Vogue 8379 - Snake print wrap dress for SWAP 2014

I adore wrap dresses. I can´t think of any other piece of clothing that is so easy to slip on in the morning and instantly feel dressed. I have them in a number of varieties, but until now, no animal print, so I thought I´d make one for a shot of 1970s glam. I´m including this dress in my Sewing With a Plan collection (SWAP).

This is one of the least intimidating items in my SWAP. I am using a pattern I have made up five times before and this is one of my favourite dress styles. (See here for a blog post about my other beloved wrap dresses.)

I have had this fabric in my stash for a couple of years now, after buying it on a trip to Rome. The fabric shop (though shop seems somehow inadequate to describe it) is Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti, on Corso Vittorio Emanuele, near the Pantheon. It is a sewers dream, and one of my favourite places in the world. 

It is aboslutely massive, and (treasure) cave like, eight big rooms with the most beautiful fabrics from floor to 6 m or so high ceiling. It can be overwhelming, and when I have been there, I have actually gone twice, either in the same day or a couple of days apart: Once to browse and take it all in, then come back later having planned my purchases and projects. There is a virtual army of Italian men working there and they have been extremly helpful every time I´ve been there.

Not being big on animal prints generally, I guess I´ve been a little bit apprehensive about what to do with it. What seemed to make sense in the haze of appropriated Italianess, felt slightly different in the cold Northern winter. But then again - maybe a shot of animal print is just what I need.

I think the pattern is not too crazy, and I could even see it dressed down with a cardigan and opaque tights to work in an everyday setting.

I´m sewing a fairly straight 14 out of the envelope, but dropped the interfaced facings and added my customary 15 cm or so at the hem. This is a one day project, all pattern pieces are prepped and I figured out my own cutting layout a long time ago. The fabric is also really stable and easy to work with, so this was a breeze. The only thing I gave a bit of consideration was the pattern placement across the bodice, as I wanted it to be fairly similar on both sides.

I started with draping the fabric across my dress form to decide what to do with the distinctive lighter stripes going lengthwise. My options were to either have the light stripe follow the neckline, or the darker panel.

I decided that I wanted the darker panel on the neckline - I tend to prefer darker colours near my face. In addition, this way I used less fabric, as I could place the front pieces on either side of a light panel, which is more narrow than the dark panels.

From there on, it was pretty smooth sailing. I cut everything in one layer due to the stripes in the pattern, that demanded some matching. I had just enough to cut out all my pieces. I did my usual modification of the pattern - dropped the neckline facing and added full length sleeves.

There are some places where I wish I could have matched the print better, like between the front bodice and the skirt:

Then again, in other places the pattern matched completely coincidentally - magic! Like here, between bodice and sleeve:

 

And in the side seam:

In short, I am pretty happy with the way the dress turned out, and I can change the styling so that it works both for day and for evening. So that means, two SWAP items down, seven to go!

Vogue 8829 - plaid shirt dress for SWAP 2014

As I said in my post about my Sewing With a Plan collection, I never really considered plaids for myself - I thought they looked great on others, but did not really know how to incorporate them into my style. Then I saw this D&G dress and was instantly converted. I did not want to copy this dress, or this style even, but I was inspired for a dress I can use for work and for hanging out at the weekend. My starting point is an out of print Vogue pattern; 8829, that I have made before with the full skirt option.

This is my first time patching plaids. Was I intimidated? Strangely, no, not very. Befuddled? Slightly. However, I  chose an easy plaid: Non-directional (meaning that the pattern does not have a direction and pieces can be cut "upside down" if need be) and simple (no multiple layers of squares and lines) with only an 8 cm or so repetition.

I´ve also had a look at a couple of Craftsy classes that talk about plaid matching as part of the projects they are teaching; the couture dress (as always) and the little French jacket class. I invested in a box of Clover Fork Pins - these are just brilliant! They are so steady and so easy to use, that even I as a matching novice managed to do a decent job.

I cut everything in one layer. I took the notches on the bodice front as a starting point, also bearing in mind that the button band would be where the pieces actually needed to match. As luck would have it, the width of the button band almost exactly covered one lengthwise row of squares in my fabric.

I then realised that I had to start choosing where to match and where to not match, as not all seams would add up, for instance because of the bust darts, that throw off the "rythm" in the side seams. I also considered where I wanted the cross-wise stripes to hit the bodice. I found myself actually enjoying the process of paying that much attention to detail!

