My Background Dress

Yay!  I’m back from the icky cold.  Noah’s still a bit under the weather, but he’s doing his best to sleep it off.  On to the post…

I have lots of accessories…more than I think I do.  Scarves, necklaces, a couple of pins, and a few handmade fabric flowers…really a lot more than I realize.  I like to wear things that make these stand out because I love them so, but usually this means I’m trying to make jeans and a hoodie look less shlumpy.

So when I read about the Background Dress at Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing, I was intrigued by the idea of a dress as a backdrop for accessories and I immediately wanted to try my hand at it.  This dress sparked some lively conversation over there as to what can pass as a neutral color.  I boldly stated that the only “traditional” neutral color I’d touch is navy, and if I could choose my own favorite “neutral,” it’d probably be some shade of aqua given how much I love it and find myself tractor-beamed towards it.  I was even more in agreement with Cindy, who claimed people are drawn to either blue based neutrals (yup–that’s me ) or brown, but not both.  Imagine my surprise when this lovely brown jersey popped into my cart and said, “Please make me into your background dress.  I’ll look so lovely with everything you own and especially that pretty pink striped jacket you’re making.”  Perhaps I was delusional, or maybe this was truly a siren call, but I now find myself the proud owner of a brown dress.

I’ve worn this dress I think 4 days in a row now and it’s looked different every day based on what I’ve paired it with.  It’s totally swell.  Like a good pair of jeans but girlier. 

Set 1

1.  Vintage Vera scarf and flower pin
2.  Vintage polka dotted scarf, pearls, and sunglasses
3.  Teal scarf and vintage flower brooch

Set 2

1.  Pink plaid wedges and purple necklace
2.  Made from vintage necklace from Etsy and my trusty wool pumps
3.  Teal beads necklace and navy corduroy jacket

Set 3

1.  My favorite accessory
2.  Yes, I play accordion.  It’s fun, okay?
3.  The spectacles and my opera beads

 I’m sure I’ll find other things to do with this dress, especially given how much fun I’ve had so far.  As for what I learned, here you go:

Words from Shel

So I’ve finished my dress for the Patternreview contest and I lurve it, but no pics because Noah and I both managed to get a cold.  I’m a little put out because my birthday is on Sunday, and this will not be the first time I’ve been sick on my birthday.  I’m trying to take it easy and eat lots of chicken soup etc.  Meanwhile, I’m adding a collar to a jacket.  Since I’m all lame here on this post, I’ll leave you with a lovely bit by Shel Silverstein (I wish that unlike Peggy Ann McKay I were only fake sick). 

Sick
by Shel Silverstein
"I cannot go to school today," Said little Peggy Ann McKay. "I have the measles and the mumps, A gash, a rash and purple bumps. My mouth is wet, my throat is dry, I'm going blind in my right eye. My tonsils are as big as rocks, I've counted sixteen chicken pox And there's one more--that's seventeen, And don't you think my face looks green? My leg is cut--my eyes are blue-- It might be instamatic flu. I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke, I'm sure that my left leg is broke-- My hip hurts when I move my chin, My belly button's caving in, My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained, My 'pendix pains each time it rains. My nose is cold, my toes are numb. I have a sliver in my thumb. My neck is stiff, my voice is weak, I hardly whisper when I speak. My tongue is filling up my mouth, I think my hair is falling out. My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight, My temperature is one-o-eight. My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear, There is a hole inside my ear. I have a hangnail, and my heart is--what? What's that? What's that you say? You say today is. . .Saturday? G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

Planning

Perhaps I should have done this a bit ago before the contest started, but I’m still roughing out plans for Patternreview’s Mini-Wardrobe contest.  It’s okay as my only goal here is to finish and up my quality in these 4 garments…I hold no illusions that I’m a contender given all the amazingly talented people in this thing. 

This being said, I’m finishing up Vogue 1027, a very simple DKNY mock wrap dress. 

I’m a bit surprised at myself for making it up in brown, but this fabric was a really good quality and it’s seriously the color of hot chocolate foam…a little shimmery with flecks of white and a cool cast to it.  I picked it up at Denver Fabrics 2 weeks ago and kept thinking, ”I can’t believe I’m falling in love with brown.” 

