Asymmetric Stripey Vest - Vogue 8954

Happy Friday!

I actually completed this piece last Sunday night, but am just now getting around to blogging it. We've (finally) had some rainy weather this week, and it gets dark so early, and it's so cold, that I haven't been as gung-ho about taking selfies.

I was eager to try Marcy's new vest pattern, Vogue 8954, but it took me awhile to settle on a fabric for its maiden voyage. Marcy had mentioned, in her blog post about this vest, that she had made a striped version out of a rayon lycra fabric, so I decided to give that a try. This rayon lycra has been in my stash for awhile and I believe it was purchased locally. It features a very uneven stripe pattern. To be honest, I haven't been in the mood to sew droopy rayon lycra knits lately, and this one is droopy, so I thought it might be a good way to use a fabric that might otherwise languish.

Marcy recommends that, if you want the vest to be less loose, to go down one size, but no more than that. I went down one size and made the Small. It is plenty roomy in the bust, so I did not do an FBA.

I made no alterations to the pattern.

You cut each pattern piece out once, alternating the direction of the stripe, and there are quite a few pattern pieces. For example, there are four pattern pieces on the left and right fronts (which are different from each other). Some of the seams are sewn conventionally, and some of the seams are sewn with reverse French seams, with the seam allowance to the outside. On each front, the top and bottom pieced seam is sewn with a French seam, but the middle seam is sewn conventionally. I serged the raw edges of all "conventional" seams.

This fabric is very lightweight, very unstable, and prone to rippling. Marcy recommended a Sulky product on her blog called Totally Stable Iron-On Tear-Away Stabilizer Roll.

I ordered some Totally Stable, and proceeded to cut many, many 1" strips with my rotary cutter, using the instructions that Marcy posted. I sewed most every seam and hem with this stabilizer, and it worked like a charm. You might be able to achieve the same results with regular paper, but I will definitely be ordering more of this product for my stash.

My little garbage can was full of used-up Totally Stable

Once the vest was finished, I decided that I liked it better open, so I did not use any closures. It has such an interesting front when worn open, with the different angled pieces that hang down, at least in this fabric.

I like this vest, and I was happy with sizing down one size, but there are a couple things I would do differently next time:

• If I were to make it again in a droopy fabric, I would eliminate the collar. It's difficult to get the collar to lay nicely in a droopy fabric. I think that the collar would be great in a more substantial fabric. (It would be extremely easy to leave off the collar._
• Given that I wear this open, the one serged seam on each front shows, which I don't love. Next time, I would sew all three pieced seams on each front with a reverse French seam.

And, by the way, did you SEE the entries in Marcy's recent jacket/coat competition???!!!

Ay Carumba, they were FABULOUS! Go and enjoy the visual feast...

I have another garment to show you, but no pics yet. I hope you have a great weekend!

New Marcy Pants! - Vogue 8929

I was very excited to see Marcy Tilton's pants pattern, 8929, in the recent Fall offerings from Vogue. Unfortunately the smallest size that this pattern comes in is a size 8, which is too large, as I like my pants to be close fitting.

So I took my well fitting Style Arc Barb pants and laid the pattern on top of the size 8 Marcy pant pattern, view B. I removed a large amount from both the front and back crotch. I also removed quite a bit from the front side seam.

I am a butt-less wonder and the crotch curve that fits me is shaped like this, narrow and deep. (The pants front is the left side.)

My alterations did not affect the pants length. My horizontal alterations ended above the knee, so the pants are designed as you see them at the knee and below.

I love the front pocket!

I used a wonderful stretch woven to make these up. In fact, it's the same fabric I used to test the Barb pants. This fabric is an anthracite color (which goes equally well with blacks or browns) and it washes and wears beautifully.

I apologize that it's a bit hard to see the detail on these pants in the pics on me. We are having a rare gorgeous day, so that makes it harder to see the subtle detail. I don't have a striped bottom-weight fabric, but these would be great in stripes, as you can see on the pattern envelope. The front features a great pocket and the front and back feature a giant oval inset, once the side seams are sewn. I love this detail!

I LOVE these pants! The length is perfect, so if you are taller than 5'5", you may need to lengthen. They taper at the ankle, but are not super tight - they lightly skim the body. It's a wonderful pattern and I will be making them again, especially when I find the right fabric!

