Simplicity 2580, Empire Waist Cowl

I buy just about every knit dress pattern that comes down the pike and am always looking at knit top patterns to see if they can be made into a dress. But it rarely occurs to me to turn a dress into a top. Melissa of Fehr Trade showed a cute cowl top made of the Simplicity 2580 and I tucked it into the back of my mind for the next time I had some odd-shaped scraps I couldn't do much else with.

I just got this fabric from Fabric Mart ($5.99/yd, pricey for me!) for my Turkey wardrobe and immediately sewed it into a long sleeve knit dress. The scraps were too big to throw away, but had to made into something pieced.

I am not crazy about empire waist tops lately, because they can be neither belted nor tucked and I have apparently turned into someone who wears a belt nearly every day. The tucking is more theoretical, but theoretically I am open to it. But I decided to throw caution to the wind and make it up in this pattern. I actually already made a top from this a while back; the fabric didn't have enough drape and it doesn't look great, but I knew it was a solid pattern and the fully self-faced cowl that will always sit perfectly and requires no rearranging sold me.

My one gripe is the instructions, which involve a lot of fussiness and inefficiency. Most cowl patterns these days seem to use the modern, all-machine-finish way; I was really impressed with the instructions for the McCall 6069 double cowl dress. So if you pull out one of your patterns it will probably do a much better job of explaining things than I am about to. What I love about this method is that you can do the whole thing with a twin needle in your sewing machine if you use a serger for construction. No switching back and forth between twin and regular.

Start by finishing the neckline and armscyes of the back piece. For both, I just fold the seam allowance to the inside and twin needle in place. I fold the neckline over a piece of clear elastic slightly smaller than the length of the neckline to keep it in shape; the front cowl is heavy compared to the back so the back benefits from a little support. (If you're using a sleeve, obviously you don't need to finish the back armscye.)

Next, fold the upper bodice and self facing along the fold line. Slip the back shoulder edge in between them. Snug the finished back neck to the fold line at the seamline. This is crucial. I am generally guilty of matching and pinning the edges rather than the seamlines, but here the you will have an unsightly bump if the back is not matched up to the fold at the seamline. Note that the unfinished edges of the front armscye will overhang the finished edge of the back armscye. Pin and serge.

Now match up the edges of the front armscye outer fabric and self facing. Here it is important to mark exactly where the finished back armscye is hidden in between the two layers of the front (OK, fine, I admit it; I don't mark). Serge the front/self-facing armscyes, right sides together. At the shoulder edge, make sure your stitching line is exactly at the finished back armscye edge. Be careful not to catch the back into your seam (especially with a serger!).

When you turn it all right side out, you have your finished neckline and armscyes all done. If you've correctly matched everything up, the front and back will be seamless (well, not literally seamless but you know what I mean).

Next comes the side seam. As with the shoulder, you are going to sandwich the back between the front and front self-facing. This is a little easier because you just have to match up the raw edges. Again, it is important to snug the back finished armscye up into the front/self-facing serged together armscye at the seamline. Serge.

If you want to complete the clean finish, you can leave out the self facing when sewing the upper bodice and lower bodice and then hand-stitch the facing in place. However, a serged finish is good enough for me here.

Serge the side seams of the lower front and back and center seam of lower back. I used the center back seam in the lower bodice for some swayback shaping.

Treat the front and front self-facing as one and pin the upper bodice to the lower bodice. Serge.

Your machine is still set up in a twin needle so you can easily hem the top and voila! A nicely finished cowl top with a minimum of effort.

I am really happy with the top, despite the empire waist. It's a fantastic way to wear my lace Burda 09-2008-108 skirt for summer and in a casual way. If I'd had enough fabric I would have liked to avoid that big circle that's almost at center front on the lower bodice but it was a top with a big circle at center front or no top at all.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

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I am sewing like crazy for my Turkey trip! It's still a little too early to know exactly what the weather will be, so I have been making both long sleeve and short sleeve items. It seems to be tipping toward cool, though, low 60s (16-18 C for my metric readers). I can handle cool weather, I suppose, but it is also looking rainy. Much less fun for sightseeing. I will have to ponder whether it will be worth it to bring a pair of boots. They take up so much room, but shoes are really no good to be out in rain for 8-10 hours. I suppose much depends on my therapeutic boot situation. I go to the doctor this afternoon so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Stash Busting for World Peace: IBOL

So, somehow I had never heard of Iraqi Bundles of Love, the project of a soldier stationed in Iraq to get raw sewing materials into the hands of individual Iraqi women. I do not normally give in-kind goods for charity. They make the giver feel really good--and they actually cost the charity money to store, ship, and distribute; money that could be directly spent to buy more of whatever you sent for cheaper at wholesale and do more good for the beneficiaries. Money is always more valuable than goods.

