Style Arc Marni - the first attempt

I really, really wanted this pattern to work because it has so many things I like in a jacket - a shawl collar which is not just easier to sew than a notched collar but is also a more feminine look when worn with a dress or a top, princess seams and a waist seam which really helps in getting a close fit especially for a sway back and three quarter sleeves with turned up cuffs which might give you cold wrists but makes you look like you're ready to get stuck into work.  Plus the name of the pattern has a hold on me - if Toby was born a girl he would have been called Marnie after the title character in a book I read as a child but still vividly remember even though it's been more than 20 years since I last read it - When Marnie was There by Joan G Robinson.  The other character in that book is called Anna, so it would have turned out nicely except Toby decided to come out a boy!

Thankfully my first attempt at the Style Arc Marni has turned out brilliantly!

I made this as a hopefully wearable test version from some cheap, rather thin ponti bought from Spotlight two years ago during one of their very frequent sales.  I had intended to make a stretchy dress from it whilst I pregnant with Toby but never got around to it which left me with 3m of this in the stash.  For this version I've made no changes whatsoever to the pattern pieces - just cut them out and sewed them up exactly according to the pattern. As you can see from the photo above I haven't added a closure to the front yet and nor have I hemmed the peplum, but overall I think the fit is pretty good and I need only make small changes for the final version.  There is  a bit of excess fabric at the front near the armhole which I think is caused by my forward rounded shoulders, so I need to pinch a bit out there and maybe take in a little along the princess seam at the bust, but otherwise not too bad.

What I like about this pattern:

• as others have noted about Style Arc patterns, the drafting is spot on. All the notches lined up exactly, and the individual pieces fit together properly, without any one bit being too short or too long in comparison with the piece it is to be sewn too.
• the jacket turned out looking exactly as the diagram and there was no surprise or shock at the finished garment as can (and does often) happens with a pattern that only comes with an illustration and not a photo of the finished pattern on the envelope! It looks good with a belt as illustrated and turned up cuffs:

•  the fit is excellent as there isn't any crazy amount of excess ease as there usually is with commercial patterns. The Style Arc pattern has turned out to be more like RTW than nearly any other jacket I've made using commercial patterns. Having a waist seam with darts at the back means I was able to get a very close fit:

• the pattern is printed on durable white paper instead of thin, too easily torn tissue paper. Yes it means it's harder to pin to the fabric and make fitting adjustments but for an expensive pattern at least it's not going to fall apart any time soon. 

What I don't like about this pattern:

• The jacket is unlined.  I think this jacket is intended to be a softly draping unstructured jacket, and no one else has seemed to complain about this, but I just found that the jacket clung really badly to the clothes underneath and I had to keep readjusting it every time I moved.  You can see the drag lines in a few photos above. It's also really hard to slide my arm into it when I was wearing sleeves underneath because the fabric kept bunching.  I just think that unlined jackets should only be made out of stiff fabrics just denim or heavy drill.  Plus the inside looks really messy without a lining to cover up the seams and stabilising tape along the shoulder seam.  Sure I could have bound each of those seams with bias binding which a more meticulous and patient sewist would do, but I prefer to take the easy route and just to cover them up with a lining.  So my next attempt will be to draft a lining for this jacket.

 

• Too little is interfacing suggested. The pattern calls for only the collar facing to be interfaced, which I'd say is because it's unlined and you'd be able to see any other interfacing used in the jacket.  I did interface the cuffs with some whisperweft which gave them more substance when folded up, but I wish I used some more especially around the shoulders as the sleeve head seems to have collapsed. The next version I make which will have a lining I will add some interfacing to the jacket in the same manner I would for a tailored jacket.
• The instructions are super sparse and was a bit confusing in parts - for example the notch in the cuff lines up with sleeve seam, and not another notch.  Luckily there was a diagram to indicate how to do the cuffs because I don't think I would have worked them out at all. I've made a few shawl collar jackets before so I knew how the collar attaches, but I think if you were a beginner sewist the lack of instructions and diagrams for the rest of the jacket would make this a semi challenging project.
• Changes in the seam allowances. This pattern uses what I understand is the industry standard of 1cm (3/8 in) seam allowance instead of the overly generous 1.5cm (5/8 in) that the other commercial patterns use.  Whilst I do like having that extra fitting room in the seam allowance when I'm making dresses or pants, I was fine to use the different seam allowance on this jacket.  Except the pattern requires an even narrower seam allowance of 6mm just for the internal seam of the collar and the seam along the slit in the cuff. Which of course I forgot to do - unpicking stitches in knit fabrics is so tedious - yes I should have paid more attention when I was sewing but I'm so used to just sitting down and sewing all the seams at the same width!
• Single size pattern - maybe I've been using the Big 4 patterns for too long but I am just so used to getting a range of sizes in the one pattern which is really helpful for easily grading up or down between sizes as required, plus having the option to sew a different size if you wanted to make the pattern for someone else.  It's not really a problem for me on this jacket because it did fit, but it would make me think twice about ordering a Style Arc pattern for a dress or pants where I do need to grade between 3 different sizes for my  bust, waist and hips.

