Journey to Couture

2011 Spring into Summer

Leah — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:38:26 +0000

It’s been so long since I have blogged my projects, so I thought it was time to spring it into action… and YAY summer is here! Unfortunately this site hasn’t received much attention since I’ve been in .hunker down and work. mode for the past couple of years (I haven’t blogged for two entire years!) …and I’m paying for it now that I want to bind a neckline and cannot for the life of me remember the method I used with great success last year.

Enjoy the new site look and feel free to drop me a line if you see something broken, missing or quirky. I’m still rearranging and categorizing.

If I don’t get my site together I’ll never finish this dress…

Happy Summer 2011!

Pattern mash-up

Leah — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:23:00 +0000

I’ve been working on my entry for the RTW & Designer Knock-off Contest 2009 hosted by PR.

I have been working through a few patterns to pull together the features I need to create my patio dress.

Here are the patterns I’ve been working with:

Simplicity 3918

I made view C but left off the lace and kept the shoulder ties. I wanted to see how the point at the front bodice would come together and I wanted to see how the shoulders were constructed. I’m definitely incorporating the circled portion of the front bodice into my patio dress. Simplicity 3918 is unfortunately OOP.

Simplicity 3503

I am presently working on view E to get that upper front bodice worked out with an FBA. I also plan to remove some fullness from the front skirt where it attaches to the bodice but want to make it once as drafted. I am using a knit but don’t want to gather out any of the focal design on my final dress. Simplicity 3503 is crazy popular on PR! I am sure it will become a top pattern this year.

BWOF 04/2005 #125 and #126

I have this bodice traced and altered and I L*O*V*E this style. The bodice is shared by these two dresses so I thought to give you a good look by including both dresses here. I am thinking of making #125 for the holidays but I kinda like it without the lace overlay as they did in #126. I wouldn’t care for a full length tulle skirt.

For now, I have a bodice muslin all worked out and intend to use the back for my patio dress.

It is nice having some new garments in my wardrobe! I’ll review them individually as I complete them and work through this entire process.

The hardest part of pulling out old patterns is running across styles I wanted to make back then but didn’t tackle. I’m so glad I saved my old BWOF when I moved!!
There are several pieces in the BWOF that I went ahead and traced for later… like this cute outfit, the twist top and cute skirt #115. Someday!

Patio Dress

Leah — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:49:00 +0000

I’m excited to get to work on my entry for the RTW & Designer Knock-off Contest 2009 hosted by PR.

I have a piece of cotton knit in my stash that is just waiting for the right project. It will be perfect for my interpretation of this beautiful Patio dress.
Here are closeups to show the pick stitching and amazing cutouts:

I plan on self-drafting the bodice. I will use an BWOF pattern from the 2005 wedding dress spread for the back. I’m thinking of another BWOF maxi dress pattern for the skirt but I need to check my pattern stash this afternoon to pull together my game plan.

This should be a fun project!

Floral texture design fun

Leah — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:03:00 +0000

I have been watching the squash flower each morning and then drop the blooms without setting fruit.
Startling to be sure but a quick check with Google educated me on the roles of the male and female flowers and assured me everthing is fine. The male flower spends only one morning in full bloom and always falls off so no worries. One squash plant sends out both male and female flowers but the female flower needs the pollen from the male flower. Amazing bees! Still, I’m worried that I won’t get any squash this year.

Once I snapped these pics I wondered why I had never noticed squash in bloom before. They are surprisingly beautiful.

An interesting point of departure for a new round of sewing! How about an outfit or two based on yellow, turquoise, green and white? A cute jacket with drawstring waist and white pants? Or a bright yellow jacket? A few green tops. Endless inspiration here.

I was also inspired to update the old blog design since I love the texture of the flower. It was time to freshen up the place… because every rose has it’s thorns!

One pic of my lovely garden and then off to sew for a bit before the night gets away from me.

This is the Northeast corner of my garden. Here I have squash, zucchini, onion, carrots, buttercrunch lettuce and broccoli growing.

I love watching everything grow.

Tracing time is over

Leah — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:42:00 +0000

I joined in on The Great White Shirt Sew-Along today at PR.

I realized recently that I have been tracing patterns, altering them and then setting them aside only to trace another. I think I’ve got stage fright or something, or just afraid to waste fabric. This sew-along will be the perfect remedy!

