Pink Sew Weekly: Horrockses-esque Vintage Vogue 8789

Thank you again to all of you who voted and stated your opinions regarding the stripe placement on this dress! As you can see, in the end I went with vertical stripes. Reasoning being, I realized that working with twin sheets, I was restricted in pattern piece layout options; chevrons weren't going to work. As for choosing vertical over horizontal stripes, I felt that the flowers looked better going vertically; I do still want to try my hand at another Horrockses-esque dress with horizontal stripes, though. I've already put Shayna on the lookout for more floral-striped bedsheets!

Back view.

I'm pretty happy with the final dress; with my hair up and my red wedges, I felt very Sara Crewe in her rose dancing dress (from Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, even though I know my flowers aren't roses and the dress is more 1950's than Victorian England). I'm still considering this a very wearable muslin, though, since the bodice could still use some more fitting. I wasn't sure what the sizing was going to be like, so I cut a size 12, which was, in hindsight, definitely wrong. I eventually took in the side seams to be more of a size 10, but from the gaping under my arms and the excessive waist ease, I could have gone down to an 8. The bust is definitely too large; it wasn't so obvious when I just had the bodice on, but with the weight of the skirts pulling it down, there's a lot of extra fabric under the bust. When I got home, I actually fiddled some with the darts and ended up trying to take in some more fabric by widening and shaping the darts a little. It looks a little better, but I think the fact that these patterns are generally meant for B-cups was somehow really emphasized in this pattern. Generally I'm okay without doing an SBA, but I definitely need to here. It's hard to say, though, whether this pattern genuinely runs large or I'm just used to wearing bodices with no ease.

You can see that the bodice is looser on me than my normal dress bodices.

Because of the excess ease in the bodice, though, I was definitely able to do justice to the ten-course wedding banquet! I do love going to Chinese wedding banquets; even at an average restaurant the food is still better than most catered or hotel wedding dinners. In case you haven't had the pleasure of attending such an affair, here's what we had Saturday night (vegetarians, look away!):

Some people take pretty pictures of their food all artfully arranged; I am not those people. Here is what it looks like, mid-meal-mess.

1. Cold meats platter: Roast duck, soy sauce chicken, BBQ pork, seaweed salad, and my absolute favorite, jellyfish
2. Winter melon soup, cooked in an actual melon (so that you can scrape down the sides like some kind of bizarro bread-bowl
3. Shrimp balls (the teacher of sophomore boys part of me wants to say "shrimp spheres") with broccoli, kind of like lion's head meatballs except with shrimp
4. Steamed red snapper: there is nothing quite as tasty as a fresh fish (as in alive thirty minutes ago) steamed whole, with tasty tasty soy sauce, ginger, and scallion sauce
5. Fried lobster with garlic and hot peppers: need I say more? The coating is like crack. 
6. Mustard greens with shiitake mushrooms and abalone: my husband refuses to kiss me after I have mustard greens because their flavor is so incredibly assertive, but it's one of my favorite vegetables.
7. Bird's nest with filet mignon and asparagus: my parents never used to let me have the actual nest part (deep-fried things are too 熱氣), so it's always a treat to be able to eat as much as I want of those crunchy fried noodles as an adult.
8. Peking duck: roast duck is one of those things I really only eat at wedding banquets, as that half-centimeter thick layer of fat under the skin doesn't bear to much thinking about.
9. Seafood fried rice: honestly, not my favorite part of the meal, as it pales in comparison to everything that's come before. Still, it makes for excellent leftovers the next day. 
10. Mango pudding: I know it's ultra-easy to make at home, but somehow I never do. It makes it all the more special at banquets. 

It's the kind of meal where you can get full just reading the description of it -- pacing is definitely key! It's a good thing I didn't wear my Ms. Joan Frizzle dress, as there's no way I could have made it past the fourth course. Unfortunately, a side effect of such a meal is lots of oil-based sauces flying every which way (or maybe I'm just an uncoordinated eater), because I got fish sauce on the bodice of my dress...boo. It seems to mostly have come out, but I definitely need to make a note to self: don't wear light-colored (or tight) dresses to wedding banquets.

