Peter Pan Sew Along - day 2

Welcome back ladies (and gents if you are out there). I hope everyone got a great night's sleep last night and is ready to start on the dress construction for the SAL. If you are just now joining in, please check out this post for all of the information about the sew along and info on a giveaway. 

Moving right along. Yesterday at the end of the tutorial, I told you all about the exciting changes we are making for this dress. They are:

• adding a peter-pan style collar

• making the dress sleeveless

• lining the bodice

• attaching a gathered, rather than pleated, skirt.

 So, we have a lot of work to cover the next 2 days.If you want to do the peter pan style collar but still want to keep the sleeves, I will reference that in the tutorials, so stick with us! Also, cut the pattern pieces just as you would for the pattern, with the exception of the roll collar. :)

Yesterday, you constructed your collar. Pat yourself on the back as that part is already done! You also altered the bodice for your dress to allow it to be sleeveless. So, with your new pattern piece this is what you will cut for the sleeveless dress:

• 2 fronts on fold: 1 outer fabric, 1 lining (for this tutorial, I used the same fabric for both)

• 2 sets of mirror images of the back: 1 set of the outer fabric, 1 set of the lining.

Okay, these next few steps involve bodice construction and placement of collar. Follow along here for sleeveless AND the traditional Lennon. 

Place your outer bodice pieces right sides together matching up the shoulder seams. Sew along the shoulder seams as shown in the photo below. Just as the pattern, the seam allowance for this is 3/8" unless otherwise stated. Now do the same for the lining bodice (or your facing pieces if you are doing the traditional Lennon) and take both over to the ironing board and press out those seams.

Now, lay the outer bodice piece on a flat surface and fold it in half lengthwise to find the center of the front of the bodice. I like to do a little finger press here to mark the center, but you can also mark with a pin if you would like.

Open the bodice back up and grab one half of the collar you constructed yesterday. Make sure you put the front of your collar on the front of your bodice and you want the front of the collar to overlap the center by about 1/8". You want the right side of your collar facing up (meaning the bottom side or wrong side is facing the right side of the bodice, clear as mud I am sure).

 Pin in place in the front once you are happy with placement and then ease and pin the collar around the rest of the neckline. Now, grab the other half of your collar and do the same thing, remembering to overlap the front of the collar over the center by about 1/8" as shown below. This overlap will be encased in the seam so it will not be seen from the outside, but instead it will create a beautiful match up of the collar fronts once the item is right side out. Trust me. I'm married to a doctor. Ha!

 See how the collar pieces will overlap each other by just a smidgen? This is totally planned.

Once your collar pieces are pinned in place - head over to your machine and run a basting stitch to hold the collar in place along the edge of the neckline. I like to run this stitch at 1/4" so that it doesn't show once my dress is constructed. Now, if you are adding the band of trim on the dress between the bodice and skirt, now is the time to do so as instructed on page 28 of the pattern.

Now, place your outer bodice on a flat surface, and place the lining on top of it right sides together making sure to match up the shoulder seams. If you are doing a traditional Lennon, you will have your facing instead of the lining. Pin in place and sew along the neckline as shown in the photo below with the black dotted line.

 Once stitched, clip your neckline curve taking care not to cut through the stitches. Anyone who is a BG-oldie knows I am a nut about clipping curves.

 Now that the curve is clipped, flip the dress bodice right sides out. Head over to the iron and press the seam you just stitched and clipped toward the bodice lining. Just as on page 39 in the pattern, we are going to understitch the seam to the lining (or facing if you are making a traditional Lennon). I have included like 3,193 photos of this since I apparently went crazy snapping pics. :)

Once you have that seam pressed to the lining/facing side, head over to your machine. You are going to stitch along the lining's (or facing) right side about 1/4" along the edge as shown by the photo below with the black dotted line. Start and stop your stitching right where the collar edge is as shown in red. If you stitch all the way to the edge it makes it difficult when inserting the zipper later. 

Understitching will help to anchor the seam to the lining to keep the collar in place and to keep the lining towards the inside. This is probably one of my more favorite sewing tricks. :) It's like the underside of the collar, just a trick to keep things looking perfect!

