Second Minoru Jacket Progress

Good evening all. I'm a bit behind with photographing finished makes. I have not one but two versions of the Florence and Fred rub-off dress to show you. They're great and I've worn them quite a bit. They're now ironed once again waiting to be photographed.

In the meantime I thought I'd talk about the progress of my current make - my second Minoru jacket. I think you know how much I loved my first version. I always knew I wanted to make a second one. The advantage of having worn the jacket for eight months is that I know what changes to make for the next version!

First up is warmth. 99.9% of the time it is cold in the UK. I may have exaggerated that figure but that's what it feels like! It would be nice to have a Minoru that kept me warmer on really cold days.

I realise this jacket isn't really designed for warmth like, say, a winter coat. Tasia (the designer from Sewaholic) has mentioned the fabric shouldn't be too thick as it has to gather at the neck and waist. I'm using the same fabric as in my first version, a fairly thick cotton canvas. To add warmth I looked into interlining the jacket.

I read a bit about interfacing jackets. The texts I read were aimed more at suit jackets where the interfacing would add structure. I don't think there's a right and wrong way about where to interface. Things like collars, pocket flaps and button bands are always interfaced. In addition to these areas, some people interface just the jacket front pieces while others interface the back as well, or at least the upper part of the back. I read that sleeves are rarely interfaced except for the top part of the sleeve cap, extending down to around 2 cm below the under arm. See this link to Claire Shaeffer's Couture Techniques book on Google books which talks about interfacing the sleeve. I followed this except I didn't cut the interfacing on the bias.

Laura from My Little Nook has written a couple of helpful posts on interfacing and interlining a coat. (She's also made some fantastic coats if you're not familiar with her blog). See her post here on interfacing a coat and her post here on interlining a coat. She lists all the suitable fabrics for interlining.

I used a medium weight sew-in interfacing on the jacket fronts, jacket back, the sleeve caps (extending to about 2 cm below the under arm points) and the collar pieces. For the lower part of the sleeves I used a white cotton (as I couldn't find any batiste). Here are some pictures of the finished pieces. Yes it took me ages to sew all those lines onto my pieces! This step also ate up a whole spool of thread, so I'll have to buy more! I have no idea if this experiment with interfacing will work but I guess you don't know until you try! 

Those creases in the corners are pins by the way

The second change I want to make is to the patch pockets. I added huge patch pockets with a flap on my first version. Huge pockets are a must. I end up shoving all sorts of things in them. I'm not changing the design of the pockets, just the construction of the lining. The pocket lining on my first version is more of an inter lining. So if you peek inside the pockets you can see the pocket seams. I want the lining to be more of a true lining so that the seams are not visible when you peek inside. The lining will be more like a pocket bag and I think it will need a back lining piece which extends up into the pocket flap. It's going to take me some time to work out how to do this, but you know I like nothing better than a geeky challenge!

Another minor change I've already alluded to is to add interfacing to the collar pieces. Hmm the collar on my first version is pretty stiff already. I'm not sure why I'm doing this but I'm going ahead with it anyway! I'm also lining both collar pieces as the original has only the outer collar piece lined.

I just need to cut out the interfacing on my placket pieces and then I can start sewing. This is not going to be a quick make with all the extra work I've added. I also have very little spare sewing time at the moment. It might be some time before I have another finished make but hopefully I'll be back soon with some photos of my Florence and Fred dresses.

Update

I've started sewing the sleeves so I thought I'd update this post to show how I've got on with the thickened fabric.  It's come out fine so far and the seams after topstitching have come out fairly flat. I'm being fanatical about grading the seams to remove the bulk. It's amazing what a difference this step makes.  Here's a picture of a graded seam from one side.  The lowest point is the interfacing, then the middle layer of the outer shell is cut leaving the third layer of the outer shell uncut.  I then snipped through the curved areas in the sleeves, through all the layers.  The ends of my vertical hand stitched lines used to attach my interfacing are tied at the edges.  I trimmed around these parts so as not to undo the hand stitching.

Here's the view on the other side.  Here just the interfacing is cut down, the next layer being the uncut third layer described above.

Here's a picture of the topstitching.

The Great British Sewing Bee

The Great British Sewing What? Yes I know I'm late with my observations on this but better late than never!

