Finished Project & Pattern Review: By Hand London 'Georgia', Valentines Day Sewalong.

I participated in my first ever sewalong, YAY! 

The Georgia sewalong couldn't have come at a better time. I was planning on making a Georgia for my friend's wedding.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up when BHL announced that the dress would be finished in time for Valentines Day. 

I didn't think I could get the fitting on a dress like Georgia right and have the dress finished in 18 days, no way!! But yesssss way I did. 

Surprisingly the only adjustments I needed to make was a sway back adjustment and small bust adjustment (SBA) because the difference between my 'high bust' and 'full bust' was "up to 1 inch smaller" - read this tutorial from BHL to work out if you need a SBA or FBA or no BA! 

Turns out I'm an A-cup in the pattern world. 

The muslin only took two x's two hours sessions to put together. A SBA was done on the pattern, and sway back adjustment done after I tried on the muslin. 

The dress took about five x's 2-3 hours sessions. I broke it down to:

• cutting out fabric and interfacing
• putting together bodice, putting together skirt, straps
• joining bodice and skirt (I then had about 3 days break to figure out how to join the skirt and bodice at the centre back where that "Y" looking seam was)
• invisible zipper and hem
• finishing touches - the bust padding (last minute decision) and handsewing the lining

It's amazing how much sewing I can get done when I plan my week and block out days for sewing rather than just sewing "when I have time".

The pattern is rated "intermediate".
The difficulties I faced with this pattern was definitely with joining the curved seams. It reminded me of when I first started sewing and I had to join capped sleeves to the V8469 dress and it took me 6 hours. 

My muslin was a shocker! The front of the skirt was puckers galore. I found that snipping into the SA on the less curvy skirt piece (no more than 10mm/1cm) helped spread the fabric out or something. It worked a treat and when I unpicked and restitched my muslin, there was no puckering.

Experienced sewers wouldn't need to do this.

I haven't in the past, but this time around I struggled with the curved seams!

LEFT SEAM: clipped into the SA

RIGHT SEAM: puckering when I stitched without clipping into the SA

 My other struggle was joining the centre back bodice with the centre back skirt. I could not for the life of me figure it out. I was so frustrated, thoughts of screaming and tearing up my Georgia went through my mind. I decided to put the dress down, take the measuring tape off from around my neck and sleep on it for the weekend.

What the hellllllll!! Why can't I figure it out?!?!

On Monday night, refreshed from a weekend of birthday feasting and gallivanting around at St Kilda Festival covered in SPF50, I sat down with Georgia, calmly drew the seam lines on both the bodice and the skirt and somehow I managed to join the two together. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough. Sewalong #7 was posted on BHL blog after I finished the dress, I'll definitely refer to it next time I make Georgia.

I then put in my invisible zipper and hemmed the skirt. The hem is very skinny - just overlocked and turned it up once and stitched, the skirt was already the perfect length for me.

The invisible zipper on Georgia is the best I've ever inserted! It went in the first time with no issues. Guess what, the needle position on the sewing machine can move, who would have thought! Discovered this when I was reading the manual for my new computerised Janome (didn't know how to change the stitch length, lol, such a newb!)

I finished my Georgia three days before Valentines Day, but I wasn't happy with how the bodice sat against my chest, it was kind of warped and gapey - either I had stretched it out while trying to join the skirt and bodice, or the interfacing worked against me and stiffened the fabric too much, or I needed a chest adjustment of some sort.

Take a dart out next time?

It was time for a quick fix since I was not prepared to do any more unpicking. 

I cut out the front bodice pieces in cotton batting (no SA) joined them using butted seams and made padding for the bust. I made bust padding for my strapless maxi dress last year, post here with links to tutorials. This time I made two layers of padding for extra shaping :)

After the bust padding was stitched on to the lining by hand, I overlocked the raw edge of the lining and blind stitched it down. 

Pattern review: By Hand London, Georgia

Size: 2/6 bust, 6/10 waist, 2/6 hips

Fabric: 2m printed cotton from my stash, probably not the best choice as there was no stretch and it's quite soft. But I love the cherry print! 

Notions: Gutermann thread (000), 16" invisible zipper, 0.5m cotton batting, 0.5m whisperweft interfacing for the bodice pieces - I knew that I would be playing around with the bust pieces a lot and didn't want any stretching to happen.

Pattern Modification/Adjustments: small bust adjustment, sway back adjustment, padded out the bust.

