Category Archives: Clothing

The Dress

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In a couple of weeks, it will have been a year since I drove myself to Northwestern Alabama and spent a magical weekend at the Alabama Chanin factory. With this approaching anniversary, I suppose it’s finally time to talk about the dress. The dress has been finished for a while now – 5 months to be exact – but for some reason it has taken me this long to photograph it. It’s actually a very difficult piece to photograph, and the fabric never seems to be the right color no matter how many different light situations or Lightroom adjustments I try. The dress is really best seen in person.

After the weekend workshop, I sewed on the dress a lot (when I wasn’t pouring over the Alabama Chanin website trying to keep every moment of the workshop alive). I completed 3 of the 8 panels before I had to put it down for a little while. When I chose my workshop project, I picked the dress I loved the most (the 8 panel corset dress), the fabric that caught my eye (peacock, a dark teal color), the stencil (Anna’s garden) and applique (negative reverse) that made my heart ache, and the paint (gray) and thread color (black) that worked best with the fabric. All of these ingredients were exactly what I wanted, but they were not the easiest with which to work. The gray paint is almost the same shade as the peacock fabric, making it hard to see the shapes at night, when most of my stitching time happens. The negative reverse applique requires more attention, as you are stitching on an invisible line an 1/8 of an inch inside the shape. Finally when every shape on the panel is stitched, you still have to cut away most of the top layer fabric, a 3-4 hour process during which I was always terrified of accidentally cutting a hole in the bottom layer. So, it wasn’t that surprising I needed a break from this dress despite my love for it.

At some point in the late Spring, I started to think about an October wedding in LA, and what I was going to wear to that wedding. A local outpost of my favorite department store had finally opened after years and years of planning and I knew I could find a dress there, but then I saw the obvious – the dress I should wear was the one I was making completely by hand. So Operation Finish-the-Dress began, and I spent every free moment during the Summer sitting down and stitching the remaining 5 panels, the brightest lamps set up next to the sofa to illuminate the fabric at night.

I didn’t keep track of how many hours went into this dress. The larger back panels took about 20 hours apiece from start to finish, and the smaller front panels took about 15. Then I had to sew everything together, fell the seams, and bind the neck and armholes (Oh Cretan stitch how much do I love thee? Let me count the ways). If I had to guess, this dress took 140 hours. Maybe more. I even managed a completed dress with a couple weeks to spare, giving me time to go to my favorite department store and find the perfect shoes and undergarments. It was at this point while in the dressing room, I realized the straps were too long. I didn’t want to rip out the binding I had just spent hours on, so with the flight to California quickly approaching, I decided to fold some of the strap over itself at the shoulder and stitch it down. I figured this could be a temporary fix to get me through the wedding, and I could do a better job later on. No matter what I told myself, fixing the straps this way seemed wrong and I felt like I was letting my dress down.

In my life, I have been a perfectionist about many things. I’ve also learned to let go, knowing good enough is often the better choice over the unattainable perfection. Being a mother and having children has led me over and over again to the good enough path whether I wanted to be there or not. Yet every time I make an Alabama Chanin garment, I want perfection. They are just so beautiful, it seems a shame for them to be anything less than perfect. Yet they are made completely by hand and, of course, can never be perfect. Some stitches will be longer or shorter than others, a painted area of the stencil will have a smudged line instead of a crisp line, one panel will be cut a little skinnier or wider than its twin, and  – my worst fear come true- an accidental hole will be made in the fabric with scissors. Often when I’m engaged in something that takes a lot of time, I think about Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers. Most people know about one of the basic premises of the book, that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. Gladwell uses The Beatles and Bill Gates as two of the supporting case studies in his 10,000 hours theory. If I wanted to become an expert at stitching Alabama Chanin style, I would have to make somewhere between 70-100 garments, a number that will not happen in my lifetime no matter how much I love making and wearing them. I am never going to achieve perfection with these pieces and that is okay. In fact, it’s more than okay, and often what is most beautiful to me is the part that is flawed. The temporary fix to the straps is going to be the permanent fix, as the dress is done and I want to move on.

