I made a Tabard, Vogue 1569!

 

Brrrr, it was chilly and breezy the day I took these pics and my tabard was just perfect for the weather. Think of a tabard as one of the placards outside of a restaurant that lists the special of the day or something similar to get you to come in. It is a front, a back, simple like a board, and a chain or strap to hold the two pieces together and prevent them from falling apart.  I have a lot to say about this pattern.

Pattern:

I did View B of  Vogue 1569, the longer length, but shortened it to be just above my knees. I love long sweaters and sweater vests. The longer view has pockets as well.  This was a fun  make, mostly due to my fabric choices and I am happy with those in the end. 

This is a Sandra Betzina pattern. Some of you may remember her sewing program on HGTV in its early and golden days, "Sew Perfect". I watched every time I could and taped it when I couldn't. Sandra is a very knowledgeable sewist. What I often found is that she was delightfully "ditsy" and a bit disorganized. I love her Power Sewing books but when I read them, I want to reorganize the content. It is the same for her patterns and their progression of instruction but that's me. What can I say? They are still great patterns and books. I will give you some suggestions further on about how I would make the next one to make for a simpler construction. 

There are lots of clear illustrations here. There is also clear emphasis on specific technique. Sandra is obviously a fan of Steam A Seam and the half inch wide type is used generously in the pocket and hem instructions.  Sandra often reminds you to press and pound your seams as well. 

The pattern was dated 2017 and the tissue used was really nice. It was bright white with vivid blue ink, very easy  on the eyes. It specifies knits or wovens and has a stretch ruler on the outer envelope, why I don't know as there really is no fit here. Two different fabrics are specified. One is for the center sections of the tabard, the "boards" as I call them. The second fabric is for the side fronts and backs and their facings, what I call the "flanges". My flanges and my boards contrasted as the pattern specifies. One thing I really liked about the pattern is how the flanges shape nicely to the curve of the shoulder. They are not cut straight at all. 

sorry, odd pose and extremely lightened to show the uneven tabs.

The two "boards " are held together by tabs but those tabs are at different levels. I don't like that and would make them level on the next one.  See in the pic above. Installing the tabs is the hardest part of the construction, IMO, so they will stay where they are. 

I love this design and it's uniqueness. 

Fabric:

For my center panels I used the back side of a "throw", a woven cotton number depicting a scene by Thomas Kincaid of people loading Christmas trees onto wagons and his every present home with wasted lighting from within. I did not like the artwork. What drew me to the fabric was the woven floats on the back side and their colors, lovely. I did a blog post on this and how I was going to make it work and you can read it here. 

The throw is fused on the back with Fusi Knit tricot fusible to stabilize the woven throw and hide the imagery of the Kincaid design. The little dot you see is the back side of a Chicago Screw. More on that............There is no interfacing specified anywhere.  You can see the pockets. They are made with a nice quality knit from my stash that I believe is rayon. You can see the topstitching showing thru.  The flanges are made from a really nice black wool flannel. 

Construction:

When the tabard was complete I tried it on and I liked it but something just was not right. I started pinching it here and there and it looked so much better with a bit of shape built in so I decided it needed darts. I decided to put them on the front and back in more of a dart at the top and a tuck at the bottom and I would put a copper Chicago screw in the middle for some intentional design punch, subtle and  major improvement. I think this was a petite issue and I needed this shape to make the 'boards" not overwhelm me.  Chicago screws are what I call wonderful whimpy rivets. They are for people who don't like rivets, like myself. They screw into places where you could use rivets and lots of bag makers use them. Chicago screws always work. Rivets can be unpredictable. You can get them from most purveyors of bag making products. 

I am going to go thru the pattern and point out some things that I thought could use some improvement or updating or organization. You be the judge. 

* Betzina suggests serging the edge of your pockets. By using a knit, I didn't have to. Knits don't ravel.

* SB recommends turning in  the  "Board" pocket edges 5/8ths of an inch, baste and topstitch. This leaves a raw edge. I serged my "board" pocket edges, turned and topstitched.    Further on when the flanges are attached the pockets are not addressed in how you sew around them, over them, thru them, whatever.  Be careful you don't sew thru them. Pin the tabard pocket edge out of the way when you attach the flanges and their facings. sew the flange to the pocket only, being careful not to catch in any of the opening on the "board" part of the pocket. 

* She has you attach the pockets to the front panel  with Steam A Seam. 

