One Pattern Seven Bloggers - Revisited - The Reveal

Welcome back everyone. Today is an exciting day, as today we are sharing with you our finished Macarons for the 1pattern7bloggers project. We showed you out inspiration and fabric last week, and today, the dress! (Apologies in advance for how picture heavy this post is)

I am really happy with the way my dress turned out. I could have picked an easier lace to work with, but at the time I couldn't find any other laces that I liked (although have seen some since). The lace is quick a thick (and heavy) guipure lace so it was quite tricky to (wo)manhandle the seams into place.

To make the dress the way I wanted to, I had to change up the construction slightly because I'd changed the bodice. I changed the pieces so that the lace for the bodice was all one piece, and then I had the green satin underneath in the style lines of the macaron (although changed slightly, as they were a bit low on me as drafted).

I stitched along the top of the satin underlining and the lining to finish that edge, and then hand basted the satin underlining to the lace (shown above).

After that I stitched up the darts and then treated it just like a normal bodice piece.

The bodice underwent some quite substantial changes to get it to fit. What I ended up doing was actually basically the same as my last 1pattern7bloggers dress and a few dresses since, kind of merging the pattern with my bodice block. I then made up a muslin of the bodice and altered the sweetheart style-lines so that sat in the right spot (ie they covered my bra). This last bit was done with the highly technical technique of drawing on the muslin with a biro while I was wearing it.

The last change I made was to alter the sleeves so that they had a straight hem and I could use the edge of the lace at the sleeve hem, along with using it along the hem of the dress.

I included the skirt as drafted... including the pockets inside one of the pleats, not that you'd know by looking at it...

 

Isn't that just really clever!! It's a sneaky trick I think I'll be using on future projects, that's for sure.

I finished off the hem of the underlining with my new rolled hem foot, isn't it just perfect?? Such a revelation, I can't believe I took so long to get the foot.

I'm still not entirely convinced by the shape of the skirt on me though, I'm not completely sure it's the most flattering silhouette.

Although partly I think that's because I could have nipped the waist in a little more than I did. However that was a deliberate decision not to, as I'm planning on wearing this to Frocktails next weekend, and since we're going out for a delicious dinner I thought a tight waistband would be a rookie mistake!

I finished the seam allowances of the lace and the neckline with black silk organza to try and make the lace that bit neater. It's the first time I've actually used silk organza and I'm very happy with how well it turned out.

And the last construction detail I wanted to share is the hand-picked zip that I added. It's definitely not the best I've ever done. But it's heaps better than a machine stitched zip would have been. It was a bit too tricky for me to try doing a lapped zip with the lace (as I've had less experience with them), so I stuck with a centred zip. It's a little gapey in spots, but it's down the side so it's less visible anyway, right?

I'd like to say thank you to Sarah for taking these photos for me, and wanted to make sure to include this shot of the back of the dress, as she wanted me to share it so you could see the perfectly symmetrical top edge of the underlining...

Anyway, I'm sure you're all just waiting for the announcement of the winners of the massive combined giveaway!

Firstly, another enormous thank you to all the generous sponsors of the giveaway:

 

The winners are:

• Lill wins the  Macaron Pattern thanks to Colette Patterns 
• Josephine wins the Macaron Pattern thanks to Guthrie & Ghani 
• Macinic Macaron Pattern thanks to Stitch 56 
• Elizabeth wins the Pattern of your choice thanks to Sew Squirrel 
• Kathleen S wins the Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to Indie Stitches 
• Joanne wins the Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to The Haby Goddess 
• Amy wins the $20 gift voucher thanks to Fabric Worm 
• Sew Charleston wins the $30 gift voucher thanks to A Fashionable Stitch 

The winners should receive an email from one of the 7 of us in the very near future to organise getting contact details for your prizes.

             

I hope you've enjoyed our revisiting of this project, and remember to head on over to see how the Macarons of the other 6 talented ladies turned out, I know I can't wait to see them:

• Marie from A Stitching Odyssey
• Reana Louise from Reana Louise 
• Kat from Petticoats and Peplums
• Jen from Jennifer Lauren Vintage
• Amy from Sewing Through the Motions 
• Sam from Buckingham Road

One Pattern Seven Bloggers - Revisited - Inspiration

The reception to our revisit of the one pattern seven bloggers idea has been a little overwhelming. Thanks to everyone that stopped by and commented on the post last week. Remember that the giveaway is still open, so head on over to that post and comment before the 31st of August to be in for a chance of winning one of the 8 prizes.

