Bernina Mending Magic Strikes Again + Mildred's Tarnished Star Quilt

I know mending is boring, but it's way more boring to my neighbors and to random people I approach in the grocery store than it is to the people who read my blog.  (Tip: You can scroll past my mending adventures and skip ahead to the pretty quilt at the end if you want to -- I will never even know!)

I had a ridiculously fun time reacquainting myself with some of the features of my Bernina B 790+ sewing machine yesterday while saving two of my favorite pairs of shorts, and I had to tell SOMEBODY about it.  I picked YOU!  Do you see signs of mending in the photo below?  No, you don't, because it turned out perfect!

Left Tushie Pocket of My Favorite Shorts, After Repair

These are my favorite shorts because they have an elastic drawstring in the waist so I can cinch it in just enough to avoid Back Waistband Gaposis that plagues me so much in ready to wear clothing, but also because they are made of a very lightweight and breathable fabric that doesn't get all hot and sticky in the muggy Florida summer like most of my other shorts.  They came from REI several years ago and I bought three pairs of the same style, the khaki ones pictured here as well as a light gray pair and a dusty blue green color.  I've been wearing them a lot more since I moved to Florida in February, and the buttons on the left back pocket ripped right through   the fabric on the blue pair and the khaki pair.  How do you reattach a button when there's a hole through the shorts fabric in the place the button needs to be sewn?

Mending Program 22 Stitched in Aurifil 50/2 Cotton Mako Thread

I needed to darn the hole and reinforce the area around the hole before reattaching the button, so I grabbed some Steam A Seam 2 double-stick fusible web from my appliqué supplies, fused it to the back of this pink scrap of tightly woven cotton batik fabric and cut out a circle about the size of a quarter, and fused it to the wrong side of the pocket, carefully coaxing the loose threads surrounding the tear back into place to fill the hole on the right side.  

Planning (and Overthinking) a Style Arc Nova Midi Dress

Hello, my Lovelies, and Happy Summer (to everyone in the Northern hemisphere)!  Happy Independence Day Weekend to everyone in the United States!  Today's post is going to contain zero quilting, because my creative brain is chasing a different rabbit today.  I don't have enough "Florida Clothing" in my closet and I hate the way everything looks/feels/fits that I've tried on in stores.  My sister bought me a couple dress patterns that I've had on my wish list for awhile and I've decided to sew up the Nova Midi Dress from the Australian indie pattern company Style Arc  (this post contains affiliate links).

One of the coolest things about garment sewing in the Internet age is that it's so easy to find pictures, reviews, tips and tweaks suggestions from people of all shapes, sizes, and ages who have already sewn up the pattern you're considering.  The photo montage above shows two images of the dress sewn up from the Style Arc web site (the long orange dress with 3 tiers and the short black dress with 2 tiers), but the other images came from sewing blogs and a 3rd party online shop based in the U.K. (Minerva) that sells this dress pattern as a kit in a variety of fabrics.  So, special thanks to Carolyn of Sewing Fanatic, No Idle Hands, Geri In Stitches, Indoor Shannon, and the many other makers who take the time to post their sewing finishes online along with feedback and suggestions so that others can learn from their experiences.

New Look 6708: The Eight-Year Skirt Project is Finally Finished

If you only come here for the quilting, be forewarned -- today's post is not for you.  Today's post will be all about how I spent $78 and eight years of my life making a skirt that I will probably only wear a handful of times, using a pattern (New Look 6708, now out of print) that I have no intention of ever making again.  Today I will relate the saga/review the pattern of what my mom and I have been calling "That Dumb Skirt!"  

New Look 6708 Skirt Finish

New Look 6708 (OOP) View B

I made my skirt using New Look pattern 6708, which is out of print from the manufacturer but you can still find uncut used copies for sale.  At the time I'm writing this, you can get a copy of this pattern on Etsy here and I saw a few copies available on eBay as well (This post contains affiliate links).  This A-line, lined Misses skirt with side zipper did not actually take 8 years to sew -- it just got abandoned for long intervals while I was sidetracked by other projects.  If you want to read the post from June of 2015 when I first started this skirt, you can find that here.

I made View B, the above-knee version of the skirt, and I used "Pretty Potent Echinacea" cotton voile fabric from Anna Maria Horner with solid navy cotton voile for the lining.  Although I was unable to find an online source for my skirt fabric in voile today, Anna Maria Horner has reissued this print in new colorways for Free Spirit Fabrics recently, calling it simply "Echinacea," and you can find those on Etsy here.  (Just be aware that the current versions are printed on quilting weight cotton fabric that has more body and less drape than the voile I used for my skirt).  I prewashed both my fashion fabric and my lining fabric prior to cutting out my skirt.

I used Pellon Shape Flex Woven Cotton Interfacing SF101 in White for my waistband and I'm happy with that interfacing choice for the cotton voile, but wish I'd chosen the same SF101 interfacing in Black in hindsight.  Because my fashion fabric is semi-sheer, the waist yoke with the white interfacing behind it looks like a slightly different color than the body of the skirt that has navy lining fabric behind it:

White Interfacing Makes Waist Yoke Look Lighter/Brighter than Navy-Lined Body of Skirt

Ah, well.  It's subtle and no one else is going to notice this or care.  I've only tucked my shirt in to show the top of the skirt for these project review photos; normally the waistband or waist yoke or whatever you want to call it won't even be visible.

Burda 6911: A Sneaky Formal Pajama Dress for Comfy Choral Concerts

Burda 6911 Dress with Modifications

Not only did I make it through a week of late-night dress rehearsals and fend off a cold well enough to sing in both performances of the Bach St. John's Passion last weekend, but I also managed to sew myself a new dress to wear for the Sunday afternoon concert from a new-to-me pattern, Burda 6911:

Burda 6911 for 2-way Stretch Knits

This pattern popped up in my Pinterest feed around the same time that I was informed that the men in the VOX chorus wear tuxedos in concert, and women are supposed to wear something "black, formal and floor-length, with long sleeves, like something you would wear to a cocktail party." Maybe that's what SOME women wear to a cocktail party, but there was nothing in MY closet that fit that description!