Then I went on to the sleeves. Here I also realised that I could not match the sleeves to the bodice at each point, so I went for the point that I thought would be the most conspicuous, in the high bust.

I decided to sew the bodice before I proceeded to cut and match the skirt parts - I had not completely decided what I would do with the skirt. I think there may be a misprint in this pattern, though I can´t be 100% certain. I cut it out a long time ago, and now I could not find the skirt pieces for view D. I did, however, find doubles for the full skirt in views A, B and C, which leads me to think that something went awry somewhere.

I had a look at the line drawings and decided that it did not look too complicated - three almost rectangular squares (one back and two front pieces) with two box pleats on each side (four pleats in total).

Based on this, I drew a pattern for the skirt, taking as a starting point how much hip ease I wanted, and muslined it. Not a good look for me. I think for slimmer figures and perhaps a drapier fabric, this could look great. On me - the pleats fanned out and created a weird balloony effect.

I redrew the pattern, adding four darts in the back, and three simple pleats on each front piece. Much better. I got a more fitted look in the back, and the necessary room to fit across my tummy in the front, without much extra volume. And lo and behold, when I transferred this to the actual fabric, it turned out  that the front pleats were the exact width of the vertical stripes in the pattern! Things like that make me disproportionately happy.

Due to the nature of the fabric, I have lined the skirt part. I did a test run with wooly tights, and the skirt stuck quite badly. I used a thin china silk I had in my stash, and hand felled the lining to the skirt:

 

I put tiny running stitches along the side seams (catching the seam allowance only). The lining is very flimsy and I want it to stay put. At the same time, I don't want a thicker lining, to keep a little lightness in the dress. I also used the silk for the inside of the back yoke  - the instructions say to use self-fabric, but with my cotton it would be way to bulky.


I am very happy with this dress - it has already been on several outings, and I know I will get a lot of wear out of it.

SWAP 2014 - a coordinated collection at last?

I finally decided to take the plunge and throw myself into to the Sewing With a Plan (SWAP) 2014 competition at Stitcher´s Guild. I lurked the previous SWAP and was in awe of all the beautiful creations the participants came up with. I was also intrigued by the idea of actually planning my sewing; something I have never been very good at. My sewing has always been impulsive and rather random, as has my fabic shopping.

In the SWAP, the participants put together a collection according to a set of rules, creating three sets of three garments (or 3-packs) plus two "wildcards" that can be whatever they like. You can also include one previously sewn item, as well as a purchased one, within the total of 11 garments. The competition closes on the 30th of April. Being really late to the party, I don´t know if I´ll be able to finish everything by then, but the SWAP helps me be a bit more systematic in my thinking/sewing. And having a deadline always helps!

This is the plan I came up with:

My three 3-packs are casual plaids, dressy prints and the last one, consisting of only black basics. My wildcards are my little French jacket (previously sewn and blogged about here) and a purchased black camisole that I have yet to find.

Before coming up with this I had a long hard look at my stash and my patterns, my closet and my dressing habits. Boring though it may be, I mostly revert to black basics and classics when dressing, but some central items are missing from my closet (Hello, black bootcut trousers that are long enough and fit through the hips and waist, where are you?). Either because I never found the perfect RTW version, or because I did find it, and then wore it to pieces. For my SWAP I want to fill in some of these gaps.

However, I also want to add some prints to break up the sea of darkness, and I want clothes both for work and for dressing up a little bit more. I will also challenge myself a little to try things I haven´t before (though I may live to regret it as the deadline approaches. In the words of Bridget Jones; "should be very easy.")

Pack #1 - laid back plaids. Challenge - matching plaids, making trousers.

My plan for this 3-pack is to have some everyday clothes, appropriate both for work and for hanging out at the weekend. I never really considered plaids before - I mean, I see them everywhere on young women who rock the loose plaid shirt, singlet, skinny jeans and Converses, but have enough insight to know that this is not for me. Then I saw a picture of the formidable Christina Hendricks/Mad Men´s Joan in this gorgeous D&G dress.

I never occurred to me that plaids could be this sharp and feminine and glamourous.  Now, I don´t have the ambition (or the wherewithals) to become a plaid bombshell like Christina, but it got me thinking about how I could incorporate this trend at least a little bit. Also, in the name of challenging myself, I have never matched plaids before.

Hence the first item, the shirt dress. I have the Vogue 8829 (OOP) in my stash and a fairly subdued plaid in a lovely thick and soft cotton.

