Cargo Style Summer Shorts: Vogue 1958. I’m not even a normal short wearing person, but I must say these are the best drafted shorts sewing pattern I have ever ran across. It is currently my favorite short pattern and has been added to my list of tried-and-true patterns. I literally love everything about this pattern from the gusset cargo pockets to the old 80’s mom shorts feel of this pattern. I don’t know why, but in all my years of sewing I had somehow never sewn gusset pockets before now, but thanks to a great YouTube tutorial my fears were unfounded. I will definitely be sewing the pant version of this pattern in the future.
FABRIC – This summery goodness of a fabric is a striped navy and white cotton shirting from LA Finch Fabrics. This fabric was gifted to me in exchange for a review/blog post, but I honestly would have done this for free, because I plan on going back to purchase more of this fabric. LA Finch Fabrics is one of my favorite and rare Long Beach local fabric spots, and Josie the owner is one of the nicest people you could meet. While it is a predominantly online store, there is also a brick and mortar store for anyone that wants to pick up their purchases locally or pop in to purchase in person.
STYLE – Almost zero styling here, as I was going for a paired down casual look. I had on a pair of white Van’s, a graphic tee and prescription sunglasses.
Since my last post at the end of January, I swung from no sewjo to creative overwhelm. I wanted to sew all the things all at once. The end result is that I didn’t sew anything, frozen for the longest in indecision. I cycled through pattern prepping a number of patterns and fabrics that I ultimately set aside, because while everything was calling me, nothing was giving me that energetic hit that comes when I’m sewing a project I’m excited about. I did this wash, rinse and repeat more than a few times before I found myself literally saying: “Get back to basics”! Once I begin thinking about the basics, then the idea of creating some classic wardrobe staples, the timeless pieces that hold up in any woman’s rotation of go-to clothing pieces. Suddenly all of my sewing ideas narrowed down immediately to the classic shirt dress. It’s no secret that Ralph Lauren is one of my favorite designers. For me Ralph Lauren has always represented the essence of American quiet luxury; well-tailored but timeless silhouettes that you own forever. He is one of the few designers whom I will drop money on to add investment pieces to my closet. I also gladly buy Ralph Lauren second hand when I find it at consignment shops. That’s the true mark of classic tailoring: it never goes out of style. So in that train of thought, came the Ralph Lauren inspired look button-down shirt dress, because while I love the look of Ralph Lauren, my pocketbook doesn’t (laughing).
PROJECT DETAILS:
Ralph Lauren Inspired Shirt Dress: McCall’s 7351, View D. This is the quintessential simple shirt dress pattern. It has a bit of a 90’s shirt dress feel to it, which seems like all the craze right now. I’d had this pattern in sewing queue for about as long as it’s been out, which was 2016. Quite frankly it’s a big part of my creative overwhelm recently. I have an obscene amount of patterns and fabric and I want to sew everything, but the indecision that comes with too many choices can be just as debilitating. To create the classic look I had in mind, I wanted the dress to be midi. That was the only modifications I made to this pattern. I increased the length of the skirt by a whopping eight inches. The reason why I added so much length, was because I knew I was going to use at least two inches on the hem alone, and while the original pattern length is great, I wanted to be able to get maximum twirl potential. This is often a wonderful but dangerous fabric thing to do when you’re dealing with a circle skirt, not to mention the math and calculating adding length while keeping the circumference accurate. Thankfully one of the benefits of cutting a circle skirt is the ability to cut it on a cross fold which gives you the maximum length that you will never get on a regular selvage fabric fold (please bear with me any non-sewing people who just chewed through all of that sew talk, ha ha!).
FABRIC – The real MVP of this project was the fabric. This heavy draped 100% Tencel twill is the stuff of fabric dreams. I found it at one of my handful of beloved shops that I frequent in the LA Fashion District. On this particular trip at one such place an employee pointed out this roll of white fabric and declared it had my name written all over it. He’d been hoping I’d stop in before it was sold out. I promptly bought the last of the roll at $2 a yard. This is easily a $30 plus a yard fabric. It washes, sews and pretty much behaves like a dream. While sewing with it, I did run into a bit of a delicacy to the fabric that is not typical, which indicated to me that this particular deadstock fabric was pretty old and had been sitting for some time somewhere before the shop bought it, because it had a little bit of dry rot damage that only showed up if you snagged the fabric in just the wrong way. Even with that minor inconvenience, this fabric by far exceeded my expectations for this project. Tencel twill has the most luscious drape. To me it combines the best of all worlds fabric wise. You get the drape of a silk/satin, but the stability and weight of a woven twill.
