happiness is a red skirt

I would like to introduce you to Vogue 7910, my new favourite thing:

I bought this pattern a few months ago. I was after something quite different, but the reviews of the one I wanted were middling and the reviews of this one were all FIVE STARS BEST SKIRT EVER MAKE THIS SKIRT EVERYBODY, so I bought it. Then it turned up on my doorstep looking all sensible and practical and dull in its neutral colours, and I put it away, wondering what on earth possessed me to buy a work skirt pattern when I wasn't at work and was trying not to think about work as a concept. 

Then I happened upon it again when trying to break a weeks-long sewing block. I had some inexpensive drapey red cotton I could experiment with, why not? 

(Two different settings, because I'm crazy and unpredictable in an incredibly restrained way.)

I made view A, an eight-panelled gored skirt with a waistband, and it is my new favourite skirt shape. It doesn't add extra volume to the hips, but also it doesn't cling, and it doesn't seem to create static with my tights either. It was really easy and fun to sew, and I will be making many, many more. 

I haven't worn skirts for years because I've just never been able to find one that looks OK on me. They all cling too much, or they have way too much volume, or they do that thing where they jut out from the waistband and sit on top of your hips and make you look square, like a loo roll cover that's also a doll. I've made a bunch of skirts in the last few months and I wear most of them, but this is my favourite in terms of shape and comfort. And I really enjoy red clothes. 

Also it does this, and that pleases me. Let's have some more!

Yay!

I'm planning, possibly ill-advisedly, to try making one of these out of this strange textured neoprene-like material I bought a little while ago. I'm not sure it's going to work, but I don't have the first idea what to do with the stuff so I might as well experiment with it. And if it does work, a neoprene gored skirt should make for some interesting shaping. (That was a bad trip to the fabric shop. I bought four things and have no use for any of them. My new plan is to put them in a pile labelled 'Experimental' and just try making weird shit with them all. I'll let you know how that goes.)

UODPH part one: Tiramisu

(yep, that is a really unwieldy acronym, and yep, I'm using it anyway)

The first project from my Unnecessary October Dress Pattern Haul was the Tiramisu from Cake Patterns. I had the fabric, and I was excited to try out their pattern sizing system, so I started cutting this one a couple of days after I got it in the post. It hadn't really occurred to me before I looked at the sizing on this pattern that something being drafted for my bust measurement wasn't the same as something being drafted for my cup size, and it explains a few of the shoulder problems and gaping I've had in previous projects.

It's REALLY comfy. It fits well around the waist. The skirt is a good length and hangs really well, and also POCKETS. I also think overall it's got quite a specific kind of vintagey look that I really don't have anywhere in my wardrobe, and I think I'd like a bit more of it.

The instructions were very clear that the shoulder seams must be stabilised with stay tape. So I did that and now they're really itchy. I've cut most of it away, but it's still quite annoying and I'll probably need to cover it up at some point (redo the seams, you say? Couldn't possibly. It's finished now, see, and we can't go back. STOP LIVING IN THE PAST).

I started writing the post before I took the photos, and I wrote several lines about how the V-neck was a bit too narrow for my taste and I'd much rather it was wider at the neck. However, having seen the photos I'm taking all that back. Maybe it photographs better than it looks in real life, I don't know, but seeing the pictures I wouldn't change a thing about it. There are a couple of minor fit issues round the bust, and I'm not knowledgeable enough to be able to fix them properly, but beyond that this is a great dress and I will be making more. 

And now, especially for you, a couple of Jen's Over The Top Ridiculous Modelling Shots:

Thank you for indulging me. 

ORANGE

So I made another circle skirt. But this one is ORANGE.

I bought this fabric ages ago, intending to make a massive floofy full-skirted dress with it. During a bout of insomnia the other week I pulled both the fabric and Sew Over It's Betty pattern out of my stash and started laying it out. Annoyingly the fabric was narrower than I remembered and the pieces didn't quite fit. I made a late night judgement call, scrapped the dress pattern and decided to make a circle skirt instead because what I really wanted was a massive orange floofy skirt and I'd live with it not being attached to a dress if I had to.

