Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion

I finished Overdressed (link goes to Goodreads; the cover photo above is linked to Amazon) over the weekend.  The author explores various angles of our addiction to cheap clothes:  the poor quality of clothing, the enormous waste generated by throwaway items and the (lack of) secondary market for used clothing, the loss of American (and most first world) textile jobs and production capacity, and the pressure on third-world garment-makers to keep worker wages as low as possible.  It was a good complement to Deluxe:  How Luxury Lost its Luster (and actually cites Deluxe).  

By the end of the book, the author is a convert to "slow clothing" over fast fashion:  fewer good quality pieces produced by well-paid workers in the U.S.  She even learns to sew.  She thinks if we could all just realize how poorly made fast fashion is, we'd all see the light on good-quality, more expensive clothing (which can end up with a *lower* cost per wear than fast fashion).

But I think she misses the major point to fast fashion.  She admits that she is not a fashionista herself; she's not a trend chaser and doesn't enjoy shopping.  She also lives in Brooklyn, New York, where there are thousands of options that aren't Target, Old Navy, Wal Mart, and other retail behemoths.  

So she can be forgiven for not realizing the essential problem:  Fast fashion isn't about clothing or fashion.  Fast fashion is about shopping.  That sounds like a tautology, but hear me out.

 The thing is, for a large majority of people in this country, there is nothing to do but go shopping. Literally.

I am very fortunate to live in DC and I can go for a bike ride, visit a museum, run, hike, or just walk around--NOT to stores, though I sometimes feel like I am "wasting" my time if I don't have a destination, i.e., a store, i.e., something to buy--very easily and without a car (well, the hiking part requires a car). However I moved from places where (a) you had to have a car to get anywhere, so you had to have a destination, and (b) the only anywhere to go was a mall or shopping center. Even with all DC's rich resources, it took me years to break the habit of going shopping most weekends. It is our primary leisure activity, other than watching TV.

Convincing people to buy fewer but better clothes has almost nothing to do with money. It has to do with entertainment.  

Sculpture from Artomatic 2012

Where my parents live, there are virtually no sidewalks and no bike lanes.  So when teenagers who can't yet drive want to meet up with their friends, it needs to be a central location and they must be driven there by parents.  And the only central location is the mall.  So you beg your parents to take you to the mall, where you spend hours shopping.  Now, as a teen I didn't have enough money to actually buy anything on most visits.  But it creates this idea that the place you go for fun is the mall.

Then when you can actually drive, it doesn't occur to you to go to museums (which are an hour's drive away and have high admission charges).  And there is no hiking within a reasonable drive because it is suburbia as far as the eye can see.   No, when you get your license it's so exciting because now you can drive yourself to the mall.  What started out as a central destination convenient for parents to drop you and teens to meet up, becomes the destination.  The only one.


At some point you get out of school and have more money but fewer people to hang out with all the time.  So you start going shopping by yourself.  Sure, you try to arrange to do it with friends when you can, but if you can't find anyone to go with you, what are you going to do, not shop?  What else is there to do?  It's considered weird to go to a movie by yourself, or to eat in a restaurant by yourself.  But if you need to get out of the house by yourself, it's not weird to go shopping alone.

That's when the buying really starts.  Because if you're shopping by yourself, it's not socializing disguised as shopping.  It's just shopping.  And if you don't buy something while you're out shopping, then what's the point?  It's like it never happened at all. 

Sculpture Detail

To feel like something happened in your life, you need to have a bag and a receipt and something to cut the tags off of.  It feels like you were being productive.


I am not pretending I am above it all here!  I love clothes.  And I am definitely still in the "productivity" mind set.  I prefer to sew a new item every week.  That is not any different than buying a new item every week, though my items are generally better quality than what you'd find at Forever 21 and their ilk.  

When I put a lot of work into one project, like my Seersucker Social dress, it drives me crazy to be working on it week after week.  I could have made so many other things!  Never mind whether I need them or not and whether they fit in my closet.  The slow pace of acquisition kills me with those projects.  And we all know how much fabric I buy (but I've not bought any for over three months now, which is very exciting).


I don't know what it would take to get people to go for a bike ride or to picnic in a park for fun and a way to get out of the house instead of going shopping, but it would require a huge, huge, HUGE cultural shift, infrastructure changes to offer entertainment alternatives to the mall, and a reconfiguring of the idea of "productive" away from having something tangible to show for your weekend.

In my current job we have a staff meeting every Monday.  The staff is pretty small so at the end of the meeting if we have a little time we all go around the table and give a little synopsis of our weekend.  When I started I was joking with some of the longer term staff members that I was going to have to start planning more exciting weekends so I'd have something interesting to recount.  

It was kind of a joke but kind of not.  If everyone had to give a report on their weekend every Monday morning, would we want to be able to say more than "I went shopping and got a great deal!"?  Or is that really enough?

There is a discussion of this book on Pattern Review.

What Is a Wedding Dress Worth?

