Peacock Silk Top for Grand Reception

***Edited in Purple---patternmaking, side-back princess seam.

I had signed up to attend the Grand Reception, held on the night before the quilt show opened.  This is a semi-formal affair, so I needed something 'special' to wear.  I decided to try to copy a Watters H2O top that I had tried on during my MOG dress-shopping marathon.  And I had just the right fabric for this...a peacock-colored silk that I had picked up at the Fabric Collection in Jackson, TN, on one of the MOG dress shopping trips!

Here, you can see me in the final top...along with Etta McFarland (my travel buddy!) and Jim West, the Managing Director of the IQFOI and founder and CEO of Travel Alliance, Inc., which operates the Sew Many Places travel company who organized the tour for us.  We were walking along talking with Jim when we stopped to take a photo...but look at how well we 'match' the quilts in the background!  And who doesn't love a man in a kilt? :)

To make my top, I began with the basic blouse pattern with side and waist bust darts as well as back shoulder dart.  I used the program settings to widen the neck opening, but had to manually create the neck shape I wanted.

Notice the shape of the sleeve pattern:  I have found that I get the best sleeve cap shape when I keep the wrist circumference very small...too small!  Widening the wrist narrows the cap (a program flaw that I have been complaining about for years now!) so it is best for me to draft with a small wrist then redraw the sleeve below underarm level manually.

I used ZERO bust ease* and 4.5" hip ease. 
I wanted the waist darts to measure 1.5" wide, so I adjusted the ease level until that width was drafted.  The waist ease setting ended up being 3.5".

*Knowing what I know NOW, if I was doing this over again, I would use a bit more bust ease.


I rotated the side bust dart to the shoulder. (Why not just start with the dart there, you may ask.  PMB cannot keep the armholes constant when the dart is rotated, so I start with this same side bust dart and make my changes manually.)

I also drew in the 'princess' line, which I wanted BESIDE (not 'ON') the bust point.
I also located the 'V' portion of the neckline.

I copied/mirrored the front pattern to create a WHOLE front, drew the new curved neckline, then eliminated the portion beyond the princess line on one side....this is a wrap front style.

Next, I drew a circle on the bust point, radius = 1.5". 
I used the LOCATE POINTS tool to divide the edge of the wrap (between waist and neck) into four sections...locate three points.
I drew lines from each of these points to either side of the bust circle, as well as to a point located on the sideseam that was 3.125" below the underarm.  These lines were to become the pleats.  

I used the SCISSORS TOOL to CUT the CF line into segments...this is important.

I measured that shoulder bust dart, then rotated HALF to the first pleat and HALF to the second pleat. 

When the pleats are opened, those CF line segments change their orientation.  That TOP segment will eventually become the grainline for this pattern.

At this point, I copied the pattern and extended the top CF grainline, then rotated the pattern so that the grainline was vertical.  Now I had the pattern for the LEFT side...and instead of pleats, those would be sewn as darts (so as to reduce bulk).

I continued working on the RIGHT side.  I drew in another line BELOW the waist...now I had three lines (including the waist) that still needed to be converted to pleats.  I did NOT rotate any of the bust dart to these lines...it was ALL put in those top two pleats.  These were simply rotated open to add fullness so they were equal in width to the other pleats...this was done AFTER I had separated the SIDE FRONT from the CENTER FRONT section.

Again, the top CF line segment was extended and the pattern was rotated to make it vertical.

Now I had a pattern for the left front, one for the right front and one for the side front.

Time to work on the BACK. 
As mentioned before, my back neck opening drafts NARROWER than my front neck opening...which is bad.  I am told it doesn't happen to everyone...depends on the measurements.  Anyway, I shift the back neckline (PINK) laterally by .25" and redraw the back shoulder dart (RUST)  smaller to control the length of the back shoulder seam.

To get rid of the back shoulder dart:
I rotated the back shoulder dart to the armhole...at the 1/2-BAH height level.  Then I drew in the princess lines to incorporate the waist dart, curving to create a nice shape.  One side of the princess line (BLACK)  touches the upper leg of the now-armhole dart and one side of the princess line (RED)touches the lower leg of the now-armhole dart.  This incorporates the shoulder dart uptake into the princess seam and eliminates the need to sew a separate shoulder dart.

