analog me

A dress!

While a botched project sits stuffed on a chair, I, emboldened by Jessica, finished a dress this weekend. Vogue 8232.

It's amazing how fast a project can be finished when it fits. Just a few tweaks: SBA, sway back, lengthened bodice, cut the back a size larger than front and gave the waist and skirt a bit more ease. No wonder I avoid projects that have to fit more than one half of my body. Since I have this pattern nailed, maybe I will just make more versions of it for the rest of my sewing career.

 I think the belt makes it, though. It's a grosgrain ribbon with a vintage plastic buckle.

A Maxi Skirt.

Yes, I got swept up in maxi fever with everyone else.

I drafted a simple, elastic waist long skirt, added pockets with an inverted pleat. (Of course it was a bit harder than that, but let's forget about the hard stuff). I wanted something sort of loose and flowey but when I first tried it on I immediately thought of this,

and realized it needed a lining too. (Who else remembers the shock of lady Di with NO SLIP !) According to my extensive online research, my impulse to mask the shape of my legs is another sign of my elderly generation. Tell me readers, do you wear slips? Do you even own one?

I do love wearing this skirt, and it gets bonus points for repelling mosquitos.

I'm finding the maxi skirt trend interesting because it hit my neighborhood hard about 10 years ago when 20,000 Somalis moved to Minnesota, and the majority settled in Cedar Riverside, just two train stops away. I used to work smack-dab in the center of that East African community and I found it amazing how some women could look so seductive in clothes that covered so much up. Of course, some teenage girls wear their knit skirts as tightly as possible. But even women in looser styles look consistently pretty good in their long skirts. And they are spared the pain of trying to find pants that fit. (Of course, all the Muslim women wear opaque slips and (often even jeans) under their skirts to assure modesty.)

That was my immersion in the maxi skirt world and so it's been interesting to see it move into the mainstream where I see exactly the same things: young things looking hot in tight knits, bright prints finally getting the space they need to explode, flowy skirts on shy women like me. They look good on everyone, I think. Catherine might have the loveliest hand made collection, though.

The other huge trend among the Somali ladies is what I called the hijab head-set. That's when the cell phone is jammed tightly under the head scarf so that women can yak on the phone hands free. It makes so much sense to be able to use your hands while talking, and it doesn't look dorky like a blue tooth. Maybe this will be the trend of 2022 ?

Hippo-y Skirt

For a couple years now these Hippopotamuses have been comic muses to my sewing poet. Every time I would dig through my fabric stash, they would bellow at me to bring them out to play upon some clothing canvas. I couldn't concentrate on sensible solids or age-appropriate prints until they had their day. 

Have you ever struggled to march animals in chevrons across a skirt?  Especially hippos that don't walk straight across the grain and are alternatingly upside down and right side up? I couldn't find any guidance for the bias cutting of novelty animal prints and finally just had to use my judgement. Then I cut the waistband on the grain and found the Hippopotamuses (Hippopatami?) went off-kilter though do I think the piping helps to keep them in bounds. 

Hippos!

My errant muses inspired me to finish this a couple weeks ago, but I haven't really had the same compulsion to wear it. Makes me wonder: what is the occasion for a Hippo skirt? A trip to the zoo? Toddler reading hour at the Library? Umm. . . oh yes! Jumping around in the alley ! 

Ginger Skirt with Hippos!

 I made some modifications to the Ginger pattern again: addition of pockets as before and adjustment of the waistband so that it wouldn't gape on top. I did this my slicing the waistband down from the top leaving a little hinge on the bottom and overlapping about about 1/4" to subtract a total of an inch from the top.

The great thing about this modification is that it created a contoured waistband that connected perfectly to the skirt. See?

I also gave the waistband a heavy interfacing so it won't sag and  I eviscerated the piping at center back so that it wouldn't interfere so much with the invisible zip. Also, I found out that zippers put into bias cut fabric MUST be stabilized first. This fabric is pretty coarsely woven and the bias cut made the center back seam stretch so the zipper ripples. I redid it once and it still looks bad.

The other bother is that I don't really know how to coordinate anything with this as the blue and red are so quintessentially 1970s. Today I am wearing it with a short sleeve Lydia T -shirt I made last month and a jean jacket.

I now have five Ginger skirts: two silly Ginger Skirts, a serious Ginger and the exposed zip outlier.  And now, I will go back to the fabric pile with hopes that my next muse will not be so capricious. 

 

paying attention

I find that as I repeat a project I have to start adding innovations. Otherwise, I don't concentrate my mind moves off to other jobs, my hands go on autopilot, and mistakes are made.

Adding pockets and gathers were the innovations that helped me keep me mindfull of my sewing through the first half of making my newest Gingery skirt.

But when I started assembling the skirt (which I had done 3 times before) I started daydreaming, put the zipper in wrong, which led to waistband problems, and then ripping, sewing, swearing, ripping, and, finally, I opened a beer. This made concentration difficult enough that I had to slow down and pay attention. Then, I finished it up. Hmm maybe this is Oona's trick?

I have one more Ginger planned.

I'm going to add piping, pockets and something else guaranteed to keep me on task:

Hippos!

 

Messiness has its rewards

Sometimes when you have fabirc and zippers and patterns laying all over your room, and then you scoop it all up and dump it in a chair, the disorder leads to a previously unimagined combination.

Batik fabric from Ghana+Big metal Zipper salvaged from a jacket+Ginger pattern=

Exposed Zipper Ginger! I never would have thought of that if I had tried.

I only had one yard of this fabulous fabric I bought from a textile artist from Ghana a couple years ago. She made the print by carving a pattern in styrofoam, dipping it in wax, printing the fabric with the wax and then dying the fabric. The wax resists the dye, making the pattern and then she removes the wax and washes the fabric, so it's a pretty involved process. Because it is all hand stamped, the fabric doesn't really have regular repeats.

I've decided the Ginger pattern actually needs a couple of tweaks. See how the center front is wrinkling? I think that an A-line skirt like this needs the front to be a bit more scooped out at the top. My other blue Ginger does this too. It's a liitle thing, but I'm going to fix this and some of the corners that really should be 90 corners where they intersect with the waistband.

Then I'm going to see if my messy room has any other interesting combinations to be made.

Anyone else ever have a happy accident like this?