Vogue 9299 (tunic/shirt dress)

I delayed making this pattern for so long because I didn't want to tackle fit. The reason I sew is because ready-to-wear doesn't fit my short, curvy body. I know I need to make several adjustments to most patterns, but the task makes the process so much longer and sometimes frustrating. I have to remind myself that the reward more than makes up for the hassle.

 

I am over the moon with both versions of this tunic/shirt dress. This pattern stayed in the sewing queue because I've seen so many wonderful versions by Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) and by another sewer, Karon, on Instagram.

 

The pattern has two lengths, three sleeve variations (four if you count the added ribbon on view A), and a sash. I made view B in the extended length with the sash. I'm short enough that this can be a dress, but because the side split is rather high, I wear it as a tunic with leggings.

 

Fabric & Notions:

• 3 yards cotton shirting (both versions)
• needle:  80/12 universal
• 7 x 1/2" buttons (both versions)
• light shirt crisp fusible interfacing (both versions) and Shape Flex (version 2)
• regular sewing and serger thread
• walking foot 
• scraps of tear-away stabilizer for sewing buttonholes
  

Size:  I cut size 14 in the neckline, shoulder, and upper third of the armscye. I transitioned to size 16 from the lower armscye to the side seam and hem.

 

Alterations:  First I made a 5/8" FBA and converted the dart to shoulder princess seams. Even though it's more work to create the princess seam, it's less hassle than trying to sew a big honkin' dart.

The pattern pieces don't include seam allowances at the princess seam; I added them directly to the fabric. Since I will likely sew this pattern a few more times, I'll create separate pattern pieces that include seam allowances.

FBAs always add extra width at the waist and hip lines. For this pattern, I trimmed the extra width from the side seam. The shirt is pretty loose fitting, so I didn't think I needed the extra width in these areas.

 

It's kind of hard to see the markings. In the above picture, the circle is the end of the side seam and beginning of the hem. This is where I trimmed off some of the extra width. I redrew the circle 5/8" in and retraced the hem stitching line. I hope this makes sense!

The muslin suggested that the upper bodice area was too long, so I removed 1/2" in length on the front, side front, and back yoke pieces. 

I removed the same amount in the sleeve, but added back 1/4" at the sleeve cap. I can't remember where I read the need for the correction. Something about making sure the sleeve cap has the proper shape? I could also totally be making this up. 😬

 

For the most part, I didn't have any trouble with excess ease when installing the sleeves. The green and pink dress sleeves were a little harder to set because the fabric was very stiff - despite twice washing and drying on high heat. The sleeves for the second dress went in with less fuss.

 

Finally for the second version, I added 2 inches to the wide end of the ties; I wanted them to be a wee bit longer when tied in the front.

 

Construction:  I sewed both dresses on the semi-industrial and made buttonholes on the domestic. For the first dress, I serged the side seams together. This made for an awkward transition to the side split hem, so for the second dress, I serged the raw edges and pressed the seams open. All other seams were serged together.

 

I cut two yoke sections and used the burrito method to attach.

Sewing the sleeve ruffles was a bit cumbersome, but not at all difficult:  create narrow hem, add gathering stitches, sew both ruffles to the sleeve stay, attach the whole unit to the sleeve.

I didn't interface the front self-facing on the first version because, as I said, the fabric was stiff. I did interface this area (using Shape Flex 101) on the second version since the fabric was lighter in weight.

 

 

I also interfaced both the inner and outer collar stands for the second version. The method I use for attaching a collar with stand interfaces the inner stand instead of the outer stand. This is because if the shirt is left open, the inner stand can be seen and should have more structure. I've found that not interfacing the outer stand can sometimes cause the whole unit to slightly collapse under the weight of the collar. So I used light Shirt Crisp (from Fashion Sewing Supply - highly recommend) for the inner stand and ShapeFlex for the outer. I'll probably do this from now on.

 

Fabric:  Even though the pattern envelope suggests 3 yards (2.7 m) of 60" (152 cm) wide fabric for size 16, I found that this was not quite enough. The sash pattern piece is really long and is cut twice. The sleeve ruffle piece is cut four times and sleeve stay, twice. These are also not small pieces, so I had to get creative with the layout. 

 

In the floral pink and green version, I didn't have enough to cut four ruffles and had to piece scraps together to make it work. You can kind of see that the top ruffle is not as wide as the bottom and has a seam near the front. I tried to orient this piece so that the seam wasn't too visible; this is the best I could do. I doubt anyone will notice.

 

 

I just barely had enough fabric to cut out the second version. If you decide to try the longer views of the pattern, I suggest getting an extra 0.5 yard/meter of fabric.

 

Finishing:  I used some sea foam green vintage buttons from the stash for the floral version. When it came time to pick buttons for the second version, gold easily won. I have plenty of buttons that match the colors of the fabric, but when I pulled the gold buttons, I could not resist.

 

 

The gold just gooooooes with it, right? It's so unexpected and unnecessarily flashy. Love it!

 

Conclusion:

 

 

I wore the floral version to a couple of appointments and got lovely compliments. I've yet to wear the other one, but will soon.

 

The second version is on my Bootstrap Fashion dress form and fits pretty close to how it would on me.

I am really happy with both versions. Though I finished the second one over a week ago, I left it in my sewing room on the dressform because it made me smile every time I walked in the room. It's just so colorful and cheerful!

***

I'm working on muslins for garments for the Mini Wardrobe contest on PR. The rules are posted:  2 tops, 2 bottoms, and a fifth item. Seems simple. I hope I can finish.

