37 bottles of beer on wall. 37 bottles of beer. take one down, pass it around--

this weekend, i drafted & sewed 5 belt loops.



then i sewed 19 pewter screwhead buttons onto the dress using a bespoke method (combo of this & this). why a bespoke method? because it's the right way to sew a button (who knew?) it seemed like a great & noble idea for about 5 buttons (at 12-15 mins per button) but then i was over it. i almost wimped out & sewed the damn buttons on any which way just to get it over with, but i talked myself out of it.



then i tried to make a belt. that went really badly. the rescue belt in the photo is just a thin piece of fabric that will have to suffice until i can find a skinny pewter-colored belt to replace it on ebay or etsy.

lastly, i dealt with the hem. i'm embarrassed to say how long it took me to cut the excess fabric off, even the edge & then apply bias tape to it. there were no directions for going around the kick pleat (which by the way is miniscule & looks weird because i had to chop off about 10 inches from the bottom of the skirt), so i had to do some thinking there. while i was at it, i reinforced the seam at the top of the pleat because i know me-- one exuberant jog down a flight of steps & the pleat seam's a goner.

what's left? i didn't do buttonholes on the front placket, because i just know i'd mangle the front trying to button all those buttons & end up looking like something the cat dragged in before i've even left the house. so i need to sew some snaps in there.

i also have to hand stitch the hem & there are a few other things left to do but i forgot what they are. i have to bake a cake for C's birthday tomorrow & get a run in before the sun sets.

--36 bottles of beer on the wall.

vintage hem marker.

i bought the coolest vintage hem marker on ebay awhile back. it belonged to a lady's grandmother who was a professional seamstress.

this one didn't look like any of the others i'd seen in my searches. it had no rubber tubing or pump. my mom & i were a little puzzled about how it worked, but the seller was able to explain the basic details. i finally got a chance to test it out on the shirtwaist dress.

there are 2 wooden rulers attached to a cast iron base-



there's a little screw top lid on the bottom of this cup where you put the chalk in. (SOOZ- the pill crusher was perfect for grinding up the chalk!) the spout in front is where the chalk comes out-



the cup is attached to the rulers with a clamp. you adjust the height of the cup to where you want your hem-



one of the rulers is set into the cup. you pump this ruler up & down & it shoots the chalk out of the spout & marks a thin line on your garment.

it's really hard to properly mark a hem while taking a picture of yourself properly marking a hem, but here's the initial attempt-

these vintage skirts tend to be 10 yards longer than necessary & my first guess was off, so i had to adjust the height & go around again. & what with all the leaning to & fro to try to get a decent picture of the process it now looks like birds have made a mess on my skirt-

but you get the picture.

obviously, i need to tighten up my technique but the marker works great!

See cross-post here.

don't sew when you're tired.

...

to get the bodice to lie flat & to prevent the skirt from bunching up along the waistband, i ended up adding 2 small darts to the bodice back & then widening the 4 darts on the skirt back which then had to be moved to align with everything that was going on with the bodice.

i also put the zipper in, finished all of the seam edges & added bias tape along the waistband which supposedly prevents it from stretching out.





i'd like to say i'm almost finished, but i'm not. i still need to set the sleeves, put cuffs on them, hem the dress, make a belt & belt loops & sew all the buttons on.

good luck.

this pattern also came with cheesy sleeve plackets, so i drafted my own again, widened the cuffs to accommodate my buttons (i found buttons) & applauded myself for having the foresight (for once) to realize that if i widen the cuffs, i need to shorten the sleeves. i was even a little patient during the whole math process to figure all this out.

then, i attached the skirt to the bodice three times & it's still not right, so i'm going in again.

to attach the skirt to the bodice, the pattern instructions say to "match side seams" and the 2 medium-sized DOTS. what they don't say is that unless you're going for an unflattering spirograph pattern of unaligned seams and darts, you might also want to consider matching:

1) the seam made by the front button placket with the center front line on the skirt
2) the 2 front darts on the bodice with the 2 front pleats on the skirt
3) the center back line on the bodice with the back kick pleat on the skirt
4) the 2 back darts on the bodice with the 4 back darts on the skirt.

of course once that was accomplished, the bodice gaped oddly in one place and the skirt gaped oddly in another, so i have to add some more darts.

the people who write these instructions must be stoned or if they're not, somebody needs to tell them that sometimes trying is worse than doing nothing at all. just print GOOD LUCK on the pattern envelope & call it a night.

i complain, but the truth is that i have a lot more patience with sewing now than i had in the past. it's just like everything else. engage plan b.

also, maybe 6 people now have asked me WTH i was thinking when i chose this as something 'easy' to sew. collar? sleeves? cuffs? facings?

yeah, yeah.

so much for easy.

major bodice alterations.



major.

i had to remove who knows how many inches of fabric from the bust and the back, plus reshape the 2 front darts in order to get this to approach something that actually fit. & the pattern is my size.

time to create a bodice sloper.

shopping.

*6 yards of muslin

*the black zippers i forgot on the last trip

*replenished the thread supply

*a fab remnant for $21.99--> 3 yards of really nice navy cotton for the shirtwaist dress:



i switched to doing the view on the right because let's face it-- i'd look like a fool walking around in the one on the left.

& since they're so important to me, i'm already considering the buttons. so far, anything that matches navy cotton seems to imply that i'm somehow into sailing, yachting or planning lobster boils. while i've nothing against these activities, that's not the look i want to achieve. maybe the answer is tortoiseshell.

*bias tape for the shirtwaist dress because i'm just not ready to approach making the bias tape again.

*2 yards of nonfusible interfacing because, ladies & gentleman, i've reached the point in my sewing "career" where i've decided fusible interfacing is crap & i deserve something better.

easy.

mom suggested i take a break from grading vintage patterns & figuring out fit issues to sew something easy & fun.

as always, mom's got the right idea, so i found a couple of easy vintage patterns. like the shirtwaist dress above on the left. how hard could it be? the pattern is my size, the skirt is full, so i doubt i'll have to alter anything there. at worst, i might have to do a little something to the bodice but we're talking minimal fit issues. just what i'm looking for.

i've wanted to do a shirtwaist dress for awhile, but couldn't recall why until i found this fabric


which made me remember the amazing stripey madness of Claire McCardell's mitered shirtwaist dress. you need to click the photo for the larger image in order to fully appreciate her brilliant work with those stripes.


(Photo source: from the book Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism by Kohle Yohannan and Nancy Nolf, published 1998).

Day dress and belt. Cotton, leather. 1949. Mitered cotton shirtwaist dress with bias-cut bodice. McCardell's favorite sleeve: cut on the bias and all in one with the bodice. The paneled skirt is cut on the straight grain & pieced horizontally, creating an optical visual effect when seen from the front.

for a minute there, i actually thought it would be tremendous loads of fun piecing together a few stripes for my new shirtwaist dress.

you know, a breezy weekend with the sewing machine. finally.

major visual disasters everywhere.