Vogue 8379

We have a WINNER!!!!

I have come a long way in just under a year. Last May I made my two dresses; one wrap dress and one knit dress. I’ve only worn each of them once since I finished them. The wrap dress just wasn’t right. It didn’t fit and was difficult to wear. The whole point of finding a wrap dress pattern that I liked was to find something that was easy and comfortable to wear. That one wasn’t it by a long shot. The purple knit dress was okay but I just made the bodice too big and the neckline was too big and low. It was an oxymoron of a dress. It was medium weight cotton interlock with long sleeves so it was only comfortable in cooler weather, but the neckline was so low and open that my neck was always cold. Plus it sagged at the boobs, never a good look on anyone.

But I’ve been sewing like a fiend this past year and have learned a lot about sizing and what patterns work for me. I’ve also learned to trust PatternReview.com reviews. When over 100 sewist say a pattern is good, believe them!

Now about this dress. My full review is here. The short version is that I love it. The long version is that this was intended to be my muslin. This was one of the projects in my Priorities Pile. The fabric has been marinating in the stash for quite a few months. (The red and purple knits in that post are still marinating but I think they might be ready soon!) If you remember I paid less than $10 for the fabric for this dress. Now that the dress is finished I think it is the perfect print for this pattern. I love its retro vibe. I did pre-wash it so I’m not expecting any big surprises after the first go through the laundry.

Other things I really like about this dress:

• The full skirt. Other reviewers have mentioned they didn’t like the silhouette with the fuller skirt and they changed it. For me, this skirt is just right. I think it camouflages my hips and tummy, giving me a more hourglass figure.
• The neckline. The biggest problem I keep having with wrap dresses is the neckline. They are usually too low and gap. This one sits up nice and high between my boobs and hugs my sternum just right. I think a lot of this is attributable to the pleats at the waist. They provide bust fullness without making the neck-edge too long.
• The sleeves. I like the 3/4 length and the cuffs. They look very much like the original DVF wrap dresses. I will also probably make this with the short sleeve for summer and maybe lengthen this sleeve for winter.

Things I will change next time: 

• The ties. The are both the same length and I think it would make more sense to have the one that wraps all the way around the body longer than the one that just comes out the side opening and crosses the back. That way when they come together to tie they will be closer to equal lengths. I’m going to play with this a little and see what I like best.
• I might lengthen both the bodice and the skirt. It is just okay as is but could be just a little longer to sit right on my natural waist and I wasn’t able to use a very deep hem at all and have it be the length I’m comfortable with. But the narrow rolled hem was easier to do on such a curved hem on a knit so I may just leave it well enough alone.
• Some reviewers have had problems with the facings flipping out when they are wearing this dress. I haven’t worn mine outside my sewing room yet so I can’t weigh in on this yet. If it is an issue I’ll see what solution I can come up with. Knowing that this was a complaint I did understitch the facing very carefully and I also stitched it down to the shoulder seams by stitching-in-the-ditch the width of the facing at the shoulders. If I make it without the collar I’ll probably eliminate the facings all together and just turn and coverstitch the neck edge.

Tomorrow is March 1 and marks the beginning of the PatternReview swimsuit contest that I have entered. I’m still waiting for one pattern to arrive from the Netherlands and another Kwik Sew pattern to come in at work. In the mean time I may make a suit from the Jalie pattern that arrived this week.

I also am going to sign up for the Jean-ius class at Craftsy.com. I’m going to be teaching a 4 session jeans making class at work starting in April and would love a few more professional tips to share with my students. I honestly don’t have a pair of RTW jeans that I love and want to copy,  but I’ll skip that part of the class and use the rest of the tips for fashioning another pair of jeans from either the KW3315 or the Jalie pattern (or a combination of both!)

All this sounds great until I realize that I’ve been working 5 out of 6 days a week lately (we are closed Sunday and I dedicate Sundays to my couch!) and I haven’t had the amount of personal sewing time that I’m used to recently. With only one day a week to myself, I’m falling behind on lots of other things that need to get done around here.

People I Want to Punch in the Throat

I read this blog, of course I do, some of my friends think I should write it. But someone already beat me to the idea and the name so instead I will just write one post today about “who” I want to punch in the throat.

