Finished version 2 of The Vampires Wife dress - my style 😉

 So here it is at last. My turquoise blue cotton chintz dress.

Its a very nice dress and today I did the finishing touches - sewed the facings down etc.
Its aptly photographed in Rugby Church graveyard lol!

This version is actually overocked on all seams and finished properly. Version one is not. I never expected I would wear that one being floral but actually I probably will.

I do love this. I wore it to town today -hence a few wrinkles when I finally got picture of it due to sitting in the car on the way there. There are some issues I need to look at. Despite this is fits as well as many RTW dresses so I will still wear this. I think it will be a lovely summer dress for work since the skirt length is quite long. Obviously not as long as the Street Sweeper dress I made last time. This version though has the puffed sleeves though as I blogged a few days back they are not yet quite right.

Also there is somethig not quite right about the right shoulder. It is I believe a fault of my own body rather than my pattern and can be fixed - or at least according to Winifred Aldridge it can be adjusted to hide the fact I have one shoulder I believe higher than the other.

I never thought I would care about this kind of pattern tweeking but it would appear I am getting into this now so I will have to investigate how to sort this one out at some point. Right now it is not my priority.

Oh and I fixed my uneven sleeves surprisingly easily - if you read my previous blog post -by adding an extra rows of stitching to each to even them out so both now have 3 rows of stitching rather than just 2 rows. It works.

 What is more important is my arse. Or the way the fabric pulls across it. I suspect I need to let this out a bit. I am not intending to bother if I am honest because it was comfortable to wear and to walk in and I will put up with this but on my next dress I need to try it on a bit earlier.

This time I went with the fact the previous dress I had checked at every stage and it fitted but this time I just sewed and never checked.

I finished it and it looked fine in the mirror. Then my partner took these photos and clearly its not quite right.

To fix this I would have to take off the frill - so two rows of stitching as well as probably needing to re-gather it all, so a further 2 rows to do that. Then rip out the zip and replace it letting it out a bit then replace the frill etc.

No not bothering!

Its a muslin and will do.

If I did all that I will more than likely wreck it and as I said it feels comfortable to wear so stuff that.

I have bought much worse looking RTW and paid loads for them so this is actually not so very bad.

Besides, I felt good when I wore it. Shame about the photos but with a bit of luck Version 3 will be better. So what to do now:

• I want to add fullness to the sleeve - middle not the top which I think is OK. Pleat the sleeve not gather.
• Make the skirt back slightly bigger and check it looks OK before I add the frill.

I think I will make a short version next out of a fun fabric I want to wear at the weekend.

Watch this space!

Thanks for visiting and all input about fitting gratefully received.

EDIT: I ended up altering the back of this dress to make it fit better which you can read about here:
https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2019/05/alterations-to-my-turquoise-blue.html

Bracken

Update on The Vampires Wife sleeves

So this is a close up of The Vampires Wife : SILVER METALLIC SILK MINI FESTIVAL DRESS and clearly my sleeves are wrong!

Still I will leave for now. They have been overlocked and are wearable. My next version will have pleated not gathered sleeves. 

Also this was bugging me before when I sewed dress 2 together that my gathers seemed a bit too far forward and yes they are so now I know! 

Well I have quite a way to go yet it would seem to atcually make a similar dress.  

This is a close-up of my sleeve:

I gathered mine. Next time I need to pleat instead!

Also I have a couple of misplaced gathers too far down the front sleeve so I need to ensure that does not happen next time.

Well I am getting there...........

Bracken

  

Troubles with ruffles - The second version of The Vampires Wife dress (version 2)

  I originally intended to cheat with the ruffles and to gather a short one and a long one that I intended to put along the sleeve edges together but it just did not work. After 2 attempts when the gathering threads broke and I redid again only to have the gathering threads break again, so then I had to give up. I gathered both seperately but having added the wider frill decided this is frilly enough and have left it as that.

