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Lucinda November 21, 2012

Thoughts About Sewing Menswear

Us earlier this past spring at Hampton Beach, NH

That’s me with my boyfriend up above. He’s such a fantastic guy and I’m so lucky to have him in my life and all sorts of mushy stuff like that. He takes a lot of photos for this blog (I call him my “creative director”), gives me ideas on what to write about, and even was a recipient and model for a scarf I designed and made for him for Christmas last year.

Which brought me to thoughts about sewing something for him. He wears my scarf all the time (love him!) and the thought of making menswear intrigues me since I know nothing about sewing for guys. So I looked into what patterns were available for men in an effort to find something to stitch up for him, but I was a little disappointed with what I found.

Men’s fashions today seem pretty basic compared to the hey-days of the 70’s when menswear really seemed to be at a pinnacle of style that hasn’t been seen since then – take a look at this post from Peter at Male Pattern Boldness, a blog that I love to read. He’s absolutely right though, the lack of stylish, contemporary sportswear patterns stems from the facts that “most men don’t follow fashion, plus men’s clothes don’t really change much from decade to decade” and “most men don’t sew and not enough do to make men’s patterns profitable.” How sad but true. Here’s the men’s pattern selection from the Big 3:

These lovely seven patterns (most of which are unisex and also for kids) make up the selection of men’s patterns from Butterick. Heck, two of them are for religious purposes and one is for doctor’s scrubs! Some selection, Butterick. If you want Pj patterns, Butterick is the place to go, gentlemen.

A little bit more of an expansive collection from McCalls. This time you can be a chef or stitch a fancy vest, ooo.

Simplicity, hands down, has the largest selections of men’s sewing patterns. Ties, vests, western shirts, pants, etc. Some of them are a little more, erm, “fashion forward” such as this jacket, but I think it’s due to the styling of the models on the envelope; they could be quite nice depending on the fabric selection. I did get a kick out of this pattern, which is like one-stop shopping: button-down shirt, vest, and boxers. Hey, what more do you need in pattern!

So it seems like the standard fair available for men’s sewing patterns are pajamas, boxers, and button-down shirts. Hooray. It gets a little more adventurous when you delve into men’s vintage patterns, like Peter does.

Here’s the pattern I think I would try out. At least if he doesn’t like it, I can say that I’ve attempted to sew menswear and I would have a cool men’s shirt I could style and wear with a mini skirt, leggings, and boots.

I love Colette Patterns so much and was impressed with how thorough the instructions were for my easy Ginger Skirt, so it seems like a natural choice to pick the Negroni shirt for my first foray into menswear. I’m thinking I’ll try the long sleeved version in some kind of shirting like this or this (he’s not a fan of plaid or gingham, no fun!), or whatever he agrees to that would seem “wearable” in his mind.

Have you sewn menswear? What did you think?

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Lucinda October 16, 2012

Pattern Review: Vogue 1250 [Feather Dress]

Pattern: Vogue 1250 (DKNY)
Fabric: Knit jersey from Metro Textiles, NYC
Size: 10 bodice, 12 skirt

Boots: Nine West

A couple of weekends ago, I attended a birthday party at Finale in Harvard Square, a fab-oo-lous dessert place that I’d been dying to go to since I watched an episode of Phantom Gourmet featuring the restaurant. That morning, I got the idea in my head that I absolutely HAD to whip up a dress to wear out to dinner that night…you’ve had those crazy moments, right? And considering that the weather was unusually warm for October, we’re talking around the 78 degree mark, it was even more of an excuse to make something for the party. This pattern has been in my back pocket for awhile now and it was the perfect dress pattern for the few hours of time I had before I needed to get ready for the party.

The Pattern

At only three pattern pieces, and one of them is the neck binding, you really can’t complain about sewing this dress together. There’s only a center back seam for the skirt, a seam connecting the skirt to the back bodice, a partial side seam on each side of the dress, and the shoulder seams. That’s it! I think the most time-consuming part of the whole pattern was marking and stitching the pleats together and tacking down part of the neckline facing to the shoulder seams. You can kind of see the back seams in the photo below:

It was slightly tricky trying to figure out how to grade the pattern into two different sizes since there are virtually no side seams – the bodice front and skirt are entirely one piece with the skirt wrapping around and joining in the back. I cut a size 10 for the bodice and switched to a 12 for the skirt segments, with a little bit of grading in-between the two pattern sections. I probably could have cut a size 8 for the bodice and a 10 for the skirt, but it’s nice that this dress is a little roomy and not so fitted – it worked out well when the dessert menu came around after dinner that night!

