Cation Designs

Cromwell, I Charge Thee

2013-06-16T23:45:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, Mr. Cation got his second master's degree, a whole bunch of students from my second year of teaching got their bachelor's degrees, and a week ago even more students from my fifth and seventh years teaching got their high school diplomas. It's funny seeing all these graduation pictures pop up on social media, and then thinking back to some of my own graduations long ago. My high school was huge enough and I was unremarkable enough that I didn't win any of the senior standouts, but in my very tiny junior high's eighth grade class, I was voted "Most Likely to Succeed." Here's the photo evidence:

Really bad scan of the yearbook's already tiny, blurry picture.

The yearbook staff had us pose for the photo holding fistfuls of dollar bills to represent our future success. In retrospect, this is ironic, as teaching high school science is not exactly the path to luxury; in fact, it's pretty much the opposite. In contrast, my male counterpart for that award went on to get a Ph.D from Princeton and do his post-doc at Stanford -- certainly more fitting of the typical definition of success! Sometimes I wonder if I should have been more ambitious in my career; what if I had decided to go into research, or actually gone to medical school the way Asian kids are supposed to do? I could have gotten depressed about this, but then I had two helpful thoughts:

There are no such things as middle school reunions, so I don't need to worry about showing up decades down the line without fistfuls of money.
My chosen career path isn't exactly glamorous or lucrative, but I've had the privilege of working closely with many bright young minds over the years, inspiring them to pursue STEM fields (quite a few of my former students even went on to major in chemistry-related things!), or even just to use their brains more, helping them work through personal issues...and of course, encouraging them to let their geek flags fly!

Obviously, thought #2 is the more helpful thought. When I hear from former students, and when I look back at the end-of-the-year notes they've written me, I'm reminded that these relationships, while not financially successful, are no less important than doctoral research at a prestigious university. And really, I shouldn't be surprised that this is what I ended up doing, as I had a great role model in this. My dad (whom I've written about before as an inspiration for my sewing) got his own Ph.D in chemical engineering at Columbia, but chose a less intense, much less prestigious (and therefore lower-paying) job that let him work from home when I was growing up. This allowed him to spend so much quality time with us kids, teaching us to bike and rollerblade and play tennis, building forts and treehouses with us and showing us how to use power tools, reading to us at night and practicing the Socratic method during dinner, and generally showing us how much he loved and cared for us.

That's not to say that dads who work outside the home don't do the same, but when I talk to my students and hear how absent or busy their dads are, it makes me all the more grateful that my father showed us in a very real way that relationships are more important than ambition. I took his presence in our childhoods for granted at the time, but I know now how unique his choice was in a time when stay-at-home dads weren't the new hip thing. Without his influence, I wouldn't have my love of finding out how things work, my appreciation for literature and art and music, or my confidence in being unique (although that last one took a bit longer to learn). Although my mom taught me how to use a sewing machine, my dad was the one who equipped me mentally to teach myself the art of dressmaking. He gave up a lot to pass on that DIY mentality to me.

So, on this Father's Day, I quote Laura Ingalls Wilder quoting Shakespeare in her essay on ambition: "Ambition is a good servant but a bad master. So long as we control our ambition, it is good, but if there is danger of being ruled by it, then I would say in the words of Shakespeare, 'Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition, for by that sin fell the angels.'" (These Happy Golden Years)

And hey, the eighth grade standouts story has a happy ending! Besides being voted "Most Likely to Succeed," I was also voted...

They had us pose with house-painting tools...?

I think that one worked out much better in the traditional sense of the award, as I'm pretty sure most of what goes on on this little bloggy blog could fall under the definition of art. Or at least arts and crafts. Okay, so maybe just crafts, but you know what I mean.

It's too bad they didn't have a category for "Most Likely to Become Obsessed with Cats." I would've owned that award.

Walnut did not want to wear the graduation cap. Look at that face of dread!

Can you tell? He's actually sticking his tongue out at the impending cap!

His whole body is just seething with resentment here.

The Real Wedding Photos Are Here!

2013-06-14T00:12:00.000-07:00

Not that my photos of Elaine's wedding weren't real, but they were just quick iPhone snaps. These are the professional ones taken with real cameras! All photos courtesy of Tom Chown Photography.

When I was back up in SF earlier this week for work, I dropped by Elaine's parents' house for lunch and her mom very kindly said that there wasn't anyone who didn't have something positive to say about her dress, so that made me very happy.

My one regret is that I didn't put in any kind of bustling mechanism for the train at the back...but Elaine managed to dance just fine despite my oversight!

Mr. Cation and I had a really nice dance too, to "The Luckiest," which was the song we had at our own wedding (three years ago next Wednesday!) during our unity precipitate ceremony.

And in a wide sea of eyes, I see one pair that I recognize, and I know...that I am...the luckiest.

In case you weren't following along with me in my wedding dress sewing journey, here are all the previous posts about the making of this dress:

Wedding Dress Progress Post #1
Wedding Dress Progress Post #2
Wedding Dress Progress Post #3
Not Really a Wedding Dress Progress Post
Wedding Dress Progress Post #4
Wedding Dress Progress Post #5
Wedding Dress Progress Post #6, plus my final thoughts on the making of it

Many thanks to all of you who believed in me (including, of course, Elaine and her family) and encouraged me along the way! Lastly, for those of you who don't believe me when I say how nervous I am about SHBs, I've finally got some evidence, captured on ~~film~~ an SD card:

There was a 3 month old at the wedding, and the photographer captured this expression of mine as I looked at the baby. Note the distress, trepidation, and reluctance to approach. I totally didn't even realize I was making this face; I seriously thought I was smiling. Yeah...

"[Woman] walks down the street in a [shirt] like that, and you know..."

2013-06-12T10:51:00.001-07:00

...she's got to be a Browncoat.

Joss Whedon's Firefly is one of my favorite TV shows ever, if not the favorite. I'm in that guilty group who didn't watch it when it first aired on FOX, and only discovered it too late to show support and keep it from being canceled. Still, I'm forever grateful for the half a season and movie we did get (and also grateful to the nerdy students who told me to watch it). When I started sewing, I thought one day I might make myself a brown duster, or maybe one of Inara Serra's fabulous outfits, but when it comes down to it, the actual likelihood of that is pretty low. So rather than wait for the day that I get my cosplaying act together, I thought I'd declare my love by wearing my heart...well, over my heart.

“Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand. I don’t care, I’m still free, you can’t take the sky from me. Take me out to the black, tell them I ain’t comin’ back. Burn the land and boil the sea, you can’t take the sky from me...” Best theme song ever, or best theme song ever?

I've been loving the galaxy print trend (although possibly it's over already, I wouldn't know) ever since I saw Sew Country Chick's dress for her daughter, and I remembered it again recently thanks to this fantastic sheet dress by Me and My Polar Bear. I knew that there were tutorials online for DIY-ing the look (since I wasn't lucky enough to own those awesome Tesco sheets!), so after some googling, I pulled out my freezer paper, bleach, and paintbrushes and gave it a go.

I used this image as the basis for my Serenity silhouette; it was easy to trace onto freezer paper by loading it up on my iPad and using it as a fake light-box. I cut out the shape, ironed it onto a black t-shirt that I had made, and then went to town with my spray bottle of 1:1 water/bleach solution (I inserted a plastic bag into the shirt first so that the bleach wouldn't bleed through to the back). By twisting the nozzle, I was able to vary the spray pattern to get fine mist (good for layering to cover large areas) or more concentrated streams (to make the "shooting star"-esque lines). All of this took less than ten minutes -- I was working fast and haphazard so that the bleach wouldn't make holes in my fabric! -- and then I rinsed the whole thing in cold water to stop the hypochlorite action. I then went back with a paint brush and made larger splotches in random places. Rinse again, and lastly, I used some acrylic paint to add yellow at the Serenity's butt-end, and white centers and blue-purple edges to the "nebulae." This final step took the longest, as I wanted to make sure that it actually looked believably space-like.

Here's what it looked like after the initial bleach spray, after I peeled off the freezer paper, but before I started adding paint and touching it up. I was a little nervous at this point, because this doesn't really look that cool yet. I didn't take any process pictures after this, unfortunately, because my hands were covered with paint. I always get really messy when I craft, and end up covered with paint or hot glue or sawdust, which makes documenting difficult.

I pressed the whole thing afterwards with a very hot iron to set the paint. I'll let you know how it holds up after washing!

Summary:
Fabric: Less than half a yard of black cotton knit with a pretty high spandex content, which I originally made into a t-shirt when I first started sewing three years ago. At the time, I had no idea how to finish curved edges, so the neckline is totally raw. I left it that way since there's no way I'm finding a matching fabric to bind it with.
Notions: None, but lots of craft supplies!
Hours: It probably took me an hour to make the shirt originally, then about three hours to print, cut, bleach, rinse, paint, and iron the design.
Will you make it again? Not this exact design, since I don't need more Serenity shirts, and definitely not this tee "pattern" since it's not exactly well done...I think I just sketched a shirt shape and started sewing when I made this, and the shameful secret is that I cut this so that it stretches the wrong way! I didn't know about directional cutting and 2-way stretch when I made this, so I'm lucky that it even fits, albeit quite tightly.

Other shameful secret: I also cut the scoop neck way too large/low when I made this (measure twice, cut once was NOT my motto!), so I never wore it. When I was trying to figure out if I had a black tee that I could use for this project, I realized I could just turn it around!

First worn: For running errands today, but nobody recognized it...boo! :( One cashier at Trader Joe's asked about it, though, so I got to enthuse about how awesome a space western is, and at the end of my little ramble he said he'd check it out if he remembered later. Ehh, good enough.
Total cost: Since I used an old shirt, and these are all supplies I already had, $0! Yay for giving new life to an old garment!
Final thoughts: I love it? Do I really need any more final thoughts than that? How about the fact that when I wore the shirt for Mr. Cation, who also loves Firefly, he was totally floored to find out that I had made it myself! He thought it was a shirt that I had bought, not painted. I'd say that's a rousing success!

Worn with my most Kaylee-like olive green cargo pants from GAP, thrifted for $8 with the tags still on.

Silly anecdote: After I had finished the shirt, I hung it up inside out on a hanger to air out. I went to sleep and when I checked on it the next morning, I totally panicked because I thought all the paint/bleach had faded somehow and made my Serenity silhouette all blurry and indistinct! Then I realized that I was looking at the wrong side of the image, and my heart started again.

Here's what it looks like inside-out. Totally not recognizable as a space ship -- you see why I freaked out.

Right side out: much more distinct! Phew.

Last year I made a t-shirt to declare my Star Wars love, so this makes two sci-fi stories that happen in space that I've got me-made shirts for. I still want to make one for Battlestar Galactica and one for Sailor Moon (okay, that last one isn't sci-fi, but her transformation sequence looks kind of like it happens in space, and besides, all the Sailor Scouts are named for planets, and then there's that alternate galaxy, the Negaverse, and alien twins Alan and Ann...okay, I'll shut up now), and that'll nicely round out my media-that-happens-in-space me-made shirt collection!

So...have I convinced anyone else to give Firefly a try? Or at least DIY-ing a galaxy print fabric?

June Stashbusting: DIY Gold Clutch

2013-06-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

June's stashbusting theme is containment, i.e. "sewing things to put other things in." While I could do something sensible, like make a reusable grocery bag, let's be honest -- Mr. Cation has gotten so many free bags from business school job fairs, we're probably set for life (and don't even talk to me about pens, notepads, and water bottles with random company names on them!). I'm a two-purse kind of girl (one nice professional one, and one casual messenger bag), so I don't need any more purses. I do, however, need a new clutch for dress-up events, when my giant teacher purse (the professional-looking one) doesn't cut it. My current clutch was a free gift from a Black Friday sale in college, so I think it's about time I replaced it!

