First Lady Style

To be honest, at first I wasn't impressed with Michelle Obama's fashion choices. Some of the clothes she wore (back in 2008/2009) seemed a little odd to me. Not surprising since I'm not exactly a fan of modern fashion. So I just stopped paying attention to the First Lady's clothes. I have very little idea what she's been wearing for the past 5 years, but I happened to come across these photos of Mrs. Obama and daughters' recent trip to Europe and I am totally smitten with several of the dresses she wore on the trip.

I doubt I would ever wear anything with this much lace but this gives me ideas. I like the blue and yellow together.

This is lovely. Simple cut and a scattering of colorful flowers.

And this is my favorite. I am seriously lusting after this huge paisley print. Unfortunately, in all of the pictures I could find of it she is either sitting down or standing behind a podium or a giant bouquet of flowers.

There are several more at the link above. I also like the orange shirt dress and the one with the black bodice and print skirt.

I Am Not a Princess

I have always liked princess seamed dresses. (and blouses but especially dresses) I had one when I was six years old that my mother made. It was dark red with some kind of tiny geometric print and had long, straight sleeves and a high neckline and buttoned down the front. I loved it. It seemed to me that it was a very grown-up style dress. Sadly though, as a grown-up I have always felt that princess seams don't do me any favors. However, a few years ago I decided to make peace with my physical imperfections. (well, to try to at least) Concealing them under sack-like clothes doesn't really help. And after trying a few princess seamed blouses and dresses, I've decided that the style really doesn't look too bad on me?

Anyway... The local quilt shop had a sale on batiks recently. This lovely green came home with me and let me know almost right away that it needed to be a princess seamed dress. I used a blouse pattern, McCall's 6076 and lengthened and flared it out into a dress and left off the sleeves and added pockets.

Everything in my yard is very green right now. I thought I should pick something not green for a background. Here's a closer look at one of the pockets: (You might have noticed my phone in the other pocket. Of course, that's why I must have pockets.)

I'm kind of loving it. I love the colors and it's comfortable. Maybe a little bit old-fashioned house-dressy (which isn't really a bad thing) but also kind of nice.

It Was On Sale!

Denver Fabrics was having this incredible sale, hundreds of fabrics for two and three dollars a yard. You might think that with a sale like that I could have found more than just four fabrics that I had to have and in fact I could have bought more but for some incomprehensible reason I restrained myself and this is what I ended up with:

Going clockwise from the top left:

The first is a brown stretch "baby" corduroy. It is destined to be slacks. I always need brown slacks in the fall and winter. This is a nice, soft, stretchy fabric so these will be very comfy.

The pepper print is a lightweight cotton. It will be a top and I'm thinking I might make it soon, like sometime within the next two or three weeks.

The beige fabric is ripstop cotton. It will probably be a shirt for my husband. He likes his shirts to be made of fairly weighty fabrics. But I'm also thinking that it would make really nice cargo shorts for me. I'm trying not to give in to that selfish temptation.

Finally... I am an idiot. You would think that in all the years that I've been sewing I would have learned all the different kinds of fabrics by now but this last fabric was not what I was hoping for. They call it "peach skin" so I was envisioning something that in some way resembled the skin of a peach. It doesn't. Well, it's not shiny and a peach is not shiny but that's about the only thing and not enough, in my mind, to justify the name "peach skin". It's actually a very lightweight, silky polyester - not the sort of thing I ever wear. Yes, I did know it was polyester but that can mean so many things in terms of weight and texture. Anyway, I love the colors but that's about it. I don't like sewing this kind of fabric and I never wear it. I'm not considering it a total waste yet. I could swap it for something else but I'm not going to rush into that. It can sit in the stash for a while.

The "Chartreuse Is a Neutral Because I Say So" Top and the Problematic Orange Skirt

Okay, no stalling; here it is. I won't say don't laugh because I know you will anyway. Or at least I hope so. It's better than, "What the...?!"

