Proof That The People At Ottobre Hate Me.

Because just when I decide that The Evil Monkeys have plenty (and by “plenty” I mean “a ludicrous quantity”) of clothes for the summer…. the wicked people at Ottobre Design come out with the Summer 2012 issue.

It looks like this:

There are some cute items, people. 

This dress positively hollers “TLo!”:

And this pair of shorts absolutely screams “The Big One!”:

Plus all that other stuff that looks so interesting.

Any bets on how many totally and completely superfluous items of clothing The Evil Monkeys wind up with this summer?

Of course, that would require that I actually sew them.  Hmph.  Those Ottobre people really know how to be cruel.

This Is The Reason Why…

…I never wear short sleeves.

‘K, so in typical fashion, once I had decided I was taking a break from garment sewing, I immediately felt a compelling need to make a shirt.  Although to be fair, I do need some shirts.  Definitely.

So taking into consideration several suggestions (one of them really persistently vociferous… I’m looking at you, Angie A.) to give short sleeves a chance, I decided to make Ottobre 5-2011 #9. 

Mostly because other than the short sleeves, it’s basically the perfect style for me and really only the sleeve issue had kept me from making it before.

And I was pretty much right.  Even with the sleeves jacked up (which they definitely are-- the hems stretched waaaay out).

Here’s the front view:

Here’s even a close up side view, wacky hems and bad hair and bared arms and all:

Reasonable, right?

Yeah. 

Then I pulled an Oonaballona:

ARRRRRRRRGH.  My eyes!  My eyes!  The horror!

 

This is why I will never ever no not ever wear short sleeves.

 

The End.

 

(vital stats: Ottobre Design 5-2011 #9, size 38 +1.5” FBA, lengthened sleeves 1”, reduced hem to .5”)

Minkied. Again.

Here's the second version of the Valentine's Day Coat. 

This one is also a size 122, then I widened it based on the measurements of a 146.  That wasn't wide enough apparently, it's snug across the chest on TLo.   Who admittedly is basically shaped like a barrel.

A really melodramatic barrel.

 

 

Um.   Yep.  That's all I have to say about the whole project.  Except that I'm extremely glad it's done.

Oooo, but look what came in the mail this week!

A gift from Big In Japan.   I should say, a really really AWESOME gift.  It's a Tintin file-folder.  Because seriously, you can just never have enough things with Tintin on them.  Especially office supplies (or at least, this seems to be the basic premise in Japan… and I’m totally willing to go with it).

The real kicker is the day my gift arrived, The Big One had pulled out this book to read for the very first time.

So imagine our surprise when I opened the mail that afternoon and my fabulous folder was in it!

 

I am not giving it to The Big One.  I am not that nice.

 

Next time: What to do with 100 extra sewing patterns.

No.  I'm asking.  What to do with 100 extra sewing patterns??  I cleaned out my pattern boxes.  It was... disturbing.  I'll tell you more about it when I've sufficiently recovered from the trauma.

Every Girl Deserves A Mink…. y.

A few weeks ago my mom bought the Evil Monkeys some minky fleece blankets with Valentine's hearts on them, with the idea of making them Valentine's Jackets.  Well.  With the idea that I would make them Valentine’s Jackets.  (I was not consulted.)

Now, I'll be the first to admit that minky blankets from the discount store are a bargain-and-a-half when it comes to buying fabric.  Each one of these blankets provided 60"x60" of fabric for $8.00.  You can't beat that kind of pricing.  I can't get a solid-colored minky for less than about $10/yard at the fabric store.  And the quality seems a little higher in these blankets.  Or at least, they’re a lot softer.  So it's worth it if you want to sew minky.

On the other hand, you then have to sew minky.  I hate sewing minky.

Seriously.  We will be picking fluff out of our hair for months.

Still, I ended up with a cute little cardigan/coat for The Big One. 

I managed to bribe her into wearing it by putting cat buttons on it.  She'll pretty much do anything for cats.

She's a freak.

The pattern is Ottobre 4-2011 #21.  The only changes I made were to use the original hemming on the blanket instead of the hemline of the pattern (it’s slightly curved) and I added cuffs to the sleeves (because I really really really didn’t want to hem the minky).  This whipped up really fast (like, it took me less than 3 hours to trace and cut and sew, so a normal person could probably do it in an hour).  Of course, I didn’t put the pockets in.

