Style Arc

An Agnes-Inspired Skirt

~ Michelle

Do you ever have one of those weeks where everything impinges on your sewing plans? That was my week this week. After a busy first part of the week, I was looking at Thursday thinking, ‘I have a whole day to sew.’ No, Thursday was spent driving errands for my family. So, Friday looked pretty quiet too, until the furnace guy showed up and needed to bring the giant hose through my sewing room window.

Now, all the errands are done, and my furnace is clean. Thankfully, my sewing project this week wasn’t a difficult one.

It wasn’t very long ago that Style Arc came out with a beautiful Princess-seamed dress. I saw it and loved it right away. As soon as it was available as a PDF, I bought it. The Agnes Designer Dress.

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I saw it and it was love at first sight. But… I don’t wear dresses very often. In fact, I think I only own one. I’m much more a skirt person. So, after a few months of having the pattern and wanting to do something with it, I decided to use some of its lines and make a skirt.

Out came my trusty skirt sloper. I used that make sure I got the correct fit for the waist and hips. Then I overlaid the Agnes pattern on that are re-drew the left side of my pattern to match that flare.

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The above photo shows the how much of a flare there is on the one side. The flare on the dress is on the princess seam, but I didn’t want a skirt with princess seams. My flare is on the side seam.

It went together quickly once I had some time to sew. Here’s the front of the skirt. You can see the flare on the right side of the photo.

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The basic pattern I used falls in-between an A-line skirt and a Straight skirt. It does flare over the hips – otherwise it wouldn’t fit my shape at all. Once it’s over that hip curve, it’s straight down. This will look like a straight skirt on, but with a bit of flare on the left side.

Here’s the back. Again you can see it’s straight with the flare showing on the left side of the photo.

Skirt-back

This material is a bit more substantial than some knits, so it may not sit the same as in the illustration, but I’m really thrilled with it. This is my skirt for the holidays this year.

Still to come is a slip for this.

Happy creating!

My Sloper Versus A Couple of Patterns

~ Michelle ~ 2 Comments

This week was a non-bra week, in keeping my hubby happy. Even though he loved my last bra, he does let me buy material without grumbling about it, so I don’t mind honoring his request – that I sew with all the material I have.

I have some lovely material for a cowl neck top. And I bought Deby Cole’s Cowl Neck Top from her Craftsy store. I think I’ll really enjoy wearing it too. I love this material paired with my denim Flirt Skirt.

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However, if you’ve followed me for any time at all, you know I usually have two, or three or more ideas and projects on the go. Before I jumped into the cowl neck, I wanted to re-visit my Ann-T-Top from Style Arc.  I printed off the next size down, and compared it to my sloper.

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Here’s the Ann T-Top with my sloper over top. I outlined the side of my sloper in black so it shows up better against the pattern. This size is much better. I still have a hard time believing how far off I am from the size charts. On this, I might want to shorten the upper bodice by 1/2″ so the underarm is hitting where my underarm hits, which will also help the waist hit at my waist. However, I do think this is a much closer fit, and one more size down would be too small. And although it doesn’t show, the neckline is much better too. There’s a 1/2″ difference, and I think I’ll like the little bit looser neck. I think I’ve found my size! I will need to make a hip adjustment, but if the base of the garment fits better, the rest can be done.

Carmen, one of my blog readers, mentioned using the upper bust for the pattern size, and this is something Kathleen Cheetham teaches in her Craftsy class, Adjust the Bust. I just picked up that class, and I’m sure it will be useful. Thanks, Carmen!

I also started to work on Deby Cole’s Cowl Neck Top.

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I have my sloper laid over Deby’s pattern. Again, what I’m dealing with is I don’t fit into just one size, or even two. I’m three sizes in all! For this pattern, I started off tracing the small shoulders and neck, and then loosely followed my knit sloper for the rest of the pattern, so my cowl neck top will be more shaped than the original.

Everything for my cowl neck top was cut out, and that’s as far as I got. I didn’t get any sewing done. I don’t even have a photo to show you – the cut material is pinned to my dress form. And I can’t even take a photo for you. I’m not anywhere near my sewing room. I’m in the mountains enjoying my anniversary. Any and all sewing will have to wait until I get back.

Here’s the view from our room. Oh, I love the mountains.

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This is my view from sitting at the kitchen table. We’re here in the mountains celebrating our anniversary, but my DH isn’t feeling wonderfully right now, so we’re having a quieter afternoon.

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I have windows on three sides, and there are mountains out each window. Oh, how I love being here.

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And the last view. Oh, I’m enjoying my time away, but if I want to submit a bra in Erin’s challenge this week, I’m going to be very busy sewing when I get home. That means a top and a bra in a couple of days! I don’t know if I’ll get all that done, but it will be fun to try.

Happy creating!

Size Chart Woes

~ Michelle

I had two experiences this week that I want to share with you. Both were basically the same thing – and both dealt with size charts. I have a question to ask you: Do size charts actually work?

