The Prison Maiden Dress

I believe either Mission Impossible or the James Bond theme music is playing right now...

 As I was walking to the mailbox in my brand new dress my father hollered out, “What are you? A prison maiden?" Apparently the new dress code for inmates is pink and oatmeal stripes made from a Hummingbird top and a Tiramisu skirt. Now you too, are enlightened, as I was. But when I saw this pin I knew a simple tee was not what my new fabric was destined to be, even if the finished result was inmateish. 

source

As I said, I used my 35 Hummingbird top for the bodice of the dress. I do not know why, unless it is because the fabric is so lightweight but the waistline rode up a little higher than I wanted. 

Somehow I figured wrong and cut my Tiramisu skirt waist too big. Maybe I should have checked the measurements of the pieces before I cut... ;) I stretched the skirt according to the directions to get the correct drape and serged off the extra 1 inch of skirt at the side seams, tapering down for a super fit. No visible evidence of my booboo. I added woven pockets again. The dress went together super quick and is a comfy fun everyday dress. It passed the trampoline (kinda) and road trip (totally) tests. My only complaint is the fabric was too see through so I had to make a slip for the skirt. Now I will leave you with the fascinating saga of my prison break!

What are you looking at! Why do you want to know when I
bought this fabric?

BUSTED!!! Caught buying fabric and breaking her stashbusting pledge! Leader fails and panic ensues as fabric
starved seamstresses run for the shops. (sounds like a pretty good news article to me.)

Lalala, look at me twirling in my twirly skirt... Are you dizzy yet?

PRISON BREAK!! Fabric addict escapes and runs for the hills. 

Help me dirty doggy, you're my only hope! ;)

Well, I hope that brought a smile to your face. I sure had fun setting up a photo shoot based on a prison break theme. 

While we should always try to do our best and not give up; sometimes we fail, give in to temptation, and fall short of our goals and expectations. Thankfully the consequences of this failure had very little adverse effects since it didn't really have a chance to sit in my stash and I got a very wearable dress out of it. I hope your stashbusting endeavors are going well. If they're not at least you know you aren't alone at falling off the bandwagon. Watch out for the fabric police though! 

My First NORMAL Tiramisu

It's the last day of May, if you're a Stashbuster get over to the link party and show us what you've been up to and maybe win a prize!

I finally, finally, made up my first normal tiramisu with fabric I bought last November specifically for it when Steph first started talking about Cake Patterns and Tira.

It went together so smoothly all my fears and worries were unfounded. Thanks to the previous Tira fittings I was able to cut this out and get it right the first go. I did make a few changes.

• I cut the back on the center fold removing the seam allowance.
• I cut the pockets from a woven fabric per Steph's suggestion

• I cut the neckband 2 inches wide instead of 1 1/2 like the pattern. I did this for two reasons. One it's less fiddly for me to work with and two it brings the V neck up just a tiny bit more to where I'm comfortable.

Confession time. I admit to having some confusion with the stripe/stretch lines and the different cutting layout. (it didn't help that one of my knits does actually have the lines running vertically) All other knit patterns have you cut the neckband going with the stretch while Tira's neckband is cut lengthwise going with the least amount of stretch. That's why it was the exact length of the neckband and that's why my burgundy Tira gathered. I only wish I had had this epiphany before I got the dress sewn together... but I understand the Why now so I won't be making that mistake again.

Moving on, I wore it all day to let the hem settle while I watched my 3 not-nieces and 1 not-nephew. We swung on the swings, pushed the wheelchair down the gravel road, saw a muskrat, played with toys on the floor, took naps and went potty. The dress performed fabulously.

All you get though is a no gape photo of me with the kitty.

There is a wind warning out on that skirt though. Make sure you keep a firm hand on it so you don't end up flashing the mailman...

Swirly twirly, beautiful.

Since this was a very lightweight knit I decided to try the fusible or sticky tape to hold the hem in place while I sewed it. Unfortunately I was in a hurry at wallyworld and picked up some heavy stuff with a big, "DO NOT SEW" warning on the back.

But I had it, so I decided to go ahead and use it. Turns out the paper backing is heavier than the sticky and it didn't effect the drape of my hem. I'm skeptical of it's permanent stick claims but I'm willing to give it a try and see how it comes out after the first wash. I can always sew it later if I need to.

