Navy Linen Shirt Dress

I am trying so hard to make more wearable garments for myself. Bright, patterned cotton is super fun to sew with, and pretty fun to wear, but it is not really what you would buy in a shop. Solid navy linen, however, is a classic. A linen dress: sleeveless, cool, classic, easy. Just in time for Winter.

Yes, my last planned make for the Summer dragged on. It was difficult to find the motivation to finish when I knew I wouldn't be wearing it any time soon. Not to mention needing to sew it in bright light and photograph it in full sunlight, scarce to be found at this time of year. But it will be lovely to pull it out on the first nice day next Spring and have it ready to wear.

This is actually a knock off of a dress I saw in a shop window, from a bus. I went back to the website and found it in cream. A very simple, sleeveless shirtwaist with a tie belt and no shaping.

Uniqlo S/S2015

I immediately thought of my last make, Simplicity 2447. I lengthed the hem by as much allowance as I had fabric and ended up chopping off about 15cms. Views A and D are so long, that I only needed to add about 10cms to the length to get a dress. I flared out to a slight A-line shape. I couldn't manage the shaped hem, so I hemmed it straight instead. The Uniqlo dress doesn't have shaping and this pattern has princess seams, so it is different in this respect. I also left off the pocket. I didn't trust myself to work with the linen well enough to do a first class job on it. Patch pockets are one of those finishes that can give away a home made garment. When in doubt, leave it out.

Which brings me on to the fabric, the linen. I went looking for this when on holiday in Vancouver. I had to pay a visit to Fabricana and I spent a wonderful two hours browsing the entire store. I could have spent longer, and I definitely could have spent more money, but I was very happy with what I got. Considering it has taken me two years to work through my previous Vancouver stash builders, I consider the 4 fabrics I left with to be plenty. They had about three different navy linens, so I chose based purely on price. It is quite heavy and has a lot of drape. The warp and weft appear to be black and a bright blue to make up a navy with lovely texture. 2 meters was the perfect amount for this dress.  

I must confess that I didn't find this fabric terribly easy to work with. It moved around a lot. I had to re-cut the yoke because it was so badly off grain that it was completely unusable. It frayed a lot too. I zig zagged the princess seams and french seamed the side and shoulder seams. I got the flat fell seam wrong for the back yoke seam, so I just folded the ends under and stitched them down. I stabilised the shoulder seams with a section of grosgrain ribbon. I changed the pleat in the centre back to a gather. More dress, less shirt.  I pieced the belt and added two belt carriers.

The buttons came from an old shirt, I love the look of the brown with the navy. I seriously considered large, white buttons, but decided that it was far less classic. Fun, but not classic, not in keeping with my primary goal of RTW-type garments. The dress does have a moderately serious boo-boo. The collar stand is seriously off grain. I didn't notice until I had finished it and couldn't get the collar to sit evenly. It is even, but the collar stand pulls it to one side so the one is higher than the other. It is still wearable, but not perfect.

I have never owned a shirt dress before. Whenever I have tried one on in a store, I believe they don't suit me. But I was still keen to make one. I was so pleased with my yellow top, that I didn't mind having another try, in a dress version, and I wear navy more than any other colour. I think the sleeveless version is more suited to me than the traditional shirt dress style with short sleeves.

It is not perfect, but I am pretty pleased with it. It does exactly what I wanted it to do: knock off a RTW linen shirt dress.

Costs:

Linen: £13.00

Pattern: used previously, £0.00

Interfacing: medium £3.60

Ribbon: used previously, £0.00

Thread: stash, £0.00

Buttons: stash, £0.00

Total: £16.60

Compared to: £39.00 for the RTW version.

Turquoise Hearts

Two years and two months! That is how long it took me to get around to making this dress and skirt out of knit jersey from Girl Charlee.

The width was really generous, about 150cm, so I easily got both out of just a 1 yard length. The dress, for the 6 year old, actually fits the 8 year old better, but it was a gift, so it's owner must wear it first.