Hmmm, it seems I am being a bit critical aren't I? That list of things above of the things I didn't like are really quite minor issues and overall I really like this pattern.  I will try out a lining in the jacket which hopefully turns out well so I can wear this version because it goes so well with this red dress I made recently.  I'll also definitely make this in the lovely blueberry ponte I have left over from this dress that I bought from Tessuti's at the first Sydney sewists meetup last year. 

Speaking of the Sydney sewists meetup it's not too late to RSVP for our next event on Sunday June 23 - High Tea at the American Club in Sydney - the more the merrier I say!

Fooled again by the big 4....

First up thank you to all those who have emailed me to RSVP to the Sydney sewists high tea - I'll be in touch shortly with paypal details (once I remember my password and work out how to accept payments).  Commiserations to all those who don't live in Sydney and can't make it, but don't worry - if you're a blogger we'll probably be talking about you anyway! In the nicest of terms of course.....

We spent last weekend in Canberra with a group of friends doing the rounds of the usual kids attractions such as the National Science Museum, Cockington Green gardens, the National Dinosaur Museum - so much fun.  Australians love to deride Canberra as boring and sterile, and it's probably because of the town planner in me but I really love Canberra, it's so beautifully landscaped, spacious and logically set out (well it is masterplanned by the great Walter Burley Griffin after all). 

But for some reason I always think that it's really really cold in Canberra, except in summer when it's really really hot.  And even though last weekend the weather turned out to be perfect autumn weather with really warm and sunny days and cooler nights, I had a mini panic attack last week thinking that Toby didn't have enough warm clothes.  Especially since he's gone through a growth spurt and has pretty much outgrown the winter hand-me-down clothes from his sister even though she was three months older at the time she wore them.

So I decided to make some simple elastic waist pants for him using fabrics from the stash of course. Since I do all my sewing when the kids are asleep I can't get them to try on things I'm making before I finish them, which quite often results in ill fitting clothes that need fixing.  This time was no different! I used McCalls 5962, which is now OOP (perhaps that should have been a clue) and some black fleece from the stash to make two pairs of track suit pants:

Ooops, way too big!  The legs are very wide, the crotch is very low and the waistband too loose.  Since doing the overlocker workshop at the last ASG meeting I've learnt that to lower the blades on my overlocker only needs a half turn of a nob, so I attached the elastic with the overlocker before turning it over and topstitching with a twin needle - that's a lot of stitching to undo (which I haven't yet done either....). And I sewed on some patch pockets on the front just to liven them up a little so I just can't run them in down the sides.

For the next pair I took out 3cm width of each leg both front and back from the waistband to the cuff to reduce the width of the leg and seat area, which means I took out a whopping 12cm all around.  You'd think that would be enough wouldn't you? Well you'd be wrong! I made a pair from some stretch corduroy in a lovely caramel colour, cut out from a straight skirt that I'd made for myself years ago that didn't turn out so great and had been sitting in the UFO/refashion box ever since.  Since this only had a little bit of stretch I was being a bit cautious about how much I narrowed the pattern pieces, but I need not have worried at all:

Plenty of room still! Seriously, what size babies are those pattern companies drafting these patterns on? Toby isn't a huge baby, but he's not a skinny one either and even though his body measurements were a little bit bigger than the largest size in this pattern the pants absolutely swim on him.  I think I'll do what I should have done in the first place - draft a pattern from a pair of RTW pants that do fit him.