I have to investigate why there was a weird gape/stretch on the bodice, the centre didn't sit against my chest. Not sure if I need to adjust the bust (hollow chest adjustment perhaps) to get rid of the gape at the neckline? I'd rather not have to pad the bust out again.

There is some excess fabric at the centre back which poofs out. I don't know if it's because the cotton I used has no weight to sit against my body, or if the sway back adjustment inadvertently added more fabric to the area? The muslin fit perfect over my centre back, hips and but, so I might eliminate the sway back adjustment from the next Georgia and see how that goes.

What I learnt: 

• I learnt how to do a small bust adjustment, thank you BHL for the easy to understand tutorial.
• I learnt that the needle on my machine can move!! Installing the invisible zipper was a dream, went in right the first time. 

What I love about the pattern:

• This pattern is so darn sexy! For something that has a fitted and sleek silhouette, it's actually simple to put together and easy to get the fit perfect.
• Love the zipper being on the side, different from all my other dresses.
• Love the skinny straps - sexy and supportive.

What I didn't love about the pattern: I love everything about this pattern. The first fitted dress that has fit me nicely!

Cost: cotton $15, zipper $5, whisperweft interfacing $5, padding $5

Hours: Lucky I documented my life my Georgia journey on Twitter. Muslin was cut out on 3rd Feb. Dress fabric cut out on 7th Feb. Can't remember the exact hrs, my guess would be about 12 hrs, give or take. 

Completed on: Wednesday 12th February 2014.

What did you girls get up to on VDay? Did you celebrate with your man? Did you get flowers from a secret admirer? But most importantly...

Did you make a Valentines Day dress? :) 

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Finished Project & Pattern Review: McCall's 6349 View C with Maxi Skirt.

M6349 with maxi skirt.

I did it. I made my deadline to have the dress ready to wear on Thanksgiving, with a whole week to spare. I missed out on sewing for Halloween, but no big deal, didn't RSVP yes to any Halloween events on Facebook anyway!! Last year I had a ball on Halloween weekend. My bestie dressed up as a naughty school girl and I dressed up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. I made the dress AND the shoes! Well, I applied red glitter to the shoes.

We went to a house party then ended up at a club event where I hung out with a guy who looked like Pitbull. Woke up with a massive hangover, had lunch with bestie who ordered the "blue-eye, medium-rare" cos she thought it was a steak!! It's fish, btw :)

That was last year. This year on Halloween night I ate a massive dinner (it was a 3-4 person serve and I ate half), then sat on my ass for an hour handpicking the zip on my M6349. Hopefully the handpicking burnt some calories :P

Lets start from the beginning...

I started on the muslin for this dress two weekends ago. The plan was to make a wearable muslin. I had dreams of pairing the muslin bodice with a beautiful lime chiffon maxi skirt. The dream is still alive, just on the back burner for the moment. Need to find a lime chiffon that does not make me look like a walking hi-lighter. Was also thinking burnt orange to bring out the orange flowers.

Would love your thoughts! Also, if I make the skirt out of chiffon, what should I line it with?

The wearable-muslin.
This is the same fabric I used for my Burda 7371 pants.

I chose View C of the dress because I like the sweetheart neckline, but the "front bodice" piece (piece #13) had me stumped. I could not get the gathering right, I could not get the bodice piece to match up with the underlining piece. I gave up. Then I realised that the underlining/lining piece also had a sweetheart neckline, duh, but without all the gathering business, instead it had princess seams. Even better.

I dug through my fabric stash and found this beautiful floral printed cotton voile I purchased from Darn Cheap (Heidelberg) ages ago. It feels amazing on my skin - soft, slinky and cool. I had over 2m of this baby so there was enough to make a 1m long maxi skirt and a self lined bodice.

The bodice pieces are stabilised using whisperweft interfacing (82% Rayon/18% Poly).

Iron-on whisperweft interfacing.

To add more structure and shape, I made padding and handmade bra cups for the bodice. 

I used Sewaholic's tutorial (here and here) which is where I learnt about abutted seams.

I attached the padding to the shell, like an underlining.

My WIP/bodice construction post with more photos and info is here.

Bust padding to give it some oomph!

Abutted seam..

.. or is it butted seam? Who knows!

The bodice is boned using plastic polyboning. 

Polyboning is easy to use, no pliers required!!

