The Gun Control Dress

I’m not the most political dresser there is, in fact, I’m not even sure I know what that would mean. I guess if I was more anxious about it I wouldn’t sew from vintage patterns, because that’s totally buying into a gendered way of dressing reviving a system of the past and embracing with nostalgia the notion of “vintage” without investigating its deeper historical and social connotations. More on that here.  But as it is, I don’t really care so much if other people don’t think about this stuff, or think about it a lot, or if they have a political view I don’t, although I will say, I admire sewing bloggers the world over, but I tend to read regularly the writers who aren’t all that far from me, as far as I can tell, in terms of social politics. I mean, I don’t know how comfortable I would be regularly reading people who make amazing things but consider homosexuality to be degenerate. And I’m sure there are people out there who like my makes but are offended by my words. It happens. I want to dress sometimes like a 1950’s housewife, but I sure as hell have no interest in ever acting like one.

Of course, all of this gets into clothing and what you wear and what it says about you and how much you want it to say about you. When I was young I went to a Quaker School from 3rd grade to senior year of high school (please don’t make an oatmeal joke, don’t be that guy, everyone hates that guy) , and some of the Quaker doctrine of non-violence had to have stuck with me, because we couldn’t wear any cameo (…not that I wanted to.) or anything with curse words on it (which is good, I think, school isn’t a Limp Bizket concert, unless your school was wildly different then mine…), or anything with any symbol of violence on it. And I’m not a big fan of guns, in general, like, I wouldn’t want to personally own one, or live in a house with one, or be near one on any kind of regular basis. I know not everyone feels that way, and I understand that completely, but that’s just me. So recently when I was home in Philadelphia over my winter break, I picked up a few yards of this ultra-cheap (1.99 a yard, whaaaaaat?) jersey from Pennsylvania Fabric Outlet, aka my Mecca, mostly because I really really love the color. But the thing is, it’s a Betsey Johnson print, and I’m not wild about her prints in general, and this one, well, it’s covered with guns.

And hearts, to be fair. but, I don’t know, I just couldn’t really get around it. I thought I would be fine with it, but the more I considered it, the more the influence of those damn Quakers pervaded me, and I knew I wouldn’t be comfortable covered in guns. So, I did something a little radical. Can you figure out what it is?

I used the wrong side of the fabric! WHAT? I know. I KNOW. Such things are not DONE. Such boundaries are not CROSSED. Well, just call me Lenin because I am a revolutionary! Waaa waaaaaaaa.

Ah the smug look of a history joke. These indoor photos are a little yellow, by no fault of my amazing photographer, my boss, Sam, who balanced a camera and a womb filled with a child, because she is amazing. The color is a little more cool than these photos would indicate, but I think you can see how nice and orchid purple it is.

The pattern is Dixie DIY’s Ballet Dress, with three inches added to the length of the bodice, and cut to a trimmed small, with full length sleeves and a half circle skirt. I have made it many times with many alterations and adjustments, and it was a piece of cake, and remains one of my top favorite patterns ever.

Knit dresses. They are the best. They are comfortable and they look nice and they don’t wrinkle. What more can you ask for?

I topstitched the neck binding and did the hems in black. This took me no time at all to make. It took me way more time to deliberate about my whole “using the wrong side” decision then to actually construct this. Sewing. It’s 90% agonizing, 10% doing.

But I think it works, and honestly, if I had used the right side, I don’t think I would have ever worn it. As it is, I can see myself wearing this thing often during what is clearly an everlasting winter. This is what Winterfell must feel like ALL THE TIME. Death must come as a relief to the Starks… too soon?

HAHAHA JUST KIDDING EVERYONE SURVIVES GAME OF THRONES OBVIOUSLY IT’S MORE LIKE YOU WIN OR GET COOL PRIZES FOR TRYING!

No. No it’s not. But that being said, this leaves Robb Stark time to CALL ME. I already have a dress for our date/engagement/lifelong love. I think he’ll like the guns inside. Don’t you? If you don’t get any of this, don’t worry, neither would I have just over a year ago.

