Sewing Is A Virtue.

Sewing my own clothing is making me more stubborn, and yet, more patient. Both pieces in this combo were intended as something completely different than their outcome, and both actually made it to completion because of these attributes.  

First up, the cropped jeans blazer, which was meant to be a peplumed affair: Simplicity 1919 (OOP). I was ever so patient with this jacket! So patient, my hands literally turned blue! (Oh yeah, the dye on this one is strong. Every time I touched this thing, I promised myself it would be a short session, then hours later, I'd walk away looking like something out of Yellow Submarine. CLEARLY EXHIBITING EXTREME PATIENCE. AND YES ALSO STUBBORNESS.)

I fitted, I pressed, I changed thread colors, I topstitched with care…

AND THEN, EVEN WHEN MY BLUE HANDS SAID WOMAN QUIT AT THE CROP I STUBBORNLY WENT AHEAD AND PATIENTLY MADE A LINED, CLIPPED, GRADED, TOPSTITCHED, CURVED FIVE PIECE PEPLUM WAIST WHICH I HAD TO EVEN MORE PATIENTLY RIP OUT WHEN I ENDED UP LOOKING LIKE I WAS AUDITIONING FOR SWEET VALLEY HIGH: THE CAREER GIRL YEARS.

Happy with my eventual decision. Mad at those lapel wrinkles, which don’t show IRL as much as in these photos. Or do they? Must check that.

As for the jumpsuit, well. WELL.

The jumpsuit is actually pants.

Burdastyle’s 119 Jersey Track Pants pattern was the candidate, and my vote proved very ill advised when I threw them on for the initial fitting. Although I love Burdastyle drafting, I wonder if the jersey patterns don't take negative ease into account as much as they should? My size came up too wide, the waist gathers were thick and frumpy, the thin waistband was out of proportion, the length in both the crotch and leg were of supermodel stature. In short, they were a hot mess, and not the chic little pair of pants I imagined. But I was far too stubborn to abandon this dreamy Rayon Jersey (from Mood) to the loungewear shelf. So, I quite patiently made a laundry list of mods...

· hacked off 4″ from the hemline, gathering the new length into cuffs

· took away 1″ from waistline


· increased the crotch curve by 3/8ths


· removed gathers from waistline


· added 6 evenly spaced inverted box pleats to front and back waist


· stitched each pleat closed about 3″ down from the waist line


· cut 16′ of jersey on the crossgrain, folded to equal an 8″ band when attached.

WHAT?! I ACTUALLY REMEMBERED WHAT I DID?! Yeah. Been keeping a notebook filled with details of my sewing process now, the better to explain myself later. (Though I could practice a little more patience in penmanship. Such chickenscratch.)

The ridiculous 8 inches of foldover band length were meant to add adjustable proportion at the waist: wear it pulled up high-waisted, wear it scrunched down low on the hip. But, lo and behold, when I pulled them on and tried the band at “high” height, I found that those inches were also just enough to serve double duty as a top! Did I just make a jumpsuit? I maniacally breathed to my mirrored reflection. HEY YOU IN THE MIRROR. Are you kidding me?!

Well, the answer is: I ALMOST did. I DECIDED TO BE PATIENT HERE! AGAIN! You see, although the top did stay up on its own in my stomp-around-the-house-test, I’ve got two pieces of doublestick tape aiding and abetting in the frontal boob tube area for the photos (the better to avoid flashing the streets of New York). Before going permanent on this unanticipated path, I wanted to see all angles of this jammy in pictures, and not just in a mirror. We all know mirrors lie. Believe in Cher.

Now that we’ve got pictorial evidence, I’ve decided to make things permanent. I’ve got rayon leftovers at the ready for options…maybe wide gathered straps? Or leave it strapless with an elastic casing? I'd love to find a way to make it secure enough for a jumpsuit, but still have the option for pants. Hmmmm. Suggestions welcome!

these virtuous separates were made using my fabric allowance as part of the mood sewing network. and i highly suggest grabbing some of that jersey!

Vogue 9053: Easy is a four letter word.

Hello, silk cotton, you shifty, drapey, aggravating beast of a fabric. Earlier in the week, over at the Mood Sewing Network, I praised your beauty. Actually...yeah, you're awesome. I'm a fickle thing. I don't know why I'm calling you names. Probably because I look at these pictures and still remember every irritating second of sewing you up.