However, this is the perfect type of project for sending goods. IBOL is not a 501(c)(3) charitable organization (a US tax status thing). It's not even an organization at all. It doesn't have a bank account or a budget and there is no place to send money. It is just one guy asking people to send bundles of fabric.

Because of the long years of sanctions against Iraq during the Saddam Hussein years, all goods are scarce. And because it has not been safe for aid workers during the war years, there are few charities to distribute goods now the sanctions have been lifted. The soldier who invented IBOL wanted to do something about this. I think he mainly reached out to the quilting community last year simply because his mom is a quilter, and since garment sewing and quilting don't have a ton of overlap I don't know that word has gotten out in our community.

Here is the word and please spread it! If you are in the US, you can send a flat-rate box to an APO address. The address is emailed to you when you leave a comment on the IBOL blog (the organizer does not want the address publicized for obvious reasons so I cannot provide it). A large flat-rate box costs $12.50 to mail to an APO address. You have to fill out customs form 2976a. It is the size of a half-sheet of paper--not the green one or the other one that's the size of the green one (this confused my post office very much).

You build a bundle of fabric (large pieces and solids or tame prints preferred) and whatever notions you may have. I threw in a large spool of thread (the Gutermann 1000 meter ones), a lot of buttons, and machine and hand-sewing needles. I made the simple needle book by stapling a square of fleece (flannel would be better but I didn't have any) into a folded piece of paper. Tie it all up with a ribbon so the bundle can be removed from the box and stay in one piece and send it off. For ideas, check out the What to Send page and the flickr photos people have uploaded (be sure to use the tag "iraqibundlesoflove" on your flickr photos).

I picked up two boxes from the Post Office (thank goodness there is one right next to the metro!) and it took me about an hour to select my fabrics, round up the notions, and build the bundle. I would have preferred to send more thread and maybe a seam ripper or thread snips in each, but with my limited mobility I haven't been able to make it to a fabric store.

I am so thrilled to be able to share some of my bounty with Iraqi women who have nothing, women who have probably not felt like America has done a lot for them. There are very few ways in which the average American can say to the average Iraqi, "We are all sisters under the skin." This is one remarkable way. Last year they received and distributed 3445 bundles. So far this year they've received 26.

You have until next Friday, October 1 to get your bundle in the mail.

Start packing.

Butterick 5382, Pleat Neck Empire Waist Dress

Based on what I see on the street, the pleated neckline trend is still going strong so I decided to make my fabulous hot pink and black G Street Fabrics $2.97/yd knit print for possible inclusion in my Turkey wardrobe out of Butterick 5382.

I had previously purchased nearly identical Vogue 8593. However, the Vogue does not have a waist seam and I have pretty much given up on dress patterns that don't have a waist seam. For a serious pear like me, it is the rare pattern in which I can cut a 6 or 8 shoulder/bust and a 12 or 14 hip in one length of fabric and have everything work out in the way it hangs and fits. I really need a waist seam that will allow me to dart extra fabric into the lower half. A waist seam also allows for much better swayback correction. So I was overjoyed to see the Butterick pattern come out with the waist seam and skirt darts. V8593 can be made into a great tee as demonstrated by KBenco, so the pattern won't go to waste.

This dress was so successful and so easy once you put in the pleats (only four pieces, plus sleeves and a way to finish the neck) that I decided to go ahead and make it again with short sleeves.

As with Burda 11-2008-111, I found that where the shaping for the bodice and bust is in neck pleats, the small bust adjustment is done by shortening the lower edge of the bodice piece at center front, tapering to nothing at the side seams. Here, the shape of the bodice pattern is actually concave at the center front and it would be more trouble than it's worth to adjust the pattern piece. Once the pleats are made in the fabric, it's easy to cut off that lower curve.

The most challenging part of this pattern is finishing the neck, simply because there is a huge amount of bulk with pleats upon pleats. For the pink version, I actually used the facing (*gasp*). The black/pink fabric is a thick, spongy, cottony (yet polyester) knit and there was no way a binding would work. I lengthened the back facing to give it more weight and help it stay in place better. Once sewn in, I hand tacked it at the shoulders, the front pleats (hidden by the other pleats upon pleats) and the center back. The plus side of this thick fabric is that although there is no seam at CB, my hand stitches taking up a few threads of fabric don't show.

The black and white fabric was purchased from Fabric.com with all the Vera Wang pieces back in January for $1.95/yd. However, based on the product code, it is not actually from the VW Lavendar Collection (it doesn't match the style/colorway, either). It's one of those really stretchy wovens that are so stretchy they're almost a knit. Not lightweight, but not as thick as the black and pink fabric.

