LLADYBIRD

NYC Part 3: Pants-Making at WORKROOM SOCIAL

Final NYC post! I’m so sorry to have spread these out so much – and sorry to keep y’all waiting for the final round-up (I know, you were just hanging off the edge of your seat in PURE ANTICIPATION amirite). I was waiting on some photos from Jennifer (the resident memory maker, sewing expert, and brains behind WORKROOM SOCIAL)- which, trust me, these are way better than anything my pathetic Instagram account could have coughed up 😉

Anyway – Pants-making at WORKROOM SOCIAL! Wheeee!!

An intensive at WORKROOM SOCIAL means that you’re there for the full weekend – two 8 hour days, with a break for lunch (catered by local Brooklyn eateries!) and a low-key cocktail hour at the end of each day. It might sound intense to spend that long in a sewing class, but really – that sounds like a normal weekend for me 😉 The main difference being that, instead of a solo-sewing binge, this one involved some pretty fabulous company and about 16 hours straight of giggling.

Classes start with fitting – all the sizes for the pattern are pre-made into muslins, so students can go straight into fitting without having to sew up a muslin first. This is one of the most brilliant things about WORKROOM SOCIAL, I think – it cuts down on a lot of prep time, so you can get straight into the good stuff! Of course, sewing pants means that there is a lot of crotch-grabbing going on. I’m so glad that we were all comfortable with one another from the get-go, bc I totally had my hands up in everyone’s business within the first hour of class.

See? We giggled about crotches a lot. Crotches are funny!

Another big benefit to sewing classes at WORKROOM SOCIAL is that the use of all tools and machines is included in the class fee, so you don’t have to lug your machine into class if you don’t want to. The machines on site are the snazzy SINGER Quantum Stylist Touch 9985 (I never thought I’d say that, but forreal, SINGER is seriously stepping up their game these days) that even clip threads for you. A couple of the students did opt to bring in their machines – which is also fine, since it’s nice to work on something that you are comfortable using! – one of which was this sexy, sexy model. Jenny perfectly captured my sultry feelings toward Kim’s machine (Photo by Jenny).

Once we got past the fitting and initial pattern adjustments, it was time to start making pants! We skipped the second muslin, and had students make changes directly to their pattern pieces and then cut their fashion fabric. While I would normally urge y’all to continue making muslins until the fit has been tweaked to perfection (since one fitting change can completely affect the way the garment looks, which may result in needing additional fitting), the WORKROOM SOCIAL Pants-making Intensive focuses on the sewing and construction techniques that a student needs to know to feel confident to tackle that second pair at home and have them turn out extra awesome.

We used McCall 6901 as the base pattern, with a few additional modifications (namely, adding pocket facings and a proper front-fly zipper – as the original pattern is only for a mock-fly). This pattern is designed for both straight and plus sizes (ranging from 8 to 24W), so it was perfect for the group of students in class, as we had a great variety of sizes and shapes. Almost everyone ended up shortening the crotch length (for whatever reason, it’s super long in this pattern!), as well as modified the legs to be less tapered. Jennifer showed us all a really cool way to sew the waistband – something I’d never seen before and am now DYING to try!

Oh, and everyone’s pants turned out great!

Jen & I at the end of day 2 – Jen is modeling her finished pants, which looked AMAZING on her! Seriously felt like a creeper because I couldn’t stop staring at how good they looked, haha! (Photo by Jen).

Jenny & I – we are not modeling pants, but we are modeling how much we love each other (Photo by Jenny).

One really interesting thing about Jenny’s fitting process – turns out her and I have the same crotch shape, the J-Cro (which is why we are now Crotch Buddies, and everyone should be ok with that). You’d never guess by just looking at us, because our bodies are otherwise completely different – but it just goes to show that a pattern not working for one person does not mean that it won’t work for you. Even if the person in question wears the same size as you – you might have different crotch shapes!

Also, it delights me that we are both J crotches because helloooooo my first name is Jennifer (and just in case you were keeping track – yes, we had 4 Jennifers in that class. Haha!)

Anyway, I had a blast teaching the WORKROOM SOCIAL Pants-making Intensive – Jennifer has managed to create a gorgeous, welcoming (and inspiring!) environment, down to the coffee bar and Parisian music. I loved that the class included the pre-made muslins, the use of tools and machines, the pattern itself, and even little goody bags for each student to take home 🙂 Speaking of which – my students were obviously the best part! I’m so excited about the new friendships I made, and it was so much fun getting to know everyone (as well as their crotches :P) throughout the course of the weekend. Meeting other awesome sewing-obsessed ladies is the best part of teaching!

Jennifer and I worked so well together, and the class was such a hit – we are thinking about having another go in 2015! What do you think? Would you take a 2-day sewing intensive – pants-making or not? (Ooh, apparently there’s one seat left in WORKROOM SOCIAL’s October Dressmaking Intensive omg someone take that spot asap) Have you ever taken something like this before? I’ve never taken a sewing class (and only taught a couple before this experience!), so I had NO idea what to expect! Let’s just say it was even better than I had been anticipating 🙂

(All photos taken by Jennifer, except where otherwise noted!)

Tags: class, hot damn this is my jam, mccall, mccall 6901, NYC, pants, pants making intensive, teaching, trousers, workroom social

Comments 58 Comments
Categories misc, Uncategorized

Completed: McCall’s 6901

10 Sep

Told y’all I had another pair of polka dot pants just waiting to be photographed 😛

These bad boys are McCall’s 6901, a Palmer/Pletsch fitting pattern. If you’re thinking that these look exactly like most other pairs of trousers I’ve made, you would be right. Honestly, this pattern would have remained completely off my radar had I not needed to make a sample for the ants class that I taught at Workroom Social last month. Ya can’t really teach a class if you haven’t made the pattern up – I mean, I guess you can, but I’d personally want to make sure I understood any fitting kinks and weird pattern directions before unleashing it on my students! – so I made myself a sample to see what I was getting myself into.

For a first-time trouser pattern, these aren’t too bad. They have front and back darts, front slash pockets, and a straight waistband. They also have a mock fly, which I absolutely don’t understand – basically just some weird flap extensions on the front of the trouser that get folded back for the zipper. I did it, it looks like a fly from the outside, and that’s that – but I don’t really understand why you’d sew a mock fly instead of a real fly? Whatever. (Our class pattern was modified by Jennifer to include a real fly, with a shield and facing, just in case you were wondering!).

The fitting was a little… I don’t want to say tricky, but let’s just say that the muslin of these pants looks NOTHING like the envelope art. Obviously those models were fitted specifically for those photos, and they look fabulous. The actual pattern itself involved quite a bit of work to get a similar look – and you’ll see that mine are still pretty different, because I ended up fitting the pants to suit MY liking and not the pattern cover (such as lowering the rise, and keeping the legs relatively straight and relaxed). I don’t know what it is about Palmer/Pletsch patterns, but they tend to be drafted to fit very loose, despite the cover art being quite the opposite. They also include 1″ seam allowances at most of the side seams, which I kind of hate (maybe I’m just butthurt because I always end up cutting out sooo much of the side seams, thanks to the ease situation)

I cut a size 8 to start. I lowered the front crotch rise by 2″ – which is a LOT, even for me. Actually, most everyone in class ended up taking out quite a bit of crotch rise as well, which leads me to believe that this pattern must just have an excess up there. I never actually figured out where the waistband was supposed to end up sitting – the cover art looks like she’s got it at her natural waist, but most trousers tend to look better on me when they’re about belly button. In the end, I figured – I was gonna be the one wearing the pants, so they might as well fit the way I like – and I made the rise hit at belly button and called it a day. I also added about 1/2″ of extra length to the back crotch, as the butt was a little tight. I could probably stand to add a little more, because it still looks a little tight, but whatever. I also narrowed out the legs quite a bit, and changed them so they were more straight and less tapered. I don’t have a specific measurement for that; I just tried them on inside and pinned and based until I got a good width.