Today I'm going to talk a little about the inspiration for my dress...

As soon as the Macaron pattern was chosen I knew that I wanted to make a lace dress. Working with lace has been on my wish list for a while now, I was just waiting for the right inspiration for it, and I decided that this is it. I would be guilty of a massive omission if I didn't say I was heavily influenced by Liz's gorgeous lace Macaron in deciding that this would be a good project to try lace with. You can see all the details of her dress, pictured below, here.

The last added bonus to choosing to use lace, was that I decided that my Macaron could hopefully become my dress for Frocktails, and I thought lace could make a fantastic cocktail dress.

Liz's Gorgeous Macaron | Source

So, with that in mind I visited a few local stores looking for lace. Originally I was hoping for a nice coloured lace, that I could then put a neutral (probably black) behind. Sadly fabric shopping luck was not with me, and I was really struggling in finding some lace that I liked. Then finally I found this lovely black lace at GJs during a Social Sewing day:

I auditioned quite a few colours for the underlinining, but the sheer number of options was a bit overwhelming for my poor little indecisive self. Thankfully the lovely social sewing ladies were happy to weigh in with opinions on which to choose, and this olive green colour won, almost unanimously.

So that's my inspiration and fabric choices for my dress. Be sure to tune in next Monday to see the finished thing, and check out the blogs of the other ladies to see what their inspiration is:

• Marie from A Stitching Odyssey
• Reana Louise from Reana Louise 
• Kat from Petticoats and Peplums
• Jen from Jennifer Lauren Vintage
• Amy from Sewing Through the Motions 
• Sam from Buckingham Road

One Pattern Seven Bloggers - Revisited (+Giveaway!)

Back in May of 2011 I was lucky enough to be part of a fun little project called One Pattern Seven Bloggers, where myself and 6 other fabulous sewing bloggers all made a dress from the same pattern. I'm very excited to be able to share with you today that we have decided to repeat the project, with the same group of 7 bloggers and a different pattern.

I'm very excited about this project, as in addition to the fact that my last one pattern seven bloggers dress was a massive success and is still in heavy rotation in my wardrobe, it's been great to be working on a project with such inspiring ladies once again.

As a reminder the 6 other talented sewists are:

• Marie from A Stitching Odyssey
• Reana Louise from Reana Louise 
• Kat from Petticoats and Peplums
• Jen from Jennifer Lauren Vintage
• Amy from Sewing Through the Motions 
• Sam from Buckingham Road

Another incredibly exciting thing is that this time around we are able to offer a huge giveaway thanks to a group of amazing sponsors!

 

The Prizes
1 x Macaron Pattern thanks to Colette Patterns 
1 x Macaron Pattern thanks to Guthrie & Ghani 
1 x Macaron Pattern thanks to Stitch 56 
1 x Pattern of your choice thanks to Sew Squirrel 
1 x Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to Indie Stitches 
1 x Colette Pattern of your choice thanks to The Haby Goddess 
1 x $20 gift voucher thanks to Fabric Worm 
1 x $30 gift voucher thanks to A Fashionable Stitch 

To enter, all you need to do is comment on this post before Saturday 31st August with your email address!
Make sure you head on over to all of the other participants blogs for up to 7 chances to win!

Terms & Conditions 

• Prizes will be randomly allocated to each of the 8 winners across all seven blogs. 
• One entry per blog. You can comment on each of the 7 blogs for 7 chances to win (!). 
• The winners will be drawn and contacted by email on the 2nd September 2013.

So, keep an eye out on the blogs of the other ladies over the next day to see their announcement posts, and remember that you can comment once on each blog for up to 7 chances to win one of the giveaway prizes.

Also remember to come back on the 26th of August for Inspiration posts and then on the 2nd of September for the big reveal!

EDIT - the giveaway is now closed. Thanks everyone for entering.

One Pattern, Seven Bloggers - Finished!

Today is the last day of the "one pattern seven bloggers" project. It's been heaps of fun to do, and I would like to once again issue a HUGE thank you to Sam for instigating and organising it and choosing to include me in the group. Did you look at all the how-do posts last week? If you missed them, you can find links to them all at the bottom of this post.

