Gatsby Afternoon & Another Dress Completion!!

&

I can't say enough about the Gatsby Afternoon event put on by the Art Deco Society of California. This year was particularly fun and relaxing with amazing food (thank you Teresa, Michelle, Oran, and Franz!!), lots of bubbly, great company and the bouncy ride over in Oran and Teresa's Baby Doll (oh dear now I can't remember the year, make and model - 1954 Ford?).

And...I finished the dress!

It's comfy and exactly what I wanted. I'm not in love with the sleeves (cotton fabric too stiff for the design) and I'm going to replace the matching buttons with a contrasting color, maybe black. The matching buttons were a nice idea, but act like camouflage...eight buttons trimming the belt tie and shoulders and you can't see a' one.

After I think nine Gatsbys I finally saw the inside of the estate! And I learned something new, that Linoleum is period, kudos to the smarty Michelle! Linoleum is brand name for flooring invented by Frederick Walton in 1865. So not only was the day intoxicating (champagne and socializing), but educational!!

Another highlight, see 1st photo below, I had the privilege to meet the fabulous Miss Solana of Vixen Vintage (far right, follow her blog it's so fun) and Julie of Fab Gabs on Etsy (middle with their escort David). Below that are cherished friends, cars, and the Dunsmuir estate.

I will post soon about the dress construction process and my thoughts on the pattern and changes I'll make next time, but now...photos...

Completion! Love New Dress!!

Happy dance!! New dress, new dress, la la la!!!

Clearly only dancing the happy dance in my head

So so excited! I finished my new dress in record time (2 months). I did little bits of the project here and there with a few long blocks of hours (wow, all the marking, the finishing of edges, the interfacing, the hems on sleeves and skirt, etc., etc....it's amazing to me how much time it all takes me).

The big challenge for me on this dress was setting and sewing the sleeves. I still don't completely understand how the easing is supposed to work with one edge so much longer than the other. The pattern explained how to gather the top half of the sleeves and then ease the edge of the sleeve in with the armhole. How you can have gathers, but are expected to not have folds in the final seam. Surprisingly, it didn't turned out too bad.

I had to open the seam up in two places and redo those sections. It was a bit rough, but once I pressed it thoroughly over my sloppy, make-shift tailor's ham (see figure 1 of a real ham...oh I've been working too much)...

Figure 1, image courtesy of BurdaStyle.com

...most of the folds and buckled fabric smoothed out like crazy freekin' magic! How, whaaa? I just found a great tutorial on how to make a tailor's ham on BurdaStyle.com... next project!

I just love the dress fabric. It is broadcloth barkcloth, but is only ever so slightly stiff and it is soft and comfy against the skin. It's vintage and I bought it from Urban Burp in the North Beach area of San Francisco. The owner Electra is really helpful and knowledgable -- great article on SFGate.

When I use this pattern the next time, I'll make the dart a little different, so the fit between the bust and waist is just a smidge tighter, but otherwise I am really happy with the fit, go pattern maker! Good old Simplicity 4298!

I did end up farming out the zipper work. I didn't want to get all cranky and sad, so I took it to the lovely lady down the street at Sherry Cleaners...she did an amazing job!! Despite her help, I have signed up for a zipper class at Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics in Berkeley. Their calendar of classes look great! The co-owner, Suzan, who called to confirm my registration was super nice (I answered the phone all mean and stern as I picked up the phone on a crowded bus and then thought it was a spam call...she was so understanding when I gushed my apology).

Hip hip hooray...completion!

Satisfaction with a Job...Done!

Oh rapturous day! I've finished my blouse sewing project!!



I simply can't believe it's done and on a hanger in my closet...I'm beside myself with happiness!

Cutting out, marking, prepping each piece with darts, constructing, struggling with my brain to comprehend the instructions, pressing, pinking seams, buttonholes, buttons, hem, fixing boo-boos...I'm done! I don't know how people crank out pieces so fast...I'm soooo slow, but it's done!

I really passed a big hurdle with this project -- I didn't have the overwhelming sense of frustration that I usually do. This weekend, at each snag, I sat patiently (ok, maybe a few "ack!" exclamations, but no reverting to angry gutter-mouth) and thought it through or carefully talked it through out-loud with my boyfriend. There was at least two big "what?"s that I eventually made work even though I didn't do it elegantly as the pattern intended, but I just couldn't understand.

The process this weekend (the last 1/2 of the project) was actually enjoyable and obsessive from start to finish and not so frustrating I wanted to chuck it out the window. Hoooooray!!!!!!

The pattern cover:


Cuff challenge: I simply didn't understand the directions.


