It's not me, it's Rue: PR Sewing Bee Round 3

Friends, I will start this post with a Public Service Announcement:  Do not spend money on the Colette Rue Pattern.  Even if it was $1 instead of $18, don't do it!

I warned you that this round was a doozy and was it ever!!  The challenge was to make a garment using the Colette Rue dress pattern.  Ugh.  I don't like Colette patterns--they aren't drafted for someone with my body shape (pear) and my experience with the Hawthorn Dress left me with a wadder.  So I went into this round knowing it would be a lot of work.

Although I am very burnt out thinking about this dress, I will do my best to share my journey making this horrible pattern.  Upon the release of the Rue pattern Colette said they were returning to their roots-- meaning vintage inspired.  I am not on the vintage bandwagon.

I downloaded & the pattern (fyi I couldn't make it print properly using Windows 8) for version 2 with the straight skirt.  Even with the slimmer skirt it was 48 pages to print and assemble.  There was a lot of empty space around the pattern pieces, and as one Sewing Bee contestant wisely pointed out: the Colette Logo was large, dark, and on every page which used up a lot of ink.  Lots of paper, lots of taping, lots of ink wasted...it was only the beginning.

Once the pattern was assembled it was obvious from the bodice piece that I was going to be reinventing the wheel. Let's begin our photographic journey on this 'Rue' (little pun for the French speakers out there).

 I printed out sizes 12, 14, & 16 using the layers in the pdf file.  The ability to print only the sizes you want are the best part of this pattern.  I cut out the size 12 for the bodice through the waist., based on my full bust/waist measurements of 40/33.  For reference, the pattern suggested a size 12 for measurements of 40/32 (close enough even though I knew they draft for a C cup).  I taped up the tucks in the paper pattern and pinned it to my dress form:

The shoulders were way too wide.  I narrowed them by an inch by folding the paper and, then held it up to me:

The shoulder width was better but that thing didn't come anywhere near the tops of my shoulders!  Forget about the seam line--the cutting line was way too short.  I had the armhole in the right spot, the CF was in the right spot, the tucks released in the general vicinity of where they should, but the shoulders were 2" too short.  I am not a tall person & I do not have a long torso... That is a very strange block Colette is using.  Let's look at the pattern piece on my dress form:

Yup, 2" too short.  You can see I drew in the seam line on the paper, and for the seam to hit my shoulder line, I needed to add 2 full inches.  So I cut and spread the pattern piece above the armhole and added over 2", better too much than not enough.  Then I raised the neckline up 2" to bring it back up where it was supposed to be.

At that point, I made my first muslin of the front bodice: aka "Big Ugly Mess"

That is not a pretty silhouette

Pretty ugly right?  So I pinned out a bunch of the excess in the center front and pinned the side panels up where they would lay smoothly.

 You can see progress being made.  In addition to pinning the side panel upward, I also pinched a dart out of the armhole.  I rotated this dart out of the pattern piece.  I felt that the tucks at the bust were not located correctly.  They were pointing toward my sternum rather than to the apex.  I wanted to experiment with shifting them upward along the seam.

There was definite progress, so I charged ahead with muslin #2.

I want everyone to note that there is no bust apex marked on the pattern.  For a pattern with so much detail on the bodice, the designed bust apex location should be marked, not left open for interpretation.  

I cannot stress how much it annoyed me to have to figure out where the bust should be in this bodice.  Based on the number of "tester" versions shown right here on Colette's blog there are a variety of locations for that bodice seam.  Some are over the bust, mushing it down, others are lower, and not mushing so much.  This variation in the locations of that seam should be a huge red flag.

Then there is Sarai's dark plaid version, which I think is very pretty, I even like the plaid. (The sleeves look like they are pulling terribly across her shoulders though). If you read through the comments, she attributes the final location of that bodice seam being below her bust as a result of her fabric stretching and the FBA she did.  Riiiight....It was a just a happy accident.   Good one.

So Muslin #2:

I did not like the tucks in their updated location either, so I changed them to gathers, and spread the gathering out across my curves.  The lower bodice piece was flaring outward, so I took a small vertical tuck in it.