For the dress, I tried Simplicity 1584 again, attempting to make a drop waist dress that pulls over the head. I cut a size 5 and lengthened the shoulder seams to make a sleeve cap. I didn't realise how much I would have to lower the underarm so she could get her arm in. I had to unpick loads of the side seam to make it happen. I added a ribbon to stabilise the shoulder seam and made a neck band on the straight grain. I was planning on making a sleeve band, but I just hemmed it with a twin needle in the end.

The fabric was better at not skipping stitches this time. The spots and hearts are painted on, so that adds significant stability and thickness to the knit. I used my walking foot and I had no problems with skipped stitches. I didn't use a stretch stitch at the neckline, so I had to add a single button and loop closure at the top of the centre back seam. The skirt is cut from a continuous length of fabric and hemmed with two rows of stitching. My twin needle was not co-operating.

The skirt was made from the remnants of the dress. I had a decent size piece left over, at the side of my yard. Once I cut it into two 1/2 yard pieces, they were slightly different widths, so the two side seams are not actually on each side, more like 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock. The 1/2 yard length was getting a little short, so I used some 20mm wide turquoise elastic as the waistband. I actually think the skirt has come out nicer than the dress, but that probably has a lot to do with the fit.

Costs (both)
Fabric: £5.13
Button: stash
Thread: £2.12
Elastic: £2.00
Pattern: used previously
Total: £4.63 each

Matching Doll Dresses

Some doll clothes, made to match dresses previously made for the birthday girl.

I imagined a cute photo shoot: the girl and the doll in matching outfits, perfect hair, inspiring scenery, gorgeous lighting. Not going to happen. At least, not on this blog. This blog is my quick and dirty posting of finished projects. Get it done, release it on the internets. My own public archive of what I’ve made. 

In that vein, the finished objects are: a Popover Sundress, a “regular” doll dress and a Top-Down Doll Cardigan. My three favourite doll patterns. Dolls were willing to model, but only after I brushed their hair. Why, oh why, does their unbrushed hair bother me more than my own children’s unbrushed hair?

The Popover Sundress is the free pattern from Oliver & S, which I have made three times before (Apple Dresses and Red & White Flowers). No changes to the pattern. This pattern is perfect for showing off a really pretty fabric and/or using up a tiny amount of scraps of fabric. Both of which applied here. The fabric is the scraps from the single yard piece I used to make her a self-drafted dress for her 4th birthday – which still fits! This is one of my all time favourite fabrics and she still gets compliments when she wears is. I managed to get both the front and back pieces with butterflies lined up and centred. I still have a tiny piece left and I am contemplating making another by piecing a butterfly as the bodice with the accent plain as the skirt. Maybe the other pattern would work better for this. The yoke and straps are cut from a man’s shirt, of which I have a bountiful stash. Any colour, as long as it’s blue. I like this bright blue though, and this girl has it as her signature accent, featuring as the lining in her Oliver& S sunhat, teddy bear carrier and scooter basket. I think I’m out of stock of this now.

The “regular” dress is designed to match the first dress I ever made her. It is half of the pair of daisy dresses. Which also still fit. Either I am not feeding my kids properly, or I make their clothes enormous. These dresses are also super cute and still turn heads. Being the smaller size, and significantly shorter than her sister, there was quite a lot of orange fabric left from the dress. More than enough for the doll dress. I even had some leftover orange bias binding to make the piping at the waist seam. This is my go-to doll dress pattern. Modified originally and made up 5 times before: lame dress, pink floral (twice), pink ballgown, and on, anon.

