Day dress dramas

Being an ex-scientist, I tend to research for a long time before I leap into a new project. After the success of the inaugural Dunedin Jane Austen Ball in 2014 (which I didn't attend, having nothing appropriate to wear),we heard that another even is scheduled for August 2015. Plenty of time!

Having decided to make a Regency dress, and read about appropriate fabric choices, it seems I will be making a silk ball dress. I quailed at the thought of cutting into something expensive and possibly difficult to sew, so decided instead to select a pattern I could use for a day dress in cotton first.

Which pattern? There are so many available! But all from overseas. I picked the Past Impressions/Patterns of Time 1800-1812 bib front dress, after reading the review here http://www.songsmyth.com/patternsgowns.html#improved but if I did it again, I would buy the Laughing Moon pattern. I have not yet found anyone who has made the Patterns of Time dress to swap notes with, but the Laughing Moon one seems very popular. Anyway, I will review the pattern when I finish for any other future purchasers.

Here is the review of the pattern I bought:
"Bib-Front Muslin Dress: This newer pattern produces a true bib-front gown that is very charming indeed. I particularly like the back. The sleeves are a little unusual - slightly full and pleated into the elbow-length cuff - and I would consider substituting a straight sleeve instead, whether short, elbow-length, or long. It can be made with far less fabric than the pattern calls for, especially if you reduce the volume of the skirt in back, and still have a period-appropriate result. Definitely make a muslin first! Also, the instructions include "modern" and "authentic" directions, but the "authentic" directions of flat-felling all the seams are totally unnecessary unless you are making the gown out of a sheer muslin. If you can't see through the fabric, ordinary seams are perfectly correct. Overall, people say it goes together well."

Now either I ended up with a different pattern somehow, or the pattern designer changed things. For instance, there is definitely no pleating on my sleeves. However the pattern states 8 yards of fabric, and I have cut out all my pieces and still have 2.5 yards left, so that much is still true. And the instructions still say to flat fell very seam. Curious.

I waited a couple of weeks and my pattern arrived. Hooray!

While waiting for it to arrive, I had found some lovely reproduction print fabric online, and bought the recommended 8 yards. Lucky it was on sale or I would never have afforded that much.

In the meantime, I was at least able to start tracing my pattern (in case I need to make it in a different size on another occasion). This was when I hit my first snag. The pattern pieces consistently said "1/2 inch seam allowance" on them, but did that mean I needed to add half an inch, or it was already included? I emailed the pattern seller, and received a prompt answer that the seam allowance was included. Great.

Then I hit the second snag. I bought the pattern in size 6-8-10, as it seemed likely I was one of those sizes, however there was absolutely zero sizing information provided with the pattern or on the pattern sellers website. Not a single measurement about what my size is, or what the finished measurements of the dress would be! Gah. My email to the pattern designers went unanswered. I looked up American sizes on the web and picked size 6 to trace, knowing I would be making a muslin out of an old sheet anyway.

I made a muslin in size 6 and it was so tight round the arms that I made another in size 8. However after some fit advice from a very helpful friend, I went back to the size 6. I needed to adjust the armscye slightly to make it deep enough, but the rest of the bodice fitted pretty well with no gaping and a nice high back. My friend also pointed out that the back pieces were not the same length even where they were meant to be seamed together as curved seams require easing together. Ah, what I thought was a deficiency in my pattern was actually a deficiency in my sewing knowledge (not terribly surprising given my lack of experience). However it still isn't clear to me why the backstrap and bodice front are different widths where they are meant to join. I tried joining them at an angle to allow for the different measurement, but this makes the backstrap wrinkle slightly.

I'm very glad I made muslins of the sleeves. The pattern has all the gathering at the back, between the shoulder seam and back seam. This looks pretty, but the sleeve was not cut full enough, so it pulled uncomfortably flat against my shoulder. Did anyone test this pattern before it was sent out, I ask myself? I tried embiggening the sleeve, for more puff, but think a straighter sleeve looks better with a day dress. So I stuck with the same pattern piece, but adjust the gathering to place some of it at the front of the sleeve. This did make placement of the sleeve in the armscye difficult, as the only notch to help with placing was at the shoulder seam, when I really needed a mark at the bottom of the armscye to help with placement of the underarm seam. The underarm seams on my finished dress are not in quite the same place unfortunately, I doubt anyone but me would notice.

