What to Wear (and Sew) When Nothing Fits? Rebuilding My Wardrobe from Scratch

"Congratulations! When are you due?"

"Mommy, how come your belly looks so OLD and WRINKLY and PREGNANT?"

The first comment is from a nurse when I went for a doctor's visit several weeks after giving birth. The second is from my daughter, who happily has no clue as to why this sort of comment might make Mommy feel less than totally amazing.

I've tried over the years to develop a magic body image "bubble of peace", in which I dress for and embrace whatever size and shape I am at the moment, avoid incessantly comparing myself to others, and shut out impossibly Photoshopped and personal-trained skinny celebrity imagery. But sometimes it is harder than others and I really have to pull out the Joan photos and the pictures of some beautiful real-life moms and gorgeous women of all shapes and sizes to calm myself down. This is one of those times.

If you read this blog regularly, you might be wondering: what's with all the baby clothes and doll-making lately, Mikhaela? Where are the vintage patterns, fitted cardigans and otherwise body-conscious garments you used to sew for yourself?

Readers, eight weeks out from having my gorgeous little baby boy, I am in a serious postpartum style and body-image funk. I realized this week I really need to Do Something to Feel a Little Fancy or I might just sink under Mom Frump Lake never to be seen again. In fact, the photo at the top of this post IS me post-partum... with my previous baby, in 2010. Er...

Every day I feel like I wear the same thing: too-loose maternity top + too-loose maternity leggings/jeans + me-made wool socks + ugly old sneakers. I'm carrying diapering stuff in a disintegrating 10-year-old backpack. The only pretty accessories I'm wearing are my wraps and ring slings...

Nursing baby in line at the thrift store in a silk sling while wearing ugly old sneakers

Luckily this guy is so cute hopefully no one is noticing.

Anyway. Right after D was born, I mostly lived in stretchy nursing nightgown/dresses (see one of my most popular blog posts ever: "Easy Access: Nursing Nightgowns that Double As Dresses"). You can't see my belly in this photo, but I still look rather pregnant.

And really, I still feel pregnant-looking today, and it is bumming me out. I feel silly feeling bad about the same belly I was so excited about when I was pregnant, but I have even been congratulated a few times on my pregnancy and it HURT (though I was with my baby at the time, so I was also PUZZLED).

I've lost over 32 pounds since giving birth, but I gained a whole lot more than that, and things are just CHANGED in various ways — my bust and waist are both 4" larger than pre-pregnancy (though my hips are just 2" larger), I have a 3-months-pregnant-looking tummy, and everything is just more, I don't know. Squishy? And I'm not going to get into nursing bras here (that's a whole post of its own!) but I'm currently rocking a 34I (as opposed to my previous 32E).

So rather than sitting around in milk-covered old maternity clothes and feeling sorry for myself, I think I need to take some thrifty body-im-limbo wardrobe rebuilding action. Here's my little plan so far:

1. Stop wearing maternity clothes. Just STOP.

I think I am at the point now where it is no longer cool or working for me. I may still live in leggings and stretchy skirts and knit tops for a while, but I would like them to be actually fitted and not baggy around the middle. I've sold most of my nicer maternity clothes on eBay and given away or donated the rest.

2. Assess my pre-pregnancy items and TNT sewing patterns for fit & nursing friendliness

"One size fits sizes 2-12. Seriously." So goes the tagline on a pretty Gala wrap dress from Karina I was ogling for inspiration the other day. It's way out of my budget but just the sort of thing I need to make or buy right now — nursing-friendly, super-stretchy, a bright and distracting print, fitted and curve-hugging, but not too tight around the belly.

Luckily I have always been a fan of knits, stretchy things, wrap styles and surplice tops. A few of my me-made dresses have necklines too high and tight for a breastfeeding mom, but most are just fine. As far as TNT items I hope to sew again, I think I might do a few variations on my McCall's 6070 dress, maybe a top version too. I don't look like this in it right now, but it totally still works on me:

And I think I can play around with versions of my beloved Jalie 2921 scarf-collar top, which somehow still fits as well:

My me-made handknit sweaters are holding up just fine, and hopefully I can finish up my Hetty cardigan by Andi Satterlund in time for Me Made May... here's where I left her:

As for fabrics to make tops and dresses in, I have plenty of ITY and rayon jerseys waiting in the stash:

From Spandex House:

From Mood:

3. Fill major wardrobe holes.

The biggest gaps are in the jeans/legging, shoe and nursing top categories. As much as I'd love to try my hands at a pair of high-waisted Gingers, I'm not going to sew fitted jeans while my body is still so much in flux, so I hunted down some cheap second-hand shapewear jeggings and leggings on eBay from Spanx and Yummie Tummie—we'll see how they fit.

