Beignet-Inspired Skirt: The Ethics of a Knock-Off

I've been making slow but steady progress on the next element of my Up North wardrobe, an ivory cotton sateen skirt, in the style of Colette Patterns' "Beignet".  I've been thinking about making a skirt like this for a while--I'd like to think I came up with the idea on my own, before I saw Colette Patterns' summer version of the skirt, which is also ivory.  But given my track record on having original ideas, I'm not so sure!

Once I got serious about this project, I found myself faced with a dilemma--to buy the "Beignet" pattern, or to draft my own.  Colette Patterns is a small, independent pattern company, and Beignet, like all its patterns, is the original design of the company's founder, Sarai Mitnick.  I try to support these sorts of businesses whenever I can, and I've heard glowingly positive things about Colette Patterns in particular.  Their designs are distinctive, their patterns are well-drafted and high-quality, and their instructions are clear and complete.

That said, Beignet is a very simple skirt to draft.  That's not to take anything away from it's design, which is original and compelling.  But structurally speaking, once you've seen it, it's pretty clear how one would draft it.  In fact, it seemed to me that altering the skirt to fit my proportions would potentially take just as much time, and yield less consistent results, than simply drafting it from scratch based on my personal sloper.  In the end, that's what I decided to do, but I'm still pretty conflicted about the decision.  So, I'm writing up the project on this blog, but only with several statements by way of a disclaimer:

1. "Beignet" is Sarai's original design.  She deserves all credit for this classic, flattering and versatile skirt.
2. Although I drafted my own version of this skirt, I won't talk about that process here.  I'll stick to discussions of the construction process and how the skirt fits into the planning of my Up North wardrobe.
3. If you like the look of this project, you should absolutely, positively buy a "Beignet" pattern from Colette Patterns!

Ok, now that I've got that all cleared up, here's an update on how the project has been going so far.  Frankly, it's been a slog.  I've got no sewing momentum right now, but I'm trying to make progress, since I have one or two more projects in my queue that are definitely for summer, and won't transition well into fall.  (This skirt is one, and my magenta ruffle-front blouse is another.)

I'm also not totally thrilled with my fabric choice for this project.  The fabric I picked is a stretch bottom-weight, but it's semi-sheer even with the lining, and you can definitely see the interfacing and the seam allowances (and sometimes, my underwear!) through from the outside.  I've also made one or two dubious construction decisions that I find myself second-guessing, and I'm dreading making all 12 buttonholes on the front.

What's more, I'm changing size right now in all sorts of weird ways (marathon training is at least partly to blame), so I keep making fitting alterations on the fly.  I'm already sewing at the tail end of the season, and while I'd usually be o.k. with stashing a project like this in my closet for a year, I'm not at all confident that this skirt will fit me next summer.

So I'm trying to soldier through and finish the skirt soon, hoping to get at least a few wearings out of it this year.  But given my frustrations with my fabric, I'm seriously reconsidering the summer jacket I had planned to make from the leftover piece.  On the one hand, a wardrobe doesn't really seem complete without some sort of "topper."  But on the other hand, it might not be worth the grief of working with this fabric.  Would a jacket like this look terrible if the darts & seam allowances showed through a bit?  Should I give it a stab, or run screaming?  What do you think?

Jean Skirt Knock-Off: Drafting and Construction

One of the pieces I had in mind for my Up North mini-wardrobe was a denim pencil skirt.  Currently, I have several denim skirts, but the most wearable among them has been in my wardrobe for at least 5 years and is starting to look a bit peaked.

I had been thinking about making a pencil skirt, and using a piece of denim left over from an earlier ill-conceived denim skirt project.  Looking around for a picture to use in my last post, I found this skirt from J Crew:

I recognized it immediately: the previous day, I had noticed a colleague wearing this skirt, and admired it.  So I decided to create my own version, just in time to discover the Pattern Review Designer Knock-Off contest.  Clearly, the stars had aligned and my sewing of this skirt was fated!

The skirt has a couple of nice design details, which might be difficult to see in these pictures, but are much clearer if you zoom in using the viewer on the J Crew site:

• Front pockets and small front pleats
• Princess seams on the back, which curve around to intersect the side-seam edge
• two back kick pleats

All of these details were easy to draft.  For the front, I just transformed my existing darts into pleats, then added the pockets.  For the back, I decided to simplify the look of the skirt by having the curved seams end at the waistband edge, rather than the side seam.  I moved the back dart to the outside upper corner of the skirt, then used it as a basis to create the princess line, which went straight down the back of the skirt and formed the kick pleat at the bottom.

