Little Black Car

Butterick 5187-B: Grunge Remix: Part V

2012-02-16T07:53:00.002-06:00

Nope, still didn't work. I'm going to try it today at lunch with a scaled-down sleeve and armscye pattern, but if that doesn't work, I'm moving on.

Here is the test muslin I did. The sleeve that's on there is the one I made using the S S-B method, but it was 3/4 inch too narrow and so the seam has about 1/4 inch allowance on it. Also, the sleeve is tighter than I want for wearing over a henley (as shown), but that's easy to fix.

So . . . I feel like I'm circling my target but having a bit of a hard time hitting it. I'll get there, though.

Butterick 5187-B: Grunge Remix: Part IV

2012-02-15T12:44:00.002-06:00

So, I tried the Sew Store-Bought "How to Draft a Sleeve Pattern when You Are Desperate and No One Has Ever Shown You" method last night.

Oddly, the sleeve eventually fit perfectly between the notches but came out 3/4 inch short overall. I've been striking out in the "constructing pattern pieces from other pattern pieces" department lately, but since I'm always off by a measured amount--3/4 inch, half-inch--instead of some random, uneven, amount, I'm assuming that it's seamstress error and things will right themselves when I start paying more careful attention to what I'm doing. I mean, I feel like I'm paying attention, but this would definitely not be the first time in my life that I thought I had a handle on things and didn't.

The first attempt came out very short, and I realized I had not accounted for the seam allowance on the inside of the curve, which made the curve smaller and the overall armscye length shorter. So, on the second go-round, I took out 5/8 inch all the way around, which got me closer. I was still that 3/4 inch short, though. I'm not sure what's up with that but my next idea is to trace the pattern along the seam line and then add the seam allowance back all over, both in the armscye and down the underarm seam of the sleeve. The practice sleeve fit fine between the notches but was short between the notches and the seam (the underarm part, or the ends of the "bell curve" when the sleeve piece hasn't been sewn up yet and is still lying flat).

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Butterick 5187-B: Grunge Remix: Part III

2012-02-14T09:21:00.003-06:00

No pix right now. It was too late last night.

I got a test bodice sewn last night. I'd altered the bodice front so that it would button, which meant adding a little bit of overlap, and cut down the neck so that it could be worn over a henley. This meant tweaking the bodice front and making facing patterns for front and back, since I wasn't putting the hood on it.

It came out pretty close. I realized as I was cutting that I had mismatched the seam allowances for the bodice front and front facing--one was 5/8 inch and one was 1/2 inch--but figured I could work with that. Apparently, though, my pattern drafting still has a long way to go because I ended up trimming 1/2 inch off of each side of the front facing to get it to fit. I need to add some of that back on to the other side of the facing or there won't be enough room to turn over and sew down the facing along the front opening.

I may lengthen the bodice slightly and take a tiny tuck under the bustline on each side of the front, for shape. Just a very small one, to make it look a little less square, though not enough to impede its pullover-ability.

I've also lost the sleeve pattern. Aargh! I looked everywhere for it last night but can't find it, and I'm afraid Dad might have thrown it out. Last year, this would have ruined the pattern for me, but this year, I think I can make a new one. I actually have a slightly crazy idea that involves copying the pattern diagram off of the instruction sheet, using the dimensions of the bodice pieces (which I still have) to figure out what size is represented on the diagram, and then using a grid to scale up and re-draw the sleeve. That's assuming that the diagram represents the pieces in correct proportions, of course. The sleeve has a shallow, wide, cap because the dress has dropped shoulders, and the cap is not symmetrical front to back. A little bit complex for a total-newbie sleeve drafter.

However, if that fails, there is always Leena's. Either way, I will have a new sleeve.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So, after much lunch-hour emailing, Amber Jean and I had some ideas. She actually had considered doing the same scale-up-the-pattern-diagram thing that I was/am considering, so that may get done anyway just for the sake of experimentation.

I also, though, printed off CraftStylish's Create A Custom Sleeve Pattern page, since it's based on a preexisting bodice pattern--in her case, a sloper, but in mine, the dress pattern--and is not creating a sleeve out of nothing. My original sleeve was not symmetrical so I'd have to do this twice and then splice the front and back together, but that doesn't seem bad.

I also went back and reread Kathleen Fasanella's Sleeve Ease is Bogus blog entry. I'm forever fighting with sleeve ease, and this pattern in particular will not tolerate sleeve gathering. But I can control that if I end up redrawing the sleeve, anyway.

Sew Store-Bought had a clever, in-a-pinch idea for replacing a badly-drafted commercial sleeve pattern, too. Normally, I would be skeptical of this, but 5187 has a plain, wide, sleeve with a dropped shoulder line that I suspect might lend itself very well to this method.

Punk?

2012-02-13T16:25:00.006-06:00

A semi-friend emailed me a question about punk stuff (she knows I like "weird"--her term--music and I make clothes, so I guess this made sense to her?). I spent my lunch hour Googling DIY punk clothes, using various terms. I saw a lot more This Is Not Punk and This Is Suburban Faux Punk claiming to be Punk than I did actual Punk. I mean I could be wrong about this since I'm definitely not punk, but I don't think so. Jelly-bean semicircle miniskirt? Not Punk in my book.

Unexpectedly, this makes me a little sad. I remember the punks hanging out outside the mall when I was a kid. Real punks. I was scared to death of them, but now I'm afraid that they have been driven out of their aesthetic territory by those blasted hipsters, as I was when hipster culture ate flannel shirts and old-time music (and yes, I even like this band, but I have ambiguous feelings about them). Now I have to wear pencil skirts to look eccentric. I'm not kidding.

A moment of silence, please.

Vintage Model Horse Tack

2012-02-09T09:59:00.006-06:00

My boss has developed a small fascination with the model horse hobby (long story), so I dug out my tack box last night and brought in a little show-and-tell.

I won this Mexican saddle as a door prize at the Rocky Mountain Hi Live show in Colorado Springs in 1989 (my first live show). I started out showing it on a Classic Quarter Horse Stallion but it was really too big for him so I later switched to Ginger. Stupidly, I sold my Black Beauty set a few years ago and now I need to get another Ginger; she was my favorite of the set and a good performance horse for me for a long time.

I need to replace the off-side latigo; the holes have pulled through the leather.

English saddle: I think this was made by Sue Rowe/Sojourner Tack, around 1990. It would have been a major hobby splurge for us at the time. I have the bridle that goes with it, too. It's a large saddle, meant for models like the Breyer Hanoverian and Trakehner.

Arabian costume, 1992. I made this over once and it usually placed, but it was never really competitive. I couldn't manage the real show-type Arabian costume, and I definitely couldn't afford a professionally-made one. I guess I've seen worse, but it's still kind of amusing.

I also showed it on Cassina, who was the Toys R Us special run fleabitten gray "Johar" model, and once or twice on her dam, the #647 bay whose name escapes me, even though it was made for Andromeda (special run 1984 alabaster/pale rose gray Classic Arabian Mare):

Mom and I made this working saddle from a Rio Rondo kit in 1989, after Rocky Mountain Hi Live (for which we borrowed a saddle from my cousin, who also collected). It was actually very competitive when it was new, although it looks pretty crude now.

The saddle pad has leather guards, just like a real everyday saddle pad, and we made a scale string girth, of which we were extraordinarily proud--that kind of detail was still a little bit novel at the time. The saddle is held on with a latigo, just like a real saddle, except ours only goes around the rigging once to save bulk under the fender.

Toby the Paint gelding is the 1988 Model Horse Collector's Supply Co. special run "Wild Scirocco Fire". This was a model that I had desperately wanted and was ecstatic to get--"San Domingo" is a favorite mold of mine and I love just about anything pinto--so the saddle was dyed Tandy "Saddle Tan" (chestnut red) to match him.

New horses: 2012 February 8

2012-02-08T11:02:00.009-06:00

Catcall: Hagen-Renaker new release miniature "Silky Sullivan": Bright chestnut Thoroughbred stallion. I've been showing this ID as a BSO (breeding stock only, i.e. a "horse" that has a pedigree, description, and offspring but no physical body) for several years but just got the body for him.

Nantiko: Breyer 2010 World Equestrian Games special run "Mandiba", on the Artist's Series "Secretariat" mold: Dark bay Thoroughbred stallion ([sire pending] x Nantou by Rob Roy).

The World Equestrian Games have spurred a lot of very nice models. This isn't a mold I would normally collect but the color is fantastic, and I'm not exactly overburdened with Thoroughbreds, right?

Butterick 5187-B: Grunge Remix: Part II

2012-02-08T10:55:00.009-06:00

Wow. This is some really bad fabric. Amazingly, it's a woven plaid, not a printed one, and the grain is still literally off by inches. I'm not sure I knew it was possible to weave fabric that badly.

I finally resorted to lining it up according to the stripes as best I could (this is the skirt back):

The skirt front should have been cut on the fold but the grain was so off that the plaid would have run downhill from one side of me to the other if I'd done that, so I cut it in two halves and seamed it down the front, so I could at least bookmatch the mind-boggling crookedness:

Inside of the front seam. I folded the seam allowance over and topstitched it after this, to keep it from fraying all over the place.

Outside. It was so bad I couldn't even get the plaid to match correctly.

Pockets. I lined them in dark blue homespun left over from the Wearing History dress. It's not much better than the flannel but it's something.

The skirt front with the pockets pinned. They're not actually placed yet, just pinned so I could see what they might look like. They'll have big black buttons to hold them shut.

Flickr set.

McCall's 4966-C: Part II

2012-02-08T10:42:00.004-06:00

McCall's 4866-C, to be known, apparently, as the Civil War shirt dress.

I'm not sure how this happened, but I lost two inches out of the neck when I resized the pattern. This means I can't button the band collar, and that it pulls a little across the shoulders. Not a big deal, really, since I wasn't planning to button the collar very often, anyway, but . . . weird. I should be able to fix both those problems pretty easily.

I also need to do, of all things, a slight full bust adjustment. Those Seventies chicks must have been really, really, flat!

Still, the placket and collar came out nicely:

I double-checked myself about a dozen times and still managed to install the cuffs upside-down. I'm leaving them as they are, though, because they look nice anyway and it's not a big problem.

See? Looks like a Civil War shirt.

OK, it looks better with a belt.

View A is here.

Butterick 5187-B: Grunge Remix

2012-02-06T13:21:00.007-06:00

I finished McCall's 4866-C this weekend. It worked pretty well but the pattern needs some tweaking. It must be a very Seventies fit because it, inexplicably, needs a little bit of a full-bust adjustment (unheard of on me), and the sleeves caps, despite the reductions I already did, need to be reduced some more. The neck also was reduced more than I anticipated when I graded down to a size 12, so I need to enlarge it a little bit again. But it basically works. Pix later; I need to charge my camera.

Next up is Butterick 5187-B, kind of. I'm leaving the hood off and adding an overlap and buttons down the front. I made the neck larger because I think I'll probably wear it over a henley a lot of the time. The sleeves will be faced with plaid cut on the bias, and I'm going to add buttons so they can be buttoned in place when they're cuffed. And I'm adding patch pockets. I started tracing the pattern this weekend.

I kind of hate the term "remix" as applied to vintage patterns and clothing. It's just shorthand for "I'm not going 100% vintage". Well, duh--almost nobody does. But it sort of fits here since, even though this is a Seventies pattern, it has overtones of grunge-era high-waisted baby-doll dresses, those awful baja hoodies, and, in this case, plaid flannel shirts. I wasn't into sewing during the grunge era, and I didn't listen to grunge music, but I'm definitely that vintage, and the grunge look was a great cover for a girl who couldn't possibly keep up with the stylish girls in high school. I wore baggy jeans and swiped all my dad's old Pendleton shirts (wool, of course).

The fabric is black and gray half-inch check cotton flannel (this is a dead-of-winter-only dress!). It's from Wal-Mart and is pretty awful stuff; I had to cut the back halves of the skirt separately because the grain is so off i couldn't match it well enough to cut it with the fabric folded. It still didn't match perfectly but it came out pretty well.

Here's the concept drawing. Don't laugh, OK? Those are boots on her feet, I swear.

I just hope the cheap-ass fabric doesn't ruin the whole project. Here goes.

New Pattern: 2012 February 2

2012-02-02T08:09:00.005-06:00

I actually missed a couple, so this is retroactive.

Simplicity 3580 (1960): Nice day dress. This needs 4 1/4 yards but I'm hoping I can squeeze it into almost-4 yards of navy blue print corduroy. Maybe if I line the collar and cuffs, and do a skirt facing, in plain blue Kona?

McCall's 6268 (1978): Yeah, another prairie dress. I'll probably change the back zipper to a back-buttoned yoke only, and use the black calico.

Simplicity 3123 (1939): What's not to love?? Hopefully the pale yellow bedsheet will provide enough fabric for this one. Right now, I think I'm going to use muted orange rick-rack.

Anne Adams 4656 (1950's): Probably late 1950's, since 4523 was issued in the mid-1950's and is a similar idea (as is Marian Martin 9001, from the 1970's).

