Book review: Couture Sewing Techniques and Giveaway Winner

As requested by some of my readers, it is time I did my first sewing book review. This one is probably my favourite, not only because I simply could not have made my wedding dress without it. It is, of course, Couture Sewing Techniques (Revised & Updated) by Claire B. Shaeffer. 

Before I start though, it is also time to announce the winner of my first ever Giveaway! Thank you for all the lovely readers that took part - I appreciate all the wonderful comments and very helpful suggestions. The winner was selected by a random number generator (thank you Excel!) and the beautifully green fabric goes to... drum roll please... Arielle (lakaribane) at Fashion Maté! Arielle, I will be in touch by email shortly. 

 

Now the book review. 

This book is based on the 2001 version of Claire's Couture Sewing Techniques, but revised and updated 10 years later to not only to bring the book up-to-date, but also to add a new chapter on special fabrics and lots of beautiful photos. 

I bought this book almost as an alternative to Susan Khalje's Bridal Couture, which is out of print, and goes for £100+ on Amazon (there is a cd version available from the US, but when I was making my wedding dress, I just didn't want any further delays over potential custom issues/shipping problems). I was really glad that I did make the purchase, as it was of invaluable help (as were all the PR members on the Bridal sewing board). 

The book is made of 2 main parts: the basics to couture sewing, and applying couture techniques. I think this makes logical sense, and makes a great read from cover to cover - this is not what I can say for a lot of sewing books, especially techniques-based ones. However, I must admit that at times, I did find that some techniques are not situated in one place, so I had to jump through a couple of parts. Though all in all, this was not a big problem for me. 

The book contains so many wonderful couture techniques, and made me feel like couture sewing is not out of my (or anyone's) reach. The techniques are well explained, well illustrated, and in most cases, well applied in the later parts of the book. 

It takes you through the history of couture sewing, which personally I found a fascinating read, but I could imagine some readers considering it irrelevant. It contains lots and lots of references to the great famous fashion houses, with exclusive photos of some wonderfully constructed items, which was inspiring. 

There are also lots of "Claire's tip" next to some techniques, and I really loved those as I felt like I was being given great insight of the industry, and "tricks of the trade". 

Towards the very end of the book, there is also a section on special occasions wear and wedding dresses. Selfishly, I wished that the wedding dresses section was a little bit longer, especially as there are not that many sewing books on the market for wedding dresses constructions. But it certainly contained some useful information on the key elements of wedding dresses, which I did find helpful. 

Overall I thought this was a fantastic book. Although I don't think this is something that complete beginners should get their hands on straight away, this is certainly suitable for advanced beginners onwards who are interested in learning how to sew better. It helped me a great deal, and made me appreciate hand sewing so much more. 

Happy sewing everyone! x

The Experiment Dress

I've called my latest creation The Experiment Dress because it was a first for me on several levels:

• First go at a real vintage pattern (oh the excitement!);
• First attempt with a border print; 
• First "jumper" dress;
• First try with the 60's style (OK you can't really see that now, but see my explanation below). 

All in all, it turned out OK - I'm not exactly feeling over the moon with it, but I'm not overly upset with it either.  

So I got my hands on this lovely vintage pattern from a really cute shop called Berylune when I visited Leamington Spa (it opened a few months ago, and it runs craft classes), and I simply couldn't wait to rip it open (...don't worry, it was just a figure of speech; I was in fact very careful with this beautiful piece of "antique") and make a start on it. It is the vintage Simplicity 7270, dated from 1967. It was a "how to sew" pattern, including a page of detailed instructions on how to interface a neckline. And yes it was a pattern for teenagers, but the sizing appeared perfect for me, at first glance. 

I wanted to make a "jumper" dress for this cool autumn weather, so I used my second "coupon" from Paris which was a heavyweight viscose. To prove this to you, see picture below (don't be shy mum) the beautiful fabric wrapped around my wonderful mum at the top of the Eiffel Tower (she was cold, and, well, she rocked this look)! 

As you can see, it has a quirky border print, and as with my other "coupon", it was €10 for 3 whole metres! I wanted to experiment with this, and this 60's dress seemed like the perfect candidate, as the dress front and back pieces are basically 2 rectangles (alarm bells ringing in my head) so it shouldn't be too tricky to keep the border print under control. 

So I spent ages trying to ensure that the neckline/front and back yokes have symmetrical prints (and the bits of the fabric that I want), and the bold print at the bottom sits centrally, and that the skirt will finish where the border finishes, whilst keeping the length at the desired level, just above my knee. I think all that has worked out well. 

I had a bit of a problem with the fit though. OK that was an understatement - the finished dress looked like a huge sack on me! I should've seen this coming - the rectangles were gathered at the top for the chest area, and of course that meant that the waistline was going to be larger than the bust. D'oh! Part of the problem was also that I was so excited to work with a vintage pattern, I didn't want to alter the pattern, and also was too lazy to trace out all the pattern pieces. 

