Sew Grateful Week: Not-So-Cheeky Panties Package Giveaway!

I didn't grow up in an evangelical home, but my husband did. A generally anxious person — he's the first to (nervously) admit it (just kidding: he wrote a whole damn show about it, and that's how I met him) —  he's told me many times how he worried constantly about proselytizing. He recalls how if he wasn't telling someone about God's glory, he felt guilty. Like, all the time. And though he's now a godless liberal, he still can't shake the habit. However, he evangelizes on behalf of other things: the band Wilco, Robert Caro's book "The Power Broker," and Arrested Development, just to name a few.

I've never felt that urge to convert people. (It's not very Canadian, is it?) But that's exactly what I am going to try to do this week with a giveaway for my readers (some would say, followers).

And what better way to proselytize for homemade ginch (1980s western Canadian slang for underwear) than by giving away everything needed to make your own!

Ta da!

So if you're interested in joining my cult movement, and want to make your own pair of "Not-So-Cheeky Panties," the pattern by Emilykate that I've adapted to provide fuller coverage in the tush, leave a comment below. The winner will receive enough of this super soft and stretchy coral-red striped jersey, white scalloped underwear elastic, and the pattern (plus instructions) to make their first pair of these underpants. According to Emilykate, the pattern is size 38, whatever that means. But with this super stretchy material, these underpants could fit a range of sizes. (Though if you have a super tiny butt and hips, you can stuff someone else's stocking with these — or try to take them in a little.)

The winner will be chosen at random on Friday, Nov. 25 — "Black Friday" in the U.S.: the day when people spend stupid amounts of money shopping (and risk getting trampled at Wal-Mart). Instead of "stimulating the economy," you could get something for free! (And learn something new). Thank you, readers! The giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere.

Front

Wait, I almost forgot to show you the pair I made for myself from this amazing stretch fabric! Cute, right? Now comment away!

Back: love that chevron stripe!

The Perfect Men's Hoodie Pattern!

 I'm not sure I'd let my husband leave the house in shorts that cut so close to his, er, upper thigh. But that hooded sweatshirt on the chiseled hunk to the left there is the perfect pattern for the sweater I'm planning for Ryan for Christmas (he's knows about it now because there are no sewing secrets when your studio is located in a popular thoroughfare of your apartment). Thanks to travelling_soo for pointing out this pattern to me after my previous post about the dearth of good men's sewing patterns. I found it on Etsy.com through seller Paula's Sew Nice. She's got loads of vintage patterns in the $5 range. It has yet to arrive, but I found some lovely gray wool knit fabric this weekend, so I am itching to get started (yes, pun intended).

I tried and failed to find something that would work at one of the divier fabric shops I frequent in NYC's Garment District. But after scuttling back and forth along 39th street and down to 37th, and finding only cheap, thin and (ugh!) ribbed knits, I was worried I wouldn't find anything that approximated this knit hoodie he loved and lost long ago:

 

I finally succumbed to shopping at Mood, knowing that I'd find something in the store's exhaustive selection. Of course, you pay for it: $20/yard for this gray wool knit (a faint stripe, but no ribbing, praise be):

And what's that to the left there? Why it's more of the super-soft coral striped jersey I bought at Chic Fabrics on 39th Street during the summer ($5/yard). I used it to make this adorable dress here:

They still had some at Chic, so I bought a few yards to make some underpants from Emilykate's pattern I amended, plus I picked up some underwear elastic at Daytona Trimmings on 39th Street. I bought more than I need of everything, so stay tuned for a giveaway this week! That's all for now!

Daphne Guinness Exhibit at FIT

 If you've grown tired of Occupying Wall Street, head over to the museum at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology so you can see how the 1% lives. 

That's the way I felt after visiting the Daphne Guinness exhibit, which is the museum's first to chronicle a single person's style. If you don't know who Guinness is, she's very rich, very beautiful and is a collector of haute couture. She's heir to the beer family's fortune and something of a muse to many of the biggest names in fashion, including the late Alexander McQueen. Indeed, there are dozens of stunning pieces by McQueen in the FIT exhibit, so if you missed "Savage Beauty" at the Met, this is the next best thing (and it's FREE!). Other notable designers heavily represented in the collection: Nina Ricci, Chanel, Dior, Givenchy, Lacroix, and Valentino.

