Simplicity 2615, Prison Matron Chic

Pattern Review is having its Knock-Off Contest, which is one I always enjoy so I wanted to get in on the action. I chose this Derek Lam dress as my inspiration. When I first looked at the Derek Lam, it appeared to be a match for Simplicity 2615. However, when I went back to look at it, I saw that it is actually a wrap dress (at least to the waist), though Saks erroneously described it as "V neck." Further, the neckline is created by bands and the dress is gathered into the bands. However, at that point I had already cut out the Simplicity Pattern and wasn't in the mood to do a complicated knockoff so I just stuck with what I had.

The pattern is designed with a center front seam, which is left unsewn to the neck opening. I don't much care for the look of a center front seam, so I cut the CF on the fold. I thread traced the centers front of the facing and the dress, then lined up the centers and sewed a V to create the front opening. It took me a couple of tries to get it perfectly placed, but in the end I am happy with the opening. The fabric is very lightweight and I did not interface the neck opening on the dress, which was a mistake. I had to retrofit some interfacing into the corners on the dress.

As with my 1946 dress, I used Beth of Sunny Gal Studios' clean finish technique for the facing. It involves sewing the interfacing to the facing, right sides together, along the outer edge. Then you flip the interfacing to the wrong side and fuse in place. This time I sewed the shoulder seams of the facing and interfacing separately. I trimmed the interfacing shoulder seam to within 1/8 inch of the seamline. It creates such a neat finish! If you have to have a facing (and I hate them for their floppy ways), this eases the pain a little.

This dress is truly a bust. I like the pockets, but that's about it. The combination of gray color, the pattern forming a horizontal stripe, and the unfitted style all add up to Prison Matron Chic.

I tried to add a little interest to the sleeves by adding epaulet tabs. The tabs have lace on them and I sewed a decorative button at the top (the tabs are permanently sewn on). But maybe the military reference just makes the prison matron look even more pronounced.

Dressing it up with a colorful obi and statement necklaces likewise fizzles.

I do not finish 100% of the projects I start, but UFOs are not a problem for me. In this case, I wish I could have been able to just call it on this project and throw it away. But I felt compelled to finish it and spent way too long futzing with it, trying to make it wearable. I'm not sure I will even wear it once. I think it will just go directly into the Goodwill pile. Alas. But now that it's done I can finally move on to something else!

I was really drawn to this pattern, but I'm not sure I will give it another try. I think it might be more suited to a top than a dress and in a crisper fabric than I used. But do I want to risk another cut of fabric on this? I'm not sure.

All photos are here and the pattern review is here

I'm Back and Netherlands Wardrobe in Action

I assume you probably gathered I am back from the Netherlands from the fact that Cidell has been posting like a mad woman. I don't have that kind of stamina. I spent last week going to bed very early to get over jet lag rather than editing photos and writing posts!

I have finally finished posting all my photos--you can see them here.

All the mad sewing paid off, even the very last "just one more" project, which was the gray wool jersey shrug. I ended up wearing that a lot! More details to come about the trip and the wardrobe!

A Rainbow of Packing and Stashoholism Confessional: Thrift Store Edition

I can't believe Cidell and I leave on our bike trip tomorrow!!!! I have been sewing like crazy (as per usual for trips), each time saying, "This is the last one, I promise." I was not supposed to set foot in the sewing room last night, but I found myself sneaking in a wool jersey shrug at the last minute. When I confessed my inability to stop sewing, I was accused of fitting the profile of this Onion article. Lol.

The list of items I have sewn for this trip:
-6 tops
-4 skirts
-2 sweaters
-2 shrugs
-2 scarves
-4 ersatz "packing cubes" (mesh bags with zippers)
-rain pants
-rain pullover
-rain spats
-rain mitts
(the rain helmet cover is for home use; helmets aren't worn in the Netherlands as the bike paths are off the roadway)

OK, that is a little crazy, I admit. I made a list three weeks ago with 7 things on it; I finished the list and made an additional sweater, shrug, and the packing cubes. It's been a busy three weeks!

But worth it! I started packing last night and was just tickled by my rainbow of clothing, building on the items I sewed for the mini wardrobe contest. Each top goes with at least two skirts and vice-versa. I am bringing 6 skirts and 6 tops for 10 days of clothing needs, so one of each will only get one wear. I tried to pare down a skirt and only bring 5, but honestly I felt like I would have been leaving one of my children behind. Not sure I should admit that.

There is no wifi on the boat so I am not bringing my computer and likely won't post again until I get back. Cidell is my best photographer so I hope to have lots of great pictures of all these projects to show you. Cross your fingers for blue skies!

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Cidell and I have been doing training rides for the trip, and on our Gwynns Falls ride we stopped at DeBois Textiles. What a fantastic thrift/vintage store! The front is a well-curated collection of vintage clothing and shoes, extremely well-priced for the vintage market. The front also has a surprisingly large collection of textiles (hard to tell if they are vintage or not). The textiles are mostly home dec, but I did find one fabulous piece that can be used for garment sewing. I didn't make the photo very exciting, but it's a jacquard in off-white and my favorite shade of green.

