Saturday, August 30, 2014

Big Thoughts

Did anyone else notice something new when the fall McCall patterns came out? If you don't wear plus sizes, maybe not. I do, but it still took me a second to notice it.

M7029M7028M7027

Khaliah Ali is now designing for McCall instead of Simplicity. I'm not sure how I feel about this. When I first looked at the new patterns (before realizing this was kind of a big deal) I thought, "This is just more of the same."  Then, I took a closer look at the third one.

Here it is in all its glory:

                            M7027

If you looked at this and thought that you needed to make that immediately, please let me know. Apparently, I am further from the pulse of fashion than I thought and I need counsel. Is this the modern muumuu?  Big girls, don't give in! We gotta fight this.

The state of plus-size fashion makes me a bit sad. Fit -- acknowledgement that there are different body shapes withing plus -- still isn't completely there. When I go into stores like Lane Bryant and Ashley Stewart, I see fashion, but the clothes are cheap. To be fair, I find that in regular sizes too. When did linings go away? I love the Encore section at Nordstrom, but it has its drawbacks too. I'm thankful for the better quality, including less polyester. The trade off is that it isn't as fashion-forward. Lined dresses and skirts are still few and far between. Lined pants are nonexistent.

All the more reason for me to start taking sewing more seriously. Speaking of which, I made a second muslin of the Vogue 8787 bodice after my shoulder alterations. I still need to lower the back neckline. That's on today's to-do list. I think the upper back is a bit tight too.

Peace and blessings.

1 comment:

Robin said...

I agree. Ali's new line is a major disappointment. Fabrics are nice, though. I used to love her patterns, still buying some of the ones I missed on Ebay and Etsy.