Making Dresses and Making Mistakes 

Tip…. When you have a pattern that you use a lot, fuse a thin iron on interfacing to the back of the pieces and they will last a really long time!

You laugh at yourself for using the same pattern over and over but jokes on us because we keep tuning in to watch you use the same pattern over and over 😂🙃 I don't hear any complaints

OMG. The red and black one with the clearly intentionally designed stripe!!! Chef's kiss ❤

Watching you lose the word for "bolt" was really validating for me. I've been like that for as long as I can remember, and it has nothing to do with being tired. Thanks for leaving that bit in the video.

Okay, so your tangent about superhero movies made me remember a short-lived series called The Super Hero Clean Up Squad, which was all about a group of people who were tasked with cleaning up all the destruction that superhero fights created.

I love how realistic you always are! You make mistakes, you fix them (or don't!), you admit stuff didn't come out exactly the way you wanted. It's very relatable to me

Your way of showing the final product is so fun and dynamic, it shows off all the wonderful swooshness

My rule of thumb for neck bindings in knit is to measure the neckline and make the binding 85% of that measurement. It always works for me.

I’ve had to explain to my kids why the transformers making a mess fighting in the city gets on my nerves!!! Lol glad to hear someone else is bothered by the messes they make in these movies!!

I love how the black and red dress came out, really lovely, and the grey and purple was a solid 8/10. Now as for the cowl neck dress, it came out pretty, however the technique was incorrect enough for that to not actually be a cowl neck at all. To get a cowl neck, I would recommend the pattern magic series by Tomoko Nakamichi, which goes through the steps of re-drafting the pattern to be a cowl neck. You will need book 2, page 80. As you often work with knit fabrics, I would also suggest reading the stretch fabrics book in the series. The general idea of a cowl neck is that you leave the back at the correct size, and then re-draft the front so that it is very wide and high, as if you have taken the pattern an added a big triangle to the top. When you then attach the shoulders to the back, it pulls them in and the extra width drapes downwards to form the cowl. This is not compatible with a bound neckline. This is compatible with a princess seam dress, however it is also much more difficult as it requires you to spread the added triangle over the three panels, and also use a facing instead of a binding. If you want to have another go at a cowl neck, I would recommend starting with a commercial cowl neck pattern so you get a feel of what you are trying to do, and how the mechanics work, and afterward reading the pattern magic books so you know how that alteration is made (to my brain the books made no sense until I'd tried out a cowl neck myself first, but that's just how my brain works). The books are available free to borrow on internet archive. Pattern Magic 2: archive.org/details/patternmagic20000naka Pattern Magic Stretch Fabrics: archive.org/details/patternmagicstre0000naka/mode/2up As an aside, there is a type of cowl collar that is closer to what you did, however that is generally just a tall tube or outward sloping cone, that you let slump, and therefore is not really possible to have it low at the back and cowled at the front. To have only the front cowled you need to do the full pattern adjustment type of cowl. Once again, the garment industry confuses everyone by using the same work for two completely different things because they look superficially similar, despite being constructed completely differently.

Re: the raglan sleeve thing. I was the EXACT SAME WAY. I might be able to provide some insight: I’ve noticed it’s a trend among me and my other female friends with broad shoulders. They just fit better and they’re very flattering to that body type!

I'm not even done with the video but had to comment how completely I feel the same thing in these movies. Your TED talk was filled with "yes!" and "exactly!" from me. Kindred spirits. ......now back to the video :)

I'll be honest, I think the purple dress is the most beautiful! Even if the cowl neck isn't right, the whole thing is completely gorgeous.

Don’t think of it as an obsession…I would call it a trend!♥️👍🤪 I love your channel, it combines sewing with stand up, or sit down comedy.♥️♥️♥️

I find your process and narrative so entertaining and validating. I kinda wing it most of the time while sewing and am more interested in trying new techniques rather than the finished product. You're right in my comfort zone 🌻🍄

This video actually gave me so much comfort and confident in my own sewing adventures. Like i literally seam ripped the wrong seam two days ago... I do the "i have no idea but i guess it will be fine" 99% of the time. My stitches aren't the neatest most lines are a bit wonky. But honestly, you are right! Its still fine. No one will notice. Its fine! The clothes are still cute. And since you love grades: The video gets a 10/10. Loved it! Even tho i will probably never make a dress. (I am more of a pants kinda guy ^^)

While wearing one of the dresses, hold the piece the pocket goes into up against you, matching the seams of the dress to those on the paper. Mark on the paper piece the desired lotion of the pocket.

