Yo Mama Is So Cheap…

Sorry, I seem to be on a late-80’s Yo Mama kick lately.  Must be midlife nostalgia of some sort (although why Yo Mama jokes would make me feel nostalgic, I have no idea).

So this weekend I rushed rushed rushed (always a bad idea) and made up this little jacket for TLo.  The idea was for her to get to wear it for Thanksgiving dinner, but of course I just finished it tonight.  This is, basically, the story of our  lives.

I used Ottobre 4-2008 #4 “Hiippa” jacket.  Actually, this jacket pattern is shown two ways in the magazine and I sort of cherry-picked from both versions.  The second was 4-2008 #7 “Venny” jacket.

 

Now, the observant amongst you might be saying to yourselves, “Those models looks suspiciously like babies”.  You would, in fact, be right.  They are babies.   This pattern was sized 62 cm – 92 cm.  TLo wears at bare minimum a 110 cm.  She’s better in a 114-116 cm for width.   But this is the pattern that I was dead convinced would be the only one in my voluminous collection of patterns that would work with my fabric.  What to do, what to do? 

(sigh)  Grade it up.

I have to do a lot of size alterations on my own clothes but I’ve never done anything this extensive for the kids.  Still, unwilling to put aside my dogged pattern convictions, I didn’t have much other choice.

In a nutshell, I used the “how to upsize a pattern that is ludicrously below your own pattern size” instructions from Barbara Deckert in her lovely book Sewing for Plus Sizes: Design, Fit, and Construction for Ample Apparel.   (I’ve never actually needed to try this technique before since, although I definitely do wear a “plus” size,  I only need a size 14 at the upper chest measurement so I have ample pattern choices to alter from.  Her technique is really geared for altering beyond the standard pattern size ranges, which made it perfect for this project.)  Here’s the result on the front bodice pattern.  

The concept is to slice-and-dice the pattern into a sort of grid and spread apart the pieces by however much extra you need.  In this case I theorized that I needed about 4” in width and 2” in length across the entire garment.  I based this theory on subtracting the differences in body measurements between a size 92 and a size 110 (based on the size chart in the magazine) and adding a little more for ease.   

Essentially, all the other pattern pieces had the same frankenpattern chic going for them when I was done.  You don’t even want to know what grisly remains were left of the sleeve pattern.  I had to retrace that one completely once it was altered.

It took me a crazy-long time to get the pattern all sorted out.  Then I finally was able to cut out the fabric and sew it up, which took relatively little time at all.  I didn’t finish the inside very nicely, but since this is made from Christmas fabric and can only be worn for the next  30 days, I didn’t figure it really mattered.

And speaking of the fabric: “Yo mama is so cheap…  that she made two whole sweaters out of a minky sofa throw that she got at WalMart for $7.50.”   Here’s the first one.

Not brilliant pictures.  TLo isn’t feeling so great and in the end my upsizing theory wasn’t spot-on.  I needed to add more than 4” to the width in the chest and this one just fits.  But it’s too bad we don’t have Feel-O-Vision, because that minky fleece fabric is To. Die. For. Soft.

More Crack Smokin’ Fashion Madness

So I don’t normally feel compelled to comment about Burda Style. It’s a goofy magazine at the best of times, with an oddly eclectic assortment of fashion “points of view” as they say (ad nauseum) on Project Runway. I mean, this makes sense: it comes out once a month and it has an average of 25 patterns in it. That’s a lot of magazine to fill and a lot of patterns to design. And let’s be honest, there are only so many things that can be reasonably done with a jacket. I expect to not love every issue. Some things are going to be more appealing to me than others. Fair enough. And then yesterday the December 2009 issue showed up in my mailbox.

All I can think is that the good people at Burda have finally succumbed completely to what used to be an occasional crack habit and they are now living in a box under the bridge and shouting incoherently at people who walk by.

First, there’s the “Party” section. Fine. Clearly they’re aiming for the young 20’s market. But really, is this something that’s appropriate for any party that isn’t one where you’re working as the “entertainment”?

And then, there’s this.

But wait, here’s what the text said: "Our extravagant brocade evening blouse with big, shoulder-puff sleeves is particularly flattering on tall women."

This actually left me speechless for several seconds.

They think a tall woman would be better off in this thing? Right. Because that’s what all the tall women I know want, to look like a linebacker.

After that rather breathtaking weirdness, I decided to just skip ahead to the “plus”-sized section. Compared to the rest of the magazine, they usually have pretty dull offerings in this section so I figured, “How bad can it be?”

“Hey Sailor, want some company?”

Seriously? And it just goes on from there. I mean, really: this month they have four different styles of capes. Capes, for crying out loud!

I just can’t get behind this issue. Maybe next month’s will be more inspiring.

edited to add: I saw this review by ALY at PatternReview and while I still can't really get behind the linebacker garment (or this entire issue, for that matter) I will say that she did a really spectacular job sewing this up and it looks pretty good on her. So you go, ALY! (And she's tall, too, so there you go what do I know?)

Ah, Farewell Sweet Polo, We Hardly Knew Ye.

Here is the LAST THING I AM GOING TO POST ABOUT POLOS.  Ever.  Or at least until I think of something else I might want to say about polo shirts.  I am way sick of them at this point.  Also, my neighbor just gave me two shirts and a dress that her daughter outgrew.   We have enough polos to last awhile.   And speaking of dresses, here is the dress that she gave me:

Here is the dress that I made.  This was my last polo effort to date.  See?  It's a polo.  It's a dress.  It's a POLO DRESS.  Oooo.

(Sorry about the wacky skewed image, it's that stand-at-the-table-with-the-camera-over-my-head thing again.  I have to find the stepladder.)

BORING TECHNICAL DETIAILS: Basically, to make the dress pattern I took the bodice of my KwikSew polo pattern (aha!  something useful came out of it after all) and added extra width on each side seam tapering from nothing at the armscye to a half-inch at the bottom hem.  Then I added a big rectangle of gathered fabric for the skirt.  (I created the A-line shape for the bodice because I was afraid it would be too narrow for easy movement if I left it straight.  In retrospect, I didn’t need that added width at all.)

I didn't do much with the skirt on this one and it's a little floppy.  This particular article of clothing combined several "firsts" for me and that was just too much for my brain to deal with.  I couldn't add the extra brain-drain of trying to calculate even pleats with the very specific length of fabric I had.  Which leads me to my first "first".

Question: "Can you make a dress out of an adult-sized (albeit pretty large) polo shirt?"

Answer: "Why, yes.  Yes, you can.”

Not only was I able to squeeze all the bodice pieces into the top half of the old shirt, but I cut the sleeves from the old sleeves (thus utilizing the pre-made knit cuffs)

and used the collar (see this post about cutting down a collar). 

All that careful squishing gave me juuuuust enough fabric left over at the bottom to make the skirt. 

 

This photo is from the beginning of the school year.  SuperGirl here has grown a little since then so it fits her a little bit better.  It's still pretty floppy, though.  When I make more of these (like in the far far distant future) I might have to just cut them from actual yardage so I can have pleats instead of gathers.

So, what were  the other "firsts", you ask?  Honestly, I can't remember now.  Ack.  My brain is melted.  I have Polo Brain.   Clearly a case of Polo Brain requires extensive rest.  And possibly hot chocolate.

Oooo, but here is another “first”":  I just used Windows Live Writer to create this blog page and it is so cool!  I thought it would be dumb, but it’s way easier to do it this way than with Blogger’s tools.  So “Yay, Windows!”  Who woulda thunk?