Oh Fashion, where art thou?

Bear with this blog post as I'm transcribing notes on the back of envelopes instead of free-blogging. I never write anything out longhand any more (yay! technology!) so this should be interesting. I'm primarily right handed but because of my disability, I tire easily when writing things out. How I ever managed to get out of high school writing, I dunno. Perhaps it was because computers were just being used in homes by the time I hit middle school. I digress. I was inspired by Peter's post over at MPB to get back to writing more about what I love. Sewing. The fashioning of garments, specifically. And even more specifically, my crusade against crappy clothing for boys. I am not alone, apparently, in my quest for sartorial splendiforousness. Tim Gunn & Carson Cressley also have a "thing" against crap clothing. But school age kids - boys especially - seems to be my mission in life. Go figure. Must be the fact that I have one of those models at home. On with the blog...

It's a fact that home sewers are left with few choices when sewing menswear. Look at any pattrern book and you'll see it's true. This is even more evident when sewing for school aged boys. As a mom of a boy, I made a decision when he was a baby to no let him dress in "typical" Ready To Wear (RTW, hereafter). I was going to sew all his clothes. And I did for the most part until he went to grade school. The exception was "grubby" clothes and t-shirts and those were relegated to "water day" at preschool and playing in the yard. Yes, my son was the infant in dress slacks, dress shirt, sweater vest and tie. He would ask to wear his "bow" to church when he was 3 and 4 years old.

Gratuitous Kid Pic: Christmas 2010 - Almost 5 years old

After kindergarden things got a bit dicier. The reason for the shift away from a more formal look? A lack of decent pattern and the expense involved.

Anyone who says home sewing is cheaper or "more economical" than buying RTW is either lying or able to score deals that the rest of us mere mortal aren't privy to.WHen I can buy a pair of pants for the price of a zipper, why would I bother sewing?

Setting aside the cost factor for a moment, let's examine just how badly the deck is stacked against home sewers for boys that are not infants/toddlers. Cute baby clothes for boys exist. Toddler clothes can be adorable, too. For our purposes, a toddler wears a size 3 or smaller. I know I'm being arbitrary, but my almost 7 year old wears a size 4/5, so I'm going with that. But it's as if they suddenly STOP needing clothes once the attend grade school. In the current catalogs, it's painfully obvious that boys are being given the shaft.

Simplicity has EIGHT pages of boys' patterns. ALL of which also contain the grown man's counterpart. With one pattern per page, they were broken down thusly:

1 PJs - including DOG pjs. A dog? SRSLY? Are we equating men with animals now? Or am I overthinking this? What if I don't have a grown man OR a dog? What am I supposed to do with all those extra pattern pieces? Wallpaper with them?

I can haz pjz?

1 boxer shorts - which according to Tim Gunn are ALWAYS the wrong answer.

2 - yes, TWO - sets of different "Western" shirts/vests

2 Shirt/vest combinations. One might have had bow ties. Again, bowties - always the wrong answer.

1 short sleeve shirt/cargo shorts combination. With the most abominable shirt fabric in the history of ever. Cargo shorts - ALWAYS the wrong answer. But don't take my word for. Take Tim Gunn's. Seriously. The man is a GENIUS.

1 "sportswear" or "dressy casual" long sleeve shirt/long pants.

In contrast, there are ONE HUNDRED TWENTY SEVEN pages for girls. Even allowing for some duplicates because that's how Simplicity rolls when they offer a pattern in 2 size groupings for girls, that is a HUGE disparity. You do the math. The worst part of it is that there's no FASHION involved. No DESIGN. It's all just "Plain Jayne".

The Man They Call Jayne - source

In some cases there are "unisex" items for kids under age 10, but I'm not counting those since generally they are pyjamas. Simplicity is by no means the only pattern company guilty of fashion sexism. McCall's, Vogue & Butterick, along with Kwik Sew, are ALMOST as bad. The one pattern company that typically does a good job of having a decent amount of boys' wear with some actual STYLE to it is Burda. Unfortunately, the Burda catalog wasn't available at my local fabric mega mart this morning when I was flipping the pages. And while I will sit at a table and count patterns on the pages, I draw the line at hand-checking each pattern envelope in the drawers.

I would do anything for love, but I won't do that.

What do we want? Better sewing patterns for boys!
When do we want them? Yesterday!

My personal pattern collection numbers over 800 and roughly 75% of them are vintage. I've noticed a trend with patterns dating before the 1980s - there was a decent variety of boys' and mens' fashions with more visual interest. And not just in the trainwreck 1970s wide label/bell bottom phenomenon. Even in the more "conservative" mid-century, mens' & boys' fashions had appeal and style lines that were interesting and offered a respite from the t-shirt/elastic waist cargo shorts trend that seems to permeate boys' clothing today.

