Nearly a dress.

I couldn't resist checking out how my dress is going to look, now that all six panels are completely finished.  Here it is pinned together on my dummy.  If you click the pictures for a larger view they should be a bit clearer!

I love love love it!  I love the weight and drape, the way the surface feels when I run my hands over it, the way it looks - everything!  I can't wait to wear it.  Even though it's a pretty dressy sort of dress I will wear it any chance I get.  Coffee in town with friends is good enough.  Possibly so is a trip to the supermarket to get toilet paper.  Anything involving the twins and their sticky fingers is NOT!


And just for Keely, here's a progress shot of the coat I am making for her.  Being a frantically busy post grad student she does not have time to make a wool coat. I really like working with lovely wool, so I said I'd make it for her.  In exchange she keeps me supplied with peanut butter based chocolate confectionery.  Good system!

This is the pocket opening, which is set into a side seam.  I am pick stitching the opening to hold everything flat, and add a subtle detail.  The chalk line and wonky looking pins are marking where each stitch goes (where each pin goes into the fabric is actually even, but boy they look wild in this shot!).  After the chalk is brushed away it looks really nice.

Keely, your lining is still evil.  Just so you know.

And it's done.

Well, I finished my dress. Here it is. Front:

Back:

It fits well and looks just how I envisioned, but it leaves me feeling sort of "meh". The fact that I look so sour in these photos really doesn't help! I used the timer instead of getting David to take them because he isn't coming home for lunch today and by the time he gets home after work the light will be too gloomy. Perhaps it'd be a happier dress if I was wearing it out to dinner instead of quickly putting it on for a couple of photos before getting back into warmer clothes!

Dress progress

Being pretty much incapable of just following instructions from the beginning and methodically working my way through to the end, I've completed the front and back of my dress before doing the much-less-interesting underdress (aka, lining). I couldn't wait to see how this was going to look! And it looks pretty much like this - a bit saggier than it should look on me as I am very slightly better endowed than my dummy and it's just pinned hastily together and unsupported by the underdress.
Front:

Back:
I'm really pleased with how all the sections came together and how nicely the skirt hangs - I was a bit worried that it would stick out stiffly. It wrinkles very readily, so I'm leaving it pinned to the dummy as much as possible. Even so I can see that it looks like I need to have at it with the iron again over the long skirt seams.


Once I'd got this far I couldn't avoid the underdress any longer. Well I could have, but it makes sense to have the foundation complete before determining any alterations to the side seams. The instructions have you fuse interfacing to all the bodice bits but I didn't have any nice knit interfacing around and no way was I fusing cardboard to this! So I opted to use lining as an underlining. It gives nice body to the bodice without compromising flexibility.

Hand basting all the bodice sections takes a while, but it's mindless work and rather restful. What does it say about me that I find this sort of task relaxing? Anyway, here's my finished pile of bodice sections, done while I watched Star Trek IV on tv.
I like the red underlining. It'll be totally hidden once the dress is finished of course but it was way more fun to sew than a dull colour!

Once they were all done I had fun fitting the bodice. On the dummy it's easy, but then I have to try it on me. I got sick of contorting myself trying to hold the sideseam closed and assess the fit and got David to pin it for me. He's willing and deft, but not used to pinning! Eventually we got there and I was able to determine that I did need to take it in under the bust but not much else. Once the seams were sewn, pressed, trimmed, notched and hand catchstitched (yes, hand catchstitched. Relaxing!) to the underlining it looks like this:

And that's it for today folks. The twins are snuggled in their cots for a nap and I am way too tired to do anything which requires me to think, thanks to a certain someone who shall remain nameless (but who's name begins with N and ends with icholas) who woke at 11pm and then at least once per hour, usually 3 or 4 times till 4.30am for no apparent reason. He wasn't fussing so I don't think it's teeth - he just wanted to sit up and take off his sleeping bag, and if I wasn't quick enough, his pyjamas too. Delightful.

Edited to add - the day has been saved from the blahs by the arrival of the post - containing my other Greist buttonholer! And it WORKS! Really really well! Oh happy happy me!!!!!

It's alive!!!!

Well, it's working at least! My long-wished-for Gresist buttonholer, far from being in "good working condition", required two overnight spa treatments marinating in CRC and more than two hours over two days to clean off the old toffee-like grease with cotton buds (q-tips), rags and toothpicks (they turned out to be the best cleaning tools). After which I held my breath and fitted it to my machine and almost closed my eyes as I pressed the pedal.....



