Dino Overalls

Oh my gosh, how cute are these overalls? I feel like I am dressing a toddler again!

The dino love is real and she has been wanting some wild, loud overalls for a little while now. We went fabric shopping in Australia, at Spotlight, and this cotton poplin exceeded her wildest expectations. Pink and purple dinos! On a black background!! With lots and lots, and lots, of dinos!!! Ok, so it was poplin, but it would work.

I used the Seamwork Beckett pattern, with a few modifications. For the toile, I cut size 12, grading out to 14 in waist. This was too large, there would have been even more gaping at the waist, which in overalls, would mean that you can look down inside the garment. Not nice. I cut the pattern down to a 12 all over.

I also graded out the leg seams to make them less pegged. She wanted straight legs. I added 1/2 inch to either side on the back and front pattern pieces, for a total addition of 2 inches to each leg.

I lengthened the pattern pieces by two inches, one at each of the lengthen and shorten lines. She thought the leg length was too short in the toile and wanted an extra two inches. I decided to do it in both places because I think she is a bit short waisted, so the extra rise would give her a bit more fabric through this area.

Pockets! It needs side pockets! I decided to add pockets to the side fronts, which really did make things difficult. I can see why the pattern designers left these out. Firstly, I had to toile the making of the plackets, because I really didn’t understand how these all fit together, then figure out the construction order for putting the placket inside the pocket

My adjustments: Firstly, I wanted to do a flat felled seam on the inside leg, so I had to assemble this seam first. It is not possible to do once the other leg seam is sewn. I did a false flat felled seam (French seam to the right side and then stitched it down. 

Then, I sewed the front placket piece (known as the lining) to the back of the pocket bag. The back placket piece went on the back of the leg piece, as normal. I used the pocket pattern pieces from my SOI Erin Skirt. I needed to make the angle of the pocket opening steeper so that it would almost fully expose the placket. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to stitch it down at the bottom properly, and the buttons would not be properly accessible. I added stay tape to the top of the pocket opening.

I attached the front pocket bag to the front trouser leg, and the placket to the back pocket bag, then joined the two pocket bags together. Finally, I sewed the leg side seams together, catching the two pocket bags into the same seam.

Not gonna lie, these pocket-and-placket steps took as long as the whole rest of the garment assembly.

I made the straps wider. I wanted to use metal eyelets and sliders, not the tied on grommets that the pattern called for. The eyelets are 1 inch wide so I increased strap size to 3.25 inches. I also lengthened the straps by... quite a bit. I had to lower the back by about 1.5cm to allow extra width at the back. I just eyeballed this at the assembly stage. The sliders keep sliding down so I'm going to actually sew these in place, and she wants hooks added to the top of the button plackets to add more shape to the waistline. 

I should have added interfacing to the top of the front bib. It is a serious point of weakness, where the buttons are hammered through. Interfacing would support everything better.

The side fastenings are just two buttons. I went with purple, because I had them in my stash, and they are cute touch of whimsy.

I used 2.85m of the 4m of fabric that I bought. I cut the pattern pieces as single layers but I didn't bother to do any pattern matching. I have 1.15m remaining and she would like a pair of summer shorts. Stand by!

Supplies:

   Fabric: Spotlight, 4m, A$58 (C$52)

   Toile fabric: old sheet, $0

   Pattern: bought one pattern from Simplicity that I didn't use A$6 (C$5.40)

   Then Beckett from Seamwork, USD$16 (C$22.40)

   Hooks and sliders for straps: Amazon, $14.25

   Interfacing, buttons, thread: from stash $0

Total: $94.05

(Yikes! That came out a bit expensive for a novelty kids garment!)

Rayon Birds Sorbetto

I made this Sorbetto out of the remnants of a current WIP. The weather is hot, so I decided to finish this first and get myself a new summer top.

The fabric is a rayon that I got in Australia. I am trying to buy florals on a black background as they are more wearable as dresses than my usual choices. In a top this is more unusual.

For the Sorbetto pattern, I traced out the full size pattern pieces so that I can lay them flat and get the most out of the fabric. I left out the centre pleat as this is meant to be a scrap buster, and the pleat is very distinctive, and completely lost on a print. I think I need to raise the shoulders by half an inch, and I also need to add a centimetre to the hips.

With a small amount of fabric to work with, I had to cut the back piece upside down, and the length is as much as I could manage. The birdies are very secretive, so I don't think anyone will notice the odd one upside down, and I tried to compensate for the length by doing a faced hem, which gained me an extra cm. I actually think this is the perfect length for me.

