An American Girl

Yes I’m referencing Tom Petty and not the dolls. Derek and I recently re-watched the 2007 documentary Runnin Down A Dream. It’s four hours long! But it’s fantastic. If you didn’t “get” him before, you’ll be surprised at this Southern boy, big star story. Doesn’t matter if you’re a fan or not; music documentaries make you fall a little in love. I’m addicted to music history anyway. My first “real” post-college job was as a music critic; have I ever mentioned that?

I just threw out my red and white gingham rodeo shirt, which I’m a little bit sad about because that would’ve been a real winner for this outfit. (It was time–the shirt was 70s vintage and threadbare and way beyond repair.)

A couple of years ago, I went on a “great shirt fabric” binge, with the idea, of course, that I’d be making some awesome shirts for my man. I think he’s given up hope (“our house is turning into a bra factory!”). This chambray was among those. I just love classic quality chambray, so I bought enough for me, too. This fabric was already slightly on the heavier side for shirts, a bit more of New York shirt weight than an Austin weight, but perfectly swell for shorts. I was craving a kind of denim-y looking pair but not in actual denim, and was totally inspired by Jen’s chambray-ish version in her tutorial.

The denim idea also inspired all the topstitching. I think I’m finally going to make jeans this winter, so I need some practice with that thick thread. Just the little bit of topstitching swallowed up a spool and a half and two bobbins! Note to self: buy lots of topstitching thread for your jeans, so you don’t run out halfway through the project!

I’ve practically lived in these shorts since I finished them. I just love that almost everything I made this summer is getting really, really worn. (The Cascade skirt makes its appearance at least twice a week!) It makes me feel happy to sew. This has been my most “I made this” summer yet. Derek was in a wedding over the weekend, and I was pulled out my dormant but absolutely wedding-perfect Cambie (along with the hat and shoes), which always feels a bit too girly for most days of my life. So I’m glad I make frosting, too. It was just too cool to get dressed up down to the handmade lingerie (this bra and matching knickers), and exclaim to myself: I made all of this! Sometimes you just have to stand back, admire, remind yourself how cool it is to sew.

Anyways, the shorts. I don’t have any good back shots. I just don’t have the sense of humor to show you the bad wedgies. I put a picture up, I took it down. And in the other half of the pics, I’m doing this:

The shorts looks great when I allowed them fall naturally around my hips, but I kept having this weird instinct to pull them up (to the point of pulled-up too much in the back, ha!). The thing is, I LOVE high-waisted shorts and jeans because proportionally it looks and feels pretty great on me. On me, most patterns are too long between shoulder and waist and too short between waist and hip. So any rise six inches or less just feels and looks indecently low. I think to correct this problem in the next pair, I would probably take the shorts rise up by about an inch and then take in a little bit of the center back for a smooth fit.

I’m almost considering turning this pattern into jeans rather than start with a new pattern. But then I wondered if I actually need the traditional back yoke of jeans to help with fitting. What say you?

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! We are off to visit Derek’s family for an extended weekend, before the summer goes away.

Details:
Pattern: Grainline Maritime Shorts
Fabric: cotton chambray fabric, Emma One Sock

Agua Fresca Shorts

Sweet potato fries with chipotle aioli. Topo Chico, the Pellegrino of Texas. And then finish it all off with a watermelon agua fresca. Not a really balanced lunch, but there were cucumbers in there somewhere. Seriously, these are things I crave in mid-summer and they are so so Austin. As are food trucks, which I know are a foodie phenomenon all over the globe now, but we have them year round because we eat outdoors year round, and they are a staple in every neighborhood. It makes sense that low overhead dining would take off in a city with skyrocketing real estate.

My friend Steph and I decided to brave the afternoon for some corn dogs and other good-bad food. I’m pretty sure I was blending, or maybe not, in my watermelony brights. I was thinking about watermelons all week long, a flavor–and color–I crave at the height of summer. Today went into the 100s again but I still thought it’d be fun to some kind of summery shoot of me in my Argentinian blanket shorts.

Woo, I made them again! These are Grainline’s Maritime shorts pattern. Actually, I made two pairs and took photos of the second, but the others are a totally different vibe and fabric so it might be a different post. For now I’ll revel in food truck land right in the middle of the hot hot afternoon.

As you might remember, I made these exact same shorts in too small of a size, but I didn’t let that deter me. I was testing my luck because I refused to make a muslin. Too little time. Having to print out and re-tape the pattern all over again was going to be my only penance on this one! But then of course I added time by making two. What’s the logic in that? When I want to prove to myself that a pattern can’t beat me, I make two. Take that, you pattern, you!

For my new pairs, I went up a size, then added just a bit of width to the thighs by re-drawing the inseams and outseams. These are somewhat slim-fitting shorts and I don’t have little thighs. I like the new shape a lot better, it’s more relaxed. However, after a wearing or two on both my pairs the fabric really relaxed and the shorts started to fall down! Oh the things you learn about fitting!

