Cutting it fine....Part 8

 So.

The damned trousers are finally finished, apart from needing to be pressed again to within an inch of their lives, which is a task for another day.  I've finally hemmed them and will wait to try to them on till I've recovered from all the stress.

Yesterday at my sewing class I tackled grading the pattern for the top.  Or to be more precise, ONE of the several patterns for tops which I've accumulated over the past month.  They all bring something different to the party, and if I had the skill and the confidence I'd hack elements of them together in a Frankenpattern styley but I'm already losing the will to live so I've chosen just one of them.

Inevitably, just by using my tape measure, I could tell that the pattern, as it was, wasn't going to fit.  It was too big on the bust and too small on the hips, so I had to alter the darts then grade it from below the darts to the hemline.  

I made a new pattern, with the adjustments, and this morning I cut a toile from a remnant of the old dust sheet.  It didn't take long, just the darts, shoulders and side seams, and I was able to try it on.

Scene:  Sandra appears in the study, wearing the paint-spattered toile top, to ask for PP's opinion.

Me: *explaining* So obviously the neckline and armhole facings aren't there to provide structure, but I think the length's not too bad.  What do you think?

PP:*thoughtfully*  Hmmmmm.   Turn round.  It's a bit short at the back, and the neckline is too big.  It also highlights your humph.

Me:*eyes narrowed* My HUMPH?!

PP:*obliviously* Yes, your humpy bit.  Below your neck and across your shoulders.

Me:*with great restraint* Hmm. But APART from accentuating my humph,  and ALL the other shortcomings, how does it look?

PP:*makes a great show of standing up to have a closer look and having me turn round several times*  It shows your bra.

Me:*witheringly* But I won't be wearing this saggy old sports bra will I?

PP: *definitively* Well, I think you should add a half inch to the inside of the neckline and it would sit better.  It needs to be longer at the back too.

Me:*crestfallen* Buggrit.  I'll need to adjust the neckline facings too then, and they look quite complicated.....

PP has already sat down so Sandra walks disconsolately into the dining room to remove the toile and attempt to adjust the pattern again.

Me:*muttering* Bloody cheek.  Highlights my humph does it?  Who does she think I am.... Quasimodo?!  *mutter mutter mutter*

After much muttering, measuring, sighing, tracing and cutting, a new paper pattern emerges, along with new combined neck/armhole facings.

As for the back length issue, I'm minded to make the back piece one 'fabric tile' longer than the front and add side slits.  I might also add some plain bias binding on the slits, in one of the colours from the fabric, to make them a feature rather than an afterthought. 

However, the all in one neck and armhole facings are a whole new level of bamboozlement, as attaching them to the top involves twisting bits the wrong way round and inside out then funneling them the right way out through the tubes which have been created..... nah... me neither.

The online tutorial for the top includes a helpful video for the facings, which are described as 'tricky'.  I've watched it eleventy times and at points I'm almost convinced I get it, then boom.... no idea.

Anyway, I'm waiting for some interfacing to arrive, so I'm  not even going to attempt laying out the fabric yet as I have to centre it on a fold, front and back, and try to have a complete 'tile' at the shoulders and hem.

Remind me again.... who's idea was it to take up dressmaking and make a holiday wardrobe?

Cutting it fine..... Part 7

I expect you've all been on tenterhooks with regard to my trousers and I have been remiss in not providing an update.

So. 

The narrower elastic duly arrived last week, and I set about finishing the waistband.  The instructions said to thread the two rows of elastic through the channels AT THE SAME TIME.  If I hadn't read carefully I'd have blithely threaded them one at a time, which is surely what any sane person would do?

Apparently not, and I now know why.  Threading the second row would have been nigh on impossible with all the bunched up fabric from the first.  Although I have to say, threading through two at the same time was nigh on impossible too, as I kept inadvertently letting go of one of the safety pins inside one channel, while trying to level up the other.  The whole exercise took well over an hour, with eleventy separate violations for unladylike language and various threats to throw the whole bally lot out the window.

When the final safety pin emerged through the gap in the end of the channels I was so exhausted and bedraggled that al I could manage was a feeble 'whoop', rapidly followed by a  'Thank *expletive deleted* THAT's over!'

