Mardi Gras Dress Extravaganza

First dress, bought in 1999. Found to be off grain with twisting of the fabric over the lining - very annoying. And absolutely nothing interesting about the front.


Marginally interesting back. This is what I look like if you're sitting at the table.


Oh, I actually look skinny in one! Again, nothing interesting about the front other than some dark beads around my neck - feels like a dog collar. Also bought in 1999.


Va-va-voom! I can just approach everyone backwards. Unfortunately, I'll have to have some serious Spanxage for the side shot. (Oh, you really shouldn't drink when you're pregnant - can I get you an O'Doul's??)


My favorite-est pink puffy dress, bought in 2001. This is the one that I stepped on and yanked the shoulder strap from the dress, which I didn't realize until the breeze hit my chest and I saw beads pouring on the floor. That happened TWICE.


It's just so princessy, I should donate it to somebody younger. I think I'm too old for it now....and I never fixed that strap.


This is the one I liked best tonight, but my goodness at my gut! Bought around 2008.


Nothing terribly interesting about it other than the beading. I think it makes me look heavy...or solid.


Oh jeez, I can't believe I wore this. The worst one of the bunch, possibly. This is the one I made in 2010. Peter from New York actually commented on my review at PR and said "that is one fantastic dress."


God bless him for being nice to a new reviewer! He even gave me a zipper tip.


And the one I made last year.


Maybe I could redo the back straps to look more interesting somehow...nah, I only have 2 weeks.


So....which one will it be? In person I decided I would wear the dark gray beaded one, but in pictures I think the black one looks nice - maybe because I was standing farther from the camera!

And I DID wear my new skinny jeans to dinner last night...with a belt since the WAISTBAND stretched OUT! Arrrgh! I'm washing and drying them tonight to see if they'll shrink a bit, and if not, I may have to do put some darts in. Whatever, I'm not a tucker.

So Close to Finishing!

I worked on them as much as I could today, but between being on call and having the Pinewood Derby all afternoon, I didn't get finished. So Lucas is a very poor picture taker, but this is what we have. I lightened it up so you can see the left pocket showing through because Vogue doesn't do pocket facings with cotton - just a big denim pocket. Dean noticed the pockets showing through right off the bat. The right one's not QUITE as noticeable because of what I did below.


I got rid of as much denim as I could on the right pocket.


(I love my little spaceship and astronaut!) The other pocket has the coin pocket and would be too involved, so I left it alone. Plus it's the leg with the big run in it, which Dean also noticed.


So I get a little pulling in the pocket, which some of my RTW do as well - I think it's that the pocket bag has more fabric than the leg...or something like that.


And here's the rear. You can't tell these things are skin tight, can you? The legs still look a little generous but they FEEL just fine.


All I have left is putting the carriers on, doing the buttonhole, and hemming, then I'll find a proFESSional photographer to get some pictures.

So Lucas's car set a track record in the first heat, but a wheel popped off with a tiny piece of wood when it slammed into the finish line. Dean worked hard to get it back together, but it didn't go that fast again so he came in 4th place, which means no trophy. He was pretty devastated. (Two Tiger Cubs cried but by the time you're a Webelos, you've learned to hold it in.) I told him that I knew how it felt to work so hard on something and then it doesn't turn out quite like you wanted, because I feel the same way about my jeans. He said, "Yeah, but Mom, your jeans didn't come in first place and then break." He has a point.

Jeans Almost Done

Well, I worked for a couple of hours on these today. I used the Betzina tip of sewing a selvage in the crotch seam so it won't stretch out. I also did a faux flat-fell here a la Pants for Real People.


The inseam and crotch seam matched up perfectly on the first try!


The yoke took 3 attempts and I finally had to offset them slightly so that when the foot climbed over it pushed them into near-perfect alignment. (Drew didn't get that this was 4 pieces of material joined together - he seemed awed that this is how his RTW jeans were put together.)


Crappy iphone pic - I don't have the waistband on yet and they slide down if I let go, so I'm hiding my undies with my top. I look very short from this angle, and you can't see my pockets too well, but they turned out nicely.


So the legs are nice for work but baggy for jeans (especially skinny jeans - hello!), so I took an extra 1/2" seam allowance on the side seams, which made the hips too tight. I'll let those out 1/4" and hope to waistband and belt loop them tomorrow.

I'll probably use Jennifer Stern's instructions from the class on adjusting the rise and make another pair of these for work...we'll see. I really need to figure out what Mardi Gras dress I'm wearing in a couple of weeks. Maybe tomorrow I'll try them all on and ask for a show of hands. It seems like when I post pictures on the blog I can tell which one I should choose - much better than looking in a mirror. I'm sleepy - good night!

Flashback to the 90's

I found the lingerie! I am so impressed with my workmanship on this - look at that lace. I didn't have a serger back then and apparently I could sew elastic well, unlike my attempt last summer at a bathing suit.


Of course, the underwear fit more like a thong and constricted my breathing, being up on my ribcage and all, so I only wore them 10 minutes.


Here's the Sewing Step-by-Step club I was talking about. Surely some of you women were in this.


You got 10 cardboard binders and every month you got a few new cards and a pattern. Let's see what it was like!


This is an example of Your Personal Style. Did you know that a well-defined waist is an asset? But a woman with a big butt should wear a skirt instead of pants. (See the paragraph on "Buttocks?")


And here's an idea from Sewing Home Accessories. I made some window treatments, but never shirred my walls.


This is from Learning the Basics. I actually left this one out to read through again - it had some good tips.


But now to the patterns. These are the only ones I kept - the rest were awful. I made all of these except the cape and the elastic-waist pants.