While I was in Italy, I stopped by a Euro Village, which I guess is the equivalent of a dollar store. I picked up a bunch of sewing notions for a euro each, as well as this gold placemat for two euros. It was so nice and weighty, I figured it would make for a good clutch. "Oho, but that means you're not stashbusting!" you say accusingly...well, I used stash fabric for the lining! I got this home-dec sample in London on our first anniversary trip, and it was the perfect size and color scheme for this simple clutch.

Step 1: To make the lining, cut out a piece of sturdy fabric a little bigger than your placemat. Fold over and press the edges (and sew mitered corners if you want super neat corners!) to make a rectangle with finished edges. Pin or clip the lining to your placemat and sew all the way around the edge, leaving a little gap in the middle of one short side so that you can insert an elastic later.

I used clips instead of pins because the punctures show on my vinyl placemat. I wasn't sewing too neatly and veered off at one point and had to unpick; fortunately, the shininess of the placemat distracts from the needle holes!

Step 2: Play around with how big of a pocket/flap you want on your clutch. Fold up the side that does NOT have the gap in stitching; this will be the size of your pocket. The flap with the gap will be the "cover" of the pocket. I settled for not-quite-thirds for my folds. Once you've decided, measure your placemat to determine the center, then make a tiny mark so that you know where to sew your button. Sew on the button. (If I had been making this clutch two years ago, it wouldn't have occurred to me to sew the button before sewing up the sides...and then I would've cursed my lack of foresight, since it's much easier to sew on the button at this point, while it's still flat!)

Step 3: Find the gap that you left in the "top" flap, insert a hair elastic, and topstitch over it a few times with tiny stitches to secure. (I sewed most of the clutch with a stitch length of 4, to better match the existing topstitching on the placemat, but switched to a stitch length of 2 for the elastic part.)

Make sure that the inserted elastic is big enough to go over the button.

Stitching done on both the button and elastic! I chose this black button with a gold rim to break up all of the gold.

Step 4: Sew up the side seams, backstitching at the top of the pocket for extra security.

Done!

Summary:

Fabric: 12"x18" gold vinyl placemat, similar size 100% cotton canvas. This project is perfect for showcasing a cool fabric that you only have a bit of! Of course, if you were going to make it from a non-placemat, you might need to add in some stiff interfacing to keep your clutch from being too floppy.

Notions: 1 hair elastic leftover from when my hair was still long enough to require such things, 1 shank button from the stash

Hours: 1.5...a nice quick project!

Will you make it again? Considering how few purses I use, probably not for myself, although I might make more for friends if I come across cool placemats.

Total cost: I don't remember how much the home dec fabric was, but the whole project was definitely less than $5. Not as good as free, but at least I didn't have to wake up at 5 AM and fight a bunch of other people at Express before the limited supply ran out!

Final thoughts: It's funny, in high school and college, all my accessories were silver/stainless steel and cooler toned, but recently I realized that gold/brass and warmer tones suit my coloring better; this clutch reflects this discovery (and all the light in the room). Also, I like that this clutch is actually big enough to put things in! Which, as you know, was the whole point of June's theme.

Experimenting with how much I can fit: my iPhone, my even smaller clutch with my credit cards and ID and cash, and a little makeup thing that I use about twice a year. I bought it when I got engaged four years ago, and I still haven't used it up...

I decided that a picture of makeup in my clutch wasn't a fair representation of what I was likely to actually carry in it...so I replaced it with one of my favorite short story collections instead. Perfect for all of those times that Mr. Cation is groomsmanning/MCing at weddings (because he always gets asked! He's like a professional groomsman and MC at this point) and I'm bored.

Proof that it still closes nicely even with a book inside!

Winner, Winner

2013-06-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

...~~chicken dinner~~ and a question for you all:

1) Winner: Congratulations to Aleah of No Time to Sew for winning May's knit stashbusting challenge! She says she's not good at improv while sewing, but if this darling dress is what results from sewing on the fly, well, I say she needs to do more of it! Pop me an email, so we can send you a little something!

2) Winner: Beth of SunnyGal Studios gets to take a crack at tracing that umm, rather intense pattern sheet from Modellina Facile! Let me know what your address is so I can send you your prize and you can get to tracing...because goodness knows, following those lines is going to take long enough.

3) Chicken dinner: It's been a while since I put up any Walnut photos, so have a quick iPhone snap of the closest thing I could get to a chicken dinner.

He had burrowed himself under the covers of the guest bed for his morning nap, and looked totally shocked when I flipped back the covers, put a stuffed chicken leg plushie next to him, and quickly took a picture.

3) Question: Have you ever put a knit lining into a woven dress? I want to make a sheath dress from the gold lace I have leftover from making Elaine's wedding dress, but obviously the lace is see-through. I've got a cream-colored jersey that would make a nice underlay, but I'm not sure if mixing stretch/non-stretch is a big sewing no-no. Thoughts, sewasauruses?

Sewing and My Personal Sense of Style

2013-06-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

Have you seen my guest post over at Seamstress Erin's blog as part of her series on Sewing and Style? She's been doing this fabulous set of interviews with sewing bloggers about how these two things intersect, featuring such sewlebrities as Handmade by Carolyn (one of the first sewing blogs I discovered), American Duchess (one of my favorite costuming blogs), and Meg the Grand (one of my first sewing blogger friends!).

I was so flattered when Erin asked, because, well...if you had told middle school me that one day I would be asked to write about my sense of style, I would have laughed in your face. Actually, no, painfully shy middle school me would have shrunk back behind my book and thought malicious thoughts about punching you because it was probably a joke, like when horrible people nominate the unpopular kid for homecoming queen as a big prank. See, for most of my life, style was a mystery, a je ne sais quoi that cool people effortlessly had, and which I cluelessly grasped at, only to fail miserably. See exhibits #1 and 2:

Middle school me: giant glasses, high-waisted pants (but not in the cool retro sort of way), awful print-mixing and ugly sweaters. Oh dear.

Yeah. I was forever being teased at school about my free t-shirts from various academic competitions and mom jeans sent from Hong Kong by my aunt and grandma, not to mention the fact that I wore huge glasses and had no idea what to do with my hair. I know it was the late eighties/early nineties, and everyone was dressing questionably, but even my dressing questionably skills were, um, questionable. When I hit high school and college and finally got to dictate how I spent my clothing budget, my goal was to dress as unobtrusively as possible, which meant buying whatever mass-produced item was hottest at GAP and Old Navy. By the time I started teaching, I had more confidence and a slightly better sense of myself and who I was, so I began branching out into colors and quirky science t-shirts, but even then, my wardrobe was heavily dictated by what was available at the mall and in my price range. So how did I make the leap over to dressing like a cool geek (as opposed to a dorky geek)? Go check it out!

This is cool geek, right?

A Look Through Italian Sewing Magazines

2013-06-05T22:44:00.000-07:00

While I was in Rome, I quickly realized that I wasn't going to be able to bring home any gorgeous Italian wool suiting or silk chiffon because of the prohibitively high prices. For someone who thinks that anything more than $3/yd (or $3/thrifted sheet, which translates to less than a dollar a yard!) is pricey...well, let's just say I'm lucky I didn't keel over right then and there in Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti! I really wanted some sewing-related souvenirs, though, and somehow, elastic and zippers don't cut it. They're so...boring. Thankfully, Assorted Notions' blog post about fabric shopping in Rome clued me in on the treasures waiting for me in those ubiquitous green newsstands -- sewing patterns in magazines! I picked up four different magazines while I was there, from different stands:

Let's take a look through them more carefully, shall we? First, Burda Giovane & Easy, meant for the younger set and presumably with easier patterns:

There are a lot of gathered elastic waists, simple shapes, and trendy design elements.

There are other articles about make-up, style, and crafting, like this one with directions for making an envelope clutch.

Pattern sheets in the middle, printed on tissue paper. I like that they take a basic shape and build on it for different looks, kind of like the Feminine Wardrobe book. I really like the first set of patterns.

I want to give 3D a try, as I need a nice basic button-up shirt.

The instructions include how to take measurements, layout, and basic construction.

There are some nice line drawings illustrating the steps, which is good because I don't read Italian.

Then there's the actual Burda Style magazine, which goes along with the site that I used to post on, except that I got tired of reloading my pictures for every make (when you have to load them on the blog, Flickr, PR.com, and BurdaStyle, it gets to be a lot of extra time spent summarizing and linking and loading).

It starts with a helpful article about how the patterns in the magazine are similar to runway trends.

I love that all the technical drawings are gathered onto one page!

Patterns like this don't scare me anymore, after my experience with Japanese sewing books. However, I have no idea whether these come with seam allowances or not. Anyone know?

There was this cutesy section featuring matching mother-daughter outfits.

Just watch me have SHBs that are all male...my SHB and I won't be able to wear matching star-print skirts!

Little accompanying article about what household objects one could use for stamping fabric.

Oh hey, random article with recipes for sandwiches! Is it just me, or do other people think that 1) it's weird that there's food in a sewing/style magazine...it feels unsanitary somehow, even though I know that there's no way to get printed crumbs and oil stains onto patterns that are stapled in the middle of the magazine, and 2) who the heck needs a recipe for a sandwich? A pot roast, I understand, but don't you just assemble things on a sandwich?

I had never heard of La Mia Boutique until reading Assorted Notions' post, so I was quite intrigued.

There's a whole bunch of Grace Kelly-inspired dresses and coats, including the lovely gray outfit on the cover.

I love the pleats on this dress. Also, Grace Kelly does not do bold colors? All of these are pastels and silvery grays.

Technical drawings. I'm quite keen on trying #8!

I got really confused when I saw the bottom of this page of drawings, until I read further in the magazine...

...and realized that there are patterns for a men's tuxedo?!

And *whew*, if I have a male SHB I can still dress him.

And lastly, Modellina Facile, which was also new to me. Going by what I know of Italian, this translates to Easy Tiny Models? Since the suffix -ina means a smaller version of the thing?

A whole set of patterns for going to the beach/pool! It's too bad the fabric they chose is so busy...it obscures the cute style lines of the swimsuit.

I really like the look of that blazer.

The directions don't have illustrations like the easy/teen magazine does. Still, if you either had a similar pattern in your stash, or you were really good and winging it, you could probably figure it out.

The whole collection, unfortunately displayed on models, instead of technical drawings. That is, it's unfortunate that there isn't a page of all the technical drawings, and not that the modeling itself is unfortunate.

Okay, now here's the fun part -- one of you gets to fake-visit Italy with me by winning your own copy of the last magazine, Modellina Facile! Just specify in your comment that you'd like to enter the giveaway, and tell me what's the most you've ever spent (per yard or per meter) for fabric...let's see how close we get to that ridiculously-priced cotton-viscose blend in my last post! Also, if you live in Italy, you probably shouldn't enter this giveaway :)

In the spirit of full disclosure, this is what the pattern sheet looks like for the Modellina Facile magazine. Happy tracing!

I'll choose a winner on Friday night. Speaking of things that end on Friday night, have you voted on your favorite knit stashbusting project yet? Go check out the link party; there are some pretty spectacular makes!

Oh Hai, I'm Back From Italy!