***see edit, below.
HOWEVER, now the two princess seams, BLACK and RED, are not the same length.  So I measured and found that the red line (side-back princess seam) needed to be lengthened by 0.5" to equalize these seams.  I drew in the BLUE segment (on right image), which is 0.5" long, then ROTATED the lower armhole (GREEN) by 0.5" CLOCKWISE, pivot point = underarm point (PINK CIRCLE). 

***Edited to correct-
On 07-28-13, I was putting away these patterns and I saw a hand-written note on this side back pattern piece with a reminder of something I had forgotten.  After sewing, the back princess seam seemed 'poufy', so I ripped and REMOVED that extra .5" that was added to the back armhole to equalize the princess seams.  So, apparently, it might be better to just leave those seams unequal in length...at least for me!

Now all that was left to do was separate the patterns, add seam allowances, and clean them up.  I added generously at the tip-top of the side back (and side front) princess seams, then trimmed away any excess when I cut out the paper pattern pieces and fit them together.  This one only needed a tiny bit of trimming.

Using this pattern, I cut out the silk dupioni as well as the silk organza (the underlining).  BTW, that organza was white when I bought it, but I prewashed my fabrics together...now it matches.  :)

I started out hand-basting these pieces together, then tried machine basting, but evently resorted to glue-basting the underlining to the fashion fabric.  Those front pieces had LOTS of darts/pleats to baste around!

For my loops, I found a great tutorial on making narrow spaghetti straps on this site. She uses a bobby pin to turn the narrow tube...genius!  Check it out...

Oh!  My buttons!  Would you believe I found this set of buttons to cover in my grandmother's stash?  Again, her stuff comes to my rescue, just as it did with the button for the MOG dress.  This set had just the right amount of buttons, in just the right size...hard to find at the local store these days!

 
My loops, as seen from the inside:

Here are the loops and the buttons, as well as a snap I sewed on near the lower edge to help keep the hem closed.  Since I lined this top with black Ambience, I didn't have any peacock-colored china silk to cover the snap with...so I used it as-is.

To hold the underlayer, I sewed a button onto the lining at the princess seam, catching only the lining.  I wasn't sure if I should try to catch the outer layer (seam allowances) too, or not, so I just caught the lining.  I made a thread loop to go over the button.

Here you can see the buttoned inside...

At one point during construction, I was very frustrated.  I had the neckline all stitched, trimmed, clipped and understitched...but those 'points' were kind of wanting to stick out away from my body.  I had forgotten to trim a bit off the facing pattern and I was afraid this was the cause.  I ripped one side...understitching, mind you!!!...and scooted the seams as if the facing had been trimmed...then pinned to see if that might fix the problem.  I couldn't really tell...

About that time my doorbell rang.  It was my next door neighbor, who hasn't been over to my house in years!  She had come to say hello and see my sewing room.  I took her up and showed her around, then told her about the problem I was having with this neckline.  She then told me about a particular collar that gave her fits (long ago), so she went to the storage room and grabbed some WIRE and sewed it into the collar seam...now she could shape that collar any way she desired!  Well, a lightbulb went on over my head!  YES!  She also said that if the hem of a jacket wanted to flip out on her, she would sew a quarter into the front hem/corner!  Genius!

As soon as she left, I put the ripped-out neckline back as it had been before I ripped it.  I hand-sewed some thin copper wire along the neck corner seamline...bending the ends to prevent pokies.  Worked perfectly!  I could probably have used the heavier gauge wire (in my jewelry-making stash), but I didn't want to be able to feel it (with my hand).  Then, when I got to the hem, I took no chances...a quarter seemed excessive but a dime was just right! :)

Here is the jacket on my paper-tape double...see how my left shoulder blade really sticks out? That makes it difficult to get my back shoulder width just right.   This jacket is 'almost' perfect...for a no-ease garment it is great.  But next time, I would prefer a bit more ease at bust and above, across the back.

Here are a few pictures of the top ON ME!  I felt like it looked good and made a good impression.  Though close-fitting, it was not so tight that I couldn't move, even with the camisole underneath.

