Getting closer

I don't know what it is lately, but all my projects are fighting back. I'm winning in the end, but not without having to sweat a bit more than I'd like.

The red-white-and-navy blouse was thinking about cooperating yesterday, but I decided to let it rest and made the coordinating skirt instead. The two fabrics together are kind of scary, but the good kind.

Not much sewing today - Mario and I took the train up to visit my aunt, had lunch, painted her railings and mailbox, listened to her talk about my mom (they couldn't stand each other when Mom was alive, but she was accorded automatic sainthood upon her death), and then took the train home again.

All of which made me so tired I took a 2 hour nap before I could face doing anything.

The blouse gave in tonight and decided to behave. I did the hem and the bias binding on the edge of the facings and the neck. Yes, bias binding. Normally I hate making bias binding, but for some reason this time it wanted to be made and I didn't argue. It seemed to make the fabric happy.

I had enough sense to realize that attempting buttons and buttonholes tonight would be a major mistake. I also haven't done the topstitching along the front yet, but tomorrow is another day.

Random Saturday

Not a whole lot going on in the sewing room this weekend. The red, white and navy blouse and I aren't on speaking terms at the moment due to a collar error that I have just admitted to making but have not yet committed to fixing. It'll happen, just not yet.

And it's Saturday, which generally means there's enough stuff to do in the hood that I can avoid a difficult project if I want. This morning was the farmer's market, a flea market, 3 porch sales, and then we hit the gym. I'm finally seeing a teeny, tiny bit of movement from all the gymming lately, so I'm on a roll.

There is hope for the blouse to be finished, because as you can see I made up with the cherry dress. I wore it to work yesterday with my red shoes. While I'll be the first to admit it's a cute dress, I'm a little surprised that it got more compliments than probably the last 2 weeks worth of clothes put together.

Found out one thing about the cherry dress: you cannot be in a bad mood in this dress. Every time I looked down at it I cracked up. Nothing wrong with a dress that makes you smile, right?

I've also spent a good bit of time out back in the garden today. We got our first red tomato! Honestly, I feel like throwing a party in its honor. (Though what kind of party is it when the guest of honor also gets to be part of the appetizer?)

The other photo here was the neckline of a co-worker's top yesterday. She was totally weirded out at being photographed, but I thought it was a very simple but effective way to dress up a neckline. All it is basically is a tube turned right side out, ironed flat, pleated, and sewn down the middle. It had nothing structural to do with the top at all. I'm feeling a need to try to duplicate this.

Too late for the fireworks

But just about as red-white-and-blue as you're going to get. Though I'm actually trying to think of it as red-white-and-navy, which seems as little less in-your-face.

The fabric is cotton sateen from Fashion Fabrics Club recent sale. I bought the print in two sizes; the smaller is getting used for the top, and the larger scale will be a coordinating skirt. I'm going for a vintage vibe here, hopefully it'll end up where I think it will.

The pattern is BWOF 3/06 #104, called "blouse with cutaway shoulders." I was looking at back reviews on PR tonight, and apparently I've always liked it, because I made comments on two of the reviews, back in 2007. At least I'm consistent.

My original (as of last night, anyway) plan for buttons was to use white vintage buttons that I had on hand. They look vaguely like checkers except for the holes in the middle. I thought if I used white instead of red, and sewed them on with navy thread, it would kill a little of the 4th of July vibe, but when I tried the white buttons, they were too big and sort of . . . chalky looking.

These little round red ones are also from the button stash, and despite their very obvious REDNESS, they look more appropriate.

As far as the collar goes, first I cut it out in the sateen. Then, after I'd interfaced the collar, I decided that it would look better in white, instead of the whole blouse being so matchy. And what I wanted was a white pique - definitely a white fabric with some texture. And all I had was batiste, cotton/lycra shirting and eyelet. I cut new collars from the shirting, interfaced the heck out of it to give it more body, and then went to the thrift store to see if they had anything made of white pique that I could cut up.