To jazz up the corduroy version I topstitched faux pockets and zipper fly and sewed on some knee patches from cotton.  I used a pattern piece from another kids pattern for the oval shape which is also way too big, and clearly I placed it too low on the leg because they are more like shin patches rather than knee patches, but it's still a cute touch.

The fabric for the knee patches is actually a piece I purged from my fabric stash during my still ongoing clean out, that was sitting in a pile of folded fabric on the floor waiting to be donated.  Actually it's the third piece to be put back in to the stash from the discards pile after Anna latched on to two other pieces that I was going to ditch. So now I'm having second thoughts of getting rid of any fabric! And there's no real urgency now to clean out my stash since it's looking like we may not sell our house this year after all - it all hinges on the lives of two dogs.  Which would sound funny to non dog lovers, but our plan is to move into an apartment after we sell our house so obviously our dog can't come with us.  He was going to live with my inlaws, but since my MIL has her hands full looking after my FIL we didn't want to burden her with the responsibility of the dog too.  And our dog does not get along my with parents dog either, so we're waiting for one of them to go to the big dog park in the sky before we make any move.  Both dogs are pretty old so it could be any time in the near future (not that I want that to happen of course). Watch this space, as they say!

I've already started on the Stylearc Marni jacket pattern that I posted in the last post, using a cheap ponte that I had in the stash bought on sale from Spotlight a few years back that I'm hoping will be a wearable trial version before I cut into my beautiful blueberry Tessuti ponte.  I must be growing up and getting sensible - I never used to do practice versions because I was always too impatient and lazy!

High tea and high fashion - the next Sydney sewists meetup

Would you like to partake in a high tea, glass of sparking wine in hand chatting to fellow sewing obsessives and enjoying this view?:


source: levelfourteen.com.au



Of course you do! Then you simply must come to our next Sydney sewists social soiree!

Date: Sunday 23 June at 1.30pm
Venue:  Level Fourteen, The American Club - 131 Macquarie St Sydney
Cost: $47 p.p
RSVP: to Kristy_Idle "at" hotmail.com by 3 June

After seeing the glorious time that our fellow sewists down in Melbourne had at their SewcieTea , we (Christy, Sharon and myself) decided that us ladies here in Sydney also needed an opportunity to frock up and gather en masse to admire our lovely garments in a way that non-sewists just wouldn't understand.

Now I know that $47 is on the pricier side of things for an afternoon tea, but the menu sounds divine, that view is magnificent and since we won't be doing any fabric shopping I'm sure it will all even out.  Pre-payment will be required - I'll send out the details to those who rsvp.

I hope you can make it!

Slow sewing

Well it's been an extremely slow week this past week for me sewing wise.  Toby has been a bit sick, nothing serious just a cold and very high temperature but it was enough to make him very unsettled and clingy which has meant he has been spending most of the day and night curled up in my arms.  Which makes it very hard to sew, actually very hard to do anything really!  I usually do a little bit of sewing each day, but last week the only project I finished was a jumbo sized zippered bag made from fabric leftover from Anna's recent floral dress:

It's a gift bag for my mum for mother's day because I prefer to give reusable bags or scarves instead of wrapping paper for gifts, with the bonus that I didn't add to my fabric scrap bag with that fabric either! I've been doing photobooks of Anna (and this year of Toby too) each year and giving them to my mother and mother-in-law, so the bag will be handy storage for them too.

Whilst I haven't been doing any sewing, patterns have been flowing in thick and fast though! First up I received two Sewaholic patterns in the mail from the lovely Reona who in one of those "isn't it a small world" situations lives not far from where I grew and actually owns a dress shop very near where my parents currently live.  Reona thought that she probably wouldn't sew the Sewaholic Cordova jacket or the Pendrell blouse and contacted me to see if I either wanted them for myself or a giveaway.  I initially thought of a blog giveway since I have loads of projects lined up already, but after seeing so many lovely projects out there made from these patterns I thought it was time I tried this pattern company.  Thank you again Reona - it's very generous of you to gift these patterns to me.  I do have some heavy cotton duck (or drill, can't remember) in a dark taupe colour I've pulled out of the stash to make the Cordova jacket once I can find the right zip for it.

