Happy Customer Photo

I enjoy my miniature dressmaking binges so much, but it's not often I get to see the dresses in action.

This black and white polka dot dress was made from a favorite skirt.  When the zipper broke, I took it as a sign that it should be repurposed, instead of repaired.  Considering that the zipper broke because the skirt was too tight, a new zipper wasn't really going to fix anything anyway.

And it made a really cute dress.  The little girl's mom is a fellow artist, and I ran into her at a show today.  She sent me these photos of her daughter and said I was welcome to share, and I'm only too happy to do so!

This really makes me want to settle down with the sewing machine and some cute fabrics, but the holidays are coming and the custom bear orders are piling up.  Dresses are pretty much on the back burner until after the holidays, but I'll keep this picture around for inspiration heading into spring.

How many days till Spring?

So maybe we didn't get the Snowpocalypse Bombogenesis Blizzard of 2015 (and I'm so thankful we didn't), but it's still winter, and I'm getting a little tired of gray skies and cold winds.

The cold drafts in my house are at least less this year, and I'm pleased because that means my efforts at covering every crack with a combination of draft-sealing tape, plastic sheeting, foamcore board and (in the workroom) fleece blankets, has paid off.  It's nice to be able to sew in the sewing room in January this year.

But since it is indeed still January, I've been thinking spring.  It doesn't help that I've already applied for / booked my first 2 April shows, so my mind is already where my body is not.

And that means I've inevitably started making stock for spring shows.  One of the things that always goes well in the early shows are my toddler dresses.  And after a long stretch of teddy bear and recycled sweater animals, they were literally a breath of fresh air for my wool-clogged brain and sewing machine!

These are also all recycled -- the first one, candy pink and white stripes, was made from a woman's blouse.  The green and white floral trim (facings too), was left over from a dress I made last year.

The orange butterfly dress was made from a particularly obnoxiously wonderful scrubs top -- if they're not surgical green, they have some of the best prints!  It needed nothing more than some lime green rickrack and a few daisy appliques to finish it off.

Last one is my favorite, though the least photogenic.  It's made from a blue and white floral H&M blouse that would never accommodate an adult female boob, much less a pair of them -- even after I picked out all the darts.  But it was large enough to cut a size 3 dress out of, and I was able to use the original front button placket up the back of the dress, thus saving myself from making 5 buttonholes!

The decoration on the front is a piece of vintage white cotton lace surrounded by varying sizes of yoyos cut from the leftover pink stripe.  I don't know why the yoyos, it just struck me to put them there and now I think they look like roses climbing a fence.  Your experience may vary.

Next up: one final custom bear from 2014 -- the customer made her purchase two days after Christmas but then got delayed in sending her fabrics.  They just arrived, so I think that's what I'll be doing today.

Traveling fabrics

When I get a fabric in my hands that speaks to me, there's no letting go of it until there are only scraps left.  I thought you might enjoy watching how they travel through the workroom and into other things.

As example, a few dresses I've done recently.  I hit a good half price day at the thrift store and scored three pink/orange themed garments.  The first was a pink and orange narrow-striped skirt, which got turned into a dress on its own, trimmed with rickrack and a flower applique.  The second, a butterfly print, was a dress pretty much all on its own, but I added a border and applique heart made from the striped fabric.  The third garment, an oversized orange-and-white print skirt, got turned into 2 dresses, and teamed up with the ruffle from the butterfly print dress.

By the time I got done, I didn't even have enough scraps left for potholders.  That's saying something.

On a blue note, same deal.  Dress #1 was a woman's striped seersucker sundress, cut on the bias.  I took advantage of the original bias seam in the skirt for the dress, which wasted a lot of fabric but looked good.  I embellished it with some vintage rose/ribbon trim.  The second dress was made from a pair of blue pajama pants.  I used the seersucker for the facings, and used the dress's original ties as trim around the neckline.  When, after the dress was complete, I noticed a tiny pick in the fabric of the skirt (why is it those things aren't visible until you're done?), I found more of the seersucker and appliqued a sailboat right over it.  The third dress is soft blue denim, with facings and a pocket made from the pajama fabric, and appliqued daisies spilling out of the pocket.

This time around, I actually have a little bit of each of the blue fabrics left.  I see a series of marine-themed potholders in my future.

Donations

Ever since people found out that I recycle fabrics, I've come home to the occasional care package on my front porch.

It helps that I live on the same block as a really good thrift store.  They support my habit nicely, but it also works in the reverse -- friends who would normally donate to the store will leave their donations on my porch for me to pick through first, and then donate whatever is left that doesn't suit my needs.

These three dresses came from one of those care packages.  All of them were pillowcases - two yellow-and-white striped ones and a larger sham, striped on one side, the other with the really cool compass and ship images.

There were others, including some really, really large 1990s cabbage rose linens (think toddler-head-sized roses), which did make the journey to the store.  The nautical pillowcase went into the thrift bag, came out, went back in and was sitting there, waiting to be taken down the street when I sprinted down the steps and pulled it out, because I had just gotten the inspiration for the dress, and I was really hoping that Mario hadn't decided to help me out by getting rid of that bag for me.

The yellow striped dresses just feel like essence of summer.  I've had several yards of that daisy trim for the past couple of years.  I bought it to use on a dress for myself, and then I could never decide on a pattern (or use for the trim) that didn't look way too young and/or childish.