As you can see from the collar, which is just lying on the pinned-back facings at this point, I found something. A suit, as a matter of fact, Jones New York, size 8. For $4.95. Freshly dry-cleaned, but there was a stain on the skirt right near the waist that hadn't come out. I bought it anyway, hoping that I could cut up the out-of-date jacket and rescue the skirt -I wear most of my tops untucked anyway, and it would have been a great look for this blouse - but while the skirt was marked 8, it fit more like a 2. As in more than 3 inches stood between me and the closing of the zipper.

The jacket, on the other hand, fits like a glove. The shoulder pads are a little big and the buttons are godawful, but those things can be changed. If I did white buttons on the jacket, maybe I could wear it over the completed 2 piece dress?

Just someone, remind me when it's time to wear it, not to put on my red shoes!

The house dress, updated

This weekend's project, once I got done wrestling with the cherry dress, was to try to knock off an old favorite. The original dress was from April Cornell, and I've had it for probably 15 years. Really.

I wore it to death when it was new, and then it sat in the closet for a few years, and now I'm back with it, but the wear it's getting these days is more around the house, across the street to the coffee shop in the morning, whenever I don't feel like putting on "real" clothes.

I realized last week that what it's turned into is more or less a house dress. Which made me flinch, because my aunts and my grandmom lived in house dresses and I think of them as shlumpy cotton dresses with cutesy buttons and too much rickrack, but serving basically the same purpose as my dress.

My new Liberty yardage has been sitting on the stash shelf, whispering that it wants to be used. When I decided to try to duplicate the April Cornell dress, I picked my least favorite of the 5 pieces. Which is not to say I don't like it, and I wouldn't have been mad as hell if I'd messed up, but of the 5 it's the one I would cry the least over.

I took the original dress, ironed it and put it on my work table. Then I used way too much tracing paper to trace the shapes of the pattern pieces. The bodice was actually pretty easy - other than the interesting seam shape, the upper bodice is plain. The skirt front is in 3 panels, and the pockets are basted to the side panels and then the pieces are attached. The original pockets were as long as the skirt and had much more gathering, but I was working with the limitations of my fabric and I'm pretty pleased with them.

For the back of the dress, I altered the original because (a) I didn't really want the buttons as I have never in 15 years unbuttoned the original; and (b) I didn't feel like making 12 buttonholes anyway and having to hunt for Liberty-worthy buttons. Besides, it's not the most comfortable dress to sit in or lean back, so I went for ease of duplicatino instead of complete accuracy.

The bodice back was cut on the fold. There's a dart at the waist. The skirt is 2 pieces, with 3 darts on each side to gather in some of the fullness. (Also because I cut the piece way wider than it should have been, but whatever).

The original dress had a neck facing and the armholes were just turned under and stitched. I always hated the facing because it crept, so instead I used the shape of the neckline to make a facing that was about 1" wide and used it as a binding instead. With my leftover fabric I made bias strips and bound the back neckline and the armholes.

All in all, I think it's a pretty good copy of the original. Most of the changes are changes I made deliberately - I wanted it shorter, I did actually want a little less fullness in the skirt, though I would have perferred the pockets to be more like the original

Mario's comment when he saw it (and this is coming from the movie junkie that he is) was that it looked like something Sally Field would have worn in Places in the Heart, which I think means I succeeded on the vintage house dress vibe. Anything else that may have been intended by that comment will be ignored, because I like it and I don't want to run him through the coverstitch.

Hope everyone had a fun and fabric-filled holiday weekend. Back to the real world tomorrow!

June: Month End Review

Stash parity was not achieved this month, not by a long shot. There were a few more yards purchased than sewn - 13.5 sewn, and 36 moved in.

Must sew faster.

This month I made 8 pieces, evenly split: 2 pairs of pants, 2 tops, 2 dresses and 2 more of the Ottobre tank, one from a remnant of gray knit (with hot pink stitching) and the other a recycled tshirt.

