Selfish Sewing Week: Kate & Rose Zsalya Top

 

It's that time of year again, my dear goslings. Not autumn, which has yet to reach us here in Texas, but something just as exciting. Happy Selfish Sewing Week! Twice a year, the lovely Rachael hosts a week long celebration of that most joyful kind of sewing: that which we do for ourselves. 

If you've read my blog for long, you know that this is the only sort of sewing I do. For me, sewing is pure relaxation. It's an opportunity for me to revel in luxurious fabrics, interesting patterns, and indulge my love of pretty clothes. I'm proprietary about my sewing time, because it's exactly that. My time. So, it should come as no surprise that I'm a big, big fan of Selfish Sewing Week. We should all get to revel in that indulgence, from time to time...to time. 

This week, I chose to make a pattern I've long had my eye on. The Zsalya is a beautiful yoked blouse and dress duo, from Kate & Rose patterns. There are two sleeve variations, one short and one long, each with embellishments that echo the blouse's subtle crossover v-neck.  It reminds me of the classic artist's smock, a look that lends itself well to such modern updates.

Y'all, this pattern is precisely what I love in a blouse. Each detail, from the crossover yoke to the shaped sleeve band, is thoughtful. This isn't a blouse you could easily recreate with a Big 4 pattern, but a work of true design insight. It's loose, without being shapeless. It's interesting, while flattering one's figure. It works beautifully in all those flowing fabrics we love so much: silks, lawns, and challis.

For this first Zsalya, I chose the green polka dotted cotton voile that was leftover from my long ago Anna Dress. With a bit under 2 yards, I had just enough to make the short sleeved version of this blouse. No, the sleeves did not actually make the final product. We'll get to that...

To begin, let's talk about construction. This blouse was an absolute blast to make! Honestly, I can't remember the last time I had this much fun sewing up a pattern. The Zsalya construction is a bit like a Choose Your Own Sewing Adventure. In the instructions, there are two ways to do all the hardest steps, depending on your skill level and current motivation. Instead of the Quick and Dirty, which I appreciated from afar, I chose to do everything the Clean and Fancy route. 

Of course. My love of fancy is so well-documented, it's in this blog title. 

This particular fancy method involved a series of pattern flips that ensured a lovely inner finish. The crossover yoke's seams are faced and top-stitched, just as pretty inside as out. For a relatively quick project, the techniques involved in getting a perfectly finished yoke made for a mentally stimulating bout of sewing. Each step was well explained, well diagrammed, and easy to accomplish. The instructions hold your hand every step of the way, if you're worried about the geometry involved. This is more than your average pattern, for sure. 

The back: I love the curved yoke, but the fit here is a bit odd. Next time, I will be making some adjustments there, as well.

Naturally, I made a few adjustments to this pattern. Going in, I imagined this blouse paired with skinny jeans, for those nights when I just can't be bothered to put on a dress. That doesn't happen often, admittedly, but pretty casual blouses are a hole in my wardrobe. To make it more suited for that purpose, I lengthened the blouse by three inches and omitted the sleeves. 

Well, I eventually omitted the sleeves. After attaching one short sleeve, I tried the blouse on and was unhappy. In any other fabric, they would have been so, so cute. Combined with the longer length and mass of polka dots, however, they just didn't work. I was overrun by dots! With the trusty seam ripper, I took them off again and finished the sleeves with self-fabric bias tape. 

My other alterations were fairly minor. When you have a generous rear end, as I do, longer tops can end up blousing in unfortunate manners. With the added length, that was something to worry about, so I added a four-inch slit at each side seam. Not only do they give a greater range of movement, but the slits preserve the draped quality of the original pattern lines. Additionally, I made a small (1/2 inch) full bust adjustment, then rotated the dart back into the pattern's original gathers. So easy! 

In the end, I adore this blouse. In fact, I already a have long-sleeved Liberty version halfway sewn up! I took a rounded shoulder adjustment on that one and left the original length, in my new quest to perfect the Zsalya. This top is exactly the sort of garment I love for chillier months. It dresses up beautifully with skirts and boots, but can be smartly casual with jeans and a cardigan. Plus, you know, it's super fun to sew. The Zsalya has tried-and-true Mary pattern written all over it. 