......and round she went! My first attempt is the straight one at the top of the pic below. It skipped a few stitches, including one big chunk on it's first round, but I just went around again and covered it better and after that it didn't skip any more stitches. Then I put in the keyhole template (which is what I wanted all along) and made two of those - each of the ones below has been stitched around twice and I think they look lovely. I am puzzled though by the odd extra bit at the top of each one - when I went around the second time I got the lovely rounded top and I can't figure why it starts like this. It's easy to pick out those couple of stitches, but I'm totally baffled as to why it does this. Apart from those few stitches the second round was exactly on top of the first.

As I showed them to David when he came for lunch I commented that it seems a bit weird that just a few stitches on a scrap of fabric can give me so much pleasure. He totally understands. Which may be why I married him ;-)

And in other news, I have now stencilled one panel of my Vogue dress. The design came from a beautiful book of William Morris designs for applique. Applique designs frequently lend themselves really well to stencilling, and I love these!

This panel is the front (believe it or not). The stencilled design will go from left shoulder down to right side.

The colours aren't great in this photo - dodgy light and basic camera. The red is more of a blood-red than the bright red ink (due to the grey base fabric) and the silver is metallic. On some angles, in some lights, the silver fades out of sight. I love how the design differs depending on your view. If I wanted the the colour to be less influenced by the base fabric I'd need at least one more coat, but this is exactly what I wanted so I stopped at two.

Cutting multisized patterns

That is a seriously dull post title isn't it? I wish I could come up with better ones, but sadly that is not where my creativity lies.

Anyway, getting to the point, I got my dress cut out yesterday (took almost a whole nap time!) and I thought I'd share a couple of things which make cutting a complicated or multisized pattern easier.

When I cut a tissue pattern I always cut it so that all the sizes are retained because you never know when you might need another size or to grade (which is a whole lot easier if you have three sizes intact), but it makes cutting to the smallest size a bit tricky, especially around curves. Also this pattern has long thin bits which are very prone to distorting when pinned to fabric (as all tissue does) To minimize distortion as much as possible I left the prong things joined together and used a BRILLIANT tip I found in Threads magazine (Issue 148, p22). I traced the cutting line with a sharpie marker - the ink bleeds through the tissue and leaves a mark on the fabric. Since it's the cutting line it's not going to show on the garment (it will usually be cut off by the overlocker anyway), and it doesn't damage the tissue - genius!

This is what the marked cutting line looks like when you take the tissue away - perfectly visible. I drew the notches onto the outside of the cutting line so I could mark them with snips into the seam allowance as I usually do when I cut.
The one above was done with a teal sharpie, the one below with a fine line black one.

Isn't that great? I used to do the same thing with dressmakers carbon and a tracing wheel, but of course the wheel damages the already flimsy tissue which is far from ideal. This way the pattern is undamaged, the marks are very accurate and best of all it's super quick and easy peasy.

Now I wonder if I could transfer the darts, tucks and other markings using a washaway fabric marker the same way - imagine the time that would save! (Although I do find threadmarking restful and therapeutic to do - time out in my somewhat hectic life!) Time to experiment I think. Right after I cut the stencils I want to use on this dress. That should take care of the rest of today's nap time. At least it'll distract me from the fact that there's no mail delivery today because it's Queen's Birthday. Hopefully my squealy exciting (well, for me anyway!) trademe purchase will arrive tomorrow. And, um, so will another identical item later in the week. You can never have too many G.......

My Creative Space - It's all about ME!

When I started this blog it was supposed to be about the more interesting projects I undertook for myself. As life and designing for small children has taken control I thought it was high time I wrestled said control BACK! So for my visit to Kootoyoo's Creative Spaces this week, it's me time.

One evening last week I was idly browsing on Trademe (NZ's local version of ebay) in the pattern section when I came across an auction for Vogue 8417 . Uncut, my size, no reserve, asking for a $3.50 opening bid, free postage within New Zealand, closing in about an hour, no current bids. Um, what? Why am I not fighting off other bidders with a stick?! There should be people all over this pattern! So of course I stayed hunched all over the computer till the auction closed, when I as the only bidder happily scored this pattern for $3.50! And today it arrived - about 10 mins before the twins went down for their nap. Does life get any sweeter? (Well, it does actually. In a couple of days I should receive the Other Thing I bought on Trademe, and believe me, THAT made me dileriously happy!)

