A Pink Little Flirt...

Although it's not hemmed or button-able (no buttons or buttonholes, yet), here is a little pink Flirt:




Detail of the front collar, pleating around the neck just so...



And the back:




And the back detail:

You might can see that I used bias piping made from the stripe at the waist, armhole, neck, and back opening edges.

I am quite pleased with this one. One of my goals while drafting this design was to have the pleats encircle the skirt, with no break in the pleating at the side seams. Although at the time it seemed to take forever, I think all the time I spent on the muslining process was worth it. Comments?

I have two Little Dresses cut out and calling out to me (come here! come here and sew me up!). Can you hear them, too?

Sneak Peak

Here's a quick sneak peak of the fabrics I used for Flirt. I'll have pictures of the dress as soon as one of the Hanger Holder people wakes up!

Doritos, Version 2

We celebrated Easter Sunday on a beautiful day, and I hope you did, too. It was a day filled with sunshine, good food, family, an Easter Egg Hunt for the little ones, and flowers blooming everywhere. We gathered at the home of SWIPWT, since she's bed-bound, and the yard was filled with azaleas, bulbs, and dogwood trees. Just gorgeous.

Since she has been really good this week (she's hit the 32-weeks mark in the pregnancy), she was allowed to sit on the front porch in a rocker and watch the egg hunt. Of course, after the little ones found the eggs, we decided to have an EXTREME egg hunt for all the Random Teenagers. They found out quick that us old folks could really hide some eggs. It took them three times as long to find the eggs as it did the little folks. A joyful day.

I did most of the finish work on Doritos, Version 2. It still needs buttons and buttonholes, but I am currently out of white sewing thread. A person with a driver's license is currently getting in the shower and will soon be on his way to buy more thread. After having two daughters and three sons, I can tell you that it takes a male child just as long to get dressed as it does a female child. These guys spend more time on their hair than I do.




I'm thinking I will use covered buttons on this version of the dress, using white on black and black on white. Comments?

And for lynn in the comment section, I can't remember what size crochet thread I use for the piping. It's the regular Coats and Clark in the big ball from Wally World. I'll get the size for you the next time I go.

I also finished the pattern work on Flirt, and have it pretty much ready to go. I'm cutting out another Little Dress today, this time from a vintage pattern. More later!

Spring Break Is ON!

It has arrived at last--Spring Break! And to make things even sweeter, the fabric I ordered has also arrived. I'm hard at work already, making a new version of Doritos. Here are the fabrics I'm using (although I'm not sure I'll use the orange one yet):



Well, yes, indeed I did order full bolts. I'm going to enter the handmade clothes market and open an Etsy shop later this week. So it made good sense to order full bolts of fabrics.

My spring break will cover 10 days (today is day 2) and my goal is to make 10 Dresses in 10 Days. Wish me luck!

Here is the front bodice with part of the piping underway:



My helper, the Duke of Cute, came over to visit and spend the day with us yesterday. It took 5 people to keep an eye on one 3-year old. Here he is, sitting still for 30 seconds:





He is highly entertaining. One of the things he did was spray my bedroom, bathroom, and closet with a can of air freshener. And I'm talking about a CAN, an entire CAN. My clothes smell really nice!

Today I hope to finish the pattern draft on Flirt. It's almost done. On to the sewing!

I'll try and post an update tonight.

What A Weekend

It was the weekend of the Prom. Up at dark thirty on Saturday morning, drank half a gallon of strong coffee, and off to decorate (with about 30 other folks) for the annual shindig. It was great. The dresses were beautiful, and the refreshments were divine. And, oh yes, one of my Random Teenagers wore a tuxedo for the very first time. He likes to make his mama cry. It seems like just yesterday I pushed and shoved birthing that 9 pound baby.....

At any rate, I haven't done any sewing at all. But I did manage to get rid of the Really Loud Music Headache from last night and work on this pleat pattern problem I've been having.

In case you've been reading the comments, here's a photo of what patsjean was describing (well, I'm pretty sure it was patsjean, but I'm really too pooped at the moment to verify it-thanks!).

You take a piece of paper and pleat it, like so:






Then you cut the desired angle, like so:





And when you open it up, you have a pattern, like so:




Mine's not even (too tired at this point to pick up the ruler), but you get the idea. And that's exactly the technique I'm going to use on my pattern.

It looks like an awful mess at this point, doesn't it?




I just wish I had stock in the 3M Company, those wonderful folks who manufacture Scotch tape. I'd be a millionaire, instead of just being out of tape.

Back to the Inherent Design Problem with the pattern. There are three problems, actually.

One, of course, is the bottom hem shape. By the time I got to that point the other day, I knew the thing wasn't going to work out right and I simply didn't care enough to perfect it.

Two is the pleats aren't vertical. Now why couldn't I see that to begin with? I am such a dumb bunny sometimes. And I just know that there are at least a hundred REAL patternmakers laughing their heads off and telling their friends about this stupid woman down South with her paper and Scotch tape....

Three is the shape of the bottom section, which nobody pointed out. The problem is that I based this on an A-line shape but you can't evenly pleat an A-line shape so that the pleats are consistent around the body. If you go look at the last post pictures you'll see what I'm talking about. There is a little angled "wing" piece that is unpleated on the right side of the front (and there would be the same thing going on in the back).

My solution? I have redrafted this on a straight sheath style. I've gotton the front pieces pretty much done and I'm way too tired to do any more tonight, so I'm off to bed.

My question is, Will This Work?

