Obligatory End of Year Post

I've enjoyed everyone else's end-of-2008 wrap ups and plans for 2009, so I'll throw my entry into the mix. I am jealous of Cidell's slideshow; flickr's application isn't as fancy. The album for the above inferior slideshow is here.

By the numbers:

35 PR reviews in 2008
42 total garments reviewed (as I made duplicates of several patterns)
17 dresses--8 woven, 9 stretch
2 skirts
21 tops--10 blouses, 11 stretch
2 outerwear jackets/coats

14 unreviewed as yet, though I'm not sure this is a complete tally
9 dresses--5 woven, 4 stretch
3 skirts
1 blouse
1 hat

2 utter wadders: the green version of Vogue 8386 and my hideous attempt at BWOF 10/2007-115, which was absolutely grotesque and I didn't want to waste time taking photos to show how awful it was on me.

7 months of 2008 BWOF issues sewn from (January through June and October), in addition to some patterns from previous years

56 total garments (or thereabouts--I keep thinking of things I've forgotten and am sick of tallying): 26 dresses, 22 tops, 5 skirts, 2 jackets/coats, 1 hat
1 item sewn per week, as an approximate average (though my sewing is generally more like two items one weekend, none the next)

3.5 travel wardrobes (Vietnam, Paris I, Germany, and for Paris III I used one Germany dress and made a new skirt)

2 new (to me) machines, my treadle and my serger

1 new skill (welt pockets)
2 improved skills (perfect invisible zippers and I no longer fear buttonholes)
1 new interest (remaking sweaters)

133 yards purchased (this is probably too conservative)
40-50 yards gifted (this is a total guess on the contents of the amazing Carol Collection, which I didn't measure)
94 yards sewn (approx)


The numbers are interesting! To me, at any rate. LOL I feel like I fall back on easy knits too often, but based on this I am exactly even on knits and wovens in tops and dresses. I make a new dress every other week! No wonder the dress section of my closet is completely full. I buy too much fabric, but I already knew this.

Least Favorite: BWOF 10/2007-114


Favorite is way too difficult to decide, which is a good thing, right? So I have to do it by category

Favorite Knit Dress: Vogue 8386, my Goddess Dress. I think I got the most compliments on Simplicity 3775, but it's only my third favorite after this and the Duchess of Windsor dress.


Best Blouse: BWOF 01/2008-108, the yoke front blouse. Not necessarily favorite, but definitely the best.


Favorite Knit Top: Knip Mode 04-2008-113. I hesitated to call this one the favorite because it has novelty on its side. My H&M knockoff top, which I've made in two colors so far, is less distinctive so can be worn more often and I really like it. But I get tons of compliments on this Knip Mode and feel great in it, so I think it will stand the test of time.


Favorite Woven Dress: New Look 6394, my maxi dress from my 21st birthday dress pattern. (I've excluded my yellow party dress, McCall 5382, from the calculation since it's of limited wearability.)


I tried to figure out which item would be Most Worn, but other than my corduroy jacket and my green coat, which I don't think really count, I favor all of my little sewing children pretty equally. It helps/hurts that I have a billion clothes and don't wear many things more than 4 or 5 times in a season!


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Looking forward to 2009...

Well, I don't know if it's zen contentment or slothful complacence, but I'm pretty happy with where my sewing is now. I make a good mix of clothes, my techniques are adequate to my standards, I am satisfied with the complexity of the projects I undertake (I love the look of tailored garments, but it's just not in my personality to develop that skill-set *or* to wear the clothes), my speed/productivity is satisfactory, and I generally do a good job choosing fabrics and patterns that suit me (with a few obvious exceptions!). I blog about twice a week and that seems about right. I do well balancing sewing mania with a social life--as tempted as I've been, I've not canceled a social event to sew (though I could probably be accused of deliberately not booking my social calendar to its fullest possible extent so I can have more sewing time).

I will add my old chestnut resolution to the list, learn how to put in a fly front; that's the only skill I think I should have but don't. It would also be good to get a little more fluency in bias. And I will try to keep up with doing reviews better. Sure, learning to padstitch would be cool, but I am in no hurry and if I never get to it I won't feel like I robbed myself.

