The Periwinkle Linen Dress

The Dandelion Dress served as the muslin for the Periwinkle Linen Dress. I love them both and they  are really both quite different as you will soon see. They are both made from New Look 6866 with original alterations  to change the silhouette and hem finish. I was inspired by the garment you see here. With the Periwinkle dress I went for simple, letting the fabric shine.

Pattern:

New Look 6866 is a flowy, summery maxi dress that the pattern describes as  "five styles with length and neckline variations." They are all sleeveless and the necklines are all lovely. I went for the high front neckline and the V back. This is a fabulous basic pattern with lots of design ease but it fit me well in the upper chest/shoulders so I am very happy with that. I flat pattern measured and there was no need to do an FBA for my C cup. I will get on my high horse and say once again, this is design ease, that extra room, not a mistake in drafting the pattern.  You want big and flow-y, you get bigger and flowier than the basic pattern block.  Design ease..........



Fabric:



The computer does not do this fabric justice. It leans toward lavender and I used lavender thread to sew it. It is a yarn dyed linen/cotton blend, a fabric I have used many times and think is one of the best values out there. However, I am stymied. I want more of this periwinkle but did I look at the bolt end for info? Just quickly to discern that it was Essex linen from Kaufmann. Now, when I go to the color charts, I can't find this color. I can find Cadet but that is blue and I have some of that. This has a green selvage. I am going back to the quilt store where I bought it to see if they can help and hopefully order some more. You can never have too much linen. It is the fabric that will be in style forever.

Another issue with yard dyed fabrics, well let me stop right here! Just in case you don't know what a yarn dyed fabric is here is an explanation: Yarn dyed fabrics have the yarns/threads dyed before they are woven into fabric. This allows you to have all of your weft threads one color and your warp threads another color. It gives a lot of character and depth to the fabric. If you've seen iridescent silk dupioni, you have seen a yarn dyed. Kaufmann's Essex blends are often  a colored linen thread and a white or black cotton thread going the other way. Back to the issue---I wanted to topstitch this dress, all over. It is hard to make prominent topstitching on yarn dyeds. Which thread do you match up to? Doesn't  matter the match will disappear and the non match will sort of look yucky. Either way, they just don't stand out. Above you can see some samples I did. On the right is the thread I was using for the construction, a lavender periwinkle color. You can see it just disappears in a regular stitch. In the middle, same thread with a triple stitch. I don't think it looks that good and my machine does a great triple stitch on other fabrics. On the left I tried a darker thread, really no improvement. I made the executive decision to not topstitch this dress anywhere. I liked it's soft look and was going to go with that. 

I also used a white  100% cotton voile to underline this dress. I did a "flat lining" in the method you see here. It worked out perfectly. This made the dress very  comfortable. I wore it today in 100 degree heat to a "backyard" wedding. The dress kept it's looks all afternoon and was spot on for the occasion. 

The facings were fused to cotton woven fusible interfacing. 

Construction:

Here are the changes I did for this dress, some of which were not done in the Dandelion dress. I wanted to reduce the volume a bit. You will see the difference:

* My usual petite shortening in the upper chest. 

* Raised the armhole 3/8ths of an inch at the side seam tapering to nothing at the notches to hide my bra. 

* Reduced the front width at center front by a half inch. 

* Reduced the back width at center back by two inches. 

* Reduced the "bumpouts" one inch from the Dandelion dress bumpouts. 

* Flat lined the garment which meant all vertical seams, really only 3, were able to get a Hong Kong finish. This was nice. The HK finish was on the hem edge at the top, the facing edges and all of the sides seams as well.  By flat lining I was able to catchstitch my hem and facings to the voile underlining. 

                                  

Another thing I did was to do a diagonal basting of the underlining to the dress, front and back,  after it was flat lined. I also basted diagonally on the  area where the upper hem edge would be. I let my dress hang out on the dress form for a couple days before doing this basting and trimmed as needed, not much. 

