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.

Disgusting. I’m so sick of all this cashing in on what should be simplification.

The Phila Inquirer had a bit about the local design school’s trashion show — clothes from shower curtains and magazine pages — the same weekend the silly NYT ran some ridiculous magazine blurb about eco fashion. Now I’m getting better about considering the total cost of food and clothing nowadays, but that doesn’t mean unbleached “green” cotton should cost thousands of dollars. How insulting!

Anybody besides me sick to death of the commercialization and mass marketing of projects like this one we’re all in?

On that note, tomorrow, I renew a pledge:

“I still pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself for 6 more months. I pledge that I shall create and craft items of clothing for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium.”

I first pledged the Wardrobe Refashion mantra Aug. 1, 2007, hoping to get through the Christmas season without buying new crap. Now it’s just a way of life that’s so second nature. I spend a lot of time thinking about crafting, and really, I should be using more of that time to exercise. But I love looking like noone else around, I love that I spend time making my clothes fit my body not the other way around and I love thumbing my nose at mass produced crap. I also love seeing the creative potential in everything around me.

Life is good.

This Minna #6007 (shortened to a top) is an ancient refashion. It’s my first completion of a BurdaStyle pattern, and I like it a whole lot. I cut it short, and changed the neck trim to a lined fabric facing.

To cut the dress into a top, I pretty much used the double lines marked on the pattern around the hipline for lengthening or shortening. And instead of using a fancy trim to finish the neck, I used the cutting guide to make bias strips. The print is already so fabulous it doesn’t need any sparkly help.

I had bought a fluorescent print maxidress at the Salvy during my later high school years. Think 1993. I wanted to chop off the skirt and the top of a pair of thrifted overalls and make a kind dress the kids were wearing then (I promise!). Chopped the overalls, chopped the dress, got caught up in something else, and then realized what a ridiculous trend it was. My sister (10 years my junior) then raided my sewing stash and pilfered a strip of the skirt. I remember throwing a fit, but not what she made, it was that long ago.

It took some doing, but I managed to cut out the front and back so the pattern goes the same way, and the back pieces nearly match. Only enough fabric remained for one set of bias strips, so I cut another set to line the neck piece out of plain black synthetic fabric. Sewed the fabric pieces together to form a V, ditto for lining, sewed them together along the top, right sides together. Then I popped in a movie to handsew the bottom side of the lining invisibly.

When I make another Minna - and I certainly will - I’ll gather the front and back tighter to leave more room in the armholes. I’ll also copy the neckline since I liked the smooth, neat finish inside. (Will post the steps on BurdaStyle - this time was too trial-and-error to photograph.)

Next on the list: Ellinor #8516, using brown clearance cotton from a Joann sale, and brown sparkly eyelet from the Hobby Lobby clearance wall. Not too late, I think, to Sew Along With Nikkishell on the BurdaStyle site.

The sun has shown its face in Chicago after a dreadful winter. Time to think again about the Growing. Couldn’t do it before - it was way too depressing to think about green stuff when it was still so far away.

Sunday Tribune claims it’s warm enough to start growing greens - spinach, arugula (rocket), and the heavy lifters - kale, collards and all.

O happy day! Last Saturday, while it SNOWED and SLEETED, I fired up the old pots and planted. By this past Saturday, teeny seedlings were up and flourishing in their starter homes.

Basil in a glass pickle jar.

Cherry tomatoes in plastic pretzel jars. Heirloom tomatoes in a small terrarium.

Squash, zucchini, sunflowers and cucumbers in little terra cotta pots. Squash already looks strong enough to choke me in my sleep.

Spinach, mustards, spinach mustards and beets in a long window box.

Dill, lettuce and cress in whatever was left.

I *know* it’s a while still before the plants - save the greens - can go outside. Gives us time to master hypertufa crafting so the bigger stuff will have containers to grow. And our mamas will enjoy homemade Mother’s Day fare.

And I *know* we only have containers to plant in our shared Chicago backyard. But those mama gifts will need filling, too.

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.

The thing I like about this Minna pattern from Burdastyle is that it gives a girl a little shape.

Can’t stand the preggers-chic of all the babydoll tops and big blousy things that just make me look like a whale. I have a bosom and hips, so once my waist is lost, so goes my self-esteem the way of the blob.

I have this chunk of fabric (feels like the stuff of a real Hawaiian shirt) from an ancient high school shopping trip to the Roxborough Salvy. Think 1993.

I bought the maxidress it was part of wanting to chop off the skirt and the bib of a pair of thrifted overalls and make a kind dress the kids were wearing then (I promise!). Chopped the overalls, chopped the dress, got caught up in something else, and then realized what a ridiculous trend it was. My sister (10 years my junior) then raided my sewing stash and pilfered a strip of the skirt. I remember throwing a fit, but not what she made, it was that long ago.

Finally, I pulled out the remnant with Minna in mind. Ignored the directions to use something fancy on the neck, since the print is already so… fabulous.

The mockup using Freecycled fabric seemed to work. The size I cut fits me. Style works, too. No bulges.

I’m ready to take the BurdaStyle plunge.