>A short history of modern quilting, plotting and suggestions needed for baby loot.

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Greetings you orange-skirt loving penguins! I’ll admit to having a slight bias towards the orange skirt when I hit publish on my last post, but I did NOT anticipate such overwhelming support for the pencil skirt! Lucky for all penguins and fellow avian-kind, I worked on TWO MORE of those skirts yesterday (of course, neither is finished.) And then I got distracted… Mr. Bug and I are headed north for a wedding at the end of June and I realized that I really want to make a QUILT as a gift!

Now… I’ve made a number of quilts over the years, but they aren’t my favorite thing. The stress of choosing the right fabrics and FORCING myself to pick some ugly ones so my quilts don’t look like a boring mish mash is eclipsed only be the tedium of all that cutting and sewing of straight lines. And math. And that’s before I even get to the truly horrible point of the project where I accidentally attach my unassembled quilt to the carpet with safety pins while trying to get the two layers of fabric to lie smoothly against that freakishly magnetic batting. No, quilts are not my thing! And yet, look at this lovely stack of fabric I picked out anyway… quilt time here I come!

I’m pretty stoked about these fabrics, and here’s why… starting from the bottom I’ve got… a piece of wool that Mr. Bug found for me at Goodwill…green dupioni silk from my stash… green cotton/silk Sateen from local quilt shop, Glad Creations… chocolate flannel polka dots… natural linen… lime green organic cotton with BIRDS from the shop where I work… more organic flannel dots, this time the color is ‘grass’… a few more prints from Glad and Sewtropolis (that’s where I work!)… a few more silk/cotton sateens and a couple of prints from my stash. All topped off with a bit of vintage trim. Just looking at that stack of fabric makes me feel a bit euphoric.

When I last was immersed in quilt-making it was the mid-90’s and batiks and ragtime quilts were the thing. Very country couture. I also seem to remember a stained glass look that was quite popular. Nikol, the owner of the shop where I work, is a mad-quilter and as it turns out, things have changed in the quilting world in the last fifteen years. “Modern quilting” is super popular, and I have to admit to being quite intrigued by the new styles, although I’m sure I’ll still pin my quilt to the floor and want to toss the whole project into our chiminea before it’s fully quilted.

I had heard of the term ‘modern quilting’ before starting to work at the shop, but I just thought it meant, you know, making a quilt right now. Possibly with fabrics that had cartoons on them. Obviously, I hadn’t put a lot of thought into it. The Minneapolis chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild holds their monthly meetings at Sewtropolis and so I’ve been hearing a bit more about this whole modern quilting thing. I even joined the Minneapolis guild’s site and will probably go to meetings when I can – according to Nikol they’re super fun (and free!)

So, turns out modern quilting is NOT about using theme fabric! From looking at quilt blogs and such, I picked up a few main themes that make for ‘modern’ quilts – restyling traditional quilt patterns, lots of negative space, wonky piecing, unique backings and super-fresh colors. NOT country (or cartoon) couture!!

Restyling traditional patterns

For instance, here’s a traditional log cabin quilt, complete with the red centers on the blocks…

[image old quilt company]

And here’s a modern take … oops! Looks like those red centers migrated!!

[image craftster]

Negative space

Oh, and I mentioned negative space, didn’t I? Let’s take a look at this hexagon quilt. Totally a style I recall – I mean, don’t those terrible corner seams look like a bear to stitch? Who could forget that?

[image stitchin’ post]

Here’s a modern take on a hexagon quilt…

[image Film in the Fridge]

Wonky wonky

I don’t quite understand the mechanics of it, but let’s talk wonky quilting… First, here’s a house quilt in a style I recall. I’m SURE I made some blocks like this from a ‘learn to piece’ book I had…

[image laundry basket quilts]

And now for the wonky modern take…

[image craftster]

Hello, you look better from the back…

One of the coolest details I’ve seen since I’ve started snooping around quilting blogs is the backings! My memories of quilt backs are all centered around complicated match, trying to get as much bang for my buck piecing together the fabric and a giant sense of letdown. My favorite part of quilting (not surprisingly) is piecing. The backs were just tedious, boring, and if making anything larger than a wall hanging, pricey. My biggest innovation was loyalty to flannel-as-backing-fabric to improve the coziness factor. Check out these quilt backs! Not only are they cool LOOKING, they use up extra scraps and aren’t mind numbingly boring to sew!! This totally reminds me of fun garment sewing details like contrast facings, cuffs and bias finishing on seams…

   

 [images Film in the Fridge upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right]

3-2-1 Color!

While this is just as much a shift in the general style over the last 15 years, coupled with the fabulous fabric designers out there, one other detail that has caught my eye while looking at the quilt sites is the use of COLOR!! Here’s a photo of the booth of Laundry Basket Quilts that I snagged from the Bunny Hill Blog. The photo was taken last year, but the palette and style are what ALL the quilt shops looked like when I last ventured into them…

The colors and designs are lovely, but very traditional, soft and muted. Compare that to this photo I snagged from Tall Grass Prairie Studio of the the Robert Kaufman booth with Modern Quilt Guild Challenge quilts. This photo was taken at Quilt Market which just happened a few weeks ago. Quite a difference from the more traditional Laundry Basket booth, isn’t it?

My plan

Alright penguins, my brief intro to modern quilting is now over. If any of you are more well-versed, pipe up in the comments!

While I still like the traditional quilt designs, with all their points and precision and begging for hand-piecing, I want my wedding-gift quilt to be a bit more fresh and appealing to the groom, who I haven’t met. Since I also haven’t met many men who love soft calicos and flying geese, a traditional quilt style didn’t seem quite the thing. Also, I’m already swamped with projects and don’t have the time to piece anything complicated in the next few weeks, so I decided to showcase my fantastic stack of green and brown fabrics in a random-width stringy quilt. This looks easy, doesn’t it??

[image Film in the Fridge]

For the back I’m planning on an offset stacked strip of the prints on a white background… like so.

[image Film in the Fridge]

I have some lighter linen for the front. I might do a bit of hand stitching on the linen with darker brown and green perl cotton a la Anna Maria Horner’s upcoming stitchery genius..

[image  the Anna Maria Horner blog]

I also piled on the vintage lace, thinking that I could affix that to one of the strips as well. I only have enough for one strip, at most, but the trim is 3” wide and would add some texture.

Fun, huh?? I won’t subject you to TOO many quilting posts, but I couldn’t resist sharing my euphoria-inducing pile of fabrics!

What’s good for babies??

One question before I sign off… I just got an invite for a baby shower (in TWO WEEKS!) and would like to include something handmade – normally I knit a sweater, but I don’t have the time! We will be also giving the ever-practical Target gift card, but any suggestions for a quick sewing related baby gift I could whip up? It seems that little babies are dressed in some sort of sack-like garment, so clothes sewing doesn’t seem reasonable. Plus, they appear to grow quickly… any help is appreciated! I’m baby-ignorant!

Off I go to save the world… I may be heading out for a last minute running trip to the great state of Iowa this afternoon. Mr. Bug is heading down to do a 20k, and if my last lesson of the day wraps in time, Lucy the hound and I are going along and will return to roadtrip work on my Miette sweater. At least, I will. Lucy will undoubtedly snore her way to Iowa. The car is puppy valium for her! If we miss our ride to Iowa, we’re staying home to sew. It’s a win-win for us!

>Maxi Dress. Obsession, plotting, muslin #1.

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Greetings semi-tame burros of Custer State Park. Next time, we’re bringing carrots. Your big scary teeth are getting way too close to our fingers. Now, will you kindly remove your giant head from our car window so we can go find some bison??

Since burros such as yourselves are naturally clever and curious, I know you’ll understand when I tell you that I recently because OBSESSED with the-making-of-a-maxi dress. It was a natural progression. Again, I’ve left off making this month’s dress for my Year of the Dress project and here we are, within waving distance of June. Take that, add in my project of the week of putting together the class schedule for July (all dresses in July, donkeys. All dresses!) and then top off with eight yards of lighter-than air silk/cotton voile and what does a jenny like me get? A plotting-about-it-while-you-should-be-falling-asleep sewing obsession. The maxi dress.

[image Anthropologie]

Getting inspired

I’ll start at the beginning. As I’ve mentioned before (and will undoubtedly mention again) we’re doing ‘theme’ months in our class lineup at the shop. May is the month of skirts, June is all about shirts and in July it’s all dress classes. As I flipped through the Kwik Sew catalog, looking for dresses that were stylish and appropriate for a beginner-level class, my peepers fell upon this magnificent goddess caftan.

[Kwik Sew 3856/3868]

Perfect, right? Easy to sew, fun for this summer, totally on trend, available in regular AND plus sizes… I added to the class lineup, picked out my sample fabric and moved on to other things. Specifically, working on my May dress.

I originally intended the May dress to be a shirtwaist made from some completely over the top rose-print quilt weight cotton. But when I cut out the pieces and made muslin #1, I realized that fitting the dress is going to take a while. Plus, next month is our one-year anniversary and we were married under a rose-bedecked gazebo, so perhaps that would make a better June dress.

