Almost...but not quite

Readers, this Twenties dress -- which seems to have been so long in the making I was in my Twenties when I started -- is nearly done.  The sleeves went on without much trouble and the belt was easy to make, though still needs tweaking.  Need to hem, too.




The sleeves are not underlined, and the seams at the armsyce are delicate, particularly where semi-sheer chiffon sleeve meets sheer chiffon yoke.  I stitched the armscye twice but haven't serged the seam allowance because I don't want a thick seam that might show through the fabric.  I thought about using bias tape to reinforce it and then pressing this under to the sleeve side, but decided against it -- too bulky.  Stitching can strengthen a seam but can also weaken a fabric.  No one's going mountain climbing in this dress, after all.

I'm not sure how a seam like this would be finished on a commercial garment; some garments are delicate and that's that.  I'm used to thicker, more durable fabrics.  Chiffon deserves a chapter all its own.

Meanwhile I am still recovering from the high drama that is "Susan Slade," a little-known  (never released on VHS) tearjerker from the early Sixties directed by Delmer Daves, a sort of second tier Douglas Sirk.

If you enjoy tales of teen romance, unwed mothers, and family secrets (grandmother posing as mother) and love movies where the female characters wear matching stiletto heels with every outfit, you'll love "Susan Slade."  Great early Sixties fashion and Troy Donahue too!  And did I mention the sumptuous cinematography and Max Steiner score?

I could write a blog about old movies but you know, I'd rather write about making things myself than about what others have made -- much more fun.

Today I return to pattern drafting, hopefully, and pulling Cathy's ensemble together for our next shoot.  Never a dull moment.

Cathy took a red-eye from Los Angeles last night and is in a deep beauty slumber as we speak.  The life that girl leads...  Thank goodness for concealer is all I can say.

Have a great day, everybody!

For those who missed it the first time...

CORRECTION: Watermelon

Friends, I owe you an apology. 

The color of my McCall's Twenties dress is not frappe di fragola, strawberry parfait, Slightly Spam, or whatever I'd been calling it up to now.  It is the color of that most thirst-quenching of summer fruits, watermelon.

Now before you run off to your local Whole Foods, Piggly Wiggly, or roadside stand to pick some up, let me tell you about my dress.

Things are going well despite the fact that this pattern has no formal written instructions as we've come to know them.  It shows you what's attached to what and then you're on your own.  Presumably women sewing in the 1920's were up to the challenge and let's face it: this is a shift dress with a yoke and a sash.



I wouldn't have minded some hand holding though.  I'm underlining for the first time and I have never worked with poly chiffon before (let alone two layers) and it has presented some challenges.

I cut the yoke out of the solid sheer chiffon I purchased on Saturday and needed to finish the slightly scooped neckline.  I'd intended to finish it with bias cut from either the dotted or the sheer solid (self) chiffon but neither takes a crease very well and I didn't think it would look clean.  So I used the cotton/poly Wright's bias tape I'd bought and, while I generally don't like the stuff, it came out great. 



Yesterday I found just the right color Gutermann thread and I was able to top-stitch the tape very discretely.





I wanted to finish other edges -- like the attached drape -- with my rolled hem foot.



Generally I have good results with this foot, especially with cotton shirting and with the aid of some of Susan of Spare Time's fantastic tutorials.   Poly chiffon is simply too shifty for the task, however.  My test samples looked like this -- or worse:



So I improvised.  I've serged the edges, folded them over once and stitched (You're only going to see the outside).





In a perfect world I'd have serged with pink thread but this isn't a perfect world, not nearly.

I'm reinforcing most seams with Hug Snug rayon bias tape, especially where there are gathers.  The sleeves are my next challenge.

So there you have it.  I'm hoping to finish this up later today and then maybe treat myself to a large iced coffee and an hour with Connie Stevens in "Susan Slade."  Keep it simple, that's what I always say.

Another 90+ degrees here in NYC.

