A New TNT Dress Pattern for Winter

I think I have mentioned before that I don’t sew based on patterns. What I mean by that is that I don’t browse the offerings of pattern companies, pick one that appeals to me and sew it up. I find that way of building a wardrobe ends up being deeply unsatisfying.

Why? Because what I want is a stylish new outfit, not a pattern. And because I am not a genius it is much easier to find a look online that I really love and try to recreate it, than to invent something from scratch based on a pattern. Especially since most pattern companies are rather pedestrian as designers and fixated on making patterns ‘interesting’, so as many people as possible will buy them, not on creating exciting fashion.

So when I browse Pinterest and other online sources and come across an outfit I love, I have a close look at how I can recreate it. Sometimes I will conclude that it is too difficult, but often I can figure out how to find a pattern or adapt one I already have to do the job. I keep a board of these inspiration pieces and the vast majority of them never get made, but it helps me calibrate my personal style, and browsing my board usually motivates me when my sewing mojo is a bit blah.

Ironically, my latest attempt is of an outfit created by a pattern company, on the front page of Tina Given’s new pattern magazine. But then Tina Givens is a fashion designer turned pattern company, not the other way around. Her patterns are pedestrian but her outfits always look great.

This time I would have been very happy to go buy the pattern, a rare luxury to be able to do that when I see an outfit I want, but after scouring Tina Given’s website I found the mag is no longer available, or at least I could not figure out how to get my hands on it. So after a good look I decided that this dress is just a long sleeve t-shirt with a seam at CF and CB, and extended to maxi length with slits from about the hip down. My trusty TNT t-shirt pattern would easily be up for it. So below, allowing for the much less glamorous model and the lack of stylist and fashion photographer to create the perfect photo, is a good look at my first version.

 

There is some room for improvement with the V-neck not being quite as low as it should be. I am not used to making them, preferring round necks as a whole, and I was too conservative when cutting out. 5cm lower would have been better. Other than that I am pretty happy. Fabric restrictions meant that the dress is shorter in length than the original, so I left the four sections at different length according to what the available fabric would allow. I rather like the result.

The cupro viscose I used is not as beefy as the knit of the Tina Givens original, but it has been in my stash for yonks, and I am glad I found a good use for it. This style of dress would look good too in a heavier knit, or a Ponte or even a merino, so watch this space for more. It makes for a very comfy outfit, like going to work in your nighty, and is easily varied with different scarves and jackets or cardis. I think this will be my new TNT pattern for winter, with and without the CF and CB seams, and with and without a cowl. Seems I am transitioning to a slimmer version of Lagenlook to go with my slimmer body. For more detailed sewing instructions have a look at my write-up on PatternReview.

The under-dress is a Tessuti Lily dress, with long sleeves and lengthened to a maxi, which has been an orphan in my wardrobe for at least 5 years. It is too plain to be worn on its own, but I always knew it would come in handy one day.  🙂

The Poppy Shirt

I am enjoying wearing my Poppy shirts, made using this Tina Givens pattern.

The Poppy is not your average shirt, but really a tunic, with no collar or cuffs, no buttons and cut on sleeves. In other words, quick and easy to make, ideal for lazy sewists like me. I can have a new one ready in less time than it would take me to go to the shops and buy something. To say nothing of the price.

I have made two versions of the Poppy so far, but only the one below with the front split as high as intended by the pattern. This version is best worn with another tunic underneath.

I used a sheeting cotton which drapes quite well and is easy to wear as it doesn’t wrinkle much. Not an outfit for high summer because of the 3/4 sleeves and several layers, but good for in between seasons.

The second version below has a modified split that doesn’t come up nearly as high and can be worn over just my usual cotton tank top. The fabric is cotton sateen, a little thicker than the sheeting. I added a stand up collar this time.

An ikat fabric or something ethnic would look good with this pattern, but I’m not sure if I would like the Poppy in a plain fabric. I think it would have to be something really special to look good, something understatedly expensive. I don’t have anything to hand right now that would fit this bill, but I will make this pattern up a couple more times when I find fabric right for it, either patterned or plain, because I really like wearing these shirts.

BTW, both fabrics I used for my existing versions were over-dyed. The grey started life as an insipid light blue. I bought it online and was very disappointed when it arrived, as what I thought was a jacquard turned out to be only a cheap and nasty print. My fault for assuming! It looks much nicer after a bath in Drimarene K black (Procion would have been fine too).

