Brown???

When I found the surprise assortment of yardage at the regular thrift store a few months ago, I further surprised myself by actively liking a brown-based print so much.  But I did like it!

And there was a decent amount of it--more than enough to be the main fabric in another Gunne Sax style dress!  I already had several other prints to coordinate with it, too.

Except...

I realized last week that I've only been making those--and a lot of the other dresses over the last year--because they're fun to make, and not because I actually want to wear them.

So,what do I want to wear?  It didn't take much reflection to realize it was Fake Burda 6401, with no trim or ruffles--tiers are fine, but ruffles are pushing it too far toward Gunne Sax froufrou.

So!  That's what I made with most (but definitely not all) of the brown print. 

And I like it!

Wait--I didn't post the Chicken Dress???

I took the finished photos of this on July 29, and shared some of them on social medial but apparently completely forgot to record them here

Basically, I took the "add the peter pan collar to the cut-on sleeve pullover dress" idea that I tested here, made it from a less graphically-bold print, and added appliqué 

It is very silly.

Pattern Mash Up Experiment (with a Weird Cheater Quilt Print)

I didn't realize how odd the cheater quilt print was when I picked it out at the craft thrift store--I mostly noticed that it was in colors centering around purple, and that was enough to charm me into purchase.

It wasn't until I started working with it for this project that I realized that it was basically made up of diagonal stripes, and fairly high contrast, too

 

So I played with that, and also encountered a problem with it.  However!  The main point of this project was to try adding the collar, from a 1950s pattern, to the old stand-by 1980s extended sleeve bodice, and that seems to have worked out nicely.

Thrift Cloth! From the Regular Thrift Store!

It's been a long time since I've seen yardage in the regular thrift store, and probably longer since I've seen any I wanted to buy.

I had to run some errands last Friday, and stopped in the thrift store, just because I could.  I have a list of things I'm hoping to find in thrift stores, and I was happy to find one of those: a mechanical Bissel sweeper (in a cheerful blue, too.)

The section where it was is next to the racks where they hang bed sheets, curtains, and other large fabric home goods.  I usually ignore those, but, since I was in that area while making sure the sweeper worked, I naturally glanced over...and saw a print that was absolutely yardage.

I wouldn't say it was calico, because it was also very obviously possessed of a high polyester content, but it did have a 1970s/80s ditsy calico style floral print.  I quickly noticed other pieces of yardage hanging next to it, and then some more a few feet away.  Some of them...I even liked!

Oh, hey! A person clothes!

I have been doing doll things, but decided this week that I should sew a dress with some of the coordinating fabrics I picked out the last time I went to the craft thrift store.

While I had picked them with the intent of making another proper Gunne Sax dress, I don't particularly want to wear a proper Gunne Sax dress right now (they have too much waist definition, and I still don't feel like have a waist.)  What I have enjoyed wearing is the babydoll dress I made a few months ago

except

it's just a tiny bit short. So!  I thought I would revisit that same dress design, but...just...an inch or two longer.

 

(and then I took photos fast this morning before wearing the dress for the day, and then discovered that the full-dress photos are all blurry, because I'm still not used to the 50mm lens.  The close-up pictures are sharper!)

Chintz Print Pullover Dress

My pedantry won't call it 'chintz' with no qualifiers, because it's a lightweight twill instead of glazed.  It's also--again, being pedantic--very much the English Granny kind of chintz print, and not the traditional Indian style.

Anyway.

 

A Hint of Fairy Tale

Oh, look--another layer cake dress

  

Gray and Bright

I got a lot of fabrics, the last time I went to the craft thrift store, that unexpectedly coordinated really well (plus a lot of fabrics I knew coordinated when I chose them), so, of course, my first inclination was to use them in the same project.  Maybe another layer cake dress?  I started pulling other fabrics from my stash that coordinated, and eventually decided to try making a dress or two from a mix of the new (to me) fabric mixed with stuff I've had for a while.  It seemed more...fair?...to mix new with old, instead of using up all the new in its own projects, while letting fabrics I already had continue to go unused.

I also wanted to make a nice, simple pullover dress--no patchwork this time!  ...well...relatively simple, because I did want to mix the fabrics with nods to the Gunne Sax pattern I have, mainly via visible facings, bias binding the neckline, and ruffles and more ruffles.  But.  No patchwork.  So.  It still seemed to go together very very fast.

