Teal jacket - no, shrug

I've been thinking about the Cake Patterns Carmine jacket since it was first announced. Why it has taken me this long to get to it I cannot say.

I found this lovely teal, ever so slightly sparkly ponte knit at Joann's and thought it would be perfect. I duly bought a yard and a half per the pattern's note that that was what I would need for a size 30. I opted to cut the 30D even though I probably should have followed the instructions to add extra to the bust. But then I realized that the next size up needed almost another full yard of a fabric, and there was no way that would work (plus, knits stretch! It would probably be fine.). In the end, the fabric was the winner.

And then I discovered that while a 30A would fit on of a yard and a half of fabric, a 30D certainly wouldn't. There are notes that you can cut this piece up, add seams, not cut on a fold, etc, but I couldn't see how that was actually going to help me. So I'm making the shrug instead. That does leave me me with about 20" of this 60" wide fabric left - I wonder what I could get out of that?

With only 4 pieces the shrug is really fast to cut. I'm trying it with "long" sleeves though.

The directions for the sleeve bands made it sound like this (above) is what was needed. People with better spatial reasoning skills would have realized that that was crazy, and avoided this spate of seam ripping. I'm not totally sure what benefit is actually gleaned from folding (and pressing) the bands first, then unfolding them and stitching them into the round, and then folding them back how they go.

Roll collar. Didn't bother to serge the edges.

My first try at gussets!

Hem around the edge of the gussett

The gussets seem way bigger than they need to be. (Maybe the jacket version needs them this big, but the shrug doesn't.) The pattern directs you to match the roll collar to the marks. With the exception of some notches for the center back, there are no other marks relevant to the collar. The images available are so vague that I have no idea if it's right. (I'm trying to figure out if pulling that piece substantially tighter so it ends at the end of the gussets, instead of the beginning, would improve the scenario.

The fit through the front, and back, for that matter, are large. I think the amount of fabric there may make sense for the jacket, but it is awkward on the shrug.
I did like the way the one side of the sleeve is longer than the other. The designer has a little description in the instructions about how this is supposed to mimic the curve that happens when you bend the arm, and I feel like that is accurate. I do like how the sleeves fit, although I would hesitate to label them as "long." 3/4 seems a more accurate description, and that's on me with my short arms.

Meh. It is fast to cut and sew. It IS comfortable. It's not very cute on though. I will probably wear it around the house, but doubt I'll wear it out.




So I did a bit of searching, to see what other sewists have made of this. There are a few instances of the jacket, but only one other example of the shrug (at least that I found). Birdandbicycle seems to have had similar issues. (She also seems to have positioned the roll collar the same way I did.)

Chevrons and a lesson in steam a seam

I really do like the sizing for Cake Patterns. Here's a first stab at the Cabarita top.
Since I'm almost always wearing a sweater, going to the trouble to do chevrons on the back of the shirt just doesn't make sense. You'd never see them. So I dispensed with the collar, and planned for the chevrons in the front. I've never sewn anything that really required matching the fabric up carefully, so that was a first. I did a pretty good job of matching the three different stripes up in cutting, but some of them got off by a little bit when it came to sewing it up (stretch fabric being stretchy and all).

Note that on my dressform it looks better, since my dressform doesn't have the high bust/short upper torso issue.

I used steam a seam to help with the bottom hem (and stitched with a twin needle). It looks okay, but it feels super crunchy, and killed the stretch. Since I cut the top without much lite. Which is apparently what I should have gotten. Or fusible thread.
negative ease that's okay too, but it doesn't feel good. And thus I learned that there's also steam a seam
I also should have done a high bust/short upper torso adjustment of some sort, and, looking at the pictures of the back, maybe a sway back adjustment? It never occurred to me that that was a problem I have, but maybe so.

I cut the band for the neckline so the stripes go across it (perpendicular to the stripes of the chevron), and I'm not a huge fan of that. I think I would have liked it better if I'd cut a stripe so it would be one solid color.
Also, what's up with the sleeves? I by no means have tiny arms, but the sleeves are either too wide, or not floofy enough.

(Fabric for this is a 7oz cotton jersey from Girl Charlee. Too thin, but not by much.)