I'm not sure what to do about shoes right now. I somehow seem to have destroyed most of my comfortable flats by walking them to death while pregnant.

I picked up some nursing tops on deep deep sale from BOOB nursingwear, thrifted a few non-nursing tops and camisoles that work just as well for that purpose, and hope to sew some for the Small Human Being Sew-Along.

4. Embrace shapewear.

I've always had a few shapewear items to wear under special occasion dresses, but I think at least for now I might start wearing such things on a more daily basis. (That's more vintage style anyway, isn't it? Right?)

5. Never talk myself down or talk about weight in front of my daughter.

Which is apparently working, given her comments referenced at top. I felt like I was going to cry, but she was just genuinely curious—my squishy post-baby belly was just interesting to her.

6. Get fancied up for the camera

This always helps, and is one of the reasons I love Me Made May. Just the act of PLANNING what I am going to wear knowing that blog readers will be watching and putting on a tad of makeup instead of just throwing on WHATEVER... well, it helps. (Edited to add — speaking of photos, how awesome does this mother of three look in her bikini, with her squishy belly and stretch marks? Maybe a smile is the best accessory here!)

(By the way — if I had the budget, I would totally book a session with retro pinup style photographers Shameless Photo—they do hair, makeup and wardrobe as part of their packages and their photos are just amazing!)

Anyway, that's my tentative "fight the new-mom frump" plan. So: what do YOU wear when nothing fits?

P.S. Back in my pre-mom cartoonist days, I used to draw a sarcastic regular series about body image called "Your Yucky Body." One installment I did was about the rise of the "Mommy Job", a popular package of post-partum plastic surgery. I think nowadays this cartoon maybe feels a bit judgmental to me of women who choose to have plastic surgery, but I think my real point was more about how women are made to feel ashamed if they don't somehow "bounce back" and have flat stretch-mark-less bikini bodies weeks after giving birth:

Why are we supposed to hate our bellies? + Me Made May Week 1 roundup

Not pulling a shirt down to hide my belly for Me-Made May!

About six months after I had my daughter in 2010, I was shopping with a friend for some new clothes to fit my post-baby shape. I was feeling pretty awesome about having my waist back and rocking some more hourglass-style looks... until a salesman congratulated me on my pregnancy.

"I'm not pregnant," I told him. "I had my baby six months ago!" I was hurt and offended and he was apologetic—but why? Why was having a belly instantly lovely and wonderful the second I was publicly, officially, happily pregnant... but totally unacceptable the second I was not? (Also why do "old weird secrets for a flat belly trick" ads chase us around the internet?)

One of the reasons I love Me Made May is that it's an excuse to feel fancy and to think a little more about what I put on. And to dress every day the way I WISHED I actually dressed every day of the year. And to practice a little self-appreciation and feel good about my style and my body.

But as I go through and edit the photos I've snapped to find my favorites, I find myself wondering: why are women supposed to hate our bellies? Why do I find myself choosing what is "most flattering" by whether or not my belly might look as squishy as it actually is?

When I was pregnant, I remember feeling this huge sense of relief — a break from any body image anxieties that might have plagued me for the past 30 years. No sucking it in, no control garments under clingier dresses, no avoiding lots of front gathers or staying away from knit pencil skirts.

I've worked very hard to love my shape and not talk myself down (especially in front of my little girl—who is thankfully incredibly self-confident and pleased with her beautiful young self!) but why SHOULD that have to be such hard work? Why should I have to go look at photos of Christina Hendricks in her Joan outfits from Mad Men to calm down my nasty inner critic?

Your thoughts appreciated.

