McCall 6279 Trench dress

I fell in love with McCall 6279 as soon as it came out. Although I bought the Butterick 5598 Suzi Chin trench dress when it came out a couple of months later, I like the McCall better and when I found this seersucker-esque fabric on the $2.97/yd table at G Street I couldn't wait to make it.

I cut my usual size in the pattern, 8 at the shoulder and bust, 10/12 (somewhere in between) at the waist, and 12/14 at the hip. As usual for a princess seam, I flattened the bust curve on the side front for a small bust adjustment. Once it was put together it was still a little loose at the bust and waist, so I took in the side seam on the front only to fine tune the fit.

In addition to the SBA, I did a swayback adjustment similar to this as per usual. I have a hard time fitting dresses without a waist seam--to get a true fit would require so much distortion that it would change the grainline and alter the hang of the fabric. So you can see there is still some swayback bunching. I would be hesitant to take it in more, however, because it could use a smidge more room along the back princess seams for the booty. It is not tight, but it is more fitted in that area than the rest of the dress and I'd like just another inch of ease. If I tried to take more width out at the swayback, the curve back there would become too extreme and would point and pooch over the booty. I guess this is what is meant by over-fitting.

I have not made too many items with a back yoke and a collar, so I can't recall how the neckline is usually finished (I probably should have looked it up). The directions for this dress have you tuck the neckline's raw edges into the collar sandwich. With my fairly thick fabric, I thought that would look sloppy, so I created a back neck facing. This was not a perfect solution as it added bulk to an already bulky seam (two layers of collar plus inner and outer yoke), but it did give a neat finish to the neckline. I will have to research this issue before I make the pattern again.

I thought the tiny pinstripes of this fabric would work better with the pieces, creating fun directional stripes effects, but instead it just looks sloppy (and I forgot to cut the back yoke on crossgrain, boo). I tried to rescue it with some topstitching, but that just made it worse, as you can see at right.

I never use the marked button placement on a pattern; because I am short and have a very specific preference on where the top buttoned button is placed (about 1/2" above the center hook of my bra--I have no cleavage, so I can totally get away with this for work) the marked placement never works. But although I actually carefully marked the two rows of buttonholes on the dress, using a ruler and everything, they came out so uneven!!! I couldn't really tell until I had cut open the buttonholes and sewn on the buttons, so nothing to be done.

I really love the look of this pattern, but this dress is a fail for me. When I got it to a point of try-on-ability, I realized to my horror that this seersucker stripe of white, charcoal, and red resolves into the color of chewed up gum at a distance of more than 12 inches. The bluish-pink color is the same hue--though a different shade--than my skin, as you can see in this photo. Wearing it as a jumper with the red shirt makes it a little better, but it is just too disappointing. I also don't like the armscye finish; the bias tape kind of sticks out and doesn't lay well.

I wore the dress one time--the day I took the photos--and then gave it to a co-worker who is almost the exact same size and shape as me, but with long dark hair and a rosier complexion (no blue undertones). She reports that it fits like a glove and the color looks fine on her. I hope she wears it to work one day!

Although this project was a fail, the pattern definitely is not. I spent 6 months on the hunt for the right fabric earlier this year and now I have to go on it again! I'm still contemplating the copper denim I got in New York, but still thinking it would be too much.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

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Brenda asked about the bra strap keepers I bought at Steinlauf & Stoller. They do not seem to appear on the S&S website (I've looked before and also just confirmed). Dritz calls them "shoulder strap guards", I call them bra strap keepers. When I described what I was looking for to the guy working the counter--a little length of ribbon with snaps on each end that you sew into the shoulder seam to keep your bra strap in place--he figured out what I was talking about. They are in bins at the front of the store. Your best bet is to call or email asking for the name of them and whether they'll sell them by mail. They come in black, white, and beige, and are 90 cents per pair (at least in-store they are). These little things are invaluable! I hope you can get some.

