HP Cosmopolitan Dress with scarf sleeves May 2, 2008

So, here is the completed HP Cosmopolitan dress! I am currently looking for a job and this dress will work nicely in a professional environment. South Florida is very casual - even my best friend who is a senior partner in a law firm only wears suits for court. I plan on wearing it with these very comfortable, conservative Via Spiga pumps but to rock it out a little I added a beautiful mabe pearl necklace on a black leather choker. All-out conservative is just not me!

This weekend I will be posting a quickie tutorial on how to finish the neckline with bands - so easy! so fast!

You can see how easily this dress could also go out to dinner after work with a simple change of shoes! For more information about the fabrics I used, please visit my Behind The Seams blog.

Mitered Hem - HP Cosmopolitan Dress April 30, 2008

I just adore the Hot Patterns Deco Vibe Cosmopolitan Dress and have made it several times. The scarf-style shorter sleeve is especially nice because it is covered up yet still cool enough for our steamy South Florida weather.

To achieve a really nice, neat finish on this type of sleeve it is necessary to miter the hem. This is extremely easy to do and, in my opinion, best worked out on the pattern before the garment is cut. Do this once and you’ll never have to think about it again!

The first step is to mark the hemline at the bottom of the sleeve and on the slit - in this case, 5/8″.

Next, fold up one hem allowance,

then the other. You can already see how much bulk you would need to deal with here if you were to not miter the hem.

Draw a line from the point where the hems intersect to the foldline (point). Carefully lift the top layer and mark a dot at the intersection on the underlayer.

Here I have drawn both lines from hem intersection to foldline in red. These are the seamlines.

You will need to add a seam allowance - I have added 1/4″ here.

Then trim off the excess beyond the seam allowance.

After finishing the hem edges as desired (I’ve just serged) simply line up these two edges and sew your 1/4″ seam.

Trim away the bulk at the point - this is especially important on a very peaked hem such as this.

Here is the finished miter, before pressing. Your point presser comes in really handy for pressing the seam open before turning. If you don’t have one you can use your bamboo point turner. It’s neat, bulk-free and very easy to do! I’ll post a photo of the completed dress as soon as I finish up.

Spring is Here! April 10, 2008

Today I was meeeting a friend for lunch and wore my Hot Patterns Geisha Girl Jacket.

Hot Patterns Geisha Girl Jacket March 18, 2008

Here she is - there is not too much to say in addition to the review on PR, except that I added thin shoulder pads because I’m mouse shouldered. 

One thing I’m still debating is whether or not to add some hand top-stitching on the red side.  I have some soft gray silk buttonhole twist that might be nice.  Will need to ponder that a bit more.

The shoulder pads are stitched to the seam allowance at the shoulder, and tacked to a small pieces of black fusible woven interfacing at the points.  These are ready made, and composed of batting instead of foam. I wanted a pad that would drape softly and identically regardless of what side of the jacket I’m wearing.

I’m very happy with it - it weighs nothing, and it looks as good loose as it does belted because the silk organza interfacing stiffens the edges just enough to flare the jacket away from my body.

Hot Patterns Geisha Girl Jacket March 11, 2008

Believe it or not - I made a muslin.  Not so much for fit, but more for proportion.  Loose styles can be overwhelming so I had be sure this jacket didn’t hang like a sack.  This simple style has come nice dtails.  I like the way the collar stands away from the body and frames the neck, and the length is high hip.

The dropped shoulder was taken up 1/2 inch, and I raised the armhole a bit as well because the muslin was binding across my back.

One thing I have to modify is the construction to make the jacket reversible.  In the original instructions, the facings are on the inside, and the edges are folded under, pressed, and then stitched down.  I’ve moved the facings to the right side, and I really didn’t want to manually fold down the edges all the way around the jacket.  Another thing to factor in was interfacing; a fusible was just tad too stiff, so I used silk organza and the Balloon Applique technique from my holiday dress.  The black silk organza also acts as a soft interfacing, and I will hand fell stitch the facings to the fashion fabric.  This fabric requires a lot of basting; it ravels, snags and pulls easily,and after reading Marji’s blog I think it might even be necktie silk - she’s using a similiar fabric for her latest jacket..

In the full length view above the outer edge of the facing is machine basted, and the inner edge will be hand fell stitched to the fashion fabric.  There’s no lining yet. I need to attach the facing and then I can line it.  The sewing is going fast; the hand finishing will take more time. 