So my sub-resolution for Me-Made-May is to smile for my selfies, stop picking apart my appearance and stop taking SO many photos for each day, even if I don't LOVE how I look in each picture. And here we go:

Me Made May 1: Candy-Striped Tiramisu

Dress: Cake Patterns Tiramisu, me-made - blogged last summer
Necklace: red coral from a booth at Renegade Craft fair ages ago
Shoes: Tsubo Aftenia fashion sneakers (ignore the bad reviews, they are AWESOME)

Me Made May 2: The "Sewing Through the UFO Pile" Dress

Dress: Cake Patterns Red Velvet Knit Dress, me-made - blogged last summer
Necklace: 1928 Jewelry vintage inspired pen necklace
Bag: Vintage
Shoes: Camper Kim black Mary Janes (similar)

Me Made May 3: Stripes and Denim (with Photobomber)

Top: old ready-to-wear from fast fashion place I now avoid. Want to draft a copy though!
Skirt: Cake Patterns Hummingbird, me-made - blogged here
Necklace: made by a friend
Shoes (see top of blog post): Ahnu Karma flats (that won my comfy flat shoe showdown last year and are the BEST and comfiest shoes EVER)

Happy Me-Made May, everyone. LOVING looking through the Flickr group to see what you all are coming up with—so inspiring!

P.S. Edited later—I almost forgot to include this political cartoon I drew ages ago about this very topic when I read about plastic surgeons offering post-delivery "Mommy job" packages... "Your Yucky Body: Mommy Makeover Edition":

Polka Dot Birthday Giveaway: You! On a Vintage Pattern Envelope!

Hello dear readers! In honor of reaching 200 followers—well, 226 now!—and my 32nd birthday (that's Friday, June 1st!) I'd like to offer a somewhat unusual sewing giveaway.

The prize: A simple digital color cartoon illustration of YOU, on the vintage sewing pattern envelope of your choice--maybe one you've already sewn, maybe one you want to sew, maybe one you won't ever sew, but just LOVE to fantasize about.

The deadline: entries due by midnight EST on June 6, 2012.

The background: As much as I adore vintage sewing pattern illustrations and their changing styles over time, they're all a bit, well... unrealistically tall and skinny. (Not to mention uniformly white.) I've always had this vague plan for doing a series of "Real People on Vintage Pattern Envelopes," drawings and I started to have a bit of fun with that idea in my 1940s red dress showdown and my header illustration for We Sew Retro:

The qualifications:

• This giveaway is a bit special (estimated value: $125?), so I'd like to reward a loyal blog follower who has come back at least a few times (or who plans to read the blog regularly), as opposed to a random giveaway seeker who is brand-new to the blog.
• I will draw five entries at random, then choose my top favorite based on the items described. Extra points for creativity, style, fun fabric and accessory choices, long-time readership, etc.

The rules: To enter, please...

• Follow this blog (better yet, already be a follower!).
• Leave a comment describing the vintage pattern you'd choose, in what type of fabric, with what sort of hairstyle and accessories. (For example: A red rayon 1940s dress with peplum, hair in victory rolls and red wedge sandals.)
• Tell me what you'd like to do with the drawing (put it on your business card? post on your blog? print for your mom?)
• Tell me why you like to read my blog.
• Make sure your contact info is obviously available in your Google profile or leave an email address.

Details and disclaimers:

• If you enter, you will have one week to send me a clear full-length photo of yourself, a decent image of the pattern envelope you'd like to be pictured on, and a photo or description of the fabric(s) you'd like it to be made up in, plus inspiration images for accessories and hair. The fabric does not have to be accurate period vintage—it can be as wild or weird as you like..
• You understand that these reference photos may be published on this blog in the giveaway followup post.
• I will provide you both with the pattern envelope art image and a separate image of yourself in the dress, sans envelope, like so:
  
• I estimate I'll have the drawing done in 6-8 weeks (not that the drawing will actually take that long, I just have a ridiculously busy life at the moment).
• Copyright for the standalone drawing stays with me, but you have unlimited usage rights (on your blog, business card, wherever) as long as you attribute it.
• Because the idea is "Real People on Vintage Envelopes" please keep in mind that I am not going to make you look taller, or skinnier, or more or less X, Y, or Z--I will pretty much stick to your actual fabulous outlines as delineated in whatever photo you send me.
• I will send you a rough sketch as part of the process, but reserve the right not to make many/any edits or changes to the sketch or final.

Remember: giveaway entries due by June 6, midnight EST!