Having all sorts of curvy seamlines and tucks which will make alterations seriously problematic once I cut the fabric, I flat measured the underdress to quickly assess fit before a more accurate tissue fit on my dummy, with the plan to mock it up in fabric if required. If the underdress fits ok, the dress itself should too. I hate pattern tissue and trace where possible, but the sheer size of the pieces for this dress made that impractical. Fortunately the underdress pieces are small and manageable so I traced them to tissue fit, then use. (I would like to add here that I've made enough Vogue patterns in my time to know that this is almost always enough investigation for me to go ahead with a pattern. I shouldn't need much more than a slight tweak here and there to get a good fit. Please don't hate me. Someone has to be average.)


Here's the underbodice on my dummy, set to match me. I have very similar proportions to the dummy so it's a fair representation. It has more ease than needed, but I suspect that by the time I have two layers of fabric (although thin) and the weight of the skirt pulling it down a smidge it will fit pretty well. There are seams at the sides, so a bit of altering there will be possible. Phew! This is one pattern that makes me very happy that I generally don't have to alter commercial patterns in any significant way. No way I'd want to undertake an FBA or SBA on this puppy!

The grey fabic is my dress fabric (from stash - perfect!) and the red is a bolt of lining I bought for $2.00 (for the whole bolt!)a couple of years ago because I needed a small amount for something and figured that I'd use another 10-ish metres of red lining eventually.

The weather here is turning decidedly winterish and as usual makes me long for bright colours. Red to me always says winter. A nice cheerful lining on this dress will perk me up every time I put it on. There will be some red on the outside too, but I have yet to decide what form that will take. If you've seen my kids designs you can probably take a wild guess.

So, after tissue fitting the underbodice I had to make a start on cutting this slightly daunting pile of tissue. (Please excuse the green overlocker thread cone in the picture. The twins think it's great fun to play with and it turns up all over the place)

And after a while I ended up with this pile of cut pattern pieces.

And with not enough time to press the wrinkles out of my fabric and cut the dress before the twins get up after their nap, that's it for today. I'll blog the process for this dress because I have a few tricks to share, and quite frankly the project excites me!

There will be some embellishment. Possibly using these.

Oh be still my beating heart - just look at the shapes of those pattern pieces! My excitement level over this dress (not to mention my serious over-use of exclamation points in this post) is a pretty good indication that it is high time I made something for me - something that makes me feel the way my flippy skirt did a couple of weeks ago.

Ahh - that's better!

Because I really can't leave well enough alone, here's the pic I took after I pressed the CB seam and checked that the dress was hanging straight! It's still not perfect, but I declare it Good Enough. The slight rippling you can see in the zip seems to be caused by the gaps between the sections on my dummy. As far as I can tell when I try it on they aren't there.

Now I can move on ;-)

Who was I kidding?

Um, yeah, I had that zip unpicked and redone within an hour of my last post! Natasha was right - it would bug me every time I looked at it. Thanks everyone for the helpful comments. The seam isn't on the true bias, and being a back seam it has a curve at the waist, further complicating things. My wedding dress was also stretch charmeuse cut on the bias, and I had to do the zip a couple of times to get it right. Fortunately I remembered yesterday what I did - I stretched the fabric as far as I could as I applied the zip. You'd expect that to make the zip very ripply, but it actually counteracts the weight of the skirt almost perfectly. I took a very hurried pic after I finished but before I pressed it. (Twins were waking up and sewing time was over for the day, sigh.....)

If you click on it you can see it bigger. When I put the pic on the computer I realised that one side looks fine and one puckered, but I swear both were smooth when I tossed it on the dummy! I think it "caught" on the fuzzy dummy cover as I carried it outside. Anyway, sleepless night averted, and I'm now happy with the zip. (Or I will be after I press it and check it is smooth on me.)

I left it on the dummy overnight to let the bias drop. Since the fabric has elastane in it it is less susceptible to dropping, but I'm still expecting to have to even out the hem. Today's job is to finish the neckline and armhole edges, and then I'll leave it on the dummy overnight again before hemming it tomorrow.

