fitzfabulous

Remember this mess of a fit handed down from a cousin?

Boxy cut is too big in all the wrong places, stretchy fabric catches on tiny front hooks, red square sequins a bit much for most uses.

But it’s precisely those red square sequins that made this an irresistable keeper.

Enter Dolly Parton concert for inspiration. Dolly has no fear. She grew up dirt poor. She married at 20 and stuck it out. She takes all kinds of risks. She laughs it off when people are rude and tacky to her. And she loves to show off a bosom.

So take her moxie to heart, and give a big chop of something you know fits really awfully a try. Here’s how I did it (and it was a long time in the making):

1. REMOVE SLEEVES. I sliced through the shoulder seams to remove the sleeves whole. I also cut off the tiny hooks and eyes meant to hold the front closed because they caught on the fabric.

2. PULL IN SIDES. Fit to your body, pin and stitch well. What were boxy shoulders now are effortless cap sleeves.

3. CUT OUT A NECK. The front used to close all the way up - I wanted a loose V-shape, so I had to cut off the excess fabric from the original neck. Also meant pulling off, one by one, the sequins that line the edge.

4. FINISH NECK. Hem the neck by hand or with a binding. I sewed in grosgrain ribbon with the machine, then hand hemmed it over.

5. CLOSE IT UP. Tried a bunch of things to make this a top rather than a cardigan. Wrap-style with ribbon ties looked silly. Pinned the sleeves like a band to the bottom to hold the wrap felt too bulky. Finally - since I knew I wanted the sequins to stretch out into a design - I sewed two big snaps on the bottom corners.

The first set was sewn to the inside and a corner,

the other to the outside.

6. PULL OUT THE BOOTS AND GO. I’ll add a tiny ruffled cami top underneath, and a fitted denim skirt on bottom before going out in public.

and back

She’s coming this week and I’m all set.

View cinematic oeuvre (9 to 5, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Rhinestone, Steel Magnolias, Straight Talk). Check.

Check out old interviews on the Tube. Watch new video with Amy Sedaris, old musical specials on DVD. Check.

Learn words to Hard Candy Christmas, To Daddy, Tennessee Mountain Home. Check.

And now my bosom is ready to shine! I finished my fabulous TOP the better to sparkle along with the lady Dolly.

Lucky my Mister was stuck at work covering the Indiana primary until very late this eve, freeing me up to think about how to get this refashioned bugger to work.

If you recall, I started out with a giant boxy stretchy red cardigan jacket, handed down from a cousin. And I ended up with the Hottest Little Dolly Top in Chicago.

As always, there’s a How to… right here.

My Mister’s sister is crazy for pink. I suspect it’s to prove her tacit credos that redheads can wear whatever they like, and so can tough broads.

She also teaches at a Chicago Public School, and hates mixing her ‘normal’ wardrobe with her teacher clothes. So she has a sort of double wardrobe.

I don’t know where this vintage handmade blouse will end up, but I spotted it at a suburban Salvy and plunked down the $.75, thinking if she doesn’t like it, she’ll donate it back. Or she’ll hand it back and we’ll put it up for a few $ on etsy. It has a wide, trapeze shape, and the sleeves were sewn on in three pieces.

Plus, the pink circles are mesmerizing. I had to repair the sleeve and bottom hems.

I think it worked.

Home tonight on a Friday. Sort of weary and uninterested in dealing with the outside world. My Minna top is coming along nicely, but I’ve reached the point where I’ll wreck something if I push this fatigue. The fabric looks spectacular. I added a lining to the placket and will post the steps once the top is finished. So exciting to finish a pattern enough to love the fit!

Instead of more sewing tonight, I’m planning what to do next.

This little number was going to up for sale in my etsy store. But then I tried it on and it looks like it was made for me. Super flattering cut for my shape. Time to learn to copy clothing with muslin patterns. I’ve been reading here and here about how to do it. I’m scared is the problem - scared of wasting precious spare sewing time on something that won’t work. But I have a few fabrics made for this dress style and I hate pulling together work ensembles once the weather gets warm. Easier to toss on a dress and go.

Think the best way to process is to start a list of crafty things I keep thinking about.

That list is now here.

Little lilac cardigan from the Salvy is the right color for spring and the right kind of soft. But the “Before” was too big and awful.

Screamed out for a refit; big sleeves made me think about trying a leg of mutton experiment on them. I think it worked; See what you think.

1. FIX BODICE Pin bodice, fit until right, then baste and sew. Neatly trim edges. Finish as you like, or leave them alone (Most knits won’t unravel).

