Sailor Pin Up Girl

Here we have the second item of clothing I made in a mad dash with a crazy sore shoulder.  The event was a pub nite fundraiser for my roller derby team, The Haney Hooligans.  Originally, 'pin up' was the theme for one of our fun nites that we have.  But derby girls love to dress up and show off so they decided to make it a fund raiser nite at a local pub.  I'm not such a show off as far as dressing up is concerned, I prefer to let my athletic talent do the talking, but pin up is something I can get onboard with because of it's links to vintage. 


When I think pin up, my mind automatically goes to sailor pin up.  So I concocted an idea to fashion myself a pair of high waisted (short inseamed!) red shorts & a sailor top.  This idea had to take a backseat to my athletic banquet dress so I was unsure if it was even going to come into existence.  


I started with the shorts and these took me a shocking amount of time due to my sore shoulder.  I basically had a grand total of 3 hours to trace my top pattern, make the alterations and sew it up.  


The pattern I used was my (and several hundreds I am sure) tried and true knit pattern

Jalie 2921 - Scarf-Collar Top

I've lost a good 25 lbs since the last time I made this pattern so I had to retrace a new size.  My shoulder was not happy.  Also, because I wanted it to be more pin-up and less modern I modified the collar to be a continuous collar *and also made it half the pattern width*, added a little band to the center front of the collar and then tied a little, shaped tube of fabric on that band.  

Also, I cut the short sleeve significantly smaller.  I didn't have time to hem the sleeves and I didn't hem the bottom on purpose.  I wanted a smooth line when I tucked in my shirt and not hemming made this possible. 

After a good wash (hello sweat) I'll hem the sleeves.

Quite possibly the horizontal stripes make my already broad shoulders & upper back look even broader.  I don't really care.  I'm strong and a good hitter and shover and it's my upper body strength that makes me so.  

Here is a photo of the little scarf band, an open ended tube, from the outside:

And the inside so you can see how I attached it.

Here is the shape of the sailor tie (fresh out of the wash and un-ironed):

I really like this version of the Jalie scarf top.  Today, I'll hem the sleeves.  The fabric I used is a modal/spandex knit purchased from Highendfabrics on Ebay.  It is pretty light weight but has a soft hand and snappy recovery.  There was minimal rolling which is quite amazing considering how thin it was.  

Next time, my red linen/rayon/lycra blend sailor shorts (which were too short!).

Busy Bee & Shoulder Injury

Well, Sunday (and I only managed to post this Monday!) has arrived and as you can tell, no photos, no post.  On the surface, it would appear that I have been a good for nothing, sewing, photographing, blogging slacker, but my silence is deceiving. If you've judged me thusly, then you have miss judged and you should be ashamed of yourself!  (Do you see how I did that?  I made YOU feel bad about MY lack of posts?  I am a ninja.)  In reality, I have sewn 3, YES 3! items of clothing, 2 of which are pretty much self drafted and one that is altered from a pattern.


All three of these items were hard core, under pressure, sewing into the time that the event has started.  Shame on me.  In the end, things mostly worked out.  Oh ya, and I should mention, last Saturday (not yesterday but one week ago) I separated my shoulder in my first ever, bonified derby bout.  I knew I had done it but I kept playing.  However, now I am paying and a lot of my pattern drafting & sewing occurred with a very sore right shoulder.  Not something I recommend.  Anyways, on to the pretty!


Today, I'll feature my athletic banquet dress.  To remind, this was the plan:

My intention was to make the skirt shape more pencil and less 'narrow A'

I used a beautiful navy with cream polka dot stretch cotton from Dressew that I've been stashing for probably 2 years.  

It featured a Cup selector, princess seam bodice AMAZING fit.  I've been jonzing for an amazingly fitted princess seam bodice sloper so I took this very rushed opportunity to make one...because... you know....there is nothing like rushed sewing to try out something you've had little success with in the past!


True to form, I had little success.  The bust curve was up in my upper chest region:

What you don't see is the 3" panel I added at the shoulder seam (which in effect lowered it about 1.5") to LOWER this bust curve to this point!!!!!

Angry and desperate I set about drafting my own dress.  A simple bateau neck bodice with an attached (at the true waist) pencil skirt with a back zip.  Don't even ask which pattern I used because, unbelievably I didn't own a simple sheath dress pattern!

Regardless, here are the results.  I was 20 mins late for the banquet but only missed the pre-amble.  I machine stitched the hem which I am not happy with and will redo but other than that, I really like how it turned out. 

The red belt is at the waist seam.  I used cream piping around the neck and arm holes.

