Sewing for me: Simplicity 2215

Pattern: Simplicity 2215, Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity, View A

Fabric: Nani IRO Wata, Woodblock POCHO in mustard, off-white cotton voile for bodice lining

Notions: interfacing, invisible zipper, bias tape, four 7/8" covered buttons, coordinating thread

Size: 6 

I did it! My first completed Make a Garment a Month challenge for the month of May! And posted before the end of this lovely month too.

I think the first thing to say about this dress is that I love it. The fact that my husband thinks it's stunning makes me love it even more! I love the dots and the mustard yellow...for me it just says 'cheerful' or in the case of this month's theme, 'merry'. I'm very happy with the overall fit, the covered buttons, the shape of the dress, the dot placement, the invisible zipper, and on top of all that, it's really comfortable to wear!

So, now to the actual making of this polka dot dream. If I had followed the pattern's instructions based on my bust measurement, I would have made a size 10 but when I looked at the finished garment measurements, it was clear that there was going to be far more ease than I like to have. I chose to make size 6 and made a muslin just to be sure. Everything seemed to be spot on except that I was going to have to reduce the waist a little. I also ended up deepening some pleats to match the bodice better.

I spent quite a bit of time looking at the fabric, figuring out how I wanted to cut the fabric to get a nice effect with the dots. I chose to go with the sections with fewer more randomly spaced dots for the bodice pieces. I cut the front bodice pieces flat instead of with the fabric folded to have better control over the dots. For the two skirt pieces, I chose to use the multi-size dot sections. I think the effect is pretty fun.

My 'real' bodice came together in a jiffy but then we had a rough week and a half of colds, fevers, and just lying low to recuperate...so that meant little sewing. But once I got back to my machine, it took about an evening and a half to finish. This was also the first time I have ever put in an invisible zipper and it is to my astonishment, invisible! Hurrah! New skill! As I had said in my MAGM May plans post, I did not put pockets in.

I bound all my exposed raw edges and used this tutorial from Paunnet's to enclose the waist seam beautifully with some bias tape. I hand sewed the top of the bias tape down so it would not show on the right side.The way the pattern is built, the bodice lining does not enclose the joined skirt and bodice seam and since this fabric starts to fray just by looking at it, I knew drastic measures were in order! Oddly enough, (my husband thought it was quite weird,) I find the inside of this dress to be almost as pretty as the right side. I almost wish it was completely reversible!

I debated for a while about the buttons and after a fruitless trip to my favorite shop for buttons, I decided to make four 7/8" covered buttons. That way, they would match the fabric perfectly and would be there without detracting from the dots. I'm pretty happy about my choice and I'm so glad that my machine was cooperative for the buttonholes. They came out really well.

Knowing that it can be a bit chilly here, I decided to knit myself a cardigan to go with the dress. I had envisioned this ensemble pretty early on and it worked beautifully into my yarn de-stashing, using up the three skeins of off-white Cascade Ultra-Pima I had. I love how the buttons bring back the color of the dress and the shape of the polka dots. You can see a dedicated blog post to the cardigan here.

I'm so thrilled with this dress and I adored working with this fabric. It was soft and almost squishy and it is so agreeable to wear. I'm hoping to make this dress again and the only change I think I might contemplate would be increasing coverage around the back shoulder area. I'm looking forward to wearing this for my baby boy's birthday party and I can't wait to make plans for the right-around-the-corner June challenge.

Plans for Make a Garment a Month: May

I recently joined the Make a Garment a Month challenge and these are my May plans for my first challenge garment. I'm really looking forward to participating in this monthly challenge where one sews a garment a month for oneself, which is something I definitely find difficult to do.

 

But why is it so hard? Well, first off, there are so many cute, fun little clothes to make for my little boy. Second, I suppose I focus on him so much and making things for him, that I tend to forget to do things for me too. Although, I must admit that when I make something for him, it is also a bit for me because I just enjoy the process of sewing and knitting so much. I think one other thing that holds me back is that I'm just so used to making clothing for him that I'm not used to making women's clothing. Believe it or not, I've never made a dress before!

So, for my MAGM May challenge garment, I'm going to make a dress. This is a dress that I've wanted to make for about a year now: Simplicity 2215. I have seen so many lovely versions of this dress such as Karyn's at 'Make Something' Constellation version. I'll be making view A of the dress and the only current modification that I think I will be making is to not put pockets in, as I don't tend to use them much in dresses.

I have had a particular fabric put away for this project for nearly a year (I think). It is a Nani IRO print called 'Woodblock Pocho' and the material is a cotton which I believe was referred to as 'Wata'. (A gift from my lovely husband.)

I realized that my approach to sewing for myself and sewing for the men of my life is completely different. For my son or my husband, I'll find a fabric I like based on a pattern I want to make, and I just make it. For me, well, I dilly-dally. I wait it out. I postpone. I tell myself that my skills are not up to it. Kind of like for my Confetti top that I made from a Japanese pattern. (That one was two years in the making!) I was so happy with the result and it made me want to sew more for myself...which also gave me the push to join this challenge!

I'm hoping this is going to be a good experience, making my first dress. I'm proceeding cautiously. I'm going to make a quick muslin to check the fit and then on with the real construction!

I hope to be back with a completed garment soon!

Spring Top Sewalong!