I include this pic only because a) it shows that I am still quite busty as a DD, though maybe not uber busty as when I was a G, and b) I am still plagued by a tummy I have not been able to get rid of.
On Thursday it was a typical summer day in San Francisco: cold and foggy. I ran some errands and wore my NYDJ jeans (cheetah print), and my new-ish Sandra Betzina coat. Fall in San Francisco often has gorgeous weather, and we are starting to have some, as you can see in today's photos where I am wearing my Marcy pants and Burberry-inspired shirt!

I have started my next project. It's a top and I have spent hours altering the pattern, as I want to retain elements of the pattern, but I want a different shape, not unlike the changes I made to the recent Mizono top. I was recently musing to some friends, wondering if my extensive changes affect the integrity of the design, and one (highly creative) friend said she changes every pattern she makes; she sees the commercial pattern as a starting point, only. I like that interpretation!

Today I wore this outfit to my wonderfully funky church and then to a blogger meetup. I am also entering it into Visible Monday, so no sewing for me today. Have a great week, everyone!

Pleated Pewter Raincoat - Vogue 8934

A note about Pam Erny.

The weather here in San Francisco, at least in my little micro climate, has been very fall like: foggy, overcast, chilly, and drizzly. I decided I was ready to make a raincoat! This pattern, Vogue 8934, is Marcy Tilton's new coat pattern which came out a couple weeks ago.

This pattern has a fairly simple silhouette with some nice features. It has a nice stand-up collar and 8 pleats at the hem to pull in the fullness. Another appreciated feature is that the pattern includes an optional lining - I didn't use it on this raincoat, but I could see using it on a wool version.

I had an unusual, double sided, pleated fabric that I wanted to use. It is matte black on one side - the black really absorbs light. The other side is a glittery pewter color. I decided to use the pewter on the outside.

I chose a size small, because the finished measurement for the bust is 44" and my bust is 41". I didn't want to add width, so I did a vertical-only FBA, intending to sew a dart in the side seam. The pattern tissue came to my knee, so I added 6" in length.

Because the fabric is highly pleated, I treated it as a knit and stabilized the shoulder seams and neckline with twill tape. I finished the inside seams by hand, as I didn't want to top-stitch this very sproingy fabric.

I also didn't want to sew buttonholes in this fabric, so I used 4 size 24 snaps from SnapSource in Antique Silver. I also decided not to use the inseam or patch pockets - I wanted to interrupt the columnar design as little as possible - so I put one of my 3D bellows pockets on the inside; it's made from a lining-type fabric with embroidery along one selvedge. I used this same fabric on the hem and the sleeves.

These inside bellows pockets are becoming my trademark!

I intentionally left the sleeves long so I could fold them back and show the reverse side of the fabric. I also sewed the inside collar and the inside front bands so that the black side would be visible when the front is worn open.

I didn't want to use fusible interfacing on this fabric, and the only sew-in interfacing I had on hand was too stiff, so I interfaced the collar and front bands with black silk organza.

I changed the order of construction around so that I could finish the side seams up last. I sewed the underarm seam and about one foot of the side seam (at the hem) early on, so that I could hem both, but I saved the rest of the side seams. I did this because I like to place the darts at the very end. At this point I noticed that I could ease the dart fullness in with this stretchy fabric, so I avoided having any darts. This is typically how I treat an FBA in a knit.

I didn't follow the instructions for hemming the sleeves. Instead I used the same technique used on the hem. This involves attaching a bias strip and turning to the inside. This gives a neat finish and lets more of the black side of the fabric show when I fold up the sleeves.

The coat is a little longer than I intended. I added extra length that I wanted, but the pleated fabric relaxed a bit and it ended up a bit longer. I don't mind this at all. Also, I narrowed the shoulders by 1-1/2", which is typical for me in a Vogue pattern. I checked the shoulders several times before attaching the sleeves and I stabilized the shoulder seams with twill tape. However, once I got the sleeves on and had hand finished the seam allowance, I realized that the fabric had relaxed a bit, despite the twill tape. The shoulders are a bit wider than I intended, but not so much so that I wanted to rip things apart to fix it.

Conclusion:

I loooove this pattern! It's simple, but the collar is perfect. I am not long-necked, but it's just the right height and it doesn't choke you at all. It slightly bows out in a pleasing way in the pleated fabric, but it is designed to stand up straight. I also love the darts at the hem. I finished the coat a couple days ago and have worn it every day since then. I feel so chic and elegant wearing it.