Before anyone gets all excited:  I am not in the market for a wedding dress.

However, this girl was (link goes to the video, in case it didn't embed properly). 


She ended up with "Eva" from the Enzoani 2010 Collection

The website's description of the dress is:  Venice lace, modified mermaid silhouette with strapless sweetheart neckline. Organza layered ruched bust with Swarovski crystal applique. Scalloped hemline with detachable train.

The lining/under-fabric was diagnosed as polyester, but the lace would sell at retail for about $150-165/yard, and was fully backed with and sewn to a netting.  It's worth a click on the link (annoying flash website so you have to scroll through to Eva) to see the ruching detail on the bust and the applique.  All in all, a very nice dress and the bride looks beautiful in her photos and videos.

She paid about $2700.  She goes to B&J Fabrics in New York and gets an estimate of about $1200 retail/$600 wholesale for the materials.  The she goes to a dressmaker and gets an estimate of about $200 for the labor (in China, in a factory--not in the US or custom-made).  Adding these up, with some unspecifed allowance for design services and overhead, she decides she's been ripped off.

Now, I am certainly in shock and awe over the prices of retail clothing generally.  $395 pull-on blouses made of polyester!  $695 sack dresses, also polyester!  That's insane, and I don't know how normal people dress themselves--the balance between price and acceptable quality (such as for work) is difficult to find.

I also know that adding the word "wedding" to anything automatically adds a mark up.

But I think this girl's outrage is misplaced.  I don't know what her estimate for overhead was, but I suspect she lowballed it.

First, there's design.  The cut and fit of this are pretty great, and the bodice ruching detail is flattering and intricate.  So you figure it took about six or 10 prototypes to get to the pattern. (This is based on my very amateur understanding from the great Kathleen Fasanella and discounts the fact that they probably have stock patterns for this mermaid silhouette and tweak it each year).

Then the pattern has to be graded to various sizes.

Next comes sourcing the fabric, or getting it custom-milled.

 Then samples have to be made for every bridal salon that carries the line.  I went wedding dress shopping with a friend once.  Those samples are trashed.  So that's just a loss.

She says she went to a bridal store and chose the dress.  Was it the first bridal salon she went to, and the first dress she tried one?  Doubtful.  That's a lot of rent, salary, electric bill, and advertising for her to choose a dress.  Then she called around to other bridal salons until she found the best price.  More rent, salary, electric bill, and advertising money down the drain.

Then she finally bought the dress, and it was (most likely) made to order in China.

I think she did the wrong math.  She added up the wholesale costs ($800) and went from there.  But I think she needed to start from the other direction:  ask how much that dress would have cost as a custom creation from a dressmaker.  $1200 for the materials at retail.  I have no idea what wedding dressmakers cost, but I'm going to aim low at $25/hr.  To develop the pattern, fit muslins, and make the final dress:  what, 100 hours minimum?  So we're well past the retail bargain she got, and I'm pretty sure my estimate for a custom dress is quite low.

The thing about the RTW I linked above is that I could make each piece in about 5 hours.  Even at splurge $20/yard "nice" polyester (is there such a thing?) and valuing my labor at $50/hr, I'd come out ahead.  (Granted, I would start with a pattern--but I purposely chose simple shapes that could be drafted from a block without much time or effort.) She cannot say the same for her dress.

It seems that because she doesn't know what it takes to put that wedding dress into her hands, it can't be worth much.  Now, I don't mean to abuse her.  She seems sincere and intelligent.  But unless you've cooked a fancy meal, you don't know that it's worth so much more than the sum total cost of its ingredients.  And unless you've sewn your own clothes, apparently, you don't know how much they're worth.  And this seems to result in a lack of respect for all the people who made those things happen.  Buying clothes for pennies at places like Forever 21 make this easy--how much can the people behind the clothes be worth if it has made it around the world and into your shopping bag for $12?

What do you think?  What is a wedding dress worth?

Vintage Sewing, Dreadful Tasks, and Hairdos

After seeing the horror that was the back of my Burda 10-2011-123 wrap dress (left), I decided to devote some time to rescuing it.  To me, going back to a project that is done is like mending:  soooo much worse than just starting from scratch.  So it took a lot of self-prodding to get back into it.

As drafted, the dress has released darts in front and back.  To improve the back fit, I made the darts wider and closed them up at top and bottom.  I experimented with closing the front darts as well, but it didn't add anything.  Adjusting the side seams wasn't effective either.  I also wore my silk slip to ensure it flowed smoothly over my tights.  The back fit is vastly improved, as you can see above, although it still does not look 100% great with a belt.

I also hand-stitched the two ends of the removed ties together to make a self belt.  The bow looks much better when tied on the same side as the flounce, though I opted for the obi when I wore it yesterday.  Although I was so sad to see it, the return of cool weather did allow me to wear this dress, giving me a more immediate return on my labors than expected.

Have I learned my lesson about sewing dresses without waist seams yet?