STYLE – I had on a pair of dark curry mustard yellow colored silk Sam Edelman Yaro sandal heels, which they no longer make since these were a limited edition seasonal color. I had on my usual gold hoop earrings with my now vintage Anne Klein gold watch.
2024 has been off to a great start, but for the last few months I’ve been drowning in a sort of lethargic no where’s land when it came to sewing. What do you do when your sewjo is hopelessly lost and dead, but you have all the free time in the world to sew for once? This was the prospect I’d been faced with the last few months. I was in-between jobs, having decided to take a few months off after my last job moved to Tennessee. With time and plenty of money to trick off on fabric, I just could not find the creativity I needed to get to sewing on anything that seemed to make me excited. I eventually simply stopped trying to create. I focused instead on decluttering the house and truly resting my mind, hoping that that too might spark something. The reset didn’t happen until right as the New Year was coming in and I found myself mentally having a funeral for my sewjo. I pictured myself dressed in the most theatrical black dress like a grieving widow and even pictured the casket being lowered in the ground. Morbid in a sense I know, but visualizing things are a form of manifestation that is extremely powerful. I use this practice in all areas of my life as you have to visual what you want in order to manifest it
PROJECT DETAILS:
Sweater Dress with an Evening Dress Influence: Self-Drafted pattern. Once I had the mental funeral for my lost creativity, the ideas began to flow and majorly. What arrived was the idea of an evening gown, but as a sweater dress. I wanted the lines of an evening gown, but with the ease and wearability of a sweater dress. This is one of the beauties of being able to sew and create garments. If you can think it and draft it, you can create it. I’m not a pattern maker by a stretch, but it’s something I’ve been building my skillset slowly in, since you have to be able to understand the premise of pattern making in order to create original designs from scratch. One of the things I have learned over the years, is that you can fudge this skillset a bit, if you understand pattern construction and basic pattern blocks. It’s one of the easiest ways to begin pattern drafting. Begin with patterns, commercial, indie or otherwise as your base, or you can create your own slopers based off your body measurements that serve as your pattern base and create pieces from those. I use a combination of all the above when it comes to pattern drafting. I start with base pattern pieces and then modify them to fit my needs. I’ve found a couple of great pattern making textbooks from fashion school curriculums over the years that has helped tremendously. Most importantly you have to be willing to make as many muslins as needed until you get your pattern fit and design just right.
FABRIC – This fabric is surprisingly heavy, but is one of the best quality ponte knits I’ve ever run across. I’ve seen this fabric go for $35 or more a yard online, but thanks to the Los Angeles Fashion District, I snagged it for $2 a yard and so I bought myself 10 yards of it, since it was only 45” wide. With the circle dress piece of this dress, I knew I would have to be creative, since circle skirts always eat up a ton of fabric. With only a couple of mishaps (Two sets of sleeves later) along the way to creation, I used almost all 10 yards. I believe I was left with maybe a yard and some change once I was one cutting out everything.
STYLE – I wearing my favorite lipstick with a pair of earrings that I found in a flea market in Fiji during my last birthday trip with a pair Sam Edelman burgundy red colored platform sandal heels. It was wash day, so my hair shrank and fro’d it’s way to this crowning glory, and I just let it be as is, though my attempt to wrangle it some with a hair band went unnoticed since my hair decided to eat that too lol.
This past month I have been moving a bit slow sewing wise. While it was not a complete loss of sewjo, life took priority. I also seem to have too many things that I want to sew, as I couldn’t decide what to sew next for the longest. I finally decided on a menswear pattern. We have so few of them on the market in comparison to the women patterns, but I really love what the new sewing generation of men have been doing. They’ve really been knocking the designs out of the park. I love the eye for detail and tailoring that the men patterns tend to have, and I’ve noticed that their patterns tend to be far better drafted than the women.
