The Journey of a Thousand Buttonholes...

I mentioned earlier this week that I got a lot of sewing done these last two weeks.  On Wednesday, I finished the final garment of my spring sewing pile, this kelly green linen Hollyburn, which is mean to go with several of the tops I made for this spring and summer.   It was a surprisingly fast make--about 2 hours sewing time (including a lot of extra seam finishing due to the fabric content), plus maybe 30 minutes cutting a few weeks ago.

On Thursday, I spent most of the afternoon and evening (in between general mothering and household duties) working about a thousand buttonholes and sewing on buttons.  I re-watched part of the Endeavor series on amazon to have something going in the background.  I had three blouses that all needed buttons and buttonholes, two dresses that needed non-functional buttons sewn on, plus a belt that needed a buckle.  It was a good day for a bunch of hand sewing.  I finished up the belt for this skirt yesterday afternoon.

One of my completed blouses is this lovely number; a Portrait blouse made from a small length of vintage fabric I found at lakeviewarts.  I've bought several lengths of fabric from her as well as a lot of buttons (I can't remember now, but I think perhaps the buttons/buckle card for this outfit also came from her shop); I'm always pleased with what I've bought and this fabric is no exception.  I used the same mods as on the Strawberry Fields blouse and am pretty happy with the fit.

  I have bought several feedsacks from her, but this one is a light cotton lawn with bright colors.  I fell in love with the color palette and knew it would make a nice addition to my spring closet.  It had some nice pops of green that I thought worked well with these buttons.  I generally don't go for shank-style buttons, but I loved the detailing and color on these ones, so made an exception.

I know I keep saying I don't like the Hollyburn, but I think it is growing on me.  (I've used the pocket piece for almost all the dresses I've made this spring and I did use the pattern for the bottom of the Green Geometry dress)  As far as the skirt goes, it really does help to use a proper bottom weight fabric.  I used Robert Kaufman's cotton-linen blend, and it really is a nice fabric to work with.  It takes a press beautifully, but also comes out of the dryer looking pretty well for linen.  It is not very soft, but I'm okay with that, for the price point.  I had originally bought it for another project entirely, but scrapped it before cutting.  I realized I had enough for a Hollyburn (and that I needed a green skirt to go with my spring/summer clothing), and that decided it!

I'm happier with the fit of this one too--I made sure to try it on before putting the waist band on to check the fit, and it is pretty good.  I moved the zip to the side, as I don't love a back zip on a skirt.  I did some trapunto-style top stitching on the waistband (which is covered by the belt) but it isn't very even because somehow my waistband came out slightly different widths.  At least the stitching is tone-on-tone and not terribly visible.  The belt covers a multitude of sins.  I did consider adding (and cut out) the belt loops, but decided to leave them off in the end, as I do sometimes want to wear it without a belt, and I don't like the look of empty belt loops.  I handworked a buttonhole for the waistband and added a coordinating flat green button to close.

I'm definitely keeping this fabric in mind for future projects.  I don't need any new skirts right now, but my twill skirts from two winters ago are starting to show their age, and I think this fabric might be a good replacement when the time comes.  I'm also considering the royal blue colorway for a 1930s button dress with yellow button accents, but that project might need to wait until next year as I think I've got enough going on for the summer sewing.

There are actually five buttons on the blouse, but one is below the waist line.  I wish I had spaced the buttons closer to show all five but this is okay.  The green leaves on the fabric are a better color match to the buttons in person than they look like on the photos.

I've got a bunch of completed projects that I need to wear and photograph, but some are more suited for warmer weather, so might have to wait a bit.  It is just starting to be warm enough to run around without tights and a cardigan all day.

(Also: I realized after I took these photos that I totally forgot to put any jewelry on--oops!  That's Saturday morning  at the end of Bright Week for ya).