And with that, I'm off to ink this Downton Abbey-esque vintage-inspired "pattern envelope" art I'm working on for the Consulting Dressmaker for her Sisters of Edwardia blouse...

1940s Red Dress Showdown (Du Barry Edition): Sweetheart vs. Peplum?

I totally went back in time to 1942 and posed for some Du Barry pattern envelope illustrations!

Vintage lovers, I have the most exciting news for you! I HAVE BENT THE FABRIC OF THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM... all in the name of sewing, of course.

The idea came to me when I showed my husband the below two vintage pattern envelopes and asked him which dress would be more sexy and adorable for our upcoming Valentine's Day date.

"Sorry babe," he said, "It's really hard to tell—those illustration models are way too bony!" (Apologies to the more slender among you--this is his husbandly way of saying "honey, you look great the way you are", and I won't pretend I don't love it.)

So I tinkered around with some presser feet, rick rack and stretch lace for a bit, cobbled together a workable time-travel device, and paid a visit to the Du Barry pattern studios. I was like "Guys, all your super-stylized illustrations make it hard for the not-totally-waspwaisted among us way-in-the-future seamsters/seamstresses to picture how a dress will look on our actual bodies" and they were like "Wow, that's an excellent point."

Sadly I lost the device on my journey home, but c'est la vie! Anyway, the dress pros and cons:

Du Barry 5525 (early 1940s?):

• Pros: Sweetheart neckline, reverse sweetheart fitted hip yoke, beautiful drapey skirt.
• Cons:Will require grading up a size, something I've never attempted. And the sweetheart isn't as low-cut as I'd like. Also, I'm totally nervous about attempting 40s shoulder pads for the first time--I have really narrow shoulders!

Du Barry 5505 (1942):

• Pros: Love the princess seams, love the skirt gores, LOVE THE PEPLUM. Also, no grading--just a little tweaking of fit and my usual major FBA.
• Cons: Neckline super high, not very sexy. I tried to mitigate this in my croquis sketch by colorblocking and making the sleeves into cap sleeves, but not sure if it worked.

I did play with some other color options, but red clearly won the day:

For fabric, I went a-swatching at my favorite Garment District store, Paron's:

They were having a store-wide 30-60% off sale, so I didn't limit myself to the half-off annex this time. My options were (clockwise starting with the purple):

1. Purple rayon crepe. (Not red, but it was the only rayon crepe in the annex).
2. Christian Dior red rayon/silk blend. Really nice but a bit orange-y in real life (and this is the rare case where I didn't want orange.
3. Deep red silk crepe with a hint of stretch.
4. Lovely soft thin 100% wool crepe.
5. Lovely soft thick wool/nylon/stretch blend crepe.

The wool/nylon/stretch was my initial favorite—I just love working with wool, whether sewing or knitting—and would have been perfect for the bodice... but it was too thick and didn't have enough drape for the skirt. I went back the next day to get the red silk crepe stretch mainly because it looked so awesome when I stood in front of a mirror trying to pretend the bolt was a real dress.

And there you have it. So: who wins the showdown? Which dress would YOU make? I've already chosen, but I'm not telling—yet.

P.S. This is a case where a croquis really comes in handy, as I demonstrated recently in my little "How to Dress Your Digital Dress Form" demo/tutorial video (see related blog post for references, tips and details):

Video Tutorial: Try On Patterns Before You Sew With a Digital Dress Form (Croquis)

Here it is, folks—my long-promised video tutorial on how I dress my digital croquis, based on my Colette Pastille vs. Colette Macaron sheath dress showdown! It's just three minutes long, so please take a look and share with your friends, embed on your own blog, whatever!

If you have any questions about a specific part of the video, leave them in the comments and I'll answer them in annotations directly on the video.

Now that I watch it critically, perhaps it's more of a "demo" than a tutorial, as it doesn't really go into the real nitty-gritty—what size paintbrushes to use, how to do a proper selection for filling, how to use layers, or how to create repeat fabric patterns, etc. Do you need to know that stuff too?

So I'd really love your feedback:

• How's my genereal script/approach/use of images/video?
• Is it too long/too short?
• Is my narration understandable, or too fast/mumbly?
• Are there some bits you're more interested in than others?
• Should I do more of these? The other tutorial I've been promising to do for about two years now is how to create a really robust digital croquis in the first place using a variety of methods—digital, hand, etc.
• Would it be better as a series of printable photos and text than a video?

