The Eva Dress on the Straight and Narrow

 

I have used the Eva bodice and sleeves for so many of my frankenpattern projects, and yet I don’t believe I have ever shown an Eva dress sewn as the designer intended it to look. Let me fix that today!

 

These are the very first Eva dresses I ever made, one sleeveless and the other with short sleeves. The red is a fairly hefty linen, originally a tangerine/peach and later, when it began to look a bit washed out, overdyed to cranberry red. The grey was my wearable muslin, repurposed from an old doona cover my son left behind when he first moved out of home to go overseas and work in Amsterdam. I missed him, but that I cut up his bed linen to wear because of that is a vicious rumour!  🙂

Anyway, the doona cover originally came from the ‘As Is’ bin at IKEA, so using it for the, at that time, still untried Eva pattern was not a huge gamble in financial terms. It is quite a nice light grey cotton jacquard, a little discoloured from wear in certain places, but there was plenty of fabric to cut around those areas. I believe there may even be still enough left for a pair of pants, but that is a project for another day.

I made this version of the Eva straight out of the packet as far as the pattern is concerned, although of course it was a PDF, so no packet involved. The only changes I made was to forego the bias bound hem at the bottom and the sleeves. A narrow, topstitched hem is very doable despite the curves. Besides extra fabric, bias tape takes time and effort, and I felt I had expended quite enough of that with all the piecing and topstitching required for the skirt sections. I even made the pockets, which I don’t use of course. I never use pockets, unlike a lot of other people who find them indispensable. For me they are only indispensable for forgetting the odd used tissue in, which then causes me hassles in the wash, so I usually leave them off.

I really like the result. The grey jacquard looks quite classy ( — ok, so it is an old doona cover but nobody need ever know!) and it suits the lovely lines of the Eva very well.

 

The dark red Eva is quite a heavy linen and hardly crushes at all since I overdyed it. Score! I should overdye a few more linens to get that effect!

Details about the sewing process are on Pattern Review.

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In Stripes from Head to Toe

Although I like stripes I haven’t worn them much lately. This dress is an exception and, being a maxi, the stripes are pretty much all over. The black and grey combo has a bit of a Japanese vibe, at least as far as the colours are concerned. Japanese people seem to like a very subdued colour scheme of black, grey and white, with black and white checks being a particular favourite. I once took a JAL flight to Osaka and as I was standing in the boarding queue I noticed that pretty much everyone was wearing black, grey and white, with the exception of one brave rebel who wore a purple dress. No doubt everyone thought her outrageous!

Black and grey are also very much colours for autumn, although summer is hanging on stubbornly here and we are still having temps of over 30 for a few days this week. Today was a bit cooler, so I thought I might make a start digging out the autumn wardrobe. I hear New Zealand is already having snow, so it won’t be long before we will need our woollies here too. It usually takes a week or so for the weather to cross the ditch (the Tasman Sea between NZ and Australia, for those not familiar with the term).

I have used this pattern quite a few times before and have blogged about it here. The basic shape of front and back looks like this, cut on the fold, with the back neck line higher than the front, of course.

I based the above on a t-shirt pattern for the bodice, then did the rest based on a pattern found in a magazine. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I later found the StyleArc Toni Designer Dress pattern to be much the same basic shape if you ignore the collar detail and centre seams, although it is a bit wider in the bodice. Good for wovens but for knits I prefer to overlay the Toni pattern with t-shirt pattern at the top to make it narrower in the shoulders and bust. I have explained this in detail on Pattern Review here.

When wearing the dress you can tuck in the pointy bits or just leave them to hang on the outside. I prefer to tuck mine in a fair way. The skirt sort of collapses into interesting folds. Sorry it is not very easily visible with the dark colour, which is why you might want to look at the dresses in this earlier post too.

I have blogged about a sleeveless summer version made with a cotton woven fabric here.

Dyed and Reborn

I am not a great believer in reincarnation, except when it comes to fabric in the dye pot. Many a tired looking garment or unpromising piece of fabric has experienced a chemical rebirth in my kitchen over the years and been all the better for it. This dress is a case in point. The crepe de chine is quite luscious, but started life as a rather insipid black and white print. Insipid because the white was not a really a bright optical white which I think is essential for a black and white combination to look good. And so it languished in my stash until I decided that what it really wanted to be was an electric blue.

