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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?

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Cone Mills Stretch Denim Gingers x 2

All the hype about Cone Mills Stretch denim? It’s real. It’s so real. I’m A, really happy I bought 6 yards last year from Blackbird Fabrics, but, B, so freakin’ bummed, even more than before, that the American mill has closed.

Sorry ’bout the lighting – I was chasing some morning sun…some wins, some fails. Whatevs.

Back to the denim and the Ginger skinny pattern. If you use another jeans pattern, I implore you to construct them so that you’re basting your outside leg seams last, so that you can try them on before committing to serged seams/flat-felled seams and all that jazz.

The Cone Mills has a lot more stretch to it than the Robert Kaufman pair, so I went down a whole size in this dark pair, and almost a full size in the lighter pair (below with purple shirt.) No reason on the discrepancy between the dark and the light other than I want the dark ones really tight. I’m hoping both shrink up even more in the wash.

I want them PAINTED on! lol

While this denim has more stretch to it, it also feels a bit more….sturdy. It’s got a really good feel to it. I wish I had another 6 yards.

Denim jacket is a used eBay find from last year, Hellacopters shirt is from, well, Hellacopters. 😀 Hat I made, and shoes by NIKE. Gloves are some RTW I got a few years ago and are well loved…I’ve had to stitch them back together a few times.

Damn bright winter sun.

The lighter pair lends themselves to more pastels.

Some of these photos look like I’ve got some weird cat whiskers thing happening with the crotch, and some look perfect….that’s just a difference in me sitting in these, about a cm more room in them, and just room for movement. I’ll probably wash them on hot a few times.

Obligatory butt shots. I moved the pockets up higher than my first Robert Kaufman pair too…. my flat butt needs all the help it can get. I can do squats until the cows come home – the strength is there…but it ain’t gonna be no poppin’ booty without a LOT more work.

Sweatshirt is an old me-made Renfrew in a double-knit from Bolt Fabrics.

some closer up so you can see the fit…I am a bit knock-kneed (TRUTH: I look like a goofy ostrich when I run) but I don’t care enough to do a knock-kneed adjustment…as much as I move and am active, I prefer the extra bit there.

I’ve got a smidge more room in the waist of these, and that is why I went even more extreme-tight on the darker pair.

Alright, a little tech talk.

Alexander Henry fabrics for the pockets (this is where being a quilting cotton hoarder comes in real handy), basic metal “denim” zip, shanked metal button – but I may swap that out for a matching brass button later…

I knew it as I was doing it but didn’t really care…yeah, that’s some pocket material visible from the outside.

I’m skilled enough to copy RTW, sure, but that’s not my goal. I couldn’t care less about copying RTW. So, yeah. That’s how that’s gonna be.

Serged…but you can see my first set of seams….and then where I took it down farther….then top stitched.

I haven’t hemmed any of my jeans except my Velvet Gingers. And I’m not going to. For now I’m wearing them rolled up anyhow….I like keeping my options open. Just a 3-step zig-zag to keep them from fraying too crazy.

So, that’s a pretty lengthy, double project post…I think I covered it all. I top-stitched with the same color thread that I assembled with…Gütermann Poly 40wt.

I see there are still a lot of people scared of sewing jeans…and yeah, fitting pants is kind of a pain….but once it’s done, you can copy the general shape of the crotch that works for you on to other pants patterns. So…bonus!

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CLOSET CASE PATTERNS: Skinny Ginger Jeans

I DID IT! I’ve had the Closet Case Patterns Skinny Ginger Jeans pattern since June 2015. (sheepish grin)

Now, normally I’m not afraid to sew anything – I’m not really afraid to fail. It’s just fabric, and it’s always a lesson. However… My pants fitting has been on the scale from “Meh” to “I-JUST-BLEW-OUT-THE-ASS-OF-MY-PANTS-AT-COSTCO.” It’s true. Normally I have to scoop out the crotch, or add some hip length – I’m tall with most of it in my torso. Thanks to our amazing sewing community, Bad Mom, Good Mom pointed out on my Colette Juniper pants, most of my fit issues could be fixed with going up a larger backside size than the front. I’ve made about a dozen pairs of pants, but nothing quite like my Colette Clovers that actually split up the backside while picking up a case of water at Costco. That has steered me clear of close-fitting pants for a few years.