I ended up redoing the hem rolled edge as well because despite my carefulness making everything the same width it still did not quite line up on the sleeve so I did this again after attaching to the sleeve. Next time I will join the sleeve frills before I gather and add as a circle the same as the skirt frill.

Then having finally got the frills onto the sleeve I have somehow made one with a smaller edge frill than the other!

Can you see? Yes probably!

 This is how the sleeve frills look when side by side:

 I suppose its not too bad!

Bother it! I am going to live with this because this has taken me far longer than I expected and most people will probably never notice. Of course I will - every time I wear this dress.

My test for this ( other people noticing) is to show my other half and if he cannot see what is wrong even when I tell him what he is looking at, then I assume most other people won't either. A sewist probably will but in my real day-to-day life there are very few of them around so I will leave well alone here.

In the end this is yet another muslin really to get my sleeves right - as in how they fit and look overall.It will however make a very nice summer dress even if its just a muslin.

So again this week not much progress on my TVW dress at all. I got so frustrated with the frills I decided it is time to stop and do something else instead rather than keep going and wreck it.

I am starting to think maybe the sleeve gathers on top of the sleeve I was so fretting about last week may be OK after all though now its together and on Harriet you can see here it does not look too bad and does look pretty similar to The Vampires Wife, so I have overlocked all the edges with the reasoning I want this version to be as RTW as possible and properly finished.

My last muslin ( seen below) has mostly raw edges. It still looks OK outside but I am wishing I had finished the inside off better. I had large seam allowances and did not want to cut anything down until I knew it would fit which made it very difficult to over-lock the inside.

The Vampires Wife birthday dress

 I have cut out the neck facing.

Sadly this version will have to have the usual shoulder seams because I have only very small bits of fabric left. I did like my one piece neck facing on my original muslin:

three piece neck facing with shoulder seams

The one piece facing with no shoulder seams on my original muslin seen here

I did actually manage to get everything for this version of The Vampires Wife dress cut out in the same direction though, which was worrying me when I began this version, so that's a plus and bearing in mind I had such a small piece of fabric to play with ( just under 2m and badly cut at an angle) I feel this is overall going OK. So I really must go slowly and not ruin this dress because it is going to be very wearable once it gets hotter which it will as the summer comes.

Next on my to do list - attach the skirt - it is just pinned in place in the pictures here, add the back invisible zip and add the skirt frill, then finish it off with a neck facing.

I think this dress is going to hit just around knee length.  I expect to finish this by next weekend though so see you then with my second version of The Vampires Wife dress. Fingers crossed it works as well as my last version.

Thanks for reading

Bracken

Camo dress from small bits of fabric

 This dress is another McCalls M7538 made in navy mesh and offcuts of fluorescents here:

https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2019/02/knowing-when-to-stop.html

This version has a corset type of effect in stretch leather offcuts from these leggings

This is definitely a great pattern for using up precious offcuts.

And because its faux stretch fabric the corset is very comfortable!

Looks good with my bike jacket too:)

Thanks for visiting

Bracken

Sewing up a proper TVW dress with puffed sleeves (version 2) and navy TNT top

I made the  navy mesh top a few weeks back when I had left overs from my scater dress.

The top pattern is McCalls M6612. I have used this pattern loads of times for dresses and tops. For an accidental buy its proven a major investment. Acidental because I was browsing online in a sale and put loads in my basket meaning I needed to remove loads to afford what I finally bought. But somehow I left a very boring looking pattern in there and never realised. I was so disapointed when I got this pattern in a parcel of other wanted patterns. If it had not been so cheap I would have returned it but the postage was more than the pattern so I kept it. Its a very important pattern in my collection now.

So this is the same navy fabric as this dress:







So now progress on my The Vampires Wife dress project:


I have not done much really this week. I added the sleeves but yet to sew up the side seams, frills, skirt etc.