However, if you want a happy dyeing experience it is really important to use  good quality dyes. If it is done right, your dyed garments will look good for a long time and not fade or run in the wash.  I use fibre reactive dyes and have written about the details of the process in earlier posts here and here.

I only had 2m of the crepe de chine and it was a border print as well, which did not leave a lot of room to manoeuvre. I fell back on my favourite dress style for border prints, a semi-fitted empire bodice and a pleated skirt. The skirt is a rectangle, pleated to fit the bodice, with a flange to cover the join. A 2m wide skirt is not very twirlable, 3m would have been better, but it had to do. In any case I don’t have a lot of occasions to twirl about in my very ordinary everyday life. 🙂

For the bodice I decided on an ancient pattern piece that has just the right amount of ease to slip into without needing a closure, which I have used many times because that is such a boon. I have no problem with installing zippers, but not needing one does away with having to find one that matches, and the additional ease of the looser bodice makes for great wearing comfort. Inconveniently the old pattern did not come with sleeves, so I needed to hybridise it with the Eva dress armscyes to use the short sleeves from that pattern. Last year I hated short sleeves and this year I can’t get enough of them, go figure.

For a more detailed description of the sewing process, have a look at my write-up on Pattern Review.

So here is the dress. The last photo shows it teamed with a Ponte bolero which is very practical during the change of season and I will blog about it soon.

My camera is back in action, which means I can take photos again in my favourite spot in front of my (– imprisoned because of the freeloading beasties –) herb patch. With my phone the brightness of the garden behind did not work at all, although as you can see from the last photo, when the sun comes out in the middle of the day the camera does not cope either. But at least at either end of the day, or when it is overcast, I can again take my pictures in this convenient spot where the neighbours can’t see me prancing about in front of the camera, and it is a bit nicer than my bathroom door as a backdrop.

Bubble Dress Mark II

So I had another go at perfecting my bubble dress. This one is frankenpatterned using two Tessuti patterns, the Eva bodice and the Lily skirt part.

Instead of cutting the bodice and upper skirt in one piece as I did with the last bubble dress, I decided on a separate empire bodice, fitted, but just loose enough for me to be able to slip the dress over my head without needing a zipper. For the rest I thought the circular upper skirt and inverted circular lower skirt were still basically a sound solution. The addition of an inverted box pleat at CF and CB would control the volume below the bust but release it lower down for the skirt. This proved to be quite a good approach. For variety I also added some short sleeves, just a little longer in length than a cap sleeve.

The picture above shows the copied off skirt piece from the Lily. Any voluminous A-line skirt will do, or if you are confident you can draft it yourself. This will become the upper part of the skirt.  The bottom circumference is around 65cm. Cut this out twice for front and back on the fold. I actually place  the pattern piece about 5cm away from the fold to make the skirt even more voluminous. (You need to do this both with the upper and lower pattern piece, to keep the circumferences where you are going to join both pieces the same.)

Then you draw a line 30cm parallel to the bottom edge and cut along this. You can see in the photo below where I have already done this, resulting in a wide piece which is flipped over vertically and will become the lower part of the skirt. I have tapered this inwards at the side seams and added 16 tucks around the hem, clustered both sides of the side seams, to take it in further. I think I should have used deeper darts, not just tucks. Elastic would have done a similar job, just more evenly all around. I might do that next time.

As I have already mentioned, I made the upper edge of the skirt fit the lower bodice edge by means of a very deep inverted box pleat. While I was sewing this I was a little worried that it might result in the dreaded pregnant look, but having tried it on I don’t think so. Ironically no pregnant women wants to be seen dead in a smock these days, everyone is determined to show that they are still slim above and below the bulge. Not a problem, leave the smocks to those of us who want to be cool and comfortable!

I must say I am rather pleased with the result of this experiment, it looks very much like I have a new TNT. The only further improvements I can think of is deeper hem darts and perhaps a flange at the bottom of the empire bodice, but the latter is not essential. The linen I used has a loose-ish weave and so the empire seam turned out slightly shaped, being pulled down at CF by the weight of the box pleat. You could call it wonky but I rather like the effect.

