Category Archives: New York Pattern
on a roll
I’m on a roll this weekend, after having the surgery on my shoulder and sorting the house out to be painted, I’ve been finding it difficult to get back into my dress making, but this weekend:-
I have finished a 70s dress apart from the hem, and managed to do some more on two other dresses.
here is the 70s dress
here is a close up of the collar, I bought the fabric at Kayes Textiles during the week, it is a £2.50 poly/cotton, it is a bit stiff but it gives the dress some body, hopefully if it is sunny during the week I’ll take some photos of me wearing it.
I also finished the bound button holes on this dress and restitched the bodice to the skirt
This dress I put the collar on the dress ironed on the interfacing and attached the cuffs to the sleeves
Half Way Through March
We are half way through march and I have had quite a productive Sunday.
close up of inside collar
My red dress with the white flowers has every thing done but the hand stitching and button, I’ll admit that I cheated a bit, I did the hem on my sewing machine, I started off hand stitching but the fabric is so heavy and so wide that I decided against it.
Pinstripe Skirt, I finished unpicking the zip, put the zip back in attached the lining and waistband. I am now waiting for the inch grosgrain Ribbon to complete the waistband.
Close up of Waistband
skirt
I have also practically finished my second version of New York Gold 444 that just need the buttons and finishing off the hand stitching.
close up of cuff and sleeve
March – Month of the UFO (UnFinished Object)
As well as making something new (to me) I am hoping to get some of my dressmaking projects finished.
We have, in no particular order:-
slip pattern (McCalls 8521)
This needs the second part of the bodice stitching in and a zip up the side, it also needs hemming, you have probably already seen photos of it without realising, as the dress makers dummy is wearing it at the moment.
Two piece dress (Butterick 7664)
This is a beautiful straight skirt which is nearly finished, in fact it might just need hemming and a button put on it, the top half of the dress needs some of the overstitching taken off the bottom and the collar attaching, to be honest I can see myself wearing the skirt but not the top. Although I love the fabric to look at I’m not gone on it in this suit, but it should look lovely in a dress.
1960s spotty Trousers (Style 3193)
You’ve seen the trousers, as I have never fitted trousers before I’m not quite sure what to do with them, but I suppose I should put the waist band on and start from there.
I think that the waist band is going to be too high for comfort and also too high to actually look good for one thing I haven’t got a big stomach but the way the fit comes up and over it doesn’t look good. So may be bringing the waist down a little bit would be good.
Rayon Dress (New York 1478)
You’ve seen pictures of the dress already here, it still need buttons, button holes and general finishing off, hemming, slip stitching and so on.
Blouse (Butterick 8097)
The Blouse is sort of a cheat all I have to do with it is put the buttons back on the cuffs, looking at it the other day I think the buttons were in the wrong place, I couldn’t get them done up over my fat arms.
Slim dress (Butterick 7781)
this dress looks good on the front of the packet, but I think that it is not as fitted as some of the other dresses I have made, and so when I tried it on it looked a little big, also it was made from seersucker fabric so that might have added to the bigness factor.
Buttoned fronted dress (Butterick 6079)
I need to redo the belt, I have made the belt and done the buckle, now I want to put the two together I can’t find the belt part. This dress will make it easier to see the button detail than the previous version blogged about.
Pinstriped skirt
This is finished apart from the fact I’m not sure how the waist band is attached I need to sit down with the instructions and the waistband and just get on with it.
Blue skirt (Vogue ???)
I think this has the same issue as the pinstriped skirt no waist band, I don’t think it has a zip either.
Another skirt
I think this is the same pattern as one of the other skirts, the fabric isn’t right for it, the fabric is actually Blazer material so it is a bit heavy and doesn’t take creases very well, I might just give this one up as a bad job, but the fabric, of which I have a lot of would probably be suitable for a summer coat/jacket.
Walkaway dress (Butterick 6472
)
My new one, there is no way I am getting this finished in February, I still have all the hemming, belt and buttons/button holes to do.
Pintucked dress (New York Gold 444)
Same as the walkaway dress, buttons/buttonholes hemming and a belt.
There will be more pictures and more detailed descriptions to come as I finish these items.
New York 1478 part 4
Ok, I’ve ironed the dress I’ve put in the interfacing (probably should have done that before I put it in the dress, but I just wasn’t sure about it, the interfacing I have is very stiff until washed and I didn’t know if it was going to make it worse.
I’m glad to report back that the iron and interfacing gave the dress a much needed structure.
I decided to take the photos with my ‘good’ camera to see if it makes any difference
I’m not sure that the camera makes a difference, but I’m going to get a cheap tripod to play about with it.
