Simplicity 2369, Raglan Sleeve Wrap Top and Dress

I had never paid any attention to Simplicity 2369, even though it is a knit dress. But then I saw the awesome version that KayY wore to PR Weekend Montreal. Loves the overall flattering shape, interesting sleeves, and wrap look with plenty of room for a belly. I picked it up the next time I hit a Simplicity sale.

For my Turkey Travel Wardrobe, I made the short-sleeved dress out of a poly knit purchased from Fabric Mart in June of last year ($3.49/yd). I ended up liking it so much that when I realized it was going to be cooler than expect, I whipped up a long-sleeved top out of some rayon knit purchased in Hong Kong. I brought both pieces with me. Alas, I was only able to wear the dress once but the top got lots of wear.





I altered the pattern with my usual small bust adjustment method of shortening the diagonal wrap line, as well as a swayback adjustment. The swayback on the dress looks better than the top, but I think it is the difference in fabric.




I have a grainline question on swayback adjustment, if anyone can help. This little publication from New Mexico State University is an *awesome* capsule resource for almost every kind of pattern alteration. However, they only show a swayback alteration on a skirt. For a skirt, you fold out your wedge at center back below the waistline. The grainline on the skirt is unchanged and waist tilts down at center back. This has worked well for me on dresses with a back waist seam (I've found I don't need to alter skirts for swayback).





However, the back of this dress is cut as one long piece and I don't know where the grainline goes in that instance. Because this is a knit and grain isn't such a big deal, I just split the difference and redrew (well, re-eyeballed) the grainline so that the altered grainline was evenly distributed and neither the top nor the bottom were on the original grainline (which, after the alteration, is now an obtuse angle of about 160 degrees), as crudely demonstrated on the left. But for a woven, I don't know if this is the way to do it. I have a few woven dresses with one piece backs in mind and would like to clear this up before proceeding! It seems like a bad thing to have either the top or the bottom badly off grain, but perhaps it is worse to have both slightly off grain.

One of the things that attracted me to this pattern is that there appeared to be plenty of fabric over the belly coming out from under the wrap. It is adequately roomy, but I found that the extra fabric wanted to roll away from my belly over the sides, so I did a touch of hand gathering where it is safely covered by the crossover to make sure the extra fabric stayed where I wanted.

For the dress, I liked the roomy elbow length sleeve, though the proportion was too long for my arm so I shortened by folding out two inches between the cutting line for the short sleeve and the elbow length sleeve. The resulting length and width are flattering, I think. For the top, I didn't want that width, nor did I see the need for a two piece sleeve so I combined the top and bottom sleeve patterns, marking a dart where they diverge at the shoulder, and narrowed to a normal sleeve width. The sleeve looks great and I think it's the first raglan sleeve I've made where the dart apex is actually on my shoulder! (I have narrow shoulders and raglan sleeves can be a pain to alter for that.)

The only thing I didn't like about the pattern was the method of attaching the tie. You're supposed to sew the long edge and one short edge of the tie, turn inside out, and then just sew right sides together with the wrap edge. It's fine, but the attachment area is wide enough that when you knot the tie it shows a little and I thought there was a better way.

For the top, I completed the bodice as directed, and then took the unsewn tie piece and folded it over the pleated wrap edge of the bodice, right sides together, with the raw edges of the tie facing down. Then I serged the tie to the bodice along the short edge and sewed it for a few inches along the raw edge, using the serger to trim up to the stitching. I used the sewing machine for the long edge because I didn't want to accidentally catch in the bodice. Then I serged the freestanding short edge (the end of the tie) and along the long edge to within a few inches of my original stitching line. Turn the tie right side out through that opening and then hand-stitch to close. The result is a fully enclosed tie that looks a lot nicer than having the seam allowances hanging out.

To finish the necklines, rather than use the facing strip (sooooo much better than a shaped facing as used for wovens, which is what most knit patterns have so kudos to Simplicity) I turned under and twin-needled over clear elastic.

I'm really happy I gave this pattern a shot. I think it is flattering for a large variety of body types, and is fairly simple to make. I also like that it's seasonless (once you draft a long sleeve for it). I will have to try the buckle closure at some point.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

Burda 08-2010-113 Stand Collar Jacket

I normally travel while it is warm at my destination, but this year my travel companion's work schedule pushed our trip to Turkey back to early October. I knew we would have cool nights, at the very least. I have been feeling the lack of an early Fall jacket for mid-50s to low-60s (too cold for a denim jacket, but not cold enough for a coat) for a while, so the trip provided the impetus for me to make a jacket as the centerpiece of my wardrobe.

