Piece 3 - Jumper Dress

It's my Jumper! - 3rd Piece of my 6PAC

Well, now that I've gotten the jumpsuit out of the way, (and 1 turtleneck) I needed to get a jump on my jumper.  I am jumping into the unknown (what else is new) and am going to take two patterns and doctor them up and combine them to make my jumper.  I've used both patterns before for their intended garment, and was pleased with the results. I'm nervous because I will have to figure out how to blend them together - but that'll get my creativity juices flowing.  You know how I LOVE to be creative!  I am going to pretty much put the overall top on the skirt and call it a jumper dress.  These are the two patterns.

I'm doing view E on the skirt - the short yellow one at the bottom.  So this week I cut out the fabric - a nice deep black Caviar Corduroy.  I tried to figure on how much fabric I needed to purchase in order to accomplish the outfit - without laying all the pieces out, I kind of winged it with my sense of spacial relation.

 

Well it all worked out - i squeezed every inch out.  Turns out I am learning about Nap. this corduroy has nap.  I can't say that I did a 100% job on the nap, because I realized it half way through, and couldn't remember which pieces were turned which way...  Nap is the direction of pile.  It all goes in one direction, and if you cut pieces with alternating nap (which can be for effect in some designs) then you have the light hitting differently on different parts of the garment.  Can look disorganized and mismatched.  So when patterns say allow extra yardage for nap I now know what they are talking about, because where on "non-nap" fabric you can turn pieces to fit (as long as they are on grain) you might need more yardage with nap because pieces might not be able to turn upside-down.  well i am still on my path of learning a new skill with each new project!  (this one I'm learning many skills)

 

Saturday November 3rd

 

Well, checked the forum and caught up on news this morning... then had to get going on putting the jumper together - started with the skirt - that's all together now - don't forget to press the seams! :-)

 

OK.  So now have to pretty much figure out the next steps.  Enter my partner in crime - another fabulous investment - I wouldn't be able to make this outfit without her for sure.  So I am piecing it together to see what the moves will be.

 

This is basically the mock-up of the front... There will be a zipper on the one side.  The skirt is too big, so I will be making a pleat in the front panel and the back panel to true it up.. - another thing I wouldn't be able to do with out my dress form.  I like the look of this so far, and I think I have the plan of how to sew it up.

 

 

This is the back.  The shoulder straps will be the overall kind with the buckles.  I'm trying to decide If i want to embroider a design on the front panel or not.  I dont' think I am going to put the front panel pocket on - it makes it too "outdoorsy"  this way it's a little more dressy.  A well chosen design could add a Little pizazz, also, but I want it to be something that will go with everything - no matter what top I want to wear - it can't clash neither with color nor with theme, nor with look (dressy/casual).  That will take some thinking....

 

Well, while I think on that design, I need to find those notes and remind myself how to make that pleat I want to do on the front and back panels to take in the skirt.  I'll add to this post at the next interval...

Next Steps....

 

Well I decided to add an embroidery design. This one I think is perfect for what I wanted.  "Inky Rose" found Here.  

 

 

 

I sewed the top front on to the skirt - so far so good! This is coming out just like I've hoped.

I put a pleat in the front center and back center to take in the waist to tailor the fit before i put on the waistband.  I used the pleat that is tucked in instead of the outside type one, I think they are called over vs. under, because I think it went better with the godets in the skirt... (the triangle panels).  Then I utilized the waistband as a transition piece - I'm real glad I did - what a difference!  Next i will assemble the back, and attach to the skirt.  I need to install a zipper, i guess that will come after the back is attached. then add straps, buckles, hem, and adorn with some satin ribbon, if i think it will work.  All in all I think I will actually finish this up tonight.  After all, tomorrow is football Sunday and I'll need to shop in the morning and prep something for game time.

Let's see how I do... Off to work on the back....

 

Almost finished!

 

Well, the back went pretty smoothly - I had to use my dress form to see at what height to attach it.. that was tricky because when I cut the pieces, I cut with a lot of extra on the bottom - you know just in case, since I had no idea where this piece would fall.  So, without the form, I wouldn't have been able to know where to pin it.  This turned out to be pretty high up, compared to where i cut the material, so that was good - hey better cut more than not enough!.. So the buckles that I had purchased were narrower than the overalls called for because the ones I had on hand were silver, which i didn't like for this, and they were i think 1 3/4 inch or 2 inch - whatever they were they were too wide and not "dainty" enough, so I bought these polished brass narrower ones, however that called for me to make the straps narrower since they were patterned for the wider buckles.  So i did that,. but boy was it real difficult to turn those - they were pretty thin... Then I remembered - i think with the thin straps you press the seams under, wrong sides together and top stitch it together...  (too late!) - but I made it through that rough turning...It's all together, and just will hem tomorrow, or the next day.  The ribbon is still tbd.  I'm thrilled this worked out! I will take a picture of me wearing the final piece.  Here's the jumper all together...

 

 

Now it's time to relax and watch a movie and surf...

 

Ciao

 

Finito!

 

Well I put the hem on last night, and declared my jumper done.  I don't think the satin ribbon trim on the hem would fit the look I wanted, and the ribbon bows on the front either.  I think basically the embroidery is embellishment enough.  This way the jumper can still be casual or dressy...

 

So I wanted to wait until this morning so I could take the images outside - when you are photographing black for some details, regular point and shoot flash is not your friend, so if you do not have studio lighting, natural day lighting is best, and you will achieve results where the details will come out virtually how they look to the eye.  (be sure you are in an even shadow area, and not in a half shadow half bright sun!)  ANYWAY.... here are my pics!  BTW I'm wearing the turtleneck I made which was my 2nd piece of my 6PAC...

 

 

 

I learned a lot making this jumper...How to morph two patterns together, and join them at the right time, I'm telling you if I did not have my Dress Form, I never could have pulled this off.  I was constantly throwing this on her and fitting it and then when it came time to put the front and back on seeing where they would fall, so where to attache them, etc.  I have some things on this jumper that will remain between me and my Janome and my dress form.. ha ha...now that I completed this, I am more encouraged to try it the next time I want to morph a pattern.

 

So now I've got three down, and three to go... the last three are all turtlenecks, and I still have to get the fabric for my last turtleneck. The other two will be solids made from Ponte Roma Knit.  Good thing is - the two hardest pieces of my 6PAC are complete!

 

:)