It took some serious fiddling to get the shape of this skirt right (even though I made a muslin!).  In the end, I ended up taking about an inch out of the hip and waist, and more like 4 inches out below the hipline to get a tapered, pencil shape.

Inspired by my green dress, I decided to use Hong Kong seam finishes again.  Although there are tons of great tutorials on Hong Kong finishes out there, in my next post I'll share a brief one of my own. Once again, I love the effect, but doing seam finishes on all 10 raw edges inside this skirt was tremendously time-consuming, and I'll just barely get the project done in time to photograph it for the contest!

Finally...The Wedding Guest Dress!

Finally, the weather complied, and the Mr. and I were able to take some pictures of the wedding guest dress!

Sewing this dress definitely took some effort.  If you remember, I drafted the pattern myself based on a RTW dress I liked.  The muslin was promising, but my first attempt to sew the dress with poly charmeuse was a total wadder.  I tried again with a heavier-weight satin, which was much better suited to the design, and I was much happier with the results.

I shared my progress on this dress with the other participants in the PR Formal Wear Contest, but unfortunately I'm ineligible to enter, since I haven't been a member for long enough.  Oh, well, maybe next time!

I also got lots of great suggestions on the construction of this dress from the ladies at the SE Michigan PR meet-up.  At Lynelle's suggestion, I did a hong-kong finish inside the bodice--I like the contrast from the purple satin ribbon, even though no one will see it.  And a special thanks to Therisa and Elnora, who sat on the floor to mark the hem for me!

Wearing the dress feels amazing!  I love the flowy bias skirt--it just feels elegant.  And although formal wear tends to languish in my closet, I know I'll have at least two chances to wear this dress in the next year: Cousin Angela's wedding in a few weeks, and my friend Katie's wedding in November.  Coincidentally, both ladies have dark blue as one of their wedding colors, so I'll fit right in!

Out of the Loop

Sorry, guys, I've been out of the loop for the last couple of days due to an emergent family medical situation.  (Don't worry, we're all fine!)  I should be back to blogging now, but my sewing will probably be neglected for a few more days while I catch up on real-life stuff like buying groceries, doing laundry, and finishing my chapter.

Before I left town, I made some great progress on my WGD, which is looking awesome!  All it needs now is some inside finishing and a hem.

I also want to give a giant shout-out to the ladies at the Southeast Michigan PR group.  I had a blast at the meet-up on Saturday, and got some great advice on my dress.  Hopefully, I'll still be able to make it to this week's meet-up: I've got miles of seriously boring hemming in my future!

WGD 2.0: If at first you don't succeed...

Ok, folks.  I'm chalking up my first attempt at the wedding-guest dress as a "learning experience," and starting again from scratch.

Just to remind you, this is what I'm aiming for.  The original dress, called "Retail Therapy," is sold out on ModCloth.

Overall, I think my pattern is solid, and I've only made a few small adjustments to the fit for my second attempt.  I think the main problems were fabric choice and construction.

The poly charmeuse I picked the first time around is way too light and drapey, and it doesn't really stand up to the more structured look of the dress.  Also, the fabric is really shiny, which just makes the whole thing look cheap.

For my second attempt, I ordered up mid-weight poly satin from Fabric.com, and I'm much more pleased with both the color and the hand.  The charmeuse is on the left, and the satin is on the right--look at the contrast!

Fabric choice aside, my real sins with this first attempt were in the construction.  I chose not to interface the neckline, since you could definitely see a line on the right side of the fabric where the interfacing stopped.  This was a mistake.  As a result, the stand collar is droopy, and the neckline is rippled where I sewed the bodice to the lining.  I also rushed to get the skirt on and the zipper installed, again omitting interfacing, which led to (you guessed it!) more ripply seams and the most horrible, unwearable wavy zipper ever.  It's so bad, I won't even show you a picture!

Believe me, I've learned my lesson!  This time I'm interfacing EVERYTHING.  I'm also going to be much more careful not to stretch or ease my fabric when I'm pinning or sewing on the bias.  Hopefully, the heavier fabric will help with this too--unlike the charmeuse, which was super-fluid, the satin holds its shape and stays on-grain much better.  I'm also planning to hand-baste my zipper before I sew.

So far I've cut the bodice and sewed the bodice lining (which is also cut from satin), and I'm pretty pleased with the results.  My one concern is pressing: the satin doesn't want to hold a crease, and when I press it enough to flatten out a dart, it leaves a faint, shiny mark along the edge of the folded fabric underneath (if that makes sense).  I'm thinking right now that I'm going to press it anyway, figuring nobody will notice the marks.  But I'm open to suggestions: what are the "best practices" for pressing satin?

