Comfort Clothes

We've all been sick around here for weeks and I've taken a break from both the diet and excercise. It's hard to get up at dawn for a run when you can hardly breathe from coughing. :( So I've also taken a break from my fall sewing challenge. Instead, I'm reading the Colette Sewing Handbook cover to cover alongside Fit for Real People. I want my next projects to be perfect. So I'm sewing mainly for Kitty right now. But the other day I realized that I have nothing to wear that fits me at this awkward stage.

I'm still not quite into all my old clothes. I can squeeze into some knit tops, for sure, but I don't want every bump and bulge on display, nor do I want to wear Spanx just for school pickup. Since I have such a useful hobby, I decided to make something for those days I'm feeling less than thin. I wanted something with long sleeves and a little ease around the waist that I could just pull on and go without needing to coordinate layers and accessories. I decided to try the Lisette Continental blouse. Normally, big loose boxy things look frumpy on me, but I was drawn to the long slim sleeves that balanced out the bodice.  I liked the simple pull over design - which seemed rare in a woven top. Also, because of the generous design ease, I figured I could forgo the full bust adjustment and just sew the damn thing without spending hours fitting.

And voila! It's not bad at all. As you can see, I lowered the neck line. I had to - it was strangulating that high. And it made for such a huge expanse of unbroken fabric that I just looked, well huge.  I copied the lovely neckline from the Sorbetto top, which breaks up the vast expanse of bosom and opens up the face.  If you try this, be aware that you'll have to lengthen the neck facing piece to match. I did have to lower the bust darts for it to hang properly, but that was a lot less trouble than an actual FBA.

I rushed through this just to have it done and realized after that I wanted more length. I finished the sleeves and hem with bias facing to eek out some length. I may also take it in a little more at the sides under the bust to add some shape, but it is a cute top and more flattering than I would have thought. From the front it has a simple shape and the flounces are adorable from the back. However - be warned that from the side - total muu muu! yikes.

The fabric is yet more of that nice cotton lawn from Moda. I really hope they make more on this substrate - it's absolutely perfect to work with and wear. The Continental is essentially a dressed up tshirt - perfect for my day job! And it serves its purpose of keeping me nicely covered on fat days. I've already worn it a few times and I'll definitely be wearing it Friday after turkey and pumpkin pie!

Happy Thanksgiving and hurrah for the pumpkin pie!

just ducky

There are no end of boutique children’s patterns in the quilt shops these days, but few of them really turn my head. I sew mainly with Oliver + S patterns because they’re the gold standard or with Simplicity because they’re easy and predictable. For basics, I turn to the big four when they’re on sale at Joann and for something special I know Oliver + S will be worth every penny. I like tried and true proessional patterns so I don't run into too many problems.  But once in a while, it’s nice to try something different. Enter Clever Charlotte.

The unique style of Clever Charlotte caught my eye a few months back. Sophisticated and urban, yet utterly appropriate for children, these are the kinds of styles I see on the city playgrounds and in the high end boutiques downtown.  And since I have Society Hill tastes on a South Philly budget, I was definitely interested in recreating those looks myself.   The whole concept appealed to me, from the imaginative mascot and whimsical bird names to the ready to wear styling. I also like the instant gratification factor of their totally complete kits. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes get fed up with the amount of time I waste tracking down supplies when I could actually be sewing. The whole operation looked well done, so when Erin offered me a pattern to try out, I jumped at the chance, even though my baby won’t grow into their patterns until next year.  I’m pleased to say I was not disappointed. 

This is the new Eider Tunic in size 2T, modeled by a friend who loves dress up. I haven’t worked with two year olds in a while, so I borrowed a trick from Gail and hid a few treats in the pockets for little Kass to find. She does look a little like a sweet duck with a puffed out white breast, doesn’t she? (OK, I admit. I’m not a bird girl and I had no idea what an Eider was until I looked it up on Wikipedia.)