Here’s my shirt pulled up so you can see where the waistband actually hits. It’s still a little high, but not as bad as it was before – the pattern is supposed to sewn with a 9″ zipper! Woof!

For a first stab at a new pattern, I think these turned out quite wearable. They’re obviously not perfect – for me, I’ve found I need at least a couple tries before I start making good progress – but, like I said, they’re wearable, and that’s all that really matters. Next time round, I may scoop out the front crotch to more of a J shape, because they are a little poochy. I also evidently need to shorten the crotch length a little more, because I’m still getting those wrinkles that indicate it’s too long.

Landon also informed me this morning that the legs were too wide and would be much more flattering if I tapered them. Argh! I actually like the wider look, but now he has me second-guessing myself. What do you think? Unpick the hem and fit the legs more? Leave as is?

(Note to self: Don’t wear black socks with these pants again. Eep!)

So how ’bout this fabric, amirite? This is a Marc Jacobs cotton blend from Mood Fabrics, that I bought while I was in NY in March. If it looks familiar, it’s because I used the navy colorway to make my Miette wrap skirt and also my Rite of Spring shorts. I love this fabric – I love the texture and I love the way it feels, and it just gets softer with wear. I was so excited to see the brown colorway, so I snapped it up with no real use in mind. Pants will work!

There’s that mock fly that I don’t understand. Whyyy.

But hey, look – fun pocket lining! 😀

The construction (and fitting, to some extent) on these trousers was very straight forward, and I think they are quite suitable for first-time attempts. Just be careful to watch that crotch length and don’t be afraid to pin out a giant wedge if necessary. Like I said, I took 2″ out of the front and I STILL have a little excess that could stand to be removed. But all in all, I think they turned out pretty cute – or is that because polka dots make everything cuter? 🙂

Three more things!
1. Planning for my London trip is now in full swing! I’m trying to work out a meet-up (if anyone wants to help me plan this shit, holler! I have not been in London since the late 90s and I have NO idea what I’m doing hahaha), but it’ll likely be Saturday 22 Nov. If you’d like to join in on the fun, shoot me an email and I’ll keep you in the loop as things progress.
2. Speaking of Europe – Clare and I decided to take advantage of the fact that Paris is a cheap train ride away, so obviously we are going! We’ll be arriving the morning of the 27th (funny, that’s Thanksgiving Day in the US. Sorry, mom! I bet you’d rather I go to Paris anyway :P), stay overnight, and I’ll be back the evening of the 28th. We will be have a meet-up – Paris Edition – on Thursday 27 Nov, so again – email me if you want to join :)!
3. For the rest of y’all who are not in London or Paris – how bout some patterns, yeah? Indie Stitches is currently running a sale on all digital PDF patterns, woohoo! Use the code DIGITALLOVE to get 10% off all PDF patterns. Code is good through 9/14/14 at midnight! I don’t know about you, but I’m eyeballing that Darling Ranges Dress and those Virginia Leggins extra hard right now…

Tags: completed, fitting, indie stitches, LONDON, marc jacobs, mccall, mccall 6901, meet-ups, Mood Fabrics, palmer pletsch, pants, PARIS, patterns, polka dots, travel, trousers, workroom social

Comments 51 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: The Sureau Dress

8 Sep

You know what rules? When you have a brilliant strike of inspiration that comes together perfectly – from fabric, to pattern, to completed project.

AKA this dress.

I’ve been holding onto this silk cotton voile from Mood Fabrics since the beginning of this year (it’s sadly long gone from the site now, but they have lots of other options – including this gorgeousness. Ok, that doesn’t have silk, but it belongs in my fabric stash nonetheless). I had originally planned to make an Aubepine dress with it – but changed my mind at the last minute and ordered the Sureau instead, also from Deer & Doe (I still have the Aubepine & still plan to make it, but I’m thinking I would like it better in a dark/solid color, possibly even a lightweight knit. We’ll see!)

I LOVED sewing this dress! Too bad the pictures are kind of shitty. I promise it’s much prettier in real life – the voile is floaty, slightly sheer, and fucking ethereal. The colors are amazing and very fall-like, but the lightweight fabric keeps things from getting too sweaty.

You’ll notice that my version differs quite a bit from Deer & Doe’s – I had to make a few changes – both fitting and design – to get the look I wanted.

For fitting changes, I made a muslin and made the following adjustments:
– The front neckline was slightly gaping, so I removed a 3/8″ wedge (similar to this method)
– The upper back was a little loose, so I removed about 3/8″ from the center back, starting at the top and tapering to nothing at the bottom.
– Shortened the shoulders 1/2″
– Added 1/4″ to the side seams

I also made a couple of major design changes! The main one was that I lengthened the sleeves to be full length, and added a cuff and placket (stolen from Archer pattern). Unfortunately, I didn’t correctly measure the sleeve length – which seems to be a common mistake that I ALWAYS ALWAYS make, argh! – so they’re a tiny bit on the short side 😦 Bummer! Fortunately, the sleeve placket means I can roll them up, so there’s that.

The other ridiculously hilarious issue with the sleeves is that they are sewn on backwards – and I did that shit on purpose! Let me back up a little. When I altered the sleeve pattern to include the placket, I used my Grainline pattern as a guide. I didn’t think to make sure that I was tracing the placket to the correct side of the sleeve, so – you guessed it – the placket ended up on the front of the sleeve. Didn’t realize this until I’d already attached the cuffs and everything, derp (and didn’t have enough fabric to recut because, come on, that would make too much sense). I weighed out the options, and decided that a backwards sleeve cap was easier to forgive than a placket in the wrong place, so the back of the sleeve is now at the front, and vice versa. Fortunately, the sleeves are fairly loose & the cap is slightly gathered, so it’s not obvious that I inserted them incorrectly, and I still have plenty of room for movement. That being said, y’all all know my secret now. Don’t tell anyone.

The other design change was adding that cute little half collar! I used this tutorial to draft my little collar, and interfaced one layer of the fabric before sewing them together. I hemmed and hawwed over whether or not to include it – but ultimately, Landon & I both agreed that the dress looked weirdly unfinished without the collar at the neckline, at least with this particular fabric.

Because the fabric is so lightweight, I took extra care with the construction. All seams – including the waistline and sleeves – are sewn with a French seam, for a durable and elegant finish. The facings are finished with pinking – any other finishing would result in showing through the fabric. The instructions don’t have you interface any part of the dress, but I added interfacing to the facings, sleeve cuff, collar, and both front placket pieces (both the front and the placket facing). Again, the fabric is super lightweight, so it needed a little more support from the interfacing. Specifically, I used the Pro Sheer Elegance Couture fusible interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply. I like that is gives a little needed support, but it doesn’t actually change the drape of the fabric. I had black on hand, which was perfect for my emerald fabric as white would have slightly shown through.

Also, ugh, guys, I know it’s REALLY short. Wasn’t planning on that! My fabric shortages meant that I couldn’t lengthen anything, and once I got the dress sewn up – I realized it would look way better with a deep 2″ hem. Which means the dress is now rill short (again, didn’t have enough fabric left to face the hem, which is how I would have normally solved that issue), but I plan on mostly wearing it with tights and/or boots sooo it’s not too bad.

Pretty much everything to do with this dress – other than my frantic last-minute pattern ordering – came out of my stash! Fabric, buttons, interfacing, even the thread – I love it when that happens!

