Cream colour block leggings McCalls M7446

This is my second pair of leggings from McCalls M7446. 

The first pair were fluorescent orange a
which you can see here:

.

Again these are made from the reverse side of polyester crepe which means they are warmer than real sports wear type fabric / swim wear fabric making them brilliant for this time of year

 This picture looks a bit weird where I rolled my top up to show you the colour blocking - I do nto wear themquite like this😊

 

 They are worn with my bright yellow top which looks better in these photos than it did in my original post which is probably down to choic of underwear.I think it goes well with these leggings.

I have a small bit left of the cream fabric so am considering a top from that. I still seem to have TONS of this crepe stretch fabric left despite my real attempt at using it all up. I am not intending to buy more of this because I hate the stuff. It does make a nice warm winter excercise fabric but really its not at all my thing. I bought loads of it very cheap off Ebay back in 2015-2017 (Weston fabrics) if you like this type of fabric or want some at a reasonable price. I had no idea then what fabric I did or did not like but now I have more experience with stretch fabrics I find this is not really my thing. I cannot afford to just waste this and throw it though so need to make it into things  and so far I am finding ways to use this up and like what I am making so really I am starting to think actually there is no such thing as a fabric you do not like. You just have to discover how to make it your style. In most colours (and I had loads) I am down to small pieces now which I will evenually have a go at making exercise crop tops/ underwear from. First though to find uses for the last few large bits I still have.

Anyway I am actually quite pleased with my recent foray into sportwear. This really does make for very warm winter leggings and to be perfectly honest I am not nowadays prepared to freeze for fashion! 

Thanks for visiting

Bracken

Making the toille for the TVW dress - 2

So I was looking at something on Pattern Review when someone mentions the fact Burda has not so far copied or made a similar dress  to The Vampires Wife (TVW) dresses. Must admit I have also been waiting for this and in the end I am up for a challenge, so I spent quite some time looking at every dress on the Burdastyle.com website and came to the conclusion this is actually correct.

TVW has french bust darts, back darts to the waist, central back zip, puffed sleeves ( various lengths) and frills at wrist and skirt.

There is also a princess version with front frills and neck frills (Cate dress) but I did not really think I would wear that becaues frills are not really normally my thing so that Cate dress is a bit over frilly for someone like me, so anyway, I set about finding the right pattern – preferably without having to move darts or horror of horrors start with a basic block and make my own! I have done this but its been many many years and I really do not think I am up to that at the moment. TVW skirts have no darts and they are not too full but do have enough fabric width to walk easily and the frills are obviously just frills. I think probably having written this before I attempt to make this dress that the frills are where the movement comes from.

Anyway in the end thats the way I have taken this project. I ended up making blocks! I even bought a book to help me. See the previous post here for the making of my blocks - and Winifred Aldrich's book will be essential too. Or unless you know how to do this it will be. Mind you I am sure there will be You tube videos as well, but for me I prefer to not have to keep re-watching the video and replaying etc and just to use a book. There must be some good websites out there too which show in detail how to make your own block.

So what to use to make this dress? I want something very cheap, because this is the point I put to the test the observation by a reader of my blog that I may need a FBA. Or at least if not cheap, my fabric must come from my stash. I am still not convinced of this FBA but ready to adapt if needed so this will mean two dresses or at least two bodices need making to get this right. And I really would like a TVW dress in my wardrobe even if it’s a DIY version.

I have some bright turquoise chintz type of cotton which I reckon would be a good mock up for a more expensive/luxurious version in my second dress. I also have lots of velvet.. This should also give me a summer and a winter version. Assuming of course it will be worth bothering to repeat this exercise!

But first I need a toile so I decided to use some very nice but not really my style floral curtain fabric. I have meters of this - no idea how many but lots - half  a roll or so that I bought on a whim from ebay, and it will not matter if I make mistakes and need to redo. There is plenty of fabric to play.with. Its actually quite similar to some of TVW prints too. Floral with a gold pattern behind the flowers and cotton chintz so could make a decent summer dress. You never know I may even like it in this fabric!