Here are the patterns I have traced and ready to go, I just need to choose which one:
Butterick 4985

Butterick 4609

There is a vintage pattern on my cutting table right now and I will plan on tackling it once the two shirts above are completed.

I also want to cut the BWOF artist shirt out of a light blue cotton I have waiting in the sidelines:
BWOF 01-07-122

Additionally, I have a few cute tops traced, a Vogue dress (V1086) traced and altered, a Butterick dress, skirt, top and jacket wardrobe pattern (B5333) traced and altered. The jacket is cut out in fabric but it is waiting for me to get back to it because I got stuck on how to/whether to line it. I better just sew it sans lining to get it out of the queue.

So much to do, tracing time is officially over! (for a while LOL)

Inspiration dress

Leah — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:37:00 +0000

It blows my mind that this dress is made from quilting cotton!
If you are interested, you can click the image to view a slideshow of outfits since the inauguration.

Such a pretty dress. I’m thinking I could self draft this design myself, at least the bodice and then frankenpattern the skirt. I really like the style.

I am intrigued by the fabric as well. It sure is interesting how the designer placed elements for effect. You have to look hard to see the cranes. In a way, the dress looks almost ombred.

Gardening for the Soul

Leah — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:22:00 +0000

I’ll tell you, over these past 12 months, give or take a few, I’ve been nothing more than set up, beat up, chewed on and spit out for the dogs to finish off. Quite literally, without going into details, it has been tough. We relocated, moved across country, and I should be happier to be in this beautiful place.

But alas, having no luck righting my outlook, and only half-hearted sewing mojo, I have completed a few nice garments but still haven’t found my happy place.

So, I turned to my garden. Weeding really felt good. Pulling out all the bad and chucking it into a bin.

My boys helped me start a bunch of yucky veggies like broccoli and tomatoes from seed (in April) and we’ve now set almost all the seedlings in the garden. It has been really fun to teach the boys about gardening and work on this project as a family. We still need to get the peppers in the ground (oooh! and the cilantro) but here’s what we’ve started and planted so far:

6 romas, 6 beefsteak, 4 green pepper, 4 banana pepper, 2 habenero, 5 broccoli, 5 cabbage, 4 bok choi, 6 buttercrunch lettuce, 12 spinach, 3 bush beans, 6 pole beans, 4 peas, 10 Walla Walla onion, 12 Spanish onion, 3 yellow squash, 3 zucchini, 8 cilantro and strawberries.

Only half of the space is used so far. I still need to start basil and oregano. Maybe some petunias and marigolds to keep pests away from my darling broccoli babies. I guess I will go ahead and start planning a flower bed for shaded perennials and figure out what edibles I can intersperse in the landscape for fun and more good eating, and to use up the rest of the flower beds.

I’m too lazy to get out the camera today. I would like to show you my tomato experiment… soon I’ll do just that. It actually involves a sewing notion!

I can’t believe Cennetta still comes by although there is nothing here to see. I’m sending out a huge thanks and just want to say it cheered me up quite a bit!!

HUGS, Leah

Back Fitting Experiment

Leah — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:27:00 +0000

I haven’t blogged for so long it is silly yet I really need to. I am on the computer all day and dread having to do more computer work to document my sewing. Hence the lack of blogging, but I really should just get over it and write it all down, huh? I’ll start fresh today to document for myself, mostly, my latest experiment.

Here is my fun discovery with wovens. Let’s see if I can explain clearly. First, I slashed horizontally 1/4” above the waist mark but not all the way through the SA on the side seam, then overlapped the bottom over the top 1” to make a sway back adjustment. Then I corrected the CB seam by cutting straight down, effectively removing a wedge with the widest part 1” wide at the CB at the hem. Need that 1” back on the side seam, but not yet.

Next, I made 3/8” narrow shoulder adjustment to the back, but I didn’t cut a box and move the entire armscye over this time. Instead, I slashed vertically from top to bottom, then horizontally from the slash through the armscye about 2.5” from the side seam/bottom of armscye. I moved the shoulder in 3/8”. The bottom right piece pivots so the bottom hem gains the missing 1” and the armscye moves up 3/8”… effectively adding back there and completing the NSA.

I can’t believe this makes total sense to me and it looks good in pattern stage, however, I’m sure the sway back part is wrong and needs more thought. I can’t see how this made any difference except in center back length, ultimately, but maybe that is what it takes to correct the puddling problem at the lower back.