L

 
 

 

 

Simplicity 2365, View B (tunic)

This is my second attempt at this pattern since first trying it in 2011.  Despite it being too big in many places, it was reasonably wearable with a belt.  However, I sent this off to Wadderville because I could not get the collar stand to work.  The left side (facing) looks good, but the right side is all kinds of wrong.

I decided to give it another try, but opted for a bias-bound neckline instead.  More details below.

Fabric & Notions:

• 2 yards of cotton voile
• polyester thread
• self-fabric bias tape
• 70/10 Microtex sharp needle 
• size 4.0 stretch twin needle (it's what I had on hand)
• pintuck foot
• serrated tracing wheel and wax tracing paper 

Machine Settings:

• pintucks: 2.5 length, 2.5 width
• seams:  2.5 length, 2.5 width
• topstitching:  3.0 length, 2.5 width
• tension:  4.0

Fitting & Alterations:

Originally I started with an 18 but that proved to be way too big.  So, I sized down to a 16 on the front and about a 14 across the back. 

Back
To compensate for the decrease in width across the back created by using a smaller size, I made a 5/8" broad back adjustment.     
 

Front
I lowered the bust fullness 1.25" (on both the side front and center front pieces).  I also made a similar width adjustment (as in the broad back) on the side front pattern piece. This adjustment adds extra width at bust level and slightly raises the armhole. I did not do a traditional FBA.

Sleeves
I can't remember the size I used for the sleeves, but I do remember shaving off a bit from the sleeve seam (not cap) to match the adjustments made at the side seams.

One thing to note is that the sleeve cap in view B has gathers and a pouf.  The print hides this detail on the front of the pattern envelope, but the line drawing shows it very clearly.  If you're not a fan of the pouf, I would suggest removing some height from the sleeve cap before cutting the fabric.

Neckline
I took off 1/2" from the neckline so that the bias binding didn't creep around my neck.

Construction:

Pintucks

I don't even remember why I bought a pintuck foot, though it definitely came in handy for this project.  The instructions have you mark the lines for the pintucks, "pick up the fabric" and press to one side, then stitch the tuck in place. You have to do this for each pintuck and these tucks aren't that wide.  Ummmmmmm...no!

Why do all of that work when a pintuck foot does it for you? =)  Coupling the foot with a twin needle tucks the fabric while simultaneously securing it with the zigzag stitch underneath.  The video on this site shows the creation of a pintuck in action.  Like the video shows, I also pressed my pintucks in one direction - in this case, away from the center front.

Even though I didn't follow the pattern instructions, I didn't lose much width across the front by making the pintucks this way.

Note:  Since I hadn't used a twin needle in a while, I had to consult my machine's manual to remind myself how to set it up.  The manual said to orient the second spool of thread so that the thread fell over the top.  This created all kinds of problems!  I had thread nests, skipped stitches, and broken threads.  When I flipped the spool so that the thread was underneath, everything sewed like normal.  I don't know if my manual has an error or not.  If you encounter problems with the twin needle, try not following your machine's instructions!

Self-bias Neckline

Collar stands are still a work in progress for me (see above hot mess).  When I saw Belinda's version of this top, I knew I wanted to copy her idea.  Thanks Belinda!  It was the perfect solution to a problem that still needs fixing.

I made continuous bias binding using this tutorial.  I've seen many different methods on making continuous bias strips, but this one has NEVER failed me.  I can get between 6 and 8 yards of bias binding out of a single fat quarter using this method.  And as a bonus, mastering the technique doesn't even take that much practice!  I was able to successfully make the binding on my very first try. 

French Seams
I sewed all seams (except the sleeves) with a french seam.  My fabric is very thin and would have probably puckered if I tried to serge-finish the edges.  I found that using a small Microtex needle helped to keep the stitches nice and smooth.  In finishing the armhole seams, I sewed the seam first and serged them together.  I don't notice any puckering in this area.

Narrow Hem on Sleeves
Because I was so focused on binding the neckline, I used the remaining fabric to create the bias strips and neglected to cut out the sleeve band.  So my sleeves are much shorter than intended.  To finish the hem, I sewed a very narrow 1/2" hem by folding under 1/4" twice and topstitching.

Conclusion:

This is a good pattern with generous ease and a few different design possibilities.  It's great for warmer weather and is quick to sew.  I don't know that I'll sew it again any time soon, but it's definitely in the sewing rolodex if I want to revisit it again.

Here the top is accompanied by OOP Vogue 7880 (pattern photo credit:  Judith of Made by J).

Here the top is tucked in and paired with Vogue 8426.

Up next:  I'm working on styling my stash as inspired by the sensational SarahLiz.  This sew along couldn't be more perfectly timed.  I am focused on sewing small spring/summer capsules, busting the stash, and knocking off snoop-shopped looks.

Back in January, I made the following pledge:

"I, Lynn of You sew girl!, commit to using at least 12 pieces of stash fabric in 2013. I also commit to using at least 10 patterns from the stash. Stash includes any fabric or patterns on hand prior to the date of this pledge, 15 Jan 2013."

The Jalie jeans and Simplicity tunic count as two pieces of stash fabric sewn.  I won't count the patterns used because I've attempted them before.

I may be a little slow to blog over the next few days as my rusty desktop is finally showing its age.  Upgrades aren't even affecting it anymore, so after 10 years of faithful computing, I think it's time to put it down.  =)

Until next time, peace!

L