Paco's shirt, Vogue 1526, completed!

This is a WONDERFUL design and pattern by new Vogue Designer, Paco Peralta of Barcelona, Spain. Many of us have followed Paco for some years and are thrilled he is now collaborating with Vogue. I have no affiliation here but I am so impressed with this pattern, Vogue 1526. I did take a couple small liberties with his design and will explain that further. This was not done because the pattern needed any improvement, far from it. I just tried to make it do things for my particular fabics.

Let's get started and then I want to comment on plaids, specifically.

Pattern:

Vogue 1526, designed by Paco Peralta. The pattern consists of a lined  jacket with short sleeves and assymetrical collar, a cuffed shirt with dropped shoulders, asymmetrical collar and off angled pocket. Pants are also included in the pattern and I look forward to making those as well. I had no concerns with this shirt other than making it work with a plaid and also lining it. I will wear this a lot and it is perfect for our winter climate.

The directions were divine. You start with a cut on facing, folded and instructed to "sew invisibly" along the long edge, my kind of pattern and directions! In step 2 there is very clear instruction for a unique inseam buttonhole at the very top of the shirt, easy peasy. As the pattern progresses, I found no areas or issues that were not clear and easy to execute. This shirt has details that boost it up to a fine garment yet the directions are clearly written and drawn.

Fabric:

The shirt is made with 100 % cotton flannel in plaid. It was a refreshing change from the dark plaids seen so much around these parts and I felt the lavender and cream gave it a more feminine vibe.

The lining is a very thin poly silky, actually a bit lighter than most linings I considered. By using it on the wrong side the finish was duller and more true to the look of silk.

For interfacing, I used a woven fusible, not sure of where it came from so won't guess.

Construction:

This is where the fun began! and where I veered a bit from Paco's design. My challenge was to make it work with the plaid and I think I did. Let's talk about that first.

Thoughts on using the plaid:

• You have to pick your battles with plaids. You also can make your life much easier with an "even" plaid. The fabric used here  is an even plaid. Each unit of plaid is equidisant and exactly like the other units that surround it. Using an even plaid is highly suggested for your first plaid effort. This PDF has a lot of great info on this. I also found Claire Shaeffer's Fabric Guide to have the best and most information out there. 
• The hem on this shirt is curved and uneven a look I think is flattering for those of us who are short. A decision was made to have  mostly the cream part of the blocks meet the hem. Why? Because  plaid is a very straight line and the shirt hem is curved. Trust me on this one. Uneven hem - don't end it on a bar. 
• Now that the length of the plaid was decided on I need to decide how it would work on the width. I decided to have the cream part of the blocks be at center front. I like the effect. It looks simple enough to line up. Don't kid youself. This was the hardest part of the whole project. This had yet to be cut and I knew that I had a folded cut on facing. And I had to have it match. It was challenging, made me think very hard, but eventually I got it. You can see how I managed it in this post. 
• My length and width are now set. Did you see the half dolman sleeves? They will not match, Don't even think about matching this perfectly. With plaid matching, you have to go for the obvious. Since I am short, maybe lots of people will see the tops of my shoulders but in reality, I don't think it is a focal point like center front and back. So, don't worry about it. 
• Now I had to match the lower sleeve and then its cuff. After A LOT of thinking, I walked away, came back and decided to just cut it on the bias. I centered the bias diamonds with the shoulder seam. I didn't seam it on bars but with mostly the cream centers meeting the dolman edge, the less to emphazise that it isn't matching and never will. 
• For the cuffs I went back to the straight of grain, matching bars with the corner of the plaid which you see in the pic in the woods. 
• Hours can go into placing plaids. Using allover prints or solids eliminates that and the shirt should go much faster than mine did. 
• Bottom line: Straight edges get bars. Curved edges get the cream blocks. Problems get the bias. Placement is important even if you don't match and requires thought. 
• This all needs to be figured out before cutting the first seam. 

With that out of the way. let's get to my next change. This shirt is not lined and that is fine. But a cotton flannel sticks to your clothes and it's cold up here. I had to have a lining with this. I decided on one of my favorite techniques, flat lining which finishes the seams with a Hong Kong finish and lines the garment at the same time. There are challenges with this as it works best on vertical seams. What to do with the underarm curve of the upper sleeve?

I did two lines of stitching in that area, trimmed back to the second stitching and zigzagged the edge. The seam allowances were cut on the bias  and folded under and stitched to make a clean edge as you see above. 

For the hem I faced the area with a bias strip of lining and catchstitched it to the lining. 

The plaid also made me deal with the collar a bit differently. I hope Paco approves. I like it. His collar is an asymmetrical design. I like it but I wanted my plaids to flow evenly where I could and to be symmetrical. I also had planned to used the buttons on the bars. This meant that I did not use his wonderful top buttonhole. I did make it anyway and it's one of those special little secrets just I know about, hiding in the seam! Making the collar symmetrical and lowering the buttonhole causes the collar to open evenly. I LOOOOOVE this collar. I got many compliments on this shirt when I wore it and more on the collar. It has such a pretty roll line and it is so nice and deep. 

