Local woman finishes last summer dress of 2024

September 7, 2024 Erin3 Comments

PORTLAND, OREGON
Despite forecasts of record high temperatures for early September, local sewist Erin McKean declared the dress she finished on Labor Day to the be the last “summer dress” of 2024.

The dress, another iteration of the “Isca” pattern that McKean has been sewing all year, was made in a lightweight Liberty Tana lawn featuring a pattern of little fish. “I don’t remember I where I bought this fabric,” McKean admitted. “Or when. But I did a reverse-image search and the pattern is called ‘Glimmer’.”

Instead of the stand collar of the original pattern, McKean chose to make this iteration without the collar, finishing the neckline with bias binding. “More summery,” she said. “Although it would have been better if I’d remembered to lower the neckline by about a half-inch.”

McKean also replaced the original set-in full sleeves with self-lined cap sleeves, a consistent change for her versions of this pattern. “This time I changed the inner finishing to a slip-stitch, rather than bias-binding the seam.”

McKean is a vocal proponent of pockets, no matter the season. Her dress pockets can carry several pounds of her belongings, in a pinch. “Once, in an airport, I had a full-size insulated water bottle in one pocket and a sub sandwich in the other, plus all my normal stuff—wallet, notebook, phone, handkerchief, lip balm, pen …” The pocket facings are also piped. “I don’t remember the last time I didn’t add piping to a pocket facing.”

Although she had originally planned to sew a few more dresses during summer 2024, including several in fabrics that had originally been intended for the summers of 2017-2023, McKean said she was generally pleased with the amount and variety of sewing she had been able to accomplish over the last few months. “I made a multiple-gingham Isca, and a linen stripe Isca, and a checkerboard plaid Isca. And a couple more that I haven’t taken pictures of yet.”

When asked about her autumn sewing plans, McKean produced a scrap paper list on which the words ‘printed corduroy’ and ‘plaid brushed flannel’ were prominent. “I do plan to sew mostly from my stash between now and the end of the year,” she said. “But no promises.”

Today’s Pattern Story (Simplicity 2507/2115)

April 14, 2024 Erin4 Comments

Vintage pattern envelope showing two women in sundresses with little jackets, looking to their left

Vintage pattern envelope showing two women in sundresses and jackets, looking to their right.

Turquoise: There’s only room for ONE Sundress Jacket gang in this town, see, and it ain’t you.

White: You know, you’re half right. Don’t worry, you can always go play with the romper kiddies at the beach. (ominous pause) After we’re done with you.

Green/Red (in chorus): Jackets off, girls! Take ’em down!

January sewing

March 2, 2024 Erin6 Comments

I did some traveling in February, which meant (as usual) I had a minor flurry of sewing in January. Three dresses made it into the “finished” column:

Another Isca, this time in a precious length of Liberty Lantana (the print is called Adriatic).

I’m very happy with the color of the buttons:

And, of course, the piped pockets (that’s a ruler in the pocket — although I am happy to see you):

I also finally, finally, made the Tilly and the Buttons Zadie dress that I bought yonks ago and cut out in … 2022? I like the color-blocking:

This is some heavy ponte knit that I bought in Belgium in 2020, and it’s very comfortable; my intention was for this to be a good “airplane dress” for my long flight, but I think I need to tweak the pattern a bit before it’s really airplane-worthy. The pockets need to be deeper, and it’s a little short through the torso for me. I also think the skirt might need to be a tinch longer, as well. It hits me right at the knee, and I think about two inches more would do it.

Sewing the ponte was easy … unsewing the ponte was NOT. When I make this again I’m going to be much more careful, especially with those soft pleats at the front. I got one of them slightly off and, well, let’s just say that it’s still slightly off, and will remain slightly off for the rest of time.

As long as I had my double needle setup handy (and still in need of an airplane dress, because I was still going on an airplane), I decided to make another Cashmerette Turner. (The nice thing about blogging is that I could re-read that last post and make the fixes that I thought I should.)

I admit, I could have taken more care in matching the print at the waistband (because I didn’t take any care, basically). As a reminder, I altered the Turner pattern to have a rounder neck and changed the skirt from a two-piece to a six-gore skirt, to make it easier to add these pockets:

This fabric is an incredibly soft, heavy jersey from PaaPii in Finland; I bought mine from an Etsy seller but it’s still available in another color on their website. This stuff cannot wrinkle—I had 20 hours of travel in this dress and it still looked pristine at the end (making the contrast with my travel-wearied body even more apparent). Very comfortable, too!

