You're the One That I Want

The title of this post is because when I first wore this top, my friend said I reminded them of Sandy from the end of Grease.  Sadly didn't get a photo from that night, which is a real shame because I looked HAWT!!!

This is a top I've been wanting to make for a while, and my birthday party ended up being the perfect excuse.  I'd made the muslin a few weeks/months (who can remember??) ago, but hadn't had the opportunity to make a "good" one.  As my party was looming I wanted something NEW and SEXY to wear, but felt I had no time and the shops weren't providing.  At the last minute I had the idea to go ahead with this top, and thanks to RubyJam Fabric's excellent service it was one business week from thought to finished top.  I ordered the fabric on a Monday, received it on Tuesday, washed it on Wednesday, cut it on Thursday and sewed it on Friday!

I made the design using my Frankenshirt pattern and following the Sexy Shoulder Hack tutorial from Little Ragamuffin.  I added the shoulder straps to help make my bra straps less "bra" looking.

The bottom of the shirt kicks out slightly so I can wear it with pants or a pencil skirt and not feel self conscious about my belly.

But I also intend to wear it tucked in with fuller skirts for a more retro look, as seen here with my recent circle skirt make.

Pouf! I made a petticoat, and a skirt.

This one has been in the making since about October I think.  My sewing time has been very sporadic so everything is taking me AGES!!

After helping my niece make a petticoat, circle skirt and blouse for her end of year school social last year, I desperately wanted to make myself one.  I'm really trying to get a vintage vibe into my clothes and what says that more than a poufy petticoat?

My niece's petticoat

Then a fabric opportunity arose and who can resist?  My daughter had a minecraft themed birthday party last year, and we used green net to make a tree.  With all of the 8 metres returning to my sewing room after the event, I was getting a green petticoat whether I liked green or not.

A Minecraft Tree

I had found an online tutorial to make my niece's, but I just made this one from memory of doing her's.  It's made of 3 rows each 8" tall.  The first row (closest to waist) is 2 metres around, the second is 4 metres and the bottom is 8 metres.  The lining is made of poplin and is a half-circle skirt cut using my hip measurement plus 2" (I think).  The bottom row is gathered onto the middle row, then the middle gathered onto the top, then the top row is gathered onto the lining.  For the waistband, I added a cotton lycra yoga style band that is cut 12" high and the folded over double.  For my niece, we did two layers the same to add extra pouf as her's was made of tulle, but for mine I decided on just one because the net is more stiff than tulle.  Even then it seemed a little too stiff so I washed it to calm it down a little.

My petticoat

To finish the bottom edge, I wanted ribbon or something so the net wasn't scratchy and catching on things.  A trip to Spotlight left me wandering the ribbon/trim aisle for ages not sure what to do.  At 8m of hem, the ribbons I liked were going to cost me much more than I wanted to spend on a petticoat that was meant to be "free".  I did fall in love with a gingham ribbon though, and then had the brilliant idea to make my own gingham bias for the hem.  Only half a metre of fabric required, so only a couple of dollars!  But then lots of time making bias (most of which involved it sitting around waiting for me to iron it).

I actually started making the skirt in the midst of doing the petticoat, but didn't want to finish it until the petticoat was finished and I knew how it was going to sit.

This is a circle skirt with the "waist" measurement actually being my hips plus 2".  This makes it plenty big enough to get on and off without needing a zipper.  The waistband is cut in two halves.  The front is half of my actual waist measurement, the back is the remaining amount needed to make it the same length as the skirt opening, then elastic inserted to bring it back into my waist.  The end result is actually a little loose.  I think next time I will bring the elastic portion another inch or two towards the front on both sides.  This puts more fullness of the skirt at the back, but on my body I really prefer this.  It helps balance out my belly and doesn't have too much fabric up front.

I also made the top, but will do a separate post on that. EDIT - blog post on top here

Since this petticoat and skirt was really a wearable muslin to get the fit right, there will probably be another one in the near future!