This concludes my review on Tiramisu. 

I made five garments out of stashbusted knits this month which makes me pretty happy. How much stashbusting did you accomplish?

Winterizing My Snowdrop Tiramisu

I feel a bit guilty that my first two renditions of Cake Pattern's Tiramisu have been total hacks. Although maybe it speaks to the quality of the pattern drafting that I was able to do this from the get go and still end up with wearable garments. I loved it so much but I knew if I was going to make it work for my winters I would need to make some adjustments.

1. Eliminate the V-neck wrap top.
Fix: I aligned the center front line on the fold and drew in a scoop neckline.

2. Add long sleeves.
Fix: Used Steph's Long Sleeve Hack to draft myself some sleeves. Note: My sleeves ended up tight at the bottom as well and I figured out why!! While seam allowance is included at the armhole the line we draw to is our wrist measurement with NO SEAM ALLOWANCE INCLUDED. For the knit I used it is a pretty tight fit.

3. Make the skirt longer
Fix: First I have to say I have been wanting to do a handkerchief hem for YEARS. With this dress, I finally had the perfect fabric pair to do it with! I cut a bit smaller than the waistband measurement out of the center of two rectangles, staggered them and got a floor length circle skirt!

Details, details, it's all in the details. I'm pretty proud of my topstitching here especially since
I had to recut the white neckline. I love these two fabrics together, such great texture.
The hem is staggered all over the place giving it that hippie, free spirited vibe I was going for.

As you can see I ended up pairing the lacy blue floral knit with the white stripe my friend gave to me. Both were semi-sheer so it was perfect in more ways than one! The blue knit was also a stashbust since I have had it since before college.

It has a doubly amazing twirl factor.

It also works well for hide and seek!

While cutting a circle skirt like I did meant no pockets, the double
skirt layer means I can still pick up and carry things.

I'm not sure if these are the best colors for me to be wearing but it is super comfy and I think it will be a great run around the house dress. I'm waiting to see if the bias drops on the skirt. I may end up trimming it a bit shorter.

The most normal shot...

So what do you think? Pretty crazy or pretty comfy?

Tiramisu Sleeve Hack

Whoo hoo! I finished my first sewalong and it was AMAZING!!! Thank you Steph!! I really enjoyed interacting with everyone on Flickr and seeing you all persevere to get a good fit, which also pushed me to get beyond "ok fit" to much "better fit". The next Tira I will shoot for BEST FIT!
Anyways, we are here to make sleeves!

Beautiful Poofy sleeves!!

First their provenance, somewhere online I ran into Elizabeth's T-shirt Project. On her pinterest board I fell in love with this top on Etsy.

I decided they would be perfect sleeves to use on my fall Tiramisu, since the solid red is a lightweight cottonish fabric. I wanted it to be long sleeved and figured the cuffs would add a double layer of fabric warmth plus being tight around my wrist to keep those cold winds out.

Now without more ado, directions for the hack!

1. You will have already chosen your size and made all other alterations needed, (bust, bicep, etc). 

2. Find the spot where your arm connects to your shoulder. You can do this by lifting your arm and marking the crease that forms. 

3. Measure from that shoulder point to a couple of inches below your elbow. This will be measurement A. ( I was about 13 inches)

4. On Bodice Front piece, line your ruler's short edge on the pattern's grain line and the long edge on the shoulder mark of the pattern. Draw a straight line out the length of measurement A.

5. Position your ruler in the bottom of the armpit curve and slanting away from the pattern sleeve. Draw a long line out. Our goal is to add lots of fullness.

The shape we are going for on bodice front.

6. Square your ruler at measurement A with the shoulder line and draw a straight line down intersecting with the armpit line. Mark this measurement (sleeve line) for the next step.

7. Repeat with the back pattern piece. Measure the sleeve opening and draw the straight sleeve line before drawing the armpit line. 

Bodice back sleeve.

8. Finish dress according to instructions omitting the sleeve binding steps. Once you have sewn your side seams continue with the hack.

9. Measure your wrist and the largest part of your arm you want the cuff to come to. Make sure the fabric will stretch to your bicep. This will give you your cuff's width. (My wrist was 6 inches and the largest part of my arm was 10 inches. I cut my cuff at 7 inches wide.)

