FRUMP-AN-ECTOMY

I had a bit of a revelation the other day. Not perhaps that ground breaking but surprising to me. I own quite a lot of patterns, and I rarely use any of them. Similarly I have a lot of fabric to make those patterns up, and I rarely sew with it. Now up to this point I had just assumed I was lazy. All those projects just waiting and me not being organised enough to bother. It niggled at me, made me feel a bit of a failure. Which is obviously ridiculous as I haven't failed and this is meant to be a hobby!

But perhaps its not entirely that. Perhaps it's more that I also own about a bajillion bits of clothing already. Most of which look uncannily like the patterns. I haven't made 10 extra pencil skirts because there is just no need for me to do so. Not that's not so say that making stuff you don't need isn't an excellent thing to do, but there certainly isn't much pressure.

So that's half my stash explained. I don't need it and I don't want it enough to bother making it. Not sure what I do with that knowledge now but I shall think on it.



So what about the other half?

That's mainly fear (with a decent wedge of actual laziness this time!). This is all the fabric and patterns I bought for projects that I don't feel confident to start and/or are worried will become an endless fitting nightmare that I shan't finish. This is mainly two categories: difficult fabrics, and bodice fitting.


So what should I actually be trying to sew? Clearly my hungry fabric hoarder instincts are completely off.

As I am going through a hating everything in my wardrobe phase, this seems like a good moment to re-assess. I currently feel a bit dumpy and frumpy in my clothes. I know this is just my own silliness but it happens to us all! I have no desire to be generally fashionable, I'm happy to have my own style but I think I could do with a bit of updating. Having said that a lot of current fashion seems to be even more boring than my current wardrobe so clearly I shall have to be selective!

FRUMP- AN-ECTOMY

I decided to get systematic. Which aspects of my wardrobe make me feel most like a big unfashionable lump, and what can I do to spice them up?

• Old tired T-shirts.

PROBLEM - A lot of my tops are at least 5 if not 10 years old. They look it. They are also all the same.
SOLUTION - make more, some using my flutter sleeve t-shirt sloper that makes me feel a bit more dressed up than a standard T.
 It looks generally like this.

• Tops bunching around the waist/leaving lines under pencil skirts

PROBLEM a lot of the aforementioned T-shirts aren't quite the right length, they ride up and bunch, or make me less sleek under clothes.
SOLUTION Make some Nettie bodysuits. This has the advantage that I already have the pattern.

• I only have T-shirts

PROBLEM: I have a large bust, so nothing fits me in a woven without substantial alterations. Which we have established puts me off. In an attempt to get round this I have previously bought very simple patterns to get the hang of it without bothering with the additional drama of sleeves, collars, buttons etc. These however aren't actually things I want to wear or make. So I didn't.
SOLUTION: just bite the bullet and make a proper shirt I actually fancy wearing. I often find simple shirts a bit dull/officey so I have selected the Bruyere from Deer and Doe. It's got enough detail that it looks like it should be fitted without being too extremely tight.

• Cardigans

PROBLEM I wear cardigans with everything. I am often unconvinced by how they look (a bit middle aged on my figure) and the ones I have all seem to be wrong colours somehow. But I need layers - my body temp goes all over the place all day!
SOLUTION:  this was a bit harder and required some internet research (ie looking at some high street websites to see what the cool kids are wearing).

Option a) cropped jumper / sweatshirt. I quite like these, good length on me but do lack the warmth middle ground option of an open cardigan.

I also already own Astoria from Collette's Seamwork magazine. I shall drop the neckline a bit.



Option b) kimono tops. I love this - particularity when they are either made in plain colours, or still jazzy but simplified, like these examples.

(Dorothy Perkins)

(also Dorothy Perkins)

Again, luckily! I already own the Asaka kimono from Named. The sleeves are a little wild for everyday buts it's a good pattern (I'll save the sleeves for a dressing gown or something!




So that's the plan - we shall see if it works out!

I'm in the mood, for disco..

So this weekend we were invited to a 70s party. Now regular readers know I love a costume opportunity, and at halloween I was exhausted and didn't end up enjoying the costuming process as much as I normally do, so I was ready for a success! 

