Up Next and on Deck

These are 3 of the fabrics I got from fabric.com way back in the beginning of February. I ordered them the day I traced the pattern for the shirtdress. I was so naive to think I would need so much fabric so soon. Well, it's now just about 2 months later and I'm finally ready for the next project.

I'm going to use the fabric on top, a tobacco brown linen/rayon blend to make the skirt from Sew U. I will add a self-belt and belt loops and patch pockets. The last time I had a sewing machine, about 6 or so years ago, I made several skirts, one of which I still have. It was the only one that was wearable, really. I made one with the seams on the outside (on purpose; it was deconstructed, you see), and I made one out of fleece, which was too bulky a material for the design. I'm not too afraid of the skirt, having used all the techniques required for the construction. It'll be nice to do a project I don't have to be afraid of.

With the plaid in the middle, a very lightweight 100% cotton shirting, I'm going to make View A of McCall's 6035. The pattern has different pieces for different cup sizes so I'll be able to put off learning how to do an FBA. It's cute, with princess seams, and a collar stand but no collar and short puff sleeves. I've never done princess seams or tried to match plaids. I'm sure nothing about those new challenges will make me want to quit sewing forever.

And then I will do pants with the gray 8-wale corduroy on the bottom of the pile. I suppose I'll do the Sew U ones, since I have the pattern already. I'm not really ready to think about all the difficulties nicely fitting pants are supposed to present.

So that's the plan. Go me!

Finished! The Stripey Blue Shirtdress

At last! I finally completed the McCall's 4769 shirtdress. Is it unwearable? I think so. I actually have it on as I type this, and it's quite comfortable, mostly because it's crazy big for me. It's also kind of wonky in several places. I fudged the collar a bit, the hem is all crooked, the bottom button is just a little too high, and I haven't done a final pressing. I think I stopped really caring at the end because I knew the dress wasn't going to leave the house. It's my new housedress, suitable for doing the laundry in. My boyfriend thinks it looks sort of diner waitressy ("Maybe you could just turn it into a skirt," he suggests) and I see what he's saying. The blue stripes and the stiffness of the material are definitely uniformesque.

It also feels a little Depression era, like a battered hand-me-down, or a dress that used to fit in my richer, fatter days that I can't be bothered to alter. It reminds me somehow of that one Dorothea Lange photo, though I guess that woman's dress actually does fit her.

However, even if it doesn't fit, I learned a lot from making this dress. I put on sleeves, I made a lapel collar, I did buttonholes (which were the easiest thing ever on my one-step buttonholing sewing machine). I learned that I will have to work much harder to make clothes fit well. I think I can do it. Onward I go, to not bigger, but better things!

Real Progress

Well, I made myself do the reinforcing, at last, which, obviously, was quite easy, but then came the horror of the set-in sleeves. Oh, man, those are not easy. I think if I had some person here to show me exactly how to do it, it would have been a lot easier. I didn't realize quite how difficult it was. And how slowly you have to go. I was okay at getting the sleeve pinned in and mostly the basting went well enough, but then, when I did my permanent stitching, I sort of sewed a fold of sleeve into the seam. It took me about an hour and a half to unpick the tiny tiny stitches. I didn't do anything with the dress again for a few days, and thought about making one of the skirts from Sew U with some fabric I got from fabric.com, but that would have required a trip to sewing store for interfacing and a zipper and I didn't really have the time (There's lots of sewing stores nearby, chains and independents, but I don't drive so going anywhere farther than a mile or so takes hours.) I thought about practicing with muslin, which would have been really great but I didn't want to waste my frustration on something unwearable. Finally, I got a day off yesterday and put My So-Called Life on the tv and just did it. Slowly, carefully, imperfectly, but not so imperfectly that I couldn't move on to the next challenge. This tutorial from the Sew, Mama, Sew blog was the most helpful thing I found to explain the process. There are some videos on YouTube that were kind of useful, too, but I don't have time just now to find the links. Since I took the picture, I have also sewn on the front bands. The next thing was the collar, but it was late, so it's going to wait until the next time. Then there are buttonholes. I'm definitely going to practice those before I sew them onto this dress.

One problem with the dress (I mean, beside my shoddy workmanship): It's way too big! I cut an 18, having an 18-sized bust, but the shoulders and waist are so much wider than they should be. I was trying it on over jeans and a t-shirt and my boyfriend looked at it and said, "That makes you look huge." I told him he's the worst boyfriend ever, then went and took off the jeans and belted the dress together to see if it was any better. It was, but not much. So, I probably won't be wearing it too often, once I actually finish it. Now I know for sure that I have to learn how to do an FBA. That's to worry about for the next project.

