Make It Pink: The Redemption Shirt

Dude, I am totally on top of projects for the Project Sewn sew-along!  Okay.  That's a lie.  I was going to skip this week altogether because 1) I didn't have any pink fabric and now's not the time to wander the fabric store without a specific plan (Oooo...pretty!  I'll take it all!) and 2) I jumped ahead to the Signature Style theme so I could get working on my jeans.  Happily for me, the sew-along contestants can enter anything they've made in the past six months.  Score!  I have only made one thing with pink in the past six months so that made it a breeze to narrow down my choices.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present...the Redemption Shirt.

There's the pink.  Promise.

This is a frankenshirt that wasn't actually planned.  It is a mix of three projects gone wrong and smashed together on the off chance that I could somehow make it work.  I used my beloved Vogue 8856 pattern because that seemed like my best options for piecing remnants into a workable whole.  I also used this pattern for my Jaded Stripes shirt.  The purple on the bottom is from a different shirt pattern that failed so completely (waaaaaay wrong body style for me) I didn't even try to alter it.  The pink panels on the sides were pieces of shirt that had been meant for embellishing.  Then one of my kids dumped nail polish on it in a place where adding embellishment would look bad.  Finally, the blue on the rest of the shirt is from a knock-off attempt at a DIY Moby Wrap.  I cut the fabric without any thought in my brain and slashed it up the wrong way.  Grrr...

Yes, yes, it's bad lighting on both pictures.  There's not much choice when the camera battery is almost dead, there are three children to be wrestled into bed, and you just want to get the blog post done now.

After making my usual adjustments at the waist, neck, and sleeves, it went together very well.  It's always a blast to do interesting seaming like that.  It felt good to redeem three failed projects and turn them into my best imitation of an Easter egg.  There was always something that felt a little off to me about the shirt.  Now that I've been learning about Dressing Your Truth I can see that the colors are Type 1 and I'm a Type 4. That explains things.

P.S.  Stay tuned for more on those jeans from the pictures.  They're going to show up again in week 4 of the Project Sewn sew-along.

Staff Appreciation Week

Sewing aptitude does not automatically mean design or crafting aptitude.  For me, that means I need to STOP volunteering to do cutesy things.  I suffered an unfortunate bout of helpfulness (Help? You need help? Can I help? I love to help! Helphelphelphelphelp!) at the beginning of the school year and volunteered to be the AST Leader (basically a room mom on steroids) at Blue Eyes's school.  That means I'm in charge of coordinating the efforts of the other parents to be of maximum usefulness to the teacher.  That's not so bad until something needs to be done and there are no volunteers...then it's my job.  Crap.  No wonder I was the only sucker to sign up to be AST Leader.

Some people have the time and inclination to put this together.  Me?  Not so much...
via http://southlandvolunteers.blogspot.com/

This next week is Staff Appreciation Week at the school. I'm in charge of gifts for the teacher and her aide, as well as decorating the classroom door. Bother.  I didn't make it to any of the planning meetings, so I didn't know I was supposed to coordinate those. It wasn't until I got a call about the upcoming festivities that I realized I should probably do my job and that the excuse of my daughter having been in the hospital doesn't work six weeks after the fact. I sent a desperate email out to parents asking for help decorating the door because, as I said in the email, that sort of thing is totally beyond me.  When the response was a chorus of crickets I had a mild panic attack about what on earth I could possibly do for the door.  After a quick Google search I decided to just do a plain background in yellow (teacher's favorite color) with a massive green (aide's favorite color) book in the middle.  I would use my trusty marker to write "Once upon a time there was Mrs. T and Ms. H's class...and they learned happily ever after."  Easy cheesy.  Two people actually emailed me back to say they'd be there to help after I'd settled on an idea.

Also from http://southlandvolunteers.blogspot.com/

As I arrived at the school I was feeling self-satisfied that we would be able to bang out this little project in half an hour.  I gathered the necessary yellow butcher paper from the cart and happily made my way to the classroom.  I found one of my two helpers there.

Me: Hi!  Thanks for coming and helping!  Did you have an idea for the door?
K:  No.  I didn't really think about what would go with the theme.
Me:  With the what now?

Theme?  Theme?!  Crap.  The school-wide theme for Staff Appreciation Week is Hollywood.  As it turns out, I'd have known that had I attended the meetings.  Anyway, the Hollywood thing kind of tossed out the book idea.  The panic attacked again as I looked around to see all the other moms with the beautifully crafted, thoughtfully designed, themed motifs they were joyfully attaching to doors.  They had come with stars, Oscars, popcorn, and individualized pictures.  I had come with a Sharpie.

