Project Six - Anise

I've been leading up to Anise for a week now and there's only 5 days left in November to get it done. I ended up making two muslins, one in a smaller size than I normally sew (which turned out to be to small) and one in the usual size and no pattern adjustments, that one worked out ok so I'm sticking with that for the project.

Originally, I was going to be boring, or classic depending on how you look at it, and buy black wool for the jacket. I want something that will go with everything. Then I got out my winter hats and neither of them go with black, so then I thought navy.

 I went to the fabric store and all I could find was this $35 a yard navy cashmere that was beautiful but way out of my price range. Tut. Just as I was leaving, I saw this choppy hounds tooth wool in navy and white for only $12 a yard, I thought it was perfect. I hadn't left the store for more than two minutes when I realised "what was I thinking?", this is going to go with nothing, nothing except my hats. Oh well, it's a great fabric and I think it will look great in an Anise, I'll find stuff to wear with it.

I am a bit further back than I'd like to be at this point, but we all know what the weeks surrounding the holidays can be like. I have my pattern rearing to go and my plan of attack for today is to prep my fabric and cut my pieces. If I finish at a reasonable time, I may also sew the darts and shoulder seams on the outer shell.  An easy enough day. Tomorrow is the hard one, but more on that then.

Anise - Still Fitting

Happy Friday everyone! I just wanted to update you on my Anise jacket so far. I am still working out some fitting kinks and my final muslin should be done by the end of today. My plan is to the use the remaining days of November to construct the jacket step by step. I don't have any pictures to show you yet but I'll show you a Julie Sinden hat that I've been fawning over at the One Of A Kind show this year!

Getting The Right Fit

I have had a lot of emails and comments from readers with great advice on getting my garments to fit better. I  have sewn five patterns so far and with each one I am getting closer and closer to finding the perfect fit, and the proper alterations to get there. None however, have been the exact right fit.

Where the garments seem to fit oddly is in the torso; the shoulders are too narrow, the armholes are too big and the darts sit to high which throws the bust off. I decided, with the help of some fellow sewists, to start with one size down, and work from there. Then I got thinking, the Meringue skirt fit perfectly no pattern at all  so I can't go down completely one size, I may have to grade from the smaller size at the bodice to the larger size at the skirt. This would make me pear shaped, especially considering another fit issue I haven't gotten to yet - my legs. I have always had bigger thighs than my pant size would allow. Things like skinny jeans are lost on me for it's either, thighs that fit and a waist that's too big, or vice versa. So I may have to grade even further to a larger size at the thighs when it comes to making patterns like Juniper and Clover, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I found a couple hours here and there this weekend and traced up a new, smaller pattern for Violet - my first project. I started with my master pattern and traced one size down from my previous Violet. I still narrowed the shoulders and shortened the armhole by 1 cm, and the fit is a lot better but it's not perfect. It still feels big in some places and now the bust is too small.

I am about to start my most difficult project to date, the tailored jacket Anise, and a level of frustration has hit me for the first time in this challenge. I NEED to get the fit right before I can continue to spend time and money on these projects.

I have ten days to complete Anise which is plenty of time if I can figure this all out. I am spending this entire week just on making muslins and getting fit down before I even buy my fabric. Today my plan is to trace my pattern and cut my first muslin. I have decided to start out by trying the smaller size with no adjustments and see how that works. Wish me luck!

Week Three - Finished Licorice

So it ended up taking four cups of black mint tea to get through my Licorice dress. The fabric I chose was a viscose, which is really soft and nice to work with, it has horizontal textured stripes that took some time to match up but all and all it was pretty smooth.

I didn't end up using any elastic for the sleeves, I thought they looked nice without it, I ended up using bias tape to finish the sleeves and I love the way it works.

I do like the way the dress turned out however next time I make this dress, I'm going to use a more youthful fabric, with the long sleeves and collar, it's easy for it to come across as matronly. I'm going to be at the One Of A Kind show next Thursday and I think it's the perfect occasion to bust out the new dress.