Considering how good it looks on these size 1 and 3 dresses, I think I was right to save it.  Much better for small people, right?

Show tomorrow.  Everything is packed up and ready in the hall downstairs, ready to load into the Outback in the morning.

More later.

Not so Mellow Yellow

Yellow is one of my favorite colors.  Not to wear -- yellow makes me look yellow, and not to decorate with (although our bedroom is a deep dijon-mustard gold), but just as a color in general.

It's happy, it's cheerful, it's . . . a difficult color to wear.

And because of that, I'm always on the lookout for yellow garments at the thrift store to incorporate into my work, and I hardly ever find any. You would think that someone out there would have bought a gorgeous, but unflattering, yellow dress in her time - and gotten rid of it.

But no.

Recently, a couple of sewing friends came to town and we went on our annual fabric pilgrimage.  The place is wholesale, but will do retail if you show up and ask nicely.  Since most of their stuff is high end, I tend to stick to the remnant boxes in the front of the store.   (They're appliance boxes, so plenty of room for remnant goodness!)

One of the first things that I saw, which made me do a total happy dance, was a chunk of brilliant, sunny yellow cotton. The next thing was a second chunk of it.

My day was made.  (I'm easy, right?)

All this yellow goodness was going to last me for ages.  It was going to be incorporated into a dozen different projects, accents on dresses and strips in patchwork, a little everywhere, to make it last.

Which, of course, is why the first thing I did was to cut out a dress.

The appliques are made from  some Hawaiian shirt fabric brought back from a co-worker's vacation (I asked her for fabric, and she brought 4 fat quarters of different colors -- pretty, but never large enough to make something from).  The green stems are from a set of lime scrubs from the thrift store.

Red and green ornamental stitching at the hem, red buttons, green buttonholes.  Obnoxiously charming, or charmingly obnoxious?  You tell me.

No more pillowcases

Instead, they've become dresses.

I'm pretty happy with these two.  The motifs on the pillowcases really lent themselves to becoming dresses.

Not as happy with the photography on the bottom dress -- the blue facing doesn't show half as much straight on; for some reason, flash or no flash, it's much more obvious in the picture.  Grr.

The only other "grr" moment -- going through SIX boxes and cans of buttons and not being able to find eight pale blue shirt buttons.  Which I know I have a boatload of, because I used them when I made a shirt for my husband a year or so ago.  (And no, I didn't scavenge the buttons off his shirt, though the thought did occur to me.

These dresses are now available in the shop.

A funny thing happened on the way to the craft show

With a different belt!  This was
just what I had within reach.

I made a dress.  For me.

This is a momentous event, because I haven't done that for quite some time.

It isn't a complicated dress, but it still sat on my workroom table unfinished for the better part of two weeks.

It isn't a complicated dress, but I liked the pattern so much I made it in a Liberty cotton that I've had sitting for several summers.  It's cool and airy and I love it.

The pattern is Simplicity 1609, and I noticed it a while back on Gertie's blog.  I'm glad I read her review of it, because this dress does not have the Big 4's usual excessive ease.  I'm usually a 12 in Simplicity, etc., but I went by my measurements this time and I'm a 14.  I know it looks a big spacious on the dress form, but that's because Evelyn's back isn't as wide and she's somehow not gained an inch or so in the chest where I have.  We won't even discuss her refusal to adjust her waist measurement to mine.

I skipped one step in the pattern -- deliberately because of insufficient fabric, and because I didn't think it would make that much of a difference.  There's a center front seam on this dress, and instead I cut it on the fold, leaving off the excess which would have been the seam allowance.  There didn't seem to be that much shaping to the front seam, and I didn't have quite enough fabric to cut separate pieces.  Next time I'll follow the instructions, because having that seam really would give me the ability to tweak the fit a bit more, but since I wanted this version to be looser and less fitted, it worked fine.

The darts on this pattern really make a difference in the fit.  Even though I like shift dresses, they tend not to be the most fitted things in my wardrobe.  (Yes, Simplicity is calling this an A-line dress, but we can agree to disagree, can't we?  It feels more like a shift when I'm wearing it.)  This has two darts in the front and one in the back.  And if I'd kept that center front seam, who knows what greatness I would have achieved?

Hard to see the detail of the Liberty print in the full size photo

Anyway, quick, fast, cute summer dress - two pattern pieces, facing pieces, invisible zipper.  It shouldn't have taken me any time at all, but I kept getting distracted between steps.  If you need some cute instant gratification, I'd recommend this dress.  But be warned, there's not much excess in this pattern, so if you're not going to make a muslin, go up a size if you have to and work your way back down.  With that many darts and a center seam, you can fix anything - just cut the facing last, after you've stabilized what your size is!

What's Black and White

Can you handle another dress?

I almost can't by now, but this one came out of nowhere.  I was tidying up the workroom (which was somewhat of a pit due to my trying to get ready for the show and just generally not picking up after myself, and I happened upon a pair of black and white gingham pants (Ralph Lauren, stained, but very nice) and a black and white cafe print sundress.

These were not purchased together, and last time I saw them, they weren't in the same part of the room.  Do these things migrate when I'm not looking?

Anyways, they insisted on being dealt with right then and there.  Insisted, I tell you.

Since the sundress had piped seams, I couldn't get any really wide pieces from it, so I decided to play with the two prints and alternate them.