Do I or don't I?

So far today I've joined the two halves of the dress, and I'm happy with the fit. However, I'm not thrilled with the CB zip/seam. I basted that sucker with two lines of stitching before I sewed it in, and I tried it on the dummy about five times while I was working on it. It was flat and smooth when I did it, but on the dummy it kind of puckers at the waist. I showed David when he came home for lunch and he didn't see the puckers till I pointed them out.

If you click on the picture you can see a bigger view. I took the shot outside in bright sunlight to show as much detail as possible. I have a bit more butt than the dummy, so it sits more smoothly over my backside.

So my question is this - is it worth ripping out that zip and trying again? David reckons that it is not noticable enough to be worth it, and I'm scared that a rework won't improve it to any significant degree. I have a horrible feeling that I'm going to be tossing and turning all night trying to talk myself into leaving it, and in the morning I'm going to rip the bugger out and do it over. And I'll feel so much better for doing so. (I did say I'm a bit inclined to be anal.)

Finished party dress, and MY dress

Here is J's finished dress on my dummy. She forgot to bring her undergarment when she picked it up, so I didn't see it on her. She did bring the belt and shoes she's going to wear with it. I love that red! It sits better on her than the dummy (as most things do), but you get the idea. I made red thread belt loops to hold the belt in place, so she can never wear it belt less now!

Gail asked why I didn't pin the neckline stay tape directly to the inside. Basically, because I am incredibly anal. (There's a reason I call my blog Everything Just Sew!) Bodies can be asymmetrical, and to ensure the neckline fits her properly I had to pin it from the right side. If I'd done it inside out there's a chance it would have sat differently if one shoulder was higher than the other, for example.

So after that was done, it was time for MY dress! I had no problem picking fabric and pattern from my collection. I got to it yesterday while the twins were asleep. I was planning to get as much done as possible, so needed fuel. I like this fuel. I chuck them all in a bowl so I never know what flavour I get till I eat it. (Entertainment as well as a snack!) Better not do it too often or I'll undo all the effort I've put in losing 10kg and my dress won't fit.

For my pattern I chose Vogue 2786, a vintage pattern I've had for a couple of years. I'm not keen on long dresses, so shortened it to about knee length. That also saved a LOT of fabric, since it's cut on the bias. I've had these two printed stretch satins for a couple of years as well. I love that one is a negative image of the other. I figured that would highlight the gathered section without being too big a contrast.

I'd traced it a couple of years ago to make in a cotton, but the fabric turned out to be elasticated and pulled into a wide seersucker effect when I prewashed it. Totally inappropriate for this dress, so the pattern sat forlornly waiting for the right fabric. A quick measure showed that while most of me is back at pre-baby size, my bust is still at production volume and I needed a bit more room there! The easiest way to get it was simply to add a bit extra at CF and CB and figure it out with fitting.

Here's one of the gathered insets sewn to it's stay. It's a bit hard to see, but the corners curl up because the stay is a very tight fit. This should make the inset sit nice and snug against my body, which will make the gathers sit in tightish folds - there's nothing worse than floppy gathers sitting around your middle!

And here's one completed half pinned to the dummy. I've done both halves, and hope during today's nap to get them joined together. The pattern has you do a hand rolled hem at the edges, but I don't fancy that - too wimpy for armholes and neckline for my taste. I'm going to use narrow strips of self fabric as facings instead. They also use a conventional zip, which I've ditched in favour of an invisible one, and I raised the back. Several months at the gym mean I could wear a low back with confidence, but no amount of work at the gym is going to render my front capable of going without a bra and I don't fit my low backed one at the moment! I'm really not looking forward to hemming this. Bias cut stretch charmeuse. Oh yay.

Some of what I've been up to

Woohoo! New hard drive! I got the camera software installed PDQ so I could put photos onto the computer and edit them. Here's a selection of what I got up to while I was not blogging.

This is Jalie 2682 , which I made for myself a couple of years ago in the sleeveless version. I always planned to make it for Georgia and finally got around to it a few days ago. I loved that we could decide at lunch time that I'd make if for her, and even including tracing her size it was done by 3pm! And I had to feed and change the twins in that time as well! I love the shape of this, especially the neck. Nice and warm for a winter T shirt. She loves it. I'm annoyed that I wasn't paying attention to lining up the print when I cut it out - doh!

