Complicating Simplicity 8456

I don't know if it's here to stay or just visiting till June, but the warm weather showed UP and that means OUTSIDE PHOTOS WITH MOUTH OPEN AND NONSTOP MOVEMENT

Seriously, Rob is such a good sport about this. We're babysitting a kitteh this week, and she comes with a private common area nestled between battered brick buildings. The first thing Rob asked was if I wanted to take some photos.

I KNOW. 

I am obviously a lucky gal. But! There are some issues to address about this dress, as my luck ran out in my tinkering. This pattern, Simplicity 8456, is actually a slip/crinoline/petticoat vintage reprint. Of course I wanted her as a maxi dress. I made my usual tweak of raising the waist 1 1/4", but I didn't account for the lace panels that were meant to live at the top of the bodice. So I had to recreate a lower waist to get the bodice up to a level of decency. In fact, I think if I would've left the waistline as patterned, omitting the lace insets, it would have worked out perfectly! 

Raising the neckline on the fly meant she was also too tight across the center front panel. Luckily, I'd cut the CF panel as two, because I wanted to get some print mirroring in that jammie. Sadly, I'd only given myself 3/8ths SA. So I reduced the seam allowance to next to nothing, opening the seam up across the widest part of my bust to create some more breathing room...

Which ripple effect-ed into the side front gaping. Threw a dart in to fix that. Then cut a lining. *Tried* to mimic everything I did on the outer bodice, without actually taking that finished bodice apart. I went a little off in my assessment here and there, as that lining is TIGHT! The dress hung & felt great pre-lining (so great I boogied in it) but walking towards Kitteh's house with this dress on proved my teeny ta-tas need a little more room than the lining is currently permitting. Next up: cutting the lining down into a facing. No muss, no fuss, no self imposed binding.  

(Yes, my bracelet is cracked, she was dropped by a fellow high-key performer on her very first outing. I glued her and refuse to give her up.)

The cotton sateen hails from my beloved janky store in NY's garment district. I was on the fence about it, when a customer sidled up to me and said, you want me to help you with your life? GET THAT. This delightful guy had already made several pairs of long shorts out of this. IF ONLY Rob would rock this crazyface print! I'd make him those technicolor shorts in a HEARTBEAT!

I took my dapper dude's advice, and overbought. So the shorts could still happen.

I mean, could you imagine us in matching outfits in this print?! We would stop traffic! Help a girl out, wouldja? What say you? Let me know if you'd like to see us as a matched set...I'll read your thoughts out loud to the man and see if I can convince him. OH IT WOULD BE SO GOOD.

The Seven Year Stitch: Leaving MSN

Last December, I said a fond farewell to the Mood Sewing Network. That's seven years' worth of stitching you see above (and it took me roughly seven years to make that dang poorly laid out collage!).

MSN helped me to level up my sewing game. At the time I'd only been sewing three years, on dollar-a-yard kind of stuff, so getting to play with fabric that was out of my wallet's reach was an absolute gamechanger. Especially as a beginner! Though I'm not scared of the scissors, I wasn't playing with silk and brocade and velvet and what-have-you until that fabric allowance came along. And let's face it, it's easier to cut with wild abandon when the yardage costs you nothing but your time, if you have the time to spend.

And I spent some time, yo. Save for a weird little stint in which I tried to sew everyday separates, I was attempting Extra right out of the gate.

The Anna Sui dress up top, my first MSN post, is due for a better zipper insert now that I know more (said zip is faced with lace, why I do not know), and this blue chiffon gal was my last MSN post. And man did she take forever, and man do I ADORE HER. 

However, many of my Mood makes didn't survive the years. In fact...lemme white out what didn't make it...

HAHA WHAT?!! 

I'm not surprised or even regretful of all that white space--some things went to live in other people's closets, some things got repurposed for other garments, and some things were just flat out fails to learn from. And some survivors are in the midst of being refashioned! All good things in my book.

The joy of playing with (and sometimes murdering) fabric aside, what really kicked me in the butt was sharing a space with some truly amazing sewists. Sewing with that inaugural group lit a fire under me. I was determined to level up to my sewsisters. The crew has changed over the past seven years, still full of awesome--yet every time someone left, I thought, HOW?! It's free fabric!! But eventually, the trade-off of sourcing, planning, stitching, shooting, editing, writing and posting on someone else's site then reformatting to share here, for several yards of cloth, just wasn't working out for me personally. (And sometimes, you gotta close a door yourself to see what window opens ;)

And how 'bout y'all? I remember when MSN was announced, it was the first sewing blogger network--now that networks and collaborations are everywhere, how do you feel about them? Would you join one, if the fit was right?

eta: hey Chris, thanks for your comment-- here's a side by side of what was made/what was kept for ya!