This is an acceptable design for a teacher door, right?
image via http://prenda11.blog.sbc.edu/

Creativity isn't always my strong suit, but practicality and pressure are my allies.  My helper, K,  and I stood, open-mouthed, trying to figure out what to do.  Enter my stream of consciousness:  Hollywood.  Okay.  Well, we've already got yellow paper. What's yellow?  Yellow brick road.  Emerald city!  Yes!  My helper suggested lettering for "There's no place like Mrs. T's class" and having her husband Photoshop a picture.  It could work!  It had to work!

Cutest Dorothy ever!

I sent K off to enlist her graphic designer husband's help while I covered the door.  Not as easy as it looks, folks.  Especially when you use the wrong tape the first time around and have to take it all down.  Then I pulled out a yard stick and started drawing the bricks for the road.  When K came back she had shapes for the Emerald City, a Photoshopped picture of Mrs. T as Dorothy (see above), and a print out of the words.  We lucked out even more when our door-decorating neighbor gave us punch out letters to use.  We were pleased with the result and basked in the praise we received from others who peeked in the door.  I went out looking for the right tape to put the paper back on the door and missed when someone came in, looked at my yellow brick road, and asked my helper, "She's OCD, isn't she?"  Maybe...

Yay for a door!

Not too shabby for a full 30 seconds of thought, eh?  It took way longer than my intended 30 minutes but the result was worth it for such a great teacher.  It was also nice to spend three and a half bonding with another mom that was freaking out as much as I was and doing what it took to get it done.  We joked about putting the teacher's face in as the Great and Powerful Oz.  My favorite idea (had we had more time, thought, desire, etc) was to get the students pictures and put them on the bodies of the flying monkeys.  That would have been awesome.  For now I'm just good to sit back and enjoy the victory of making it work when it just wasn't going to.  Take that, creative mommies!

Little White Dress

Oooohhh...I love this dress.  I've had my eye on it for a long time.  The lines of the dress are just so interesting.  Turns out the construction is really interesting too, but I'll get to that in a minute. It was fun to sew but, even better, I feel like a million bucks when I have it on.  The pattern is Vogue 1341, if you're interested. I've loved the pattern since the moment I first saw it.

I didn't so much love the deep plunge into the armpit, as that renders the dress unwearable to me.  Solution: interchangeable panels!  What could be more fun than that?  Channeling my inner Kate Middleton, that's what.

The Duchess of Cambridge in a little white dress and red fascinator

I made the dress and fascinator for two sewing activities.  The first is the Little White Dress contest on patternreview.com.  When I saw the contest I knew this pattern had to be the one I made.  I'm not sorry.  It's fabulous.  The other reason I made it was for the sew along on the first week of Project Sewn, the Fashion Icon Challenge.  It didn't take me long to realize that all I needed to do to make this project work for both activities was to make a fascinator and use Kate Middleton as inspiration.  If anyone is a modern style icon, it's Kate Middleton.  She is stunning and makes great fashion choices.  I used Vogue 8868.  There was no question that it would be purple.  It goes with my new hair.  :)

Me in a little white dress and fascinator

 I liked the clean, unfussy look of this fascinator

Turns out the fascinator is traditionally worn on the right side of the head.  We in the States drive on the opposite side of the road from the Brits so why not do the same with the fascinator?  Besides, it balances out the insert on my dress.  For the Little White Dress contest the challenge is to make a dress that is versatile enough to use in both the daytime and the evening, just like the iconic little black dress.  Challenge accepted.  Before I started constructing the dress I planned to put it into the rotation of dresses I wear to church.  Halfway through making it I was asked to be in with the 18 month to 3 year old kids at church, thus turning my pure white dress into a fish cracker disaster waiting to happen.  Oh, well.  Some day.

I styled my dress for the daytime in two ways.  The first was for a more formal daytime event, an art show. We went to where my cousin had some art displayed at a little cafe and took pictures there.  My dad was my gracious photographer.  I accessorized with a metallic silver purse, purple pumps, my fascinator, a sparkly bracelet and earrings, and a purple insert covered with lace left over from my wedding gown.  Oh, and a ginormous ring that is a replica of Kate's engagement ring.  I wore the fascinator flatter to my head, as per my own preference.