Here’s the neckband, if you like that sort of thing:

Cashmerette Turner round neckline binding

Three dresses in January seems like a lot but I didn’t sew a darn thing in February (two weeks of travel, then two weeks of recovering from travel). I did buy a reasonable amount (for me) of fabric on my trip, though, so let’s see what happens in March!

Everything I sewed in 2023

January 1, 2024 Erin4 Comments

Early last year I claimed that 2023 was going to be ‘the year of the shirtdress’ and, for once, I was right.

The biggest winner in the shirtdress sweepstakes (prize: Erin makes a lot of you) was the Isca dress from Marilla Walker, which I made a dozen times:

Isca shirtdress — The first iteration (blog post)

Isca in Nani Iro cotton/linen — Round three (blog post). This is where I began replacing the set-in sleeves with a kind of modified cap sleeve.

After those three, they kind of came in a rush:

Rainbow Isca dress with yellow buttons — Heavy rainbow chambray. This almost certainly came from Stonemountain.

Liberty blue waves Isca — Liberty Tana lawn.

Gray-blue lawn Isca with a jackstraw-like pattern — I think I bought this lawn from Stonemountain? I’m bad at dress selfies but I made an attempt for this one in a hotel in Copenhagen.

Black and gray needlepoint-roses print Liberty lawn Isca — More Liberty, this time a little longer for autumn/winter wear. (The buttons are little flowers too.)

Isca shirtdress in cotton poplin with a distressed stripe pattern in shades of gray, teal, purple, black, and pale yellow — This one is probably my favorite? I have no idea where I got this fabric, it’s a light poplin or maybe a heavyish quilting cotton.

Liberty paint-splash poplin Isca with pink piping — Another Liberty print, this time, poplin, and again in the longer length. The piping is a very candy pink that I think goes well with the 80s-esque splatter print.

Faux bois flannel Isca shirtdress in pale green and gray — This is a warm and cosy faux bois flannel I bought from Josephine’s and sewed up the very next week. The buttons on this are very nice.

Gray and black check flannel Isca — Another warm flannel version (I just wear a long-sleeve tee underneath to make those little sleeves wintery).

Blue plaid with floral elements shirting cotton Isca — This was going to be my Plaidurday dress for this year but I didn’t quite finish it in time. It’s a plaid with a floral overlay, again in the longer “wear it with knee socks for autumn” length. The buttonholes are done in the same(… ish) red as the flowers.

Did I have time to sew anything else, you might ask? Well, yes. I also made two (and a half) of the Matilda shirtdresses:

Blue Liberty lawn paisley Matilda shirtdress front view — A blue paisley Liberty lawn (blog post).

Black and gray minicheck Matilda dress with band collar — I’m not entirely sure I made this one in 2023; it might have been a late 2022 entry. I left the collar off this one but forgot to reduce the collar stand/band. That, combined with the stiffness of this fabric, basically makes me look as if I should be saying “Yes, Lord Vader—immediately, Lord Vader!” every time I’m wearing it.

Half-finished dress in teal cotton with red cherries, with red pockets and shoulder bands — This dress is going to have to wait until spring for me to finish it; I bought the fabric in Korea, realized I didn’t have enough, faffed around to try to find a coordinating solid Kona cotton, finally got it and cut out the pockets, piping, sleeve bands, button bands, and collar, and then lost all interest. I’m sure at some point I will get motivated to find tiny teal cherry buttons, but until then it will probably live in the UFO pile.

I also made two of my favorite Farrow jumpers, one at the beginning of 2023 and one a few weeks ago, both in basically the same color.

Dark fuchsia stripe wool jumper with pockets — This is a nice piece of wool that I’m pretty sure I bought at Vogue Fabrics in Evanston in the 90s? It only goes to show that you should never, ever, get rid of any fabric, ever. Someday the right project will come and wake it from its slumber. (It’s not so grabby around the hips when it’s being worn; my dress form is fuzzy and I am not.)

Maroon speckle Shetland flannel jumper — This is in that nice Kaufman Shetland speckle flannel. I love this style for winter; I wear it over a t-shirt and with ankle-length leggings and boots.

