Ha Ha Ha. Very Funny

On Friday, I had the honor of being part of the wedding party for my brother-in-law and his bride. I wore my fancy black dress

It was unbearably hot in that get-up, but the dress garnered a lot of compliments and my goofy hat provided a lot of amusement. One of my awesome sisters-in-law (Hi Robin!) put my hair up in hot rollers earlier that day–and man, was my hair curly.

I think it turned out pretty cute, but it was a mess in both of these photos. The heat, wine and a lot of clowning around didn’t do much for my appearance. I’m a little worried that my lipstick may have been dripping off my lips and down my chin during the official photoshoot–but oh well–if so, people will have something to make them laugh for years to come. That’s an excellent wedding gift, isn’t it?

Finally, I got to parade around in my leopard print dress, which I finished in the nick of time to wear out to dinner on Saturday evening. I seriously love this dress and will take clearer photos of it someday soon. For now, you’ll have to be content with the snapshot my son took while we were waiting for the rest of our family to show up at the restaurant.

The pattern for this dress is Simplicity 2369. It’s quick and easy to make. I had a hard time finding a decent belt buckle at any of the fabric shops I frequent, so I went to Ross, a discount department store and bought a $0.49 belt and cut the buckle off that. It worked out great!

That evening, my husband teasingly referred to me as his trophy wife and adopted a Tony Soprano-esque accent whenever he addressed me. The family was highly amused. I just drank my wine and smiled.

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Today is my son’s ninth birthday. I’m shocked at how fast time has gone by. It seems like only yesterday when I was cradling a chubby smiling baby boy in my arms and now he’s this gangly thing that alternates from devastatingly charming to heartbreakingly rebellious (NO, Mom, I will not read my library book, play with my Transformers or build something with LEGOS. I don’t want to do anything right now…leave me alone!)

Growing up is wonderful and hard and a mind-boggling complicated thing.

Sam, I love you so very, very much.

The fact that he’s aging means I’m aging too. There it is. A fact I’d rather not contemplate, but it’s unavoidable. Aging issues keep rising up like fish in a river when the flies hover near the surface.

As I’ve talked about before on this blog, figuring out how to dress has become a real challenge. It’s the rare retailer who caters to women my age and older–and when they do, their offerings are often frumpy.

So, I was curious to read what Kendall Farr, a famous stylist, had to say in her book, Style Evolution: How to Create Ageless Personal Style in Your 40s and Beyond. Right up front, the author acknowledges that “dressing well and looking current and grown-up in middle age is not only a vital reflection of self-regard but of the attitude we wish to project to the world.”

Caring about clothes should not be deemed a shameful thing–the provenance of the weak and the vain–but something a confident and smart woman considers from time to time. It’s not the weightiest topic in the world, but it matters nonetheless. Dressing nicely shows you respect yourself and and that you care about what sort of attitude you display to others.

Ms. Farr goes on to explain her theory of an ageless style, one that doesn’t dither over notions of “too young” or “too old,” but which concerns itself with “wearing good design with the right foundations underneath…that creat[e] a flattering silhouette on a body (at any size) [and] is appealing “at any age.”

Very good. I totally buy into the “ageless style” theory. It’s probably easier for me to digest than for some others because my natural inclinations lie with more conservative styles. However, she made some pronouncements at which I balked.

First of all, Ms. Farr suggests that some colors are ageing, e.g. “girly candy colors” and “girly pastels.” Intellectually, I understand her point. There are some colors we associate with girls. But what if you look particularly good in those colors? For example, bright candy colored pink looks really good on me. On its own, pink is not a favorite color of mine, but I’d hate to stop wearing it since it does such nice things for my complexion.

Speaking of colors, bright white is apparently a no-no for my complexion. I should be wearing off-whites. Who knew? I have a lot of white fabric…and I’m not tossing it. In fact, one of my next projects will be a riff on Michelle Obama’s famous OTR dress:

I’m planning on relying on my instincts here and will wear whatever colors make me feel good. Bright pink is one of them. Bright white never made me feel icky, unlike some beiges, so I’ll probably continue wearing that too.

Another point that made me scratch my head and go “hmmm” was her recommendation to opt for modern styles/prints, etc. and avoid vintage styles/prints. Why? Are they inherently aging? This really disappointed me, since I’ve been drooling over the outfits in Mad Men and some of the fantastic vintage stylings I’ve seen around blogland. Again, this may be an area where I choose to take her advice with a grain of salt.

Finally, Ms. Farr indicates that ironic play with fashion is best left to younger women. I’m just now learning how to enjoy experimenting with my outfits and making statements. So, why can’t older women experiment and play and make ironic commentary with their outfits? I don’t get it. Sometimes I may wish to dress as a sailor with my wide-legged trousers and a striped shirt, but I don’t intend to board a ship…or I may wish to invoke the classic style of a housewife in the 50s, or a finely dressed man in a tuxedo. I’d sure hate to squelch my playfulness and sense of humor. There’s nothing more ageing than that.

