Summer Sewing: Matcha Top in Italian Voile

How about if we squeeze one more summer sewing post in?  Partly because I like to be thorough and partly because I’ll forget what I did with this pattern (and probably that I made it once it’s packed away) if I don’t.  Sad, but true!  🙂

Today’s project is the sleeveless view of the Sew Liberated Matcha Top in a beautiful Italian cotton voile.  This fabric was a gift from Maggie at Pintuck & Purl, bought on a trip to Rome.  Fancy!  Therefore, it sat in my stash for awhile because I was saving it for just the right project.  I finally narrowed it down to the Matcha Top, which can be made sleeveless or with three-quarter-length sleeves.  I bought the paper pattern at Pintuck & Purl.

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Initially, I was a bit surprised at the sizes my measurements put me at.  I’m often one size at the bust and the next size up or thereabouts for the waist and hips.  This pattern had me at an 8 bust, 16 waist, and 22 hip, which seemed pretty different than usual.  Obviously every pattern company is unique, but this was very different.  Luckily, the pattern book gives you tips for choosing a size that will give you the intended fit, which is fairly loose everywhere but at the shoulders.  In the directions, you are told how to measure your shoulders to get a good fit and to base your size off of that.  Thanks to these directions, I made a size 10.

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There were only two fitting changes I made.  The first was to lower the armhole by two inches.  That meant that the armhole facings no longer matched, so I bound the armholes with bias tape, turning it inside so it wasn’t visible from the outside.

The second fitting change was to take a small tuck at the top back of each shoulder since it was gaping there.  I probably need some sort of forward shoulder adjustment in the future.

I also added piping at the shoulders so the shoulder details didn’t disappear.  I love how that turned out!

For seam finishes, I pressed my seams open, and then turned the seam allowances under and topstitched each down.  It makes me happy that this shirt looks almost as nice on the inside as it does on the outside; plus that seam finish will strengthen the seams.

One other bit of strengthening I did was to stitch horizontally under the bottom of the v-neck after doing the sewing that the directions dictated.

Before I knew it, I was finished with this top!

After completing it, I realized that I forgot to pattern match the center front seam!  I couldn’t believe it, but I wasn’t going back.  Hopefully I learned my lesson for next time, right?  😉

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This was a really quick and satisfying sew, and in this soft and floaty voile, it makes an ideal summer top.  The directions were well-written, and the fact that there aren’t a ton of steps means you can take your time and do a really good job.  I’d love to try the sleeved version sometime!

And now…I think it’s time to sew for fall!

 

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My New Favorite Dress…Twice! Two Takes on Simplicity 8689

Hi, everyone!  It’s been awhile!  It felt so good to take a nice, long break this summer.  I really needed it.  We wait all year for warm weather in New England, and I just wanted to soak it all up.  Summer is gorgeous here.

This summer I tried to think about what I really want in my warm-weather clothes.  It took me almost until the end of the season to really figure it out, but I did manage to sew a (very) few things that fit my wardrobe ideals.  In fact, I found a pattern I liked so much that I made it twice:  Simplicity 8689.

Version 1

Version 2

I have made a few somewhat successful dresses in the past, but I think I really found what I was looking for in this pattern:  all undergarments are covered, it is loose and doesn’t cling in hot weather, it’s long enough that I don’t have to worry about a gust of wind exposing me, and, of course, it has pockets.  I also love that this pattern has so many possibilities for variation (and decoration!).  That’s the case with any pattern, but this is one where I can really see those possibilities.

I had fallen in love with a combination of black eyelet and light purple/pink voile at Joann’s in the spring, and when it went on sale, I snapped it up.  Originally I had it earmarked for another pattern, but I’m so glad I went with this one.  I figured I could underline the eyelet in voile, which would provide modesty and create a cool effect.  If you aren’t familiar with it, underlining involves taking two layers of fabric and treating them as one, reducing wrinkling and providing many other benefits.  For my purposes, the reduced wrinkling and the modesty underlining provided me with were key.