Moving On - A Summer Wardrobe Revamp March 9, 2008

The Girl Scout Leader  wadder dress is in the trash and will be out for pick up in the morning!  I really enjoyed all of the comments and suggestions, but in the end it had to go because I just couldn’t see  myself wearing it under any circumstances.

So - next up -  a revamp of my summer work wardrobe.  Most of the time I go for a three-season work look; Boston can be cool well into April, and my favorite season is Fall anyway.  I love boots, skirts, and light jackets and would dress that way all year if I could.

Summer is problematic; I don’t like hot humid weather, have sun sensitive skin and I loath pantyhose.  Summer is also a short season in Boston, and most people tend to go uber-casual for work because no one wants to bother spending money and energy on clothes that work for just a 12 week period.  I fell into that mindset too, not that I’ll wear Crocs (ack!) but there were days when I  wore way too much Old Navy on a regular basis.

 This has to change!

After giving it some thought, here is my summer work wardrobe criteria:

• No pantyhose; so this means pants, capri’s or longer skirts
• Nothing drapey; I’m SO SICK of the gathered, empire waist, baby doll, Duro looks of the past three years!
• Structured but not tailored because tailored is my regular three season look

 After some stash shopping, I decided to go with the Hot Patterns No Sweat Easy Sew Geisha Girl Jacket and Pants.   The jacket will be a reembroidered Japanese floral cotton with a red silk twill for the facings and belt.  I like the facings on this pattern because I can make the jacket reversible, and the red silk tones down the floral.  The lining will be the same red silk twill, and for the topstitching I may pickstitch the facings with red Delica beads on the red silk side.  I have to thank Gigi for educating me as to the right way to approach florals;  she has often noted they tend to look better on younger women and I totally agree with her.  Fortunately, this floral fabric is more subtle than most, and the red, white and black cross-stitch embroidery adds an interesting surface embellishment.    The pants will just be a nice black polyester for easy care in hot weather. 

Time to trace off the pattern!

Abject Failure March 2, 2008

It’s been  while since I’ve made a wadder, and maybe my sewing room needs one of those signs you see on construction sites: “This Job Site Has Gone _____ Days Without An Accident”. 

 So when I have one, as you can see below, it’s a doozy.  This thing looks like:

• A Girl Scout leader uniform
• I’m seriously channeling the 70’s, but not in a good way
• I’m on St. Patrick’s Day overload

Even with some styling, things don’t improve much:

This is the HotPatterns Plain and Simple Shirtdress, and my orginal version is one of my all time favorite garments.  The great thing about a great dress is that all you need to do put it on; you don’t need to think about coordinating other pieces  as with seaprates and there are no worries about having to constantly tuck in a top.  A dress just is.

Live and learn.  Wadders are part of sewing, and I just need to let go and toss this in the trash.

Holiday 2007 - Final Details December 15, 2007

The party – and my dress – were both huge success; I received many, many compliments!  So here I am:

I lost a few pounds when I was sick a few weeks ago, so the dress is actually a tad large on me.

And as promised, here are details of the interior.  The dress is completely clean finished on the inside.  The main seams are covered with rayon seam binding machine sewn to the seam allowance and hand fell stitched to the organza underlining.  The neck facing has a Hong Kong finish on the edges, and it’s also fell stitched to the organza.

The hem is black lace, and the actual turned up edge is small because I wanted to use as much of the border as I could  Here is a detail of the finished appliqué seam at the side where it meets the regular side seam. 

This above photo shows the side seam with the applique seam below.  This area was hand sewn three times in this order:  the area where the appliqué layers over the cut seam was sewn with a hand overcast, the rayon seam binding was fell stitched and then the appliqué was sewn down from the right side.  In the end this worked really well because it evenly distributes wearing stress as I walk in the dress.

Finally, here is a detail of the beading:

 

The dangles are lengths of 2mm Swarovski crystals and bugles beads capped on the ends with a Swarovski 3mm bicone.  Initially I had planned to just do the picot edge, but two things happened:  (1) I didn’t order enough beads to do the entire neck and sleeves; (2) the picot edging by itself was overwhelmed by the strong color of  the dress.  So I had a creative crisis, and went to my copy of FASHION: A History from the 18^th to the 20^th Century.  Page 372 shows a Callot Soeurs gown from 1911 that has a similar neckline and jet bead embellishment.  It inspired me to add the shoulder and center front embellishment.  The lack of beading at the back is only temporary; this dress makes a strong statement and it can take lots more beading, so I plan to order more Swarovski 2mm beads to finish up the back neckline and the sleeves.

