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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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