Here are Anne Adams 4656 (1937), Anne Adams 4656 (1948-1949) and Anne Adams 4656 (1960). Re-use of pattern numbers drives a lot of us collectors nuts.

New Pattern: 2012 January 31

2012-01-31T09:21:00.003-06:00

Oh. My. God.

I have wanted this pattern forever. Ever since I saw the March 1952 Simplicity catalog page that had 3550 and 3717, both of which I already owned, on it, and was utterly and totally smitten.

How can you not love this? Midriff inset. Big, bold, lapels. Neat cuffed sleeves. Extravagant June Cleaver skirt. Pockets that could carry baby elephants. In gingham, for the love of Pete. With a freaking front zipper.

Housedress perfection, thy name is Simplicity 3745 (1951):

Oh, and it comes in a day dress version, too, which basically means you could literally live in this dress. I bet you could lengthen it into a housecoat, too, if you really wanted to get carried away.

McCall's 4966-C: Part I

2012-01-31T08:08:00.010-06:00

There isn't anything terribly glamorous to post about this yet. I've really gotten a bee in my bonnet to sew lately. Too much fabric and too many unused patterns, and I've finally gotten good enough that each new project doesn't feel like an uphill battle. It's more fun, and I can make progress fast enough to feel like I'm accomplishing something.

I started McCall's 4866 View C, which is in the same pattern packet as the brown plaid dress I made at Christmas, except C has less-gathered sleeves and a placket neckline.

I'm using a pale-green mini-print, because I am not at all influenced by pattern illustrations.

I cut down the lower sleeves again, and lengthened the sleeves by an inch. I think this is going to work out well: Still a little blousy but not drag-in-your-barbecue blousy.

I had plenty of green fabric but somehow not lining the collar in a contrasting print seemed like a lot less fun, so I used a scrap of tan Civil War reproduction left over from . . . something else. Probably the Puss In The Corner quilt I made like ten years ago and have yet to quilt.

The band collar is nothing of which to be proud, and this is a cop-out method of doing a neck placket (it's how the instructions told me to do it, I swear), but, overall, not too bad. And I'll get to use my aunt's lovely Viking to do more buttonholes(!!).

I ranted about the awful cutaway sleeve finish on the last dress, right? I Googled a bunch of sleeve plackets but the ones I found either seemed half-assed (I don't trust anything that catches so little fabric in a seam) or were overly masculine and involved for the character of the dress. Of course, Amber Jean sent me this link yesterday, after I'd already done both sleeves. Doh! I've actually done this before but it's been years and I couldn't recall quite how it worked, nor could I find it online (impatience, I guess. It pops right up now). It would have been perfect.

(Nice list of shirt placket and collar links.)

Oh, well. After some waffling, I winged it and did the sleeve plackets the same way I'd done the neck, because it was easy and looked pretty nice. It's not ideal--I'll use the other method from now on--but it is definitely good enough.

Anyway, Flickr set in progress here. It's not as complete as they've been in the past but it does have pictures of the sleeve placket in the works. I'm doing finicky stuff right now; mostly hand-finishing pocket seams and such. It's supposed to be rainy today so I can work on it if I can't go for a walk at lunch.

Diamond 2: Green calico, part III

2012-01-30T09:55:00.002-06:00

Done!

I added the tucks after the fact because the whole thing came out much too long (instep-length. Dramatic but super impractical). This is more manageable, and you can see more of those awesome red boots!

Mom loved it, then said it was very eccentric, and then suggested I find a nice navy blue print with a touch of red and make another one. I guess that's an endorsement, no?

Diamond 2: Green calico, part II

2012-01-25T09:32:00.003-06:00

I think I underestimated the skirt and flounce sweep and failed to get enough lace trim. Might have to run back to Hobby Lobby tonight, weather and time permitting.

I did the waistband and attached the flounce last night, though. That means I just have trim and hemming to do. Since I'm being lazy, here again is the Flickr set with way too many pictures and mostly-unnecessary explanations.

So far!

New Patterns: 2012 January 22

2012-01-23T20:58:00.003-06:00

Anne Adams 4546 (circa 1945-1947): Wrap-around housedress with extended shoulder line. Buttons to the front, ties in back.

You know I can't pass up a 1940's wrap housedress.

904 (circa 1928-1930): Pullover house dress with front panel, squared neckline (sort of), and tie ends.

Yes, there are pockets hidden in the curves of the front panel. I'm looking for the perfect 1920's geometric reproduction print for this.

Yeah? Possibly, especially if they have a color besides pink. Definite possibility. This comes in red/black or blue/red. Green squares.

Update: Hey, I could use that weird yellow and gray circles print I got at Wal-Mart a while back! It's almost Art Deco, and I could use gray bias trim. And it would help with my insane fabric stash.

Shameful Confession

2012-01-23T15:10:00.005-06:00

Wow, I am a bloggin' maniac today.

I have a shameful confession.

I used to do Civil War and Texas Republic reenacting. Yes, stickler for authenticity and all that stuff.

I don't have time to do it any more, but I still play occasionally with a small acoustic music . . . group, I guess. We're not a club and we're not a band, really; we're just a bunch of people who have been playing together for years and get together a couple of times a year to play for a couple of small local events. These events usually ask us to wear "pioneer clothes". Whatever that means.

Two of the events at least make an effort to be "pioneer"-y, and they get better at it each year. Still a lot of laced bodices and mob-caps in 1850's Texas (??) but not as many as there were when the events were new. The other event or two wants us to look pioneer-y but then puts surrounds us with hot-dog and ice-cream trucks, electrified country bands, and Yankee Candle vendors. Yeah.

Anyway, I have two dresses. One is a brown plaid flannel one that Mom faked for me 20 years ago--literally--before we had any idea where even to look for period-correct mid-19th century patterns. (This was years pre-Internet for us.) It's totally not correct but it's dark and plain and at least is not conspicuous. But it's old, and heavy, and it shrunk in the wash so the sleeves are too short.

The other one is Past Patterns 806 (1992), the Lowell Mill Girl Dress, which is a miracle of pattern-drafting--I still have never encountered a pattern that went together better, despite neither Mom nor I having any experience at all with period-correct assembly methods--and results in a painfully beautiful dress. But it's mostly hand-sewn so I can't throw it in the washing machine when I come home reeking of barbecue smoke, perspiration, and Deep Woods Off!.

Anyway . . . I need a new dress.

I did a lot of alteration on McCall's M4548 (2004) and will, I'm sure, eventually get around to finishing it, but one of these events is coming up in three weeks and I can already tell I don't have the want-to to do it by then. That, and Mom needs the sewing machine, too, so I can't monopolize it to finish a big dress.

Part of me wants to be at least a bit of a stickler for period-correctness.

Another part of me wants to dash of something stupidly fast, easy, and washable. And probably hideously Seventies. (It would be camouflaged at least a little by an apron and slat bonnet, right?)

Is that so wrong of me?

McCall's 4866-A: Part IV

2012-01-23T14:59:00.007-06:00

The last little bit!

Just a quick update on my post-sewing sleeve redraft. The sleeves on McCall's 4966-A were lovely but oh, so impractical. The last four images in the Flickr set loosely illustrate the sleeve-reduction process.

Step 1: Cut sleeve in half between wrist and shoulder. This will allow me both to take out an inch of length (they were also too long) and to reduce only the lower half of the sleeve, since I had already reduced the sleeve cap and the fullness of the upper arm is fine.

Step 2: Decide how much I wanted to take out (3 inches; these sleeves were really big and floppy). Mark the lower part of the sleeve pattern in 4 or 5 places, vertically. Divide the desired width-to-be-removed among those 4 or 5 potential cuts.

Next time I make it--ha, ha--I'll try the new sleeve. This should also have reduced it enough that I can do a normal sleeve placket and not that wacky cutaway thing.

Step 3: Cut along the marks, overlap, and tape back together. Reattach to upper sleeve.

Step 4: Retrace. I forgot to photograph this, but it's sort of self-explanatory. You can't tell from the preceding photo, but the sleeve is still slightly belled even with all that width removed.

Diamond 2: Green calico

2012-01-23T09:19:00.009-06:00

We went to Galveston for meeting this weekend. I wanted to get some pictures of some things I missed last weekend when my camera battery ran out. The new set is here.

This house (Sealy at 21st, a block off Broadway and just northeast of Ashton Villa) has always been one of my favorites. Lots of houses in Galveston have been raised and had stories added underneath, which saves the trouble of rebuilding kitchens and other traditionally first-floor rooms that have complex plumbing, etc. You can see that the second-story door is actually a formal entrance, and that the columns are continuous through the second and third stories but not through the first, which was likely added later.

Mom's favorite, the "Mardi Gras house" (19th between Sealy and Ball), was decorated. That's what we call it, not its official name.

And this ruined foundation (Harborside between 14th and 15th), circa 1870, was built on the site of Jean Lafitte's Maison Rouge. I'd love to know what both houses looked like.

Then, I came home and started a prairie skirt. I needed an easy, stash-busting, project.

I saw this pattern on eBay and was admiring the 3/4-length skirt with the flounce:

But the pattern is a basic tube-with-elastic waist pattern. For one: Yawn. For two: Who needs a pattern for that. For three: Tube skirts never look like that in real life because the same amount of fabric is both bunching up around the waist and trying to achieve romantic prairie-skirt sweep. It just doesn't work. Beware artistic license in pattern illustrations, ladies!

So I got out Diamond 2, the elastic-waist A-line skirt pattern. Less fabric around the waist, more sweep at the hem, still easy to sew.

It also seemed like an excellent prospect for the parsley-green Concord calico, which I adore but which I readily admit is not an easy color/print to wear:

However, it just screams "prairie skirt!" doesn't it? I think it needs white lace trim around the top, and possibly at the hem, of the flounce, so I have to get some of that this week. I got as far as cutting the body of the skirt (not the flounce) and sewing up the pockets and side-seams. Gathering the flounce will be a pain, and binding the flounce/skirt jointure won't be fun, but it will be worth it.

Set here. Mostly OCD-ish pictures of my loony seam-finishing practices.

I think I really need a white peasant blouse now. Dang. One thing off the list, another one added.

You know what this will look good with, right? Uh-huh . . . red boots!

Poorly-timed inspiration

2012-01-20T16:18:00.002-06:00

Damn it: I'm busy all weekend. Saturday is a full day out at Jesse Jones Park, which is fun but doesn't involve sewing. Sunday will be Galveston, which means I can wear the Chicken Dress and my Awesome New Red Boots, but, again, doesn't involve sewing.

I really just want to stay home and sew button flies. Now that I've studied the pictures, they totally look like something that will be super fun to learn and freakin' awesome to know, like bound buttonholes and perfectly-installed rick-rack.

I'm not kidding.

I'm sure y'all know the feeling.

Chicken Dress revisit

2012-01-20T08:50:00.007-06:00

Listening: Dirk Powell.

I was right: I boogered up the waistband on the Chicken Dress. Forgot to add seam allowance. I also messed up the markings. The original pattern piece was a disastrous mish-mash of markings, anyway.

I spent last night redrafting it as two pieces, and then I made separate pieces for View 1 (one-piece front) and View 2 (button front), so that View 2 could actually use its button front for ingress and wouldn't need a side zipper. So I have like four waistband pieces now: Back, View 1 front, View 2 front, View 2 front lining (which is shorter because View 2 front folds over it).

Now I just have to figure out how to do the front skirt closure. I guess technically it's a placket, but the placket directions I'm finding are for much narrower plackets (like sleeve plackets or openings on baby clothes): This one will probably have concealed buttons. Maybe I need to Google "concealed buttons" or something instead. My guess is that the skirt will have to have an offset front seam, which is fine since it's rather full and gathered, anyway; it won't really show, with some kind of strips sewn into the seam. I'll have to mess with that. I can't remember how I did it on the failed pioneer dress, but maybe the placket is still there if I get the skirt out (I took the dress apart to reuse the fabric).

Update: Saved by Male Pattern Boldness! I didn't need a placket--I needed a concealed button fly! Doh! Why didn't I think of that before? I guess this is what comes of not wearing pants.

It occurs to me that I should bop on down to Goodwill and get a pair of button-fly pants to use as reference. Good grief. I've been trying to figure out how to do this since I started the Chicken Dress, and the answer was right there all along.

I also re-cut the sleeve slightly so that the underarm seam would match, and I fixed the sleeve on McCall's 4966-A. I forgot to do the neck facing on that one, though, but it will take about ten seconds so I can do it tonight.

For the record: This means I've made progress on #24 of yesterday's heart-stopping To-Do List post.

To-Do List

2012-01-19T11:35:00.007-06:00

Good grief: It just gets worse and worse. I'm not even including knitting projects any more because it seems that yarn is never going to be my medium, and I need to reevaluate my commitment to it. I do still want to learn to knit basics, but I feel like I need to get some of my sewing pressure off first.

And these are only the ones for which I actually have fabric!

