NSFW: Naked Bike Ride

There is a photo featuring some nudity further down this post, so read no further if you find that offensive. Ye be warned.

I have seen all of the photos from your fancy bike events (and I’m super jealous). Yes, I’m talking to you London and DC.  Looking all fly for your dapper tweed rides and bourgeois seersucker socials. Well, we do things a little dirtier in Portland, Oregon. Last night was the Naked Bike Ride. It was so much fun! Attendance this year was around 8,000 people. That’s a lot of flesh.

There was a very fun carnival like atmosphere, for the 7 mile ride. There was a naked marching band, naked roller bladers, naked skateboarders, and of course naked cyclists for hours. There was even an impromptu naked dance party. My husband and I rode with two of our friends, Liam and Chelsea. They had borrowed a tandem bicycle for the event and it was pretty hysterical. I was surprised by my lack of self-consciousness being that exposed. Everyone was naked, It’s really freeing from a body image perspective to see so many nude bodies.

If you’re interested, there are a bunch of professional photos on the Bike Portland website. They really capture the spirit of the event. I really love this city sometimes 🙂

Tooting My Horn

I’m sure by now most of you have heard of Kollabora. It’s a new online community for stitchers, knitters, and jewelers (?). I saw a link over on Oona’s blog about a Twitter contest they were having. To enter, you just sent them a pic of something you’ve made. Easy as pie. I sent them a pic of my Tie Dye Surprise dress. And I won!!!!!! I was most surprised to spy my face on their blog when I decided to check out their site. They’d sent me a message on Twitter that I’d won, but I don’t really understand Twitter all that much and never saw it. I’m super excited about my prize too! A copy of Crepe by Colette Patterns (I want them all!) and some fuschia cotton sateen from Mood Fabrics. Baller!

I also splurged and bought myself some expensive headphones. Beats by Dr. Dre. Treat yo’self (Parks and Rec anyone?).

A Nautical Ceylon

Happy Fleet Week to you, AKA the cutest week of the year. I really wanted to make a little 40’s-esque sailor suit for all of the navy ships that are downtown right now. I had plans to wear this dress downtown and take some photos with a sailor (or 10), but life gets in the way sometimes. Instead these photos were taken walking home from my friend Sofia’s garden party (visit her blog if you’re interested in permaculture/urban farming). My bike makes an appearance, her name is Mamie and she’s a real fancy gal.

I finally made Ceylon!!!! Yippeeeeee!!!! This pattern was one that I’ve always held off on, waiting until I was “better” at sewing. It’s been a whole year since I completed my first garment. A simple skirt made out of quilting cotton with a bias tape hem. Check out my shit eating grin, I was so proud that I made something that could be worn. I’ve come a long way baby!

I made a straight size 4 and the only alterations I did were to raise the armscye 3/8″ and I lowered the sleeve head by that same amount. I also slashed and spread the sleeve to add 1 1/2″  to the width. I used some mystery poly-lycra blend fabric from the thrift store. I also used white piping to make the interesting design lines pop. The piping does match in the front, but it was difficult to press this fabric due to the synthetic fiber content. I really wanted to add some brass buttons with anchors, and I was able to find them when I made a special trip to the Button Emporium. It was pretty great being able to find what I wanted, because it can be difficult when you have something super specific in mind. I feel very fortunate to have discovered this hobby living in the city I do now, because of all the resources available.

I love the flare of the skirt and the curved yoke. This dress came out exactly as I envisioned, however I don’t know how often I’m actually going to wear this. It’s a little too “Easter dress” as is. It feels like something is missing, I’m not sure I can put my finger on it. I really love the shape and style of this dress though. I can picture myself making more versions in the future with soft floral cotton and fabric covered buttons. If you’ve been eyeing lovely Ceylon but too afraid to try you should go for it. It’s a lovely pattern and I’m glad that I finally took the plunge.

I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last post. I had to take a hiatus from my life to do my “civic duty” and serve on a jury. Out if all of the cases I could have gotten I’m pretty sure mine was the most riveting/ fascinating case on the docket. We awarded a woman 900K after she was infected with genital herpes. The story made national news and you can read about it here.

I’ve done a bit of fabric retail therapy recently so you should expect some pretty summer dresses in fun prints soon. Until then…

Ceylon Muslin 2

First of all thank you so much for all of the advice on my last muslin post!!!!!

