Butterick 6333 - A Sewing Fail

Before I discuss this sewing fail, let me announce the winner of Barbara's book, 
"SEW The Garment-Making Book of Knowledge: Real-Life Lessons from a Serial Sewist."  I used the Random Generator entering 119 entries...

...and the winner is:

TONI WADE!

Please forward your email address to me (my email addy is cnorman underscore 98 at yahoo dot com) BY THURSDAY, JUNE 14th and I will forward it to Barbara who will mail you the book! Congratulations!

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

After making shirts during the first quarter of the year, I really want to keep using those sewing skills.  I have loads of shirtdress patterns in my pattern stash and after going through them I chose Butterick 6333 as one of my Sewcation makes.

Honestly, after making this dress I've decided that I don't like waisted shirtdresses. I have my own personal issues with my protruding backside and these type of shirtdresses just emphasize it and my abundant abdomen. So the sewing fail is due to style and not the pattern or fabric choice!

However, since I'm in a new phase of my life, I wanted to add a straight and a full skirted shirtdress to my wardrobe.  I thought if I could succeed in getting a full skirted version to work, it would allow me to play with fabrics, specifically border print fabrics that require a seam.

I like my Lenox version by Cashmerette Patterns and it is a full skirt shirtdress. However, I wanted to try the typical buttoned up neckline of a more traditional shirtdress without the waistband. 

Well after sewing this one up, I won't be making more of these AT ALL. This dress has confirmed my dislike of waisted dresses. I was so disappointed in this dress that I took an hour and found almost all of the patterns I'd purchased with that type of waistline and put them in the pile of patterns I'm donating to the Baltimore DeStash.

When I sewed for my corporate life, I would've never sewn this type of dress. I don't know why I thought by changing jobs this style would work now, cause it doesn't. I'm sure some of you will be tempted to write about how great it looks...and it did photograph well. I'm just not comfortable in the dress because it emphasizes my backside AND that's what's most important. So please don't tell me to keep or make it up in another fabric because I'm so over this pattern/style.

Also I wanted to show that not everything I make works and to tell you that this dress almost blew up my sewcation.  It was my second make and neither this nor the first one blew me away...so I started to doubt myself. Yeah it got that serious up in here. *LOL* But it was the beginning of my sewcation and I couldn't walk away from my sewing machine...if I did I might as well go back to work...so I sucked it up and kept sewing.

After making a few more pieces and getting to a sewing zen state, I came up with an idea on how to repurpose this dress. Hopefully, before the summer is over, I will have repurposed it and will share that here too.

One administrative note ~
For those who have had issues with leaving comments lately the note below was on top of my dashboard last weekend, "Blogger no longer supports OpenID. Existing OpenID comments and your OpenID settings may have changed." So if that's how you left comments, I'm sorry you will be unable to do so now. I have no control over this since I use blogger as my blogging platform and they are making the change.

Next up on the blog is my version of the Montrose Top.

...as always more later!

Little Girl Dresses from Hobby Lobby Fabric

Even though Hobby Lobby is about 20 mins from me, I rarely go to the store. Working in the middle of the Garment District in NYC and online pattern sales allow me to purchase what I need without going to the brick 'n mortar stores.   

Last weekend I was out with my Mom, Daughter and the grandbabies for some birthday/late Mother's Day shopping and we found ourselves on that side of town. So we made a trip to the store. Of course I made a beeline to the fabric section, while everyone else checked out the other merchandise. And of course I found fabric to buy...

I also found elasticized yardage that I thought would make excellent dresses for the girls in pink and blue cotton with embroidered edges. 

Because Saturday was "Picture Day" for all of my Sewcation makes, I sewed the dresses up so the girls could have their pictures taken too.

The Supply List ~
1. One yard of the elasticized cotton embroidered lawn
2. Floral Organza Trim appliques purchased from the notions stash by way of Pacific Trimmings
3. 1 - 1" gold snap from M&J Trims

Construction ~
A simple seam up the back finished the body of the dress. I pinned the fabric onto the girls with the wrong side out. Then stitched it closed. I had to go in again and take deeper seams on both girls to make sure it was tight in the bodice.

With the leftover fabric, I cut straps for both girls.  I had enough to make Samantha single straps that met near the center back. For her straps, I folded the edges over and stitched down, then stitched them to the dress front and back.

For Aleena I had to make a halter strap with a snap closure because the remaining fabric wasn't long enough to make straps for her.

To finish the strap on Aleena's dress, I didn't want to fold over the edges and lose length, so I stitched a piece of white organza ribbon onto the edge to finish and strengthen the fabric for the snap. The snap was then stitched onto the straps. The weight of the snap actually worked as a stabilizer and helped hold the dress onto Aleena better.

