Closet Core Elodie in the wilds of Costa Rica!

 Last week I had the enormous pleasure of going to Costa Rica for 5 nights. It was glorious!! Costa Rica is such a beautiful place and offers so many things. Granted, on this trip, all we did was stay at the resort except for one half day excursion. We just felt it was a safer thing to do during this crazy omnicron surge. 

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The resort was beautiful and not even close to capacity so we had plenty of room to be spread out. We out outside every day for all meals except for 1 and spent so much time at the pool and the beach. It was such a welcome respite from Chicago’s nasty winters.

I wore my new Closet Core  Elodie wrap dress to dinner twice. The fabric was perfect both in the tropical print and in the fiber content. It also hung up so nicely in the room and any wrinkles from packing came right out without having to iron it! (It hung for about 48 hours before I wore it)

This time of the year the sung goes down well before dinner time! So most if the pictures are taken in one of the resort courtyards or on my balcony.

I felt delightful wearing this dress!!! It fit wonderfully with no gaping, the cotton fabric held its shape so well which gave it the feeling of wearing a more vintage silhouette without having any petticoats. I loved the midi length with the slightly shaped front skirt panels. I am also quite glad that I added on the large patch pockets. They had plenty of room for my cell phone, room card, cash and my stash of pancreas pills. No need to have to carry a separate hand bag around the resort. 

On the topic of the patch pockets, I have a collection of cool shaped patch pockets that would be super fun to try on this dress! SO many ideas, so little time!!

Happy Sewing!

PS- my room was right on the Pacific Ocean and I had the most incredible sunset views every day as I was relaxing from a day at the pool/beach and getting ready to go for dinner!

Elodie Closet Core Wrap Dress for a Trip to Costa Rica!

 I ordered this fabric in the spring of 2021 and the pattern in the fall, specifically for a trip to Costa Rica that I am currently on! (Hopefully! This should post while I am there, all the Covid tests were negative and we are a go for the trip) This trip has been a long time coming. This trip was supposed to be at this time in 2021 and a celebration of my 50th Birthday and all the wonderful things in my life. I don’t need to explain to anyone why this trip never happened!  Thank you rona. 

Skip to 2022, and omicron…. Ugh, I just trusted that we were all being safe and careful and wearing masks (Chicago has had a mask mandate in place since August) It helps that I have been very careful due to the pancreatitis and not wanting to chance having my body ravaged by a virus on top of the stress of a chronic illness.  Anyhow, nothing special about this story! We are all living in this pandemic.

So… back to the dress!! Photos show an almost completed dress!!

Pattern is Closet Core Elodie Wrap dress view B- Midi length with the short sleeves. I really enjoy the patterns from Closet Core. They are thoughtful, have interesting details and a modern look. The drafting is very good and the sizing is very true to the included charts. This pattern has release darts or release pleats in the front and pleats on the back.

I made a muslin of my size from the size chart and the fit was exactly as expected. Tight across the abdomen. The design ease is only a half inch in the waist. On me this amount of ease is just not comfortable (mostly due to my pancreatitis). It is a wrap dress, so I could loosen the wrap and it felt fine but then the amount of cleavage happening was uncomfortable, I would have had to wear a camisole and I did not want that. SO I made sure to mark CF and line that up and asses the fit from there. I did a closed wedge along the front opening below the breast to get rid of some gaping and I added a half inch to the side seam for a total of 2 inches. This gives me about 2 inches of ease at the waist, depending on how tight I tie the wrap, and it feels great!

I also really like the look of the muslin as a top. If anyone is interested I just cut a length 9 inches from the waistband and marked this on my pattern. Completely makes a super cute wrap top!

For design changes I added a 1/4 inch flat piping along the neck edge. This was specifically because I really needed another 1/2 yard of fabric to be able to cut the print out the way I would have preferred. But, I did not have the leeway and I was not super happy with the print placement. So, the flat piping was a way break up the print marching across my chest. 