I decided to finish the sleeve and hem with a serger rolled hem in black, so to continue the black finish motif I used a black knit binding at the neckline, intending to act somewhat as piping. I cut it about two inches wide (should have done 3, given how much bulk it has to fold over), folded in half, sewed it to the right side of the neck with the cut edges aligned with the neck edge, rolled it to the inside leaving just a hint of it showing at the neckline, and topstitched in place. I probably should hand stitch the seam allowances onto the pleats at CF, but so far they have stayed in place.

I had been planning to get myself a Brother 1034D serger for my birthday because the tension on my secondhand White is not great. However, it had been behaving so well and I have been spending so much on travel lately that I decided to defer it. But for this project I couldn't get a good rolled hem on this fabric so now I'm considering whether I should just go ahead and get it. For the hem edge, I folded the fabric along the hemline and then serged juuuuuust next to the fold. I miraculously did not cut into the fold anywhere! This gave it more body for the serger to grab onto, but the tension wasn't enough to actually roll the hem to the inside.

This knit dress pattern is drafted with a zipper at center back. I thought that this was one place where a knit dress might actually need a zipper because the neckline appeared narrow, but several of the pattern reviews said it could be left off. Sweet!

For the pink version, I cut the bodice back on the fold but the skirt with a CB seam for swayback purposes. I had to tweak the length of the back dart, ultimately adding about 1.5 inches. I also had to shorten the front dart about an inch to give myself more belly room. I didn't fit the swayback closely because I wanted to keep that room in the belly.

However, for the black and white version, I decided to do an exposed zip using a metal zip I believe I bought at Jomar a couple years ago. This trend has been around for so long that I'm sure I just gave it the kiss of dress by finally making a dress with one but that's ok. Because of the zipper feature, I wanted a close fit at the swayback because a baggy exposed zip was not the sexy look I was going for here. However, you can see the price I pay for swayback definition: belly definition. Before you protest: (1) I know I'm slim (and I work hard for it), it's a proportion thing. (2) Especially looking at this picture, I can see that with the architecture of my body there's just no room for organs if I had a flat belly. This was taken first thing in the morning when my belly is at its flattest *and* I was sucking in. It normally sticks out about 2 inches more than in the photo. For real. I generally look about 5 months pregnant. I think I will only be wearing this dress when it's cool enough for tights. Tummy-sucking-in tights. Not to mention that this fabric is the plasticky kind of polyester; definitely can't be worn when it's hot anyway (warm, maybe, but not hot).

I install an exposed zip just like a regular, non-invisible zip: baste the center back seam, right sides together; press seam. Place zipper over the seam, in this case on the outside of the fabric. Stitch. Unpick basting. At the lower edge of the zipper I turned in the little extra flaps of zipper tape and at the top I caught them in the neck binding.


My only quibble with this pattern is that the sleevecap of the long sleeve is too high and pointy. I thought that would be the case when cutting it, so I basted it in and it created a little peak at the shoulder. I rounded out the curve and it installed much more smoothly. The sleeves are a little slim cut as well, but of course I serged off my seam allowances (did both dresses almost entirely with serger construction) so oh well.


LOVE this pattern, tummy psychosis notwithstanding. Of course, my taste in crazy prints means that the neckline pleating detail is pretty much lost, but I know it's there.

I am calling the black and pink version my "architectural dress" because both the pleating detail and the print are architectural. I spent a lot of time laying out my fabric to get the best looking print layout, resulting in an uncharacteristic amount of wasted fabric, and I succeeded beyond my expectations. I love the way the bodice front and skirt match up and I *think* the print matchup there is low enough and close enough together that it does not look like peek-a-boobs, just like a cool design feature. I like the pattern placement on the sleeves, and the long lines on the skirt lengthen my short legs.

I'm not quite as crazy about the black and white version. However, I hope the boyfriend will like the exposed zip (though he doesn't notice clothes 98% of the time--my fashion is wasted on him unless it's short and tight, but this is sort of both so fingers crossed) and it looks good under a black jacket for a work thing that doesn't require a full suit, like a speaking engagement.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

McCall 6069, Double Cowl Dress

There have been a ton of great versions of McCall 6069 and y'all know how much I love a knit dress so I had to hop on the bandwagon.

I love the sexy low cowl back, but wanted something I could wear to the office. A sexy low back and a strap across the back of the neck to hold it in place would be taking it a little too far for me. I considered following Kyle's lead and using the front of C for the back, but instead decided to raise up the back cowl by reducing the width as shown.

This did bring the back up to office-wearability, but did pretty much nothing to make it easier to wear without that back strap. The first time I wore it I had to bring the shoulders back into place literally every 15 seconds. I looked ridiculous walking down the street constantly twitching it onto my shoulders.

I came home and sewed coins into the front and back cowl facings to keep them from flipping out and add some weight to keep it on my shoulders and an elastic strap running between the armscyes in the back.