The bodice is constructed from the gingham, and the alternating skirt panels are gingham and cafe print.

Because I love my stash of vintage rickrack, I added a wide red waistband and bright red buttons down the back.  Facings are solid black, for contrast and so as not to waste any of the "good" fabric, which will have other uses.

One last red button at the front neckline finishes.

I'm happy with the result, though I'm still not sure where it came from.

Autumn Camouflage - My Image Spring/Summer 2011 #1115

I posted the full patternreview for this dress, which has a few more details and a bit less about the profanity involved in creating it - since most of my issues were self-created, it didn't seem fair to really dump on the pattern, which is actually quite nice.

As I said in the review, I don't think I'll make it again, but that's mainly because it's a pretty distinctive look. 

It's as cold as February here today, so the dress did not get taken out for a test drive.  I'm out of practice with winter; getting outside at 6:30 a.m. to give the chickens their water (I take it in otherwise it freezes overnight) has been downright painful. 

Photos will arrive when warmer weather does.  The photo here is from My Image, and proves that I'm not the only one out there who likes a loud print.

Autumn Watercolor

Ottobre Design - Woman, Fall Winter, 5/2011 #15

Pattern Description: The simple, minimalist style of this dress is always trendy and interesting. Admittedly, they also require a little more attention from the sewer as they need to be carefully tried on and fitted. The body-hugging silhouette of the dress is produced both by the pattern design and by shaping it by pressing during construction. The waistline is raised slightly above the narroest part of the body. The skirt has contouring darts at the waist, and the slanted bust darts start at the side seams of the bodice.

Pattern Sizing: Ottobre sizes (similar to Burda) 34-48. As I was using a woven, I made a 40.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? The shape was the same. Their dress is a nice, quiet, well-bred gray. Mine is not.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Ottobre's instructions are fabulous. You don't even notice the lack of illustrations, and anyone who has tackled even one Burda pattern would find these a breeze.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I liked that it was basically a blank slate for any print that I decided to throw at it. Ottobre's patterns aren't always exciting at first glance, but upon further study they're actually very good starts to a lot of interesting garments. Another nice thing about Ottobre is that many of their pattern pieces can be swapped - the 4 dresses in this issue have interchangeable skirts, sleeves and collars; only the bodice is consistently the same, so if you get the bodice fit right, you have a lot of options to play with.

I also liked the neckline - nice and wide, a flattering look, without having to worry about the depth of a Burda neckline. Sometimes it's just nice to go to work and not worry about flashing too much cleavage at the wrong lawyer.

Fabric Used: Cotton voile purchased at PR Weekend Chicago at Fishman's Fabrics. I waffled about the purchase, but several PR members, including Sherril Miller, basically strong-armed me into it. (Thank you, ladies, you were right).

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: No changes other than tweaking for fit. Ottobre patterns tend to fit me without a lot of manipulation, which can be a nice change of pace.

The dresses in this pattern series had some nice vintage touches, but the only one that is really structural is the dart at the back neck/shoulder which I think makes such a difference in fit. The inside facing is cut without the dart, and makes the neckline lay beautifully.

I had issues with lining the dress - not technical issues, but color. Because the cotton voile is somewhat sheer, my first choice of lining (black) made the print muddy. Brown wasn't much better. I scrounged through the lining stash until I came up with some ivory, which brightened the light parts of the print.

I did not line the sleeves. The sleeve is fitted, and I was afraid that it would be too snug if I lined it, so I turned the bodice lining under at the armhole and hand sewed it to the seam allowance. I also hand sewed the skirt and sleeve hems, and attached the lining to the invisible zip. Lots of hand-sewing on this dress, but the fabric was so lightweight that I knew any machine stitches would show, and not in a good way.

Despite my print being somewhat (!) busy, I decided to add some embellishment to the neckline. I purchased a jacket a few summers ago at a yard sale, specifically because it had these brown wooden beads sewn around the neckline and down the front. The jacket was white pique and filthy; I cut the beads off and have kept them all this time waiting for the right project. I thought that they suited the fabric, which despite its watercolor effect is not shy and retiring at all. The beads weren't too heavy, and they're hand-sewn down and tacked to the facing, which has a heavier interfacing than I would have normally used specifically to support the embellishment.

The embellishment doesn't go around to the back neckline because Lily the sewing room cat made off with 3 of the larger pieces. When they resurface on the sewing room floor, I'll add them. Or not; I don't actually miss them despite having made fun of RTW tops with embellishments that stop at the shoulders.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I would definitely recommend both this pattern and Ottobre generally. It's not an exciting looking magazine if you're used to a steady diet of Burda or Patrones, but it's full of good, basic, useful patterns that can be used in a variety of ways. Since I got the bodice fit the way I want, I'll definitely be using this pattern again.

Conclusion: I was told that this pattern had great potential to be dowdy, but I think fit and fabric can win out any time. I'm happy with my dress, and I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this one.

Do you Ottobre?

I tend to forget, between twice-yearly issues, that I like Ottobre patterns. 

Admittedly, they don't have the glossy lure of Burda or Patrones, the fashion magazine styling and photography, the on-trend clothes, but they do have something I like (when I remember). 

Reality.  Or at least a really close pattern magazine facsimile thereof.