I decided to use the same pattern for both Evil Monkeys, which actually worked out ok because they're both a 122 in height.  Of course one of them is a 98 in width while the other is a 146.  So there's that.  But I just cut out the 122 as-is for The Big One (it's a little loose) and now I can just widen the pattern for TLo and I don't have to trace twice.  I'm thinking this might be useful in the future.  Or at least for as long as they stay close to the same height. 

Blurry, but happy.  And fuzzily warm. What more can you ask for?

See? I Did Make Something.

 

I made a Sears Catalog Model.  From 1973. 

She lives in a fabulous world of sunshine and rainbows and bellbottom corduroy pants. She hears the sounds of the happy birds calling her….

Actually she looks like a mannequin, don’t you think?  If only she were as quiet as one.  Or as obedient.

The jacket is Ottobre 4-2008 #38.  I used weird pastel lime green polkadot minky.  Because I have yards and yards and yards of it.  For some reason.

The jacket is cute.  Unfortunately, you wouldn’t know that based on the photos of TLo wearing it, since she insisted on putting it on over her bulky tunic (also cute.  Y’know… on it’s own…).

I did try to take some other photos.  Not very successfully.

For instance, I’m pretty sure The Big One’s head isn’t really three sizes too big.  (I mean, I’m willing to go with two sizes too big, but three just seems extreme…)

 

I can’t even think of anything to say about this.   It’s just disturbing.

 

What are they looking at???

 

I give up.

Famous Engineering Disasters Throughout History

In 1889 the Northern-Pacific railway company proposed the building of a trestle bridge to span the Tacoma Narrows.  They didn't get one.   However, in 1940 the world's third-longest suspension bridge was opened spanning the Tacoma Narrows.  It was an engineering marvel.

The moral of this story?  Sometimes a good plan just doesn't end well.

The entire third grade is generously being treated with a field trip next week. They're all going to the annual production of The Nutcracker and to lunch at Texas Roadhouse.  The permission slip instructs that they should wear "holiday dress clothes" or "good everyday clothes".

 

Apparently all the boys wanted to wear tuxedos.   They were vetoed.

The Big One doesn't really have anything fancy to wear, because she has a bad mother.  So her bad mother, in a fit of rare guilt, agreed to make her a dress out of The Big One's most favorite fabric ever: polyester black stretch panné velvet.

The Big One is, in fact, the reincarnation of Stevie Nicks.  If Stevie Nicks is dead.  Is Stevie Nicks still alive?

Anyway, this was the plan:

This is what she got:

And of course, this is now The Big One's most favorite dress ever.  She wore it to school today for "free dress day".  She was desperate to know if I could get it washed by Thursday so she can wear it again for Thanksgiving.  She'll probably wear it every weekend for the next six months.

It looks like a bad cassock.

I have total and complete sympathy with the engineers of the Tacoma Narrows bridge.

The Fabric Hog. No, I’m Not Talking About Myself. Sheesh.

I made TLo two more dress/top/tunic thingies.  For once I was rather clever in my planning (and by "planning" I mean I actually thought about what I was going to do for more than five seconds before I started doing it).  TLo really needs some winter "weekend" clothes, but she could use a few warmer school uniform items as well so... I cleverly decided to make the first tunic in a solid knit, with the theory that she could both wear it to school and on the weekend and if it fit I could use a more interesting knit for other versions.

I know.  Shocking concept.  I like to think outside the box like that.  I am a rebel.

I was so excited to be making weekend clothes that doubled as school clothes that I got all giddy and didn't really think about how that would effect my fabric usage.  I’ve really been wanting to make the girls some weekend knit clothes because I have heaps of end-bits and odd-pieces of knits in bright florals and stripes and such that I am desperate to get out of the sewing room (so as to facilitate the guilt-free purchasing of new knits, of course... I'm willing to admit that my motives aren't in any way selfless). 

I had to pick through all the many many many cute knit patterns I have (curse you, Ottobre Design!).  And so of course I chose this pattern because I thought it would be flattering on TLo... which it is.  It’s the right proportion in the body, the right length of skirt and the extra-wide collar lets her wear a turtleneck despite her no-neck situation (sadly, she takes after her mother in this).