But we’ll save that for another month. In the meantime, what to make for June?? While prowling around Joann’s the other day (for muslin, actually, but I got distracted) I found some simply lovely cotton/silk voile in a pseudo tribal print that I found strangely compelling. Tribal print is not my thing. I also found a coordinating crazy poly butterfly print, and not wanting to have all that nasty poly against my skin, I stopped by fabric warehouse SR Harris and raided the $5.00 silk bins where I found some hot pink cotton/silk blend lawn perfect for lining what was shaping up to be a fine romp of a dress. I mean, anything that involves 10 yards of fabric is going to be a whizzbang, am I right, my braying equines?

Alright. Inspiration, check. Fabric, check. Now for the pattern. I could have easily just made the Kwik Sew pattern, but I’ll be making up that pattern as a sample for the class and I sort of wanted to do something different. Also the Kwik Sew pattern has a surplice neckline (the crossover) and I had some detail work in mind that would work better with a centered front seam. I surfed the usual suspects to check out different styles out there (Anthro, Banana, Ann Taylor, J Crew, ModCloth and Asos) and after much photo flipping I determined that the Asos Maxi Dress models looked uncomfortably emaciated and that I wanted a kimono-type sleeve rather than sleeveless, an empire seam with some shaping in the front and some gathering around the shoulders. Here’s my top three inspiration photos.

   

[images left | center | right]

I considered just draping the whole shebang, but I haven’t made many garments with kimono sleeves and I wasn’t 100% sure the best shaping for the bodice pieces with the sleeves, gathering and V-neck. I checked out the pattern catalogs at Joann’s and found this pattern from Burda.

Here’s the technical drawing.

The bodice looked perfect, although the pattern is drafted for a knit and I’m working in wovens. The skirt shape isn’t what I want, but I thought if I used the bodice pattern pieces and graded up, then left off the gathers on at the waist and just added an elastic casing and the skirt pieces I could get where I wanted to go. So let’s get started.

Tissue fitting

Here is a shot of the front bodice piece and the trim piece for the neckline and center front – in case you, too, weren’t sure what the pattern pieces would look like for this style. I’ve marked the gathering points in pink. The pattern instructions say to run gathering stitches between the two pink dots and gather until they are three inches apart – they’re a little over six inches, ungathered. Once the gathering is done, the bottom edge of the bodice sits straight across the body and is not higher in the center front as it looks when lying flat.

And here’s the back bodice piece with the neckline trim.

The pattern ran through a size 20 – measurements bust 41/waist 32/hips 43.5. For comparison, the Big 4 size 20 is bust 42/waist 34/hips 44,  and the Hot Patterns size 20 for the 24/7 A-line and Pencil skirt is bust 46/ waist 38/hips 48.

Clearly, I would need to size up. Not only are the measurements too small, but the pattern is designed for a knit, so the built in ease will be different than it would be for a woven. AND the fit of the bodice is a bit more body conscious (at least, according to the envelope art) than I have in mind for my maxi dress. While I don’t want the dress to be giant, I would like to hit an easy, loose fit.

When I know I’m going to be significantly resizing a garment I follow these general steps. 1) tissue fit to get an idea of how much to add (2) adjust pattern (3) sew muslin (4) fit muslin (5) transfer fitting changes to paper pattern (6) if the fit was REALLY off or I’m working on a very fitted garment I repeat steps 2 through 5. Otherwise, I just start in on the garment.

To tissue fit I put regular scotch tape along all the ‘seamlines’ so that I can stick pins through the tissue and try on my paper garment without tearing it to bits. You also have to pin in any shaping at this time – like darts and gathers. I taped and pinned everything together and was lucky enough to have a friend help me with the next step. Slide on the tissue garment and get it to fit as well as possible at the shoulder, neck and side seam. Pin so that the side seam and shoulder seam are lined up in the center of your body, then pin the center front and center back as far as it will go, keeping in mind the desired ease (so don’t pin it super tight if that’s not the fit you want!) We pinned the tissue right to my shirt to hold everything in place.

Here’s the back view. You can see that it nearly reaches my center back (CB)- marked in pink. If I start with a size 18 or 20, I usually don’t have to grade up or adjust the back. However, since this pattern is intended for a knit and doesn’t have as much ease built in as I’d like, I’ll be grading up a bit. See how it veers out a bit more towards the top? That’s more because I’m wearing over another shirt and because the arm opening is a little small than because my back is wide there!

Hmmmm. You can see a LOT more width is needed in the center front!!

I also need more length overall. I’d like the front bodice to hit where the pink line is in the photo below.

Adjusting the pattern

I slipped off the tissue and did some math. I considered the flat paper measurements, the measurements I took during the tissue fitting and my own measurements along with how much ease I wanted in the dress. My hip meaurements are much, much larger than my bust, waist and midriff measurements. I’d considered making the top of the skirt and the bottom of the midriff the same width, but decided to make the bodice a bit smaller and gather the skirt before attaching to the bodice. I decided to add 1.5” to the front and back bodice pieces. This will give me six additional inches, enough to grade up and provide some ease. In addition, I’ll add 2” in length to the front and back pieces and I’ll add 2” to the arm openings.

First, adding 1.5” to the back. I thought the neck opening seemed a bit small, so I added the full amount at the base of the neck. I’ve marked the edges of the inserted tissue in green below.

In the front I added the tissue between the gather marks. The gather marks are in pink, the added tissue marked in green. I wasn’t 100% happy with adding here, but I didn’t want to add toward the center front as I didn’t want to make the angled neckline any longer, and I thought adding more towards the side seam might alter how the shoulders lie.

Next I did a little math. Rather than gathers, I was thinking it would be nice to use pleats. Here I’m working on the front. There’s roughly 8” between the gather points that, per the instructions, needs to be reduced to three inches. I decided to take five 1” pleats, removing 5” from the gather area and leaving three inches of fabric. Perfect! Since I want my shoulders to look symmetrical, I will need to also figure out the spacing between pleats. With five pleats, there are four ‘spaces’ (tip: hold out your hand and pretend each finger is a pleat. Count the spaces between the fingers – four ‘spaces’!) So I have four spaces that I have to fit in three inches. Three divided by four is .75. I will mark five 1” pleats, spaced .75” apart for a total of 8 inches.

Next I added length. Here I’m adding 2” to the back bodice piece. I cut along the shorten/lengthen line, then slid the bottom away from the top, keeping the center back edges straight – it helps to work on a gridded mat for this. I filled with tissue, but have one more little fix. See on the right, I’ve marked the two  corners where I’ve slid apart the pieces, they aren’t in line any more! When you add length along a curve seam you need to true up the seam lines – basically, redraw the seamlines so they are nice and smooth.

Normally, when I true up the seamlines after adjusting a pattern, I try do it gently over as long an area as possible. This time I did it as short as possible because I wanted to avoid adding more width to my ribcage area. I just used my curved ruler to ease back to the top of the line where I cut to lengthen the piece.

Trimmed!

Here’s the front bodice piece lengthened – shown in green.

The final adjustment is to add 2” to the arm opening. These arms are super simple – they are just openings left by not sewing the side seam all the way up the shoulder! The original marking for the arm opening is shown in green. I measured down 1” and made another mark. Since this is a double layer of fabric, by sewing 1” short, I’ll be adding 2” to the arm opening.

Analyzing the muslin

I sewed it together and was pretty pleased! Since the style of the dress is so simple, this isn’t much to look at, but I really like the kimono sleeves on my wimpy shoulders.

Front and side views.

 

The width feels really good. I think I might shorten the sleeves just a bit and I was thinking of lowering the neckline, but I don’t want it to be ridiculously low cut so I’ll probably leave it alone!

One change I’ll be making is to add a bit of shaping to the empire seam on the center front. I want the dress to be at more of an angle than straight across. It’s sort of messy because I just stuck a pin in it, but on the left is the muslin as sewn and on the right I’ve pinned up the center front.

 

Here’s a shot from the inside of the shaping. the green lines mark the fold and the raw edge. I’ll transfer these marks back to the paper pattern and trim a wedge from the bottom of the paper pattern.

One final adjustment – the pleats on the front and the back don’t line up and I don’t really like how it looks. I don’t know if it’s a result of my adjustment or if it’s just the way the pattern was drafted, but the green dot marks where the pleats start in the back and the pink where they start in the front. I’m not sure where I’ll move things too. I like the drape at the top of the shoulder on the front a lot,  but the pleats going so far down my arm cause a bit of weird bagginess that I’m not sure about. I’m probably overfitting, here! I will probably start the pleating a BIT closer to the green dot, perhaps a half inch closer to my neck.

That’s where I left off! Next up in the process will be transferring the adjustments back to the pattern pieces, then I will cut and assemble the bodice. I will probably construct the skirt a bit more by draping – no paper pattern pieces! I’m envisioning a couple of rectangles with some gathering, so it shouldn’t be too hard other than the shaping at the center front and figuring out how I want the layers to work together!