 Here is that awesome little buttonhole that makes an asymmetrical collar with little effort, beautiful detail and typical Paco. 

If you have read me for a while, you may remember that I really don't care for long sleeves or any fabric around my wrists. My plan from the start was to fold back these lovely, deep cuffs and that worked well. You can see them on me all folded back but here is what they look like otherwise. 

Parting shots: When I make another I may take a tiny bit of length out of the back waist area. My issue is one of width,  a narrow back and wide hips. I always have this space. I can fit it away but then I have a different look to the garment. I don't want a fitted shirt here. I like the ease exactly as Paco designed it. I flat pattern measured the pattern and found there was substantial ease in a size six to not make any further adjustments. The dropped dolman sleeves also added to the ease of fitting. Since I planned to roll back the cuffs from the get go, they may have been long for me othewise. Other than that I am really pleased with my fit and it was with little effort. 

In conclusion:  I will definitely make this again. With Paco's clear instructions and the beautiful simplicity of the design it would be fine for an advanced beginner if done in a solid fabric and following his directions. While this is a couture pattern, this is doable by those who maybe have never used a couture Vogue pattern. I highly recommend. The design is so versatile and would be stunning in a white linen or pique. A beautiful look for dressier winter wear with jeans would be in  a washed velvet, yum. Thank you, Paco, for a beautiful design!........Bunny

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for some reason the crop didn't work in my editing software tonight. Hopefully it will rectify with shutting down the computer. I will be back to fix it in that case. And, oh, did you notice the winning button? It is the lighter ringed buttons. I really appreciated all your opinions on that. Thanks to all of you.....Bunny

Vogue 1526, Paco's shirt!

I am so thrilled to make this Paco Peralta design, Vogue 1526. I, and many other long time bloggers have been following Paco's blog, career, Pinterest, etc for quite some time. I am thrilled he is now one of Vogue's designers and I really look forward to his future work. Paco's designs are WEARABLE. They are not complicated, yet have couture touches that are manageable, like the buttonhole slit in the top of this shirt. They are very polished.

My fabric is purchased and I can't wait to get going. Some of you may have seen Tany of Couture and Tricot's version, a wondeful white shirt much like above. But it's not a white shirt time of year up here in the North Country and I decided to take a bit different tack with my efforts.

I live in the cold and flannel shirts are standard issue, lined flannel shirts, far more practical, are even more common. My plan is to make a lined flannel shirt with Paco's design. I have probably most sewing books written in the past thirty years and decided I needed to study up and refresh on working with plaids. I went through my books and found the best information in the Vogue Sewing Book and Claire Shaeffer's Fabric Guide. Vogue had a brief couple of paragraphs but Claire's book had pages of info. I studied balanced plaids, unbalanced plaids, even plaids and uneven plaids. Claire even had info on uneven balanced plaids and even unbalanced plaids, etc. Yikes!  I doubt you could find more plaid info anywhere else. I studied Claire's book and feel ready to go. I know from Claire that much will not match, something we also learned in the classes I've taken from her. The important parts are the center front and back and the sleeves. The rest you are downright lucky if it looks good, but that is OK per Claire. 

The other thing I have decided to do is to flat line the shirt, all but collar and cuffs. This will provide warmth and stability to the shirt. After looking at many linings I decided on another blouse fabric, a very thin poly with shiny motifs. Well, I didn't like those and will be using it on the wrong side as you see in the pic above. It has much more of a silk look this way as well. All vertical seams will be flat lined. You can find information on this above in the Tutorial pages. Any questions, just ask. Non vertical seams will have the felled seams as per the pattern. The hem will be a challenge but I think I have it worked out. Does anyone else wake up in the middle of the night and deal with how to incorporate changes from the pattern being used? and worrying if they will work? I do this a lot and by the time I start cutting I have it all worked out. I always have fingers crossed. So if you like the exact way Paco designed this shirt, check out Tany's blog.His design is amazing and her results beautiful. I will be doing this more casual look and I hope he approves. 

Did you notice how I chose a more femine color scheme? I am happy with that. I am surrounded with classic plaid designs up here and really like this different one. It is an even plaid and that will help a lot. I look forward to sharing this process with you. 

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Thank you, everyone, for the lovely comments on my apron dress. It is always appreciated as are all your comments. Happy New Year..................Bunny

The Wolves have howled! Simp 2771

 

Zackie's PJs got finished this morning. Took one hour to whip out the pants. Here's the lowdown:

Pattern:  Simplicity 2771 , "Unisex Pajama". There's a lot I love about this pattern and have used it many times. First it carries every size from little tyke to Big Daddy and is not gender specific. I would love a pair of these for myself. It is pretty easy and you can take it to the next level creatively by doing the piping but not necessary. The only caveat here is dealing with the neckline band. It is sort of counter intuitive. You put on the band AND THEN you face the band after. It looks like the band is the actual  facing but that is not the case and the first couple of times I made this it took me a bit to get my head wrapped around that.

Another thing I like about this pattern is the neck treatment. I've made classic notched collar pajamas. Forget that! With this neckline you don't have pjs coming out  of the washer/dryer with a skewed crumpled collar. I mean really, who is going to iron pjs? Not even moi, who irons everything. With this neckline it always looks neat, especially for those Christmas morning snapshots.

