2017 Flashback - Addicted to Plaid

Well lookie here, my camera card still has more unblogged garments on it. There's also 3 different garments that haven't been photographed at all, but now I'm playing chicken with the summer sun. If I could take blog photos successfully in the rain I'd do it. Gotta keep that wet set from falling out before wash day. Momma don't have 2 hours to do that more than once a week.

Anyway I'm going to finally talk about one of my favorite makes of last year that somehow I've mostly kept under wraps until now.  This dress is the complete opposite of the poor Dragnor that didn't really work out.  Several of you mentioned in the comments of that blog post that I look best with high contrast colors and here's proof of that.  The pictures for this dress were taken the same day as the Dragnor pics. All I did was change my hair style and a few accessories.

The pattern here is Hollywood 1857, (pictured below).  I bought it in a lot of 4 patterns and thought this one contained both a romper and shirtdress. When it arrived it turned out to be a romper with an additional skirt you could put over the romper. Oops, probably should have read some of the seller's description about the product.  Sometimes I get excited and bid based solely on the pattern illustration and bust size.

I'm not anti romper on other people, but my romping days are done......if they ever existed. I'll keep my utilitarian english/german/irish/* insert other pale european based people here* legs covered thank you very much.  But about that shirt dress now, couldn't one create one with some minor pattern hacking?  Time to get out the tissue and make it work. Spoiler, hardly any work was required.

The original pattern drafter put the princess line seams in exactly the same location on the romper and the skirt. They also marked the natural waistline on the romper and drafted the skirt to sit there. All I had to do was draw a line across the waist of the various romper pieces and add seam allowance. Didn't have to do anything to the skirt other than omit the waistband. How easy is that!  Thank you past pattern drafter, you did fine work.

Since that part was easy I decided to complicate matters and make this design up in plaid.  Congrats Heather, you now have to match plaids across princess line seams and a waist seam. Oh and you picked a plaid that's not symmetrical.  I'm sure that won't come back and bite you in the ass.  Spoiler, it did.

Decision 1 - Where did I want the bright red plaid to go?  In the lower corner or the upper corner? (Went with lower corner as you can see.)

Decision 2 - Was I going to mirror the plaid across the front seam? I probably would have if the back had a center seam. Since it didn't all the plaid was cut in the same direction.

Decision 3 - How much of an adult beverage should you drink before cutting plaids?  Just kidding, though I wish that alcohol could be blamed for my cutting screw up.

Somewhere during the cutting marathon I flipped the direction of the fabric and cut several pieces with the red plaid block in the upper corner.  (Probably during a snack break......hey it takes a long time to match plaid across 8 pieces.) The mistake was caught before I'd finished cutting everything but there wasn't enough fabric to fix it.  I emailed Linda in a panic and asked if we still had any of this fabric at work cause I'd made a garment ending boo boo. She emailed back that someone had placed an order for this fabric over the weekend but she thought there was a yard left. The sewing goddess was with me because there was 1.5 yards after cutting that order. It was just enough fabric to cut new pieces with the correct plaid match and the garment was saved! Thank god, how else would I have gotten my "blue steel" on otherwise.

Pattern
Hollywood 1857 - slightly modified into a shirtdress.

Fabrics used
Dress weight cotton plaid from Emmaonesock (Sorry it's long gone.)

Pattern changes/alterations
1. 1/2" Forward shoulder adjustment.
2. 1/4" Sway back adjustment.
3. 1/2" Extra ease added to waist and hips.
4. Waist seam added to create shirt dress.
5. Button placement slightly changed.

Confessions/Advice
Confessions
 - I have fitting problems with square necklines that don't happen with other neckline shapes. Pretty sure it has to do with my hollow chest and low bust point. The annoying part is one fix doesn't seem to work on every square neckline.  On this dress it's a little too wide in the middle portion and will collapse in on itself.  One of these days I'll unpick my sewn down facings and take in the princess line seam above the bust. Until then I'm just going to wear it as is and be slightly irked about the neckline.

- Is sewing plaid addictive and do I have a problem? All signs point to yes.

Husband Comment
"It's plaid and similar to other things you wear."- the most Pennsylvania Dutch comment to date
Bonus son comment - "I would never wear plaid but you look good in it."

My Final Thoughts
I should fix the neckline fitting issue and make more of these. You can fit a whole smart phone/ipod/tape measure in those pockets. All at once! Also where can I get more summery plaids? Feed my addiction people. A girl has needs.   On that note I'll leave you with this picture of me being weird.  Why am I doing this? No idea. Feel free to speculate.

1940's Dress Part Three - Sleeve Changes

Almost there 1940's dress hackers. You've created/modified some insets, converted your bodice to a wrap and added some shoulder tucks. Today we'll cover the final steps to modify the sleeve. First up, shortening the sleeve to a cap. Then the final touch of adding ease to the sleeve so that it can be gathered up into a pretty poof. To do these steps you'll need the following pattern piece:

*Sleeve

Shortening the Sleeve
How to covert 3/4" into a cap.
1. Take a traced copy of the sleeve and measure 1" down from the top edge of the side seam. Repeat on the other side.

