Best of the Summer from Butterick, Simplicity, and McCall's

After the horrors of tents on straps (thanks keely for the mental image!) and horrendous jumpers, here's something far more soothing.  The top five patterns (in my book) from Butterick, Simplicity, and McCall's.  Enjoy!

#5 - McCall's 5658

The more I look at this, the more I like it as a great summer party dress set. The inverse pleats at the waist give it shape while being very now, and the different necklines give you the option to make it perfect for a summer wedding (A) or a more formal affair (B).  And C is just right for a casual and cool day dress.  Also, with the sea of sacks this season, it's great to see something that shows a waist!

Plus I just love that shade of blue, especially with gold.  So that might affect my judgment.  Still, neat little dress, neat options, neat job McCall's!

#4 - McCall's 5651

It really doesn't get more basic than this - undies, bras, and slips in simple, easy-to-sew styles.  But what really makes it special is that attitude.  Look at that, it's a DIY Style pattern targeting those in their teens and 20s.  I love that and want to nurture and encourage it as much as I can.  Really, just looking at that pattern makes me think of my two sad slips and want to replace them with knit silk versions.  Maybe with some contrast lace and ... see what it's doing?  It's INSPIRING, just from the envelope.  Now that's something special.  And this is one pattern that won't be out of style in a year or two.  No, we've been quietly wearing all these for a while and they're here to stay.  

Besides, just a few weeks ago someone on PatternReview was complaining about the lack of slip patterns available.  Well, here you go, one new one to add to the drawer!  Thanks, McCall's, and great job showing how a pattern picture (even if it's just line drawings) can be truly inspiring!  And even more for helping the new generation catch the sewing bug.  Great job!

#3 - Butterick 5218

The Big Shirt is back and this is a neat variation on that simple theme.  I really like the placket, the front pleat, the different collars (specifically A), and the sleeves.  The only thing I'm not liking is the length of C but, fortunately, there's three other lengths to choose from.  This style looks great over skinny jeans on those fortunate rectangles who can wear both styles and tucked into a high waisted skirt for us hour glasses.  Made up in a rough cotton it's got the safari look that's in, while made up in something nicer, like silk or a nice cotton, it's perfect for the office and church.  

Similar to this, and a close runner up, is McCall's 
5664.  Again we see the elegant placket that I love.  Does it tell you anything about my button-hole sewing skills that I'd rather do a placket than a row of buttons?  I thought so.

The sleeves are different on this, and different in a good way.  I really like the shorter sleeves and the 3/4 bishop sleeves can be really great, especially as fall creeps up.  The reason I went with the Butterick over this one, though, is the twin problem of the volume and the under bust tie.  On the model it's not bad, though the bow's a little odd.  However I'm not certain how it'll look on others, especially me.  That tie keeps it from being tucked in as a random high-tie plus tuck equals two waist lines.  One is plenty for me, thank you.  And those two style details are so 2008 that they're going to date this pattern long before the Butterick goes out of style.  I might still get the McCall one because I think it has potential but if either become TNTs, I'm pretty certain it'll be the Butterick.  Still, can't go wrong with one more pattern in the drawer!

#2 - Simplicity 2899


Remember on the "Worst Of" list how McCall's completely bombed with their plus sized shirt? Remember me telling them to check out Simplicity's stuff to see how it SHOULD be done? Well, this what I was talking about.   This is a FANTASTIC jacket with more options than you could exaust in a wardrobe of jackets.  Those lines are incredibly flattering, giving waist definition and showing off the legs.  And it's only available in Women's sizes.  That's right, one of this year's hottest jacket patterns and women less than size 18W are missing out.  How's that for a change?  

I love that Simplicity has embraced their Women's line enough to give them great, modern styles made for THEM (not a 16-year-old size 6) rather than throwing them the normal assortment of sacks and sized-up misses stuff that never fits right.  Good for you Simplicity!  

