belle epoque

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.

In case you haven’t seen me lately, let me assure you that I am officially huge and roly-poly. Moondoggie is highly amused by my walrus-like efforts to get out of any reclined or semi-reclined position (but since he is a wonderful husband always tells me how nice I look and helps me up). Lately, when semi-reclined, I’ve been perusing and fantasizing about the new patterns out for spring from Vogue, Simplicity etc, and thought I’d share some of my favorites with you. I’m not totally delusional– I know I won’t have a ton of time for sewing post-baby, but it is still fun to pick out a new wardrobe by matching up what I’ve been clipping from magazines/catalogs with the latest patterns. If I can keep it going, I’ll do a couple of posts like this and show you a few different outfits I’d make if I had my druthers.

One of my favorites from a recent Anthropologie catalog is this:

Which I would recreate using this Alice & Olivia for Vogue wide-leg pants pattern#1035, and Divine Details jacket/short trench pattern #8480:

I’m really into the wide-leg pant, which doesn’t work for me at all right now (the proportions are all wrong!), but I hope will be kind to me in a few months. I’d probably make the trousers above out of red-striped canvas ticking or dark stretch denim (I refuse to be a slave to the fabric suggestions on the pattern envelope), then add some decorative buttons to the front for the sailor effect. And I do love the idea of a red canvas or twill jacket, though I actually do have a big length of tan twill my mother got for me so I’d probably use that, then perhaps add some red ribbon trim around the collar and pockets.

To complete the outfit, under the jacket I’d wear a white boat neck t-shirt, which most likely I would purchase from Old Navy (the time and effort I’d spend sewing one is not justified for something they do so well and economically!). And I’ve been wanting a pair of soft yellow leather boat shoes, which would be perfect with this outfit, I think. I like these ones by Isaac Mizrahi for Target:

Next up? Dresses! There are a bunch of cute ones I’ve got my eye on…

You might remember, if you’ve been with me on this blog for awhile, that I used to sew myself lots of clothes. Perhaps it is superficial, but I LOVE clothes– looking at them, thinking about them, buying them, making them. While I am absolutely aware that there are tons of wonderfully chic and stylish pregnant women out there, I just haven’t felt inspired to sew for the past few months–particularly the last month or so has felt like a bit of a style-free zone around here. The urge to make some clothes, combined with a bit of boredom hand-quilting the wall hanging (after just thread basting it I was ready to quit), came together in a burst of crafty creativity to make Claudine. Who goes to ballet class:

Then goes visiting

and stays to tea with her best friend

She is not a toy for a small child (her hat is held on with pins!), but one for me to dress and make clothes for until I am back to slightly more normal proportions and can make some new spring/summer clothes for myself. I’ve a collage of pictures of skirts and dresses from magazines and catalogs, and have already begun plotting how to spend baby’s naptime in front of the sewing machine!

But before that, there is much nesting to be done around here, so no more non-baby diversions! Well, at least not too many…

*Update* I just found out that the lovely Phoeknits did me the honor of nominating me among her ten top picks for The You Make My Day blog award! I am so flattered, thank you Phoe! You totally made my day. I’ll be following the rules and nominating ten of my favorites very soon, promise.

We were at the beach for the beginning of the weekend, where I played with roving and felting needles, resulting in this little fellow

Still not sure if he’s felted together enough, but I find him so cute I can hardly stand it. I just want to put him in my pocket and take him everywhere, but I’m afraid I might start talking to him in public and become a crazy felt mouse lady. So he’ll just stay on my desk to keep me company.

The weather was rather grim at the beach so we headed home in time for me to go to the Capsule Design Festival today with Camilla, Brian and Meghan.  What an overwhelming amount of seriously cool and creative independent design! There was so much to take in that I was unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few seconds. A few highlights include Donna Lou’s feminine, flirty dresses and tops, Random Nicole’s whimsical screen-printed and appliqued tees and sweats, and Vivi Dot’s sweet button accessories. As an added bonus, I got the chance to chat with the always-charming Nicole of Queen Puff Puff, and meet Deborah of Chic Cosas!

See how cute they are? And can you tell how cold it is?

Meghan and I wandered our way up to Doe after the festival, and oohed and ahhed over all the pretty cleverness there, and now I’m home, making the Chicken Tikka Masala that Alicia talked about the other day. It is my favorite Indian Restaurant dish, so I’m super excited to have a recipe I can try at home! I’ll let you know how it goes…

Do you know that song? Do you have any idea what the heck it is actually about?  If you do, please tell me. I don’t, but it seemed to fit with today’s post so there you are.

Last week I went for a loooong overdue haircut (I last went in…September?), so my hair was just all long and hanging there like a beat-up Raggedy Ann and he said, “Well, we have to do something about this! You’re not a hippie chick.” And this is true, but it wasn’t always true. In college I had two floor-length tie-dye dresses (some of my East coast friends saw this as a sign of California conversion)! But to be honest I was probably always a little bit too into grooming and shiny platform shoes to ever consider myself a hippie chick– I just liked to don the costume on occasion, and in smaller ways sometimes I still do.

