Retro Party Dress

Over the past few weeks my sister and I have been working together to make her a party dress, using Butterick 5748.

We used a "novelty" nylon taffeta embossed with patches of velveteen and interlined the bodice panels with cotton batiste.

Even though we both sew, most of her work has been with quilts, so this gave me an opportunity to teach her some of the things that I've learned about sewing garments, such as cutting, interlining, and stitching darts. Here's a copy of the details I posted at PatternReview.com:

Pattern Description: 
A Retro Butterick pattern from 1960. The envelope description reads ". . . Lined dresses. A,B have close-fitting bodice, flared skirt (cut on crosswise grain of fabric), side zipper and very narrow hem. A: attached bows. Purchased petticoat". My sister needed a party dress, so we made this together for her special event. We followed the design for view B on the front, while using the notched neckline and bow from view A on the back.

Pattern Sizing:
Misses'/Misses' Petite, sizes 6-22.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Basically; we made a few minor changes. 

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Yes, although we chose to construct the dress a little differently.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
The classic design and neckline detail. No "dislikes." 

Fabric Used:
A length of "novelty" nylon taffeta, embossed with patches of velveteen. It didn't exactly fall into the category of recommended fabrics, but it worked for this dress. 

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
Fit and Design:
- Made a 1-inch short-waist adjustment to the bodice, using the lengthen/shorten lines.
- Took in the bodices side seams a little.
- Raised the back neckline by 4-inches.

Construction:
-Lengthened the skirt panels.
-Interlined the bodice panels with a layer of cotton batiste to lend a little "body" to the taffeta.
-Under-stitched the neckline and armholes by hand; this allowed us to reach the narrow areas that the machine could not.
-Used an invisible zipper at the side seam and brought the opening all the up way to armhole, rather than starting below it.
-Seamed the skirt lining to the bodice lining at the waist, instead of basting it to the waist seam of the outer dress.
-Finished the outer hem with a narrow self-made bias facing (we needed as much length as possible to cover the petticoat). This seemed to work well with the taffeta and gave the hem a little more body.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
We don't have any immediate plans to, but it's such a basic design that we could possibly sew it again with a different fabric. Yes, we would recommend it to others.

Conclusion: 
This is a cute dress that is simple to construct, and my sister is very pleased with the results.

Spring Dress Progress

The main panels of the dress have been cut out, and the bodice is now partially assembled!  As I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to skip the front pockets, so before laying out the pattern, I made a simple alteration to the front skirt panel to compensate for the fabric that would be missing at the upper front corner.

All I needed to do was aline the front pocket piece with the front skirt piece at the waist and side seams and pin them together.

The first step in assembling the bodice was interlining the bodice panels - front, midriff, and back - with cotton batiste. The pattern dose not say to do this, but the fabric that I'm using happens to have a little spandex in the crosswise grain for stretch, and in order to use the border print, the dress must be cut on the crosswise grain. If the bodice is not stabilized somehow, it will soon stretch out of shape. The pattern instructions do seem compensate for this by simply including the bodice lining in the waistline seam, putting the lengthwise stress on the lining rather than the fashion fabric. However, I'm plan to line the entire dress and want to use the lining to conceal the zipper tape, so the option of interlining seems better, in this case.

After pressing the pleats in place, I stitched through both layers along the inner crease of each pleat to keep the layers from separating (since the stitching is nestled inside the pleats, it won't show once they're basted in place).

Here's the bodice, with the front and back seamed at the shoulders. The repeat in the border print happened to be spaced just perfectly for cutting the bodice front with two roses at each shoulder. How neat is that?

A New Dress For Spring. . .

Over the past week I've been working on a dress for Spring! I'm using Simplicity 2886, which I bought last year during a pattern sale.

I had hoped to make a summer dress with it, but since couldn't find the right material for the design, it was added to a pile of patterns with a similar plight. Fast forward to late September, when I crossed paths with a bolt of ivory sateen, printed with navy dots and bordered with roses:

It immediately brought the Simplicity pattern back to mind, being similar to the print used for View A. This dress should be fairly simple to fit; so far I've done a muslin of the bodice with a SBA, and it doesn't seem to need any other changes (yay!). I'm afraid I'll probably be skipping those cute pockets, though. I'd rather reduce visual bulk there, if I can ;-)

Pattern Review - Butterick 5685

I've finally written a review for the Butterick pattern that I used for my "herringbone coat"! It's on PatternReview.com - if you'd like to see it, click here!

