One Company to Rule Them All Gets Bought, and related thoughts

https://craftindustryalliance.org/css-industries-including-big-4-pattern-companies-acquired-by-design-group/

I'd like to thank Carolyn of Diary of a Sewing Fanatic for this link.

Previous to this event, the Big4/CSS released this pattern catalog, which I read through yesterday at Joann's

This coat is going to drive me mad until I figure out which game or book or movie it's aping.

back, just in case you forgot kids

 

All brands served here. 

Find it online!  I like that mom is doing historical, while child is doing piratical. 

Capes are their own category. Unicorns are animals, too.

Pageant = Not Beauty Pageant

Pageant = Church performance of Christ's birth or death.

I still think there should be an official 'rock' costume for the opening of the tomb, because I know at least one mom from my childhood who was really tired of winging it. Or do we all still use big appliance cardboard to paint one on?

Oh come on. You know the scene by now

Love, Actually

The ultimate costuming challenge.

 Annnnyway, back to the book:

 I'm guessing sizing has been made consistent between brands, because we're putting it in print.

Ease chart? Ooooh. Also guys, This is becoming the catalog I'm most likely to liberate from the table, just for this material alone. Then again, I did just take all these photos, WHICH YOU AND I CAN ENBIGGEN FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.....

This page just says it all. We are one. Subnoted www.simplicity.com 

Trademarks registered! Ooooooooh! All rights reserved? Oooooooooooo
For ALL of them?

Which brings me back to my usual licensed/unlicensed hand flapping. The brands have had competing designs that are licensed and pay royalties to the designer, and designs that.... don't.

Sarah wrote about this better than I could

https://blog.pattern-vault.com/2019/01/25/outlander-costumes/

Now in teal

So my question is: now that one company owns the licenses, wouldn't it make sense for them to tidy up their collections? Eliminate the duplicates and the unlicensed?

Or just carry on as usual? 

Whose signature on the license counts? Have the licensing companies paid one minute of attention to this? Would they? 

And what about Disney?  Because they care about this stuff. More so than LVMH ever would.

Yaya Han gets her own section. And yes, this is Marvel's Disney's Squirrel Girl

And the inspired by/unlicensed/mystery category 

Elf-ish

Achievement unlocked!

 I've buttonholed every cosplay gamer I meet with the left side photo, and no one id's it.

Now this copy is new to me. Even though it references 'taking your game to the next level', I'm stuck on: Fierce 

Mm. You could get there. Certainly the instructions could help you with those flame appliques.

Frankly I'd do this one

All hail the queen

I'm going to leave this here, and spend some internet time with Design Group UK.

Of course, more later.

 ------

Fun link time!

We have discussed this licensing issue before, but to link up other people's work/opinions

(and a lot of hobbyist lawyering in here)

We talk about and link up the banana here

https://www.trademarkandcopyrightlawblog.com/2017/10/halloween-costumes-and-copyright-5-things-you-should-know/

I highly recommend this one, because it's so not sewing related

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171018/09330738427/disney-only-fun-allowed-childrens-birthday-parties-is-properly-licensed-fun.shtml

There's a YouTube video linked in this one, from a panel at San Diego Comic Con 

https://www.deviantart.com/techgnotic/journal/Fan-Art-Law-326536193

This will give you a little idea of Disney's relative financial interests 

https://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/star-wars-inspired-fashion

McVoguerickity

I think that sums it up.

Sure, I'm leaving out KwikSew, Burda, New Look and the host of other companies doing business with The One Company To Rule Them All

but I just want to use this term here so I know when I thought of it. 

That's all.
-july 24, 2019

Dots and Stripes

You're welcome, but these should be on the outside of the envelope.

I think this is the first time in awhile I've opened a McVoguericity (the One Company to Rule Them All?) pattern and cut into it. I tend to read the directions and look at the layout and then fold them back up and make something else.

I cut the 16 because booooooty

Not suitable for plaids, stripes....WELL!

Challenge ACCEPTED.

(saving the plaid for later)

That neckline is way too wide

So I slashed and brought it in

Checked it against my recent successful neckline/shoulder seam

Drew a new neckline in green Mr Sketch (mmm minty!)

Cut it

Trued it up with the back bodice

And let's just say I messed around with the grain directions.

Except when I didn't

My working plan. Patterns are cheap - this didn't even get to the sketchbook level.

I used a yard and a half of each and goofed around a lot. This was an evening.

A fun evening. Really. Listened to "Science AF" with Jesse Klein and Dave Ciaccio. A science podcast by improv comedians who really like science. http://www.scienceafpod.com/scienceaf

Lots of f-bombs. Not for the kids.

Oooh. Tent stripe? Oh.

Not exactly the same turquoise bluish green. I didn't check this until I was taking photos.

Oh.

Matching the pieces up precisely was not an option after my slapdash cutting job. I had about an inch of slop width, and I put that at the sides, choosing to line up the center line as straight as possible. The original pattern has a bend there, as mentioned.

Looks okay.

It should look eye-catching, not stomach turning.

Now, this is the trick I learned, pattern testing for Cake Patterns

(MISS YOU STEPH C)

when you want to get something exactly where you want it, and also want to sew it together on a seam edge.

I could pin it and top stitch the pieces together. 

But I don't want that flappy edge.

So...

You line up the pieces, with the raw edges ironed over to their finished seam allowances.

Keeping them in proper relation to each other, you're going to iron them in place

I do love this stuff.

Wonder Tape is great, but it won't hold well enough on anything with a texture, 

and fusibles will fail well enough, you can pull them apart and re-iron them.

And then I open it up and stitch the seam line (the crease)

I pin them on the dress form to take a long look.

I will be honest: there are a lot of dresses that just stop here. The Infinity War novelty cotton dress dropped dead here recently. It's now a top, and you may see it eventually.

I am old enough to know when to say when.

But this isn't it.

I didn't like their pockets, so I drafted my own.

I could have made much cooler ones, but I was going to run out of fabric. 

Action shot

And then I decided I wanted facings for the rounded cuts by the hem.

Which required pinning the dress to the ironing board to work out.

(dress dangling upside down onto floor not shown)

I used the printed selvage down the back seam (another reason to straighten that out)

The floor shows it off well. I tried to alternate the dots and stripes from quadrant to quadrant. The hem facings  are not in the original pattern, and I like them better. 

I need to stress here: I did not follow proper bias/ongrain alternating. The dots are ongrain, the stripes are on bias. In a year or two, this is going to look like hell.

This is NOT heritage sewing.

And I will have worn it to bits by them.

And I wore it to work today.

It was a little heavy for 90F, but the skirt (which is a little long for me) swishes nicely. The hem side curve facings, plus a 1.5 " hem really gives it some body.

And for once, everyone in the family and at the job liked it.

So I guess this is the most sedate dress of the summer, even with Tent Stripes. And Pom Poms

I am entering it in the Pattern Review Stripes and Dots challenge, just in time.

If you like to vote, you can vote for me.

Or you can vote for someone else. Or not at all.

But remember, if you live in the USA, you had damn well better vote in November.

Not a link.