wipe that scowl off your face, young lady

Well, Like my Duds? Week might be officially over, but, as you can see, I can't quite wipe the scowl off my face. Is this that thing our mothers talked about--our faces freezing into ugly, wrinkly expressions?

This shirt is more of a semi-dud/mostly not-dud that I sewed a couple weeks ago. I've worn it once, so that pretty much qualifies it as a non-dud, right? I mean, that's my defense when I buy something at the thrift store, and my husband says, "I've never even seen you wear that?" "No, no, dear. I've worn it." (Once. . . and that makes it worth the $3 I spent on it. . . right?)

The pattern is this vintage McCall's maternity pattern I thrifted last year. The fabric is some quilting cotton I bought at JoAnn's for some other project that I never finished. I know, I know. Can you believe I'd start a project and leave it unfinished? It's a disgrace to the profession.

I like the thick straps, but the top band was much too big (since apparently it was intended for a gargantuan pregnant woman, and I'm neither pregnant nor gargantuan) and kept doing that droopy thing between my shoulder blades. So, I sewed a big strip of elastic into the band between the back straps--acting like a kind of make-shift smocking. It causes a bit of reverse pregnancy, but it still works. (Can't you imagine a Saturday Night Live skit about reverse pregnancy? "Have you heard about Cindy? She just found out she's got reverse pregnancy." "Oh, the poor thing." How would you sit down?)

I decided to add pockets to this shirt. But I was stupid and decided to make my pockets out of this thick knit scrap fabric I had lying around (thinking they might weight down a bit of the bulk). Instead, they peek out below the hemline when my hands are in them. Because--I'm not sure if you realize this--knit stretches. So hands placed into knit pockets stretch down to your knees like monkey hands. Good thing I can do a killer gorilla impression.

Like my Duds? . . . Day Five

Is it safe? Can I look yet? All these duds are creeping me out, man. I'm all jumpy.

But I am glad that there are a few of you our there reading this. Laughing at how ridiculous I look. So, here's the grand finale for this week. . . the pillowcase shirt. I started sewing this not knowing whether I'd just use it as a bedtime chemise-style shirt, or as an actual "I'll allow you to see me in this" shirt. I had the sweet chemise from Simple Sewing with a French Twist in mind when I started hacking away at this poor, innocent pillowcase.

But snip after snip and alteration after alteration, it still looked like. . . a pillowcase. . . being worn as a shirt. In hindsight, I probably should've done away with the block of yellow on the bottom. That just screams "bed-related linen." When I was uploading these photos my husband glanced over at the computer and said, "What are you wearing? It looks like a pillowcase." Great problem solving skills, dear. Now go back to whatever you were doing and stop looking over my shoulder. Actually, I probably said something mature like, "Yeah, it is a pillowcase. So what."

Still, I may boldly go where no sewer has gone before and attempt this again--knowing how much of a glutton for punishment I am, I'll probably end up using another pillowcase. Maybe one without such prominent trim. Yeah, I'm sure it'll be brilliant.

Like my Duds? . . . Day Four

The judges are tallying their votes. . . AND IT'S TWO THUMBS DOWN! WE HAVEN'T SEEN AN UPSET THIS BIG SINCE. . . yesterday.

The bright light in the bathroom doesn't do any justice to the yuck-factor on this shirt, made from Vogue pattern 8495. Okay, I'll take a teeny bit of the blame. I did make this shirt using the woven fabric from some old curtains that used to hang in my entryway. First mistake. But it was so stretchy and bohemian. . . and thick. So, fine, you want to blame someone? Blame me for the fabric. But the pattern? I'm not taking the heat for that one.

I made this in my usual size 8, but the thing is enormous! The back yoke hangs all low and slouchy, and the cap sleeves that are supposed to magically appear never showed up. There's no saving this thing. But I do plan to work up to nerve to retrace this in the smaller size and see how it goes. And maybe it'll appear in my up-coming week "Like my magnificent handmade duds?". . . date TBD.

Like my Duds? . . . Day Three

The first photo is my "not thumbs up, not thumbs down" pose because, let's be honest, this jacket could look much worse. It could look like the green shirt I posted yesterday, for instance. So, I guess that means it's half thumbs up.

Oh, how much I loved this pattern. I saw it. Bought it. Started sewing it. Hated it. All in one day. That's a lot of emotions. The pattern is New Look 6763. The fabric is a heavy thrifted something-or-other. I'm not really sure.

What I am sure of is that this neckline is enormous. Ridiculous, even. So, I added buttons to the far left, trying to make it off-centered in order to eat away at some of the wide neck. And I added some button loops with embroidery thread like this. They're very cute. Too bad the rest of it's so yuck.

Like my Duds? . . . Day Two

So, day two of my self-imposed Like my duds? week. All I can think of when I see that first photo is "Nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh, Bat Girl!" Oh my word, this sewing attempt has gone wrong in every way. The pattern is BurdaStyle's Azalea dress, but I wanted to make a tunic-y tank instead of a double-layered dress. I thought the dress looked a little poofy, so I only sewed one layer out of this thin, flowy cotton (instead of adding a lining). I think that the front yoke is too thin and ought to look more like the back yoke. I opted to leave out the zipper and had planned to use buttons for the straps but never got that far. No matter how much I take this top in, it just looks bulky and yucky. Just plain gross.

