The Daily Skirt

Yeah, so I blew off Na Blow Me.

2011-11-23T09:40:00.001-08:00

(Na Blow Me being short for National Blog Posting Month, of course.)

What can I say? Shit's been happening. But before I blew it off, I lined up a whole bunch of photos so it would be easy to just come in every day and post something. HA! Proved THAT wouldn't work.

Anyway, here's a whole gigantor post with all the other stuff I've made recently, minus two shirts and a dress that I made after photographing the rest of this stuff. Yes, you're welcome, I'm generous that way.

I love this jacket - it's camelhair, scavenged from a really REALLY long coat I made last spring - but I cannot get it to lay flat down on the bottom. It's so cuddly but I think the cuddliness is working against me.

Scavenging fabric does present challenges, particulalry when it comes to having enough fabric for sleeves. I decided to just go with it and topstitch the join, above.

This is another from that jacket pattern with the bias panels on the side. I've got it to lay flat on one side, but you can see it's poking up here on the other. DAMN IT. I'm not undoing it, though. I am just punk rock enough to let it be imperfect.

I LOVE this shirt, it's a great color on me and it makes the most of my stupid short waist, but I had my friend Jen photograph me wearing it and I look for all the world like my sweet aunt Betty. I really do lead with my boobs.

Also the buttons make it look like something I would have bought in the natural-clothing store in Eugene, circa 1989. In fact I think I wore this shirt at that awful Christmas at my father's house.

This was my first shot doing a button shirt without buttonholes (I'm blanking on the names of the little fabric tabs that encircle the buttons), and I really liked it. Making that little cloth tube is super easy.

This is linen and as you might expect, the cowl neck does not work because the linen's so stiff. It gives me a center boob, sort of like a unicorn. Surprisingly, this is not the best look on me.

Above, I left the edges raw but did run a seam about 1/4 in, so that when it unravels in the dryer, it will only make a little tiny soft edge rather and then stop when it hits the seam.

I love this shirt even though I feel like a hospital volunteer when I wear it.

I probably should have worked harder to align the print. Eh, life is fleeting.

Another linen cowl neck in this season's fuschia. LOVE this color. I ended up cutting the cowl neck off this thing and trying to make it work. It sort of does, it sort of doesn't.

Left a raw edge, again. I do like that. It's a little edgy (so to speak).

Side slits. They make for a nice line at the waist, I'm finding.

This is the other half of the camel-hair coat that I scavenged for that buttoned jacket, above. I originally made this duster-length in the spring of 2010 for a business trip to Europe, imagining it covering me like a blanket on the planes and trains I was going to be on.

It did a great job of that, but the Marcy Tilton pattern I took this from was meant for a short jacket, and the extra length just overwhelmed it. So I chopped off the bottom 3 feet and made myself a second jacket.

I do love the neck and shoulder on that pattern. The camel-hair doesn't have enough body to really hold it up - I made this in a melton (I think) in black, and that one's perfect--but I love the gloss of the camel-hair and the topstitching at the neck.

Another of those shirts with the pebbly buttons down the front. Why am I blanking on the name of the technique you use to make button shirts without button holes? I

I am fairly certain that I look insane when I wear this, unless I cover most of it up with a dark green jacket.

In real life, this jacket is not actually on its side.

Black boiled wool makes it feel more like a cardigan. I LOVE these buttons. They're heavy and mixed-metal and awesome, and I would like to hump the leg of whoever designed them.

Although they are pretty heavy.

Jacket from the back. It's another version of that bias-panel number I've been using a lot lately. It's a bit loose on me; I've lost something like 15 pounds in the last month, and I'm having to take in all of these.

OMG do I love this little number. With a red or purple scarf and a pair of black cigarette pants, I am the BOMB. This is another Marcy Tilton pattern, with a sort of box on one side of the design that, left unclosed on that side seam, makes this cool little drape of fabric.

I loved this pattern so much I tried closing the side seam to make a dress of this, rather than a tunic (because that box comes out from the side at about mid-hip, meaning if you wear it like a dress, you're flashing your parts at people), but that ruined the line of the fabric and made it look like I'd made a huge pocket and was hiding a squirrel in there. Not a terribly fetching look, I'm afraid.

Oh, the sheer awesomeness. I feel like a punk goddess when I wear this thing, and I am a 42-year-old white woman living in a cute little house with 2 tiny dogs.

This one's a frankenpattern, sort of Marcy Tilton but without the box thing. In tissue-weight wool that's sort of a cocoa color. I have to wear a cami under it or people can totally see my bra.

Another t-neck from the fabric pattern. I love this one too, except that when I wear it, it looks like I'm supporting the Washington State Cougars, when I live deep in the heart of UW Husky territory.

Another Marcy Tilton. This one doesn't hang as well, but the color's the tits, no?

Above I'm displaying the box.

OMG. I had no idea how much this actually looks like a vulva.

How I wish I were talking about Swedish automobiles.

Also, I needed to piece it together because I didn't have enough fabric. I decided to just go with it and used contrasting threads at the join, front and back.

Day I don't even care any more

2011-11-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

Stay locked in your houses, sheeted in Saran Wrap and dousing yourselves in Purell. You do not want this bug. Here is Day 9, from a shivery, clammy household in Seattle.

This is one of the few exceptions to my self-imposed NaBloMe rule about only posting pictures of things I've made over the last 6-8 weeks. This one, I made last year, but I don't think I ever posted photos of it, so here you go.

It's a rainjacket made of laminated cotton, which means the rain beads right up off it, but it doesn't breathe. I intended it to be a rainjacket for a cycling commute which never really materialized, and then a couple buttons fell off and I put off fixing it and haven't worn it since.

You now know the complete history of this jacket.

Na whatever, day 8

2011-11-08T14:28:00.000-08:00

Felled by a cold, but I managed to finish the purple knit dress before succumbing. Photos when I don't feel like such crap.

In the meantime, I present to you NaBloMe Day 8: an unfinished polyester double-breasted jacket. I LOVED this fabric in the store and once I put it together and saw how poorly it ironed and how richly the seams creased and puckered, I wept in despair, threw a small schnauzer across the room, and gave up on the motherfucker. Who said 40s were the age of wisdom?

NaBloMe Day 7

2011-11-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

Man, do I love this little honey. It's a stretch silk charmeuse, teal green, made from Vogue V9771, cut on the bias (including the sleeves--the pattern didn't call for it, but I felt twisty) and with the really smooth silky side on the inside. That makes it both less shiny on the outside and more luxuious-feeling.

Next up I have embarked on a purple sweater-knit mock wrap dress (McCall's 6163, view A, the one without the doofy sleeves--man, I hate those doofy sleeves--here's the link: http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m6163-products-11278.php?page_id=101&search_control=display&list=search).

This shirt does not hang well, obviously, but thanks to the bias cut, it clings where it ought and is, I think anyway, quite a sexy little number. I'd like to make it up in a blank angora sweater knit, but am not sure what to do about the bias in that case. Would I cut it on the straight of grain and then let the knit do its stretchy thing?

NaBloMe Day 5

2011-11-06T18:49:00.000-08:00

You mean today is SUNDAY? How the hell did that happen? Here is the picture I would have posted yesterday, had I not been shanghai'd and held without my consent at first Elysian and then Leny's, where much much red wine was drunk in the company of three stalwart friends.

This is that same Marcy Tilton pattern, only I cut in an off-center V-neck. It looks like a guitar pick, no?

It's kind of a Miss Havisham thing. I usually tart it upwith big stompy boots. I am also searching high and low for black and white stripey tights or leggings to wear with it, for Maximum Crazy.

NaBloMe Day 6

2011-11-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

Jacket made from a Threads pattern--with a bias side panel that flares out over the hips.

NaBloMe Day 4

2011-11-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

Not the same Marcy Tilton pattern as yesterday (although I think with this Frankenpattern, I took the neck off the Marcy Tilton pattern) but fabulous just the same. This is a very lightweight woolen knit, cream-colored. Makes me feel very soignee.
I also just finished a teal knee-length wool coat, which I'll try to photograph this weekend to post at some point during NaBloMe (Eden's term for National Blog Posting Month). I love it even though, with its perhaps excessive lime-green piping, it probably looks like some kind of winter Disneyland costume. Eh, people ought to know what they're getting when they see me coming. It's just good advertizing.

NaBloMe Day 3

2011-11-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

I LOVE this pattern. It's Marcy Tilton for Vogue, V8582, and I made this the day I quit Microsoft out of a luscious cashmere knit. The pattern is asymmetrical and has a sort of boxy pleat off to the side. It's the coziest thing ever, particularly with a pair of leggings and tall boots. Heart!

Day 2, running late

2011-11-02T16:06:00.001-07:00

I love this jacket, even though the collar is totally fubared. Added a little velvet ribbon to the neck to provide a little swashbuckle. The fabric is a sueded stretch cotton, like a molecloth almost. Love!

2011-11-01T15:21:00.001-07:00

Welcome to National Blog Posting Month, or as originator Eden calls it, NaBloMe. Since posting's been so erratic here these days, I thought I would use NaBloMe to update you on the things I've made over the last 3months. (There are 2 exceptions - a print shirt and a rain jacket, neither of which have been shown here before).

First up, an aubergine wool jacket (M5145) that I made a few weeks back. I can't get enough of the buttons. I used a turquoise lining that I didn't use for the rodeo queen jacket of 2010, and you know? It's still too damn bright for this jacket. But it was cut and ready to go, so there you have it.

Water fabrics now up at Spoonflower!

2011-10-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

So I made some fabric over the weekend (if you'd like to see them, check them out on Spoonflower, here: http://www.spoonflower.com/collections/10397).

Saturday morning, I used Seattle's approximately 18 minutes of sunlight to scooter around Green Lake taking photos of the reflections on the water, then Sunday, post-processed my way into the following shots. (Photos of the actual designs created are below all these--look for the text).

I love the one above. OK! So here's what mirror imaging on Spoonflower will do to photos like this. I have to say, I really love how they came out.

This last one looks like bugs or aliens, right? Love! So anyway, that's how I spent my Sunday. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, actually.

If any of these strike your fancy, let me know and I'll send you an email when they're ready to be sold--Spoonflower doesn't let you sell fabric until you've ordered swatches to make sure the pattern came out as you intended (color is deep enough, ink doesn't run, scale is appropriate, etc.)

Hola!

2011-10-06T11:07:00.001-07:00

I've been off quitting my job and giving myself sewist's neck by sewing something new every day--and, in a bow to my nemesis Elaine, every stitch is for me and only me. Suck it, charity bazaars! Here, friends, are the fruits of my labor.
First up, we have one of a slew of Simplicity Amazing Fit dresses (S2404), and as you will see, I rode that pony til it bucked me off. I think I made 5 of them; I've only photographed 3. See? I am merciful.
Above, I paired this very fine violet cotton gauze on the bodice with a sturdy, stretchy taupe cotton twill on the skirt. I love the way it looks, but the cotton was a little too fine for my badass ways--it's already starting to show wear at the neck seam.
So I made a jacket to cover it up.

The jacket (an out-of-print Threads pattern, S2645, that I also cannot get enough of) did a great job hiding my sewing inadequacies until I spilled guacamole down the front of it while out celebrating quitting my job, so now there is an indelible stain on the front of the bodice, where the jacket does not cover. O the humanity.

But never fear, little ones; I cheered right up when I made this retro cherry-print number. It even has inline pockets.
Hey, speaking of adorable dresses, when you tell peple that you sewed your own outfit (or whatever), they always say something, right? Best case, it's something like "Wow! I love it," but even if you're wearing something they wouldn't be caught dead in--and be real with me, sisters, it happens--they'll still say something like, "How did you learn to sew?"

I ask because I went down to California to see some family members recently, and this one person (related to me only by marriage, I am happy to say) did not say one word when I told her I'd sewn what I was wearing.

At the time I was wearing the cherry dress, above, which I grant you is not everyone's eau de vie. But at least say something like "Where did you get that fabric?" instead of just pursing your lips together.

Lest you think this was an aberration, it happened twice more during the weekend. I showed up wearing a sleeveless red dress (another S2404, shown a few photos down), and got the same reaction.

Later that night, I showed up for dinner in a swishy pair of linen pants and a linen top. Same thing: she did not say one word, just sat there with her lips pursed. WTF?

But I digress. She can go to hell, I looked great.

I also look great in the red/violet dress above (Simplicity 2217, another of their Amazing Fit line--and let me tell you, by "Amazing," they do not lie).

I made the same mistake with the fine cotton lawn; it's already ripping out of some of its seams, even though I underlined it with cotton organdy. I'm so sad; this dress got me out of a speeding ticket. Gloom. Despair.
This dress (both above and below) is the red one I was wearing in California. Believe me, it makes the most of my substantial T&A. (These dresses have all been clutched in the back with a binder clip so they show their shape better--the dress form I have is considerably smaller than I am.)
Below is a fuschia wool S2645, same pattern as the red-violet one above, but with 3/4 sleeves. I watched Season 5 of Dexter with my Mom this last August and Lt. LaGuerta always wears these nipped-waist, bepeplumed beauties with the lovely long lapel. I had to whip some up. Thank you, Threads!
That's a bias panel at the side waist, which flares in a nice subtle way.
I was worried the wool suiting would be too shiny, but it ended up having a nice sheen without looking too brash.
Above and below, a sea-green silk version of the same jacket, showing the bias panel (above) and the back. These jackets are unlined, which only adds to my joy. Linings: ASS PAIN.
Front.
Below is a close-up of a bodice of the same Simplicity Amazing Fit dress (s2217) as the red-violet one above, this time made with a fine hankerchief linen which, so far, seems to be more up to the task of keeping its seams together.
Like the one above, it's lined in cotton organdy, which makes it feel beautiful, like a 1950s prom dress.
You can see the full dress below. I should have ironed it, but life is fleeting and Veronica Mars was on.
Another S2404. I told you I rode that pony hard.
I also made a couple biker jackets (the now sadly out of print V2614), this one in a chocolate wool. I decided to experiment with sleeve zips, and put in a contrast fabric underneath. I should have interfaced the entire forearm; I did that on the bright pink version, below, and was glad of it.
I also experimented with some flap pockets with a contrast pocket flap on the inside and purple Ambience lining inside, as well.
A view of the killer lapels, which I love.
From the front. This wool is actualy a wool-poly blend, I am sad to say, which does not iron--hence the puckers along the seams.

Once I'd worked out the kinks, I tried the same pattern in a stretchy magenta cotton sateen, which I am proud to say makes me look like Pinky Tuscadero. All I need is some light-pink hair and a 1950s waitress smock and I'm good to go.

In the meantime, check out the contrast welt pocket on the sides, will you?
I made a little label for inside, too.
The front view. These shots were taken before I'd hemmed it or added the sleeves. I've also made 4 pairs of trousers (a heavily modified Vogue pattern) and 6 shirts (4 of V8582, Marcy Tilton's asymmetrical turtleneck tunic, perfect for swanning around the house) and 2 of V9771, a simple 3/4-sleeve cowl neck, one in red-violet linen and one in taupe linen.

The linen has too much body for the pattern, and makes me look like I have a pointy third boob directly over my heart, so the next time I sew those, I'll be sewing them in something more dainty.

Next up: 3 or 4 different versions of New Look 6011, a tailored blouse without a bunch of frou-frou. (At least, the versions I make will be significantly lacking in frou-frou).

Fabrics, the DailySkirt way

2011-04-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

I was sitting at my desk yesterday dreaming up ways to avoid working when I realized that I would love nothing more than to be clad head to toe in that truck lino print I made last year.

And so, harnessing the power of the Internet (plus PhotoShop Elements and Microsoft Publisher), I spent about 6 hours today designing my own fabric. The truck print came out so well, I went to town with other prints of Porsches, Pontiacs, Farm-Alls, crows, and fish.

When I was happy with each design (I made 10 or 12), I uploaded them onto Spoonflower (a site where you can make your own custom fabric). You can check out my Spoonflower profile here, or see the low-res JPGs of JPGs of JPGs below. (By the way, the yellow tape measure along two of the borders isn't part of the print; it's to show how broadly the print scales.) The little white lines visible in the prints below shouldn't actually be on the finished fabric.

I'm afraid none of them are for sale yet; I ordered swatches to make sure the color's good and the images print without too much distortion. Porsche Speedster above; 1951 stepback Chevy below. Border print of the same Chevy, below--meant for skirts. Most of these, I had done up in organic cotton sateen.