I need a personal valet to periodically dry me off in this heat. I just live with the wrinkles.

I mentioned before that this fabric ravels like a monster, so it was necessary to serge every edge before starting. After that, I really loved working with it. It’s a very loose weave (which also contributed to the fabric relaxing with wear) and even though it’s acrylic, they’re super soft and feel quite cool. This is a very easy to make shorts pattern. (There are lots of good supplemental tutorials on Jen’s blog.) I’ve sewn lots of shorts so I went in my own direction with construction order and fly zip method. I like the simple shape and style, a short short, and I’m super happy to have added a few shorts to the wardrobe. I’m not a major shorts girl, but I just live in them in the house all summer. I’m also really craving a high-waisted pair, too, in a crazy printed denim. I just might hack this pattern into all sorts of things. It’s a really good base from which to work.

I don’t have a lot of details to show, but if you look at my previous attempt at these, they’re finished identically. I used Radiance silk cotton to line the waistband and pockets. (Do you know about the wonder that is Radiance fabric? I have probably made 5 yards of bias tape of this stuff, skirts, blouses, and linings.)

As you can see, Austin gets all beach loose and cash by high summer. Tight little shorts and flip flops are a college girl uniform around my hood.

Details:
Pattern: Maritime Shorts
Main fabric: Aguayo blanket fabric, Sweet Llama Supplies
Lining: Radiance silk cotton poplin, fabric.com (long ago stashed!)
Blouse: my favorite find last summer!
Photos of me: Stephanie Press

Lingerie Friday: The Frameless Bra

I love fashion etymology. My friends have been getting an ~~earful~~ education in lingerie definitions–things like nursing sling, cookie (you know, that insertable floating foam thing in bra cups), and longline. The distinction between a tanga, a boyshort, or a cheeky. (For example, the Ladyshorts pattern is drafted in a style of cheeky.)

Outside of poetic retail descriptions that often lump really different styles under the same terms, there are many distinct cuts and styles in underwear.

In the first chapter of Bra-makers Manual II, Beverly Johnson reminds her readers that there really aren’t any standard naming conventions–in lingerie or in any apparel category. “The more a bra style evolves,” she writes, “the more specific its definition becomes.’ She uses the example of padded bras, which twenty years ago referred to any bra with any kind of foam or fiberfill lining, but are now a distinctive (extra-padded) idea in the sea of foam-lined bras.

Among underwired bras, one could at least divide them into two main types: those with a frame and those without. The frameless bra is sometimes known in sewing as a “partial band bra”.

In frameless bras, the underwire and its casing are sewn into the cups, since there is no frame or cradle running under the cups. The wings and bridge have to be completely finished before sewing them into the cup.

The cup seams are different than a framed bra, since there needs to be enough room for the wire to go into the cup. One of my patternmaking books calls it the “hook-up bra”, which I’m guessing means that the wings and bridge are “hooked up” to the cup?

I never really noticed the difference between the two types before I started making bras. When I looked through my older purchased bras, nearly all of them were frameless. So by default, that’s what I made for my first-ever bra. Since then I’ve veered into all kinds of new styles. I just love longlines, and that you can’t do with a frameless bra.

There are pros and cons for each.

Frameless vs. Full Frame

I find that the frameless bra is just a bit easier to sew, but it is also harder to modify into new styles. I tend to put more plusses under the full-frame bra since it can be a foundation for all sorts of other styles (bodysuits, longlines, strapless).

On a frameless bra, there is a limit to how wide the band can be which is a con especially for larger cup sizes. A too-narrow band wouldn’t put enough balancing force in the back, causing the front to drop down. I think of the band as a lever, balancing the weight in the front. Wearing it more tightly is one solution but then there is the potential for pinched skin and pushing the elastic–and fabric stretch–to its limits. Then the straps want to absorb some of the pressure. All that to say, a wider band can alleviate strap pain, pinching, and help with a little smoothing.

But I still dig the frameless style, so I had a go at designing one of my own.

Last summer I spied a cute little leopard bra in one of my favorite lingerie shops and wrote it down on my “project idea list”. Oh that long wishlist. The muse did strike eventually, when I found the right fabric, an unusual jacquard mesh. I made the knickers right away but kept them neatly folded in a sewing drawer until I could get around to a matching bra. I’m just that particular about finishing. My studio is happily strewn with bits of lace lying about like lines of half-started poems. I also have notebooks full of just lines, phrases I hear right in that half-dream state when I’m about to fall asleep.

I’m so glad I experimented with this pattern. I drafted the cup with a single dart and used a plunge wire for a demi style. It’s the shortest cup I’ve made so far, but I really love how it fits and it has turned out to be a good style for me. The undies are a simple high-waisted knicker (the same pattern from which I based my bodysuit).