Finally, a knitting project, my favourite pattern, the Top-Down Doll Cardigan, also made three times before. Here and here. I made this one up with no decoration at the hem, and long sleeves, also undecorated. I found the sleeves much easier to knit flat and then seam afterwards. Doll sleeves in the round are an exercise in frustrating knitting. The yarn is from my Ruby Tuesday cardigan but it is the button that really makes the cardigan special and much more American Doll-like. It’s a Scottie dog, which happens to be one of the AGD dogs. I think it came from the button stash that my mother picked up from the nature strip during a council rubbish collection! (Side note: I have re-worked Ruby's button band to include buttons down the whole front, also salvaged from the council pickup! That was a great haul.)

Unlike adult patterns, where I tend to make new things most of the time, it appears that my doll ambitions are completely lacking and satisfied by being rendered from these same TNT patterns. I wonder if it is because I am usually trying to either match something, use up the last of some fabric scraps or refashion something so I don't need the extra excitement of a new pattern?

Costs:

Butterfly Doll Dress

Main Fabric: used previously.

Accent Fabric: upcycled.

Pattern: free

Thread: Stash

Total: £0.00

Daisy Doll Dress

Fabric: used previously

Bias binding: used previously

Pattern: free

Thread: stash

Velcro: stash

Total: £0.00

Navy Doll Cardigan

Yarn: £2.30

Pattern: free

Button: free

Total: £2.30

Rope Bowls

Inspired by SouleMama's rope baskets, I ordered some cotton rope and sewed up these bowls.

They are a quick and pretty easy craft project, perfect for instant gratification. Case in point: this rope arrived in the post yesterday evening, and here I am 24 hours later posting a finished project.

I ordered 4mm thick cotton cord because my sewing machine is a basic model and not suitable for denim. It handled this thickness fine, but I found it a little frustrating. Firstly, the lovely rope coils are squashed, and almost entirely flattened out of being by the stitches; and secondly, because as the bowl grows larger it gets quite floppy. A 6mm rope would be nicer. And sew up quicker!

I got unbleached rope because I wasn't planning to dye it and I like it looking more rustic. My home also has cream decor, not pure white.

I used white cotton thread and a stitch length set at 2, with a zig zag setting two notches less than the widest setting (yes, that is a scientific description of my zig zag settings!) It was harder than I realised to get the needle catching both sides of the coils. There are a lot of places that have air holes between the coils. I also had to do a LOT of lifting the presser foot and pivoting. This would be much faster with a machine with a needle up/down setting and a more automated presser foot. But I found the pivoting essential if I wanted to get a good size base to the bowl. If I pivot, I can make relatively flat coils, as soon as I let the machine run, I find the coils to curl upwards really fast.

Witness the first try, the smallest bowl. I curled the end around a few times and figured out which way  I needed to hold it to get the loose rope to join, then just went for it. It turned into a half sphere very quickly! Diameter is 6cm, height 3cm and the base is completely rounded. I think it might have to go into the dolls' picnic set.

Second bowl is my favourite, it feels the right size for this amount of rigidity. It is firm and stable and holds its shape when picked up. It is 13.5cm diameter, and 4cm high. There is a certain amount of shaping you can do to make it taller or flatter, but it mainly holds on to the right shape.

The final bowl was a test of a few things, I wanted to see how much rope they really used, and I timed myself to see how long these really took. The bowl took me 45 minutes, and this was the slowest one by far. I pivoted manually for pretty much the entire time, aside from the last 3-4 coils when I just let it run. 18 cm by 6cm, depending on how much you squash the base down.

I'm pleased I gave it a go, but I will have to put these into rotation, and find them useful, before I go making up hundreds.

Supplies:
20 meters cotton cording: £4.60
1 large spool cotton thread: £0.40
Total: £5.00 for 3

Yellow Spot Shirt

Summer sewing at its best! Yellow! Spots! Seersucker! Sleeveless! I feel like I am on holiday!

I bought this fabric about 18 months ago, from Spotlight, in Australia, at the height of my spot obsession. They are getting a little dated, so I am really pleased that I finally made something with it.

