Make Do and Mend

Confession: I don't love everything I've made this spring.  I made about eight garments for Sew for Victory, and about half of them were super additions to my wardrobe that I wear all the time, and the other half, I'm sort of meh about.  Either the garment didn't fit well, didn't suit my personal style, or made me feel a bit frumpy.  In particular, the New England dresses.  I wore one for Pascha, and the other one I really haven't worn except to photograph it.  I tried putting it on one day in May, and I felt completely overdressed for an ordinary day.  And just a wee bit frumpy. Which was sort of defeated my purpose in making them, as they were meant to supplement my summer day wardrobe.  I don't have many special events to go to, and I can't really give over a ton of my limited closet space for clothing that gets worn only a few times every few years.  And: Frumpsville.

Bait shoes that I got at Bettie Page on clearance!
 Also: green toes for Penecost!

I decided to try and fix the Tossed Flowers dress to make it more wearable on a daily basis.  I tried shortening the sleeves to mimic the look of kimono sleeves, but that didn't really help, and then I decided the real problem was the bodice.  I don't like set-in short sleeves in woven fabric on myself right now, and the neckline was too high.   Also, as I said before, I'm finding this season of my life to be one mostly populated by casual separates, and my current "uniform" is a vintage-style skirt paired with a simple blouse or knit top.  

So I decided to make the dress into a skirt.  I unpicked the waistline, and very carefully unpicked the zipper from the bodice section, leaving it in the skirt section.  I left the buttons on the pocket section as I like the detail.  I tried on the skirt, discovered it was miles too big in the waist, so I added darts to the back waist, and used some seam binding to finish the waist.  (I was inspired by Lauren's Suit-A-Long post on skirt finishing--it is more of a 1910s-authentic skirt finish than 1940s, but whatever.  It fits well and I'm really pleased with how it looks.  Plus: that print!  Love)  I've decided to be less fussy about authentic finishing and more focused on fit and wearability.  Since I will almost certainly be wearing this skirt with a belt (either the one pictured, or the self-fabric belt I made for the dress), I'm not going to spend a lot of time fighting with a set-in waistband to get a good fit.

I'm still deciding what to do about the red New England dress.  I think putting a cardigan over it would casual it down enough for me to wear in the fall, and have plans to make a navy Datemaker, but I might just unpick the bodice and make another skirt out of it too as I wore the dress with a cardigan for Pascha and still felt just this side of frumps-ville.  In either case, I'm going to hem it up 3" to match the length of this skirt as I think the current length is too long for my frame.   I also have a ton of the fabric left (enough for a whole dress and then some), so I might make a matching blouse from my hacked Simplicity 1590 to make a faux dress like yesterday's outfit.

I'm super happy with this skirt now, and feel great in this outfit!  A win for a rainy Monday morning.  Now I'm off to the DMV for the dreaded driver's license renewal.

Outfit deets:

Ann Taylor Loft Knit blouse: Thred Up (last summer)

Tossed Flowers Skirt: New England dress pattern (bottom half)

Owl Brooch: Acorn and Will

Belt: beltparadise (ebay)

Earrings: Target (old)

Shoes: Bait

Head Scarf: Etsy

Nail polish on toes: OPI Jade is the New Black

Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some

Dear New York 1290: You win.  

You were a beguiling pattern, with only three pieces, plus sleeves, and I was super intrigued by the unusual yoke pattern (which looked so much like Tasha's wonderful 1940s dress) that I just had to try you.  My previous experience with a vintage New York pattern was so positive, the instructions so clear, the diagrams so useful!  But that pattern was probably from 1941 or 1942, whereas you, New York 1290, you had the inestimable privilege of showing up in the May 1939 catalog.  

Apparently home sewers in 1939 knew a lot more than home sewers in 1942.  I had a blue linen-rayon blend that coordinated so beautifully with a little scrap of fabric from my grandma's scrap bag.  I was excited to use my vintage pack of red ric-rack.  The fabric had a nice drape, didn't wrinkle very badly, and I thought would be nice for summer.  But oh, New York 1290, you deceived me.  I am deceived.  I know someone made you at some point, because the bodice had been shortened 1/2" (and the pins still in it!) and there was an extra pattern piece stuck in the envelope.  I do hope hers turned out better than mine.

  

Perhaps I went wrong with the grading--the whole dress is at least 2" too big all the way around, and that is about the amount I added when I graded it, so I probably should have trusted the pattern and styling and cut as is.  And the linen-rayon blend turned out to be the type of material used for old lady pants and refused to take a press.  So a bad choice on my part.  But, but.  New York 1290, where I really went wrong was in the facings.  I get that facing patterns cost extra, and are just a nuisance to include in the pattern, but really, is it that difficult?  I even made some bias tape for the facings, but things just went south from there.  By the time I got around to trying it on, I was a bit put out.  And became even more so when I discovered it looks like a shapeless waitress outfit.  So I give up.  You win.

Better luck next time.

Sincerely,

Me.

