winter sewing: Trina dress

I made my first version of the Victory Patterns Trina dress back in autumn 2016, and I glibly stated that the beach cover-up I made worked sufficiently well for me to move on to an Actual Dress. Then I completely and utterly forgot about it. But last year I suddenly got a hankering for a nice black dress I could wear to cocktail bars, and the Trina popped into my head as something that could be chic, a little different, and remain comfortable through my standard practice of stuffing my face with bar snacks until they won't let me have any more.

The fabric is the same silky viscose I used for my first Magnolia dress, but in black rather than navy. I kind of knew as soon as I bought the navy that the black would be perfect for this dress, but I held off buying more until January. Fortunately he still had some, and was still happy to give me a hefty discount in exchange for buying quite a lot of it.

(I'm now going to switch to inside photos, because the light was just horrific when I took these first few but I felt you couldn't get the full effect of the sleeves when I was standing on the stairs. Some of said inside photos were taken before I cut my hair and some were taken after, so there's slight haircut whiplash. Sorry.)

My first version was ever so slightly tight across the bust, so the only adjustment I made to the pattern was to go up one size in the bust, using the neckline from the smaller size, and that worked pretty much perfectly.

There are two issues with this pattern. One, the instructions. They've tried to make them as comprehensive as possible, which means they take six (SIX) bullet points to say "sew two lines of gather stitching on bodice front between notches and attach to front edge of sleeve". Two bullet points to explain how to gather, then separate points for aligning the pieces, pinning, actually gathering, and sewing. I'm sorry, but if you need it explained in that much detail, this pattern is too complicated for you. This is not an absolute beginner garment. If you'd given me this pattern before I'd learnt how to gather fabric I would hidden in the cupboard and cried. Attaching the bias facing piece to the neckline takes another twelve steps, and when I last made this two and a half years ago I spent ages trying to work out if I'd missed out a step because there were so many instructions. It was almost worse this time because I read the first couple of bullet points, thought "oh right, I get it", finished attaching the facing and then went back to almost an entire page of further neckline facing instructions. They tell you to understitch the facing before turning the entire thing to the inside and topstitching it down, and I cannot see why you would do that. What does that add?

The second issue (and possibly the reason I haven't seen too many people make this dress) is that it's really, really easy for it to accidentally look like a bathrobe. Especially if you're making it up as a special dress and using pretty, shiny, slinky fabrics. When I had this dress almost finished and went to check it in the mirror, I thought it was going to be unwearable. It was shiny and slinky and black and voluminous, which gave bathrobe vibes and bin bag vibes in equal measure. And since it was late, my eye makeup had melted and my hair had gone a bit wild, meaning there was also something of the furious jilted witch about me. Let's say it wasn't my best look.

I fixed this problem as I fix most problems with dresses, by lopping a good chunk of length off the skirt. This works much better proportionally, at least for me - having more leg on show balances out the huge sleeves quite nicely.

When I wrote my initial plan I hadn't thought of this as my birthday dress, but once I realised I'd be making it in late January, it seemed to make sense. I wore it out for dinner with Patrick on Friday (amazing restaurant with a "Press for Champagne" button at every table) and then for a spontaneous trip to a social dance afterwards, and it worked perfectly for both. I was a bit surprised by the latter because a) I tend to think of wrap dresses as slightly precarious for dancing in and b) I was really quite drunk by the time I got there, which ups the possibility of a wardrobe malfunction at the best of times. But the wrap was very secure, the skirt stayed down, the neckline didn't so much as budge, and nobody accidentally put their hand up my sleeve instead of on my shoulder when catching me after a spin. What more could you ask for? 

Victory Patterns Trina dress

Fabric: 4.5m silky viscose from Walthamstow market (if I'd shortened the pattern rather than the garment I would have needed a fair bit less)

Cost: I paid £15 for 5 metres, but it would normally cost £25

Pattern details: Wrap dress with kimono-style construction; front bodice overlaps the back to leave a space under the sleeves for the ties to pass through. Bust gathers at the bodice, below-the-knee flared skirt

Size: 14 at the shoulders and waist, 16 at the bust and hips

Alterations: Skirt shortened by about five inches, French seams used throughout

Would make again/would recommend: Possibly/Yes

Up next: my first (and second, and third) experiment with Named's new book Breaking the Pattern, the Ruska knot dress.

winter sewing: Sierra jumpsuit

I'm a couple of days behind on my posting schedule because this jumpsuit took me way longer than I expected, and was also incredibly frustrating. This post probably reeks of UTTER FURY but that's mostly because I'm writing it immediately and have no time to just go away and get a grip. 

