The April Dress. Summer of 1995 (McCalls 7523)

Greetings courtneylovebears. I can’t believe you’re ten years older than me. How did we get so old? Oh, sigh. Anyway. I know 1995 was a tough year for you but nevertheless, I took a trip in my magic sewing-time-machine and made myself a little baby doll dress. Remember how obsessed I was? Well, thanks to LAP, I snagged McCalls 7523 – a straight from the 90’s babydoll beauty – and made myself a nice rose bedecked tent. Here. I’ll model it with some hello kitty socks and era-appropriate footwear…

McCalls 5094–the February Dress. A little roses and lace.

Yay! It’s done! The February dress. After the never-ending string of muslins, I just did one final tweak (shaving another inch or so from the bottom of the center of the front bodice piece) and went ahead with the real-life dress. Behold!

The February dress…McCalls 5094. The dress of a thousand muslins.

Good day cats and kittens. It’s currently 54 degrees in my house (give or take 20 degrees) and Lucy the stenchhound is earning her keep as a foot warmer. This isn’t stopping me from my dreams of sun and sundresses and flip flops and all other good things. Which brings us to the February dress, a cute dress that’s been a bear to fit. Mostly because of all the tweaks I added. Here’s the muslin… (note the elegant footwear)

The January dress… it’s a wrap

I can’t resist puns. Today’s post is ANOTHER McCalls dress. As I said yesterday, I was so inspired by Stitchywitch’s wrap version that I made my own wrap version today. As a special bonus, I’ll also unveil the shirt version…

Year of the dress… January edition. McCalls 5974

I have been a busy, buzzing bee the last few days! Yesterday I made my crazy Japanese elastic band skirt as well as my unveiled-today McCall’s 5974. Today I made a shirt version of the McCall’s dress and a turtleneck from Kwik Sew 3003. We’ll get to the shirts tomorrow. Today I’m all about the McCalls dress – the January edition of my year of the dress plot.  I chose this dress after seeing it on Andrea’s blog, The New Vintage Wardrobe.  And THEN, while getting myself together to write this post, I saw that Stitchywitch recently did a lovely wrap version that she just blogged about! Now I must immediately re-do the dress in the wrap version… but first, let’s look at some photos.

Self-stitched September - Day 6. Cherries on top and getting RTW jeans to fit.

I celebrated Day 6 of self-stitched September (and Labor Day) in red, white and blue! My favorite shirt - stretchy tank with cherries - some slightly refashioned jeans and bare feet. When I put on shoes, it was gardening galoshes and pink flip flops. I really, really hate wearing shoes.

The tank is McCall's 5990 (again). The jeans are from Avenue, with my now-standard (for RTW jeans) double dart treatment in the back waist. My waist is about 11 inches smaller than my hips, which is a much larger difference than what seems standard for jeans. If I buy jeans to fit my hips, I usually have to take out around 6 to 8 inches in the waist. I do this by adding in darts centered on the back pockets. By ending the darts around the yoke, I don't have too much of a problem with the back pockets gaping. I have one pair of jeans that I had to take in a LOT - closer to 9 inches - so I lengthened the darts to end inside the back pockets. That pair of jeans has obvious pocket gaping - they sit out a good inch and half from my body! I usually just wear jeans for gardening and hanging around the house, so it works!

Day 6.

Full circle skirt, served three ways...

Fifties fever is part of my fall wardrobe plan and I've finally finished my version of the menswear-fabric full-circle skirt and bustier look that's popping up in blogs and the September issue of Vogue.

                                                

While my version is perhaps not as bustier-ish as it could be, after seeing the photos side-by-side, I'm more pleasantly surprised than I thought I'd be. I'm sure I have some brown velvet ribbon that will complete the look!

Self-Stitched September - Day 5 (or rather very, very early on Day 6)

Here's a stunning photo of me in my Day 5 outfit. I took this at about one in the morning, after having finally finished hemming and pressing the horsehair braid on McCall's 5811. I Just have to sew the lace on the lining and affix the dreaded hook and eye and I'll be ready to post finished project photos!! The shirt is McCall's 5990, a cami pattern that is my TNT for summer tanks. This version was one of my first attempts and I was still having some problems getting the straps in the right spot on my narrow shoulders! Hello black bra! How classy!

A change of scenery... our dimly lit living room!

Self Stitched September Day 1 - the wheels are coming off the bus

Well! Self-stitched September started off with a bang! I actually spent a majority of my day in what could be loosely termed as 'refashioned' clothes - alas, no pictures, but I was in the garden wearing (1) a pair of cut off jeans that I cleverly made cargo and ipod pockets for using the 'cut off' part (2) a five-dollar Old Navy tank top that was ratty two years ago when I hacked off the lace that was looking very sad spiderweb and (3) my gardening galoshes (hot pink, white polka dots) that sprung a leak last spring. I, in a MacGyver-styled move, fixed yesterday using super-shiny duct tape from my husbands secret stash. If that's not a refashioned outfit, I'm not sure what is!

