Here's another Appleton with Vera sleeves.  I actually started this before my niece's wedding to see if I could make a dress in a more subdued fabric. This fabric I got at Joann's; it's some sort of brushed cotton/poly mix. 

So it started off as a floor-length dress. One big problem with this dress is that I decided to line it. All by my lonesome, with no instruction. Since it was a wrap dress, that meant improvising, which usually doesn't turn out too well when I'm doing it. Spoiler: it didn't.

Once I saw that it wasn't going to work as a formal gown, I put it aside until after the wedding. 

Today I had the energy to cut it down and hem it. 

It was actually quite hideous as a floor-length dress. So much polka dot, and it drooped with the weight. But the reason I decided to trim and finish it was because I really loved the sleeves and I think the wrap is a good look for me. I thought maybe the dress could be saved.

​I couldn't decide whether to keep the lining or remove it. The polka dot fabric is a bit light and because I'd sewn it and the lining together at the seams, it would have been a hassle to rip out the lining. 

More improvising ensued to finish the dress below the waist. 

In the end, this thing is okay except for one thing. It's super uncomfortable at the armhole. The discomfort seems to be coming from the lining.  So I probably won't be wearing this. But I do want to try it again in a fabric I like.

I lengthened a Cashmerette Appleton dress and mixed it with the sleeves from Forget-me-not's Vera top.

I needed a long dress for a formal wedding reception—the same wedding that I made my sister's dress for. My other sister found a nice dress in a vintage store, so I looked there and found a dress option. It had hideous fringe on it that I could have taken off but I don't like that kind of work so I took it to a seamstress. She removed it for $120 and 2 weeks.  I also found a blingy jacket at the vintage shop. 

My daughter ended up wearing this dress at the wedding and reception.

But then I was in Salvation Army and looked at dresses there. I found 2 possibilities. One was a knit gown with georgette overlay and flutter sleeves. I call it the funeral gown. The other was a knit that hit me at the ankles. I call it the one-dollar dress because that's all it cost, heh heh. Now the one-dollar dress is sleeveless. I either have to make sleeves or wear the jacket with it. I made test sleeves out of a knit mesh and propped them in to see how they would look.

​As an aside, I found this mesh in the chaos of Joann's going-out-of-business fake sale. (Everything marked up and only 10% off.) Still, I was happy to find what I was looking for at a brick-and-mortar the day I wanted it.

All along, I had been toying with the idea of making my own dress. I had bought McCall's 7047 during vacation and some black knit on another trip to Joann's during the fake sale. I also had enough black knit sequin fabric in my stash to make the sash. But I had so little time, I could not make a mockup to test the fit or the look of the dress's style on my body. I had looked at pictures on Pattern Review and the dresses there looked good, but I just lost confidence that this pattern would work out smoothly or look acceptable on me.

​My niece had showed me photos of dresses other people were wearing and another aunt of hers was wearing a wrap. Then I had a brainstorm that if a wrap was acceptable, I had an Appleton pattern all fitted for me that might work. I'd just have to lengthen it and find a suitable fabric. I considered using the black knit I already had, but I was worried I would be just a little short.

All continual digs at Joann's aside, I headed there again looking for some other fabric for this formal Appleton. I really didn't see anything I liked but I got a polka-dot knit that could have worked. 

But then serendipity. I was searching for other local fabric stores (none) and found an old post from 2015 on Pattern Review. The writer mentioned a shop I used to go to (closed now) and referred to someone there who had sold fabric there. I was pretty sure she was a friend of mine, so I texted her to say I saw her referred to in that post. But get this: she still has loads of bolts left over from when she left that venture, and she invited me to come and shop her closet.

She had a lot of beautiful fabric, but none really suited me for this wedding. The closest thing was this black-and-white animal print with sparkles. What the hell, I gave it shot. It fits nicely. 

I finished this tennis bag, the instructions for which I found on Sew Mama Sew.

It's pretty simple, and the instructions are good, but I still managed to screw it up.