2. Using the new marks square a line across the sleeve.

3. Find the center of this newly drawn line and mark. From the mark draw a vertical line through the sleeve cap. Mark 1" up on the vertical line. Note: The measurement of an 1" here is arbitrary. If you like the sleeve to be smaller you can increase this measurement and continue with the same steps.

4. Use a french curve to redraw the hemline of the sleeve. Cut off the excess length.

5. Now we will reduce the sleeve cap height.  Using the same sleeve center line measure an 1" down.

6. Redraw the sleeve cap curve with a french curve.

7. Redraw any notches if needed and then cut off the excess.  This change will make the sleeve sit out farther from the dress which will complement the gathers we are about to add.

"Puffing"/Adding ease to the sleeve
We are going to slash and spread again to created gathers.
1. Evenly space about 3 marks across one half the cap of the sleeve.  I used the measurement of 1.25" to space my marks.  If you want less ease added to the sleeve then make fewer marks. More ease then add more marks.

2. Repeat step one on the other side of the sleeve cap.

3. Draw lines through the entire sleeve at each mark.

4. Cut each line from the sleeve cap almost all the way through. Leave a "hinge" at the cuff edge.  You can see I did not cut the center line. You can chose to cut this to add additional ease or leave it uncut. When you are done cutting then fan out the cut areas a bit.

5. Place a large piece of paper behind the sleeve.  Tape down the center and then spread each cut area .5" wide. Tape down at this measurement.

6. With a french curve go redraw the sleeve cap to a smoother curve.

7. Cut out the adjusted sleeve and you are finally done all the 1940's dress modifications. Hooray!

When sewing the sleeve, take the sleeve cap gathers and cluster them around the shoulder seam area. The rest of the sleeve should be set in smoothly.  To finish the sleeve hem edge use Gertie's tutorial on using piping as a facing. You can use store bought piping or use some self fabric to make your own.

OK folks, that was an intense 3 day course and I hope you found it informative.  If you have any questions or need clarification feel free to comment/contact me.  I will do my best to answer between surfing the internet for T-strap shoes. ;)

1940's Dress Part Two - Upper Bodice Changes

Hello again intrepid pattern hackers! Hopefully you've gotten your insets all worked out, or at least gave the directions a once over.  In part two we'll be covering the two design changes made to the upper bodice. First we will convert the bodice to a faux wrap style. Secondly a cluster of tuck darts will be added to the shoulder.  To complete these steps you will need the following pattern pieces:

* Upper Bust Panel
* Neck Facing
* Center Back
* Side Back

Converting Bodice to a Faux wrap
Time to change the CF seam into a wrap.
1. Trace the bust panel pattern piece and cut around the pattern leaving some extra paper on the CF side.

2. Lay your ruler on the lower edge of the neckline curve.  Extend that line out.

3. Remember how we cut off the point of the waist inset in the previous post? Now we have to add that bodice length back in.  On my inset I cut off 1" so that will be the amount I add to the bottom of the bust panel.

4. Measure down from the original CF line the amount you need to add. In my case 1". Make that placement.

5. Use a hip curve or a regular ruler to redraw the bottom edge of the pattern.

6. Next we are going to fill in the neckline a bit so there is enough room on the shoulder for all the tucks. Increase the front edge by tracing a parallel line 5/8" away. After that is finished cut out the bust panel pattern.

7. Before you forget, grab the center back piece and fill in the neckline 5/8" there too.

8. Now we will fix the facing to match the bodice changes. Place the facing on top of the bodice, notches matching. Trace the lower part of the facing along the new bodice lines. Remove the facing for now.

9. Draw in the shoulder seam allowance on both the front and back pieces. You might also want to pin together the center and side back. Line the shoulders up on the seam lines like you were going to sew them.

10. Place the facing back on the patterns, lining the facing up with the neckline notch. Slowly pivot the facing around the neckline curve so that it lines up with the back neck.  Reduce the length of the facing here and reposition the double notches so that they match.

11. The facing modifications are complete and the pattern piece can be cut out.

Adding Shoulder Tucks
We'll be doing some slashing to the pattern to make shoulder tucks.
1. If you haven't done so already, draw in the seam allowance on the shoulder of the bust panel.

2. From the shoulder edge, measure 1.5" and mark.

3. Make three more marks .5" away from each other.

4. Place the clear ruler on one of the marks, perpendicular to the shoulder seam line. Draw a line all the way through the pattern.  Repeat the process until you have 4 lines drawn through the pattern.

5. Cut each line from the shoulder almost all the way through to the bust seam.

6. Place a large piece of paper behind the bust panel. Spread the cut areas open until they are an 1" away from each other. Then tape down the pattern all along the cut edges.

7. Draw in lines 1" from the seam allowance down each cut area. When you make the dress you will sew the tuck down to that mark. Also draw in an arrow pointing towards the neckline so you remember which was to fold the pleat.

8. Trim off any extra paper attached to the pattern and the finished piece should look something like this.

Shewwwww, after all that hacking I think we need to call it a day. I'm sure your pointer finger is tired of scrolling. In our last hacking season, part three, I will show you all the sleeve changes needed to finish up your dress.  Till then happy hacking!