Tomorrow February 7th, the first Friday in February, is Go Red for Women day. The American Heart Association has organized every year for the past decade to bring awareness to the fact that heart disease kills more women than all types of cancer combined.
I spent several years working at Macy's, which is one of the biggest sponsors of the event. In addition to the sale of the AHA's red dress pins and the extra percentage off the sale that a pin or other red item of clothing earned customers, Macy's also educated its (mostly female) employees on the risks of heart disease in women. I get email from the Go Red website on a monthly basis, and find them useful and informative, check it out for yourself.
The first Friday in February is a day to wear red, and years ago I made a red blouse specifically for the occasion. I picked up the fire-engine red cotton at the local No-Ann fabrics and used a pattern in my library.
It worked well for a few years, but the three-quarter length sleeves gave me trouble- they constricted and made movement difficult. I tossed the.troubled garment into my sewing pile unsure of what to do. I considered tearing apart for scrap use, but decided to alter it instead. I still had some of the fabric, and decided to add plackets to the sleeves-using a template found in a book on garment sewing. After removing the cuffs I realized I would need to replace those. Uh-oh, that could have been a problem, but I had just enough fabric to do that-as long as I only used .25inch seam allowances.
Here you can see the placket pieces, it is.my first attempt at adding plackets to a garment. I've done many simple cuff bands and the occasional continuous lap, bit never something as 'complicated' as a placket. Well it is rather simple and quite ingenious. I predict more blouses with plackets in my future.
This Is still a work in progress because I haven't don the finishing work on the cuff- stitching down the facing, top stitching around the edge and the dreaded buttonholes and buttons... I have yet to perfect a buttonhole, and I remind myself that practice makes perfect, but it's still something I dislike.
I spent several years working at Macy's, which is one of the biggest sponsors of the event. In addition to the sale of the AHA's red dress pins and the extra percentage off the sale that a pin or other red item of clothing earned customers, Macy's also educated its (mostly female) employees on the risks of heart disease in women. I get email from the Go Red website on a monthly basis, and find them useful and informative, check it out for yourself.
The first Friday in February is a day to wear red, and years ago I made a red blouse specifically for the occasion. I picked up the fire-engine red cotton at the local No-Ann fabrics and used a pattern in my library.
It worked well for a few years, but the three-quarter length sleeves gave me trouble- they constricted and made movement difficult. I tossed the.troubled garment into my sewing pile unsure of what to do. I considered tearing apart for scrap use, but decided to alter it instead. I still had some of the fabric, and decided to add plackets to the sleeves-using a template found in a book on garment sewing. After removing the cuffs I realized I would need to replace those. Uh-oh, that could have been a problem, but I had just enough fabric to do that-as long as I only used .25inch seam allowances.
Here you can see the placket pieces, it is.my first attempt at adding plackets to a garment. I've done many simple cuff bands and the occasional continuous lap, bit never something as 'complicated' as a placket. Well it is rather simple and quite ingenious. I predict more blouses with plackets in my future.This Is still a work in progress because I haven't don the finishing work on the cuff- stitching down the facing, top stitching around the edge and the dreaded buttonholes and buttons... I have yet to perfect a buttonhole, and I remind myself that practice makes perfect, but it's still something I dislike.
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