A Palette Cleanser - Simplicity 1541

This week a friend IRL asked me if, after finishing my jeans, have I given up blogging.  Well, no, I'm just preoccupied with new projects and thinking about new projects, and frankly, a new obsession.  It's been fun, and I have written a dozen blog posts in my head, which haven't actually made it to a keyboard.  Writing is mostly thinking, so I like to believe I've done the hard work, just where no one can see.  As usual.

Cleaning up after the Jeans Project took a lot of time.  There were a half dozen patterns to sort and store, fabric scraps to deal with, and a very messy sewing room.  Once that was done, I began the dithering over what to do next.

A fall coat came to mind.  After making the Gertie coat last year, I was enthused about another, less complicated, autumn coat.  My Gertie coat is made of camel hair, which is really warm, and the big circle skirt is great for the dead of winter, but I want something less . . . well, just less.  I have a Pendleton plaid coat for fall (my favorite season), but it's five years old now and starting to show some wear.

I wanted something easy.  And I wanted to use a pattern from one of the many sewing books I own.  I recently noticed that while I buy a lot of them, I never actually make anything from them.  I'm not certain why.  Probably there's the pressure to trace, which I'm not all that excited about.  And there are so many big 4 patterns that are cheap and easy.

So I found a coat pattern in Sew Serendipity:

The coat patterns are essentially one pattern consisting of different lengths:

I was interested in the green wool coat (middle photo), with the bottom photo length.  This is an easy coat pattern - easy collar, no lining (but I could make one easily), and only three buttons.  The search for the perfect coat weight wool commenced.

The wool needed to be coat weight, but supple.  Not finding what I wanted, I went ahead traced all the pattern pieces, and made my lining from the same fabric I used on the Gertie coat (I bought 7 yards so I may be sewing with this stuff for YEARS to come.)  The size small fit well, and I finally found a wonderful quality wool locally (at the expensive fabric store in town) for a great sale price.  I told myself it wasn't teal, it was cadet blue, and brought it home.

But then doubt set in.  While the Sew Serendipity coat is cute, maybe it is a little too . . . cute???  I'm 50 years old now.  What I love, and have loved, has suddenly felt too young on me, which has left me feeling vaguely ridiculous.  

Not surprisingly, I didn't want to give up on this pattern, having traced it and made the lining, but obviously continuing on with a coat that I won't actually wear defies reason.  I cast about for another, perhaps more sophisticated, easy coat pattern.  I ordered this from the interwebs:

The coat comes in various lengths, and reminds me of the Tippi Hedren jacket.  It is easy, and as a bonus it includes a lining pattern.  I thought I was all set.

But there was the fabric.  While gorgeous in weight and drape, I had to finally admit to myself what I had denied:  the color is teal, dammit.

(This photo makes it look more blue than it is in real life.  Unfortunately.)

I don't care for teal.  And yet, I keep ending up with it.  I can only assume it's a cruel trick of the universe.

So I gave up and ordered a fall coat from Boden.

With the cooler temps finally coming our way here in Virginia, I pulled out my favorite wool skirt, the yellow skirt I made last January, McCalls 3341.  And not surprisingly, I found it a little too tight.  Another little nasty side effect of turning 50.  Ick.

I bought the yellow wool at Mood while in NYC last December and I bought a bunch of it, so the solution was to just make another.  I wanted something less A-line and longer, more of a pencil skirt, which is more in vogue, so I went with Simplicity 1541, which I made in a stretch jean fabric this summer:

I made it the exactly same way, except I mitered the french pleat in the back as illustrated in Singer's "Sewing for Style" I recently found in a thrift store for $ 5.00.

Here are the instructions:

Easy enough, but mine doesn't lay as flat and shows slightly in this wool:

If I made this skirt again, I probably won't bother with the mitering; it lays flatter just folding up normally, and no one cares how I manage my kick pleat. 

I had planned to line it in silk but ran out of enthusiasm and just decided I would wear a half slip with it.

I used the same tablecloth fabric for the waist facing that I used on the original yellow skirt:

Also, this time I put in a centered zipper rather than the lapped; it is just easier for me:

I used the same 3/4 seam allowances I used on the last skirt, but this one is tighter because of the lack of stretch.  If I make it again in wool, I'll use 5/8 seams instead just to give a little more wiggle room (literally).

