Science vs Sewing vs (broken) Technology

Emery

I've been utterly consumed by work, so once again it's been a little quiet on the sewing front. It doesn't mean I haven't been making though... Here's a rather silly picture of me looking pretty proud that the giant atoms I made for the annual Leeds Festival of Science weren't a complete Pinterest Fail.



Another HUGE sewing set back is my broken sewing machine, which I'm less than impressed about having had it for less than a year. The bobbin case seems to wiggle around and then jam when the hand wheel is turned backwards, and the thread is getting all knotted after just a few stitches, It's under warranty still, but I'm having difficulty with getting it sent back to the suppliers to be seen to. All I can say is that I would never buy something like this from a seller on Amazon again - in future I'd only buy directly from the manufacturers themselves (i.e. Janome) or a reputable, nearby shop. 



It's times like this that I realise how much I'm relying on technology/a nifty piece of engineering to do the work for me, and how completely in the dark I feel when it goes wrong. It would be nice to know a bit more about the technical side of these things, and saving myself some of the annoyance/panic/frustration I feel when things aren't working quite right.

My wonderful mum stepped in (in light of such an emergency) and packed her sewing machine in a suitcase and brought it on the train to Leeds. I'm not sure if it was a subconscious thing, but it could be that sewing with my mum's machine has influenced my next project - it's screams 'my-mum-in-the-late-eighties'...



...Lots of fabric, fuss and florals going on in this dress. The particular floral I used was a steal from the wonderful Ray-Stitch sales a while back; a 'slightly imperfect' Liberty (perfect is boring anyway). I think it's a viscose/poly and has a decent drape. It's heavy enough to allow the skirt to hang well, whilst still having a good amount of movement.



The dress as a whole comes from a chain of ones before it (as those of you who have read my blog before may have noticed!) The bodice was another excuse to perfect my self drafted pattern - mainly the lining as I didn't do it so well on the last try. I still seem to have a bit of trouble getting the lining spot on - joining it to the facing is much more difficult because of the angular neckline - but it's so much better than my last time. I've got the under-stitching down now too, so I'm really pleased with the finish on the neckline. And I still love the petal sleeves. I think they might be my favourite feature of the dress.



The skirt is a basic long gathered skirt, based loosely on the skirt of the Emery Dress - with added length! I'm really attracted to midi-length garments at the moment, as can be seen with the skirt I posted about last month, so I thought I'd go for something similar in dress form.

I've also been sewing with both Me Made May and a holiday to Barcelona (also in May eek!) in mind. I feel like I've at least ticked one garment off my 'to sew for May/holiday' list with this.




The only thing I'm not quite happy with - and it's entirely my fault - is that I sewed in a standard zipper rather than a concealed one. I remember asking for concealed in the shop, but before I noticed, I was sewing it in and it was a just a standard zipper. This means that you can see it a bit on the back, but at least it's neat, and it's behind me so I'll never see it anyway, ha.

I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this one, especially in summer. The self drafted bodice is become quite the 'go-to' thing to make, primarily because I know it fits me perfectly without any adjustments. No muslin making = good in my books! I think I'll be look for ways to alter the neckline and skirt to try and change it up a bit so it doesn't look like it's becoming my uniform!

Coming up... I have some time off to dedicate to sewing, plus some very special social sewing plans in the pipeline - hopefully including wine! - that might be of interest to anyone who lives in Leeds/West Yorkshire.



Self-drafted sewing

Emery

So this post is about something I've been working on for quite a while and I'm really excited to share... My very first self-drafted sew! I mentioned that I was going to an evening course in pattern drafting a little while back, and this is my first finished garment - a sort of wearable muslin and product of the pattern pieces I've been working on.



It's by no means perfect, and the final garment I'm working towards will probably look quite different, but it has princess seams, pleats and petal sleeves and I'm pretty proud of it (try saying that after a glass of vino ha!)



The course is very self directed. I just took along a mood board in the first week and ended up using one of the dresses as my main inspiration (the one in the middle on the right hand page, I think it might be Viven of Holloway). It has quite a vintage feel and a few features and techniques that made it interesting and just the right amount of a challenge to draft.



I had to start off with the very basics, so I made my own bodice block. A block is a basic pattern piece that you make using your measurements to perfectly fit you. It took a few muslins and tweaks to get right, but it will be really useful as a starting point to have and work from. Some of the others in the class made personal blocks, and it was really interesting to see how different they all looked! My front bodice differed massively in size to my back - no wonder I've ended up trimming down the centre back seams on a fair few of my makes! It's all starting to make sense...

 By using the block, and playing with it in both paper and fabric form, I managed to work out and create all the extra features - of course I had the help and support of the wonderful tutor too! Let me show you some of the pattern details...




 I removed that humongous breast-accommodating dart on the front bodice in favour of a princess seam. I usually avoid princess seams because the prospect of adjusting them to fit my bust fills me with dread, but now I have a block it's easy peasy! I took the princess seams all the way though the back bodice too so they match nicely at the shoulder seam. Then, like my inspiration image, I added this neat little pleat on the outside shoulder.



I opened up the neckline and took it into a shallow v shape, which is actually really flattering. Much to my tutor's umm... disgust.... I top-stitched the neckline. I don't think it's so bad to be honest, but in what felt like true Project Runway style, he said that the top-stitching 'absolutely killed it' (and not in a good way haha). Following this, I did get shown how to properly draft and apply a facing, and how to understitch so you never get a peek of it from the outside. Never going to attempt dodgy topstitching again!



On the plus side, the tutor did say that my concealed zip was excellently executed - hooray! Even I can't believe how well I matched all the seams!
I drafted basic sleeves from a ready-made block, and then from that, worked them into two pieces to form a petal. There's a small box pleat on top to add fullness, and a couple of small pleats in there. I love the sleeves, but they feel just a little bit tight in the back when the dress is being worn. I think I need to make them a little bigger (cut and spread technique maybe..?) and slightly gather then into the back bodice to add a bit of ease.
For this version, I added just a very basic gathered skirt which was roughly based on the Emery skirt. I'm working on drafting a wrap pencil skirt for the final version of the dress, which I'll hopefully be making up in the next few weeks. I'm imaging it in a lovely emerald green wool crepe...
So in all, I'm pretty pleased with my first self drafted dress! I've learnt a lot along the way and still have a few things to tweak for the final version, but I'll definitely be wearing this one with pride :)

Thanks for visiting!

Thanks for visiting!