Inverted pleat tunic

Hi All, Hope you are well. I made this inverted pleat tunic that I want to share with you.

Pattern : I traced a t shirt and extended it to make this tunic.
I like the red bright buttons on the back.

 The front of the tunic has a inverted pleat.

You can see on the paper how I made the pleat. This is how I did it to get it right in my head. I
first folded the pattern in half lengthwise and made the pleat to converge at the center.

I pasted the pleat together and then traced again for the front. I could have just calculated the extra fabric in center and added but I wasn't sure of the slight curve at neck.

The sleeves is doubled so no hem at sleeves and looks nice too. :)

Learning:
1. Interface the placket
2. Widen the placket. When worn the last button at bottom keeps coming off so I'm hoping if I widened the platcket and interfaced it, I could solve the problem? And the button holes aren't actually big. They are just right in case you were thinking. :)
Thanks for reading,
Have a nice weekend.
Preethi.

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Flat front back elastic Second try

*UPDATE* - I've created a pattern for this. Pls check  Phus Phus skirt free pattern

So this was my second try to flat front back elastic skirt. Sorry I'm posting in reverse and I haven't yet posted my first try. It was a disaster. You can see my third attempt of flat front back elastic skirt. I'm happy with the way my third one has turned out.

This looks great but when worn not so much.

For the back elastic I stitched it on one side of side seam with a safety pin attached to other end. After I sew the waistband to the skirt with a small opening I then pulled it to other end of side seam and stitched on top of skirt and elastic. I should better do a tutorial for this with pictures, although I'm now thinking of another easy way. :)

The front still looks good.

Have a look at the back. First its not neat and second the way it gathers around the back is not even. I have found a solution to this.
Learning: 
1. First stitch the top part of the waistband close to the edge before inserting elastic like I did with cirle skirt and flat front elastic back skirt. I topstiched the skirt after inserting elastic in former and before in latter. I'd do it before.
2. Follow step 3 to stitch in middle like circle skirt elastic fix

The elastic at the back keeps turning up. I don;t know why this happens. Can you help?

UPDATE - My new  phus phus skirt is sewn in such a way that it doesn't turn. :)
I did try to fix the back using the phus phus skirt stitching in the middle of elastic but couldn't. More on this post - Tried fixing turning of elastic at the back .



Thanks,
Preethi.

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Flat front back elastic skirt

*UPDATE* - I've now created a pattern for this. Pls check phus phus skirt free pattern

Made this flat front back elastic skirt after 2 failed attempts. Will post the failed attempts soon. I used a dupatta that my childminder gave me that she didn't use. Quite pleased actually.


























This was an improvement to my previous skirts. If you see the skirt below I have stitched at the top band of the skirt (just the fabric wrong sides together and not the elastic). This ensures that the elastic is in place inside and that is doesn't twist and also the fabric gathers over the elastic neatly. In fact I've seen skirts with a middle row of stitching running across the elastic but I wasn't confident to stitch on the elastic. Will definitely try another time

 

Pattern: I'd seen a few skirts in mothercare and wanted to replicate the same flat front with elastic back since they looked neat.

Learning:
1. Interface waistband: Always interface the front waist band. Interface will retain the shape of the waistband and will avoid the wrinkles and collapsed shape as below. (I took the photo after it was worn and so it is even more wrinkled.)

 2. Finish hem: Hem is the finishing at the bottom of the skirt. I didn't bother to hem the skirt and used the finished dupatta hem. It doesn't look neat obviously.

Thanks
Preethi

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Funny looking dungaree

I can call this funny looking because it really looks funny with eyes and a mouth.
Pattern: I traced around the green dress below of my daughter and increased the length.

Learning: The yellow ribbon is really funny. Its shiny and I didn't like it a bit. I'd prefer more matted style ribbons or just have the dress with the bright yellow buttons.

Thanks
Preethi

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Wanted a flowy dress

I tried to create a flowy dress but it is more flawy than flowy.

 I'd definitely shown you the process how I trace with existing clothes and how I cut them, but since there are far too many mistakes I don't think you want to know until I figure out the right way or my right ways of cutting and stitching.
This dress is used more like a nighty.







Pattern: Used this and added 2 more tubes of other sizes below.
Learning:
1. Used flat sleeve method with 1 inch seam allowance (use lesser): I always used to keep larger seam allowances just in case but for arms and necklines it just doesn't work. The lengths vary considerably from the hole to the seam line and so it just mean more ripping sewing ripping sewing. I now use 1 cm seam allowance - Yeah sometimes my brain works in inches and sometimes in cm. I need to be consistent.
Since I used larger seam allowance I still got puckers.

2. Not proportionate - measure or look up charts:  I wanted a dress until the knees but never been able to measure my daughter and so just held the dress while cutting and sewing and saw if it will be OK. Of course not. So even if I cant measure I'd definitely look up some standard charts for lengths.
3. Very deep U cut at the hem. Cut a slight U:  If you notice below I cut a very deep U and it looks quite funny.