#1 - Butterick 5206
What a fantastic basic wrap dress.  I love it.  Great V-neck (and work-safe with the addition of a camisole), great sleeve options, fantastic obi-belt for showing off the waist, and nice, flattering skirt.  What's not to love?

Sure, it's no show-stopper but that's what makes me think this'll be this year's best little knit dress.  You can make it up in different fabrics with different twists and each one will be fantastic.  I can imagine this in a solid black with a red belt and contrasts, a cute floral with solid contrasts for summer, and a rich olive with black accents for fall.  I need to get this pattern and then get back to sewing knits.  It's been too long and this is just the pattern I need to get started again!

Good job Butterick, you win Best Pattern for Summer 2008!  At least in this competition.  I guess it's even since you also lost ... but we're putting all memories of jumpsuits out of mind and focusing on this lovely dress.  Good job!

Summer Patterns

irst McCall released their summer line. And I yawned. Then Simplicity and I wasn't sure what to say. Now Butterick has shown their line and once again I'm underwhelmed by far. It'd be one thing if, like the Vogue line, they were all so crazy, so out there that I could find some enjoyment commenting on them. Or if they were horrendously terrible. After all, I'm not above laughing at travesties, provided no blood is involved. Or, best, if each pattern were inspiring, beautiful, and new jewels for the pattern boxes.

Unfortunately the 3 lines managed to miss all possible targets. There were one or two crazy items, but no theme like Vogue had. Just the odd crazy, like Uncle Ben at a funeral. Yeah, there were a few bad calls - but very little that was so mind-shatteringly wretched that I HAD to drop everything and comment. And there were the occasional nice items, but again, nothing worth writing about. However once the total count has reached three lines and 99 total patterns I figure I have to say SOMETHING. So I present the best and worst from the three lines.

The Worst

#5 - McCall's 5652

 Let's start at the top, shall we?  Spaghetti straps forbearing any bra wearage?  Check.  Tiny little bodice designed to best minimize and pull down the most endowed woman?  Check.  Gathered empire waist to completely obsure any hint of a figure?  Check.

So in basic we've got a 4-year-old's dress in misses' sizing.  Gack.  And the fabrics and colors picked for the sample couldn't be worse.  Seriously, who decided this was a good idea?  Maybe done in lace and frills with a cute undershirt covering up all that skin for a western take on sweet lolita ... no, not even that would work.   Maybe just adverting the eyes until McCall quietly discontinues this odd pattern.

#4 - McCall's 5666

This shirt really rather deserves the triple six in the pattern number.  Really, what team of evil comes up with something like this?  It's like some twisted designer, saturated with images of anorexic teens, decided that any woman with a healthy or slightly more than healthy BMI must be horrendously ashamed of herself and unwilling to go out the door in anything less than a full on duvet cover.  Really.  And then, when someone complained about the lack of shaping, the designer said "FINE!" and cinched it in at one of the worst possible places.  Look at that poor model.  She's either drugged into staying there as the camera snaps or dreaming up various ways to torture the designer.  Preferably the latter.  Good grief, pay a ten minute visit to Simplicity and LOOK at their Woman's stuff!  There's a number of designs that help women rock their bodies of all sizes.  This - this is not rock.  This is karaoke.  Karaoke at a country western bar in Portland at 3 am during a beer shortage.  Except worse.

#3 - Butterick 5227

This is one of GFY's scroll down disasters.  That is, it starts out innocently enough.  Yes, that white top's too wide and unfitted and the fabric looks like it came from a long picked over dollar bin but it could be nice.  And the brown version is rather cute on top with that scoop neck and nice little cap sleeves.  And then you scroll down.  No waist definition, flare at hips and then - wow.  Extra volume right at the thighs.  Every woman's worst nightmare and you went there, Butterick, you went there.  Really, a little shorter and it might work.  Longer (as shown in the yellow dress) and it's quite nice.  But right there?  Oh no.  Oh no no no no no.  And it's just made all the worse by the fabric and fitting.  I get it, this is a fast and easy (and super-tacky) pattern.  But if it doesn't look good in a fast and easy fabric then why by all that's good are you selling it???  Ick.