First off, I tried to make it up quickly before I went on our RV trip. I had a few hours and really, it could have been completed if things had gone smoothly.

But things never go smoothly.

Another Cashmerette Upton, this one for my sister. She couldn't find one for sale that had the features she wanted such as long sleeves. (Her daughter is getting married in March.) I offered to try to make her a dress. I was excited she was willing to give me a chance to do it.

She described what she wanted, and I couldn't help thinking the Upton was perfect. I had just made it with a scoop neckline but she wanted V-neck in front and back, and lo and behold, the pattern comes with that neckline.

I was especially excited to work on a dress for someone else because I thought it would be easier to fit another person rather than myself. It was. Too bad other elements of this dress, namely those having to do with the fabric choices, gave me fits.

I first made two muslins, one with the gored skirt and the other with the pleats. She preferred the gored. The bodice needed some adjustments. Fortunately, I'd had to do the same sorts of things on my version of the Upton, particularly fitting the princess seams around the bust, so I knew how to do them. 

Here's mockup #1 of the gored dress.

Here's mockup #1 of the pleated dress.

I don't have pictures of the second and third mockups. But everything went very smoothly.

The challenges started with the Bemberg lining and poly satin dress fabric.

I started with the lining. I have worked with Bemberg before and don't remember it being this infuriatingly slippery. Maybe I wasn't as careful back then or as tuned in.

This stuff was like working with liquid. I did some research and knew I had to cut it on tissue paper. I followed the advice of some who recommended pins and scissors, not weights and rotary cutter. Cutting seemed to go well. But when I removed the pins and the fabric relaxed, the cut fabric and the paper pattern pieces did not line up. 

The misalignment was actually worse than in that photo. So, back to the research. I next decided to recut the bodice of the lining but first soaking the fabric in gelatin, letting it dry, ironing again, then cutting. The gelatin worked great, stabilizing the fabric enough to cut and sew.  The skirt I just sewed sans gelatin, figuring I could manage with just straight lines. It was slow going but seemed okay. Lining done. 

The dress fabric was a different problem. The fabric is a heavier-weight satin and it is washable. I prewashed it and the Bemberg because I didn't want to have to worry about water spots when I was ironing, plus a washable dress is a damned nice thing to have.

But washing it left wrinkles that would not come out. And though I didn't want to iron the bejeebus out of it for fear of dulling or damaging it, I ironed it a lot.

Finally, I reached out to Mood and they suggested steaming it. So I bought a nice steamer and tried. It still took a lot of steam, but the wrinkles did come out.

From that point on, the fabric was easy to work with, except for ironing seams—it was difficult to get them to iron nice and flat. The satin cut and sewed nicely. Mood also recommended 1" seam allowances and serging the edges to arrest the fraying, both of which I did, thankfully.

Changing to a 1" seam allowance did create another problem, one that didn't surface until I was basting the lining together. Fixing it created another problem that I didn't catch until my sister was trying on the basted gown. And fixing that was not easy.

The original seam allowance was 1/2", so I added another 1/2" to all my pattern pieces before cutting the fabric. That is, all but one, as it turns out. 

I apparently forgot to add the extra seam allowance to the middle skirt panel. I hadn't sewed that piece to the lining yet, so I decided to use a 1/2" seam allowance for that piece. That meant I had to trim 1/2" from the two front side panels of the lining, which I did. Lining turned out perfectly--all the seams lined up.

For the dress, I decided to cut a new front panel. I had just enough fabric left to do it. Given the piece was just straight lines, I didn't bother adding 1/2" to the paper pattern piece, I just used my ruler to add the 1/2" as I cut. Note to self: no, no, no. Just do the careful thing next time.

When Mona tried on the basted dress, it fit nicely, but WTF...

Every mockup had sewn up so well it never dawned on me to check the seam alignment.  This was way off.

To make a long story short, the problem was that I had not added a consistent 1/2" to the new piece when I cut the fabric out. I did not have enough fabric left to cut another panel. I had enough for a new waistband, which I cut out.

