CoudreMODE » McCall’s

Sewing – The Next Generation

coudremode — Mon, 30 May 2011 13:46:16 +0000

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I have two teenage daughters and I’m often asked if they have any interest in sewing. Up until now the answer has always been no and this didn’t bother me too much; they have their own lives to live. It’s more important to John and me that they be passionate about something and both of them are incredible dancers and musicians. Plus, when your Mom has the skills to make everything from 56 dances costumes to a wedding gown why bother to learn yourself? I don’t make them day clothes anymore because they like to shop, but of course I was been pressed into service to make them dresses for a summer’s worth of events (8^th Grade Semi-Formal, American Dances Award Nationals Awards, sundry Bar-and-Bat Mitzvahs. Even in college I did not have such a social life)

Their dress choices are in this blog post. Whipping them up was no problem at all until I pinched a nerve in my C7 cervical vertebrae during the week of Friday the 13^th – HAH – and lost two weeks of sewing time due to the pain. They both found alternate dresses for a friend’s Bat Mitzvah but they really wanted something special for Semi and ADA. Abby gamely asked if she could make her own dress and of course I said yes. I guess the moral of the story is that even if your children don’t seem to have any interest in sewing right now, you never know when they might decide to give it a try.

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Abby did most of the work on her muslin; we used Susan Khalje’s machine tread trace method and I think this was a good way for her to understand sewing basics. I was out of muslin and the fabric is silk dupioni left over from her Aunt Patty’s wedding gown. She did all of the cutting, marking. sewing and she installed the zipper. The muslin fits her perfectly; the only adjustments were to shorten the back waist (a trait she shares with me) and there is a tuck to shorten the back length where it gaps at the armsyce.

McCall’s 6201 comes with A-B-C-D bust adjustments built in, which I loved because she needs an FBA but I never do and I’ve never done one. Saved a lot of time there. The instructions include directions for determining the cup size; basically you do that first and then decide what size to cut based on the cup size. The pattern includes full size front pattern pieces for all cup sizes; the back pattern piece is standard for all cup sizes. Abby is a size 6 C cup in this pattern. This pattern is well drafted and is a great basic cocktail dress. A couple of sleeve variations are included.

The fabric for both dresses was ordered this weekend from Thai Silks and she enjoyed making her muslin enough to work on the real dress. I’m thrilled that she is sewing and I’ll be blogging about her progress!

Party Time!

coudremode — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 14:03:17 +0000

For sewers with teenage daughters, Spring always means “Mom, can you make me a dress for the (insert: dance, semi-formal, prom)?”…when my daughters were young I did a lot of sewing for them, but now that they’re older they like shopping and that’s fine, it means I can sew for myself. However, when prom season rolls around they know Mom can make them something much nicer than anything they could buy in a store for the same cost. So between now and the end of June I have two dresses to make for the Thurston Middle School 8th Grade Semi-Formal. Here’s what they chose:

Emma – McCall’s 6283

A couple months ago Emma gave me a tearsheet from Seventeen for this $296 Terani mermaid gown. She wants a cocktail dress version, basically the whole look without the mermaid hem. McCall’s 6283 is a perfect pattern and is virtually identical to the original. This style is in McCall’s “Create it!” series and the instructions include a croquis so that budding designers can style their own dress. I love that idea and I’ll hold onto this pattern. Em wants the fashion fabric to be a textured Thai Silks silk/linen blend with 1 inch black silk satin ribbon for embellishment. Construction on this will use tried -nd-true couture technique. I’ll make a boned corselet and the dress will attach to the corselet on the top of the bodice. Susan Kahlje’s website has steel boning and there a several web sources for genuine silk satin ribbon. The biggest challenge is all of those buttonholes for the ribbon, I need to think more about how I’ll make them. I think an oaktag template for marking and a whisper light machine embroidery stabilizer under the fabric might be the way to go. I might even make the buttonholes first onto blocks of fabric and then cut out the pattern pieces.