Ottobre Design 6-2011 #18

All good so far.   Famous last words because, Lo!  Due to  the shape of the skirt, in size 122 length/146 width the pattern takes one-and-a-half yards of knit.  With a lot of waste. Of all those piles of odd-ball knits, I hardly had anything that was long enough for this.  Instead of using up half-yards and odd bits, I ended up creating even more.

Doh!

Anyway, here's the first version:

Here's TLo "posing":

And here she is doing… the merengue!  Ole!

I made a cute second version in a black mini-floral knit with a slightly less-puffy sleeve, but I didn't get a photo of it yet.   They're both a little big in the shoulder, but I figure that's better than too small.  In person this is very cute on TLo, so we're going with a "win" on this one.  Despite the fabric-hogginess of it all. 

Because I’ll probably have to buy some more solid knits in longer lengths. 

You know.  To make a few more versions for school.

What?

Don’t judge me!

I Hate Linen.

No, really.  I hate it.

In case you suffered from the misapprehension that I haven’t sewn anything in the past three months, I can assure you I have.  At least one thing. 

This thing, to be precise:

No wait.  There’s more:

 

These, in case you were wondering, are photos of the linen jumper I made for TLo’s school uniform.  Which I took after I washed it.  For the fourth time. 

Yes.  You heard me.  I’ve only washed this garment four times.  And I’ll probably have to throw it in the trash.

 

I even piped the flippin’ pockets, people. 

(It’s extra-wrinkly because it’s still wet from the washer.  Also, I took a picture of my toes.  Neato.)

 

This is what I used to make the Evil Self-Destructionator 2000:  Ottobre 3/2011 #18.  Cotton gingham.  Outrageously poor-quality linen.

 

This is what a child looks like, frolicking and blithely making a mess, when she is blissfully aware that her dress has not self-destructed.

 

I’m not even going to bother to show you what a child in our house looks like when her dress self-destructs.

The Placket Racket.

 

I realized today that I never posted a photo of my first version of Ottobre 1-2009 #35.  Uh.  So here one is.

 

It’s very wrinkly because I took this photo at 9 pm after a long day of 112 degree heat.  That’s 44 degrees if you’re wanting to be all metric and whatever. 

 

 

Yep.

(crickets chirping)

mmhmm....

(coyote baying in the far-off distance)

 

right…..

 

(more crickets)

Oh!  Here's a photo of the placket that I utterly refused to make twice:

It's not that it didn't come out super-cute.  I just didn't think it was worth the utter horror and despair, I mean the small amount of added effort for something a kid will wear for about six weeks.

Case in point: in the three months since I made this for TLo, she's grown again and I'll definitely have to take out the elastic on the sleeves.  At least the rest of it still fits pretty well.  Hopefully it will make it through to the end of summer.

Eeni Meeni Chilli Beeni… The Spirits Are About To Speak.

 

Well, I finally found a use for that one giant button I had leftover. 

Probably this seems like no big deal to the casual observer.  But it was really bugging me having it sitting in my button box all lonely and pathetic looking.  Every time I came across it, it fairly cried out for someone to take pity on it and put it on something.  Like it had it’s own spirit or personality or something.  “Heeeeeelp me…. I neeeeed to beeee on a shiiiiiirt……”  I felt distinctly guilty every time I picked it up and put it back in the box.

Apparently TLo had a similar psychic attachment to it.  Yesterday the very first thing she said to my dad when she saw him was, “Look Granddad!  Mama put this big button on my shirt.  Look!  A big button!” 

Ok, then.

Perhaps the Great Button Spirit will rest in peace now.

Blatant Promotional Activity. Not For Me, Of Course. For Someone Else.

So you probably already know that I love Ottobre Design Magazine.  I mean, not only do they provide excellent design and drafting, very helpful production instructions and totally adorable photo shoots, but they are also (as far as I can tell) Just Plain Nice People.  As an example: I had occasion to write to them a few months ago regarding a suggestion for their blog and got a very personable response from Tuula the next day.  Seriously, the very next day.  Just. Plain. Nice.  This totally appeals to my Minnesota Niceness.

