spring sewing: a red velvet Society dress

So, I'm very aware that I posted a spring sewing plan and then just didn't update here for basically the whole of spring. It's not that I haven't been sewing; I've either completed or attempted the majority of my plans. It's just that almost all of them involved new-to-me patterns and my success rate has been very sadly low. I hate the maxi skirt, the trousers are unwearable, I can't get the bodysuit to sit right for photos, the zip broke on the shorts the second time I put them on. It's been really discouraging. (Also I've discovered that despite what it says on the envelope, the slip dress that comes with M6696 does not, in fact, have cup sizes, so I don't know if it's worth bothering with now.) I am in active need of things to wear and nothing is working, and motivation is now in short supply. 

But amongst all this, there has been one single success story. 

And of course it's one of the impractical things. Saying that, I have actually worn this one out already, within 24 hours of finishing it, and while it's obviously very fancy I also didn't feel uncomfortably overdressed in it. Even though it has a massive cowl hood. I think more overtly vintage-looking things like this give me a bit of leeway in this area; the style is specific enough to convey "this is just what I look like" versus "I have seriously misjudged the dress code". Which is not to say I'll be returning to overtly vintage styles generally, but it is useful when you want to go out for dinner on a Thursday night wearing a red velvet dress with a giant hood. 

This is the Society dress from Gertie's Patreon, and it has a view different options: shorter A-line skirt or floor length skirt with godets; short puff sleeves or long bishop sleeves; massive hood or no massive hood. Obviously what I immediately wanted was the most dramatic version possible, but that's a lot of fabric and I didn't know if I was going to like it. So to test it out, I made the A-line skirt and short sleeves. I was not prepared to give up the hood, even for a test (plus I wanted to know how it would sit on me). 

I made a straight size 8, H cup. By shortening the skirt a couple of inches and taking about an inch of width out of the hood, I managed to fit it onto three metres of fabric. Incidentally, I still ended up putting quite a wide hem on this one to get it to sit above the knee and I'm 5'8'' with long thighs, so I think "knee-length skirt" might be a bit of a misnomer. For the most part it fits me very well, though it doesn't quite sit under my bust the way I think it should. I would add a small amount of length to the bodice for any future versions.

I found this to be a fairly simple project in terms of construction, and I did most of it in one afternoon. The instructions as written for almost all of Gertie's knit patterns seem to preclude the use of an overlocker (all seam allowances are directed to be pressed open) but I ignored that because I refuse to return to the tedious days of the zig-zag stitch and did almost all of it on the overlocker except the neck facing. I hemmed the skirt and sleeves and secured the neck facing by hand, and that bit took many hours and was not completed in the same afternoon. 

Something that surprised me was that I didn't end up shortening the sleeves. I almost always do when they come out boob length like this, but when I pinned them up they just looked weird (I think because of the puff at the shoulder) and I ended up doing a very narrow hem to keep as much of the length as possible. The style of the bodice seems to be enough to prevent the Massive Boob Shelf look I usually get. 

I'm really pleased with this dress and hope I can find ways to wear it semi-regularly. I do intend to try the full ridiculous version at some point, and if I were more of a vintage person in general the base dress would be amazing for everyday wear. I keep thinking about trying it, but I know it wouldn't work for me - this dress is me because it's wine-coloured shiny velvet with a massive hood, super glamorous and unnecessary, and a version meant for daywear would just make me feel kind of dowdy. Shame, really, because it's so comfy. But at least now I'm ready for any future parties that require me to come dressed as Vintage Red Riding Hood. 

I'm not sure yet what's happening when it comes to posting the rest of my spring projects. Ideally I would still put them up here in some form because reviews of patterns you didn't entirely get on with are often the most useful ones for other people (and for Future Jen who comes across one of the patterns in two years and wonders why she hasn't made another), but we do run into the age old dilemma known as Putting Pictures of Myself I Don't Like on the Internet, and I'm just not sure I'm in a place for that right now. But we'll see. 

