Things that backfire

I don't always never get as much sewing done as I planned. That's just the simply truth and I need to own that. So when I looked down at my December sewing stack, I knew I needed to scale back. I quite simply have run out of time to turn out a fancy Christmas party dress for myself if I'm going to continue working on this advent scarf, make pinky a smocked Christmas dress, and pajamas for the kidlets by December 25th. Instead of fancy party dress with a fluffy petticoat, heirloom lace yoke, and possibly some beading, I decided I would do a simple sheath. 

To be honest, I wasn't all that enamored with the pattern when I first laid eyes on it. It's somewhat unremarkable despite the presence of those chevron pleats. But the fabulous thing about being a sewist in the internet age is you can google any pattern and a wealth information floods your sewing starved soul. What looked rather inspiring on the cover can be made into something surprisingly pretty. Judging by the many gorgeous versions of New Look 6067 out there, I was confident I could make a beautiful dress that wouldn't take up much of my time.

It just so happened FabricMart was having an awesome Black Friday sale on a pretty linen jacquard that is close in color to pinky's dress. Yes, I said linen. Yes, it's winter but look at this stuff! Besides, I live in the south.  Having a dress that can be worn all year round is a boon. (The fabric is still available too!)

I picked up the pattern the Saturday after Thanksgiving, standing in line with my 25% off coupon at Joann's and cut out the bodice almost immediately for a tissue fitting. Some patterns leave me feeling like Busty the eight dwarf so I knew I'd probably have to make a tweak here and there but some of the reviews mentioned it was roomy in the bust and I'd hoped to skate by. 

Dress, bra, same concept, same depressing results

NOPE. Denied. Not having it.

Okay, so FBA. I got that. For those of you who don't know, FBA is an acronym for full bust adjustment, aka hacking up a pattern to make it fit the sisters. Leila at Three Dresses has links to quite a few here. They are tedious but not terribly complicated UNLESS YOUR PATTERN LOOKS LIKE THIS!

Bodice piece before altering

Sweet baby jesus in a manger, what did I do? What did I do? So now a simple sheath dress has turned into a massive muslin requiring overhaul of epic proportions. I might have cried, I might have argued with God, I might have tried to convince my cleavage it should take a winter vacation to Florida whilst I slept. But when I returned to the google, these precious, beautiful versions of New Look 6067 taunted me, beckoning me, you can do it, you can FBA. Stop being a wuss.

Ignore the crooked lines. They are simply
proof that being able to sew a straight line
is rather irrelevant to one's ability to sew.

Never one for wussdom (unless it involves the possibility of huge old bugs falling in my hair), I decided to give it a go. The Mahogany Stylist did an FBA on her pattern but I have a long torso and need extra room lengthwise as well as width. So I took a deep breath, traced off a copy of the bodice piece and gave it a shot. 

Don't mind the blur, sorry about that.

Surprisingly, my first inclination was the correct one. I lengthened the bodice first, choosing to cut above the pleats to avoid having to redraw them. Then I slashed the center of each pleat all the way up to the armscye sleeve allowance and spread those pieces (just nod along if you don't sew, I won't judge.) 

Yes, those are my polka dot socks. Hot, amiright?

My first attempt wasn't quite big enough but the technique was sound so I slashed anew and spread a bit more. Then I pinned it all together and tissue fit it. So far, so good. I suspect I might need to add to the waist but as I'm planning to sew up a wearable muslin, I'll work that out then.

Look at the difference!
New pattern piece in white

Simple dress my left butt cheek. I should have known this would happen but can you say it isn't worth it? Check out these versions and tell me this isn't worth my time.

Beck and Lundy's Gray and Yellow

Vacuuming The Lawn's Brown Ponte

Sewmanju's Tessuti Gridlock

There are also a few here at Sewing Pattern Review.

If you're wondering about the advent scarf, I had a minor setback and frogged the whole thing. But I hopped back on that trike like a good girl and now I have days one and two finished. I'll do day three tonight, day four and five tomorrow and be all caught up.

 

I can't find my stupid grocery list

So let's look at pinky's Easter dress in progress instead, yes?

It still needs sleeves, buttons in the back, embroidery on the front, and the neckline needs to be finished but that should all be finished by Tuesday when I have my last class. I'm really going to miss going to class every week so I think I'm going to go to their sewing bee on Wednesday mornings. Keep your fingers crossed that sewing mojo is contagious.