Anyway, the object of this blog is to chronicle my me-made garments, not other-people-made-food, so back to the dress. The skirt looked a little deflated when I first made it up, so 1) shortened it considerably, 2) added horsehair braid to the hem for the first time, and 3) wore the saddest crinoline ever under it. It's the saddest crinoline because it was so cobbled together last-minute (from some hideous polyester curtain lining, leftover elastic bits, and I-brought-it-home-from-somebody's-wedding-because-otherwise-they-would-have-thrown-it-away-tulle). It's so hideous that I'm too embarrassed to show a picture here, and you know I'm not too embarrassed to show pictures of my cat and I jumping on the bed in our pajamas, so that should give you an idea of how hideous it is. Whatever, it did its job and held out my skirts. I felt lovely and floaty (and self-concious about the bodice size, but knew that that was only an issue for me) the whole day, and it was really too bad that I had to leave the rocking dance floor to drive back to TCOCC and give Walnut a reprieve from himself.

You can see how the horsehair really helps the skirt hem to stand out.

My most invisible lapped side zip yet!

Summary:
Fabric: two thrifted twin fitted sheets, 100% cotton (surprising!)
Notions: seam binding, 14" zipper, 3 yards of 1/2" polyester horsehair braid
Techniques: Matching stripes to make chevrons, lapped side zipper (still not a fan of how difficult it is to take off such dresses), horsehair braid
Hours: 7? I kind of lost track, as I was pushing it to be finished in time for the wedding. Plus post-wedding dart-futzing.
Will you make this again? I do, in fact, want to make this pattern again! I really like the chevron effect in the bodice, and the all-in-one bodice+facing is very, very clever. I was hesitant about buying this pattern (even if it was on sale) because it seemed so basic, but I think it's worth it just for the bodice pattern pieces.
Total cost: $10 ($3/sheet, $2 for the zipper, $2 for the horsehair braid)
Final thoughts: I like this dress quite a bit, and it's definitely turned me onto chevrons. I originally planned to wear something else to this wedding, and only started on this dress because the pink stripes fit the Sew Weekly Tickled Pink challenge, but I'm glad I finished it in time for the wedding. At first, I felt a little silly wearing this giant, poofy-skirted retro floral dress when I saw all the other tiny Asian girls wearing their sleek cocktail dresses, but I felt better when, at the end of the night, a girl I didn't know came up specifically to ask me about my dress (sad, but sometimes I feel like it's not a "real" compliment unless it's from a stranger who doesn't know I made it myself).

Here's what the inside of the bodice looks like. I didn't bother binding the seams here, opting to just pink them instead, because it's cut on the bias and won't fray, and also because the pink seam binding shows through slightly. I love the chevron on the neckline facing, and I still need to tack down the armhole facings better.

I can't wait to try more chevron-ed dresses (especially with a chevron-ed skirt, too!), but it will need to wait until I've finished my next VPLL 1912 project pattern: this blouse that comes with no instructions! Call me crazy, but I've never made a buttoned, cuffed, collared blouse before, and I'm going to dive right in with a vintage one with no directions. Wish me luck!

The spiral staircase at the church was begging for an awkward prom picture with my husband.

Finished Elizabethan Pair of Bodies!

It's been a long process, but my woefully historically inaccurate pair of bodies is done!

Note my vague attempt at Elizabethan fashion in the form of those collar ruffs, the lady's shoulder poofs, and the gentleman's elaborate doublet. They are obviously a pair, and the blood, the X-ed out eyes, and tongues sticking out indicate that they are most decidedly dead, and therefore are only bodies, a mere shell of a human, no longer possessed of their souls.

Just kidding. I promise I'll stop with the pair of bodies jokes; I just can't resist. I really meant that I'm finished with my conical torso-shaping "corset," although that term wasn't used until much later. Unfortunately, I haven't got any pictures of it on me since it's back-lacing, and I can't do it up myself. It will have to wait until the weekend of the faire when Elaine is here to lace me up. Until now, pictures on Cecily will have to suffice. It's not quite a true representation of what it will look like on me, since unlike Cecily, I am not made of foam, my bust is smaller, and my torso is longer and less cylindrical. But it still looks pretty good, at least to me...mind you, I am not sure what one is actually supposed to look like, but if I were to answer the Pattern Review question, "Did it look like the drawing on the pattern envelope?" I would say yes, almost exactly.

As I mentioned before, I used Drea Leed's Custom Corset Pattern Generator for the pattern; it was easy to use and her directions, while they could benefit from some real-life photos, are perfectly sufficient. Even the boned-tabbed version, which she describes as the most difficult, is not actually that hard to make, just time consuming. I did change the front busk into just more boning channels, as my initial experiments with a wooden paint-stirrer stick down the middle just felt weird and uncomfortable. Other than that, I followed her boning patterns, but with slightly more room between the pairs of bones where the tabs split in order to have space to cut and bind the tabs.