I've been trying to find a pattern for a black eveningwear jumpsuit for years, and everything I've seen is either way too casual or completely backless (why??). When Papercut Patterns released the Sierra jumpsuit I bought it pretty immediately - they've styled it very casually, but it looked a lot like my previous favourite black jumpsuit that doesn't fit anymore. I bought myself some black crepe and planned it in as my first project of 2019. 

Let's be clear here: this version is a fail. The vibe is exactly what I was after, but it just doesn't fit. The thing I was worried about - awkward tightness and lines round the stomach - wasn't an issue at all, but that still leaves the fact that the back is too big, there's not enough room in the hips, and there is literally no way for me to wear this without my bra all up in everyone's face. I've gone back and forth on whether to just remake this exact same thing and I think I will (assuming the guy at Walthamstow still has the fabric), but a lot will need to change next time. 

 I spent ages scouring the internet for help and information on this pattern, but because it's so new there was almost nothing. I do not have the answers to most of the problems I had, but I can lay out some of the issues I came across in constructing this one. Some of them are my fault, some of them not so much.

Firstly (and I'm not sure which of the two categories this fits into), the pieces don't become jumpsuit-shaped until right at the end. The side seams and leg seams are some of the last steps in the whole process, meaning that a) there's zero opportunity for fitting and b) it's REALLY confusing when you actually come to sew the side seams together. You probably aren't as thick as me, but I did not keep track of where everything was supposed to go and had to do a whole bunch of unpicking when I realised one of my shoulders was twisted. I spent quite a bit of time sitting on the floor with what I can only describe as a line of jumpsuit, trying to work out which seams needed to go together. It's... an unwieldy project, let's say.

Secondly, I needed slightly more room in the hip than I gave myself and chose a super-light lining fabric. As a result of this the pockets on both sides slide outwards every time I move, giving me an extra-weird silhouette. I basically have to keep my hands in the pockets, or keeping yanking on the side seams, to get them to stay put. I think this bit is mostly my fault, if we ignore the bit where in-seam pockets in trousers are the devil's work and I am officially never doing them again. What is not my fault, however, is the pocket instructions. 

The instructions are the third, and worst, problem I had. I've never had issue with Papercut's instructions before, even in my Kobe review where I took issue with basically everything. And everything was going fine on this jumpsuit, right up until we get to sewing the pockets. The instructions have you sew pocket pieces to the trouser front only (using fairly specific instructions to do so) and then sew the second pocket piece onto the first, leaving one open edge attached to nothing. Following this, the word "pocket" is never mentioned in the instructions again. The diagrams for the side seams show a stitching line all the way down, and the zip - which is a side zip going through the pocket - is explained with only "insert invisible zipper" and moving on. I'm normally quite happy for instructions not to explain how to insert a zip, but this seems to me like a fairly niche skill and one that at least warrants a mention of the pocket. There is a little note that an invisible zip tutorial can be found on their website, but all I could find was standard invisible zip tutorials. Maybe they plan to do one for this specific pocket contrivance, and maybe it'll be helpful to some confused soul six months down the line. That does no good to me right now, though.  

I eventually found this tutorial which enabled me to actually get the zip in, and I'm now absolutely certain that the pocket on the other side is just meant to be a standard in-seam pocket that they forgot to finish instructions for. Less hand-holding is one thing, leaving out steps in construction is another. Also it's completely inconsistent - they go into great detail about how to sew the first pocket piece to the side seam, so they can't possibly be assuming that you already know how to do this. There's a similar inconsistency issue with seam finishing instructions - they start by telling you which seams to finish and when to do so, and then they randomly leave out finishing the inside leg seams because maybe that particular one should be obvious? I don't know. 