This will be revisited a number of times for both of us and Isabella I suspect!

This is the best of a number of truly horrible photos of my new trousers. (Tip - never let a distracted nine year old be your photographer. Wait for your husband, who will at least get you in focus!) They're #101 from BWOF 05/09. I cut a size 42, but ended up taking them in enough that they're probably more like a 40. I also adjusted the legs by taking them in a little at the knee, then cutting straight to the hems to reduce the width of the lower legs. The magazine made them in satin, but in my heavy denim that was going to be too full. I should have shortened the front crotch length, but when I muslined them they were ok. If I'd sewn in a zip instead of holding them closed I'd have had a better idea though! However, I never ever wear tops tucked in, so it's not a big deal. The muffin I'm sporting in this pic is due to my top, (another Ottobre nursing top) not my actual muffin, which I'm happy to report is now 7kg smaller than it was a couple of months ago. Still no comment from the husband.

And this is V1061, the Sandra Betzina wrap top. It's quite a dark colour, so hard to photograph. this is the best I could get. Here's the front. On me it sits more snugly to my front.

And the back. The hood looks good, but in this rather slippery fabric it's inclined to slip down to cover my shoulders a bit. If it annoys me I'll take it off. You can't see the panel seams very well unfortunately. On me it sits a bit loosely at the back. I'm not sure if I was off in my seaming, or whether I should have gone down a size. I absolutely definitely need to adjust the bust point for my next version of this - no Wonderbra in the world can hoick my bustline up THAT high!

When I put my photos on my computer I realised that the ones I'd taken of a Jalie sweatshirt
I made for Georgia were no good because I took them in the conservatory with sun and shade obscuring a lot of the details. I'll have to try again.

I've also been working on the design for the baby coat from my last post, and have a store in town willing to look at what I make with a view to stocking it! No promises, but I'm dead keen to produce something saleable now and see what they think. Fingers crossed.

Still sewing, no photos

I've been sewing quite a bit lately, but still can't post photos till our computer is brought back to full operating capacity in a week or two. So, for my own entertainment I thought I'd post links to what I've been making!

For me I made V1061 . It took ALL DAY on Friday to assemble the back. I cut it out on Thursday and when when I went to start sewing on Friday I discovered that I had no matching thread. I debated waiting till I could make a dash to Spotlight without the twins, but that would have meant waiting till Saturday afternoon, so I decided to go. I swear by the time I'd got them both into coats, hats, sheepskin booties and carseats, and loaded carseats and buggy into the car I could have driven there and back and been sewing! Anyway, SL had rather bare thread racks, and after further internal debate I figured that I was already out so I might as well carry on into town and get the d***ed thread! Which I did. Got home just in time to put the twins down for their nap. Perfect! I did a few experiments to determine the best way to do the back seams and discovered that the best way to prevent them rippling when I did the zig zag topstitching was to stick on strips of Press'n'seal, pin and sew through it. (Phew - need to stop for a breath after that sentence!) That's fine, but pulling it out afterwards is a total PITA! Worth it for the nice result, but it took the rest of the day (around feeding, changing nappies, cooking meals, changing more nappies, washing said nappies.... you get the idea!) to finish all seven seams. Then all of Saturday to finish the jacket. It fits fine, but I could have gone down a size, and the bust point is about 5cm too high. Naturally I'd overlocked the darts before I discovered this. I've never had this problem before, so didn't check! There aint a Wonderbra engineered that's going to get the girls into position for THESE darts! The fabric is dark, and it isn't too obvious, so I can live with them. Next time.....

For Georgia, I made Jalie 2795 which I really like (and so does she). I love the unusual hood, and the close fit. I did at least take photos of this before the camera batteries died (note to self: GET NEW RECHARGABLES!). I also made her Jalie 2788 because she was dying for a twist top after I kept making them for me. As far as I've seen, the Jalie pattern is the only one which is available in children's sizes. I love the fact that it has a modesty panel - my nine year old does NOT need to show cleavage, thank you very much! Since it's winter I raised the back neckline and lengthened the sleeves to wrist length. She had approved the fabrics chosen from my stash (we decided on a contrasting fabric for the modesty panel) and knew I'd cut it and begun sewing, but I finished it last night after she went to bed. I left it out for her to wear today. Yes I'm Mum of the Year this week!