Crazy print commemorating a wild night of my stepfather's in his torrid youth when, after a night of debauchery, he drove home through his rural North Dakota home and noticed some orange pylons out on the roads. He thought he would be a mensch and return them to the police, who had clearly forgotten to remove them for the night. I think he spent a few hours in a holding cell.

Above is the pattern I created; below, you can see it as it's repeated in the fabric--I mirrored it to give it some symmetry. It makes for a busy print, but I'm making a jacket out of it just the same.

I loved flipping the Pontiac LeMans over and over again, and the crow standing in the middle, and then walking off, all innocent. (The crow isn't a part of the story but I thought, what the hell, put a bird on it.)

I really love this graphical print of crows, below. I'd intended initially to just make a border print out of this, but when I saw how well they tiled together, I couldn't resist.

Porsches mirrored together to make a pattern.

Old Farm-All tractors mirrored together against a violet field to make a pattern, this one more abstract than the Porsches, simply because it's harder to tell that they're actually tractors.

For those of you who are interested in doing this yourself, it's pretty easy--it takes a lot of steps, but they're not hard steps. (Much like sewing, right?) First you load your own artwork into something like PhotoShop Elements (a photo-editing software kit that lets you change colors, add effects like sharpening and blur, and get rid of elements you don't want).

Once you've got the image the way you want it, add it to your overall design in a product like Microsoft Publisher, where you can add lots of elements and move them around to get them the way you want them. (Truth be told, Elements will probably do that for you, but I just started using it and haven't figured it out yet.)

Save it as a PNG and upload the whole shooting match onto Spoonflower, which is where you can get your design to repeat in a lot of ways--either by doing a mirror image, a simple repeat, or an offset tiling.

Screw you, crappy Seattle weather

2011-04-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

Seattle is lately beset by the crappiest of spring weather--endless rain and cool gray days--so I am fighting back with the wackiest rain jacket I could come up with, a matching rain bag for commuting to work on my bike, and a couple sun dresses (which I actually took with me to a conference in Las Vegas a couple weeks back).

Apologies for the bad shots; I'm in a rush today. I give you sundress #1:

And sundress #2--wearing this thing is like daring it to stop raining:

Inside of the rain-bag (the fabric is taken from a Norman Rockwell illustration):

Outside of rain bag--I probably could have done a nicer strap, but I had this technical cord on hand and thought I'd made use of it. The bag is intended to go around a leather handbag, so its sole purpose really is to be flung into my bike basket before setting off.

oh, and the pattern is from the Bag Making Bible--it's called the Fashionista Bag.

Finally, the happiest rain jacket you have ever seen, complete with mandarin collar, wonky buttons (I will need to fix those before tomorrow) and little patch pockets on the front. This is from a heavily modified version of Butterick 5145.

February sewing - just in time for the tropics

2011-03-01T20:21:00.000-08:00

In between working like a maniac and getting ready for a trip to the tropics, I've been sewing. Didn't have time to style these properly so you'll just have to steel yourself for badly lit photos of clothing lying on my kitchen table. Such is life.

Below is the piece I'm proudest of: a gauzy linen shirt entirely seamed with french seams. I left it open--it's actually a jacket pattern (Vogue 8715)--and the collar makes a lovely wide V-neck. It's not shown to advantage here, hanging limp on a hanger, but I just cleaned both bathrooms for the housesitter and I'm in no mood to model. Check out the pattern package, you'll see what I mean: http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/v8715-products-13662.php?page_id=174.

It's a great pattern, although the back peplum can be a bit much in a heavier weave--this linen is super lightweight, almost like voile or lawn, so the peplum doesn't flare out over a person's booty. It goes together easily and quickly, and looks like it took twice the time to make than it actually did.

In fact I liked the pattern so much, I made a couple tank tops from a modified version of that pattern. They're below.

I also made 3 pairs of linen shorts, 2 with cargo pockets.
First of the 2 tank tops. This is a linen with a wonderful hand.
Second of the two tanks. This one looks crazy but it looks so cute on. These all have a high waist, almost but not quite an empire waist, and a slight A-line to the bottom half of the shirt, so they skim your curves. Really nice. I put in little pleats at the neckline as I'd cut the neck too wide.

Also, this is the skirt of a dress that I spent a lot of hours embroidering last fall, a la Alabama Studio Style. It's from a modified version of Simplicity 2614 (I think that's the number, anyway), which is a shirt pattern that I lengthened into a dress.

I also whipped up an easy linen skirt, long with side slits, and more french seams. The color doesn't translate that well here, but that t-shirt is actually a raspberry that matches the thread on the skirt. cute!

That's it. It's off to tropical climes, once the housesitter gets here in the morning. tra la!

Rodeo Queen jacket

2011-02-13T15:42:00.001-08:00

OK, so it's not actually a rodeo queen jacket per se, but just look at these colors. Don't these demand a parade?

Below is a closeup of the front. I set in a line of piping, off-center, down the front, sort of like marking a placket. Eventually this will be where buttons go. The non-piped side will close just to one side of the piped side.

A close-up of the inside waist seam, below (turquoise thread) and the top-stitched princess seam that runs up the back bodice (yellow thread).

Initially I'd planned to line this with turquoise charmeuse (see below), but you know? That was just too punk rock for me. I'm nervous enough about the piping as it is.

The jacket as seen from the back, on my kitchen table.

Here's where I need your help, Internet: with button choice. I can't make up my mind what to use: metal buttons should look great, but instead they seem a little obvious, like I'm about to saddle up with Gene Autry. Even when I position them in a kind of edgy way, like below, it's just not quite right. It's too self-conscious or something.

I used a different kind of metal button. Still no good. I mean, these buttons would close the jacket, but different buttons give it an entirely different feel.

I want this jacket to say, "I'm taking the truck to my ranch in Taos to sculpt and perhaps seduce a Native American artist, or at least a stack of pancakes from Pasqual's."

These buttons do not say that. They say, "PUSH HERE FOR COKE."

I am thinking about encasing the hems with some home-made bias binding, but here again, I am torn. It's got polka dots on it. That's a little too twee.

Here's the waist seam as seen at the side. Look how there is no interruption in the piping. Do you know how long that took? DO YOU? I am now stooped and cranky with eye problems and a truss, but by God, my piping is uninterrupted.

Back to the buttons. I told you I couldn't decide. So I decided to jettison the metal buttons and focus on color. First up: little turquoise jobs. I almost didn't try these on, because I thought they would be too matchy-matchy. But if you group them in a kind of artsy manner, they say "I bought these at Joann Fabrics!"

I thought, perhaps I can butch them up with adding one of those metal studs at the collar. No joy. It just looked like I'd run out of blue buttons, as in fact I had.

So I tried a red button. Take THAT.

At this point I'm just hurting myself. So I figured, in for a penny, in for a pound: I will make this coat say, "It's a Chico's kind of day. TM."

In a fit of rage, I then flung all buttons from me, except for this little square orange one, which I think I might end up going with. It's simple, it's artsy without being fussy, and orange makes a good counterpart to turquoise. Plus: only one button to sew. Yay!

Or maybe I'll just wear it without the buttons.

French Seams: How embarrassed am I?

2011-02-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

I used to look at French seams and think, why the hell would anyone put themselves through that? Wouldn't you about burn your fingers off with the iron, sewing a regular seam and then having to turn the ends under and then sew that mess down?

Then Gertie showed me how.

Truth me told, before her post, I'd come across this elsewhere on the Web a few weeks ago and smacked my forehead, it's so easy. I promptly made two straight skirts with the technique. Fast, fast, fast. Faster than finishing your seams with a zigzag seam, that's for sure.

Here's a bad photo of the denim skirt I made last night (and my awesome new boots from Santa Fe).
Tra la!

Two handbags and a jacket

2011-01-31T17:32:00.000-08:00

I made some stuff this weekend: a couple handbags and a leather jacket. I have two trips coming up - one to Maui and another to Santa Fe - and trips call for new duds. The patterned bag above (and below) is a heavy home-dec fabric. I love how graphical the pattern is. I used the free bag pattern in the post I referenced below. Easy peasy.

I also attached a charm to the front (see that little silver flower?)

This is the back, although really, I don't suppose it matters much.

I always put a length of elastic in the bags--sewn into the linings--to attach to key rings and wallets. So much easier to find my keys than digging around in the depths of the bag, and of course, if I didn't put in a zipper (or a wallet Lo-Jack), it's great peace of mind to attach my wallet to one of these elastics.

Above is the pleat and waist seam on the back of the leather jacket I made. (I used the same modified Butterick 5145 I've been using lately. I still need to take in the shoulders.)

Below is the top front.

Below is the purple lining of the leather bag I made.

More elastic thongs, and a little hand charm I attached to the thong.

The zipper went in better than I had any right to expect; to celebrate, I popped a B charm on it.

All in all, a productive weekend.

Pattern for jackets and bag (at long last)!

2011-01-23T14:02:00.000-08:00

Hello BagQueen, AnotherYarn, and anyone else who wanted the pattern information on my last post! I'm sorry to be so long in getting this to you. It is gray and miserable here in the Pacific NW and I haven't had the energy to write, let alone clean out the pit that is my craft space in the basement. Let ALONE sew.

But I digress. Here's the information you asked for - let me know if you have questions (or if you use them yourself!).

For the carry-on bag, I used the pattern from Lisa Lam's superb Bag Making Bible. Lisa blogs here and sells her creations here, and I am a rabid new fan of hers. Happy news: she's working on another book. Warning for those of you who click on her blog: her writing is as addictive as her free bag tutorials. I'm walking around saying things are "ace" now. Beware!

For the jacket, I modified what I believe may be a now out-of-print pattern: Butterick 5145. I raised and domed the waist seam in the back, nixed the center back seam, changed the box pleat to knife pleats, and cut down the mandarin collar by more than half, as the collar as drafted is really tall, and my neck isn't. Go on and read the reviews on Sewing Pattern Review to find out what other sewists did with their 5145s.

Fruit-bat crazy? Check!

2011-01-04T19:14:00.001-08:00

I've been sewing whenever I've been home, but you know, I haven't been home that much since, well, mid-August. So now that I've had a chance to catch my breath, here are 4 jackets and a carry-on bag that I've made in the last 4-5 months.

First up, a little green number with an organza underlining that feels like I'm wearing a 1950s prom dress, and makes me look like a big old bucket of crazy. I LOVE it. It looks surprisingly good with a black turtleneck, cigarette pants and flats.

Back of fruit-bat jacket. It's piped in black along the waist, and has a contrasting black collar.

Organza underlining and a blind hem that I need to redo in that same shade of light lime green as the bias tape I used to cover my raw edges.

I am a convert to sewing with organza, by the way. Everything should feel like a 1950s prom dress.

Slip-seamed the hems. There was a lot of hand-sewing on this project - I think it took upwards of 10 hours to make, but it was worth it.

Organza underlining, bias tape covering the raw waist seam. It also features a box pleat in the back.

I made a jacket with the same pattern (although I changed the box pleat to a series of knife pleats, which hang better and don't poof out over my butt, requiring tacking) in this fabulous Japanese cotton. Piped the sleeves, which I love.

I left the inside seams showing, just finishing them and leaving 'em. This one's meant to be more casual than the green version, so I didn't really care about the seams - and as it turns out, they're hardly noticeable.

This is the jacket bodice, buttoned up. See how the fabric lines up when it's buttoned? I had nothing to do with that. Seriously. It just worked out that way. There must have been some major karma working in my favor, because imagine my surprise when I finished sewing the coat and then trued it up to sew in buttonholes and buttons, and it actually matched.

Oh man, I hope I didn't need that karma for anything else. I'd hate for it to be wasted on a jacket. But what a cute jacket! I wore it today with jeans and a brown v-neck, a long slinky dark purple scarf wrapped around my neck and framing the front, and big silver hoops. Yeah, that's worth some karma.

I bought the fabric for this wool jacket like 2 years ago, and only got around to making it now that my skillz have improvd. I call it my Better Red Than Dead jacket and think I will probably never wear it, because I don't want to look like a sergeant in the Red Army. Damn it.

Onto happier topics: this jacket. I made it back in October for my stepfather's "last party," and I can't wear it without getting compliments. I loooooove it.

Check out the bright red piping at the waist, cuffs, and up the princess seams in the back, and it looks terrific with a pair of black ankle pants and flats. There's definitely an Audrey Hepburn vibe going on there. I even made a matching headband. What can I say? I rule.

I covered the raw seams with red bias tape for a little flash of color when I walk. (I am not a girly-girl, but: flirty!) Also, the back has a box pleat. It's made from home dec fabric, like heavy (but soft) denim, so it drapes well and takes a lot of abuse.

Finally, here's a carry-on bag I made out of oilcloth. I love this thing, even though I totally ripped through the zipper with my seam ripper and now need to replace it. It's cool, though; all the hardware on the bag is silver, and the zipper was gold. So it needed to be replaced anyway.

Front of the bag, sagging like the wino of handbags because I didn't stuff it enough to keep it upright. Trust me, it's usually full.

From the sides. I used heavy canvas to underline it, so the bag itself is actually heavier than it should be, but at least I know it won't split open and dump my work laptop and my Nikon on the tarmac next time I head off to Beijing or Milwaukee or wherever far-flung locale I get sent to next.

I do love that bag. I practically dry-humped it the first time I got to take it on a trip. Mmmm carry-on.

Sock Monkey Madness

2010-10-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

I made my BFF Carrie and her son a pair of matching pajama pants out of the cutest fabric (below):

I love all those monkeys sailing around on a sky-blue ground. I made the little guy's jammies with cargo pockets on the side (bright red, to match the monkeys' caps), though if I'd been thinking, I would have made them out of this fabric:

So cute! I'm dying. Carrie's had bright red piping down the sides and little red ruffles at the cuffs. I'd photograph them but they're wrapped up to mail.

When looking for an online swatch of this fabric to show you, I came across the fabric below, which I bought in flannel and made a skirt out of. Unfortunately the skirt no longer fits but I am tempted to get more of that flannel and make myself a monkey robe.

Monkeys. Sigh.

Self-stiched update

2010-09-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

OK, so as it turns out, my stepfather's heart wasn't as strong as we all thought it was. He died a few days ago, suddenly, like a train hit him. He was at home and he and my mom had just come back from a canoe trip in their favorite place. His Lab, Chip, would not leave his side. It took two grown men to drag him away from my stepdad when the paramedics arrived. He was surrounded by love at the end of his life.

I could - and have, in fact - written a whole lot more about this guy, this big, funny, stubborn, obnoxious, bohemian Republican guy who I loved and who loved me. So I won't spend time doing that here; my Shepard has gone, and that's the main thing. But I wanted to say, posting will be light for a while.

That said, 3/4 of the clothes I brought with me on this trip are self-stitched, by God. I'm decked out in full today, wearing my blue cord pencil skirt, lavender carbonated collared shirt (I say carbonated because of the little brown circles on it), and t-shirt with the tree reverse-appliqued on. Yesterday it was my denim skirt and cowgirl shirt, and this morning it was a new pair of jammies that I finished Tuesday night, as my husband and I waited to hear the updates from the hospital, where they were trying to revive my old man.

I loved him, and so did roughly a million other people, from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Yale to Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas. There's a web across North America right now, and it's growing, and my family and I are in the epicenter of it, which helps enormously.

Self-stitched Day 14: Working from home

2010-09-14T14:33:00.001-07:00

I drove into a curb yesterday so I worked from home today. This is me, diligently working. That's Lucy, making sure my big toe doesn't make any sudden moves. My leg in the self-stitched pajama pants I made. I love the ruffle--and the piping, although I'm not sure you can see it in this shot. It's a light lime green. Tasty!

My toe still hasn't moved.

Thoroughly gratuitous schnauzer shot. This is Emmie, checking the air to see if there was any lunch left. There was not.

See that phone at the top left of the shot? That's on. I was participating in a Very Important Conference Call. My contribution consisted primarily in staying on mute and not rolling my eyes too much.

Actually, that's a lie. It was a pretty good call. There was no heavy sighing.

Self-stitched, Day 13: Hello Moto

2010-09-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

This is the new moto jacket I made over the weekend: I love it even though it sports leather from two different species, and nearly killed my new Brother to make.

here's a look at the inside yoke -- I was feeling whimsical.

