FabricMart Sale

Simplicity 2700 In-Progress

Mon, 08/08/2011 - 14:35 — Maggie

Simplicity 2700 Inside Front In-Progress
I've been working on Simplicity 2700, the "amazing fit" pants. I'm doing them in a $1.99/yard Dockers cotton I got from FabricMart awhile ago as a mockup for eventually doing them in the lovely striped wool that is dfr's fault.

The instructions aren't bad (and I'm pretty demanding of instructions) but I do have some concerns. For one thing, the left front yoke. As you can see, all matched up, it only extends up to the edge of the fly underlap. This is a problem because the yoke has a facing, which of course requires a seam allowance.. but there doesn't seem to be an allowance.

Simplicity 2700 Back In-ProgressThen there's the back yoke. It extends significantly beyond the main pattern pieces on the sides, and I don't see that explained anywhere. It seems that for a pair of pants that includes darts, they completely ignored the effect of the darts when drafting the yoke.
Simplicity 2700 Front In-Progress Actually this doesn't seem all that surprising, since the main pieces have three different versions (for "slim," "regular," and "curvy" figures) but they all use the same yoke pieces. That might not explain it, though; to pick a size, the instructions say to "Measure your waist and hip (at the fullest point). [sic] Compare those measurements to the measurements on the pattern envelope." So the waist size shouldn't be different between the different versions, should it? The "curvy" pieces use two darts while the "slim" and "regular" pieces use one. (I'm using the regular pieces currently.)
So they must have neglected to account for the darts in drafting. This seems like a rather significant drafting mistake to me. It also makes me nervous. It's not explained anywhere, and I don't like to trim down pieces when I don't know why they're not the right size. It couldn't relate to the lack of a seam allowance for the end of the left front yolk, because there are notches that match up. (And because that would just be bizarre.)

So, I'm plugging along with the pattern, and hoping that it fits well, but for something that got such rave reviews, I'm certainly disappointed that there seem to be such significant errors.

I should note that this is only the second "real" pants pattern I've sewn. I've done drawstring pants and leggings, but the only other pants with pockets and a fly and all that I've done was Jalie 2908, and not many patterns can live up to that. I think I like that the fly construction method doesn't involve basting the front closed-- apparently that's a very "home sewing method."
I guess I won't really be able to develop a "true" opinion of the pattern until I've gotten far enough to get into the fitting.

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Butterick 4609 Blouse, Finished. (And I Used My Buttonholer!)

Mon, 08/01/2011 - 14:15 — Maggie

I finished my with-real-cuffs blouse!Floral Rayon Challis Blouse -- Finished
I ended up using stitch witchery in the front band, but I think I actually used too much, it's stiffer than I would have liked it to be. I'll keep that in mind for next time-- and I definitely will be sewing this pattern again.

This one doesn't seem to photograph too well, but I think it's mainly the print that's responsible for that. It's a pretty print, but it's so contrasting that it's hard to make out the details of the blouse! That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, since the front is a bit strange since I overinterfaced (is "interfaced" the right word when I used stitch-witchery to make the fabric interface itself?) the front band a bit. I think the front was supposed to end up slouchier.

While others had reported that the pattern runs large, I found it to be just about right, actually a bit too small in the hips. I ended up letting out the back darts a bit, which seemed to fix the problem. I'm definitely glad that I didn't go down a size.

I'm not totally sure how I feel about the neck tie thingy. It's kinda cool, but kinda silly at the same time. It was definitely worth making, though; quick and easy, and another option for the blouse.
French Cuff
I'm loving the French cuffs. I was afraid they would be goofy, but I really like them. I made "cuff links" out of buttonhole thread and mystery bundle buttons.

And I finally rewired my Necchi BC! (Okay, fine, Kris did most of it.. but he's the expert!) So, with my BC rewired, I now have a low-shank machine in good working order, which means I can use my buttonholer! I got the buttonholer ages ago, thinking that since it was made specifically for Necchi, it would fit my machine.. and then realized upon getting it that it was for low-shank machines, and I use mostly high-shank. Low-shank buttonholers are cheap. High-shank buttonholers are not.

So, with my working BC and my buttonholer attachment, I was able to make nice automated pretty buttonholes! (Up to this point all of my buttonholes had been as-carefully-as-possible zigzagged.

Buttonholes

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Floral Rayon Challis Blouse with French Cuffs -- In Progress

Sat, 07/30/2011 - 20:14 — Maggie

I've been sewing, so you can't say I haven't!Butterick 4609 View C -- In Progress

I've been working on View C of Butterick 4609-- the blouse with the French cuffs. I'm doing the sash thingy too. I'm making it out of one of the "Trendy" rayon challis-es I got from FabricMart's most recent 75% off sale.