Put " do not disturb" on on your phone. You can allow calls from all contacts or just favorites. You can also allow emergency calls(basically anyone who calls you repeatedly regardless of whom it is)

Yay! I love it when a pattern becomes a good cozy friend! Also, agree 1000% re: tv and movies. Ugh. My husband watches all the death and mayhem and sports and stuff and I'm watching RU-vid sewing videos and documentaries about things i had no idea would be so interesting.

You have spoken my feelings on nearly every action movie I have ever seen. What about the people in the background?!? The cars!?!? I once ruined Blade for a group of people when I paused to ask about whether wonton destruction to ancient manuscripts being an okay thing and what happened to those pages. These are questions to ponder. Also, thank you for sharing your dresses.

I'm glad you're making content before you move

Sew a line of stitches 1-2cm from the bottom of your unfinished hem, you can then fold over that line and iron it to get a clean straight hem, fold over again and iron, then stitch again for your real hem. Also Maraflex in both bobbin and spool means you can do a straight stitch on knits without a serger without anything snapping. :)

Okay, so I'm only at time stamp 12:09, in the middle of your movie "tangent". But I have to say, that just listening to your rant on super hero movies and disaster movies -- well, I just love that there is someone else out there that shares my feelings. Charlie, you're so articulate! Loving your videos. Found your channel by chance a few weeks ago. Had to binge watch all your videos. Now I can't wait until Friday so I can watch your new one. I'm not a professional sewist -- not even a great one by any means. But I learned to sew from my mother when I was a preteen and have sewed on and off my whole life (I'm in my seventies). It's so interesting to watch your creative journey. I hope you continue to make more great videos. Good luck on your move. Thanks for shariang.

Once I had a beautiful cowl neck top. The cowl part was a bit as a inverted cone: smaller in the part that gets sewed to the neck, a bit bigger in the top part, so that it had sufficient fabric to drape.

You wanted the raglan baseball tee because in the late 70's - early 80's, those were the IT thing. I remember because I was there, wanting one too! And...the black/red dress is magnificent!!

The Sewaholic Renfrew pattern is a knit top with among others, a cowl neck. The pattern piece is a huge doubled rectangle sewn into the scoop neck and works an absolute treat. The cowl piece starts at about 18 inches so is half that when folded. The pattern is an oldie, but a goodie, and is still available if you feel like treating yourself as it has loads of possibilities.

OMG, I love this video, shows how we all do silly things, flipping the patterns off the table sewing pockets on wrong seam, lol….love to know I’m not alone!!!

I super recommend a double needle for hemming stretch. It makes a beautiful double line in the same time and the bobbin thread makes a zig zag so it has some stretch.

Ironing the hem before sewing? How fancy! I adore how the black and red turned out! I might have to steal that color blocking pattern

Ran across your channel when looking for sewing. Honestly, lady, you crack me up! Keep being you!

Before I give any sewing advice I want to point out that you did a great job! 😻 On video I can't see the seam in the cowl neck dress, so I thought it looked lovely. There's a main problem with the shape you cut out for the cowl. The curved side is longer than the straight side, so there's less fabric to drape downward the further you get from the neckline. A straight cut or something that widened the away from the neckline would lay more cowl-ly. The other style cowl, like the tank pic, doesn't take as much fussing as you'd think. Take the pattern and line up the waist and bust lines so the princess seams at the top don't touch. That v of space helps shape the fabric to your 3D body, it's part of the bust shaping. But you want extra fabric for a cowl so it can drape. Draw a line from where the patterns match up and extend the collar line to meet up. Do this for the center panel only. You want your side panels to still meet up with the sleeves in the correct position so all the extra fabric drapes in the front and not create some super weird fit problems. Even with this you'll probably have to fuss around with the exact neck shaping once you try it on. I really hope that was clear! Without pictures or pointing stuff out in person it's difficult to explain shapes 😅 I'm a self taught seamstress as well. I recommend getting a book on pattern drafting, my sewing improved by leaps and bounds!

I am amused that knits are your comfort fabrics and I hardly ever sew knits because they scare me. I bought a bunch of knit fabric because I love wearing knits. Your fearlessness is inspiring. I think using the contrast fabric for your binding would be interesting variation on the gray and purple dress.

I suggest for dress number 3, removing the scrunchy turtle neck and the sleeves, adding a binding, and turning it into a halter top. Possibly, with the binding being very long and tied into a bow. And a the tip to make the tissue paper pattern last longer and easier to manipulate is to glue down to gift wrap. You can get spray adhesive or a bunch of glue sticks and clearance Christmas wrapping paper and glue the pieces down. It makes such a difference in ease of use and longevity for the pattern pieces. It may seem like the wrapping papers to flimsy just like the tissue paper, but gluing two pieces of paper together makes some greater than the sum of the parts.

