the Liverpool interruption

I've taken a short break on sewing the vintage Patou jacket. Partly it's because of Christmas, partly because my mojo is missing right now, and partly because I wanted to make my mom a Liverpool shirt to take with her to Florida.


She came over today, so I showed her the progress and she ended up taking it home to finish the hem and buttons! Honestly, I did not mean to do that to her this time but she insisted.


She had admired the pattern cover photo with the shirt made up in this print, so I decided to use up some fabric stash and make it for her. Little did I know this time the pattern was going to give me fits. I put the collar on three times. The cuffs twice. By the time I sent it home with her I was glad to see it go!


Now, back to my regularly scheduled jacket sewing. Maybe.

The Liverpool tunic lives

Remember how I started off with such good intentions of making a western-style dress a la Ramonster from Amy Butler's Liverpool dress/tunic pattern? Only it turned out hideous on me?

This was the dress with piped pockets. Eh. Not bad, but the pockets needed to come in quite a bit and I wasn't quite sure I was ready for the Rhinestone Cowgirl look just yet.

I took off the pockets. And then I felt like a housemaid. Like Alice from the Brady Bunch.

So I whacked off the bottom six inches and now it's a tunic. And I love it! I hemmed it quite wide, so I think I'm going to go back and put in a narrow hem, maybe a half-inch. That will give me another inch or two in length, which would be good. Gotta cover the buns if I can.

I wrote a review of the Liverpool pattern on Pattern Review but I'll repeat some of it here - I love Amy Butler clothing patterns. The fit is excellent for me, I only have to make the small adjustment to add length to the body. Other than that, the fit was exactly what I would get from a top at JCrew or Banana Republic. Maybe even a little better.

If you don't remember, I used two Liberty of London scarves I bought at Target. They're a lawn-like weave, 100% cotton. I piped it with white mini-piping made for children's heirloom sewing (it's not so thick and obnoxious and the bias fabric is much nicer), and put snaps up the front instead of the covered buttons the pattern calls for.

I am definitely going to make another one of these tops. I made elbow-length sleeves this time and next time I'll probably either do long-sleeves for fall or 3/4-length.

I was so prepared when I made this shirt, I didn't even cut the pattern lines! I carefully folded the pieces so I could cut my size and save the pattern to use in a larger size for my mom. It's like this pattern and me? We were meant to be.

Some exciting news - I managed to cut out three new projects last night, so I'm excited to get started on those and share my ideas. I stopped in to a cute little boutique while waiting for an appointment the other day and in ten minutes stocked up on so many cute sewing ideas!

Progress is slow

Well, I kind of quasi-finished my Liverpool shirtdress over the weekend, but now I think I need to turn it back into a tunic? I know these are horrible pictures (are any of my pictures not horrible?) but maybe you get some idea of what's going on.

I wanted to use my Liberty cotton from Target and put a little sassy Western twist on it. So I piped the front placket and the pocket flaps and I put snazzy snaps up the front instead of covered buttons.

Sounds good so far.

Except my piping technique totally stunk it up and I had to redo the pockets. Piping tips will be coming up in a later post, hopefully, if I remember to do it, because I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and it only took one word to remind me.

Anyhoodle, I finally fixed the pockets but then when I tried on the dress I thought maybe they were too far to the side? And....maybe they made the dress look a little cartoony? So I took them off. Which is where we are today. No pockets.


And you know what? Without pockets I think the dress looks like a housecoat Alice from the Brady Bunch would wear. The pockets make it snappy, but I'm just not sure I'm going to wear a western-styled shirtdress at all. I believe I may be more of a tunic-over-bermudas kind of girl. So I think about six inches of this baby will be lopped off in the near future. I will say, though, that Amy Butler does not disappoint with fit. This baby fits perfectly, just exactly how I like it and not at all like some of the Big 4 commercial patterns. I've not made a pattern of hers yet that doesn't fit nicely.



Which brings me to my next dilemma. Why is it that the things I sew I don't actually wear? Or rather, why don't I sew things I'm likely to wear?