My real goal is to continue to wear something I've made every day, eventually with the plan of phasing almost all ready-to-wear out of my wardrobe, other than pants/jeans and sweaters. And should I ever actually tackle my perennial resolution, maybe even those will come out of the closet, but I'm not in any hurry there. To that end, I *still* need to make more winter work tops, despite my Two Weeks of Winter Work Tops project of last winter. So I must persevere with the sleeves of longness representing the season of coldness for which I have much hateness.

Thanks for spending the year with me! Here's looking forward to miles and miles on the sewing machine odometer (I really wish such a thing would be invented) in 2009!

I'm Gonna Party Like It's 1955

So for the most part my vintage inspirations are the 1920s and 1940s. I don't have the figure for the 50s so I mostly stay away. The exception is this little number, McCall 5382. It's not 100% vintage, but the styling with the full skirt and shaped bodice is just reminiscent enough to evoke the era without being costumey.



I bought the yellow silk brocade from Fabric Mart sometime last year (by which I mean 2007). My steal--I think it was $8/yd, or maybe $12--is long sold out, though there's a similar but higher-priced yellow brocade on the website now. The color was another departure for me, as I don't wear much yellow, though this dress definitely makes me want to add more of it! I didn't have a really specific idea of what I wanted; I envisioned maybe a keyhole shift.

I had several weddings to go to in the past year and I wanted a dress I could wear to more than one. When I found the pattern I absolutely fell in love with it as the consummate party dress, and decided I was ready to cut into the beautiful fabric (a victory for me, as it was in danger of becoming Too Good to Use). You may recall while I was sewing it I asked for advice on whether to do a contrast midriff or not. The people spoke, and for once I listened! I think I definitely made the right choice.

I also wasn't sure whether to make a matching shrug or use a scarf I received as a gift in Vietnam as the cover up. I didn't go with the voice of the people on that, but turned the scarf--which was not my style and not quite long enough to use as a wrap--into a shrug. I was really pleased with the solution, and it is neutral enough to wear with other outfits.

I was really pleased with this pattern. It went together easily and the look is just too adorable. The only real issue I have is that it doesn't recommend interfacing the bodice shell overlays! That's just silly. Maybe if you make it in taffeta you wouldn't need interfacing, but they also recommend cotton(!-ew, in my opinion, for this fancy dress) and that would unquestionably need interfacing. I used a stiff interfacing on the inner halves of the shells, but I really should have interfaced both the outer and lining. I ended up having to tack them to the straps to keep them from drooping down. I wore this with a crinoline, also not a recommendation, which enhances the 50s feel.

I felt great wearing this at two weddings this Fall; not like a spinster at all, which was the goal. And it was definitely an original. One of the weddings was in Chicago and when I came downstairs to the hotel ballroom I was afraid I hadn't got the memo that we were supposed to wear black! I think there were only three of us not in black--one woman in dark purple, another in white(!!!!!--I am NOT referring to the bride), and me. I felt like I was sticking out a little, but everyone assured me it was only in a good way. At the wedding here in DC most of the female attendees were in lovely bright colors and I felt like we were fancy butterflies.

I should have gotten it together to review this in time for people to consider it for a New Year's Eve dress. Sorry about that! But this will be review #100 (cumulative total since joining PR, not for the year) and I think it's an appropriately celebratory garment.

All photos are here and the review is here.

Stashoholism Confessional: I Give Up

So I *thought* that having to confess all my fabric purchases on here would slow down my fabric buying this year. Not so much. According to my rough tally on PR, I'm currently over 150 yards bought for the year, with 75 yards sewn. Now, I don't increase the yards sewn until I do the review and there are at least 15 yards, if not more, worth of finished projects waiting for reviews, but that's still nowhere near parity. I think the first step is admitting I am powerless against my addiction?

Anyway, I had the car last weekend, it was Fashion Sewing Club at G Street and Joann was having a big sale (but when aren't they?).

My G Street haul:



The only thing I really intended to buy from the fabric stores was some camel colored wool to make the BurdaStyle Kasia skirt and something to make my nephew a king dress up robe out of. G Street was also having a sale, so I scored the perfect camel colored wool for under $10/yd, and of course could not resist browsing the $2.97/yd table. The striped fabric is a really nice shirting and I'm thinking I've finally found the right fabric for that BWOF pleated sleeve blouse, 12-2007-117. The plaid is a stretch rayon and it was just too nice to leave behind. No idea what I'll do with it. I already have a couple of plaid dresses, but one more can't hurt?