Abigail – McCall’s 6201

Abby’s dress is not as complex, a few months ago she saw McCall’s 6201 and loved it exactly as it appeared in the catalog. She wants View C in the same blue-purple fabric as the original. An FBA is built in this pattern and I’ll need that for Abby. A silk charmeuse should work well here; the shoulder embellishment will be mesh-covered jewels in a couple different shapes from M&J Trimming. No boning needed on this dress, most of the work here will be in making the shoulder pads and embellishments. The jewels are sew-on and I think the shoulder pads will need to be slightly formed and lightly padded, maybe wool felt steamed into shape . I don’t want the stitches that attach the jewels to pucker the underlying fashion fabric.

I’ll do muslins for both dresses although there should not be much fitting to do, both girls dance 15+hours week and they’re in perfect shape.

McCalls 5925 – Costume Not Couture

coudremode — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:11:12 +0000

I have a card that says COUTURE on one side and COSTUME on the other, it hangs on the wall of my sewing room as a reminder that sometimes, for whatever reason, a project just needs to get done. This is one of those projects. I did a lot of sewing for my daughters when they were young, but they’re teenagers now and not interested in having me make things for them (although they do ask me for a lot of alterations and deconstructions.) I think shopping is more fun for them and great fashion is so accessible on the Internet. I’m fine with that actually because I can focus on sewing for me, but occasionally they’ll ask me for something. Their fashion tastes change in a nanosecond (with the exception of Uggs whose appeal has held fast for all three years of middle school) so I had to get this tunic done before she lost interest in it. This pattern is really fun and well drafted but is not quite a simple as it looks, it has some quirks:

This is a size 6, the smallest one in the pattern and I suspect some of the volume needed for the yoke gathers got lost when McCall’s graded down from a larger size sloper. The muslin (yes I made one in case DD didn’t like the style) didn’t have much volume so I added 4 inches to width of the back piece and 2 inches to the gathering under the placket
The bodice pieces are laid on top of the yokes and stitched down from the right side, however, the yoke pieces are not marked in anyway to make this easier.
The top edges of the bodice pieces are folded down and gathered. The bodice needs to be marked on the right side 1 inch from the cut edge to note the alignment of the folded bodice edge to the yoke.
I reversed the placket construction. I used a cardboard template and silk organza to press the seams of the front placket, sewed the facing down first and flipped the pressed placket tothe front. I just think this is easier with front placket styles and the result looks more RTW.
For trim I used some brown mesh that was pinked and laid under the folded bodice pieces. The mesh and fashion fabric were gathered together as one layer. I cut the fold in the fashion fabric and after its washed a few more times the raw edges will fray.

As for fabric – this rayon broadcloth from Gorgeous Fabrics is really great for a tunic, it has the perfect weight and drape for a flowy style; its actually rather heavy, almost like slinky. It loses A LOT of dye in the wash so use a color catcher the first few times. Like all rayon this fabric also wrinkles, but instead of ironing can be tossed in the dryer on a delicate cycle for 5 minutes and the wrinkles will relax.

Lastly, I also made her a belt because she keeps borrowing my belts. This is just black handbag strapping, a clip and a ring from Pacific Trimming that has been in my stash for a few years.

McCalls 5925 – A Quick Detour

coudremode — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 23:15:23 +0000

I’ve been thinking about the vintage Simplicity pattern I’m working on and it just has not quite come together in my mind. The original pattern has some embellishment on the front raglan sleeves and I’d like to do something similar. In my stash Ihave some great faceted nail heads in silver and those might work but I’m just not 100% sure. But I’m in a sewing mood these days and I’ll take detour by making McCall’s 5925 for my daughter Emma. She’s a boho-chic kind of girl who likes to layer and she’s always borrowing my wide belts to wear around her hips. She likes the mustard yellow length but wants the tab collar. For fabric I have a beautiful blue-black rayon broadcloth from Gorgeous Fabrics that I think will be perfect. This is a very drapey fabric even though its on the thin side and I think it will look terrific as a tunic. Em can wear the size 6 straight out of the envelope but I’ll still do a muslin to test drive the style . She’s pretty particular when it comes to fashion. I don’t want to sew up this fabulous fabric into a style she doesn’t like enough to wear. Might work some raw-edges and gold nail heads into hers as well if she goes for it.