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Still haven't heard from Abby or Lydia re: the stash purge I have up for grabs.  Neither of you left any contact information. If you're still interested, please leave a comment on this post with an email address where I can reach you. Don't write out the full email address to avoid spam harvesters--write it something like "example at yahoo."  (Anyone else in the DC area is welcome to respond as well--you come pick up the fabric, and you must take the whole lot.)  Will be listing it on Freecycle soon.

Stashoholism Confessional: NYC November 2011

I went to New York to speak at a conference a couple weeks ago. I was a tiny bit grumpy about going because I had been traveling so much the previous few weeks and had a cold coming on. But at least, among all the work, I found a little bit of time to visit the garment district.

The bulk of my purchases are pretty boring--lining and interfacing--but I did get a few pretties in fashion fabric. On the train up to New York I had actually been thinking that I need to let go of my snakeskin Burda 09-2009-123 wrap blouse. I really love the blouse and it is so different for me, but without a broad back adjustment it's just not wearable. I popped the underarm seam on first wear from the strain of, you know, reaching onto my desk to get a pen. I cannot move in it. So I had given myself permission to seek fabric to replace it. And lo and behold I found this piece in Chic Fabrics, a silk chiffon with a crepey texture for $10/yd. I don't like the print quite as much as the original; the diamond motifs will be annoying to cut around, but it will help me pass the top along to someone who can wear it without being straitjacketed.

I was trying to focus on cool weather fabrics, as I am really all stocked up on warm weather fabric. They had this wool sweaterknit in a couple of colors. I hemmed and hawed over turquoise (of course) or this royal blue. It is a good color for me, but I avoid it because I feel weird wearing any shade of blue with jeans. I don't wear jeans a ton, but we are allowed to wear them at work on Fridays and I do wear them on the weekend when it's cold. It will be a waterfall-type cardigan. Maybe I will even practice wearing it with jeans.



There was more sweaterknit at Fabrics for Less. I fell in love with the multi-blue striped wool knit but at $12/yd it seemed a little steep for me. I wandered around the store for a while and heard a woman aggressively bargaining with the guy working the store, who reluctantly (or not--I guess that's part of the game) knocked a couple dollars off the price.

I started with the copper denim in the middle. The picture does not do the fabric any justice. It shows the color, but not the gorgeous sheen of this fabric. I broke my cardinal fabric-buying rule with this piece. I have to be able to envision a specific project for a piece of fabric before I can buy it, but with this my imagination failed me. I am looking for some replacement fabric for the McCall 6279 trench dress (review forthcoming), but I'm not sure how much I'd wear a shimmery copper trench dress. Maybe a lot. Who knows? The fabric is a denim, but quite lightweight; good for a dress, not quite beefy enough for a jacket or pants. It was marked $7/yd, but I talked him down to $6 because it was narrower than the rest of the denims.

The green stripe caught my eye for some reason, though I'm not sure I don't regret the purchase now. There is a striped tunic I've been wanting to try so this will be a cheap way to try it.

Then it was time for the wool knit. I paid the marked price for the green stripe to butter him up. The wool knit was marked at $12. I asked what he could do for me. He said he couldn't knock down the price, that it was already rock bottom. I started walking away. He offered me $10/yd. I was sold.



Most of what I bought is actually, gasp, practical. I bought a lot of lining and interfacing. At Paron I found a bolt of 100% rayon lining in the Annex for $3.50/yd, an excellent price for what I assume is Bemberg or its equivalent knockoff. I also bought some silk habitoi; at $5.25/yd it will make a wonderful, luxurious lining for something. My splurge was the light sage stretch silk charmeuse. I want to try pants this winter and I have a nice stretch wool (though I found it quite wrinkled during my stash reorg and am a bit worried I might have ruined it). Stretch fabric needs a stretch lining and how luxurious would silk-lined pants be? I wear pants only on the very coldest days of winter and a silk lining would be much appreciated. Of course, the fabric is so lovely that I am now questioning whether I could sacrifice it for lining!

One of the things I was hoping to pick up while in NYC was interfacing. I couldn't recall ever having seen interfacing in all the trips I have made to all the stores, so I contacted Garment District Goddess LindsayT at her blog, Shop the Garment District, for her advice. She responded that Mood, of all places, was the best source for reasonably priced interfacing.