If you're interested in winning a copy of Zsalya, or any of the other patterns featured in Selfish Sewing Week, hop on over to Imagine Gnats. Rachael has a fantastic giveaway ending tonight, which will have forty-one lucky winners. How fantastic is that? In the meantime, check out the other featured stitchers and indie designers participating in Selfish Sewing Week. Happy sewing!

Featured Stitchers

Call Ajaire The Crafty Kitty Max California the quirky peach Sewbon Swoodson Says sewVery a happy stitch sew a straight line Sew Caroline Our Chez Nous Casa Crafty verypurpleperson Flamingo Toes Sewing Rabbit justmejay groovy baby and mama you & mie oona balloona sew Amy sew Idle Fancy miss matatabi Dandelion Drift Modern Handcraft Buzzmills u&mii B.Yazoo A Quilter's Table lbg studio Diary of a Chainstitcher Compagnie M. Sew Chibi la inglesita Modern Handmade Sing All You Want Cookin' and Craftin' Behind the Hedgerow Milkybeer Handmade The Charming Needle

Featured Indie Pattern Designers

April Rhodes Blank Slate Patterns Bluegingerdoll By Hand London CaliFaye Collection Chris W Designs Christine Haynes Closet Case Patterns Clover & Violet Deer and Doe Delia Creates Emmaline Bags Go To Patterns grainline studio GreenStyleCreations Hey June Handmade imagine gnats In-House Patterns Kate & Rose Kitschy Coo Megan Nielsen Patterns Mouse House Creations Named Clothing Noodlehead Papercut Patterns Pauline Alice SBCC Patterns schnitten Scientific Seamstress see kate sew Sew Caroline Sew House Seven Sew Sweetness Sewaholic Sewing Patterns by Mrs. H SUCH Designs True Bias Victory Patterns Violette Field Threads

Note: The Zsalya top was provided to me, as part of participation in Selfish Sewing Week. The opinions herein are my own and completely unbiased. Though, let's be honest, I chose to sew this top because its style is right up my alley!

Miss Sally Feels A Bit Selfish

Happy May Day, dear ones! This week is an awfully eventful one in the sewing community, as it's both the beginning of Me-Made-May 2014 and Selfish Sewing Week. Woohoo! Not only am I going to for real real participate in MMM this year, but I'm also a featured stitcher for Selfish Sewing Week, which means my first outfit of May serves a dual purpose. Today, I'm wearing and reviewing the Sally Shirtdress from Serendipity Studio. 

The lovely Rachael Gander, of Imagine Gnats, is hosting Selfish Sewing Week as a way to encourage women to sew for themselves. So often, sewists end up sewing for husbands, wives, children, dogs, instead of focusing on making themselves lovely things! I say "so often," because I am decidedly in the other category. I meant to make my beloved two shirts for his birthday, back in November, which are still lazing about on my cutting table. I would claim dissertation and wedding stress, but somehow all of my dresses were sewn up, so...I'm probably a naturally selfish seamstress. (That being said, don't worry, loved ones of ours. Sam's shirts are first thing on the docket for summer sewing, the good lord willing and the creek don't rise.)

However! Back to the topic at hand. Selfish Sewing Week is not only happening, but involves a mega-giveaway of all sorts of lovely indie patterns from its sponsors. Throughout the week, the featured stitchers are each sewing up one of these patterns, to show how fun selfish sewing can be. That, obviously, is my kind of mission! For my pattern, I chose the Sally Shirtdress, an easy, classic basic for women. It comes with three length options and myriad of suggestions and instructions for embellishment.

I chose the Sally Shirtdress, because of its interesting method of shaping. Instead of separate bodice and skirt pieces, this dress is one solid piece top-to-bottom, with definition added by a series of pleats around the waistline. There are only four pattern pieces--fronts, back, sleeves, and collar--which makes it an efficient project, as well.