My first experience was when I ordered the Rhonda Shear 3-Pack Pin Up Lace Leisure Bra. I heard on the video how Rhonda said to ‘order your top size.’ Well, great, but when I’d looked at the size chart that didn’t make sense. There was no way my top size, usually a Medium, was going to work, or at least that was what I was thinking. My bust and their size chart put me in the XL range. I was too hesitant to order my top size, so followed their size chart.

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Here’s their size chart. The photo is from The Shopping Chanel.

The bras arrived yesterday, and they’re lovely leisure bras. And they’re too big. Not a lot too big. The Medium would not have been a better fit. I think, judging by how the bras fit me, the Large would be my best fit. However, they are for leisure, so a little loose will be okay. I’ll know for next time.

Here’s one of the bras on Catherine.

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For on Catherine, I’ve added foam cups, so the bra is filled out the same as when I wear it. It’s really lovely and very comfortable. I was thinking when I bought the bras that I just might be interested in cloning them at some point.

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Here’s the back. It’s super smooth on, and again, very comfortable.

My other experience this week with size charts was with Style Arc. Style Arc’s Ann T-Top on Etsy. Again, I looked at the size charts and saw where I fell by my measurements. And I ordered that size for the top.

Nope. Again. Too big.

Style Arc chart

Here’s a screen shot from the Style Arc Web site showing the size chart.

This time the size was off, not just by one size, but by two. This time the charts put me in a 16, but when I printed it off and laid my sloper over it, it was way too big. So I contacted them and ‘exchanged’ the pattern I’d bought for a smaller size. I made up the 12, and it looked close when I laid my sloper over it.

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Here’s my Ann T-Top. This top has some elasticized gathering at the waist. I think that little detail is very attractive.

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Here it is from the side. I have the same Rhonda Shear bra under the top to give it a more realistic fit.

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And from the back.

Here’s me, (finally getting a photo) in both my denim Flirt Skirt, and my Ann T-Top.

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And a tired me (it’s almost midnight), in my Ann T-top. It’s too big.

The highlight of my week was ‘a little lingerie surprise parcel’ that came in the mail for me. Thank you, Ginny! What a treat!

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After watching Beverly’s newest bra class on Craftsy, I have lots of ideas for how to use this lovely lingerie fabric!

Happy creating!

Barb Pants With A Few Changes

~ Michelle

I’m going to start off by saying I love the Barb Pant pattern. There are only a few changes I’ve made and I’m really very impressed with it. When I tried them on for my hubby and son, I got ‘Wow.’ and ‘Sweet’, respectively.

There were a couple of changes I made though. There was an excess of material at the center back of the pants. I know that’s my shape causing that. So, one of my changes was to put a couple of darts in the back of the pant, below the waist. For my next pair, I will put the dart into the pattern and then have a nice smooth look to the back of the pant. They don’t look quite as flattering hanging backwards on Catherine.

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You can see the one dart on the back quite clearly. It has a twin on the other side, but it looks more like a fold of material in the photo. My bottom also fills them out more so the darts don’t pucker at the bottom like they do in the photo above.

This photo also shows the other change I made. After taking off the waistband (which I had sewn on and then overlocked to keep the edges from fraying), I decided I really didn’t like the waistband how it was. Being rather curvy, I needed to take in the elastic on the waistband which produced wrinkles. And it just wasn’t a look I loved. As I said last week, to me, it had a sweat pants look.

So what I did on these is I put the elastic in the back of the waistband only. You can see in the photo above I enclosed it even with a double row of stitching.

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Above you can see the elastic pinned on to the waistband. I didn’t measure, just made it the length of the waistband – which is a size smaller than the pant size I used. That was one of the other changes I made to the waistband.

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And now the elastic is all tucked in and secured. I saw this on a pair of RTW pants I own and decided to give it a try. And I really like this.

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See how much smoother the front of the pants are without the elastic? These are a Ponte and have some stretch, so this method will work for these, but a less giving material probably won’t allow these same changes.

There are a couple of puckers in the above photo at the waistband in the front that a couple of 1/4″ darts in the pattern would fix.

Pinned on Catherine

For comparison, here was the waistband before I took it off and made the changes. I really prefer the smoother front.

I’ve worn these pants a number of times, and they’re really comfortable. The Barb Pant will be on my list to sew again. And I’ll do my best to get a photo of me in them so you can see what they look like on.

Happy creating!

My First Barb Pants… Not Quite Finished

~ Michelle

When we were having our early Christmas, I was spending a little time with my son and he asked me if I could just do what I wanted, what would I do? I’d sew!  If only I had time to just sew…

Being a curvy girl means pants and I don’t always get along. Until a few years ago when they came out with curvy styles of pants, they were one of my most dreaded clothing pieces. I hated having to shop for new pants because they weren’t going to fit anyway. Any curvy girls out there who know that large gap at the back of the waistband? However, pants are fitting much better now that manufacturers have realized woman aren’t all straight up and down.

Hearing how difficult pants were, I’d stayed away from them. Even though I’d made maternity pants for myself ever so long ago. I just figured they were ‘hard’, and I didn’t want to even think about it.

