Fixing a gaping neck, after the fact

So you've just sewn your knit neckline/neckband carefully and correctly and STILL end up with The Gapes, like this:

And then you end up with a big case of The Mehs when you had such high hopes for a cute top/dress using that pretty fabric you just bought (or sacrificed from the stash).

Well first, stop beating yourself up. It happens to all of us and doesn't make you a sewing failure. Sometimes bad things just happen to good fabric and/or techniques. Next, get yourself some elastic thread, like this:

And a big-eyed, blunt-end needlepoint needle, like this (the blunt end is important so you don't snag the fabric and make a difficult task of threading the elastic through):

Cut a LONG piece of the elastic thread, roughly 2-1/2 times the length of the neckline area you need to fix, stretch it a couple of times, and thread your needle with it. Then, push the needle under the stitching that's holding down the neckline/neckband, starting at one shoulder seam.

Make sure you get the needle up into the space above the stitches, like threading elastic through a casing (which is pretty much exactly what this will end up as). Work the needle/elastic through the whole length of the gaping area and leave a long tail on the end you started from (this is why you need to use a long length of elastic).

Push the needle out at the back of the other shoulder seam and into/through the serger stitches (or seam allowances if you haven't serged) of the shoulder seam, and ...

... tie a knot. Make sure your knot is behind the shoulder seam, since you've pressed those to the back (right?) and want any elastic tension to pull toward the back.

Next, go back to that long elastic tail you left at the beginning and pull the elastic taut enough to cause rippling but not enough to create actual gathers. The neckline isn't going to lay flat now, but that's OK because it *will* lay flat on you.

And tie it off at the starting shoulder seam, again behind the actual seam. (If you leave your needle threaded while you do this, getting through the loops of the knot is easier.) Finally, unthread the needle and trim your thread tails.

Now be happy again because your new top/dress with that fabric you can't believe you just "wasted" is now a keeper! Look Ma! No gapes and ...

... no gathering.

I won't tell anyone if you won't. ;-)

This little fix works for front necklines/neckbands too. Just run your elastic through the front instead of the back and make your knots in front of the shoulder seams. If you need to fix back AND front, do it in two steps, using two lengths of elastic (or 3, if you have a vee or wrap neck) so you can keep the "drawing up" effect of the elastic separate, which will work better than one long piece of elastic thread doing all the work in different locations.

You're welcome. :-)

First Make of 2015 - Meh

I sewed up this skirt and top 2-piece dress last weekend and while it's OK, it's not fabulous. Part of the "meh" is because the fabric is just not a nice ITY. I swear, Fabric.com labels everything ITY now and I'm starting to think they're on crack. It's an OK knit, but it's certainly not one of their better ones. It's a bit on the sueded/clingy side. Not *too* clingy, but more like collapsing on me, if you can understanding what I mean. Hard to explain. Still, it's better than the uber-clingy, pill-y, icky rayon crap I'm still trying to get out of the stash. ;-) I like the print, though, which is why I went ahead and used it, ignoring that little voice in my head.

The other part of the "meh" is because apparently *I* was on crack when I was sewing up the Jalie top. A top, mind you, that I have made 6 squillion times. Let me tell you, it makes a HUGE difference if you sew RS together where the gathers flip over instead of WS together. Heh. It took me nearly a whole day to figure out why the flip-over wasn't working and where I had gone wrong. (Note: When all else fails, READ the feckin' instructions!) Once I got out the seam ripper and re-sewed correctly, things worked out fine. But what an idiot moment I had.

Plus, the neckband, sewed on with my coverstitcher and a binder, isn't snug against my back neck, which never happens with my binders. Until now apparently. I'll fix that with some elastic thread threaded through the backside stitching, once I pick it up from Hancock's. I just covered it up with a cardi in the meantime. I won't tell if you won't.

Love the skirt though. I used the Simplicity KA pattern above, which is a semi-circle skirt for wovens and calls for a zipper. I omitted the zipper because knit. And I also took off 2" from each side seam of the smallest size in the envelope, 20 (for a total of 8", if you're counting), because, again, knit. I didn't just do this willy-nilly ... I have a couple of semi-circle RTW knit skirts I was copying inspired by and so I could use them as eyeballing/measurement guides. I used the contoured waistband pattern pieces (also cut down 2" per side seam to match the skirt waist) and sewed all the units together, leaving an opening in the facing for inserting elastic, and serged 1:1 onto the skirt waist. Once it was attached, I inserted the 1-1/4" wide elastic, which was cut to about 4" less than my actual waist measurement. The result is an elastic-waist pull-on skirt with a waistband that sits flat both on and off me. I didn't even stitch the opening closed on the inside because I had the seam allowances from the opening folded/flipped in such a way that the opening and elastic is invisible from the inside. I know that's hard to visualize from my words, so you'll just have to trust me on that.

