I’ve got a brand-new dreee-eesss (sing to the tune of “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket”… it’s your new favorite song!)!

This is a super-UFO… the dress that I started working on for my class with Gertie back in July!  I’m pretty slow, so I didn’t finish it during the four class sessions, and then I just couldn’t work up the energy/ambition to figure out the kickpleat thing in the back.  But I’m so glad I finally finished it!  I really like it, even though it’s not perfect.

The pattern is McCall’s 5995 from 1960, and I love the style!  I thought I would have to grade it up to get it to fit, but there was sufficient ease in the pattern that it ended up fitting really well without any major changes.  I shortened it by a few inches and lowered the neckline cause it was Choke City before I did (although I could have lowered it a tad bit more– it’s SUCH a high neckline that I’m pretty sure if I bend forward in it I’ll get strangled).  The only thing I’m not that happy with are the bust darts– I iron them nicely, but then the minute I put the dress on, they’re back to looking bunchy and weird.  My suspicion is that this is happening because, ahem, I’m not quite filling out the dress.  I suppose I could take in the side seams a tad to get a snugger fit, but I didn’t really want it to be tight and risk button gaping (one of my pet peeves).  I can live with it as is (or I guess I could wear a bra with a bit more… volume?).

The pleat thingy lays a bit flatter in real life… I think it turned out OK.

I used a light-to-medium-weight cotton that I bought at Tissus Reine on my trip to Paris last summer (ack, I wanna go back NOW!!).  It was just the perfect weight– not at all heavy, but definitely not sheer, and in a FAB nuclear yellow-green color to boot!  The pattern includes a tie belt, which I made just for kicks, but it’s kinda cute, so I may wear it after all.

Take the picture and quit cracking jokes, photographer!

I got to try out a few new techniques with this dress– it was my first time using a vintage pattern, doing bound buttonholes, doing a pleat in a lined skirt, and inserting a regular zipper.  It was the first time I used fabric-covered buttons, too, but I can’t truthfully claim that skill because Man Friend covered the buttons for me!

Guts (bodice front)

I serged the raw seams, except for the ones that I had sewed last summer (they were French seamed or turned-and-stitched).  If this photo looks a little wonky, it’s because the facings were annoying as all get out, so for the left armhole, I just faced it with some bias tape I had laying around to keep the facings out of the way of the zipper.  I ended up blind-hemming the first armhole facing and the neck facing to the bodice of the dress because they just wouldn’t stay out of the way, even when I stitched in the ditch at the shoulder seams.  Blerg!  I’ll probably skip facings altogether on the next dress and just use lovely, clean, neat bias tape.

Guts (back)

The skirt is lined with a very strange material… I’m really not even sure what it is.  Some sort of acetate, possibly?  I went into Mood last summer (when I was more clueless about fabric types) and asked for lining material, and they gave me this stuff– it’s got an element of stretch to it, which is probably what I wouldn’t have chosen if I bought it today, but it works totally fine.  The pattern suggests stitching a seam binding waist stay onto the waist seam to discourage stretching, so I did that.  I used seam binding to finish the hem, then hand-stitched a blind hem, which I’m pretty proud of.  This is definitely the nicest (and blindest, ha!) hem I’ve done to date.  If you’re wondering what the little white square is just above the waist, well… I had a bit of a serger accident.  I was humming along, finishing my seams, when a bit of the bodice fabric got tucked up under the seam and the serger ATE A HOLE IN MY DRESS BODICE.  Now, drama queen me of 6 months ago probably would have freaked out, cried, cut the entire dress into ribbons, and set it on fire, but I calmly approached it with the poise and white-lipped determination of a field surgeon fear, trembling, and a little swearing, and came up with a hillbilly fix.  I cut a tiny piece of fabric to fit the hole and ironed a square of fusible interfacing onto the wrong side.  Then I dotted Fray Check around the raw edges and hoped for the best.  It’s really not very noticeable, and hopefully it won’t fray over time.  If it gets worse, I’ll probably stitch up a wider belt and just cover up the mess with that.

Overall, I’m happy with this dress.  The color is so cheerful and fun, and it feels good to have defeated a long-lurking UFO, one that’s been looking at me accusingly for some time.  Plus, who doesn’t LOVE HAVING A NEW DRESS?