Ottobre uses real women (I swear I think they scoop up their office workers and let them wear the clothes) and they're women of various sizes and shapes.  I like that in addition to the description of the pattern, you get the model's name, her pattern size and height.  In the Autumn/Winter 2011 issue, the "models" were between European sizes 36 and 42, and I've definitely seen women larger than that, and older, and shorter. 

Instead of looking at a 7 foot tall, rail thin Burda "plus" model, and trying to figure what that dress would look like on me, it's kind of comforting to look at someone whose figure issues are similar to mine and know pretty much what it would look like. 

The Fall/Winter issue had a series of 4 vintage styled dresses that caught my eye.  It wasn't so much the "vintage"details, which weren't vintage enough if that's what I wanted; I liked that underneath those details seemed to be a very good, basic dress pattern.

And it was.  And because it's Ottobre, the varying sleeves and skirts and collars for all 4 dresses are interchangeable, so you only have to do bodice-tweaking once.

So, yes, all this talk about Ottobre does mean that I've sewn something from this issue.  I chose dress #15, the dress on the left in the upper photo.  Probably the most basic shape in the bunch, and as I was advised by a dear friend who shall remain nameless (BECAUSE SHE WAS WRONG), a dress that had great potential to be frumpy. 

Thankfully great fabric (and a lot of effort on fitting) can work wonders even with a potentially frumpy pattern.  Full review hopefully tomorrow; I just wanted to check in because I've gone missing for the last week.  Labor Day weekend is never a vacation weekend for me, it's the 3 days where I try to pack in all the projects I've neglected all summer, and possibly pre-summer. 

Let's just say I was glad to get back to work to get some rest.

Fabric pictured above is, obviously, my new dress, and was purchased at Fishman's in Chicago during PR Weekend at the urging of Sherril Miller and several other PR friends who insisted that I didn't need to step otuside my color comfort zone - I should buy what I like, and what I know works for me.

In a dark wood wandering

Burda has done it again - delivered the English translation of their magazine with instructions that might as well be written in the original German, that is.

Or possibly not - I could probably feed the German instructions into the Google machine and get back something resembling instructions to make this dress.

Why do I want to make this dress?  That's another thing entirely, and I'm not completely sure why, but when the September issue arrived yesterday, that was what jumped out at me.  I hated the photo - the model was so contorted you couldn't tell what the dress was supposed to look like - but I found the line drawing intriguing, and when I looked up the online photo, I decided to go for it.

And then of course I see that it's a TALL pattern, and last time I checked, I'm still not tall. 

I decide I still find the pattern intriguing, though there's a chance it will make me look like a bag of potatoes.  Maybe that's why I find it intriguing?  Because most of the time I can't just head straight for a flattering pattern; I have to wrestle with something first to make it work?

I trace it off, noting that the front pattern piece is so ginormous (to account for the drape) that it's wider than my fabric.  Thankfully I've chosen a non-directional print (a silk twill from Paron's) so I laid out the pieces the wrong way and still had enough left to cut the front and back upper bodices, armhole facings and hem facings.

How did Burda go wrong this time?  Let me count the ways.  First off, the diagram where they tell you which pieces to trace - it specifically states to trace pieces 1 through 7.  Which I do.  And fold the page up and put it away, not noticing until later that the list of pattern pieces in the written instructions also includes piece 8, the back hem facing.  This is when I start muttering under my breath, partly because I should have realized that there were 2 facings. 

The swearing starts when I have all the pieces assembled (minus the missing facing) and I realize that the instructions begin with the drape.  There's no mention anywhere about the upper bodice.  Ever.  It's beside the point that I don't need them.  They're instructions - instruct, preferably from the beginning.  Someone will thank you, and not write cranky blog posts about your inadequacies.

Then I read the instructions for the drape.  Twice.  Three times.  That they are awful is an understatement.  Riddle me this one:  "For the draped fold on the front, fold the front along marked fold line, right side facing in.  Stitch along the upper edge from the fold edge to the seam mark (seam number 1), then stitch upward to edge of seam allowance at the seam mark."  Still with me?  "Here, clip allowance diagonally into the stitched corner.  Pull the draped fold out and push the pointed upper corner to the inside, approx. 8" wide."

From there, they deal with the back.  "Gather the upper edge of the back between the asterisks to 9 1/2 ins."  (They neglect to mention that pesky back upper bodice that you're supposed to connect it to.  Details, details.

After that, they cover side seams, the zip and some sketchy description of the armhole facings.  If I didn't know what I was doing, I'd be so stinking lost.

I finally figured out my mistake - the "marked fold line" is an almost invisible straight line next to the diagonal line where the 2 pieces of the front pattern piece are taped together, and it's noted on the pattern sheet with large words in Russian and German, and a discreet "fold" written below, so I missed it.  I'm still confused, but it's becoming clearer.

More later, when I finally get the drape draped.  And then decide I look like I'm wearing a silk twill potato sack.

It's contagious

Borderprintedness, that is.  Carolyn's got a really bad case of it . . . but she's also got more of the cure on her shelves than I do.

I'm down to one remaining border print now, because this weekend I used up the second of the three I recently purchased from Gorgeous Fabrics. 

I tend not to wear yellow as it's a pretty unflattering color on me, but when I saw this yellow, gold and orange floral border print, I couldn't resist.  It reminded me (in a good way) of printed vintage sheets, but without the allover design.  I knew it was meant to be a dress, and I knew the border had to be at the bottom, even though I do like some of the print-at-the-top dressess I've seen.  No yellow flowers near the face, please.