Like my Duds? . . . Day One

So, as promised, this week I'm posting some of my recent sewing "duds." We'll start off easy with this red daisy number I sewed a month or so ago. Last summer I made two tops from the Simplicity 3887 pattern that turned out quite nicely. I wanted to make some similar summer tops this year, but I decided to try the round-necked version of Simplicity 4589. My ridiculous reasoning for switching to a strikingly similar pattern was that the sleeves on the 3887 pattern are big and bulky, and I hated trimming them down to normal size.

Yep, the new sleeves are nice. I mean, they fit great. The rest of the shirt? Big. Huge. Even after adding 3 inches to the length of the shirt, a hem would've made it too short. So I had to use bias tape. And hemming the neckline would've made it too wide. Again, bias tape. The neckline doesn't sit well. It bulges out in the back. Yuck.

And the worst part? I used all that sweet vintage knit on this dang thing. Grrr. Feel free to post your own duds so I don't feel so badly about my own.

Sweet Dreams

Here are the finished pairs of pajama bottoms. I made these by tracing an old pair of Cash's pants onto one of Wes's old t-shirts, much like the method explained in The Creative Family. That way, the bottom hems and side seams are already sewn, and you just have to sew maybe three other seams. I don't do any exact measuring, just sloppily cut and sloppily sew. That's why they're varying in length and size. But it makes me happy to sew blindly along without worrying about the sizing. I can't do that for myself.

Here's the babe, brushing his teeth and all dressed for bed:

Sorry for the delay, folks

The darn power cord for the computer snapped last week, and I spent one week in an Internet black-out and am just emerging (as though from a drunken stupor) messy-haired and squinty-eyed going, "What happened?" Luckily, my fingers had not forgotten how to type, so I'm back, baby! The worst part was, I'd had all these wonderful things to post. Actually, I'd had all these horrible things to post. I took photos of a bunch of my sewing disasters from the recent past and planned to share them-- a little self-deprecation for ya!

But, for today, to ease in slowly, here's a pair of 70's bell bottom pants I shortened for Cash. The bell bottoms were just too much, but the shorts are cute. Actually, today he's wearing them and someone at the library said, "Hey, look at those shorts!" I'm not sure if that was a good reception or a mocking, one, but, hey, I'll take it.

Here also is a stack of pajama bottoms made from Dad's old t-shirts, sitting on the ironing board waiting for the waist band to be pressed and sewn. These things have saved me from feeling compelled to buy those cute $20 pair of short Gap pajamas. I love the way the overlock stitch on my sewing machine makes those serger-esque seams:

A good weekend of rummaging. . .

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Over the weekend I had some luck at a few garage and rummage sales. Nothing too fancy--just a few little knick-knacks:

1. Cash got his own deck of oinking playing cards to take to our bi-weekly game of euchre at my grandparents'. Most of the time he just sits on one of our laps and throws in cards from his own private deck, but my child-of-the-depression grandfather is a bit protective of his playing cards (we blame all of his idiosyncrasies on the Great Depression, so why not this one?) and gets all stressed out if the corners get bent. Settle down, pops, the boy's got his own cards now. (And I loooove those little piglets!)

2. A 1970-something Dick Bruna-illustrated game of lottery. There are bingo-like sheets that you have to find the corresponding card for. Of course, an 18-month old just throws the cardboard squares around and tries to find hiding places for them, and I just stare at the adorable illustrations. . . but one day, I'm sure, we'll actually play the game.

3. A deck of ABC flashcards from the 1950's. It's hard to tell from my yucky photos, but these things are in prime condition--no bent corners (Oh, gosh, I sound like grandpa), no creases. I'm tempted to split these up and start using them as gift tags.

4. The last photo is so bad I'm embarrassed to show it, but for the outstanding price of $1 I found this Lutheran Confirmation Certificate from 1920 for a man named Otto (his last name's too faded to read). The colors are lovely and muted in person, and it actually looks quite nice against our orange dining room walls.

So, that's that. Just a little bragging on the weekend's treasures.

recent freezer paper stencils

From top left:

Karate kick for Wes's cousin's son Roger--who was glad to show us his own karate kicks while we visited them in Missouri last week.

Ship shirt for Roger's little brother William. The wave to the left of the ship got messed up, but it's still cute.

Race car shirt for nephew Eden's second birthday. I kind of pulled this one together on my own--hodge-podging the flags and adding a car to the mix. I'm still practicing the two-color printing and have yet to have one go smoothly. I usually end up touching-up afterwards. I should've painted that car white.

Chimp shirt for Eden's brother, Caleb. The teeny eyes kind of disappeared during the printing. The stencil's from stencilry (whose site is currently messed up, but if you click on an item you'll still be able to see the stencil).