The lining is a dark brown cotton voile that I thought would do beautifully. It's already falling apart. This, we will deal with later. meanwhile, here is me and a certain tiny schnauzer in today's outfit - self-stitched jacket and self-stitched, self-drafted garlic skirt:

The schnauzer does not understand why play time is not being very playful. Meanwhile I am desperately trying to learn the self-timer.As you can see, I'm still learning not to move. Also, I need to figure out how to get the damn flash to go when it's in manual mode (the only mode where you can use the timer).

I do feel super-cute in this outfit. I even layered necklaces. That is the extent of my love for my ensemble today.

Deeply, deeply late for work. Hasta la pasta.

Self-stitched, day 11

2010-09-11T10:00:00.001-07:00

Day 11. My jaw still hurts (they really worked me over), I have a cold and I am fat. But I am still rocking the crazy floral patterned blouse I made last weekend. How I love it. I also decided to have Cheech take better shots of the scooter jacket. It's growing on me, sheen and all. The sleeves are a little tight, but the leather versions won't have that problem for long. The leather versions will also be longer, yeesh, and unlined.

I'm thinking about having the seam allowances on the outside on one of them, clipping them so they're short but still visible.

A closeup of the button. I love the buttons.

And now it's off to the leather wholesaler to see if they'll give me a deal.

Self-Stitched Scooter Jacket

2010-09-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

Oh hell. I can assure you, I was standing upright when I took this picture of the first attempt at my scooter jacket. Actually, having it horizontal like that might improve my figure. It does not, sadly, improve upon the too-long sleeves, but that's an easy fix.

Not an easy fix: the shine on this cotton sateen. I liked it when I got it in the mail (it's one of those $3 per yard deals from Fabric.com), but seeing it in this flashy photo, I wish I'd gone for a twill instead of something with shine. Or maybe I'm just feeling bad about my ass. Eh, six of one.

This is me from the back, being pretty happy with the fit (although I should have told Cheech to make me pull it down in the back so you could see how smoothly it lays when I am not getting all self-conscious about my butt and waving my hands around to distract myself.) (Another reason why the shinyness doesn't help). My hair sucks because I stayed home today to nurse my throbbing be-root-canaled tooth. Thank you, Vicodin.

Above is the lining. I do love that Route 66 fabric. Thank you, Alexander Henry! Also, the little silver thing is the bolt from the stud on the front (below). It seemed to work. Also it covers up a mistake I made.

All in all, I like this pattern - McCall's 6171 - although as drafted it's way too short. I added 3 inches to it and think I'll add another 2-3 more when I make this up in leather (hopefully this weekend). The cloth version's lined but the leather versions won't be, other than maybe a facing down the front.

--Edited to add: ---

I just counted everything I've made since September began, and it's no wonder my neck hurts and I've been a bit of a no-show at work. In the last 10 days, I have made:

3 long-sleeve button-down shirts (one Western striped with roses, one lavender with carbonated brown spots, and one a taupe floral)
4 skirts (3 pencil skirts - blue cord, blue denim, and wine-colored stretch twill; and 1 A-line, black and white floral)
1 jacket (camel-colored cotton sateen scooter jacket, also known as a moto jacket)

I have also embellished my share of t-shirts, God knows:

2 with embroidery and reverse applique
3 with designs I created, cut out with the Silhouette, and then ironed on

And my plans for the rest of the month include:

2 more scooter jackets, both leather, one dark brown and one black, in a modified version of McCall's 6171
1 Lady Grey jacket, although no bets as to whether I'll actually get this done by the end of September
2 more shirts, easier than the button-downs; I'll make tunics out of a very lightweight cotton sateen using a modified version of Simplicity 2614
2 more pairs of jammies, one for me and one for my BFF Carrie, who I'm going to see soon
Maaaaaybeeee a couple pair of trousers using the Simplicity Amazing Fit pattern I've got stashed away.
God help me, I just bought fabric for another 6 skirts online last night, having figured out that for the simple elasticized A-lines I've been making lately, I only need 1 yard of fabric per skirt (I can make the yoke from my stash, which is legendary). And they're all in totally wacky patterns--which is why I'm making more jackets, to tone them down.
Last and definitely least: headbands! Late last night I had an idea for a headband with darts and little hidden buttonholes where you can insert bobby pins. We'll see if it works out.

Holy cannoli. The best, best part about Self-Stitched September is that it made me get real about what I wear--and determined to make a wardrobe for myself that I love, and that I will wear. I don't know why I'm so motivated to do this, but I am. I love wearing things I made myself. I love that I can determine exactly what I want, and then go out and create it.

Self-Stitched, Days 8&9

2010-09-09T12:47:00.001-07:00

Another self-embellished t-shirt: Naughty Rabbit. Tee hee! I wore it yesterday with a blue cord skirt I made over the weekend, which I tried to photograph in the mirror as I was walking out the door yesterday, with sad results.

Here's a close-up of the t-shirt design:And below is an attempt at a full-length shot. (Cheech having shoved off for work at the crack of dawn, I was on my own for the shoot.) Trust me, I looked awesome. The gray scooter jacket was purchased rather than sewn, but I have a similar pattern and am girding my loins to make one in a camel stretch twill.

Wore the skirt with knee boots (no, those brown stumps are not my legs) and a scarf (obviously) that magically went with both the shirt, the jacket AND the skirt. I looked very autumnal.

Below is another self-embellished t-shirt--I made these two last night. I had the Silhouette cut out templates, then used those to embroider designs on these 2 t-shirts. Add in a patch of contrasting jersey under the t-shirt and some very careful snipping of the outer layer of fabric, and you've got yourself some reverse applique.

I love how this blue pops. Today I wore the shirt below; it's not my best Self-Stitched effort--I really try to go head-to-toe self-stitched--but I had a root canal this morning so I decided to go with whatever was easiest.

I love the way the trees look.

I also love the way Self-Stitched September is making me look at the holes in my wardrobe, and change my sewing plans accordingly. I needed some basic solid-color pencil skirts, so I made one in burdgundy and another in that lovely deep blue. I also needed some shirts; made 3 of those, in patterned fabric, which you've seen.

The only other needs I have are two tunic-y shirts (I'll make those out of a modified Simplicity 2614) and two more jackets--that scooter jacket in camel, and a motorcycle jacket in black leather. The shirts I can bust out over the next couple days, but I need to muslin both jackets. I may also try the Amazing Fit pants pattern. Thank you, Simplicity. Your mojo is working for me.

On the Colette Patterns blog yesterday, Sarai was talking about how she gets seduced by prints or the hand of a certain fabric in the fabric store, so while she goes in meaning to make a simple black skirt, she comes out with Pucci silk for a blouse.

That happens to me all the time. SS September has made me look at my wardrobe and what I actually like to wear, and it's motivated me to make myself the basics that I know will look great on me, and make me feel great, too. And if they're self-stitched, so much the better.

Oh, and the last thing on my sewing radar is the Colette Lady Grey coat in a camel tropical-weight wool. You can get away with wearing camel with black and blue tones, and obviously it'll be great with brown and earth tones, so it'll do me until it gets to be about December and becomes parka weather.

Days 6 & 7: Floralapalooza

2010-09-07T11:48:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was sew-apalooza, let me tell you. I hung out in my jammies all day (self-stitched; see bottom of this post) making this skirt (a cabernet-colored stretch twill from Fabric.com for something nutty like $3 a yard), which I love, but which (thanks to the stretch) threatened to fall right off me this morning when I put it on. So I'm actually wearing store-bought jeans today. But I am wearing this shirt (another Simplicity 2339 which I knocked out yesterday). My sewing machine died Friday afternoon and I ended up buying a new one, a Brother that not only cuts your thread for you but will sew buttons on for you. I tell you, whatever love I felt for that Kenmore vanished when I realized what a sad little piece of crap it was.

A close-up. I added a little width to the collar stand and collar, but I think I overdid it.

All this sewery made me realize that I need to make a scooter jacket out of some dark brown material, because all these crazily patterned shirts I'm making need something to cap them off, give them a little gravitas. If polka dots and crazy Hawaiian prints can ever have gravitas, that is.

I also made the t-shirt below--well, I bought the t-shirt and then made the design with my Silhouette, and ironed it on. Naughty rabbit! No lettuce for you. Man, now I'm hungry.

I liked it so much, I printed the same design out on some cardstock and now it's hanging on my bulletin board at work.

Here's me lounging around on Labor Day, avec chiens. That's Emmie, the 10-year-old, on the left; the little Muppety puddle of fur on the right is Lucy. And those are my self-stitched jammies and a pullover that Lucy has improved upon by gnawing off the buttons at the neck. I'm counting that for Self-Stitched.

Yesterday had to be the best Labor Day of my life. Cheech and I lounged around all morning, then I holed up in my basement studio and geeked out with the Brother all day long while Cheech was out buying little gadgety things and dodging thundershowers. Then we had home made pasta for dinner and watched a Jim Carrey-narrated DVD about the ocean (something IMAX-y?) and cuddled on the couch with the dogs.

It doesn't sound glamorous and it wasn't, but it was so homey and perfect.

Days 4 & 5; jammies and a retro shirt

2010-09-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

This was my contribution to yesterday's Self-Stitched September: jammies I made, and a schnauzer. Arf! The color got all wacky in this photo; the pants are actually aqua, and not this glary (although the red totally pops). This is a poorly exposed shot of my Day 5 outfit, another Simplicity 2339. The collar's a little short on one side but I luuuuves it, and plan to make another 2 or 3 before the month is through. (I used chocolate brown baby cord as contrast on one of the front bands and the inside of the cuffs, and wish I'd done it on the collar stand, it feels so delicious.)

And finally, here is a tangled shot of a couple of the necklaces I made while at Mom's place last month.

I'm also wearing earrings that my friend Carrie made for me. You should check out her site - there are deals to be had now, before her designs hit the Sundance fall and Christmas catalogues (for real) and her prices go through the roof.

Day 3: NO TOUCH MONKEY!

2010-09-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

Day 3 started off well, with a black S2614 (shirt) and a self-drafted skirt with ginormous flowers. I love ginormous flowers. I am thinking long and hard about a gorgeous rose voile that I saw at the fabric store on Queen Anne, plastered with roses 8 inches across, for another shirt.

The question is, how many wacky shirts can one girl wear? The answer, I fear, is many.
Cheech took this picture, by the way. We're working from home today, and despite my threats to wear the awesome monkey shirt I made last night (see below for the front and back of the version I made for my friend Jen), I dressed up. For lunch with Jen. So I can present her with a hilarious monkey shirt.

Cheech took one look at this and said to me, "I can't promise you that you won't be accosted in that shirt." You have got to love a man with a good vocabulary.

I reassured him that I'd taken care of it, and then whipped around to show him the back:

What do you think? Too strident on the no-monkey-touching end?

Day 2: And we're off!

2010-09-02T18:41:00.001-07:00

I wore this brown Simplicity 2614 today with a little denim skirt, made from Simplicity 2475, below. I LOVE that skirt. Easy to put together, flattering, good length.I think I'd like to make it up in a darker denim, but this is perfect for right now. I'm so happy with it, I went out and bought baby-wale cord in tealish blue and a chocolate brown to make it up in (along with more crazy fabric for more Simplicity 2339).

Amazing Fit: I am a fan. I also have their AF dress, which I might try later this month, after I ruin my neck by making 2 more skirts and 2 (3? 4?) more shirts. With as good as these patterns are, Simplicity should also market Amazing Neck Surgery.

And this is a gratuitous schnauzer shot for you. I don't know why it's sideways; I edited it to flip onto its side.

That's Lucy for you, though. Always doing her own thing.

Below, me actually wearing the thing, in a hurried shot from 9 this morning when I was already sadly late. Do note the cute shoes, though.

Then I came home and made another t-shirt, which I shall sport tomorrow, seeing as how it's Work From Home Friday.

Day 1: Fruity shirt and lots of attitude

2010-09-01T17:38:00.001-07:00

So this is what I wore today:
I told you it was obnoxious. Check out the pearl buttons! All I needed to complete the look were a pair of shit-kickers and a gun rack on the back of my rig. Well, and a rig to replace my station wagon.

Instead I settled for dainty brown flats (see below), a pair of nice jeans, and restrained jewelry. Oh, and this bag, which I made several months back from the book Weekend Sewing.

I have to be careful not to haul this thing around too much, because when I do, the leather is so soft--I think it's deerskin--that I end up stroking the bag endlessly without realizing it.

So that was my first Self-Stitched day. Now, of course, I am wearing a ratty t-shirt that I have embellished, in keeping with the spirit of SSS. I ordered a Silhouette (like a printer only it cuts paper instead of printing on it), thanks to both the incredible deal that Grosgrain surfaced and a timely freelance gig that paid for the whole thing.

By the time I got the Silhouette machine working, there had been some wine and Cheech was asking what the hell I planned to do with it. So I slapped the first slogan I could think of on an old t-shirt, and voila.

I plan to wear this shirt while I am having my period. One need no longer wonder where I am in my monthly cycle.

This is the back of the t-shirt, which I made from the heat-transfer material that was left over after I slapped the design on the front of it.

Cheech didn't appreciate the possibilities at first. I told him about the stick-on tattoos we could make (perfect for Mother's Day!). I told him about the stencils for grafitti we could make (perfect for Father's Day!). I even told him that we could etch glass with the thing, and therefore never have to worry about Christmas gifts again.

It was only late last night that he finally got it. He'd started foaming at the mouth about Glenn Beck, and he then realized I could whip him up a t-shirt that read "SUCK IT, GLENN" in 5 minutes flat, including ironing time. That got him singing a different tune.

But let's take another look at that hilariously retro Western shirt, shall we? The colors in it make me ridiculously pleased, all those pink roses and little cream stripes. Obviously, I stuck in some mottled rose fabric as contrast wherever it made sense, using the wrong side of the fabric to tone it down a little.

Love! I probably look insane in it, but I don't care. I tried to tone it down with these little brown flats.

Tra la!

I am also working on a little embroidery project - thanks, once again, to Alabama Chanin. I'm making an eyelet-embroidered skirt (actually, dress) where stars are clustered thick at the bottom hem of the skirt, and then gradually thin out as you go up the skirt. Lovely!

Me-Made September: I'm in.

2010-08-31T20:12:00.000-07:00

It was a particularly obnoxious version of Simplicity 2339 that settled it. I realized I've been making skirts and jammies galore this summer but no tops other than one in bright bright pink and one in turquoise. Serious summer wear, and over the last week, the weather here in the Pacific NW has definitely turned. But I thought, OK, if I can whip out a couple collared long-sleeved shirts for September, I'll do it.

I picked up an obnoxiously retro floral striped print and a copy of the latest Threads, which has you slice through the pattern of your menswear-inspired shirt and splice in long thin bits of a contrasting fabric. I went all-in for the crazy, and within the next few days I will show you what came of it.

I love it. It makes me looks banana-cakes crazy but I love it.

More later. I also whipped up a denim skirt from Simplicity's straight-skirt pattern for the becurved (2475 - the whole Simplicity Amazing Fit line is really aptly named. I didn't have to do a single alteration on either this or the shirt.). Loooove. A darkish blue cord version is in the works. Hello fall! You are not a moment too soon.

Missing: Sewing mojo

2010-08-22T19:11:00.001-07:00

So I was on a tear there, for a little while, making a cute A-line skirt and a pair of pajama pants with a little ruffle on the hem for my friend Karen, and another pair of PJs for myself--red-hatted cowboys on an aqua background, with bright red piping up the outside seams and a little red ruffle along the bottom hems. Cute!

And then, of course, there was the fabulous turquoise dress (Vogue 9668) that I finished beautifully, lined it and everything, only to find that it cut me across the bust. Well, that's a good lesson to muslin, right?

All's not lost - here's my mom (on the right) wearing that turquoise dress--Tasia calls it a margarita dress, and I believe my mother was ready for one right about then. (The gal on the right is Stephanie, Mom's neighbor and just about my favorite person in Minnesota other than my family and Rox).

Aren't they gorgeous? And Stephanie is bringing more little Stephanies into the world, thank God. We can use some quality people.

I say this so she won't give me a hard time about using this picture without approval. Sorry Steph! You are glowing! I could not resist the chance to share your Stephanie-ness with the world.

Steph. Such a giver.

But I digress. Here are the cowboy jammies I made. How much do I love the aqua and red? VERY VERY MUCH. It all just came together: I had the red piping, I had some red jersey from a project I made for Jen, and it all just worked. Tra la.