(I have no idea what the hell this pose is.)

This is the same circle skirt pattern as my previous two, but I've modified it a bit (because I'm fancy now). I added a couple of inches to the bottom because I wanted a slightly longer skirt for autumn, and I put pockets in it, which was pretty easy to do - I nicked a pocket pattern from one of my books and worked out the placement by holding the pinned-together skirt around me and marking the most natural place for my hands to go. I also drafted a slightly wider waistband for no good reason, and having worn this skirt a LOT lately I actually think I should have drafted a narrower one.

 

Look at it go!

This skirt makes me happy. I feel like me in it. I find it much easier to build outfits around this ridiculous massive bright orange printed thing than I do around a lot of things I acquired for the sole purpose of being easy to build outfits around, because this skirt is mine and I feel comfortable and happy and I know what works with it. I also don't care what other people think of it, which was a happy surprise. I often worry about how people are judging me based on what I'm wearing (or how they're judging the questionable workmanship in the things I make), but not this time. Because I know it's mine.

Do I need more orange clothes? I possibly need more orange clothes.

Unnecessary October Dress Pattern Haul

Earlier this month I got a bit of sewing block. I had loads of patterns and a cupboard full of fabric, but I couldn't find any matches. I went out and bought more fabric to make a specific dress, then couldn't convince myself to get on and do it. I was uninspired.

So I did what any normal person would do. I went online and bought a bunch of unnecessary dress patterns. Then a few days later I went online again and bought a couple more. Within the space of a week I bought five.

(Excuse the terrible photo.)

Cake Patterns Tiramisu dress

This one had several things going for it. One, I did actually have a fabric I thought might work for this dress. Two, the sizing is determined by high bust and cup size, not just full bust measurement, so there was a better chance it would fit my FFs without gaping massively around the neck and shoulders. Three, it was named like a pudding and that delighted my simple soul.

Colette Patterns Moneta dress

This one I bought partly because it looked like a great dress for everyday wear and I want to be able to wear my stuff more often, but mostly because I've been dying to support Colette. Colette as a business seems to do everything right. They have a wide sizing range, they use genuinely diverse models, they're clearly engaged with their customers, their blog is incredibly useful and insightful, and they periodically release cheaper PDF-only quick projects which I would be ALL OVER if it weren't so difficult to print things right now (when I find a way to make it less difficult, I will be ALL OVER the Seamwork patterns). Problem is, a lot of the stuff in their regular pattern line either really isn't me at all or is basic enough to be very close to something I already have. I'd been going back and forth on the Moneta for ages and finally put it in my cart after looking at a ton of women wearing very flattering versions of it on Flickr.

Sewaholic Cambie dress

This is totally not the time of year to be buying a dress like this, I know that. As a result it will probably be the last of these patterns to get made up. But it's so pretty!

And then, a week later...

Colette Patterns Wren dress

...Colette released a wrap-front dress and offered a free long sleeve pattern for everyone who bought it in the first week. So I did. I'm a bit worried that one version will be too clingy and the other will have too much volume in it, but I really want to support a company that gets its practices so consistently right and I'm on a wrap-front dress kick.

By Hand London Elisalex dress

Since I was already buying something, I thought I might as well get something else to get better value out of the delivery charge. I've seen By Hand London dresses all over the place (though most of them were Annas, which is now PDF only and printing is a pain in the bum) and I thought I'd like to try one. Out of the ones Sewbox still had as paper patterns, I thought the Elisalex looked most like something I would wear. In at the waist, out at the hips, what's not to like?

Of course, having bought all these, we run into the problem of not actually having any appropriate fabric for them, which means buying more fabric even though my cupboard is already too full to fit everything in. So I'm going to try a "one in, two out" policy until everything fits in my cupboard with a bit of space left over.