Pattern Choices

I chose to make View B, the tunic length, with an added 8″ ruffle (before hemming) at the bottom.

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I cut a 16 at the bust and graded to a 20 for the waist and hips.  I like a fair amount of ease, but if you don’t, you may want to think twice about grading out.  I probably could have made this in a straight 16 and been fine.  If you look at the back of the dress, you can see that there is a lot of fabric being gathered in by the waist ties.

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Pattern Adjustments

*Borrowed the short flutter sleeve from vintage Butterick 3731.  I actually didn’t even notice that I was putting a raglan sleeve on a set-in sleeve pattern until writing this post…hm.  I’m glad it worked out!  That explains why my sleeves are so long!

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*Added 2.25″ of length to the bodice, changing it to 2″ on my second dress

*Major broad back adjustment (enough to preserve the ease that was supposed to exist in this pattern, which is 4.5″ above body measurements; you can see how I do a major broad back adjustment here)

*Low bust adjustment, moving the bust point on the princess seams down 7/8″ (and then taking 7/8″ off the bottom edge of the bodice)

*Lowered the placement points for the back ties until they were 1″ above the bottom edge of the bodice

*On my second dress, I raised the pockets 2″ so they would end up where they were before I lowered the waistline

This sounds like a lot of adjustments, but I was committed to getting the result I wanted, and they were worth it.  For information on broad back adjustments and lowering bust points, I used The Perfect Fit from The Singer Sewing Reference Library.  These books are cheap and easy to pick up used.  I have a lot of them, and this is probably the one I turn to the most.

After making my first dress in black eyelet with black mini pom pom trim, and wearing it every Sunday for a month, I was completely smitten.  While in Michigan, I managed to hit the fabric sale at Field’s Fabrics in Holland, MI and found some cotton bubble gauze.  I bought four yards, thinking I could double layer it for opacity (more underlining!), and make something fun.  I settled on making another version of Simplicity 8689 with all the beautiful trims I could find.

Martha Moore’s versions of this pattern influenced me heavily.  You can see her black dress on PatternReview here and her brightly-colored embellished dress on PatternReview here.  It was through one of Martha’s reviews that I discovered and fell in love with fashion designer Dodo Bar Or’s resort collections (here’s a link to her Resort 2019 collection), and decided I needed something like that in my life.

While at Field’s, I found the floral ribbon, and added rickrack and big pom pom trim from Joann’s plus more baby pom poms from Amazon.  These colors make me SO HAPPY.  I love them.  Getting everything just right took some very careful sewing!

I made the sleeve a single layer of gauze and hemmed the two layers on the bottom ruffle to different lengths for a fun effect.  Quarter inch iron-on adhesive was helpful in getting crisp hems in those areas.

Truthfully, I wasn’t sure how the dress would come out in the gauze.  It’s a bit crinkly, and after consulting the experts at Pintuck & Purl, I didn’t try to iron it, but sewed it as it came out of the dryer, and this worked well.  It probably is a little larger/more relaxed after wearing than the black one, but it’s hard to tell (without actually measuring) if that’s reality or just my perception because of how the light and color interact in each garment.

Garment Details

*I used a plain black fabric for the facings and pockets in the black dress.  In the yellow dress, I used part of a fat quarter of Liberty of London Tana Lawn I got in a fabric trade.  The colors are great!  Quilting cotton was perfect for the pockets, and part of that same selvedge made a great tag for the dress.

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*If you look closely on the black eyelet dress, you can see that I managed to mostly pattern match the front center seam, and I alternated the direction of the embroidery on the front yoke, side panels, skirt, and bottom ruffle.

*I used shiny nylon cord and tassels plus other odds and ends from the jewelry section of the craft store to add tassels to the black dress.  Originally the cords were sewn into the neckline, but they broke in the wash.  I tried to sew them on again by hand, but it looks messy and is starting to separate again.  If I make this pattern again, I will try to come up with a good way to make them detachable for the wash, maybe with hooks and eyes.