 The darts in the dress were made to include the flat lining. A line of basting was done down the center of the dart on the lining to hold the two layers together while the dart was being sewn into the dress. The hem band is just the linen layer so no special treatment on the hem darts. Just mark those top and bottom edges of the hem band.

The picture above shows where the seam gets ditch stitched to secure the hem band to the dress. This is done on the right side of the dress.  I think failure to do this will cause the wide hem to billow and this holds it flat. It also sort of bolsters the shape of that side seam bumpout.

I did have a screw up, totally my fault. In my unbridled enthusiasm I did not read my pattern instructions. Heck, I just made one of these although it wasn't lined. After the dress was flat lined, hung out, and the lining hand basted diagonally to the fashion fabric, I stitched together the shoulder seams. I bound the edges of the facings with the voile, stitched them together and attached them to the neckline. Next was my favorite, understitching the facing with the triple stitch a la Nancy Zieman, all well and good. Nope. Seems now I can't stitch the armholes and turn them. I looked on line for some sort of magic I knew nothing about to solve this. There is none. I was too late for magic.  I slept on it. What to do?  I refused to rip out triple zigzagging on this lightweight fabric. 

Luckily, this fabric and lining are quite lightweight. I did a wide bias binding, understitched with the triple zigzag, turned and pressed, pinked the edges so no bulk, and catch stitched down to the facing. I think it will pass. It doesn't add bulk and is neatly finished. 

Another issue that came up was the refusal of the side seams to lay flat in the curved bumpout area. I decided to catch stitch them down. I so love to catch stitch.  This actually helped reinforce the shape.

Here they are, all catch stitched, tamed and tidied. Now it was on to catch stitching down the facings but only under the arms. The rest of the facing is free floating.  I also catch stitched the upper hem edge. I just can't stop catch stitching once I get started!

The inside is all finished and pretty! No topstitching in sight, volume brought down as desired, fit is spot on, life is good. The dress is fitting snug on my form as I am a size or two  smaller now than I was when I made the form. 

In Conclusion:

Once again, I am really happy with this pattern and the changes I've made to it. I look forward to making it also as it is designed, as a long flowy maxi dress maybe in the view with bow in front and in a softer fabric, perhaps a cotton lawn print. I will be on the lookout for that. In the meantime I think I am putting aside my beloved skirts that are my  summer staples and joining Team Dress! It's just such a comfortable, cool way to go. I highly recommend this pattern and love the way the dress is draped from the bust and shoulders. Flat pattern measure first and make a muslin. Do not assume the pattern is too big. You decide if you want the design ease that has been put into it. I like it either way. I love the full volume of the Dandelion Dress and also the more conservative look of the Periwinkle Dress. I will say that whenever I wear the Dandelion Dress in public people stop and compliment left and right and ask where I bought it. We will see what happens with the Periwinkle dress. I like that the  Periwinkle look is a great foil for my jewelry too. 

And just in case you missed the last post here is another pic of our recent house guest:

Happy sewing!......Bunny

Vogue 9035, the foiled top from Marcy Tilton

Lame smile, hubby making me laugh! While I think this looks like a maternity top out of Mad Men, I like it. It's comfy and out of my "style zone". I definitely favor more hour glass emphasizing designs , but for a casual work top, this is perfect. I wore it to work Friday and to a party after work with slim black pants. There were many compliments but more than that, this top just felt good. I wish you could see how the foiling sparkles. I did make my buttonholes a tad too big and they shift, therefore the wonkiness. I am going to tighten them up and then all should fall evenly as it does when I pay more attention to such things.

As with most Marcy Tilton designs, the collar sort of does its own thing, flopping this way or that and that's OK. I like an interesting collar. The pockets add a LOT of volume to the garment. I was able to bring them under control with some pressing. This is ideal for someone choosing to hide a tummy or waistline. My fingers are pointing to the actual seam line for the dropped shoulders. I am pleased with how that turned out. Here are more details.

