Stretch Calico

Did you know stretch calico exists?  [Oh I could do with a pun or two here but I'll restrain myself.  Just for you]

Well, I had never heard of the stuff until mum gave me a short length.  She bought it years ago in the UK to make up a costume and, as all good fabric hoarders do, brought it half way around the world with her, popped it in the cupboard and promptly forgot all about it.

Anyway, it is a medium weight good quality stretch calico drill and I had enough to make up a short BurdaStyle 10/2012/116 muslin.

‘Suddenly’ they look less leggings, don’t you think?  I added an extra 1/4″ at side seams and inseams for ease as a starter to ten, but more work is needed and this is what I’ve noticed so far:

* remove excess width towards the lower end of the zip on the left and equivalent on the right -  I can pinch out about 1/2″ an inch at each side.

* scoop out both front and back crotch curves – I’ll check this against my other BS pants curve.  Those whiskers are not diagonal so crotch length seems OK.

* horizontal wrinkles under my butt – there’s probably too much width at the back inseam

* too tight from the thighs down so I’ll add more ease in the legs.

StephC at 3hourspast.com did a series of posts on fitting skinny pants which I am finding very very useful.  Again.  So I’ve linked to the first post here and added it to my Useful Links at the right.

PS my apologies for disappearing somewhat of late.  Our household has hosted a succession of change of seasons lurgies then we had school holidays and now we’re in the midst of changing JJ’s work.  But, things should calm down now for a while with luck so I can get back to regular sewing and posting.

Snot gurgles return

I am a snotty slimy sneezy snively snorty sack.

No sewing, or anything of note, is being accomplished.

I’ll be back.

Soon.

Bleh!

Just No!

BurdaStyle 10/2012 #116 muslin

Ooo ugly no?  Yeah well I should have known really.  They are just leggings but with a zip and darts.  What?!  These are particularly awful as they are an unaltered size 38 and fit very very badly indeed but even so, nice they are not.

[For the record I like leggings but lycra is needed and darts are not.  Nor zippers.]

I do love Merche’s leatherette version wherein they magically become fabulous skinny trousers without even a whiff of leggings-with-a-zip.  I think they’d work in a decent medium weight stretch denim or twill but as I don’t have any of these in my cupboard I shall have to wait.

Note to self – look at the BurdaStyle.com garment picture more closely next time…

Image from BurdaStyle.com

Still I did learn that Burda used the same (or very similar) block for these as for my previous trousers, so next time I come across BS pants I’ll probably be able to do the same alterations.  Useful to know.

Technical puzzlement

Hmmm invisible zipper in a knit.

For your viewing pleasure I give you my second attempt to sew this zip into knit cotton T-shirting.  I’m pretty happy with the zipper insertion itself but very unhappy with the rest of the seam.  Just to clarifty – the fabric is blue, fusible interfacing black, the zipper is pink and its on the side seam.

Now, I need to use a stretch stitch to sew the side seam below the zipper but therein lies my conundrum.  How to get closer to the zipper stitching when I extend it for the seam?  Note – I used a standard zipper foot to get as close as poss with a straight stitch then switched to a general foot to use lightening bolt stretchy stitch.

Aint it ugly?  And my first attempt wasn’t any better, obviously.

Note, I will practise this but I think there’s more than just practice required.  Oh and I’ll test whether I can do a lightening stitch with a zipper foot …. with glasses on in case the needle shatters.  That would remove one of the steps.

Argh.

Boring housekeeping – please ignore

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Apparently I need to claim my blog.  So apologies for flicking this out to you and please ignore it.

I shall return in a little while with something more interesting, I’m sure .

Stretchy stretchiness

I have just discovered wool ponte and love the stuff.  There is an element of quiet luxary in it’s drape and the softness of the weave.  Very nice.

Wool ponte is a fabric I have read about often since discovering sewing blogs but I have never had a reason to use it until now.  So, there is a little black bundle on my sewing table destined very soon to be made into these.

BurdaStyle 10/2012/116

But before cutting into my lovely black stuff I need to first make a muslin.  Of course I do, and therein lies a hook.  Muslining knits is a tricksy business because the same pattern made up in various stretch fabrics can fit and drape quite differently.

Hmmm.  I could simply go for it.  That is make the same adjustments I made to my last BS trou and cut into the ponte anyway.  I could but I can’t quite bring myself to do that, so after some thought last night I cut the pattern out in a cotton T-shirting with similar stretch to my ponte.  It will be a learning experience either way and the fabric store has plenty of wool left anyway.

What do you do to trial knit patterns and fabrics?

‘Tis done – BurdaStyle Autumn/Winter 2012 #14

The fabric is a lovely crisp white cotton lawn from which I cut a size 38, but after all was said and done (and I fiddled with fit a lot) I’m just not in love with this shirt.

Oh.  You’ll have to ignore the shorts and imagine something a little more umm appropriate since I had no time to change for the pics.  It has been shorts weather without rain for weeks and weeks now, unusually so.  Please send us some rain?  Pretty please?

Where was I?  Oh yes, the shirt.  I do like the collar and lapel but the way the double layered ties cross at the back then sit over each other all the way around add far too much bulk to my lower waist.  I don’t think it’d be flattering for anyone to have extra width there frankly.

To balance that a little, I am chuffed with how I fitted and finished this garment.  It was a little bit of grown up sewing, if you know what I mean, with the rolled and notched collar and lapel, which I practiced a lot actually before sewing up the final piece.

But oh the fitting was immensely enormously fun.  I was surprised just how much I enjoyed researching and practicing each step, driving poor JJ nuts with my muttering and tut tutting.  In the end I made eight alterations.  Eight!  Somewhat over the top for this style probably but if you don’t do it you don’t learn you see.  Here’s the list:

* 1 & 1/8″ sleeve head ease reduction (thanks Sallieoh)

* dropped the waist by 1 & 3/4″

* 1″ SBA plus a 1/4″ narrow chest alteration (thank you Hungry Zombie Couture for the former)

* raised the bust dart by 1″ and lengthened the waist darts by the same amount

* let out lower side seams 3/8″ each side

* 1/2″ erect back alteration.

There is one more I missed – the armscye needs deepening a smidge.  Never mind.

Now, as I put this post together I’m looking back at the first muslin I made (pic below) which was a straight size 38 and I wonder if the excess fabric in the upper chest and back areas disguised how much bulk there was around my middle.

I didn’t change the ties in the final garment at all, though I did consider it for a while.  Of course I wouldn’t wear a straight size 38 as the fit is awful but it makes me wonder if the style would be better suited on someone with more bust than me.  You’d still have that unsexy extra volume on the hips/waist…..

Anyway, next up is one of these …

Of course, I have fabric for both all ready to go.  A lovely black ponte for the trousers and a rich lightish brown wool for the dress.  Hmmm decisions decisions decisions.