Since I had only attached one of the sleeves to my muslin, I used the other side to experiment with raising the armscye. According to an article I read in Threads if you hold a ruler under your armpit it will show you how high up the armscye needs to sit. I did this and saw that I had about half an inch I could raise it. I added the corresponding amount of fabric to my muslin/toile, then added the sleeves. Since the sleeves were tight on my bicep I cut a slit in both sleeves. Then a funny thing happened when I lifted my arms. There’s not much difference in the amount it rides up. It’s not very bothersome now. The side with an “X” drawn on the left is the unmodified side. The right side has the armhole raised. I think the real problem was just the sleeve being tight. I’m going to slash and spread the sleeve pattern piece to give my guns some more room. I’m undecided if I need to modify the armscye on my actual dress. Do you think I should?

In other news, I found the *perfect* navy linen at the thrift store that I had in my head to make this out of. Don’t you love when you find just what you were looking for in a charity shop? I want to make a nautical version of this dress with white piping and brass buttons. I’m hoping to have it completed in time so I can take photos with cute sailors (le sigh) during Portland’s fleet week. Tangent: I ❤ fleet week!

Muslin Issues: Ceylon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So lemme tell you a secret. Ceylon by Colette patterns was the first sewing pattern that made me say “Hot Damn, I want that!” It’s special and mos def not something you can find in RTW. It was the first pattern I bought and I’ve had it put away for over a year waiting until I was good enough to make it. I decided that my skills are ready and I made a quick mock up out of a thrifted bed sheet. I made a size 4, which is sized for nearly my exact measurements (35″-27″/28″-38″ FYI). Colette designs for a C-D cup bust, so the fit on this should be perfect, right?

Almost… I can’t lift my arm and it’s super tight on my bicep. Fixing the sleeve issue won’t be a problem. However, what about that pesky problem I have lifting my arms? The whole bodice rides up when I lift them even slightly. Not attractive. I had my mister take a few photos to help me figure out the problem. I’m thinking a broad back adjustment might be needed. Or perhaps raising the armscye? What do you think?!?!? Any help offered is greatly appreciated 🙂

How I Gather: Dental Floss Edition

I got a lot of questions on my preferred gathering technique so I decided to post a quick tutorial. I tried this out the first time when I needed to gather some heavy weight denim. I did three rows of basting stitches per Sarai’s instuctions in the Colette Sewing Handbook. but my bobbin threads kept breaking and the gathers were not coming out evenly. That’s when I remembered hearing about this dental floss technique and tried it out.

Dental floss is not required. Any thin, strong thread should work (such as embroidery floss or fishing line. All you need to do is place it in the seam allowance and set your machine to a wide zigzag. Then you simply stitch over your floss being careful not to stitch the floss itself. Then you just pull on both ends of the dental floss and gather. Voilà, a quick and easy method to adjust gathers.

Bow Back Skirt

Hey-Ohh! This is my first time going off-piste sewing (i.e. no pattern).  🙂 I made a basic dirndl skirt with a waist band, so imagonna call myself a fancy pants designer.

I bought 2 yards of this floral stretch poplin with the intention of making a full gathered skirt. However, when I looked at my patterns, I got stingy when I realized what I could make with two yards of fabric. I just used one yard for this skirt and I’m saving the other to make a bustier top ( I just need to pick up some boning). That way, I can wear them together when I’m feeling fancy, or separate when I’m not. Baller status!

Since I didn’t use the full 2 yards, it wasn’t as full as I wanted it to be (duhhh). So I oriented most of the gathers to the front of the skirt and and covered the back with a giant bow. Eeekk, how cute is that?!?!

This skirt was crazy easy to make and only took a little bit over an hour to make. If you want to make something similar I loosely followed Gertie’s gathered skirt tutorial.

To do the gathering, I zigzagged over some dental floss. This is becoming my favorite technique, as I feel it distributes the gathers most evenly. I inserted an invisible zipper, and used the blind hem on my machine to finish.

To recap: 1 yard + 1 hour = Win.

I decided to add this last photo because it makes me laugh. Photographer husband caught me making a face I’m afraid he sees all too often. I’m pretty sure I’m saying, “Chriiiiis, you need to be serious”.

New Sewing Corner

We’re almost all the way moved into the new place, and my mister surprised me by building me a little sewing corner in our bedroom. I should start churning out some new projects shortly!

Simplicity 1876: Tie-Dye Surprise

I’m calling this dress Tie-dye Surprise because I’m surprised that I like it. Ha. This dress has a few quirks, and I’ll get into them in a bit, but it’s perfect for what I made it for…

Let’s start with the fabric. I found this mystery fabric (it drapes like rayon and definitely breathes, so let’s call it rayon) at the thrift store. I thought, “hey, I can use this for a muslin and maybe make it a wearable one. I *do* live on the west coast, which is, the only place where it’s still cool to wear tie-dye.” Now summer is approaching (80 degrees today?!?!? holla), and that means shows and festival season for me, and this tie-dyed fabric starting calling out to me wanting to be a hippy summer dress. When fabric talks, I listen.

