Now entering the ring: Contender Two

Version three of the Sis Boom dress is almost complete except for the zipper. Please don't stay up all night hitting refresh in your desperation for a picture, I'll hopefully* do that tomorrow.

But whilst being sophisticated last night with Friend Sarah, we were discussing dresses and shapes and I admitted that I tend to prefer fitted dresses. Because I am large of bust, I tend to get paranoid that everyone will think I'm just fat unless clothes are fitted**. I know, it's silly and stupid but it's my monkey. And my monkey is wearing a sheath dress.


What do you think of this pattern as a back up? I have it already, it has different cup sizes so I wouldn't have to do a FBA, it doesn't require very much fabric and it has good reviews on Sewing Pattern Review.


*I say hopefully because I made another six dozen changes and didn't try it on even once as I was making it. I know, I am living life on the edge.
** In defense of my monkey, if I had a pound for every time someone has said to me, 'Wow, you're a lot thinner than I thought!' when I'm wearing less / smaller / tighter clothes then I could buy a really swanky knife to stab people.

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Worthy Cause Alert: Everyone report to their machines

Disclaimer: Not a girl in poverty. Girl in pillowcase dress.

A couple of days ago, Louise from Sew Scrumptious threw her weight behind the 'Dressing a girl around the world' campaign that provides lovely dresses for girls that live in poverty worldwide. Seeing that I can surely afford to devote some of my time and fabric to a very worthy cause I've signed up to donate a dress. Pillowcase dresses are one of the quickest and easiest dresses around, and Louise has helpfully provided tutorial links. Less than a yard of fabric and one hour tops, I promise.

If you'd like to join in, please sign up over on Sew Scrumptious's blog as she's coordinating the donation from the UK side! The dresses will be sent to America, so if you're on that side of the pond you might want to visit the charity's website.

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Disheartened Zebra is disheartened

Introducing.... version two of the Sis Boom Jamie dress.

Things not to judge me for:

1. Making a zebra print dress. It's been in my stash for 37 years and it's wide enough for a half-circle skirt.
2. Wearing red tights. I already had them on today, and couldn't be arsed changing them.
3. Lack of blog posts. It's Virgin Media again and three nights in a row with the internet shut off at 7PM.
4. Whining. My prerogative.

I'm not even sure I can call it a Sis Boom Jamie dress anymore because of all the changes I made to the pattern. Jennifer Paganelli, do not even sue me for copyright infringement or misrepresentation or even defamation, it won't be worth your time and court costs.

I will start with the back... I extended the sash from the original party at the front to party all around, and still maintained the pleats. Pinning Version: Awkward in Pink to my doppelganger (who was helpfully wearing my bra) made me realise that the elastication was not necessary in the back, so there is no elastic at all. Straps were rotated to vertical, armhole given a deeper curve. Despite manifold changes, my bra strap still shows. I HATE YOU, BRA STRAP.

'Oh, bodice', the matron sighed as a single tear ran down her cheek, 'you had so much promise...'

I made so many changes to the bodice I'll probably need to start up a whole 'nother blog just to talk about it. To summarise: I moved the strap so it came out vertically (and shortened the straps three inches), scooped out a bit at armpit, made it slightly scooped neck rather than straight across (and switched to 1/4" elastic to follow the curve better), added some fullness under the bust for a bit of height / to cover my bra, and decreased the height at centre front bottom* to eliminate the pooling. Here's a under-appreciated camera move:

Below the boob looking up...

So great was my desire not to bulk up my centre front and present the world with Mono-Boob, I moved all of the gathers under bust. This was probably over-vigilance.

The skirt was changed from a gathered skirt to a half circle skirt. I did some late-night mathematics to draft 3/4" circle and full circle patterns as well**. Mr Dorset, if you're reading this: 'You were right, I totally still use geometry and algebra when I'm older'. Skirt is not hemmed yet.

The verdict? Meh.

• The Good: Waistband gets a thumbs up
• The Bad: Bodice still looks ultra-matronly to me (I know, zebra stripes + bosom shelf = bad idea)
• The Divisive: On one hand, I like the fullness. On the other hand, drapes cause bulk to stomach region. Although not having to worry about posture and support undergarments is appealing, I would also like to look thin because 30 Day Shred will render me so in about 13 days.
  

What say you?

* Pickled Weasel, I await your joke about centre front bottom.
**Thank you, KID MD, for your awesome tutorials on half, three quarters and full circle skirts!

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Pretty (awkward) in Pink

Despite the fact I am generally terrible at sew-alongs, I committed to one last week as it's less than three weeks until the wedding and I still don't have a dress to wear. Admittedly, I wasn't in love with the picture of the Sis Boom Jamie dress on the pattern envelope but I was won over by the sew-along organiser's mega-cute rendition:


How awesome is that? Heaps. So pattern was duly purchased, printed, assembled, cut, replicated in fabric form and sewn together:

Apologies for pic quality, the lighting situation in Edinburgh today is officially atrocious

The idea was a wearable muslin so that I could learn from any fitting issues before making a fancy one out of posh fabric.