In no particular order:

1) Advance 3045 (1942): Housedress in sky blue and white stripe.
2) Advance 3045 (1942): Day dress in burgundy.
3) Advance 3765 (1945?): Housedress in International Harvester tractor print.
4) Anne Adams 4934 (1978): Prairie dress in dusty purple calico.
5) Anne Adams 4926 (1940's): Blouse only in coral flower print.
6) Butterick 4368 (1976?): Little Wednesday Addams dress in lilac on black print.
7) Diamond 2 (2011): Elastic-waist A-line skirt in brown Indienne print (refashion), ~~1970's green calico~~ Completed January 2012, and 1980's black calico.
8) DuBarry 5643 (1943): Wrap-over housedress in burgundy and bone shamrock print.
9) Iris Lane 3219 (ca. 1960): Wrap-over day dress in deep teal.
10) Marian Martin 9928 (1940's): Housedress in lilac Aunt Grace print.
11) McCall 5136 (1943): Back-wrap sundress in Andover "On The Breeze".
12) McCall's 2925 (1971): Bib apron in brown and green calico.
13) McCall's M4548 (2004): Pioneer costume in green pinstripe. This really needs to be a priority since there are reenactments coming up, but I'm not as enthusiastic about it as I am about the others.
14) McCall's 4658 (1975): Blouse only in lilac calico.
15) McCall's 4750 (1975): Short dress in Art Nouveau print.
16) McCall's 4813 (1975): Yoked dress in red check homespun.
~~17) McCall's 4966-C (1975): Peasant blouse dress in mint green calico.~~ Completed February 4, 2012.
18) Simplicity 1218 (1944): Princess housedress in Michael Miller "Wild Blue Yonder".
19) Simplicity 2627 (1958): Big day dress in gray and white pinstripe chambray.
20) Simplicity 2844 (1949): Summer housedress in aqua floral.
21) Simplicity 2577 (1948): Sundress in green and burgundy Civil War print.
22) Simplicity 3264 (1939): Day dress in small burgundy-on-white floral.
23) Simplicity 3383-1 (1950): Sundress in Alexander Henry tattoo fabric.
24) Simplicity 4102-2 (1942): Housedress in slate-gray calico with burgundy rick-rack.
25) Simplicity 4571 (1943): Tie-waist day dress in red print. Not too sure about this one, though.
26) Simplicity 4727 (1943): Sundress in red, white, and blue plaid.
27) Simplicity 6340 (1974): Princess day dress in orange plaid.
28) Simplicity 7580 (1976): Sundress in Saroya "Star Flowers" print.
29) Simplicity 8483 (1978): Soft sundress in sage/gray homespun (refashion).
30) Vogue 8906 (1974?): Sundress in red print with big leaves.

Oh, my God--I am insane.

New fabric, and prairie skirts

2012-01-18T14:16:00.005-06:00

I was cleaning up my disaster-area of a room yesterday--"Hoarders" was on, and it's terrific incentive to de-clutter and clean up--and realized I have way the heck too much fabric.

Some of it is scrap. I just ordered a set of square acrylic templates so I can cut squares for a scrap quilt (sort of like this, but less pink), and I may try to cull some to send with Mom to the giveaway table at her quilt retreat, but a lot of it is actual yardage. Like, enough really make something.

I have plans for some of it, and potential plans for some of it. I shot myself in the foot today by underbidding, I thought, on four yards of black calico with yellow roses. Oh-so-Eighties, right? Adorable, right? Totally didn't need it, but I've had this yen for a black calico prairie skirt for, like, four years, ever since I got one at a swap meet that turned out to be so decayed that it couldn't be salvaged.

I think this needs small white lace and yellow satin ribbon for trim, don't you? My plan is to make it long--instep-length, or nearly so, kind of like this skirt--with a flounce around the bottom. I might actually use McCall's 5248-A (1976) with an added flounce, or I might just use my A-line pattern.

It occurred to me that if I did the A-line pattern, which is fast, I could get rid of three projects at once. The black calico, the freaky green calico, and the brown Indienne calico that I need to remake because I mis-measured the waist and made the whole thing too bunchy.

Breyer #59 "Morganglanz" (1980-1987)

2012-01-17T13:27:00.003-06:00

At last!

My grandmother gave me one of these for Christmas in 1987, but he fell victim to a shelving accident and was later (stupidly, on my part) sold as a body. Doh! I sold off a lot of horses maybe ten years ago and, boy, am I regretting it now.

I got this one on eBay. To whomever sold him to me: He's going to a good home. Not fancy, and sort of crowded, but he'll have lots of horse buddies, and I swear I've learned my lessons both about cheap bookshelves and about selling old friends to be customized.

UPDATE: I just got notice that my red boots have shipped!!

Mini road trip: Battle of Galveston

2012-01-17T10:03:00.006-06:00

I don't care which side you're on: That's a beautiful flag.

Between my Friday off and Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, I managed to wrangle a four-day weekend. But, alas, it's all over now.

Friday, Dad and I went back to my office to pick up the two five-drawer file cabinets I bought from our stash of surplus furniture. The up-side of vintage furniture is that it's well-built. The down-side is that it weighs as much as my car! If we had stopped short on the freeway on the way home, we might have been squashed. Nevertheless, I love them! One is for patterns (no, it's not full! Yet) and the other is for everything else.

I spent Saturday judging an online model horse show and Monday totaling my 2011 show points. I always swear I'll total my points each month and I always forget to do it and then I always kick myself at the last minute when I'm scrambling to get them done. Doh! Worse, I lost all my records when my computer crashed, so I'm starting over. Double doh!

I'm all about the external hard-drive now, folks. Lesson learned.

Sunday, though, I needed a road trip. Just a little one. Luckily, Galveston was hosting a reenactment of the Battle of Galveston, and Civil War shenanigans are always a valid excuse to go do something.

I decided to make a full day of it. I stopped for breakfast at the Dot Coffee Shop in south Houston. It was packed. Mint Chocolate Chick and I split the Country Breakfast. I ate the hash browns and half a sausage patty on site, since fried potato products don't reheat well, and took the rest of the sausage and the biscuits and gravy home. I ended up eating that Country Breakfast for three breakfasts, which made it a darned good deal.

The house where Galveston Friends Meeting meets was about five blocks from the start of the Civil War stuff, so I left my car there. While I was locking up, two other Friends showed up. I told them I had come on a whim and wasn't sure I could stay. They said that was OK, the other two Friends who usually attend were under the weather, and they had brought the wrong key. They could go back and get the right key if I wanted, but nobody looked very enthusiastic about that, so we went down the street and talked while they ate breakfast.

The Battle of Galveston was very small and slightly comic but reenacted with a lot of enthusiasm. I'm afraid I still sort of like the smell of black-powder smoke.

After, I went to a couple of antique shops and the Fiesta store, then to the Original Mexican Café for lunch. I think they might have my favorite charro beans yet. I got three lunches out of the carne asada plate, too. Awesome.

After lunch, I took the ferry out to Bolivar Peninsula to visit the Port Bolivar Community Cemetery. At this point, my camera battery was dying like the dodo so I didn't get that many pictures. They have new historical plaques up, though.

I came back, got an ice cream cone at La King's and ate it while I went down to check out the Jean Lafitte historical marker I'd passed earlier, and then came home.

Brown rice pudding

2012-01-12T10:23:00.005-06:00

Adapted from Allrecipes.com baked rice pudding recipe. This is a dry, cake-like, pudding, not a pudding-y pudding.

I made this for Mom last night. She can't have sugar so the original version was a no-go. She also doesn't really like nutmeg, and I'm a nutmeg fiend.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice (we used short grain)
1/4 cup brown Splenda (or to taste. Mom liked this but it was too sweet for me. I thought I should try using her sugarless "maple" syrup some time, too.)
1 1/2 cups milk (skim is fine)
1 egg
1 egg white, or 2 tablespoons egg white from a carton
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Whatever spices you like: Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice
Optional: Scant 1/4 cup raisins or chopped dried fruit (I used dates. Yeah, I know they're not sugarless, but Mom requested.)

Beat eggs and milk. Combine everything except raisins/fruit and pour into a 1 1/2-quart casserole dish. Bake 30 minutes. Add raisins/fruit and stir. Bake another 30-45 minutes or until set.

Andover "On The Breeze", and ideas

2012-01-12T08:43:00.011-06:00

I'm wearing the Chicken Dress today! If Marie is here, maybe she'll take a picture for me.

The waistband isn't as tight as I'd feared. I'll still make it a little longer next time, but it's not cutting me in half. I've gotten some more ideas for tweaking it, too, now that I see it on. I think I might take a half-inch back out of the bodice length but I'm not sure (it's hard to tell since the waist is snug; the slightly-too-blousy problem might resolve once the waistband is an inch longer) and shorten the shoulders (neck to sleeve cap) by about a half an inch. I'm also considering a new sleeve. I've started thinking of this as the "tomboy" sleeve: Less gathering at the sleeve cap (lowered sleeve cap, reduced sleeve width at the top), and less tapering toward the opening of the sleeve. I might even add a turned-back cuff.

I also need to lower the hem another inch or two. I already did a three-inch hem instead of four, and the length looks nice and is probably not out of the range of accuracy for the early 1940's, but it feels short. I'm used to having my knees solidly covered. This covers them but just barely. It does make my calves look good, though, especially in heels.

I scored four yards of Andover "On The Breeze" in pale lime green on eBay for about half the usual price. It's a large print: The picture below is apparently an 8.5 x 11 - inch scan.

I don't think it's specifically "retro" but it does sort of have the colors and that flat, screen-printed, look you see in 1940's tablecloths.

Four yards of a print that size is actually not a whole lot since pieces have to be fussy-cut to make the large pattern match up and look OK. I think I might use it for McCall 5136 (1943?), which is a simple shape and has a straight skirt.

I just realized, too, that between my usual Friday off and Martin Luther King, Jr., Day on Monday, I have a four-day weekend. Hooray! Friday, I have to pick up my framed picture from Hobby Lobby, and Dad and I will be coming back down to my office to pick up the two file cabinets I bought from our surplus equipment stash.

Then, I'll probably work on 4102 again, making those changes.

Friday night, the Lost Bayou Ramblers will be in town for the first time in ages. Can't miss that!

Sunday, I might go to see the reenactment of the Battle of Galveston. I might even go early and stop at the Dot Coffee Shop for breakfast. I've wanted to do that for awhile but, I don't know, sometimes I get self-conscious about asking other people to go with me. "Why? It will just be greasy eggs and hash browns, like Denny's." "I don't know, I just do. I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!"

Which is silly. I'm a big girl, I can eat greasy eggs and hash browns if I want. But sometimes being an adult doesn't mean you're not still a little silly.

Simplicity 4102-A: Chicken Dress, part IV

2012-01-11T13:31:00.005-06:00

Here's a bad picture of the zipper zipped up:

Still better than my previous attempts.

I finished the last sleeve support at lunch, so it's done! I just need a picture of me in it.

the sleeve supports are three layers of fabric, quilted together and bias-bound. I used scrap. Yeah, ugly, but why waste favorite dress fabric on something nobody will see?

The dress didn't call for shoulder pads, just the sleeve supports.

I sewed them to the seam allowance both along the top . . .

. . . and the underside. Those suckers aren't going anywhere!

You can't really tell the difference they make on the hanger, but I suspect they will be helpful when the dress is actually being worn.

Simplicity 4102-A: Chicken Dress, part III

2012-01-11T08:28:00.002-06:00

I was so sure I'd be done last night but nooooo . . . somehow the sleeve supports took longer than I anticipated. I guess it was hand-sewing the narrow bias binding on the edges. I got one in and brought the other with me to work today to do on my lunch break.

New horses: 2012 January 10

2012-01-10T16:21:00.003-06:00

Found him on eBay, for a song!

Rio de Oro: 2010 buckskin frame Paint stallion (Rio Grande QH x Jezebel). BreyerFest 2008 "Melbourne" the brumby.

He's buckskin. And pinto.

How can you go wrong??

New Pattern: 2012 January 10

2012-01-10T11:32:00.007-06:00

I waffled on this one but eBay Bucks convinced me:

DuBarry 5576 (1943): Housedress or housecoat with concealed button closure, inset belts and tie ends.

I need a housecoat, anyway. I have a horrifyingly loud red and blue paisley that would make a great housecoat and this is a candidate (with blue lapels and waistband).

I missed this one on eBay and waited at least two years to find another. It's a teen pattern and size 11, which is . . . really, really, small. Adventures in Pattern Grading!

Anne Adams 4827 (ca. 1948-1949): That extended shoulder line is classic late 1940's.

My notes say the same pattern was issued as American Weekly 3814.

I wonder if this was especially popular with geometry teachers?

One of these might be a good candidate for the green and rose stripe.

Simplicity 4102-A: Chicken Dress, part II

2012-01-10T11:20:00.006-06:00

It's not quite done, and nothing ever looks good on a hanger, but here's a sneak preview.

I have to finish the left armscye seam and add the shoulder pads/sleeve supports.

It totally had to have two rows of rick-rack on the skirt. Two rows at the neck, two rows on the pockets . . . why change? I sort of regret not doing a second row on the sleeves, at the sleeve openings.