The clothes are truly amazing. The video presentations on Guinness.... less so. In one, about her fragrance, she really seemed to be phoning it in. On creating her scent, roughly paraphrased: "It's in my mind. I don't really think about it too much...." Come again?

Throughout the exhibit are quotes from Guinness explaining her style, including her love of armour. Again, roughly paraphrased, though her wording was no more eloquent than this: "I love armour. It's beautiful to wear metal — and it has protective qualities." Deep. 
 

As remarkable as it was, gazing into the closet of a billionaire reminded me a little of an ex-boyfriend of mine. He was so proud of his music collection — to the point that one could wonder whether he actually thought he had a hand in creating his most treasured albums. But collecting is not the same thing as creating.  Is good taste a talent unto itself? Should we be at all surprised that one of the richest women in the world is a trendsetter in fashion? (Of course, I realize having this collection on view is a gift for the fashion students at FIT. Seeing such garments up close is so much more instructive than seeing them in a magazine or a book. There were many stunning examples of design. My favourite was this Chanel dress with copper-sequined yoke and epaulets:)

I didn't go to this exhibit expecting to feel any animosity toward the woman whose clothes I wanted to see. Indeed I felt nothing of this sort after seeing Savage Beauty, the Met's exhibition on McQueen. The clothes themselves are truly captivating. But I guess I had hoped for more from someone who is known for daring style and support of up-and-coming young designers than "I like shiny things" (a direct quote from Guinness. Also, my three-year-old says this occasionally).

Am I being too hard on Daphne Guinness?  I know since moving to New York City I've had issues with class politics (the Sunday Times' Style Section, for one, never fails to fuel my class rage). As the recession drags on, and so many people I know are just hoping to make it through the winter without having to buy new boots, to parade around in such ridiculously impractical outfits — or laud someone as an artist for doing so — it's a little unseemly. That's not to say art or fashion should take the backseat during economic hard times (beautiful things make us happier, more hopeful, right?), but the emperor has new shoes, and they're impossible to walk in.

Muppets, Paul Rudd, John Hunstman...LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT!

Me with my SNL wristband, post-show!

Last night my husband and I went to a dress rehearsal for Saturday Night Live, and it was the best night out I've had in years. There were Muppets, Jason Segal and a surprise appearance by Paul Rudd....I'm still coming down off the high of it. I've been to some other TV show tapings before, but Saturday Night Live trumps them all. That must be why tickets are so hard to come by (you have to enter the lottery in August, and then if you're chosen you get an email telling you the date for which you were awarded tickets. This process makes it mighty hard for out-of-towners to see the show  — unless you are willing to line up for hours for stand-by tickets, which are really hard to get. So the crowd at SNL is very New York, and not full of tourists like, say, Letterman.)

A dress rehearsal sounds 2nd-best to the live taping, but there is one big benefit: you get to see an extra half-hour of material that they end up cutting from the live show. (Of course that half-hour is composed of the sketches deemed too clunky for TV, but it's still fun to see how it's made). It's also interesting to come home and watch the live show to see what got cut, how jokes were tweaked, and whether the host wore his bow tie on air (he didn't).

The dress rehearsal starts at 8 p.m., and they run it exactly as if it's the live show: set changes happen swiftly in the time it takes for a few commercials. It's amazing to see how the dozens of crew members work together to build sets and then strike them in seconds, and cast members run off dressed as one character and come back after commercial as another.

Like with all live tapings, there's a great deal of waiting involved: first to get your precious tickets, then to go through security, then to take the elevator up to the ninth floor at 30 Rock, then to get into the studio...

I wish I had taken some sneaky photos, but they are no joke at NBC about shutting of your phones. Ryan actually took his battery out because his Blackberry malfunctions and he didn't want it to come to life and get us ejected from the best night of 2011.