Despite getting the bulk of my dress done at last month's MMQG SASD I still ended up finishing it just in time, squeezing in little bits of sewing between everything else I have going on. The zip went in on Sunday evening, Monday night the hem was pinned, and yesterday the skirt and lining were hemmed and the side seams taken in a smidge as the waist was a little big. Photos were very kindly taken by my lovely housemate this afternoon before the sun went down (Thanks Abby!).

Despite cutting it so close to the deadline, I am very happy with the dress. I'm happy with the fit (although think I might still need to fix the bust darts a little) and am very happy with the length and fullness of the skirt (about 275cm/108"; very full!!!). I gave it a nice wide hem to, in theory, support the fullness of the skirt slightly. Most importantly, as per my initial requirements, it has POCKETS!

I ended up fully lining it in Navy, using this tutorial again for sewing up the bodice. The skirt is also a gathered rectangle but isn't as full as the actual skirt, and then it's hemmed about 2 inches shorter than the skirt so it doesn't show. I also added some grosgrain ribbon to the lining waistband as a sort of waist stay (which I also did with my New Years dress), although it's not yet functioning as one as I haven't yet stitched the lining to the bodice at the waist so I can alter the darts if I want to

One last construction comment I wanted to include was the very helpful advice Tasia gave me regarding sewing in the zip. I had asked if the method she suggests for the Crescent would work for a dress and she suggested an alternative method that she used on her 60s shift dress. Bascially what I did was sew the lining to the fabric right sides together to where the zip would finish, then turned it right side out and the edge was beautifully finished and I just had to sew in my regular dress zip and sew together the rest of the centre back seam - it worked beautifully and is defnintely a method I will be remembering to use again in the future.

I can't really give much of a review of the pattern, as I completely butchered it, so I have no idea how the fit would actually have been. However, I was a bit unimpressed at the instructions that came with the pattern, particularly as it's a pattern you pay for, as they were HOPELESS. The lines for the pattern pieces don't have the sizes marked on them at all, and the instructions are completely full of errors that I guess must have happened when the file was created or something, as there's missing characters, and all sorts. They're as good as useless, I didn't bother using them at all. A big thumbs down from me, I think if I'm paying for a pattern I at least deserve someone to have proof read the instructions for font errors and typos!

Anyway, I don't want to end my post on a negative point so I will reiterate how much I love my finished dress, that I'm very happy with the quality of my work, and I can't wait to see the other gals dresses. You should remember to check out their dresses too, as before here's a list of links, I'll update them to be links to specific posts as they're posted:

Sam: http://hand-quilter.blogspot.com/
Marie: http://asewingodyssey.blogspot.com/
Reana Louise: http://curvespatternsandpins.blogspot.com/
Kat: http://petticoatsandpeplums.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-pattern-seven-bloggers-big-reveal.html
Jen: http://the-paperdoll.blogspot.com/
Amy: http://sewingthroughthemotions.blogspot.com/

Thanks again to Sam, Marie, Reana Louise, Kat, Jen and Amy for being part of this very fun project!

One Pattern, Seven Bloggers - How To: In-Seam Pockets

Are you still following along with the "one pattern seven bloggers" project? All of last weeks posts are linked in the bottom of my last post here.

This weeks post will be a "how to" for something we did when making the dress. One thing that I knew I definitely wanted to do with the pattern was add pockets into the side seams. I find it very frustrating wearing clothes without pockets, so find pockets in my dresses an essential design feature these days.

For this dress I decided to add in-seam pockets into the side seams. I put in-seam pockets into my "twin spruce knock-off dress", except in that dress I put the seams slightly further forward than the side seams (In the two seams made when I split the entire skirt into thirds), however they feel a bit weird when there's stuff in them and I'm sitting down, so this time i'm going to stick with the traditional side seam pockets.

Below is a photo tutorial for how to sew together the skirt pieces for these in-seam pockets. My pocket pattern piece was kind of fudged from looking at a few pockets in different garments and has turned out quite a good size (including for an iphone, as mine lives in my pocket). I was hoping to be able to scan the pocket pattern piece to include in this post but haven't been able to get my hands on a scanner this week. I will endevour to scan it in the future if there's interest though.