The green was bought in person, so to speak, during a period in my sewing life where only black and white would do. Once the infatuation passed I was left with a lot of B/W fabric I no longer fancied. Fortunately, courtesy of a mix of blue, black and yellow Drimarene K, the white was easily over-dyed and I am much happier with the green. 🙂

 

Flamingos

I am doing more bird prints, this time flamingos and using a commercially cut stamp. Aldi had a couple of cards of transparent acrylic stamps for sale and I couldn’t resist. I am quite new to acrylic stamps, which have the advantage that they stick to a rigid perspex backing, but can be removed again and stored, while you use another stamp with the same backing block. I don’t think you can carve these yourself, but the scrapbooking community seems to like them and there are lots around for purchase. I don’t mind using whatever comes to hand for my creations. If you are not familiar with these acrylic stamps, have a look at this YouTube video. Sorry that this is a commercial video advertising products, the company has absolutely nothing to do with me, I only wanted to borrow their video to show anyone interested how to use the clear stamps. Scrapbooking stamps are usually quite small to suit cards etc, and of the stamps I bought only one is suitable for fabric printing, i.e. large enough, but never mind. I will be able to use the others for making cards and gift wrap with the grandchildren.

The top is a repurposed Tina Givens Poppy slip.

I loved it when I made it, but found that I never wore it. The reason was that the fabric was too sheer to wear the slip on its own, and the colour was too difficult to wear under other dresses. Besides, I feel too dressed up for everyday life in this sort of outfit. And while I loved the gathered hem,  I discovered that the ties are a little unpractical at ankle length because they do get caught up in things.

So I thought I would turn this white elephant into a tunic. Tunics and pants are my staples, hence no chance of not getting worn, and the sheerness of the fabric would not be a problem with pants and my usual cotton tank top underneath. I also fancied sleeves, and fortunately I had some fabric left, enough to cut short sleeves and a cowl. You can read my review of the sewing process here.

The fabric is a cotton voile of the most beautiful quality. I have been working quite a bit with silk/cotton lately, and could not believe that this one was cotton only. But when I did a burn test, sure enough, no smell of hair. I think that maybe there is some rayon mixed with the cotton, which would not be detectable because rayon smells much like cotton when you burn it. Rayon was originally invented to imitate silk, and while these days it is mostly woven to have its own distinctive look, it can still be made in such a way that it resembles silk closely.

The fineness of this fabric is ideal for block printing and the prints turned out beautifully. I have to say that cotton voile in general is a great fabric for block printing and I suspect that China silk is too. This is because the paint penetrates the thin fabric really well, improving the coverage of the prints, which can be a problem with thicker fabrics. Below is a tunic made from ponte, printed with an American native bird motif.

You can see in the closeup that the prints are quite transparent, with the red of the ponte coming through. This is because the stamp cannot hold enough paint to cover and penetrate the thick ponte properly.

I still like the tunic and have worn it a lot, but I would be happier with the prints being a solid black.

Below you can see how much better the prints look on a thinner fabric. Fortunately it is summer in Australia and I see a lot of printed voile in my future, and also some China silk.

This is linked back to the blogger party RUMS.

The Michell Dress

I have mentioned before that I bought a few Tina Givens patterns when they were on sale. The Zelda dress and the Phoebe pants have become firm favourites. The poppy slip worked well too, although my personal preference runs more to tunics and pants than layered dresses, I feel a tad too dressed up in them. However, it is a great pattern and I like it a lot, especially the drawstring hem. The Bloom dress will be made again too, but probably not with the cut on sleeves. I am very happy to be able to buy Tina’s patterns, but I don’t like her armscyes. Never mind, to each their own. I also don’t like the Mille fleur and ruffles for my 60 year old self, but that’s the great thing about sewing, we can adapt and please ourselves.

I had not made the Michell dress until now, mostly because I was unsure whether the dropped waist would look any good. When menopause gifted me with a tummy, I moved to empire line dresses. Having a lowered waist seemed a bit out of my comfort zone. But there is nothing like trying something out for yourself, so I had a go at the Michell and I am rather pleased.

The instructions ask for 3.5 yards of fabric, which is probably one of the reasons why I haven’t used the pattern so far. Most of what I buy for my stash is around 2m, only occasionally 3, but very rarely more than that. As it happened I had a 2.3m remnant of embroidered rayon crepe, which it thought would be just right for the style. But it also was only 120 wide and the selvages had been clipped, clearly not promising. But being a fabric Scrooge  from way back I have plenty of experience in squeaking things out of minimum amounts of fabric. I always cut the back on the selvages, not the fold, anyway. This saves lots and gives you a seam at CB, which I think is a plus. ANY vertical line is a plus.

