Bucket List: Kansas City Historic Garment District Museum

 

Three great things about the Kansas City Historic Garment District Museum:

1. Pictures are allowed.
2. If you have clean hands, you can touch anything you want.
3. Ann Brownfield, who worked as a designer in the district for 30 years, is on-hand for guided tours. Seriously, that alone should count for about 99.9% of your reason to go.

Why has it taken me so long to finally go?

1. Well, its hours vary by season.  Its currently open Fridays and Saturdays from 10-3, through the end of September, or by appointment. Because it's not a large museum, spring and summer dresses are currently on display; they'll switch out dresses for the holidays.
2. I needed to go with someone who wouldn't be ready to leave after 30 minutes *cough cough*
3. Um.  I don't know.  Life's busy and all that.

Wait.  You didn't know Kansas City had a garment district?  

After World War I, and through the 1940s, the area employed over 4,000 persons and boasted that 1 out of every 7 women in the U.S. purchased a garment designed and made in Kansas City. The garment manufacturing industry was the second largest employer of any industry in Kansas City.

http://www.kcgarmentmuseum.org/history/

The city's number 1 employer? That would have been the stockyards.

If you're the type of person who hates looking at other people's vacation photos, I'm sorry in advance. 

(read: here they come...)

Vintage machines and cutting tools

Designed by Valentino, but sewn here in Kansas City.  TWA was headquartered here until 1964.  

close up of cut work...how cool is that?

cotton dress with matching bolero

detail of fabric print

  

wool coat

 1/2 size dress; with photo below of designer

 silk halter dress with bolero

Ann Brownfield, the curator, has been accepting donations of dresses for the museum collection for about a decade.  Each donation came with a story about who wore it, where it was purchased, and what events it was worn to, so she can tell stories about every item, and then some.  I would have loved to hear more about her design process and traveling for purchasing fabrics, though.

My takeaways? 

How many companies today publish yearbooks of their employees?

Although they did have sergers, a lot of garments had seams that were pinked, pinked and overcast, or hand-hemmed.  Personally, I'm feeling better about seam finishing.

I also finally learned the differences between pattern sizing for juniors, missy, and 1/2 size.

So, are you wondering why Kansas City doesn't have a garment district anymore? 

The clothing manufacturers here in KC did not sell to the large department stores; they couldn't produce the amount of stock need for large department stores within the time frame.  Salesmen sold to smaller Mom-and-Pop stores all around the country, and as those stores closed, the garment manufacturers dwindled, too. I guess I never thought about how the closing of smaller stores would impact producers. 

If you've time to kill on the internets:

Kansas City Historic Garment District Museum 

We Were Hanging by a Thread, Ann Brownfield's book about the garment industry

KSHB Fox 41 news clip about the museum

Nelly Don, KC native

KC Public Library video series Meet the Past: Nell Donnelly (27 minutes)

And last, but not least, who wouldn't want to visit the park with a giant statue of a needle and button?

I finished my project for the Sew Weekly Reunion, too, and will be posting those later this week! 

The Not-so-Jiffy Dress

This was not a Jiffy dress.

But I do like it.

Why the false advertising? I dunno...okay, I do know.  30% of the blame goes to the pattern, 70% to the idiot in it.  In the interest of science, let me clarify:

• Every raw edge of this fabric had to be finished. Every. Single. One. Blame: Me.
• 8 darts.  I repeat: 8 darts. Blame: Pattern.
• consecutive sizes are not nested, making cutting a 12 on top and a 14 on bottom difficult.  I should have traced on tracing paper. Blame: Pattern
• I probably needed a 16 at the hips, but that's not included in this size. Blame: Pattern
• There is no/very little ease.  I sewed all seam allowances at 3/8" for a more "flattering" fit. (Read: able to zip closed.) Blame: Pattern
• I lined it.  Doh.  I even made it more difficult  by attaching the facings to a second dress cut out of lining fabric, using folded pleats for each dart. Blame: Me.  For making shit difficult.
• I did not follow the instructions, but put the zipper in the back pieces before attaching the front at the shoulders (clearly, dumb instructions). I attached the facing/lining after the dress, sewing the lining along the zipper first, then along the neckline.  I also followed this tutorial courtesy of Fashion Incubator for the facing, except with an invisible zipper. Blame: Me. Again for making it difficult.
• I actually managed to sew the armhole facings using sorcery and a variety of limber sleeve-bagging tricks.  My brain hurt after I managed to work that out. Blame: Me.  
• Dude, this dress grew during production.  I ran it through the washer and dryer again before hemming, which I'm very glad I did.   I bet my students are glad, too. Blame: Me, for choosing this fabric.
• I can only consume water, steamed rice, and vanilla ice cream while wearing this dress. One of out three's not bad. Blame: Me.