Outfit details:

Coral Flowers Portrait blouse: me-made from vintage fabric and buttons

Green linen-cotton Hollyburn: me-made from Kaufman fabric and vintage buckle

Dankso sandals: via ebay last summer

sunglasses: retronettie (ebay)

Spring for Cotton Dress

Christos Voskrese!  Happy Bright Week!!  We had a lovely Pascha celebration at our parish in New Jersey over the weekend, and are now basking the brightness of the Feast of Feasts!  The kids are crazy from being up all night on Saturday night/Sunday morning, and we are all a bit tired, but happy.  

For Palm Sunday weekend and much of Holy Week, however, I was on my own with the girls as my husband took the boys on a special trip to the monastery in California.  I did a ton of sewing to keep my mind and fingers occupied--I completed three dresses, two blouses (except for the buttons/holes), and got another dress, skirt, and blouse ready to sew.  

One of these was my Spring for Cotton dress.  It is another fabric from Penny Rose at Hawthorne Threads--the same designer as my Green Geometry dress.  I used my Frankenpattern, but modified the front bodice to have a faux shirt-style closure.  I did make a oopsie when I attached it to the skirt section (the flaps are lapped the wrong direction), but I didn't realize it until I was sewing on the buttons and by then I didn't want to undo it.  I did check it before attaching, but I guess I got mixed up at the pinning stage.  I guess if it really bothers me, I can unpick about an inch of the waist and redo the buttons, but honestly, I think it doesn't matter that much.  The fit of this dress makes me look longer-waisted than I am, but given how extremely short-waisted I actually am, it probably doesn't hurt.

I originally had all six buttons running down the front of the bodice, but it didn't quite look right, and after my Shelburne Falls dress, I decided I really liked the button treatment on the pockets, so I pulled off the buttons and put two on the pockets and realigned the four on the bodice.  

I also retrofitted the neckline as I omitted the back neck darts on the bodice, and the bodice fit really weird as a result.  (It is strange, because the last couple of dresses I've made I've left these darts off, but for some reason, this dress really needed them).  The fix isn't perfect, but it looks okay from the outside of the dress.  I'm not sure what is going on with the fit of the back bodice--probably has to do with the way I'm standing for the photo.

I'm working on a green cardigan that exactly matches the green of the flowers, but I think it won't be finished until next fall at the earliest.  In the meantime, I have a lighter weight green cardigan that goes with it, and this brown one works for cooler days.

It was so nice to pull these shoes out again--I really love them, and they are so comfortable.  I wore them for Pascha with a different dress and my feet felt fine at the end of the service!  (Anyone who has been Orthodox for a while will tell you that it is a supremely bad idea to wear new shoes to a Pascha service.  I've discovered this the hard way a few years running and finally got smart).  I like that I can wear them with or without stockings during this weird in-between weather we're having.

I think I've finally got my hair routine figured out with this hair cut--it only took me five months to get the hang of it!  (I know, I know!)  The basic trouble is getting the short layers around my face to behave themselves.  The thing about curly hair is that it tends to have a mind of its own, and sometimes it will play nicely with the other children, sometimes, not so much.

Outfit details:

Spring for Cotton dress: Penny Rose Hope Garden Floral in Red, Frankenpattern with Hollyburn pockets, vintage button/buckle card from the 1930s.

Earrings: bought in Ireland

Stockings: Foot Traffic cotton tights in Heather Mocha

Shoes: Danskos via ebay last summer 

Stonehill Mountain dress (revisited)

Well, it is Holy Week--what can I say?  It has been a difficult Lent, and this week continues apace. Piglet and Ponchik just came down with another virus, and Birdie might be getting it too.  I'm trying to take it in stride.  At least I've gotten a lot of sewing done this past week--keeps my mind occupied.

 So let's talk about sewing stuff instead, mkay?