How perfect is Burda 05-2011-108 for this fabric? I didn't even realize until I looked at it again that it calls for jacquard, and recommends using both sides of the fabric--which I was planning to do. The pattern is perfect for me as it is both professional (with some more shoulder coverage) and bikeable. The holy grail!

Simplicity 6930, Ruffle Shoulder Blouse

I was first seized by this project two years ago and it has been on the "right away, sew it up" list since then. To be fair, I actually sewed it last June--only a year behind--but it hung needing the hem to be fixed for nearly a year before I got to it. The hem on this gave me fits, and the back hem is *still* crooked. I never understood why people hated hemming, but now that I've made so many tops recently I feel the pain! Skirt and dress hems never give me much trouble, but hemming a top is a nightmare. I have slightly crooked hips and shoulders and while everything kind of evens out by the time you get to my knees, shirt hems are a whole other story.

I saw this top first, the Abaete Lauren top, on Weekend Designer. He gave instructions for drafting the top, but I am more of a frankenpattern-er than a drafter, so I went through the archive to see what I could find.



My original plan was to make a princess seam top and catch the ruffles into the princess seam, as in Simplicity 2360. This vintage 1966 pattern has a side princess panel that seemed perfect. However, I realized I'd still have to draft a ruffle and felt unenthused. Then I hit on the idea of using the sleeve from the Duchess of Windsor dress, BWOF 03-2008-116. I had even made the dress before and had the sleeves already traced out. So much easier.


I adore the print on this fabric, though I'm not wild about the texture of silk crepe in general. It has a sort of "paint with water" look of smeary dots, and I love that it has both pink and red in the print so it matches either color skirt. Since it's a floral pattern I placed the pieces carefully to avoid the headlights situation. Or so I thought. Could I have done a *worse* job? Not only is there a GIANT flower centered absolutely perfectly on one side, the other sides looks small and saggy because of the slightly lower placed second flower. Thank goodness I had enough fabric to re-cut the front. I don't normally buy extra fabric so it was really lucky in this case!

As the envelope back shows, this pattern is drafted with a button back. I have ranted before how the button back discriminates against the single woman. I changed it to a center back seam with button slit at the top, figuring I could put a zipper into a side seam if need be. It turns out, this is very easy to pull over the head even with the button closed, so I even tacked it closed at the top.

As the fabric is slightly sheer, not to mention a little rough (this is not high quality silk crepe) I lined/underlined the blouse with cotton batiste. The sleeves are unlined and French seamed. I did a faux Hong Kong finish at the center back seam, and treated the batiste as underlining at the side seams, which are French seamed. I finished the neckline with a bias strip, the outer edge of which I hand-stitched to the underlining to keep it in place. I put in the hem by hand.

Consistent with most of my vintage pattern experience, there is a LOT of ease drafted into this top. My pattern is a size 12 for 32 bust. I have a 32 bust but my waist is a couple inches larger than it "should" be for a size 12. As far as I can remember, I didn't adjust the size of the pattern (though as I recall I lengthened it--my memory is hazy) and it came out HUGE. Although it's not portrayed that way on the envelope, the description of the garment is "overblouse." Maybe that explains the size? Anyway, I added front and back vertical darts to take up about 6 inches of ease (two 1.5" darts in front, two 2" darts in back). It is still quite loose and can be pulled over the head.


I am pleased with how well this knockoff turned out. My sleeves are not as ruffly as the original--if you visit Weekend Designer's post you'll see he recommends a circular ruffle, and the Duchess of Windsor sleeves are full but not a full circle--but they are dramatic enough for me. It looks fab with my Burda 01-2009-112 corset waist pencil skirt, if I do say so myself, and after much experimentation I found a way to style it with a red skirt as well (the belt was the issue--I wish I had a beige-ish one but haven't been able to find such a thing).

I'm glad I finally got around to fixing the wonky hem so I can actually wear it! I have no idea what I was thinking when I first put in the hem. Not only was the front hem crooked by at least 1.5 inches, the front was about 2 1/2 inches shorter than the back. So bizarre. And of course it still isn't right. I finally decide to put a hand hem in something and now I'm cursed to have to re-do it 3 times!

All photos are here and the pattern review is here.

Spring/Summer 2011 Designer Inspiration

Pattern Review's Knock Off contest will run in May, so it's time to get inspired!

I am not wowed by the selection of dresses online at Saks and Neiman Marcus this year. As usual, it is almost entirely neutral (aka drab and boring) colors with few prints. That's a hurdle I can overcome, but there is also a lot of unshaped clothing that is fitted with belts. As the old SNL sketch goes, "Just cinch it!" While I do enjoy loose, airy pieces in the heat of summer, a belt is actually way more sweaty than a dress that has shape at the waist with several inches of ease.

