A Bird Under the Wire

 It started with a beautiful piece of fabric, generously donated by the prttynpnk one and creatively named the Blue Cranes of Doom.    

See what Anne did with it at http://prttynpnk.com/2014/04/17/blue-cranes-of-doom-x2/

I didn’t quite know how to do this preciousness justice, until the April challenge over at The Monthly Stitch.   

 Put A Bird On It?  Don’t mind if I do.  

So out of my stash jumped this pretty 

McCalls 6552, from the Fashion Star line.  I didn’t have enough fabric for that crazy length, so I knew I’d be doing some modifying, but I really ended up really running with it.  Kept the kimono sleeves, made the top a mock wrap rather than a deep V,  gave it a waist using some extra border material.  Fun fun.  Here I am narrow hemming, which I find strangely soothing.    

  

Looking like it’s going to fit.  It’s also the best pic I ended up taking of the arms.  One big blue crane per limb!!

Finished product, with gorgeous backdrop courtesy of some dear dear friends and their wonderful garden:

Casey the cat is totally smiling with me in this shot!

Ran out of poses, so I decided to hula (or something). 

   

What’s a sewing post without a little back fat? I love that there was enough of the bird repeat to get some on the front and the rear. 

What a fun project, that I hope to actually post on The Monthly Stitch soon, if I can get the particulars worked out.  It’s bad enough that I waited until the last minute to photo and blog (hence the Under the Wire title).  Sorry, Monthly Stitchers, you deserve better than my procrastination. 

In the meantime, Me-Made-May ’15 is starting as we speak.  So very exciting!!!  I won’t sleep for a month!

Happy Stitching and MMM-ing. 

Shelley

I Pledge Allegiance To Me-Made-May

Less than 48 hours until I’m on Flickr lurking sewists from all across the planet. Well, lurking more than usual. Oh, how I love this time of year. Me-Made-May has always meant a lot to me, as it was one of the first social events in which I participated as a less than three-month-old baby seamstress in 2012. The encouragement and inspiration during the challenge, not to mention Zoe’s fun and fearless leadership, kept my newfound sewing enthusiasm at a high level, and I got to know so many lovely blogoddesses and their unique styles.

Me-Made-May 2012

Me-Made-May 2013

By my second year, I was able to challenge myself by wearing a complete me-made ensemble every day with no outfit repeats. While I was happy to stick with that pledge, those parameters occasionally prevented me from wearing beloved separates that didn’t have a me-made ‘partner’ as it were. This year my pledge is to wear virtually all new-to-you garments, either made since last Me-Made-May or previously un-MMM-ed due to weather or the separates issue.

I, Shelley of Cuckoo Chanel, pledge to complete Me-Made-May’14. I endeavor to wear and document at least one me-made garment per day, previously unworn during a Me-Made-May challenge.

Be on the lookout for me. I’m shelshel on Flickr and @shelleyhesson on Instagram. Please join me in this celebration of pattern enabling and fabric drooling. Thanks again, Zoe!

Ahhhhlisalex, AKA Sew Dolly Clackett Dress #2

Shall we list the ways that Sew Dolly Clackett has enhanced our lives?

1. A Flickr group to stalk relentlessly
2. Discovering new blogoddesses through said Flickr group
3. An excuse to celebrate–as though we need one
4. Getting past previous hurdles and coming out looking fabulous

So yes, all that and more. Who knew that one sewing event could do so much?

I’ll try to keep the bla bla bla short. I’ve been wanting to make a successful Elisalex by those impossibly well-dressed and well-tressed ladies at By Hand London for over a year now. My first and only Mood trip (so far) was heavily focused on finding the perfect fabric to make that tulip pop. Thing is, I overthought and underthought this dress every step of the way.

I did okay with the muslin, following the impeccably written FBA post by Elisalex herself. Twas looking good

Then it all went pear-shaped. Literally.

Don’t ask. I won’t even post a pic of the original muslin, out of this crazy faille (insert fail/faille pun here).

I was so focused on having the fabric be sturdy enough to be a tulip that I didn’t concentrate enough on making the bodice look good. I overlengthened the waist in my crazy bastardization of the FBA, so it never looked right once I attached the skirt. The back was all saggy, etc. etc. I had given up.

Then I started witnessing all of these happy cotton Sew Dolly Clackett creations, and I did a facepalm. Why didn’t I ever just try a cotton version and work it out that way first? If the tulip didn’t ‘bloom’, I could always try the recommendation of using fusible interfacing on the skirt. I chose this crazy print in my stash called Olivia’s Holiday, by Westminster Fibers, and tried out the new theory.

