Hot Time! Tocca in the City!

GREETINGS, EARTHLINGS. I HAVE COME FROM KALKATROONA IN MY GIANT DRESS TO BRING YOU GREAT NEWS OF SUPREME JOY:

SUMMER IS HERE!!!!!

What's that you say? It's technically still Spring? And drizzling outside? I'm sorry, you're mistaken. When you get six months of Winter, you get six months of Summer. I see nothing but blue skies. Them's the rules.

In celebration of this New World Order, I've finally made myself another maxi-fied Derby Dress, a pattern that hails from my summer-in-the-city girl Christine Haynes. It was high time to give my beloved rayon version a partner in Summer Crimes (read: drinking boozy cold things in hot sticky temperatures).

I maxi-fied this pattern for the first time about six years ago, for my birthday Promaballoona, to surprise Christine (she was one of the party hosts!). Then, pretty much immediately again in vintage rayon from mizz Lladybird Lauren, so this pattern has heaps of fond memories and good vibes in it. I honestly can't believe it took me so long to make another! I DO SO LIKE GOOD VIBES.

You can see more pics over at the Mood Sewing Network (aka the reason I missed posting a #wednesdaywip, as I had to get my monthly jam in over there. Also, yes, I've officially decided that posting a WIP every Wednesday is a silly rule. I know, it was worrying you. Shhhh. It's okay.)

#wednesdayWIP: McCalls 6044

When I don't know what to make, I make something for Rob. For no other reason than that I love him like words can't say. It occurs to me that this is the most selfish sewing I can think of, because it thrills me to no end to see him wearing something I stitched. And it's gotten a lot more thrilling since I've relieved myself of the pressure of getting it perfect. Don't get me wrong, I believe in perfection! I think that perfection, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Attainable perfection, if you will. But I have yet to make Rob a perfect garment. (To wit: check that buttonhole in the middle shot 😂)

Questionable buttonholes aside, this is largely due to the fact that I just don't have the reps in, man! I've made *who knows how many* dresses for myself, and they get better every time (well, sometimes it's a one-step-forward & two-steps-back kinda thing, but who's counting). Practice makes perfect, but with so few options out there for him pattern-wise, I can only practice so much.

I'm in the middle of McCall's 6044 at the moment, which has been used and abused errrrrywhere. (That's colorful language, there are myriad gorgeous renditions across the sewing blogishpere). It's...okay...but only after I abandoned the directions finish-wise, and removed some of that blousy sleeve cap ease. HOLY GATHERS, BATMAN.

It's hanging out, waiting for a try-on. 

Pam at Off the Cuff has some great tutorials on shirtmaking, I recommend devouring the posts on plackets & getting a pointed collar. Plackets! That reminds me, I want to make a tuxedo shirt for Rob! A proper one. To go with all my gowns.

I have no good finish to this post, and no idea how Wednesday snuck up like a stealth ninja! I SWEAR IT'S ONLY BEEN LIKE THREE DAYS IN KALKATROONAAN TIME. I haven't even had time to reply to your comments on the last WIP, but I'm stoked to hear that several of you went out and found that pattern for yourselves. You are gonna have a BLAST. (And I'm gonna rethink this whole self-inflicted Every Wednesday thing. 'KBYEEE!)

#wednesdayWIP: OOP Vogue 1806

A package, covered in hearts, and filled with patterns, arrived last week. Prizes from a new friend and sewing sister who has the gift of knowing EXACTLY what song I'm sewing to at any given moment. (I don't know what you'd call this ability. ESP? Extra Song Perception?)

My sew-sister is into fancy!! This Badgley Mischka pattern immediately caught my magpie eye. LOOKIT THOSE STYLE LINES! Or rather, TRY TO FIND THOSE STYLE LINES ON THE ENVELOPE! A black dress and a back view does not a style line show.

But gawdamighty there are some deliciously fun pattern pieces in this bodice.

Last Sunday morning, I flitted merrily off in five different fabric directions, my scissors hovering in indecision, drunk on dreams of gowns...so I made myself stop and make a bodice toile, while I tried to pick the winner.

Then I went with all five candidates.

We've got: rose gold & blue floral guipure (both from Chic Fabrics), jacquard with the wrong side as public (Mood), some sort of textured doubleface woven (Trumart)...

...and another taffeta from Mood as underlining. (Maybe as lining, too, though I do have a sixth candidate for that. Naturally.)

The pattern calls for interfacing on all bodice pieces, which made me raise my eyebrows, but I did it on the front bodice pieces anyway. No bueno! See the rippling along the seam where the underbust meets the lower front bodice? GNASHING OF TEETH.

It's not as noticeable when it's on, but still. GNASHING OF TEETH. After my chompers relaxed, I decided to go with the taffeta underlining on the back bodice, instead of the recommended interfacing. 

Bueno.

So much more bueno, that I seriously considered ripping out that underbust...then I looked at all the clipping & notching and gave myself a reality check. Live & learn & wear the ripples. 

Perhaps they meant a non-fusible? Yeah, could be. It would have been better to go a little more highbrow and use silk organza as interfacing. But, as you know, classy isn't always my strongsuit.

To wit: my dressform, sized out in faux fur, and repaired in masking tape. UBER CLASSY.

Next up: deciding on what to use for the gown portion! YET ANOTHER FLORAL PRINT FOR SURE! And I'm going off-pattern on that slinky skirt. I like me a full sweep! 

I also like me more visits to this space, which my Mom tells me I'm not posting to enough, and should rectify. Mom is right! So, in an effort to do as I am told, I'm starting a Wednesday series in which I'll show you a work in progress. This first #wednesdaywip is very much inspired by my Mom, which I thought a fitting start (pun not intended, but heartily claimed.) We were rained out on Mother's Day, and so we postponed our visit to her fabulous jungle of a garden. As I threw this cornucopia of fabrics together, I thought about how she paints with a stunning variety of leaf and flower. It's really incredible. I wanted this dress to be like her garden in bloom.

So, whatcha working on? Join me in parading if you like, we all love some fabric porn! Tag it #wednesdaywip so we can peep it!