We get it, you like lemons - Butterick 6556

Honestly, is there a lemon print I've ever said no to?  Are lemons the new bird?  Just put a lemon on it?  Putting a lemon on it would actually work for me. "Look Steve! I bought a new power drill because it has lemons on it! I know we had a black one already but that's just boring." But enough about my weakness for good marketing, let's talk about lemon print dresses instead.

This is the third lemon print dress I've blogged about here hence the amusing, maybe only to me, post title. I imagine you all murmuring it when opening your blog readers. Listen guys, all the lemon dresses have different colored backgrounds, which is what a girl needs in her closet.  I don't have a problem, I can stop whenever I want.......*Looks up lemon prints in Spoonflower*

This time I used a pattern currently in print, instead of a hard to trace vintage one. You're welcome? May I present to  you my version of Butterick 6556, aka one of Gertie's new designs in the Spring catalog. This design caught my eye right away, especially the neckline. You guys know I like flashing my collar bones all over town.  Even though my sewing is mostly 40's era garments now, I just couldn't resist. As soon as Butterick had one of their regular sales this pattern joined my collection.

I'd bought this stretch cotton sateen home from work last summer and didn't get around to sewing it.  A fabric has to mature to reach its full potential....or something like that.  In truth the sateen weight was a little heavier than I usually buy and didn't fit any of the projects I wanted to work on at the time. However it was the perfect match for the structured bodice and pleated skirt of B6556.

The dress is drafted to have a full bodice lining, but I decided to leave that out due to the thickness of the self fabric.  Instead I used the neckline interfacing pieces as facings and hand stitched them down so that they don't flap out.  The added facings do make the top of the lapped zipper insertion look messy on the inside.  You have to kind of fold one side under so there isn't a raw zipper tape sticking up out of the neckline.  If I'd switched out the lapped zipper for an invisible one then the inside guts would have been a lot cleaner.  For some reason that day I'd decided that we had to do a lapped zipper, even though I hate them. Who knows what that's all about.

Construction wise I found this one extremely easy. Sew some darts, pleat the skirt, do some hems. Heck I didn't even have to hand hem the skirt on this one. Simple rolled hem on the machine and you're done.  I did have to do an "on the fly" waist alteration thanks to the spandex in the sateen making that area too roomy. The side seams were taken in an additional 1/2" and I made the side seam pleats deeper to match the bodice.  Going down a size in the waist probably would have been smart to do in the first place knowing I was using a stretch woven. That's OK though, it worked out in the end.

Pattern
Butterick 6556

Fabrics used
Stretch cotton sateen from Emma One Sock. (We happen to have this in stock still.)

Pattern changes/alterations
1. Blended sizes 14-16.
2. 1/2" Forward shoulder adjustment to shoulder seam and sleeve cap.
3. Dropped bust dart 1" and shorted waist dart the same amount.
4. Sway back adjustment of 1/2"
5. Removed 1/2" from the neckline. - See below for more info on that.
6. Removed 1" of ease at waist due to stretch woven. (1/2" at each side seam)
7. Added 1" of length to the hem.

Confessions/Advice
Confessions - Hmmmm, I've already confessed about my messy zipper insides and that's about the only naughty sewing issue that happened when making this dress.

Advice - I nailed the square neckline fit on this dress by some "just winging it" pattern fitting. To remove the extra width I didn't need a small fold was made in the corner of the neckline and I taped it closed. Figured it wasn't much different than doing a sway back adjustment. 

A poster in one of the Gertie FB groups told me that I should have slashed into the neckline and rotated that width into the bust dart.  That does make sense, but also this worked and was less work? I probably should try the other method on a similar style if only to compare.

Husband Comment
*Started singing U2's song "Lemon."  Declined to comment further as he was sure he already talked about this dress. *

Bonus Son comment - "I think it's cute. I love it and I love lemons." - The brainwashing has been successful!!!

My Final Thoughts
This was a fun, easy project for the start of spring. It fits nicely and gives me plenty of room for moving around. The only reason I'm not wearing it more right now is because it's been crazy hot. This weight of sateen will be nicer when we transition into Fall and have some cooler temps. And last but not least, when people say, "Nice Dress" you can say, "Thanks it has pockets."

