Finished Project: Hummingbirds!

Hey look, I made a couple of Hummingbirds!  Uh...way back in late June.  Better late than never, eh?  Heh.

I believe I already told you guys I was making this pattern up in this fuglovey fabric here.  And oh how I love it!  Especially the look on my boyfriend's face every time I wear it. 

Details:
Cake's Hummingbird (green version)
Straight size 40
Skirt size 40s
No modifications other than the peplum

Sadly, it's a little bit too large, because I should've cut a smaller size for the back.  You can see some of the extra fabric in the pic above (in my failed attempt to spin the skirt).  See that large fold of fabric?  Oh well, I don't care.

Since my fabric was directional I cut the peplum in two pieces, with a seam along the sides to keep the "up" direction on the front and back (otherwise it'd be upside-down at the back).  The side seam doesn't even show up.

I did have to topstitch every single seam here, because my fabric is vintage 70's polyester and doesn't take to ironing at all.  The plus side is that you could mash this thing into the bottom of your suitcase under a bunch of other crap, and it'll come out crisp and unwrinkled.  The negative side is that it's so. damn. hot. ugh.

And then I sewed another one!  This one is out of a mystery knit sent to me by a friend from her old fabric collection.  It's a lighter-weight, finely-ribbed cotton something-or-other.  I suspect there's a small amount of poly in it because it resists wrinkling, but it's still more breathable.

I modified this version by cutting the back in size 35 and modifying the shoulders of the size 40 front to align with the back.  I also lowered the neckline a bit by judging how much lower I wanted it in my Fuglovely Hummingbird and just cutting it out.  I didn't take into consideration that this fabric is stretchier, and I should've made it a bit higher, but it makes my boyfriend happy!  I might add a mock dicky (is there such thing?  Isn't a dicky already a mock of something?) if it really bothers me.

Love at first twirl!

Since this fabric doesn't fray or roll at all, I embraced my inner lazy sewist and didn't bother hemming the peplum skirt.  Actually, I might still trim the skirt a bit, I think it's a bit too long, looking at these photos.

Heh, despite using a non-directional fabric, I cut the peplum in two pieces again anyways because I managed to eek this top out of less than 1 m of tubed knit fabric.  YAY!

Ignore the weird bump on my butt - it's a rogue belt loop. :)

The only thing that I'm not happy with in this version is the waistline seam.  It poofs out a bit in this fabric, an makes me more self-conscious of my tummy.  Well, my recent weight gain makes me self-concious of my tummy, this just makes me notice it more!  lol  Once I dig this top out of the laundry (it's been a constant in my wardrobe) and feel up to sewing again, I'll probably take in the side seams a bit, since it's still a little loose at the waist, and then try to fuse the seam down so that it lies flat.

You'd think that two great tops would be enough of a reward for the sewalong, but then my house, the Sabrewing House managed to sew the most amount of garments, and we won!!!  Way to go Sabrewing House, and all the other talented sewists in other houses!  It was so much fun to sew with everyone!

If you're still uncertain about this pattern, you should go and check out the sewalong board on flickr.  So many fantastic garments, and even some hybrids of Hummingbird and Tiramisu! 

Hummingbird Sewalong - Sabrewing House

My Hummingbird pattern just arrived, and it look like I'm in Sabrewing House for the sewalong!  I'm ridiculously pleased that not only am I home for the Hummingbird sewalong this coming week, but my pattern actually made it in time for it.

Now I just need to decide which of these knits I'll use first.

Oh who am I kidding, it's definitely going to be this fugly one:

Tiramisu 30 Minutes a Day Sew-Along: Days 1-3

My office - seriously.

For those who didn't make it that far in my 2012 recap post or just plum forgot, I now work as a geo at a fly-in mine here in Yukon. I work a 2 week rotation, so please forgive me if I disappear for half a month at a time.  I've already pulled one rotation, and will be leaving on my second one tomorrow morning!

Despite this, I sort of signed up for Cake Pattern's Tiramisu 30 Minutes a Day Sew-Along!  StephC is doing a fantastic job of organizing it and guiding us along.  Wish I could follow along each day for the entire thing, but oh well, the posts will still be there when I get back.

Day 1 had us gathering up our supplies into a box or bag or basket, and then tracing the pattern.  I forgot to snap a picture, but I'm using one of the many wicker baskets I have laying around.  I liked this step especially because I'm in the middle of moving and my sewing supplies are scatted to the wind.  This lets me keep it all in one spot and ready to go for when I come back to the project.  Steph is a smart woman.

Day 2 had us cutting out the pattern from our fabric.  You can see my pile above.  I'm using a lovely denim-like knit that I surprising found in our severly lacking local fabric shop.  My cutting was fairly simple as I don't have stripes to match.  Since this fabric has a diagonal texture to it, it's really hard to match up on the seams, so I've opted to rotate the skirt piece and cut on the fold to eliminate the centre front and centre back seams.  I know this will effect the drap of the fabric, but Steph did the same thing on her polkadot Tiramisu, and it looks just fine.

Sorry about the dark crummy picture. The lighting in my sewing room sucks right now.

Day 3 (today) has us pressing our neck and sleeve bands in half and ironing on strips of fusable interfacing to the shoulder seams and pocket openings.  I should be packing up today so that I can cuddle with my boyfriend tonight without worry; instead, I did the day 3 chores PLUS then played with stitch options. 

See, since I'm using a demin-like fabric, I want to use some denim-like seam finishes, and that includes possibly a flat-felled seam along the side seams.  It worked out decently on my test scraps (although I got distracted part way through and my needle wandered off), but I'm not sure if it'll work well as a side-seam on a knit dress.

I also tested out using a double needle with the thicker gold topstitching thread.  I'm going to have to really crank up the tension to make it work, since the stitches pull through to the underside of the fabric.

I don't know, what do you guys think?  Ever use a flat-felled seam on a knit before?  This knit has some weight to it, but I had to steam the crud out of it to get it to fall flat again after stitching the seam.  (But then, I had to do the same with the double needle seam too.)

ETA: The reason I want to do this is two-fold.  I want to carry on the look of denim jeans in the dress, and since jeans have the flat-felled seams on the sides, I thought it'd be perfect.  But more importantly, the diagonal texture on the front and back skirts will be meeting at nearly perpendicular angles (much like the picture above).  Having the flat-felled seam there would obscure this more than I suspect a regular seam would.  But a lot of you have mentioned the weight of the seam, so I think a bit more investigation is needed before I attempt it.  Thanks everyone.