My busy February and March spilled over into April as well, so it's only this past week that I've finally had a bit of breathing time. Next week is also chill and I'm hoping to use it to pair patterns to fabric and find the motivation to try out another pair of trousers. I cannot possibly stress enough how much I need another pair of trousers. What I need to do is bribe myself to properly refit and redraft my trouser block, but I just so fundamentally don't want to do it that the usual bribes (ie fabric, cookies, nail varnish) don't work. To the point that I end up convincing myself I don't even like the bribe thing that much. Sigh. But somehow, some way, there needs to be trousers, and hopefully that will be my next post. Fingers crossed for next week! 

unnecessary versions of necessary things: Audrey cigarette pants

So once again, my health has not been great, and I need to stop coming here and making pronouncements that I'm totally fine now, guys. I am not totally fine, I still don't know exactly what's wrong, and I can't really commit to regular posting at the moment. But I did take some photos the other week, so I'm going to jump on the okay day I'm having to share something.

I've said on my last couple of planning posts that I need more trousers, and that becomes truer with every passing day. My waist is now eight inches smaller than it was this time last year and there comes a point where you can't feasibly take a pair of trousers in any more and have them still look okay. The trousers in this post are none of the things I suggested I might make and I'm honestly not sure how much wear they'll get, but they are trousers nevertheless, so let's review. 

(Also I dyed my hair black, which so far almost nobody has noticed. I'm thinking I might keep it for a while, though.)

This is another pattern I got from Gertie's Patreon, the Audrey cigarette pants. I hadn't had any immediate plans to make these, but then I was in a fabric shop after having a really shitty day, saw some fuchsia ponte, message Patrick asking if I wanted a pair of stretchy fuchsia trousers. And if the answer you want to that question is "no" then Patrick is not your man to go to for advice. So I bought it. 

This was a quick enough sew that I managed it on a day of 32 degree heat (with a break in the middle to stand by a fan). Elastic waistband, pockets, pocket stay made of power mesh. I like all these details, though I will say that anything put into these pockets is extremely and immediately visible so I would probably only use them for holding my phone as I wander round the house. This particular waistband is one of those where the elastic is the same length as the fabric so there's no gathering, and I strongly prefer that. 

(Also, check me out having visible muscles! This photo is the first time I've really seen it.)

The main problem I have with these trousers is the fit. I have the problem I always have with more fitted trouser legs, which is that they look too big and wrinkly when I make them in my usual size, but taking any fabric out makes them too skintight for me to want to wear in public. I also clearly need some sort of alteration in the front crotch but I'm not exactly sure what. Any advice on what I might need to do there would be very welcome! 

I'm interested to see whether I'll feel able to wear these. So far I've only found this one way to style them that I like, and given that this is just a literal bra there aren't going to be many occasions for dressing like this. Which is a shame, really, because this is some amazing 80s trash right here. I can't really tuck things into them because you can see the lines, though I might get away with a bodysuit, and I just can't see myself becoming a tunics person. I'm definitely down to try things out (as long as they're not tunics, or really anything where the goal is to cover up most of the trousers). 

I am planning to have another go at this pattern. In September I got to go back to Abakhan for the first time in ages (I used to go with my mother-in-law when we visited Patrick's family, but they've moved several hours further away so it's very rarely an option anymore) and I picked up some green ponte which is much thicker, and thus maybe more forgiving, than this pink stuff. I really like the idea of the silhouette and would like to find a way to make a pair that feel a little more wearable for everyday. It's definitely the fit not the colour that's giving me pause, obviously - I never met an obnoxious trouser I didn't like. 

I do have another couple of sets of pictures taken, so hopefully I can get my head round another write-up or two this week. If not, I'll be back when I can. Sewing is still happening on and off, though not quite to the degree I might have liked, and I have made some stuff I'm genuinely pleased with. Fingers crossed I'll post again very soon! 

Charm Patterns Audrey cigarette pants

Fabric: Fuchsia ponte from Fabrics Galore

Cost: £24

Pattern details: Cigarette pants in two lengths with slash pockets, mesh pocket stay and wide elastic waistband. Capri length comes with optional grommets and lacing

Size: 10 waist, 12 hips

Alterations: None

Would make again/would recommend: Maybe/Maybe

a deeply unseasonal sweater knit dress (and bonus top)

 In surprising New Silhouette news, I'm considering becoming a shoulders person. 

I've been in and out of Gertie's Patreon a few times now. I don't love all the patterns she puts out there - I'm not particularly into vintage cosplay these days and I was never into the cutesy stuff - but they usually have interesting details, and a good chunk of it is stuff that I can make up in a not-so-vintage style. This one is the Joan wiggle dress, and this version is a trial I made to see if I a) liked the style in general and b) wanted to use my raspberry leopard print velvet on this pattern. (answers: a) yes and b) jury's still out.) I always loved the idea of this kind of dress but shied away because of potential stomach clinginess. And, as you may be getting bored of hearing me say, my concern about that sort of shit has been rapidly on the decrease. It was time. 

