Reversible box tote

I'm not a big fan of gigantic purses, so sometimes my purse is just too small for my knitting project... I do have a large drawstring project bag, but I don't really like it because it's just too big to carry around.

I did some poking around for a quick, easy, fun tote that didn't have fussy handles or other details, and found the Reversible Box Tote from Very Shannon. It's a free pattern, which is awfully nice.

©Aspiring Threads

After I finished basting Louise's blue dress, I decided to sew up my tote. I had bought some nice, acid green Michael Miller fabric that has charcoal grey luna moths on it some time ago, and had absolutely no idea what to make with it. I also had enough of a coordinating fabric that is destined for our quilt (which I have not started cutting yet), which I used for the lining.

As you can see, it was a lazy Saturday in our home. My husband wore the dog out, then went to have a nap himself. My daughter is creating art in her bedroom, and my son is hanging out with a friend, enjoying the sunshine... so what better time to sew up a knitting bag? After all, my machine was already set up, and nobody needed me.

©Aspiring Threads

Here's the finished knitting bag, in all it's bright green glory! I like how the lining is a perfect match for the exterior of the bag, even though they're not from the same fabric collection.

The luna moth fabric (the whole flora fauna collection, in fact) is discontinued, which is a shame, because I'd love to get some in raspberry, which would actually be very wearable. I have enough of the fabric for a blouse, but I think it would be a bit... loud.

The bag is large enough for a shawl, or a smaller sweater, which is perfect. I don't usually take sweater projects anywhere, and if I do, it's usually in the early stages, before it becomes too unwieldy to travel with.

The best part? I'll never lose my knitting bag, because it would be impossible to miss!

Louise's blue dress

©Aspiring Threads

Just a quick update on the dress progress.

Louise came over to try the new muslin, and we have a game plan. The only adjustment I need to make is to take the dress in at the side seams. There was a little bit of extra fullness above the bust, but the weight of the dress will take care of that, so I don't need to adjust for that.

Louise decided to use the view A yoke, since the view B yoke comes up too high.

What we decided to do is to cut the blue dress first, since the fabric was less expensive. I will baste all of the seams, and we can tweak them if needed when she comes to try it on. Why am I basting? Because Louise didn't want to come back for a third fitting, and I can't blame her. She's busy with her own schedule, just like I am, and it's a bit of a trek for her to come out here.

I'm really hoping to get at least the blue dress finished by the end of the month. I usually sew faster than this, but this past week has been very busy, and I haven't been home much.

Louise's second muslin

I decided to try a different approach on the second muslin for Louise.

Rather than redraft the armholes and bust completely, I decided to start from square one, with the unmodified pattern. On the first muslin, I took 1 1/2" off the top of the shoulders, which caused the fullness of the bust to be in the wrong place. To avoid this problem (and skip redrafting the bust), I did a petite adjustment of 1 1/2", which is the same amount I had originally taken off the straps.

I had originally graded from a size 12 in the bodice to a 16 in the hip, and I suspect that the snug bust in the original dress can be addressed by making the bodice a little bigger. Rather than grading the bodice, I've cut a size 16. If it is too large, I can pin out the excess at the side seams, sew where I've marked it, and have her try it on again, rather than having her come back for a third muslin fitting.

Vogue 2903

On the new muslin, I've also included the inside yoke, to give an idea of how the dress neckline will sit on Louise when the dress is complete. I did not do this on the first muslin. I sewed the muslin with yoke B (the black version), which is a bit less revealing, but can easily switch it out to yoke A (shown in green).

The reason I did this is because shortening the shoulders on the original dress brought the neckline up, and I was concerned that yoke A would be too revealing. I slipped the new muslin over top of the dress though, and yoke B comes up much higher than yoke A, so we'll likely either stick to yoke A, or drop the neckline on yoke B a bit, so we end up somewhere in the middle.