Here's what the inside looks like. It's the same upholstery canvas I used in my 1912 scalloped skirt.

Close-up of the tabs. I wasn't entirely successful at making all my stitches invisible, but I'll just file that under the "good enough" category. I also didn't know what to do about finishing the back edges, so I ended up folding over the outer fabric and stitching it down to make another boning channel. 

I am really happy with how the binding looks with the outer fabric! Even those hairpin turns weren't that bad!

Don't you like my anachronistic lacings as well?
All I had was a couple of mismatched shoelaces. Also, note the extra eyelet.

Summary:
Fabric: The outer fabric is a poly-cotton tablecloth from a bag of donated fabrics, the inner fabric is upholstery canvas of unknown content from the same bag. Not ideal materials, I know, but they were all that I had in my stash that wasn't stretchy.
Notions: Plastic cable ties for boning, narrow double fold bias tape for the binding, jeans top-stitching thread for the eyelets
Techniques used: Hand-worked eyelets, sharp turns with bias binding
Hours: Ummmm...let's just say a lot. I don't think I've ever done so much hand-sewing before! Just to give you an idea of how long it took, binding four tabs took me all of The Importance of Being Earnest.
Will you make this again? Even though this took forever, it was nowhere near the nightmare I was afraid it was going to be. I'm pretty sure it will be a while before I need another pair of bodies, but I would not be opposed to making another one (another pair?).
Total cost: The fabric was free, but the bias tape cost $2 and the cable ties were $8, so all in all, $10.
Final thoughts: I feel like I can't have final thoughts about this yet, seeing as how I haven't worn it properly, but so far things look good? I know that the waist could be smaller, and I accidentally made one eyelet too many on one side (asj&g#@!), but mostly I have decent thoughts about it?

Why, Cecily, how marvelously conical your torso looks today!

And for a poem from a similar time period, my favorite of Shakespeare's sonnets:

Sonnet 130, by William Shakespeare

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

And if you prefer your poetry read aloud, you can even have Severus Snape/Judge Turpin read it to you!

So-so Springy Sampler Sheath

You know how when you start embroidery, you're supposed to make a sampler of all your different stitches? And it's not really meant to be a treasure-forever piece, more just for practicing techniques? Well, this dress is like that. I started it as a wearable muslin of sorts, just to test out a new pattern (McCall's 5927), and I wasn't a big fan of the fabrics I used. But they were very springy, and I wanted to make a new dress for Easter.

Pretty insides!

This dress is supposed to be lined, but since this was just a muslin, I didn't bother. Also I was feeling lazy because of spring break, and I didn't want to go through the trouble of thinking about how to do a lining when there are sleeves to deal with. So instead of lining it, I finished the neck and armholes with bias tape, then slipstitched the tape to the dress. I also finished the hem with seam binding and slipstitched that, too. I've gotten much better at making my stitches invisible, but it still takes me forever. Which begs the question -- should I be trying to become a faster hand-sewer, or just bask in the process? I feel like trying to speed up makes my stitches sloppy, but it really takes an abominably long time for me to do just one armhole. I think I spent at least two hours on the hand-sewing on this dress (2 episodes of The Big Bang Theory, 1 episode of Chopped).

I do like how the hem looks with the pop of pink.

Where blue is the skirt fabric, and black is the bodice fabric, and red is stitching.

I also chose to practice my flat-felled seams on the shoulders and bodice sides. They're fairly unobtrusive in the sea of white, but I didn't feel like they would work on the skirt. The skirt went together quickly and quietly; I much prefer sewing tucks to darts, but the hip pockets feel weirdly tiny after getting used to my normal, huge, side seam pockets. I did this weird thing on the waist seam where I almost flat-felled it, but instead just finished the one side and stitched that down over the other, trimmed waist seam. Is there a name for that, or did I just make up a fake seam finish?

Not quite in focus, but you get the idea.

The last technique I tried on this dress was an arrowhead tack on the back vent. It's not a real vent, you know, the kind where there's an overlap and a little slanted seam; this is just a split where the center back seam stops. Given how violently I walk, I figured it could use some help holding together. I didn't use embroidery floss, as it seemed a bit like overkill; normal sewing thread seems to be doing just fine and suits the scale better.