Finally finished! The fitted shirt (Butterick 5333)

Well, this seems almost like a let-down after all the muslins, but the fitted shirt from Butterick 5333 is finally complete! And I love it!!

Putting together the shirt was a little bit of a pain. The most painful part was probably the fabric, which is a silk/wool blend and very prone to unraveling and leaving little bits everywhere. Also, it was very itchy. The pattern called for the bodice and midriff pieces to be self-lined, which I did, but when I sewed it together it was (A) ITCHY!! (B) pretty bulky and (C) full of ripples.

I ripped out the lining and recut using lining fabric. The final is much nicer, although I wish I had cut a lining piece for the skirt part of the shirt, because I like things to be finished and it ended up being sort of strange having to finish things just on one piece. I ended up using bias tape to cover the seam allowances and the part of the zipper tape that showed on the bottom half of the skirt. I also used hem lace to hem it up.

The lining and the bias tape

It was sort of a pain to get the lining in correctly - I always have a problem tacking down the lining a little short so that the outside of the shirt is a bit baggy. Also, the silk/wool fabric was a bit stretchy from the way it was woven, so the lining was smaller than the shirt after all of my ripping and resewing. I had a hard time getting everything to line up by the zipper and it looks sloppier than I'd like...

Ooooo... that lining is a mess!!

Also, since I used a different colored lining and it was hard to understitch very far, I was worried about the yellow peaking out. I don't think it does, but am still toying with making some nice little bias bindings from the silk/wool fabric for the arms and neck - just to be sure!

I really, really love the shirt and will probably use this pattern again! Here it is with a few different looks!

 

Up next... well, it's actually already sewn, but McCall's 5811, a full-circle skirt, done up in the same silk/wool fabric - I'm wearing it on the left photo, but need to put on the waistband, let it hang for a few days (perhaps a few months, seeing how stretchy this fabric is!) and hem it. I'm thinking of moving on to the suit jacket from Butterick 5147 if I can gather my strength enough to cut out the pattern pieces!!

And just to recap from the very first post on this shirt... I started with the 'look' from the fall Louis Vuitton line, picked out the Butterick pattern and ended up here....

I'm happy!! I also reviewed on patternreview.com!

A better way to cut a full circle skirt

I spent a little too much time today trying to find something, ANYTHING, online that would support my extreme reluctance to cut a lining for my full circle skirt. It was cutting morning. Following my four muslins for Butterick 5333, I pulled out my nice piece of brown and black silk/wool blend to cut out the shirt and the skirt - McCalls 5811 - a true, full circle skirt.

I hate cutting out full circle skirts. I use my kitchen table for cutting and it's not really big enough. I can never get the fabric under control and the weight of it skews the fabric. I don't really have enough pins to attach the pattern. I get crabby.

I finished cutting the pieces and got ready to cut the lining. I wanted to line the skirt. The silk/wool blend is itchy. I have a dress with a full circle skirt and it's lined and feels luxurious. It would be the right thing to do.

I laid the lining fabric on the table and started to cry. To reconsider. To grab anything close by to keep it from sliding off the table. I looked at the pattern piece lying in a big heap on the counter. I looked at the cutting layout on the pattern guide. I poured a cup of coffee and went into the living room to google.

First I tried 'should I line a full circle skirt?' I got a lot hits for vintage-themed websites. Not what I was looking for. I tried again with 'do I HAVE to line my full circle skirt?'. I got a history lesson on poodle skirts and a few links to Gerties blog. I got some links to costume-making websites.

I clicked on one of them and saw the most wonderful thing! So simple! So do-able! Rather than awkwardly folding the fabric from selvedge to selvedge, dividing by two, folding in half again, cutting out a quarter the skirt, then flipping the pattern piece over to cut out another quarter (at least, that appeared to be what the pattern instructions said to do...) I could fold the fabric the long way (selvedge edges together), then fold in half again, then pin the fabric on ALL FOUR layers of fabric, cutting out everything at once!!

Once I cut along the outer and inner edges of the pattern piece, I'm left with one actual big circle with a hole in the middle - doesn't work for easily getting on and off! And I need a zipper! You can sort of see here what I'm talking about...

I need to make one more cut - the pattern is designed to cut out one half of my full circle at a time. I refold (I just unfolded to take a photo!) and cut along the left side, according to the pattern directions.

There it is! It was SO much easier to cut this way, even with the extra photo-taking steps! And I did the right thing instead of the lazy thing. The skirt will be much more comfortable with a lining!

This fabric was around 58" wide and the skirt will be just below knee length for me and the pattern just BARELY fit. In fact, I will have a bit of selvedge in the seam allowance in a few places. I'm not sure I'd cut this way for the actual skirt fabric, but it was perfect for the lining fabric!