I hate Fashion Police.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Yesterday morning I was in the breakroom on my last break and there were a couple of morning girls in there from the main floor. They were dressed to the nines and one of them was carrying what looked like either a real Louis Vuitton bag or a damn good knockoff. I'd never seen them before, so I assume they were new. They inspected me from head to toe while I was getting tea and when I turned toward the door again one of them asked me where I had gotten my dress. I replied that I made it, and I swear both of their noses went an inch higher into the air.

"Oh." one of them said. "That's why it looks like that."

I said warily, "Like what?"

"Like something you'd find in my gramma's closet." was her reply.

I'm not good at being snarky to people's faces, so I just rolled my eyes and walked off.

I hate people who judge others by how they look. I really wanted to pour my scalding hot tea on her overly-coiffed head.

[blas87]

Ya know, I'm guilty of snickering at mullets, rat-tails, overly baggy pants, long chains, spandex, large people squeezing into too small of clothes or old men wearing too short of shorts......but I think it's quite another thing to stick your nose up and say something insulting about someone just because they aren't wearing designer duds or they don't look like they just walked off the cover of Vogue. Especially when there is nothing wrong with the outfit itself, it fits your body the way clothes should, it's appropriate for whatever you are doing (professional for work, comfortable for play, etc), and it shouts "This is me!".

[Boozy]

Disgusting, TPG. I would have wanted to smack those women.

I will admit, however, that I have the habit of snickering at anyone who looks like they're trying too hard.

I live in an area that has little patience for pretenses. Half of us are farmers and the other half are hippies. People actually point and laugh at people wearing those oversize Chanel sunglasses, and I get a kick out of women carrying expensive bags or wearing heels that look horribly uncomfortable. I can always tell these people are from out of town.

I'll never forget an incident I witnessed last year. A gigantic Hummer with Michigan plates pulled into a coffee shop parking lot. This cafe was frequented by students from our local universities, and the lot was packed. The driver got out and was immediately bombarded with raucous laughs, derision, and comments implying that his penis was inadequate. I actually shouted "Check out THIS asshole!" to my husband (who hates it when I do stuff like that). The man looked incredibly confused. I don't think he'd ever had this reaction to his vehicle before.

Oh well. If he was expecting impressed whistles over this gas-guzzling behemoth, he can go elsewhere. No one here cares about how much money you waste on consumer crap.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

I'm used to getting made fun of for the way I dress. I don't look like I'm trying too hard, I just look really eccentric.

I like your hummer story, Boozy. I got a similar one. When I was very young I was with my bf visiting his family in Houston. We were at an apartment complex, standing in the parking lot with a group of girls talking. This guy walked out toward his car, and then he saw us girls, and he literally puffed out his chest and strutted to his truck, which was totally overdone, it had those gigantic monster truck wheels, silly hardware all over and was complete with a garsih paint job of flames all over the hood. He revved the truck up real good and did a turn around the parking lot for our benefit. The he parked it close by us and leanedout, grinning. One of the girls yelled out "Hey!" and he goes "Yeah?" and she yells "I'm sorry about your penis!"

You should have seen the look on his face. Meanwhile we were laughing our asses off. He revved the truck and peeled out of the lot.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

See, those are the sorts of social midgets I call out on their behavior. And you don't need snark to do it, just outrage that anyone could be an adult and still act like a poorly brought up 12 year old.

I think I would have asked them if they realized that they were out of junior high, that YOU were out of junior high, and in the "world of grown ups", people are expected to act like grown ups. I'd probably also suggest to them that their parents owe them a big apology for not raising them to realize that.

[Seshat]

I'm sure your clothing is made of good fabrics, fitted properly to your figure, and in a cut which is either classic or suits your shape and personality. Which is far more important than whether it's 'this week'.
And quite frankly, it's unlikely that their clothes were of good fabric or fitted to them.

I'm sorry to hear that you got to put up with those mental midgets.

Hm... are you the one of our sewers who sews to 1940's/50's vintage patterns? There were some very lovely designs in that era.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Yes, Seshat, that is me. In fact I was wearing a 1930's dress that morning, the kind with the long, lean lines, made out of a beautiful aqua and white chambray.

Similar to this but without the pintucks.

[Sylvia727]

In sixth grade I happened to apply lipstick in front of a particular clique. They started mocking me because - wait for it - my lipstick was in a "granny tube" not an applicator like they used. I started laughing at them and they couldn't undertand why.