After Project Runway hit, I visited Mood along with every other fan of the show. They do have a wide selection of beautiful fabric, but the prices are so, so high compared to the other stores of the Garment District that I haven't been back. Well, Mood's popularity has not waned. The store was *packed* and I passed several groups of pre-teen girls, one group receiving a lecture from one of the store employees about how he and Tim Gunn are tight. I managed to squeeze my way back to the interfacings and, sure enough, they are good quality and reasonably priced ($2.50/yd and relatively wide at around 40 inches). LindsayT had warned me that they are not labeled; you have to know what you're looking for.

In addition to the reasonably-priced interfacing, they also have good prices on lining. I picked up a bunch of this stretch lining for $5/yd.

I had to stop by Steinlauf & Stoller to pick up some more bra strap keepers at 90 cents a pair. With my sloping shoulders, I've gotten in the habit of putting them in just about every garment that can't be worn with a racerback bra. No more bra straps falling down! I also got these two specialty elastics at $0.90/yd. I use my black picot elastic fairly frequently on underwear and outerwear and have occasionally wished I had some white. The black ruffle elastic I just thought was cute.

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You'd think this would have sated me for a while, but when I went to G Street for Fashion Sewing Club they had some really good stuff on the $2.97/yd table. On the left is a black & white knit with a boucle-like texture. It was make a cute cardigan and skirt combo for a very low-end faux Chanel look. The yellow fabric was, of course, immediately sewn up. The fabric on the right is a stretch lace in a deep sage color. I got it in case I decided I didn't like the yellow netting when I got it home. It will be a top as well.

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When I posted about the Tweed Ride, Bijoux asked about the shoes I was wearing. I bought them at 6pm.com last year, where they are unfortunately no longer available. The shoe is the Born Gellar; a google search shows a few random sizes available on various places of the web. Good luck!

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Abby and Lydia both expressed interest in the stash purge I have up for grabs, but neither of you left any contact information. If you're still interested, please leave a comment on this post with an email address I can reach you at. Don't write out the full email address to avoid spam harvesters--write it something like "example at yahoo."

Pattern Review Meetup DC

To celebrate the anniversary of PatternReview's founding, sewing meetups were held around the world last Saturday. We were lucky enough to have Nikki to organize us in DC, and we had a wonderful day together. While I got photos of some of our stops, I totally spaced on getting pictures of actual people so I've borrowed this one from SewandWrite.


We started our morning at The Textile Museum, a gem of a place near DuPont Circle. I admit that I don't come here as often as I should because I am spoiled by all the free museums available, but the Textile Museum asks only $8 as a donation and the exhibits are always top notch. The museum was very welcoming to us--they offered us coffee and tea and let us congregate in a conference room until everyone arrived.

The current exhibit on the ground floor focuses on the weaving and embroidery of central Africa, roughly in what is now the Congo. The textiles are created with threads processed from palm frond, which are fairly short. This photo shows examples of short pile embroidery, essentially tiny rug hooking. The geometric patterns, though actually flat, give an amazing impression of depth and dimensionality. These cloths, created by female relatives, were amassed by men as status symbols, and no practical use was given for them. They were generally buried with their owners.

The upstairs exhibit is on textile recycling. While I think we generally tend to think of patchwork quilting as an American art form, it is practiced the world over as a practical way to use up scraps of fabric and to repurpose worn-out textiles. The pieces on display in the museum show astounding intricacy and patience in both the tiny scraps used and in the embroidery dressing up the pieces.

Of course we had to make a stop in the gift shop on the way out! The Textile Museum has a wonderful gift shop with items ranging from affordable to aspirational. In addition to its regular stock, the offerings are coordinated with the exhibits on display, and several status cloths--of the quality shown in the museum's exhibit--are available for purchase right now. The price for these works of art is quite reasonable, in the $125 range. However, I am not in the market for art at the moment and contented myself with an adorable felted clutch made in Nepal for only $18. If you're looking for tasteful and imaginative gift options I recommend a visit (they have an online store as well).

