Poetry Saturday and sewing update

I spent my sewing time this week hemming up two pairs of pants for an upcoming work trip, and modifying my first free downloaded pattern from Burdastyle.com (Ellinor 8516). My local Hancock just remodeled and is having a huge pattern sale, so I picked up a bunch of patterns this week and decided none of them were going to add to my trip wardrobe. So back to Burdastyle.

It's an easy sew, so I'm hoping to work up both a close-to-intended version and a modified version this week. Pictures soon.

Onto poetry from the widget, enhanced by me:

It cracked and howled and roared and growled
The ice did split with a thunder-fit
Bellowing out across the land
Thus spake that ancient man

Butterick 3112: Kenzo Wrap Dress (vintage pattern)

Mmmmmm, delicious 70's style. It's not just a dress, it's a wrap dress. It's not just a wrap dress, it's an apron-y wrap dress. It's not just an apron-y wrap dress, it's a HALTER NECK apron-y wrap dress, for the love of disco!

I don't know that modern America hears much from Kenzo these days but may recognize the name from shoe labels or perfume bottles. Kenzo Takada partnered with Butterick in the 70's to create a line of crazy-tasty home sewing patterns that tapped into his popular mainstream aesthetic. I was lucky enough to find one of these patterns in my size at Out of the Ashes Collectibles a few months ago and I finally sewed it up in a patterned royal blue corduroy today.

I tried it on tonight and got a couple of photos, but I wore it over my clothes and it looks very much like an apron and not at all like a dress (duh, right?). I am wearing it tomorrow as a dress and will take a new picture to post here.

Full review of Butterick 3112 at SewingPatterns.com.

And a quick note about Out of the Ashes Collectibles: I found their database easily searchable, their selection of patterns impressive, their prices reasonable ($5-6 for most 60's and 70's patterns), and their customer service outstanding. I've sourced vintage patterns from several places with good results, but this one is the best I've experienced so far.

Poetry Saturday

As relayed to me by my 4-year-old poet:

The Castle of Power

It's a castle that only I can climb
And it has a lot of people in it so I can be brave
It's built so high that no one can climb it but me
It's so tall that it's taller than any other building

Martha Stewart Baby Kimono Top

I remember lovingly collecting issues of Martha Stewart Baby when I was pregnant almost 6 years ago, perusing through the beautifully styled pages, and hoping that I was ready to give that picture-perfect life to my unborn child.

Fast-forward the tape to the first year after my son was born, and it is pretty evident that painting a custom sea-life mural across his bedroom walls wasn't a priority anymore. "Just keep the kid alive" was the name of the game!

When he turned three, we moved, and the Martha Stewart Baby magazines resurfaced. I found this pattern for a baby kimono and fell in love again. Armed with motivation to sew again, I tackled this project and completed it! I guess it was technically the first garment I sewed, even though it wasn't for me.

I don't have much more to say about this that I haven't covered in my Martha Stewart Baby Kimono review on patternreview.com, except that now my son appreciates everything I sew for him. I may draft a new pattern for a kimono style jacket for him in a wintery fabric, and maybe sew up some kimono shirts and matching shorts for summer sleepwear. I'm betting a couple of years I won't have a ton of influence in what I sew for him if I actually want to see him wear it!

Contrast: Festen and A Good Year

Well, A Good Year -- on HBO, just happened to catch it. A cute little ditty. Maybe the male equivalent of that Diane Lane movie, Under the Tuscan Sun. Fun, sweet, harmless, requiring zero thought. Maybe a little eye candy at Russell Crowe's gun show. Cool.

Then tonight, on Sundance, a little mind candy called Festen. I am a HUGE fan of Scandinavian cinema, and this little Dogme 95 film blew my mind the first time I saw it, may years ago now. Tonight it blows my mind again. Still some eye candy, with a highly Danish Ulrich Thomsen, jagged cheekbones and blond hair and all, but with a compelling, meaningful storyline. Denial is a powerful thing. This movie is beautiful.

Vogue 2091: Knit dress

This was my first knit dress, sewed up early last spring, with only four pattern pieces. This is perfect for my lazy cutting preferences. (Perhaps I can call them "no-hassle" instead of lazy. Doesn't that sound a little more flattering???)

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. If I look at it closely, I can find a hundred little things I'm not thrilled with, like the icky topstitching (how do you topstitch well on a slinky, stretchy knit?). But when you stand back and just see the finished garment, it looks just about as good as any comparable dress I could buy off the rack.

