Wedding Dress #4: The Rehearsal

J!'s sister was married Nov. 1st, so of course we flew out for a lovely wedding weekend in MA. It was loads of fun. Plus, I don't think I've ever appreciated Halloween quite so much as when I spent it back east. Halloween as a final fling before the cold weather sets in makes a lot more sense in a state that gets snow than it does in Central California, where I grew up.

Anyway, I made up a quick, casual dress for the rehearsal dinner. More for my own enjoyment than out of necessity. I had bought the fabric a while back (one of my first fabric purchases, actually) and after sewing so many dresses with slinky crepe fabrics, it was a pleasure to cut into a nice crisp cotton again.

I really like the neckline on this Simplicity 2846 pattern. I think I'll make this dress again, using Amy Butler's Lotus--the morning glory pattern for the dress and polka dots for the trim. I might also replace the ribbons on this version of the dress--they look kind of like reflective strips. I promise, with a white sweater they look much better.

The puppy comes over to investigate . . .

Leaf Bowls

I really like these Oak Leaf bowls from Martha Stewart. They are the kind of gift that would be perfect for one of my grandmothers, who entertains a lot but who has more than enough bowls. That said, I can't help but feel that this is not the kind of project I'll probably do. For one thing, it involves what looks like a lot of tedious cutting. I hate cutting. For another thing, I don't have a local fabric store that carries wool tweed. And I probably wouldn't order five different kinds of wool tweed online, since to make the shipping charges worth it I'd have to order way more wool tweed than I really need. Or end up making leaf bowls for everyone I know.

I wonder, though, if you could do this project with the felt, a really heavy interfacing, and quilting fabric? I doubt the cotton fabric would have enough heft to hold up, but maybe. If I had an actual studio, I'd probably try this out. This is why I need a sewing studio. So that I could simply open up my wool tweed stash, pick out a few yellows and oranges that didn't make it into my fall wardrobe the year before, and turn out some leaf bowls.

Or I could just spend hours and hours creating new fabric designs to send to Spoonflower.

Pattern Search

I wish that someone would start a website where I could go and ask a knowledgeable group of people "hey, does anyone know the pattern number of a Vogue, Christian Dior dress and coat ensemble? It's a yellow coat. Double-breasted."

A bright yellow coat. That's got to be memorable, right?

At least, I did wish for that website until I remembered about the Vintage Sewing Pattern Wiki. Ask and you shall receive!

I missed it at So Vintage Patterns (in my size, too!). Guess it's back to eBay.

The Dress Lodger, Sheri Holman

How is she dressed, pray tell? By her clothes, surely we will know her.

Her dress is blue. How descriptive. But of what color blue?

Ye, of course in better years we too attended spectacles where nymphs and water sprites yearned for mortal men, where mermaids brushed their hair and admired themselves in flashing mirrors. You woudl have us picture, then, the backdrop of that theatrical Sea: the billows of cyan silk, the azure pasteboard waves, the ultramarine netting, tangled with sea horses and starfishes, flung to represent an aquatic paradise. We will close our eyes and do as you command. Ah, how cool they look while we sweat in the theatre of a hot summer's night, spying on their underwater world with its hierarchy and despot king and chorus of rebellious daughters; a world so rich and foreign, yet so happily fraught with the politics of our own. Now, to that cool, blinding blue, we are to add the color of our play's artificial sky, appreciating the scene painter's ability to reach back into his childhood and extract the extinct shade of cerulean that floated over the River Wear before the factories were built. Yes, we are old enough to remember that color. We are old enough, certainly, to remember a good many other things besides.

To the complex blue body of her dress, you would have us add wide-blown gigot sleeves swelling from bare shoulders and a matching belt cinched at her narrow waist, creating the inverted-triangle look so popular among fashionable women of today. Festoon the entirety with tulle and white bouffant in three puffy tiers from knee to ankle-length hem. Tie her up with a handful of bows down the bodice. She is a sumptuous, fantastical wedding cake. A walking confection. A tasty morsel. And yet, still you hesitate. Certainly no one other than the finest lady might afford such a singular dress. So what is wrong?

