Make that 2 dozen -- to go!

Now here are two really ugly dresses .... I was trying to approximate the weight of the real fabric, not the look.

These were quick and dirty constructions -- cut at the hem line, zippers sewn to the top of the fabric and slit underneath, no facings .....  they will check fit and give us some info on our ideas for the collars.

These are both shoulder princess dresses and the princess lines sewed together beautifully

One has a vee neckline with a collar that will go halfway down the neckline.  It also has an elbow-length sleeve that has slight shaping at its hemline.  I didn't realize just HOW shiny this one was until I put it onto the dress form.  The real one will be a sophisticated muted gold with a matte finish and wonderful drape (I think the real one is silk instead of whatever science project this one is).

The other has an exaggerated turtleneck on a scoop neckline -- the bottom of the sleeves will be gathered into a cuff for a full sleeve.  The real one will be a solid maroon in a crinkle finish fabric and it will have an invisible zipper in the center back seam

These are "fun" ones --the next generation will be the sophisticated versions.  Only one more test to make ... let's see .... today til Sept 20 ....  TODAY'S COUNT -- total garments needed:  26 including the test -- total garments finished:  2 ....

That means 24 to go!

More test garments

These are test garments only -- just to send off to the models so they can check the fit -- we have their measurements ... or what their measurements were on the day they were taken.  Having these test garments at their end will assure us that the measurements are still valid.  They can try them on and know that they have to STAY those measurements at least until the end of  September.

Of course that will be more difficult with a 4 y.o. girl -- we all know kids have growth spurts so I will wait to sew her actual garments until early September.

These are simple little sleeveless blouses to be worn under their real cardiwraps (tests previously posted).  The real fabrics are much prettier -- I promise!  The little girl will be wearing a lavender color palette and the blouse will be a nice muted batik with a fun fluffy knit for the cardiwrap.  The young adult will be wearing a buttery yellow solid in a nice challis for the blouse and the cardiwrap is a bold red/orange/brown print (bold in intensity of color, not size of print) that is a fluid fabric, semisheer.  More about the skirts below.

The little girl's skirt is going to be from a pretty lavender wool with a 2" pleated ruffle around the bottom.  The other is from the same yellow fabric as the top and it will have great draping.  You can see that the hemline slopes (intentionally) from front to back and it will be finished off with a 5" ruffle.  I bought a new ruffler attachment for my Janome 6600 just to do these ruffles.

Watch for pictures of the real garments -- but not til sometime in August/September

Test garments

These are two variations on the TCC cardiwrap pattern and I made them just to be able to send them off to the models to make sure that our design choices will have the desired effect when worn in the style show.

The first is for a 4-yr old model and I was practicing using my shell stitch.  I didn't have any child-sized hangers so had to use a pants hanger. I doubt that she'll look as much like a linebacker as this picture.

The second is for an young adult and the test is made from a soft challis.  You can see that we went for a dramatic effect on the front hemline.  Wouldn't this be cute with a white scooped neck tank and white skinny jeans?

I used the shell stitch to finish this hemline also -- and didn't measure how many miles ... I mean inches that was (including the sleeves).  I played a little more with the machine settings and got more of a pronounced "shell" tuck on this.  For both I trimmed close to the stitching with duckbilled scissors for a nice edge.

On the challis I used 5/8" strips of interfacing to stabilize all the edges and control the bias a bit.  Maybe the shell effect would have been softer without it, but I was afraid I'd get some nasty curls.

I've decided that for my personal "booth wear" I will coordinate three tops and three bottoms and make a cardiwrap out of a coordinating fabric that can be worn with each.  Novi, Michigan, in September can be chilly, temperate, or hot ... so that will give me options and also allow for cranked up, moderate, or struggling AC.

Start your engines ....

... but as I tell the neighbors, my idea of a power tool is NOT a lawnmower ... it is a sewing machine!

What else to do on a hot 93° day? Sew a long-sleeved blouse that will be worn in the September style show.  It's hard to be enthusiastic about long sleeves and fall colors when I am wearing bright summer colors and trying to stay cool. 

This is the second garment I've finished for one of the models, the other being the dark green fitted pants that will be worn with this shirt.

Since the model lives in Michigan and I live in southern Ohio, my dress form will have to step in as a proxy.  This is a tailored shirt (which in TCC terms that means no side bust dart, only waist darts) with trifit darts (three fisheye darts on each side, front and back).

 So that means 6 darts in the front and 6 in the back .. but since they are double-ended darts it is the same as sewing 24 separate darts!  Some other design details are that a sweetheart neckline was chosen and the blouse has a center back invisible zipper.

 I can't believe I even put in the hem ... this is DONE!  DONE!  DONE!

New Toy

This week was the Cincinnati sewing expo and even though you would think there would be nothing I could possible need (especially if you looked at my sewing room) there were a couple things I need as I do those style show garments.

Two of the skirts will have ruffles at the hemline, another will have ruched vertical strips, and yet another will have a pleated "ruffle" at the hemline.  That's lots of gathering ... not my favorite activity.

So taking advantage of an expo special at my favorite sewing store (Kramer's/Montgomery) I got the ruffler attachment for my Janome 6600P.

So far I've had fun playing with fabric strips and now will not dread those miles and miles (I know it will feel that way) of ruffles.

