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!

How to Tie a Bow

Today I'll show you how to tie a nice bow on the Musubu dress (or any other dress with a bow). Tying a bow when you're looking at it from above can take some attempts to get it right. Follow the steps below and you''ll get it right the first time!

This is what the ties look like hanging loose. 

Tie a knot, in a way that the left tie ends up on top. 

Form the first bow with the bottom tie.

Wrap the upper tie around the bow, moving it behind the bow and to the front from left to right.

Pull the tie through the hole at the back of the bow, forming the second (left) bow. 

Straighten it out and pull it tight. Tadaa! 

PPM #4 Knot Dress (Musubu)

The results of the poll were very clear: 68% of you wanted to see the Musubu as my next project. 25% chose Dekoboko, and only 6% chose Otoshiana. So I guess you still have a preferance for pretty dresses with big bows, huh? It was funny to see the result, I thought as a pattern the Musubu was the least interesting and not something I'd wear even though it looks the most wearable. Turns out I was wrong! I had so much fun making this. And as a bonus it turned out to be very wearable even for me, so you chose well. Thanks for participating! I included some sewing instructions, because I have a feeling you'll want to make one too. I'll do a special post on how to tie a nice bow later this week. I hope it fulfills your expectations!



Drafting and cutting
Drafting this pattern is not very difficult. Ofcourse I know by now how the slash, spread and redraft method works, but still I think there is enough explanation in the book. Other people also noted that this is no a hard pattern to draft. I used the sloper that comes with the book, and then compared it to my own sloper. The terms sloper and block are used interchangeably in the book, but normally a block has ease, and a sloper doesn't. Since every magic pattern adds ease first, I guess they are slopers. Anyway, I found out my waistline is more than an inch lower than that of the sloper, but only after drafting. I guess I had noticed before but forgot. I didn't draft a new one, but if you make it and you have your measurements, check your waistline against the Bunka sloper. I won't go into drafting too deeply here, if you do draft this you can always ask me if something is unclear. Another thing I did differently is move the zipper from the CB to the side seam. This way I could cut the back on the fold and have a more clean look. Widen the neckline if you do this too, or you'll not be able to pull it over your head. I also think my bow sits a bit higher than others, maybe I could have lowered it a bit.




Fabric
I didn't expect this to turn out wearable so I didn't want to use an expensive fabric. Since this was a project you chose I didn't want to use muslin. I was curious what the pattern would do with stripes (and the other way around), and thought these irregular stripes were pretty. It's always hard to estimate the amount of fabric you need for these patterns, it's never specified. I got 2 yards but at 120 cm (47") it was not enough to get the full length. I could have left it that way but got the idea of colorblocking. The black fabric is a heavy bi-stretch from my stash. Stretch is not needed, but it's what I had and it worked fine. The stripes created a nice circle effect at the top of the dress, so it worked out very well.



Sewing
I stared long and hard at some other knot dress projects I found on Burdastyle to confirm what I thought was the right sewing order (my favourites here, here, here and here). The sewing instructions on this pattern consist of ONE sentence. I started with sewing the separate front pieces, matching points C and A on each piece and sewing between these letters. You'll have to make a bit of a weird turn there, but it'll be fine. Then you can join the fronts at the CF and follow the one sentence: sew the bow section into a tubular shape up to C. Prepare the back by sewing the pleats and shoulder darts. I made my pleats a good inch deeper to get some more shape, and lowered them by more than an inch to get them to sit just above my waist.

  

Finishing
I channeled Ann from GBSB through the making of this dress, and I was very pleased with the outcome. Every time I wanted to rush, I stopped myself and took my time to try and get it right the first time. It worked very well, I hardly unpicked any stitches. The blind zip went in like a dream. I used a combination of french seams and the turnover edge trick to finish the raw seams. I used bias tape to finish the hem, armholes and neckline, and the tubular sections of the bow. Quite a lot of work all in all, I sewed for about 11 hours in two days. But I'm very pleased with the result, I've never made armholes this nicely with bias tape.