PROJECT DETAILS:
Men’s Wear Matching Set : Simplicity 9758 , view B and view C. This is the quintessential summer set designed for men, but clearly can work for the women as well. The first thing that I noticed right off was how well drafted the pattern pieces were, even in the construction directions, it was the eye for ease of sewing that I loved the most about this pattern. I love wearing Bermuda shorts, on the rare occasions that I wear shorts, so I knew that I wanted to go with view C for the shorts since those were the longer version.
FABRIC – Cotton and Linen is the “IT” fabrics of the summer season, so I’m always thrilled when I can find a cotton/linen blend that combined the best of both worlds. I’d discovered this fabric quite by accident. I popped into the brick and mortar of LA Finch Fabrics looking for rayon challis for an upcoming jumpsuit. While I picked up the rayon, my eyes flew to this fabric, which had just been received in the store. I’m so glad I bought some, as this has been a dream to sew with and I love the watercolor design so much, it definitely screams tropical vacation look.
STYLE – I had on a pair of Schutz Gold Sandals, with my usual gold hoop earrings and stacking gold bangles bracelets and a Target tank.
I’d originally planned on having this dress done a week or more ago. As I mentioned in my last post, I was almost done with my dress when I ran out of fabric and I had to stop to wait for my order to arrive. In the meantime while I waited, I also got conscripted into making a set of window curtains for my pops. It’s something I’ve done for him since I first learned how to sew, and every few years he volunteers me to make him a new pair, laughing. He sent me home at Christmas with the fabric he’d picked out and purchased, which I almost forgot about until he started casually asking me at every phone call, laughing again.
I’ve had in my mind a color blocked dress for a while. I so love playing with different colors and textures lately. I know this won’t be my last color blocked look or even dress for my vacation capsule looks. I’m not sure yet how many looks I will make in total, but I plan to continue to sew right up until I leave for my vacation. My sewjo thankfully has been holding at full steam ahead even with my fabric hiccup issue.
PROJECT DETAILS:
Color Blocked Wrap Maxi Dress : McCall’s 8036 , view C. This dress has been in my sewing queue since it came out a few years ago, but I just never got around to sewing it. As a busty woman I have a complicated relationship with wrap dresses for a lot of reasons. The biggest is that they cut your bust in a weird place, and often just make your bust look even larger, which is not something I need any additional help with. But leave it up to me to be determined to still make a wrap dress regardless. This particular pattern, to my surprise does a better job than most wrap dresses of being far more flattering to us busty ladies. I did run into a little bit of an issue with the facings that I had to correct on the pattern. The neck facing and the front top bodice facing were not long enough, so I had to re-draft them to the exact measurements of the dress neck and bodice top in order to continue, but once I got pass that small hiccup, it was really smooth sailings on making this dress. It’s a very straightforward and relatively quick sew. I also under-stitched my facings, which is something the directions didn’t mention, but is always a good thing to do when dealing with facings and making sure they lay correctly. My only modification to this pattern was to increase the length by six inches, as I wanted more of a maxi length look. I also in hindsight wished I’d added pockets to this dress. It really feels like it should have pockets, though the pattern did not include any. I found myself constantly reaching like I had them in this dress.
FABRIC – For such a natural fabric, linen for some reason is kind of pricey. Which is where Mood Fabrics comes in. They have an excellent line of reasonably priced linen with exclusive colorways that you cannot find anywhere else. I know, I shamelessly plug Mood Fabrics (not paid, just my personal enthusiasm) but as a sewist & designer, they are my version of Disney World. I’ve been a Mood Insider for years now, so when this fabric came up for early purchase before it was released to the public on their website, I snapped it right up. The main fabric is item #MD1036 which is part of the Mood Exclusive Metro Collection which is a collection inspired by New York City. My accent fabric is item #MD0973 and is part of the Mood Exclusive Jack-O-Lantern Collection, which has a Halloween inspired theme.
STYLE – Almost zero styling here, since I was just trying to get some quick photos. I had on a pair of Nine West black suede Mary Jane pumps, with my usual gold hoop earrings and my favorite charm bracelet I found at BCBG Maxazria ages ago.