Best. Muslin. Ever.

Yowza!

This is the muslin for my wedding-guest dress, and let me just say: I looooove it! It's a little hard to see all the details in these pictures, and since my muslin is slightly sheer, I can't show a back-view for modesty reasons. But it looks just the way I pictured it in my head, and it fits great! It will look even better with the drape of the charmeuse, but I think it looks pretty darn good in muslin. And the Mister seems to agree ;-)

I had one false-start with my bodice pattern: remember folks, if you want a surplice top to overlap by x inches at the center front, you need to add the full x inches to each side. Then, when I revised the bodice pattern, I mysteriously added 2 extra inches, probably due to my pattern-paper-shenanigans.

As I mentioned, I did some really shady slash-and-spread pattern drafting this weekend in an attempt to conserve my last bit of pattern paper. I think I'll get away with it (knock on wood), but that doesn't mean it was a good idea. Don't do this!


At this point, I've drafted everything except the skirt lining, and I've used every scrap of paper in our house. But based on this muslin, I'm feeling confident and ready to cut.

Projects in a holding pattern

It's April (almost!), which means that the end of the semester is coming soon, and school is getting ready to kick me in the [part of the body that would hurt when kicked]. But I've still been making uneven progress on several projects. Here's an overview:

Jeans

The jeans look great. I've done everything but finishing the waistband, and I've got my rivets, tack buttons, and belt loops ready to go. But I'm waiting for my new "made by J" sewing labels to arrive so I can sew one onto the waistband facing before topstitching it down. These jeans are an accomplishment for me, and I can't resist tooting my own horn a bit, even if no one else ever sees it. Currently, the post office is holding my labels hostage (don't get me started on the post office!), but I hope to have them in hand by the end of the day today. In the meantime, I've been reading all the posts about rivets on the Pattern Review jeans sew-along to educate myself about what lies ahead.

I plan to do a full write-up with better pictures once I get my jeans done, but here are some quick snapshots to tide you over. Sorry for the poor quality--my "resident photographer" had to study for an exam this morning!







Wedding-Guest Dress

Many months ago, I had this idea for a dress to wear to a family wedding in May. Since then, I've changed my mind several times, but I've finally decided on this design, which will be more versatile:

The original dress is sold out on Modcloth, and the pictures are no longer on the site. I'm planning to make my version very similar to this one, with a few minor adjustments: I've made the curve of the raised waistline more gradual at the center front, and I've increased the overlap of the surplice top so it will be less cleavage-tastical. (Several of the reviews mentioned needing double-sided tape--not the look I'm after for a family wedding!). I'm making it out of navy polyester charmeuse, same as the original. Why mess with a good thing?

I started drafting this dress over the weekend, and I got the front mostly done when I ran out of pattern paper. Look at this skirt pattern! This is me trying desperately to use my last scraps of paper to stabilize my pattern, which was held together only by delicate paper hinges. It looks like Frankenstein's monster!


I scored a little more paper on Monday, hopefully enough to finish the project. But I definitely need to find a more reliable paper supply.

Cotton Print Blouse

Stymied in my attempts to work on my jeans and my dress, I started in on another project in my queue--a cute cotton print blouse. I bought this cotton voile months ago, but now it's finally warm enough to think seriously about spring blouses.


I debated, and finally decided on BurdaStyle Ute:


I opted for version A, with the peter pan collar, omitting the crazy cuffs. But I also like B, with the tie collar, and I've got my eyes on it for a subsequent project.

Simple enough, right? Wrong! First of all, my computer pitched a giant fit when I tried to print the pdf file--I've never had this much trouble with a print-at-home pattern before! I had to download Acrobat to make it work.

Now, I know, a sensible person would've done a muslin of a new pattern, even if the measurements for a given size matched her body perfectly. Failing that, a sensible person would have at least basted it together to test fit before sewing time-consuming french seams. Did I do any of these sensible things? Of course not! I forged right ahead. And look at the results:


It's huge! It looks like a house dress! I know the pattern is supposed to be a slightly relaxed fit, but this is not what I was after. I think I need to take out all my beautiful french seams, press the pieces, and re-cut them 2 sizes smaller. Some pieces, like the center front and the collar, I'll have to cut again, but I'm planning on fudging the others. I bought another yard of fabric, but I still have to wash it and dry it before I can do anything else.

I'm convinced I can salvage the project, and I still love the concept, but I admit I'm a bit discouraged. I'm planning to set this project aside for a bit and wait for a second wind. It's not like I won't have enough to work on in the meantime!