I'm (Not) Feelin' It

I made a thing earlier this summer that I immediately regretted.  It was an impulse purchase of fabric, and I'm sorry to say, I didn't heed my better judgement.  Namely: DON'T SEW GARMENTS WITH ART GALLERY QUILTING COTTON!  I don't know how many times I have to learn this lesson.  Sheesh.

(For the record, I don't mind sewing with quilting cottons, but Art Gallery's quilt cotton is a different beast.  It behaves differently from other cottons and has a kind of poplin feel to it.  I always feel like I'm wearing paper).

I fell in love with the print in the spring, and had been saving up to get the knit substrate for a fall dress, but the cheapness of the quilting cotton version whispered my name.  I thought: I can make a simple blouse out of that!  (This was shortly after I converted my Blue Forest dress into a blouse, and I was feeling overly confident).  Famous last words.

I used my Dottie Pearl dress pattern as a block and just cut it shorter without bust tucks.  It came together very quickly, and I thought it was going quite well.

Until I put it on, and I immediately felt claustrophobic.  The armscyes are annoyingly tight and while it feels better after having it on for a few minutes, I still feel slightly sausage-y in it.  Which is not really the feeling I was going for with this blouse.  I don't really know what the problem is, as both of the dresses I made from this pattern don't have this issue.

I cut the length such that I could wear it untucked, but that means it wants to untuck constantly.  *le sigh*  I'm hoping the Brooks Blouse will work better for me.

So, not my best effort (and why you get phone photos in the bathroom mirror).  I've already cut it down for a shirt for Birdie and will post photos of that soon.  I have the knit substrate of this print waiting in my fabric pile for a fall dress.

Me-Made May 2018: Rayon Rescue

Sometimes I am like a dog with a bone.

Can you stand one more round of Menagerie dress photos?  No?  sorrynotsorry.  

Yesterday I finished another rayon version of M7353 (photos to come later this week when it is supposed to get very warm) and it occurred to me that there still might be a way to salvage my sad-sack Menagerie dress.

I really hate to waste good fabric.  My problems with the dress were several-fold.  I had tried to fix the first two a few weeks ago by shortening the sleeves and hem and moving the pockets, but the shorter hem looked really odd, so I let that out again.  I still didn't want to wear the dress, however.  I decided that the silhouette was the problem.

As my M7353 is my most-worn silhouette this season, I thought it might be possible to mimic the lines by removing all the bust tucks and elastic shaping and inserting a bias bound waist casing on the inside of the dress and then putting elastic inside, ala the M7353.  I removed the wonky pockets a few weeks ago because they were seriously saggy, off center, and just not functional.

I think this fix might have saved the dress!  I get that the print doesn't read well at a distance, and the resulting color is maybe not the most flattering thing I own, but I really like the lines of this dress now.  I'm going to see if I have some scraps to make inseam pockets, but if not, I'll live.  (I'm also officially to the part of the year where I do not know what to put on my feet, hence the dodgy foot wear choices).  I'm going to try it on my Painted Roses dress too and see if that doesn't help me like that dress again.  I took out all the shaping last night and am going to see if I have time to insert a waist casing today.

It is also May 1, which means Me-Made-May is officially off to the races.  Most of my clothes are me-made at this point and well documented here, so I don't know how much I'll photograph this year.  That said, I always find things to think about in the process of Me Made May, so we'll see.  In any case, I should probably dub this month "Save All The Rayons" month. Ha!

I also made a jersey dress for Ponchik two weeks ago out of the Cotton+Steel octopus fabric:

That girl and her octopus obsession.  I used the Gloria dress pattern from an etsy seller (it is very basic) and put box pleats on the skirt instead of gathering because I find it less fussy and the finish better.  I attached the front and backs of the skirts to the bodice and then sewed a long side seam instead of attaching the skirt in the round, which I also like better for construction.  I used a neck facing rather than a band because I like the way it looks and is also less frustrating to finish nicely.

My only complaints about this jersey are that the hem wants to flip up constantly, despite careful pressing, and I made the mistake of using cotton thread to sew it (it was the only color in my bin that matched!), so the waist seam isn't very sturdy; I've had to repair it a couple of times already.  I'll probably just reinforce the whole seam with poly thread this time.

Today is Boo's birthday, so I have to frost a layer cake, decorate the table, and wrap some presents! Wheee!!

