Craftsy Class Photos - Bombshell and Couture Dresses

Caftsy.com is having a photo contest and the winner gets 5 free craftsy classes and glory and fame on the front page of the Craftsy Web site.  All you have to do is post a photo of yourself making or wearing an item from a Craftsy class and post it on Pinterest. 

I am lucky enough to have some friends who really like photography and I was able to bribe them easily into wasting an afternoon with me.

We went to an old-fashioned/retro soda fountain near downtown Phoenix called MacAlpine's Soda Fountain. I was a little out of my comfort zone being such a spectacle in public place, but it was fun having two people snap pictures like crazy whilst being all decked out.  Plus, we actually ordered ice cream at the soda fountain and it was delicious. The employees were patient and wonderful while we took the photos, as well.

These are the Bombshell Dress I made from class, paired with two petticoats under the dress. 

And now for a costume change and stopping off at my work.  I thought I might get some very Mad Men-esque office-y shots, but everything in the office is modern, so that didn't work as well as I had hoped.  But they do have some colorful backgrounds for the Couture Dress I made.

 I have my eye on the new class - Sewing With Knits, so I am crossing my fingers for the win.

Vogue 1158: A Grey Disaster

What a disaster!  I truly dislike how this dress turned out.  This is V1158 from Vogue. It looks so nice on the pattern cover, but I did not have the same lovely results.

There are a few things wrong with this dress:

1.  The armholes are so large.  I would be really worried about potential side breast escape. This is especially bad because the back is so low that your choices of bras is really limited. 
2. The pleats in the bodice make little breast pouches that are entirely unflattering.  The girls look like little crab apples in there.  It is actually worse in person than this photo.  And the photo is bad.
3. With the fabric I picked out, it looks like a prison uniform. 

On further inspection, I think the model on the pattern cover is obviously smiling stiffly because if she moves in any direction, her breasts may fall out of the over-sized armholes or the center since the photo does not show the little cleavage barrier that is included with the pattern.

This is a little crooked

Things I admit to:

• I picked out the wrong fabric.  This is a stretch cotton, but this dress is clearly for a thinner more floaty fabric.  While I am admitting things, it even says so on the back of the pattern.  The bodice would probably be more flattering if the fabric were different. (but those armholes would be just as big, so that would still be an issue.
• I sewed the little piece in the front on crooked.   Since documenting dressmaking and not just posting dirty pictures of myself was the goal, I wanted to get this sewed on for the pictures.  I did it too quickly and it is crooked.

Unfinished zipper and left armhole.

• I didn't finish the left armhole or put in the left bias tape around the armhole. I didn't believe it would improve the dress, so I stopped sewing.

• I made the bias tape twice as wide as the pattern called for.  It may have changed the look a little towards the "correctional facility uniform" end of the spectrum.  When I sewed it the width the pattern called for, it looked way narrower than the picture on the cover, so I made it wider. 

Added length to the skirt with tissue paper extension.

• I changed the length on the dress and added 5 inches.  I know, I know, you shouldn't add more than 3.75 inches to any skirt because it will distort and be generally wonky. I thought I was more clever and knew better.  I knew it was going to get wider at the bottom, but since I am used to sewing full circle skirts with the 50's dresses, the extra wideness wasn't really a concern.  
• I didn't finish the belt.  Phwaw.  

Some cool things about this mess:

• French seams.  This pattern called for French seams and I learned how to do them. These are really easy and look great.  I still think I will use my serger for some dresses, but for a slippery fabric (like this dress is supposed to be made of), this is a great and easy technique.

• Bias binding.  The pattern had bias tape on the bodice edges and I really like it.  I am putting it on a little backwards in this photo, since you should sew it to the right side of the fabric, then bend it round to the back, but even with doing it backwards, it STILL looked great. I love this stuff!
  

Conclusion: I really do like the skirt of this dress.  I like how the stripes are cut on the bias and meet in the middle back and middle front in V shapes.  I am going to find a bodice from a different dress and  attach the skirt, hemmed just below the knee, which will minimize my over-lengthening.  I'll save this dress - stay tuned!

Tutorial: Fixing a Zipper

So, you make a really tailored (read: tight-fitting) dress for your Craftsy class Couture Dress.  And you hand-sew EVERYTHING in this puppy, including the lovely lapped zipper. Then, instead of trying to pull it over your head like someone sensible, you try and step into it.  However, you have hips that say to the world: "I really, really like eating chocolate."

What happens?  You force the zipper teeth out of one side of the zipper and ruin it trying to squeeze your hips into it as if the dress were a glass slipper and you are a wicked stepsister.

I didn't want to take the zipper out and replace it, given all of the hand-sewing.   This what to do to fix it.