Angelica Huston as Morticia Addams, Ready to Sing with VOX

Here's a photo of the VOX chorus (taken before I joined) so you can see what other women wear:

VOX Chorus Concert Attire, Pre-Rebecca Photo

So I got the pattern, ordered 5 yards of black 11 oz. rayon jersey fabric from Emma One Sock (UPS Next Day Air Saver), and rolled up my sleeves.

I found some well-ripened moss green jersey knit rotting away in my stash that had a similar weight, drape and stretch as my dress fabric, and decided to whip up a top version of this pattern to check the fit and figure out how the twist goes together.  I did read up on other people's experiences sewing this pattern on Pattern Reviews, and I was happy to see that most people's dresses and tops came out looking BETTER than the pattern photos, and that the style was flattering on other women with figures similar to mine.  (ah, how do I love thee, Pattern Review web site?!!!) 

Sizing: Based on the amount of fabric incorporated into the front twist, the width stretch of my fabric, and other reviewers' comments, I decided to cut a size 14 (based on my upper chest measurement +2", or what my FB measurement would be if I was a B cup like the "standard" commercial pattern fit models instead of a D). If I had used my full bust measurement as directed by the pattern instructions, I'd have been cutting between size 16 and size 18 -- I've done that before, and it always results in an unwearable, unfixable garment that is way too big in the upper chest, back, and shoulders, with necklines too big and gaping and sagging armholes.  It's so much easier to do a full/prominent bust adjustment to make more room where it's needed than it is to alter the shoulders, back, upper chest, sleeves, armholes, etc. to make them all smaller!  (This article on the Curvy Sewing Collective blog explains why). 

But in this particular case, with this pattern and this stretchy fabric, the smaller size worked beautifully with no need for any fit adjustments -- I got a fantastic fit through the shoulders and upper chest, no neck gaping or sagging armholes, yet there was plenty of room for "the girls" due to the stretch of the fabric and all of the twist gathers in the front of the top. I did grade to a size 16 through the hips on the top because I didn't want too snug of a fit through the tummy, and I'm glad I did because the top is quite fitted through the midriff. However, the top and dress are made from different pattern pieces, and the dress is cut with a lot more ease through the midriff so I was able to cut a straight size 14 on my dress.  I stopped working on the green top as soon as I was far enough along to know I had a working pattern in a good size, since I only had a few days to get my dress done and I sew VERY SLOWLY, like a sloth.  (Actually, I sew more like Hamlet, stopping every step of the way to ponder my options and research techniques before proceeding.  To be finished with my dress on time, or to squander my sewing time with mad dashes to JoAnn's in search of obscure notions and interfacing that I saw in someone's blog tutorial -- THAT is my question!)  But I digress.  Here's the green top version, 90% finished:

Burda 6911 Top, Trial Run

This is not the best picture because I had a weird balconet style bra on under the top that made the gathers go goofy, but I was in a hurry so this photo will have to do for now.  Anyway, you can see that the fit is pretty good, but if you click on the photo to make it bigger and examine the center front twist, you'll see that the wrong side of the facing wants to roll out at the top of the twist.  I still need to fix that, and then coverstitch hem the bottom of the top and the sleeves.  Eventually.

As per the recommendations of other reviewers, and to make assembly more serger-friendly, I disregarded the pattern instructions and put the sleeves in flat before sewing the side seams. This was a great idea.  On my trial top, I also ignored the pattern instructions about pressing the center front and dart seams open and just serged everything instead, because hey -- I bought the serger so I could use it on knits, and this is a knit, right?However, I think that's why I got the weirdness in the center of the twist with raw edges wanting to stick out on my top, because I had a loose flap where my serger seam stopped and the facing edge began instead of a pressed open seam allowance getting pulled back into the dress when I did the twist. So for my dress, I serged the CF seam as directed by the pattern, until a few inches before the slit, and then sewed the rest of the way with a stretch "lightning" stitch on my regular sewing machine so I could press the seam allowance open just below the slit and have the seam allowance tuck in nicely all the way around the hole. The bust dart seams I stitched the whole way with the lightning stitch and pressed them open per pattern instructions, and I was much happier with the way the twist front came out on the dress when I did it that way.

Peep Hole at Center Twist Prior to Hand Stitching

Oh, and another thing I should mention about the twist front is that you may need to add some additional hand or machine stitching after you pull the one side through the other to make sure you don't have a little peep hole in the middle of your boobage!

Do note that the arms of this pattern are asymmetrical, so you want to be careful keeping track of which is which. Also, as another reviewer noted, the pattern instructs you to baste the facing down to the shirt front before sewing the side seam, so I followed her suggestion to leave the facing edge loose and then wrapped it around when I sewed the shoulder seams for a clean finish. I also added clear elastic to the shoulder seams to prevent them from stretching out of shape.

Other Changes I Made: This pattern is designed to finish just below the knee, but I needed it to be floor length and I'm 5'8" so I added 13" to the skirt length. (This is the first time I used a rotary cutter to cut out a garment, by the way and I am IN LOVE -- the shifty, slippery knit was cut MUCH more accurately, precisely, and easily with the rotary cutter than it would have been with scissors, and after all my cutting table has a butcher block surface intended for chopping food up with knives so the rotary cutting blade isn't going to hurt it and the butcher block won't hurt the blade, either.  No cutting mat necessary!)

Length Added at the Lengthen/Shorten Line, seam Lines Extended for More Fullness at the Bottom

I also added shirred self-fabric sashes at the waist, copied from a RTW Boden dress in my closet.

RTW Boden Anna Dress, From Which I Copied the Sash

I think the sash belt helps prevent it from looking like a nightgown, and stretch fabric plus sash means that I will be able to wear this dress comfortably even if I gain or lose a few pounds.