There’s a cute little lapped zipper in the side of the dress 🙂

And that damn deep hem! Ha! I topstitched it because, I figured the rest of the dress has lots of topstitching, so it woudn’t look out of place 🙂

And that’s it! I like to wear the dress with a belt – I’m still not sold on how I look with gathered skirts (even slightly gathered, like this one), but I think the belt breaks things up nicely 🙂 I also wear it with the sleeves rolled up, because, again – they are too short (even if they look ok in the photos, trust me, once I start moving around, it’s evident that they are too short)(maybe someday I’ll have sleeves the right length. Sigh.). It’s pretty short, but not so short that I flash cheek when I bend over (as several people have been kind enough to observe and report on).

I’ll count this one as a success! 🙂 Next question – whyyy have I not been sewing Deer & Doe patterns? They are SO GOOD. I actually just ordered the Bruyere and am anxiously awaiting it’s arrival (as is apparently most of the sewing world :P). I have plaid flannel dreams for that bad boy. Man, I love sewing ♥

Tags: buttons, collar, completed, cotton, cotton voile, deer and doe, dress, Mood Fabrics, paisley, pattern, silk, sureau, voile

Comments 59 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: Butterick 4066

5 Sep

Ummmm so this may or may not be the third garment I’ve posted this week that is made of rayon challis.

No shame.

These pictures are also horrifyingly bad and blown out, but… meh. We all know y’all don’t come here for the ~dazzling photography. Again: No shame.

I picked up this copy of Butterick 4066 while I was last at the flea market in July. The cover art is a little outdated (and not in a cool vintage way, but rather, I feel like I can probably smell my Mamaw’s house if I lean in too close. Wait, just kidding, my Mamaw’s house smells great. That shit probably smells like someone else’s Mamaw’s house, maybe), but the line drawings looked promising enough – almost like the Kelly skirt and Hollyburn skirt had a secret affair that ended up with a little love child.

It’s hard to see, thanks to my terrible photos, but the skirt has pockets, a smooth A-line shape with no darts or tucks, and buttons down the front. I used this shameless 90s black floral rayon challis from Fashion Fabrics Club, as I knew the shape would look great with a drapey fabric (just like my Crazy Paisley Hollburn).

My skirt pattern was just a smidge too big (not the fault of the pattern itself – my copy is a size too big, since we don’t normally get to be choosy when it comes to buying vintage patterns!), but that was easily fixed by taking in the side seams before attaching the waistband. The big challenge was cutting off length – a LOT of length. Even after I’d shortened the shortest version of the pattern tissue by a good 6″, I had to go back after making the skirt and hack off another 4″! Shortening the length did wonders for the overall look of the finished skirt – before, it was pretty dowdy and outdated looking (mostly due to fabric choice, I mean – we are talking about the 90s here), but I think it looks pretty cute now! Shorter skirts FTW!

I finished the seams with my serger and used these pretty black and gold buttons that I had lurking in my stash.

I love how the finished skirt turned out – and I think it’ll transition really nicely for our “fall”**, since it’s so cool and lightweight, but still has those nice dark fall/winter colors. That being said, it’ll look great with tights and a sweater, too 🙂 (maybe with a silk slip, though! It’s not very warm!) I’m interested to try pairing this print with black and white stripes – I can imagine it in my head, but until I start sewing up the striped knits I got while I was in Mood last month, your guess is as good as mine.

** Tennessee Fall: Beyond gorgeously colorful (visiting Tennessee in the fall should be on every single one of y’alls bucket lists), but still blazing hot and, yes, we absolutely make fun of those dumbasses who insist on wearing wool caps and jeans tucked into tall boots while marinating in giant pools of sweat. I mean, COME ON LADY, it’s 90* outside FFS! You aren’t fooling anyone!

One last thing – Giveaway Winner! Lucky number is…

Congratulations, Sue Martin! I love your method of sneaky inspiration by way of shop dressing rooms – something I’m too chicken to do myself (I got major stink-eye once while manhandling a rack of dresses in Buckle and I’m kind of traumatized now haha). As far as adding hours in the day – well, let me know when you figure it out! 🙂 haha!

Thanks to everyone to entered the giveaway – and thanks to Laurence King for providing us with a copy to giveaway! Friends, if you’d like to buy your own copy of Casual Sweet Clothes, use the code LLADYBIRD35 to get 35% off! The code is good through 10/1/14 🙂

Tags: 90s bitchez, butterick, Butterick 4066, button-up, buttons, completed, fall, hollyburn, kelly, megan nielsen, pockets, rayon, rayon challis, sewaholic, skirt, vintage, vintage patterns

Comments 35 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: A Jumpsuit, of sorts

3 Sep

A couple of months ago, I was asked by the ladies at By Hand London if I’d like to test their new Holly Jumpsuit. I’m always a sucker for these gorgeous patterns, but then they went and threw in an offer of testing-fabric from Grey’s Fabric to really seal the deal. Consider me sold, name signed in blood and all (forreal, though, I’ll do anything for ~~love~~ free fabric).

I finished with good time, sent my testing notes in, and took some photos (I could pretend my hair grew like that overnight, but in reality, these photos are just that old. Haha!). And then I waited. And waited. Right before the pattern was to be released, there was a design snafu that meant the pattern had to be reworked, which set things back by… well, a lot. Fortunately, the kinks have been worked out and the pattern is now officially for sale! Which means I can finally show you mine! Yay!

You may have noticed by now that my jumpsuit* looks nothing like the pattern – and you would be right. That’s because at this point, no part of my jumpsuit is actually part of the pattern! Whoops!

However, it is still technically a jumpsuit (right? The two-separate-holes-for-each-leg dictate that… right?), so there’s that.

There’s a method to this madness, I promise. As a pattern tester, I always make my first version (usually a muslin), exactly as drafted and written by the pattern. After I have taken my (usually very unflattering)photos and made my fitting adjustments, I will transfer those adjustments to the pattern and make it up in my fashion fabric (if not a second muslin entirely). I started out with the shorts and Variation 2 bodice, which was surprisingly a pretty good fit straight out of the envelope. The butt of the shorts was a little tight (it is my understanding that this ended up being a grading error that has since been amended), and I needed to shorten the straps – but overall, things were looking good. It wasn’t until I had made this up in my beautiful rayon challis – i.e., the good stuff – that I realized the entire ensemble just made me look like a giant toddler. Especially when combined with this fabric – while beautiful, it’s pretty juvenile looking. Eep!

After some chatting with the BHL ladies, we ultimately decided that it would be a shame to sew something I’d never wear (and I know I occasionally wear some out-there ensembles, but again, looking like a giant toddler is NOT one of them) , so I was given the green light to swap out the bottoms for another pattern. Specifically, I chose the Tania Culottes because FUCK YES I DID.

After that, things went haywire in the design department and my tested version of the bodice ended up getting scrapped and redesigned. Which means my tested Holly jumpsuit is now basically anything BUT Holly! Oh well! I tried!

Anyway, let’s talk about the construction of this jumpsuit. To combine the bodice with the Tania culottes, I added a 2″ wide straight waistband (interfaced on one layer, and faced with self-fabric on the inside) that connects the bodice to the skirt. Ideally, I would have shortened the bodice and raised the rise of the culottes, as I think the waistband sits a little low, but that’s life. The Tanias are sewn as normal, just without a waistband.

All edges were finished with my serger and I used my rolled hem foot to make the prettiest little baby hem.

The end result is a sweet little flouncy tank dress that has an amazing twirl factor – and thanks to the culottes, is less likely to fly up and flash any innocent bystanders.