If you'd like to read a highly romanticized view of what it's like to shop with me in the Garment District, pay a visit today to In the Heyday.  Of course, it's mainly about Shona, but still interesting!

Have a great day and wait -- is this indeed watermelon???

Around the world in 520 words

I don't keep track of the size of the Fistful of Soundtracks channel's international audience, but I know I get a lot of listeners from Europe. Some of them have mentioned AFOS in their tweets or newspaper pieces. A writer from England's Observer paper described my station's format as "tunes from films and TV, surprisingly listenable," while a British listener told me earlier this year he heard BBC Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox give AFOS a shout-out on the air.

Over in the Netherlands, someone plugged AFOS in a Facebook post.

In Dutch, the post says: "Jimmy Aquino draait al sinds 2002 Film- en TV muziek op zijn eigen radiostation, altijd in themas. Omdat het voornamelijk een one-man-show is, worden de programma's slechts wekelijks geupdate. Naast de wekelijkse show wordt het station gevuld door een jukebox vol trailers en de bijbehorende muziek. Aquino weet niet alleen ongelofelijk veel van filmmuziek, hij tekend ook strips en schrijft korte verhalen."


Google Translate's slightly malapropistic version in English says: "Jimmy Aquino has been around since 2002 Film and TV music on his own radio station, always themes. Because it is mainly a one-man show, then the program is only updated weekly. Besides the weekly show, the station filled by a jukebox full of trailers and the accompanying music. Aquinas not only knows an incredible amount of film music, he also signed comics and writes short stories."

I appreciate the praise, but like most blog posts that mention AFOS, it's not 100 percent correct about the details ("Because it is mainly a one-man show, the program is only updated weekly"). The Dutch listener is right about the Fistful of Soundtracks channel's one-man staff but somewhat incorrect about the weekly updating of episodes of the one-hour program that originated on college radio (which was also called A Fistful of Soundtracks). I do update the Wednesday reruns of that program each week, but I haven't recorded a new ep since "Dance Into the Fire" in 2008 because I've been underemployed for a while, and it's become too expensive for me to continue producing the program or to pay Bruce the announcer again to re-record the program intro in the reruns and introduce me as "Jimmy J. Aquino" instead of the now-outdated "Jimmy Aquino."

However, I haven't stopped updating the Fistful of Soundtracks channel's daytime playlists. A couple of weeks ago, I added to the "Chai Noon" playlist some Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge numbers from a new Shahrukh Khan soundtrack compilation and some tracks from the new Abhishek Bachchan/Aishwarya Rai movie Raavan, and then I added the Beastie Boys instrumental "Shambala" to the "F Zone" playlist after the Breaking Bad season finale devoted an entire sequence to "Shambala." This week's additions to "Assorted Fistful" are selections from Varèse Sarabande's expanded version of Michael Giacchino's Star Trek score album.

The above Dutch phrase "hij tekend ook strips" means "he has also drawn comics." Google Translate thinks the post says "he also signed comics." Yeah, I don't write comics. I just autograph them. The "Sampler" script and The Palace were actually the work of South Korean laborers.

Merman Monday + GOALS!

Good morning, sewers from all my favorite continents! 

We have a very special guest at MPB this morning -- Miss Ethel Merman!  Ethel's a big fan of Male Pattern Boldness and I told her she could come and watch this morning as long as she didn't break anything.

I hope everyone is feeling bright and chipper and ready to stitch today; I know I am.  There's so much to do.  My little McCall's Twenties frock is still hanging on its body form unsewn.  I seem to be experiencing a mild case of chiffon-itis -- it can creep up on you when you least expect it, apparently. 

But I am excited to see how it turns out: based on your comments Cathy will look like either Louise Brooks or Estelle Getty, may she rest in peace.  Of course I'm hoping for the latter since it won't be long before Cathy is sharing a condominium with three septuagenarians herself.

With no further delay, a brief review of the past week:

1. I bought fabric for my Twenties dress.  And then again.  And then again.   And then a little bit more.  Let's just leave it at that. 

