Tiny Stripe Cap

There was more than enough fabric left from the previous project to make another of the Timber Lane Press Kaleidoscope Caps

Not as kaleidoscopic, if course

Tiny Stripe Jumper

So, I'm currently somewhat obsessed with the idea of jumpers (in the American sense of the garment: a dress-like item worn over other clothes), and it appears that those are so incredibly unfashionable right now that search engines still want to show me knit sweaters (British sense of jumper) even when I search with terms like "jumper dress" (and I have leaned that the British term for what I'm looking for consists of variations of the phrase "pinafore dress")

But of course I'm looking for jumpers I can make, without doing...whatever it was I did with the vest pattern a few posts ago.  I was surprised to see that there really aren't many jumper patterns in print right now.  Simplicity has 4789, which...I've actually had for a few years already, and it's a super simple jumper pattern so should go together easily, but...you know me and super simple patterns. (I try not to be a snob about them, I really do, but it's something I have to actively try to do.)

In the 1990s, I had a jumper pattern that I used several times, and really liked everything I made.  That was one of the patterns I eliminated when I got rid of patterns that were too small.  Yeah.  But!  I was able to figure out what it was--McCall's 7812--and find it on eBay for a decent price.

When it was still in the mail, I went to a Walmart and spent time poking through the mill end pre-cut bins, and, when I happened to turn around, I spotted a jumper pattern on the cheap "It's Sew Simple" McCall's racks.  I looked through all the other patterns on those racks and found a second pattern with a jumper view.  I also recognized one of the other cheap McCall's patterns as a very distinctive color blocked Kwik Sew pattern, and, with that knowledge, I was able to identify the two "McCall's" jumper patterns as also originally being issued as Kwik Sew patterns...one of which is still in print as a Kwik Sew?  The other had the decency to be an out of print Kwik Sew, at least.

(As an aside, I also recently noticed some patterns that I own as McCall's are now being printed as Butterick.  It's obvious that McCall's, Butterick, Kwik Sew, and Vogue are all owned by the same parent company, now known as Something Delightful, and going up a level finds that the company that currently owns that--called Design Group--owns Simplicity/New Look, too, although they don't make that as obvious as the other four being under the same umbrella. So. While I am somewhat surprised to see patterns being reprinted under other patterns company names, the reaction is more "what are they up to?" than "how could this happen?")

It's Sew Simple McCall's 9578 is a reprint of the out of print Kwik Sew 3955

and that's where I started

Another Combo

 I tried on the shirt and jumper from the previous posts--I had made the shirt with the idea it would be used with a jumper (the pattern expected that, too), and I chose the fabric for the jumper to coordinate with the black and white check of the shirt, because a B&W check is essentially a neutral.

I'm...not sure about it.  The shirt being a bit large is bothersome, but a B&W checked shirt is always useful.  The jumper, though...not sure if I can accept all those yellows into my life...  I'm trying to convince myself they qualify as "amber" and "topaz" and thus fall into the realm of jewel tones. I like jewel tones.  Maybe I'll accept them as such.  Maybe not.  Maybe?

Jumper Fable

 I have been taken with the idea of sewing jumpers/pinafore dresses, but apparently that's not something even remotely fashionable enough for pattern companies to offer many options now.  I do have the original print of a current Simplicity pattern that was first issued in 2004 that happens to include a simple A-line jumper in two lengths, but that wasn't the jumper silhouette I wanted to sew.  I also have a small stack of Burda dirndl patterns, but...waistline issues. (And the pattern used in the previous post did originally include a jumper, but those pieces are long gone from the envelope I thrifted.)

I do know that a lot of older dress patterns will include views that show a shirt being worn under the dress, but I didn't want to just use a dress, since the arm holes should be cut higher on a dress than on something that's meant to have another something worn under it.  Than I had the thought: Hey! I know what's meant to have another something worn under it!  A vest!

I do have several vest patterns (also things that aren't common on current pattern sites now), but I ended up back on the pattern that I had used for the vest I made late last year.  I used view B this time

...well...I started with view B.  I ended up with this

A Shirt Delayed

 So, after I gained the weight, and then I accepted that I gained the weight, I went through my patterns (and acquired more patterns) with an eye on larger sizes than I had used in the past.  But.  Now that I'm losing weight, it hasn't quite clicked with me that I should be using smaller size patterns (especially since my waist size, while smaller, is still the same as my also-smaller bust size.)

Which meant I happily sewed up McCall's 6947 from 1963, thinking, oh, since it's vintage, it will have a slimmer fit, since clothes in general had less ease back then

And I also knew that was the older range of sizing, so that was also playing into the "it will be smaller" thinking, so much so that I didn't really register the B38 measurement.  I'm not B38 now.  I'm B36. Just enough to make a difference.

But!  It's still fine.

Really.

Put 'em together

 Part of why I worked quickly on the shirt in the previous post was so I could have something to wear with the skirt in the post before that

The skirt is a touch large, even with the shirt tucked in.  I'm still working on the abdominal bulge, so it's fine for now.  If I do make a noticeable change, it should be easy enough to deconstruct the skirt and make the front narrower before re-sewing...well, just about everything but the back seam--I said 'easy' but that doesn't exclude 'tedious.'  But!  I do think it will be worth it, because it's a good basic skirt, and not the first I've made from this cloth, so I know I'd get good use from it.

Helpful Assistant Chip.  (And, yep, my hair's long enough to mess around with rag curling again--this is the first time I've tried rag curling in years...definitely going for an extremely generic vintage angle and not a modern ~beachy waves~ style)

Return to Shirt

It has not been quite as long since I made a shirt for me as it has been since I made a skirt like I posted yesterday, but it has been a while since I made a shirt for me from McCall's 5675 (1977)

...now...I am currently nowhere near a size 12, but I realized that, since one of the features of this pattern is the gathered neckline, it would probably work out perfectly fine if I just...added two inches to the centers front and back, increasing things 4" total.  I did that on the fly, by using a see-through ruler to move the pattern center an inch from the fold on both sides.  (Also pictured: why get proper pattern weights when you have so many extra pairs of scissors anyway?)

And it worked!