I foiled an irregular rectangle on the back. I think it adds to the Japanese vibe this top sort of has. The collar is cut on. The back has some interesting details at the lower level.

There is sort of a pocket effect going on but actually its a tuck with zigzagged topstitching separating the sections, Marcy's idea, not mine. I like it.

Here you can see the pocket. The pattern piece has a very unusual shape to pull this off. I found the pocket really billowed out front but with some pressing came under control. The one thing I don't like about the design/pattern is the sleeve cuff. I love that there is an option for a fold back cuff with a slit as I really detest long sleeves. BUT, that slit is on the underseam of the sleeve and barely visible. You can see it here, almost. I would have preferred more effort put into the sleeve design so the slit would be on the outside of the sleeve, the norm. But I will live with it. By having the slit of the cuff tied into the underarm seam, it is easier to pull off. A split cuff would definitely take more thought and pattern pieces, probably a facing, to pull off. But I would have liked that better.

There is a definite "swing" shape to this garment which you can see above. Heck, that's what makes it so comfy. I've always liked me a good swing top or jacket so I am comfortable with this.

Pattern: 
This pattern is Vogue 9035, a Marcy Tilton design. It has a dropped shoulder, a cut on collar, interesting back detail and a very unusual bodice front that incorporates the bodice into the pocket, if that makes sense. It has a definite "swing" silhouette to it. I found it comfortable, stylish enough to get many compliments and a very interesting design. Tilton's patterns have not often worked for me fit-wise but this one was perfect. I have narrow shoulders and full biceps and a C cup. I made this in a size 6 with absolutely no alterations. FWIW, length alterations could be difficult on this pattern due to the unusual shape of the front bodice.

Fabric:
Fabric was a linen/cotton blend made by Kaufman that I purchased from Fabric.com.  It is 55% linen and 45% cotton. I have used this blend before and really like it. It has been washed and does that non wrinkling linen thing that comes from washing. I love that it had the linen look but not the wrinkles.

I did Hong Kong seams as you can see. They are made with bias strips of poly charmeuse. I love how this looks on the inside. It makes me feel good. When I wore it to work I wore a black negative ease tee underneath, mostly because it was cold out. I didn't hesitate to take the top off and show my friends the inside. As my twenty something workmate said "I would wear that inside out". I bound the sleeves exactly the way it is shown in the latest issue of Threads, where the bias binding is attached using the same seamline as the sleeve, folding it over and ditch stitching in the well of the seam. Then the fabric was cut back to the seam line underneath.

Construction:

This is a pattern where you MUST follow the directions on the instruction sheet very closely. Marking all notches, circles and squares is critical here. The bodice/pocket construction is very unusual. I think I paid more attention to the directions on this pattern than I have on any other in a long time. One of the challenges were the Hong Kong seams. I decided I want to do this from the get go, but when it came to the pocket area I was stumped. I ended up doing them "after the fact" only finishing the pockets around the top three edges after they were installed. It was hard to figure out what I could HK seam before it was all constructed but you can do the most of it before seaming if you pay  close attention, particularly in the pocket area.

I did "foiling" on the pocket facings and the collar facings and the rectangle in the back bodice before any construction started. This pattern, like most Marcy patterns, is ripe for embellishment. Have fun with that!

In conclusion:

I really like this top. It's a bit "jacket-y" but that's OK in my cold climate. I love the linen blend fabric, the foiling and the uniqueness of the design. Being comfortable adds to my enjoyment as well. It was a fun challenge to sew and I really enjoyed that aspect. Will I make it again? Probably not as it is rather unique, but I really like the way the shoulders and upper bodice fit. That makes it a winner in my book.