My only gripe is the neckline. This baby is super wide and super low, which is evident by the model on the envelope. The night I went out I wore a long cardigan over it and was conscious of observing that my neckline wasn’t flopping around or that I wasn’t bending down or leaning forward too much. I really need to wear a cami with this dress, which is fine since I made it to wear primarily during fall and an extra layer won’t hurt. The facing is very fiddly and the raw edge flips out too easily, something else I have to watch when wearing this dress. I’ve never had to deal with a facing doing that on a dress like this before. But the draping the neckline creates gives the illusion of curves I don’t have. Score!

There’s a reason why there’s over 90 reviews on Patternreview.com for this dress – it’s a universally flattering pattern that delivers great results considering how simple it is to construct. I love that I can dress this up or down depending on how I accessorize it and it can be layered easily for the changing fall temperatures. I just may have to make another one of these next year when the spring weather returns.

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Lucinda April 2, 2012

McCall’s Fashion Star Patterns!

Have you watched Fashion Star? I love the real-world aspect of it: designing clothes that could be sold in retail stores and bought by the masses. A lot of the designs that have been purchased by Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, and H&M are cute and fashionable, but as a sewist, I can’t justify the price tag on some of those items because the designs are simple. Well, now us sew-at-home fashionistas can make our own Fashion Star looks!

McCall’s just launched their Fashion Star pattern line, which mimics the winning designs on the show. The construction is simple, which is great for a budding seamstress who wants to sew her own on-trend looks. I can’t wait to see what other patterns are released as the show continues. I think I want to make them all so far!

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Lucinda February 7, 2012

“Figure Flattery:” Helpful or a Hindrance?

Back in May 2010, my sister and now brother-in-law were married. My mother, being the sewer that she is, set out to make a dress for the occasion. She found a beautiful floral print that matched my sister’s color theme, picked out a pattern from her stash, and sewed the dress. She wasn’t quite happy with the first version of it, and when she did some more tweaks here and there to the fit, she still didn’t like it.

I gave my honest feedback to my mom, because who else other than a daughter is going to tell her the truth: the dress didn’t work for her shape. The defined waist of the dress didn’t look good and emphasized what she didn’t want to draw attention to.

In the end, she purchased more of the same floral fabric from Joann Fabrics and completely overhauled the dress to something totally different than the original plan. It turned out quite nicely for the big day.

Me, my sister, and my mom

Looking at the back of the Vogue pattern envelope, we noticed the “Figure Flattery” symbols, which point out which body shapes would work for certain patterns. In case you’re not familiar with the concept (from Vogue Patterns):

Determine your body shape from the explanations below and use our KEY TO FIGURE FLATTERY diagram to select styles that are particularly flattering to your figure. Choosing styles suited to your body shape can also eliminate the need for most pattern adjustments. Look for the figure symbol that indicates your body shape, then proceed with confidence, knowing that your pattern adjustments will be minimal and your finished garment will be pure figure flattery.

THE INVERTED TRIANGLE: Large bust and/or broad shoulders with narrow hips.

THE TRIANGLE: Small bust and/or narrow shoulders with full hips and/or thighs.

THE RECTANGLE: Balanced on top and bottom, but boxy, with little or no waist definition.

THE HOURGLASS: Equally balanced on top and bottom, with a trim waist.

I’m “The Rectangle,” as is my mom – I pretty much don’t have much in the way of “curves” or a defined waist. The pattern my mom was going to originally use? Not recommended for rectangles.

In this instance, “Figure Flattery” was right about the pattern not being the correct style for a rectangle body shape. But what about this dress that I recently made from a Vogue pattern?

Again, this pattern is not suitable for a rectangle shape according to the envelope. But it turned out just fine and I received lots of compliments about the fit.

Which makes me think – should we be paying attention to “Figure Flattery” when selecting which patterns to sew? I learned about how to dress different body shapes in Home Ec class in high school when we took our measurements to determine if we were “apple,” “pear,” “hourglass,” or “straight,” and then correlated our shape to what kinds of garments and necklines look best on us. “What Not to Wear” and other reality make-over shows on TV educate women on how to dress to look their best. Does Vogue Patterns have it right when stating that a dress will look good only on an hourglass and triangle body but not a rectangle or inverted triangle body?

When I took a look at the new 2012 patterns for spring, I paid attention to those four little icons on the right hand side of my screen. Here’s what I should be sewing:

V1284

V8786

V1291

That illustrates a majority of the patterns in the spring 2012 collection that I should be sewing if going solely on the Figure Flattery guidelines (there were a few patterns that I included previously in my review that do work for my shape). Notice a shape theme here – or lack thereof, really. Why on earth would I want to dress in a sack? When my mom and I sat down to look at the pattern book and discovered that these were the type of patterns recommended for us to sew, she sighed and said that “sack dresses” were what she used to sew all the time in the 90’s – it was the style then and everyone was wearing them. Now, she wouldn’t go near a dress like that because she doesn’t want to feel like a waist-less, shapeless blob. And those are exactly the options that Vogue is giving us, if we were to follow their recommendations.