2. I drafted a decent top, Lesson 4 in my pattern drafting book.   Next up is Lesson 5 - Overblouse (otherwise known as a shirt).  This lesson gets us into sleeves and collars, so should be quite a thrill ride.  I discussed some of my shoulder and back issues with Michael, who teaches the Alexander Technique, and he assured me that, rather than fuss with alterations to my sloper, I could have him teach me how to improve my posture quite easily.  After nearly eight years don't you think he might have addressed that already?   Better late than never!

3. Even more exciting than my posture, however: savvy sewist and blogger extraordinaire Mikhaela has given birth to a lovely baby girl!  It seemed like she was pregnant for about three years, but the results are so worth it.  Please visit Mikhaela at Polka Dot Overload and see lovely Cartoonist Baby "Z."  (Here's hoping that "Z" stands for Zoe and not Zsa Zsa.)

But enough about Mikhaela, what will I be giving birth to this week?

1. Must. Finish. Twenties. Dress.

2. More Pattern Drafting  (I'm trying to use different sheets to keep it interesting for you.)

3. Friends, how's this for lazy: I think I'm going to turn my self-drafted pants into shorts after all.  I never did get around to making myself shorts last week and that stretchy faille, or whatever strange fabric it was I made the pants out of, has a maddening tendency to twist below my knee in that ugly way that puts the inseam 180 degrees west.  Not pretty and not easily tamed. 

4. I have two weeks before my Fire Island trip and two complete resort wardrobes to create.  And that's just for the dogs.  Seriously, it's time to make my first Cath-kini!

And what of you?  Did you create any new life this past week? (Keep it clean please.)

Mom2five: How's the shirt coming along?  LauraD: Is your sewing machine out of the shop yet?  Toby: Congratulations on your navy skirt -- and the chicken tractor -- but don't get complacent.  Ruth: Any quilt updates to provide?  Sewforward: When do we get to see the "Shorts! Shorts! Shorts!"?  Melanie Jade: Are you almost done with the wedding gown?  Is the groom wearing anything?  Shona (In the Heyday): How is that Hawaiian dress is coming along?  Can't wait to see it!

I'm actually very happy with your progress, folks, or maybe it's just the coffee kicking in or Mikhaela's new baby;  I am experiencing one of those rare moments of peace.  Life is good and sewing makes it better.

Have a great day everybody and don't forget to say hi to Ethel on your way out; it means a lot to her still.

And what's on your sew-genda this week?

Just another Sunday at our house...

Happy Sunday, readers!  Here's what's happening at this very moment at Chez MPB:

Michael is in an iPhone 4 trance from which he should emerge any day now.  In his defense, he just received it.

At his feet, Willy and Freddy nap and digest their morning meal.  Can't last long enough!

And what of me?

Studying, studying, studying for the big exam!

Yesterday I went back to the fabric store in search of the perfect poly chiffon for the yoke of my McCall Twenties dress.  But my favorite fabric dive was closed!  So I had to shop elsewhere.  I realize why people shop at normal fabric stores.  You ask for pink poly chiffon and that's exactly what they show you; you don't dig among the remnant bolts and hope for the best.  But you pay for the convenience.

I bought one yard of this:



It's a salmony pink sheer poly chiffon (Or is it poly organza?  Is there a difference?).  It's diaphanous but also quite sturdy, with lovely drape.  In fact, I'm thinking of doing not only the yoke with it, but the sleeves as well.  Do you like that idea or should I do the sleeves in the dotted chiffon?



Nice, right?  (The sheer chiffon photographs bluish there but they match extremely well in normal light.)

I've been experimenting with a lot of different seam finishes.  First, I tried various commercial double-folded bias.





These were too heavy.  Self-fabric bias works best.



I think if I use any bias, rather than fold over and topstitch, I'll stitch it to the outside, right sides together, fold it over, and then catch stitch it by hand on the inside.  I don't like topstitching, even with matching thread, for this dress.  (We're talking primarily about the neckline.)

