Hinterland #1

Well I made up my first Hinterland Dress, after much pattern fiddling & two muslins (two more than I usually do!) I had to make a lot of changes to this one for a variety of reasons. 

First I had to make a small bust adjustment, as this pattern is designed for a C cup. This was the first time I've actually gone to the trouble to do it, and I'm glad I did, it really worked out. Because of the size differential, this adjustment actually got rid of the bust dart entirely. 

I also added a 1/4" neckline dart (something I often do) and then had to take in a 1" dart on each back shoulder. It was a lot! But the back neckline still wasn't sitting quite right, so after reading a bunch of online reviews both on IG and in the blog world, I adjusted the shoulder slope. When I change the shoulder in a pattern, it's usually to take up the outer edge of (usually) just the right shoulder. But here I took 1/2" up from the NECK edge, tapering out to nothing by the shoulder seam. This was unusual for me, but it really worked. After that the bodice seemed to fit quite well. And so I went ahead with a wearable muslin! 

The changes I made to this particular dress were to lengthen the pocket bag so that I could anchor it into the waist seam - that reduces floppiness, which is great. I used an old rayon from my stash that I'm not overly attached to, so that I wouldn't balk at making mistakes! 

There are still a couple of things I would like to adjust with this pattern. First, the front neckline does gape a bit -- I hope I didn't stretch it out (staystitched it right after cutting but...) but thinking it might need to be adjusted by another 1/4" dart. I often have to take up to 1/2" out of the centre front so this doesn't surprise me terribly. 

The other change is that the waistline, after all my adjustments, is too hi-low for my tastes. I like the height of the front waistline, but then it dips down quite a bit to the side seams and across the back, and I'm not fond of that. I am going to straighten out the waistline to the length of the front bodice all around, and then make another to see if all these adjustments do the trick.

I don't usually spend so much time on fitting a simple dress like this. However, I bought the Creative Hinterland design course, so want to get the fit perfect so that I can begin on the design options and know any issues I'm having are from my redrafting and not the original I've begun on ! 

In any case, this is quite a wearable, light summer dress and I'm sure I will get some use out of it. It was a challenge but I'm happy I followed through on it. 

"Vintage" 90s Sarong Dress in Rayon

My Spring project for Fabricville has arrived! I was excited about this one -- this "vintage" 90s McCalls 8501 was so appealing, and then I found the perfect fabric option. This is a beautiful rayon-nylon blend, in my favourite blue and yellow colourway. 

As part of being a Fabricville blogger, I can choose a pattern and fabric and only have to share it on their blog. But you know I'm going to tell you about it too! 

This is called a "3 Hour Pattern". I find that was a thing I saw often on patterns from the 80s & 90s -- overpromising to get people to buy a pattern ;) That's 3 hours of sewing time, not the careful cutting part. And probably only 3 hours if you're a quick sewist, as I am not. 

But it wasn't too complicated. A front, back and overlay, plus a little tie piece and a neck binding. I of course overcomplicated things by trying to add pockets! But I can't imagine a summer dress without any. It was a bit fiddly to figure out where to attach the pocket bags, somehow that overlay confused me a bit. But it was worth the time.

This fabric is 90% rayon, 10% nylon, and that makes the hand a little different; it's not a challis, it's easier to handle than that. And I really like the way it drapes, too. The front has an overlay that is sewn into the side seam and then ties at the side with another little tie that you sew into the opposite side. Quite secure. 

The changes I made to the pattern:

• Shortened the body above the waist by 3/4"
• Lengthened the bottom hem by 1" (a bit tricky with those curves)
• Added side seam pockets

Isn't it strange to call something from the 90s vintage? I don't feel like it was that long ago. Maybe if you lived through the era, it's not vintage to you! In any case, this is a light summer dress that I know I'll wear this year, vintage or not :)

Sew Frugal with the Milou free dress pattern

 

This is a project I made for a number of reasons - a few online challenges, and the desire for a new spring dress in a nice yellow! 

I was inspired by the #SewFrugal challenge on IG, always a fun one; you are asked to make something from a free pattern using fabric from your stash. Add to this the "Mellow March" theme from MAGAM, also on IG, and a PatternReview contest, and I was inspired. 

I decided to try the free Milou Dress by Fabrics-Store.com. The loose fit, but with inset gathers on front and back, looked fun to me. I had a lightweight yellow cotton-poly sheet in my stash that I thrifted a few years ago, and thought it was the perfect match. 

I enjoyed making this, although with a free pattern you often do get what you pay for. I found this one pretty good overall, with one major exception. The neckline is tiny, and I mean just under 20", when the average woman's head is 21-22". Mine, however, is a large head - I have a gargantuan cranium! So it was particularly impossible to fit this over my head, which is important in a pull on dress! Luckily, it is a neckline with just a bias facing, so it was very easy to enlarge the neck opening and bind it appropriately. Of course if you wanted to keep a higher, tighter neckline you could always add a back slit in the neckline and face it. 

Another slight complaint is that there were no tips in the instructions on how to get a clean corner on the insets. I looked up a tutorial on Youtube to remind me. There were links to a few other techniques in the instructions, including one on how to add side seam pockets. I did this of course! 