I did french seams, but then I unpicked the bottom to create a side split so I had to cut the seam allowance. This isn't very tidy, but it will do. I had to hem around the split and create a bar tack over the cut edges. Without a short waist adjustment, I need the extra space at the top of the hip.

I hand stitched the neckline facing down. I was on holiday, so I took it with me as a hand sewing project. I stared on attaching the hem facing by hand, but didn't bother to finish it, and completed it by machine back at home.

I still don't utterly love this pattern. It is too boxy to be truly flattering on my, but in a drapey fabric, it works out very nicely, and as a free pattern, it's pretty amazing.

A Bamboo Cardigan

I love the feel of this bamboo knit fabric! It is so soft and silky. It drapes beautifully too. Now that I have an overlocker, I am knocking out knit garments as fast as I can cut them out.

Actually, this cardigan took me over a year to make. I first bought only one meter of this from Fabricana in Vancouver. I hadn't realised that my last knit cardigan used more than 1 meter. More like 1.5m. I considered another cowl neck top, but deep down, I knew I wanted a cardigan. When I went back to Fabricana this summer, I looked out for the same bamboo so I could get another meter and make a cardigan. Luckily, they had it. I can't tell any colour difference between the two, so I was lucky indeed.

I used the same pattern from iCandy Handmade, the Boyfriend Cardigan. But I added the shawl collar from the Seamwork Oslo Cardigan. I considered a whole Oslo, but I like a more fitted shape and the Oslo has a dropped shoulder and a lot of ease under the arm.

I stupidly didn't read my own pattern notes from the Boyfriend Cardigan. I needed to add a seam allowance. I didn't until the front pieces. I also forgot the length I needed for the hem and the sleeves. I made another serious boo boo on the cutting out. When I lengthened the sleeves, I cut the left one in too far and it is tighter than it should be.

While I am confessing mistakes, I also sewed the front pieces on with the wrong side out!

I stabilised the shoulder seams, using the sewing machine, with pink ribbon. Overlocked the sleeves in place (easing the shoulder), side seams, and shawl collar. I should have used the sewing machine for the lower hem of the collar, because it needs a smaller seam to give it more drape. 

I used my twin needle for the lower hem, but it never seems to work with the walking foot. Without, it stretched out and you can see a lot of rippling along the lower hem. I hand sewed the hem of the sleeves instead. 

Costs: 
 

 Fabric: £19.84
 

 Thread: (new overlocker colour) £7.50
 

 New tools: (stretch needles and twin needle) £8.92


Total: £36.26

Sleeveless Peony Dress

How many floral dresses does my wardrobe need? Quite a few, apparently.

This fabric has been on a long journey, and, guess what? I am so pleased to be wearing it as a dress, instead of having it tucked away in my stash. Ironic, that we like a fabric so much that we are afraid to do it justice, so we don't use it, but we don't get to look at it either. Although I am slightly envious of those with sewing rooms who can store their stash in a shelving system, with bolts of fabric wrapped around cardboard cores. But I digress.

Back to the fabric. Many years ago now, Marie from A Stitching Odyssey sewed and blogged a lovely Elisalex dress. When she had a de-stash and mentioned that she was selling 3m of the same fabric, I wanted it! I'm ashamed to say that I wanted it to make my own Elisalex. How terrible of me! But Marie was sweet enough to sell it to me anyway. I adore the colours, the creamy-beige background is not a colour that suits me terribly well, but the blues and the pops of dark pink are absolutely "my colours".

It is an upholstery fabric, apparently from the USA, and mentions Teflon in the selvedge. The fabric has some sort of coating on it which gives it a sheen, but it seemed to wash off. It is actually pretty lightweight for an upholstery fabric. It feels not much heavier than a quilting cotton to me, and behaves the same.

After I came to my senses, and realised what a sewing no-no it would be to make an Elisalex, I sat with the fabric for... oh, about 3 years. I decided to make a coat with it, instead of a dress.

Well, the coat is actually almost finished, but probably quite far from making it to the blog, so with summer here, I eked out a dress from the remaining 1m using the Colette Peony pattern.

I have made the Peony once before, but since realised that this pattern was crying out to be made in a super-sized floral. Well, those flowers couldn't be any bigger and still fit on a dress. Yes, it is a loud, statement dress, but I work in horseracing, so raceday dressing is pretty normal for me.