So here we go!

 The basic front bodice block:

I cut out the original bodice blocks then retraced the front and changed the darts to French darts from the side seam since that seems to be how TVW does this. Then cut this out with a full inch ( 2.5cm seam allowance for adjustments since I suspect this is not going to work first time. Now assuming it fits I can adjust this pattern and change the darts to French Darts but here I made the decision to skip forward and go straight with french darts and miss out the normal bodice muslin.
 Move darts = French dart

 So now I cut my fabric. First front on fold

Then the back. made a mistake here because I cut it on the seam so had to cut a new version with extra seam allowance for the zip to be inserted. decided the unfitted version ( 2 piece pattern just omits the shoulder dart at the back so instead of removing this I just ignored it. perhaps I should have gone for the unfitted 2 piece version of the block in the first place?

Well never mind I am going to make this up even if it does not work and I have to go back and start again.

I also decided that my skirt block is not right so I re-did this as an A-line skirt to floor length following directions from the book.

Then I sectioned this on the paper to allow for the 4 different skirt lengths and frills so should I do them in the future I will have a reasonabl;e idea where to cut the fabric to. I originally thought TVW had 3 skirt versions but when investigating on The Vampires Wife website the birthday dress is shorter. Well I may as well have a go at making one of each - assuming I can do this of course and that I like them. My reckoning is if the full length dress fits then the rest should be easier to get right so my toile is going to be the long version of this dress.

Any you know this project has made a lovely change from my recent obsession with using all my stretch fabrics and making exercise clothing so this is a very welcome challenge to set myself.

And here is the first version of the toile made in curtain fabric:

These are the muslins of the  pieces:


Bodice

side seam darts

The bodice just went together really well. I couldn’t believe it really. I had allowed a huge seam allowance but hardly needed to adjust anything. I did have to adjust the sleeve head by about 0.5 cm but that is my only adjustment so after sewing I cut off the excess seam allowances. Because this is just a toile I never bothered to overlock the edges of the seams – may come to regret that if I decide to wear this.

sleeve

Next I should now add pleats or gathers at sleeve head - I found Mimi Gs video useful here too though she uses a different technique and hers is for stretch fabric not woven but the end result is the same - I will use Mimi Gs version to adapt my block for my sleeve not Winifred Aldrich's version since it makes more sense to me. However at this point I stopped. To ensure everything actually fits properly I made a fitted sleeve rather than the gathered TVW sleeves so in this especially my dress is very different.

No point making changes to the basic sleeve if it does not ft. I found this the hardest bit to draft so decided to stick with a toile of the basic sleeve for this version then alter it for my next toile.  I decided I had to do this because in all the blocks the one I thought was most suspect was the sleeve because I found this the hardest to draw. Anyway except for the slight adjustment at the sleeve head it fits better than most commercial patterns to the amazing extent that my partner must have actually managed to measure me correctly and I have really managed to make these blocks and it actually does fit me. Version 2 has to have a different sleeve – proper TVW style so that’s something I will need to sort out this week.

  Here is the top with sleeves on Harriet

 Dart in line with side seam

I feel so far its going well though quite slowly but I suppose at least I will end up ( with luck) with a lovely dress that will fit me.

So this weekend I am going to add the skirt and see how that goes.

See you soon.......

Bracken

Red and navy hoody = a slight disaster!

 Just a quick make uisng McCalls M6614 because I am busy playing with pattern making for my The Vampires Wife DIY dress

I have to make this pattern longer next time though because I ended up putting an extra band on the bottom to make this long enough so its not really a very good make. Mick seems to like it and wore it as a top layer over the last few days when it has been warm so he has not needed a jacket. Its made from football shirt type fabric witth a solid red that is very stable and the sides are navy mesh. 

I made this dress from the same navy fabric and the tulip skirt from the red. 

This pattern has a curved hem so having to add the extra strip is not the best thing to have to do. 

I need to add an extra bit into the next version of this though and make the pattern longer.