>Samples samples everywhere and not a stitch to wear…

>

Greetings t-rex’s! I nearly forgot to do a blog post tonight, I was super-focused on working on the June/July class schedule handout for the shop and it just slipped my mind! But I remembered AND I even knew what I wanted to blog about, so here I am, once again, blogging while the hound and Mr. Bug snore away… ANYway, like I said, I’ve been working on our July schedule for the shop and I’m super PSYCHED about the next two months of classes… but boy, oh, boy, do I have a lot of samples to sew up. Here’s a photo of my giant stack of fabric I brought home from the shop on Saturday…

Are you all waving your little t-rex arms around in excitement? I know I am! But I have SO MUCH SEWING TO GET DONE!! Grrr!! In general, if I’m doing a new class at the shop, then I’m responsible for sewing the class sample – the samples hang out in the shop and look pretty for a bit and then come home to live with me. Wanna see the projects that these fabrics are all assigned to? OK!

First up is this groovy home dec weight fabric from Anna Maria Horner.
I don’t know if it’s obvious, but it’s a rose print! The other fabric is greige
lining. This fabric will very shortly be a pencil skirt – I’m teaching that class
at the end of this month. Go pencil skirts!

Here’s the pattern for the Anna Maria pencil skirt. We use a lot
of Kwik Sew patterns for our classes –  good basics with good instructions.
I’m actually making this skirt in the owner’s size, as I didn’t want to mess
around with sizing up the pencil skirt pattern!

 

 

***

This lovely coral wool and lining is for another pencil skirt, this one in my size!

I realized that we had a few copies of the HotPatterns
Plain ‘n Simple A-line and straight skirt patterns lying
around the shop. I decided to do another pencil skirt in
my size as a sample as well. That way if anyone out of the
Kwik Sew size range wants to take the class, I’ll have an
option available!

***

The pencil skirt is the last class I teach in May, so next up are my June samples.
All the June classes are shirt sewing classes! I’ve already shown off pictures of my
Violet. I’ll be teaching that class and hopefully will remember to bring my sample to the shop soon! 

This fabric (below) is yet another Anna Maria Horner print that will be made into a
Pendrell blouse – probably view C, the no sleeve view. This class
is only three hours long and I’m not sure we could finish the shirt if I include sleeves!

I have some interlock washed and ready to be
made into a personal-use Pendrell. I might
make that before the shop-sample Pendrell and
time myself on that and see if I think view A
would be possible in our class format.

***

Next up are these two lovely Art Gallery prints. Aren’t the little blue flowers adorable? This fabric is destined to be a ‘drawstring blouse.’

Here’s a shot of the drawstring shirt from the Kwik Sew
website. Anyone who’s been around kid-sewing will
recognize this as a plain ‘ole pillowcase dress.
The mainly blue and grey print will be the drawstring
part of my drawstring shirt!

***

Now it’s time for dresses! First, check out this swirly and awesome
Tine Given’s print. I’ve been in LOVE with this since we got it and
was thinking of making a skirt from it, but don’t really have anything
that matches, so I’m going to make a DRESS out of it – the Crepe, to be precise.

***

Oooooo… I’m super psyched about this next dress! The pink
fabric is a cotton interlock and the neutral fabric is a quilt-weight cotton. Can you guess what I’m making from it?

One of these tricky looks-like-two-is-actually-one dresses!
The bodice will be pink and the rest in the neutral. I love
these two fabrics together and am looking forward to
working on this dress!

***

I’m even MORE excited about this next dress. I’ll tell you about
it, but don’t let it blow your t-rex minds!! First, we have this
wonderful, perfect, silky, double-awesome Anna Maria Horner
voile. I. Love. This. Fabric. I love the colors – the yellow is
closer to a chartreuse than it looks in the photo. And I’m
supper t-rex titillated over the pattern…. Can you even
BEGIN to image what pattern will be good enough for this fabric?

Why. the maxi dress, of course! If you need me
I’ll be in the cabana, in my maxi dress
with 5” wedges and about five pounds
of wood and leopard print bangles….

Seriously, my meat eating dino-sour friends,
won’t this feathery-print maxi dress be
the envy of all my other dino-sour friends?

***

Last up are these coordinating prints from Oliver + S. I love the
colors and the viney print on the more solid fabric has
been a favorite of mine for the last few months, but never
made it into a project.

I’ll be using these fabrics for the ‘monique’ dress from Serendipity
Studios. This dress is our nod-to the retro-silhouette love that’s out
there. I’ll be making the version in the lower left, using the contrast
fabric at the waistband and hem. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned
my affection for these patterns before – they’re super basic, but
the designer (Kay Whitt, author of Sew Serendipity) includes tons
of instructions on design details – changing the width of the contrast
bands, adding ruffles and flowers, etc. I think her patterns
are great for new sewists who aren’t 100% comfortable improvising!!

So that’s it, t-rex friends! I have one or two
non-shop related projects that I’ll try to sneak in,
but for the most part expect to see LOTS
of sample sewing in the next few weeks!

And with that, I’m off to join Dan and Lucy
in the snoring contest!!

>I’m a WINNER… also, missing: half a dress; and guess what project’s next?

>

Greetings meerkats! How’re things at the ranch? Is the ancient war between the Clan of Meerkat and the House of the Prairie Dog still claiming the best young minds of each generation? Give peace a chance, small members of the mongoose family.

Guess what! Remember my post showing my entry in the mini wardrobe contest over at Pattern Review? Well voting is over meerkat friends and I WON!! Can you believe that? I can’t! That was my very first time entering a contest, and there were a lot of really excellent entries. I was particularly smitten with the Slapdash Sewist’s biking wardrobe! If any of you voted for my entry, thank you so much! The official announcement part isn’t posted on the site, but it’s confirmed!

 

I was a bit nervous about entering the contest. Before I even knew there was such a thing as sewing blogs (can you even imagine??) I went to the interwebs to find some info on a pattern I was working on (Vogue 8623) and ended up at Diary of a Sewing Fanatic. I was so intrigued – all that sewing information! That was also how I found Gertie’s blog for better sewing! Gertie had interviewed Carolyn who made some some interesting points about the bias in the online sewing world against plus sized women winning these sorts of voting contests. I had found my first two sewing blogs (and such awesome ones!) but it took me over a year to enter my first sewing contest and part of the reason was that the interview was stuck in the back of my mind. Le sigh. Of course, most of the reason I didn’t manage to enter a contest before now was my inability to get anything done by a specific date! Nevertheless, let that be a lesson to all you meerkats! The lined jacket contest is running through April 30th…

Missing: one half of a blue polka dot dress

On to my next subject. I have a sewing/restyle puzzle. A friend of mine came over the other night – we wear the same size so we trade clothing occasionally. She brought a funny ebay mishap for me. She got this adorable dress for FOUR DOLLARS! I’d have modeled it, but I need to tack that plunging neckline…

You all know how much I love polka dots! And I like that color blue. Like I said, the neckline in low, but other than that I like the fit. So what’s the problem, you ask? Hmmmmm….

They appear to have forgotten to add the back of the dress. Here’s a shot with the ribbons tied into bows.

These photos don’t really show the shocking lack of a back. When I put the dress on, my ENTIRE BACK was exposed! A very cute look, if one is able to go without a bra, but that’s just not going to work out for me!

I took the dress – it’s free, cute and a challenge! If nothing else, I could use fabric from the skirt to convert the dress to a shirt, but I really like the dress from the front! So… group think… any suggestions for making this wearable? Right now my favorite idea is to make a slip dress to wear underneath (I’ve been meaning to tackle Colette’s Cinnamon) and then do something to make the back look less strange. If I just stuck a slip underneath, I’d look like I was wearing, well, a slip and half a dress. I thought perhaps doing a corset-style lace up the back could be cute. Other thoughts? Also – is this just a poorly conceived backless dress, or have we stumbled into a dark underground of minnie mouse fetish wear? I’ll leave you meerkittens to ponder that – suggestions are very, very welcome in the comments!

Guessing game!

I’m obsessing about my next quickie project! There’ll be two pieces, totally summer appropriate… here’s a hint…

That’s my six-year old self, rocking a completely handmade ensemble, courtesy gramma Pete. It was 1980 and I was sporting the latest in navy polyester and yellow acrylic yarn. Note my life-long reliance on the super hero pose! My grandmother was a triple threat – sewist, knitter and chainsmoker. I learned everything I know from her. I’ve managed to forget the whole smoking part.

>Trying to sniff out some teen spirit

>

Evening sea otters. It is so cool that you eat your dinner on your tummies. Speaking of which, after last night’s painstaking post on classic wardrobe pieces, I’m back and I’m looking for help finding a pattern for yet another classic garment: the babydoll dress. Hello 1995, I’m coming to get you.

[image feathers and rags]

Yes. I’m going to make one. And yes. It’s going to be that short. Summer’s almost here and I have absolutely no shame when it’s 90 degrees out. Of course, I’ll probably wear something underneath. I was thinking cut off jeans. Or perhaps even a pair of Colette Mini Bloomers, which would bring me nicely into a fetish lifestyle that I haven’t really considered until right this minute.

The search for the babydoll dress pattern has been brewing and is full on due to a semi-recent acquisition of some military boots. Not as authentic as my lost-along-the-way 10 hole docs, but much more comfy and I think they are much cuter.