And here are a few pictures of the most recent stuff--not full-length views of what I look like wearing them, because I'm not happy with the way I look right now*, but enough so that you can get an idea for what the finished product is. I think I have a future in jammies, don't you?

* And that's an issue for another post, but (you kind, lovely people) not for comments. Thank you kindly just the same, you big-hearted, wise people.

I give you Miami-Jammies:

That flower is about 8 inches wide, too. I have one on my cheek right now, and not that nice little cheek up north, either. No piping and no ruffled cuffs for these, because I was making a trial run of Karen's jim-jams, and I hadn't yet gotten my ruffler foot in the mail.

Oh, those sweet, naive days before I received the ruffler foot, before I a) became addicted to the ruffler and b) realized that through some awful trick of fate, the ruffler mechanism fails about 45 seconds in and actually cuts off my needles.

This may have heralded the beginning of the loss of my sewing mojo. O cruel fate!

Below, the turquoise shirt I made for and wore to the reunion in California earlier in the month. No, it's not ironed. Life is fleeting, people, and I would rather watch this terrible Lifetime movie with Rose McGowan in it than drag my carcass down to the basement to iron for you.

You deserve more, but sadly, today you will not be getting it. Behold, Shirt:

And a little gratuitous schnauzer action for you:

Arf! She's a big fan of the bubbly pencil skirt I made before jetting off on vacation. I really tried to get the f*ing pattern to line up. I was not lying when I said it was off-weft. I think the weaver must be a HempFest regular.

(Incidentally, we didn't even get a contact high while there, and that was our primary reason for going. Instead we just hung out with several hundred people who WERE getting high, and who also had made questionable fashion decisions that morning. Not that I judge. OH MY GOD, MY EYES, THEY BURN!)

Lord. Is that another digression? I think it is. You out there! Wake up! Admire my skirt:

Rose McGowan is now being date-raped by the jock, by the way. I think she's about to get medieval on his ass. Wait--yep. There you go. Don't mess with Rose.

Below we have a simple little A-line skirt that I appliqued with little ovals and circles while I was at my parents' place. I love it. This is the front, when I am in the mood for it to be the front:
And this is the back. I left the edges out purposely so they'd fray, adding this lovely softness to the feel of the cotton. This happened to be a nice thick quilting cotton, which was why it was on sale, so it's got some body to it.

Say what you will about using quilting fabrics to make garments with, it handles beautifully, and for something that's really just to wear while you're out getting groceries or walking the dog, it's perfect. It'll fade like an old quilt and just get softer and softer until I have to recreate it in something else.

I have to say, I love making a pattern on a fabric when there isn't one, or when the existing pattern is really small. I love having the power to change the visual balance of a piece of clothing or a pillow or tablecloth, none of which I would have discovered had I not decided to sew myself up a flannel sock-monkey skirt, which is what got this whole thing going in the first place.

OH MY GOD I DIGRESS.

Anyway: Everything was going great, right? That turquoise shirt looked good, and I made another in hot pink. I like the pattern although all the long thin darts kind of harshed my buzz. I also made another A-line skirt out of a pattern with reddish-orange bulbs of garlic on it, and another A-line skirt with sock monkeys or something on it. (This time in voile rather than flannel. Sock monkeys: so versatile!)

You know, I really am crazy. But the skirts, they make me happy. I'm going to try Alabama Chanin's applique methods next, with all their lovely hand stitching. I'll probably only do the hand-stitching bits to add a bit of design here and there, rather than hand-stitching everything. I'm crazy but I'm not psychotic.

So anyway, then I flitted off to Parts Afar to see my parents. I made Mom try on that turquoise linen dress, and wouldn't you know, it fit her beautifully. That photo doesn't do it justice. She looks like a prom queen in it. and I am so glad it's getting a good home rather than being added to my Bag of Shame, with the other wadders.

So all of that is fine. My mojo was intact. I may not be writing any fiction, but by God, I'm sewing up a storm. But that incident with the ruffler foot--let's call that the Cry Cry Cry YOU MOTHERFUCKING FOOT incident--well? That should have tipped me off to the ailing state of my mojo.

I get home, decide to muslin my biker jacket, and lo and behold, the sole biker jacket pattern available for sale on the interwebs--and I will leave you to Google that for yourself if you so choose--is the worst pattern ever. It's too tight through the armscyes and too loose through the waist, and not by any small amount, either. It's too loose by 8 inches on either side. The back yoke falls an inch short of the princess-seamed sides and back panel. Oh, and the collar is too short for the asymmetrical zipper.

I immediately blamed myself, but when I checked the pattern pieces, I'd cut out the same size in all of them. They just sucked. The back yoke was particularly galling. Who gets a yoke wrong? The thing's just terribly drafted, that's all. No wonder it's now being sold as "vintage." Yeah, vintage crap, from 2006.

I did a little deep breathing and decided I'd cut out a size that was too big, and maybe I just needed to use a different sleeve altogether. I cut the pattern out 2 sizes smaller, and while the waist fits better the rest of it is just as hopeless as ever.

That was Friday. Yesterday Cheech and I hit a "protestival" in town, just because we'd heard about it for years and had never gone, and we realized why we'd never gone. (Hempfest: It's not our thing.TM)

We got coffee and a couple crab cakes to cook for dinner, watched the original version of The Inlaws, and I cut out a version of Vogue 8409, which I'd muslined last month, and thought I'd worked out all the fit issues. Wrong-o. The bodice is about 1 1/2 inches too wide (thankfully, at the back zipper, which is something I can fix), but the skirt is about 3/4 inch too tight. And I have no extra fabric.

I found this out after spending 5 hours sewing the thing together, doing Hong Kong seams on every seam in the thing, and there are many, and PIPING THE MOTHERFUCKER.

THAT'S RIGHT. I PIPED. I PINNED AND HAND-BASTED AND SWEATED THE DETAILS.

(DailySkirt takes a break for to breathe deeply and consider her priorities. And watch Rose McGowan off her social worker.)

Oh, and did I mention? The piped midriff? Also has to be redone, because the seams don't match either the bodice OR the skirt.

Imagine my delight when I realized the entire skirt has to be recut from new fabric. IMAGINE.

The good news is that I found a leather supplier in Seattle that has good quality hides, so when I do find a working pattern for the biker jacket, and it may be McCall's 6171, I'm set. (6171 has adjustable patterns for different cup sizes--all my well-endowed sisters, holla--and while it's more of a scooter jacket than a true biker jacket, that suits my frame just as well.)

And when I make that jacket, I am going to use these on the collar: That's right, people. There's a new sheriff in town.

I think it might be Rose McGowan.

Have I snapped?

2010-08-02T14:52:00.001-07:00

Seriously. The perfection post. Have I lost my mind? I am looking at you, KHB! Your skirt is gonna PUCKER UP, BABY!

Arguing with myself

2010-08-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Now I'm just talking to myself, but when you finish a garment to within an inch of its life, no one else may notice, but you will know. And that will make all the difference in the world when you're wearing it.

Still, all this emphasis on perfection bothers me. We have to give ourselves room to breathe.

On muslins and rejecting the call of the perfectionista within.

2010-08-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

I've been cooking up a post for the last week entitled "When will I learn?," splashed through with photos of no fewer than 3 recent projects where I should have muslined, but didn't, and instead ended up with beautifully finished dresses that cut me across the bust. Making them unwearable--at least in a work situation, where I can't hoick up my lovelies for the benefit of everyone who sees me. Why? Because I did not muslin.

Of course, I used to never pin, either. Now I pin like a madman. I pre-shrink, I stay-stitch, and now, I will muslin, no matter how impatient I am, or how the siren call of bloody marys with Jen at our local hang-out beckons. And believe me, it beckons.

I come by my impatience naturally. (I blame my father, in other words.) I am not one to overanalyze, lollygag, or agonize over decisions: I prefer to make the call and move on. That works for me. I think fast, redirect well when necessary, and most of the time, things turn out just fine. But not when it comes to the FBA that 40% of the clothes I make need.

So last night I muslined both Vogue 8409 (see post below for the packet drawings) and Simplicity 2732 (sans goofy leg-o-mutton sleeves, yeesh).

I'd already done up 8409 with some leftover stretch cotton I had, and while the result was a gorgeous little wiggle dress, it not only cut me across the bust, but the armscyes were wacky, way too high up as patterned, practically hamstringing me.

I need to find someone with a much smaller chest than mine to give it to; it's too good a dress to end up in the waste basket. And there is no more seam allowance to give out; I think I ended up ripping out the armscyes three times, finally sewing less than a 3/8 SA. Still didn't work. So on the muslin, I ended up lowering both the armscyes and the bodice by an inch, for a much better fit.

I didn't want to blow through another yard and a half of good fabric for 2732, so I muslined it as well--and what do you know? It was perfectly fine as drafted.

So today I'll make 2 shirts out of the version on the left - one in a turquoise Kona cotton and the other a hot pink cotton pique. I am tan, people. One must make hay while one's gazongas are a gorgeous bronze color.

I decided to muslin this after taking a close look at the way each version of the blouse fits the model on the packet. Half the time the bodice is creeping up on her chestal region.

Happily this is one of those patterns that has options for different cup sizes, which worked beautifully for me. It's just a shame it didn't work for the model. And who in their right mind would make this thing up in satin? Look at that fake smile. That just ain't right.

Anyway, today I'm cutting out those 2 versions of 2732 for a family do next weekend, and making plans for a taupe and a black version of 8409, whilst I weep for a beautifully lined, perfectly nubbly turquoise linen version of Vogue 9668 (see below) that flattens out my boobal zone but is otherwise perfect. When I stop crying in my beer I will have Cheech photograph it and will splash it all around the Interwebs for your amusement.

I know. I'm so giving.

On another note, has anyone else noticed the rash of perfectionism on sewing blogs lately? It's so discouraging. In a post last week, the Selfish Seamstress mentioned her "high and mighty philosophy of, 'If you're not going to sew it well, don't bother sewing it at all.'"

Now, Elaine May is one of my sewing heroes. Everything she makes is stunningly executed and in the finest style. And in the post I quoted above, she was exaggerating to make a point, but that's an attitude that runs rampant among sewists with blogs.

Lately all the posts I read seem to be about putting in full French seams when no one other than themselves will ever see the insides of their garments. Painstakingly matching a tiny fabric pattern on the backside of a skirt. Agonizing over a small pucker on a back seam. I read these posts and think, "Let it go, man" even while admiring the end result.

These women, it must be said, are all far more accomplished seamstresses than I am, and more power to them.

But I don't aspire to that kind of perfection. It's too close to the way my grandmother sewed, and the way she taught my mother to sew: tensely, with little joy. (Of course, that was before Mom moved to northern Minnesota and started quilting with a glass of wine close at hand. There's a lot more joy in Sewville these days for Mom.)

My problem with this kind of thinking is that it's crazy making, this frantic need to perfect something that no one else will ever notice. This desperate need to be perfect, to be without flaw, even in the tiniest respect. It is a soul-eroding practice.

Not to mention that it buys into that maddening way society has of putting women under intense scrutiny, even from each other. Even from ourselves. Are we not allowed a crooked seam now and again? One stubborn pucker and hours of work are dismissed as worthless? I am more than the mismatched pattern across my ass!

And where does it leave those who need to make mistakes in order to learn? Where does it leave people who want to try out a new technique? Bound buttonholes, say, or tricksy draping. Where does it leave the beginning seamstress? Out in the cold, that's where.

That kind of attitude is what kept me from buying a sewing machine until I was 37 years old. If I hadn't been able to overcome generations of perfectionist sewing (because you know Grammie learned that crap from someone, who learned it from someone else), I never would have started sewing. I would have missed out on three fun, creative years, full of mistakes--some of which I wear happily--and full of learning.

Sewing is hard enough without attaching sky-high expectations to it. It's frustrating and time-consuming and I don't know a single sewist who hasn't gotten to the end of the road on a long, hard project, only to realize the thing's a wadder.

So why load all that perfectionism on top of it? Why not have fun with it? Life is too short to let perfectionism make us hide-bound, or rob us of our joy.

Hot damn: Vogue 8409!

2010-07-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

Hello wiggle dress: Vogue 8409, where've you been all my life? I made up a muslin last weekend to good results. The armscye's a little tight and I had to take in the waist inset by half an inch on either side, but hot damn: this is one killer dress.

Once I've dealt with the sleeve issue, I'll make up the real one in a stretch black sateen and then get Cheech to take photos after that. Meanwhile you will have to content yourselves with the packet cover:

It's a very simple dress to put together, and very satisfying to wear - it takes about 20 pounds off, and no lie. Very cute. If you're bombshell-y, give it a shot. This fall I plan to make it up in some sort of menswear suiting, if I can find one that won't itch me half to death.

I've also got big plans for the jacket in Vogue 8461, below (it has a certain biker je ne sais quoi; if I can muslin it and it turns out well, I'm thinking about buying some lightweight lavender leather to knock off that Parisian leather jacket I saw at Printemps).

I might have to add a few metal zippers, though. Just to butch it up a little.

Then there's V8648, below, which I am planning to make up in a goofy off-weft polka dot (below below). I'd make the sleeveless straight skirt version and wear it with a black cardigan.

A few of you will probably warn me that if the polka dots don't march in a straight line, it will drive me crazy. To you I say, there is a thing called Xanax. There is enough shit going down in the world without making yourself crazy about matching patterns, although if that's your thing, godspeed. I will never notice, but I salute you for your attention to detail.

Of more pressing concern: how to fit this Big Ben and brollies fabric into my workaday wardrobe. Thoughts? When I bought it, I had visions of a pleated A-line, but then I got real and realized I would look like mutton dressed as lamb.

Friends, tell me how a buxom 40-year-old can get away with the below, please. Perhaps a straight skirt with a generous kick pleat and a black turtleneck? Tall black boots?

I mean, it is white, which could potentially limit its application. Although I've never been one of those Labor Day freaks. See not uptight, above. Life is fleeting. Enjoy your white whilst you can.

Below are two swatches from a friend's sewing project. She and I are more or less the same size, but there's enough difference in how that size is allocated that I am freaking out, just a teensy bit, about making her pjs and a skirt. I think I may have to go out and buy a PJs pattern for her specifically, although I think I can draft the skirt just fine.

They'll both need to be lined, which is also making me tense. This is why I don't offer to make things for more people: I always want to, and then I always end up sweating bullets.

There is also this lovely throwback that I am thinking about making up in a chocolate brown. I love the bodice and the retro neckline.

Mmm, mmm, mmm: retro dress. And now that I finally have a couple pairs of flat boots that I like, I can wear dresses and still walk to the shuttle stop for my commute. Tra la! Life is good.

And lest you think I am a slave to Vogue (though I am), I've also got two new Simplicity designs that are calling my name:

So many dress patterns, so little time. Now if I were only braver about wearing them. Me-Made September? Me-Maybe.

Damn you, Addams!

2010-07-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

I've been busily sewing away even if I haven't been online. I have 3 projects for you today: two boobalicious sundresses and a demure little jacket that closes with a sterling silver leaf pin I bought on Portobello Road for 10 bucks.

The sundresses are from Simplicity 2657; I made the black one first, found I needed to lengthen the bodice a good inch (not to mention put in a dart so that the upper sides didn't splay out), so I did that with the taupe version, shortening the midriff by an inch as well.

I really like the way they look, but my boobs are now so huge they have taken over the dress. They need some sort of invisibility cloak or something. Look at this:

Holy mother of Moses. Those are some gazongas. The black one looks better because the camera angle doesn't show that the bottom bodice seam is basically cutting my bust in two, but trust me. I am definitely PG-13 in that thing.

On that note, let us discuss the jacket I made to cover them up. This is the one I was working on before getting whisked off to Europe.

It looks nice enough, but I'm not that thrilled about the fit--it has princess seams, but you'd never know it. It looks a bit blocky. And by blocky, I mean I look like Uncle Fester in that thing.

I do like the way the linen works with this design, though. I've ironed it six ways to Sunday for the photos but it crumples up nicely. It'll be a good Saturday morning-walking the dogs jacket.

A little bit of the pocket lining peeks out there. I should fix it and take in the sides, but I don't care enough to rip the whole shooting match apart. It'll probably get more use in the fall now that it's 95 degrees here.