Then I went to Joann. Now, normally this is zero problem for me. Their fabric is pure fug. There is not a natural fiber, fashionable color, stretch *anything*, or trendy print to be found in the entire store. I go in for patterns on sale and notions and don't even look at the fabric. I hadn't found anything great for my nephew's king robe on the $2.97 table, so I scanned the aisles in Joann, thinking I'd use crushed stretch velvet. For some reason, this time it appeared they have stepped up their game, in however minute an increment.

First, I found some wools. Wool! Like actual wool, not wool from the rare endangered Acryliquous ickious beast. Insane! I fell in love with the olive plaid on the left (the lighting is not good in the pic), which can be worn with orange, red, pink, or teal. On sale, it was $10/yd. Although it's wool it's not great quality--rather a loose weave--and I hemmed and hawed, but finally decided that I should support Joann's decision to carry any fashionable, natural fabrics for the sake of my sisters who have no choice but Joann. I'm altruistic, what can I say.

Then I found some rayon knits. Knits! In rayon! At Joann! I loved this olive color (I'm in rather an olive mood lately, witness yesterday's Disastrous Velvet Skirt).

The best thing I could find for the king robe was some purple moleskin. I'll trim it with some bits of fur left from my crazy Down With Love project/purple faux fur swing coat of a couple years ago. And while I was looking at the purple I was totally taken with the subtly metallic winter white. I have no idea but it just drew me. Several months ago one of the women in Fashion Sewing Club wore in a jacket she'd made of Vogue 1052, an Issey Miyake design. It is baggy and unappealing on the envelope but it looked really great in person and I've been thinking about it for a while. I don't know, though; that envelope view is totally not interesting to me. I think the FSC sewist narrowed the ruffles and fitted it more. Anyway, maybe a lightweight jacket? It would also be great as a fitted skirt because it has a little stretch.

Aaaand then when I came home I ordered more solid rayon jerseys from FFC, along with one yard of ITY print for a casual winter top and some silk/cotton. I don't have to count those until they arrive, though.


So how do I get this under control for 2009?

Disastrous Velvet Skirt, or I Can't Have Nice Things

I had a hankering for velvet at PR Weekend 2007 and, in his magician-pulling-a-rabbit-out-of-a-hat manner Kashi had the perfect color and texture for me.

So, an eternal mom refrain (or at least from my mom--maybe we were particularly destructive children) is, "Why can't I have nice things?" I don't need kids to destroy my things for me, I do a good job of it all by myself! It started with storage. I folded up the velvet not very carefully and put it on the shelf, where it got jostled around quite a bit over the past year and ended up looking more wadded than folded. A couple months ago I finally took pity on it and opened it up, pressed it from the wrong side, and folded it more neatly. It already had a few marks and shiny spots on it from bad storage.

Then came the sewing and the pressing. I really didn't/don't know anything about velvet, but apparently it does not take to the iron. LOL I'm sure this is common knowledge to everyone else. So this poor skirt has iron soleplate marks, marks that show the seam allowance, and random bad marks all over it. It was pretty much trashed before it was even done.

Then there was the pattern. I LOVED this skirt, BWOF 6/07 #113. This was one of the first BWOFs I traced off, from one of the issues Cidell loaned me before I got all subscribed and hooked on it. It's the perfect kind of skirt pattern--the seaming is interesting but the overall finished shape is plain and very wearable. In skirts, I like to see some unusual detail but a fairly traditional shape. Karen made it a while back and I was pleased to see that it looked just as good in person as on the line drawing.

I had actually already made it over the summer in navy but because it's a dark color absolutely none of the details show up in photos, and this was just my wearable muslin for the green velvet anyway. I couldn't find a line drawing for the back view, but the back has the same side yoke situation as the front. My observation on the wearable muslin was that the back yoke created unnecessary pouchiness above/at the bum so for this version I combined the two back pattern pieces, converting the seam into a dart.