First I have to talk about the skirt. I made it years and years and years ago. It actually started life as a dress. I can't find the pattern. (i.e. If I took the time to look for it right now this wouldn't get posted until August.) It had a square neckline and pin tucks in the front, no waistline. I had made one other dress using that pattern and the neckline was too wide and the armholes too big. I tried to fix the problems on the second try but it still didn't come out quite right.

So I got this wild idea to turn it into a skirt. And I love it. (though I would rather the dress had turned out better.) The length is a little weird - longer than my usual mid-calf length but not long enough to be a maxi. It's a bit longer than I intended and I've thought about shortening it but I actually like it just the way it is.

But the only top I had that would go with it was a white blouse. It looked okay but I really wanted some choice besides white. I don't wear white very often because I have a deep-seated fear of clothing disasters involving massive quantities of barbecue sauce or blueberry pie filling. Yes, I know such a disaster would equally ruin a green blouse but... well, you know... it's a mental thing. So anyway, this lovely skirt has been hanging in my closet for years, rarely worn but not forgotten.

Then I got this crazy idea that the color this skirt needs is green - a crazy green that doesn't even match the little green leaves on the skirt. The pattern is Kwik Sew 3511. I had made the version with the collar a couple of times but this was my first time making the scoop neck version. It's a bit deeper and wider scoop than I'm comfortable with. It's not indecent by any means. It doesn't even reveal any cleavage. It's just that I feel like I have this vast expanse of glaring white chest. The only solution, of course, is big jewelry. This two-strand wooden bead necklace is the biggest I have. I think it works okay but I feel like I could find (or make) something better.

So, it's a little crazy but I like it. I am so going to wear this in public and if I end up on PeopleofWalmart.com so be it.

My Favorite Stores

I guess this is more about a favorite fabric than a favorite store but I just ordered again a few days ago so I have this one on my mind: Spandex World. I love their cotton spandex knit. It's a good medium weight with good recovery, it comes in lots of colors, and it's only $8.00 a yard. I've only ever ordered the solids but they have some lovely prints too, as well as a lot of other spandex fabrics: nylon, metallic, stretch velvet, stretch vinyl, stretch lace and more.

Stories About My Mother

Today is my mother's birthday. She would have been 82 years old today. Strangely, that doesn't seem all that old to me now. Oh... it's old but not old. It seems only as old as 62 seemed to me, oh, maybe 10 or 15 years ago. But I won't waste time talking about the unfairness of life and its shortness. (She lived to be 78)

I think I was four years old. Mom found a picture of a dress in a catalog. It was brown if I remember right. The skirt was solid brown and the bodice was gingham and it had an unusual double pocket - a solid brown pocket centered on top of a larger gingham pocket. Mom happened to have a small piece of turquoise gingham and an even smaller piece of solid yellow fabric. She proposed making for me a dress inspired by the dress in the catalog. But there was a catch. It would have to be the opposite to the dress in the catalog: gingham skirt and solid top and of course a gingham pocket on top of a larger solid pocket.

Well, this was simply unacceptable to my four-year-old self. I whined, I argued, I pouted, I argued some more and pouted some more. I can't explain it now except to say, "I was four," and it just seemed very, very wrong and the fact that there wasn't enough solid fabric to do it "right" was irrelevant. I guess I thought that my mom could do anything. She went ahead and made the dress the only way she could, gingham skirt and solid top, and once I saw it completed I liked it. I actually thought about making an adult version of this dress for myself - exactly like the one my mom made- just because she would have gotten a kick out of it but I never could find the exact right gingham.

Fast forward about six years. I was ten. We had found this great looking bright lime green pin dot fabric with a border of large pink flowers with orange centers. Mom was going to make a typical dress with a gathered skirt with the flower border around the bottom. But I had an idea. I wanted her to make a plain, straight dress, what she called a "shift", with the flowers going up and down the front, to one side. I got the feeling she thought it was a radical idea. She was not really hesitant. It was more like the idea caught her by surprise and she needed to think about it for a bit.

She did make the dress according my suggestion and we both loved it. I think of it as my first design idea, though it probably wasn't really. I have been picking out fabric and matching it to patterns for as long as I can remember so it's likely that I also had some original ideas earlier. Now... now I'm still getting ideas, making them happen, and I still never make anything without wishing I could show it off to my mom.