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It's Vintage Pattern Contest time at Pattern Review!  This one is always fun.

I've had this 1973 blouse on my list for quite a while and was glad to have a reason to finally get started on it.  It's going together more quickly than I thought--at this point all I have left is the buttons/buttonholes and hem.

Check out the goggles on Khaki Girl on the right. She was Steampunk before Steampunk was cool! Of course, she's got nothing on Turban Girl.

How great did pattern envelopes used to be?  Showing the pattern pieces is awesome for seeing at a glance how the pattern is put together and whether it is going to be beyond your skill level.

Who else is sewing vintage??? The contest doesn't end until April 15 so there is still time!  Patterns must be from 1977 or earlier (the contest rules say "before 1978"; I believe there has been an interpretation allowing 1978 patterns--double check if you're considering a 1978 pattern).

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Source: beautyandbedlam.com via Trena on Pinterest

Janice asked on my Burda 11-2011-120 ruffle front dress post how I did my hair.  There is a pin on Pinterest that is a better explanation but of course I didn't "like" or repin it so I couldn't find it, but this is a good explanation.  Just make a ponytail and then tuck the ponytail in.  Now, I have (1) short hair and (2) super, super fine hair.  So my teeny ponytail just tucks right in--the only trick is getting it to stay there (by the end of the photo shoot my little ponytail was sticking straight up, which was quite amusing and required a re-shoot of the back).  If you have longer/thicker hair you may have to pull it through twice.

Happy Leap Day!

As an single professional woman in my mid(ish)-30s, I am contractually obligated to love Tina Fey and 30 Rock.  I dutifully fulfill these obligations.  But truly, 30 Rock is an awesome show.  Last week's episode--available for free on Hulu as of this writing--was about Leap Day and it was hilarious.  I highly recommend a view.

In Liz Lemon's world, Leap Day is a big national holiday with a parade in every town, an old man who emerges from the sea every four years to throw candy in exchange for children's tears, and--of course--particular colors that everyone wears that day with St. Patrick's Day pinching type consequences for those who fail to do so.  I had to get in on the action, if only to pretend that I am friends with Liz Lemon.

Leap Day's colors are yellow and blue.  I don't have anything that combines those two colors but given how many clothes I have, ahem, there is enough yellow and blue in the wardrobe to last me a lifetime of Leap Days (though its position in February--usually the coldest month here in DC--is somewhat of an impediment).

For Leap Day 2012 I went for Vogue 8633, accessorized with a blue scarf I wore for just about every interview I had in law school, a blue bracelet, and my blue glasses.  And also tights and boots--it's a good thing DC isn't holding a Leap Day Parade this year because it is cold and pouring rain.

Due to my love of costumes, I generally dress for holidays.  In a subtle way, though; wearing the particular color associated with the holiday, rather than a literal Quacker Factory-style be-spangled, be-jeweled, and be-dazzled sweater. 

How about you?  Do you dress up for holidays?  And what are your big plans for Leap Day?  (My plans involve wearing yellow and blue and going to work.  Very exciting.)

2011 Year in Review

The Stats
Number of completed garments:  64 (excluding some miscellany)
Woven dresses:  12
Knit dresses:  10
Woven tops:  5
Knit tops:  10
Skirts:  7
Coats:  1
Sweaters/Shrugs:  4
Shorts:  1
Pants:  2 (jungle pants, though; they hardly count as pants)
Sport tops:  4
Hats:  2
Nighties:  2
Slips:  2
Rain gear:  pants, pullover, spats, mitts, and 2 helmet covers

Number of pattern reviews written:  44.  I had been aiming to hit 250 reviews, but only made it to 243.  If I had reviewed everything I made I think I would have made it, but only just.  After 243 patterns reviewed (and hundreds made before I discovered PR), I have actually started repeating some!

Number of items sewn for others:  5.  I made two tops and a skirt for my mom and two pairs of boxers for the boyfriend.  How's that for selfish seamstressing?!?!

Proudest Project:  Navy wool herringbone coat with velveteen trim




















Greatest ratio of compliments to work involved:  Velvet beret.  Seriously, I get compliments on this every time I wear it, way more than on the coat.  It took about an hour to make.












Most useful items:  Four tops for the gym.  Wear these pretty much daily, twice most days.



















Biggest Fail:  Simplicity 2615 Prison Matron Dress.  *shudder* 










Longest planned:  Yellow eyelet Burda 7658 shirtdress.  I bought this expensive fabric from Mood in March 2007, using a gift certificate that was a thank you from a friend for sewing lessons.  I was so glad to finally make this up, after waffling on a pattern for it for 4 years.







Most worn:  Butterick 5283 asymmetric twist tee.  Any time I needed a top in Spring, Summer, and Fall, I reached for this tee.  It's a combination of the interesting pattern, the rich color, and the fantastic quality of the fabric (a fluke, unfortch; I bought it from Stretch House and it was the only color of that particular beefy but stretchy, slightly textured fabric).