Like many of you I've been a great fan of the series, watching every episode on the TV and then on the iPlayer. My thoughts very much echo everyone else's. It was surprisingly good and exceeded expectations. How wonderful that it focused on garments rather than home furnishings and cushions which is what I thought it would be like.

The challenges were really tough. Most home sewers sew for themselves and yet there was a weekly challenge to tailor a garment to fit a model. I really like how this not only pushed the sewers involved but the judges' comments got me thinking about things in a new way and have encouraged me to up my game. The show hasn't just been good for encouraging new sewers.

For example Patrick and May talked about “balance”. This is not something I've thought of before but it's a problem that I often have without knowing what it was! For example the bodice seeming to be higher in the front than behind or the hem rising up higher in the back than the front. May also talked about the flow of a pattern starting from the centre which I haven't thought about before.

I'm glad Ann won as she really was the best sewer. I loved her jacket and man's shirt. Hardly a level playing field given her experience but there were no categories in the show so the best person won.

I went to a local fabric shop a couple of weeks ago to buy thread and I got talking to the owner about the show. She agreed that Ann was the right person to win but she wanted Lauren to win. She thought this would have encouraged more young people to sew. This was an interesting perspective from a lady who was not young herself but could see the benefits that Lauren may have bought to sewing (and perhaps to sales in her shop!)

Happy sewing until next time!

Tutorial: Hemming a Lined Skirt with a Placket

When making my first Wiksten skirt it took me a bit of time to figure out how to finish off the corners of the skirt and the lining at the hem. I used this tutorial from Fashion Incubator as a starting point. When I worked it out I took some photos as I went along. I then went the whole hog and turned it into my first proper tutorial.

I followed my tutorial when making my second Wiksten skirt and the corners came out fine. I even used it on my latest make to sew the corners of a vent on a lined skirt. I'm fairly confident it works so I thought I'd put it out there.

If you know of any other tutorials dealing with this area please provide a link in the comments. I'm always interested to read other ways of doing things.

So on with the tutorial. Firstly I have made it available as a PDF download here. Please let me know if the link doesn't work.

Just in case cloud storage disappears I have set out the tutorial in full below. The references to 1.5 cm below refer to the seam allowances used so this will change if you use a different seam allowance.

Hemming a lined skirt with a placket

This tutorial describes how to finish off the bottom corner of a lined skirt with a placket. The lining is loose rather than sewn into the hem.

The following steps should already be done.

The placket is attached to the outer skirt stopping just shy of 1.5 cm from the bottom of the placket. (Update: this is actually step 1 of the tutorial).

If you're topstitching the placket you can either do all the topstitching at the end or topstitch up to about 3 inches before the hem depth and do the rest at the end.

The lining is hemmed.

The hemmed lining is stitched to the placket facing.

The hemmed lining (with placket facing attached) is stitched to the outer skirt along the waist, down the length of the placket and halfway along the bottom of the placket. (Update: see step 1 for sewing the bottom of the placket). 

The outer skirt is hemmed stopping around 2.75 inches before the placket. (This gap can be smaller if your hem is shorter. My hem is 2.25 inches. The purpose of the gap is to leave enough room to finish off the placket).

Tip: I thread traced my seam allowance (using long basting stitches) on the bottom of the placket and placket facing in advance. I then used this thread traced line as the guide to hem my outer skirt as this line also marks the fold line for the hem.

Step 1 – start of tutorial

Sew the bottom edge of the placket, stopping just shy of the finished width of the placket. In my case I stopped 1.5 cm from the edge, being the seam allowance. Don't sew all the way to the edge. (The stitching to the right in the picture below is the thread traced basting mentioned above). Use pins to move the rest of the fabric out of the way if necessary. Press.

View from the other side

Step 2

Preparing to turn through. I've been experimenting with Tilly and the Buttons' method (http://www.tillyandthebuttons.com/2012/11/how-to-shape-sharp-corner.html) of not cutting the corners diagonally before turning through. I graded my seam allowances and then pressed them towards the back of the skirt (ie towards side with the lining attached). Alternatively you can trim the corners.

After turning through, press.

Step 3

Tack together all the seam allowances that meet at the bottom edge of the placket and the bottom edge of the outer skirt.