Fortunately, I did have enough seam allowance of the front skirt panel to fix the misalignment. Unfortunately, I had to use some of the seam allowance, not reduce it, so the folds of the released seams would show--on the front panel of the dress. I could only pray that the steamer would remove them and that no needle holes would show. They didn't, but the folds were not easy to eliminate.

At any rate, there was a bunch of basting, checking, unbasting and shifting, rebasting, and repeat before the seams lined up. Gawd.

I was super afraid about sewing the lining to the dress at the neckline and inserting the invisible zipper. But thank goodness, both went very smoothly.

Mona came to my house to try the dress on before I sewed the zipper in permanently, sewed the lining to the zipper tape, and hemmed the dress. I told her it would take 1-2 hours. It took 5. 

But she was pleased with the dress and she looked amazing in it!

UPDATE: Mona decided she wanted shorter sleeves so she came over and I did that and took another inch and a half off the hem. She looked good!

These are still not performance fabric, just some stretchy jersey. Oh, the black and white is rayon. It will probably not hold up. They are very comfy, though. Great posture. Jeez.

I have two of these Nike skorts that I have owned for at least 10 years. It could easily be 20. I love them. Super comfortable. The short part has a nice gusset that is more like a rectangle than a triangle. It goes from the bottom of one leg, across the crotch, and down to the bottom of the other leg. No seams around the sensitive bits. It seems a better design.

So I figured I'd try to copy it. The skirt of this version is a very thin cotton jersey. It's a little too thin and maybe too static-producing to be suitable for tennis, but I'll give it a shot. The skort is likewise too thin but it's 4-way stretch so it could in theory work.

I made the waistband too long so it scrunches up hideously. It's not uncomfortable, and a tee-shirt hides it pretty well. I used drawstring elastic because that's what the Nike shorts have. It's coming in handy on the Nike shorts, whose elastic is losing its elasticity after all these years, but it's rather overkill on this copy, although maybe I was thinking I wouldn't have to be so precise with the waistband length.

I will shorten the waistband by 7 inches next time, and I was thinking I'd add a few inches in length. Maybe, maybe not.

On the first Shenanigan skort that I made, I used 2-inch wide elastic for the waistband. It's okay, but some skorts I have from CostCo use a narrow bit of elastic at the top of the waistband, and I like those a lot.

So for this next skort, I made two changes.

First, I expanded the gusset by at least 1/2 inch all around. It's much more comfortable.

Second, I used 1/2-inch elastic as opposed to the 2-inch wide stuff. I put the narrower elastic inside the same-sized waistband as the first version, i.e., the elastic just runs around the top of it.

If not for the weird drape of this polyester fabric, this skirt might have worked. It's comfortable, and I like the narrow elastic. I made a dress out of this same fabric, and I never wore it because of the same creepy drape, which highlights every teeny tiny bump underneath.

So I won't ever be wearing this one either, but I will try this same pattern in a different fabric. 

I've looked all over and this is the only skort pattern I saw that I remotely liked. There is a good one on Cashmerette's site, but you can only get it if you sign up for a year of their club. Hmmm. I don't want your club. I won't use your club. But I can't buy one stinking pattern if I don't join your club? Strange business model.

Anywho.

This skort was very easy to put together. The directions were clear (the tutorial on inserting the gusset was key), and the pattern was well drafted. I did struggle getting the flounce on—right sides together, back of the flounce on the back of the skirt (both nearly indistinguishable), oriented correctly. Oh, a difficulty with the legs/gusset in that I had sewed one leg right sides together and the other backs together (because it's hard to see what's the back and front in my basement). I discovered it when trying to insert the gusset. Had to redo one leg.

It's pretty comfortable. The skort is an athletic, 4-way stretch fabric, but the skirt is some rayon jersey I had left over from a dress. The flounce is a thin rayon jersey. I like it for this. The pattern accentuates my belly, which is hard to tell from these photos because I took great care, and several photos, to hide it.