On the other hand, Ms. Farr is smitten with animal prints. That delights my inner jungle queen. Recently, I brought home lengths of ITY jersey in zebra and leopard prints and am eager to sew them up. First, will be a jungle cat wrap dress (Simplicity 2369):

Knowing my tendency to dress conservatively, my husband was surprised at my purchase. He looked at me, as perplexed as could be, and asked, are you really going to wear that in public?

Heck yeah, baby! I’ve just found my mojo!

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The pattern totally merits all the hype. You put the dress on and you feel (a) Comfortable; (b) Carefree; and (c) Cute–three critical “C’s”.

I really knew I had hit on something good when my husband repeatedly complimented me on my new dress. If there’s a person on the planet who pays less attention to clothing than he does, I’d be shocked.

I’m already planning another one of these!

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I’m so glad I had something special to wear to our romantic get-away. I finished my apple dress in the nick of time. I could nit-pick some fit issues, but instead, I think I’ll just focus on the positive: It’s a flattering style and my husband liked the amount of cleavage it exposed.

He deserved a little eye candy, since he also surprised me with a gorgeous new ring.

Yes, of course I cried.

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This skirt is Butterick 5885. It has fantastically roomy side seam pockets, a back zipper and stitched pleats. The pattern offered two different lengths. I chose the longer of the two and am glad I did, since I’m not yet skilled at managing this amount of fabric during the day. Sometimes it gets a little rucked up, like when I’m trying to climb out of the car, and I’d be in serious danger of displaying my knickers to bystanders with a shorter version of this.

It’s such an easy pattern! I can definitely see making another one of these, perhaps using a nice crepe fabric for fall. I also need to make a more flattering top to wear with this. The untucked blouse isn’t quite right. I tried tucking it in, but it looks odd on my short-waisted torso. A nicely fitted white knit top might just do the trick.

P.S. I changed the look of my blog today and added a Google Friend Connect thing-a-ma-jig over there in the sidebar.

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Really, they’re not too bad from the front, perhaps a little saggy at crotch level, but I was willing to live with that.

Then I had a look at the back. Eek gad.

That undies show-through is nothing short of embarrassing.

I also thought I had the waistband adjusted properly, but look at the enormous gaposis that resulted:

I could carry a small child in that gap. Who needs a sling or Baby Bjorn when you could just stuff baby in your pants, kind of like a kangaroo in reverse?

The pattern isn’t bad–this is Jalie 2909 stretch trousers. They’re based on the same block as the jeans I love so much. I don’t imagine fixing the problems I encountered would be any more difficult that adjusting any pants pattern; however, I don’t think this is what I want in a pair of trousers. I don’t want trousers that fit like jeans. I want trousers that fit like trousers should–elegantly fitted through the waist and hip and looser down the leg.

This is not the pants pattern I was looking for.

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What are (other) good sources of inspiration for stitching on jeans patch pockets? One place I like to look is in my pattern collection. Even though I’m using one pattern for the jeans themselves, that doesn’t mean I can’t rip off ideas from other patterns. I’ve found a lot of cool details in Ottobre’s Women’s magazines. Generally, Ottobre pants don’t flatter my figure and I would have to do a ton of fitting work just to make them presentable, so I don’t bother making entire garments from the magazine. I still enjoy the publication because I’ve yet to see another that includes fun embellishments like the stitching I did on the back of my first pair of jeans.

Google Images is an invaluable resource for finding design ideas too. I have found ideas by searching for “jeans pocket design” and other variations on that. You’ll end up with a gazillion search results, and the only thing to do is to scroll through them until you find something that sparks your imagination.

Other things to consider:

• Continuous line quilting designs
• Dingbat fonts
• Jewelry

It’s pretty easy to hand draw your own design as well–don’t worry if you’re not “artistic.” It’s more of an exercise in connecting points in a grid than freehanding something. Here’s how I do it:

1. I first make a pocket template on a piece of paper, using the pocket pattern piece.

2. I then draw in the seam allowances.

3. Next, I mark the vertical and horizontal centers.

4. Depending on the type of design I want to do, I add other grid lines as necessary.

5. I draw my design, using the grid to keep things symmetrical. You might want to ink in the grid lines in case you need to do a lot of erasing…I should have done that! A French curve would be handy for drawing curvy designs.

6. It’s important to stitch a sample on a scrap piece of fabric. You’ll want to make sure you can actually stitch your design neatly enough to satisfy yourself. Tight curves can be tricky! It’s also good to work out the appropriate settings on your machine so the stitches are balanced. I transfered my design using a tracing wheel and white tracing paper.

7. When I had the kinks in my stitching worked out, I cut out the pocket template so I could line it up with the edges of my actual pockets, transferred the design using the tracing wheel and paper and stitched the pocket. I flipped the template over for the second pocket so they would be mirror images of one another.

8. Voila!

Designing and stitching an interesting pattern onto your patch pockets isn’t really that hard. It’s important to take your time and to try to keep things neat, but don’t fret too much if something isn’t perfect. If you really want something as precise as a laser beam, you’d be better off buying manufactured jeans. If, on the other hand, you want a special pair that flatters your figure as only a customized pattern can–and that has unique design elements–well, stitch your own and embrace the irregularities!

