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omments saturday february 18 2012 pamela s patterns magic pencil skirt 109 love this pattern in medium weight grey knit with gifted pink cashmere cardigan thank you maman i ve been focusing on couture sewing for the past couple of years which i do adore it has one drawback though which is that it takes me a while to get a garment done that is because the typical dress is really three dresses and i m not counting the muslins 1 fashion fabric 2 underlining and 3 lining each fabric layer must be carefully pre treated according to its type layed out marked either by hand or using carbon paper the underlining must be hand joined by hand to the fashion fabric at the seamlines precisely the darts are hand stitched also joining the underlining to the fashion fabric all seams are sewn together by hand dress is tried on then the machine sewing is done joining the pieces together try on again if all is well remove hand stitches carefully takes forever watch pride prejudice the a e version or lotr the extended version then the zipper is put in by hand then the facings are folded over and steamed in then hand stitched down then the lining gets sewn together then hand stitched to the dress then hemmed not instant gratification and then there is pamela s pattern 109 the magic pencil skirt a wonderful result in a fraction of the time no zipper is required the waist is elastic controlled and i ordered the kind pamela recommends from her at the same time that i ordered this pattern cutting it horizontally in half because i made the regular waisted version i ll use the other half for my next pencil skirt the elastic is well behaved easy to cut and stitch through i should mention that i lengthened this version by 6 ½ inches because i like my skirts to hit mid calf at work i would have lengthened another inch but i didn t cut enough fabric next one will be 7 ½ the same length as my favorite regular skirt which took me much longer to make with a traditional waistband vent and zipper love love love this pattern a slip is imperative with this fabric the wool is scratchy and there are pokey pieces that would especially irritate the skin at my waist because i am an idiot in the morning and have to deal with two greyhounds in addition to my own disorganized self i don t want to have to hunt about for a slip so i sewed one in at waist and hem i found a swimsuit fabric at joann s that was a bit on the heavy side but had the virtue of looking impenetrable to those little woolen hairs i cut out the lining a couple of inches shorter than the skirt sewed it up in the same manner as the skirt and attached it to the waist using a catch stitch for stretchiness same for the hem voila wore it twice the first week i made it and once already this past week clearly i need more next up is a black wool knit version then possibly a blue and white knit although i am thinking of combining pamela s perfect t 104 with this pencil skirt and making the perfect magic dress in the blue and white knit lined a must in my very conservative office for truly effortless morning work dressing the blue and white knit is more open than it appears in the photos what do you think not sure what to use for lining though the swimsuit lining could be too heavy any suggestions posted by elle at 12 22 pm 3 comments labels pamela s patterns magic pencil skirt knit fabric wednesday february 15 2012 little grey dress the underrated understated sister to the lbd the lgd a back view unfortunately not ironed after wearing twice and not completely filled out by my svelte dress form minielle a view of the side lapped zipper inserted by hand so stress free and soft feel an inside view of the hand inserted zipper thank you again susan khalje for all of your wonderful guidance in putting together this lgd and my lbd as taught at patternreview com the couture techniques that you teach are relaxing and work on many types of garments posted by elle at 12 48 pm no comments tuesday february 14 2012 my lbd done it has actually been done for awhile and i ve worn it many times to work and moved from one town to another and seen my daughter off the college and made another in a light grey very fine gabardine after all that fitting this is a definite tnt pattern here it is with the jacket i usually wear with it i will use this as part of my swap 2012 basics thankfully the rules allow for 2 of the 11 garments to be made in advance of the sewing start date posted by elle at 8 42 pm no comments labels lbd susan khalje thursday march 4 2010 my little black dress i recently took a wonderful sewing class online at patternreview with susan khalje where we explored couture techniques while making the archetypal little black dress the class was very interesting and susan made the techniques so accessible i ve discovered that couture techniques which require a lot of basting and hand sewing fit me just fine here is the pattern that i finally settled on to make my lbd i am