Speaking of which, the weather clearly indicated that sundresses were needed. So sundresses I made. Here's the back of the black one:

I should just bite the bullet and cut another, longer bodice for it, but that would mean redoing the lining, not to mention ripping out a metric assload of topstitching around the midriff. Thank you, no.

The little white thing peeking out from the bodice, above, is a bit of newspaper I stuffed the bodice with so that it didn't just sag against the bookshelf.

Below, the back of the taupe version. I love this print. I wish I'd had enough of it to try to match up the right side with the left, but the way the pattern was cut, the only part that could be lined up was the midriff.

And life is fleeting, so people will just have to suck it up. It's not like they'll go blind. For that, they would have to look at my boobs.

A detail from the bust, including the side dart I added, which I should have ironed toward the front rather than the side. Eh, live and learn.

A detail from the back. I had to shorten the straps after sewing them between the lining and the bodice, so I just sewed little squares.

I do love that pattern.

Stuff I intend to knock off

2010-06-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

OK, not this. This was just weird. But it was too weird not to post. Also note that the French are bringing high-waisted, pleated shorts back. Hello, 1991; how've you been?

Even French manikins love their dogs. Man, Paris is a great city.

It's hard to tell from this shot, but those are external darts you're seeing there, and they were everywhere in the shops in Paris. Not so much in London yet, but I expect to be seeing them in RTW within 12-18 months.

I say that like I would know. But I'm guessing they're about to take off.

This dress was inky black and so, impossible to capture detail, but the draping was lovely, so I took a shot of the back and front bodices, right before the security guard hustled me off the floor for taking pictures.

Below, a covetable aubergine leather biker jacket in size Negative 4. I intend to knock it off as soon as I get my Kenmore back in working order (it may just be a $3 fuse that's acting up; I have ordered them. But the next problem is how the hell do I crack the case to get the fuses where they need to be? They really do not want a body opening the computerized part of the machine.) (But then, they never saw me coming, either.).

I'm not crazy about the bracelet-length sleeves, to tell you the truth. Those might look pretty and feminine, but they're almost always irritating to wear: either too short or too long.
This is a leather bag that looks simple and chic. I have the leather; I just need to find a pellon that can make it nice and stiff like that.

I love the clasp, although not having a zipper in that big a bag makes you a prime target for pickpockets. I'd install a zippered lining or some little flap that folds over the opening. Something so that I don't have STEAL FROM ME, IT'S EASY stamped on my forehead.

Um... tassels? Je crois que non.

2010-06-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

So hey! It turns out that rather than give a general talk on couture fitting (like the ~~pants~~ TROUSERS class Gertie took from him), Kenneth's going to be pimping his new book, Cool Couture, which I'll grant you is quite cool, but it's about embellishments, rather than sewing the clothes themselves.

The book came in the mail today, and you know, I was happy to get it, but I expected a little more than suggestions about trim. So I called up the gal from Bates, who said, "Oh sure, if you have his book, you won't need to take notes!" so I decided to save myself $64 and an hour-long drive down to Tacoma.

I mean, the book covers tassels. Putting tassels on your clothes. Putting TASSELS on your CLOTHES. I think I can save myself the trip and just scan that chapter. Maybe hit a strip club to check out how the girls are rockin' the tassels these days.

In other news, my trusty Kenmore 19233 is ailing after four long hard years of regular service--by which I mean grueling death-march 3-day sewing weekends and the spare evening as well.

When I brought it in to the local sewing machine dealer, the aging sewist first took my machine from me before I even walked in the door, then looked askance at its stripped-down, old-school look (even though it's computerized with 214 different stitch types, a free arm and a button-holer, it still manages to look like it was made in 1974). I told her it was running rough, slowing down and then going really fast, and she poked at a couple things, her mouth turned up like she smelled something bad.

Then she told me to buy a Bernina.

Did she not feel the love? Could she not tell how much a piece of me that machine is? Did she not see the round little hula doll bouncing on the hood, or the goth black "Wexley School for Girls" sticker plastered across the back? Or the little collage of round thread stickers I've got going on the right side, under the round turny thing.

I said nyet, I want to fix this machine, this machine right here, the one with the scars from misuse and the beat-up edges and the little part on the top that's perfect for stowing a half-eaten Twinkie in between finishing seams. Not to mention the red-wine spatter. It looks like polka dots!

That is when she told me--without even cracking open the cry hole, mind you--that it would cost me a minimum of $175 to get a tune-up, and wouldn't it be better to just put that money toward a new machine, dear?

To which I said, "Kiss off, you old bat," and left in high dudgeon, or at least as high a dudgeon as a girl can get when she's hauling a 20-pound sewing machine with a hula doll bobbing off the top of it.

Kenneth King's Cool Couture

2010-06-15T14:15:00.001-07:00

Kenneth King's a-coming to Tacoma this weekend, and damn if I'm not going to be there. He's giving a one-day talk on designing couture at Bates Technical College, so Saturday morning will see me getting up at the crack of ass to haul myself down south and learn me some coo-terr.

It's about time, too. Although I have to say, the two pairs of linen pants I whipped up for my last trip -- the week-long thing in Louisiana -- didn't turn out too badly. Unlike previous efforts, they sported neither vestigial tail nor polter-wang, so I count them a win, even if I cut the waistband on the bias on one pair, causing the crotch to sag badly. (Luckily I brought along elastic and a needle and thread, paper-bagging them at the waist, which worked fine.)

Still, I could use some help. Oh, in so many ways. So it's off to Tacoma I go.

Any locals want to come with me? The seminar costs $90, and lunch is an additional $12. I'm driving so you're welcome to carpool.

Sigh: Oxford bags

2010-06-02T11:32:00.001-07:00

A mention on Susannah's site about men's clothing restrictions during WWII had me searching for a photo of a type of trouser called "Oxford bags." Imagine my delight on finding this site:

http://winifredandbance.com/1920s-fashion/

Look at those hats! Sigh. I was born in the wrong era.

London, vintage hats, and external darts

2010-05-16T12:35:00.001-07:00

Oh wow: was Susannah right about London's vintage fair! I got there as the door opened and snapped up a hat from the 40s, a couple scarves (one vintage silk from France with roosters on it, another a new silk something or other that they were selling for cheap), and a three-strand pearl necklace. Tra la! Well done. Thank you Susannah and Cargo Cult readers!

In other news, London is a fantastic city, and I've spent the last 30 hours doing nothing but walking around staring, stepping into mud puddles because why look down when you can look up?

I did take a break today to go see Iron Man 2, and quite aside from the story (which I really liked, even though one of the London papers panned it), the women's fashions were terrific. Scarlett Johansson wore a dress with inverted darts along the hips and the skirt front (which she carried off beautifully, but I imagine anyone with a belly would look like they were pregnant). I think it may also have had external darts along the shoulders.

At some point what's-her-face who writes GOOP wore a dress with external darts as well. Is that the coming thing? I like it. Also in evidence: quite a bit of draping and the odd knot in the middle of the bodice. Like!

Meanwhile I also managed to buy a pair of Wallace & Gromit slippers, sure to drive the youngest schnauzer insane with rage. And justlikethat, I am hit with massive homesickness. Off to call Cheech--my husband's new moniker--and make him make the dogs howl from 4799 miles away. Ah, technology. What would we do without you?

Marcy Tilton in camel hair

2010-05-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

With two hours before I go to the airport, I have not packed, but I AM blogging. That is how punk-rock I am.

Just a quick note to say I did indeed make another Marcy Tilton unstructured coat, this time in ridiculously expensive camelhair, with the addition of a couple shoulder darts to make the shoulders square up on my frame better. I also added 25 inches to the bottom to make it a duster rather than a hip-length jacket.

It looks all right - it looks breezy and fun, which suits me - but the camelhair fabric has far less structure than the black boiled wool I used for the jacket. So when I get back from Parts Afar I'll figure out how to face and line the neck so that it stands up straight... but for now? It's coming with me. I spent too damn much on it to leave it home.

Plus, mmm, camel! It feels appropriate for a voyage.

Photos later. I have to pack. Anon, friends!

V8430: Thus begins my love affair with Marcy Tilton

2010-05-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

Oh, my friends, have you ever tried a Marcy Tilton pattern? Check it out on her site, here: http://www.marcytilton.com/index.php?cid=67&cp=5 I always shied away, figuring my ass was enough "wearable art" all on its own.

Well, no more.

I tried her funky wool kimono wrap last night. Made it in an inky black wool/cashmere felt. And you know what? It looks exactly that cool. The lapels? Lay like that and then STAY THERE. It also looks like something you might pick up at Eileen Fisher, for maybe 1/5 the price.

Not only that, it was easy to make. I mean, ridiculous easy. Three sheets to the wind easy. Cut it out in maybe 15 minutes, sewed it together in about half an hour, wore it all day today. And LOVED it. It's loose but it still has chic lines, comfortable but edgy. In fact aside from the one time I actually managed to put it on upside-down, I would say it's my new favorite jacket.

When I get back from Europe, during the 48 hours I have at home before jetting off to New Orleans for a conference, I'm making her adorable linen sailor pants, too. Marcy Tilton, I heart you!

But for now, it's down to the basement to start a full-court press on McCall's 5525. If I'm lucky (or crazy), it'll be done by the time I scoot off to London on Friday. And THOSE lucky bastards will get to see this, plus a little boo-tay and minus a little gorgeous dark skin:

And at some point this summer, when the measurements actually work for me, I plan on hitting Colette Patterns' Macaron and hitting it HARD.

Thanks for all the new love, by the way. You guys. SO NICE.

Me-Made-Mania

2010-05-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

Of all months to try this--! Turns out I've been conscripted to go to London, Copenhagen, and Paris a week from yesterday. So my friends, Me-Made-May is out the window; now I need to figure out whether I want to use a luscious linen from Michael's Fabrics for a spring coat of another Simplicity 2614, this one with a collar, long sleeves and a cuff.

And I have some apple-green Kona cotton that might also be made into a spring jacket, with dark pink piping because I am just that wacko.

I'll be gone for almost 3 weeks, and then home for 2 days and then off to the Southeast for a conference. I'm excited to go but practically levitating with stress, which means I should maybe put off the, oh, 6 or 7 sewing projects that I immediately thought would be perfect for London and Paris (including a loose, sexy blouse from a - gasp - Pucci silk! THANK YOU FOR PUTTING ME IN THE POORHOUSE, MICHAEL'S FABRIC.) (Oh, who am I kidding? They're just the enablers.)

Anyway. Whatever I get done, I will photograph and post. Between you and some excellent friends in a writing group, I have shed all that crap about what my body looks like--shit, it looks like what it looks like; it is what it is--and just go have fun with fabric. In an un-pervy way.

Anon!

Outfit photos

2010-05-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

The green shirt has blue piping around the neckline and bottom hem, and is the latest Simplicity 2614 I've made (and the best fitting--the black one was the first one I made and it has major excess fabric through the back. I'm trying to decide whether a couple darts will fix it but still let me slip the dress over my head.)

All these are SImplicity 2614.

I keep having to remind myself that this is No Judgment Month. Here goes.

I may never leave the house again.

No me-made today

2010-05-03T22:03:00.001-07:00

I had the best of intentions, friends. I was going to get home at a reasonable hour, get Bill out to the studio to photograph me in a) what I was wearing yesterday, b) what I plan to wear tomorrow and Wednesday, and c) a whole stack of fabrics that are destined for the Colette Macaron pattern --

-- and all that would have worked beautifully, had I been able to leave work at 5 o'clock. Instead I was there til 830, and didn't get home until 930.

So. No me-made-May for me today; it was too stormy here to wear a dress or short sleeves, and I had a meeting with the knee surgeon which precluded wearing that long-sleeved brown jersey dress (tomorrow!) because I don't have brown leggings to go with it, and this guy needs to see my knee. Without me disrobing into shorts. Because you know? I have the teensiest little crush on my knee surgeon, and I ain't showing off my untanned gams all at one get-go.

Confidential to my readers: I think he has a crush on me, too. Lovely man. Luckily we are both the most thoroughly married people in the Puget Sound, so the admiration will stay well above-board. Still, it does add a little frisson to the prospect of knee surgery.

Anyway. Photos tomorrow, many of them, I promise. xoxo, B.

Oh piping, where have you been all my life?

2010-05-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

No photos today, dearies, although I send huge huge love out to everyone who commented. You loves! You darling girls! I heart you.

So tomorrow my husband Bill and I will hie us out to the garage and do a photo shoot of the week's outfits--including a Liberty print version of (yes) Simplicity 2614 that Bill actually thought I'd purchased. That's what I'm wearing today, but you know, this weekend I spent more time actually working on my day job than doing anything else.

So! We are light on photos but will make up for it. And you know what? You know what I have decided? Even if I do not look the way I want to, these clothes I have made still deserve to be photographed and lauded, to be celebrated. And if something as simple as clothes deserve to be celebrated, maybe I do too.

Last night after my husband took those photos of me (the ones I posted on my blog), we were in the kitchen, cleaning up in a desultory way. And we were talking about his photography, and I said I loved his photos of me because they were technically perfect. And that any fault of his model was my fault, not his. He took my chin and told me I was beautiful, and I said, "Well, I walk around and I feel cute but then I see photos and my face breaks up into shards and it turns out my body is the Hindenburg," and he made a little sad face and kept trying to talk me out of it.

This, Gentle Readers, is why I married him: his blindness when it counts. And his unswerving devotion to me.

Also: I made a 2614 (! MUST GET MONKEY OFF BACK) shirt yesterday and instead of doing the facings, I PIPED IT. Along the neckline and the hemline. Why have I never done this before? Piping: simple, cute, classic, and easier than all get-out. Hopefully tomorrow I will have photos. For today, you will have to take my word for it that I did wear a shirt I made, all day, and enjoyed it tremendously. Liberty of London rules.

Darling girls, until tomorrow, I wish you well.

No Judgment Month

2010-05-01T19:05:00.001-07:00

I breathe in, I breathe out. I post photos of my newly embiggened self on the Internet, and I try not to judge myself. Ommmm.

Believe me, I just spared you three paragraphs of writing you didn't need to read. That little bit up there? Small price to pay. Quit your whining. Don't you make that face at me!

OK! So on this, the first day of Me-Made-May, I wore one of the Simplicty 2614 blouses I made and a gored skirt I made from loosely following the instructions on Petit Main Sauvage. I wish I'd shaped it more--I should have really swung for the fences on those gores--but I love the way it feels on. I even lined it. I rule. I refuse to think mean things about my hips.

Today's choice may not be the best but you know, life is fleeting, and this is what I had that was ironed. Also, tomorrow we'll try a shot from straight on rather than above, which will show the lines better.

Also, you have to check out what our girl Zoe did with the Colette Macaron pattern: I've had this pattern for a couple months now and have not dared make it, but when I do, it'll be in a treatment like this. CUTE. I love the Eiffel Tower print on top.

Oh! Another adorable Macaron treatment is here--I think Boo Dogg may have a stalker on her hands.

OK, enough stalling. Here is the goddamn photo of me in my wackiest outfit. It's not even an unflattering photo; I actually am that size. DAMN IT I AM FINE.

I clearly need to start reading the blogs that say sewing is a feminist act.

It's fine. It's fine. Would I judge you if you'd put on some weight? No. I would love you just the same.

gnashgnashgnash STUPID DEGENERATIVE JOINT DISEASE gnashgnashgnash ouch!

Me-Made May!

2010-04-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

Details here: http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com/2010/04/me-made-may-join-me.html

But essentially this blogger (who I am quickly growing to love) is going to wear something she made during every day of May. I too am going to try this, although you know, the last 4 tops and 3 dresses I have made have ALL BEEN from Simplicity 2614. How quickly will I get sick of wearing what are essentially scrubs in cute fabrics? Only time will tell.

Join me? I am looking at you, Minnesota Knit Mistress.

xoxo, Brooke

PS If you're looking for a good fail-safe knit dress to make, look no further than Vogue 8379.

Simplicity 2614, Vogue 8323,b and making dresses from skirt patterns

2010-04-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

I just wrote this joyful ode to my breasts in both of these patterns, which BLOGGER UP AND ATE. THANK YOU BLOGGER, YOU M*THERF*CKER.

(Deep cleansing breath.)

Anyway. I used Vogue 8323 to make a shirt and then a dress, and I have to say both are perfect in every respect, even if the weather in the Pacific Northwest is getting a bit warm for cross-over knits. Behold the crossover top below, and imagine it with a waist-hugging, flared-at-the-hips dress in a nice knit:

It's awesome, and I don't generally think of knit dresses + me as awesome. But baby, it rules the school, and I intend to make one in black, brown, navy, and a gorgeous royal blue before I am through.