Update: I'm pretty sure that the reason the skirt falls funny in the front is because I mixed up the front and back skirt pieces. 

Of course, I'll wear it with my shirt down, so no one will know.

My husband repainted so we needed new curtains. Looked all over for material we liked and in the end, the best choice was a home decor fabric from Joann's. I had seen it but didn't want to spend $50 a yard, but by the time we decided to go ahead, there was a sale and we got it for half off.

There is one large picture window and eight 3-foot windows.

I made pillows too. I recovered the one rectangular couch pillow we had, took the stuffing out of a square one and reshaped it and put it in a muslin shell I made and had another rectangular pillow of the same size as the other. Then I had two square blanks and enough fabric to cover them as well.  Close ups:​

O.M.G. I did it. I completed an actual Upton in real fabric (a lawn). 

I lost count but looking at this pile, it was at least 10 muslins. ​

This post documents the first set of muslin making, which mostly was trying to figure out which base size to start with and a few major adjustments (lower bust point, lengthen torso, and do forward shoulder adjustment). I went with a size 4 and a C/D bust. I also lost track of all the changes I made, but here are those I remember:

1. Graded to a 6 at the waist and hips
2. Lowered BP 1 inch
3. Lengthened torso 1 inch 
4. Made a forward shoulder adjustment
5. Scooped out curve on princess seam above and below bust point
6. Took darts out of neckline to reduce gaping, 1/4" on each side, tapering to nothing toward bust
7. Lowered armpit 1/2" and lengthened sleeve curve correspondingly
8. Shortened skirt. A lot. A total of maybe 4–5 inches
9. Changed closure from a back zipper to a button front (Cut back on fold instead of front. Cut front along center front and added seam allowance. Added a placket.)
10. Finally, I made bias binding and used it on the neckline

Oh yeah. I did add the pockets but could have kicked myself after. I don't really need pockets and I think they might disturb the fall of the skirt. Also, I didn't put notches on the pattern where they were supposed to go and I put the a little too low. 

Still this is super comfortable and I'm pretty pleased. I'm not sure I like the box pleats. The next one I make (I bought the fabric at the same time I bought the fabric for this version) might get regular pleats like on the McCalls shirtdress I made that this Upton is supposed to be an improvement on. It is, with the possible exception of the pleats.

Oh, I almost forgot. I discovered a couple new things about my machine. First, OMG it's so easy to sew buttons on with it.

However, I had to lower the feed dogs to do it—that's how it's done on my Pfaff—but I forgot that the stupid things get stuck when put down. So, I found a single YouTube where a guy explained how to fix it on a machine similar to mine (the predecessor, I suppose), and I managed to fix mine using his information even though my machine is not constructed the same. They updated the guts but still made a feed dog mechanism that sucks.

Finally, my buttonhole function is going haywire. I sewed about 5 buttonholes, and it started screwing up, jamming and bunching thread. Then I noticed only 1 of the buttonholes I'd sewn was correct. I had to take them all out and research alternatives. I found a good YouTube that showed a system that worked for me. 

1. Mark the buttonhole placement (a vertical line through the middle and a top and bottom line that can be seen when the presser foot is down)
2. The basic idea is to sew a wide zigzag at the top of the hole (5 stitches), a narrow zigzag along the right and left sides, and another wide zigzag at the bottom (another 5 stitches). 
3. The settings I used for WIDE were: length, 0.8, width 6.0 and NARROW: length 0.8, width 2.5. Worked like a charm and without the anxiety of that stupid automatic buttonhole.

The Upton fitting directions say to sew up the WHOLE dress for each muslin. Thank goodness I was reading Sarah Veblen's fitting book while I was working on this dress. She says no to sleeves and skirt, just fit the bodice first. I also found her HBL or horizontal balance lines very helpful with the second set of muslins. But I learned how to adjust the princess line by watching this really helpful video where she explains how a princess seam is just a version of a darted bodice and how to get a good line for your body.