I made the skirt massively full because for my swanky final version I was thinking of a fairly sturdy silk shatung with a pettiskirt underneath.

The back has the problem of not covering my bra straps but I think I could fix that fairly easily.

As per usual, the majority of the fitting issues are bust-related. My bra shows along the neckline at the right and left so I'd have to give the bodice piece more height there. The main problem, however, is the eight inches of extra fabric pooling between my breasts. I pressed the folds with the iron for at least an hour and a half but it only marginally improved the situation. This extra fabric also droops down, as the slack is not taken up by travelling up and over a boob.

So the question is this: do I persist with this pattern or hunt for a different one? You can also pass judgement on the changes (I think) I need to make and/or want to make:

• Transfer the straps from current arrangement where they come horizontally out of a channel to ones that come vertically out of the bodice. Also, shorten straps.
• More coverage to back sides at armhole.
• I really like the waistband, but I don't like waistbands that are only at the front. Party at the back too, please.
• I think the skirt would be more flattering as a circle skirt rather than the extreme gathering at the waist.
• Tame the bodice. More height at sides, less height at centre front. Way less fabric at centre front. Concentrate gathers under bust, not at centre front.
  

So... worth persisting or should I start fresh?

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A Cassette Hoodie for the Asian market

Lest you conclude from my blog title that I have been racially profiling my hoodies, I should probably clarify: this hoodie is going to a specific customer in Asia. Although as a continent, Asia would probably approve.

In fact, there's not a single continent I can think of that wouldn't like this hoodie. Antarctica would probably want thinsulate inner-lining though. Don't worry, I have enough.

Although the customer lives in Hong Kong, she used to live in Edinburgh and has had the pleasure of my company on several occasions. Shortly after we visited her house for the first (and last) time, she announced she was emigrating. There's probably no link.

If you're here for the sewing rather than my random wittering, let's discuss how cool these sleeves are.

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International Day of Navel Gazing

Has everyone recovered from International Day of Delurking? I admit, I was completely unprepared for the excitement of it all and collapsed exhausted in my bed at the end of the day. Who knew there were so many people in the internet ready and willing to discuss the relative sneakiness of animals? Not me.

As befits the conclusion of any major event, lets look back on International Day of Delurking so that we can learn from it.

Readers of Kitschy Coo (a snapshot of yesterday's visitors):

There were 383 unique visitors yesterday according to Google Analytics. Obviously, it was very tricky to categorise all of you guys into neat categories. But for the purpose of a straight-forward pie chart, regular commentors who just wanted to talk about sneaky animals were sneaky like a horse, genuine / brave / awesome delurkers were sneaky like a panda (by the laws of diminishing sneakiness), people who were visiting useful posts like tutorials may or may not be sneaky but were too busy to go on record, and people looking at the random post* from years ago when I had a 15 minute crush on Josh Peck are undoubtedly sneaky (but also probably disturbed by my creepy creeper-ness). The leaves the 176 visitors who are sneaky like an alligator, who read the delurking post but did not delurk. I applaud you, lurkers, and understand why you might not go on the record and admit you read me.

*Random viewer stats fact: The frankly ridiculous Josh Peck post gets more than 1000 visits a month by people Googling 'Josh Peck' and 'Josh Peck weight loss'. It's my fourth most viewed post ever. I find this 75% hilarious and 25% mortifying.

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International Day of Delurking

After reading an interesting article yesterday about blog commenting, I had every intention of writing a post about stats, engagement and page views to commenting ratios. Obviously, such a titallating post would require a suitable photo to accompany it so I promptly did a Google Image search for 'being sneaky' (i.e. to represent the 95% of you who read without commenting) and found this miniature horse:

'He's being sneaky here with his foot'*.

*Allegedly. To me he's looking previous obvious.

Although I have since found out that official Delurker Day is 12 January, with today being April Fools Day and everyone obviously being in the requisite festive spirit, I would like to invite the lurkers to stick their heads above the parapet and say hello. If you're struggling with what to say, talk about Sneaky Horse's inherent un-sneakiness. Or your theories as to why Lilloet British Columbia is the Number One 'being sneaky' image. This town looks okay to me:


Also, possible delurking comments could pertain to why someone thinks these pandas are sneaky:


Again, this looks like normal panda behaviour to me but I'm no expert. To an untrained eye, completely above the board eating with no sneakiness.


If you would like to delurk by saying, 'Actually, that animal is totally being sneaky' this picture is for you.

So, who is going to delurk? Please can someone do it or I'll have to delete this post and then probably shut down the blog in disgrace.

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