If you are doing the traditional Lennon with sleeves, now is the time that you can head back over into the pattern and back-track just a bit to put in the zipper and encase it in the facing. But from here on out today, the remaining construction is for the sleeveless version. 

Take your bodice to a flat surface, and with right sides together, match it up along both arm curves. Since you just understitched the neck, this is a bit tricky to do, but as long as you pin your arm curves together well you are golden. Once pinned, take to the machine and stitch along both arm curve as shown below by the black dotted lines. 

 Be careful when stitching those curves NOT to catch the edge of your collar in the stitching.

Once both arms are stitched, clip your curves as shown below.

Now, pull the dress bodice right sides out by pulling the two back sides through the shoulder seams and out the front as shown below.

Take your bodice to the ironing board and turn on some good tunes and press the bodice out. For the collar, I do not like to press it straight down onto the bodice. What I usually do is hold the collar up and press up right below it as shown here.  

And if everything worked out great and your understitching is doing its job...you will have the most beautiful case of collar roll. Y'all, call me a dork but good gravy that makes me smile!!!!

 

Moving right along ladies! Now we are going to sew up our bodice sides. I say this in every single pattern/tutorial I write and I mean it every time. This step is SO much harder to photograph/explain than it is to do. Lay your bodice out on a flat surface. Then, you want to bring one of the front sides of the bodice over to meet the corresponding back side of the bodice, right sides together as shown by the arrow below.

Then, open it up so that the lining pieces are right sides together as well. Seriously, it sounds like it doesn't make sense, but it will work. One day I will find the magic words to explain it. Once you have that done, match up the the underarm seam on both and pin in place. Then, sew along the side as shown by the black dotted line below.

 Repeat with the other side and once both are stitched, cut a small "v" into the seam as shown below. This helps to reduce the bulk of the seam.

 Take over to your ironing board and press those beautiful bodice sides out!

 Now - we have covered a bunch of ground today and since my eyelids are getting heavy, let's do one more thing before calling it a day. Staying at the ironing board, press up the bottom of the LINING to the wrong sides 3/8". This is one of those steps I like to do ahead of time because when done later it just gets more difficult. Later on, this will enclose our seam where the skirt meets the dress. It will be very pretty and professional looking. Promise.

You girls have rocked day 2. Same place, same time tomorrow and we will begin work on our skirt and then tackle the zipper! 

Off to grab a good book, a glass of wine and my labrador for some good, old-fashioned R&R before bedtime. See you ladies tomorrow!!

peace out - Amy

Peter Pan Lennon SAL - day 1

Welcome, welcome everyone to day 1 of the Peter Pan Lennon SAL. This is going to be a super fun week where I will not only show you an alternate collar and skirt (for the dress) to put on your Lennon, but also how to make the dress and blouse sleeveless so that your little can wear her Lennon all year long!

Who's in?

Okay great. Let us begin! If you are just now joining in, check out this blog post that tells all about the sew along and info for a GIVEAWAY!! For the first day, I will go over collar construction and then the alteration needed to take your Lennon from having sleeves to not. It's like magic. Both of the items we discuss today will be used for both the dress and blouse construction, so I figured it best to start there!

First off, you need the collar pieces. Click here for a FREE download of all of the sizes of the Peter Pan collar for Lennon. *IMPORTANT!! The size 6 is on page 4 in blue, it says size 9 but the size got flipped upside down. There is no size 9 Lennon.*

A little word about interfacing and collars. It is kinda a necessity. For this sew along, I have used a lightweight fusible Pellon interfacing. It is probably one of my more favorite staples to keep in my sewing room. I use it for many things. I prefer to put the interfacing on the top of my collar, meaning if you are looking at the dress, the part of the collar you see is the top. The side underneath that faces the dress is the bottom side. Little vocab lesson for you there. I find it is so much easier to just iron a rectangle of interfacing to the WRONG side of your fabric you are using for your top collar and cut it out later than to try and cut shapes into your interfacing. So, as you will see in the photo below I have my interfacing on the wrong side of my top collar fabric. Make sure to line up the grain line on the pattern with your fabric or you might wind up with a hot mess. Also, take care to cut 2 sets mirror image. Since I am using a solid I can cheat in case I cut wrong, but if you have a printed piece of fabric your faux pas would be much more obvious!