10. Put your dress on and measure where the full sleeve hits your arm to where you want the cuff to end. The higher the cuff the bigger the poof drape. (I wanted a cuff 6 inches long) Double this measurement and add an inch for seam allowance and sleeve growth. This is your cuff length. (Mine was 13 inches)

11. Cut a long rectangle with the stretch running the WIDTH of your piece. (Mine was a 7 x 13 inch rectangle with the stretch running the same direction as the 7 inches)

Note: (Now you basically put the cuff together just as you would add a cuff or band to any knit garment, Renfrew is the perfect example.)

12. Sew or serge up the long side of the cuffs, right sides together. You will have two long skinny tubes double the length you want.

13. Fold the cuffs WRONG sides together and pin mark it in fourths.

14. Baste around the long sleeve opening gathering it to fit to the cuff. Right sides together, sew the gathered sleeve to cuff, stretching cuff slightly. (My knit is not super stretchy).

Voila! You now have poofy cuffed sleeves that wrap tight and cozy around your little wrists so no cold air will come in and bite you! Plus they are super pretty!

I apologize for the lack of photos. This is my first tutorial and I'm still figuring things out. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them. Please send me a link if you end up making them so I can see how they turn out with different fabrics. Will a heaver knit make the poof larger or totally deflate it?

I hope this adds lots of fun to your wardrobe and a new look so you can make yet another version of Tiramisu!

Tiramisu Adventures with My Musings Throw In

Hi Ya' All! 

 That's my Momma's hillbilly roots coming out in print... So hopefully this will makes some sense cause there's alot going on in my head right now! You are forewarned!

  First! Gushing!! How amazing is it that we have an amazing lady like StephC who takes the time to come up with an amazing pattern idea, makes the amazing pattern, then TEACHES us how to sew it! Pretty Amazing right?!! (ok I'm done with amazing now)

If you hadn't figured it out I'm talking about Tiramisu and the wonderful sew-a-long that's going on over at the Sewing Cake website. I can't decide if I like the 30 mins. a day since there's less pressure to get things done or if I'm going nuts cause I just want a dress already! One thing I have decided is I love the minute detail Steph goes into explaining each step and I'm loving all the amazingness in our Flickr group! Hurrah for all the new Tiramisu's! (and all the new fabric websites, like I need more fabric shopping options)

   So without more ado here's my muslin. I knew I wanted to make several of these so I took the time to make a muslin first since Steph has revolutionized the pattern making process.

Top Photo: My first try. I thought the binding was too loose and the bottom was bagging out. Someone mentioned overlapping the front bodices a bit more so without thinking that is what I did. 

Bottom Photo: Still baggy and now I have a pucker/pleat in my midriff band. I set it aside for the night and came back to it the next day.

Large Photo: The "girls" were a perfect fit in the bodice front I cut so I knew I didn't need to go down another size. I ripped the front apart again, reattached the binding and resewed the front. When I pinned the skirt I got the fit I was looking for!

One of the great things about the Tira pattern is the front binding is attached when the seams are open so you can control how much you stretch the binding. With this old knit I stretched that sucker and ended up taking off 4-5 inches. This fixed my problem.

Since this was my muslin I just wanted to see what the finished product would look like so I whipped the skirt on. Putting the whole thing together really helped me figure this out and I feel confident to cut into my good fabric and make myself some really amazing dresses.
A couple of tips or revelations I had while making this:
1. It all depends on the knit. Some knits stretch more than others so the fit will change depending on the knit I use. Some neck bindings will need more stretching than others.
2. The V-neck gets smaller with the weight of the skirt attached. While I was working on the fit of the top I was worried because the V was pretty deep and it was showing a bit more than I wanted. As soon as I attached the skirt it swung the front into alignment. It also helps tighten things up so there is no gaposis.
3. I'm 5'10" in shoes and was expecting this to be a tunic top. I cut the skirt waistband at 30 and the shortest hemline. As you can see it hits me right above the knee, unhemmed. Hurrah! Now I know to trace the longest size to make a winter skirt.

Well that's all I can think of at the moment. This little "gem" is off to my friend for a maternity top and I'm off to cut something lovely for myself.
In the words of Tigger, "TTFN, Ta Ta for now!"