4. Neckline binding not neat:  I took it easy because it is not going to be seen but when you hold the dress since the front neckline is deeper the neckline binding is visible. Pay closer attention to finishing seams that will be seen when the dress is held.
You can find that that most tops in retail have a different color binding at neckline on the back. It just enhances the look when seen hung or online although it wont be seen when worn.

Thanks,
Preethi

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Summer dress stitched in autumn posted in winter

This is another one I made with a slight variation from this. I added tucks on top bodice and pleats at hem just so I can learn them. 
Overall it turned out really good. I also added lace to it which looks nice.

Pattern : Variation of this.
Learning: 
1. The upper bodice was just a little too little. Need to make that bigger next time.

2. Pleats need to be longer to press well:  The pleats although very neat when pressed, it is a nightmare to press. I've pressed neatly a small length for photographs but you can see above that it is not pressed. How do you press such small pleats. Is there a technique. For now my learning is not to put such small length pleats.

3. Clipping : I still didn't know about any clipping, although now I do. I'll do a tutorial sometime.
UPDATE - Here is the tutorial on clipping, notching, curves, concave and convex

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Sleeves are complicated - Learn from my mistakes

Never thought sleeves were this complicated.
I always thought of it as a tube with a curve in front.
Oh god I literally struggled with this one.
My childminder gave me 3 fabrics that she didn't want and wanted me to trial with them, this is one of them.
It has some iron marks now on them. I haven't added any buttons as its only used at home and the neck is also quite high.

 Pattern: Traced a dress pattern of my daughter. This time on fold. See the different armhole sizes learning in my previous post here
I also like the way I've aligned the center front to have a long fabric embroidery running. Also importantly I gave very specific attention to both left and right upper body pieces. The embroidery there aligns well too.

Learning:
1. Always baste sleeves: I sewed the shoulders and side seams first and then sewing in the sleeves. Firstly it was a nightmare to get to sew such small sleeve with such a tiny arm hole. And I was always ending up in puckers. I unpicked twice and this was the third time with lot less puckers. I pressed it to try adjust but it was a big one. Couldn't do anymore so just finished it. At least now I'm able to show you.
I'm going to use the flat sleeve method which is easy. See the difference between the 2 methods here

2. Use smaller seam allowance: Smaller seam allowance in curved areas make it easy to handle and curve along as you sew.
3. Larger opening in front : You can see the front opening for buttons is really small and it is quite a struggle to get this through the little ones head. I need to soon learn longer button plackets or just full length buttons (which is easy) or learn the zipper.
Thanks,
Preethi.

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Circle Skirt

Circle Skirt - I'm in love with this. This was my second sewing project ever and I finished within 2.5 hrs. Cutting and sewing. I was really pleased. I've been thinking about it longer though.

I used this skirt tutorial as it was quite clearly instructed.
It is not exactly same because I didn't use the visible elastic way since I didn't have a coloured elastic;
the white elastic looked a bit undone to me.


I zigzag stitched the hem and turned wrong sides together and stitched. It was fairly easy.

Pattern : Here

Learning: 
1. Measure and cut accurately: It is really difficult to get this skirt in for my daughter. It is really tight around the bums to pull through. Once in it looks great. Such a fitted garment works first if there is zipper of button fastening along the length of skirt.(a small opening or full length)

I used the tutorial for sewing instructions and used my own judgement to cut.
It was a bit of maths to cut the pattern but measurements need to be right first.

UPDATE -  Learnt 4 ways to hem circle skirt
UPDATE - How to insert no twist elastic elastic in less than a minute
UPDATE - Efficient ways to cut circle skirt


Thanks
Preethi.

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First dress - tea towel

This is my first dress I made in in Sept after I got my machine. I had to learn to thread the machine. Didn't have a clue about bobbin - only heard the rhyme "wind the bobbin up". Had bought some thread online and was looking for fabric. Before I could find any fabric shop or buy it online the machine arrived. So I used 2 new tea towels I had, yes tea towels.
Sorry about the photos. The light is so poor these days, I took the photos in the morning before the kids woke up.

II was really pleased how it turned out. I made it for my 18m old daughter. I just put it on once and it was winter.

Inner construction:

Pattern used:
I had a old dress of 6-9 months that I tried to create.

Learning:
1. Never use tea towels: They fray a lot and very difficult to handle.
2. Uneven Straps: The straps looks awful. Neither they are cut properly not a consistent seam allowance is used.
3. Clipping around armholes: Problem: gathered fabric around armhole.

I had no clue about clipping curves and corners. I'll show you in future how I do now. For now I'm just showing my mistakes.
UPDATE -  Here is a tutorial on clipping, notching convex and concave curves

4. Use half of body front from center as a pattern: You can see from the image that one armhole is bigger than other. It is because I just put the whole tracing dress of my daughter on top of tea towel and traced around. Obviously didn't trace right. If you fold the tracing dress in half and then use it for both left and right you'll get even armholes and sides and all else on both left and right sides.

UPDATE - Here is how to cut on fold
Thanks for reading
-Preethi.

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