Today (and almost everyday) I want to punch Moms (okay, all parents, but for today’s lesson I will be referring mostly to Moms) who raise their daughters to think so low of themselves that the daughter will allow themselves to be treated like shit by boys just because any attention is better than no attention. These girls fall prey to boys who know how to play the sweet talking game and can spot an easy mark.

I have two teenage daughters and they tell me stories about girls at their school that curl my toes and make me want to go punch people in the throat. Girls with herpes because a scumbag guy convinced them that oral sex was “safe”. Girls getting grabbed and forcibly kissed in the hallway at school because they don’t want to hurt his feelings by telling him they aren’t “into him that way.” Not to mention the hidden victims that “disappear” for a term or year or more because they attempt suicide, get pregnant, have abortions, etc. These girls are the cutters, drinkers, druggies, but they are also the athletes, honor students, cheerleaders, church goers, Girl Scouts and they are all somebody’s daughter. They are trying to hide pain that they are feeling but don’t want anyone else to see.

But time and time again the one common denominator I see in these girls lives are parents that aren’t there for them. To tell them they are not just smart and beautiful but important and worthwhile. That having a boy like you isn’t the be all and end all of your life. That is what society has been telling these girls for generations, they need another message from home. From the people that, believe it or not, are the most important and influential people in their lives, their parents. As parents it is easy to fall into believing what we are told by the media, that by the time our daughters reach middle school, they don’t listen to us anymore and their friends, tv, movies and the internet are more influential. Bullshit. We only lose our influence and importance if we let it happen.

We stay relevant to them by staying involved. Talk to them everyday. Know who their friends are and ask about them and their lives. Keep current with what is going on in the  media and society. This doesn’t mean you have to be the “cool Mom” and dress like your daughter and hang out with her friends. Just know what they are talking about when they reference music, movies, memes and other social media things. Just don’t over do it and become that annoying “trying to be hip Mom”. Just take time to be genuinely interested and to listen. Also don't push your daughter to be something or someone she isn't or doesn't want to be. If you were a dancer and gymnast but your daughter would rather be on the debate team, it's okay. If you were a Rhodes Scholar but she is an artist and not much of an academic don't make her feel stupid because she isn't taking AP Calculus. If everyone else in your family is a dentist or a pediatrician but she is an outgoing, theater kid make sure she knows that it is okay and promise her that everyone will turn their pagers off when they come to see her perform.

But most importantly talk to them about things like sex, boys, drugs, drinking, etc. Sometimes I say I’m a good example to my daughters by being a bad example. When the topic has come up and my daughters were the appropriate age I was honest about these topics and how they affected my life both positively, but mostly negatively. I don’t think it will give them a free pass to do stupid things in their lives but it will give them the knowledge that if they do they can come to me and I will understand and not be judgmental. Let’s face it, as much as we’d like it, there is no way to keep our children from making mistakes. If there was they’d never learn to walk, drive, love, or grow up. Do I think my parents were bad parents or screwed up because I made a LOT of stupid choices in my young adult years? Not at all, quite the opposite, they gave me a great foundation to build on so when the rocky parts happened my life didn’t fall completely apart.

So to all those Moms out there who are blaming their daughters for ruining their lives because they never wanted to have children, and Dads who say rude and nasty things about their daughter’s bodies and make misogynistic remarks about women in front of their daughters, and parents that shelter their daughters from the realities of life so much that when faced with real life they can’t handle it, consider this your punch in the throat.  And to all the daughters of those parents, if you need a place to go to feel safe and loved, my door is open. I’ll only tease you for bad grammar.

Kwik Sew Tank & Body Image Issues

I keep putting off writing this post. I took pictures of my fat self in an almost finished swimsuit in February in Illinois. Not a good thing to be looking at in all honesty. But to be honest, maybe it is exactly what I SHOULD be looking at right now. It isn’t pretty, but it is the truth.

One of the benefits and the draw backs of sewing your own clothes is that you can (and should!) make them to fit your body perfectly. That’s why we do this right? But (there’s always a but, or in my case a BUTT!) because we are paying attention to measurements and final fit, we may overlook the bigger picture. After a year of sewing and photographing myself in my finished garments I have to acknowledge that I’m not always liking what I am seeing. I don’t stress a lot about my size, it’s all just a number right? I usually go by what feels right. When I feel like my clothes aren’t fitting the way I like or I can’t physically do what I want to do, I start moving more and drinking eating less.