A note about Pam Erny:

Pam Erny, owner and sole employee of Fashion Sewing Supply had a very scary health crisis last week and ended up in hospital. She is now home and recovering. You may know that she sells some of the *best* quality interfacings around. She now has some expensive health bills to pay, so please consider replenishing your stash and ordering some of her interfacings. (I am not kidding, they are superior.) She may be a bit slower than usual in filling her orders, but this will help out a tremendously worthy small business and one of the nicest people around.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Collar open

Vogue 8863 - Katherine Tilton Quilted Vest

Katherine Tilton has brought us another great pattern! This asymmetric lined jacket has great style. It might be easy to overlook some of the interesting RTW details of this piece, so let me point them out:

• The neckline is particularly nice. It is "cut on" the right front at an angle so that it is on the bias. It wraps around and is sewn to the back neckline and the seam continues around to the left front. (This is why there is a collar seam on the left front but not the right front.) The collar is not interfaced and has a soft, scrunchy quality. It isn't particularly hard to sew and the fit is very nice. It's not too tight nor too tall.
• The sleeve is cut on the body and features an underarm gusset. There is a contrast, close fitting, full length, undersleeve. The undersleeve is sewn to the lining and the oversleeve is left with a raw edge.
• The asymmetric front closes with a zipper. It would be easy to hide the zipper tape on the right side but it would be exposed on the left side. For this reason, both sides of the zipper tape are covered with a length of wide ribbon and then sewn to the outside of both fronts. On the pattern envelope, it almost looks as if the decorative zipper is inset into the front, but it is not. It is laid on top and top-stitched in place.
• The pattern is drafted so that the corners of the asymmetric front hem are mitered for you.
• There is a single welt pocket on the right side of the jacket.
• The jacket is lined. This would be a non-trivial pattern to create a lining for, so it's nice that one is provided.

My friend Heather sewed this pattern last November. Originally, she tried to narrow the cut-on sleeve, (as designed it is fairly wide), but she wasn't happy with the resulting drag lines. Instead, she cut it off and converted the jacket to a vest. She told me that she gets a lot more wear out of it as a vest than she would have as a jacket. I asked Heather if she would mind if I copied her great idea. (It's not the first time that Heather has inspired me!)

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I silk screened some black lining fabric to use for the pocket welt and the zipper tape. I was inspired by Dixie's beautiful silk screened pocket.

The pocket welt, cut out and ready to interface and sew. Completed welt. Zipper ready to be attached.

Materials:

• Quilted fabric from Fabrix. This is a very malleable quilted fabric.
• Scraps of black ponte used for the armhole ribbing.
• Scraps of black lining that I silkscreened using Marcy Tilton's medium-sized Tiger Stripe screen and using Lumière paint (by Jacquard) in Pewter.
• Black fleece for the lining. A local sewing friend (hi Luanne!) was de-stashing most of her black fabrics and I ended up with a generous piece of Polarfleece-style fleece. This is a fairly thick fleece, (I don't know what brand it is), so I had to do lots of grading and trimming from the seam allowances.
• A substantial 12" separating black zipper from Fabrix.
• Black snap, size 10.

Alterations and Modifications:

I started with a size 16. (This is a new size for me.) After checking the finished pattern measurement at the bust, I did not do an FBA. (The pattern is somewhat roomy through the bust and the hemline is designed to be asymmetric, so I let it slide.)

My changes included:

• Converted it to a vest. As mentioned previously, the original pattern has cut-on sleeves with an underarm gusset. I pinned the paper pattern together and held it up against my body to determine where to cut the armhole for the vest. I was pretty fast and loose with this step - a real hot dog. I later decided that I cut the armhole too large, so I created an ad hoc "ribbing" using scraps of black ponte, to fill the armhole in a bit. I really like the result.
• Narrowed the side seam at the hip by 1/2" - for a 2" total reduction.
• Narrowed the welt on the welt pocket to 1-1/4".
• The position of the welt pocket didn't work on me. It would have landed on my bust in an unflattering location. I lowered it and moved it closer to the side seam. I also re-positioned it so the angle of the welt matched the angle of the zipper. As a result, I had to shorten the pocket pouch.
• There is a CB seam on the jacket, but it is not shaped, so I eliminated it.
• I included little pleats in the armholes at the bust level. This was the extent of any changes to accommodate my bust.
• Used my silk screened fabric (instead of ribbon) to cover the zipper tape. Narrowed it to 1-1/4" wide – another great suggestion of Heather's. The narrower proportions of the welt and the decorative zipper treatment worked better.
• I did not sew the left side of the zipper using the suggested pattern location. I knew that it was critical for the zipper location to be perfect to fit my bust, so I changed the order of construction and attached both halves of the zipper almost at the very end - just before I closed up the hem/lining.
• Added a snap to the front closure below the zipper. Without the snap, it gaped open a bit.
• The pattern is designed to be lined with a conventional lining fabric. Since I used a thick stretchy fleece, I removed the CB pleat in the lining (which tapers to nothing at the hem) and I also removed the pleat at the bottom of the hem.