But the real glory is Simplicity 2614. I know that a few of you (hello Rox! Don't hate me because I'm a flake. Hate me because I don't live next door, like I'd like to.) think Simplicity isn't, and I have to say, I am with you about 85%. I always have to alter Simplicity patterns--either there's too much ease or the shoulders are flipping huge, and that's saying something from a girl whose ancestry pulled plows in Europe for thousands of years, ensuring their progeny thick ankles and broad shoulders. And thank you for that, ancestors. I think it fitting that you all died of syphilis at age 19. You couldn't have found a freaking courtier to mate with? It just had to be the stable boy.

Well, I guess I understand that.

But I digress. But Simplicity 2614 is the exception: the facings are the easiest I've ever done--they actually fit--the shoulders aren't too broad, the waist isn't too tight, and the flow of the bias-cut midriff is impeccable. I made a blouse out of this pattern, loved it, and promptly made a dress (just expanded the pattern into a sort of A-line) and another blouse.

Let me tell you, I wish I had made about 5 more of these dresses for this conference I'm at in Las Vegas. I am a good 50 pounds overweight and I have seen the back end of 39, and yet all these (fabulous, lovely, blessings-upon-them) software geeks cannot get enough of me in the dress I made from the crossover version in the center panel above.

Both blouse and dress are perfect in every respect (especially made up in a linen-rayon mix, $3.99 at Joann's last week, and I bet they still have some of that for you). And I think I'm going to be making a quintillion more--blouses in lightweight voile for summer, dresses in a linen-cotton or linen-rayon mix (nothing too heavy; otherwise the drape will be off), and maybe a lightweight wool for fall.

I mean: Try Simplicity 2614, even if you've had bad luck with Simplicity before. I made zero alterations and the finished product makes me look like a rock goddess or a pinup girl, depending on what kind of fabric it's done up in. Before this, the only person or thing that could make me feel like that was my husband, and he's not all that portable. Plus, moody. So make the dress and let me know how you find it.

Simplicity: You F it up so often, but on this one, you got it right. THANK YOU.

Crochet your own boa!

2010-04-02T16:03:00.001-07:00

Jenny Crusie has long been one of my favorite authors, but now she may be my favorite fibre artist too. Know why? She is crocheting boas.

Not content to fill the Western world with funny, evocative fiction, she is also filling the world with boas. Seriously: she's bucking for sainthood, people.

Go check it out here whilst I sew various things and throw them all away because they fit funny (or, worse, keep them and wear them but refuse to photograph myself in them because I am no longer a single-digit size, or even close to it).

Two new handbags

2010-03-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Here's how I spent this morning: making the larger of the two bags below. Handbags are so much easier to photograph, aren't they? For one thing, I don't have to model them; for another, I don't have to confront photographic evidence that my butt is somewhat larger than it was when I was 18 (or 38, for that matter). Hurray!

I took the hobo bag pattern from the book Making Leather Handbags by Mullins, among others. The book has patterns included but they leave you to suss out the proper way to sew pieces together by yourself, so I've only done the hobo because me and the spatial? Not so much. Still: good book.

Here are the 2 bags I've made from it so far. I love the pattern--it goes together quickly without any real headaches. I lovelovelove this screwy midcentury lining. It reminds me of being in sixth-grade music class when our teacher (who I now realize was poking a toe or two out of the closet) got us big pieces of drawing paper and paints and asked us to paint the music, which was Miles Davis' Kind Of Blue album. Now that was a good day.

The inside of the smaller hobo, a peachy-browny confection that makes me want bonbons.

I cannot tell you how much I love this little bag. It's the perfect size: room enough for the essentials (my Kindle, phone, notebook and wallet), no room for the bullshit crap that will drag you down.

But everyone needs to haul around some crap once in a while, so I made a larger hobo as well, so that on my walk home from the bus stop, I can simply toss the broccoli and spaghatti sauce into my bag as I knock over the corner grocery. Tra la! Martha would be so proud.

I made the smaller bag last weekend and already it has stains on it. Like Heather says, I can't have anything nice. Somehow that doesn't stop me from acquiring the nice, though.

Can I tell you how much I heart this larger bag? The sewing at the top sides (where I've connected the handle to the bag) is atrocious, but the thread matches the leather so well it works. Kind of.

Got sewing?

2010-03-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

I've been away from my own blog but stalking several others, and I am finally poking my head up to tell you-all about them. That is, the 2 of you who are still occasionally popping by, hoping it snowed in hell. Hi! Did you pack your winter coats?

I'll be adding them to my links list and also putting up a post of a hobo bag I made and a terrific jersey dress, as well.

Gertie (http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/) is my newest flame. If it weren't creepy I would send her flowers and chocolates. Go take a look at her posts on sewing and body image and tell me you don't feel the same.

I feel goofy for even bringing up Erica B (http://www.ericabunker.com/), because if you've ever looked for a sewing blog you've found hers, but there it is. I am practically stalking Erica.

And speaking of stalking, if I ever get down to Texas I plan to throw myself at the mercy of Amanda (http://amandasadventuresinsewing.blogspot.com/) and beg her to teach me how she gets so much done with two children and a house to run.

Life as I know it would stop if the Selfish Seamstress ever quit posting. (http://selfishseamstress.wordpress.com/) I aspire to become her nemesis. I mean that fondly.

Kristin at Very Prairie (http://sewveryprairie.blogspot.com/) should go work for Vogue. She could both design clothes AND photograph them.

Novita at Very Purple Person (http://verypurpleperson.com/) makes the most gorgeous dresses. I wish I had the petite frame for them; they would be wrong on me (girlish doesn't go well with enormous ta-tas and an ass with a mind of its own), but on someone as petite as Novita, they are perfect and enviable.

KMQ at Smoking Needles (http://smokingneedlesknitting.blogspot.com/) has terrific tips on sewing jeans.

Michelle at Cheap and Picky (http://cheapandpicky.blogspot.com/) is a girl after my own heart.

Slapdash (http://theslapdashsewist.blogspot.com/) will try anything, and goes on phenomenal shopping sprees in places like Hong Kong.

My heart has long belonged to Heather Ross (http://heatherross.squarespace.com/). Sews AND designs fabric AND draws. What other super powers does she have?

Last but certainly not least is Sally at Already Pretty (http://www.alreadypretty.com/), who may not write about sewing, but certainly writes about clothes. I heart Sally!

Anyway, stay tuned for a photo post of recent projects soon.

Pendants

2009-05-23T08:53:00.001-07:00

Posting these for Geraldene, who may use one of them as a pattern for her tattoo!

Where've I been?

2009-05-18T11:46:00.001-07:00

Where HAVEN'T I been, is the question. Well, let's see: I've been working with jersey, making shirts and dresses; I've been learning printmaking and I've also been working with resin to make my own pendants.

In fact, you can have one of your very own, for the low low price of $24. Check it out here: http://brookebrannon.etsy.com

And shortly, I'll have an eHow article published on how to print designs on your very own t-shirt, complete with photographs that are not the least bit goofy, and not even one reference to either drunkenness or calling in sick to work to play. As you can imagine, I had to employ quite a bit of restraint.

Anyway, I'm back now, and I'll be posting more often. Ta!

Writer's conference bag

2008-07-28T11:57:00.000-07:00

I made this in preparation for a writer's conference I'm going to this week in San Francisco. The handles were meant to look like periods, but it's only now that I realize they're more spotty than spotted.

I've made a few satchels to sell, too; if I can, I'll post pictures here. I also made two sleeveless dresses that I am over the moon about, not least because they make me look terrific, showing off my hourglass shape without being too tricky to sew. McCall's 2401, I heart you.

Although actually, I took the pattern and revised and revised and revised to get the proper fit through the waist and to stop the bagging at the neckline and shoulders, so I should say, it's 2401 that I've made several mods to. That said, you still only have to cut out four pieces, so it's aces in my book.

But I digress. Here's the bag I made for moi:

I'm thinking about making a dress to match. How crazy would that be? You'll just have to tune in and see.

Three skirts and a dress

2008-07-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

There has been much sewing, but little of it good enough to post. Namely I spent a couple months trying to make the perfect linen pant, and never got remotely close.

But I do have three terrific new skirts and a new dress to show you.

At first, I'd cut this one (above) to be an A-line, but the fabric was thin, so I had to add interfacing. That made the whole thing wicked stiff, so that it looked like my skirt was trying to leap from my body. I took it down to a modified pencil and it suits me just fine.

This one just says 1977 to me. I love it. I should have made myself a maxi-dress with it. How boss would that be?

Ahhh: Giant flowers splashed all over my ass. What else could a girl want in a skirt?

And finally, the dress that made my husband make one of those appreciative male noises, sort of like a grunt only more focused. I'm using this pattern again.

Skirtless in Seattle

2008-04-16T18:27:00.000-07:00

I know, I know: as bloggers go, I am a bad little bee. What can I say? I went to Maui, quit my job, laughed as my husband quit his job, and have been lazing around with him and the dog ever since. I've made exactly one thing: a pair of pajama pants.

OK, there was a wrap dress in there too, and two pending pairs of yoga pants for a little goin' concern I've cooked up with a friend of mine. But nothing photographable, particularly since (after snorkeling off a good 5 pounds in Hawaii) I went and gained it all back on my return, and then some. I am a regular butterball. The sewing has allowed me to avoid that unpleasant fact until now.

Anyway, regular posts will resume at some point. For right now, I'm having too much fun goofing off and going drinking with friends. Tra la! It's like I'm on strike from the regular world. And you know what? I like it.

A new take on the Hawaiian shirt

2008-03-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

Not that I'm desperate to go on vacation or anything. Not that it's still WEEKS AWAY or anything.

My friend Jen took this photo. I was making a totally spazzy face so I cut off my head. Why is it that my face and my boobs look so cockeyed in photos?

It is possible that "cockeyed" is not quite the right word to use here, but whatever.

I made a matching bag. I can be a little obsessive.
Here's the other shirt, sort of a gratuitous rack shot for your hump day. Tee hee.
Oh, and I was also wearing the linen pants I made when Jen took the shot. I messed up the butt seam so it looks like I have a vestigial tail. Behold:
The sad thing is, I'm not going to fix it. I like pointing out my vestigial tail too much.

Must... go... to... Hawaii!

Also: Repro Depot!

2008-03-06T14:03:00.001-08:00

OMG GREAT FABRIC: http://www.reprodepotfabrics.com/newarrivals.html

Summer Skirt

2008-03-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

You only get part of the front because my boobs decided to spaz out when my husband took the picture. But LOOK HOW CUTE! I'm dying. I love this skirt. I want it to be 75 and sunny so I can wear it.

I had worried about the butt-embiggening properties of the print, but you know, I think I'm pulling it off.

Proto-tote lives!

2008-03-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

Last night I made another version of my tote bag. I had to finish the side seams by hand: pain in the ASS. But I love the tote. I used interfacing on both the outside fabric and the lining (heavy linen) to stiffen up the fabric, but its sides are still a little on the floppy side.

I love the pockets. I made the outside side panels out of black linen and then patched a couple pockets on - a large one of black linen, and then a small one of the primary fabric. I loved making it, but you know, it was a pain and a half to sew. I have to refine my totery. Also, my sewing still sucks.

My lost weekend with linen

2008-03-03T16:31:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, my husband was furiously studying for his accounting and finance MBA classes, so I hid out in the basement with my sewing machine, five yards of linen, and no small amount of wine.

These, friends, are the results.

First, linen trousers. They're acceptably baggy without making me look like I'm wearing bleached-out clown pants. I worked out the pattern on my own, after starting from the pattern for wide-leg lounge pants from In Stitches.

This linen took me a good couple hours to iron. Never ever ever stuff linen in the wash, then dry it, and then decide to iron it later. Your wrists will kill you in the morning.

I liked the way the pants turned out so much that I made a skirt.

Mmmm, skirt. And I liked that one so much that I whipped up another one, this time out of lighter-weight linen and contrasting thread. My sewing is still not exactly county-fair sewing, but what the hell, right? Go drink half a bottle of wine and tell me you make good sewing decisions.

I think I ironed it a little overzealously. There wasn't even any wine involved. WTF? Wherefore the shiny?

I like it. I like it. I like it.
At some point, I realized I only have one pair of shorts that will contain my ever-increasing ass, so I took the rest of the linen and made myself a pair of shorts.

The best thing about linen is how beautifully the seams look when they're ironed. Then, of course, everything creases all to hell... but for one shining moment between the drinking and the inevitable carpal tunnel, everything comes together.

Linen. I like it. Please get me some ice for my wrists now.

Proto-Tote

2008-02-26T11:54:00.000-08:00

I always wanted to front a band called the Capacious Handbags. Unfortunately, I have no musical ability whatsoever, so I've had to resort to making capacious handbags, which as you might imagine is slightly less punk rock than the alternative.

But whatever.

I give you Proto-Tote, the first bag I've attempted. I still need to put the lining in and attach straps, and the sewing is all shot to hell since I worked on it in the dark, but I like the idea.

And from the side:
I love love love the fabric. I may need to get more.

Next up: the Ladylike. I love the fabric - so much so that I ordered another 5 yards in violet to make a dress. We'll see how that goes.

Spring is on its way.

My Neck Hurts: The Catch-up Post

2008-02-23T13:09:00.001-08:00

OK! Here in one shot is the extravaganza of experimental sewing: all - well, some - of the quintillion projects I've started, finished, or abandoned as a bad job over the last few weeks.

I won't lie to you. There have been experiments with stretch denim, and with green linen pants. These, you will not see. But here's a sampling of the other stuff.

First of all, I was in a sour mood last night, and I happened to have some appropriate fabric for that, so I made myself a skirt. Here's a close-up of the fabric, which is so sunny, it's impossible to keep being sour when you've wrapped your ass in it.

Appropriately enough, it doesn't fit.

I also made myself a Cruella DeVil jacket (made out of velvet rather than actual puppy, but no less stylish for that).

It still needs a little work around the bottom hem, but I love how crazy it makes me look. (Not that I am the chair. I just didn't have it in me to parade around modeling this stuff for C today.)

The other jacket I made is this pink bounciness, but unfortunately, I cut the seams too close and after one washing, the thing is falling apart.

I know: distressing.
Because the interfacing has fused itself to the crappy sewing, there's no fixing it, which breaks my heart. Trust me, these photos don't do it justice - it hugs my curves and opens up my face in the cute little collar frame.

I made a matching skirt so that I could have a complete ensemble for when the men in the white coats come to take me away.

I love the skirt almost as much as the jacket, and so far, the (now reinforced) seams are holding.

Then I made this apron for my friend Peggy, who's leaving our place of employment. The fabric seemed appropriate, since the place has driven many of us to drink.

This also breaks my heart, but I'm holding that at bay by sewing. And gardening.

In anticipation of a trip to the tropics, I made these black linen lounge pants. They're a little on the baggy side - I mean, no one would say they look like clown pants, but you know they're thinking it. They are also terribly comfortable, and look good with sandals. Mission accomplished!

And I made a lightweight beach coverup that feels lovely on, even if it's way, WAY too big.

When I realized I'd become perilously grouchy, I made myself a long bubbly skirt. It sort of worked, and sort of didn't.

I mean, the skirt works fine. It didn't really improve my mood, though.

Two jackets, three pairs of trousers, and a shirt

2008-02-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

That's right. I've been away but I haven't been idle. I just haven't been writing. Obsessive sewing will do that to you.

So, in addition to making three pairs of pants yesterday (two linen, one denim) and two jackets (unlined) over the last two weeks, I have also made 6 skirts (4 for friends, two for me) -- three of which need fixing before I can send them off. I am also making a beachy sort of coverup-shirt-thing to wear when my husband whisks me off to Maui in a couple months.

No photos yet because everything needs small fixes and I've been too fixated on making the big things to do the small mendy-type fixes. But watch this space; they'll be here soon.

Sock Monkey Madness Continues!

2008-02-08T14:23:00.000-08:00

That's right, baby: SOCK MONKEY PANTS.

They're lounge pants, actually, meant to be worn for lounging around. And look at that: they work like a dream.