Bad instructions aside, if this had eventually turned into a garment I could actually wear I'd probably be much more chill about it, and I do still think I'll have another go. I am super into the idea of this style of jumpsuit and if it fit me properly it would be great for dancing in. However, to keep both wrap and pockets in place I have to stand as still as possible, and Dancing Jen isn't great at that. 

(I totally planned to do a full old-school dance party post, but I went at it a bit too hard and my camera couldn't handle it, so everything was blurry and mostly useless for a pattern review post. Also everything looked much worse afterwards, as you can probably see.)

At some point I might go back and take the pockets out entirely, thus giving me a vaguely wearable jumpsuit that I could put a long-sleeved top underneath for autumn/winter daywear, but this invisible zip was an absolute bitch that took me about twelve tries to get in nicely, and the idea of redoing that AGAIN makes me want to cry, so it's just going to go in a pile for the moment until I work out what I want to do. 

For my second attempt, I will: add a bit more of an FBA, add half an inch or so to the hips, take the back down a size, either omit the stupid pockets entirely or steal some slash pockets from a different pattern, use a slightly thicker lining fabric, and probably add another half inch to the length of the legs (this version is lengthened by an inch already). I'm not particularly looking forward to doing it, but I really want this jumpsuit to exist in a form that fits me. If it goes wrong a second time, I will start throwing things.  

As making the jumpsuit took longer than I expected and I'm away from my machine visiting my partner's family this weekend, I really doubt I'm going to get anything done for a post next week. I've rejigged my project queue so that the next thing I make will be both familiar and brightly coloured, which should hopefully wash the taste out a bit and I'll be much less of a ball of fury when it comes to writing my next post. 

 SIDE-EYE.

winter sewing: stretch velvet Magnolia

Presenting my extremely extra Christmas dress:

I knew I wanted to try a stretch version of the Magnolia as soon as I made my first one. I loved the dress, but I loved the idea of having one without the side zip and sleeves woes even more. The idea of making it in velvet followed very shortly afterwards, and I'd seen a couple of teal and bottle-green crushed velvets at various places online that I was considering. What I ended up going with was a much more emerald colour that the guy at the market just happened to have on his stand when I was there looking for something else. I'm quite happy with the colour in person, but it just will not show up correctly in photos. Not on my proper camera, not on my phone, not on someone else's better phone, not inside, not outside, not with or without flash. It will not do it. At the bottom of the post I've included a few photos from my phone of the dress out in the wild, and please be assured it is none of the colours it appears. Argh.

I made a bunch of changes to my first version, though not so much in terms of size. I cut the back waistband a little smaller and made the back darts bigger, but that's it. My first version was very fitted and I wanted this one to give me sufficient space for a giant Christmas dinner. Also, the velvet isn't so stretchy that it requires a huge amount of sizing down, just enough to let me dispense with the side zip. I also dispensed with the back ties. I really like them as a detail, but in fabric this heavy I thought they'd just be cumbersome (especially for a dress made to sit down in). There's no excess fabric in this version so they're not really necessary.

The biggest change I made was the sleeves. Even if the original sleeves had fit me the way they're intended to, that still wouldn't have worked for this fabric. I switched out the sleeve and armscye for the Givre, which you know is my favourite, and once again I think it's worked really well. They're not noticeably restrictive but thanks to the comparative lack of stretch in this fabric they are tighter than usual. This is actually a secret bonus as it helps the neckline stay where I want it to stay.

I finished the neckline by hand as I didn't want any visible stitching there. This wasn't a great idea as it does need to stretch, but I really feel like machine stitching will warp the fit of the top across the bust, which is currently perfect. Post-holiday I went back and machine stitched the back neckline down. It's not necessarily the most elegant solution but it does hold things in place better without me having to become some sort of neckline wizard.

Remembering that version one came up short on me, I lengthened this one substantially when I cut it out. This was the wrong thing to do, because this skirt is heavy and stretchy and thus hangs down much further anyway, so I just had to go and cut it all off again. Sigh.