I didn't have enough fabric to add sleeves so I checked a couple of blogs to confirm that alterations are usually done by binding the armholes. I adjusted the pattern to take a lot off the tops of the shoulders and the front neckline. I'm delighted to report that, although the shoulder seams are very small, they hit exactly where my bra strap goes and there is never a strap peeking out.

I was taking a big risk with my coat, that nothing would go wrong. The coat pieces were cut out, but I used up every last scrap in this dress. So much so, that I cut the facing, the sleeve bindings and the pocket bags from, what else, a blue shirt!

I really wanted to add pockets. The skirt has enough fullness that they don't spoil the line of the side seams, but I didn't have enough fabric to cut even one side of the pocket bag. However,  I did have enough strips to add a tiny edging to the pocket bag. This isn't pieced, I cut a full pocket from the facing fabric, as much width as I could from the fashion fabric, and just folded in the raw edge and topstitched it to the inside fabric. The finished pocket looks great, even if my phone weighs too much to be carried easily in it.

I also got to use my new overlocker to finish the seam allowances. I overlocked the side seams, the pocket edges and the facing edges, and I am very pleased with how they look. I was a little surprised though, that my iron melted the overlocking thread when I was pressing the seams open. I'm not co-ordinated enough to use a pressing cloth to press open seam allowances, and besides, I was pressing an adjacent seam, not the overlocked ones, they just happened to end up under the iron.

The melting was a bit of a problem, because it made a scratchy, plastic blob on the insides of my dress. I covered it with a piece of hemming lace, in the method of a Hong Kong seam finish, but that defeats the purpose of overlocking as a seam finish. (But imagine the decadence of lace Hong Kong seams in all my dresses!)

I used an old gifted/thrifted zip, lapped with the help of Lauren's tutorial. It is not perfect, showing at the bottom, and at the waistline, but it is pretty near perfect at the top, completely hiding the old zip in a not quite right colour.

I cut the skirt length to the pattern pieces this time. I have shortened my previous Peony, and like it much better. Such a large scale print is better in a smaller dress. I might even hem it shorter still.  I used my lovely lace as a hem facing, and hand stitched it down.

Costs: 
 Fabric: £9
 Lining/facing fabric: £0
 Pattern: £0
 Thread: £0
 Notions: zip £0, lace £1
Total: £10

Navy Pin Dot Peony Dress

I am still in mourning for my beloved, faded Navy Spot Sundress, so when I saw this quilting cotton at the Knitting and Stitching Show, I knew it had potential as a replacement. I bought 2.75m but ended up only using 1.75m for this pattern.

I was going to make exactly the same pattern, New Look 6968, but Colette putting the Peony Dress on sale tipped me towards a new direction. I've admired it for a long time, 2013 in fact, when I rediscovered sewing, and first discovered the wonderful world of sewing bloggers. I love the bateau neckline, the cap sleeves and the flippy skirt.

It came together very quickly, but it did need quite a few fitting changes along the way. I cut a size 4 all the way through, with no grading. I am so pleased I did some blog research before I started sewing (but only after cutting - when will I learn?). The front bodice waistline darts are in a location that I just don't understand. They are unfathomably close together, I moved them out by 5/8", and moved the point of the side bust darts out by 2cm. (Apologies for mixing my units of measurement - I have a ruler in inches and a tape measure in cms.) My waist doesn't nip in as much as the pattern, so I reduced the legs of the front darts by 1.5cm. I did this at the waist only, the under bust portion is the same as the pattern. This means that my darts are not triangular, but rectangles with triangles at the top.

I didn't shorten the waist, but did do my usual 1.5cm sway back adjustment. I typically reduce the seam allowances at the waistline to 1cm so I did that here, in the bodice and the skirt. I also added binding to the seam joining the bodice and the skirt.

The neckline is very high and very wide. I reduced the seam allowances between the facing and the neckline to 1cm at the shoulders and it just covers my bra straps. If I hadn't I would have had to add bra carriers, but these would pull the bra straps to an uncomfortable angle, so I'm relieved this was enough. I lowered the front neckline by 1.5cm and it is still very high. All my dresses come up very large around the shoulders and I still need to pull the shoulder seams in by another 1cm (ie 2cm seam allowance at shoulder seams). [Update: I pulled the shoulders up by quite a lot - 1.5cm at the neckline, tapering out to nothing at the sleeve - I am much happier with how the whole bodice fits.]

After my festival of seam binding on the last dress I made, I had a change of heart. Seam binding adds a lot of bulk and can make the seams pucker. For this dress, I went with a really simple zig zag finish. It won't win any prizes for the most beautiful insides ever, but they do the job they are meant to do: be invisible and stop fraying. 

