One Last Sprout Dress

It's a little weird to be writing about this project after it's ended.

It started out with great ambitions, and

I've been participating for awhile now

January 2015 email

Check out all that white space! I used a dalek robot  pattern for a cosplay I was cooking up.

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2015/08/rusty-dalek-culottes-culotta-playola.html

Eventually, Sprout Patterns was born, and they added patterns from independent pattern companies such as

Betz White and the SideKick bag.

October 2015 email

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2015/11/side-kick-sprout-patterns.html

This bag remains mostly sewn together and unfinished. The ecocanvas was too heavy to be used for the exterior and the lining of the bag, and the grommets were a mess. Nobody's at fault, sometimes things just don't work out. Self-lined bags are not my jam.

You've seen a few posts from me about how Sprout stuff doesn't work. 

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2016/05/sprout-grows-appleton.html

Theoretically, using a combination of layout software, pattern software and digital art should produce the future of sewing. Or a direction it can go in (nothing replaces me, the fabric, altering the pattern on the fly to fit the fabric, adjusting the layout). With enough coding savvy and bandwidth, it should be possible to match fabric pattern and design so that the plaid or the design matches across seam lines.

Another example is 'Bags of Love' products.

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2017/04/online-digital-printing-contrado-bags.html

They couldn't do it (you have to line them up yourself as well)

And I think Spoonflower is closer than they think, given the amount of offset repeats and variations on DPI they can handle now.

There are, however, too many variables at play at one time. Pattern repeats, pattern pieces, different sizes of pattern pieces and repeats - it's a ton of data to manipulate and code for.

It will happen. Just not today.

So, with the discount they tossed onto the pile, I finally ordered one of the projects in my queue.

That's three yards kids. And the design is flipped sideways for the skirt panels.

This is where the design areas around the pieces turns.

Pieces are labeled in the margins. The seam allowance is baked into the piece, so you'd trim at the edge of the print (cutting off the words 'front bodice' in this illustration). I wanted a wider seam allowance for a little manipulation ability and size flexibility.

Yeah, I put clear elastic in the waistband for stretch recovery. I probably sewed over the pins, too.

The Turner dress has a complete front and back set of bodices, plus duplicates for a fully self-lined bodice. In a light fabric like the Modern Jersey shown here, it's genius. Cashmerette, you're a smarty!

In a heavier fabric, it would be insanity!

I cannot remember if I had an option for a princess neckline, or just the v-neck. I was trying to do two things at the same time AGAIN. 

I didn't want the v-neck, and IF I HAD BEEN THINKING I could have cut the bodice pieces differently to make my own neckline choice (could have used the v-neck printed pieces as the interior facing pieces).

But.... I cut one of the v-necks before I thought about this, and then it was too late.

One of the goals for 2019 is to create a selfie set-up for photos.

And yes, I am wearing a v neck t-shirt under this. The dress fits very nicely without modifications, but I am just not comfortable with a v-neck dress.

This is where being able to make small modifications in the pattern is key: my ideal neckline is a little narrower than this (my bra straps are always going to show with this). The fabric is very smooth around my hips, so adding pockets at the side seams is going to be .... lumpy. Lumperiffic? 

As my middle expands, maybe I do want to add saddlebags at the sides now, to create the illusion of a waist.

I could wear it backwards.....

I'm not in the habit of doing end of the year round-ups, as the end of the year is always a scramble of family fun and bookkeeping and work. I'm editing this from work right now.

Shhhhhh!

I wish all of you the best. I really do appreciate the conversations I've had with you, and hope to have many more.

And at least one will be posted remotely from Disneyland this year.

Anglicon 2017 I'm going, dash it all!

I have missed this Northwest event every year since I heard about it, because it was in the summer and summer is just full of stuff.
When they announced that it would be in the winter, I reserved right away.

I have to face the fact that all my Dr Who costumes are Dalek. For those who don't care, The Daleks are probably the most recognized villains from the show. They are "mutants in mechanical shells" that shoot death rays and speak in a mechanized voice and got a significant upgrade in the rebooted series.
They used to roll. Now they fly.

They are the only Whovian villain NOT entirely owned by the BBC. Contractually speaking, they belong to the estate of Terry Nation, and get their own credit as such. It is rumored that they do not appear in the first episodes of the reboot because their contract was still being negotiated.

Now THAT is a villain!

I'm kinda invested in them. I almost started a Dalek formal ballgown the other day, and then the sheer amount of time and money that whim would involve caught up with me.

Me and the Dalek at EMP  MoPop! 