I do enjoy topstitching:

So yay, I like the skirt.  But my sewing these days is in flux.  Not only do I have way too many clothes, I have too many that I don't wear.  Remember my last count of 46 skirts hanging in my closet?  Something had to be done.

There are a ton of blogs out there dedicated to minimalist wardrobes, but this is what is working for me:

1)  For every garment I make or buy, I get rid of two.  So for this skirt that I added to my closet, I eliminated two skirts.  This has helped me reduce the 46 skirts down to 29.

2)  No more black.  I saw, and wore, enough black in the '80s and '90s to last me a lifetime.  I'm tired of it.  And as I age, it looks too severe on me, making me look pale and tired.  Still, of those 29 skirts I still have, six are black.  Clearly more purging is necessary.

3)  I've discovered I'm both emotional and practical when it comes to clothes hoarding.  I keep some clothes because I used to love wearing them, even though I don't wear them now, and I keep clothes because they are practical (it was cheap! it was expensive! I might need it some day!), even though I don't wear them.  One example:  I have a black suit with two skirts that I can't bring myself to get rid of because, what if, God forbid, someone should die?  Obviously, reason should tell me that if that happens any store in America will have black clothes suitable for the impending funeral.

4)  For the first time in a long time in my adult life, I have put on weight and some of my clothes are too tight - this is a real bummer.  Keeping them in my closet isn't lifting my spirits, but getting rid of them feels like waiving the white flag of defeat.  I know that admitting it is the first step in dealing with the problem.

5) I'm only sewing what I feel passionate obsessed about.  If I'm dithering, I'm probably not sufficiently enthralled with it, i.e. see coat story above.  If this is the case, I'm buying what I need and calling it a day (see also, Boden solution above).  

6)  Here's an interesting article about discarding everything that does not bring you joy.  I'm hoping looking at my clothes about whether they bring me joy will liberate me from the emotional/practical considerations in keeping and tossing clothes.

7)  The clothes I have removed from my closet haven't actually left the house.  They are in storage in an unfinished attic room which helps me remove them them from the closet.  It's sort of a half-way house for unwanted clothes.  I'm separated from them, but if I ever need them, they are recoverable.  I hope this helps in ultimate separation in the future.

8)  My goal is to own less clothes which I actually wear that allow more creativity in how I wear them.  And, of course, good quality, whether I make them or buy them.

Coming soon:  my new obsession and why I'm sewing it.

A Tale of Two Skirts

In between jeans muslins, I've been sewing skirts.  And other things.  But mostly skirts.  Skirts are what I live in all summer because a skirt, a tee, and a pair of sandals is the coolest, most comfortable outfit in summer.  I realized this week I don't even own a pair of shorts, and went to buy McCalls shorts pattern, number 6930, because it was on sale for $ 1.99, but Hancocks was out of stock. I'm actually wearing a pair of The Carpenter's cut off jeans today, but I digress.

First up was Simplicity 1541, which is a basic straight skirt:

I've been meaning to try this one, not only for it's basic style, but also because it is part of Simplicity's "Amazing Fit" line and I wanted to find out if it was really "amazing".  It also allowed me to use my leftover pink denim that I used for my latest incarnation of the Gertie pants.  I made view B, the middle length version.

One of the features of the pattern is that is allows different pattern pieces for different figures: the choices are slim, average, and curvy.  Sort of the same concept as cup sizes for the bust that many patterns have these days.  And the pattern sheet provides detailed instructions to determine what you are, but let me save you time:  if you have less than 10 inches between your waist and hip measurements, you are slim; if you are 10 inches you are average; and if you are more than 10 inches you are "curvy".

More helpfully, the pattern provides detailed hip finished garment measurements for each size and each "fit".  This allowed me to determine that, unlike most Big Four patterns, there wasn't a lot of ease in this skirt.  My measurements put me as size 14, and since there are 10 inches between my waist and hip (depending on whether I've eaten pizza or not), I am "average", not surprisingly (I have pretty standard figure).  The finished hip garment measurements for a size 14 average is 39, which seemed too tight, since that is my exact hip measurement, but this pattern is drafted with 1 inch side seam allowances for better fitting.

