Unlikely sources

I’ve been looking to make a nice pair of pajamas for forever (I think it’s been on my sewing goals for 2 years), but I could never find the right fabric and I was pretty discouraged after the disaster that was the HotPatterns pajamas of doom (which despite the awful fit I find myself wearing because I still love the fabric).  I’ve gotten to the point that I could not keep shoving this project down on the queue anymore.  I’ve lost enough weight now that all of my bottoms are too loose, and the reality is that I’ve been wearing the same mismatched pajamas since at least college through prepregnancy and all the way through 40 weeks twice.  No garment should be wearable at 40 weeks and in a non-pregnant state.  That’s just crazy.

Enter my mother-in-law who kindly bought me 2.5 yards of rayon challis for Christmas.  Why hadn’t I thought of rayon challis before?  It has a nice drape, it’s lightweight, and it keeps me cool which is exactly what I want in pajamas.  Ah, but what pattern?  Call me dotty, but I didn’t really want to spend money on a pajama pattern.  They’re not terribly innovative.  For example, other than how you put the pants on and a few decorative elements, there’s not much technically different between this 1930s pattern

and this modern day Simplicity:

It’s a collared shirt with some pull on bottoms.  Given my Burda stash, I knew the collared shirt would be easy to find, but I had to do a little digging to get to the elastic waist pants.  This is yet another case of why technical drawings are so helpful.

Take out the weird ankle ruching and the top that’s fused to into this hot mess of a jumpsuit, and you get a basic elastic waist pattern (Burdastyle 5-2010-119).

My Dad has always maintained that the way that you beat Bobby Fisher is to not play chess.  So how do you make a nasty jumpsuit fashionable?  Don’t wear it like a jumpsuit.  I cut a straight 34, did a flat seat adjustment and cut the back inseam 2 sizes smaller and they fit great.  I put on some back pockets as an afterthought, so they’re definitely too small, but they still help distinguish the back from the front.

For the top, I really liked Ottobre 5-2007-2–a collared shirt with some shirred ties on the sleeves.  I experimented on this one, grading down the neck and shoulder and sleeve to a 32 and swinging out to a 34 at the bottom of the armscye.  After a petite adjustment in the armscye/sleeve and lowering the bust dart (even after nursing 2 kids, this dart just looks really really high–is that typical for Otto?), it fits perfectly.  I guess for my next Burda, I’ll see how those sizes play out.

As for being on the tail end of this cold, I’m foregoing the gown in favor of the pajamas and watching the formidable Anna Netrebko as Anna Bolena on the DVR.

My review of the shirt is here,

and my review of the pants is here.

Unconventional fitting techniques

What do you do when you have a wool jersey top that’s too big?  Get sick and have a loving husband accidentally throw it into the wash because you’re too out of it to tell him otherwise.

Before

After

My sewy friend Linda helped me put in shoulder pleats to bring in the shoulder on this Burda top.  I’m really sad I didn’t get a picture of it before it got thrown into the wash because it definitely was an improvement from the original fit, and the wool was so pretty.  Now it is fitted well, but sadly the original texture of the wool was a bit compromised.  Also, that awesome felty feel and resulting lengthwise shrinkage makes it totally necessary to wear an undershirt to avoid exposure and cut down on skin irritation–something that wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it wasn’t so fitted.  Since this is not the first time (and hey, I’ve shrunk plenty of sweaters myself) that the laundry ate my wool, we’re going to have to put up a bag for items that need special care in our closet.

The upside of the shrunken state of the sweater is that you can see the cute details of my jeans.  Theoretically with the length issue, a skirt is probably a better pairing for it, but the only one that I can think of that would work is grey.

Readers, how do you avoid laundry disasters?

Wee break

I’m sitting here hacking my head off for the 4th day in a row feeling rather icky.  I’ve eaten lots of soup and watched lots of Vicar of Dibley and Arrested Development episodes (laughing is a bit perilous with this cough).  I’ve thankfully been mentally okay enough to keep up my naptime discipline of sewing and have gotten about 75% of the way through a pair of pajamas–a rather relevant garment when you’re feeling gross.

I’m also still backlogged on blogging and have a dress and a top to write about.  Hopefully I’ll be back to better in a couple of days.

In the meantime, go make some soup for someone.  If I had a little more energy, I would have made this one from the fabulous amazing Joanne Weir:

Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

The boys love this, and even my veggie indifferent hubby is a fan…of course I float some crostini and bacon and homemade harissa on top.

