The What’s Up Buttercup Shorts (Me Made May Day 28!)

These really should be called the “What’s Up Iris” Shorts, but that doesn’t rhyme, so it’s dead to me. I normally have more photos for a introducing the world to the garment post, but given how many times I’ve made this pattern (Simplicity 7688, but of course) I feel like maybe that’s not really necessary. And I’m not even going to pretend I’m not going to make more pairs because hell, these shorts are awesome, and they use less then a yard of bottom weight fabric, which is great, because I’m not really sure what to do with that otherwise. See, lighterweight stuff can always become a sorbetto blouse, but what do you do with mid-weight linen? You make shorts!

The fabric is leftover from a project I made for my Mamala. Check it out:

It’s a touch wrinkly because, hello, linen, but it’s the BurdaStyle Shari dress and I think it’s pretty excellent. My mamala thinks so too.

And that’s our house in Puerto Rico! Which my mamala renovated! See, she’s with something she made with something I made! What????!!!!! I know. Minds are blown.

Enough of that, to the shorts!

See, I thought I would have to content myself with mirror shots, but then I sweet talked my mamala into shooting me in the garden, amoung the irises. (Yes, I just said my mother shot me.)

Wow, my hair is the worst. Sigh. It was hot, what can I say. The blouse is my Parque de Palomas Blouse.

I flat felled all the seams because linen frays like whoa, and I hand stitched the hem. Like I do.

My very best Vanna White to show you the wonders of our garden.

In other news, Poirot, who has gotten very little face time here, decided to be all adorable yesterday. It was too much.

Look at that guy. Does he care about my linen shorts? No he does not. And yet I love him. Curious. No human in my life could get away with such a thing.

The Storm At Sea Jacket

So, a while ago you may recall that I wrote about my foray into the world of DIY shibori, and my plans for the fabric I had dyed. Well, the truth is, I completed a project with that fabric over a month ago, but I had wanted to do a very cool “photo shoot” in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, because they have an amazing Japanese Tea Room fully recreated on the top floor of the museum, and I thought that would be the perfect setting to photograph the kimono style jacket I  had made with my shibori flavored fabric and the BurdaStyle Naomi FREE PATTERN pattern. And it would have been, really, but I couldn’t get anyone to come with me and do the thing, and the one time I made it to the museum last month was for the Roberto Capucci show, and given that I was drugged up on cold medication and looking at something the cat wouldn’t even bother dragging in, I didn’t think that would be the optimal modeling opportunity. But I also didn’t want to wait and wait and drag it out and have you think that I couldn’t get it together to make this jacket when in fact I had already slaved over the beautifully silly completely useless thing for a full week! Can you see my quandry here?

So this morning I broke down and in the beautiful light of the rising sun I had my mother take some photos in our newly green and verdant garden, near our patch of irises. I thought, irises at least are fitting, right? Enough chit chat, you say, onto the photos! Well, without further ado, I present my Naomi jacket with my own hand dyed shibori style fabric. Look, ye mortals, and wonder:

Is what you are wondering, where the hell is she ever going to wear that? Well, so am I….but it sure is pretty….

When I told my friend Victoria that this style of shibori, arashi, is supposed to resemble storms, she said it looks more like a storm at sea. Hence the name.

I really do adore that it has pockets:

Honestly, this wasn’t that difficult of a project to sew, but it was a bit tricky to cut. There are so many pattern pieces and most of them you only cut one of, so I have no idea how you could cut this efficiently, but maybe that’s not the point, it is a rather decadent jacket, after all. Luckily I had dyed two full bedsheets, so I wasn’t worried about running out of material. I still have some left, come to think about it.

Of course, I made it extremely difficult for myself because the nature of this kind of dyeing is that the fabric doesn’t all dye evenly, there are different effects over the fabric and so I tried to cut so there was an omberized look, the bottom being darker then the top. That…KIND of worked…

Don’t you think?

I’ll be honest, I could have gone down a size, or 2. This isn’t exactly a fitted garment, and it’s a bit large on me, but that’s all part of it’s pseudo-kimono charm, I suppose. I do really like this design, it has some lovely details, like the aforementioned pockets:

And side ties:

And a lovely asymmetrical neckline:

I can’t help but adore this jacket. It’s just extremely gratifying to have envisioned the jacket, researched the dye process, dyed the cloth, cut the cloth, stitched up the pattern and then put it on. It just makes me feel like I have complete ownership of this garment, even though I have no idea where/when I could possibly wear it…

That being said, not a day goes by when I don’t get invited to a tea party in Feudal Japan, so maybe I can wear it there. Samurai sword is optional.

Pattern Porn: March 2011

I just found a new pattern website and it’s literally haunting my dreams. I discovered it through The Cupcake Goddess by sheer chance and then spent an hour of last evening drooling over it, envisioning myself sewing and wearing each of these fantastic items. As I’ve discussed, I’m not a spontaneous person, and I get a lot of joy out of planning my sewing and my buying. So when I come across a website or a pattern I adore, I book mark it. I visit it weekly. I imagine fabrics, notions, glorious days in which everyone compliments me on the garment I am wearing (this…has yet to happen. Sad face.) I’ve done this, with, well, basically everything ever. I’ve visiting and dreamed about blushes and mascaras, sweaters and earrings, ballet flats and boots. I have a theory that if you see something and you are still thinking about it weeks later then that’s how you can tell you really want it. Tracy Jordan (Morgan) may have once told Kenneth “Regrets are for horseshoes and handbags”, but this character also made a movie called “Samurai I Amurai”, so I feel pretty comfortable ignoring that advice.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about patterns and what I want to buy next. Yes, I have 6 different projects on the back burner, a shirt, a pair of capris, two dresses, a skirt and another shirt. Yes, I really should live in the now. Yes, I may or may not be a crazy person. But who has the time for all these speculations when there are PATTERNS to examine?

All of these patterns are from decadesofstyle.com. Which is amazing. I can’t really deal with how much I love every single pattern on this website. And then, of course, there is Colette, that cheeky monkey…

And then there is this from Simplicity, which I adore:

But am completely afraid of, because, PANTS? Scary. Saw scary. Hitchcock scary. 1984 scary. (Dystopian Futures are my kryptonite. That, and, you know, kryptonite.)

And of course Butterick would be absolutely have to be adorable and come out with this:

So, you know, I’ve got options. What do you like best?