After I finished the dress, I checked the weather forecast for San Francisco this Sunday, and it's supposed to rain. Of course it is. So I'm not even going to bother bringing this dress; instead I just quickly snapped some pictures downstairs outside the apartment building.

My first experience with hip pockets!

It looks okay as long as you're far away and the lighting is kind of dim.

And it wasn't until I was going through the photos that I noticed it -- the dreaded nipply bust dart. Curse the dim light in my sewing room that let me miss that in my multiple fittings! A quick googling revealed that even the esteemed Gertie has had this issue before; that made me feel better instantly. More googling unearthed a helpful tutorial for fixing my darts, and a brief stint with my seam ripper and sewing machine produced this:

Also note how invisible my stitches are for the bias facings!

Not entirely fixed, but much better. I think the problem with this pattern is that there's only the two giant darts, and so all that width needing to be taken out of the waist kind of necessitates a pointy dart. When I curved the seam to fix some of the pointy-ness, it ended up making the bust a little too large, since less fabric was being taken out in the dart. Rather than futz with this pattern to get it to work, I think I'm just going to be lazy and stick with my TNT bodice pattern, M5845, and just modify the armholes and neckline to work with the sleeves and all.

Or would that be a swayback adjustment? Or a sway booty?

Summary:
Fabric: 100% cotton, with tiny white dots, for the top, and 50/50 cotton/poly blend tablecloth for the skirt (this is the same fabric I'm using for my pair of bodies, which I'm pretty sure is anathema to real corsetiers, but it was the only fabric I had that wouldn't stretch)
Notions: a 22" cream-colored zip, seam binding on the hem, bias tape for finishing the neck/arms
Techniques used: Slipstitching, flat-felled seams, arrowhead tack
Hours: Five-ish, but mostly because of the hand-sewing.
Netflix queue: Lost in Austen, and the aforementioned TV episodes
Will you make this again? Almost certainly not. Besides the bodice dart issues, I'm also not happy with the fit of the skirt in the back -- I lack a booty to fill it out. Actually, I may use the front of the skirt with the hip pockets again.
Total cost: $4 for the zipper and bias tape; the fabric was donated, and therefore free.
Final thoughts: I guess when you start out feeling meh about the fabric, it's not surprising when the final dress is just so-so, too. Also, I don't really like how this is supposed to be a sheath dress, but it's not actually fitted; I feel like it makes me look more rectangular than I actually am. Although, I think I would like this a lot better in a more wintry fabric, like a thick plaid or houndstooth something.  Maybe I'll try it again in a couple seasons when I've forgotten about all of these issues.

This picture, pre-dart-fix, pretty much expresses my sentiments on this dress: just meh.

I feel a little out of sorts sewing-wise; my last two dresses haven't made me very excited at all, and my Ren Faire outfit is taking too long to be able to sustain any sort of excitement over it. I'm feeling the need for something more retro, vibrant, fun, and me. Not that I am always retro, vibrant, or fun. But you know what I mean. Sooo...it's back to the crazy bedsheet stash! Also, I am totally recanting my vow to not make anymore dresses with fitted bodices and full skirts. You all are so right -- if it works, why stop? If the sewing police come to my door and demand to know why I'm not moving on as a seamstress, I'll go all sewasaurus rex on them and wave my pair of bodies in their faces with my ineffectually tiny arms.

Ignore my atrocious rendition of a clipboard, pen, citation, and badge. Also, this was a pun begging to be made.

Continuing in the theme of animal poems, and appropriate for my doodle:

The Riddle of the Dinosaur, by Bert Leston Taylor

Behold the mighty dinosaur,
Famous in prehistoric lore,
Not only for his weight and length,
But for his intellectual strength.

You will observe by these remains
The creature had two sets of brains,
The one in his head, the usual place,
The other at his spinal base.

Thus he could reason a priori
As well as a posteriori.
No problem bothered him a bit,
He made both head and tail of it.

So wise he was, so wise and solemn,
Each thought filled just a spinal column.
If one brain found the pressure strong,
It passed a few ideas along.

It something slipped the forward mind
’Twas rescued by the one behind.
And if in error he was caught
He had a saving afterthought.

As he thought twice before he spoke
He had no judgment to revoke.
For he could think without congestion
Upon both sides of every question.

O gaze upon this noble beast,
Defunct ten million years at least.

