stripey

Hey! I made a striped knit dress. Revolutionary. 

This is a sleeveless version of McCalls 6599, a Fashion Star pattern. What is Fashion Star? I just Googled it and I'm very disturbed by what I'm seeing, and not just because the landing page is plastered with a huge photo of Jessica Simpson and Nicole Ritchie. The grand prize, essentially, seems to be the opportunity to sell your soul and relinquish all control of your production process to H&M and Macy's so your designs can be manufactured for dirt cheap in mass quantities of polyester in Bangladesh factories. Wow, chance of a lifetime! 

Moving on.

Yes, please note that McCalls so graciously drafted us a large rectangle pattern piece so we can make a scarf to wear with our dresses (view C). Innovation celebration.

I made the dress in a knit instead of the called-for woven + zipper because, c'mon, I'm me. This meant cutting the back on the fold instead of as two. The bodice is fully lined and attached to the skirt as one. The stripey design element is my own doing, not the pattern's. 

I made the dress sleeveless because with sleeves, the stripes were rather overwhelming when they were moving in all those different directions all over my body. I like wearing dresses with sleeves that I don't have to layer, but I didn't want to look like a jailbird. 

I originally cut the bodice so I could add the waistband panel thing as in View B, but decided that I preferred to have only one seam that hit my natural waist (surprise). So I just attached the skirt higher up than where it was meant to go. Works fine.

There ain't a whole lot more to say about this dress, but I kinda think it's a perfect addition to my wardrobe. It's just a princess-seamed bodice and a some-fraction-of-a-circle-skirt, but I love that it's simple yet still interesting. I cut down the amount of circle to make it a little less fussy so I can easily wear it just about anywhere. 

I used cotton jersey for this project, partly because it was the only dress-worthy fabric I felt like using from my stash, and partly because I don't abide by seasonal rules like "Don't wear short cotton dresses during Nor'easters or Frankenstorms or winter in general." I do what I want! And I own thermal tights.

I considered erasing that door hook from this photo because it's positioned awkwardly right by my face, but it looks like a little wonky-eyed two-legged octopus and that's kinda cute. Just consider him a loyal participant in my half-assed photo shoots, please.

Anyway, how do you feel about the show Fashion Star? If you know nothing about that, then tell me how you feel about wearing cotton knit dresses in winter. ;)

racerback & forth

Not-so-new jersey. It was high time to use these two lengths of rayon jersey I've had for awhile. Granted, "awhile" for me means like three months. "Why stash 'em when you can make ho-hum clothes out of 'em?" is my motto, after all.

I don't think the hem is crooked IRL, but I won't guarantee it either way.

You may recognize this feather print fabric from Dixie's and Suzanne's past creations. I feel like I link to those gals a lot. Blog crushes, you know how it goes.

Heyo, 4th grade throwback. I used to wear my shirts tucked in like this (only in the front), because my best friend in elementary school, who was way cooler than I was, did it. Say aye if you wanna be like me now. 

...fair enough.

Swayback or big bum or are those interchangeable? Who cares. I'm truly not crazy about my pattern choice here (McCalls 6359) because I don't even like the racerback style on me. I should have used my feather print on something more elegant. Erg. I actually tried to sell this pattern in our Memorial Day yard sale, but no one bought it. So instead I made it for myself... twice... and I'm somewhat grumpy about it. It's one of those patterns that produces clothes that no one will suspect you made. Non-sewers are so bored by these clothes that when they hear they're handmade, they're fascinated.

The pattern lists both wovens and lightweight knits as recommended fabrics. Leave off the bust darts if you use a stretchy knit. Also, make a test garment or take into account the stretch of your fabric. When making my usual size on my black polka dot version, it was enormous. I took in each side at least 47 feet and it still looks a little loose under my armpits, but I decided to keep it a slouchy-ish style. For the feather dress version I was feeling annoyed so I just dramatically cut the smallest size in the envelope, a 6 (whaaat). It's obviously more snug but I'll dare to get away with it. Here it is hanging dead on a hanger, pretending to be a swimsuit cover-up the Old Navy clearance rack:

For the feather dress, I added an elastic casing at the waist and an underlining to make it opaque.

Wanna see some edges? Of course you do. You live on the edge for these edges.