I feel I am in the middle of a serious experiment into recreating a designer dress(es) and so far its going pretty well. This is my second attempt at The Vampires Wife dress and so far I am just attempting to recreate the original version of this range of dresses. These are based on the blocks I made a few weeks ago and then my first muslin of this dress which was the full length street sweeper dress. I have not got as much fabric to play with this time so am making the midi version - assuming it works that is. This time though I am also adding the proper sleeve. My first version had a basic sleeve block sleeve.

So this week The Vampires Wife launched a new dress design. I do not think I will be making this one. Its really not at all me ( reminds me of the stuff my mum made me wear in the 70s!) although I can see it could be a nice summer dress - if you like the style etc. Personally I do not at all like the "sleeves". Though good idea to have a shirt-waister version.

So back to making my second dress. This dress is made from bright blue / turquoise cotton chintz so there is a slight gloss or shine to the right side of the fabric. In dim lighting ( or at night in electric lighting) I found it quite difficult to distinguish between the right and wrong sides which was a pain.




I managed though or I have not found any bits sewed in wrong side up so far anyways. I did though need to wear my glasses. I rarely do need them. I never use for real life but got them to aid in threading a needle. I suspect as time goes by I will be using them more and more but for now mainly they are just there in case I find the need ( or a very small print!).

I had some minor fitting problems with my sleeves/bodice since when I made the first dress I took the shoulder in by about 1cm at the top of the sleeve but I never changed the block. Stupid me!



So I stick on one sleeve and it just does not look right. I tried restitching like the first sleeve - me being lazy etc -but it just did not work so I ended up unpicking the whole sleeve and cutting both shoulders down and at the same time I also chopped a bit off my block so hopefully next version of this dress will work better first time. I then added both sleeves to my bodice ( no modifications to the pattern or fabric tho so will they fit now I have modified the bodice block?) and just have to hope they will fit once the zip is in because other than pinning and trying on I really cannot check it is going to fit me and look right. This may yet be a complete disaster!

I also think perhaps the sleeves need to be a bit fuller. Or change where the gathers are to more on top of the sleeve? Not sure yet and I do not have any tops with this kind of sleeve that I can compare with. The nearest is a denim jacket with puffed sleeves but they are not the same as these.

Or is this actualy how it should be? honestly do not know so will spend this week looking at RTW clothing and see what I can find out. For now I decide to leave them alone because I am not conviced whether or not these are right. I am not overlocking inside the sleeve seam just in case I decide to unpick and resew.

I think this dress is going to be wearable even if the sleeve is not quite the same as TVW. But then I really do not know until I finish sewing it together and try the finished version on. Then if I have not quite got this balance of the fullness of the sleeve right yet I can try yet another sleeve pattern for my next version before I finally cut into my lovely fabric for the The Vampires Wife dress I really want to wear.

These are the dresses its based on. Do you reckon my sleeves are full enough?
Should the gathers be nearer the top and not down the front of the sleeve?

Proper The Vampires Wife Dresses which this version is based on shown as below:

Perhaps the sleeves are fuller or am I just imagining this cos in fact in these pictures they seem not to be fuller at the top? I will decide once I try moving around in the finished dress. I might want to add some fullness either way. One thing I do think is different is the sleeves may flare out slightly at the bottom so next dress I will need to try adding some flare I think. After all this is meant to be BASED upon The Vampires Wife and not an exact copy!

Its also meant to fit me and my personal style and lifestyle.

Never mind at this rate I will have a wardrobe full of The Vampires Wife dresses by the end of this summer!

Either way imperfect sleeve or not Dress 2 of The Vampires Wife style is happening even if its a little slow.

Have you tried to do this type of pattern cutting and if yes do you have any tips for me please?

Thanks for visiting 

Bracken

A work dress from small bits of fabric

 I made this dress using my left over pieces of fabric from this dress
its the Hoody Cowl Dress from Burda

The leather offcuts are from my lovely leather leggings

 Its a different version of the McCalls M7538,
I made the circle skirt version last time and that was a good make too despite the perfectionist problems I found I had with this.


