Sew Distracted

Pattern alteration info -- Purple Rain

I forgot something when I posted about my purple rain jacket yesterday. 

As a reminder, the jacket was made from this Vogue Pattern:

The pieces went together very easily and I really had no problems putting the top together.  The fit issues I have complained about are more my own fit issues than problems with the pattern.

However I did need to alter the sleeve a little bit.  I first cut a draft sleeve and basted it in and found that I had drag lines on the sleeve.  This is not that unusual of a problem (hence the draft).  To solve it I simply added 1/2 inch in height to the sleeve cap, which was originally pretty flat.  This made it slightly curved but did not add so much length as to make easing the sleeve difficult. The coated silk was somewhat difficult to ease and if it went in without difficulty, I would imagine that most other fabrics would as well.

Here is a picture of the original pattern piece, with my altered pattern underneath it.  I cut my pattern out of "soil separator paper" and it is very sheer and hard to see so I traced the line on a piece of paper just so you can see the edge a little better.

I make the sleeve cap 1/2" higher at the center dot and tapered to nothing at the seamlines.

Purple Rain

I finally stopped looking at the purple silk water-repellant top and just finished it.  Here I am celebrating:
I am pretty happy with the way it turned out with a few qualifications.  I like it better worn open than closed still.  I still don't like the way it hangs on me closed.  Partly this is due the the way the front closure hangs.  The center front line doesn't hang straight at the center front, if I measure and check it.  To make that happen I would have to reshape the pieces.  I think this is due to my own particular architecture not the pattern.  I also don't like the drop shoulders, the way they bunch under the arms.  It might be better with a stiffer fabric as this one tends to cling to the body; although there is lots of room the garment looks closer fitting that in actually is. The drop shoulders would also be something that I might want to fiddle with on the pattern.  I do like the basic shape and the basic idea.  I will hold on to the pattern for now and see if I fiddle with it and explore the options.  I always want to do this -- some perverse determination to make everything work if at all possible -- but the pressures of time and always shifting interests often keep me from accomplishing these goals.

I had originally thought I would line the top to hide the white underside of the fabric and the seams, but then thought it was too much work.  I think it would have just made the garment heavier and more hot.  One of its main advantages is that it is incredibly light and not particularly hot to wear, even on muggy humid summer days.  The lining would have just been more work and my own conflicting emotions about this piece would have made the lining process that much more of a burden.  As it was I did not always take as much care as usual.  Unfortunately, I am no perfectionist.

Below is a basic flat shot of the garment, very shiny in the light.  I decided to ditch the button and use hidden hooks and thread loops to close the jacket, closing the buttonholes and moving the closure over just a little, ending up in a compromise position between center front and the larger overlap shown earlier.   Both pictures will enlarge if you click on them.

Help Me if You Can

I took the plunge and opened the box I sent home from San Francisco.  I knew the purple silk top/jacket was in there hiding after I banished it from my sight the last sewing day.   Happily it is not as bad as I remembered.

Here it is in its current (unfinished) state:

It is not bad but it does look a little better on me than on Matilda here.  However it is much easier to photograph her.  I am not usually fond of drop shoulders but I decided to keep them here because I was not sure how easy the laminated silk would be to sew.  It is easier than I thought and I can even manage a little easing, but not much.  Of course drop shoulders look even worse when you have no arms...

I still don't like the way the front hangs.  It looks more like it was cut incorrectly or is too small, neither of which is the case.

I tried moving the button over, not fastening it at center front as specified in the pattern, and there is plenty of room to do that, as can be seen here:

If I did this I could not use the pretty butterfly button because it looks best in the center and I really don't think a large butterfly perching on the center of one's breast is all  that attractive.  In fact the bust point centering issue is the main problem with this plan.  The closures for the two sides would end up being right at the bust points.  Now I forgot when I cut this that I usually have to take fabric out of the center of my garments, from between the bust points and move it to the outside.  I guess that means that my bust points are closer to the center front line than most patterns.  Given the slanted fronts, I am not sure how I would have done that anyway.  It is also possible that moving closure to provide more overlap throws off the hang of the sleeves.  I can't tell that on me because my hands are busy holding the top together so I can't look at how the sleeve hangs, and Matilda, well she doesn't have arms anyway so it is hard to tell.

The other plan is just to shorten the top:

As you will note, I just folded the hem up, and not all that evenly either.  Still the point gets across and I think the top is much nicer in the shorter length mostly because the opening is not so wide and does not look so much like a mistake.  When I tried the top on over pants it also looked nicer short, trust me on this.

Aside from the fact that this is the much easier fix, I really think I like this better but I am going to think about it a few days.  If anyone is reading this, please tell me what you think.  Any help really is appreciated here because I still alternate between loving this and hating it.

Of course, no matter what happens, I really enjoyed sewing the fabric and the pattern anyway.

San Francisco Skirt

Here is a skirt I made last week in San Francisco.  I was inspired by a Max Mara skirt in the May Vogue Magazine, although that skirt is really more ornate than mine and is made from a more summery tweed.

I purchased the feather trim at MJ trim in NYC and also bought the matching ribbon trim. The feathers and trim are deep brown with a deep violet/purple/fuschia color.  The color of the wool is much more fuschia/navy than it appears in this photo, giving the overall cast of the skirt a deeper, red-purple hue.

The feather trim came sewn to a tape which inserted between the bottom of the skirt and a hem facing.   The ribbon trim is machine sewn  to the skirt, anchoring he hem in place.  The skirt is lined and has a petersham ribbon faced waist with no band.

My next project was not as successful.   I was working with this silk fabric from EmmaOneSock.com.  I have never worked with a laminated fabric like this and thought it would be an interesting project.  The fabric was part of a bundle I purchased and although I think it is quite pretty there is no great emotional investment here. 

I decided to use this pattern:    which is still available from Vogue Patterns. 

Everything went together well but I was just not sure I actually liked the garment.  My friend Mary says it looked very good from the back but in front it looked like it just didn't fit, almost unfinished like it was buttoned in one place because there was not enough room although I actually had lots of extra ease in the front of the garment.  I was thinking that the silk was just too light.  I had originally thought of lining it but had not felt like adapting the pattern to that or doing the extra work.  I am not yet sure what I think, I packed it up and sent it home.  We are going to Knoxville next weekend so it will be at least anothe week before I get it out and take another look.  I think that I like the pattern and I like the fabric, but it was not a good marriage between the two.

Saturday is shopping day for the Power Sewers and Sandra's husband Dan spent the day driving 9 eager shoppers around the bay area.  We went to STone Mountain and Daughter in Berkley and Thai Silks in Los Altos and I purchased fabric at both places.  Those packages were sent home and I will share the goodies when they arrive.

We also went to Poppy in Oakland.  Poppy has great trim and great upholstery and home dec fabric and a few other unusual things.  I bought a bolt of fabric to upholster the conversation pit in my living room there a couple of years ago.  This time I was very moderate and only bought once piece of trim, shown below:

It is really just a piece of flat binding with buttons sewn down the center.  Each button is topped with a tiny bead.  I think I will use it as trim on a jacket but it also inspires me with ideas of how to use old buttons, old pieces of bias binding and many other things.