Hmm. By my count, that's 40% blame to the pattern...

 

The good stuff? 

• Oh my, this is lovely fabric.  For reals.  White linen (which every mother of two young boys needs), with a slight herringbone weave, thick and drapey, and soft. Lightly textured. 
• Lined in ivory Bemberg lining--oh so perfect against skin.
• Flattering fit, or that's what I'm going with.
• Machine washable (which every mother of two young boys needs).

•  Despite all my complaining, the dress did turn out very nicely, and I am proud of my work.  I'm not opposed to sewing this pattern again, but next time I'll do myself a favor and choose a slightly more stable fabric.  

The Facts:


Pattern: Simplicity 1609
Fabric: soft white linen from Kaplan's (remainder of bolt) + ivory Bemberg lining
Notions: 24" invisible zipper, Pro-sheer interfacing from Fashion Sewing Supply (along zipper and facings), white hem lace from inherited stash
Year: 2013 reprint of 1960's pattern
Time to complete:  week or two, but I was working on two projects at the same time
First worn: with a deep blue cardigan to work today



Bonus! I had enough left over of both the linen and Bemberg for a pair of Thurlow shorts.  They are not perfect, because at the last minute, I decided to line these, too, and that took some thinking.  Maybe I should actually buy myself that lining book everyone keeps blogging about...

Who decides to sew white linen at the end of summer?  

Um.  Me. 

Pattern and Notions Swap!

Formalities first: Huge thank-yous to Kat for hosting and organizing a pattern swap as part of the Sew Weekly Reunion!

...and an EVEN super-bigger thank-you to Suzy of SuzyBeeSews for the amazing package I found in my mailbox this weekend.

I have never participated in pattern swap/exchange, so I wasn't quite certain what to expect, but was honestly blown away by what I received!

Two patterns I've been eyeing, but neither of which I have yet, dark turquoise Hug-Snug, pretty lace trim, and a spool of beautiful blue silk thread, all three tucked inside a super cute handmade pouch.  

True confession # 1: As soon as I emptied out the pouch, my eldest grabbed it and ran off for parts unknown.  He returned it a couple of hours later stuffed with 5 (five!) Matchbox cars.

True confession # 2: Said pouch has been closely examined for duplicating purposes.

True confession #3: I've never used silk thread before.  Yay for new experiences!

I am very excited to try out my new patterns, and am plotting out some ideas for the Sew Weekly Reunion Fall Pantone Challenge.

True Confession # 4: Still struggling with a little of  Just-got-handed-a-test-and-my-brain-went-blank-itis.

Claiming my blog + Random Horror Story

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

First off, I'm claiming my blog on Bloglovin. All the other kids with their pumped up Kicks are there.

And because that's a lame post on its own, I have a scary story to share.  Feel free to turn off all your lights except a lone flashlight, and sit out under the stars listening to cicadas as you read on...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchclock

My husband works as an environmental consultant, which basically means, if there's bad stuff in the environment, he finds it, assesses the extent of it, makes a plan for remediation, and does it.  He travels for work fairly regularly, and although I used to get jealous, I don't anymore.  Turns out, creepy old abandoned buildings, leaky storage tanks, and old factories are not typically near tourist attractions, shopping,  and/or the nice side of town. Sometimes it's not even in a town, but several miles out along lonely railroad tracks where there are large snakes and no cell signal. Usually he comes home with at least one good story, but sometimes, he finds things.

Not creepy things mind you, but interesting finds: old glass electric insulators, watch clock stations, marbles.

Image source: http://www.etsy.com/listing/116320718/sale-vintage-aqua-glass-insulators

This past week, he was at an abandoned hotel/apartment building in Kansas doing an asbestos survey.  I'd heard all about the items left in apartments, the mold growing up walls where pipes had broken and leaked, the personal "adult" items left just inside doorways of rooms that had been occupied just a couple of months ago when he was last there.

He hadn't mentioned finding anything, so as I came to bed the other night, I was shocked and horrified to find this on my dresser:

For the life of me I couldn't imagine what had happened to my sewing machine, who was responsible, and how anyone was going to be able to explain their way into forgiveness.  Brushing his teeth, he left me in mute shock for what felt like an hour holding this, briefly contemplating and ultimately rejecting both divorce and life without children.

Finally spitting, he said he tripped over it in the parking lot of the abandoned hotel, knew it had something to do with sewing, and threw it in the truck.  

*Huge exhale*

Needing reassurance, I dragged him down to show us both.

It was the cover piece to my same sewing machine, a Singer 401A.

Somewhere, out there in the dark, there is a lost and broken Slant-o-Matic roaming the night, crying out for its lost spool pin, cover, and stitch chart.