(here I was giving my husband sass because he scoffed at me for telling him to make sure I looked skinny!)

Here I managed to line up the bodice & skirt darts, quite by accident I assure you!

Wiggle shaped pencil skirt.

Stretch cotton is a girl's wiggle dress' best friend.  Comfortable and cool all night long.  I wore it for Father's day as well.  Hubby said I looked classy and I was pleased with that feedback.  More tomorrow about my 'pin up' outfit for my roller derby team's pub nite fundraiser.  

I Made a Dress and I Like it!

I made a dress. I like this dress a lot.  I wore this dress out to the athletic banquet.  The same banquet that I had planned to make a dress for last year's banquet, but it was cancelled last minute.  


The plan was this lovely Simplicity 1882 pattern:

Well, the top part any ways.  Eliminate the waist band, and make the skirt more pencil shaped.  

I had great success with my previous Simplicity endeavors so I decided to skip the muslin stage.  They promised me an AMAZING FIT and I believed them.  I measured carefully, tissue fit gingerly and proceeded to cut into my fashion fabric.

To say the bodice was an epic fail would be a bit of an understatement.  Apparently, Simplicity thinks my boobs should be in line with the front of my shoulders.  This is the second princess seam fail in a row.  I know this style can be flattering and I think I need to take the time to draft a princess seam sloper.  

In the next few days photos of the failed bodice and photos of the very different but lovely completed dress.  Does a dress count if I failed to blog about my intention to even make it?

Hubby wants me to wear it to church for Father's Day.  Chance of photos is good!

Simplicity 6844 - 70's Does 40's Front Wrap Housedress

Well...she's done.  She's been worn two days in a row.  And...voila!

Here is the pattern I used:

I have to say I like her more than I thought I would.  She's very very comfy and that fact alone pretty much guarantees her a spot in my limited wardrobe rotation.  I made her out of an old Ikea duvet cover that I purchased before I was married.  My husband has never been to keen on it for fairly obvious reasons, so into my muslin stash it went.  


In my previous post I pondered fit.  I am sort of picky about fit.  I figure if I am making something, I may as well take the time to make fit right.  Unfortunately, I started this dress WAY BACK in November of 2011 (note to self, start and FINISH things in a more timely fashion).  I hadn't yet started roller derby so I was a little heavier and less toned.  Roller derby made a few of my pattern alterations and choices inappropriate or obsolete.  


Overall the pattern was pretty good but here are the changes I made:

1) Lowered the bust point and made the bust slightly bigger (by about 1/2").  As you can see, now, with further weight loss, this was unnecessary and now, in fact, while I still needed to lower the bust point, I didn't need to make it larger!

2)  Made the collar smaller.  I feel this took the dress more into the 40's.  

3)  Lowered the underarm seam.  I didn't reshape the armscye correctly.  It still pulls, differently, but it pulls.  

4)  I took a 3/4" wedge off of the lower back bodice (a sway back alteration).  Nice and sleek if you ask me.

5)  Once again, the un-hemmed length was the finish length I wanted but this time, instead of adding a hem facing, I just did a simple narrow hem.  I prefer a vintage length.

6)  No longer tight across the upper back.

7)  Added sleeve cuffs with a cute button.

8)  Added a cute vintage pocket with a matching button.  This won't fit a new born baby (waaaaa) but it is substantially more useful and cute that the original pattern pockets.

9)  Before I even started this pattern I knew I would change the closure.  The inside waistband has a waist stay with fabric loops (making it adjustable) and a swimsuit hook.  On my other housedress I used a grosgrain ribbon waist stay.  On this one I used cotton stay tape.  DON"T do it!  It's no where near as strong or stable.  My hook is constantly coming undone.  I need to sew a smaller loop. Then I used a button and buttonhole on the overlap.  I can move the button as needed.  But that brings me to fit...

I really struggled with where I would place the closures (how tight/loose would I make it).  Then I realized I was limited to the adjustability of the wrap because the princess seams must lay at least somewhere near my chest!  I did overlap more than I should have but it still is looser than I would like.  This is evidenced by the diagonal pull lines from chest to waist.  My princess seams are trying to settle where they belong on my breasts while the waist is being pulled tighter.  

Some last thoughts: 

I like princess seams, but they aren't the best for changing sizes.

With this dress, I have discovered that a front wrap housedress is not my favourite style.  I far prefer the back wrap.  So with this muslin, I will retire this pattern.  

Last fall I purchased these cute flats off of Ebay.  They don't match perfectly but boy are they sure cute!

The ideal Fit.

