2015 Part 2
The main things that I want to get to grips with this year is the two Dressmaking/cutting systems I acquired last year Lutterloh and Haslam.
I believe that if I can understand Haslam I will be in a position to create my own designs or at least understand how to alter patterns to fit better.
Lutterloh fascinates me, the patterns are easy to create it is just the putting them together I have problems with…the other thing that fascinates me about the 1940s patterns are the teeny tiny arms and necks these women apparently had.
Teeny tiny arms and neck isn’t an issue with the Haslam drafting System as it uses a lot more measurements than Lutterloh, though with Lutterloh only using two (bust and hip) it would be hard pressed to use less. Two of the extra measurements used by Haslam are the neck and elbow circumferences which will overcome the problem of my 2015 not teeny tiny arms and neck. 🙂
Gerties Shirtwaist Dress
My friend and I are having a mini sewalong, if that is what you can call two people sewing the same pattern together.
Week one we decided on which pattern we wanted to do and traced and cut out the pattern pieces, we arranged to meet up the following week with our dresses cut out and ready to sew.
I am using this fabric
I think it is a light cotton, I bought on my trip to London in the summer.
and my friend is using this fabric
A cotton purchased from Kayes Textiles on London Road, Southend-on-Sea, my friend did have a slight issue as in the fact that although the pattern was advertised for 45 inch fabric, her skirt was too wide by about an inch, especially as she wanted it longer than the pattern.
Week two we managed to get the front pieces together, which for some reason took far longer than I thought it would, not helped by the pleats and the misleading diagrams in the book. The book seems to have the pleats going the opposite way to the photo of the dress, also after basting the pleats into the skirt there was half an inch extra fabric in my skirt but Denise’s was fine (can only assume a tracing issue on my part).
Here is what it looks like so far
because of the fabric you can’t really see the pesky pleats but they are there.
next week we tackle shirring, collars and sleeves
2015 Part 1
I’m not big on new years resolutions, I find that if I say I am going to do something I usually end up not doing it, or vice versa if I say I’m not going to do something that immediately becomes the thing I want to do most.
This year I want it to be the year I get things done….I’ve made a start already.
I have a load of actual photos in Albums from Simons Mum which at some point I agreed to scan I think I have had them for a year or more. The beginning of this week I have started and hope to have at least one of the four Albums to take back by the end of this month.
I have had Gertie’s book for Better Sewing since it came out and I and a friend are going to sew something from it, The Shirtwaist Dress, we both have our patterns traced and cut out, I’m hoping to use this fabric….
Sewing starts next week….
I also want to go through my started but unfinished projects, I am going to be ruthless if I can’t muster up the enthusiasm to finish them by the end of June then in the bin they go, in general we have too much stuff laying about and I want to get rid of it.
Which moves me onto my final thing, I want to be more discerning with what I spend my money on, I know I get carried away and I’ll buy something, I like it and buy a whole load of other stuff along the same lines, which is why I have cupboards full of jigsaw puzzles (damn you eBay) and vintage patterns (eBay and etsy)
I also want to continue with my blog and try to post more.
Oops where did December go?
Sorry, December seemed to have come and gone without a peep out of me, I’d like to say I was busy, but I can’t think of a single thing I did in December.
Wait a minute, I did make three skirts for my friend one straight one and two Maxi skirts, I don’t have any pictures so there isn’t a lot I can say about them,
The Maxi skirts I used a Lutterloh pattern in the end, I was going to make them from the Gabriola skirt pattern (sewaholic) but with the amount of alteration needed for the waist/ hip ratio I chickened out, so I used a pattern from my 1970s Lutterloh book and the equivalent of a FBA for the waist.
My friend is very happy with them and I can make as many as I want, I did have a problem finishing off the last one as my sewing machine decided it didn’t need correct tension or anything so I did the waist band by hand (it probably gave it a nicer finish anyway)
I did make a skirt for myself in a very nice multi coloured boucle this pattern
here is a photo of the detail on the waist band, which I am particularly proud of.
I hope to continue to do more consistent blogging this year, but we will have to wait and see
Lutterloh the verdict
Now this hasn’t been a complete success, but it also hasn’t been a complete failure. The fit was good, unfortunately the choice of pattern was a bit ambitious.
I managed to get the front lying better in the second version than the first version, probably if I made the dress a few more times I would get the stitching right.
I can’t get the front to line up properly, the two fronts curve up under the bust, one side following back down the other, just in case you think it’s because, it’s too small across the chest, it didn’t matter what I did even just laying it on the bed with nothing in it it wouldn’t lay properly.
As you can see the back looks good, I think I probably should have taken an inch out of the skirt length as it is laying a bit low across the hips.
