I sew. I Machine Knit. I cook. I travel. But, I do not clean.
Hi! I’ll be republishing my last year’s worth of blog posts. They were deleted when I changed from a business WordPress plan to a regular free plan. Thanks to the Feedly, I can pull all my old posts — minus photos. And will be reposting them here.
Sorry for all the updates you’re about to receive!
****This post is a repost of my original entry. Due to some technical difficulties, I lost a year’s worth of blog posts.
While I’ve made my fair share of pants and jeans in the past, I can’t say they are my favorite to put together. I have a bit of a struggle fitting pants so I tend to avoid them. But, I get extremely desperate for pants each year, try to buy some RTW, get totally demoralized and ignore my need for pants for another 12 mos.
Well, with a vacation looming last month (it was mah-velous), I knew I needed pants. My thighs touch and in the summer in can be terribly uncomfortable. We were going to be doing plenty of walking and flying. Shorts won’t cut it so pants it is. I settled on making a pull on pair because I didn’t want to invest a lot of time constructing pants that might not fit well. And, if I’m being honest, I hope to lose some winter weight I picked up and won’t have to worry as much about the fit later on.
For this pair I chose the #139 from the April 2011 Burdastyle. This is a plus size pattern. I’m a 42 at the waist and a solid 50 through my lower thighs. My first two muslins were TERRIBLE.
At the front I could see it straining across my jutting thighs. There was also not enough clearance for my stomach and the crotch was rightupinthere.
On the reverse, not enough room for my protruding seat, a serious need for a swayback adjustment and also, not enough length in the crotch (you can see it pulling it up at the center thigh) By the third muslin on the far right, I was much happier with the fit.
For the waist, I used a 2″ elastic vs the 1.25″ it’s drafted for. I just love wide elastic waistband. I think it looks more finished — especially with topstitching. This is a knit heavy stretch elastic so I cut it just 2″ smaller than my waist measurement and it grew a little less than 1″ after application and topstitching (making it the 1″ smaller than my waist measurement a heavy stretch should be).
You’ll note I skipped the hem band treatment on these pants. I decided I really liked this color and plan to wear them to work this summer. By keeping the bottom of the leg simple I think they are a hair more professional and less likely to be noticed when I wear them several times a week.
I am thinking about reducing by a 1/4″ the length in the back crotch and shortening the rise another 1/2″. I’d like them to fit around my crotch a hair snugger. But, overall I am REALLY happy and plan to make several more over the summer.
Oh, wovens… how I miss you! I spent last year making jeans, tee shirts and outerwear. But, this year I needed something light for our summer vacation to California and cuuuttte. 
I picked up the Webster when I was in Boston few months ago at Cashmerette HQ. So, while I technically didn’t pay for this pattern, all opinions are my own. And, my opinion is YASSS, Queen, slay!
I love love love the neckline. The V is deep but doesn’t show cleavage. It’s beautifully flattering. The back is equally interesting. In fact, my friend who took photos exclaimed, “CUTE!!” when she saw the back.
My Webster top is made up in a long stashed Marc by Marc Jacobs embroidered star voile. It’s lightweight with body and most of all is a solid that isn’t. I did make some alterations for fit for my body that I’ll try and capture here. There is some video of it all (for the time being) on my Instagram page. If you go to my profile, under my name there’s a bubble that says “Webster Fit”.
I like that this pattern has an all-in-one-facing. That means no flipping out. 
I finished the insides with French seams to keep it neat.
And, I loved this so much I immediately made a dress version which I’ll share soon! ** worn here with my Jalie stretch jeans in a cropped length
I’ve been calling this teal beauty a jacket… maybe because it’s lightweight so I don’t think “coat”. But, it seems to clearly be a coat pattern. Discuss.
As you see, I finished my spring jacket from the February 2011 issue of Burda! We were at my inlaws on Maryland’s Easter Shore for Passover and got to snap a few photos on the water.
I really wanted to try and push my skills and make a jacket with a bit more technique and time. So, this one took me a solid six weeks of work with many fidly bits.
This pattern tops out at 44 so I needed to grade out to about a 50 in the lower thigh. I also made a FBA, a swayback adjustment and added almost 2″ in width to the sleeves / bicep. I pretreated the fabric by sewing a mesh bag and washing in the washing machine.
When I teach, I talk about when and why you would use Hong Kong or bias bound seams. I also do demos of flat fell seams and blind hemming But, I didn’t really have a good garment to show it off in. Now, I do! And, now I understand why garments with these techniques cost twice as much as they absolutely take twice as long!
I used fusible interfacing on the center front, collar and pocket flaps. I do not have any interfacing in the chest, back, or hems. There are places where you can see the chest collapses a bit. But, I did not want to make a tailored spring / rain jacket and I wanted to leave it unlined to show off the reverse of this bonded fabric.
If you have this fabric, do not use fusible woven. Way too stiff. A nice weft fusible is the way to go. Press with a press cloth because the fabric shines on the non stripe side. And, don’t use too much heat or steam. The fabric is easily overworked and misshapen and the fabric will separate. If it does separate or crease, heat it back up, and press it back to gather with a clapper — leaving it in place until it cools.