Sewaholic Pendrell

Sewaholic Cordova

Then I spied the Style Arc Marni jacket over at BeaJay's blog when she made a version in a gorgeous chocolate brown ponte knit. Talk about serendipitous timing - I've been looking for the right pattern to make a jacket from some blueberry ponte leftover from this dress I made a while ago and this pattern is just lovely.  It has all the elements I love in a jacket - a shawl collar, princess seams, three quarter sleeves and waist definition. As a bonus when I bought this pattern, the Amber top pattern came free, which is a great pattern designed for wovens (yay!) and I'm definitely going to make it soon(ish). I haven't tried a Style Arc pattern yet either, but I've seen some great results out there so I'm pretty excited to try them out.



Style Arc Marni Jacket



Style Arc - Amber Top

As a nice touch, the Style Arc patterns arrived with a swatch of recommended fabrics attached to help choose the right weight of fabric. The instructions look a little sparse, but as a survivor of the Burda school of nonsensical pattern instructions I'm sure I can handle a little sparseness!

And then I was in Spotlight the other day buying some thread and checking out their rather limited range of zippers when I noticed the $5 pattern sale was still going.  I had avoided it thus far because I have enough patterns in my to do list for the next year (or three!) that I do not need anymore patterns even at that good price.  But I caved and bought Burda Style 7286, after seeing this fantastic jacket over at Sew Tessuti made by one of their customers in a jacquard fabric.  When I saw that the pattern also included a version with a scarf type collar I was sold - I just need to find the right fabric now for both jackets.

Burda 7212

Burda 7286

I also bought Burda Style 7212 which I spied whilst flipping through the pattern book because I really like the overlapped shawl collar and peplum style of version A (the grey jacket). I couldn't find this jacket made up by anyone after a quick google search and check of Patternreview.com so fingers crossed it turns out well because I quite like the corporate look with a slight quirk and I think this jacket would be perfect.

I also purchased New Look 6808, a top with several variations after seeing quite a few cute versions of this pattern that Lauren has made over at Sew Lonnie - I'm a sucker for a cute collar because it saves me having to accessorise (I always forget to put on a necklace).

New Look 6808 - ladies tops

And the final course in this pattern gluttony was the arrival of my May Burda mag in today's mail finally.  When I first subscribed directly from Burda the issues would always arrive a few days before the start of the month, so I was getting quite impatient for this one since it's six whole days late,  How soon I forget that my previous subscription was always about 2 or more months behind ha ha ha!  I've seen a few previews of the May issue around on the internets and it doesn't look promising, but I'm sure I'll find something to make.  I'm a bit perplexed as to why it says on the front cover '16 free patterns' because there doesn't seem to be 16 more patterns than usual inside and since I bought the magazine purely for the patterns they aren't free at all!

To all of you who are participating in Me May Made can I just say how impressed I am with you all - such dedication and energy to all that outfit planning, photographing and posting.  I usually do wear some made by myself each and every day but I just knew I wouldn't have time to photograph it which is why I didn't sign up, but I'm thoroughly enjoying seeing everyone else post.  Especially Sharon's post on the first day where she was wearing not only clothes she made but also a necklace and handbag she made - that's taking the challenge to the extreme!

And finally, Sydney sewists - another meet up is in the planning stage, probably on a Sunday sometime in June so start thinking about what you'll sew or wear!

Burda 4/2013 #109 dress: bright and bold (and done!)

On the last day of April I've managed to finish my April Burda garment - nothing works like a deadline for motivation!  I did procrastinate this issue because frankly nothing really stood out in the April issue, and from what I can see the May issue is just as bad.