For fabric, I used this dreamy vintage cotton chambray, stolen from my mother's stash long ago. This fabric is the perfect chambray--soft, drapey, and beautifully dyed. Even better, I had seven vintage glass buttons also in my stash. They were meant to join into a shirtdress, kittens! So, they did.

Note: Before I talk to construction, there's one thing that must be said. I like this dress a lot. It's a simple, classic silhouette that doesn't use much fabric. That's always a good find! The things you're about to read have no bearing on how much I enjoy the end product. 

All that being said, the construction of this dress made me highly annoyed. Because the Sally dress is not only meant for beginners, but meant to be completely customizeable size-wise, some of the methods involved are not exactly traditional. There was a point, halfway through sewing the front placket, when Sam came in to check on me, because I'd been loudly yelling "This is totally wrong! Why can't we do this the normal way!? WHYYYYY!?" The collar has no stand and the front facing is included in the front pattern piece, so these two things combine for an odd, complicated dance of turning, pressing, clipping, and edge-stitching. It worked, in the end, but it made me miss those extra pattern pieces. I was this close to just drafting a collar stand myself, so that I wouldn't have to reread the extensive directions for the 800th time. 

To be fair, my greatest pet peeve in life is taking an irrational shortcut. I hate "no bake" recipes (so much chilling and-ugh!-Cool Whip) and learning languages by immersion, instead of being told grammar rules, just as I hate "no sew" skirt patterns. If I'm going to spend my time doing something, I want to learn how to do it correctly. It doesn't seem time-saving for people to pat you on the head, tell you it's too hard to learn right now, then make you learn it later. I want the whole story and all the info upfront, dang it! There's a reason my sewing career started with a full dress, instead of a pillowcase. There's also a reason my spirit animal is Hermione Granger. I am, just a little, persnickety. 

Which brings me to the pleats. The pleats are designed so that you decide how wide, how long, and how many of them there should be. The whole dress is sewn together, then after trying it on, you decide how much you would like to take out around the waist. Complicated directions and math problems for figuring out all those pleat dimensions then take place. For a persnickety person, this is like waving a red flag in front of a bull who's having an especially bad bull day, probably involving the color red killing its bull BFF. The anxiety involved in deciding on these pleats was epic. I took one, then two, then three. I moved them up, I moved them down. I drove my dear one insane, by trotting out to our living room every five minutes, asking if it looked better now.  I'm still thinking of adding another one on each side. 

It was...infuriating. On one hand, the idea of custom fitting to each body is genius. Every woman is different, so it makes sense that how her dress fits would be different. On the other hand, some literal guidelines would have been nice. I would have been much happier having original pleats to trace off, baste, then alter as I like. It would have been much, much less harrowing than placing them myself, all the while looking at the math and wondering if I was doing it all correctly. That things were further complicated by my improbable bust-to-waist ratio didn't help. Good God, I missed darts. 

Now, here's the thing. I really, really love how it turned out. It's a flattering shape and obscenely comfortable. If you do have trouble fitting in traditional patterns, the method of construction would work beautifully for getting you a custom-tailored dress. All of my frustrations were a matter of pairing the wrong sewist with the wrong pattern. It happens. We all have things that drive us crazy, even if they seem inconsequential to other people, and this pattern hit on my major one. I would rather things be more complicated, but make sense to my highly strategic brain. It's a personal failing!

This dress, however, will get a ton of wear. I love the way it nips in around my waist, without constricting me there with a seam. It's such a novel style! Plus, this is a lovely little layering piece. I can't wait to wear it with boots and sweaters, this fall. If you're the sort who hates putting collars together or stresses about plackets, this would be a fantastic pattern for you. The instructions, while exhaustive, are also helpful and thorough. The Sally Shirtdress is a good match for anyone who's trepidatious about more complicated dress silhouettes.

Even better, you can totally win Sally and a ton of other great patterns in the Selfish Sewing Week Giveaway! You can also add your own selfish makes to the Kollabora group, while using the hashtags #selfishsewing and #selfishsewingweek to interact with other participants on Instagram and Twitter. 

What are you sewing for yourself right now, darlings? I'm putting the finishing touches on my first Project Sewn outfit, personally.