My Dress With Cloned Boden Sashes Sewn Into Side Seams

I also made a slight change to the shaped of the neckline at the shoulder seam. This was due to a mistake when I did a FOE on the back neck (instead of the goofy strip of fabric sewn on and folded over as the pattern instructs and as I did on my practice top), but I accidentally ate up some of the shoulder seams in my neck edges.  I compensated for that by slightly gathering front shoulders to fit the back, which gives just the slightest sweetheart curve to the top of the V-neck.  Not sure whether you can see that in the photos, but I can definitely tell the difference in the shaping  of the neckline from my top to my dress and I actually prefer the way my fixed mistake looks!

Fold Over Coverstitched Edge on Back Neck

Finally, although this pattern specifically recommends lightweight jersey knit, the hem allowances for both the bottom of the skirt and the sleeves is 1 1/4" deep. None of the RTW jersey knit dresses or tops in my closet has a hem this deep. I tried doing the deep hem with a coverstitch on my dress, and I got decent results on my rectangular sample swatch, but the dress is A-line so the circumference of the skirt is greater at the raw edge than it is at the stitching line. ROYAL pain in the butt and waste of time. I did my sleeve hems 1/2" due to where I wanted the length to hit, and it was so much easier and ended up looking much better, too. I've decided I want my dress to be a few inches shorter because the heavy jersey makes it longer when I put it on than it was on my cutting table, and when I redo the hem I'll just turn it up 1/2" and coverstitch it.

A few words about figure flattery: ...And, just when I think I'm done with this post, I think of something else to say.  While I'm really happy with this dress for me, I do want to point out that someone with either a very small or very large bust might not be happy with it.  Although the twist front makes it easier to fit a large bust, the style of the dress makes a larger bust appear even bigger, especially when you view the dress from the front:

This Dress Will Make Your Boobs Look Bigger...

See what I mean?  It helps that the dress is black because black is slimming, but all those wrinkle lines from the twist front extending from shoulder to waist can create the illusion that your boobage is more ample than it really is.  As you can see in the side view, I'm not really as big up top as this dress makes me appear:

See?  Dolly Parton from the Front, Normal Boobs from the Side

So if you're self-conscious about a large bust and that's something you want to play down, this style might not be for you.  I have an hourglass figure and my full hip measurement is a little larger than my full bust, but I think this dress makes me look a little top heavy, but it's also very slimming from the waist down.  Conversely, if you have a very small bust, you might not like this dress either.  Even in the lightweight rayon jersey that I used, the twist front creates a bulky lump in the center of the chest that might look like a third boob, or stick out farther than your boobs, if you're an A or AA cup.  On a medium to large bust, the bulky twist lies between your boobs in the cleavage zone so it isn't a problem.  I have an hourglass figure and my full hip measurement is larger than my full bust, but I think this dress makes me look a little top heavy.  Your mileage may vary.

A few more notes to myself for next time I'm sewing with rayon jersey:

The sleeve had to be basted before it was serged into the armhole, and the shoulder seam needed to be basted before it was serged, too.  I basted the side seams of the dress just inside the stitching line using a 3.5 straight stitch on my regular machine so I could check the fit prior to serging, and to keep those heavy, slippery layers aligned as they went through the serger.  I did need to pin this fabric if it wasn't already basted before it came to the serger, like so:

Serged Seams, 4-thread Overlock

The rayon jersey is heavy, so it was important not to let it hang off the sewing cabinet or pull away from the needle as I was sewing.  I used size 80 Jersey Stretch needles in my regular sewing machine, serger, and coverstitch machine, and regular Maxilock and YLI Elite serger thread in a 4-thread overlock stitch.  Next time I might go down to a size 70 Jersey needle and try wooly nylon in the loopers. 

Serger Tension Settings

On my Bernina 1300MDC serger, I got a nice, balanced overlock stitch that laid flat without rippling with tensions set as you see in the photo above, presser foot pressure reduced to low, a stitch length of 2.5, and Differential Feed set between 1.5-2.

Stitch Length and Differential Feed

On my Bernina 750QE sewing machine, I used my 5.5 mm stitch plate to prevent the jersey from getting pulled down through the needle hole into the hook area.  I reduced my presser foot pressure from 50 down to 30 and used polyester Metrosene thread, a Jersey needle, and either a long straight stitch for basting or the lightning stretch stitch where I wanted to machine stitch closer to the twist to close that boob hole. 

On my new Juki MCS-1500 coverstitch machine, I did a narrow 3-thread coverstitch hem using the left and center needle positions, again with Jersey needles, and reduced the looper tension to L, reduced the pressure foot pressure to L, left both needle tensions set at 4, stitch length 2.5, and differential feed set to 2.0.  I experimented with a couple different methods of turning up the hem before coverstitching, but I got the best results when I cut 1/2" wide strips of black tricot knit fusible interfacing, ironed them along the raw garment edges, and then turned the edge back a half inch to coverstitch.  The deeper hems suggested by the pattern instructions are a royal PITA and the narrower hem is both easier and looks much better anyway.  The tricot interfacing makes it easy to turn up a consistent hem without marking, but more importantly, it stabilizes the knit so it doesn't tunnel between the rows of stitching.

I am super excited about this pattern now that my dress is finished. It gives me a great fit without any FBA or PBA, it went together relatively quickly once I figured out the twist thing, the neckline is flattering and not too revealing because it really does stay put -- and best of all, the dress is so unbelievably comfortable that it was like I snuck into the concert wearing my pajamas!!!  Definitely a keeper!  I'm planning to make a just-below-the-knee version of this dress in red and/or a print, something I can wear more often than the concert dress.

Pineapple Log Cabin Block 21 of 36 & Fabulous Fit Dress Form Review, Part 2, & SOMETHING NEW...

King Sized Pineapple Log Cabin Progress: Block 21 of 36

So, back to the paper-pieced pineapple log cabin quilt that I was working on before I was sidetracked by the Christmas caroling costume!  I finished block 21, which means I only have 15 more blocks to go until I have enough for a California King sized bed quilt.  And I'm grateful to have a pretty quilt block to top off this post today, because otherwise I'd have to lead with this one:

Say Hello to Headless Helena!