When my fabric arrived, I felt like I was all set to go, before remembering that I would need lining fabric. Several yards of cheap unbleached calico later, all set to go!

And then another pattern deficiency became apparent. No layout instructions. NONE! This doesn't matter for things like the lining but becomes rather noticeable on a directional print when you have accidentally cut out your bib trim or skirt facings in the wrong direction. I managed to get the bib bits right, but cut the skirt facings horizontally rather than vertically as I hadn't figured out where they were going. Lucky I had so much fabric, eh?

Laying out the lining pieces. The sleeve piece is in strips after my attempt at widening it.

So, end of May and I finally have a finished bodice, complete with long sleeves (detachable) and a gathered bib. The bib that comes with the pattern is gathered in two places, but as a less well-endowed lady, I prefer the full gathered effect. I cut my bib twice as long as the lining piece to allow for this (remember to also cut two inches off the lining piece to allow for the gathering that is included in the pattern).

I also decided to trim the wrists of the long sleeves with a band of gathered fabric. Beware, I have the smallest hands and skinniest wrists known to adult kind, and I still find these sleeves tight. Here is my progress so far:

I made one other adjustment, I found when making the waistband that there was absolutely no way I could sew it with a half inch seam allowance and still manage to turn it right side out. I sewed it with a quarter inch allowance, and it STILL took about two hours and some swearing, several cups of tea and my bluntest long knitting needle to get it right side out.

And I would have finished by now except that the pattern is missing a dot and several gathering/pleating marks on the skirt. I am awaiting a response from the pattern designer as to where these should be. In the meantime I have miles of flat felling I can do, and a chemise and chemisette to plan.

Bonny Bonnet Ta-Da!

The Bonny Bonnet finally got finished a few weeks ago. It languished all summer as I had to come up with a solution to the bulk of the gathered tartan. I had planned to use one of my velvet ribbons to cover the meeting of brim and crown, but the woollen gathers were too voluminous to easily be covered. Eventually I settled on stitching in a couple of large box pleats either side. They looked great and kept the majority of the fabric flat and easily covered.

Once I had this sorted to my satisfaction, I lined the inside of the brim and sewed a new trim on the edge to stop the flimsy straw brim from falling apart. I think I need to work on my gathering skills a little.

(See the fabric in the bottom right? That's my in-progress 1800-1810 day dress).


Next problem: my velvet ribbon did not do a good job of hiding the glue line just below the crown (note to self - cut and glue just ABOVE the brim next time!). Gah. I needed a trim that would bend and flare out slightly at the bottom. So I machine pleated some satin ribbon, which was surprisingly easy. Lastly a tuft of feathers, a couple of Suffolk puffs and some homemade medallion sort of things from grosgrain ribbon, and ta da! My bonnet is finished. It even had its first outing at a Regency dance demonstration at the Museum.

Now, for my next bonnet...

Bonny Bonnet

In November I went along to a two hour 'Make a Regency bonnet' workshop, in preparation for the inaugural Jane Austen ball here in lil' ol' Dunedin. The instructions said to bring a straw hat and whatever materials you required. So I read several 'how to' pages on the web, and settled on these materials, which I think are rather lovely.

They are a mix of items I had already and new things bought to match.so I had the tartan left over from the making of my husband's kilt. It was a wedding gift from his uncle in Scotland. The other shiny fabric is a pure polyester voile that I bought for wedding table dressing, it has a beautiful gold sheen that isn't visible in photos. I had the yellow grosgrain ribbon and some narrow green in stash, and bought some wider green and the velvet ribbon because I just couldn't resist them. And the peacock feather I had, as my mother had asked for some to make earrings for her wedding outfit, and then didn't use them. Oh, and the hat I was gifted by a friend.

