Welp, I give up, heh. Sort of, anyway. I can still do the French seams for most parts, except for the sleeves (and maybe any decorative curved splices I may add to the clothing). The armpit still bunches up too heavily. Meh, it was worth a try.
3 Likes
Love the fabric. Is it bunching up because there is too much sleeve fabric? You can tighten sleeve a bit by making a wider seam on the sleeve before sewing, or make the armhole a bit deeper before sewing.
Another way is light gather or ease of the extra material around the top of the sleeve/shoulder area.
I also noticed there is no clipping on the seams, that helps the sleeves lay better
3 Likes
He wants to do a French seam on a curve. It can be tricky with certain fabrics (I use it only on sheer fabrics or silks) and it has to be a set in sleeve. I agree that the armhole probably needs to be cut deeper as well. You can’t clip the seams so it has to be made very precisely.
2 Likes
@AIMR When @marionberries mentioned “too much sleeve fabric”, it got me to thinking about the changes I made to the second one so I took a picture of both of them together and forced the armpits to be flat, and let the tops be bunched up.
There is quite a bit of difference, that I didn’t notice not having them side by side. The second one, I had shortened the shoulder piece on the front and back of the shirt by 1/4 of an inch, and extended the shoulder part of the arm by about half an inch, and tapering it just ever so slightly towards the armpit area. Well, placing side by side, the second one really isn’t as bunched up as the first, plus the sleeve sticks out more straighter than the first one. O_o, Now that I look at it again, I may actually be fairly close to figuring something out. 
. Maybe a two piece sleeve. One piece which curves the sleeve a little over the shoulder, and the second piece to curve down over the arm. . Huh! That might be an idea.
I’ll go ahead and put the shirts together as I already have the pieces cut out, and do the French seams only for the sides and shoulders. The sleeves I’ll just zigzag for now, but I’ll definitely want to experiment with this more.
3 Likes
I love that you are a problem solver even when it comes to sewing! I know you will figure it out! You have great observational skills and the kind of mind that “engineers”! 
1 Like
Ok! Last thing before bed, heh.
This wouldn’t work for all my flamboyant shirts, but I could see, for the shoulder pieces, pastel colors, water colored like, dark/medium greens with flowers, plants, etc on the rest of the shirt, and mottled, heh. I would wear a shirt made like this, in many different colors, heh.
Anyway, the shoulder pieces would be extended out by about 1/4 of an inch, and the sleeves would taper from that 1/4 inch to the cuff size. This would take a bit of practice, but I think I could finagle the French seam to work easier by separating the sleeves into two pieces. At least in my addled brain it seems like it’d be simpler, heh.
4 Likes
I strongly prefer flat felling for finishing curved seams– still a bit challenging, & you have a row of stitching that shows up on the outside, but it adds strength to the seam & cuts down on the bulk.
2 Likes
One of my online friends wore the coolest pair of pants yesterday, and she sent me the link to where she got them. $98! For polyester! I made pants from an Etsy pattern not that long ago that I haven’t posted yet that I think could be fun shorter. I don’t want to make an exact copy, just something with a lot of volume and lace trim. I don’t under the waistband though. It has elastic and a drawstring but looks more ruffled than I expected when I zoomed in. Is it just like that from the elastic or is there something else happening?
Pants I like:
Etsy pants:
1 Like
It may just be that the waistband is gathered a bunch– I have a skirt with a similar vibe where it’s just gathering– but if you like the extra ruffly bit, you could also actually make the bottom of the waistband a ruffle… let’s see if I can sketch what I’m thinking of.
2 Likes
Thank you! That’s really helpful! It makes a lot more sense drawn out. 
2 Likes
Dizziness forced me to take a break, so figured I ought to experiment a little.
I came across this kind of notch for affixing a zipper pocket, and one similar that uses a piece of fabric to hide the zipper. So planning on modifying the bag pattern for that (especially for the space fabric).
So I got that figured out. Now I just have to draft everything out, and put one together to test it. (Still very dizzy, so going reeeeaally slow).
Also, it struck me, hey, I’m free to be weird again 
, (and my age can kiss my kiester, 
). So I thought I’d make a skirt to go with my shirt I made. However, the fabric doesn’t seem to be wide enough. It’d make only about a 15 inch skirt, . I may wind up making two and sewing them together. (It’d just be for fun. plus, I wouldn’t have to worry about the interfacing for the shorts, as I don’t have enough).
Anyway! Anyway! Bored out of my gourd as it’s really difficult concentrating on things at the moment.
1 Like
Ok! I think I bit off more than I can chew, so to say, heh. I had thought the pocket would have a cavity on both the top and the bottom, but nope, it’s only on the bottom. , I do know one way I can get it to work, with a band sewn around under the placket, and that may be my only option. Bed time, so I’ll sleep on it for now,.