The point is, sometimes the wrong side is the right side for you! Too cheesy? Whatever. I like this dress a lot, and I’m glad it worked out. The rest of the fabric I gave to my boss for baby clothing. That baby’s going to be way more bad-ass than I am. Fact.

The Orange Is The New Black Dress

So, recently I haven’t been posting much because A. the backlog of things I need to shoot is epic and B. I had big summer plans! Namely, some people I love very much who simply had to be visited this summer. I mean, come on, if you have people who live in amazing places isn’t it simply your obligation to go see them, regardless of their own desires? I’m just kidding, I would never visit anyone who didn’t want me to be there, that being said, I have been known to SUGGEST that a friend might want me to be there….and that’s what I recently did with my friend Lisa. Lisa is a damn saint (this works, she grew up Catholic!) and she has put up with me not just here in the continental United States but also in CHINA! I keep forcing Lisa to let me visit and she keeps being stupid graceful about it, like, come on, man, if you don’t want me to just intrude on your life maybe stop having such an interesting one, AM I RIGHT?

So now Lisa lives in Austin, which is an awesome place. How do I know such a thing? Because recently I imposed myself on my almost-a-decade-old friend and made her give me a place to sleep in Austin, plus food, PLUS BOOZE. See where the saint term comes from? She’s a wonder among women…

AND. She took photos of me. In the outfits I made to visit her in Austin. Because she is, like, the best damn person that exists. And I made her do it after our run around the Lady Bird Lake Trail (okay, this is important, Lyndon B Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson had the same initials, how is that not the weirdest thing anyone has ever heard of and also, THAT IS SO STRANGE, and also, Austin is so into these people, COME on, no one wanted that guy to be president, we can all agree on this, right? RIGHT?) on her damn BIRTHDAY, because Lisa is, like, the best person. AND SHE DOESN’T EVEN TRY. AND HER HAIR DRIES WONDERFULLY. AND SHE LIKES DOGS. I can’t even. If I hadn’t pledged my life to hers years ago I would seriously hate this girl, but as it is, uprising comes? I’m Team Lisa, FOR THE WIN.

So recently Lisa and her boyfriend got into Orange is the New Black. Which. Have you seen it? You need to go see it. A friend got me into it and for the love of GOD, it is too good for words. If you haven’t seen it, please, stop reading this, seriously, nothing I have to say is as interesting as that series, go, watch it, it’s 13 hours long, I can wait. Don’t worry about it. Go. NOW.

Are you done? Did you see it? ISN’T IT AMAZING? Okay, cool, we can go on now. Yes, I’m sad too that it’s over, but it’s been picked up for a second season so…

Also I made a dress. If you want to go watch it again instead of looking at it that is so okay with me, seriously.

This is yet another Ballet Dress from Dixie DIY. I promise the hem is straight despite these photos…

Lisa took these in her apartment complex because she is magnificent as a human being.

What can I say? I got the fabric from Girl Charlee and it has oranges all over it, so….

This is me with my new garden owl boyfriend. We’re pretty happy together…

This is me sitting in the most demure Texan Belle way I can think of.

The swirl potential on this dress is pretty baller. I used the Dixie DIY bodice and added a half circle skirt and I’m fairly thrilled with the results. SO, by the by, are the residents of Austin, who were INSANELY nice to me when I wore this dress (and in general, AUSTIN IS AWESOME). I got so many compliments from strangers, homeless and otherwise, that, as I told a friend, I felt like I was in the Truman Show. I am not that good at making stuff. Austin is just a nice place.

Seriously, I was trying to take a self-photo and a homeless person was like, do you want ME to take that? And I did!

Along with a local popsicle! Which was DELICIOUS, by the by, and who doesn’t love the sheen of Texas-sun sweat you can detect in this shot?

Apart from being amazing and talented and wonderful, Lisa also is great at directing photography, don’t you think?

Some close-ups of the print:

Hence the orange name…

Oh, maybe you want SEE me and my gorgeous photographer/life coach?