Wedding Dress #3

I fussed around with a number of different ideas for WD #3. The wedding was in Malibu, at a very nice ranch, so I wanted something pretty dressy. On the flip side, though, this wasn't a formal wedding, so I didn't want a gown.

This is another pattern I got from my grandmother. I love that this dress pattern is so simple and yet can be either formal or casual, depending on the fabrics used. A brocade would make this into a rich, luxuriant dress, but it would also work in a simple cotton print. As it happened, my grandmother had also given me several yards of a black and white print. A polyester mix, I think, judging by the very odd texture--one side is rather slinky and the other is almost ridged. When she initially gave it to me, I had no idea what to do with it, frankly. After all, black and white stripes on top of an arabesque flower pattern doesn't go with everything. It worked out well, though, when I paired it with a simple black for the bodice. Too bad the jacket pattern was missing. But I love that this dress, which fits perfectly, reminds me so much of my grandmother--her pattern and her fabric.

I'm not even sure how to describe that pattern--stripes and paisley?

Memo to Molyneux

I've realized what it is that bothers me about the skirt on this dress:


This is totally a "Pull Tab to Open" dress. What horribly awkward placement! Too bad, because I really do like the neckline.

Wedding Dress #2

Our second wedding of the summer was in Topeka, KS, where my sister-in-law grew up. It was a fantastic wedding, with all kinds of touching details, like outrageous "Bride" and "Groom" sunglasses, gift bags with tasty snacks in the hotel rooms (S knows our family too well already), and a wonderful "Welcome to Kansas" family barbecue, complete with tornado! I was very excited--I haven't been in a tornado since I was very young. It consisted mostly of everyone convening in the basement for snacks and cards. Good times.

My sister M and I stood on the groom's side, with our other brother K and M's husband S (hmm, too many initials there, I think). It isn't exactly traditional, but I like it better that way. Plus I had fun escorting one of the bridesmaid's down the aisle. The bridesmaids wore fantastic black dresses, but since we were on the grooom's side, Mer and I just found our own dresses. Well, she bought hers and I made mine. It was one of my better efforts, too--just the right length, cute but still chic, and the zipper only bubbled a little in the back. I still need to work on that a bit. I used New Look 6749 (the version pictured below, in raspberry). I really like this pattern--it is sweet without being cloying. I think I'd like to make this one again sometime in another color--a rose colored dress, with a cream ribbon would be pretty. I used crepe backed satin, which was perfect. The bodice is lined, but the skirt isn't. The satin was heavy enough, though, that it wasn't a problem. Also, I had to use pink lining (I stupidly forgot to buy black, oh well), but honestly, I like it better this way. A little surprise for anyone staring at my armpits!

New Look 6749. I have to find a pair of black heels like hers--perfect.

Actually, my heels were cute, too, and not as high. Ha!

Yeah, I know--I need to redo the hem.

Wedding Dresses (In which I struggle with Invisible Zippers)

J! and I have been to three weddings so far this year. A friend of mine from high school was married at the lovely Dana Power House in May, my younger brother Arrr! married his wonderful wife S in Kansas on June 14th, and we just celebrated T and Y's marriage two weeks ago in Malibu. We've still got one wedding to go: J!'s lovely sister M! is getting married on Nov. 1st in Massachusetts.

All these weddings meant lots of dressmaking. I don't wear dresses a lot, although I make quite a few of them. I don't wear dresses too often mostly because I work from home, and so changing out of my pjs is more or less optional. I guess I could have just made one dress and worn it four times, but that sounded rather boring. Plus, it would have given me fewer excuses to have J! drive me to the fabric store.

WD #1 was a bit of . . . . an experiment? I used Vogue 8085, which is a pattern I like very much. I'm not even going to discuss how I finally managed to get the zipper in place. This particular fabric was a bit unravelly, which didn't help, and the dress pattern doesn't include a lining, so I had to improvise. Improvising when learning to sew isn't exactly something I would recommend to others, but I find it very difficult to avoid. After all, if I'm going to all the trouble of making myself a dress, I want the finished product to be exactly* the way I imagine it. Anyway, as I've posted elsewhere, I've made other versions of Vogue 8085, so it should have been a cinch to add in a lining. Ha! It all eventually worked out, though, and here's the final version.

