Rimini

The pattern I used for my 1986 dress was part of Butterick's "Rimini" line, which I had never heard of before. So of course, I had to vanish down the rabbit hole of research.

I'm not sure how I had managed to avoid it, as there are lots of Rimini patterns for sale online, dating from 1984 to 2000.

The earliest and latest examples I found

There were a couple which were overly frilly for my taste.

Not for me, thanks

But overall, there was a very definite 'look', which mostly chimes with my non-frilly aesthetic.

More like it

I may have managed to miss a line which was sold for at least 16 years and included a number of patterns I would have happily made at the time, but others didn't. Judging by the frequency with which this 1987 pattern appeared in my ebay and Etsy trawls, it must have been hugely popular.

Clearly a bestseller

All of which was very interesting, but didn't provide me with a lot of information. "Rimini" is too vague a term to search on, and "Rimini pattern" brought back a lot of ceramics! So instead I tried the name which appears under the Rimini logo.

A possible clue

This was much more useful. Richard Warren was a designer for the Warren Group, which was founded by his late father David in 1967. Seeing a gap in the market for better quality dresses in luxurious fabrics, he designed a line under his own name to fill it, and sold the garments in stores including Neiman Marcus. The Warren Group also included the labels David Warren, DW3, Reggio, and Rimini.

Butterick clearly had an extensive relationship with the Warren Group, as I was able to find patterns for all of the labels apart from Reggio.

David Warren

DW3

Richard Warren

My Rimini dress undoubtedly included design details which took time to make but lifted it out of the ordinary - as Richard Warren intended. What I haven't been able to discern is how the labels (or patterns) differed from each other in terms of intended market. If any American readers can shed any light on this, I'd love to hear from you.

Butterick 6723

My first sewing make of the year is done. And, with a certain inevitability, it bears no relation to my plans for the year!

Just before Christmas, I (whisper it) bought a piece of clothing - a semi-fitted pinafore (jumper) dress in a pure wool check fabric. It's beautifully made, in a timeless style, and I know that I will get a lot of wear out of it. In fact, I have already worn it so much that I decided I wanted to make something similar, but this time in needlecord.

My first idea was to use this pattern.

Style 2188, 1968

But then I realised that apart from bust darts it has no shaping whatsoever, in either the front or the back.

Back view

This is not a style which suits me, as I know from making Butterick 4384. Fortunately, when going through the suitcase of vintage patterns that I blogged about recently, I found this, from 1972.

Princess seams front and back, much better

The pattern is for an unlined dress or tunic, with a neck facing. It is constructed by cutting out the facing pieces from sew-in interfacing, basting them to the constructed front and backs, stitching the shoulder seams, and then making up and attaching the facing.

1970s constuction methods

I wanted to make my version fully lined, and to use fusible intefacing. So I had to draft new facing pieces, based around the seamlines. I found a dark red needlecord remnant of the perfect length in my local fabric shop, and bought lining to match.

The lining, with separate interfacing pieces

I've had a lot of problems fitting bodices recently; since I changed from a B cup (the standard for dress patterns) to a C cup, my tried and trusted method of just shortening the bodice by 5cm/2" all round no longer works. So I decided to cut out the lining pieces as per the pattern, mark the waistline, shorten the pieces to fit me, and then apply these alterations when cutting out the needlecord. It means that there is extra fabric around the lining waist, but it's not a problem.

The adjusted lining

No matter how often I do it, I can never believe that the method of sewing the neckline and armholes right side together and then pulling the backs through is going to work, but it always does!

Magic!

The one thing which I kept from Style 2188 was the patch pockets. I lined them, and after consulting with Mum over the best position, placed them along the princess seamline. As ever, the back zip was hand-picked and the hem hand-sewn.

I'm really pleased with the end result.

A completed item!

I forgot to take a seated photo at the time, so here's one from my weekend catsitting for my friend. The semi-fitted shape makes it very comfortable to sit down in.

#sewnshownseated

Because I bought all the fabric, there's no reduction on the Stashometer.

No difference to the total, but recorded anyway

At least something has come in and gone straight out, rather than languishing in the stash for ages. Also, I'm hoping that this may coax my missing sewjo back into at least semi-regular appearances.