I’ve been thinking about writing a post about body image for a while now but didn’t know where to go with it. I know I’m overweight and I also know that my mental image of my body is quite different from reality. I still “see” myself as the tall size 6/8 young thing that I was in my 20s. But back then I didn’t like myself, I wanted bigger boobs and a flatter stomach (some things never change). Now I look at myself in the mirror, usually when naked after showering, and I don’t mind what I see. It isn’t until I put on clothes that don’t fit the way I’d like or look the way I think they should that I have a problem with my body image. I have breasts that fed 2 babies and were never exactly perky so I accept them for what they are now. I have a stomach that is way bigger than I’d like but without clothes to restrict it it is round and voluptuous and blends in well with the hips and thighs that support it. I don’t like the dimples that my hips and thighs are now sporting but my calves and ankles are still thin and shapely. For the most part my body is still strong. I can lift and carry things with almost the same strength I always could. I’m not as flexible as I once was but I’m still more flexibly than a lot of people my age and size.  I’ve never been a runner or had a lot of cardiovascular endurance so nothing has changed there. Would I like to be more fit and slimmer? For sure!

It is hard for me to make the time to do what I need to do to get the body I want to have. I don’t like to cook even though I know what kinds of foods I should be eating. At the end of the day I’d just rather grab something to fill up my stomach so I can go back to doing the things I really enjoy. I need to stop making excuses about exercising. When I make the time to do it, I love it. I really do. I love how in control and strong it makes me feel. I just need to get over the inertia of laziness that I tend to fall into. Even if I just made time for one yoga class and one aqua-fit class a week plus took the time to walk the dogs a couple days a week I’d see an improvement. Nike was on to something when they made “Just Do It” their slogan.

Anyway, enough words. I made my first swimsuit.

I was going to save the scary picture for last but let’s just get it over with shall we? This is just a basic tank made using the pattern and instructions in the Kwik Sew Swim & Action Wear book. I did color block it by cutting the pattern at the waist line and adding 1/4” seam allowances. It is also fully lined. I really like this striped fabric. The selvage edge says © Gap Inc. and it is a really nice weight and finish. If I were to do the half-and-half suit again I would probably drop the waist a couple inches to elongate the torso instead of cutting it in half. But then I run the risk of putting a horizontal line right across the widest part of my body. Maybe moving the line up to an empire level just under the bust is a better idea. I just think I’m already too short waisted and don’t want to accentuate that either. Hmmmmm.

Here’s an even scarier view from the back. I ran out of elastic before I could finish the leg openings. This is where I think lowering the waist line would look better and make my butt look less enormous. Most of my RTW suits have a much higher back on them and I think the next suit I make will too. I like the support a higher back gives and is more flattering overall.

After my final fitting I decided that I wanted some straps across the back to help keep the shoulder strap from falling off. Just look at those sad slopey shoulders in that photo! I wrapped a long piece of elastic in the navy fabric and coverstitched it to make a strap. I then cut it into 2 pieces and arranged them across the back and stitched in place.

I’m not done with the swimsuit making. Emma still wants me to make her something. I also have ideas for a tankini/swim-dress for myself and a retro styled tank with a more shaped bust. I also ordered the Jalie racer-back tank pattern yesterday and that should give me something to work with for basic suits too. Now that I’m fairly confident in the basic steps I’d like to find patterns to incorporate more advanced details like shaped bra cups and under-wires. I don’t really need under-wires but I’ve been asked by a more “endowed” friend to make her a suit and she has a RTW suit I could copy with under-wires. I’d like a suit with more bust detailing just to give myself the illusion of more going on there if you know what I mean. I have some ideas, just need to find the time to experiment and see what I can come up with.

I made a major score at Joann’s yesterday. I ran out of swimwear elastic and stopped there after work to get more. The bulk elastic was on clearance and was marked .25/yd. I took what was left to the cutting table and told them I’d take it all. The girl then told me it rang up for .10/yd! I got 18.5 yards of elastic for less than $2!!! SCORE!!!