All of this pattern tracing reminds me that I really need pattern weights. I had to raid the cupboard for tuna cans to hold everything still while I traced the pattern, but proper pattern weights would be so much better than tuna cans! Pattern weights can be expensive though, so the next time I'm at the hardware store, I'll pick up some large washers and use them as pattern weights.

Louise's First Fitting

Have I ever mentioned how important dress fittings are? If not, I'm doing it now. Fitting garments using a muslin is crucial if you want a garment that fits properly and is flattering. This is especially true if it is a fitted garment that will be less forgiving than something with more ease, or if you have made changes to the pattern.

I last sewed for Louise a year ago, and this is the same pattern, so you'd think it would fit exactly the same way that it did last year, wouldn't you?

Apparently not. Bodies change over time, and the assumptions we make about body shape are not always correct.

©Aspiring Threads

Here is the bodice muslin, after marking everything that I need to fix. It doesn't look very nice in this photograph, because I didn't press the seams since, after all, it's just a fitting muslin. Also, my dress form is smaller than Louise, so don't use it as a reference for fit. One of these days, my dress form will get her makeover, but not yet.

Louise asked for more room at the bust, so I did a 3/4" FBA at the fullest part of the bust (remember what I said about assumptions about body shape?) Unfortunately, this isn't where she needed the fullness, so I marked with chalk on the muslin where the fullness needs to be (the three horizontal lines). The FBA put the fullness above her bust, which simply isn't going to work, as it made the seams above the bust "tent". This tenting is marked with chalk above the bust. The tightness at the bust also led to the bottom of the bodice pulling upward, which interrupts the nice, smooth lines of the bodice over the tummy. Of course, the weight of the skirt will help keep this area smooth, but we don't want tightness or pulling in the finished dresses!

Also, I thought I'd redrawn the armscye on the pattern tissue, but perhaps I didn't, as I need to drop the armscye about 1 1/4". This is marked on the back of the muslin, which is why it is not visible in this photograph.

None of this is a really big deal, and I expect to be finished the second muslin tomorrow so that Louise can come back for another fitting whenever she's got time this week... but can you imagine what a disaster it would have been if I'd just cut into the fabric she bought without doing fittings first? She'd have ended up with two poorly fitted dresses, and I'd feel terrible!

Always do muslins. Always. Especially if you're sewing something fitted. You won't be sorry if you spend the time to do a fitting and everything is perfect, but you will be if you skip this step and there's something wrong, because you can't always fix it after the fabric has been cut.

Vogue 2903

© Vogue Pattern Company

Louise's dress is view A of Vogue 2903 (the green version). This pattern is a vintage reproduction of a Vogue dress pattern from 1957.

The dress has princess seams, sleeves in two lengths, and an inside yoke with two neckline variations. The skirt has inverted pleats and is mid to lower calf length. This dress has a back zipper... In fact, the only notions required for this dress are thread and the zipper!

The pattern envelope suggests using cotton broadcloth, shantung, faille and piqué. When selecting fabrics for this dress, keep in mind that it is unsuitable for obvious diagonals, plaids or stripes.

Also very important when selecting fabrics is to keep in mind that the dress does not have a waist seam, therefore the pattern pieces are the entire length of the dress. Make sure to buy enough fabric - you will not be able to wiggle the pieces into a smaller yardage of fabric than the envelope calls for, and if you don't have enough, you can't just go back to the store and buy another half meter of fabric... In fact,we made a point of buying extra fabric for this dress because I didn't have enough fabric for the red tulip dress and had to buy more.

©Aspiring Threads

Here's a reference photo of the red tulip dress, which we're further modifying for the new dresses.

Previous Modifications

These are the modifications we made to the original dress. Louise has a petite frame, but doing a standard shortened waist didn't work with this dress, as her torso isn't where the adjustment needed to be. We needed to take up the shoulders of her dress. This involved shortening the shoulders by 1.5". Unfortunately, this led to shallow armscyes, so we had to drop the armscye by 3/4". We graded the pattern to allow for her measurements at her bust and hip.