Talking of the linen, it started life as a remnant of a boring cross weave in light yellow and cream. After an encounter with my dye pot is is a nice textured turquoise. I think I may have been naughty and did not wash it properly prior to dyeing, because it didn’t take the colour all that well, but there was enough fabric to cut around the streaks and lighter patches and it looks quite respectable.

I was also worried it would be the kind of linen you have to iron every time you want to wear it, and still it would look like a rag after a couple of hours, but it is actually not too bad. I took some of the photos at the end of a work day and it looks ok.

I am still searching for a good spot to take decent photos. The garden looks nicest, but the mozzies are fierce right now and they really love me. So eventually I had to retreat back to the bathroom. Better luck next time.

 

 

 

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Bubble Dress

 

While I have been writing about variations of the Tessuti Lily dress I think I might show one that wasn’t 100% successful. I made it a couple of years back and it is not a disaster, actually I have worn it quite a lot, but casting a critical eye over it I think I might do things a little differently if I make something like this again.

While the pretty fabric of this dress rather saves it from languishing unloved in my wardrobe, it falls a bit short of the grand vision I had. What I was aiming for was a bubble dress, of the sort Rundholz does so very well.

 

So let’s analyse what went awry with my attempt.

Clearly, looking at these pictures, the Rundholz bodices are much more close fitting than mine. I dislike tight clothing and don’t want to go as far as that, but there must be a happy medium. I think my dress could easily have been a bit more fitted above the waist without being too restricting.

The other difference is the dramatic volume of the skirt. I know that Rundholz is fond of tulle petticoats to achieve this signature look and I can see one peeking out in a few of the photos. But as I have no intention of prancing about in tulle petticoats, anything that cannot be achieved in other ways is probably beyond my reach. A fairly substantial, non drapey fabric is a good start, as it will hold the bubble shape fairly well. I used quite a hefty cotton elastane for this dress, which is not bad. Bringing it in more at the hem with a couple of pleats or tucks would help too. In addition I could have made a lining, shorter than the dress and narrower, and attached the hem of the dress to that. With a sleeveless summer dress meant for hot weather a lining is not necessarily welcome, but for another season it would be fine.

What would improve the silhouette further would be more of a contrast between bodice and skirt to accentuate the bubble. A princess seam in the bodice where more volume can be added to the skirt part, or vertical darts from below the bust to the waist or high hip, taking in volume there, would do that nicely. Or possibly a separate bodice with the skirt pleated into that to achieve more volume. I think Rundholz uses all these techniques.

I definitely overdid the width of the A-line with this dress, at least between bust and waist, because it has to flare out so much at the side to get to such a wide circumference by the time it hits the horizontal seam. More restraint overall without any other modifications would have looked better, I think. I will have to experiment to find out if this is true. A large scale grey paisley is already earmarked for this, which is more in keeping with the Rundholz colour scheme of grey or black or both. Bit out of place for summer, but eminently suitable for autumn.

I have documented the sewing process of this current dress on Pattern Review and with the modifications outlined above I might get a little closer to my goal next time.

 

 

And a bit more Rundholz eye candy…

A looser bodice can work with the right pattern. This dress looks like it has princess seams which allow more width to be added to the skirt not only at the side seams but the princess seams as well. A band at the bottom pulling in the hem produces a gentle bubble shape. Something to think about.

A different take by Moruyu, again with a looser bodice. The skirt part is very wide and shaped, methinks, only at the side seams. This should look baggy by all my rules, but I know from other pictures that the model is very petite, so maybe that makes a difference. Or maybe she is holding this skirt the way she does for a reason, her elbows pushing in the dress at the waist…

 

 

 

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Sticking to the Basics

Some sewists really enjoy the challenge of exploring new patterns and mastering advanced techniques. Not me! I am really more into the overall look of an outfit than into technical excellence in my sewing, and if I can get away with something simple to achieve my ends I will run a mile from complicated.

Fortunately I am into the Japanese Lagenlook aesthetic of simple and uncluttered, and fiddly details just don’t attract me. I also like wearing comfort and no longer want to tolerate anything tight or restricting. To me tailored garments very much fit into that category. I suppose that over the years I have learnt to sew what I like to wear, and to a point have learnt to like what is easy and quick to sew. Which side has made more of an accommodation than the other is hard to tell.