One of the good things about my current pattern making endeavours is I am starting to feel confident about actually altering my commercial patterns to fit us. 

This needs it since it was clearly far too short without the bottom band which is a shame because the fabric is good quality so realy I have messed this one up. 

Still it will be ok next time - I hope. And as they say you can't win em all!

I still have some light blue in the football shirt fabric so will lengthen the pattern and then make a second one of these and with a bit of luck it will turn out better

Thanks for visiting 

Bracken

Making my blocks for the TVW dress - 1

So I started to watch The Vampires Wife quite some time ago. I am not so sure the dress style is really me, but there have been enough celebrities etc wearing these dresses for me to want to make a version. No way can I afford to buy this so DIY I must, if I want one.

So there are 3 lengths of this dress and really just two styles and other than that the dresses are just variants of each other so more or less frills or different sleeves etc. I am not a fan of over frilly and the Cate dress does not appeal but the others do have a certain charm in their simplicity. The Cate dress has front frills and a princess construction whereas the other styles all have the construction shown below.

Here you can see the bust dart which is, according to Winifred Aldrich, a "french dart" and in this case it pretty much lines up with the side seam.

The different styles all vary slightly but they are all essentially the same pattern. The silver dress has a tie back detail that not all of the dresses have.
 
Now I have a huge collection of sewing patterns and I spent days ( I kid you not!) searching for a pattern with the right bodice and skirt and sleeves and no I do not have one, or even several I could cobble together to get this look, that are right, so this is really quite a unique style.




I had thought it was a basic bodice and A-line skirt but no Burda, Patrones, New Mode or any other magazine patterns I currently own have this particular bodice darts. Neither do I own a pattern with french darts in my envelope patterns. Yes I could move the normal front darts in a  pattern I do own but then how do I ensure the bodice will fit me if I have never used this pattern before. I do have a Burda shift dress pattern with french darts but that has no waist shaping and yes I could have a go at hacking................ but then I decided to do this differently.

I had an issue with fitting a while back  https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2018/03/completed-at-last-peplum-jacket-in.html and have avoided the issue since by not making any fitted tops. It seems to me though if I am going to start manipulating patterns then I may as well start real pattern cutting and just get on with the job instead of being scared and avoiding this any longer.

I bought the Winifred Aldrich book Metric Pattern Cutting. I have actually owned this book twice before. Once as a Fashion Student aged 16  and  I dropped out of the course by age 17. I lost this copy on the bus.

Then again I bought this at about age 26. I only had it a few weeks and had flicked through it but never used it when a friend who was studying fashion asked to borrow it because the library copies were all out. Well I lent it of course. She finished her course a few months later and left Coventry and went back home taking my book with her.

Thanks Jo for nicking my book!

Since then I kind of gave up on pattern cutting and sewing until back in 2010 when I started to sew all over again.  It has ended up that all these years later I am now buying the same book for a third time.

This time though I will use it and attempt to make the pattern I need for this dress.

I may make a mess of this but at least I may also learn something useful so here goes with my first version of a basic bodice block.

I am making this using my own measurement at first draft and not the standard measurements given. I turn out to be a mix of sizes - and sizing is different to a lot of the patterns I own too!

So here is the basic bodice block - in theory in my own size - scissors and washers are my weights for the photo because the paper is blown vinyl wall paper which as it turns out is really strong. You can see quite a few mistakes which are  scribbled out here. The final hopefully correct line is the pink one outside the block.

 

Then the basic sleeve block. I had some issues with this because I could not understand so the version pictured is the second attempt. You need to trace round the basic bodice block before making the basic sleeve block because you use parts of the bodice to refer to and measure from to do the sleeve.

Then I decide all I need now is to make the basic bodice into the basic fitted dress block so I again trace round the basic bodice and then use this to make the basic fitted dress block. Add normal waist dart, then lengthen into a skirt block for my two piece dress (which is what TVW uses)


 Its a floor length block so did not fit on my table hence the overhanging paper!