I know the skirt will get lots of wear since I love the shape and black/white is almost a neutral. I think I'll make it again in another knit too because it's fun to wear flippy, girly skirts. I also think I'll like the top better after a few small adjustments ... namely, the back neckband, and maybe shortening it another inch and also sewing the sideseams a little tighter.

I've also sewed up a "muslin" of the Burda WOF casual pants I showed a couple of posts back, and am now trying to decide what fabric to get for a final pair, plus matching jacket. I thought a nice ponte would work, but now I'm second-guessing. My "muslin" was a NOT-nice ponte (also from crack-tastic Fabric.com in the same shipment) which was not supposed to be muslin fabric but it was way too polyestery/shiny to be taken seriously. I could have sent it back but I decided I did need to muslin since I haven't sewn pants in years (yikes) and it's probably a good thing I did because I do need to make a few adjustments. All of that was just a long-winded way to say that while the project is definitely still in the queue, it's stalled at the moment.

I'll get into the sewing room this weekend around football playoffs, but I may encounter analysis paralysis since I have a lot of things I want to make and no idea where to start. Hopefully, I'll come out with something. I just don't know what that something is yet.

Jalie Cardi Hacking

You may already know but there's a new indie pattern company, Muse, and their first release is the really cute Jenna cardigan. If I had extra money right now (no, didn't get that job), I'd have bought the pattern. But since I didn't and, darn it I wasn't a tester (hint, hint), I had to settle for using it as inspiration. So I dug out my TNT Jalie 2566 twinset pattern and proceeded to hack away.

The hacking was pretty easy actually. I chopped off about 9" from the length and then added a 3" band at the hem and a 2" band at the sleeves. Both bands are folded, so the cutting width was actually 6-1/2" and 4-1/2", including seam allowances. The Jalie is also a vee neck with a continuous neck/button band vs. the Jenna's jewel neckline and separate neck and button bands. I left mine as is, since I prefer the vee over a jewel neck anyway.

I was really second-guessing cutting off all that length since such a short side seam looked almost comical to me, but the fabric is a cheap stashed sweater knit and I had enough to try it again if the hacking was a disaster. It wasn't. :-) The finished cardi could even be an inch shorter and still be all right.

What I didn't have extra of is interfacing. Even if I have to keep sewing from stash until that real job materializes, I'm going to have to break down and order some more interfacing since I'm seriously running out and nothing available local is even close to being suitable. (Will work for interfacing. hehehe) Having to be extra frugal these days, I did some creative piecing for the front bands.

Interfacing definitely was not optional for this squishy sweater knit since I had to put in 6 tiny buttonholes on a very narrow band. I am not exaggerating when I say I was holding my breath during each one, just waiting for my machine's auto buttonholer to screw up. Luckily, they all came out perfectly. And mostly spaced evenly.

Since the budget is also not allowing extraneous thread purchases, I went with what I have for the serger. I used overlocker grays in the needles to blend and regular turquoise in the loopers so the loops wouldn't contrast when the cardi flips open. The knit is actually much more aqua than the baby blue it appears to be in the top photo so these threads were a pretty good match.

Inside view - good blending job, right? I'm happy with it.

The buttons are Mother of Pearl from the Carolyn Norman collection. ;-) Mother of Pearl naturally has some teal-ish iridescence and goes nicely with this knit. Too bad the photo lies, but trust me ... they look really nice. And they're tiny so fit perfectly on the narrow band.

Lots of topstitching around the hem and sleeve bands and around the button/neck band.

I had just enough thread on this spool. Whew!

I'll probably wear it open, like this, but for the main photo it looked nicer buttoned up.

The blouse is a SBCC Mimosa made last year. I also made the skirt but I can't talk about that yet. ;-) The cardi is a perfect match for it and now I have a new outfit for Monday. It's still hot outside here and will be for a long while yet, but inside A/C is always chilly so layers are a must.

Even though my Jalie/Jenna hack is a successful knock-off and I can hack further for Jenna's gathered shoulder yoke view, I would still like to buy (or win) the actual pattern at some point because I think it's so cute and the sewing nerd in me wants to see the original. What can I say? I read patterns like others read magazines. ;-)

Skirt and Top - aka Useful Basics

This is the skirt I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. It sat on Zillie waiting for its mate, which I finally provided today. I made the skirt (KS3287) many times before, but in a larger size. This was one of those times I'm glad I traced the pattern, because I ended up needing to trace again but 2 sizes down. I love this skirt for the flippy shape but easy knit wear and construction. I will probably still be making this skirt when I'm 80.  :-) This one is from a yard (less, really) of turquoise Sophia knit purchased from Fabric.com a couple of months ago. Sophia wears like iron.