I really encourage every sewist to try at least one project this complex during your sewing life.  Couture techniques are not really difficult; they’re mostly just time consuming.  If you can find the time in your busy life to do a project such as this you will really be proud of the work you’ve done, you will keep huate couture technique alive and you will inspire a new generation of sewists!

Holiday 2007 - Done ! December 14, 2007

I finished up the dress about 30 minutes ago - yee hah!  The party is at 6:00pm, so we’ll be leaving for the Westin in a few hours.  I’ll post a photo of me in the dress later this weekned, along with lots of detailed photos of the final work - it was mostly hand sewing once the main seams were done.  The photos are a pretty good representation of the actual color.

Anyway - here it is:

Also, the pattern is reviewed on PR.

Happy Holidays !  Phyllis

Holiday 2007 – Vogue 8313, Balloon Appliqué Seam November 21, 2007

One thing I love about this fabric is the beautiful floral border, which will run along the hem of the dress. A vertical side seam all the way to the hem would split the lovely pattern, and I wanted to preserve that as much as possible.

So I’m planning to combine two techniques; the “appliqué seam”, and a quilting technique known as “balloon appliqué”. If you have a copy of Couture Sewing Techniques by Claire Shaefffer, go to page 55 and look at the horse to the left on the Schiaparelli “Circus Jacket”. An appliqué seam combines a regular seam and hand appliqué when you want to preserve a shape across a seam.

Claire published an article in the May/June 2004 (#94) issue of Sew Beautiful where she illustrates how to do this technique. I’ve been keen to try it ever since, and this project was perfect except for one problem; this silk brocade ravels instantly and badly, no matter how carefully I handle it. There was no way I’d be able to turn under the edges of the appliqué without shredding the fabric.

After giving it some thought, and remembering that I’ll use a silk organza underlining, I recalled reading years ago about “balloon appliqué”. With this technique you layer a piece of tulle or silk organza on top of a motif and stitch around with tiny stitches - at least 12 per inch. Then carefully cut out the shape leaving a scant margin. Make a slit in the backing and turn the shape inside out - now you can place the shape anywhere you like. Stitching the appliqué is easy because the edges are already turned under.Here is how I combined both techniques:

This shows a thread traced piece of border fabric; the thread tracing is the seam line and extra fabric has been cut around a few motifs:

Layer and baste the silk organza backing fabric. The piece is then pinned vertically and the two layers are basted together:

 

 Remove the pins and stitch only around the motifs:

Trim the motifs up to the regular seam allowance

 

Turn the appliqué – you have just done the balloon appliqué technique. Now align the seam allowance and sew the seam, stopping at the turned out balloon appliqué. Note: There is also a piece of silk organza underlining on the matching pattern piece.

 

 Flip the two pieces over and bring the appliqué to the right side.

 

You’ll see that I will need to finish this raw edge; I’ll probably machine sew a length of rayon seam binding over the raw edge, and then hand fell stitch the edge to the silk organza. Likewise, the edges of the appliqué need to be hand fell stitched to the fashion fabric.

Notes to myself:

• I trimmed too close in a few spots and the fabric has come apart and raveled; I need to watch for that.
• The white edge you see is the silk organza; I suspect the black won’t be noticeable.
• If I see some funny breaks across motifs, I can individually balloon appliqué a full size of a motif on top of another of the same motif.
• On the real dress the front piece will have balloon appliqués seaming that wraps towards the back; I think that’s the most elegant way to use this seam from a design standpoint.
• My hand stitching will need to be strong and minute since there will be stress on this seam while I wear the dress.
• Even though I’ve mocked up the seaming technique; I still have planning to do. I’ll need to figure out the order of construction in advance so I can do the appliqué and hand stitching both inside and out while the dress is still in a partially constructed flat stage. Plus there is a center back invisible zipper to install as well.

Today is prep day for Thanksgiving at our house (15 people) and since I’m still waiting for materials to arrive I’ll have a few days think about the construction.