Bananna🍌Threads🧵

A quick recap: I had finished piecing the daytime side, sewn together my two backing pieces, added scrap fabric along the perimeter of the bodice for easier mounting on the longarm machine, and handed it off to be quilted!

After just a few short days, Laura handed it back to me, fully quilted and

OH. MY. GOD.

IT WAS GORGEOUS!!!!

The original pantograph I chose was called Echoed Swirls, but unfortunately it was too large. At the scale we wanted, it would have been 22 inches tall, which was longer than the working bed size of the longarm machine. So we had to do a quick pivot to a new design. I ended up choosing Breeze. It maintained the 'Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night' look I was going for, while also fitting into the quilting 'zone.' We chose a gold metallic for the upper thread, and a stronger grey for the bobbin. Apparently, metallic threads require a lot of supervision, as they are prone to breaking, but Laura assured me that she had it handled. And boy, did she have it handled. I cannot praise her enough! Even with all of my weird requirements, she did a remarkable job :)

I feel like the pictures don't do it justice, since it's hard to capture the beautiful sparkle of the gold threads, but here are a few close up shots I took:

I then did the work of trimming and cleaning up the edges. All along the top where I had sewn scrap fabric to help with mounting onto the longarm, I had to painstakingly cut around the fabric with applique scissors and then tease out the scraps from beneath the quilting. Could I have just trimmed about half an inch away all around? Technically yes, but I was a bit worried about losing more seam allowance just in case I ended up needing that extra wiggle room for adjustments. Especially since quilting already has a slight shrinking effect on the fabric. I also had to seam rip the pocket slits open and tie off all the loose quilting threads. I re-drew the quilting lines that I had to rip out with a heat-erasing pen and back-stitched over them by hand, using the same gold thread that Laura was kind enough to give to me!

Once all my edges were trimmed, I began working on the watteau pleats. I pretty much just followed the instructions in The American Duchess Guide to Eighteenth Century Dressmaking by Lauren Stowell and Abby Cox. My pleats measured about 4 inches in length down the back, and each center pleat was about 2.5 inches. While laid flat, I pinned them, and then prick-stitched in place.

I then worked on top-stitching the other pieces of my dress that I had assumed were too small to bother with the longarm for. I used the image of the pantograph and scaled it to the same size that was used on the rest of the dress. Using my projector, I traced the image onto the sleeves, shoulder straps, and bodice fronts. I then followed the chalk marks on my sewing machine. I assembled the sleeves, and prepared the dress for my final fitting.

I don't have any pictures of this process, but it involved trying on the dress, and having my wonderful partner help to pin the skirt and sleeves in a flattering way. I then went back, and sewed them permanently to the bodice lining. The shoulder strap edges were turned under and sewn on last to cover the raw edges of the sleeve heads. Strips of fabric were sewn to the front skirt openings to cover the raw edges, which were likewise folded under. A strip of gold velvet was used for the hem facing. A silver star patch was appliqued on to cover an old tear in the backing fabric.

And with that, the dress was complete! All I had left to do was gather my accessories (including a pocket bag I made to wear under my panniers), and don my battle armor (a.k.a heavy, quilted dress).

Unfortunately, I did not have enough fabric to do a full jacket or pleated skirt, so I decided to do a matching vest and a basic thigh-high skirt. For the skirt, I took my sloper, shortened it, straightened the waist curve, and added some extra fabric at the center back seam for a kick pleat. I didn't bother patterning out a waistband, because I figured I would just cut a rectangle long enough to go around my waist, plus a little extra for a button tab and seam allowance.

As for the vest, I browsed sewing.patternreview.com and found a vest I liked the look of that user Jed Keller had sewn and reviewed. The pattern was from Lekala—a website where you plug in your measurements and they give you a custom pattern pdf. It was only like $3 so I figured I'd give it a shot! The instructions are trash, but the pattern looked decent when I made my mock-up. However, I prefer a more snug fit, so I took it in at my waist by about half an inch on the side and side back seams. I then transferred these changes to the pattern by editing the original PDF in inkscape.

I cut all my pieces from the wool first, making sure to pattern match to the best of my abilities. I started with my back vest piece, which I cut on the fold, then cut the side back, side front, and finally the fronts. With each piece, I made sure it continued the pattern from the last one that I cut. I was more concerned about the pattern being continuous horizontally, and aligning at the waist, since it's impossible to pattern match perfectly along the curves. I also cut the skirt pieces in a similar manner.

My lining fabric was a blue acetate from Mood Fabrics. All the lining pieces were pretty much the same, except I 'subtracted' the back neck facing from the back piece to get my back lining piece. The vest fronts I decided to line with the wool. If I were to do this again, I think I'd make a different choice—two layers of wool plus cotton interfacing at the fronts made everything a bit too bulky, especially at the shoulder seams. It was okay after trimming some seam allowance and pressing with plenty of steam, but not worth the headache.

