Graduation – Hopefully Creative

Blue Bird Dress

Two versions, one winner!

As usual around this time of year, there was a large event looming and I wanted a new outfit. My recent Simplicity sewing magazines had asymmetrical dress patterns and they spoke to me. They were Simplicity Naaimode 72, model 24-26, which is the equivalent of Simplicity 9886 (and the plus size version: Simplicity Naaimode 74, model 28-30, aka Simplicity 9887). They also spoke to my stash of 10 lengths of 1 meter of Scuba Crepe Jersey Fabrics that came in a Surprise Box in 2022. Since I hoped I could combine three of those fabrics to make a nice dress.

Asymmetric dress with dark gray, medium gray and light blue sections

I started by copying the pattern and cutting it out in a dark grey, lighter grey and light blue fabric. I made two alterations to the original version. 1) I didn’t put in a zipper, since this is all stretch fabric. 2) I cut the light grey back pieces in one since I didn’t have to accommodate the zipper. As you can see, this one was just too big, especially in the back. I pinched out around four centimeters on the side and that was a lot better, but the pockets were also way too low, the colours seemed a bit muted for a fun occasion and I was just unhappy with it.

Asymmetric dress with black, blue with birds and light blue sections

Then came the most complex alteration I’ve ever done in my life. Trying to make this thing smaller along strategic points instead of just the side seams. In the end: I took out 2 cm along center front and center back, tapered the side seams in from 1-ish cm to nothing in the waist, removed the pointy bit around the center back because there was still no zipper, took in the darts and princess seams by a cm, raised the pockets by about 5 cm and made them bigger, shortened the sleeves and scooped out the neckline. I made adjustments to every paper pattern piece there was, and some are a little bit fudged, but it fits so much better!

These pockets are at a much more comfortable height and the back fits so much smoother than the original version. I just turned the neckline under once and stitched it down, and same with the hem. The hem was with coordinating thread colours and I’m quite proud of it. It looks very neat. I also added some belt loops to the sides that almost disappear into the fabric, which is nice.

While working on the pockets, they gaped a little bit more than I would have liked, so the inside of the fully blue pocket was visible on that side. This bugged me so much that I ripped part of it out, added a patch of the light blue, and sewed it all back together again. So much better! The pockets also really wanted to just float around anywhere, so I anchored them with little straps to the approximate center front of the dress. Now they never end up on the back of my hips and I can put stuff in there, it’s supported and basically invisible.

I like this dress, it’s appropriately swooshy and has pockets and this colour combination is so much better for me than the original. I felt I learnt a lot with the alteration and now I’ve at least used some of that mystery box fabric!

Massive Pockets Dress

Bright and happy, never mind the flaws.

Who needs a handbag when you can just have massive pockets!

For graduation this year (yes, only 2.5 months out of date), I made another dress. The design for it came about when I was on the fabric market in Rotterdam and found two fabrics in the same pattern but different colourways. I wanted to have this is a skirt that I’d sort of remembered having seen in a pattern magazine at some point. It had godet inserts, which I thought was pretty cool. So I started planning this whole thing, by finding the patterns – Knipmode 11/2020 Model 15 as skirt with Simplicity 55 model 38 (New Look 6447) as top – and figuring out which bit would be which colour. Then I checked my fabric again and I hated it, not heavy enough for this plan.

So into the hoard I went and I emerged with some lovely blue linnen-type fabric and some striped green cotton-y stuff? The striped fabric was quite thin and prone to fraying but it looked so happy together and I’d wanted to make something out of it for so long. I also grabbed some white cotton for a lining because the stripes were going to be too see-through otherwise.

The plan was to do the inserts, the waistband and the sleeves out of the blue, and the skirt and top out of the stripes. Because I’m not the biggest fan of mock ups, I used the lining as a test. I cut out all the patterns from the New Look 6447 dress model and put them together. However, for the life of me, I couldn’t get it to fit. I resorted to my old staple the Garden Party dress pattern, redrew some of the lines and made the top out of that. I did add the sleeves from the New Look dress because I could make it work. For some reason, the skirt was also weird, so I turned it back to front and that helped a lot. Since this was still the lining, it wouldn’t be seen under the outer skirt so it wouldn’t be a problem.

The outer skirt came together pretty easily, since the stripes were on grain it was fairly easy to cut. I did have to serge everything before it frayed apart. For the large pockets, I cut the top of the insert two additional times, one with a hole for my hand and the other as the pocket back. I love these pockets. So many things can be stuffed in there, while still looking like a cool design feature. It’s amazing.

The top and skirt were connected and I basically applied the waistband on afterwards. I’d originally planned a shaped waistband, but that didn’t work out either, so this was it. It’s also nowhere near where the lining waist seam is, because that one ended up too high. It’s magic how much you can fudge things with a little sewing.