Well, that’s a tale of two cities! The (my) right sleeve was set with tie interfacing in the ‘tailored’ method. The cap pops and I had minimal issues setting it in. The fabric doesn’t have a great deal of ease and is like working with leather.
The (my) left sleeve was set the traditional method and I’d broken a sweat by the time I was done. Either way, puckers sewn in to the fabric DO NOT PRESS OUT. Same with the bust darts. You can’t press shaping into them. So, I have perky darts due to the fabric and a collapsed cap on this side.
And, now I think because of the tie interfacing I probably cannot machine wash this coat 
.
There is a small drafting error with the coat collar in pattern 2-2011 #125. The collar stand and collar are too short by about 1.5″. It works out fine for me because I have a short neck and don’t like getting my foundation on my clothes. It just doesn’t meet closer to the middle as it shows in the line drawing.
I mitered the back hem inside and used a 2.5″ turn up. I wish it was 1.5″ to 2″. I think it would have been easier to have a nice hem. Not that the bottom is rounded. But, the fabric doesn’t ease well. I ended up making a blind hem on my blind stitch machine using nylon thread. While I only use this machine a few times a year I am always super pleased with the results.
The only thing I REALLY wish I’d done is remembered this comment from Marcy when I finished my Cascade Duffle coat. The bottom fronts don’t meet the way I’d like. This is for a couple of reasons I think….
2.) If I’d read Marcy’s comment or remembered, I would have tried to cut the CF a little off grain to have the flaps meet better. I did add a covered snap. Let’s see how much I use it! Um, also — there’s a reason garments have snaps here and not buttons. ASK ME HOW I KNOW.
All that said, I think I don’t mind that much. Only in the light of posting it on the internet for all to see do I feeI must confess my crimes. I’ve wanted to make this pattern since it came out SEVEN YEARS AGO. The fabric has been in my stash for TEN YEARS. I really needed a spring coat to wear that wasn’t a totally casual item. And, I worked harder on this with finishing techniques than I may have on anything else. So, I will wear it for the six weeks a year it’s weather appropriate here in the Mid Atlantic!
Have I told you about my insane outerwear stash? Yeah? Ok. So, as you’ve heard I’m trying to sew it down. I’d like to make four outwear pieces in 2018. I need a rain parka, an unstructured coat for bulky clothes, a slightly dressy spring jacket and a long winter coat for businessy stuff.
If this kind of prep work is boring, skip to the end and maybe help me with a few questions, thanks!
This is the start of my slightly dressy spring jacket, Burdastyle 2-2011-125. I’m using a 10 years old Burberry rain coating that I actually got from Marji in a trade when she started her de-stashing ages ago. I made a red trench coat a few years ago that just wasn’t right from the same fabric (rereading the post it sounds like it was too big. And, honestly, looking at it with hindsight, it probably would have been fine then and great now. But, I gave it away).
The fabric was sold at G-Street (when they were still great), Denver Fabrics and Michael’s in Baltimore. Look at some of the glorious colors I found at G Street back then! I now obviously wish I’d bought it in black, lavender AND baby blue. If anyone has more of this fabric they’d like to unload, holler at me, please 
Started with a size 44 based on my upper chest measurement of 40″ and made a 1.5″ FBA based on my F/G cup. I graded up to a around a 50 at my lower thigh (this is outside the Burda range for this pattern).
Interestingly, this looooong waist dart ends at the bust point (I double checked where Burda’s BP is — 12 7/8″ for this size). Which also places that pocket right on top of my bust. So, I’ll probably lower the welt pocket a bit.
Widened the sleeve by 3″. Holy skinny sleeve, Burda! I learned my lesson from my Cascade Duffle Coat and didn’t skimp in increasing the bicep width. Since this is for spring, I need to be able to wear it over a sweater.
I made a swayback adjustment of 3/4″.
I’m not making a muslin. So, I’m going to sew this with 1″ allowances so I have room to play with the fit.
Here’s what I’m not sure about:
The pattern calls for interfacing in all the usual places. And, normally, when I do tailoring I’d interface the entire front, do a chest shield, a back stay, etc. This fabric is two layers of thin cotton with a sandwich of plastic in between. My gut says I don’t need to interface. And, if I did, I’d just add to the center front (1), collar, under collar and collar stand (7 thru 10). What do you think?
I don’t really want to line this either. I’m just going to line the sleeves and use flat fell seams throughout. Which also adds to my desire to NOT interface heavily (of course if you all tell me to interface, I can make a half lining).
Second question, back in 2008 I washed two pieces of this fabric. One came out totally fine and the other separated into two different pieces (hence how I know what’s in between the two layers). I was APOPLECTIC. I had a top loader back then and now I have a front loader with a ‘hand wash’ cycle. Should I risk pre-treating it at home? Or just live with a dry clean only garment that will always be dirty?
UPDATE: Thanks, y’all! I sewed up a mesh bag with zipper, tossed in the fabric and washed it on gentle this morning upon suggestions below. It didn’t separate! So, it’s now line drying (I’m never going to run this through the dryer) and will see how presses with a warm iron after work this evening.
So, deep thoughts on interfacing and pre-treating are welcome!