The fabric is a purple and black marl sweater knit from Fabric Land, which I bought three metres of initially and then found myself with more than half of it left after deciding to make another version of my Named Ruska hoodie hack with it. I never bothered posting it, I don't think, but I made it in January and it gets a decent amount of wear when it's colder. I'd assumed that the leftover fabric would have to be a top or jumper of some kind and was originally only going to make the top version of the Joan rather than the dress, but this is not a fabric-hungry pattern and I thought, fuck it, sexy sweater dress in the middle of summer, why not. 

Construction-wise this is pretty straightforward; the biggest problem I had was that the fabric kept breaking my overlocker (inexplicably, it instantly unthreaded one of the loopers every time I tried to put this fabric under it) so I had to sew it all on the regular machine. I used a scrap of black viscose jersey to line the bodice and sleeves and get a nice finish. It's meant to be longer than this, but I didn't quite have enough fabric for the full thing. And, if we're honest, I would have ended up cutting it above the knee anyway. 

Visually, I'm super into this. I think it looks great. Both the silhouette and the neckline are pretty new to me, so it's cool to see myself in something so different. Obviously it's extremely off-the-shoulder and there's no way to cheat wearing a regular bra with it (I mean, in these photos I am wearing a regular bra with the straps pulled down, but I wouldn't want to spend an entire evening like that). So the amount of wear this gets depends on whether I can find a longline strapless bra that comes in a G cup, which I honestly didn't think would be that difficult. I was wrong. I am actively on the hunt as we speak. I think it says a lot about how much I like this exposed-shoulders thing that I'm willing to entirely throw out my longstanding rule about clothes you have to wear special bras for.

I also don't really have shoes that go with this. I picked these because I'm six foot one in them and I feel like this is a dress that one takes up more space in, but for real life I probably need something else. 

(I took all these photos while listening to burlesque music. This may or may not be apparent.)

I also had about 50% of the tiger print fabric left over from my Nettie (which is done and photographed and I will post at some point, but I have zero things to say about it so I'm waiting until I have a post I can tack it on the end of), so I decided to use it to make a top:

Which I'm also kind of into. Is it a bit much for everyday? Sure. Do I often enjoy being a bit much? I mean... you've all seen the stuff I make. It's going to have to be a really comfortable strapless bra, though. For the dress version I lined the bodice, but I decided that was an extra layer I didn't need in a top, so I just cut an extra strip of jersey to use as a facing and topstitched it down. It could probably do with some elastic in the neckline, so I will probably go back and put that in before it stretches out much more. 

(The trousers are Victory Patterns Esther. I made them in 2020, they didn't fit me at all until a few months ago. I'm glad I was pleased enough with the construction to stubbornly hold onto them because they're currently my best-fitting pair of trousers.)

I would absolutely make this again, after I have acquired this mythical strapless bra. I've rarely done exposed shoulders at any point in my life and I'm extremely here for the way it looks on me. I'm still undecided about the raspberry velvet, though. I really wanted to make something that I might be able to wear semi-regularly, which this absolutely wouldn't be, but maybe there's something to be said for making a very occasional dress to just straight up murder people with. Technically this pattern would only use about half the amount of velvet I have, so I would have the option to also make something a little less... specific, shall we say, with the rest of it. But I don't know what that something would be, and the temptation to just make this dress but floor length might be too great to resist. I'm really not sure. 

Up next: either a pair of trousers, or several things I can't stretch out to their own individual posts, depending on which one I finish writing first! 

Charm Patterns Joan wiggle dress (Patreon)

Fabric: sweater knit from Fabric Land
Cost: approx. £7.50
Pattern details: Close-fitting knit dress (and top) with either a high slash neck or off-the-shoulder sweetheart neckline
Size: 10 H cup
Alterations: Skirt shortened by several inches
Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Yes

some Lucille trousers and a bonus Hepburn top

I did not make it to Walthamstow last week. I was not feeling well and stressful things were happening (until Thursday we still had a level of obligation to the horrible old Flat of Doom, which have now finally been dispensed with. Much to our amusement, the landlord apparently thought he could just... sell it? As it was, with the warped floorboards and illegal wiring and massive amounts of obvious mould and water damage? And was astonished to hear that he couldn't charge the best part of a million pounds for that? Both a cheapskate AND a dumbass, it turns out), and I wasn't feeling up to it. You need a certain amount of resilience for a busy local market in times where all restrictions have been lifted but you'd still rather not get Covid. So here instead are some finished things! 