Now I know I’m hardly the first person to say exactly these things about the good people at Ottobre and I certainly doubt I’ll be the last.  But I thought I’d also let you know of a lovely thing that happened just now whilst I was madly avoiding work by shopping--- er… I mean idly perusing the interwebs in my spare moments:

I just started a subscription to Ottobre Woman (I’ve been getting the kids’ magazine for about 4 years) because I dropped BWOF/BS and thought the OW designs seemed more practical (in that I might actually make and wear them).  As the start of my subscription I got the latest issue, 2-2011, which is nice but has an uncomfortably large (from my perspective) number of sleeveless garments in it.  Thus, I’m in the middle of working out how to add sleeves to a sleeves garment. 

“But I want to make some sleeved shirts nooooooow”, whined the voice in my head.  Fine.  Whiney-crabbypants in my head is irritating, so I decided to go through the back issues and see what I could see.  What I saw was issue 5-2010 and I liked what I saw.  Into the shopping cart it went.  I figured at €7.80 it was a bargain…. if you compare it to my $88/year BS subscription, from which I made one garment last year.  For a child.

But here’s the good part: when I clicked on “Place Order”?   I spy with my little eye a checkbox offering me free shipping on back-issues.  Simply because I already have an existing subscription.  Seriously?  Free shipping?  Even international? AMAZING!

Fine.  It’s not that exciting.  But I just think it’s one of those little things that makes their customer service oh-so very nice.  And I’m passing the info on to you.  Buy some back-issues.  Make some pretty clothes.  Live it up!  Free shipping, people.

I love those crazy Finns.

When Vampire Babies Attack!

TLo has never lost a tooth that The Big One didn’t knock out.  Seriously.  Right now she looks like Vampire Girl.

Anywho…

Lest you labor under the false impression that I haven't sewn anything the past month or two:

I made this.

I also made several other summer tops/dresses for TLo.  Really.  I just continue to suffer from a complete and utter lack of interest in discussing them.  Or photographing them.

I will tell you that on this one, I started with this pattern (Ottobre 1-2009 #35)

and then altered the front so as to not have to suffer through making a totally superfluous (i.e. too fiddly for me to deal with more than once) front placket. 

I did do the front placket on the first version I made of this.  Honest.  But it was so totally annoying that I decided to just pare it down to the little placket version you see now.  To make the closures, I used salvaged buttons and some purple hair elastics.  Which is pretty cool.  Admit it.

Oh, and I converted the gathers to pleats.  I just prefer pleats.

In Which I Learn The Same Life Lesson For The Fifth Time In A Row

Actually, the same two life lessons.  I'm a little slow on the uptake.

The first lesson is "I just should not be allowed to take my own picture.  Ever."  Unless I really am:

a) perpetually out of focus and poorly lit

 

b) An asylum escapee with no chin

c) Astonishingly irritated with everything and everyone, super-duper crabby and looking like a wrinkly old bat

Ok fine. Item C isn't totally outside the bounds of possibility.  But still.

The second lesson is one that I just can't seem to wrap my head around no matter how much I remind myself.  Namely "I should always wait a day or two before I decide whether or not a garment really is as disastrous as I think it is".  Because on Sunday when I finished the neckline on this tunic I was seriously disturbed by the fit, the finish and the general look of it.  Distraught, practically.  But today when I tried it on to show you all just how disastrous it was, I discovered that it's not nearly as bad as I remembered.  It’s not great, but just possibly not the first sign of the apocalypse.

So I guess I'll finish the sleeves after all.

Oh, this is what the fabric actually looks like, it's really royal blue not black.  The hem band on the inside is a lavender linen with weird white roses painted on it.

edit: The one advantage to photos, even these horrid ones, is that I get a better sense of how something fits… or rather, how something looks like it fits.  In this case, would you say that this is too big starting, oh, pretty much at the armscye and working down?  I’m inclined to say it could be taken in just a tiny smidge.  Which is totally fascinating, since I made a way smaller size at the hip than my measurements call for.  Um.  Like you’ve never heard that before, right?  What is the deal with that??

edit the seconde: Re: the camera being up high—in fact, it was sitting at pretty much the same height as my husband’s head or in other words where he would hold the camera were I to allow him to attempt taking my photo.  He’s short(ish) for a guy so it’s not especially high relative to how people on the street might see me. 

I am very, very short. 

I’m thinking of investing in a tripod.  I used to own a tripod but I have absolutely not one clue what’s happened to it.  Probably wherever my film camera is (you know, those things people used to take pictures with?).

We Don’t Even Own A Bike. No. Just Kidding. We Do.

Guess what I did on my day off?