Simply cut off the length you need, remove the plastic boning, sew the casing on to the bodice lining, trim 3-4cm off the plastic boning before inserting it back in the casing. 

You trim 3-4cm off to allow for stitching later on when you sew on the lining and attach the skirt - you don't want to break your needles sewing over the plastic!

On my bodice, I used 4 pieces of boning - 2 for side seams, 2 for the back (where the 'side back' and 'back' pieces join).

Polyboning, plastic boning.

I took a risk and didn't line the skirt. I'll just make sure to wear appropriate underwear with this dress, no grandma panties or g-bangers (aka g-string, thong). Because I didn't line the skirt, I french seamed the side skirt seams for a clean and non-fraying finish.

Apologies to Cozy Cotton, I forgot to take photos when I joined the bodice to the skirt!! 

I sewed 3 rows of gathering stitches (long stitches) using red thread so its easier to see and remove later on. Gathered the skirt waist, matched the notches on the skirt and bodice then sewed it all together.

To help the dress stay up, I added a grosgrain ribbon waist stay. This keeps the dress in place and stops the waist from stretching over time. Also takes pressure off the zip and comes in handy when you're home alone with no one to help you zip up.

The zip is hand picked. This 14" zip took just over 1 hour to handpick. 

I love handpicking zips for numerous reasons:

• dress zippers are cheaper in comparison to invisible ($1.49 vs $3.49)
• dress zippers are stronger - I've had too many invisible zip break my heart
• easier to match up the seam because you have more control
• the little pricks on the back look pretty

Hem - I overlocked/serged the hem then turned it up and machine stitched.

Grosgrain ribbon waist stay.
Handpicked zip, machine stitched hem.

Floralicious!

Pattern Review: McCall's 6349, View C, with no shoulder straps, lengthened skirt to maxi 

Size: 6

Pattern Pieces used: 7 (bodice front lining), 8 (bodice side front lining ), 16 (bodice back), 17 (bodice side back), 19 (skirt back), 21 (skirt front)

Fabric: 2.3m cotton voile (Darn Cheap) - enough for self-lined bodice, skirt is 1 meter in length.

Notions: Gutermann thread (000), dress zipper 14" (black), 1.6m polyboning, 0.5m whisperweft interfacing, 0.5m cotton/bamboo padding, 80cm grosgrain ribbon, bikini hook,

Cost: Fabric $20, Cotton/Bamboo Padding $5, Zipper $2, Whisperweft Interfacing $5, Polyboning $5, Grosgrain Ribbon $2, Bikini hook $1

Pattern Modification/Adjustments:

• No shoulder straps
• Lengthened skirt to 1 meter (floor length maxi)
• Took the centre back seam at the top by 4cm on each side! Big no-no, but it was too late for a proper adjustment

Techniques Used:

• Padded Bust
• Abutted seams
• Self made bra cups
• Self lined bodice
• Boning (great tutorial by Sewaholic here)
• Waist Stay (great tutorial by Sewaholic here)
• Hand picked zip
• Gathering (skirt)
• French seam (skirt side seams)

Things I will do differently next time:

• I'll figure out if I need a SBA or if I just need to adjust the back bodice
• I'll turn the waist seam upwards like I usually do, but on this dress the seam was too thick and boning got in the way so it keep flipping back down
• Trim the boning more - maybe 5cms, so I can turn the waist seam upwards

Pretty princess seams, Waist stay and Handpicked zip from the inside.
All zipped up. Zip is practically invisible!

I love maxi dresses but it's hard for me to find ones that are the perfect length.
I know, I know, I can take up the hem myself, but I HATE doing alterations. Hate it! Love sewing from scratch, hate alterations. 

I only own three RTW maxi dresses - a green one (too bright to wear frequently), a floral print wrap one (my fav but it's very booby), a simple black one (with a modest bodice) - so I'm desperate for for maxis! 

I used to love above-the-knee dresses, but now I feel so naked in them. They feel so short. I must be coming of age!

I love the Anna dress, so that pattern's going on my wishlist for Christmas. Thigh high slit, yes please!

Next up on my sewing table is a dress I need ready by this Friday 8th November! I have Monday and Tuesday off work (Melbourne Cup long weekend) so I should be able to pull it off!

UPDATE: This morning I was told that the Thanksgiving feast isn't till the 23rd Nov! Don't know why I thought it was this coming Saturday, LOL!! (11.3.13)

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