2013-06-04T22:16:00.003-07:00

Sorry about the blog silence (and lack of replies to all of your thoughtful comments on my last post...I'll get to that soon, promise!) recently, but I've been busy traipsing around Rome and Florence! Yes, that's right, Mr. Cation whisked me away to a certain boot-shaped country to celebrate the end of the school year (although I still had to read final papers input grades...but better to do that on a train through the Tuscan countryside than in TCOCC!) and our third anniversary. We managed to quite a bit of walking and sight-seeing (and eating) in the course of eight days:

It was a bit of a nightmare actually getting to Rome, thanks to a United snafu that gave us only 45 minutes to make our connection in Newark, and so of course they delayed our flight out of LAX by two hours. At which point they offered to put us on a flight two days later, but Mr. Cation talked them into sending us to Heathrow that night, where we were able to wrangle a Lufthansa flight to Munich and then finally to Rome. That shower and sleep after 36 hours of travel was one of the best I've ever had in my life. Thankfully, the wonders of the Eternal City soon put that poor early start out of my mind!

While I loved our previous Europe anniversary trips, this one probably wins in the epic grandeur category -- I've dreamed about seeing the Colosseum since I was eight, when I was first intrigued by a book that my parents had originally bought on their honeymoon trip there. I was fascinated at the time by the thought of secret pulley systems used to bring tigers up to the arena from the underground passages, so it was a little surreal to actually be at the Colosseum (which I also spelled wrong countless times while typing it because of the stupid Oakland Coliseum's influence). And of course, all the other piazzas, palazzos, and chiesas were gorgeous and ornate and so very ancient feeling! It's not a feeling one gets too often here in TCOCC, where it's a big deal when a building is from the Jazz Age.

It was just as spectacular as I was hoping it would be. After all, it was spectacular enough to convince my very thrifty Asian dad to actually purchase a gift shop book!

Almost as exciting as the Colosseum though (okay not really), was the prospect of going fabric shopping in Rome. I'd read the NYTimes article about Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti (how's that for a name that I'm never going to remember, except that I typed it into Google maps countless times) and marveled at the Selfish Seamstress' pictures. I thought I was mentally prepared, but there's nothing like actually wandering through the labyrinth of rooms stacked with fabric in person. I was too overwhelmed to do any actual shopping (or take any pictures), probably to Mr. Cation's relief, which is fine because the fabrics were Ex. Pen. Sive. Buon giorno, signorina, would you like to purchase some lace for $500/yd? No? Other fabric stores in the area weren't any better, even if they were a little easier to not get lost in.

This was around the corner from FTB.

Fabrics so nice, they're still wrapped up in protective plastic. Also, what happens if you want to take a look at something that's ten feet up?

That rack on the left was just one many racks of almost identical-looking bolts of wool suiting. Gray pinstripe? Gray pinstripe with slightly larger stripes? Gray pinstripe in a slightly different shade of gray? Gray pinstripe with slightly wider-spaced stripes?

Not the same store, but equally scarily priced, this gorgeous silk is €95/meter, or about $125/meter! Incidentally, I learned the Italian word for silk while I was there: seta. It took me a little bit to figure that one out.

It's not just the silk that's scarily priced, either -- that dotted gingham-ish cotone-viscosa blend at the top is €196/meter, on sale from €327/meter! What could possibly make it that expensive???

See, at least bridal laces I can understand. These went for anywhere from €165-398 a meter. Yikes!

In the end, I didn't bring home any Italian fabric, but I'm strangely un-sad about that. When it comes down to it, I'm a thrifty Asian at heart, my favorite yardage is thrifted sheets, and I'm generally too haphazard in my sewing to do justice to a fine piece of material. Instead, I got my sewing souvenirs at a lot more affordable place and price...

Is that cans of pet food to the left? Yes, it is!

That's right, a normal grocery store has a whole rack of sewing notions! A closer look reveals that besides the more normal measuring tape, hand-sewing needles, elastic, and velcro, they also carry Gutermann thread in quite a few colors,

And not just in black, white, navy blue, and beige, either! They also had gold, neon orange, and invisible nylon thread, among other colors.

jeans needles,

I do wonder at the selection of only standard and jeans needles, though...do people sew that much denim there?
What about ballpoint needles for knit fabric, or Italians just secretly wear Canadian tuxedoes?

Sorry about the blurriness, I was apparently too wriggly with excitement!

Jeans buttons! In a regular grocery store at the Termini bus station! What kind of gloriousness is this?! Oh, what I wouldn't give to have this kind of thing at my local Trader Joe's. I ended up coming home with lots of jeans buttons (but no jeans needles, since I wasn't sure if they'd fit my machine), elastic in various sizes, sewing machine oil (now I have no excuse for not doing maintenance), and four different Italian sewing magazines. Because that's right, they've also got sewing magazines at normal newstands on the street corner. I'll show you those tomorrow, though, so that I can give them a properly thorough look. In the meantime, I'm trying to fight through the jetlag by sorting through our gazillion photos...

Mr. Cation was all about the auto-stitch app.

The Fontana di Trevi was just as impressive as I remember from my parents' honeymoon pictures.

The Arno River at night...we totally fell in love with Florence!

#secondgenaznproblems

2013-05-30T22:31:00.000-07:00

Did you know that May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month? I actually had no idea until one of my former students posted it on his Facebook page...but now that I know (even if it is the end of the month!), I'm glad that I've been learning more about Anna May Wong for real, and not just fake-pretending to dress up as her. It's fascinating for me to learn more about the experiences of very early immigrants and second-generation APAs, mostly because that's not my family history at all. My parents both came to the US shortly before I was born, so it's not like my ancestors helped build the Transcontinental Railroad or anything.

You know how Facebook goes on these random kicks once in a while where everyone changes their profile picture to their favorite cartoon character, or the celebrity they look like most? It's too bad I didn't know about Anna May Wong when the latter rolled around, since if I had to say, I probably look more like her than Lucy Liu*, the only other well-known Chinese-American actress out there.

I know that I was very fortunate to grow up in San Francisco, which boasts a huge percentage of Chinese-Americans. I experienced very little racism and never felt conflicted about who I was or which culture I identify with, because so many of my peers were just like me, with a foot in both worlds and somehow managing to balance those. It wasn't until high school that it even occurred to me that not every city was like mine! All those YA novels about Asian-Americans growing up in hostile environments and the struggles they had felt thankfully far removed from my own life. The more I grow up and the more people I meet, of course, the more I realize how difficult the Asian-American identity is for some. Still, living in California, I mostly don't notice my minority...but it does pop up every now and then in the strangest ways!

I was reading up on vintage sewing machines and ended up perusing the comment section over on Peter's blog regarding hand-crank sewing machines, and suddenly had a fit of jealousy over all those lucky people who had sewing machines sitting in their grandmothers' attics. Being the child of immigrants, our house doesn't have an attic (that is unrelated to the immigrating, actually) and our garage only has boxes of our old Chinese school homework and math workbooks (not even lying!). No vintage sewing notions, and certainly no beautiful old treadle machines! And even though my mom sewed prolifically as a young lady, none of those clothes have made it to me, since it's impractical to cart a handmade wardrobe over the Pacific ocean to a tiny apartment in SF. And since my grandparents grew up extremely poor, I certainly don't have any heirloom Edwardian wedding gowns!

The closest thing I have: my mom's 1970s qipao.

So even though I love being Asian-American, and am proud of my heritage, sometimes, a very tiny part of me wishes that I were white, if only so that I could inherit all these treasures from generations past. I also wish this a tiny bit when I think about dressing up in historic clothing, as I'm pretty sure that my great-great-great-whatever didn't wear gorgeously embellished 18th century frock coats or huge swishing hoopskirts. I also don't know too many other APA bloggers who are into vintage sewing or historic fashion, and I definitely don't know any in real life, so sometimes I feel a little bit like an anomaly.

Not quite a robe l'anglaise: my mom took me on a trip to China as a high school graduation present, where I got to wear a ~~tourist trap~~ dubious polyester Qing dynasty robe at the Forbidden City. Yeah, that doesn't even fall into the same category, it's so different. Also, ignore the date at the bottom -- apparently nobody ever bothered programming the camera!

Then I remember that I make geeky dresses from thrifted sheets, and I think that there are probably bigger reasons for feeling like an anomaly, and I like it that way.

But oh! for a gorgeous vintage Featherweight!

*I came across this interview with Lucy Liu, and it's kind of sad how similar things are, even after 80+ years. It's still just as difficult now for an APA to get a leading role as it was when Anna May Wong was a star in the 1930s. And then there are projects like this one that reveal just how little people know about "others" even in this day and age.

[And hey, on a totally different note, if you haven't added your knit stashbusting project to the May link party yet, go do it. You've got til Sunday to get in on ~~endless fame and fortune~~ bragging rights if you win the challenge!]

The Measliest Knit Stashbust Ever

2013-05-27T16:42:00.000-07:00

Can it still count as stashbusting a knit if I only used a third of a yard?

I had a little bit of black jersey left after making my Accidental Aladdin Pants, so I used it as the top portion of this convertible dress/skirt. Heady with the success of my last successful Japanese sewing book project, I decided to try another pattern from the Feminine Wardrobe Book, number E3. I really liked the unique shape of the skirt, which is like a less complicated version of Communing With Fabric's tablecloth skirt.

It's a very simple idea, really.

Not that you can really tell in this busy, drape-y rayon, but there are these neat little corners!

When I eventually get around to posting this on Pattern Review, I'll probably label it as "Pattern OK, But Did Not Work For Me." While I love the flow and shape of the skirt, I'm just not comfortable with this strapless/tube-top look for the bodice. I can do strapless dresses if it's made from a woven fabric and has boning, but this whole knit bodice thing is just too precarious for me! And unfortunately, I don't like how much fabric there is bunched around my waist when I pull it down to wear as a skirt. So, while there's nothing really wrong with this pattern, I doubt I'll be wearing it much unless I can find a way to add straps that don't look too weird. Any ideas, sewasauruses?

Can you tell that I'm just sort of uncomfortable wearing this?

Right after taking these pictures, we ran into a friend of ours. It was the most uncomfortable twenty minute conversation ever, which just goes to show that there needs to be some kind of overhaul of the top if I'm ever going to wear this out.

Summary:
Fabric: 2 yards of rayon, from my trip to Michael Levine Loft with Oonaballoona, 1/3 yard of black jersey with a significant lycra content.
Notions: Seam binding for the insides of the skirt
Hours: Three, including cutting and sewing and endless baby hemming
Will you make it again? Nope. And I can't even think of anything clever to say about it, either.
Total cost: $5, if even.
Final thoughts: I'm pretty sure this is the briefest write-up I've ever done. I guess this is what happens when something is so meh.

Even these pictures are meh. They all look the same because I was afraid to raise my arms!

I'm kind of sad that this is how I'm ending my May stashbusting, but hopefully you all have some gorgeous makes that you can be more excited about. Here's your chance to share your projects!

Feminine Wardrobe Book Review

2013-05-25T22:58:00.000-07:00

At last, a Japanese sewing book pattern that I can get behind! Then again, that's mostly because I made a bunch of changes...

The Feminine Wardrobe, by Jinko Matsumoto, is another book that Laurence King Publishing sent for me to review. Like the Stylish Dress Book, it's just been translated into English and is coming out sometime this month. I don't know if it's because I've been staring at too many of these books, or if this one is actually more wearable, but I actually liked quite a few of the designs in here!

These dresses look normal! Actually, better than normal. I really like the bow detail on that shift.

Of course, they're still into the photography in front of a white wall, this time with a stack of vintage books and a tiny lamp on the floor.

I chose to make the "peasant blouse," because of its superficial similarity to this recent Anthropologie top:

Lemonbloom Peasant Blouse

It's got the floral pattern, the gathered-into-a-wide-neckline look, and the loose sleeves. I only realized later that the Anthro top is an actual button-down; I'd overlooked the buttons because of the busyness of the print. If anything, though, I like the FW version better because there are no buttonholes to deal with!