I had hoped to find photos of the these two dresses but I couldn't find any good ones. If I ever do I will update this.

My Favorite Stores

Well, you see what happens when I try to do a weekly series. No excuses; I'm just going to try to get back on track. (Also, I should have some actual sewing to show off later this week.)

I have only ordered from Girl Charlee Fabrics twice (so far) but I have to include them as a favorite because they do something on their website that I have long said all online fabric stores should do. They give fabric weight in ounces per yard and the percent of stretch for stretch fabrics. I'm pretty confident that I know what I'm getting when I buy quilting cotton online but with everything else I feel like I am taking a chance and every little bit of information is helpful.

If I could ask for one improvement it would be better categorization. Have 100% cotton, cotton/spandex, cotton/poly blends, rayon blends, and so forth in separate categories instead of everything together. It's even worse with the "specialty woven fabrics" with challis, chiffon, peachskin and pretty much everything else all in one category.

I was very pleased with the knits I ordered from Girl Charlee. Many of their fabrics are made in the USA.

Just Slippers

Well, here they are, as promised. My first attempt at making shoes using the pattern from LivingDIYStyle. Trying to be positive, I'm going to say, not bad for a first try. At least you can sort of tell they're supposed to be shoes? They have a soft sole so just house slippers actually.

They do look a bit better with feet in them, I think.

The big disappointment is the serious lack of toe room. I made my usual size, 8, but I think next time I will make 8 1/2 or even 9. And I want to change the shape of the toe a bit. Another small problem: as you can see, the lining shows when they are on. (It's cotton flannel, BTW.) This isn't really a big problem with the slippers. It actually would be kind of cute if it showed evenly all the way around, but I will want to fix this on future shoes.

I made these entirely from scraps that I had on hand, except for the soles which are Shoeology soling fabric. This is very nice stuff - exactly what I've been looking for for ages for making slippers. I didn't bother with interfacing since this was just a test. I added little pieces of batting in the insole for a tiny bit of cushioning. I don't know that I would do that again, even for slippers. They need real insoles. As they are though, only a very thin insole would fit. I like my shoes nice and cushy.

I did walk around the house in them for a little while but, with the lack of toe room, I can't really call these wearable. Obviously more pattern testing and tweaking is needed. Here's one more pic.

Still Here, Still Sewing

I hate to go more than a week without posting anything so here I am even though I have nothing new to show off and nothing much to say. I am working on a little sun dress for my granddaughter but I can't finish it until this weekend when she's here.

I started on the shoes yesterday. Well, I cut them out at least. It's funny... this is something I have wanted to do for a long time but now that I have a pattern and all the materials I feel curiously reluctant to actually get started. But I will do it! I would like to say that I will have some handmade shoes to show off by the end of the week but if I say it it won't happen so I'm not saying it. These first ones are going to be just house slippers, using the sewable soling and some scraps of fabric that I already had.

It has been cold lately and I am seriously impatient for hot weather to finally get here so I can wear my summer dresses. I've got the three new ones that I've only worn for part of a day each. This weather actually sort of puts a damper on my sewing mood, at least for the kind of things that would normally be seasonally appropriate.

The Chicken Dress

Have you ever made something that you love but at the same time you're disappointed with it? I decided I had to have a dress with chickens on it. Why? Why not? I found this fabric at eQuilter and instantly fell in love with it.

I used Kwik Sew 2671 a pattern I've used and modified many times. This time I eliminated the button front and made just a plain pullover dress. I also added elastic to the waist. The length is about mid-calf, my usual length, which always looks longer than that in photos.

It came out rather frumpy looking. I had a bit of trouble with the neckline. It wasn't too low or too wide but for some reason it was too open, especially when I was sitting down. I fixed that problem by making three little darts around the neckline but now it seems like there is extra fabric around the shoulder and armhole area. But I am done futzing with it. I always intended it to be just a fun everyday dress and that's what it is.

By the way, it was windy and threatening rain yesterday so I took the picture indoors in the one sort of presentable spot in my house. Today the weather has made good on yesterday's threat. It's pouring outside.