Today I’m waiting for UPS to deliver the newest Alabama Chanin book (which to my sorrow now seems will arrive tomorrow), and dreaming about my next project. I have two weddings to go to later this year, and I don’t want to end my tradition of wearing Alabama Chanin. After these weddings, I may be a little closer to my 10,000 hours, but sewing by hand isn’t about becoming an expert. It’s about stitching and making and learning about myself in the process. The finished garment is really just a bonus.

And then she was 4

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There is so much to say about the past year in this little girl’s life, but the biggest and most obvious thing is that her hair finally grew! I can hardly believe how long it is now, especially when it is wet and straight. Most days she wants a ponytail, but today she didn’t ask for one – a little gift for me since I like it best down.

Birthdays always get me thinking about my children and their births, but I today I’ve thought more about how I have grown up kids now. While Agnes’s last two years were a little rough mostly due to her big personality, lately I haven’t seen a lot of those toddler years in her. As much as I miss having little babies and mourn the fact I won’t have any more, I kind of like life with grown up kids better.

I guess the kids aren’t the only ones who change around here.

*Mama made birthday outfit details: Oliver + S hopscotch skirt in Liberty of London tana lawn with matching applique shirt

 

Tova Muslin

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In the past year, I’ve tried to add to my wardrobe, but I always get discouraged shopping. Everything at the stores is so cheaply made or way too expensive, and I don’t have a lot of kid-free time to browse consignment and thrift stores. In my dream life, most of my wardrobe is from Alabama Chanin. While I am making my own organic cotton Alabama Chanin clothes, hand sewing a garment is slow going. I realized I should spend more money and time on machine sewn patterns and fabrics, or else my wardrobe is always going to be in a sad state. It’s gotten cold here quickly (there was a freeze warning yesterday and another one today though we were in shorts on Tuesday), and my cold weather clothes are probably the most pathetic part of my wardrobe. Since I was at home this week with my son who is on Fall break, I pulled out the Wiksten Tova shirt/dress pattern I bought a few weeks ago, and started on my muslin. As I’ve learned more about garment sewing and sewn a few items for myself, I’ve realized I always need to make a muslin first. Even when I choose the right size, there is always an adjustment or two I wish I had made once the garment is done and doesn’t fit as well as it could. Plus the anal sewer in me likes to have a practice piece for troubleshooting the tricky parts before making the real thing. For my Tova top, I bought a really nice cotton shirting fabric my local fabric store labeled Steven Allen. I wasn’t sure if they meant Steven Alan, but Google yielded nothing about this fabric nor the proper spelling of the designer’s name. I didn’t have any throw-away fabric similar to the shirting, so I made my muslin out of one of the 10 bolts of quilter’s cotton I bought at auction a few years ago. I knew the quilter’s cotton wouldn’t be quite right and I wasn’t that fond of the floral print, but if the muslin came out okay I figured I might wear the shirt sometimes.

The sewing of the pattern went well, and I felt the muslin came out better than okay (though I was right quilter’s cotton isn’t the best choice as it’s too stiff, and a fabric with similar right and wrong sides is better for this pattern). The size I chose was perfect, and the only adjustments I will make will be to take in the sides slightly and to hem the top shorter. Jenny did a great job with the instructions, drawings, and photographs (though a few are a little hard to understand due to the photos being in black and white), and I learned a couple of new sewing tricks from her too. Despite always liking this top/dress pattern in the myriad of fabrics Jenny and others have used, I was a little reluctant to buy it as the cost was more than I wanted to spend on a single pattern. But I kicked myself for not buying it the first 2 times, thus couldn’t click the buy button fast enough the 3rd time. I have a feeling I’m going to make several of these tops and maybe even a dress, so I should probably invest in a roll of oak tag. I know my improved wardrobe will appreciate it.

It’s raining today…

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but it doesn’t matter because the raincoat is finished!

Kids Clothing Week Challenge was the perfect excuse for me to stop procrastinating on hand sewing the raincoat lining to the exterior and just get it done. Of course once I started, it didn’t take me that long at all – maybe two hours – and I wondered why I had put it off for months. Don’t I say this about nearly every project I do?

When the Oliver + S school days jacket pattern came out 1.5 years ago, I fell in love with the raincoat versions made out of the new coated cotton laminates starting to enter the market. I had never thought about sewing a coat much less a raincoat, but once I saw the example raincoats I had to make one for Agnes. Unfortunately, the Anna Maria Horner laminates (which Liesl used in both the floral example raincoats) sold out almost as soon as they were stocked, then never went back into production. Luckily Anna Maria’s next line Little Folks also included some laminate options, and I bought enough yardage for Agnes’s raincoat immediately just in case the new fabrics went out of production as quickly as the old ones (which they didn’t – so many fabric stores still carry them).