The back neck slit. This is a bit rough. The neck facing didn't go on very well--need to re-draft that, too--and things got a big messy, but it's not so bad. And it's in the back, right?

This is a terrible picture, but the zipper is at least a little better. I basted it in and then topstitched it into place. Not very elegant, but sturdy and unobtrusive.

This is a pretty good pattern but there is a long list of things I either did a little wrong or will change when I make it again in the slate-blue calico.

1. Pattern is not very well drafted. The sleeve seam didn't match and the there was quite a bit of "easing" to get the front and back bodice pieces to fit along the shoulder seam. Need to re-cut sleeve and back armscye so that those pieces match.

2. On the View 2: I have never liked the idea of needing a side zipper on a dress that buttons down the front. I’ll try extending the front opening into the waistband and the top of the skirt (will use concealed buttons or hooks and bars if I don’t have enough maroon buttons) with a short placket. I’ll have to redraft the waistband to account for the extra length needed for the button overlap and to fold over a little on the inside so the lining fabric doesn’t show.

3. Need to re-draft waistband. Markings are confusing and instructions are very vague. Need one piece for the back (14" + seam allowance?) and two different pieces for the fronts, Views A (15" + seam allowance?) and B (15"/2 + button overlap + fold-over + seam allowance). View B also needs a front lining piece (15"/2 + seam allowance) if I want to make the outer pieces fold over. I made the waistband too small on Chicken Dress (27 inches! Good thing I started jogging again!); need to make it longer overall, probably 29 or 30 inches. Will measure original pattern pieces; it was supposed to be drafted for a 28-inch waist.

4. Very blousy and sort of big in the shoulders. Might reduce shoulder width and take it in another inch overall between neck and armscye only (no width out of neck opening). May also raise bust darts slightly; will see after I have the sleeve supports in.

5 5) The waist ties are useless. The waistband is fitted so the dress doesn't need ties for shape, and they are too short to tie in any but a short, stiff, uncomfortable bow. They either need to be cut about a foot longer or left off entirely. (I've never understood waist ties on housedresses. If you wear a housedress with waist ties and then put on an apron--as you're likely to do when wearing a housedress--then you have too many waist ties in one place.)

6. The original waistband is in one part. I’m changing this to two pieces 1) so the dress can be assembled flat, front and back, and 2) so the right-side waist tie can be set in the seam instead of tacked on the outside.

Simplicity 4102-A: Chicken Dress, part I

2012-01-09T11:30:00.004-06:00

I thought I had progress pix on my little camera but I guess I don't. Darn. I took some with the big Nikon yesterday because the point-and-shoot was out of juice and I couldn't find its charger, but I haven't uploaded them.

So far, so good. The right side of the dress is all put together, including the sleeve and seam finishes. I cut the waistband into two parts so the right-side tie would be set in a seam instead of tacked onto the outside, because I thought it looked better and would be more sturdy. I also made the waist ties two-sided instead of one-sided with a narrow hem, because that also looks better.

I was going to jog again tonight but it's pouring rain and everything will be soggy, so I have a good excuse to stay in and work on the left side of the dress. I'm determined to reform my dismal zipper-installing habits in 2012. I think hand-basting is the way to go. Hand-basting seems to solve a lot of my problems.

After that, I have to do two rows of rick-rack on the skirt, and hem. That's it!

I lowered the bust darts 1 inch and lengthened the bodice 1 1/2 inches overall, because Simplicity 4714 (1943)'s bodice came out too short. They're similar patterns.

I probably should have done a muslin. Fingers crossed for me, OK? If this doesn't fit, I'm going to be completely heartbroken. I love that chicken fabric so much.

How retro can you go?

2012-01-06T22:29:00.003-06:00

I went yesterday to get my shots for the February/March trip to Tanzania. I needed some shots anyway: If I were a dog, I'd be illegal. I ended up getting hepatitis A, influenza, tetanus, polio, and typhoid.

Yes, my arms hurt. I microwaved a cup of tea last night and then stood there helplessly because I couldn't lift either of my arms enough to pick it up. I had to use two hands and even that took a lot of effort, and the cup was definitely in danger of being dropped.

Anyway . . . I joked with the nurse that, well, retro and vintage are all the rage, aren't they? So maybe getting a polio shot actually ups my cool factor.

Stuff

2011-12-30T23:34:00.004-06:00

So . . . lots of tedious stuff going on but little of it blog-worthy. My computer got whacked by a virus (despite having just had its anti-virus software updated) and I lost . . . everything. So, starting over in that regard. The worst loss is of my photographs: This will teach me to back stuff up, right? Aargh. There was some music on there I meant to keep, and my model horse records got wiped, but the show results are available online so I can recreate enough of those. More annoying than actually important in the grand scheme of things.

We've had relatives in and out of the house for various holidays, which is fun but sort of disruptive. I'm not actually complaining: We also get to cat-sit, and borrowing cats when I don't have time to own one full-time is never a bad thing.

On the down side of the people front, I had an incident with a friend that . . . well, there isn't much to say save that a situation that I knew would be very disappointing but thought I had more or less under control emotionally turned out to be far more upsetting than I anticipated, and has drained a lot more of my mental time and energy than I want to admit. I'm afraid I've abused terribly the goodwill and cell phone minutes of my closest friends/confidantes/provisional shrinks, but hopefully they've boosted me back into the saddle and gotten me on the road to sanity. (Speaking of cats: The worst part of this is that said friend had an impossibly adorable cat, of whom I was extremely fond and whom I am likely never to see again.)

Another up side is that holidays mean days off, so I've been sewing. I started basting the first of a zillion miles of rick-rack on the Chicken Dress today, and I've decided to cut Version 2 while I have the pattern out. Might as well, right?

Also, I scored engineer boots:

Yes, I will wear them with dresses.

I may even, as one of my friends suggested, wear them with fishnets.

Post-Christmas shopping

2011-12-28T11:48:00.005-06:00

I don't normally do this kind of thing, but . . . well, sometimes you have to get stuff before it's gone.

I've admired this World War II-imitation airplane print for at least the past year, and I finally realized that all the sites that sell it are starting to sell out, so I ordered some and now have my fingers crossed that they do actually have it in stock.

This will be a housedress, probably either Hollywood 1191 (1943) or Simplicity 1218 (1944), with trim.

Michael Miller "Wild Blue Yonder"

I also finally bit the bullet and ordered the long-longed-for red boots.

I keep sewing things and then commenting, "Man, this would look awesome with red boots." But then not actually acquiring red boots. The brown plaid dress I made last week could be worn with red boots and a Western belt, and the upcoming Chicken Dress is also a red boot candidate. American Weekly 3740 could have, if it still fit. I have at least four flashy Western shirts that could go with red boots.

Come to think of it, that airplane fabric could go with red boots, too.

See? If you live in the right part of the U.S., red cowboy boots are a footwear staple. My brother has these in black and says they're super comfortable.

Ariat "Heritage"

McCall's 4866-A: Part III

2011-12-27T08:29:00.010-06:00

Well, that was finished in darned near record time. I had a lousy cold over the weekend but I wasn't going to waste four days off and not sew, right?

Flickr set here. It needs some polishing still, and most of it is pictures of awkward, self-taught, pattern grading.

What I changed:
1) Took it in a size above the waist (14 to a 12).
2) Took an inch out of the sleeve caps.
3) Lengthened the sleeves by two inches (one to make up for the shorter sleeve cap, one because I have monkey arms).
4) Added patch pockets. This is more of a side-seam pocket kind of dress but I had my heart set on patch pockets.

What I will change if I make it again:
1) Take those extra inches out of the sleeve length.
2) Reduce sleeve fullness. Very Seventies stylin' but not very practical.
3) Raise the bottom of the neck slit by two inches.
4) Add length to the hem. The photo angle makes it look longer, but with only a half-inch foldover hem (with hem tape), it hits me right at the knee. Just barely long enough.
5) Use a regular bound slit in the sleeves below the cuffs. The instructions called for this weird cut-away-a-section method that was difficult to finish neatly, left raw edges, and, I think, leaves weak points that will be vulnerable if the wearer rolls up the sleeves.

I did make the self-fabric waist tie but I like the belt better. I bought the fabric for a different dress and was a half-yard short, so the underside of the collar, the insides of the cuffs, and the pocket linings are maroon Kona. One of the inside panels of the waist tie is brown Kona. Oh, well.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Then, I started tracing and altering pieces for Simplicity 4102 (1942): Chicken Dress. I had to order more red rick-rack, but this one is going to be a knock-out!

Here's the fabric: Parsley-green with zillions of tiny chickens. Mom gasped and said, "Oh, my God--you will wear anything!" I might make it my official First Date dress to see if he can pass the Dear Lord What Is She Wearing? test.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-22T08:08:00.005-06:00

I got nothing done last night because my brother and sister-in-law arrived--I had thought they were coming today. I've also got a bit of a head cold and can't really concentrate on stuff, anyway.

We're doing Christmas tonight, complete with pancake dinner instead of breakfast.

I almost forgot! Sherry came by last night to see Mom and to give us our Christmas gifts. She gave me five yards of fabric: Northcott "Little Darlings" muted purple print on black, little rings with a flower design. Very 19th century mourning print. Funny, but I was just looking online for black-on-black prints to do a Deco-goth version of Butterick 4368 (1976?), and this just might be what I needed. It's gorgeous.

McCall's 4866-A: Part II

2011-12-21T08:17:00.006-06:00

No pictures yet, but I spent last night cutting actual fabric pieces and watching the 1949 version of Madame Bovary. I hated that book but Jennifer Jones was a good Emma Bovary. It's still very "Keeping Up With The Kardashians . . . 1850", though. At least, I think it is. I've never actually watched the Kardashians' show.

I think I'm a half-yard short on fabric. I can't remember how much I bought but the pieces didn't fit on the yardage like they should have. I can make it work, though. Oh, well.

McCall's 4866-A: Part I

2011-12-19T08:03:00.005-06:00

There's the actual plaid. I think it runs the long way in real life (it's sideways here). The big brown rectangles are about an inch and a half tall/long.

I don't have the pictures uploaded yet, but I did actually start on McCall's 4966 (1975) this weekend. The pattern I have is a size too big so I spent most of Sunday tracing and resizing it, but I managed to cut a few pieces. I'm on regular hours this week (8 to 5 instead of 7 to 6) so maybe I'll be able to do a little work on it in the evenings.

McCall's 4866 it is!

2011-12-15T14:00:00.004-06:00

Sometimes all it takes is a fresh set of eyes. I got some input and finally settled on McCall's 4966 View A as the choice for the brown plaid dress. I'm going to make a waist tie but I'm also looking for a belt. I'm looking for black leather, two to three inches wide, with grommets or nailheads. Little bit biker. I've got some possibilities but I have to go measure some belts I already have to make sure of the width I want.

The other McCall's 4966 for which I have fabric is View C, with the placket and band collar. It will be pale green calico.

Brown plaid dress: Input needed

2011-12-14T14:14:00.011-06:00

I've been a terrible blogger lately. Things have been a little hectic but none of it was worth blogging, so I sort of let it go.

I've had more false and non-starts on sewing projects this year than I care to think about, so I think maybe I need an easy project that doesn't require a lot of tweaking or fitting to be a success. Lazy, yes, but sometimes you need a mounting block to get back in the saddle, right?

Anyway, I need input. I've already gotten one vote for McCall's 4966 (see below) from somebody on the Fashion/Sewing group on Facebook, and I think the idea is starting to grow on me. Take a look and see what you think, if you have a minute.

So, the fabric is similar to this:

The actual fabric is more rust-colored. The largest squares are about an inch and half, so I'd call it a medium-scale plaid. I think it's Moda but I forget offhand. Yarn-dye "homespun", which means it's lightweight and slightly loose-weave.

I've sort of decided I want:
1) A shoulder yoke or neck facing. Maybe.
2) No waistline. I'll make a separate waist tie but I can also wear it with a belt.
3) Either long, full, sleeves with cuffs or elbow-length sleeves with permanent cuffs, as seen here.
4) A collar.
5) Patch pockets. Maybe.

The original plan was Butterick 4352 (1975), which I love but which, logically, seems like a poor choice. For one, those front gathers make me think it will look like a maternity dress, and I'm somehow not crazy about the long vertical neck facing. I was going to trim down the high sleeve caps, anyway, and shrink the gigantic Seventies aero-collar.

I also feel like a have a lot of these loose Seventies shift dresses and that this is not one of my favorites, and should probably be culled and resold.

McCall's 4813 (1975) was another choice, although I've also planned to make it out of small red and white windowpane check. I have so many patterns that making one twice seems silly. However, I do like the shoulder yoke and the collar. I feel like this dress wants a collar. (The belt would not be attached, and the collar would be cut down and reshaped to a pointed, rather than a lobed, one.

Simplicity 9778 (1971): I hadn't thought of this one but it's a possibility despite not having the collar I thought I wanted. It would have the band collar and be made at midi-length, probably without a ruffle. Basically, the dress on the left, but shorter. It would have cuffed sleeves instead of elastic wrists.

McCall's 4966 (1975): I totally overlooked this one. View A (blue dress on the left) is also a very good possibility.