A healthy dose of fail

A little while ago, I decided to buy myself a book. I'm a bit of a sucker for books full of patterns because I'm always convinced I'm getting a fabulous magical deal. "Twenty patterns for twenty quid! What a bargain! Sure, I wouldn't wear that, or that, and I'm fairly sure nobody in the history of ever would want to wear that, but that's still an amazing bargain! And yeah, I already have a pattern very similar to that, and that, and that one looks more trouble than it's worth, and that barely warrants a pattern at all..."

[several hours later]

"...three patterns for twenty quid! Bargain! You can't say fairer than that! ...OK, maybe two patterns, but still, that's not bad value all things considered..."

I'm trying to stop that now, because I don't need the most patterns for the least money, I need the right patterns. And in my defence, I really thought this particular book had that.

The book I bought was Famous Frocks: The Little Black Dress by Dolin Bliss O'Shea. It seemed like a great mix of practical and fancy-ass patterns, including a long-sleeved 1970s wrap dress that I pictured making in about four hundred different fabrics. A Coco Chanel dress, a 1930s cowl neck modelled after Joan Crawford, Audrey Hepburn's Sabrina dress... I was sold. Despite the micro-mini with chiffon sleeves and a Peter Pan collar, despite the crotch-length Kate Moss dress which only works on people who are Kate Moss, despite the Princess Diana dress (i.e. the super-boring piece of nothing which belongs nowhere near a book called "Famous Frocks" - do Americans really think Princess Diana was a style icon? Really?), I decided that overall, it was worth it.

The first thing I tried to make was an Anjelica Huston jersey dress. Volume on top, tight on the bottom. This is the exact opposite of the way I normally like my dresses, but I had this piece of black fabric with a textured mesh overlay (blame Teen Goth Jen for that one) that I couldn't figure out what to do with, and a friend of mine suggested a batwing dress. Once she'd said that I couldn't think of anything else that fabric could possibly be, and I fished it out of my cupboard to start cutting.

I do not have photos of the finished dress, because nobody needs to be subjected to that. Here, instead, is a list of the things that were wrong with it:

1. It was MASSIVE. I cut it in my size, but I had to take 4cm out of the seams on both sides to get it to even remotely fit.
2. When I got it to remotely fit, it didn't look like a dress with a deliberately larger proportion on top, it just looked like it was too big around my waist.
3. The facings were massively bulky.
4. It was a lot longer than the photo suggested it would be (and I am not a short person)
5. There wasn't enough material in the cowl for it to remain cowl-y when on me and just created a weird slash-neck thing instead
6. The entire neckline stands up away from my body and makes me look like I'm poking my head through a man-hole.

I am in the process of trying to salvage something semi-wearable from this dress, because it is incredibly comfortable (of course it is - it's jersey and it has no fastenings or waist elastic or anything else). I've taken it in at the waist and plan to shorten it, sort out the cowl and somehow strap the neckline right the hell down. If I can find myself a black waist belt that I like, I will have something that I could wear, but bears absolutely no resemblance at all to the original dress except for the fact that it is a dress and it has sleeves. I have it on now and it really is comfy, but I would never let anyone see me in it. Seriously, this neckline is INSANE.

I then tried my hand at the wrap dress which was my main motivator for buying the book. I was a little gun-shy and definitely not willing to risk my amazing abstract aubergine print jersey (oh, amazing abstract aubergine jersey, when will I find a pattern worthy of cutting into you? I want my aubergine dress, dammit), so I bought some disposable stuff for £1 a metre at Walthamstow Market and made a toile. It's meant to have a full skirt, but it looks exactly the same on me as my other wrap dresses and it uses an extra half metre of fabric to do so. Nope.

