We interrupt this programme

Yes, I am continuing to work on Butterick 3794 - I have a deadline for it, after all - but only when I'm at home. When I'm at my mum's, I knit. And, courtesy of a lot of time spent sitting in an armchair chatting and knitting, I have finally finished my slate Wondrella!

Woohoo!

I started this project over two years ago, in November 2023. Given that I had managed to knit both my blue and aloe Wondrellas in the preceding nine months, that's a very long time for one cardigan. I got distracted by other projects, and possibly I was just a bit Wondrella'ed out. But since I picked it up again in October, I've kept at it.

I eventually got to the end of the second sleeve, and I even knitted the cuff ribbing as p1, k1 instead of k1, p1, so that the way the rib meets the end of the cable would be the same on both sleeves! Obviously, no-one will know this but me, but it makes me happy.

Why yes, I am a nerdy completist, how did you guess?

Partway through knitting the fronts, I had begun to wonder how much wool this version would use (and it has used a fair bit more than the previous two), and I thought it best to buy an extra ball. Because it was so long since I bought the original yarn, of course it was a different dye lot. The base colour was the same, but there were clearly more coloured flecks in it. So I decided to knit the neck band and button bands last, in the hope that if I had to use a slightly different yarn it would be less noticeable than changing halfway down a sleeve. After the endless knitting of the sleeves, the bands came together very quickly - and I did have enough of the original yarn.

Slightly blurred (sorry) neck band pic

Buttons. Regular readers (thank you) will know the trouble which button choice always causes me. This time however, it seemed to be straightforward, as I had a whole tube of the perfect buttons for the job - bought years ago at a flea market for pennies. But of course, it was more complicated than that. The seemingly identical buttons ranged from light grey to almost black.

Lighter or darker?

In the end, I went for the lighter buttons. As with the previous versions, I backed the button and buttonhole bands with grosgrain ribbon.

And here, at last, is the finished item being worn. I tapered the lengthened the sleeves too early, so they are quite close-fitting towards the cuffs, but I have no intention of any reknitting! It proved impossible to get any photos which showed the cable detail clearly, so the picture at the top of this post will have to serve as proof that it is on there!

The cable is barely visible

This project was a lot of work; I had to write out the pattern for the fronts line by line, and then alter it in stages to insert the cable instructions. (I'm sure there must be an easier way, feel free to comment!) But I'm delighted with the end result, and proud of myself for achieving it.

Part of my rewritten pattern and notes

That I could do it at all was due to Tasha, the designer of Wondrella. She creates such clear, well-written patterns that I had a strong basis to work from, and that is why this mad idea of a still newish knitter worked. Thanks, Tasha.

Making the grade

If you are going to make your first attempt at pattern grading, a design with pieces cut on the bias, odd shapes, and lots of pleating is probably not the best place to start! But I have form with jumping in at the deep end on new creative endeavours, and this time I had a couple of things to help me.

The first was this book.

Grading Workbook by Connie Amaden-Crawford

It was recommended, ages ago, by @sew.midcentury on Instagram. As a) she is a hugely talented dressmaker and b) it was one of her textbooks when she studied at FIDM, I thought it was worth getting hold of a copy. I must admit that even though the grading process is clearly explained in easy steps, initially there were times when my brain just felt fried.

One step (of many) of the bodice regrade

But once I got used to the process, it was surprisingly straightforward.

Regrading the sleeve head

The other thing which helped was my decision, made very early on, not to regrade the centre front panel of the dress.

This bit

I always have to shorten bodices between the waist and bust by about 5cm/2", so any increase in the panel size would then have to be altered in the top half. I didn't want to end up with a kite-shaped piece, and nor did I want to change the dimensions by widening it but leaving the height the same as the original. The easiest thing seemed to be to leave well alone. This also had the advantage that I wouldn't have to regrade the pleated sections of the skirt and bodice fronts. For the skirt, I just added the extra width to the side of the pleating.

The bodice front was another matter, though.

Traced off the original pattern

I had to pleat it up to understand how it came together.

Now it looks like a bodice front

Even so, attempting to redraft it felt likely to go horribly wrong. I may just launch into things, but I do know my limits. Instead, I cut the piece apart following Amaden-Crawford's diagram and added strips of tissue in the gaps.

I omitted adding any length below the armscye

I then traced everything but the two bottom edges onto a fresh sheet of tissue (I got through a lot of tissue in this process!), traced the pleats off the original pattern piece, and redrew the waistline to join the side to the pleated section. It matched the waistline of the skirt, so I was pretty sure I'd got it right.