The details: I captured the demo with iShowU, and edited it and recorded the voiceover in iMovie. I found the voiceover the most challenging part—at first I tried to wing it, but I kept stumbling over my words so my film-school-grad husband suggested I script it. Here's my rough script with some notes/links:

Mikhaela Reid here from Polka Dot Overload with a demo of how I “try on” sewing patterns using my customized digital dress form, or croquis.

With a little practice, you can plan your sewing wardrobe, design fun details and play with palettes and fabrics. Best of all, you can preview how a design will look on YOUR awesome shape before you cut—or even buy—your pattern or fabric. This is particularly great for use with vintage patterns with really stylized envelope drawings.

Back when I was super pregnant, I used my croquis to create storyboards and plan extensive modifications to non-maternity patterns.

So let’s talk tools:

• First, you need a croquis. This could be one you traced by hand and scanned or drew directly into the computer. (Tutorial forthcoming, I swear!)
• You’ll need images of your planned fabric, whether you’ve already purchased it or not. I keep all my fabric stash photos catalogued by color and type in Flickr, because I am obsessive.
• A pressure-sensitive graphics tablet is optional—but I can't recommend it highly enough. Drawing with a mouse is clumsy and awkward, like drawing with a bar of soap—a pen tablet lets you draw naturally and create thicks and thins that look brush or pen-drawn just by changing pressure. I use a Wacom Intuos, but you can get a small Wacom Bamboo for $77 new, and I've seen used Bamboos or Graphires go for as little as $20 on eBay—less than the cost of some presser feet. Don't worry about size—even the smallest one can do what you need for this.
• Finally, you’ll need digital image-manipulation software with the ability to paint and use layers and patterns. I use Manga Studio (speciality software for cartoonists—you don't really need it, I just happen to be really comfortable in it) and PhotoShop (just don't have TOO much fun with it) but GIMP is a great open-source PhotoShop alternative that does most of what PhotoShop can do for the excellent price of FREE GRATIS.

So let’s get started. I’m going to speed this up, but the entire process usually takes me from 15 minutes to an hour—drawing and coloring these two dresses took about 20 minutes total.

Here’s a grayed out photo of me in a tank top on which I’d already drawn my croquis on another layer. For reference, I’ve pulled up the pattern flats for the Colette Macaron and a photo of Mena from the Sew Weekly wearing her lovely version.

I usually start with one of the key lines of the design, in this case the mock sweetheart neckline. I keep the fabric in mind—is it stiff? soft? stretchy—and how it will hang from my body in real life. It wouldn’t be realistic to draw lots of soft pleats or folds in a stiff fabric with no drape. I also think carefully about ease. In this case I’m working with a firm cotton stretch woven and I plan to make the dress very fitted, so I draw the outlines very close to my actual contours...

And then I ran out of patience and winged the rest of it. And if you listen, you'll see I had to edit out a lot of the above for time's sake, too.

Recommended reading: If you're interested in a good reference book on how to render garment details...

• Fashion school textbooks like Fashion Sketchbook (which I bought used at the FIT bookstore) or 9 Heads are excellent but extremely expensive.
• Fantastic Fit For Every Body has a great section on drawing your own croquis, whether you're an artist or not!
• Also, remember, that they're teaching you to render the unrealistic and superstylized 9-heads-or-more-tall fashion figure—which is the opposite of what we're trying to do here with our custom-made-for-our-awesome-real-bodies croquis.

  But really, the best thing is just to study real clothing and fabric, and practice, practice, practice. I love these sketches Lladybird has been doing with her croquis by hand, and she claims she's "no artist", just "pretty good at copying stuff."

Enjoy! I'm dying to know what you all think of this—please let me know. And if this tutorial/demo inspires you or helps you in your sewing planning adventures, please leave a comment with a link to your projects so I can see them.

No Stash Fail: Books, Pattern, Magazine, Notion AND Fabric Acquisition

It doesn't count as stashing when you're supporting independent pattern companies and your local independent yarn/quilting shop... RIGHT?

Since all my projects -- my wide-legged trousers (now cut in fashion fabric), Z's corduroy overalls (pattern traced) and striped sweater (past the armpits now!), my Franken-Colette-dress (pattern alterations in progess), my wardrobe domination -- were proceeding along just fine this week (albeit at a SNAIL's pace since Z is on a no-sleep strike)... I decided to throw a wrench in the works and completely fail at my "no stashing" New Year's resolution.