What are you guys up to these days?  Working on anything fun?  Hope you Americans had a lovely three-day weekend!  If you guys see fewer blog posts from me in the future, it’s probably because it’s really distracting trying to type with my assistant (and that’s the other assistant parked just inches from his fan):

I’m not bothering you, am I?

Just a couple of gals enjoying the park on a summery day!

shades: Fred Flare, back when they had a storefront in Brooklyn

top: me-made Sorbetto top

shorts: American Eagle

sandals: Reef

bag: Strand Books

location: Washington Square Park, NYC

brand-new pet: Peggy the Pug!

Meet the newest member of la famille Ginger!  We just adopted her today!  She’s a rescue dog, four or five years old, and we don’t know too much about her other than that she was abandoned and a police officer brought her to the animal shelter.  She and Doug the Pug are getting along well, and while she needs some training (and housebreaking– yikes!!), she’s got a winning personality and is as friendly as can be!  Man Friend is especially excited to have a birthday pug!

Here’s a shot with more detail of the outfit, should that sort of thing interests you:

This is what walking a pug looks like.

Hope you guys are having a great weekend!

Day 23:

top: free tank from Moosejaw

skirt: me-made cotton candy Ginger skirt

necklace: Rare Bird on Etsy

number of days Man Friend’s laundry has been sitting: 11, counting today

This week has been a little challenging as the weather’s been pretty lousy.  It’s really hard to dress up and look cute when it’s rainy and gross out!

Day 24:

Ugh, post-rainstorm hair!!

top: American Eagle

cardigan: J. Crew

skirt: me-made Ginger skirt

necklace: Rare Bird on Etsy

bag: made by Ugandan women in the Sewing Hope program (really cool– you should check it out!)

location: Metro Textiles

I wore this outfit traipsing around the Garment District in the pouring rain during my first-ever meetup with a sewing blogger, the lovely Mika of Savory Stitches.  It was so fun to shop for fabric with another person– sewing can be kind of a solitary activity sometimes (although the company of sewing bloggers is a decent substitute for real-life interaction), but it was super-duper fun to be able to hang out with a smart, fashionable blogger in real life!  We had so much fun at Paron’s, Steinlauf & Stoller, Daytona Trimmings, Metro Textiles, and B & J Fabrics (where I really misbehaved and bought some expensive but GORGEOUS ikat!).  I have to say– Metro Textiles?!  We were so overwhelmed by the stacks and stacks of bolts crammed into a tiny space that we couldn’t even think!  Mr. Kashi was very kind and accommodating, but it was still a brain-melting experience!

Look how cute Mika is! And look how much fabric is jammed haphazardly into this space!!

Day 25:

top: me-made Renfrew

jeans: Levi’s

shoes: Onitsuka Tiger for Asics

awesome dinosaur bag: Happy Family on Etsy, free with the purchase of two t-shirts (score!)

location: South Street Seaport, looking at the Brooklyn Bridge (with the Manhattan Bridge behind it)

Man Friend’s parents are visiting this weekend, so I’m pictured here with my super cute and fun mother-in-law.  Do you guys have any fun weekend plans?  In between visiting and celebrating Man Friend’s birthday Sunday, I’m hoping to squeeze in a little sewing.  I feel like I’m in the middle of quite of a few projects right now, so I’m trying to finish a few and to set a schedule for finishing the rest.  It’s so easy to get distracted (and even easier to set aside something challenging in favor of a shiny new project!!).

Happy Memorial Day, everybody!  Hope you guys have great weekends!

OK, I shouldn’t even be posting about this as it’s SO EASY IT’S STUPID, but just in case you guys are interested in a no-brainer gift, here you go!  My mom is a big fan of Liberty of London, so I picked out a nice print (Purple Mauverina, if you decide you can’t live without it, either) from Purl Soho and bought 1 yard.  I ripped it in half crosswise (perpendicular to the selvedge edges), which left me with two rectangles, each sized 18″ x 53″.  Sallie recommended that I try out the narrow rolled hem on my Brother 1034D, and wow.  It’s AMAZING.  My brother-in-law glanced at it and couldn’t believe that the serger was making a finish so nice (“Wow, it looks like it’s from a factory!”), and really, I couldn’t either!  I did a narrow rolled hem on all four sides and voila, a handmade gift in about 5 minutes.  The most time-consuming part of the whole project was deciding which Liberty print to use (and the hardest part was saying no to Tana lawn for myself!)!

A hem so beautiful I could cry!  But can you tell I wasn’t really sure what to do at the corners?