However, I needed pants, so I went shopping for a new pair of pants. I wanted a casual dress pant. And I did find a pair. However, they were $60, thin and static-y. I started thinking back a few months ago and how if I signed up for the Style Arc newsletter, I’d get a free Barb pant pattern. I had signed up and had the pattern. So I bargained with my hubby. Instead of buying a pair of pants, how about you let me buy material to make a few pair. He thought it made sense.

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Here’s the Barb Pant. The photo is from Style Arc. Click here to take you to the free download.

This free pattern comes as a digital download. That’s not a problem. I’ve worked with digital patterns before. But this time, for some reason, I really didn’t like working from the paper pattern. It was so stiff. It’s possible that because it’s a lot longer than the apron pattern I’d done before, it was just a lot more cutting. For my next pair, I’ll trace the pattern off onto tissue paper for cutting.

Style Arc are also very generously in that they give you three sizes. I wasn’t quite sure, so I ordered what I thought would be closest to my size and then one up and one down from that. And the sizing is spot on.

I sewed up a first draft in some Ponte I have. It was one of those purchases that I wondered about afterwards. I don’t love the color and don’t even know if I’ll ever wear that color. So why did I buy it? Well, I bought it because they didn’t have the color I wanted. However, it was perfect for a muslin of the pants.

Before I got to sewing, I took out my favorite pants and drew off a quick clone of them to compare to the pattern. That helped me right away to know how much to shorten the pants.

I must say, as a first draft, they fit quite well. I did take in the waist elastic as that was too big. But that’s quite normal for me. Another alteration that is still in the works is to take out a little extra fabric at the back, just below the waistband. But other than that, the fit is really good.

Pinned on Catherine

Here are the pants pinned to Catherine – just to show how they’re coming along. This was also before I took the waist in. I’d read Anne of Clothing Engineer had to do the same. You can read about that here. Another alteration I made was to shorten the height of the waistband. The pattern calls for 2-inch elastic, and I know I don’t have that much room. I’m curvy and short.

So, in the photo, my band has some wrinkles before I fixed the elastic, and after taking two inches out, it has more. When the pants are not on, they have a sweat pant look to me. I’m not in love with the waistband as it is. So, I’ve removed it and will re-do that this week.

on Catherine with top

And again on Catherine, this time with the top untucked – like I wear most things. I can’t see that waistband. Even though I will likely wear the pants untucked most of the time, I still wanted a cleaner look on the waistband. So I will make the band 1 size smaller, and the elastic 2 sizes smaller and it should look better.

These still need to be hemmed; next week when they’re done, I’ll put on some Spanx and show them to you on me.

I do have a pair of pants that I don’t use. Again, one of those ‘I don’t like the material’. But I did love the style. It was the waistband that sold me on them. It has a crisscross front. I love little details like that. So out came my seam ripper this week and after I’d removed the Barb pants waistband, I removed the other waistband.

There is still a little more work to be done on these, but they’re coming along a lot better than I had thought.

Happy creating.

Slopers and Styles

~ Michelle

I saw this and it gave me a smile. I thought I’d share it.

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The other day my friend came over and she’s taking a class on making a sloper. She was having trouble getting her muslin to fit using the sloper pattern, so we looked at her instructions and it wasn’t making a lot of sense to me. I’m not the best when it’s all numbers.

I finally suggested she put the muslin on and I’d pin the sides where it needed to be taken in. She then traced the pin lines, and laid the pattern over the muslin and traced those lines onto it. And it worked. She sent me a message the next day to tell me I got an A+ on her assignment. We laughed over that. I was thankful her instructor did explain what she’d wanted her to accomplish with the numbers, and our way was just another (non-math) way to do it.

My sloper, or actually moulage, that I’ve been working on for a Craftsy class I’m taking is done. It’s an awesome class by the way – Patternmaking Basics – The Bodice Sloper. Boy is it a detailed class. And remember, I said I’m not a numbers person. There are a LOT of numbers; at times she’s using one set of numbers and I’m having to remember to use my own numbers. Whew! It’s a workout. But I’m trusting it will be well worth the effort by time I’m done.

My class is also fraction of the cost of my friend’s class. She paid over $300 for the class she’s taking. I think the Craftsy class is a much better deal. Oh, and I took another Craftsy class this past year and the instructor never responded to any of my questions – even after I mentioned this to Craftsy. And from reading the questions and comments, I wasn’t alone.  This class, I highly recommend and the instructor gets back really quickly.

One of the things I learned is before you make a sloper, you make a moulage, which is an exact skin-tight pattern. Then you add in some ease and have a sloper. My moulage was done in pencil, and although I took a picture, the paper looked blank. Here’s a sample picture to show what I’ve been working on.

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I bought some fabric today and will sew it up either today or tomorrow. I know I don’t have the shoulders just perfect yet (my dear hubby measured me), but will use that same pinch method to get them better and anywhere else I need to fix. Then I will adjust the moulage.

Happy creating! I’m off to work on my moulage.