Monthly Archives: June 2017
Update post – Rhapsody blouse and Lutterloh dress.
I have taken a couple of photos of me wearing the love notions Rhapsody blouse and the Lutterloh dress.
First up is the Rhapsody Blouse, I have given it a good iron, basically I ran it under the tap and then ironed it wet, the fabric is a nightmare to get the creases out.
I difinitely should have made the next size up, you can see in the slightly blurry photo underneath this that the shoulder seam is quite away from my shoulder. This will be fixed by going up a size.
The rest of the fit doesn’t look too bad but I’m wondering if the whole garment might benefit from the extra fabric.
I’m still not keen on the sleeves, the next one I try will probably be the 3/4 sleeve with flared cuff.
Second, the Lutterloh Dress
It does appear to have a slight issue with sliding back, I know that there is a way to fix this, I just have to remember where I saw it.
The gathers at the bust line need to be more even and also look like they should be gathered in a slightly different place, as I said in the previous post the front is cut far too low. I also think that the top line of the skirt piece needs a bit of smoothing out as well.
I think that the drag lines are caused by the dress sliding backwards but maybe it could do with a small sway back adjustment.
The dress doesn’t look too bad in this side view, it does highlight the gathers need to be moved
The arrow is pointing at where the point where I didn’t transition the top into the skirt portion correctly, which means it doesn’t drape properly.
hopefully more soon….
Love Notions – Rhapsody Blouse
I have had a couple of failures the last month or so, you will have seen the Lutterloh dress and this one which is the Rhapsody Blouse from LoveNotions, I had high hopes of this pattern, I have a similar top and I was hoping to reproduce it.
https://www.lovenotions.com/product/rhapsody-blouse-xs-xxxl, it has 8 sleeve types, I’m very impressed with the website, the pattern pages also have lots of pictures of how it looks made up, I am quite sure that my issue is more to do with fabric choices rather than a problem with the pattern.
I loved the look of the top right up until I attached the sleeves and then it was uck I don’t like you at all.
I am going to give it a good iron before making any decisions on it, I could just take the sleeves off and have it sleeveless or I could just replace them with the ‘cap’ sleeve as the arm hole is slightly bigger for the sleeved version than the no sleeved version.
It has French seams and gathers at the shoulder and a tuck at the back, last time I tried it on I realised that I probably should have made the larger size it doesn’t quite fit on the shoulders, but I am happy enough with the rest of it.
I will be making another attempt at this probably with softer fabric with more drape….
Lutterloh Dress
As a lot of my sewing books and patterns have been boxed up I spent some time flicking through my Lutterloh books and downloads I found a pattern I thought I would quite like to try. This is a lesson in if you are going to make a muslin use a fabric close to the one you are going to use eventually.
I actually made this up originally before going to Disney but put it to one side so I could make my light summer dress. After tracing it off and adding the seam allowance I made it up in my usual muslin, which was a mistake, I could see just by looking at the drawing that the fabric was a lot drapier. So I left it on the dummy and used the neckline for my light summer dress.
After getting back from Florida I made some changes to my dress makers dummy, I’d noticed while draping my dress that the proportions weren’t quite right, so I took the cover off drew some lines on it and put it on myself and measured around the lines, then put the cover back on the dummy and re-did the bust, underbust and hips. It isn’t perfect but it is a lot closer. After making the dummy alterations I put my muslin back on to check the fit, as it had looked rather big which confused me somewhat as the Lutterloh system should make that impossible, I knew it would be too long but too wide? With the alterations done the fit was much better.
With a couple of changes I decide to make it up in a cotton lawn, I had taken ½ in out of the bust piece, which I put back as it didn’t appear to be long enough, I took ½ in out of the under bust piece instead. I actually practiced the neck welt before attaching.
The dress looks lovely however it is very see through and there are a couple of things I should have done after the muslin and before the fashion fabric.
1. I should have lifted the front neck slit as it goes down past any bra I might want to wear
2. I should have smoothed out the waist curve so that it wasn’t so sharp
3. Most Importantly I should have lined it as I went along.
The dress, with a bit of tweaking will be a beautiful summer dress but not this particular version of it.
Plaintain for Liz
There still hasn’t been very much sewing done since my last post, with most of my fabric boxed up and the house still in a bit of an upheaval and will continue to be for the next 2 – 3 months crafting is looking bleak.
I do however have two makes to show you the first is a Plantain (no not another one I hear you say) this one is for Liz, as I had already corrected the pattern for her build, I had told her to get some T-Shirt fabric and I would make her a couple more.
Liz bought her fabric from Kaye’s Textiles, it is a good quality Robert Kaufman print the only thing I’m assuming neither of us factored in, I know I didn’t until I laid it out to cut it, was the pattern.
Booby nightmare, obviously the pattern needed to be centred but once centred do I try and get the pattern to not go across the bust line, or do I hope for the best, bearing in mind Liz wasn’t there to check the placement.
I hoped for the best, I haven’t seen it on yet but I am pleased with the finish, the fabric is a bit heavier than I have used for a Plantain previously so I hope it hangs alright.
I decided to have the lighter colour go down the middle and using the FBA point I worked out where best to place the pattern hopefully the bust point should go straight through the top of the repeat and avoid the small circles.
It was constructed using the Overlocker and finished off with my sewing machine twin needle and walking foot.
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 