I think this is part of the root of my problem (sewing funk) from last week. I love to sew, I just don't love to wear the things I sew. Which is I why I took up sewing for children last year, and selling some of it on Etsy. I'm like the opposite of the Selfish Seamstress. I could be called the Self-less Seamstress. I'd rather sew for other people because then the pressure is off me.

I tried to examine this problem a little over the weekend, while I was painting a thousand spindles on my kitchen porch railing.

Here's what I came up with: I wear two types of things about 98% of the time. I wear knits on the top half of my body, and I wear jeans, casual pants, or bermuda shorts on the bottom half. That's my uniform. J Crew, Banana Republic, the Gap with a little Anthropologie sprinkled in for sass.

I think I need to start sewing with this in mind. I need to start working on my technique with knits. I was really kinda happy with how my Junior League dress turned out, so that's a good start. I'm going to change the armhole and neckline facings, but that's no biggee.

Whew. That's a lot of emotional work on top of the physical work of actually sewing, you know? But maybe now I can get on with things and be happier with how they turn out. We'll see. Stay tuned.

lovely lovely Liberty

Have I mentioned before that I love Liberty of London's Tana Lawn? I do so love it. I think it's because I used to go with my mom into fabric shops that carried it and it carried such wow factor - "ooooh, look, they carry Liberty," and there was some touching of the lawn with longing and admiration.

And let me tell you, Tana Lawn is lovely.

That's why I was so excited when Target announced their new collaboration because I was hoping hoping hoping they'd get some sheets or curtains or something that I'd be able to use as fabric. To wish for clothes that would fit me is kind of ridiculous. Target's clothes are adorable and I stock up on their t-shirts all the time, but the rest of their things are engineered for those women much shorter than myself. And those women who like skirts super short. Whose waistlines are way up under my boobs.

I was disappointed at the original offerings of Liberty at the beginning of March. Nothing I could use! Until today, when I had to go to Target early in the morning to stock up on goodie bags for my son's 4th birthday party, and found these scarves! They're beautiful, they're made of 100% cotton lawn, and they're $14.99. What's even better is they measure 42" by 60", or 1 5/8 yard! I broke it down and it makes it about 8.99 a yard. Much better than +$30 the Tana Lawn costs!

So I pulled out my Amy Butler Liverpool shirt/dress pattern and set about cutting it out during naptime. I'm going to try to put a Ramonster twist on it. We'll see how it goes. I may chicken out and go conventional but we'll see.

Saturday morning I took my son out estate sale-ing with me, and check out what I got for $10.


This is an enormous framed piece of fabric! It feels like cotton that's been silk-screened but since it was made in the sixties it's hard to tell. What I can tell you is I love it and it will be adorning the walls of my {future} sewing studio. For now, it's adorning the wall of my basement sweatshop corner.


I also picked up an awesome pair of swivel stools for $15, and I'll share their transformation in a later post. There's some oilcloth in my future. I know furniture technically isn't about sewing, but I have to make new seat covers for them and paint them black. Exciting!

Spring Top #2

My entry #2 for the Spring Top Week contest is another vintage pattern makeover. I took this maternity pullover, Simplicity 2554 from 1968 in view 2, and reworked the body to be a "normal" shape.

All this really takes is taking out the enormous swing in the front, and curving the sideseams in where the body would curve naturally.

Once again, this pattern had those weird darts that descended from the armscye into the bust. I just can't imagine that was ever a flattering look, and it certainly doesn't work for me at all. Maybe it's my height? I really loved the collar and tab on the front. I've looked at this pattern dozens of times in the past year and a half, and I never got tired of it. When Amy Butler's Love line debuted I thought maybe this would be a good combo for it?

I'm still searching for the perfect button. I used a fun, glittery glass button that looks like a fake diamond, but I also think something yellow that resembles a gemstone would be super cute.

Once the top was made I decided to go without the giant bow in the front. Maybe I'm too tall for it, maybe I'm too old for it, but it just didn't look right. I still like the shape of the collar and the tab without the bow, so that's good.

This pattern was a breeze to put together. I loved the way they have you assemble the collar and facings, it made it all lay super nicely.

Thanks for letting me share, I'll take some better pictures and edit this post as soon as I get a chance.