She Who Sews

Ever since I made the Latona dress at the beginning of 2017 (read here), I had planned to make another with zips in the back bodice instead of buttons, for no other reason than I felt like it.



But, well, all the other pattern tests, a little bit of work, and shiny new pattern releases got in the way and nothing ever came of it. Until just before Christmas when I found some amazingly happy and bright fabric in our local fabric shop. I just knew I wanted to make it into a Latona, with rainbow zips!



I found the zips online and ordered up a few pairs as I was unsure on the length I'd need. They weren't as rainbowy as I'd hoped, but they did the job. The difficulty came in figuring out how best to substitute the zips for the buttons. The centre back piece of the bodice overlaps the back sides to create two button plackets. I wondered whether to get rid of the overlap entirely and just replace with zips, reducing the centre back panel in width. But this came with it's own problem of how the skirt would then attach nicely to the bodice. I discounted this method because I couldn't wrap my head around the waist/bodice join.



In the end I opted for creating a second placket in the skirt and adding the zips in with their tape sewn on like a seam allowance and turned under. It is not the neatest job in the world, but turning the zip tape under creates it's own little flaps so the zips aren't directly against the skin. I added in two small sew-in snaps to the top of the centre back to hold the flaps in place. I hoped these would stop the back from gaping, but it didn't.



The revelation about why this is gaping came in the last couple of weeks, and I can't change this dress unfortunately. So here is a prime example of a dress not fitting correctly. See how the back neck is gaping downwards, and that you can clearly see the shoulder seams? The seams shouldn't be visible on this photo, as they should be at the top of shoulder, just out of sight from this view. The back neck should be considerably higher towards the neck. There is also a small amount of pulling at the front armholes. This would all be solved by adding extra width to the top of the back like I did for this dress.



The next time I make this pattern I will be adding extra to the back, as I will be for all patterns going forward.



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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*

It's been a year since I first tested a pattern for the Eli Monster. In that year I've tested a whole host of dress and top patterns, two were even for me! So it seems fitting to test yet another dress in a beautiful design, the Admiraal dress.



I always seem to learn something new when testing for Steph. This time, after getting frustrated with the shoulder seams still not lining up on the shoulders of my daughter, I thought I'd look into it further. I was, mistakenly, thinking it was the pattern drafting, but looking further into it, it was happening with everything I made for her, with some styles being more pronounced than others. In this fit pic I'm pointing to her shoulder tip, you can also clearly see the shoulder seam is far back towards her back.



Cap sleeves have always been a little bit of a problem, often riding up because they are too tight on her shoulder tip. I assumed it was due to her strong shoulders from gymnastics, but I'm now leaning towards her back being wider than average. In this picture of the Rivier dress, you can just see the caps beginning to rise upwards and how tight they are...



I did a bit of googling and came across a blog post about adjusting a women's bodice for a top, where the front was pulling high up to the neck, the back was pulling low off the neck, and the shoulder seams were back from the shoulders. It seemed remarkably close to the problems I have with Layla. The fix was to slash the back bodice to gain a little extra space across the back shoulders.



I couldn't believe the instant difference in fit it made! Suddenly the front wasn't pulling up high, the back wasn't pulling down low, the back shoulders weren't straining, and the shoulder seams were almost back in the correct place (certainly they were from the neck side). Fitting to a little girl can be a bore. She gets fed up with constant trying on of a 'not dress', so I had to work quickly, and that's why I take the pictures, so that I can refer back to them. She needed an extra inch of space to account for a large rounded back/shoulder.



I also did a small forward shoulder adjustment of half an inch at the shoulder end of the seam to account for her slightly rounded shoulders (I'm told this is a good thing in gymnastics as it means she is holding shape correctly for flicks and tumbles?!). In this picture you can see the slash adjustment to the paper pattern, with the extra paper behind to straighten the back piece back out. I also added extra length to the collar to account for the extra created in the back slash. The shaded area on the shoulder seam is the forward shoulder adjustment. All these took place to the working tester pattern.



The rounded back, forward shoulder and taking the shoulders out to the next size up in the pattern, all contributed to getting a fully fitted, non-straining bodice for Layla, I think for the first time ever! As Steph said in the testing group, this is really going to make life easier in the future, knowing the adjustment I need to make.



