Frocktails Not-Dress

This is a LONG post where I want to document my makes over the last couple months, and then do a sharp detour into updated goals. Sort of updated…mostly reiterated. I hope it will make sense.

While I realize it’s sorta ass-backwards to organize a party where everyone wears a dress they made….then turn around and make pants – it had to be done.

There was a dress made for Frocktails….but it’s a wrap dress, and a test pattern. The pattern wasn’t launched before the party, but that wasn’t my biggest concern. As the party organizer, I couldn’t risk the wrap-dress-flash-factor with all the moving around I’d be doing. So….I went with much more modest and stylized.

I actually don’t have a whole lot of shots of me IN the outfit. 😀 Silly, huh? There’s a few on the previous Portland Frocktails post and some on the Frocktails site. Here’s one of me trying to figure out which shoes to wear on Instagram, while my mirror was buried deep in Frocktails stuff.

The rose twill I had in my stash for at least 5 years, waiting for the right inspiration. When I saw the Anna Allen Persephone pants pattern, I knew that is what it had to be.

I took a few Instagram shots of the pants when I finished them.

I made a few adjustments to the pattern, such as increase the back rise and grade out a bit for lower hip…I don’t recall what exactly…like a 6 waist to a 10 low hip? Something like that. I added about an inch and a half to the back rise – I could probably take that extra half back out.

Next pair will be a heavier canvas. The twill is nice, but is too thin for these ultra-tight waist pants, and they won’t last through a year.

I believe it was a fabric.com clearance purchase, so I’m not super shocked how thin it gets with every wash. Not that I think the Kamm-pants look is going to last more than a couple years anyway…it’s more for fun than comfort, know what I mean?

And now that we’re in a 90+ degree heat wave, we’re going to have Ms. Dressform do the modeling. Outfit is on size 10 dress form. I’m smaller than my 12 dress form, but a bit bigger than my 10 and definitely proportioned differently, so 10 it is.

So, the top part. I knew the Sewcialists were going to have their Sew Style Hero month coming up, and I wanted to participate, but there was no way I was going to pull off a Frocktails outfit AND a completely different Sew Style Hero outfit, so I combined them, and chose Cate Blanchett for my Sew Style Hero, and went menswear-inspired.

The vest is the Thread Theory Belvedere Waistcoat. It’s a men’s pattern, and I altered it for my body. I took out the broad back curve made for a man’s broader back shoulder span, deepened the back waist darts quite a bit, and took in the under-arm seam at the armscye about a half-inch on both sides on an XS size pattern. If you’re much smaller than me, than you may want to print the pattern at a 75% scale first, as XS is the smallest size, and adjust from there. If you need any smaller than that, and I don’t know that I’d dicker with it.

I used vintage buttons in my stash from my mom, and the lining is left over from a custom sports coat I made my husband.

I do love the vest. It is NOT shaped like a typical women’s vest even with my adjustments… the armscye is pulled in towards center front so as to not restrict arm movement on a man, and the neckline is high…as opposed to normally you’d see a women’s vest stylized to have a wider, deeper neckline, and the armscye would align closer to the armpit crease for a narrow, scooped out, more corseted look. I like both styles, but this was definitely more androgynous looking on me. While I’m pretty happy with the final product, I went against my intuition and followed the instructions. Next time, I will be changing the order of construction to my preferred method – but that’s a personal choice.

Excuse the wrinkles throughout – this has been worn, but not fully re-pressed.

All that said, the pattern is drafted very well. I used a proper, stiff, sew-in stabilizer for the front (fashionsewingsupply.com for always) and I’m glad I went the heavier route.

The shirt is more or less a Grainline Archer. I find the Archer a really great, basic block that can be adapted into a million different ways. I had this poly chiffon in my stash forever too… I think I got it on some Instagram destash, but it has been around awhile. It’s shear, slippery, and likes to fray. Lots of fun, right? I used a LOT of starch, a 60 Microtex needle, and really, it wasn’t too bad. French seams, flat felled the shoulder which got a little squirrelly, oh, and used bias for the cuff plackets. I wasn’t about to try to press a tower placket into the poly.

I free-hand cut the neckline down to my cleavage, and added in a tie-neck instead. Easy-peasy.

The tie is really just a 4 inch wide piece, with the length the width-of-fabric (WOF), and sewn on. It seems arbitrary, but folded on itself, it creates enough structure, at 1″ wide, hides the insides, and is still long enough for a pussycat bow tie.

Untied, with the vest and paired with jeans, it is decidedly less feminine, but still very female, as in my Cate Blanchett Ocean’s 8 inspired version:

A little added on-trend sheer doesn’t hurt either.

Overall, this ended up being a huge learning experience. While all the patterns used are well known, highly rated patterns, and pretty TNT for me except the vest… I’ve never planned to sew an outfit with multiple parts from top to bottom before. I’ve always been the magpie, going where my whims take me. Don’t get me wrong, this was totally whimsical for me. A little 70s gender-bending glam for Frocktails, and a badass Cate Blanchett look for Sewcialists – very much playing dress up here. I mean…more like, whoa, instead of assuming I’m going to stick to my usual palette and this will all meld with my wardrobe, I made a mini wardrobe in and of itself.

So… a couple things.

1. I’m doubling down on my drafting. I’ve been using Illustrator FOREVER but now learning to grade in it, instead of just by hand. I’m hoping to launch a few patterns in August, and do some freelance as well. There’s stuff brewing.
2. Bini, of Josephine’s, said something to me a couple weeks ago – she said, she’d like to see people elevate their sewing and dressing. I like that. I’m going to adopt that. I’ve never been much of a “cake” sewer – frilly dress sewing…more of a meat and potatoes kind of gal…but I can elevate. I feel I need to.
3. This all coincides with Seamwork’s next round of Design Your Wardrobe series. Now, I know I swore I’d never commit to one style…but I want to pull out my clothes everyday and feel more than just comfortable. I want to elevate it…and I need structure for that to happen, especially if I’m going to stay committed to #1 as well.

Do you find yourself doing this half-yearly re-evaluating, and readjustment? I always find New Year’s Day to be poorly placed. The dead of winter is not a place of inspiration for me…it’s more just done out of cultural norm, but who is inspired when you’re Vitamin D is at its lowest? Not me. July fire is more my style.

Are you joining in the Seamwork session? Have you tried it?