Having tried two patterns and come up with nothing better than 'meh', I'm not really prepared to try a third. It's a shame, because I have some amazing green drapey stuff that's crying out to be a fancy-ass Joan Crawford cowl neck dress, but my trust has gone. Also I went to the author's website, because I do that, and there was a big thing at the top saying "BOOK ERRATA" and apparently there is something wrong with six out of the ten patterns, including three that are scaled incorrectly. Which is pretty shit, to be honest. As a result I have cleared all these patterns off my "to make" list. And then bought several new patterns to cheer myself up, but that's a story for another day.

stripiness

I got my first ever fabric haul from a Dunelm. It had a little haberdashery section complete with an even littler selection of fabrics, intended for cushion-making. I bought two cottons; a solid bright red and a navy and white stripe. I pictured, with the feverish imagination of one who has no idea how to make clothes, all the wonderful things these two pieces of fabric might become. I brought them home and sat them in my cupboard, and they became my stash. The idea of having a stash consisting of two pieces of fabric is actually quite appealing now. 

The red cotton became my first ever dress, and I felt that was a good use of it - it was good enough quality that I would wear the dress, but not so good that I would worry about messing it up with my amateur hands. The stripy fabric, though, sat in my cupboard for months as I looked at pattern after pattern that said "not suitable for stripes". I knew that it must be possible to make stripy clothes - I mean, I'd seen them and everything - but began to wonder if I'd made a mistake in buying it since pattern companies apparently considered it unusable. 

Then I discovered that chevrons were a thing. 

I think it was a Colette pattern that made me aware of the potential for chevronning and I almost bought it, having had this fabric for some time and being quite keen to use it. But then a copy of Gertie Sews Vintage Casual fell into my hands (because I went to a bookshop and picked it up and paid money for it), and within its pages sat a chevron skirt. I knew that my cushion material's time had come, and one insomniac night (I have a lot of those), I cut it out and pinned my stripes together. 

It's an easy skirt to make up; four pieces of skirt and two pieces of facing, with a concealed zip down one side. This was my first attempt at putting in a concealed zip, and when I can be bothered I need to rip it out and do it again - it keeps catching and I think some of the stitches are starting to break. Also I'm still not keen on faced waistlines. But I do want to fix this skirt, because it's got a lot going for it. I got my boyfriend to pin the skirt up while I was wearing it, so my hem is actually even for once. When it's off it looks like a mullet hem, because I have rather a lot of bottom to cover, but it's really nice to look at a photo and go "hey, that's a good hem." (I never do that. I hate hems.) Also, check out my chevrons:

I think this is some damn good chevronning. (Excuse the wrinkles. I am bad at ironing.)

This was a really good lesson project. Pattern matching, even hems, concealed zip. And it will be an even better lesson project if I fix the little things - if I can persuade myself that actually, it is worth taking the time to redo something properly instead of shrugging and deciding that "technically wearable" is good enough, then I think I'll have grown as a person. Not into one of those finicky people, because I just never will be, but working to improve something I've already done without demanding perfection of myself would be tremendously healthy for me and now I'm definitely not going to do it, am I. Sigh.

blogging note

OK, after faffing about for eight hundred years or so, I've actually managed to take some pictures. It would be nice if, after all this time, I'd taken each project out on its own little trip and got photos (or at least taken them all somewhere pretty), but I haven't. Taking photos of these things has been on my list for ages and I've started to have Feelings about the fact that I haven't done it, so I just wanted to get it done. In my living room, with the kind of light you normally get on an October afternoon in London. I have a remote release and messy hair. I will try to do better in future, but I just wanted to get these photos taken and have some bloody content again.

I'm planning to write longer posts, make more terrible jokes, and publish everything in a well-spaced-out timeframe but a completely random order. I'm also planning to intersperse my "here is a thing what I made" posts with other stuff, so I don't end up dumping everything out there within the space of a week and ending up in this exact same situation again. Posts on planning! Posts on skills! Posts on how much I despise hemming! Yay!

(Photos tomorrow. I promise.)