But ladies and gentlemen, I couldn't help it!

I mean, is it my fault that Z's FAVORITE playground is just a few (well... ten) blocks from Brooklyn General? And is it my fault that they sell Oliver + S and Colette patterns and vintage buttons and super-cute Japanese cottons? Image of the patterns and buttons is above--here's a poor-quality fluorescent-lit inaccurate photo of the beautiful soft Kokka Trefle floral I bought to make the Family Reunion Dress for Z:

And is it my fault that the internet sells sewing-related books that can be purchased by me with my debit card? I told you all before how much I loved Kwik Sew's Sewing for Baby, but now that Z has outgrown those patterns I told myself I just HAD to get the toddler version...

Which was a big disappointment. Sewing for Baby is full of versatile timeless baby classics--rompers, dresses, bloomers, shorts, sleepers, pants, onesies, T-shirts, etc--and all kinds of wonderful advice on how to play with those patterns (add puff sleeves, trims, ribbing, hoods, snaps, etc.). Here's the basic pattern overview, with the Polka Dot Seal of Sewing Approval:

Sewing for Toddlers on the other hand... well, it's basically a bunch of oversized 80s drop-shouldered color-blocked T-shirt and sweatshirt variations. The instructions and tips are excellent as in all Kwik-Sew books, but I just can't see myself making anything based on those master patterns for Z, with the possible exception of the hooded raglan sweatshirt.

Even the dress pattern is just instructions for a lengthened T-shirt:

Overall, it's the toddler equivalent of the Kwik-Sew Sweatshirts Unlimited book. So I had no choice but to wash away the disappointment with this:

Metric Pattern Cutting for Children's Wear and Babywear by Winifred Aldrich (found via this helpful children's pattern book roundup)--a black & white pattern drafting textbook with clear instructions and line drawings on how to draft flat (simplified and somewhat loose-fitting) and form (more fitted) pattern blocks for children from birth to 14 years. It is AWESOME and has basic blocks and variations for knits, wovens, bodices, pants, outerwear, you name it. A sample spread:

Seriously, it's really hard to find cute basic toddler patterns (Oliver + S being the exception). The big 4 pattern companies have very limited selection--mostly just fancy dresses. Ottobre Design magazine is awesome and inspiring, but I have a very specific idea in mind of some of the fun things I'd like to make for Z, and they're not all represented in the six or so issues I have. Plus I think I'll feel like a superstar designing and drafting some of her clothes from scratch, no? I should be able to do it in Adobe Illustrator easily enough.

And while we're talking books, here are some of the other books that jumped off various bookshelves in the Garment District into my arms back in 2010, right before my blogging/sewing hiatus... I'm excited to try them out now!

I bought Grading Techniques for Fashion Design to get some tips for grading my vintage patterns, and Draping for Fashion Design because I am deluded--I don't even have a proper dress form to drape on (more on that later).

Making Beautiful Bras and Making Beautiful Swimwear I ordered from author Lee Ann Burgess in Australia, along with the accompanying DVD at the same time as I ordered a Pin-Up Girls bra pattern and a host of supplies from Bra-Makers Supply. I had had some encouraging success making soft nursing bras and wanted to get to the underwire level of serious bra-chitecture.

Which reminds me--is it my fault the new issue of Threads had an article on bra-making and insisted on coming home with me while I was buying petersham, elastic, zippers, buttons and other notions at Pacific Trimming during my lunch break?

Almost finally, another drafting book acquisition from 2010 at some Garment District shop or other:

Patternmaking for Fashion Design, a huge and quite comprehensive pattern drafting textbook for women, men, children and teens (but not for toddlers or babies). This thing is huge and full of detailed instructions, illustrations, ideas and exercises to make every possible type of garment... but I will warn you that some of it is quite offensive from a body-image perspective--particularly the section on figure analysis, which pits the "ideal," "perfect," and "pleasing" model-type figures against the rest of us in a pretty ridiculous and judgmental way--Fit for Real People or Fantastic Fit for Everybody this is not!:

Maybe I'll just tear those pages out? It is coil-bound...