Here are a couple of photos of the dress out in the wild on Christmas Day:

I keep rewriting this paragraph trying to describe our hotel and I keep sounding like Margaret Drabbs the 16th most prolific Trip Advisor reviewer in Tunbridge Wells, so I'm going to stop. Suffice to say it was not as fancy as it thought it was and we were made to feel pretty uncomfortable. Also they tried to charge €26 for a Bombay Sapphire and tonic. I wouldn't pay that for a bottle of Bombay Sapphire. However, all that aside, you can't deny this is a pretty sweet view. This photo was taken just before Christmas lunch, where most other people were indeed wearing sensible beige trousers but also up to their eyeballs in foie gras so didn't really care what I was wearing.

This, however, prompted a lot of amazed stares, I think mostly because I was out on the sea front without a coat. From my British perspective it was about the temperature of a nice spring day and while I could have been wearing a coat it didn't bother me that I wasn't. However, all the locals were bundled up in quilted jackets and enormous scarves and they probably thought I was a crazy person. For someone in anxiety therapy it's actually quite nice to be magnitudes overdressed and know for a fact that the worst judgement people are making about you is that you're probably cold.

I also ended up wearing it to an extremely low-key NYE house party at the insistence of the host, who then wore green velvet herself and pressured another friend into doing the same. When we went out for the fireworks at midnight I insisted we take a photo, which turned into a "people standing round holding flashlights at various angles" job and also left me with a brief accidental video where one of my friends says to the other, "This is for Jen's Instagram, stop eating my shoulder!" while I continue to pose away, drunk and oblivious. 

Anyway, I really, really like this bodice and would like to try turning into a jersey dress for daywear. I don't know if the shorter skirt is the one for me, but as it's neither fitted nor full enough to give me hem anxiety I think I might give it a try. It'll definitely be quite cleavagey for a day dress, but that doesn't bother me hugely and it can easily be layered with wrap cardigans and so forth. I will probably bind the neckline on future versions as it won't be so disruptive when I'm not using velvet.

I'm hoping to get the Papercut Sierra jumpsuit done over the next week, so assuming it's not horrific that'll be my next post. The problem about making something so soon after pattern release is that about five tiny people have made it and it's impossible to know how it sits on curvier bodies. It's fine; I shall do it for science. Science! 

winter sewing: Nettie bodysuit

My winter sewing plans stated, with complete confidence, that my first attempt at the Closet Case Patterns Nettie bodysuit would be plain black, for maximum utility.

However, sometimes you're in Fabric Land searching for a plain black four-way stretch that isn't also obvious swimsuit fabric and you walk past something that's matte, super-soft and super-stretchy, and you can't pass it up even if it is tiny black and white cheetah print layered over unidentified black blobs. I'm certain that I will make a plain black one at some point when the right fabric comes into my life, but this substrate is so perfect for a bodysuit that I will cheerfully make new clothes to go with it if I have to. 

This pattern is mostly super-simple. I chose not to put the shelf bra in because a) I wasn't making the low back version and b) there is zero chance that a shelf bra would do anything at all to support 34G boobs, so it mostly makes up like a standard T-shirt with a couple of pieces of binding round the open leg holes. If you don't put in the snap crotch this is about an hour's worth of work. But I did, because why be half-naked in a public loo if you don't have to? Also, I wanted to do the version with the high back to start off with and I wasn't sure whether that would give me enough stepping-in room.

I used scraps of black silk and hammer-in press studs. I struggle to hand-sew things securely enough and I didn't want my bodysuit randomly coming undone in public, but it did make it that much more annoying to redo everything when I realised I'd done it wrong. The instructions for this bit lost me (as instructions sometimes do) and I'd have been better off pinning and experimenting to get it right. The second time it worked... and then one of the hammer-in studs fell out. But I put it back in, and now I have a functional snap crotch! I was worried it might be uncomfortable, but I literally forget it's there.

As you can see, the legs are cut super-low. In many ways this makes absolute sense; you don't get any weird VPL, it's guaranteed to provide total bumcheek coverage with no fear of awkward wedgie situations, and given that the lower half will be covered in almost all instances it's right to prioritise comfort and practicality. But at the same time there is no denying that this is not the most flattering cut in the world. It is very much lump-emphasising. This may or may not bother you, but I thought the record should reflect.