I tested these solutions out before wearing this again yesterday and I could tell it wasn't going to be enough (though the cowls were hanging better) so I resorted to the nuclear option: pinning it to my bra straps (luckily, with my raised cowl back I can wear a racerback bra, so the bra straps weren't going to fall off my shoulders). This is why I need those bra strap keepers! Safety pins are ok for now but when I am back in the gym and changing in and out of my clothes twice a day (at lunch and after work) I'll be wanting some snaps. Although I guess by the time I get back to the gym the season for sleeveless dresses will be over, sob!

There's not much more to say about this easy dress. It's great for a border print because the skirt hem is straight. I used the large dot border at the top and bottom in the hope of creating an hourglass illusion.

I used the pockets because I thought I'd want someplace to clip/store my work ID, but after it was finished I realized that it needed a belt over that elastic casing so I can just clip my ID to the belt. I might cut out the pockets, as the outline shows through my thin poly knit.

I appreciated McCall's sewing instructions for this as it included thoughtful, professional details like sewing the pockets to the side seams at a 3/8" seam so the pockets roll to the inside when the side seams above and below the pockets are sewn in 5/8". I also appreciated the way the shoulder seams were sewn, which encloses to the facings and creates a clean finish.

If I make this again for work, I will definitely use plain front C as the back so it is not so fussy to wear. Also, the shorter cowl just looks kind of like a hood that get caught up. For a beach vacation or going out on summer evenings, the dress with the full length cowl back and neck strap would be gorgeous.

I took these photos before The Injury. I was going to re-do them because I forgot that I can't wear my glasses when taking afternoon pictures in my bedroom (it faces west) because of the awful glare. Now that I have more perspective, I decided that glasses glare is better than The Boot!

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

My Latest Fashion

Ooooooh yeah. This is going to be all over the runway for Spring. You heard it here first.

So, I ran too hard at the gym. Really. I was in boxing class and we were doing a partner drill where your partner rolls up a towel the long way and loops it around your waist. Then they stand behind you and hold onto the ends, squatting down to give the most resistance. Then you cartoon run and try to pull them across the floor. This is much harder than it sounds. My partner is someone I've worked with before and she is about the same size as me. So I'm running, running and she isn't moving. Well, come on! I know I can do better than that. So I redoubled my efforts and then I felt something pop in my left calf. Bad.

I tried to put weight on it, couldn't. Felt like I was going to faint, then like I was going to puke, then like I was going to faint again. Luckily, none of that happened. The gym employees literally carried me out of the gym in a fireman's carry (I made them put me down before we got outside because no cab would pick me up if they were carrying me).

I went to the emergency room where I sat in the waiting room in howling pain for four hours (I was doing yoga breaths and tapping the other foot to try to deal with it and the other people waiting kept looking at me askance). I went back. They did an X-ray. Then they said, "By the way, an X-ray will only tell us if the bone is broken. It's not." Well, duh. They said that maybe my calf muscle had torn, maybe detached from the bone, but my Achilles tendon was fine (huge relief).

They put me in a cast. I spent a day on crutches and wow, do they suck. I had to ask a co-worker to carry my lunch from the microwave to my office because you can't hold anything! I have to flash my badge to get back to the hallway where my office is after using the bathroom, and I couldn't figure out the timing of flashing the badge and then hopping over sideways to open the door and then push through it with the crutches before the time expired and the door locked again.

I came home and traced a pattern while standing on one leg. Don't recommend. Also not recommended: making meusli while standing on one leg.

Went to the orthopedist this morning. The "good" news is that the muscle is still attached to the bone and mostly intact, just a really bad pull. I am in the boot for four weeks and we'll re-evaluate a few days before I leave for my long anticipated vacation. He warned I may still be in the boot in Turkey. Oh yeah. But I am back on two feet walking approximately five inches per minute and I can't tell you how good it is. I live in a third floor walkup. Hopping up to the third floor is really quite excruciating.

My first thought, after "I think I'm going to vomit" was "Thank goodness it's not my sewing leg!!!!" Since I won't be going to the gym for a while, I'm going to have to make sure I use that time to sew rather than sit around snacking. Don't know how much I'll be modeling though!

Can I just say, thank goodness I made all those dresses I can just pull over my head!

Current output is three pairs of much needed panties. These are made from the same knockoff H&M pattern as the last set. I determined that lace isn't great for the leg openings (not strong enough or good enough recovery), so I ordered some black picot elastic from Sew Sassy, the source of the stretch laces. Love the picot elastic look and will be using it to trim a neckline soon, I think. The legs on the panties look wavy when sitting flat, but fit perfectly when worn. I already purged three old pairs from the drawer, which felt good.

Sooooo, does anybody know any cardio exercises that can be done sitting or standing stationary? I can do most strength exercises, including even shallow squats and dead lifts, but figuring out how to burn calories is going to be my biggest challenge.