Lets try SWAPPING

Listen. I love watching other sewists develop their own Sewing with a Plan Wardrobe. 

It is inspirational.

I have even attempted a few in the distant past and was either a) a drop out b) ended up with a wardrobe that suited the contest rules but not me.

This year's rules are much more liberal. So I am jumping in with the intention of only getting together some Useful Clothes.

This will be a real challenge for me as I am a sort of go-where-the-mood-takes-me sewer and what I don't really need in my busy life right now is a pile of things that has to-do written all over it. 

However I have decided that if this is not my only sewing but just my directed sewing, and if these are all garments I need and will definitely wear, this is an exercise worth doing.

Of course there is a major appointment coming up December 25th and I have some Christmas sewing/knitting/cooking to get done first but I can start this project in my head can't I?

That is after all where I do my best sewing.

O.K. here is the current plan.

I figure I will do the most boring combination, four bottoms, six tops and one other that works with all separates.

This I really could use. 

Today I will talk about my bottoms patterns, do the tops tomorrow, and my struggle with an coat/jacket thing Monday.

Feel free to give me advices.

My bottom garments are going to be pants. 

Since the refinement of a basic pencil skirt and the revelation of the Magic Skirt I am skirted out for a bit, and of course when you move ahead in one area you fall behind in another.

I have looked at my current favourite pants patterns and they are of course the StyleArc Lindas:

and the pants from this Vogue pattern, which I have in black gabardine and wear whenever I can:

These last pants are sooo comfortable and the fit is great but of course I made them first time as per pattern and they are really short. 

In the warmer weather with flats this is fine but when I want to wear them with short boots or in anything a bit cooler there is the bare leg thing to deal with. I have compromised with some fishnet knee highs which are good but not tremendously cozy, and since these aren't lined, anything longer in a sock or tights has those sticking to the leg things going on and I struggle enough with lack of cool to be dealing with that.

So clearly I need these exact same pants but with about 2-3 " more in length.

I have some black and some navy gab I am going to be making these up again. 

I am doing a black based subset and a navy based subset (2 bottoms and 3 tops in each) and a neutral coat to tie them together. So happy the SWAP rules this year allow that and don't require 11 garments in one colour family which is a condition that more or less makes my head explode.

I want to give a shout out to gabardine pants. 

If you do a good clapper type pressing job a pair of gab pants  you can get through any day looking pressed, and if you let them hang out on a good hanger, they can be reworn without repressing. I really appreciate anything I can haul out of the closet and can put on without having to go down to the ironing board again.

This pattern is also more stylish looking that it should be given that it is roomy in the hips, thighs, and stomach and but still has the slim legs. This is an elusive combination but makes me feel as comfortable in these as jammies, always a goal.

OK so that's two TNT pants patterns. 

I would also like to nail down a stretch woven pant that had a similar comfort level and a slim leg. The Linda pants are good but they are widish at the bottom which means you can't wear a widish top without looking like a fridge.

I tried the StyleArc Elle pant but that was skin tight as in leggings and in them I looked like an eggcup.

A tall eggcup.

Enough said about that.

The Elles were not TNT material obviously unless I was going to give up all self-respect, something I don't have on the agenda.

I am having another kick at the ideal though with this new pattern (I do love the SyleArc crotch fit) the Claudia:

I will be making an actual muslin for this (something I generally don't take the time to do) because I really want a pattern like this. 

It has some good features like a higher waist ( I am so over the belly overhang thing) and I am wondering about the dart at the back leg.  I mean there has to be a reason, I just haven't figured it out yet.

And SyleArc I am noticing the ankle length which I will be fine-tuning to work with my reality.

So that's what I am hoping to have done before the sewing opens on the SWAP competition December 26th. My bottoms cut out and the Claudia pant either on the cutting table or the garbage can.

Sounds like a plan, or at least the thin edge of one.

Now off the do the tree.