A bit of advice: if you would like to add this to your stash for sewing lots of different sized jammies, wait till a Joann sale and get all the sizes at 99 cents a pattern.All the sizes are in one envelope but by having several envelopes you can cut out each size needed. It will save all the tracing I have done.

Fabric: This is a 100% cotton flannel from EQuilter,com from the North Woods Collection. There are some exquisite flannels to be seen there. It is very heavy, washed and dried with nearly no shrinkage and came out holding its appearance. I've used this line of flannel before and it is a delight to sew with. Be aware that sewing pajamas takes a lot of fabric and this is not cheap. You have long sleeves, pants and bodice. I believe I used 4 yards at 11.95 so you can do the math. BUT, these are being passed through the family, wear like iron, wash beautifully and most of all, the kids love them and ask for them. I have bought cheapo flannel and you never know quite what you are going to get. I highly recommend if you can go the expense. When your grandchildren ask you to make these and it's unsolicited, you know it's worth every penny. 

The piping was also 100% cotton flannel. The bands are interfaced with Armo Weft. 

PIC

Construction: This is pretty straight forward and just take it slow figuring out how to put the band on. It is easy to attach the wrong side which I did the first time I made this. Other than that it is simple.  This would be a great pattern to learn/attempt piping as there are no sharp corners to turn. On my version the seams are all stitched then serged with some being topstitched. There is topstitching next to all the piping which brings out the 64,000.00 question. In my last post how did I get the moon on the pocket to not show the stitches? I did nothing. It is topstitched with the same navy thread but the flash bounced back off the moon and made it disappear. Pretty cool, huh? Now if time were nothing in my life I might have switched threads to a white for the moon but sorry, not this time!  Because of yardage limitations I also did not make an effort to match the band. That could be done but it would require additional yardage and I felt maxed out on the expense of this project already. But that pocket matches and I feel good knowing that.

In conclusion: This is a great pattern. The fabric was wonderful and it's going to a very appreciative young man. I will no doubt make this again and again. I am thinking a pair for me but a winter coat is coming first. Got my Kasha lining today!!!...Bunny

The Super Fussy Piped Matching Pocket

Tunic #2 is done and I like it a lot. The weather has not been cooperating with my photography needs so pics may just end up on the dress form. But for now I have moved on to a pair of Jammies for my Zackie. He asked me for them with no solicitation. What could I say? Of course Bunbun will make you some winter jammies. I bought the wonderful flannel from the North Woods collection on Equllter.com.

This is my go to jammie pattern, simp 2771. Included are sizes from a 2 year old to Big Daddy, all the family. I have traced off  half of the sizes at this point and of course not the one Zackie needed. My slow brain has since decided the next time Joanns has a Simplicity sale I will just buy one for  each size, duh. No brainer. In the meantime I traced away.

This is a simple pattern, one of the reasons I love it. I've reviewed it here numerous times. This time, however, I am using a very strong print fabric. If I put a pocket on that did not match it would scream tacky and incompetent and I wanted that pocket. I needed to make a pocket with a band and piping in between that perfectly matched the bodice. It took a bit of effort that I will share with you.

I marked the pocket location with a horizontal line on the bodice. I matched the fold line of the band to that location line. Then I drew an outline of the big wolf on to the pattern piece. I matched to a scrap of fabric and cut out the band. I did the same for the pocket. Then I folded them on the seam allowance to see if they would match once stitched together.

I actually cut the pieces larger than needed to make sure I had a bit of fudge factor for matching. I didn't trim them to the proper size until the piping was installed.

I made my piping with a "moon colored" flannel, the cheap stuff so I washed it several times. I attached it to the lower pocket section. I am using half inch SAs here.

There was going to be a lot of bulk and 4 SAs of flannel so grading was inportant. I opened up the piping and cut the inner SA waaaayyyy back. Now it was time to attach the pocket band. I made sure my wolves matched up and stitched on the same seam line. There is a tute on the right sidebar all about how I do my piping if you are interested.

The band SA was graded back as well. Then I pinked what remained.

Success so far!

Now it was time to trim the pocket to the correct size and once again being careful to match to the bodice. I pressed the band on the fold line and trimmed the edge with the pinkers in an effort to keep the bulk down. I folded back the band, pinned it, and topstitched two rows above the piping.

Then I folded back the SAs, mitering and trimming the bottom corners. Too much bulk to do that at the top!

Now here comes the most important information I can give you today. DO NOT TOPSTITCH OVER YOUR PIPING. You will topstitch the bottom pocket first and as a separate process topstitch the band after. At no time will you cross the piping. Also, if you haven't already, take the cording out of the SAs, again, gotta get that bulk down!

I like to stitch a triangle at the tops of my pockets on just about everything. Then I usually follow with a zigzag at the very top but that would have been too bulky so I didn't. I used 1/4 inch masking tape to line up my triangles and stitched starting and ending at the piping.

 

All of this fiddliness took about an hour but I think it was time well spent. 

 It would have driven me to madness if it didn't and I would be howling at the moon along with these wolves!.....Bunny