I still haven't worked up the enthusiasm to do the hems yet, but I did take the almost completed trousers to the dressmaking session on Wednesday, to finish hand-sewing the ends of the elastic together and closing the gaps in the channels.  I tentatively held them up to show the tutor and I think she was genuinely impressed.  Either that or she's a very good actress.  The other class members made similarly encouraging noises, possibly to make up for their lack of support during the whole 'toile disaster'.  So I was suitably mollified.

That just leaves my top, and with the clock ticking, and mindful of how long it's taken me to almost finish the trousers, I need to get cracking.

I have three different patterns for three different tops.  One is a square-necked,  boxy top, one is a round-necked, slightly fitted top, and the other is a round-necked, swing top.  The swing top is the easiest, but it has to be made in a 4-way stretch knit jersey fabric, and the material I already have is non-stretch woven, although it is very soft and drapey.   I've looked for a 4-way stretch knit jersey fabric and because they're mostly for gymwear, and children's pyjamas, the colours/patterns are garish.  I don't think neon space dinosaurs is quite the look I'm aiming for. 

The problem with the round-necked, slightly fitted top (apart from it having NINE pattern pieces)  is that according to the pattern, if I choose the size which fits me round the hips, the bustline will be so big it will be slipping off my shoulders.  Of course I now know that standard patterns have to be graded, and that my wonderful tutor will help me adjust it to fit.  However, the square-necked, boxy top is within a gnat's whisker of fitting me without major alterations, so I might just go with that.  Except square necklines are notoriously difficult to get the corners nice and crisp.  Plus it's got an all-in-one facing which is made up using the burrito method.  I've watched the video tutorial and my bamboozlement levels were stratospheric!

The lovely fabric I bought for the top was an end of roll sale remnant, so I can't get any more of it if I make a pig's ear of the whole thing, so I'm on the horns of a dilemma. 

Which one should I go for..... if any!  Answers on a postcard please.

Or should I just cut my losses and get one of these....

Holiday planning..... Part 1

I'm having the whole weekend off from the ongoing holiday wardrobe debacle and am turning my attention to our forthcoming holiday.  It's still a ways off but I do like to be prepared. 

My focus this weekend is swimwear, my least favourite holiday wardrobe item.  If I thought I could get away with it I'd go burkini or full body wetsuit, but the prospect of looking like a beached seal has put me off.

So I'm thinking maybe full-on retro 1950s swimsuit with built in buttressing.

I've also started to plan my extensive preparative deforestation and exfoliation programme, which will take some time, hampered by the fact I can't get to all the bits which need attention.  No idea why it isn't possible to go to a human jet wash service, where all the hair and dead skin is blasted off in one session, leaving skin fresh and smooth.

Then there's the matter of my winter-grey pallor.  Do I opt for a lick of colour from a light touch moisturiser with a hint of a tan, or go full on batshit crazy with a fake tan?  Self applied obviously.   

As a teenager in the 1970s, living in Scotland, I dallied with fake tan creams and lotions, because.... Scotland.  Aside from the legendary long, hot summer of 1976, you could usually only rely on maybe 3 or 4 days of sunshine in which to attempt a tan.  Of course every Scot would abandon all non-essential clothing and lay out in it, getting burnt to a crisp in the process.  Being Scottish, a few days later everyone looked like snakes shedding skin left, and centre.  If you were lucky, your crimson hue would mitigate into an approximation of a tan which would then wash off in the coming weeks of grey skies and rain.  Skin cancer wasn't even a thing back then.

These days, due to my MS, I avoid the sun, preferring to lounge in the shade so I rarely manage a tan.  However, winter grey skin is very unappealing, when compared to a glowing sun-kissed look, so I will have to resort to artificial means in order to avoid the gothic vampire vibe.  Thankfully, according to my research today, fake tan lotions and potions have come on in leaps and bounds since the 70s.   I might give a 'hint of a tint' moisturiser a go, rather than a fake tan product.  Last thing I want to do is end up looking Trumpian! 

Finally, there's the thorny issue of 'shapewear.  As in, should I or shouldn't I?  Over the years I've dallied with shapewear in all its guises.  I've even blogged about it.  I did a quick search just now and was dismayed to discover I've written about it a total of six times.

SIX TIMES!

If you're interested, and have half an hour to spare, you can read all of them HERE  

Think of them as The Shapewear Chronicles.  I can't guarantee you'll learn anything from my extensive research but it might make you think twice before entering the arena.   Anyway, I was listening to Women's Hour on the radio in the car earlier, and there was a piece about a new craze in shapewear.