Gee, That Was Fast

Okay, so I cheated a little. I only made a front this time. No back. Because I had an enlightening thought.

Here is the little front pinned to a chair, since it refuses to hang on a hanger. There is an inherent design flaw here:




Can any of you spot it?

And as for the puzzle picture I posted last night, here's a little hint: it has something to do with Jillian. Yall do know who that is, don't you?

The People Have Spoken....

Yes, you have. LOTS of you have spoken. And the amazing thing is that yall have put into words my same exact feelings about Flirt.

The top ruffle is not "pleaty" enough. It is not asymmetrical enough. And the bottom ruffle may need to be tossed entirely.

But I do love that little pleated collar so much.....

Back to the pattern paper and the cutting table it is. Another muslin is about to begin.

Thanks to you all for the comments and suggestions. It's really nice to have a group to offer advice and encouragement!

And the fabric shopping yesterday? Wonderful, absolutely wonderful. A very large box will arrive here sometime next week.

Just A Little Flirt

Flirt

Well, last night I pleated up all these huge panels and sewed them together, and now I have a little Flirt. Here's the front, hanging all cattywhompus on a hanger:




You will notice, I'm sure, that the overskirt band is bright purple. That's on purpose. I wanted to visually check the proportion of the band to the overskirt length, and the best way to do that was to use a high contrast fabric. That purple was over in the corner, up to no good, so I used it for something good before it started playing with matches, or something. You know, sometimes fabric just goes all BAD on you, doesn't it? So there.

Here's the back--no buttonholes, just a huge straight pin for a closure:




Throw those comments at me, yall. In particular, what I want to know is this: Is the asymmetrical part asymmetrical enough? Or should it be more angled?

From the Comments

Nancy left a comment about a pleat puzzle. She wanted the magic formula for figuring out pleats.

Unfortunately I don't have a magic formula. In the case of Flirt, I knew the width of the panel I started with, and I knew how deep I wanted each pleat to be. So I just split the panel and added the pleat width. I did it a million times, and used a million pieces of tape.

Nancy has the reverse problem. She wants to pleat up 70 inches of skirt down to 26 inches. Here's what I would do:

70 minus 26 equals 44, so Nancy needs to remove 44 inches of fabric from the skirt waistband. I like the number 44 because it is nice and even. Thank you, Nancy, for picking such a fun number.

Since she has a skirt front and a skirt back, I would divide the 44 inches into two parts--22 inches for the front and 22 inches for the back. Find the center front/back, and put 11 pleats on each side of the center. You'll have to play with it a bit, but if you then divide each front half in two again, you will have 5 1/2 pleats, and 5 1/2 pleats on each side front/back. That should help you to even them out.

The main thing is that you want each pleat to be the same depth for a balanced look.

If anyone out there has a better method for Nancy, please share it in the comments or send me an email and I'll post it.

A Puzzle of My Own

Can anyone figure out what I'm trying to draft here? I know how yall love a little challenge!





And one last thing--hopefully tomorrow I will get to shop for fabric! Wish me luck.

Flirt, The Skirt Patterns

Preparing the final draft of the skirt overlay and bottom band pieces took four hours. Since I wanted pleats in these pieces, I had to split the original draft and add width for the pleats to fold under. We're talking a lot of pleats, people. Here is one section that's finished:




See how shiny that pattern piece is? That's because I used a whole roll of tape on the thing. This is meticulous work, and it is WORK. It's one of those things that once you get it figured out in your head, you must do it quickly before the vision fades. It's also best to do it when you don't have any distractions at all, like a barking dog or barking teenagers. Once you start you need to be able to get the piece finished. You know, keep at it, and don't decide to quit in the middle of it and go work on the income taxes or something.


At any rate, I finished the overskirt pieces and cut them out. I added a purple band to my muslin so I could visually check the proportions of the bottom band on the overskirt. Here it is all pinned and pleated to the underskirt section:




Can you tell my husband wants me to go work on the income taxes?

Comments? I just love a little input now and then!

Flirt, The Bodice and Collar Sections

I've put together the bodice for Flirt. It took a little tweaking on the pleated collar, but it is now done. Here's the front:





You'll notice that the bottom of the bodice is cut at an angle. Here's the back, with a reverse angle on the bottom edge:




The collar swings out over one shoulder and meets up with the opposite side of the back bodice. I also made an adjustment on my original pattern draft to shorten the collar a bit and to have it end in the right spot. I'm thinking I like this one, too.

Now, on to the skirt sections.

Comments, anyone?

A New Project

The next project is a little dress I've named Flirt. It is based on a basic A-line style jumper. Here's my drawing, if you can call it that:



It's the style at the bottom, an asymmetrical design with an overlay and pleated collar and many buttons. I like buttons. A lot.

Since the design is asymmetrical I had to draft an entire front and an entire back pattern piece.




I drew in the seam allowances and then removed the extra length from the back shoulder, since the style I started with had buttoned shoulders:





I then used the eyeball method to divide the skirt into sections:




After marking the grainlines, I cut off the bodice front and bodice back in order to draft the collar and back opening. Here's the bodice back. Hopefully I will end up with a nice collar line that wraps around the neckline.



You may have noticed that one side of the bodice is longer than the other. That explains my notes about cutting with the fabric right side up. When working with an asymmetrical design each piece must be cut individually.

I'm off to try my hand at a little bodice. Anything can happen at this point. Maybe it will resemble the original drawing, and maybe it won't. It's usually a crapshoot.

Stay tuned.