Wedding Dress #1. The ribbon on this dress definitely needs to perk up a bit.

Detail of the matching trim on the jacket sleeve. Last minute addition!

*Within reason, of course. For WD #1, I was happy that the dress ended up with an invisible zipper. Said zipper was not entirely "invisible" as such, but my cute little jacket neatly covered it up. Close enough.

Do the Polka . . . Dot!

So, back when I first got interested in sewing (sometime last summer), I went on a fabulous shopping spree at my favorite fabric store, Osgood's. Unfortunately, Osgood's is in Chicopee, MA and I live in Davis, CA, so the 2,950 mile commute is a bit rough. On the flip side, my boyfriend's parents are lucky enough to live right down the street from Osgood's, so I make it out there at least once a year.

During my first trip to Osgood's I picked up some great blue and white polka dot fabric. Some kind of slinky polyester, I know, but look how perfect it is! Diagonally arranged polka dots, with some neat extra trim of small white lines with tiny blue dots. It's the trim that did it for me--I wouldn't have bought this fabric if it had just been blue and white dots.

I saved this fabric for quite a while--I wanted to make a really cute dress that I would actually wear. I finally picked out a Very Easy Vogue (V8025) dress that I liked. The final result looks pretty good, although I can never get the ribbon to stay tied.

Vogue 8025

A few thoughts about this dress and pattern:

1. I've made two dresses using this pattern now. I like the dress style a lot--it follows the waist naturally and it drapes nicely when you use the right fabric. It can cling, though, so the dress should either be lined or worn with a slip.

2. Lining this dress would be difficult, I think, because of the casing for the ribbon.

3. I think I need to shorten the skirt just a bit. It hits right at the knee, but I have oddly short calves, so shortening the skirt would make my legs look more proportional. (I have a feeling that four inch heels would produce similar results, but that sounds more painful than ripping out the hem. Also, I think this dress would be cute with ballet flats, my personal shoe solution for everything.)

4. A few months later I made a tank top using the same fabric, but with a different neckline. I wear it all the time. Looking back on this now, I think I'd get rid of the ribbon casing and redo the neckline using the tanktop pattern. I bet it is still possible, but I don't know if I have the energy for it now. Bummer.

Jo-Ann's Prom Dress Contest

Jo-Ann's has announced their Prom Dress Contest, and I got very, very excited until I realized (headsmack) that you had to actually be a student, attending a prom. Hmph. Jo-Ann, what about all those girls who aren't going? Or, alternatively, girls (uh, young women) who haven't attended a prom in years, but would love, love, love, to make the perfect dress?

A few things: first, I'm not crazy about the dress they chose for the ad, but maybe they did that on purpose to encourage young women to go out and produce something that actually fits and has a bit of pizazz. It isn't that the dress is ugly, but that it screams "high school prom!" Ruffles? Check. Ribbon? Check. Awkward bust line? Check. Causes girl to stand as though about to curtsy? Check.

The high school prom dress is that bizarre creature of style that can neither be too immature, nor too old, or too boring. After all, the average prom goer wants to be taken seriously as a young lady, to feel beautiful in her dress (whatever it looks like), and not to spend the entire evening twitching uncomfortably due to scratchy material, or worrying that the bust line is going to slip right off during the macarena (well, she would worry about it if people still danced the macarena). So how do you get sexy without the see-through strip tease of Renee Russo in The Thomas Crowne Affair?

At any rate, the ad has totally worked. It has utterly convinced me that even despite the fact that I'm completely not eligible for this contest, I could dream up a fantastic dress for the prom. And I think I'd do it based on a very simple concept (as The Thoughtful Dresser put it a few days ago): Fashion is cleavage, style is collarbones.

In my own case, I went to a few proms. The first time I wore a royal blue (not my color, as it turned out) bridesmaid's dress. The third dress was velvet dark blue (I didn't learn) and rather shapeless (because I was wearing it, not the fault of the dress). I bought it when my family went to Italy. But it was from Italy! The second dress was far and away the most wonderful dress I've ever owned. It was light, pastel green (perfect for my skin tone), empire waist (generally flattering), and a satin halter top (sounds "high schoolish" but it was tastefully done). The best part of the dress, though, wasn't the color or the cut, but the back--it had a V cut with satin laces that somehow avoided looking like I'd picked the dress up at the Renaissance Festival.