Hollywood 1413 - The Easter Outfit That Wasn't

Hello everyone, happy summer 2018 to you heat loving people out there. You all are currently flooding my instagram feed with giant smiles on your faces as you gleefully break out your sandals. "Finally it's warm and I can ditch this sweater" you exclaim! I'm glad you are enjoying yourself, heck I can semi empathise having grown up with a beach loving father and sister and a weather neutral mother.  They never thought the summer sun was a hateful orb sucking up all their life essence while simultaneously stabbing them in the eyes. Only I would be huddled under an umbrella hissing with distaste while successfully trying to read in the eye searing glare.  Yes my friends, in my immediate family I'm the sole possessor of the nordic and/or vampire genes of my ancestors.

If you're a long time reader of the blog this is no surprise. I've been bitching about summer for probably as long as I've been blogging and will continue to do so. However I will admit to liking two things about summer. One - fancy summer shoes and Two - wearing rayon dresses. My closet is full of rayon dresses, but there's always room for more. Which brings us to some sewing actually done in 2018......gasp! So let's talk about Hollywood 1413, aka the Easter outfit that never was.

Here in southern Pa you have a 50/50 chance that Easter Sunday is going to be either 55 degrees or 85 degrees. There is no inbetween. In 2017 it was 85 degrees and my version of Hollywood 1025 was not heat appropriate.  I wore it anyway because by god my sewing plans were not going to be ruined by a freak heat wave. However the memory of unwanted sweating did trigger me to choose a flirty short sleeve dress pattern for Easter 2018.  It would look lovely paired with some stashed rayon from Gertie's JoAnn's line from the year before.  See, a match made in heaven.

Hollywood 1413 is full of 40's design detail goodness.  The bodice features a ruched center that is created by putting a seam along the neckline that extends down toward the bust.  This makes it possible for center of the bodice pattern to be extended/more ease added. This extra ease is then gathered back into the seam area and sewn in place.  A jaunty little self fabric bow completes the neckline area.

The skirt features 3 tucks that radiate out of the left hip and a sewn in cascade. The front skirt is pieced at the left hip to give you a seam for the cascade. Finally a bow belt balances out the bow on the opposite side of the bodice.

The back is pretty plain Jane with standard darts and no design details. Not that I'm complaining..... there were plenty of new techniques and hand sewing in this design already.

The sewing goddess has been very generous with larger sized 40's styles this year and this pattern happened to be my bust size of 36 inches.  Would I have purchased this in a 32" bust and graded it up?  Probably not.  That ruched bodice detail might have discouraged me from trying. As it was the pattern only needed minimal grading through the waist and hip to fit.  Used my cheater method of slapping .5" on the side seams and called it good. 

I did reference the instructions a few times since the drafting for the bodice ruching was totally new to me. All the neckline edges are faced which means there is a set order of sewing that needs to happen or you'll bungle the whole thing up.  Good news is that the original pattern drafter did do an excellent job giving you reference/placement points. There are various sized circles in the neckline area to help you line everything up.  After reading the sewing steps twice I was able to see what needed to be done and use these marks to assemble the neckline properly. 

The skirt was a bit easier since sewing tucks is pretty much the same on any part of a garment. The cascade was a no brainer, just hand hem and insert into the seam.  I only wish my nails looked as good as the illustrations while doing a rolled hem.

Hollywood 1413 was finished in plenty of time for Easter 2018, a whole month ahead of schedule! It didn't matter though because Easter wasn't 85 degrees this year.  Instead we came down on the 55 degree side of the coin. Obviously Mother Nature is trying to neg me by looking at my sewing plans and making the weather the opposite of whatever's coming out of the sewing machine.  Oh well, as you all may remember I put on Hollywood 989 and saved this dress for hot weather.  Now we'll be best buddies until the blessed Fall breezes arrive.

Pattern
Hollywood 1413 (pictures above)

Fabrics used
Rayon from Gertie's JoAnn's line in 2016.