Ta da!  Let's all extend a warm Southern welcome to my new dress form, Headless Helena.  As you may have read in my last post, I originally ordered a size 10 Studio Dress Form and customizable padding system from Fabulous Fit, but I discovered that although the size 10 dress form's measurements were slightly smaller than mine overall, I was not able to add all of the lumps and bumps that make up my own body shape to the size 10 dress form without making her much too big.  After consulting with Alice at Fabulous Fit, I exchanged the size 10 dress form for a size 6.

I suppose I should have taken a picture of what the size 6 dress form looked like when she arrived, before any padding was added, but I didn't think of it.  Just imagine a headless, limbless, but perky 16-year-old cheerleader, and that's pretty much what a size 6 dress form looks like right out of the box.  (Now is probably a good time to warn readers that this blog post will be talking a lot about Mom Boobs, so if that sort of thing offends you or does not interest you, feel free to stop reading).

Although I ordered my dress form from Fabulous Fit, I should mention that the Fabulous Fit system works with ANY dress form you may already own, provided that your dress form is small enough to match your skeletal frame.  That bears repeating -- with padding, you alter your dress form by adding lumps of flesh like boobs, belly, and badonk-a-donk buttocks...  You can increase her dimensions at any point with padding, but you cannot do anything to make the dress form SMALLER if even one part of her is too big.  My initial mistake in ordering a too-big dress form in the first place happened because I looked only at my full bust, waist, and hip measurements and ordered a dress form one size smaller than the smallest of those measurements.  However, the part of my body that is the smallest is the upper chest area between my bust and shoulders and the size 10 dress form was 2" BIGGER than me in the upper chest.  I also realized that the dress form needed to be MUCH smaller than I am at the bottom in order for me to create the necessary "curves" of my belly and behind and still end up at the correct overall dimensions.

Once I had a size 6 dress form instead of a 10, here's what I did to get a fairly accurate representation of my own size and shape.  I knew I was going to have to add significantly to the bust on my dress form, so I went out to Jo-Ann's and bought several different packages of shoulder pads and bust enhancer pads that I could use in conjunction with the contoured pads that came in the Fabulous Fit kit.  I also purchased about a yard of the thickest polyester quilt batting they had.  As per the Fabulous Fit directions, I started at the top of my dress form, pulling down the tight knit fabric cover over one section of the form at a time, slipping the appropriate contoured pads into position beneath the cover to correct the dimensions and shape where needed. 

Who Knew?!  I Have Trapezius Muscles!!

We did use the Fabulous Fit shoulder pads on the shoulders (to correct the shoulder width and slope), but discovered that we also needed to put some small, thin Dritz shoulder pads at the back of the neck, along with a layer of the poly quilt batting at the base of the neck, to create the shape of what appears to be trapezius muscles at the back of my shoulders.  (I know, right?  How did I get muscles THERE?!  Must be from hours hunched over my sewing machine, free-motion quilting...). 

Wacoal 851205

My upper chest measures 33 1/2" and the size 6 dress form measured 33 5/8" in the upper chest, so no additional padding was needed there.  But Helena's bust was 4" too small at 34" instead of 38", and she obviously has not breastfed any children and/or she is somehow exempt from the laws of gravity because her boobs were also up too high.  In order to afflict her with Mom Boobs like mine, the dress form's boobs had to be kind of hanging off just BELOW the original bust point on the dress form.  We were having a VERY hard time getting the correct assortment of pads into the right shape and into position, and then they would slide out of place and look like alien boobs as soon as we pulled the cover down over the pads.  Finally, I decided to sacrifice a brand-new bra (Wacoal Halo Lace, Style 851205) that fits me perfectly, and that made everything so much easier.  Duh, right?  I mean, my own boobs require the magic of underwires and lots of heavy-duty elastic to stay up there where they belong, and unlike Helena's padding, my boobs are actually attached to my body! Once we put the bra on the dress form, and with the straps and back hooks adjusted exactly to fit my body, it was so much easier to create the correct bust shape on the dress form -- and the bra held everything in place on the dress form, just like it does on my body.  I'm going to wear a bra just like this one under any clothing I make for myself, so the $48 bra was a worthwhile sacrifice to get a good fit through the bust and upper shoulders.

The Fabulous Fit kit comes with one set of breast pads, which are shaped like this:

Fabulous Fit Contoured Breast Pads

Alice at Fabulous Fit had sent me an extra pair of breast pads when I went down to the size 6 dress form, but I ended up only using one set of their breast pads because they didn't stack well and they created a weird double ridge at the side when I tried to use two of them.  I really liked the way the breast pads create a smooth, even curve on the outside of the dress form, but I needed to use an assortment of different pads under the Fabulous Fit breast pads in order to fill in the space below the dress form's higher bust line.  Each of Helena's boobs is "built" from one Fabulous Fit contoured breast pad, one Fabulous Fit additional contour pad (shaped like an eye), one Dritz Tear Drop Shape Enhancer pad, and one Dritz Push Up Bust Enhancer pad.  (The Dritz Covered Set-In Shoulder pads in the photo below were used to give Helena her trapezius muscles at the back of her neck).


Additional Pads Used

So, a combination of four different pads to create each boob on the dress form -- no way would they stay in place when I pulled down the cover if they weren't trapped in position by the brassiere!  An added benefit of putting one of my own favorite bras on Helena is that now, even if I'm sewing in my pajamas, I can tell on Helena whether a neckline needs to be raised or a boatneck needs to be adjusted to prevent my bra from peeking out when I wear the finished garment.  Although you can't see it well in the photos, it is very easy to feel the edges of the bra through the cloth cover on the dress form.