She's lump

I can't seem to get myself started. I spent the last two weeks mostly working and watching the Olympics and playing Plants vs Zombies. I cut out all the pieces for my dress, attached the interfacings, then got completely stumped by the instruction "reinforce to small circles." I didn't know what it meant. The illustration was no help. I could see where the small circle was, but I didn't actually know where to start reinforcing. I tried the internet, but couldn't find the right combination of search terms. My biggest fault as a seamster and as a human is that even the smallest frustration can make me feel like giving up. I just want everything to be easy all the time. And obviously it's not, especially when one is sewing a dress that is not meant for my skill set. After a couple of days of not doing anything about it, I tried Google again and hit upon the correct combination of words ("reinforcing sewing bodice") to find this post which is a tutorial for sewing the lapel onto the exact same dress I am making. The second picture is of the reinforcing. Hooray! But that was more than a week ago and I still haven't done it. I guess I feel pretty sure that once I reinforce to small circles, I'm just going to run into some new proof that I don't know what I'm doing. Lame, right? So.

So?

SEW!

Maybe. I told the internet yesterday that I would work on the dress this week. I'm saying it again here. The excuses are piling up in my head (I only got 4 hours of sleep, I work 6 days a week, I'm so hungry, I have to clean the kitchen). I didn't call my old blog The Malingerer for nothing.

We'll see what happens.

My first muslin

I have one less tooth than I did when I wrote my last post and one more muslin. I made it, and it seems all right, I guess. The bust seems to be in more or less the right place, and it doesn't seem to be unwearably large or small. I don't actually really know what exactly I'm supposed to be looking at. The most useful thing about making the muslin is that I've had practice making darts, and I needed some. Also, I somehow managed to sew one of the side seams inside out. That's a good mistake to have gotten out of the way. I think it would be nice if the part between the waist and the bust were a little more fitted, but that's beyond my skill level.

I saw my friend Victoria at work today, and she told me that she was sewing a dress for some theatrical production of Beauty and the Beast, so I told her all the above. She told me to check the back waist measurement and she also pointed out that I have rounded forward shoulders and that my left shoulder was higher than my right one. I felt kind of like Quasimodo. But she said she would help me out some. So now I have a sewing coach. Hooray! Victoria was surprised that I was starting with a dress with a collar and set in sleeves and darts and buttonholes. "You're just going to learn everything right off!" she said. I was feeling a little frustrated when I was having a little trouble with the darts and everything, but now that I have someone around to ask questions, I feel a little better about the whole project.

Owie!

I have a horrible toothache. It feels better when I'm not just sitting around, but I feel so sorry for myself, I can't force myself to go make a muslin of my McCall's dress. I've got a dentist appointment on Wednesday, though, and until then, plenty of Advil, Orajel and cold compresses, and I'll be on the lookout for these:

A goal

Inspired by this post on Casey's Elegant Musings, I found the film The Women on the internet so I could begin my quest to recreate one of the oddest shirts in the history of fashion:


That's Rosalind Russell in her first scene in the movie. The shirt has three eyes on it, which seem to be shiny and raised. They seem almost like ceramic to me, though ceramic would probably be too heavy for the shirt to support. Did they make eye-shaped decorations out of acrylic in 1939? My mom thinks they're painted on, but that doesn't account for the raised-ness of them. It might be a combination of paint and something like trapunto quilting. The eyebrows, at any rate, do seem to be painted onto the silk of the shirt.

I've always imagined the shirt was yellow, for no good reason. It buttons up the back and there's a gathered detail on the sleeves. Then there's the chiffon(?) cummerbund. The shirt is worn with a gorgeous wool skirt. And that hat!

Rosalind Russell looks quite glamorous in this still (the movie would be PG-13 these days for the cigarette), but in the movie she's not particularly. She wears great clothes, but flops around gracelessly in them, and her character, Sylvia Fowler, is just rotten. But, she's Rosalind Russell, and therefore funny (the scene when she's doing exercises is great), and therefore not entirely hate-able. And she gets her comeuppance (I think; I didn't get quite to the end of the movie last night) so it's all good, as the kids said a few years ago.

It's actually kind of a terrible movie, from a feminist standpoint. The moral seems to be that men are cheaters, so women have to be wily schemers in order to keep their husbands, especially when (other than the inevitable cheating) they're good (rich, handsome, etc.) men. The main character, played by Norma Shearer, is determined that nowadays, when men and women are equals, she shouldn't have to allow her love to be sullied. Poor woman. She learns her lesson.

But, there are some hilarious lines, great performances, a Technicolor fashion show and a cat fight between Paulette Godard and Rosalind Russell. What else does one need from a movie?