Long Days of Summer

Once again it's summer vacation and the days stretch before me, making me believe that I can write two books and sew many, many dresses. Last summer I thought the same thing and while I made a few dresses--Vintage Vogue 2787 and Vintage Vogue 1136 come to mind--I didn't get done nearly as much  as I had hoped.

But this summer will be different. Oh yes, it will.

I've started three projects. The first is a slip made from a Gertie pattern Butterick 6031. I ordered  a slip kit from Gertie's Etsy shop, thinking it would make the process easier--which it did--but more importantly, it introduced me to micro jersey knit. This stuff is incredible. Heavier than the nylon, it slides over the body and hangs wonderfully. I ended up ordering another kit in yellow and I'm thinking about one in black. These
slips are fun to sew. My slip has no straps because I haven't gotten that far yet, having been interrupted by end of the school year falderal, comprised mainly of stowing things away where I won't be able to find them again in August.

I've made a muslin of my second project, McCall 7204, an early 1950s pattern. I decided to make it out of this polka dot sateen. The dots are small enough that they shouldn't overpower and I won't look like Minnie Mouse. I already have a Minnie Mouse dress, which I wear proudly, so I don't need another.

I was concerned about the bodice, which as you can see, has the potential to be strange on an actual person, but the muslin looked okay. I've been burned by muslins before, what with them looking good and then the final product turning out not so good (once again Vintage Vogue 1136), but I have high hopes for this dress.

The last project is a maxi skirt. I've had a recent hankering for a maxi or two and lo and behold, maxi's are now in style. I decided to start with the Gabriola skirt,which is a Sewaholic pattern. Tasia makes patterns for women with hips and I qualify.

The pattern has panels that make the skirt hug the body in the upper hip

area. It's quite flattering, so I hope to make a couple of these during the many, many days of summer lying before me. I'm making the first one out of apricot challis.



So that's the plan right now, two days into summer break. We'll see how it goes. And since no post is complete without a cat picture, here we are:

Introducing Flora

I had a bit of a heartbreak two months ago when Nora, my companion and sewing partner of seven years, passed away. I thought I didn't want another cat for a while, but the house was so lonely without Nora that even my husband, a bona fide dog guy, said we needed a cat.

Introducing Flora.

 For those of you who are wondering, Nora came to us already named, as did Flora. Merely a coincidence.

We've had Flora for a week and a day and she's taken over the house.

 I was afraid that she wouldn't know how to help me with the sewing, but she took to it it instantly--one might almost say instinctively--so I have high hopes for future sewing companionship.

Simplicity 4429 Jiffy Dress

While I was making the Robin Hood costumes, after completing the puffy shirts and before embarking on hat construction, I had to do something that didn't smack of assembly line work--but it needed to be fast, because I had a costume deadline. Five other Hoods were depending on me. Enter Simplicity 4429, the Jiffy Dress.

I love this fabric, a stretch cotton sateen, which I found in the remnant bin at Jo-Ann's Fabrics. There was less than 2 yards, but I bought it anyway, thinking skirt. After I got home, however, I thought Jiffy Dress, since I was fairly certain I would have to shorten the dress. Sure enough, I had to chop off six inches, so the pattern just fit, although I was not able to match designs as usual. Sometimes you just gotta let that stuff go.

The Jiffy Dress is comprised of two main pattern pieces. Basically, it's a front with darts, a back with a zipper and not much else. I decided to forgo the zipper, thus adding more jiffiness to the Jiffy Dress. I find that belted dresses often don't play nice with zippers, bulging awkwardly here and there, so I was glad to be able to dispense with this step.

No zipper! Time saved!

For once I had a pattern in my size, so I didn't have to grade, but I did make a muslin, just in case. As I suspected, I had to add 1/4 inch at the hips, but other than that, the pattern fit well.

Upon reflection I realize that a rectangle generally does fit well, but it isn't necessarily flattering. Tilly, my unpaid assistant, wears rectangles better than I do.

The belt makes this dress. Without the belt, it's a box. Boxes look good on certain people, but I'm not one of them, so hurray for belts. Even Tilly looks better with a belt.

Here are a few more shots of the Jiffy Dress. For those of you who are wondering, it took a bit over two hours to make, including cutting the fabric.