Up next is a Burda jacket in this wonderful pink seersucker (it feels so good).  I’m lining it in a pale pink rayon.  This will be my first official lined jacket and notched collar (they taunt me these notched collars…I’m seeing them everywhere now).  I got the Sandra Betzina video on linings at the library to help me.  I’m a bit intimidated, but I know I’m going to learn a ton from this one.  And it’s probably the piece I’ll wear the most.  I bought a navy corduroy jacket a couple of years ago that I love love love love love despite the fact that it’s tight across the chest (darn juniors clothes…petite scale, but not really).  I wear that jacket all the time in the spring, but it’s a bit dark.  Someday I’ll make a corduroy jacket that fits.

Next, I was going to make another scarf-collar top, but I tried it on with my jacket muslin and it looks weird.  Instead, I’m going to use the scarf-collar pattern since I’ve fitted it and I love how it fits and ditch the scarf.  I might just make a simple neckline binding, or if I’m feeling ambitious I might make something more elaborate.  I don’t know.  For this I have a navy rayon/lycra set aside.

The only fabric I haven’t bought yet is for a skirt.  I’m thinking a denim skirt would be fun, but I don’t want to do a simple A-line skirt, and I don’t want a straight pencil either.  I want to do this skirt,

but I’m not sure about its suitability for denim given the godets (I’d hate for them to be stiff and crunchy).  I’ve been thinking a nice embroidered eyelet would be fun for this.

Super easy

My Jalie top is finished!  I decided not to go nuts as I contemplated in my last post, and decided to cheat instead (just a little).  While I’m generally against cheating, it turned out well and this might become my m.o. for knit tops.

Jalie Scarf Collar Top

What I learned:

1.  3, not 4:  I’m no serger whiz.  Actually, I’m kind of terrified of the thing.  This is silly of course, and I’ve been slowly building up my courage to deal with that.  In the past I’ve had really awful problems with this kind of fabric (rayon with lots of lyrca–10%!) in my serger.  The stitching has never locked on the edge.  From the info in the knits class I just finished at Patternreview, I took out my right needle and thread.  A 3 thread configuration has more built-in stretch than a 4, so it makes sense that 3 would work better with stretchier fabric.  You can see the difference here:

See how the bottom one is all distorted, uneven and how the threads don’t lock at the edge?  Actually, I was so impressed with the difference that I just serged off my hems and let them be exposed.

2.  Fit where the fullness is:  I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out how to fit a knit top without using a dart.  I won’t do it every time, I’m sure, but I’ve desperately just wanted to have the option in my fitting arsenal.  Someone else reviewed this top on PR and transistioned down from the armscye out to another cutting line along the fullest part of the bust and curved back in at the waist.  This seemed too good to be true, but I had to give it a go.  I’d seen this technique in the Threads fitting series too, so I knew it had to work.  So I traced the armscye I needed to, and studied the sizing chart on the pattern to figure out which line I needed to go out to.  On my muslin, I marked my full bust and the bottom of it on the side seam so I would know where to move my lines.  About an inch down from the armscye on the front only, I drew a transition line out to another line with my French curve and curved the line back in at the bottom of my bust.  The resulting change looks a bit like a bulge on the side seam on the pattern piece (like a dart would be if you didn’t sew it).  I thought there would be all this extra length that would make sewing the side seams kind of lumpy, but not so.  The curves still fit together well (probably because it’s a knit) and the fit is comfortable and inconspicuous.

3.  Hem markers are the jiffiest notion ever:  I’ve always just marked hems by whatever the pattern said, but in my never-ending quest for nice looking hems, I’ve been wondering if first marking a hem that is truly parallel to the floor really will make a difference.  Though it involves further investigation, my preliminary fiddling around with this gadget tell me that it does produce a nice result, but more than that, it’s plain fun to use.  I was a bit shocked by the $35 price tag at JoAnn for this gadget, so I bought a vintage one from Ebay for $8 plus $4 for shipping which seemed reasonable (especially given the way funny box). 

Mine attaches to the door and you screw the bottle of chalk into it and turn around while you squeeze the bulb to release the chalk into the marker.  Pretty nifty indeed.  I may get a little marking crazy I like this thing so much.