Don't you just love reading sewing books and imagining all the amazing things you'll do with all those ideas? It's half the fun of sewing itself without any of the actual work. And I do think it really helps inspire me and help me better understand garment design and construction, though it's no substitute for actually MAKING things.

And yes, I have a book problem. My husband and I have over 4,000 books in our little apartment--several walls are just floor-to-ceiling shelves with books stacked two or three deep.

Finally, is it my fault that TEN Simplicity patterns jumped into my online shopping cart during the SewingPatterns.com 99 cents Simplicity sale? They haven't actually arrived yet so I'll share my shame assessment later.

So... what sewing books have you been digging lately? (Besides the Colette book that we ALL seem to have now!)

Stripes & Wales Trouser/Top Sketch + Measuring Misery

The lazy girl in me would totally wear this outfit every day if she could get away with it.

So I didn't even get to the muslin stage with my reckless wide-legged trousers last night. After little Z went to bed, I drew the above sketch, and broke out the Easy Guide to Sewing Pants, my Vogue trouser pattern and about a gazillion measuring tapes (including that fancy Myo-whatever one I read about on the Coletterie recently), rules and flexible curves.

Pants-measuring fun

The Easy Guide recommends getting a helper and doing a gazillion trillion measurements--waist, high hip, hip, crotch depth, crotch length, thigh, waist to knee, waist to floor (but not inseam? why, I wonder?) on yourself, and tying yourself up in so many pieces of elastic and masking tape you start to feel like a mummy. (My husband assisted with this process and found it highly amusing.)

Some of the measurements felt pretty careful and right on, but others relied on trying to use masking tape and elastic to visually guesstimate this that and the other, then sit on a table and hold the tape and do something or other.

By the end of it all I had some pretty reliable measurements (hip, high hip, waist), some questionable measurements (everything else), which I then tried to carefully compare to my pattern measurements. But since my pants pattern is a below-the-waist deal with a contour waistband, and the Easy Guide assumes you are making at-the-waist pants... my head started to hurt and I went to bed.

Busts and bellies I understand--I can do a full bust or belly adjustment like nobody's business. But crotch curves just confuse me. At least for now. I think I just need to muslin in a size 14 with lots of extra seam allowance and play around.

And a word on body image and taking measurements...

I'll also admit to finding the process of measuring myself for the first time after giving birth 18 months ago somewhat painful in other ways. I try really hard to cultivate a "I love my awesome body" attitude, and I know nothing feels more awesome than putting well-fitting comfortable clothes on your awesome body, whatever its awesome shape and awesome size. (Sometimes I accompany this inner mantra by reviewing photos of the lovely Christina Hendricks). And for that you need accurate numbers. Still, those numbers can hurt, which is why I only step on the scale at the doctor's office.

I actually found a comment I had left on Gertie's blog when I was still pregnant about how freeing it felt to not care about my waist size anymore, in which I noted that my pre-pregnant measurements were:

• bust: 38"
• high bust 33"
• waist: 28"
• hip: 38"

So I generally sewed a 12 or 14 in patterns and did a big FBA, depending on the style.

But now my new totally accurate no-sucking-it-in post-preggo measurements say:

• bust: 38.5" (still nursing, by the way, so this may change)
• high bust 34.5-35" (can't quite tell here for some reason)
• waist: 29"
• hip: 38.5"

Which I guess puts me at a 14 in most dresses and tops or maybe sometimes 16 or something in bottoms, depending? I'll have to try and see what works. Whatever, I'm totally cool and fine and it's really silly to look back at notes from my college sewing days and feel wistful (a 26" waist!? WHO CARES.)

P.S. I realize that to properly channel my 40s Sears-Catalog inspiration for my planned outfit, I need to tuck the top in. But I don't really like to do that, so whatever.

P.P.S. I made (a heavily modified version of) that Burda top already when I was pregnant, but not in stripes, so I can try that on to see what needs to be adjusted...

P.P.P.S. My husband reminds me that I have a ready-to-wear top a lot like the Burda one I want to make (shown below)... so maybe it WON'T be the next thing I sew after my trousers.

Anyway... boo to feeling bad about measurements. Numbers, schmumbers. Let's get sewing. Muslin tonight, hopefully.

Polka Dot Crush: New Vintage Lady!