I joined Gertie's Patreon for a few months this year, thinking it would probably be worth it because historically I've got on very well with her drafting and sizing, and I downloaded several patterns I'm planning to try out (I've since unsubscribed because I found the Charm Scout thing insufferable - it's entirely valid to like that kind of branding, but I can't stand it. I was a Girl Guide, and I was extraordinarily bad at it). I started with the pattern I was most interested in, the Lucille Trousers:

I was fully taken in by the original photos, which had several models wearing the trousers in a variety of solid jewel tones paired with black T-shirts, which is extremely my aesthetic, so I just... copied it. You might recognise this crepe from my last fabric haul post, and it makes a cracking pair of trousers. It's soft, it's drapey, it doesn't wrinkle when I sit down, it wasn't an absolute bastard to press. If he'd had this in other colours I would have bought every single one. 

I will confess I had to go back to the market and buy more of this, because I cannot describe to you how incompetent my first attempt at this pattern was. I was deeply unfocused and things kept going wrong in ways I couldn't even parse. It's happened enough times now that I need to make it a rule: if I fuse the interfacing to the visible side of the fabric, I am not in the right mindspace to be sewing and should stop immediately. This second attempt went much more smoothly and I had a nice wearable pair of trousers after a day's work. Once again I found that Gertie's draft works pretty well for my shape, and because the trousers are so roomy I was able to just make a straight size instead of blending out. 

I've worn these a looooot over the past few months. They fit well, they're comfortable, I'm as happy to wear them around the house as I am outside, they have excellent deep pockets, and they're a bit less stupidly wide leg than the 7726 trousers I've been wearing for years (and still do, don't get me wrong, I'm wearing them right now). And yet I'm still not sure if I think they look good on me? The waist is very, very high, which I sometimes think looks cool and sometimes think looks ridiculous. It's less the actual trousers and more that my visual instinct is very sure there should be more space between waistband and boobs. Something I'd quite like to do is to experiment with making a facing for these trousers, so they just hit at the natural waist. I'd need to change the lapped zip to an invisible, but that's not a huge alteration. 

I also made a second Hepburn T-shirt from my spring haul fabric, and while I have been wearing this I don't love it anywhere near as much as my black ones. The standard pontes I buy don't seem to quite work for this pattern as well as I might like, so next time I think I'll find myself a thicker French terry. 

(Please excuse scenery change. There were very weird things going on with the light when I was taking these pictures.)

I definitely want to have another go at the trousers once I find a suitable fabric. After three months of extremely consistent wear I still don't know how I feel about the waist, so I'd like to try additional pairs both made up as is and also with the waistline brought down a little. I'm also planning to continue trying the Patreon patterns I downloaded - I'll definitely be making the knit tops and the shorts, and I'm currently trying to determine whether I like the Swing Coat as a pattern or if I'm just taken in by the photos of the bright red version with the dramatic lining. It's probably the latter, if I'm honest. 

Up next: an actual seasonal sewing plan! Unless I don't make it to Walthamstow again! In which case it will have to wait! 

Charm Patterns Lucille trousers (Patreon)

Fabric: Violet crepe from Walthamstow Market
Cost: £9
Pattern details: Wide-leg, super high waisted trousers with deep pockets, front pleats, a back lapped zip, and a choice of straight waistband or shaped one with fisheye darts
Size: 14
Alterations: None
Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Yes

autumn sewing: Hepburn tops and Plausible Deniability Trousers

 2021 is here! So far I've been alternately very sad and angry that we've Brexited, scared about how fast the new Covid variant is spreading in London and how poorly the response to it is being managed, and also somehow riding on a very small wave of motivation to get stuff done. The decorators are starting work on our green parrots bedroom today, I've drawn up approximately ninety lists and spreadsheets to manage our move and my health and general survival, and this week's plan is to get sewing again. 

