Cute Cardigans, Memo Notes & Sewing Stuff

Here's various stuff I got during the month of June. I wish I had more to say in this post introduction, but I don't. I feel like the end of June closes a series of stressful months at work (even though I've worked from home since March), so despite doing cool activities like shop and sew, work stuff was always in the back of my mind. I believe the following months will be less tense, notably because it's summer, but I can never be certain.

Anyway, let's start with two cardigans I found at Values Village.

Pastel Pink Cardigan With Embroidery Flowers

Such a lovely colour and the condition is near perfect. 🌷 I found the embroidery flowers tacky when I first saw them, but my initial impression quickly changed. The fit is on the tighter side (I can't really button it), but the secondhand cardigans I find are usually always too big for me, so I'm glad it's the other way round this time. I can see this cardigan matched perfectly with a pair of slim capri pants and ballet flats, just like Audrey Hepburn:

source

Love the buttons at the cuffs

Beaded pistils

The only flaw is that there's a name tag (where the brand tag is) that has been firmly pressed onto the fabric with an iron. I tried to remove it, but it's so well stuck that I risk damaging the fabric if I insist on pulling it off.

White x Black Polka-Dot Cardigan

This cardigan is so cute. I thought it came from Japan, but the brand says Franco Valeri (the possibilities that it was from Japan were quite nonexistent anyway.) I'd also totally wear this cardigan with capri pants, but since it's shorter, it would also fit well with a midi skirt.

I should really get better at inspecting clothes while thrifting.

Both sleeves have stains which I only found out when I arrived home. Even with good amounts of Spray 'n Wash and after several washes, the stains are still faintly visible. I hate stains, especially when it's secondhand and I'm not the first owner. I'll probably wear the cardigan nevertheless since it's adorable. However, the stains did dissuade me from replacing the buttons as I didn't feel like spending more money on a cardigan that is damaged.

Cute Memo Notes

I found these notes at Michael's. There were other products displaying this character, but these notes were the cutest. It's so rare to find such things here!

The characters are from OnceMoreWithLove. I feel like the creator got a lot of her inspiration from Hello Kitty (cue the red bow on the above character), 问题儿童欢乐多 (Problem Children Are Very Happy?) and 长草颜文字 (Budding Pop). The shop is based in Canada, so I'm glad that for once, I can access cute stuff within the country. For instance, I tried looking up Budding Pop stationery multiple times on Taobao or AliExpress but had no luck.

Bio of the creator

Sewing fail with Simplicity 1888

A couple of weeks ago, I began a sewing project with a pattern I had been impatiently waiting for in the mail.

Notions bought.

The pattern is in size 11 (bust 31.5", waist 24.5").

I decided to make the set in blue on the pattern cover. I'm a bit ashamed to say this, but I really thought this was a dress... I only realized it was a two-piece set when I received the pattern lmao. I imagine I could have turned this set into a dress without pulling my hair out, but I didn't want to make things too complicated for the first time using this pattern and thought it would be interesting to pair the skirt with a different top.

I didn't plan on wearing this set a lot during the summer, thus I wanted something that would look great for fall. This dark raspberry looked really nice and I wanted to try a solid colour for once.

Close-up of the fabric used for the stand-up collar and the contrast skirt trim.

It's ivory cotton with a flower print.

I chose this oriental-looking ribbon instead of rickrack.

I found the colour matched perfectly with the fabric.

After my mom washed the fabric, I noticed lint and very slight pilling on it. This had never happened before with fabrics after washing them. I kind of ignored it, thinking that it wouldn't make much difference when sewing, notably because it was labelled as being 100 % cotton. Upon starting to sew, I realized I was wrong. The fabric felt fragile and thinner, therefore it was harder to control and stay in place when sewing.

Making the darts and tucks was so painfully long. The white pencil wouldn't show on the fabric so I had to fold each of the dart/tuck's lines, place the ruler and draw a straight line with the chalk (instead of just marking dots and tracing straight lines with the ruler and a pencil). It doesn't seem that arduous, but the fabric's wool-like texture made everything more complicated. The roll-on chalk didn't glide smoothly and my lines were not as precise as with a pencil.

Some steps later...

In the above picture I was supposed to finish the bottom edge of the (inside) collar with ribbon seam binding, but stitching it onto the fabric went so bad that I just gave up. Shortly after I accidentally made a small hole with my scissors on the front bodice and that was the last straw. I dropped this project with this fabric.

A couple of weeks later, my mom and I went to Magasin Comeau for the first time. I had searched for fabric stores "nearby" and this one seemed to have pretty cotton patterns. Never did I expect to find so many lovely prints! The store carries lots of plaid patterns which are my favourites. The price per meter is also less expensive than most fabrics at Fabricville or Club Tissus, but it takes a while to get there by car, so it costs more in gas.