Again I had to scribble out a few wrong bits.

Do not try to make these when drinking wine. I had some serious issues with understanding which I put down purely to mind befuggling chenin blanc.


















Then cut into pieces to give two bodice block ( front and back) and a skirt block

 And here you can see all the blocks with this wonderful though slightly confusing book:

 So now before I can use this self-made pattern I need to make a toille or muslin to see if it actually fits me. I am not expecting this to work at this point so whatever happens now is perfectly OK.

I cannot do anything else towards my TVW dress now until I actually find out if this fits me.

I am really quite intrigued to see if this even vaguely fits my body and its so far taken me two weekends and a few evenings to make just the basic blocks so I have no idea how long this entire project is going to take me. 

Longer than I expected anyway!

And now I am ready to really do this - check back later for how this turns out!

Bracken

Knowing when to stop!

I made this dress twice.











Not as in two garments but as in I had to unpick and remake the front from the orange down wards and at both sides of the skirt up to the orange waist stripe.
 
The first time I sewed this up it was fine really. Not perfect but OK and very nice and wearable but I had to keep trying to make it better. What I should have done was to make a second version to perfect this which is what ultimately I will still do. In my strriving for perfection I recked the first version.

I was so stupid.

It may be due to the fact the front is one piece and the other bits are sewn in succession. I am considering adding a centre front seam to the skirt to see if its easier to get a good finish rather than how the pattern says.

You sew in rows until you get to the skirt which goes on to the front piece and back piece - or at least that is how I added it. I sewed the front, sewed the back and then joined together matching all the blocks up. They do match which is an improvement on my diamond leggings https://brackencrafts.blogspot.com/2019/01/sportswear-leggings-for-january.html

 The front as you can see on this version is still not quite right.

But the colour blocking parts all match pretty good too so thats great but the front ( and back) of the skirt are still not quite perfect. They do not hand right where they join the colour blocking.

Inside showing overlocked seams

I sewed all this up but decided it wasnot good enough when really it was as a first attempt - and then it did not look right so I again sewed another seam and in the end I had the skirt like a high low skirt - should have got a photo here to explain but instead I ended up carefully unpicking the overlocking ( horrible job) and then replacing the orange panel, lower yellow panel and the front skirt panel. So I had taken my first version appart below the top diamond.Then what I did was to sew the lower front again from new pieces of fabric - luckily I have lots of offcuts. Then I carefully rematched all the sides and sewed back together.

So really I made this twice!



It was pretty difficult taking decent photos of this garment. I think it was too sunny for the fluorescents to really show. The pictures taken in my sewing space were not much better - possibly because it was in a very sunny conservatory where I sew. 

 The lesson: If its OK but not perfect and a first attenpt ( and its overlocked and blocked and complicated to sew up, then think twice before randomly just re-overlocking the seams because you just end up ruining the garment. 

If its wearable and actually quite nice it really does not have to be perfect. 

Most RTW clothing is imperfect but a lot of it is very nice to wear and own. 

Perfection is great but its a great shame to ruin something you have achieved cos its not absolutely perfect. 

I need to accept and learn to ive with my imperfections!

And after all that effort the final version is STILL not perfect!

So in the end I worked very hard for this rather nice dress. I do like it. Its not quite like anything else I own and has an almost "Star Trek" feel to it whilst being essentially a scater dress. 

Maybe not the Star Trek crew but some other species. Its kind of futuristic. 

Again this is due to my trying to clear my stash. In this case I am using a mesh ( but opaque not transparent) fabric which has a sort of football shirt feel to it for the top and skirt and the panels are the same stretch crepe used for the last few projects.

I actually bought this pattern, which is McCalls M7538, because I read Dr T's blog. She reviewed this a while back and pointed out how it was a nice pattern for small bits of left over fabric and with that in mind I invested in this pattern intending to just make tops from it but what the hell - lets just clear the stash and make everything!

Have you done this and kept sewing when you should have stopped and then ended up either scrapping the garment or having to completely re-make part of it?

Bracken