This being the fourth Japanese sewing book make I've attempted, I'd like to think I got a little wiser about the sizing and the roominess that tends to result: not only did I start with the XS, I preemptively removed four inches from the center of the front and back pieces! This ended up being the right call, I think, producing a lightly gathered, loose-but-not-sacklike comfortable top. The other problem I tried to head off was the excessive poufiness issue; the book only gives "cotton" as the recommended fabric, but last time I used cotton voile, which had too much body and resulted in some unattractive bulge when gathered. This time, I used a very thin rayon challis, which is so drapey that it almost classifies as a liquid. Unfortunately, this meant that attaching the collar of the blouse was very, very tricky, and mine still isn't perfect, despite using almost all of my pins in prepping it for sewing. If I were to make this again, I would use some lightweight interfacing to stabilize it (which the instructions actually call for, but I cleverly didn't bother looking at them), and possibly employ some of Andrea's tips for working with chiffon.

Besides the sizing and fabric change, I also lengthened the sleeves by a few inches and added elastic to gather it in, similar to the look of the Anthro top (yes, I know it's actually just rolled up in the picture, but I really like the three-quarter sleeve look with the puff of sleeve right above the hem). At this point, I was ready put in the elastic waistband (the instructions, which I ignored, call for you to do this before you even attach the sleeves, but I figured that I couldn't trust their placement, so I opted to do this at the end when I could try on the whole thing first), but some experimentation with a thin elastic belt made me think twice about the gathers all...gathered...about my waist. It just didn't look right. But I still needed a way to bring it all in and make the top less swingy.

Surprise! These sleeves are the puffed wonders of Anne's dreams. And if you're thinking that the top looks amazingly sleek...

Thanks to extensive browsing of Anthro's newest tops, I had a brilliant idea for reducing the width in the torso without the use of elastic (can it still be an idea if you're pretty much just straight up copying?). The Lace Yoke Tee looks deceptively slim, but if you look at the back, it's actually brought in with the the use of some buttons. I made a couple of button loops and sewed them onto the back of my top, then sewed buttons onto a little matching topstitched rectangle of fabric.

Worn with my McCall's 6610 skinny pants.

And with that, this top goes from voluminous (and not even as voluminous as it was originally drafted!) to slenderizing while still being comfortable.

Summary:
Fabric: 1.5 yards of rayon challis from SAS Fabrics...it was barely enough!
Notions: 2 pearly-looking plastic buttons, seam binding
Hours: 5 hours, mostly due to the finickiness of the rayon. It was a fairly calm five hours, though, with hardly any moments of frustration or threats of this turning into a UFO. I love it when you just get on a roll with sewing and you know what you need to do, and it's engaging without being mentally taxing.
Will you make it again? You know, I actually might! I really like the look of this top. I would just replace the collar with a strip of self-fabric bias tape next time, though...less fussing, more or less the same result.
Total cost: $5...between my two inspiration tops, I saved somewhere between $50-70!
Final thoughts: I really like tunic tops because they cover the butt, which means that I don't need to worry about wearing underwear that doesn't make lines in my pants. I'm sorry, was that TMI? Well, now you know. My McCalls 6610 pants are fabulous, but they're also a little on the thin side, so I need to choose underwear carefully if I wear them...but now I don't need to if I'm wearing this top! Unmentionables aside, though, I'm seriously in love with this top and I'm so glad that I finally made a Japanese sewing book pattern work for me!

Incidentally, if you're interested in making your own garments from these kinds of books, I just discovered this French group blog that's specifically dedicated to showing the finished garments made from various Japanese sewing books. It's interesting to see that everyone else has the same issues with the silhouettes looking boxy and shapeless (although that might actually be their desired look, I don't know), and that most people end up adding belts or sashes for waist definition.

Sadly, I actually found this book to be surprisingly devoid of poses to mimic. Aside from the random stack of books, most of the pictures have the models just standing and holding purses, so that's not too weird. Darn!

Wedding Dress Progress Post #6: The Big Reveal!

2013-05-23T02:16:00.001-07:00

It's been almost a month since I last gave you all any updates about Elaine's wedding dress; I last left it at it's-being-sent-to-Tucson-gosh-I-hope-it-arrives-and-fits...oops! Hopefully these photos of the finished dress on a real person will make up for my delayed wrap-up post. Unfortunately, they're just my iPhone pics from the wedding day, but you can bet I'll show off the "real" photos once Elaine gets them!

The hem just perfectly skims the tips of her shoes in front, so as not to trip her while walking.

It's got just a tiny bit of a train in the back. Also, this is probably the best representation of the true colors of the outfit.

Side view!

I had sent the almost-finished corset to Elaine a couple weeks before the wedding so that she could try it on and play around with applique placement. She sent me some pictures that made me a tiny bit stressed about the fit, but at least it arrived safely! I got it back from her without incident and attached the applique to the front by hand, going with the most popular placement (Elaine agreed that she liked this best, too): straight up and down on the second panel. I was slightly sad that putting the applique on last meant that the stitches showed through on the inside, but there was really no other way to have a corset for her to try on without finishing the lining (and therefore the grommets) first. I also sewed up a modesty panel, which was pretty much just a rectangle made with the fashion fabric and lining and bound with the same cream binding. At the very last minute, I also hand-stitched a tiny blue heart on the inside for a "something blue." The fabrics for the corset and dress are obviously new, the lining fabric is old (yay stashbusting!), and the crowning touch on the whole outfit was her mother-in-law's gorgeous amethyst pendant that just happened to perfectly match the whole ensemble!

You can just barely see the ribbon loop holding the back lacing on the modesty panel.
I am so proud of how evenly the back lacing gap turned out!

In the days leading up to Saturday, I found myself having brief moments of panic here and there where I would find myself freaking out (quietly) about whether or not things would fit, whether Elaine would like the ketubah, and just hoping in general that she would feel like the dress was everything she'd ever dreamed of. I loved my wedding dress and it made me feel like a princess (gag, I know, so cliche, but it's true), and I so wanted my best friend to feel the same way! Thankfully, when I laced her up on the morning of the wedding, it looked beautiful and fit way better than I had thought it would when looking at the trial pictures. When Elaine's mother walked into the dressing room, she said that I would have to make her granddaughter's (Elaine's niece) wedding dress. Um. While I love that she trusts me that much, I'm not in any hurry to make another wedding dress! Thankfully, said granddaughter has at least a decade to go before even thinking about marriage.

Right after the excitement of finding out that the dress fit, there was the excitement of the first look! I love how obviously happy they both are.

The wedding day itself went very smoothly -- the ceremony was beautiful and there were lots of LOTR references throughout, the weather was just right and the food was plentiful and delicious. Nikki (the third member of our little high school best friends trio) and I didn't drop the chuppah or giggle too terribly much during our speeches. All the guests loved Elaine's dress and couldn't believe that I had made it (frankly, I was having trouble with that idea too!), and suggested that I go on Project Runway. Ha! All of you fellow sewasauruses know just how funny that compliment is.

You can see my back as I hold the chuppah pole.

Okay, maybe I did giggle a lot during the speech-making.

Summary:
Pattern: Simplicity 5006 for the corset and skirt, but significantly modified to get the look Elaine wanted. I draped the lace overskirt myself, no pattern used.
Fabric: Six yards of eggplant-colored satin for the corset and top layer of the skirt, five yards of cream-colored satin for the underskirt and corset binding, two yards of gold lace, all from Joann's (see, you can make nice things from big box fabric stores!), one yard of cotton coutil from from Richard the Thread for the corset's strength layer, 0.75 yards of IKEA Cecilia cotton fabric for the corset's floating lining.
Notions: 3" wide elastic for the skirt, 5 yards of 1/4" ribbon for gathering the side seams on the skirt and lace overskirt, 6 yards of 3/4" cream ribbon for lacing the corset, gold floral Venice lace appliques for the corset, 9 yards of gold venice lace for the corset and skirt trim, size 0 brass grommets, heat-shrink tubing for tipping the bones, and a 14" antique brass busk and a few yards of spiral steel boning, both from Richard the Thread.
Techniques: Tipping steel bones with heat shrink tubing, making a corset with a floating lining layer, inserting a steel busk, deep breathing, and learning to identify cognitive distortions (the corset might spontaneously combust in transit! it might fall apart on the wedding day! Elaine might hate me and regret asking me to make her dress!)
Number of fittings: I measured Elaine back in January, made a muslin of the corset for her to try when she was here for the TORN Oscar party, had a skirt fitting in March so that I would know where to hem it, and that was pretty much it. Although she tried on the corset in Tucson, it wasn't really a fitting since the corset was all done except for the applique.
Hours: Over fifty, spread out over a few months.
Will I make it again? Can you hear my hysterical laughter? No, but really, I actually quite like the Simplicity 5006 pattern, and might one day make it myself for costume purposes. Not anytime soon, though.
Total cost: $180 in materials, not counting tools like the snips I got for cutting boning or the tungsten file for smoothing the edges. I also have enough purple satin and gold lace leftover that I *might* be able to squeeze out a fake-Laurel. Elaine paid me to make the dress, and considering that the original inspiration dress was about $800, I don't think I ended up saving her much money. But as she very graciously said to me, she would rather the money went to me than some other random person.
Final thoughts: The whole way back home after the wedding, I couldn't stop exclaiming over and over to Mr. Cation 1) how relieved I was that it fit, 2) how great it looked, and 3) how happy I was that Elaine was happy with it. Seriously, you guys, I was like a broken record, which probably wasn't very pleasant to listen to since we were stuck in some awful traffic and only just barely made it in time to catch our flight back to TCOCC to give Walnut his dinner. Anyway, let me just say it again: I am so incredibly pleased with how it all turned out! And now, theoretically, I shouldn't be scared of welt pockets, but we'll see how that actually pans out...

Besides Elaine's dress, I also made the LOTR-inspired ketubah, which turned out very nicely after about ten hours of work and $35 worth of materials.

I also had the pleasure of making the bridal bouquet:

Tulips!

Nikki and I stole the bouquet to take fake prom pictures.

It was suggested that I might as well have made the cake, but no, Studio Cake took care of that nicely:

Books with cat toppers! Elaine and her husband have two cats, Cactus and Prickles (since, you know, Tucson), so this was just perfect.

As for my own outfit...everyone kept asking if I had made that as well, but I explained that no, after making Elaine's outfit, I had no time or energy (or desire) to make my own. I ended up wearing a thrifted Frederick's corset and a thrifted chiffon skirt (originally part of my Bellatrix costume); throw in some Forever 21 jewelry and I had my bridesmaid outfit for less than $35! It seemed a little wrong to wear a cheap, ill-fitting plastic-boned corset made in China when I had made a "real" one with steel boning and custom fit, but then the bride's the important one!

Congratulations, Elaine! Thanks for trusting me to make your dress!