Next up pants for me. I'm going to make them tight because I finally decided to ditch the baby fat. I've had it for a year, and I'm sick of it. So far I'm down 4kg. I'm not going to tell my very observant husband. (He doesn't read this!) I want to see how much it takes before he notices.
;-)

The Coat. Finished.

Woohoo! At long last, here it is. Unfortunately this is the best shot I have of it on me. My husband quickly snapped it when he came home for lunch and I didn't check it till he'd left, then found it a bit out of focus. Maybe he just shot me soft-focus to be kind? (Bad hair day and squinty eyes. Not my best look!)

Here is an only-slightly-better photo of it on my dummy. The buttons are actually ones I rescued from a jacket I bought in 1987 and loved to death. When it wore out I kept the buttons, which I'd forgotten about till I came across them by chance looking for something else after failing to find any I liked for this coat in town!

I nearly went spare over the buttonholes on this. I had to pick out one of them FOUR TIMES because it was too close to the body of the coat and the buttonhole foot sat over it. I tried shimming the other end of the foot, and after four attempts and much swearing, decided to move the buttonhole so that I wasn't so near the body of the coat. This ended up being about 5mm. yep, I spent an hour of frustration swearing over 5mm! Since the buttons are unevenly distributed anyway, it's not even slightly noticable. I had to move the button to match, but that was no drama.

I like the way I can button the collar right up around my neck. I love my almost-ankle length wool-cashmere coat which is very warm, but not around my neck. I hate having a cold neck. A scarf is easily added, but a coat which buttons up high is just cosy. Having said that, this coat is not for the coldest winter days. Mary Nanna, coming from Dunedin you'll remember just how cold it can get with the southerlies whipping in straight from Antarctica. This is my Sunny-Winter-Day coat. The wool-cashmere is for the really cold days!

I'm very pleased with how it turned out, but I do wish I'd thought about pocket placement before I made them. They'd be so much better lower down. So far I haven't added any extra buttons (I do have some). I think I'll wear this at least once and see if it flaps open too badly before I decide.

Conclusion: I have proven to myself that, AMEW notwithstanding, I am capable of not only making, but also altering, an Issey Miyake pattern. Despite not having had a proper night's sleep in over a year. Life is good. :-)

While I was on a roll (and waiting for new camera batteries because the old ones died right after I took the dummy shot of the coat yesterday) I made this new Ottobre nursing top. I'm considerably bustier than my dummy at the moment, so I fill it out better!

Coat almost done

Almost there! All I have left to do now are the buttons and buttonholes. I'm going to town on Thursday, so should be able to get some then, but I couldn't wait to post this. It doesn't actually look much different from my last post, but since then I've made and inserted the lining, done the hems, and lastly sewed the lining to the hems.

I never used to like hand sewing - why sew by hand when I have a perfectly good machine? Over the years I came firstly to see the benefits, and then to really enjoy sewing by hand. I really like the look of a hem hand catch stitched to underlining - not a visible stitch from the outside. Then lining invisibly fell stitched to the hem. Perfect! It takes a while, but is very relaxing to do. This is why I called my blog Everything Just Sew. I really love a project which takes time and care. I really do like doing everything just so. Well, maybe not EVERYTHING, but a lot of things :-)

This is what it looks like inside out. The pic is fuzzy as usual, annoyingly. It's skull and crossbones. Classy lining, no? I like clothing that doesn't take itself too seriously. My eight year old son is getting boxers from the leftovers. Or possibly Nicholas, depending how long it takes me to get around to them!

This shot shows it right side out with the front open. I'm still annoyed about the facing issue. I ended up using lining and stiff interfacing. Not stiff enough, but since the coat fabric is pretty stable and underlined with wincyette, it works well enough. When it's closed you can just see the edge of the lining at the neck edge, but it's not a big deal. In a year or two, when the coat wears out, I think I'll get over it.