 

First Time Making a Pattern I've Had Since 1999

 ...or possibly early 2000.  It's Style 2494, and it has a 1994 copyright, but I'm pretty sure I got it when I worked at Joann from mid-1999 to early 2000

 

 Having finally made it, with enough time to develop my sewing skills so much more than what they were back then...  Well.  If I had made it immediately, I probably would have thought the problems were with my skills, and not with the pattern itself.

 

 Now, though, I know enough to be unhappy with the pattern itself.

SciShirt

The last craft thrift store visit found a Michael Miller print called STEM Squad, which I immediately grabbed with The Child in mind.  The Child approved, and I planned to make another McCall's 6613...eventually.

I decided now was the time, and The Child requested that it not be a full button up shirt.  I think I managed to convey the fact that I could not make a regular ol' T-shirt from this fabric, but said I could make something like the Shrek print shirt I made six years ago (and which was recently banished from the house because Shrek is just not considered funny anymore.  I sent the shirt to a friend who has an online presence based in that kind of kitsch.)  That form factor was deemed acceptable, and I finished it today.

 

It was, appropriately, experimental.

Getting In the Gunne Sax

 Just about ten years ago exactly, I thrifted this pattern. 

Simplicity 8729, an official Gunne Sax pattern from 1978.  It's a home sewing version of a "real" Gunne Sax style that had been made in a few variations for sale.  It's also cut in size 6, which is way  too small for me.

I borrowed elements from Butterick 6146 to work out a bodice in my size

...I didn't actually have everything worked out when I made this dress, but this was meant as more of a test anyway.

This isn't unwearable (well...more thoughts on that later), but it does have some weirdness. I think I'll have it right the next time!

3263: The Hacking Begins

I re-acquired a vintage pattern I'd once had, in what is nominally my correct current size, and I was...not happy with how it fit out of the envelope.  I resolved to try tracing and altering the pattern, and then did not do that for a few months.

Here's the first try

 

I probably spent as much time trying to decide which fabric I'd be OK with not working out as I spent making the first round of pattern edits—which turned out surprisingly promising.  Still not sure about that print.

Mad(ras) About Dolls

The last trip to the craft thrift store saw me bring home an obnoxious doll print and a madras that coordinates so incredibly well with that doll print that I strongly suspect they were donated from the same stash.  I put them together for another McCall's 6613 (with all my usual deviations from the pattern as given.)

 

 When I say a print is obnoxious, I mean it.  I am also cackling gleefully while saying it.

Leopard & Chintz

Eleven years ago, I made a shirt that mixed a floral and a leopard print.  It was very cute, but I changed size and shape enough that it no longer fit, and I gave it away.

And now I've made another version!

 

 It is less serious and more campy, and I am very happy with it. 

Petticoat Function

When making the lattice print skirt, I got very sidetracked by the decision to line it—sidetracked because the fabric I thought I would use had been set aside to make a petticoat.  I knew it wouldn't take all of it to make the petticoat, but I didn't want to use it in the skirt lining first, then discover there wasn't enough left to make the petticoat.  So!  Pause the lattice skirt to make the petticoat.

 

Lattice

About two years ago, a visit to the craft thrift store found a length of very 1990s rayon, which I bought after being overwhelmed by nostalgia, but with no clear plans for it.  I honestly thought I'd make it into a button up shirt, because I could very much imagine that's something I would have worn in high school.

And, after making the previous few simple shirts, I was ready to make this one!  So I got out the fabric and...didn't want to make it into a shirt.  I briefly considered a dress, but I'm not the right shape for anything that seemed suitable for that fabric in that quantity.

I've also wanted to make some simple dirndl type skirts, and I realized that the nice heavy swish of the rayon would be very good for that.  The fact that it's predominantly white did make me pause, for various reasons, but...that swish was just so nice...

The thought process then went on to "Well, it definitely needs pockets," followed by "There's not enough of this fabric to make self pockets, so I'd need to use something else" and "Any pockets would be clearly visible through the white fabric, as well as any underwear," so that's how I ended up also lining it.

This means I still haven't made a simple dirndl style skirt, but I did make this one!

 

I am surprised by how much I like it.