So when I saw this pattern I knew I HAD to have it, and even if I wore the dress with my not-at-all-hippie-chick layered haircut I might feel just the teensiest bit boho

Now, the version I was planning to sew originally was the floor-length one with the ruffle on the bottom. But I had to do all kinds of cheating because I used a stretch fabric (not in any way recommended for this pattern) and had I added the ruffle everything would have fallen apart. So, it is less boho than I originally intended. I think it would look entirely preppie, in fact, in a cheerful printed cotton voile, and absolutely elegant in a watery blue patterned silk in the super-long ruffly version. Maybe one day!

But back to the actuality of it– it is very, very comfy, and I think would be particularly great in wildly hot weather, as the fabric is extremely light. The pattern is only a few pieces and very easy to put together (even cheating like I did), so I’d recommend it if you’re feeling the hippie chick vibe yourself this spring!

I  know!  I promised you skirts, plural, but all I have for you is skirt, singular.  But it is a really great skirt, are you ready?

Now it is time for me to sing the praises of the wonderful book Sew What! Skirts. Oh, this book is fabulous. The authors teach you how to make all kinds of skirts based on your very own measurements, so they fit like a dream and don’t do weird bindy or gappy things, or cling in the wrong spots (I’m looking at you Burda skirt patterns). Anyway, I said “skirts” yesterday because after making the skirt above out of a vintage tablecloth I found at Goodwill for basically free, I was all revved up to make more in different styles. Eventually I will, it just didn’t happen today.

The centered zipper technique in this book is great too– I always have zipper issues, which if you aren’t a sewer you don’t know are HORRIBLE. For non sewers: you most often put in the zipper when you’re almost done with the whole dress or skirt, when you really really want to be finished with the darn thing, so you’re impatient but also totally nervous about messing everything up at this stage at the game. Anyway, I often end up with wiggly zippers wet with tears. But the zipper in the back of this skirt? Smooth and subtle as can be, thanks to the very clever authors and their fool-proof centered zipper advice. Lovely.

So, if you are a relatively beginnerish seamster like me (i.e. you’re not a professional tailor or in design school and drafting your own intricate patterns) and you like skirts, definitely buy this book. You will be ever so happy that you did! And be honest about your measurements– it is more depressing to try on the skirt and find it unflatteringly snug than it is to write down a measurement that is a wee bit bigger than you’d like (not, um, from personal experience with my own vanity or anything).

*Update: A Sew What! Skirts Sewalong is starting April 30th! So head over to Flickr to join the group!

I have wanted a DVF wrap dress since the summer of 2000, when a terribly chic Swedish girl I knew had one in a kind of coral and black exaggerated herringbone pattern. She had a lovely svelte figure and wore nearly all designer clothes, but without any trendoid or fashion victim overtones– it was effortless, and as though she just sort of threw them on and looked wonderful (which is something stylish people obviously achieve with clothes of nearly any pedigree, as you can see in Wardrobe Remix!). Anyway, since then I actually have tried on the DVF dresses and been disappointed with the fit, or didn’t care for the fabric, or just felt a bit faint at the cost. But then I found this fabric I decided it was just time to make my own!

I used Vogue 8379, which fits perfectly.  The fabric is extremely soft and comfy (and machine washable, yay!). I could swear I’ve seen this fabric somewhere before, as a garment in a store– was it Forever 21? If you remember, let me know. It also reminds me of Anthropologie, with the overblown flower pattern in soft pastelly yellow and lavender. I can’t wait to wear it somewhere fun, and like the Built By Wendy top I made awhile ago, I want to make at least 4 versions of this dress so I can wear it almost every day. But I shall control myself, especially since I haven’t any more cotton jersey in my stash.

If you have a hankering to make one and would like more info on putting together the pattern, head over to my review on Pattern Review.com. I’ve only just started spending time there and I really like it– the people are very friendly and the reviews are very helpful if you’re wondering whether a pattern will work for you.

Tomorrow?  Skirts!

I’ve wanted a pair of city shorts for awhile now, and seeing the latest array on Anthropologie’s website tipped the scales. I broke out my trusty Simplicity 3867 envelope and cut out the shorts from some stripey canvas I got at the thrift to approximate these.
The result?

Circus pants! They are very, very comfy (perhaps just a little bit roomier than necessary?) and were super easy to make.  Thank goodness, because I had a crafty crisis yesterday that I’m still trying to rectify (hopefully I’ll figure it out, or else I’ll have to consider my prized red and white polka dot fabric a sacrifice to the fickle gods and goddesses of craft).  Wish me luck!

 And wait! There is something else I have to tell you- I’ve never hidden my love for Tiny Showcase, and tonight? They’ll be posting a print from Amy Ross. Her work is the perfect combination of beautiful and strange that makes you look twice. The prints always sell out over there just about instantly, so pop over as soon as you can once 7:30 eastern, 4:30 pacific hits!