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Last night we were able to get some fresh dug Maine clams up here in the boonies and I made us a dish of Clams and Linguine Rosa from Mario Batalli. What a feast!..............Bunny

Vogue 8630

This is the view as I look straight down at my toes while wearing my muslin. See that toe peeking out? The muslin came out surprisingly good and I am sure having the various cup sizes made it work. The "C" fit perfectly except for my usual excess between apex and shoulder and that was easily fixed by deepening the shoulder seam.

The big issue, and really only other issue was what you see in the picture above. This happens to me a lot in dresses. I have wide hips. I have a relatively small waist. This means a big dart in the front of the garment whenever one is specified. But this is where it gets weird. I have a short front crotch rise. My lower tummy has always been very flat, almost concave. Is that a tilted pelvis? I think it could be from what I've read. I have made darts in pants that are probably half the length that you would normally use. The dart ends so that the end of it is filled out by my mature tummy fluff. But it can look weird doing that sometimes and it looked weird with that fix on the muslin. In the pic you can see the long dart puffs out beyond my tummy and has tons of dead air underneath. Its all very weird. I've run into this many times over the years and my solution is to turn the dart into a pleat. The fullness gets released softly and falls straight down instead of puffing out like the dart.   I don't have this problem in the back because my booty generously fills out the back darts in the skirt. So that point lump has been converted to a pleat and it looks better.

Here's something I learned from Sandra Betzina. If you fold the pleats outward, your tummy will look flatter and your hips wider. If you fold the pleats toward center front, your hips will look narrower and your tummy more fluffy. I folded them toward center front. I also pegged the skirt. Short women with wide hips can look pretty dumpy with the side seams hanging straight toward the floor. But pegging a skirt can make those wide hips look even wider. Think of an inverted triangle. I go easy on the pegging tapering in to 3/8ths of an inch at the side seams. Any more is not good but this small amount really helps.

I was all set to do some brilliant matching for you but turns out I am not that brilliant, or this print is barely matchable. The horizontal repeats once and that repeat is  only a quarter of the pattern. The length repeat is 24 inches. While I had a fair amount of extra fabric, I would have needed a huge amount to make it work. I tried, I really tried. As close as I got had me with two giant flowers with big dark centers either right on my boobs, right under them or on the hills of my buttocks. To use the less defined fabric for those areas did not work with the limited horizontal matching I could do because of the one  and a quarter repeat horizontally. SWhat you see above is the beginning of the game. An hour and a half later is was decision time. It was either ignore the print completely or try to get the flowers off the boobs and find a "rough match" that would not glaringly stick out. I think 've made it work with the second option and hope the print is camouflage enough to look OK. I think it is.

One thing I really like about this pattern is the shaping. Above you see the center back  and how it curves in toward the waist on the left instead of just being a vertical line. Nice on that one, Vogue. The center back of the skirt is also curved in so this would work well for those swaybacks. I did not have to do any swayback adjustment and that really surprised me. 

At this point all is cut out. There are three layers in the skirt only, fashion fabric, the net layer and the batiste underling. The bodice is fashion fabric and underlining only. Seams all have the Honk Kong finish added where they can be. I like to do that seam finish as much as possible before construction of the garment. It is so much easier that way. Don't you love that antique gold color charmeuse for the binding? If you are interested there is a tutorial on doing the Hong Kong seam finish here. 

Why no muslin pics? Well, Mr. Avedon did a poor job  of them , taking them from way too high at a weird angle.  Given that he was cleaning every window and screen in the house, a chore we always share, and I was in the studio all day, I was not in a position to complain. I thanked him very much, tried to do some mirror pics of my own but that is not something I've ever been good at. At least you got to see my bulging tummy darts. I am going to hit this again big time tomorrow so I can get it out of the way. Still waiting for my hat to arrive...................Bunny

Flat Lining Simp 2153

When I decided to do this pattern I knew there was no lining. Did I want to do a bagged lining, a hand stitched lining, or no lining and Hong Kong seams? After thinking it over a bit I reached back into my tool box and decided to flat line the garment. This is a technique, one of many, that I learned from Threads magazine probably 15 years ago or so. I always love the result but it isn't proper for every pattern. Here's a basic explanation. 

