Vogue 1351: the full report

I love to travel, and I love to stay home too.  This time I'm chez moi for my vacation.  I love love love spring and summer.  It is a joy to be home this week! (btw, why are people afraid of retiring? This is great!   Go to the gym for 8am class, go to the supermarket at 9:30, no one is there, no lines at the checkout, take a nap after lunch, sew in the afternoon, eat dinner outside, bliss!!)

I started this dress, Vogue 1351, on Monday night and finished it up last night.   I think this was a 15 hour dress. I sewed a 14 in the bust grading to a 12 in the waist and hips (I know, usually it's the reverse, but it seemed to work for the muslin, which I had cut as 14 originally and then sewed down to a 12 except in the bust).


Beth of SunnyGal Studio was the first person to put this on the map for me, and I bought it right away during a BMV pattern sale.  Like Beth, I kind of can't believe I actually sewed a pattern during the season in which it was released!

They included this brochure of their summer patterns

Pretty neat, huh?
And it had some close-up pix of 1351:

I tried to replicate the pose, but without a red bobbed wig and crazy shoes, it's not the same:

Now I realize I'n not even looking the right way!  But I think the crazy Vogue poses are fun.  Beats a sketch on the front of an envelope every time.
I really enjoy my leaping shots, though.  I might have to do that for every outfit.  Who wants to leap with me??

Requisite shots:
Back (is it too short? I cut an inch off)




I think I like it best with the red belt...



Ok, I'm fessing up about the cowl.  I tried to raise it using a technique I blogged about in the spring, but somehow I messed it up.  I'm not going to show you what I did this time, since I messed it up and I'm not really sure where I messed it up.  I had tried it on my muslin but in the real deal it wasn't the same.   So the neckline at the shoulders is not like what's on the pattern envelope.  The net effect is that the shoulder seam is forward on the dress, and the overall neckline there is a little strange. BUT it doesn't look as bad as I thought it did two nights ago.  It's a "design feature", right???   And of course it is not as deep as it was as I took out about 1.25 inches each side...If I hadn't done that, the cowl would be too low for my tastes and I would have been staring at my chest all day and readjusting the cowl constantly.

I sewed with 1/4" SA for the back neck and armholes, so there is more coverage overall.
Especially for armpits.
Sewing with 1/4" SA is what Janet Pray does for much of her Craftsy class, so I felt that was legit and it bought me extra coverage at the same time.


Invisible zip is invisible.

Blind hem is blind.

The fabric is from Kashi (Metro Textiles) in NYC. Maria (velosewer) and I each bought a few yards of it when we met up in June. The fabric is totally synthetic, so no wrinkles, which as you may know is a life goal of mine, yay!  As for being synthetic, the fabric doesn't feel too plastic-y nor rough.   I'm not sure how much it was per yard, but knowing Kashi, I'd say $8 a yard or less. The spongy texture is great. It's navy in color. I bought two yards. Kashi has generous cuts, and I have about 3/4 of it leftover, enough to make a skirt. (it's ~60" wide).



Oh!  and it's supposed to be cut on the bias, but I didn't, because of the horizontal lines in the fabric.

The lining is a black silk/cotton blend voile and was a splurge at $18 a yard at Mood. I bought it with Mary during MPB Day, specifically to line a different dress and a skirt. Well, um, it's lining this dress now.  It was not 60" wide, so this took about 2 of the 3 yards I bought.   I know I'm a bad blogger for not ironing the lining after putting it in. I did iron the seams but after sewing the lining to the dress, I wasn't sure about ironing the synthetic fabric.

I'm sure you'll forgive me.

Here you can see how the front cowl edge is sewn to the lining, which *is* very clever.  The cowl is not going to flop out, that's for sure.

Because I cut an inch off the bottom of my dress, and I knew I was going to use my rolled hem foot to finish the edge of the lining, I cut an inch and a half off the lining--I didn't need to cut off that much.  Oh well.  It would be nice if the lining was a bit longer.

I used the slipstitching technique that Diana Rupp writes about in her book SEW Sew Everything Workshop, it's also in her Craftsy class Sewing Studio, for sewing the lining to the invisible zip.

The lining feels FANTASTIC.  Silk/cotton blend is a dream.  I have been afraid of silk, thinking it's not machine washable, but this washed up fine.  I even put it in the dryer, still fine (btw I never dry dresses in the dryer so this will be washed in the washing machine and then line dried).

So, like my jeans and another woven dress this spring, I embroidered my name and the date and a little heart into the lining before sewing the lining to the dress.  I drew it on with chalk first, then stitched right over it.
\
Trumbelina did something similar recently, except she really knows how to embroider, and I'm just winging it.  I love her little bird.


I wore this dress out today for lunch with my parents and my 97 year old great aunt Iris.

Overall I like it! I really like the fit. And I'm warming to the cowl.


Then I went to the Princeton Farmer's Market...Today I got two bunches of cosmos. Basically I want every flower he sells but I'm trying to restrain myself to two bunches.

Congrats if you made it this far!

Questions:

1. Red belt or no belt?
2. Is it too short?
3. Is the neckline too weird?
4. Will you leap with me?

Discuss!
and Be well!

V1351: leaping

The mega post about V1351 is coming.
In the meantime there's the above, leaping.
And also this:


Be well!

V1351 done, sneak peek

Thank you Faye, Kathy, and sewmuch2learn, for saying you didn't see anything wrong with the cowl and/or encouraging me to continue on.

It is done.
It has a navy exterior of synthetic origin (Kashi, with Maria, 6/14/13) with a black silk/cotton voile lining (Mood, with Mary, MPB Day 2013).
Invisible side zip.

Full report to come.

Be well!