Historical Sew Fortnightly: Literature

2013-05-19T19:36:00.003-07:00

One of the best things about having siblings is that they get you. Having presumably grown up with the same parenting, environment, and influential books, there's a great comfort in knowing that they understand where you're coming from. For Emily and I, one of those things we share is a borderline obsessive knowledge of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. I started Emily on these books pretty early, making her practice her reading skills in kindergarten by reading aloud to me while I washed dishes (it's like the poor man's audiobook). In the years since then, we've read those books so many times, the covers of our paperback editions (which I've had since a particularly gratifying fourth grade book fair day) are ready to fall off, and the pages have fruit juice stains from the many times that we've enjoyed apples/plums/grapes while reading (is there anything so glorious as a good book and a juicy piece of fruit?). Whenever we get together, we take delight in being able to work quotes from the books into everyday conversation at appropriate times. Somehow, Farmer Boy is the book that gets quoted the most. So when I saw that one of the HSF challenges was to recreate a something from a book, I knew exactly what I wanted to make. It's not as grand as some of the other garments I was considering (Mary Ingalls' going-to-college dress, Sara Crewe's rose-colored dancing gown, anything from Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Gone With the Wind, or all of Austen's works), but this was simple to make and actually fits multiple pieces of literature!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never specifically describes Sherlock Holmes as wearing a deerstalker hat, but he mentions at times that the detective wore a "close-fitting cloth cap" and a "ear-flapped travelling cap." Because of this description, Sidney Paget, the original illustrator, drew a deerstalker, as it was the only style of hat of the time that fit both descriptions.

Some of Sidney Paget's illustrations of Sherlock on the go. [source]

Like SH's hat, a deerstalker is never specifically mentioned in Farmer Boy, but Wilder twice describes a style of cap that might be a deerstalker. Almanzo's cousin Frank has one that he boasts is from New York and costs fifty cents, and he shows how the ear flaps can be buttoned around the chin, or flipped up to button on top. Almanzo and his brother are both jealous. Later in the book, Almanzo gets a similar hat for Christmas: "The plaid cloth was machine-woven. So was the lining. Even the sewing was machine-sewing. And the ear-muffs were buttoned over the top. Almanzo yelled. He had not even hoped for such a cap."

My ear flaps flipped up, and posing with my magnifying equipment.

This toy microscope was actually a freebie from a science teacher fair.

Side view of the hat...looks pretty real!

The button on the top is my favorite little bit!

It's like I'm some kind of weird headless mannequin.

I still had a bit of this brownish-gray plaid leftover from my Mad Men dress and Clovers, and it's definitely machine-woven, so it was perfect for this HSF literature-inspired project. The lining is just some IKEA cotton fabric, and the while my flaps don't button, they can be tied under the chin or over the top. And best of all, Almanzo's cap is specifically described as machine-sewn, so I don't even have to apologize for not stitching this by hand! However, given that my machine threw a fit about sewing through so many layers of fabric and interfacing, I might have done better to sew it by hand (or with pliers!).

This gray leaf print seemed like an appropriate fabric for an outdoorsy hat.

I may decide to cut the aglets off of the shoelace tips so that it's less obviously anachronistic, but for now it's nice not to worry about fraying.

Summary:
Pattern: I used Tanit-Isis' sunhat pattern to do the crown (with 1/3" seam allowances), then traced off a baseball cap for the brims (download pattern here). The ear flaps are just a shortened, rounded version of the crown pieces. While I just winged the construction, I later found these instructions for Simplicity 2517 online if you need more guidance on making your own deerstalker.
Fabric: less than 1/3 yard of plaid, even less of the cotton lining.
Notions: a shoelace, a 7/8" covered button, craft-weight interfacing for the brims (which could probably still stand to be heavier.
Hours: 4, sadly. I managed to botch the lining seam allowances so badly that I ended up cutting a seventh piece to make up the difference in circumference. Then I managed to very meticulously sew the lining the wrong side up, so I had to go back and unpick and repin everything. I also stitched in the ditch by hand to attach the lining to the hat at the seams so that it would stay put.
Will you make it again? Does one need more than one death frisbee? Yeah, I didn't think so.
How historically accurate is it? Polyester and shoelaces and craft-weight interfacing are definitely not historically accurate materials, but the general look is right, I think...deerstalkers haven't changed much since Victorian times, and mine wouldn't look terribly out of place in the late nineteenth century until someone saw the shoelace aglets. Since I'm not working for a museum and this is just an excuse to make fun things, I'm not bothered. I'm at theatrical costumer level at best.
Total cost: I'm going to count this as more or less free, since I used all stash materials.
Final thoughts: I suppose by making this hat at home, I sort of defeated the purpose of recreating Almanzo's Christmas cap, which is specifically store-bought. Still, this ridiculous hat makes me as happy as he was on that long ago Christmas morning. Will I ever wear it for anything other than a costume event? Probably not. But I can sleep knowing that should I ever want to have a coordinated 1960s secretary/detective outfit, I could do it!

And just because I love Benedict's Sherlock:

"What kind of hat is it anyway? Is it a cap? Why has it got two fronts?"

"How do you stalk a deer with a hat? What are you going to do, throw it?"

"Some sort of death frisbee?"

"It's got flaps. Ear flaps! It's an ear hat, John!"

Those Elusive Four-Leaf Clovers

2013-05-15T23:49:00.002-07:00

If this were a fashion blogger's outfit post, it'd be considered pretty boring: neutral-colored slim-fit trousers, countered with a more intense color near the face and a lace collar for interest. But I'm not a fashion blogger, and this standard work outfit is exciting because it's entirely me-made! Okay, I didn't crochet the lace collar, but still, it's exciting to have made some very sensible basics.

I need to make some new underthings that don't leave lines under my clothes!

Despite having made successful slim-fit pants before, it's been long enough that I've re-built up all my previous anxiety about fitting my bottom half. My orange trousers were wide-legged enough that I wasn't super concerned, and besides, there was no fly-front. Somehow, the combination of an unmodifiable center front seam and my weirdly shaped legs makes me lose all confidence. Oh, and let's throw in an untested pattern for good measure! Better yet, let's make it a pattern that's notorious for funky fit and requiring multiple muslins, the Colette Clovers. And the icing on the cake, of course, is messing with the pattern by throwing in a fly front.

Not that you can really tell it's a fly front, even close-up -- I did that good a job on thread-matching for the topstitching.

I've only ever made one Colette pattern before, and that was the free Sorbetto tank; that simple top required so many changes that I pretty much gave up on Colette patterns as being drafted for an entirely different body type, hence my refusal to buy the Laurel (plus I already had a shift dress pattern in the stash). Still, I figured pants might not be as bad, plus the pattern was free (generously gifted to me by Ms. McCall of Brown Paper Pattern)! In the end, I ended up not making as many changes as I was afraid I would need to. These pants aren't perfect, but they're not bad for a wearable muslin. Here's my list of alterations:

I made them fly-front instead of side zipper pants, using pattern pieces and directions from McCall's 6610.
Knowing how bubbly the darts would be in this unpressable mystery fabric, I omitted them and took out the difference from the center back seam instead. I think it worked pretty well, and I'm now pretty convinced that I don't ever need darts again.
I majorly smoothed out the hip curve, as they were slightly ridiculous. It was like bloomers or jodhpurs or something similar.
I also took out a bunch of width from the inseams, up to 1.5 inches on both the front and the back, tapering to nothing at the knee.
I took in the back side seams by about 1.5 inches at the mid thigh, tapering to nothing at the knees. Essentially, my back side seam is just a straight line down from the waist to the knee.
The curve of the waistband just didn't look right to me, plus it was made for the side zipper, so I subbed in the Sewaholic Thurlow trouser waistband. I felt slightly wrong, mixing my indie pattern company pieces, but the Thurlow waistband worked just beautifully. I faced it with a little bit of this nautical print Japanese cotton that I got in Birmingham on my UK trip a couple years ago, because it matched the seam binding so nicely.

Pretty insides!

I still think the back fit needs work, since there are all these wrinkles (fish-eye dart adjustment, maybe?), and the grainline is off on the front because of all my adjustments. The front under-crotch is slightly baggy too, but all in all it's not worse than any of my RTW pants. Hah! now there's a dubious compliment if there ever was one! I thought the whole point of sewing was to get better than RTW fit. Oh well. I guess the trick is to psych myself up for another pair before too much time goes by, that way I can really work on the fit while things are fresh in my mind.

Sometimes the back looks okay, depending on how I'm standing...

...and sometimes it's drag line city. Yikes.

At least the back waistband actually fits! No plumber's crack or gaping when I bend over.

As for the top, it's made from sweater knit rescued from my first failed Drape Drape top, simply re-cut into a cap-sleeve fitted top using my knit tee block. Since the sweater knit was so sproingy and unpressable, I decided against my standard knit neckband and instead finished it with some leftover rayon bias tape. It was looking pretty boring, though, so I added the lace collar at Mr. Cation's recommendation. I'm finally getting with the trend of collared everything!

I just now realized while looking at this picture that the cutouts on the collar are little stars!

Rayon bias tape made from the remnants of this dress' fabric, cotton crochet lace collar whipstitched on by hand.

Summary:
Fabric: The remaining 1.5 yards of this stretchy gray-brown plaid I had left after making my Mad Men dress. They work beautifully for these pants since they've got excellent stretch and recovery, while still being quite stable. I used As a result, these pants are uber comfortable. The sweater knit is probably acrylic, about a yard.
Notions: 3.5" metal jeans zipper, hooks and eyes and a metal snap for the fly front closure, lots of seam binding. The lace collar is from Wholeport.com. They don't seem to have this style anymore, but there are some other cute ones!
Hours: The top took about an hour, the pants were more like 10+. I lose track when things take more than a few days to make.
Will you make it again? I theoretically want to, in order to fix the fit! There's so much potential here, but after a certain point you can't change the wearable muslin anymore because you've run out of seam allowance and/or patience. And the knit tee block I've already used a gazillion times, so that's a for sure.
Total cost: The whole outfit was less than ten dollars ($2 for the collar, $2 for the sweater knit, $5 for the pants, and miscellaneous other notions)
Final thoughts: I can't think of anything else to say that I haven't already, but generally I like it? These are the kind of separates that are so basic that it's hard to drum up too much excitement. I'm pretty pleased to use up more stash fabric, though...the pants are even stretchy, so while they may not be knit, per se, they're still kind of in the vein of the month's challenge??

I have to remind myself that most people don't look at me and think about the crotch curve adjustments I should have made. Nope, that's just me, sneakily staring at people's nether regions while trying to figure out how their pants fit.

I think it's funny that these pants are called Clovers, since three-leafed versions abound (pretty good fit, definitely acceptable), but the four-leafed version (looks absolutely amazing and as drag-line free as the the modeled photos on the site) is pretty rare. Okay, that's a pretty belabored and cheesy metaphor. The question now is, do I keep working on this pattern, or try tracing my own from pants that already fit me? When I compared the crotch curve on the Clovers to my favorite RTW pants, they were pretty drastically different. The Clovers look more like the "official" crotch curve pictures in all the sewing books I own (less pronounced J in front, almost an L in the back), but I like the less-curved crotch curve fit of my RTW pants. Maybe I just don't know how pants should fit? Anyway, I bought myself the Craftsy Jeanius course to copy my favorite jeans since it was on sale last weekend, but I know myself and I don't think I have the patience/stamina/meticulousness required for Kenneth King's couturier directions. I think I'll give the haphazard pinpricking method a try first...

May Stashbusting: The Mint and Silver Dragee Tiramisu

2013-05-13T09:21:00.001-07:00

Five months between pattern purchase and finished garment is not really that long a time. I've got some patterns in my stash that have been lingering unmade for years, but considering how excited I was for Cake Patterns' first release, well, this dress is somewhat overdue.

I really wanted to take pictures wearing the Tira while eating actual tiramisu, but that didn't work out. Instead, you'll have to settle for this gorgeous house in Kensington in San Diego at sunset.

Since mint is a color that is also a food/flavor (and apparently there's at least one food blogger that's made a mint tiramisu), I ran with the concept and dubbed the gray sparkly stripes the silver dragees.

OH HEY GUESS WHAT IT'S A MAXI TIRA!

