The Tablecloth Shift Dress: nautical dress interrupted

Hia!

I have a confession to make.

Last week I cut and started my nautical dress and
 I claimed that this week you would see it sewn.  

Sorry but you won't 

(Remorseful face!  Is there an emoticon for that?)

I had every intention of getting that project completed until...

I found this AMAZING tablecloth at the back of my linen cupboard!

I love bright colours and yellow is one of my faves.
I also adore daisies, as they are cheerful and timeless in their simplicity.

That is right, I got absolutely distracted by a tablecloth, an old tablecloth to boot, with a gorgeous 1960-70's print.

I thought...'Hello my lovely, I can work with you!'  

I have had it a while and intended to use it one day, but it was too large for our little round dining table.
  

It is a very light but sturdy cotton, that feels so soft to touch.

This tablecloth needed a new life. 

I also know we are in for some more hot weather here in Melbourne and I need a practical, cool dress for when I head back to the trenches next week.

The shift dress made popular in the 1960's was just the ticket. 

 



I have a couple of shop bought shift dresses already (Thanks Modcloth!), and they are so comfy and cool, but I don't have a pattern for one so I improvised.

I took the bodice pattern from Butterick B5748 and lengthened it.  Of course I brought it out on an angle so that it covered my hips and made a bell shape.  

As I wanted it to be light and airy I decided not to fully line it, but I did need to understitch the neckline's facing.  

New Skills

As you may recall, last week I did not know how to understich. During the week I read all four of my dressmaking books and still didn't get it.  My lovely Mum, also tried to explain it to me, but I am very much a visual and tactile learner and needed to see it done.  

In the end I found this Youtube tutorial by Professor Pincushion, which was quite helpful.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8WM4yjqawU

N/B: In fact I watched a few of her tutorials and found them all pretty clear and easy to learn from. Thanks Professor!

So after watching the video a couple of times I went straight to the sewing machine and this was the result:

One of the other tutorials I watched was on creating a patch pocket, so I figured I would give that a go as well:

Gathering the pocket edge

Pressed and ready to be sewn to the garment.
Yay for new skills!!

The appeal of the slip-over dress

Most of my dresses have zips but because of my 'T-Rex arms' I often have trouble zipping them all the way up.  I have one dress that I can just slip over my head and I think it is great for that reason, thus I decided the 'Tablecloth dress' would be the same.  

Finishings 

Even a simple shift dress needs some extras to give it that little something else.  I thought I would put the pocket I made on to the 'tablecloth dress', but found it too distracting.  Instead, I put a decorative front band down the centre in a contrasting green cotton topped with one daisy shaped button.  

Here is the completed dress:

The finishing touches :-)

And here it is on me:

 Up-cycling!

Not so shabby for a tablecloth hey?  I love the fact that this fabric is now going to be enjoyed for years to come instead of being shut up in a linen cupboard or worse yet thrown out (gasp!)

So, what do you have in the back of your linen cupboards that can be made more useful? 



Well, that's it for this week, we WILL be back to the 'nautical dress' next week.

Unless I have another "squirrel" moment :-)


xo

History Heroine

Getting a sewing space organised, treasures to sort and a Nautical Dress: part one

 Hia!

This week it has been sweltering in Melbourne, temps hovering in the early 40's (Celsius).  I have been very grateful for air conditioning and as it has been so hot it has been perfect weather to stay inside and play with patterns.  Hooray!

Sorting Treasures

A couple of weeks ago I had a delightful visit from a friend of mine.  She had been sorting through her sewing room and had brought me a car boot full of what she called 'old rubbish' but was undoubtedly gorgeous vintage treasure.

Goodies, lots of gorgeous goodies!

Lovely finishings and ribbons, sumptuous fabric remnants, pins, zippers, elastics of all varieties, dainty beads, antique laces, tatting, colourful ric rac, vibrant bias binding, beautiful buttons, delightful embellishments and some amazing 1940-50 children's clothing patterns to draft.  I could go on, there was so much it was like Christmas all over again.