Overall favorite: It's a little unfair because it has the shine of newness. but the dress I made for the New Year's Eve wedding I just attended (not blogged yet), a modified version of Burda 06-2010-126. I felt fabulous in this and got many unsolicitations from other guests.


Thank you so much for reading and sewing along with me this year!  Having sewing friends makes such a difference in enjoyment, as well as encouraging me to try new things and improve my techniques.  I appreciate every comment I receive and love reading all that you write as well.


You can see my whole slideshow for 2011 here.  It does not contain all 64 items, because there are things I never photographed or reviewed.   So sue me.*

*As a lawyer, this is not an action I recommend that you pursue.  I disclaim any and all warranties, express or implied.


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I don't have any particular goals for 2012, just to sew what I like and try not to buy too much fabric.  There were several stretches in 2011 where I didn't have time to sew and it made me cranky, but I think my life isn't going to get any less complicated or busy.  I need to learn to accept those busy times and enjoy the sewing that I get to do--time to sew is more of a luxury than a right, alas.  I continue to marvel at those of you who work, have children, *and* sew.  I just have work and sewing and can't always manage to fit it in!

Stashoholism Confessional, Golden D'Or (Dallas, TX) Store Review, and The Inevitable Resolution

My parents live in the Dallas area of Texas, so I was there over the holidays. I had heard of Golden D'Or, on of the fabric warehouses in Dallas's tiny garment district, several times. I went to the garment district once with friends when I was in high school (yes, I have been obsessed with sewing for that long), but my only recollection is falling asleep in the back seat of the car on the way back. It turns out to be (sort of) in between my sister's house and my parents' so I snuck in a quick visit. Oh my! This place is dangerous.

Sorry, long narrative with no photos. I didn't think to bring my camera into the store.

Like everything in Texas, it's huge. I mean huge. The fabrics are roughly organized by type (cotton, silk, wool, home dec), with a secret clearance room way in the back of the warehouse on the left. There is a room of stretch fabrics, but unfortunately it was almost entirely nylon/spandex swimwear type stuff (not great quality, not good prints) rather than everyday garment fabric, and I didn't find anything in there.

I had justified my visit to myself because I have been looking for a nice boucle for a skirt for a couple of months now and found absolutely nothing online. I visited the Joann superstore near my parents' house (superstore=super amount of crap that has nothing to do with sewing) where they had exactly one boucle, 100% acrylic, $19.99/yd. Even with 40% off, that is still $12/yd for nasty, low quality, synthetic fabric. Absolutely not. But Joann is a whole other rant.

When you walk into the warehouse area (after a little bit of a maze from front door to fabric), you find a table of (allegedly) cotton remnants for 99 cents/yd, where I found the little floral print. A burn test proved this to be a rayon/poly rather than cotton, but man, don't you love the print?

Then I asked someone to direct me to the wools. The selection is quite small, but the black and white boucle immediately caught my eye. It was labeled Versace (have looked through Versace's Fall and Pre-Fall runway shows for the past few years and seen zero boucle, so I doubt the veracity of that claim), has tiny metallic threads running through it for just a hint of sparkle, and has a wonderful hand. $20/yd is more than I have ever paid for any fabric, so I had to take a breather before making a decision.

I headed back toward the clearance room. It was mostly filled with uninteresting polyesters, but there were several of these sheer sweaterknits in different colors. Although I already have a transparent moss green sweater, I went with green. I probably should have chosen hot pink instead, but I love that green. At half price, it was $4.25/yd. A burn test shows definitely a man-made content, but I think I got a whiff of wool as well. I passed through cotton on the way into the clearance room and found this Hawaiian print perfect for boxer shorts.

I had now contemplated the boucle. I had come to peace with the price. I will wear a good quality wool black and white boucle skirt every couple of weeks for *years.* The end price will be pennies per wear. There are garments that are not worth splurge fabric, but a wardrobe staple is the exact right place for splurge fabric. I had originally been looking for a colored boucle, so I also picked up the second wool piece (only $10/yd). I would have preferred it to be more in the warm family, since that is what I wear, but the accent threads are purple, turquoise, and pink--all my colors.

What I love about boucle is that it is both a solid and a print. With a solid top, the texture of the boucle adds some interest to the outfit. But with a print top, the boucle acts as a solid. It can be worn with anything!

My total at the register was around $50. This place would be so dangerous for my stash shelves if I lived near it.

Though there are not quite enough of them for the size of the store, the employees were all very friendly and willing to help when I flagged them down. I almost wish I never got good customer service in Texas because it would help me get used to DC's non-existent customer service culture.

Golden D'Or has a small online store, but it is tiny in comparison to the real thing and doesn't have the deals. The prices for non-designer cotton are good, though, if you're looking for novelty-type stuff.