Helena With Matching Mom Boobs

My upper chest is the ONLY part of my body that is even remotely a size 6, so everywhere else on the dress form needed padding.  I used a layer of the thick poly quilt batting that extended from just below the bra band in the front all the way to the bottom of the dress form.  The batting extends around to the back of the dress form on the sides, but although we needed to have a layer of padding on Helena's back, we had to cut the batting away from the small of her back and her derriere.  The waistband of my store-bought jeans and pants always gaps at the back of my waist, and I wanted to recreate that hollow on the dress form so that my ME-made clothes will hopefully fit better in that area.  Finally, I had to use not one but TWO of these Fabulous Fit Stomach Pads to create the correct amount of abdominal childbirth wreckage on Helena:



Fabulous Fit Stomach Pad

Helena's Two-Pad Tummy

Technically, you only get one stomach pad in the fitting kit, but they are identical to the Side Back pads (used to erase or reposition the waistline) and my dress form didn't need padding there.  I should note that these contoured stomach pads were placed BELOW the layer of quilt padding on my dress form, too.  They don't stack well and I had to offset them slightly, which would have created a double bump effect if the pads weren't placed beneath the batting.  Another reason I was glad that my dress form started out so much smaller than me!

Fabulous Fit "Back Hip" Pads

Last but not least, Miss Headless Helena needed butt pads.  Dress forms are so ridiculous, really, with their pancake flat tummies and behinds.  Who looks like that who isn't wearing Spanx, anyway?  The Fabulous Fit butt pads are euphemistically named Back Hip pads, as in Baby's Got Back Hip, and I'm All About That Back Hip...  They do a pretty good job of creating a more realistic tush on a flat dress form.  I didn't go nuts with trying to recreate the exact size and shape of my behind on the dress form, we just positioned the butt cheeks in approximately the right position, did a final check on the measurements, and then pulled the cover down the rest of the way.  I ended up using straight pins (the kinds with the large, round heads) sparingly to secure the stomach and butt pads in place so they wouldn't move when the cover was pulled down.  Definitely recommend the pins!

Headless Helena, Rear View

Now the Fabulous Fit system comes with TWO tightly fitting knit fabric covers.  The first cover has side seams, and that's the one you are gradually pulling down over the dress form, slipping the pads underneath as you go.  The second cover has a tight-fitting turtleneck and princess seams, and that cover goes on top at the end to smooth everything out.  I definitely needed to use the second cover since I had polyester quilt batting puffing up at the back of my dress form's neck, but I discovered that since the princess seamed cover wasn't custom made to match my curves, it was pulling straight from shoulder to full bust and from full bust to waist, enlarging the upper chest and below bust areas.  Okay for loose fitting garments, I suppose, but the whole point of this adventure was to match the dress form as closely as possible to my shape so I could use it to sew some fitted dresses and blouses.  My final tweak was to use more of my round-headed straight pins to pull the cover in close to the dress form above and below the bust line, as well as in the small of her back.  Those were the places where the second cover wasn't fitting close to the dress form.  Now, could I have altered that cover to make it fit, or made a new, custom cover that fit the adjusted shape of Helena better?  Yes, but then it would have been difficult to get the cover on the dress form unless I put in a zipper...  and how much time do I really want to spend on this?  The pins do what I need them to do.  I'm also aware of the fact that, if I have any weight changes or changes in the distribution of my lumps and bumps over time, I'm going to have to take that cover off and make the necessary adjustments to my dress form all over again.

Headless Helena, Ready to Sew

And so, my final word on the Fabulous Fit dress form and fitting system: It's a keeper.  I suggest allowing PLENTY of time to customize your dress form and enlisting the assistance of kind, honest friends.  My husband was helping me initially, but when he lost patience with the process my mom stepped in to help me finish the job.  Yes, you start by taking a comprehensive set of body measurements, but a lot of this is subjective eyeballing, especially when you are trying to figure out whether padding needs to be added all in front, all in back, or all the way around the dress form.  I did not personally put most of the pads on Helena, instead, I stood next to Helena in my underwear while my helper positioned the pads on the dress form to match the lumps and bumps on me.  In addition to the Fabulous Fit pads, the Dritz shoulder and bust pads, and the straight pins, I recommend a bottle of good wine and a box of Kleenex as essential tools for completing this process successfully.  The wine helps you keep your sense of humor, and helps you to stay warm while you're standing there shivering in your underwear for hours.  And the Kleenex is because once a dress form is customized to show EVERY BUMP AND LUMP ON YOUR BODY, it can be a little bit depressing -- especially since the dress form starts out with a perfect figure right out of the box.  I can't bring myself to post the pictures I took of my dress form that were from unflattering angles...  ;-)



NEW fabric, Prewashed and Ready to Iron

And now, as a reward to myself for all of this self-inflicted suffering and angst, I bought a bunch of cheerful fabric for my 1930's Farmer's Wife quilt blocks (YES, I am starting a new project and NO, I haven't finished any of my other quilts yet, thank you very much).

I'm still loving my paper-pieced pineapple log cabin quilt, but those blocks get monotonous to piece one after another, 97 fabric strips per block, and I need to sprinkle in some variety.  With the Farmer's Wife sampler quilt, I plan to explore more paper piecing as well as using templates rather than rotary cutting.

Choosing Fabrics for First Farmer's Wife Quilt Blocks!

The first block in the book is Addie, and I'm going to use templates for that one and will probably select coordinating fabrics to go with either the pink or the green version of the Tula Pink damask pattern (not both).  The second block is on the right, Aimee, and I'm going to paper piece that one with the Allison Harris Cluck Cluck Sew floral print, the striated blue fabric, and the solid black. 

That's what I was up to on Superbowl Sunday! 

I'm linking up with Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts, Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times, Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, and Design Board Monday at Bits 'n Bobs. 

Fabulous Fit Dress Form Review, Part One: Great System, But I Ordered the Wrong Size

I have made up my mind, rather recently, that I am going to learn to sew clothing that fits me properly. After years of frustrating shopping trips, trying on stacks of clothing in fitting rooms and coming home with only very stretchy knits or very formless, oversized styles and then hating everything in my closet, I have finally decided to put in the time to learn the techniques of garment sewing -- and, crucially, learning how to adjust commercial patterns for a custom fit.  I believe we can all look better and feel better in our clothing when it fits us properly, regardless of our various sizes and shapes. 