Ta-daaaaaa

Look how happy I was last night when I started having breakthroughs with the fit. And by the way, the skirt was NEVER a problem, in any of my attempts. The pattern design is so good that the shape just happens.

This morning my actual tulips congratulated me by opening just in time for some Earth Day shots. Thank goodness I bought an iPhone tripod attachment because the man was sound asleep.

This is just a hands-on-hips kinda dress. I love the whimsy of it. The tulip shape is a riot.

My only true regret about making a second dress is that I’m wearing the same pink shoes as in my first Dolly Clackett dress. May the shoe gods forgive me for not splashing out for some new ones. I did throw in a little variety later though. Scroll on…

I promise the back bodice fits, or at least better than in any previous version. I was in a hurry, and mortified imagining my neighbors peeking out their windows at my narcissism. And I know we’re supposed to celebrate our lumps, but back fat doesn’t help in any fitted dress.

Grabbed the now-awake boyfriend for a lunch break photo shoot, and here’s some more frivolity.

Just had to twirl and scream with glee. Good weather, time with my honey, and a new dress

Had to celebrate even more by taking Elisalex out to dinner. Look how irritatingly well it matches this jacket.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank Sarah (Check out her Lilly Laurel) for dreaming up and running this whole thing. I know it’s been a lot of work, but you have created something phenomenal. Thank you Roisin, for being the muse to SO many in the blogging community. Thank you, crazy women in the Flickr pool, for being so beautiful. There are over 430 photos in the group at this moment. How jaw-droppingly wonderful. Have fun judging, Roisin!

Shelley

SO Dolly Clackett

How many times have we swooned over Roisin‘s dreamy dresses? Luckily, SOMEONE (namely Sarah of Rhinestones and Telephones) decided it’s time for the blogoddesses to channel their inner Dolly Clackett and frockify ourselves accordingly. It’s also a celebration of Roisin’s upcoming nuptials next month, but somehow I think anyone reading this post is aware of that happy fact.

Fortunately, I already had the perfect pattern/fabric marriage of my own picked out. The fabric is a slightly stretchy and substantial cotton from my first trip to Mood last March during a major sewista meetup, and the pattern has been made by our muse once or twice or more.

As luck and sloth would have it, I never made the thing, so the combo was still waiting for me when Roisin Fest was announced. It was so meant to be.

When I opened the pattern, I was seriously stoked. FOUR PIECES (if you don’t make the bow). That’s music to my lazy sewist ears. There are actually more pieces to cut when you include the lining, but to know you only have to fiddle with four pieces… I was crying with happiness already. I cut somewhere between a 20 and 22, fudged a bit of an FBA, and loved how the muslin turned out. So did David Hasselhoff, as it happens.

Hasselhoff appearance courtesy of Google+ and their brilliant April Fool’s Day joke of Hoffsome-ing our photos.

Was happy enough with the muslin to go ahead and cut into the Precious, and was a super good girl and pressed when appropriate, was careful sewing the darts, etc. etc. I forgot how much I love a lined bodice. Looks so sharp.

The only thing I don’t absolutely adore about this print is that the Eiffel Towers are upside down in relationship to the rest of the repeat. However, inverted Eiffel bewbs are amusing.

I had a finished product just in time to go to an event at my friend’s store in Asbury Park, Backward Glances (where I also got the accessories for my shift), which happens to sell retro clothes and accessories. She has petticoats in varying lengths and had a perfect one in pink. LOVE.

Spring finally happened in New Jersey, so it’s proper photo shoot time.

It’s been an absolute pleasure to check out everyone’s work in the Sew Dolly Clackett Flickr group. Wowza!! If by chance you haven’t visited lately, go immediately.

Thank you, Sarah, and congratulations to Roisin and Nic!

Yours in twirly girliness,
Shelley

Wrap, Mama, Wrap

I’ve been wanting to make a real DVF-wannabe wrap forEVer, but just never have yet. I’ve made a few fauxs that I quite like, and a crapola one a couple of years ago that I hated (A broadcloth wrap. Really? I was too much of a newbie to know to stop when I realized it wasn’t knit! And had ugly built-in pleats!).

Only problem with the fauxs is that if you don’t sew the bodice well, you are forever stuck with a possibly permanent peek-a-boo neckline.

Whoopsy. Good thing this was vacation and not the office.