Oh and BTW for spam reasons I am asking for comment moderation, hope that is alright with you. I watch for comments like a hawk so if you are an actual sewer and not someone trying to sell me Ugg boots or worse your comments will appear shortly.

Word verification for comments turned off

Sorry  about that. I was having spam issues and thought it would help. Guess more of a nuisance than a help.

Petite Plus Wrap dress review

I am home now after a week in Winnipeg to visit my mother and other family there. I went to Christmas concerts, swim meets, and did a little sewing/alterations for my mom.

She is an 85 year old petite plus and updating some clothes for her involved the same series of alterations - shorten, bring in the sleeves to account for narrow shoulders etc. As always larger sizes seem to be designed as if a person was large everywhere, and neckline and shoulder fit is a challenge.

It is interesting to me that exactly what I had to do to make her purchased clothes fit are already built into the Petite Plus patterns.

I made this wrap dress for her, which she likes, in the unwrapped version. We like the fit in the neck and shoulders and the fact that the V neck does stay close to the body. In addition to being drafted for a short, fuller figure this pattern has some fitting features I liked:

• Three piece sleeve. Next version I am going to take advantage of this and narrow her sleeve from the bicep down, the three seams make custom sleeve fit easy.
• Back neck darts.
• Optional front and back French darts. I left these in the back to give the dress more shape but left them out to accommodate her waistline.

Here are the pictures. 

I think my mom is a pretty sharp 85 year old (she has never coloured her hair) but then again as the person actively involved in raising my 14 year old niece (including 6:00 a.m. runs to the pool most mornings) she leads the life of someone about 30 years younger and it shows.

(She would want to add that after seeing these pictures she is off for a new bra-fitting - welcome to the world of revealing blog photos Mom).

 

I am pretty impressed with this pattern and am even thinking of playing around with a down-sized version for myself. This is a great basic.

On other news I am finishing up my term and thinking about all I have to do in the new year. My resolution is to find more time for myself and I am not sure how I am going to accomplish that yet.

I have also decided to do SWAP this year and that will be the focus of my sewing for a while. Might make for some dull blogging but I think this might be a good year for a Useful SWAP.

In the meantime, I am back and wish you all the best as we count down to the busy season.

We all need a laugh tonight

See subject line.

Suffice it to say that work this week has been one thing after another, after another, after another.

But somehow the gods of humour, who usually stand by me pretty good, swooped in and gave me what I need.

How in earth did I miss the new Butterick patterns?

My email is mostly out of control. It seems that a lot of stuff is going into my Spam folder, including the notices from Vogue and co. which I miss, even when I periodically clean out my five hundred spam messages asking me where they should send the million dollars I won, or warning me of the dangers of surgery I never had, and telling me that there are lonely married seniors in my area, not that I believe that for a moment since they all have dogs.

I sometimes wonder what random searches I ever did that has attracted some of this lint.

For example I am on some Google alert about Spam. 

The kind in the can with the aluminum key that breaks off and has that block of jellied pink jelly drop out like a lump onto the plate. 

Personally I haven't eaten the stuff since my grandmother died but Google thinks I do. You know every time you open your gmail you probably have ads across the top about online M.B.A.s

Me I see recipes for Spam. Spam El Fresco (sandwiches presumably for picnics) and even more frighteningly Spam bourguignon, Spam fettucini,  and Spam mousse.

A different recipe everyday. 

I am trying not to take it personally that somewhere the world's largest search engine has decided I am running a low brow operation around here.

You don't think I have been outed by Google Maps do you?

Some random shot of me eating cereal on the front steps (done a lot on my street), blogging in a polar fleece housecoat at 11:00 on a Saturday morning in front of a sink full of dirty dishes.

Anything is possible. There is no privacy anymore.

OK, back on topic.

Well, something came over me tonight,  it was like a little voice in my head was saying:

"Stop with the marking, stop with the marking, go have a look at the Butterick site."

I mean it was eerie how this urge came over me.