Written in 1912 (how appropriate, too, that we are celebrating this poem's 100th anniversary!), back when it was thought that Stegosaurus had an extra bundle of neurons in its butt to help control its hindquarters.

A Little Too Successful: My Take on Mad Men's Peggy

Peggy dreams of being the head of her own advertising agency with a huge office building.

Remember how I decided on Peggy's boring, drably-colored dresses, with little girl collars and bows at the neckline as my inspiration for the Mad Men challenge? Yeah, well, I think I succeeded; my finished dress is just a little too bland, gray, cutesy-but-not-cute for my taste. I thought I could transform all those elements into a workable working girl look, instead of Peggy's frumpy schoolgirl look, but I don't think it really worked. Only the fact that this dress is sleeveless saved it from being exactly like Peggy's all-covered-up-prudester work outfits. And I can't even pinpoint exactly what's wrong with it; I like all the individual parts, but the whole leaves me slightly dissatisfied.

Side view.

Front of the bodice. I am not actually that tan in real life; the sun was setting.

Back of the bodice. I went so far as to switch thread colors for the bodice and skirt when topstitching the zipper.

But let's rewind a bit. I knew I wanted drab neutral colors, and I also wanted to avoid buying any new fabric, so I pulled out this gray leaf-patterned IKEA fabric from a few years ago and paired it with a black thrifted bedsheet. I also wanted to finally try out a Peter Pan collar, as it is on my Check the Technique list. Also, I was inspired by Neeno of Sew Me Love's absolutely smashing red PP-collared dress. I doubt mine will be landing in any newspapers, though! The actual collar drafting process was pretty painless, although I had to modify Gertie's instructions a bit and use a manila folder over the carpet due to the lack of a cardboard cutting mat.

I used parchment paper instead of real tracing paper. *shrugs* It was what I had. Otherwise, I followed Gertie's directions.

Except that Gertie's directions never say when to pull the adorable sleeping cat off of your fabric.

There's not much else to say about this dress; the bodice is from McCall's 5927 and the skirt is just a normal A-line cut on the bias for better draping and movement, plus knife pleats in the back that line up (mostly) with the back darts. I added my standard pockets, did my standard baby hem, pinked the skirt seams, and followed my standard lining procedure. So standard...and boring. Just like my perception of Peggy's wardrobe! The saving graces of this dress are the collar (in a cute dotted white cotton), tiny bow (gotta have the neckline bow -- it's so classic Peggy!), and the fact that I took the time to slipstitch the lining to the dress to make the insides prettier. Still not as pretty as Neeno's insides, but better than my usual.

Love the tiny bias tape bow and the tiny dots on the collar!

Wrinkly muslin lining, but otherwise neat attachment to the zipper.

And now, let me raise my hand and make a solemn promise: NO MORE SLEEVELESS DRESSES. Especially not if they have a fitted bodice and flared/full skirt. Good golly, how many does a girl need?! I said at the beginning of the year I wouldn't make any more when even Shayna's mom noticed it was all I seemed to make, but what did I do? Turn around and make seven more of the same! I need to make something with sleeves. Or something fitted on the bottom. I do solemnly swear. And if I do not fulfill my oath, I will be doomed to haunt the path to my sewing machine, unable to rest forevermore. These are the Paths of the Sleeved Dresses. The Sleeved Dresses keep it and do not suffer the sleeveless to pass. The way of the sleeveless is shut. *shakes self out of prophetic mode* My apologies.

I see you thinking about more sleeveless dresses. You stop it. Stop. Right now.

Back view. I am so glad I added those pleats in the back.
Also, a something flew by right at this moment.

Summary:
Fabric: 100% cotton for everything (gray IKEA leaf print from 2008 for bodice shell, thrifted black sheet for the skirt, muslin for the bodice lining, gifted white dotted fabric for the collar)
Notions: black 22" zipper, black narrow double-fold bias tape for the bow
Techniques: Drafting a Peter Pan collar, slip-stitching the lining to the zipper/waist-seam
Hours used: My standard five; the dressmaking went quickly, but drafting the collar and slipstitching by hand took at least an extra hour.
Will you make this again? I like the bodice of M5927 because it fits relatively well for having only two huge darts in front; not marking and pinning and sewing the extra four darts from M5845 really saves a lot of time, so I'm pretty sure I'll utilize this pattern again when I want a quickie project. I also really like the PP-collar look, and now that I have the collar drafted it will go much quicker next time. But next time I make this, I'm definitely using drapier fabric and a fuller or more fitted skirt; this A-line is too stiff and in-between for my taste.
Total cost: All of these fabrics have been in the stash so long, I count them as free. But for the sake of accuracy, I probably spent about $4 on them at the time, plus the $2 zipper, so let's say $6 total. Gosh, that might almost be a Mad Men-era price!
Final thoughts: I don't think I captured any aspect of the 1960s at all in this dress. And I captured all the right parts of Peggy's look in the wrong way. All in all, a decent summer dress that I can't complain much about, but totally redundant for my wardrobe and not my favorite.