Now, part of the issue is that I traced the wrong size. I traced a 40, and I should have traced a 38 at least, and probably a 36 at the waist transitioning to a 38 at the hip. This is supposed to be a snug-fitting skirt. I really don't know how to size down something with unusual pattern pieces and I returned the magazine to Cidell long ago. Anyway, I put it together and while the back view with darts looks fine the hip was a whole other issue. The side seam was completely sticking out like Mickey Mouse ears and I kept having to take it in and flatten the curve until eventually it was so tight it couldn't possibly stick out any more (I think this pattern pretty much requires fabric with stretch).

Another velvet-specific issue is topstitching. To take advantage of the seams in this pattern you really need to topstitch. I topstitched the front yoke seams and it looked horrible--I think it needs a walking foot or differential feed or something--but picking it out would have been worse because of how velvet gets marked up when you put a seam into it. But I didn't dare topstitch the lower front curved seam, so it's kind of lost (other than the iron marks, which clearly delineate the seam allowance underneath).

Then there's the waist. I figured I should line this, so I drafted a facing and cut that out of velvet, and then lined it from there. This created SO MUCH bulk at the waist, which was already a bit baggy. I thought I looked ok in person on my way to the holiday party I wore this to on Saturday, but in the pics I can see it makes me look thick in the middle. I am annoyed with myself about this velvet. It's a gorgeous color and this skirt is just a complete failure. I don't have enough of it left (plus it's trashed from the way I stored it) to do anything more except maybe some trim.

The only good thing about this project is the side view, which you can see in the composite above, but I can hardly walk around crabwise the whole time I'm wearing it! I wore it to a holiday party on Saturday just to wear it, but I'm not sure it will leave the closet ever again.

This was the project that got me to make the Knip Mode Gather Front Top just to clear my palate by making something easy, cute, flattering, and wearable (and that top turned out to be all of the above), so I guess that's the silver lining.

All photos are here.

How to Make a Wine Gift Bag

When Cidell and I ordered our tie silk from Fabric Mart, most of the silks were quite lovely but we got one real dog, a wine cork print. Cidell was going to use it for muslins, but when I realized it would be perfect for making wine gift bags she handed it off to me. On Saturday I had a holiday party to go to. I don't have a car and take the metro everywhere. When I'm bringing a host(ess) gift of a bottle of wine I don't want to just carry a bottle of wine around the city for all to see so I can either carry a big purse or put it in a bag of some sort. I didn't want to wear a giant handbag with my festive outfit (I wore a completely disastrous velvet skirt I will shamefacedly reveal later in the week), so it was time to bust out the tie silk and make a quickie wine bag. Last year I posted a tutorial for a wine gift bag with a pocket. This is the completely simple, no-frills wine gift bag.

Start by cutting a piece of fabric 12 inches wide and 16 inches long. This will make a gift bag for a standard size bottle of wine. If you get a larger bottle or one with an unusual shape, you'll need to adjust your starting size to accommodate.

Next, sew down the long (16 inch) side with a 1/4 inch seam allowance (run the edge of your foot along the edge of the fabric); pivot at the bottom and sew the bottom edge with a 1/4" seam allowance as well. Finish your edges with a serger or zigzag if your fabric will ravel. Then finish the top. I had hoped to use the selvage here as the finished top edge but it wasn't a sturdy selvage. Since I have a serger I just serged along the top edge before sewing the side seam. If you don't have a serger and can't use the finished selvage as the top, you can zigzag along the top and turn under in a narrow hem.

Now you're going to mark the gussets. You can easily skip this part, but I think it makes the bag look a little nicer. Mark the center of the bottom, and two inches up from the bottom on each side. You will sew between these markings, as indicated by the white lines in the photograph. This gives the bottom of the bag a more rounded shape so no corners are sticking out when the bottle is inserted and standing up. You can trim off the gusset corners, but I didn't.

The last thing to do is sew on a ribbon for tying it closed. First you need to mark your ribbon placement. Slip the bottle inside the bag and mark the spot where the neck and shoulders of the bottle meet--where the bottle starts to slope out. If you have cut a 12x16 rectangle and have a standard bottle, this will be 5 inches from the top. Cut a ribbon long enough to tie in an attractive bow--here I cut 18 inch lengths. Slide your bag over your sewing machine's free arm and tack the ribbon at the marked spot using a short stitch length and a narrow zigzag.

And you're done! You can check out all the photos here. Now which guest would you rather be?