Alternative Finish for Sleeveless Lined Bodice

A while back I published my all-machine clean-finish bodice lining tutorial. I have used this method on every sleeveless dress and top I've made for the past several years, but when it came to my Seersucker Social dress, it wasn't going to work.

The all-machine method requires three open seams:  two side seams and a front or back.  Burda 05-2011-108 is drafted with a side panel rather than a side seam.  While you could theoretically leave the side front or side back seam unsewn, there would just be too much fabric to pull through the strap tunnels (especially the home dec fabric I was using).  The method generally prescribed by the Big 4 is nonsense.  Here is the alternative to the all-machine finish.



I lined the bodice of this dress with an Ikea Knoppa sheet, a lightweight cotton-poly batiste (and only $1.99 for the sheet!). Because my fabric was lightweight, I fused strips of interfacing to the neckline and armscye (a little hard to see because it's white-on-white).

 As with the all-machine method, trim a scant 1/8 inch from the edges of the neckline and armscye on the lining to make it slightly smaller than the fashion fabric.

Sew the side seams on the bodice and lining, or, in this case, side panel seams.  This will also work for a pattern with no center back seam (I think--I am terrible with the 3D mind, but as far as I can work out it should be fine).

Once your lining and fashion fabric are assembled, sew the lining to the fashion fabric, right sides together, along the armscye and neckline.  Leave unsewn for two inches from the shoulder seam.

Turn the lining right side out.  You can see here the unsewn neckline and armscye edges leading to the shoulder seam.  I found it useful to finish the edges of the shoulder seams at this point.

Next, sew the shoulder seams.  Treating the lining and fashion fabric, separately, place them right sides together.  Stitch and press.  This is why you need the extra two inches leading up to the shoulder seams, so you have room to maneuver the shoulders right sides together.




Turn the shoulder seams to the inside and press the seams allowances of the lining and fashion fabric in place.  You can see how close it is to done here.

The seam ripper illustrates the part of the seam that is open.  This is that two inches (minus shoulder seam allowance) that you left open at the top of the shoulder.











Now all you have left is a little bit of easy hand stitching. I use a small whipstitch.

With the lining trimmed slightly smaller than the fashion fabric, it automatically turns under more and is easily hidden.  Both my fabrics pressed so well I didn't even need to pin.

I timed it, and the hand-sewing of these little bits of the shoulder took less than 10 minutes. 



And here is your completed finish (the shoulder seam is obscured by my bra strap keeper, sorry about that).  *Almost* as quick and easy as the all-machine finish, and does not involve any crazy steps or visible hand-stitching.

Burda 05-2011-108, Panel Princess Dress: The Muslins

I spent a lot of time on this dress, Burda 05-2011-108 (available for purchase from BurdaStyle at the link--I am not affiliated or compensated, just trying to be helpful), so I have a lot to say!  I realized it will make waaaaaay too long of a post to say it all at once, so bear with me.



I made not one, but two bodice muslins.  However, before I even started the muslins I narrowed the neckline and widened the shoulder strap, as you can see at left.

As drafted that shoulder is so narrow that it wouldn't cover a bra strap, not to mention would be a nightmare to line.








I also made a small bust adjustment by flattening the curve on the side panel piece. I found it very helpful in working with this side panel piece (no side seam) to mark the front and the back of it. I wrote on the pattern piece, and also added a notch at the back so that I would have no trouble on the cut pieces.

 




I knew to expect the neckline to be too wide, both from the photos in the magazine and from the reviews on Pattern Review. I'm not really sure why Burda does this. I made a dress several years ago (never got around to reviewing it) that had the same problem. Looking back at the magazine photo I could see that's how the dress was drafted? I honestly don't know if it's a drafting error or a design feature. I'm not sure in what universe a gaping neckline is a design feature, but I think it's clear that none of us live in Burda's universe.







I also found I needed just a touch more room in the upper back.  It's not totally evident in the photo, but it was pretty tight across the latissimus with some impeded movement.  A Broad Back Adjustment is normal for me so I expected it.

The back neckline was just as gapey as the front.












Here you can see where I have redrawn the shoulder straps closer into the neckline--I simply moved the shoulder straps inward.




You can also see my Broad Back Adjustment on the upper back piece, extending from the armscye.















  Here you can see my Broad Back Adjustment on the side piece. I added a little width to the side panel at the top of the back seam.

I also added to the side seams on both the bodice and skirt, but in fitting the actual dress ended up taking that width out.  My muslin fabric was more tightly woven than the fashion fabric, and adding the skirt may have made a difference in fit.