Then it was time to make my first mock-up. In the pattern, the dress back is cut as a single piece, but I split it into two and made the skirt and bodice separate so that I can more easily adjust the bodice length.

Excuse the bad mirror selfie

The end result definitely requires work. But everything it needs - shortening the bodice, raising the neckline, bringing in the shoulders - is what I have to do to any garment. I've created a size 16 pattern which fits me exactly as commercially drafted size 16 pattern straight out of the envelope would; and I’m pretty chuffed with that!

Party like it's 1986

I've been invited to a fancy 40th anniversary 'do' later this year, and had the bright idea of making a dress for it from a 1986 pattern. I already have a few patterns from 1986, but none of them were suitable, so I started to investigate what else was available.

It seemed that there were a number of trends that year, and none of them were pretty. I can't remember what I wore around the time, and it's part of my 'lost decade' for which I have no photographs, but I don't recall wearing anything like these. (Although I probably did if it was the fashion, I've just erased it from my memory - with good reason!)

The shapeless, straight-down-from-the-shoulder look was clearly very popular, possibly because it was easy to sew. Many patterns included a nice horizontal line across the hips for emphasis.

For when you just want to look like a rectangle

If that wasn't bad enough, you could have a blousing effect instead of a belt.

What was it with sailor collars?

Or you could really go to town, and have both!

Just throw everything at it

Then there were the massive sleeves. These could be cut as one with the bodice.

Sleeves right down to the waist

With an exaggerated drop down the arm.

At least the sleeve seam would be easy to sew

Or set in, but heavily gathered and also batwing.

So. Much. Fabric.

And let's not forget the shoulders. By this time the slightly boxy 1940s revival shoulders of the early 1980s were old news.

When you have to go through doors sideways

After a fair amount of searching, I hadn't found anything I'd be willing to wear around the house, let alone out of it. Eventually I came across Vogue 9651. I liked the fitted shape, the pleats, and the V neck. The sleeves and shoulders, not so much, but I wondered if I could tone them down a bit.

Getting better

But I kept looking, and eventually found this.

We have a winner

Can we just take a minute to appreciate the utter 1986-ness of that fabric.

Those colours!

The photograph may have been distracting, but the design had potential. The line drawings on the back confirmed that this was something I could work with.

I'm going for view B

Unfortunately the only copy of the pattern available was a size 10, which I most definitely am not. Which is how 2026 became the year in which I will finally have to learn pattern grading!

2026 plans

Yes yes, I know that a mere seven days ago I said that I wasn't going to make any plans for 2026. And I meant it. I simply haven't got the sewing time at present for any resolutions which involve completing a specific number of items in 12 months, so any challenges like MakeNine or UseNine are out. And let's face it, in over a decade of writing this blog there was only one year when I completed everything I had set out to do - and it wasn't even the year when there was nothing to do but stay at home and sew!

The change of heart has come courtesy of sewover50 over on Instagram, who created a template of sewing goals to choose from for 2026. And this seemed like something I could manage to tie in with whatever sewing I do manage to do.

My choices

"Slow sewing" was an easy choice as it is always on my agenda now. I don't exactly have a shortage of clothing to rectify, so I try to ensure that what I make is considered, and carefully done.

"Know my machine" may seem an odd choice for someone whose main machine is a 1930s treadle! But it has box full of different feet, most of which I have never used, so I intend to at least try some of them.

I'm not even sure what some of these do!

On top of that Singer seems to have had an unwavering, if commercially unwise, commitment to sparing customers from having to upgrade to a newer model. All sorts of impressive attachments were created to mimic the actions of a modern swing needle mechanism on your trusty fixed needle machine. I have several of these but have never tried using them. If nothing else, I want 2026 to be the year when I tackle the buttonholer.

For hemstitch, four types of zigzag, and buttonholes

That could also come under the category of "Build skills" but for this goal the main thing I want to do is something I have threatened for years, namely learn pattern grading. My hand is being forced on this one, as the pattern for the project I want to do next is only available in a size much smaller than the one I need.

Finally, "I must try". I'm not sure yet what this will involve, but I'm hoping to venture out of my sewing comfort zone at least a little. This is the goal I'm least confident of achieving, as time pressures and other stresses make comfort sewing very appealing, but at least it's on there as a prompt.