Now, let's discuss my Easter dress, shall we? I had plans to finish the vintage dress I cut out last year but I might have a slight obsession with coordinating outfits for the holidays. The vintage dress, while beautimous (is so a word) is ivory and robin's egg blue and much different than the tone, style, and techniques assorted with pinky's dress. So I went hoping around the interwebs and pinterest to see if I could come with something heirloom-y for my person.

What? You don't like those??

For the record, there are a few better options out there.

Like this beautiful heirloom inspired camisole for which I'd need another camisole to hide my bra. However, as much as I love this, it doesn't quite suit my needs/wants. The wonderful thing about heirloom sewing is that it's quite adaptable to any pattern. You just create your "fabric" from various laces, insertions, and strips of the primary fabric and then lay your chosen pattern pieces on top. So I went digging around and came up with Simplicity 2147.

There are quite a few versions of this pattern floating around the interwebs, ranging from adorable little tops.

via Barefoot in the Kitchen

To sweet little dresses

via mklittle

I've decided on view B and to give it a similar feel to pinky's dress, I plan to do lace work in the yoke along with a lace fancy band in the hem of the skirt. My friend A is quite concerned that such a shapeless tunic will look like a sack on me so I need to figure out something for the belt. I think a commercially available belt will be too heavy a look for this dress but lacework or fabric seems too flimsy.

Any thoughts?

Payback is a you know what.

You want it?  You can't have it because I just bought it.
But DiscountSewingSupply has more.
Go look!

I have this friend we shall call A. A decided quite a few months ago that she wanted to learn more about garment sewing. Like the good little stashaholic I am, I showed her all the things. We fill out our facebook messages with ages and ages of sewing discussions. She is hooked.

Yesterday, she came across a tutorial on jelly roll race quilting and now it's over. Now I must make one of these beauties.

A quilt made from precut strips of fabric with very little thought involved that promises to turn out an entire quilt top in an hour?? Yeah. It's done. I'm hit. Sign me up. This is totally what I get for showing A Fabricmart and Fabric.com, isn't it?

Have any of you made one of these before? Would you like to make one along with me?

Are you taking bets on whether or not I'll finish it? Pete's baby quilt is still floating around here somewhere in desperate need of binding. Yes, I said pete's quilt, not pudding's. That's twelve years. Maybe I'll finish in time for pudding to take it with him to college.

In all seriousness, I really want to make this happen, even if I have to take it to the quilt shop and pay them to finish it for me. The top won't be any trouble at all and it will be a welcome distraction from wrestling with my stays, seeing as I adore distractions.

You know you wanna make one too.

What colors would you use?

Give an inch

and this hot mess girl child of mine wants a damned mile.

I was sitting here working on her damned stays when this little blond thing pops out of her room and sidles up to my shoulder.

"Mommy, will you make this for me?"

"Which part?" I ask.

"All of it," came the dreaded reply. "It's so preeeeeeeeeeetty!"

Ugh.

She better be grateful I love her. Do you think it would cute in flannel for a winter dress? Who am I kidding? I bought the pattern for a reason (for $1 off some craigslist, former Hancock's employee, fabric hoader.) So yeah, I'll totally make it. But first . . . have I mentioned my etsy addiction?

Because I totally have an etsy addiction. I've been working hard to resist temptation but when one comes across mother-daughter cobbler apron patterns???

Via Maryworld

via Platypus Dream

So yeah, totally done. I did manage to resist the urge to "make it worth the shipping" and browse through the rest of each shop's offerings. But what shall I make in? I prefer Connecting Threads for apron sewing because the stuff is thick and plush and yet not expensive but nothing is standing out for me. The pinks are quite abysmal and I see nothing in aqua that inspires me.

Red and white maybe?

What do you think?

Week 2

Look, I don't know what the hell is going on with these pics but pete was itching to do something else and I was tired of telling him to take it again. So here you go. I promise it's cuter in person. 

Also, I'm still fiddling with it. I think I want to shorten the sleeve, cut the neck in a V and bind it with another color. But a picture cannot relate just how utterly comfortable this is. I want to make like 87 more. Girl Charlee better watch out because I will be buying all the knits until I have a drawer full of these.