During this time there was a tremendous amount of grumbling on my part. My husband asked what I had planned for the day and I'd respond with some variation of: "I'm going to work on that horrible dress."

At this point, I was finally ready to look at the back of the dress.  I knew the front was going to require the most work, so I did that first.  I tissue fit the pattern piece to my dress form:

  
I knew I would need to narrow the shoulders, and add length above the armhole to match the front.  I wanted to raise the back neckline as well to suit my personal preference.  The tissue fit was not terrible.  I did take a small swayback adjustment which is standard (YAY A STANDARD ALTERATION!!) for me.  I also have a very erect back.  The back darts were very wide (2") and meant for someone with a curvier back than mine.  I made them half as wide as designed, ending with a 1" final dart take-up.  After adding all of the extra length in the upper bodice and upper back, I needed to raise the back armhole up 1.25", and then reshaped the armhole to fit me.

After all of the adjustments made to the armscye, I knew the original sleeve would never ever fit.  I had absolutely no desire to redraft a sleeve from scratch, and my fabric was lightweight and summery, so my dress became sleeveless.

But wait...there is a skirt too!  I planned on making the version 2 skirt which would require less fabric (not to mention less printer paper, ink, and taping time).  The skirt is flared and the front has small gathers instead of darts.  I didn't like the dichotomy of having stupid bust tucks on the bodice and silly gathers on the skirt.  The skirt back had no darts at all, only flare.  Speaking as someone who does not possess the 'flat butt' that the Colette block is drafted for, I was suspicious of the entire Rue skirt.

Back in November of 2014, I participated in the first PR Sewing Bee.  The first round was to make an A line skirt.  I modified my trusty McCalls 3830 pencil skirt pattern into an A-line skirt.  I pulled this pattern out and compared it to the Rue.  As I was comparing, I realized that I had already reinvented the wheel on this pattern so why not just use my own pattern for the skirt.  Boom.  Done.  I did think that the skirt needed a little more volume in the front, so I added 6" across the front of the skirt and made an inverted box pleat.  The sharpness of the pleat at the center front was more pleasing to me than any gathers or darts would be.  The pleat would also align nicely with the seaming at the bodice.

I shortened the skirt, since I am only 5'-2", and omitted the pockets.  I didn't want any extra fabric visible through my lightweight fabric.

The fabric was purchased in India in 2012 during my huge, pre-departure shopping spree.  It was a lightweight cotton, and could not have cost more than $1.60 a yard.  I also had over 3 meters of it, so it was a good choice for this dress.  I could goof something up and still have some fabric leftover to re-cut.  The lining was a white poly-crepe, also purchased in India, as well as my invisible zipper.

At this point I made muslin #3, with the skirt.  In the words of my husband, (I quote) "That's not a very flattering dress, you look like a Quaker."  I guess he didn't recognize my muslin fabric as one of our old bed sheets!  My enthusiasm for this dress is clearly expressed in the expression on my face.  (Har Har)

I had a few tweaks here and there in order to align the side seams of the bodice and the skirt.  I sewed the shoulders up last (and on the outside) so that I could adjust them as needed on the muslin and then transfer the marks to the pattern.  I was pretty sick of this thing by this point and felt there was nothing to lose by forging on ahead with my actual fabric.

I threw away the lining pattern pieces.  After 3 muslins worth of changes, they weren't good for anything except scrap paper.  I cut my lining pieces from the bodice pattern pieces and trimmed the neckline and armscye by 1/8" to allow for turn of the cloth.  I used The Slapdash Sewist's tutorials on how do an all machine, clean finish bodice lining, and how to do an all machine stitched lining insertion for invisible zippers.

Once I had the bodice lining finished, I put the bodice on my dress form to see how it looked.  It needed something.  I did a risky thing and in this case, my risk paid off.  I changed the round neckline to a sweetheart shape instead.  I felt that the sweetheart shape would mimic the shape of the bodice seaming in an attractive way.  It did.  To play up the neckline and bodice seaming even more, I added 1/8" black grosgrain ribbon to both areas.