In the next photo I've put a white headed pin in the seams I'm going to tack together. I tacked using a small zig zag stitch, lowering the feed dogs and doing a few stitches. This can also be done by hand

Bonus photo: not in the PDF download

Step 4

Fold the lining back onto the placket facing, right sides together. Loosely tack the lining onto the placket facing just to keep it out of the way.

 On the right is the the part of the hem of the outer skirt not yet stitched down

Step 5

This is where it's important to have a bit of the outer skirt un-hemmed before the placket as mentioned at start of the tutorial.

Stitch the side of the outer skirt hem to the side of the placket facing, right sides together. In the photo below I have pinned where I will sew, with a 1.5 cm seam allowance. You can also see my tacking in this picture from step 3, on the left of the picture next to the red headed pin. To the left of the picture you can also see the stitching from the long seam that joins the placket and outer skirt.

This isn't the easiest part to sew by machine but it can be done. Here is a picture of the work in my machine before sewing. That green pin at the back was there to keep the fabric out of the way.

Step 6

Press the seam allowance of the placket facing and hem towards the placket. In the photo below you can see where I've tacked the seam allowances at step 3. Again using Tilly and the Buttons' method (http://www.tillyandthebuttons.com/2012/11/how-to-shape-sharp-corner.html) I haven't cut diagonally along the corners. If you want to you can undo the tacking and trim away those corners. Turn through.

Step 7

Finish / complete any topstitching on the placket.

Step 8

Hand stitch the rest of the hem on the outer skirt. (You can't see the top of the hem in this picture as it's underneath the lining).

Light Blue Wiksten Skirt

It's been a lovely sunny Saturday in Norfolk. I spent the afternoon trundling around the charity shops in Wymondham looking for an upcycling project. I've never seen so many charity shops in a small town. I found two items for about £3.50 each which I'm looking forward to up-cycling.

When we arrived home my chap suggested we take some photos as it was still sunny. So I got changed into my light blue Wiksten skirt and we went to Caistor St Edmund which has the ruins of a Roman market town. Here are the photos.

I didn't know the camera was still rolling here!

This is my second make of the Wiksten tulip skirt. I made no major changes from my first version which is detailed here.

I used a light blue fabric from my stash but I'm not sure what it is. I lined the skirt again. My only change from my first version was to line the waistband and plackets, rather than face them with the skirt fabric (or polka dot cotton as in my first version). I still interfaced the lining for the waistband and plackets. This has produced a lighter overall result than interfacing with self-fabric or cotton.

I used a vintage seam finish on both the skirt and lining (which I also did on my first version). I like this finish but it does add time onto the make.

Anyway there's not much more to say about this skirt. I thought this would be more of a spring / summer skirt but I think it looks OK as a winter skirt with dark tights and a dark jumper. I'm looking forward to pairing it with my white Banksia top in the warmer weather (I can hope!). I'm stumped as to what other colours go with this light, duck egg kind of blue. I've tried googling but have found nothing much apart from a nude coloured cardigan which does go well. Does anyone have any other colour combination suggestions?

Happy weekend.

Denim Wiksten Skirt

It's only 3 degrees celsius in Norfolk this evening which makes a change from zero or 1 degrees. It doesn't look like we'll have a balmy spring any time soon so I thought I'd brave the cold air for five minutes to take some long overdue photos. I finished this skirt in the first half of January and I've worn and washed it loads of times. It's been hanging up for about 2 weeks taunting me to get on with the photos so that I can wear it. So at last I can start wearing it again – I've really missed it!

Weird how you can't see the bow belt in these pictures

This is the Tulip Skirt from Wiksten Patterns. The download is available here for $4.20, a bargain £2.60!

I love this skirt and of course it's made with my favourite fabric, denim. It's a comfortable skirt and goes with many things.

Luckily I made notes as I was making the skirt as I wouldn't have been able to recall any detail now. I started making this before Christmas and even had a couple of blissful hours sewing this on Christmas Day!

First muslin

I cut an extra large knowing it would be way too big, but figured I would fit it down to size.

I made the skirt in a different order to the pattern instructions. I attached the waistband pieces to the corresponding skirt pieces separately and then sewed the side seams of the skirt and waistband in one fell swoop. That way I could just adjust the sides to fit. The seam allowances are 1.5 cm on this pattern which I used throughout

After the first muslin I took in the side seams by 1 inch on both sides, tapering up to 1.5 inches in at the waistline starting from a distance of 3.75 inches down from the waist seam.