#2 - McCall's 5656

I actually debated on this one.  After all, the two line drawings aren't bad at all.  A lot more volume than any woman I've met likes in her jumper but beyond that they're inoffensive.  But that white one.  Oh my.  We see here that someone clearly failed their proportions class.  Badly.  Those sleeves are just too big, those shoulders too small, the neckline too oddly smallish big, and the dress too wide for any of it to work.  It really makes you wonder - why did no one step back and LOOK at the dress and say, "hey, the sleeves are really messing it all up - how long would it take to rip 'em out and make this baby sleeveless?"  It's not like they don't have other garments to shoot.  Then just sketch sleeves on the yellow drawing and, while it's probably still not great, there's at least a chance someone will buy the pattern.  Maybe. 

#5 - 5229

I'll admit, Butterick's Fast and Easy line has never been exactly cutting edge.  Actually it's almost exactly what my favorite thrift store back in Virginia regularly has in their pattern rack.  For 10c a piece.  Half off on some days.

But for all my low expectations ... this one still stunned me.  Stop for a moment and look, really look, at E and D.  That's right.  You're not hallucinating.  Those are, in face, drop-waist, wide necked, dowdy-sleeved jumpsuits.  

If this isn't a sign of the end times I don't know what is.

I'm looking and a sadistic side of me is trying to imagine how they could look worse.  Maybe if you turned them into high waders, those pants that make a model look stubby - oh wait, D is already doing just that.  I know, pockets at the thighs so that the woman looks even wider ... oh, they beat me to it.  Ok, I'm stumped.  Apparently these can't get any worse.  And my eyes are watering.  This is, without a doubt, the WORST pattern released this year.  Yay butterick, you lose!

And this post is getting long ... ok, then, top five tomorrow!

McCall's 5576 day 1

I have four classes sketched out so far - an introduction to the machine, first pattern (a robe), introduction to zippers and sleeves and darts, and a skirt fitting class. I'm considering using McCall's 5576 for the intro to zippers et al class and figured that maybe, just maybe I should make up the pattern myself to see if it would work for newbies. Plus I get a couple dresses out of the bargan. Score. :) So the making of the dress, day one...



I bought some snazy (and, for Joann's, expensive) black quilting cotton with silver sparkles. I keep hoping I didn't make a mistake - it was more than I wanted to pay and it's pretty stiff - certainly not the nice soft stuff I'd recomend to students. But it looks really fantastically sharp. Part of the trepidation is knowing that I can't frankenpattern or modify this pattern like I normally would. The standard saves I'd typically make really don't help the students see what their dress will look like. Though, if it really looks that bad, it could be an example of a creative save. But hopefully it'll work out fine. For my trial version, though, I'm going to use a much softer cotton (also from my little local J's) in a beautiful black and green geometric print that I love and which has been aging a year in my stash but has waited until now to tell me what it wants to be. The print should help hide errors, as well.

Back to the black fabric, it came home and I wanted to wash it immediately but we just did laundry yesterday and I'm not spending the 75c our apartment washers cost for one length of fabric. So I googled how to wash clothes in the bathtub. Ask and you shall receive! I so love all things Wiki.


After washing the fabric I traced the pattern. I'm a very slow tracer. An hour and a half later I finished and pinfitted the traced pieces - looks good! Tomorrow I hope to cut and start on the actual sewing. Tonight I'm tired and I know better than to cut while tired - very odd things happen. So avoiding that. :)

McCall's Spring Preview - What's Hot, What's Not

Not Hot
Starting out with what's Not because it's just so much more fun that way...