Remember the Stonehill Mountain dress?  I was really proud of the dress in theory, because it was my first time to really fiddle with detailing on my Frankenpattern, and try something stylistically new.  In practice, however, I hardly wore it.  The tabs on the collar were difficult to dress around--I wear these dresses with cardigans in cooler weather, and it was hard to find one that looked right with the tab details.  The fit of the dress seemed off to me, and I was uncomfortable every time I tried to wear it. I was nearly ready to donate the dress, when I thought perhaps I could save it with a quick fix.

I decided the tabs and buttons and belt buckle had to go.  I had attached the tabs to the outside of the inner seams and then folded them over to the outside of the garment, so it was an easy thing to take my seam ripper to them and pull them off, along with the decorative buttons.  I put the buttons and buckle back into my bin to save for a future project and resisted the urge to sew on a different set of buttons (although I'm not ruling out adding a row of black buttons down the front, just to keep it more or less neutral).

I'm quite happy with the result--this dress is now the plainest one I've made, but it is a nice blank canvas too.  I have three different leather belts that look nice with it, plus I intend to put a dark blue or black buckle on the original belt, so I'll have some options to take this in different styling ways.  

The plain neckline gives me more cardigan and jewelry options, and I realized that what I thought was a poorly fitted dress was actually an ill-fitting belt.  I wore the dress with a long sleeve tshirt under it a few times this winter, and that worked quite well also.  I intend to give myself an extra centimeter or two when I reattach the belt buckle, which I think will fix that problem too.

I wore this outfit to the Annunciation liturgy on Tuesday, and I think I'm pretty happy with it now.  I'm a bit bloated at the moment, so it is a bit snug around the middle, but not uncomfortably so.  I guess it is good to remember that not everything needs embellishment or extra detail--sometimes a plain vanilla dress is just the thing.

Details:

Stonehill Mountain dress: me-made (Frankenpattern, with patch pockets), fabric from Joann's

Belt: target (old)

Shoes: dankso via ebay

Felt heart brooch: Wacky Tuna Vintage (etsy)

Cardigan: JCrew

Earrings: gift from hubby long ago

Talking Tuesday: Finding Purity in Suffering

Rod Dreher's new book, How Dante Can Save Your Life, comes out this month, and he's been blogging about the book for the last few weeks now.  Yesterday, he posted a particularly interesting passage and meditation, and I thought it was appropriate for these last days before Pascha.  It has been a difficult Lent, in many ways--death, sickness, and sorrow have dogged me this season.  I've tried to accept it, to not complain, to take the suffering as part of this season, to say "Glory to God for all things" and really mean it (more on that later), but it has been hard.  The excerpt below gave me a few things to ponder.

"If I believed with all my heart that my suffering could purify me, would I run from it with such vigor? This canto invited me to think about how the physical and spiritual struggles I had been through since coming home had at times brought me closer to God—and how my own bruised ego had, at other times, pushed him away.

'I am a glutton for food and drink, no doubt, but I am also a glutton to feed my soul on other things that I cannot have. On this terrace, I grasped the nature of my hunger, my craving, for approval and acceptance by my family. I wanted it so much that I had made it more important than the hunger for God."

~Rod Dreher, Dante and the Fruits of Patience, April 6, 2015

HSM #4: War and Peace

As seems to be the theme of my Historical Sew Monthly sewing this year, my original plan for this month's challenge just didn't happen.  This month's theme is War and Peace, and we are to make a garment that reflects either war time or peacetime.  I confess that wartime is easier to think about as the implications for clothing are so obvious and numerous.  (Fabric rationing, difficulty in obtaining supplies, make do and mend, military influenced styles, etc) I had planned to make a 1916 factory girl smock out of some twill I had in my stash, but I've run into a few difficulties with the project and shelved it for the time being.  I may make it up in the fall, when it has a better chance of being worn, or I might use that twill for another dress project I have in mind for later in the year.