So last Spring, just before my bicycle accident, I signed up for a slew of fitting classes at the Atlanta Sewing & Quilting Expo.  One of the seminars I attended was Joe Vecchiarelli's Dress Form Fitting class, where he demonstrated how to pad a standard dress form to match the unique size AND shape of the person for whom you are sewing. 


Joe Vecchiarelli Customizing a Dress Form

Joe asked for a volunteer who didn't mind having her measurements called out for everyone to hear, so I raised my hand to be the guinea pig.  He used a polyester batting (shown in the photo above) in areas where he wanted to add width all the way around the dress form, along with contoured pads from Fabulous Fit where he needed to add curves to specific areas such as shoulders, bust, an upper back Dowager's hump, tummy, thighs, etc. 



With this system, you order a non-adjustable dress form according to your SMALLEST horizontal body measurement, and then pad up the areas where you need to make it larger.  You can use the Fabulous Fit pads with any company's dress form to achieve a more custom fit, and you can easily add or remove pads or shift their positioning on the dress form as your figure changes over time, or if you are sewing for people of various sizes and shapes.



Dritz Adjustable Dress Form

This system has several advantages over the more common adjustable dress forms that are widely available.  First, the custom padded dress form is completely pinnable for draping, whereas the adjustable dress forms have gaps the size of the Grand Canyon once the measurements are dialed out.  Second, when you adjust the bust dial on an adjustable dress form for a larger bust, it doesn't just increase the bust -- it increases the upper chest and back as well.  Third, although you can increase and decrease the width of an adjustable dress form at key points such as the bust, waist and hips, you cannot raise or lower those positions to reflect a petite or tall torso, or a lower bust line.  So even though you may be able to set the dials on an adjustable dress form to match your measurements at the bust, waist, and hips, the dress form won't help you much if her bust line is too high or if she has a wide, FLAT tummy and you have a narrow, ROUNDED tummy.  The whole point of a dress form is to approximate your body (or your customer or fit model's body, if you sew professionally) as closely as possible, so it makes sense to look for a dress form that can mimic the body's contours as closely as possible.

The area where I personally have the most fitting issues is the upper chest and shoulders.  I have a narrow frame with broad, square shoulders, coupled with a larger bust that is hell-bent on going to visit my belly button thanks to gravity, the passage of time, and Childbirth Wreckage.  So any time I try on a readymade fitted dress or blouse in a store, I get horrible horizontal wrinkles across the bust line and buttons straining, threatening to pop off and take someone's eye out, but if I go up enough sizes to fit the bust, I find that I am swimming in an ocean of excess fabric through the upper chest and back and I look like I am wearing a sack.  The side seams generally pull towards the front as well, because size large and extra-large assumes that one is bigger all the way around, not just in the front.  What's more, now that I have been dragged (reluctantly, kicking and screaming) into my forties, I find that I have NEW curves to contend with below the waistline: a tummy bulge that refuses to go away no matter how much I exercise and a bit more padding on my thighs and caboose. 

So I ordered my Fabulous Fit Studio Dress Form back in November, when I was working on my Victorian Christmas caroling costume.  I ordered a size 10, which was the size dress form that Joe recommended for me in his seminar based on my bust, waist, and hip measurements, which are between 1-2" larger than the dimensions of the size 10 form.  I was so frantic about getting that caroling costume done and then got caught up in the holiday rush, so I didn't get around to trying to customize the form to match my body until last week.

With the Fabulous Fit dress form system, you begin by stretching a tight-fitting knit fabric cover over your dress form from top to bottom, inserting padding between the dress form and the cover at key points as you go.  I started by adding shoulder pads to my dress form and then used the bust pads along with contour pads to increase the bust dimension and lower the bust line.  As I positioned these pads, I checked to be sure that the bust span matched mine (wider than the dress form's) as well as the bust height (lower than the dress form's). 

In unflattering photo above (deliberately NOT holding in my tummy) it looks like I lowered the bust line too much, but in reality it's pretty much spot-on.  Note that you can ONLY successfully lower the bust line if your dress form's bust is SMALLER than yours initially, because you lower the bust by placing the bust pads just beneath the fullest part of the dress form's bust, and this automatically adds to the bust dimension.  You can raise or lower the waist line in the same way to create a petite or tall torso, as long as the dress form's waist line is smaller than yours, by erasing her waistline with pads and creating a new waistline in the correct position to match your body.  So far, so good, or so I thought. 

At this point in the process, I took the mannequin's upper chest measurement (above the bust, under the armpits) and discovered that she measured close to 36" there, whereas I am only 33 1/2" in the upper chest.  Ugh!  I hadn't added any padding to the dress form in this area, so there was no way for me to make it any smaller.  Worse than the upper chest discrepancy was the dress form's shape below the waist line, however.  Yes, the waist and hip measurements of the dress form are between 1-2" smaller than my measurements, but as you can see, she has a totally FLAT tummy and no derriere, whereas my body has definite rounded protrusions in these areas.  When I put the contoured Fabulous Fit foam pads on the dress form in the correct areas to mimic those curves, her overall hip measurement grew to several inches LARGER than mine.  That was when I realized that the size 10 dress form was just not going to work for me at all.

Rear View, Me and the Size 10 Dress Form

I know you can't really see my behind very well in the black pants (this is by design!), but you can definitely see that the dress form isn't narrow enough in the under bust area and although her butt is too flat, her hips are too wide and the small of her back is not as concave as mine.  This is why the waistline of my jeans always gaps at the back.  Looking at this picture now, I see that I made the dress form's shoulders too square with those shoulder pads, so I will need to correct that to match the true angle of my shoulders.  (And yes, I AM standing straight in that photo; I have a crooked body and one of my shoulders is higher than the other). 