Pattern companies need to sell patterns to make money, and people who enjoy sewing also enjoy browsing patterns and consequently end up buying lots. I personally think that my sewing does not benefit from being driven by new patterns, especially not by the patterns offered by the Big 4. I prefer to start with fashion shots of garments I like, often on Pinterest or designer websites. Then I go looking for a pattern to achieve that look. Almost always I can adapt one of the basic patterns I already have.

That small number of patterns is all I need to cover 90% of the garments I make. Two skirts, 2 pants, 2-3 woven shirts, 2 knit tops and 3 dress patterns have actually, over time, resulted in a rather gargantuan wardrobe with something to wear for every occasion. The fabrics I have used make all the difference between super casual and special occasion, winter or summer.

These patterns are my TNTs (Tried N True) because I know they suit me and will turn out so I can be happy with the result. Having made them many times before and knowing all the ins and outs is a bonus, and I can vary each one just enough to get the look I am after and avoid a strong personal style turning into ‘same old same old’.

The sleeveless version of the Tessuti Lily, a simple A-line dress, is probably my most basic pattern and I have made it many times in all sorts of incarnations. I have blogged about this here in a previous post. That was 3 years ago and I am still finding ways to use this pattern for something new.

This post is about my latest version, somewhat lengthened from the original and with a short overblouse adapted from yet another one of my TNT patterns, the Tessuti Jac shirt. The inspiration was something like this top by Bryn Walker, although my version has short sleeves and not as many layers.

To make the top I extended the fronts of the Jac shirt past the mid line, about half way towards the side seams, so they would overlap. Much like a double breasted shirt, except I skipped the buttons. I stitched the fronts to each other at the neck edge and instead of the collar I widened the neck to a circumference of around 70cm and added a cowl. The sleeves were shortened and folded back to form a cuff. I also shortened the top to waist length.

I modified the neckline of the Lily from a boat neck to round, as a boat neck can be problematic with bra straps. I also used normal sleeveless armscyes from another pattern instead of the cutaway shoulders, because nobody needs to get a good look at the little rolls of fat in my armpits. 🙂

The dress can be worn sleeveless or with this top when it is a little cooler. I quite like the look of the top and am planning a couple more to wear over other sleeveless tunics or dresses when the weather gets cooler again. There is no need for them to match, just plain ones that coordinate will do the job. I think this style will also work for winter in a Ponte or merino knit, possibly with long sleeves. A variation could be to leave off the cowl, as I wear a lot of scarves in winter. That opens up the possibility of closing the fronts with a button at the neck edge, and if they are not stitched down they can also be left to hang open.

 

 

 

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Easy-Peasy Batik

Batik is a wonderful fabric for hot weather, and we sure are in the middle of summer right now and it is HOT. We had the hottest day since 1938 in Sydney yesterday, so I am really grateful it was a Sunday and I didn’t have to work. It was so hot that some of my tomatoes got partially cooked on the vine! I spent the afternoon with my little granddaughter playing around in her paddling pool and it was absolutely delightful.

When i spend time with my grandchildren the last thing I want is to have to worry about my clothes. Something that will crushed or show up little sticky finger marks just won’t cut it and batiks are a winner in that respect as well as keeping me cool.

No problem with the fabric then with this tunic, but on the sewing side there was a bit of a history, illustrating the vital importance of proportion. I have had to remake this tunic twice to get it right. I used the Tessuti Lily dress (https://www.tessuti-shop.com/products/lily-linen-dress-pattern) which is one of my TNT patterns, shortening it a bit and modifying the cut away armscyes to regular ones, and all should have been well. But unfortunately I fell into my usual trap of trying to use up all the fabric at my disposal, as I hate waste. Much as I think frugality is laudable that was a bad idea in this case, as the tunic ended up not only too wide but also far too long. I could have shortened it and taken some volume out of the side seams, but that would have been too easy. So I let it marinate over winter to see what could be done to improve it.

In the meantime I had seen these dresses with tucks on Pinterest.

That gave me the idea to do similar tucks into front and back to take out length. I angled them a little and made them deepest at CF and CB, petering out to nothing and meeting up at the side seams. Sort of a very shallow moon shaped dart on the outside, front and back. This was not as visible on my batik as it would have been on plain fabric, but I still liked it and it solved part of my problem.