I think there is a 6pm Aqua-Fit class at the gym tomorrow night. Might be a good reason to debut the new suit!

Featured Member: Pattern Review

How cool! I’m the featured member at Pattern Review today. Check it out over in the right hand side of the page. I got a nice discount on a pattern so I chose this one. Jalie 3134.

I got a lot done on my first swimsuit yesterday. I took a bunch of pictures too. I’ll put it all together later after work today and let you see what I’ve been up to.

I’m looking forward to receiving this pattern I think the style will be great for aqua-fit classes.

Enjoy your Saturday. I’ll catch you on the flip side.

I won’t give up

Get More: Jason Mraz, I Won't Give Up, I Won't Give Up, Free Music Videos

I don’t know if I’ve written here about how much we (Sarah & I at least) love Jason Mraz. We’ve seen him in concert twice and will do it again any chance we have. He is just so good, and better live. Watch this video and if you don’t at least tear up a little, you probably aren’t human.

A local radio station is hosting an annual trip to Cancun, Mexico over the weekend of my birthday next month and Jason will be the musical guest. We REALLY want to go but the cost of the trip was way out of our budget so we resigned ourselves to just having to listen live on the radio. But they’ve been giving away trips all week on the morning radio show. I’ve tried every morning to no avail. I have one more chance tomorrow at 7:20 CST. Wish me luck!

How Romantic!

A whole lot of nothing

This is why I will never be a super popular blogger, I’m too inconsistent. I didn’t do any sewing last week other than pull a pattern out of the envelope and do some measuring to decide what size to trace and where I should grade from one size to the other. (Vogue 8379) I was going to sew on Friday but I had to change my plans.

I drove Sarah to Michigan Friday afternoon for a College Scholarship competition at Grand Valley on Saturday. We had planned to leave after school but a winter storm was forecast and we took the prudent course and left at noon. Good choice. Driving home on Saturday afternoon we went over some still snow-covered roads.

I was going to sew yesterday but I ended up spending the entire day in my pajamas on the living room couch. I alternated between reading my Kindle, watching TV and crocheting. There was also some napping interspersed throughout the day as well. I had a headache from a combination of driving in crappy weather (muscle tension) and having friends over the night before (brew flu).

Watched the Grammy Awards last night. Don’t have much to say regarding the Whitney Houston tragedy. To be honest, I was never a fan. For a few years I was actually an anti-fan, she drove me crazy. I appreciate her talent and that a lot of people idolized her and loved her music, it just wasn’t my style. Plus I had a roommate in college, freshman year that played that first album on a continuous loop for an entire term. It was torture to my Cure/Smiths/REM loving ears, I wanted to throw that tape deck through a window. I even slept in the elevator lobby one night because I couldn’t take it any longer.

I work 5 out of 6 days this week so I won’t be doing much if any sewing at home this week either. Plus our tax appointment is right around the corner so I have to get my books done for that because of course I put it off again for most of the year. I have lesson plans for my upcoming jeans class to write as well as class descriptions for a couple other classes.

What’s on your agenda for this mid-winter week? How are those bathing suits coming along? I had a post all planned for the Sew-Along but I didn’t get the photos taken on Friday as planned. Hopefully I’ll get a chance some afternoon this week.

Tutorial: Crate Pads

I accomplished yet another of the projects on my priority list today. The dogs now have some nice mats for their crates. They are even personalized! They were very quick and easy to make.

Materials:

One yard each heavy denim and polar fleece. This is enough to make two mats approx. 35”x28”. I just cut each yard in half down the middle to make two pieces 36” by 30”. My two fabrics were quite the same width so I did a little trimming to match everything up. If you want them to fit perfectly into the bottom of your crate just measure the bottom pan size and add an inch to get a 1/2” seam allowance all the way around.

 

How To:

If you want to personalize it, hoop your denim and stitch out the name. Because this denim was so stiff I didn’t put an stabilizer in the hoop with it. I did Maizey’s first and some of the stitches weren’t as nice as I’d like them to be so when I did Cas’ I slipped a piece of Heavy Cut-Away under the hoop before I started stitching and that worked great.

 

Lay the denim piece out flat right side up and place fleece right side down on top of it. Smooth everything out, matching edges, trim any edges that aren’t even.

