Simplicity 2406 in progress: don't give me the cold shoulder

Here's the dress I've been working on.  I still have to hem it, deal with the sleeve length, figure out what to do with the sash, and sew the right pocket.  (yes, that is a binder clip on my right hip, holding that pocket area together).



When I went to the American Sewing Expo in Novi, MI last September, reps from Simplicity were there  and one of them was wearing the Cynthia Rowley 2406 dress.    It looked really amazing on the rep and thus it went onto the list of patterns I must make.

The rep made view B, in the same navy blue as the picture on the  pattern envelope.  That's when I learned that a dress with these sleeves with the peak-a-boo shoulders is known as a "cold shoulder dress".  It also has a dramatic open back. 



Since I want to wear the dress to work, I cut out view C, which has raglan sleeves.  I sewed the dress straight up the back.  No zipper needed.

In the first picture above, I just tied the sash.  In this picture below, I tied the sash but then pulled up on the fabric above the sash so it's more like the pattern photo.  It creates a slightly different effect.




Here's a side view.


At PR weekend Chicago, Cennetta told me she appreciates reviews that talk about problems with fit, like mine.  I haven't made any fitted garments since last year so it was a good reminder that yes, I talk about fit!

I cut this in a straight 12.  The fabric is navy blue linen-look fabric from Hancock Fabrics.

• First, the neckline is too wide and I hate worrying about bra straps showing.  So I took a one inch wedge out of the center back, reducing the neckline by 2 inches.  You can see below the neckline is smaller.  I hadn't sewn the wedge yet in the pic, but it is sewn now.

Here's when it's just clipped.  You know I love binder clips for fitting issues!


The directions for the pockets are the worst directions I ever read but I "trusted" them and forged ahead, ugh.  I got the left pocket sewn (and you can see my left hand in my pocket in some of the pix) but I'm still playing with the right pocket.   I honestly thought  I took a picture of what the pockets looked like after I followed the directions, but I did not.  They were hysterical.  I then got out my Singer Photo Guide to Sewing and followed those directions instead.  Still I am having issues with the pockets.  The left one is ok and will stay.  The right one is in danger of being axed.

The sash is another issue.  It's supposed to go around the waist twice (oh in the pix above, it is still inside out).  It barely makes it around my waist twice.  I really like the effect of the sash going around twice, because it kind of makes it look like an obi or that there is a waistband.  So I could add a 5 inch chunk or so in the middle of the sash to make the sash longer.    Or I could just let it go as-is.

Also I am playing with sleeve length.   The original sleeve length is in the first few pix; the last few have the sleeves rolled up.  I think I might actually like the look of rolled up sleeves!  The pattern wants you to elasticize the sleeve bands with fat elastic but I don't like that look--too much like sweats. 

Another issue is I had problems with the facings matching the neckline of the dress, so I had to let the facings out, but that may have been an error with me cutting since no one else on PR mentioned this (unlike the pockets, which were mentioned a lot).  Then the back of the dress is supposed to have gathers at the neckline.  No one else commented on this either, but there wasn't very much room for gathers, they came out really weak looking, so I eliminated them entirely and just took it out of the CB seam (and they would have had to go anyway after I took out the wedge from the neckline).

I had to play with the front gathers to get them to where I like them to be.  Finally they look fine.

So I had been really struggling with the dress, and without the sash it looks like a shapeless choir gown, so at one point I thought about abandoning it, but I read the reviews on PR again and it gave me the courage to continue on!  I hope to finish this dress next weekend.

Friday night friends came over.  I cooked minestrone and they brought cake from LaBon, yum!


And Jasmine gave me flowers from her garden. I love them, bugs and all!


My mom gave me these very cool looking green carnations on Thursday. I like them with my red couch and white chair and pillow.

Here are my library books.  I read almost all of "Click:  The Magic of Instant Connections" on the plane to and from Chicago.  I'll read "The Myth of Stress;  Where Stress Really Comes From and How to Live a Healthier and Happier Life" next.  I'm guessing it's going to say that it's our reaction to events that creates stress, not necessarily the events themselves...


Good night and be well!

Food food food

Such a nice Christmas Eve! I woke up at my regular time, but instead of going to work I went to my favorite gym class taught by my favorite instructor, came home and loaded my sleigh for the trip to my parents. We had such a nice afternoon, including a visit from my best friend growing up, Maria,
her husband and baby, and our traditional Christmas Eve present opening.

Here is the big surprise I made for my mom:
Hershey's chocolate cake and frosting both from scratch:


Oh yes yummy yummy goodness!  Though I should have put more milk in the frosting; it was a bit difficult to spread.



I enjoyed the look on my mom's face when I brought the cake through the door.  She said, "I'm hiding this in the kitchen.  No one else is getting this."

The cake plate was purchased by my mom at a yard sale. Super cute, isn't it?

I also made cookies for my mom

and some for Maria too:


That marks my 700th cookie made since 11/14/10.
The tag is made from a rubber stamp mom gave me.

In other food news, my coworker Nadia made me brownies. Her brownies are my favorite brownies ever!  At this point I had almost eaten all of them, but they are all gone now.


And my coworker Brenda made me flan! Yummy too!  that sugary syrupy sauce is sooo good.  (love the reflection of my dining room lamp in the flan!)


I can hear my parents snoring, so all is right with the world.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Last rose of the season; Simplicity 3628 day 4; more cake; more corduroy

A post in 4 parts today:
part 1: The last rose of the season
So I thought the last rose of the season was last week? 2 weeks ago? But here, I present you with the last rose of the season. It had started to bud when it suddenly turned cold, but a warm spell the last few days has made it bloom, hurrah!


