Sunday 12 October 2014

McCalls 6503: Tried and Tested

Lots of people have a reliable go-to pattern that they know they can use again and again. I have a strong feeling that McCalls 6503 will become this pattern for me. I have already churned out two of these beauties and I'm working on my third.
Photo taken while pattern is pinned to current project with a skirt hanger if you're wondering what that big black square is.
I bought this pattern and made it without a muslin (trust or laziness, it's hard to decide) from a royal blue linen look cotton. I made it up in a size 10 in view D and came out with...
A bit of a wobbly neckline
Hurrah it fits! well, nearly. It was rather snug around the waist when I sat down (as long as I don't eat anything or breathe it's fine). This is a lovely dress, the skirt is full without being poofy thanks to the pleats that are on the front and back which help it give a lovely silhouette to even the curviest of hips/bums. It has a feels which is a cross between Americana and Holywood chic.
And from the side.
It can be made with the sleeves or without and has three neckline options. I went for the View D first because I like buttons (it's not far off an obsession), but I found that the collar bit at the top is very high. It does leave on feeling a bit...

Oh I say I can't look down
So I wanted to try it again and chose view B (what can I say, I like sleeves) with it's nice open collar. Again I went for a medium weight cotton, this time with a dragonfly print, and added a bit to the waistline (so I can sit down comfortably).

Excuse the feet

Now this version I love, the crossover front did require a press stud to maintain my dignity, but that open collar it awesome.
Pretty little dragonfly
So this is now my favourite dress pattern. It doesn't take a huge amount of time and the results I think are very smart looking. You could make this in a posher material for a dressier occasion, or in a breezy cotton for summer, or a nice tweed for winter (Ooh the possibilities!!).

In fact I like this pattern so much I've started messing with it (that's a compliment trust me). If there's one thing I like more than buttons, it's pockets!! I want this dress with pockets!! I spent a bit of time thinking about what kinds of pockets I could add to this one, the in-seam type seem like a good idea, but I like the visible style. So at the moment I'm working on a re-hash of the skirt part of the dress to include some self drafted pockets.
This next one is in the same linen look cotton as the blue version, but in black (I wanted my own handmade LBD), and I've created a template for open pockets on the front. With the top half the Version B open collar I think it should work... let's keep our fingers crossed!

Tuesday 7 October 2014

The best laid plans...

So I have a confession to make... I have fallen a little out of love with my Philippa jumper. I felt really excited about it when I began, and it was going really well (by this I mean few mistakes were made and it looked like the picture on the front). But I seem to have discovered the hard part of knitting something, that you can't check it as you go for fitting (especially with a vintage pattern like the one I used), meaning my Philippa kind of looked like this when I tried it on...
I know what you're thinking... that looks fine (if not a little short in the length), but it's hiding a secret...

Check out that extra under arm fabric!! If I'd been sewing this I would have gone back to the jumper and cut out a chunk to make it fit properly... but how do you do that when it's knitted from one strand of wool and involves unravelling a weeks worth of work!!
Gah!!
I might have tried to ignore it... but that's a huge amount of extra material! and it just feels odd!!
Another issue with it is the yarn that I decided to use... I did no research for yarn weight and knew nothing about DK or Aran or Chunky etc. so just used this (very lovely and soft) wool I found on eBay. My mum spotted this as soon as she saw the front side of the jumper, she said it was too heavy, that it would end up being very warm because of this (always listen to your mother). This bad boy feels like body armour when worn, it is very thick and heavy!! I can only imagine what it would be like when wet!!

You can see just how impressed I am with this situation. I feel very angry about this, it's my first big project and it has gone belly up (or armpit up as it were). So what now? I could unravel it back to the point before I began increasing it for the underarm (the rest fits fine), I could frog the whole lot back and start again. Or (as I suspect I'm going to do) I could leave it in a pile in the corner until I have the heart to take decisive action with this labour of love.

So the action I have decided to take is option 3, in the meantime I have begun a new project (from a modern book which includes the finished item size and everything), I have researched the yarn type and checked the measurements and everything.

I really feel that I need to make something that I can actually wear, this is the whole point I got into making stuff. Plus I really want to succeed with the knitting a jumper idea, just to keep my faith in knitting.

Sneak peek of my next attempt