Pattern changes/alterations
1. 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment to both shoulder and sleeve cap.
2. 1/2" extra ease added to waist and hip.
3. Dropped the bust dart 1.5" and waist dart point the same amount.
4. Added a .5" of length to the bodice.
5. Made .25" sway back adjustment.

Confessions/Advice
Not too much to add here for this pattern.  Will note that I spray starched the rayon fabric before cutting to make it less slippery. Then all the pattern pieces were carefully cut out on a single layer, keeping the selvedges parallel with my cutting board. This method worked with with this rayon which was on the less slippery side of the spectrum.

Husband Comment
"The swirly pattern on the fabric works well with the loose fit." - I think loose fit actually means the design elements. If that's the case he might be learning something about sewing after hearing me natter on about it for 13 years.

My Final Thoughts
This pattern perfectly scratched my intermediate sewing skills itch of wanting a bit of a challenge.  It was neither too easy or too hard, but jusssst right. 

2017 Flashback - I might be too pale for this dress

Is there an expiration date on unblogged garments? It's not like any of you live near me and are thinking, "God Heather, I've seen you wear that dress for 3 months. You're blogging about it now?  As far as you all know this dress never existed until now.  Well if you've forgotten about any instagram progress posts in the summer of 2017.  I'll just get out my "Men in Black" light stick forgetting thing and take care of those memories. Ha! Now let me tell you all about my "new dress" the Dragnor pattern from "How to do Fashion."

Come to think of it I should have waited until it was summer and passed this off as a fresh new make. Ta Da, my hair is mysteriously less gray around the temples for one blog post. What is my secret! Witchy trickery of course. Definitely not living through 3 consecutive traumatic events that happened one after another in a space of 3 weeks. *insert crazed laughter*  (Seriously though the 3rd quarter of my 2017 was a shit show which I can't really talk about since none of the events happened directly to me or my husband/kid.  But I was only 1 degree removed so there was plenty of feelings and stress to drive me more than a little crazy. But enough about real life stuff that's a bummer, let's talk about sewing.)

So back in 2017 I'd been eyeing the How to do fashion site for a bit.  Nanna's style is similar to my own and I always like trying new pattern brands to see what they're like.  I chose to go with the Dragnor pattern because it looked like a good match for some vintage border print in the stash.  See, look at the pretty fruity border!

I purchased the PDF version and had a positive experience with it.   The layout of all the pattern tiles was nice and clear and I didn't have any trouble getting the pieces to fit together.  As is my habit I traced a copy of the pattern onto trace paper and made my fitting changes on that version. One thing to note is that the sewing instructions are not in the PDF download.  You need to go back to the website and download another PDF.  The link to the instructions is clearly marked in the pattern purchasing area, just thought I'd mention it.  The dress itself was easy to put together.  I like the fact that the bodice comes with a full lining, so you don't have to worry about neckline and armhole facings flipping around.  There's also a nice amount of bra coverage for those of us who prefer not to wear strapless bras. (I'm definitely in this camp because strapless bras just end up at my waist.)

Overall this was a fun sew and I was excited to put this dress on......only to find it looked a lot better on the hanger than on me.  Ru Ro Reorge. What went wrong?

- Maybe I'm too pale for this much white background.  I hear some of you saying, "Don't worry Heather, you just need to wear this in the summer when you have more color." Well these pictures were taken at the end of summer sooooo this is my summer color.  My aversion to the sun is good for the face wrinkle situation, but maybe not for wearing white.

- Maybe I got the proportions off a bit.  Thanks to my low bust point the inset area had to be reduced 1" in width. The skirt length also might be a bit too long.

- Maybe a waist inset is not the best design feature on my body.  Kind of highlights the whole pear shaped situation.

To be honest I'm not entirely sure why this is a bit of a miss. Maybe you guys can weigh in.

Pattern
Dragnor from How to do Fashion. I used the non draped neckline for my version.

Fabrics used
Vintage cotton border print bought from Etsy a number of years ago.

Pattern changes/alterations
1. Raised the front and back necklines about .5"
2. Made standard .5" forward shoulder adjustment.
3. Took .25" off strap height on both the front and back.
4. Added 1" of length to top of front bodice and removed 1" of length from waist inset.

