Call of the Wild

Yes, I've sewn yet *another* version of Vogue 1314. I couldn't help myself! :) As another PR reviewer put it, "there's something addictive about it". I'm going to put it aside for now and move onto something else, but I'm certainly *not* ready to retire this pattern!

Review on PR here.

I realize I'm standing next to a "do not shovel snow against this fence" sign! Note to self: Next time be more aware of where I'm posing
for photos! Oh well :)



Good news, the weather here in Nova Scotia is finally getting warm! It was nice to not be freezing to death when we took these (well, Dan took the photos and I tried to look pretty, I even painted my nails red for the occasion :)




I was getting rather bored of posing indoors! It's just *sooo* much nicer outside (even if the outdoors is just in the parking lot behind our apartment building :).

I must note that for this version I left out the lining. The fabric I used was also a Polyester/Spandex knit (like my last two). This fabric in particular seemed very stable, so I chose to leave out the lining. After wearing it, I conclude that I don't think a lining is absolutely necessary (depending on your fabric of course).

The obligatory "Vogue Pose". Notice my cat, Caper, wants in.

Oh Caper! She often likes to join me when I'm on the couch. I guess she didn't realize I was posing for the camera and it wasn't cuddle-with-Rikki-time!

If you've seen any of my other blog posts, you may have noticed I like to use hockey pucks as pattern weights. I *hate* pinning and cutting with scissors. I find it rather tedious, so unless necessary, I prefer to use a cutting mat & rotary cutter.

Most of the hockey pucks I have are from Value Village Thrift Store. This Halifax Mooseheads puck is the only one I paid full price for. Souvenir from last weeks (amazing!) game.

Boris on my lap as I was sewing :)

I took this shot of the cats when I was at the ironing board, thinking they were so cute wanting to be close to me as I worked! Then I noticed they were in front of the fridge giving me "that" look...

Stretch stitch #15 :)

Since I've already posted two reviews of this dress, I don't need to repeat most of it. One thing I did do differently this time though, is narrow the skirt slightly. I pinned it while wearing and then used a fading fabric marker to dot where I wanted the new seam to be. I used a Fashion Ruler to true the seam (I think that's the right terminology :)

I basted the seam first (not shown) and then used a stretch stitch as shown on the above photo (#15 on my Brother Sewing Machine). Then simply trimmed along the new seam line.

I've had difficulty in the past hemming narrow sleeves, but this time I discovered a much easier way. I pulled up a sleeve on a sleeve roll and turned the hem up (I wanted 3/4 length sleeves). In my case, I turned it up 1" and pressed.

Next I took the sleeve off the sleeve roll and opened out the pressed area, turning the fabric in to meet the crease, pinning all the way around. Press again and let cool.

Here I'm opening up the hem to insert a strip of "Steam a Seam Lite" (I think it's called "Lite 2", sorry, lost the packaging!). This stuff is great, as I find the polyester/spandex fabric slippery to hem. For this hem, I cut the strips lengthwise as they were too wide.

This special type of fusible web stretches with knit fabric (regular fusible web does *not* stretch with fabric!)

Press with lots of steam and it makes topstitching sooo much easier! I suppose you could try it without topstitching, but I like the look of the two rows, and the extra security of stitching :)

Another bonus of "Steam a Seam, lite 2" is, it helps to prevent unsightly "tunnelling" which can occur when a double needle is used on knit fabric (the fabric kinda puckers between the two stitching rows). Seems like I get that more often than not (tunnelling, that is), even when I try different needle sizes :/  Wash-away-Wonder-Tape also works well too, but this stuff is cheaper :)

One more thing: this is the first time I've used a Teflon foot. Made sewing over clear elastic so much easier! Here I'm using clear elastic for the gathers. This time I basted the front and back pieces together before sewing on the elastic to gather, which helped a lot. The instructions say to gather each side separetely, but I was a little impatient.

Thanks for checking out my blog post :)