On the day itself, it was quite warm, so I regretted that the lining was a thick as it was. I should’ve lined it with a little thinner cotton, but well, that’s too bad. I do really like the design of this dress, and I finished it way in time for the occasion, which was great. Since the weather has been really shit this whole Fall claiming to be Summer (it’s just about rained every day since June), I’ve not actually worn it much since. It doesn’t really lend itself to tights.

Graduation Combo

There is no clothing as fun as pants masquerading as a skirt!

A couple of weeks ago on Friday, the first in-person graduation at work took place. The first thing I made was a bit.. too much.. so with three or so days to spare, I set out on a new plan. On the original trip to the Rotterdam market, I’d purchased some plaid on white stretch something. I liked the colours and decided that would be the fabric for this outfit. The other decision I’d already made was that I wanted some sort of fake-pants. I’d made an attempt at the Petit Main Sauvage Culottes in 2018 and decided to give that a go again.

I followed the instructions for a knee length version and promptly went to cutting it out. While trying to get my pattern placement symmetrical, I determined that the fabric had the plaid printed, but that it was printed quite crookedly on one side of the fabric. That lead to some challenges with grain lines etc, but really, what did I expect from fabric that was probably 1-2 euro per meter. The culottes were cut from the ‘straighter’ side of the fabric while I waited for inspiration to strike about the top of the outfit I was trying to make.

In the end, I settled on a tried and mostly true pattern for the top. The Garden Party dress. I grabbed the tulip sleeve pieces that I used for the combo dress and got to work. A nice, somewhat scooped neckline, but not too low because of the 30℃ weather prediction, and no closures (I love stretch). The culottes had some added pockets because running a big event without pockets is not a good idea. The one thing I was left with was the waistband/s. I hadn’t made a plan for that yet. You see, I needed the culottes to be one piece as they needed to come off downwards and I wanted to be able to wear them by themselves. However, the total outfit needed to look like a dress, if possible.

I decided to draft a waistband with a point at the front for the culottes. After sewing it on, it gaped like no tomorrow. I hoped that the application of some laundry would help relax the stitches so I chucked it in the wash (it was Wednesday by now, 2 days to go). Thursday came, the outfit was dried and it hadn’t helped at all. So I unpicked the waistband from the skirt, turned it around and applied it to the top. That looked a lot better! I still had some black mesh laying around from the cover up attempt and made a thin waistband from that for the skirt with some added elastic to hopefully keep the skirt up.

All in all, for such an improvised project, I was very happy with how it turned out. I like the colours, I like plaid, I like how I managed to plaid match along the side seams of the culottes. The thing I should have done was applying snaps so that the top and the skirt could stay together, but I never got round to that, so on the day, I just tugged the culottes up and the top down whenever it felt like the gap was too large. I have no doubts that I will wear those culottes when the weather is good. They are comfortable, prevent chafing but allow a breeze. I’m definitely on team Secret Pants!

Finished but a Fail

Making a jumpsuit that I’m afraid I’ll never wear.

With the first in-person graduation looming, I set out to make a new outfit. I’d settled on a Mimi G pantsuit (also known as Simplicity 9097 or Simplicity Naaimode Magazine 50, pattern 24). I had some grey fabric in the hoard and decided to make the lapels from a contrasting fabric for some interest. My first thought for the contrast was some shiny black fabric but it was a bit much, so found some black dotted stuff. I wasn’t totally convinced and went to the fabric market in Rotterdam to look around for something better, nothing caught my eye but I did return home with 3 or 4 new lengths. I guess that’s why the hoard only expands and never seems to contract..

Anyways, settled on the fabric, I made a sort test version from some cotton-poly in the stash and determined that the size 38 I was trying to make was a bit large. I removed 6 cm from the neck edge to make the waist sit more at my natural waist and had to take in the darts in the back a bit. After cutting the pattern from the grey fabric, I had to make more alterations. The bust was a bit too big so I took in that seam. The legs were so long that even with my highest heels there was still pooling on the floor so I ended up with an 8 cm hem. I chose some smaller buttons and therefore had to put on some more than the pattern specified. The lapels and the top layer of the waist ties were cut from the contrast fabric which I think ended up looking very good.

All that said and done, I put it on with a bra that would mostly work and I was just.. not happy. The back was too low, the neck too deep, a little tight in the neck and I just felt too exposed. So up into the hoard I went, and returned with some black stretchy mesh. I cut into some sort of triangle, applied bias tape and snaps to the top and attached that to the bra to at least cover some of the cleavage. It wasn’t enough for me to feel happy. I think I might be happier if I could wear something under it, but with 30℃ weather predicted, that seemed like a bad idea.