So anyway, now you can’t throw a rock without hitting a blogoddess in a wrap dress, especially in light of its 40th anniversary and its prominence in the movie “American Hustle”; but they’re all so beautiful and flattering. And with a tied wrap you can go from mega modest to full Amy Adams. Love it.

I finally paired a REAL knit wrap dress pattern, Vogue 8379, with some appropriate fabric (yet another onion skin knit–I must have hit that fabric.com sale HARD) and realized there were no instructions. I’m sure I lost them since I have a bad habit of taking pattern instructions to bed (which is really stupid because it just makes me excited and I can’t sleep). It was super easy to put together sans instructions, especially when I took a cue from the beautiful Aleah from no time to sew and left off the collar.

When I finished this happy little garment it was of course still mid-winter and required much layering. It was meant to be a second Jungle January garment, but unfortunately I am in New Jersey and not a nice sultry jungle.

Meh. Wrap with turtleneck not hot.

It took a few months to get to wear it outside, at a lake in Pennsylvania with my new best friend, my tripod. This was March 23 mind you. Looks like January for crying out loud!

Passes the modesty test:

I have no idea what this pose is. Just having too much tripod fun I imagine.

Here’s a little Band for ya, but you can sing Wrap Mama Wrap instead of Rag Mama Rag. Levon would have been fine with that I’m sure.

Peace, love, and much happy spring sewing!! And make a wrap dress. You’ll like it. It’s good for you.
Shelley

Swingin’ in my Shift

Hey Y’all

Happy almost Super Bowl to us fools in the USA. I have decent numbers in the office football pool so I will be occasionally paying attention between commercials.

I finished my Shift Dress Sewalong creation in a timely manner, I’m happy to say, thanks to Lauren’s amazing tutorials every step of the way, particularly her dart tute. It seems simple, but was impossible for me to visualize. Goodness knows what would have been going on in my midsection without her guidance. I cut a 22-ish, and fudged my own FBA, which seems to have worked out decently. Was happy with my Swedish tracing paper muslin, so I went for it. The fabric is a baby pink and white double knit polyester that I found on the eBay a while back. This was PERFECT for the dress. A little knit give, which is always appreciated, a little bit warm for this wretched never-relenting winter, and a lot easy to work with.

I’m actually getting ready to start a new project (Renfrew dress, anyone?) out of a — I can’t even say it — solid brown jersey, so I’m going to try to keep the writing portion of this post short and sweet. By the way, I literally can’t make a dress out of a non-print (even this dress had two colors). Everyone send your support, please. I’m telling myself I can accessorize the crap out of it and it’ll all be alright. Plus it’s extra soft and scrumptious. ANYWAY, no more blathering on about construction, just pics, coz let’s be real, that’s what we’re here for…

My honey posed me next to our Block Island sticker. He’s funny that way. We can only dream of the Block right now, but if you ever have the chance, definitely go there. It’s off of Point Judith, Rhode Island, and you can get there from Montauk, Long Island as well.

It was ALMOST warm enough for a top-down ride today. Yeah, my Miata is kind of special-looking. We hit a huge deer going about 75mph a few years ago. Can’t believe this thing is still going strong.

Scenic shot of my parking lot. Time to talk about accessories. I definitely felt like white, especially in the hosiery department. Luckily I was going to visit my friend’s really cool store in Asbury Park, Backward Glances, all kitschy coolness, and she had exactly what I pictured and more. These are white fishnets, y’all! Also, white go-go earrings, which I will wear constantly, and this perfect necklace. Okay, commerical over. 🙂

I tried to tweak this pic to make it less washed-out, but this is the best I could do. I still like the shot so I’m keeping it anyway.

I hope some more of you gals crank out some shifts soon. It was a tremendously fun sewalong, and I can definitely see myself making more in different fabrics and for all seasons. Stay tuned to the Flickr group.

Take care and happy groovy sewing!!
Shelley

Sew Bossying Myself In Jungle January

Hooray for our fearless leader and jungle guide, Anne, who not only runs Wearable Wednesday flawlessly every week, is on her second year as the ultimate Jungle goddess, but was also a fabulous Sew Bossy employee. How does she do it all so well?

When I ordered this Butterick 5815 for Ms. Jungle, I guess I liked it so much that I ordered one for me too, plus mayyyybe a few extra yards of this bright and shiny wonderfulness to keep for myself as well. I think it was labeled as crepe de chine, which goes to show you I still don’t know my fabrics, coz to me it’s all slippery and crazy like a charmeuse.