At the Grand Reception...not everyone chose to dress semi-formally.  And there were no dress-police there to enforce the code!  But I was glad I looked appropriately attired, even if my hair DID look awful this whole trip!  sigh.

The fellow in the plaid shirt is the official photographer...he certainly didn't dress for the occasion!

Perhaps you can see a little tightness across the back? 
I think I would also lower the armhole just a tiny bit for the next one (in addition to adding a bit more bust/shoulder ease).

Ya know, on the MOG dress, I had made the shoulders TOO wide!  So, when I drafted the pattern for this top, I reduced the front and back shoulder widths...but apparently, I over-did it! 
Story of my life.
Next time...

Cheers!

Widening the Back Neck

As mentioned previously, I manually widened the back neck opening on my PMB pattern by 'sliding' the neckline laterally.  I did not rotate the shoulder dart to the neck.

Basically, using the PATTERN EDITOR portion of PMB5, I drew a circle with a 0.25" radius at the CB/neck point. 

• When drawing this circle, I clicked on the CB/NECK point, then moved the mouse laterally, typed in 0.25 and hit ENTER. 
• This created the circle but more importantly, it also put the X-construction point of the circle on the right side of the circle...at the 3 o'clock location...precisely 0.25" away from the CB line.

Next, I SELECTED the entire back neck (but NOT the new circle) as well as the medial shoulder segment and the medial dart leg.

I clicked on the CB/neck point, then clicked on the X-construction point of the circle.  This moved the selected items laterally by 0.25".



At this point, there is a 0.25" gap in the neckline at CB.
I drew a new line to fill that gap.

Also, the dart legs now cross...so I found the midpoint between the ends of the legs (Draw LINE between the tips, then, select line, Locate Midpoint) and drew new dart legs to connect the shoulder to the new dart tip (which is the MIDPOINT between the crossed legs).

Here you can see the difference between the original and the new patterns:
You can see that the shoulder dart is smaller (red) and the neck is wider (red) than the original patttern (green).

Because I didn't ROTATE part of the shoulder dart to the neck, the NK/Shoulder Point did not go any higher than it was...it just moved laterally...just as it would have been drafted if the neck measurement was wider.

Wedding Dress Post-Mortem

Well, the wedding is over!  Now it is time to look at the game films and determine what can be improved for next time!    :-)

 

First, let me say, this dress performed brilliantly!  It made a great impression, was comfortable to wear, and allowed freedom of motion.  Plus, it looked cool when I twirled!

But the fit wasn't perfect.  I knew as soon as I put the sleeves in that I had made the shoulders too wide.  Rats!

I didn't put sleeves into the trial muslin...and in the back of my mind, I could hear that little voice telling me to do so.  But I was in a rush (as always) to get this done.  So I confidently skipped that step.  After all, these are tiny little cap sleeves.  I knew that *if* they weren't 'right' they would still be 'good enough'...as in, they wouldn't restrict arm movement because they were so short...so I proceeded with abandon! 

Well, not quite 'abandon'...I did have to rip out the first sleeve I set in, as I mentioned in my last post.

As soon as I got these sleeves in and tried the dress on, I could feel them.  Not painful...just an awareness.  I could feel the tightness of the sleeve's hem...it needed to be a wider sleeve.  The armhole was VERY close to my body!

If you look at the BACK armhole and sleeve, you can kinda see a fold of excess fabric at the ah seam.

And if you look at the FRONT armhole, you can imagine that that ah seam is right up next to my arm in front...no room for moving the arm forward.

Don't get me wrong...I COULD move my arm forward (and did...I danced all night!)...but I could feel the armhole at first.  After a while, I noticed nothing...it was comfortable.  But it wasn't 'right'.

I know from these pictures it would appear that I carried a glass of wine the entire time, but, truely, that was NOT the case!

I put it down every now and then...

While it looks like I am scolding someone, in reality I was not.  I was challenging my SIL to dance!  ...silly...

But see how the back of the sleeve has that fold?  If that armhole seam was just a little farther up on the body, the sleeve would have been wider (so, the hem wider = less constricting) and the fold would disappear (I think).

I used a Back Shoulder Width of 17"...my body actually measures 16.75" between the arm creases WHEN MY HANDS ARE CLASPED IN FRONT...see Helping Measurements if you don't remember.