Perhaps the 60s style is just not made for me. I prefer a closer fit at the best of times, so I had to do something. So I added 4 darts, 2 front darts at 3cm width, and 2 back darts at 2cm width each, and also included curved side seams, taking in 3cm at each side, and had a whopping 4.5cm seam allowance at the centre back. So you get the idea! I took in over 40cm at the waist! 

Given what I had to work with, the finished product didn't seem all that bad, although of course, it no longer had the 60s style in my opinion. 

I also got to try out a "visible" centred dress zipper (I couldn't quite bring myself to insert an invisible zipper to this vintage number), and it wasn't too bad at all, apart from all the unpicking when adjusting the fit. In fact I would say that it was easier than inserting invisible zippers. I didn't follow the instruction on the pattern here; rather I referred to my Dressmaker's Technique Bible and basted the seams first before sewing on the zipper closed. Here's a picture of it from the back: 

As usual, I would be interested in hearing what you think! Do you think this looks grown up enough for work? Perhaps over the purple shirt? Or for dress down Fridays, under a long-sleeved top (ok, maybe not that white one in the photo above, but a dark top)? I don't feel like I love it, but maybe it'll grow on me...

Small bust adjustment tutorial - Part 1

As promised, I am going to do a series of tutorials on small bust adjustment ("SBA"), as when I was researching the subject, I was surprised to find that whilst FBAs are often talked about, SBAs simply don't get half the attention. I suppose it is not that surprising - if your clothing is too small around the bust, then you've got to do something about it to make it fit; on the other hand, you could make do just fine without having to adjust the pattern (a padded bra, anyone?) if the top/dress is a little too loose.

After being in denial for quite a while, I finally thought, if I'm making my own clothes, shouldn't I do everything I can to make sure that they actually fit me well? It was my wearable toile of Simplicity 2444 that prompted me to make a SBA, as the use of the contrasting fabric made it absolutely clear that I had to do something about the excess fabric.

So he we go - tutorial 1 - introduction and illustration on Simplicity 2246 (Lisette traveller)

Do I need to do a SBA?

Typically, the big 4 pattern brands use a B cup for their patterns (apart from the Amazing fit (and equivalent) patterns with different cup sizes), and Colette uses a C cup (that's why I've been too scared to actually try it out!).

When I was looking at McCalls 5927 (with A-D cup sizes) from my stash, the instructions included a helpful guide/chart as to how to find out what cup size you are when it comes to sewing patterns. I'm sure there will be plenty other patterns with such a guide (and it's probably available online too), so it's worth checking that out first.

I would say that you would probably know by now if you do need a SBA. The signs to look for are:

• Bagginess around the chest area when the dress/top fits well elsewhere;
• Side seams not straight, with the top part shifting towards the back;
• Waistline not level, with excess fabric in the centre front. 

Basically there is too much fabric both horizontally and vertically, so we need to fix both.

What do I need?

• Ruler (I usually use a French curve but a normal ruler will do too) and pen/pencil to draw on the pattern pieces;
• Scissors;
• Clear tape;
• Bodice front pattern piece(s). 

Basic bodice pattern - I'm using Simplicity 2246 (Lisette Traveller) for illustration

Step 1 - shorten or lengthen pattern as usual

Step 2 - find the vertical waist dart, and draw a vertical line through the centre of the dart, extending it upwards. (Line 1)

Step 3 - draw a (almost) horizontal line connecting the centre of the side bust dart, extending it towards the bust point. (Line 2)

Step 4 - draw the stitching line around the armhole, so we don't get confused by the seam allowance.

Step 5 -  measure the stitching line around the armhole, and pick a point that is approximately 1/3 way from the bottom (side seam rather than shoulder seam).

Step 6 - draw a line connecting this point (from step 5) and the intersection from Line 1 and Line 3 (approximately the bust apex). We'll call this new line Line 3.

Then it's time to cut! As our objective is to remove the excess horizontal and vertical fabric, the SBA is essentially a pivotal adjustment, so we'll be cutting the pattern up a bit, leaving little hinges from which we can pivot the pattern. 

Step 7 - cut from the bottom of Line 1, through to Line 3 without stopping, leaving a hinge at the armhole point. 

 Step 8 - Cut Line 2 from side seam towards the intersection of all three lines (roughly the bust apex), leaving a tiny hinge there. 

Step 9 - Adjust Line 2 by pivoting the bottom left piece upwards, overlapping the pattern piece on the side seam. When you're happy, tape it in place. Based on how much of a SBA you need, it may be the case that you could eliminate the side bust dart altogether. It depends on how much design and wearing ease it is built into the pattern, quite often I would eliminate the bust dart so there are 2 less darts to sew! 

