New Skirt New Look 6583

The summer sewing really hasn't been too bad despite having to service all the sewing machines and taking a vacation that was twice the normal length.

Here's a tulle skirt project. I really like the fully gathered tulle skirts shown with casual tees and denim jackets. The effect is a little too young for me, but this is an attempt to bring the look to a more grown up ensemble. I chose a grey tulle with a sedate silver grey lining.

I used New Look 6583 as a pattern except I added two very deep box pleats; one each side of center on the front and on the back. The pleats gave more fullness to the  skirt at the hem while remaining flat and trim at the waist. This was quick sewing project. I have made this skirt several times. I hardly need to look at the instructions any longer. 

Now that I've got the tulle skirt, the up to the minute look of a tee shirt and denim is just not me and far too youthful. I think a different kind of blouse is called for here. Hmmmm....off to stash!

Salvaging a Wadder

At the beginning of the year, I made a shirt dress from Butterick  B6091 and I discussed what I liked and didn't like about the pattern here. I put the dress in my closet and it felt frumpy every time I wore it. It was fine for wearing while making beds and washing dishes but I never felt like leaving the house in it. I decided to do something about it this summer.

 The original pattern had four godets inserted into the skirt. I took those out and closed the seams. This took the fullness out of the skirt and balanced out the mistake of taking too much out of the bodice length for my short-waisted-ness.

After that, I dealt with the collar detail. The original pattern had the collar come right to the end of the collar stand. This is fine if you are never meant to button the stand, however, the pattern called for a button and buttonhole on the collar stand. The result was messy and can be seen in a photo on the original post for this dress in January. Since I had a sewn button hole in one side of the collar stand and no more leftover fabric, my options were limited. I opened the stand and carefully removed the collar, shortened it and reset the collar seam and stand.

I wish I could have rounded the collar stand corner, but this was impossible due to the buttonhole. The collar now lays neatly even when closed.

Below are two photos of the finished redesigned dress. The left on "Judy" and the right on me. I'm much happier with the dress, but not thrilled enough with the pattern to declare it my "keeper" shirt dress pattern. I'll keep looking!

In the end...

I settled for a fabric acquisition road trip AND guilt about my growing fabric stash AND the courage to make a video!

Back on the blog again.

This summer has been a bit of a bust in terms of sewing. I have not done much other than mending countless items of household linens. It is a desperate attempt to keep the household going without buying European sized linen at sky high prices and then having to remake the items to fit our American beds. That re-cutting process seems truly wasteful and as we are hoping to return home soon, I keep mending.

Along with the mending, my machines have slowly begun to show their need for a professional tuneup. I have keep them going for nearly eight years by a meticulous routine of cleaning, oiling, and small adjustments as well as the attitude of "if I can hand sew it, don't use the machine!" Finally, they all ground to a halt and they had to go to the machine doctor.

Like much that surprises me here on the continent, there is good and bad. Traffic is terrible. Health care is fabulous! Customer service in stores stinks but you can order a repair part for just about anything and it comes to your door! I was dubious  about contacting a sewing machine technician as my machines were all 110V power and my Bernina 930 is worth more "dead" than alive for its spare parts alone.

But! Belgium has its charm and one of them is a sewing machine technician that makes house calls! Yep! House calls! Yes, it did cost me a little extra, but he serviced all three machines in my home connected to my power transformers in about an hour and a half one early evening after his store closed. The house call was arranged within a week after contacting him by email through his business address.  Yowza! I'm back in business. I might even be up for a fabric acquisition road trip or maybe some more guilt about the growing stash.

The Slim Chemise Dress Again!

I've worn this several times since the last post. It's growing on me. It's extremely versatile and easy to wear.
















Overall, I'll put this first complete pattern draft into the success column. I'm also will to go back to Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing and try another project. I'm thinking about Vogue 7101, the sheath dress.  Although, this one scares me a bit, because again, the poor girl hasn't eaten and I like to eat all too much. More lettuce, please!