Confessions/Advice
- I did try to fully line the entire dress for opacity but that created too much volume in the skirt area. The finished garment only has a lined bodice.

- Despite taking in the shoulder straps they still feel too long.

- I might have enjoyed this angry outtake so much that it became my FB profile pic until this month. Oh and strangers will DM you and ask why you're using such an unflattering picture as your profile. (For Irony, Duh!)

Husband Comment
"Red and white, first aid colors. You could be a nurse, a fruity nurse."

My Final Thoughts
Long story short, great pattern. My execution, not so much.  So do any of you have thoughts on how to rework this dress? The fabric is so pretty and I don't want it to go to waste. I'd be ever so thankful for you recommendations.

When Ebay closes a door, Etsy opens a window - Hollywood 1411

I'm sure you'll all agree with me that spending a quarter of your feel time searching the internet for new sewing patterns is perfectly normal. Just something we seamstress's do to relax and is in no way tied to us being pattern addicts. Thrill of the hunt? Nonsense!  I just need to use up all that fabric I have in the bedroom. Anyway, now that we've got that out of the way let me tell you my tale of the pattern that almost got away.

One day I was checking my ebay saved search results for Hollywood patterns. (A perfectly normal thing to do and not something an addict might set up to get their daily hit of vintage.)  I was delighted to see a new to me design in Hollywood 1411.

Did some pattern drafter of long ago design this exactly for me?  They combined all of my favorite things, shirt dresses, scalloped necklines, and pockets. Oh My!  This pattern had to BE MINE! So I bid on that puppy and happily planned what fabrics and buttons to use.

Then something happened....I just don't remember what.  Near the end of auction I should have been monitoring the bids like an addict a serious seamstress making sure to close the deal.  Guess I had to parent or maybe sleep? Curse you real life for interfering with my sewing acquisitions! Anyway someone else won the pattern with a modest bid and I was weeping into my pillow kind of bummed.

A month later I was still simmering with suppressed anger sad about loosing out on this pattern and decided to do a pattern number search for it on both Ebay and Etsy.  Because I'm not in anyway an addict, I just had the fabric ready to go!   Sadly, but not unexpectedly the searches did not return any results for my lost lovely.  With a heavy sigh I thought, "Well might as well browse Etsy while I'm here. I'll just put in a general Hollywood patterns search."  And yes my friends while I just browsing pages on Etsy this pattern appeared like a mirage in the desert. I blinked in disbelief for about 10 seconds and then pounced on that pattern like a lion upon a gazelle.  Sure that sounds like the phrasing of a pattern addict but.....I'm fine, totally fine.  I may have huffed the pattern when it arrived in my mailbox but that's not out of the ordinary behavior for anyone. Right.. Right?  OK I might have a problem but I can stop when ever I want. (Pay no attention to the open ebay tabs currently on my computer.)

Well my pattern hoarding tendencies paid off in this case because this dress is everything I'd hoped it would be. How could a shirt dress with scallop details and pockets not be?

Pattern
Hollywood 1411

Fabrics used
Dress weight floral cotton from Emmaonesock.com. (Think we have this in stock still)

Pattern changes/alterations
1. Graded up the pattern from a size 34 bust.  I was able to do the cheater way of adding more ease to the side seams on most of the pattern pieces.  The front skirt was graded in the proper manner because of the scalloped pocket openings.

2. Standard .5" forward shoulder adjustment.

3. Standard dropping of bust dart about 1.5".  The waist tucks were also shortened an 1".

4. Had a little extra fabric floating around in the shoulder area so I pinched it out by making a .25" fold in the shoulder.

Confessions/Advice
Advice - I've noticed that a few of my 40's patterns like to do this thing where the belt has either a curved or pointed edge that sticks out.  Annoyed by this I finally sewed a little snap to the back side to keep the belt in place.

Confessions - Usually I'm pretty good about remembering to put interfacing on cut on facings. For some reason it slipped my mind until finishing up most of the sewing.  I decided to to skip the interfacing all together but it did make sewing buttonholes a complete nightmare.
Otherwise I had one of those really enjoyable sewing experiences that kind of ruin you for other projects.  All I can think of is making the bodice with the set in sleeves for Fall. If I had any suitable fabric for it in that stash I'd be sewing that right now.


