An Embroidered Lisette Butterick 6567

I've been working away on a project for Fabricville over the past few weeks, one which was a bit derailed by, first, the work I was doing on the local refashioning show I mentioned in my last post, and then secondly, by a terrible cold that has kept me home for a week. But I have persevered! And today was a lovely sunny day so I was able to snap a few pictures of my now finished dress in the evening calm. (and my Fabricville blog post is now live, so you can check it out there too!)

Nope, I will have to move out of the sun!

The project is a new Lisette pattern, Butterick 6567. I liked the potential of this pattern, but wasn't fond of the contrast yoke all on its own. So I chose two denims of similar tone from Fabricville's spring fabrics -- it is the dark wash and medium wash lightweight denim, both of a shirting weight and very soft and pliable to work with.

I pictured my dress made with a lighter yoke, carrying this over to the whole shoulder & cuff pieces as well. And when I saw that distinct yoke, I knew it would be perfect for a touch of embroidery! My first thought was to create a folkloric floral spray, but then I pondered on it -- perhaps with the denim, primary coloured florals would give it too much of a country feel. My husband suggested going with an abstract or geometrical design, and I thought that sounded good! So I looked through a few old books for inspiration, and ended up adapting a pattern from this 1920s era book online at the Antique Pattern Library, Broderies pour Robes. (fabulous little book!)

I drew the outline of the yoke on paper and then used handy circular objects in my sewing room to add the circular motifs: a couple of spools, the middle of a roll of tape, and a small PatternReview tin from the last PR Weekend I went to in Chicago! I scattered the circles onto the pattern and then drew in some wavy lines behind them. I had fun embroidering over a few nights. I used purples and greys from DMC's newest set of colours, and filled in the circles randomly with whichever stitch I felt like using: chain stitch, lazy daisy, stem, french knots, buttonhole and more. I did use my favourite, stem stitch, for the wavy lines and some of the circular outlines. The only repetition is the central, largest circle -- I decided to copy that one on the back neck of the dress to carry through on the design. I rather like the postal air it ended up with!

The dress itself is billed as "easy". I wouldn't call it a beginner pattern, though. It was very time consuming, especially with the odd angle of the front pleat as it attaches to the yoke. It took me three tries and some hand basting to get that on and all lined up correctly. The pockets are a really neat feature and not difficult, but again, not "easy" either. Because there are no closures to worry about it does finish up quite simply which may be where the "easy" comes from.

One thing that makes this pattern difficult to fit is that there isn't an easy way to petite size it. I thought I'd got the sizing right, but after I finished it, I ended up taking a half-inch up at the neckline side of the shoulder seam, tapering out to nothing. That helped get the bustline a little higher and made the dress fit a little better. If you are short like me, pay attention to the length of the pattern in all areas; it was the only sizing issue I had.

I only noticed after taking the photos and looking at them that I'd made a few errors while stitching -- some little gathers to unpick and hand stitch down correctly now -- and the denim really does need to be pressed every time you wear it. I hesitated to really give the yoke a heavy press because of the embroidery, but I can see that it does need one, especially around the outer edges!

But over all, this was an interesting make, and I learned quite a bit while doing it. I'm not sure it's my best silhouette, but I enjoyed the creative touches to this pattern, and it is certainly a light and loosely fitting dress for warm days. This denim is a lovely weight and texture, and I look forward to trying out more embroidered projects.

Put a Bird on this Butterick 6182

This Lisette design, B6182, was an unplanned project. I found this lovely white cotton birds & vines print for sale in my local Fabricland and decided to buy 1.6 m to make the skirt in this wardrobe pattern. But when I got home I thought -- what an interesting dress this would make, even though the dress called for 2.2 m.

 

 

Fortunately for me, I'm quite short...and so I laid out the pattern with about 1/4" to spare between pieces and from the edges of the fabric. Hurrah! There was even a square left over the in-between spaces big enough to cut two pockets taken from the skirt design, with a bird in the centre of each -- with a little bit of moving things around first.

              

This was quite an easy sew, though I dithered for a full day over whether I should finish the neckline with the bias facing as called for, or finish it by lining the dress with a soft white cotton. In the end I decided that wearing a slip would be effective against the see-through nature of the fabric and just used the bias facing. 

