So I went to the Scrap Exchange yesterday afternoon because they tweeted on friday that they had a couple of boxes of new vintage sewing patterns. I have managed to find a few shiny gems amid their intimidating inventory of, for reals, total dross, so I figured what the hell. Maybe I’ll come across a former seamstress’s stash of three dozen totally perfect, factory-folds vogue couturier patterns for a paltry two bucks per (and hell no I’m not too proud to drop seventy bones at the scrapx–they can use the money, right? I didn’t contribute to their capitol campaign or anything) and maybe they’d even cut me a deal of an even $50 or something. And then on top of that, I’d find a healthy series of three-to-five yard cuts of fancy wool suitings and abstract floral silk charmeuses with, I don’t know, designer tags or selvage identifications that would easily pay back outright, outright! the recent three-day Asheville vacay that the Mrs. and I just enjoyed. Also there would be free samples of the three-cheese and spicy kale from Toast Paninoteca, I’d finally run into my bestie Adrian from high school again, kittens would serenade my button browsing with purrs and synchronized tumbling and there would be a Rogue tasting van outside with nothing but dead guy with my name written all over the full-pint-sized tasting (sic) glasses. And then I would look down, realize that I was surfing on a wave of chocolate buttercream, and beck and I would be immediately transmogrified into that crazy wave scene from “Back to the Beach” as f*cking Frankie and Annette.

Now come down from that cloud, do your best to stifle those dust-triggered sneezes, and join me on what really happened.

It was sort of crowded and a lot of kids were there, but on a fifty-degree drizzly Saturday afternoon you can’t expect much different. In all I was there right at an hour and I feel pretty good about my haul: three vintage sewing patterns, including a couturier design from Belinda Belville (196-?); a modest handful of buttons; a two-yard cut of a lightweight plaid cotton/blend in a good colorway for Beck; and what may actually be a couple hundred yards of soustache braid in navy and beige (I haven’t counted–and probably won’t, for $8 total).

At several points in I think every trip I ever make to scrapx, I mutter with nostrils in various levels of flared-outedness ‘what the hell is that?’ and, this time, the internet came to my rescue. I found these two little strips of a card of buttons that’d been cut up, and while they looked pretty good (basic black, no cosmetic damage, usable and pretty standard size), I couldn’t figure out how the hell they were supposed to work. Plus they were marked $1 for four, and that’s a little steep for a crazy cheapass like me if I can’t even determine how to work them. On one of the cut-up card backs I was able to read “the old reliable ‘Pilcher’ button” so out came the iphone to find me an answer. I came across an etsy listing that featured the pristine card imagery with this handy little closeup:

So I pried out the center disk there and voila! the back tack came right out; I felt like a cross between Miss Marple and Betty Homemaker right there in public. They seem sturdy and attractive enough to not save for an emergency, and they’ve got a nice rivet-like aesthetic that would work great for a jacket. Plus if I need more, I know what to search for on ebay.

I feel it’s time to crank out a quick post full of total wishful thinking: projects that, at some point at least, I want to attempt and maybe even complete and hang out in. Perhaps I’ll revisit to re/assign priorities or change the fabrics around or edit the projects themselves, but either way I should keep some sort of track of them all, right? It’ll be like a field trip! grab yer juicebox and c’mon!

There are certain garments that I feel I must have now that we’re all fully and awesomely moved into our deco-fantastic home. The weather is warming up, Beck is getting a super swanky grill for her imminent cumpleaños, and we have the best ever porch right off the living room that I will use to cement my awesome presence in downtown Durham by playing the ukulele in late afternoons whilst wearing tea dresses. Which is to say, I totally need a tea dress. I found an excellent fabric at the scrap exchange when we were in our temporary place (i.e. there was NO ROOM for new fabric purchases but I went an’ did it anyway), and I am *in love* with the idea of making it into this, for example. Something long and slim-fitting (though I’ll probably shorten it a little ’cause those dresses from the 1930s were for real almost ankle-length) with a fitted waist a smidge on the high side and little flared sleeves, maybe with a pleat in the center. I have about a hundred images I’d like to partake of, but I should probably start with what I have on hand. I’m not sure if I’ll wear it with a slip or underline the bodi—whatever. No. Totally making a slip. Just thinking about underlining a summery dress is making me cross my arms and assume the ‘no way jose’ stance you see moms of younger tots do in toy departments. Plus I need a slip to wear with that ancient simplicity dress I am practically done with, so there! Add to my list of summer sewing: One White Slip.

*ETA: the excellent fabric for my tea dress:

It’s going to be so boss; I can’t wait.