Once the neckline was done, I attached the skirt lining to the bodice lining, and the entire lining to the invisible zipper.  Then hemming and done.  Easy.

I do like the final dress.  It fits, it is flattering, but there is very little of Colette's original pattern in it.  There were major front bodice alterations, alterations on the back darts and neckline, and my own A line skirt pattern.  It hardly qualifies as a Colette pattern anymore.

Here are photos:

I am happy to report that my Quasi-Colette Rue dress has advanced me into Round #4 of the PR Sewing Bee.  I am also happy to report that Colette Patterns have removed the Rue from their pattern store and are working on fixes to the "drafting problems"

We are correcting some drafting issues on the Rue pattern and altering the design according to your feedback. Along with corrections to the armscye and sleeve that will improve fitting issues, we will adjust the bust of the pattern so that the style lines fit fully underneath the bust.

"According to our feedback??"  Didn't they test this pattern before printing it??  There are too many head shaking questions to pose.  I'm worn out talking about this terrible pattern.  Friends...Save your money.  Friends don't let friends buy the Rue dress.  (mic drop)

  

PR Sewing Bee Round #2: A Bias skirt

I was in my (parked) car when I read the email from Pattern Review revealing the challenge for round #2: Make a Bias Garment.  I didn't cheer, I didn't groan, my reaction was more of a "Hmmm..."  Since I was already in the car out and about, I headed over to Joanns to peruse the pattern catalogs. McCall's patterns were on sale that day and I was hoping to find one of their patterns that would be interesting and which would work.  Nope.  Simplicity/Butterick/Vogue? Nope, nope nope.  I did find a New Look pattern, for a slinky dress, but when I pulled the envelope out of the drawer it said it was a juniors pattern!!  Nope.  Deflated, I realized I would never wear a slinky bias dress, so it was better that I not waste my time.

Then I went where I had never gone before...to Burda.  Right away I knew I would be able to find something that would work.  Their patterns were interesting and different.  There were different styles and interesting seamlines.  I know there are a number of sewists/bloggers out there who love Burda, but I've never had a need.  I do own 4 Burda Style Magazines but have never made anything out of them.  I found 2 great patterns for bias skirts, but the one that won out was Burda 6572.

I meandered through Joann's and found what they called brushed cotton windowpane plaid in black and red.  It was perfect! I love black and red together, it would look great on the bias, and it would be much easier to match than a more complex plaid.  

There is really interesting seaming on this skirt.  The front and back are on the bias, the back yoke is on grain, there is a front yoke and pocket that look different altogether.  The top of the pocket lines up exactly with the back yoke and I wanted to highlight that cool continuous looking line using dark red piping.

The red piping looks like it is continuous around the side and back of the skirt. It also provides a visual break between the skirt back, which is cut on the bias, and the back yoke, which is not. I was very concerned about the thickness of the piping at the CB seam and invisible zipper. Invisible zippers don't like bulk, so I discovered a clever idea to keep my piping but to make my zipper happy. I was able to slide the cord (inside the piping) out of the covering and cut 5/8" of it off. I then slid the cord back inside the covering and voila! no bulky cord at the seamline! I did this on the side seams as well. 

The hardest part about making this skirt was dealing with the bias, both in layout/cutting, and sewing so that the seams didn't stretch out.

#1: Cutting out the pattern pieces and making sure the plaid was on the grain lines. The flannel was very pliable and would shift easily off grain. On my pattern pieces for the front and back, I drew extra grainlines that would line up with the windowpane pattern on the fabric. Starting in the center of the pattern piece, I folded the pattern, placed it on the fabric aligning my grainlines with the red lines in the fabric and pinned in it place. Working from the center outward, I continued folding the pattern, aligning the fabric, and pinning it in place. It was tedious and time consuming, but to me (and my perfectionist tendencies) it was necessary.