I had planned to place the two rectangles wrong sides together and stitch like that so the wrong side of the fabric could never be visible, but it seemed like it would be too bulky.  Then I thought I would seam them at one end to make a super long scarf, but that was nearly 9′ long and seemed a bit crazy.  This little baby scarf is perfect for tucking into a blazer or tying into a funky bow, as my ma has demonstrated for us here (oddly enough, the top Mom was wearing on the day that I gave it to her PERFECTLY matched the scarf… spooky!).

I’ve deliberately left this image uncropped so you guys can see my sister shoving her hands down the back of her pants like the little lady she is.

OK, can we change the subject briefly?  Let’s talk summer movies for a minute!  Which movies are you looking forward to?  What have you already seen?  Any recommendations?  I saw a special preview screening of Moonrise Kingdom last night, and I really liked it!  It’s offbeat and funny, like Wes Anderson’s movies usually are, but this one was a little different from his others (pleasantly so).  I entertained fantasies of going to wilderness camp as a kid, and was really into hiking, canoeing, and trying to find Native American trails and artifacts, so I could relate a bit to the kid in this movie.  Plus, it had my favorite actor and my favorite actress playing a married couple– say what?!  Love!  Go see it!

How about The Avengers?  Thoughts on that one?  I found it totally entertaining, even though I wasn’t familiar with all of the superheroes or their backstories.  In the more highbrow department, have you seen the trailer that came out today for Baz Luhrmann’s version of The Great Gatsby?  I have to say, I’m not really sure what to think about that one.  Gatsby is my favorite novel (and I was an English major, folks– that’s a serious statement!), buuuuut I’m left a little underwhelmed by the trailer.  I’ll go ahead and say that I’m not the biggest fan of Baz Luhrmann… I tried and failed three times at staying awake during Moulin Rouge!  I’ve still never seen anything past the first 20 minutes of that movie!  The casting seems a little weird to me, and the whole production looks so glitzy and Baz Luhrmann-y that I’m a little worried that my favorite book has been trampled on.  Sigh… English major problems…    What do you guys think?  Excited for Gatsby?  Apprehensive?  Love Moulin Rouge and think I should give it another try?

Finally, Battleship– has anybody seen it?  I wonder if it’s as unintentionally hilarious as it seems like it is.  Special bonus question: which board game would you choose to make into a movie??  My vote is for Operation, although that could end up as a gore fest in the Saw camp!

Day 19:

Just a couple of baby birdies waiting for their lunch!

top: me-made stripey Renfrew

shorts: cutoff 501′s

shoes: Reef

bag: Strand

location: The Maryland Zoo

adorable sister: B

knobby knees: mine, all mine

Obvs I totally love this Renfrew.  Here’s a special bonus picture:

The Man of International Mystery (pic by sis)

location: Bond Street Wharf

companion: the mysterious Mr. Man Friend, given a shoddy iPhoto treatment

animals on Man Friend’s shirt: flamingos

Day 20:

Quoth the raven, “I’m sick of wearing the same two me-made shirts!”

top: PJ Party Tiny Pocket Tank

jeans: Levi’s

location: Tyson St., Baltimore, MD

deathly pallor: a family heirloom

Baltimore’s town motto is probably “Put a bird on it!“  I mean, all over the city, Poe-and-football loving folks have slapped ravens on every available surface.  You can’t throw a stone without hitting a bird-themed stoop decoration (but really, why are you throwing stones all willy-nilly?  You sound reckless!).

So yeah.  I’m losing steam with Me-Made-May simply because I don’t have the for it.  That’s OK, though– only a few more days left, and the experience has been really instructive (and fun).

How’s everybody doing?  Working on anything fun?  Hopefully I should have something fun and new to show you soon!

I guess it’s somehow fitting that I picked out my oldest (well, first) me-made item today.  I felt like I did a really shoddy job on this dress, so I haven’t really worn it since I made it.

dress: me-made Butterick B5211

necklace: Rare Bird

I have to say, I like this more than I thought I would.  It’s a little boxy, but that kind of grew on me throughout the day.  But I’d forgotten that I screwed something up with the button closure in the back so it constantly comes undone.  Gotta sort out a fix for that.  Also, this mother is SHORT!  I don’t know what I was thinking!  Must’ve had a flashback to my So Cal college girl days without realizing it!  I guess I could wear it with tights, but I’m not super fond of them, so I’ll probably just save this for hot days around the house when only Doug is around to be scandalized by my pasty-white thighs!