These dresses are so cute! The red and black one is chef’s kiss. I really like the gray, but the neckline is hard to see in the video. I also understand the difference in fabric weight being frustrating. I love the long purple dress! Could you remove the cowl neck and put in a binding? I love the length.

When you use a pattern all the time that you know fits and you love it becomes a Tried n' True pattern or a TnT! I love the black and red one, it looks so intentional and the bottom panel being on the diagonal looks so good!

Girl, you are perfectly describing why my mom hates superhero/disaster movies!! 😂😂😂

I think it would be super cute to make the dress look like a classic raglan tee. 3/4 sleeves, red sleeves with white body

Honest to God, when you sipped from your overly full coffee cup, it was deja vu. I see absolutely nothing wrong with doing the same thing, and it grosses out my husband. I still do it and it’s hard to comprehend why it should gross anybody out??? Thanks so much for validating this perfectly normal behavior.

I love raglan sleeves! Super easy and comfy. You know … I wouldn’t mind having a half dozen cute comfy T-shirt dresses myself. Should probably do something about that 😝 I especially love how the color blocking turned out on the black with red checks ❤

When you said you sewed the pockets to the center section of your dress, I busted out laughing! You are great! It felt so good to laugh after the week I've had. Love your tangets, too. Thanks for sharing your journey with us, mistakes (and fixes) and all!

Your TEDChat sounds like hyper-empathy which can be a neurodivergent trait! I've also noticed that you talk so casually about your sensory issues and it feels so good to have someone I admire creatively be someone who I can relate so closely to as well

I love these videos because it shows all the things you can do with a pattern you love. You don’t just have to make the same thing over again and can be free to experiment.

Hiya: I’m a new viewer and only a casual sewist, but really loving how you explain your projects! Please taking this as a sincere compliment when I say it’s inspirational to see you eff something up, but treat it as a lesson learned and plow ahead. You are speaking directly to my perfectionism and reminding me that done is way way way better than perfect. Also, dang that checked bit on the side panels of the red and black dress was a fortuitous incident! (As they say in programming: it’s not a bug: it’s a feature)

My sewing secret is that I've never done a rolled hem on stretchy or knit fabric. I just do a zig-zag to make a lettuce hem lol

I think all 3 dresses came out really cute! I must admit the cowl neck is actually my favorite of the three. One thing though, I believe a cowl neck is actually just a rectangle. Hope that helps if you should ever give it another go. I love the ways you manage to make the pattern your own!

I think it would be worth removing the cowl neck and turning it into a scoop or v-neck. You'll be much happier wearing it and it's such a beautiful dress. I love it. Thanks for the humour and fun, I really enjoyed it xxx

I love how RU-vid suggested you to me after I watched a load of the Closet Historian’s video, and then you mention her! The algors are rithming! Also, I just love your vibe, your attitude, and your honest 😊

I really like the long purple floral dress and don’t mind the collar at all. It is beautiful and could be worn as a formal gown to a wedding or to “the Ball.”

I love watching your videos. The closest I have seen to my style of sewing. Especially when the other people who sew in my life are all similar to Bernadette

I know I just commented, but….I have grown to like you very much! We could totally be friends…if you lived in Minnesota! I relate to it all! Thank you for your mistakes, boo-boos and mess ups! The “perfect” RU-vidrs are soooo boring!

The purple dress is VERY attractive. Very flattering and not “too dressy” the collar doesn’t look that bad either. I wasn’t expecting to like the black and checkered inset dress. Discovering the inset band in the skirt is what balanced out the shape and makes the dress work. Fantastic happy accident and creative thinking. The grey dress is good and would fit my “works fine” category (in a happy way) Really interesting experiment - keep the pattern the same and allow yourself to take on so many new variations and techniques. Thanks.

Love these. I think your cowl neck shape was on the right path but I think the straight edge should be the side sown to the neckline and the fullness is at the fold.

The v-neck dress gives me ladybug vibes, it's very cute!

you are so enjoyable to watch, and also inspiration.

I love your final reveals with you happy swirling and puppy engagement

Me: I'm going to be DISCIPLINED and save the video for peaceful lunchtime viewing. Also me: *impatient and watching at 11:30 AM*

Peek-a-boo has a down loadable pattern called pinnacle that has a simular style in a hoodie/shirt version. I have made 6 of the nursing version of the shirt for my daughter and daughter in law. I just keep going back to it over and over. When you use dark side panels it is so flattering.