Sewing a 60s Mod Dress

I recently used my Cashmerette Upton dress pattern for the first time in order to complete my Dress Like Your Grandma Sewing Challenge.

One of the big selling points of these patterns are the different cup sizes so you don't have to do a Full Bust Adjustment (FBA).  Last year I made the Washington using the larger cup size, but it didn't quite work for my figure, as I usually make use of the FBA to add extra to the front waist, making it better fit my belly.  Using their larger cup size, then grading at the waist, added the extra to the side which is not where I need it. So this time I decided to go back to the old method, choose a size based on high bust and then do an FBA.

The Upton is a bodice, band (at the high waist) and a skirt.  I was wanting to make a 60s style dress with an empire waist, and princess seam skirt, so I chose the panelled skirt option, knowing I'd have to slim them down a bit.  When I made the Washington, sizing advice from Jenny (at Cashmerette) indicated I should make the 18G/H.  For this Upton, I chose the 16C/D for reasons mentioned above.

Upton Dress
Photo courtesy of Cashmerette Patterns

I actually ended up doing two FBAs.  The first I took to the shoulder seam and tried to rotate the side dart around to the underbust, so there was only one dart.  It didn't quite fit how I wanted and was still a tiny bit too small.  I traced of the altered pattern I had and did a second FBA, this time to the armhole, and left the new side dart in place.  I think my boobs are a bit too big for just one dart.  This then fitted well.  I think the combination of shoulder and armhole points helped distribute the added fullness a bit better.  This can be done in one step by doing a Y-dart FBA.

First FBA with pivot at shoulder

Second FBA with pivot at underarm

Now that the bodice was done I had to attach the waistband and skirt.  Doing the bodice alterations as detailed above, meant that my front bodice was quite a lot wider at the waist seam than before.  Most FBA instructions tell you to angle the side seam back in again to take out this extra, but I need this extra for my belly.  What I did instead was to measure the seam line of the front bodice pattern and then compare it to the seam line of the front waistband piece.  My bodice measured almost exactly to a size 26 waistband, so that is was I used for the front waistband and skirt.  So now my dress was a size 16 bodice and skirt back, 16 with FBA bodice front and 26 skirt front.  Doing it this way means I have enough fabric to cover my belly and hang nicely, whilst maintaining the side seams in an appropriate spot.

After attaching the skirt to my bodice muslin, I needed just a little extra length right at the waist darts.  I unpicked the waistband seam and let it fall to it's natural resting place.  I needed an extra 1/2", just at that point.  So my bodice pattern now actually has a scoop down from CF, but when I'm wearing it, it looks level.  I think that's a really important concept to understand when learning pattern drafting/alterations.  It might look weird on paper, but if it looks right on the body, then that's what you need to do.

You can see how the bottom edge curves down from the CF

Next was the task of reshaping the skirt.  The Upton has quite a lovely flow to the panel skirt option, but I needed a more straight out/A-line shape to get my 60s look.  I'm not very confident at estimating things like this so I went looking for a guide.  I have Simplicity 3559 so I used the angle of the skirt panels in this against my Upton, but this pattern has a front, back and one side panel, whereas the Upton has front, side front, side back and back.  I wasn't really happy with the result, the skirt was still too "full".  By this stage I'd also run into my fabric problem as discussed here, so the whole lot got put in the corner for a time while I thought about what to do.

Then I went to a local destash market, hoping to find some new fabric (which I didn't), but instead I picked up some patterns, including Butterick 6186 (I had been admiring this pattern for a while anyway, so what a find!). This pattern was closer to the skirt shape that I wanted, and included the same panel arrangement as the Upton.  I redrew my Upton panels with the angles from B6186 and the skirt came out exactly how I wanted it.  What I found interesting was the first time I'd taken fullness off all skirt seams, but by following pattern B6186, I only changed the seams between front/side front and back/side back.  The side seams stayed the same shape.