In other sewing news, I have sweatshirting for two sorely needed sweatshirts for Georgia in the dryer right now, and I actually made a muslin for pants for me a few days ago. An honest-to-goodness, not-going-to-be-worn-even-if-it-works muslin. I'm still carrying a fair chunk of baby weight. (Which I wouldn't be if I hadn't got into the habit of having a snack every time I sat down to nurse. Twins nurse A LOT, but I digress.) So I figured I'd better try out the pattern in my current size before I potentially wasted time on it. To my utter delight, they fit perfectly! I've obviously retained my proportions well enough to fit the Burda sloper just fine. Now I need to retrieve the fabric (a rather lovely stretch corduroy donated from a friend's stash) from the roof, which requires a ladder and a sunny day, because I'm not dragging a wet ladder into my house! However, Georgia really needs her sweatshirts first, so I'll be Good Mum.

The coat has a collar!

I've been sulking a bit over the lack of fabric for the facings for my coat, and ignoring it. Since it's been sitting on my dummy, which is stored in my bedroom, that's been a bit hard! So I finally got over myself and got on with it, and attached the collar. This was the point at which I was very, very glad that I'd tediously thread marked all the match points. The curves on collar and front edge are very different and vary along their lengths, so getting the collar on properly without all the match points would have had me swearing like a sailor! As it was, it took much careful pinning on the tightest bits of the curves, but was otherwise straightforward.

I pinned it closed where the buttonhole and button markings line up, just to get an idea of how it will look. I will have a long hard think about further buttons lower down. I think it'll need one or two to stop it flapping open, but I like the smooth line. So far, I am very pleased with it. I was a bit worried that the jacket design wouldn't lend itself to coat length, but think it looks just fine as a coat.

I haven't pressed it at all, because after I'd pinned it on I realised that I'd lengthened the collar pieces to the same length as the coat pieces, and when I hem the coat they'd be too long. It'll be very easy to fix, but I've left them at the moment till I decide exactly how long to hem the coat. AMEW again, but fairly mild this time! (The other AMEW moment was realising that I hadn't taken note of which side of the collar was which, and I had to drag out the pattern pieces and figure out which was left and which was right. If I'd spent ages pinning and got to a point at which I realised I'd got it the wrong way round, I'd, um, not have been pleased.)

And just for the heck of it, here's the back, showing the belt tie. I like this idea - shaping, but no fuss.

Oh, and my neice was sort of impressed with the library bag. Her mother (who WAS impressed and appreciative!) reckons she'll be really keen on it, especially when they go to the library. What H was REALLY impressed with was the $3 Murray Wiggle toy I picked up at Kmart before Christmas. She LOVES Murray Wiggle, and had been to a Wiggles concert a month ago. She cheerfully informed us that it was the best Murray Wiggle toy she ever had! Being a veteran of a few three year olds myself, this was exactly what I expected. (Murray was an even bigger hit than anticipated though).

Looking like a coat!

Wow - minus the collar, we have a coat!

If you click on the picture you get a bigger image, which shows the details a little better.

I knew from my tissue fit that this would fit me pretty well, but this is one of those patterns you NEED to either carefully tissue fit, or try as a muslin first. If the angle of the shoulder line does not match you, it'll be nearly impossible to rectify, as there is very little wiggle room in the design for tweaks after you cut it out.

The sleeves are fairly narrow on this. Again, I knew from my tissue fit that they'd be ok on me. I won't be able to wear anything too bulky under it, but I wasn't planning to anyway. I added length to them before cutting, as I have fairly long arms and it's a whole lot easier to cut off excess than figure out a way to make them longer!

Construction wise, this is pretty straightforward. The instructions are clear, and apart from one or two very minor changes of order I have followed them so far. In my opinion, this isn't terribly complicated to construct.

AMEW did appear a bit. I began by ignoring the instructions and sewing the fronts so that I could do the welt pockets first before the coat got too bulky. (That's one of my changes of order - the instructions have you do them way further on.) Then I read the instructions and discovered that instead of being pressed open, the seam was supposed to be sewn in one pass with the undersleeve, and topstitched to one side. Oops. They were also supposed to be single welt pockets, and I just blithely went and made double welt pockets! Oops again! I decided against trying to do the topstitching after the fact - there's no way I could make it look nice at the pocket edges. The one thing I am annoyed with myself for is pocket placement. The pattern is for a jacket. I made it into a coat. At what point do you think it occurred to me that the pockets should have been placed about 10-15cm lower - coat height rather than jacket height? Yep - after I'd made them and held the coat front up to myself. DOH! Having them at this height throws off the visual balance a bit to my eye, but there's not a lot I can do about it. I am not making more pockets lower down!

