The Sewing Place

Dress from Butterick 6143 ...

Francesca

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #15 on: February 06, 2018, 21:06:44 PM »
Adding a lining is easy peasy. Send me the pattern and I'll draft it for you!

Take the back piece and lay it on your fabric on the fold but stick it about 1 inch away from the fold, to give you 3 inches extra wedge down the back. When you come to sew, sew from top and bottom about 2 inches in so you get a nice thick pleat.

For the front, trace of a second front piece (or pieces, if it's princess-seamed so you've got enough to make the full bodice) then cut a healthy chunk off the front to make a facing pattern. You'll need to add seam allowance back in on the cut edge.

Then when it comes to sewing, use your facing piece and attach it to the front of your lining front piece, then construct the rest of it exactly the same. I prefer to stitch it together at the collar and round the front, but I also prefer to hand-stitch my hem and cuffs. Dunno why just like it that way!

Acorn

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #16 on: February 06, 2018, 21:33:45 PM »
The coat I'm making, which is a lined (ha!) Lekala pattern is a bit of a jke a far as the lining is concerned.

The main pieces - front, back and sleeves - are marked to be cut in both fabric and lining.  Exctly the same shape and size, including the facings for the buttonstands.  The hood is apparently not lined (mine will be - who has a lined coat with an unlined hood?!?)

The instructions for the lining, in total, say 'Sew lining details. Stitch lining to buttonstands on inner edges. Stitch by hand lining to collar connecting seam and to buttonstand shoulder edges. Stitch lining to lower edges of sleeves.  Undersew lining."

I might as well have chosen an unlined coat pattern and added my own lining - it would have given me a much greater choice of patterns.
I might look as though I'm talking to you, but inside my head I'm sewing.

Francesca

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #17 on: February 06, 2018, 21:49:52 PM »
Yep I've had a Lekala like that, which is mainly why I know about adding linings haha!

Greybird

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #18 on: February 06, 2018, 23:00:07 PM »
I have found that my favourite type of garment to make is a jacket. Whenever I have made anything that didn't turn out right or I had a nightmare making, if I follow it with a jacket it recharges my morale. Maybe you need to find your morale boosting garment UR?

Ploshkin

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #19 on: February 06, 2018, 23:40:05 PM »
UR, your dress may not have ended up with the fit you wanted but it is clear from the pictures that it is beautifully made and finished (methinks you are a perfectionist).
Don't let your talent go to waste.
Life's too short for ironing.

Sewingsue

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #20 on: February 07, 2018, 07:41:21 AM »
I have found that my favourite type of garment to make is a jacket. Whenever I have made anything that didn't turn out right or I had a nightmare making, if I follow it with a jacket it recharges my morale. Maybe you need to find your morale boosting garment UR?
Apologies for side-tracking UR's thread, but trying to get my head round the idea of a jacket, which I think of as a garment that has to fit properly to your body-shape, being a morale recharging make.
Bernina Aurora 440QE, Brother BC-2500, Singer 99K (1938), Juki MO-654DE overlocker, Silver Viscount 620D overlocker.

UttaRetch

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #21 on: February 07, 2018, 07:51:55 AM »
I'm being defeatist as I have a bookmarked tutorial on how to line a jacket or coat and I am sure my sewing teacher would help too.

b15erk

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #22 on: February 07, 2018, 09:24:38 AM »
Love that pattern UR!  When I went to have a closer look at it, I'm afraid a copy of it found its way into my basket, and is now on its way to me....

Don't know how that happened :)

Jessie
Jessie, who is very happy to be here!!  :),  but who has far too many sewing machines to be healthy, and a fabric stash which is becoming embarrassing.

Greybird

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #23 on: February 07, 2018, 11:51:54 AM »
Sewingsue, I think it's because a jacket has more structure and usually uses easier to handle fabrics that I like them so much. I don't use collars and lapels - I find collarless jackets suit me better, and mostly use only one or two buttons/buttonholes. They are also very useful garments.

Elnnina

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #24 on: February 07, 2018, 14:31:08 PM »
Oh I just love the fabric and the colours, and the dress looks lovely and well made.  What a pity you do not like this.

