Miss Celie's Pants

“Do you think you could fix this for me? Because I didn’t pay a lot for it so I don’ t want to take it to the tailor. I’d pay more for the fix than I paid for the dress. I thought maybe you could shorten / hem/ sew / take in / alter it for me.”

Sound familiar? This has happened to me twice in the last six months. And let me tell you. It makes me SEETHE every single time it’s said to me. Here’s the thing, you want me to take my time to fix your Forever 21 / H&M garment for free? I tell you what….

Don’t get me wrong, I will occasionally help someone in a pinch. I’ll even teach you how to hem your jeans. If you already know how to thread a machine and just want some help, I’m happy to oblige. Teach a fish and all that.  But, telling me that my time and skills are less valuable than someone you would pay? All you get is the stink eye.

I bring this up because I bought a tuxedo dress from H&M a week ago. I originally saw it there a few months ago, but at $50 it was more than I wanted to spend for a dress that had some fit problems for me. But, I was able to get it for just $20 on clearance.

I needed the US 12 / EUR 42 to fit my lower half. But, it’s way big in the top. Not that I’m not busty. I just have a much smaller torso than my bottom.

You can see my bra from the back and the side.

And, I was getting awesome sideboob.

I realized it just needed a simple taking in at the center back neck — about four inches total. Not worth my $50. But, definitely doable for $20.

Twenty minutes of work later, I was able to wear it to a black-tie work event on Saturday night. Those four inches brought the dress up, took care of the cleavage and the bra showing too. I think it could also use small darts in the side seam (under the arm) but I am wearing a terrible strapless bra (one band size too big and three cups to small, and *painful*). I need to get one that fits before I make anymore changes to this dress.

Clearly the staff photographer at work. I cannot *wait* to get my DSLR back from the shop!!

So, for me, it’s totally worth a few tweaks to make a low cost ‘disposable’ RTW garment work. But, it’s not worth it for me to do it for someone else. Period.

Woot Woot. Thank you all for entering my little giveaway. Using the Random Number Generator:

#2 was the winner which is Jo K.!

It would be great to have these patterns! I am a flight attendant and my goal is to avoid the dreaded security pat-down in Eastern European airports because of my underwire. (!)

When I first bought my house a long long eight years ago (where does the time go??), my mom forced me to get my home dec sewing done. You see, I was staying with them while between apartment and home. And, I was buying fabric for all my sewn house projects. She would literally nag me to sew until she was tap dancing on my last nerve. So, I would sew slip covers, curtains and pillows just to get her to STOP NAGGING ME. It was great. I moved in an everything was already sewn!

Enter my kitchen curtains. They faded years ago (you can see especially in the middle). I get a lot of sun through the back window and door, but didn’t want to completely block the light, so I have cafe curtains. I want the windows covered enough so no one can peep in.

I’ve had this primary color plaid Marimekko fabric in my stash for at least three years and just couldn’t get myself to make them. I finally did this weekend after realizing I’m hosting a dinner party this Sunday and my curtains look like @$$.

There. Done. Seriously. These barely took an hour to make. I am mad I wasn’t paying enough attention to detail. These should be mirror images with the colored lines matching. But, I didn’t even think about it until I was finished. And, there is no way I’m sewing another panel.

The second curtain project was for my living room.

Plain and simple drapes. These two took a little over an hour. They are unlined, I’ll never close them. I just wanted something so the windows didn’t look naked.

The third curtain project is in my dining room. The same print from the living room (so they look ‘connected’). Simple little things held in by tension rods.

Obviously, I will be sewing a matching air conditioner cover next winter.

This was my exciting holiday weekend. Ohh. Did I mention I also got my carpets cleaned. Yessir. I was living it up.

The best thing about getting these done is that it’s two bolts of fabric out of the stash. Now, if I could just get around to my bedroom and bathroom curtains, that would be the last bolts of home dec!

I wanted to post some new sewing bits that have come in this week. First, heaven bless Kathi R. from PatternReview.com. She remembered talking to me way back at PR Weekend Los Angeles almost four years ago about my interest in learning to sew bras. Well, she got a great deal at FIDM on laces and offered to send me some. Excellent! I really want to get better and more efficient and making underwear and this will seriously help.

To go along with that, I ordered 1/8 inch elastic from Etsy. It’s sold for ‘baby headbands’. But, I wanted it for snugging up the upper bra cups I sew and for the front lace edges of underwear. I bought some specific colors (black, brown, white) and a variety pack.

Also of that sewing genre, I have more kits from Summerset! I took photos of my laces from the Netherlands, and she dyed kits to match. My goal is to have about ten good bras in the drawer. I’m at two of my own that I’ve sewn and three RTW bras that are a little over a year old.

I’ve aslo added a low tech page at the top of the blog of lingerie sewing resources. Places to shop. I say low tech because there are just links.

Finally, now that I’ve found my bra holy grail in the Rebecca Sewy, I’m giving away these three Kwik Sew Patterns. I’ve only sewn one, back when I was all wrong about my size.

If you want them, please leave a comment here to be entered. I’ll do a drawing a week from today. If you would like to be entered an additional time, you can link back to the this post via your blog or twitter or sign up for email updates on my blog (over on the right under subscribe). Each mention gives you an additional entry, but you’ll need to post in the comments each additional links. If a winner is selected and does not respond to my email within 24 hours, Trena gets the whole lot — whether she wants them or not.

Sunday morning the Jason Wu collection for Target launched. My friend Liz and I learned from the Missoni nonsense that the early bird gets the worm. For Missoni, someone spent $3,000 in one fell swoop and all that was left was a pair of slippers.

Liz bundled up. It was *cold*

We left the city at 7:00 a.m. with light snow falling and headed to the suburbs where there were two Targets within 15 minutes of each other. I kid you not, within 12 minutes we were in and out of the store at the 8:00 a.m. open (with 20 people in line) with purchases in hand. We do not play.

People seriously clean out stores out. While I’m happy to report I snagged these:

The dress I REALLY wanted didn’t even make it to the stores we hit.

I called my mom in Florida from the Target parking lot at 8:12 a.m. I figured she’s got several Targets around her and a slew of retirees. Odds were good the dress and second purse I wanted would be around. And, I kid you not, she was out the door and hoofing it to her Target. She called me from the store holding on to what she could find and verifying it was what I wanted.

But, that stupid dress wasn’t at her Target either. Grrrr. Of course, it’s now on eBay for double what it cost.

Did I mention that my mom rocks? For real. Who else is going to leave their house at 8:15 a.m. and go to Target for a limited edition capsule collection? My mom. Because she rocks.