making it in a very fine wool fabric that i got maybe 20 years ago at a lovely fabric store sadly closed these past 5 or more years it is underlined in silk organza straying a bit from the overall theme of luxury the lining is made of black ambiance rayon it feels very nice once i get this pattern and process nailed down my next lbd will have a crepe de chine or silk charmeuse lining my dress is laid out on my cutting board waiting for the final steps the side seams have been carefully pinned together to be hand basted for a final fitting then i will machine stitch the hand basted seams after any necessary adjustments leaving room for a side zipper still haven t decided if i will use a lapped zipper to be sewn in by hand or an invisible zipper to be sewn in by machine finally the lining will be handstitched to the fashion fabric at the armholes neckholes and zipper tape tonight was taken up with preparing for jennifer stern s machine embroidery class at patternreview i ve known jennifer for years in fact i bought my janome sewing machine and embroidery machine with her help she does incredible embroidery on upscale clothing and i am eager to combine her techniques with my lbd for summer i see this dress in a handkerchief linen underlined again in silk organza and underlined perhaps in a habotai with subtle tone on tone embroidery perhaps winding up one side posted by elle at 12 04 am 2 comments labels embroidery jennifer stern lbd little black dress susan khalje vintage vogue sunday august 16 2009 the rocketeer and friends as you can see from the previous blog sadly out of date i have made one buttonhole with my janome 6600p i was not thrilled with it my practice buttonholes were not uniform even using the automatic buttonhole thing so i have put off making the many buttonholes for my advance jacket below then i started coming across references to the very cool singer rocketeer as if the looks of that beauty the jetsons wasn t enough i then read on various blogs debbie cook s and gigi s that these make stupendous buttonholes with the special attachments actually the older generation straight stitch sewing machines so to ebay i went and now if am the proud owner of two singer 503s and a 500 here is a picture of the 500 shot at a rakish angle then i found a white featherweight it is love the auction included the two tone celery case which looked to be in good shape but sadly the packing was not very good and the case is coming apart at the sides which is tearing the celery cover apart me sad here is what it should have looked like i won t post a picture of what it looks like now look how big the spool of thread is compared to the machine it is so cute looks like a toy but sews a great straight stitch a singer 15 91 is on its way well with beautiful matching cabinet i ll post pics and when i get it all set up in the meantime you can read all about it here http blog sew classic com 2008 10 05 singer 1591 sewing machine review aspx ebay is a very dangerous place my justification these all cost much less than my janome 6600 which i may just sell the singers are built like tanks i can maintain them myself they are just a blast to sew with still have to make a buttonhole then again my 6600p is very quiet and when it eventually breaks i ve got my singers back to my hot patterns great white shirt which i am using for my patternreview build a better blouse with shannon gifford so far so good in fact an amazing easy blouse to fit much easier than the vogue bodice sloper that i worked on a few months ago i think i do need a bit more room where the front bodice joins the sleeves at the lower armscye but close enough for version 1 plenty of opportunities to play with the singer professional buttonholer back to sewing posted by elle at 8 27 pm no comments labels 500 503 featherweight hot patterns hp great white shirt singer thursday august 14 2008 shannon gifford s stitch and flip method and the loes hinse milano jacket i recently had the pleasure of taking shannon gifford s stitch and flip jacket construction class at patternreview com and boy was that both fun and informative after wasting weeks agonizing over which pattern to use my only tnt pattern being the advance jacket below which is not well suited to the technique i settled uneasily on the loes hinse milano jacket i include that uneasily part because her sizing is so different from the big4 and advance sizing and i ve only sewn with big4 type of sizing below so i did a few uneducated flat pattern measurements wrestled my fears to the ground took a stab into the barely illuminated dark and went for a combination of xs s sizing shannon emphasizes the need to make a muslin it s in her snf class notes and it s there at the bottom of every email she sends staring me in the face but i was short on time did a tissue fitting all looked well and i proceeded to boldly cut out my fashion fabric ff and proceed with this lovely technique the rest of this entry is in the format of a pr review