Blouse with woven strips of fabric – part 6 / finished

Let me first post a reminder of the original top that I was so inspired by.

Followed by my version (looking a bit tired and no make-up after a run earlier). I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

 

As mentioned earlier I used a water soluble layer under the strips. This is just before I cut most of it away. A little anxious moment as I was unsure how the strips would behave without the stabilizer to hold them together. As you can see in the pictures of the blouse on me, they hold well. A word of caution if you use the water soluble fabric: don’t use steam with your iron. I forgot at some point and immediately the layer started to dissolve (I press a lot during sewing and it irritates me to see the (altered) back dart not pressed well).
How it will be after laundry is another matter.Ironing will probably be a difficult task.

Thank you all for the for the nice comments. Carmen, it really is a pity sometimes we all don’t live closer to each other, it would be so nice to be able to (get) help with fitting. Thank you for the link on the shoulder slope and I will definitely study it more closely later.

Laura Arhire asked “your shoulder seems to be a bit forward, but the shoulder seam doesn't point to your shoulder cap. Does that affect fit at all”. Yes, my shoulder is a bit forward, though it’s mostly my arm that tilts forward (or is that the same?) It does affect fit and perhaps I should even set in my sleeves a bit more forward. For the moment I’m satisfied with the sleeve in this blouse, but I do see room for improvement.

Blouse with woven strips of fabric – part 5

Just want to share my progress, I’m so happy with the result of the front. Apart from the strips the placket was a challenge. I did not want the hidden placket till the neckline and figured out how to make a partial one. Might be worth a tutorial at some point. 

Enough time spent in the sewing room this morning, I’m really longing to finish it but with a gathering of friends later today at our house I now have to close the door to it and prepare some food, take a shower and change. The saga of this blouse will be continued soon.

Blouse with woven strips of fabric – part 4

It’s getting serious. I’m working in the fashion fabric. I pinned out a little in the back, resulting in both a better fit in the back and the sleeve fitted better at the same time. I will post a picture of that last muslin phase when I have one ;).

This morning I made the final pattern based on the original pieces and the muslin. Like Holly said in her comment on my last post: it’s not a project to whip up in an afternoon. The strips for the front took me about 2 hours and I took a huge shortcut. Though it’s only a shortcut from what I originally planned, there are no instructions.

I planned to make strips in the conventional way: sew on the wrong side and turn the strip. When thinking about that I already saw a problem in pressing the seam open as I did not want the sewn side on the edge.
After cutting the strips I encountered another “problem”. I wanted all sides of the strips to have the black on the edge (ocd, I know). Difficult to get right. Change of plans then: all the strips were ironed in the way I planned and initially I thought to close them with hand sewing. WHAT??? Hand sewing all these strips? I’m not a great fan of hand sewing and avoid it if I can.

Conclusion: I did not sew them but fused them together, the sewing police may come and fine me. Serged one end and used narrow strips of vliesofix to close the seam. I used vliesofix because I had that available, it works the same as wonder tape but that is not readily available here and can only be ordered online. Vliesofix is sold by lengths and it’s easy to cut narrow strips with a rotary cutter. I’ve used it before to cover padding with the right color lycra.

Blouse with woven strips of fabric – part 3

Good progress in my opinion. I’ve closed the center back pleat and have sewn the darts as well. Still a little bit too much space as the result of making the body sloper wider. This style of back suits me better than the wide one of the inspiration piece. The main attractive feature is the front(as Vicki commented too’). I’ll make a back that I like better.
For the sleeves I reverted back to Suzy Furrer’s class. The result is so much better now. A little pleat in the back and I will see what happens there when I pin a bit of space out of the back. For those doing Suzy’s classes: it makes a difference how you draft your curves around the square size, the N-T and N-M lines. I had to flatten the upper curve but of course that depends on the pattern you’re making and your figure. Just something to consider when you’’re working on it.
A few tweaks and then I hope to be ready to finalize the pattern.  It’s a fun project.

Thank you for the comments letting me know that you like these posts. I know there is little time in a day and don’t comment myself as much as I used to do. Reading blogs on my phone is a great way to keep up to date, but it’s the worst platform to comment (I don’t like typing on my phone, it’s so slow (being used to typing without having to look at the keyboard) and errors are easily made. So I really appreciate if you take time to comment and even (like Renee on my last post) to give tips and advice on drafting. Thank you Renee! She mentioned that the original has a dropped shoulder and I’m aware of that, but choose not to make the shoulder dropped.

Blouse with woven strips of fabric – part 2

Sorry to show you again such boring fabric. Sometimes I think I’m only publishing posts with muslins ;). They serve a purpose though and I like to document what I do in my blog too. Muslins can be the first part of a real garment but also be part of my progress in drafting patterns and (of course) a muslin can help decide it’s no use to continue on a project because the style does not work for me.

Not so for this blouse, I like this so far.

My interpretation of the front waist pleats is sewing the dart partially. I’m not sure yet how to proceed with the back. The original has a waist seam in the back that continues to halfway the front. My guess is that the wide back is gathered to the waist. I’m not so sure I would like it that way on me and consider leaving out the pleat center back and use partially stitched darts as in the front. Any thoughts on this?

Analyzing the fit and design I need more curve the front placket . I like the opening at the neckline of the original and drafted it almost wide enough, but forgetting the width of the placket extensions. The neckline is fine and does not need any changes. The shoulder needs to be half a centimeter wider. It’s a lesson in checking and re-checking, as somehow I’ve lost that half a centimeter compared to my sloper.