This post is long overdue, considering that I posted the pictures of this outfit at least a couple of weeks ago on Instagram. I feel like I’ve been moving through a slow moving brain fog lately, where I’m working and doing things, yet my mind hasn’t settle on one thing at a time. It doesn’t help that all I can think about these days is a much needed vacation and some down time. I’m hoping that by summer once my current work situation wraps up, I’ll get to take some extended time off along with a vacation that‘s now been booked and paid for to a tropical location. So now that my vacation birthday trip is booked, I’m ecstatic. This matching set is the beginning of what I hope is to be all me-made vacation looks. I normally don’t sew for vacations, but this year seemed like a good chance to see if I can accomplish it. Even as I type this I’m already 75% done with my next vacation look, but ran out of fabric, oops. Thankfully Mood Fabrics has more in stock, despite me buying that fabric a while ago, so I’m just awaiting the delivery of that, which will hopefully be this week.
PROJECT DETAILS:
Flowy Button-up Top: Fibr & Cloth Studio’s Agave Top. This is a great true MVP pattern. It’s flowy and has the classic features of a button up. There is something so gratifying good about sewing this pattern up. I even love that Alexis included a great sew-along video for the back yoke and the collar. Like all Fibr & Cloth Studio patterns, they are size inclusive and leave room for you to sew in between sizes without losing the design ascetics. In a sewing world where most people over the size 8/10 are limited often, it’s so good when an Indie pattern company out of the gate recognizes that we’re not all petite sized 4 people.
Trousers – Sammi Woven Pants from Style Arc . This is now my second pair of these trousers and they fall under my tried and true patterns to use. The silhouette of these pants are everything and I’m sure before the summer is out I will have made a couple more of them.
FABRIC – For this matching set I used the Viscose Jacquard version of this fabric (which I also own!) that I found at Mood Fabrics Los Angeles. It’s the perfect summer/warm weather fabric. It’s got a bit of slipperiness to it due to the nature of viscose, but it’s still worth the extra work for the benefits of this beautiful fabric. This fabric is part of Mood Fabrics Eco fabric lines and their Mood Exclusives, which I absolutely adore both in looks and price point.
STYLE – I had on a pair of Nine West Sandals that I bought to replace my old favorite pair of neutral tan ones that I literally wore so much the heel fell off!
2023 started off on zoom! I went home to Florida for Christmas to visit my family, and it was the reset I needed. Spending time with my parents, siblings, bestie cousin, nieces & nephew and all of my huge extended family really filled my heart to the brim. It also brought home the realization that my parents are aging and I want to start going home more often. It had been three years, thanks to covid, since I’d been home. I love that when I hit Florida I feel like I immediately return to my southern roots. It’s like putting on an old comfortable sweater. I find myself saying “yes ma’am and no sir” again. I honestly love that I’m from a small town, and that even though I haven’t lived there in years, when I come home I always can run into family, friends and even old classmates that make me feel like I’ve never left.
I immediately made it back to Los Angeles a few days before the New Year to a workload that initially was giving me the deepest of blues. I’ve been working as an accountant my entire adult working career, so this isn’t new, but this was the first year, where I seriously found myself wondering if some changes are needed career-wise. It’s caused me to think about how much me time I’m willing to sacrifice during this time of the year and how to strike a healthy balance. Right as I felt myself on the verge of getting physically sick, I started sewing. I told myself I didn’t need to make anything fancy, I just needed to be able to put my hands to something creative. Like always, sewing is one of my happy places. So here at the tail end of February I sewed an outfit purely for the pleasure of it all and I can’t tell you how good that felt all the way around and my body’s stress level went back down to zero. My work to life balance was finally back as well.
PROJECT DETAILS:
High-Waisted Trousers: Viki Sews Daphna Trousers. This is an amazing indie sewing pattern company that I discovered a few years back on Etsy, who have since grown tremendously and moved to their own website. I love that all the patterns have a fresh off the runway fashion approach. For us sewists that are in love with runway fashion, this is one of the few indie sewing pattern companies that has an eye for what is modern and fresh. This was my first time sewing a Viki Sews pattern, and I must say I am beyond impressed. These pants must be one of the best drafted pants patterns that I have seen ever, short of me self-drafting pants to my own measurements. The thoughtful details on the fly that makes sewing a fly front trouser flawlessly easy, *chef’s kiss*. Their measurements were true to sizing measurement chart and they have detailed sewing instructions. This pattern was so good I added rayon hem tape and hand sewed my hems. I haven’t hand sewn pants hems in years! That’s how good this pattern is! Needless to say, I will definitely be sewing more Viki Sews Patterns in the near future.
