Today’s progress | Jeanne Marie’s Sewing Studio

Progress on the Paris muslin

Fitting issues, Projects, Today's progress May 30, 2013 Comments: 4

The Paris wearable muslin has turned into quite a project unto itself. I was mainly concerned with the fit of the bodice because I had made some crazy alterations to the pattern I was not at all sure would work. But they seemed to do what I wanted them to do.

The front:

The original muslin. See the gap at the front edges? The center fronts are even further apart.

The renovated front looks good! The only issue is the stiffness of the quilt-weight fabric.

I did not even attempt to match the pattern across the front. That would have been crazy, particularly for an experiment.

The back:

The back fit me just fine except for being too short. My dress form can’t expand to my back length.

The back is unchanged except I made it an inch longer. My dress form doesn't expand enough for my back length, so it looks too long here.

The back is unchanged except I made it an inch longer. It looks too long here, but isn’t on me.

The side:

The side view shows that it rides up in front because it needs more length.

Aha! The waist seam is horizontal. This is good. If you look closely enough to see the dart I put in, you'll note that it's pretty low. That's because my dress form has unnaturally high "girls." Really, she looks sort of deformed with them up that high.

Aha! The waist seam is horizontal, and the length is just where it needs to be.

Once I was sure the changes to the bodice were working, I altered the front skirt pattern and went to cut out the rest of the pattern pieces. I had enough fabric according to the pattern requirements, but I hadn’t used the suggested pattern layout because I just cut out the bodice pieces at first. Turns out, the front facing wouldn’t fit. I could have cut it cross grain and pieced it, but this fabric is directional. One of the pattern views shows a contrasting collar and front facing, so some white sateen that was in my stash is currently in the dryer.

Here is my mood board for the wearable muslin:

Here's the mood board for my Paris muslin: the crazy fabric, plus buttons and a slide buckle, all from my stash. You can see why I decided on red thread. The buttons were sewn to the card with red thread, and I thought the look would be perfect on my crazy Paris muslin.

There’s the Paris fabric, plus buttons and a buckle, all from my stash. The only purchase I had to make for this muslin was red thread.

I think the white accents will really pop on the fabric and calm it all down. You can see why I decided on red thread. The buttons were sewn to the card with red thread, and I thought the look would be perfect. This is an awful lot of effort for a wearable muslin, but it looks like it’s working. It should be really nice once I make it in the pretty teal and navy lawn. If I don’t run out of inspiration before I get there!

Adventures in full-bust adjustments

Fitting issues, Today's progress May 26, 2013 Leave a comment

Well, surprise, surprise. I wasn’t sure how to handle the full-bust adjustment on Butterick 5846. The front and back bodice pieces gather into yokes at the top and pleat into the waist, like so:

There’s a lot happening on the front bodice of this pattern, so I wasn’t sure how to handle a full-bust adjustment. You can’t tell from the drawing, but the front and back yokes are separate pieces, so there is a seam at the top of the shoulder.

With the structure of the pattern being what it is, I didn’t even hazard a guess about what to do and instead went straight to sewing a muslin of the bodice. The results were surprising.

First, the back and neckline fit fine. The side seams are right where they should be, and I could pin the center fronts together at the top. Then things became wonky. The center fronts spread wider and wider from neckline to waist until they were four inches apart at the bottom.

Wait, shouldn’t the gap only be at the bustline, not the front waist, too?

It seems that I don’t need just a full-bust adjustment; my front torso from bust to waist is a size bigger than my back torso! How weird is that? I needed four more inches across the front width but not at the neck or the shoulders. Well, with the gathers and stitched pleats, I just added 2 inches in width from the top to the bottom of the bodice piece, in the space between the pleats. I also added 2 inches in length above the pleats to lower the bust point, and took out that two inches at the side seam with a dart. I also added one inch of overall length to the front and back bodice pieces. The pattern pieces now look like this:

There is an awful lot of slashing and spreading going on here. Both of these pieces gather into top yoke pieces that fit fine.

Of course, now I’ll need to add four inches across the skirt front. But not the back. This is all pretty dicey pattern engineering, to say the least, so I am not cutting my nice teal and navy cotton lawn quite yet. I have 4 yards of a bright and gaudy Paris-themed quilt fabric in my stash (purchased for a work event, long story), so I’m going to sew it up in that and see if my adjustments work out.

My “wearable” muslin fabric. I told you it was bright and gaudy.

After all that, I am hoping it will be clear to me how to fine-tune any problems. It will also give me a chance to see how bad the gathered sleeves might look on me. I have some off-white buttons in my stash, but I want red thread for sewing them on and for the topstitching, not that it will stand out much on this print. I’ll be heading to Jo-Ann’s in the morning. I just pulled the fabric from the dryer, so I’ll cut it out tomorrow while the boys are in Oakland watching the Giants play the A’s. Maybe I’ll get a crazy but wearable Paris-themed dress out of this experiment. I don’t know what else I would have ever done with that fabric.

If cutting up the Paris fabric means the teal and navy lawn ends up as a well-fitting dress, the Paris fabric will not have died in vain.

Sneak preview

Projects, Today's progress April 7, 2013 Leave a comment

My current project has reached the point that I think it’s going to come out well. So, it’s time to share a sneak preview of the crazy technique I am trying for the first time.

I am making an adjustment to Simplicity 3688.

Can you tell what’s happening here? Hint: It’s an unusual zipper closure. The technique is in Sandra Betzina’s book Power Sewing Step by Step.

The full reveal is maybe a week away.

~ Jmt

An invisible zipper that’s actually … well … invisible

Projects, Techniques, Today's progress, Vintage Separates Project June 10, 2012 Comments: 4

I hummed along so quickly during my afternoon of sewing today that instead of stopping before the invisible zipper installation (the better to steel myself for the battle), I continued right on through it.

Previously, I’ve had little luck with invisible zippers:

The not-so-invisible zipper of my polka dot skirt. Sad, no?

But today was a breakthrough:

Can you see a zipper in that seam? Neither can I — whoo-hoo!

The trick was the ironing of the zipper before application. The directions that come with the zipper show a timid iron tip just crossing from the zipper tape over the teeth. That has never worked for me, so I gave up on the ironing and ended up with a very visible invisible zipper.

This time, however, I aggressively ironed that zipper tape and attached coils. Mashed the heck out of those suckers with my iron, in fact (at the proper synthetic setting, of course). The zipper tape flattened right out. I was a little concerned by how incredibly flat it was, but proceeded to attach the zipper, which was held to the fabric with Clover Wonder Clips. So much easier than pins!

This is the spot where I usually run into trouble. I have an invisible zipper foot, but the stitches would catch the coils. No more! The stitches glided right alongside. I was a little apprehensive when I tried to close the zipper, but it zipped up like a dream!

Yay! My first successful invisible zipper. Now I wish I hadn’t chickened out of getting the blue zipper. The zipper pull looked snazzy in that color, but I settled for a cream color in case I screwed it up again.

My self-drafted pockets also worked, and the length and fullness at the hem are looking promising. Just a few more hours of work are left on this wearable muslin. I’m sensing a success. Oh no! Did I type that out loud?

Gemini note (because sewing isn’t everything): We finished up my second-grader’s baseball season with the team party today. Such a fun season! Nice coaches, nice kids, nice families. We had a blast, made some friends, and my baby played in the AA All-Star Game. Love the opportunities the ‘burbs provide for my kids.