"P" is for Pink, Plaid, and Peggy

So, when we last discussed this year's Mad Men Dress Challenge, I left off with the above image and some outfit ideas. Well, after two years of green, vintage-inspired dresses, I've actually got something a little bit different!

This year, I was still inspired by a green dress, but (finally) my finished project has broken the green-Mad Men-mold. With this lovely lady in mind...

 I ended up with something that's almost more like one of her earlier outfits -- and I even have a ponytail to match!

source

Behold, my most favorite Mad Men Dress Challenge entry ever. Also, plaid!

 

Pattern: Emery Dress, by Christine Haynes

Fabric: Pink & White lightweight plaid cotton/poly fabric, vintage from Etsy. White Siri lining fabric from Gertie's shop.

Notions: 1 vintage "bone" colored dress zipper and a belt's worth of 1/4" piping cord

Alterations: I used 1 size smaller on the gathered skirt than what I cut for my bodice,  reduced the bodice at the waist by 1/2" on each side, added my beloved fabric covered cord belt, omitted pockets, and added kimono-ish sleeve bands using Gertie's excellent tutorial.

Now that I've shared my Mad Men Dress for this year, I'm SO excited (well, I have been all along, really) to see what everyone else made! Julia will be posting her round-up of all entries very soon, so make sure to check them out!

Archer, Schmarcher.

December was unofficially Archer Faux-preciation Month over here at Sewin' Steady. Ha. Okay, there was no sewalong nor cute blogger button. There weren't even any actual Archers... or much sewing to speak of, really.

There was, however, a lot of purchasing of RTW button-down Archer wanna-be's. I really do appreciate the Archer. But, 99% of my Christmas shopping this year was done from my computer and, with every few clicks of my mouse to purchase gifts for family and friends, there was a click or two to purchase something for myself. Because, SALES. Oh, and plaid. There was lot of plaid to choose from, which I now realize is like drugs for someone like me.

But, come on. Sometimes you just can't sew everything you want to wear, even if, well, yes... you totally could, in this case, but there's just something inexplicably holding you back. That was me during the entire month dedicated to stitching up the only pattern I actually wanted to sew and wear. Le sigh. I will be sewing an Archer eventually, don't you worry.

As for the root (or one of the roots) of the problem, though. I've noticed this late fall and early winter that it seems the colder the temps get, the fewer vintage and vintage-inspired, girly outfits I find myself wearing and reaching for in my closet, and the more modern, even tom-boy-ish pieces I end up wearing over and over, like a uniform. 

Lately, my daily outfits have consisted of essentially a combination of the following (with the occasional cardigan or non-plaid button-down, or boat-neck 3/4 sleeve shirt from Target swapped in).

jeans: Jesse Stretch, by Imogene + Willie

heeled brown boots: by Fossil, can't find exact link -- mine are similar to pictured, but are like this, only red-ish brown

wedge booties: by Dolce Vita (via ModCloth) 

riding boots: by Bandolino

red plaid shirt: Red Tartan Popover, by j. crew 

blue plaid shirt: Crinkle Boy Shirt in Black Watch Plaid, by j. crew

What about you all? Do you find yourself drifting away from the girly side of your style during colder months? Did button-downs and boots (with warm socks!) take over your life like they have mine?

P.S. Don't forget to enter my vintage sewing jackpot giveaway (because, I'll always love vintage even if the weather prevents me from wearing it as much) by the end of the day tomorrow!

Stripe /plaid Matching...

Blerg.

This is the plaid skirt I'm currently working on. I'd thought I knew what I was getting myself into with a skirt that has many seams (it seems!) and lots of plaid to match up. What I didn't realize before cutting into this plaid wool from my stash is that the repeat of this plaid is...rectangular? The plaid pattern is not made up of squares...so I'm trying to match it up like I would stripes, as best I can... without losing my mind.

Flaunting my plaid-matching mistakes

I'm sure I could actually match it up just right (right?) if I just kept trying...meticulously, but I am at the point where I will honestly still find the thing cute and wearable even if the stripes/plaids aren't matched perfectly...it's just a SKIRT, not an evening gown. Right?
 
It seems like I was only able to make the lines come together in a chevron-y way ...mostly. Then, they mysteriously stop matching up exactly right, part way through.

chevron-y matching...kinda

Perhaps this has nothing to do with the shape of the repeating plaid pattern, but whatever. I'm only a perfectionist about certain things, and I guess I'm ok with this not being perfect.

Consider this my disclaimer for when I actually share the finished project. :)

Finished Project: Estate Sale Dress

This project kind of popped up out of nowhere. It doesn't really relate to my warmer weather wardrobe plans, but sometimes you've just gotta go where inspiration takes you.

I started it on an impulse, did not plan it to death, and am finding myself rather pleased with the results. As Gillian noted recently, quick, impulsive creating sometimes pans out well and other times it falls flat. In this case, I think it worked in my favor. Not planning this project out too much helped me enjoy the sewing process on this simply constructed dress, kept me from stressing about working with plaid for the first time, and boosted my morale a bit, too.