A dear friend is working in Liberia this year and brought me back some local fabrics! The fish print is the favorite local motif. She said that every time they introduce a new colorway in the fish print, everyone rushes down to the market to check it out. The tie-dye is a local specialty--it's very elaborate and the underlying fabric is jacquard to add even more texture.

She showed me one of the skirts she had made in Monrovia and it is sensational! I will have to get photos of everything she's has made when she returns home permanently (probably in a year).

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20 Projects From Stash Without Even Trying

1. Mustard wool crepe side pleat dress

2. For the awesome black and pink houndstooth wool I bought in New York a couple of months ago, another 80s throwback of Butterick 5520. With a peplum--lined in pink satin--and long sleeves, this will be an office power dress for days when I need a little drama in my life.

3. Red, white, and blue floral swiss dot Simplicity peplum blouse

4. Vogue wrap/drape dress of Turkey turquoise and black rayon

5. Silk organza plaid pleated skirt

6. Black/pink batik vintage dress

7. I spent about four months last year obsessed with Vogue 8633 but couldn't find just the right fabric for it. I found it in Montreal, but didn't get a chance to make it before it got too cold for short sleeves (though I could probably wear my ubiquitous black Burda turtleneck under it).

8. Anna Sui black/pink/turquoise silk tank.

9. Blue/orange paisley shirtdress.

10. For the double-sided acetate polka dot fabric I bought at London Textile Warehouse at PR Weekend Philly, this Butterick 5451 wide-collared wrap dress. The body and undercolor will be cut with the light colored fabric as the right side, and the upper collar and tie with the dark colored fabric. I will add sleeves.

11. Purple silk/cotton pleat front Burda blouse

12. Green seersucker surplice pleat dress.

13. Paris white/blue embroiedered shirtdress.



14. Simplicity 2360 with the flutter sleeves out of the silky green and white circle print I bought in Spain while hanging out with Paco. I keep seeing this pattern made on PR and am getting so impatient for Spring!!!


15. Vietnam silk Rachel Comey knot blouse.

16. Yellow eyelet shirtdress.

17. Butterick 5490 out of the bandana print fabric I haven't been able to decide on a pattern for, although I may possibly make this pattern out of the colorful wheel fabric seen in the same photo as the pink and black houndstooth wool above. By the way, why didn't I buy like 100 yards of that orange silk chrysanthemum fabric? I made a dress out of it this summer (one of my many unreviewed projects) and really wish I had some more.

18. Hot pink wool jersey Vogue 1191 Michael Kors crossover knit dress

19. Navy white/floral skirt

20. Green/black abstract print knit crossover Burda dress


Note that this list does not even include the two boucle skirts I plan to make soon, the coat I'm working on now, all the gear for my bike trip (supplex tops, rain pants, rain cape, biking skirts), and a thousand more of my ideas. Assuming one project a week, this list will keep me busy nearly half the year.

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So here goes the resolution: I am going to try to be more mindful in my fabric purchasing this year.

This is simple, but number restrictions just haven't worked for me.

I have very few regrets of things I purchased last year (I really wish I hadn't bought that $18/yd wool from Kashi--the color is really not quite right and it will take me years to get around to sewing) and, given enough time, all of it will get sewn eventually and what I don't love is already in the giveaway pile. But I bought too much for general stash, without considering whether it filled a hole in my closet or in my stash.

While some would legitimately dispute whether there can be a hole in stash that does not correspond to a hole in closet, I'm going to give myself that leeway. At Golden D'Or, I really tried to be mindful of those things. The boucle will fill a skirt hole in my closet. I have only one piece of sweaterknit in stash, and it is a completely different weight than what I purchased. The Hawaiian-style print is for a gift. I do not have any dearth of lightweight woven prints for summer, however, so the little green/blue floral was a needless indulgence.

Here are a few things that will fill holes:

-Animal print knit of the cheetah/leopard variety. The boyfriend comments *every* time he sees something in animal print, has made very clear that he would quite appreciate seeing me in a slinky animal print number, and gets very excited when a pattern envelope shows a dress made up in leopard (I don't think he quite understands that the pattern doesn't come as a kit with the fabric included). I have been looking for a nice knit in an animal print for over a year and found nothing!

-Boucle in the purple/pink/blue family

-nice solid t-shirtings in the type of rayon blend that RTW t-shirts are made of. Never seen this anywhere. All the rayon t-shirt fabric I've seen is way lightweight and unstable. I've not seen a decent cotton t-shirting fabric that won't fade and actually recovers, but that would do.

-I really want ruffled knit fabric in black for a LBD and gray for a skirt. Gray is out of stock here and has been for months, and I've not seen it anywhere else.

-Maybe fabric for a trench, but only if I'm really ready to sew it. Honestly, I don't even know what fabric is used for a water-resistant trench coat.

Wow. I can't even think of anything else. I have many, many cotton prints now. I don't have a lot of silk prints, but I don't have any particular ideas for silk prints. I have plenty of wool (thank you, Carol!!!). I even have several knit prints, though not a ton of them. Add to that the miscellaneous fabrics...and then add some more.