McCall’s 5591 – Dotted Swiss Summer Skirt

coudremode — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:54:53 +0000

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Miss Cranky Pants is banished, this skirt managed to exorcise her! Recent projects by Gigi and Bunny inspired me to dig through my stash of heirloom trims and use them up. I did a lot of heirloom sewing when my daughters were young, but they outgrew those styles long ago and these pretty trims have been languishing for years. Sewing heirloom its easy and predictable like quilting, but wearing heirloom styles can be dicey in a modern context. It’s actually rather tricky to come up with heirloom garments that don’t look like reenactment clothing or Sunday best; I wanted something I can wear to work in the summer. Plus for me personally, as much as I love the look, a full-on Luxe Boho/Shabby Chic style looks silly on me .

For heirloom to work for me I need the trims need to be discrete and the pattern itself has to be more sporty/tailored than frilly. McCall’s 5591 has those qualities and its a summer skirt: flattering, easy to wear and a good base for embellishment. I made View A and eliminated the pockets. The yellow band at the hem on the pattern envelope is a piece of fabric folded in half with the fold forming the hem. That’s a separate pattern piece, so I just added that same amount of length onto the skirt pieces. The dotted Swiss is semi-sheetr so I added a n underskirt made from vintage eyelet that belonged to my grandmother. The embroidered dotted Swiss is from Gorgeous Fabrics (natch) and its cut in single layer layout so I could match up the embroidery at the side seams.

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The trims are white tatting and French Val lace, and I made the lining a bit longer than the skirt to let the underskirt/lining peek out. The lining hangs free and the contoured waistband holds both the underskirt and the dotted Swiss. This was a little tricky because the center back seam of the underskirt was the last to be closed so I could finish the inside of the back zipper with hand fell stitching. The hems are done with a 1/8 inch narrow hemmer, and I have to say my vintage Wilcox & Gibbs hemmer foot works much better than any hammer foot on my domestic machines. I have no idea why this is but I love using it! After the skirt and underskirts were narrow hemmed the tatting and lace was attached with a narrow zig-zag. The tatting is butted up against the hemmed edge and in the zig zag the needle sweeps over the edge of the tatting to bind it to the hem.

And the cameo? I wanted to to see if I could style the skirt to show off the pretty underskirt. It’s a vintage piece my mother gave me and I really can’t wear it on the skirt without it being damaged but maybe I can find fabric flower or a nice vintage costume pin instead.

The next question is: what to wear with it? Maybe New Look 6755.

Seersucker for a Heatwave – McCall’s 6116

coudremode — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:44:19 +0000

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New England is sweating away in the heatwave and this dress is kind of timely. One thing I remember from childhood are seasonal fabrics that have virtually disappeared from summer, old favorites such as madras, seersucker and dotted swiss come to mind. Gigi made a wonderful top from dotted Swiss and Ann rocked a skirt out of madras. When was the last time you saw a man in a seersucker summer suit? For me it was the 80’s I think. Modern knits are amazing, but they are ubiquitous year round and sometimes I really want to wear a summer fabric that’s not linen, so when I was at Jo-Ann’s a few weeks ago the store actually had several bolts of very nice seersucker and I could not resist!

