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What Works, What Doesn’t: Five Versions of the McCall “Mannish Jacket” from 1941
Readers, Remember this jacket pattern? Of course you do. From 1941, McCall pattern 4065, the “Misses’ Mannish Jacket” In 2015 I used it for a project following Kenneth King’s “Old School” instructions...
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Vogue Patterns 8772: Easy Options Blouses
Readers, Even though summer can be the easiest and most fun season to sew for, I didn’t sew much for summer during our years in Minnesota. After all, it wasn’t till May that I was finally convinced I...
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Figuring Out My Figure Type
Readers, I’ll cut to the chase: I have an “X” figure type with sloping shoulders. Photo taken by Cynthia in her studio Oct. 20. The suspense is over. Let the fitting begin! To update: My longtime...
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Readers, In case you’ve been wondering where I’ve spent much of the last six months, it’s been down a very deep rabbit hole called Fitting a Pants Pattern. More accurately, this particular rabbit hole...
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2018: A Pants Odyssey
Readers, Almost five months after my first report about my pants pattern-fitting journey I’m back with an update. Surrounded by some (not all!) of the pants muslins I’ve made on this pants odyssey. In...
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It Figures: Figure Analysis, part 2
Me with my good buddy, my figure outline Readers, In my previous post I described how my helper (sister and photographer Cynthia), and I created an outline of my figure so I could stand back and view...
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What Works/What Doesn’t: The Anorak
Readers, The anorak analysis is in. Remember the anorak I finished a while back? I’ve been wearing it on neighborhood walks for a few weeks. I modeled it recently in a photo shoot in Cynthia’s studio....
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What Works/What Doesn’t: McCall 7842, Coat (1934)
Readers, My coat-making fever this fall has prompted me to take a fresh look at a project I did about five years ago. I was disappointed in the result, but had not really clarified my dissatisfaction...
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What Works, What Doesn’t: T-Shirt Edition
Readers, Just a few weeks ago I had a sudden realization. Over many years I had sewn Jack many shirts–maybe 30?–but had never sewn him a t-shirt! It had never even crossed my mind to sew him a t-shirt....
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Using Photos to Speed Fitting Progress
Readers, After stalling for weeks on a couple of sewing projects I am back on track again, thanks to a recent fitting appointment I had with Gail Kelley at Sewing Hive, here in Columbus. I was blown...
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It Figures: Doing a Figure Analysis, part 1
Up against the wall. Readers, I’ve asked myself time and again how I could hang back from sewing certain patterns, for years, even, when I am so crazy about them. I think the reason is I’m not a...
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