Step 10 - Pivot the left piece by pivoting it upwards and rightwards, overlapping on the waist dart whilst keeping Line 1 roughly vertical and parallel to the centre front. Tape in place when you're happy. 

Step 11 - Reduce the length of the pattern piece on the right (towards the centre front) to align the bottom of the pattern piece, as all the pivoting in the previous steps will have shortened the bodice front. Because of this, I would always be careful as to how much of a petite adjustment you do at the beginning (step 1). I made the full petite adjustment for my Little Lisette traveller and the waistline ended up being just that tiny bit too high. 

 


Step 12 - Redraw the waist dart (and the side bust dart if you haven't removed it altogether in step 9). You should end up with a narrower dart because you will have already reduced the width of the waistline by doing a SBA. Also remember to adjust the connecting pattern pieces if necessary. 

That's it! It's really quite simple. I've used the exact same method for McCalls 2401 (blurry version and spotty version) and it worked a treat too. 

Here's what my McCalls 2401 front looks like (it does not have a waist seam)

This type of bodice front with a waist dart and a side bust dart is really common, so I hope this tutorial is helpful. More tutorials to come to show you how I've done a SBA for other types of bodice pattern pieces! 

P.S. some of the photos simply refuse to be rotated when uploaded! Apologies for those but hopefully you can still see what I mean by turning your head/neck instead. And if anyone knows how I can fix this, please let me know! 

Vogue 8278 pullover dress

As the summer is swiftly leaving us for yet another year, I felt the urgency to squeeze in just one more summery project before autumn sets in. So I picked a pattern labelled as very easy, and gave it a go. 

It is something a little different from what I usually make -- it is a loose pullover dress, Vogue 8278. It is indeed very easy! The dress is made of 1 front, and 2 back pieces, plus a few bits of facing and the belt - this was exactly what I hoped for, a very quick project. 

I actually bought this pattern with a particular piece of fabric in mind - a while ago I bought a few metres of lovely printed silk habotai from Walthamstowe (at £5 a metre! and yep, from the stall in front of Sainsburys on a Saturday! Go go go!) but I wanted to test out the fit first with some less precious fabric from my stash instead. 

So I ended up using a super soft viscose, having the plan in mind that if it didn't work out, it would be comfortable enough to be worn as my PJ ;-)  Don't you think it would make a lovely PJ without the belt? 


I didn't make too many alterations - just a SBA (tutorial to follow!), a small waist adjustment and a petite adjustment (I didn't shorten it by the full amount, based on the reviews that I've read, but as I generally prefer the skirt to be finish above my knees, I think I will shorten it more for my next version) . I also ended up shortening the belt by a couple of inches, just so that the bow stays up nicely. 

Do I like it? Hmmmm I am not sure! I certainly love how soft the fabric is, but I am unsure about the loose fit. I think it is a little too blousy on me, and it may not be the most flattering silhouette for my shape. Being a pullover dress, of course there is a lot of excess fabric around the waist, but I suppose the belt does a reasonable job. I also cannot think of when I can wear this - to me, the belt makes is a little less casual, but the shape of the dress is too casual... What do you think, my dear readers? 

Giant baby blanket...

No silly, not a blanket for a giant baby (let's hope not anyway, for my friend's sake!), but that the blanket has turned out to be huge for the anticipated size of my friend's unborn baby boy... How can I get the message across...I think I can wrap it around me with no problem! Perhaps it's a good thing, as at least in theory, the baby would be able to keep using this for the years to come. 

Anyway, I was inspired by Jane's tutorial last week, and rushed straight to Fabricland to buy fabric for my own version of a baby blanket, for my friend's baby who is due next month. 

The main change I made was the material used. I bought the animal-print cotton of 180cm x 110cm, and also 180cm of some cotton flannel/brushed cotton (rather than fleece). I wanted the blanket to be 100% natural (I even used cotton thread), mainly because I still remember having a horrible allergic reaction to fleece when I was little. You never know how sensitive a newborn baby's skin might be, so I tried to keep it as natural as possible. 

The flannel is of course generally thinner than fleece, but I was really happy with how soft and fluffy it was. It did require a little bit of care and attention when handling it, as flannel tends to shrink a lot, and is rather stretchy when sewing. I did the following to make sure that it didn't misbehave too much:

• I prewashed it (to remove any chemicals), along with the printed cotton, on a 30 degree cycle, and then dried them on a very hot cycle. This is because flannel shrinks more when washed hot and dried cold (what a weird fabric!). 

• I pressed it after washing and drying with a hot iron, by simply placing the iron on portions of the fabric, without dragging along it.

• When sewing, I pinned the fabrics together with the flannel at the bottom, to prevent it stretching and the blanket losing shape. 

It was such a simple project (I whipped it up in one evening after work), and I was really happy with how cute and soft the result was!