The pattern calls for store-bought bias tape to be applied as a facing to the armhole and necklines. I tried that but polyester bias tape was too heavy and not stretchy enough for this thin rayon jersey, so it made everything gape and stick out. I decided to make narrow edge binding from self-fabric instead. To do so and not lose my sanity, I used Portia's method of cutting strips of jersey by first applying masking tape/painter's tape. It stabilizes the fabric so it doesn't slink around as you cut, and it's already a perfect inch wide so there's not much measuring involved. Just cut along the edges of the tape and remove it. I tried here for consistent pattern placement but I think I just wasted fabric:

I didn't want to create bias tape-like creases, but instead just fold them in half before attaching. Since rayon jersey's so unstable, I used my handy dandy DIY fabric starch to stiffen up the strips after I folded them in half. The starch actually works kind of like an adhesive, too, so I didn't even have to baste the raw edges together after folding, starching and pressing:

I measured and applied the binding to the neckline and armholes in a method that was a combination of this Threads video and a narrow version of the Sewaholic Renfrew pattern. Nice!

You know what else is nice?

Sockbuns.

So what's your honest opinion on the racerback style? Too sports-bra-like? 

And what's your honest opinion on the sockbun style? Too ballerina-bun-like?

congrats shirt, and moving news

I relinquished some sewing time from my own greedy projects and (finally) made a boy shirt for the boy friend. 

Can you understand why he's my b/f? Well, we both have a shared love for blue garments. Isn't that enough to keep the flame a-burnin'?

Also, he's a smarty pants. Corey was offered full-ride tuition plus a stipend to attend the Villanova University Graduate English Program this coming fall. Bravo babe! Here's a shirt. I hope it holds up during all his strenuous ventures in book-reading and essay-writing and theory-debunking and whatever else grad students do besides sit in coffee shops with their laptops, sighing.

rolled-up smarty pants

Villanova is in a township directly outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philly, as in historic & probably haunted ye-olde-founding-fathers America. As in, the city of cheesesteaks and processed cream cheese. As in, Will Smith's home town. 

man, parents still don't understand

Those are all reasons enough for me to decide to move there with him. Why not, right? I'm young and carefree and ready to try out living in a big city that has big city things, like trains and angry people on their cell phones walking quickly through crosswalks. Also, we already endured five-ish years of a long-distance relationship so we're not doing that to ourselves again. We really enjoyed Philly when we visited last month so I think it's a good choice for us. It's home to the Urban Outfitters/Anthroplogie headquarters, after all... and is close enough to NYC for extravagant fabric shopping sprees.

So that's that. We expect to move in early August. If you're from there or know anyone there or have any advice for an out-of-state move in general, please let me know!  (Thanks already for your tips on neighborhoods to look at, Maddie!) Meanwhile on this side of the Mason-Dixon line, I will be panicking silently and eventually not-so-silently about jobs and apartments.

Back to the shirt. This pattern is McCall's 6044, which is a casual, simple and straight-forward men's pattern. I tried the Colette Negroni twice before, but had trouble getting it to fit him and was frustrated by all the little details that surely make a nice shirt but were just giving me a headache. After I accidentally serged a hole in the front of Negroni #2 and almost cried, Corey revealed to me that he prefers a shirt with a traditional collar stand and collar anyway. Fine. Does anyone want a Negroni pattern (all sizes and pattern pieces intact, since I traced them)? I'll send it to you if you so kindly cover the shipping. It's truly a great pattern for someone who's not me (i.e. too lazy to be so selfless).

So after seeing M6044 recently sewn up by True Bias and Beau Baby for their charming husbands, I thought I'd give it a shot. I had to alter the medium size a little bit because the shoulders were too wide and the length too long (thus the bottom button being so low, because I shortened it after everything was already sewn). Otherwise I'm a big fan of the pattern because 1) There are no flat-felled seams. 2) There's no yoke (unless you choose that particular view). 3) The sleeve placket on the long-sleeve version is just a simple cut-out V. 4) The shirt is fairly slim-fitting which is my guy's style, and 5) The model on the envelope is kinda handsome, despite his c.2001 gelled hair fluff.

I was relieved that Corey requested the short-sleeve version, as it made my job lovingly performed task even easier. He's super picky about the design and colors of his plaid fabrics, so after a long search online, it was surprising to us both that JoAnn of all places had exactly what he wanted. It's one of their "homespun" cottons that are tucked somewhere in the quilting section. It was more difficult than I expected to work with, because it became misshapen easily and was resistant to gliding under the presser foot. Thus it took a LOT of pinning so everything stayed in place while I matched and sewed the plaids.

laughing at a dude laughing at our photo shoot

Sewn for any men lately? Would you like to? I'm serious about that Negroni, by the way... If there's enough interest, I'll draw names for it. Otherwise it'll just go to the first person who calls dibs. ;)
UPDATE 6/12/12: I ended up drawing names for the Negroni and it went to Little Miss S all the way in Denmark. Enjoy!