Uh-huh. Oh, yeah.
The only problem is that I made them with really wide elastic which means I now have plumber's butt when I sit down. But hey! They're for lounging. If you can't plumber-butt around the house, I ask you, are you truly an American?

I won't show you the glory of my own plumber-buttiness, but I will show you my belly button. Aside from the super-low rise, I really like the wide elastic as a sort of yoke.

Jacket the Second: Not As Intended

2008-02-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

I have been avoiding this.

I whipped this jacket up - and when I mean "whipped," I mean "stuggled mightily for a good 12 hours before admitting defeat and giving up in disgust" - a week and a half ago. My neck has yet to recover.

I would model it for you - it actually looks all right on - but I am just not that punk rock. The Asian Rain Jacket, it has defeated me.

It was meant to be a swing coat, but then I realized that made me look 16 months pregnant, and so I added waist darts, shortened the goofily long sleeves, and tried to get the neck to lay down flat.

When the dust settled, I realized I had made a jacket that only a tiny 80-year-old Asian woman - with admittedly great taste -- would wear. So now I have to find her and give it to her. I can't keep it; my wrists stick out the ends, and the shoulders hit me funny. You need a humpback to wear this thing properly.

But the colors do work beautifully together, if I do say so myself. That's the lining. I also used very light green velvet ribbon around the neck to hide the lousy sewing.

I really do love the fabric. When I first bought it, I wanted to make a knee-length, princess-line jacket or car coat out of it, but when that pattern arrived, it was clear that that's beyond me for the moment. I'm just bitter because I just wasted $50 and a weekend on something I will never wear, and earned a sore neck for my trouble.

On another note, there should be a disclaimer on Amy Butler's fucking High Street Messenger Bag pattern because you need higher maths to put the pattern together.

OK, so "daily" skirt might be a bit of a misnomer

2008-02-04T21:40:00.000-08:00

The thing is, there has been turmoil in the Daily Skirt's actual daily work environment. So there have not been many skirts manufactured lately. And the one jacket that was made was... well... not entirely up to DailySkirt.com snuff.

I mean, I'll still post pictures. If I'm not good for comic relief, what am I good for, after all?

But there hasn't been anything worth mentioning other than office politics and negativity and strife. And you know, life is fleeting. Go smell the roses. Report back, tell me how they smell so that I might join you, if only virtually.

Godspeed, you skirt lovers, you. Godspeed!

Jupe La Quinze: Flower Girl/The Eileen

2008-01-27T19:21:00.000-08:00

Let me apologize for the crappy photos of this truly lovely skirt. I found the fabric today in the upholstery section - which carries "bottom-weight" fabrics. In other words "bottom-weight" fabrics are suitable to wrap around one's ass. As I soon discovered.

This is me, always fighting the belly. Luckily the enormous flower on my skirt distracts me from my belly, inducing a state close to - can it be? self-love?

But who couldn't love this?
Yes, that is indeed an absolutely enormous flower on my butt. And you know what? I couldn't be happier about it. I'm wearing it to work tomorrow with boots and a brown sweater.

I saw this fabric and immediately thought of Eileen, who will be getting a skirt much like this, but perhaps with racing stripes, in a mere 10-15 days.

Digression into my state of mind: Making this skirt was terrific therapy for a really shitty week at work, part of which I brought on myself, but much of which was brought on by a she-demon named ****. I might as well have called this the "Suck it, ****" skirt, but you know? The jacket I spent 8 hours on yesterday should really be given that name, because a lot of the anger I felt at ****, and the untenable environment she has created at work, dissipated when I was making it, escaped into the ether - along with the shame I felt at handling things badly, letting my own anger and lust for justice (and honesty - the nerve of me, wanting the people I work for to be honest, can you imagine?). Into the air, and left me singing along with Aretha Franklin and the Dixie Chicks and Indigo girls and that gal who sings "I'm not going to write you a love song"* on my iPod.

So thank you, ****. Despite yourself, you brought joy and beauty in the world, if mistakenly.

Digression over. Watch for photos of the jacket tomorrow or so. It's almost completely done, but for a little velvet trim around the collar, which I messed up but which, hopefully, no one will notice once there's velvet trim on it.

* Incidentally, buy that album, she rules. I think her name is Sara Bareilles, and she has a voice like a young Aretha.

Skirt 14: The Rox

2008-01-22T20:12:00.000-08:00

Named in honor of my gutsiest friend, Rox, I give you the most favorite skirt I have ever made: The Rox (aka The Sock Monkey Skirt), so named because of the fabulous sock-monkey hat my Minnesotan friend made and proudly wears.

In her honor, tomorrow I am wearing this skirt to:

A business lunch
A training session on search engine optimization
An after-hours work function

I expect everyone will bow before my fabulous style. I will tell them all, "Rox is my inspiration."

Meanwhile, her 13-year-old, alerted to praise of her mother by the mysterious ways of the universe, will make "gag me" motions with her mouth. If kids even do that any more. Is that strictly from the 80s or is "gag me" making a comeback?

But I digress. Here are photos of The Rox, which (much like its namesake) is even more wonderful than I thought it would be--and (again, exactly like its namesake) I had high hopes to begin with. You'll note the fabulous socks-and-ankle-brace combo, which I left in just for you. I'll be wearing this tomorrow with a purple turtleneck and slouchy brown engineer boots.

I love that skirt. Look at the shape! It's flannel, too. It's like stealth jammies.
Oh man. Such a lack of definition in my once-mighty calves. I can start running in 2 months, and you can bet I'm going to do it in this skirt.

Lounge Pants for the Spatially Impaired

2008-01-19T13:14:00.000-08:00

I give you Lounge Pants, The First Attempt.

Let this be a warning to anyone who wants me to make you a skirt. Daily Skirts: The thing to wear when you want to be committed immediately.

I cut this pattern out according to the directions in Amy Butler's In Stitches, which was exactly my reaction when I realized that these would only fit if I had a four-foot torso and 13-inch legs.

Imagine my delight.

But I am nothing if not a problem solver. No matter, I thought; I'll just make them into a nightshirt!

See? That's vaguely t-shirt-shaped, right?

And I mean, it's still got monkeys on it, right? It doesn't have to look perfect, and it will still make me laugh every time I put it on. Especially now that I know I am actually wearing pants with my head where my lady parts are supposed to be.

Sadly, this plan was flawed. Not only were the sleeves desperately uncomfortable, but I looked like an escapee from a children's hospital.

You'd think I would have a high tolerance for that, but as it turns out, I do not.

I still have no idea where I went wrong, although I suspect when she said to sew the inner leg seams together, I managed to sew the wrong thing to the wrong thing. Imagine.

Skirt Thirteen: The Brownie

2008-01-17T08:47:00.000-08:00

May I introduce you to Lucky Number 13, The Brownie? It features three different kinds of brown and also some black, so that on days like today, when I get dressed while comatose, it won't matter if I wear black Doc Martens with a brown sweater and a navy coat. This skirt can pull them all off.

Well, OK, not the navy, but it's got black's back. And check out the ribbon at the hem. You should see the sewing on that ribbon; it's all over the place. Thank God the thread matches.

I could not be happier with this thing, and it only took me 45 minutes to make. Which is good, since I now have a permanent pain in my neck. It is called Art.

OK. It's possible it is called Notions. But look how cute!

By the way, blame Rox if you are seeing rather more of me than you would prefer. She bitched about wanting to see the skirts on a real live person, so you get these crappy mirror shots. But look at that skirt, willya?

No. 12: The Thelma

2008-01-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

In honor of my favorite great-aunt, I give you The Thelma, made Saturday morning for a petite dinner party we had Saturday night. It's made out of bark cloth, which I believe is used for outdoor awnings, but whatever.

I'm calling it The Thelma despite the fact that TJ hates her name. See, I'm trying to bring it back, in all its retro glamour. I mean, look at this skirt: it looks like a beatnik jam at 3 a.m., no? All martini glasses and dilated pupils and percussion.

At some point I will get C to take a photo of me wearing this, but for now you get the table wearing it. I can tell you this: I am not a small girl, and this fabric makes much of my thighs. I mean that in a good way: I look curvy and delectable in this skirt. Go barkcloth! Now I have to find some outdoor webbing to make some pants.

No. 11: The Making of a Road Trip Skirt

2008-01-09T21:13:00.000-08:00

Bodacious, no? Get the full scoop here, in the original post (post-dated to 1/1/08 because it's completely enormous and I don't have the patience to actually code this correctly).

Skirt the Tenth: Black and White

2008-01-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

Ah, the black and white skirt: How better to show off my Fussy shirt? Here's a close-up:

Get your own at Fussy.org. It's just the thing for luncheons and teas.

Although the Joss Whedon Is My Master Now t-shirt gives Fussy's a run for its money, I'll tell you that. This one's on CafePress somewhere.

My favorite is the writer shirt below, bought to help support the WGA Writer's Strike.

Get your proletariat on by buying your own strike swag here - all proceeds go to help non-writers who are affected by the strike (like production teams who are sidelined while the strike continues). More information is at UnitedHollywood.com.

Look at that. Looks dandy with the skirt, no? The fabric is from Alexander Henry, with whom I am carrying on a fairly serious love affair in my mind. C, you've got competition.

Not really. The guy who buys me a scooter on the spur and lets me unspool over sewing skirts is the guy for me.

Here's the real tea outfit. This is far less likely to get you chucked out of the Four Seasons than Eden's Fussy shirt... although you only live once.

I whipped this skirt up in a little over an hour last night. I didn't have a zipper to go with, so I used a magenta one. I loves it. Look how bright and happy! And again, not embarrassing! It's a Stormy January Miracle.

By the way, you Californians, are you all right? My kid sister is currently trapped in her home in the woods without power. She's 18 and her parents - my dad and stepmother - are three states and several snowy passes away.

Lest you get any ideas, she's a crack shot and she's armed. Plus I can only imagine that she is surrounded by three or four of her beefy young admirers, who have snowshoed their way through the Sierra snows to ensure her safety.

Oh right! Zipper. Voila:

And slit:
Man, what a missed opportunity: I should have called this site Zipper and Slit. I bet the Google searches would be hysterical.

How the hell did this happen?

2008-01-06T09:37:00.000-08:00

I never sewed. I never wanted to.

I come from a family of women who haunt fabric stores and win quilting competitions and talk about "fat corners" as if they're something to aspire to. And it made me roll my eyes with the best of them.

In fact, up until last month, the extent of my sewing career was making a plush skateboard in the eighth grade. Sure, there were a few badly hemmed pairs of jeans in there, a couple badly hand-sewn baby quilts, crap like that. But that was it, and that was fine by me.

And yet, a few weeks ago, I got a wild hair to buy a sewing machine and make myself a couple skirts.

How did this happen? I'm as baffled as you are. In fact, pretty much anyone who knew me as a teenager is scratching their heads right not, wondering if I went to some churchy thing where they convinced me that Doc Martens were the tool of the devil and it really is best to be barefoot and pregnant.

Well, no joy on either count. I own like 8 pairs of Docs and kids are a road I've decided not to take.

So whence the Kenmore 19233?

Well, it all started with a spur-of-the-moment upholstery project. I went to a fabric store looking for a bathroom curtain that I could attach with safety pins. I came out with three yards of gorgeous suede and a book on reupholstering ancient dining-room chairs.

When that turned out OK - and by "OK," I mean that I did not die of infection from the century-old horsehair stuffing in the chairs - I started thinking about the other great fabrics I'd seen, and wondered if having a sewing machine might, in fact, be kind of fun.

After all, I told myself, I didn't have to make quilts or afghans or any of that old-lady crap; I could make something cool. Like curtains. And skirts. Skirts are easy, right? And I could make them out of fabrics that would make my mother's eyes bleed. Excellent.

And so an impulse purchase was born: my bottom-of-the-line electronic Kenmore sewing machine, bought on sale and later expensed as a work-life balance thing. (I do love my company and its liberal expense policy.)

And since then - Dec. 16, 2007, a mere three weeks ago - I've made 10 skirts, one jacket (stay tuned, DS faithful), and a tablecloth for my beloved step-mother-in-law, and I am hooked. Clearly.

I was not prepared for this. Between that plush skateboard and an hour spent with my mother back in 1983, huddled weeping over her sewing machine, I have had only limited instruction, and fraught instruction at that.

The only documented evidence of this (since the skateboard no longer exists) is a photograph my sainted home ec teacher took of me when I finally wrestled the last bit of foam into the skateboard and called it a day. It had taken something like three months to complete the damn thing. Everyone else in class had long since graduated to aprons and tablecloths except me and the Skateboard of Shame.

So when at last I finished the project, the teacher--who had to be as frustrated as I was, if not more--took a photograph of me. In it, I am leaning back in my chair with my hands laced behind my head, my eyes closed, a huge smile on my face because I was done.

I was fantasizing about burning it, if you want to know the truth.

That photograph showed up in the year-end slide show, cued up at the very beginning of the song "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang. A more apropos song you would not find, unless it was possibly "I Fucking Hate to Sew" or possibly "All of a Sudden I'm 21 Instead Of 11".

So you know I'm telling you the truth when I say I have no idea how this happened. I thought I skipped the sewing gene. My mother is a lifelong quilter, having the basics of sewing all but beaten into her by her mother. But I have been a lifelong avoider of any kind of "soft" craft, opting instead for metal sculpture and encaustic painting, as if to prove to my grandmother how macho I am.

As if she cared. I hope that if her spirit still exists, she's looking down at me now, here in the foofy little gardeny jacket I made myself, and she's laughing at me, understanding me at last. She and I, there was always a gulf between us. Always. There was a deep connection but also a deep misunderstanding. A deep caution. I did not approve of the way she treated my mother; she did not know how to bridge the gap. So I stayed as far away from her as possible.

And maybe because of that, I essentially forswore all sewing activities. But then that damn Heidi made me start knitting, and Eileen did too, and then my grandmother died, which apparently caused some kind of deep seismic shift in me that made me want to make things. Pretty things, things I could wear.

And then there was the upholstery project and then the sewing machine and now HERE I AM, making skirts and jackets and thinking maybe if I can learn how to sew a tote, I'll set up an Etsy shop.

Jacket: Testing my Spatial Abilities

2008-01-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

Three backbreaking days later, and you're welcome for sparing you the blow-by-blow, I had created this jacket: the gardening jacket.

Lined with rough silk and covered in what I suspect is upholstery fabric, this sucker's warm as hell. C didn't even think I'd made it myself. Now he is convinced we will save hundreds of dollars if I make him dress shirts.

What he doesn't know is that they, too, will be puffy and deconstructed, because that's how I roll.

Also, the seams will be in unpredictable places, like one inch to the left of my spine instead of directly over it.

That's OK. I love this jacket, even though I fear my neck is permanently stuck in the looking-down-at-sewing-machine position.

I love it even though it permanently disrupted any understanding I had of spatial relationships between the linings of sleeves and the sleeves themselves. I did not know, when I took Mr. Zaraza's physics class in the eleventh grade, that all the shit I did not learn in that class would later come back to haunt me.

But you know, some of it stuck, because after I had decided I'd failed three separate times, I turned one little piece of fabric inside out and all of a sudden, I had an actual jacket. I swear I heard that old bastard laughing, too.
I mean, look at this jacket: Does this not look like a puddle of comfort to you? I probably look like I'm 70 years old in it, but you know? It's so comfortable, I do not care.

Zen and the Art of Sewing by the Seat of Your Pants

2008-01-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a few things I've learned since I started this project. A complete post on making your skirt can be found here.

The iron is your friend.

Zippers are hard - but they're far easier if you have a zipper foot. Invest in one, it's worth the three bucks.

Darts are easy (and hey, the high waist is coming back, so what the hell? Pop in some darts).

Wash and dry fabric, and iron it, before you even think about cutting it to make whatever it is you're going to make. Otherwise it may shrink. Just trust me on this.

A pair of really sharp shears, made specifically for cutting fabric, makes all the difference in the world. Invest in a pair and then only use it for fabric. Be a Nazi about this.

The straighter you cut, the straighter you'll sew. Be precise when you cut your fabric. That way, you can line it up on the little 3/8 or 1/2 line on the sewing machine and have a more or less even seam.

When you screw up a seam (or a facing, or the top of a zipper), ask yourself two things: Is this going to affect the fit? And is anyone going to see it? If not, whether you fix it is between you and your God.

Ribbons hide a host of sins.

Wine helps. (Wine usually does. So accommodating, the grape.)