I had to shorten the dress by 5cm to fit, and the front and back panels are a couple of cms narrower than they should be, in order to get both of them out of the 120cm width. I cut the front and back in opposite directions, so if your fabric has a one way design it will run the differently front and back, as mine does, but if anyone notices I will be very surprised. What is important is to have the main piece and the inset panel going the same way on each side.

I also overlaid the upper bodice and sleeves with a pattern that fits me well in the shoulders, as with previous Tina Givens garments. The Michell dress has noticeably more fitted armscyes and sleeves than other patterns I have made, but why mess with perfection? Once I have found something that fits me well, I tend to stick with it. Saves a lot of fitting hassles.

So here is the result. I feel most comfortable in the dress with pants, but it looks nice with the poppy slip too. On its own it is more conventional, but in a nice way. I would feel confident wearing this dress on its own or maybe with a jacket to a client meeting, where the pants or the underdress would Make me look too much of a fruit cake. Different jacket though to the black one below. Interesting how it instantly makes the hips look much wider than when the dress is worn without the jacket. Obviously not a good spot for the jacket hem.

  

 

A Bit of Dyeing

Its not easy to buy good quality cotton knits in Australia. I have NEVER bought a dark coloured tee-shirt that would not have looked badly faded after a single season, and sometimes after a couple of washes. Why is that? Why do bought tees go out of shape, fade badly and look disreputable after a short period of time? I’m sure the clothing industry knows the answer, and I’m sure built in obsolescence has a lot to do with it. Good quality fabrics dyed with colour fast dyes are available, but not in Australian shops. Not sure what it is like where you live.

Cotton can be colourfast, but you seem to have no option but to dye your own fabric. RIT or Dylon won’t do it, you need the experts. Dharma Trading has been an institution for textile artists for a long time, and their dyes are pretty bomb proof as far as fading is concerned. There is also an Australian dye specialist called Batik Oetoro. They used to be in Randwick near the Prince of Wales Hospital, but have moved, conveniently for me, to Newcastle. They do mail orders and their dyes and expert advice are great. Marian, my former art teacher, used to buy her fabric paints and dyes from them and they were fabulous quality. I also purchased some low temperature black dye called Cool Wool at Batik Oetoro and it has served me well with a number of fabric buying bargains, where the fabric was a beautiful wool but in an off colour that nobody wanted. Overdyeing with black of varying strength will either tone down the colour or obliterate it altogether. A print never disappears completely, but you can mute the colours or turn it into a subtle black on black design.

The op shop sheet I used to muslin the Zelda dress last week was showing signs of fading, too subtle to be apparent in the photos but visible in real life. I don’t think I would have worn the dress much because of that, but I really liked the shape. So I bit the bullet and decided to overdye it with Procion dyes to freshen up the fabric. I think the simple Tina Givens styles really need superior fabrics to come into their own. Linen would do it, silk certainly, or at least a cotton jacquard or gauze or a nice voile print. The utilitarian cotton I had used was pushing it, and the fact that it wasn’t pristine sure didn’t help.

The easiest way to dye is in the washing machine, as the process is rather long and pretty boring. It takes a good two hours all up to dye something a dark colour, less for a pastel, and you need to agitate the dye bath frequently, meaning you can’t do much else during that time. I couldn’t use my machine because it leaks and I didn’t want dye all over my laundry floor. You need to be very careful not to splash the dye on anything while agitating the dye bath, or while mixing up the dye powder. The process uses a lot of water, especially for rinsing out the dye, but I am very happy with the result. The cotton now looks brand new, and hopefully will keep its fresh colour for a long time.

One word of warning. Dyeing can be a bit unpredictable, even for the experienced, and the colours can be hard to match. When I overdyed the purple I was trying to tone the colour down more towards a dark jacaranda, but it ended up close to a dark blue. Not a tragedy and I rather like it, but not what I had aimed for.

One thing to remember is that dyeing is transparent, not opaque, so the original colour of the fabric will influence the outcome. Any stains or blotches won’t disappear completely either, so a good hot wash to remove any stains is essential. Here are the instructions if you are interested.

The Bloom Dress

This dress pattern can be downloaded as a free PDF at Tina Givens website. It is a signature style for this designer and very simple to sew. Ingeniously simple, which is right up my alley.