My husband said the design of the fabric reminded him of camouflage on a Panzer Tank. I took that as a compliment.

This shift is so comfortable that I plan to whip up a few more for summer wear. We're heading into the incredibly hot, my house has no air conditioning weather and the Jiffy Dress seems perfectly suited to my needs.

THE END

Six Jerkins, Three Puffy Shirts and Six Feathered Caps Later...

We're men! We're men in tights! Roaming the forest looking for fights--and also ready to run Bay to Breakers in San Francisco, the longest consecutively held footrace in the world.

We were surprisingly popular and posed for many photos. We found out later that we were not the only Robin Hood group--one other merry band was spotted by a friend--but I dare say we were the only group whose costumes were sewn by a romance writer.

In an unprecedented move, I finished the costumes early! No sewing in the car on the drive to San Francisco, no sewing late into the night in the hotel room. No. I finished a few days ahead of time, which gives me hope for my next book. Perhaps this will become a habit.

The race started about a half hour late, so we had lots of time to take photos and throw tortillas. (For those who are unfamiliar, people throw tortillas like frisbees as they wait for the race to start. FYI, those things can really sting.)

We were misidentified on the course a few times as Peter Pan...yeah. For the record, Peter Pan did not wear a puffy shirt and I believe he was all in green. 

This is the start of Hayes Street Hill, which is practically vertical and goes for about 10 miles....

Actually it's about half a mile long and a 7.5% grade. I've run it before, but this time we walked.

There was a random sign giving a random direction:

Which my family randomly followed.

But here they are seriously running:

Okay, maybe not seriously running, but kind of jogging. It counts.

And here we are in recovery mode after the race:

I love this race and I love this city. Where else can six Robin Hoods walk down the street and hang out in a bar without getting a second glance?

Next year we're thinking Musketeers. More puffy shirts! I can't wait!

Duty Calls

I've been very busy over the past few weeks. Here's what I want to be working on--McCalls 9212, which is one of the first vintage patterns I purchased.

I bought some gorgeous red linen and then got busy on other projects and set it aside after tracing the pattern. You know how it is...sometimes a project (like my daughter's Gertie dress) needs to sit and stew for a year or two. That's the beauty of retro sewing. The patterns don't go out of style during the procrastination period, they just get more retro.

I got this far...

...when duty called and I had to switch over to this:

My go-to men's shirt pattern. I've been using this same pattern to make my husband's shirts since we first got married. (I'm rather impressed that he still wears the same size he wore when we wed.) I weaned him away from custom shirts almost a decade ago, when children's organized sports controlled our lives. He was quite happy buying his shirts and I was quite happy having him buy his shirts...until he could no longer find his favorite cotton chambray work shirts.

The brand he liked no longer exists and he couldn't find another brand he liked. That's when I got the look. The I-know-you-can-duplicate-my-favorite-shirts look. In return I gave him the I-know-you-can-rub-my-feet-every-night-while-we-watch-TV look. For a while our gazes battled, negotiated, then agreed. Shirts for foot rubs--and several hours in the fabric stores of my choosing. I must confess that I bought more than chambray, but more about that later.

Here's shirt number one (there will be three, because I'm insane):

Sure enough--it looks eerily like his old work shirts, right down to the white top stitching and buttons.

I used a medium weight woven sew-in interfacing for the collar and cuffs. I think it worked well.

There are no raw edges in the shirt. The side seams are flat fell seams and I (finally) learned how to attach the sleeves to the body without raw edges showing...

thanks to Peter at Male Pattern Boldness who is taking a shirt making course at the Fashion Institute and learning all kinds of amazing stuff that he's kind enough to share on his blog. The steps are here if you're interested.

My stitching wobbled a bit at the top of the shoulder and normally I would take it out and redo that section, but I forced myself to be realistic. This is supposed a comfortable work shirt my husband can wear in the Nevada heat. Within a week there will be a barb-wire hole or some such thing marring the general wonderfulness of this shirt, so I'm going to live with the wobble.

Once the shirt was done and I convinced my husband that I'd make him another in the next decade, I was ready to dive back into the dress...and then duty called again.