Great War Factory girls

After I realized my original idea wasn't going to be ready in time for this month's submission, I decided to think more about peacetime, as that is a more challenging subject to express sartorially.  As my most of my clothing tends to the interwar and early WW2 period of the late 1910s to the early 1940s, it is an interesting time to ponder.  The years from 1919-1939 were technically peacetime ones, but anyone with eyes in their head could see that Europe was heading for another large-scale conflict from at least the early 1930s.  The ruinous reparations of the Versailles Treaty set the stage for the rise of Nazi Germany and the conflict that followed, and the great crash of 1929 added further economic sanctions to an already crippled Europe.  

Relative to today, ready to wear clothing was quite expensive (it wasn't until after WW2 that ready to wear became more easily available to the masses, and even then, clothing remained a valuable commodity for at least another 20-30 years).  Women tended to own fewer garments than women of today, and those owned tended to be of higher quality, made in such ways that they could be let out, refashioned, cut down to fit younger members of the household (this is, incidentally, probably the chief reason why there are so few extant examples of larger sizes of vintage clothing.  It isn't that everyone was a vintage size 12; rather that size 12s tended to be younger women and teenagers.  Their clothing was already quite small and could only be cut down to fit children.  Larger women's clothing, which naturally had more fabric, and tended to belong to older women, tended to get passed down to younger members and refashioned/made smaller).  

Starting in the 1920s, however, paper patterns became quite popular.  They had been around since the mid-19th century, but advances in both sewing technology and ideas about pattern making meant that more women were able to sew the clothing for their families at home.  Clothing-wise, the 1920s were easy to sew for--the famous One-Hour Dress was popular and easy to modify to suit a range of designs and styles.  Hem lines had gone up as social norms changed and more women joined the workforce outside the home (I should note that women have always worked outside the home, and in large numbers, but as I noted in my review of Judith Flanders' book, it was not remunerated in the same way as men's work outside the home, and was therefore not as economically valued until women began to work in the same sorts of venues that men did (i.e. offices and factories).

By the 1930s, however, the Great Depression was in full swing, and the smaller conflicts that would shape the character of the larger war to come were ongoing in Europe.  Hemlines dropped, clothing lines became more severe and fitted, and serious foundation garments came back into fashion.  At the same time, however, clothing of the 1930s has a certain amount of frivolity and whimsy to it.  Buttons are used in unusual ways, asymmetric trims and necklines are popular, bias cut clothing (which always takes more fabric than straight grain) is common.  Elsa Schiaparelli was in her heyday, creating garments with a lot of theatrical touches, such as the skeleton dress, and the lobster dress.    The Button Dress, with 8 completely decorative buttons, is another good example of 1930s detailing.  

This is my Shelburne Falls dress.  I used Denyse Schmidt's vintage repro fabric from the Maple Palette, and my Frankenpattern with some mods to make it more 1930s-like.  As I wrote previously, this style of dress was quite popular in the 1930s, and I've got lots of examples of housedresses in this style and shape, but day dresses in this style were also popular--I have a couple patterns from the Vintage Pattern Lending Library from 1934 that are similar in shape and style.  I tried to come up with some whimsical touches, such as the diagonal line of buttons across the neckline.  

I had thought to continue the buttons down the side seam of the skirt, but I didn't really have enough of the same type and color to do so, and it didn't quite look right with the pocket placement.  I made a slash-style patch pocket, similar in style to others I've seen on various housedresses.  

Kimono sleeves were popular and normal at the time, as I've said.  I think one reason for this is that they are very fabric efficient as well as being easy for a beginning sewer to work with.  As home sewing was really coming into its own during the interwar years, and women were learning how to sew with machines instead of by hand and learning how to sew with paper patterns, cut-on sleeves are an easy place to start (I think it worth noting that many of the styles of the 1920s also featured kimono sleeves; long sleeves were achieved with a rectangular addition to the bottom, and easy add-on that doesn't need basting and can be sewn on flat.  This type of sleeve addition remained popular into the early 1930s). 