Result
Now onto wearability. For a lot of people this dress is probably very wearable. For me, I like the way it looks but you know that big bow doesn't really suit me. But lo and behold, when you lengthen the straps, this dress has some serious possibilities! What about tying the straps behind your back? Or tying a knot and just letting the straps hang down? These options make it much more likely for me to wear this dress. I love that you can dress it up or down by just tying the straps in a different way. I'm curious what you think, and how you'd wear it. If you like the result, I'd recommend this one as your first Pattern Magic Project!



Next date will be May 29th, the first pattern of Book 2. I'll try to be on time :) As always, if you have pattern magic projects to share, please do! Previous projects in these series can be found here.

PPM #4: The Choice is Yours

Since there are three Pattern Magic books and twelve months, I'll make four patterns out of each book. We've come to the end of book 1, and because I find it hard to decide, I'll let you choose what will be my last project from this book. I've selected three which I think represent the most intruiging patterns, but it's hard to estimate how easy or hard they will be to draft/sew. So here's what you can choose from:



FLTR: Knot dress (Musubu), Lumps and bumps (Dekoboko) and Drop Hole Dress (Otoshiana)

If you would really like to see another one, let me know in the comments. You might out-vote the options above. It could be that I won't make the exact pattern in the book, but will try to incorporate the technique in some way. I'm really curious to see what you'll choose! You can vote in the form below (or go here). The poll is open until friday evening. The result will be a surprise, to be revealed on the 24th :)

PPM #3: Kakurenbo Top

If I were to stick to patterns that are wearable, I'd have to stay away from the most interesting patterns in this book. So this time I chose to focus on design rather than wearability. The pinafore with kakurenbo is a fun pattern to draw, and a great pattern for some curve-sewing practice. I made it in unbleached cotton so it would resemble the fabric used in the book, but as you'll see, a stretch fabric would have been a better choice.

Drafting and cutting
This is going to be a picture heavy post, but I want to explain how to best draft this pattern as the instructions in the book are minimal as usual.



If you look at the pic above, you can see that you start with drafting a curve, adding lines, and then separating it into pieces. If you look at the match points, you can see that you're supposed to flip part B over. The book doesn't say how you're supposed to do this. You could separately trace B, cut, flip and then tape, but there's a much easier way which I'll explain below.



First start with drafting the curves onto your bodice front. I did not draft it according to the measurements in the book, just mimicked it. Mark matchpoints at the points where the line changes direction on the vertical scale, i.e. goes from right to left or vice versa.



Put a bigger piece of pattern paper on top of your design, and trace the line until your first matchpoint.



Now, flip your paper over from right to left (not top-bottom), and match your points. Just the points, not the line. Above I'm matching my points A. You see the mirrored image of the bodice below it. Now trace the next part of the line until your next matchpoint, in this case B.



Flip it over again and match your points B. Then trace the next part of the line. Keep doing this until you come to the end. You'll have half of the line on the other side of your paper, but it is mirrored and you can trace the line back onto the right side. You can clearly see it through the paper.



When you're done you'll have the complete line, but spread out. So the part from A to B, from C to D and from E to F is now mirrored and inserted between the other pieces without any extra tracing and cutting. Easy, right? You can also see the extra matchpoints (I-IV) and the cutting lines where it'll be spread out.



The next step is to cut along the lines and spread out. I spread them out by half of the measurements in the book because I wasn't going to make a pinafore. If you're not going to wear it, better not waste too much fabric on it. It works best to tape immediately after cutting a line, so it won't shift anymore.



This is what you'll end up with. Tape the spread out pattern onto a new piece of paper and trace the outlines. Don't forget to transfer the matchpoints. The new piece will be your final pattern piece.

Fabric
As mentioned above, I used unbleached cotton. The author has used a woollen georgette, so I wanted to use a non stretch fabric, too. However, this makes the curves very difficult to sew. I have to admit I did not try my very best because I wasn't going to wear it, but I did correct the worst parts. It can be done as is demonstrated by this awesome version. However, it is probably easier to sew and equally pretty when you use a stretch fabric, shown here. A stretch version with a little less flare can be seen here, although I don't think Megan would have called this easy...