So there’s really not much to say about the construction. It’s an easy pattern, but of course my shoulders are way too poofy, and I’m afraid to mess with them too much because I don’t want to pick the fabric more than I need to. I’m just going to go with my usual I Meant To Do That attitude, and hide the poofiness with my hair. The sleeves on this thing are to die for, all flowy and feminine. I highly recommend this pattern for its ease and loveliness. It can be a top, a tunic, or a dress. Yay versatility.

Okay… pics, coz that’s what Jungle January is allll about! I could whine about it being winter and being stuck with shitty indoor photos, but–oh, I just did. A thousand pardons for the dodgy photo quality. Maybe by some miracle it’ll get above freezing and I’ll get some outdoor shots.

Butterick 5815

Of course my beautiful jungle cat/accessory Teddy had to get involved.

And I had to go out on a mini date at Fruity Yogurt so I could actually wear it somewhere

In its fully jungle-y accessorized state:

Have a wonderful remainder of Jungle January, and definitely check out Anne’s version of this pattern. Her pics are a zillion times better than mine, and her shoulders infinitely less poofy.

Hugs to all you wild thangs out there!!
Shelley

Bonus, semi-professional jungle-at-work photo. Wish you could see the purple tights better:

Sewingalong in 2014

Happy New Year, lovelies!

Just a quick note to draw you into my world. There are a few irresistible sewalongs that I’m jumping into and just want to spread the word. Actually there are a lot of great sewalongs, but these are the most Cuckoo-worthy (That’s a compliment, by the way).

Lauren at Rosie Wednesday is hosting a totally groovy shift dress sewalong with this adorable pattern.

http://www.simplicity.com/p-2030-misses-miss-petite-1960s-vintage-dresses.aspx?VariantID=7719

Here’s the post:

http://rosiewednesday.blogspot.com/2013/12/announcing-shift-dress-sew-along.html

Now I get to shop my stash for the perfect fabric, and can live out my fantasy of being a Monkees-era goddess. Those girls were the cutest.

Inspiring episode of gorgeousness if you have 25 minutes to spare:

Naturally I’m leaping into Jungle January. Major duh. This is my life!!

A post to whet your respective appetites:

Seren-gaudy Scheming

And our intrepid host Anne has ALREADY made something:

Butterick 5967- Connie Crawford purrs for me!

I’m still loving these end of year Top 5 lists. I’m not organized enough to make such a compilation, but I may soon do a mega post of my unblogged creations of 2013. I sewed more than I thought this year, including some fun, easy knit frocks highlighted in my last post (shameless plug in case you were too busy baking cookies for Santa to see it). I can tell already that 2014 is going to be a mega year for Sewcialists!

Keep up the beautiful work and please sew along–There’s room for everyone!! And PLEASE feel free to share any cool sewalongs that I in my usual state of obliviousness may have missed!

Happy Sewy New Year
Shelley

MadMenMeMadeMayBlogiversary

Happy Everything, Everybody!

Of course I waited until the last minute to finish the Mad Men Challenge. I blame the lovely Kristin for mentioning the deadline extension on her blog, because I had no idea and thought I needed to finish by Thursday night or so. I’m as done as I’m going to be, and while it’s not an exact replica, it’s good enough and so soft and yummy. During this experience I got to do a darn near perfect lapped zipper thanks to Sunni’s FREE (Yes, you’re an idiot for not doing this because it is in fact free) Craftsy class on zippers. If you don’t believe me, Rochelle raves about it too. It’s just too helpful and no-brainer. I also finally made myself learn a blind hem after hearing my wonderful best cheerleader/biggest critic co-workers bitch about my machine hems. (Like THEY’RE at home sewing fabulous things!) I figured that a charmeuse dress warranted a neat hem.

My inspiration dress was this lovely shot from the Season 5 cast photos.
I had to pick a Joan dress (gotta do something with these girls) and I’m all about the floral. I chose New Look 6567 because I thought the neckline would be compatible, plus it’s a simple silouhette, enhancing my good bits and kinda flowing over the meh bits. Works for me. I absolutely adored my wearable muslin, and got compliments from random people who don’t even know I sew, which means they’re not people who feel they always have to ask if I’ve made what I’m wearing and compliment me.

Here’s the muslin:

It’s a decently substantial cotton, I dare say an actual apparel rather than quilting cotton, and it feels wonderful. I didn’t bother putting a zipper in it because it was fitting great and it is a muslin and only needed to be mildly cute. I also didn’t do facings, just hemmed the neckline in. No probs. It passed the dancing test one evening last month when both my boyfriend and his brother had gigs in the area. Look out, Bridgewater nightlife! Shelley’s boogying in her muslin.