A couple of things. I like your tangents they give me another way to look at things. You need new wording if it shows it's no longer a mistake it's a design choice. The fix for the black dress was perfect. Can't say I've ever done a callow neckline. My only advice is to watch thrift stores for a cheap pattern with a neckline you like and check out how they did it. You already have a great understanding of construction just need the shape. I also love the raglan sleeve. I'm very drawn to that style.... Actually I need more, will add it to the list!

I just love how much fun you have while doing the reveals of your dresses! I also really love your method of sewing. I usually stick to patterns and always feel too afraid to “wing it”, but watching you is giving me the courage to try.

You always rag on yourself about all your “tangents” but I absolutely love it when you go off on your little tangents lol it makes it less like a lesson more like we’re your friends lol makes you personable

LOVE the black and red dress, it makes my old goth heart happy (and jealous)! The other two also look great!

I wear alot of clothes made from linen ( helps my Fibromyalgia). I would love to see you make this pattern using 100% linen fabric. And I love a good swoosh also. That would be so neat to see.

Regarding the collateral damage of superhero stuff, that’s why I loved She-Hulk

I absolutely enjoy watching your videos so much. I've got adhd and struggle with keeping my attention on things that don't engage my brain enough and your chaotic energy and random tangents are perfect for keeping me interested all the way through. Also absolutely love the way you present the finished product for similar reasons

😂 "Just be normal," and, "I have too many thoughts," are entirely too relatable. 😅

15:27 - I have literally never seen any indication that anyone else in the world remembers that song, and I maintain to this day that it's easily top three in movie songs ever made. You made my day. 😂

These are gorgeous! I have no idea how to add a cowl neck to a dress but there are lots of sweaters with cowl necks, maybe a sweater cowl neck tutorial would apply to dresses 🤔

I was just about to mention the closet historian, right before you said you watched her video 😂😂 to make the cowl modification on a raglan pattern you would need to temporarily tape the top of the front pattern to the top of the sleeve pattern, so you can treat them as one. Then do the modification as Bianca does and then separate the two pattern pieces once again! edit: another important thing when you’re drafting cowl necks is that you should draw a facing right on the main pattern, to be folded under before sewing. TCH explains this in her video on RU-vid, but she has another two or three on her, Patreon, going more in depth, especially one for knits!

"You say to shorten here, but I am not petite. NOT A TALL" 🤣

Hahahahaha… Drama, superheroes, and disasters; my favorite kinds of movies/shows. 😂

YEAH!! I am so excited for the cowl!! You used my idea. 😊🥰

I 100% relate to your TED chat to the point I can only read cheezy romance novels at this point... but then I have ME.

The long dress is stunning! The fabric is not to my taste, but the length and the no sleeves make it look casual gala! Love it.

Not an expert in sewing cowl necks, but I had a LOT of them in the early 2000s. From what I recall the cowls where either straigth up tubes or larger in 'diameter' on the top than the botttom. Like your trumpet sleeve really, but for the neck area. The bottom part of the cowl should match whaterever neckline shape you cut and then grow 'up and out' from there. My cowl necks with scooped neckline draped from that scooped line; very cold in the winter, my mother did not approve. Most of them had regular necklines though, and those that went 'up' in length but not 'out' in diameter were like wearing a shirt with a built in scarf. Warm and comfy, but not very draped.

Your videos honestly make my day. I love the faces, the self talk, the exasperation at times...and winging it! I feel it all so hard! The red and black dress is a bombshell

I really like the red and black one, colour blocking the sleeves rather than the sides makes more of a feature of the raglan and I think is more flattering. Also I love red. I feel like the cowl neck maybe needs the central piece to be split and spread but have no idea how to go about doing that correctly. If you really like sewing with knits getting an overlocker is probably a good investment as it makes some of those finishing touches much easier. I completely agree with the tv rant. Super heroes are very unapologetically destructive, drama and crime is too depressing and meh to sport. Having said that I got apple tv just to watch Ted Lasso and did enjoy it, but despite the football.

I really relate to the "we're just going to go with it" attitude of your sewing. I wonder if, in a future video, you could try to rework some of your 6/10 projects? I hesitate to invest the time in sewing pieces that I may not love, which means I don't swing at the fences very often. Or whatever sports metaphor works there. If I knew it was possible to go back and make the project suck less, then I wouldn't feel like it was such an investment. Good luck on the closing!

They all look great to me and you look lovely in all of them.

I loved your Ted chat! I do like action/superhero movies, but if they’re only okay-yep. I just start feeling sorry for whoever has to deal with the ruined infrastructure.

I also had a childhood obsession with raglan sleeves and baseball tees. I have a few raglan tees now and I love them so much.