Sewing
Sewing these curves by machine is no walk in the park, let me tell you this. Even though I hand basted before I sewed, it still did not get any smooth seams on the curves. I've ripped and resewn about five places where it was really bad, but didn't bother to make it perfect. So if you want to see what this pattern could actually be like, check the links above :). Megan's struggle with the curves is completely understandable, if I were to do it again I might sew it completely by hand to get more grip on them. If I understand correctly that's what Marion did and her curves look great! OK so now that I've warned you, here's the endresult.







So the good thing is: it worked out. There's concealed curves under the flares. You know what, I'm not even going to talk about gaping necklines and armholes and rippled seams. Let's just focus on the fact that this was a lot of fun to draft, horrible less fun but interesting to sew and that I gained more experience in drafting and sewing. Not wearable at all as I expected, it's not even my style when done well. But I could see this working on a skirt maybe. What do you think? Would you try it? Have you attempted some magic this month?

The date for next month is april 24th! This time you'll get to choose what I take on, so stay tuned :) As always, if you have projects to share, with or without blog, just email Marianna or me.

PPM #2: Bamboo Shoot Dress

The idea
Most of the patterns and their instructions in the first Pattern Magic book are only designed to show what can be done with fabric manipulation. As Carolyn states, they're not so much finished garments as design concepts. It's up to the maker how to apply these concepts. This requires some creativity on the part of the maker, but also some experience with basic sewing and drafting techniques. For this month I chose the bamboo shoot bodice. It didn't seem very hard (I can be overconfident like that! Sometimes it helps, sometimes it comes around to bite me in the butt) and I thought I might be able to make it wearable. This design is feminine and delicate, so my thoughts turned towards a simple dress.





Fabric
I had to go to IKEA anyway (yes had to, I swear, it was work-related!) so I checked out their fabrics (no luck) which are next to the bedsheets. And that's where I found my fabric! It's 100% lyocell, which is similar to rayon but the production process is more environmental friendly. It's really soft and almost silky in drape and touch, but heavier. I mean, who wouldn't want to wear soft bedsheets like that all day? The only disadvantage is that is wrinkles like crazy. Which is good if you want folds that stay put on themselves, but not if you want to move and sit down in it.



It's entirely possible that I love the back even more than the front! I'm so happy this pattern placement turned out well. I used my own bodice blocks to draft the pattern. If the pattern was going to be fitted, I'd rather have them drawn on my measurements. Literally every seam is different from the sloper that comes with the book. Only when you start drawing your patterns based on your actual measurements you realize that not only the bust or waist can be different, but also waist length, armscye depth, bust height and what not. The skirt is a half circle skirt.



Cutting and sewing
But let's take a look at the bamboo shoot. The book says to draw the bamboo shoot pattern, but does not share details on measurements. So I eyeballed it and decided to go with shoots 6 cm wide. The angle is a bit off, the top V should be at the center but it's half a cm to the left. If you want to know more about the process of making the shoot, Marianna from Sew2Pro has a better post on how to draw this. I should have read that first :). I muslined the bodice to practice the folding. I just drew the outlines on the fabric with a pencil, which made it easier to get neat folds. On the final piece I hand sewed the folds just inside the seam so it wouln't show. The book says just to sew the intersections, but that won't hold if you'll actually wear it. I also trimmed the seam allowances to reduce bulk. The whole dress is lined with the same fabric, the underside of the sheet.



Cutting this out was even harder than making the bamboo shoot. I tried to line things up but had limited space because I bought the one-person sheet. And I made the mistake of not checking the skirt pattern: it turned out I used one drafted for a friend with completely different measurements. Oops... It was shorter than I had intended, and too narrow at the waist. I had to add an extra strip of fabric at the sideseam. Not so nice. The dress closes with a blind zip at the side seam. Confession: It's not finished yet. I have to re-do a seam because it puckers, hand stitch the lining to the zip, and hem it. I'm scared to though, I'm not sure I could hem it without stretching the seams. Any suggestions for hemming rayon?