 

Not for socialites

I’ve been a casual watcher of Project Runway.  The designers are talented for sure, but there’s so much blah blah drama and the judges have some messed up judgment often.  How else can you explain awarding a win to such an ugly garment like this?:

But still I watch an episode or two every season hoping that someone will not be nasty and talented.  I got excited when I saw that this week’s episode was about the designers creating dresses for the opera.  I was hoping there would be lovely scenes of the Met and all of their amazingly inspirational costumes.  And while the winning garment is certainly beautiful,

I was saddened by the elitist mentality that everyone had surrounding the phrase “a night at the opera.”  One of the comments was that one of the dresses needed to be more “socialite”.  If there is one thing that angers and frustrates me more, it’s this notion that opera is only for wealthy people who can afford dresses like the one above.  Or that the opera is only a place to parade around like a peacock, not a place where beautiful music is made in the context of inspirational design.  I don’t care whatever patron history the opera has always been tied to.  The stories told through opera hit on the core of the entire human situation, and it takes people from all different disciplines to pull off any given opera.  It’s a lot of people doing things excellently together.  When I go to the opera, I am not unaware that I am among a handful of people my age.  If opera as an art is to continue, a newer younger generation has to be educated to see it as an art form and not a class ballet that ignorant people like the Project Runway judges seem to believe it is.  And music educators like myself need to fight against all of the negative stereotypes that keep young people from listening to opera in the first place.

So while I won’t be attending my next opera in jeans and a t-shirt, there’s a reason why people of all walks of life lined the streets of Milan when Verdi died.

So watch Natalie Dessay talk about making people dream at the opera ( at 15:40), and listen and watch her here in La Fille Du Regiment (notice how she puts tension in every muscle and manages such flawless fluidity in her voice) and be inspired, formal gown or not.

Like potato chips, but without the icky feeling in the pit of your stomach after consumption

Readers, I’m really enjoying making jeans.  I keep going through past Burdas and finding more and more possibilities and details that I like that you can’t find except in RTW that most likely fit horribly.  Like these (Burdastyle 7-2010-104):

There’s zippers in the side seams.  So fun, right?

Or more of a trouser with these curved seams in front and back (12-2009-115).  How great would they be on a flat backside?

This next pair is no exception.  When I first got this issue, I thought this pattern would lend itself really well to denim though it suggests stretch wool.  Specifically, I realized its potential as a replacement for my beloved Banana Republic skinny(ish) jeans that I scored for $6 that have been up to this point my real skinny jeans.  Since my workouts of late have yielded me stronger and 15+ pounds lighter than I’ve ever been, the BR jeans have been falling off of me.  The knee that I blew out in them has also passed the point of being a fashionable tear.

As for this pattern, I really like the tabs that double as belt carriers and the wide belt carrier in the back.  

There are back darts and a welt pocket in back which is not typical denim styling, but they didn’t pose too much of a problem (And the welt while not perfect is not half bad).  I added rivets and purple topstitching to make them more denim like, and this was the first time I didn’t use self-fabric in the waistband in the way of some really pretty vintage cotton I had.

Who knew it’d be so much cuter AND more comfortable than bulky denim on the inside?

The fit is getting there.

 I muslined with non-stretch fabric, so I ended up taking the annoying but necessary step of taking in the inseams and the side seams.  I possibly could still use a flat seat wedge taken out.  These feel like pajamas, and because of the skinny cut they keep me warm which I so need right now.  Next up are the famous Jalie 2908 jeans for PR’s jeans contest which I’m seriously considering tricking out with some fun details.

The top is the same modified Jalie scarf collar that I used here in stretch lace lined in the front and back with some nylon tricot.

My jeans review is here.

2011 in review

Yes it’s a week late, but It’s always helpful for me to take a look back on my goals and see how much I accomplished before I dive into a new year.  This was a big growth year for me in my sewing.  I think every other year has also been a big growth year, but I think this is the first year where it’s really started to show that this is not my first rodeo.

• I made a coat!  I felt completely ready to take on this task that daunted me last year and the year before.  I took my time, and gradually it all came together in something I love love love love love to wear.  Actually, outerwear is coming to be a part of my sewing, which is great because Colorado is a place you have to layer clothes.

• This whole pants thing is starting to make sense.  I’ve made three pairs of jeans now and this latest addition BWOF 8-2008-122 is showing some real growth (I’ll save info on this latest addition when I can get some pics).  There’s also the grey green cords below and these Sandra Betzina jeans.

• I had a baby and then had to scramble to figure out how to deal with my changing size.  I’m still figuring it out.  From delivery till present, there’s about 50 pounds…not a small amount of change.  I think you can see the change most obviously in my dresses:
•  I think there is some serious petite-ing learning coming my way.  And my ever present annoyance [how do you account for a full bust without adding to the waist?] is rearing its ugly head.  I’ve been cheating by adding to the side seams, but I have no extra fluff on the sides anymore and even less waist.  Arghh.  Back to the drawing board I will go in 2012.
• Making the boys clothes is kind of fun.  I tend to sew just for me because I know how to fix what I have going on and it’s too time consuming and not often appreciated by recipients how much goes into that enough to inspire me to sew for them (the brilliantly cheeky Selfish Seamstress sums it up well).  But most of the time the boys are very appreciative, and there’s little to no fitting issues that need to happen.  Plus, I can scour the $2/lb bin for fabric for them and sewing their clothes helps me up my construction skills.  And they’re darn cute.  Win win for everyone.  Can’t we all just play with boxes wearing robot pjs?

For the new year I’d like to:

• Keep puzzling through this whole pants thing
• REALLY figure out the full bust/small waist and narrow shoulders conundrum
• Learn to make welt pockets that aren’t hideously ugly
• Sew something with silk…it’s just sitting there waiting for me.