Every moment of the show is super fun, even the "turn off your phones, there are the fire exits.." announcements, delivered by cast member Jason Sudeikis, one of my favourites. The band keeps the energy up during set changes and commercial breaks. I wish I could remember what song it was that Keenan Thompson sang to warm up the crowd (with the female cast members, excepting Kristen Viig, who was in the cold open sketch, as back-up singers). Mmmm, something Motown? He's really good (which we already know from "What's Up With That?")

Jason Segal was the host, and since he's currently promoting the new Muppets movie, we knew Kermit and the gang would be there. And even though we watched the stage be set for the monologue, and could see the puppeteers huddled around the back end of the the piano where Segal was to perform, it was still so delightful to see them pop out. It was one of my favourite parts of the show.  My other favourite sketches were the Casting-Regis'-Replacement sketch and Andre the Giant Orders and Icecream sketch, which was funny even before it began.

There's something truly enjoyable about watching a cast member lose their shit and laugh during a scene. Fred Armison, who has been on the show for nearly a decade, rarely does this. Which made it extra funny when he couldn't stop laughing during the Vogelchek sketch (otherwise known as the "family that makes out with each other"). Seconds later Paul Rudd and Jason Segal wildly made out — also so much more fun to see live.

While we were waiting in line Ryan saw Jon Huntsman (the other Mormon who wants to be the Republican candidate for president of the U.S.) walk by with a few of his staff members and security, apparently on his way up to the studios at NBC. Ryan guessed he was going to appear on SNL, but I scoffed: "Nobody knows who that guy is!" I said. It's too early in the campaign for SNL to start featuring politicos, and anyway, he's probably being interviewed on the nightly news, I thought. It's was 6 p.m.

To his credit, he didn't say "I told you so," but I think that was the high point of the night for Ryan, when the stagehand pushed Jon Huntsman out from the wings in a rolling office chair for his segment on Weekend Update. 

I feel so lucky that we got to see the show and I totally recommend seeing a taping if you can. But it's not so easy: to enter the lottery for tickets to a taping, you must email snltickets@nbcuni.com in the month of AUGUST ONLY. All you do is provide your contact info. You're not allowed to request a specific date or taping. Or if you've got time on your hands, you can line up for stand-by tickets the day of the show. They hand them out at 7 a.m. (a lady in the line-up told me she queued up twice — beginning at 2 a.m. — and didn't get tickets, so the lottery is the sensible alternative, really).

Not-so-cheeky Panties Pattern

I crossed a threshold last night, dear readers. I became that weird lady who makes her own underpants. I know, it's one of those things: like, that friend who makes her own yogurt. Why would you risk botulism when you can buy amazing pomegranate Greek yogurt for just $1.39 at the store? I don't get it either. But I was curious to see how hard stitching up a pair of undies could be. Also....I need new underpants (and have I mentioned we're broke?). 

I had some blue jersey left over from making leggings for Lucy, so I made two test pairs from Burdastyle.com member Emilykate's Cheeky Panties pattern. The first I made from her pattern with no adjustments, and they were indeed cheeky:

Oh-kay, that's not me. Did you think I would actually model underpants? (Though maybe if I had her photoshopper, I would). That picture is, however, a close approximation of the amount of cheek exposed when wearing Emilykate's Cheeky Panties. Here's my first finished pair:

 You can see they are very....thong-like through the crotch. Of course, my husband digs 'em, but I hate wedgies, so I adjusted the pattern to add extra coverage and prevent them (see where the extra paper has been added on to the pattern below. This is easy to do with a French curve and some fiddling:)

Not-quite-so-cheeky Panties Pattern

The results are pretty perfect. If I found this pair of undies in the store, I would buy five pairs. They sew up FAST, especially if you have a serger, though you really only need a zig-zag stitch. Again, here's where to get the pattern, which I do recommend, with some slight alteration: Burdastyle.com member Emilykate's Cheeky Panties pattern.

I'm so excited today because I'm meeting an old friend who is visiting from Toronto and we're heading to the Daphne Guinness exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Technology museum. (Also, to Chelsea Market, the High Line, and fabric shopping! What a great day in NYC.) And tomorrow we have tickets to see a taping of Saturday Night Live and Jason Segal is the host! My panties can barely stand it.