Butterick 6866 - part 1, the pattern

Given that my part of the UK was hit by two storms last week and a further one today, I'm really glad that I took the time to make those draught excluders; they work a treat! I'm sticking with the winter sewing theme, but I'm now back to dressmaking. Butterick 6866 was one of last year's UseNine choices, but I got no further than a brief stab at the pattern alterations - so brief that I never even blogged about it.

The fabric is less orange than this, but doesn't photograph well

I'm using up a remnant of brushed cotton, and making the longer-sleeved version, but with the contrasting collar tabs. I'm not convinced that same-coloured tabs would really work in a patterned fabric, although they do show up well on this plain dress in a very similar style, worn by Romola Garai in the TV series The Hour.

Straight skirt, but similar bodice detail

The first job was, as ever, pattern alterations. I shortened the bodice below the bust as usual, and made a mock-up using two left fronts. It (mostly) worked in terms of the fit, but I was worried about how the shortening would affect the position of the three points on the right front. To check, I made a mock-up of the right front as a single piece, minus the seam allowances and with the seam lines machine sewed in contrast thread, and basted it onto the existing toile.

First toile

Sure enough, the bottom point ended up a long way down the bodice. I do quite like it as a look, and may make this up in the future, but it's not what I'm after for this dress. It's not entirely apparent from the envelope illustration, but the bottom point should be just below the end of the vertical bust dart. It's clearer on the line drawing on the instruction sheet.

Bodice points relative to bust darts

There was also a second issue. Years of being hunched over either a computer keyboard at work or my sewing at home have left me with atrocious posture - among other things, my shoulders curve forwards, giving me hollows around my collarbones. This can cause collars to lie oddly and, in this case, it created wrinkles around the neckline of dress where the fabric bunched around the base of my neck. It's apparent on Nancy, who is exactly my shape and posture (she is, after all, my 'twin self').

Spot the wrinkle!

I decided that the solution (other than working on my posture, which I've started to do but is a longer-term job than this dress - I hope!) was to scoop out the neckline. This had the double advantage that it also changed the angle of the two contrast sections, and allowed me to move them up the bodice.

I redrew the left front with the new neckline curve, and made a new toile. Then I repeated the exercise of making a sepaprate right front, based on the dimensions of the original tabs and the curvier neckline.

Second toile - much better

Once I was happy that this worked, I traced the three separate pieces off the completed drawing, and added the seam allowances, notches, and tailor tack markings.

Comparing the two versions

Pattern created, it was time to cut out. I had measured the remnant and knew that it was long enough. Well, almost. Certainly within what I count as 'long enough'. Unfortunately, on closer inspection I found that the print was directional and the fabric has a very slight nap, and all the cutting layouts for the fabric width were 'without nap'.

Skirt, bodice and sleeve pieces are all placed both ways

The print is tiny, and the nap is negligible, so I could probably have got away with it. However, I am fussy about things like this, and my stubborn streak refused to give in. I checked the skirt pieces against myself, and realised that I could get way with shortening them. I can always make a faced hem in a different fabric if I find that a narrow hem doesn't hang correctly. I laid the fabric out on the floor, and prepared to do battle.

Shortening the skirt pieces meant I could fit three of the six skirt parts side by side.

Challenge accepted

By cutting everything else out from a single layer, I was able to get the whole dress cut out in the same direction, even the facings, and add a pocket bag, and leave enough for a belt.

Yes!!!!

Result! Now to sew it all together.

Fixing Butterick 5997

Back in February 2019 I posted about making Butterick 5997 and the problems with the finished article, namely the absurd amount of overlap on the cuffs and the alarmingly low front. (There was no doubt about the cuffs, but I wondered if I was being overly fussy about the front, so I asked a friend for a second opinion - her response of, "Blimey, I see what you mean", convinced me that I wasn't being fussy!)

The cuffs were far too wide for me, hence the massive overlap

The low-cut front, with a tee-shirt underneath

I vaguely thought about trying to fix it, but other projects always claimed precedence, so it just hung on a hanger for the better part of two years.

The catalyst for doing something about it was that I recently read Overdressed, by Elizabeth L. Cline (thanks for the recommendation, Juliana), about fast fashion. While I don't buy many clothes nowadays, Cline's exhortation to fully utilize the clothes you own - either by wearing them or passing them on to charity, did make me think about my unworn top. At the same time I read somewhere that charity shops in the UK can't resell handmade clothes because they lack the legally-required composition labelling, so just sell them on for scrap. I don’t know if this is true, but the risk of my top being shredded for seat stuffing struck me as a criminal waste of Tana Lawn, so there was no option but to finally fix it.