It's not done, but it's getting there. I still need to hem it and put in the buttonholes, and stabilize the front band. Well, it's not actually a front band it's a self-front-band, basically just folded over and then over again to form what would normally be the front band. It says to catch-stitch it in place. And doesn't say anything about interfacing. I used some stitch-witchery tape in between the innermost layers, I'll probably add another strip on the back. I'm not completely sure, though. I've been playing with buttonholes on scraps. Hopefully I'll pester Kris into helping me rewire my BC so I can use my actual buttonholer. But, uh, I've been saying I'm going to rewire the BC for quite awhile..

This blouse is the first time I've successfully made real cuffs! My first try was McCall's 5929 which caused a huge amount of frustration and ended up being a wadder. The Simplicity 2758 blouse I made back in December to shut dfr up only had those little narrow cuffs and not all the trappings real cuffs like the bound slit-- and the bound slit is the mind-boggling part. (Why didn't I do a post on that blouse? I wrote a review, but no blog post. I thought I wrote a post, but now all that seems to be on my site is the picture. Oh, it was probably because it was while dfr was in Florida! LOL Okay, that explains my lack of a post!
But this time I managed real cuffs! The instructions on the pattern were pretty good, and in combination with my copy of the Singer Sewing Book (1949 edition) I managed to make it work!

It looks a little awkward on my dress form. I do hope it ends up looking better on me. My dress form is slightly crooked, which makes everything look a bit awkward. Most of the reviews say that it runs a bit big, but it actually seems quite snug. I cut a 14, which should be about right, and seems to be, but it's hard to tell for sure before finishing up the buttons and all. I did use French seams, but I don't think they should have made too much of a difference.

I'm hoping to finish this one up tomorrow. Either with buttonholer-ed buttonholes or my normal unautomated machine buttonholes.

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Fabricmart Order!

Sat, 03/05/2011 - 14:54 — Maggie

The Fabrics I Ordered: All cotton, two shirtings, two gauzes, and a stretch corduroy.
Mystery Bundle: Left to right, there's 1 3/4 yards of a black and heathered grey wool knit (not sure what % wool, but definitely wool,) 2 1/4 yards of a black and white ITY knit, 2 yards of a cream wool tricotine, 1 3/8 yards of powder blue wool gabardine, and 3 yards of a black cotton sateen. No silk this time, but plenty of wool! I imagine they're trying to get rid of wool for the summer.Well, there was a big FabricMart sale on cotton.. and since cotton is supposed to skyrocket, I have to get it while it's still cheap, right? There were nice cotton shirtings! And gauze, and corduroy. And I had that $10 gift certificate from Cat.
..and of course, I got a mystery bundle too.

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Red Fabrics

Sun, 01/23/2011 - 14:14 — Maggie

Red Fabric: From left to right, I got "cherry red" wool crepe (which WAS on sale-- in the 50%-off-this-week section!) a yard of the "deep cranberry" silk jacquard that I will probably use for a corset, a yard and a half of rayon/lycra jersey, and a yard of the "cranberry red" silk jersey that was discounted in January's mailer.

Dfr has, of course, posted to boast about her newest fabric acquisitions, a haul of the on-sale silk/rayon brocades from FabricMart. I did not order any of those brocades for several reasons. I was trying to keep my purchases down to a reasonable level, and I had sworn that I was going to stop buying just sale fabrics for awhile in order to buy red fabrics, which I had realized were missing from my stash-- red fabrics don't go on sale very often. So, I resisted the brocades, and (besides the silk velvet and an order of the 10-yards-for-$5 stiff ecru cotton that will make a great sew-in interfacing) instead bought red.

The brocade was a huge temptation, and I certainly won't turn down her swatch offer, but my tendency to buy what's on sale has left me with not nearly enough red in my stash, and I certainly can't afford to buy both what's on sale AND red!

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Pure Silk Velvet

Sat, 01/22/2011 - 13:45 — Maggie

I'd been eyeing the silk velvet at FabricMart for awhile. Generally the term "silk velvet" means a rayon pile on a silk backing. True 100% silk velvet is rare. Wikipedia's velvet entry says that pure silk velvet runs in the hundreds of dollars per yard. While an internet search will turn up some at considerably less than that, I was nonetheless tempted by the silk velvet selling for $15/yard at FabricMart, despite its being brown. When that velvet went on sale for 50% off, well, I hadda get a yard! When else am I ever going to find pure silk velvet for $7.50/yard?

[Side note-- Firefox thinks that "eyeing" is spelled wrong. mirriam-webster.com disagrees, listing both "eyeing" and "eying" as correct spellings, with "eyeing" listed first.]

100% Silk Velvet: The pure silk velvet is exceedingly shiny, much more so than I expected; it actually has a metallic look to it. I took pictures with a couple of different camera settings; the bottom one is without a flash at all.