Tag Archives: New Look

June Review

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Oh!  I almost forgot my June Review! Let’s see, there were four:

Giraffe print jacket Satin Tunic McCall's shift Birthday dress

They are the Burda WOF Giraffe print jacket, which I’ve both reviewed and blogged, the Burda WOF Satin tunic top, ditto, a blue linen shift which now resides in the Goodwill bag due to its open neckline, and my New Look 6799 birthday dress.  You can click on the photos to go to the blog or gallery entry about the garment.

The blue linen shift is McCall’s 5875, and is a nice dress for summer.  I’ve worn it twice, but both times felt exposed by the open neckline.  I’ll let someone else enjoy it from now on.  If I make it again, I’ll substitute the perfect neckline from another dress pattern I have.  (You haven’t seen it.  It’s a Butterick pattern from 1998.)  I doubt I’ll use it again, however, as there are plenty of shifts in the catalog and most more interesting than this one.

Four simple garments a month is apparently the most I can swing right now.  That’s fine.  I’m delighted that I’m getting that much done–it just doesn’t seem like much as time goes by.  Mr H feels the same way about his recovery.  He doesn’t realize how much progress he’s made until we look back over what he’s learned each month.

The Mr is able to walk with a hemi-walker now, and, with coaching, say a few words:  yes, no, socks, shoes, please, light, I, me, my, you.  He takes care of all his daily grooming without any help from me.  Plus he can use his wheelchair to do some housework:  He’s a whiz at unloading the dishwasher and he’s even mastered the new washing machine.

We’re both very thankful.

New Look 6799

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New Look 6799

At last! I was beginning to think I’d never finish.  Every time I’d plan to work on it, something else in my world would require my full attention–and that invisible zipper was the pits. They may look nice finished, but, please.  Give me a nice lapped zipper any day of the week.

The source of my zipper woes was the back skirt piece, #14 in the scan.

back skirt piece

The left hand side of #14 is the center back seam.  See how it curves a little bit?  It doesn’t look like much in the drawing, but it gave me two problems.  First, I don’t curve right there.  I used to curve right there until my knees forced me to quit riding the bicycle.  Now I have no need for a curved center back seam.

Of course I did not notice the curve until I sewed the zipper.

That curve gives you a slightly bias, easily stretched edge.  And it’s especially easy to stretch in lightweight cotton denim.  The first time I sewed the lower portion of the zipper and tried on the dress, I had a little pooch where the zipper pointed outward.  It looked like I was growing a puppy dog’s tail back there.

Out it came.

I kept at it until I eased the curve onto the zipper with a nice, smooth result.  Then I tried the dress on again.  This time there was no tail, but the back of my dress hung in vertical folds where that curve is.  I tried pinning out the excess in the two adjacent vertical seams, but it didn’t look as good as I wanted it to look.  The excess needed to come out of the center back seam where I had already sewn that miserable zipper.

Out it came again.

Finally after several days of this (10 minutes at a time), I got the zipper in to my satisfaction and was able to finish the rest of the dress. A day or two later, I had enough couch time for hemming and sewing on buttons.

I like it very much, and I expect to forget all the zipper pain the first time I wear it.

Not much sewing :-(

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After I posted the pattern for the turquoise dress I’m working on last week, everything conspired to keep me away from my machines.  I couldn’t get 5 minutes to stack together.  I was finally able to do a little work late yesterday.

At the zipper, I hesitated.  The dress pattern wanted an invisible zipper, and I seldom use those.  I needed a little memory-refresher to get me going again.  The Bernina doesn’t have an invisible zipper foot, but I knew from experience that it could be done without one.  I just couldn’t recall the process.  Sigrid’s sewing tutorials to the rescue!

Standard Buttonhole foot #3

Chiefly, I used Els’ tutorial to sew it, and Summerset’s method of keying the zipper to get my dress’ horizontal seams aligned to my satisfaction.  I pressed those coils flat and pinned the thing in place.  I found that my Bernina zipper foot did not allow me to both hold the zipper in place and stitch close to the coils.  As soon as I removed a pin, the foot would nudge the zipper off the seam allowance and onto the body of the dress. I could have hand-basted the zipper in place first, but I’m not really a basting kind of a girl.  I can and will baste, but only as a last resort.

I decided to try another foot instead.

Any foot I used must be able to ride along the zipper coil plus have a wide opening to allow the needle to shift close to the coil.  I immediately thought of the manual buttonhole foot that I had bought last year.  It seemed perfect, and as it turned out, was!