The top is the Hot Patterns Metroplitan Tie Me Down top, made from a Fabric.com ITY knit purchased to go with the solid Sophia. It's another I've made before and another I needed to retrace smaller. (Not complaining.) HP's sizing is consistent, I think, after having made a number of them but the actual sizing definitely doesn't match the measurements given on the back of the envelope. I made a straight 14 (no alterations) but per the envelope should use at least an 18. That's a GI-normous amount of ease. So, what I'm saying is ignore the envelope and use your tape measure on the pattern pieces themselves. And your common sense. And heed HP's advice to muslin if you're still unsure. This sizing is good news for those at the upper end of the HP measurement chart but probably not so good for the smallest ladies if the smaller sizes have similar ease. (I can't speak to the men's patterns.)

The patterns.

The shoulders are gathered into the seam and also shirred with 3 rows of elastic cord. The cap sleeves are gathered to the armhole at the top. Sorry for the blurry pic. :-(

The back waist, is also shirred with one row of elastic cording which provides nice but subtle shaping.

I used my cording foot and a narrow zig zag stitch. The cording foot holds the cord in place perfectly so there's no worry about stitching through the cord. You only have to keep your eyes on your sewing path. (These pics are from a years-ago project and part of a PR review here, in which you'll find more shirring details if you're curious.)

This is how much elastic cord I had left over. Whew!

The HP pattern calls for facings to hold the tie in place and finish the neck edge. I used the facings on my previous make of the top and they were fine, since they are shaped and get sewn into the sleeves which eliminates facing floppage, but I really like to eliminate facings whenever possible. For this make, I "stole" the brilliant instructions from Jalie's Scarf Collar top. You can download the instructions as a PDF from Jalie here.

Is it me, or does anyone else think the model in the solid knit is either Tasia from Sewaholic or her long-lost twin sister?

The infamous Jalie "burrito" but using the HP instead. Hard to believe a whole top plus ties are in there, right?

The only pattern modification I made to the HP was to widen the bottom of the ties and point them. While I don't have the too-big first make anymore, I did make a note on the pattern that the ties as drafted were on the skimpy side. I'm glad I widened them. I like the added width much better.

I'm not sure if I'm wearing this outfit tomorrow, but when I do, I'll get a pic of me in it.

Remake Sunday = New Outfit Monday

This dress/fabric sat on the sewing room floor in a wadder pile for about a year (click here to see the too-tight dress again, and scroll down), and today it became a simple pull-on skirt with back darts to reduce waist bulk. Since it was pretty much already a skirt, all I had to do with the dress was cut it off above the waist, unstitch the unserged sideseams about 4 inches to remove the overbodice, then add the back darts, serge the sideseams, add a serge-n-turn coverstitched elastic waist, and hem it. Changing threads in the machines took longer than anything. ;-)

And since the skirt only took about a minute to make, I next made Jalie 2806 from a stashed purple poly knit to go with it. The purple in the skirt actually matches exactly but the camera is playing tricks. (If you look closely, you can see the scraps from yesterday's dress on the floor under Zillie.)

I was glad to save the print and also to find a matching knit in the stash. I still have more of the solid and might make a short-sleeve cardi for a twinset.

I have a couple more dresses still waiting to become re-make skirts. Maybe the mojo will stick around long enough to see them come to life.

Pamela's Patterns Magic Pencil Skirt

I need a vacation. ;-) I've been very busy this weekend but in a selfish good way.

I cut and sewed the brown ponte knit skirt tonight, using Pamela's Patterns Magic Pencil Skirt.

The magic is that there's just one pattern piece, no zipper, no waistband, and you end up with a flattering and comfortable skirt. It's pegged just the right amount and while it has an elastic waist, you can't tell by looking when you're wearing it.