V1351 in progress

I don't know about this cowl... on my muslin it was too low, so I raised it on the muslin and thought it was ok there, so that would be ok here...but I kind of hate the way it is draping.

Maybe I'll feel better about it in the morning....
Otherwise I might change the cowl into pleats or something....

S9776 Tank 2: update and construction details

Thanks for your comments on my last post---I love those action shots!

I wore the second tank to the gym last night for balletone (45 min of toning using ballet moves).  I figured the class was low impact enough that if the tank wasn't comfy or was any trouble, I could deal with it.




I am happy to report that it was totally fine!  My classmate Sara, who is a huge cheerleader for my sewing, said it was super cute. I thought so too, and did not bother me in any way. It is still not officially hemmed, but I thought I'd wait and get some stretch lace to hem it with.  The pink underlining was creeping out periodically, but I think cutting that back a bit will help, plus sewing down a stretch lace hem will help too.  :)

I *love* how stretchy it is. The lace  has 50% stretch in both the crosswise grain and length of grain. The pink jersey underneath has similar stretch.

So, I definitely want to make more of these tanks for the gym! I also want to try to copy my favorite rib knit tank.

So here are some general construction notes.
As the fabric went through my machine, it was getting all scrunched up for some reason. It wasn't gathering the thread, just getting bunched up. It turned out to not mean anything! Just a gentle tug on the fabric released the "gathering". Woot!  It is actually quite easy to sew stretch lace...and fun too!

That's my new teflon presser foot.  I read in a comment on someone's PR review of a knit dress that a teflon foot can help with sewing knits.

The pattern has a dart, which was pretty cool and easy to do.

I thought I'd show you how I mark darts using wax tracing paper. This is on my muslin, that was not underlined. For my underlined tank, I did this on the pink knit, not the lace.

I learned about this method through The Seasoned Homemaker blog, specifically this post.  That post also shows how large the wax tracing paper is!!!  It's HUGE!

So I cut out my front piece, then took a strip of wax tracing paper (I had cut this strip from the huge sheet of wax tracing paper. This paper I bought from the source The Seasoned Homemaker recommends, but I've since seen it at other places, including Sunni's shop and also Mood in store).

Anyhoo, I sort of wrapped the wax paper around the fabric where the dart would go:

and then I traced with a spiky tracing wheel.   It's actually tracing onto both sides of the fabric (which I had placed on the fold) at the same time--pretty cool huh?

Thee dart looks like this:


When I trace the dart, I use a spiky tracing wheel and that little triangular quilter's ruler.  I love that little ruler--it is the best thing to use when cutting smaller straight lines, like shoulder seams, with a rotary cutter.  PERFECT!

Argh!  I photographed my smooth tracing wheel, but I use the spiky one.

Pretty easy and simple.  I really don't like the chalk or wax strips of tracing paper from Joann's.  The big pieces of wax paper are much higher quality!!  It really makes a difference, so much less frustration.  I just run my wheel over the line twice and it looks great.  You do need to be careful with the wax paper, though--I have accidentally marked clothing I was wearing!  and it doesn't always come out--I have heard that it irons out but that wasn't the case with one of my garments...

Oh, the pic above also shows how much I curved the front piece side seam. Here's how much I curved the back piece side seam:


It's a pretty significant amount.

Oh, and the FOE for this black/pink tank was from the ASE in 2010!  Long time resident of my stash.  Felt a little softer than the FOE from Pacific Trimming but still worked great!

I'm excited to make more stretch lace tanks!  Just have to get more stretch lace fabric, though.

Here's the pattern envelope:

All the handwritten notes are from 2007:
Be well!

S9776: Tank 1 & tank 2 action shots

Here's tank 1.  It's the muslin from last night, but fixed now!  This morning I chopped off the FOE and cut the points closer to my center, so the straps wouldn't be so far away, then sewed more FOE on...it's the FOE I bought at Pacific Trimming during MPB Day a week ago.

I looooove it!  and it's much more comfy now.


I also shaped the side seams. A lot. Shaping the side seams took care of the sway back. Interesting.

I hemmed it with a 1" hem. I have two RTW stretch lace tanks, but the hem was finished with lace. I didn't have exactly what I wanted in stash.  I do have some scalloped stretch lace that is currently sewn to something else...I might unpick that.


So instead of cleaning the bathrooms and tidying up my sewing room and vacuuming (btw, Hal still vacuums downstairs, but I vacuum upstairs. Do you miss my posts with Hal?) I started my second tank. This one is lined (the one above is totally see-through; the white is Izzy).

I underlined with pink jersey from PR weekend NYC 2012, that I bought at Chic Fabrics, that was as stretchy as the lace, cross wise and length wise.


Does it look like lingerie?
Does it look better with white instead of pink?
What I'm getting at, is I wanted to make a tank to wear to the gym. Does this look too much like lingerie?
(It still needs a hem, by the way.)




Here is a typical gym outfit for me, , two ponys, sneakers, and stretchy pants...but with the pink and black lace tank. What do you think?

Here's a little closer:

I wanted to get an action shot of me leaping:
 
Or jumping:

But it's too hard.

Close!

I especially like this one, am I imitating King Kong?

Princeton Farmers Market flowers...Tom added these to my purchase this week--called lion's tail. I have never seen anything like this before. The green "pods" are extremely prickly, but the "tails" are quite soft.  Each pod had just a few tails the first day, but a whole bunch of tails popped out in the last 24 hours or so.



Anyhoo, if I had more of that stretch lace I would make another tank lined in white or cream, but since I don't and since I bought that lace in San Diego during fabric shopping with Elizabeth this spring, I don't have easy access to more. Hmmm....guess I'll just have to go back to San Diego!!

Be well!