This wasn't made from any particular pattern - the bodice was copied from an old blouse that I took apart years ago and tinkered with until I liked the fit.  Looking at the photos now, I think I need to do an FBA on this TNT, because things aren't where I left them when I drafted that pattern!  Close enough, with the right bra, but a little bit of fiberfill might cause an incident.

The skirt was just the entire 2 yard width of the fabric, cut with 2" to spare for hem and waist seam allowance.  I marked the center back, fronts and side seams, pinned those points, and gathered in between.  The bodice was underlined with white batiste because this fabric was much more sheer than I thought when I originally cut it out.  The skirt was lined with white lining fabric (because I'm starting to run low on batiste).  Because the bodice was underlined, I bound the armholes for a neater finish.

The collar used the last fragments of the border that floated toward the top of the print.  I know, I said no yellow near the face, but it was just random petals at that point.

They're not too visible in the photos here, but partway through the day my new ice-blue Fluevog shoes arrived in the mail and I ditched my brown shoes in favor of them. (These were the shoes I wanted for the wedding, so they're only 6 months late, but they were also half price and they weren't in January.  I'm a shoe whore, but I'm a frugal one).  The shoes will have proper photos taken soon.  They're so pretty, they deserve their own post.

Vogue 1250 - Pattern Review

Pattern Description: Close-fitting, draped neck dress.

Pattern Sizing: 6-20. I made size 12 and it was spot on. I don't sew that many Big 4 patterns anymore, so I was a little nervous and because of the oddly shaped pattern pieces, there's really not a lot of wiggle room to take it in or out.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes.

Were the instructions easy to follow? Extremely. When I got the envelope I thought something was missing - one little sheet of pattern paper and the instructions don't even take up both sides of the page!

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? It's 3 pieces (including a band for the back of the neck), it takes minimal fabric and even less time. This is definitely a "whip it up this afternoon to wear tonight" kind of pattern.

Fabric Used: Stretch knit from Metro Textiles. I say it looks like olives - the dark and light green, and the (honestly) dark purply color. In my office under the fluorescent lights, it deadened down to charcoal gray - still pretty, but no olives.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: None, other than shortening it a bit so that it came right above the knee.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I think I'm the 26th review, so I'm not sure this pattern needs any more recommendations, but yes, I'd sew it again. Definitely.

Conclusion: I wasn't planning to make this dress. It's kind of like Harry Potter - when the entire world started reading the books, I decided that I didn't want to. I didn't want to read what everyone else was reading. If all those people were reading it, it probably wasn't that good. Right. That lasted until Book 3, and now I have tickets tonight for the 2nd night of the final movie.

Same deal here. This pattern came out, I thought it was cute, and then EVERYONE started making it, and I decided I didn't want to. It couldn't be THAT good of a pattern, even though it looked good on every body type, didn't take much fabric or time. It couldn't be that good.

Right. And here I am, planning my second version. Sometimes I'm contrary just to be that way, and it ends up biting me in the butt. Glad I got on the V1250 bandwagon before it left without me.

New Look 6587 - Patternreview

Pattern Description: Princess seam, button front dresses with gathered skirt, choice of 2 necklines (collar or scoop neck), short, cap and no sleeves. Optional tie belts. I made version E, scoop neck, cap sleeves.

Pattern Sizing: NL sizes 8-18, which are slightly bigger than the Big 4's version of those sizes. By my measurements in NL, I'm a solid 14, but if I'd cut a 14, I'd have been swimming in it. I made a 12, and the fit is good, but still a little roomier than I would have expected. Diet? I don't need no stinking diet, I'm gonna make a New Look pattern and LOOK like I went on a diet!

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes, pretty much so. The scoop is almost Burda-low; it definitely requires my better bras or there'd be a little gappage.

Were the instructions easy to follow? I didn't really look at them until afterward (BWOF has me properly trained) but they seemed clear, and this is a pretty straightforward pattern.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? No dislikes. I'm on a dress kick right now, particularly dresses with skirts. Since I don't have the waistline I'd like, I'm creating the illusion that I do by adding more skirt. I don't know if it's fooling anybody, but I'm enjoying swishing around in all this fabric.

Fabric Used: Dark chocolate brown batiste with peach/orange and green embroidery, bought in Paris in 2008. Peach cotton broadcloth for the bodice lining, brown lining fabric for the skirt. Orange shirt buttons from the button box. Eleven of them. And the buttonholer didn't cough once. The fabric is beautiful, but the quality isn't what I would have hoped for - the embroidery is picky and unraveled itself in spots, and I can see this is a dress that's going to require way more care than I'm going to want to give.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: Nothing major, other than adding horsehair braid to the hem to give it a little structure since my fabric is really drapy (or limp, depending on how humid your summers are).

Additionally, as a few other reviews have mentioned, this pattern is a little short-waisted. I lengthened it by an inch and it's just barely where I wanted it.

This doesn't class as an alteration or a design change, just as one of those things. I had the bodice constructed and was about to sew in the lining. Since I wasn't going to line the sleeves, I decided I should add them first, then hand stitch the lining to the armholes. I sewed on both sleeves, quickly (no easing, yay!) and went out to the couch to do the hand sewing. DH pointed out that one sleeve didn't look quite right, and that's when I noticed I'd sewn it on INSIDE OUT. In my defense, the light by my sewing machine is so strong that the two sides of the fabric look almost the same; it's only under the inadequate living room ceiling light that you can really see the difference.