A few presentation details for those of us who are picky: The pattern is packaged in a re-sealable pouch, which is nice for storing your traced pieces, notes, fabric scraps or whatever. It is the same size as traditional patterns, so you can store it easily.  The pattern is printed on heavier weight tissue that will hold up to repeated tracing and re-folding. The instructions are geared toward new sewers and explain steps in detail. What I liked most was the extra tip to use a piece of cardboard as a pressing aide for the yoke.  I love learning new tricks and hope other patterns offer similar skill building opportunities. I would appreciate a line drawing on the package so I can more easily see the design, but maybe that doesn’t matter too much.

The pattern pieces fit together perfectly without any problem. The yoke is a bit tricky to get perfect, but curved pieces always are.  I found the instructions for the sleeve hem a little unusual, so I attached the bias hem a more typical way, with the seam stitched together and the raw edges tucked under.   I sewed the yoke last to avoid changing my thread back and forth. Also, I basted the yoke opening to make the seam easier to press, then picked out the basting.

The yoke finishes itself nicely and I finished the rest with – you guessed it – French seams.  (Maybe I should have named my blog “I heart French Seams.”) At the underarm, I press seams in opposite directions to reduce the bulk where they come together. I clip the French seam allowances very close to the stitching before the second pass and I’ve never been troubled by bulk.  I wouldn’t have done those raglan French seams on anything heavier, but the lawn I used here was lightweight and very prone to fraying. You may recognize the fabric. It’s the same as for Kitty’s French dress, in black. I bought whatever I could find of this lawn. The yoke is a soft linen cotton blend from my stash and the tie is satin faced ribbon.

 

The only alterations I made were pockets. I felt even a tiny girl needed pockets but didn’t want to interfere with the design lines, so I tucked them in the seams.  What I’d do differently next time is to self face the yoke or at least use a featherweight fusible. I used what I had on hand and it’s just a little too stiff around a small person’s neck for my liking. On the other hand, I stitched the pintucks into the interfaced piece, which gave them lovely definition. You could pintuck beforehand for a subtler effect.

I styled mind closely to the pattern package this time, but I can see lots of other possibilities. It would be so snuggly in a pinwale cord. You could try corded pintucks or eliminate them and use a print for the yoke. A Christmas red with a white yoke would be wonderfully festive, but in a grown up modern way.  You could do various things with the waist tie or leave it off and shorten this to a blouse.  How about trading the sleeve pintucks for gathers and finishing them with a bracelet cuff?

So I find Charlotte quite clever indeed!  At the top of my wishlist are the Finch shorts and the Kestral coat. What will you try?

en francąis!*

I’ve been waiting so long to share this project, I hope you’ll forgive me the gratuitous photos. In the spring, I ordered a few very special patterns all the way from France. They were unlike any patterns I've seen, particularly Dorotheé. The charming vintage sweetness of the teeny poofy sleeves, the gathers, the inverted pleat and the very short hem seemed to me quite special indeed.

I am completely smitten with Citronille. Such lovely designs! This one was beautifully drafted and came together easily. I was a little confused about where to place the gathers exactly, but worked it out. I like that it has a generous placket with just two little buttons. It goes easily over baby's head without buttoning all the way down the back. I plan to use this construction in the future. The instructions are in French, but if you’re an experienced seamstress, you can probably work it out from the diagrams alone.

I had a few years of French in college and I had to be able to read a fair bit of French for research purposes in grad school. That experience was enough to get me through the pattern instructions, though I still had to look up quite a few words. After all, when you’re researching early 20th century literature, sewing jargon isn’t on the vocab list. Industry specific terms are usually hard to find in your standard dictionary, and I had to rely on my sewing experience and make a few guesses.