To attach the lining, I sewed from the center front, around the neckline, and down to the other side, then around the arm holes, leaving the bottom and side seams open. After turning right sides out, I pinned the sides (right sides together), and machine sewed them. Similarly, I sewed the bottom edge, leaving a large enough hole to turn it right side out. I then slip-stitched the hole closed. After stitching the button holes and attaching the wool-covered buttons, I was done with the vest!

The skirt seemed simple on the surface, but a couple mistakes on my part made it take longer than expected. First, remember how I said I didn't pattern out my waistband? Well...winging it didn't go well. I accidentally cut the rectangle with a height equal to the desired waistband height + (seam allowance x 2). Yup. I didn't account for it being folded over and was short 1.5 inches. Whoops. I remedied this by sewing a strip of lining fabric along the long edge. Problem solved!

My next mistake? Not cutting the lining properly to account for the vent. I couldn't wrap my head around how everything was supposed to lay around the opening, but tried my best. I think the right back lining piece is slightly too narrow? I don't notice it when I'm wearing it, though, so I guess it's okay. I also didn't realize I wasn't supposed to sew the darts in the lining, just do tucks instead, so I had to unpick those as well. The result is a little messy, but it's the inside so 🤷

In the end, I'm pretty happy with the overall look. Although, instead of clueless, it's giving me…gingerbread man? Not sure why. Maybe it's the buttons.

Based off of the other items I had planned to make, at first, I tentatively chose to make them green, as I thought they might pair reasonably well with my red & green shirt, stripey blouse, and wool plaid vest. When I bought this really cute cherry blossom fabric during my trip to Japan, that plan changed. I love a patterned pant, and this seemed like a perfect fit.

After washing and ironing my fabrics, I started by creating a mock-up out of the plain black cotton that I would eventually use as my lining. My hope was that the changes I needed to make would be minor enough that I could still use them. If the changes required cutting new pieces, it would be no big deal since black cotton fabric isn't exactly hard to come by. Luckily, that wasn't needed. My measurements were between two sizes, so I chose the larger one, a size 14, and just pinned it down from there. The crotch went up my butt slightly, and the back pulled down when I sat, so I feared I might have to do a full seat adjustment and cut new lining pieces. I know when it comes to alterations, scooping the back crotch curve is sometimes seen as a bit of a no-no, but it worked for me so the full adjustment wasn't necessary in the end.

After mirroring my pin placement on both sides, and re-sewing to double-check the fit, I marked my new seam allowance, cut off excess fabric, and seam ripped my lining pieces. I laid them flat to trace the new lines onto my paper pattern. I then got to work cutting my fashion fabric.

Just finished making this pajama set! Don't know whether to call them my "Pa-Jamborees" or "Bojangle-Jammies" :P

There was less than a yard left on the bolt, so after looking at the fabric requirements of my chosen pattern I realized there wasn't enough for the sleeves on the shirt, let alone a pair of shorts. And so, I had to use something else in my stash to supplement. I went with this beautiful blue mulberry silk that my partner brought back from India. Does this mean I will have to hand wash my pajamas?...yeeees. But I just couldn't resist! You have to understand—it was so soft! I also had to flatline everything with cotton because the silk was so lightweight and transparent.

I like the look of the finished garment, but my one gripe is that it is somewhat lazily finished on the inside. You are told to serge or zigzag stitch all of the raw edges, which I did end up doing, but I wasn't jazzed about it. As with seamingly ;) every project, I made a small mistake. When I was serging the ruffle seam allowance, the trimming knife caught some fabric on the back. Luckily I was able to put a little patch over the hole, and it's pretty unnoticeable, so not the end of the world. I kind of wish I had done french seams instead. Oh well!

I love how the puffed sleeves turned out. They were lined with a stiffer cotton than the gingham I used for the pant lining, and they look extra voluminous as a result. And to complete my pajama set, I made the hapi from some wool I found at an antique store. It seemed super high quality with bold colors, and the selvedge led me to believe that it was woven on a personal or small production loom. A great find!

The more I sat on it, though, the more I disliked it. Eventually I went on etsy to find an alternative, which is where I found the one I ended up using. I am really happy with the one I chose! It had very clear instructions, and the inside is beautifully finished with french seams, bindings, facings (the works!)

The only change I made to the original pattern was doing 1/2 inch pleats instead of 1/4 inch pleats. This was pretty simple since it basically meant doing half the number of pleats. Less work for me!

One point of pride with this garment was the near perfect pattern matching I managed to do on the back seam:

I ran out of brown fabric when cutting out the pieces for the oars. I swear, I only needed 5 sq inches, meaning I had to pause progress until I had time to run to the same fabric store where I originally bought it. While I was at it, I also bought the perfect backing fabric :D After that, I was off to the races! I figured out placement, sewed them into columns, added spacing strips out of my bg fabric, and then began the painstaking process of removing the foundation paper backing with my trusty tweezers. I think that alone took 5 hours...