 

 Now, with all of that said...cut your 4 collar pieces along the pattern line. 

Okay, so this step may seem a bit silly, but trust me when I say it helps to give your collar a very professional and finished look. Take the 2 BOTTOM collar pieces and cut about 1/8" off from the outer edges. Below, the dotted line shows where I will cut. This doesn't have to be rocket science, but you do want it fairly consistent. Make sure to not that you will NOT be cutting off from the inside of the collar.

This step helps to keep the seam of the collar on the bottom, so that it isn't seen. It is an old trick of the trade and it creates an almost "roll" quality to the edge of the collar so that your seam is hidden. Let me take a second to warn you though, if you are using piping or any other decorative touch along the seam of the collar, don't do this step. The roll effect doesn't work so well with decorative trims!

Now, place your top collar pieces on a flat surface right sides facing up. Then, place the bottom collar pieces on the top pieces RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER making sure to line them up along the inner collar (the side you didn't cut). Pin these in place and you will sew with a 3/8" seam allowance from the TOP collar all along the outer sides as shown below. The outer edge is shown in darker blue as it is the top collar which is 1/8" larger on the sides than the bottom. Sew from that edge. I also like to place a pin in the front of the collar (black line below to right in the photo) so that I don't get my collar mixed up and backwards down the road!

Repeat with the other half of the collar and then trim around the outer curves where you just stitched. In my personal opinion, pinking shears are the best for this part of the job. Get as close as you can to the stitching line without cutting into it. Notice how I have pins in the fronts of both? Paranoia maybe, but then again, I have been burned before making a dress and having the collar backwards and wonky.

Now, flip the collar right side out and head over to the ironing board and press and press and press. Your goal here is to make those collars be as crisp as they can be!

 

I am sure I took this picture for a reason, but right now I cannot remember it but it makes me giggle especially after I busted myself out about paranoia on marking the fronts of my collar. Ha!!

  

And with that, the collar construction is done. You can top-stitch along the outer edges if you want, but I prefer the look of a collar without the stitching. But you know, it takes every kind of people!!

Set your collars aside in a safe place (i.e. somewhere that they won't go missing, and if your sewing room looks like mine then you could easily hide a Yeti in there too!) and let's turn our attention to the alterations that we need to do to convert the dress/blouse from having sleeves to sleeveless.

To explain a little method behind the madness, most patterns with an inset sleeve will have a longer armscye (armhole or arm curve as I also will call it) to account for more movement when the sleeve is in place. Basically, dropping the underarm curve down will allow the person wearing the garment more room in the underarms to move around. Well, when you don't have sleeves, that extra space leaves a gap that gives a peek into a dress/blouse in an area that it isn't really wanted. So, the easiest way to fix that is by shortening the armscye which is what I am about to show you. I promise it is way easy!

Lay either the front or back (we will do it to both so it doesn't matter where you start) bodice piece for the dress OR blouse on a flat surface. 

Measure up about 1/2" (or more or less, this is a good time to check the placement on your little one) from the bottom of the arm curve.

Now, with that higher point, you want to draw the new armscye to that point. The Lennon armscye is an easy one for this, basically trace the original curve down and then bring it over to meet your newer point as shown below in blue. The gray dotted line is the bottom of your OLD armscye.

Clear as mud, right? Honestly this is really an easy fix that you can use with about any pattern. Now, once your new curve is drawn, you want to mimic it on the other bodice piece. Lucky for us, the Lennon is drafted with the same armscye for the front and back. So, the easiest way to do this is to lay the other pattern piece over the one you just altered, lining up the shoulder seams and armscyes and trace out the new curve. I tried to take a picture of this but it was a big ole disaster with too many lines.

Enough work for today. Consider this our "light" day for the SAL. :) Starting tomorrow, I will be going over the dress. For the dress I will be showing you how to line the bodice completely (no facing) and we will be sandwiching an invisible zipper between the bodice fabric and lining. It will be gorgeous. And ladies...I can hear some of your hesitation already, and I beg....PLEASE don't fear the zipper! This year one of my goals for BG is to get everyone (myself included) out of their comfort zones in the sewing room. I tend to sew with the same methods over and again, but this year I am working to challenge myself to new (well, not really new since I learned them years ago...but just haven't taken them off the shelf and dusted them) things, and guess what - I am dragging y'all with me. :) Who's excited!? 