P.S. For the record, I think this pattern would look great in a novelty print cotton, and I do intend to try the pattern again once I've recovered my equilibrium, but I think I'll make the yoke pieces separate like on Tasha's dress  (see her profile pic for the example), cut the pattern as sized, and remove the ten tons of bulk in the front center seam and shorten the whole thing by at least 3" (I measured for a 44" long dress and would have had a 5" hem!)  I think it will look fine once it actually fits me, and is in a better fabric.

Onward!  I do have two successful sewing projects to share today, and I guess these can qualify for Sew for Victory, so I guess I get two more under the wire!! 

I made this blouse as a muslin, not intending for it to be wearable--it is the from the Tossed Flowers dress fabric, but it is the portion that didn't print correctly, so it doesn't have any yellow in the flowers.  I wanted to experiment with changing the neckline of Simplicity 1590 and also making the sleeves a wee bit longer. 

 I pulled the B pattern out of the envelope, since the neckline on that version is higher to start, and would be less trouble to redraft, pulled out my freezer paper and went to work!  As I got going with the sewing part, I realized that it might actually be wearable, so I decided to take the plunge into the big world of button holes!  I made my first hand-bound button holes, and I've got to say, I like them!  They aren't perfect, but they are quite functional, and I'm pleased with them and myself.  I kind of enjoyed the process of sewing them.  I used quilting thread as I didn't have any button hole twist on hand.  I also realized after sewing them, that my button band ended up not in the middle after the redraft, but I will fix that on the next iteration.  (It's a design feature; that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)  I accidently left off the front waist darts, but since it also has bust darts, I think I can get away with it.

My other make is the bottom half of the New England dress.  I used hunter green microbrushed twill and it is just so soft and cozy.  I lined it with some olive green rayon bemberg I'd bought for another project but ended up shelving.  

This skirt was another experiment in drafting.  I wanted to make the skirt section of the New England dress into a stand-alone skirt, and wanted to extend the pocket section into the waist band instead of having the mock bib as on the dress. 

So I did a few adjustments, added a waistband (that I sized very carefully!) and it is a great fit!  The best fitting skirt I've made so far.  I was feeling so confident that I made another buttonhole closure on this one too.  Look out, I'm on a roll!!

  

  

 And that's really it for me for Sew for Victory 2.0.  I still have to do something with my strawberry fabric, and had been leaning toward a dress with a color block bottom, but now I think I should just go for a stand-alone blouse as a blouse will give me more options for it.

Last Sew For Victory Dress: Tossed Flowers

My final Sew for Victory project!  I'm calling it the Tossed Flowers dress, because I'm super original like that, but it is Bright Week and my brain is tired, so we're just going to roll with it. 

 I made the New England dress pattern again, and made the changes I noted in the first go-round--interfacing the yoke pieces, and using tailor's chalk to transfer the pattern markings instead of chalk marker, and it came out even better this time!  

I think the fit is even better on top, and the interfacing definitely helped.  

I still need to figure out a neater way to join the facings at the shoulder, but that is a problem for another dress, because I'll probably make this one again.  

The construction went a little faster this time, since I understood the process, and the zipper insertion went better after a false start, so all good things.  

I made the self-belt by interfacing a 3" wide piece of fabric, and then seaming one side and turning it right-side out, like a tie, which worked okay, but was a royal pain to get turned right side out with the fusible.  It is functional.  I used a butterscotch plastic buckle that perfectly coordinated with the yellow flowers for my  belt, and added a big ol' honking snap to the end to keep it from flying apart at an inopportune moment. 

On a 1 1/4" belt--just for scale.

 And, zee finished dress (interspersed with some random flower and herb pictures from my back patio, because, hello spring!):

I should take a minute to talk about the fabric drama of this dress.  I ordered the fabric at the same time as the Hello Birdie! dress fabric because they were both on crazy good sale, and both arrived a few weeks ago, but when I went to prewash them, I noticed that half my yardage of this fabric was missing the yellow printing on the flowers!  So half was red, cream, navy, and  yellow flowers, and the other half was just red, cream, and navy.  

It wasn't nearly enough to make a dress out of the correctly printed portion, so I called Joann's customer service line, and they said they would fix it and send out a replacement length for the amount that was printed incorrectly.  I cut out the bodice and skirt facings out of the fabric I did have, and then waited a week.  The replacement package arrived, and they had sent me the Hello Birdie fabric instead!  

I called again, and they were so sorry, and said I could keep the extra fabric, and express shipped the replacement, which arrived just as we were departing for the latter half of Holy Week.  Probably just as well, since I would have been tempted to pre-wash and cut it out as soon as it arrived, which I did on Bright Monday instead.

I made the hem a little wider this time, and shortened the sleeves about 1/2", which I think I like better.

 

 

I love daffodils--so bright and cheery.  Our local hardware store had a bunch of spring plants out this week, so I picked up a few things for the back patio; we'll see how they fare back there.

 

 Warm weather shoes and ashy legs.

Hello Birdie! Dress

Christ is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen! Christos Voskreese!  Voistinu Voskreese!