Love these! And love them so much, I bought the pattern. And big thanks for the v-neck, that's my go to.

For the cowl neck, I have a pattern that does what you want - New Look Simplicity pattern 6577. The front is all one piece and it includes the cowl neck. Make the shoulders wider than you need them, then draw a bell shape and attach the bottom of that to the neck line (it will look like there's sort of a hood attached to neck of the front of the shirt). Take in a couple of darts on each shoulder to get it to the width you want, then the extra fabric will drape down and create a cowl! I've made this shirt a few times and I love it.

Watching your videos fills me with such a strong desire to work with physical objects (as opposed to homework, grading, or reading papers, which is what I'm supposed to be doing). A record number of dishes have been washed soon after using since I found your channel. I have thrifted pots and put plants in them. I am eyeing the inside of every single closet as though disorganized closets is my only stressor in life. Unfortunately, none of that stuff is due tomorrow, and the homework is

I can relate so much to what you said about movies. I pretty much never watch movies because I'm too much of a practical thinker for it lol

I love how each dress looks in the end! I think you did a great job!

Love the red and black dress. For the cowl try making it about 16 inches high by the measurement of the neck, stitch the ends together, fold in half and stitch to neck, then when you put it on you fold the cowl in half again. I have my favourite winter top with this and I love it. Hope this helps.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks of those things while watching super hero movies. It was in the superman movie where he was battling Zol, and I was like that is soo much rampant destruction due to your morals of not just ripping his head off in the first place.

On the cowl neck, try making the collar twice the width of what you cut out. The wider drape would cover the stitching. Love the "mistake" dress with the buffalo check. It was smart thinking to add the strips when you cut it too short.

The extreme eyeroll at outside construction interupting filming is totally me at things that inconvenience me 😮‍💨

I'm just catching up. I love the black and red one and even though you don't love the cowl neck one I think it's very elegant. I went through a stage where all my dresses needed a cowl neck. here's what you need to do: 1. Trace the original neck line on a new piece of wrapping paper. 2. cut diagonal slits from the top shoulder to where on the dress front you want the draping to start, normally 3 is a good number. (Don't cut all the way) 3. swing the "slats" open as much as you want, the more open it is the bigger and drappier the cowl will be. There is a way of calculating how much you need to open it according to how wide you want the cowl but it's much more fun to just wing it ;-) 4. Tape the now open pieces as well as the original pattern piece to a new piece of paper and create the final cowl necked pattern. have fun cowling ;-)

You got all that lace! Add a panel of lace around the cowl neck and insert it in the skirt!

Love these! The red and black is so fun! I actually didn’t expect to like the gray and purple, but that’s so cute! And the sleeves are a nice change! The biggest surprise though to me, is the long print with the cowl. I love it! The print is so busy, it covers a multitude of sins, and it fits you really well! And you may call the non-cowl a “design feature of a custom crushed collar”!

Thank you for the reminder that knits exist. I've been doing a lot of historical based sewing with wovens and... sometimes I just want a little stretch, you know, for boobs and all.... I need to go dig out my princess seam dress pattern that fit ok 15 years ago (I'm sure it still fits, I still have the dress I made from it, I just don't wear it because it's stretch crushed velvet and therefore polyester, not for fit issues) and see if I've got enough cotton knits to make something comfy, now that I have at least one sewing machine that can do stretchy stitches (been mostly hand sewing or using a hand crank antique). My current comfy house dresses are all medieval imspired rectangles-and-gores (because it's really easy to fudge things based on how much fabric you have), and made of plaid flannel so they kinda look like nightgowns... And I keep trying raglan sleeves but they always do something completely weird in the armpit/sideboob area so I either add an armpit gusset or drop the whole thing. I might be getting the angle wrong or something...

I adore the rant... makes my spicy brain self feel at home. Like "aaaahhh yes, I have at last found my people. "

I'm so late (because I've just started to follow you) BUT... I relate SO MUCH about the movie commentary, one of my most cherished movie/serie idea I wish to see but will probably never exist is about an insurance worker in the MCU (or whatever) that have to daily deals with the aftermath of superheroes existing and dealing with angry citizens reclamations XDXDXD

collateral damage in superhero and action movies is ridiculous. I love these dresses they look super comfy.

The movie rant? I DO THAT TOO!!!! One of my pet peeves is the actors in a restaurant talking loudly but it's supposed to be a secret. I'm yelling at the tv, "be quiet! Someone's gonna hear you!" Lol

I also have a raglan sleeve obsession. Something from childhood for sure.

LOVE the red-and-black pockets!

Love the red and black one! ❤🇬🇧💕