I do really like the pockets and the fact that all the seams are finished on the overlocker before stitching them together. I think this might be the nicest looking thing I’ve made in a while. It looks so clean on the inside! The way they made the lapels is also appealing to me, with buttons only on one side of the neck edge while the other side folds over. Unfortunately, I chose to take in that bit just a little too much so now it’s not as comfortable as I would like, but perhaps some fudging with extra elastic can make that better.

For now though, it languishes in my cupboard, waiting for the day I feel brave enough to wear it out. So far, that day has not come yet..

Edited to add: It took about a year (or more) before I figured out that I could just cut the top off, hem it with some bias band and can just wear them as pants! They get worn fairly regularly now!

Graduation in Red

For last week’s graduation ceremony, I tried something new. I’d found a picture on Pinterest, links below, that I really liked. So I set out to recreate it. I didn’t want to use grey plaid from my hoard, so I chose something completely different. A red fabric with specks of different colours, including some light blue.

So, I set out to create something resembling the pictures. Since I knew that the top and sleeves needed to fit and the rest could be loose, I chose to use the top of the bodice up to the armholes and heavily altered sleeves of the Garden Party dress. Then I just extended the side seams out to create a giant tent shape. I added some pockets, because a dress without pockets is just a torture device, and cut out light blue leather strips. The fabric itched, so I added a brown lining for the sleeves up to the waist. The lining was the original Garden Party bodice, but now with the darts sewn as shallow pleats.

Once the dress was sewn up, I needed to get the leather strips on. In some long forgotten days, I apparently purchased 10 ‘book screws'(?), that seemed to work quite nice. I used a series of needles and knitting needles to make holes in the dress big enough for the screw to go through and then added the leather strips on. The pleats on the arms are not sewn down at all, and the ones on the waist are only tacked on the front. To make it easier to get in and out of, I found some leather laces to thread through the zipper. And that was that!

I did get some compliments on the day, so that was nice. I do want to wash it, but I’m not sure how the leather and screws will hold up, so we’ll see how that went in about an hour..

Graduation Dress Summer 2018

For the last graduation ceremony, I of course needed another outfit. This time I had just received some fabrics from a friend of mine who was not going to use them any more, and I chose those. Since the fabric has a interesting colourful pattern, I did not want to distract from that will all kinds of difficult pattern pieces or circular skirts. So I sought a dress pattern that had a skirt with a straight bottom. This did meant that I needed to gathering, which I usually hate, but the fabrics were quite thin so it worked out.

I chose pattern 41 from Simplicity Naaimode 16. I made a few small changes: added a lining, put the zipper in upside down, took in the shoulders a little (should have taken those in a little more), shortened the skirt a little, did not pay attention to the instructions for the pockets at all and I added some elastic to the sleeve hems. I probably need to just shorten those sleeves to balance this dress as it is not truly nice looking. The neckline is also way too deep so I need to wear a top underneath, which I luckily already always do. Still, it feels borderline uncomfortable being such a deep v.

It’s lined in a yellow stuff and I tried to have as few exposed edges as possible. Only the pocket will now fray, hopefully.

I think it was fitting for the occasion, but it requires some alterations before I would wear it regularly. The sleeves need adjusting, the shoulders should be taken in more.

Graduation Winter 2018

So the inspiration for this one was based on these two pins: skirt & dress. The bottom is two half circle skirts, and the top is the always fabulous garden party dress, somewhat hacked. I used a knit fabric that was black on one side and had a diagonal plaid pattern on the other side. The bottom had a kind of odd graffiti border, but I choose not to show that, and it’s now the inside of the outer skirt. There was not a lot of fabric left after cutting two half circle skirts, so I had to make some choices to conserve fabric.

Those little reverse triangles in the shoulder meant I could position the front more economically on the fabric. For the sleeves, I did use the original sleeve width, but the sleeve caps of a t-shirt pattern were substituted. I made the sleeves as long as I could with what fabric remained. However, elbow length sleeves are the devil – cold underarms. So I decided to attempt a kind of bishop sleeve by using another piece of fabric. This worked! It’s just about long enough and has the shallowest hem I could manage.

One of the hardest parts of this dress was figuring out how to do pockets. For events like this, I need to have pockets to put my phone and the schedule etc in. Since there were no side seams, in seam pockets would be hard. Making symmetric welt pockets in a stretchy knit would also not be my idea of fun, also because I did not have a lot of fabric left. In the end I made giant patch pockets. They are not super visible, but did work very well.

I liked this dress, although it was not as successful in keeping out the cold as last year’s outfit was. Still, it performed its duty even if I did change into pants and a sweater halfway through the reception. For next year, I’ll try to find something warmer.

Graduation Dress 2017

Blue seems to be a recurring colour in my summer graduation dresses, see the evidence from 2014, 2015, and 2016. Again in 2017, I found myself attracted to blue yet again. This time I picked two blues with the intention of making something with a circle skirt. However, the idea lost its appeal and I started looking around my pattern magazines for something new. Turned out that I liked another pattern from a Simplicity magazine. It could also be done two-toned, so that worked out great.