I used Acorn Seam Align. I placed down my pocket, lifted up the edge and laid down two or three dots, pressed the dots and did a few more until the pocket was pressed onto the panel. This made for an easy and stuck to the panel pocket that I took to the machine and topstitched no  problem. You can certainly use Steam a Seam tape but I found this very easy.  

* She has you trim the facing flange back to a 1/4 inch and then ditch stitch them the full length from the top side. I did not do that at all.  My flange facings were all understitched at the edge to the other flange. Then I catch stitched the flange facing to the panel the full length of the flange. I did this before finishing the hem corner. THEN, I gave the flange shoulder area a good steam press and as you can see above, or better yet, can't see, I ditch stitched in the well of the shoulder seam on the flange. It is all very secure. That little area is the only ditch stitching I did on this garment. 

* Here is how I would make big changes to the sequence of construction. 

   I would sew the collar.

   I would sew the shoulder seams of the back and front panels.

   I would sew the collar to the front and back panels. Set that aside. 

   I would completely sew together the flanges, tabs and flange facings, understitching the facings. Move the tabs to be even. When  you make the tabs, turn them so the seam is on the back in the middle, not on the edge. Topstitch the edges, not mentioned in the pattern. Be REALLY careful about the flanges, marking them clearly when you cut them out with painters tape and descriptions. It is very easy to mix them up especially if they are all black like mine were. Put "left", "right", etc. Doing it this way will make the tab installation so simple you will wonder why I mentioned it. Trust me . The way the pattern has you deal with the tab installation is like a giant, awkward burrito method. Once you have your completed side flanges all done with facings and tabs, simply attach the  outer, public flange to the front panel starting stitching from the shoulder seam down. When done, go back to the shoulder seam and stitch the flange to the back panel all the way down to the hem, just like you did in the front.  After that, do the other side of flanges, same method. 

Hems: When you get to the hems, SB has you enclose the facings and stitch around the hem and turn, like you would do a facing on most blouses. I ripped mine out after doing that. I found I got a much nicer finish by simply cutting the facing hem to about 3/4 of an inch, pressing it under and folding over the panel hems. I then hand stitched it in place and on the edge.  I ended up with a sharper edge than sewing and turning. 

In Conclusion:

I really think this is a great design. I don't think this pattern is for beginners,  but those of middle/average experience should definitely be able to handle it with a little thought as to the logical sequence of events and perhaps a bit of googling to get the best results. I really enjoyed making it and I know I will enjoy wearing it this winter. It will be perfect with a turtleneck and some leggings. I can also see it in some floaty chiffon and light linen for the summer. I think it's a great design that an experienced sewist can definitely work with and make something quite special. 

My sister came to visit for a few days this week. She just retired from a lifelong career as a high risk OB-GYN RN that included in its final days working with young moms in a covid clinic who had covid. She came to celebrate and we had a ball. She is as passionate about sewing as I am and we shopped and shopped and are ready to sew all winter with our purchases. I took her to my favorite thrift shop, my secret amazing little place in the woods that is always mobbed as a lot of people know this secret. We scored quite well but my favorite was this luscious oversized, wide and long and fringed velvet burnout scarf. It appealed to all the Janis Joplin inside my sixties soul. ....Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train.....................Bunny

Vogue 1515, oh, my!

Talk about not come out as planned! I wanted to do a bit of fabric painting and decided on my design and paint, etc. Now for the fabric! I went digging and thought it would be interesting to have my background be black and that this linen in black would be a perfect foil for my plan. Now to pick a small top. I didn't want to do the recently made green linen top again and hunted for something different. That's when I found this top, Vogue 1515,  from Sandra Betzina, that I have wanted to make forever. Bingo! Now, I love SB, and I know her fit philosophy and it's difference from the Big Four. Despite being a fan of her style and adjusting the fit, it rarely works for me. Knowing this I went into this project eyes wide open. But, wow......................

I looked at all the pics on line, PR reviews, etc. I liked the look but some didn't fit the way I'd like the top to fit me. Another crazy issue here is my getting adjusted to a loss of weight. I can't seem to trust a pattern size I haven't used previously and/or I am hung up on my decades of FBAs, I just don't know. Those wide open eyes flat pattern measured everything. There was plenty of ease, but, geez, my bras still fit so I must need an FBA. I did one. I used size B. It seemed closest to my new measurement except the waist larger than mine, trademark Betzina. But this top had no waistline so, who cares? I really should have used the smallest size, A, with no FBA, but even then I think I still would have had issues.