I  did a fair bit of research online, as the 70s had a great variety of styles to choose from- a lot of which are currently back in style at the moment.

There was boho/hippy (a lot of representation of this at the party), chic day wear, suburban party wear and charlie's angels glam.

Then there is disco. Now 70s parties often tend more to the naff end of this - Abba inspired day-glo metallics and huge platforms.  

I however wanted a more subtle look, that was less costumy. I looked a lot at Studio 54, Saturday Night Fever and American Hustle. I wanted something luxurious and big impact,  but with the loose flowing casualness that seems to be a big part of 70s clothes.

I generated a plan,; a slinky, flippy satin dress in gold. 

Even in my now stupendously oversized stash I din't have anything remotely suitable so I toddled along to Leeds market to look at the fabric stalls. My efforts costuming Midsummer Night's Dream recently meant that I knew just what I wanted -one of the stalls has lots of really lovely fabric that's some sort of super lining fabric. It's really thin but enormously drapey and ripply and it doesn't really fray (my previous experiences with lining fabric have taught me the hard way about lining and fraying!). Me and the stall owner agreed it looks and feels and behaves a bit like silk - only at £4 a meter. Perfect for a costume party potential fiasco! Here it is on my floor as I tried to work out how to fold it so it would all fit! You can see it's really soft and lustrous. 

Now I haven't really done any slippery fabrics before, and I had been warned by others that this would be a colossal pain. I now see what they mean. It was impossible to cut straight or evenly, and I ended up swearing a great deal as the pieces distorted so much as I held them that I couldn't tell which way round them went and kept sewing the wrong bits together! 

I cut out a 4 gored skirt about mid calf (I later cut a high-lo hem into it) on the bias, with a yoke. Now with the benefit of hindsight I could have interfaced the yoke pieces. But I did not. I'm just crazy/lazy like that. I then draped the top on my dressform. I was aiming for a loose wrap top with knotted shoulder straps (which cheeringly turned out to be extremely easy). I wanted the back to be non fitted with floaty bits. I draped away and somewhat disconcertingly it worked pretty well first time. I couldn't then think how to get it off without getting horribly muddled so I just hand sewed it (very badly) on the dressform. 

I had planned to sew the top and the bottom together, but the swearing that accompanied the skirt section taught me better! I instead just zigzagged the yoke onto a piece of elastic and turned it under and tucked the top in. This worked 90% perfectly, as it was extremely easy and very effective but it did end up wrinkling the front of the yoke, which I clearly should have taken in about an inch in advance. Oh well. The back yoke sat very well though and barring my inability to notice that the thread kept snapping the zip went in beautifully. I decided to not hem the skirt (or anything else) as it didn't fray and so that was super easy and resulted in a very flippy skirt!

Overall I kinda love it! I had worried it might be a bit se through but it was fine! I swooshed and danced very happily in it and felt very glamorous! the only draw back was that it was rather chilly wearing it, so I teamed it with my massive Cruella deVille faux fur coat!

I don't know if I will be sewing anything difficult in silky fabrics any time soon but they are fun to wear!

I love my dressform!

I've been reading people's blogs about dressforms recently - it appears that people have had mixed experiences with them - particularly bought ones. I made my own, partly for cost reasons, and partly because I am not very standard sized!

I have to say that I love it! It's not perfect:  I need a better stand as it has a tendency to fall over, looking at it was initially very depressing and I've lost weight since I made it so its about a size too big. It is however extremely useful. UPDATE I did get a better stand!

I HATE doing fitting, especially FBAs. Doing it on yourself - like so... is really tiresome. And usually (when I did it anyway) inaccurate. Don't get me started on flat pattern alterations. They just bend my brain. And again... poor results (in my experience!).

Personally

I find it SO MUCH EASIER to do this...

Anyone interested in how I made Agnetha - have a look here and here and here. 

If you would like to see how I use it to fit bodices - have a look here.

Being a costume mistress

For the last few weeks I have been moonlighting as a costume mistress -for my old school and their production of midsummer night's dream. It's been a bit  stressful at times but really fun also. My mum makes costumes for her school plays so it feels very familiar.

Now I'm not finished yet but I thought I'd share some thoughts on my findings so far..

