PR Weekend

I was very excited to get the chance to attend the 2018 Patternreview Weekend in Stratford at the beginning of last month. It was the first time I'd made it to a PR Weekend in several years. I spent part of the day before in Toronto—I could’ve gone fabric shopping, but mostly I stayed in Chinatown instead—and ended up in Stratford that evening (there are two trains a day, and it would've been impossible to connect to the morning one).

In the milling around before going to the Stratford costume warehouse Friday morning, unfortunately I missed heading over to Knox Church and seeing the demos that were happening there. But I did get to meet some people who ended up being on the other bus the next day for fabric shopping, or at other tables Friday night, so that was worthwhile. The costume warehouse was a lot of fun to look at, and then there were two talks on the Friday evening, before a catered dinner.

One talk was by Gillian Whitcombe on taking better pictures. That was very positive, fun and informative. For me to follow her suggestions as they relate to Patternreview, the next step would be to get some kind of extra hardware so I can remotely control a camera, because the whole timer-and-run thing is a drag. The main problem right now is I’ve found my camera, but I put all its chargers and extra batteries *somewhere* when unpacking after the move, so it’s dead until I find them. I’d rather buy a remote for the camera than my phone, I think, since iThings are typically overpriced. But I’ll look into it more.

The second was a demo by the owners of Jalie of some of their patterns, especially their ingenious new V-neck top called "Bobbie." It has a facing acting as a sort of under-vest to keep the V neck close to the body even if you bend over. I think they'd sold out of the ones they brought, but I may buy it later.

I’d show pictures of other attendees but that doesn’t sit well with me to put on this blog, so I’ll leave it to the official PR blog post. Instead, here’s some fabric. The wonderful lace at right I won in a giveaway for entering the most items into contests of anyone at the event… hmm, now I feel like I should finally get around to volunteering to manage one. I'm guessing this happened because I entered lots of things into a couple of stash contests over the years.

I also somehow had posted the most comments on other people’s reviews, so won another of the giveaways for that. Maybe that happened because I have been on for so many years and I used to post on many of the new reviews every day? I was surprised by that but was happy to pick out this grading DVD. I’m very curious to see what grading specs/methods Kathleen Cheetham uses; I know of the Threads article and some of the sizing standards, and I often sew single-size vintage patterns that need to be graded up or down. But I don't know what she does for her Petite Plus sizes.

In addition, I got too much lingerie fabric/lace from Bramakers’ Supply in Hamilton. They have several of the same types of stretch laces and embroideries that can be found in Europe from stores like Sewy or Kantjeboord, I think because they actually go and buy some from time to time. This is nice to have in the beige and molded-foam-cup desert North America has sometimes seemed to be until recently. As well, and very importantly, they stock fabrics and notions made to match, so that you can make bras with perfectly matching elastics, closures, and channeling in a variety of colours, around 14 or so last I checked.

The rest of the large pieces of fabric were from the shopping trip on Saturday and they’re mostly meant to be used to replace various parts of my summer wardrobe. We’ll see how fast it actually gets sewn up. I’d hoped to get some nice cotton shirtings, and was able to find a couple. I also spied out a lovely handkerchief linen and a raw silk in Ann’s Fabrics in Hamilton. And there’s also a cotton canvas print that I’ve already made up into a skirt, which I’ll review one of these days.

Here’s hoping there are more PR Weekends in Canada soon.

Those shoulder holes

You know the ones. Some variants are classic(al) in a literal sense, but many are on the faddish and contrived side IMO. Regardless, they're still being promoted by several pattern companies, both American and European. I don't think I saw the style at all in Germany as late as 2014. It didn’t seem all that popular in Vancouver either, while I was there, but I’ve seen more of it in Kingston—which has hotter summers and probably more tourists around where I'd see them—in 2017–18.

They have some potential benefits:

• less uneven tanning if you often wear short sleeves but rarely go sleeveless
• can feel warmer, if it’s your forearms and not your shoulders that get cold
• unlike with cap or no sleeves, nobody needs to know the state of your armpits, if that’s a controversial issue in your area (lol)
• likewise, you don’t have to show much of your upper (or lower) arms if you don’t want to
• might feel less sweaty and gross than sleeveless in humid weather, IMO, and if you chose to add dress shields, they’d be more effective, as they could cover both sides
• even long-sleeved versions can look summery, if you’re in a climate where this might be useful

Downsides:

• not necessarily considered appropriate for all occasions (such as in the office)
• structurally trickier than sleeves without the holes, since they aren’t supported by the shoulders
• more edges to finish
• when they do go out of fashion again, it'll be with a thud

I made a couple of dresses in this style last year, so I’ve been glad to see I’m not the only one still wearing it. One was based on a morph between the recent McCall’s 7412 and an early 70s Simplicity, cut as long as my fabric would allow, with the neckline hiked up and mock-smocking added to the sleeves and raised waist.

This is a crinkled linen blend I got from the Gala Fabrics that used to be in Vancouver. It lettuced a bit at the neckline and hems, but that and the clinging effect seem to become less noticeable once it's worn for a while and the fabric relaxes somewhat. The mock-smocking was done with elastic thread in the bobbin, while the neckline is held in with cord elastic in a casing.

The other was a modification of an early 2000s Neue Mode, which I may go back and use in unmodified form one of these days. The waist turned out rather loose (in keeping with the drawings) but that isn't such a bad thing, in hot weather.

The sleeves are self-lined and have an overlapped, mock-buttoned effect. I used the sleeveless views' combined neck and armhole facing to sandwich the partial armscye seams. The buttons were a gift and the fabric is a (Telio?) linen blend print that came from Dressew.