Updated Kilt -McCalls 2302 OOP

      

 I’ve had a black and white border print in my fabric stash for years.  It’s cotton with a little bit of lycra stretch.   I bought it somewhere online.

I originally thought to make a border print dress but the repeat is huge and, I soon realized, with the border at the bottom of a garment sized piece,  the design is sideways. 

It therefore stayed in the stash until the other day.   I was looking through The Complete Book of Sewing, Greystone Publishing, 1967, which I bought at a library sale. 

I saw this picture and thought  a skirt with a straight wrap edge, like a kilt, would use the side border of the fabric pretty well.  By the way, isn't that Susan Dey, of the Partridge Family and L.A. Law?

The only new wrap skirts patterns I could find didn’t have a straight edge.  The only actual kilts were for men.  So I searched ebay sewing patterns for “kilt,” and came up with this.  It was $2.00.

The border print of the fabric is wide enough to encompass a couple of pleats

so this pattern seemed good to try.   I decided to make view B and think about the final length later, once I saw how the fabric’s design looked on the skirt.   

A laundered swatch of the fabric turned out exactly as it started.  Here is a close-up of the border print with the laundered swatch that shows the width of the border. 

This looks easy enough.

 The pattern calls for a tab with Velcro closing, probably dating from when Velcro was a newer wonder.  I have doubts about this.  My skirt could not only pop open after a big lunch, but pop open with ripping sound effects.  I’ll make the tab but consider substituting a buttonhole or hook. 

Because the print is so bold and large, I had to think about the motifs.  Michael Kors, on Project Runway, has alerted us to the danger of placing unintentional bullseyes.  Also, there are certain portions of this pattern that look a bit like an internal anatomy chart from health class: 

Maybe I had a heightened awareness.   

While paging through The Complete Book of Sewing,  circa 1967, I also came across this unfortunate example of pattern placement.

 I don't know if this was a "do" or a "don't" but, inspired to caution, I tried on the skirt pattern front and used pins to mark places I didn't want unintentional bullseyes.

Initially, I wanted to place the edge of the wrap to include as much of the border as possible, 

 

...but that would leave the front of the skirt unbalanced...

...so I centered the front on the heart motif...

...which left the border like this.

After that, there was nothing left to do but tracing and sewing straight lines, lots of pressing and hoping for the best.

 

I tapered the A-line on the sides of the back.  Here is the work in progress skirt from the front.

And here is the pleated edge of the wrap...

Here is the flap area. 

 I haven't decided yet on skirt  length.... or velcro.  

To be continued...

Paisley's Back

Updated Caftan - New Look 6715

          I've always liked paisley and simply designed flowing dresses.  It's the old hippie in me.   I wore a caftan-style evening dress to my senior prom - which telegraphs my exact age, I suppose.  Despite the fact that nowadays I'm looking for professional business clothes, New Look 6715, a slightly fitted caftan designed to be made in soft fabrics, was a natural for me.  View A called my name.  It's been in  my pattern stash for a couple of years.

         This year  paisley is on trend and so are dresses and classic jackets, because of the "equestrienne" thing.  I like the look of simple silky dresses made of scarf-like materials, worn under tailored jackets. It looks  relaxed and luxe at the same time.    Among the paisleys in my stash,  I had  a multicolored paisley charmeuse remnant from Joannes, with a scarf-like look to it. So it was time to dig out the fabric and pattern and get going.  I realize I'm breaking the adage:   if you were old enough to wear a trend the first time it was in fashion, you are too old to wear it now.  Let's ignore that, okay?

Here is the fabric and pattern ready to go.

My original intention was to add trim to the front of the dress, like on the pattern drawing,  but the finished dress looked too polished to add any type of trim.  I added, instead, a self-fabric shawl collar/band with ties.  The tie allows the v, which is deep, to be more modest, for business purposes, and looks great under a jacket.

Here is the caftan unbelted, two views, neither of which  photographed in exactly the right color.  Looking at these, its clear the dress looks better without tights.

Here is the dress belted, and under a jacket.

From Pattern Review:  I wear a size 8 retail so made a size 12.

I never used this kind of fabric before. The fabric frayed badly, and did not hold a finger pressing even long enough for the fleet second it takes to grab the iron. The pattern intended for the sleeves, hem, and side vents to be machine hemmed but, after machine hemming the sleeves, I did not like the look so hand hemmed the rest. However, because of the wild fraying, I am reluctant to rip out the machine hemmed sleeves. They'll just stay that way.

The V neckline in the caftan is low, which is okay except the facing makes it stand away from the body when you lean forward, so rather than adding trim -which did not seem like it would actually look good on the finished dress - I decided to use the sash as a narrow band, extending a bit into the open V, which solves the modesty issue. The band is folded into a narrow shawl collar around the back neck edge, with the ties loose at the base of the V for tying.


Despite the design modifications and the fraying fabric, I loved this pattern and am already thinking about other fabrics to make it again.

 

Rescued 80's Challis via Butterick 4132

 I finally decided to use the pretty rayon challis I've rescued from one of those 1980's working-girl era full skirts. I wore it under a long sweater with shoulder pads back in the day.  The sweater's long gone and good riddance. Over the years,though,  every time I clean out the closet and winnow the wardrobe, I keep the skirt because the fabric is beautiful - very soft,  rich green with cherries, fun yet elegant - the kind of fabric you never see in retail clothing any more. 

I decided to use Butterick 4132.  The sewing folks at pattern review loved this pattern and the drapiness would make the most of the fabric's qualities.  It also appeared to use very little fabric to make view A.  But more about that later.  You can see that I recorded the pattern review folks' A+ score on the envelope along with a note that they said to beware of the  facings for the flutter-sleeved version.


I had plenty of fabric once I released it from the skirt, laundered & ironed it and straightened the edges - or so I thought.  Two big panels. I held the pattern pieces up against it in a casual kind of way and decided it would work fine.  However, I forgot to take into account the fact that the pattern is cut on the bias. The pattern is designed with the cowl attached to front and armhole facings.  The cowl doubles back onto itself and attaches to face the armholes - which makes for a big piece, wide from top to bottom.  On the bias, I didn't have enough width for the top of the pattern piece,  so I had to forgo the inside armhole facings and make narrow hems on the armholes instead.  It was easy, though, because the front and back are cut on the bias.  I'm glad I did, because the facing in the back seems a little overly bulky for the softness and lightness for the rest of the top.

The cowl is cut like a large scarf, tongue shaped, inside the blouse, which is nice for coverage when you lean forward. It drapes from fairly wide on the shoulders, which is very attractive and rich looking.

I looks exactly like the picture on the envelope, too, which is always a happy result.

Here it is loose and tucked in.  The tucked pic was taken in the mirror at my office with better color clarity but since I had to hold the camera, throws the drapery off a bit.  It doesn't photograph terribly well  but looks great. Very elegant and flattering.