I don't know about you but I absolutely love trimmings and finishings.

I was so overwhelmed by her kind generosity and enjoyed every moment she spent with me, going through everything, passing on her sewing knowledge and giving me advice and inspiration.  It is a true treasure to have such a friend.

With all these new treasures at hand I have had to reorganise my sewing storage and decided to more efficiently structure my sewing space.  All my sewing happens in the living room, so it is pretty important that it can all be packed away quickly, neatly and easily.

Before

I believe it is so helpful to have all my sewing bibs and bobs organised in a way that I know exactly what I have and where to go to get it.  That way things get used, not forgotten about and I avoid going to the shops for brown velvet ribbon when I already have some. Win!

So here are the results after sorting and organising

After

                        

Fancy Nautical Dress Me Hearties?

Also, this week I have started that summer dress I mentioned last week.  It is another Butterick pattern from their 'Retro Range' B5748 circa 1960.

I love nautical styles, reds, navy blues, and crisp whites.  Always have, always will.  

Over the years I have tried on heaps of sailor dresses (with their cute collars) but not found one to suit, so I plan to make a sailor dress when I find a good pattern.  

In the mean time, however, I am giving this dress a nautical touch.  

Red and white striped poplin with anchor motif and blue cotton for the lining

After my last fitting debacle, I decided to kick my fitting skills up a notch and learn the art of making a muslin.  Well, it is not really an art, but a great technique for getting a well fitted garment.  A muslin is a mock up of your garment in a similar but cheaper fabric.  It helps your see how the fabric weight works with the design and shows you where there may be fitting issues.  You create your muslin according to the set pattern measurements, then adjust the muslin to fit your body.

              

Cutting the muslin, I am using jars to weigh
down the pattern piece instead of using pins

Here you can see the gaping where adjustment
needed to be made in the shoulders, chest, sides
 and arm holes

Mark your adjustments onto the muslin, then transfer those adjustments to the pattern.  After which you can make up the garment and it should fit you well.  (Hopefully :-)  Haven't got that far yet). 

Marking adjustments to the muslin

Adding adjustments to pattern

As you can see I also decided to change the neckline in this process as well.

I have now cut out the fabric and lining with the adjustments, and it is ready to sew.  Yippee!

So next week there will be pics of the dress coming together in all its sea-worthy goodness, and no doubt I will have plenty to chat about as I learn another new technique: understitching.

I leave you with a pic of Betty Boots my Boston Terrier, who has been my little sewing companion.  She is so cute! 

Have a great week, stay cool! 

History Heroine :-)

             

Well, here it is, the first completed project for History Heroine!

The back of the dress is pretty shapeless without a petticoat.
My dress mannequin 'Beatrix', is not wearing one  but I think it would look better if she was.

A close up of the contrasting fabrics and the bias binding

Now I don't want anyone to think I whipped this up in a day, because I didn't.  This is a garment I began over a year ago and had neglected.  I had it mostly assembled but not finished off and I had hit a fitting snag with its original cut.  

This is Butterick's famous 'Walk-Away Dress', first produced in pattern form in 1952. 

 

I did not know that it was 'famous', until I received (very gratefully) Gretchen Hirsch's book, Gertie's New Book For Better Sewing; Stewart, Tabori and Chang, (2012) for Christmas. 

 

Apparently the pattern for this dress was so popular that Butterick had to produce it alone for a while to cope with the back log of orders.  I chose it myself because I liked the pretty pictures on the envelope and wanted to try my hand at a retro pattern. 

Now, had I read Gertie's comments on it having "a barrel of fitting issues"(p.21) before I began it, I may have decided to leave it neatly in its envelope to remain just a pretty packet.  