The organza floral ribbon applique was stitched to the center of each dress to give them a little something extra and each dress was done since I didn't need to hem them.

Pictures of the girls in the dresses ~

Aleena's Pink Dress ~

Samantha's Dress ~

...and the thrill was gone...

Conclusion ~
I bought 10 yards of fabric (5 pieces) from Hobby Lobby because most of the things I liked were 50% off. At least these 2 pieces are no longer on my cutting table but headed home with the girls. 

Hopefully you can see from the pics that they really liked their dresses! Since it will be hot this week (temps in the 80s), these dresses will get worn to school. They were happy. My daughter was happy and so was I!

p.s. ~ 
Both girls and their little brother were here, so of course he had to get in on the picture taking!

...as always more later!

Sew the Garment Making Book by Barbara Emodi

I've known that Barbara was writing a sewing book almost since she decided to write it. Occasionally she's posted a pic to Instagram showing what she was sewing for the book which was released on May 7th.

Of course I ordered it as soon as possible and received it a couple of weeks ago. The name of the book is, "SEW The Garment-Making Book of Knowledge: Real-Life Lessons from a Serial Sewist." And I can honestly tell you that even though Barbara says she wrote the book for the new and/or returning sewist I'm an experienced sewist and I learned a few things too, as well as, having a few things I knew reinforced.

I love the format of the book. Each chapter has a name. One of my favorites is "Chapter 7 - The Gear Side of Sewing" OMG isn't that a great name to describe all of the equipment we acquire for sewing?! So each chapter has a description then mini-lesson to help you learn a skill. The thing that absolutely thrills me is Barbara's Tips which are at the end of every chapter. Each one is written in Barbara's voice - at least I can hear her speaking - and is full of interesting things that you learn from experience. Things that she's sharing for all sewists to know.

Okay let me back up and give you some other chapter names..."Why Sew," "If it Fits, They Will Wear It," "Choosing and Cutting Fabric" and another fave, "Sewing for Joy" - each chapter is chock full of information along with the tips, and mini-lessons! Sewing Terms are called Sewing Speak! Now as a beginner or a returning sewist wouldn't you have loved a book that explained in detail what all those words that sewists threw around meant? Barbara explains them so that there are no questions...at all.

If you are acquiring your own sewing library and not just relying upon the internet, this would be a good book to add to it. And if you're feeling lucky, leave a comment below to win a copy. See Barbara being the amazing friend that she is, offered me a copy, not realizing that I'd already bought one. We decided that one lucky reader should own it.

In the comment section below, please leave your name and one sentence about why you'd like to win the book. ONLY comments left on this blog post, not in bloglovin' or any of the other blog readers will be eligible to win the book. You should leave your comment by Saturday, June 9th at 11:59pm EST. I will announce the winner on Sunday, June 10th and Barbara will send the book out to you.  Good luck!

...as always more later!

The End of My Sewcation

So it's late Sunday evening and I've been sewing since Friday, May 25th...and it's all I've been doing.  I didn't take pictures.  I haven't posted here to the blog because I just wanted to sew and sleep late.  Mission Accomplished.  

Here's a peak at what I made this week ~

Some pieces still need some finishing, buttons & buttonholes and one is a downright failure but I enjoyed the experience and learned a few things.

One ~ 
I love shirtdresses but not shirtdresses with a waist seam. No matter how much I want to love this style, it doesn't love me or my body.  This was the last time I'm going to try to make one work.

Yes that's the Warriors/Cavs game playing in the background!

Two ~ 
Sewing one new pattern per break is about all I can handle. After weeks of waiting for the sewing break to come, all I really want to do is sew...not fit and sew.  So while one pattern worked - one did not and I was happy to move onto a TNT pattern where I could just figure out what embellishments I wanted to add to it and sew.

Three ~ 
I have a style, don't deviate from it for something shiny and new...as in patterns. Cause not all patterns work for my almost 60 year old body!

Four ~ 
I love to sew TNT patterns and when I can just sew, I'm the happiest.

I'm headed back to work tomorrow and I want to thank everyone who followed my journey on Instagram. While I didn't share a lot of photos, cause really I just wanted to sew, there were several and quite a few new followers. I appreciate it and thank all of the new followers.

I sewed up until the end so photos will be taken next weekend. I'm really thrilled that I added three new dresses, a new top and a maxi skirt to the wardrobe. Those pieces will be photographed alongwith the two Simplicity 8612 wrap skirts and a new sleeveless TNT shirt.