Well of course you do. HOW PRETTY IS SHE? Also, a wonderful person. LIKE THAT MATTERS…

And there you go! And if you didn’t read this because you were busy watching the show, you know what? WORTH IT.

The Break My Own Rules Dress

In news that will come as a surprise to literally 0% of people, I have a lot of life rules. A LOT OF LIFE RULES. Never fight a land war in Asia. That’s a give-in. No sex in the champagne room. It’s gross, and unhygienic, and maybe other people want to use the champagne room, it’s not just for you and your sexy times! I don’t even LIKE champagne (I’m a prosecco girl myself) but STILL, it’s important. Last Crusade is the best Indiana Jones movie, duh, because of NAZIS and also CONNERY. Chocolate is always appropriate. Food isn’t caloric if you eat it while walking. Nude underwear with white garments. Come on. That’s an easy one. Walk quickly at all times. Walk like you have somewhere to be BECAUSE I DO. Winetimes are the best times. At all times. What else, what else, there are so many! Never show up empty-handed. Be nice to small children and animals. Don’t trust cops. I’ve got a lot of em. And one of them is, stripes don’t look good on me so I wont were them. EVER. EVER.

And yet…as it turns out rules were meant to be broken. (Except that land war in Asia one, come on, people, learn the lessons of history!) Because I recently got this striped fabric in a drunken purchase from Girl Charlee (yes, I drunk-buy fabric, come on, be cool I could do far worse things…) and under the influence of wine I was like, STRIPES? I BET I COULD LOOK AWESOME IN STRIPES AM I RIGHT? ALSO, KITTENS! AND MORE WINE MAYBE A LOT!

Wine me is the best/worst me, real talk.

BUT. Sober me was the one who actually got the package and had to deal with the stripes I had ordered. Sober me was like, ohhhhh, drunk me, we need to have a chat, and drunk me was like, yeah, fine, whatever, but I want chinese food and sober me was like, I can’t really talk to you when you’re like this and drunk me was like, you’re a pretty girl and sober me was like, you’re drunk but I’ll take it and drunk me was like, pretzels? and sober me was like, didn’t you just ask for chinese food? and drunk me was like, I’ll tell YOU when I’ve had enough! and sober me was like, this isn’t even making sense anymore and drunk me was like, your face doesn’t make sense anymore and sober me was like, ohhhhhhhhhhh boy.

So those two haven’t really worked it out. Good luck to them. But the rest of me made a dress, because you know what, screw the rules, worst comes to worst, it’s a beach cover up. That being said, I think this might have worked!

Right? I think the stripes might be big enough that I’m out of the danger zone! If you don’t know about the danger zone for stripes, good for you, but if you do, feel free to weigh in, please and thank you.

The pattern is actually one that I have used the hell out of, and it no longer really exists. It was Dixie DIY’s swing shirt, a pattern that has since been discontinued. You can buy a version of it now, though, here. I got this when it was still a free download and boy have I made use of it. This is the second dress version of the shirt I have made. The first is a cute minty thing I never documented, so this time, during a lull in my day, I practically forced my roommate Emily (thank you, Emily!) to snap these.

I really just elongated the shirt. Due to some hem issues this ended up shorter than I might have liked, but I did get a lot of love from the older gentlemen in my neighborhood so that’s…disturbing.

I did a decent stripe-matching job, though it could have been better. It’s always about matching stripes versus fabric efficiency, isn’t it?

A little back view for you. The dress is too simple for words. I added elastic at the waist but I will probably always wear this with a belt so no one will ever know! Sadness.

And that’s that. A very deeply simple knit dress that took me, like, two hours start to finish, and YET, I never thought I would make such a thing! What a world. Breaking all my own rules. But that champagne rule thing, that’s forever. Count on it.

What are your life rules?