McCall 9735 - view C

I used the plaid fabric, some navy bias tape, and McCall 9735 all from my recent estate sale haul. Now, I technically made this dress in April (with my Ginger and my Easter Egg blouse, that makes 3 finished pieces for the month...yay!), even though I'm debuting it in May.

Here she is! (the collar looks rather uneven in this photo, but I promise it's just an illusion.

Let's get down to some details about this dress, shall we?

I opted for version C -- SLEEVELESS! (I'm still pretty much over set-in sleeves) I think this will make it a good casual summer dress that can easily be paired with one of my ever-present cardigans. Now, speaking of the sleevelessness of this baby, at the last minute I decided to use bias tape to finish the armholes instead of just as armhole facing.  I'd even cut out the actual armhole facings with the pattern pieces, but now they're hanging out in my scrap basket - oh, well. The way I did the bias tape kind of extended the edge of the armhole over onto the shoulder a bit, so they're verging on cap sleeves of sorts, which I actually like.

I did end up using the neck facing pieces, but not as facings! I combined the front and back pieces to create a little collar and faced the inner neckline with more bias tape.

Bias tape bound armholes.

Collar!

As soon as I'd decided to make this pattern, I knew I wanted a belt involved, or else I'd just feel like a frumpy, plaid blob. Instead of opting for the exact belt option in the pattern, complete with buckle and eyelets, I just used a strip of fabric to make a little sash/tie. This helped eliminate the baggy tent-like aspect the pattern design, sans belt, had going on.

From the back - the belt/waist tie definitely helps give this dress some shape.

I was inspired by the soft, lightweight, linen-y feel of the plaid and wanted a casual warm weather dress (I haven't switched out my winter wardrobe, since the weather here has been all over the place. All my spring/summer clothes are still hiding in a bin). I love how comfortable this dress is. Part of that is due to the loose fit, though I'm considering making a couple of darts/tucks in the front bodice near the waist to keep it from looking super blousey on top - at the same time, though, I don't really care! like it anyway.

Might eliminate some extra bulk in bodice with more darts or tucks.

Now, about working with plaid...matching up the stripes in this project wasn't totally horrible, but I'd still call it a fail, mainly because I just couldn't really be bothered to care. If I'd been really trying, I'd say I did my best, but...I didn't. I did work to at least acknowledge the placement of stripes when I was aligning the pattern pieces on the fabric before cutting, but I didn't match anything along the seams. The bust darts plus the long french(?) darts combined to kind of make plaid-matching impossible, or at least not worth it for me. I came close, but then failed at matching the plaids at the center back zip, but, like I said, I'm not sweating it! I've noticed it's not terribly uncommon for inexpensive RTW garments to not bother with matching plaids and prints at seams, so for this quick project, I don't mind and don't expect to get any weird looks when parading around in my somewhat miss-matched plaid creation - or at least not due to my lack of matching stripes.

Is it even possible to match plaids on side seams of an A-line skirt??

Also of note for this project, I was finally able to install an invisible zipper with my regular zipper foot and not have it look totally bunchy, blatant/un-invisible, and gross! yay.

I promise I'll do an official fashion show with this dress and my Ginger(s) - I'm hoping to have a denim one in the works very soon - once I can get some photos of me actually wearing them.

Also, up next, I'm going to be picking one or two of these dress patterns from my stash to make so I can have a pretty new dress (or dresses!) to wear to the two back-to-back weddings I'll be attending this summer. What do you think? I've numbered them one through four, so feel free to vote on which one or two you think I should make!

As always, please excuse the crappy photo! Bonus points to anyone who recognizes the vintage McCall pattern. :)

Previews

Here's a little sneaky peek of what I've been up to.

I've made little bit of progress on my warmer weather wardrobe plans, which had branched out (unofficially) to include the 1960s McCall tops pattern I got at the estate sale I attended earlier this month. I'd thought any/all of the versions would pair well with the Ginger I've had on my to sew list forever.

McCall tops + Ginger

Well, I have yet to get to the tops but I did take a crack at the Ginger in a dark blue broadcloth. I had just enough of the fabric in my stash leftover from a UFO from my early sewing career. It was a nautical inspired, springy/summery dress of sorts...I might just have to dig it out of the UFO pile and try to save it (as if I have nothing else planned for my sewing time). Anyway, better pictures and a full post on my Ginger later, but for now...

v. 1 - pointed waistband

This fabric does NOT un-wrinkle fully....ever!

You know, I also mentioned that I've got a project in progress using a pattern and some fabric from the estate sale. It's still in progress, but here's a few glimpses of that, too.

Plaid!

McCall 9735 - guess which version I'm making!

Pattern pieces, with stripe matching attempted, almost all cut out

I'm not too obsessed with matching the plaids, though I did give it a shot - this is my first time working with plaid. I am planning to add a few little embellishments to this dress, so you'll have to stick around to see how it turns out.

I've also officially got some plans for dresses to make for the upcoming weddings I'll be attending this season, so more on that soon, too!

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!
Do some sewing for me - there's a good chance I'll be too busy with birthdays and a wine festival and boring things like laundry. Sigh.