Husband Comment
"Oooo that neckline is really nice!" - This one met with approval from both male parties in the house

My Final Thoughts
100% sure I'll be sewing this pattern again and not just the alternate view. The neckline depth is perfect, keeping you cool while not flashing too much cleavage. There's plenty of room for a full range of movement with the kimono sleeves and the A-line skirt. This one is already in the section of the closest that gets worn every week. I could definitely do with another!

P.S. - I may enjoy accessorizing but something the weather does not cooperate.  Curse you hat snatching wind!

PR Hacks - Split Cowl Dress

I know what some of you are thinking. "I say Heather, that dress looks verrrry familiar."  You're right!  I was a sneaky knock off artist this month. Muhaa haa!

It probably won't surprise you to find out that stuff designed for slim 20 older old's doesn't fit me right. There's a lot of things I can let slide, but bad fitting garments isn't one of them. Therefore I had to take matters into my own hands and draft my own version of this dress.  Of course I documented it all to share with you.

Using the PR Winter Street dress as a base pattern, I'll be showing you how to alter the bodice to add a waist inset and change the skirt shape. After that we'll do a little free hand drafting to created the cool color and the waist tabs.  Pop on over to the PR blog to get the details.

Bonus Husband Comment - "Heyyyyy First Lady!  You can wear that when I get inaugurated."

PR Hacks - Decorative Darts

Mid August already, how did that happen?  I certainly must be getting old if all I do is exclaim that, "Time is going so fast!"  Soon I'll be pinching children's checks and saying how much they've grown.  Anyway, things continue to be quiet on the sewing front because my sewing mojo is still no where to be found.  I think it took a nice European vacation without me.  In it's absence I've been knitting socks and ...... cleaning things. Good god it's come to that! My husband is happy, but I started missing having a new dress to wear. To scratch the itch I dusted off the sewing machine and come up with a new dress and pattern hack to share.

The month the base pattern is McCall's 7279 and I'll be teaching some dart rotation principles to spice up the bodice.  The hack shows how to rotate the waist dart into the shoulder and split it into 4 darts of varying lengths.  Then you can leave them as is or top-stitch them like I did. Hop on over to the PR blog for all the details.

PR Hacks - A Trapeze Dress Two Ways

Hey everyone, just a heads up that my monthly PR article is live.  For May Deepika and I wanted to create a simple to sew, simple to wear project.  We ending up turning the Grainline Studio's scout tee into a trapeze dress. But you know, I just can't keep things simple for myself.  It's both a curse and a blessing. ;)  Because of this I decided to do not one, but two variations on the hack.

Version 1 -  Rayon knit Jersey with V neck and cap sleeves.  I call this one the keeping cool while running errands outfit.

Version 2 - Rayon Challis with a higher neck and a bit of a racer back.  This one's the night out on the town outfit.

If you'd like to know more than pop on over to the PR blog. 

Another trip to the lemon aid stand

Hey all, hope you're enjoying your Me Made May so far.  This year I'm only doing it on instagram because frankly the weather has been completely shitty here and will be for the foreseeable future. We've have so much rain forecasted I'm starting to think that converting the deck to a boat might be the smart choice. I'll make sure all the sewing frogs get a place even if it breaks the "only 2" guidelines.

Instead of complaining about gloomy days let's go back into the past when it was sunny and the trees were blooming. A day where I finally photographed a project that took almost 2 months to finish. Was it a lined coat? Some sort of crazy chiffon confection? Or maybe a pair of pants with a thousand welt pockets?!  No my friends, it was only a kimono sleeved dress in some cotton sateen.

Now sometimes you buy a pattern knowing it's going to be a fiddly pain in the ass to sew.  In this case you gird your loins and plunge into the fray knowing that you might get out of this with only a dust rag. There might be a lot of swearing, but at least you knew what you were getting into.  Other times you buy a pattern thinking it's gonna be a fun simple sew and then suddenly you're hand sewing for hours. (I'm looking at you McCalls 6696.) This vintage Advance pattern must have been a soul sister of McCalls 6696 because it was also a hidden bomb of fiddly hand sewing.  Why do I like shirt dresses again? Oh right, they look nice on me.

