2016 Review

Real Clothes
This year I made a lot of normal, relatively plain everyday clothes.  I reused patterns with only minor (or no) variations. And because of the simplicity of the construction I was able to finish some garments in a single sitting. Relevant posts here.

Firstly I made six shirts from Vogue 8328. I’d wanted to make this pattern for years but hadn’t had appropriate fabric. I made two versions of each view after which I decided that I didn’t like the fit very much. I have got a lot of wear out of the light grey one particularly.

I made two skirts from McCalls 6608 which I love. I got fabric at Christmas which will be a third skirt. These nicely replace my standard long skirts that were discontinued last year (just before mine all wore out). I wore mid-length skirts for a while but found that I really wanted to be a long-skirt person.

I developed a maxi-dress pattern which is very comfortable and pretty so I made three of them and, when the weather changed, I adapted the pattern to be a summer dress. I don’t think it works quite as well short as it doesn’t have the weight in the skirt to make everything sit right (although this might just be me being a long-skirt person). Blog posts for the first two here and here.

I made a couple of coats: a gold cardigan to go with one of the maxi-dresses and a fleecy McCalls 7025 to wear around the house when it’s cold.

Also from the McCalls range (which did very well out of me this year) was this dress, McCalls 7091.Posts here and here. While I do really like it I found that the pattern will need a fair bit of adjusting to fit nicely and comfortably. And I don’t think I want to spend the effort, not when making the dress itself is also a lot of effort – so many seams to be sewn and pressed and neatened... The skirt could be longer too.

I made another 40s dress, this time for cooler weather. It’s still in that phase where I am too aware of its problems to be sure I like it but I expect I will warm to it. I have more 40s dresses planned for next year. They have become the staple of my summer wardrobe.

For years people have been introducing me with “she sews all her own clothes” after which I’ve had to clarify that "actually I mostly make costumes and didn’t make anything I’m wearing". But now those introducers will be right.

Lessons
I continued to have sewing lessons this year. Lots of sewing lessons. In April I had a class for every day of every weekend except for one Saturday – and I made up for that by having one lesson on a Friday.

The stretch sewing course I did is largely responsible for my foray into making everyday knit garments. In the performance-wear class I made swimming togs and afterwards used that pattern as the starting point for my maxi-dress pattern.

In two garment making courses, in which I made a skirt and a pattern for a shirt, I learnt lots of finishing techniques and how to adjust patterns for my personal fitting issues. I also learnt that I have a lot of fitting issues – which explains why I have trouble buying clothes. (The reason I always wear skirts is that no-one, including me, makes pants that fit me).

I did an overlocker class because I won an overlocker and had several private patternmaking lessons for a costuming project.

Costumes
I didn’t finish any costumes this year. I am somewhat bewildered by this. I did, however, make a significant amount of progress on a couple of projects.

I started making Elizabeth’s first outfit from BioShock Infinite. I had patternmaking lessons to make the shirt pattern. Still to do are buttons and buttonholes, skirt hems, and accessories.

I continued working on my Assassin’s Creed costume, making a resin cast for the belt buckle. I didn’t expect to be good at sculpting but it worked well, so that was pleasing. I am still discovering how to proceed with the resin but I think it’s all going to turn out fine. I have also worked on the fabric component of the belt.

I did finish one costume-related item: a bag to go with my Misery outfit.

Events
At this year’s Canberra Show I won two first places and three seconds. My Eowyn costume won overall champion of the sewing section. The prize was a sewing machine (which has found a good home) and an overlocker.

In September I had an exhibit of my costumes at GAMMA.CON and entered the costume competition.

My church youth group occasionally holds ‘get to know you’ evenings where people present their interests to the group. It was my turn recently so I put up a display in the lounge room and told them about costuming.

My cousins came to visit at the end of the year and now both of them are sewing costumes! Having had lessons myself I’m more comfortable being a mentor as I now know some ‘right’ things I can tell them. I was pleased to be able to pass on the importance of seam allowances.