I also made one (heavily modified) Simplicity 7512:

Pink and yellow abstract Liberty lawn Villager-style shirtdress with pink buttons — Liberty lawn, pink buttons (blog post)

The most challenging thing I made this year was absolutely the Hove jacket from In The Folds:

Gray nylon hooded jacket with front zipper — You can see a bit of the bobbly stitching on the zipper at the bottom. All the seams are bias-bound! I underestimated the amount of fabric needed and had to reorder halfway through! All I can say is, my vast vocabulary of epithets and interjections really came in handy during this project. However, I wear it basically EVERY DAY, so it was worth it. And there’s some heavier wool fabric and reflective piping waiting on my sewing table right now for round two … gonna do a button band or snap closure for the next one (or maybe even toggles!) though.

The other thing I made in 2023 and use almost every day (and which gets the most comments of anything I wear, by far) is this project:

black canvas bag with 'you can always quit' in puffy-paint with a rainbow — I bought the “You Can Always Quit” t-shirt from the *Today in Tabs* newsletter, but (surprising nobody) I am not a puffy-paint t-shirt wearer. It sulked in my sewing room until I bought a cheap black canvas crossbody bag from Amazon. Then I cut out the logo and just zig-zagged it onto the bag.

It’s not technically sewing, but 2023 is also the year I made my first pair of footwear! I splurged on the (totally worth it) Rachel Sees Snail Shoes sandalmaking workshop:

Pink leather fisherman-style sandals with a quarter strap and black rubber soles

Absent on picture day: the Peppermint Pocket Skirt in black and white gingham seersucker (which I’ve actually not even worn yet); a complete failure of a shirtdress that will have to be broken down for parts (but might be tried again in a different fabric and/or size); an attempt at the Tilly and the Buttons Zadie dress in ponte (I made a mistake and ripping stitches in ponte is the ABSOLUTE WORST).

Which one do you like the most? (Pass over the ones you don’t like in silence.)

Iscatology

August 7, 2023 Erin3 Comments

I’m excessively pleased with this new variation of the Isca shirtdress. This is my third iteration (see #1, #2). The biggest change from the last version is that I swapped out the sleeves for a band sleeve (following Gertie’s great instructions) and somehow it lightens the whole mood? I made the band sleeves about 3 inches wide at the top which takes them darn near to flutter-sleeve territory, but not quite.

The fabric is Nani Iro Grace, in a linen/cotton—I don’t think it’s available any longer, but you can still get a few colorways of the gauze, which I’ve sewn with as well.

Don’t get me wrong—just because I’ve made a lot of changes (collar, sleeves, pockets …) to this pattern doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s a good pattern! It just means that I have very particular tastes. I like to think of these variations like a cover song. If it’s done right, it brings something to the original without taking anything essential away.

I’ve already picked out the fabric for the next round, it’s a rainbow stripe. I will probably change the armscye a bit to move it in at the top of the shoulder and up underneath the arm, but otherwise I’m pretty happy with my cover version!

Year of the Shirtdress Continues

June 19, 2023 Erin4 Comments

Hey, look, it’s another shirtdress!

Simplicity 7512 shirtdress in cream, pink, and yellow Liberty Tana lawn

This is Simplicity 7512, which I’ve probably bought three copies of in various sizes, and then never made any of them because I disliked the way the skirt was put together. But then I realized that I could just … change that, and so behold my preferred pockets:

Here’s the pocket with a big ol’ ruler in it, for scale:

Simplicity 7512 pocket hack (ruler for scale)

Here’s the zipper view; I actually couldn’t remember the last time I put in an invisible zipper:

Simplicity 7512 with fuchsia invisible side zip

I was a bit distracted and completely forgot to do my usual collar adjustment (based on the Fashion Incubator method) but it turned out mostly okay. (Tana lawn forgives a lot.)

Simplicity 7512 collar and bright pink buttons

For some reason I thought I’d bought this Liberty from The Fabric Store but maybe not? I don’t see anything in my receipts folder. I’m convinced it’s Liberty, but a quick image search doesn’t turn up anything.

I haven’t worn this a full day yet, but I could barely bring myself to take it off after I did the final try-on … it’s just delightfully comfortable. I don’t remember similar versions I’ve made before being as comfortable?

The other thing I like about this dress is that I’ve loved this style for … oh, since about I knew it existed. I bought a similar dress (a “Villager” knockoff) at the old Maxwell Street flea market in Chicago, in what probably was the last year there even was a Maxwell Street market. It was hanging on a chain-link fence, between vendors selling (what I now realize were probably stolen) tools and packs and packs of white tube socks. I wore it nearly to death, despite it being absolutely not sufficiently warm for Chicago nine months of the year (and despite it having no pockets).