I went with it.  The instructions seemed to create more work than necessary, but I reminded myself that I'm trying to do things new ways with new techniques so I don't get bored, so I did it their way.  You are instructed to baste the front yoke to the front of the skirt, and then baste the back yokes to the backs of the skirt, and then baste the side seams with a 1 inch seam and try it on.

My skirt was tight, like indecently tight.  The pattern instructions have all kinds of fitting tips, like what to do if you side seam pulls to the front or to the back, but my side seams were completely straight, the thing was just too tight.  The instructions tell you pull out some of your basting stitches and pin until you get a straight seam, but I couldn't remove the side seams while standing in it, so I eyeballed it and decided the whole thing would fit better if I used 3/4 seams instead of 1 inch, thus giving me 1 inch more of ease in the skirt.

I basted the 3/4 inch side seam, and then removed the 1 inch seam and tried it on.  Very good fit.  But of course, by doing it this way, I then had to remove the 3/4 basted side seam, and remove the yokes from the skirt, sew the front and back yokes together for real, and then sew the side seams for real this time, using the 3/4 inch seam allowance.  Then attach the yokes to the skirt. Whew.  A lot of work for a simple skirt:

Once I got it all done, though, with the yoke facings and zipper and everything, the waist felt a little loose.  Grrrr.  Did my waist stretch while putting in the yoke facing?  Was it the lycra in the denim?  I don't know, which just goes to show, no matter how much you fit as you sew you never really know until you are done, done, done.

I made the front seams a mock felled seam since I have been doing that on my jeans muslins:

The inside view of the mock felled seam:

And I put in my first lapped zipper, which I've never done before, but again, I'm trying new things so I don't get bored:

A pretty good first effort, but I'm not convinced of its superiority to the centered zipper.  

The skirt has a back kick pleat:

All in all, I'm very pleased with this skirt (its an excellent work skirt) although next time I might try a 7/8 inch side seam and see how that works.  I think it depends on your fabric and its stretch, so I won't know until I make it.

Next up was Vogue 1247:

Where have I been?  This pattern was named one of the top 10 patterns of 2011, I think, but I was totally oblivious.  Everyone on the interwebs seems to love, love, love this skirt, with the front in-seam pockets, although most sewers are adding 5 to 8 inches to the length.  As drafted it finishes 15 inches long.  Which is fine if you are a teenager, not so good if you are over 45 years old.

I knew I wanted to make this in a soft cotton twill - the kind you would use to make a great pair of chinos.  I knew I also wanted to make this skirt so I could wear it at the beach, so I chose a soft grayish blue (or a soft bluish gray, I can't tell) from fashionfabricsclub.comhttp://www.fashionfabricsclub.com/p710_12372-sea-glass-blue-twill.  The color reminds me of bleached-from-the-sun beachwood.

I made a size 14 but added 5 inches as I figured 20 inches was a good length on a summer beach skirt.  I didn't add the length to the pattern pieces; I just chalked it out on the fabric since it was a pretty straight forward alteration.

Here's the hands-in-the-pockets obligatory photo that everyone who has made this skirt has posted:

And the back:

I used a centered zipper and a button in the back, rather than a hook and eye closure.  I also put in a top-stitched hem rather than the blind hem as instructed. The pattern called for some serious seam binding that included the side seams and pockets - the photos of some of the insides of the skirts on everyone's blogs are neat to see, but I wasn't inspired to rise to that level of effort - I just used my overlock stitch on my Bernina to finish the seams and called it a day.

A lot of the sewers who made this skirt have made multiples, but strangely, I don't feel the urge, even though I ordered another cotton twill in anticipation that I would want to.  I might make this in corduroy or wool come this fall, adding another couple inches.  We'll see.

Vogue has a reputation of being slightly more difficult that the other Big Four, and I admit that while this is a simple skirt, more than once I had to think about how things went together, and not every little step is illustrated in the instructions.  But there was nothing anyone will some sewing experience couldn't figure out.

More on the jeans project to follow, but that's all for now!

Parting Shot: The Carpenter and some of his brothers before we were evacuated from the island due to Hurricane Arthur: