The sewing bug has hit hard this past week. I am at home recovering from a procedure on my Achilles tendon (not full surgery, but I am stuck at home, condemned to high heels - seriously when has a doctor told you that you need to wear high heels!!!), so the heap of fabrics that I bought last year called out to me. I have a lovely cotton print that I thought would make a great summer dress. I am always on the look out for good sun dresses, and not the shite you buy at Anthropolgie that costs $200, is short waisted, and falls apart after a season. Sorry don't mean to slam Anthro, I am mad about their brand, but I rarely ever find anything there that fits, if I try on an 8 the waist is up in my armpits, if I try on a 12 (which hits me in the waist) I am swimming in fabric, just a long backed, long waisted, small boned, tall, Anglo/Franco/German mutt. Anyway I decided to take matters in my own hands, I decided to make the perfect summer dress.
After searching for a few days I found
Vogue pattern V8577. A very simple shirt dress. I figured that I could lengthen the waist and create a pretty good fit! I did have to swallow a bit of my own vanity and make the pattern in a 14 based on my bust and waist. The divide between home sewn clothing sizes and commercial sizes is getting much larger. When I was a young woman I routinely wore at 10 or 12 in store bought clothing, and now I wear between a 4 and 8. I certainly have not changed that much in size, that would require removing ribs! So vanity aside, I crawled around on my office floor yesterday and cut out V8577, measured the waist length, and added 1" to the top bodice front and back, and today it is mostly put together. It fits like a dream. Now I have to practice buttonholes...
So on to this pile of fabric... One of my favorite local craft stores,
Natural Expressions of Los Gatos, sold off all their fabrics last fall, and hence I ended up with a stock pile of fun stuff. Most of their fabrics were for quilters, but there were some lovely voile prints and heavier cottons that cried out to be made into blouses, dresses, skirts. Of course when I was buying up their stock I wasn't really thinking about what I would make. My recent "hobbling" has me in my office/studio looking at the fabric and wondering what I could make. I found and bought 5.5 yards of this fabric to the left - yummy!
It took quite a long time to find the dress for that fabric. To be honest my skill is not so great that I can adjust a pattern on the fly- I can add to the back length, but that is about it. My mom coached my sewing efforts in grade school and high school, but I've never taken a sewing class. I have done a lot of costume design (and in college it meant sketching great costumes and then pulling something that looked about right...) I have worked for two clothing designers, but as a cutter and basic stitcher, couture is well beyond my reach. I really rely on the pattern to guide me. Vogue, McCalls, Simplicity only go so far, Past Patterns and Folkwear don't always hit the current notes in fashion (don't get me wrong, I love them both), then I remembered that I used to buy Burda Magazine when I lived in Chile. I bought an issue of Burda in '85 right before I went to school in Madrid that provided most of my wardrobe for that semester, and I was right in step with the Madruleñas in my asymetric lime green tunic and fly yellow drawstring pants. I still have that issue kicking around (see above)! As I look through it, the clothing is fun, and with a little modification not so out dated! I made a pair of wonderful genie pants from another issue several years later, and they were such a hit that I had a sewing party and the next day five of us walked onto campus proudly wearing our creations. I don't sew very much these days because patterns are just not enticing, and unless you live in LA near the garment district, really lovely fabric is hard to find. I feel like sewing has fallen into that sad state that knitting fell into between Acrylic and the Art Yarn Movement (when did knitting become sexy again??? I started knitting again in '04). So I have a small stockpile of fabrics collected over the years that are now calling out to me. Lacking inspiration from Vogue et al I googled Burda, and what do you know, they are still making some fun patterns! I am planning to explore their site further. I am pretty taken by the German home craft movement (is there are more graceful way of putting that),
Rebeca is one of my favorite knitting mags.
Once I get the button holes sorted on the Vogue dress I'll post a picture... (or I might use snaps, the cheater's way out of making button holes).
On to exploring Burda! Happy sewing and knitting.
PS Any thoughts on Stitches West? Mom and I are going for the first time in years...
Off I went to Green Planet Yarns in Willow Glen with a mind to buying exactly the yarns recommended for the project. This was my first visit to Green Planet's new location, the store is wonderfully bright, but I had to learn where everything now lives. The staff is of course amazing. I was looking perplexedly for the Noro Kuyreon yarns, and the owner told me that they don't stock it because it is too scratchy. I had thought this when I first felt it years ago. Instead she guided me to Noro Silk Garden, and a comparable sport weight that she thought might create the right gauge for the project. They have all of their Noro colorways knit into large afghans showing how each color way knits up, which gives you a real sense of how the yarn looks knitted. Its brilliant. I found my red right away, Blue Sky Alpaca's baby alpaca Sport Weight, then the real fun was holding that red up to the Noro colorways and choosing... Then the owner had an even more brilliant idea, find a couple colorways that I liked, and really knit a big swatch to see how it played out. Ugh, I groaned to myself, swatching is the BANE of my knitting existence (and probably why things are hit of miss as to how they fit me!!!). But I did....