Replacing the Upcycling

About five years ago, I made bodices to use with thrifted skirts--one with a fake Burda 6401 bodice, and one with Simplicity 9153's extended shoulder bodice.

I wore them a lot.

So much, in fact, that the delicate thrifted skirts started wearing out.  I tentatively mended some of the problem areas, but, honestly, it was getting to the point where the mends were stronger than the fabric, so I knew it was time to replace the entire skirt on both of them.

My last visit to the craft thrift store was made with hope of finding some fabric I could use to that end, and I was thrilled to find nearly 9 yards of a lightweight black woven cotton (if there's anything synthetic mixed in, a burn test said there's not much of it.)

I did take some time to make a complete dress before getting to the skirt replacements...mainly because the black of this new (to me) fabric is not the same black as the old bodices, and I wanted at least at least one loose summery black dress that was all the same black.

But then!  On to the new skirts!

Ready for Summer

I like making loose, high waist, pullover dresses from lightweight cottons for summer wear.  My original plan this year, in that regard, was to use some of the lightweight woven black fabric I got from the craft thrift store to replace the worn-out thrifted skirts on some dresses I made a few years ago--I thought the fabric felt like a poly/cotton blend, so wouldn't really want to use it for a top/shirt/bodice.

I decided to do a burn test on it, just to laugh at how much of a plastic blob it turned into.  Well.  It did not turn into any kind of plastic blob, instead burning to a crumbly black...not exactly ash, because when has a burn test ever behaved exactly like the charts say it should?  So I decided that meant maybe there was enough cotton content to use for a top/shirt/bodice after all.

I used my "fake Burda 6401 modified to a fake McCall's 8157" and decided to go wild with a tiered skirt and here we are

 Honestly...it ended up a bit too long.  I eventually fixed that.

Moth Holes & Free Lace

A craft thrift store visit in 2022 saw me get, among other fabrics (most of which have been used!), a length of black and white glen plaid.  In the linked post, I noted that it had a spot of damage.  Further inspection found a lot of damage.  The moth babies feasted on this.

I did use a bit of it in the B&W wool patchwork vest--the cloth has two faces, so I used the darker side in the vest (it's the fabric mentioned as being from the larger yardage.)  Between the moth holes and the...general oddness of the fabric--the yarns aren't as fine as I envision when I think of glen plaid, giving it a sort of 1970s vibe--I had started feeling rather apathetic about this fabric.

However!  Ever since I made that long A-line skirt from the patchwork of heavier fabric, I had wanted to try making a whole cloth skirt, in a heavier fabric, using the same pattern (McCall's 7981, modified to omit the front band and insert a back zipper.)  Since I still think fondly of an A-line B&W glen plaid skirt I made in 2013, I decided to see if I could get the pattern pieces for this skirt to fit on the yardage I had, and if I could avoid the worst of the damage while doing so.  Yes on the first, no on the second.

However!  Another long-gone skirt of which I think fondly was a thrifted skirt that developed holes, and I covered them up with appliqués cut from various fabric prints.  (And I guess I didn't think that merited being posted here, because I can't find a post about it.)  Appliqués, I thought, would be a fun way to cover the moth damage, especially since it was mostly limited to one area of the fabric...which turned into two disconnected areas of the skirt, because I had to cut the pattern pieces in opposite orientation.

I spent a day sorting through potential fabrics--all cotton calicos--and trims, cutting out motifs and developing an aesthetic direction to tie the chaos together.  Then I remembered the bag of cut pieces of yardage lace that I had gotten from the free table at the craft thrift store, and started mixing those in.

But then...

I realized that the lace motifs alone would work very well.  I put all of the chaos choices into a box, to consider using on a future project.  The lace pieces got more carefully trimmed, and fused to Wonder Under, and then fused onto the partly-assembled skirt.  After that, zigzagging around the edges, and then finishing the rest of the skirt.

Behold:

 I  think it worked out pretty well.

Another Rayon Peasant Dress

I made a peasant dress from rayon (from the generous friend's relative's destash) in March, and have worn it a lot more than I expected, even discovering that it layers nicely over a turtleneck in winter.  So, when the last visit to the craft thrift store turned up three yards of 56" wide rayon, I got it with the express intention of making another peasant dress.

This style of dress gets all of its shaping from elastic, is extremely comfortable to wear, and looks terrible on the hanger.