Simplicity 7191 (1975): Not really in the running, but not totally out. I sort of meant to wear this dress over a henley in the winter, though, and this looks less comfortable for that purpose than the others.

Aargh!

2011-12-12T08:52:00.001-06:00

Nothing of interest going on here. I'm not done my Christmas shopping and that has me running scared, but I'll get it figured out. Right? Right??

New Patterns: 2011 December 1

2011-12-01T12:24:00.003-06:00

One more. This one is worth it just for the source and the model's hair, even if it weren't a great dress:

Farmer, Farm, Stock and Home magazine 2346 (mid-1940's): Shirt dress or housecoat with back pleat, shoulder yoke, six-gore skirt with set-in-seam pockets, and full-length front button closure.

Oh, and epic bangs.

The artist had aspirations, too. Those girls look like characters, not just mannequins.

This is the kind of dress that will look great on me but, alas, I cannot do the hair. I would die from hairspray fumes before I could get it to hold that much shape. I have certified Sixties hippie hair--thin, stick-straight, and baby-fine. The ninety-pound weakling of hair.

Sigh.

New Patterns: 2011 November 30

2011-11-30T12:27:00.005-06:00

Both of these are bust 32 and will have to be scaled up a size, but that's a small inconvenience in light of their sheer freaking awesomeness.

Simplicity 3306 (1939): Housecoat and housedress.

I want them all.

Are you sitting down?

Because this one will bowl you right over . . .

DuBarry 1613B (1936-1937?): Suit--skirt and jacket with long or short sleeves and asymmetrical front closure.

Art Deco design in full bloom, people.

New horses: 2011 November

2011-11-29T09:26:00.004-06:00

These aren't scheduled to be released until December or January, and I requested that they all be shipped together to save postage costs, but eventually, they'll be in my hot little hands.

942 Classic Fun Foals: New mold, Classic Haflinger foal in dark bay tobiano. Will be "Firethorn Delphine", spotted draft pony filly.

942 Classic Fun Foals: Warmblood[?] foal in sorrel. Will be "Cricket", chestnut sport pony filly (pending x Katydid).

938 Classic Haflinger mare: Haflingers are given names that share the first letters of the name of their sire (for stallions and geldings) or dam (for mares), so her name will depend on the mother I find for her.

1474 "GG Valentine" and "Heartbreaker": Bay warmbloods. Will be "Tambourine" and "Tom Tom", bay Standardbred mare and foal. Because I like Standardbreds.

I really, really, love the new Haflinger molds. I feel like I need to get some extras to customize as a Haflinger filly, a spotted draft pony dam, and possibly a Fjord mare and foal.

New Patterns: 2011 November 29

2011-11-29T09:05:00.007-06:00

Still not much going on here. Well, there is stuff going on, but nothing blog-able. My brother and sister-in-law were here for Thanksgiving but I promptly ditched everyone and ate with my boyfriend's family. Ha ha. Helped said boyfriend pack to move on Friday, and spent the rest of the weekend running errands and doing stuff with my own family to sort of make up for it all. My computer at home crashed so my photo editing and blogging have been severely curtailed.

Simplicity 7378 (1976): Skirt and top combo. That's an inset waistband, not a belt, which was a selling point. Might have to experiment with built-in bras.

McCall's 6319 (1978): I don't know what I was thinking except that it got cold and I always fall for baggy dresses when it's cold. I am not at all sold on that neck ruffle, and the neck split seems awfully deep. Modifications are in order.

I propose gathering the neck into a band collar and maybe adding a placket.

Simplicity 9712 (1972): Dress and apron/jumper thingie. I mostly wanted the dress.

Simplicity 7191 (1975): I've almost bought this one several times but finally one came up in my size for dirt-cheap with free shipping. Oh, yeah. I like tucks.

Still alive

2011-11-23T09:40:00.002-06:00

Nothing of particular interest going on here. Mom had surgery and is laid up for a while. My brother and sister-in-law are coming for Thanksgiving and to help Mom. My boyfriend is moving and will presumably need both help packing and the use of my hatchback. It's Thanksgiving week so nobody is getting much done, anyway.

Buckeyes

2011-11-16T08:56:00.005-06:00

Candy recipes both fascinate and terrify me. I'm a big fan of things like nougat and caramel and, yes, even molasses taffy, but I haven't ever had the time to learn to make them, and I hear that mastering the various ball stages takes some practice.

This is the best I can do, candy-wise. They're sort of like homemade Reese's peanut butter cups. Mom got this recipe ages ago from . . . somebody.

1 cup peanut butter (Mom always insists on creamy but one of these days, I'm going to go wild and use chunky)
1 stick butter or margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
Four ounces graham crackers, pulverized (About nine crackers, or one plastic-wrapped block)

12 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 bar paraffin (Gulf Wax, in the canning aisle)

Combine the peanut butter, butter, sugar, and cracker crumbs, and knead them into a dough. Break off small pieces of dough and roll them into balls. Place on cookie sheets and freeze while you prepare the chocolate.

Melt chocolate and paraffin together in a double boiler.

Using spoons, roll frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate--I usually put the ball on one spoon and then spoon chocolate over it with the other, for better control. Be careful--don't let the steam from the boiler burn your hands. If you want to be official, leave a bare peanut butter "eye" so they look (sort of) like real buckeye nuts.

Update: I remade these a few days ago using 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 stick butter. I might reduce the butter again by half because the texture was awfully . . . buttery, but they tasted more like peanut butter, which I consider an improvement. I also used half semisweet and half dark chocolate chips, and double-coated them (coated, re-chilled, re-coated) both to avoid wasting the chocolate and so there would be a better chocolate-to-peanut-butter ratio.

Lentil soup

2011-11-14T10:20:00.005-06:00

Still having computer issues.

I was up until 2:00 Saturday morning sewing a slat bonnet. I'll post pictures when I get some.

On the up side, I roasted a whole chicken--with a side of potatoes, parsnips, and carrots--this weekend, picked it, and boiled the frame and leftover vegetable stuffing for broth to make lentil soup. Oh, and I made two more loaves of beer bread.

Lentil soup
6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 1/2 cups lentils (I only had 1 scant cup so I made up the difference in split mung beans)
3 large carrots, diced or grated
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed
seasonings: I used 3/4 teaspoon cumin, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne, and 1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt to taste (probably not necessary with commercial broth, but mine was made from a boiled-down chicken frame and needed some added)

Heat oil and sauté onion and garlic. Add carrot and cook until soft. Add broth. When broth is hot, add lentils and/or mung beans. Cook until those are soft and then season to taste.

Daylight Savings rant

2011-11-09T15:01:00.003-06:00

I hate daylight savings. Actually, I hate coming off of daylight savings.

I think we should fall forward, not back. I don't need broad daylight at 6:45 in the morning, when I'm just going to go straight from my (street-lit) morning commute to my (mostly windowless) place of work.

I want that extra hour of daylight in the evening when I can put it to good use.

I even started a Facebook page. Slacktivism rules - come "like" with me!

Really, I'm surprised the anti-obesity and mental health people aren't all over this. Where are you, Michelle Obama? We could be using that evening hour to walk the dog, to jog, to alleviate seasonal affective disorder.

Basic beer bread

2011-11-09T07:46:00.006-06:00

Things have been a little crazy lately. I'll get back on the blog wagon as soon as I can.

Meanwhile . . .

Preheat oven to 375.
Use a buttered loaf pan. I'm sure this would also work very well with muffin tins.

3 cups flour (I used 1 cup whole-wheat and 2 cups all-purpose. Cake flour would also work well. Don't use bread flour; you want low-protein flour for quick breads, not high-protein flour.)
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted (I didn't think to use my bacon drippings! Doh! I'll have to get more bacon.)
12 ounces beer (I used Shiner Blonde.)

I thought this needed salt. Next time, I'll try adding 1/2 teaspoon or so to see if I like it better.

Optional:
1 small onion, minced
1 cup shredded sharp cheese

Sift dry ingredients together. Lightly stir in butter and beer. Bake for about 60 minutes, until golden (less for muffins).

New Pattern: 2011 October 25

2011-10-25T17:35:00.004-05:00

These are both probably from 1939.

Butterick 8530: Back-wrap or back zip sundress (or possibly tennis dress?).

Simplicity 3100: Housedress, day dress, or housecoat with midriff inset, square neckline, and full-length front button closure.

New Pattern: 2011 October 24

2011-10-24T11:44:00.003-05:00

Bit of a hodgepodge this time around.

Advance 2759 (1942?): Slightly unusual day dress with zipper front and midriff inset. I actually had to outbid somebody twice to get this--normally, I don't have much competition for the patterns I want.

Simplicity 8550 (1969): I need the blouse to wear under some other stuff. The skirt's not bad, either. The cheater-cloth über-coulottes, though, are terrifying.

Simplicity 7174 (1975): Minus the angel sleeves. Sheesh.

Butterick 2524 (1943?): Replaces a couple of other, less-ideal, pinafore dress patterns (I really need to get my sales stuff in order! It's piling up). I'm not crazy about those puff sleeves but the sleeveless version is great.

Simplicity 7665 (1976): This has a back zip and that front tab is inset. I might try to skip the zipper and make that front tab button-on, so the front panel expands and allows it to be a pullover. Might be too much trouble, but back zippers are such downers.

McCall's 5881 (1977): Replaces Simplicity 5906 (1981), Simplicity 6173 (1974), and Simplicity 8066 (1977). This one is a pullover, I like the square neckline, and I think it's a good starting place for a lot of awesome peasant wear.

Hollywood 1089 (1944?): Nice front-wrap princess housedress. 'Nuff said.

Cookbooks

2011-10-19T10:46:00.008-05:00

I found a bunch of these at a secondhand store this weekend. There is one more that I haven't begun scanning yet; it's the 1953 Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbooklet.

I don't have all of these scanned yet, so check back. Stove Pilot alone is over 300 pages and will take me awhile.

American Thermometer Company (St. Louis, Missouri), Modern Cooking With American Oven Heat Controls: The Heart of the Modern Range, circa 1930's. This is more about temperatures and cooking times than recipes, but I thought it was interesting.

Besides, it has a stone-cold awesome Art Deco cover.

Franco-American Spaghetti/Campbell's Soup, 30 Tempting Spaghetti Meals: Easy, Economical, Delicious, circa 1940. Franco-American was apparently similar to today's Chef Boyardee canned pasta-in-sauce. If one was inclined, I would guess one could try out these recipes by substituting about two cups of leftover spaghetti in sauce, cut into shorter lengths.

Part of me actually wants to cook through a couple of my weird 1930's and 1940's cookbooklets. Sort of like Julie & Julia or Fannie's Last Supper . . . Great Depression Edition.

Pet Evaporated Milk, Cookies Made With Pet Evaporated Milk (1950's). This one looks pretty good. There is even a version of Gold Rush Brownies that uses Pet Milk and sugar instead of sweetened condensed milk.

The Woman's Club of Maxwell Air Force Base (Montgomery, Alabama), Stove Pilot (1948): Pretty classic community cookbook, although since it's from the 1940's there isn't as much canned soup and stuff as you would find in a newer book.

New Pattern: 2011 October 18

2011-10-19T10:33:00.005-05:00

Hollywood 1191 (1943): Front-wrap housedress or housecoat with optional gigantic collar. This replaces Hollywood 1365, which is slightly later and has even bigger shoulders (a look that has never been that good for me).

Hagen-Renaker Designers' Workshop Peking duck "Jill": Monrovia or San Dimas version. Fingers crossed that she arrives safely in the mail! About five inches long; large for a Hagen-Renaker.

Chicken Salad: The Basics

2011-10-17T12:01:00.003-05:00

My mother is an inveterate tinkerer with chicken salad: Add grapes . . . no, add pineapple . . . no, add apricots . . . no, add dried cranberries . . . and almonds . . . no, pecans . . . and curry powder . . . no . . . and so on. I don't think she's ever made a bad batch, but sometimes we like to go back to the basics. We normally eyeball the amounts but this time I actually measured and wrote myself a recipe so I could share if the need arose.

Two large chicken breasts, baked and chopped or shredded
1/6 to 1/4 smallish white onion (to taste), diced
2-3 ribs celery (to taste. We like lots and lots of celery), quartered lengthwise and finely chopped
1/4 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
salt and pepper to taste

Combine and refrigerate for a few hours to let everything settle into itself. That's it.

McCall's M4548 (2004): 16 October 2011

2011-10-16T21:44:00.003-05:00

Major rebuilding in progress on the bodice. I decided I wanted it gathered into the waistband, and I wanted the shoulder seams dropped to make it look more mid-19th century. Eliminating the front darts is easy, and taking out the back princess seam--actually, combining the center and side-back pieces into one--was less trouble than I expected. I added an inch to the length all around but it was still super short, even taking the waistband into account, so I added more length and will be cutting another test bodice soon. I also added a bit to the sides below the armscyes to give more ease of movement.