At the workshop I hacked off the back of the brim and crown so the hat would sit right for a bonnet. Having stabilized the edge with the hot glue gun (I know they didn't have those on Regency times, but really, if they had, they would have used them. Either that or they wouldn't have tried to make a bonnet in two hours, That's my story and I'm sticking to it). I trimmed the edge in green ribbon, and then began making a tartan covering for the crown of the hat. This was necessary because the hat was a trilby style. I glued some ribbon ties on quickly so I could put my proto-bonnet on for a photo.

That was as far as I got in two hours, which was not far! And it was already clear that it wasn't working out too well. The brim was weak (it several cuts which I glued up, but that affected how it bent) and I wasn't happy with how it stood straight up from my forehead. The crown on the hat was also too shallow so the hat sat too far back on my head and was at risk of falling off.

Back home, I ripped off the ribbon trim and cut rounder edges to the brim. I then cut between the brim and the crown nearly all the way to the front, and glued it at a better angle. I had to trim off the extra brim underneath. Then I cut the top of the crown off completely. I attached a couple of strips of buckram with (gasp!) my stapler, but they may be unnecessary as the tartan crown will fulfil that purpose. It looks a lot better...

Then I turned under the edge of my tartan to make a casing for a drawstring, as recommended in the tutorials I read. Oh dear. It makes adjusting to the right size a breeze, but look at the awful thickness of those gathers! How will I ever cover those neatly with ribbon?

So now I plan to unpick the casing, and run gathering threads through instead. I won't turn the edge under (as it will be covered with ribbon) so there won't be so much bulk. Or I may try pinning in some pleats instead to see if that would look neater and not be so thick.

And if you are wondering about those delightful glue lines on the inside of the brim? It will be lined with the polyester voile, nicely ruched. But first it may need reinforcing with either buckram and wire round the rim, or a good layer of PVA all over. And before I can do that, or trim the edge, I need to get hold of some black spray paint. The reason I'm using this hat rather than a healthier one is the colour, and yet it is actually very faded and brown on the top instead of black. Sigh, I have a lot of sympathy for the ancestors I have who were straw hat makers in Clophill.

Frozen, thawed, refrozen.

The perils of sewing gifts! 

When my daughter saw this dress on Christmas morning, she was smitten. Hooray! She wore it all day, spilled all sorts of things on it, took it off for bath time, and then asked if she could wear it to bed! Naturally I said no, gave it a quick wash and put it to dry for the next day.

When she put it on the next morning, I was horrified to see the waist seam was parting. Agh! I whipped it straight off her, poor bereft little lass, for an assessment of the problem. Of course I had to rip out all my lovely whip stitches (attaching the bodice lining over the top of the skirt) to see the problem. The stitches appeared to have popped in about four different places across the seam. How could this happen?! All those prettily and carefully arranged gathers, unravelling, with no gathering threads remaining to regather them! I threw in some quick basting to hold things in place, then I pretty much threw the dress down in despair. After a few choice words. Loudly.

Several cups of restorative tea later, I was able to reassess. I think that because the skirt was slightly too long (because I made to her measurements, but couldn't try it on her before it was hemmed), she stepped on it and it failed at the weakest point. It's rather a shame that wasn't the yoke/bodice seam, which would be a darn sight easier to repair.

Ho hum. Back to the machine. New needle, tiny stitch, three rows of stitching across each side of the skirt (it was easier by far to sew the seam in two sections rather than try to sew around that v, where the bodice was determined to slide under the needle at.every.stitch. Gah.) And more whip stitching to reattach the lining.

Then a new hem. This time I followed the directions of whip stitching the hem, and was rather surprised to find it showed a lot less than my original hem. You live and learn!

And with luck those will be the last repairs to the Elsa dress for a while, as I now have my sights set on an 1810 bib front regency day dress. What, you say, a full-size garment of historical nature from sketchy directions?

Why yes! I'm an experienced dressmaker now, I even know what notches on patterns are for! Heehee.

If you haven't got time to knit it? Sew it!

My daughter recently got into Frozen mode. I can't blame her, the songs are catchy and Elsa's name is  similar enough to my daughter's that she really identifies with her. I have already knitted her a very time consuming two ended Little Mermaid doll for Christmas, and a creeper softie for my Minecraft mad son. I had also planned to make an Elsa hat with the big plait hanging off. But then my daughter kept on about how she would love an Elsa dress, and talking about all the ways her turquoise sequinned sparkly dress-up isn't right (there shouldn't be circles on it mum, and where are the sleeves?). So it's time to take my first foray into dressmaking. I don't consider myself a novice sewer, I've made cushions with zips and homemade bias binding, co-sewn three quilts with my mum, and made roman blinds and curtain tiebacks with piping for my daughter's room. But this will be my first garment!

I read around the web, research being my background, and found a very clear blog post http://gracehepburndesigns.blogspot.co.nz/2014/01/designing-elsa-costume-from-disney.html on 
the subject. How hard can it be with such good instructions?

So I purchased the same pattern, Simplicity 2463 Special Occasion Dress. 
I bought my fabric before I found the blogpost, so I got minimal amounts. I had 60cm of light blue satin (for 

the bodice),
60cm of darker blue satin (for the skirt), and a metre of sparkly net stuff for the yoke, sleeves and cape. This is an lot less than the pattern calls for.
It still cost me $40 though, and the zip was another $3.

Planned changes:
Like grace Hepburn, I 
1. Deepened the V shape on the bodice top
2. Ditto for the bottom of the bodice
3. Altered the top of the front section of skirt to match the bodice angle.

However I made another change. Elsa's skirt in the movie has a split at her right front. I will replicate this by leaving one of the front skirt seams half unsewn. This allows me to also drastically reduce the amount of fabric I use in the skirt.

I plan to make the front panel only very slightly gathered. The back and side panels will use all the remaining dark fabric I have and be as full as possible (but a lot less than the pattern recommends!).

My lining fabric is an old blue sheet, probably cotton but possibly poly cotton. 

I started by deciding on the pattern size to use. I dithered for ages over size 4 (close to my daughters  measurements), or size 5 (room for growth). 

Then I opened the pattern and discovered the shop had sold me size bb, when I had asked for aa. So size 5 was the smallest I had. 
Decision made!

Next I traced the pattern pieces onto plain newsprint paper (we get end of roll paper from the local newspaper very cheaply). 
This meant I didn't have to buy the pattern again when she wants a larger size or I have to adapt a pattern into 

some future Disney outfit.

Finally it was time to cut fabric! Being a bit nervous, I decided to begin with the bodice lining. Cutting the pieces 

was easy, although
as a complete novice pattern cutter it took me a while to realise that I wasn't meant to transfer the little triangles to 

the pieces with my fabric marker, but instead make little triangles on the outside of the pattern. Oops!
Rookie mistake, but not important.

Reading about working with satin on the web, I did cut the fabric between two pieces of paper to begin with, 

but later realized it wasn't necessary. I didn't get many runs from my blunt old pins or old sewing machine needle either!

The bodice lining went together easily. The yoke was another matter. I cut the pieces out (with proper notches this 

time!) but discovered my machine eats this delicate fabric for breakfast. So it was hand sewing for the shoulder 

seams and back hems. Sigh. I like hand sewing but it does slow things down. Especially when you French seam 

so the edges won't irritate tetchy preschooler skin. I also French seamed up the sleeves (which I had to invent a 

pattern for). Before I attached them to the bodice, I realized the bodice lining would show at the sleeve hole, so 

made a quick bias binding for the lower half of each armhole.

The skirt pieces were easy to cut and sew together, although next time I would French seam these too. It only

 takes a few minutes longer on straight seams, and would have been so much easier to do than zigzagging the

 nasty fraying satin edges later. There are turquoise threads on all the rugs in the house now too, sigh.

After hemming the skirt (I used a slip stitch), the next step was gathering the skirt and sewing it to the bodice. Gathering is a pain, but worth it of course. Two gathering threads, then another line of basting, and a final line of tiny tiny stitches for the actual seam. I found the v shape really really awkward to sew. The bodice satin kept sliding under the needle, and I would have to stop and cut and unpick. Which is when I discovered the stitch I was using was smaller than the tip of my seam ripper. Joy.