I needed to piece the corner on the skirt fronts lower corner of the side seam. I just did not have the fabric width for this length. I did not even bother trying to match the print. With this midi length and it being such a small portion that no one will ever notice unless I point it out!

I also added top stitching along the waistband. This was because the waistband facing, per the pattern directions, was to be slipped stitched by hand. I skipped this due to a couple of reasons. The biggest one being that this fabric is so tightly woven that even my sharpest pins had a hard time penetrating the fabric! The fabric was very stable and top stitching front the right side was done quite easily. In  another type of fabric this may not be so possible.

Of course I had to make a matching mask and key wristlet… ‘cause, why not?? Beautiful fabric! And the current wristlet was literally falling apart after 8 years of constant use!

Due to the tight weave of the fabric, I very carefully used a little dab of glue on the pockets to temporarily hold them in place while I stitched them. This is a wash away fabric glue and very easy to use. I just could not get the pins in without moving the pocket and since this is a washable garment I figured glue stick all the way!

The fabric is 100% cotton print from Core Fabrics. Nice and crisp and beautiful and I would totally purchase this again!! The selves get was super fun and I really wanted to incorporate it but I just couldn’t work it out without it looking strange. SO I just smiled and enjoyed it as I cut out the fabric!

The neck facing and waistband are all interfaced with a lightweight fusible tricot. This fabric really did not need to much extra. 

No buttons or zippers used and the only other thing were some labels from Kylie and the Machine. They are just so much fun :)

I used a Guterman thread, rPET, made from 100% recycled polyester and was very happy with it! My first time using this thread for a full garment construction. I will definitely purchase this thread again.

I used a brand new 70/10 universal needle (I did several tests due to the tight weave and this worked best) All seams were sewn on the machine with a 2.5mm straight stitch and finished on the serger with a 3 thread overlock and pressed open. 

The hem of the sleeve was done by a double pressed 1/4 inch and top stitched. The dress hem was done with a double pressed 1/2 inch and top stitched. Easy Peasy!

I finished the dress the day before leaving for the trip so I do not have any final pictures to share yet. I will be sure to get some lovely ones while at the resort in Costa Rica.

Happy Sewing!!

The Princess and I are enjoying the growth of this Amaryllis bulb that I got as a kit for a Christmas gift.

Summertime Linen Tunic Dress

I am totally blogging things out of order! That’s my prerogative as this is my blog :)

Today I share with you a Tunic Dress that I have made using Blackbird Fabrics Lightweight Washed Linen. This linen is just so lovely and soft and has that lived in wonderful feeling of linen that has been worn and loved. 

 

The base pattern for this dress is the Style Arc Daisy Designer Tunic. Although, I must tell you that I have made MANY alterations to this pattern. There is a long story behind this and it all stems back to my now rescheduled Morocco trip and the fact that I wanted a good base woven tunic top. 

As with the rest of the world so many plans, activities and normal day to day things have drastically changed over the past 5 months that it is sometimes a bit hard to even take stock of it all! I feel like I have come to terms with the changes, for the most part anyway. And like my adjusting of life to the new normal, my sewing plans also had to adjust. Instead of planning, designing and making clothing for events and outings, I have made the slow adjustment to designing, planning and creating clothes that just make me happy and take me down a creative route that I just want to explore.

That’s where this dress comes in. It all started with me playing on the Procreate drawing app on my iPad. I have been playing around with the app and slowly working through a UDEMY course on Procreate. I decided to design a whole bunch of different styles and types of tunics. All based off the basic Daisy Designer Tunic Pattern and sketched over my croqui. I had already made the muslins and made several changes to the pattern to make it fit exactly how I wanted so I knew that now I could take that base pattern and make any changes to it that I want. 

One of those sketches that I made was for this tunic dress. I also used fabric in the sketch that I already have in my collection, this is a great way for me to play and visualize and if I really like the sketch I know I have the fabric at hand.