The New Vintage Lady shows off her handmade gardenias, Billie-Holiday-style

Reverse-inspired by the Selfish Seamstress and her sinister parade of nemeses, I thought I'd write an occasional sappy mash note to my favorite stitchy bloggers. First up: New Vintage Lady (aka Shelley J.)

I first e-encountered New Vintage Lady a few weeks ago via Sew Retro, but I had an instant blog crush, with a bit of jealousy mixed in. Firstly, in my biased cartoonist-girl book:

The Lady can DRAW! Which makes sense, since she's an animator by trade. (And as someone whose drawings don't move, animators totally make me green.)

You might have noticed that most vintage pattern envelope illustrations--even for plus-size or maternity patterns--have one thing in common: skinny, wasp-waisted white ladies. Not so New Vintage Lady's line of plus-sized reproduction patterns, which she recently began illustrating with gorgeous variations on her cartoon self-portrait (click any of these to enlarge):

And here's a peek at her drawing development process--unlike my digitally addicted cartoonist self, she uses actual pencils and paper:

The Lady can grade. When she had trouble finding plus-size patterns from her favorite style eras (the 1920s-1940s), she just taught herself to size them up. (Considering how many bust size 32 patterns I continue to cling to, I had better get on that.) I can't tell from her blog what size this fabulous Hollywood 1486 dress was originally--but I'll just guess that she graded it and she can correct me if I'm wrong.

Don't you just love the cut, fabric and asymmetrical button front styling? (It should probably be noted that like many vintage lovers, Ms. NVL has a serious button problem passion).

The Lady can accessorize. And I don't just mean buying vintage accessories, though she does that too-I'm talking some major home millinery. (I don't even know how to wear hats properly, never mind construct and design them.) Check out her depression picnic cloche:

The Lady can repo. When she became obsessed with vintage sewing--and disappointed in the lack of patterns in her size--she didn't just grade them for herself. When Ms. NVL obtains particularly fabulous plus-size vintage patterns from the 10s, 20s, 30s and earlier 40s (i.e. the ones generally safe from copyright protection), she reproduces them, as in the examples above. Here's a 1920s "dustbowl" dress:

The Lady can teach. Who doesn't love a tutorial? (I swear I'll have some up here SOMEDAY!). Check out The Lady's (beautifully illustrated) Style Tips on:

• The right vintage fit for plus-size sewers...
• Plus-size-vintage-pattern-selection dos and don'ts
• How to (properly) put on stockings

The latter could have saved me some grief over the years, as I am pretty much guaranteed to get major runs in any and all stockings either while putting them on or in the first 10 minutes of wear. (Although I'm so pregnant right now that filing my toenails to ensure a snag-free stocking application will have to wait until I can actually see/reach said toes!)

And it's not a tutorial, but she also did a two-part "Black Hair" series on her blog with her thoughts on the pressure for black women to straighten their hair, her disappointment with the Chris Rock documentary Good Hair, and examples (with photos) of how she does a natural vintage hair style.

So there you have it, my first official Polka Dot Blog Crush! Be sure to visit Shelley's New Vintage Lady site, blog and etsy shop for a whole lot more vintage fabulousness. (And just to be clear, I'm not in any way sponsored by her or getting any kickbacks!)

Your Yucky Body

Most of my cartoons have nothing to do with sewing (other than the frequently polka-dotted and striped outfits featured therein), but I do draw a semi-regular series on body image and fashion called "Your Yucky Body" (or sometimes just "Trend Tracker.") I've been thinking about expanding the idea into some type of book--but for now, here are some of my favorites from over the years, from newest to oldest. Click to enlarge.

Regarding annual magazine "shape" issues:

On Mommy Makeovers--drawn long before I was pregnant myself, but I recently picked up an issue of Fit Pregnancy and was horrified to find an article recommending post-partum tummy tucks and boob lifts:

On Designer Diets:

Trend Tracker Summer Style Report, 2008:

The Summer Swimsuit Spectacular:

And the cartoon that started it all (fun sewing fact--the girl in this cartoon is actually, except for her face, a tracing of the digital croquis I made in 2005 to test sewing pattern ideas... so that's MY body, actually!):

Finally, this recent one, about airline size discrimination, is not technically a "Your Yucky Body" cartoon, but has certainly attracted plenty of nasty fat-people-bashing trolls in its comments thread on my other blog.