But if I measure across the TOP of the shoulders, it is not that wide.  I have always struggled with getting the shoulder widths (and thus, the armholes) 'just right'.

I DID use the ARMHOLE SHAPE TOOL to lower the placement of the notch on the back armhole so that the segment ABOVE the notch matched my body's armhole measurement...that is, from my Shoulder Point to the top of the crease where arm meets body.  My body measures 5"...so I lower the ah notch until that upper segment also measures 5". This way, the armhole begins to curve where it should for MY body. That was explained in the last post.

As I said, I DID not lower the FRONT ah notch to force the upper segment of the front ah to match my body's measurements...I felt like that made the armhole much too scooped.  I am now rethinking that choice. 

Next time, I WILL lower the front armhole notch until the upper segment is 4.25"...just like my body.  I think this matters!

As you can see here, there are lots of wrinkles intoduced when the arms are extended. The bodice is forced to move up off the arms and onto the body...so the arm can move.

Of course, no one but ME noticed these things...everyone kept telling me how good it looked and how perfectly it fit.  I just kept my mouth shut and DID NOT point out every little flaw!
(Can you believe that, Marilyn?)    :-)

Guess what?  Those dreaded diagonal wrinkles that I ALWAYS have in back are there again!  Sigh!  I must reduce that Back Shoulder Slope measurement AGAIN!!! 

For next time, in addition to making the shoulders (front and back) more narrow, I will reduce the BSS by .25" *AND* I will also lower the armhole by an additional 0.25".  Hopefully, that will pull those wrinkles up and out.

I know this is a dark picture...I take what I am given! 
I am just thankful to HAVE some images where I CAN do this post-mortem!

I am dancing in this image, so my body is twisted...but you CAN see the wrinkles a little.  You can also see how the armhole seam is right there ON the back arm crease...although the reason I wanted sleeves in my dress in the first place is to HIDE that back arm crease, which I find is one of my less-attractive body parts!

Ok, now that we have established that the shoulders, front and back, are too wide (and the back shoulder slope too long), there is one more thing to notice:  the neck width.  You might need to scroll back up to that first image to see this.

I used a NECK WIDTH setting of 0.5"...which means this neckline should be .5" away from my neck.  Since I am wearing a necklace, you can see that the dress neckline is WAY farther away from my necklace chain than 0.5"! 

That is a BIG DEAL.

And it explains alot.

The length of the shoulder seam on this dress is 'right' for me. 
The problem is, this shoulder starts too far from center!

PMB version 5 removed the Shoulder Length measurement, which, in earlier versions, could be used (in combination with the Front Shoulder Width measurement) to determine the width of the neck opening on the front pattern. 

In earlier versions, the front neck opening could be a different width than the back neck opening (which was determined by the NECK CIRCUMFERENCE measurement). 

But in V5, front and back neck openings draft equally...and the NECK CIRCUMFERENCE measurement controls this width.

I pulled out an old pattern...actually, it was the pattern for the wrap-top I wore to the rehearsal dinner!

I'll show you: 



This top was made back in 2008...using Version 3.  The neck width used on this one was also 0.5"...but as you can see, it is much closer to MY neck!

Ok, yes, there is wine in this picture also...but REALLY, I don't have a problem!   :-)

But back to the clothing...

This top isn't perfect...the bust darts are too low for one thing!...but like most of the things I make, it is wearable and looks pretty good.  So, when I compared the pattern for this top with the one used to make the wedding dress, I kept that in mind.

Ok, here is the basic torso pattern I used to create the MOG dress...highlighted in RED.   The yellow/greenish pattern is the one used to create the Teal Satin Wrap top (in 2008).

If you look at the NECK WIDTHS, you will see they are pretty much the same.

But look at the difference in SHOULDER WIDTHS on these two patterns! 


....and the TEAL one fits just fine across the back...

Just look!

While I am not 'posing' for the picture, you can see that I have plenty of mobility...there is no stress across the back. 

This Teal Top was drafted with a Back Shoulder Width of 15.5"...not the 17" that I used on the MOG.

There was no back shoulder dart to sew...a tiny bit of ease only.

BUT...at that time, so that I would NOT have a big dart, I manually rotated this pattern's back armhole outward (pivot point = SHOULDER POINT)...to give more ease at the level of the lower armhole area. 

