Betcha can't find the pocket ...

No? I can barely find it myself, if I'm honest. It is there though - on the right (left side of the photo). 

Invisible details

And what about the placket? 

Nope. Not that either. You can tell it's there, but only because there are buttons. Why yes, of course the placket underneath also matches.

SO.MUCH.FUN! (Well, for sewing geeks like me.)

I had a length of wax print. The selvedge says "Guaranteed Angler Wax Made for Nigeria". I wanted to make something that wouldn't chop it up, as the scale of the print is rather large. So I turned to McCalls 6885 again. It's a simple shirtdress that is a great item to wear on a hot summer day. Not only does it have minimal seaming, it's also suitable for a beefy cotton like my wax print. 

This time I made the hi-lo shirt tail hem. It's growing on me. 

Because of fabric-matching imperatives and because I only had 2.0 metres (less than the pattern called for) I had to make a seam in the upper back. I was very focused on matching the upper and lower pieces and did not even consider trying to get the side seams to match. However, as you can see, the sewing gods were totally on my side on this project because the side seams matched *perfectly*. It was a very fun surprise.

There is not much to say about sewing this. It is a joy to sew with well-behaved fabric like this cotton. 

I wore the dress twice before making a couple of changes. First, I sewed down the bottom pointy end of the placket. As designed that tab end is not supposed to be attached to the dress. On my first version of this pattern I didn't realize this and just sewed it down. This time I made it as intended and ... nope ... it just stuck out. So I topstitched it down making sure that the little CF pleat is perfectly centred at the point of the placket. 

Reinforcement

The other change I made was to add a little piece at the side seams to reinforce the top of the side slit. Without these, it felt like there was a lot of stress at that point. I cut squares of fabric on the straight grain, approximately 5cm square, folded them diagonally, and sewed them in place. They form little triangles. The lower edge is long enough to give movement but not long enough to allow any strain on the lower end of the seam. Plus, it adds another 2cm or so of thigh coverage at the side.

Some inferior photos from a brilliant day

 

It got warm enough for me to put the dress on for a quick photo shoot in the backyard. 

My those irises are fascinating!

 

For my next project I decided to dig out a really old Simplicity skirt pattern, number 5914. Now this one really IS simple. It has only two main pattern pieces - a centre piece and a side panel, and a single facing piece. The thing that makes me a little nervous is that the front and back are the same. And I'm pretty sure that my front and back are not. However we shall see. I'm making it out of a very ancient cotton sateen from deep stash. So it may turn out to be an experiment rather than a skirt.  

A simple shirtdress

After I figured out a few problems* with my new (to me) sewing machine the Pfaff quilt expression 4.0, otherwise known as "the beast" because it's so big and powerful, I had a lot of fun making this dress. Too bad the weather is not cooperating and I feel it's just too cool to even put it on for some quick modeled photos. This is a hot weather dress. Maybe later.

This is an "easy" pattern from McCalls. I'm never sure what criteria pattern companies use to decide if a pattern is "easy". Although this dress has only two "main" pattern pieces and no darts, I'm not sure I agree with McCalls' rating. It has a proper shirt collar (two pieces with a stand) and a partial placket with a curious pleat built into the bottom end of it. These are at least moderately difficult to sew because they really demand very precise sewing.

But I own David Page Coffin's book on Shirtmaking (a valuable resource) and - as I told the lady behind the counter at Fabricland tonight (who unaccountably assumed that I needed help choosing my pattern size) - 40+ years of sewing experience. I laugh at shirt collars and applied plackets.

I used David P.C.'s instructions (p. 100 in his book) which help me avoid the dreaded nasty blob of fabric lumpiness just at the point where the collar stand meets the placket and is completely finished by machine.




After I finished sewing this, I read on the McCalls blog that the bottom bit of the placket is not supposed to be sewn down. Oops. Maybe next time I should have a peek at the instructions.

I checked all the pattern reviews on PR looking for some indication about the hemline. This pattern has three different hem lengths/styles. I had it in mind to make the hem from view D but I think the technical drawing isn't quite accurate. As drawn on the pattern tissue, the shirt tails are much more exaggerated. Several reviewers noted that the hemline was very short at the side seams - 6.5" or 17cm shorter, in fact - and that it felt uncomfortable as a result.

For safety's sake I decided to cut the hem for view C and decide on shaping later. I'm glad I did. When I tried the dress on I realized that it was a nice knee length and that I didn't want it to be any shorter. To keep the shirtiness of it I left slits at the side seams and sewed in a little bias triangle reinforcement, mimicking something that is sometimes done in nice men's shirts.

The fabric is an embroidered mid-weight cotton/linen (I think). From deep stash. It has a nice drape for this dress, although I am thinking of doing it again in a stiffer cotton (African print).

My only complaint about this pattern is that the arm openings are quite deep. If (when) I make this again I will raise the opening by at least 1cm.

* Problems with the 4.0 were:

1. In stitching down the placket, I was getting tension issues. This machine has electronically set tension and I had not had any problem before even when sewing through multiple layers of quilting cotton (that Bionic Gear Bag project, remember it?). I had a hunch that the tension might regularize if I inserted a slightly bigger needle. It did. Problem solved!

2. I had a thread jam and the built-in thread cutter simply stopped working. I went on line and came across a clue as to how to reset the sensor. I tried it. It worked. You have no idea how happy I was!

For posterity, here is a picture of what needs to be adjusted, if you have this machine and encounter the same problem. Take off the throat plate, get something pointy and use it to push the little nut at upper left as far to the left in its channel as it will go. I don't think I had to move it more than about 1mm, and this was messing up the cutting completely. Problem solved!

I love this machine, especially the buttonholes...

There are more shirtdresses in my near future.

Knitting on my Passap

Burnt

A while ago I ordered a book of knitting patterns by a very prolific UK designer, Kim Hargreaves. There are 1,574 of her patterns on Ravelry! This is a knitting superstar who comes up with endless pretty, simple, feminine designs. An on-line bio says she was "responsible for creating the image and philosophy of Rowan" as its head in house designer and the person who oversaw design, photography and styling for the Rowan magazines and chose many of the designers. Now she heads her own company and she publishes these books, one of which (Indigo) I own.

I bought it because I was smitten with one of the patterns (Searing), which I have in mind for a hand-manipulated machine knitting project, but that is not what I am working on this weekend. No sirree - I'm making Burnt (Kim Hargreaves has this thing for one-word names).

Such a simple but classy little top. The slip-stitch rib is a cinch on the Passap (CX/N, a rib every 5 stitches).

Making it a bit more complex for machine knitting are the vertical darts (3 per side, front and back), and the back slit opening which is faced with garter stitch.

I figured out the technical issues and have knitted the front and the back. As usual I had to do some fixing up of the knitting with a needle and yarn, but I will not reveal where and my hunch is that no one will notice.

If they do I shall freeze them with an icy stare.

My top is black, which is hard to machine knit with (god help you if/when you drop a stitch and have to go fishing for it) and hard to photograph. The pieces are now blocking and I'm resting up for the next phase which will consist of machine knitting the neck and arm opening bands (reverse stockinette, which will roll nicely I hope).

Now I have a hankering for a sewing project.

Methinks a shirt dress for summer. Uncharacteristically, I just bought two McCalls patterns and one of them is 6885. I would never have considered it except when I saw Goodbye Valentino's gorgeous version I realized that abandoning the kiddy sunhat and exaggerated shirt tail hem left a pretty, classic dress.

I'll be back when I finish Burnt - in the meantime please excuse me while I go stash-diving.