We left the museum and headed off to lunch at Bistrot du Coin just down the street, where we enjoyed socializing, a tasty meal, and passing around our goodies for trade. Nikki also held a drawing for door prizes, and I won the PR 1000 Tips and Tricks book!

We had planned a fabric swap to be part of the event, which turned out to be quite fortuitous for me. The night before I figured I ought to go through my fabric shelves and find a few pieces to throw in the pile. Well, that morphed into me going through my entire fabric stash and considerably culling it down--to the tune of three garbage bags' worth of fabric off the shelf. I had done a big cull earlier in the year but had left some things on the understanding I'd need to sew them up reasonably soon to justify keeping them. I didn't and now they're gone!

Well, not actually gone, but moved from the sewing room the living room to await listing on Freecycle. DC area residents: if you want first dibs, just let me know. The conditions are the same as Freecycle: 1) you come pick it up, and 2) you gotta take the whole lot sight unseen.

Anyway, I didn't find takers for all the fabrics I brought to the swap, but about half of them were claimed and I felt ok claiming a few pieces on my own. The red print on the left is a Marc Jacobs cotton from Fabric.com (the sticker was still on it). Perfect for a crisp summer sheath! In the middle is a very lightweight fine cotton batiste or lawn in an aqua color. It will be perfect for lining a summer dress. The fabric on the right is a crazy stretch mesh with sparklies. It would make a very festive tank top for holiday parties.

Did the thought of those three garbage bags give me pause in buying more fabric to fill the shelves back up (and let's be clear, they are still full)? Erm, I plead the Fifth. All I know is that Exquisite Fabrics was having a moving sale, as that creepy mall in Georgetown is to be renovated, apparently. Almost everything is 50% off, with a few exceptions at 30% off. Although I have purchased various buttons, zippers, thread, and so on at Exquisite, I had never actually bought any fabric from them. I don't share much taste with the buyer, apparently. However, at 50% off I found two splurge fabrics.

The first is a bright pink wool crepe. I love my hot pink corset waist pencil skirt, but it is not bikeable. I need a substitute that I can bike in, and this is a very similar color. I love bright colors!

The second is my big splurge, a piece of Fortuny pleated fabric (not sure the content, but I doubt it's silk). The owner of Exquisite said it came from the warehouse of Mary McFadden. Coincidentally, the National Museum of Women in the Arts had an exhibit on Mary McFadden two years ago that I visited. I am going to a wedding on New Year's Eve and this fabric will be perfect, though I don't have enough to make the dress I envision in my head. :-/ I don't really want to use a contrast fabric but am cooking up some ideas.

What a lovely day we had, including fancy cake enjoyed in DuPont Circle! Thank you to Nikki for organizing, and it was so fun to meet new people. We were all pleased to get together and have plans for future events...

You can see all my photos here.

Burda 08-2008-108, Raglan Sleeved Mock Turtleneck Knit Top

I was at G Street Fabrics on Saturday for the totally innocent purpose of attending Fashion Sewing Club and picking up my serviced machine (woohoo!  you cannot imagine how I missed it).  Well, the classroom for FSC is over by the $2.97/yd table so I was practically forced to look on it.  I had been quite unsatisfied with my top options for the Tweed Ride and then I saw this fabric which could not have been more what I was looking for than had I designed the textile myself.  I love, love the mustard color, and the sheer mesh with polka dots was just so appealing to me that I snapped it up.

I knew I wanted a high-necked top--it just seems part of the style--which is not something I normally go for.  I went through my back issues and settled on Burda 08-2008-108, a mock turtleneck knit tee with raglan cap sleeves. I was at first unconvinced about the raglan sleeves--with my narrow, sloping shoulders they are not always a great look for me--but in the end I just love the curved lines of them!

The collar is one of those draft-your-own pieces; Burda gives you the dimensions and then sends you on your way.  I made a pattern piece based on Burda's instructions, and when I went to sew on the collar it was 4 inches too short.  Totally weird.  It's probable that I was taking seam allowances that were a little too small, but not a total of 4 inches too small.   When finished, the neckline and upper back were way too big.  I really don't know what I did there.

