belle epoque

It has been quiet around here! Mostly because I designated April as “Spring Cleaning Month” around the house and have been slowly following FlyLady (a warning if you haven’t heard of/been there before–sometimes the style is a bit rah rah, but the substance is really helpful!). It is surprising how much time picking up after yourself takes at the end of the day. But that said, I don’t have huge piles of stuff on the floor of my closet at the end of the week because I put my things away every day. Probably most of you learned that when you were little, but organization and putting things away have always been a huge struggle for me!

Anyhow, that’s what I’ve been doing. That, and indulging in a torrid love affair with the CSA box we started getting last week. All sorts of wild produce shows up and I look for recipes and cook things I’ve never cooked before. It is SO MUCH FUN. But also takes up post-baby-bedtime time that I might spend crafting. So far the successes have been garlicky chard, roasted cauliflower soup and steamed artichokes with green garlic dip. The HUGE failure was dandelion greens– I cooked them with bacon and carmelized onions, so you know they were bad– before having them I didn’t think anything involving bacon could be bad.

Ah! But I also finished something crafty. The Alabama Stitch Book is too gorgeous and inspiring, but I didn’t think I’d ever actually hand-sew an entire garment from it. Well, I surprised myself and made the T-shirt corset.

I’m not sure if you can tell from the picture, but this is one hot shirt. It is very comfortable and flattering, and the construction is so lovely. It was meditative and surprisingly fast to make– lots of straight stitching (I flat-felled the seams). I can take a closer-up picture of the stitching on the inside if anyone wants to see it? Anyway, I’m sold, and plan to make a fancy version of this shirt as part of a dream-outfit idea I have that may or may not come to fruition.

My next spring cleaning mission is the craft room– it is just too cluttered to get anything done in there!

Hello! Thanks for all of your nice comments about the Two-Year Blouse. I wanted to get started on another blouse pattern I had, but found that I had cut out a larger size (I bought the pattern after HMB was born and thought I’d be able to stitch it up before losing the baby weight, hah!), and discarded several pieces of my current, smaller size, so cutting it down will require more energy than I’m ready to expend. Bah! Anyway, instead I made the Yard Sale Wrap Skirt from Weekend Sewing

I highly recommend reading Erin’s excellent post about making this skirt. I ended up cutting the two front panels on the fold, then cutting two extra regular size panels to make a full circle that overlapped completely in the back. I extended the waist ties and put a buttonhole in the waistband for one of the ties to pull through rather than allowing a bunchy mess in the back from wrapping and tieing. And I did a three-thread serged hem, as hemming a circle skirt is enough to drive me insane.

Thankfully this is a gift for someone else. As much as I LOVE circle skirts, they just don’t do anything for my figure (thanks to Heather’s post, I’m willing to accept it!). A circle skirt on a dress is a different story, but especially with a wrap like this, I’d have to tuck in the shirt I wore and it would just look wrong. The friend it is for is tiny, ladylike and petite, could easily get away with wrapping this skirt over a slim wee tank with strappy straps, then trip-trapping out for a summer picnic. I sure hope that’s what she does in it!

You’ve heard of the seven year itch? Well, this isn’t as scandalous but from a crafty perspective perhaps a little bit embarrassing. It is of course perfectly acceptable to spend two years on a quilt, blanket or intricate knit sweater. But a simple blouse? Well. I have my excuses– namely that I cut it out and marked/sewed the darts in the spring of 2007 right before I found out I was pregnant. Which of course scuppered any chance of my wearing a fitted blouse anytime soon. In the spring of 2008 I had a colicky baby who wouldn’t sleep, nixing any chance of sewing when I might catch some shuteye instead. So finally, in the spring of 2009 I can present to you the Two-Year Blouse!

It is Simplicity 4077, which was all over the blogosphere, surprise, surprise, two years ago! I mightn’t have written about it at all but two crafty ladies complimented me on it and said that I should. I highly recommend this pattern– it is relatively easy (wouldn’t take you two years except in extenuating circumstances) and turns out a good looking blouse that is VERY comfortable to wear. I’ve already worn it and washed it twice since finishing it. I used a $1 a yard quilting cotton from Joann’s that I had no high hopes for, and it actually turned out fine (even after washing and not ironing). I thought the bright pink buttons would save it from being too froufy and Laura Ashley (not that I have any objections to either, just that I wanted to add a little zing). I have another blouse in mind that I hope won’t take me two years!

I am so pleased to host the illustrious Heather Ross for today’s post! Below you’ll find her thoughts on the Power of Hemlines, and other pressing style questions. Enjoy!

