Challenge Fabric leads to Cute Cape!

Every year, the Rocklin Neighborhood ASG Group has a fabric challenge.  And it's not your average challenge. Some of us dread this event and others look forward to it with great anticipation. 

Our lovely fabrics are some of the leftovers from our annual garage sale that didn't sell - so you can imagine we get some beauties!  Each piece is in a brown bag and you never know what you are going to get.  Well, two years ago, this lovely piece was selected by an unsuspecting member who hated it.  I, on the other hand, absolutely loved it when it came out of the bag and asked if she would mind trading.  Naturally, she was glad to trade and I was so excited!   

It's a cheap piece of polyester, silky type fabric, but I knew I had some purple wool at home that would match perfectly with it!  Our challenge was to make something, anything, out of our delightful piece of fabric and I had the perfect garment in mind.

I made the 1930's Capelet from the Decades of Style pattern company.  I had been wanting to make this pattern for awhile and knew this would work out great.  I originally bought this purple to go with this material, but changed my mind when the challenge fabric came about.

I made size B, following the lines for a 36" bust.  The pattern only calls for 2 buttons on the front, one at the top and one at the bottom.  Two buttons wasn't enough so I added the two additional ones in the middle.

The top buttonhole is an inseam buttonhole.  As long as you following the pattern markings, this is fairly simple to do.  As for my covered buttons, they were a bit of a challenge.  Since my fabric was so thick, I couldn't get it to work with the covered button kits.  After a few unsuccessful attempts, I noticed that the fabric seemed to be coming apart - as in there were two different layers to the fabric.  So, I tried to carefully pull the layers apart and voila!  The new "half thickness" fabric worked great for the covered buttons.

Here's the side view.  I am not happy with the bulk of the facing around the bottom, but when you see the inside, you will see why the ridge of the facing shows.

Here's the back view.  The capelet falls nicely over the back.

And that crazy lining!  Doesn't it match perfectly!  I added rick rack along the edges as well.  Each one of the rick rack points needed to be sewn down by hand as well, because they kept sticking out funny.  Also, the pattern doesn't call for a lining, but after seeing this fabric, I just couldn't resist adding one.

Side view of the inside.  You can see the capelet portion thru the armhole.  The caplet is left unlined.

Close-up of the armhole facing.

And more of the crazy lining!  I just love it!

Here's why there is a ridge from the facing on the right side.  Again, the pattern doesn't call for a lining, but I wanted to add one and add the rick rack along the edge.  Since I wanted to add the rick rack, this meant I needed to turn the fabric under to just have one side of the rick rack points show.  So in turning the fabric, I now have essentially 3 layers (2 of the facing layers and one for the rick rack) - this 3 layer thickness is what is causing the ridge to show on the right side.

Now maybe if I would have underlined the base fabric, this ridge wouldn't show, but it's too late now - I'll just live with the ridge.

In this final view, you can see how the capelet portion attaches to the front and hangs over the back.  I left the capelet portion unlined and just finished with some bias binding around the edges.

Until next time - Happy Sewing!

Decades of Style - Siren Sundress

This is the 1948 Siren Sundress by the Decades of Style independent pattern company.  I made this from a wonderful linen that I picked up awhile ago (can't remember where!), but I love the color.  The dress has a mock wrap front with long ties that you can wear two different ways in the back, and then wrap around to the front and around to the back again for a bow - they are very long ties!  When selecting your fabric, be aware that the wrong side of the fabric will show on the ties. 

Front view

The back of the dress wraps around and is held together with a hook and eye.  There is a waist stay made with grograin ribbon that is very functional.  It was a windy day when I took these pictures so you can see below how the back flap can fly open unexpectedly!




Back view with flap flying open

Another view of the back - without the flap flying open!  The ties seem to work better for me if they are twisted at the center back rather than just lapping over each other. I've tried it both ways, but this way feels more secure.


Another back view

 

I had some major issues with this pattern.  I made a muslin first to check for fit and it was terrible!  I ended up completely repositioning the front and back panels - the sides I raised about an inch and then tapered to the original center front.  I added bust cups and ended up sewing the front panels together to stop them gapping open. 

Side front

Will I make this pattern again - not sure.  Maybe if I find the right material again, but it's not high on my list at the moment.

Happy Sewing!