However, light drapey fabrics are recommended for this style, and it appears my rather substantial cotton, repurposed from a used sheet, did not quite fit the bill. When I tried the dress on after sewing front and back together, my first thought was ‘that looks just like scrubs’. To be fair, in a light voile or silk the look may be quite different, but for the fabric at hand what was needed was to make the cut-on sleeve narrower to achieve a closer fit in the shoulders and sleeves. A sleeve width of around 20-22cm on the front and back, or 40-44cm in the round is comfortable for me, but YMMV. This was easily achieved by continuing the side seam upwards and drawing a new sleeve seam parallel to the original one, but higher up.

The other change I made to the pattern was that I did not cut the front slit. I should be brave and give it a try, because this first version is only a muslin anyway, but I naturally shy away from anything that can not be undone if I don’t like it. And a cut right up the front of the garment is definitely in that category.

So this is the finished dress. Not bad for a first attempt, but I think a closer fit in the shoulders would be more flattering. For this type of fabric, I would be inclined to superimpose one of my TNT bodices and short sleeves, instead of the original cut-on sleeve. I am not crazy about the sleeve hem sticking out the way it does.

As for the print, I think it should be smaller and closer together, as I already concluded in my previous post. Still, not bad for a first try and definitely has potentials watch this space.

Fabric Printing

Back in the mid nineties I did a course on fabric dyeing and printing. The teacher was fabulous. Her name was Marian and she had lots of wonderful ideas and recipes. I wish could still pick her brains today, but I’m just going to have to manage on my own. With the help of the internet, of course. In those days, if you did not have access to someone who knew, or could look it up in a library, you were on your own. Haven’t things changed.

Anyway, one of the things she taught us was to do block printing with polystyrene. You take a soldering iron, melt/burn a pattern into the polystyrene, ink it up and hey presto, you can print.

These prints were negative, meaning you printed with the part of your PS block that did NOT have the pattern, and the pattern you had burnt with the soldering iron remained white. She showed us how to dye the fabric in rainbow colours first, then print over the top. The pattern that appeared was multicoloured against a black background. I printed quite a bit of fabric that way, but the only piece I have kept is this tee. I still can’t part with it although I have not worn it for years, preferring a different shape to my tees these days.

You can see that the technique has some drawbacks. You either use a polystyrene block big enough to do the entire garment, or you have joins. The joins are not as noticeable in real life as in the photo, but still. And for someone like me who likes to print yardage, a block big enough for the whole width would be unwieldy. Then there is a lot of black, or whatever colour you use for printing.

So I always wanted to adapt this technique to produce positive prints. When I came across this tee, it inspired me to give it a try.

I thought for a while whether to carve multiples of the pattern, such as my leaf, out of a large block, in a way that each iteration of the print will tesselate. This makes printing fast, but you need to be very regular in the way you apply your block to make an even pattern. Not that easy when you can’t see very well where to put down the block for each repeat of the print. Besides, you need to carve up a lot of polystyrene and although it is a lot easier than Lino or potatoes, it is still tedious.

So I decided to try for a single motive, about the size of my hand, and repeat the print on my fabric. You still need to be even, but because every time you move your block there will be little irregularities in the spacing, it won’t be so obvious overall.

I wanted to make the Tina Givens Bloom dress my canvas and used the rest of the purple sheet left over from the Zelda dress. Cut out, sew the shoulders, lay flat and print.

What you need:

Polystyrene
Knife to cut it to size
Pen to draw your drawing onto the PS
Soldering iron (I used a very fine one)
Screen printing ink
Plastic plate or ice cream lid
Foam roller to ink your printing block

I covered my cutting table with newspaper, laid my Bloom dress flat and inked up my roller on the plastic plate. You spoon a little of the ink onto the plate, then distribute it evenly rolling back and forth with your foam roller. Your aim is to put a nice layer of ink onto the roller, without any blobs. If you can see shiny patches of ink on top of the foam surface, that means it is not distributed evenly enough.

Next you ink up your printing block. It is a good idea to have as little polystyrene around the edges of your motif as possible. Any extra surface may get ink on it and then onto the fabric where it is not wanted. Once inked, your motif should stand out nicely and cleanly against the white polystyrene. If it doesn’t and you have ink on non-printing parts of your block, you have not carved them out deeply enough. You must remedy this or you will get a messy print.

Apply your well inked printing block to the fabric. It is important that you have your fabric on a smooth surface, any unevenness will affect your print, much like a crayon rubbing. You need to press quite firmly all around your block, taking care not to move it. When you are satisfied, pull the block off the fabric. The fabric stick a little, be careful it does not smudge.