OK, so now...look at the comparison of the FRONT patterns. 

The RED is the block I used to create the MOG dress.

The BLUE is the 2008 Teal Wrap top pattern.

Compare the front neck widths.

With center fronts aligned, the MOG pattern has a wider neck opening than the Teal Wrap pattern....measure straight across from neck point to CF (if it were extended upward).

Now, this front neckline on the Teal top drafted narrower than the back neckline on the Teal top...because I could draft that way using V3.


I used a NECK CIRCUMFERENCE measurement of 14" for the Teal Top...in V3.

For the MOG dress, I used a NECK CIRCUMFERENCE measurement of 13.5"...in V5.

Even with the smaller NECK measurement, the FRONT neck in V5 drafts wider than the neck of the V3 one!

But remember, in my last post, I said I had to WIDEN the back neck so that it would be wider than the front neck?  I can now see that the back neck was the one that was the right width!  It was the FRONT NECK that was too wide...the back wasn't too narrow!

But since I was using that very wide BACK SHOULDER WIDTH measurement (17") and getting a large back shoulder dart, I saw widening the back neck as an opportunity to reduce that dart...it didn't even occur to me that the front neck width was actually the problem!

So, FOR NEXT TIME...I will reduce the NECK MEASUREMENT from 13.5 to 12".
This will draft a neck that matches the FRONT of my old patterns.

I will use a FRONT SHOULDER WIDTH of 15 (instead of the 15.5" used this time).
I will use a BACK SHOULDER WIDTH of 16 (instead of the 17" used this time).
This is a 0.5" reduction in FRONT shoulder width, but a 1" reduction in BACK shoulder width.  This will result in a smaller back shoulder dart.

At right, you can see the original MOG pattern in RED.  The Blue/green patterns are the 'NEXT TIME' choices.

The front neck opening is narrower...but the length of the shoulder seam is the same as before...as if the shoulder was just 'shifted' medially. 

The front armhole is moved inward .25" and allowed to scoop lower (this is the questionable part!).  But the upper ah segment matches my body's 4.25" measurement!

I lowered the overall armhole DEPTH another 0.25"...for an ah depth setting of 0.5".

ON THE BACK, you see that the new back neck (green) is narrower than before.  But, remember? I said it was the back neck width that was actually correct before I widened it!  So, again, I will manually widen it to eliminate some of the back shoulder dart width...I will restore the back neck to the width it was before...on the original MOG! 

So, basically, I am using a smaller-than-real neck circumference measurement to draft the desired width of the FRONT NECK, then I will widen the back neck using some of the shoulder dart.

The back shoulders will be narrower across the top of the pattern.
The lower armhole will move inward 0.25", as well as downward 0.25".
The back shoulder is more sloped on this new one...as if the back armhole was 'shifted' downward on the pattern by 0.25".  I am hoping this is enough to eliminate those diagonal pulls!

Ok, so here is how the NEW (next time) pattern...in RED...compares with the pattern for the TEAL top.  With center fronts aligned, the new neck width is almost the same as on the old one...close enough.

The Front armhole is very different...we'll see how this works out.  Might be wonderful!

Note--The waist is higher on ALL these newer patterns (including the original MOG) than it was on the TEAL top.

On the BACK, the NEW (next time) RED pattern has a narrower neck width...but this is ok, because there is still a back shoulder dart to steal from!  I will manually widen this neck.

The new pattern has a slightly more sloped back shoulder than the TEAL one...this is desireable.

Since the TEAL one's back armhole was manually rotated outward, this new back armhole compares favorably, with no rotation needed.


And on both front and back, you may notice the difference in width at sideseams...
...the TEAL top used a 41.5" bust measurement with 3" of ease. 
...the MOG (and this new version) used a 42" bust with ZERO ease!


Gosh, I was gonna show how I widen the neck, but perhaps that needs to be a separate post! 
Thanks for reading!

Jacket Challenge

I may (or may not) have mentioned that I need to make a jacket. My local sewing guild issued a challenge to all members to make a jacket for the September meeting in honor of national sewing month. It is the end of August and I am still in the muslin stage!
I am making progress toward getting a good pattern, but it is slow!