Next: a housecoat. I so, so badly need a housecoat for weekend lounging and midnight trips to the fridge. Every single character in Golden Girls has several, and dammit, I need to strut down the hallway with a long floral print billowing behind me.

made out of

Plus it will be excellent for brunch hostessing and running downstairs to grab the times on Sunday morning. (I’ll just have to reinforce the sideseams and buttonholes at the waist in case I eat too many tim tams.)

Now I am almost always blathering on about dresses these days, so that’s not really something y’all haven’t heard before, so I’ll ‘fess up that I need to start my list o’ summer dress madness with something specific. I’m quite fond of the bateau neckline, and I have a decent length of black stretch sateen that I found for a song at–you guessed it–scrap x. Pattern options: Simplicity 7574, a vintage find from 1968:

or maybe this recent Vogue designer dress from last summer,

And you know, the more I think about this latter Vogue, the more I think I may just get it. The bow in the back is growing on me more and more, and I don’t think raising the back should be too hard as long as I convince myself to make a muslin first. Also I have an awesome book that will help me approximate that curly-q updo the model is rocking. There are some fantastic reviews of this Vogue pattern over at PR, so … maybe I’ll move this one up on the list. Although I do totally still want to try out the ‘68 simplicity, perhaps in one of the many VWL brocades I bought last year?

Now rest assured that there are still about 36 things I want to sew up in the next two weeks, so my list is really much longer than this, but I think this is enough for the first installment. Plus I still (OMG STILL) have some pics to take of a couple fabrics I’m thinking about, so … yes. Till next time!

Monday! gah! How do you sneak up on me so fast? I’m going to be fifty in record time, the weeks are flying past so quickly.

So weekend report: success! accomplishments! and so forth. I got started on the V1170 skirt out of a black stretch cotton twill, finished cutting it out and got cracking on the assembly. I was shocked and awed to learn that I didn’t have a black 7″ invisible zipper, so by the time I stitched the pockets onto the skirt front at 10:38 on Saturday night and in doing so miraculously ran out of bobbin thread, I decided to call it a night.

Sunday we spent being good consumerists and buying things, including but not limited to speaker wire, underpants, and shelves for all my beautiful, beautiful shoes; then we came home and smacked up said shelves.

So first off, holy cow I have a lot of shoes. Old news, nothin’ novel to speak of, no duh allison; but don’t they look *fantastic* up there? Gawd where the hell is beautiful sunny weather with no chance of rain, because it and my most excellent metallic-acid-green-leather clompy-to-end-all-clomping-wannabes have a hot date scheduled ASAP. I love those things (although our downstairs neighbors might have words to another end) and am looking forward to coming up with fun outfits to pair with them.

Secondly, plaster walls are sort of a pain, yes, but more to the point they require traversal of a hairpin-sharp learning curve: which is to say, We are at least learning. (Read: oops.)

I also decided that I want to pair up my striated-orange-blobs stretch cotton with a bottom contrast panel of the VWL navy ribbon faille into view A of M5991, but without the slanty side pockets–just regular ol’ side seam pockets. I am afraid of slanty gaping at my hips, so I’m hoping to avoid it by going less fancy with the pockets. Except for the two strips of the navy ribbon faille, I still have to cut all that stuff out (and figure out exactly what I want to face the hem contrast with, and whether I should underline the orange-white cotton or just line it), but I’m sort of excited about it. And it’ll be way easier for me to shoe-shop my collection for a perfect complement now that they’re all on display! wooo!

Next time: I’ll try to make some progress on the V1170 skirt, and maybe the blouse too (those tie-ends for the sleeves are a royal pain in my ASS) and, well, one day I’m going to have to officially finish that zebra-print wrap dress: buttons on the cuffs and beltloops, stat!

I … I know that I do not NEED shoes. I know. Deep down and very frankly I utterly concede big bad heaps of YES I KNOW to the age-old question, ‘Do you really need to buy anything else?’ I don’t even have enough of a set-up right now to even unpack all the shoes I kept, they’re mostly still in shoe boxes or in protective cloth bags in a big moving box. I already have farylrobin shoes, black season-transgressing shoes, and even a damn pair made of woven raffia with patent trim. But I kind of WANT these three. Is that bad?

(Do not feel the need to respond if your name is BECK. I know how you feel about this already.)

