Ottobre 03/2016-25, the Paper plane dress

One day last month, Myra had a rough day at school. My Ottobre magazine happened to arrive that day, so a mix of chocolate and retail therapy was clearly in order. I let Myra pick a few favorites from the Kitschy Coo web shop and make some plans for summer sewing. She chose this fun print with just this dress in mind.

This is pattern # 25 from the 03/2016 issue of Ottobre. It's a drop waist dress with a short, semicircular skirt and gathered flutter sleeves. The sleeves are finished with a rolled edge and the neckline is bound and then darted into a v shape.

The fabric is a cotton-lycra jersey from Kitschy Coo and the binding is interlock from Chez Ami. The pink in the print was a perfect match for the binding fabric! I love it when the stash comes through!

One interesting feature of the pattern is that the front and back are the same pattern pieces, so it can be worn in either direction. Myra prefers the bird side, but if she were in a more floral mood, she could wear it that way too! The v neckline is repeated on both sides, which is a pretty detail in back.

My only real beef with the pattern is how very short the skirt is! The picture in the magazine shows a just above the knee length and Myra isn't quite as tall as the size I made her, so it should have been plenty long. The pattern piece looked short to me, so I added an inch to the length, which turned out to be a good thing or this would have been indecent!

Despite the length, Myra loves her new dress and has already requested another, although she'd like it to be a bit longer next time. Yes, ma'am.

Jalie 2918 and heat transfer vinyl

In March I made Mitch a tee, and the pattern dissapointed me in several ways, so I decided to try the Jalie Men's tee pattern, with my trial run being in a somewhat smaller size...

And it also gave me a chance to try out Heat Transfer Vinyl in my Cricut! How fun is that?!

First let's chat about the pattern. Overall, it's good. I've generally found Jalie to have consistently good quality patterns and this was no exception. It went together well. The fit is slim and modern with a nice sleeve length and a comfortable neckline.

On Duncan (who had already gotten himself covered in mud before he even made it to school), you can see the nice fit. The neckband is slim without any bulkiness and fit into the neckline well. When I initially put the shirt on him, I thought it might  be a bit too long, but in wearing, I think it's just right. RTW shirts tend to be shorter, but I like this length better, It keeps his belly covered, which RTW doesn't always.

In this pic you can kind of see my one complaint about the drafting. The sleeve and armscye are symmetrical front to back. It's not an absolute dealbreaker in an unfitted tee, but the sleeve would hang more smoothly if it was shaped properly. I haven't yet found a men's tee pattern with a properly drafted sleeve, so maybe our guys are just used to their clothes not fitting...

The other fun part of this project was the decal! If you follow me on IG, then you know what a maniac Duncan can be, so when I saw this design on a Facebook page I follow, I knew Duncan had to have it. I used my Cricut to cut the decal from heat transfer vinyl(HTV) and ironed it onto the shirt front before assembling the shirt. It was super easy and I LOVE the way it turned out! Since I don't have a heat press, I used my regular iron. You do have to use a lot of pressure, so instead of pressing it on my ironing board, I used a cookie sheet, which in addition to being a hard surface, also reflects the heat back onto the shirt, strengthening the bond onto the fabric.

Despite the sleeve issue, I think this pattern overall is a win. And I will definitely be working more with HTV! So fun, so easy and such a professional looking result!