I'm sure the instructions followed to the letter results in a cleaner-looking cuff opening, but my strip-thing seems to be okay, even though the stay stitching peaks out a bit (hard to see in this photo).


Collar challenge: Again, I just flat-out don't understand part of the directions.




The top piece of the front extension...what the heck am I supposed to do? I "made it work" as Mr. Gunn says, and although there is an extra, somewhat unsightly seam, the busy-looking fabric saves the day!

Almost done...


Done! Back shot...


Shot showing bottom edge untucked...


And fabric detail...


My boss just approved me taking a personal day this Friday so I can start my next project!!! Sewing Friday!!!!!!

Catch-Up Saturday!

I have not documented my projects in a long while. My goal with this blog is to keep projects and progress alive in my head and keep me motivated and maybe I won't waste time playing mahjong solitaire. Not that wasting time is bad necessarily, but I do get so much more satisfaction out of completing projects...it's just the procrastination!

When Miz Margo left for the East Coast, I made her a little gifty - an embroidered spider hankie. I had such beginners luck with my first embroidery project - it came out just as I'd hoped.

My new sewing machine (yay) has a foot I'd never used before, to make rolled hems, so my hankies could have a prettier edge.

I also had a lovely and talented friend, Miss Ginger O'Shea, over to teach me a few sewing tips. I am not good with zippers and so she showed me how to put in an invisible zipper. And she showed me how to use my serger machine. I bought an old used Singer serger a long time ago and didn't know how to use it. It still doesn't work quite right. I bought a manual and can't find it! Searching...searching.

And finally, I've been scanning family photographs. A long overdue project to create a family archive. I got a new scanner that is much faster, so once I get all the photos I have into digital form, I'll gather those from my dad and sisters.

One of my favorite pics of my parents and sister Sue.

My parents look completely exhausted and probably are thinking of ditching the kids (my two sisters...just before my time) and having a nice cocktail away from children and Mickey Mouse. Such good memories of Disneyland!!

Now for another cup of coffee and a bit of work on my vintage blouse project.

Vintage Pattern Project - Simplicity Pattern 4298

This post is a bit of catch up and covers new work. I created a dress using Simplicity Pattern 4298, from 1962. I created a muslin first as this was my first dress project. I practiced the tough parts: the interfacing, skirt gathers, and putting together the bodice and the skirt. The skirt and bodice on the muslin version didn't match up, so I was really careful with working with the better fabric. I got great fabric from Peapod Fabrics on 18th Ave. at Irving in San Francisco.

The dress took me forever. I was petrified of doing something wrong and messing up the fabric, but finally, finally, I got it done except for the zipper.

I just couldn't get the damn thing in correctly. So wanting to stop the torture, I took the dress and zipper to my friendly neighborhood tailor/dry cleaning place, and they put the zipper in for $15. What a life saver! I thought I was going to have a melt down (I tried 5 times, I really tried).

Despite the pretty fabric and a pretty good job on the construction, the dress just looked, well, frumpy. So just last weekend, I got confident enough to try a bit of tailoring. I asked advice of a few friends, then experimented with the muslin version and came up with the solution to enlarge and extend the existing darts in the waist/back. It worked pretty great and with a much improved fit around the waist, it looks much more flattering I think. With that success, I had the confidence to try my first belt. It came out alright, it wasn't hard at all, except the end point of the belt (that goes through the buckle).

The directions here are so fabulously vague. Step 1, turn fabric over pointed end as shown, baste. Then voila! Somehow, through some mysterious steps, you get the perfect end point of the last illustration. Amazing!

So, I folded over, as per the directions....
And then what? I fold it back over and do what with all the extra fabric and how do I shape it into that perfect arrow shape. Sigh.So then I just tried something different. I realize now that part of sewing is the confidence to play around and not follow the directions word-for-word. For some reason that's really hard for me...but getting easier. I then tried to find a good vintage plastic belt buckle. I went to the fabric store in my area and then to my favorite vintage store La Rosa Vintage, but alas they didn't have exactly what I wanted (but I bought a couple gorgeous buckles for future use). Then I went to the thrift store and bought an ugly belt for $2.49; it had a pretty good shaped metal buckle. I was hoping I could figure out how to cover it. For some reason the belt buckle kits that come in two pieces, add fabric and snap the pieces together, no longer exists anywhere. I searched a long time on the web. Anyway, I tried a bunch of different methods and finally hit on a plan.

After much trial and error, I got it!! Hooray!!!!!

The untailored version, sans belt...

Then a bit of tailoring and a belt...

And the final product!! Oh, why do I have to go to work?! I want to start a new project!!!! Ack!