I didn't like much in Burda's August 2010 issue, but I just *loved* the details on the Burda 08-2010-113 jacket (pattern available for purchase at BurdaStyle at the link--I suppose this is the good thing about the website "transition"): the cool variation on a standing collar, interesting slight V neckline that doesn't compromise warmth, princess seams (accomplished with a side panel--there is no side seam), cropped length, unusual diagonal dart, rounded front hemline. So many great details. I don't really get the extended front shoulder for a faux yoke-ish look, but it doesn't seem to affect fit or wear so whatevs. And it's a petite! Although, as they have informed us "petite" only means shorter; it is not altered to accommodate, for instance, a petite's narrower shoulders and for this particular pattern I think they forgot to shorten the sleeves.

I planned a purple and green wardrobe so that everything would go with the fuschia lambswool for this jacket, purchased from fabric.com when they were selling the Vera Wang Lavendar Label fabrics for $1.95/yd at the beginning of the year. The lining is the olive silk/rayon slipper satin from the same collection. I pre-treated by laying flat in the bathtub and sort of sliding it around without crumpling, hanging dry, and then washing by machine. It didn't come out with the surface intact, but it is fine for lining. I love the way the two colors look together. The buttons are from a Fabric Mart 4 pound bag I split with Cidell. I thought they were super ugly and didn't plan to take any, but she urged me to. I didn't have anything else that would work for the jacket so I used these as "temporary" buttons, but they have totally grown on me. I think they suit the tweedy vibe of the fabric and style very well.

I altered the pattern to include a swayback adjustment, shorten the sleeves (I like jackets to have knuckle length sleeves, but these were ridiculous), and a small bust adjustment by both narrowing the dart and flattening the bust curve of the side piece (as demonstrated here).

I pretreated the wool fabric by washing and drying in the washing machine and dryer. Yes, I am that brutal. After how easily ruined the VW slipper satin was, and how ridiculously much the silk chiffon bled (another project in the travel wardrobe possiblities), I wanted to make sure the fabric was worth sewing. Fortunately, it did beautifully and did not shrink very much, if at all.

The wool remained very soft after coming out of the washing machine, so I fused all the pieces with a lightweight knit interfacing to give it some body and hopefully cut down on wrinkling. Boy, is fusing boring.

The jacket is relatively easy to sew.

The very long diagonal bust darts require a little strategery, especially where they intersect with the princess seams. I had to clip the seam allowances to layer everything properly. In the end, my darts are not quite the same length. Oops.

The VW wool eased nicely, which was a huge bonus. For the princess seams, I ran a line of basting stitch just outside the stitching line; pulling up on those threads made it very easy to ease the pieces together without puckers.

I was very trepidatious about the sleeves after my Tuxedo Jacket of Doom experience. The body and especially the notched collar of the Tuxedo Jacket of Doom are beautiful but the sleeves are so bad that I will never wear it. There are puckers in the sleevecap (my fault, I suppose) and the sleeve folds and spirals in the most horrible way (not my fault, I don't think). The jacket is unwearable after all the work I put in. I haven't had a problem with Burda sleeves on non-outerwear (innerwear?), but that jacket was just so beyond that it scarred me!

First issue was the shoulders were way, way too wide. I do have narrow shoulders compared to the sloper used by the pattern companies, but I don't usually have too much of an issue in Burda. I trimmed about half inch off the shoulder edge of the jacket before setting in the sleeves. Because it is an outerwear jacket, which is not meant to fit like clothes but over them, I decided to leave the shoulder a tiny bit extended versus where I would place a blouse. In the end, I wish I had brought the shoulder in a full inch to my natural shoulder line, but it's not a big deal.

I planned to use shoulder pads but with the slightly extended shoulder and soft fabric (even after fusing) I decided it could also use a sleeve head. Using this information from Claire Shaeffer's Couture Sewing (thank you Google Books!) I cut a piece of silk organza on the bias 8 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide, folded in half, pinned over the sleeve at the armscye seam with the fold extending slightly over the seamline and hand-sewed in place (could have used machine but after how much easing the sleevecap required I didn't want to jinx my smooth insertion).