Don't panic. Seam rippers were invented for a reason. After a while, it gets kind of fun.

If you're buying thin quilting fabric and not lining your skirts, invest in a good slip. (Although I hear lining makes a skirt look more polished.)

Here's how I make a skirt.

Wash and dry fabric, then iron it before cutting it out.
Using the pattern I made from the Sew What? Skirts! book, I cut out two sides of a straight skirt. Cut on the fold.
Facings: Instead of cutting out a separate piece of fabric for the facing, I made a pattern that includes the facing - it ends up being a little flap over the waistband, and this turns out to work pretty well.
Sew a line at the top of the waist, so that my facing will flop down over one side and the skirt on the other.
Turn the skirt pieces so that the outside of the fabric faces in. I always mess this up, so pin it and then turn it around and see if it makes sense. If it doesn't, girl, regroup.
Then sew the side seams, leaving room for a 7-9" zipper (or whatever size zipper I bought). If I'm sewing little side slits, I'll leave room for those too, plus an inch or so for the hem. The more I sew, the narrower my hems get. One thing: These hems will fray. You can get a pair of pinking shears and pink 'em up; there's a stitch called a blanket-weave stitch you can use; or you can just let them fray and deal. It comes down to this: how Martha are you? My response: Not very, so I leave them and deal.
Iron the hem, then sew it. Soooo much easier than pinning.
Take deep breaths and a sip or two of wine. Pin the zipper in place. More wine. Then I'll sew it in, following directions in that Sew What book (or whatever you can find online).
Once it's more or less on, take the skirt to the ironing board. Iron the facing down and then sew the facing about half an inch from the top of the waistline, then about an inch from the bottom of the facing, in a straight line. This will show on the front and back of the skirt,so it's important to sew a straight line rather than following the dip of the facing--unless you want a little V in the front of your skirt, which come to think of it could be slimming. Hmm.
Sew the facing around the zipper so that it's neat.
Add any trim or lining. If your seams are a little wonky at your hem, get a great ribbon and some matching thread and go to town.
Iron it. Iron your skirt. I know, I know, it's like I'm being funded by the Iron Council of America. All I can say is, whatever craziness I inserted in sewing my skirt, I can usually downplay or eliminate entirely with a good ironing.

Somewhere my mother is laughing. Later I'll take photos of each step to illustrate, and then I'll post the whole shooting match in the "You'll Need These" section over to the right.

Number Nine: Dragonfly

2008-01-02T14:28:00.001-08:00

Oh, my favorite yet: the dragonfly skirt. This is made of a nice heavy viscose/poly blend that drapes gorgeously and makes much of my shape.

I made a matching wrap, again using the right side of the fabric for the wrap, but the "wrong" side for the skirt. Who wants a shiny ass? Not me. I would be a hazard on the street.

Oh, but look how pretty!

The seams are even, too. And it looks great with light-blue v-neck and little blue neckerchief.

Note the little flowers I sewed onto the skirt. Dragonflies like flowers, don't they? I should sow some grass on, maybe a moat. I would call it the Collage Skirt.

I also love it with a chocolate-brown t-neck and brown boots.

The zipper is not as embarrassing as previous zippers.

Close-up of the flowers. All skirts should have flowers on.

That cross-hatch pattern is from my ironing board. I know, time to get a new one.

But the skirt itself even looks good with a jean jacket and my favorite scarf (thank you, Eileen!)

The Ocho: Another outfit, sans green

2008-01-02T14:26:00.001-08:00

Heart heart heart!

The Ocho: Loopy Skirt

2008-01-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

There are those who would say that purple, green, and pink do not go together. I am here to tell you that this is commie hogwash.

This one is made out of a nice heavy cotton that drapes beautifully and, despite the enormous circles on it, takes about 10 pounds off. Thank you, Manufacturers of Heavy Cotton. I heart you, as do big-bottomed gals everywhere.

I put in darts. They look good, despite the fact that this skirt desperately needs pressing. I forget exactly why these darts are so close together, but whatever. Who cares? The skirt is loopy! Loopy, people! Go with it! I should call it my Doobie Skirt.

7: Because my skirts aren't crazy enough

2008-01-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

I love this skirt. It looks like a chemistry experiment gone terribly wrong, and you know, I dig that. I consider it fair warning for everyone who meets me.

Also? Crazy circles make me happy, and it goes with practically everything I own.

The sewing's better as well. It's not perfect; I'm still going too fast and pulling at the fabric instead of slowing down and letting my sewing machine (a Kenmore 19233) do its job.

And for the first time, I was brave enough to use contrasting thread against the ribbon. And who really cares if it's not straight? It's a crazy skirt. Being too straight would be wrong.

6: Green flowers, spring showers

2008-01-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

Look at that zipper. Just look at it, would you? It's so pretty. No one could look at that zipper and laugh. NO ONE.

I point this out because of the seams you will see as you scroll down the page. They aren't pretty. They are psychotic.

But look! It even curves, because you know, I am a curvy gal. Curves are good, especially when you coat them with extra-vivid green and little yellow flowers. Somewhere my alumni association is proud of me, even though I've only sent them money twice in 20 years.

I'm so pleased with the way this skirt came out. The facing was where it should be, nothing pulls, it drapes well even though it's quilting-weight cotton. (And granted, if it were a heavier cotton, I would probably like this skirt better; it's a little flyaway for me.)

Cinq: In which I go western

2008-01-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

Yippee ki yay, motherfuckers! (I say that fondly.) This is my faux suede skirt, which I made after I used some similar faux suede to reupholster my dining-room chairs. So essentially, I have wrapped myself in upholstery fabric. As I get older, there's something particularly apropos about that.

One thing about this fabric, though - I loved it in the store; the hand feel was downright lush, and the color's lovely and the price was right, so it came home with me. But then when I was cutting it out, the sparks were flying. Now I fear that when I walk down the street, I will actually start a fire with my thighs.

I love the jacket I've paired it with, too. The red trim has barbed wire on it. Cute! I picked that up in Santa Fe with my best friend Carrie, and if it weren't so overtly cow-y, I would wear it all the time.

And now for a confession of my sewing sins. See below: I cannot sew. (Although I can rhyme.)

Zippers, man. Zippers. They mock me! They point and laugh.

Although I have to say, this is far better than the first skirt I made. There's less nutso sewery everyplace you look.

Man, how is it that every single one of these skirts needs ironing already? Damn it. But this, so far, is the only downside to making 10 skirts in 15 days.

Quattro: I go in for polka dots in a big way

2008-01-02T13:41:00.001-08:00

I have mad, mad love for this skirt, not least because it's a thick cotton/poly blend that drapes beautifully and can be thrown in the dryer. I LOVE this skirt.

In fact, I went back to the store to get more of it so I could make myself an entire Crazy Girl Tuxedo of orange and pink polka dots, and they were out. I went to other stores. No joy!

The fabric is slippery and drapes beautifully and yet is not clingy (a Christmas miracle!), so that the jiggling of my prodigious thighs cannot be seen by the casual onlooker. For this, I thank the good people who created this fabric, and kindly request that they make more.

The wrap makes me giggle. It is 1950 again somewhere in my soul, only without all the McCarthy crap and chauvinism.

A detail from my skirt, which has slits in it, and seams that go more or less where they're supposed to be - but again, this is not a skirt I will allow anyone to see above about hip height. The zipper's screwy, and forget the waist seams. But hey, I haven't tucked anything in since roughly 1988, so it works for me.

Skirt the Second (and third): The Editor Skirt

2008-01-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

This was actually Skirts 2 and 3, since I made another when I realized how badly this one fit. But then I chucked the other one into the dryer, and the polka dot ribbon was completely destroyed. So I remade this one.

And look how cute! Eileen made the scarf - it's my absolute favorite.

The skirt also lends itself nicely to the polka dot scarf I picked up in Chinatown.

I love this fabric. It's called Word Search. So far I've found a couple dirty Danish words.

Note how my seams are wonky as all hell. Luckily they are camoflauged by the ribbon. Ribbons hide a multitude of sins. Plus, polka dots!

Skirt the First: Crazy Girl Skirt

2008-01-02T12:54:00.000-08:00

I am going to do what I thought I would never do: invite you into the crazy stitchery that got me started off on this skirt kick.

This skirt, my first skirt, is a Frankenstein. It has so many wiggy seams and stray threads and pure unadulterated nuttiness here that by all rights, this skirt should not fit. By all rights, it should spontaneously combust every time I try to put it on.

But it fits like a glove. Even my father likes it, and he doesn't like anything.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the first skirt I ever made, back on Dec. 16, 2007. That's right: a mere three weeks ago.

Sure, it looks cute now. That's because I haven't invited you in to see The Full Crazy.
Believe it or not, I actually meant it to take a dip over my belly like that. I do not know what I was thinking, but you know, it's working in my favor, mainly by holding in my enormous gut. The ribbon is reinforced with wire, so what I ended up with was actually a Belly Bra(TM).

Now if I can only get one to wrap around my ass, all will be well.

Zippers: Tricky shit. But note the determination to get the fucker to stay in one piece!

11: The Making of a Road Trip Skirt

2008-01-01T21:13:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah: Skirt #11 is bitchin'. It's my Route 66 skirt, and I'm going to take you through how to make it. At great and boring length. Grab a cocktail, sit back, and enjoy the show.

First, wash and dry the fabric, then iron it before cutting it out. Trust me on the ironing.

Using the pattern I made from the Sew What? Skirts! book, I cut out two sides of a straight skirt. I cut on the fold. That way you know both the sides have the same little angle at the hip.

Here it is, about to be cut on the fold.

Some people pin their pattern to the fabric, but I find that just weighing it down with something heavy is much easier.

Also, you'll see a strange diagonal bit above the waistline. That's the facing. Instead of cutting out a separate piece of fabric for the facing, I made a pattern that includes the facing - it ends up being a little flap over the waistband. The "facing" will actually be on the inside of your skirt. It faces your skin.

Smooth out the fabric, weigh it down, smooth it out one more time, and start to cut.
Use shears that are specifically for cutting fabric. They're sharp as hell and they work better than your kitchen scissors will. Also, make sure no one uses them for anything except fabric. You have my permission to be a Nazi about this.

And about the cleanliness and accessibility of your sewing machine. C is, as we speak, downstairs reformatting the basement to accommodate sewing, encaustic painting, and watercolor painting. Ain't he a pip?
I forget exactly why I took this picture. Oh! I wanted to point out to you where the facing ends and the waistline/skirt begins. See where the fabric is in an inverted V? That's where. This will be important for the next step. WAKE UP, YOU. There will be a quiz.

I sew a line at the top of the waist, so that my facing will flop down over one side and the skirt on the other. I do this because I like knowing where the waist will be. Also, doing this means I can immediately sew the side seams and hem it.

You're not sewing anythin to anything else, here. You're just sewing a line on the fabric, marking where your waistband will be.

Flip the facing over so that it's now on the inside of the skirt. This is how it should look (both now and when you finish your skirt).

God, I love that fabric. I've got the song "Route 66" stuck in my head now, though. Kingston, Barstow, San Bernadino! Won't yooooou--get hip to this kind of trip? Etc. etc. We are jumping at the woodside now, tell you what.

Oh! Right, directions. Turn the skirt pieces so that the outside of the fabric faces in. I always mess this up, so pin it and then turn it around and see if it makes sense. If it doesn't, girl, regroup. By this stage, you should be able to see how the skirt will look when it's done, more or less.

Then sew the side seams, leaving room for a 7-9" zipper (or whatever size zipper I bought). If I'm sewing little side slits, I'll leave room for those too, plus an inch or so for the hem. The more I sew, the narrower my hems get.
One thing: These hems will fray. You can get a pair of pinking shears and pink 'em up; there's a stitch called a blanket-weave stitch you can use; or you can just let them fray and deal. It comes down to this: how Martha are you? My response: Not very, so I leave them and deal.

Before you sew the side seam on the left side, make sure you pin the zipper in place (one pin will do it for now) so that you know where to stop sewing the side seam.

Next, iron the hem, then sew it. Soooo much easier than pinning. You don't want fraying here, so fold the cloth over once, then fold it over again on itself. Iron it into place and then sew it. Easy as hell.

Here's the first fold:
Then I made a second fold and am holding it down before I iron it.

Voila: all ready to sew, and I didn't have to touch a pin. I hate pins. Pins BLOW.

Here's the finished hem. Another benefit of ironing it is that you can make sure it's even all the way around.

See there? All nice and squared off. I know: men want me, and women want to be me. It's a good life.
While you're at it, open up them side seams with the iron. Your skirt will lay flatter if you do. But really, you're just putting off the next step: sewing the zipper. (Lightning should flash outside as you read this.)
One last look at the hem, the last peaceful part of this whole goat rodeo:

OK, now take a couple deep breaths and a sip or two of wine. Pin the zipper in place. More wine. You'll need to be fortified for the rigors that lie ahead.

Also, you'll want to pin the facings out of the way. Oooh, check it out: the bull is pissed off. I would be too, if someone was about to sew over my snout.

Make sure the "outside" of the zipper faces the outside of your skirt, and the top of the zipper is at the top of the skirt. You'd be amazed how many zippers it took for me to learn to do this.
Next, find the seam you so obligingly ironed open just a few minutes ago. Remember that? When life was good? Well, you're going to want to sew that zipper along the same line, so that there's a little strip of room for the zipper itself, but it disappears otherwise.
Then sew it in, following directions in that Sew What book (or whatever you can find online). But first, make sure the zipper is facing the right way. I know I said this before. It bears doing twice, obviously, because the way I've got it below? That's the wrong way.
THIS is the right way.

In this photo, I'm checking out my first zipper seam. The shot's blurry because my hands are shaking from too much adrenalin. Can you get PTSD from putting in a zipper? Because I think I have it.

A slightly clearer view. The damn thing's actually attached to the skirt on one side. Will miracles never cease?

I mean, OK, it's not perfect. I'll never win an award for this cockeyed little piece of engineering, but you know, it's enough to keep my skirt on, and thanks to those seams I ironed and the fact that my thread matches the skirt fabric, no one will really ever be able to tell what a mess it is.

Truly, it pays to be kind of eye-rolly when it comes to tiny things like stitches. When's the last time you noticed the stitching on someone's zipper? You perv, you.

Here I am attempting the other side. This occasioned much more swearing, but I got through it eventually.

It ain't pretty, but that fucker ain't moving.

Once the zipper is sewn into place, take the skirt to the ironing board. Iron the facing down - paying particular attention to the area around the zipper, which you want to be as neat as possible; you also want to hide the top of the zipper from view. It should already be between the facing and the skirt itself, so it's really just a matter of paying attention.

And then sew the facing about half an inch from the top of the waistline, then about an inch from the bottom of the facing, in a straight line. It's mostly to help the facing lay flat, which will matter more after you wash it for the first time than it does right now.

This will show on the front and back of the skirt,so it's important to sew a straight line rather than following the dip of the facing--unless you want a little V in the front of your skirt, which come to think of it could be slimming. Hmm.

Here's the skirt, turned inside out. I think I'm about to pin two darts in the back here, because I've got the top side seams turned in approximately the same few inches.

Yep, that pin marks the top of a small dart. Darts help shape the waist so that if you're curvy, like me, you don't have a bunch of loose fabric at the waist. Instead, you have a nice smooth skirt that fits your waist and your hips.

There's the dart, sewn in from the top of the waist (this picture is canted to the left)about two inches down the facing. It's double-sewn because it'll carry some tension, and I don't want it springing free.

I didn't do this, but you can now add any trim or lining you like. If your seams are a little wonky at your hem, get a great ribbon and some matching thread and go to town.

And the last thing to do is to iron it. Yes, iron your skirt. I know, I know, it's like I'm being funded by the Iron Council of America. All I can say is, whatever craziness I inserted in sewing my skirt, I can usually downplay or eliminate entirely with a good ironing.

So! There you have it. Making this skirt took me two hours, including the time it took to take 88 photographs (not nearly all of which made their way into this post. You're welcome). Without the photographs, I think it would have taken me about 75 minutes. Not bad for a cute little above-the-knee that I can wear with boots and a brown turtleneck.

The Daily Skirt Begins!

2007-12-20T10:50:00.001-08:00

OK, so I'm on this skirt-making kick, the results of which will be posted here. I toyed with naming this blog "Getting Ready for the Depression," because learning how to sew is so 1930s, but I liked the newsy feel of The Daily Skirt better.