The tassels themselves are removable, thanks to some jewelry clasps.

Anyway…

I finally feel like, after a few years of searching, I have found a summer dress I love.  I feel confident, secure, and beautiful when I wear these.  I know they are a little different from the norm (especially the yellow dress), but sometimes fashion takes courage.

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Esme Top from Everyday Style by Lotta Jansdotter

How are you?  I hope, if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, that spring has arrived.  Spring is trying to happen here, but it’s still a little cold.  Despite that, I’ve got warmer days on my mind, and after some complicated projects just finished and several other tricky ones in progress, I needed a simple, fast, and summery pattern.  I found just the right thing in Lotta Jansdotter’s new book Everyday Style.  It seemed like just the right thing to go with the lovely pink voile I got at Pintuck & Purl when they opened.

I made Variation 2 with the three-quarter length sleeves in a size large.  My only regret (and I find it equally annoying and funny that I did this) is that I didn’t measure the back pattern piece to see if it would need a broad-back adjustment.  The shirt turned out to be quite comfortable, but if I had checked ahead of time, I would have done a broad-back adjustment and it would have been even more comfortable.  After all my recent blog posts about broad-back adjustments (here and here), I didn’t even check.

 

Ironically enough, I did check the dart height, and that turned out to be fine.  Thankfully, there is good ease in this pattern, and it’s still wearable.

Living in New England where the weather changes several times throughout the day, I’m looking forward to having this for summer when a breeze springs up or the air gets cooler in the evening.

The Esme top gets my stamp of approval as a quick and simple make, especially since there are numerous variations if you want to change things up a bit.

Before we get to the recommendations,  I wanted to mention Me-Made-May 2016 one more time.  I’m participating because I really enjoyed it last year.  Here is my pledge:

‘I, Lisa of patternandbranch.wordpress.com and @lisa.poblenz, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’16. I endeavour to wear at least one me-made garment each day for the duration of May 2016. I will try not to repeat any articles of clothing within a single week and I’ll try to wear at least two me-made things together at least once a week.’

I decided that this year I wasn’t going to worry about daily photos, so I won’t be doing weekly outfit round-ups on the blog.  You may see a few photos if you follow me on Instagram, but my focus for this year is the challenge itself.  The only downside so far is that I might forget what I wore earlier in the week without the photos to remind me!  😉  Check out Zoe’s blog for more information on this year’s Me-Made-May.

Recommendations

• OK, my friends!  It’s nearly time for one of my FAVORITE events of the year:  BRIMFIELD ANTIQUE SHOW!  Brimfield is the largest outdoor antique show/market in the US.  It takes place three times a year in the town of Brimfield, MA and people come from all over the country (and the world) to shop for antiques, upcycled antiques, and unique materials for creating.  This year, for the very first time, I know one of the vendors!  My friend Laurel, of Retromat Vintage is going to be at Booth 22 of New England Motel, which is one of my favorite fields.  She sells great vintage items.  I’m always really impressed by her clothing, but she has much more than that.  If you go to Brimfield, stop by and show her some love.
• Have you ever tried a magnetic pincushion?  After buying more pins awhile ago, my little pin jar was full and hard to use, so I bought a Zirkel magnetic pincushion at Pintuck & Purl.  I missed the main selling point until I got home and started using it.  If you drop your pins in the middle of the square magnet, it fans them out around the edges in a circular pattern.  It’s so cool and fun to use!  I knew I would like it, but I had no idea I would like it this much.  Here’s a link to a 14 second video that shows how it works.
• I’ve mentioned them before, but I think it’s time to officially recommend to you The Curvy Sewing Collective.  This is a great site for so many things!  I find myself returning to it frequently to read their helpful tutorials, pattern reviews, and to look at the great projects from their contributors.  This site also gets two thumbs up for body positivity.  We can all use that!
• Finally, the Batman vs. Superman trailer…reimagined by kids: