Ready to Wear Copycat

Shirt dresses are a wardrobe staple for me- particularly for work.  I purchased a sturdy navy corduroy from the Fabric Store to make another of these wardrobe workhorses for cool weather.  But, as often happens when sewing basics, I put this project off in favor of sparkly, shiny, new sewing projects.  Then, I stumbled across this brilliant ready to wear twist on a shirt dress here and I found the inspiration I needed to finally make this up. 

Let the pattern hacking-drafting begin.

First step in copycat dressmaking is to examine the pattern lines and scour my patterns to find the basic structural pieces.  When does hacking turn into drafting? I kind of based my pattern on Simplicity 2246- but very loosely. I changed up the front closure. The Simplicity pattern has a separate button placket and I was planning on using big buttons- like the inspiration dress -and a button placket would be too fussy.  I also added fish eye darts in the back for subtle shaping similar to the design I was following.  Then, I drafted the simple drop waist skirt piece. I didn’t simply draw a straight line rectangle.  The top piece needs a slight curve from side seam dipping in the middle.

Pretty straightforward- but then came the collar

I gained – the hard way - a bit of collar wisdom working my way through this.  I actually made and applied two separate collars- before landing on the final outcome.

There is plenty of collar terminology to wade through: applied or grown on, stand or flat, convertible or non-convertible.  On top of that there are a bunch of collar names: Peter Pan, shawl, Eton, mandarin etc. 

I never use the collar included in Simplicity 2246 because it is a one piece mock two piece stand collar- which I find a little unusual. I am generally most fond of a traditional two piece stand collar- despite the associated sewing challenges. On the inspiration dress, there isn’t a stand collar piece in front.  However- notice the bit of a stand in back – this is a mix of stand and flat collar.  This is exactly the collar construction I used in the Foreman jacket.  When you wear the collar open, you get a lapel look, and you can also wear the collar buttoned up.  This is called- appropriately-a convertible collar- because you get two collar looks.

I first gallantly made an attempt drafting and installing the mixed stand convertible collar with a back stand, but when installed the collar would not roll smoothly.  You can’t press or mold faux leather- so the drafting needs to be spot on. So the easier and ultimately successful solution was to draft and install a simple convertible collar.  Gertie has simple instructions for drafting a convertible collar here.

I am very pleased with my copycat look, and super happy with this riff on a traditional shirtdress. PS- notice the red nose- outside temperature is 20 degrees Fahrenheit!

Faux leather fun for Fall

After a bunch of head scratching, pattern hacking, self-drafted projects- I decided I needed a straightforward- out of the envelope make.  For this project- I went totally auto pilot.  I liked the styling of this Cynthia Rowley Simplicity 1314 pattern view so much, I absolutely (shamelessly) copied it- down to the shoes.

 Armed with my leftover faux leather and this pattern, I made the exact dress; exactly out of the envelope; in exactly one size; in exactly the same suggested fabric.  But there you go- I like it and I’m glad I did.

I think this dress pattern is super flattering and the fit is perfect. I will definitely re-visit it again- perhaps with a more creative mind!

Because I made absolutely no modifications and the pattern is straightforward - all I really need to talk about is the ease of working with faux leather- if you haven’t before- and also give a shout out the fabulous quality of this particularly beautiful faux leather from Emma One Sock.

Can an imitation be better than the real deal? Faux literally means fake or imitation- not super appealing.  But, after working with this, I am a faux fan.  When I wore this dress last week, a friend asked if it was real leather.  Well-I guess that’s the goal.

The only extra step I took was to change my sewing machine needle to a leather needle.  Other than that- everything was straight forward.  This leather has the tiniest bit of stretch so it works perfectly with the black ponte I paired it with- also from Emma One Sock.

 Similar to ponte- the faux leather does not fray and is very stable. 

I am typically careful pressing ponte- I (almost) always press on the wrong side- and use a press cloth on the right side.  This faux leather is viscose backed- so you can feel safe pressing on the back side.  And I used a press cloth on the front with the faux leather- the manufacturer notes you can use a medium heat iron on this fabric.

My other faux leather project this month is this super simple bomber jacket.

This jacket was meant to be fast and easy.  The jacket is unlined because the viscose back on this fabric is surprisingly comfortable.  And I didn’t need to finish the seams because the simple cut edges on the faux leather are so sharp and clean.

Unlike the easy out-of-the envelope dress- this simple looking bomber is actually a hack of three patterns.  I had a jewel neck raglan jacket pattern– but the sleeves were too full- so I fiddled with those and modified a piece from another pattern.  Last, I used a collar and facing pattern piece from a traditional bomber pattern.  The ribbing gets five stars for really pulling this all together.

The only notable thing I did on this jacket is hand hemming.  I didn’t have enough ribbing to finish the bottom of the jacket- like a typical bomber- so I opted for a straight hem.  I experimented with topstitching on this fabric but I didn’t like how it looked.  So I attached seam binding on the hem for a little extra length- and sewed it up by hand. In the end, I really prefer this straight finish over a ribbed trim finish.