Statement Turtleneck: This is an experimental mash up I did of combining Itch-To-Stitch Hepburn Turtleneck and the sleeves from Schultz Apparel’s The Petunia Blouse. It was a marriage made in heaven, and combined all of the elements that I love about both patterns together. The Hepburn Turtleneck has a more fitted profile, and was designed to hug your curves, instead of the typical boxy look that most turtleneck sewing patterns often give you. The Petunia Blouse has the statement sleeves it factor that I absolutely love.
FABRIC – For the Daphna Trousers I used fabric in my stash from Melanated Fabrics. It’s this luscious chocolate 100% Tencel (Lyocell) Twill that I’ve had for a while. As is my habit, any time I can get medium weight 100% tencel twill I’m jumping on it. It is hands down one of my favorite fabrics to sew with, and its smooth buttery goodness makes for the most comfortable wear against your body. The turtleneck I used this Merlot colored fabric that I bought ages ago in the loft section of the now defunct Michael Levine’s in Los Angeles downtown fashion district. The store is still there, but has new owners who have now changed the name, and the loft portion of the store is closed. This used to be the dream haven for fabric shoppers because you could purchase fabric by the pound there. Sigh, the good old days!
STYLE – My usual style of gold hoop earrings, plus a pair of Make My Lemonade Tonia Cognac Boots, which has to be one of my favorite pair of boots ever.
I’ve been still riding the high of my epic 40th birthday trip. 40 years = four decades = four countries, a country for each decade. I visited Chile, Panama, Peru and Columbia and each place left me in love, each for a different reason. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was so incredibly hard to come back. I got back home and rolled back into being super busy work wise. I’d even put off going through my vacation photos, though I took drastically less than I use to in the past on any vacation. I was so immersed in the culture, food, people and the general sights that I just didn’t feel inclined to document everything. That’s something that has become quite a normal trend for me these days, especially with my growing dislike of social media and the circus it’s becoming. But even that feeling can’t spoiled the absolute delight and love I have for sewing, designing and sharing with fellow makers and designers. We’ll see how long that feeling lasts. I came back from vacation inspired and ready to sew. I spent most of the month of September away and really missed my sewing machine. October has seen me preoccupied with work, household stuff and just taking my time deciding on what I wanted to make this month. I wanted to make sure I was intentional with my make. My goal now is to make sure that I make stuff that I will love wearing over and over again. I of course treated myself to a great collection of fabric while I was on my trip and hit the jackpot the most in Chile and Columbia, where I bought the most fabric. I’ll be turning those into Fall/Winter makes soon, since my mind was firmly in that season when I did most of my shopping.
PROJECT DETAILS:
Maxi Dress: Vintage Simplicity 9107. This is a vintage Learn-To-Sew pattern from 1979, which is a good three years older than me. Sewing this pattern was a reminder, why I fell in love with the big four, now five, vintage sewing patterns. The pattern pieces are well drafted. The instructions are easy to follow and the illustrations and construction notes are usually much better and clearer than the current patterns. This pattern even included a pattern piece I don’t see too often in patterns. It included a shoulder pad pattern piece, so you could make your own shoulder pads, though I typically skip shoulder pads unless it’s a blazer or coat pattern. It was such a thoughtful and great touch to a very classic pattern. I absolutely love this pattern and I am so glad it’s a vintage pattern I own. I absolutely love this dress and I know that it will now be in heavy rotation in my dresses this fall and all year round. While it’s still a bit warm in Southern California, I will be able to add a turtleneck and pantyhose/leggings and still wear this dress well deep into winter. It is definitely a beginner friendly pattern, and even introduces the sewer to a couple of couture sewing techniques. I could go on about this pattern, but if you can manage to find a copy of it on Etsy or eBay, you will not be disappointed.
FABRIC – This beautiful hunter green spotted crepe rayon fabric is from Angel Textiles. I bought ten yards because I literally had a visceral reaction when I saw this fabric. Any fabric that I get that feeling about I usually buy at least ten yards if money permits. Since this fabric was only two dollars a yard, I barely felt the price of those ten yards. I will mostly likely use the remaining fabric, which is at least maybe four to five yards left to make a button down top or another dress. The only complaint is that this fabric is slippery and behaved a bit more like a silk than a woven, but I loved it nonetheless. It was also perfect, since one of the colors I’ve been drawn to heavily this season is green, mostly the darker shades of green.