Well anyway I opened a new window, one without any student papers on it, and surfed on over.

I was not disappointed.

Some real beauties there:

Can't you just tell from her face what this model  is saying here between clenched teeth. "If you laugh one more time you are dead."  The world's first below the boob flying bow. Words for once, almost fail me. Where was that bow before it dropped? I have seen crocheted dog coats with more class, no insult to dogs or crocheters.

Another nervous model. This little number would make my mother look like a hooker. OK obviously designed for folks whose legs are their only good feature but no way anybody's husband wouldn't say "yeah but where are the pants to that outfit?" This is sort of a pre-wadder, you would know before it got that far.

It takes real skill to made a size zero look like she has a big butt and a big belly but this one manages that. The skirt is in pleatherette BTW in case you missed the point the first time. Even I wouldn't have worn anything like this to a junior high dance which is about the most extreme statement I can make about lack of style since I believe I set new standards for poor taste throughout those years.

A sleeping bag dress. It has to be.
This unit has to convert to something useful. I am willing to lay money that if you undo that zipper and unfold the middle you have a nice little tent that sleeps five.
This dress has to be a disguise of some kind.

There you have it. I am all cheered up.

No idea why I am no longer getting notices from the pattern companies when the new patterns come out.

Ivy Style

One of the many really cool things I did in New York was go to this exhibition at F.I.T. :

Of course it was an exhibition about mostly menswear - the preppy Ivy League style that has influenced so many North American designers. Think of the L.L. Bean ladies or anyone who ever declares there can never be too many white shirts.

It was pretty interesting as a retrospective of American classic design influences but...

Hold the phone

Guess what I found out?

Now before I go on my rant let me give you a pre-rant.

I have long thought that home sewers are asked by pattern instructions, books, and their own female sense that it has to be me not them that finds this hard, to do the impossible.

The built-in unachievable makes good sewers feel like bad people.

To my mind this has to stop.

I have been developing this opinion ever since an industrial sewing machine guy told me that the only reason tailoring details like welt pockets and keyhole buttonholes looked good in ready-to-wear was because they were executed with giant machines that worked vertically, and didn't try to move the fabric along with a presser foot.

Back on topic.

O.K.

A lot of us have struggled with stand collars and more specifically with that last little buttonhole right in the curved part of the stand. You know that one that drives your blood pressure up and you know you are going to unpick a couple of times and then decide that no one will ever notice anyway.

Well the question is - how achievable is this? 

Really?

Well down at F.I.T. I was at source and saw how the original Oxford cloth type shirts were made in the days before they were sent off to Taiwan and computerized factories.

Well guess what?

The shirts I saw had:

• Wider button bands about 2"
• Squared not curved collar stand ends. No tricky curves to sew.
• Collars that were set a full 1 1/2" in from the end of the stand. Makes sense actually for wearing with a tie.
• Buttonholes that were made a full 3/4" in from the end of the collar stand and therefore were nowhere near all those layers that gum up your buttonhole stitching!

The thing is that these collars and stands looked completely terrific and from a sewing point of view would be a piece of cake.

Here is my drawn-on-my-purse illustration, note that both are supposed to be drawings of a collar on a stand, even though the bottom one looks like a convertible collar. I was too excited to remember to draw in the neckline seam.

 Well folks what do you think of this?

Back in business

I more or less deplaned from New York and went right into class and marking.

I am happy to report that the heavy lifting marking wise is now done. 

More than happy.

I have a week of classes and then have decided to go and see my family and mom in Winnipeg before Christmas. 

I want to see my niece and nephew's Christmas concert, to see another niece in a swim meet and maybe help my mom a bit with pre-Christmas stuff. We are also going out to the small town I lived in as a child where we will be having dinner with my best friend from Grade 8. She looked me up last summer and we picked up where we left off.

What does it say about two women who are still the same as they were in Grade 8?

She has spent her working life as a parole officer, and I have spent mine living in different places and doing a variety of things. It appears not to have changed either of us.