The Style Power of Hemlines
by Heather Ross

I am one of those women who believe wholeheartedly that the trick to dressing yourself well is knowing what looks good on you in terms of proportion. Were I to make a list of the best dressed women I know, it would include both barefoot bohemians and southern belles, a friend who can wear a wear a floor length dress to breakfast and get away with it, and my grandmother, who wore a dirndl every Christmas and a Mexican wedding dress to her 50th anniversary dinner. Perhaps the only consistency among them all would be the fact that their clothing fits. I’m not just talking about the fact that they are wearing the proper size, mind you, I’m talking about the fact that their clothing works on them proportionally. Their clothes give them confidence because they play up their own best features, and if properly chosen and tailored, look like they were made especially for them. I once owned a skirt that made me feel short. I couldn’t say exactly why until a teacher of mine solved the mystery for me. “You wear that skirt a lot, but it makes you look like a dumpling, which is pretty tough to do to someone who is 5’9” tall”, she said. I felt like someone whose best girl friend had just told her to dump her cute but cruel boyfriend. “You could do better.” she said. “The hemline ends at the fattest part of your calf”, she explained, “and it starts too low on your hips. The combination makes your legs look about 6” long, which makes everything look out of wack”. Later, in my studio, I stood in the mirror pulling the hemline up and down, realizing that she was completely right.

If you look closely at your own closet, you will probably find a few dresses or pairs of pants that, like my skirt (and my ex-cute but cruel-boyfriend) are almost perfect. They fit through the waist and hips, but somehow, once they are on, the just don’t make you feel… quite right. The good news? This is all so fixable!

My students are always a little horrified when I tell them to take their dresses and skirts to the tailor for finishing. Hemming, I explain time and time again, is a job for two. Before heading to the tailor (or a sewing friend) with a big pile of skirts and dresses and pants, do a little research. Stand in front of a full length mirror in your skivvies. Try folding a bed sheet or large piece of fabric at different lengths and wrapping it around your body to see what length works best for you. This, by the way, is basic fashion design “draping”, and is actually similar to how some designers make their patterns.

You will likely find that the best hemline for you is at one of three points: just above the knee, just below the knee, or just above the ankle. These three points all have one thing in common: they are all typically the most narrow point on the leg, which is why they work. Beware the dangerous zone that is your calf muscle. I like to call this length ”Sister Wife”. It is perhaps the most unsexy, unflattering, unfeminine, and undeniably boring hemline that exists, as every designer will tell you. The only style icon who managed to wear this length with some success was the late Caroline Besset Kennedy, who pulled it off with such grace that for exactly one season every major US label tried to force it on the rest of us, which was an epic failure. The lesson here is that unless you are six feet tall and able to accessorize with a man as handsome as John F Kennedy Jr.and have your lower body conveniently blocked from sight by paparazzi…. don’t even try.

Hems on the dresses and skirts in Weekend Sewing are meant to be customized. Take for example the All Weekend Sundress, pictured below in four very different lengths.

Same dress, four very different looks. I hope that once my readers get the hang of making simple clothing, they will start to discover my favorite thing about sewing clothing: That its about developing a sense of personal style and a means to looking and feeling great. A great dress should make you feel good. It should make you feel confident. It should never, ever make you feel like a dumpling.

Thank you so much for all of the sweet comments about my Halloween post! All of a sudden I’m excited about my closet again. My favorite fall clothes have been in waiting since 2006 (too preggo for most of them last fall) and while I’m not back to my pre-pregnancy shape (hah! hardly), all but the very snuggest fit again! It is like having a whole season’s worth of new clothes, and I’m putting them together in different ways than I did before. I got myself some inexpensive knee socks in bright patterns at Marshall’s awhile back to keep my legs warm when the chilly weather finally arrived. I think all of the bright colors and wild mixing of patterns I do when dressing HMB is having an influence on me!

Nothing in the outfit is handmade, but I wanted to show it to you anyway, since dressing in something other than Old Navy roll-up pants and long sleeve t-shirts is inspiring me to get back to making clothes. My latest obsession is a super-soft baby wale corderoy a-line shirtwaist dress in some divine fally color– perhaps slate or pumpkin, if I can find the fabric at a good price. I’ve found the perfect vintage pattern (I searched for new ones and was surprisingly dismayed at the shirtwaist options out there– lots of ick!), so I’m waiting on it to arrive then I’ll track down the fabric and be on my way!