These women obviously haven't progressed since the sixth grade, or possibly before. They still have the middle school mentality of stick with the herd. All you have to do is laugh at them and walk away. Trust me, if you do it right it will hurt their feelings and make them realize you don't worship their overpriced designer goods.

EDIT: And that dress is cute! Now they look twice as stupid.

[LadyBarbossa]

I was on some site the other day, forget what it was, but it was something to do with "Ugly dresses". I was thinking you'd see things along the lines of bridesmaid dresses with two foot bows or looked like they'd been made from a pink trash bag, but most of them were honestly quite nice. I also find myself saying " . . . I don't get it. What's wrong with that?" when you see the worst dressed articles and such.

While I'm also guilty of maybe going or cringing at something someone put on, it's typically because it's a man wearing a midriff-bearing t-shirt or someone with their bra straps falling down to their elbows.

I actually miss the days when the LotR movies seemed to have an influence in clothes design and we had lots of flowing, bell-sleeved shirts and dresses to pick from. *sigh* I really need to learn how to sew . . .

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yes, Seshat, that is me. In fact I was wearing a 1930's dress that morning, the kind with the long, lean lines, made out of a beautiful aqua and white chambray.

Similar to this but without the pintucks.

Okay, I checked out your link and all I can say is that you are my current hero.

I LOVE vintage clothing! The coolest outfit I ever owned was a 1940's vintage wool suit. Heck, my favorite style is probably Gibson Girl (I did a very brief stint modeling, and had the most fun with styles like that. Had enough hair to do the "do", too.) I have a box of vintage patterns in the attic, but they are different than I am accustomed to and cant' figure them out.

If someone was giving you crap about wearing something like THAT, they DESERVE to be laughed at because they are clearly wearing their profound ignorance like a badge of honor.

Morons.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Gee, thanks guys.

RK, those patterns sound awesome, I'm salivating just thinking about them. I collect vintage patterns and I have an entire filing cabinet full of them.

At the moment I am salivating over this pattern. I want to make one of these so bad but the pattern is pricey.

[Forensic Waitress]

I wish I was able to sew, because some of the fashions out today are just plain awful and look even worse on, but alas I am not that talented.

Being a poor student finding something that was last season on sale for a few dollars gets me really excited, especially when it makes me feel good when I am wearing it, but the amount of times I have had younger just out of high school girls stick their nose up at me is hard to keep count of. But being that I have been out in the real world, I just laugh to myself and wonder how they would get through a 16 hour crime scene in a pair of heals and jeans so tight they cut of the circulation.

Honestly like I have always done, because I am not one for fashion, just ignore them like you did and then they have nothing to feed off.

[Seshat]

Oh my. That is a nice dress.

As for the matinee jacket you want so much:

It looks like what you need to find is any tunic-type top pattern with fitted sleeves - there's no blousing at the cap top, so watch for that.

For the view where the lower half of the sleeve is flared and cuffed, get any flared-and-cuffed sleeve pattern which fits you.
Put the sleeve pattern from the tunic top and the flared-and-cuffed sleeve pattern on top of each other with tracing paper on top of that, and draw on the tracing paper. At the sleeve cap, use the tunic pattern. At the wrist and up towards the elbow, use the flared-pattern. From below the join of the sleeve to the elbow, use your judgement and connect the two parts. (For your test fabric, just draw a straight line. You can pin it into whatever shape looks best and adjust it once you've tried it on.)

The cowl can be done similarly - even easier, since you have the shoulders and armscye to guide you.

The curves of the centre front peplum look like a dressmaker's curve would be about right to make them. As long as you lined or faced the peplum, that would end up looking right, I think.

From the sketch, the lines on the left sleeve and around the edge of the left cowl are trim, rather than topstitching or seams. However, you could use decorative topstitching if you wanted. I don't see any need to put a seam in either position.

I hope that helps you make your lovely top!

[ThePhoneGoddess]

The matinee jacket sleeves are two pieces---the regular top part and the fanyc gathered bottom part. I've tried recreating it and it doesn't look quite right. 30's patterns are often more difficult than they look; it's hard to get that unusual 30's line without a real pattern to work with, I don't know why. 1920's patterns are the same.

Here's another one I want really bad.

I'm such a pattern whore.

[Seshat]

Odd. I can't see any reason off the top of my head to do it that way. You may be right about the difficulty - I'm such an odd fit that I mostly just use patterns as guides for features, and use my same basic shell for everything. Just with more or less ease, making it up as I go along.