Tweed Coating, Penny Pinafore part II

This is a continuation of my last post, because I just had too much to say and I felt like I was drowning you in my words, lol.  Anyways, have you had a refresh? Maybe a cup of coffee or tea?  I hope so, because I have a lot more to say about this one, lol. 

So once I had the vision, it was time to cut out my fabric.  Probably making a muslin would have helped, but I just couldn’t be bothered.  Strikes dramatic pose.  Of course some things I think would have been a little better if I had taken the time, but I still think the final garment came out really well, and we all know that I’m going to be making another… or at least planning to make another so I can make enact changes in the future.

Anyways, I digress. As far as the changes go, I started with the straps.  I ended up using the same pattern piece provided in the pattern and indeed cutting out four or them (though two I lengthened slightly), but instead of sewing two and two together, I interfaced them and folded them in half, sewed them, turned them out and top stitched them.  That gave me four straps instead of two.  I cut two of them two inches longer than the pattern piece to give me a little extra wiggle room in terms of placement, but ended up cutting all that extra off anyways.

Then I took my front bodice piece and with a pencil, redrafted a new deeper, and curved v-neck style neckline.  While I was doing this, I also made sure that the point that connected to the straps would be the exact measurement of the strap width themselves. My idea for the straps was to have them overlapped at the front and then spread out and interlace before they connected to the back.  On the same front piece I drew in a princess seam, which is just a line from the very top of the pattern piece to the hem.  Since the back partially has fullness from two godets, I figured I would add fullness to the front in the same way.  Then I laid some pattern paper over my newly marked up front bodice draft and traced my new pattern pieces.  Since I added a princess seam, this meant, one pattern piece became two.  Then I of course added seam allowance where needed.

When it came time to cut out my fabric for the front, I cut out an additional four godets (pattern calls for two), to insert into my princess seams and side seams (for balance). After sewing them all in though I decided they looked too short, so I decided to redraft my own. I made the bottom width the same as the ones in the back but wanted the side seam ones to be the full length of the side seams and I wanted the front ones to start just below my bust.  Turns out those measurements were about the same, so I was able to cut out four of the same new godets to cover the two areas.  

I still haven’t  committed to the high/low hem, so the last piece of the puzzle was to draft a new facing, since the neck and strap widths had changed.  I started by measuring how long the original facing was (from armscye to hem) and then went back to my marked up front bodice piece, measured the same amount down from the armscye on my marked up draft, drew a line across to center front, and then traced around the rest including the new neckline and strap width, but ignoring the princess seam (because this would be sewn up by the time I was sewing on my facing). Then I of course added seam allowance where needed.

So that was it.  Construction itself was mostly a breeze.  I realized early on that this fabric does not fray one bit, so after making two French seams as directed by the pattern instructions I ended up just serging and top stitching the rest and then I left the hem and facing hem raw. I will say there is a little stretch across the width of this fabric, which caused a little puckering in some of my bias seams along the godets, but I think that could have been avoided if I had sewed them a little slower.  Lastly, stitches reaaaaallly sink into this cushy fabric, which is both a blessing a curse depending on if you properly sewed a seam the first go around, if you know what I mean.  ;)

The one change I want to make on the next one is the second strap placement.  I placed the two straps equi-distant from the strap placement marking on the pattern.  However, because I added more volume all around and in particular at the side, the side panel is being pushed forward and off grain, which is causing some minor drag lines.  I think if I changed one of the two strap placements to the very back end of the side panel, it would serve the dual purpose of supporting the side panel and it would place more distance between the four straps which I think would also look great.  Not to say I don’t think they look great now, but they are a little bunched towards the center after tying the straps at the back.

OK- these two posts on this project were seriously long.  So if you made it through the whole thing, thank you for following along and if you have any questions on my changes, let me know in the comments.  Always happy to help a fellow sewing friend. :). Aaaaand if you all have an interest in really seeing the changes I made, I can maybe make a how-to/walk through/tutorial to post on my YouTube channel which I can then link here as well. Lemme know folks because I know first hand reading through a hacking explanation can be way more confusing than see it.

 

Happy stitching friends!

Kten