Today I'm going to talk about a couple of things I made towards the tail end of last year and struggled to formulate useful thoughts on:

To begin, the Charm Patterns Hepburn top. The pattern is a mix-and-match one fairly typical of the company's style, and so far I've only made this one variant - basic dolman sleeve round-neck top. I have, however, made it four times, and three of them are made from this exact fabric. I bought two metres of it, ended up with closer to three metres because there was a big hole cut in it and he gave me that bit for free, and I thought I'd make a full loungewear set out of it. Instead I made three of these (two short sleeve, one long) because it is my perfect T-shirt. The pattern has French darts that create cup sizes up to G-H, thus allowing me to use a snuggly low-stretch knit and have it fit comfortably. The fabric and pattern together make up the nicest T-shirt I have ever owned, just beating out the Betty Boop T-shirt I bought from New Look in 1998 that was good enough quality to survive on heavy rotation for a full decade. 

However - and this is the reason the review took so long - I don't want this to come across as an unconditional recommendation for the pattern. I love the end product, I will make it again, I may even make some of the other versions. But I feel like this is one of the most "if you like that sort of thing" patterns I've ever used, and if you'd already dismissed it I wouldn't recommend you change your mind. If you don't like dolman sleeves or are bothered by any excess fabric near the armpit, if you don't like turned and stitched necklines... there are many reasons you might not like this. 

For me, it's amazing. My style in separates is very much black on top/colour on the bottom (I actually wish I had more colourful tops but I've never found a way to style them that I like) so this goes with every single thing I might ever need to wear it with. I love the neckline, I like that the back is a tiny bit different, and miraculously, it fits me in a way that doesn't ride up. I will wear these three identical tops to death, and if the fabric is still for sale at the market when we get out of lockdown (sob), I will buy a bunch more of it because it's perfect. I'm even looking forward to picking up some velvet and making the version with billowy sleeves!

One thing I would say even to people who don't have any misgivings about the style or construction is that this pattern really, really shows up mediocre fabric. Allow me to demonstrate:

This fabric is a ponte from Fabric Land that I've used before, and thought it was... fine. Nothing special, nothing terrible. I was happy to buy it again for this colour, which I really like on me. But in this pattern every single one of the fabric's weak points is really, really obvious. It's not thick enough to smooth nor thin enough to drape, it's a little too synthetic and a little too shiny (in an unintentional way), it clings oddly, and having a seam in this fabric running down the top of your arm is not something I would recommend. I will probably not keep this version, which is a shame because the colour is SO good. 

While we're here, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my Plausible Deniability Trousers. These were on my autumn sewing plans and also one of my Minerva projects. I tend to prefer not to mix the two so that I can keep my Minerva projects separate and not have a hole in my documentation here, but there was good quality black jersey on offer and I couldn't say no. 

I debated using an actual trouser pattern, but I didn't want to rush into that untested and had no back-up ponte lying around, so I made the pyjama bottoms from McCalls 7875. I've already made these twice in thicker jerseys and so I knew the fit would be OK. Rather than make the hem bands I just lengthened the pattern. I overcompensated in length slightly and I've taken them up a bit since I took these photos. They look fine here with wedge sandals, but... I am not wearing these with wedge sandals. I am wearing these with multiple pairs of furry slipper socks shoved inside an ankle boot. 

I'm really happy with my PDTs. They fulfil the "I don't want to go out today, but I could" niche perfectly. I don't know how many more pairs I want - it would be very easy to just switch to a wardrobe full of tracksuit bottoms and I know that wouldn't be great for my self-esteem - but I'm so pleased to have these. They have enabled me to leave the house more than once since I made them. 

Actual finished garment posts might be a bit sporadic for the next month or so while we get ready to move and get settled in the new place, but I do intend to carry on posting. I'm still working on a write-up of my most common fitting adjustments and I'm also going to do before/after posts on my new sewing space. Plus hopefully more! One of my non-sewing resolutions for 2021 is to finally unstick my writer's block and I want to be able to put together text posts that don't require the super-specific scope of you have to review this thing you made. Writing! I can do it! 

Charm Patterns Hepburn top

Fabric: French terry-type black ponte from Walthamstow

Cost: £6

Pattern details: Knit top with a V back, French darts and many different sleeve, neckline, and collar variations

Size: 10 G/H, blending out to 14 in the hips

Alterations: None

Would make again/would recommend: Yes/Maybe