I look a lot like the old pictures of my mom here. That's about the only retro thing going on here.

Mad Men Challenge: accepted. Mad Men Challenge: failed.

Refashioned Cashmere Shawl into Capelet

Can you call it a refashion if you really just used it as yardage?

So thick and plush!

When my parents went to Hong Kong last Thanksgiving, my grandma gave my mom a beautiful gray 100% cashmere wrap/scarf/shawl thing to give me. Actually, I don't know if she actually meant it for me, or if my mom decided that. Anyway, while it was a lovely, soft, fuzzy, altogether delicious fabric, I honestly wouldn't ever wear such a thick scarf. Also the fringe was a little weird. But seeing as how it was decadent material, and a good 2' x 5.5' length, I figured it would be perfect for turning into a capelet. I used the oh-so-popular Retro Butterick 5032, which originally calls for 7/8 of a yard of 45" fabric. I had plenty of fabric, enough to lengthen the capelet by about three inches. I just figured that more coverage = warmer. And goodness, for a little thing with no sleeves, it is quite toasty! It was quite a gray day and even in my lace and chiffon confection, I was surprisingly warm. Also I was wearing gloves. And furry shooties, also from HK, but that's beside the point.

When I got these shooties in two years ago in HK, frankly, I thought they looked a little bit silly. But my mom always says that whatever is in fashion in HK will be in fashion in a year or so, and she is always right. I still think they look silly, but everyone else wearing shooties looks equally silly, so I guess it's okay.

Back view.

Understitching and slipstitching!

This was my first experience with making outerwear, and it just makes me more excited about making my own coat! I took my time with it, actually understitching as directed and making sure my slipstitching at the hem was invisible. Unfortunately, after it was too late to do anything about it, I discovered a tiny stain/discoloration on the left shoulder! I tried my best to wash it out, but I think I only succeeded in de-plushing that little spot. Oh well. No one will be staring that closely at my shoulder, I hope.

I feel a little silly posting a picture of a discoloration.

I made my own covered button with one of those kits...and I have to admit, I'm kind of addicted to how awesome it looks. I want to put covered buttons on everything now! Because I'm still scared of trying a bound buttonhole, and because this is nice fabric for which I can get no additional yardage, I decided to make the button purely decorative, and sew on snaps instead. Since I nestled the button right under the collar, it's a little tricky to actually snap.

I like the idea of the collar on this cape, but it's sad that since the pattern pieces are the same size, and there's no padstitching to horsehair canvas or steaming to speak of, the underside of the collar is totally visible. I can see how tailoring could get really exciting once one got into it. Well, I have plenty of time to read up on it before next winter.

Inside-out. My first MTL dress attempt is now a very,
very, time-expensive decency cover for Cecily.

Summary:
Fabric: 100% cashmere (I swear, it's about a quarter of an inch thick, it's so plush), polyester lining from Joann's (the expensive kind, not the cheap, shiny, fraytastic, polyester stuff of my nightmares)
Notions: covered button kit, sew-on snaps
Hours: Five? I worked on this in between other projects over the course of two weeks, so it's hard to say.
Techniques used: Understitching, slipstitching, making a covered button
Will you make this again? Nope...don't see a need for another capelet in my wardrobe, especially considering I already have two other RTW capes.
Total cost: $4! The cashmere was free, obviously, and I actually recycled a covered button from another garment by popping out the shank and switching the fabric, so the only cost was the lining.
Final thoughts: Wearing this capelet makes me feel like Madeline. I love how it gives whatever I'm wearing a vintage vibe, although that might be helped along by the gloves. It's nice and warm and would be a nice topper for a long slinky black gown, should I ever have an opportunity to wear one? Also, the best thing is that my husband thought I bought it! When I told him I sewed it myself, he said "Really? It looks so...clean." By which he meant that all the stitching was hidden (as was revealed through further interrogation, after I got mock offended by his implication that my homemade garments are dirty). So maybe it was really a statement about the construction of my other garments, and not so much a praise of this one. But I'll take it! The only thing I'm not a fan of with this capelet is that honestly, it still smells strongly of grandma.