If you want to make your own pocket pattern piece I would recommend looking through your wardrobe for an item with an inseam pocket and using that as a starting point, and then checking it will fit the most common things you will put in it (eg your phone). In the pictures below you can see the general shape of the pocket.

One thing to take note of before following this tutorial is that I have moved the zip from the side to the centre back as I don't like side zips. The burdastyle pattern has a side zip, so you would need to put the side seams together slightly differently with a side zip (it's possible and i've done it for a skirt, and if there's interest I can make a tutorial for that too).

So, onto the tutorial.

First you need to assemble your pieces of fabric - you will need the following:
- 1x skirt front piece (in this case as the skirt is gathered it's just a big rectangle)
- 2x skirt back pieces (this is the same as the skirt front piece but cut in half to make two pieces)
- 4x pocket pieces

Here you can see one pocket's worth of pieces laid out - if you want two pockets you'll do exactly the same thing twice, on either side of the skirt front.

One important thing you need to decide is at which height to put the pockets. I put my pockets at 10cm from the top of the skirt pieces - which means they'll be about 10cm below my waist. I know that this height works for me based on my previous dress. For reference I'm 5'4, so if you're taller you might want to increase this distance a bit.

Measure down  the side seam edges of the skirt pieces 10cm (or whatever distance you chose) from the top. For two pockets you will have FOUR edges to measure - both sides of the skirt front and one side of each of the skirt back pieces.

Make sure the skirt backs are the opposite sides and not the same side - you can pin together your centre back seam if that will help prevent you getting confused. Alternatively, if you have the space, lay out all your pieces of fabric so you can see which seam is which.

Now pin your pocket piece to the edge of the skirt pieces RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER.
You will need to line up the straight edge of the pocket with the straight side seams of the skirt, and put the top of the pocket at the 10cm mark you measured before.

(I have outlined the pocket pieces in a dashed white line as it was tricky to see because of my fabric)

Here you can see one pair of pockets pinned on - the skirt front is on the left, the skirt back on the right, and they are a mirror image of each other with RIGHT SIDES FACING.

Now sew along that straight line you just pinned with a 1.5cm seam allowance (5/8 inch) from just above the pocket to just below.

Now finish that seam allowance, eg by zig-zag stitching along the raw edge.
You only need to finish the bit you just stitched, the rest will be done later.
(I forgot to do this on my first pocket so I had to go back and do it by hand at the end)

Now press the pocket pieces outwards, pressing the seam allowances towards the pocket pieces as in the photo below: 

Now place the skirt front and skirt back together RIGHT SIDES FACING and pin down the side seams, and around the edge of the pockets. The edges should be identical and should all match up nicely, as shown here:

Now you sew the side seams and the pocket bags all as one long seam. Start at the top of the skirt, stitch with a 1.5cm seam allowance (5/8 inch) along the side seam until you reach the pocket. When you get to about 1.5cm (5/8 inch) below the top edge of the pocket stop with your needle down and rotate the skirt so that you can sew around the edge of the pocket pieces. When you get back to the side seam stop again, rotate the skirt and sew down the side seam to the bottom of the skirt pieces.

To demonstrate what I mean I have marked your stitching line with a white dashed line in the photo below: 

Once you've sewn this seam, finish the edges along the same line as you just stitched.

Press the pocket and seam allowances FORWARDS:

(in this photo the skirt front is on the right hand side)

And now you have a pocket!! Hurrah!

The next (and last step) is optional, but I prefer it. I like to topstitch my pocket along the front edge to help the pocket stay facing forwards.

I hope this this tutorial has been clear. If you have any questions please comment below and I will do my best to answer them. If you're interested in the pattern piece, please comment saying so below so that I know there's interest - that way I will have more incentive to get off my arse and scan it.

Again, remember to hop along to the other lovely ladies taking part in their projects to see what they've decided to show:
Sam: http://hand-quilter.blogspot.com/
Marie: http://asewingodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-pattern-seven-bloggers-4-techniques.html
Reana Louise: http://curvespatternsandpins.blogspot.com/2011/05/lace-trimmed-bias-tape.html
Kat: http://petticoatsandpeplums.blogspot.com/2011/05/1-pattern-seven-bloggers-week-4.html
Jen: http://the-paperdoll.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-pattern-seven-bloggers-4.html
Amy: http://sewingthroughthemotions.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-pattern-seven-bloggers-lining.html

One Pattern, Seven Bloggers - Fit

Wow, week three of the "one pattern seven bloggers" project already, time is flying! Did you check out the great fabric and fitting posts from the girls last week? They're all linked at the bottom of last weeks post. This week I will discuss how I tackled fitting the pattern.