When the armscye seam is pressed toward the sleeve the sleeve head folds over on itself because of the fold extending beyond the seamline so it is four layers. I really don't know that it made a huge difference--in the photo at left, the side with the pin has a sleeve head and the other side doesn't. But at least I tried a new technique!

The back of the sleevecap needed a large amount of easing, but here I was working with wool so it went in a little easier than the TJOD. I ran a line of basting stitching near the seamline (within the seam allowance), pinned, and then pulled the basting stitch to ease. Then I hand-basted the back sleevecap in place. Then I sewed with the sleeve toward the feed dogs so they would take up some of the ease, counting on my hand-basting to keep it flat. It worked! I was inordinately pleased.


I don't really understand the point of the tiny back vent, as this is a cropped jacket, and it isn't really a proper vent anyway, just an unsewn bit of the center back seam. So I sewed the CB seam completely and dispensed with the vent.

The pattern is drafted with a patch pocket with flap at the waist and a welt pocket at the breast. I didn't want a breast pocket and I wasn't keen on the flapped pockets--seemed too fussy in my fabric. I did want pockets, however--you have to have a place to keep your gloves!

I didn't want a flat pocket because then the gloves would create an unattractive pooch, so I used the pleated pocket from Simplicity 2728. I don't think there's actually room to put a glove in each pocket without distorting the look, but I really like the pleated pocket, and spent some time making sure the pleat seamline of the pocket matched up with the princess seamline of the jacket.

Since this was a travel jacket, I contemplated whether I wanted a zipper breast pocket in the lining as a place to securely hold a credit card, but decided that the fabric was too thin and there would clearly be a credit card sitting over my boob. Obvious security precautions shout "I am a tourist with valuables! Please rob me!" So I just put in a button internal pocket large enough to hold business cards in my normal life and a credit card in travel life.

I have given up on professional-type jackets as each one I've sewn has been a disaster. However, I have had plenty of success with outerwear so I thought of this as outerwear in the construction.

I sewed this jacket in a little over a week, breaking up the construction into small tasks and setting goals for each evening. It was great to feel so productive, but that level of organization is not sustainable in my life, LOL. I have more outerwear pieces on the horizon for this winter. After three winters of heavy wear my green coat is completely dead at this point--threadbare and irretrievably filthy, so that needs to be replaced. I hope I can be as diligent for future projects as for this one!

I was beyond pleased with this jacket when I finished it, and it performed very well on my trip to Turkey. There is some slight pilling of the fabric on the inner sleeve and side where the sleeve rubs against the jacket, but it is noticeable only up close. Considering I wore this nonstop for 10 days, which simulates nearly an entire season of wear (10 days for 12 hours/day is 120 hours; normally I wear a coat maybe 2 hours/day, so that is the equivalent of 60 days of wear) I can say that the VW lambswool is of good quality!

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

Back from Turkey! and Travel Wardrobe Preview

I have returned! I actually got back last Saturday but caught a cold on the plane back and have been a little out of it. Although the weather was not ideal (two days of sun out of ten days in Turkey and a day and a half of rain in Athens), we had a great time. We especially loved our visit to Kapadokya in the center of the country--it has amazing geological formations (pictured at the top of the post) and fantastic hiking. Which I was able to do as I was cleared to leave the US without the boot. What a relief! You can see all of my photos here.

I went into a sewing mania before I left. It was almost to the level of unhealthy. Well, let's be real. It *was* unhealthy. I called Cidell and begged her to stop me. I was acting like a true addict, and kept saying, "OK, this really is the last one." And then I would sneak and sew something else.

Because I sewed so much it was more like shopping than planning. I just wanted a lot of pieces to choose from! In the end, I didn't pack quite right because it was much colder than the weather had predicted but I survived. I will eventually (I hope) blog about most of the pieces individually, but here's a few sneak peeks (click the photos to enlarge).

First and foremost, a new jacket! This is the fuschia lambswool from the Vera Wang Lavendar Label collection that Fabric.com was selling for $1.99/yd at the beginning of the year. I was not overly impressed with the quality of most of the fabrics from that collection, but this jacket held up well with 12+ daily hours of wear for nearly two weeks and better yet--I'm not sick of it! I am really happy with this piece. The pattern is Burda 08-2010-113. Here I am posing with a reproduction of a medusa head that is found in the Byzantine Cistern (photo in situ here)

A wrap dress out of the fantastic border print knit that was a gift from Marji (I also managed to squeeze another dress and a skirt out of this fabric, quite a feat as it was a double border, double directional print). I'm pictured here on the Acropolis in Athens in front of the Erechtheion. I persuaded the friendly German guy who took my picture to take another after a sudden gust of wind blew the skirt open to the waist in the first photo!