Here is Muslin 2, much improved!  I found the front neckline still a little bit gapey, which is not evident in the photo because I am standing up unnaturally straight.













The back is much more comfortable with the added room.  The pull lines you could see a little bit of in the first muslin are gone.

The back neckline looks good, too.  No more gaping.  (Why, Burda, why?)










In addition to narrowing the front neckline just a little bit more (you can see the three lines in the photo at left--I ended up narrowing the neckline by over 1 inch).

I also lowered the neckline. A high neckline is just not flattering on my short, flat-chested self. The neckline is lowered two inches from its original draft.

Now it was time to undertake the truly arduous process of cutting the fabric.  What's worse than stripes?  Zigzag stripes.  Worse than plaid, even.



All photos are here.  You can read about how I lined the bodice here and construction details of the real dress here.  The pattern review is here.

Bicycle Bloomers

Most of my biking is casual city biking for transportation.  I am in a skirt or dress 95% of the time in winter and 100% of the time in summer.  To keep the creepers slightly at bay (people still try to stare up your skirt, no matter what, ugh), I always have something on underneath, usually bike shorts.  Bike shorts are fine for winter, but for summer when every little bit of extra clothing counts, I've been wanting to make bloomers.  I finally got around to them for the Seersucker Social, woot!




I remembered seeing an elastic waist short pattern recently so I pulled out Burda 03-2012-114 (available for download from BurdaStyle at the link).  They would require a little redrafting because the front laps over the back to create a petal-effect at the side hem, while I just wanted a plain side seam.











So I compared the pattern pieces with Burda 06-2011-111 (you have to scroll through to get to the shorts in the German Burda archive, f you very much BurdaStyle), which I made previously as my Adventure Shorts, and found that the front of the elastic waist shorts was about 3 inches wider at the side seam, while the back piece was the same size.  Odd.  The Adventure Shorts fit well, so I just pinned them to my fabric (a cotton/poly batiste Ikea Knoppa sheet) and cut the front 3 inches wider at the side seam.  Any pattern that closes with a zipper will need extra room at the side seams when converted to an elastic waist so that you can pull them over the hips.

The fit was just what I was looking for.





I added about 1.5 inches at the top/waistline in cutting the front and back, as the original pattern is drafted with a waistband.  But after stitching them together, I realized that I wanted the bloomers to sit well below the waist so they would not add bulk when worn under dresses with a fitted waist.  I ended up chopping them down to where they were probably the height they were originally drafted.

I cut them with quite a long inseam, but ended up cutting them to a very short 2 inch inseam.  If my lace was a narrower, I would have made them longer.

I finished the lower edge with a serger rolled hem and then stitched my lace in place.  I got this cotton lace from Kashi at Metro Textiles several years ago for $1/yd (last seen in this 2009 project).  It's lovely but not at all durable so I don't know how long these bloomers will last.  If you make these, avoid polyester lace, which is very scratchy.  Even the cotton lace is not that comfortable for walking long distances off the bike.

I finished the waistline with an elastic casing (leaving the darts/pleats in the pattern unsewn), and used elastic thread in the bobbin to shir the leg openings.  To make it easy to tell front from back, I sewed a little bow at the center front waist.

These bloomers are only good for short city rides--they provide no padding, obviously, and they also do not protect your inner thigh from the saddle as they are too short for that.  But they are quite cool!

All photos are here.  Sorry for the disembodied photos with bike shorts underneath--I expect to spend the next several days blocking flickr nasties even with these thoroughly unexciting pics.

Seersucker Social 2012

It was a weekend of biking and extravaganza!  Saturday was the Dandies and Quaintrelles Seersucker Social.  You may remember the Tweed Ride Cidell and I did in the Fall.  The Spring version is a garden party.  I was out of town for it last year so this was my first time.

Unfortunately, I had a terrible cold and made the HUGE mistake of trying to take medicine for it Friday night and ended up literally not sleeping at all.  No decongestants ever again for me.  Ever.  So I wasn't feeling great but was determined to join the party.

I didn't get any photos of actual biking (we did the long ride--a little over 8 miles), but I think this photo proves that biking was involved!  There were hundreds and hundreds of bikes parked all over.











After meeting up at Ft. Reno Park and wending our way through Upper Northwest Washington, DC, we ended up at the Hillwood Estate, the home of Post cereal heir Marjorie Merriweather Post.  It was my first time to visit the estate and it is just gorgeous.  Unfortunately, I didn't explore too much because I was pretty much dead on a picnic blanket the whole time, but there are a few photos in my flickr set.






Picnicking was the main event, with food trucks if you hadn't brought your own and St. Germain cocktails available for purchase.