It wasn't your fault. The blames lies (partly) with my constant need to force fabric into situations it doesn't want to be in. I imagined this yardage as a flowing, ground sweeping maxi dress. On my first crack, I went with Burdastyle's Tie neck maxi dress, which is not as simple as it sounds-- it's listed as an intermediate pattern, mainly because of the great angled yoke and skirt insets. Really cool pattern! But after the bodice turned out like this... I abandoned ship.

Yeah, that's 100% my bad. WARNING, CIVILIANS: MAJOR SEW SPEAK AHEAD. The silk cotton was far too lightweight for the drape of the top, so I lined the bodice in a fluid rayon poly, but I should have underlined it instead. Then I cut the yoke off-grain in a pre coffee haze. Here, I tried to salvage the hack job by cutting up the center line of the yoke, thinking I'd travel to Godet Town, Population: Crazy. Simply put, I took an intermediate pattern and tried to cut corners, in the end, making triple the work for myself. 

This is a rare occasion where I paused, looked at the mess I'd created, and made myself JUST. STOP.

For the second go, I decided to give myself a break: I was obviously in a simple mood, I should go with a simple pattern! And here's where the blame lies (mostly) with the pattern. Y'all. I've got a beef with patterns that introduce themselves as Very Easy. In this case, Very Easy Vogue. VEV 9053 walked up and shook my hand with a breezy smile, promising an easy, plunging V neck maxi dress. VEV, that minx, told me her suitable fabrics included both wovens and jersey, which, VEV. WHY ARE YOU PLAYING BOTH SIDES OF THE FIELD. 

No worries, I never really pay attention to suitable fabrics anyways. However, after botch job #1, I was in a mood to pay attention to the instructions. Clear? Yes. Easy? Yes. Complete? Not really.

In my mind, easy shouldn't mean quick. (And if it does, throw the word "quick" in the description, so that I can run like hell if the pattern is anything more than a tank top or A line skirt.) What makes this pattern easy is what is left out, which is also what makes this pattern quick. Ultimately, if followed as is, it's also what would make this pattern Not Fit. 

The worst omission in this pattern is the fact that the great plunging neckline is not staystitched, ever. Well, it's not staystitched as per VEV's instructions, but I staystitched that jammy the second it was cut, and then went on to add seam tape to keep that V from growing over time. Which, listen, was not quick, but it wasn't hard. 

(What is hard: managing to place cockeyed stamens in the general vicinity of both bust points. One of those used to be a perfect fleshy shade of pink, which I corrected with fabric markers. Me versus Me. Go Me. KIND OF.)

The point of the V is a CF & CB seam. The CB seam houses the invisible zip, but the CF seam, which mirrors the grainline, is a head scratcher. I guess you need it because as per instructions, you break stitching at the point of the V on the CF seam, instead of pivoting. I suppose this is to make things easier, by avoiding the extra steps of marking the seamline, shortening the stitch length at the V, pivoting at the point, clipping to that point-- but listen, that's easy too. Like the song says, you just have to take your time and do it right. 

I followed VEV's quicker path here, against my better judgement (which, listen, I was understandably dubious of, after the hackery I produced on that Burdastyle bodice). But in the end, following the quick path meant that there was no option to check the fit as-you-sew. Yes, here's an argument for making a muslin-- but are you really going to make a muslin for a "very easy" pattern? 

Though I realize this is not a resounding recommendation for this pattern, if, after reading this, you're of a mind to try 9053 out, know that I lost the bodice waist gathers in favor of a dart, and draped the skirt myself. And, I'm not knocking Vogue as a whole. I love me some Vogue Patterns! What I'm really knocking are "Easy" patterns in general. Sewing is time consuming, construction can be tricky, but if you don't cut corners, you'll be so much happier with not only the process, but the result. 

Today marks the start of National Sewing Month. If you've been wary of a garment because of its perceived difficulty, why not give it a try? Or look at that pattern next up in the queue-- what can you do to take it up a notch? 

(Notch. Ha ha. Sorry, civilians, sewist joke.)

this dress was eventually made possible by my monthly fabric allowance, as part of the mood sewing network. and it will eventually be worn, after a nice long time out.