Shifting Bust Darts for Plaid or Stripes

This tutorial will show the Colette Hawthorn pattern as an example, but this would apply to any bust dart that you need to shift for plaid or stripes.

Recognizing It and Why it Matters

The darts on the Colette Hawthorn are not on grain, so it looks slightly tilted. You can see that in the outline of the pattern here:

When you sew this dart with a stripe or a plaid, the lines won't match afterwards. Here you can see what happens to the plaid when the dart is off grain (left) vs. on grain (right). 

Dart on the left is original to pattern, dart on right is with shifting.

Doesn't it look so much nicer lined up? Especially right under your bust.

From Start to Finish

Here's a gif that shows you all the steps together that we'll be going through: 

Step by Step 

1. First, you need to make sure that the apex is in the right spot for you. When we shift the dart, we'll make sure it continues to point at the apex, so use your muslin or pattern tissue fitting to make sure it's good to go. 
   
2. Draw a box around the dart. Cut it out. 
   
3. Shift the box until the dart is vertically straight. Tape it down, filling in any gaps with paper. Connect the cutting lines at the waist seam with pencil (or pen if you're daring!)
   

That's it! It's fairly simple to do, and worth it for the visual appeal of having your plaid/stripes line up!

In my next post, I'll be talking about my experiments with different methods for matching plaid at the sleeves on another plaid wool dress I'm sewing (I just can't get enough!). If you're looking for a more general tutorial on how to match plaid, I recommend Lladybird's tutorial on matching plaid like a boss. 

Giveaway! My First Sweater Class from Craftsy

A few of you mentioned that you'd like to try the My First Sweater class from Craftsy that I used to knit my first sweater. Craftsy has been kind enough to offer a giveaway! It's open until February 24.

Enter Giveaway

Here are the fancy photos of the sweater, but below is me the minute after I finished knitting when I rushed to try it on. It was such a thrill!!  If you have the knitting itch but are battling your needles, I'd definitely recommend this class! It helped me tremendously.

Good luck! 

Wool Plaid Colette Hawthorn

My latest make is a Hawthorn by Colette Patterns. The fabric is from my stash, a plaid wool I purchased from High Fashion Fabrics in Houston, TX. It's ideal for winter!

I confess I was unsure about the Hawthorn when it first released, mostly because the collar seemed a little odd to me. Like most of us in the sewing community, I adore Colette Patterns and decided to give it a go anyway. I'm so glad that I did! The pattern came together really nicely with minimal changes, and it's a very comfortable and becoming dress. I even really like the collar now. 

The Case of the Mismatched Plaid

The pattern gave me no trouble, but the plaid is an entirely different story. All of my seams lined up grandly, except for one dastardly side of the skirt. I cursed the heavens and simultaneously scratched my head in confusion when this happened. I couldn't understand what went wrong. A mystery!

Huzzah!

$#!@*#!...

I was determined to get to the bottom of it, so I started work on another plaid wool dress. What's that you say? I'm daft? There was a mystery to solve! As any good amateur sleuth knows, you must recreate the scene of the crime to get the juices flowing.

This Gum Shoe Cracks the Case!

I realized in working on the second dress that I had paid very careful attention to my fabric being on the straight grain and my center seams matching. I neglected to pay attention to the cross grain. I didn't keep it straight as I went, and I ended up with one side that was wonky. A good lesson that is easily correctable on future garments!

I'm also still working on plaid matching with sleeves. I went with vertical instead of horizontal for the dominant stripe to break things up a bit. I hit it dead on in some places, and not so much in others. I know from lots of investigative work on the internet that not everything will match at a sleeve, but I still haven't quite sorted out what can!

Shifting the Dart for Plaid Matching: Tutorial Coming Soon

The bust darts on the Hawthorn are slightly angled. This is jolly good, except for when you have a stripe or a plaid. It will make your line cattywampus at your bust. 

I didn't want this, so I shifted the dart to be perpendicular, making sure it stayed pointed at my bust apex. Here's the difference.

Dart on the left is original to pattern, dart on right is with shifting.

See? The dart on the left causes the plaid lines to not match up, whereas the one on the right keeps things all lined up. I'll post up a tutorial on Thursday to show you how I did that. 

My First Knitted Sweater!

I KNIT A SWEATER!! While we were all sewing along, I was quietly click-clacking my needles in the background. It took me a month from start to finish, but I have been trying in vain for a full year to knit a sweater. I'm so glad I muddled through, because I am completely addicted to knitting now!

Here is it unbuttoned… I used buttons from the 1950s that I found on Etsy. I had to give it a vintage flair! 

And buttoned again… I just can't get enough! This sweater is so tremendously cozy, and easily my favorite that I've ever owned. It just makes me grin!  

The pattern is from Craftsy's aptly named "My First Sweater" class, and has a lovely eyelet detail at the sleeve that is created by doing yarn overs. It's knitted in five separate pieces and then seamed. The button band and neckband are picked up after and knitted. Now I am itching to give knitting in the round a go. Many say it's much easier as you can fit as you go. Thankfully, I didn't have to make a single fit change to this cardigan. I think it would have really overwhelmed me!

I had also never blocked before, which was much more intense than I anticipated! I felt like I was conducting a science experiment in my kitchen. I blocked each of the pieces before seaming them together. I found that was much easier to seam it that way.

After sewing for so long, I had forgotten what it was like to be a beginner. It's hard work! The extra guidance from the Craftsy class was what I needed to finally get past the beginner blues and get going. Amy Ross teaches the class, and she was great. She was very fast at responding to questions, and I was surprised by the amount of interaction I was able to have with her in the class. 