Part 2: the birthday jacket.
Tonight I finished the second sleeve hem by hand. I then tackled the jacket hem. I tried the instructions but the hem came out ugly. I used that as my starting point for a hand stitched hem. It's not great and it's starting to feel Becky Home Ecky but it will do for now. I definitely need more practice with jacket hems!


Tomorrow night is button and buttonhole time.
The pattern calls for three 3/4 inch buttons. Which do you like better:
3/4" brown:

1" mother of pearl:

3/4" aqua-ish


Then Thurs night will be the running stitches and Friday I'll wear it to work!

Part 3: cake story continued:
Yes, my coworker thought there was a lot of "left over" cake and that I must have baked a lot for there to be two whole cakes leftover in the fridge. We laughed about it again today.

I have learned that Sally's mom calls the cake "ice box" cake and makes it more of a log shape than a square like I did.

Laurie's mom would make it for Lincoln's birthday and called it a Lincoln Log.

Part 4: corduroy
Thanks everyone for sharing your corduroy love (or lurve for one Mary Nanna who is so deeply in love, it's lurve).
I wear cords almost every day in winter except when I want to wear a cord jacket (so I wear velveteen pants those days because a cord jacket and cord pants is just too much corduroy, even for me).
When I bought my new couch I contemplated buying a corduroy couch, but it didn't come in red, just brown, which was a bit too much like the corduroy couch growing up...take a nap and wake up with wale marks on your face! Good times.

Good night!

Birthday cake, love of corduroy and one sleeve hemmed

A post, in three parts.
Part 1: birthday cake.
Where I work, when it's your birthday, you bring in the celebratory item.
Last night I made 2 refrigerator cakes. They are ugly cakes that taste great because it's made from a pint of heavy whipping cream (with 2 tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla) and Famous Chocolate Wafers.

The wafers soak up the cream while in the fridge and it becomes cake-like. and very, very delicious. I actually made two, but here's the one on the cute cake dish.

I sent the email to my coworkers this morning that cake would be at 2:30. One coworker misread it and thought the cake was this morning and that she missed it while at a meeting. After lunch she took a slice from the cake thinking it was leftover. and then when she went to email me to tell me how good it was, she re-read it and realized that cake wasn't for another hour. Oh, how we all laughed!


Part 2: love of corduroy.
Mary Nanna commented on my choice of corduroy for my birthday jacket. I love corduroy, always have, always will, though velveteen is coming in a close second lately.
Just look at all the corduroy I have bought in the last month alone. (some of it is "uncut" corduroy, or without wales. Neat, huh? Well, yes, if you like corduroy.)




Part 3: sleeve hemming.
I spent too much time playing with the collar tonight (which had been fine, with one tiny flaw, which I tried to correct, which has created a larger flaw which I will now overlook, lesson learned, leave well enough alone). So I only hemmed one sleeve; the other is pinned though.


Judging by how long it took me to hem the sleeve by hand, I was thinking of giving the instructions for hemming the hem a try with the machine, as per the instructions. I'm going to try it tmw night. If it works, it will save a lot of time.

Good night!

Happy Birthday to me!

McRib update: My ribs hurt the most while getting out of bed--that is still quite painful. But once I'm up, after about a half hour, things seem to get better and I can breathe without pain. I thought it might be better tonight, so I laid down for a little while--but when I got back up, owwwww....still hurts. a lot. for half an hour. Need to find an easier way to get out of bed.

Enough about that, it's my birthday, woo!

Pete was sweet and made me a cupcake card. Love the style.

Here's the inside:

Love how the exclamation point ends in a cupcake!!

My friend Debbie sent me a package. I haven't opened it yet. Love this outer wrap:


Meg sent me this great flower card:


Plus I had nice greetings from folks at work. One coworker gave me carnations, another gave me almonds and kitchen towels, and a third gave me a neat wooden card and chocolate!!

At my workplace, the person who is having a birthday brings the celebratory items for the office to eat, instead of the other way around. I made two refrigerator cakes last night. Making them was a total comedy of errors (usually it's quite simple), but eating them was fun. They are messy looking cakes (I forgot to take pix) that taste delicious. One of my coworkers said, "what happened to the cake?" when she saw it. I had two people, at separate times, tell me they like the cake but they also like my cookies. Not to fear, I'll bake them for the Thanksgiving buffet at work. One of those coworkers specified that she wanted to make sure I bake them with walnuts. Fear not, I always bake them with walnuts.

Oh! and before work I stumbled on the Simplicity pattern (2618) I was looking for!! I looked at the SPR gallery > saw a jacket > looked at jacket in sewer's flickr album > picture before jacket in flickr album was of their fall wardrobe plan > one of the line drawings in wardrobe plan was the shirt!! > Pattern number was on the drawing > I went to the simplicity site and looked at the pattern. > Went back to SPR and found the original review (linked above) > I found the pattern on ebay for a total of $6 (ok, so it's not the $1 sale at Joann's, but when have I ever spent $1 at Joann's. Exactly). > Already got the confirmation from seller that it was shipped. Can't wait to make it!!!

And my parents are going to buy me a dressform; I just need to select one.

After work I went to the consignment shop. I tried things on but didn't buy anything. I also broke a hanger accidentally. I told the salesclerk and she said it happens all the time.

Project Runway is on tonight but I don't know if I'll make it til 10pm. They do rerun it at 9pm (and 10pm) on Fridays.

Here's a parting shot for tonight. It's a closeup of the final farmer's market flowers for the 2009 season. Farmer's Market, I'll see you next year!!