How to Tie a Bow

Today I'll show you how to tie a nice bow on the Musubu dress (or any other dress with a bow). Tying a bow when you're looking at it from above can take some attempts to get it right. Follow the steps below and you''ll get it right the first time!

This is what the ties look like hanging loose. 

Tie a knot, in a way that the left tie ends up on top. 

Form the first bow with the bottom tie.

Wrap the upper tie around the bow, moving it behind the bow and to the front from left to right.

Pull the tie through the hole at the back of the bow, forming the second (left) bow. 

Straighten it out and pull it tight. Tadaa! 

PPM #4 Knot Dress (Musubu)

The results of the poll were very clear: 68% of you wanted to see the Musubu as my next project. 25% chose Dekoboko, and only 6% chose Otoshiana. So I guess you still have a preferance for pretty dresses with big bows, huh? It was funny to see the result, I thought as a pattern the Musubu was the least interesting and not something I'd wear even though it looks the most wearable. Turns out I was wrong! I had so much fun making this. And as a bonus it turned out to be very wearable even for me, so you chose well. Thanks for participating! I included some sewing instructions, because I have a feeling you'll want to make one too. I'll do a special post on how to tie a nice bow later this week. I hope it fulfills your expectations!



Drafting and cutting
Drafting this pattern is not very difficult. Ofcourse I know by now how the slash, spread and redraft method works, but still I think there is enough explanation in the book. Other people also noted that this is no a hard pattern to draft. I used the sloper that comes with the book, and then compared it to my own sloper. The terms sloper and block are used interchangeably in the book, but normally a block has ease, and a sloper doesn't. Since every magic pattern adds ease first, I guess they are slopers. Anyway, I found out my waistline is more than an inch lower than that of the sloper, but only after drafting. I guess I had noticed before but forgot. I didn't draft a new one, but if you make it and you have your measurements, check your waistline against the Bunka sloper. I won't go into drafting too deeply here, if you do draft this you can always ask me if something is unclear. Another thing I did differently is move the zipper from the CB to the side seam. This way I could cut the back on the fold and have a more clean look. Widen the neckline if you do this too, or you'll not be able to pull it over your head. I also think my bow sits a bit higher than others, maybe I could have lowered it a bit.




Fabric
I didn't expect this to turn out wearable so I didn't want to use an expensive fabric. Since this was a project you chose I didn't want to use muslin. I was curious what the pattern would do with stripes (and the other way around), and thought these irregular stripes were pretty. It's always hard to estimate the amount of fabric you need for these patterns, it's never specified. I got 2 yards but at 120 cm (47") it was not enough to get the full length. I could have left it that way but got the idea of colorblocking. The black fabric is a heavy bi-stretch from my stash. Stretch is not needed, but it's what I had and it worked fine. The stripes created a nice circle effect at the top of the dress, so it worked out very well.



Sewing
I stared long and hard at some other knot dress projects I found on Burdastyle to confirm what I thought was the right sewing order (my favourites here, here, here and here). The sewing instructions on this pattern consist of ONE sentence. I started with sewing the separate front pieces, matching points C and A on each piece and sewing between these letters. You'll have to make a bit of a weird turn there, but it'll be fine. Then you can join the fronts at the CF and follow the one sentence: sew the bow section into a tubular shape up to C. Prepare the back by sewing the pleats and shoulder darts. I made my pleats a good inch deeper to get some more shape, and lowered them by more than an inch to get them to sit just above my waist.

  

Finishing
I channeled Ann from GBSB through the making of this dress, and I was very pleased with the outcome. Every time I wanted to rush, I stopped myself and took my time to try and get it right the first time. It worked very well, I hardly unpicked any stitches. The blind zip went in like a dream. I used a combination of french seams and the turnover edge trick to finish the raw seams. I used bias tape to finish the hem, armholes and neckline, and the tubular sections of the bow. Quite a lot of work all in all, I sewed for about 11 hours in two days. But I'm very pleased with the result, I've never made armholes this nicely with bias tape.




Result
Now onto wearability. For a lot of people this dress is probably very wearable. For me, I like the way it looks but you know that big bow doesn't really suit me. But lo and behold, when you lengthen the straps, this dress has some serious possibilities! What about tying the straps behind your back? Or tying a knot and just letting the straps hang down? These options make it much more likely for me to wear this dress. I love that you can dress it up or down by just tying the straps in a different way. I'm curious what you think, and how you'd wear it. If you like the result, I'd recommend this one as your first Pattern Magic Project!



Next date will be May 29th, the first pattern of Book 2. I'll try to be on time :) As always, if you have pattern magic projects to share, please do! Previous projects in these series can be found here.