Buuny did a cool version of 6116 that lowers the temperature just by looking at it, and I wanted a similar breezy shirtwaist to wear to Orlando next week. I found this great pair of retro Chie Mihara shoes to coordinate with an Alfani bag I’ve had for a few years so this homage to summers past is complete. Do you like the muslin strip that mocks up a belt? I do need to find one and I think a woven jute or woven metallic leather would look great. The buttons are Dritz, also from Jo-Ann’s and the piping and ribbon trim breaks up the green. I love this color, its kind of that Jadeite green so popular in the 1930’s.

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This is a Palmer Pletsch pattern, and as Gigi noted the drafting is much better than a run-of-the-mill Big 4. The pattern tissue has a complete set of full bust adjustment lines and very detailed instructions for FBA changes. I’d say that if you’re ready to tackle an FBA just picked up this PP pattern and the whole process will be completely de-mystified.

Old Cape Cod

coudremode — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:35:24 +0000

Can you find my mistake?

This Patti Page song was in my mind while I was making this shirt. Fabric invokes memory and as soon as I saw this patchwork on Gorgeous Fabrics I knew I had to have it; when I was kid in California I had a madras shirt that I loved so much I wore it until it fell apart and it was a hand-me-down to begin with. It was sooooo soft and light….and when this patchwork arrived from Gorgeous Fabrics I was instantly transported back to Oceanside CA. Madras is also a beloved summer fabric in New England going way back. I remember not so long ago summer clothes were regional; everything now seems so generically tropical. I like palm trees as much as the next person but I also love the New England summer fashions that were sold and made here by local stores before Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren co-opted the look and made it boringly mainstream.

As much as I love it this fabric it posed some interesting challenges:

Prewash – I threw a Color Catcher® into the pre-wash and sureee enough it came out really dark in both this colorway and the green one, so I recommend using one.

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Design and pattern changes - simple is better for any garment made with this fabric. Ann made an A-line skirt in the pink patchwork colorway, and if you want to make a shirt in one of these patchworks the design I used is about as complicated you can go in terms of the pattern. Initially I was going to use McCall’s 6035 View D as is, but this patchwork is busy and the intersecting thicknesses would be challenging with princess seams. Also details like the collar and stand don’t lend themselves to being made from patchwork due the seaming in the fabric, so I made a design change and used a nice white cotton shirting (also from Gorgeous Fabrics) from my stash. If you don’t like the idea of a contrast collar a collarless style such as Kwik Sew 3200 is an alternative. I thought the vertical seams from Butterick 4609 were a better idea, but I wanted the shirred sleeve from 6035. A problem emerged in that the armscye between 6035 and 4609 is quite different. 6035 has the high armhole that is fashionable right now and I wanted that; 4609 is an older pattern and has a lowered armhole. So I traced off both patterns, cut off the seam allowances and laid one over the other matching up at center front. Then I traced the vertical darts from Butterrick onto McCall’s, made flat pattern adjustments for my figure based on my measurements and whipped up a muslin. After a few more adjustments to the paper pattern I made the shirt.

Layout – you will need to eyeball the grain because these patchworks have no grain, no selvage and you can’t tear a grain line either due to the patchwork seaming. Keep your style simple and use a single layer layout.

Construction - There is a fusible interfacing under the placket and it works with this application because it’s just a narrow strip. Ann used silk organza and didn’t recommend a fusible for a skirt facing and I agree, with this fabric you can’t really used a fusible for anything other than a shirt placket.

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Buttons & Buttonholes – The creamy shell buttons are vintage and came from my stash. One thing I have learned from Pam is to never, ever rely on the pattern instructions for buttonhole placement! They always tell you to have them too far from the finished edge! Buttonhole placement is a sure clue to a garment being home sewn – honestly just go onto the sewing forums and take a look: 99% of sewers place them too far from the edge or they are horizontal when they should be vertical. I did double buttons to just tone down the madras a bit. The buttonholes are done with a Singer Buttonholer I have set up permanently. I’m not crazy about the ties made from the collar fabric, I’ll replace them with 3/8 twill tape because I want them drapier. I may add a center line of hand topstitching in blue floss (like this M&J Trim ribbon) to transition the sleeve detail to the fashion fabric.