The pants were Ottobre as well, the capris from 2/09, with a little tweaking. The second pair of pants was actually a UFO from last year, and I still haven't gotten around to reviewing them.

The dresses were Simplicity 2724 (also still needs to be reviewed) and BWOF 2/08 #113, which I absolutely love. I love it so much made a second version - about which I've said enough.

One of the tops was for me - BWOF 4/09 silk/cotton tunic - and the other was for a co-worker. Every time I wear my BWOF 1/08 wrap top she says how much she likes it, so I finally got around to making one for her. Now if I could just get her to hold still while wearing it - I told her that photography is the price of getting something made just for her, but so far she's not cooperating, though she's worn it twice already. The fabric was a doily-print slinky from Fabric.com that I could never decide if I liked for me or not. It definitely suits her, though.

Cherry Bomb

The battle is over.

I won.

It was close.

It was bloody. There was swearing. There was wine.

There is, at the end of it, however, a DRESS. Full review is here.

After the zipper debacle, there was the complication of not having enough rattail left to make piping for the seam between the skirt and the flounce. No biggie - I just cut a 1/2" strip and sewed it between the two. It's narrow enough to look like piping and not as necessary down there.

Then there was my misguided attempt at tidying my workspace before I put the dress on Evelyn. Somehow while moving my rotary cutter from one side of the table to the other (yes, with the blade exposed) I managed to drop it. It bounced off the dress. It cut a nice hole in the dress. Thankfully it was in a low-stress area and I ironed interfacing on the back of the hole and then zigzagged over it on the front.

Anything else?

The sewing gods sat back and thought about it and decided no, that was enough.

I like the dress, I really do. I just can't look at it right now.

Ever have one of those projects?

You know, the kind that make you think you should stop sewing for the night? Or the week? Or longer?

I'm having one of those projects. What makes it worse is that I just made this pattern last week, and it worked. So what went wrong here?

After I got home from the vet hospital on Sunday, I needed distraction. I decided to make another version of BWOF 2/08 #113. To complicate things, I decided to add contrast piping to all the bodice seams. I made all the piping with my new adjustable zipper foot. And it worked.

Things didn't start to go wrong until I got to the zipper. There wasn't one. In my entire drawer of zippers, not one long black invisible. I briefly contemplated putting in a regular zipper, but I suck at those, so instead I called Kisha to see if she had a black invisible zipper I could have. That way, I figured, I wouldn't have to walk all the way to the fabric store at lunch the next day.

Monday we meet for lunch, I get my zipper, and we walk more than halfway to the fabric store in search of food. That night, I insert the zipper. And it looks like crap. Despite having basted, pinned and done everything I should have, the piped waist seam skewed by about 1/2" - and with contrast piping, it looks more like an inch. I rip out the zipper and put it in again. Not perfect, but better. Enough better. I stop for the night.

The next night, after I add the facings, I pin the side seams and unzip the dress to try it on. I hear something bounce off the floor, and when I look, it's the zipper tab. Unpick the zipper a second time and stop for the night.

Today, I walk to the fabric store at lunch for a new zipper, wondering all the while if I hadn't been so lazy on Monday, would any of this have happened? I get home, look at the condition of the CB seam, and decide to sew it shut and put the zipper in a side seam instead. Even with fusible interfacing on the zipper opening, cotton isn't meant to have a zipper picked out of it. Twice.

Oddly enough, when I sew the CB seam closed, the piping matches up perfectly. Go figure.

On the other hand, the second invisible zipper, inserted for the first time in the side seam, is a little bit wonky. The piping doesn't line up exactly, but it's better than it was on the back, and it's under my arm anyway.

I gave myself permission to leave it that way.

The world won't end, right? Right?

So, have you ever had one of those projects?

(All photos from lunchtime window shopping - top and bottom, Leehe Fai Boutique on 18th Street; middle, J. Crew).