So finally happy with the fit, I moved onto the final product!

On looking at these photos, I can see that the back is actually a little too small.  From the back view I can see the side seams, and the pockets feel a little too far back when I have my hands in them.

I think for the next one I will start with a size 18, and follow the same procedure as I did above for a better fit.

Also, after completion I noticed the bodice shaping (darts etc) was too low at the front.  I don't know if I wore a different bra during fitting (I don't *think* I did) or what happened, but pulling up the front at the shoulders resolved this.  Unfortunately it meant that the front waist band  and hem is no longer parallel with the floor, but it is an okay compromise.  It's only noticeable when you're looking at it from side view.

Dress Like Your Grandma Sewing Challenge

Last year Mrs Hughes (Tanya) introduced the Dress Like Your Grandma Sewing Challenge. The idea being to take a photo of your Grandma (or other female relative, or any historical photo of a female) and recreate the dress.

For last year's challenge, I tried to copy this dress of my Nanna. Being a very different body type it was a bit of a challenge but I think I did well.

Problem is that I haven't worn it since taking the photo. This time of year is getting cold in Melbourne, then once the weather warmed up I always felt the dress was too dressy to wear anywhere that I go. It has hung in my wardrobe and now the weather is cold again.

For this year's challenge, I decided that I wanted to make something more wearable with my current lifestyle. The day the challenge began, my mother arrived from interstate with a box full of family photos.  After narrowing it down to a half dozen, I settled on this one of my mother with her first car.

Left: my recreation, Right: my mother is 1969

Obviously with this photo, there was going to be a lot of “inspired by” rather than a direct copy. I was hoping to use fabric from my stash, so my mum and I sat together looking through my options and together chose this purple floral. It's not something that she particularly had as a dress at that time but is something that she likes and possibly would have chosen. 

I looked online at pattern ideas, trying to decide on style lines etc. I wanted the empire waist and decided on princess seams in the skirt.  Of course vintage patterns are hard to come by, even harder in plus size. I settled on trying out my unused Cashmerette Upton dress pattern.  It has the empire waist and a princess seam skirt, although a little more full than desired.  You can read more about my dress alterations and sewing process in this blog post.

Upon finalising my muslin, I went to get my chosen fabric only to discover that there wasn't as much as I thought, and even then I'd underestimated how much I was going to need.

What to do?? I really didn't want to have to buy more fabric and even if I did buy more, a quick internet search didn't bring up anything that suited me and the project.

Scrolling through my fabric database, I eventually decided on a change of direction.  I'd seen this comic book print last year, and wanted to make a jacket but then realised the scale of the print was too big for the pattern I had in mind. I still loved it so bought some anyway, as you do!

I had enough for this dress, even allowing for careful pattern placement so it was a go. I decided my project would become an “artistic interpretation” rather than a recreation.

So I'm calling this my Roy Lichtenstein 60s dress (thanks to my niece for the "artist tip").
And this is basically my first car too.  I didn't get my licence until 6 years ago, and this is the first car we have bought since then.  I got to choose the features I wanted (out of what suited our needs and was available second hand), and most importantly the colour!!  Not actually my dream colour, but again out of what was available, this was my first choice.

Whilst it probably won't get worn any time soon, because the weather has turned, I'm looking forward to an opportunity to show this one off!  Now I think I might start brainstorming next year's 'grandma dress' so I'm not as rushed last minute as I was this year.

Playing with Miss Ruby Tuesday

I'd seen several people who have made Miss Ruby Tuesday by 1 Puddle Lane and I loved it. Then Ann had a fundraising sale to help pay for her daughter's cancer treatment so who could resist a message like that telling me to buy the pattern. Plus one of my online sewing groups had a sew-along to help promote the sale.

Headed to the fabric shop hoping the Clearance Table Gods would favour me so I could a make wearable muslin without risking good fabric. They did indeed favour me and everything seemed to fall into place.