Wait for it.....

Big bum knickers!!!

Honestly.  Knickers that make your Bum. Look. Bigger.  

Big bums are in fashion.  Who knew?  Obviously, when I got home, I Googled it and they are, indeed, A Thing.

But it doesn't stop there.... no by no nonny no. As if having a gargantuan bum isn't enough, you can also have 'enhanced' saddlebag thighs!

Back in the day I believe these were called 'fat suits' and being swathed in pounds of padding doesn't sound like the most comfortable form of underwear but what do I know?  

The current craze for a Brazilian Butt Lift obviously has a lot to answer for but it's gratifying to know that I don't need surgery or padded knickers to achieve 'The Look!'

Result! 

Cutting it fine..... Part 6

Yes.  

Yes I know.  At this rate the tale of my trouser making journey alone will read like War and Peace and I haven't even got round to starting my holiday top yet.  *sigh*

Dispiritingly, my optimism about the elastic channels was completely unfounded.  According to the instructions,  BOTH lengths of elastic had to be fed through the channels at the same time otherwise it would be impossible.  Turns out it was impossible anyway as the tiny tolerance in the channels was too small so I simply couldn't thread them through.

In a strop, I yanked out the few inches of elastic I had managed to wiggle inside then sat morosely, contemplating my diminishing options.  Which were:

1.  Unpick ALL the waistband channeling seams and start again.

2. Throw the damned trousers in the bin and let's never speak of them again.

3. Buy slightly narrower elastic.

Option one was never really a runner.  It would have taken hours and I'd likely have poked my seam ripper thingy through the waistband in several places and completely ruined it.

Option two, though tempting, just didn't sit right with me.  At this point I'm six weeks into my trouser making 'journey' and have endured failure and mortification at every turn.  Nevertheless, this close to the end I felt disinclined to throw in the towel.

So option three it was and I have ordered some flat elastic which should arrive tomorrow.  

During this enforced hiatus, I decided to start thinking about my holiday top, which is a very simple, straightforward sleeveless, boxy top with a round neckline.  I bought the pattern online and had the PDF printed by a dressmaking pattern printing service.

I've had the fabric for weeks now... a soft crinkle crepe viscose, in colours to complement my trousers.  I didn't think about it at the time, but the fabric is directional, top to bottom AND side to side, which complicates things enormously, as I'll have to make sure that the front is perfectly centred and the back piece will have to run in the same direction from shoulders to hem, also centred.

The purples in the fabric exactly match my trousers.

Then there's the small matter of double inside bind neck and armhole facings, neither of which I've done before.

There is supposed to be a separate hem facing along the bottom edge too, but I'm going to dispense with that as it would be a nightmare trying to exactly match up the pattern, but I'll have to add extra length to compensate.  

I'm also going to try to make side slits, because HIPS.

I've laid the pattern sheets out on the dining room table prior to cutting out the bits I'm going to need and am devastated to discover that there are nine different pieces. 

NINE!!!!!

Not as I fondly imagined, looking at the pattern illustration a mere two.... front and back.

Four of the pieces will be cut from iron-on vilene to stabilise the neck and armholes.  Then there are another three long strips which have to be cut on the bias to form the neck and armhole facings.   I just hope that I have enough fabric as the bias strips will take up a lot of space, and I'm going to have to juggle the front and back pieces to be symmetrical and directional.   

There is no cutting layout diagram with the pattern, which is just as well, as it would be pointless.  Looking at the front and back pattern pieces I'm inclined to make a basic toile with the remnants of the old dustsheet as they look a bit big, even allowing for seam allowances and bust darts.  A toile will enable me to judge how much length to add. 

It all seems to be one step forward, three steps back at the moment......

Cutting it fine.... Part 5

I've taken a run at my trousers over the past few days.  The curved crutch seam was easier than I had anticipated and I was able to use my sewing machine to stitch the seam, then my new overlocker to seal the raw edges.  The fabric is wonderfully soft and drapes beautifully but it frays like buggery, so I was keen to get all the raw edges overlocked as soon as possible.

As I predicted, the inseam pockets were an absolute nightmare.  I pinned and basted them every which way, infuriatingly incapable of understanding the instructions no matter how many times I read them.  But until the outside leg seams were sewn I just couldn't get my head around the method of construction, which seemed completely counter-intuitive.  Eventually I just took the plunge and did what I thought seemed correct, even though it didn't seem to be exactly what the instructions described.

