Aberdeen - A Tale of Two Sleeves

One of my goals in 2016 is to sew clothes I'll truly wear...in public...in daylight...with pride.


A tall order indeed.


So, with that goal in mind, in February I got brave and made myself an Aberdeen tunic out of French terry fabric.  It was NOT a 100% success, but I learned a lot and it turned out well enough that I wore it IN PUBLIC a number of times, so it definitely counts. 

I added 6" to the length of this tunic and cut it in a 2x to get the look I wanted.

First things first:  Aberdeen is a pattern from Colette Patterns.  It is a downloadable PDF with almost terrific instructions for even the most beginner of us. It t-shirt tunic pattern, designed for knits...lightweight to sweater weight.  (Honestly, my French terry didn't have enough stretch, but that was ignorance on my part and nothing to do with the instructions.)

Going for an oversized tunic, I decided to make the pattern in 2x.  I wanted a sweatshirt tunic that would skim over my hips and fall below my butt.  The only adjustment I made initially was to add 6" to take into account my height of 5'10" and the slightly longer than normal length. 

All in all the construction went well.  The only struggle was adding the neckline band.  I think the instructions for inserting the band could be clearer...I really wasn't happy with the smoothness of the point of the v neck and the instructions really weren't clear to someone who had never done one before. 

See that weird rumple?  I couldn't resolve it...it bugs me!!

A quick internet search did NOT net any clarification, either, so I just muddled through.   Overall, though, my first Aberdeen came together beautifully and I did some things pretty well, if I do say so myself.  The overall neck band turned out well, with the exception already noted.

Look at how clean that looks...

  Look at this collar band finish...so neat. The band met in back just perfectly!

Look at those bands meeting perfectly in the back...just gorgeous!

...those points line up perfectly.  The double stitched hem (a necessity with fabric that wants to roll!) also came out wonderfully.

A steady hand sewed those parallel lines!

...it looks like the work of a twin needle, but it wasn't.  It was my mad skills at the sewing machine!

I confess, I was pretty pleased with myself when my Aberdeen was completed...

...right up until I tried it on. 

The sleeves narrowed too quickly for my long arms and were just too tight on my forearms (and I don't have big arms!).  I was so disappointed.  Ignorance fail, definitely. I should have known the arm length would need to be modified.  Duh.  So, I seam ripped the forearm seams and wore it around the house to see if it worked in other ways.  One day of wearing and I decided the tunic was worth trying to save.  French terry is sooo comfortable and I had just enough fabric left to take a chance on trying to modify the sleeves to redeem my project. 

New sleeve...3" added.

I calculated that I needed at least three more inches in sleeve length, as the sleeves narrowed too soon on my long arms and barely fell below my elbow.  That meant changing the angle of the line of descent from the dropped shoulder to the forearm hem.  So, I took the existing sleeve pattern, added a three inch strip of paper to the forearm hem and redrew the lines from the shoulder to the hem.   That way the shoulder wasn't altered in any way and the ending sleeve opening wasn't bigger...it just took longer to get there. Since the tunic is batwing construction, I then just sliced off the sleeves at the dropped shoulder seam and attached my new sleeves.

 

Completed (again!) with longer sleeves.

 Success!  It worked beautifully and gave me an eminently wearable tunic for the cold winter months. 

In the grandest of compliments, the tunic has since moved to my teenaged daughter's closet.  For the win!

 

 

Tote Bag - Success (with a little big of failure!)

Erin Gilbey of Dog Under My Desk has written some of the best patterns for purses and tote bags.  Her instructions are terrific and the photos accompanying each step demystify the process.  As I've mentioned before, one of my favorite aspects of her patterns is her insistence that no exposed raw edges be left in the finish product.  The resulting bags are just so much nicer and so much less "home made" looking. 

As always, spiral bound for ease of use during the project and storage later. 

Last week, I tackled the Outta Time Tote for the third time, this time sticking exactly to the dimensions stated in the instructions.  I've made it twice before, both times modifying the size to suit my purposes.    (Did I mention her patterns are easily modified for size and, in this case, dimension?)  Anyway, for this one, I stuck exactly to the pattern for the dimensions, creating a bag which is taller than it is wide. 

Finished dimensions: 14" tall, 12" wide, and 3" deep.  Really nice size.

As you can see, the bag came together beautifully. 

 

Structured enough to stand on its own when empty!

 For structure, I followed Erin's instructions and used SF101 woven interfacing, but instead of batting, I used Bosal Fusible Foam.  Pellon makes a fusible foam, too, which is nice for when I run out of my Bosal, as my source for the Bosal has been exclusively Amazon and running out is annoying.  The floral fabric is a Mary Engelbreit fabric, the straps are black webbing (instead of fabric), and the lining is just inexpensive cotton.   The zippers are #5 zippers of my spool of zippers by the yard.

My favorite part:  Black piping running up the panels and added to the zipper as well. 

I fell in love with this fabric, but my favorite part of this bag is the addition of the black piping.  I am especially glad I decided to add it to the zipper installation on the front pocket.  The piping just frames everything so elegantly.

Embroidery fail:  poor color selection ruined the whole thing.

What I didn't love and actually deemed a fail was the embroidery I added to the front pocket.  I picked the wrong color and the embroidery doesn't really show at all.  I should have gone with black instead of picking a color which matched the lining and coordinated with the outer fabric.  Unfortunately, until the bag was completely together, I couldn't see the problem.  Next time,  I must remember:  Contrast, NOT coordinate!   So, while the embroidery is technically well done, I deem it a fail.

Terrific overall bag, but the embroidery disappears...sigh.

On to the next project...