$10 is maybe a lot to pay for one pattern piece, but the bottom line is that it works. I can see making many of these, which brings the pattern cost per skirt a lot lower, plus it uses less than a yard of 54-60" fabric so it's economic that way. I plan to make the higher waist version too. For this one, the lower waist view, I cut the Medium per my measurements. The only adjustment I made was adding 3/4" to the length. You can definitely make this skirt start to finish in an hour, especially if you don't have to change thread in all 3 machines like I did. I'm going to write up a proper review on PR (probably after returning from my trip) because this is a sleeper pattern and it needs some enabling. ;-)

Before starting the skirt, I (re)made my Jalie top from last year smaller. And by smaller, I mean I took out 8" of width, 4" at each sideseam, tapering up through the armhole and down most of the sleeve. I took a good 2-3" out of the bicep area, tapering to nothing by the wrist. I also removed 5" of length. I can't believe the old stomach and boobs took up all that space — wow! Well, I can, but seeing it that way was eye-opening. This is the before shot from the earlier post:

And this is the remake:

Lastly, I finally cleared off my pile of costume jewelry off the top of my dresser and hid it all in the top drawer, except for my little dish of earrings still on top. I still have the big pile of too-big clothes (which keeps getting bigger) and I'll deal with that when I get back too. And I should probably dust my dresser now.

That's my Fire in its new brown leather case in the bottom right of the pic. I also stuck on a screen protector, so it's officially good to go for tossing into my purse. Teri - you asked about battery time with the wi-fi. I don't have a good answer because so far I've never been too far from a charging source so I've not let it get low. I'll try to pay attention on our drive, when we'll be mobile hot-spotting it with Alex's phone.

Another good use for the Fire? Killing time in the Walmart customer service line while waiting to return the purchases I didn't show you.

Jalie 2921: Happy Halloween

Amazingly, I got *everything* on my To Do list for this weekend done, and I had time to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and catch the end of the Steelers game. Boy, I sure would like to have their TV set-up in my house every Sunday during football season.

Crappy cell phone pic

Here's my finished Jalie 2921 and a try-on preview of my outfit for tomorrow.

I read some of the 50+ reviews for this top after I had it cut out. A few of them mentioned it running tight. One review mentioned 4 inches of negative ease. Uh oh. I had gone by my measurements and cut a straight CC (16). As it turned out, I'm glad I read the reviews after cutting or I would've been tempted to cut a bigger size. There definitely is NOT 4 inches of negative ease. I measured waist and hips of the finished top and at the most I came up with 1 inch of negative ease. The top fits great.

I said I cut a straight CC, but that's sort of a fib. I did scoop out the back neck 2 sizes down because Jalie always runs high in the back neck on me. I'm glad I did this, because this pattern was no exception. The back neck as modified fits me perfectly, and the tie/collar doesn't gape in the back at all like some of the reviewers mentioned. I also scooped out the front armhole down a size because I could just tell by looking at the pattern that I would need to. I was right. After all these years making tons of knit tops, I'm pretty familiar with my preferred armhole shape, no matter what size I am. Other than those two adjustments which I made while tracing, I made no other adjustments. No FBA, no bicep increase, no blending to a bigger size at hip level, nada. Yippee! I love cut and sew patterns. However, when I make this again, and I will, the only other change I will make will be to narrow the shoulders 3/8". They are OK on this first make, but they will be perfect when I narrow them.

This was one of the funnest tops I've made in a long time. It's so FAST to put together and it's so cool how the neckline/tie is done. It's the burrito method and it's brilliant for a tie neck. Plus, once you have it all sewn into the burrito, it's like opening a Christmas present turning it right-side out. I loved that!

While I was in the "black mood" buying tights at Walmart, I picked up this top too.Very out of my usual color palette, but I like it. I might have to rethink my self-imposed ban on black. I put a chain belt on and I liked it even better (the top has some metallic threads), but my camera batteries died at that exact moment so I don't have a pic. The top has a cowl neck, which you can't really see here (and it's a 12/14 - woot!). This top will also work for my upcoming trip to Virginia where it's currently Brrrrrrr.

After recharging the batteries, I tried on the Bealls jeans I mentioned a couple of posts ago so I could see them from the camera's eye. I'm still on the fence with them. The fading/distressing down the thighs isn't the best look for someone with my thighs even though EVERYONE wears jeans like this. But the overall shape is pretty good. They give me hope for the Jalie jeans one day.

This is what my bed looked like 20 minutes ago, during the mad closet shuffle. I cleared out SO MUCH stuff that I actually have lots of empty space on the closet rods and a ton of leftover empty hangers.

The donate piles are growing. I also have a full big box that's not in the pic. One of next weekend's tasks will be getting this stuff out of the house and to a good new "home." While I'm not sad to be shrinking out my clothes, I'm a little sad over some of the fabric "lost." I wish I had some of it back to start over. I know, I know, it's not like I don't have a TON of fabric waiting, so I'm not too broken up.

Next weekend, I will sort through my dresser drawers and make space for all the crap on top of my dresser.