Finally, I've nailed it!

I've had some time to get back to my copy of Vogue's New Book for Better Sewing. I've worn my two previous versions of the Slim Chemise Dress and tossed one of them out because the fabric was just not right for the project. Sometimes, only wearing an outfit for awhile will tell me what is wrong with it. I suppose this mostly falls from the fact that I sew for myself and by myself. I don't have another knowledgeable sewer nearby for fitting help, so fitting problems drag on for months in my studio. Enough about what ails me and let's move on to a minor accomplishment.

I am finally happy with my drafted version of Vogue 7231 - The Slim Chemise Dress. I finally understood the problem with the collar and pulled grain line of the front slashed opening. Below is a "photo" of the dress again in a navy blue linen. It is a comfortable dress that is easy to wear. It falls into the casual dress category and I am very pleased with the navy blue.

The grey plaid dress and the light blue linen dress have been pulled from the wardrobe. The grey became a wadder project and the light blue is in the "well...the yardage is good pile". This keeps the net gain to the closet in the negative territory.

How old is that skirt?

That skirt is nearly thirty years old! I would date it to the late 1980's. I wore it before my son was born because afterwards I was never that small in the waist again. Now here it is again, straight out of storage and on the sewing room floor. Fitting problems aside, this is an excellent example of being generous with your sewing budget and buying the best and most conservative fabric your money can buy.

This skirt is wool and at that time of the 1980's, skirts were long, full and generous. There's a lot of yardage in that skirt. The wool was of decent quality and it has stored well and the plaid is timeless. Grey, black and burgundy are still part of my winter wardrobe colors. So, how can I get this skirt back into the closet and stretch the money I spent thirty years ago even farther? I started by picking the old skirt apart and discarding the original waistband. I cut a new waistband off the bottom hem edge of the skirt, thus shortening the length. I am heavier now and cannot carry off yards of wool nearly ankle length any longer. Shorter skirts are more attractive for me.

 The pleats were originally knife edged going all around the waistband. Lucky girl that I was thirty years ago, those pleats fell flat across my tummy and hips. No Longer! or rather "In My Dreams" would this work today. I contemplated making this a straight skirt, but I have one hip that is 1 inch higher than the other. Horizontal stripes on the bottom half always running up hill or down and this would be particularly noticeable if there was no fullness in the skirt. So the answer for plaids is some fullness and today's answer for fullness is the box pleat. To the left is the made over skirt, I can't really say new, can I? Sure I can. Ta da! A "new skirt" has been added back to my closet as a wearable item.

I've paired it with one of my "orphan" garments. This is a black tweed wool blazer, that refuses to wear out. Together these items will form a new core group in my winter wardrobe. I have some grey tweed pants already and a burgundy pullover sweater. I think I need to purchase a new black turtleneck and I have some burgundy silk for a blouse in my stash. A very soft grey blouse would be lovely also, but must be very light grey for me. So there....one lonely black blazer and some grey tweed pants are starting to collect some wardrobe "friends".

A White Blouse

 The next project is Butterick B4659. It's a simple blouse pattern with not to many details. I redrafted the sleeve to have a simple buttoned cuff, but other than that I made the pattern up in a size 16.

 Here is the blouse in mid-construction. I chose a white poly-cotton blend fabric from my stash as an inexpensive choice for my first attempt for this garment. Looking at this photo, I have concluded that  I should really photograph the projects and look at the photos during the construction process. I seem to have a blind eye to fit details in the workroom that scream at me in the photos. I really wonder why that is? The photo on the right shows that the shoulder is much to wide. This is a problem with many patterns as they scale up. The shoulder scales up far less than other parts of a woman's body, for example her waist or bust.