• First, take off the metal clamp at the bottom of the zipper.  I used a tool that was entirely inappropriate to do this (it was a seam ripper), but I am sure you have the good sense to use something else.

•  Without the clamp at the bottom, you can lower the zipper pull (feeder?  head?) to below the teeth. Feed the zipper into the side where it is missing.   Make sure that the other side of the zipper is also near the bottom or it won't close properly, you'll have gaping zipper bits at the top and people will make fun of you.

• Sew a circle of thread around the end of the zipper, slightly higher than where the clamp was. Sure, it would have been better to use white thread.  I see that now.
• Enjoy victory chocolate.

Tutorial: French Seams

A new pattern I am working on calls for the bodice and skirt to be sewn using French seams.  I had heard of it and it certainly sounds snobby enough to be appealing, so I am all in.  The pattern directions had a brief description of what French seams are, but I didn't find it particularly useful, so I have written these instructions.  It turns out that these are really, really easy.

• Start separate pieces of fabric that must be sewn together. (of course)

•  Put the wrong sides of the fabric together.  It is backwards of how we normally sew.

•  Sew the fabric, wrong sides together, with a small seam allowance.

•  After sewing, cut the fabric close to the seam.

•  Fold over the fabric so that right sides are together and sew as narrow of a seam allowance as possible, while hiding first seam in the fold.

•  Voilà.  The inside of your garment looks nice and will not fray

•  Close-up view of wrong side of French seam.

Butterick 5209 - Flowered 40's Dress

For my latest dress, I have decided to move backwards from the 50's and try Butterick 5209 from 1947.  It love this dress because it so reminds me of the dresses I see my grandma wearing in old family photos.  I am sure she sewed hers, too.  Of course, she had a lovely hat and some gloves to put with the dress. 

This dress has gathered skirt with a fitted waistband and looser shoulders. It has a side zipper with a fully self-lined bodice. Here is the pattern.  I did view  B, which has a full back and sleeves.  (View A has just a halter)

Muslin
I made muslin in a size 16 after reading the pattern measurements, but found it would have been too big.  My dress form is fairly true to my size.  I even tried to pin some sections and was going to try and adjust the pattern, but ended up just making it a size 14 and that made the difference.  If you are making the pattern, there seems to be a lot of ease.  I would make it a size smaller than the measurements indicate if you would like it to fit like the picture on the front of the pattern.

Front of muslin

Back of muslin

Pattern Instructions

Most of the instructions are good... except at step 23.  The picture is terrible and so are the instructions.   I gathered that the goal of this step is to sew the self-lining to the bodice front. I stared at this and re-read it and stared at it some more for about an hour until I gave up figuring out what the authors meant to do and just did it my own way, then ended up doing some hand sewing to finish the seams.  I am still not sure how they intended it to be done. If you have figured out the mystery of step 23, let me know. 

Step 23, AKA the WTF step.

Variations from Pattern

I made two variations from the pattern instructions.  The first variation is that the pattern calls for the zipper to sewn to the top of the underarm seam.   The last time I made a dress with a zipper at the armpit (Butterick 5603), the zipper rubbed against my inner arm and was so irritating I don't wear the dress.   For this dress, I lowered it a tad and put in a hook and eye at the top. This is MUCH more comfortable!  

Inside of dress

The other thing I did was to change the lining of the dress.  The instructions say to fold the bottom of the lining under, hem it and leave it loose inside the dress.  That is too untidy for me.  Instead, I added a strip of blanket binding and hand sewed the bottom of the bodice lining to it, then sewed the binding to the waist, covering up all of the gathering/stitching.

Things I Like 

This dress really does remind me of my grandma's dresses from way back when.  It is also so comfortable!   I have been watching videos on YouTube for how to put pin curls in my hair, so I just need some vintage shoes, a hat and some gloves.

Bonus for anyone who gets this far in actually reading my blog... I accidentally bought two of the B5209 pattern.  It is size 14-16-18-20.  I'll pick a random person* who leaves a comment on this post from now until 8/31/2012 and send the extra pattern to you if you say you are interested in your comment.  I'll even send it overseas.  THAT is how happy I am with this dress.  If you are the lucky winner, I'll contact you through your profile to get your address.

*I reserve the right for "random" to be translated as "most entertaining and/or useful".  Just saying.

Tutorial: Petticoat

I was looking for a petticoat to wear under retro dresses and wasn't finding anything ready-made online that I liked.  Or if I liked it, I didn't care for the price tag*.  So, I decided to sew one, but I couldn't find any patterns.  Here is why: this is dead simple to make for not very much money. It took me about a full day to complete.