If I were to make this prom dress, I think I'd go for something similar--have fun with the back of the dress! Or make it sparkly without looking like a disco ball! Look adult, but without scaring your date's parents! And don't wear bright red nail polish with a pastel green dress (ooops)!

Xmas Quilt

For Christmas, J!'s parents gave me a beautiful, beautiful quilt by Lizi Boyd with the pattern above. The quilt is not pieced together, but instead is two large swaths of fabric stitched to each other. The fabric is amazing--green with large white dots and birds of paradise swimming among water lilies. I love it. It is the perfect "cookies and tea" blanket for rainy mornings. Or, alternatively, "apple butter toast and orange juice" for sunny mornings. Not that I actually eat anywhere near this quilt, since the chances of me spilling something stain-remover-resistant all over it are quite high.

Lizi Boyd also makes lovely cards, gift tags, and wrapping papers. I'm particularly in enamored of the gift tags. Eventually I want to find some cardstock and rubber stamp material so I can make my own, but I'd definitely use these in the meantime.

Gram's Stash

I visited my grandmother while I was home in Phoenix over the winter break and made out like a bandit on patterns she had stuffed away in boxes! My Gram has always been a sewer—she should have started up a store a long, long time ago. She’s 92, has suffered 2 strokes (one just a few months ago) and she still runs three sewing machines at the same time. She only takes breaks to watch the Diamondbacks or the Suns, when they’re on.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun going through her old patterns. Most were from the 80s, which isn’t a decade I’m much interested in (for “vintage patterns” at any rate), but she had a great time telling me all about how she used each pattern, who she’d made outfits for, and which fabric she’d bought for which shirts, skirts, etc. I could have taken quite a few more than I eventually ran off with, but below are just a few of the gems in her collection:

I'm not sure how I feel about the wrap around skirt on this dress, but I love the neckline.

Look at that gorgeous fabric!! I'd love to get my hands and sewing foot on some of that.

My Gram and a friend of hers made matching dresses from this pattern. They must have been a hoot, running around a town of 1000 people in the same dress. I hope one of them found a pea-green fabric with white dots on it, too.

Yep, that's a Brooke Shields pattern! Given that my Gram has been Bartlett pear shaped for as long as I've known her (so, at least as far back as when this pattern came out), I'm pretty sure she bought this pattern for someone else.

Doggie Diapers

My younger brother Arrr! and his lovely fiancé S adopted a beagle (named Baxter, of course) around Thanksgiving. He’s the sweetest little dog—curls up in your lap in the evenings, whines pathetically whenever Arrr! isn’t in the room, and spends the rest of his time with his nose to the floor smelling anything he can get a whiff of. The only problem is that B has a bit of a marking problem—he was around 3 when they got him, and arrived with all his bits intact. That was quickly remedied, but the marking continues on. Outside this isn’t a problem at all, but it becomes a bit awkward in my mom’s dining room. Or the kitchen. Or pretty much anywhere in the house. So, during Baxter and Arrr!’s visit to my parents’ house over the break, I sewed up a little doggie diaper so that B didn’t have to wear an ignominious ace bandage wrapped around a dish tower. Instead he got a snazzy ninja themed jock strap.

Unfortunately, the first effort wasn’t perfect—I didn’t use any elastic so the band was a bit tight whenever B sat down, and after about a week the fabric bunched up and had a tendency to slid off his tender bits. He seemed to be learning, though, as he wouldn’t mark when he was wearing the diaper, regardless of whether or not it was actually in place.

I’ve spent the last week or so brainstorming some ideas for how to improve the diaper. A few changes: A.) it needs a little pocket to hold the “diaper” (or, in Arrr!’s case a cut up old t-shirt—very absorbent and much softer than a dishtowel), so that you can remove it easily in case of accidents. B.) Elastic side bands to make it more comfortable when B sits down. I think this will also help with the bunching problem. C.) Shaping for greater wearing ease in between B’s hips.

Of course, I don’t have a doggie around to use as a model anymore. Maybe I’ll try to manufacture one out of cardboard, or something. That might be interesting.