The jacket pattern has a more difficult rating than the other Oliver + S patterns, but I found it really wasn’t hard at all. There are a lot of pieces (more than twice as many as most of the other patterns) and a lot of steps, but the sewing of the jacket isn’t complex. The laminate was a little tricky, as you have to be careful with keeping your pins within the seam allowance and you must use a walking foot on your machine, but the only part that was truly hard was sewing the hood onto the jacket without bunching up the lining or the exterior. In my case, third time was the charm as I used twice as many pins as before. Several girls in my sewing group can attest to the difficulty (and swears coming out of my mouth) with this step.

Of all the garments I’ve sewed, I’m probably in awe of this one the most. Sewing a raincoat sounds impressive, and the resulting coat looks impressive (I am trying to be modest here). I love how cute and colorful it is, and all the details like the pockets, the toggles with the leather cord loops, and the hood make it stand out from anything you could buy. I purposely made the raincoat in a larger size when I began it in the Fall, as I didn’t know how long it would take me to sew. Agnes is now a very tall 3 year old, and the 3T size is still a little big on her. I’m glad she’ll be able to wear it for at least the next year and maybe longer if I’m lucky.

I shot all these photos last night before it started raining. Agnes loved wearing the coat so much, she didn’t want to take it off for dinner. I hope today’s rain will help get the raincoat wearing out of her system, or else I’m going to have to come up with some good reasons why you can’t wear a raincoat to bed.

The Pink Version

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I had so much fun making the hopscotch knit dress, I decided to make another one the following day for KCWC, and I rarely sew the same thing twice in a row. I needed more knit fabric and wanted to try out Liesl Gibson’s interlock, so Agnes and I took a trip to my local fabric store (which is only 2 miles down the road – how am I so lucky?). I told her she could pick out the fabric. Big mistake. She only wanted pink. I tried to steer her to the blue or orange polka dots, but her answer was always pink. Ohhhhhkaaaaaay.

The dress was even easier to sew the second time around, and I cut out the notches correctly too. For fun I added a lettuce hem to the sleeves and skirt edge using Liesl’s tutorial for the sewing machine. I love learning new techniques, and it’s even better when they turn out to be easy. Poor Ely, I don’t think he is going to end up with any clothes by the end of Sunday and KCWC. I’m having too much fun with simple girl things right now.

Sewing as Cure For Broken Heartedness

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I’ve been really sad for the past week. I was already down about the tornadoes and the flooding in West Tennessee (and Arkansas and the Midwest), and then my friend’s husband died suddenly. He was 39 years old. Two weeks ago she was planning out the details of his big birthday trip at the end of the month, and this week she wrote and gave his eulogy. I still cannot believe he is gone.

You know those cliches about death and loss putting your life in perspective, and about how you appreciate and love your family more? Well, they are cliches because they are true. Very little about my day to day life has bothered me in the past 8 days. Late bus, tantrum-y kids, hot and humid weather – whatever. The 13 year cicada plague is here now, and I don’t even care that much.

Today, I was in an especially bad funk. Once I got home from work, I decided I needed some sewing therapy. Maybe whipping out a dress for Agnes would put me in a better mood. It did help a little. Actually, it helped a lot. Sewing was a good distraction, and I needed a good distraction.

I had never sewn with knits before, but once I got my ziz-zag stitch to be the right length it went swimmingly on my sewing machine. This dress didn’t even take that long to sew, and I am the slowest sewer on earth. If I had had a serger, I might have been able to finish this whole dress in an hour or two. I’m not sure I’ll be in a better mood tomorrow, but I do know that seeing my little girl with her curls in a new momma-made dress will put a smile on my face. Right now I need all the small happy things I can get.

Speaking of sewing as therapy, has anyone ever made something for a family following a death? I was thinking about making a quilt for my friend and her two young children. I thought they could use something soft made with love to surround them and keep them warm right now.

Spring Kids Clothing Week Challenge

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I haven’t sewn for my kids in a while, so next week’s kids clothing week challenge is just the kick in the butt I need. I participated last Fall, and it was awesome to end 7 days of sewing for one hour a day with some new momma-made clothes for my children.