Husband and I took these pictures with my Dulcie Dress. I had complained previously about not knowing what to do with my hands, so I brought along a book in a similar color palette to hold during our mini shoot. I look all demure and bookish holding it, don't I?

Capelet slung fashionably over one shoulder.

Well, it's all bogus, as I'm actually holding Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! It was a gift from my sister for my book-themed bridal shower two years ago. But hey, PPZ is all about looking good, but with a secret other side, right?


 

Goofy smirk.

Lastly, thank you to all of you who had such helpful things to say about teaching kids to sew! I definitely had no idea where to even begin, but now I'm all armed with scrap paper with lines, scrap fabric, some samples "things you can make!", and many ideas. I'll let you know how it goes! 

Finished Qipao Pictures, In the Mood for Love Style!

 

I think anyone who has ever made their own qipao/cheongsam has drawn some inspiration from the movie In the Mood for Love, which has Maggie Cheung wearing several beautiful, non-traditional pieces. Adey of the Sew Convert and Juebejue of Petite Republic both spotlighted several of the costumes from the movie, and they are indeed fantastic. Unfortunately, I have never seen that movie, nor, I must confess, do I have any particular desire to. But I can still channel the look in my pictures, right? My husband and I waited until sunset to do our shoot on the top of the parking structure, and I think he captured the golden glow quite nicely!

It's almost like a heart on my back! And on my butt, but let's ignore that part.

After the powder-blue brocade qipao I had in high school, and then the classic bridal red and gold brocade for my wedding banquet, I knew I wanted to make a more utilitarian, but still pretty, non-brocade version. Hence the Bangladeshi cotton from England. It's a bit hard to see the true colors in this shoot, but if you look back at my blog posts about the making of this dress, you can get a better idea of the lovely cream and indigo flowers. I was really pleased with how I placed the pattern in the front and back, so that the ups and downs of the flowers matched up nicely with the darts. I didn't have enough fabric to match it on the side seams, but oh well.

I'm not going to say too much more about the construction, since I've already blathered on about it at length, but I'll add a bit about the fit that I didn't notice before. The side zipper tends to produce an awkward bubble unless I keep tugging the dress down, but it's not too big of a deal, since, as my husband thankfully reminds me when I'm ready to relegate a less-than-perfect dress to the back of the closet, no one will notice except me. And other seamstresses, but that's beside the point. I am happy to report that I can sit down in the dress, although since it's thin cotton it does wrinkly something fierce. I tried to strike a balance between being able to walk, and being able to wear this to church, in determining the length of the side slits. None of that scary up to the underwear slittage for me, thank you.

You can see the awkward bubble under my arm. You can see the awkward face I'm making, too.

That slit's not scandalous at all, right? Although the non-matching side seams might be.

Summary:
Fabric: 2 yards of 40" 100% cotton for the shell (barely enough, with my mistakes!), pre-washed muslin for the lining
Notions: 1 package purple bias tape, several tiny snaps, a 14" cream polyester zipper
Hours: Hoo boy. I'm going to say...at least 15.
Techniques used: Making frog closures! Which was the whole point of the original Sew Weekly challenge that inspired this dress -- the challenge of buttonholes. Do azn buttonholes count? Also, I don't know that this is a technique per se, but I've never done so much darting/fitting as I sew. This dress also marks the first time I've sewn/used snaps. Ever. I love them so much; I think I'm going to try replacing the side zipper with snaps next time I come across a vintage pattern with a side closure.
Will you make this again? Not for a long time. By which point all the pattern modifications I made probably won't be relevant anymore. But really, I don't see needing a whole lot of qipao, even if they are made of non-brocade.
Total cost: $20 or so, since I don't remember the exact price of the cotton. But all the materials for this came from my stash, so I still feel pretty good about it.
Final thoughts: My husband says I look like a less scandalous version of Chun Li. Um. I guess I'll take that? Anyway, while it's still not perfect, I'm really pleased with the level of fit I was able to achieve for a self-drafted sheath dress. Also, it felt so great to be able to figure out the top/side portion by myself! After a week of wibbling, I now have a pretty decently fitting new qipao!

In the mood for...pushing down this wall.