In other news, if you look at my right sidebar you’ll notice I’m participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. I’m finding I actually write more now that my writing time is broken up into baby-sleep time– I know my time is very, very limited so I just type away the minute she goes down to the minute I hear her peeping! If you see that word count lagging, feel free to prod/encourage me to keep it going! I shall try to continue craftiness and blogging while noveling too. I think creativity nourishes itself, so I often find when I’m doing one creative thing, I’m all the more inspired and energized to do others. Hoping that is the case this month!

I also have a HUGE backlog of crafty show&tell + thank you’s to blog about (you wonderful, generous people know who you are, and soon anyone else who reads the blog will too!), so I’ll hopefully be seeing you all again soon.

Ok, you guys are too sweet– thank you so much for the offers of hand-knit sweaters for Miss S and suggestions for idiot(aka me)-proof patterns to make one myself. We’re very spoiled girls!

When I pulled out the denim for my skirt, I also came across some grey knit fabric I bought at the same time to make a maternity version of my favorite wrap dress. Which project also fell by the wayside back then due to pregnancy fatigue and malaise. But hey, now I can fit into the original again, and it does that figure magic that wrap dresses do so well, so how about one for fall? Then it came time to search for the pattern, in the craft closet of DOOM. Seriously, it is a disastrous and pitiful scene, rather like a graveyard for half-finished and abandoned craft projects. I found the pattern (finally) and made the dress

I’m not as thin as I was back in the day(aka April 07), and I used heavier knit which meant I should have faced the bodice like the directions said instead of fully lining it (whoo, that’s a bulky waistline there), but it is comfy and wrappy and so I will wear it anyway.

I also came to the conclusion that, along with stopping with the peanut butter cups, some serious de-stashing must occur pronto, in addition to finishing or chucking the half-finished bits and pieces in that closet to make way for more focused crafting. After the past few weeks of creating with abandon, I’m feeling disorganized and sort of blocked (this may be because I looked in that closet). There’s so much inspiration out there, and I have so many supplies, but I just don’t know what to do next. HMB needs fall/winter hats for her rapidly expanding noggin, it’s never too early to get started on holiday gifts, but…nothing really feels that exciting.

This is where you come in: when I went to the post office today I picked up a few flat rate priority mail boxes to fill with crafty odds and ends– good ones, I promise, decent sized lengths of fabric, strands of beads, packs of notecards etc. And I will send them off to some of you, my faithful readers. If you’d like to be in the mix for this giveaway, please either comment and let me know what crafty projects you’re most excited about right now (if you have links or photos, go ahead and link to ‘em!). Or if you like, blog about it and then comment here with a link to your post. I’ll leave the comments open until Monday, September 22, then randomly pick 3 commenters to each get a box ‘o’ fun–if possible, I’ll try to make your box contents match up with the project you’re working on. I hope you’ll join in and help inspire me to make way for new projects!

I’ve been looking for the perfect denim skirt for a long time- you know, simple, a-line, knee length, goes with everything. But strangely, all I’ve been able to find at stores is horrible- incredibly mini or tight or a weird color. I actually bought a length of dark stretch denim back when I was pregnant to try to make a maternity version, but then was just too tired and bummed out by being huge to even bother. So, when I saw Linda’s adorable denim skirt, I pawed that length of denim out of the closet and decided to finally make one myself. It is a very dark wash, so I realise looks like a black skirt in the pictures, but trust me it is blue.

and on the hanger for good measure

I used a skirt I love to draft the pattern, and it is more half-circle than a-line really, with a nice curvy hem (nice to wear, a bear to sew up!). Because I hate facings and denim is too thick for a lining, I did what Linda did and used bias binding to make the waistband-I still have to stitch on a hook and eye to keep it shut! I am very bad and impatient when it comes to putting in zippers, so I refreshed myself on Michelle’s brilliant glue set zipper tutorial, which made it a breeze!

The fabulous jacket (because I know you’re looking more at the jacket in that picture above than the skirt, right?) came from my favorite store, bought with a pre-baby gift card from the lovely Camilla. It is perfect for hiding my remaining baby-gut (I don’t know who these “nursing makes you so skinny!” people are, honestly) and making it look like my waistline is much smaller than it is! When it ceases to be quite so warm here, I’ll be wearing this skirt/jacket combo constantly…

I realised when plotting my Mamadrobe for fall, I need some new accessories to go with it. Jewelry making was one of the first crafts I learned (after embroidery), but I get kind of bored of what I can make for myself. So, what to do? That’s easy-acquire some jewelry that makes me feel enthused and excited and thrilled! Enter Ali’s line Designalicious. I know I’ve written about her work before, but she’s doing lots of great new stuff so if you’re looking for a few pieces for fall, look no further!

