Second dress ever: Surprise 60's magic

I found this pattern thrift shopping and picked it up for a whopping $0.69. I don't generally do an empire waist but found a great neutral animal print for $5/yard and thought it might take it down a few notches on the sweetometer.

And OH MY did it. I could not love this dress more if it bought me dinner and read me e.e. cumming in a bubble bath. I've been wearing it more mod with thick black tights and flats but this day I wore it with my favourite suede boots and some lacy tights and tried for a more Haight-Ashbury vibe.

It was pretty easy to make. I serged all of the seams since it was a weird unravelly polyester (which normally I would have avoided but the pattern called to me and it doesn't feel that bad on the skin). The only real snag (besides how easily the fabric would actually snag if I wasn't careful) was my interfacing. I'm lucky in my hood to have access to an envy-inducing amount of fabric stores and I'm blessed to have a little sewing supply place basically around the corner from my apartment. Since I've never used interfacing before I didn't know what to ask for. So I ended up with a non-fusible interfacing that was way too heavy for this lightweight fabric. Rather than go back to the store I figured I'd use it and see what happened. The obvious happened. The neckline is way too stiff, not so much that it looks bad but I notice it when I'm wearing it. Lesson learned. Buy the correct weight of interfacing.

Either way, this lady was super easy to make and makes me happy every time I put it on. Not bad results for my second effort sewing from a pattern! 

Self portraits in the sample room at work. Plastic laminates make the best backdrop I think you'll agree.

Pattern: Simplicity 7245
Total Cost (including notions): $15
Time to Make: 12 hours

The word "Sale" instigates madness

I realized today that Vogue and McCall were having an online pattern sale ending at midnight tonight. Even though I have the new Burda style magazine with at least 3 patterns bookmarked, 6 new vintage patterns I got online last week, and a stack of vintage patterns sitting on a shelf waiting to be made, I kind of lost my mind and went for it.

I've had a Vogue/McCall wishlist for a few months and got about half of it. I spent way too much and probably won't have money for groceries next week but this addiction needs to be fed. Comin' my way shortly:

Vogue 1247. Bought this one because of this lovely interpretation.

Vogue 8615. This one makes my heart pitter pattery. The instructions suggest silk or chantung but that is too "evening". I'm thinking a fine wool check or crepe instead.

Vogue 8280. This one reminds me of a classic Roland Mouret sheath and has tonnes of sleeve options. This will be a great work dress.

McCall 6324. Super simple shape but with the right fabric = killer.

Vogue 1209. Designed by Rachel Comey (same as first blouse). So pretty! Thinking it will be nice dressed down in a matte jersey.

Vogue 6279. Again, this guy has some really cute options/modifications. Classic shape.

McCalls 6028. One of my girl friends lent me an insanely awesome orange dress in this style that I wore for a TV interview. Never got the job but I always wanted to recreate the dress. I've been hoarding a thick orange jersey for just such an occasion.

 

 

McCalls 6278. I've been lusting after this for a while. I love the contrast  between the solid and pattern. I bought a beautiful beige and metallic animal print for the pattern.

So basically I'm going to be chained to my sewing table this winter. At the moment I'm finding it much easier to find patterns I like than fabric. I find it psychically overwhelming in large fabric stores but I'm hoping it's going to get easier as I get to know each store a little btter. So lucky to have the fabric district in Montreal, but because most of the stores specialize in remnants and designer leftovers, it's hard to go in with an exact idea of what you want. I'm finding myself picking up fabrics that I like in my price range and then matching them to patterns later on.

How do you buy fabric? Do you go in with a really concrete idea of what you're looking for or are you more flexible and will tailor the project to what you find?

Obsession in green

I love colour. Hard. When I was in Paris I was utterly disappointed by the "classic French" style. Yes, everyone looks chic and elegant and timeless, but all the women also look interchangeable. A sea of grey, beige, black. Every once and I while I would peep a Parisian in red or yellow or aquamarine and it was almost titillating - like a Victorian man starved for skin who is shocked by the nape of the neck or an uncovered ankle, a shock of colour in Paris is scandalous.