And so, here is the dress. I found the construction fiddly, and it seemed to take me a long time, but I've never made a bodice where the sleeves are enclosed within the main and lining. I love that neat finish inside around the sleeves! I'm not a fan of the way the side zip looks on the inside though. This is not the first pattern I have made with a similar construction (from a different designer), and I didn't like it then either. But after spending hours (literally, hours and hours) scratching my head, and trying out different methods, unpicking, and trying again, I couldn't really get anything to work any better? I'm guessing the only real way to make this side zip neat would be to do a lot of hand sewing, and I'm not really down with that!



The Admiraal dress features a shawl collar, asymmetric double breasted buttons on the front bodice, a side zip, pleated skirt, and choice of either cap or half sleeves. I went for the half sleeve as I felt it balanced out Layla's shoulders a lot better than the little cap. I can't help but see the similarity to a nurses uniform from the early 1960's. Coincidentally, here are my tv viewing habits, with the nurses in London wearing a very similar style dress to the Admiraal.



I made my version using some lovely light, soft, cotton that I found in a charity shop here last summer. I'd intended to make myself a shirt or blouse, but that never happened. It seemed like the perfect subdued print for a vintage style dress.

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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*

During November and December I sort of lost the blogging bug. I was making a lot of gifts for Christmas and birthday presents, and as I couldn't advertise them online (or the recipients would see!) I didn't bother much with writing anything. What I should have done was written up the posts in draft form and released them all en masse after Christmas. Isn't hind sight such a wonderful thing?!



Instead, I didn't and now I have this huge hole in my blog. BUT I'm getting back on track with this post. I have just completed my second pattern test of the year (I'll have to write up the first one next). It's my first time testing for Bernadette of Duchess and Hare patterns and overall the experience was great!



I was accepted into her tester pool before Christmas and have been waiting patiently for the festive period to be over to get sewing. The request for these two patterns popped up and I jumped at the chance to join in. I have a serious love of the vintage vibe, and secretly, I want to keep my little girl 'little' for as long as possible. The Spinny Mini dress and A La Heart Pinny certainly fulfil the criteria.



The A La Heart pinny has a heart shaped bib attached to a simple elastic waistband, with straps joining at the centre back with a button. The skirt can either be a full circle, a tulip circle or gathered. It has the option to attach to shorts on their own, or underneath the various skirts, but my girl is really not a fan of rompers, or suspender shorts.



She squealed with delight the morning she saw the pinny on the dressmakers dummy, waiting for her to try it on for sizing the straps. She immediately put it on, and I pinned for buttonhole size, with the request I sew the buttonhole and button on before breakfast!



The pinny was made to go over something, as it's a bit indecent with the tulip skirt, so I had to get on with the Spinny Mini dress asap. The dress came together surprisingly easily and quickly. It's so refreshing to have everything line up in flat pattern stage, and then the sewing is easy on top.



I have never made elastic casing using self made bias binding before. I'm not quite sure why I haven't? It is the neatest, easiest way ever to make a casing, and I think I'll use it on many, many projects in the future.



My only gripe is threading elastic through casings. I hate it, even with my little nifty elastic threading bodkin. I have since found though that my 1/4" elastic is not actually 1/4" and made life a challenge unnecessarily for me. The problem between switching from imperial measurements, to metric, is that it's never going to be quite exact. Elastic is sold in mm sizes here, and my '1/4"' elastic was actually just over, oh well, at least I know for future.



The Spinny Mini dress comes with either short of three quarter length puff sleeves, I had to choose the short version, I just love the way the sleeve puffs up into a ball, it's just so sweet! The dress also has the option of the mini circle skirt with ruffle, or a longer gathered skirt. I wanted to go proper vintage length, so opted for the mini circle skirt. Obviously this option gives maximum twirl too. And, for common decency (not that my daughter gives a stuff...) there are a sweet little set of bloomers included in the pattern. I made a straight age 4 in these, and had to tighten my elastic to account for the tiny bum and skinny thighs of my daughter.



I bought three prints from the Priory Square collection of fabric by Art Gallery Fabrics before Christmas. I thought they would be good for my Christmas and birthday gifts, as well as my planned new collection for my shop. I simply adore the Sunday Clippings print, which pairs wonderfully with the Clover Field and Shambles prints. But now I have used up my supply of Sunday Clippings and I can't find it to buy anywhere in the UK, or even see it anymore on the Art Gallery Fabrics website, which puts paid to my plans to make a new collection out of it. Such a shame it seemed to be on such a short print run. Sunday Clippings has made the cutest Spinny Mini dress, paired with the Shambles print for the A La Heart pinny, with Clover Field underneath as the bloomers.



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*Disclaimer: Some of the links in the post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission (the price stays the same for you) which will help me in the future to buy more patterns to share them with you!*