Because this pattern is drafted with negative ease and thus super close-fitting, I used about five different sizes (ranging from a 12 in the neckline and shoulders to a 20 in the hips and upper arms) and added an FBA by just cutting some boob-shaped lumps into the front side seam at chest height. This fabric is stretchy enough that I probably didn't need to go to a 20, but I wanted to play it safe. For any future versions I'll keep the variation in sizes but choose the sizes themselves based on the fabric stretch.

I did debate making scoop front and scoop back, and I'd still quite like to try that, but I do worry that it wouldn't stay on my shoulders. I know I could add bra carriers, but I don't want to add bra carriers on something that's meant to be super-easy and casual. If I can find a suitable fabric at a cheap enough price, I think I will give it a go for science. Either way I'll definitely make another one (probably two). I will definitely not make the dress, because that level of bodycon is beyond me.

I'm wearing it with Papercut Palisade shorts. These were actually the first ones I made; I cut the trousers out first, but then decided I really needed a pair of shorts for a burlesque class I was going to that night. Not having a go-to shorts pattern, I just cut out another pair and ran them up in an hour and a half. As a result they're not the most beautifully finished, but I do like them and I do think I'll have another go. Possibly out of stretch woven if I'm going to wear them to dance classes. 

(It's super-weird to put photos of myself in a bodysuit and no bottoms on the internet, but I feel like it would be a really unhelpful post if you couldn't see the fit below the waist. So here's me leaning into it.)

It's Christmas Eve, and I'm heading out of the country today for a few days (she says confidently, PLEASE NO MORE DRONES AT GATWICK). We're having our first Christmas by ourselves this year, and we've booked a trip to France in the hope of getting some actual sunshine back into our lives. Whatever you're doing over the next few days, celebratory or not, I hope it's joyous! When I get back I'll share the completely OTT green velvet dress I'm wearing for Christmas lunch.

I thought I'd include this photo of me reacting like an Austen heroine being spotted across the room, while also wearing an animal print bodysuit on some stairs. I don't even know. 

winter sewing: Palisade trousers

Hey! So I'm still kind of sick, but this past week has been the best one for sewing that I've had in many months. I've completed four items from my autumn sewing list (well, technically five, but the M7626 trousers do NOT look good on me and I'm throwing that idea entirely out of the window), plus a bonus item. For the first time in a while I'm actually feeling encouraged and motivated, and a good bit of that is down to these trousers.

I have to say, these surprised me. I bought the pattern because I really liked the shape of the pockets and I need more slim-fit trousers for when it rains and I don't want to drag wide legs through endless puddles, but I didn't have hugely high hopes for it. Elastic waists can so often look weird on me and I never know what tops to wear with them, and since I've never made trousers from Papercut before and thus don't know how they cut them, I thought that I would most likely end up with some unflattering things that could only be worn as pyjamas, or a pair of nice-looking trousers that I couldn't put into a decent outfit for the life of me. What I got was a pair of surprisingly smart-looking trousers that also happened to have an elasticated back. I really like these.

This fabric is, I think, a cotton-viscose blend with a nice bit of weight to it. I picked it up in a swap at last month's London Stitchers' Meetup. It was already on the table when I got there so I have no idea who the original owner was, but whoever you are, thanks! It's an unusual colour for me and I'd never wear it near my face, but I really like it for trousers (even if it does get pretty wrinkly). I especially like it with this top, and it's making me want to make another.

I cut a size L for the waistband and an XL everywhere else. Rather than grading out at the hip I just cut an XL and took the excess out at the centre back, where my trousers always gape. I think this has worked but I  may need to make the back rise a tiny bit higher to compensate. It is super difficult to fit slim trousers to a pot belly, and though I know I haven't got it 100% right, but it definitely looks wrinklier in photos than it does in real life.

(It was way too cold to keep taking photos outside, so I didn't quite have enough. Stairwell shots with the heating on!)