This was the pattern, in Simplicity Naaimode 16, pattern 6-10. It came in sizes 38, 40 and 42. Since I generally don’t fit in size 38, I redraw the 38 pattern to get a size 36. I made up the pattern, pretty much as drafted. At the start the only thing I changed was to also add piping along the side-back seam and the back skirt seam. I also had to pull up the shoulder seams as it was too long. That resulted in the one on the left:

The proportions of the top were just off. It was too high and there was not enough darker blue. So I recut fronts and put those on while attaching it lower on the front by about 4 cm or so. This was much better as showcased on the right.

I hemmed the dress with the lining slightly longer than the shell. I liked the idea of some of the darker blue peeking out.

The side view is to show how the piping ran on. The invisible zip is slightly not invisible enough but it isn’t too bad although I like the matching on both points (skirt and top).

It also looks clean on the inside. I am hoping that the fabric does not fray too much in between the layers. I’ve worn it since graduation and it is comfortable to wear. It will most likely see more wear this summer.

Shrug?

You may have seen the graduation dress from yesterday. You may also have noticed something missing that is crucial in winter… long sleeves. Now, I left those off intentionally, because I wanted to be able to move my arms (and fabric shortage was a contributing factor). I knew I could turn out a decent shrug in no time – i.e. an evening, since I did the exact same thing last graduation, although that one turned out to be superfluous.

Looking for curtains on the Utrecht fabric market, I stumbled across some very soft, very warm feeling, slightly fuzzy, stretchy, black fabric. There were four meters left, so I bought it all and spent 8 euros total. I figured at the time that I could always use it as a blanket if I couldn’t think of anything to make from it. But Thursday night, the first 50 cm or so turned into a shrug to wear over the graduation dress.

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The pattern I used was the free So Simple Shrug from Craftsy. I used the same pattern last time and had some real problems trying to get it to work. That was mainly due to fabric choice as the jersey was too fluid. This black fabric was more stable and I made some modifications to the pattern so this version turned out a lot better. Modifications included overlapping the seam between pages 4-8 and 9-13 by 5 cm to decrease the sleeve width. The 5 cm decrease was then also implemented along the original pattern on page 4 to decrease the back length. I took an additional triangle out of the center back and the side backs to create a closer fit around the body. I added a band around the outside for a nice finish and hemmed the sleeves with a double row of stitching – for the next version that will be a twin stitched seam to allow for some more stretch.

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This thing more than lived up to my expectations. It was so warm! It felt so soft! It was so nice! I think I may need to make an entire wardrobe out of this stuff. I’ll never be cold ever again! Just live in the black fuzz forever. For now, I may have to settle for wearing more things that allow me to wear a shrug over the top. My conclusion about this heavily modified shrug? Pure perfection!

Graduation – Again

Friday it was time for the last lot of students to graduate again. This clearly called for a new dress! I’d started quite early by asking a friend of mine what fabric (see the options below) and what pattern to use in November. The pattern that was picked was honigdesign Garden Dress. As for fabrics, unfortunately, I was a fool and added a fabric that I didn’t want to use. Of course that was the one he picked. I overruled and decided to choose the green on the left.

january-1-fabrics

So I started on the dress, taking really good care to match the stripes within the fabric. Both vertical and horizontal stripe matching can be found in places. I also chose to use it in a different direction as I wanted as little emphasis on the pink stripes as possible. The fabric was originally a gift from a co-worker, and part of the same lot was some mustard coloured fabric. The mustard coordinated beautifully with the mustard stripes in the fabric, score!

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After cutting out the bodice, I wasn’t left with a whole lot of fabric. The project was cornered until I could figure out a solution. I plaid around with some fabric from an old table cloth to see what I could do. In the end I settled on making a high low dress top with an attached skirt underneath. The plan was to make it look sort of like a riding jacket. For the skirt, I used fabric from my old winter coat – winter graduation and all. I also added the short sleeves because I was afraid of fabric shortage.

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There were only a few changes to the bodice pattern. I added an additional cm of length at the waist and rotated the shoulder seam so that it was almost horizontal across. I only did that after finishing the front slit in the bodice, so that was raised by a lot too in the process. This did (in my opinion) improve the fit tremendously. The skirts were completely self drafted and I added some invisible pockets to store my phone and other stuff.

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The hems of the green dress, the blue skirt and the sleeves were hand sewn with yellow topstitching thread. I like that element as it brings it all together and gives a nod to the lining. The dress is quite tight fitting at the top, but it feels really nice when it is on. I managed to survive graduation and the dress did too! Mission accomplished.

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And below some details of the hand stitched hem and the (dare I say so) quite decent plaid matching!

matching hems

Tag: Graduation