1) I'm not as detail orientated as my mum.  She always finishes everything beautifully and robustly -talking very wisely about costumes for young people needing to be finished properly. Mine aren't.  It's hard work enough making everything on the correct time line! Luckily as older kids they are less likely to do something completely daft like climb a tree in them but you never know!

2) Costumes are messy. I'm not going to share current pictures of my flat - because it's embarrassing. Every surface is covered in bits, some important -some waste, and the bit in the middle of the floor I can continue to craft in gets smaller and smaller as the debris closes in! (I long since lost the table!) there seems little point tidying until I'm done as I've lost track of which bits are important! It's very lucky I no longer have flatmates as I would have lost them under the piles or been stabbed by one of the many pairs of scissors I have buried!

My table at a much earlier stage - long since lost!

3) Costuming is a passion,  not a job. Now obviously some people are lucky enough to actually do this as a job, but I'm finding treating it as one a challenge. I keep planning to do things in an ordered way and get up early, with schedules. This orderly dream keeps being utterly scuppered by my inability to make costumes when I'm not inspired and my obsession with continuing when I am! I spent 4 hours procrastinating last night and then suddenly got into it at 11.30 so didn't stop until 3ish... hmm. Still, now I have most of a donkey head!

4) It's kind of an honour, in that the kids (and other hardworking drama staff! ) REALLY appreciate you. This is frankly a bizarre novelty after being a normal teacher!  It's like being a teacher in a film! The vast majority of the characters that I am costuming are thrilled to have a costume mistress  (they get super excited that I own a measuring tape!) and that they are getting their own costume made. It's really fun!

5) Most people are really impressed by basic sewing. Although a lot of my creations have been forged in the cave of a thousand bits (aka the flat) for the last week we've had long rehearsals so I've been taking my bags of half made stuff and sewing machine in to do it there (so much easier when you have access to the people wearing them). This has led to some significant improvement in some kids' respect for me -they love watching the flat material become a 3D outfit! I draped a dress directly onto a girl (it was forgiving fake velvet and a straightforward dress) and she and friend were fascinated as I sewed it up in 10 minutes  (I pinned it on her inside out and then sewed it straight up, it's a drapey style and didn't require hemming or seam finishing ). School sewing tends to be more cushions and baby blankets  (as I remember from my school days ) and it was great to show them you could do something more exciting and borderline easier! (I was saying to a fellow teacher that I think most sewing is easier than proper cushion covers -they are far too obvious if you are a little bit off!). It's also been a great opportunity to reduce my negative self thinking about my creations -I could see all the flaws in the dress (after all it was a 10 min creation!) but they loved it - one said she would happily wear it to a wedding, and when she said that I realised that I would too. She also told people I'd showed her how to make a dress - maybe we've got a future sewer there!

Well I best get back to it - that donkey head isn't going to assemble and decorate itself!

Resolutions

Well I guess it's that time of year... I don't really make resolutions usually but I'm in the midst of a lot of changes and I feel more transitional than usual! These aren't all sewing but ... oh well!

1) sew more. I'm making costumes for a school play but I also want to make some new stuff for myself and others.  It's been too long! Plus the stash is ridiculous. 
Target for Jan - 3 items and 3 alterations.  This may sound a lot but I'm currently not in work so have more time.

2) get on top of flat tidyness. My flat is not ideal despite having loads of space. I'm going to have a cull and move stuff about so that everything actually has a place. This includes the sewing room which is not currently very functional!

Target for Jan -  Tidy everything.  Cull all storage areas. 

3) be healthier. Not very original but my job got very busy last year and both cooking and exercise took a serious hit.

Target for Jan -try to cook each meal from scratch (ish -I'm going to buy bread and stuff). Don't buy oven pizza or oven chips. Go swimming and climbing each week. 

Peacock feather dress

About a billion years ago I mentioned that I was channeling the lovely Oona by buying brightly coloured patterned fabric. I ended up making a basic fitted dress out of the peacock fabric which actually is remarkably muted as a whole item - sorry Oona!

I wore it to several things and obviously didn't manage to get any decent pictures at all!

Still - here we go..

Here are some of me wearing it to my brother's wedding (rubbish weather, lovely day!)




And here I am wearing it at my graduation.