Do you want to make one? It's ridiculously easy and based off the One Hour Dress thought process that was popular in the 1920's. The idea was that you could start on your dress in the afternoon and wear it out that evening. Just make sure you don't need a jersey knit that requires five years' worth of stripe matching before you can cut the damned thing. You can buy a pdf booklet here that will give you a detailed and imo, harder than it has to be instructions*. Or you can give the following line drawing a gander and, using a tee shirt whose fit you like, give it a whirl as I did.

I really suck at tutorials so bear with me.  You're gonna fold your tee in half and lay it along the fold. Line G should be right above your hips, and yes, you are cutting into the fabric at G. Sew up the shoulder seams, then the armhole curve, and the edge of the skirt. Then you gather up all fabric and stitch it to the hip seam.

Is that English?

Let me know in the comments if you want a detailed tutorial and if you talk pretty to me, I might be tempted to oblige.

* I do recommend the pdf in general though as there are plenty of variations that can be made using this technique. I'm imagining a version from white batiste with embroidery and lace insertion.

** I just realized that this fabric came from Michael Levine, Inc in Los Angeles. My friend went out there for a visit and scoped me out some sweet little knits, this being one of them. There was a tag stapled to one of the lengths, long since lost but I was browsing the site and all of the sudden it occurred to me where I'd seen that logo, on this very fabric. YAY!

Because I don't have enough to do

The Crossover Blazer

by Burda Style

Check out Banyan Tree's version.

I can see it in a navy blue wool with an ivory lining, gold buttons and maybe even epaulets. Let's just hope it won't give me a dogged determination to pursue ex-convicts who are merely trying to make something good of themselves.

A good start

My hair look gorgeous, does it not?

Well, here it is, my first Sew Simple of the year. Three pieces, front and back cut on the fold and sleeves, four if you count the strip I cut to finish the neckline. I used McCalls 6571, view A. I'd give you a review of the pattern but I didn't use the instructions. The fabric is a ponte knit I pulled out of the red tag section at Joann's. It was 50% off and called to me from among the poly chiffons, mostly because of the thin silver stripe between the white and navy. I'll try to get a better picture when I wear it ice skating tomorrow.

We're going to play don't ask, don't tell when it comes to the fiber content. Just know that it feels like heaven and I want to live in it. My only regret is that I didn't add a bit of length to it. It looks just perfect but that's because I've not hemmed it. I might never hem it. The ponte won't fray. It does look a wee but unfinished though. You tell me. To hem or not to hem?

Tea at the Davenport Part Pinky

Don't ever ask pinky what kind of dress she wants. The answer will always be something Barbie threw up after a night of drinking tequila rose and pepto bismol after throwing a frat party at the dream house. Then you'll have to deal with the hemming, the hawing, the exasperated sighs as you try to take her down from the pink bubblegum nightmare cliff.

No, the best approach is to give her a starting point and say, do you want a dress like this. It helps if your starting point is somewhere close to where you'd like to be. Lucky for me, pinky's little heart lit up like the ghetto firecrackers my neighbors were setting off at three in the morning last night. (Yes, last night and no, I don't live in some alien world where New Year's eve came a day late.)

And the winner is . . . that sweet, adorable little yellow dress on the left with the lavender sash.

Beautiful, am I right? It's precious and feminine and frilly without the need to call the paramedics to wake you from a diabetic coma. I happen to be sitting on the perfect yellow shirting. Well, I wish I was sitting on it, then I could provide you with a picture. Instead, it's upstairs or in a box or something. The point it I have it. I also have the perfect pattern. 

I bought both this version and the ladies' counterpart from Sense and Sensibility patterns a few years ago and never did anything with them. I'd like to think they were waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect moment being right now. So yay for kind of free!

Now these patterns are geared towards an earlier impression, 1805ish vs 1820 when the Davenport House was completed but the changes are slight and will be detailed in a later post. 

The dress itself will be rather easy. Not much fitting involved, four buttons on the back, some sleeves and a pretty hem. But one can't dress regency without the proper underpinnings, even when one is a slight nine year old with long legs. So in addition to the dress itself, I'll need to make the child a chemise, at least one petticoat, and a pair of stays. Yes, stays. Tiny baby corsets. But before you report me to CPS, you should know that we're talking about a garment that's little more than a glorified sports bra, the perfect thing for a hot mess in training who has been begging for a bra since she sprouted stage 2 boobies. (Talk to her American Girls All About Me body book for introducing her to the boob stages of life.)