It only seemed appropriate to style the dress for work, as fancy daytime events are few and far between.  I'm a stay at home mom of three.  Fancy daytime events happen...never.  I guess I'll have to plan a killer tea party with Blue Eyes and the Pink Blur so we can have a great reason to dress up.  I chose to accessorize with a simple dress panel made of the same fabric, shiny silvery earrings, bracelet and watch, a simple black bag, and pointy scarlet kitten heels.  I pulled my hair back to hide the purple streaks which might be deemed unprofessional in an office setting.

For my evening look I used the same plain white panel to accent the dress.  I have very sparkly earrings (too bad you can't see them), black heels, a blinged-up black and white purse, and a bracelet of sparkly black beads interspersed with clear stones set in shiny silver square "beads".  I had fun carrying my mocktail glass and feeling like I was at some swanky party.  My pop of color was my hair, which I pulled back up to expose maximum purple.  I wish that showed up better on the pictures, too.  Oh well.  I didn't add a necklace to any of the looks because it would just compete with everything going on at the neckline.  This dress pretty much stands on its own.

One quick note about the construction: the way this dress is made is weirder than any other construction process I've ever done.  And that's saying something.  There are no side seams.  The front of the dress is formed by making tucks on the lower front  and joining it to the upper front with one ridiculously long dart that goes from behind the shoulder to past the center front.  I forgot to have my dad take pictures of the side and back.  The back seam curves from the underarm down to the center back and then stays on a straight line.  If that doesn't make sense then just click the link and scroll down to the line art.  It's crazy but it's a blast to sew.  The fascinator was an easy sew.  I like it so much that I may just make another of the views and see if I can find an excuse to wear it more often.

Linking up:

The Makeover

I have several sewing projects waiting for pictures so I can give them a blog post.  Until then, I can show pictures of my new hair.  I needed a new 'do to compliment me as a Dressing Your Truth type 4.  I went to the DYT salon to have my hair cut and dyed.  Loved it!

The "Before" picture was taken at the salon.  I purposely chose a shirt I knew was wrong (I still love it, even though it's a Type 2) so I could have a more dramatic "After".  I ran out of time to finish my makeup and didn't put on mascara.  That just makes the after better, right?  Right?

Before.  The shirt is a Type 2 shirt, so not my best look.

 The "After" picture was also taken in the salon.  My hair was styled, my makeup was touched up, and one of the employees at the store handed me a shirt and earrings to put on.  They are true to my Type and do more for me than my other shirt did.

I was most excited to get the purple added.  I'd been wanting to do that for quite a while.  It adds an element of fun and I can totally pull it off.  My husband likes it so well he wants me to keep it up.  We'll see if he still wants me to keep it up when he finds out how much it costs...

After.  Rockin' the purple.

In the interest of honesty, I also included and after picture in which I did my own hair and make up.  I don't know about you, but trying to duplicate what they do to my hair at the salon is an exercise in futility.  Even without the curl in my hair I am pleased.  Seriously, I'm really digging the purple.

After After.  No stylist to help me out and wearing all my own stuff.

The purple a fun change.  I love that it's kind of a peek-a-boo color.  I can style it so the color can't be seen from the front or so that it stands out, whichever suits my fancy.  Maybe next time I'll do red.

Confirmation About Clothing Types

So I've been having fun with Dressing Your Truth.  As I went through the basic Type 4 course I was pretty disappointed.  There was very little that I hadn't figured out all by myself.  There are, however, additional resources that are pure gold (or, in my case, reflective silver because that's my best metal).  I'm still going through all that and will be for quite a while.  What I was so exited about today was getting confirmation of personal fashion dos and don'ts.  I already had a pretty good idea about what does or doesn't look good on me, but salespeople and the fashion industry try to convince me otherwise.  Their voices are pretty loud and so I start to think maybe I can pull off something I really shouldn't try.  Example: leggings.  I felt vindicated to see that one of DYT's resources on body type says to avoid leggings on fuller calves.  True dat.

In the picture below you can see what I look like in my black exercise leggings.  Leggings aren't my best look and I knew that.  Even with a shirt long enough to cover up mah bidness it's still not a good idea for me.  There was a salesperson a couple years ago who told me my concerns about leggings were just my imagination.  Same with skinny jeans.

Genetics + chocolate chip cookies = full calves.  It is what it is.

Even after getting a good look at me in leggings there are still some who suggest I just wear boots over them and it'll look great.  The picture below is me in the only pair of boots I've ever owned.  They are wide shaft boots made "to accommodate fuller calves".  When I zip them up I lose feeling in my toes.  I'm slimmer now than I was when I got them as a gift, so at least now I can actually get the zipper all the way up.

Yes, the tags are still on my boots.  And yes, that is leg fat coming out the top.