A wrap sweater, made from a gold sweaterknit I bought ages ago for the very purpose of making a wrap sweater. It's amazing when things actually happen as planned. I rubbed the pattern off a sweater I bought from H&M about 6 years ago. I loved the sweater so much I went back and bought it in the other color they had and I wear them all the time. I'm glad I finally got around to making this into a pattern! Also glad I got around to making it for the trip, as many days I wore two sweaters and a jacket to stay warm, so I was glad to have the extra layer.

In addition to these pieces, I made two more dresses (both came), four tops (two came), a skirt, a nightgown, and a sunhat (the very, very last piece made at midnight the night before departure--really needn't have bothered on that one, lol!!!).

I was looking forward to fabric shopping in the Grand Bazaar, as the little map in my guidebook showed a whole "street" of fabric shops. Well, I think home sewing is about as popular in Turkey as here because there were only 4 or 5 fabric stands, mostly with fancy sequined type fabric. I did manage to find two pieces. The one on the left was sold to me as cotton; I was suspicious of how soft it was but liked the print. When I pulled out out of the washing machine I confirmed for sure that it is rayon as it had that papery, woody texture. Oh well. The piece on the right I purchased from a man who spoke a little more English than I do Turkish (6 words instead of 4) so he didn't represent anything to me about the fiber content, and I knew it was poly anyway. I think it may be a rayon-poly blend, based on the burn test (a quick bright flame with almost no odor, but a hard bead after extinguishing). I just love the delicate print.

Now it's back to real life (*sigh*) and hopefully a healthier, more balanced relationship with my sewing machine.

Simplicity 2580, Empire Waist Cowl

I buy just about every knit dress pattern that comes down the pike and am always looking at knit top patterns to see if they can be made into a dress. But it rarely occurs to me to turn a dress into a top. Melissa of Fehr Trade showed a cute cowl top made of the Simplicity 2580 and I tucked it into the back of my mind for the next time I had some odd-shaped scraps I couldn't do much else with.

I just got this fabric from Fabric Mart ($5.99/yd, pricey for me!) for my Turkey wardrobe and immediately sewed it into a long sleeve knit dress. The scraps were too big to throw away, but had to made into something pieced.

I am not crazy about empire waist tops lately, because they can be neither belted nor tucked and I have apparently turned into someone who wears a belt nearly every day. The tucking is more theoretical, but theoretically I am open to it. But I decided to throw caution to the wind and make it up in this pattern. I actually already made a top from this a while back; the fabric didn't have enough drape and it doesn't look great, but I knew it was a solid pattern and the fully self-faced cowl that will always sit perfectly and requires no rearranging sold me.

My one gripe is the instructions, which involve a lot of fussiness and inefficiency. Most cowl patterns these days seem to use the modern, all-machine-finish way; I was really impressed with the instructions for the McCall 6069 double cowl dress. So if you pull out one of your patterns it will probably do a much better job of explaining things than I am about to. What I love about this method is that you can do the whole thing with a twin needle in your sewing machine if you use a serger for construction. No switching back and forth between twin and regular.

Start by finishing the neckline and armscyes of the back piece. For both, I just fold the seam allowance to the inside and twin needle in place. I fold the neckline over a piece of clear elastic slightly smaller than the length of the neckline to keep it in shape; the front cowl is heavy compared to the back so the back benefits from a little support. (If you're using a sleeve, obviously you don't need to finish the back armscye.)

Next, fold the upper bodice and self facing along the fold line. Slip the back shoulder edge in between them. Snug the finished back neck to the fold line at the seamline. This is crucial. I am generally guilty of matching and pinning the edges rather than the seamlines, but here the you will have an unsightly bump if the back is not matched up to the fold at the seamline. Note that the unfinished edges of the front armscye will overhang the finished edge of the back armscye. Pin and serge.

Now match up the edges of the front armscye outer fabric and self facing. Here it is important to mark exactly where the finished back armscye is hidden in between the two layers of the front (OK, fine, I admit it; I don't mark). Serge the front/self-facing armscyes, right sides together. At the shoulder edge, make sure your stitching line is exactly at the finished back armscye edge. Be careful not to catch the back into your seam (especially with a serger!).