As I previously mentioned, my beautiful rayon challis came courtesy of Grey’s Fabric, specifically to be used to test this pattern. I just love the smooth silhouette and fluid drape that comes with rayon challis – not to mention, it’s ridiculously comfortable to wear in the heat. Rayon loves to wrinkle like crazy and this fabric is no exception, but at least the busy print and voluminous skirt hide most of that.

Anyway, despite my design changes+unexpected pattern snafu changing things to the point that my tested pattern ended up being something completely different, I am happy with said end result – not to mention, it’s absolutely something I would wear (and have worn! Lots!). Again – if you plan on buying this pattern, please keep in mind that absolutely nothing about my version matches what is included in the final pattern – although it would be pretty easy to Frankenpattern this one with a couple indies.

What do you think of the Holly Jumpsuit? Are you Team Jumpsuit – craving dangly earrings, sparkly eyeshadow, and a Studio 54 vibe (I mean, ugh, that new Variation 2 bodice is KILLER, ain’t it?)? Or do you feel like an overgrown toddler who would prefer to stick with dresses and two pieces, thank you very much?

* I think the leg-shorts mean this thing is actually a romper or a playsuit, not a jumpsuit. However, the thought of saying that I’m wearing a playsuit makes me feel, again, like an overgrown toddler, so fuck that. I’m calling it a jumpsuit, as that sounds a lot more grown-up. My blog, my sewing, my rules 😛

In other news-
1. The new class schedule is up at The Fabric Studio! Lots of fun classes coming up – including an Open Sewing Lab hosted by yours truly! Those of y’all in Nashville can come hang out in the studio to sew and drink tea with other crafty peeps 🙂 I’ll be on hand to answer questions and assist as needed. This is a great alternative to a structured class since you can work on whatever you want, come whenever is convenient for you, and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than a private lesson 🙂 Check out the classes page to sign up (my class is at the bottom). I am REALLY excited for this; I love sewing with company! Yay!

2. Don’t forget that the Casual Sweet Clothes giveaway ends on Friday! If you haven’t already entered, here’s your hint 🙂

Tags: By Hand London, colette patterns, completed, culottes, grey's fabrics, Holly jumper, jumpsuit, megan nielsen, nashville, overgrown toddler, pattern testing, rayon, rayon challis, studio 54 vibez, tania, the fabric studio

Comments 56 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: The Belcarra Blouse

1 Sep

I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that this make is over 3 weeks old at this point*. What? I’ve been busy, ok??

This is the Belcarra Blouse from Sewaholic Patterns. Described as a super simple/wardrobe staple top, this bad boy has no darts or tucks (ladies, can I get a hell yeah?), raglan sleeves (requiring no setting like a traditional sleeve, which means – let’s have another hell yeah!), and a simple bias bound neckline. I knew it would be quick and easy, but I wondered – would it be flattering?

Obviously, that crazy paisley fabric would hide a lot of sins (if there were any to hide mwahahahaha), but I think it’s safe to step out of my cave and say, yes! Yes, this shit is flattering! Yes, it’s comfy! Yes, it’s breezy and cool to wear when the temperatures are still hanging out in hell territory. Yes yes yes!

I shit you not, I made this in an afternoon. From cutting, to sewing, to finishing – it only took a few hours. I followed the instructions as written – except in the case of the neck binding, I found that I needed to shorten it to get it to lay right (which I was anticipating, because my rayon challis has a slight stretch to it). I cut a size 0, which is my usual Sewaholic size, and took in the side seams an extra 1/2″ because it seemed a little overwhelmingly big when I first tried it on. Otherwise, pretty good straight out of the envelope! Good and fast.

My initial concern was whether or not this would actually be flattering, as I’m not one to really embrace loose shapes (I’m trying, though! It makes for a more comfortable summer when a breeze can blow between you and whatever unfortunate piece of clothing you happen to be wearing!). To be honest – when I first saw the pattern, I brushed it off as ~not me~. It wasn’t until I found myself staring at this silk Georgia tee from Elizabeth Suzann** that I realized the key to making this pattern look good on me was using a fabric with a gorgeous, fluid drape (and it doesn’t hurt that the Georgia tee is a VERY similar style and shape – albeit with kimono sleeves instead of raglan, and no waist shaping – so I could see this put into action).

I know I joked about making this pattern with this fabric so that it would match my Crazy Paisley Hollyburn, but forreal, these two are a match made in heaven. The rayon challis has pretty much no body to it whatsoever – just a nice drape that flows like water. This keeps the top from being too structured, and thus the excess ease hangs in soft folds, instead of sticking out all crazy and giving me a weird shape. I like it! And next, I want to make this shit up in some SILK!

To further prove my point, here is the top when worn loose over jeans. Doesn’t that look lovely?

I kept this particular style very simple (well, as simple as you can be when you’re dealing with a fabric design that wack-o, amirite), but I’d love to experiment with different fabrics and textures to really play up on the raglan sleeves. I’d love to try it with a two-sided silk satin – keeping the body matte, with the cuffs and bias binding shiny. Or even make it out of two different colors of silk, as a sort of fancy baseball tshirt!

Not a lot of shots of the inside, but here you can see the guts. Serged seams, self-cuffs cut on the bias, and self bias neckline that is topstitched down.

The only thing I will change about future Belcarras is that I’d like to take the neckline in to be a bit less wide. The wide neckline is lovely, but it also means that bra straps are constantly getting flashed. I also feel like it almost looks *too* wide on me – and that it’s not balanced. Thoughts? I’m also waffling with shortening it, because it seems too long when it’s tucked in, but I think it looks just right when it’s untucked. Decisions, decisions!

Oh, one last thing-

You know I totally tried that shit on with my matching Hollyburn – and it surprisingly works! Really! Even Landon agreed (after laughing at me when he saw me pulling both pieces out of the closet). It might be that the fabric is so busy, you can’t really see what’s going on – but, fuck, it sure looks like a dress to me. Y’all have no idea how tickled I am about this discovery.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the Belcarra? Love it? Hate it? What’s your go-to woven tshirt pattern?

Ooh, one more thing! As you’ve undoubtedly already heard all about, I’m going to be teaching a small class while I’m in London this November, over at Tilly HQ, in her gorgeous new studio!! My Zips+Buttonholes Worshop will teach you how to insert both invisible and lapped zippers, and also guide you through sewing flawless button holes (for both one-step/automatic and four-step/manual). Afterwards, we will celebrate with a delicious cocktail and we can talk about how typing ‘buttonholes’ usually ends up being ‘buttholes’ (just me?).

If any of y’all Londoners are sad that you have to miss my class at The Sewing Party due to international restrictions – here’s your make-up chance (except this one is better, because it’s in PERSON! Actually, that might be worse, depending on how annoying you find me HA HA HA). Sign up for the Zips+Buttonholes Worshop here, or peruse all the neat workshops here (wish I could take that copy your clothes one taught by Zoe! Argh!).

* As of publishing, I still have 3 unblogged garments to post – I seem to have no problem finding the time to sew; my issue is finding the time to write about it!
** You’ve probably already picked up on this at some point, but yes, I work for Elizabeth part-time as a production seamstress (my ~main money~ income is being a personal assistant for another entrepreneur. Yeah. It rules.). I sew on some of the coolest industrial machines, handle gorgeous silks and linens all day, and watch a loooot of Netflix. It’s just as awesome as it sounds.