I found the back skirt piece to be 1 inch longer than the front skirt pieces. This may have been me cutting it wrong. Anyhow I subsequently made sure the pattern pieces aligned correctly with the waistband.

Slash Pockets

I wanted to add slash pockets at the sides much like I did here for the Miss Chalmers' skirt. The pockets are based on the pocket pattern piece for the Crescent skirt. I had to move the position of the pleats further along to allow enough room for the pocket openings.

Belt Ties

These are sewn into the side seams and I know some people leave them out.  I decided to keep them in but they were far too short for my liking. I doubled the length of the ties which means I can tie them in a bow. By the way it's really hard to tie a nice bow. Is there a tutorial to show how you can do this nicely? Every now and then I do something slightly different and end up with a brilliant bow. The problem is I can never remember how I did it or what exactly I did!

Lining

I'm a lining freak so of course I wanted to add lining. The skirt isn't designed with a lining in mind. The placket as designed is effectively a single strip of fabric (interfaced) that sits on the top of the right side of each of the skirt front pieces. The seam allowances are tucked inside. (The placket is attached much like bias tape is attached to a neckline where you want the bias tape to show from the outside).

To add lining I cut 2 more placket strips so each placket had a facing. I reduced the front skirt piece by shaving off 2.5 cm from the centre front of the skirt, and using it to cut both the skirt and lining fabric. (In fact I did separate skirt pieces for the front skirt lining and front skirt as I adjusted the front skirt piece to add pockets).  My lining was loose hanging rather than sewn into the hem.

Hem

The hem is around 7.5 cm on this skirt. I cut my lining pieces so that they would sit about 3 cm shorter than the skirt after hemming by turning under 1.5 cm twice.

Belt Loops

I decided to add belt loops after the skirt was finished. Although the ties looked OK they had a tendency to ride up past the waistband. I thought belt loops would keep the ties aligned with the waistband. They were fiddly to do but I'm so glad I took the time to do them. They have improved the look and feel of the skirt.

Topstitching and buttons

I did double rows of topstitching at the hem and the lower edge of the waistband. I did single topstitching lines on either sides of the placket and on the belt loops.  I used lime green ordinary thread for the topstitching. I tend not to use the thicker topstitching thread now as I can't get the tension right on my machine on the reverse side. Normal thread looks fine for topstitching.

The Wiksten skirt is designed with 4 buttons on the plackets but I didn't feel that was enough so I added 6.  The waistband is designed with a metal closure but I added two buttons to the waistband instead (making 8 buttons on the skirt in all). 

Conclusion

As I said I'm really pleased with this skirt. So much that I've made a second one in a light blue. This one I haven't yet worn and it's sitting patiently on a hanger waiting to be photographed.

The Great British Sewing Bee

Source

Can I just say how exciting it is that our very own Tilly is a contestant on this show. I hardly watch any TV but I was glued on Tuesday night. All the contestants are lovely and some are very funny.

The challenges were tough. I wouldn't be able to finish, to a good standard, an A-line skirt in 3 hours and a dress to fit another person in 7. I felt for Tilly when her in-seam pockets came out baggy. I love that she was cool and collected enough to even think of adding them in that timescale! Yeah just adding pockets, not a problem. Love it!

I thought her red scalloped dress was lovely and looked great on the model. It had a lovely lining in a red scissor fabric. Yes the bust darts were baggy and the editing of the show focused only on that. I'm sure the judges must have praised other parts of the dress in real life but no praise was shown.

Lauren's Macaron dress was praised by the judges but it was way too tight for the model around the bust and there was some weird puckering above the sweetheart bodice.

I'm so looking forward to the next episode. Go Tilly!

Florence and Fred Rub Off

Hello everyone! I still owe you two skirts but it's flipping freezing around here so not much progress on the photo front. Instead I thought I would do a work in progress update on my latest project. It's taken a lot of time and effort so far so a progress post is rather apt.

I don't know if I've mentioned before but I have a really well fitting ready to wear dress that I've been planning to copy. I first started thinking about this when Karen from Did You Make That copied a ready to wear skirt she owns (see her post here). After finishing my slip, rather than making yet another garment from a pattern that would take endless muslins to get right, I thought I would turn my hand to this project for a change of scenery. The result so far has been endless muslins to get right. Hmm sounds familiar. Anyway I'm pleased with it so far so let's start at the beginning.