[Two Lips Liberty boot. Image Amazon**]

 

So how did I get to this place, where I’m searching for a dress pattern that I’m most likely to find in the maternity section of the current pattern books? It was very insidious. First, I got the boots. They are quite comfy and fun. And you all know how much I love good boot. I thought I’d wear mostly with jeans, but once in my possession, I started to recall how much I loved boots and dresses. How I searched thrift stores high and low for the perfect dress. How I consistently settled for a dress that was a bit more cast off Sunday School teacher dress than babydoll. I remembered how the dresses I really  liked were at Global Village, a shop in the closest (uh, a two hour drive…) big city that sold incense and those odd smelling black canvas mary janes and strange wooden bowls. I liked the dresses there, but even in high school, the XL wasn’t quite swishy enough for my taste. I was more of an XXL – even though at 18 I wore a size 14 or 16, depending on the brand. Before I was completely overcome with memories of the 90’s and headed out to start applying at coffee shops and stock up on used CDs of Bob Marley and Lords of Acid (what can I say, it was the soundtrack of my life circa 1994) it occurred to me that I can stock up on all the craptastic polyester voile with a floral print that my little heart desires and make my own darn babydoll dress. This time, with enough swish.

[image stylehive]

I am aware that a summer wardrobe of babydoll dresses will make me look a wee bit odd. There will, perhaps, be a bit of age-inappropriate behavior going on. And my feet will get hot in those boots. I hate hot feet. Nevertheless, this is the direction that I will be taking summer 2011.

If only I could find a PATTERN!! OK, I know a few of you will probably pipe in and say that I should just make one, sans pattern. I was thinking that too. I mean, could there be an easier dress pattern to come up with all on my own? I don’t recall these dresses having any shaping on the top half, and the skirts are darn near rectangles with gathering. Granted, my preference is for a bit of a sleeve and sleeves are my weak point, but I could probably make this without an official pattern. Right? The thing is, I don’t have any problems completely revamping a pattern to suit my whim, but I really like to start with something that has good bones. And. There. Is. Nothing. Out. There.

[image weardrobe]

OK, enough eyecandy. I’ve been including the dress photos not only to entertain, but to instruct. The babydoll dress I’m hankering for is not just a floral dress. Not even a short floral dress with an empire waist, although I would also be happy with short floral dresses and empire waists. The main design elements I’m after are:

• bodice with minimal shaping – no gathers, darts or other shenanigans
• empire waist
• skirt that is very gathered
• scooped neck
• sleeves – slightly dropped shoulders
• buttons all the way down the front from neckline to hem

I stopped by Joann’s to feverishly thumb through pattern books the other day. I checked Burda, New Look, Kwik Sew, Vogue, Butterick, McCalls, Simplicity and Silhouettes. Even in the pattern books, the basic shapes for all dresses are sheath, the full skirt/fitted bodice 50’s shape, or in the case of Vogue, crazytown, but with very clean lines. There were a few Anna Sui patterns that were calling to me, but not only do I not want to spend a full week of my life working on pintucks (hello Vogue 1177), but they weren’t the design I was searching for. Although with a good floral fabric, they would be a fine compliment to my hot and sweaty military boots.

[Vogue 1177]

Obviously, if I were to attempt this Vouge pattern, that drawstring would not end up right on my hips like the model’s dress.

BTW, for those of you who missed out on the 90’s, let me be the first to say that contrary to internet reports, we did not all wear greasy hair, choker necklaces, baggy jeans, overalls, platform sneakers, banana clips, brightly colored denim, flannel, fur lined trenchcoats and Keds. At least, not all in the same day.

Back to the pattern issue. I left Joanns and checked the interwebs. I thought I might have some luck at Hotpatterns, but alas, struck out. At least I think I did – does anyone else have a hard time seeing their new website? The pattern images are teeny.

The last place I checked was Lanetz Living. You can search for patterns by decade on the site. Here’s the best option I came up with:

[Vogue 8315]

This is actually a great option. I’d raise the waistline a bit, and make it from more flowy material (I actually do have some craptastic floral print poly voile hanging out in my fabric cabinet) – but this pattern is a size 8-12, so I’d have to grade up before making my general fitting changes – for this style, probably only an FBA on a size 18, as I’m guessing the wearing ease at the waist and hip are more than generous. I don’t know if it’s worth the six dollars plus shipping, plus waiting (I’m not very patient, mail order annoys me) to get a pattern I’ll have to chop up just to get started. Sigh. Also, total disclosure, I couldn’t bear scrolling through the patterns on the Lanetz Living site. Good lord. What were people sewing in the 90s? It was all giant blazers and giant shoulders and other horrifying things.

Final note. For all you doubters out there, and to return to the premise of my post yesterday on making classic clothing styles work for me; while I’m fixated on finding the right pattern to start from on my babydoll quest, I fully expect that once I get started I will add some sort of shaping to the bodice and perhaps ease back on the gathering in the skirt. I mean, if I put on a dress with no shaping from the bust down, it will be muumuu city! But I want to start with the right pattern and take it from there!

OK, night all! Please let me know if you have a lead on a babydoll pattern, contemporary sizing 18. And let me know if I missed anything on my trip down 90’s lane. I spent a good part of the decade in coffee shops and at parties in warehouses. It’s quite possible I’m mis-remembering…

>Thoughts on a classic wardrobe

>

Evening penguins. Much like yourselves, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about formalwear. Honestly, I think you guys take it too far, what with the tuxedos on every minute of every day, but I really thought of all animalkind, you would really understand where I’m coming from.

So, a classic wardrobe. There’s usually a story in every other issue of every magazine that lists the 10 must-have garments. Trench, white button up shirt, dark wash jeans, brightly colored cashmere cardi, blazer, black trousers, little black dress, cocktail dress, khaki trousers and black pencil skirt.

                   

[all images from google image search]

Ah. Guess we need to add vest and tie to the list. Not that I could carry off the menswear look…

As much as I love the must-have wardrobe checklists, and the simple style of Jackie O and Audrey, most of the items on these lists are difficult for me to wear. I’ll be revisiting this off and on over the next few months, looking for the perfect style, fabric and pattern to create each garment on the checklist. First, I’ll outline what I don’t like about each of these ‘classic’ styles. This is shaping up to be a very negative post! My perspective is very much informed by years of haunting the womens and plus sections and dealing with the small offering out there in my size. That being said, I suspect that lots of girls have trouble fitting these simple styles – whether they are a size 4 or a size 20, A cup or double-D (oh, let’s be honest, I need to man up and get a bra fitting. I suspect I am more than a double D…)

Let’s start with the classic trench.

The trench

I love that she’s apparently only wearing the coat. Prepare to see more of this in my ever-evolving preferred blog-model-poses.

OK, the trench. As lovely as this looks on Jackie, there are so many things that don’t work for my full busted self. The double breasted style stinks, the epaulets look ridiculous on my narrow shoulders, a tie belt at the natural waist does nothing more than make me resemble an ill-made snowman, and finally the raglan sleeves aren’t the best sleeve style for me (although I encourage you to click on the link to examine the shoulders on this coat on super-zoom. they are super-cool.)

[image Burberry]

 

The white button up

The white button up. You know who rocked the button up shirt? CJ Craig (from the West Wing, if you don’t get tv in your penguin huts.) That woman looked awesome in her endless collection of silk button blouses. Of course, she’s stork-like and not so blessed in her bosoms as I am.

The problems with the button up are numerous. In order to get one that fits my bust, the shoulders are giant and stand up and away from my body. They’re never fitted enough to wear under sweaters. They’re usually too long. They’re stiff. They require ironing. They’re bunchy. If I tried to tuck one in, I’d again achieve a faintly snow-person shape. Sigh.

[image Talbots]

 

 

Dark wash jeans

I always think of Stacy and Clinton (from What Not to Wear) when I consider the proper cut for jeans. I will admit to making some progress on getting a better pair of jeans, but I’m still a bit unsure about the best cut for my shape. When it comes to RTW jeans, the fit is awful (lots of gaping at the waist) and the ‘bootcut’ style in my size (RTW 20) is laughably super flared. While Stacy here has a great amount of flare in her jeans, it becomes a bit more problematic getting the shape to balance well with larger thighs and hips without looking like bell bottoms. No wonder I’m partial to tucking my jeans into boots – the boots provide a good amount of balance to my hips!

BTW – Don’t you love her Buffy the Vampire-like peek of tummy showing?

[image fanpop]

 

 

Brightly colored cashmere cardigan

The cashmere cardigan. As you know, dear penguins, I love me some brightly colored sweaters, and who doesn’t love the coziness of cashmere? I’d literally kill for a simple coral crewneck cashmere cardi like this one. But I have never seen one in the wild that would fit me. I can usually fit a RTW XXL, or even an XL, depending on the brand, but cashmere seems to run small. And the cashmere sweaters that are available in my size are generally in the Macy’s women’s career section – totally Jones New York with the accompanying horrifying ‘womens’ style – long, large and vaguely tentlike. Double. Ugh.