There are tutorials online, and I found a couple excellent ones posted by lovely people who I am sure are better sewists than me.  They had super-flexible instructions for variable-tier petticoats any length you want with all kinds of calculations in them to figure out how much fabric you need and what width the tiers should be... phwah (eye roll). The truth was, I was looking for someone to do the math for me.  I also didn't love how they did the elastic at the waist.  They doubled over the tulle so that it was still scrunched up next to the skin.  I wanted to make a double layer of elastic that covered up the gathered tulle so that it would feel nice against my skin.

So, here is a short, simple tutorial on how to make a three-tier petticoat that fits me.  It reaches my just above my knee and fits my waist.  Fine, fine, fine...  since I am sure some of you will insist on making a petticoat for someone other than me, I'll include the adjustment so you can fit it to your own waist.  The rest of the measurements will work for just about any size adult given she (or he - I don't judge) has waist circumference under 5 yards.

If you follow this tutorial and make a petticoat, post a link to it.  I'd love to see it.

Materials Needed

• Elastic - 3/4 inch wide (2X waist circumference + 2 inches).  I put two layers of elastic in. You will need your waist circumference + 1 inches (example and helpful hint for a birthday gift for me: my waist is 28 inches, so I cut 30 inches of elastic)
• Tulle - 5 yards - 54 inches wide
• Cotton thread, elastic thread

The petticoat is about 20 inches from waist to hem.  That is just above my knee.

There are three tiers of tulle. The bottom tier is 15 yards long, second is 10 yards, and the last is 5.   All of them are 8 inches wide.

1. 

   Sew strips together.

   Prepare tulle: cut tulle into 8 inch strips.  My tullewas 54 inches wide, so I ended up with many 8" x 54" strips.  The petticoat is sewn by dealing with the bottom tier first, then working your way up to the waist, tier by tier. 
2. Prepare bottom tier (15 yards long, 8" wide): sew strips together to form even longer strips, then once you have 15 yards of strips sewn together, sew the ends together, so you have a long circle. I used a serger for this.  You can use a regular sewing machine, but I would just be careful to trim the seam allowances since you will be able to see them from the outside of the petticoat (tulle being  see-through, and all).  You might be able to make a French Seam, but I haven't actually tried that for this.
3. Prepare middle tier (10 yards): same as bottom tier, but only 10 yards
4. Prepare top tier (5 yards):  same as bottom tier, but only 5 yards.
5. Edging: one edge of the bottom tier, finish with a serger. I have seen people use some ribbon to finish the edge as if the ribbon were quilt binding or bias tape. 

   

   Finishing bottom edge on serger

6. On the other edge of the bottom tier, use a basting stitch on a regular sewing machine and sew a continuous line.  This will serve as the thread to use for the gather.

   

   Serger finish on one edge, basting stitch on the other. 

   
   

   
   

7. Mark four equidistant points on the bottom tier with safety pins.  This will mark four evenly sized sections of the bottom tier.  I wouldn't use straight pins because they would fall out of the thin tulle.
8.  Mark four points with safety pins on the middle tier in the same way as the bottom tier.

   

   Pull one thread of basting stitch to gather.



Gathering and serging, matching safety pinned points.

9. Gather the bottom tier, pulling one thread of the basting stitch. Match safety pinned points and sew right sides of bottom and middle tier together (I did mine with a serger).  Bottom and middle tier will be sewn together and form one circle at this point.

   

   Bottom tier and middle tier sewn together.

10. On the free edge of the middle tier, sew a straight line on sewing machine.  
11. Mark four even sections with safety pins on top tier.
12. Sew top tier to middle tier in the same way that middle was sewn to the bottom tier, gathering to make marks match.
13. Sew one piece of elastic together so that it is a circle.  Trim seam allowance.
14. Mark four equidistant points on the elastic and gather tulle, matching points.  Gather tulle to fit elastic.  Sew using regular thread and a zig zag stitch.
    

    

    Pinned top tier to elastic and gathering to match points.

    

    Sew top tier to elastic with zig-zag stitch.

15. Change to elastic thread and attach elastic waist band to other side.  This covers up the rough-feeling tulle and makes things tidy.  I did two rows of stitching on this side so that elastic is secured.  Tulle is now covered and won't be scratchy.

    

    Sew second layer of elastic to cover tulle.

16. Wear under retro dress!  Here is the yellow retro dress before and after the petticoat.I like it because this isn't SO puffy that I can't wear it in public.  It just adds a little extra fullness, but not out of control.  Here it is under the Bombshell Dress, as well.

My Cost:

• Elastic - Less than $2.00
• Tulle - $1.00 per yard, $5.00 total
• Elastic thread - $1.75
• TOTAL - $8.75

* I found the kind of petticoats I wanted for about $60.00 to $100.00.  I definitely don't want to insult my Etsy friends selling these ready-made or insinuate they are ripping anyone off.  It is more than a fair price considering this took me all day to make. I am saying that my time is far more abundant than my money and this was a fun little project.