I also like this (see below), which is just folding the edge over and stitching, leaving a clean raw edge on the inside.  Would that make me a bad person?   I like it because it's light, especially for that extra panel under the waistline that creates the lovely drapey effect, as well as the long sash.



I'll probably reinforce critical seams with rayon Hug Snug stay tape if need be.

As for the main seams, I'm not sure.  The front and back panels have underlining, and I may just have plain seams and finish them in a simple and light way; nothing fancy.



That's it for today, readers!  Michael seems to be emerging from his stupor, so I should check in with him; at least to say hi.   Hopefully I'll make some progress on "Polly Chiffon" today.

Have a great day, everybody!

Little librarians, take heed...
 

Party Down, "Constance Carmell Wedding": "The Holo-what?"

This weekend's second-season finale of one of my current favorite shows, the Starz single-camera comedy Party Down, is rumored to be the series finale. The show's chances of being renewed by Starz have dimmed because it was a project that was nurtured by higher-ups who are no longer part of the channel staff, and they've been made even more dim by sucky ratings, as well as Party Down star and co-producer Adam Scott's decision to not return for another season (he became a regular on Parks and Recreation) and the decreasing availability of some of Scott's co-stars due to more stable employment opportunities that have emerged from pilot season. If Friday's finale was the last we see of the losers at Party Down Catering, it was a nice way to go out.

If you've never seen the underwatched Party Down, it's an uproarious and cynical portrayal of dog-eat-dog Hollywood, told through the eyes of cater-waiters who moonlight as actors, stage moms or underemployed screenwriters when they're not serving hors d'oeuvres to douchey showbiz bigwigs or the "blonde-haired nobodies with perky tits and bad skin" that Patton Oswalt encountered in one of the greatest things he ever wrote, a blog post about his miserable experience at an L.A. gifting suite (which I luckily saved to my computer before it was deleted from his blog). In other words, Party Down is the anti-Entourage. It's the darkest and funniest sitcom about not making it since Taxi.

The You Offend Me You Offend My Family blog does a wonderful series of posts called "Movies That Should Have Starred Asians." Party Down isn't a movie, but it belongs on that list. It's about failure and underemployment in Hollywood, and nobody's had it harder in that town than Asian American male actors, who have been stuck with some of the most demeaning roles in the biz. The one question I've had about Party Down throughout its run has been "Why is this group of struggling actors and screenwriters missing an Asian guy?" Now that the regular cast is without Scott (who's been terrific as Henry the lost soul and disillusioned actor who can't escape being recognized for his beer commercial catchphrase "Are we having fun yet?") and possibly Ryan Hansen, I'd be pissed if Party Down's yet-to-be-determined third season doesn't fill one of those empty spots with an Asian guy. (John Cho's without a TV series again. He'd be perfect on this show.)

Viewers who hate inside-showbiz sitcoms like Entourage or are tired of them will be relieved to know that not every episode of Party Down is about Hollywood (when HBO was initially interested in picking up Party Down, they pushed the creators, who include Paul Rudd--yes, that Paul Rudd--and Veronica Mars mastermind Rob Thomas, to make the project more of an inside-showbiz sitcom like so many other HBO shows, and the creators balked at having to recycle that exhausted genre, so Party Down ended up at Starz instead). In some eps, bumbling team leader Ron (Ken Marino, who along with Hansen, is one of many Veronica Mars alums who reteamed with their old boss on the new show) and his cater-waiters have found themselves working non-Hollywood functions like a young Republican club meeting or a college football star's NFL draft day party.

The show's versatile settings (and the rich material that arises from the waiters' reactions to each different setting and their encounters with the strangers they would mingle with) are among my favorite aspects of Party Down. The fact that the changing settings are really the soul of Party Down also means the show can never go stale, and it can survive the departure of a regular like Scott or Jane Lynch, who was an invaluable part of Party Down until she had to leave to join the cast of the surprise hit Glee. (Lynch's shoes have been ably filled this season by Megan Mullally as Lydia, an always cheery stage mom from outside of Hollywood whose lack of knowledge about the industry, pop culture or sexual slang like "cougars" and "bears" have resulted in some great reactions from her youngest co-workers, Martin Starr's self-described "hard sci-fi" screenwriter Roman and stand-up comic Casey, played by Lizzy Caplan, whose unexpected farewell to clothing in True Blood is the only reason to watch that show.)