Isn't it gorgeously long and flowy?

The skirt just hits my instep in front, and skims the ground in the back.

I started sewing this dress with some of my earlier excitement tempered by the reviews from other sewing bloggers -- it seems that in the smaller sizes, there are more issues with getting a good fit in the bodice, and having to take in the side seams significantly seems common, too. Of course, the day after I finished the dress, Steph posted a list of corrections for the smaller sizes that will be in the second edition. I love that she actually took the time to read all the reviews and make those changes! However, they came too late for me...but I did end up making some of those changes myself, so I know I'm on the right track.

Even with all the changes, still no gaping!

Based on my measurements and some of the finished garments I saw floating around the blogiverse, I cut a 30 for the high bust, an A cup, and a 25 waist. While my waist isn't actually 25 inches, the instructions helpfully suggest going down a size for a tighter fit, which is what I wanted. I was also really pleased to have stripe guidelines on the pattern pieces; in the past, when I've made garments with chevrons, I had to be extra careful and think long and hard about which way the stripes were going to end up before cutting (and even so, I may have cut a few pieces backwards), so it was nice to have that thinking done for me already!

I am so proud of these chevrons!

Changes I made: Besides the obvious change of making a maxi (my skirt ended up being 38" long, instead of the prescribed 24"), I also ended up

omitting the bust gathers,
adjusting the center notch placement so that it didn't overlap quite so much in the middle,
bringing the side seams in by another inch on each side, but then my jersey was very stretchy and quite thin.
When I tried on my bodice without the skirt, there was some weird wrinkling/dragging at the shoulders, and even when I pulled the midriff down to mimic the weight of the skirt (make sure you do that!), there was still a weird bubbly dip. I realized that it was because of the slight convexity of the shoulder seam; my shoulders must be really wide since they didn't hit anywhere near the supposed shoulder location of the pattern! I just made the shoulder seam a straight line and that took care of most of the problem.
Because of the weight of the skirt, the zigzag stitching started pulling apart a bit at the center front and back and the side seams, so I actually went back and added an inch of regular straight stitch in those four locations. This doesn't seam to have affected the overall stretchiness of the waist much, as I can still pull it over my head just fine.
At the recommendation of many of the reviews, I added the sleeve band after sewing the side seams, as I think it looks neater that way.
I also didn't bother hemming the skirt, since, well, floor length circle skirt hem in jersey = slightly worse than sewing over beads and breaking needles.
Even though Cake Patterns prides itself on always having pockets, I left mine out since the jersey is quite thin and the skirt is already quite heavy.

It's hard to say what my favorite thing is about this dress -- I love the colors, the wide stripes, the chevrons, the silhouette, the twirliness of the circle skirt...this might be one of my favorite makes ever!

Mr. Cation: you look like a flamenco dancer! Me: Is that a good thing? Mr. Cation: I dunno, that's just what you look like.

Weeee!!!

Twirly pic spam!

Check out my impeccable stripe matching at the skirt side seams too! The bodice, not so much.

Summary:
Fabric: 4 yards of 60" jersey knit in mint/silver stripes. The silver stripes were annoying because they're actually woven through with tiny metallic tinsel threads which kept catching on my walking foot's upper feed dogs. I actually ended up abandoning the walking foot when it made stripe matching worse than my regular foot.
Notions: None! I'm toying with the idea of going back and adding elastic to the waist, but I don't have any of the correct size right now.
Hours: Four hours, with one devoted to cutting...spreading out that much fabric in our apartment had to happen in installments. Fitting the bodice and fiddling with the walking foot also took some time, but now that I have those issues figured out, future (non-maxi) makes should go much faster.
Will you make it again? Yes! Like I said, I'm a fan of the chevrons, the surplice bodice, and the cap sleeves. I even traced my size onto tissue paper so as to keep the pattern intact in case I want to make it for anyone else; I'm that enamored of how good it looks on a multitude of shapes and sizes. When I make this again, I do want to raise the underarm seam a smidge, though, since it pulls just a bit when I raise my arms.
Total cost: $4...gosh, I love Michael Levine Loft.
Final thoughts: In case you couldn't tell, I adore this dress. I've said before that the reason why I love maxi skirts is that they're the closest you can come to playing dress-up while still looking like a normal person, and the swooshiness of this dress is no exception! I love how the top is so sleek while the hem is so full, and the colors are just enough to be special without being over the top. The fabric is light enough that it almost hovers in the air around me as I walk, instead of getting tangled. Okay, enough gushing; I could go on for a while if I let myself. Thanks, Steph, for making such a fantastic pattern!

Okay, just one more whirling dervish picture to properly show my joy at this dress.

I've still got enough fabric leftover to make a top or a skirt -- but do I really need another dolman sleeve top? Probably not...but thankfully, EmSewCrazy and I have collected a bunch of project ideas for knits on our May Stashbusting board...check it out if you haven't already! And if you're scared of sewing with knits, consider this month's challenge a good reason to tackle them. Here are some good tutorials for starting on stretch fabric sewing. In the words of Thor, have at thee, stretch fabrics!

My Mother's Qipao

2013-05-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

I admire my mother for so many reasons, including but not limited to the fact that she supported her family as a teenager by working in a garment factory, that she taught me to use a sewing machine, and made the dress of my dreams for my elementary school graduation. She's a gorgeous, strong woman, and when I was a child I used to watch her get dressed up for banquets and hope that one day I would be old enough to wear her dresses. Unfortunately, now that I'm old enough, I've turned into a fashion snob and have no desire to wear 80s dresses. Somehow, they never seem to mention that part in those sentimental YA novels about mother-daughter relationships. Still, there are a couple dresses from before I was born (the 70s fashions are much more acceptable to me) that she's kept, and when I was home last, I came across a silk qipao that I've seen before in her old pictures.

I love how deliciously vintage that couch is.

These were taken back in Hong Kong.

The qipao is actually made from a very thin and delicate material and the snaps are starting to pull at the silk a bit, but is otherwise in very good condition. I'm not usually a fan of pink and purple together, but I tried it on anyway.

I tried for the whole standing near a window thing.

Also I didn't iron it beforehand.

And I don't have awesome silver stilettos.

So yeah, Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I celebrated by stealing your dress for some pictures.

I love that I'm actually old enough now to wear this dress (she also found her wedding reception dress, but it's too late for me to wear that to get married in!), but I'm still sad that my favorites of her old clothing are long gone. Which brings me to my next long-term project (and it's going to a looooong one, since I'm in no hurry, I just like the idea of it): making my own versions of my mom's wardrobe from the 70s! I've got the wide-legged trousers covered, and there are a couple of bohemian-ish dresses that I love. Good thing there's no shortage of 70s patterns in my stash...

DIY Anthropologie Fail!

2013-05-10T00:48:00.002-07:00

I've been wanting to join in the Spring Top Sewalong over at Made by Rae, so I started looking for some inspiration. I spotted Anthropologie's Spotted Peasant Blouse (ha! see what I did there?) while browsing Pinterest, and got all excited because I had a similar-ish spotted chiffon in my stash. I set out to whip up a top for myself, although I should have known that poly-chiffon does not lend itself to whipping. More like swearing, gnashing of teeth, rending of clothing, etc. Although, compared to the beaded and crinkled chiffon, this perfectly smooth stuff was a breeze. Of course, I had to complicate matters by deciding that I wanted to change the neckline and do a half-placket instead of fussing with binding that little keyhole detail and turning a tiny tube. I quickly sketched up a blouse shape, cut out my pieces, and went about French seaming everything. I was so confident, I went ahead and sewed everything without 1) making sure the top would fit based on my measurements, 2) trying it on as I sewed, or 3) stepping back to give myself some perspective.

You don't look particularly happy there.

Yes, I was addressing my photo self in the previous caption.

Okay fine, I'll fake a smile.

And like I said, chiffon tops do not whip up. After I'd more or less finished, I realized that my placket did not come out as neatly and professionally as I somehow imagined it was coming out while I was caught up in the sewing spree. Even starched within an inch of its life, it still came out looking decidedly Becky Home-Ecky. Even worse, when I tried the top on, I realized that it was way too tight in the shoulders. That's what I get for slapdash patterning.

Up close, the placket is messy, and it wants to flop open to accommodate my wide shoulders.

The only thing I could think of to widen the top was to cut a slit in the back and guess what -- bind that opening and make a tiny tube. I'm pretty sure that's a situation that belongs in Alanis Morisette's "Ironic" song, although possibly "it's like having to make 1/4" self-fabric bias binding and turn a narrow tube out of non-creasing poly-chiffon when you specifically set out to avoid such a situation" doesn't have quite the same ring as "it's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife."

Even when I sewed the tiny tube on, I made it too long, so I had to tie a tiny knot in it. *sigh* This top is just full of fail.

And worst part is, after all that fussing, I still don't like the blouse. It hangs funny even with all the modifications, I'm constantly readjusting it every time I raise my arms, it's an awkward color to match, and it's non-breathing polyester in a summer top. I know it looks okay to the casual observer, but I just feel uncomfortable in it. So, off to the donation pile it is! I guess that's one way to bust a stash...

Awkward face to go with the awkward arm-raising. See all the weird pulling? Yuck.

Stashbusting Vibrant Color Challenge Winner!

2013-05-08T18:55:00.002-07:00

I'm pretty sure if your blog handle is "The Amazing Taracat," it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. This goldfish appliqued Laurel dress was by far and away the winner of April's stashbusting challenge.

If you haven't checked out the details of this amazing dress (those sequin bubbles make me swoon), go take a gander and then see if you don't want to join me on the fainting couch. And I promise I didn't rig the vote just because her blog's named after a cat!

Even though the AP Exams are over (for me, at least...they're still going on for other subjects for another week and a half), I'm still busy getting things done for Elaine's wedding. I've been making good progress on the ketubah, though!

I haven't done any watercolor painting since freshmen year of high school, so needless to say, I was a little nervous doing this. I know, I know, it's just a basic wet-on-wet graduated wash, but controlling the colors got a little dicey since it's such a large area. Real painters may laugh, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out! The Durin's Door design was drawn on with a gold marker pen, which went quickly since I was just tracing over the lines I transferred on before.

A closer look at the San Francisco cityscape that's hanging out between the trees: the Palace of Fine Arts rotunda, the Ferry Building, the Japantown thing, the Transamerica Building, the Coit Tower, and of course, the Golden Gate Bridge!

Since it didn't really make sense to have the emblems of Durin in the middle, I designed these two kissing elvish-style cats (Elaine and her fiance are cat people too, and have a couple of them!) and added an open book (they're also into reading and learning). I also subbed out the runes at the top for their actual initials.

Still to come: the most important calligraphy I've ever done before!

My color and font size experiments.

Historical Sew Fortnightly: Flora and Fauna

2013-05-06T23:42:00.000-07:00

While I like my feminine dresses as much as the next lady, never before have I sewn a frock that deserves so much to be called a confection. Between the chiffon overlay, the beading, the embroidery, and the lacy pink satin slip, this is definitely more frou-frou than anything I've ever sewn before!

I tried to follow American Duchess' 1920s makeup tutorial, but I don't think it worked so well...mostly because the idea of wearing that much eyeliner freaked me out. I don't usually wear any makeup, so when I came out of the bathroom, I think Mr. Cation was kind of shocked.

Extremely anachronistic Nine West silver stilettos, because I don't own any other light-colored shoes. These are actually from my wedding, and this is the first time I've worn them since then! The feather clip on my head sash is also from my wedding, originally purchased at Claire's, and then my necklace is from Forever 21. Hello, "flapper" look from the mall!