See? Nothing to be scared of there. Those channels you see are not the hard boning you think of when you hear the word corset. It's cording, aka yarn. She'll even thank me for it, trust. Btw, if you think those are cute, you can read all about them and peruse the website of the really talented woman who made them by clicking here.

After we finish the underthings and the dress, we'll do up the accessories. Pinky is dying for a bonnet. I think we've settled on a purple velveteen bonnet that won't look at all like something Prince was wearing while grinding on Apollonia circa 1987, I swear.

So that's it.

What do you think? Please tell me it won't end up looking like everything that was awesomely bad came down and took up residence on my poor baby's head.

One down, 26 to go

Well, it's a good start. I was only a few hours late, which for me, is right on time but here she is, the opening salvo in my regency wardrobe attempt. It's considered a bonus challenge, thus the #0. I thought about passing but why not get this party started off right, yes? It helped that I just happened to find a free and easy pattern. As suggested, here's the proper run down.

The Challenge: Starting Simple

Fabric: I used leftover fabric from a dress I made pinky two years ago. White silk taffeta from Joann's with a rose silk batiste from Baltazor. It's also interlined with plain cotton muslin as both the taffeta and batiste are wispy as hell.

Pattern: As I mentioned earlier, free and easy and here. The embroidery pattern can be found here.

Year: No idea but the style itself is readily seen when one googles little bags of the period.

Notions: I finished it off with some (not)silk cording and tassels from Joann's.

How historically accurate is it? Let's get something straight here. There is no way on God's green earth that I will be turning out ANYTHING completely historically accurate for this challenge. I don't even like to whipstitch or finish my hand so you best believe I will not be handsewing complete garments together. But aside from that, well, it's a little handbag. I guess it's accurate enough, machine stitching notwithstanding. I think the embroidery might not be the thing for Regency sewing but meh.

Hours to complete: I traced off the embroidery the day after Christmas and finished up everything around 3 am this morning.

First worn: I'm saving it for tea.

Total cost: Uhm, let me think. About five bucks, I suppose, including the $1.19 I spent on beading needles that I broke within minutes of getting home as my thread was too thick for the eye. Boo on me. The fabrics came from my stash. The beads are the half of those previously purchased for the advent scarf (yes, I'll update soon, gosh!). The embroidery floss is also from my stash.

And here are a few more pictures. First, of the back. The two other panels are plain.

And a peek inside at the pretty lining.

If you'd like to follow along with all my plans and attempts, you can check out my Sew Fortnightly Pinterest board.

Next up, little girl regency stays. 

I think.

They'll be good practice for my stays and I get to figure out how to size an adult pattern down for a rambunctious little girl.

I'm thrilled already.

No, really.

Kind of.

Hold me.

If I had a million dollars

I'd still be broker than a joke. 

Woodland Farms Antiques is one of my favorite places to browse and buy vintage patterns. Don't be fooled by your first glance. Yes, she sells gorgeous vintage items but she's also sitting on a HUGE selection of reasonably prices patterns starting in the Victorian era all the way up to the 80's which, uhm, kill me now that the 80s are considered vintage by some. In the past, I found the site a bit clunky to navigate. The shopping cart system she was working with didn't save pictures so I'd load it up, forget what I placed there and then have to go back and flip through to decide what I really wanted.

However, I received an email recently that suggested new changes. And since a shiny little coupon code was dangled before my sew greedy little eyes, I hustled my behind right over to give it a look see.

It's a Hooverette, people!!

Long story short, I recently lost a silent auction on a made up version of this pattern crafted by the lovely Anna over at Pleasant View Schoolhouse. Her is a beautiful apple green polka dot version that looks ever so sweet and modern and every day wearable. Betcha couldn't tell that from the pattern, now could you? Skip on over here to see it in action. What did I tell you? Cuuuuuuuute! While you're visiting, make sure you check out her post on turning dresses into aprons here. I have a few cute dresses that will never again fit my behind that could do with this treatment.

I also fell in love with this very adorable WWII era pattern that calls to mind Cate Blanchett in Charlotte Gray,

Or Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller in Edge of Love.

As I really don't need to two patterns I'm buying anyway, I had to leave all the other pretties behind. But if you like, you can snatch up a few at 30% off with the code FALLSALE.

Might I suggest a few?