Me Made May Days 8 through 11 including the Swing Swish Dance Outfit

Ah, life, how it goes. And yet we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. I did not write that. It’s from The Great Gatsby, which is a fun book, and, in my personal opinion, a fairly meh movie. And I’m not the only one…read this, if you don’t believe me. I just feel like this is not a book that lends itself well to drama, which is interesting, because there have been SIX movie adaptations of this! Also, real talk, I’m not a romantic, and Baz Lurhmann is not my best friend forever (ahem, Moulin-Rouge-is-a-trainwreck, ahem…)  The costumes are pretty wonderful, though, if almost unbearably anachronistic…

But that’s not what this is about! I’m not here to tell you that I saw The Great Gatsby, I’m here to tell you about the clothing I made that I wore! And so I shall…

Day 8, in which I emerge from the sickroom and back into the world

These are new pants and a new t-shirt, but though my wonderful friend Allie (hey, Allie!) snapped some good shots of me, I realized afterwards that I really needed more detail shots to do a true outfit post, so I’m just giving you this, more explanation on the pants to follow, and expect a post about the shirt soon. Oh, and I made that jacket.

And Cadfael:

Yep. Seems about right.

Day 9, or, The Swing Swish Dance Outfit:

Okay, so, the pants! These are Clovers, of course, as always, I need to send Sarai a fruit basket or some wine, seriously. I shortened them about 2 inches, but altered them not at all otherwise. I’ve worn them probably 5 times since I made them. I LOVE THEM. Perfect spring pants…

See? See how happy they make me?

A bit more of a close up. I took these photos with a tripod and kept cutting off my feet, sigh. Just accept that I have feet, okay? They exist. I promise.

A little rear view for you. I did flat felled seams for most of the seams on these. and the inner waistband is a quilters cotton. it’s the little details that make things fun to wear…I gotta say, the curved waistband on this thing is excellent for girls with, um, curves…

And the shirt, I love the shirt! Oh, I love this outfit, is that weird to declare? But hey, I flipping DO, what’s wrong with loving what you’ve made? It’s better than hating it….

The shirt is Dixie DIY’s swing shirt, which I’ve made seriously 7 times now…I lengthened it by 4 inches, always having wanted it to be longer, and I gotta say, I don’t hate it…

The fabric is from Paron’s, and I’ve made a dress about it that I still need to blog, sigh, But I still have some left, even from these two projects! I think another dress, something sleeveless, thoughts? I love this fabric, the drape is great and the graphic pattern is really fun.

Did I mention the drape? Because it’s swishy and swingy and I love it…

I love this photo. Look at my hair! It’s almost perpendicular to my head! What the what!

And there we have Cadfael.

Day 10, in which I wear another unblogged dress WHAT IS MY PROBLEM:

Yeah. I went to see this amazing show and the look on my face pretty much communicates how I felt about it. I really need to take more photos of this dress, I adore it…

And Cadfael:

Day 11, in which I don’t leave Brooklyn:

The days I don’t have to leave Brooklyn are the best days…

The my new denim Clovers, LOVE, and a blouse I had made for my Halloween costume this past year. It’s a bit big but I still like it.

And Cadfael:

There we go! All caught up. How is YOUR Me Made May going? And if you saw Gatsby, what did YOU think?

The American Apparel Knock Off Dress

I have to admit, I am completely a dress person. I’m a formal person in general, as it turns out. My grandmother was a formal woman, and my mother inherited her sense of what is and isn’t appropriate, and now I kind of have that too. Like, for example, jeans. As a kid my mom wouldn’t let us wear jeans on European vacations. Or any vacations. At all. And now I do sort of thing jeans are a bit, I don’t know, casual, when you travel, and I don’t wear them. Of course, these days everyone wears jeans and it’s no longer the thing that marks you as an ugly American, but still. Some things infuse your identity and never let go. Like, when I was going to Hebrew school my mom put me in skirts and dresses every week. That sticks with you. So I like skirts and dresses. But I also like being warm. And comfortable. Which is not something my grandmother thought of as a concern, but what are you going to do.