This is a sleeveless pull on dress with a contrasting rolled collar and hem band. It has a bit of a cocoon shape (also a design element that I have been exploring through sketching for a long time now) and of course pockets.

This was something that I knew I wanted to make immediately! I fell in love :) 

Popping on the original muslin that I made earlier this year of the pattern I did some measuring and decided on length and neckline depth. I traced off a copy of my now Master Tunic pattern and lengthened and reshaped it slightly and drafted the large rolled collar. I constructed the entire dress except for the collar. This I first made out of muslin and basted onto the dress to see how it looked. Once I was happy with it I cut it out of fashion fabric and finished up the dress.

I have been having fun adding in labels from Kylie and The Machine. I have my own labels with Siouxzeegirl Designs woven on them but the Kylie labels are just fun and make me smile when I use them.

This linen is so lovely and lightweight but the deep hem facings give the bottom just enough weight for this dress to hang properly.

The fabric and the cut make this dress a real pleasure to wear and because I designed it off a master pattern the construction was a breeze and I knew the fit would be really darn close to spot on. If this had been a fitted garment then I would have made a new muslin to test but for a wonderfully loose and cool summer dress I decided to forgo the new muslin, except for the collar as described above. 

I also made a matching face mask. I think it is really important for the safety of everyone to be responsible and wear a face mask when outside of the home. It has been proven to be effective and it is such a small inconvenience to help keep everyone safe. It only takes a few minutes to make them so adding matching ones for my garments is easy and fun. I always get lots of thumbs up and fun compliments from strangers when I wear matching masks to my garments.

I still have more ideas sketched out for other garments to make based off this new master pattern. This is actually my third… I haven’t blogged the other 2 yet but you may have seen them on my IG account.

It sure has been fun exploring different ideas and taking my sewing in a different direction that’s what I normally do.

Has the pandemic changed how you sew?

Happy Sewing!!

Winter coat 2019 and a new dress!

Living in Chicago  means I am never without a reason to make a new coat! This years coat is navy speckled wool underlined in silk organza and lined with kasha winter lining. This makes it a good winter coat but not one for a deep freeze. This quote was originally intended to come to Paris with me to wear on the colder days but I did not finish it in time and I did not want to rush the finishings. I finished it over Thanksgiving weekend.

Front and Back views of me in the coat

This is my own self drafted coat pattern and is a variation of the coat that I made last year. I slimmed the silhouette slightly and redrafted the collar and narrowed the lower sleeves. Overall the sleeves are big enough to accommodate layers of a sweater or even a French style jacket or a blazer.  

The inside pockets are a scrumptious splurge! They are made from a remnant of vicuña that I received a couple years ago. I had a small piece about 9 inches wide and just enough to cut for the inside pockets. They are positioned between the lining and facing and big enough to easily hold my cell phone and CTA card. I positioned them so that I could get my hand into the pocket while the coat is buttoned closed. In order to keep the breast pockets  from bunching up I attached a length of grosgrain ribbon from the bottom outside edge of the pocket to the side seam to hold them in place.

Oh dear.. a reverse Napoleon pose! LOL! Inner pockets on both sides and grosgrain ribbon to hold pocket bag in place.

The hem’s are interfaced with a strip of light weight bias faced canvas to hold its shape. There are 4 buttons and they are all that I had! So even thought I could have used 5, I had to make do with 4. The buttonholes were a different matter. Three of them are bound buttonholes made with faux leather lips and the 4th buttonhole, the second from the top, is an inseam buttonhole.  The corresponding buttonholes on the facing pieces were done as ‘Spanish snap’ buttonholes with 2x3 bias pieces of silk organza. These are then stitched on the top of the facing in the shape of a long flattened football or like a loaf of French bread. The hole is then cut open and the organza pushed through and snapped into place. The organza then forms the lips and this is then hand stitched to the back of the buttonholes with small invisible fell stitches. 