Anne Adams #4932

Hollywood #524

Advance #8878

Advance #6470

Promises, promises

That's what I get, right? Yeah, let's just pretend that whole bit never happened, mmkay?

Moving on.

So the whole damned world is obsessed with knit blazers and because I'm about as original as cream of crap recipes on pinterest, so am I. The simple fact is, trends aside, a knit blazer is a nice, yet casual piece that can keep a hot mess like myself from living in full time frumpville with incredible ease. Since I have neither the time nor the inclination to sort around racks with a growling baby while trying to find something that fits in a price range I'm willing to pay, I'm going to make one. Shut up about all the crap I say I'm going to make and don't finish, okay? I ain't trying to hear that!

From Macy's but no longer available

Please tell me you appreciate all that cute. I could wear it with jeans, with skirts, over summer dresses to carry them into what we call Fall here in hot ass Georgia, etc. Tell me you aren't obsessed too. I've been mulling this little project over in my head for some time now but since I'm more terrified of knits than pinky is of the tripods in War of the Worlds (It's been five years now since she saw that movie and she's still uncertain around cracks in the pavement) I've just been sort of sitting on the idea, not thinking much of it.

Well as it often happens when you're playing on the internet instead of sewing a black brocade sheath dress, I fell upon a lovely blog (wo)manned by a housewife after my own heart, the lovely Lisa G at Notes from a Mad Housewife. I wonder if she likes Queen. And look, LOOK I SAY at what she's made.

I could die, I really could. This is more exciting than the time I finally found a brand of baby wipes that didn't smell like old people or teen spirit. Huggies One and Done with Cucumber if you're curious.

What's even more exciting are two whole posts detailing how she got it done, here and here.

And what's super duper coffeeheathbaricecreaminmyfreezer exciting is that there was a sew along with detailed instructions on how to accomplish this splendiferous it is so a word, google feat by another new to me blogger, the very adorable Sherry at Pattern Scissors Cloth and she runs, something I only do when something is chasing me.

So it will be just like having two people hold my fear stricken little hands. If only I could find someone to poke me in the rear end with a cattle prod and cure me of a raging case lazyheiferitis.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound or so they say because, as hinted above, I've already purchased fabric, a beautiful Italian Double Knit from Fabric Mart. To perhaps mitigate the damage to my previous "solemn oath," if indeed that's possible, I will be using a pattern I already own, Burda 7576.

The reviews seem positive enough and between the sew along directions and Lisa G's inspired piece, I think it will look cute. Don't you?

Anyone else itching for a knit blazer? Have you sewn one?

It's been a long time since I left you

because I was off being a lazy ass.

I'd like to blame being sick but the reality is, I just felt like being a bum.

Let's update, shall we?

Me Made May was a semi success. Aside from the five days or so I laid about in my jammies with a fever, I did wear something handmade each day. However, I didn't take many pictures since I pretty much rocked a rotation of things I've already shown you. I also burned myself out making so many things back to back that I just sort of quit sewing anything about halfway through. I hope to have knocked out a few more things in the next few months so that when Self Stitched September rolls around, I'll have more variety.

Pinky helped participate by wearing her Christmas dress about two Sundays ago. Lucy helped by eating pinky's face.

And here's one of my new favorite skirts. The material is a poly charmeuse from Fabric.com. I think it might even still be available. (And it is here.) It was a ridiculously easy pattern to put together and now I want to find some plaid flannel to make a winter skirt. Can't you see it with a pair of cute slouch boots? Or is that too ridiculously 80's? Would I look like Elyse Keaton I wonder?

As for the Spring-Summer palette Challenge, I really need to step up my game. I've made nothing for it since the button down skirt from a few weeks ago. I'm going to force myself to finish one dress this week before I get so far behind I can't catch up.

Wanna see a better picture of the skirt?

On the homefront, the garden is flourishing so expect an update soon. I harvested some green beans today and fed them to my minions and wonders of wonders, we're all still alive. But that was a mere two hours ago so if I don't post anything in the next few days, be on the look out for a post about food poisoning once we've all come through on the other side.

Also, you all need to pray for me. School is out in one whole week and sweet Lord in heaven, I beseech you on behalf of my hot mess children and my tested patience . . . delivery my children from foolishness. Amen. We have a summer bowling pass and some resources for finding cool things to do in Savannah over the summer so let's just hope I don't end up choking out some small children. I'm too pretty for jail and I doubt they let you bring your sewing machine.