I decided on the extended shoulder/cap sleeve bodice option with the half circle peplum.  After printing, I did a FBA because I know that's standard for me now and added a few inches to the bodice length. I'm pretty particular about where I like my waist seams hitting because the wrong spot can really accentuate my belly.

It still felt and looked too tight in the bust but the length seemed good. I just took some off the back length to fit into the curve of my spine better (it's folded up in the pic to where I wanted it to be).

I added more to my FBA but this made it look worse!!

It sat in the "I don't know" pile for a day or two.

I decided to return to my first bodice with the smaller FBA and press on. I attached the peplum and bindings.  It wasn't love.

Attaching the skirt did pull the bodice down a bit so it became too long and the bindings have pulled the neck/armhole too tight. I'm guessing my fabric didn't have enough stretch in that direction.

I tossed it aside and there it sat for a month, until I decided it deserved a re-look.

I realised that when I had done the FBA, I had used the extended shoulder point rather than the actual shoulder point, so this may have affected my results.  Will have to remember that for next time, but before then, it was time to look at the waist seam! That is one of the major factors of the silhouette of this dress. I decided to do some comparisons.

Note, these photos were deliberately taken with the light behind me to show the silhouette rather than the details. And the different waist heights are just roughly pinned up so don't give a smooth line but you get the idea.

Left is my finished product (above) that came out too long after attaching the skirt.  Not a good photo, but you can see the shape.

Centre is when pinned up to my natural waist, and where I believe the pattern is designed to sit. 

Lastly, I let some of the pinned section out, so it's about halfway in between the previous two.  This actually hits me at the largest part of my belly, which is about 1/2" above my belly button. You can see this point in the first photos of this post.

Left looks nice enough, nothing wrong with it as such.

Centre looks quite cute I think, giving nice waist definition and shape.  The 'skirt' is now a bit short and hits in a really bad spot, but could easily be fixed in future versions.  

Right also gives me nice waist shape, the skirt sits a bit flatter/smoother over hips.

Now for side view, which is always what I dread:

Left: doesn't look bad, but it just feels a bit 'meh' to me.
Centre: The higher waist seam really pops the skirt out, giving a more 'maternal' look.
Right: It looks very similar to the centre one, but it's just a subtle difference of where the skirt pops out and how it hangs.  I can still see I have a belly, it doesn't just go away, but it becomes less of a "feature"

Personally I think the last one is the best option, and was probably the length I was going for before the skirt weighed it down.  It doesn't make the belly disappear in side view, but it does give a fairly smooth look. And from front view, there is still some really nice waist shaping.

Of course all these variations make the overall length different, so some skirt length might need to be added to maintain my ideal length for a peplum/top, but that's a separate problem.  And so is the neck/shoulder puckering.  I guess this one is still assigned to the "needs work" pile, but I've got the waist height sorted out!  Next time I'll try a different fabric too.

Lucky in Love

I'm on the smaller side of "large breasted" which makes it annoying to buy bras because many of them will appear to come in my size (based on their size range) but when I try them on I'm just one cup size out because every brand is a different fit.  This means having to go to a specialist shop, with "specialist prices" to match to get nice bras.  For reference I'm about a 16-18F (Australian) but as I said, it varies with brand.

In the last 12 months, when I really 'discovered' indie PDF pattern designers, I've seen a range of bralette patterns.  These look comfortable and easy to make.  I wasn't looking for the same support as an underwire bra because when I started looking I was still breast feeding and was wearing soft cup bras anyway.  I'm not feeding any more, but still like the idea of a more comfortable bra option when I'm staying home most of the day.

I've tried a few of these patterns without heaps of success.  They do seem to be more suited to the smaller busted, but not impossible for the larger among us.  I couldn't get a level of support I wanted, even considering I was comparing to a soft cup.  Then I tried some with power mesh, and that gave me support but also mono-boob.  The struggle is real ladies.

I had the most success with the George & Ginger Lovesick Bralette (which is free when you join their FB Group. This design incorporates darts which help with support.