Doing this jacket with the techniques I will show you as I go along is quite different from the pattern directions and has required a different sequence of tasks. For this pattern I will have a bound facing made of the fashion fabric. The facing provided in the pattern only went to natural shoulder seam area which landed it in the middle of the yoke shoulder. There was no back facing. I folded back the front facing to meet the yoke seam in front and then made a facing from the yoke pattern so now I will have a facing all around, much preferred and necessary with the flat lining treatment.

Once the facings were cut the public fashion fabric is cut out. The lining fabric  for the bodice is then cut using the same pattern but each vertical seam that will be enclosed will be cut one half inch wider than the public fabric. Flat lining is done on vertical seams only. As we go along you will see that I have handled the yoke and sleeves differently. What you see above is the back bodice lining, no yoke yet, placed on the fold as required and the vertical side seam only is cut one half inch wider. I cannot tell you how many times over the years I just subconsciously started cutting out the lining exactly like the bodice so pay really close attention and be present in this moment of cutting. One way not to forget is to run a line of pins through the extra half inch before cutting so you don't make that mistake like I have done. I did it this time but was able to use the wrong cut piece for the yoke and pockets, no wasteno problem. I am not always so lucky. The front bodice pieces for the lining were also cut with half inch larger side seams only. The CF edges will be enclosed in the facing so they do not change.  Below you see the back bodice.

The bodice lining and the fashion fabric are placed right sides together. I like to do one seam at a time for ironing ease but you can do both sides at once if you like. Pin the side seam edges together. This will leave you with a mismatched looking bodice with one piece larger than the other. Just ignore that. With this wrinkly fabric pinning was really important.  Stitch the side seam with a 1/4 inch seam. Press as sewn. I now  like to shave off between 1/16th and 1/8th with my rotary cutter. This makes up for the turn of cloth when you do the next step. Press your seam toward the lining. Then wrap the lining around the seam a hair under a 1/4 inch and press and pin. Now let's get to the presser foot.

 

This technique is helped greatly by a 1/4 inch foot and an edge stitching foot, the one with the blade in the middle. You can do this fine without them but they will give you a bit more accuracy. 

 

Here you have a good pic of the lining fabric wrapped and pressed over the seam allowance. Now you have a decision to make, either one is no better than the other, just personal preference. You need to decide if you want to stitch your wrapped seam allowance "in the ditch" or topstitch. For this garment I went with the topstitching, clicking two times to the right of center on my Pfaff. The blade runs down the edge of the bound SA and the stitching is a tad to the right.Before actually stitching I did lay my lined bodice on the pattern tissue to check fit. It came out perfect. You haven't changed the width of the seam allowance. You've only wrapped and bound it. On a bulkier fabric half inch seams may be required instead o 5/8ths. It is important to check your garment against the pattern pieces before you stitch any seams together so the fit is maintained. Measure twice, sew once! Can you also see how critical it is to get a good fit on your pattern before starting? That really should be worked out before attempting this technique as there is little opportunity to adjust for fit with this method, some but not much. 

Proceed with this wrapping and stitching until all your vertical seams are sewn. With this pattern that is only the side seams. All other vertical seams will be enclosed with the facing. Once the bodice pieces are flat lined you proceed like any underlined garment. Except.... the yoke will be done a bit differently and more on that in the next post. I am also going to add the zipper in the front bodice before it is connected to the yoke. It's just easier that way but a different sequence than the pattern instructions give. Also coming are the sleeves where I use a Nancy Zieman technique from her early days of TV and one that I have used many times. More lata'....Ooo..I also have a flat lining tute for pants over in the side bar.

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Today most of the available sewing time was spent working on the pockets. I could not find tiny rivets to put in the corners so did my usual triangle treatment with a tiny zigzag across the top. .....Bunny