Lessons from GBSB

Have you been watching the Great British Sewing Bee? Did you like it? I loved it. Apart from the joy of watching other people sew, I liked that it gives sewing some exposure. I mean, our (mostly online) sewing community is usually a world quite hidden from the rest of our lives and those who don't sew. Since we've started a pattern business I'm having a hard time changing my story. You know, when people ask you what you do. My algae story is a very clear one and people usually find it interesting. It sounds like I'm contributing something to this world. But when I say I'm starting a sewing pattern company, the response is mixed. "Do people still sew? They need patterns to do this? And they're willing to pay money for these patterns?" Apart from people questioning the validity of such a company, it looks like I'm going down a level on the educational/intelligence scale. If I want to explain further, I have to add that drawing patterns requires a lot of mathematics, transforming 2D to 3D, and so on. For me there's both a skill challenge and a mental challenge in sewing. I think a show like GBSB helps the non-sewing world to understand what sewing entails. And I think it's great that more people will give sewing a go.



What I also noticed on the show is that when you have time, you can get anything done. I would probably sew exactly the same way as most of the non-finalists did: Try something, and when it doesn't work, rip it out and try again. That's how I sew at home, too, because you have plenty of time for do-overs. What the winner had over the other contestants, is that she usually got it right the first time. That's what experience does, but I think this is also something you can practice. Be more precise. Think it through. Don't rush. Try to get it right the first time. I suspect this will save time eventually, and it will help you master a technique faster. I think I'm going to work on this from now on. What do you think?

[Watch GBSB on Youtube]

Fabric Printing

This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time! Ever since I saw MadMim's hand printed Scout tee back in november. At the end of March, a friend of mine conveniently announced her first stamp making workshop, and I just had to go. It was wonderful! At first we were a bit hesitant about what to make, but once we got going the creative juices started flowing. Ineke, the girl who gave the workshop is very creative and talented, I loved her wall of inspiration.




More pics of the workshop here. My real purpose was ofcourse to apply this to fabric. It is just so exciting to be able to create your own printed fabric! And I wanted to venture into woven fabrics, I've been mostly sewing with knits so far and it's time I expand my knowledge of fabrics. I bought three pieces of lightweight cotton and a natural knit to test my stamp dye on. I have two kinds, one that needs to be ironed and one that just needs to dry. I was surprised to see that the non-iron one held very well. I would prefer that one because the other one instructs to iron for 2 (!) minutes, and not every fabric can take that. In fact, I don't think any fabric can take that. My fabric started discolouring after 15 seconds anyway. So now I can start thinking of design/colour combinations. I would wear all these three colours. I've never worn this salmon pink before, but it suits my skin tone. These are my favourites.



Yes I know, I've put a bird on it. But I still like them. I tried fish but it's just not as cute (ooh the dirty c-word). The black did not get through the wash very well, but maybe this faded look is not so bad. I'd love to have the grey and pink ones as a shirt, but they wrinkle so badly. Maybe I should get a decent iron. The blue one is not an option, it faded after one wash. What combos/stamps do you like? Any experience with hand printing fabric? Do you have a favorite method?

P.S. I'm so sorry, but I won't be able to make it for this months Pattern Magic Project. It has been very busy with work lately and I've been catching up with friends a lot because I started to become a hermit. I'm hoping to get it done for next week though, please bear with me!

Update: Final Sample!

Just wanted to show you the final sample of the folded mini I just finished. I keep calling it the folded mini, but this one is actually the longer version. I need to think of an appropriate name! I made it up in a plain black interlock knit, the perfect fabric if you ask me. It holds its zipper well and it shows off the folds very nicely. I've styled it in three different ways to give you some ideas of how to wear it.



I've tried out two different methods for securing the folds, and you can see the difference in the skirt. The bottom three folds are method 1, the upper three are method 2. I'll tell you more about that when we release the pattern. I've also made some adjustments to the waistband again. I joined the back and front waistband pieces to eliminate the seams at the sides, which makes it more simple and less bulky. I also used a shorter zipper, 16 cm instead of 18. Don't worry, all the instructions will be in both metric and imperial :) I also made up this last one to check and adjust my instructions, and draft the basis of the illustrations that go with the instructions. It's going slow but there's progress! Tilly told me her first pattern cost her 6 months to complete, which is probably realistic since she has a job on the side too.



We'll soon be ready to get this out to pattern testers. When we are there'll be an opportunity to test this if you like, I'll get back to you on that. Stef has started on the branding, so I also hope to be able to reveal our name and logo soon! I already have ideas for three other patterns so I hope that after this first one, everything will go a whole lot faster. Starting my own pattern company is still the best decision I have ever made. I have never before so conciously chosen the path that I get most excited about. I can recommend it!