Let's start out by talking about the bodice sewing directions given for the pattern. Here they are in abbreviated form.
1. Sew waist darts and bound buttonholes.
2. Join shoulder seams and side seams. Narrow hem sleeves and finished back neck with bias tape.
3. Turn under the front neckline edge a 1/2" and catch stitch it down.
4. Baste all neckline darts.
5. Turn under facing edges 1/2" and stitch down. Check that bodice neckline and facing match each other.
6. Now actually sew all the neckline darts.
7. Finally slip stitch the facing into the bodice neckline a 1/8" below the already finished edge.

I read these directions, had a good laugh and then thought, "Aint nobody got time for that sort of nonsense."

Here's what I did instead.
1. Drafted my own facings for the front and the back neck.
2. Made the bound buttonholes and sewed the waist darts as directed.
3. Sewed all the visible neckline darts which was tricker than I thought it would be.  I ripped out several for not being straight enough.
4. Sewed on my facings with the machine and edge stitched that area.
5. Finally I had to fold under and hand tack the front edge of the neck facing to the fold over button facing.

In addition to all the neckline insanity I also chose to make 7 bound buttonholes.  Think I'd rather rip out an overlock stitch with my teeth then make a bound buttonhole. However some part of me thinks if if I'm forced to sewing enough of them then I may magically start enjoying the process. NOPE!  And don't even get me started about sewing the bottom of the button placket which literally made no sense. In the end I just catch stitched the whole area and called it good.

By this point you've probably gleaned that sewing this dress was not the most fun I've ever had. Hand sewing is never going to be a "zen hobby" for me. But after the hair pulling/gnashing of teeth was over I put on the dress and magic happened.  Those lovely lemons practically glow on the black background! Oh dress, you might have driven me crazy but you were worth it.

Pattern
Advance 3740. (You know, just having a little chit chat with the girls while waiting for the kids at the bus stop.)

Fabrics used
Cotton sateen from the current Gertie line of fabrics at JoAnn's.

Pattern changes/alterations
1. "Graded" the shoulders and bust down 2".  Really all I did was fold out a wedge at the shoulder and into the bust area.

2. Standard 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment.
3. Removed 1/2" of bodice length.
4. Took in the shoulders 1/2".

Confessions/Advice
- I didn't need to take out 1/2 from the shoulders and the bodice length. Had to go back in and make the bodice a bit longer.

- I could have done a bit of a sway back adjustment on this pattern.  At least kimono sleeves tend to look blousy in that area regardless.


Husband Comment
"More lemon dresses for my sours."

My Final Thoughts
I can pretty much guarantee that this pattern won't be a resew, but I'm going to enjoy wearing the finished dress. Frog reminds me that past Heather said the same thing about McCalls 6696 and then made a second one. Hmmm, maybe I secretly love torturous hand sewing because it gives me an excuse to eat chocolate? Let's not think about it too much now, just pass the peanut butter cups.

PR Hacks - The Nettie Christmas Dress

As usual in December I disappear off the blog due to a flurry of Christmas preparations and the germs my child sneaks home in his pocket. However froggie is happy to report that all the Christmas present sewing got done and he helped me wrap the last box up. Such a helpful amphibian. We also did some semi-behind the scenes sewing for this month's PR pattern hack column.  If you follow me on IG you probably saw several poorly lit muslins of this dress show up on my feed.  Finally the reveal day is here and I can show you some decent and seasonal photographs.

This month's hack was inspired by a vintage jersey dress that popped into my own IG feed. The original was a feisty leopard print and which of course grabbed my attention.  I thought it was a nice combo of a sultry silhouette paired with the practically of pockets and comfy knits. So I went to my trusty copy of the Closet Case Files Nettie pattern and hacked one for myself.  Now you can find out how to do it too over the PR blog.  Happy hacking and a slice of pie for you all.