Pattern

I had actually started on this pattern over a month earlier, but was plagued by first trimester exhaustion, cold weather (not motivating when sewing short sleeved garments!) and sometimes inscrutable Japanese patterns. As time is of the essence, I turned to my friend Deepika, who graciously agreed to help me “assembly line” a few garments together so I could enjoy them before it’s too late!

Here is the fruit of our labor (HA!):

I sewed the dress, and Deepika sewed up the top (I think my only contribution there was, um, cutting it out and sewing up the bodice side seams? Woo!)

A few notes on the pattern.

* I was using crinkle gauze (which has some give to it) so I used my pre-pregnancy size 12.

*Although half way through you might think you’ve just discovered the pattern inspiration for Mrs. Roper’s wardrobe, never fear - the gathering on the neckline takes it from gargantuan to charming .

* The pattern has you create a self-fabric casing on the sleeve (fold over the hem) and has you stitching on bias tape for the neckline elastic casing. Deepika suggested an alternative technique, which saved me the hassle of stitching bias tape to the neckline, folding it over, topstitching it down and then threading elastic, and finally handstitching the opening closed. Basically, we measured out the appropriate lengths of elastic for the sleeves and necklines, then sewed them in a circle. That done, we simply folded the edge of the fabric over the elastic, put it under the presser foot and voila, instant elastic casing. With the neckline particularly, since there is so much fabric to start, you might feel like you’re “running out of” elastic. Simply put the needle down (to anchor the fabric, and then push the fabric away from the bit of elastic that’s still near you - this picture illustrates it better than my clumsy description, I think.

* I will double check this, but I believe there is a printing error the sleeve pattern piece, indicating that there should be elastic casing on both where it attaches to the garment and at the hem. The error was not repeated in the instructions, but it still made me scratch my head a bit.

* While you can get away with a loose fitting tunic top, you really need the elastic casing under the bust for the dress, or you’ll end up with a muumuu. I did not like the indicated placement for the casing on the pattern piece, and for the next dress will lower it by a good inch or two.

* Thanks to speedy sewing, I forgot to sew the side vents on the tunic. I may include them on the next top - just for variation. It does not really affect the fit of the garment. If you are gaining a bit through the hips/rear, though, as well as the belly, you will definitely want to include them.

* I eliminated the drawstring under the bust on the dress and at the neckline of the tunic top. Note to maternity designers, not everything maternity has to have a bow on it! I simply just made an elastic casing instead, thus saving myself the headache of centering two buttonholes on the front of the garments. (Oh, and my buttonhole function is kaputsky right now.) Also eliminated the bias tape casing at the neckline, per Deepika’s suggestion.

* I have one dress and one top completed, and have one top and another dress in various stages of assembly. That’s probably it for this pattern, but the upshot is that while it is a pretty design, it’s not so unique that you can’t have more than one version of it. This is key if you’re sewing maternity clothes, as you can “assembly-line” sew a few copies of the same pattern, thus saving yourself time (you are sewing on a deadline, after all!).

Basics for Girls and Girly Style Wardrobe

Regrettably, I am unable to credit the designer, as 99% of the text, including the instructions (!!) are in Japanese.

I chose option 3 for the wardrobe contest, which was a bottom (I made a skirt), a dress, and two tops, one of which could be a jacket (I made a top and a hooded jacket).

To form cohesion with such a small wardrobe collection, I relied on a small color palatte (pink and brown) and specific design details (gathers, trim). Although I did use four fabrics, two are solids, one is a neutral solid (dark brown) and the two printed fabrics from the same Joel Dewberry Aviary fabric collection - “sparrows” and “sunburst.”

The dress was based on this pattern:

In order to form cohesion in such a small wardrobe collection, I omitted the ruffled placket and added gathers, which can be found in both the skirt and the top. In the dress, this detail can be found in the neckline (front) and the pockets. The pockets were taken from this “apron style dress”:

The skirt pattern, for which there were no actual pattern pieces, just a chart with measurements - was also from this same book.

Top:

Hoodie:

Here is a typical pattern sheet:

Hoodie front:

Hoodie side:

Hoodie back:

Hoodie trim detail:

Best foot foarward!

This hoodie ROCKS!

Dress front:

Cotton loop trim and gathered front detail:

Pocket detail:

Dress back:

Stopping to smell the roses (er, I mean peonies):

Side view:

Official Mini-Wardrobe Contest Rules (from PatternReview.com)

This is a contest to create a 4-piece wardrobe in 4 weeks. Those pieces should fit one of the following three frameworks:

1) 2 bottoms and 2 tops - 1 may be a jacket

OR

2) 1 bottom and 3 tops - 1 (no more than one) may be a jacket

OR

3) 1 bottom, 1 dress or jumper (overdress), and 2 tops - 1 may be a jacket. If a jumper is made, it should go with both tops (i.e., function as a bottom). If the dress option is chosen, it need not be worn with the other garments in the wardrobe, however it should tie to the rest of the wardrobe in theme and possibly be compatible with the same handbag or shoes or accessories.

Here are my reviews on PatternReview.com:

A Mini-Wardrobe for a Mini-Me
Hooded Jacket
Brown Linen Skirt
Sleeveless Dress with Pockets
Trapeze Top

HANDSEWED IN A ZIPPER

STEAMED OUT EXCESS FABRIC IN LIEU OF DARTS

INTERFACED YOKE WITH HAIR CANVAS (note the handbasting)

PINNED AND HANDBASTED THE HOLY BEJEEBUS OUT OF THE CHINA SILK YOKE LINING

FRONT VIEW

SIDE VIEW

REAR VIEW

DETAIL SHOTS

PANTS IN MOTION

For thread tracing you will want to use silk thread - I used YLI slk thread, which is SO YUMMY I could eat it up with a spoon. Don’t cheat on this and use whatever you have hanging around - the silk thread is necessary because it can take an iron without leaving an imprint and pulls out from the fashion fabric in one nice long piece without shredding and leaving little tufts of thread behind. A note on the color - I chose to use a steel gray that was slightly warmer than my fabric - although difficult to see online, I felt like it was a safe choice, in case the thread traced seams got caught up in a machine seam and became difficult to extract. (So far I’ve only removed a few basting seams, so I’ll report back if this does indeed become an issue.)

Each piece (front and back) were cut out in a single layer, so I could match the herringbone design - the crease on both front pant legs is on the same exact \\// herringbone pattern. (This would be the slightly rippled line going up the middle of the pants leg in the accompanying photo.)

Because these pants are cuffed, each pant leg had three lines of thread tracing at the bottom - seam line at 5/8″, then the hem line above that and finally the foldline above that.

For the how-to’s on thread tracing, I relied on the following, which I hope will be helpful to anyone who choses to try their hand at it!

* Couture Sewing Techniques by Claire Shaeffer, pgs. 38-39
* Thread Tracing tutorial on Couture et Tricot
* PatternReview.com Knowledgebase
* Ann Rowley on Tailor Tacks

For the record, I chose to use my Dritz sewing gauge to mark 5/8″ seam line on all pattern pieces that would be thread traced. I then lay the pieces on top of the fabric and found the crease line (for the front pieces. Removing the pattern piece, I thread traced the length of the crease, and then replaced the pattern on top, matching the crease line to the thread traced fabric (in this way, I was certain that the pattern would not shift, thereby moving the crease line). Then I pinned around the pattern piece, leaving one side unpinned. I folded up the pattern piece to my tick marks (done with my sewing gauge) and thread traced along the folded edge. I then repinned that side and moved on to the next section. This easily took me over an hour to thread trace and cut out each large piece. Ha - but don’t let that scare you! :)