I don't often wear this kind of flared, a-line silhouette, but I really like it. I think when a loose shift like this fits at the shoulders & bust, it keeps it from looking like just an oversize sack. I do wish I'd added a bit of circumference to the sleeves though; they fit, but quite closely. That's my own fitting issue, though, not a pattern problem.

This is a straightforward pattern, with only 4 pattern pieces - front, back, sleeve band & bias neck facing. Plus the extra addition of the pocket piece, which I stole from the skirt! It sews up easily, and the unusual front bust dart adds a little extra interest, and fitting help as well. 

I feel like it's a dress you could wear to an art gallery...hence the pictures, taken at our local Gallery Stratford, which is currently exhibiting a wonderful show by Connections Fibre Artists which I have really enjoyed. Amazing textile arts! 

 

This dress is also a very last minute make for the Monthly Stitch's monthly challenge: actually it is doing double duty for this month's celebration of the fourth anniversary of the Monthly Stitch -- it has 4 pattern pieces -- and June's "Put a Bird On It" theme. It suits both!

I was also lucky enough to find the perfect string of beads at the thrift shop just before wearing this dress to work for the first time :)

Hopefully I will get to that skirt, as well, some day...

My artistic shot, against a huge black monolith on the grounds...

 

The I.T. Dress: Simplicity 1419

I had cut out this pattern -- the Lisette Simplicity 1419 -- in April but got distracted by other projects, like my Cambie and the Simplicity Jiffy reversible dress. But I've finally got back to this one and finished this week, staying up late to finish the hem so I could wear it the next day (actually I cheated on the hem and instead of hand stitching as originally planned I just used some Steam-A-Seam. Don't tell...)

This is the dress for which I cut out a skirt lining from a pink sheet, which was the instigator of my recent reversible Simplicity dress. I added underlining because this dotted fabric, while cute, was also quite see-through if I was standing in any kind of light. I love the underlining -- it makes the skirt stand out crisply and hold its shape. It also makes it less likely to blow up scandalously in a strong wind, as I discovered to my relief when I wore it this week!

A look at my Steam-A-Seamed hem, which
allowed me to press it up right over the
underlining  and even gather slightly to keep it
nice and  straight-hanging from the outside.

This dress fabric is a recycled sheet I found at the Goodwill recently, I think it's another IKEA branded one. Good quality cotton -- it has a light, crisp hand, and is quite solid, in the sense that I had to be careful with pins -- it resisted any slightly dull pins and didn't want to recover from any pin or stitching holes. That quality gives it a nice polished appearance though.

Fitted but with room to move comfortably

Back view. So close to
being perfectly lined up

I call this dress my "I.T." dress -- the dots look just like those buffering circles that spin every time you're waiting for your computer to do something! I was extremely pleased to find that the dots had lined up exactly at the front waist, except that it's more of an oval than a circle, but hey, it is pretty close :)

Centred dots!

I like the pockets, the collar, the shape of the bodice, the pleats -- I like all of this one. The only changes I made were small fitting ones, like shortening the bodice by 1/2", although I do wish now I'd have shortened the back bodice by another 1/2". It does feel like it sags a little in the back waist, sadly. Not enough to stop me from wearing it, but I know it could be better.

I also lengthened the sleeves -- mostly so that I could cut them on the preexisting deep hem of the sheet and have halfway self-lined sleeves with no extra effort. I also ended up taking off the button loop at the front and just leaving this open as a V (which I had shortened by 1/2 " so it wasn't so deep). When I had a button on and had it closed up, it looked just too frumpy on me -- funny how one tiny thing like that can change the look completely.

Close up of neckline - you can also see
my perfectly matched earrings here too!

This is the first Lisette pattern I've used, and I really like it. I thought that the collar might be a little too much, but as it turns out I love it, and it was the element that most people commented on when I first wore it.

The pattern was very easy to follow, with well written instructions and techniques that are simple enough even for a beginner sewist who is looking for a bit more of a challenge than a 'very easy' dress. The pattern also includes a little jacket that looks like it could be interesting too -- perhaps I'll try it eventually.

I enjoyed wearing this very bright dress on a rather blustery day. It brightened my mood as well as my wardrobe!