BTW, I'm happy with what I accomplished. I wasn't trying to sew a record number of garments, I just wanted to sew for days at a time without interruption. The patterns I didn't use during this week will make an appearance during the summer. 

Finally ~ a fabric in/out wrap up for May  
I've purchased 14 yards of fabric during the month of May and I've sewn 19 yards of fabric. That amounts to - 4 dresses, 2 tops, and 2 skirts. This leaves me with a 5+ yard overage for May...except I was 7.5 yds in the hole at the start of the month.  So I'm still 2.5 yards in the hole.  Hopefully I can do better in June!

The good thing is that I'm attending the Baltimore Destash that MissCeliesPants is holding at the end of June - details here. I plan on donating 20-30 yards of fabric which will help lower my totals! Yes...cause I need some fabric relief! *LOL*  Even my oldest daughter who hadn't been in the Sewing Cave in months was like "fabric overload!"

As I said earlier, the posts for the finished garments will be up after next weekend...

...as always more later!

Sewcation Eve

When the seasons change...when the earth reawakens after a cold winter...or when the season turns to the days of darkness...I have a yearning to spend quality time with my sewing machine...making new garments for the coming season.

At that time I have soooooooo many ideas fighting each other in the creative area of my brain that I almost feel like I'm drowning in ideas to sew.  I make lists. I buy fabric. I make plans. Anything to release some of that creative pressure...especially since I have a day job and am unable to just sit and sew until there's a release.

That's normally when I schedule a Sewcation. It allows me to get some of the garments out of my head or off the paper and into my closet. It's like a gate opening, things flowing out, relieving some of the pressure and allowing a release of the creative build up.  

I don't know if this happens to anyone else but it definitely happens to me every season...for as long as I can remember. I mean I used my Summer and Christmas breaks in high school and college to just sew. Even in my married life, I bargained with my husband, one week of being alone to sew.  It's just something I've always needed to recharge and refresh my creative batteries.

So we've reached that time of the year when I need 7-10 days just to sew. I have a plan. I've picked some pieces to sew that are a little complicated to intrigue me. However, there are a few pieces that are easy sewing to quell the fast, faster, fastest part of me that still lives in the dark recesses of my creative soul.  And most importantly I've tried to be realistic with my list...no long list of garments to be sewn that will frustrate me.

Here's what I've chosen to sew ~

Butterick 6333 - View B

Butterick 6551 - View B

McCalls 7404 - View B

...cause I love a good high/low hemline

McCalls 7470 - a straight shirt dress

I want View D with some short sleeves 

& View C again with short sleeves

I've pulled together some fabrics mostly new (hangs head in shame - NOT!) that have been prewashed and are ready to be cut. There's a theme here and just to let you know blue is my favorite color. 

I've also gone through the notions & buttons stash and picked out what I need to complete each garment. So everything is prepped and ready and I sit here typing up a post...anxiously awaiting for tomorrow to occur when I can go in.

I may or may not have a post before the "show you what I made" posts go up. I may also put a few in-progress pics on my IG account. So follow me there if you aren't already.  Well that's everything...

...as always more later!

Butterick 6261 in Glen Plaid Suiting

If you've been reading for awhile you know that I swore off Butterick's Connie Crawford patterns years ago after having a bad experience with one. But this one came across my feed and I thought I would give them another try...

My version is not exactly the same as the pattern picture but it works for me because it has the elements I wanted. It's a swingy topper with some interest made from one of the many glen plaid fabrics from the collection which goes perfectly with a pair of black jeans.

Materials ~
- Black 'n White Wool Glen Plaid from the collection by way of Fabric Mart
- Black lightweight fusible interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply
- 4 buttons from the collection

Another garment made totally from items in the Sewing Cave which makes me soooooo happy! This is a ltwt. wool vest that I can wear during the spring before the heat sets in and it will be perfect again come fall. I made this in February. I'm just posting it to the blog because well it was "Shirt Month" last month.

Pattern Information ~
Can we talk about the pattern and it's sizing, first. Since its a Connie Crawford pattern the sizing goes up to a 6x. It's also a loose-fitting pattern and I needed not to succumb to my tendencies to choose a size with too much ease. To help me with this, I googled the ease wearing chart and came up with these two resources. The first one is an article on Craftsy by Patti Palmer about Ease.  The second one is the actual ease chart on the Butterick website.

Via Craftsy website

After reviewing the chart, I decided that 10" ease qualified as loose fitting (check that it's 5 7/8" to 10" for a jacket) and anything else would end up looking sloppy on me. With that decision, I chose to make a size 2x. Though I'm printing that chart out and putting it with my measurements on my bulletin board so that I don't have to look for it again!!!