I originally thought of a skirt, and bought some cream polycotton to line it with. I’m so pleased I came to my senses and made a top instead. I had been hoping to find a copy of the out of print New Look 6732. It even has a yellow spot version on the cover. But I haven’t been lucky and I knew that with only 1m (96cm) of fabric, I wasn’t going to get sleeves, or a Peter Pan collar, out of this. I shopped my pattern stash instead and came up with Simplicity 2447. View F, the sleeveless version would fit the bill. the princess seams make it easier to be frugal with fabric layouts. I don’t know why I grabbed this pattern on sale at Minerva, but I am very pleased to have it.  Based on my measurements, I cut the pattern tissue to a size 12. But when I checked the ease, it seemed enourmous so I had a look online for some reviews before cutting my fabric. Goodbye Valentino has made a lovely silk version and posted a very helpful review on Pattern Review. She said it came up huge, so I sized down to an 8.  I’m really glad I did because it is loose and fits me fine through the front, no pulling on the placket at all. A larger one, especially the sleeveless version, would have been ridiculous.  I might do it one day but I'll save it for a very sheer, or very drapey, fabric.

I made a sway back adjustment through the seam where the yoke and the back join. I also shortened the waist by 3cm. Otherwise, I made no changes. I should have trimmed 1cm from the armholes before adding the binding. The holes allow for a 1.5cm seam allowance and my binding only uses up .5cm of that. They are too small. I might go back and re-do the binding. But, equally, I might not! [Update: I re-did the binding - will wonders ever cease?!]

The fabric wasn’t too badly behaved. It is a very large scale seersucker so the puckers are very puffy and the rows of channels are large too.  It has a lot of thickness so it is not really a cool and light summer fabric. But I like that it is not sheer at all. My eight year old said in the sweetest voice, “Mummy, it looks like one of those cloths that you use to wash the dishes.” Why, yes it does, darling! Never mind, I like yellow spots, and it is so handy to have a nice bit of fabric close to hand when my sunglasses get smeary!

It pressed nicely, but pressing makes the puckers flatten, so I avoided pressing except through the seams. I am sure they will come back in the wash. I sort of matched the stripes, but princess seams don’t really make that possible. I can’t believe that this is my first time sewing princess seams! I knew from my favourite sewing guru, Caroline, that one should ease the curve to make it fit. So I did. And it did. Thanks Caroline!

It was also my first time sewing a button band and a collar stand. All went without a hitch. They are not hard, I just don’t really make, or wear, blouses. I haven’t made the inside plackets as neat as they should be. I forgot that they would be on show, that they are actually the right side, unless I am going to button the shirt all the way to the top. Which I am not. I’ll take more care with that area next time. I also forgot to interface one of the button bands, the buttonhole one, so I hand stitched a layer of interfaced fabric to the underside before I sewed the buttonholes.

I didn’t have enough fabric for the collar so I made the underside from the cream polycotton. I thought I would have a lot more trouble getting all the parts from my .96m than I did. I was planning to make the collar stand and the button bands from the same poly. It was nice not to have to. I used the poly for the armhole bindings and the hem binding. I learned from Lauren that a curved hem works better when bound, rather than turned, and it means you can be more miserly with fabric. Mine didn't end up curved. I don’t think I added back enough hem when I shortened the waist. I tried it on and decided that it was best at this length and didn’t want to lose any length from the sides.  My hemming isn’t great. I ignored the pattern instruction to hem before making the button bands and only discovered why this is a good idea after I had done it, so the front hem is too high. Next time, I will hem when instructed.

Finally, my dear yellow buttons. I have a massive stash of men's shirt buttons, but these yellow ones were just too much fun not to include. I think I got them in a pack from a dollar store. The fabric is so thick that I didn’t need to go any higher with my buttons, so it looks a bit rude. [Update: Since I took these photos, I have gone back and added one more button at the top. I put it on the buttonhole side of the placket, with no buttonhole. It would be covered by the shirt if I sewed it on the correct side.] The best part of making your own blouses is that you can position a button at the centre line of your actual bust so that there is no chance of gaping at all. Why do so many of my RTW shirts have one button above the bust, and one below? This creates a lovely window in my shirt, showing off my bra. Not pretty. Seriously, I have a number of shirts that I have to fasten with a safety pin to stop this happening.