That said, there were some unshaped pieces that appealed to me. At least they have full skirts for biking. It is very inconvenient, this lifestyle change of bicycle commuting. Last year I put a lot of effort into sewing fitted and pencil skirts but I cannot bike to work in them! It's okay for skirts, I guess, because theoretically I could wear a biking skirt to commute and then change at work. But I just hate carrying extra clothes around for no reason and I don't want to walk into the building in the same raggedy skirt every day. Not that such a skirt is raggedy because it doesn't even exist yet (I'm thinking black A line knit). And for dresses, just no. I don't want to wear an entirely different outfit to commute in.

In the land of knock-offs this summer, Simplicity is the clear winner. Other than my vintage Stretch & Sew peasant blouse, *all* the matching patterns are Simplicity (including one New Look).



I like the features on this dress: the back yoke with gathered lower back; the pleated neckline, and the pseudo-raglan sleeves formed by the yoke.

When I saw it, I immediately thought of Simplicity 2594 (which is the same as lower priced It's So Easy 2418). It has the yoke and the gathered back below the yoke. The yoke would need to be extended in both directions and the front redrafted into pleats instead of a cowl, but I think these changes would actually be less complicated than they sound.

I have been trying to decide what fabric I have that would work for this!







Now, the gorgeous silk fabric in this Derek Lam would set you back a pretty penny. The description says only "silk" with no information on the weave. It doesn't look like charmeuse, but it also doesn't look sheer enough for voile. Possibly a lightweight twill weave?

I can really see this working with a silk cotton, one of my favorite blends. I am lusting after this one, only $22.74 per yard! Maybe when I have sewn up my entire stash I can justify that purchase. Give me about 15 years.... Or maybe I can get it for my birthday. That's a little closer in time, but I suspect the fabric will be gone in 4 months. Thinking about it, I have a lightweight gray rayon with a small print in stash that would work.

Although the fabric is unattainable, the pattern is a good match for Simplicity 2615. The only difference I can tell based on the level of detail available is that in the Simplicity the ties are threaded through a long casing/belt loop in the front and tied in the back and the Derek Lam has a separate sash tied in the front.

Exact same pattern.
Sash tied in back=Becky Homecky.
Sash tied in front=high end designer.

Very simple equation.



A fitted dress! Here we have the classic sheath with a roll neck collar. Where have I seen that before? Oh yes, New Look 6968. Here the pattern is somewhat different, as the designer version appears to have princess seams and the New Look has bust and waist darts in the bodice. I can't tell whether the Teri Jon has a waist seam because of the belt, but I think it does as you can see princess lines breaking the print in the bodice but the print on the skirt appears continuous.

The standout feature here is the collar. The New Look roll collar has a little extra flip thingy, but I have the pattern and from my perusal of the directions a while back the flip thingy is not an integral part of the collar and can be left off. Too bad my floral print pique is already spoken for!



For some reason this dress really grabbed me when I was browsing. It is entirely impractical for my life so I kept going. But I had to go back and snap it. I don't know what it is I love here. I am not really into the 70s Studio 54 vibe, which this has in spades, and it really REALLY does not fit into my lifestyle. There is no conceivable event, place, or occasion for me to wear a dress like this. The only place I can even picture it is for dinner at an expensive beach resort in Ibiza or on a yacht. Believe me, nobody has invited me onto their yacht lately.

It actually would not be hard to make, barring the difficult fabric. My trusty vintage Stretch & Sew 1582 Peasant blouse, pattern source for 3 knockoffs so far, could be adapted to it with the sole change being the deep V back, though I wouldn't go that low; lightweight flowy silk without a bra would be vulgar in real life, even on a IBTC founding member like me. I suppose that's why I picture it in a bathing suit situation; it wouldn't matter if your bikini band showed in the back and through the low front slit, so it would solve the bra problem.

If anyone wants to invite me to their mansion on the French Riviera to party with Brad and Angelina, I'll get right on this project. I will warn you that I would probably use the wrong fork at some point.

I had been planning to make the Michael Kors striped shift I discussed here for the knock-off contest, but it doesn't have much of a wow factor *and* looking at it more closely I see that it has studded ribbon trim on the shoulder and side seams. I am not a studded ribbon trim kind of gal, so my "knock off" would not be faithful to the original. The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking Derek Lam.

Of course, all this depends on how tired and sewn out I'll be after my bike trip! I get back on May 15 and the contest ends the 31st. I started this week with 7 things on my to-sew list. Only one of them was somewhat complicated and it is done! (Well, done-ish; an hour or so of hand-sewing remains.) I'm down to six things to sew: two skirts (one zip, one elastic waist), a top, a shrug, and two scarves.

T minus 15 days--I leave two weeks from tomorrow!

All my inspiration photos are here.

Are you joining the knock off contest? What are you sewing?