And there you have it. How big to make your print motifs and how to space them is a matter of experience. I am encouraged by my first try, although not in love with the result yet. I think my motif is a little large and too far apart. I will try again with something about 2/3 the size, and closer together. While I dislike small prints because I see them as frumpy, a print that is too large can visually add kgs. Not what I am after.

Choice of fabric and colour is also crucial. I think my black print will look better on natural linen, or on white like my inspiration tee.

In the next post I will show you the finished dress and discuss the pattern.

Zelda dress

I have recently discovered Tina Givens patterns and have been quite excited about them. They are the sort of loose and comfortable garments I like to wear and her aesthetic appeals to me.

But I am a sewist, and like a cook who can never follow a recipe to the letter, I always make my own adjustments to a pattern to get it to fit the way I like. The Zelda seemed like a good starting point for a cool summer dress, but I am not a great fan of ruffles, at least not for myself, so I decided to leave them off. Of course this means that the body of the dress needs to be lengthened, or it will turn out shorter than intended. The hem is curved upwards in the middle at the front only in the pattern, but I decided to do the same in the back as well, because I want to wear my Zelda with either pants or the Poppy slip, as pictured, and I think it will look better that way. Why wear something underneath and hide it under an ankle length skirt?

I  discovered with my first muslin that the armscyes are very large and low enough to show my bra underneath unless I wear a cami. I have to say that if it is hot enough for me to bare my arms, I don’t want to be wearing an extra layer underneath. So I overlaid the armscyes with a bodice pattern I know fits me well, the Tessuti Eva dress. The Eva is a fabulously well drafted pattern and I have used the bodice as a block for all sorts of garments.

But to get back to the Zelda, I am very happy with the result. The bodice part now fits perfectly, no more need to wear anything underneath and movement is very comfortable.

I lengthened the dress by the width of the ruffle to compensate for leaving it off, but it is still shorter than anticipated from the pattern photo. That surprised me, as I am only 161cm tall and dresses mostly turn out on the long side, but it is actually a good length for wearing pants underneath. The outfit has a bit of a salwar kameez vibe, but I find that I am gravitating towards this look lately. It is such a practical and comfortable way of dressing, I guess the Indians who invented it knew a thing or two. No scarf for me though, much too hot for summer, I prefer a statement necklace instead.

My first muslin with the big armscyes is fixable by taking the length out at the shoulder seams and recutting the neckline lower, but I don’t think I will bother. The fabric I used is a viscose/silk mix I bought in Bali, which looked beautiful in the shop but didn’t wash up well. Like most fabrics bought in tropical places it is very thin, which can be a virtue, but in this case it just seems flimsy, and as soon as it gets a bit wrinkled from wear it starts to look like a cheap rag. Besides, it is orange and the only colour I can team it with in my wardrobe at present is black, as it looks blah with lighter colours, and because it is so thin the black underneath makes the orange look dirty. So many traps when designing a garment!

For my second version I wanted a plain cotton in a more substantial weight than the very thin viscose, in other words a normal weight cotton. I have a lot of fabric in my stash, but not that particular requirement, so I bought a flat sheet at an op shop for $2 to see what a cotton version of the Zelda would look like. Success!

So a cotton works fine and I would say a linen will as well, as long as it is not too thick. I also think a substantial viscose would be ok, and a China silk as well. With the latter the see-through factor is a concern, as silk can be very thin, but wearing pants underneath would fix that. I don’t think I would try this in a knit, I feel the style needs just a touch of crispness in the fabric because of the fullness of the skirt part at the sides. I have also got it into my head lately that summer dresses in a knit look cheap. I think I must have seen too many of that variety in the chain stores and it has left an impression. I don’t feel that way about winter dresses in ponte, or dresses made out of a repurposed sheet bought at an op shop for that matter, but there you have it.

So, the upshot is that the Zelda is a very nice pattern for a sleeveless summer dress in a woven, provided you change the armscyes to fit to your liking. The ruffle is charming, but if you leave it off you need to lengthen the main pattern pieces and measure more carefully than I did to get the length you want in the finished dress.

I will be wearing my purple Zelda with Phoebe pants, another Tina Givens pattern, made up in lightweight grey linen. I made changes to this pattern too, but more details in another post.

With the leftover purple sheeting, I am toying with the idea of making it into a Bloom or Poppy overdress. The fabric is a bit plain for that, so I was thinking of printing a design in black. But more about this too in another post.