which is not yet finished i m posting it to get feedback from a few key people thanks mom and i ll post finished pics asap loes hinse designs pattern no 8002 milano jacket pr review p attern description fitted princess line jacket with 7 vertical seams view a has a two part sleeve view b has a bell sleeve with elastic bust ease is 3 hip is 5 pattern sizing petite through plus xxs xs s m l xl xxl i used a combination of xs and s mostly s i typically use a size 12 in the big 4 with a ½ fba for a c cup adjustment ½ sway back adjustment and ½ upper wide back adjustment but size 10 shoulders in front working on getting this right for this milano pattern i started by tracing xs in the shoulders to s at the bottom of the armscye i then tried to avoid doing an fba by incorporating the ½ bust increase suggested in ffrp on the pattern pieces joining the center front and center side seams in the bust area unfortunately this is not a true princess seam in that it doesn t go over the bust point so i should have done a real fba the final picture on me will tell the story but right now it looks a bit odd maybe i ll fill things out i have outgrown my dress form sadly fabric used a rayon polyester lycra rpl that ended up beefier than i expected so it does not drape as elegantly as i had hoped for this is a common problem of mine fabrics that look fine to me on the bolt almost always ended up being too heavy for the garment i hope to improve my eye for this as i continue to sew here are the recommended fabrics per loes hinse wool rayon velvet raw silk microfiber linen double knits fleece boucle and blends i probably should order fabric directly from http casualelegancefabric com fabric s 1218739172 902805168 per loes recommendations until i develop a better eye for fabric pattern matching wow there are some beautiful sweater knit fabrics on that site must resist here are the recommended notions 1 pair shoulder pads measuring 6 x 3 ½ x 5 8 15 x 9 1 5 cm 1 strip of velcro 5 12 cm one button measuring 1 view b 28 inches of 1 wide elastic hmmmm what is the velcro for i missed that in the instructions maybe for attaching the covered shoulder pads i haven t gotten to that point yet the pattern includes pieces for covering the recommended shoulder pads did it look like the photo drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing w ith it the lines look the same but my rpl fabric was not as softly drapey as the beautiful cream pattern photo next time i ll make it with one of the recommended fabrics this time was for fit and for use during shannon gifford s latest jacket stitch and flip class at pr seven vertical seams lots of practice with the snf technique although it is very easy to learn under shannon s tutelage as noted above i have two sewing shortcomings fit and appropriate fabric choices not minor issues the problems that i had with my jacket are related to one or the other of these shortcomings certainly not the pattern design itself the pattern instructions or shannon s snf technique really i m happy with how the jacket is shaping up when i see it on my dress form it s when i slip it on me that i get all sad especially when i compare it to the elegant cream jacket on the pattern folder in an effort to address these areas my first photo shows the unhemmed jacket with nancy erickson s thicker shoulder pads with little caps at first i thought the jacket hung better on my dress form than with the much thinner crescent shaped pads that i had on hand but after putting on the jacket i realized that the bigger pads were trying to make the jacket into something it is not the first picture with the hem done shows it on my dress form with the thinner pads pinned to the form i now think these are better but not quite right i just got some nu foam at joann s experiment with making shoulder pads per shannon s bonus instructions this is one of the reasons every project take me so long every step is a learning process doesn t the hemmed jacket look better after i put a brassiere on my dress form and a little cotton shell please ignore the color differences neither is quite right i ll work on that with the final jacket shots another thing i noticed after looking at the unhemmed photo is that even though i hemmed the sleeves by only catching the interfacing those catch stitches shone through the right side as little bumps i had to shorten the sleeves anyway so i removed the fusible interfacing as much as i could and this time followed shannon s bagging technique to the letter just attaching the 2 sleeve hem at the seam lines on the inside this was in two places i may experiment on scraps with a double sided fusible ¼ tape just to make sure that things don t move around but it looks much better now all of the interfacing standards go out the window when making an lh jacket one of the reasons why i used this pattern for the snf class even though i didn t have time to make a muslin as shannon very strongly recommends she s right yet another thing that i...