Returning to My Roots

Best sheet ever, y/y?

It's got representative animals for all the continents!

The Sew Weekly Reunion was good for getting my sewing again after moving, but after I finished my bolero I just couldn't seem to get myself started on another project. Even though I had lots of things on my HSF backlog, and a lot of stash to choose from, I could not for the life of me get motivated. It got even worse when I forced myself to sew a simple dress, but then didn't like it when I finished (I'll get around to taking pictures of it later, after it's had some time to sit in the magical closet of time and forgetfulness...maybe that will change my opinion of it?) and found myself in an even worse stew/rut/funk/state of inertia than ever. Finally, I figured I needed to get back to my roots and make another 1) sheet dress, with 2) a fitted bodice, and 3) a flared skirt, from 4) TNT patterns.

This photo has a slight ombre effect and weird lighting overall (not to mention a stupendously boring background of closet doors) because our new apartment complex is very...shall we say, utilitarian...and has no decent backgrounds for taking photos. You guys, I'm talking dumpsters and chain link fences everywhere, none of that landscaped birds-of-paradise nonsense, plus Mr. Cation was at work, so this was just quick photos from when I got dressed this morning.  

Oh my gosh, my calves look ridiculous.  

I am really liking that pleat synchronicity on the skirt and at the neckline!

Because I can't leave well enough alone (and also because I fell in love with this dress' pleated neckline), I decided to fiddle with the bodice of one of my favorite patterns, McCall's 5845 (now sadly OOP). I traced it up and started slashing and spreading to get what I hoped would be some nice neckline pleats. I got a bit carried way with how awesome I was at dart/pattern manipulation and arrogantly sewed it up without checking for fit (normally I sew up new patterns in lining fabric, modify after fitting, and then cut the altered pattern in fashion fabric, so as to avoid making an actual muslin).

You can see the places where I transferred out the bust and waist darts, and the subsequent huge neckline that I took in with pleats. 

Completed bodice: no darts, just pleats at the neckline! I'm still kind of amazed at how nicely it fits.

Imagine my chagrin (and near re-descent back into Sewing Funkland) when I finally tried on my completed dress (yes, that's right, lining and zipper inserted and pleats edge-stitched down and seams pinked/bound and everything...I only had the hem left to do) and it totally didn't fit at all! Due partly to my manipulations and the subsequent new shape of the bodice, and due partly to forgetting how tightly the original pattern fit, the bodice was too tight at the waist, the pleats at the neckline were slightly mismatched, the back neckline gaped like no other, and the shoulders were comically huge (akin to these Tang dancers). I hated it and wanted to throw it into the corner for Walnut to sit on. How could my vision have turned out so badly? 

After a day's sulk, I sucked it up and ripped out my zipper, my pleat edgestitching, and the shoulder seams. I cut out strips of fabric to patch into the waist, took a couple inches out of the top of the center back seam (resulting in an severely off-grain seam where the zipper is, but oh well), and took in the shoulders and hand-sewed the lining back down. Thank goodness that all that historical sewing has cured me of any fear of hand sewing! A couple of years ago this dress would have been scrapped because I couldn't be bothered to do "that much" hand-sewing, even though in reality it only took a couple episodes of Adventure Time.

Florida and most of the Great Lakes fell victim to my lack of muslin-ing. And lest you think it's not that bad...

Check out the little triangles at the waist where I had to piece in bits for the waist!

More hideous pattern matching: check out my North Amasian landmass on the center back skirt seam! Yes, those are foxes running from Eastern Europe into Canada, and getting beheaded in the process. Also note the smooth transition from Mexico into the Indian subcontinent. 

I never know whether to iron the pleats all the way down the skirt or not. 

Summary:

Pattern: McCall's 5845 bodice with modifications (besides replacing the front darts with neckline pleats, I also made the back neckline much higher, and widened/lowered the armscye), with the New Look 6723 skirt (but pleated instead of gathered).

Fabric: 2/3 of a 100% twin flat sheet (the last fun one I acquired before my Stashbusting Pledge), plus a bit of muslin (washed, of course) for the bodice lining.

Notions: A cream-colored zip harvested from this dress (which had already been cut up so that I could use the skirt fabric in my hobbit bodice), seam binding

Hours used: Somewhere around 12? But spread out over a few weeks, since I've been so busy with school (both teaching and attending!). It's never taken me that long to make such a simple dress!

Will you make it again? If I did pleats again, I'd want to lower the neckline a bit more so as to look more like my inspiration dress. I think this would make a nice LBD pattern...hmmm, that *is* the first Project Sewn Season 2 theme...

Total cost: $3 for the sheet, but I didn't use all of it (this is beginning to become a problem, since this type of dress always leaves 1/3 of a sheet, or about a yard and change, which is not enough to make anything else, but also too much to throw away).

Final thoughts: I'm so glad I took the time to save it, because now I really like this dress! Even better, Mr. Cation likes it -- he like maps and doesn't think this print looks anywhere near as loud as my other sheet dresses. Now I just need to figure out how I can work this into my curriculum; since I don't teach earth science or geography or even ecology, there's no obvious Ms. Frizzle connection. But! I realized that this dress could also be an advertisement for Another Sewing Scientist's "Map the Sewintists" endeavor. If you haven't already seen the incredible map, go check it out -- you might discover that there are people nearby who could help you with fitting! Incidentally, I can't for the life of me figure out how to move my pin from TCOCC to the Bay, so if you're wondering why I'm in the wrong city...

If I had done a better job of including every part of all the continents, I suppose I could've turned this into a "where have I traveled to" map for myself by embroidering little x's for all my trips...

I originally wanted to have this dress count as Falling for Cotton, but somehow I missed the "vintage pattern" part of the challenge description. While it certainly looks vaguely retro (kind of like Simplicity 5940?), it's not truly a vintage pattern, even if it is 100% cotton. Ah well, you can't do all the challenges!