Menagerie Dottie Pearl Dress and Calligraphy Cardigan

Fresh off the blocking mat is my Calligraphy Cardigan!  I worked on this sweater in the fall and had mostly finished it before Nativity, but I set it aside for a few months to finish the Dusk sweater and a few other things.  I knew I wanted this sweater for my spring, and it just needed button bands and seaming on the sleeves.

So I put my shoulder to the grindstone and cranked out the button bands over the last few weeks.  I was slightly annoyed to discover that the recommended yardage was off by a ball, as I ran out of yarn halfway through the second button band (and I made the button bands an inch narrower than called for!)  I used the Chickadee yarn the pattern was written for, so I really don't understand what happened (and this almost never happens to me since I'm a tight knitter and usually have to size up on needles).  Since I bought the yarn almost a year ago, the dye lots were slightly different, so the one button band is slightly darker on the one half, but it is only noticeable if the sweater is lying flat.  

But it doesn't annoy me enough not to wear it!  I used 192 stitches for the button bands instead of the recommended 190 for this size, as that seemed skimpy to me.  (I cast on 3 stitches for every 4, which was about right).  The blocking really smoothed everything out.  I put it in the washer on a handwash cycle with another sweater and then laid it flat on my drying rack to block.  Since I didn't need to block it aggressively, this worked very well and I will probably do it again.  The bathtub method tends to make my sweaters grow in ways I don't always like.

I used some vintage buttons from my stash that almost exactly matched and I had 10, which was perfect.  I sewed the extra one into the side seam in case of a loss.  I really like this long line style of cardigan right now (with the sailor type collar) and cast on another almost immediately.

And the dress.  This is Cotton+Steel rayon challis, from one of the collaborations with Rifle and Co.  (It is part of the Menagerie line).  I made it as a Dottie Pearl dress, and I think forgot to taper the sleeves at the bottom when I added the 2" of extra length, so they were really flapping in the wind because of the drapey rayon.  So I decided to cinch them with a bit of elastic at the wrist and create a small bishop sleeve silhouette.  I don't think I would do this on every sleeve treatment, but I do like it on this dress!  (After wearing for a morning, I think I might try making the sleeve elastic slightly bigger.  It is slightly tight when worn under a sweater).

But overall, I like the fit of the dress, and the drape is really nice.  It is a shame that the small scale pattern doesn't show up at a distance, because it is quite interesting.  The dress is kind of a spruce green in the background, but it has blue flowers that sort of coordinate with the sweater, so I'm going to call it good.

Small patch pockets, as with the flannel version.  

Elastic sleeve detail.  I didn't do anything fancy--I just hemmed it as usual, and left an opening for the elastic.  I used 1/4" elastic that I use for the back cinch, and just measured my wrist loosely for fit.

You can see the print a bit better here.  If I was really on trend, I would have made this sweater in a mustard color to match the ferns in the dress (Cotton+Steel seems to use this particular shade in a lot of their prints), but I'm not cool that way.  That color doesn't look particularly good near my face.

And besides, blue has a bigger place in my closet.  Overall, I'm happy with this outfit--it is nice for the spring transitional weather, I think.

As for reading, I'm still re-reading Constantina Palmer's Scent of Holiness for Lent, Rodney Stark's Rise of Christianity (excellent sociological study about how Christianity came to be the main religion of the Western world; it has a lot of great information about how conversion works en masse), and I just started Esther Emery's What Falls From the Sky.  

We've had so many sick days, snow days, days off for holidays, church feasts, professional development days, etc. that I'm starting to feel like I'm in an endless summer break with the kids at home.  I haven't had a full week of kids at school since early December.  It is March 8. <sigh>

I did decide to work on the book from a different angle for a little while, to see if that helps me with some areas that I'm stuck on.  (I understand my male protagonist very well, and his flaws/problems/goals/ambitions, but I'm struggling with my female protagonist, and it is through her eyes that a lot of the story is told.  I have a good idea of what I want her character arc to be, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get from point a to point b.  Right now I have a lot of scenes that don't do very much to advance her story arc.  So: outlining and character story boarding.  And editing.  Lots of editing.  And staring at the wall a lot).

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!

Dottie Pearl Flannel Dress

I present my newest Frankenpattern: the Dottie Pearl!  Now with set-in sleeves!  I must say, I am chuffed about this dress.  I've long wanted to adapt my dottie angel dress pattern (aka Simplicity 1080) for set in sleeves so that I could have a long sleeve option, but have, up to this point, been unsuccessful in doing so.  (My muslin attempts in the fall were spectacularly unsuccessful, such that I set the project aside in despair).

