New projects

I received few things in the mail.

First 3 Vogue patterns I mentioned.

Then a silk jersey from Ebay seller, Organic Fabrics.

Such a pretty pattern!!!!

But it's actually a little thinner than I expected. I was going to make a dress using Vogue pattern 1091. I'm not sure if it'll work out. And I guess each pattern piece was a little bigger than I expected. I wanted to use the circle (?) motif in the middle to show in the middle of my dress, but it doesn't look like I can... (it would be too short)
I'm planning to cut the fabric in half, and place it back & front. We'll see how it goes...

I also ordered fabrics for my other Vogue patterns from http://www.fabric.com/.

For Rebecca Taylors Vogue 1152, I got a solid plum-red (YUM!) reversible crepe fabric.I wish it was silk crepe, but no, it's polyester. But it's reversible and back side is satin. I thought it was perfect for this dress.

I was reading few reviews on this pattern, and everybody mentioned how low the v-neck is.I thought I would just make it, and wear a camisole underneath.But I think I'm gonna attempt to bring up the v-neck so I can just wear the dress on its own. I mean, that's one of the reason why we sew... so because we can adjust it to however we want it, right?

Then for Vogue 8379, I got brown/beige flower patterned ITY knit. I was debating if I want something subtle, or something bold... Then ended up going with subtle.

Aaaagh, I'm such a chicken when it comes to clothes now!!!!I used to wear whatever...

but now I seem to settle on something conservative.

And when I see other people wearing bold clothes, I always want them!!!

www.fabric.com was pretty good.

Their price is cheap (about $6/yd for the fabrics I chose), and shipping is about $4-7 (and up) depending on how much you spend.

But if you spend more than $35, s/h is free.

My s/h was about $7, but I found a 25% off coupon code which turned out to be about $7, so it voided the s/h cost.

I don't mind that!! I think I'll be ordering from them again! :)

Linen pants

I finished one of my project, which is a drawstring pants for my friend.
She has one linen drawstring pants that she loves, which is getting old, but cannot find anything to replace it because she can't find anything that fits her.
When I started sewing again, I promised her that I will make her the pants.

So this past few weeks, we've been working on her muslin, and after 4 fittings, we perfected it!!!
Using the pants pattern, her hip area was perfect.
But she needed to take in some waist, side/inseam, and shortened the crotch area.
We were so happy...

I transferred the adjusted pattern to the linen, and finished sewing in 2 nights!!
...But I felt iffy on the result.
First of all, when I was stitching the waistband to the rest of the pants, it didn't match.
The waistband was about 2 inches shorter than the rest!!!!
That made me question... what did I do wrong?
I remade the waistband, matching it to the rest, figured that it's better to be big than small...

I brought the finished pants to my friend today, and as I suspected, it was too big. :(
It wasn't too bad, but I still want to fix it... (A little perfectionist here... OCD?)
Not only that, but EVERYTHING seemed a little bigger.
???????
I transferred all the adjustment according to our findings...
I understand the waistband, maybe the side/inseam (maybe I didn't count the seam allowance?), but even the crotch area???

Then I realized, maybe it's because of the fabric...
My friend pointed out how "heavy" the linen felt compared to the muslin.
Maybe the linen draped, or stretches more than the muslin therefore everything came out slightly bigger??

...hmmm.....
I'm just amazed, how much is involved in simple clothings we wear!!!

I also made a bag using the leftover linen and stashed hawaiian printed fabric.
I gave her the pants in this bag, and it made her very happy. :)

Kariza dress top

So awhile ago, I mentioned that I'm trying to recon my Kariza dress to something...

There're two layers of silk fabric on this skirt.

I've made two tops out of this.

First using Simplicity pattern, with the bottom fabric.

I used the edge border as a little accent on the bust area.

Although it looks pretty cute, there're still some improvements needed...
First of all I made the bust area a little too tight.
I didn't want it to "open", so I made it fitted, and it turned out a little hard to breath. :p
And straps are a little misplaced, so it keeps sliding to one side.
I fixed the strap today, and it's a little better.
But I'm too lazy to fix the bust area anymore. It's good enough.

Then today, I just finished this other one using Butterick pattern I was going to make dress out of.
Once again, it looks ok, but needs improvements...


First of all, the pattern calls for a lining.
First I made it without a lining, because when I made a muslin for the dress last time, it felt too bulky.
Then I found out that it would just look very messy to seam around the v-neck area without a lining.
So I actually seam ripped the entire thing and made it over with a lining.
I cut apart an old dress (I used as a pajama) for the lining.
Both fabrics were so hard to work with... silk and polyester.
I don't know, maybe it just wasn't a good match.
I only used a lining on the bust area, because I didn't have enough fabric for it, and I figured it doesn't really need it.
But once it's done, it just feels funny... that some parts are lined and some are not.

Second.
I used an invisible zipper on the side seam.
I LOVE the look of invisible zipper!!! You really can't see anything!!!
BUT... how the heck do you sew on an invisible zipper to a lined top(/dress)!?
I ended up sewing it onto the fabric, then hand stitched the lining to the zipper afterward.
It just looks...CRAPPY.
So once again, it looks ok from out side, but once you turn it inside out... not so great.
But I think it's good enough for a recon.

I just hope I can figure out how to do the zipper part for my dress.
I want it to be perfect!!!

Muslin finished!

I finished the muslin of Butterick 5319.

Thank goodnes I made a muslin... cuz I messed up so much!!
First, I attached the waistband on the wrong side... wait, I think the skirt is sewn on the wrong side too.
Ok, these are the things I would probably not do if I was using the normal fabric, because the right and wrong side are easy to differentiate.

But I was glad to do the muslin, so I could make any adjustment.
I'm 4'11", so everything was kinda falling downward on me...
The V-neck was too low, waistband was too low...
The skirt length was ok (although the skirt and lining length don't match), because I already cut about 3 inches off the fabric before I even started sewing.

So I pulled up about an inch on the shoulder, and everything fit better.
But it also brought the V-neck up too much, so I think I need to fix that.
Also, although the lining is very nice, because it enclose most of the seams, and it gives more formal look to the dress... but I think it's too bulky.
Especially when you live in Hawaii... you'd rather go flowy.
So I might try taking this muslin apart, and make the same dress without a lining just to see how it looks/feels.

I'm just so anxious to receive my fabric, so I can make the "real" dress!!!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I also finished the drawstring my friend asked me to make.
I'm Asian, and she's caucasian, so our body shape was so different, that I learned so much on adjustment!!!
We did total of 4 fittings...
We tucked in the waistline, hemmed in side/inseam, raised the crotch area...

I don't really pay too much attention to details.
If I was to buy a pants, I'd be happy if one part of my body fits.
If my hip fits, I'm ok with just tightening the waist with a string (for drawstring) even if there're extra fabrics bunching up, or if crotch area was too long, just wear a long top and hide it...
But when she pointed out, it made me think "hey, I make my own clothes now... why don't I perfect it too?"
So when I made a drawstring shorts using the same pattern, I fixed my waistline too, and it's nice to wear something that's actually perfect!!!
She was very happy with her muslin too.
Now we'll be making it in linen.

IT'S SO COOL TO BE ABLE TO SEW YOUR OWN CLOTHES!!!!! \(^0^)/