Because the sleeves on this dress are very slim fitting, Louise and I decided to make the dress sleeveless, so that she can move better while performing. Leaving her arms uncovered also keeps her cooler while on stage.

The Full Bust Adjustment

Louise found the bust on the tulip dress just a touch snug, so we're doing an FBA on future versions of the dress. I never do adjustments on the original pattern pieces, since making future changes is more challenging if you use the original pieces. I traced the bodice sections of the front pattern pieces. This dress does not have a waist seam, so the pattern pieces are the full length of the dress.

An FBA on princess seams isn't much different than a darted FBA. The biggest difference is that you close up the dart you create and rotate the fullness elsewhere, which means drawing a new cutting line. This tutorial from Craftsy is an excellent lesson in doing an FBA on princess seams.

For Louise's dress, I did a 3/4" FBA. Since the FBA is done on 1/2 of the pattern, the adjustment was 3/8". Louise is coming over today for a fitting.

Other Modifications

The last modification will be to add pockets to the dress. I have a pocket template that will allow for pockets roomy enough that Louise will not need to carry a purse, but will not add unwanted bulk. I added pockets to my wedding dress because I did not want to carry a purse.

I'll be posting about the construction of this dress as I go, so please check back for more!

Dress commission

You may remember a while back, when I came back to blogging, that I posted about a dress that I made for the lady who sang at our wedding reception. The post is here, and the relevant part, with a picture of the dress, is at the bottom of the post.

©Wanderlust Photography

I don't have any photos that really show Louise in her tulip dress, but thought I'd post this one anyway.

We ran into Louise and her husband at a friend's wedding recently, and she was wearing her dress! I was really very happy to see that she's still enjoying it. She asked me if I'd be interested in sewing another, in fact, which I said I'd be happy to do for her. I enjoyed making her dress, and it really made me feel good to know that she wanted me to sew for her again.

I met up with Louise earlier this week to shop for fabric. It was fun, because we went to Dressew, which is a truly mad, wonderful, crazy place to shop. They don't have a website, but their Yelp page is full of glowing reviews. Anyway, since we had such great success using quilting cotton on the first dress, we went straight to that section of the store. There are those who think that quilting cottons are only suitable for quilts, and perhaps clothing for babies and toddlers, but I disagree. Quilting cottons are quite versatile, and can make for some lovely garments, depending on the weight of the fabric and the type of garment. Gertie wrote a post about it a while back, and brought up some very good points about the different schools of thought on the matter.

In the case of this particular dress, we chose quilting cotton because it has a bit of body to it, which makes the skirt stand out nicely. It's a full skirt, so you don't want a droopy, drapey fabric. Quilting cotton is also soft enough that the skirt remains "swishy", so the dress moves with her as she performs. Quilting cotton is comfortable - it gets hot under those stage lights. It doesn't chafe like synthetics can, which is a bonus if you're dancing under hot lights. Finally, it's easy to care for. That's a big bonus, especially if you are busy and don't have time to get your dress drycleaned in time for your next show.

Louise and I spent over an hour looking at fabrics. She was drawn to red, but already has a red dress, so we looked at other colours. We had a few criteria in mind... the prints had to be bold, so that they wouldn't disappear on stage, and the fabrics should show up against a curtain. We wanted her to stand out, not blend in with the drapes! The other criteria was that the fabrics should suit the vintage look of the dress. The tulips are a bit modern, but they're still a floral, which worked, because floral prints were common in the era this dress is from.

We had no luck with green, unfortunately, because all of the cooler shades of green were unsuitable prints. The warmer greens were too yellow for her skintone. Anything with large amounts of yellow was out of the question. She's not a big fan of purple, so we didn't really look there. We wanted to avoid black, because we want her to stand out on stage. Same goes for pretty much any dark blue. Finding just the right fabric was more challenging than you'd think, especially in a store that has hundreds of quilting cottons to choose from!