I picked off the sleeve, turned it right side out, repinned, re-sewed, and went back to the living room. Where I discovered that the sleeve was right side out, but somehow, I'd sewn it on UPSIDE DOWN.

And it was only around 10:30 p.m. And there was no wine involved, really. Let's just say I taught the cats a few new words, stopped for the night and started over again the next day, when everything went well.

Come to think of it, that's probably why I managed to make 11 flawless buttonholes. The sewing gods were being apologetic after ruining my evening the night before.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I'll probably give it another shot, next time with the V neck and collar, which is actually the view I wanted to make but which didn't suit my embroidered fabric. Next time I'll put a little more attention in to the details - add a little MORE length to the bodice, and make sure that the back neck isn't gappy. It's got good bones, I just don't think I can face it again too soon after all the issues I had.

Conclusion: Cute dress with a few options. If you make sure to sew everything together right side out, it doesn't take long at all!

Second Time Around

Okay, when I make a dress twice in a short period of time, it's well on it's way to becoming a TNT. This is version 2 of BWOF 2/11 #101, made from a black and white border print I got a month or so ago from Gorgeous Fabrics. And it is indeed gorgeous. I don't usually wear much white, as it has magnetic dirt-attracting properties on me, but I managed to keep this dress clean all day. Hallelujah.

I changed the pattern slightly this time around - lowered the waist seam by about an inch, because the blue and white one was a teensy bit high (riddle me this- how can I be long-waisted at 5' 3"?), and I stabilized the neckline with fusible bias tape in addition to staystitching, because it gaps just the slightest.

And it still does, though not as drastically as the blue and white version. I may just take a tiny little discreet dart in each "corner" of the neck, to make it lay flat. Because it irks me just the slightest, and clothes that irk do not get worn.

Other than that, this is a quick and easy pattern (2 pieces - front and back, and a big old rectangle of a skirt).  Sleeves are cut on, looking much more sleevelike on than they do as pattern pieces.  Fully lined, with my favorite pain-in-the-butt technique of sewing armholes and necks together, then turning the pieces out through the open shoulder seam.  Love the technique but I can't be the only one who manages - almost every time, and despite fanatical marking and measuring - to have extra fabric either on the outside or the lining and have to fiddle that shoulder seam into submission.

I cut this out the other night because I couldn't be bothered to work on the dress I'd been thinking about all day, and, confession here, because I had white thread in the machine, and 2 other white bobbins standing by.  Whereas for the other dress, I would have had to dig out the dark brown thread and wind a bobbin or two, and find the brown lining, and . . . it was just easier, okay?

Near Miss

My striped dress has been languishing on the end of the work table for some time now. I posted that we were having difficulties - following the pleating marks on the pattern, there was no way to get the stripes to line up, and while at first I didn't think that would be a problem, these really are awfully DEFINITE stripes, and they look awful if they're not lined up. I sewed the skirt to the bodice and HATED it. And put it down for a while.

My first thought was to simply lose the idea of matching entirely and just go buy more fabric and make the skirt in horizontal stripes; since it's not a tight skirt, I didn't mind the idea of stripes around my hips. But the store was out of the fabric. Who bought 20 yards of this? And what were they making? So the dress stayed on the table, looking at me every time I walked in the room, making me feel guilty.

I let it sit for a while longer, and then one night, I cut the skirt off the bodice and loosened all the pleats. Since there was no more fabric, I had to make do with what was there. I attached the bodice to the skirt again at the center back and at both center fronts, then at the side seams, making sure to line up my stripes. From there, I just pleated by hand, matching stripes and trying to balance the pleats on each side. The seam allowance this time was pretty minimal - I'd used 5/8" before, and had to cut it off, and since this dress has a dropped waist I didn't want to raise it to some weird, unflattering level. Thankfully the black fabric almost eliminated the seamline anyway, but I think that worked.

After that, things got a little easier. I put the sleeves in (hadn't bothered when I thought the dress might be heading toward Wadderville) and gave everything a good pressing. I like the sleeve cuffs. I had them pinned each way for a while, trying to decide whether I wanted that much gingham visible, but it seemed pointless to hide almost all of it so I used the gingham for the under cuffs, which are turned back. If I'm feeling more minimal, I'll use the striped side.
Feeling much more positive, I put it back on the table to rest again for a few days.

(insert lost weekend here, followed by useless Monday evening).

Tuesday night was a whole different story. I blew off book club, got a few things done around the house, and then retreated to the workroom after dinner. All of a sudden everything started to move. I marked and made the buttonholes and sewed on the buttons. I LOVE the buttons. I got them at Pacific Trims in NY the last time I was up there, and they were exactly what this dress wanted. I knew that before I had a complete vision of the dress - I had black and white stripes, red gingham and red domed buttons in my head but nothing else for quite some time.

I tried the dress on after I sewed on the buttons, and now I have another small issue - I need to figure out which bra will work best with this dress because my usual ones are a little much, and I can see a smidgen of the gingham when I look down. I need one of my more minimal bras, which the underwear drawer has apparently hidden from me. Grrr.

It still needed something, but I didn't know what. I put the dress on Evelyn to stare at it and it came to me. I went digging in my junk drawer in the workroom and came up with two cherry appliques that I got a while back for no apparent reason. Except, apparently, they look freaking adorable on the collar.