I finished this last Wednesday afternoon, just in time to see SBTRKT play at the Wonder Ballroom. I danced a shit-ton in it! So if dancing is a criteria for your makes, then this pattern passes. I’m also going to wear this next week and dance and sweat some more. Therefore, this dress is a success. Let’s get into the nitty grtty now, I’ll start with the good and then get into the bad.

Things I like: I really like the gathers on the hips. As a pear shaped lady, I usually avoid accenting them. In this case, I feel it gives a va-va-va-voom Marilyn Monroe-esque silhouette. This dress is princess seamed which I haven’t done before. I am now *for* princess seams. Fact: I would vote for them for president. Princess seams are prettier than darts IMO. The instructions were very clear and thorough.

Things I don’t like: I made this dress too big. Yarghh! So, I’ve been on a huge Simplicity roll, I can’t help it. Now that I know they more or less fit me, it’s a lot easier to just try another one out than to deal with fitting. But, I’m learning that I need to anyways, and that an inch and a half of ease is actually a lot. I’m also learning that I probably need to stop being a baby and start doing FBA’s (full bust adjustment for those not in the know). This dress is a bit of a Monet (Clueless reference), good from far, but far from good.

I was fitting as I went (I thought), but it came out weirdly large and small, at the same time on my bust. Here’s how I fixed the “too big”; I made the center back seam larger (a full inch FYI) and also pinched out another inch at the sides which I sloppily tacked down with hand stitches (messy girl). Now for the “too small”; The drape doesn’t fully cover my girls. Instead of making a 12, I should have made a 10 up top with a FBA, and then tapered to a 12 for the hips. Live and learn, amirite?

There’s one more thing I effed up. I’m not sure if it was a drafting error or a Cynthia error. Hopefully, you can avoid it. When I stitched the bodice and drape to the lining, I sewed up the little hole you’re supposed to leave to allow you to knot the neck tie around the drape. To fix this I stitched a sloppy button hole, so I could slip the straps through it. This little number is a fine example of down and dirty dressmaking.

I’m moving this upcoming week so I’m not sure how long it will be until I have something new to show ya’ll. Peace.

Thrifting and Sewing Plans

First of all, I have Simplicity 1876, one of the Leanne Marshall designs finished. I just need to wait for the supposed sunshine that’s coming this weekend to take photos. I made the non-cupcake view A, which hasn’t been reviewed yet. I’ll be sure to post to Sewing Pattern Review ASAP.

I love all of the thrift stores here in Portland. Two worth mentioning for us crafty persons are Scrap and the Knittn’ Kitten. Scrap is a thrift shop for all art supplies. They have a large cabinet full of patterns for 25 cents, random notions, and some fabric. The Knittn’ Kitten is specifically fabric and patterns. It’s crowded and fun and run by an older lady and her daughter.

At Scrap, I found an old mail order pattern for an apron , it’s unprinted and still in it’s factory folds. The date from the stamp indicates it was mailed between 1949-1954. It’s a pretty cute piece of sewing history, no?

I also found this unintentionally hilarious book on dressing to look 10lbs thinner and younger (pretty sure she looks the same), a beltmaking kit, awl, and a bound button hole maker. Pretty exciting! I got a few more things there, but they’re not really worth mentioning. I spent $2.35 there. Cheap is awesome, it’s easy to spend a lot of money sewing.

At the Knittn’ Kitten I found some adorable patterns, I couldn’t buy all of the ones I fancied, she has hundreds. I love the details on many of these, such as; scalloped collars and pockets, little puff sleeves… too cute. Sigh, I spent a long time in there.

I also got this pretty piece of vintage linen with butterflies and flowers. I have a little over 2 yards, I just need to decide what I want to make with it.

Now onto upcoming makes. A can of Sullivan’s Fabric Stabilizer spray arrived for me in the mail. I ordered this, because Sarai of Colette Patterns recommends it for dealing with super shifty fabrics.  I can finally tackle making my version of Colette’s Macaron. I have this beautiful piece of silk chiffon that I’ve been hesitant to cut into.

I want to make my honey another western shirt using this dark chambray. The yoke will be chambray as well. The bright fabric will be used to make piping, the undercollar, and the collar stand. Hopefully, it will come out the way I envision it. Mostly a straight-laced shirt, with little peeks of bright color. He might be the only man the LOVES bright colors. My man’s got swagger.

I also got this lime green seersucker to make this cute little 50’s bustier and shorts set.

Last but not least I have 2 yards of this bright floral. I’m thinking I’ll make a full circle skirt, but I’m undecided.

Hopefully, I’ll have my next make up this weekend. Until then, happy sewing.