This is the pattern I tried recently...call it Jacket 2.
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In the beginning, I wanted the princess seams to be over toward the side of the bust, rather than crossing ON the bust points, so instead of using a PMB Princess draft, I started with the SIDE DARTED BLOCK and created my own princess lines.

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But these seams were too far off the bust to be so 'curvy'.
I wasn't fond of the look.




I didn’t' like that the jacket had 'points of its own' ...but they were NOT 'way up firm and high'! :)





It had boobs to the side of my boobs!
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Also, I was NOT fond of how wide my bum looks with the
back princess darts set this wide!
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I started again, this time using the PMB princess pattern, as it drafts, for the Front.

This moved the front princess seam toward the center a little bit. MY old pattern is blue; the newpattern is green.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

In back, I still created my own princess seam from the basic darted block, but this time I used the medial waist dart postion (instead of the lateral one, as before). That REALLY moved the back princess seam, much more than the front one moved.
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This is how I created the back pattern:

I used a single waist dart.

I rotated HALF of the shoulder dart to the armhole.

I located the MIDPOINT of each upper dart leg.

Then I drew arcs from the armhole to these new mid-points on the dart legs...the arcs intersected the armhole on each side of the 'opening' created when the shoulder dart was rotated to the ah, so the shoulder dart was basically transfered to that princess seam.

I wasn't sure the single waist dart was the right choice...might be too large...but decided to try.
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THE REASON I created my own princess seam in back, rather than use the PMB ah princess, is because of the back shoulder dart. When PMB does the ah princess, they remove the dart, making the upper back width much narrower. Here is my pattern (red) and the PMB one superimposed:
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You can see how much narrower the PMB one is through the shoulders and upper back...MY (red) pattern's armhole is farther out than the PMB one, in green and blue.
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So this is jacket 3...better, but still too poufy at bust level for the seams to be OFF to the side.
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Bad wrinkles and fullness at bust, off to the side!
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The back looks better, though, with the seams closer to center.
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So I replaced the side front pieces,

using Dart Override (-.375),

to get a smaller dart which produces a smoother seam.


Better!
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But there was still 'something' bothering me.

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The Dart Override smooths the seam, but it DOES make the front armhole larger...and I wasn't sure I'd like that or not.*
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I began to wonder if the fit would be helped by more back length. Increasing the CBL (center back length) would change the draft, making the bust dart much smaller (and thus, smoothing the front seam without using D.O.).
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I decided what the heck, I will try it! So after changing the numbers in the program and comparing the patterns to see what pieces would be impacted, I SLASHED my muslin across the upper back and inserted a piece to increase the back length by 0.5".
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Whoa Nellie! This is SOOOOoooo much better!
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This waist position is much lower than recommended by the users guide and my CBL is now 2" longer than my CFL, as opposed to the 1.5" longer that is 'normal'. But it immediately felt 'right'. The upper back feels wider, although no width was added. I think my shoulder blades just needed this!


* Using a CBL that is 2" longer than the CFL makes the bust dart much smaller, so I don't think I'll need to use the D.O. after all...good. That is where I am now...ready to try again.

* I also added some width to the shoulders...even though using 5" bust ease DOES widen the shoulders, I decided that I might like to have them a tiny bit wider still.

* I also decided I had moved the BUST POINT too far toward the side, so tweaked that setting just a little...and will try it in the next muslin.

And FYI, I am actually using septic paper instead of muslin for these test jackets. It sews fast; I can see through it, and it is available in my closet!

But my sewing machine is messed up. :(

I used this machine (Pfaff 7550) to do the quilting on my pictorial trash-bag quilt. I lowered the feed dogs and put on the appropriate foot...etc. This machine has a built-in walking foot and I raised that to disengage it for the quilting. No big deal. When I was finished, I put back on the regular foot and raised the feed dogs and lowered the walking foot. But now, for some reason, the feed dogs and the walking foot are out of time...the feed dog pushes backward as the walking foot moves forward, resulting in no feeding of the fabric! I can sew if I raise/disengage the walking foot, but I will need to have that looked at! Darn it! This has happened before...and that time was also when I had done free-motion work. I might have to consider NOT using this machine for free-motion