When I was cleaning out the purple shelf of my fabric stash a little while ago, I came across a vibrant fuchsia silk with a black floral print given to me from my husband's aunt quite a few years ago when she was downsizing from her large family home to an apartment.  It wasn't a very big piece, only 90cm and about 1.5m long so I was thinking perhaps another New Look 6000 dress because that can be squeezed out of a small piece of fabric, but instead I chose to make the simple shift dress from the April issue, #109A:

 

source: burdastyle

 

This dress is a little different to my usual style, since it's borderline shapeless sack (despite how fitted the model's dress looks in the photo) and I did fight a strong urge to put some vertical darts in the front and back to provide some more shape.  But I am pleasantly surprised at how it looks on - it seems to be still quite flattering without being skin tight.  At least from the front that is, because the side profile view is very potato sack like:

Wearing a belt with it though doesn't improve the look - the fabric is a bit stiff and there is a little too much of it to cinch it in properly, and it just looks wrong:

I made a few small changes to the construction - I fully lined the dress using the sleeveless bodice lining method so thoroughly explained by Trena in her tutorial, instead of using bias binding around the armholes and an outside facing at the neckline.  I also moved the zipper from the side to the centre back purely because I didn't have enough fabric to cut the back piece on the fold, and I don't particularly like side zips anyway.  I did keep the keyhole opening above the zipper at the centre back just as a design feature:

I'm not quite loving the armholes though - the shoulder seams are very narrow and I really need to sew on some bra strap holders to stop my bra straps peeking out.  But I'm not sure it's so flattering or elegant to have that much of the armpit or that fleshy bit in the armpit fold on display:

So for that reason I'm probably unlikely to make this dress again, but I'll definitely be wearing this one I've made.  I can envisage it with some black opaque tights and some really high heels to wear during our coming winter.  And I'm extremely happy this fabric has made it out of the stash and into my wardrobe.

Speaking of the stash, I still haven't finished cleaning it up yet but I am very happy to say that I haven't added to it at all since January.  Not one bit! I haven't deliberately set out on a fabric ban, but I've just found so much great stuff in the stash that the next 10 billion projects I've already planned out from fabric I already own, and nothing has really caught my eye while I've been out and about lately.

Winter dress: New Look 6745

I made the mistake of letting Anna into my sewing room the other day whilst I was trying to trace some Burda patterns.  I say mistake because she proceeded to pull fabrics from the stash for me to make into dresses for her, in the process messing up my newly folded fabric shelves.  That child leaves a trail of destruction wherever she goes!

Our weather has finally turned cool although we're still having mostly gloriously sunny days (I so love autumn best) so I thought I would appease her wish for a new dress plus save myself an argument every morning when I try to convince her not to wear a lightweight summer dress to school and just make her a new winter dress.  Enter a brushed cotton fabric in a vivid almost psychedelic floral print that I've had in my stash since 2007 and bought from an op shop according to a little swatch book I kept for a very short time:

I used New Look 6745, a now OOP pattern that I also picked up in an op shop.  I made version D, the long sleeved version, although I left off the ruffle around the bottom out of sheer laziness.  Of course after Anna spied the pattern she demanded a dress just like the little girl in the top picture with a ruffle around the bottom, so you may see another version of this dress again soon.

The pattern is super simple and surprisingly the sizing was spot on.  I made a size 4 for Anna even though it was a bit bigger than her measurements, so that she could layer it over some undershirts for when it's really cold, and hopefully wear it next year too.  It doesn't look too big on her now, although I'm not sure that height wise she'll be able to wear it as a dress next year.

The only change I made was to fully line the bodice in a bright pink cotton poplin instead of fiddling about with bias tape for the neckline.  What I really like about this dress is that it buttons up at the back - Anna has an annoying habit of changing her outfit multiple times a day which means an enormous amount of washing for me to do, but she can't get those buttons un-done without help so chalk a minor win up for me!

Believe or not but I had those giant pink buttons in the stash - my next door neighbour who works as a pattern designer for a fashion manufacturer here in Sydney gave me a big bag of buttons last time she offloaded some of her stash to me and these were in there.  Perfect colour for the dress and perfect size for her dad to do up too - he's all thumbs sometimes! Unfortunately the first one broke my button foot on my machine, so I had to sew all the rest on by hand.

And most important of all - the dress twirls just enough to please my little whirlwind:

Thank you all for your encouraging comments on the last post.  I readily admit that I am quite hard on myself in terms of quality, but I do like my garments to look perfect and not at all home made.  After 18 years of sewing I've moved beyond the stage of just being excited that I've made something that hasn't fallen apart to now being excited when something comes out perfectly executed.  It's partly why I don't like sewing with knits so much - I feel like a newbie sewer all over again.  It just goes to show that there's always something to learn, no matter how experienced or knowledgeable you are.