Conclusion:

I've been going to the gym almost every day. I have been wearing a couple light jackets that I made previously and neither has pockets! This vest will be a welcome addition to my "to the gym" wear.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!

More Pictures:

Zipped up Inside out. Collar closeup

Vogue 8859 - Two Pair of Marcy Tilton Pants

Dressed for Union Square with DD1

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Note that, as of Monday evening 11/26, all Vogue patterns are marked down 75% on their website. According to the email I received, the sale ends Friday, Nov 30th.

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Vogue caused some confusion when they released the holiday patterns on October 25th. You may recall that they identified this skirt as a Marcy pattern:

As pretty as that skirt is, it sure didn't read as a Marcy pattern. Sure enough, by the next day, Vogue quietly corrected their error. They had mislabeled the skirt and had neglected to label Vogue 8859 as Marcy's pant. I almost mentioned it on the blog, but I figured people would quickly notice and my original post calls out this pant as an interesting pattern.

What?! You don't haunt the Vogue website like I do?

So on Thanksgiving weekend, I made two pair of Marcy's pants. I might have stopped at one, but I made two pair of Katherine's and, as a mother of two girls, it's best when things are "even". ;)

This pattern calls for either a double knit, such as ponte, or a stretch woven. I seem to have a collected plethora of stretch wovens, so that is what I used. This pattern features tucks at the front knee and the instructions provide three possible ways of handling these tucks. I used a different variation in each of my pants. The pattern also includes back pockets, which I omitted from both pair.

The back of this pant requires three pattern pieces: a yoke, the upper back (ends at the knee), and the lower back. The yoke and lower back are cut on a normal grain, but the upper back is cut off grain. It is cut on the bias, though not on a true bias. This is very interesting and, I imagine, affects how the pant fits in back. Surprisingly, the pattern does not include the finished measurement for the hip/waist on the pattern tissue, but it's not difficult to measure it yourself.

I cut a size 16 in front and a size 14 in back, which is equivalent to the same size I used for the Katherine pants, though the size range of her pant is small-medium-large.

Pair #1

For the first version I chose a rather wild flocked stretch denim I purchased on sale from Marcy's site. Since the print is busy, I chose to use variation #1 for the tucks, which is to merely fold them at the side seam. I like this effect but some might find it a bit sloppy - I realize this pair of pants won't be to everyone's taste. I top-stitched this pair using black Guterman top-stitching thread, which is rather hard to see against the flocking. I finished this pair on Saturday morning and wore them out with DD1. They are wild and fun.

Pair #2

I wanted a more sedate fabric for pair #2, to better showcase the knee detail. For this pair, I used a lightweight stretch woven in a brown/grey color that is sometimes called anthracite. For this pair, I used version two for the tucks, which is basically sewn across and then edge-stitched. However, I think I found an error in the instructions, which tell you to sew the tuck with the fabric right sides together and I believe they meant wrong sides together, or it makes no sense to me. The version three tucks are similar to version two, but edge stitched on both the inside and the outside of the tuck.

Conclusion

I love both pairs of pants! I finished the second pair Sunday evening, but I've already worn the denim pair twice.

How do these pants compare to Katherine's? Aside from the obvious seaming/tuck differences, it seems that the Marcy pant is slightly more fitted through the thigh to the knee, but only slightly, and the Katherine pant seems a bit more pegged at the ankle. I laid the patterns on top of each other and the shape of the fronts and backs are different. Both pair are pull-on and can be made from double knit or stretch woven fabrics. I didn't shorten the Katherine pant (unusual for me) so they must run on the short side. I shortened the Marcy pant by about 3/4", so they are a bit longer.

I like both patterns.

Do you realize that I have five new pair of skinny pants? Two Marcy pants, two Katherine pants, and the Style Arc Cassie pant. I'm in skinny pant heaven! But my next project will not be pants. In fact, I made another garment over Thanksgiving weekend, but haven't photographed it yet and it's not pants, either.

Flocked Denim Pair Knee tucks Flocked Denim Pair

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Anthracite Pair

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