There is a distinct void in boys' fashion today between toddlerhood and adulthood. And we wonder why young adult males don't know how to dress anymore... Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting a return to the the three piece suit to mow the lawn - not that that model ever existed - but there needs to be a happy medium.

Maybe one way to revive fashion for young men and boys would be to return to school uniforms and stricter dress codes. I'm not suggesting that every school should adopt a Dalton Academy Warblers-esque uniform. But something clearly needs to be done. There's NOTHING wrong with button-shirts and ties. Harry Potter and his chums saw to that.

Source

My children attend a public school with a uniform. Polo shirts for boys and girls - q'uelle horor! with khaki, navy or black pants/shorts for everyone and skirts/jumpers for girls. I don't know WHAT would happen if I sent my son to school in a kilt or a bona fide skirt like Marc Jacobs. But that is a subject for another day. All I can say is that if girls must be forced to wear polo shirts (ick), then boys should be allowed to wear skirts. Fair is fair, after all.

In closing, I think I'd like to see a little bit more formality in every day life. What say you all?

Pattern Postulation

Normally my policy is "If you can't say somethin' nice, then don't say nuthin' at all". Unless of course it's laced with dripping sarcasm and irony and cloaked with an awesome parody photoshop. Never mind my evil twin. I have NO idea how she escaped.

I've been following a bunch of sewing bloggers [cough] Gertie, Peter & others [cough] for quite some time now and I keep seeing references to Colette patterns. Maybe I'm missing something since I don't actually own any, but for some reason they just don't appeal to me. I'm trying to figure out what exactly it is, but I just can't put my finger on it. And as MANY of you know, I LOVE me some sewing patterns. To the tune of nearly 1000 of them at last count. Yes, that was One Thousand. A one with THREE zeros after. Ahem.

Mens', Womens', Childrens', Toys and other things.

      Vintage, Vintage Repro, Modern, all eras.

            Downloadable, Printed, Non-Printed, Self-Drafted.

                  Big Four, Independents, Mail Order and More.

So it's not a case of "I ONLY sew [insert pet pattern type here]".

What is it about a sewing pattern that draws you in or turns you off? How do you decide whether to try a new pattern company or take a pass? Do you have any special criteria? Or is it just a gut feeling? What say you dear readers?

Blast from the past!

Thanks to Peter over at Male Pattern Boldness (have I ever mentioned how much I ADORE that blog name???), I took the plunge and bought a new belt for my Willcox & Gibbs treadle machine from 'Aught Seven (1907ish).

Thanks to an online friend who is also a W&G owner, I joined the TreadleOn mailing list.

Here's the Facebook album. And a sneak peek:

It Is Finished!

The Male Pattern Boldness Men's Shirt Sewalong, that is. At least for me. I finished both shirts that were on the plan by February 15th. That gives me 13 days to finish my dress/fluffer for the Vintage Sewalong.

Originally, I'd planned to give a blow-by-blow of how my progress lined up with the MPB sewalong, but since I'm not using the Negroni *and* my shirt choice is constructed slightly differently, it just made sense to finish up and then post.

First things first! I sewed a flat fell seam or three for the first time EVER. And while I think it's a nice way to finish a seam, I can't see myself doing it with twitchy fabrics. I WOULD make the seam allowance deeper, though, because 5/8" isn't really enough for me to work with and I have TINY fingers.

The short sleeve version is vintage fabric and it's plaid. Now *some* people would say not to take on plaid as a first attempt because it's so "hard" to work with. I found the opposite to be true. I LOVE working with plaid. Why? Because if the colors are bold enough and the blocks clear enough, it's like a freaking AAA TripTik pointing the way you're supposed to do. Sure, you have to exercise caution when cutting, but no more so IMNSHO than with regular fabric. Of course, I'm the girl who obsesses over pattern matching on EVERY fabric, so plaid was WAY easier for me.

I LOVE the way it turned out, don't you? There's only one little visible flaw. See if you can guess what it is! The pocket had to be pieced because I ran out of fabric.


Mad About Plaid Men

The next one I did was the long sleeve version. The fabric cost me $8 and the buttons $12. The fabric is a spandex/cotton(?) blend. It did NOT take well to being ironed/pressed. It just wouldn't hold it's shape unless I cranked the iron up to high. It's got a LOVELY drape, though. And it's soft, so my better half SHOULD wear it. He better.