I really like the back pleat. I think it looks very smart. The pattern instructions made no mention of seam finishing. The yoke seam just said press towards yoke. I decided to make a flat felled seam instead. I had cut the yoke on the straight grain and I wanted some extra strength there, plus it is a nice, neat finish to use on a horizontal seam. The fabric didn’t behave perfectly, the puckers ended up puffing out under the presser foot. My seam looks wobbly even though the stitching is straight. This happened with all of my seams in this fabric. Anywhere they went over the puckered part, it puffed out. This was also a problem when I tried to zig zag my internal seam finishes. They became really large and wavy so I ended up pinking them instead. Luckily they don’t show through and I hope they won’t fray too fast. If I make this again, I will do flat felled or French seams throughout, but this time was untested (no toile) so I didn’t want to unpick and re-do French seams.

The final verdict is that I am really pleased with this shirt and this pattern and I can’t wait to make it again. A light, airy fabric would be just perfect.

Costs

Fabric: Spotlight, (A$7) £4

Pattern: Minerva, £4.65

Thread: Stash, £0

Interfacing: John Lewis, £0.90

Contrast Fabric: gift, £0

Buttons: dollar store, £1

Total: £10.55

Sashiko Birds Dress

My beloved Navy Spot Sundress is now, officially, replaced. Sadly faded beyond wearability, it had to go, so I made a new dress from the same pattern, New Look 6968. Now a TNT pattern for me, I have made it up three times.

The fabric is more fun, albiet less sophisticated, than its predecessor, and I love it deeply. It is Sashiko Birds by Gennine for Cloud 9. I got the quilting cotton, even though the collection also includes voiles, which The Village Haberdashery were stocking too. I wanted the heavier weight for the more tailored pattern. I bought 2 meters the day after I saw it on Annie's blog. I just had to have it, she hadn't even had time to put the bolts on the shelves - they were still on the community table when I rushed into the store.

I decided to skip lining the bodice and drafted new facings instead. Even though I had enough fabric to cut these from the fabric, I decided to hoard it and cut them from a deceased business shirt. The shirt was quite a bit thicker and stiffer than the cotton, so I didn't need to interface.

I've made quite a few fitting edits to the pattern, which now include: shortening the waist by about 1.5cm, a sway back adjustment, shaving width off the hip curve at the side seams and less depth on the bust darts. I made two small pleats in the skirt, instead of the skirt darts. I still need to take up the shoulders by about 1cm so I have gone back to the pattern pieces and cut .5cm from the top of each shoulder, ready for next time. On wearing the dress, I've discovered that the armscye is rubbing against the front of my arms. I need to take out about 0.5cm from the front edge of the armscye. I'm not going to re-do this dress because I don't want to take out the zip. But it will be much more comfortable to wear had I known this.

I kept to my new philosophy of simple seam finishes and just zig zagged all of them. I can't believe how ok with that I am! I promise it is not laziness - I'd be the first to admit that - but the simple fact of wanting finishes that add no bulk to the seams and don't make them pull or pucker. You can't beat pressing flat and zig zagging. I remember when I was sewing as a teen, I really, really, really wanted an overlocker. I wanted to avoid having my garments look home made, and an overlocked seam was the ultimate in RTW. Now, I am totally cured of that desire, I really don't need the extra hassle to get a finish like that. How's that for moving on and new-found maturity?!

After I had my fabric and decided on the pattern, I saw this dress in the window of a popular store. How on-trend am I?

Costs
Fabric: 2m, The Village Haberdashery, £28.00
Pattern: used previously, £0.00
Facing Fabric: reclaimed, £0.00
Thread: local art store, £0.50
Zip: Mood, £0.60
Total: £29.10