I had my eye on these at Renegade

but the baby was being kind of fussy and it was loud and overwhelming and I hadn’t had enough sleep so I whiffed on buying anything. Thankfully when I came to my senses Ali still had a pair! And because she likes me (you do, right Ali?) she also sent me this super-neat little zippy bag:

How cool is that? Next time I see her I’m going to ask her for tips on free motion sewing…

Ok, I have to admit that my wardrobe has been less than inspired the past few months. Every day it is the same- super-sale cotton trousers from Old Navy, Target nursing tanks and flip flops, with a long-sleeved henley and Patagonia vest if it is chilly. Hair in a bun, moisturizer (if I’m lucky), and sadly unpedicured toes (I actually bought a Ped Egg, because my calluses were taking over the world- it sounds crazy but I swear it actually works).

But after getting the latest Hanna Andersson and Boden catalogs I decided that in the fall I would institute a new daily mom wardrobe– just as washable (the minute I put on anything nice, HMB spits up on it, without fail), just as friendly to sitting on the floor without exposure, but, you know, cute. My inspirations are as follows:


So, I’m on it. Skirts, leggings, cute (but comfy) boots and fitted little jackets to cover up the still-required nursing tops (and hold in the ever-present “empty baby house”- Amy’s brilliant description for the belly). I won’t be making the leggings and the boots, but I have a bunch of ideas for funky a-line skirts. Maybe all the same simple shape but with fun details. I’m imagining a black baby-wale corderoy one with lots of decorative stitching in white thread (I’m dying to use those stitches on my Bernina!). Of course I still need to make the perfect A-line skirt pattern. I *love* Sew What, Skirts, but for some reason i keep coming up with a skirt that is just a little too big, or just a little too small in the wrong spot, or doesn’t flare out as much as I’d like. Which means I use up fabric making not-quite-right skirts (yes I have a bolt of muslin, don’t ask why I don’t use it- I think i keep hoping the next one will be the one and I can skip the muslin). I made one I actually like before a bunch of baby weight fell off (a miracle I’d like to see happen again). I didn’t have a chance to wear it so I’m wondering if any of you out there are a size 8/10/12 US and might like to have it? This is what it looks like

And a detail shot of the trim on the waistband and hem

It is made of a heavy almost-canvas cotton and closes with a (slightly wonky) back zip. If you want the actual measurements, drop me a comment and I can let you know (I think it would hang at the hip for a size 8, fit just under the waist for a 10 and sit at the waist snugly for a size 12). Depending on how many responses I get, if any, I’ll choose someone and send it off! It isn’t perfect (sewn while sleep deprived and rushing to finish before a nap ended), but it is free

I know, I promised dress patterns today but there are too many that I love. So I’ll need some more time with that. In lieu of dresses, I’ll tell you that I’ve been really into the C.Z. Guest/Babe Paley quality of the full, formal skirt with a button down or sweet cardigan that I’ve seen around lately:

Brooks Brothers and Vogue, respectively
I love long patterned skirts with lots of volume, and while this might not be the most practical of daywear, it would be fun to recreate to wear out for tea or lunch with a friend who’d appreciate it (or perhaps to a daytime wedding?). I’d probably look for the fabric in the home decor section of a fabric store, seeing as it would take a rather a lot of yardage, plus there are often great patterned silks, satins and glazed cottons in home dec, which might have just the right amount of body for a big skirt. If you’re more into the Little House on the Prairie/Field and Stream look, you could use a calico or a plaid. I’d use this pattern:

The gathered version rather than the circle one, and lengthen it to the floor. For the top perhaps this tailored French-cuff button down, or, if I was a knitter, one of the adorable chunky knits from Wenlan Chia’s new book, Twinkle’s Weekend Knits. I was flipping through and coveting it in Borders but reluctantly left it behind, since I’m always very inspired by knitting books and magazines, but then very frustrated by the actual knitting (beginning with how expensive yarn is!). But there is a fabulous turtleneck sweater pattern in there that would be a perfect compliment to a big fluffy skirt until warmer weather returns.

I’m enjoying coming up with these little fantasy outfits– I hope it is fun-ish for you too! I’d love it if you want to join in– please comment with a link to a post/photo of an outfit you’ve recreated from a favorite movie/painting/magazine (by no means need it be Spring 08!), or if you’d like to comment with a link to a picture/scan of an outfit you want to recreate (in your own style, of course), I’d have a lot of fun picking out patterns for fantasy outfits for people other than myself! So, please pipe up if you want.