I agree, that this seemingly simple pattern, and design is not as flattering or suited to a modern woman with generous curves and I had trouble with the shoulders and neckline in particular.  There was far too much fabric in the chest area after I first constructed it,  I didn't know what to do, so I got advise from my Nan, and a couple of other more experiences sewers I know.  I gave myself a bigger challenge because I stupidly put the bias binding all around its edges before checking the fit.  I was fooled into thinking that this 'simple, whip-up dress' was not going to be a bother.  I was so wrong :-( 

I added some darts at the neck and brought it in.  Originally it sat well off my shoulders.

Of course once the bias binding, a painstaking job of precision, was complete, I was loath to unpick it; so I had to figure out ways to modify the fit with minimal disruption to the bound edges.  In the end though I did unpick some of the binding.  Well if a job is worth doing it is worth doing properly, and I was determined to not make a shabby garment because I was using shortcuts.  

In the end I found the neckline such a challenge that I changed it altogether.  I still don't like the neckline, it is certainly too high to suit me, so I may change it again in time.  

I am not a big fan of this dress on me, I don't think it will be a regular of my wardrobe, but I have learnt some valuable lessons as I constructed it.

1. Just because you like the pretty pictures on a pattern envelope, does not mean it is a good design for your body type.  1950's pattern illustrations are notoriously deceiving as they often don't even reflect real human proportions i.e. waists thinner than heads. 
2. Always fit to your body before doing any of the finishing i.e. bias binding
3. Soft and flowing fabrics such as Rayon are lovely when the garment is completed, but they have a tendency to stretch as you work with them, even when being very careful.  Need to find a strategy to overcome this issue.
4. Bias binding stretches.  It seems so solid, but of course it stretches, it is cut on the bias (slap forehead with palm).

The buttons and waistline

The wrap around skirt lifted to
reveal the underskirt

A side view of the buttons under the bust

I just wanted to say that though the 'Walk-Away Dress' has not been my fave, I would not discourage anyone else from giving it a go.  I had a scout around google images and found pics of other sewers 'Walk-Aways' and most looked lovely and seemed to fit well.  

So, that is that for this week.  First project complete.  I won't usually post two blogs a week, but as yesterday's entry was really just an introduction and had nothing to show, I put this one together.  

My next project I think will be a simple, strap shouldered summer dress I can wear in the hot weather we are bound to face soon in Melbourne. 

Cheers for reading

A New Beginning

Hia,
       So today is the first day of my new venture.  I have made the move to cut my day job down from five days a week to four, so I can dedicate one entire day to Sewing!  Sewing gorgeous vintage reproductions and delightful retro 'glad rags'.

For years now I have dreamt of having a little side-line of my own, which allows me to be creative and gives me the opportunity to learn new skills.  I love fabric, design and the fashion of the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's.  I have also dreamt of being my own boss, and now for at least one day a week I will be.

I hope I will be able to get my skills off the ground and accomplish a decent portfolio of sewing projects by the end of the year.  My aim is to have a small dressmaking business up and running in time.

I have always wanted a home business of my own, but I thought it was something I would only get to do when I am a stay at home Mum.  It seemed to me that the only women I knew who had done such a thing, are mums with small children.  I really admired these women, but at the same time I got this warped impression that my creative and business muscles would have to wait.  I believed that for as long as I had a full time job, and there was no bulging reason to leave it, that was my lot.  (I seriously don't know where I get my ideas sometimes, sigh!)  

It was my husband (bless him), who pointed out to me that I didn't have to wait, that I could go part time and start what I had been deferring to that unknown, mysterious time called someday.

His supportive advice was: Why put off for tomorrow what can be done today?    

Now, as I am only an average sewer, I aim to really focus on up-skilling this year.  There is so much I look forward to learning, and that is so exciting!

I am inspired by people like Gretchen Hirsch and her blog, Gertie's New Blog For Better Sewing, she also began with basic skills and through her passion and enthusiasm is a talented and accomplished sewer.

I am not setting out to take on the world, but I do want to be proud of my improvements and feel that I may become...a seamstress.

As far as small business is concerned, I have a lot to learn over the year.  I may end up falling flat on my face, but I refuse now to regret not trying!

So, here I go!