McCall's 6035

This pattern is just a plain, simple blouse. Really sweet, quite easy, nothing too special.

Pattern Used: McCall's 6035

Fabric Used: quilting cotton

View Made: A, with a collar

What did you like about this pattern? I like that it's a  wardrobe staple with easy variations. It's also a simple pattern to put together. I also liked the A/B, C, D cup size variations. All patterns should have this, in my opinion. It just makes the thing fit better right off the bat.

What did you dislike about this pattern? There were a couple small things. I wasn't a fan of the princess seams, but that wasn't the fault of the pattern. It took me a few tries to get them in without bubbling, and then it took even more trying to get the topstitching to look decent. I am also a little puzzled that there is no interfacing down the front. Don't get me wrong. I like that I didn't have to interface, but I think the blouse would've benefitted from a strip down where the button holes go. I did like that I could just hem the thing and didn't have to sew the facing together, then turn it right side out, then hem to the same length.

Did you change the pattern at all? I added a collar, because I don't particularly like mandarin collars. This was really easy though, because the mandarin collar is just the regular collar without the outer collar attached, if that makes sense.

Final thoughts: I will definitely make this again. It's a simple, easy, attractive blouse.

Pictures:

Butterick 5756 Revisited

Hello again! I love being able to re-use patterns. That way, you know how they fit, problems you may have to deal with, etc. in advance.

Pattern Used: Butterick 5756

View Made: D

Fabric used: Cotton and broadcloth, my favorite combo!

I decided to make another view of this skirt, since I really liked how and where the waistband fit on the first one. I made a full maxi-skirt version of this one with contrast yoke and hem band. See the original review here.

The hem band is not a pattern option for this skirt, I drafted one myself by taking some tissue and tracing the bottom of the pattern, then deciding how big I wanted the hem band and adding a seam allowance. I made the band five inches, plus a five-eighths seam allowance. I then shortened the actual pattern piece by four and three-eighths inches so that it came to be the same length as before.

This view was SUPER EASY to sew. I feel like it was a total of about five seams and a zipper. It was incredibly fast. I like the way it turned out too. It's all flow-y and billow-y.

On the sad side, the top fabric shrank more than the broadcloth lining underneath after the first wash, so I need to do a quick re-hem of the lining.

Pictures:

McCall's 6990

Peplum shirts are in right now, right? By making one I'm not being uncool, right? My foray in to peplum shirts went thusly:

Pattern Used: McCall's 6990

Fabric Used: Poly-Cotton blend and satin piping

Pattern Details: Peplum shirt with sleeve variations and piping variations

What did you like about this pattern? I like the variations both in the peplum and how the shirt is constructed. The next one of these I make is going to have the asymmetrical peplum. I also LOVE the little bow.

What did you especially dislike about this pattern? I don't really like how you are supposed to finish the peplum with the piping, as you do a narrow hem, and just edgestitch. It's OK, but I
find that the piping flips, exposing the edge underneath. I just surged and edgestitched, which was maybe a mistake, but I think that another line of stitching further up the peplum would not go amiss.

What did you learn from this project? Nada.

Final thoughts: I like this shirt. It turned out cute, although the lines of piping flatten my bust right out, so I look completely flat-chested in this shirt. Perhaps that is a positive, perhaps not, I don't really know. It's also a smidge short, but that is probably because the fabric has a lot of body, and so the peplum sticks out quite a bit.

Pictures:

McCall's 6800 Revisited

So I loved my purple coat so much that I decided to make it again. This time it turned in to an absolutely mammoth project. See the original review here.

I've been really busy lately, but finally managed to finish making this second version of McCall's 6800. I love how it turned out! The teal and brown go so well together.

View made: D

Fabrics Used: Suiting, Cotton and fleece

This coat turned in to a huge project. First, I had to decide how exactly I wanted the plaid to look, since this coat has not one, but two princess seams per side, not to mention three pieces of fabric per side. I settled on making the panels in the following sequence:

1. Front: Straight grain, bias grain, straight grain
2. Back: straight grain, bias grain, straight grain, strait grain, bias grain straight grain
3. Sleeves: straight grain with bias grain inserts.

Cutting the pieces this way and matching the plaid was a nightmare. I had to cut pieces singly for the most part, which was frustrating since there is an abundance of pieces to be cut.

I also needed many an internet tutorial about matching plaids. This one was particularly helpful.

Once all my pieces were cut out, I realized that it had been a good choice to cut the middles on the bias because matching the plaid was tricky. It also adds a lot of visual interest. Like the above tutorial says though, cutting was the most work. Once I got to actually sewing the thing, it went pretty quickly. In order to make it look pretty and to keep the seams going the way I wanted (I've always had problems pressing suiting) I edgestitched all the seams in teal thread. I was going to topstitch as well, but I tried a seam and the thread got lost among the plaid so it wouldn't have added anything.

So, top layer done, I hung it on the back of my bathroom door where it has been sitting since October.

Next, I needed to do the lining. I wanted this to be a winter coat, so I cut out a layer of cotton (for the lining you see) and a layer of fleece (for in between). Next, I surged the fleece and the cotton together, hereafter treating them as one layer of fabric. The fleece was kind of hard to sew since it was so heavy and bulky.