Not all of it though, as you can see in this photo.

I think the tunic is still too long, and the pants possibly too short. To improve the proportions I decided to fold up the hem at the side seam. You make a a small fabric loop at the hem and sew on a button about 15-20cm up from the hem along the side seam, then hook the loop over the button. The front and back hem hang free as before, more or less. You could just stitch it, but this way you can unbutton for ironing, which may or may not be needed at some stage. It also allows me to have one side up and the other down, or both down worn with leggings instead of the wide pants.

(view on the inside with part of the hem folded upwards at the side)

I also relaxed the elastic in the pants so they would sit on the hips, not the waist, which brought them closer to the fashionable new length of just-above-the-ankle.

Its probably not the most spectacular outfit I have ever made, but I am much happier with the proportions now. I will get a lot of wear out of it, precisely because it doesn’t look too dressed up, and I won’t need to stress about a mark or two from grubby little fingers. Even a whole Vegemite sandwich would probably not be too noticeable smeared across this busy batik! 🙂

 

 

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Heavenly Balinese Ikat

I finally got around to making a dress from one of the ikat fabrics I bought on my trip to Klungkung earlier this year. These fabrics are hand made on traditional looms, which makes them almost too precious to cut into for something as pedestrian as an everyday garment.

(Photo of loom is courtesy of http://www.dajuma.com/2014/11/10/traditional-weaving-looms/)

However, I buy more ikats to use for making clothes than I would otherwise, which apart from keeping these crafts alive, puts money into the pockets of both the weavers and the traders at the traditional markets. That must be a good thing. Wearing my dress around Bali I also got some positive comments from Balinese women, for whom it was a novelty to see this fabric made into a western style dress. You see lots of garments made out of batiks at the tourist markets, but strangely enough only ikat sarongs. Maybe some bright spark will pick up the idea and start a new trend making dresses featuring these hand made treasures.

Traditional looms are only 1m wide and the ikats have a border at each selvage. This poses some problems in terms of design, as of course all border fabrics do, except being particularly narrow does not help because it restricts options even further.

I had 3m to play with and being the middle of summer I decided on a tank style empire bodice with a pleated skirt. I have an ancient pattern with a bodice that has just the right amount of ease to slip into without needing a closure, which I have used many times because it is such a boon. I have no problem with installing zippers, but not needing one does away with having to find one that matches, and the additional ease of the looser bodice makes for great wearing comfort.

Because of the borders the whole dress needed to be cut sideways, on the cross grain. Initially I planned to have a border at the bottom of the bodice and again at the top of the skirt joining it. But the two heavy horizontal lines around my middle proved to be unflattering, plus the bodice was too long and so the proportions were off. I could have cut the border off the bodice and skirt and rejoined, but I am such a lazy lump that the extra work did not appeal. I solved the problem by making a flange, a deep 4cm tuck or flap, going to the outside, at the very bottom of the bodice, making it 8cm shorter. The border on the bodice is on the underside of the flange and the flange flaps over and hides most of the border on the skirt. If you enlarge one of the photos you can see the line of stitching creating the flange, but I don’t think it is visually offensive as it blends into the pattern.

I originally started doing flanges to hide where gathering is joined to a bodice. I hate doing gathering and endlessly fuss over getting it even. With something to hide the top of it, it tends to looks much better and I am more relaxed during the process. Even so, these days I prefer to pleat rather than gather, but still like a flange as it does away with the need to get the pleats absolutely even and I can just eyeball them instead of measuring and marking. Much faster.

For more sewing tips, visit Pattern Review.

So here is the dress, again with hat. I don’t tend to prance about in a hat at home, but on a tropical holiday it seemed appropriate on the beach promenade or sipping my cocktail watching the sun go down. At least for one week of the year even I can have a life style suited to hats!

 

 

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A Red Dress For Christmas

Some time ago I came across Kaliyana’s Diamond Dress online and it was love at first sight.