So I’m always looking out for dresses that fulfill my sense of wanting to dress nicely and my sense of comfort and warmth and ease of wearing, because let’s be real, not all dresses, gorgeous as they are, are easy to wear and live in all day/night. The obvious solution to this is a knit dress, no? And I have a good knit dress pattern, my beloved Dixie DIY Ballet dress, which I’ve been tweaking over a series of versions, and here is what I have finally come out with:

I have to say, I’m pretty into this dress. It’s unbearably comfortable, probably because of the hellishly soft stretchy lycra cotton blend fabric I got from PA Fabric Outlet the last time I was home in Philadelphia and had time to fabric shop. I still have quite a bit of this left yardage-wise, and my brother has requested pillowcases, but even with that I might be able to scrape together a shirt or something, which is great, because it’s warm and cozy and lovely.

Here is a full body shot, complete with my tights/socks combo,which I have found makes every day a bit better as your feet are a touch warmer.

What did I do to the pattern, you ask? Well, I extended the bodice by two inches to have it hit at my natural waist. I lowered the neckline by about two inches at the lowest point, and I slimmed down and extended the sleeves. Were I to make this again, which I probably will, despite my resolution to sew different things, I would slim the sleeves even more and extend them to the wrist. And I changed out the skirt Dixie provides us with with a half-circle skirt. Love the swish. Oh, and I cut the back bodice and back skirt piece in two pieces each and seamed them up. I really like doing this for fabric efficiency purposes, but also I don’t think you can really see it, can you?

I’m sorry about these photos being indoor ones and not the best light, I forced my wonderful parents to snap these when I went home for a benefit for Pig Iron Theatre Company. I wore this dress to work at the costume shop before I took the bus home (which was HORRIFIC, never take Megabus, seriously, every time it’s late and every time I think, why is this happening? and this time it was COLD and it picks you up at 12th and 34th which basically feels like you are about to fall off the edge of Manhattan, just don’t do it. Take the Bolt. Learn from my mistakes) and one of my lovely co-workers gave me the ultimate compliment. He said, that looks like you just stole it from an American Apparel! Hence the name.

Being home is a great opportunity to squeeze multiple cats:

Squeeze ALL the cats! Don’t tell Cadfael I was cheating on him…

And then we went to the benefit! Which is and always is awesome.

That’s Miss Martha Graham Cracker. She’s a rockstar.

I paired my dress with a cream wrap sweater from Buffalo Exchange, and of course, wine.

I’m quite happy with this dress, I really am.

But I couldn’t match the majesty that is Martha Graham Cracker:

Not everyone can pull that look off, now, can they? I love her. Dito van Reigersberg, aka Martha in daily life, is just so insanely talented. Check out this version of Life on Mars. Magnificent.

But I tried. I really tried.

So this month’s Stashbusting challenge is to sew for other people! I need to get on that…any requests?

The I Have A Problem Shirt

There are times when, having vocalized a desire, I find myself filled with the need to do that which is exactly the opposite. For example, having recently decided that I should be making new patterns, or at least ones I’m less familiar with, I then go ahead and make this nonsensical little shirt, which is the fourth iteration of a Dixie DIY pattern. Why am I like this? Could it be because I deeply fear change? (Yes, it could be that)

Or it could be that for whatever reason, I really like this swingy sweet style. It’s so not my normal thing and yet I really like it! It’s comfortable, it’s breezy, I like the way it swings around…

After all, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.

Well, come on, I had to make that joke, I’m a human, aren’t I?

I couldn’t tell you why I keep making this pattern over and over again. It’s not the most flattering shape for me, and yet I like it. What is that about, some odd self-destructive tendency? But then, more than one person thought this was cute, unsolicited, so I guess it’s better than I ever thought…

I made very few changes to the pattern, I only lengthened the sleeves slightly. I would have lengthened them more but couldn’t due to a lack of fabric. This shirt only took a yard and a half, so yay for fabric efficiency!

And it does feel wonderful when I swing around… but god, the look on my face here is like I”m being tortured, isn’t it?

The colors actually match Puerto Rico neatly. Don’t you think?

Right? Don’t I fit right into the scenery?

There is very little else to say about this shirt. Except that I really have to stop making the same thing over an over again. And yet last night I made ANOTHER repeat pattern. What. Is. My. Problem.

