Love Notions Ballad

This top came about because the fabric made such a good coordinate with a travel wardrobe that is needed soon. The print seemed to need a pattern that is a little more femme than the minimalist things I'm usually attracted to. Ruffles and flounces are beyond tolerance, but I felt like some shoulder gathers would be okay. Neither my Ottobre nor Burda collections had what I was looking for, but the Ballad did. This pattern had been pronounced "good" by people I trust (not influencers) so I gave it a chance.

Fabric is a lovely cotton lawn from Miss Matatabi.

A quickie muslin led me to the alterations: chose size L grading out to XL below the waist notch, 3/8" forward shoulder rotating the sleeve cap a corresponding 3/8", and smoothed out the LN trademark scoop in the front armscye. The bishop sleeve is shorter than drafted because of a shortage of fabric. I think I also placed the lower back (which is gathered into a yoke) 1/2" from the fabric fold when cutting, giving me another extra 1" fit insurance there.

Bathroom mirror shot is closer to the actual color. The sleeves are below elbow, which is fine. I didn't make any changes to length, and think it's good to wear with jeans or moderate-width pants this way. If it was supposed to go with leggings, extra length would be required.

I can often just hand baste sleeves, easing them in as I go, but this pattern really needed the double row of machine basting stitches to draw up the excess. The rest of the construction was easy and straightforward.

Buttons. Suddenly getting buttons is so hard! For a while, even though JoAnn's had its shortcomings, you could still get a good selection of buttons there. When that source dried up, there was a thrift store nearby where I could pick up things on special sale to harvest buttons. My last button purchase was on Amazon where I bought a bag of 200? 300? lots of blue buttons for just a few dollars. They were mostly different kinds of shirt buttons and some of them got used for this project.

This top will be a great addition to the travel wardrobe I'm getting together. Originally I thought the key color for the group would be indigo, but after a lot of adding and rejecting the color scheme morphed into gray/natural/teal. That was unexpected! There is both gray and teal in the print of this fabric, and it can be worn with all the bottoms I'm planning to take.

When everything is all firmed up, I'll probably do a little checklist of what I'm taking along with some photos and make a little blog post about it. 

Reaction to the Ballad pattern: I like it and will likely make it again. I skipped the shirring that sets this pattern apart from other similar styles, but would like to attempt that some time with a solid color fabric that would show it off.

Love Notions Tidal

This pattern was purchased specifically because of a video posted by Karina Trinidad to her channel Lifting Pins & Needles. I really like interesting back views and loved the chevron effect in the back that she demonstrated. 

Tidal is a fit & flare type of style without side seams. The back pieces wrap around to meet the front forming princess seams. It's an interesting design.

Once I had the pattern I was on the lookout for something stripey to make the back chevrons. This ITY from Fabric Mart was appealing with the scrolling paisley design. Another YouTube style influencer has recently advised in one of her "how not to look old/frumpy" videos to quit wearing paisley, but there are really a limited number of print motifs that I like and paisley is one of them. In fact, there's another paisley dress on the cutting table right now. 😄 Us old hippies will never give it up.

Changes to the pattern: my measurements would have put me in a L, but I sized up because I do not like negative ease and cut an XL, blending to 2X at the hip. Raised the neckline (which is very scooped) 3/4 inch and lowered the bust point 5/8". I also added 6-1/2" to the sleeves so that they would be elbow length.

This poor old dress form is not even doing a good job for display any more. It won't stay at the height that matches mine, so the photos show how it would look on someone about 4 inches shorter. It also has the upper body longer on one side than the other because it can't maintain the settings for the waist length on one side. And the ITY really shows off every pointy angle where its circumference has been adjusted. Maybe I'll get motivated to figure out a routine for taking selfies wearing my stuff.

The back view that inspired this dress

I do like the way this dress looks and feels when wearing it and could see making it again, but not with the chevrons. That would be too recognizable as the same pattern. The maxi/tank version could be very nice.

After decades of never even considering a dress or skirt, I am on a dress making binge. They are what I want to wear now. There are more on the way!

Aria Saga

Why? It is time to perfect a new basic shirt pattern. Influenced by influencers on Instagram and YouTube, and because I've been having good results with their knit tops, I decided to try Love Notions Aria.