Full review of Vogue 2091 knit dress at patternreview.com.

Poetry Saturday

More magic from the widget:

We who pursued with yell and blow
As a dismal sheen did send
An albatross at cross length
Nor men nor beasts of shapes

Helloha

This is our word of the week. Louis crawled into bed with us yesterday morning and said, "Helloha, Mommy." Knowing that he's been getting into Lilo & Stitch on the Disney channel, I asked, "Do you mean 'aloha'? That means 'hello' in Hawaiian."

To which he promptly insisted, "No, it's 'helloha'."

So, helloha it is. And helloha to you!

Simplicity 3964: Built By Wendy dress

I'm pretty happy about this review... This was the second pattern I ever sewed on my own, in October 2006. I chose a ribless tan corduroy (mistake #1) and decided on size 10 (mistake #2) in view A, which is a mid-calf length dress with funky angel wing sleeves and a belt (mistake #3). See where this is going?

After hours of laboring under the mentorship of my mother, an accomplished seamstress, and ignoring her persistent and frequent opines that I chose the wrong fabric (which I did), I finished the dress. It was sewn really well but was too big, too bulky, and simply not flattering. But I sewed it with my own two hands and was determined to wear it! I did, and I remember feeling like people looked at me as though I were from Mars. It was subsequently banished to my closet, thus beginning a section near the front of the closet that I call "sewing lessons learned but never to be worn".

Fast-forward to December 2007. On the Web, I stumble upon an independent design label called Wiksten that seems to have produced some amazing and beautiful garments, and the young gal behind it, Jenny, has a really fantastic blog. And on this blog is a version of this same BBW dress I made last year, except *gasp* hers looks rockin'! She replaced the unbearable angel wing sleeves with very reasonable and fashionable cap sleeves, and the dress is above the knee. The best part? Jenny is a patternmaker and also has a blog post on converting "sucky sleeves" (love that) into cap sleeves. Inspiration AND instruction? Wow, that's a productive and valuable blog!!!

And so I was sold on trying this dress a second time. I knew it could look great for me. I'm better with measurements now, so I cut the dress three sizes smaller than last time. I pulled a light cotton shirting out of my stash and knew that the tunic would be the right length for an above-the-knee dress on vertically challenged me. I cut the pieces out after dinner, started sewing after kiddo's bedtime, and ended somewhere around 12:30 a.m. The last 90 minutes were focused on sleeves... I didn't have my serger available to finish any seams, and I wanted to finish both the sleeve hem and the entire armhole seam. Couldn't think of how to do both using the bias binding without adding lots of extra bulk, and I ended up sewing in the sleeves and then ripping them out three times, adjusting a little and changing the plan a few times. I ended up hemming the sleeves and bias binding the armhole seam. Whew!

The end result is: a dress I love, that fits me well, that looks good on me. What more can you ask for from a manic sewing session? Thanks to Wendy Mullin for designing a dress with no interfacing, no darts, and no zippers. Thanks to Jenny at Wiksten for her lovely blog and great patternmaking instructions (peter pan collar is next on my to-do list!). Now it is time to sleep...

Full review on Simplicity 3964 at PatternReview.com.

McCall M2029: A-line skirt

This skirt was sewn from the first commercial pattern I learned to sew The Right Way back in Sept. 2006, as opposed to the messed up, trial-by-error method I'd been failing with in previous years. It was a dream to sew up, with only 3 pattern pieces. Selecting the right size is pretty much a constant challenge for me, and I sewed this skirt several sizes too big. It doesn't look bad until the skirt starts rotating around my waist and the back zipper is right where my side seam should be. Sheesh.

Key skills I learned:
1. How to sew a garment based on a commercial pattern!
2. Interfacing - just for the waistband
3. Stitch-in-the-ditch - again, in sewing in the waistband

The full review of M2029 is at PatternReview.com.

I am excited to post a new review later this week of a Simplicity Built By Wendy pattern. What's exciting is that I hated it the first time I sewed it up, learned my lessons, and went back in again to create a garment I will love wearing! More soon.

Sewing Pattern Review: Betsy Ross 003 Fancy Pants

This was the first commercial pattern I ever sewed a garment from, in September 2006! I didn't have much of an idea what I was doing, so when things didn't go exactly as I hoped they would, I improvised. Not so successfully, I might add. Read the full review at PatternReview.com.