2. DEAL WITH SLEEVES Cut sleeves off by slicing through shoulder seam, or by trimming all the way off. See where armholes fall - they’ll need to start right on the top of the shoulder for the puff to pouf up. I had to take a good inch off the top of the armhole. Now gather the top of the sleeve by sewing a long running stitch about 2 inches on either side of the top center, and pulling the underthreads.

3. SEW SLEEVES BACK ON Pin sleeve bottom to armhole bottom, right sides together. Pin sleeve top center to armhole top center. Gather the big part of the sleeve until it fits in the armhole. Pin well, baste, fit, stitch.**

** Here’s a little trick to make the sleeves puff up more.

Make a booster out of the edges.

Take the edges you cut off, and fold the short edge under. Sew with a wide zigzag. Fold that whole thing over and sew again. Trim. Take that little rectangle of stiff fabric and pin it into the gathered part of the sleeve seam so it pokes the pouf up. Sew it into the seam allowance, close to the sleeve seam.

4. MAKE THE LEG OF MUTTON (optional) If you like puffy long sleeves, stop. If you want to try the leg, lay the sweater flat and smooth it out. Figure out how long you want the pouf to be, and cut straight across sleeve at that point.

I did about 7 inches. Use one sleeve to measure the other sleeve.

Flip the bottom part inside out and sew a straight seam up from the cuff up to straighten out the lower sleeve.

Pin the top sleeve to the bottom sleeve at the underseam seams, right sides facing. Pin at the top centers, too. Gather the upper sleeve to it fits the lower sleeve, pin well, fit, baste and stitch.

Atta girl!

I used to turn t-shirts into tops by cutting out the necks and the bands at the arms and waist. Not always so flattering. So it finally was time to figure out what to do with the drawerful of shirts I never wore, except to the beach.

Take this giant orange guy, with my neighborhood ironed onto the front, a lovely Christmas gift from a boy with a big heart but no sense of size.

Bold, yet shapeless. Appropriately local, but inappropriately frumpy. Thanks to skinny elastic, I now have a top. Here’s one way to turn a giant T into a top:

1. PREPARE BODICE. Cut off original sleeves by slicing through stitching or by trimming off the seam. Turn shirt inside out and pin to fit. body. Try on, fit, baste, fit again. Sew sides. Trim seam allowance.

2. PREPARE NECK FACING Figure out what neck shape you want. Cut it out. If you have enough seam allowance to face the neck, use it. If not, you can trim from the bottom of the T or use other fabric. You need a strip a good 1.5 inches wide, and as long as the neck opening. You can sew smaller strips together to get enough length.

3. ATTACH NECK FACING Fold the facing strips in half lengthwise. Press. Start pinning from one side of the neck, raw edges of the facing strip to the right side of the shirt. when you like the **fit, baste and sew. Trim edges and fold them under. Now topstitch on the facing band, catching them under your stitching. If the T stretches too much, toss a strip of newspaper underneath to temporarily stabilize it.

** I ended up fishing elastic through my neck facing because I didn’t follow my own advice to fit before sewing, and the neck was way too big. Serves me right.

4. PREPARE SLEEVES To gather sleeves, baste a long running stitch along the top raw edge of the excised sleeve, about 3/8″ from the edge. Pull the underthread until the sleeve is bunchy enough. Stitch over the gathering to stabilize it. Pin the sleeve back on, right sides together, baste and sew.

5. FINISH SLEEVES Take skinny elastic or elastic cord and fish through the original serged hem of the sleeve using a giant needle. Pull until sleeve opening is the size you like, knot the ends and tuck underneath.

Nice top!

There’s a thundersnow going on this afternoon, and the dreariness is almost more than I can stand. I spent lunch yesterday fetching some gorgeous plants from a charming craigslist guy about to move — a giant umbrella plant as tall as me in a lovely green pot, fleshy aloe with tall spikes, a flourishing prayer plant — good thing yesterday because today would have been too cold to drive with the umbrella plant sticking out of an open window.

Blah. So in a kitchen bursting with new green plants, I prepare for summer. I threw some awful pastel stuff into dye baths on the stove. A cotton candy pink cardigan with puffy sleeves.

The cutest dusty rose Philly Girls shirt.

A pale green knit dress I already shortened. A fantastic tube dress in a weird beige.

Into the tub! I stir as the snow falls. I check the time when the thunder claps. I will be ready when the sun shines, ready in sundresses and cardigans, in hemmed pants that fit right, in t-shirts cute enough to bike around in. It’s my inaugural Rit.

Make hay while the sun shines; make clothes while the snow keeps coming down.

In the end, Philly t-shirt a lovely darker wine color.

Both dresses a wonderful brown. But the bright pink cotton cardigan came out patchy. Reading about Rit, I think it got tangled on other stuff. Wonder if I can throw it back into the dye bath by itself tomorrow? Couldn’t hurt.