Front bodice (after the test run proved too short and I added more length to the pattern piece):

Back bodice (after the test run proved too short and I added more length to the pattern piece):

Front bodice, test run. Note how short it is:

Back bodice, test run. Note how short it is:

Sleeve with two inches taken up:

With sleeve cap cut off:

I've never done this much remodeling on a bodice before so it should be interesting. I may have completely boogered things up (on a tracing: I at least wasn't foolish enough to cup up my original!). I'll probably need to lengthen them, too, but I want to check before I do it so I don't end up with too much sleeve.

The neckline looks good without the collar so I don't think I need to mess with that.

I have muslin to make a new petticoat. I have a better bonnet pattern and I have a passable apron. I'd eventually like a new apron but the one here is much too narrow. Who really needs a patter for a half-apron, anyway?

McCall's M4548 (2004)

2011-10-13T12:16:00.011-05:00

I'll keep this short since I'm not in a very good mood right now. Nothing specific; I'm just still a bit stuffy, and I haven't had time to work on the pioneer dress that I really, really, do need, and I'm about ready to give up on the entire concept of dating.

I've been wearing the same dress for reenacting since I was fourteen. Theoretically I'm not old enough to be squeamish about my age, so I'll say it: 1991. Since 1991. I think 20 years is enough for just about any piece of clothing.

It wasn't an official Civil War dress when we started; it was just a late-1980's oversized post-Prairie thing with a long skirt and a dropped waist that wasn't too noticeable when I had a big apron on. We made it out of dark brown plaid brushed cotton, and it actually looked OK. I'm sure there were accurate 19th century dress patterns available at the time, but this was aeons before we had Internet access and we would have had no idea where to find any.

This isn't it, but it's very similar, ankle length, minus the waist tie, the tucks and ruffly trim stuff on the front, and with a Mandarin collar.

Anyway, the buttons are coming off, the speed-lacers on my boots have ripped the hem out a few times too many, and it shrank in the wash so the sleeves are too short. And it's still really, really, inaccurate.

I'm not quite up to totally accurate but I'm at least going to try to strike a balance between less-conspicuously-inaccurate and something that I can finish by November 11. I also don't want to buy any more fabric if I can help it. I have too much that needs to be used, and I don't want to spend the money. I've settled on McCall's M4548 (2004). I used to own this and made the chemise ages ago, but chucked the rest of the pattern.

Who needs a pattern for a half-apron, anyway? Especially an absurdly skimpy one like that.

Here is McCall's in-vivo shot:

Mine won't be electric blue plaid, and I can see that I'm going to have to do some test-fitting even if I weren't contemplating some alterations. For one, that embarrassing collar is gone. Sheesh. It makes her look like Olive Oyl's grandmother. And a Civil War era dress really should have a separate collar, anyway, basted on, so it could be changed when it got dirty. Attached collars on work dresses are one of my pet peeves even in modern clothing.

Here it is in real life.

I think the skirt probably needs to be more full but I doubt I'll be able to manage it with the fabric I plan to use, because I don't think I'll have enough. I love the tucks but I think I'll probably have to leave them out to make my yardage go far enough. We'll see.

The bodice is no great shakes but, if nothing else, I think I need to drop the shoulder seams more. I'm tempted to take the sleeves in a bit to make it easier to play the guitar, but, stylistically, I should probably leave them alone.

I'm using the lemon-lime pinstripe that Sheila gave me:

Except it's been overdyed green:

(That's 1 bottle Rit Teal, 1 box Rit Dark Green, and 1 box Rit Irish Green, FYI. It came out a really nice color.)

Hopefully, I'll be able to squeeze in a new slat bonnet, too.

Diamond 2: Pattern update 12 October

2011-10-12T14:32:00.002-05:00

Progress . . . in progress.

I'm putting together drawn diagrams of the skirt and pocket pieces, and written instructions both for scaling them up and for sewing the skirt itself. I figured out pretty quickly that this was a process far better illustrated than explained, so I did some scale drawings.

Diamond 2: Pattern update

2011-10-11T08:53:00.004-05:00

The promised pattern for the elastic-waist A-line skirt is in the works. I made the diagram last night and then used it to make myself a new pattern piece, both because I needed a new pattern piece and to make sure the diagram was correct. So far, so good.

Since this is a simple pattern and I don't have the technical capabilities to do full-size patterns, the "pattern" will be a scale drawing on graph paper, with instructions for sizing it up. Don't panic--it's not complex and there will be lots of explanation for those of you who, like me, haven't dealt with graph paper since 1998.

I got some fabric the other day so I can make a test skirt and pay attention more closely to the fabric-use and construction.

1950's Tuna Chow Mein

2011-10-11T08:36:00.003-05:00

Note: This has nothing to do with Chinese food.

This makes a very large recipe, so you might want to halve it and use the rest of the condensed soup for something else. It was apparently a popular convenience dinner in the 1950's but we ate it regularly when I was a kid in the 1980's; I think my mother got it from a neighbor when she was in graduate school in the early 1970's.

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1/2 to 1 can water
two large cans of tuna, drained well
1-2 cans of bean sprouts, drained
crispy chow mein noodles

optional: Omit 1 can of bean sprouts and add any or all of the following:
1 can water chestnuts, drained
1 can bamboo sprouts, drained
sliced celery
sliced and sautéed onion
1 can baby corn, drained
shredded or finely sliced cabbage or bok choy, lightly sautéed

Combine all your ingredients in a large frying pan or pot. Heat through, stirring to make sure the soup and water combine and everything doesn't stick.

Serve over a bed of chow mein noodles. Garnish, if you want, with chopped nuts.

I don't recommend serving this to guests unless they are very dear, open-minded, people. The finished recipe is basically gray slop with chunks, not unlike what you get when your garbage disposal backs up. I think it might also deserve some kind of Raspberry Award-type prize for the worst of the worst of canned-food anti-cuisine.

I love it anyway.

Aargh

2011-10-10T08:42:00.003-05:00

So, I've apparently come down with the first cold of the season. Yay. Not. I didn't get any sewing done because my whole head felt waterlogged and I didn't feel like doing much. I watched too many episodes of "America's Most Terrifying Places" or whatever that's called, instead.

On a better note: I had a $10 J.C. Penney rewards certificate, and then one of my model horse friends shared a 20% promotional code, so I got the Stablemate set and the unicorn for, well, a very good price. I don't want the whole SM set, either, and will probably sell some/most of them and get some of the purchase price back. I'm not entirely sure I'll keep the unicorn, but he is pretty spectacular. I don't have many unicorns. I need to start planning for names.

It rained all day yesterday and might rain a little more today. I hate to be greedy but I'll be pretty disappointed if we can't squeeze a little more out of those clouds.

New Patterns: 2011 October 6

2011-10-06T11:39:00.007-05:00

Update!

Advance 2302 (1939): $6 because it's tattered and missing the pointed collar. I can fix up a pointed collar, though, right? Totally worth it for that dress on the right, especially.

Two solid basics.

Butterick 4297 (1976-1977?): Awesome princess shirtdress. That's an attached tie belt. I'm not big on attached belts for two reasons: One is that they make it impossible to wear the dress with any other belts, and the other is that they increase the risk of the dress getting torn by the washing machine. Oh, and tie belts are a pain to iron, if I'm honest. So, three reasons. Plenty of reasons, at any rate.

I have this weird idea that, instead of the ties, I'll either leave off the belt entirely, or I'll do a floating waistband. That is, a shaped waistband based on the tie pattern, in the length that would normally go with this size dress, but attached only at the placket seams (as shown in the picture). So, the waistband would hold the dress in but would leave the sides and back free to move around underneath it.

I'm not even sure that explanation makes sense. I'll just have to try it. The worst that happens is that I end up with a weird dress, right?

That Seventies Skirt

2011-10-06T08:18:00.002-05:00

Finished!

I love this fabric, and I love the brown and yellow bias stripes. Very Seventies-looking, which was what I wanted. I tried white and blue but they looked too modern.

I've decided that I do think this is an easier pattern than the tube skirt, too. There is less waistband to sew and it uses less fabric (at my size, at least). It's also less bulky and more flattering. Diagram to come.

Diamond Patterns, and A-line skirt

2011-10-05T09:47:00.011-05:00

Listening: Red Stick Ramblers. These guys are freaking geniuses.

I'm hoping this is irritation from the dry weather and not, as I suspect it may be, an impending cold. I've felt like this for three days and it hasn't gotten better or worse, so I'll keep chugging tea and orange juice and taking vitamins and trying to get more sleep, and hope it works. I'm supposed to go to the Bayou City Art Festival this weekend and if I get sick, I'm going to be really annoyed.

I was hoping to talk Guy Friend into ropa vieja for dinner, too, and if I don't feel well enough for that, I'm going to be super, duper, double, triple, annoyed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I got through most of a quick sewing project last night. I thought I had thrown out the messy homemade newsprint pattern I used for my elastic-waist A-line skirt. I remember finding it and thinking I didn't need it any more since I had so many other, awesome-r, skirt patterns. I wasn't going to waste any more time on elastic-waist skirts, which are my girly equivalent of sweatpants.

Of course, I regretted it. Elastic-waist tube skirts are slightly easier (maybe. Actually, after last night, I'm not sure they are since you have to measure more and manage more fabric at once as you sew) but the A-line is more flattering and uses less fabric because the pockets can be cut from the triangles left alongside the skirt pieces. Doh!

The original pattern had a long and convoluted history. It started out as a commercial shift dress pattern that didn't really fit and got cut off at the waist to make a skirt. Then it got altered a little more to give the back more flare: The back was cut in two halves and the front was one, less-flared, piece. The waistband was cut in one with the skirt for awhile but it quickly became apparent that that was a ridiculous idea, and later waistbands were applied strips, like any sensible seamstress would do.

When I found the folder I discovered that--hooray!--I had been too lazy to peel all the tape off of the pattern so I could recycle it, but all I had was the back piece. I don't know where the pattern for the front half went. After mulling for awhile, I decided this was no big deal: I could just use the back for both halves.

I haven't actually measured it, but my guess is that it was just a long and impractical way to end up with a half-circle skirt. I'll provide a diagram and write out the procedure later. I'm a big fan of free online tutorials.

Meanwhile, I got out the blue roses calico last night and cut out two skirt halves, four in-seam pocket halves, and an outer waistband. The waistband lining was cut from scrap of another fabric; I think I don't recognize my own projects any more if they don't have a mismatched fabric somewhere. Having matching pockets is a bit of a splurge, but it can be done in this case because I could cut them from scrap instead of using up the last 1/3 yard of my skirt fabric. I love the fabric and would like to have some left over.

I got the side seams topstitched, the hem done, one of two rows of bias tape trim (brown; I'll do the maize yellow tonight) applied, and the waistband applied yesterday. I brought it with me to whipstitch the pocket edges today at lunch, and I'll do the yellow bias trim and waistband elastic tonight, hopefully. I want to wear it to the art festival this weekend, with brown boots and a denim jacket. Yeah. Provided I'm not holed up with chicken broth instead.

If it comes out like I think it will, I could easily add a big flounce along the bottom for a long prairie skirt.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Also, because I am the world's biggest sewing dork, I've decided to give myself a sewing pattern brand name. I'm not actually starting a pattern company, I'm just naming my own patterns. Ha, ha.

This started because I file my patterns alphabetically by brand, then by number. Where do you put your own patterns? "H" for "homemade"? "M" for "mine"? "S" for "self-drafted"? Granted, it's not like I have so many that I couldn't find them, but giving yourself a private brand name is one (admittedly totally overkill) way to solve the problem.

And it's fun.

So, mine are Diamond patterns. Partly because I often name stuff after my dog and partly because it sounds like something an early-twentieth-century pattern company would have called itself.

I assured Amber Jean I wasn't going to go as far as designing pattern packets or anything, but she was not very enthusiastic about discouraging me in that respect. It does suggest some nice logo options, doesn't it? Hmm . . .

New Patterns: 2011 October 3

2011-10-03T10:25:00.006-05:00

Butterick 4433 (1975-1976): I think those sleeve caps need to be noted down, but, otherwise, this is adorable. Although it's kind of an updated Good Housekeeping 25 (1940's).

DuBarry 2403 (1939): Cute housedress with novelty sleeves and lots of rick-rack potential!

Oh. My. God.

Prairie skirt Heaven.

McCall's 5248 (1976): See that tan skirt second from right? The skirt that I didn't even know I needed until it popped up on an eBay link this morning? The skirt without which my life can no longer be complete??

I give up. I'm not fighting the Seventies prairie yen any more. I just can't.

Now, I need some seriously tall boots.

New Pattern: 2011 September 28

2011-09-28T12:10:00.007-05:00

Listening: Steve Earle, Exit 0 (1987) I just got this and Justin Townes Earle's Yuma at Cactus Music. The girl at the counter said she was a JTE fan and thought he was a great songwriter . . . until she heard his dad. Yeah, no comparison. JTE is good but Steve is genius.

Checking in with a collection of oddball stuff.

My dad is home from overseas for two weeks, and my brother and sister-in-law were here last week, and Guy Friend and I have been making the rounds of museums and tourist sights, so I've been adding to the Flickr albums like a madwoman. Here's a quick run-down, with links.