Mindfulness.

Happy 2011 and 2010 in Review

2010 was a busy year in sewing!

The rundown:
22 tops (14 woven and 13 knit)
16 skirts
23 dresses (11 woven and 12 knit)
3 jackets and coats
4 gym pants
3 pajama pants
1 negligee
3 hats
2 grocery bags
1 bathing suit top
assorted panties and boxers (maybe 5 and 3, respectively?)

I don't quite know how to do the math on that, but I'll call it about 73 garments. This may have been my sewingest year yet! You can see the ones I managed to photograph in the slideshow above or in my 2010 Projects album.

I did 52 reviews on PR, an all-time high. I would have preferred to stick with 50 to keep things nice round numbers, but the Endless Combinations contest pushed me over the edge. Despite the high number of reviews, there is a 30% discrepancy between items made and items reviewed! Many of the skirts were just my simple self-drafted knit skirt pattern and are not worth mentioning, but there are some good pieces in the other categories I just didn't get around to photographing and talking about.

I wrote 81 blog posts for the year, down considerably from 111 in 2009 and 105 in 2008. I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself to do really quality posts with construction details and tutorials, which has made blogging a lot of work at times (and led in part to all the unreviewed projects). So for 2011, I think I will try to give myself a break and do some bare bones "Here's the finished garment, hope you like it" posts. As a reader, do you mind posts like that? Or are they useless without more information?

I have no idea how much fabric I bought and how much I sewed, but I'm guessing those numbers don't add up. ;-)






Most interesting garment to sew: Vogue 1161 Rachel Comey. It has a lot of seams and a lot of fussy match-points, so I thought it would be hard. But it wasn't really, it just takes a little time. I love the unexpected open back.








Favorite pattern of the year: Burda 02-2009-123. This is the perfect pattern for a beautiful piece of silk. It's cut in large pieces so the shiftiness of silk is less frustrating *and* it capitalizes on silk's wonderful drape. I made it 3 times in 2010, and I have not ruled out making it again.






Biggest fail of the year: Vogue 7876. Badly drafted, poorly fitted. However, this is sort of glib because it was the pattern that was the problem, not my sewing. It was followed closely by a skirt of Burda 08-2009-121 (you have to click on the technical drawing to see anything). I knew those zigzag pockets would be a disaster over my belly and boy was I right. They pop open in the most unflattering way you can imagine. This style can only be worn by someone with a completely flat stomach. I have not yet and am unlikely to muster the courage to take a photograph of this utter failure of a project (I made another modified Alexis skirt, as seen here, to fill the red-skirt-shaped hole in my closet).







**EDIT** Clearly, when drafting this post I was experiencing a merciful amnesia about The Tuxedo Jacket of Doom. Hands down the biggest fail of the year. The sleeves are unimaginably bad and I will never wear this piece on which I spent so much time and trouble and beautiful fabric.




I tried to choose a favorite or most-worn piece. I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing, but I really couldn't! I am happy with almost everything I made and wear them all about equally.

Looking forward to 2011...hmm. Other than less elaborate blog posts, I will make my perennial resolution to enjoy sewing the fabric I have rather than being distracted by new stuff. Just by looking at my stash album I came up with over 20 projects I really want to make. That is just fabric that absolutely knows what it wants to be and leaves aside all the fabrics that I love but haven't quite settled on a project for.

First project of the year is planned to be a coat, maybe with bound buttonholes. I have 5 or 6 projects photographed to blog so even if the coat takes me a month I won't run out of writing material. If the first few days of the year are any indication, I will be too busy to sew at all, much less as prolifically as in 2010. Let's hope that's not the case!

Thank you to all for joining me in 2010. I so appreciate all your comments, assistance, and encouragement. I love our little sewing community!

Happy 2011 to all, and happy sewing!

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.

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.

Bye Bye Baby, Baby Goodbye

As many people have speculated based on my sewing output (keep in mind that I don't buy RTW, so what you see is what I get), I have a very full closet. I like to delude myself into thinking that I have a normal amount of clothes, but then I visit friends and even the fashionable ones seem to have fewer pieces than I do. Clearly I need to make some more clothes-horsey friends. However, I am good about purging unworn pieces from the closet on a regular basis. I really do wear (almost) everything in there.

I used to have a hard time getting rid of clothes I had sewn. I think we all have a primitive instinct to preserve pieces of ourselves, and an item I've made with my own hands seem like a piece of myself. However, my discovery of Pattern Review in 2006 and blogging in 2007 means I have photos and recollections of most of the things I make and that is enough to satisfy me. I do fret a bit that my custom clothes are probably thrown away/recycled by the good people at Goodwill because they don't have size tags and the perception that homemade=low quality, but once I part with them I must relinquish control over their anthropomorphic fates (in the other direction madness lies).