Coming soon…I’ve entered Patternreview’s Mini-Wardrobe contest that starts today.  I need to sew 4 garments in the next month, which seems to be about my pace.  Nathan is a week away from finishing his dissertation, working long hours and I’m trying to nurse a pulled muscle in my neck whilst I try to sew and take care of the baby.  Things might be a bit interesting around here…

Experimenting

I’m working on fitting this Jalie Scarf-Collar top.  I’ve been reading about this pattern on Patternreview, and I’ve been rather impressed by how tremendously flattering it looks on everyone and how much people seem to be excited about it. 

So I went over the edge and paid the piper for this pattern for the sake of trying something new.  I don’t like paying more than a couple of bucks for a pattern unless it’s for a special occasion, but I like this style so much that I know I will make it multiple times.  Once I figured out the sizing of these patterns, I cut out and assembled all the way through (it took me a couple of times to figure out the collar bit–which by the way is extraordinarily clever) so I could get a sense of everything.  Things look really good, but c’est la vie, I need to add a dart at the side.  Shoot!  I really thought that adding a little bit at the side seams would do the trick.  Nope.  No dice.  Go back to start.  It’s not uncomfortable, but there’s enough bunchy bunchy at the sides that it looks bad, which makes me feel almost as uncomfortable as if things were tight. 

But then I started thinking about it and really, I will wear this style less casually, so I’m not to weirded out by having a bust dart on a knit.  Actually, as a matter of fact, I’m kind of thinking of messing around with this dart a bit and rotating it to make something different.  We’ll see how things work out.

Spring preview

If I had to choose one garment to wear, I’d probably wear dresses every day and be totally happy for the rest of my life.  They’re so comfortable, you look like a lady, and somehow you walk taller when you wear them.  This is a good example.

This is McCalls’ 5752, dubbed “The Perfect Knit Dress.”  This seems a rather bold claim, but I do like it a lot.  As I said, this was a very interesting experience sewing this.

McCalls 5752

What I learned:

1.  Forget picking a size on your high bust measurement:  I sewed an 8 this time instead of the 12 that I have been sewing.  I was emboldened by Cynthia Guffey’s assessment of me that my neck and shoulders are much smaller than a 12.  Sure enough, I measured across my shoulders and compared that to the pattern, and I really should be sewing from an 8.  Why the shoulders though?  Well, when I’ve sewn from my high bust measurement, it’s true I don’t have to add as much for my bust, but it also means I’ve got a TON of extra fabric…and it likes to pool right at my center back.  Even after I’ve corrected my shoulder slope this still is going on.  Once I switched to the 8, my upper back was perfect for the first time.   Plus, the garment hangs from my shoulders, and it’s way easier to add extra across the bust than to fix the shoulders and neckline (says I after trying to do narrow shoulder adjustments and still having extra gaping at the neck).

2.  I’m a fan of these 1″ SA’s:  This is a Palmer/Pletsch pattern, so there’s lots of little fitting tips at the beginning of the pattern.  Some are useful, some are not, some I don’t agree with, but what they do do that’s super useful is have 1″ SA’s at the sides.  They call these “just in case” allowances…i.e.  just in case you need some extra room someplace else.  At any rate, for me they end up being extremely useful…let me try to explain.  At my hipline, I needed quite an extra bit of room.  I decided to sew 3/8″ seam allowances throughout  the sides (no extra trimming, I could just serge away which I did).  Because there was already 5/8″ extra on the pattern, I only needed to cut my hipline at a size 10 to give me enough room.  I also didn’t have to add as much across my bust doing this.  So without any extra cutting, I could sew the size I needed for my neck and shoulders and give myself the extra ease I needed.  It seems like cheating, but I’m going to give these 1″ SA’s some more thought.

3.  Solids are how I live, but man, I love prints:  I saw this fabric at Denver Fabrics and fell in love.  The splashes are my favorite shade of aqua (which the lady at DF informed me was my signature color–looking down at my basket, I realized how right she was–tee hee–sometimes people figure you out better than you realize) and chocolate.  As a rule I never ever ever ever wear brown, but I really liked the print and the aqua was awesome…and the stuff was $2/yd to boot.  It should tell you how much I love this aqua/print combo because the stuff is my least favorite kind of knit–poly/lycra.  With undergarments, it’s not that bad, but as I rule I started sewing to avoid this stuff.  But I really loved this print and I couldn’t walk away because it’s so hard to find smaller scale prints that aren’t juvenile.  The scale of this print was right in the range of not overwhelming me…and it’s aqua.  I love aqua.  Love.  My favorite color ever.