 

 

 

 

Round off the corners. I marked them with a chalk wheel and used my magnetic pin cushion as a guide. I chose to round them off to make turning them right side out easier. Pin both fabrics together. Stitch around edge, leaving an opening for turning. I used my walking foot because the fleece likes to stretch under the foot while stitching. I also lengthened my stitch length and made sure I had a jeans needle in the machine.

Turn right side out and clip excess fabric from curved corners and notch seam allowance. (I forgot to take a picture of this step.)

Topstitch approximately 1/2” from edge. Be cure to tuck in the edges of the opening so they get caught in the topstitching.

 

 

 

 

All done in a couple hour’s work. I like that they are lightweight and easy to wash. No stuffing for the dogs to chew apart and get all over the house. The fleece gives a little cushioning and the denim is durable.

 

Miss Maizey looks a little less than thrilled with her new digs but that is partly because I moved her crate today from one corner to another and now Cas is in the same room. She doesn’t like change.

In reality the dogs don’t spend a lot of time in their crates. Just while we are out of the house. They are still spoiled and get to sleep on our bed at night. And with my part-time hours and how early the girls get home from school they are rarely crated for more than a few hours at a time. But Cas does like his crate and will just go hang out in their for periods of time. He is also a bit of a hoarder and we will find random things hidden in there. Like the time my friend stayed over to dog sit and after we got home I was cleaning it out and found her bank card still in the envelope from the mail in his crate.

Also, does anyone else think it is weird that two Michigan State Spartans have a dog named MAIZEy? I didn’t ever realize the awkwardness until I embroidered her name in bright yellow on a blue background.

It’s official

We are having a Swimsuit Sew-Along! Please join us. How you ask? Well for one how about you start by deciding to try your hand at sewing your own swimwear? Then you can follow along as I and my fellow blogger-sew-alongists (it IS a word, okay maybe not, be we can pretend) jump into the deep end and make this thing happen. If you are a blogger that would like to join along you can grab the above badge and add it to you blog and kindly link back here and to any of the other blogs that are also participating. (Please ‘right-click-save as’ the image above and download it to your computer and then upload it to your own photo site or whatever you use to insert images into your blog. No bandwidth stealing please!)

Let me first introduce you to your other lifeguard. Swimmers meet Stephanie. She blogs over at The Petite Sewist and agreed to join me for Adult Swim. We met over on PatternReview.com. If you’d like to join our discussion pop on over to the Discussion Board and introduce yourself.

Now to get us all off the block and into the pool I’ve started to compile some helpful links. I’ll try to add to this list as time goes on.

Tutorials and Tips

Creative Chicks Blog – They have some of the best tips with photos I’ve found yet. After reading through all their pages of sewing tips even the most novice sewer will feel confident to give this a go.

Ten Tips for Sewing Swimwear Fabrics – Straight and to the point. All good things to know and remember.

Kwik Sew Swimwear Tips – Good basic advice from Kwik Sew

Burda Style DIY your swimsuit – inspiration, a few tips, and links to free patterns.

Sew Mama Sew – free pattern and tutorial.

Supplies

Spandex World -  the name pretty much says it all.

Spandex House – I guess if you are not ready for the whole world, just go with the whole house for now.

Fashion Fabrics Club – This e-retailer has gotten some bad reviews on PatternReview but I will say that I just purchased some swimwear fabric from them and it came as ordered in a reasonable amount of time. Your mileage may vary.

Fabric.com – I order from way more often than I should. I’ve never had a problem. One time they sent me the wrong Kwik Sew pattern and when I called about it they immediately sent out the correct one and let me keep the mistake.

Sew Sassy – I’ve never ordered from them but I’ve heard and read very good things about them. Looks like a great place for bra cups, swimwear elastic and other related notions.

EDITED: I'm taking the link to Paragon Patterns off of this post after receiving a comment regarding their poor or non-existant customer service. I then went and read reviews of this company and can't with good conscience link to them.

Well I think this should be a good start. If you want to participate or have more resource links to share post them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list here. Also post a link to your blog in the comments and I will start to compile a list of participants so we can all stop over for a visit and splash around in your kiddie pool.