I might fiddle with the bodice size as I didn’t have much movement in the shoulder area, but for once I wasn’t swimming in fabric under the arms and across the bust.
This picture shows the hip problem quite well.
The verdict is that I will make more dresses from the system, but will be more careful in my pattern choices. I was very impressed at how easily it was to create the pattern, practice will make the curves (sleeve head) better and I have noticed that the later the pattern the more information you are given for making up the garments.
Lutterloh part 2
I’ve put the test dress together, one thing I have discovered is 1940s/50s women have stick arms I don’t know how they managed to lift anything
The fit isn’t too bad, it’s a bit large around the hips but that, it turns out is user error, I measured my hips wrong so I’m about 6mm out size wise I don’t know how that equates over the whole pattern yet.
the sleeve head is a bit puffy, but I’ve redrawn that using the curve tool that came with my pattern book, its now an inch and a half smaller.
I’ve measured out the new skirt pieces and it equates to about 5 inches over the whole skirt
Lutterloh
since getting back into sewing last year, I have been hearing whispers about Lutterloh pattern books, what I read was quite interesting, I found a couple of books to download, which i found quite fascinating, how you take this iddy bitty patterns and make full sized clothes from them,
then a couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to win on ebay my very own pattern book, I’m not sure which year it is, late 1940s early 1950s completed with measuring tape and pattern ruler, it looked untouched.
now a lot of the things I read about the system suggests you should work on a vest (waistcoat) pattern until you get the fit right then you will be ready to try a proper pattern, where is the fun in that?
I picked a dress, from my scanned book, no particular reason it just caught my eye. looked sort of easy two skirt pieces two bodice pieces and a sleeve.
To be fair it was easy, I created my pattern pieces I cut them out on an old sheet, then there was the hard bit. the bodice comes to a point on the center front, the center back point was easy, but at the moment I have a weird I’m not laying down properly lump where the bodice is attached to the skirt. Then there is the sleeves, I was under the impression that they marked the back of the sleeve with an ‘A’ shape I have this symbol on the the other pieces just not the sleeve, it shouldn’t be too hard to work out but even so….
This is what my dress looks like so far
With the best will in the world I don’t think anything will make the skirt look like the pattern, cutting it on the bias might help but there just isn’t the material to get that kind of drape. I am quite happy with it so far though.
Tower of London remembers
as you read back in September I saw the Poppies at the Tower of London with my Mum, yesterday I went back there with Simon, he hadn’t seen it and as it was getting close to finishing we thought we would take a trip up to London to see it.
From Southend depending on how many stop the train it takes about 50mins from Southend Central to Fenchurch street station, we caught the 2pm train and by 3 o’clock we were taking pictures of the Poppies.
I decided to take my Canon 450d with the long lens this time, before I had my new Panasonic and although the pictures are good, the long lens on the Canon is better.
There were definitely more people this time and loads more Poppies. You can find out about the installation here http://poppies.hrp.org.uk/about-the-installation I’ll warn you now there are going to be a lot of photos……
Although the Poppies on the ground are amazing just for the sheer amount of them, where you see the “waves” of them are something else.
As you get round the back of the castle you can see where they are still putting them in
Here are some close ups
new patterns
this post was written last month and for some reason was never published, which is why the post seems slightly out of order…..
I’m getting geared up for winter, I feel that skirts and blouses will be easier to layer than mainly cotton dresses. with this in mind I have brought some more skirt patterns and a blouse pattern.
I love etsy.com it makes buying patterns so much easier and mainly the postage costs aren’t too bad.
I’m not sure about the patch pockets on view 3 but I do like the pocket flaps on view 2.
I thought the waist detail was something different.
I do love me some pintucks….
more pockets.
stripes and no instruction pockets
Remind me to stay away from stripes, I can’t match them and they irritate me. don’t get me wrong I like stripes as long as I don’t have to work out how to make them look right on the front of, say a skirt. exhibit one
to be honest now I’ve looked at it again, I think that the problem might not be my pattern matching so much as my stitching accuracy.
I cut out this pattern earlier in the week just before I discovered it had no instructions for how to put the pocked together, how hard can it be I asked my self you have a front skirt, pocket facing and a back.
so started with attaching the pocket facing to the skirt front.
then snipping clipping and overstitching
at which point I was in a bit of a quandary not realising that the pocket was supposed to gape slightly, (if I had realised this I definitely would not have gone for stripes) that was when I understood what these makes were for…
they were the pocket opening marks
you can just see one marked in yellow in the photo. once this was pinned in place it was quite easy to stitch round the pocket.
You would have got this post last week but the photos wouldn’t play the game
But you have a bonus close up of pocket and a sneak preview of the hideous blouse without the collar and neck gathering (which already makes it look better), the sleeves are pinned behind.
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 