In other news, I really am almost done with my zebra print wrap dress. I actually already wore it to work on Tuesday of this week, so it’s definitely already serviceable, but I have a few more finishes to crank out. I need to shift the snaps over about 3/4″ because, as it is now, it’s just a hair too snug. I also need to sew on a couple of buttons on the cuffs, add beltloops to the waist sideseams, and finish hemstitching the facing to the upper bodice. And then?! THEN you will get a picture of me in a very animal-print dress, which I never really thought I would say, but it does look sorta good. And it would also look quite good with at least two of the three aforementioned pairs of shoes that I don’t need.

Like, you know, whatever.

So there have been some changes all up in the life in the seven months since I pretended I have a blog. We sold our house and moved out of it, got a quick and awesome intro to living close to downtown and being able to walk places, developed the initial strains of awesome stamina by carrying 463 heavy-ass boxes up a big flight of stairs, and hauled butt to host our Annual New Year’s Eve Super Party less than a week after having moved in completely. And now? Now it’s time to not have to uproot any more; to relax when we want to without feeling guilty about not getting a thousand things done every night after work; to get back in the habit of a Full and Complete Life Under a Single Roof, for real. And it’s been pretty awesome: I’ve been sewing, I’ve been listening to music I totally forgot I had, I’ve been spending money on fabulous fabrics, I’ve been wearing fancy shoes that’d been packed away for months. And I even heard a rumor that I was going to think about not being such a patsy when it comes to my poor neglected VP. My poor, poor various pants! Also we need to get you a better design honey, I know.

So, to look forward to: projects. I actually managed to get a smidgen of sewing stuff done at our temporary digs (though you’d never know it): I finished the Wicked Witch skirt for Hallowe’en, finally finished the sleeveless floral print blouse, and started *and* finished a slim-fitting skirt with a back flounce from the midnight-blue wool crepe I got from Asheville last January. Those three projects are all done and I should probably write pattern reviews for them, because I do like having a big fat number next to my profile name on PR. I’m also super close to being done with a long-sleeved wrap dress, the 1976 Simplicity Jiffy 7705, and I’m more than halfway done with my first ever (!) pair of real pants, from Vogue 1098. For these last two projects I have used up actual amounts of stashed fabric, which is sort of awesome in two parts: it was gathering dust already, and now it’s not, and I know at least the 7705 is a pattern I’ll make again in a nicer fabric. Which means more room will be created in my cedar shelving options to accommodate NEW PURCHASES AW YEAH. I have also resolved that I must sew more dresses, because they kick ass, and also that I need to be more hands-on with trying out my vintage patterns.

I also need to attempt greater timeliness with taking and actually uploading pictures, as is evidenced by my total lack of photographerial involvement with this post. I mean, Lisa is cool! she looks like Blossom! ‘Sall good.

Let me first say to my nineteen-year-old self, who (if I understand appropriately the whole time-space relativity thing in addition to how the interwebs work) will be soon reading/has already read this post, that I apologize. I know you used to stay up all night for the shit of it and read random books in the undergrad in some slightly precocious way of approaching college educatedness; I remember well that you used to work a job until 11:45 or midnight and only afterwards would go home to eat dinner and do your homework and watch either infomercials or random programming on public television while you deciphered meaning from elementary-school-level russian dialogues for at least the next three hours; and, yes, I too was there! when you halfway slept on a crappy wooden framed dorm lounge loveseat for approximately 82% of your sophomore year so you wouldn’t have to listen to your cranky roommate complain about the light being on in the room after ten or eleven at night. So, I totally concede that it’s sort of odd to be coming forth with this business, and even I didn’t anticipate it, but it’s also really true so just brace yourself, okay?

I totally dig getting up way early in the morning.

Now, I’ve only done this for the last two days, so my opinions might change, but getting out of bed before six in the morning, today and yesterday, has totally allowed me to have an amazingly different kind of day. I got out of bed, and had a cup of tea or coffee and then boom! into the sewing room. I pinned things; I sewed seams and even pressed them; I adjusted the waistband for fit for crying out loud. I mean, productivity! it was amazing! And I actually got stuff done, and then was at work (work!) right on time! and I didn’t even forego showers or teeth-brushing! It was like, pow! All of a sudden, I had this swath of color in my morning that hadn’t been there before. Now, granted, I found myself alarmingly SLEEPY at like 8:30 last night, but I held out a bit (thank you, birthday cake!) and wasn’t even in bed all that too much later than normal, like 10:15 or so. And after yesterday morning and last night and this morning, I’m totally almost done with the knockoff skirt. Which I’m naming the Tristis skirt, after the latin name for an American Goldfinch, because it’s all yellow and white and silvery grey and black, and also because I dig on the goldfinches what come to sup at our feeder.