©Aspiring Threads

We ended up narrowing it down to three fabrics. One was a black fabric that had enough of a pattern on it that it wouldn't blend in with the background. I didn't get a photo of it, but I think I liked it better than Louise did, and I'll probably go back and buy some for myself. These are the two fabrics we found. The pink fabric is a Michael Miller fabric, so it was a bit on the expensive side, for a quilting cotton, but it will make a stunning dress. The blue and white was half the cost of the pink floral, so it balanced out. The fabrics are modern, but like the tulip fabric, are very workable for the style of the dress.

My next post will detail the modifications we made to the pattern, and my thoughts on working with this pattern.

Up next!

I've been quiet on the blog for a little while, as I haven't been sewing and knitting is so dreadfully slow... besides, updates on knitting projects that are, well, uneventful, are rather dull. It would be different if I were working on something really challenging that needed explanations on new techniques and such, but that isn't the case here.

I do have something new up my sleeve, however. I've been wanting a nice quilt for our bedroom for some time, but couldn't decide what colours to use. Originally, I thought I'd go with olive and burgundy, as we have dark furniture and an olive green wall behind the bed, but that sounded too dark, and was a bit more masculine than I wanted.

Of course, I didn't think my husband would be terribly keen on a really feminine quilt, either, so that left a lot of fabrics out of the question. No pastels, no girly florals. I didn't want anything really dark, and I didn't want to have to repaint the feature wall, so I decided to start with a pattern, and hope that inspiration struck.

All People Quilt

After a lot of looking, I found the High Light quilt pattern, from All People Quilt. I've turned to them for patterns before, and I like that they have a good selection of modern quilt patterns, as well as more traditional patterns.

What I liked about this pattern is that the blocks are fairly large, which allows me to use bolder prints. There are plenty of options when you use large blocks! My daughter's quilt has large blocks, which meant it went together quickly, and I could use pretty much any fabric I wanted.

I also like the yellow sections used in this quilt, as they add pops of bright colour without being overwhelming.

©Aspiring Threads

The next step was choosing fabric. I had some fabric in my stash that I quite liked, but had no specific plans for. I brought a swatch of it to the fabric store, and came home with this... The aforementioned fabric is the black and green one on the bottom, by the way. The green in the fabric is similar to, but lighter than the feature wall, so it ties everything together nicely.

The other fabrics are a variety of greys, greens and yellows, with a bit of white mixed in for good measure. Normally I'm not a big fan of yellow, but the yellow fabric is a soft, buttery colour and there won't be a lot of it, so I think it will work nicely without being too much for my tastes. I think it'll be a fantastic quilt, and I'm looking forward to starting it. I do still need to plan out my blocks, but they're pretty straightforward, so that shouldn't take long. I do need to modify the quilt a little, since we have a queen sized bed with a king sized duvet on it (queen sized duvets are never big enough for a queen sized bed).

An added bonus is that my sister in law started a long arm quilting business a few months back, so I won't have to struggle with quilting a large piece on my machine. I don't have backing fabric yet, but that's no rush, since I haven't even begun cutting yet.

©Aspiring Threads

Here's the plan for the quilt, since I'm a visual person. As I mentioned, I'm going to have to modify the pattern to make a larger quilt, so I'm adding two extra rows of blocks to make it four blocks long by five blocks wide, instead of three blocks wide. This will give me a quilt that is large enough to cover a king sized duvet.

The border fabric is the green on black floral, which is swatched at the top. The pale yellow floral is the "highlight" fabric. I'm making two different types of blocks, and the fabrics are swatched together. I will need to buy some plain black fabric for the inner borders. This also covers my binding fabric, since I don't want the binding to stand out from the rest of the quilt.

I'm planning to start cutting my blocks on Monday, as this weekend is going to be very busy with guests visiting. Fortunately, large block quilts like this sew up really quickly, so I could potentially be finished the quilt top by the end of the week, unless I get distracted by something else (which happens on a fairly regular basis).