Final thoughts:

This is an easy dress to accessorize–I have a really cool German teal flower brooch my husband bought me for Valentine’s Day that looks perfect with this, and I have a vintage silk scarf that also is super fun to wear with this. 

This was also a fast sew.  Including the gathering and the hems and serging work, this took 2 naptimes to complete.  I wouldn’t mind making it again since the fit is so excellent, but I won’t do all the gathering (I made a quick mockup without it, and I like that you can see the shape of the midriff without the distraction of the gathering which is really bulky).  But we’ll see when I get to that.  My birthday is at the end of the month, and I have this dress in my sights:

I’m thinking of this in kind of a blush sort of color.  Plus this jacket in a pink seersucker I got from Gorgeous Fabrics with Christmas money.

My first drafting, or a skirt I don’t entirely hate

Ah, my first draft.  There’s nothing fancy about it, but it fits, well mostly.  I really overestimated my waist and I need to take this in quite a bit at the waist.  It’s just as well since drab olive is not my favorite.  I figured this was a safe fabric to test out this pattern on though since I got it for all of 97 cents for the whole yard and a half it is.  What I do like about this skirt is that it hangs on my hips and drops straight down from there and fits my curves in a way that makes me feel feminine, but not immodest or matronly.  I’ve never been able to get this from any skirt I’ve owned and I’ve been disappointed with my own attempts to sew from patterns where skirts are concerned.  I know this needs further tweaking, but things are looking up.

Self-Drafted Princess seamed skirt

What I learned:

1.  Fit where the fullness is going on:   I have wide hips–most of that is bone, but part of that is a more rounded backside.  I can add width across my hipline all day long, but at the end of things, my bum is still going to rob fabric from the widest part of my side seams and things will be tight across my backside.  Bizarre, right?  That’s what I thought.  I fundamentally don’t like sewing darts in skirts, so I innocently thought when I was drafting to just try princess seams instead.  I had no idea I’d stumbled across pure gold where fitting my backside is concerned…those seams let me put in a little bit of extra width across my seat at the center back without distorting anything, and their gentle curves just work better on my body.  The result is a nice smooth curve that skims my own curves.  When I’ve tried to fit simple plain front and back skirts that only have side seams, I end up every time looking like I’m wearing a potato sack.   Cynthia Guffey kept saying at the Sewing Expo–”You can’t fit curves with a straight line.”  I’ve been thinking about this a lot and it makes a lot of sense–my fluff is not on my sides (actually my hip bones stick out a bit)–it’s at center back, so adding to the side seams covers the fluff, but it doesn’t conform to its shape.  So I need a curve where I’m curvy.  I need to take in the skirt at my waist some more, but otherwise it fits really well.

2.  The only way to become less scared of zippers is to sew them:  I decided no more fear of zippers here.  They are useful closures and I plum need to deal with them.  I started with the zipper so it could be nice and flat and unfussy when I was installing it.  I sewed and serged my seam, changing to a basting stitch where I wanted my zipper to be.  I basted in a little fabric loop towards the top of the seam to reduce stress on the zipper and because I fundamentally hate hook and eyes.  I used steam a seam to position my zipper perfectly under the basted section of the seam, ran a chalk line exactly where I wanted to topstitch the zipper in place and topstitched away.  I took care of the top of the zipper by sewing it into my facings which worked out really well.  Tada!:

I’m pretty surprised at how this whole project was a lot less overwhelming than I thought it was going to be.  As for my waist, I shall save this skirt for my postpartum thicker waist the next time around.  Version 2 will fit better I am sure.

Technical difficulties

Sorry to be so absent.  I’ve finished my skirt that I drafted and it all turned out well, though I need to take in the waist on version #2.  I’ve also been able to finish a dress I made from McCalls’ 5752, which was a really eye opening experience…but more on that later.

At any rate, the reason for the lack ‘o’ posts is that we’re down a computer and it will literally take 8 years for my laptop to load all of the pictures off of the camera so I can post.  I’m trying to delete unnecessary ones, but this is slow going.  Oy, computers are great until they’re not…and then they’re really really annoying.  I’m setting aside time tomorrow for sure to iron this thing out.