In "Constance Carmell Wedding," Lynch reprises her role as Constance--a '70s/'80s starlet whom you might barely remember from such Skinemax mainstays as Scream Weaver, Walnuts and Dingleberries--and who's now a client instead of one of the waiters of Party Down Catering, which she hires to cater her wedding to an elderly movie producer (an initially unrecognizable and sickly-looking Alex Rocco from The Godfather and The Friends of Eddie Coyle). The inevitable meeting between Constance and her replacement Lydia does not disappoint. Seeing Lynch and Mullally share the screen while their characters compete for attention from the Party Downers is like watching one of those Doctor Who eps that unite the current actor who stars as the Doctor with a previous actor who played him, except the Doctor now has a vagina.

The element I missed the most during season two due to Lynch's absence was the dynamic between Constance and Hansen's not-too-bright actor/supermodel/skirt-chaser/wannabe emo rocker character Kyle, whom Constance was often seen giving muddled showbiz advice to. Constance's interaction with this male version of her younger self--they look alike, and at times, they even think alike!--made Kyle the seemingly douchey pretty boy an even more likable character than bitter nerd Roman, whom we were tricked into sympathizing with early on in the series until we realized, "Damn, Roman is a worse asshole than the assholes he snarks about." (In a couple of nicely underplayed dramatic moments during a first-season ep, Kyle saw a group of potential drinking buddies ridicule Constance behind her back, and then he ditched them to hang out with Constance, an applause-worthy move that's a great example of the show's unpredictable and nuanced writing and must have won over viewers who thought Kyle would be a rehash of Hansen's douchey Veronica Mars character Dick Casablancas.) The finale revisits this dynamic in a hilarious wedding reception scene where Kyle and his emo band perform a song about struggle that could have been the perfect Party Down opening theme if it weren't for certain lyrics. Kyle doesn't realize his lyrics are repulsing Constance's older Jewish guests ("Yeah, they brand you a star/Put you on the midnight train/Going very far/Line you up and give you a number/Shoot you down/Throw you away/We will not surrender!") until Constance has to interrupt him to point out the questionable imagery, to which Kyle replies, "The Holo-what?"



The finale also reaches a pivotal point in the arc of a duo that's even more interesting to watch than Yoda and Luke Runwaywalker, mostly because of the chemistry between Scott and Caplan: Henry and his equally sharp-witted, on-again/off-again girlfriend Casey, who landed a bit part in a Judd Apatow movie and has been attempting to pull Henry out of his disillusionment with acting. Since it's Scott's final ep as a regular (or if the show gets axed, it's the final ep for everybody), this often downbeat show ends with a rarely seen ray of hope when Casey becomes so distraught over getting deleted from the final cut of the Apatow flick that she... nah, if you have a PC and a Netflix account, you have to go stream the finale now to see for yourself.

Ix-Nay on the Ipes-Stray: The Continued Saga of the 20's Dress

I'm sorry, but Jean Paul Gaultier stole my harem pants.   That's for my lawyers to deal with, however, not us, not today.

Friends, I so appreciate your willingness to indulge me and forgive my somewhat capricious nature.  Which brings us back to the Twenties dress.

You'll recall that after the paisley-ish fabric faux pas, I went back to the $2 yard sales pile and picked up three yards of black and white striped chiffon.



Followers and lurkers, I had every intention of whipping up the dress in those stripes, honestly I did.  But a voice inside my gut that sounded eerily like MPB reader and commenter (and never one to mince words) Brian Linger told me those stripes were wrong.  Or maybe it was just gas.

Regardless, I realized that while a little bit of stripes can be a good thing...

