If the Suit Fits...

It was with great interest that I read the interview with Abby Joseph Cohen. I am always interested in women of achievement, and she sounded like an interesting person. But I was distracted from her achievements when I noticed (immediately!) that her suit didn't fit her, and that her pants were all wrinkled. If I were a partner at Goldman Sachs, I would take myself to a nice NY Designer and have some elegant understated suits made. Suits that didn't look like they were men's suits, but smaller.
I used to work in Washington, in several law firms and for lobbyists. The women in the law firms who were partners wore very conservative suits, but the women lobbyists wore dresses and jackets and suits that fit. They had a much better developed style sense. Maybe because they wanted to be noticed and listened to? Something to think about. When we wear clothes that don't fit us, it distacts those very people who we are trying to impress. It dilutes our influence, it distracts from our message. When we wear clothes that 'suit' us, that fit our bodies and project the image that we want, we feel more confident and in control
When you watch the State of the Union, it's easy to pick out some of the women members of Congress who wear bright colors and well fitting suits.
The lesson I took away was to stop dressing like a mouse if you want your voice heard. Wear a color! Stand out! And make sure your jacket fits.

Fitting Issues

I love old patterns for both the actual patterns and also the anthropological aspects. Here we have the primary sources of an era, so to speak, with the attitudes of that time frozen for a moment and laid out before us. Who can not look at this lovely tableau and not know that women of that time were deeply concerned with their weight and appearance? (as my history professors would say, the more things change the more they stay the same). Whenever I read a statement that says, "Oh women in the 50's were lucky, they could have shapely figures," I want to laugh hysterically and point out that these are the people who brought you the girdle.
I have been thinking about weight and sizes recently because I have lost weight and now none of my clothes fit. And I was whining to a friend about how now I have to resolve all of my fitting issues all over again and how lucky she was that she was such a small size and could just buy off the rack. (every time I am in Banana Republic, it seems like all the cool stuff is in size 6. C. says whenever she is there, everything is size 14.) She quickly set me straight. She said that even though she is a small size, nothing fits her in RTW either. And my former boss, who is tall and slender (and looks like Malibu Barbie) also revealed that she has the same problem.
(So if these clothes fit no one, who buys them? A puzzlement. I am so glad I know how to sew.)
We discussed our sewing fitting challenges and it was a revelation to me that every single woman I know who sews had the same challenges. Even tall skinny people have fitting issues? I guess we are all in the same boat.
In my fantasy RTW design company, all of the clothes would come in every size. There would be no size apartheid as practiced now. The poor plus size people and petite people would not be made to feel like social outcasts. And the blouses and dresses would also be available in ABCD and DD cup sizes.
Oh yes, and while I am fantasizing, all of the patterns would come with these adjustments as well.

Simplicity made me cross recently by printing a super cute dress pattern without the bust adjusted bodices. They have a whole line of patterns with them. IMHO, all patterns should come that way. And this dress is so cute, but the way that the bodice is constructed it looks like it will be a Rubik's cube puzzle to figure out how to upgrade, so to speak, to a D cup. (Also they changed their website and no longer feature the complete line drawings. Grrrr).
It would be nice if we as consumers could put a little bit of pressure on the pattern making companies to expand their offerings to all include the bust adjusted option. I've given up on trying to change the RTW companies. I just make my clothes instead.

Burda Tracing Time

Today I have a rare couple hours to myself, so I'm am tracing a couple patterns that I need to make from Burda's latest issues. The dress on the cover of the latest caught my eye. I am tracing it as a top, as I don't need the long sleeve top option in Virginia in the summer. It must be cooler in Germany than here. They show lots of long sleeved options for summer. (I'd faint from heat stroke if I wore some of their ideas: sequined pants and long sleeved silk high necked tops? In the summer? Really, Burda? It must be a cultural thing.)
Then I have to do an FBA, using my trusty copy of Fit For Real People, adjusting dolman sleeves. It looks pretty voluminous in the picture, so it may not need much at all. Although, on the other hand, that model is a wisp of a thing, whereas I am considerably more voluminous than she is. I'll lay a pattern piece on top of of the traced pattern of a similar top that I have already adjusted and see where I need more room.
The blue fake wrap skirt from last month's issue caught my daughter's eye, (as well as about every other thing in that issue. If you want your daughter to get interested in sewing, show her that issue. Lindsay T says the same. She made a dress for her daughter that is awesome.) My daughter has begged me to make it for her. So I will trace that too. Plus from this month's issue she likes the shirtwaist dress, the two high waist buttoned skirts and another dress. I hope I have enough tracing paper.
The other choices for me are this blue dress
and the red one.

I can't decide which I like better. Mr. Hunting Creek likes the blue one but also expressed appreciation for the red one. (I would also like the lace bedspread, and the diamond necklace in the box but that's not an option. What story are they telling here? Are they lying on the bed contemplating unwrapping that dress because of the fancy diamond necklace?) Their photographers and stylists have an interesting sense of humor. Maybe if I were German I'd get more of their visual jokes.

Don't forget that tonight we will do a drawing for the purse pattern featured earlier this week. Drop a comment on that post if you'd like to be in and sign up as a follower of the blog to be eligible for this drawing and the following ones later this month.
Happy Sewing!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July to everyone, and I hope you all spend the day as our founders desired - picnicking and celebrating with family and friends.

I've been thinking about personal independence days as well. By this I mean when I learned how to do something that allowed me to be free to make my own choices, culinarily, stylistically or otherwise. Here are a few of mine, which I will be privately celebrating today:

Bread Baking Day! Way back when I was a student at Berkeley, the future Mr. Hunting Creek and I used to combine our resources and cook together. We were always broke, but had high culinary standards. I decided to teach myself how to bake bread. In true Berkeley style, I went to the University Library and checked out books on this subject and read all about it. My first attempt was disappointing - somewhat like a brick and ugly too. However, with further study and a little practice, on my second attempt I made bread that looked and tasted like BREAD. There was no turning back. I was then able to make our own rolls, pizza dough, pie crust and sandwich bread for pennies. I felt like a goddess.

Making my first blouse: I wanted to learn how to sew, so my mother took me to visit a friend who had a teenage daughter who sewed. She felt like I would learn better from someone my own age. This girl was older than I, and one of the cool kids, but she was nice enough to show a ten year old the basics. However, her working style was somewhat slapdash, and when we got home, my mother cast a critical eye over the finishing details on the inside and said, "that's not the right way to make a blouse!". My young teacher had just had me sew the seams together with all raw edges everywhere and no finishing, right in style now with many avant-garde designers, but anathema to my mother's generation. Out came the seam ripper and we redid everything until it was done right according to my mother's high standards. To this day I am unable to do anything in the "quick and dirty style"; even a costume has to be finished correctly. I'm sure Dr Freud would have plenty to say about this! Once it was done correctly, even a sullen preteen had to admit it looked better. Thanks, Mom!

Learning how to fit: after I had had my children and was a busy working mom, I was unhappy with the way patterns fit. I was no long the young skinny thing who could make patterns right out of the envelope, but I was unhappy with the patterns made according to my measurements. They were sloppy looking, too big or just plain wrong. Then I discovered PatternReview and read a few reviews by women who were also large busted. When I read the tutorials they had added showing how they did the full bust adjustment, you could have knocked me over with a feather - OF COURSE! That's what was wrong! There was a secret I didn't know! Cue angels singing and the trumpets blowing! I would especially like to credit Ann at Gorgeous Things , Debbie Cook and the Sewing Divas for their generous tutorials.
After that, there was no turning back. I could make my own clothes that fit correctly. I was no longer a slave to RTW.

Happy Independence Day!