I had problems with the seams staying flat and open in the lining. My solution was to sew them down using a double needle. It turned out really well. It looks really nice, however, I did need to hand tack the seams down too.

Once the lining and outer layer were attached, it was time to hem it. On the purple jacket, I did a deep hem, which didn't work well at all. This time, I did a simple narrow hem, which worked MUCH better. I simply surged to the right length, turned under twice and sewed it down. I did the same for the sleeves, however, I ended up needing to cut out the fleece in the sleeve hem as it was just TOO bulky.

Another note: The pattern wants you to interface the whole front section. I didn't do this because it was three layers thick and the fleece was pretty solid, in the grand scheme of things. I just put a strip of interfacing down where the buttonholes were going to be and where the buttons were going to be for extra-super-insane security.

And TA DA!! Some buttons and a hood and I was done.

Pictures:

McCall's 6800

I've been branching out from dresses lately and decided that maybe it was time to try a coat. I love the look of this coat.

Pattern Used: McCall's 6800

Fabric Used: Cotton Twill, lined with Satin

Pattern Details: Tailored coat with length and collar variations, princess seaming

View Made: C, with the hood from D

What did you like about this pattern? I really like the look of the princess seaming, as well as the fullness of the skirt on the coat. It gives this a really unique look.

What did you dislike about this pattern? I wasn't a huge fan of the circle skirt hemming. I wasn't supposed to do a narrow hem, which is what is easiest with a circle skirt, so I tried to do a wider hem and it did not turn out that well. I will probably end up re-hemming this coat at some point since it bothers me so much. Also, it was A LOT of work. Each part was three pieces, which had to be sewn together, finished on the inside and topstitched. The end result is pretty spectacular, but a lot of work.

Did you change the pattern at all? No. All I did was remove the belt carriers and add the hood from D.

Final Thoughts: I have the fabric to make this coat again, with plaid. I'm really excited about it, but this pattern was intense enough that I'm going to have to make some simple things for a while to give myself a break. It looks really cool though! OH! And, the hood is too big. When I make this again, I'll need to take out a bit of the fabric on the curve of the hood so it doesn't droop down over my eyes.

Pictures:

Butterick 5682

JEANS! SQUEE!!! Hopefully, you can all see my excitement. These turned out SUPERBLY and I think everyone need to go get this pattern RIGHT NOW!

Pattern Used: Butterick 5682

Fabric Used: Cotton Twill (just a smidge lighter weight than denim)
          NOTE: I used upholstery thread for these, to give it that real, authentic jeans look

Pattern Details: Jeans, in various leg styles, including cropped, straight leg, boot cut and trouser

What did you especially like about this pattern? The various leg styles

What did you especially dislike about this pattern? I only have a couple of small quibbles with this pattern.
          1. Please, stop printing curves one over top of the other on the pattern tissue. I had to repair mine after I cut the curve for the size 8 instead of the size 12. Or if they won't stop doing that, LABEL the lines on both sides of where the curve intersects.
         2. Please tell me where it is not essential that I use denim, so that I can reduce bulk. Thank you. My machine thanks you too. It doesn't like making those horrible chugging noises either.
        3. Don't tell me to buy a seven inch zipper and then have me shorten it. That was really annoying, considering that I bought a METAL JEANS ZIPPER. In reality, I only needed a three and a half inch zipper, so it would've been nice to know that I could just buy that size.

Did you change the pattern at all? Nope. Except, I tried to use some quilting cotton to face the waistband, but for whatever reason, I cut it the wrong way and so had to revert to denim. This pattern is a little persnickety and broke my brain a little bit. You have to be really careful to know which way stuff is going to end up facing so that you can have the right side facing out.

What did you learn from this pattern? Flat-felling seams. This is the classic way that jeans are sewn, and I found out that I kind of suck at doing it. Good thing all my flat-felling is to the inside. The outside just looks nicely topstitched.

Final thoughts: I will make this pattern over and over and over and never buy cruddy store-bought jeans again! They fit so well! And they really weren't even that hard to make. :)

Pictures:

McCall's 5050

This one's a new one for me. I had been looking at this particular fabric for a while, but couldn't think of the right place to use it, since it was so lightweight. I decided the best thing to do with it would be a nice, flow-ey, peasant blouse.

Pattern Used: McCall's 5050

Pattern Details: Peasant-style blouse with sleeve variations

Fabric used: Lightweight cotton

View Made: A

What did you especially like about this pattern? I like that I don't need to interface anything, and I like how simple this pattern is in general. It only took me about three hours, start to finish.

What did you dislike about this pattern? Not a whole lot.  I found that once I had made the elastic casings and left the opening, it was hard to stretch the elastic so I could sew my casing down flat. Other than that I had no problems.

Did you change the pattern at all? Nope. However, I didn't use the elastic guides provided. Instead, I just measured the elastic to my body to make sure it was the right length.

Final Thoughts: This turned out well, the fabric was easy to work with. I will be making this again sometime.

Pictures:

Front View

Back View

Bow

 

By the way, I don't know why these pictures turned out blurry, but they'll have to do.