[image white and warren]

 

 

 

Blazer

OK. Blazers aren’t that problematic. I just donated most of my suit-wardrobe to Arc. What I had was fine. All the jackets had the run-of-the-mill giant shoulder issue that I usually find in fitted RTW garments that fit my bust. But they were OK. Making a blazer should be one of the easier projects in my classic wardrobe project. I am having a hard time finding a pattern, though. I’d prefer something with a peplum and a full inset waistband and there’s nothing in the new pattern books that fits the bill. There are a few options, however in the out of print patterns that Hotpatterns is selling on their Etsy site.

[image Talbots]

 

 

Black trousers

My main problem (other than my strangely boxy crotch curve) with trousers is that hip to thigh to hem width proportion issue that I mentioned regarding dark wash jeans. I really like the Inside Out Style, a style blog that has lots of information about dressing for your body type. Of course, I can’t figure out which body type I am, but I think I might be an ‘8’ – the high hip hourglass (note the resemblance between a snowman and the number ‘8’!) So 8’s are supposed to stick with straight or bootcut trousers and stay away from wide of flared styles. When you get into larger sizes, straight legged trousers are also wide legged trousers! I think my thigh is probably 25 inches or so at its widest point – a 25 inch wide hem in a trouser is quite floppy indeed. And if I ease in to keep them from being that floppy, they start to sport the dreaded womens-section-trousers-with-elastic-mom shape.

[image Ann Taylor, archived in my Pinterest account]

 

 

 

Little black dress and cocktail dress

 

[black dress unknown;    pink cocktail dress jewelry101]

You didn’t think I’d get all the way through this without invoking Joan, now did you?

I’m lumping the little black dress and the cocktail dress together because I have the same issue with both of them. Getting the fit right for a sheath dress in larger sizes can certainly be problematic. Like the pencil skirt, which we’ll visit shortly, there is a lot of potential for the stuffed sausage look. Cut poorly, the sheath dress will be too tight across the hips and hang straight down from those tightly encased hips, giving the wearer a terrible blocky dress, old person vibe. I have this problem with most RTW sheath dresses. However, I’ve found that properly fitted, the silhouette is one I really like for me.

No… the problem I have with sheath dresses is all about sitting down. I, like most penguins, prefer my skirts to hit just below my knee – rather a long length for a skirt considering that I am also a huge fan of much shorter mid-thigh length skirts. But when I sit in that length of skirt, the fabric rides up to a shocking degree. To a don’t wear in polite company, at church or in the workplace degree. Also, Spanx or any other leg covering that has the darker, more supportive material that goes down past the hips are strictly out of the question – it will definitely show when sitting. And there’s no chance of crossing my legs, even if I do manage to sit without flashing the world entirely too much thigh.

I think the problem has to do with my rather rounded and substantial rump roast. When I sit, the fabric hikes up from the waist and just needs that much clearance to curve around my haunches – leaving me contemplating the best brand of self-tanning lotion and thanking the great good lord that my leg hair grows in so light as to be nearly invisible. I’m not sure the answer for this fitting conundrum. Obviously, fuller skirts get rid of the problem, but I really don’t think fuller skirts are that flattering on me! I’m also contemplating separates that are so well tailored they will appear to be a sheath dress, but will ease off the sitting issue. I’m not a huge fan of that solution, though – especially for the cocktail dress, which incidentally I will likely never wear other than for modeling!

The khaki pant

I have never, ever, not once in my long life come across a pair of chinos that were in the least bit flattering. Never. I suspect this may have more to do with my general dislike of the style and less with the problems of a size 20 girl trying to stuff herself into a pair. Even though they’re somewhat related to jeans (they’re the slightly more wealthy cousin of jeans?), I don’t like how they look when they’re tight (who does) and all other versions just make me feel like an ankle exposed clerk at Target. Or a phy ed teacher. Or a variety of other practical types of stereotypes that I don’t find enjoyable. Valet comes immediately to mind. Icky tassled loafer wearing men at happy hour downtown. The carryout kids at my grocery store. 

The only ‘khakis’ I like are straight up suburban-housewife-art-fair-subaru-driving crops; slightly wider legs, lots of pockets and zippers. A possible drawstring at the waist and a for sure drawstring at the hem, which is usually just south of the kneecap. Those I like.

[image Banana Republic]

 

The black pencil skirt

Ah, a true basic. As long-time readers may know, I have a love-hate relationship with black. I love it so much, it’s pretty much all I wore through my 20’s. In a contemporary Banana Republic way. not in a goth way. I’d have been better having gone the goth direction!

No, it’s my white dog that makes me hate it so. That being said, I’m always up to putter with another pencil skirt. Once a style I wouldn’t be caught dead in (see my earlier comments under sheath dresses regarding stuffed sausage looks), I know see that properly fitted, this is a great style for me. So many details – waistband or not? What length? Lined? Vent? Proper hip curve? Fabric? I suspect that the perfect pencil skirt will be the work of the lifetime, but we will see!

[image Banana Republic]

 

So that, my pretty penguins, is that. I have problems. I will find answers, patterns, and high end fabrics and construct myself a ‘classic’ wardrobe from styles that flatter. Am I missing anything? Do you have a classic wardrobe? Do you wish you did?

>What’s my style? Rambling and plotting my next projects…

>

Evening bumblebees. I have no new finished items to show off today. Normally I skip these days on the blog – I’m more of a show and tell girl than a waxing philosophical girl. At least, as far as the blog is concerned… but I’ve been mulling over a thought all day which led me to to a google search chock full of big hair, 80’s fashion and a slight identity crisis. And here’s what got me started.

Lovely, isn’t it? All spring-like green and a super-awesome-o piece of dupioni silk woven from hot pink and emerald green strands. So nice. This is for my shabby-chic skirt that I’m making as part of the Spring Palette Challenge. That’s right. Shabby-chic skirt. I don’t know what else to call it – here’s a photo…

[image Sew Serendipity]

I think the skirt’s cute.  A bit on the long side, but something different. It’s in the book Sew Serendipity by Kay Whitt. Since I’m showing off photos, here’s a shot of the coat from the same book that I’ll make as a bonus item (meaning: “if I get around to it”…) the ‘classic tailored jacket’…

[image Bessie Mary]

Isn’t that the most wonderful collar? I’m thinking it’ll look perfect in this Anna Maria Horner velveteen we got in at the shop today… VELVETEEN!!

[image Crafty Planet – links to cotton, not velveteen…]

My search over the last few days for the perfect fabric for the skirt got me thinking. About my style. I have to admit to a bit of psychosis, style-wise. While the coat has a bit less of the shabby-chic vibe going on, the whole book is very cute, mixed prints, all cottons, all in that shabby vibe. I love all the patterns in the book, but have to admit I don’t think they’re really “me”

And then there’s my other project that I worked on today. Again, a piece for the Spring Challenge. This one is the other skirt. I initially thought I’d do something in basic grey – perhaps a pencil skirt with a kicky pleat on the bottom. The fabric I found is a rayon linen blend that’s much too stiff for my initial design idea. I thought something shorter would be better – more like a classic denim skirt. I flipped through the pattern sites then found this perfect skirt on Anthropologie.

[image Anthropologie]

It’s probably hard to see the detail, but in addition to the little scallop on the hem and the funky welt pockets, there are also external darts that are topstitched down. Perfect for a bit of mid-weight linen! I spent part of today using a favorite skirt pattern (Butterick 4877) and David Page Coffin’s trouser book to draft a pattern for the skirt. And, I ask you… what style is this??

Take these projects, add my penchant for full skirted, fitted bodice, vaguely reminiscent of the 50’s dress and my new love for anything with a fitted midriff band, I’m just sort of all over the place (as opposed to some people with a very defined aesthetic…)

I’m sure I’m like a lot of other people. Prior to sewing, my main thought in buying clothes was ‘works well enough, looks ok’. Often I’d sacrifice either the ‘looks’ or the ‘works’ part – you know, I’d find a dress that looked great on me, but was in drab colors. Or I’d find the perfect wool coat with a too-maternity-esque cut that didn’t really work for me, but I’d buy it anyway because the color was so great. I have a friend who says she’ll buy a piece of clothing if it ‘covers her up.’ I totally get that. Pre-sewing days, I think my design aesthetic was similar to me car /valet aesthetic – good enough to go to a restaurant downtown without embarrassing myself.

Of course, sewing changes a lot of things. I look in the mirror a lot more. As fellow bloggers know, it’s a strange world to step into sewing blogging. There are more pictures of me on the internet than I’d have been comfortable with a year or two ago. The more we look at myself, the easier it is to be a bit more objective about what I’m seeing. And then there’s the byproduct of sewing that is figuring out what works. As much as I’ve always yearned for the androgynous, slightly punk vibe for myself, I think I’d look ridiculous trying to rock a Patti Smith look with a Kate Pierson shape (ah, the beehive…) And then there’s the miraculous ability to make things that have not only the right look, but also will work on my body. What fun.