I was still getting a bit of mono-boob happening though, which is as much about comfort as about looks.  Also the neckline is a bit higher than I'd like if I was to wear it under clothing as a bra.  Some have tried putting a centre piece in to gather up the front, like I did in my version of the Tank Hack but this didn't help to keep my breasts separated.

Then Rad Patterns brought out their Lucky Lingerie pattern.  This was very cute, and some said that the twist front helped with separation so I thought I'd give that a try.

My first attempted was rather disappointing.  I was just falling out all over! (Tiger print was on the clearance rack that week)

Some advice from Stephanie at Rad Patterns helped but it still wasn't giving me what I wanted, and this didn't have the same support as the Lovesick.  I left them all in a box in the corner for "later".

Finally this week I got around to trying out the idea that had been brewing in my mind over the last few months.

I mashed the cup shaping/darts of the Lovesick with the cute twist of the Lucky, and this is my result

It's basically a Lovesick, with the front neck and twist shaping of the Lucky.  I'd like to try one that has the Lucky back as well, because the back has a cute keyhole to match the front.

I've been wearing it for about an hour so far this evening.  So far I still have ample separation and it doesn't feel too droopy.  Will be interesting to see how it holds up over a whole day.

Overall, it feels great for a bralette made out of only cotton/lycra.  I'm sure I could get mores support if I used power mesh in the cups.... so I guess that's my next adventure in bralette making!

Frankenshirt

I think I'm pretty close to my perfect fitting t-shirt.

So this is an Agnes body, cut with a Miss Ruby Tuesday scoop neck, and the sleeves are from the Ginger Dress on the front and the Amanda on the back.

It's still a little tight in the bust, but I'm not sure if I'll change it, I don't mind it snug LOL

The sleeve pattern piece looks a bit wonky because of the mashing so I might have to smooth it out a bit but otherwise, I think I have a winner!!!

I might try skimming down the sides to see what that looks like, a bit more like the Everyday Tee.

Lovesick Bralette Tank Hack

I've been ogling Little Ragamuffin's Sweet and Lovely Dress since someone shared their version in a Facebook group.  I haven't tried it though because I have been worried how it would look on my body.

After my recent success with tops though, I finally thought I could do it some justice.

I decided to start with the Bralette Tank Top Hack before I ventured into a whole dress.  This uses the George & Ginger Lovesick Bralette pattern (which is free if you join their FB group), and then you add a bottom piece onto it to make the tank.  I'd already successfully made the bralette so knew I had the right size fitting well.

Jennifer uses the band pattern piece from the bra as a guide to make her 'body' piece, but she has a much slimmer physique than I do!  I decided to mash my trusty Agnes body with my Lovesick top to give me a bit more room around my tummy.  I wanted to do the front centre piece that Jennifer does on the Sweet and Lovely Dress, but I was worried how that might pull up the front of my tank because of my ample cleavage.  To work this all out, I put on my Lovesick Bralette, then my Agnes over the top.  I used pins to mark when the side band hit and where I wanted the centre front of the bralette to meet the body of the tank top.  Taking it off and transferring the markings to my Agnes pattern, I ended up with a curved shape at the top.  I then realised that my body piece was wider than the finished bralette piece.  I decided to add a little width to the bralette, since I wanted to wear it over a bra so it didn't need to be as snug.

On the Centre Front (left), you can see how I've curved the piece up to meet the bralette

My next problem was that I was intending to upcycle a dress, and the skirt wasn't quite wide enough to cut my body pieces out of.  I decided to reshape the sides so they were more in line with my Everyday Tee than the Agnes.  This probably looks better anyway, since I like to wear my tanks closer to my body, often as an under layer.

Pattern all sorted, I cut it out and followed Jennifer's instructions, and here is my upcycled Lovesick tank!

Now I'll just have to add the Sweet and Lovely dress to my ever increasing To-Do list.