Inspinration: Angie hack-a-ton tour

I love pattern hacking, so when I saw a hacker call for the Angie dress from SisBoom, I was immediately interested. The Angie pattern would have been my second choice for the SisBoom tour in January, so I was extra excited. After sewing this woven dress, I wanted to try more, so this time I did not use my knitification skills. The hack I did was redrafting the dart into a princess seam and adding visible contrasting pockets.

The Angie is a sleeveless summer dress without zipper or buttons. It goes over your head, and due to the elastic in the back, the dress is still fitted. My choice of hack was clearly inspired by the dresses that I have sewn for my girls, like this one and this one. I secretly was jealous of them, and I wanted my own color block and pockets this summer.

The Angie pattern has three neckline heights, normal and low. I felt adventurous and cut the low neckline. After the first fit I decided to add a visible binding to keep all the height that was left. The neckline is perfect like this, but it should not have been a centimeter lower. During the first fit I also took the dress in a bit just under my arms. I just stitched an extra wide seam and then the fit was perfect.

I again used See you at Six rayon, I just love the drape. I do not like having a small piece of fabric left (because I have a hard time throwing scraps away and they keep piling up), so I decided to have a bit fuller skirt. Seeing the pocket part is not gathered, adding extra width in the skirt was a little bit overdoing it. I even would advice to have a little bit less wide skirt with this hack than the pattern usually prescribes.

I used 1.5 meter of the See you at six fabric. One meter was bought at the Stoffenmadam and the other half meter I bought as a remnant from Cas en Nina. In bought a big pile of remnants (over 6 meter in total) and golden fabric that I used a s contrast was also part of the package. I receive the package two weeks ago but already used three other remnants a, so I will mention the package more often the coming time.

The tutorial that I wrote kind a assumes you have already sewn these kind of pockets, so I do not go into detail on how to fold your fabrics there. I am also not supplying exact pieces for pocket, you will have to be brave a bit and just try, but you will be so proud of your self after drafting these pieces. If you have an questions, you can always ask.

Step 1: Take the original front bodice part of the Aggie pattern
Step 2: Draw a straight line from the point of the dart to somewhere on the shoulder. My straight line hits the shoulder approximately on 1/3.
Step 3: Slightly redraft the corner around the dart point into a curve and cut the original bodice part in three pieces. You can throw away the triangle dart piece, you will not need it any more.

Step 4: Take the side front bodice piece and put it above a piece of pattern paper. Now draft a pocket like I did in the picture. The exact shape is up to you. Just put you hand on it (keeping you hand hand like it would be in a pocket) to check the size. The main pocket (the outside lines) should be a bit wider than the bottom width of the bodice part. Now draft the inner line of the pocket piece. This will be the visible contrasting line, this part should be just as wide and the bodices bottom.
Step 5: Copy the entire pocket on another piece of paper and then separate the inner piece from one of the first pocket pattern piece that you created. You now have three pocket pieces. One for the contrasting fabric (the biggest piece), one for the lining (this one will not be visible, this is the one in the middle) and one that you will use to cut a piece from the skirt (the smallest piece on top).
Step 6: Now you add seam allowances to all these pieces, check my picture to see where it is needed. For the bodice you only have to add it to the line you cut. Two of the pocket pieces need seam allowance on the outside (except for the side). The easiest way to add such seam allowance is to just redraw the pattern piece on a new paper. For the smallest piece you will have to cut the seam allowance away from the exciting piece, so the smaller piece will actually become smaller.

Step 7: You will use the smallest pocket piece to cut the pocket from the skirt. Cut from both front corners a piece exactly the size of the small pocket piece (of which you cut the seam allowance already. You will not need the pattern piece or the cut outs from the skirt in a later stage, these are waste.
Step 8 and 9: Use the new adjusted pattern pieces to cut you fabric for the bodice (the middle should be cut on the fold) and the pockets. Put the middle part of the front bodice with the right side up on the table. Put a side piece on aligned at the top and pin the princess seam from top to bottom and sew. Do the same thing on the other side. I did not pin and made my pictures with that in mind, but while writing the tutorial I realized that normal people just pin their fabric. If you live dangerously like me, you start sewing on the top and while sewing you adjust the pieces such that you nicely sew the curve. Clip the middle point just to the stitching and finish the seam. Press the princess seam toward the side (I also did it, not skipping pressing darts etc any more).

Step 10: Put the skirt on the table with the ride side up and put the pocket lining on it with the right side down (so good sides facing each other). The curves should be aligned exactly. Sew the inner curve. Clip the seam, than turn it such that the right side of the fabric is visible, press and optionally understitch.
Step 11: Put the skirt on the table with the wrong side up, put the big pocket piece on top with the wrong side up. Pin the outside curves on each other and sew the outside curve of the pocket. Do not sew through the skirt, but lift the pocket pieces such that you only sew the lining and the main piece together. Finish the seam. Sew the sides of the skirt pieces together and gather the skirt as described in the original instructions. Do not gather the visible part of the pockets.
Step 12: Now the most tricky part to explain (and to sew). For the nicest effect, you want the princess seam to perfectly blend into your pocket. Pinning and possibly even adding some basting stitching is crucial. Put the skirt on the table with the right side up, put the bodice on top of it, with the right side down (so right sides facing each other) and while pinning, check if the seams line up. Sew the bodice to the skirt. Continue with adding the elastic and finishing the armholes and neckline according to the instructions.

Idle Sunshine

Sewing By Ti

Cookies and Bees

Tina Sew Tiny

Adventures With Bubba and Bug