Last of all was the hem. There's a good bit of skirt here, and by that point (around 11:00 p.m.) I just couldn't cope with the idea of hand hemming. Problem: I also couldn't cope with the idea of visible black thread on my white stripes, or white thread on the black. What's a girl to do? Machine hem with white thread, that's what, and then spend some quality time with a black fine point Sharpie marker.

I know it's cheating, but sometimes - especially on a dress that's been in the works this long, and was so close to being trashed - cheating is okay if it gets something finished and wearable.

End result: I love it. It's going to be up there with the Cherry Bomb dress in the category of dresses I reach for on gray days, or cranky mornings. Cheerful!

Delayed Gratification

Some of you might remember I've been going on and on about my two UFO Fatina dresses. I managed to finish one of them recently, but hadn't worn it because I wanted to make a jacket to wear with it, and was thwarted by my incomplete vintage jacket pattern. That pattern will get drafted, eventually, but in the meantime it was 90 degrees today and since the air conditioning in the office had been off for the long weekend, I figured I could go sleeveless at work without freezing to death. It was a good guess, but unless I schedule this for another day-after-long-weekend wearing, I'd better get cracking on the jacket.


I didn't do an official pattern review because this is like my 6th iteration of this pattern, changed again but still with the same bones.

Fabric Used:  Charcoal gray/light yellow windowpane RPL.  Originally bought about 3 years ago from Jomar, meant to be pants and a jacket.  Now a dress, and soon a matching jacket. 

Changes to TNT Pattern:  I added a bias binding to the neck and armholes. Originally I had planned a bias sleeve, which when it was inserted didn't look bias enough due to spacing of the lines on the fabric. It looked bias straight on, but toward the front and back, it just looked like a sloppily inserted sleeve. Off they went. Then I tried a short sleeve cut on the grain, and I didn't like it either. I decided it was meant to be sleeveless. This also might be that after removing 2 sleeves, the edges were a bit raggedy and doing a bias binding was the best way to clean up my mess.

I also cut the dress a good bit shorter than usual and added a bias band at the bottom. I really like the band - it wasn't intended to draw the dress in a bit, as it does, but I decided that I liked the effect after seeing it on. Besides, for a 2 piece unlined dress, this was giving me way more difficulty than it should have and I wasn't removing ANYTHING else.

After that, the dress was essentially done, but I kept fiddling with it. I had these roses from Pacific Trim in both charcoal gray and light yellow, and I wanted to use them somehow. I tried grouping them at the neckline in various ways, but couldn't find an arrangement that I liked.  The yellow didn't make the cut at all - they were way too "old lady corsage" looking.  Then I got the bright idea that I would do something all cool and designer-y and MAKE cap sleeves for the dress OUT OF THE ROSES. Thankfully I just pinned them on because when I tried the dress on that way, I looked like a halfback who'd had a collision with the FTD deliveryman.  

Safe to say, I have way too much shoulder for something like that. If I were one of these stick-figure girls with little shoulders and thin arms, I would have kept the rose sleeves in a heartbeat. But on me, that just looked awful. And ridiculous. But more awful than ridiculous.  It's never good when your sewing makes you laugh until you're sick to your stomach.

I ended up with three gray roses at the neckline. I thought that added interest without making it too fluffy, and then of course I had to bead centers in the roses with yellow beads, just so they weren't QUITE so plain.

Nothing succeeds like excess, right?

Weekend Project

This dress has been brewing for a while now. I found the black and white striped fabric at Karlin's, my local store, and while I wasn't sure exactly what it wanted to be, I knew I wanted to mix it with another print. I bought a half yard of a black and white geometric at the time, but that has ended up in the scrap box because I've cut up and am recycling an old red-and-white gingham Gap sundress that I wore to death in the early 90s.

Lots of good times in that dress, but alas, it no longer zips. And there's nothing wrong with the zipper; it's called contents under pressure, and we don't want an incident, now, do we?

I decided that it should be a shirtdress, but which one? Burda has been loaded with good shirt dress patterns lately, but I wasn't feeling the urge to muslin anything; I wanted to jump right in. So I chose Vogue 8352. I've made this dress before (or 1 1/2 times, because the second version, my Loaves & Fishes dress, had a different skirt). The shaped bodice is very slimming, it's got a good collar, and the 3/4 length sleeves with cuffs gave me another opportunity to play with contrast fabric.

My plan for the weekend is to finish the dress, but thus far, the bodice is constructed, the collar is attached (under-collar in gingham), the sleeves/cuffs are constructed (outer cuff in horizontal stripe, reverse in gingham) but still need to be inserted, and the skirt is done, but not attached. I'm still debating pleats v. gathers, but I think pleats, which is the same version I did before) will be more interesting with the stripe. I'm afraid the gathers will be a little bulky - this fabric is a touch beefier than it looks and I don't want to feel bulk around my already-widest area.

Further use of the contrast: I made a one-inch wide strip and it will be attached as the button placket on the underside. The buttons, as well, are red and dome-shaped. They look like jellybeans.  I'm debating whether or not to make the buttonholes in red, but I'm doing white topstitching elsewhere, so probably not. I tried red topstitching, but a single thread of red disappeared into the black and then looked strange on the narrow white stripes. Two strands of red thread looked too thick. I think it's one of those instances where topstitching thread might beat out two strands of regular, but how many of us keep red topstitching thread around? I'm not even sure if my local store carries it.