LaPorte Texas Airplane and Auto Show

1928 Buick Speedster

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Longhorn Rod Run

1935 Hudson Terraplane

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Orange Show

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1940 Air Terminal Museum

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I need more fabric like a hole in the head, but I got this--the end of the bolt--cheaply. I don't normally do big mod prints but this told me it wanted to be made into a 1970's sundress. With red piping.

Right now, I'm thinking Simplicity 7580 (1976).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

One new pattern. Like I need another smocky thingy, right?

Butterick 2749 (1963?): One size. Yeah, right. I will definitely be doing some measuring, and I'll probably close up that bateau neckline a little since they never work on skinny shoulders. I might make the belt button in the back, or at the side, instead of tie.

I think I could wear this over a henley in the winter, too, for at-home.

New Patterns: 2011 September 21

2011-09-21T11:51:00.005-05:00

McCall's 4469 (1975): Totally impractical. I might use the new green calico for this. Or maybe the red calico I've had stashed forever.

I kind of like the long, off-white, one, but that would be even more impractical.

McCall's 1980 (1955): Bonnets. Amber Jean noted that wearing a sun bonnet with a bikini is sort of pointless. Like a cargo mini skirt. But whatever. I actually do need a slat bonnet for reenacting--I could make one without a pattern but I wanted the pattern for collector reasons, anyway.

The Mylar photo sleeves we use at work come with awesome cardboard backings that will make ideal bonnet-slats, if I can figure out how to cut them.

Butterick 3541 (1973?): Back-wrap smock. I don't really like back-wrap stuff but this cost me a whopping $3 and looked like a good starting point for something I'd like better. I may add bust and waist darts, because I suspect the fit will need them. The chick in that picture is seriously skinny, and I am not. Also, I have hips, and she does not.

Pictures from the weekend

2011-09-20T13:40:00.004-05:00

Listening: Justin Townes Earle, Yuma (2008). Ghost trains and self-serving hipster suicides.

Reading: R. Marie Griffith, Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity,
and Robert Cochran, Singing in Zion: Music and Song in the Life of an Arkansas Family.

The whole family is in town--Dad is back home from Nigeria for two weeks, and my brother and sister-in-law came down from Arkansas (you know you're officially a Gulf Coaster when you consider southern Arkansas to be kind of up north, and places like Tennessee to be practically New England)--so we did a lot of sightseeing this weekend.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll do the expedient thing and let Flickr do the talking.

1940 Air Terminal Museum: Website, Flickr.

Beer Can House: Website, Flickr. (Did not allow indoor photography, which is too bad because it has an awesome 1940's kitchen and nice original woodwork.)

Houston Fire Museum: Website, Flickr.

The Orange Show: Website, Flickr.

Simplicity 7885 (1977): Batik dress and zipper fail

2011-09-19T17:21:00.003-05:00

I'm totally squinting here, which is weird since it was raining. I guess that much concrete reflects a lot of light.

I love this. It definitely needs a camisole, though, because, despite the fact that I positioned the buttons as prescribed, the front wrap is below my bra line. Oh, those freewheelin' Seventies.

At Houston's Beer Can House, which seems to be an ideal location for alt-fashion photo shoots.

Blue [calico] Monday

2011-09-19T12:15:00.005-05:00

Oh. My. God.

It rained this weekend. It rained this morning! I have pictures of Mom splashing in puddles in the driveway to prove it.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

More fabric:

This 1970's-1980's sour green calico was for auction online with a Make Offer option.

I made an offer. Got rejected.

Made a higher offer. Got rejected.

Made a higher offer. Got rejected. Also got banned from making further offers. Three strikes and you're out. Come on, lady, sell it to me--very few people are going to want four yards of 1970's parsley-green grandma print, anyway. This is your chance to unload all of it at once.

Then it went on sale for less than my latter two offers and only a little more than my first offer.

Say what?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Cranston VIP print, red with colored, patterned, dots. Not a mind-blowing print but kind of sweet and not too crazy to wear to work. Will probably be McCall's 5954 (1978).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Brown/white/blue/mustard floral. Yes, those are blue and mustard roses. Hellooooo, 1975.

Will be a skirt.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I got fabric for the blue calico skirt, take III. I actually got a print and two boxes of dye at Hobby Lobby: Dark blue roses on a beige/tea-dyed background, and Rit Denim Blue and Royal Blue (with Navy Blue in the wings in case I decide I need more blue). The tea-dyed background spared me buying Rit Pearl Gray to dull the blue. I think I'm good with the color but might still re-dye with Navy for good measure.

I mean to do tucks in this one, which means I have to go back and get something for pockets. Or dye some scraps for pockets. It's going to be more of a two-and-a-quarter yard skirt.

Two-Yard Skirt, Part I

2011-09-13T13:44:00.009-05:00

I've been working on this project in little bits for a while. I've actually used it a number of times, but I've never sat down and drawn it out before. It's easy; it doesn't really need drawing out, but why figure it out each time when I could have Cliff Notes?

I'm in the middle of Simplicity 7885 and working on a deadline so I won't have pictures of an actual skirt being assembled for a while, but I can put up the basics right now. (It won't be long: I have fabric in line for one of these, and I'll probably do it next, I just have to finish 7885 before I take on even a really simple project.)

This is an easy, super-basic, yardage-thrifty, casual skirt. Frankly, it's a tube with elastic around the top (see? I told you it didn't really need a pattern). I prefer to make A-line skirts for the sake of appearance but this is even faster and it works well for prints in bold stripes.

What you need:

1) Two yards of fabric. I use quilting cotton for pretty much everything, but the type of fabric is your choice. Always pre-wash in hot water to get the sizing out and to make sure everything is shrunk before you sew it; you don't want your seams puckering in the laundry, and you don't want your skirt to end up a size too small.

A non-directional pattern is best. That means a solid color or a scattered all-over print. We will be cutting the skirt horizontally across the fabric, which means that a print that runs horizontally across the bolt from selvage to selvage (instead of vertically down the length of the bolt) will end up running vertically from waistline to hem, and print that runs vertically down the length of the bolt will end up running horizontally across the skirt. It's up to you; if you don't mind that, go for it.

I don't really think this will work well with heavy or stiff fabrics. Leave the corduroy and brocade for something more tailored.

2) Wide elastic. I like 1" no-roll elastic for heavy fabrics (it will say this on the package), even if I'm not using heavy fabrics. You need enough to go around your waist, minus an inch or so.

3) The obvious: Thread, sewing machine, iron, scissors, pens and/or tailor's chalk, any trim you wish to use. A rotary cutter and mat are nice but not necessary.

Limitations:

1) This is based on my measurements, which are 5'7" tall and with 39-inch hips. If you are considerably smaller, adjustment is easy: You'll just make the skirt shorter, and you can either make it more full or you can trim down the sides. If you're wider than I am, you may need more than two yards. If you're taller than I am, you may need extra yardage to make pockets because what would have been used for the pockets may be scavenged for extra length.

2) You can have a flounce/ruffles or you can have pockets, but you can't have both unless you buy extra fabric. Again, this isn't a crisis: You can skip the pockets (not an option for me), buy more than two yards, or make pockets from another fabric (something I do all the time with side-seam pockets, which don't show much).

3) This is a compromise between bulk and fullness. It's not as full as a classic dirndl skirt because it would be very bulky around the waist, but it's easier to make.

Getting started:

1) Choose your materials. Fabric, trims, elastic, etc. Collect your materials and decide on a design. (This one's entirely up to you.)

2) Choose your length. I like a longer skirt so I usually do 28 or 30 inches, which falls about four inches below my knees. I think 24 inches is popular with most young-ish women. The diagram is drawn for a 28-inch skirt.

3) Prepare your fabric. Pre-wash, iron, and straighten. Straighten the grain and trim the ends so that they're even and so you have clean, non-raveling fabric to sew. (The ex-veterinary assistant in me thinks of this as debridement, but I don't want to gross y'all out.) This will make your fabric slightly narrower but, unless it was extremely crooked and you had to cut off quite a lot, it will be OK.

We are assuming 42-44 inch fabric for this, since that is the standard width for most bolts.

4) Calculate your total length. This is the finished skirt length + the waistband fold-over + the hem allowance. For my example, that would be 28 inches + 2 inches for the waistband + 4 inches for the hem, which equals 34 inches. The waistband channel will end up wider than the elastic, which will make the elastic easier to feed and the bunching easier to distribute comfortably once the skirt is finished. Hem depth is sort of arbitrary; you can make it less.

Click on the diagrams, then right-click to save the images, if you want.

I've added a template for an in-seam pocket. You could also forage one from another pattern, or you could do patch pockets. I'm a big fan of patch pockets, myself, but if I don't quite have enough fabric to go around, side-seam ones can be made out of a different fabric and won't be too noticeable.

You can round the corners to make it look better.

More to come . . .

Egg pie recipe

2011-09-12T14:40:00.007-05:00

I think this is technically a frittata. We always called it a quiche but it has no crust and no milk or cream.

From my mom:

9 x 13 inch baking dish
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 to 2 1/2 pints egg substitute (2 to 2 1/2 small cartons; three might be pushing it unless you plan to bake this in two smaller pans)
8 ounces shredded cheese (we use a bag of Asiago or Italian blend, or some other strong-flavored cheese. Use a bit more if you're using more egg)
8 to 16 ounces chopped spinach (1/2 to 1 bag frozen, thawed and drained), French-cut green beans, shredded zucchini, chopped collards, whatever. Mom thought 16 ounces was too much but I like lots of green stuff in my egg pie.
1 onion, chopped

Optional:
Chopped ham, shrimp, other vegetables, mushrooms, bacon bits, crumbled sausage, green onion, cooked rice, crumbled leftover cornbread, seasonings, diced jalapeños, etc. to taste.

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix everything. Pour into lightly buttered or PAM-ed dish(es). Bake 45 minutes or until it's completely set.

Feeds a crowd and makes good leftovers. Good with salsa over it. I like to put it in a sandwich with tomato slices.

New Patterns: 2011 September 12

2011-09-12T10:47:00.004-05:00

Simplicity 7232 (1975): Gored skirt with pockets set into side-front panels. The pockets look backwards to me, but whatever. This still rocks.

Also comes with the T-shirt pattern, but I might send that to Amber Jean and her serger.

Vogue 8805 (1970's, circa 1975?): Day dress in two lengths with three sleeve variations. Shoulder yoke.

We all know where this is going: Blue chambray. Worn with boots.

Simplicity 7885 (1977): Batik dress, and zipper fail!

2011-09-12T09:48:00.007-05:00

I made quite a bit of progress on 7885 this weekend. I don't have pictures up yet but I will. The skirt is together except for the waistband, hem, and seam finishing, and the bodice is awaiting sleeves, the waistband lining, and buttons and loops.

I'm making the version on the right.

Out of this:

This is a genuine, honest-to-goodness, hand-painted batik, straight from Indonesia. The birds are about eight inches tall; it's a very large print.

I had originally planned to use black for the waistband and facings but when I went back to look at the fabric, it was a lot more black and a lot less burgundy than I'd remembered. I decided to go with burgundy instead, even though I didn't have a clear mental image of it. Now that I've gotten some bits sewn together, I'm really glad I picked burgundy. Black would have disappeared into the body fabric and all the detail would have been swallowed up.

In general, I've behaved myself--ironing, basting, measuring, cutting triangle markers, interfacing what should be interfaced--but I still managed to make a mistake of history-book-worthy proportions. I decided to make two changes:

1) Add side-seam pockets
2) Cut the front and back skirt on the crease instead of in two pieces each, to preserve more of the fabric print.

This all sounds like good planning except that, since I've now occupied two seams (the side seams) and eliminated two more (the front and back center seams), I should be wondering . . . where the heck do I think I'm going to put the zipper?

Yeah. Zipper fail. Big time.

There wasn't enough fabric to re-cut, and I've only ever done one placket in my life, with mediocre results. After some silent cursing and a lot of mulling, I settled on a solution that was acceptable only because I was sewing a black zipper into a mostly-black skirt, where it wouldn't show very much, and because said skirt would be worn with a top that had a peplum, which would literally cover my butt.

(I'll have pictures of this later.)

I drew a zipper-length line down the center back of the skirt from the waistline. Then I measured and drew parallel lines 1/4-inch on either side, with a triangle at the bottom. I pinned the skirt to the ironing board cover to hold it in place, then carefully cut down the center line and the sides of the triangle to open the slit. I folded the side "flaps" and the triangle at the bottom of the slit under and ironed them into place.

Then, I slipped a flat ruler under the slit for support, and slid the zipper into position in the middle of the now-open slit. I basted the zipper in, then topstitched the edges of the slit to the zipper tapes.

The results, I'm sorry to say, were far easier to obtain and are far more tidy than any properly-installed zipper I've ever attempted, but the zipper teeth, of course, are completely exposed on the outside of the skirt. Highly functional but not very classy.