Here is what I’m going to work on during the challenge:

  • finish Agnes’s raincoat – for months now all I need to do is slip stitch the lining hem to the exterior
  • make the hopscotch dress (or shirt if I don’t have enough fabric) for Agnes – this will be my first time to machine sew with knits and I’m excited to use this fantastic fabric I bought in Missoula, MT over the Summer
  • oilcloth aprons for both children – I just got Little Things to Sew (my mother’s day gift to myself) and I’m considering using the bias trimmed apron pattern – I need to buy some boyish looking oilcloth/coated cotton for Ely’s apron
  • make some lazy days skirts – I can use up a lot of 1/2 yards of fabric this way

Of course everything I want to make is an Oliver + S pattern, no surprise there. I’m sure I won’t get to half the items on the list, but a few items of clothing sewn are better than none. Maybe I’ll be really smart and cut out all the pattern pieces this week.

The Most Comfortable Dress in the World

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I’m still chugging away on my workshop dress (3 panels done, 5 to go), but with the warming temps I wanted an Alabama Chanin dress to wear now. I decided the fastest way to get a dress was to make the simple single layer tank dress from Alabama Studio Style. I even had 3 yards of cotton jersey purchased almost a year ago waiting on my fabric shelves. After a quick trip to the blueprint store (so much cheaper than Kinko’s for large scale copies) and a naptime spent cutting out pattern pieces and tracing them onto the cotton jersey, I was ready to start sewing. Trying on the clothes at Alabama Chanin last month gave me more confidence in determining the right sizing for my body. Even though my measurements are a medium, everything I tried on was a small and they all fit perfectly. The M pieces I’ve made fit perfectly too, but the garments do stretch as you wear them and after a couple of wearings the Ms get a little baggy. I think the S pieces will remain in a sleeker silhouette over multiple wearings.

The tank dress was so simple to sew up. I marked the 1/4″ seam allowance on the wrong sides of the pieces with a water erasable pen. I’m sure most of the stitchers with Alabama Chanin don’t have to mark the seam allowances, but I’m pretty anal about my sewing especially with garments as I want them to fit. It’s also nice the have the lines so you don’t have to think too much, which I appreciate as most of my sewing is done at night while watching movies.

I was a little nervous about binding the neckline and armholes, but it surprisingly was easy and sewing the herringbone stretch stitch turned out to be my favorite part of the dress construction. With a school gala and auction event last evening, I was determined to get the tank dress finished so I could wear it. I spent several hours yesterday working on the binding, and miraculously it was done 30 minutes before I needed to leave giving me enough time to put some makeup on and brush my hair. As soon as I pulled the dress over my head, I was in love. It was comfortable and cool – a bonus since yesterday’s high was 91 – and fit like a glove. I was so happy wearing it all evening, and didn’t want to take it off when I got home. Now that I think about it, I’m sure the tank dress would have been a very comfortable nightgown.

I don’t know what it is about these garments, but I always feel like a princess in them.  They are so simple, but so well designed – the magic of Alabama Chanin. I can’t wait until I have more additions to my royal wardrobe.

O Blocking Board

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Where have you been my entire life? 

In the past 48 hours I have blocked 3 sweaters, a shawl, and a scarf.

I probably shouldn’t even say how old some of these projects are…one of the sweaters I knit for a baby who is now 8 years old. Yikes! I’m glad there are still lots of babies and toddlers in my life. In fact, I think I can use several of the sweaters for Christmas presents so I’d better start sewing them up. Of course my fingers are itching to knit as my blocking board is empty, but I will resist its easy to pin and lovely gridded ways!

Having a beautiful new shawl to wear on a cold day helps.

One Dress Down

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It’s day 3 of KCWC and my Ice Cream Dress is finished, though it’s not even close to being something warm or cozy for Fall and Winter. This was not my favorite Oliver + S pattern. Maybe it was the fabric I used (linen), or maybe there were just too many stitching lines to cover with yokes and hems, but whatever the reason I’m just happy this is done. As long as I obey Erin’s 3 feet rule, it looks perfect and the big size should get Agnes through next Summer. If I make another one, I’ll probably go for the blouse version in a cotton lawn or voile.