But I’m still not sure what my style is (other than a clear love of green floral dresses.) Which brings me back to my google search. I thought long and hard today (well, not that hard) about what influenced me in those young tender teenage years where I started to get my groove on. That was a long time ago. I liked clothes a lot in high school, in an oddball sort of way. I had a lot of Benetton and Esprit stuff (but only if there were no labels showing – remember those Esprit bags and sweatshirts? egad), and a lot of thrift store stuff. I wore my hair flat when we were reeling out way out of big-hair 80’s. I searched some photos of my top five – uh, style icons? That seems like a bit of an over commitment, but we’ll go with that. We’ll start with #5. (welcome to the 80’s. What can I say?)

Molly Ringwald

I hesitate to include Molly Ringwald, but like it or not, she was a redhead and so was I (although she’s not really one and I really am…) I had to put up for YEARS with people telling me I looked like her, which is not at all true and never was. I never really liked her clothes in any of her movies, although I loved the breakfast club boots. But I bet I could nearly recite all her lines with her. I studied her like she possessed the secret to life… [image hollywoodnews.com]

Jami Gertz in the Lost Boys

I loved this movie too and especially Star with her gypsy ways and her giant hair. And her vampire boyfriends. I liked the vampire clothes too, although I never really developed a one-track desire for men with motorcycles. I guess some things never change, because while searching for photos it crossed my mind that I’d like to find a pattern to make a cute white cotton shirt just like Star’s. [image WBshop.com]

Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally

I watched this movie to death in my junior (?) year of high school. I remember not liking her hair but loving her makeup. I didn’t like all of her outfits, but I certainly spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find the perfect pair of shorts and a red sweater to copy this look. I liked the vaguely Annie Hall vibe of a lot her outfits. And, as a slightly OCD type myself and highly impressionable, I viewed the scenes when she was organizing (movies, ordering in the restaurant, etc.) as valuable lessons in how to life my life. [image filmsiwatched]

Julia Roberts in Dying Young

I think this moving came out my senior year of high school – so early ‘90’s. The era of (much missed) floral dresses and combat boots. I really need to get another pair of boots. Her wardrobe was all dresses and sweaters and giant overalls and more giant hair. In a house by the sea. There was even a vineyard and a maze. If it wasn’t for all the cancer and crying, this would have been a perfect movie. There was even some excellent jazz. [image movieclips.com]

And now, for number one. Everyone’s favorite entre to soft-core naughtiness (not why it’s number one) and the most excellent 80’s movie wardrobe ever….

9 and 1/2 weeks

              

Sigh. That’s right. I said it. My number one style-impact-movie from my formative years was 9 and a half weeks. Sure, there was a lot of nookie in the movie, but that aside I thought it was so pretty. She went to a street fair, she bought a fish still flipping around at the market. She had witty dinner parties. Also, there was a lot of super cool digital equipment – intriguing to a budding gadget geek such as me. AND there was a boat and I’m pretty sure some Billie Holiday. Sigh.

Wow! Pulling myself back into the present, I shall leave you to contemplate the wisdom of curtailing the movie viewing of impressionable youths. I’m off to surf some costume websites to find that perfect pair of spectator heels…

>To pleat or not to pleat…

>

I have good news and bad news. The good news is if you’re in the mood for a blog post that meanders aimlessly with no finished projects to show off or clear direction as to fitting trousers, you are SUPER in luck. The bad news is that I didn’t bring enough popcorn for all of you. Let’s just jump in, shall we?

I posted the beginning of my search for trousers the other day, and included a shot of my three major contender patterns – Hot Patterns Razor Sharp and Everyday pants, as well as one of the ‘vintage’ reissues from Simplicity (4044). I cut the patterns and re-read through Pants for Real People (honestly, they need to restyle that book. It burns my eyes.) I couldn’t decide which pattern to start with. The Hot Patterns ones seemed so frumpy, the Simplicity pattern… well… it has pleats. I pulled the back pattern pieces and laid them out to compare. First, The Razor Sharp pants – a faced waistband, front fly zip, angled pockets, creased and supposedly wider leg.

The one thing that I’ve read about over and over is the L-shaped crotch line on the Hot Patterns trousers – see how it makes a sharp turn rather than a big angle? I’m curious about how that will look on me! The thing I noticed is that the leg seems to angle in slightly toward the ankle. Not surprising, given my frump-suspicions. And not promising.

Next, I laid the Everyday pattern piece over the Razorsharp. I tried to get the crotchlines to line up for comparisons sake.

I was a bit surprised by this piece! I expected the legs to be similar, with the differences between the two patterns being the Razor Sharps have pockets and a fly, The Everydays are simple with a side zip. Turns out the cut is very different! The leg of the Everyday pants is much more narrow and has a definite slight flare. Hmmmm…

Next up the Simplicity retro pants. With pleats.

Again, I was surprised. I expected these to have the widest leg, which they clearly didn’t. Also, it appears that Simplicity drafts for shrimps! Did I buy a petite pattern?? No… the crotch depth of the Simplicity pants is MUCH deeper, something I was definitely concerned about. My problem with trouser patterns has been all the excess fabric in the front! Even taking the high waist of the Simplicity pattern into account, I could see that the length of the leg was actually in line with the other two trouser patterns when I slid the pattern piece down to line up the hems. The width of the Razor Sharp and Simplicity pants is quite similar, with the Simplicity pants having an extra few inches of crotch depth. Ho hum. Here’s a shot with all three pattern pieces outlined; pink is the Razor Sharp, green is the Everyday and blue is the Simplicity piece.

So. Time to decide what to do. I went with the Simplicity pattern. You may think I’m crazy, but I was drawn to a few things. First, I really wanted to try a high waisted trouser. That seems to be a good look for me. Second, I just wanted to jump in and of the three patterns, the Everyday and Simplicity patterns were more simple – side zips, no pockets. The Everyday pants seem a bit more narrow than what I want. Finally, even though the pleats on the Simplicity pattern seem to be the cardinal no-no… (I mean, didn’t we just finally throw out our last pair of pleated trousers from 1993 a few years ago) I’m trying to find trousers that work for me, not necessarily the most in-fashion pattern. I’ve heard these are flattering – there’s a picture on patternreview.com that looks great (although I think the pleats were removed on that version) and maybe the pleats would turn out to be super flattering?? Who knows??

So first, dealing with the pesky super-long crotch. I’m trying to be a little more methodical with this trouser project – you know. Actually making the pattern as is before messing with it. I can do adjustments to the bustline before muslining because I have a pretty good idea as to what will work. Unfortunately, I have no idea what works with trousers, so I want to make the pattern as-is then go through the fitting process. Here’s a shot of the crotch – you can see that the crotch of the sizes 26/28 (I cut a 28 to match my hips. Gah. Let’s go back to Colette sizing, can we?) is a full inch lower than the other sizes. I dutifully cut the pattern as is, but kept the little wedges, suspecting I’d want to put them back on later. I marked each one with a pencil, front/back. (blue is 26/28, pink is the other sizes.)
             

The first muslin

Then I completely lost my head. I was trying to follow the fitting process in Pants for Real People (sister to everyone’s favorite fitting book, Fit for Real People.) The authors are huge fans of tissue fitting, then pin fitting your fashion fabric, then doing the final and tweaking. I, on the other hand, am a huge fan of muslins. So, of course, I just jumped in and made a muslin. The only fabric I could find that was big enough to cut from was on old pair of drapes that are of a weight between muslin and gauze, but closer to gauze. And very see-through. For modesty’s sake, I’m wearing a pair of leggings under the muslin, adding a bit of bulk.
  

I liked the muslin more than I thought I would! Since the fabric was so drapey, the pleats weren’t as awkward as I expected. The shape of the leg appealed to me, as did the way the waistline was a bit higher. They were, of course, giant. See how high they pull up? And How far I can pull them up? And I’m wearing leggings underneath AND have my shirt tucked in!? I sighed and accepted the fact that I’d have to start over with tissue fitting. At least my quickie-muslin showed me that I was interested in working on this pattern a bit more.

Um, where’s my waist again?

OK, so I don’t know about all y’all, but the instructions in every fitting book that you find your waist by bending to the side and finding the crease is completely nonsensical to me. Which crease?? This directive reminds me of the Special K pinch-more-than-an-inch commercials that were on when I was, like, five years old. I would obsessively pinch my side (It was about 3/4 of an inch at that time) and then pinch everyone else’s side. Anyway. My actual waistline remains a somewhat mystery to me. There’s my narrow part – VERY high and where I like my dress waistlines, but probably not workable for trousers. There’s what I believe to be my natural waistline – more in line with my belly button and slightly above where I like to wear my jeans. A very, very unflattering line on me, since my body continues to angle in above that point, so any horizontal line there looks bad. And then there’s a point somewhere between (and a ‘side-bending-crease’)– perhaps my goal waistline for trousers? Here’s some super-hot pictures of me in my gym-slash-cat-burglar outfit, showing you what I’m talking about. From left to right- the high waistline preferred for dresses, then the low waistline that must be avoided except for jeans (maybe?), then a happy medium.