I know what kind of shapes generally work for me: a-line skirts, pencil skirts, flared dresses, wide belts, fluffy blouses. I rarely see these types of patterns recommended for rectangles. Sure, it’s easy to fit a rectangular shaped pattern to a rectangle body, but does it flatter, as their term implies?

I’m not knocking their recommendations entirely, though. For example, I know that this dress would not work for me at all. I don’t have the boobs to fill it out and it’s pretty tight:

V1286

The same goes with this dress. I’ve made dresses with a waistline seam like this one before and it just doesn’t work at all:

V1289

I know that there will be some that are reading this thinking that I shouldn’t be complaining about finding patterns to sew that will fit me and look fine. Everyone has some type of fitting problem when it comes to sewing, though, and my problems are that I can’t fill out most dresses and blouses since I have a high, small bust, I have narrow shoulders, no waist, and my hips are slightly larger than my chest so I need to grade out my patterns. No one is perfect.

I guess what it comes down to is knowing what works for your body type and sewing what makes you happy – Figure Flattery is just a guideline. My sewing is based on patterns that are suited for my sewing ability, will be easy to fit, and look stylish. But I always have that little voice in the back of my head when I look at Vogue Patterns that says to me, “are you sure this will work for you? There’s no rectangle icon for this pattern.”

Does Figure Flattery work for you or do you ignore it?

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Lucinda February 1, 2012

Spring 2012 Collection – Vogue Patterns

It’s February 1 and the spring 2012 patterns are starting to arrive. It feels like an early spring day today in Boston, but looking at the calendar, I’m certain that we will have many more winter-like days ahead of us, even into April. It’s never too early to start planning your sewing for the next season (just ordered some fabric and patterns last week!), so here’s a peak at what I’m already planning to make this spring.

V1287 – Donna Karan
Maybe it’s the print that drew me in to this pattern, but it looks likes a lot of fun to make and wear. The only thing I’m apprehensive about are those side pockets/bands – I’m not a fan of anything that draws attention to hips or makes them appear to be larger. I’ll have to see this made up on some “real” sewers before I decide to take the plunge and sew this one.

V1294 – Anne Klein
Even though this top is not considered to be flattering to my body shape (I’ll be writing a post on that topic later), I love the design of the neck flounce and the tailoring of this blouse. You could dress this up for work or dress it down with a pair of jeans for running errands.

V8784 – Very Easy Very Vogue
I’m determined to master the wrap-dress this year: I’ve never found one that fit my bust, either in RTW dresses or those sewn by myself. It’s a style that I’ve given up on, but the skirt and the styling on this dress is adorable. This just may be the dress that could work for me with a few tweaks.

V8787 – Vogue Easy Options
What a versatile dress pattern, I understand why it’s called “easy options!” What I really like about this pattern is the above style in the peppermint-stripe fabric that is cut on the bias for the bodice and skirt but on the straight grain for the waist band. It would be darling in a navy blue and white stripe double knit as well.

V8790 – Very Easy Very Vogue
So far three of the four patterns I’ve listed from this collection are dresses, which I have a weakness for in the warm months, but I really need to expand my sewn wardrobe and make more sportswear. This pattern has a sleeveless, short sleeve, and long sleeve option, so it could transcend the spring season and be an all-year pattern with some changes in fabric.

V8792 – Vogue Easy Options
Again, it’s the striped fabric that drew me to this pattern. It could be an interesting top to try mixing prints, a fashion trend for the spring, such as a large polka dot mixed with a small polka dot insert. Or perhaps a contrasting color insert – there’s a couple of options to take what could be a boring long sleeve top to a higher fashion level.

V8791 – Custom Fit
This is another top that I’ll wait and see what other sewers come up with. It has a cool, artsy vibe to it, and I’d style it with skinny cropped pants like on the model. I prefer the tank and short sleeve style of this top, but I’m afraid of looking shapeless in a top like this. Neat concept, but I’ll wait a little bit on this one.

A note to Vogue Patterns – I appreciate the attempt to style the pattern photos like in a fashion magazine, but don’t underestimate how important it is to get a clear, unobstructed view of the front and back of these patterns. It makes it really hard to figure out how a dress or top will look on me if I’m standing up straight and facing front, such as these patterns here, here, and here. I’m all for elevating sewing to another level, but I need a good idea of how a garment really looks before I invest my money and time into a project. An illustration is not the same as a photo of a real person wearing clothes.