Birthday Dress 2017!

I have noticed that it is a unique condition to many people who sew, that you suddenly need a new dress for for every occasion!  Including your birthday!  Given my recent jersey dress obsession, this seemed like a perfect addition to my collection!

The pattern I used is the Moneta Dress by Colette Patterns.  This pattern was huge on instagram several months ago, because Colette threw a "Moneta Party".  Naturally I missed out on this and made my first one after the party/ contest was over.  Even though I didn't participate, I was inspired by the loads of people who made all sorts of different versions of this pattern (check them out with #monetaparty).

I also finished my Sunshower in time to go with this dress!  Hurrah!

If you are not familiar with this pattern, it has a very simple construction and is a quick and simple make.  The bodice and skirt are very simple, with each being just a front and back.  The pattern comes with different sleeve options (including sleeveless) and an included collar.  I wasn't a fan of the collar that comes with pattern but, one of the great things about indie pattern is that sometimes you get free extras!  After releasing this pattern, Colette decided to design a bunch of extra collars!  Because of that I was able to add in a peter pan collar, which I think is much closer to my personal style.

I think the most flattering part of this dress is the elasticated waist and shirred skirt.  It makes gathering the skirt quick and easy and provides nice shaping around your smaller bits!  The dress is also meant to have pockets, but I decided to exclude them.  (Wait! I have a reason!)  In my first version of this dress I added the pockets, but because of the nature of the fabric, putting anything in said pockets distorts the shape of the dress.  It is always sad to exclude pockets, but in my opinion, they don't do this dress any favors.

Since this is a jersey dress, there were basically no fitting issues to be had!  Because of the stretchiness of the fabric you can have however much lunch you want and not worry about waist getting tight!  Jersey can sometimes be a pain to work with, but it's worth it to have a soft, stretchy, secret pyjama dress.  The jersey I used for this dress is a cotton spandex from Girl Charlee.  You can still find it via fabric.com here.  This is my first time working with Girl Charlee fabric, and, while I'm happy with my dress, I did have some issues with the print on my fabric being off kilter.  I had my issue remedied, but it was still very annoying to have to send fabric back and wait for a new cut to come in.  I expected a little more from this line of fabric, which is manufactured and printed in the U.S., but I guess Americans make mistakes too.

If you can't tell, I am very pleased with this dress.  It is quick and easy to make for instant garment gratification!  I would recommend this pattern to anyone wanting something fast, or for any beginner sewists who want to try working with stretchy fabrics!

The Gentleman's Wardrobe Book Review: Summer Shirt

Hello, and welcome back to a new blog post! For this post I've decided to shake things up and do a book review! The book I am reviewing is, The Gentleman's Wardrobe: Vintage-Style Projects for the Modern Man by Vanessa Mooncie, which can be found on Amazon, here.

I first found out about this book via instagram, and I was so excited I pre-ordered it immediately.  Before I get into the pros and cons of this book, I would just like to say it definitely fills a void in the world of sewing patterns.  It is SO HARD to find good patterns for men's clothes, and this book contains enough patterns to sew up literally, an entire wardrobe. But, before I talk more about the book, let me talk about the pattern I made from it.

The pattern I chose is one of two shirt options in the book: The Summer Shirt. (Just a quick note on this pattern, it has all the same pattern pieces as the regular shirt pattern, it just shows you where to shorten the sleeves.)

After measuring Luke using the sizing guide included in the book, I made the size small. Over all I am very happy with the fit. The only sizing issue I encountered was that the collar stand doesn't quite fit over his neck, but this is an issue he has with rtw shirts as well, so that is not the fault of the pattern.

The only major alteration I had to make to this pattern was to the sleeves.  As they are in the pattern they were much too long and slightly too full for Luke's taste.  I ended up taking up 2 1/2" of the length of the sleeves and 3/4" out of the width.

The only "beef" I had with this pattern was the yoke.  I have made a couple of different shirt patterns, and each of them has approached the yoke differently. I much prefer the "rolling" method of attaching a yoke, but this pattern does not have you do that. Instead you simply fold over and top stitch. I had initially thought I would just do the rolling method anyway, only to find that it doesn't work with this pattern because the yoke piece is so skinny.  There is nothing wrong with the method provided and it is appropriate for the size of the pieces, but what can I say? I like big yokes and I cannot lie.

The fabric I chose was a cotton/ linen blend by Robert Kaufman which I got from fabric.com, here. Although this is a fairly stable fabric, it was a little tricky to work with. Even though I made sure to pre-wash the fabric, I experienced some pieces shrinking quite a bit after they were thoroughly pressed when I applied fusible interfacing to the button band.  This caused me to have to ease some of the pieces together, but I think it worked out in the end. Aside from the shrinking issues, I would definitely recommend this fabric for warm weather shirts or shirt dresses.

The pattern pieces are provided on included sheets of paper. They overlap each other in order to save space, but they are color coded by pattern, so that you can be confident you are only tracing the pieces you need.  The instructions were also fairly easy to follow.  I would say this a a good option for a "first shirt" pattern.  There were a couple of places where I got stuck, but after reading the tricky steps several times through, and being sure to take breaks when I got tired or frustrated (this is important!) I managed to pull through and I am very happy with how this turned out.

Over all, I am thrilled with this book.  All together, there are 14 patterns in this book, including day-wear, lounge wear, and accessories.  It also includes vital information on sewing tools, fabric types, sizing, and common sewing techniques.  Unfortunately this sizing in this book only goes up to a size large (which is a 42" chest/ 36" waist). This is really limiting compared to most regular sewing patterns, but aside from that, I think this book is still a good purchase given how much reference material it provides.

If you are a confident beginner, I think this a great introduction into the world of men's garment sewing. Although starting with a shirt may be a bit daunting, this book has a wide variety of patterns with various levels of difficulty. If you are a more experienced sewer, this book is an entire wardrobe of patterns in one neat little package.  No matter what your experience, however, I think this book is great for anyone interested in men's fashion.