There were also activities, if that fit your fancy.  There was a band with swing dancing, the wandering violinist to the right, croquet, hula hooping, and golf putting, in addition to just wandering the grounds.













One of the great things about the Tweed Ride and Seersucker Social is the opportunity to wear a hat!

In case you didn't have a chance to get one, they had a hat-making table with all kinds of fun papers to form into a suitable head-covering.
















I had much fun designing my look, and even got to bust out some of my vintage gloves.















 I also finally got around to making bike bloomers.  I've been meaning to do it for ages, as they will be much cooler than wearing bike shorts under my dresses all the time, as I do now.  You can read more about them here.


























































And here is the complete look!  Reviews to follow on the various components.  Thanks Cidell for joining me!  This wasn't all our biking for the weekend--On Sunday we rode 25 miles in Baltimore's Tour Dem Parks, Hon event.  But that is a story for another day...

All photos are here.  The flickr pool of all photos from the Social is here.

Simplicity 2053, Side Pleat Dress

Several patterns have come out the past couple of years with side pleats, and I have most of them.  However, when I saw Simplicity 2053 had a waist seam, I had to add yet another version of this pattern to my collection.  A waist seam is a necessity for my pear-shaped body.

I planned this pattern for a mustard-colored wool I bought from Fabric Mart a couple years ago, but I wanted to test out the pattern first before cutting into my special fabric.  I got this fabulous Michael Kors cotton at the fabric swap portion of the DC-area Pattern Review meetup in November, and it was perfect. 


As part of my pattern-testing, I added muslin sleeves to the bodice.  I don't like the weird sleeve that comes with the pattern so I used my generic Burda woven sleeve.  It would need a little bit of sleeve-cap reduction, but otherwise fit into the armscye fine.

I also found that the neckline was very high as drafted.  You can see the yellow pin marking a more flattering height for the neckline.







This pattern does not come with a lining.  I hate facings and use a lining instead wherever it is possible.

In this case it was a little tricky, because I didn't want to just duplicate the pattern in lining--the pleats add a good deal of bulk and I didn't need to double that.

Instead, I used the front bodice and skirt pattern from New Look 6968 as the front lining.  S2053's bodice is slightly longer (and the skirt slightly shorter at the waist) than NL 6968.

The neckline and armscye required minimal reshaping.  I traced them from the from the non-pleat side of the S2053 bodice front.  Once these small tweaks were made, the lining fit the fashion fabric perfectly.

I used a contrast cotton for the bodice lining (and slippery rayon for the skirt lining).  This piece was a leftover from a top I made years ago, before my discovery of Pattern Review so no photos.  It had been in and out of the donation bag about a dozen times.  I still liked the print, but could never imagine a project for it.  I am so glad I pulled it out of the donation bag in the nick of time before my last giveaway, because I just love it for the lining!  I used my all-machine clean-finish bodice lining tutorial method.







The skirt as drafted was too long for me, something I should know by now!  Normally it's not an issue, but this dress requires a walking slit in the back.  The extensions for the slit started too low for me once the skirt was at a flattering length.  I just had to stitch the extensions in place.  Luckily, it's only ugly on the inside.  You would never guess there was a problem from the outside.








This fabric was high quality but incredibly frustrating.  It has subtle stripes, which required matching. Stripe-matching on its own is a pain, but in this instance the stripes disappeared as you got closer to the fabric.  So when I got close enough to the fabric to pin it, I could no longer see the stripes.  Aiyee!!!  Luckily, their subtlety and the pleats that made stripe-matching impossible along one side seam helped me not to be too stressed.  I did pretty good at the zipper and the straight side seam.











I am glad I made this pattern in the test fabric before moving on to my special wool.



While I do like the dress, the pleats are not my most flattering look.  They open up over the belly and there is something weird going on at the bust (I did not do a small bust adjustment because it would have interfered with the pleats--I would have had to narrow the ones nearest the bust).  I'm also not crazy about the pleats opening upward; it looks like they are there to hold keys and loose change. (To answer Little Hunting Creek: The pattern would require some annoyingly extensive redrafting to get them to face downward because it is drafted with the pleat extensions and such to go upward.) So I will have to find a different pattern for the yellow wool.

I cut my usual Simplicity sizes, a 6 at the shoulders and bust, 10-12ish at the waist, and 12-14ish at the hip.  This is cut much more snugly than your usual Simplicity, so the resulting dress is quite fitted, much more than I'm used to.  I think the close fit is flattering, but also a little uncomfortable.  There is no margin of error for a big meal in this dress!

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.