Otherwise it was a pretty good project. I do find that the sleeve is a bit wide at the hem, I'm not sure I like the straight line all the way down. I do like the sleeve rolled up, but I am thinking of going back and narrowing the sleeve down toward the hem a bit. I also added 2" of length but I could cut that to 1.5" if I make this again, as I ended up taking a deeper hem than my usual. 

One of the challenges in the PatternReview contest was to make a basic solid coloured dress and style it for day and night. I had fun with those photos, but do think I'll likely wear this most in the day verson. I consider yellow a basic in my wardrobe! This was a fun make despite the small issues that cropped up, which were all easily fixable. I like the finished pattern - the original was colour blocked (very subtley, in white and cream linen) so that's always an option, too, but I love my solid colour version that I think shows off the main feature of the pattern, those inset gathers. 

Evening look!

Cover Designs! #38: The Wonders

 

Cover Designs is a feature in which I try to match up the outfit on a book cover with a dress pattern and sometimes even potential fabric matches as well.

Today's pick is The Wonders by Elena Medel.

Summary from publisher:

The Wonders follows Maria and Alicia through the streets of Madrid, from job to job and apartment to apartment, as they search for meaning and stability in a precarious world and unknowingly trace each other’s footfalls across time.

Maria moved to the city in 1969, leaving her daughter with her family but hoping to save enough to take care of her one day. She worked as a housekeeper, then a caregiver, and later a cleaner, and somehow she was always taking care of someone else. Two generations later, in 2018, Alicia was working at the snack shop in Madrid’s Atocha train station when it overflowed with protestors and strikers. All women—and so many of them—protesting what? Alicia wasn’t entirely sure. She couldn’t have known that Maria was among them. Alicia didn’t have time for marches; she was just trying to hang on until the end of her shift, when she might meet someone to take her away for a few hours, to make her forget.

Readers will fall in love with Maria and Alicia, whose stories finally converge in the chaos of the protests, the weight of the years of silence hanging thickly in the air between them. The Wonders brings half a century of the feminist movement to life, and launches an inimitable new voice in fiction.

While we only see the cover dress from the back, this long sleeved shift dress should be pretty easy to replicate. It's the fabric that might be tricky! 

You might want to try the free Shayla shift dress from Tiana's Closet. We don't know what the front of this cover dress looks like, so it just might be the casual V-neck of the Shayla. This pattern also has a sweet button detail on the sleeve for that something extra.

Or you might prefer the Ultimate Shift Dress by Sew Over It, even if there is a bit of a difference -- the SOI shift has a back opening at the neckline, unlike our cover image. But it's close! 

Or if you wanted to try copying this in a knit, the Jalie Nicole might be just the one! The centre line drawing has just the same silhouette. 

Of course, to really get the look of this, a cityscape panel print would be the best fit. I couldn't find any quite like this one, but there are a number of city prints on Spoonflower that would be fun to try out, and the good thing about that is that you could go with woven or knit, whichever you preferred. Here are a few ideas! 

Urban Tapestry Abstract Cityscape by Paula Bagy

City Blocks by boldtvillemayor

City Big by j9design

Shades of Blue City by SweetCoolVibes

While none of these fabrics are exactly like the cover image, the city imagery could carry the theme over into a potential real life make! And if you're fortunate enough to find a panel print, a shift dress is always a great choice to make the most of it, no matter what the design. 

Making over Knit Dresses

As some long-term readers might know, one of my favourite knit patterns is Kwik Sew 3559, an older OOP pattern that I've made 10+ times. Two of my 3559 dress versions haven't been worn much, so I decided to remake them into tee length tops instead. I really need more comfy tees, and these were easy fixes. 

The first was a plain black short sleeved version. I never wore this, as I had added a band on the bottom to get it to the right length, and somehow it just didn't sit right. The hem curled up after a couple of wears and I just couldn't sort it. Perfect candidate for a chop! I sewed the pocket openngs shut from the inside & then cut off the pocket bags. This one I cut to a high hip tee length, and just ironed on some knit interfacing to keep the hem smooth, I didn't sew it at all. Quick and easy, and will mostly be worn under a cardigan or jacket anyhow. 

The second one was a little bit fussier. This knit is really lightweight and springy, which is why it never worked well as a dress. I wore it a couple of times, but I found that once I put the sash on, the back of it clung to my bottom more than I liked. Also it is a bit static which doesn't help. So I wasn't reaching for it often, but I love the pretty fabric and how soft it is to wear. I thought if I made it over into a tunic, I wouldn't be tying it around my waist and the fabric could fall more naturally. So I did the same with the pockets - sewed the seam shut and then cut off the pocket bags. I then measured down from the yoke and cut this one a bit longer than the black one. I also added hem tape to the bottom of this. 

I then took the 9" that I cut off and sewed into a tube for a quick infinity style scarf that I can add to this if I want a little extra coverage or just a different look. This was fun to do and I'm glad I could use the fabric for another piece. I think I will get a lot more wear out of this tunic version! 

