Finished Project: The 'Georgia' Mini Dress.

Ahhh, another BHL Georgia, I really can't get enough of this dress. 

I love By Hand London patterns, their style is my style! So glad I found them, they have rekindled my love for sewing.

About October last year my maxi dress obsession began, somehow I came across the Anna dress online and that was the beginning of my BHL love affair. 'Anna' and 'Georgia' went on my Christmas wishlist and Santa* got them for me cos I was a good girl last year.

 

*Santa - my little sister, who always gets me amazing pressies. She will always get me something that I want, plus some little surprises. Last Christmas, she got me the BHL patterns and a vintage sewing clamp. She also did me a huge favour and picked up a new computerised sewing machine from Costco for me using her membership. Best. Sister. Ever.

My sewing attitude has changed ever since By Hand London came into my life. 

If you have been following my blog for a while, you would know that I used to line all my dresses (bagging technique, tutorial here). I started lining my dresses to hide my raw seams back when I didn't have a serger, but over time I became addicted to the clean machine finish on the insides. 
I might skip lining the skirt on a full gathered skirt, but majority of the time I would fully-line my dresses (all my lined dresses tagged here). 

I thought that lining the dress was easier than sewing facings. Whattttt?! 

Despite having to cut out TWO of everything and working with slippery and fraying sunsilky polyester, I still favoured lining over facings.

I wanted to line my first Anna, but I didn't have time or fabric. I finished the neckline with facings, and guess what, I love facings, they look gooooooood and they cut the construction time in half!!! 

Since I started sewing BHL patterns, I haven't had the urge to fully line anything at all, and all my insides look just as fabulous.

By Hand London patterns have also inspired and motivated me work hard to get the perfect fit and perfect constructions on my dresses. It's bordering on OCD - the other night, I unpicked the bodice because the bodice cup seam and the skirt seam was misaligned by 2mm. You couldn't even see it!! But it bothered me so much, I unpicked and restitched. You know what, I still haven't made a dress "perfect enough" to have the precious 'By Hand London and Me' tag sewn on. One day!!

This version of my Georgia is pretty darn close to perfection though...

The fabric is printed cotton sateen, floral of course, and plain black cotton sateen for the side skirt panels and straps. 

Originally the dress looked like this, with printed straps...

I always planned on black straps, but I simply forgot. Need to start keeping notes me thinks.

... but it just didn't look right. It took me two days till I realised it was the straps that made the dress look "off"!!! I replaced the straps with plain black straps. It was a very painful process because the seam allowances were already chopped off and seam clipped and understitched :(

The strap for my right shoulder is shortened by about 2cm (because I have uneven shoulders) and sewn with a smaller seam allowance, that's why they look wider than my previous Georgias;) 

Sew Short Nissa did that and hers looked great! Nissa said she was inspired by my "unsewn muslin straps" on Twitter so she made the straps wider using a 8mm SA. I then took inspiration from her and sewed my straps with a 5mm SA. 

I moved the position of my straps to sit on the "outer" side of my bodice cup seam rather than in the centre to give more coverage to that side boob/armpit/fleshy bit, and to cover my bra straps. 
Also re-positioned the strap at the back too, if you want to do this, put on your favourite bra and reposition accordingly.

I used cotton tape (which I think is the same as twill tape?) on the straps to stop them from stretching over time as well as on the neckline, following Lladybird's tip.

Straps are wider, positioned on the outer-side of the cup seams.

A last minute adjustment had to be made to the skirt around my lower back, I took in the seams slightly. This is always my problem area. I didn't have any fitting issues in this area with my rayon maxi Georgia, I'm guessing that's because the drape and weight of the rayon helped everything sit nicely in place.

Adjustment on my lower back.
I had to unpick the finished seams, trim it back to 15mm and 'turn & stitch' the seam again.

I didn't take a pic of how this Georgia looked before I took a chunk out of the lower back, but the above pic is my first Georgia which had same problem with fabric billowing out at the lower back. The adjustment makes a huge difference to the fit.

My patience sewing skills are improving, I am getting better and better at joining the bodice and skirt at those tricky peaks, they're no longer making me tear my eyebrows out! And since learning that the needle position can move on my machine, installing the invisible zipper has been a dream.

Inside seams were folded under, pressed and stitched. I believe this is the 'turned and stitch' technique AKA 'clean finish'.

I used a 'fell stitch' to join lining to the shell.

Hello perfect peak!

'Turn & stitch' seam finish. Hem finished on the machine, don't judge.

Had no idea it was called a 'fell stitch', just googled it now. My favourite hand stitch!

Grrr, uneven shoulders - I'm guessing it's cos I always carry my handbag on my left shoulder.

Project details -

Pattern: By Hand London 'Georgia'
Size: 2/6 bust, 6/10 waist, 2/6 hips
Fabric: cotton sateen (1m plain black and 1m printed floral)
Notions: cotton tape, 16" invisible zipper
Cost: approx $30 for plain black cotton sateen, printed cotton sateen and invisible zipper.
Pattern Modification/Adjustments: 

• The usual adjustments I have been making for the Georgia bodice:
•  hollow chest adjustment
• small bust adjustment
• As well as some new adjustments:
• shortening the strap on my right shoulder
• moving the position of the straps to sit more to the side of front bodice, just next to the outside of cup seams
• took a chunk out of my lower back skirt

Hours: 12 hours.
Completed on: Saturday 8th March 2014, I just love leaving things till the last minute!!
First worn: Saturday 8th March 2014 to my friend's wedding.

Even though this dress is completed in March, I'm counting it as Feb-make. I made all the dresses I aimed to make when I came up with my February sewing plan, including a bonus Valentines Day dress. Also smashed my goal of completing one garment per month, woot woot. 

March is a quiet month, I don't have any more weddings or fancy events coming up and it's now the beginning of autumn in Australia so no more mini dresses. I just got my hands on the Sewaholic Pendrell (first Sewaholic pattern yey!) and BHL Charlotte so I'll probably be experimenting with those patterns this month.

I have had a fun journey with Georgia and Anna, but I think it's time for me to give them a rest. 
I've been seeing so many HOT, SEXY, BEAUTIFUL, FABULOUS Flora dresses around, I love them on all the pattern testers (lucky, lucky girls!! I want to be a tester!!) but I'm not sure if I could pull off the mullet hem. 

What do you guys think, should I add Flora to my BHL collection? 
Are you getting your Flora on?

Read More

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? :) 

Read More