The actual dress is made from a charmeuse. I’ll be honest and say I don’t remember if it’s silk or polyester, probably poly since it was reasonably cheap. I got it on eBay and it was as close to the Joan print as I could find. It feels phenomenal on, like wearing lingerie all day. Nums. I’m so glad I did the lapped zipper, one because it was already in my stash and two because it was a dark green, which appeals to me even though you can’t see it. Any picky looking places are because I accidentally had the tension on low when I did the last stitch and had to redo it, therefore making a bit of a mess. It was by no means the fault of the fabulous Craftsy class.

We be lappin’

Since the muslin fit well, the dress went together smoothly, BUT since I didn’t test a facing AND because it was a funny material AND because I altered the neckline and therefore the facing pieces, the neckline doesn’t lie perfectly flat. I think that there was also a problem with the sleeve insertion on one side because that seems to be where the pulling is from, but I’m not about to unpick a whole sleeve. It’s just going to be something I fuss with throughout the day. Seems like there’s always something I’m tending to on my garments. But overall, I LOVE.

Here she is

I left the sleeves long because I didn’t think I would like the length of the inspiration dress sleeves. Just seemed awkward for me. I was lucky enough to find the perfect trimming (at Wal-Mart no less), so that was a fortunate addition to my Joan homage.

Sadly attempting the Joan pose

And they’re spectacular 😉

Not too bad from the back

Thanks as always to our gorgeous hostess Julia!!!

In other news, let’s make Me-Made-May 2013 official:

I, Shelley of Cuckoo Chanel, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’13. I endeavour to wear a different me-made outfit each day for the duration of May 2013. I will not repeat outfits, but repeat garments are permitted if necessary and if the garment is just too cute and versatile to wear only once.

Here again is a shameless link to my Me-Made-May’12 gallery, just showing you that you can wing it even if you think you don’t have enough items. I did a lot of refashioning, and wore a quickie infinity scarf as my me-made item one day. Hey, it all works. It’s all in good spirit and good fun!! Absolutely cannot wait to see what everyone does this month. I will be lurking the Flickr group CONSTANTLY.

If all of this weren’t exciting enough, today is my one-year blogiversary. Sorry, no prezzies yet, but I promise I’ll get generous someday. I truly feel fortunate to be a part of this community. Thanks to everyone who commented on my blog when no one else was, and to all the wonderful folks I met during last Me-Made-May ’12 and all of the other events and sewalongs over the past year. Looking forward to making lots of beautiful things and meeting even more of you blogoddesses. Also, just a reminder for those living in or visiting the greater NYC area, our Google community is open for meetup suggestions
https://plus.google.com/communities/116445537642005689069#communities/116445537642005689069
Come on over!

Major Mad Men Me-Made-May LOVE!
Shelley

Chuck Lives!

When the lovely and talented Kristin over at Sew Classic decided to pay tribute to the gorgeous originality that was the short-lived ABC series Pushing Daisies, I decided to hop in and do my best version of the character Chuck, inspired somewhat by this photo:

Anna Friel is a goddess, and Pushing Daisies was such a little slice (pun intended–there are pies involved) of TV heaven. I had no idea exactly what to make, but when Alice suggested Cambie, it was all systems go. I even had some daisy fabric, so it was a total stashbusting extravaganza.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a bed of daisies to lie on, and totally not enough time during lunch breaks in our two days of warm weather last week to put together a proper photo shoot, but my boyfriend thought that these baseball players would make an interesting background. He is an artistic soul.

He also wanted to capture this lady walking her dog behind me (Well, there was a dog on the show).
So that orange thing is a happy bonus that came out from this sewalong. Other than those freak 80-degree days we had last week, it’s not going to be warm enough to wear a Cambie by itself for a while, so I whipped up a cardicket (jackigan sounds kind of rude), out of some stash crepe and some delish Vera Wang lining from Fabric Mart. The pattern is technically the cardigan view of Simplicity 2154, but I lengthened and lined it, and just love love love it. ‘Twill be my go-to spring 2013 layerer.

Couple more pics. Had to throw in a few hats, because Chuck had fun with accessories.

This top-down pic taken while Lenny was racing me back to work makes me happy

Definitely check out Kristin’s amazing dress and incredible photos. She even made a pie!

Go create something beautiful.
Hugs,
Shelley