At the end of the dress sew along, you will have something that resembles this in the front...(a little behind the scenes, Nash, my "photography assistant," which is basically what I tell him to keep him from photo-bombing every BG shoot, was making toot noises. I am afraid I was giggling too as I missed focus on most of these! Never too old for potty humor)

and this gorgeousness in the back. 

And guess what? We will all pat ourselves on the backs and under our breath we will say, "Oh, the zipper was nothing to be afraid of!" Promise. 

So, the first few days this week let us work on taking the sleeves off our dress, putting in a peter pan collar instead of our bias rolled collar and adding a gathered skirt to the bottom instead of the pleated version I show in the pattern.

How about a good night's sleep and I will see you back in the morning!

xoxo - Amy

Lennon Sew Along Information

So, while at Disney last week, the Norris family wasn't the only one to meet Peter Pan. The Lennon did too...

I know, corny right? But hey it is early in the morning and I am still working on getting my brain back from vacation. :)

Here at BG, my goal is to show you many different variations and spins you can put on your patterns to help diversify your little one's closest while keeping the cost down. I also feel it helps to broaden your skill sets. To be honest - I actually learned more about collars when drafting this one than I ever thought I would know! See, we have to keep our brains sharp, right? Especially when they are still on vacation!

So, I am super excited to start a sew along to show you how to add a Peter Pan collar to your Lennon dress or blouse. I will also do a tutorial on how to make the Lennon sleeveless so that you can get some wear out of it this summer. While making the sleeveless dress, I will also show you how to line it completely and sandwich an invisible zipper between the two layers with a gathered skirt. This dress will be just as beautiful on the inside as out! 

The fun all starts this Tuesday, March 17th. Which also happens to be St. Patrick's day. We should all feel lucky then. :) Speaking of luck and good fortune, let me fill you in on 2 sales going on for this sew along.

1. The Lennon pattern is on sale RIGHT now for $7.00. That's more than 20% off. Awesome, right? This way, in case you don't already have the pattern you can grab it in my Etsy store for a discounted price. And just think, if you buy it discounted and then learn more ways to use it, talk about some major bang for your buck! Here is a link to grab it in my Etsy store. The sale will last until midnight EST on Monday 3/16. 
2. Looking for just the right fabric? How about fabric on sale? Ummm...yes please! My dear friend Hilary at HBFabrics is offering a discount for the sew along! I just went through her shop and picked out a few I thought would be perfect for the Lennon! Here are two I thought would make ADORABLE sleeveless Lennon blouses.

Pair those with a chambray Lottie skirt (releasing soon, yay!) and talk about being stylish this summer!! I cannot even stand to think of the cuteness of the pink gingham with the denim skirt!

And these are some great combos for the dress. This Dear Stella is just SCREAMING to be a sweet little nautical-inspired dress with collar. I was thinking the chevron for the skirt, a sweet ivory for the dress part and the adorable Carolina Chambray in strawberry for the collar. OH MY WORD!

And this, gosh...I've had my eye on this print for a while. It may be time to dive in. Imagine this with a blue collar and then splash it up with a red ribbon around the waist. Okay, that's it. I need to fabric shop now. 

So, now through 3/17 (see, the luck continues) use the code BGSEWALONG20 to earn an additional 20% off your order at HBFabrics on Etsy. And don't fret on time, say your fabric doesn't come in time, NO worries. I always keep my sew alongs linked on the blog so you can reference them whenever you need to!

So, while a pattern sale and fabric sale are almost too much excitement to contain in one day...I have ONE more piece of excitement. And this one is FREE! Drumroll....I have already drafted the collar for you. And I will include a link for download on the first day of the sew along. Fantastic right!! So no need to stress about drafting a collar. :)

Now for those ready to plan and shop. Click here for a list of materials needed for the Lennon. Now, if you are planning on making your Lennon sleeveless, you need not worry about the facing for this but you will need a lining. To construct the dress sleeveless, you will basically cut 2 sets of the bodice, so that you have a main fabric front and back pieces and then lining front and back pieces. For the blouse, you will do the same, but I will show you how to cut the lining - it will end about 3/4 of the way down your blouse. Just make sure to account for that fabric. For the collar, most of the times you can cut this from scrap pieces, but if you like to be formal - make sure to have 3/8 of a yard. Clear as mud, right? Also, on the dress for the pattern it doesn't matter the zipper length as it is cut off, but for the sleeveless version we are sandwiching that zipper and will use it all, so make sure to grab a zipper that is longer than the bodice, but shorter than the dress. Again, clear as mud I am sure. Ha!