I love the way the bottom hem turned out, even if I accidentally broke three needles on beads while doing it. I was not wearing eye protection because it didn't occur to me, since, you know, I wasn't actually working with steel boning, and one needle tip actually flew up and hit my cheek. Yikes!

I used to think that 1920s fashions were the most unflattering styles ever, what with the straight bodices with little to no shaping and the dropped waists. But just like 19-teens era fashion, Downton Abbey has won me over and I just had to make an evening dress that would be appropriate for a party in West Egg. Besides, the Great Gatsby movie's coming out this week!

To get the ~~shapeless~~ gamine look, I wore a sports bra underneath the slip.

I actually used to hate The Great Gatsby as a novel, too, but a second reading, a decade after high school English class, really helps me to appreciate it a lot better. Something about not having to finish it, along with homework for other AP classes, and write an essay at the end...

It was so bright outside that the embroidery and beading got kind of lost. Here's a better picture of what it looks like in person. Much pinker than the outdoor photos!

I originally wanted to make an 1840s-ish gown for this HSF challenge, but decided that between Elaine's wedding preparations and the AP Exams, I should probably hold off on such a complicated project. I turned instead to this embroidered and beaded crinkle chiffon, which was originally purchased with the intention of making a Titanic evening dress when I was still in the middle of Season 1 of Downton Abbey. That never happened, but thanks to the progression of time in the Downton world, this is still appropriate for an evening dinner party there!

I decided that the sash tied at the side was totally a thing. For example, these extant gowns.

To start with, and to ease myself into slippery fraytastic fabric sewing, I made a pink satin slip to go under the very sheer chiffon. Thanks to Lauren, the American Duchess, for the very easy tutorial!

1920s slips are not flattering, but I did my best to pretty it up. I was inspired by these two extant slips, which are much more elaborate, of course. I figured that it was okay since the slip would be mostly hidden.

To make the overdress, I started by looking at the 1923-25 evening dress in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion. It's got no shaping (side seams go straight down, no darts) and is essentially a giant tank-top. I went with that general shape (but graded down for my size) for the bodice, but I was afraid that a straight-down side seam for the entire dress would be more unflattering than necessary. Fortunately, there are plenty of examples (from both sewing patterns and extant gowns) of straight bodices with fuller skirts, either through the use of godets or gathered rectangles. I didn't want to deal with either of those options because of the fussiness of my fabric, so I opted for a fraction of a circle-ish skirt, like these sewing patterns or this dress. I put together the front and back bodice and skirt pieces, then sewed them together at the shoulder and sides by machine, and finally hand-overcast the seam allowances to make them as unobtrusive as possible. The worst part by far, though, was trying to finish the armscyes and neckline with self-fabric bias binding; crinkle chiffon is the worst fabric ever, and yet I persist in using it for some reason. Even with all of Andrea's tips, I couldn't get it to behave! Between the crinkles, the general chiffon shiftiness, and the beads on the fabric, I ended up with the wiggliest bindings ever. To camouflage some of the worst of it on the neckline, I added a couple rows of extremely ugly beading. Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking.

You can see how crinkly the chiffon is here. Also my hand finished seam allowance, which almost turned into a rolled hem due to the lightness of the chiffon.

It's like I was drunk when I sewed on the beads, except I totally wasn't.

Summary:
HSF Challenge #9: Flora and Fauna...I've got the flora thing going on in the embroidery, and I guess the feather clip can be the fauna? I didn't make the clip, though.

Fabric: For the slip and sash, 2 yards of dusty-rose polyester satin; for the overdress, 3.5 yards of 45" wide polyester crinkle chiffon in cream, embroidered and beaded with a floral pattern. I didn't include these in my stashbusting pledge pile, but both have been in the stash since Oonaballoona and I ripped off the FIDM scholarship store, so I'm pretty pleased to have used it.
Notions: Cream-colored 1/2" polyester ribbon for the slip straps, cream-colored lace from last year's Vintage Fashion Expo, almost 300 silver bugle beads for the overdress neckline (which I've saved for six years...thereby rewarding my penchant for never throwing away any craft supply ever)
Techniques used: French seams on the slip, hand-overcast stitch on the overdress
Hours: About thirty? I don't even know anymore, I've been working on it so long. I managed to watch a good chunk of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, all of North and South, and listen to a whole bunch of Radiolab podcasts.
Will you make it again? Extremely unlikely. I'm pleased with the overall experience and dress, but I'm not in need of more 1920s evening dresses!
Total cost: Thanks to the FIDM's mistake and the LA Fabric District's prices, less than $15!
First worn: Just for pictures, but hopefully to see the movie when it comes out
Final thoughts: When I was walking out of the apartment to take pictures, I felt super glamorous, and as a bonus the whole thing is remarkably comfortable. I am incredibly pleased with this dress and how successfully I was able to get the general look of the era, despite the anachronistic materials and accessories! As for those who might turn up their noses at the polyester and less-than-stellar beading, well, all I can say is, "Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had." In this case, that would be the advantage of beading lessons and a large enough pocketbook for authentic materials?

And because B&W automatically equals old-timey...I did my best to channel my inner Anna May Wong, despite the failings of my make-up application:

Do I Need to Design a Flag, Then?

2013-05-06T21:20:00.003-07:00

If I had a flag, I would plant it on this blog to claim it. "For Walnut and geekery!"
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

In other news, congratulations to The Liveaboard, winner of the little shaving thingamajiggy! Send me an email at cationdesignsblog [at] gmail.com with your address so that I can send it your way.

Lastly, if you haven't voted on your favorite vibrantly-colored stashbusting project, you've still got a day to do so! Everyone gets one vote, and you need to click on the "vote" button above the project of your choice. Incidentally, don't vote for me! I only put my link in as an example.

And just so this post isn't totally pictureless, here's what my rough draft and transfer for Elaine's ketubah look like:

Apologies for the terrible lighting...it was a dark and stormy night.

May the Fourth

2013-05-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's Star Wars Day! Considering that that was the first geeky trilogy I fell in love with, I figured it was appropriate to dress Walnut up to celebrate the occasion (Walnut, on the other hand, may have disagreed). Since he's all brown and hairy and thinks with his stomach, well, it was pretty obvious who he had to cosplay as...

"Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?"

Walnut loves punching and attacking straws. They're like his mortal enemy or something. If he sees one in a glass or soda cup, he will go out of his way to seize it and chew it to death.

It's almost as if they had enslaved his ancestors or something, just like the Empire with the Wookiee home planet of Kashyyyk. I mean, look at that face of intense hatred!

What did I tell you?

A Wookiee in a berserker rage is a fearsome sight.

So into it, he doesn't care that his bandolier strap has fallen off.

So yeah, it's not wise to upset a Wookiee.

I made the strap out of some leftover 1" brown cotton webbing and fleece straps.

Step 1: Zigzag stitch two strips of webbing together to make a wider strap.

Step 2: Butt the ends of the strap together at a right angle and zigzag stitch it together. Cut out a bunch of white fleece rectangles and glue them on.

Step 3: Stitch a piece of brown ribbon down the center.

After all his exertions against the evil Straw Empire, Walnut is exhausted.

Cats and Wookiees -- both fiercely loyal and cuddly-looking, but let them win unless you want your arms torn off.

Bonus: Walnut does his best bantha pose.

Happy May the Fourth, everyone!

Polyester Pillage Getting You Down?

2013-05-01T22:40:00.002-07:00

Thank you for all of your sweet comments about yesterday's dinosaur dress! I don't know that they necessarily change Mr. Cation's mind about squiring me about town while I'm wearing it, but it's kind of comforting to know that Gingermakes' Man Friend feels the same. It's not just my guy that's put off by Jurassic Park on a dress that "needs" to be belted!

One thing you should know, though -- of all the sheets I've worked with (and I've worked with a lot!), these sheets were probably the worst when it came to polyester content. Usually, modern sheets are 100% cotton or 100% polyester, which makes it easy to tell content from the feel. Sheets from the 80s and before are usually 50/50 poly-cotton, which is not great but not bad either. This 1992 Jurassic Park sheet, though, was 70/30 poly-cotton, which meant that after years of wear by some little kid, it was pilling pretty badly.

I had to play around with the lighting so that you could see the pills, hence the shadowy-ness of the picture.

Seriously, sewasauruses, is there anything worse than low-quality polyester pillage? And by pillage I don't mean raiding a village and burning it to the ground after making off with the sheep and cattle.

To clean it up for actual wearing in public, Mr. Cation's opinions notwithstanding, I used this handy little machine.

See the blades and all the pills collected in the chamber?

I got this gadget from the Japanese dollar store (although everything there is actually more than a dollar, since it's imported from Japan), along with a bunch of other sewing goodies (I love that Japanese stores actually have a sewing and crafts section!). My mom had one of these when I was growing up for shaving sweaters with, and I used to love getting to use it. It's just satisfying to see all those little bits come off your clothing and gather up in the inner chamber, you know? Anyway, I figured that there must be other people out there who have pilly ~~sheets from the 90s~~ clothing, so I bought an extra to give away to one of you! Here's how you can enter:

Leave a comment saying that you're entering the shaving machine giveaway!
Answer the question: what's the worst fabric you've had to rehab in order to make it wearable? I'm imagining red wine vomit, the smell of thrift stores and moth balls, a black fabric after a white cat's slept on it...
You should probably be a follower of my blog to enter. I'm not going to check your credentials, but hey, how else will you know if you've won unless you actually read my blog?

I'll close the giveaway on Sunday night at 11:59 pm PST, and post a winner on Monday! Gaack, that's AP exam day!

So much better! All those colors look so much better when they're not covered with pills. Speaking of color, though, don't forget to enter the April Stashbusting link party!

Incidentally, if you didn't get to those vibrant colors this past month, that's okay, because May is here! May is all about using up the knits in your stash...go check out the details of the challenge over on EmSewCrazy's blog. She also posted some of the standouts from the Flickr Stashbusting group, so take a look and see if you're featured!

The Antisocial Behavior Dress

2013-04-30T10:32:00.001-07:00

If you could do anything humanly possible with complete assurance that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do? We were talking about social influence and deindividuation last week in my AP Psych class, and when presented with the above question, 36% of college students responded with some kind of antisocial activity (e.g. criminal or spying behaviors, with most people actually saying "rob a bank"), 19% cited some other non-normative behavior, 36% neutral, and only 9% of the respondents named a prosocial behavior (Dodd, 1985). I'm pretty sure that of all the responses, 0% of them said "enter a sewing contest without using the official contest pattern."

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've probably heard that Colette Patterns recently released a new sewing pattern, the Laurel shift dress, and not only that, but they sponsored a huge contest with absolutely fabulous prizes. Who wouldn't love all that free money to buy fabric and notions with?! Unfortunately, I'm a cheapskate when it comes to buying sewing patterns. I love the sales at Joann's, but even those are a bit pricey when you can buy vintage patterns for $0.25 each at thrift stores. Which means that when it comes to having to pay over $10 for a pattern...well, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Especially for such a simple shift that I could probably make up on my own. I bid a sad goodbye to thoughts of free Spoonflower fabric of my own ($18/yd, even for my own design, is something I can't justify right now. I'll have to settle for drawing or printing my own), but somehow the idea of a simple shift wouldn't leave me alone! Even though I was pretty underwhelmed when I first saw the Laurel pattern announcement, Debi was right -- contests really do inspire me to rethink my initial assessments of a pattern (or in this case, a look) that I'd previously dismissed as unsuitable for my body type/personal style.