The Original

The national supermarket chain, Tesco, has a pretty good budget clothing line called F&F, or Florence & Fred as it used to be known. In about 2008 (way before I started sewing again) I bought this green dress, on sale for about £10:

You're probably expecting me to say I've worn it non-stop ever since. Not so. I can hardly believe it now but this thing didn't fit (I bought it without trying it on). I couldn't do it up so it was flung to the bottom of my wardrobe ready to throw away at some point. Luckily I didn't throw it away and I happened to try it on last year. I was blown away at how nice this cheap old thing looked! I recalled it being a plainer shift dress, but look at all those details – the neck band, the waist band, the skirt pleats. (Interesting – perhaps it's only sewers that notice details like this). Above all I loved the fit, especially the bodice.

Ethics of Copying

One of my favourite bloggers, Roisin of Dolly Clackett did a lovely version of a Bernie Dexter dress she had seen (see here post here). There were some interesting comments to her post. Even though Roisin used a commercial pattern an anonymous commenter complained about ripping off the designs of small businesses, copyright and the like.

I don't know what the legal implications are. I figure I'm OK because I'm not trying to sell the dress or pass the design off as my own. I'm just doing this for fun, a hobby and to see if I can achieve the amazing fit the dress gives me. (Amazing fit is something I've yet to achieve with a commercial pattern). I can see that if enough people like me, Roisin and Karen copied ready to wear then the designers may have grounds to complain. However I don't think there are enough of us bothering to do this to have any effect. They are interested in those unscrupulous enough to make a gain at the expense of their designs, which is not what I and other home sewers are about.

Rub-Off

After some internet reading into the rub-off method (see this post for example) I set about tracing the dress. Here are a couple of pictures of my rub-off in progress. I will put at the end of this post all the pictures I took of the rub-off process.

I love those vintage paper weights my chap bought me last year at an auction.  Yes my other pattern weights are kitchen door handles. I couldn't find large washers.

Thoughts

As you can see I did a pretty thorough job of pinning the outline of the garment to my tracing paper (which is underneath the garment in my pictures. I have a cardboard grid on my table so I was able to pin through to that.) In my mind this was going to produce a really neat and accurate pattern. Then I remembered darts had to be added. This is when I started to get a bit lost and go a bit mad. Calm down and focus I thought. All I need to do is slash and spread. Yeah - easier said than done getting it all to go  flat to produce a flat pattern piece (when you slash and spread your pattern does not stay flat!). Many hours later I managed to arrive at something that resembled a flat pattern piece but to be honest it involved a lot of guess and eye work rather than the result of technical skill. If anyone knows how to do this or can provide a link this would be good.

Anyway the long and short of it is that for all my effort with the pins and rub-off, I probably ended up re-drafting the whole thing again (maybe several times over) with the help of my curved ruler, adding bits on here and taking away there.

Although I've ended up with a pretty good pattern I'm slightly disappointed I haven't achieved this by doing it “properly”. You know, measuring and stuff, like an engineer would do when designing, say, a bridge. Anyway I guess there is a lot more to it than I thought.

Sunni at A Fashionable Stitch is working on an interesting project called Pattern Play where she plans to design her own garments from a basic pattern. She has given several suggestions for getting the basic pattern, including a sloper, a basic sewing pattern and even the rub-off method. I felt less bad about my pattern drafting efforts after reading her post. She too has found it difficult to draft a basic pattern from scratch.

Latest muslin

Anyway who cares about my less than professional pattern-drafting skills because it has produced a pattern that I'm really pleased with. I'm hopefully 90% there. Here's the latest muslin.

I somehow did the pleats wonky on this version

I've lost count of the number of muslins I've done. I think this is muslin number 4, but it's probably more like number 5. Just before this one I did a half muslin of just the bodice and waistband. I was tempted to move to the final garment after the half muslin and making my changes to the bodice but I'm so glad I didn't. I've made what I hope are the final adjustments to my pattern pieces which were:

• Adding 2 cm to the length of the bodice pieces (1cm above and 1cm below the bust line) so that the bottom of the waistband would be nearer to my natural waist.
  