Okay, I just threw a ton of info your way, and if your brain is still on the struggle bus this morning like mine is...let's break it down for you. Here's a little calendar:

• now through 3/17 : pick up your copy of the Lennon ON SALE in the brownie-goose etsy shop and use the code BGSEWALONG20 for 20% off your order at HBFabrics on etsy.

• Tuesday 3/17 - Friday 3/20 : the sew along begins right here on the BG blog! Remember, if you cannot sew along this week, no worries! I will keep the sew along up and linked under the sew along tab. i will post each day a series of steps to construct our collared Lennons. Since this is just a sew along, many times i will reference the pattern. For example, I may say, finish construction as indicated on page 15 of tutorial. So, the pattern is kinda a must-have. :)

• Friday 3/20-Sunday 3/29 : I will start an album on the brownie-goose lovers group on Facebook. This is where you will upload your creations to be entered into a giveaway. You can make as many as you want to enter, but only the photos in the album will be entered to win. Make sure you put your photos in the right spot! This gives everyone a chance to participate over 2 weeks!

• Monday 3/30: I will choose 2 winners at random for 2 brownie-goose patterns of choice AND a $25 gift certificate to Etsy. Fun, fun, fun!!!

Alrighty then, who is excited!? I am, but I also must get to work!!! It's an exciting week at BG with a sew along and hopefully a brand new pattern release. Must grab more coffee!

Thanks ladies - and holler at me brownie goose@hotmail.com with any questions!

Xoxo - Amy

Big-Girl Britches for a New Year

hello to all of my geese and happy 2015! 

as i took the last few weeks off from work, i had a lot of things to ponder. i will be completely honest and tell you quitting BG was one of the items i pondered. as some of my friends in the sewing world know, this isn't the first and probably won't be the last time i ponder this thought. it happens. for those that own their own business, you know what i mean. burn out is real. and rough. and when there is no real "clocking out" going on, a business can run you into the ground. i made myself lists of pros and cons because i am very old-school like that. some days the pros for quitting out-weighed the cons and vice-versa, and some days my emotions swayed me one way versus the other. but in the end, here i am. back at it. because between you and me, i love it. but with some perspective in mind. 

perspective that went a little something like this: 

• life is too short and too sweet to stress. 
• life is too short and too sweet to worry. 
• life is too short and too sweet to dwell on negativity. 

and more than anything, 

• life is too short and too sweet to spend too much time on a business where come tax time you realize you are almost paying the government to work.

there, i said it. in all honestly, taxes kill me with BG. take an unfortunate tax bracket, add in self-employment taxes and BAM. there goes all the money. wasn't that fun? 

NOT.

so, with all of this said - i need to scale back just a bit. which is quite silly considering i am a very small fry to begin with. but the magic word in that sentence was "I." as in I need to scale back. I need to find a better balance. I need to make better use of my time. so, this is all about me. and finding a good balance of work time vs. family time vs. me (and my labrador) time. i am quite positive and think this can be done. i just have to set limits.

so, i am really going to try and focus on limiting my business hours to when my kids are in school. i also need to never again try to publish a new pattern around the holidays. OR have a major deadline in the summer when my kiddos are home with me. see, baby steps y'all. 

what does this mean for you? nothing much really - other than my presence online or emails may be limited to mornings, some evenings and not much in the afternoons. we can do this, right? i mean, we all know how shady i am to start with. :)

with all of this said - on a FUN note, i made myself a list of things so i can try and stay focused and organized and all that fun jive in 2015. and this list includes some really fun sew alongs, collaborations, tutorials, pattern revamps, and a few new patterns - which may or may not all make it.  depending on time. 

so, who's up for a really fun 2015? here's to a happy new year full of BG, organization, staying focused and getting our sew on!!

is there anything you are dying to see?

xoxo - amy