The cuffs were relatively straightforward. I calculated that there was 1¼" of excess fabric beyond the button, so I cut off the button, unpicked the cuff from the sleeve, thanked past Ms Tulip for not trimming the seam allowances to nothing, shortened the cuff, pleated up the excess sleeve width, reattached the cuff and reattached the button. There was already a pleat at the buttonhole end of the cuff, and I was sorely tempted to create a matching pleat at the button end so that I wouldn’t have to unpick the whole cuff. But if a job's worth doing . . . . Regretfully, I decided that there was no point replacing something which annoyed me with something else which annoyed me slightly less, and did the job properly. There are now two pleats at the buttonhole end.

The fixed cuff, with pleats (plural)

The only possible solution for the low front was to make an infill piece. I did consider making it from leftovers of the fabric, but decided that it would look odd. So instead I made it from scraps of plain white cotton left over from my Victorian underwear.

The first job was to work out the size of the new piece. The top is pull-on, and there would be no point in carefully making and attaching the infill, only to discover that I couldn't get the end result over my head! Once this was decided, a 'pattern' was made by laying a piece of tissue inside the top in the correct position, drawing along the finished edge, and then adding an allowance for the overlap. I hand-pintucked a piece of the cotton, and added some tiny purple buttons. Next, I sewed on another piece of cotton along the top edge, right sides together, and folded it over. This created a neat edge, and also made the insert less flimsy. I marked the outer edge of the pattern with a frixion pen, and machined the two pieces together.

Making the insert from cotton scraps

I had considered unpicking the neckline of the top and fitting the insert between the top and the facing, but this seemed a step too far. Instead I overlocked the edges of the insert, and sewed it onto the facing, close to the edge.

The attached insert, from the inside . . .

. . . and from the outside

It's fortunate that the print of the fabric is quite old-fashioned looking, so the insert doesn't look entirely out of place. Also, I think that sewing the pieces together as close to the blouse edge as possible helps to make the insert look like part of the top rather than something worn underneath.

Wearing the updated top

I doubt if this will ever be a 'favourite' top, but it has a lot of design features which I like, and I will, now, finally, get some wear out of it. It’s always very tempting to just move from one shiny, exciting new project to the next one but as with the 'Meh' skirt, I did find taking the time to finally fix this a surprisingly satisfying job.

The side view makes it clearer that the insert isn't a separate garment

April dress (Butterick 2535) finished

It's a little late (which I'm putting down to scrubs-making), but I have finished my April dress for the Vintage Sew A Dress A Month, and I'm really pleased with the end result. The pattern envelope describes it as a "casual frock . . . so wearable for innumerable occasions", and I'm inclined to agree. It would be just as suitable for nipping out to the shops as for afternoon tea with friends - when we're able to do all these things again.

Better late than never

I forgot to mention last week that when I laid the fabric out to cut it, I discovered that there was a hole in it - it's an occupational hazard of using remnants. Because the print is so dense it was easy to miss, especially when the fabric was folded double. I was worried that I would somehow forget about it when I was cutting out, so I made it noticable by tacking an obvious patch over it.

There was no missing this

The hole meant that I had to go for the short-sleeved version of the pattern. However, the fabric is a Liberty Tana Lawn, so lent itself to a more obviously summer dress anyway.

And the answer to last week's button dilemma? When I tried the bodice on, it was obvious that it needed a contrast button; otherwise it was just a flowery mass. So green it was. Thank you Lynn, I shall refer all my button queries to you in future!

I was so pleased to find these vintage green buttons in my stash

In order to get the dress done, I used ready-made shoulder pads. The pattern does include instructions for making your own, and I may well do this at some point. One thing which I really noticed was how much the bodice fit was improved by wearing one of my What Katie Did bras underneath it, rather than a modern bra. I shouldn't really be surprised that something made from a true vintage pattern fits better over a vintage silhouette, but as I often use vintage rather than reproduction patterns, it's worth remembering.

Along the same lines, if I want to dress things up for a proper vintage look, the colour scheme of the print goes with lots of my coloured-seam stockings; pink, purple, green and claret to be precise, as well as black and neutral. On top of that, the dress is a perfect match for this fabulous cardigan, knitted from a vintage pattern, which I commissioned from the very wonderful Crafty Elsie. Knitwear which actually fits me, yay (and it has amazing buttons, too)!