  
• Adding more width at the widest part of my hips.

Even though it is tempting to just move onto the final garment I think I will make another muslin. You never know if the adjustments you have made will throw off the fit so I think it's better to be safe. Please pray with me that this will be the final muslin!

Anyway I hope you have found this interesting. The whole process has been an eye opener and learning curve for me. I'll finish with the rest of the photos from the rub-off.

Happy sewing.

Front bodice. I ended up doing this again, splitting it into two parts
 in view of the excess fabric around the dart

A closer look

Front waistband

Back bodice with dart. I didn't have to repeat this one as there was not
a lot of excess fabric around the dart unlike the front bodice

Skirt front - lower half

Skirt front - upper section

Burda Slip Dress

I mentioned here that the fabric on my first Darling Ranges dress was see through and I would need to make a slip. A slip falls firmly in the "cake" category. I'm not averse to cake. In fact I love making practical things that get lots of wear. Even as I was writing the post I wondered if I would ever bother. Anyway I've been longing to wear my first Darling Ranges so when I had a small window to sew I set to work on a slip.

I'm delighted with the result, and I can't wait to wear it with my first Darling Ranges! Here are the pictures.

There was a slip in the second Burda magazine that I ever bought and it's been at the back of my mind ever since. Enter 109B from April 2011. Here's the line drawing.

There was no modelled picture in the magazine. It was designed to wear under this wrap dress in the same issue:

I made a muslin first by tracing and cutting out a size 42. I added a seam allowances of 2.5 cm throughout to the muslin to leave room for any alterations. I sewed with a 2.5 cm throughout save for the waist seam, where I sewed with a 1.5 cm seam allowance.

Even after 2 years of sewing Burda instructions manage to baffle me. I hate to think how many beginners have given up sewing after trying to follow them. It's liberating to be able to ignore Burda instructions and rely on your own experience to work it out yourself.

From what I can tell, my construction differed to the instructions as follows:

1. Inserting the straps. The bodice is self-faced. The instructions seem to have you topstitch the straps on at the end which I thought would look messy and a bit amateur. I sandwiched the strap between the bodice and bodice facing, right sides together, when sewing the upper edges of the bodice, and sewed them into the seam. To be more precise I started by stitching the straps to the back bodice facing to make sure they were in the correct place and secure and then attached that to the back bodice as explained above. When sewing the same seam on the front bodice, I left 1.5 inch gaps where the front straps would go so that I could insert the straps later after trying the dress on and marking how long they would need to be. The straps were then inserted into the holes left at the top edges of the front bodice and stitched in the same manner as the the back bodice straps.
   
   
2. The instructions had you baste the lower edges of the bodice pieces after sewing the upper bodice edges. This would expose the waist seam allowance once the skirt is attached. I enclosed the waist seam allowance by joining the bodice to the skirt, pressing under the lower edge of the bodice facings and stitching in the ditch along the waist seam to attach the bodice facings. Alternatively you can slip stitch the bodice facings in place after pressing under the lower edges.

I was pleasantly surprised at the fit. The fit of the bust was almost perfect. A bit pointy because of the size of the dart, but not noticeable. I tested it out and thought a bit more ease at the hips was necessary. I fixed this by undoing the side seams and re-sewing with a 1.5 cm seam allowance. This gave enough ease at the hips and waist but the bust was now too loose. I restored the 2.5 cm seam allowance at the bodice sides and tapered down to the 1.5 cm seam allowance at the waist / hips. This was much better so I set to work on adjusting my pattern pieces.

The alterations translated to the following pattern adjustments:

1. Adding 1 cm to the lower edges of the front and back bodice pieces (bearing in mind that Burda patterns are net of seam allowances).
2. Adding 1 cm to the outside edges of the side front and side back pieces tapering up to nothing at the waist from just above the hips.

The adjustments meant I could add a 1.5 cm seam allowance throughout when cutting the pattern (apart from the hem to which I added 3.5 cm). To add more ease to the pencil skirt shape of the slip I added two small slits at the bottom of the side seams, by stopping the side seam a few inches from the hem and hemming the slits.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but if you don't already have Scotch magic tape and a dispenser do go and buy one! It makes altering traced patterns so much easier. The tape also comes in handy for using up scraps of left over tracing paper. There are hardly enough small pattern pieces to use up the scraps so I tend to tape together two or three, or sometimes more decent sized scraps and then use to trace bigger pattern pieces.