Spending entire evenings making tiny stitches and then unpicking them again was not part of my plan. Next time I would not deepen that v on the bodice AT ALL!

After all that fiddliness, putting the zip in (the bit I was really dreading) turned out to be remarkably simple. The final touch on the dress was a train, made out of the same sparkly net as the sleeves and yoke. I used all my remaining fabric, folding it in half and trimming the top to match the width of the bodice back. After more tedious hand hemming, I sewed some lace across the top for strength, then put on some sew on poppas. I didn't like the idea of Velcro near satin, but I wanted the train to detach easily if stepped on. 

Last thing of all, I glued on some felt snowflakes I had cut previously, using my snowflake window clings as templates. I accidentally glued them on the underside, oops!

And that was it....finished. About ten o'clock on Christmas Eve, so it could have been worse!

And as you can see, I made the hat too.

For what happened next, and a couple more tips, see the next post...

Christmas is upon us

I'm sure when I was a child Christmas didn't start until much later. However when you move from the UK to the Southern Hemisphere it can be worth starting seasonal activities a little earlier, in order to get in the mood, get your overseas items posted on time, and of course all your seasonal knitting done.

This year I have decided to make three knitted bodice sewn skirt type dresses for DD. Three different patterns, three different fabrics. So far I have finished Sunny Christmas except for hemming, Apple of my Eye except for buttons, and have lots and lots of 4 ply knitting left for little Denim Flower. I am planning a post to compare the patterns and note any problems when I am finished with all three.

In the meantime, Christmas traditions are taking up my thoughts. Last year the children came downstairs each morning to find a new decoration each to hang on the tree. They also opened their advent calendars and played the new animation on their Jackie Lawson advent calendar (love love love these!).

This year they will also find out what the dolls in the dollshouse have been doing to get ready for Christmas. So last night the dolls began by installing a Christmas tree in the family room, although daughter doll had to run off and pee at the last minute....

A 'New' Afterthought Buttonhole

I recently made a silly knitting decision, not to put the last buttonhole on a baby cardigan I was knitting. A few rows later I realized it would look much better if I had put it in. How to make a buttonhole without ripping back?  Google led me to Elizabeth Zimmerman's Afterthought Buttonhole, where you cut the thread and weave in the ends. I could see this being tricky and it seemed a lot of work for one itsy-bitsy little yarnover p2tog buttonhole. I put the work aside and fretted over it for a couple of days (you can tell how much I hate ripping back now, can't you?).

After a few days I had a method in principle for creating a single stitch buttonhole as an afterthought, as long as the work is still live. It was based on the technique of picking up dropped stitches with a crochet hook. Why, I wondered, couldn't I just drop a stitch down to where I wanted the buttonhole, sew down the bottom stitch, and remake the stitches above the new buttonhole? I had never actually dropped a stitch and had to remake it, so I was a bit nervous about it. Cue swatching and practising and lo, Tamsin's Emergency Ladder Buttonhole was born.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=relmfu&v=oJhVZpLm9NY

Now I firmly believe that there is nothing new under the knitting sun, but I've put my name on this because I can't find any other reference to it online and it is a technique I can see having a few nifty applications.

I posted about it on Ravelry (of course) and instantly aggiemay contributed a genius suggestion that avoids having to weave in that little piece of yarn to hold down the bottom stitch. Her suggestion? Drop down two stitches, loop one over the other to recreate the yo p2tog that you would have done originally, and then remake the stitches as normal. Perfect! So now there is a new, improved video showing this technique.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=WnEF6-kKnGk

So there you have it, an afterthought buttonhole with no cutting yarn, and no weaving in ends. Suitable for use on stocking stitch, garter stitch and pretty much any pattern that you have confidence picking up the stitches on. It works great for a one or two stitch buttonhole (just drop three stitches instead) but would need reinforcing round the edge if larger than this I suspect. The joy of it is that once you get used to picking up stitches like this, all the fear goes away, and it becomes quite fun to deliberately drop stitches in order to make a hole.