   

For the observant amongst you, you will see that Mr. Bug is just home from work and nesting. The odd placement of his head in the second picture is due to some basset hound snuggling. I cropped for proper comparison – here’s the original…

Tissue fitting

The point (apart from idle curiosity) of finding my waistline, is that with the fitting method from the book, you assemble your pattern pieces and put them on, tucking them into a piece of elastic fastened around your waist. Here’s my first go-round with tissue fitting – the elastic is at that mid point.
  

Obviously, there was a lot of extra room there! I wriggled out of my paper pants and realized I had ripped the back, which added to the roominess in the photos. I taped it up and added the crotch wedges I had set aside back to the pattern pieces. Pink shows the original cut line.

Then another tissue fitting. Much better! You can see the back looks fine, while there’s a bit of extra length in the front. According to the book, one way to deal with this is to just tug up the pattern piece so the front is hanging correctly and remove that tissue. There are also a bunch of other things to look for – wrinkles and creases and such. I had a really hard time doing that – to me, all I can see in the tissue is wrinkles and creases! I decided to make the front adjustment and try another muslin. My main problems are less with width and more with that pesky crotch area – not super easy to work with in paper!
                  

Here I am marking the excess tissue on the front pattern piece. You can also see here how I pinned the pleat down and folded to nothing mid-thigh so that I wasn’t using the pleat ease for fitting.

Ah! Morning! Here is my front pattern piece, laid flat. You can see the blue marker line I made the night before, and how it curves to the side seam – it’s really the center front that’s always too long on me!

I wanted to keep the pleat depth so I just cut along the blue line, then slid the pattern piece down and taped it back onto the main pattern piece, aligning the original top (where the notch marks are) with the new cut edge. Then I didn’t have to transfer any markings! I extended the bottom of the pleats about an inch (the amount I had trimmed.) I expected that I’d have to fine-tune the length of the pleats, but this gave me a place to start. Green dots show original pleat end-marks, pink shows my new ones.
     

Muslin #2

Time for some more fabric pants! I hemmed and hawed all day. I have some drapey poly fabric in my stash that would work for a muslin. It would also work for, you know, real pants. I finally decided to pick up some cheapo-muslin to work with. With which to work. I really didn’t want the stiff muslin fabric, but just couldn’t bring myself to cut into viable fabric when I still wasn’t sure if the trousers would work. The stiffness of the muslin was definitely an issue with the pleating. Sigh. Here it is…
        

Not terrible (and I clearly need me some creamy wide legged trousers to go with this shirt!) I didn’t like the pulling at the bottom of my hips and the lumpy-bumpy along my side – I have that valley between the top of my hip and the top of my thigh that makes me crazy! And there’s some funkiness around the crotch that bugs me. I like the width of the leg and where the waistband hits.

From the side, it looks like I took a bit too much length from the front. I think I do have a slightly tilted waist, but not this much. And I can’t tell if it’s the seam allowances or the seam, but there may be a bit of the seam veering toward the back over my hip.

From the back, I don’t hate it. I have a tendency to make the back of my trousers too loose while fitting – baggy is not the look I want! Oh! And I switched the zipper to a back zip. I think it’s more complimentary to this style and I just like it!

Another muslin

The pulling of the pleats and slight tightness over the hips was really bugging me, so I made a few tweaks. The fitting book says that pleats should end at the fullest part of your tummy, so I went back and extended the pleats about four inches. When I tried them on, it really didn’t work. I ripped back an inch or two – I marked the original end of the pleat in pink and the new end in green. I also resewed the side seams between the blue marks using about a 1/2 inch seam allowance, adding about a half inch ease total to that area. I like what the new side seams did – getting rid of a bit of the lumpy bumpy. I’m still not sold on the pleats, although I do wonder what they might look like in a more drapey fabric – this muslin is amazingly thick and stiff for being the el-cheapo variety!

I still have some crotch problems –I see some folds in the front – sort of pointing towards the pink and green dots? I think that’s what the book calls a ‘smile’ and the remedy is to let out the inseam a bit. Or it sort of looks like a ‘bubble’, and of course the remedy is to sew the crotch a bit deeper. We’ll see about that! And there’s just a hint of the dreaded toe of the desert beast of burden, but I think if I get rid of those angled wrinkles it’ll take care of that.

On the side, I think I still see some pulling, but again, it’s hard to tell from the photo if it’s the seam or just the seam allowance – I know I pressed them this way and that!

The back looks much better. There’s a few slightly angled folds pointing downward. I couldn’t find a matching drawing in the fitting book, but I wonder if I let out the inseam a bit that would relax the folds. I spent some time hanging out in the trousers and they were definitely comfortable! Oh! And they are definitely short! The unhemmed muslin is barely long enough!

What’s next?

I haven’t quite decided. I’m not sure the pleats will work for me, but I think there’s a few more tweaks I could do to this muslin to see. I also was thinking of trying to work out a dart arrangement in the front to completely remove the pleats – since I have the muslin, it might be worth it as I like the rest of the style. I may still try one of the Hot Patterns patterns – probably the Everyday pants just to check fit and not deal with a fly on a muslin I’m not committed to! To which I am not committed. Darn Minnesotan messed up grammar!

One very likely next move is to add a new pattern to the mix. I picked up Simplicity 3688, the other Simplicity retro pattern – it looks like the same lovely high waistband and wide legs with a much cleaner finish. But there’s a waistband and I’m not sure how much I’d like that! We’ll see how the mood strikes me! In the meantime, I’m working away on other projects!

>Why I do not want wear the pants in the family. Snug Bug goes on field trip to the Mall of America.

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Alrighty, jackrabbits. First up, old business. Yes, Lady Katza, I’m planning on doing a quickie how-to on making the sweetheart Sencha. And for those who suggested that I start draping (Andrea? K-Line?) I was sort of thinking of that too – except that I’d have to get a dress form. And then I’d really need to do something to make it more me-shaped than just a plain old dress form. Then I’d have a me-shape, lurking in the guest bedroom, freaking me out during early-morning mouthwash forays. And finally, as to all the wondering why the torture of a thousand muslins, when I already have a perfectly good Parfait pattern that fits… fair point. I will refrain from pointing out all the significant differences and clearly state that the February dress is much, MUCH more close-fitting than the Parfait – nearing corset-style snugness in the bodice area!

I’ll be getting back to the February dress in the next day or two – all the pattern pieces are cut, I just need a few hours to sew. I’ve also been working on a rather extensive thrift-store-cashmere-restyle project as part of the Colette spring palette challenge. There are satin roses involved. It’s very anthropologie-slash-hot-glue-gun-tragedy. You will roll your eyes extensively at the unveiling. Here’s a sneak peek on the sweater-restyle project…

Now for the new business. I’ve been thinking about trousers again. I’ve got five yards of lightweight grey wool asking nicely to be made into something. I thought perhaps it was time to revisit the search for perfectly-fitted trousers. I had quasi-success with my two pairs of cords last fall, although I have to admit that there’s something slightly off with the fit – enough so that I don’t really wear the cords a lot. Although the main reason I don’t wear the cords may be the dearth of footwear in my closet that’s cute, feminine and wearable with wide-legged garments as well as compatible with the 10 feet of snow on the ground in Minneapolis. I feel like a farmer when I wear my knee-high boots UNDER floppy pants, and my only other choices for shoes are 3 pairs of Uggs or pink converse sneaks. The rest of my shoe supply is high heeled or ballerina. What does everyone else wear in the snow? I’m actually considering obtaining a pair of witchy, low-heeled granny boots.

Ah! That brings me back to the Mall of America field trip and the trouble with trousers. The other night I dug through my pattern stash and pulled all the trouser patterns I own that come out of the envelope in my size. I’d really like to start from a pattern, rather than sizing up. That whole crotch length thing is so tricky. I pulled Hot Patterns Razor Sharp Pants and the Plain and Simple Everyday Pants as well as the sure-to-be-a-trainwreck Simplicity 4044 – bought in a pattern binge during a dollar sale at Joanne’s.

      

Of course, there are problems with all three patterns. The two Hot Patterns suffer from normal Hot Pattern cuckoo-clock-crazyness. Completely unrealistic envelope drawings, slightly frumpified styles. I’ve heard the fly instructions on the Razor Sharp Pants are unintelligible. The Simplicity pattern is particularly troubling because of the major pleat action. We’ll see. I’ve cut the two Hot Patterns and was planning on just starting in on muslins to see if I even like the style of the trousers.

After much reflection, I decided that it would be best for me to head on out to the mall for a RTW dressing room picture taking binge. I’m not a huge fan of trousers in general – I look much better in skirts and dresses and my favorite cut of jean is headed toward jegging territory in order to accommodate my addiction to knee-high boots. I’ve learned from blogging that I’m better at gauging what works for me based on pictures rather than the mirror.

I went to the Mall of America because it’s only 10 minutes from my house, has every store known to man and I enjoy torturing myself. Seriously. I hate the Mall of America. Once there, I hit Macy’s first – it was a bit of a bust. I tried on a million Jones New York trousers (a previous favorite brand of mine from my working girl days) The quality has definitely gotten chintzier, while the price tag seemed to hover around $100. Good gravy. I also tried on a few Alfani pants – I think the Macy’s store brand? These were more ill fitting than the Jones new York trousers, but there was a bit more variety in the styles.