Bias horse hair canvas in hem. It sits in the hem and then I catch stitch the hem to it. Holds everything in place and gives the hem a nice shape on this winter coat.

Top are the Spanish snap button holes on the facing and the bottom shows the bound buttonhole plus the buttoned look with both inseam buttonhole and bound buttonhole.

I had a lot of fun creating this collar! It was a shape that I have been wanting to play with. A little bit retro. I knew that I really wanted the collar to hold the shape so instead of messing with a bunch of different interfacings I used a piece of men’s under collar that was already stitched to hair canvas and ready to be used. Thank you NYC tailoring shops! I figured the worst that could happen would be that I hated it and then would have to re-do it. I actually love it! The collar holds it’s shape quite smartly and when the coat is unbuttoned it still looks very good to me. Perfect for this quite simple rolled collar with a fantastic shape to it.

Collar views with the undercollar being cut out for men's pad stitched under collar navy felt.

I put my label on the lower facing across a seamed area that I had to piece together. I also added a strip of the faux leather that I used for the bound buttonholes as a hanging loop.

The outer pockets almost didn't happen! That was until I put the coat on and after looking in the mirror decided a winter coat with no external pockets whatsoever was just wrong. LOL! The problem was that I wanted a bigger pocket and a fun flap and I just did not have the fabric left to make that happen. So going to the extremely small pile of scraps left over I was able to eek out these 2 patch pockets. Basically I found the largest dimensions that I could with the fabric on grain and that was my pocket. I lined them with scraps of the fabric left over from the dress. So while I would have preferred slightly bigger patch pockets, these will have to do! Of course in hindsight I could have made a wonderful set of single welt pockets...

No pockets versus pockets! Pockets win every time!!

This was the incredibly small pile of scraps that I had to cut the pockets out of!

All in all I am quite happy with this new coat. It is warm enough for cold Chicago and for going from car or Uber into a building or for walking around as long as it is not too cold. Once it gets down into the 20’s and below walking around changes over to the down parka!!

Baby, it's cold outside!!

The dress that I am wearing in these pictures is from one of my own TNT patterns that I developed with the help of Sarah Veblen. I have made this pattern several times now over the past 4 years and I love the shape and design of it. This time I made it with 2  rayon/polyester woven plisse fabrics that are the same design in 2 different scales. I ordered these a while back from EmmaOneSock. It took me a while to decide exactly how to use them and I am very happy with the outcome! I must say that this was almost a giant fail!!! I have 2 copies of the pattern... One for wovens  and one for stretch wovens. I clearly did not label them very clearly and I made this with the one for stretch. Imagine my surprise when I went to try it on and could barely get the back zip up, let alone breath!!! Luckily enough I use 5/8 inch seam allowances and had not trimmed them down. So I was able to let the seam allowances out along the upper back portion of the zipper. Once I did this it fit perfect! Whew!! That was a close call! And a good reminder for me to always clearly label all of my patterns.

New 'corner' dress! I love this silhouette!!

It even has a nice twirl factor!

I took this dress to Paris and wore it several times. It is really quite comfortable, looks nice and I always get lovely compliments when wearing it. It always make me feel good when I get an unsolicited compliment when wearing a garment that I made and even more so when it is by a complete stranger. 

Christmas is almost upon us and some of my family is coming in to spend Christmas week. I spent all day rearranging my apartment and moving much of my sewing room aside to make way for visitors! I am very excited for this! My mom and dad are coming and they are staying with me. They have not yet seen my home since I moved downtown Chicago in spring of 2017. And my sister is coming too!! Very excited. She is coming first so I will have a couple days with her and then my parents. I am very much looking forward to having them here to celebrate Christmas! 

Princess V and I had a sleepover and decorated gingerbread houses to get ready for the Holidays!!
I really love spending time with her- makes my heart so happy!!

Happy Sewing and Happy Christmas time and Happy Holidays to all!