Pattern Cutting Tutorial: Basic Manual Grading

incredibly useful

Vogue 6343- fitting using a muslin

I have been fitting this dress today. The adjustments I have made so far are:
pinched out 5/8" sway back adjustment(need to move up a bit)
pinched a little wedge shape out of each of the front straps to stop them falling off and giving a nicer angle.
took in the back darts by 3/8" (will need to pinch out 5/8" after looking at these photos)
added 5/8" to underarm seams as the dress was pulling above my bust.
i need to lower the bust dart
took 6" off the hem. (hopefully will be 1" above knee
anyone know of anything else that stand out to them????

1920's Chic Fashions

fitting woes- working through it.

Experimenting with Cording Foot

this is a faux linen fabric with 2 strands of confetti coloured yarn and a maroon top stitching. I have found some beige poly knit from the 1960's, so i was thinking about making a top and creating some sort of embellishment just to lift the colour a bit...next thing i might try is a loopy beige fuzzy yarn held in place with zig zag and a gold thread mixed in.

Bound Buttonholes- The First One

Well I thought I'd give bound buttholes ago finally...they are actually not too hard to make, but I wasn't happy with the uneven look of my first one so I am going to research and find some other methods incase I like them better.
I have also been working on the 1910's blouse, and it's been a real eye opener and I'm enjoying it, so far the fusible interfacing has worked well but it was really hard getting the collar stitched up. I have been using a pressing cloth and the iron on polyester setting (that seems to work well)

1910's blouse-the final fabric.

I picked this polyester burnout fabric for this blouse, I have been looking at my wardrobe and looking for key colours and this is one I already have and my base colour is brick red-burgundy and navy, with a champagne colour (oh and a few gold/metallic pieces)
I have tried my hand at french seams for the first time(they aren't actually that hard) but the fabric probably wasn't the right one for french seams.
I'm undecided about if I will use fusible interfacing or not...hopefully if i get a black or navy interfacing it wont look terrible. The other thing I figured out is the markings on the pattern that look like button placement markings are actually just the straight grain markings so I'm going to have to work out the button placement on my own. I will not be making this in long sleeves i will just have elbow length sleeves that gather into a little strip.

The perfect winter dress!

I've found the pattern. yes! mcalls 8077

Chloe- Label Love- Creating the perfect pussy-bow blouse

I have a thing for shirts in silky fabrics,I found this photo of an outfit I obviously likes when I was 17, I remember I had quite a few like this, mostly 70's synthetics(ewww) but that was all I could find at the time as I hadn't learnt to sew by 17.
So lately I have been loving Chloe's blouses and their oversized pastel jackets...but first I noticed most of their lovely pussy-bow blouses in many shades of cream to peach are silk crepe de shine...well I can say I have never worked with anything like silk crepe de chine(still working on old cotton sheet fabrics!) but hopefully I can move up in the world and challenge myself to some silk....


my pick for places to buy fabric online is probably going to be www.gorgeousfabrics.com most of the patterns I have come across mainly use between 2 1/4 yards 3 yards at the most note to self: don't wear too tight pencil skirts p.e.a.r s.h.a.p.e.d

1913 blouse with added fabric layer

using Gimp for sewing projects!

I have just found an awesome tool for getting a better idea of how patterns will look....
I used a program called gimp(you can get a FREE download from the link provided on this blog)
but best of all the blog entry also has a nicely made tutorial how to use your own fabric photos and the pattern to visualise how your sewing projects will look.... the example photo is this pattern from Eva Dress and is a blouse from 1928. p.s i only had 15 mins to learn how to use the gimp program so i still have to go in and get rid of those white bits.

collar WIP- 1950's blouse- Simplicity 3661

attaching the collar is being a pain...i attached it wrong, but I can make it work...also cup some bias binding that seems like a pretty close colour match(that'll look better if I overdye the finished blouse)... next I have to cut out the sleeves and the cuffs...will need to hem the gathered parts before I sew the seams...not sure how to finish the seams there now.

1950's blouse- update-Simplicity 3661

pattern bought here!(lovely service:-)) I bought this blouse pattern, with the hope it would sharpen my skills and give me a nice blouse to wear for autumn/winter. I decided to use an old bed sheet(yes I am that confident in my sewing abilities) just in case I stuffed it up, with the hope that I can overdye it using a much darker colour. I'm pretty pleased so far...it's been a really nice solid pattern to sew apart from marking out all the pleats and gathers and tucks. The thing I would do better next time is my gathering skills...i just did the one row of gathering stitches instead of two...also because the sheet is an old one the pattern was really hard to get straight so i just gave up...next time hopefully I can get that spt on. This pattern really needs to be made up in something sexy like a crepe, the cotton is just too stiff looking, I would love to try dyeing silk and making a blouse from this pattern, but alas..soooo expensive.

Free 1912 Embroidery Design

I was after a long skinny design that would work on decorative area of blouses I'm sewing, I thought this one was cute so here it is.

1930's DIY Trimming

Flat trimmings are quite frequently relieved by jabots, frills, and ruffles. The smartest of these frilly trimmings are finished with irregular edges, not merely scalloped edges, but irregular scallops as shown here in the enlarged view of the jabot of the dress in the sketch.

The lattice trimming down the front of the dress is made of bias bands of the dress material cut to be three quarters of an inch wide, finished. Mark the lattice design first on the dress with pencil or chalk. To do this mark the centre front ol the dress with a line of basting, cut a three inch square of paper, place it on the line as at K, and draw around it to outline squares one below the other. Place the jabot at the neckline, then baste and stitch the bias band over the chalk line as shown here.

To make this jabot, cut two pieces of material six inches long and five inches deep, place the two pieces face to face, mark scallops at ends as at A, and stitch along mark- ings as at B. Cut away material near stitching, slashing curves and points as at C. Turn right side out, press scallops, and shirr through centre as at D.

Make Your Own Trimmings

 


To make a 'box-pleated' ruche:— Cut the material on the exact straight twice the width you want the finished ruche to be. Fold over from both edges toward the middle, slightly lapping the cut edges in the centre. See diagram 2.

Form the pleats by folding first to the right and then to the left. Tack along the centre and then machine right down the middle if you want an even pleat each side, or if you want an uneven effect, stitch to one side of the centre line. See diagram 3

. A very pretty effect is given to ruching if after making the box-pleating, the edge of each pleat is caught up as shown in diagram 4.

 Box-pleating makes a nice finish on the edges of collars and cuffs. To do the flat pleating, such as is best for this, cut the material on the exact cross way. Fold down the centre very evenly, making; the two cut edges quite even. Pleat first to riain and then to left, or you can make the pleats to be all one way if you prefer it.

Tack or stitch the pleats along one edge only. This edge is put to the collar outside edge and cuffs edge. The result is a nice stand-out effect.  

GATHERED ruching is very lovely if made in silk such as taffeta. The edges of this should be frayed. To fray silk the material must be cut on the exact crossway. Allow three times the length you require the ruche to go on. Make any joins as neatly as possible. With the scissors or a blunt knife, gently drag the edge of the crossway silk.

You will find that one way of the material will fray oetter than the other, so always test a small piece oi the silk first, when you have one side frayed turn to the reverse side of the material to do the other side. Thus you would work on the right side of the silk to do one edge and you would work on the wrong side to do the other edge. Be sure to test the edges first on a small piece.

See diagram 5 for frayed runche.

Antique wedding dress details

my mum and I went on a little road trip to a historic house and upstairs there she was...this beautiful wedding dress...fairly certain it is crepe silk...the last shot is of an amazing handmade quilt...love those neat stitches.

1930's Braided frogs-dressmaking detail