Tags: Belcarra, completed, elizabeth suzann, rayon, rayon challis, shirt, tee, top, tshirt

Comments 75 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

GIVEAWAY: Casual Sweet Clothes

29 Aug

I’m still not quite back into my normal routine as of now (YET – the good news is, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! Yay!), so today I wanna take it easy with some eye-candy of the Laurence King variety 🙂

This is Casual Sweet Clothes by Noriko Sashara, a new Japanese pattern book from – you guessed it – Laurence King. This arrived as a nice little surprise at my door recently (which, speaking of LK and surprise book, I don’t know how they manage it but they have their send-Lauren-a-surprise-book-so-it-arrives-when-she’s-having-a-bad-day shit down to a SCIENCE. It’s almost creepy how much they are on my vibe brainwaves, haha), and I really enjoyed looking at the pictures so I thought y’all would too!

I generally don’t care for most of the patterns in these sorts of books – they are cute, but not always really my style – but I see a lot of things in this particular book that I would actually like wearing! The styling is especially great – it’s still pretty sweet, but it’s not so sweet that you’re giving it the side-eye and wondering who the hell would wear that shit out in public.

FORREAL THO. What is it about this photo? Is it the styling? Is it that the shirt is actually pretty freaking fabulous? Is it the hat (I could never pull off a hat like that)? Is it the babely model herself? I don’t know, but I want everything about that outfit on my body right now (minus the model because, guys, I already have a boyfriend ok).

Not sure if I would wear the jacket, but it’s ADORABLE. I love the camel wool with the black bow contrast! And on the opposite page – such a pretty tank top! I have a vintage RTW dress from Mexico that’s in a similar style, and I’ve worn it so much it’s basically deteriorating. I’d love to make another one to replace it.

If those last 2 photos were still sweet enough to give you a toothache, just know that there are some good solid basics in this book as well – like this tiered pencil skirt.

One thing that I love about these types of books is that they offer a lot of inspiration in ways other than just the pattern itself. This dress pattern in particular isn’t necessarily something I would wear – but I *would* wear that cool lace inset in the sleeves! The book gives great instructions for adding this design element, and it would be so easy to modify an existing pattern to allow for a little lace love 🙂

I REALLYYYY love this blouse. Look at the cute little bows on the shoulders! Ahhh!!

Also – this coat. See what I mean about the styling? It’s still pretty sweet (like, girl is wearing a tutu), but that coat would not look out of place in my closet.

Fun fact: this is the same pattern as the second photo (camel wool swing coat with the black bow). Just a couple small design changes – pocket, hood – plus the fabric choice make it a completely different garment! That’s another thing I love about these types of books – even if you don’t like the patterns offered, it’s pretty cool to see how the designer took the same pattern and reworked certain parts to make a completely different garment.

My very VERY favorite part of these books are the instructions! Yesss! I LOVE the diagrams – those alone are basically artwork to me. I’m so tempted to rip them out and stick them directly on the wall, but I’m one of those people who is mortified to see books get torn apart haha.

There are a couple small drawbacks to the patterns in this book- the sizing and the seam allowance (or, lack thereof). As with most Japanese sewing books (well, at least in my experience), the sizing is pretty limited – the largest size allows for a 36″ bust. That being said, the clothing is all very simple and relatively loose-fitting (and the finished measurements are printed for each pattern), so it wouldn’t be too hard to increase the size a little bit – or you could even find a similar shaped pattern and made adjustments (such as adding the shoulder ties to that tshirt). Or you could just use the book as inspiration, because there’s plenty of it in there! Ha! The patterns are all nested and crazy overlapped (so you gotta trace ’em if you wanna make ’em), and there are no seam allowances included, just fyi! Fortunately, the patterns don’t have a lot of pieces either, so there’s that!

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
Ok, giveaway time! 😀 Laurence King has generously offered a copy of this book to one lucky reader! Yess!! If you’d like to enter to win your very own copy of Casual Sweet Clothes, just leave a comment on this entry and let me know where YOU like to go for eye-candy inspiration (I love eye-candy, need more in my life!). This giveaway is US ONLY and I will close the entries a week from today, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 2014 at 8:00 AM CST.
GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

If you are itching for your own copy RIGHT NOW, no worries, I got a discount code for ya! Use the code LLADYBIRD35 to get Casual Sweet Clothes for a whopping 35% off! This code is good through 10/1/14, so you have time after the giveaway ends if you want to make sure you didn’t win first 😉 Whoop whoop! Don’t say I never did anything for ya 😉

Good luck, guys! I promise I’ll try to be back to a more regular posting schedule next week 🙂 Also, international readers – I’ll make it up next month! Haven’t forgotten about you ♥

Tags: book, giveaway, japanese pattern book, laurence king, patterns, review

Comments 158 Comments
Categories Giveaway, misc

NYC Part 2: Touring the McCall Pattern Company

25 Aug

Ok, y’all, time for part 2 of my NYC journey – touring the offices of the McCall Pattern Company! Whoop whoop!

Before I get too far into this post, there are a couple of things I’d like to address, as I’ve had some emails and comments about this:
– The McCall Pattern Company did NOT fly me into NY to visit their offices. Umm… I wish? I paid for my plane ticket all by myself, sorry!
– I did not come to NY specifically to visit The McCall Pattern Company – I was here to teach a workshop at Workroom Social. As soon as I announced my impending visit, I was emailed by Meg from McCall’s and offered an invite to tour the offices while I was there.
– Meg is the new Social Media Pro at McCall’s. If you’ve talked to anyone from McCall via Twitter, Instagram, their blog, etc – you were likely talking to Meg. I personally have known Meg for a couple of years now – well before she went into working for McCall’s – which is why she reached out to me to visit while I was in the city. Much to some the butthurt anonymous commentary on my blog, McCall doesn’t have a grand scheme of shutting me down (I mean, let’s be real you guys – I’m not hurting their sales when I post commentaries. There are a WHOLE lot of other sewists out there who don’t read my blog/don’t read blogs/don’t care about my opinion on Koos Van Den Akker. They still buy the patterns – some of the traffic coming directly from my blog. So there’s that.). They simply wanted to reach out and let me see the company, so, (in their own words) that when I’m talking my shit, at least I’m getting the facts straight 😉
– I’m sure there are people who are thinking about what a sellout I am right now. That’s totally fine. You do you! I got over that whole ~sooo underground anti-coporation~ shit when I was like 17. DGAF.

With all that being said – OMG! Longtime dream – accomplished! I’ve ALWAYS wanted to lurk around the offices of this pattern company (as much as I poke fun at them, it doesn’t excuse the fact that we are still talking about dream job territory here. Nevermind that I’m not a patternmaker in any sense of the imagination, nor do I plan to become one), so this was an absolute treat for me! Full disclosure – I went into the offices with every intention of taking lots of photos (hence my phone in my hand in, well, every picture haha. Wish that dress had some pockets!), but since I never end up doing what I planned, all the photos you see in this post were taking by Meg. Thanks, Meg!

I got the grand tour, you guys – I saw every department, met sooo many people (except the CEO, who was unfortunately in a meeting when I arrived. Oh well! Next time!), and a few of them even knew who I was! So crazy!

One of the biggest things I learned was just how freakin’ small this company is! Sure, they had a hell of a lot more employees than any of the indie designers we know and love – but it’s not like there are thousands of them, scattered across the world in giant corporate offices, with a big fat CEO smoking a cigar in his silk bed jacket and laughing all the way to the bank (I mean, I know I just said I never actually met the CEO but I’m just gonna ASSUME here, you guys). Everything is done in-house in NYC – they produce the patterns for McCall’s, Butterick, Vogue, Kwik Sew, and even do Vogue Pattern Magazine. Each individual department is very small – some only having a couple of employees at most. It’s also one of those companies where everyone is basically family, which I just think is really nice and feels good to be around. Everyone was extremely friendly and clearly very happy to be there.