I don't have a car but do car share with a neighbor: in exchange for parking in the parking space that I purchased, he lets me drive once a month (or more often if I ask, but I don't usually need to). However, he got rid of his car in January and didn't get another one until this month so I had a MOUND of stuff to take to the Goodwill (exhibit A on the left--and that's before I cleaned out shoes and skirts).

I said goodbye to several old friends as shown in the photo at the top of the post, such as my Sherlock Holmes dress (the swayback problem was just too awful), my Tippi Hedren dress (ditto, and I hate the offset on the front stripe and the bagginess under the arms), and this Butterick 4792 retro dress (the front bodice/neckline is just awful on a small bust and there's no getting around it)...and many, many more.

Another old friend pre-dated my PR/blogging days. I made it for the 4th of July 2005--the contrast red band has little stars on it for the holiday. I love this little dress, classic Laura Ashley McCall 4444. However, the time had come to acknowledge that the print (it's fish and flowers) is too juvenile for my nearly 36 year old self and I was uncomfortable when wearing it as my belly pops the skirt out a little. To ease the pain of parting, I took some photos. Now it lives on and will hopefully be enjoyed by someone a little more age (and size) appropriate for it.

And now I have to acknowledge: the bad thing happened. Even though I cleared out at least 35 pounds of clothes and shoes, the closet was still full to bursting. My suits (I do own some, but wear them only under duress) were getting creased and wrinkled from being shoved together too tightly. So I bought a freestanding clothes rack and set it up outside the closet. Yes, the clothes are invading the living space. Well, not really--there is a little niche next to the closet that's not good for much. It's practically part of the closet.

I moved (most of) the in-season dresses to the rack and arranged them by color. I love to look at them. I made the mistake of counting them and I have--to engage in some spin--only a little over a month's worth. That's not too many, right?

What do you do with the clothes you've sewn when it's time to let them go?

Spring Mini Wardrobe, Blog Housekeeping, Hairdos, & Philly!

Just for my own amusement I had to make up a storyboard for my Spring mini wardrobe! (Although Anonymous kindly asked to see the Simplicity 2938 tank with the aqua Alexis skirt--voila!) The name "Silk Spins Into Spring" arose when I realized that three of the four garments are silk; the silk garments all come from stash, too--up to 4 years old! I had everything done but the lining for the aqua skirt before the PR contest deadline, but alas the lining did not arrive until a few days later. I would just like it to be known that I am actually capable of following through on a plan *and* making separates *and* making coordinated looks. This actually worked out really well for me. It was very motivating and I have since been on an "endless combinations" kick of making work tops and skirts, each one matching the one before, with only a few (ahem) deviations. The photo shoot for all the combinations is here.

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A few of you have noticed that I got my Spring haircut! I first got this cut two years ago, after Single White Female-ing a co-worker into telling me who her hairdresser is (Claire Burnham, who is fantastic and worth every penny) and asking for the exact same cut as my co-worker. Luckily, she wears her hair straight, so we don't look matchy matchy together. I experimented with pin curls and eventually realized that hanging my head upside down for five minutes with mousse, a diffuser, and 80s style "sprunching" (bunching and scrunching and mooshing my hair) I could sort of approximate curls. I think the best it has ever looked was for my Simplicity 3503 photo shoot at left. Mostly it is kind of a Monet, to quote Clueless--it looks curly from a distance but don't look too closely!

I love it, even if it involves actual work. I let it grow longer in winter due to wearing hats for warmth; the "curls" will not stand up to a strong wind, much less a hat. When my hair is longer my "style" is to comb it while wet and that's it. I like the little flip it does, but that is totally coincidental and au naturel.

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I finally got around to doing some blog housekeeping. It should not affect subscriptions or reading in any way and the blog address has not changed. The first blog I started was a travel blog, and I registered my primary email address (gmail) for my username Gretchen the Household Deity (she was a gift that could not have been less to my taste but I could not get rid of, so I had to find some way to make her at all relevant to my life). When I started my sewing blog I had to use my non-primary email address (hotmail) as my user name. It turns out I do a lot more sewing blogging than travel blogging! Well, Google is all-seeing, and when I log into blogger it automatically logs me in with my gmail address so I always had to then log out, log back in with my hotmail address, this would kick me out of gmail, and then I'd have to log back in to gmail, and I had to remember to do this every time I restarted my browser and obviously I didn't always remember. It took about 40 minutes and logging in to each account approximately a dozen times but I have now switched which username is registered to which email address.

Blah blah blah, this is not interesting to anyone but me. The only relevant thing for you is that now all my old posts are listed under "Gretchen the Household Deity" (except a few I had accidentally originally posted under that name) and going forward all posts will be under The Slapdash Sewist. Don't be alarmed--I have not been hacked and both usernames are actually me.