To continue with the theme, I want to sew a plaid shirt, and I have yet to purchase both pattern and fabric, and I had a look at one of Vogue patterns classic shirt models, Vogue 2634. It may be a bit too simple though; it doesn't even have cuffs, and a plaid shirt should probably have a yoke.

Finally in this pack, I want to have a go at something that really intimidates me - trousers... As mentioned above, I miss a pair of really well fitting black bootcut trousers. And if they were difficult to find before in RTW, now it´s close to impossible. I realise that the current paradigm is skinny trousers, but I feel so incredibly uncomfortable and self-conscious in them. I have this theory that bootcuts balance out my hips, thighs and bum, but realise that style-wise, this apparently puts me firmly in the 1990s. So be it - I need my bootcuts! I have the fabric and pattern for these; Vogue 1366 and a cotton with a tiny bit of stretch.

Pack #2 -  dressy prints. Challenge: sewing silk chiffon, finding the courage to cut into a very expensive wool crepe.

For my second 3-pack I wanted to go a bit more dressy, but still make items that could be dressed down. Being realistic, I don´t really dress up that often. Between work and family committments and natural couch potato tendencies, going out is the one thing that sadly suffers. 

Item number one is a dress. I expect this to be fairly smooth sailing, as I´m using one of my TNT patterns, the Vogue 8379 wrap dress. I have made it five times before and love it. I could live in wrap dresses forever, they are so versatile and comfortable. I also have the fabric in my stash; a snake print jersey.

Item number two is a different story, and where the main challenge for this 3-pack comes in - a silk chiffon blouse/shirt. I found the fabric a while ago, but haven´t really been able to decide what to do with it - but I just had to have it. I think I found a pattern for it, in Vogue 1387  I think this blouse could also work in a more informal setting, e.g. with jeans, or with trousers and a jacket for work presentations.

The final item in my dressy pack is a wool crepe pencil skirt. This is also a fabric that I have had in my stash for a long time - in fact, I picked it up at the same time as I bought the Linton wool for my little French jacket, at Misan Textiles in London. It is soooo beautiful, though this is almost impossible to convey with a photo: fantastic quality, a soft lustre and amazing hand - and it had a price tag to match. I don´t normally buy fabrics this expensive, and while I love them, there is always the risk that they just stay, silk paper wrapped, in my stash forever. Not any more - the wool crepe is coming out to play! I have a few patterns for pencil skirts and will do some extensive muslining to make sure I get the right fit. I also plan to underline this with silk organza, and will have to look for a lining - I´m thinking slik crepe de chine.

Pack #3 - Black basics. Challenge: my old nemesis, trouser fitting.

This is where I revert fully to old form, sewing basic black items that I wear all the time and function as a backdrop should I manage to be more adventurous with print or colour. I am aware that each of the two other 3-packs also have black basics in them, so this is where I fill out some more of the gaps.

Item number one is my outerwear for this collection - a linen coat. I have 3 metres or so of a beautiful black Armani linen. I had planned to use it for a skirt, and picked out the pattern, but luckily I tried it in another (cheaper) fabric before I cut into my linen. It was hi-de-ous. It did not fit my shape *at all*, and looked as if I wore a poncho around my hips. Big disappointment, but happily, not with the linen. So - I want to use this linen for a light coat. I saw this coat in Burda  (11/2013 #102) that I keep coming back to. The only thing is that it is cut on the bias and eats up more fabric than I have in my stash (I think). I will play around with it and see if I can squeeze the front and back panels in on the bias (because I see the point about the drape/softness), but I am a little sceptical about cutting the sleeves on the bias as well - I have a feeling they would become to floppy/stretchy/strange. We´ll see - this one is a little bit up in the air

The second item is a boat neck long sleeve top. I like boatnecks a lot - I have fairly narrow, sloping shoulders and think this neckline balances me. For this I will use a  self drafted TNTpattern and good quality black jersey.

And finally - I have added another pair of trousers. Now, this one is really hanging. I would really like a pair of cropped trousers, but I think trouser fitting is sooo difficult. And I already have a pair in my SWAP.  So this is crazy. But IF I decide to push ahead, I'm thinking Clovers from Collette patterns. There are so many beautiful versions out there, in all shapes and sizes, so this looks like a quality pattern.

So - no use in hanging around - to the sewing machine (and beyond)!