School's Out!

I did continue to wear me made garments during May as incentive to clean out my closet.  Finding the time to photograph myself was difficult and I decided not to bore you with pictures of me in garments, many of which  I gave away. Gone are several matched suits. Pants and jackets of  the same color and fabric, The pants didn’t fit as well as I would like and the jackets didn’t look good worn as a separate.   Gone are pants I had worn to the point of shabbiness. But I made a note of the pattern and what I liked or disliked about it. Gone are 2 of my first  lined jackets, made in the early 1990's. Why did I keep them so long? After much thought I concluded it was  because they were made when I got my first supervisory job and I wanted to look ..supervisory, which at that time, for women as well as men, meant a jacket.  They represented the accomplishment of a significant career milestone.  I've achieved a few more milestones since then, so it was easy to let them go. 

The clean out mentality spilled over into other areas. 

1. Fabric Stash - The juvenile prints left over from my sons' childhood will not be in fashion when my grandchildren come along. Gone!

2. Linen closet - Where did all these beach towel come from? Some with names of places I have never been to. Gone!  Power Ranger Sheets  Gone!

3. Blog Reader - moved to Bloglovin, Not really lovin it,  but it showed me how many blogs were on my list. Over 400 ! Deleted were blogs devoted to doing quirky things for a year, ones with too many ads and not much content, anything related to sewing vintage patterns, style blogs with one style, and some other attributes I won't go into.  Gone !

Son #2 decided to have his Boy Scout Eagle Court of Honor in June,  the same month as his High School graduation. Lots of family came for the weekend to celebrate with us.  It was a great time, but I had to relocate my sewing stuff out of  the sewing, I mean, dining room. Yes, I am the one that bought out all the plastic containers at the the Big Lots store.  Yes, they were stashed in every closet of the house and under the deck. As soon as the  company left, I had to get started on my dress for the graduation ceremony. Which container did I put that fabric in?   I found it and  finished the dress in time.

The pattern - Vogue 8902 - Misses Dress has close-fitting bias bodice and sides, seam detail, sleeve and skirt variations and back zipper, lined bodice and lots of topstitching. Sizes 6-22 with custom fit for A,B,C,D, cups.

Vogue 8902

I didn't notice that all dress pieces were bias cut when I bought the pattern. The recommended fabric is double knit, crepe or tropical wool.  I made the dress out of a printed cotton stretch sateen with the contrast inserts of ponte knit, and lined it in tricot knit. I felt the cotton stretch fabric had about the same amount of stretch as a crepe or tropical wool on the bias. This dress is rated easy, but I would rate it medium and time consuming. It has many angular pieces that are easy to mix up (mark notches and right and wrong sides) The seams of the angular pieces are not straight, but have some shaping in them, as does the center back seam below the waist. There is lots of top stitching. Only the bodice is to be lined, but I lined the whole dress. There is no separate lining pattern. You have to use the same patterns  as the garment, with all those pie wedges pieces, etc. My fabric was a abstract floral in purple, black and white. I used black fabric for the waist insets and sleeves to break up the print.

Vogue 8902 Front

Vogue 8902 Back

Zipper Lining detail



Proud Mom June 13, 2013