Ah! September has certainly roared into Minneapolis like a lion. I’ve had vague plans in the back of my head to whip up a series of kicky little skirts with attitude (cherry and skull quilting cotton, anyone??) to get me through Self-Stitched September. But with the temperature currently at 57, I’m now thinking of corduroy pencil skirts and wide-legged wool trousers. And brown boots. Must find Anthropologie-like brown boots. Knee-high, embellished or funky granny laceups. Extended calf. Budget $50.**
**It has crossed my mind a few times that I should take up cobbling. The art of crafting footwear. Sewing opened up a world of outfits exactly tailored to my curves and vision. And tastes. And budget. Why not the same thing for shoes?
But down to business. Yesterday (day 2) was a day of moping about the house, moaning (the after-effects of a horror-movie-like day of dental surgery last Friday) and altering Vogue 8648 to fit the afore-mentioned curves. As such, I was kickin’ it in an outfit that barely acknowledged Self-Stitched September – Target denim skirt and altered Old Navy t-shirt…
Good golly, Molly, the macro function on my camera shows off 36 years of good-sun-loving-gone-wrong for this redhead!
The history of this shirt. Earlier this summer I yearned for a garishly ratty, preferably tropical-themed, t-shirt to wear under my prim, vaguely 60’s-ish, white upholstery fabric (again, slipcover-chic style)
creme brocade jacket. With lots of cheap pearl bangles. And a pearl choker. Or three. Think Madonna-of-Borderline-and-Lucky-Star-videos crossed with Jackie O.
Off I went to Old Navy. A store I adore. Cheap knits. Bright colors. Consistent luck in finding clearance khakis for Mr. Bug for less than $10. I went through tables of t-shirts. It should be noted that I HATE t-shirts. They choke me and have the singular effect of converting magnificent (!) bosoms to sad, deflated, weird growths around my waist area.
At the time I had just gotten my new sewing machine – a confusing thing with many silly stitches. Scrolls and Egyptian motifs and letters and scallops. I decided to go punk and cut the crew neck of the T-shirt into a more comfortable and flattering scoop neck. Then I used the fancy leaf and vine stitch on my fancy new machine to ‘finish’ the neckline – sort of stop the thin stretchy material from not as much unraveling as rolling up and falling off my shoulders.
So there we have it, my day 2 outfit barely qualifying as self-stitched by my co-opting of sewing techniques made popular by aspiring teenager angsty rocker chicks. I’m so proud!
On to the rest of the day. I started work on the
teal wool dress destined for wear at a wedding in a week and a half. I’m using
Vogue 8648, a vintage-inspired dress with a fitted bodice, princess seams, and a midriff piece. There’s a full-circle skirt option as well as a pencil skirt. I made pretty extensive alterations to the bodice pattern and got a muslin done last night. So far, I’m LOVING the dress with it’s very-flattering square neckline and slimming midriff band. Now I’m trying to decide between the full circle skirt and the pencil skirt. I
was planning on the full circle version, as I’m not convinced pencil skirts belong on the large-butted variety such as myself. But after trying the bodice with some skirts already in my closet, twisting, tightening, all but clothes-pinning myself in, I’m beginning to see that perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps the slimmer skirt is the way for me. I’ll probably make a muslin in both versions, but this brings me to my newest obsession, the Jenny skirt.
Ah, the
Jenny skirt! I noticed it yesterday on Alana’s blog,
Lazy Stitching. Then I followed it to the sew-along at
The Cupcake Goddess. Like all good roads, I was led eventually to
Gertie’s blog and realized the Jenny skirt isthe very same skirt I’ve gazed at so lovingly
so many times. I’ve downloaded it and as soon as I make my way to the basement to load up the printer with paper, I’ll be printing and taping! My very first Burda taping job! The little girl is growing up!!
Ah well, back to the real world. It’s gotten greyer and windier and more fall-like outside. I’m washing the dishes and then maybe going out in search of some wool and corduroy…
Thanks for the link! Have fun with the cutting and taping – it drove me mental as I just couldn't get it all to lay flat 🙂 I need to get on to my "proper" version this weekend, too.
I have a length of a sort of flax/linen fabric that looks amazingly similiar to your muslin! We might have matching skirts – I don't really know what possessed me to buy it – I guess I liked the colors but it really isn't a clothing fabric!!