When I first started wearing this style there was at least a little irony involved—I was a young person, wearing an old person’s dress. Now I am an old(er) person, still wearing the same dress (albeit with larger dimensions all around), and the irony has … evaporated? Depleted? Perhaps irony has a half-life, like radioactivity? I am looking for other examples of “irony depletion”, if you have them; not the phenomenon in which someone pretends to be something and then becomes that thing, but examples where time bridges an ironic distance. Maybe when punk bands play a cover of some easy-listening 70s tune and now, whoops, it’s almost 50 years later and now it’s their well-loved classic? Stuff like that. Anyway, you know where the comments are, have at it.

I’m gonna make this dress a LOT, I can feel it. Brace yourselves!

Dresscue Mission

February 26, 2023 Erin3 Comments

Before the holidays I did a wearable muslin of the Marilla Walker Isca shirtdress. I had very high hopes—the reviews were good, the diagonal bodice line had me dreaming of stripey wonders, and, of course, pockets!

I made it up in some nice brushed blue/black check shirting (no idea where this fabric came from, I feel like I’ve had it forever). The directions were excellent, especially given the unusual shoulder construction, and the fit was pretty good. The only alteration I made was to change the pointed collar to a rounded one.

The only problem was the pockets were too shallow. I kept losing things out of them when I sat down. Now, I don’t have very many requirements for pockets, but one hard and fast rule I do have is that things need to stay in them until I take them out.

Obviously I could just fix it in round two, but I really didn’t want to give up on the muslin, which had turned out more on the ‘wearable’ side than the ‘muslin’ side. But I didn’t have enough fabric to recut the front skirt (nor did I have enough ‘want to do it’ to recut the front skirt).

I did, however, have enough fabric to cut a few bias bands and enough ‘want to do it’ to undo just enough of the waist and side seams to shove them in:

The inner piping is where the original pocket edge ended; I sewed the new strip to the pocket edge (sewing in the ditch of the piping), then attached piping to the raw edge of the new strip. I used a strip of black hem facing tape to finish the inside of the bias strip (because I didn’t have enough of the check fabric to do so).

Here’s a closer view (the inner piping is fatter than the outer piping because, uh, things that are closer look bigger and also because I ran out of that size of piping cord):

And one with an iPad mini in it, for scale:

I also shortened the skirt by about three inches (did I unpick the original foldover hem and then redo it? Ha, no, I just folded it up and sewed it down, as my reserves of ‘want to do it’ were running quite low at this point).

The only other thing I wish I had enough fabric to change are the sleeves: I feel like that diagonal line of the bodice would be really cool if it extended to a little cap sleeve. I looked at a bunch of “draft a cap sleeve” instructions but … not enough fabric, and even my spiffy new LIGHT UP SEAM RIPPER didn’t inspire me to take off these (perfectly serviceable) set-in sleeves and see if I could recut them into caps.

I have some (lol “some” I have ENORMOUS QUANTITIES) of stripey fabric that I think will be good for the next round. There are a couple more projects in the queue before I will get there, but in the meantime, I can now wear this one!

2023: year of the shirtdress, for real this time

February 20, 2023 Erin2 Comments

“Yes, Erin, we’ve heard this before,” you say, and you’d be right—I don’t want to go back and search, but I’m pretty sure I’ve declared several previous Years of the Shirtdress, and then made … one. If that.

This time, though … that above is my third Matilda shirtdress, and I’m planning on making quite a few more. I actually bought the original non-curve-sized Matilda pattern yonks ago, realized how much work it was going to be to curvenize it (that’s the technical term), and it promptly went to the bottom of the pile. So when the curve version came out I was pretty enthusiastic, and the pile got shuffled somewhat.

I’ve since made it three times; this is the latest iteration. I will post the other two anon, but I wanted to get this posted sooner, because … well, I like it!

It’s not perfect by any means; the collar is a bit wonky on the left-hand edge (I might be able to just re-press it tho):

I like lots of things about this pattern: first off, the pockets are a good size, and patch pockets so very easy. The sleeve bands are fun, too:

I’m looking forward to really playing around with stripes and plaids next, because this pattern goes together really well.