Wearability
It was very nice to sew some frosting again! I'm checking out that bedsheet section more often, that's for sure. The bamboo shoot was interesting to make, but I think the dress would have been pretty without it too. I'm planning on wearing this dress to a wedding next week, so it will get worn at least once :). No clue what to wear with it though, in terms of colour and style. How would you style it?

Marianna's february project demonstrates another way of how to incorporate some magic into your designs by altering the just the facing of the bodice. And like she says, if you'd like to join us, remember no project is too small (nor big!) and you have months to prepare. Just blog about it on the last Wednesday of any month or, if you’re blogless, send either of us an email with your pics and we’ll host a post for you. The date for next month is March 27th!

PPM #1: Draped Design

For my first pattern in this Project Pattern Magic series, I wanted to start with something that could be wearable and fairly easy to make. The Draped Design in the first PM book looked simple and not too whacky.



Drafting and cutting
Drafting the pattern was indeed easy. The basic method that most patterns follow start with a sloper or block. You adjust it and add some lines here and there, following the instructions. Then you cut along the lines and spread out the area that needs more room. You tape this spread out pattern to another piece of pattern paper, and draw or trace along the outlines. Then you have your actual pattern.

I have a better understanding on where to start making adjustments due to the class I'm in. This is a pattern where you have to create a lot of extra fabric at the middle, so you cut a lot of lines and then spread them outwards. Because you will end up with lots of individual pieces, tape the edges back together after you've started cutting. This way you won't lose track of which piece goes where. After cutting, fold the tape over the edge so you can move the pattern, but the pieces are still joined.





Give yourself some time re-aligning the pieces. They are all interdependent so just keep shifting until they are all in the right position. Again here it helps to tape a few corners to the paper underneath, so they stay put.



Fabric
I found some nice eyelet cotton, a yard for 3,50. I didn't want to spend too much in case it did not come out wearable, but still used a nice fabric in case it did. I wanted a lightweight cotton because I was afraid a medium weight would cause a big knot. I figured I should keep it as small as possible since I have only a tiny apple dumpling shop, as Cation would call it :). Also, make sure it hase some drape, it really should be soft and not stiff. A yard was barely enough by the way, get 1,5 if you're making this.

Sewing
I had to cut the front piece off grain and the back on cross grain in order to make it fit on the fabric. The back is not cut on the fold, it has a curved center seam. Because this is a pattern drafting book, it doesn't say much on putting it together, let alone finishing techniques. I guess this is also why it is not suited for beginners, you have to know basic construction techniques. After the last step in the book, you'll only have the front piece sewn together, edges still raw. The back has two shoulder darts and two asymmetrical waist darts, so you'll need to sew those up too. If you're making this in cotton or other non stretch fabric, you'll have to add a zipper or some other closure too. I added a blind zip at the side seam. Then, you'll have to finish the neckline, armholes and hems. I used black bias tape on all three.



You can see how nicely shaped the back is due to the darts. There's a bulge in the picture, but that's not how it looks when you'd see it in reality. Even though the goal is to create a draped front, I like how the back piece is carefully shaped as well. I did iron the seams, in case you're wondering :) It's this light from the side that makes them look bulky.



Wearability
I am quite happy with how this turned out! You can see I had to use the fabric all the way up to the selvedges where the eyelet stopped. But I managed to position these parts at the shoulder, so it looks quite allright I think. The knot is not out of proportion and because the fabric is quite simple, it doesn't look too weird at all. I like this top a lot, and I think it'll be perfect for summer days as well as layered in spring. It's even appropriate for work. And it's black, so easy to combine. I haven't decided what I'll make next month, but I'll announce it on Twitter when I've chosen.

So, do you think you'll be able to make this top, too? If you have any questions, now or at any time, just let me know so I can help you draft or sew!