Please do not be put off by the way this dress has turned out for you.  Do you have the patience to choose another style of dress/garment and then to make a toile either in calico (not too stiff a calico either) or in gingham.  For example Vogue/Butterick/McCalls do a very basic shell pattern suitable to be made up in gingham, and this is designed precisely for getting the fit right.  Making this up in gingham allows you to see lots of things, whether it is on the grain, where you need to make alterations/adjustments, and then you keep this so you can see what needs to be done, and then make the necessary alterations on the tissue pattern.  Hopefully once you have a ‘Master’ toile/pattern then that can be used towards telling whether any future patterns that you buy will need to be adjusted, i.e. are the shoulders too big on the new pattern, is the bust shaping in the right place or does it need to be altered, is the waist in the right place, and also the hip line, and of course the length you are going to be happy with.  Going back to your shirt or coat dress, these are often blouson, and yours looked lovely.  Do you have Fit for Real People as that is an excellent book on various fitting problems and they actually show the gingham method using one of the basic fitting shells.  Can I also recommend another book called   The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting by Sarah Veblen – my goodness this particular book is so useful in showing you exactly what to do, although you rather need a fitting buddy to help you  do this.

I am sure the many talented dressmakers on TSP will help guide you through your next creation.   After all I do remember seeing photos of the most beautiful coat that you made, I believe in grey and the back belt part had some lovely decorative detail added by you.  Then there was another coat which you may or may not have made and wore to the meet up in Birmingham, lovely colours again, and finally I remember you sewing a skirt in a hurry ready to wear for your sister’s birthday – believe this may have been a wrap around skirt - so you see you can sew and can sew well.

I am the most peculiar shape as Twopence will agree with me, far too many extra lumps and bumps where I do not want them and of course they do not want to disappear!!!!  I have spent many months messing about with a shoulder princess seamed sloper pattern direct from Connie Crawford in the USA.  I have had to drop the bust shaping  a considerable amount, added more to the front central panels, substituted my own armhole and thus sleeve head, and lately I have been drafting some sleeves for this both for a long sleeved pleated or gathered into a cuff type of sleeve and a two piece fitted sleeve, i.e. an upper and lower sleeve that has two seams.  Once I am happy with this I hope to transfer all my pattern pieces over onto card and then will use this as my ‘Master’ pattern.  I also have a dress dummy that was made from paper tape – not a pretty sight, and as I am sure I have put on more weight than I would have liked, probably need to pad her out more to fit a very snug calico and then that will also help me to get a better fit.  I also use the long snake like curtain weights as plumb lines, hanging at both centre front and back and also from the armhole and believe me this certainly helps as you can feel this through fabric and if your essential lines are straight and in the right place you are on the right tracks.

Good luck and do let us help you in your sewing.

UttaRetch

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #25 on: February 07, 2018, 16:10:20 PM »
Thanks, Elnnina. I know the adjustments that need to be made, but cannot get my head around transferring them to the pattern.  There are many styles that I would like to make, however, I am the wrong shape for many, so stick to 'fit and flare'.  I am never going to get the perfect fit as I have too many inconvenient lumps and bumps.  0_0

The fabric, pattern and insufficient attention to what I was actually making largely contributed to this project's 'failure'.

Francesca

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #26 on: February 07, 2018, 16:22:04 PM »
Apologies for side-tracking UR's thread, but trying to get my head round the idea of a jacket, which I think of as a garment that has to fit properly to your body-shape, being a morale recharging make.

Coats and jackets have much more ease and are therefore worn looser on the body. These extra inches mean that a "perfect fit" is easier to obtain. You don't so much notice that a jacket is half an inch too big for you, it simply gets lost in the ease. Whereas half an inch on the wrong place of a dress can be noticeable.

They also tend to be sewn from thick, forgiving, easy to control fabrics. Generally no creasing and stretching off the table, wonky stitches get buried, and a good press and steam can hide many mistakes whereas a jersey top or a lightweight dress fabric cannot hide these mistakes so much. The worst you get from a coat fabric is usually a lot of fraying which is quite easily mitigated.

I have always found success with sewing jackets and coats. Every one of my really stellar projects has been a coat. They can be quite lengthy in terms of time to make but the result is usually pretty good and therefore morale-raising.

Francesca

Re: Dress from Butterick 6143 ...
« Reply #27 on: February 07, 2018, 16:29:40 PM »
Thanks, Elnnina. I know the adjustments that need to be made, but cannot get my head around transferring them to the pattern.

Anything I can help with? I seem to be the queen of a million pattern adjustments  -<

Personally I find it easier to identify changes on my toile, then make them on the paper pattern. E.g if there is pulling at the bust, I'll guesstimate how much (lots of pulling = few inches. Slight pulling = half an inch). Then I'll do that adjustment on my tracing and make another toile.

The other option is the old sharpie trick. Put the item on, pinch and pin where it needs to change, sharpie in the new line. This works far better if you have a helper which is why I don't do it much. But when I taught my friend to sew a dress this is exactly what we did. Nipped and tucked it everywhere with pins and then sharpie'd all over it. You should have seen her face when I said "now unpick that thing you made entirely so we can redraw the pattern". But the dress was a triumph.