There were some changes made: I had to raise the bust point a bit (but the pattern designer actually has a great tutorial for this). I think the collar stand is too tall, so I shortened it (and I might narrow the collar, too). I’d love to try this with a flat (Peter Pan) collar, but I haven’t wrapped my mind around that change yet. I also did the waistband buttonholes horizontally, instead of vertically, because that just feels better? Idk. Because this fabric is lightweight, I used hem binding instead of the ‘fold twice and sew’ method because I wanted a little extra weight. Next go-round I’m going to only use this (very good) fusible interfacing for the collar stand and front bands, and use organza for the waistband and the collar.

The pattern instructions want you to sew the bands to the front, flip them to the back, and then topstitch, but I am not nearly patient enough for that nonsense, so I did it the opposite way around. (This review has better instructions than that, search the page for ‘reverse method’.) With the reverse method you’re topstitching on the edge that needs to be sewn down, so you can focus on the topstitching bit, and not the “am I catching the loose edge on the side of the dress I can’t see” bit.

This fabric is (I think) Liberty Mark Tana lawn; I mean, it’s definitely the Mark pattern, I just can’t find a record of this colorway. I’m not usually a navy-blue person (I ended up using all my navy thread sewing this, and had to cheat with a little bit of a blue-purple in places). I figured this would be a good test run for whether this fabric works in Tana lawn, because I really like the print and it is SO BUSY that any little bobbles would be hidden, a kind of Where’s Waldo, but for sewing mistakes. It is also still kind of coldish here so I can wear this over a long-sleeved black tee and leggings. (Mixing navy and black is how you can tell the real fashion pros from the wannabees, right?)

On the easy-to-wear scale, where 10 is “pajamas you’ve had for >5 years” and 0 is “actual suit of armor” this is a solid 7. It hangs nicely, there’s good arm mobility with sleeve bands, the pockets are well-placed and ample, and the fit is trim without being constricting.

I won’t kid you—any shirtdress pattern is just going to be a lot of work. This one has a lot of pieces, and buttonholes, and interfacing, and a collar and and and … it’s definitely a “one bite at a time” pattern and not a “cut out Saturday morning, wear it Saturday night” pattern. I tried keeping track of how long it took me to complete each stage, and I’m pretty sure this was a 5-8 hour sew (for comparison, a dress like this is usually a 3-4 hour sew). Plus I generally like to approach buttonholes well-rested, after a light stretching session, and properly caffeinated ….

You might notice a new background to the pics—I’m now nicely settled in to my new sewing space! That’s a new dress form, too (her name is Dot, for obvious reasons). My previous dress form (RIP) was bought in the last century and succumbed to terminal foam-disintegration disease. That white drawer-thingy next to the dress in the first picture? That’s full of bias tape. Full, I tell you. (It’s not a problem, I’m sure I’ll use it all up before I die …)

Stay tuned for more Matildas, perhaps an Isca, and a vintage shirtdress! Really!

2022 Purge Accounting

June 25, 2022 Erin5 Comments

Well, my move is complete (…ish, so many more boxes of books to unpack!) and since the world is on fire, it’s time to tally up the dress purchases and send out the donations!

You lovely people bought 38 dresses (there are 39 marked off on the spreadsheet but I discovered one had a grease spot and needed to go to the ragbag instead) for a grand total of US$760.

I decided to split the donation into three parts, one for trans rights, one for abortion funds, and one for Ukraine.

Thanks for helping me find new homes for these dresses and send a little money to the folks fighting for us all to be safe and free.

Finally, gingko

April 2, 2022 Erin2 Comments

black cotton poplin with print of large gingko leaves in purple, blue, yellow, orange, and gray — gingko fabric!

The fabric above is from MaaiDesign in Australia (the actual fabric designer is Alicia Marshall from Winding Road Design Studio), and I CANNOT WAIT for it to arrive. I have been obsessing about gingko fabric basically forever (really, forever) and this is better than I could have hoped for, to wit:

cotton poplin
black background
multicolored leaves

Plus the shipping was … reasonable? for something coming from Australia?

Since we’re moving (imminently!) I had a fabric purchase moratorium in place but I made an emergency declaration and managed to get this one in under the wire. I may be throwing the parcel into the last box to be sealed (well, depending on shipping speed) but I was not going to miss out on ACTUAL GINGKO FABRIC.

Also, while you’re here: quick purge update! There are still a few dresses left, and since I realistically can’t buy any more fabric until at least June, I’ll be donating all the proceeds of the purge (net of shipping) to relief efforts for Ukraine and trans rights orgs. So grab the last dresses while you can, I’ll officially declare the purge done on 1 May!

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