It’s Saturday morning, and I’m done with my blueberry pancakes.  They were YUMMY!!!  I don’t have any sewing to show you yet, but I thought I take this opportunity to answer a couple of recent questions.

Regarding my post Wednesday showing my mock-up of my two cotton fabrics as they might look made up into Vogue 7618,  Rhonda asked “HOW did you make your fabric appear on the pattern picture?”

I made an overview post about this back in 2007.  I must admit that my Photoshop skills have not improved any during the intervening two uh, let’s make that three years, so that’s still how I do it–make a file of the fabric, delete the middle of the line drawing, slide the line drawing over the fabric.  There are probably better, more efficient methods, but that’s the way I did it then and now.

Regarding my recent trials with the sleeve and shoulders of Kwik Sew 3704, Joy asked “Do you find that the rounded upper back alteration helps the fit of the sleeve cap/armscye?“

I think so.  It seems to change the angle of the back shoulder seam a bit and causes it to follow my natural shoulder line better.  The sleeve cap still has to be changed to put more fabric over the front of my shoulder joint, however.  Like Joy I go through a series of alterations to try to get my rounded-forward shoulders covered with fabric.  I’m learning that the center part of my back–where my spine is–does not need the extra length that you get with a traditional rounded back alteration.  Those protruding shoulder blades are the problem.  They are like having to accommodate a bustline on the back of your garment.  A bustline that disappears and reappears at will.

I’m dealing with forward head more these days, too.  I didn’t realize how bad it was getting until seeing some photos recently, and I’m not sure what I can do physically to make it better.

I suppose I could quit sitting in front of a computer all day and devote that time to pilates.  I wonder if they’d still send my paycheck…

No tag for this post.

If I had my two cottons cut and sewn up into my 1952 Vogue 7618, they might look something like these.

I’m thinking that wouldn’t be too bad!

The red one on the left is Noble Family by Mizuki for Bernatex, and on the right is Treasures of The Southwest by J. Michelle Watts for moda, my favorite.  I’m very close to applying the scissors to fabric, just gotta get a bit more done on my blouse-in-progress.

I hope to show you that, all finished, by Monday.

Tags: Vintage Patterns, Vogue, Vogue 7618

I mentioned on Monday that I was taking a detour to make “something else” before I began work on Kwik Sew 3704 again.  Actually I have another “white thread” project to sew before I even point my sewing machine toward the detour.

But the detour is what is on my mind right now.

Sometime back, totally inflamed by this post on Sew Retro, I set out to find myself one of those 50s dress patterns with the gored skirt and the cap/kimono sleeves.  I wanted the pattern she used–Simplicity 4651 from 1954–but it was nowhere to be found that day.  Of course that was no problem with such a style,  ’cause without much difficulty at all, I found two similar patterns: Vogue 7618, and Simplicity 4667.

Both are Bust 34, which is too small for me everywhere but the shoulders.  No matter.  Bust 34 is my pattern size of choice–I can make stuff bigger!

Fast Forward to now, through the stash closet clear-out and the ASG group fabric shop trip where I bought two lengths of cotton to make one or both of these dresses.  Vogue 7618, an unprinted pattern from 1952, has been traced and fitted to my person.  I had to add five (!), yes 5, inches to the waist, and a half-inch or so to the bust to make it fit.

At this point I am ready to cut and sew my 50s dress.

But I have cold feet.

I’m afraid I’ll sew a loser.

All last night and this morning I’ve been trying to think of ways to ensure finished-dress satisfaction.  I know I’ve got to go all the way with it.  It must be fitted and trimmed out distinctively.  It must be well-accessorized, though not necessarily in 50′s style.

I’m not afraid of wearing a cute costume.  What I don’t want to wear is an “unworthy” outfit.  You know, one that you wear among your friends who all know you sew, and no one says a word …  They all avert their eyes in the classic “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything” manner.

That’s what scares me.