I need to cut a muslin next! (and start blogging again, eesh!)

Dragon tales

Leah — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 12:52:00 +0000

McCall 2335 -Dragon costume. I used Poly Taffeta from Joann’s, fleece, hi-loft batting instead of fiberfill.

DS wanted to be Godzilla for Halloween this year so I found this pattern and immediately looked up reviews. I needed to see what I was in for!

In all, it was a well drafted pattern with the exception of the arm and leg length. I have one of the tall kids in class but I still had to remove 4” from the sleeves and 3” from the legs. I wasn’t planning to put elastic at wrists and ankles so I shorted the pattern pieces with that in mind after quickly pin fitting him.

The instructions were crazy. If I had constructed the costume in the order given it would have taken me all month. It did take the better part of a few days as it was.

I grouped like tasks together like constructing all the spiney parts at once instead of at the point where it would be attached to a body part.

The instructions had the tail attached to the back bodice immediately but that sounded like a lot of wrangling at the machine to get around that tail. I constructed the body as much as possible before attaching the tail.

I knew the tail would be heavy so I wanted to keep it from pulling the back down and choking my poor little guy. I ran a length of 1/4” elastic from the inside tip of the tail and pulled it taut as I attached the tail to the back bodice. Then I measured his chest and cut 3/4” elastic to fit around his torso, bringing up the 1/4” elastic and attaching it. Once the contraption was pulled snug up under his armpits, voila! No more major tail problem.

I also knew the tail would get ruined from walking outside and I was right! I need to replace a large portion of the tail.

Warding off scary trick-or-treating brother to protect damsel with camera.

Thank heavens I will never need to sew another one of these, however, I do recommend it to others. It really turns out a cute costume! So many trick-or-treaters called out to DS to say how cool his costume looked. He even got double candy from a few houses because of the green and yellow Oregon Duck colors. Yep, that was the idea!

Yummy pajamas

Leah — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:23:00 +0000

Kwik Sew 3595, View A, Misses’ pajamas. View A pull-over top has contrast band at bottom edge, and capri style pants have contrast bands at bottom edges of legs. View B has shorts, and top has shaped hemline with ruffle and button closure on back. Suggested fabrics such as: cotton, cotton types, broadcloth, lawn, batiste, silk, silk like fabrics.

The first time I saw this pattern I knew I wanted to have at least one silk set and one cotton set. I am always hot at night but like to wear pants instead of gowns.

I selected white silk charmeuse from Gorgeous Fabrics to go with stashed red silk charmeuse (also from Gorgeous Fabrics) as the pattern envelope looked pretty good as sewn. Then I changed my mind and used blue flannel backed satin because honestly I’ve never sewn charmeuse and I felt somewhat intimidated! The satin seemed easier and comfy and I’m hoping not too hot!

I cut the contrast bands from the white charmeuse (of which I only have 2 yards remaining but many ideas.)

I didn’t have enough satin to cut the yoke twice so I used the white charmeuse on the inside yoke as well. I found the inside yoke a bit difficult to pull off with only 1/4” to work with, but it came out nice looking after giving it a lot of attention.

I made a quick muslin of the yoke only and determined it to be cut too high for my taste. I lowered the front yoke round neckline by 1” and the back yoke round neckline by 1.5”.

I also made a quick muslin of the pant and decided to remove 3.5” from both the front and the back. The finished pant has a front rise of 10” and back rise of 13.25” which is just perfect for me.

The finished top does slide backward slightly so I should have also made a forward shoulder adjustment but that is my fault not the pattern.

I can’t figure out where I went wrong but the contrast band on the top was about 1/2” too long. You might double check that by walking the seams if you sew this pattern. The contrast band on the pants were fine.

Speaking of the pants. The instructions say to turn down the casing over the elastic, use a zipper foot to sew, then stitch in the ditch of the side, front and back seams to tack down the elastic. I didn’t trust this so I quartered the elastic and tacked in the ditch before turning down the casing. I just wanted to note it here to remind myself to do this again because it worked well! I’m very pleased.

In all, this is a great pattern and I’ll sew it again and again. It is interesting (read: time consuming!) to use 1/4” seam allowances on this type of thing but it was a good introduction to silkies.

The perfect compromise between pajamas and a nightgown!