I have a confession to make, I kinda cheated when it came to altering the "one pattern seven bloggers" pattern to fit me. You see, the pattern really is quite similar to the bodice that I drafted over Christmas with a three key differences; both the front and back necklines, the cap "sleeves" on the Burdastyle bodice, and my bodice has two bust darts whereas the Burdastyle one has just one.

Burdastyle pattern on the left, my bodice pattern on the right

Rather than going through the whole fitting process again I used the pattern pieces of my bodice to trace off some of the seamlines to hopefully get a good fit straight away. I also decided to keep the two bust darts rather than convert it into one dart as I was sceptical as to the quality of the fit over my boobs if I just did one dart.

I started with the back bodice piece as I expected it would need less changes, and I could straight away see that the Burdastyle bodice is much too long for me (which isn't surprising, I had to shorten the length of the Emily Blouse when I made it too). I lined up the pattern pieces using the underarm seam and the top of the darts as reference points and I could see that I needed to remove length from both ends, so I drew the waist seam line according to my bodice pattern, and then picked the shoulder seam from the Burdastyle pattern that looked at the right height.. I then drew in the centre back seam from my bodice pattern, but extended it up to the neckline of the Burdastyle pattern and this is what I ended up with:

My back bodice piece ready to make into a muslin

Then I moved onto the front bodice piece, which needed more changes, mostly due to adding the second dart. I lined up the pattern pieces the same way, using the corner of the underarm seam, and traced off most of the shape of the pattern piece of my bodice (the darts, side seam and waist seam). It's a very different shape due to the added dart.

The shoulder seams were MUCH higher than the length of my bodice (sorry, I forgot to take a photo), so after checking that it was identical to the front shoulder seam, I used the shape of the back shoulder seam that I'd just finished to draw a lower front shoulder seam, basing the height on the height of my bodice pattern piece. I then used the neckline as per the Burdastyle pattern.



I was inspired to try it this way from the method that Carolyn has mentioned that she uses to modify patterns, where she uses her TNT pattern to get the fit and the shape right, and uses new patterns to add design features easily to the pattern that she knows already fits her.

Thankfully these changes meant that when I made up a muslin the fit was already pretty good. I made three small changes to the pattern after my muslin (which I didn't manage to get a photo of because there wasn't anyone around to take one for me, sorry!)

I lengthened the bodice by 2.5 cm - I was concerned in my muslin that it was sitting a little high, so I have lengthened the bodice and will make a final call when i've sewn the bodice together but before I attach the skirt.

I actually wore the muslin around the house for a bit (I was home alone), and in doing things while wearing the muslin I discovered a major fit problem - the bottoms of the armholes were too high, particularly at the front. While hanging out some washing I felt a rip, and the front armhole had ripped perpendicular to the seam! So I trimmed off some of the armhole so that (hopefully) doesn't happen in the real dress.

What was trimmed off the armholes

Lastly, the front neckline was gaping a bit so I took two tucks in the neckline pointing towards the bust point, which I then rotated out of the pattern piece on the paper:

First I cut out the tucks down to the bust point:



Then I rotated the pattern piece to close the space from the tucks. I also trimmed the neckline to give it a smooth line:



And so my pattern is ready to go!! Exciting.

Remember to check out the posts by the other lovely ladies involved in this project: (once again, links to the posts will be added once they're posted)
Sam: http://hand-quilter.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-pattern-seven-bloggers-3.html
Marie: http://asewingodyssey.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-pattern-seven-bloggers-3-fabric.html
Reana Louise: http://curvespatternsandpins.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-dog-ate-it-miss.html
Kat: http://petticoatsandpeplums.blogspot.com/2011/05/1-pattern-seven-bloggers-week-3.html
Jen: http://the-paperdoll.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-pattern-seven-bloggers-3.html
Amy: http://sewingthroughthemotions.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-pattern-seven-bloggers-fabric.html