  

The right sleeve was the first I made and it does not have ease. Too tight and feels uncomfortable.

I widened it and it now has a bit of ease. Feels comfortable but the fit is not as I want it to be. Í will try to set it in differently and see whether that helps.

 

The main body was drafted based on the sloper made in Suzy Furrer’s Craftsy class. The sleeves are a combination of the Danckaerts method of drafting and then adapting for shirt sleeve as described in the book by Helen Joseph Armstrong. In her book she makes a distinction between patterns for dresses and for blouses/shirts. Can you have too much information? Perhaps it would be better to stick to one method. Alas, it does not work for me that way. I have taken real life classes, I’m watching Suzy Furrer’s classes and also reading the books. Hopefully not too much information to digest. 

Perhaps I will try Suzy Furrer’s draft for sleeves after all for this blouse. My main concern is the lack of height of the sleeve cap in her way of drafting. The shirt style has a lower cap and is wider. Why do I realize something like that after doing it in a more complicated way? And that is a rhetorical question.

Blouse with woven strips of fabric – part 1

When inspired like this I want to continue and despite the heat I started working on the muslin. The main focus point of this design are of course the woven strips at the top, I think it’s difficult to do this right without using a layer to fix them during construction. For the final product I plan to use water soluble fabric (Avalon) for this. In the muslin I opted for a thin fabric that does not add bulk and which I will cut away later. It’s thin and fluid so I starched it. I traced the pattern piece on this “temporary”  pattern piece with carbon tracing paper on both sides. In that way I can see the actual seam lines adding the strips of fabric and in construction.

For the weaving I used fabric strips of different width as in the inspiration piece.

 

When woven and pinned I turned the pattern piece on the carbon tracing paper again and marked it.

Then I cut away the extra length of the strips.

There is a little room between the strips but not a lot. On to the next part and sewing the muslin together. To be continued…..

Bra copy finished

First of all I must add the information Monika from LaMona gave in the comment on my previous post. She said she always takes the underwire from a bra before copying. That way the cup parts can be traced flat easily. I just had not thought about doing that and initially did not want to do anything to my new rtw bra, not even taking out the tack securing the wire. But in the end I did and there was a small difference to the cup I traced with and without wire. Not a lot but in bra making it is about small changes making a difference. So my advise would be: if you can, remove the wire and then trace.

 

For the bra I used a remant of the lace that Pauline gave me as a gift about two years ago. I made a bra from it then and there was just enough left for this one. It’s not symmetrical. I placed the red flowers at the same spot to create a synmetrical image

The back on the dressform looks about the same as it does on me. In the pattern piece the center back is almost vertical, while wearing it the shape forms automatically. I used a 2 eye/hook closure, not having any 1 eye/hook closures like the original in my stash.

Also I would have like bows that are a bit larger, but to go to Kantje Boord for bows only….

 

A few details of the finished item.

And a few finishing details. The under and side cups are interfaced with a non stretch tule. At the seam with the lace upper cup I did not fold the seam this time, but used a narrow elastic and stitched that first to the seam on the edge of the stitchline, then trimmed the seam and topstitched from the right side. I think this is a very neat finish. There was no need for elastic but it was the only material at hand and I used it without stretching.

Outside

Inside

The band was made of a firm elastic material that is sold here as powernet, just like the original, which does not have lycra in the band as well. The part beside the cup is interfaced with the same non-stretching tule that is the interfacing for the cups. Basically the only stretch is from  the part of the band that has only one layer of fabric.

 

      

Did everything go smoothly? Of course not, there is no project without using a seam ripper ;) But at the end I had to make another change.

When the bra was almost finished I tried it on and noticed a difference. The bridge was too wide. Wearable but just not completely right. Then I talked to my friend Valerie, who sews lingerie too and she wondered whether it might be the hole in it. I had already sean that the hole was a bit bigger than the original but now found out it made it stretch more. Below you cna see the difference in my version and the original. I solved the problem by sewing the center of the bridge together by hand. It makes such a difference!

   

There will be more bra’s from this pattern in the future.

Copying a rtw bra

This summer I bought my first rtw bra in many years, I blogged about a copy of that one here. As a “treat” to myself I bought another rtw bra from another brand. It has quite a different shape in the cups and also the wires are longer. I’ve tested it during a long walk and it was very, very comfortable. Certainly worth to make a pattern from it. I thought it might be worthwhile to share how I did this without taking the bra apart.
I used a flat foam board in which pins can be placed. On top of the foam I placed a sheet of paper.
On that I pinned the bra part I wanted to copy, making sure the elastic was stretched, but the lycra fabric was not stretched more than the original part. That is something to really be careful about.

Surprise for me in this bra was the narrow hook and eye closing and the almost vertical line center back. I would never have tried a one hook/eye closure by myself, but it does work (for me).

Then I marked the edges of the part by placing pinmarks along the part (remember the little child in you that did this as a 4-5 year old?)


After taking away the bra connect the dots and that part is copied.
 
A little trick was necessary (at least in my case) to copy the under cup. This would not lay flat in one piece. I basted a more or less straight line and copied it in two parts. When traced the straight line was not as straight as I thought, but the pieces nicely fit together after copying.

(Added: LaMona suggested in the comments taking out the wire. The cup parts can be laid flat without wire. That is a very good suggestion and if you can take it out, I advise you to do so)


Unfortunately not all pictures of this were clear enough to post, but I hope the method might be helpful.
I’m working on a lot of things at the same time, because of the drafting that I’m doing in a class as well. This bra will probably the first in line to finish, followed by the coat.