My only complaint was that I felt the class left off a lot of the information a beginner would likely need. For example, I didn't know you can pick up a dropped stitch with a crochet hook, so I spent one evening ripping out everything I had knitted that day to pick up one stitch that had lost its way! Then I had a calamity of errors trying to get going again. If you look real close, you'll see a bit of bumpiness in the middle back, where I had those problems. I also had never changed needle sizes or added a new ball of yarn, but Amy was great at answering questions.

Prior to this, I had knitted scarves and one baby blanket. Similar to my experience with sewing, my eyes didn't light up with excitement until I worked on knitting a garment. I also love that it's portable. It was great over the holidays to take this project with me to family while we were all lazing about after big meals. It's wonderful to be able to create even when you don't feel like doing much of anything! 

See more construction details and friend me on Ravelry!

*Update* Craftsy has kindly offered a giveaway to my readers for the "My First Sweater" class! So look for information soon on how to enter!

Shift Dress Sew Along: My Completed Dress

Here she is! You've seen the fabric up close and personal over the last few weeks, and now you can see it in its full glory. It's Anna Maria Horner's "Garden Social Climber."

When cutting, I tried to make sure the dominant part of the print was running along the center of my body for visual balance. I was a bit more successful at the back than the front at doing this. There are just so many seams at the front! 

I hope you've come to love the pattern as much as I have as we've been sewing. It's such an easy dress to put on and feel sensational in. It was particularly warm on the day we snapped these photos, but I've been wearing it this winter with pink tights and a white cardigan. It's been great fun. 

Why Include Plus Sizes? 

As we're wrapping up, I want to take a moment and share with you why I felt it was important to include plus-size sewists in the Shift Dress Sew Along. I haven't seen very many sew alongs that do, and the more I looked around, the more I saw there's a lack a fashionable plus-size patterns and not a lot on how to modify ones that aren't to fit you. I was tickled pink when Carolyn agreed to create the tutorial for our sew along.

I get a little teary eyed to down right emotional if I stop to think long enough about what sewing really means to me. I've been sewing since I was 12, and it has gotten me through some truly terrible times and lots of dress sizes. It has also helped me to come to love and appreciate my body just as it is, and strive to flatter my figure and celebrate it rather than hide it away. Every woman deserves to feel that, and if sewing can help make that happen, I'll create whatever tutorials you think you need to get there. And if I don't know, we can learn together!

That being said, please let me know what you think of the sew along! Could I do anything to improve the tutorials, or were there any others you'd like to see? What did you think of the pace? You can simply leave a comment with your feedback or email me.

Upload Your Dress by Feb 24

I would love to share everyone's dresses! Please upload them to the Flickr Pool or leave me a link in the comments by February 24. That way you get a bit more time to finish up, and I can post a parade at the end of the month! 

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Shift Dress Sew Along: Hemming

Guess what?! After today, you're going to have a finished shift dress! Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's get sewing!

 

The pattern calls for a 1 1/4" hem for both the sleeves and the bottom hem of the dress. Try it on to make sure you like that length. I start by sewing 1/4" from the edge. This gives me a guide for when I'm pressing. You'll see my trusty painter's tape as a guide for straight stitching. 

Press under the 1/4", using the stitch line as a guide. 

Now fold under the extra 1" and press. A sewing gauge comes in handy here to make sure it's even all the way around.

And then it's a bit more hand stitching! There are lots of different hem hand stitches, but I like the blind one best.  You're grabbing 1 or 2 threads on the dress, then a larger chunk on the hem, which won't be seen on the outside. You could also choose to do this by machine if you like.

Source

Repeat for the other sleeve, as well as the bottom hem of your dress.

Share Your Dress With Us!

Congratulations! You just sewed a shift dress! There are some decorative options as well, such as a belt and trim on the neckline that I won't be covering, which means this is the end of our sew along. I can't believe it!

Upload your dress to the Flickr pool or leave a link to a blog post in the comments to share your dress. I'd love to do a parade of everyone's garments if we get enough! I'll share mine with you next week.

See all posts, and grab a badge!

Shift Dress Sew Along: Sleeves

Today we'll be tackling the sleeves! If you've decided to go with a sleeveless version, follow the method that we used for neckline facings to stitch your armhole facings. 

First up, stitch two rows of basting stitches between the notches on your sleeves, inside the seam allowance. This will help you when you're easing the sleeve into the armscye (armhole). You can already see it's folding up a bit, just laying on the table. 

Now pin, stitch, press, and finish the sleeve seam. 

Pin the sleeve into the armscye. You want to hit all the main points before you begin the easing process. So pin, 

• The top of the sleeve cap to match the shoulder seam. Make sure to pin your shoulder seam flaps down so those stay open. 
• The side seam to the sleeve seam, lining up the seams so you get a nice tidy line. 
• The notches. 

Then, pull on the bobbin threads of your basting stitches to ease the rest of the sleeve into the armscye. When you're done pinning, you'll see a bit of wobbliness on the sleeve side. That's good, as long as you don't have folds in your fabric that you'll be stitching over.

Stitch the sleeve seam. Check to make sure that you didn't get any puckers or folds. If you do have some folds in your fabric, grab your trusty seam ripper and give it another go! And don't despair. As they song goes from Damn Yankees, "Why should we curse? We've gotta get better cause we can't get worse." Except curse if it makes you feel better. 

Once you've ensured there's no folds in your seam, press the seam allowance towards the bodice. 

Serge the sleeve seam. Repeat the whole process for your other sleeve, and then admire your handiwork. It's really looking like a dress now! 

We're almost done! All that's left is hemming.

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