I then had to finaigle the pocket pieces into position and seam them, then overlock, which was just sooooo tricky with all the seams coming together at different points in a small area.  However, once I'd turned them right way out, and fiddled further with the pockets, I could see that they were mostly correct, although the top edges would have to be sewn onto the waistband casing. 

The waistband casing was also bamboozling, even though I did sort of understand that it would have to be sewn on right sides out, upside down, on the outside of the trousers.  

Like..... really?!

I spent ages checking and double checking that I had it right, as I was going to use the overlocker to stitch the seam and overlock all the many raw edges at the same time, so a mistake at that point would have been catastrophic and the trousers would almost certainly have ended up in the bin!

Eventually I worked up the courage to do it... very slowly, inch by inch, checking all the layers were in the right place and the damned pockets weren't facing the wrong direction.  The main issue with an overlocker I've discovered, is that unlike a sewing machine, you can't really see exactly where the needles or the edge of the fabric are as there's so much machinery in the way.  I just had to ignore the needles, the long foot, cutters and loopers and concentrate on feeding the fabric through in as straight a line as possible.

Thankfully, having spent absolute ages double checking the overlocker settings on spare scraps of fabrics, the overlocked seam was perfect, and after carefully pressing all the remaining seams I found, to my surprise, that I'd made a pair of trousers, with inseam pockets both going the right direction!

The next step was to make two channels in the waistband for two rows of flat elastic.  I measured the relevant distance from the top of the waistband and stitched as directed.  Then I discovered that my overlocked seam took more of the fabric than a single stitched seam and that I had barely a millimetre of tolerance between each of the two channels.

My elastic was 3/4" wide and the space for the channels was exactly 1  1/2"

Buggrit.  Buggrit.  BUGGRIT!

Annoyed that having second guessed myself since the start, I'd dropped the ball so close to the end, I thought momentarily of unpicking the top casing seam, but had a brainwave and set about pressing the trouser/waistband seam to within an inch of its life.  Then I pinned the elastic onto the outside of the waistband, flush with the seam, and stitched right up against it.  In theory this should give just enough room to insert two rows of the flat elastic, with the added advantage that it shouldn't be able to twist. I'd have to dispense with the other row of stitching between the bottom row of elastic and the waist seam, but I didn't think that would matter too much, as the overall width of the waistband was correct.

Now to find a safety pin big enough to thread the elastic through the tight-fit channels!  It will be touch and go I think.....

Cutting it fine..... Part 4

Hmm... so, in retrospect, I should have started my resurgent dressmaking journey with something other than trousers.  They look so easy don't they?  Basically two tubes of fabric joined in the middle.  We wear them every day and sort of assume we know how they work.  I've been making them in miniature for more years than I care to remember, although, to be fair, the legs were always cut on the fold and they didn't have pockets or elasticated waistbands.

Well, I now have a whole new respect for actual trouser makers.  Trousers are tricksy buggers and devilishly difficult when dissected into their component parts which don't bear any resemblance to the finished item.

I should have started with a top.  Front. Back. Simple. 

Having prevaricated and procrastinated for the past week, I finally bit the bullet today and set about cutting out my trousers, according to my revised toile pattern.   It took several hours before I so much as put scissors to fabric.  I must have checked my pattern layout eleventy times, heeding the old adage about measuring once, cutting twice as I only had enough fabric for no mistakes.

I can't say my cuts were smooth and straight.  The drapey fabric was slippery and kept moving around on the table, despite my weighting it down with a few strategically placed plant pots.  However, I did eventually end up with two trouser fronts, two trouser backs, two pairs of pockets and one waistband casing. 

Despite being advertised as an 'easy' pattern, the instructions bamboozled me.  I must have pinned and re-pinned each front and back a dozen times, constantly checking if I had the correct front/back and if the right/wrong side was facing the right/wrong way.  If second guessing oneself was an Olympic sport I'd have won several gold medals today. 

Counter-intuitively, I had to pin a front and back together, rather than the two centre fronts.  I suspect that's due to the inseam pockets in the sides, which are a problem for another day.  Thus far I've sewn exactly two seams and overlocked the raw edges, which was a mission in itself.  Now I'll carefully press my not exactly straight inside leg seams before moving onto the far trickier crotch seam, which is all on a curve.  Not unlike my own learning curve which is currently vertical!

Sheesh!