I had enough of the fear, and frankly, everyone else and their dog has made Ginger jeans now, so I was bordering on being pathetic.

 

I picked up a 1.5 yard remnant at Modern Domestic…it wasn’t labeled and it’s not on their site, but knowing MD, I’d says it’s a Robert Kaufman, probably close to this 8.6 oz stretch denim here. I paid about $25, so that’s about right MD would be a bit higher priced than fabric.com as they’re my locally owned fabric store. I would definitely recommend it and use it again.

I was going for a hopefully wearable muslin, as I wasn’t ready to cut into the Cone Mills I’ve been hoarding or the velvet bottom weight I have from Britex, but actual muslin fabric wasn’t going to test correctly, so hell with it, right? Just do it.

I only had a hot pink denim zip in my stash (hee hee), and I FUBARed the placement a bit – it’s about 3/8″ off – I read “line up edge of zip” wrong at the fly. Whatevs. I also have just a regular button on them, and skipped the belt loops – I’m still having top stitch thread issues. In fact, half of the top stitching is popping off a bit, but that’s a technical issue on my end, not the pattern. I tried to do it on the Janome and on the Viking, but I’m going to have to break out one of the vintage machines IF I’m to get that top stitch thread to work – or I may just ditch it. I’m not that in love with it anyway.

What do you think of the pocket placement? Should I move them up a cm? I can’t tell. I’m not a good judge of my own butt. I took a 3 inch wedge out of the back yoke – which I need to blend better on future pairs, but other than that, it’s pretty spot on. I’ve worn these for days, and this is fresh out of the dryer, so they’re a bit “packed sausage” at this point. They will loosen up a smidge, but the denim is really good and there’s no bagging out anywhere. You can see below where the wedge of the yoke meets the back seem of the butt and there’s a little wrinkle where it wasn’t blended well on this version.

For me, the waist is now at 0, the largest point of my butt/hips almost at a 14, and the rest is at 12. I’m fairly hourglass shaped, and gain/lose weight pretty evenly in that hourglass ratio, so this is normal for me.

Here’s the IG post of that wedge – I didn’t get a “good camera” shot of it:

The legs fit perfectly. They’re bunching up a bit because I’m refusing to hem them.

My husband keeps teasing me that he’s going to hem them. I don’t want to….I want to leave them raw. We’ll see. I don’t know what the fashion consensus is on that. This is the full length of the pattern without any removed, as reference if you’re looking to make the pattern.

Sexy pants. LOL. Didn’t the 80s just totally ruin that word? Sexy. Ew. But the pocket stay on the inside?!? Holy crap. It’s like…it’s like a smoothing magic, without the discomfort of actual gross sweaty spanx or something.

 

Please excuse my mud room – it’s Oregon and we’re in the rain-half of the year.

Post post notes:

I had the pattern printed before the latest updates to the pattern. I think there have been 2 updates, and my version is smack in the middle. Meaning, IF I would have had the latest version, I would have probably scooped the crotch out the cm or so that was put in, and taken more out of the yoke? I think? Regardless, I did baste the sides, and the construction of the pants makes fitting on-the-fly really easy.

Let’s talk drafting for a minute. I’m just now learning pattern drafting and it looks so much easier than it truly is. The base pattern/sloper, or block, must be good before moving on to style, and then eventually grading to different sizes. To have the success of these jeans on the level that Closet Case has had, which is near cult status…well, they have the magical block. Will this fit everyone as easily as me? Well, no. But, again as reference, I fit J Crew/Banana Republic size 8 or 10 off the rack just fine. Sometimes I have broader shoulders/bust and the waist is too big, or whatever, but for the most part, I’m shaped pretty RTW-friendly. So, if that’s you, then this pattern will be GOLD!

If that is NOT you, Cashmerette JUST released the Ames jeans in different body shapes. While I have not sewn any Cashmerette, I have seen the detail work that has gone into their drafting, not to mention their HUGE fan base. Sewists aren’t fans of crap pattern companies. Well, I take that back, Big 4 still exists, but I submit that’s because they’re cheap (read that how you will.) Indie patterns cost more, and must be made better to succeed, and damn if Cashmerette hasn’t succeeded! I can’t wait to see Cashmerette’s jeans all over the Sewscialsphere.