All that's in the envelope is the pattern, so you need the cards for instructions. They had nice pictures and tips for making your outfit unique.


So did anybody else get these every month? I think it was $11.99 a shipment and I did it for about a year and a half, and then they just quit coming. I guess they ran out of ideas. I may try that customer service number and see if they're still in business. Of course there's no website listed - we didn't HAVE the internet back then!

I also was a member of the World of Beauty club in the 80's - remember that one Junior? Every month you got a plastic tray of eye shadows, blusher, lip colors, etc. Now I've graduated to Meaningful Beauty, which is nothing but moisturizers and anti-wrinkle serum. (I guess for the next decade I'll join a club sending samples of laxatives and lubricants - look out now!)

Minor Jean Suckage

Okay, Vogue said to interface the pocket then embroider it, then press seam allowances in. Unfortunately I grabbed the sew-in interfacing I guess - it wouldn't fuse. And this was the pocket I already embroidered. This is going to catch on my ring or something when I stick my hand in my pocket. If the point is just to stabilize the pocket, I may use that spaceship cotton fabric. Any other reason you'd interface an entire pocket?


Yikes, why did they place the pattern so high? If I did the top-stitching I wanted to do at the top, it would run into the design. I tried 1/4"-spaced stitching but it looks terrible. I think I'll toss this and move it lower on the next pocket.


And I flubbed the bottom of the fly stitching on the curve - see how it widens out then gets narrower again? My edge-stitching foot just has tiny little markings to line up and not an actual piece of metal to put the fabric against. Oh well, there's that big run in the fabric, right, so I wasn't going to wear these anywhere important anyway...


And these carriers are SO wide! Next time I'll do it Jennifer Stern's way - Vogue actually had me sew a seam, trim it, and TURN the whole thing! Do you know how hard it is to turn a strip of denim? Neither do they!


Now I'm already thinking about what's next when these are done, and I may try some Kwik Sew Boy Short panties. I found a panty plethora at Stitches and Seams and researched some Kwik Sew patterns briefly. I made some lingerie in 1993 - I'll have to dig those up and get a picture. It was a camisole and undies and they were so uncomfortable I never wore them, but they were so PRETTY!

Now that was back when there was a club that sent you several pages each month to put in your 10 binders, and you got a new pattern every month too. I'll take some pictures of it - it's hilarious to see the styles. I actually made a bunch of things but I've tossed most of the patterns now. More on that tomorrow hopefully.

Next up - what Mardi Gras dress will I wear this year? I kind of hate the 2 I made now. Did you read The Help? Remember how they talk about how homemade Elizabeth's clothes looked, but they didn't tell her to her face? I feel like that. But I don't want to buy a new one, so I may recycle the pink one with the broken straps and see what I can do.

Pants Progress Continues; One Gerbil Does Not

Oh, this morning Lucas told me I'd better come look at something. One of his gerbils was lying dead in the food bowl. The other one kept sniffing at his face and putting his paws on him. Lucas said, "I think his brother killed him." I said, "No, he's just trying to wake him up to play." (That would've made my neice burst into tears, but Lucas is tough sometimes.) He finally decided it was his fault somehow, and hey, if that motivates him to be a better pet-owner, who am I to disagree? I did reassure him that their time was officially up last October, so I'm betting on natural causes.

Anyway, he wanted to bury him in the backyard, so after school today we double-bagged him in Ziploc (thanks to Dean for retrieving the body for me) then taped him securely into a box and buried him a foot and a half under a bench in the backyard. Lucas wanted to put some flowers on his grave but didn't think I'd agree to breaking off one of the new pink Taiwan cherry blossoms. When I did, he gave me a big hug - most awesome moment of the day.

In sewing news, I'm learning that you can go your own way with patterns if you know what you're doing. I'm taking Jennifer Stern's jeans class on PR and I paid extra for the videos on how to do it. They're awesome! Here's what Vogue said to do with the coin pocket.


Frankly, I had a Mad Cow moment and forgot how to miter a corner, so I had to pull out a dang book! Then I realized how bulky it was going to be and used Jennifer's suggestions instead - you're not going to see the bottom, after all, and it gets topstitched anyway!


And her fly came out perfect because of an odd way she does the seam allowance using Wonder Tape, but I did it the Vogue way, resulting in a wee bit of wonkiness that I shall photograph tomorrow. Vogue also had me enclose the edges of the fly and fly facing in bias binding! Not sure why exactly, but it's cute.


Anyway, I'm ready to sew seams and place carriers next, so I hope to have some pictures of a final product soon. Off to watch her video on flat-felling...

Taiwan Cherry Tree and Juvenile Pockets

I emailed the newspaper's Gardening Editor 2 or 3 years ago and asked if a Japanese cherry tree would grow here, and he recommended a Taiwan cherry instead. Dean planted it for me, and we thought it was dead because we never saw a leaf or bloom on it. Until now - behold the wonder! (Well, it still looks kinda puny, and so nice with the power lines, but we have BLOOMS, people!)


And this is a random picture of what Jake does while I sew - watch the street for dogs to bark at.


I took the kids to spend the night at the beach, where I tested my pocket-stitching prowess on the Janome. First I traced the pattern I had and pinned it to the denim...


Not too shabby...other than a wonky stitch where I backed the needle up by hand - don't do that.


And here's what the inside of my front pockets will look like. Remember Pammie's fabulous lining fabric with pretty red roses or something that coordinated with her red jeans? Well, this was what I had in the stash.


Yep, I didn't feel like going out to get special lining because this is just not my dream denim. I also found a long run on the fabric after I cut the legs out, so some distressing may be in order....for the fabric, I mean.


Only I will know that I have a tiny spaceship in my pocket.