I think maybe it’s comforting to make the same thing over and over again for me, I feel like by the second or third time through I have the pattern down pat and I really know how to make it, and while the bloom is off the rose, so to speak, my final version is usually better then my first (though, not always…isn’t THAT troubling?). But I also think it’s a bit of a laziness/fear thing, like, I know I like this pattern well enough, I don’t worry about the fitting, there are no surprises. But then when I have the finished object, I also have no surprises, and I think that’s starting to get to me. So note to self, after this dress I worked on last night (a cute little number but yet ANOTHER pattern I’ve made to death) I really have to get on the new-pattern thing.

How do you feel about tried and true versus new patterns? Do you get into a re-making rut like I do? Or are you all about new horizons?

In other news, I had vowed as a Sewalution for this year to for real for real get into my stash. And who should swoop in to help me but Cindy! (Side note, if ANY sewing blogger would be a superhero, wouldn’t it be her? I think so, with Walnut has her trusty sidekick…) So I’ve joined in her Stash Busting Sewalong, which is gloriously structured and filled with challenges and monthly themes. Here is my vow:

I, Leah, commit to using 15 pieces of stash fabric in 2013. Additional option: I also commit to not buying any new fabric/patterns/ notions except for needles and thread and zippers until July (my birthday month!).

This month is chock full of Itty Bits, so I will get into my scraps as soon as possible, as the month is almost over! Quick, to the scrap pile….

The Too Practical For Words Outfit

So there has been just a whole bunch of chatting across the interwebs about this idea of frosting and cake. Honestly, it makes me giggle, the very idea that CAKE is the practical thing. Guys, what happened to bread?

That being said, it’s a lovely analogy to discuss the practical and impractical approaches to sewing. Here in the delightful post-modern era we can, of course, choose what we want to sew, rather than sewing for literal concrete needs. This is both extremely freeing and oddly depressing. I was recently talking to someone at my costume shop job, a woman who was a professional pattern maker for a fashionhouse, who doesn’t sew anymore. Well, she does, she’s making her sister’s wedding dress, but we talked about making personal things and she said, why make a knit t-shit, you can buy it for 5 dollars at Target.

And you know what? You can. But I just don’t anymore. And I’m not so arrogant or experienced to say that it’s because I’m SO MUCH BETTER then the garment workers who make said items, it’s just that I can’t consume that way anymore. I’m an ex-clothing-junkie, and I’m all about clean living and making my own stuff now…

At any rate, I recently made the most bland and prosaic ensemble possible, very much bread, not even cake:

There you go. Denim Clovers (I had intended to make a pair of Thurlows but this material came from the interwebs and it was too stretchy and I thought, well, I do love me some Clovers….) and a knit top. How is THAT for practical?

I added four inches to the hems of the Clovers to make them true pants, i.e. something I can fit under boots and over flats. I adore these pants. ADORE THEM. I’ve worn four times since I made them. For me, the trick with Clovers is to include a bit more stretch then is accounted for in the pattern. i.e. 3% versus 1% or 2%. Trust me, it will solve some fitting issues and you will have a pair of insanely comfortable pants!

The blouse is, insanely enough, a pattern from Dixie DIY that no longer exists, and that I initially didn’t like.

It’s a swingey blouse, of the knit variety. I realized that this pattern needs, no, demands a swishy drapey fabric, and I wanted to see if it would work with long sleeves, so….this bamboo rayon was the guinea pig! I added about 16 inches to the sleeves to make them full-length, but made not other changes.

And I LOVE IT. It’s so weird, the first time I made this blouse I just couldn’t imagine why it would appeal and now I just adore it in this amazing fabric. It’s a union of form and content that I couldn’t adore more….

Let’s go back to the pants. shall we? Specifically, the rear view.

Annnnd, that’s my rear view, on the internet. Still. Clovers. Fantastic. They don’t work for everyone but boy do I love them!

There is a mark on my cheek which comes from my cat biting me on the face. THANKS, CAT.

Of course, with a shirt this swishy, I couldn’t not jump about, now, could I?

Okay, I couldn’t help this one. But don’t you you ever feel this way?