Miscellaneous
My favourite new sewing thing of this year has been my electric scissors. I was given them last Christmas and I love them so much. Now cutting out happens really quickly and my hand doesn’t get sore and the edges of the fabric are neater. However –  if you rush out to buy a pair make sure you give them a test drive first as some people find them hard to control and uncomfortable. But I think they’re wonderful!

I have continued to make glacial progress on my Bayeux Tapestry dress.

Happily ever after

Previously on: I was unimpressed with the waist-level bulge on my McCalls 7091 dress. The prime suspect was the significant amount of gathering in the underskirt, but was that the real culprit...?

My first attempt at restructuring this dress was to re-cut the three-panel underskirt into twelve panels the same shape as the panels in the overskirt. I thought that removing the gathering would solve the problem. I did not have much spare pink fabric, so I had to cut the new pieces from the already cut pink skirt. There was insufficient depth so I had to make the tops of each new panel out of the black fabric (this will be important later).

So I sewed and pressed the dozens of new seams and carefully clipped the horizontal seam allowances to remove every scrap of unnecessary bulk... and it hardly made a difference. There was still a lot of fabric at the waist. So I unpicked the pink skirt, again, and took in all the seams on the black panels so it fitted me much more closely.  Then I gathered the pink onto the black extension pieces. Success!

The lining kept wanting to slip sideways so I hand sewed the outer layer to the lining at the front and side seams. This has the added benefit of smoothing out the edges of the silhouette.


And so what we have learnt...

•  I think the main problem here was a fitting issue. Between starting and finishing this dress I have learned a bit more about how to fit clothes and I think I need to make it standard practice to lengthen waistlines by about an inch as the first thing I do with a pattern. I do think extending the lining so the gathering is lower is a good idea, but the outer layer needs to be close-fitted lower as well.
•  I kind of regret cutting the pink as part of the first fix; it has too many seam lines now. It folds more nicely than it did, probably because it's gathered on to a smaller circumference, making more folds. The fabric still might be too stiff, but I like it so that doesn't count. :-)
• I learned that while zips need to be longer in dresses that have fitted skirts they can be shorter in dresses with full skirts. I'd had difficulty finding zips long enough to get my 40s dresses on easily, so for this dress I bought the longest invisible zip I could find. It is way too long. I hadn't thought about the difference skirt shape makes. The skirt on this dress is at least a full circle. The extra zip length bulges weirdly so I might go back and cut it off.  

I wore the dress to work last week and spent the whole day feeling fabulous, so it has all turned out well in the end.

Setting myself up to faille

I started a full-time job this year. In an office, like what real adults do. Thusly, I need some work clothes. Enter McCalls 7091. (I was quite taken with McCalls current pattern range, so expect to see a few of them gracing my blog in the not too distant future.)

This may have been meant to be an evening/party dress but I am chronically incapable of not being overdressed.

The pattern fitted me as is and I did not plan to make any alterations beyond using the sleeves from another view (and binding them, rather than hemming). For the skirt I found an embroidered fuchsia remnant that had been in the stash for years and bought some black faille for the outer shell and bodice lining.

Pressing the seams takes hours. There are 12 seams and each gets pressed from both sides, then pressed open from the back and the front. An ironing ham is very useful for this - the curved seams lie so much better on a curved surface. Once the seams are pressed you then get to zigzag 24 edges. Thankfully by that stage you have what looks like a nearly finished dress to feel accomplished about. At which point you can do it all over again with the lining.

I was surprised to see that the underskirt did not continue the panels from the bodice. Instead it consists of three slightly flared panels gathered at the waist. Once I put the lining together I was somewhat concerned by the bulk at the waist caused by the gathers and how the fabric was a bit more balloon-y than fold-y, even though it looked to me to be of a similar weight to the photo on the pattern envelope. Then I attached the layers together.

Gone are the smooth lines created by all those seams. Instead the skirt suddenly bumps into a ledge at just the point on my figure where a ledge should not be. So it looks like I will be changing the pattern after all.