Now how did I end up putting levers, red leopard and poetry in the same blog post?

Details:
Patterns: self-drafted
Main Fabric: leopard mesh from Etsy
Lining Fabrics:stretch mesh and sheer tricot lining, Fabric Depot Co.
Plush and strap elastics: Fabric Depot Co., a few from stash
Elastic and Lining Dye: Rit “Scarlet”

This Week in Wadders

Wadder: Does anybody know the origin (national, internet?) of this sewing term? It’s related to “wadding something up”, right? For my non-sewing-web friends, it means project bust.

Sewing is such a practical art. It doesn’t matter how beautiful a garment is, how impeccably done, if I can’t wear the end result, there’s not much use for it. Should I frame my bombs? Open an Etsy shop for wadders? What do you do with yours?

In this case, I made these adorable shorts over the weekend using the Maritime Shorts pattern from Grainline. They are a great “short shorts” style, a lot like a pair of some ikat store-bought shorts I’ve practically lived in for three summers. But I made the mistake of cutting them from a size which I’d already traced last summer (when I originally intended to make them), and it turned out to be too small of a size. Oops. It’s a great pattern so don’t let me stop you from trying. It does fit closely, so I’d recommend going by your hip size, which I did not do. I may also measure out the thigh on my next try.

This isn’t the first time I’ve made shorts that don’t fit, or the second. In all three pairs, I spent a lot of time on the tailoring details (using bias binding to around the pockets and things like that), because as you’ve probably noticed, I love being detail-oriented. And I have a hard time just tossing something so pretty. So my shorts have joined “The Rack”: my place where unfinished unfitted things go. I need to be motivated to go on a hemming binge, because that’s mostly what needs to be done here.

I am going to make them again, after taking some time off (more lingerie!), with the yardage I have left. In case you’re wondering, this is aguayo fabric from Argentina. It unravelled at the speed of light, so that meant serging every edge before even stitching any pieces together.

I stole the idea for these from a friend who asked me if I thought it’d be possible to make some shorts out of her vintage Mexican blanket fabric. I thought it was the weirdest fabric for apparel and especially for shorts (it’s acrylic and quite woolly), but I fell in love with the colors and weave, and went hunting for my own blanket material. This got me researching and crushing on all sorts of South American prints and textiles. I’ll be sharing a bit more about this fabric in another post, so you can share my love!

Sheer Rosettes Bodysuit

I’ve never owned a bodysuit that didn’t function in some way as a practical top, but they appeal to me as “grown-up” fashion lingerie. Or a harkening back to an time when undergarments were more than just the very basics.

Like slips–does anyone still wear them? When I was a teenager, it was still common to wear slips under skirts. When my mother took me shopping for my first nude slip and pantyhose, it felt like a coming of age experience. We were in the women’s, not the junior or kids, section. Slips kept unlined skirts and dresses from dragging. Pantyhose (we called them either that or just “hose”, although some folks might like the more vintage-y sounding “stockings”) functioned a bit like shapewear, while adding just a touch of color. It was all about finding the right “nude”. My friends and I were recently reminiscing about this–when we wouldn’t of been caught dead with bare legs in a skirt, no matter how hot the weather!

So bodysuits… Way back in February, I posted some of my inspirations and soon after jumped into drafting one. I started with a variation on one of my bra patterns and went from there.

I’ve got a few different bodysuit styles I’m eager to try but I really wanted to get some practice with underwired shelf bras. They’re not too difficult if you’ve gotten the hang of making a bra. This technique for putting in these bra cups is almost the same as one might do for a swimsuit. (Though as much as I love this Zimmerman swimsuit, one of my original inspirations, I just can’t imagine swimming in underwires.) I played around with holding different color linings underneath, but the nude was definitely best for a sheer look.

If I were going to a desert island and I had to pick one lingerie fabric, it’d probably be sheer mesh. Okay, maybe silk charmeuse. Ask me again in a few months. But I seem to be sewing with mesh a lot lately. This is a very light, silky soft stretch mesh I bought from Britex on a trip to San Francisco a couple years ago. You can see from my sidebar that I also used it for samples of my Ladyshorts. I still have a lot left so who knows what else it will become!

Lately, I’ve been adding in silk details where I can, like these little silk ribbon rosettes and handmade snap tape from silk charmeuse–which makes it a lot easier to slip on and off. I think this is what I love the most about making lingerie–sitting down at the end with a needle and thread and adding the special details.

Details:
Bodysuit pattern: self-drafted
Stretch mesh: Britex
Lining fabrics: nude 15 denier tricot in the cups and stretch mesh in the band, both from my stash
Channeling, ribbon and charmeuse dyed with Jacquard Acid Dye in Black