Again the new version is not perfect. I am sure I will get there eventually though the sides do line up better than before.  I was very careful when sewing and only had to sew this up once to get the bits to match. And Its OK for a dress made from small pieces. Its a shame I could not pattern match the top to the skirt but it was difficult to find a way to squeeze this out of what I had anyway so no way could I do that. I am happy enough with this and it makes a surprisingly stylish work dress. My boss actually complimented it today. I never said I made this but I did feel good.
Unfortunatly, the leather waist does crease when you sit all day at a desk but other than that I like this dress very much. The fact its made from scraps really does bring home how much fabric normally goes to waste.


So again I am smashing my stash and this one is a success.
 

I am really happy I bought McCalls M7538 and have to see what else I can make from this pattern which is very wearable as well as very useful for small pieces of fabric.

Thanks for reading

Bracken

Drafting the sleeve for the TVW dress version 2

I have spent the last few weeks trying to make a version of The Vampire Wife dresses.
You can find the previous blog posts here:

https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2019/03/making-my-blocks-for-tvw-dress.html 
https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2019/03/making-toille-for-tvw-dress.html  
https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2019/03/adding-skirt-and-frills-to-tvw-dress.html 

Why? Not sure really. Its a challenge and everyone who is anyone seems to be wearing them so why not? Will I wear these? Not so sure but its fun as a project anyway and I reckon I probably will. I surprised myself by really liking my toile version  which is made from cotton curtain fabric. This though I did with a very basic sleeve to ensure my sleeve block worked and fitted the bodice because I have not made blocks before so this is all very new and interesting though a bit more long winded than I somehow thought it would be. Having said that I could have done what many people do and bought a premade block and altered it but there is something about drafting it yourself from scratch that just appeals to me.

Well drafting the sleeve seemed a bit daunting and to be honest I have probably spent far longer reading about this and thinking about how to do this than is really justified because once I started to actually draw and cut this it was very quick to do.

 First you obviously need to trace round your basic sleeve block - or sleeve pattern if using a commercial pattern as your starting point.

I was running out of paper when I did this so had to use a scrapy bit but it was just about the size I needed so not so bad after all.

I am not sure you can see well on the below picture but you section the top of the sleeve by drawing a line accross the sleeve just below the top shaping then more lines from the balance points down to this line.

Cut the top bit off and cut along all lines - I did this wrong. According to the book you should have a central piece with two bits either side so you end up with 5 segments but I only cut 4 segments. Hopefully this will still work.

 Then after spreading you add some height to the top of the sleeve (about 1cm ) to give a raised sleeve head and I drew round all the bits and added more paper to fill in and taped everything down before making a new final tracing for my TVW sleeve block. In effect then I have two new blocks. One that is taped together and then one is traced - that one I will use to make the actual sleeve.

 Mark between balance points - this is where the gathers will go tho looking at TVW I reckon the dresses may have pleated tops not gathered. I need to have a better look before I try sewing a new version of this dress but then there are loads of pictures online.

 So here is my sleeve with pleated/gathered head for the proper version of The Vampires Wife style dress. I am hoping to get this cut out later today and then next weekend or this week in the evenings if I am not too tired after work to get this sewn together.

The fabric for this version is a lovely but very bright turquioise chintz but I only have 2m and it is not well cut so not actually a rectangle so I am debating which length dress I will manage to get out of this because I now also need to remember sleeve frills.  

This fabric is 100% cotton but has a shiny chintz side and a plain side. The problem is do I cut the frills going the opposite way cos there is a slight difference in the weave giving a directional effect? I may have to do this to get the dress out of this piece of fabric but I have yet to try experimenting with pattern layouts. But then willit notice terribly if I change the fabric directions for some or all of the frills? I suppose if all of the frills it will matter less than if say just done for the sleeves.

I could of course add a different colour or some lace to bulk my fabric out similar to the version below:

I have yet to actually position my pattern on my fabric so will need to decide this as I do it.

I am finding this whole project sooooo exciting!

Thanks for visiting 

Bracken