Another Sew for Victory project today!  (I promise I will blog about non-sewing things soon--I'm just sewing a lot right now to get ready for the season change).  I finished this dress at the beginning of Holy Week, but as I took last week off from posting, I'm blogging it now.  I present the Hello Birdie! Dress.

I got a rather nice deal on this New York 927 pattern from Vintage4Me2 as part of their Sew for Victory sale, plus an end-of-season sale, and it was the right size to boot!  I was a little nervous about working with a vintage pattern, as pre-1960s patterns are not printed and are pre-cut, with less detailed instructions, and you sort of have to know what you are doing.

But actually, I found the instruction sheet to be incredibly clear and understandable.  The illustrations were much better than modern patterns!  It is also true that this pattern was fairly straightforward--just seams and a zipper.  I did have to draft the facings as the instructions noted to do so late in the process, but it was okay--the neckline is square and it was pretty easy to figure out.  I used the back bodice as a guide to draft the back neck facing.

The pattern pieces were in very good shape, although the tissue was just a little bit brittle, so I didn't dare to use pins on it.  I used tailor's chalk to trace the patterns onto the fabric and then cut out with a pinking shears.

The downside of this method is that I didn't realize that some of the perforations in the pattern pieces were meant to be transferred instead of being grain line indicators, and so had to go back and figure out what I should have marked in the beginning.

And yes, since I'm sure you were wondering--I do sew in my kitchen.  Our kitchen table is the largest horizontal surface in the house, aside from the floor, and I find it easiest to do my cutting there, and I like having a large surface when I'm sewing, so I just set up my machine and iron there too.  I store my machine in a cabinet in the living room, so it works out well.  

I don't like having to clean everything up completely at the end of my sewing time--sometimes it would be nice to just leave everything until the next time I'm ready to sew, just for convenience sake, but I also realize that having to clean everything up at the end prevents me from keeping at the sewing machine beyond the point of fatigue and mistakes.  (I found this out the hard way last week when my husband took the boys on a trip to a monastery a few hours away, and left me with the girls, and I didn't have to clean up at the end of the day.  Let's just say mistakes were made.)

And so, here's my dress!  I needed some easy cotton dresses for the warmer weather.  When I started working on this dress, the weather was weirdly summer-like for a few days, but the day after I finished it, it dropped back below freezing, so I had a bit of a cold photo shoot on my back patio!

I could probably stand to take the bust in slightly, and possibly shorten the sleeves an inch, but otherwise, it is a pretty good fit! I took the shoulders in about an inch on the outer edge (just pinned it back and then pinned the top of the sleeve cap to the pinned in part and trimmed it after sewing) and that was just about right.  I also skipped the shoulder pads that the pattern called for (made with a square of fabric and batting, so not like the 80s versions, but generally, I don't like extra bulk on my shoulders).  

I did make the seams on the back skirt gores 3/8" instead of 1/2" because of my previous back skirt experience with the New England dress, although I think I probably didn't need it. I put the waist ties about an inch lower than ideal (one of those markings I failed to transfer and then had to drape in relation to the pocket to figure out); I'll fix it on the next go-round.

I've already got a plan for another iteration of this dress using a small feedsack from my stash paired with a solid Kona cotton contrast fabric.  I realized recently that the reason why Make Do and Mend sewing suggestions work well is that so many of the dresses of the period were constructed in ways that panels could be swapped out and freshened up with small lengths of fabric.  This pattern, for example, has a contrast yoke, plus princess seaming, so you could do a lot with colors and patterns in different fabrics in the various panels/pockets/sleeves.  After I finished this dress, and realized how much I could vary the pattern in the future, my brain really started click-a-clacking away, and I can really feel the creative part of sewing starting to get into me.

I've decided I love square necklines.  Another nice feature of this dress (and really the primary reason I bought the pattern) is the central zip, which means it is super nursing friendly!  I was considering a lapped zipper after watching the free tutorial on Craftsy, but in the end, I just went with a regular zipper insertion. The pattern called for a 21" zipper, but I only had a 14" one, and just went with it.  It is fine.  

Pocketses!!  They are zee best.  

I love this fabric, but I didn't realize that the birds were directional until I was sewing it together.  Oops.  The panels sort of alternate direction because of how I cut them, so it kind of looks like the pattern is more all-over than it really is.  At least the two front panels are going the right direction, so it is less obvious.

Sometimes you gotta use whatever props you can find.  In this case: a plastic squishy ball.  If I was really good with photo editing, I would stick some kind of glowing light ball in my hand.

New-to-me shoes.  I've been wanting to get some spring/fall shoes that are not clogs (much as I love my Danskos, I can't really wear them without stockings or tights), and found these Softspots flats on ebay.  They are quite comfortable, and the little heel is just enough so my high arches don't ache.  (I can't wear flats)

An old Acorn and Will bird brooch that doesn't quite match color-wise, but whatever.  It matches the pattern well, though!  And no, I didn't cut my hair--it was fresh out of a good wet set that day, and I wanted a more 30s look, so I tried to disturb the curls as little as possible before pinning them back.

There you have it!  Happy Bright Week!