My favourites are easy to spot in my closet. I have altars devoted to bright coral and acid yellow, but my oldest love is kelly green. There was a time when it was more or less the only colour I wore. I've branched out since then but still get verklempt when I remember this dress:

  Omg, my knees are buckling. KIERA KNIGHTLEY WHY MUST YOU BEGUILE ME SO.


Of course, this insanely beautiful bias-cut 30's style emerald green majestic wonder is from the film Atonement. So many of my favourite things in one garment. It is here that I would like to say a little thank you to the internets; because of you I can easily find the dozens, nay, hundreds of women also obsessed with this dress. This site does a great job of dissecting how it was made. And this one takes my obsession to dizzying new heights with an incredible history of the dress with various photos taken in person.

My reading revealed that the hallucinatory colour is probably not available at your local fabric store. A master dyer made 100 versions of this emerald green - they narrowed it down to 3 which they used at different times in the film to invoke varying subtle moods.

Suffice it to say, 3 dresses into what I hope is a lifelong learning curve/love affair, I doubt my sewing skills are quite up to snuff yet. Besides the fact that the fanciest thing I've done over the past few months is sprinkle parmesan on my popcorn on Netflix/jammie night with the fella. If only my friends would have ill-conceived, doomed weddings!! I NEED SPECIAL OCCASIONS TO WEAR MY DREAMS, DUDES.

Alas, you can imagine the shriek of joy uttered when this popped up on one of my embarassingly frequent "70's vintage dress pattern" google image searches (what can I say - I'm a sucker for Studio 54 stylez):

Eff off. Get on my body immediately. She looks so easy to make! Again, occassion-less, but the more I sew the more I feel I should just wear the damned things wherever I want. I've earned it. I think this number would look bewitching floating behoind me when I ride my bike to the market, don't you think?

Unfortunately every online source I've found for this pattern is over $70 which is more than I feel comfortable spending on a dress for a hypothetical bike ride/doomed wedding. So until then, I keep it in my dream bank and pull it out every once and a while to pet and murmur to: "One day pretty baby. One day".

I'm S(cr)ewed

I originally started this blog as an incentive to stop buying shit. To learn how to sew, to be more creative with what I already have in my (overstuffed) closet and keep the "shopping" to the thrift store.

While I've been doing all of that, I stopped blogging because frankly, it felt kind of weird and narcissistic to take photos of myself wearing cute outfits and then posting them online. I have a few dozen style blogs I follow religiously and I love these girls with a strange passion, but whenever I stepped in front of that self timer I just felt incredibly self-conscious and vain.

So I stopped, basically. But then something changed.

This last month I have basically become a junkie. Straight up spending all my money on supplies, driving out to random destinations to get my fix, blowing off plans with friends to stay in and scratch the itch. It's like a Darren Aronofsky movie except instead of pills and dirty needles I am mainlining fabric. And vintage patterns. Staying up way too late cruising online pattern stores and dragging my boyfriend down to the fabric district so I can find the perfect crepe wool for my new sheath dress.

AND THE TOYS. Drove 45 minutes into the middle of industrial Montreal to meet a woman in a parking lot with an 80's Singer serger. Googling sewing machine feet. Researching what I should replace my old regular machine with now that I want to do button holes and such. This is straight up crack and I CAN'T GET ENOUGH. I've made 2 dresses this month and have been modifying stuff I already have like crazy. I've set-up a sewing corner in my dressing room and I have at least 5 new projects lined up.

All this to say.... I will be posting again. Not daily outfit posts, but I will be sharing my sewing projects as I finish them, along with any other pertinent info I feel compelled to share. I'm hoping this process will feel less narcissistic and more participatory as I join this community of amazing home seamstresses. There are so many women (and a few men!) doing really exciting things with their sewing machines and I am so psyched to be joining them. I will post my last project very soon!