Pattern: Top G from the Japanese pattern book, "Inner Child - When wrapped in tenderness, you return to a child" by Etsuko Sakurai

Fabric: Nani IRO Melody Sketch (outer layers), off-white cotton voile (inner layers and facing)

Notions: coordinating off-white thread, interfacing, 7 covered buttons

Size: S

I'm so pleased to be able to add this top to Made-by-Rae's Spring Top Sewalong because I was so nervous throughout the process of making this piece! It wasn't till I had made the final stitch, sat back, and looked at my work, that I was finally able to let out a sigh of relief and think "This actually worked! And nicely too!".                                                                                               My pattern book was a lovely surprise gift from my husband, gosh, nearly two years ago, and this is the first pattern I've made from it. I spent these past two years looking at the dreamy images on a regular basis, thinking: "one day, when I get better at sewing, I'll make these!" My book, unlike the first Japanese pattern I used for my baby boy's dotty shirt, which was translated into French, is in Japanese, which meant that I had to rely on the images entirely for instructions. But they were fantastic and so easy to understand. I knew exactly what I was supposed to do. But then, every time the side panel of written instructions would catch my eye, a nagging feeling would take hold of me. 

What if somewhere in those instructions it says "Dear sewist, kindly disregard Step 2, figure 2, otherwise your project will end up as as a pair of shorts instead of desired top." But everything was perfect and made total sense, and I ended up with, as you can see, a top and not a pair of shorts!                                                                                 As with my first Japanese pattern, the seam allowances needed to be added in, but I remembered this neat trick from Cherie's Japanese Sewing book series (I think it was Meg from Elsie Marley who posted it). I tied two pencils together and the distance between them was exactly 1 centimeter! Easy for tracing and adding seam allowances!

One of the big things was selecting the right size to make. Based on my bust measurement, I had decided to make a ML and proceeded to trace the main shirt pieces (not the flounces) and quickly basted a muslin together. It was pretty clear that there was way to much ease based on what I like to wear. After estimating the extra ease, I decided to go with the S...another quick muslin. Check! Ready to move on! 

The fabric I used is a Nani IRO double gauze called "Melody Sketch". I actually bought it over a year ago specifically for this pattern and I was thrilled to be able to use it. I'm glad I waited so long to use it because I feel like my fabric handling skills have drastically improved from when I bought it. When I was getting ready to cut the pieces for the top, I decided to save on the Nani IRO print by only using it on the outer bodice pieces and the flounces and to use a slightly stiffer cotton voile for the core top and facings. I'm glad I did because I have about half of the original Nani IRO piece left over and the voile seems to be helping it keep its shape nicely. I also cut the double gauze on the cross-grain because I wanted to have fewer of the confetti dots closer to my face and the same at the bottom hem.

The sewing, which continually surprised me, was really easy. I was prepared for a very stressful project, but between the fabulous instruction images and cooperative fabrics I had a good time. Although, I was still a bit nervous! (A vision of shorts looming) The double gauze behaved itself beautifully by not get pulled into my sewing machine or coming apart, even with the miles of hemming on the flounces. The fiddliest part was attaching the armhole and corresponding part of the facing because that same piece of facing was already attached to the neck. But that too worked out just fine.

I made covered buttons (I interfaced the fabric, otherwise it would just shred apart), 7 of them but 5 of them are hidden by the flounces. There is a sufficient amount of ease for me to be able to pull the top on and off over my head without undoing the buttons, which actually makes it quite practical instead of having to reach to the back and button it all! 

I still can't believe I made this top and I adore it! I still feel giddy from seeing it finished and that all my seams match up and all the flounces match up too! I love the fit. It feels just right, light and airy. Not too tight and not too loose either. I'm particularly happy about the neckline and the armhole, which I think sits exactly where it should for the upper-arm area to look flattering. Looking back, I loved making this, even if it was most definitely an involved project. I've already picked out another pattern I'd like to make from this book. I'm also thinking I'd like to make myself some teal blue linen or chambray pants to go with this top. So happy! And thank you, Rae, for hosting the Spring top sewalong, which gave me that extra little push I needed to finally make this top!

Dotty Shirt

Pattern: Chemisier à Col Mao in the book Jolies Tenues Pour Fillettes Coquettes by Akiko MANO

Fabric: Leftover bits of Nani IRO Colorful Pocho ( I believe from 2011)

Notions: Off-white thread

Size: 100 cm graded down to fit 2T

Doesn't it look like candy dots? I have to say that I love this shirt- it's so darn cute! I was inspired by this shirt I had seen last year and as I had some leftover pieces of this dotty print, it happened! With a bit of fiddling with the pattern to grade it down for my almost 2 year old and some artful and at times mischievious cutting (some of those edges are the selvedge edges), I ended up with a most pleasing shirt! It was meant to be a birthday shirt...but he looks so cute in it. I don't think I can wait!
 
This was a first time using a Japanese pattern for me (although my copy of the book is the French translation, so there isn't anywhere near as much puzzling out to do.) I took a bit of width out, using some other patterns as reference for size. The book is intended for girls but I think a few of the patterns are just fine for boys, although I did take out the gathers at the sleeves in this one.

Creative cutting allowed me to get the dot placement pretty close to where I wanted - that central white area framed by the red dots was one of my goals to showcase the rows of stitching at the center front. Ah yes, the center front. That part required some serious attention. These lines were 0.7 cm apart and 0.2 cm from the outer edge. I think I was cross-eyed by the end but so pleased! I kept showing it to my husband after each new line of stitching. "See, see!"

The only thing I had an issue with in the pattern was the finishing. The pattern calls for zig-zagging edges but this fabric was fraying a mile a minute, so zig-zagging was not going to cut it. I did French seams and flat felled seams. Hopefully that will keep it together!

I love the final result! And it fits him really well. Oh so adorable! I have a few very odd scraps left. We'll see if I can get creative with them and find a way to use them. (The pants he's wearing in the pictures are a pair of Art Museum Pants by Oliver + S that I made last year.)