The main reason I think of this dress as a peacetime sartorial choice is that peacetime means one has the time, resources, and creative energy to make garments with interesting details.  Wartime clothing can be sartorially pleasing, with its military influences, creativity in fabric and design due to shortages.  Peacetime clothing is harder to put a border around precisely because there is so much space for creativity.  While war produces great advances in technology, it takes peacetime to really develop them for general use (things like plastics, microwave technology and many other now-standard technologies of the post modern age have their roots in war time armaments)

The Challenge: War and Peace

What is it: casual day dress

Fabric: 100% cotton Denyse Schmidt Shelburne Falls Dress Floral in Maple (mid-weight cotton)

Pattern: Franken-patterned from heavily modified Emery bodice, McCall's 4275 skirt, self-drafted slash-style patch pockets

Year: 1934 (ish)

Notions: vintage red bias binding, vintage buttons (probably from the 1940s, going by color and style, but I could be wrong; they were off their card when I bought them)

How historically accurate is it?  7/10  The fabric is okay for a house dress, but not really right for a day dress.  A day dress would have been made of something with better drape like rayon or georgette, or a lighter weight cotton.  It could also have been made of light wool garbardine for cooler weather.  The mid-weight cotton is fine for the the print and look, however.  I also used a plastic zip and put it in the back, which is wrong.  The zip would have been metal and on the side if used at all--snaps and hooks were a little more commonly used in the early 1930s.  I'm pretty sure the button are from the 1940s, but since they weren't on their original card when I bought them, I can't be certain.  

I finished my seams by pinking, which is appropriate, but I finished my edges with bias, which I'm not quite sure about.  Bias tape definitely existed and was used to great effect on house dresses as trim and for binding the edges, but it tended to be visible.  Facings were more common on necklines and sleeves, and hems tended to be turned up and sewn by hand. I've not seen an invisible bias bound edge on an extant dress, but I've not had a lot of experience handling 1930s dresses in person, so I could be wrong.  

Hours to complete: about 4, counting cutting time.

First worn:  April 6, 2015

Total cost: $31 for the fabric, probably $7 in buttons and bias tape, $2 for the zip, so $40 total.

*I made a sash to go with this dress for days when my belly isn't cooperating, but I made this dress with this leather belt in mind.  I have a red one that matches the red in the dress as well.  I also have a red cardigan that will work well for cooler weather.  

Yarn Along: Comfort Crafting

I can't seem to keep just one or two things going on my needles, so I cast on a new cardigan earlier this week, using some Brava sport yarn from Knit Picks.  I absolutely adore the color, and it will work so well with a number of items in my closet, including my Spring for Cotton dress.  I've not decided if I'm going to do the cable chart at the top of the sweater or just do a twisted rib (which is easier to remember) but for now, it is going pretty well.  I usually hate knitting with a chart (and in the round), but this one isn't too bad.   I did already make a small mistake on the button band, but it wasn't worth pulling the whole row out for it.  Hopefully it won't show too much.  The pattern is from the book Wanderlust.  I really like the book because most of the knits are done in sport or worsted weight.  It seems like almost every pattern I'm drawn to on ravelry or elsewhere calls for fingering weight yarn, and honestly, I just don't have the patience for that right now.

The striped beret is coming along nicely.  Two more stripes and I'll be ready to start the decreases, I think.

The 1918 Walking Sweater progresses apace.  I'm nearly done casting on the extra stitches for the sleeves (it has been an interesting learning curve, to be sure, but I've already put my new knowledge to good use on the green sweater above!)  It is kind of difficult to manage 200+ stitches on 14" needles, but that is what the pattern calls for, and I don't have a size 8 circular needle long enough to make that big of a difference, so I'll just soldier on.  It is only 50 rows after the increases before I take about half the stitches off the working needle, so I think it will be okay.  This pattern really perplexes me, and I have to stop and think about it a lot.  There really isn't much to it, but I guess that is why I have to think so much--often the directions aren't really that clear.  Also, the blue yarn is really a dark navy, but it is hard to photograph any detail on it, so I lightened it a bit to show the pattern better.