Fifth Avenue Dalek

The fascinator doesn't read very well, it needs a bigger base, but I'm going without it. And man, I look so pissed off here. I'm not a good unfriendly Dalek. I can't go mean.

I also fail at the Dalek weaponry.

The paint roller weapon cannot readily be made from a paint roller. The paint roller handle is very very thick (so it won't bend while you roll) and there's no point in wasting time on cutting or bending it. The roller caps, however,are a good model for how to build one from plastic bottle caps and coat hangers (my chosen media)

I like to think of this as Dalek Accountant. A little Seventh Doctor in the hat, a little 12th in the Paul Smith flipback hem (and yes, that's an Issey Miyake jacket V1664),  and a whole lot of "I should be carrying a briefcase"

Will take the onesie. Jammie time.

The sundress works well under thermal underwear in winter. This was 2016 Halloween.

The shirt was my beta test item for Spoonflower's 2015 Sew Shirt, their 'cut and sew' which turned into Sprout Patterns.

And the self-drafted culottes. I will put the pattern up online someday, but if you stare at this, you get it. It's one piece, it's pretty simple. 

I am not the Perfect Whovian. I have....never seen a Pertwee episode. All we got here on West Coast television in my tender youth was Tom Baker and David Tennant's father in law. The latter will be at this said event. Also Sylvester McCoy, who I adore from many other things. Big doin's! I am looking forward to fist fights about #13 being a lady and all. I've got my plunger ready and I'm spoilin' for a fight.

---
I went, I had a lovely time.
Sylvester McCoy made a comment about the Whovian fans, that they were the most inclusive lot he'd ever seen in the pop culture convention world. And it's true; there are more differently abled folks in the ranks, more entire families (three or four generations) in attendance, and there was no guff, no rolled eyeballs, no fights.

There was patience for the newer fans, and abundant love for the younger ones and those with a different language or perception of it.

And I'm sorry that I don't have a picture of the Tardis lady chasing her toddler time lord, but I don't take photos without asking, and they were in a hurry.

And this would have been very appropriate.

I stole this from Roisin at Dolly Clackett. Love you.

Big a** prints - dealing with large print repeats

Big pattern repeats can hurt you.

My best practice is to trace another pattern piece, open out the fabric on the largest surface possible (that's not the floor, too old for that shit)

and start playing.

Good to have a marker to start at (see that red marker? That's where the pieces line up, on a lateral red line on the bust point level);

may I recommend the bust point, to keep any headlight effects away?

And it's friend, the butt point?
(sorry, no successful photos but you get the idea)
Tracing paper is great for auditioning this problem.

Some examples from the archives:

Getting the tassle to line up on that panel on this Miyake shirt required running the print crossways, and ate up yardage. Lucking I could use the spaces inbetween for the collar and the facings, things that don't need a motif or you can't see.

upper right corner is the back piece on the fold

I was running really short on Preciousssss yardage, so my biggest concern was cramming it all onto the fabric. But the big palm would work well on the back.

Upper back piece with motif centered mostly.

For the Dalek 5th  Avenue in 2016, I  sized the design on Spoonflower to fit my skirt pattern piece. I believe is this one of the great uses for Spoonflower printing; once I get the design honed, I can resize to fit my needs.

BTW, this process has gotten better since I did this

The world of upholstery has this one figured out

from http://carrscorner.com/repeatadjustment.php

This is kind of a blunt instrument. Upholstery doesn't use the bits inbetween to fill in pieces (those useful facings) and they don't piece stuff to fudge it, so there is definitely room for improvement in this chart. But you get the general idea. I'm geek enough to want to spend more time figuring out an estimator for yardage more complex than "Buy too damn much".

But so far on this coat, twice the amount is just going to squeak through. It's an 8 inch grid. 

And it's not on grain. The grid's not even entirely square.
(wails a heartbroken and pathetic wail)

And did I mention it was translucent?

I used that red line to try to match up the pieces that would need lining up. A big grid pattern is going to scream YOU SCREWED UP if I don't try to line them up. So I laid out all the fabric (the big piece on the floor is folded lengthwise as it has the larger pieces on it) and walked back and forth and back and forth, adjusting and measuring. The piece on the table is laid out single layer, and this isn't the final layout. I traced more pieces, because it became apparent that I was going to need almost every inch of this yardage (I had about a square foot leftover). And paper is still cheaper than fabric, and easier to mend with tape.

But I did cut.

aiiiiiiieeeeeeeee

and there's been sewing too. For terrifying real time updates, I'm instagram'ing. See that link tab up there?

Next week: glue sealing seams.