The pattern on this one is also a plaid, but it's so tiny it was worthless to try and use as a guideline. This fabric also shrank and went off grain like CRAZY. I mean for REALZ. I had to lop off a TON on either edge after washing and *hanging* dry. God only knows what it would've looked like had it gone in the dryer.

Here's a nice close up of the cuff. I did the continuous lap but screwed it up a teeny bit when setting in the sleeve to the cuff. And yes, those buttons ought to have been gold-plated for how much they cost/cost over fabric, but they were totally worth it because they just MADE the shirt.


Fancy dancy buttons!

The one thing I LOVED about this pattern is that the sleeves are sewn in using the flat insertion method. When they're cut properly, this method is BY FAR the easiest nicest method for making sure the sleeves are eased properly. I hate setting in sleeves the *other* way with the fire of 10,000 suns.

As for whether or not I'd make this pattern again? Oh heck, yeah. I LOVE it. It's easy to put together, didn't cause me to curse the pattern piece gods OR the pattern instruction sheet gods, so it's all good. The deal is, you HAVE to have great fabric to pull this shirt off. Don't go with wimpy fabric that is boring. Next time I might do the yoke/collar in a contrast to the main shirt/sleeves just because I can. Which reminds me, I'm making up a much smaller version for my son's 5th birthday on St. Patrick's Day.

I've done a little research and it looks like this style of shirt was pretty popular in the 50s. It's been called an "Italian" shirt on an Advance pattern from the time period. It was made for girls, boys, women and men. The flat front shirt was also pretty popular as well with an asymetrical front yoke. I'm so on that.

MPB Sewalong Day 5!

So I was a total slacker on Day 4. Yes, yes I was. But I'm still up to speed with the rest of the gang. I totally need to add my pics to the Flickr group, though. Today we're supposed to start putting it all together, but it's Sunday and we rest on Sunday. Or at least we try. And we've got a get-together to go to this evening and it's a school day tomorrow and [insert justification here].

However, I have managed to construct the yokes/collars of two shirts *and* the sleeve plackets of the long sleeve version. There was a little bit of difficulty with the continuous lap (there always is in my experience), but overall, I'm happy. I wasn't able to do the cuffs yesterday other than cutting them out because the cuffs are inserted AFTER the sleeves are inset into the shirt. The McCall's 3087 uses a flat insertion method which I GREATLY prefer to the eased in method.

Another thing I've managed to do is to create a boy's version of the McCall's 3087. So I'll officially be sewing THREE men's shirts for the Sewalong. I know, I know. I'm crazy. Especially since I've got to finish my Vintage Sewalong dress including fluffer this month. This morning I woke up with the clearest of clear visions of how to make the McCall's 3087 into a boy's shirt. So I did. I'll be drafting it up and putting it in my Etsy shop for sale pretty soon. Or something. But only after I test drive the shirt I cut out for The Boy for his birthday shirt. Since he's a St. Patrick's Day baby, I always make him something themed for St. Pat's for his birthday. This year it's a shirt like Daddy's.

Back to yesterday though... I made an apron for the Etsy shop! But not just any apron. A retro repro of an Advance Pattern offered through Penney's in the early 50s based on Walt Disney's Cinderella. Cinderella is my favorite movie of all time and when I saw the pattern come up for sale, I snapped it up quicker than you can say "PATTERN SALE!!!" Of course I'll have pictures of everything coming up soon! Stay tuned!

MPB Sewalong Day 3

Okay dear readers and sewalongers, first a recap from Day 2:

I panicked when I realized that I didn't have enough fabric for Shirt #2! While the girls were at Scouts, I made a quick run to the local fabric mega mart where I originally scored the $2/yd fabric. I nearly passed out when I couldn't find the fabric right where I left it. Good news, though, there was still enough for me to get the remainder (long sleeves). The bad news is that the price had gone up to $4/yd. So the shirt was $4 and the sleeves were $4. Which brings me up to $20 for Shirt #2 including thread/buttons/tax.

No on to the pix from yesterday...

Cut It Out Already!

Remains of the day(s sewing)

Can you spot the piecing?

Pieces of Pocket

Today (Day 3) was a light sewing day since I'm making the McCall's 3087 and not the Colette "Negroni". I managed to sew the collar and the yoke and attached them to each other. I'm calling it a day for sewing. Pay NO attention to the spots on my ironing table. My poor Rowenta has an incontinence problem.

Check My Plaid!

Male Pattern Boldness Sewalong Day 2

OK, so yesterday I was a TOTAL slacker. Make a note, right here, right now that the term "totes" drives me UP A WALL. Totes are what we carry things in. And also a brand of umprellas and such. It is NOT an expression that means "absolutely" or "completely". I don't care that certain individuals - I can NOT call them "ladies" or "gentlemen" - use "totes" inappropriately. Maybe I'm OLD, but there's my line in the sand.