Today is mine and Man Friend’s sixth wedding anniversary, and it was a beautiful, sunny day in NY.  We decided to celebrate our anniversary like most couples do– watching silent movies (a screening of Sunrise at the Nitehawk Cinema) and eating hot dogs (at the always-delicious Crif Dogs)!  An occasion so fancy requires a bit of dressing up, so I came up with this:

dress: me-made Lonsdale dress

sandals: Reef

bag: vintage (eBay)

location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, about a block away from the East River

I have mixed feelings about this dress.  I made it in September, I think, so I didn’t get much wear out of it before the weather turned cold.  I love the style– it’s so unique and pretty– but the print is just.  so.  loud.  I seldom wear prints, and this is so crazy!  Also, the cotton batting that I used for bust padding has gotten a little lumpy and weird.  So yeah.

Alright, to all you moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day!  Hope you have a lovely day (and your offspring brings you tons of presents)!

He’s quite the Star Wars fan, so I used a sheet set.  The fabric is really weird, some kind of strange, stiff poly-cotton blend, so maybe not the nicest for pajamas, but he loves the print, so I guess that’s OK.  Maybe they’ll get a little softer after washing them a few times.

Look at puggy adoring his pop!

As you can see, I made no attempt to match the print.  I probably should have positioned it a bit more strategically– it looks a bit sloppy.  Oh, well!  I also didn’t use a pattern– I planned to trace a pair of Man Friend’s pajamas, but I couldn’t find or he doesn’t own any actual pajama pants (just track pants or sweats… so fashionable…), so I traced a pair of sweatpants.  The sweats are a bit too big for him, I guess, cause these turned out a little large.

Bad news– Cap’n Crunch has defected to the Dark Side!

Man Friend requested that I not show his face to “cultivate an air of mystery” about him.  Hahaha!  Don’t you just want to know more about this mysterious, pajama-ed stranger??

Hope your weekends are going swimmingly!  I’m looking forward to jumping back into MMM tomorrow!

I didn’t want to disturb Man Friend with noise from the sewing machine, so I did a little knitting while he rested.  Since MMM started, I’ve realized that I’m seriously lacking in the cardigan department, so I started the Honey cardigan.  I had started this a while back, but realized too late that the yarn I was using wasn’t really the right choice for the project and frogged the whole thing.  I’m re-knitting it in good ol’ Cascade 220, which is working out beautifully so far.  Hopefully I’ll be able to finish this quickly and get a little use out of it before it’s too warm!

I also started watching Kenneth King’s Jean-ius course on Craftsy.  Man Friend wanted to know what I was doing, and asked if I could copy his favorite jeans for him.  He got really excited about picking out topstitching thread and rivets, and can’t believe it’s possible to sew jeans (haha, I guess we don’t actually know that, do we?).  I’m really looking forward to making him something, especially something that he’s really excited about.  We’ll see how it goes!

What are you guys working on these days?  I hope everyone is well (and flu-free– yuck!)!

Another puggy cameo today!  Man Friend’s laundry is still in the same spot.

sweater: J. Crew

top: Grainline’s Tiny Pocket Tank, previously unblogged

jeans: Uniqlo

necklace: Rare Bird on Etsy

This was my first Tiny Pocket Tank (my second was the top in my Pink Nightmare Pajama set).  It’s a lovely pattern, but… I dove headfirst into sewing this, thinking, “eh, it’s a swingy top, no need to muslin!”.  Famous last words!  The shoulders were way too big, which I decided to fix with a box pleat in the back, but that wasn’t a very elegant solution.  And even worse, the armscyes are too tight and ride up in my armpits all. day. long.  I need to take off the armhole binding and lower it, but the fabric is pretty sheer and delicate and doesn’t take to seam ripping too well. I did a pretty awful job with the bias binding, too… hopefully it’s not too noticeable.

The fabric was labeled Liberty lawn (totally untrue– unless Liberty is now practically transparent and $8/yard).  It’s underlined with yellow cotton batiste that I had in my stash.  I was worried that the tank looked too much like PJ’s, but Gail suggested that I wear chunkier accessories with it, and I think that helps.

Despite the issues that I have with this, it’s really a nice pattern and I’m glad that I was able to work out my fitting issues before I made the second version.  I’m hoping I can fix this one enough to wear it comfortably because I really do like it.  Make one (or four)!