Daisies, linen and box pleats for bicycling

August 5, 2018August 19, 2018 | run-sew-read

I was so excited when I brought this 1960s daisy dress home from the vintage clothing store in August 2015, that I mentioned it in my blog right away.

vintage-dress-green-daisies RSR

For two summers I wore the dress as-is and loved its style. But bicycling in it was a no-go, because the dress is narrow and straight with no stretch and no pleat for getting on and off the bike and for pedaling. I loved the dress too much to change it.

Eventually my desire to wear it on my bike commute won out. I formed a bold plan to add box pleats, and worked up the courage to make the first cut. I measured and sliced the skirt where four pleats would go. I was lucky to find some fabric for the pleats that was a near exact match of the creamy white color in the dress.

The result: Ta-da!

vintage-dress-green-daisies pleats added RSR

The next morning as I was preparing to wear the modified dress for the first time, I took a mirror selfie, BHM (before hair and makeup).

Mirror selfie BHM RSR

On its first outing with the box pleats, I bicycled a total of 14 commute + errand miles. The skirt was perfect, in roominess, length and drape.

After that first wearing, I decided the top of the pleats should be reinforced to prevent inevitable strain and fraying in the corners. So I added little tabs.

pleat tabs RSR

This project was an unqualified success. The person most surprised is me. I feared I was going to ruin the lovely dress for good. But no, I’ll be using the box pleat ‘hack’ again sometime when I need to convert another dress for bike-ability. I want to post a set of instructions, but I feel like I need to try it again a time or two before telling others how to do it. Stay tuned.

And their love that was more than the clothes that they wore,
Could be seen in the gleam of an eye…

Adding a side pleat for bike-ability

July 8, 2018July 6, 2018 | run-sew-read

Over the 4th of July holiday, I worked up the courage to to hack into one of my fave summer shifts to make it more bike-able. The dress is straight, and the fabric a sturdy woven cotton with no spandex. Getting on and off the bike and pedaling were all problematic.

IMG_20180705_184701379_LL a

I opened the side seam 9 inches from the hemline, and added a 9″ zipper and a stretch panel in coordinating fabric. IMG_20180705_184810535_LL a IMG_20180705_184737782 a

Success! I can unzip the pleat and have room for pedaling a bike, and then close the pleat up the rest of the day. IMG_20180705_184714214_LL a

The steps I took in order:

Open side seam to 9 inches from the hemline.
Sew in 9″ zipper.
With zipper open, pin triangle insert in place behind zipper, lining up fabric edges.
Topstitch insert in place through all layers.

From the inside, the pleat looks like this closed. IMG_20180705_203759195

And open. IMG_20180705_203730248

(The pleat insert fabric is intentionally shorter than the rest of the hemline to keep the insert from peeking out from under the hem when the pleat is zipped shut. )

Ready for pedaling IMG_20180705_191148063_LL bw

Ready for the office. IMG_20180705_191406365_LL aw

I’ve biked in the dress a couple of times since installing the pleat, and it works just as I’d hoped. There are a few other dresses and skirts in my closet that probably should get the zipper-pleat treatment.

___________________________

A breeze crosses the porch
Bicycle spokes spin ’round
Jacket’s on, I’m out the door
Tonight I’m gonna burn this town down

And the girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes
Pass me by

Summer bicycling dress II: 40 shades of green (and grey)

June 24, 2018June 24, 2018 | run-sew-read

Another bicycling dress is finished as of last weekend, complete with reflective bits. With this one, I cut out shapes of sew-on reflective tape that I could embed in the print.

Green dress no flash 2 a-w

Front reflector flash a-w

Back reflector flash a-w

Appliqueing the reflective motifs to the dress was a repeating cycle of trial, error and perseverance. My first attempts were awful. The grey thread I had on hand ended up being several shades too light, and stood out as white on the reflective fabric. [Insert ’50 Shades of Grey’ reference here.] The light thread highlighted every deviant stitch. Unfortunately, there were a lot of deviant stitches. Despite how bad it was looking, I kept on going, thinking that I’d improve my stitching with practice, and then I could go back and re-stitch the first bad ones. But not this time. This was truly bad. So, I cut out some new reflective motifs in a wider shape, and bought a darker shade of grey thread. [Whew, it’s getting hot in here!] Then, success!

The thread color was a tremendous improvement, but the points of the reflective motifs were still coming out looking ragged and misshaped. I couldn’t make the point stay in place to be stitched neatly. So through more trial and error, I came up with this technique that worked:

Start at the wide end of the motif and baste straight down the middle to the tip.
Switch to a regular stitch length, and continue past the end of the tip for 3 more stitches.
Turn the entire piece around and from the tip, stitch around the edges of the motif.
Snip the basting stitch at the point, and pull the thread tail to remove only the basting.

Voila! A better leaf shape, and the appearance of neat stitches.

At first I intended to replace only the ‘worst’ of the original reflective leaves. But in the end, my seam ripper and I spent a lot of time together, and the entire first batch of motifs were removed and replaced. It took quite a bit of time for this do-over, but I think it was necessary.

reflector rejects a-w

My sew-on reflective tape was purchased from Amazon: (Product Link) The 2-inch wide 30-foot roll was my choice, because that width allows for lots of creative uses. Smaller widths and lengths are available.

Other construction details:

For bike-ability, I inserted a pleat in the back.

Kick pleat a-w

The dress is constructed from the hem up:

The main fabric with the wild print came from my stash, but there was only a yard of it. So, I hemmed it first thing, and built the dress upward from there. Up near the shoulder, the fabric ran out. There I added the polka dot coordinating fabric, to complete the shoulder. The main fabric pieces that were cut away for the armholes, were almost but not quite long enough to make the collar. So again I supplemented coordinating fabric to complete the collar.

Dress collar & shoulder a-w

The inside facings for the armhole, neck and hem are all made from the coordinating fabric. The cool thing is, I used almost every inch of the stash fabric. There are no usable scraps left.

The fabric is 100% cotton and comfortable, while sturdy enough to stay in place on a breezy day.

Green dress mirror selfie b

Summer bicycling dress

June 18, 2018June 19, 2018 | run-sew-read

Happy Birthday, Sir Paul McCartney! ❤ And what does Sir Paul’s birthday have to do with this dress? Answer: I wore it to his concert last July. I finished the dress around this time last summer; just a couple of weeks before he was coming to town. That made it super easy to decide what to wear to the concert.

Pink dress front

This dress met several objectives–

It is ‘bike-able’, meaning the skirt is loose enough to enable mounting the bike and pedaling. A little bit of spandex in the fabric helps with that too. The skirt is just long enough that I don’t flash passing drivers. The fabric is a twill which makes the skirt a bit sturdier in a wind.
The dress has built-in reflector motifs for visibility.
And last but not least, the fabric came from my stash. Every bit of stash reduction helps.

Pink dress reflector bodice

Why did I choose this dress for the McCartney concert? Obviously, because it has a Swinging 60s look. But there’s more. I thought maybe when the stage lights panned the crowd, the reflective elements of my dress would light up. I don’t know if it was visible from the stage, but it was fun wondering if I stood out in the crowd a teeny bit. 🙂