After Macy’s I went to the mecca of plus-size trouser buying. Lane Bryant. The one at the mall has gotten an odd remodel that breaks to the store up into panic-inducing tiny rooms. Also, they super-stuff the racks, making it impossible to separate a hanger from its siblings. Lane Bryant had a few good options and I was able to find most styles in the special ‘blue’ category – specially fitted for peeps like me with a larger waist to hip ration than most. It was nice to try on new trousers that actually fit around the waist! After Lane Bryant, I checked out Torrid and tried on a pair of trousers that I didn’t even take photos of – they were that horrifying. Then I made a beeline out of there. I’d hoped to find a few more styles than I did – I was pretty constrained to ‘classic trouser’ (aka – mom-jean-styling), my long-time favorite ‘wide leg’ and the supposedly best cut for my body type (I strenuously disagree with that assessment) flared/bootcut style. I got a lot of photos, though. Here’s a lineup of the full-frontal view. I’ve labeled each photo with a pink letter to facilitate name-calling.

Gurgle. Some of those are very, very bad pants! For anyone wanting to replicate this experiment – the dressing room with the white floor is Macy’s and the trousers are all Jones New York or Alfani. The carpeted dressing room is Lane Bryant. All the trousers are size 20, with the exception of P, which was a 22 I think. Also, P has an odd belt.

I’ll need a few days of analyzing these photos, but as of now, my top three trousers are H, Q then M. Interestingly, these three trousers are the three main styles I tried on. H is high-waisted with a wide leg. Trousers Q are the ‘classic trouser’ which looks a bit tapered on, although the legs look straight when they’re on the hanger. Trousers M are a bit on the flare/bootcut side, and while they’re OK, this style seems to accentuate my bumpy hips in a way that sort of makes me look square. Not so sure about that look!

Here’s a few shots from the side – I didn’t take as many of these photos, and I also didn’t keep track of which is which – so I don’t remember which front view goes with which side view!

I don’t see as much of a difference between these photos as I do the full-frontal photos. I think #9 is the most flattering. These are the wide-legged trousers. I hate #2 with a deep passion – I think these were a pair of side-zip trousers. And I sort of like the look of #5, which are a pair of slightly boot-cut trousers in a stiff spandex-infused material.

And with that, I will leave you to your deeply disturbed thoughts while I fall into a troubled slumber, quietly obsessing over the perfect amount of flare necessary to balance out my square hips…

>A little bit of everything…Colette spring palette challenge, Kwik Sew 3003, broken magnets, new snips and tanks with a cherry on top.

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Hello Friday! At least, recent Friday… While I did get another muslin made of Simplicity 2601, I wasn’t happy with the results – somehow removing two inches of ease from what SEEMED like five inches too much yielded a snug midriff band. And while I may claim to be as snug as a bug in a rug, I prefer that my clothing allows me to do things like, oh, you know… sit. So instead of another post chock-full of unflattering photos of me dressed in my wedding table linen, I will provide odds and ends of photos and updates… starting with…

The Colette spring palette challenge. I decided to join in and spent time playing with photoshop today. I wasn’t going to do it, since I already am sewing so much, but I thought it’d be good for me to do something that will (hopefully) force me to sew things that work well together.

I actually started with a real inspiration board this time – you know, instead of having a pile of patterns I wanted to sew and forcing them into a ‘collection’, I thought about what vibe I’d like for spring and went and found some pics on the googles. I’ve always loved that Rossetti (second one in from the left on the top – for some reason I always think it is called beatrix potter, but that can’t be right…) so I started with that and filled in with more redheads and ridiculous Vogue spreads that had to have been art directed by that wild-haired Grace-forgot-her-last name that stole the show in the Vogue documentary. I was on something of a readhead binge this morning. In ANY case, my actual challenge items are the five on the right (I’m sure you can click to see larger.) Two blouses, one upcycled sweater (i.e. I’m plotting on finding something at a thrift shop and doing something to it to make it all me) and two skirts. The four projects on the left aren’t really challenge projects – there’s the February and March dresses of Year of the Dress. I’ll find fabric in my palette for those. There’s a raincoat that I’m making as a sample/class prep for the shop, and then there’s my super-wish-list project – I light wool coat in an easter egg color. I have to admit to being a bit obsessed with the book Sew Serendipity – this is the ‘classic jacket’ from that book.

OK. I looked it up – the painting is called Beata Beatrix. Also, feel free to make fun of my child-like sketches I did IN photoshop – I mostly traced over other pictures, I was just being anal and weird. As usual!

Oh – and the name, Persephone. The painting all the way to the left – the lady in blue – is called Persephone. I thought it must be fate when I reflected back on my 20’s filled years of reading books on mythology and the dark arts (ha ha, Harry Potter) and remembered that Persephone often represents spring. How apropos!

Show and tell… Kwik Sew 3003. A basic turtleneck.

Sigh. OK, on to the next best thing… let’s see… ah! A reveal! I mentioned recently that I’d made a plain ‘ole turtleneck from Kwik Sew 3003. I cut the XL, which on paper is too small for me, but, as you can see, was alright in person. The arms and hem were WAY too short for my taste – I did a little lettuce edging on the serger to preserve length. You can also sort of see that the shoulders are giant on me. All in all, a fine pattern for a turtleneck – special kudos for excellent neck drafting! Everything fit together well and I wasn’t fearful for my fingers while serging around the neck as I occasionally am while having to do all sorts of finger contortions to get everything to fit! The fabric is an awesome turquoise that doesn’t really come through in the photo – and it has dots! I love this Oliver + S fabric so much! The swatch on our Etsy site really shows the color and the fun dots!

A jacket for my magnet

Next up… a trip down memory lane, a horrible sewing accident (ok, not so horrible) and a clever fix. When I was little, my gramma was a sewing demon. Her machine was in the corner of the dining room and it was, you know, sort of buried. There was old pre-70’s carpet in the dining room and I remember more than one traumatic pin-stomping on my tender five-year-old feet! Grandma had a giant magnet shaped like a doughnut that she’d tied with a piece of yarn. She made a game out of using the magnet to search for pins so I wouldn’t step on them. I loved the magnet (it was super strong) and when she moved to a nursing home, it ended up in my mom’s stuff and eventually made it in to my memory box. Last year I realized it’d be great to actually use it (since basset hounds think pins are snacks) and dug it out and tied a piece of rick-rack to it.

Then, one tragic afternoon a month or two ago I was busily cleaning and BLAM! I dropped the magnet. On our slate floor in the hallway. Tragedy.

At first I was just super sad and set the magnet on my sewing desk and occasionally picked it up and tried to stick it back together. Yeah – magnets don’t LIKE going back together! I tried tying a string around it once to see if it was still usable. I’m sure you already realize what I didn’t – without the doughnut hole, the magnet just slipped right out of the string… luckily, not breaking.

One night I had the lightening bolt idea to make a cozy for it! First I tested it with the ticking that I used to cover my ironing board. The magnet seemed to gobble up pins just as fast with it’s ticking jacket on! I sewed up a long tube, turned it right side out and started the painstaking task of stuffing the magnet in the tube and getting it to sit still long enough for me to sew the ends shut. I managed, although my hands ached afterwards! I even got the cozy tight enough so that it holds the two pieces tightly together in their original doughnut shape (they kept wanting to like side by side, not end to end. A magnet cozy! I didn’t ruin grandma’s tool and I still have my helpful magnet! Yay!

A new tank top

And now… another reveal! As facebook friends may know, I’ve been trying to work through a sewing to-do list of unfinished projects. One (actually two) of my to-do’s was to sew up tank tops that I’d cut near the end of last summer and didn’t get to before it got cold. This pattern started as a pajama pattern – a knit tank with facings (blech) and darts. It’s morphed quite a bit – side seams drastically tightened and scooped out, bust gathering added, rick-rack made and appearance and a little elastic treatment to the waist for a (hopefully) more flattering effect and a definite practical application – my shirt stays put when I’ve got my head buried in my garden and my hind-end waving about in the air. I know my neighbor LOVES seeing that! In any case – here it is. This version is in a rather precious thermal knit that’s actually quite HOT and will probably be more of a spring/fall shirt than a summer shirt.

What a lazy blogger I am. Not only did I not set up the tripod, I didn’t even bother taking my ipod out of my ears. Just count your blessings that I managed to put on pants before taking the picture!

Show and tell… new snips!

Next up…unfettered commercialism. I got a most excellent pair of Gingher (am I the only one who doesn’t like the way that’s pronounced?) thread snips! They are super sharp and excellent for cutting threads close and clipping notches! They clip by being squeezed shut! Awesome!

Ooooo… so sharp! With these, I could totally defend myself from a pack of rabid basset hounds armed with spools of cheap thread. If such an event were to occur. Here’s a super close-up! They’re already dusty!

Cherries and checks

And in closing ta-da! The cherry corduroy destined to become a franken-Jenny and the mystery rayon meant for the Simplicity shirt! Isn’t it lovely!