M5578


This dress is giving me bad flashbacks to fourth grade. Baggy top, gathered knit skirt, and buttons in the back? And those horribly placed pockets? Trust me, it wasn't particularly attractive on a fourth grader in the early nineties and it's no better on a grown woman. Worse, actually. I'm pretty certain that this dress is specifically designed to make a woman look her absolute dowdiest. Yes, those longer sleeves are kinda cute. Do yourself and all who look at you a favor and morph them onto a better bodice. The world will thank you.

M5577


The purple line drawing doesn't look so bad ... but that's only if you can tear yourself away from the train wreck of the blue jumper to look. Seriously, could the proportions look any worse? That tiny top with the child-carrying pockets just looks off. Granted, it's the kind of look you can envision seeing during Project Runway ... but it's usually the result of too little sewing time, a bad choice of fabric, and strange materials. We don't have that excuse. If, for some reason, you just HAVE to have a jumper like this then take your cue from the purple girl - wear it with a full shirt, use drapey fabric (maybe even a lush silk knit) and DON'T USE THOSE POCKETS! Put discrete ones in the side seams, if you like but please, by all that's holy, run from those horrible ones. They give all pockets a bad name.

M5588


This one isn't terrible ... it's just not good, either. The proportions with that neckline just seem very, very off. It looks like it's both engulfing and binding the poor model. Not exactly the look I go for when I get dressed each day.

M5565


The absolute, no doubt, unarguable worst of the bunch. It screams Happy Hands at Home in a way that makes one flinch from sewing. It's giving a tiny model thunder thighs. It looks like a maternity outfit made by a sweet aunt who only bought her fabric on sale ... back in the 70s. It's got those horrid thick fabric straps that only show up in bad sewing patterns and those oddly placed buttons that just feel so wrong. From top to bottom it's just so completely ick. Congrats, pattern, you've won top price at worst pattern of the season.

Hot
Moving on to happier grounds, the best of the bunch. Honestly, this was really difficult. There were so many patterns in this batch that I really like and would love to comment on. However, these are the five that I finally settled on as my absolute favorites. Enjoy!

M5576


It's a sack dress that also has shape - beautiful! And I love the use of the silver fabric and the totally mod gems on the green. Just too cute. And how can you not love a pattern that says, under notions, that it requires "purchased plastic or acrylic stones to creatively embellish motifs within the fabric for dress B or front yoke on dress C."

M5575


What a hot little tunic. I've got a similar one that I've been wearing to death over a pair of simple black pants. No leggings for these legs. It's worked really well, I get a number of compliments on it and it really is slimming. I'm not sure how since empire waists and mid-thigh tunics are usually my kriptonite, but it is. I might pick up this top and try and repeat the previous one's success. With a cami underneath - that's a pretty impressive v there.

M5590


This is a basic that NEEDS to be in your collection this year. High waisted pencil skirts are back with a vengeance and this is the perfect template for a lot of very stylish creativity. Added bonus - once you've got this pattern fitted for your figure it's an easy trim away from being a perfectly fitted regular-waist skirt. Since I hate the fitting step I'm all for that.

M5597


Look at that jacket. Look at it! Is that not an instant trip in time to the suits of the 30s and 40s with their small but fantastic details? Despite not having any need for the suit jackets I already have, I'm feeling a need for this one. Just wearing it is instant glamor. A definite must have for my pattern collection.

M5584


There were a lot of great patterns but this one is the one that I fall in love with a little more with each look. It's so retro modern, so over the top glamorous, that I can't stop thinking about it. Logically I shouldn't even consider it - I'm a curvy hour glass that should, by all the rule books, stick with close fitting silhouettes. Yet I keep wanting to float around in a deep olive green satin version of view C with black tulle poking out beneath and thin gold and silver celtic knots embroidered around the top band. I'm very seriously considering making it up for a wedding we're going to tomorrow evening. After all, with as little fitting as this dress has, it can't be all that difficult to make. And it would feel so very glamorous. Maybe with a little black velvet bolero ... I'm sold.