And it's really too short. Not terribly so, but I could have used some more length in the front especially (I did not do a FBA, but maybe I should have gone down a size, done a FBA, and made it a bit longer). (It's not crooked in the I cut like it appars here. That's just some quirk of how I am standing.) I cut the 35, at the 24" length, and chose the cutting lines not based on my measurements, but based on some of my favorite rtw knit tops. In lighter weight knits, I've found negative ease to be a bad thing, and I found that my my favorite shirts had the following measurements (1/2 of the front)

At waist	At hip
8.5	9.5
7.5	8.5
8	10

So, I wound up putting the waist at about 32.5, and the hip at 37. This is not just no negative ease, but some positive ease through the waist, and a tiny but of negative ease in the hip. 

Cake Red Velvet Sewalong

Next month I'll be participating in the Cake Red Velvet Sewalong. I'm moderately excited for this dress, since, although it's simple, it has a very similar silhouette to my two favorite (and most comfortable) dresses.

I also just bought some ITY jersey from fabric.com (that I can't link to, because I bought the last of it). I've been experimenting with different knits, and I think ITY may be the answer to my question of what the knits are that look a little dressier, that are often used in rtw. (You know, the ones with a little bit of sheen to them, without being shiny.) Since there was so little left in this particular fabric, and it was on sale, I didn't bother requesting a swatch. If it doesn't for some reason, seem like a good fit for the Red Velvet, I'm sure I can find a use for it.

Not a Sailor Top

I recently made Cake Patterns # 2223, the Bonny Knit Sailor Top.
While I think the sailor-y version of this is cute, I'd rarely wear it outside of swing dancing, and we don't dance that much these days. It includes very brief instructions for making it without the collar.

Fabric:

I used a 7 oz teal rayon jersey. The fabric is not ideal here. It shows every lump and bump. If I wear a camisole under it, it is wearable. There's still a bit of unpleasantness over my stomach, but I think if I resume pilates/yoga I can probably get my stomach toned back up enough that that won't be an issue anymore. I've been slacking on the exercise. (And actually, it's not nearly as bad in the photos as it seems to me in real life.)

What I'm figuring out on knit weights:

(Table adapted and improved from a post  here.)

Weight	Oz	Notes
tissue weight	3 oz	Fluttery and very translucent; layers must be doubled, at least in the front, for t-shirts
lightweight	5 - 7 oz	Nice drape but will show indentations made by undergarments.  Could be an issue with rayon knits only at 7 oz?
midweight	9 oz	Firmer drape that skims more nicely over the body
heavier	10 oz	Thicker, not at all drapey. See my Renfrew attempt.

Pattern:

Figuring out how to take these has been a pain. Any
place I've got a mirror has terrible lighting.

The pattern itself is quite neat. It's the first Cake pattern I've made. You customize the pattern based on your measurements (literally drawing some of the lines on, based on printed guides), and the result is a top that fits my figure pretty darn well. While I'm pretty short, I'm not exactly petite. My legs are short, my waist is long, but I have a high bust and/or am just petite from bust to shoulder. The result is that I think I need to do a petite adjustment so the sleeves sit in the right place.

I also had to re-cut the central panel as the neckline was way too low. Like not appropriate to leave the house in low. If I do a petite adjustment on future versions, that may solve this issue, but I'm going to have to do some testing as I go to make sure. When I re-cut the center panel, I added about two inches. Also, since the first version, with the top piece interfaced per the instructions, resulted in a neckline that wasn't just low, but also seriously gapey, I re-cut that piece too, doubling the height, folding it over, and stretching it taut as I sewed. Still not perfect, but better.

Because this pattern is a "riff," and the instructions are pretty brief (especially for the not sailor version), I'm not really clear if I did the neckline binding correctly or not. It seems like it might be best to do the binding, and then attach the center panel (i.e., in the reverse of how the instructions have it).

Part of the reason I was drawn to this pattern was the princess seeming. I have a rtw top that has very cute (similar) lines, and looks amazing on. In a less clingy fabric, I still think this has similar potential. (I'm also considering this book to learn the rub-off technique to duplicate it a little more exactly. I have terrible spatial reasoning skills, so while this would probably be quite simple for some sewists, I need more hand-holding.)

Oh, and I got a serger! This was the first thing I sewed using it. I've used one before (my mom has one), but I never quite felt I could justify the expense. So far I like it. Learning to thread  the lower looper was a major pain, but I think now that I've got it I should be fine.