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing fabric.com (like you do) and found this amazing plaid flannel from Robert Kaufmann.  It isn't from any of his flannel lines (I'm particularly fond of the Mammoth and Shetland flannels) or part of a larger collection, so I think it must be a one-off.  But I loved the colors, and the fact that it was yarn dyed (which means it is a woven with all the colors, rather than printed on one side, like my Geo Flannel skirt).  

I decided I wanted another plaid flannel dress for the cooler months (I'm seriously rethinking my Project 333 approach; I'll discuss more about it at the end of this rotation, I think.  I'm still percolating).  I also decided I was going to figure out sleeves, because I really wanted something that didn't need an undershirt.  It also had become A Thing, the sleevils.  I needed to just figure them out already.  (And for the record, I know how to set in sleeves and have done it many times, but I'm very picky about how set-in sleeves fit in a woven fabric, and that was the part I couldn't get right).  

Fortunately, I had two things in my favor: enough unloved fabric in my bin to play around with (I hate muslining generally, because it feels like a waste of good fabric, but I had a length I'd bought a couple of years ago that I've fallen out of love with, and was just sitting, taking up space), and also a pattern that seemed like might work to adapt with sleeves.

What I really wanted was my dottie angel frock with set-in sleeves.  But I started with the Green Bee Pearl Shift dress pattern (readers may remember my chambray fail with this pattern in the late summer).  I decided that even if the body of the dress didn't work, it might be useful to see if the sleeves and shoulders did work on me.  The Summer Jazz dress that I'd tried previously doesn't fit me well in the shoulders and arms, so I didn't want to try and tweak that fit.  The Pearl dress seemed semi-fitted enough to give it a go.  

My first mock up was to simply make up the Pearl dress as drafted, but I rotated the bust darts into bust tucks, and cinched the back with elastic, ala dottie angel, and added patch pockets.  I was happy with the fit of the sleeves and the shoulders, but the bust tucks looked really weird, and the dress just hung oddly on me.  As drafted, the Pearl is a swing-type shift dress; the semi-fitted stuff just wasn't working. 

For my second attempt, I decided to put the shoulder part of the pattern on top of my dottie angel and merge the two silhouettes.  I kept the neckline of the Pearl dress, and the shoulder and armscye, and merged it with the body of the Simplicity 1080.  I cut the Pearl sleeves at the long length.  The sleeves came out slightly short (they are more like bracelet length), but the rest of the fit was great.  I decided it was good enough to go ahead on the flannel. 

I will state for the record that this flannel was kind of a bug-bear to get lined up for plaid matching.  It kept wanting to go off-grain, and it is just loosely woven enough to slide around a little even with careful (and repeated) pinning on both sides of the fabric.  

I also had to get creative with cutting in order to get the dress cut out of the three yards I had.  (I turned one side of the selvage to the middle, just enough to get the dress out, and then cut the sleeves flat from the other side of the selvage.  I had plenty left to get the pockets out, and still have about half a yard in my bin).  

That said, all my sides match up pretty well (the shoulders, not so much, oh well.  Can't win them all!) and I'm quite pleased with the finished dress.  

I set the sleeves in flat, like you do with knits, and am very happy with this method.  It made lining up the side seams a bit easier too, I think.  I did trim the seam allowance on the sleeve cap down to 1/4" and zig-zagged all my edges to make the fit more comfortable.

The sleeves do look better rolled up a few times, but I'm okay with that.  I could taper them to the wrist more next time to get a more fitted sleeve.  I added 1" of length to the sleeve, but could probably stand another inch.  Word to the wise: I have extremely short Hobbit arms, so if you have normal length arms, and want long sleeves from this pattern, you will need to add quite a bit of length.  The "3/4" sleeve is more like elbow length, fyi.

Boo kept petting me this morning and oohing and ahhing over the dress, so at least someone likes it!  (He has a pair of flannel lined jeans and asked me immediately if it was the same kind of fabric as the inside of his jeans--smart kid!)  I'm working on a simple black cowl that I hope to wear with this dress soon.

I have some spring projects that I'm actually excited about making up--I've been a little burned out on my 1080 dress pattern for a bit now, and this gives me the variety I've been craving.  I also have a knit dress pattern I'm going to try (thanks for the idea, Masha!) and some Art Gallery knit fabric burning a hole in my bin to use with it.  I'll have to pull up my big girl panties before I do so, however, as knits still make me crazy.  Sounds like a good first week of Lent project, right?  (kidding)