This is either a good or bad thing and I am not sure it really matters.

I have a lot to do before I go and this weekend I am catching up on family sewing.

900 baby wipes to sew for my daughter's up coming Christmas fair where her business has a booth.

I also want to start some dresses for my mother. It makes sense that I have them nearly done to take for a fitting.

My Vogue order hasn't arrived but I have found this pattern that I think she will like:

It's a new pattern from Petite Plus and I am pretty interested to make it. For those of you who are not familiar with this pattern line they are drafted for a fuller bust and tummy and narrow shoulders in mostly plus or getting there sizes. And of course petite sizes, I forgot about that. 

This more or less describes my 5'2" mother.

It is really hard for this figure type and particularly older ladies to find patterns. I hope we can get a TNT for her here. Although it says "wrap" there is also a non-wrapping option and that's what we will be using. I have two nice pieces of ponte that will work.

I have had a look carefully at the patterns and note that some of these might even fit me. I am about 8" past a petite but many of the figure characteristics apply and of course nothing is as easy as lengthening. 

My plan is to make this for my mother and put it on myself and to try to imagine it longer. I will let you know how that goes.

There are a few things about the website for this company that are note-worthy. 

First there is a page called Pattern Extenders that has free downloadable patterns for details like collars, how to adjust a pattern for maternity wear etc. There is also this free pattern for a basic shift that might be a way to test the drafting to see if it works for your individual pattern adjustment issues:

There is also a really excellent Custom Fit page with sensible advice for common fit adjustments like large arms, bust adjustments, and shoulder fitting, which is key.

Finally I should point out that there is a current Independent Pattern contest running for those of you who sew with these patterns:

The rules and application form are here.

Tomorrow I am going to share the startling discover about collars I made at the F.I.T. Ivy League exhibition, but right now I have a sewing room calling.

How to be a middle-aged traveling woman

I have so many things to write about, some sewing related and some not, but I have returned to my normal life and that this weeks involves all that end of term marking I always complain about.

So I have decided to do short posts until I eventually unload the debris from my mind into yours.

Tonight here are my thoughts on travel these days, particularly if you are doing it solo:

• Air travel ain't what it used to be. They are going to ask you to take off your shoes. So you don't fall over in the line-up on both sides of the X ray booth, wear something that slips on and off easily. Practice this at home in a closet or somewhere cramped until you get the hang of it.

• You are going to spend a lot of time rooting around in that big carryon-carryall desperately hoping that your boarding pass/passport/customs forms were not part of the junk you emptied out in the garbage can in the ladies room several terminals back. Have one designated zippered bag for this stuff. Make it red so you can see it in the bottom of your giant carryon bag. If you have an embroidery machine you can even put something evident on it like "things that I will have a heart attack if I lose" on it.

• If you are taking your bamboo needles with you to knit socks, take five not four needles. In case one rolls under the seat in front of you or in case it gets sat on in 14D, which is your seat number and not a combination of your cup size and the dress size you once were.

• Keep a pen in your red important inside-the-purse bag. They are going to ask you to fill out customs forms that say you are not traveling with $10,000 cash on you (how is that possible you went to Mood with Carolyn?) and not importing firearms or sheep manure samples or raffia furniture and no one will lend you a pen to do it - in particular the flight attendants who have pens in their hands.

• Do not wear clothes to travel that you wouldn't wear at home just because they are no-iron, roll up small, and have 200 pockets. You don't want to look like you haven't been out of the house before. This rule of course does not apply if you are going to NYC and what you wear at home has rhinestones on the back pockets or is a Mumu that glows in the dark. In this case you wear exactly what you would never wear at home, and make it in black.

• A toothbrush. These are easy to leave at home next to the sink along with your passport. The going rate for toothbrushes with mobile bristles is $19 at most international airports.

Next entry is how it is easy to be relaxed and confident in New York even if you are the sort of woman who doesn't even like to drive over the bridge at home in a windy day.