Uncovering the UFOs - Roswell Week Challenge

Now as you may have gathered lovely people, I am both terrible at keeping on top of things in long challenges (Spring Palette was a dismal fail..) and good at working to a super strict self-imposed deadline (hence all my stuff I start on a whim just before I have to wear it!). I have also just been stunned into silence (ish!) by the astounding and lovely Mena at the Sew Weekly’s amazing self challenge – the 7 in7 challenge in which in 1 WEEK (yes-that’s 7 days) she shall make 7 dresses from the Colette Patterns range (that’s not 1 week a dress-that’s 1 week for all of them). And this is potentially on top of her making another outfit for the standard sew weekly challenge! (She just did a Crepe for the challenge but I’m not sure if that’s included… or if next week’s is.. I guess we will find out!)  This is probably the most mental challenge I have ever seen, as most of those dresses are quite complicated! She is also allowing the followers to have a say in the fabric of the dresses (as if it wasn’t complicate enough!) so if you want to input into 7 of the quickest made dresses ever-head on over!

Now this has shamed me, as I am always starting things with grand plans and then not finishing anything. Therefore, I have assigned myself my own super swift 7 day challenge – UFO finishing! (for those that don’t know -  a UFO is an UnFinished Object, of which I have many)

Roswell week (which starts today!) will include me trying to get as many UFOs finished or abandoned entirely as possible, ideally all of them. Conditions - I have to do something sewingy everyday if reasonably sensible (ie going to the pub counts as an excuse but watching friends repeats on tv does not). I shall post every day about my (hopeful) progress -this is to stop me chickening out! I shall not sew or plan anything else (unless drastic repairs are needed urgently). I can decide to just chuck projects but I have to really mean it (otherwise they will still just lurk in my mind!). For the purposes of the challenge the week starts when I get home from work tonight.

Now obviously this is only a challenge I have just made up on the spot, but I made a badge anyway (picture-not jazzy html), so if anyone else fancies trying it and uncovering the horrible truth about their UFOs feel free!

My UFO list (bearing in mind I am not currently near my sewing stuff so there are probably more I have forgotten about!) currently includes things in a number of different levels of unfinished. 

Glee Dress for Charlotte – technically I finished this, and she wore it, but the back zip and waist seam are a complete mess and I have been promising to fix it for ages, plus the inside seams are all over the place. Also I never took any pictures of it.

Christmas dress (yes I hang my head in shame) –I never finished the seams on the inside so I can put it through the washer! – only been about 6 months on that one…

Silky cami top - it just doesn’t fit right, so it has been sat at the fit tweaking stage for about as long as the Christmas dress.

Jersey skirt for Spring Palette challenge – So long Sarong. I couldn’t get the gathers to sit right (I hate knits!) so I just left it. I will have to take the waistband off and try again.

Shifting skies skirt – I am about 2/3 of the way through the underskirt, with the over skirt not started. Hmm, this one might prove a bit of a challenge (but I will try!)

Pendrell homage.  Again, stuck on the fitting. I got so sick of tweaking this that I lost interest, but I need to try again! It might be too much for the week but I shall give it a shot!

Green dress refashion. About 6 months ago I bought a shapeless green patterned smock form Shelter and decided to refashion it, I pulled the neckline off and pinned out the darts, then abandoned it (I don’t even remember why). Should be pretty easy to finish.

Flowery dress refashion. In the same Shelter trip, I got a misshapen babydoll tunic that was about 3 miles wide with a stretched neck you could drive a car through. I actually finished turning it into a dress, but it is still a bit shapeless and I have been meaning to go back in for a more thorough job.

Napkins. When I made my brother a picnic rug for Christmas, I only had chance to finish 2 of the napkins, and promised to finish the other two immediately. I haven’t.

Black skirt repair. A month ago I bent down in my favourite pencil skirt and ripped it down the back seam. It has been awaiting repair ever since.

Agnetha. Ok so this one is only here because she doesn’t yet have a stand. If I get a chance I might pop to the scrap yard and see what I can find.

Oh dear. Making that list was rather depressing! I think I may have just given myself an intervention! It worries me how many of these I have already slightly blogged about and then just abandoned! BRING ON THE CHALLENGE! BRING ON ROSWELL WEEK!