Sizing: Love Notions has you select your size by your upper bust measurement and then choose between their standard bust or full bust front pieces depending on the difference between your upper bust and full bust. My measurement put me between a Medium and a Large, so I went with the Large standard bust for the first shirt. The finished garment measurements given with the pattern looked fine.

Fabric: lightweight crisp cotton chambray for the first, a more coarsely woven cotton for the second.

Alterations/Modifications: Foolishly, I cut and sewed the first one without making a muslin. Because this isn't a fitted garment, and because I'd been having good results from this pattern line, I thought I could forge ahead and that small tweaks would fix any issues. That was so wrong. 

A try-on of the first shirt without sleeves was surprising. The fit across the upper chest was more snug than I like, but acceptable. That all changed when the sleeves were set in. I thought I took a picture, but maybe I was too upset. The sleeves were all bunched up under the arm, and the front of the shirt would no longer overlap. What a mess. I tried scooping out the armscyes which helped a bit with the bunching, but there still would have been no way to button the shirt.

However, the back of the shirt did not hang up on my tush. This has been a huge point in Love Notion's favor and has been true of the other patterns of theirs that I've made. Because of that, I decided to try again. This time I picked the full bust piece, which included a dart. (One of the other disappointments with shirt #1 were the folds that draped from bust apex to hip.) And I made a muslin.

What a mess.

Not only was the bust point way low, but look at the weird folds around the armscye and the poor fit of the sleeve in general. There was also pulling across the chest from the armpit, like you sometimes get in tee shirts that don't fit. When I released the basting at the top of the sleeve cap, the folds in the sleeve improved. The sleeve cap as drafted is pretty flat. I needed to add about an inch in height.

Here is the strange shape of the armhole. The pulls were coming from the point of the notch, where that odd angle is. Maybe this is typical of patterns for full-busted figures? Feeling frustrated, and with nothing to lose, I decided to redraw the armscye, adding fabric to fill in that weird angle and scooping out to accommodate the extra height I was adding to the sleeve cap.

Huh?

red line shows new shape

That helped.

Results: I completed shirt #2, the pink one, with all the changes, and will wear it. In the photos it doesn't have buttons yet, because I want pink buttons and only have white. It will take a while to find pink ones. I also removed the sleeves (that I had done such a good job on) from shirt #1 because it would be wearable sleeveless. Had to make darts in the armhole because of gaping, and finished those edges with bias tape. I really wanted the sleeves, but at least the shirt isn't a total loss.

left off the buttons towards the neck where it is tight on me

deep back yoke and pleat

no sleeves, alas
The pattern has square corners on the cuffs, I prefer them rounded

What's good about the pattern: Doesn't hang up on the tush! Also, the pattern has excellent instructions for making the sleeve placket and I got my best results ever using their pattern piece and instructions. This alone was worth the price of the pattern.

What's bad about the pattern: I had to do more work fitting this pattern than any other I can remember, including redrafting the sleeve and armscye.

Conclusion: Because of the drastic redrafting I had to do, and because I don't have a lot of confidence in my drafting, and because of the voluminous fit, this is not going to be my new basic shirt. I'm just glad that in the end I didn't totally waste my time and fabric.

shirt #2, better than shirt #1 but not perfect.

pieced the back yoke to make chevrons

Love Notions Coda

 Deadline sewing is usually not a good idea for me, but circumstances lined up just right to try to make a warm layer before some predicted cold weather arrives. There was a leftover chunk of heavy French terry in the stash, and there was the Coda Coat pattern that I wanted to check the fit on. The terry has zero stretch so the fact that it’s a knit wouldn’t make a difference. 

So here’s a Coda, size L at the shoulders and bust (used the standard bust piece) blended to an XL at the hip. It was lengthened 1-1/2 inches and there is a 3/8 inch forward shoulder adjustment. Added some additional length for a hem. Left off the sleeves to make a vest.

This works just fine with a center zipper, but there is not enough overlap to use a button or snap closing. One day I would like to make the pattern as it was intended, so maybe check out the full bust piece and see if that would solve the problem before making it again. I know how the hips and body fit, now.

The collar is just a rectangle the length of the neckline, after the center front was extended up to make a round neck. (And seam allowances added.)

I made good use of my sewing feet for the topstitching and also did plenty of hand basting, which paid off.  

Critiquing my work, I’d say that the armholes are a little too big, but that means it can be worn over bulky and oversized layers, so I’m not really bothered. 

Bring on those cold temperatures!