Construction Info ~
I made this considerably more challenging because I used an uneven glen plaid instead of the even small check that the pattern was photographed in. All that plaid matching took time.  Then I decided to add black piping to the front of the jacket and the collar. More time but I like how the solid line of black defines the front of the jacket.

Additional construction information:
1. Added black bias tape to the shoulder seams to stabilize them
2. I used 4 buttons instead of the three recommended. I usually like an odd number of buttons but I put an additional one above the bustline seam.
3. I also added a small snap to the front to keep it closed.

Sleeves:
Disregard the pattern instructions where it tells you to sew the sleeve into the jacket and then hem it. You can do it but then you have to drag the entire jacket around the sewing machine. 

I topstitched the hem facing and then hemmed the sleeves before I inserted the sleeves into the jacket. It was just easier to do these tasks.

3. Even though the pattern tells you to machine stitch the hems down on the jacket and the sleeves, I hand stitched them.  I wanted a clean finish on the jacket.

I cut my sleeves on the bias because I was too lazy to try to match the plaid across the front and back of the jacket. I figured the bias wouldn't need to match, it would just coordinate...because bias! And then no matter what I did, the sleeves did not go into the jacket right. 

Even after I worked out a solution to make the sleeves fit and hang properly, when I put a lightweight turtleneck under the jacket, it felt awkward on. So I decided to ditch the sleeves entirely and make it a vest.  

That's when I decided to add the piping to the armholes to tie it to the front of the vest.

A few pictures ~

Conclusion ~
I'm still not sure I like Connie Crawford patterns. I'm sure these patterns probably work wonderfully for others, it's just not all patterns are for all sewists. I'm just one of those that it doesn't work for and this is a one and done sew for me. I'm totally uninspired to use this pattern again.

So a couple of things:
- I'm kinda bummed because I tracked this pattern down and paid 50% off for it instead of the normal $2.
- I'm glad that I used a fabric from my old "professional" life for this project. It shows me that I can use these fabrics in my new life.
- I love the flare/swing of this vest.
- The black piping and black buttons are the best part to me.
- When I wore this to work, it was comfortable and even though I looked a little dressier than normal, I would wear this outfit again.

I'm moving on to the next garment...

...as always more later!

Met Gala - 2018

The theme for this year's Met Gala is "The Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination." Besides the normal fashion mags covering the event online, you could also watch it live on the E! Network. The stars were asked to wear their "Sunday Best!"

I haven't written about a Met Gala in years because I've felt so-so about the dresses but this year I LOVED 90% of what was worn! So this is a picture heavy post that I've divided into categories based upon my interpretation of the theme.  All pictures are credited to Getty Photos which I yanked from the Internet.

Okay let's start with the co-chairwomen of the event ~

Amal Clooney in Richard Quinn

Reminds me of an outfit Lana Turner wore in Imitation of Life

Rihanna in Maison Margiela by John Galliano

The Twitterverse went crazy over this look! Me not so much!

The other co-chair was Donatella Versace and I was unimpressed by what she was wearing.

Next up - The Angels ~

Amanda Seyfried in Prada

Rachel Evan Woods in Altuzarra

Kate Bosworth in Oscar de la Renta

Katy Perry is a literal angel with those wings!

She's wearing Versace

Yara Shahidi in Chanel

Rosie Huntington Whiteley in Ralph Lauren

...that halo headpiece!

The Madonnas/Matrons of the Catholic Church ~

Ariana Grande wearing the Sistine Chapel as interpreted by Vera Wang

Blake Lively in Versace

Emilia Clarke in Dolce & Gabbana

Rita Ora in Prada wearing another amazing headpiece!

Sarah Jessica Parker in Dolce & Gabbana

Cardi B in Moschino and I kept thinking a Tudor Queen

Diane Krueger in Prabel Gurung with a Philip Treacy headpiece

The Knights of the Round Table ~

Zendaya in Versace

Priyanka Chopra

Michelle Williams

The Looks I Just Liked ~

Come through Ashley Graham!

She's wearing Prabal Gurung

Lily Aldrige in Ralph Lauren

(expect to see a version of this on me this summer!)

Nikki Minaj in Oscar de la Renta

Tracey Ellis Ross beautiful in pink wearing Michael Kors

Lena Waite wearing a Gay Pride cape!

These are my picks!  They are what made me sit up and take notice or sigh in wonder. I LOVED the choices the actresses, designers and stylists have made. I loved the amazing headpieces. And one more time, I can't wait to see this exhibit. The exhibit runs from tomorrow, May 8th until October 8th. I hope if you're coming to NYC during that time that you make your way over to the Met to see the Exhibit!

...as always more later!