Butterick High-Waist Skirt

Here are few photos of a skirt that I actually started long before my coat project, but recently finished with a hem late in December. This post is a little overdue, but I didn't have any photos for until this past week.

This skirt comes from an old 1950's Butterick pattern; I followed the instructions closely, with the exception of a few minor changes.

Originally this skirt was for myself, but I'm not too sure it works for me. I had cut this one out long before I started considering designs that flatter short-waisted people, and the high-waist visually decreases my torso :-(  Fortunately for my sister, it's just her size and she wears it well! She was kind enough to model it for me:

The fabric is a black wool gabardine. The pattern does not mention lining the skirt, but I added one for a nice finish on the inside.

Originally, the skirt was quite long - at least mid-calf. I trimmed and hemmed it to end just below the knee.

Because the skirt is very full, a bit of structure is required to uphold the midriff and prevent the weight of the skirt from pulling it downward. For this, the pattern calls for canvas interfacing and boning. I used scraps of hair canvas leftover from a jacket project, along with covered feather-weight boning. The casing for the boning is stitched the to the interfacing so that it lies directly behind the "princess" seams of the skirt. In the photo below, I've turned up the facing to show the interfacing and boning:

Once the top of the skirt is faced, a ribbon waist-stay is stitched to the facing at the waistline. The fit of the stay is very snug so that the skirt is anchored at the waist. I also added hanging loops, as the top the skirt is shaped in such a way that it fits awkwardly onto a skirt hanger.

Nice little details like these are typical of vintage patterns, so this was a neat project . . .  even if I'm the one wearing the skirt in the end ;-)

Herringbone Coat: Finished!

My "Herringbone Coat" is finished! Here are some photos of the completed coat, along with a few little details. . .

Front and back:

                                                                     Finished collar:

                                                                Back sleeve detail:

                                          In-seam pocket at the side of the coat.

The bound buttonholes are now open and ready for use!

                                   
I braided the button "stems" using the YSL technique from Claire Shaeffer's Couture Sewing Techniques to lift the buttons from the surface of the coat and help them to sit nicely in the buttonholes. When sewing them in place, I also reinforced them from the wrong side by sewing through small, clear buttons (these are visible in the full-lining shot in the post about the lining).

Large snaps, covered with lining material, fasten the under-lap instead of buttons. They are sewn to the facing, directly beneath the ornamental buttons that are sewn to the outside. Tany at Couture et Tricot has posted an excellent tutorial for covered snaps, which I found so helpful when making these (thank you, Tany, for sharing your technique!).

                  Understitching at the pocket opening helps hold the pocket lining neatly in place.

                  
The wool was somewhat difficult to photograph, as it tends to appear differently under various light souces, but I've tried to adjust the images as best I can (the two photos of the pockets are the most accurate).

I'm so excited to have this finished! It's been a long project, but I've really enjoyed the opportunity to practice my tailoring skills, and I'm grateful to God for giving me the time and resources to undertake this project :-)   

Herringbone Coat: Lining and Interlining

Because the fashion fabric for my coat is lightweight, I decided to use an interlining for a little extra warmth. I prepared the lining panels for this step at the beginning of the project by basting a layer of cotton flannel to the back of each piece.

After doing this, it was just a matter of assembling the lining pieces as usual, except that the interlining seam allowances must be trimmed close to the stitching, to reduce bulk at the seamlines. Before stitching the lining to the coat, I also trimmed the interlining within the hem allowance and hemmed the lining by machine.

I used the machine to attach the main portion of the lining to the coat, as I needed to save the time it would have taken me to do it by hand. After the main portion was secured in place, the sleeves were set to the armholes with slip-stitching.

At the center back of the lining, there is a pleat for ease of movement. The interlining material wasn't too thick, so I made a small center-back pleat in this piece, as well, though I pressed it in the opposite direction of the pleat in the outer lining before basting the two panels together.

 

The lower edge of the lining is hemmed separately from the coat and is held close the coat hem by swing tacks. The photo above offers a peek at the flannel interlining.

 

When drafting the pattern pieces for the lining, I modified the top of the back lining panel make to room for a neck facing. It wasn't totally necessary, but I wanted this coat to have one. After all, it makes a nice spot to stitch in a label!

 

The label fabric is from a piece of pinwale corduroy that I found in my scrap box. A bit unusual, perhaps, but it provides some textural contrast. I stabilized the wrong side of the corduroy with a piece of sew-in interfacing, and experimented with the embroidery stitches on my mom's Kenmore machine. Once I found a design that I liked, I trimmed away the excess interfacing, turned under the edges of the label, and slip-stitched it to the facing at the back of the neck.