Dye & Print

The goal of the stamp workshop I attended a couple of months ago was ofcourse to print my own fabric. It took me a while to get there though. First I ordered fabric from the Dharma Trading, who sell all kinds of natural fabrics especially suited for dyeing. Miriam of Mad Mim had used a silk rayon blend for her printed scout tee, but I thought that was a bit on the sheer side so I went with a bamboo rayon blend. I also ordered their fiber reactive dyes in coral and safari grey. I have to say, I am a bit suspicious about Dharma Trading. They get alle their fabrics from China and they're relatively cheap. I couldn't find anything on how the fabrics are produced. And their dyes have this "contains chemicals that cause cancer" warning. Ehm, what? So why would I want to dye something with this stuff I wear on my bare skin? And wash this down the water system where it gets recycled and winds up in my tap again? I did it anyway because maybe I don't care enough (apparently) but I will not order this dye again. That bamboo-rayon blend though... what a wonderful fabric. The drape is so so nice, and I love that it's a natural fabric. I'm thinking of getting a couple more yards if Dharma turns out to be kosher, I could live in this stuff.




As you can see I used coral pink. I had intended for it to come out a bit darker, and it hasn't dyed evenly either. I do like this effect so I don't mind. Then I tried out some stamps and colours and settled on the triple V stamp. I also tried birds and raindrops but since the shirt was already so pink I wanted to counterbalance it with a bold stamp. And I think it worked out! I cut out the pieces and then stamped them so I could control the placement. I started at the front, in the middle and was going to print it all over. But after three rows I took a step back and I really liked it this way. A little tip: don't ever try to correct a stamp. It just gets messy.




I drafted this pattern myself, I wanted to start working with wovens and needed a couple of easy shirts for this summer. The sleeves need some revisioning, but other than that I'm pretty satisfied with this shirt. I used my rolled hem foot for the hem (first time) and Grainline's neckline tutorial. Jen's blog is my go-to place for tutorials, they're just so clever.



This is the first time I'm wearing something pink. Ever! I always thought it was too girly, but the truth is, it suits me a whole lot better than red-orange tones. I might start wearing it more often, I've got a lot more of that cancer-causing dye, hehe. I'd like to experiment with using more colours and tie-dyeing. Sallie-oh does wonderful things with dyes. I'd steal her wardrobe if I could! So I'm curious, do you have that same feeling about Dharma? Have you printed clothing (show us!)?

PPM #5 Playing with Facings

This is the first project of the second book. It was hard to choose one, there are so many interesting patterns in this book. But I decided to start with something simple and wearable. There's a series for patterns that show how to alter the neckline by altering the facing. Marianna already showed one of them on a dress. An interesting concept, changing the outside by shaping from within.

Drafting and cutting
Drafting was easy, this is a quick one. The pic above shows all there is to it. I used my own slopers. I took the opportunity to draft a low V back as well, I've been wanting to do this for a while. Cutting was a bit tricky, I discovered my fabric was only 110 cm wide (43"). I had two metres and the book recommends that you cut the bodice on the bias. And I wanted a half circle skirt. With some puzzling it worked out, I even managed to get a facing for the back out of it as well.





Fabric
The book does not always mention what kind of fabric to use. To me it looked like the fabric should have some weight to get a nice fold. I had found this beautiful quilting cotton at the shop the week before, but at 21,95 per metre it was way over my budget. Fortunately there was a one day 50% off sale going on. Lucky me!



Sewing
The sewing process went nice and smooth for most of the day. I took my time even though I had to finish the dress the same day. I staystitched all the bias cut edges of the bodice, necklines and skirt right after cutting. I payed attention to the pattern an finishing the seams. I didn't have to get my seam ripper out until the very end, when I messed up the blind zip. It was funny, because it happenend right when I thought 'hey, I haven't messed up one stitch yet' and also 'I don't understand why people don't use blind zips all the time, they're not hard to put in at all'. HAH. Well now I know not to think these things until after I'm finished. Usually I would have stopped sewing before that point, but I wanted to finish it today.