One last thing: the muslin had more ease than the finished shirt, and again I think this is because the patchwork seams and lack of a true grain affects the wearing ease. So for a shirt give yourself a tad more ease (1/4 to 3/8 inch) than you normally would to account for what is lost due to the nature of this patchwork fabric.

This week we had a day with temps in the high 80′s; I wore this shirt to work and loved it! It was a great transition from air conditioning to the warm outdoors. Not sure what I’ll do with the green colorway; I’m thinking a casual hoodie jacket might be fun.

Next up is a pair of Hot Patterns Marrakesh Pants in a white linen/cotton to wear with this shirt.

Marc Jacobs Embellished Cape

coudremode — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:17:35 +0000

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I just love the embellishment on this Marc Jacobs cape! I’ll pass on the scarf since I’m not planning to enter a convent any time soon; however the cape and embellishments are easy to do. M&J Trimming has a great selection of glass stones in settings both oval and square. I have some purple wool from Gorgeous Fabrics ageing in my stash too. As for a pattern, there is McCall’s 5764. I think either the green, purple or teal stones would be great (the fabric is not as bright as it looks in the photo). Faceted beads are easy to find, Fire Mountain Gems & Beads has Czech fire polished beads with a metallic copper finish. The flat discs appear to be matte finish shank buttons. I may have a designer zipper in my stash but if not they are easy to get from Pacific Trimming because I don’t think I have any with a antique brass finish.

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McCall’s 5525 – Finished!

coudremode — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:44:22 +0000

Ever have a project that goes great until the very end? That’s what happened here. My Bernina broke down with yet another mysterious problem literally as soon as I got it home from a servicing (to fix the last problem and my tech is a 60 minute drive both ways). So I had no choice but to make hand worked buttonholes, which I’ve always wanted to do anyway. They look okay, not couture fabulous, but the upside is they will last far longer than machine buttonholes. The buttons themselves are simple coin shaped matte black plastic that looks and feels like Bakelite. They are nice and heavy so each required a backer button. I had no silk buttonhole twist in black so I used three strands of embroidery floss. Each strand was split into single strands then placed back together in a set of three (which is a “best practice” in hand embroidery because you get better thread coverage and less knotting when you divide and reassemble strands of floss.) I ran the floss over beeswax and ironed the wax into the thread. A buttonhole stitch is the same thing as a blanket stitch but it’s worked by bringing the needle out opposite the cut edge. The hardest thing is to keep the stitches parallel to each other and to make sure the thread is not twisted when it wraps around the needle. In an perfect buttonhole stitch the thread wrap lies right along the edge of the cut slit and like all hand embroidery thread tension is key. The pockets were lined with an extra facing of fashion fabric, and I made the belt extra long (60 inches) so it drapes better, for some bizarre reason the belt on the pattern is so short it looks like a bow when tied into a square knot. Adding the piping around the belt was a huge pain in the butt and and I had to hand stitch the ends closed because it was just too bulky for a machine. I wore my trench to work today and this photo was literally taken within 10 minutes of walking into the house (the photo is clickable.) Overall it looks pretty good! I’ll try to do some closeups of the handworked buttonholes, I don’t have a macro lens so I need to fiddle a bit with my camera.

McCall’s 5525 – Technical Difficulties

coudremode — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:12:59 +0000

I sewed over a pin and the needle broke on my Bernina; one piece fell into the bobbin case and now I have major stitching problems. Le sigh. So the machine is on its way to Neverett’s in Nashua NH and I’ll just have to get it back before I can finish my coat. But here is how it looks so far; the lining is partially in, the black piping really looks good and the fit is perfect. However, I can’t work on it for at least a week and it’s 72 degrees outside and the weather is supposed to be summer-like next week anyway!