And sadly, the vast majority of my trips down Unusual Lane have come to wretched endings.

True, my disasters have usually been the result of choosing baggy, square, unfitted patterns.  This one definitely has a waistline, which is good.  The skirt is long, which I tend to enjoy.  And, come to think of it, the silhouette won’t be that different from Simplicity 2888, had I been successful in adding the sleeves.

And I love to wear that one….

turning the wheel and stepping on the gas pedal.  Whee!

Tags: Vintage Patterns

No, it’s not perfect,  but I’m really happy with this dress.  (Click on any of the images for bigger ones in Flickr.)  The pattern will eventually become a TNT and I have visions of using it as a basis for different dress designs.

My lovely fish dress is a little too big in back and at the shoulders.  I traced the Small at the shoulder and bigger south of the waistline.  (I think it’s amusing that Kwik Sew warns you never to trace along multiple size lines.)  I had trimmed the shoulders down to the Extra-Small lines and shortened the pattern above the waist.  I even removed the back zipper once and recut the back  smaller above the waist.

Still it’s a smidgeon too long, and a bit too wide back there.

Last night I laid my final pattern over the original to see how much smaller the Extra-small would be.  Turns out it’s about 3/4″ narrower on each side than my pattern.  To see if I could fit into an Extra-small, I pinned out 3/4″ on each side of the back (only) next to the side seam.  It will work.  The Extra-small is a little shorter than my pattern, too, so that will be good.

This Extra-small terminology bothers me almost as much as having to cut a Large in Lingerie Secrets’ patterns.  I’m neither Extra-small nor large.  I’m a good solid Medium, but I have to contend with whatever the pattern company decides to call my size, don’t I?  I do think that my bias toward the terminology caused me to cut this bigger than I should have.  I had decided in 2008 that my Kwik Sew shoulder size was Extra small, but I keep thinking “I can’t be an Extra-small!”

I’m taking a detour to make something else first, but you can expect to see more of this pattern.  Despite 5 paragraphs of whining, I like this dress and it will get plenty of use.

And the sleeves really came out nice!

Tags: Kwik Sew, Kwik Sew 3704

Third sleeve:  This was the original, as-drafted by Kwik Sew, sleeve for my new dress (Kwik Sew 3704).

Hmm.

I think you can see that my first sleeve with the shifted cap was a vast improvement over this one.  I was enjoying playing with it, however, so I decided to try FFRP‘s suggestion of rotating the sleeve in the armhole.

(I know these photos look like it’s a different arm, but the first one was taken with the camera facing me rather than in the mirror.)

I took the sleeve out and rotated it one inch toward the front.  The underarm seam of the sleeve was one inch behind the side seam of the dress.  I was amazed at how straight the sleeve hung.  It was still a little tight over my shoulder, so I ripped out the top of the armscye to see if that would improve things.

(Sorry, but I forgot to take another photo before I ripped.  Believe me, it was amazing.)

There’s a part of me that’s willing to do most anything for the sake of getting something to fit right.  That, unfortunately does not extend to allowing my side- and underarm seams to be an inch apart.  That, in my book, is unacceptable.

So.  What next?

I tried to analyze what made the rotation work so well, but it boggled my mind.  It had something to do with grain, I’m sure.  It also had to do with putting extra fabric over the shoulder bone.  Beyond that, I couldn’t figure it out.

In the end, I took the original sleeve pattern and bumped the curve out in front where my shoulder hit the sleeve.  That gave me extra width and length in that area without the huge excess of sleeve #2 from yesterday–which you haven’t seen, only read about.  This 4th sleeve was as close to perfect as I care to get.

The pink sleeve is my final selection.  (I don’t remember which sleeve that blue one is.  I think it’s the rotated one with the cap sewn in wonky.)  I have two of those cut from the fish print with the hem edges finished and pressed up.  With any luck at all, I’ll sew them in tonight and the fish dress will be done!

Tags: Kwik Sew, Kwik Sew 3704