 #2: Making sure seams didn't stretch out or skew before sewing. In order to prevent the curved seam line around the front yoke/pocket from stretching out or shifting while sewing, I used small strips of fusible interfacing along the concave curve on the front skirt piece. I was worried that manipulating the fabric and sewing this curve would stretch out the fabric and make my seams pucker. I also hand basted the pocket/front yoke to the skirt front, then machine basted, and then did a final stitch to make sure the curves laid flat. I also used strips of fusible interfacing at the center back where the zipper was installed to stabilize the seam prior to sewing in the zipper.  At the center front, where the bias front piece is sewn to the inner facing, I sewed a strip of 1/8" twill tape along the seam to be absolutely sure it didn't stretch out.

Here are the final photos:

I am once again happy to report that I have advance on to PR Sewing Bee Round #3.  --It's a doozy!

Thurlow Shorts! PR Sewing Bee Round #1

Long ago, I made a pair of Sewaholic Thurlow shorts.  They were not great:

I thought I'd still wear them but I never did.  I thought I had donated them before I moved.  Lo and behold, I found them in my refashion bin and was able to assess what went wrong last time.

I have put on a little weight since I made the first pair and they were a little small in the hips.  The waistband also fell on an odd spot which made my stomach poof out over the top.  No good.  I started my new attempt by cutting a muslin one size larger, a 14.  I raised the front 1", and I raised the center back up 3/4" increasing to 1" at the side seams to match the front.  The fit was good through the hips but very large at the waist.  I needed to take it in quite a bit at the center back seam.   Rather than just adjusting the center back seam, I took a little off  the side seams at the waistline and about 1/2" off at the center back.  I didn't want the back pockets to appear too close to the center seam so I shifted them and the back dart outward by 1/2".

I am not a fan of double welt pockets.  They look like lips to me.  Not the look I'm going for for my back pockets.  So I switched them to single welt pockets.  I used this excellent tutorial by poppykettle to make for single welt pockets.

When I first had them assembled, there were some butt-flossing issues in the back.

I scooped out the CB seam at the seat and it made a big difference.  I've never had to do this adjustment before, and was very happy with the result.

Seriously...that is a great view.

See?  Impressive!

One thing I did with these shorts that was unusual for me was to hem them much shorter than I normally do.  I was talking with a friend who has a similar shape as me, (although she is MUCH taller) and she told me that a stylist once told her to wear shorter shorts. That gave me the confidence to hem these with a 3.5" inseam rather than my typical 9".  I really like how it looks and I feel young!

Apart from scooping out the CB seam and raising the waisband, I made only minor changes.  I cut a size 14 with a slight decrease at the waist and a slight adjustment on the front pieces for athletic thighs. 

I skipped the belt loops...one reason I sew is to have bottoms that fit--no belt needed.

A note to future Thurlow sewists:  check the length of the left waistband. Mine was about 1.25" too short.  The pointed end of my waistband did not cover the entire fly extension. Some online research revealed that this has happened to other people as well. I didn't have enough of the gray denim to cut a new waistband on the correct grain-line, so I had to be creative. I wanted the pointed end of the waistband to completely cover the fly extension. I cut my waistband just to the inside of the zipper and cut a small piece of denim 1.75" long and the width of the waistband and waistband facing. I used 1/4" seam allowances to sew this piece to the main waistband and also to the pointed end. I pressed the seams open to minimize bulk. This little extension stays hidden behind the front closure.  Not everyone has has this issue but there are definitely some of us.  Save yourself a headache and measure the waistband and compare it to the left front, back, and fly extension.

  I am happy to report that I made it on to Round #2 in the Sewing Bee with these Thurlows!

Endless Combinations!!

Hello! I have been sewing like mad!  When I discovered that Hancock Fabrics was going out of business, I went a little nuts buying fabric.  By "a little nuts", I mean a little more than a little.  ;)

I started sewing up my new-found stash and then discovered the Endless Combinations Contest going on at Pattern Review.  It was fate I tell you!!