I always feel awkward when telling the person at the cutting table how much fabric I need for a garment. This is because I have a vintage pattern, therefore, all of the measurements are in yards and in inches (inches aren't so bad, but we use meters here instead of yards.) This usually brings me to show my vintage pattern to justify the uncommon units of measure. I've been wanting to convert all of the measurements ahead of going to the fabric store, but always forget to when the time comes and this time was no different; I arrived unprepared at Magasin Comeau. Again, I explained the reason for my pattern's units of measure. While discussing vintage patterns, the lady mentioned that she and her mother were actually looking to donate a box of older patterns to someone. Yes, donate. My mom and I said that we were very interested, and two days later, we went to pick up the patterns.

All of the patterns given 💖

Most patterns are from the 1970s and 1980s, but there are also some from the 1950s and 1960s. Among them are really pretty designs, even in the more recent patterns.

The only downside is that none of the patterns are in my size (they're all for a 32" bust or more), but it isn't that big of a deal. You can resize patterns and the younger patterns include multiple sizes, e.g. from 8 to 14 (and because the first owner used a bigger size, I guess that I could just recut each pattern piece on the smaller size line). Besides, the lady was generous enough to give her patterns to me, so I have absolutely nothing to complain about. I'll surely make dresses with some of these patterns.

By the way, I left Magasin Comeau with two different fabrics! One is actually to try making again the set from Simplicity's pattern 1888. I'm currently working on it and the new fabric works so much better than the dark raspberry one. This saddens me a little because I bought notions that I won't be using for this project, though I'll try to use them in another one.

Simplicity 1958 Sewing Book

I got this book on eBay for only 11 $ CAD. It was the lowest price among the other ones up for sale. The condition is very good, only the spine's top and bottom are a little turned up, but the pages are pretty much intact and still firmly bound to the spine.

The magazine covers so many subjects. Here are snippets just to show you the range of topics discussed:

Tips on Simplicity patterns. Being my favourite patterns as of now,

I'm glad to have access to this kind of custom info.

Reading this before making my first vintage dress would have helped me tremendously...

Here's how to make a blouse, but there's also how to make a skirt, a dress,

a child's dress, a jacket and a man's sports shirt. All include pictures and drawings.

As you can see, it gives lots of sewing tips, tricks and recommendations. I'm aware the internet is already flourishing of sewing resources, but I'm interested in vintage dresses and this magazine is all about (Simplicity) vintage patterns. I know I won't be applying everything written in this magazine, but I'll certainly discover new ways of doing things.

Ending again my post with food, this time take-out poutine... my favourite fast-food along with pizza.

Making a 1950s Dress – Simplicity 4270

I made another vintage dress... I knew I had to make it the first time I saw it on the pattern cover and I was so happy to find the pattern in the closest size to my measurements (the pattern is a size 10; bust 30", waist 25").

Sorry in advance for some lengthy comments and unnecessary pictures. I wanted this post to be sufficiently detailed if I ever want to refer to it in the future.

*Finished result and try-on pics are at the end of this post.

Fabric and notions I chose (I'm making the dress on the left)

I picked this waffle fabric that has blue, purple and yellow flowers with green leaves. I wanted something soft-looking for the summer and these colours reminded me of Winnie The Pooh Classic aesthetic. Moreover, it was only 4 $ CAD per meter. The fabric I bought for my previous dress was around 12 $/meter and I regretted my choice once the dress was finished, so unless it's love at first sight, I decided to favour lower-priced fabrics from now on.
My mom and I looked for small ivory rickrack, but there wasn't any and I found this adorable embroidered daisy trim. I got 3.75 meters. It was more expensive than the fabric which shocked me..

Unlike my previous dress, I took the time to read the instructions prior to starting making this one. I studied the steps from cutting the fabric up to sewing the sleeves to the bodice and didn't go further. I thought that reading the instructions in bite-sized portions would confuse and discourage me less than trying to understand the whole process in one shot.

All that fabric left and only one pattern piece to cut...

... which was nice cuz I cut two pieces incorrectly and had to cut them again...

Because I had studied the steps earlier, the start wasn't so rough (except for the little mistake above). There were surely times of confusion, but it was nothing like my previous dress.

Then I ran into a dilemma when making the sleeves. I would've thought that the rickrack would be a step only done at the end, but we had to fix it on the sleeves right at the beginning. With the daisy trim on the two sleeves and on the collar two times each, I felt that the flowers were too prominent. I wouldn't have worried if the flowers would've been smaller, but they were pretty big.

So my mom and I went to another fabric shop to check if there was something smaller, and if not, I'd simply go with the daisy trim (we hadn't gone to this store earlier because we wanted to buy all of our supplies in one store [doing errands during COVID-19 isn't very pleasant].) We found exactly what I was looking for initially: small ivory rickrack! And for 4 meters it only cost me 1.75 $.

Comparison of daisies vs rickrack on one sleeve. Considering that both sleeves

and the collar will be decorated as such, the rickrack is definitely a safer choice.

Following sewing the rickrack on the lower sleeves, I turned the sleeve facing inside and slip-stitched it (see pic below). I had never slip-stitched before and it was more fun than I thought.

After the sleeves were done, I realized why the instructions had said to trim the seams.

The seams are really visible.

So I removed the slip-stitch I had made in order to trim the seams (and slip-stitched once again).

RIP zigzag stitches

Comparison of untrimmed seams (top) vs trimmed seams (bottom).

The sleeve on the bottom looks much nicer.

It sucked having to redo some work, but it was worth it in the end.

Then I joined the sleeves to the front and back bodice.

Note to self: When sewing a garment that has been basted (for easing), sew with the basting on top (as in the above pic—that way it's easier to arrange the fabric gathers as you sew). Also, use a contrast thread for basting since it's easier to see and remove after.

Stitching the rickrack on the yoke

Sewing the lower rickrack on the yoke was such a burdensome step. Four reasons why:

• Both fabrics are different thicknesses;
• The rickrack strip is very narrow;
• The yoke is curvy;
• You have to sew the rickrack all over the front, sleeves and back (that's freaking long).

The rickrack kept moving while I was stitching it instead of staying in place, even with needles pinned. After sewing 3/4 of it, I peeked at my work and there were like ten spots where the rickrack was slightly lower so you could see the seam. It was horrendous. I had to unsew these parts and try to resew them correctly which required multiple attempts for some. The instructions had recommended basting the rickrack before stitching, but I went for the shortcut and didn't baste beforehand. I'm pretty sure it ended up taking me longer than if I had basted.

Finally. Finished and ironed.

The pattern asked for a 5" zipper, but there weren't any so I took this 8" one.

I'll cut it cuz the skirt will have snaps (btw it isn't fully zipped up in the above pic).

Now the skirt (already...!)

Making the pleats

Joining the skirt to the bodice

?? Not sure how to join both garments.

(Btw, look at the seam on the left that has double pleats... uh)

Still haven't found it

Still figuring it out

After a few hours of fiddling with the skirt, I recognized that I had officially screwed it up. I had noticed two mistakes during this time:

1. I had made the side opening on the right side of the skirt instead of the left (this probably happened because I drew the side opening with the pattern piece on the wrong side of the fabric when it should've been on the right side—though it wasn't mentioned in the instructions. 🤷)
2. I should've joined the three skirt sections together before making the pleats (I had only joined two of them since I wanted to make the pleats on a single layer of fabric.)

And with these mistakes in mind, I still proceeded to stitch the skirt to the bodice. 🤦 I had to place the skirt opening on the right because if I'd place it on the left (where it was supposed to be), there would be an ugly seam right in the center front of the skirt.

About time

What happened after split my heart. It was the same feeling as when I had ruined my camera with a rhinestone while decoden-ing it. But the issue here was that I couldn't get in the dress. My shoulders nor my hips could pass through the waist. After hours of trying to join the skirt to the bodice and finally working it out, I couldn't even try the bloody dress on and the only way to fix this was to detach the skirt and make a new one. \(T▿T)/

It might be obvious that the dress wasn't wearable since I had put the skirt opening on the opposite side of the bodice opening. However, I still wonder how it would have worked even with both openings on the left; the bodice having a 5" zipper and the skirt working with snaps, how would the waist "enlarge" for the shoulders or the hips to pass through?

Not sure why the zipper was drawn as such considering that zippers have a stop at the bottom?

Anyway, the following day, I unsewed the skirt, bought a longer zipper and supplementary fabric (thank God there was still enough available at the store) and restarted the skirt over. I felt I had gone through the 7 stages of grief within 24 hours.

The dress before I removed the skirt from the bodice

You can't see it in the above picture, but the skirt has two seams in the front on each side. Not only they took me ages to position symmetrically when joining the skirt to the bodice, but I also realized that these two seams popped up because I had made the pleats incorrectly at the seams (that also explains the double pleats at the seams noted earlier).

I had cut a slit on the left side to try the dress on and see at least what it looked like on me...

(and also because I thought I could arrange something with snaps but gave up on the idea).

The dress fitted well. Had it looked crappy I probably would've called it quits.

Skirt v.02

I used a pencil to make the pleats this time and it worked better than the needles.

Left open a part of the seam for the zipper (any seam on the skirt)

Skirt successfully joined to the bodice (*ﾟ▽ﾟ*) It was so much easier...

basically aligning the skirt's opened seam to the bodice's zipper and pinning it before stitching.