Can you see now why I like being told what I already knew?  Straight leg and boot cut pants are my friends. My type of beauty is the "bold, striking" beauty and I'm so glad they don't just tell me to go for whatever is bold.  Now I just need to keep training my eye to the difference between bold and bright.  I bought a new lipstick last night and I'm still not sure about it.  I was going for the orange shade and I wore it with a coral and white striped shirt.  What do you think?  Does it work?  Jury's still out for me.

Dressing My Truth

I'm trying something new.  Well, I guess "new" isn't necessarily the right word.  Stuff like this has been around for quite a while and I remember looking through my mom's book about seasons many years ago.  I digress.  Anyway, last week I purchased the Dressing Your Truth course.  I'd seen suggestions for it on Facebook and finally decided to check it out when I saw something about the free beauty profiling course they send to your email.  I found it very interesting.

Type 1 makeover

After going through the free course it was pretty clear that I'm a Type 4, the "bold, striking" type of beauty.  I'm good with that.  Actually I'm very pleased about it, which is also kind of the point of the course.  What sets this course apart from other similar systems is that it has less to do with skin, eye, and hair color than it does with personality and how you express yourself.  I appreciate that this course shows that every woman has her own type of beauty and how to dress herself to honor (they use that word a lot) that inner and outer beauty.

Type 2 makeover

As a 12 or 13 year old girl I and other girls in our church youth group were draped in fabrics to find our season.  Before any draping happened we were told about common personality traits among the "seasons".  Winter seemed to have more negative than positive qualities to it.  When my turn to be draped came I didn't care which season I was so long as it wasn't the winter.  After trying a few different drapes on me, the woman talking to us got a look of pity/apology on her face and said, "You know what?  I think you're a winter."  I was so disappointed.  I didn't want to be a winter.  That memory has stuck with me for a long time.

Type 3 makeover.  This one is my favorite.  She looks amazing!

Now that I'm a Type 4 with Dressing Your Truth I wouldn't have it any other way.  I learned to love myself for who I am years ago and it's refreshing that Dressing Your Truth attaches value to that.  It's not as life-changing to me as it has been to others, though I do like the extra permission to just be myself and appreciate the gift that is to myself and others.  Moving forward, the challenge is embracing the change in clothing and adopting things that I might not have tried before.  For example, in the transformation video for the Type 4 women they put a woman in an orange shirt.  That's the one color I've never felt I could pull off.  Now I really want one.  I also need to figure out accessories.  Hopefully I can get comfortable with those again.

Type 4 makeover

I've decided to document the process of dressing my truth.  I took a before picture knowing that the shirt was off.  I like it a lot, but it's not quite right.  Hopefully at the end of 30 days of trying to dress my truth every day I'll have a really fun after picture too.  I'm toying with the idea of posting a picture every day, but common sense tells me that won't happen.  So here's my before picture:

Before.  The stripes are good for my Type but the color could be better. 

It's not terrible but I'm hoping that by the time 30 days is finished I'll be looking really fabulous.  Let me know if it's something you have tried or want to try so I can see how it goes.

P.S.  If you do decide to buy the course for your Type, wait until you get the email with the $99 cost or the $33/month for 3 months price.  Just a hint.  Also, all the makeover pictures were taken from the Dressing Your Truth site.

Mary's Mini Wardrobe

Huzzah!  Blogger is working for me again!  Now I can put up the stuff I've been planning on.

My biggest project of 2013 was a mini wardrobe for my cousin Mary.  She's a grad student living out of state and I was asked to make her some new clothes while she was in town for the summer.  It didn't seem like too large a task at first.  Then I remember I have three kids and that makes it take ten times as long.  Oh well.  Mary and her parents are good and patient.  Her parents told me she needed some new clothes for symposiums and other similar grad school activities.  In Mary's words, "My mom and dad want you to make me some clothes they won't hate."  I love my family.  :)

Perhaps my favorite part of the whole project was my creative freedom.  I was told Mary needed two blouses, two skirts, two dresses, and a blazer.  The day I took her measurements I asked a couple of questions about favorite colors and prints to give me an idea of what she likes.  Then I went to town.  There are few things that can get me so giddy as fabric shopping with someone else's money.

The Blouses

First up is the button-up blouse.  It's just a pretty basic top with pleated sleeves.  I chose the pattern because of the options with cup sizes.  There's no gapping between the buttons there.  Yay!  The fabric is and emerald green polyester with a nice, fluid hand.  The pattern was pretty straight-forward.