Let's talk fit for a minute.  Or, rather, let me talk fit for a minute.  


Honestly, I struggle with the idea of how much to 'fit' clothing I am sewing.  Personally, I sew things for myself on the looser side rather than perfectly fitted or tight.  It doesn't help that I've been slowly and unintentionally loosing weight.  Resulting in my barely fitted clothing becoming too large.  My Simplicity 3688 pants come to mind.  

They were already a bit big when I posted them but now...they fall down below my belly button resulting in the most attractive 'crotch at the knee look'.


In fact, the only thing that I have sewn that still 'fits' me well is this skirt:

(found here) and that's only because I insisted on doing a true vintage fit at the waist (high & tight).  Now it sits comfortably at my belly button.

On the other hand, there are many females out there who post their beautiful creations on sites like BurdaStyle who comment on how they got the fit perfect.  But ... I don't see perfect ... I see too tight; strain lines around the waist and bust.  My first thought is, how is that even comfortable, don't they sweat like crazy AND how do they move?  Clearly these girls/women don't need to do anything while wearing their pretty frocks.  (NOT judging these people by the way,  not at all, merely making observations.)  


A while back, Gertie publicly pronounced her tendency to 'over fit' (her words, not mine).  I see the attraction to this.  I know my dresses look and photograph better when the waist is pulled tight and the bust is accented.  But, as much as I like to look good, for me, in the end, how I feel in the dress trumps the look.


So, why am I bringing this up?  Well, at some point this weekend I am going to sit down and determine the button placement of my vintage Simplicity 6844 70's front wrap dress. 

I mean, it's a house dress, so it has to be looser, right?  


So now I am FINALLY going to get to the POINT of the POST.  Just lookie lookie what I saw on Vixen Vintage's blog the other day.  

(find the post here)

These dresses are from the 50's!  The 50's I tell you.  They look perfectly suited to a warm summer day and they are flattering but not tiiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhhhtttttttt. I have to admit, I was both excited and relieved to see these photos.  Proof, that the fit I am trying to achieve is both possible, functional AND attractive.  

Hacked & Heyday Giveaway

So,  my gmail account was hacked.  I apologize if anyone got an email from 'me' that wasn't personal.  Also, my blog went down for a spell.  Millions upon millins of people must have been devastated (haw haw).  Things should be back to normal now.


In other news, in my quest for the perfect housedress I have often looked at, and lusted after The Fleur wrap dress in red, white & blue.  Now I see that In the Heyday is having a giveaway for a whole lot of Heyday cash!  I've already entered once, and with this post, now twice!  I don't normally do posts like these but I really really want one of those wrap dresses!

The Sleeve Difference

So I have to admit I'm not as enamored with my 70's does 40's front wrap housedress as I thought I would be.  In fact, I've been struggling to get motivated to finish it.  But I have a rule, if I've cut out all the pieces, I have to finish it before I can start something else.  So I decided that I would draft some cute sleeve cuffs and borrow a pocket pattern from a new pattern I bought. 


A while ago I commented on Steph's blog 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World that I would buy a vintage pattern entirely composed of cute pocket options.  Not the pansy hidden kind ;),  but the in your face, I could carry my newborn baby in this sucker kind.  


Since this photo I have removed fabric from the center back bodice, in essence, doing a sway back adjustment and have added cuffs.  

Here is the before:

Meh

And now here is the bodice with the cuffs:

Kind of a big difference.  Well at least to me it is.  I really am starting to like it now.  The feminine colours aren't really me and it is still too tight across the upper back.  But I like it enough to wear it around the house and perhaps even to the park.  I have the pocket cut out and ready to assemble.   I think I'll like it even more then.

My none of my (3) sewing machines have a free arm and, while I'm cool with that, I got a little inspiration from Judy's (Sewblessedmaw) post and pulled out my kid's Janome Hello Kitty machine that does have a free arm and sewed the cuffs on that way.

Isn't this pretty?

This is only my second wrap housedress and I am using the same modification I made to the first one.  I installed a waist stay with an adjustable hook for the inside wrap and I'll use a button and buttonhole for the outside closure.  I like this method because I can move the button as my waist size changes.  I like a nice smooth closure so that the aprons I have yet to make, that I'll be wearing over these things, will lay smoother.  

In derby news: I passed my written rules test last night.  I am now cleared for competitions!  If I could only pick a name!!!!! I'd be all set to go.

Oh ya and look what derby is doing do my body.  My husband snapped this in bed as I stretched this morning.

Enjoy the gun show?

Ya, I'm bragging a bit.