No really.  Go on.  Guess!

Seriously.  You can’t guess, can you?

Dress. Again.

So for about six weeks I’ve been planning TLo’s “Spring Dress” which is what she wears to the Easter Party at the Country Club the day before Easter (since we don’t celebrate Easter per se, this is basically the only time the Evil Monkeys have an opportunity to wear fancy dresses—it’s quite the highlight in their sad, dreary little lives).

You’ll note I said for the day before Easter.  Right?  You heard that part, right?  Because, as most of you are probably aware (owning calendars and all), Easter is not until the TWENTY-FOURTH OF APRIL.

So last week my mother informs me, sort of round-aboutedly, that the Evil Monkeys are invited to a Tea Party.  At some kind of Mini-Junior-Deb thing.  On the next Saturday.  And they MUST. WEAR. FANCY. DRESSES.  Or else.

Son of a--

So I had to quick quick quick make a decision about TLo’s new dress— how to use the fabric… what pattern to choose… how to finish it on the inside… what FLIPPIN’ SIZE TO CUT.

Argh.

I achieved three out of four.

ONE: How to use the fabric?

Gynormous Poppy Print + Totally Fab Lightweight Turquoise Denim (of the exact shade of one of the blues in the poppies, no less)

 

TWO: What pattern to choose?

Ottobre 3-2008 #18.  I’ve been eyeing this pattern since it came out.  It’s the SHIZZLE.  ( I figured I’d use a clichéd phrase from 2008 as well.)

THREE: How to finish the inside?

Now if there’s one thing I know how to make using five gajillion different methods, it’s a little girl’s sleeveless-bodice-button-or-zip-in-the-back-with-full-gathered-skirt dress.  Seriously.  I might have to slave and struggle to make a polo shirt.  I might have to have a special tutor to make a pair of pants.  But a little girl’s dress?  I can do those in my sleep.  (Which just goes to prove that even the slowest of wits can learn to do something proficiently through sheer volume of repetition.) 

In fact, I know so many ways of doing this type of garment that it actually requires some serious thought to determine which method I want to use and how I’m going to achieve my goals.  This thought process includes picking a level of finishedness for the inside (it’s a word) and then working backwards to figure out what sequence of construction I have to do.  It’s more complicated than it might at first glance seem.

I’m still kickass at this.

In the end, I decided that I wanted the entire dress to be fully finished on the inside.  I’ll admit that this was in part spurred by a closer look at the inside of The Big One’s RTW Easter-Mini-Junior-Deb dress from Strasburg.  It was pretty poorly constructed all things considered and they’d gone to the low depths of not even fully lining the bodice, let alone the entire dress.  Cheeeeap, cheap cheap.  I can so totally do better with my Kick Ass self.  Fully lined with completely finished interior it is.  Nyah!

To do that, you cut a corresponding lining (in this case, from white lawn) to the shell pieces.  You clean finish the bodice (using the method whereby you pull the lining through the shoulders, I’m not doing a tutorial on that there are lots of them out there).  Then attach the skirts to the shell and the lining. 

You then attach the zipper to the shell (an invisible zipper) and sew the center back seam of the shell and then of the lining up to where the zipper would be.

And then you just bag out the lining as you would a jacket.  Only, you know, with a dress.  By sewing the two hems together, right side facing.  The shell gets pulled through the hole of the lining where the zipper is.

Then tack down the lining to the zipper with hand stitches (leaving a gap at the bottom for the zipper to have some breathing room).

Voila!  Fully finished interior.

It also has the added benefit of being nicely weighty and giving you a perfect hem.

Piece. O’. Cake.  Easy. Peasy.  A thing of beauty.

FOUR: What flippin’ size to cut?

And this, Gentle Reader, is where it all went horribly, horribly wrong.

I’ve come to the conclusion that TLo expands her chest whenever I try to take her measurements.  You know how sometimes horses blow themselves up with air when they’re being saddled so the saddle will be loose?  Like that.  Stinkin’ little monster.

She wore it to the Mini-Junior-Deb Saturday Tea anyway.  She didn’t have much choice.

Apparently it was like being in The Sound of Music or something.  The hills were, to all intents and purposes, alive with music.

 

Next week: How to take in the bodice of a perfectly finished dress, without taking it apart or changing the width of the skirt. 

No really.  It will happen.

Or else.