STYLE – My usual style of gold hoop earrings, plus a pair of Nine West’s Kares Platform Mary Jane Heels, which are absolutely fabulous in this deep wine/burgundy color. The sunglasses are my summer obsession from Zenni. Prescription sunglasses in this banana yellow color.
My sewjo is back! I had been completely tapped out sewing wise the last couple of months, and was feeling lackluster about not only sewing, but also what has become my growing dislike of social media in general. I also took some time to relax and focus on allowing my auto-immune issues to settle down. Unfortunately one of the side effects of having an extremely high immune system. My positive outlook to this is that I rarely get sick, but I very often require more rest than the average person as my body seems to be working like a war machine.
My creativity was at an all-time low. I have discovered that I’m like most artists in other mediums, that if I’m not in flow, I don’t create my best work. Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi wrote the premier groundbreaking book on the state of flow, a book that I read back in undergrad that I still reflect on often. Like all things in life, your heart has to be in it fully, otherwise you’re just going through the motions. Sewing is no different for me, which is why for my fall and winter makes I will finally be including some of my own designs. I love sewing ready-made patterns, but I’m not just a sewist only, so it’s time I actually start showing some of my own work. The designs that often come to me in my dreams are amazing. A lot of those are further down the line once I start showing off the couture side of my designs.
PROJECT DETAILS:
Dolman Sleeve Button-up Boxy Top: Butterick 6898. This is a new summer 2022 pattern from Butterick Patterns that was designed by Palmer/Pletsch, which honestly explains why I love it so much! Palmer/Pletsch is considered one of the premier sources in pattern fitting instructions and have literally written some of the sewing bibles of fit. I currently own a few of their fit and sewing books, as they are well illustrated and proves great instructions. This is listed as a summer top, but with the long-sleeve option of this pattern, I could definitely see myself making a few more versions even for Fall/Winter. I will probably select a smaller size so it’s not quite as boxy. Despite the number of pattern pieces for this pattern, it was really a very quick sew. This pattern included some of the best illustrated and through instructions I’ve ever seen in a commercial pattern, but then again, the pattern instructions were done by Palmer/Pletsch. Overall this pattern is excellent, with no hiccups. The lines of this pattern are what makes it unique and different from any other pattern that falls into a similar category.
Twill Pants – Simplicity 8701. This simplicity pattern came out some years back and was part of a series of hack-able patterns that Simplicity released with the fashion designer in mind I feel. Their idea was to give you good solid basic patterns that you can use as a base for hacks. There is a large number of amazing designers and sewist in the sewing community that have the ability to look at a pattern and use it to create something jaw dropping that I would have never imagined possible. This is one of those such patterns. The options are limitless with all the hacks you can do. I hacked this pattern to include pintucks down the front and single welt pockets in the back. I absolutely love pants with single welt pockets. It’s something that is done quite often in men pants, but not enough in women. With all that said, there is only one problem with this pattern. The waistband was drafted off. I oddly incidentally corrected this issue before I looked online and saw other sewists mention this issue. One of the first things I do during pattern prep now, especially after my numerous issues this year with bad patterns, is to actually take the pattern pieces and line them up against each other. If I spot gaps and things that are out of alignment, then I know to fix the issue before I cut out my fabric. Whether its pattern paper or fabric, the basic premises of pattern making is your pattern pieces should line up perfectly. Oddly this skill comes down to math. I remember one of my sewing teachers laughing when she told me that I of all people would choose a hobby that requires me to use my work skill set (accounting, math and numbers). She was right. A big part of sewing is math. When you are doing pattern adjustments, grading and measurements you use quite a bit of fractions and math. This is especially true in pattern making. A wrong calculation equals pattern pieces that do not line up or fit. When I went to line up the back waistband pattern pieces to the back of the pants, I noticed right off that the pattern was not as long as it needed to be. So I decreased the seam allowance for the sides so that I could get the full length I needed. Then the next glaringly obvious mistake was the difference between the right and left front waistband. There is no point in having a left waistband pattern piece with this pattern as the length was drafted completely too short. I looked at the pattern piece and threw it away. The right waistband pattern piece is the one to use. So I cut four of those and used that pattern piece for both the right and left side front waistbands. Everything then lined up perfectly. The result was great fitting pants. With the budget that the big pattern companies have, it’s rather head shaking to see such glaringly bad pattern issues. Indie patterns who don’t have nearly the amount of money budget wise, do a far better job of this.
