September 6, 2006
sewing update
I have been needing to update for a long time regarding my experience with Vogue 2902. The dress is done, I've worn it to work a couple of times, and also to my brother and Alicia's Wedding Reception, Part the Second. I must say it is very comfortable, but has enough structure to look fancier than it is--especially since it is made from a very simple linin/cotton blend. But HEAVY. In the future, I might remember that a lightweight lining fabric might be made that way for a reason. But my trusty readers don't care about how it wears. I bet you're all on pins and needles to find out what I thought of the process.
Overall I really enjoyed this pattern. I know it has given others fits, and I went in with trepedation. I think I was particularly suited (dressed?) to take this on for two reasons. First, most of my sewing is done sans pattern/from rubbings of pieces I already own, and secondly because I had just made up (with only broad strokes from Butterick 4443) a lined party dress for my lovely Ms. Kibbeyrella.
I'm getting off track. Overall, this is a pretty basic lined bodice attached to a lined skirt with a zipper to allow a body access. 
Except for the ridiculous contrast band, wich instead of being attached in some sort of normal method is made as a completely separate (lined) piece that must be slip stitched to the bodice. While I considered ignoring this crazy instruction, opting to instead topstitch the border to the bodice, I'm glad I went with the original instructions. I was able to fit the two pieces together much more exactly as I hand stitched for what seemed like forever (and very well may have been hours and hours). When I was first playing with the pieces I thought I had definitely selected the wrong size and that never in a million years would this dress end up fitting. The closer I came to completion, the better the dress fit, with almost no tailoring.
The shaping for the zipper seems to be totally backwards, as hilatron has noted. Since I am a zipper-installation reject (it seems so simple, but it is not!), I almost always go for the invisible zipper. With this pattern, I was true to form and didn't even try to follow the pattern's non-sensical zipper instructions and had mine installed in a flash. By the time the bodice was finished, band and all, and the skirt/zipper/liner was all put together, I was in no mood to hem around a full circle skirt. I ironed a fold into the liner, ran a zig-zag over the join, and a top-stitch close to the edge, cut out the bottom band, and seamed it (folded in half) to the bottom of the skirt. While it was quick and easy, I regret my quick-and-dirty method for a few reasons. The liner shows more often than I thought, and I wish it's hem was prettier. I might try redoing this someday with my rolled hem foot, though I'm not sure how well this would hold up on the cotton with machine washing. Also, the seam allowance between the bottom band and the skirt is NOT holding up well and is fraying like wildfire. So some hemtape is pretty essential--that I am going to have to handstitch. The most important step I completely skipped was not measuring the hem. There is about a 2' section in the back that hangs about 4" longer than the rest of the skirt. Dumb. So I'm going to have to take the band off and re-attach. Maybe at that time I'll figure out a more intelligent way to put this together. I'm also wishing that a bit of the hem had not bounced against my dirty bike chain the other day, but that is a laundry problem, not a construction problem.
So, any tips on how to get black bike grease out of cotton? My aunts swear by Spray N Wash. Should I trust them? While I'm on a questioning role, here's a few more for my multitudes of readers. I'm still looking to sew up Vogue 2903 even though the Pants's wedding is in the past and Mammacita doesn't need a gaymarrying costume anymore. So I think I'll make it for myself, too. I'd like it to be winter/fall work attire. So here's what I'm thinking--to modernize a bit, what if I made it out of a nice wool jersey with a little (but not too much) stretch. Maybe in a wine/burgandy hue. Thoughts? Opinions? Has anybody made this thing? Will the jersey be to heavy? Should I follow the pattern recommendations? Okay, next question. I mentioned before that I often spurn the idea that everything must be made from a pattern, and that I am a fan of winging it. I should be more specific. I wing a lot of skirts. However, I have some nice grey wool suiting that I'd really like to turn into a pair of slacks for winter very similarly shaped to a pair of pink slacks I have for summer. Pants from a rubbing? Is this a good idea? Do I really have to make a muslin? (I know the answer to that one, danggit.) If Vincent can do it, so can I, right? (In case I haven't mentioned it, I really hated that outfit, Vincent.)
Obviously, I have nowhere near enough time for all the projects I'd like to do for myself, but I'll keep stitching!
(more Red Dress pictures here)
Posted by amy at 6:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Tags: comment whoring, kibbeyish party dress, pattern review, red dress, sewing
August 7, 2006
i love my sewing room
This weekend I finished up Sara's dress, and started on the one I have decided to make for myself (Vogue #2902). I always have grand plans of these things I am going to make, but always find myself waiting for a time when it doesn't matter if there is a monsterous mess in my house for weeks on end. This summer I am finding that when an entire (giant) room of your house is devoted exclusively to mess making, there are no excuses and lots of stuff gets done. So I need to vacuum like its going out of style and the laundry is piling up--pretty stuff is emerging from the Room of Mess.