Not only did the foot keep the zipper tape in place along the center back without pushing it outward, the groove in the bottom of the foot kept the coil steady as I stitched.  If you click on the image at the right (which I borrowed from the Bernina site, btw), you’ll be able to see a video which shows the underside of the foot.  It has audio, so turn the volume down if you don’t want people around you to be entertained (and I use the term loosely) by the overview of the foot’s features.

Next time you sew an invisible zipper, you might consider using such a foot–especially if you have trouble getting your stitching close enough to the zipper coil, as I do.

The dress’ sewing order does not lend itself to fitting as you go.  I suspected that it would be a little large at the back hip.  After I got the zipper installed, I saw loose folds in back.  (My mother has a good ole Southern expression for this condition, which I’ll leave to your imagination.)  Naturally the position of the folds indicated that the center back seam would be the best place to take it in.

<<sigh>>

I suppose I’ll be ripping the lower half of my zipper–below the pesky horizontal seams to make it a little smaller there.   I don’t mind a little ripping and restitching to make the dress look just right, so I’ll get to it as soon as I can.

The dress is looking good.  Mr H gave me the thumbs up to say that he liked it. ;-)

Turquoise denim dress

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New Look 6799

There was some lightweight turquoise denim in the stash closet that wanted to be a dress.  I was wanting a plain sheath pattern for it.  In fact, I had selected a shift pattern to buy, but I wasn’t completely sold on making it from the denim.  I had pulled the McCall’s shift pattern from the drawer when this dress–New Look 6799, view C, caught my eye.

Usually I do some research before I buy a pattern.  I’ll decide what kind of garment I want to make and select a pattern.   I compare my “subject” to similar patterns in other brands, and look through my extensive stash to see if I have anything similar before I invest the money, time, effort, and storage space in a new pattern. That’s what I had done for the original McCall’s pattern that I went to the store to buy.

There are a few patterns like this one, however, that just bowl me over from the start.  It seemed perfect for the denim, which requires just the right pattern to make a flattering garment–especially when the garment is a shapely dress.  I bought it then and there, untested and unresearched.

When I arrived home, I consulted PatternReview for reviews.  There were some good ones.  Most of the reviewers said the pattern was easy–great!  I did a tissue fit on Sunday, cut on Monday, and sewed on Tuesday and Wednesday.  (One of these days I’ll show you a photo of my sewing set-up at present.  I  appreciate the sewing room that I have in “real” life even more now.)

I’m about half done, and it’s working out nicely.  By the weekend I should be able to show you a photo or two.

Tissue Fitting once again

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I mentioned yesterday that I’m working on another knit top. This one will, I hope, work for both me and my sister.

When the two of us were together I noticed that she was wearing some knit tops that were not as flattering as she deserves. She said that when she gets them large enough for her hips, they are too large for her shoulders.

That’s a common lament among RTW consumers, I think.

Now I’m on a mission. We’re about the same size, so I should be able to create one pattern that will fit me well and fit her better than RTW. We don’t want any bust darts in our knit top. (She probably doesn’t need a back shoulder dart, either.)

This time out I’m working with New Look 6160. It already has my shaped center back seam and I’ve traced off a size 14.

Front of tissue fitting NL 6160Side of tissue fit on New Look 6160Back of Tissue Fit on New Look 6160

The front: In trying to eliminate the armhole gaping, I’ve cut a size 12 above the mid armhole. I also pulled up the outer shoulder seam, which seemed to help. I’ll put that back in place before I cut any fabric, however, because the sleeve may need it.

Since the center front at the bust line does not come all the way to Brunhilde’s center front. I slit the pattern over the bust and that does smooth out the armhole. Also, the marked bust line may go up a little over the bust, which would indicate a need for a little more length there. I didn’t notice that until I started looking carefully at the photos.

The finished bust measurement of this pattern is about an inch smaller than my bust measurement. In a knit, I want the garment to be my size or smaller, so I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do. I’m inclined to go with what I’ve got.

Side: You can see (?) that the pattern’s bustline is in exactly the right place–at least at the side. The pattern’s marked waistline is below mine by the usual amount (~1.375″), but the narrowest part of the pattern is right on my waist, so I did not shorten it overall.

In back: I’ve already rotated some armhole gaping to a back shoulder dart. I’ve also pinned out some length between the armhole and waistline. I think I’ll put that back at mid-armhole.

I really have fun with this tissue-fitting play. I enjoy slitting the paper or muslin and watching what smooths out. I would love to work with a fitting expert on this kind of thing for a few days.