Let me describe my entries in the following ways:

1.  Using cool fabric

2.  Replicating a cool pattern envelope photo

3.  Replicating a long gone and memories-attached jacket

First up. A skirt made from a blue/white/navy/green swirly ITY knit.  I used the trusty McCall's 6654:

Cool fabric isn't it??  Since the going out of business sale at Hancocks had 2 yard minimum cuts, I had plenty left over for a top to match.  Enter Vogue 8390:

My previous version of this pattern was in a brown knit and I still love it (but it did need some tweaks):

When the 2 pieces are worn together, it looks like a dress:

On a side note, I have started running...and apparently my waist has returned!!

Part 2 of my thoughts for this contest was replicating the Jalie Eleonore pattern cover.  In particular, the light blue capris and the striped top:

Jalie Eleonore Jeans

The model seemed so springy, cool and comfortable.  It is very unlike me to copy a pattern photo, but it happened this time.  I even bought similar shoes!!  

My attempt at the cover pose

I did a split hem on these, using this excellent tutorial from pattern~scissors~cloth.

The top was a new pattern: New Look 6384.   Let me tell you that the top runs big.  I cut a large and should have done a medium.  The neckline was both low and wide.  I took in the shoulder seams and also the center front.  The fabric was a white striped interlock knit which I used on this dress:

McCall's 6886 blogged here

I am not a big fan of interlock knit mostly because it has poor recovery.  My neckline was a wavy mess when I finished it:

I was industrious and used some stretch thread which I ran through the channeling made by the neck binding.  I did not follow the pattern instructions, but used Jalie's method of using a skinny binding. Here is a great tutorial to show how it's done.  Once the elastic thread was inside the casing, it was almost gathered.  After ironing, however, it came out perfect!  Quite the save!!

So my pattern envelope re-enactment was finished and last up was replicating a long gone and memories-attached jacket.  Back when I was 18, I was an exchange student in France (Western Brittany).  At some point during my year long stay, I purchased a white Gap jean jacket from the Kilo Shop, where everything is sold by the kilo.  I remember the jacket being a bit too big, and I remember adding velcro to the inner pockets to prevent pick-pocketing during my travels (I was really paranoid about theives).  I have fond memories of that jacket including learning that the French word for velcro was "velcro".  So when I needed something to create Endless Combinations, a white jean jacket would be perfect.

I used Butterick 5616 from my stash:

Butterick 5616

Most reviewers mentioned the pattern being boxy, which is something I meant to minimize, if not eliminate.  I wisely made a muslin and did the following changes:

1.       I tapered the center back piece to narrow at the waist.  As drafted there was about a 2” difference between the finished bust and finished waist measurement…boxy indeed!

2.       I did a swayback adjustment, taking a ~1” fisheye dart across the back & side back pieces, tapering to nothing at the side seam.

3.       I did a slight FBA adding 3/8” to the bust at the side front.

4.       Below the bust I shaved off ~ ¼ ”on the seam to fit closer to the stomach.

5.       From my muslin, I discovered that the shoulders were very wide.  I narrowed them about 5/8”.

6.       I lengthened the sleeves from ¾ length to full length.

7.       I made the sleeve cuff narrower to match the lower band and used 1 button instead of 3

8.       I added ¼” twill tape along the collar to stabilize it. 

9.       I added interior pockets to the front pieces (you must have interior pockets to thwart pickpockets!!)

10.   I added a coat hanging loop.

I had JUST enough fabric for this jacket.  This is all that was left:

"Big" Scraps

"little" scraps

I am very happy with how it turned out.  I did made a bit of a goof-up however.  The sleeves & cuffs were designed to be 3/4 length and ending at the forearm.  I made the sleeves full length, but I forgot to taper them both down to be wrist size.  I realized my error after the cuffs were attached and topstitched.  Sigh...   So I put the button on ~2" from the edge of the cuff to make them a more sensible size.  

My Endless Combinations were complete.  Here is my collage:

It is a great assortment of outfits, and I am very pleased with how they turned out.  

Mid-April I was able to tag along when my husband had to go to Miami for work.  Here is a photo of me on South Beach, all cool and windblown: