STYLE 3193
Don’t worry I will get back to the dress over the weekend, suffice to say I ironed it and it looks a lot better.
Not sure if this is a late 60s early 70s pattern, never having made Trousers before it came as a surprise that they are so easy to put together, obviously fitting them could be another matter.
Ignore the spots, I try to. the fabric is Cotton and I bought it as seconds, not realising that the spot was quite so big, and the reason the fabric is seconds is that half of the spots aren’t printed correctly. but I though it ideal for my first attempt, I have some nice corduroy for the real trousers.
At the moment the Trousers are very comfortable but not very elegant.
They seem to fit round my bum alright but are too big at the top of my leg, I received a ‘Perfect Fit in pictures’ book for Christmas looks like I’m going to get some use out of it.
I think I’m going to have to talk to my photographer about the angle he is taking the pictures from, the first picture looks like I have incredibly wide hips and very small feet
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.
2014 Book Challenge
I love books I love buying them and I love reading them and I especially like looking at them in shops new / second hand I don’t care, I used to like looking at them in the Library, but I don’t like the new library so I don’t go there anymore.
Since I went digital I don’t have to worry about shelf space, which in a way is a bonus in others not so much. I still hang around book shops mainly to get ideas and LOOK at the books. I still have shelves of books at home to LOOK at but I have to have a spread sheet to keep up with what I have bought. And scrolling through the book covers in Calibre isn’t quite the same as looking at them on the shelf.
Of course the other bonus is that my husband doesn’t know how much I spend on books (don’t get me wrong it’s my money and he doesn’t care what I spend it on, but if I already have X amount of books to read how can I justify buying even more books that I can’t even pick up and look at)
I’ve looked at my spread sheet and set myself a goal this year.
I want to read all the books I have left over from 2007, 2008 and 2009 which is 32 books there are another 16 books I have to read in conjunction with the 32 books, for example I have 2 Lindsey Davis books bought in 2009 but I also have 6 other Lindsey Davis books that come before the 2 bought in 2009 so I have to read them first. I like to read my series in order just in case there are any spoilers in the later books (I’m looking at you Elly Griffiths).
42 books will be easy for me to read in a year but I had already decided to also read one Robert Jordan (I read the first 4-5 Wheel of Time books when they first came out but got fed up waiting for the next one to come out) a month and one Georgette Heyer because I have 26 of those that I haven’t read in ebook form.
So far this year I have read from my challenge
Eye of the world – Robert Jordan
Arabella – Georgette Heyer
Seeing a large Cat – Elizabeth Peters 2009
The Ape that guards the balance – Elizabeth Peters 2009
Posiedens Gold – Lindsey Davis
The Last Act in Palmyra – Lindsey Davis
The Nanny – Melissa Nathan 2008
Beyond Heaving Bosoms: a smart Bitches guide to romance Novels – 2009
All the book covers will be in my Pintrest account.
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.
Viscose/rayon
This is the first time I have used viscose, it is lovely and soft, it also has a very nice sheen. After reading up on it, I pre washed it just as well as it lost almost 12 inches over a four metre piece of fabric.
When cutting it out I decided to be a bit crafty, I needed to copy the pattern, and one of the suggestions on cutting rayon was to sandwich it between tracing paper, so I have a nice big roll of tracing paper, probably a bit thick for pattern copying, but that is what the craft shop had. So while cutting out the pattern I cut out the copy as well, bonus, I just have to copy all the markings onto my new pattern.
I haven’t started putting it together yet, as I am practicing the bound button holes, and have come to the conclusion that either I need to use fray check (which I’ve never used) or interface both sides of the button hole.
Butterick 6079
This is my favourite dress so far and I have made it three times, this is the second one I made, I decided to go the whole thing and put the buttons on, the first time I made it, I stitched up the front and put in a zip on the side.
The reason I didn’t put the buttons on the first one is that I couldn’t face the 20 button loops, 8 under the belt and 12 above it. I tried to get a close up on it unfortunately because the fabric is so dark it is hard to see the button loops.
Of the many details on the dress I think that the buttons are my favourite, though they aren’t equal space even after spending an hour measuring the darned things.
You have the gathers on the sleeves and the gathering on the side panels under the bust, I did have to take it in slightly across the bust but that was just taking a bit off up the side seams.
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 