I've pretty much set aside my other reading for the moment in favor of re-reading Drums of Autumn.  I just need something familiar and comfortable right now, and DoA is just the thing.  I'm also rewatching the MI:5 seasons that feature Richard Armitage again (goodness, he is a pleasure to watch as an actor), as well as some older BBC shows he was in.  I may even get to the last two installments of The Hobbit one of these days.

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along.

Strawberry Fields Blouse

Some readers might remember the disaster that was the Strawberry Fields Forever dress last summer.  I did try to salvage it, but it was just such a disaster, I really couldn't.  I put the leftover strawberry fabric back in my stash and tried to think of a productive way to use it.  I realized a few weeks ago that I had about enough to make a Portrait blouse if I did a little piecing in the back, and decided to try and make something wearable out of this lovely vintage print.

I've not made a Portrait blouse since the end of last summer, and I made a couple of mods based on things I like about the fit and ease of making with my Frankendresses.  I changed the armscye to the type of kimono sleeve I use on my frankenpattern so that I could use bias to finish the edge.   (The original Portrait blouse kimono sleeve is kind of a pain to finish since it has to be turned under very narrowly and the join at the side seam is always awkward) I also decided to skip the facing around the neckline and use bias as well.  Since this was a button-down version, I cut a self-facing on the outer edge, using the fabric selvage edge.  It worked out quite well!  I plan to finish my other blouses this way too--I have 2 1/2 more blouses cut out and ready for stitching.

The buttons stymied me, however.  I couldn't really find something that went well with the fabric--I have plenty of red, yellow, and green buttons, but nothing seemed to fit.  I realize now that the scale of the pattern really called for small buttons.  I found these small turquoise buttons on etsy earlier in March, and they turned out to be just the thing.  They are very close to the color of the blue flowers, and the size of them is in scale with the rest of the print.  It was my first time handworking such small buttonholes, and I confess, they aren't my best work, but at least I used off-white thread so that it doesn't show much.  

It is still quite cold today, so I'm wearing a wool sweater, even though I have several lightweight cotton sweaters that would look better with the blouse.  Oh well.  Needs must and all that.  I'm sure it will get more use as the weather warms up a bit (and I'm not complaining about the cold, just to be clear--I dislike the heat, and will take this cooler weather as long as we have it!  Although it is a little challenging to dress for the current season, it must be said.  It is not quite cold enough for heavy winter woolies, but not quite warm enough for lighter weight spring clothes yet)  I should also add that it is fiendishly difficult to photograph a white blouse with a small scale print before 8:00 a.m. on a sunny day.  Hence the roving backgrounds.

But I digress.  I'm fairly happy with the blouse, although I do realize that I'm past the season of needing separates every day.  

Last year, I was still nursing almost full time, and couldn't really wear dresses easily; now that Ponchik has weaned, I'm all about the dresses.  I've got three Frankendresses cut out in various iterations and several more dresses planned for later in the year.  I'm really happy with the fit of that pattern, and I really don't have the patience or interest in fitting another dress pattern right now when I can fiddle with the details in order to get a different look every time I make one.

In any case, I'm happy this blouse is complete.  The fabric has been taunting me from the bin since last summer, a reminder of how badly I messed up the first go-round.  I'm pleased this iteration turned out well.  I've got a kelly green linen Hollyburn cut out for summer that will also go quite nicely with this blouse (as well as another one that I've not stitched up yet...stay tuned)

P.S. In the interest of honesty in photography, I've not edited out the monster cold sore right under my nose.  Just keeping it real over here.

I've got some new knitting on the needles and I'll try to do a Yarn Along post for tomorrow.

Outfit details:

Strawberry Fields Portrait Blouse: me made from vintage fabric and buttons

Red Twill skirt: me made

Yellow belt: ebay

Brown sweater: Ralph Lauren via ThredUp

Flower brooch: Acorn and Will

Earrings: etsy (a Christmas gift two years ago)

Boots: Modcloth