Someone (okay, it was me) came up with the bright idea of the family running a popular 8K race dressed as the characters in Robin Hood Men in Tights. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find green men's tights? Finally I found football tights. Hurray for green school colors.

There are six of us, which means six jerkins made out of brown duck. I'm on jerkin numbers four and five, sewing them assembly style since they are the same size and I won't do anything foolish like sewing a large front to a small back (not that those things happen to me or anything). So...another jerkin or two, two more white puffy shirts (one completed and fortunately the rest of my merry band have their own puffy shirts), six hats, and I'll be back at that red dress.

I can't wait.

Butterick 5882 -- The Gertie Dress

When Butterick came out with this pattern, designed by Gertie Hirsch, last year, I snapped it up because it was ridiculously cute. Honestly, I couldn't see myself wearing it, but not too long afterwards my daughter emailed me and asked me if I would make her the "Gertie Dress". Yes, I would, since I was halfway there--I had the pattern. The only thing left was fabric shopping and the year-long procrastination period that always happens when I make myself finish current projects before jumping into something new, fresh, fun.

This is obviously a dress that requires a muslin and I decided it may as well be cute, so I bought red retro floral cotton for under $3 a yard. I traced the pattern size that corresponded to my daughter's measurements, then brought the bodice to the haunted hotel for a fitting. The bust cups fit perfectly, but I had to take the sides and waist in over an inch--almost two inches toward the top. I had the boning basted into the bodice for the fitting, so I was fairly confident until I got home and sliced two inches off the top. Suddenly it looked way to small, but I finished the dress and mailed it off to my daughter. Guess what? It fit perfectly--so perfectly that the muslin has become the finished product. I love it when that happens.

This pattern was really easy to make, except for those cups. I loved making them, because I like tackling techniques I haven't yet tried, but attaching them to the bodice was pretty tricky due to extreme curves. I didn't take photos because I was going to document the construction of the "real" dress, but I wish I had. Anyway, with a lot of curve clipping, I got them sewed in.

I will make this dress again. We're talking white with black polka dots and black bust cups, which will have a nice retro feel. So, in closing, kudos to Gertie for coming up with this pattern.

Pattern Sorting Day--the 80's

It's the first day of my spring break--the perfect time to finally sort through my patterns and organize them.

Way too many of my patterns are from the 80s and they take up a lot of space, but I refuse to let them go. When my husband asked me why I keep them, I explained that I'm waiting for them to become cool again. Are we not grateful to all those people who stashed their patterns from the 30s, 40s and 50s, even though they undoubtedly thought the styles were dated and ugly? I admit, I have a hard time believing that the 80s will come back, but if they do, I have a lot of authentic patterns at the ready.

As near as I can tell, my patterns fall into five categories:

1) Good Memories:

I made this safari coat and wore it until it fell apart. I got lots of compliments on it and kind of wish I still had it.

I had a lot of fun wearing this dress. I love shoulder pads and this dress had an abundance of padding in that area.

I'm not sure if this the 80s or early 90s, but regardless, I love pleated pants. I don't care how many times I'm told not to wear pleated pants, I ignore the advice and wear them. Also, the artwork on this pattern is wonderful

2) Victim of the 80s:

My husband called the divided skirt I made from this pattern "The Culottes from Hell". I ignored him and wore them anyway. I probably should have listened.

3) What was I thinking?

I never made this dress. I don't know why I bought the pattern, although it would have made a fine maternity dress. Let's hope that was what I was thinking.

More culottes from hell. I didn't make these either. I don't know why I didn't understand that short, curvy people shouldn't wear boxy clothing.

4) I want to be Rene Russo:

And the final category....

5) Perhaps I can do something with this...

I think the short white sarong is adorable. Hope my daughter things so, too, because she's getting it when I make it.

I love these Paddington Bear coats. I had one in the 80s and just recently sent it to donation. So hard to let it go. Now I need another.

Honestly...isn't this the 50s all over again? The copyright reads 1989. I never made this skirt, but I will. Love the back kick pleat.

And here they are, my memories of the 80s, sorted into Zip-lock bags

 with an index sheet on top, just in case I need to find a pattern to  make something from the 80s.

Because you never know when that decade will come roaring back.