Blouse number two is Butterick 5610.  I wish I'd chosen a fabric that holds the pleat better, but it was certainly pretty.  The purple has a black lace printed on it.  This pattern is also very straight-forward.  The only thing different from what one might expect is that the yoke and sleeves are cut in a single piece.

The Skirts

My favorite part of this project, hands down, was the skirts.  I used a pattern I'd been hanging on to for a few months.  I love the seam lines on Vogue 8750.  It added a lot of visual interest.  I knew both Mary and her parents would love it.  The skirt are classic enough to please them and have an unexpected twist to make her happy.  As interesting as the pattern looks, it really goes together quickly, easily, and logically.  I really need to get around to making it for myself.

I love the fabric for the skirts as much as I love the pattern.  When I spotted the royal blue moleskin fabric it practically leapt into the cart.  The fun twist on this skirt was the facing.  The pattern uses a grosgrain ribbon and I chose one with rainbow stripes.  Her mom was unsure about it when she saw it in the bag of goodies but i assured her Mary would be the only one to see it.

She probably would have appreciated it if I'd cropped out her toilet...maybe later

As much as I loved the blue skirt, the houndstooth is my very favorite.  Mary had said she liked that pattern.  I'm a sucker for it myself.  The moment she told me she liked it I knew the straight skirt needed to be made in houndstooth.  As icing on the cake, I decided to put red piping in all the interesting seam lines to really make them stand out.  If anyone could love that skirt as much as I do, it's Mary.

How great does she look in that outfit?!  Seriously, she's a knock-out.

 The Dresses

 Mary's dresses were also a blast to make.  I can't find the pattern I used for the black and teal dress (borrowed it from my mom) so there's no link for that one.  The top is cut on the bias, though you wouldn't think so because of the print.  It has a cowl neckline and gathering detail at the waist.  The hardest part about working on this dress was adjusting the cowl so it wouldn't fall to her navel.  We were going for "classy" with all these items and visible bra simply doesn't fit the bill.

The dress is both lovely AND comfortable

The second dress was also lots of fun.  The pattern was pretty boring.  I chose it because, like the green button-up shirt, it allows for a fuller cup size.  The fabric was a real find.  It was on the clearance table for $1.99/yard, plus an extra 50% off.  Ninety-nine cents a yard?  Yes, thank you.  Because the dress pattern is so plain-jane I knew I could do something more daring with the fabric.  It's a stable knit that's smooth on the inside and has a touch of texture on the outside.  Kind of like moleskin but also very different.  I thought this dress would pair really well with a bold-colored belt and shoes, so there's still room for embellishing.  Probably the highest praise I got for the dress came from Mary's dad.  He told me he usually thinks animal print is trashy but that it looks nice on Mary.  It's always gratifying to pleasantly surprise a customer.  Even better when it's family.

The Blazer

Oh, the blazer.  The #&%@! blazer.  Of all the pieces in the mini-wardrobe, this is the one for which I gave most responsibility to Mary.  I am thoroughly convinced that a dressy jacket like this is one that you must love or you will not wear it.  Ever.  To make sure it was something Mary would like, I chose several patterns of different styles and had her select one from the narrowed-down list.  Vogue 8845 is what she chose. 

I was excited to try out the pattern because its construction is so out of the ordinary.  The sleeves are a raglan style attached to the back yoke, the lapel is wide and dropped, and all the shaping in the front is formed by the pleating.  Click on the pattern link to view the line art and you'll see what I mean.

My excitement for the jacket was short-lived.  Out-of-the-ordinary style details require...creative work in altering the pattern to fit the person.  Mary has several fitting issues, particularly in the shoulders, forcing me to be brilliant.  Brilliance takes time.  Lots and lots of time.  As you can see from the picture, I did finally achieve brilliance and was successful in making it fit.  It may sound like I'm simply bragging about the jacket but that sucker was a beast!  I always keep patterns after I use them as a just-in-case-I-ever-want-to-use-it-again.  The joy I felt at tossing this pattern in the garbage was palpable.

Hated the pattern, but it looks good on

As a bit of info about the jacket fabric, I chose a washable polyester so it could be tossed in the wash.  The button on the front is attached with snaps because it can be neither washed nor dry cleaned.  I just snipped off the shank and attached the snaps on back with epoxy glue.  Because everything took so much longer than anticipated I had to ship several of Mary's items to her apartment at school after she went back.  It was less than a week of wait time (I think) so not as bad as it could have been.  Doing work for people gives me a great deal of satisfaction, I just need to remember that trying to do sewing work with kids in the house is a challenge.  All in all I'm pleased with how the mini wardrobe turned out.  Mary rocks everything she wears.