There are a LOT of rooms and departments – the fabric library (where they keep zillions of swatches, plus buttons and trims and notions and, oh god, it was heaven in there), drafting, dressmaking, customer service, in-house photography (complete with racks of clothing and even more racks of shoes aieeee), etc etc. All in all, I think I was there for about 3 hours – flitting around, chatting everyone up, getting all grabby hands on the various fabrics (and apologizing every few minutes. Forreal, my mom hates shopping with me because I’m incapable of not touching things. This is why I hate museums and love flea markets, haha).

Checking out the fabric room and perusing the samples was one of my favorite parts. Sooo much eye-candy!

This look of wide-eyed wonderment was pretty much plastered to my face the entire time I was in there, ha!

Another highlight of my tour was getting to finally meet the famed Vogue Pattern Designer, Carlos Correa (I didn’t get a photo with him, but you can see him chatting about some of the designer pieces in this McCall blog post). The very first thing he said to me was, “I LOVE YOUR BLOG!” hahahahaa!! Apparently, he reads it and loves the pattern round-ups (and I reckon he’s reading it right now, so HI CARLOS!). I spent a long time in his office, talking about the pattern and their styling vs how they look in real life, and saw some of the new designs for next season as well. I can’t say much about those, but what I can say is I kept going, “Oooh! I want one of those!” haha!

I also stopped in the Vogue Pattern Magazine offices, to chat with the Editor and LURK THOSE DESIGNER DRESSES.

Did you know that the outfits on the Vogue American Designer pattern envelopes are actual designer garments? That was news to me! Take Vogue 1409, the Saber-Toothed Tiger dress, for instance. This dress literally came from the Donna Karan Collection – and McCall’s based the pattern off it, then used the actual dress in the photoshoot. It wasn’t sewn by them, nor did they choose the fabric (since it’s from Donna Karan). If you look inside, you’ll see all the tags – including the original price tag. This is much better explained on the McCall Pattern Blog, but that’s the general gist.

With that being said, the next order of business was to try on the $10,000 Ralph Rucci coat.

Me: If it fits, that means I get to keep it, right?
Everyone else: lolololololol

Damn, that thing was a work of ART! I know I hated on the arm holes at one point (that’s such a random thing to hate on, ha), but seeing it in person absolutely made me change my mind (and I still think it looks weird on the envelope photo, maybe it’s just the way the model is standing?). The inside is amazing – all bound seams and even some hand stitches! Apparently there’s a whole Pinterest board for lurking the inside of the designer garments, so we can all drool from far away.

After that, it was obviously time to play dress-up. Because, duh.

In another Ralph Rucci original (pattern is Vogue 1404), featuring the wind machine 😉 Also, those shoes are like 4 sizes too big.

Obviously I had to try on the Guy Laroche purple nightmare (that is actually silk chaurmeuse) (pattern is Vogue 1416. The sleeves were cracking me up to no end.

Hahaha!
(side note: holy shit I need to touch up my hair color)

Ughhh WANT THIS COAT (pattern is Vogue 1419)

I had an amazing time visiting the offices and meeting all the wonderful people who work so hard to produce all these patterns (whether you personally love them or not, I think we can all agree that the sheer amount of patterns they put out every year is quite impressive!). I did bring up some personal beefs – the excessive ease, the styling situation – as I feel like these are areas that do need some improvement. My opinions were definitely heard, and some things were already in the process of being addressed before I even brought them up, thanks to customer feedback. The McCall Pattern Company is absolutely interested in what the consumer has to say, and they’re making a huge effort to reach out to the online sewing community and bridge that gap. I know it’s really easy to hate on the ~big guy~ for just being there (especially when it’s a faceless corporation), but at the end of the day – I want to support the sewing community and it’s future! I’m absolutely invested in doing whatever I can to bring home sewists more options, and that includes supporting the Big 4. It was such a treat to visit the offices and get to know the people who make things happen there.

If you have a question or a complaint about a pattern from the McCall Pattern Company – contact them! They don’t know there is a problem unless you tell them, and their customer service department is extremely dedicated when it comes to helping. Follow their blog to learn more about the company, Like their Facebook page, lurk their Pinterest. Don’t be afraid to reach out and chat them up if you have a comment or concern. I’d love to see the gap close between the Big 4 and Indie pattern companies – I mean, we’re all in this for the love of sewing, right?

(me hanging in the styling room. I was told to pretend I was fixing my hair – I promise I don’t sit at every available mirror and preen, haha! Although my hair did look really good that day. Minus the whole I need-to-redye-it situation)

Now, I can’t stop thinking about that Ralph Rucci coat…

I am definitely going to sew the shit out of that pattern. Just need to find my perfect red wool.

Tags: butterick, McCall Pattern Company, mccalls, meet-up, NYC, patterns, sewing patterns, vogue

Comments 117 Comments
Categories misc

Another Weekend in NYC!

22 Aug

Hey everyone! Sorry I went into dead radio-silence for a minute there – as most of you know, I spent the last long weekend in NYC, and I got home to Nashville on Monday. I’ve been running around like crazy trying to catch up since then – all the work-related things I put off while I was gone, prepping for a court date that was set for yesterday, and my video shoot for The Sewing Party is early next week! Oh, and I agreed to housesit this week, too, which means I’m not even home right now! I’ve been replying intermittently to emails and comments as I can, and this is the first chance I’ve had to actually sit down and type up at blog post. Whew! Now I understand how people fall off the blog wagon – it’s hard to get back when you’ve been off it, even for a week.

Don’t worry, though – I’m not going anywhere. I enjoy this space waaay too much 😉

So, anyway! NYC! Today, I just want to give a lil’ recap of what happened over the weekend… I’ll be going over a couple things in more detail in future posts next week (I knowwww, I didn’t want to drag this out into multiple posts, but otherwise we would have had something that was the length of a small novel! Anyway, it’s my blog, I do what I want :P). I also don’t have very many photos that I actually took myself, because as we all know at this point – I don’t ever take photos. Too busy having fun, that’s my excuse!

So, anyway! I started out my weekend on Thursday morning in the gorgeous studio space that is Workroom Social. If you’ve ever lurked Jennifer’s blog or Instagram, you know the space is obviously beautiful… but I can’t even put into words how great it was to see in person! It’s very well set up, with a big cutting table in the center and machines surrounding it against the walls. There are shelves, stacked with boxes full of notions and supplies, and the pressing stations are that they aren’t in the way of the cutting or sewing machines. Everything is beautiful and filled with sunlight, and there is some legit Parisian sewing studio music playing in the background. Guys, I love my sewing room – but I’m INSANELY jealous of this one! Good thing I got to hang out there for a weekend, yeah?

Anyway, Jennifer and I went over the upcoming class – she’d made a couple changes to the pattern we were using (simple stuff, like adding a pocket facing), I showed her my sample I made up at home, etc etc. We had a couple of hours to kill before dinner, so we decided to kill the time by going to… Ikea! Hahaha!! Don’t laugh at me; I live in Nashville and the closest Ikea is 4 hours away in Atlanta. I am not exaggerating when I say you can sell used/broken Ikea furniture here for close to the same price as what it costs new (I know this because I’ve done it… I set the price high to get some haggling going and NO ONE HAGGLED WITH ME. Well, ok then!). People in Nashville think Ikea is special (well, I do too, but I wouldn’t pay $80 for a broken Expedit I’m just sayin’). Jennifer indulged me – she needed to pick up a couple things for class – and we even went through all the little fake rooms and apartments. Ha! I bought some boxes, but not much else because I wanted to keep my suitcase empty for fabric.