The Magic
Although I'm happy with the dress, it's obvious that this magic is done by an apprentice. It's just a bit messy, the fold is there but there's some more bulgeing going on on the other side. I don't know where that excess fabric comes from, I thought I'd followed the diagram. So I thought this would be an easy one, and for drafting and sewing it was. It's just that the magic is not accomplished as easily. I should have stopped and taken a step back to really look at what was going on at the neckline, instead of thinking it would sort itself out. Ah well. I learned and tried some new things, like the V back and using a bias cut bodice. And I practiced the Ann approach, which is still working very well. Right now I'm very tired of all this work in one day, so my opinion of this dress is no quite clear and might change. Is there some magic or is it just a messy cowl? I'd love to know what you think!

Souvenir Giveaway Winner

Mr. Random number generator chose nr. 21, Kata! These goodies will end up in Estonia, how exciting! Kata, please contact me so I can send it on it's way.

Seam rippers seem to be the most valued sewing tool, and I have to say altough it's not my favourite (because that means I did something wrong), I wouldn't know what to do without it. Thanks everyone for participating and sharing!

Why Size Charts are not Based on Actual Women

I made an interesting discovery about sizing, combining the knowlegde other pattern designers shared with us and the knowledge I gained making our first pattern. I've read something about this before, but I didn't fully understand at the time. So in case that goes for you too, I'll explain again here. A lot is said and discussed about the size charts different pattern designers use, whether they are based on actual women and the frustration that comes with not fitting into one size column. My survey showed that 78% of you generally do not fall within one size column, so this is a widespread problem. And one of the factors that are responsible for this, is the way sewing patterns are drafted.

When I was doing research for my own size chart, I found StephC's very helpful blogpost about the waist/hip ratio. The results from her surveys are based on the measurements from over 300 women. They showed that the ratio increases with size. If you go up in bodyweight, the difference between your waist and hip does not stay the same: the waist increases more than the hip. That means that the ratio for someone with size 4 (W/H = 69/94 cm = 27/37") is 0.73, but that for size 14, the most common ratio is 0.79 (W/H = 84/107 cm = 33/42"). So if you'd draft patterns based on the actual most common size proportions, you would use these ratios.



However, when you draft patterns and you need to grade them (derive other sizes from one size), and to do this your size chart needs to be proportional. That means that the difference between your hip-waist and waist-bust need to increase and decrease with the same amount. If you don't do this, you'll need to draft each size from scratch, which is a lot more work than grading based on one master pattern. Even though every designer puts a lot of work into her sizechart, all size charts show this, as explained by Dixie. This means that, looking at the above examples, when you choose 27/37", a difference of 10 inches, your larger size can't be 33/42" because that would be only 9" difference. You'll have to adjust your sizechart, moving it away from the most common size for the practicality of pattern grading, and make it 33/43". Most designers draft patterns in such a way that it's easy to cut between sizes, but the only pattern designer who found an actual solution for this problem is Cake Patterns. She lets you connect the dots on her patterns that correspond with your size, thus customizing the pattern. Very clever!

Does this clarify things for you? It certainly did for me. If you have any thoughts, questions or corrections on what I've explained, please leave a comment!

P.S. Don't forget to enter the Tiny Tools Giveaway!

Souvenir Giveaway

So far my giveaways always had a reason, something to celebrate. This time it's very simple: I went to Portugal and brought you something :) I found this tiny shop full of cute quilting fabrics and buttons and a very sweet girl who spoke very softly. This is where I found the tools below. I also visited a few fabric shops that House of Pinheiro recommended. There was only one I actually entered because some had men in suits patrolling the stores. I wouldn't have dared to touch a thing when there's men in suits looking over your shoulder! In the end I went regular tourist and bought a gorgeous maxi dress at Kookai. Call it inspirational shopping. Anyway here's something for you to win if you leave a comment!



FLTR: a pair of tiny scissors with a little eye that would make a cute necklace, a pair of thread snippers (I got one myself, very handy!), a thimble and a dragonfly safety pin.

If you'd like to win these goodies, leave a comment below stating your favourite sewing tool. Giveaway ships anywhere, winner will be randomly chosen, and ends on friday May 24th. Boa sorte!