Both my Colette dress patterns, the Dahlia and the Peony, have gathers at the waist, instead of skirt darts, which I really like, I think it suits me. I will possibly adapt all my future skirts to this method. This time though, I changed the skirt gathers into two small pleats. I think they look neater and smarter, and reduce the puffiness you get with gathers. I added a LOT of length to the skirt, I cut the skirt length to the size 18 and it added about 10cms to the length and I hemmed a 2cm hem. I am not entirely sure this is entirely right for me, but as I am pushing 40, my bare knees need to disappear from public life. I still might shorten it, or I might go back and make a straight skirt with a back vent. Peony with a pencil skirt is definitely on the cards for the future.

For me, the cummerbund belt really brings this dress together and makes it special. The picture above, without the belt looks pretty frumpy - a shorter skirt would help. I chose to add white piping to the edges of my belt, to give it some contrast with the dress. I made the inside in white cotton, but I don't expect I am going to wear it the wrong side out. It looks too much like a bandage, and a belt like this needs to be in a darker colour than the dress. I considered plain navy, but the cotton I had in my stash wasn't a perfect colour match, so white it was. I added a scrap of interfacing to the two edges of the belt to stabilise the buttons and button loops. I finally got to use the three navy buttons I bought in Italy that didn't make it onto Ruby Tuesday. Because they have a rope motif, I made button loops out of unadulterated piping cord and called it nautical. This is definitely not my excuse for avoiding cutting out, sewing up, turning and pressing proper button loops. No indeed!

Costs:
Pattern: Colette Peony, £7.72
Fabric: 1.75m, £10.06
Contrast Fabric: Rainbow Fabrics, Isle of Wight, 30cm, £1.80
Piping Cord: didn't record price.
Interfacing: scraps, £0.00
Thread: stash, £0.00
Buttons: Italy, £1.20
Total: £20.78

Colette Dahlia Dress

Ahh, the Colette Dahlia Dress. How the blogosphere loves a new indie pattern. By all accounts, it flew of the shelves when it was released earlier this year. I too grabbed mine during the launch discount. The waist yoke follows the design lines of one of my favourite RTW brands, Boden, and I know it works for my apple shaped figure.

I went against good advice and decided to make it up in a stretch, 2 meters of navy Ponte de Roma from Minerva. I have developed a love/hate relationship with this fabric. Love: it cut and sewed beautifully, it didn't move, didn't fray, didn't need pressing or seam finishing and it washed easily. Hate: it picks up lint like crazy. Then it doesn't let it go. It is an absolute nightmare. I can brush it and see the lint moving about like seaweed in a current. Nightmare.

I made it up with Version 1, with the sleeves and the straight skirt. I made quite a few modifications to the pattern, first for my shape and then for general fit issues through the high bust/shoulders. I measured a size 4 in the bust and hips and a size 10 in the waist. I ended up pulling in the waist to half way between the 6 and the 8. I have a strange figure like that. The high bust was way too large. I should have taken in the top of each shoulder seam by 1cm. But I ended up just taking in the back seams and gathering the centre front by a bit extra. I lengthened the sleeves by 4 inches to get them to cover my elbows. I gathered these too, and ended up taking in an additional 1cm through the lower sleeve too.

The waist yoke has ended up being very bulky. I should have made the inside piece in a lightweight cotton jersey. It doesn't look too bad in the pictures, but I am conscious that I don't need any extra bulk around my waistline.

I used my walking foot for the seams and hemmed it by hand.

Verdict
7 out of 10. Not a fail, but not a favourite. I'm on the fence about using this pattern again. I won't be buying more of this fabric.

Cost
Fabric: 2m Navy Ponte de Roma (Minerva) £13.04
Pattern: Dahlia pdf (Colette) £6.50
Zip: as instructed by pattern (John Lewis) £3.50
Thread: stash £0.00
Total: £23.04

Sorbetto Dress

Have you ever noticed a gaping hole in your wardrobe just as you are about to visit a fabric store? It happens to me all the time ;) There I was, in the Isle of Wight, about to go to a store I discovered last year, when I remembered that I was about to go on yet another holiday and I didn't have a dress that I could wear in the heat.

When I lived in Australia, I had many such clothes. Here in Britain, they are not really needed. I did make a sundress last year but the style is a beach dress so I don't wear it out and about. What I needed was a light, breezy dress. I swooped on this fabric with delight: light and soft, my colours and a great price. Why oh why did I not get 2 meters of it?