I spoke with Customer Service at Fabulous Fit and they agreed to exchange my dress form for a smaller size.  I sent them my measurements along with photos from all angles so they could get a better idea of why the size 10 form wasn't working for me, and they recommended that I go with a size 6 dress form and with additional padding for the bust area.  Their size 6 dress form measures 33 5/8" in the upper chest, where I measure 33 1/2", which is pretty darned close.  That way she'll be small enough in the upper chest, back, and waist, and I should be able to give her a rounded, mommy-loves-chocolate-tummy and a rounded caboose without her waist and hip dimensions ending up too large. 

Meanwhile, the moral of this story is that you can only make a dress form LARGER with pads, not smaller.  If you're in doubt about which size dress form to order, go with the SMALLER size.  Take ALL of your measurements, not just the bust, waist, and hips, and choose the SMALLEST dress form size that corresponds to at least one of your measurements.  If you are bigger than a B or C bra cup, your upper chest measurement is probably the one to go with.  If you need to lower the bust line for a more mature, gravity-affected silhouette as so many of us do, then it's even more important that the dress form's bust measures several inches smaller than yours.  Another way to think of this is that the dress form needs to match your skeletal frame because we all carry our weight differently.  If you are slender with a narrow rib cage and you gain 20 or 30 pounds, your horizontal dimensions increase but your underlying bone structure remains the same.  As long as your dress form matches your skeletal frame you can always add padding wherever it's needed to match your changing silhouette and the unique distribution of your body weight, but if the dress form isn't small enough to begin with you have no room to add your personal bumps and bulges.

I do like this dress form system so far.  Even though it turned out that the size 10 dress form won't match my body, I can see that the Fabulous Fit pads on a smaller form are going to enable me to mimic my shape much more accurately than any adjustable dress form could ever do.  And yes, I know that I could have a custom dress form made to match my measurements for a small fortune, but what if I finally lose a few pounds, or gain a few more?  I am aware of the low-cost DIY duct tape dress forms that were featured in Threads magazine a few years ago, but I wanted something with a sturdy base that wouldn't knock over, something that would look nice in my studio when it's not in use.  I also didn't want to be sticking pins through duct tape, looking at duct tape, or trying to drape fabric on a slippery duct tape surface.  I'm looking forward to trying this process again with the Fabulous Fit pads once I receive the smaller dress form, and I'll be sure to do a follow-up post to let you know how that works out.

Do you use a dress form?  If so, which kind?  Have you used Fabulous Fit pads or any other system to customize your dress form to your own size and shape?  Let me know what did and didn't work for you in the comments. Happy Stitching!

S-L-O-W-L-Y Starting the Skirt Project, Research and Discovery Phase

Making A Start: The Package Is Opened!

Ten days ago, I announced my plans to make myself a skirt.  See how much I have accomplished so far?  I actually bought my cotton voile print skirt fabric, solid navy cotton voile lining fabric, invisible zipper, thread, and twill tape over a month ago.  Then I spent several weeks procrastinating researching and agonizing over:

1. Whether and how to prewash my fabrics
2. What kind of interfacing to use for the waistband of the skirt 
3. What size should I cut out

I know my mom is going to laugh when she reads this.  She would have started cutting and sewing immediately and finished the skirt in a day.  I, on the other hand, need to research, ponder, mull, consult the Internet, and only THEN can I proceed.  Since I have only ever made one garment that ended up wearable (and I was disappointed with the fit), I started by purchasing a new book to teach me the basics.  I picked the Threads Magazine Sewing Guide because, having subscribed to Threads in the past, I know that Threads is all about garment sewing as an art form, with the goal of achieving couture quality garments with the best fit possible.  The frustrating thing about trying to learn to sew from a monthly magazine is that each issue has a random assortment of articles that never seem to mesh with the project I have in mind.  So, for instance, I have studied articles on how to contour princess seams, underlining with silk organza, and how to do a hand-picked zipper from reading Threads magazine, but I don't know what to do first when I open a new pattern.  The Threads Sewing Guide seems to be a compilation of articles from the magazine, but arranged logically so that a beginner like me can start reading at the beginning and know what to do.





The Skirt Pattern: New Look 6708

At this point I should probably explain that my goal for this project is not to have another skirt in my closet.  I already have a bunch of skirts in my closet, and if I really needed another one I could go to the store and buy one faster and probably for less money than it will cost me to make this one myself: $5 pattern, $45 for 3 yds of floral print fabric, $1.50 zipper, $1.30 twill tape, $3.35 thread, $17.25 for 3 yards of lining fabric, and $4.30 for an 8-yard bolt of fusible interfacing that I got with a 50% off coupon...  It is costing me about $78 to make this skirt.  Gone are the days of sewing for thrift!  But the skirt is not the goal, and saving money on a skirt is not the goal.  The whole point of making this skirt is to teach myself garment sewing on a simple project that is easy to fit, so I can learn the basics of reading and following a pattern and constructing a garment from start to finish, and then work my way up to more difficult garments like blouses and dresses -- again, not to save money, but because I have a horrible time finding anything in the stores that fits me well.  I took some great classes on pattern alterations and fitting when I went to Atlanta in March for the Sewing & Quilt Expo, but I think I need to get more comfortable with the basics before I tackle something that will require pattern alterations.  I want to take my time, learn as much as I can from this skirt, and do everything in my power to ensure that this garment is a "win" -- meaning that it fits well and looks good enough that, if it was a ready-made item in a store, I would have liked it enough to purchase it.

The Fabric: Pretty Potent Echinachea on Cotton Voile

So in answer to Quandary #1, yes, I did prewash my fabrics, both the print fashion fabric and the lining fabric.  They are 100% cotton voile fabrics of slightly different weights, so two concerns: First of all, when I establish the finished length of this skirt, I want that to be the REAL finished length of the skirt.  I do not want it to shrink two inches the first time I wash it.  Second, what if the print fashion fabric shrank more than the lining fabric and I ended up with the lining hanging out at the bottom of the skirt?  That actually happened to me with a ready-to-wear skirt from Ann Taylor, and after shortening the lining and having the top layer of the skirt CONTINUE to shrink, I finally added crochet lace to the skirt hem to make up the difference.  But since I'm going to all the bother of sewing this skirt myself, it's worth the extra trouble to preshrink the fabric before cutting into it.  I washed the fabrics in the machine with the Very Warm temperature setting and dried them in the dryer.  I plan to wash the finished skirt in cold water and line dry.