FABRIC – I clearly absolutely love shopping in Downtown Los Angeles Fashion District, but more specifically my favorite store is a place called Angel Textiles. They hands down have the best selection of cotton twill and denim, and usually charge anywhere from $2 to $5 a yard for twill. I saw this beautiful avocado green twill that has a little bit of a cotton sateen sheen finish to it, and bought what was left on the entire bolt, since the width was only 45” inches. The result is another matching set that is a great transition to Fall/Winter sewing.
STYLE – My usual style of gold hoop earrings, plus a pair of Michael Kors platform Mary Jane shoes in a suede brown that I bought from a consignment shop.
This month I have had the worst sewing ADD possible. I honestly didn’t think I would actually complete a project this month due to my indecisiveness regarding patterns, fabrics, and a general sense of frustration with pattern mishaps lately. Simplicity released their new spring 2022 patterns and the New Look 6718 captivated me. I immediately went to the store and bought it the same day. I honestly can’t remember the last time a Big 4 pattern has gotten me absolutely gaga. I for one love a great maxi dress, and spend much of my summer months in big flowy sundresses for the heat and comfort. The fact that it was a humid 87 degrees yesterday in Long Beach was just enough of an excuse I needed to put on my new dress and twirl around.
PROJECT DETAILS:
Maxi Dress: New Look 6718. So first and foremost, the design of this pattern is absolutely dreamy. I had been looking to actually draft a dress similar, as I’d been eyeing some runway pieces that felt very similar in design. I did view A with view B length. Now to the not so pretty parts about this pattern. The biggest issue, is the fabric specifications on this pattern are absolutely incorrect. I made the size 20 (of course not normal clothing sizes for my non-sewing folks). My busty self couldn’t do any other size if I wanted to, but also because that’s the max of their sizing chart for New Look Patterns (serious side eye on that one McCall Pattern company!). Per the pattern I would need about 4 ½ yards of 60” wide fabric. I actually used 6 yards of 60’ wide fabric, and boy was I grateful that I actually had all of that available to use thanks to my fabric hording self over buying when I bought this fabric. This is a huge difference in fabric yardage! The center waist piece was drafted 2 and ½ inches short of the length that it needed to be in order for the waist piece to wrap all the way around and connect properly in the back. The result was me having to shave off fabric on either side in the back to cover this drafting mistake. The Front lower skirt should have also been increased by 2 and 1/4th inches in width in order to line up with the top half of the body of this dress. That I was also able to hide when I shaved off the back for the other drafting mistake. Honestly these type of drafting mistakes in this pattern from such a large pattern company is more than a bit of an epic fail, but they could have rendered this pattern a disaster. For a beginning sewist, I’m sure it would be. I had to get creative in order to compensate for these issues, which ultimately left me with a back that does not line up perfectly. So the back of this dress is my least favorite thing to look at, but even with that all of that said, I still really like this dress and the pattern. Armed with what I now know, I will make sure my next version has taken all of these issues into account. So my biggest takeaway advice for this pattern is make a muslin/toile, buy more yardage than you think you will need, and be prepared to make pattern adjustments to account for the front lower skirt and the middle waist facing issues. Also be sure to interface the neckline along with the facing for this pattern. I got a weird kind of floppy fabric thing around the neckline due to my rayon challis fabric being so light.
FABRIC – I used this beautiful rayon challis from my stash that I’d purchased from Fabric Merchants Outlet. I saw this in their store during one of my trips there and bought everything they had left, which was six yards. Fabric Merchant Outlet is one of my hidden gem stores of the LA fashion district. It’s on the outskirts of the fashion district in an area that’s solely commercial and manufacturing. I discovered their store while I was consulting for a fashion company that was within walking distance to their store. Needless to say I spent a lot of money there on my lunch breaks. This rayon challis proved to be more on the silky side and behaved like a silk fabric in that it was very slippery. The next time I make this dress I will use a more solid woven like a tencel twill or drapery cotton blend fabric.
STYLE – Prescription sunglasses from Zenni. Watch from Anne Klein that I’ve owned for forever along with my favorite neutral platform sandals from Nine West.
Nikki Nicole Sew 