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Who else is excited for PR Weekend Philly????? I am guessing everyone else is just as excited as me, but just like me too busy frantically trying to finish a new outfit to answer! I've done plenty of sewing lately, but all my projects are work clothes that won't travel well so I'm trying to finish up a new outfit of travel friendly knits. Now I just have to figure out how much fabric I can buy without endangering the structural integrity of my house... These fabrics are my last haul from Jomar (only one of them still in stash! not bad!!!), and that's not even taking into account the warehouse we're visiting in New Jersey.

Giveaway Winner, Coming to NYC, and Patterns are the Window to the Soul

The random drawing winner of the sundress patterns is Mary is Sew Fast! Very exciting, and I am hoping that Spring will get here soon. It was beautiful at the beginning of last week but now we're raining raining and the Potomac has overflowed its banks. I suppose rain is part of Spring, so maybe it is Spring? I will mail your patterns on Wednesday.

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Thank you so much for all of the amazing compliments on my 40s Faux Shirtdress! Wow. I knew I liked the dress but I didn't realize it was that flattering. Thank you for making me feel pretty.

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I am heading to NYC! I plan to arrive sometime on Friday, March 26. I'll be free that afternoon and Saturday morning, March 27. I will definitely be spending some time in the garment district!!!! Let me know if you want to meet up!

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It was Fashion Sewing Club at G Street's Falls Church location on Saturday, so of course I had to do a little fabric shopping. I was uncertain about the gold sweater knit (it's gold in color and has some metallic threads running through it), but I thought about it all during the meeting and finally decided I dug it. I have two wraparound sweaters that I bought from H&M many years ago and I LOVE them. I will copy them in the gold sweater knit. I was also thinking of maybe just a simple t-shirt and/or a shrug for dressy clothes. I have a silver shrug (RTW), but not a gold one.

I intended the cotton print to be a blouse, but then I paired it up with the orange tie silk I got from FFC and I am so in love with how they look together. So now it needs to be a dress that can be worn with a belt, maybe some kind of shirtdress arrangement. My candidates right now are Simplicity 2694 (the view with sleeves minus the gun flaps, although I've been wanting to make the view with gunflaps forever), Butterick 5315 (probably with a narrowed skirt as I have only two yards), Simplicity 2579 (although the whole reason I like the pattern is that shaped midriff, which might be too obscured by a belt), Burda 05-2009-122 (although I don't think the fabric has enough drape), and maybe Burda 01-2008-121. The Butterick is my top choice at the moment, but the reviews on PatternReview have not been favorable. It sounds like it has the tight/restrictive armhole issue I've run into before, so I'd have to deal with that.

In a recent post, TE said she had gone to G Street Fabrics' Centerville location and been disappointed and asked whether she should try another location. I have never been to the Centerville store, only the Falls Church store and a half dozen times to the Rockville store. So I can't say if it has less selection there. As you know, I mostly shop at the $2.97/yd table but the thing is that the merchandise is constantly changing. There may be nothing interesting, or there may be only one interesting piece. It's rare that I find more than one thing that I like on it. The regular stock at the Falls Church location is good, but very expensive (polyester knits for $19.99/yd) so I don't buy much at full price. I think Rockville's regular stock is slightly not as good as Falls Church (though I haven't been to the new location). So G Street isn't necessarily a great destination from out of town for a bargain shopper because you have to visit many times over months (and, ahem, years) to accumulate a stash of fabrics you like.

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My mom went through her sewing supplies and got rid of a bunch of patterns (it must be something in the air). She asked if I wanted them, I said sure. The box was huge! I thought it would just be a few little patterns.

I have to say, I felt a little weird going through her patterns, like I was prying into her fantasy life. My mom stayed home with us when I was a kid, and had her first job when I was in junior high as an occasional substitute teacher. Starting when my younger sibs were in high school she worked various jobs at the mall, an animal vaccine manufacturing plant, and in lost luggage for an airline. Although she encouraged me and my sister to pursue our professional dreams, she did not want to work outside the home and did so only out of financial necessity (although I suppose financial necessity is the reason most of us go to work, regardless of how much we like the job!).

So it was surprising to me to pull out pattern after pattern for 80s Power Suits from the box. She didn't need them as a teacher, nor for any job she worked subsequently. It was so curious to see them and imagine her imagining herself in them, an important person in the corporate world. It was a facet of her I'd never seen before and it seemed like these daydreams were private ones I shouldn't know about.



There is also a plethora of 80s tie front and romantic-style blouses. That See & Sew 3403 is totally current.




I am digging the dress in Simplicity 5835. It's another thing that I think is totally current (with the waist raised a couple of inches). I like the exaggerated cut-on sleeve and the little neck frill.

I wonder what sort of aspirational life my pattern stash reveals, beyond the apparent aspiration to own every pattern that is put into print. I have lots and LOTS of dress patterns, both knit and woven, so I think that reflects my taste. I have more purse patterns than I've ever made purses to justify, but they are a blip compared to the size of the rest of the collection. I do have quite a few suit patterns, but that technically fits into my lifestyle (technically), although I never sew any.

What secrets does your pattern collection reveal about you?