Figuring this out is fun for me. I like languages because I like learning about other people and their ways of doing things.  One of the things I always tried to get my students to understand – way back in that other life when I was a language teacher – is that languages are inextricably bound up in their culture. You don’t get one without the other. Translating one language to another is not like balancing a math equation. It isn’t just a question of substituting our English word for the equivalent word in French. Sometimes there is no equivalent and sometimes the same word has a different cultural meaning. Sewing in French reminded me just a little of my years in Europe. Things were in some ways the same, but also very diffent.

Back to the dress. The only thing I changed was to self line the bodice. For help, I referred to the Puppet Show dress pattern. I hand stitched it into place. I used French seams and bias bound the armscye seams. Gosh, I should have shown you the inside! I hand stitched the tiny bracelet sleeve cuffs and the hem. I don’t think I’ve ever accomplished such a lovely dress in my life.

The fabric is cotton lawn by Moda from the Regent Street collection. It is as beautiful as the pattern. I made a very deep hem to help the fabric drape nicely. Shell buttons came from the LYS. They are rather simple have a slightly imperfect handmade charm.  These pictures are from a photo shoot with George Aubrey Photography for her one year portrait.

Have you tried foreign language patterns? French? Japanese?

*At my eldest’s preschool graduation, the kids sang the Yellow Submarine in French. After each child’s solo, the music teacher sang, “all together now, en francais!” and the group sang the chorus. There were 30 kids, so we heard the song over and over. And over. Consequently, “dans une sous-marin jaune” was stuck in my head for at least a week right around the time the patterns came in the mail.

halloween

 This was the first year my boys have been interested in Halloween. They were scared of costumes in the past or something and who really wants to force a little kid to eat tons of candy? But last year, dad took them trick or treating and they had so very much fun that they finally realized that Halloween is (duh!) pretty cool. This year, I made sure they got costume requests in early. 

Though I was exhausted after K’s birthday bash, I couldn’t let that stop my boys from properly observing one of the high holidays of childhood. While I left the actual sewing to the last minute, I had a plan for the costumes and had sourced almost all of the materials already. Putting them together wasn’t hard at all. I highly recommend this superhero cape pattern and the free matching downloadable applique patterns.

It was surprisingly fun sewing for the boys. I don’t get to do it much. I suppose that sounds more like a personal choice, but it’s just not practical. They are also so hard on their clothes! Why spend the time making khaki cargo pants that I can make neither as nicely as Lands End or as affordably when they’ll just tear out the knees in no time? But costumes I can do far better than most junk out there and the boys loved them! My oldest kept saying “oh, thank you, Mom!” and “I love it, Mom!” and “you do really nice work, Mom!” Can you imagine? Melt. 

Then I volunteered to go read a spooky story to my son’s kindergarten class and suddenly Catherine needed a costume too! There was some green sateen in the queue for a play dress and some yellow wool felt left from another project.  I made a Music Box Jumper on Saturday, finishing everything with the machine to save time. It is a play dress, after all, so it doesn’t need any fine finishes. 

This pattern will clearly become a winter wardrobe staple. There are just four simple pattern pieces (plus flaps) so you can trace and cut quickly. The construction is traditional, so you don’t have to pause to figure out any unfamiliar techniques. It would be easy to add pockets and I would like to experiment with fewer buttons at the back. There are a lot of possibilities – piping would be nice, as would some ribbon or embroidery. In corduroy or wool, it would add nice warmth to winter layers. In velveteen or voile it could even look fancy. And of course it looks great as is, but I’m a sucker for an inverted pleat.

 Sunday, I tackled the costume part. At first, I planned asort of petal necklace but then thought it would be nicer if the petals framed her sunny face. I considered wire or interfacing and then copied this very helpfulproject on the purl bee, opting for a hood instead of a headband. I used McCalls 4478 for the bonnet in scraps from the jumper and lined it with cotton flannel for warmth. Then I topstitched two rows of petals to it by machine. It was a little fiddly, but it ultimately saved me time. I tacked the petals together halfway up to help them stand up. 

I’m pretty pleased with the result, but it doesn’t take much to make this cutie shine!

 Hope you had a happy Halloween too!