...too much is, well, too much.  It also gives me a headache.

So back to the bargain bolts I bounced.  And I purchased this.



It's the color of strawberry sorbet with small dots that thankfully don't scream "polka."  It's a dainty and soft poly chiffon and a very good color for Cathy.  Moreover, it passes the cheap beads test:



By the end of yesterday the fabric was mostly all cut (chiffon is hard, Barbie!), underlining included, and hanging on my bodyform to stretch for the night.  You can already get a sense of the shape of the dress.



Now I like the look of a contrasting front yoke...but what to make it out of?



The cream chiffon underlining is too strong a contrast imo and too opaque.  I know it sounds crazy but I may return to the fabric store (it's just half a mile from here) and pick up a yard of something closer to the pink or more sheer or something.  I think doing it all in the dotted pink chiffon is a little boring.

Thoughts? 

Also -- if the top of the front (beneath the yoke) is gathered, do I also gather the underlining, or should I (as I suspect) gather the fashion fabric and then attach the underlining?

How should I finish the fragile edges of the neckline: bias strips, facing?

I wouldn't say I'm losing sleep over this dress, but it has taken quite a bit of focus.  Last night I tried to distract myself with the Meg Ryan version of "The Women" on DVD (thankfully borrowed from the library).   I discovered it is The Worst Movie Ever Made.  I couldn't take more than ten minutes and I usually like bad movies.   This was unwatchable.

Have a great day, everybody.  Any bad movies you can recommend?  ("Susan Slade" is on its way from Amazon, btw -- in a set that includes "Parrish" AND "Rome Adventure"!)

Oh, the Drama!

Baby's got back and mild scoliosis

 

Readers, what idiot said:

That's the beauty of drafting: you're using your own body's measurements, so provided you can handle a little math and draw a straight and curved line (and there are a zillion aids to help you), things are going to fit.  You don't have to waste time with endless pattern adjustments?

Nevermind.

I spent much too much time yesterday working on fitting my self-drafted top pattern.  Now I know I don't have a bulging bosom, crooked clavicle, XXXL love handles, or a hunch, but I DO have my deformities and they are heck to deal with.

How I used to wonder (with some smugness, I'll admit) at the endless fit obsessions of various blogger friends, struggling with their swaybacks, dowager humps, and assorted bumps and bulges.  Oh, but karma stings!

Granted, unless I'm drafting a skin-tight jumpsuit -- and I will be -- there can be some fullness in men's tops.  Even a well-fitted men's formal shirt is likely to have more ease than, say, a 1950's wiggle dress women's bodice meant to be worn with a bullet bra and girdle.

But as anyone who's ever gotten deeply into fitting knows, once you get started, all you want to see is SMOOTH: no fullness, no pulling, no wrinkles.

I want the equivalent of my body covered in molten latex.  Or a good face lift. 

So yesterday I measured.  I trimmed.  I widened darts.  I narrowed darts.  I lengthened darts.  I shortened darts.  I did everything but throw darts which if I had, would have been at a photo of Dorothy Moore.













The problem, dear readers, is that while in my fantasies I look like this...





In reality, I look like this:





If there's one part of my body I'm not keen about, it's my forward-sloping shoulders and rounded back.  OK that's two parts, but you get the idea.  It makes fitting my back a challenge, IF I'm going to get really obsessive about it.  A yoke should deal with some of the fullness at the armscye (see top photo). I lowered the shoulder line twice and even tried darts, with mixed success.  Or do I need to lengthen the back?  You'd think I didn't own half a dozen books on fit.  

Maybe I'll just wear stretch knits from now on.

Anyway, that's where things stand, or rather, slouch.  David Coffin doesn't even advocate drafting a men's sloper from scratch but rather starting with a decent-fitting shirt pattern and making small adjustments from there.   I'm hoping this investment in fitting will pay off somewhere down the road. The question is when, and where will that road be -- Auckland?

So there, I've been chastened -- smug no more.

More coffee please!