So I have completed five out of my six projects for the month of November, I have one left, the big kahuna - Anise. I haven't even picked a fabric, traced the pattern or created a plan for it yet, so I'd better leave it there and get to work!

Week Three - Licorice Dress

Morning all, so today is all about making Licorice. I am super excited about this pattern and I have made some headway already with making the muslin and cutting my fabric.

This is probably one of the only patterns of the Colette collection that I am going to slightly "change" the design of. I have decided to make two style changes to the dress; narrowing the sleeve by about six inches and using a facing as my elastic casing not bias binding, and drafting a completely new peter pan collar without tucks and a lace overlay. My changes are purely a matter of personal style, and I want to make something I'm going to get a lot of use out of.

For anyone interested in making their Licorice with the peter pan collar, I will make a little photo tutorial to be posted here later this week..

So this time I altered the pattern before making the muslin, I think now I can just assume that all the patterns are going to be too big in the shoulders and armholes. I combined narrowing the shoulder by 1.5cm using the pivot method, with lowering the shoulder seam by 2cm using a simple slash to get my perfect fit. And it does fit perfectly.

So now that I have everything prepped and ready to go, my task for the rest of the day is to sew it up. I feel if I can stay focused and have many cups of black mint tea, I should have it finished by tonight. Fingers crossed!

Week Three - Finished Pastille

I had the best day yesterday, I literally sat in front of my sewing machine or work table, puttering away all day. I also finished my Pastille and it turned out great!

There were some areas on this dress that I erred a bit, the waist seam and tie belt didn't exactly line up once the zipper was in, the facings had to be tacked down in more places because they kept popping out, and the fit of the sleeves still feels and eensy bit off, but I had fun and love the dress anyways. (It's not about being perfect! Says a recent blog post over on Coletterie.)

The only changes I made to the pattern, aside from fit adjustments, were adding an invisible zipper instead of a centered one and adding the cute bow detail as a belt tie around the waist instead of at the neckline.


*To do this, I cut 2 equal strips 25" by 1.5", folded right sides together and stitched a 1/4" seam lengthwise. I turned the ties right side out and pressed the seam to the center. I attached one of the ends of each to the waist seam BEFORE adding the zipper and continued on constructing the dress as instructed. When finishing my garment, I threaded a gold metal bead with a large hole on the other ends of both the ties and knotted the ends to keep the bead in place. Voila, bow tie!


All and all, I'm really happy with this dress, the fabric is really nice and soft, and the picture really doesn't do this dress justice. I think when I make this dress again however, I am going to fully line the bodice instead of using facings, this way it will feel a little more polished. I can't wait to wear this at Christmas!

I also wanted to show you a picture of the Meringue skirt on, which I never did but promised to. I don't know how I managed to get almost the exact same picture as Pastille, but here it is. This is definitely the favorite pattern so far over on the Flickr page.

So there's another project down, only 26 to go! Today I am working on my muslin for the Licorice dress , but I will post more about that tomorrow! Happy Tuesday everyone!

Week Three - Pastille

Good morning everyone, I'm really happy it's Monday and I get to sew again. Today I am working on Pastille.

I got a jump start at the end of last week making my muslin and cutting my fabric. I am going to use a nice green cotton fabric with a hint of sheen that I recently thrifted, I think it will make a great holiday dress.

I had to make 2 muslins, the first one was made with no adjustments to the pattern and the shoulders were too wide and the sleeves were way to big. Since taking down the shoulder seam worked so well for me while making Truffle, I thought I would apply the same alteration here. I pinched, pinned and eventually sewed a new seam on my muslin to determine how far to take it down (5/8 of an inch). I sewed wrong sides together and left the old seam intact so you could see exactly what I did. I transferred the changes onto the pattern and cut a new muslin. I also rounded the outer edge of the cap sleeve down an additional 1/2 inch.

 The second muslin fits very nicely and I'm excited to start sewing the real dress. This is another simple, unlined dress so I expect to be finished by the end of the day today or by tomorrow afternoon.

After a busy and stressful weekend I am really looking forward to sitting in front of my sewing machine undisturbed today! See you back here soon for an update!