I’m planning on working on it some tonight, and then tomorrow morning, and I am really quite confident that I’ll be able to wear it to work by Monday. No wait, this Monday! More photos to follow, accompanied by excellent choice/s in footwear (even though I’m not sure what top I’ll wear with it).

I am all totally done with the pin. Finito! es concluido! готов! And I have to say, I knew I was all in love with random beaded objects before, but now? Now I’m ready to buy up beads by the pound in no fewer than eleven silver-lined colors of the known spectrum.

I can’t look at anything comprised of more than two colors without visualizing it in a majestic BEADED iteration: motel signs, paperclips, my sewing machine, the cats, whatever. I want a glittering royal blue bowl of neon orange beaded cheez puffs as a Thanksgiving Centerpiece; I want a  beaded multi-color portrait of the sign for the Towne Manor Motel in Akron, Ohio; I want beaded arm cuffs of all my tattoos to wear instead of a long-sleeved jacket when it gets chilly. I’m going a little nuts with it–but going nuts is one of my favorite things to do, anyway.

On the other hand, I miss sewing. I cut out the yellow gingham and some white cotton underlining for the Anna Sui knockoff yesterday, and while it didn’t whip up into total perfection or anything? It did feel familiar and good to be in front of the sewing machine again. It’s still going to take some fudging, because I’m not sure what I’m doing and all, but progress is being made at least. I’m a pretty dedicated clothes horse these days, so I can’t spend all my time beading snack foods and neon signs.

And fyi, this ‘pin and many others will be auctioned off Friday, May 29 at the Pinhook in downtown Durham as part of Troika’s annual fundraiser.

So I’m doing the Pin Projekt again this year, and now more than ever, I am aware of how much I like stuff. Bright colors, shiny textures, quirky shapes, hidden treasures, infinite detail, sunshine and buttercups, raspberry filled and sugar coated, more, More, MORE! I am so in love with stuff that it’s a wonder I can find the time to wash my hair once a week. It is no wonder, then, that I have confirmed my love for Liza Lou by mimicking her meditative beaded style: that’s what I’m doing to the pin this year. It’s turned out to be a remarkably satisfying medium, because while heaven knows I love the knick-knacks and baubles and shiny details, I can also appreciate the minimalist touch.

Like this totally lovely Kline Necklace from Persimmon Jewelry. This is the kind of thing that can call out to me as sonorously as a lime green bakelite ice-block necklace, but it’s a little more subtle. The tone is there and the pitch exact, but the equalizer’s set to a more nuanced ear, if you will. I think I’ve been working under the “more is more” guise for a while now, and it’s just sort of occurred to me that subtlety could be afforded in a multiplicitous* way, like how Liza Lou does with her millions of blades of beaded grass. So I can have my millions of facets and be subtle all at the same time! I love it! And thanks for the good word, Grosgrain!

*dude, I know this is not a word, even according to the damn encyclopedic OED, but it sounds better in my Word Pony of a brain than (the admittedly rare, if not obsolete) multiplicious. I WANT IT.

The pin is coming together much better than I had hoped, and while my lower back is not happy with me having crouched over a desktop for many hours this weekend, it’s making me want to pursue this method of ornamentation in a major way. I’ve been really focused on sewing the last couple years, and while I’m getting better and I have been missing it a lot these last few weeks, there’s some aspect of my Mondo Craftiness that isn’t been satiated quite satisfactorily with the needle and thread. I think I’ve always wanted to be able to draw, and sewing just doesn’t really approach that method–which is why I’m such a nerd for rubber stamps and embroidery floss and, thanks to jumping into something completely new for me, beads. Although I stand by the goodness in my original of sewing the beads onto a fitted shell for the pin, that method was SO not working; which is okay, because I really just jumped into doing it totally blind and had no real method figured out for making beady progress or gauging the appropriateness of my method-of-sorts till I’d already invested a healthy number of hours into it. Having started off with that, though, I feel pretty good about getting into other projects of sewing bugles onto fabric. Kind of how I feel comfortable playing around with the excess in a sleeve cap, turning it into darts or tucks or pleats or whatever, because of that time I just flew by the seat of my crafty-pants and half made it up as I went along.

I tell Beck all the time that she’s got these great instincts, but I think I overlook that I have some pretty good instincts too. I just need to be more open and nurturing of them.

Ought nine y’all! Hoe-lee! In light of it still being January, then, I want to talk for a sec about New Year’s Resolutions. See, I’m not real big on making them: I tend to be of the opinion that I don’t need some new page on a calendar to interest myself in doing better. I don’t hold at all tightly to vaguely romantic notions that a new year will mean the turning over of new leaves, that something as arbitrary as a chronological numeric assignation to the position of the earth and the sun and the greater cosmos will result in me, all of a sudden, saving enough money and getting in physical shape stellar enough to become an astronaut, or something. Nuts to that; let me do my own thing ’cause it’s working for me so far.