Speaking of which, I'm attending a workshop on using the overlocker this Saturday with my local group of the Australian Sewing Guild which I'm thoroughly looking forward to.  Last month I attended the industry day with the guild and not only did I learn loads about interfacing and sewing but I also had such fun, mainly thanks to the ladies I was sitting with making jokes and giggling all day like naughty schoolgirls (yes I mean you Sharon, Alison and Renata!).  Plus I won a lucky door prize and scored a few metre of some new fangled interfacing recently released by McCalls which will come in handy for the winter jacket I'm going to make shortly now that my sewing mojo has returned.

New Look 6149: wrapping up the project after fourteen years

I'm still lacking in the sleep department and in the sewing inspiration department. I was moping around my sewing room with a bit of time to spare on Saturday and I still didn't feel like starting a new project which is very unusual because I just don't have kid free time to waste these days! Even sorting through my fabrics didn't help so I decided to tidy up my sewing room instead.

In the bottom of my UFO box I found a black textured polyester knit fabric that I had cut the pattern pieces out for a wrap top but hadn't done anything more than pack it away - seriously, the pattern pieces were still pinned to the fabric.  This project is really, really old - when I was at uni doing my undergrad degree in the mid 90s I used to work at Lincraft in Chatswood part time and not only did staff get discounts on fabric and other stock, but we used to also get four free patterns each month plus any discontinued patterns too. I think they were trying to encourage their staff to sew their creations to inspire the customers.  I was one of the very few on staff that sewed or had any idea about sewing actually.  Too bad the job paid appallingly because the benefits were great and it was nice standing around fabric all day! Anyway, this pattern and fabric was picked up during that time, so it's more than 14 years old since I graduated in 1999.  Yikes! I decided it was about time to either finish it or lob it.  Now that it's finished, I'm still considering ditching it anyway:

The pattern is New Look 6149, which is OOP but can be found on line from a number of ebay sellers although I wouldn't bother because it's not that special.  I wish I had of known about Pattern Review (did it even exist back then?) when I started this because I would have read that this top is really short and needs to have extra length added before cutting it out.  But luckily this purple print skirt I'm wearing it with is somewhat high waisted and so the length is ok so long as I don't go around with my arms up in the air too much.....

It's a really simple raglan sleeved wrap top with long ties on each side, one of which is supposed to slide through a slit left open in the side seam.   Except that I made this completely on my overlocker, which meant I had sewn those side seams completely closed before I remembered I had to leave an opening.  Being too lazy to unpick overlocking stitches in a black knit fabric, I instead made a jumbo buttonhole like opening next to the side seam to let the tie through.  From the outside it's not that noticeable, but the inside is a red hot mess:

I'm keeping it real here people - most of the time my sewing is done really well, but sometimes it's done really poorly.  Want more evidence of my dodginess? Well the front of the top gaped open when the ties were done up, I should have reduced the length of the front wrap before cutting out but since I didn't, this was my very low tech solution:

I just made a crude dart in each of the front wrap pieces - one isn't visible because it's on the under layer but the one in the top wrap is visible but it just adds a bit more pleating to the front, so it sort of looks ok.  And it took away the gaping so good enough I think!

The back has a centre back seam that I couldn't see the reason for at all.  I suppose it gives an opportunity to shape the back piece and get a snugger fit, especially if you have a swayback but I think it looks a bit messy and unnecessary. 



I lightened this photo so you can see the centre back seam

And being a raglan sleeve it's not so flattering to stand around with one's hands on their hips either!

I decided not to use the neck edge facings the pattern requires, and instead just used turned under and topstitched after overlocking and using some iron on stabilising tape along the neck edge.  Turned out good enough.

And I think that sums up this project - good enough! I don't think I'll ever favour sewing with knits over wovens because I do like a crisp, tailored and highly structured look which is just not what you get from knits but there's definitely a need in my wardrobe for some nice tops.  So this top is out of the UFO box and into my wardrobe, for now at least.