The slip has a side zipper which is interesting but I suppose necessary because of the fitted shape of the slip. I also took the following extra steps to add stability:

1. I added strips of interfacing to the seam allowances along the entire upper edges of the bodice. I then under stitched the seam allowance to the bodice facing. This gave a nice clean finish when pressed and stopping the neckline at the front gaping forward.
   
   
2. I interfaced the zipper area before adding the zip.

I also did the pressed under vintage seam finish which I first heard of during the Lonsdale dress sew-along. I'm slightly addicted to this seam finish as I've used it on all my recent makes.

I left an inch and a half of the lower edge of the bodice facings loose when attaching them to the zipper tape. I then hemmed the bodice facings by turning under 1 cm, pressing and stitching in place. I then neatened the corner where the hem on the bodice facing meets the zipper by folding up the corners diagonally and stitching in placing (using a zig zag stitch with the feed dogs lowered).

I then attached the loose 1.5 inches of the bodice facing to the zipper tape and then stitched in the ditch along the waist seam to attach the bodice facings. A helpful tip is to match the bodice seams and then pin in place before you start stitching to make sure the two bodices are aligned correctly. If you have the patience, slipstitching the bodice facing down (instead of stitching in the ditch on the machine) may produce a more delicate result.

Next time I will just get the hemming of the bodice facing out of the way after cutting so that it can be attached to the zipper tape in one go.

After hemming the side slits I turned under the hem twice and then stitched with an invisible hem stitch on the machine.

A curious thing about this pattern is the centre back seam on the bodice and skirt pieces despite the zipper being at the side. In other words Burda makes you do loads of extra work. This didn't register with me until half way through the make. Why did Burda do this? I thought there must have been a similar shaped dress in the same issue with a back zipper so they re-used the pieces. But no, there were no similar shaped dresses. I have heard that Burda re-cycle some of their patterns so maybe a similar shaped dress appeared in an earlier issue. Unless any of you lovely readers can enlighten me, I don't see that the centre back seam serves much purpose here. If I make this again I think I would remove the centre back seam.

Zipper

I thought I would mention how pleased I was with the top corners of my zipper. I think this is one of the best I have done.

I don't know what happened to the waist seam though!

I adapted Tilly's tip for sewing corners without trimming them first and I really like how it turned out. Before turning through I pressed the seam allowances down towards the back and then held the corners with the tips of my fingers and turned through.

I have written at length about stitching a facing (or lining) to a zipper by machine. There are a number of ways of doing this but I always return to Kathleen Fansella's method which I linked to here. When joining the neckline edges I leave a gap of about an inch and a half before the edge where the zipper tape will go. I go back and sew this right at the end, after the zipper is attached. I then attach the zip to the bodice pieces and facings (or lining) using Kathleen's method as normal.

The key point to note about Kathleen's method is that her facing piece is slightly smaller than the outer bodice piece. They magically align once both are stitched and turned through. Instead of altering your facing (or lining) pieces to make them smaller I just place my facing (or lining) piece slightly beyond the end of the zipper tape (and beyond the edge of the bodice piece) by about 5 mm and then stitch it to the zipper tape. I then fold back the zipper as per Kathleen's tutorial and then stitch the rest of the upper edge. I then press down the seam allowances towards the back and follow Tilly's method to turn through without trimming the edges. (Of course if the fabric was very bulky then trimming would be wise.)

Anyway I'm delighted with the result and most of all it's great to have a slip. I haven't owned a slip since I was about 26 when I had a nightdress which I used as a slip. I'm a bit of a lining freak (I line most things). Maybe I can now bypass this step every now and then!

This is my most recent make and I have two skirts yet to post. This is also my first post of 2013. I have had a difficult, and at times surreal, year so far. My dad died of cancer at the beginning of February. Luckily I, and my family, were able to spend quality time with him in his final weeks. He defied the doctor's best estimates and gave us weeks with him rather than days. When I started this blog in 2011 I had no idea he would be gone within 2 years. I guess it's better that we don't know these things. Here is a picture of me and dad from a few years ago! 

Sleep in peace dad.