Made for each other

Making this dress has removed another three metres of fabric from the stash - although obviously the arrival of 18 metres of scrubs fabric has ruined my progress on that front!

A big fat zero

Finally, this was the first of my #UseNine2020 fabrics. Vogue 7422 and the striped seersucker are lined up for my May dress, but first I have some more scrubs to make.

One down, eight to go

January dress finished!

An extra post this week because I've finished Butterick 5748, my January dress for the Vintage Sew A Dress A Month challenge, and I've got something else to post on Sunday.

I finally finished all the hemming, and here is the end result. This is the dress without a petticoat, and just the stiffness of the cotton lining to hold the skirt out.

Demonstrating the added pocket!

The full lining did add to the sewing time, but as well as giving the dress some body it makes for a very neat interior.

In effect, it's two dresses sewn together

It makes the zip especially neat

One thing which I forgot to mention in earlier posts is that the dress back is lower than the front. I was worried that it might be too low on my short torso, so raised it by 2.5cm / 1", and was glad that I did. This is the end result.

Showing the scoop back

I do wish that I'd thought to pattern match the bodice back seam though!

And here is the dress worn with a belt, a net underskirt, my most 1960-ish shoes, and a matching cardigan.

The full look

The cardi was actually the start of this outfit. Because I am such a poor/super-slow knitter, I tend to get very excited when I come across knitwear specifically for petites. Hence I bought this cute bolero, and then realised that it went with absolutely nothing that I owned. So the obvious solution was to buy some suitable fabric - which then sat in my stash for a couple of years. However it finally all came together. It's not exactly a January outfit, but I can see it getting a lot of wear when the warmer weather comes.

Even though I went totally off-piste with the cutting layout, I didn't use any more fabric than the yardage given on the pattern envelope. Which brings me to. . . the Stashometer. Starting afresh felt like cheating, so I decided to carry over last year's deficit. Happily, all that lining means that the overall fabric use for this dress was quite high.

In credit!

Slow going on my January dress

I had hoped to be posting about my completed January entry for the Vintage Sew A Dress A Month today, but it's not quite finished. For some reason, hemming a circle skirt of thin viscose is harder, and takes longer, than hemming a circle skirt of cotton. Also, the dress is fully lined, so once I've finished that I've got the lining to hem as well - although that will be done by machine.

My pattern choice for January

Part of the reason why this dress is taking so long is that I made life harder for myself by altering the cutting layout. Like many of Butterick's other full-skirted pattern reissues, 5748 has the skirt cut at right angles to the bodice - along the fabric rather than across it.

Cutting layouts for different views and fabric widths

This wasn't a problem when I made Butterick 6582. The bold floral print looked much the same both up-and-down and sideways.

This fabric hides everything

The stash fabric I'm using for 5748 however is strongly directional.

This fabric does not

I didn't want to have the black elements of the pattern running up and down on the bodice, and sideways on the skirt, so I used an approach which was common in the 1950s.

This Weldons pattern is a good example, as it also has a full skirt - in this case it's a semi-circle.

Weldons 1606

Because the completed skirt sections would be wider than most fabrics available at the time, they are split into two pieces; the skirt and the skirt gore.

Instructions showing the pattern pieces

These are stitched together, and then the completed pieces are sewn up to make the skirt.

The skirt construction

I folded my fabric in half lengthways, and cut out the skirt front and back on the fold. Before I unpinned the pattern from the fabric, I marked where the edge of the fabric was, making an allowance for the seam. Then I used the pattern piece to cut out the extension. Naturally, I had to pattern match the join - I couldn't bring myself not to! And then, I decided to alternate between black and light grey thread on the join, to make sure that the stitches don't show. Talk about a glutton for punishment!

Attaching one of the skirt gores

Because the viscose is so thin, I used a thicker cotton for the lining than I'd normally use, to give the dress some body. I also had to patch one of the bust darts with a lighter section of the fabric, to stop one of the back circles from showing through. The only other changes I made were my usual ones of swapping the zip to the right side and adding a pocket in the left side skirt seam.

This is the dress as it currently looks. I'll post some pictures of me wearing it when I finally finish the hems! I'm hemming it with the light grey thread, and going over the stitches in the black sections with a black permanent laundry marker pen. I did the same on the hand-picked zip.

On Nancy, awaiting hemming