(which are drying as I type this)

Sprout Grows An Appleton

I've been a skeptical customer/designer on Spoonflower for a few years now, and a beta tester on the 'cut and sew' project that turned into the Sprout Pattern company. 

(for the new: where a pattern is printed onto the fabric for your 'cut it out and sew it up' use)

Hey, a tshirt from the first betas!

They've made tshirts (I've made the tshirt) and some simple clothes, but nothing that really took advantage of the capacity of Spoonflower to add sizes and pattern shapes.

Now we're talking about living up to your potential here.

Wider range of sizes AND cup sizes

Frankly, I'm an A cup, but you get the idea

And there is no size price penalty

$99 for all.

(insert your favorite happy yell here)

You can select two prints

and move them around to place the print as you'd like it on the fabric

Sadly, the two front wrap panels do not line up with each other across the torso at this point, so a big motif is not going to match.  Yet. Bet they fix that soon. And I picked these prints to show that; I'm not that overcaffeinated with the print choices. But the day is early....

Before you all go off to play with this new toy,

A stern warning from the management of Ernie K Labs:

The flat model on the left is what will get printed, NOT the 3D on the right.

So even though it all looks okay enough on the right, you're getting a 'headlight' on the left wrap panel (red circle on 2D). 

No, this is not cheap. Modern Jersey is $26.50 a yard, 56" wide. It's a little on the light side for my tastes for weight, but appropriate for the dress design. And the Appleton Pattern is $14 for the PDF (included in this package). This does get you the main print choice as well as a second choice for the trim, which would be an additional yard (Spoonflower doesn't do half yards, just fat quarters and swatches).

It's not cheap. But it's pretty damn cool. A good step forward for Sprout/Spoonflower, and a great collaboration with Cashmerette.

Side Kick Sprout Patterns

So I ordered this.

And about a week later, this came.

The layout is exactly as it was shown on the webpage. Dayum! I could like this 21st century!

All the pieces are labeled, and the legend in the center advises cutting them out with the labels, and pinning the labels to the pieces as you continue. You will be happy you did that.

There are no notches to line up the pieces, but they are so square you don't really need that.

What I do need is an interior zipper pocket. This is more of a tote than a functioning handbag, and I have made this fella before in a workshop I ran. And I likes me some pockets!

So I added the zipper in the interior piece first.

There was some sewing. I followed the other directions. Imagine that. This is a very straightforward build, and the ecocanvas I used (imagine Sunbrella fabric that is softer and can take a print like a photograph....) doesn't need interfacing except at the snap. It does unravel like a demon if you work it too much.

Then I remembered I needed a place to hold my coffee upright inside the bag. Made one out of the endless brown nylon taffeta supply.

You know, when you have about ten yards of a tool fabric, like white cotton or sew in interfacing or the blanket stuff from a moving van. It goes in everything somehow. 

Cup holder sewn

Cup holder pinned into seam

Turning the whole thing from the inside out

That awkward midway bit. Kinda like childbirth.

oh yes, I did go there

All Pulled Through, will need to get the insides shoved in

There's lot of tacking stuff down at this point, but the part that I had the most trouble with this time was the grommets. They just would not snap. The sample snapped just fine (so fine it would not come apart, my first clue something was ....fiddly).

I broke a couple. I had to use the clamps to wedge them shut, sorta smooshing them together slowly, tightening one clamp at a time.

Now I'm stuck on a point that I had forgotten about from previous experiences with this pattern.

I think that webbing straps look overwhelmed by the bag and the grommets. I want something plushier. And now I have backed myself into a fabric corner because I DON"T have about three or four inches by 36 or so to make a matching strap.

I only have leftovers because I changed up the interior lining pockets in favor of the interior zipped one.

And they ain't big enough to make a shoulder strap.

I have more of this print, from another order. I won't need a whole yard of the other stuff (which is not the same fabric, just the same print), and I'm going to carve off enough to make a different strap.

I saw this ad for the Celine bag today, and I love the shape/contrast of the strap. So I'm going to piece one from my other yardage, scaled to overfit the 1" grommets.

Well, I'm going to after I deliver the choir dresses. 

(the ship hat and the armed leg for Parlor Tricks ate up last week)

(yeah, they will get a post sometime)

The printing time varies, the closer to the holidays the nuttier it gets, but one thing Spoonflower does incredibly well is customer service and support. Their shipping info is accurate, they always give you tracking numbers, and they really do back up their products. I have had problems with ongrain printing and they have always reprinted for me, often overnighting the new print.

It's not perfect, it's not cheap, but for you and me, folks who just want to make something completely their own, it's damn fine.