If the rain ever stops, I want to get into the garden this weekend and clean up some of the damage. We're so waterlogged that two of my older roses actually tipped over and pulled out of the ground. I tied them back to the fence and dug deeper holes and replanted them. Fingers crossed. Normally I have really good drainage back there but right now there's standing water all over the yard. And it's not warm, either. I've really had enough. Spring can come any time. Being Philadelphia, when spring finally does come, it will be followed in about 10 days time by August, but I'll take it. I'm rained out. Both 55 gallon rain barrels are full , the excess buckets are full, and I probably won't need to water for a month anyway.

So I'll probably get to spend a lot of time in the sewing room this weekend. Lily the sewing room cat missed me last weekend and is demanding her fair share of room time (and access to her private food bowl). It's good to be a cat in my house.

Vintage Goodness

B2996

Sometimes when you're just walking down the street, good things come your way out of nowhere.

This is not my story.  This stroke of sewing good luck belongs to my friend Mimi (non-blogging sewist, so you'll have to take my word for her existence; she was at PR Philly so some of you might remember her).  Mimi was walking around Philadelphia recently and spotted a pile of trash at the curb.  (Anybody wonder why we're friends?  I'd have raced her to the pile).  In the trash was a huge bunch of vintage patterns.

A9889

Be still my heart!  Vintage patterns in the trash?  Not even in the recycling bin!  But they weren't in the trash for long, and Tuesay, they came to my office to visit.

Mimi's eventual intention for these patterns is to list them for sale on Etsy, but in the meantime, she brought a bag in for me to look through, kindly saying I could borrow any of them if I wanted to copy them.  Did I?  Yes, ma'am!

M9583

I held myself to 9, and trust me, I could have loaded myself up with twice as many, but I know me.  It's going to be hard enough to trace off the details of these 9 patterns.  Conveniently, almost all of them are sized for a 36" bust, so there won't even be much maneuvering.  Most of the patterns were late 50s and early 60s, which is a good era for me.  It's not necessarily my favorite - I love 30s and 40s - but a lot of the shifty, A-line 60s dresses look good on me, and it's hard to argue with a compliment.

A9546

On to the pretties:  there were 3 Advance patterns, which I've never tried before.  There were also 2 Butterick, 2 McCall's and 2 Simplicity.  I like all of them for various reasons, but I think my favorite is B2996.  I love the princess seamed front with the in-seam pockets and the back belt.  I'll lower the neckline just a smidge - that looks a little choky - but otherwise, I think it's nearly perfect.  And I have a black-and-white houndstooth silk suiting (ancient) that might look really pretty.  

Let's look at McCall's 9853.  Who has a waist like that?  Who wants one?  Even though the pattern drawing is unrealistic (and delicious) I think there's a lot to be said for the design.  I love the multiple darts and the under-bust gathers in the bodice.  It's worth a try, anyway.

S3887

Two of the patterns I chose just for their collars.   I love a good collar, and Simplicity 2971 and Advance 9546 certainly have good collars.  The collar on A9546 is even removable. 

Jackets are also good things.  Advance 9989 looks like it'll be a dream to fit - princess seamed with a bust dart and a fitting dart.  I love the bracelet length sleeves with gloves in the pattern drawing.  And I chose Simplicity 3887 specifically for its jacket.  It looks like a great little basic piece for covering up a dress, and I can always use oneof those.  Kimono sleeves just make it a better multi-purpose pattern.

Nearly last, and definitely smallest (the only non-36" patterns in the bunch) are the 2 shift dresses, McCall's 7419 and Butterick 3419.  Not like I don't have shift dress patterns, but the McCall's one has an  interesting French dart and Butterick's is a dress/jumper combination that I actually think just grabbed me because of the ridiculous clown ruffles (which I wouldn't make).



M7419

One final pattern: Advance 9927.  Now that's a suit.  I love the contrast satin running from the collar down the jacket and the skirt.  Yummy.  Though the black is divine, I'm seeing this in a color.  Raspberry?  Unwearable by me, but it would be pretty.

I'd like to say I'm going to jump in and sew one of these patterns soon, but don't forget, I still have to press them and trace them off.  So you won't be seeing one of these emerge from the machine right away, but they will come.

I'm not sure what it is with me and vintage.  It's not love/hate, certainly.  I love the styles, I love the details, I love that the instructions are usually still worth reading for technical bits that pattern companies now don't seem to think we need - one of these patterns, the Advance with detachable collar, even notes on the envelope that it uses the "Bishop Sewing Method" from one of my favorite vintage sewing books.  

B3419

I think my love of vintage yet lack of sewing vintage has something to do with laziness.  While there are quick and easy vintage patterns, those aren't the ones that set my pulse to racing.  Quick and easy comes right out of the pattern folders behind my sewing chair.  A good vintage pattern is a project that is worked on over days, paused, pondered, and returned to until all those details are perfect.  Vintage sewing the way I want to do it requires more focus than I have right now. 

At least I've diagnosed the problem.  Now to find a cure.  Everyone is only too happy to share a good fabric sale.  Anybody know where I can get a large dose of concentration, cheap?



A9927

When Mimi lists these babies on Etsy, along with their friends (including a few wedding gowns and some full-skirted 50s goodness), I'll be sure to provide a link.