At almost $300, the original was out of the question, but it thought I could probably have a go at running up something similar. These days I very rarely make something because I see and like a pattern, but rather because I see and like a fashion shot of a garment on Pinterest or elsewhere online. THEN I go hunting for a pattern to try and reproduce it. Mostly I find I already have the basic elements in my pattern collection and it is quite rare that I need to buy something new. Notable exceptions in the last couple of years have been a Vogue Marcy Tilton skirt and  the StyleArc Toni dress. The latter seemed like a good starting point for the Diamond dress, with the bonus that I have made it before in several incarnations and know that it works for me.

Close up of front pattern piece:

However, I always do some modifications, I just can’t help myself. My apologies to the designer, because this time I have made quite a lot.

First of all, much as I love the look of  the Toni cut on cap sleeves, they are problematic with my very square shoulders. The top seam always pulls and puckers and never looks quite right. I think on someone with sloping shoulders, where this is not a problem, they would look great, but sadly not on me. Believe me, I have tried.  –  So sleeveless it had to be.

V-necks have never been much of a favourite with me, even though they are supposed to be flattering. I just prefer a round neck or a cowl, much easier to sew, plus I know how high or low to make them to end up with a satisfactory result. With V-necks I always worry that they will end up too low and I will need to take care when moving about to avoid showing bits of myself no innocent bystander needs to see.

The next question was whether to keep the Toni front seam? I would definitely have done so with a plain fabric like that used for the Diamond dress, but the red batik I had on hand had a faint leaf pattern and I thought I might leave it alone and not interrupt it right in the middle of the dress, so to speak. After that I had a good look at the V shaped yoke and flanges you can see in the close up of the Diamond dress. I don’t dislike the design, but it just seemed an unnecessary complication. I definitely like simple lines and clothes that sew up quickly, without too much fussing about.

So after having eliminated just about everything from the original pattern and inspiration dress, all that was left to do was to join the Toni pattern pieces to a sleeveless bodice pattern I know fits me well, to be left with one front and one back pattern piece cut on the fold.

 

Perfect! Sew both pieces together at shoulders and sides, and with the addition of bias strips to tidy up the neck and the armscyes the dress was finished in a couple of hours.  — Oh yes, there was a narrow hem too, which I folded twice and topstitched.

If you need more sewing details, have a look at Pattern Review.

So here is the finished dress, minus the black jacket, at least for now. I have one, but not with me as I am on holidays in the tropics at the moment, where jackets are quite unnecessary and so got left at home. To make up for it I am sporting a hat at least twice the size of the one worn by the model in my inspiration picture, — and no shoes!

 

With me-made necklace. This is simply silver plated beads strung on black silk cord, with a knot below each bead to hold it in place. No skills required whatsoever except in purchasing the materials! I knotted the cord at the back, leaving two long ends, with a bead on each. They sometimes dangle at the back and sometimes swing to the front.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pointy With A Twist

I have made several versions of this dress already, all winter versions using knits, either jersey or ponte.

For the dresses above I used a pattern I found in an Italian pattern magazine years ago, and adapted to fit me better by using a TNT t-shirt for the bodice part. Then I discovered the Toni designer dress by StyleArc and downloaded a copy, so I would not have to fiddle around with cutting from a previous dress overlaid with a t-shirt pattern. I still have to fiddle if I want long sleeves, as the Toni is sleeveless with extended shoulders, but for a summer version I can cut straight from the pattern (- with a couple of modifications of course, as always!).

Below is what the pattern pieces look like:

My summer versions both use woven fabrics, both crinkle linen, although the green seems to be a linen mixture rather than pure linen and is quite stable despite the slight crinkle. The black is softer, more stretchy and crinkly, and also quite sheer.

Serendipity took a hand in the creation when sewing up the green dress below. I happened to try it on for fit with the seams below the side pointy tip still open. When I looked in the mirror I liked what I saw, and the result are two Toni dresses with open lower side seams. I also put a cuff on the extended shoulders to make a short sleeve.

For the second summer version I decided I wanted bracelet length sleeves, wide enough to roll up, and so I overlaid the body of the Toni once again with the armscyes from another pattern, this time suitable for wovens, and used the matching sleeves.

I think this dress turned out a little long, as the crinkle linen seems to have expanded. Next time I have black thread in my machine I might just chop a bit off the bottom and re-hem.

 

And all ready to go out with scarf and bag.