I knew the Collette Sorbetto would turn into just the sort of dress I was looking for. I turned the centre pleat into an inverted pleat at the top and left it loose to provide additional ease through the waist and hips. I extended the bottom, adding as much width as I could from the width of the fabric. This one was 150cm wide, so I was able to gain quite enough.

For me, this pattern definitely needs darts at the back. I added them in at the end. They provide some shaping but I'm still not happy with the back. (But maybe I'm just not happy with the size of my bum and the pictures are showing me the ugly truth.) After I made up the side seams and shoulder seams, I realised that I really would have to line the dress. What a torment! The light and breezy fabric would not be light and breezy with a polyester or quilting cotton lining. Those were the only things I had - I was leaving the next day! Then I remembered my trusty sheet which is light and thin. Then I remembered my first Sorbetto, made out of the very same sheet. It wasn't that great, I had used a basting stitch to sew the front darts, there was a mistake in the front binding and I had managed to include a small stain in the front, despite careful inspection of said sheet.

Sorbetto Dress Lining

I unpicked the hem and the front pleat but I left all the binding intact. I didn't have time to pull it all out and get the dress finished in time to actually wear it this year. I wrapped the whole thing inside the dress and did a bias facing on the inside, instead of the exposed facing called for in the pattern. The binding seams are a bit thick and heavy but I wasn't about to unpick all that binding.

I had just enough dress fabric left to add a skirt lining to the bottom. I decided against a pocket, I thought putting anything in it would pull the dress too much, plus I didn't want to interfere with the French seams.

As you can see, I got it made in time and had a lovely holiday too!

Cost:

Fabric: £6.25

Ruffle Sorbetto

I had to make something for myself from this red spot fabric.  I went for my second Sorbetto.

Here’s how I added the ruffle to the front pleat:

1. Cut out pattern pieces

2.  Sew centre seam into pleat and press.  Don't baste pleat to top and bottom of front bodice.

3. Cut strips of fabric for ruffle.  My length is 1.5 times the length of the pleat.

4. Hem one side of ruffle, gather other side.

5. Baste under pressed pleat.

6. Top stitch through all the layers of front bodice, ruffle and pleat to secure.

7. Staystich top and bottom of front bodice through ruffle and pleat to hold in place while you finish the neckline and hem.

I could have made the centre pleat a little narrower, and/or added more rows of top stitching down the pleat.  I seamed over the ruffle at the top and bottom to anchor it to the garment, but it could be hemmed and left open too.

Again, I should lengthen this top.  I added 1cm, but I think it needs another inch: 3.5cm total.  I’ve removed 1.5cm from the bottom of each armhole, and I added two darts in the back, after I took these photos.

Cost: £11.92 (1/3 of red spot fabric project costs)

Next project for this fabric: another little girl’s dress.

Sorbetto

Thank you to Colette for this lovely (free!) pattern, Sorbetto.

This is a very versatile pattern and the fit is great.  I like how it is a tank top but the shoulder straps are wide enough and the neckline is high enough to keep it modest enough to wear anywhere, including the office.

Although it is a pretty simple construction, with no fastenings, I had a few firsts which kept me interested: first time printing out and assembling a downloaded pattern, first upcycle and first time making my own bias binding.

For the upcycle, I reclaimed a worn out fitted sheet.  The sheet was expensive but, as with all high thread-count cotton, very fine and flimsy.  But it is wonderfully soft, a great colour and a lovely sheen to it too.  One of the longest process for this project was unpicking all the elastic (more reclaiming), ironing out the creases (sort of) and identifying all the imperfections in my reclaimed fabric (I still missed one).  I have a lot of sheet left and I think the fabric is too nice to use for toiles.  Some kid tops would be nice, plus the Penny Dress, of course.  

I changed a couple of things in the pattern:

-French seams for the side seams and shoulders, especially with a very fine fabric.  I have a particular aversion to exposed seams as they are a dead giveaway of a home-made garment and I don’t have an overlocker.

-Allowance for my short waist by cutting a straight line from the waist-level notch to the bottom of the garment.  I need to figure out how to draft a better curve for next time.

-Lowered the armhole opening by 1.5cm.

-Lengthened garment by 1cm (could do more).

For decoration, I included the button to distract from my three (three!) imperfections on the front.  Hopefully it works.  No, I’m not telling what they are.

Cost

Fabric: free

Pattern: free

Thread: stash, perfect match

Notions: button from stash

Tools: new bias binding maker, ½ inch, £5.59