Spring Break

This past week my classes had ended and it was ‘Spring Break’ for my DS’s. We redeemed all our frequent flyer miles for four tickets to the Caribbean island of Siint Maartin. I used the Dutch spelling because we were staying on the Dutch side. On our last visit we stayed on the French side or St. Martin. The two sides of the island is very different; currency, government, language, and the food in both restaurants and grocery stores. Amazingly, I found French language Burda, Elena, Mia Boutique, and Cadena magazines in one of the grocery stores. I was delighted. Here is the view from our bedroom balcony and the view from the back bedroom. I always get motivated to sew a wardrobe of resort clothes for these spring vacations, but in reality I wear a bathing suit most of the time, only putting on clothes to go to dinner. And though we go to nice restaurants, the dress code is still pretty casual. So I usually talk myself out of sewing anything for these trips. One less thing to stress out over. But a couple weeks before this trip, I saw this picture of a pair of Loeffler Randall shorts in InStyle magazine. They probably attracted me because they were a variation of the wrap shorts that were popular, and that I sewed and wore, when I was a teenager. Simplicity 4192 is a current pattern with wrap shorts. And I was tired of the Capri’s and Bermuda short that I have worn for the past few summers. I pulled up the shorts on the Bloomingdale web site to get a closer look (Zoom is wonderful!) and used the magazine picture to figure out the design scale and style details. Here is my sketch. I used the pants pattern from an old Donna Karan pattern, Vogue 2665,as a starting point because it had a narrow hip band. I made a copy of the front pattern piece and drew the lines for the pocket pieces. I made individual patterns for the pocket front and pocket back. The fabric of the inspiration shorts was a silk linen blend which is not available where I live. I settled for poly rayon fake linen with a soft drape, from Hancock’s, in a milk chocolate color. I couldn’t find a brown striped fabric for the piping, so I used a cotton print of turquoise flowers on a brown background. The scale of the print on the bias is similar to the strip used in the original shorts. I did not want to line the front pocket or front bottom leg opening to hide the piping raw edges. Instead I made piping with a 1 inch wide seam allowance on one side. I applied the piping so the wide allowance could be tacked like a hem allowance to the wrong side of the fashion fabric, hiding the seam allowances.

The shorts turned out more skirt like than the inspiration garment. The pockets tend to fly up in the air in the Caribbean beach winds, but back in hot humid ole Richmond, VA, they will hang demurely. When I make these again, I will move the pocket opening to hit higher on the hip. Though the current placement duplicates the the original shorts, I now realize the side seam of the original shorts are much “shorter” than mine.

We made a day trip to St Barth’s. It is definitely an upscale island and a fashion lovers treat; from the outfits that the fellow ferry passengers were wearing, to the garments displayed in the boutique windows, and the swimsuits and cover-ups on fellow diners in the resort beach restaurant where we ate lunch. For the ferry trip, I should have had on a semi transparent pair of wide legged white linen pants, which required a skin toned thong and/or a total wax job. Designers obviously don’t worry about show through on white pants. In fact they use it as a design element. The pants are worn with a halter top in a designer print with a low draped front so that glimpses of breast show with any movement. High heeled sandals on manicured feet. Lots of gold; rings, chains with pearls, dangly earrings, and to protect me from the sun, designer shades and a big hat. There were several versions of this on women of all ages, included one that was definitely at the 60 year mark. She was well maintained, but there are just some signs of aging that cannot be hidden, at least not by the outfit I just described. Window shopping in Gustavia was wonderful. I was traveling with 3 males, so window shopping was all I got to do. This was fine. It was cheap and gave me lots of ideas. A swimsuit “cover-up” is a misnomer on this island. It should be silky, flowy and semi transparent so your toned body and itsy bitsy bathing suit can be clearly seen through it. Needless to say, my opaque blue knit cover-up declared “middle class American” loud and clear, that and my DS’s swimsuit in a print of Corona beer bottles on a blue background. But I felt quite happy thinking of those Fabric Mart silk chiffon scarf prints I have in my stash. They would make a perfect St Barth’s cover-up. St. Barth was expensive, beautiful, clean, and a fun place to visit. We didn't see any famous people, but the rumor was that Jimmy Buffet was there a couple weeks ago. If we ever make a return trip, I will definitely sew up the most summery fashion forward patterns I can find, and wear them proudly.

Mrs Stylebook - Lands' End Jacket

Gosh, this summer is flying by. We just got back from our annual beach vacation at the Delaware shore. It was lovely, but this week it is back to work. Right before I left, I completed my second project from the Japanese pattern magazine MRS. Stylebook (MSB). A jacket from Issue 150, pattern 179. It is a fairly simple style, no collar, no front fastenings, princess seaming with a side panel, and ¾ length gathered sleeve. It was drafted from the same unfitted (undarted) sloper as the blouse shown in my last post. The challenge in drafting this pattern was adding double pointed darts to the front and back, and creating a side panel using the darts as the edges.
Some of the international pattern magazines contain patterns for copies of designer garments. About every pattern in Patrones is attributed to a hip European designer. What tickles me about the jacket pattern I chose from MSB is that it is one of the few with a "designer" label, and it is Lands’ End! You can see the label in the photograph of the jacket. (The blotchiness of the photo is because my scanner had problems with the shiny page and dark color of the jacket). For those readers who might not know, Lands' End is a USA based Internet and catalog retailer known for it basic, conservative styles, very good quality and excellent customer service. Not what I would call a "designer". The jacket style was simple, but current. And nothing like any jackets I had seen in Lands' End US catalog or web site. On a whim I googled "Lands’ End Japan" and found this information.

The catalog and online retailer of classic American casual wear has flourished in Japan. The key to the company's success has been a thorough localization of its website, products and services while keeping with the company's breezy and accessible identity.
Lands' End established a wholly-owned subsidiary in 1993, beginning its local catalog sales with only five or six people. After its website content was carefully structured to fit the Japanese consumer, the company launched its online shopping venue in 1999. In addition to localizing the website, Lands' End tailored its clothing to fit Japanese body shapes and offered more styles that satisfy local preferences for a more refined look. Its call centers practices were also changed to adhere to local conversational formalities as hours were extended to accommodate later shopping hours.


The jacket was not shown on the Lands’ End Japanese web site either. However, I spent some time browsing the web site, translated to English, and copied Japanese characters for different sewing related words, like "pleats" and "linen", to add to a list I use when trying to translate MRS Stylebook.
The jacket is made out of a dark red, coarsely woven, burlap type material in a mystery blend. It has been in my stash since the 80’s. I shortened the jacket 2 inches to high hip, and lined the body, since the fabric was so ravely and slightly see through. I did not line the sleeves. I did have to make my normal alterations for jackets made from US patterns. I added back shoulder darts and length to center back for curved upper back and prominent shoulder blades. Then because I was so inspired by recent mini wardrobes done by Robin Robin's Capsule and Sheila Sheila's Capsule, I pulled some other fabric out of my stash and made a few coordinating tops. A tank top in a red/cream silk knit print from Simplicity 4192

and a top from brown cotton with red and gold embroidery using Butterick 4549.

I wear the brown top with brown slacks. Both the brown and cream slacks were sewn last year.

I actually read sewing books on the beach during my vacation and did some sewing, which I'll tell you about in my next post.