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My mystery fabric arrived. The seller advertised this as 2 1/3 yards of 60-inch cotton fabric. Sixty-inch fabric is usually, in my experience, either muslin for quilt backing (in plain white) or upholstery or awning fabric (in heavy weight and not 100% cotton). But I liked the blue stripes so I emailed, anyway. It never hurt to ask, right?

The reply described it as "shirt weight", and the seller didn't sound totally clueless, so I crossed my fingers and bought it now.

First of all, it arrived in, like, record time. Second, it's a totally awesome piece of cloth. French blue/soft navy blue stripes, yarn-dyed (not printed), in a sturdy chambray-type cloth. Fabric Heaven. It has a little too much body for my soft 1930's dresses but, if I can squeeze all the pattern pieces on there, would make an awesome 1940's shirt dress or housedress.

Coming back to work to get some rest

2011-09-08T09:14:00.002-05:00

Yesterday stunk.

OK, it could have been worse, but it still wasn't fun.

Mom's tummy bug has been fading in and out for the past week, and she finally called me early yesterday morning and asked me to come get her so she could go to the doctor's and then to the emergency room for IV fluids (per the doctor's suggestion). This part was fine--I've been bugging her to go to the doctor since last week.

They sent her home on the same gastrointestinal antibiotic that my dog gets when she eats squirrels.

The icing on the cake was that my car battery went out. It's actually a good thing that Mom wanted me to come home because otherwise, I would have been stranded at work instead of stranded in her driveway. We left my car there, dead, and drove hers. She paid me back by calling her neighbor and getting him to change out batteries for me. This is one of those things that I kind of know how to do, but since I only have to do it every four years or so, I lose my nerve.

New Patterns: 2011 September 6

2011-09-06T11:24:00.009-05:00

Simplicity 7400 (1976): Love that skirt on the left!

Simplicity 8305 (1977): I've decided to stop fighting my prairie demons and wear skirts, calico, and boots without shame. This one's a classic peasant blouse and tiered skirt. I guess I don't really need a pattern for either of these, but whatever. I'm totally making that blouse, too. Out of muslin.

Vogue 7949 (1970's, circa 1973?): Loose dress with flared skirt and back zip, to be worn with a belt or sash.

Stuff

2011-09-06T09:50:00.005-05:00

There isn't much going on here.

Armadillo Day was fun. Guy Friend and I had a nice dinner (gigantic burger for him, bowl of venison chili for me, and we split pieces of pecan and chocolate cream pie. Which was too much pie, overall, but what a way to go!) and had a good time talking to people we didn't actually know. The pecan pie was awesome, but the chocolate pie was sort of pasty and weak, so now I feel like I have to learn to make kick-butt chocolate pie.

Saturday, we went on a mini road-trip to Liendo Plantation, and then went cruising for historical markers around Waller County (before the wildfires struck, luckily) and in Rose Hill.

Mom was a bit punk again on Sunday and Monday so I ran a couple of errands and then stayed in and sewed. I'm not thrilled about the resulting skirt and it will probably go into the Goodwill box, but it's one more project down, for better or for worse. Mom called this morning to say she felt a lot better, and she has a doctor's appointment this morning, anyway; she promised to ask about her gut bug.

By Monday night, though, she was up and sorting through sewing stuff and paperwork and things, which meant she felt better.

I really want a blue skirt. Just a basic A-line or tube skirt in French blue calico with tucks. The one I made this weekend should have been that but, stupidly, I cut down the yardage to make pockets and a waistband lining for the other blue calico skirt, McCall's 5948 (also Goodwilled). So the whole thing didn't work. Whatever. I'm past being annoyed by it. At least I used up some stash, too.

I want a print sort of like these:

Slate-ish blue, not too dark, subtle print. Yeah.

Dear New York Times: Seriously?

2011-08-31T14:18:00.004-05:00

Let me start this out by saying that I love the Homesick Texan blog.

I have two copies of her cookbook on order at Amazon (one for myself and one for my brother, who is a slightly less homesick Texan now that he's been able to move from Illinois to southern Arkansas and is now within an hour's drive of a Whataburger). Her recipes make me wish desperately that I had more time to cook and more people to feed.

So, I don't blame her for this.

But . . . seriously?

Would it be possible for you, New York Times, to write an article about a southern state without being condescending? (Do you even realize that you're being condescending? I kind of think you don't even see that you're doing this . . . but you are.) Don't get me started on the article they published about the decline of the Louisiana fishing industry, which basically panned it as an outdated way of life and a small loss . . . after publishing no fewer than three articles bewailing the decline of the Tavern on the Green restaurant. No hypocrisy there, right? What's an entire culture compared to a single past-its-prime New York hash-house?

". . . this Texan belle had enough steel in her spine to leave behind cowboy hats, pickup trucks and country music to become a card-carrying member of the Museum of Modern Art and sleep with earplugs in a second-story bedroom facing Seventh Avenue."

Hmm. No stereotypes in that. No, sir-ree. Everyone knows that it's completely true that all Texans wear giant hats, drive trucks, and can't spell the word "museum", never mind have any inclination to visit them.

I guess this tack sells well to upper-class East Coast readers, but the Times should be more careful. It does have readers down here, and many of us really like Texas. Personally, I think it would take far more steel for a privileged New Yorker to come down here and learn that one can be intelligent, well-read, and interesting without being pretentious.

The Houston Museum of Fine Arts issues "cards", too. Houston is also a major shipping port; the seat of the American oil industry, which I understand might not endear it to New Yorkers; and the home of some of the largest and most sophisticated medical facilities in the world. We have an opera, theaters, "ethnic" neighborhoods, better and better restaurants, and more festivals and indie art than I'll ever have time to appreciate as much as I'd like. (Not having any winter allows us to host many more festivals per year than cold northern states.)

Furthermore, we can do it without New York's astronomical cost of living and vicious competition for classroom slots, parking places, and living space. I can always visit New York but at least I can afford to live in Houston.

I'm not seriously bothered. To be seriously bothered would imply that I took this dig more personally than it deserves, and that maybe I'm insecure about how I stack up, hipness-wise, to the Big Apple. I'm not. I just find it slightly annoying and more than a little pathetic. Ironically, New York, your cultural blindness is showing.

Oh, and there should be a comma after "pickup trucks". If you're going to look down your noses at us, at least get your basic punctuation right.

Disruption

2011-08-31T09:11:00.004-05:00

I was at work for all of an hour and a half yesterday when my mother called to tell me that she'd woken up with a raging GI bug. She hemmed and hawed about my coming to keep an eye on her, but the fact that she called at all 1) meant she really did want me to come and 2) meant that I pretty much had to come or I'd spend the whole day worrying about her and not get anything done, anyway. She has some other health issues that make it particularly dangerous for her to become dehydrated and/or hypoglycemic, and she takes some medications that she cannot skip (i.e. that must be replaced with injections in the event she's too nauseated to take pills).

She was finally able to sleep and slept most of the afternoon. I checked in every 20 minutes or so, brought her water, and made a run to Sonic for a bag of their awesome pelleted ice. And washed my hands. A lot. Because I definitely do not want whatever it is that she has--I don't think she was this sick even when she drank that water in Rome and ended up in the hospital for two days.

She was grouchy this morning but no longer had that dropped-from-the-tenth-floor-and-run-over-by-a-bus look, so I left her with a big mug of pelleted ice and water, and made a second attempt at starting the work week. So far, so good--no phone calls.

On the other hand, I got all the laundry done yesterday (not folded, but washed and dried) and culled a ton of stuff for Goodwill and eBay. My archive job measures things in linear feet, and it's starting to spill over into my personal life: I culled a total of about six and a half linear feet of stuff for charity. Eight if you count the things I'm going to try selling on eBay before I give them away. Ha ha!

Armadillo Day

2011-08-29T09:23:00.004-05:00

Houston hit record high temperatures of 109 degrees this weekend. I know that the Arizonans and southern Californians out there don't think that that's a very big deal, but it's kind of a big deal here. We're usually only moderately hot, but it's the humidity that kills us.

At least, it's the humidity that would kill us, except that we're in the middle of a very dire drought. I'm not kidding--the entire U.S. is getting rain except for Texas. It's so dry it's not even humid. I can jog in the evenings without drowning, and temperatures are going into the high 70's overnight. That doesn't happen even when it's not 100+ degrees--we're usually more like 85 at 3:00 in the morning.

A group of my eccentric/fun-loving friends has declared this coming Friday to be Armadillo Day. We don't care about six more weeks of winter so we've decided that when "Roadkill Bill" comes out from under Karen's neighbor's porch and sees his shadow, it means six more weeks of summer.

Of course, we'd have six more weeks of summer, anyway, but why pass up an opportunity to declare something a holiday, especially if it's a holiday that sounds like it could involve margaritas and barbecue?

Sewing area rehab

2011-08-25T10:09:00.002-05:00

There won't be any sewing for a little while as we're in the process of rearranging the sewing area. I spent two hours last night vacuuming.

I hate vacuuming. If I ever own my own house, the first thing I'm doing is tearing out all the carpet. I'd rather have concrete and varnished plywood than carpet at this point--what a disgusting, unhygienic, impossible-to-keep-clean, idea.

I also hate bagless vacuums. Yeah, there's no bag, but you still have to dump the canister--which means that all that dirt is no longer contained--and deal with the filter. Worse, mine doesn't have a retractable cord. What moron designs a vacuum cleaner whose cord doesn't retract?

Prairie Style 1978

2011-08-22T10:58:00.008-05:00

I'm going to kill a whole flock of prairie-styled birds with one stone here. Follow the links to see the full project sets; there's too much to post here.

First up . . . Butterick 6038 (1978-1979):

The pattern packet said "Fast & Easy", and it was, even with my seam-finishing obsession. It has no fasteners and no darts or other complexities. I'm getting used to the fit. If I make it again, I'll trim down the remarkably-tall sleeve caps to both eliminate some of the necessary gathering and to tweak the fit, which seems slightly off in a my-sleeve-caps-are-too-tall kind of way.

I wasn't sure about the shape, which is boxy, and the waist ties, which suggest maternity clothes even though they're not really in the right place to be maternity-anything. It felt better the second time I wore it, though, so maybe I just need to learn to be less picky about fit.

The fabric is Kona cotton, which is a little stiff but opaque enough to make a respectable white blouse. The color is "Snow" which, oddly, is off-white. It's about the color of unbleached muslin, minus the brown flecks; I wanted muslin but couldn't find any that wasn't pretty see-through. I'd kind of like to try it in homespun, too. Maybe in brown plaid with button waist tabs.

Here it is with the improvised brown dirndl skirt.

I'm from Texas. I can wear boots with everything. If it's not in the state Constitution, it should be.

Also, that is not my house. Unfortunately.

Here's 6038 again with McCall's 5948 (1978):

5948 is Seventies prairie fashion, no holds barred. I look a bit like a B-movie Navajo here, I'm afraid. That was unintentional, I promise. I'll remember that in the future and maybe not wear them together too often.

New Patterns: 2011 August 18

2011-08-18T15:30:00.004-05:00

McCall's 4472 (1975).

It's not pajamas. I swear!

Butterick 6038 (1978-1979)

2011-08-18T12:51:00.013-05:00

I thought I'd started a series of project postings about this, but--lo and behold!--I had not.

One of the drawbacks of wearing so many dresses is that I'm starting to realize that I'm deficient in wardrobe staples. I have black twill for a new skirt, and I'd like to have a brown corduroy on in the not-too-distant future.

I also have no blouses.

Well, I have blouses, but they're all too specific. I have a drawer-full of turtlenecks and henleys for work and winter, respectively. I have a collection of outrageous embroidered Western shirts that can do any Texan proud. I lack basics. I have one white blouse and it was old when I got it at the secondhand store, ten years ago, when I was in college (it's also at least a size too big. Probably two sizes). I have a blue calico skirt almost ready to cut and nothing to wear with it.

I got this awhile ago and was/am waffling over whether or not to keep it. I guess the acid test is how it looks on me, right? I'm pretty skeptical of the boxy shape, and the only white cotton I could get that was opaque enough was Kona, which is sort of stiff. Maybe with a lot of washing . . .

Butterick 6038 (1978-1979): I'm making the short-sleeved version on the left, with the side ties. The drawstring waist is too Seventies even for me.

It's not your eyes--the pattern packet is misprinted.

I added 3/4 inch to each quarter at the hip. I can always take it out again if it's too belled.

I wasn't supposed to topstitch the neck facing on this version, but whatever. I didn't interface because of the stiff fabric, and I hate loose facings, so topstitching was definitely in order.

So far:

My obsessive seam-finishing. This is a sort of faux-faux-French seam: The seam allowances are turned inward toward each other and whipstitched.

Close-up:

I'm basting the collar on today at lunch.

New Patterns: 2011 August 17

2011-08-17T13:56:00.005-05:00

Vogue 9724 (1970's - 1980's): I love the inset midriff and buttoned back belt on this. It also has kimono sleeves and great topstitch opportunities. Should be a great office dress.

McCall's 4750 (1975): A 1970's take on the 1930's--the shaping of this is remarkably similar to DuBarry 1952B (1937). I love both the long and short versions, the easy shape, the cap sleeves . . . the whole thing.