So...what did I finally make for my if-I-could-I-would contest entry? Well, let's just say that velociraptors, especially as depicted in Jurassic Park, are the ultimate in antisocial behavior:

Okay, I know, this isn't a velociraptor*, but it's still pretty awesome to find metal dinosaurs outside a random car wash in TCOCC.

A wash and wax for $9.95! They actually do a pretty good job, as Mr. Cation car can attest.

There was a ~~Sewasaurus~~ Tyrannosaurus Rex too!

I could also wear this on days that I'm feeling particularly introverted, because there's nothing more antisocial than a dress printed all over with ominous words/phrases like "Keep Out! Danger! Caution! Warning!"Also, Mr. Cation swears he will not walk next to me when I wear this in public, so that's even less social interaction...

You mean you don't want to be associated with me? At least Amanda will join me in making dinosaur poses!

When I first received this Jurassic Park sheet in the mail, I was so excited, but I couldn't figure out what to do with such an awesome (and large-scale, and multi-colored) print! Thanks to Brooke, who suggested that I make it into a shift dress with as few interrupting style lines as possible, I decided to make this not-a-Laurel. While I can't exactly enter it into the contest, I still think it would've been a pretty fabulous entry for the showing-off-a-print category.

I started with Simplicity 8722, which I've used in the past, but only with knits. In order to get the more fitted look that I wanted, I ended up making a whole bunch of modifications, taking in the side seams and back (at both the CB seam and by making larger back darts), almost totally redrafting the sleeve, and of course, axing the facings and replacing them with bias strips. Now that I've finally done the work of modifying the pattern, I'm surprised by how much I like the shift dress look! It's simple and classy (as long as you're not using dinosaur sheets from the 90s) and not nearly as awful on my body as I was expecting.

Summary:
Fabric: Just half of a 70/30 poly-cotton twin sheet. I love that shift dresses use so little fabric! This means I still have enough fabric left over to do something else, although I don't know what yet.
Notions: Bias tape for the neckline, seam binding on all the inside bits (there are no raw edges anywhere, because this fabric frayed like fraying was its only goal in life), a 20" zipper, and a hook and eye
Hours: Eight, for all the fiddly fitting and seam binding everything within an inch of its life.
Will you make it again? Now that I've figured out how to wear a shift dress well, you bet I'll be making more! Colette, I'm sorry for ever doubting the brilliance of the Laurel. However, I'm still not paying you $14 for it.
Total cost: Thanks to the generous NYC sewing bloggers, this was a free project! All the notions were in my stash already, but I guess if you had to count how much they originally cost me, I'll say it was $1.
Final thoughts: This might be one of the more ridiculous things I've made. And that's saying a lot, since I've made quite a few ridiculous things in the last couple of years! Unlike the other geeky dresses I've made, which were all a sort of uniform blue with a slightly more subtle print (you wouldn't think they'd be subtle, but I've hung out with people and had them not notice until several hours in that I've got Jedis or superheroes all over my dress), this dress boasts all the primary colors in a huge, blocky print. Dinosaurs just don't do subtle. Still, I think the colors and pattern actually add to the mod 60s look. Hah! Obviously I don't actually know anything about the mod 60s look. At any rate, the nicest thing Mr. Cation could think to say about it (actually, I'm not sure he was trying to be nice...he might have just been confused) was that it looked like a pediatric nurse's scrubs. You know, the kind with teddy bears all over to keep children calm. Well, watch out, children, these terrible lizards aren't even pretending that the shot won't hurt! They're all like caution danger warning this shot is going to hurt like a dinosaur bite. Still, despite all that, this dress makes me really happy because it's just SO WEIRD.

Even better, though? I'm not alone in my weirdness! Gingermakes, of Mood Sewing Network fame, and one of the NYC bloggers who was in on sending me this sheet, kept a JP sheet for herself...and she also made it into a shift dress (but she used the real Laurel...I guess I'm just the Chinese knock-off)! I'm pretty sure that when Andrea announced the S.O.S. challenge, she never thought it would be applied to such fabric. But there you have it, sister fabrics...go check out her make!

At this point, Mr. Cation was like, are we done yet?

*A true-to-life statue of a velociraptor wouldn't be very fun to take pictures with, though, since they're not nearly as scary as the Jurassic Park movie portrayal. As expressed so delightfully in one of my favorite nerdy songs, Hollywood Raptor, velociraptors should be feathered and more or less turkey-sized. Incidentally, The Doubleclicks are an absolutely brilliant pair of sisters who write awesome stuff -- if you're into D&D at all, you'll love This Fantasy World.

DIY Anthropologie: Edisto Wide-Leg Trousers

2013-04-29T17:21:00.001-07:00

When I first started sewing, one of my big motivators was wanting to make my own versions of Anthropologie clothes for much, much cheaper. In fact, that was a big theme of many of my earlier makes, but it's been over a year since I was inspired by anything in their catalogs. I don't know why they got so Bohemian for a while, but I was thrilled to pieces when their latest catalog was suddenly full of things I wanted to make. I love being inspired by their colors and prints, so even though my sewing queue has just doubled in length, I'm (not so) secretly pleased.

In the past, I've only tried to copy their dresses and skirts, so I decided that I should take on the challenge of pants. I mean, now that I've more or less successfully sewn pants and shorts, a whole new world is open to me and I should take advantage of it. Enter the Edisto Linen Wide-Legs in red, gloriously vibrant and with big contrasting buttons on the side. I've been cautiously entertaining the idea of brightly colored pants ever since seeing Erica B's gorgeous coral pair and Sunni's season opener, but wasn't sure if I could pull it off. There's nothing like a hey-look-at-me color on bottom to bring doubt into the mind of a pear-shaped lady, but I had the perfect fabric in my stash, and, well, it's the year of magical doings. If pulling off orange pants isn't magical, then I don't know what is. Also, it's only fabric -- if I don't like the final result, it's not like I was making pants out of baby penguins. So...how did they turn out?

ZOMG red-orange is a ridiculously difficult color to photograph.

I'm in love with these buttons.

My best attempt to mimic the Anthro picture. Not nearly as fun as the Japanese sewing books.

Boom! Butt!

If you look closely at the enlarged picture of the Edisto pants, you can see that besides the side-button feature, they also don't have a waistband or darts at the front -- there's only a line of stitching that gives the suggestion of a waistband, but is more likely just to tack down the facing on the inside. With that in mind, I used OOP Simplicity 4099 as my base pattern, which I won in Leah of Struggle Sews a Straight Seam's giveaway last summer. It has very similar features (no front dart or waistband, wide leg), minus the side buttons, but I figured it would be easy enough to make that part up.

To make the side-button placket, I cut two placketish-looking pieces, finished the edges, and sewed one to each side of the left side opening. On the front pants piece, I pressed the placket under and topstitched it down, then put in five buttonholes. On the back pants piece, I left the placket piece flopping out towards the front, understitched it, tacked on a piece of twill tape to act as a button stand (I recently read this blog post about button stands in historical tailoring, and it made so much sense that I elected to jury-rig one for these pants. It works marvelously and I don't have to worry about my fabric distorting or ripping, and the closure feels deliciously secure), then added my five lovely nautical buttons. I am seriously in love with how this closure looks, plus it puzzled Mr. Cation because he couldn't figure out how the pants came off.

Yaaaay I look eleven feet tall!

Summary:

Fabric: 2 yards of 60" wide, suiting-weight orange wool-blend twill, part of my stashbusting pledge pile. The lady who was cutting it for me at F&S said it had some polyester in it, and it certainly presses that way, and I suspect it's got a bit of Lycra in it as well, since it's slightly stretchy. While the original Anthro pants are a linen-tencel blend, I opted not to use a similar fabric because 1) reviews said that it got really wrinkly, and 2) who am I kidding, I didn't want to go out and buy new fabric. Hopefully the polyester means that these won't get too wrinkly!

Notions: 5 brass anchor buttons from Fabrix in SF, lots of seam binding, thrifted twill tape and 2" hem facing

Techniques used: My first time trying hem weights, thanks to the tip on Erica B's blog post! Seriously, best twenty cents I've ever spent...my pants looked ridiculous and horrible and I was ready to cry about all my wasted time, but then I tried adding in those four nickels and seriously guys, it was like magic. Suddenly everything was hanging a lot better, and these pants were saved from the UFO pile. If your wide leg swingy pants aren't hanging right, TRY IT.

Hours: Eight or so over this past weekend...because right after making and sending off a corset, I felt the need to start (and miraculously, finish) an untried pattern.

Will you make it again? Probably not. I don't think I need any more wide-leg trousers, although these are awfully comfy and swooshily fun in a way that I thought only skirts and dresses could be. I credit the hem weights for adding a certain gravitas when I stalk about purposefully.

Total cost: You're not going to believe this -- less than $4!!! I got the fabric for $1/yard when F&S was cleaning out old inventory, and the buttons were $0.10 each. Add in some seam binding and of course, my four nickels, and I've saved myself $94 off the original price of the Anthro pants. Sewing FTW!!

Final thoughts: When I first walked out of the sewing room to show my husband, he was speechless. I was already afraid that I looked like some negligent prison escapee who'd forgotten to change pants, but then he pronounced them interesting, and that the cut/style was fine, but the color was a little shocking. Finally we decided that I looked like a very stylish member of the Rogue Squadron. I do like them, though, resemblance to various jumpsuits aside, and even though the fit isn't perfect, I'm glad I gave it a try! I still need to work up the courage to wear them out for more than just pictures, though.

See, if I just stand normally, the back is all wrinkly. Not any worse than my RTW work pants, but still...it feels more egregious when it's orange. Also, I opted not to include welt pockets because let's face it, I'm still not mentally ready yet.

That's okay, though, because I'll just stand like this all the time.

I think these actually look pretty similar to 1930s trousers, so these could *almost* be a HSF entry too...I mean, check out these pictures:

Wide legs: check! Side buttons: check! No front darts or waistband: check! Darts on the back with no pockets, check! [source]

Oh hey, these are even orange! [source]

Pretty similar, right? I do find it interesting that the historical versions both end at about ankle-length, which I feel looks pretty weird. I hemmed these to just skim the ground, reasoning that my legs look longer that way. Since most of my height is from my long torso, I feel like the length of the pants + the high waist helps visually even out my proportions a bit.

On that note, it's time to close out Vibrant Color month in the Stashbusting Sewalong! I vowed to use the brightest fabric in my stash this month, and I did...what about you? Let's see your brightly-colored makes from April -- just add your link to the party below.

Also, in case you forgot, April was also a challenge month, which means that we'll be voting for our favorite project, and the lucky winner gets a small surprise in the mail! You've got until the end of the week to add your project, and then voting will start on Saturday, May 4, and end on Tuesday, May 7.

Because I Needed A Break

2013-04-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

After all the corset-making intensity of the last week, I needed a relatively quick, non-stressful project that wouldn't involve taxing my arms anymore. I still managed to prick myself a bit with the felting needle, but it's still much better than accidentally stabbing yourself with an awl.

Dawwww, look at that face!

He's rolling around on his back, hoping for a belly rub!

His big secret: that patch of white on his back is actually rabbit fur, from my friend Cindy's adorable bunny June!

There's not much to say about this addition to the felted cat hair family; it's still the same techniques, and of course, obligatory posing with the original!

Walnut cautiously inspects the new guy.

Poor neutered Walnut with the only progeny he will ever have.

Some people will be pleased to know that there is no longer enough hair in the stash for another felted cat. Of course, Walnut is always shedding more...

Oh what, I have to interrupt my morning lounging in the sun to take more pictures with this guy?

Fine, let's get this over with. Is this pose similar enough for you?

I can destroy you with one paw, tiny doppelganger. Come on and fight me if you dare!