What a week! Style show planning

Sorry no pictures -- yet --

I just returned home from a SEAM Team work week at the TCC home office in the Chicago area.  We were working on planning for a style show at this year's American Sewing Expo in Novi, Michigan.

We have been bumped up from a half hour show to an hour!  There are seven volunteer models who have promised to keep their measurements stable and we have around 90 garments/items (some are purses)  planned with 6 of us doing the sewing.

We have measurement charts for all and skimmers (fitting garments) have been proven out.  This week we planned the garments, printed many of the patterns, and did our fabric shopping.  First we decided a focus for every round (there are 12), then assigned models to the rounds, chose garments, and finally paired fabric with the patterns.  Not only do the fabrics need to complement the models' complexions (most are Autumns) but they need to also complement the other garments in the round.  Somehow we think we have a good working plan.

I came home with patterns to tape,  bags of gorgeous fabrics, and a mission of 18 garments for my share.  Add to that some personal garments to wear for the 3 days of working in our booth in the vendors mall.  Why does September 20 (my deadline for ALL garment construction) sound so far and yet so soon?

That's roughly a finished garment every three days if you figure in everything else that comes with summer --esp  mowing and weeding -- plus regular work on editing & QC projects, TCC user group meetings, ASG meetings, and two sewing expos coming to Cincinnati where I can take classes.  YIKES!

.... more to come ... I'll try to post my progress and give you a sneak peek with a behind-the-scenes look at organized chaos   .....

... now to have my morning coffee and it's off to my TCC users' group meeting to show them all my swatches!

Bling! Bling!

Summer sewing is so much more fun than winter sewing!

The latest project started with an inspiration from a Butterick pattern (5499) -- the turquoise tunic with V hemline.  But I know I'd need a lot of alterations -- the necklines are always too big/low for me and the hips are always too tight.

So I decided to use my TCC software and started with the darted tunic that is drafted with an FBA.  Using the tools, I changed the neckline to my comfort zone and created a V'd hemline.

Then I went "shopping" in my fabric stash.  I found a piece of batik print fabric that I bought for my daughter about 20 years ago (remember Piece Goods fabric shops?) It was meant to be a pair of shorts and a top but she didn't like it -- so it got stuffed into the stash.  Happily it survived the prewashing and moved on to the next step -- cutting.

The batik motif is a triangle and it clearly has a large plaid in the background.  Here's a pic of it hung over the shower curtain rod.  So I knew that 1) I wanted as few match points as possible -- eg no sleeves and 2) it was a directional print because the triangles would point either up or down.  I chose to have them point down because as a "A" or pear-shaped body I want the eye to be fooled into thinking broader at the shoulders and narrower at the hips. (Ok, so the eye still knows I am a pear ...)   I also wanted to mirror the V neckline and V hem and not oppose it.  As it turned out -- there was not enough fabric to cut sleeves if I had wanted them.  I had to creatively cut the facings on the crosswise grain and even had to seam the CB of the back facing.

Some other decisions I made -- I faced the hemline since I sure didn't want to try to miter that CF & CB point and I also wanted to give a bit of weight & stability to the bottom  hemline by having a nice, straight seam.  I cut all-in-one facings for the neck and armhole to make for a smoother fit inside the garment.  If any of you have seen Louise Cutting's videos or guest appearances on America Sews with Sue Hausmann -- she says to press those seams open first and then together when you turn the facing.  DO IT!  She is so right -- it takes a little more time in construction but you'll be happier with the finished edge.

Almost finished -- it was too plain so I topstitched the facings with a teal thread to pick up the color in that stripe.  Using all purpose thread, I topstitched with the triple stretch stitch on my Janome 6600 using the dual feed (walking) foot so that my layers wouldn't shift. I had created a 3" hem facing so topstitched at 2.5" and the neckline was topstitched at 1".  I marked my stitching line with a soap sliver that I had commandeered from the shower and stowed in my sewing room for just this purpose. Done! Bonus:  the tunic smelled Irish Spring fresh.  I did rinse and dry the garment to get the soap out before I pressed again since I wasn't sure what the heat would do and didn't want any "oh no" surprises.

So why is the post entitled "Bling!  Bling!" you ask?  I happened to do some snoop shopping at a local Stein Mart (don't you just love their boutique items?) and saw some gorgeous tunics in a variety of fabrics/colors/prints ... with one commonality ... beads & sequins to jazz it up.  I decided that was what I needed, too, so a stop on the way home at JoAnn's yielded some seed beads in an iridescent magenta but no sequins.  Right next door is Michael's and I found a pack of sequins that was multicolored with several of what I needed -- tuquoise, teal, gold, pink, magenta, and purple.  (Iridescent turquoise would have been perfect but alas, not to be found).  Off to home to spice things up!

Then more decisions -- what to use, where -- and I decided to do the center dots in the triangle motif and to let the fabric choose the sequin to use, coordinating with that part of the print.  As I began to work the neckline, I was inspired to bling a V section to mirror the neckline.  Then I decided to embellish the hemline within the topstitched area but to put a bead/sequin pair at each corner of each triangle plus the center dot to have a higher concentration of sparkle at the hemline.

I can't believe how long it took to get all those stitched on -- but what better way to spend an evening?  And I love the look.  Hope to get some good pics in better lighting then that will really show off the sequins.

 Next is to  cut & sew a pair of capris out of some bright turquoise twill to make this outfit "pop!"