I interlined the collar with a piece of bias cut white silk organza to ensure that it stood up straight.  I was pleased with how invisible it is.  I originally cut the bias piece as wide as the collar so it would be doubled when the collar was folded down, but that turned out to be a little too much, so I cut the piece the height from the seamline to the foldline.


As drafted, the collar is meant to be 2 inches tall, but that is waaaaay to tall for my short neck, as it turns out.  As you can see, I turned it under and hand-stitched it to shorten.  The finished height is  now 1 inch.

I used self-fabric loops and some buttons I already had in stash that turned out to be a perfect match for the closure, rather than a zipper as suggested by Burda (my fabric wasn't very stretchy--in a more elastic material no closure would be needed).

I have been really into the idea of visible seaming in translucent or transparent fabric lately, and I just love the way the raglan curves at the sleeve show up in the wearing.

I can also recommend transparent fabric as a great way to muslin--I could see exactly how closely the shirt fit when wearing it without a tank top underneath.



The cape is coincidentally from the same magazine, 08-2008-101. I made it three years ago, and am just going to acknowledge that I will never review it.  But it was a really fun addition to my outfit and I finally got some wear out of it!

I was so happy to find the perfect fabric and the perfect pattern *and* finish the top the evening before the ride.  I was just delighted with my outfit!





This pattern comes in a 34 so I didn't have to grade, plus it's on the old pattern sheets.  Heaven!  My only gripe with the pattern is that I wish it came with full sleeves, rather than cap sleeves.  I really like the fit of this top on me and would like to make one with long sleeves for layering, but I will have to do some drafting to get sleeves that set into the entire armscye.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here

Dc Tweed Ride 2011: The Photos

The Tweed Ride was a huge success! I would guess that around 250-300 people participated (it was hard to tell, exactly--bikes take up a lot of space so you can't really clump people close enough together to see them all at once).



As you can see, I went with the brown booties. At the last minute I was able to make a top, and I felt brown went best with the overall outfit. They ended up working well and I really do love the style of these crazy shoes.





Here's the whole outfit, on a fun set provided by BicycleSpace for our rest stop there. The yellow top was my very last minute addition to the outfit--I found the perfect fabric at G Street on the $2.97/yd table on Saturday and made the top late Saturday afternoon. I made the cape three years ago, but never wear it because it is so motion restrictive and impractical. I was glad to give it another wear for the event! My mom gave me the kilt, a sturdy Pendleton wool from her younger days. The hat came from my trip to Ecuador, and the feather pad was found at Mood (had a quick trip to NYC for work last week; more on that at a later date).






Cidell was in the same cape, a pattern from BWOF 8-2008, in the shorter version. I just love her bright turquoise with hot pink lining! The feather fascinator in her hair is just the perfect touch, isn't it?



Everyone in the crowd was dressed to the nines! I am amazed by how much creativity people showed, and just how much tweed resides in the closets of DC. One clever thing several people did was to create "knickers" by wearing regular pants, pulling a pair of long argyle socks over the pants, and then blousing the fabric a little over the top of the sock. There were hats galore, which I just loved, and so many cute vintage bikes. The people-watching was superb!

Our route was so fun. We started at Meridian Hill Park, which is on a large hill (large by DC standards). While you had to get yourself up the hill, after the ride actually started much of it was a comfortable downhill or flat. We visited DC landmarks both famous and obscure. You may recognize this location--Lafayette Square in front of the White House.


We also stopped at the more obscure Titanic Memorial. I've visited this before because a friend of mine used to live near it, but it's Southeast Waterfront location has kept it a bit of a secret. It's a strange, ethereal monument, put up in gratitude by the women and children saved by the self-sacrificing men of the Titanic, who stayed on the ship to make more room on the lifeboats.

We ended at Lincoln Park in Capitol Hill, where Cidell and I were spotted by a kind blog reader. It's always so fun to meet people who actually read what you write!

All in all, a wonderful event and a nice day for it--a bit cool but not cold with no rain--you can't ask much more than that from mid-November! All the photos are here. A review of the top will be coming soon...