blogs. :)

Happy Easter! Have a wonderful break :)

Danielle oxo