Ottobre 03/2011-12 sort of

A few days ago, Myra pulled some fabric out of my stash and insisted I make her a dress. I love that my children see clothes when presented with fabric. It makes me happy.

I did mean for it to be a dress. You know when they say measure twice and cut once. Well, I may have only measured once...

The pattern is from the 03/2011 issue of Ottobre. I used the "Happy Animals" lap tee (#12) and shortened it to her waist, then added a gathered skirt. Which I should have made longer. So it could have been a dress. Oh well, it's a darn cute tunic.  Can you see the other stupid thing I did?

Here is the back. Can you see it now? I bet Sascha knows... So, aside from my stupidity (if you couldn't figure it out, I sewed the lap backwards - it's supposed to lap over in the front), Myra really loves her new tunic, and I really enjoyed sewing it. See all that binding?? My coverstitch machine did it all in about 20 minutes, counting setup and me figuring it out. Seriously amazing and awesome!!! I'm still figuring out the ins and outs of the binder, since it came without any instructions. Thanks goodness for Debbie and Belinda's amazing tutorials!! I'll post a little of what I learned in a couple of days, once I've gotten some good pictures and figured a couple more things out.

'Til then, we'll be avoiding the paparazzi.

Burda 7625

This Burda pattern has been teasing me from my pattern drawers since it came home with me. I just love the fun style lines.

The dolman sleeve is very popular right now, but tops with this sleeve tend to lack waist definition, which is so not a good look for me. This one has the sleeve stop at the empire line and is fitted through the waist. Much more flattering to this busty gal.

The pattern is Burda 7625. It was a pretty easy pattern to sew, despite the interesting details. I also love that Burda actually writes patterns for knits in a way that makes sense. The Big 4 seems to think that knits and wovens can be sewn the same way. Crazy talk. This pattern included instructions for stabilizing the shoulders with fusible tape and the back empire line with elastic. Very nice. The instructions made good sense and the diagrams were helpful. Overall an excellent pattern. The only thing I thought was odd was the front tab attachment. The instructions have you machine stitch one side, then hand sew the other side. I don't know about you, but my hand sewing looks very little like my machine sewing. I sewed on both sides by machine. It required some careful fabric positioning, but it worked.

One of the things I love about this pattern is the back. The lower panel is darted for a very close fit, but without looking too tight. I'm generally not a fan of darts in a knit top, but these are great.

From the side, you can see how it follows the curve of my back, but without revealing any untoward lumps and bumps. I actually didn't make any alterations for my full bust. The front gathers allow for a lot of extra space up there, so it fits well without the FBA, but I don't have as many gathers as the model on the pattern envelope. The fabric is a thinnish ITY from FFC. It's actually a pretty true red, but I couldn't get my camera to capture it well. It's reading as pink, but it really isn't pink at all.

The only alterations that I made were to lengthen the top 3 inches, and to raise the neckline. Oh, Burda and those necklines... Fortunately, this is easily done without any pattern adjustments. Center front of the upper bodice is seamed and self faced. for a higher neckline, you just have to seam it higher! I think this pattern is a winner, and I'm thinking I may make it up again in a grey rayon jersey that I've been hoarding.

Jalie 2921

Whew, I am so glad Blogger is back up! I was going crazy! Since I got to sew all day yesterday, I have a ton of things to show you. First up is a tee I actually stitched up a couple of weeks ago, but was waiting on the coverstitch to hem.

The pattern is Jalie 2921. (If you don't want to deal with shipping from Canada, you can also get it here and here.) This is such a fun pattern to sew! As many have said in PR reviews, the construction is really interesting and the instructions are sort of strange until you actually do it. You basically sew up the shoulder seams, sew on the collar/scarf, then roll the whole shirt up inside the scarf and stitch it closed, leaving a gap for turning. It doesn't look like it's going to work, but it does, and encloses all the seams beautifully.

Here it is with the scarf untied. The fabric I used is a thin cotton lycra jersey. It wasn't the easiest to sew, as it curled like crazy, which is tricky with Jalie's 1/4 inch seam allowances. Fit-wise, I used the size that corresponds to my high bust (an S), and then graded out to my full bust size (a U)  from the underarm, tapering back to the S at the waist. I altered the front pattern piece only.

Here is what that looked like. I'm pointing at the original pattern line so you can see where I graded it out. Since that altered the front armscye, I also had to alter the sleeve to fit.

Jalie's sleeve is symmetrical front to back and can be cut on the fold, but since I only altered the front armscye, I only needed to alter the front sleeve. I traced the back sleeve in the size S, then for the front, traced the sleeve cap at the size S, but extended it out to the line for size U. I notched the front so that I would remember which was which when constructing the top. When I sewed it together, I eased the front into the back, concentrating the easing around my bust point so that I would have the added fullness where I needed it.

You can't tell at all that there is a length mismatch on the side seam. I'm so pleased with the way this fits, I think this will be my new FBA method for knit tops, particularly Jalie tops.

Of course, this gave me a chance to try out the narrow coverstitch. It's so pretty! The capability of doing the 1/8 inch coverstitch was what decided me in terms of which machine to buy. The Brother does it and the comparably priced Janome doesn't. Since I think this is the stitch I will use most, that made the decision a total no brainer, and so far, I am really happy with my machine.

Thank you!

I have been a seriously blessed girl this week! My coverstitch machine is here and happily installed, and I won 2 giveaways from a couple of seriously awesome fellow bloggers.

From Heather of Heatherty Featherty I received this wonderful knitting book. I've seriously wanted this one for a while. Now I can take it out of my amazon cart. The projects are so beautiful. I've already picked out a few I want to cast on NOW NOW NOW!

The from Jane M of Lucky Sew and Sew I received these two gorgeous vintage Designer Vogue patterns. How fabulous are they?! The Pierre Cardin jacket will be so wonderful once fall hits in Salt Lake. I'm seeing it in a deep purple ponte knit. Yummy!
Thank you both so much!
Now, I'm off to sew! Mitch is keeping the monkies under control today, so I get to sew all day long!! I'll have some fun things to show you soon. If you are following me on Flickr, you might get a preview...

New Look 6641 and My New Toy!!

It came!!  Yay for Ken's Sew & Vac! They were totally great about replacing the coverstitch machine, and it is already here!!

Here it is, along with the other members of the family, except my Singer Touch & Sew. She lives in her table. On the monitor is Belinda's amazing tutorial for pulling the top threads to the back.

Since I've been waiting for her a while, I already had a couple of projects ready to go. Logan wears pretty much nothing but knit shorts and tees shirts, so I stitched up a couple of pairs of easy knit shorts from New Look 6641.

Not too exciting, but needed. Since I am learning this as I go, I decided to try two different stitches, and in two different applications. For both pairs I used the coverstitch to finish the elastic waistband, and to hem.

Here is the three needle/four thread coverstitch on both hem and waistband. The machine purred right through all of those layers of the waistband, including elastic with no difficulty at all.

On the striped pair, I used the two needle/three thread coverstitch. Again, it breezed through without any difficulty. I still have to try out the narrow two needle and the chain stitch. And there is the binder attachment I got... Oh, I love my new toy!! I may be sewing a lot of knits for a bit.