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My interest in this pattern was first kindled by Tasia’s stunning Las Margaritas dress. The illustration on the envelope had never done much for me, but seeing an actual dress sewn out of actual fabric and modeled by such a cute gal made me sit up and take notice. Obviously, my imagination needs more exercising, since I needed someone else to demonstrate how nice a pattern this was before I was even interested in trying it.

I’m copying Tasia and making the version with sleeves. I know myself and I’m far more likely to wear a dress with sleeves than one without. Someday, I’m sure I’ll consider making one of the sleeveless versions. The black sleeveless version doesn’t appeal to me as much as the halter version. Halter tops are supposed to make shoulders look broader and I can use all the help in that department that I can get. I’m not sure what I’d do about a bra in that case. Do any of you have a suggestions for supportive undergarments to wear with tops cut like that?

Here are the pieces loosely pinned to my dress form. I didn’t do a very good job in hanging the skirt pieces…they won’t be that uneven when I sew them together.

I am using a Bemberg rayon for the lining and a crinkly apple print rayon for the dress itself. I had to be extra careful about pattern placement, since I didn’t want red or yellow apples to end up centered over my breasts. That would have instantly rendered this a joke, which could have only been made worse if the fruit were melons instead of apples. My concern about this has provided a lot of fodder for my husband’s sense of humor.

Now that I’m looking at this photo, I think I may have failed at getting those apples in a good spot. Well, this may turn out into a joke of a dress after all, lol

I ended up with two questions after reading through the instructions. First, I’m supposed to interface the entire bodice. I was surprised by this. For similar designs, I’ve interfaced the midriff pieces, but not the remaining bodice pieces. Is this common? I’m using a lightweight fusible. The interfaced fabric still seems supple and not cardboard-y, so I hope it will turn out ok.

The second thing that had me scratching my head in perplexity, was the instruction to sew seam binding to the skirt back to stay the opening edge. It’s unclear whether I’m supposed to sew this to both the right and left skirt backs along the opening edges or to just one skirt back. Since the skirt pieces are cut on the bias, I assume I need to apply the stay to both pieces to prevent stretching. Can I use stay tape instead of seam binding?

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Feed the kids, slather them with sunscreen and send them into the wading pool to splash around.

Try to sew something.

Gather fort-building supplies. Engineer a blanket fort in the backyard. Make a picnic lunch.

Apply more sunscreen. Send them back into the pool.

Use seam ripper to undo earlier mistakes. Luckily, this can be done while sitting in a lawn chair sipping lemonade.

Apply sunscreen.

Read instructions for sewing project and make second attempt, with a little more success. I head back to the lawn chair with lemonade and the seam ripper to fix the little mistakes.

The kids pretend they’re camping in their fort, which looks an awful lot like taking a nap. I’m pleased with this development.

More sunscreen, more splashing, more sewing…then, before I know it, it’s dinner time…and then it’s time to slather the kids with aloe vera gel, badger them into pyjamas, read them stories and then badger them into bed, despite the sunlight still streaking through the bedroom curtains.

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You don’t have to have any sewing skills beyond the very basics to create a veil that’s just as nice as those I saw in the stores. Really. I was going to write up a tutorial demonstrating this, but Jennifer Stern beat me to the punch in her article on CraftStylish.

She details the method I used to create a veil for my FSIL. Basically, you cut a couple of pieces of tulle whatever length you want your veil to be. On my example, the short layer is around 20″ long and the long layer is 24″ long. The width the same as the fabric was on the bolt. I cut rounded corners on the bottom of each layer of fabric. There’s no need to finsh the edges of tulle, since it won’t ravel. You can serge it, as Ms. Stern does, do something fancy with fishing line to make the edges curly (I haven’t read enough about this technique to explain it here), or sew some narrow ribbon around the edges and trim off any excess tulle, which is what I did.

Next, holding the two layers together, I hand-basted the top edge and gathered the fabric along this thread until it was the same width as my comb. I used Ms. Stern’s method for attaching the veil to the comb. Unfortunately, I was unable to use ribbon as she did to neaten up this area. No matter what size needle I tried, I could not get the ribbon to go through the tulle. I ended up using perle cotton, which worked out ok, but isn’t quite as refined looking as I imagine a ribbon would have been.

Finally, I sewed a strand of faux pearls across the top of the comb for a special touch. I decided not to do any more than that, since my FSIL’s dress is quite elaborate. An elaborate veil on top of that would overwhelm her. However, you could sew tiny pearls to the top layer of fabric or embellish the comb with other details.

The supplies for all of this cost me $27 and I bought more than I actually used–I didn’t bother shopping around either, so really frugal types undoubtedly could have saved even more. $200 for something that cost around $20? Wow. If someone you love is getting married and you aren’t ready to sew a gown, why not make the veil?

One thing I learned, that wasn’t mentioned in the Sterns article, was how important it was to bring a swatch of the dress fabric when selecting your tulle. If the tulle is much whiter than the dress, it can make it look dingy…

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