This this the finished blouse. It's wearable, but the shoulders droop at least an inch off the shoulder line. This will have to be redrafted before doing this again in a better fabric. This photo also shows the main draw back of the poly-cotton. It will not press crisply and it will wrinkle and pucker in the seams after washing. The blouse looks fine under a blazer, jacket or sweater which is what I needed it for in the short term. For the long term, I think a redraft of the shoulder width is a good time investment because the collar sits well on me.

Quilting

Several years ago, I had the unfortunate pleasure of a very long recovery from an illness. Weak and ill-tempered, there wasn't much I was able to do for many weeks and McKenna Ryan came to the rescue.

I had purchased several of her small quilts as kits from a clearance sale at my local quilting store and had put them away as aspirational projects.
I got them out during this recovery period and proceeded to cut out and iron-on the hundreds of individual pieces in about thirty different shades of green, rust and grey. When I got to the quilting stage, I couldn't yet sit that long at the sewing machine, so I put them away and life took over. I recently found them again and with a few pointers from my sister, the master quilter, here is my first attempt at free motion quilting. It's good enough as a start or experiment, but it really isn't my favorite sewing pastime.  This is the first of five; there are four more to finish.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Wardrobe Planning - Orphan Garments

How many times have you opened your closet door and sighed, "I haven't got a thing to wear," yet the rack is over stuffed with hangers and the floor is littered with shoes. Too often we have plenty of clothes, but nothing suitable for the intended occasion. It may be an old joke having to many clothes and nothing to wear, but it is hardly funny.

We all ignore common sense when planning wardrobes and we can't resist the newest fashion trends. We spend very little time on learning what is really becoming to us. If we do learn this at one time or another, we often fail to update our look as we age. I cannot wear the colors and styles of my youth, or of my early working career. My shape and coloring have changed as I have aged and my wardrobe has too.

Plan carefully include all the day to day business, home life and social activities you participate in in your planning. With thought, you can actually reduce your wardrobe size while extending its' versatility.

Extending your wardrobe does not mean creating an all inclusive mix and match closet nor does it mean having a drawer full of accessories for your little black dress.

Careful planning means choosing items that can have a wider variety of use and changing and replacing only a few items each year to update your look. Finally, let us be rid of the notion that we can never wear the exact same outfit twice in the same season or month. For heaven's sake, ladies, if you look absolutely great in an outfit wear it twice a week!

Everyone has a skirt, jacket or other item that they wear only occasionally and those items tend to go out of style before you get good service from them. They become orphan garments in your wardrobe and ultimately money wasted from your budget. Find these items. Try them on. Do they fit? Are they fashionable? Do you love them? If you can respond honestly "yes" to all three of these questions. Then consider readopting these orphans back into your wardrobe by adding just a few key items. Take a serious inventory and see what your really need.

Here are some examples.

A basic dress and jacket combination can be mixed and matched by adding a tailored skirt to blend with the jacket. Add a print blouse that blends with the jacket and tailored skirt. Finally, consider a pretty gathered skirt in the same print. The printed blouse and skirt can be worn together as a dress and the jacket will now go with the original dress, the new tailored skirt, and the printed skirt and blouse.

A soft tailored suit will get extra mileage with a new solid tailored sleeveless top and again add a skirt and blouse in a muted print. Make the blouse short sleeved for warm weather and perhaps choose an solid color cardigan as another option to the suit jacket.

A casual jacket and pleated skirt can get more wear with pants or shorts added to the mix. Try adding a slim skirt in a contrasting color with a matching blouse for more options.

Beyond the LBD....we all have one and often it's just what is needed for a formal event, but there are times and places where your LBD is not welcome. What then? The cocktail suit is a smart option. This is a dressy, less tailored suit in a beautiful, formal, but classic fabric, something like solid silk shangtung. Add a contrasting colored sleeveless shift blouse to wear with the suit skirt and then add a full length skirt in a darker pastel to give extra wear to either the blouse or jacket. A chiffon shirt blouse further extends your options as does a chiffon skirt in  a pretty, but subtle, print.