[pictures to come--too busy sewing to grab them off the camera!]
Posted by amy at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
July 18, 2006
sew busy
After I was conned into making Alisha's dress last week (read: I volunteered), my darling Kibberella asked if I would consider making hers too. Of course I said yes! 
I can make two fancypants dresses AND have houseguests AND do all the stuff for the big annual AA (Alisha & Amy) birthday bash before August 9 (when Sara Kibberella leaves for Massamachussetts). Eigh, what have I gotten myself into?
I'm hoping that Alisha's goes together easily, or that she is a sewing prodigy (all previous blanket-sewing experience to the contrary), because Sara's dress is going to require a lot of custom tailoring. It is roughly modelled on Butterick B4443, but we are changing the neckline, the shape of the sleeve, the placement of the waist (more empire), and even the flounce of the skirt. And I have to get it right because we're making it out of the end of a bolt of some very nice taffeta--if I screw up, we can't get more fabric.
Because I tend to screw up sewing projects all the time, especially when not exactly following a pattern, I am making a muslin. This is so unlike me! Planning ahead! Taking some extra time at the beginning of a project to discover problems before everything goes horrifically and irrevocably awry! Last night Sara came over and temporarily allowed me to use her as a human pincushion as I pieced the muslin bodice over her person. If I do say so myself, this dress is going to be fantastic and sexy and wonderful. She might even be prettier than the bride! (I am so going to hell for that link, but c'mon, FUNNY!)
I'm feeling very ambitious and accomplished and really glad I have a sewing room. I hope I keep the motivation going, as I've already got one of the fabrics to make this for myself as soon as the wedding dresses are done.
Posted by amy at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
July 14, 2006
craftadelic
"Who knows, I might be really good at it."
-Alisha, 2006, in regards to her career as a seamstress.
In the summer, it is too hot in the desert for knitting. Plus, I still haven't picked up any size 8 dpns to finish the sweater I've been working on. Instead, I've decided to give myself a new wardrobe! My sewing room is in full production mode, at least until my houseguests arrive in a week or so and the room is magically converted into Guest Room. In the meantime, I've been stitching up skirts from a pattern I designed myself (roughly based on my Favorite Polka Dotted Skirt), a simple gored affair. I also have an idea for a blouse I'd like to try, but chances are it will fail as do many of my "I have no pattern, but can see it in my head" creations.
Most excitingly? I just picked up Vogue #2903, a pattern I've had my eye on for awhile but been a little afraid to try out. My darling Mammacita needs a fancypants dress to gay-marry The Pants's in next month, and I think this just might be the one. Plus, you know, I want one too. Preferrably polka dotted. Basically, I get to go fabric shopping and continue to help Alisha learn to sew.
But first we're going to try to refinish a giant picnic table and come up with some exciting outfits for our birthday party! (Invites will hopefully be up this weekend!) For someone who doesn't do much, I sure keep myself busy.
Posted by amy at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
July 10, 2006
weekend awesomeness
After two weeks of housesitting, and a great deal of confusion over too many weekend plans, I ended up staying home and sewing. Well, and enjoying some friends-getting-an-apartment-celebratory-cocktails and movies, but you know, whatever. Most of the weekend I was stitching away. My mending is almost entirely caught up (except for a hem on some wool winter slacks and replacing a liner in another pair of slacks that I probably won't ever actually replace and the slacks will sit in my mending pile until the end of days), and I made myself a superfun and flippy new skirt.
As the days have been getting hotter and hotter, I have been wanting some easy-to-wear, lightweight, mostly-doesn't-touch-my-body clothes that aren't completely ugly or falling apart (like last summer's hang-out threads). In my scrap basket I had a bunch of unbleached muslin that I think was once some "curtains" an old landlord had stapled to the wall, completely unhemmed. Cripes, I've lived in some shitholes. Anyway, I obviously replaced the curtains and kept the fabric. What better than unbleached muslin for summer wear? Cheap, easy, and forgiving. After just a couple of hours I had turned it into a gored skirt (v. flattering) with a nice wide waistband with a channel for a drawstring waist (no zippers in summerwear!). Then I spent hours and hours while watching a Project Runway marathon hand stitching the hem. Is there anyway to get a decent looking, machine stitched hem? Because for a simple, easy, quick skirt like the one I have in mind hand stitching is much too time consuming. Of course, I'm thinking the waist tie will be a handknitted i-cord (maybe with some dangly beads or something), but I'd much rather sit and knit than hand sew something. Anyway, pictures to follow.