As for Quandary #2...  My pattern calls for fusible interfacing, period.  As if there was only one kind of fusible interfacing out there, and everyone knows where to get it.  Hah!  There must have been twenty different kinds of fusible interfacing at JoAnn's, some of it tissue-thin, others that were stiff and reminded me of heavy weight cutaway machine embroidery stabilizer.  How am I supposed to know which one to use?  I consulted several different sources for this one.  According to my Threads book, the general rule of thumb is that you want to use an interfacing that is similar in weight or lighter weight than your fashion fabric.  That helps.  But then I consulted another great book, Sandra Betzina's More Fabric Savvy, which lists today's common garment fabrics alphabetically and gives sewing recommendations for each of them.  Betzina has a section in the book for Batiste & Voile, and she recommends interfacing with self-fabric.  Hunh?  But my pattern says FUSIBLE interfacing!  I consulted another resource, Shannon Gifford's sewing tutorial for Voile at EmmaOneSock (one of my favorite online garment fabric shops).  Gifford says, "If you prefer to use a fusible interfacing, use the thinnest fusible available... However, the best interfacing for this fabric is a coordinating solid colored silk organza."  When I went to JoAnn's for interfacing, they did not have any coordinating silk organza, and the lightest weight fusible interfacing they had was a Pellon Ultra Lightweight Fusible Interfacing By the Bolt.  It's 100% polyester and the care instructions are machine wash warm, tumble dry and warm iron.  Fortunately, I bought a little more fabric than the pattern called for, so I'll be able to experiment.  I'll try both ways, fusible interfacing and self-fabric interfacing, and see which one looks and feels better.

Fitting Class with Lorraine Henry

And finally, Quandary #3, which size do I cut out?  Well, the reason I picked a loose-fitting skirt for this project is that it should be fairly easy to fit, just as long as I go by my waist measurement when deciding what size to cut out.  Easy enough, right?  As long as I know WHERE MY WAIST IS...  I learned from Lorraine Henry's fitting classes to tie a piece of elastic around my middle and then bend at the waist from side to side, forwards and backwards.  The elastic naturally settles at the elusive Natural Waistline (nowhere near where the waist of today's clothing is generally located) and THAT'S where you take your waist measurement.  No sucking in your abs, just relax those tummy muscles or the skirt will be way too tight and I won't want to wear it!  I got 30 1/4" for my waist measurement, and then I looked at the back of the pattern envelope and saw that a 30" waist is a size 16 and a 32" waist is a size 18.  Panic!!  That can't be right!  The skirts in my closet that fit comfortably are size 6 or size 8.  I understand that pattern sizes and RTW clothing sizes are no longer comparable due to serious vanity sizing in ready-to-wear, but size 16 for my skirt sounds HUGE. 

So I decided to figure out how big the waist of the finished skirt would be if I made a size 16, so I could compare that to the waist of the skirts hanging in my closet.  I measured along the top edge of the skirt waistband pieces, and subtracted out the side seam allowances, and I got a finished waist band of approximately 32 3/4" for a size 16 skirt (not the same as the waist measurement for that size, because the pattern adds wearing ease and the skirt is designed to sit 1" below the natural waistline).  Then I went into my closet and discovered that the most comfortable skirts I own actually do measure around 32" at the waist.  Go figure!  It looks like I'll be making a size 16, after all.  I'm still a little nervous about that -- what if I made a mistake measuring the pattern pieces or subtracting out seam allowances?  Just to be on the safe side, I think I'll cut the waistband pieces out of muslin, stitch them together, and try it on before I cut into the real fabric.  Maybe I should make the WHOLE skirt out of muslin, since I don't really know what I'm doing? 

Ironing Pattern Pieces

Meanwhile, I did manage to cut the pattern pieces apart and iron out the folds and wrinkles (dry iron, medium setting).  But then I stalled out, remembering how I made Lars a cute pair of toddler pajamas (a long, LONG time ago) in size 2T, and then when he outgrew them I couldn't reuse the pattern to make him a larger pair because I had already cut out the smallest size, cutting off all of the larger sizes of the multi-size pattern.  What if I cut on the size 16 line to cut out my muslin, but then after sewing up the muslin I realize that a smaller or larger size would be better?  I'm making the 24" long version of the skirt this time, but what if I decide that I want to make the 29" long skirt someday in the future and I've already cut the extra length off my pattern?  Should I trace the original tissue pattern pieces onto butcher paper, Swedish Tracing Paper, or some other material before cutting them out?  Or is that silly for something so straightforward as this skirt pattern?  I haven't decided yet.

Today I spent some time straightening up and organizing my studio so I have room to work on this project.  I ordered a roll of the Swedish Tracing Paper from Amazon because, even if I don't use it for this pattern, I know I'll want it for when I'm ready to make a lot of pattern alterations to dress and blouse patterns.  I had hoped to make more progress on the skirt today, but I ended up writing about it here instead.  Which is fine.  Writing about it helps me to sort out all of the conflicting advice gleaned from various sources, and helps me to clarify what to do next:

1. I need to read through the pattern instructions and make sure I understand everything.  I may need to look some things up in my sewing books, like how to do a sewn-in self-fabric interfacing, if I decide to go that route.

2. I need to decide how I'm going to finish my seams.  My Fabric Savvy book suggests either French seams or a 3-thread overlock stitch. 

3. I need to trace off the pattern pieces (if I decide to do that) and make up a muslin to check that I like the fit and the style. 

...and THEN I can cut out the pieces from the fashion fabric and the lining!

I'm linking up with Esther's WIPs on Wednesday even though this one isn't quilting related (I hope that's okay).  Meanwhile, we're headed to Carowinds tomorrow to ride the roller coasters with Lars and Anders.  Fingers crossed for light crowds and clear skies!