I got the thing sewed up and it was HUGE. I even went back and looked at all the pics again. Reviewers said the armholes were too low. Yup on that! No one complained of the ease, however. It is 'loosely fitting" and it really is. But here is the issue accross the board as I look at other's tops and my own. The shoulders end in an odd place, IMO. They are not wide enough to be a bit of a flattering tiny cap and they are not narrow enough to further feature the unique collar and some nice shoulder bones, if one has those. They are just an odd length, IMO and I took a half inch off the shoulders, a lot for me, and they still sit "out there".

Low armholes? Bigtime. Loose fit? Bigger time. In all honesty and respectfully, I think SB has designed this top as more of a vest and that explains the fit. It works that way and I may use it that way one day. But, I have seen so many pretty summery tops made with this pattern. I think if the armholes were drawn higher and the additional width flared out from the top of the side seam it would all work as a lightweight top. But the extra width of the pattern makes for the " step right up and see if my bra is clean" look that is not for me, that is unless a bulky sweater is underneath.

When starting out I thought if it was a bit too large I would just take in the side seams  and all would be fine. I did sew the side seams a  quarter inch deeper. What to do, what to do? I am loving this top and it's cool collar. I reached into my heirloom sewing bag of tricks and pulled out a fairly common one from vintage garments. A child's sleeveless dress was often made far wider than needed. The excess was folded under the arm into a pleat that could be taken out as they child grew larger. Our Depression Grandmothers really knew how to make things last. Damn it, I'm going to do the same. You can see above a full three inches has been taken out from the entire side seam with the pleat. Now times two sides, that's six inches I removed from under my arms. It gives a better, sleeker fit to the front but still has all that ease and flare. I like it better! This will be topstitch in around the armhole, more pics later.

 To eliminate unwanted bulk and ridge lines when ironing, a linen hazard, I out another  vintage trick. The facing edges were simply pinked ans stitched. Worked like a charm.




Most seams are Frenched. Next time I do this collar I will do opposite of the pattern directions. I will attach the inside first and then top stitch on the outside. Too much drama involved with getting this collar right but it looks good now. It actually looks good inside out with one side not elasticated, just a big pouf, so I may do that to. I did seam binding as a flat casing for the elastic in the collar and that worked fine.

There will definitely be another one of these. I have the fabric picked out and will start tomorrow. I am determined to master this one as it is so cute. When done, I will model both so you can see what I do with the smaller size and different approaches to the details. The painting project, on hold for now but that's coming. Long weekend ahead! ......Bunny

ETA: Just want to say I love Sandra Betzina and her designs. I believe this pattern would be great as is, even for me, if it is used as a sweater vest of some sort. I can see it in a boiled wool with cut edges, so just keep those eyes open if you are contemplating a thin, blouseweight fabric. For a sweater top, use it as designed.;.Bunny

Give up or shut up?

OK, what's wrong with this picture? I am not taking my own advice. I have blindly fallen in love with this design, bought the pattern and cut and sewed away on my muslin, all  ignoring the aadvice I gave a couple of Mondays ago to look VERY closely at the pattern photo. I am sure you can see the issues with the Vogue picture? Now look at my horror show.

I did put in temporary raglan shoulder pads and while I don't recall it happening, maybe the one on the right slipped? Doesn't matter anyway. This is just not working. I cut a center back seam, sewed it in a curve at the waist as well as increased it. I made the underarm/side seam a quarter inch deeper. Did a sway back adjustment which you can see in the horizontal seam below the waist. And I swear I smoothed it out and was standing straight. Hubby says it looks like I was wearing a parachute. He said he didn't have the heart to tell me how bad it looked.

The side view is not any better. How can something look like it might need an FBA (see the raised front hem and diagonals pointing at the bust?) and have all that hugeness under the armpits? I have to really think about this and I don't know whether  to spit our cry. Here are my options being considered:

* Chuck the whole project and use the Anne Klein pattern I just ordered or a wrap style high necked jacket pattern I really like. 

* Chuck this muslin and start all over following my gut. That means I cut the smallest size and "petite" it and do an FBA. The problem with this option is the shirt on the model in the Vogue photo has the same issues I do, just not so much. 

* Do some funny business with the raglan sleeve at the side seam. If I "petite" the pattern which would take out upper back and front length and then open the sleeve and side seam and see where it falls maybe that will work. I just can't get excited about that at this point. 

I just took a look at Sham's fabulous version of this top and it fits her PERFECTLY. There's not a wrinkle anywhere. She and I are probably body opposites so maybe this just isn't meant for my shape? 