When you turn it all right side out, you have your finished neckline and armscyes all done. If you've correctly matched everything up, the front and back will be seamless (well, not literally seamless but you know what I mean).

Next comes the side seam. As with the shoulder, you are going to sandwich the back between the front and front self-facing. This is a little easier because you just have to match up the raw edges. Again, it is important to snug the back finished armscye up into the front/self-facing serged together armscye at the seamline. Serge.

If you want to complete the clean finish, you can leave out the self facing when sewing the upper bodice and lower bodice and then hand-stitch the facing in place. However, a serged finish is good enough for me here.

Serge the side seams of the lower front and back and center seam of lower back. I used the center back seam in the lower bodice for some swayback shaping.

Treat the front and front self-facing as one and pin the upper bodice to the lower bodice. Serge.

Your machine is still set up in a twin needle so you can easily hem the top and voila! A nicely finished cowl top with a minimum of effort.

I am really happy with the top, despite the empire waist. It's a fantastic way to wear my lace Burda 09-2008-108 skirt for summer and in a casual way. If I'd had enough fabric I would have liked to avoid that big circle that's almost at center front on the lower bodice but it was a top with a big circle at center front or no top at all.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

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I am sewing like crazy for my Turkey trip! It's still a little too early to know exactly what the weather will be, so I have been making both long sleeve and short sleeve items. It seems to be tipping toward cool, though, low 60s (16-18 C for my metric readers). I can handle cool weather, I suppose, but it is also looking rainy. Much less fun for sightseeing. I will have to ponder whether it will be worth it to bring a pair of boots. They take up so much room, but shoes are really no good to be out in rain for 8-10 hours. I suppose much depends on my therapeutic boot situation. I go to the doctor this afternoon so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Stash Busting for World Peace: IBOL

So, somehow I had never heard of Iraqi Bundles of Love, the project of a soldier stationed in Iraq to get raw sewing materials into the hands of individual Iraqi women. I do not normally give in-kind goods for charity. They make the giver feel really good--and they actually cost the charity money to store, ship, and distribute; money that could be directly spent to buy more of whatever you sent for cheaper at wholesale and do more good for the beneficiaries. Money is always more valuable than goods.

However, this is the perfect type of project for sending goods. IBOL is not a 501(c)(3) charitable organization (a US tax status thing). It's not even an organization at all. It doesn't have a bank account or a budget and there is no place to send money. It is just one guy asking people to send bundles of fabric.

Because of the long years of sanctions against Iraq during the Saddam Hussein years, all goods are scarce. And because it has not been safe for aid workers during the war years, there are few charities to distribute goods now the sanctions have been lifted. The soldier who invented IBOL wanted to do something about this. I think he mainly reached out to the quilting community last year simply because his mom is a quilter, and since garment sewing and quilting don't have a ton of overlap I don't know that word has gotten out in our community.

Here is the word and please spread it! If you are in the US, you can send a flat-rate box to an APO address. The address is emailed to you when you leave a comment on the IBOL blog (the organizer does not want the address publicized for obvious reasons so I cannot provide it). A large flat-rate box costs $12.50 to mail to an APO address. You have to fill out customs form 2976a. It is the size of a half-sheet of paper--not the green one or the other one that's the size of the green one (this confused my post office very much).

You build a bundle of fabric (large pieces and solids or tame prints preferred) and whatever notions you may have. I threw in a large spool of thread (the Gutermann 1000 meter ones), a lot of buttons, and machine and hand-sewing needles. I made the simple needle book by stapling a square of fleece (flannel would be better but I didn't have any) into a folded piece of paper. Tie it all up with a ribbon so the bundle can be removed from the box and stay in one piece and send it off. For ideas, check out the What to Send page and the flickr photos people have uploaded (be sure to use the tag "iraqibundlesoflove" on your flickr photos).

I picked up two boxes from the Post Office (thank goodness there is one right next to the metro!) and it took me about an hour to select my fabrics, round up the notions, and build the bundle. I would have preferred to send more thread and maybe a seam ripper or thread snips in each, but with my limited mobility I haven't been able to make it to a fabric store.

I am so thrilled to be able to share some of my bounty with Iraqi women who have nothing, women who have probably not felt like America has done a lot for them. There are very few ways in which the average American can say to the average Iraqi, "We are all sisters under the skin." This is one remarkable way. Last year they received and distributed 3445 bundles. So far this year they've received 26.

You have until next Friday, October 1 to get your bundle in the mail.

Start packing.