Ahem: that said, get ready for my “but.” BUT I think I’ve done a good job the last two years with sticking to my repeated resolution of wanting to sew more. In 2007 and again in 2008, I did just that. I increased my repertoire of abilities and finished projects, I devoted more time to getting better and sitting behind the machine, I became more comfortable in feeling capable at this hobby. So for 2009? Same goes: I want to sew more. Also this list of eighteen additional resolutiony things:

1. Stop buying so many damn pairs of shoes.

Now this is not to say that I will hop on the rehabilitation wagon for shoe addicts–I just need to stop buying so much stuff that’s cheap and may or may not fit me. I have superior and discerning tastes: I need to start spending that way (uhm, # of times not amount per se).

2. Start sewing with the good stuff.

For real. What is all this awesome fabric doing languishing? who am I saving it for? why do I not have a mustard yellow wool skirt or a polka-dot trench coat or a damn goldfish dress yet?! and so on.

3. Make more art.

Mail art, fabric art, photo art, cupcake art, guerilla art, wardrobe art, acrylic paint on cereal boxes art, yard art. Art art art! I’ll even try to post more to VP in terms of how this will be actualized; I want to do some collaboratory stuff with my best buddy Brian, in Chicago, and my best lady Beck. Speaking of the latter, I may cop her experimonth style and come up with a couple projects where I do some stuff every day for a calendar month. I’m toying with the following ideas: getting up at 5:00 a.m. every day; do some art every day; watch a new movie every day (though that’s an awful lot of movies).

4. Eat better.

Which is to say, more regularly. Lunch is good. Not eating for 20 hours every day, four or five days a week is a lame habit.

5. Relax, dammit.

Allison: remember this? remember sitting on your butt and having a nice beer and just vegging in front of the telly for a bit? Grab hold of that frame of mind a little more often–it’s good for you. Unclench the stress and antsy mood in favor of giving yourself a break sometimes. Like, a lot of times.

So there it is. My official list of 2009 New Year’s Resolutions. Whether or not I’ll actually stick to them remains to be seen, as well as whether or not I’ll actually post anything on the ‘Pants about it all, but, you know. One day at a time.

(Update: jesus effing christmas. I should’ve guessed that BIG BUT in a blog post’s title would unleash the spamly floodgates, but SHIT man. No more comments, for real. Sorry for the two-point-four people out there who care.)

Teeny blog-snack, just to remind myself I’m not a complete slug. And also that I should probably stop by the store sometime soon to replenish my stash of baseball-watchin’ junk foods.
What I got done over the weekend: fabric prep (preshrinking) for the cape and lining, including a head-scratching hour or so trying to fit all the pattern pieces onto a little over two yards of 30″ wide fabric for the latter. I tapered the flare at the hem (104″ is a lot, so I trimmed off about 10″ total) and cut off about 2.5″ in length, ’cause I didn’t want it to cover my whole butt, anyway. The length of the finished cape per the pattern envelope was right under 30″, the width of my lining fabric, so I knew I’d be able to shave a bit so that I could squeeze the pattern pieces on lined up with the cross grain instead of the selvage. I’m not sure how exactly I want to sew the lining to the cape, but I don’t think I wanna stitch ‘em together and then turn it out, which is what the pattern directions tell me to do. I want a longer turned-under cape hem, not for the wool & lining to be all even-steven. So…it’ll still take me a bit to work out the details, though I’m happy with cutting out a medium after tissue fitting and, I mean, it’s a cape so there’s not a lot of fitting finesse I’ll have to tinker with.The shoulder seams look pretty good already, I think.
Plus there’s a high of eighty degrees today with lots of sun, and Chicago isn’t supposed to be all that cold so I don’t feel obligated to finish it before we leave later this week. Bonus! I do, however, have to think about what I wanna have for Chicago and whether or not any work toward its construction is required of me. Shoes? Nah, I got enough of them. That silver twill skirt? I have one more gore of lining to sew on, and then I’ll tack down the high waistline facing and hem the sucker and then I’m all done. Chunky red coral necklace? Well, I’d have to get a design figured out and then do it all up, so … maybe, maybe not.

Next time: prepare for more fabric! because I need to get my witchy skirt done up by Hallowe’en, and also ’cause I just bought some teal/kelly green wool jersey and some ice-blue velvet. UHM. Yeah. They would look great together, though.