Well Done, Spider Suffragette!

via She's History

In the embarrassingly recent movement for women's suffrage, the suffragettes in the UK and US (and
maybe other places?) would wear ribbons and jewelry in the shades of green, white, and violet.  The initials of the colors, GWV, also stood for "Give Women the Vote", with each color representing a virtue: green for hope, white for purity, and violet for dignity.  You could think of the sashes to bring attention to the cause similar to the modern pink ribbons for breast cancer.*  Probably the best example of this is pop culture is Mrs Banks from Mary Poppins.  She wears the suffragette ribbon while singing Sister Suffragette.

I stumbled across this information by accident one day and thought it would be fun to make a dress in those colors to represent how far we have come and how far we still have to go.  (As the owner of a set of ovaries, I am very interested in women's rights. ) Of course, I wanted to put on my own spooky spin on it, so I was on the prowl for Halloween fabrics in those colors.  During one of their many sales, fabric.com had spiderweb Happy Haunters (designed by Kelly Mueller for Red Rooster) for super cheap and in the right colors!  (Well, one was beige, but that's close enough).


A note on these pictures: I have no idea why the purple looks so blue in these pictures.  Here is a more accurate representation of the fabric.

The pattern I chose was McCall's 6504, view A.  (For those of you playing along at home, this makes six McCall pattern reviews in a row.)  I felt like the vertical sections showcased the color changes better than anything horizontal would.  If I had wanted that, I could have just made a tiered skirt.  However, I also was slightly concerned that it might make me look like a circus tent.  Only one way to find out.

Fabric.com only sells fabric in half yard increments, and each contrast section of the dress calls for 1 1/8 yards of fabric.  (If there is more contrast than main fabric, would each contrast section be the main fabric?)  I went with a yard and a half each of the contrast.  I figured that I would greatly increase the hem and that would use up the majority of the fabric.  Yeah, I didn't read the cutting layout before I ordered the fabric, so I shot myself in the foot.

The patch is in the middle of the green piece

It doesn't say so anywhere on the envelope that this pattern assumes you've got bi-directional fabric, so that vastly economizes the layout.  Of course, mine wasn't.  I discarded plan after plan until I finally realized I was going to either need to order more fabric or I was going to end up with a nasty patch on one of the panels.  I am quite impatient, so I went with the patch route.  I might end it trying to cover it with a spider applique or something.

I had planned to use up the extra fabric by increasing the length by six inches, but that was before cutting layout disaster struck.  The best I could do was two inches.  Better than nothing.

This also meant my back section would be made out of two different fabrics.  (This is what the original pattern called for.)  I HATE it.  It is awful.  But I didn't have any choice.  I guess it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would, but it greatly bothers me.

On top of all of this, I lost the front facing piece.  I tore the house apart looking for it, but it was nowhere to be found.  I traced the sewn together front of the dress to make my own facing pattern.  I used the beige fabric to minimize show-through.  I didn't interface them, because my life has fallen apart and caring about interfacing is too hard for me right now.

I didn't read the directions for attaching the facing, so I messed up the armholes.  After the fact, I realized I probably could have flipped the seam allowance between the dress and the bodice, and then machine-stitched or hand-stitched the armhole shut.  Instead, I flipped it to the inside of the facing and hand-sewed it.

The problems with this dress are my own fault.  I had such high hopes for this, but I am not sure I like it, and I still thinks it looks a bit like a circus tent.

*: The mastermind behind This is Corp Goth and Trystan's Costume Closet, the fabulous Trystan Bass, has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  If you can spare the funds, please consider making a donation to help her out.

UPDATE: Here's the song Sister Suffragette.

Right off the Bat

I am not known for doing subtle well (I am sure that it comes as a shock that the person with purple hair does not do subtle well), so when Trystan announced this month's theme was hidden bats, I was at a bit of a loss.  Most of the batty things I make are over the top.  So I'll just call it hidden by my standards, as I didn't add batty earrings, barrettes, hosiery, etc.

I was at a particularly low point in my life when I made this blouse.  I felt like everything I did was wrong, work was terrible, my husband's grandmother had just passed away, and a dear friend disappeared off the face of the earth.  In an attempt to make myself feel better, I thought that perhaps if I tackled a sewing project, I might have more confidence.  I already had New Look 6179 in the pattern stash, and it looked easy enough.  I selected view A and grabbed this bat and spider fabric from the fabric stash.

(The story behind this fabric: I went into JoAnn's after Halloween and this fabric was 75% off.  I didn't have any particular plans for it, so I thought two yards would do.  There was something like two yards and four inches left on the bolt.  Rather than just have that four inches thrown away, I told the clerk I would take the whole piece.  She seemed to think I was just asking her to give it to me, though I most certainly was not.  It took considerable effort to make her understand otherwise.  Because those extra inches were considered a remnant, which is 50% off, and the fabric was already 75% off, those four inches she was thinking I wanted for free cost me a grand total of... EIGHT CENTS.)






Back to the review.  I didn't read the instructions before I selected the pattern.  If I had done so, I might have selected a different pattern.  Though cotton is the first suggested fabric, this pattern is designed for sheer fabrics; thus, French seams are used.  At that point, I made never tried to sew them, and considering how bad I felt about myself at the time, failure at this would have devastated me.

I am too stubborn determined to admit defeat, so I plunged ahead anyway.  I learned that French seams aren't so bad, but it is certainly weird to put right side to right side for sewing them.  Even now, I do have to double-check myself to make sure I've got it right.

This is a basic, loose-fitting blouse, so there aren't too many issues with fitting.  There is a slit down the front that is faced that I couldn't quite get to lie flat (enlarge the last picture).  The damn thing kept flipping outwards as well, so I tacked it down with some hand-stitching.  The upper seam is enclosed in  bias tape (I made my own from the fabric), and I threaded the ribbon through that.

Even after all my whining about the blouse, it wasn't too bad.  Once I got over my fear of French seams and my general malaise with life, this blouse came together rather swiftly.  Someone not wallowing in the depths of depression could do this blouse with beginner skills.

As for this other shirt, I think I got it from Target in their Halloween clearance.  It features an intentionally distressed bronze heart with bats fluttering away from it.

I just happened to wear this on a day when I was getting some bloodwork done.  The phlebotomist was surly to me from the moment she walked into the room, even though I was entirely polite and respectful to her.  After she drew the blood, she explained her rudeness was due to her being afraid of bats flying into her hair.  Apparently the cartoony bats from my shirt were going to come to life and attack her?  Bizarre.

UPDATE: Here is a close-up of the bat and spider fabric.