I am hoping a good nights sleep will provide some answers. I'll read a few fitting books before I fall asleep and see how my unconscious has dealt with it all in the morning. Do I want to be a glutton for punishment or someone who just gives up? I hate giving up, but sometimes..............Bunny

Vogue 1385, a Felted Wool Jacket begins

The muslin is cut and marked and ready for me to give it attention. I will be using Vogue 1385, a Sandra Betzina pattern. I found it critical to muslin this design. Some years back I had a bad experience with the fit of the SB patterns and have not used them since. This is despite my liking many of the designs. Betzina's patterns are based on her own sloper, not the one used by the Big Four. My understanding is that it is geared toward a more mature body, whatever that means. Either way, I wanted to know what I needed to do to make her designs work for me as I like quite a few of them. So I cut the pattern out exactly as drawn for what she calls a size C. Her sizing uses letter designations . The waists seem bigger in proportion to the hips and bust of the Big Four. My previous issue was with the upper chest and sleeves so we will see what happens. Do I petite the pattern? Do an FBA? We'll see and that is why this muslin is really important  and cut exactly to the pattern size. I want to know how her sizing works for me so that hopefully I can do the same alterations each time I use one of her designs.

I love this blouse/jacket. The neckline is very flattering and the versions I have seen on the web are awesome, particularly the one made by Shams  and this beauty  from Margy. I will use the darted version for a bit more shape But I do like the way Shams's hangs without the darts. My goal is to have a soft sweatery jacket to wear at work. The fabric is wool gabardine that I have felted which gave it a really nice hand. 

IRL, the fabric is not so heathery looking, more of a jewel tone. Felted wool can be cut and it won't ravel. This has major impact on facings, seams, etc. There will be no facings on this jacket. I have a specific idea for how I will handle all the darts. I think seams may be lapped. Haven't worked that out yet. Felted wool is usually a quick sew as it requires nearly no traditional finishing. But it does require some thought put into how you will dart and seam and face so this should be fun. I love a challenge. I am going to reference some of the ideas I used in the jacket that was published in Threads. 

My grey rayon knit top is completely done and I like it. I added a flounce on each side of the garment which I like. Pics to come probably over the weekend. This is a hectic week with work responsibilities so your patience is appreciated......Bunny  

Part Two - Sewing the Pants Stay

Welcome back to part two, the actual sewing of the stay. I want to say that if you have a pants pattern that has pockets in front with an under pocket lining and an upper pocket lining your pattern may be as simple as just extending it out to the edge of the fly. Hopefully that will save you a bit of time and effort. In my case, I drafted the sloper so had to make it all from scratch, which you certainly could do with a pattern as well.

First, cut the seam allowance edge of the pocket on the Upper Pocket Lining.

With the pants leg facing up. Place your Upper Pocket Lining on the pants, smoothing out and matching edges. pin the edge of the pocket opening down. That is the area with the quarter inch seam allowance. 

Stitch on the 1/4 inch seam allowance and then trim off the excess as shown.

From the right side press the Upper Pocket Lining away from the pant leg.

Turn the Upper Pocket Lining to the wrong side and leave about a sixteenth of an inch of the fashion fabric showing at the edge. Press well. Pin into place.

I put some Stitch and Ditch paper stabilizer underneath and then proceeded to topstitch the pocket edge with a double row of "triple stitch". That's the stitch that goes back and forth three times to give a heavy topstitch with regular thread. Make samples and play with the tension to get it right before doing the actual pocket edge.

Serge or pink the bottom curved edge of the fashion fabric Pocket Facing. Pin the Pocket Facings to the non fly edge of the Under Pocket Facing. Stitched this curved edge down to the Under Pocket Facing. 

With the pants now wrong side up, pin the Under Pocket Lining with it's corner Pocket Facing face down to the Upper Pocket Lining. I think the picture above makes it a little clearer than words. 

It should look like this with all layers in place. Make sure all is smooth and serge together the two bottom edges of the Under and Upper Pocket Linings. Once done, smooth and press it all flat and pin into place. 

Serged bottom edge and pinned as above.

Your pocket and tummy stay are complete and ready now for the fly zipper to be installed! My favorite method is that of Sandra Betzina which you can find on the Threads website here.    My zip is all installed which I did tonight and tomorrow I hope to face the back of the pants. I will do my own thing there which means doing a two part waistband that separates at the center back, the better to fit my backside! First, though, I have to watch that rivet tute on You Tube if I can find it

This is not the most glamorous tutorial out there but it is one that I think can give you a lot of service through your pants making journey. I will put it up on the tutorial page for future reference. Let me know if you have any questions or need help...... ...........Bunny