I'm not sure how Papercut intends the trousers to fit round the thighs. I'd assumed they were meant to be fairly loose, but they certainly aren't on me and now that I look back at the product photos, they don't look enormous on the model either. I don't mind this - I fill the trousers out enough to make them look almost tailored, which is quite cool - but I do think next time I'd add a tiny bit more room for comfort. The crossover pockets look great and I like them, but they do create a bit of bulk on the inside, and with thighs like mine it is noticeable.

I will definitely be making more of these trousers, probably as soon as I'm done with Christmas things. I really like the idea of adding this silhouette to my wardrobe, and I think a black crepe pair would be incredibly useful. My yellow cord is probably too bulky for this pattern, but if I can find the right weight of fabric, a pair of mustard Palisades would not go amiss either.

Unnecessary posing in terrible light!

Up next: my Nettie bodysuit, which is totally not the plain black wardrobe staple I had intended...

winter sewing: Ness skirt

If it weren't for the fact that I have been utterly deathsick for the past week and a half and haven't been able to get anything else done, I probably wouldn't be posting this skirt. I can't work out what I think of it, and I think I could do with making another version to work some of the kinks out. But this is what I have, so here we go:

The simple denim skirt has been the absolute bane of my sewing life. I have made five different ones to date, none of which prior to this one have made it to the blog. I made a Hollyburn that somehow grew three sizes within the first week of my making it, a Vanessa Pouzet Wonder skirt (without the swags) that sat weirdly, a combination of that and an old RTW skirt which didn't work at all, a Simplicity one that did deeply disturbing thing to my backside, and now this, the Tilly and the Buttons Ness skirt.

This one is certainly my best attempt yet, as you can tell from the fact that you're actually seeing it. But it's still not quite right, and I'm trying to work out why that is. I think it's maybe a bit too big - I made the hips two sizes larger than the waist as usual, but given that it's designed for to have a bit of stretch it looks a little bit weird. I also don't think it's designed to sit as high as I'm wearing it, and I might be better off making a straight version of the size in the middle of the two I tried (which I think is a 6? I found their invented number sizing to be a bit confusing).

I had to learn a lot of new tricks to make this skirt, including installing a jeans button and making my first ever buttonhole. It turns out that, once you've realised you're using the 4-step buttonhole foot from your old machine and replaced it with the proper foot, buttonholes are actually pretty easy. You just put the fabric in place and the machine does it all for you. I even made a fancy keyhole shape to accommodate the jeans button.

Installing the jeans button was kind of a pain at first, because the tack doesn't sit comfortably in the hole until it's been hammered a little way, and it's really tough to get it started without hammering your fingers. I ended up holding it in place with Blu-Tack until it was decently wedged in, and I have to say it looks rather nice.

(It's not centred, I know, but I ended up with one end of my waistband being slightly bigger than the other and this was the only way to get them to line up at the top.)

I flat-felled all the seams except the front one, which I mock-felled as the instructions directed. I only did this because I wasn't sure if a proper fell would mess with the fly in some way (of course it doesn't); I'm not generally a fan of mock-felling. The whole point of a flat-fell is that I don't have to deal with finishing raw edges and thus confront my lack of a functioning overlocker. When my mental health is in a stronger place I'll have another go at getting it to work, but for now everything is flat felled and French seamed. (I used bias binding on the front mock fell.)

I did not do any contrast topstitching. My topstitching is not good, and while I will have to start remedying that soon I was not keen enough on having a topstitched skirt that I was prepared to spend a month on getting it right.

My intention is to acquire another metre of denim and have a second stab at getting this right. In theory this is exactly what I want, but in practice it's not quite there. I think I need to make the back pieces smaller than the front, get the whole thing to sit a tiny bit lower, shorten the hem, use a slightly longer zip, make sure my waistband ends are even and work out how I did that thing with the fly that I shouldn't have done. I think it should be easier the second time, now that I know what I'm doing and not relying entirely on the included instructions (I've heard a lot about the amazing quality of Tilly and the Buttons instructions, but I felt that they used a lot of extra words to say not much more than regular instructions do. Admittedly I didn't use the video links because I wasn't confused enough to pause the thing I was already watching to look at someone putting a zip in). For now we'll call this a toile, and I'll try again in the new year. 

Next up: depends how this week goes, but I hope to have at least a pair of trousers to show you!