Next up, I'll be making the collar and attaching it. The instructions have you fold the edge and zig zag, but I don't fancy that, so I'll double fold and straight stitch.

Hopefully I can get more fabric for the front facings either tomorrow or Thursday. And some buttons. The shop I got the fabric at (Anne's Fabrics in Dunedin) has very cool buttons, so I'm hoping I can get something there.

Finished embroidery, and pockets.

I've finally done some more work on my coat. I really need to spend a bit of time working out how to take better pictures though - these are not nearly as sharp as I'd like. Here's the embroidery after I'd finished it, before I tore out all the press'n'seal. That's not difficult, but it takes a while!

And here's what it looks like after I tore out the press'n'seal. I like how it looks. It'll pep up a solid coloured coat, but it's fairly subtle.

Then I decided that instead of the interlining I'd originally planned, I should have underlined. I know there's debate about the difference between those terms, but I've always gone with what I was taught at University. Underlining is a separate layer of fabric attached to each piece of a garment before construction, the unit thereafter treated as a single layer. Interlining is a separate layer between fashion fabric and lining - like batting in a quilt. There was No Way I was going to start that embroidery again, so I joined the underlining part way, and then joined it to each piece of the front, like this:

It works fine, but underlining before I'd embroidered would have been a whole lot smarter. (Have I mentioned that I shouldn't be let loose on anything requiring Any Mental Effort Whatsoever?)

Next up were the welt pockets in the fronts. I hate the way patterns have you do welt pockets, so I always use a method I think I first saw in an article in Threads written possibly by the fabulous Ann Steeves . My very humble apologies if I'm wrong about that. Anyway, you create a faced opening, and sew the welts behind it.

First I cut a rectangle of fabric ( she has you use silk organza, but in my neck of the woods that is neither readily available, nor inexpensive) and traced the pocket opening onto it. I positioned that over the (threadmarked) pocket placement, and sewed around it. Then I cut the opening, turned it through and pressed. After that, It looks like this:

It looks like this from the back:

Then I sewed the basted together welts behind the opening. The extra layer of fabric gives you a much more stable edge to sew them to, and gives far fewer headaches!

Here they are:

All I need to do now to finish the pockets is to attach the pocket bags. I'll also catch stitch the facing to the underlining, as that will help to support the pocket.

I was starting to think that this coat didn't want to be sewn - the washing machine packing a sad when I wanted to preshrink my underlining was a hint. Then when I was working on the coat last night I realised that I hadn't cut front facings. For some reason the facing pattern pieces had got put with the lining pattern pieces and missed. And there is not enough fabric to cut them. After a bit of swearing I figured that if I really have to I could cut the facings from lining (if I underline the heck out of it), since the collar is so wide that the facing is a way back from the front edge. However, I'm going to see if I can get more fabric next time I go to town. And then when I went to sew the centre fronts to the side fronts I realised that after spending AGES threadmarking all the dots and match points, I had missed the very first one I actually needed! It's the AMEW thing again. I'm doing a lot better on the sewing than the thinking.

Progress on the Miyake coat

It started as this - a large pile of traced and lengthened pattern pieces.

From that point I cut it out and spent ages thread marking all the dots, triangles, buttonholes and the welt pockets. I colour coded the markings so that they'll be (hopefully) clearer when I come to construct the coat. Didn't take a pic of that step. Then I did a bit of experimenting to work out how I'm going to embellish the coat. I got a rose motif from BWOF 01/09, and for my trial just traced a leaf from it onto Glad Press'n'Seal and stuck it onto a scrap of fabric and stitched through it. I love how this technique works - it stabilises the fabric really well, and is easy to do. Picking out the plastic can be a bit tedious, but the design is very accurately marked, and no hint is left on the garment afterwards. A pair of tweezers helps.

These are the two threads I tried. I wish my photos were clearer - they look fine on my computer, but lose a lot of clarity when I post them. The one on the left does actually show up fine, but I liked the bolder effect of the sample on the right. It's actually crochet cotton, split into two of the six strands. It gets fuzzy pretty quickly, so I need to use short lengths.

And this is how it'll look when I'm done. This is only on the lower edge of the right front. I was going to do both fronts, but I think I'll leave it just on one side. I think all along the front might be a bit busy.

At least I'll have plenty to do while I digest my easter chocolate.