Stitching the zipper. Was quite dumb to place the needles horizontally as it's impossible

to zip up afterwards to check if zipper is okay. Vertically pinned needles work just fine.

After sewing the zipper, the bottom part on the right had its fabric slightly folded,

so I unsewed the seam down to the bottom, flattened the zipper, stitched, and resewed the seam.

Closing the hole by hand (I didn't dare using my sewing machine there.)

Sewed a "stop" at the bottom of the zipper, cut the excess zipper and did other small finishes.

Then I tried the dress on, and not only I could put it on, but it fitted me nicely.

The thing is, I wasn't even sure if what I had been doing was right (the pattern had never instructed to use a long zipper) and I hadn't found a lot of info on YouTube. I don't know why the pattern didn't suggest a long zip that went down the skirt. It would've personally saved me a lot of trouble.

My mom had seen these buttons at the store, but I didn't like them...

Still, I kept thinking about them and ended up buying them.

Buttons have been put! My mom sewed them hehe.

I prefer these buttons far more than the purple ones I had initially chosen.

Ironing the hem before sewing

Of course, the dress wouldn't be complete without its matching belt. I bought one for 2 $ at a charity shop. The colour was a dark purple, so before covering it with the fabric, I covered it with white cotton.

I'm using fabric glue.

Glueing the other side

I stitched one side of the fabric so that when it laps over the other, the edge looks more finished.

Glueing

Covering the buckle

Finished~

Darn it!

I accidentally put glue on the bottom... so I restarted over.

Done (´∇｀)

My mom sewed belt loops on each side of the dress afterwards. The dress would've been finished by then but... something had been bugging me for a while and I naturally had to point it out at the very end of the project. I thought it was a bit weird that the instructions didn't tell us to put interfacing where the buttons are, but I brushed it off thinking that the lack of it was justified. But now that I could button the dress, I could see that both edges were flimsier than my previous dress that had interfacing... so I unsewed the edges to put interfacing. Despite how necessary I knew it was, I hate having to remake something that involves unsewing something that has been well-sewed.

There was one edge that had the buttonholes already made, but my mom thought of a clever way to insert the interfacing by cutting half-slits so that the interfacing would separate where there was a buttonhole... not sure if this is clear...

My mom then resewed the buttons that I had unsewed. Let's say I'll always put interfacing there from now on, whether the instructions mention it or not... Oh and also at the zipper, cuz I realized that I should've also put interfacing there. However, I'll let that one slip by for this time, I don't want to mess with the zipper.

Well, the dress is done... at last.

I'm so happy with the result. I love the fabric and the design, I think it's really unique. 🌸 The making of the bodice went pretty well, but the skirt was the complete opposite. Nonetheless, I was lucky to be able to start over and learned from this experience.

I was relieved that the dress didn't need any additional alterations on my part. The pattern was for a 30" bust and a 25" waist and I expected I'd need to make the bust bigger for the dress to fit, but there was no need to.

My mom helped me take pictures with the dress on~

Tried to take some casual pictures again.

No idea why I tend to avoid posing in these dresses, but these pics are hard to shoot.

I like the volume of the skirt even if I'm not wearing a petticoat nor a sukapan underneath.

Pic without the sun—so no yellow hues on the dress

Anyway, let's jump to some pictures of food. Here's a Tropézienne brioche tart from Ricardo I made on Mother's Day... excellent and lightly sweet. The only thing is that my dough didn't rise as much as it was supposed to, but the taste was very good. ◝(⁰▿⁰)◜

This being said, I bought a real Tropézienne at a pastry shop a week later and it was so good and much better than the one I had made (too bad I didn't take a picture.)

Grilled cheese with an orange; by my mom

Salad (onion, cucumber, tomato) with green spices; by my mom

Edit June 6th 2020: My mom bought a Tropézienne tart from the pastry shop and I got to take pics of it!

The bottom layer of the cake has been lightly soaked in some liquid—like water and sugar? My description doesn't make it sound good, but it's a unique and delicious texture. The middle is a custard/whipped cream, vanilla-flavoured and light in texture. The upper layer is the same brioche cake as the bottom (but not soaked) and on the very top is some kind of dough crumble. Very unique too. This has become one of my favourite desserts.

Edit August 29th 2020: My mom washed the dress in the washing machine (delicate cycle) and a part of the rickrack on the left sleeve all ripped out...

Fortunately, she sewed a white patch under the sleeve and the dress was saved. (•́⌄•́๑)૭ Although more bothersome, I'll very probably handwash my dresses that have rickrack in the future.

You can see a bit of the patch through the upper sleeve, but I take anything over the hole!