Afterward, Jennifer took me to see the Statue of Liberty, from a Brooklyn perspective. Can you believe that this is the first time I’ve seen this thing in person? Also never been to the Empire State Building, Central Park (kind of sad about that one!) or.. I dunno, touristy things. I love doing them, don’t get me wrong (I am SO not anti-tourist – in my own town or someone else’s!), but I never have time! Womp womp. So at least I got to see the Statue of Liberty from afar. Isn’t she so gorgeous and… tiny? Ha!

Friday morning, I managed to make it downtown with the help of Carolina (who also agreed to meet up with me way early in Brooklyn for coffee and breakfast – yay!), without which I might otherwise still be wandering around NYC, lost and confused (I’m sorry, I just cannot understand the subway system. The lack of good public transportation in my own city is mostly to blame for that). Anyway, I had an early meeting with the The McCall Pattern Company – you know, the same people responsible for Vogue Patterns!

YEP.

There is SO MUCH to say about that experience – all good stuff, promise! – way too much to tack into this blog post. It’ll have it’s own blog post (with all the dirty details and PHOTOS) next week! Just know that I had an amazing time, learned a LOT about the company, and I’m still alive 🙂 Ha!

Also, I totally tried on a $10,000 Ralph Rucci couture coat. That was pretty cool!

After McCall (and a brief walk down Wall Street, because lurking investment bankers is highly entertaining to me), I met up with Heather Lou so we could get to the Garment District for our meet-up! Oh, right, Heather Lou and Vicki came down from Canada to hang! It was awesome meeting both those ladies in real life – I’ve been email chatting Heather up for a good year or so now at this point, but this was my first chance to actually HUG her! My weekend schedule was pretty hectic, so I didn’t get to spend as much time when them as I would have liked, but we made every moment count. Starting with fabric shopping 🙂

I never did get around to getting a selfie with Heather, but here is a photo of her being incredibly cool, hanging on the stoop in Brooklyn. In case you were wondering, she always looks this cool. It is maddening.

The Garment District meet-up had a great turnout! I initially assumed it would be very small – we started at 3pm on a Friday, after all – but y’all New Yorkers sure know how to sneak out of work early 🙂 Or maybe your offices are just more lax on a summer Friday! (mine rarely was, boo! Good thing I’m self-employed now so I get to do what I want haha). We started out in Mood Fabrics, where I finally got to really sink my teeth in the wool aisles – I’m always there in the spring, which puts me in the ~mood~ (lolz) for summer fabrics. This time, though, I was ready for some winter pieces! We spent a couple hours in Mood before charging through the rest of the ‘District.

Since we started so late on a Saturday, we didn’t get to hit very many more shops. I did make it a point to go to Paron Fabrics, because I had a Groupon *and* they were having a 40% off sale. I did get some nice stuff there, although a couple of the employees were a little rude. The guy letting us out did not believe me when I said I’d flown in from Nashville to buy fabric – he asked me if I knew Elvis. My response was, “Elvis is from Memphis!” to which he replied, “Good! You passed the test!” Ha! Right, ok dude 🙂

After we were done shopping, it was time to find a place to eat! We originally were going to sit in Bryant Park, but a few people said the weather wasn’t really ideal, so we looked for a restaurant that could accommodate our large party and all our bags. The first place we looked at was massively full (figures, 7pm on a Friday!), but the guys across the street at Black Iron Burger were going crazy trying to wave us in so we obliged. The restaurant wasn’t very full, but there wasn’t enough table space to fit all of us, so they set about rearranging the damn restaurant to make a big enough table! This place was freaking awesome, by the way. Not only did they manage to accommodate us, they were unfazed by the additional drop-ins that meant they had to keep adding tables and finding chairs (we had a HUGE party! I wish I would have though to get a picture of everyone! I told you, I’m bad with photos). The service was great, the beers were $4 (ahhh yeeaaah!) and the food was delicious. Our party came and went – people dropped in, people dropped out – but a good chunk of us stayed until 1:00 AM. I tagged along with Fleur back to Brooklyn, and we got to have a lovely chat on the train (and then of course, I started talking about the Bell Witch and I think I scared her with my ghost stories. I’m sorry, Fleur! Come see me in Tennessee and we won’t go near Adams, promise!).

Saturday & Sunday was spent hanging in Workroom Social, teaching the wonderful world of pants-making! Again, I will be writing a separate blog post about my experience teaching at Workroom Social, and working with Jennifer, because there’s simply too much to squeeze in this post. It was an AWESOME weekend and I met so many amazing ladies (and got to spend tons of time with all of them!). Jenny, my newest little treasure, wrote a post on her experience in the class, if you’re interested to read about it from a student perspective.

Also, at some point during the week (that would appear to be Saturday, based on what I’m wearing), I ended up with a sandwich the size of my head. Oh, America. In case you were wondering, that shit was delicious.

This was the first time I’ve visited NYC and spent more on food than I did on fabric! I barely bought anything – I was feeling very restricted because winter-weight fabrics weigh so much, and plus, I only spent a few hours there on one day (vs my normal 3 days in a row, ha!). I assure you, my bank account was very happy with this situation, but next time I’ll definitely need to plan for more fabric time 🙂 Here’s what I ended up bringing home:

Top (from left to right): Stretch black denim (Paron), striped ponte knit (Mood), striped ponte knit (Mood)(fuck yeah I have this knit in all 4 colorways now – black and white, white and black, navy and white, white and navy. Don’t judge me.), reversible wool doubleknit (Paron).
Bottom (from left to right): Black wool knit (Mood), dark grey wool knit (Mood), black stretch twill (Mood), grey wool knit (Paron).
Middle: WOOL SWEATER KNIT WITH STARS. Omg is that shit not amazing!? It was sooo hard not to buy the whole bolt (ok, it wasn’t *that* hard – shit was $25 a yard!), but I only bought enough to make a long-sleeved top. It’s so soft and amazing, can’t wait to sew it up. Devra bought some too, so now we are fabric twins ♥
Not shown: I also bought elastics for bra-making (I looked for fabrics and powermesh, but the guys at Spandex House were being total dicks so I gave up and left. Speaking of dicks, there is dick fabric there. I’m not talking about cartoons. The fabric has actual photographs screenprinted on it. HA! I seriously considered buying some, but Landon draws the line at dick fabric. He doesn’t draw many lines so I’m ok with letting him have this one), and rivets and buttons and zippers for jeans. Some fun sewing coming up this fall, yay!

I had an amazing time in New York, and that’s 100% due to all the great company I had. Thanks to everyone who came out for a meet-up – or dinner – or coffee – or fabric shopping – or whatever! It was so inspiring and refreshing to talk to so many like-minded women, and to have conversations that didn’t focus on gossip or trash-talking, but encouragement and nerdy sewing and knitting talk! Y’all are all the best! I think I wore myself ragged from trying to do everything at once, but it was totally worth it 🙂

It was hard coming back to Nashville – hard, but also lovely. I love NYC so so much, but Nashville just feels good. It was good to see my wretched cat, my awesome boyfriend, and sleep in *my* bed. I snapped this photo of Nashville yesterday when I got out of court – I had already paid for parking, so I decided to play tourist and walk down Lower Broadway, as well as check out the Observation Tower at Public Square (which is that big patch of green in front of the courthouse). Such a pretty birds-eye view, don’t you think?

Oh, one more thing –

I’m coming to London at the end of November! I will be staying with my favorite traveling roomie, Clare, and YES there will be fabric shopping! I definitely want to plan a meet-up for one of those Saturdays, and I have some other plans that are currently in the process of being cooked up (more on that later!). I haven’t been to London in a good 17 years (wait, has it really been that long??), so needless to say – I’m pretty fucking excited!