Jalie Bianca in silky patchwork

The second part of my Fall 2024 Fabricville Blogger project is this simple dress, made from this Satin Dimara Multicolour print. I ordered this print because I liked the visual mix; the listing said it was viscose, but unfortunately when I received it, I found that it is actually polyester, which I dislike and don't usually sew with. So I changed my pattern plans, choosing to go with something very simple with few seams - both to use the print effectively without too much matching across a seam, and to reduce the handling of this satiny fabric. 

I chose to use the Jalie Bianca, a pattern I've made before and really like. This time I altered it to have even fewer seams - I cut the front and back pieces on a fold so there are really only side seams to worry about. I made the view with sleeve cuffs, and also added in some side seam pockets. 

I also cut it to give more width in the hem, by simply sliding the skirt in from the fold about an inch, and extending that a-line shape a bit. I added 3 extra inches to the length in case I had to trim off at the end, which I did, so I was thankful for the excess. 

This is how much I had to even up the hem after hanging- widening
it did mean it was more on the bias than the original as well

I found cutting the toughest part of this - this fabric was so slippery! I thought I had it perfectly balanced but the print is a little slanted, just enough to annoy me, lol. Other than keeping it from sliding around it wasn't a bad sew. I had to use a new, fine needle to keep from snagging anything, and did have to let the dress hang overnight to let the hem settle, then level it before stitching, which was a finicky job! 

So it was a bit fussy for such a simple dress but I think it's really fun in its finished form, anyhow. I like it, and just hope it won't be too staticky to wear - I think it will go under quite a few jackets.

Maybe not the original plan of my cream corduroy jacket, which is a great pattern from Vogue, but turned out much too big for me. But I have lots of other sweaters and jackets which will match with one of the many colours in this print. 

And Lacey Makes Three

To recover from my missing sewjo in June I decided to make a pattern I've made twice before, the Lacey Dress by Style Arc. This is a great pattern to use with stripes, and it's also a nice loose summer dress to wear on hot days.

I had some rayon that I bought at a PatternReview weekend in Chicago in 2016 so it was time to use it! I really like the print but I do find the colours a bit duller than I'd remembered; the pale blue with red gives a mauve-y feel to the dress as a whole. Not sure I completely love it - but it is comfy! 

Because I've made it twice before I just cut without worrying about any pattern alterations. I cut the central bodice pieces with the stripe horizontal, and the outer sleeve and skirt with vertical lines. But I was challenging myself to see if I could sew it all together in 3 hours like a Great British Sewing Bee challenge -- I just made it -- but just like with the timed challenges on the Bee, there are therefore mistakes. I think I will take the skirt off and resew it more neatly and evenly. You can't really see it in the photos (or probably in real life much) but the waist seam is uneven, it's higher in the front, and it's driving me nuts! The problem with rayon that likes to shift and stretch... 

I wore it to work this week on a very warm day and it was cool and airy to wear. I stopped to take photos in the rose garden in the churchyard that I cut through on my way to work; it matches with the dress nicely! It certainly was quick and stress free making a pattern that I was already familiar with, but I have to remember the maxim, Haste Makes Waste, and not try to compete with Sewing Bee timing ;) 

Cover Designs! #36: No one is Coming to Save Us

 

Cover Designs is a feature in which I try to match up the outfit on a book cover with a dress pattern and sometimes even potential fabric matches as well.

Today's pick is No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts. 

Summary from the Publisher: 

JJ Ferguson has returned home to Pinewood, North Carolina to build his dream home and to woo his high school sweetheart, Ava. But he finds that the people he once knew and loved have changed, just as he has. Ava is now married, and wants a baby more than anything. The decline of the town’s once-thriving furniture industry has made Ava’s husband Henry grow distant and frustrated. Ava’s mother Sylvia has put her own life on hold as she caters to and meddles with those around her, trying to fill the void left by her absent son. And Don, Sylvia’s undeserving but charming husband, just won’t stop hanging around.

JJ’s newfound wealth forces everyone to consider what more they want and deserve from life than what they already have—and how they might go about getting it. Can they shape their lives to align with their wishes rather than their realities? Or are they resigned to the rhythms of the particular lives they lead? No One Is Coming to Save Us is a revelatory debut from an insightful voice that combines a universally resonant story with an intimate glimpse into the hearts of one family.

This beautiful summer outfit on the cover of this dress could be reproduced with a few pattern ideas. The first one I thought of was the Know Me 2040 by Brittany J. Jones. It has slightly wider straps and a skirt that's a bit fuller, but it's close. 

Or the Claudia dress by Tessuti might work -- it has the lower, angled bodice of the cover image and skinny straps too. It has a straight skirt, and even has pockets!

You might even choose a similar fabric, like this black and white floral from Fabrics & Fabrics

If you want to accessorize like the lovely woman on the cover, you can use the new Closet Core Sunhat pattern -- it's free, has a sewalong video, and looks very similar to our cover image! 

You could even make a bag to match, the Classic Handbag by Mrs H is similar though not quite so square. Still, make it in black and it would be close.

Any of these ideas combined could get you close to the elegant summer outfit on the cover of this book. Perfect for summer reading.