Here are some closeup shots of some of the details
The pockets, Simon doesn’t like the pockets he thinks it makes the dress look frumpy, not sure that I get that vibe.
I noticed in the first photo the neckline was off a bit so I’ve straightened it up.
You should be able to see that I have pinned the back, I need to take some fabric out of the side seams.
I still need to make the cuffs and decide on some buttons but it might get warn after all.
New York 1478 part 3
Have you ever loved a pattern, loved the feel/look of the fabric then once they are together you hate them? that is this dress.
It might just be that the fabric is giving me a lot of problems and that once it is finished it will look lovely.
The bound button holes didn’t come out as good as they have done on other fabric
They aren’t as clean cut as the others that I have done and won’t lie flat I put two rows of stitching round them to help with the fraying problem I’m assuming that that didn’t help.
I have now got the whole dress together and the facing has been stitched on, the pockets look uneven but I have measured them and they are the same distance from the shoulder so apparently it is an optical illusion.
I’m hoping that after a good press and all the finishing touches have been put on it will look good and i’ll be able to wear it.
New York Gold 444
Wearing this to work for the first time one thing that immediately strikes me it that it needs more buttons, preferable smaller than the ones I have on it. Although the bodice stays together nicely below the belt seems to be having a problem sitting nicely.
One thing I do have to remember next time I make this dress is that I needed to take two inches out of the waist, I know it isn’t totally fitted but by the time I had put the belt on it I had lots of nasty gathers and it didn’t lay right.
The pintucked bodice was easier than I thought to do, there is a handy marker on my sewing foot at 1/8 inch which is the size of the pintuck, I will be the first to admit that they aren’t as equal as they could be, but they were good enough.
I ironed them in first which then becomes a decision on whether to put the markings on the front or the back of the fabric (I have just come to the realisation that I should have used tailors tacks doh!)
The skirt is slightly shorter than I thought it would be, but still a nice length, I might try making it in a drapier fabric instead of the cotton.
I had another ‘Doh’ after looking down the dress while wearing it, that I didn’t realise while ironing it or looking at it on my dummy the pintucks aren’t as uneven as I thought they were, they are in three sets of two.
New York 1478 part 2
last night I finished the pockets.
I decided to reinforce the pockets as I did not want them to stretch as you can see by the black ribbon I have carefully reinforced the seam with, the lower part of the top part of the dress forms the back of the pocket.
I then attached one side to the front, I decided against reinforcing this seam, I hope it was the right choice.
this evening I finished the back of the dress which now looks like this
tomorrow I am going to attempt the bound button holes so wish me luck.
New York 1478 and viscose/rayon
I’m going to be making the short sleeved version with the square neckline, I find that I have a problem with the three quarter length sleeve as in they get caught at the elbow and then proceed to cut the circulation off to my hands, it freaks me out when they start going a funny colour and feel funny. 
this will be the second time I have made this dress previous adventures with it can be found here this time I might actually decide I want to wear it.
I haven’t been brave enough to try the bound button holes yet but I can’t find my fray check and the test one frayed quite badly.
I have however discovered that viscose is a slippery little bugger, usually I don’t pin any thing and just hold it as I stitch, this time even though I was only sewing about 6 inches I used three pins and it still slid about a bit.
Kimono Sleeves
I’m not sure about kimono sleeves, they are easy to stitch together but I always seem to have far too much fabric under my arm. The question is though, is it because I don’t have enough bust to take up some of the loose fabric? or less likely the fabric I am using is just not drapey enough.
For instance the dress I’m working on at the moment it’s a New York pattern no. 1478 it looks great on the envelope.
I even like 90% of it stitched up, the fabric is hideous it didn’t look that colour when I bought it but that’s the problem with buying on ebay, the other two pieces of fabric I bought at the same time were great. Back to the dress, the fit isn’t bad, I probably need to take about half an inch out of the length on the bodice, but that’s why I used the ugly fabric, but and this is a big but, if I were to go out in a strong wind in it I would probably take off with the amount of loose fabric under my arms
This isn’t a problem with just this dress, out of the five different dress patterns made with kimono sleeves only one of them didn’t have to have 2 inches out of the side seams on either side. I don’t know if this is a common problem, I haven’t been able to find anyone else complaining, maybe I should just get some extra padded bras to wear under these dresses or extra drapey fabric or I’ll just keep taking them in under the arm.
I am going to have to set up a better photo studio as the light in here is terrible.
Despite the fabric, I do like this dress, I like the pockets which don’t lay totally flat, I like the pocket flaps and I like the shape, I’m very proud of my first attempt at bound button holes, and thanks to Gertie’s guide to better sewing I now know what I’m supposed to do to the facing behind the button holes.
Tracy
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 