Day 1 of the sewalong was nearly gone by the time I was able to catch the blog post and see what we were supposed to be up to. I managed to sneak in a little time tracing the pattern out. I finished the tracing this morning before the Day 2 post went up.

Today we're supposed to cut out our muslin. I don't "do" muslins for the most part. It's a waste of fabric (at least to me) and time if I know that the size I'm using is the correct size. In this case, since it's a men's shirt and it's the correct size already, I don't really need to make a muslin so I'm using Fabric #1 for the short sleeved version. I'm making TWO shirts during the sewalong - one short sleeved and one long.

For #1, I'm using a vintage fabric of which there is JUST enough to cut the pattern out without facings. I'm musig over what I'm to use for facings. I've got some vintage cotton from a crib sheet which might fit the bill since it's white and the plaid background is white.

As a reminder, here's the fabric and pattern for #1: 

Perfect Plaid!



Short Sleeves!



Male Pattern Boldness Sewalong Update

Okay, okay, so I'm not running the sewalong, but I had to update on my progress before we begin. I'd already committed to making McCall's 3087 in a bright blue/orange/white plaid for the sewalong, but I needed buttons. So off I went to the local fabric mega mart. I didn't get the buttons (I forgot!) but I did browse the red tag fabric section. While I was browsing, I was lamenting the loss of the $1/yard fabrics from Walmart. For about a nanosecond. Because the WM fabric was generally second grade, you know? Not soft and nice stuff. While I was in the midst of my reverie, I spied a red tag. "$2/yard", it said. I picked up the bolt and the fabric was a nice shirting that had some stretch to it. With a color "story" of muted blue/grey and grey/green, I thought "This is PERFECT! for that shirt but in a "work" type". And for $4 total, who can pass that up right? That's cheaper than my local Goodwill, folks!

I was SO enamored of the fabric that I had to get Just The Right Buttons. I looked high and low and finally settled on these.

Let the record show that two buttons set me back $5.95 + tax while the fabric for the shirt was a mere $4 + tax. They just kill you with notions these days, I guess. We will not tell my husband that the buttons came from the "Belle Buttons" line nor that there's a woman's sillhouette on the card. No indeed. He already has issues about manicures and pedicures being "girly". Harumph. That's a rant for another day!

So now I'm sewing two identical shirts for the MPB Men's Shirt Sewalong. And I still need buttons for my original fabric choice! Whoops! Good thing my pattern got here today. I'd been biting my nails waiting for it.

MPB Men's Shirt Sewalong

Pattern acquisition SUCCESS!!!

So I totally had to get my hot little hands on a copy of the same pattern that Peter has with that funky front. Etsy, how I love thee. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? So longing for the same pattern is not wrong, is it?

Anyhow, the pattern has shipped and I expect it to arrive in the next day or so. I'm so excited to make the short sleeved view in the orange/blue vintage plaid fabric. What's weird is that blogger won't let the pic use the "transparency" that it was saved as. Instead, it has a black background... Meh. Just the normal blogger weirdness I guess.

With a sewalong here, and a sewalong there

Here a sewalong, there sewalong, everywhere a sewalong...

This "Old MacDonald" has a whole lot of sewing going on.

For the Vintage Sewalong of 2011, I chose a mail order pattern from SewMrsP's etsy shop. I'm using a peachy-fuschia stretch cotton satin for the top and a border printed cotton for the skirt. I've had to draft a skirt yoke that fits and I had to fiddle with the top part a bit, but overall, an easy one to make. I've got the fashion fabric pinned together on my dress form as we speak.

For the MPB Men's Shirt Sewalong, I scored this great plaid on ebay. I'm not sure yet which pattern I'm going to make it in. I might make a father/son version if I've got enough fabric. It's an actual vintage piece of fabric, so depending on the pattern I chose, I might use it for the Sewing Through The Decades sewalong.

Speaking of which, I haven't a clue what I'll be sewing for that. I'd like to try my hand at some 60s and 70s since I haven't done any of those. And I've got a 1915/1916 pattern that I've got fabric all picked out for, so I can start with that or maybe end with it since it's a fall style.

In preparation for all this sewing madness, I've been cleaning out my sewing "space". As you know, I'm purging patterns. And I promise! I'll add them to my  etsy shop soon. I've also got a ton of "extra" fabric that I'll want to unload as well. What do you think of bundling  smaller bits (fat quarters or less) together for childrens' sewing projects? Do you think anyone would want that?