Tags: fabric hoarding, Garment District, giant blog recap, mccall, McCall Pattern Company, meet-up, Mood Fabrics, NYC, teaching, workroom social

Comments 63 Comments
Categories misc

Completed: Ultimate Trousers

14 Aug

Hey look, here I am again – with another pair of polka dotted trousers! Are you surprised? Would you be surprised to know that I have another pair of dotty trousers sitting on my sewing table as we ~~type~~ speak? Do you think I have a problem? I’ve never considered myself a polka dot trouser kind of girl, but these sewing numbers don’t lie!

This polka dot cotton sateen is actually an old spoil from the Mood Fabrics flagship store in NYC, which I bought while I was there in March. I knew I wanted to make pants with it – what pattern specifically, I couldn’t tell you, but pants for sure! I love using cotton sateen for pants as it’s usually a good weight with a nice, heavy stretch, and the colors are always so lovely and saturated. Plus – polka dots! Yesss!!

The pattern I eventually ended up using is the Ultimate Trousers from Sew Over it. I actually tested this pattern ‘way back when earlier this year, to help get it ready for it’s print debut. I was on a pretty tight deadline during testing, which meant that I didn’t end up with a finished garment – just a muslin and a loooot of notes. This is actually pretty typical for me as a tester; I don’t always finish the pattern to the effect that it warrants a blog post! Once I got everything back to Lisa, I put the pattern on the backburner since the summer heat was starting to ramp up and I couldn’t handle the thought of wearing pants in this kind of humidity.

Anyway, we’ve got promises of cooler weather lurking on the horizon, which means it’s PANTSSS TIMEEEEE! Yay!

I did make a few changes to the pattern, both for fitting and general style. Let’s go over the fitting stuff first. Every time I make trousers, I end up doing the same adjustments across the board, especially if the pattern doesn’t include a front zip fly. I realize that trousers are kind of a scary subject for a lot of sewers, so I’m going to show y’all what I do in my fitting and hopefully that’ll shed some light on the whole matter (and even more hopefully – prove that they really aren’t so scary to fit!).

I don’t have muslin photos of this particular pattern, but I do have muslin photos from my archives (super unflattering muslin photos, I might add! Ha!) back when I made the Colette Clovers. Different patterns, but the concept is similar.

See all those horizontal wrinkles allll over my damn crotch? This is an indication that the crotch is way too long for me – so it’s wrinkling. The easiest way to fix this is to pinch out the excess into a long horizontal line, and transfer that to your pattern piece with slashing and taping. I’m petite, and while my torso is a pretty standard length, my crotch length is on the short side. So this is an adjustment that I have to make with *most* trouser/pant patterns. The amount can vary depending on the pattern – obviously the Clovers needed a lot taken out, and the Ultimate Trousers didn’t take much (and I just made a pattern the other day that I had to remove 2″ from!) But it’s a common adjustment for me, and this is what it looks like.

Same muslin, back view – see how tight the ass is? Like, not even flattering tight, just imma-bust-outta-here-like-a-jailbreak tight. This is fixed by adding a wedge to the back crotch depth pattern piece. How much you add will depend on how much room you need (the Ultimate Trousers didn’t need any, but the Clovers clearly needed a lot), but you can easily hack this alteration by just cutting a bigger size right there at the back crotch (this picture from Sunni’s Trouser Sewalong shows where to add length – right in that blue circle).

Here’s a pair of Clovers where I fixed the length issue, but now there’s some weird puffiness around, well, my crotch. Isn’t that flattering! You guys, this particular fit issue took me a LONG time to figure out because it seemed so weird – but it’s really not. Basically, my crotch requires a different shaped crotch curve than what is drafted for most patterns. I’m a J shape, and the majority of patterns I sew are an L shape. This is a stupid easy adjustment – you literally just redraw the curve, and once you’ve done it on one pattern, you can trace that curve to every pattern thereafter. For the first pattern, you’ll have to eyeball it (or find a pair of pants that fits and copy that crotch curve) and adjust until you get it right, which might take a couple tries. Once I figured that out – what it looked like, how to fix it – that really opened the floodgates of trouser making for me. Also, you should read this post on the Fashion Incubator.

Here is my front pattern piece with the adjusted crotch shape – I’ve already redrawn and cut my piece out, but I put it back on the table so you could see the difference in the curves. For whatever reason, I don’t need quite as aggressive a crotch curve when I’m making pants that have a front fly – it’s just trousers with a smooth front (especially if it’s sewn in a stretch woven).

You can also see where I tucked out the length horizontally. I didn’t take a photo of the back piece, but I sliced that length to hinge, and the side front has the same removal of length with it tapering to nothing at the center back/crotch, if that makes sense.

So yep, those are my pants adjustments! I know they might seem confusing, and to be honest – I learned all this when I was going through my Clover saga a few years ago (never got those pants to fit right, but I sure learned a lot in the process!). It was a LOT of trial and error, but hopefully my notes will help a least a few people go through less trial and error 🙂 As you can see, there aren’t a whole lot of adjustments needed to get a good fit on pants – but they all work together, and each one affects the other (and they are all adjustments that need to be made BEFORE cutting your fabric, which is why a muslin is SO essential when making pants!). For more fitting help, I strongly recommend investing in a copy of Pants for Real People, which is basically a pants-fitting Bible. So much good information in there, I use that book often!

Ok, now that THAT’S out of the way – let’s go back to talking about this pattern, and the style adjustments I made!

This pattern is designed to be worn cropped (or as shorts), with a faced waistline. I have learned that I really don’t care for faced waistlines, so I decided to add a waistband to my pants. I didn’t draft a waistband – I just used the facing pieces and flipped them to the top as waistband pieces (and cut two, so I could face the waistband, as you do). I think, for me, these are a little more wearable with a proper waistband. For interfacing, I used tricot fusible, which I looove because it stabilizes the fabric but doesn’t compromise the stretch of the fabric (which is what makes the darn pants so comfy to begin with!).

I also kept the length on the longer side, which means I can wear them full-length in the winter (with cool socks!) or fold them up to make them cropped. This length is straight out of the pattern, by the way – I didn’t shorten anything, and I’m 5’2″. Just fyi!

The one major design change I made to this pattern was to sew it in a stretch woven, as opposed to the firm woven (non-stretch) that the pattern calls for. For one, my muslin was a firm woven and I plain just didn’t like the way they felt! They were too restrictive! I like wearing stretch woven pants, ok. Also, it’s hard to find a good pants-weight print that isn’t a stretch woven, so there’s that. I think these are fine in the stretch fabric, although I should probably go back and size them down a little because I think the legs look kind of loose. I was trying to avoid the stovepipe legs look, just to try something different, but I think these do need a little less ease. These are a size 8, by the way!

So that’s it! Thanks Lisa (and the Sew Over It team!) for letting me test this pattern, and being so patient with me taking months to make a finished wearable garment 🙂 Londoners, if you’re still afraid to tackle the trousers, there is a whole class for making these (with tea and cakes, omg I wish I was in London) if you still wanna try them!

Those of y’all scared to try trousers – what are your thoughts? Do you think the process looks any easier? Are you going to throw caution to the wind and try anyway? Y’all – pants are fun!

* Oh yeah, and I cut my hair! I hope you like it! Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if you don’t like it – it’s not like I can stick it back on my head lololol

Tags: completed, cotton, cotton sateen, fitting, fitting and alterations, Mood Fabrics, Mood Sewing Network, pants, polka dot trench, sew over it, skinny pants, trousers, ultimate trousers