Ok! Morning, and trying something different. This could work, if I can get the shape right, heh. The pink fabric would be the inside pocket. It’d be hidden on the inside, so doesn’t need to be perfect.
Now, the outside, . For normal fabric this same technique could work, but for anything thicker, or stiffer then it wouldn’t.
However, for what I’m wanting, this won’t do for the outside, and this makes the front inside pocket, which the purpose of this would be hiding the zipper as it’d be sewn over the inside pocket, 
. Grrr! Heh! Still on the drawing board.
1 Like
Trying to sew during one of my worst dizzy spells, I had cut the fabric from the wrong side, but after I remade it correctly, I realized I can’t sew evenly around curves. Which got me to thinking, what if I used the zipper foot to help me gauge the needle and fabric position. I think it will work. This could alleviate one problem with the dizzy spells when it comes to sewing. Now if only I could find a way to ensure my cuts are on the correct side, heh.
Also, not only does this help with sewing during my dizzy spells, it gave me an interesting idea for a double sided pocket front. Maybe for an apron, or who knows what I could use it for. A couple of pockets for a grocery bag? A money pouch for when I need to make change while delivering? Anyway, just sew a binding in the middle of the two pockets, and voila, there would be two pockets side by side. . Something to add my my addled brain, heh.
1 Like
I’ve always liked the look of bloomers as pants. It amuses me to think of all the would-be scandalized great-great grannies if they saw them worn as fashion in their own rights.
Good luck!
Alright! I forgot I still had this fabric that I was going to make a tunic for my ex. And there’s plenty, so I can make a dress for my niece-niece out of it. I even have a sleeve design “flutter sleeves”.
Now I need to decide on the next step. There’s two options I have. Make it as one piece, and flare the entire dress out, or make it as two pieces, basically a tunic top + skirt combination.
This is the pattern I bought a couple years ago, and I really think A would look the best as a dress, but more flared out (Or ruffly? Not sure the term, heh. Sort of like the skirt I made for myself, but with more ruffles).
Huh! Now I think about it, that may be kind of tricky. How would I keep the shirt flat, but the dress ruffly if I were to sew the elastic band around both? Hmmmmmmmmm!!! Will have to review some ideas, but there’s plenty of time.
2 Likes
The word is flared - part of the dress is wider. This tunic is already a bit flared. You can easily make it a bit more flared like this: https://share.google/1mSfHTg3guYOWXPPL you don’t have to cut the pattern into a top and bottom part to make it more flared. I think your own skirt is flared too, not ruffled, not entirely sure. I don’t think you’d need any elastic to make this tunic or a wider version of it. I would guess it has a zipper in the back. Either that or it’s made from a knit fabric so you can put it on or take it off over your head (not sure if that’s the correct term in English, but I think you guys know what I mean).
1 Like
Yep! That’s my plan. I’ll probably make the pattern into two pieces. The top will be a complete shirt pattern with markings at the waist, and the bottom will be pretty much just a straight edge, like a long straight piece of wood that can be rotated (I can use the piece of wood afterwards to make coffee spoons, heh).
The wood would have a point A (in the image), which would be the center point, and then have markings B that would be equally measured on both sides of A, then I could rotate the wood to change the angle of the bottom with ease. (You know, now I think about it, I may keep this piece of wood for sewing, heh. I forgot I got into the habit of using one about two years ago. They do come in handy for very long lines…And the more I think about it, the more useful the board would be, . Yeah, I think I’ll get one as a sewing tool).
considering the trouble I had with trying to sew a knit fabric before, I think I’ll stick with the woven fabrics for the moment. Until I magically get rich and can buy a much better sewing machine, heh.
1 Like
This just struck me, , I wonder if I filled the tub with, , a tiny bit on the hot side of warm water to pre-shrink the fabric. Soak it for maybe 10 minutes, fold it and hang it over the shower head until it stops dripping. Then open it and fold it to hang over the shower rod to finish drying.
I’ll have to think about that.
1 Like
I suppose that’s similar to washing. I’ve also heard of soaking the fabric in water and ironing it dry to pre-shrink it (if you have an iron) but I’ve not tried that myself so I don’t know if it works.
I presume it would, too, as I’ve read/heard that frequently. However, that would be a lot of dripping on the floor before it iron dries.
Well, I could always sop it and iron it in pieces, but I think that could lead to misaligned shrinking and cause a lot of issues after the dress would be constructed. At least soaking it all at once, should keep the shrinking all the same across the fabric.
First concept for the sleeves (but I may want to curve in at the armpit, as I think I want to have a cross seam).
