McCall's 8498 (1983): Cream Charmeuse Jumpsuit with Black Dots and Belt Variations

When I decided to sew McCall’s 8498 in charmeuse, I wondered:  Would the resulting jumpsuit look like pajamas?

Charmeuse: Satiny, Slinky and perfect for negligees and luxe loungewear

As described in my last post, Diahann Carroll and other Dynasty Divas had their names on some McCall’s patterns in the 80s.  As Dominique Deveraux, she strode into La Mirage dressed head to toe in luxurious creams and whites (complete with fur stole) for her first scene on Dynasty.  She immediately got frosty at the check-in desk because they wanted to put her in a junior suite.

You see, that wouldn’t do.  Dominique needed a suite with two bedrooms. One for her and one for her clothes, as she “does not sleep in her clothes, nor do I sleep with them!”

If my jumpsuit looked like something she’d sleep in, could I wear it out of the house in good conscience?  You know she doesn’t sleep in her clothes. So logic dictates her clothes wouldn’t look like sleepwear.

Your Logic is sound.

And this wasn’t the only conundrum I confronted once I settled on the charmeuse.  The very FACT of charmeuse was stress-inducing.

Why?  Because charmeuse, and other fabrics like it, are notoriously challenging to sew.  If you treat it like a nice simple cotton, you will be sorry. Charmeuse is complicated.  It shifts when you cut it. It puckers when you sew it. It tends to fray, thus all seam allowances must be finished.  Heat makes it shrivel and die. If charmeuse was a person, you’d consider her very high maintenance and dodge her phone calls.

Yet like many high maintenance individuals, charmeuse is also beautiful, charismatic and charming.  So, we make accommodations.

In the charmeuse’s case, that involved pre-treating it with a relaxing hot gelatin bath.  

The gelatin (original Knox brand, unflavored) stiffens the fabric (once dry).  I followed this method in Threads magazine for treating my charmeuse. Stiffening the fabric makes it easier to cut out the pattern accurately.

Other things I did to make sure I didn’t screw up my charmeuse include the following:

*sandwiching the fabric between large sheets of tracing paper to further prevent shifting when cutting out the pattern.

*buying the sharpest sewing needles I could find (to avoid the fabric getting mangled in the sewing machine) and pins designed for delicate fabrics (to avoid holes).

*Using a smaller stitch length (2mm).  This was advised all over the internet.

*Pulling the fabric taut from the back and front (but still allowing the machine to pull it over the feed dogs) while sewing (to avoid puckers). 

*Using french seams throughout (to hide fraying edges).

French seams are lovely.  They are often used for things made out of chiffon, charmeuse and other delicate fabrics.  But sewing a french seam involves sewing it TWICE. Once wrong sides together, then again, right sides together.  Thus, the seam allowances (with their fraying edges) are totally contained.  

I even used french seams on the in-seam side pockets, which I had never done before, using this tutorial.

French seamed pockets

This jumpsuit has two rows of ¼’ elastic at the waist.  The two casings for the elastic are created from the seam allowances where the top and bottom of the jumpsuit are joined.

The edges of these seam allowances also had to be finished.  French seams were not possible, I used a satiny bias tape to finish them.

I made the jumpsuit with long pants.  Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t make it with long sleeves because I didn’t have enough fabric.    I didn’t have enough to make the top’s front and back facings either, so I used a piece of black charmeuse I had leftover from my failure with McCall's 3167 (see previous post).   But I’m glad I didn’t have enough, because I think the black looks great.

I can’t be sure, but I don’t think this jumpsuit looks like pajamas.

Nope, I'm wearing them outside so they can't be PJs

I paired the jumpsuit with a few different vintage 80s belts:

Aqua looked snazzy plus I have matching VINTAGE 80s SHOES!!

How about a green belt and aqua shoes?

Pink belt with the top closed

Vintage Red 80s Belt!

This would be good to wear to a spring or summer wedding if you didn’t want to wear a dress.  

As to whether it’s Diva-worthy, I couldn’t say.  All I know is that the feeling of charmeuse against my skin makes me crave a glass of champagne!

I think we know who the real Diva is around here.

McCall's 8498 (1983): The Jumpsuit Formerly Known as Diahann Carroll's Clamdiggers

When I first encountered McCall’s 8498, I was immediately drawn to the stare-down leveled at me by Diahann Carroll:

Beloved by Dynasty fans everywhere, Diahann Carroll played diva Dominique Deveraux from 1984-1987.  

On her first day on the Dynasty set she sat down for an interview between takes:

She tells the interviewer that Dominique is one of the most “unlikeable” characters she’s ever played, and that’s what she wanted.  Minority actors, she states, often feel required to play “nice” people and Diahann wanted to break out of that. With a smile, she says, “I wanted to be the first black bitch on television.”  Elsewhere, I read that she suggested the writers imagine her as a powerful white man when writing her lines. This combo of attitude and writing ensured that her inner bitch was operating on all cylinders for her first encounter as Dominique with Joan Collins’ Alexis Carrington Colby in Alexis’ penthouse:

Dominique socially knee-caps Alexis by stating that Alexis’ champagne “was obviously frozen in the bottle at some point” and therefore undrinkable.  The shame! Alexis tries to recover by offering caviar which Dominique turns down because she can tell (on sight) that it’s Ostetrova and she prefers Petrossian beluga.   Well, who doesn’t?

The moment before you find out your champagne is unacceptable

I first wanted to make View B of McCall’s 8498, which has the capri pants option.  I was going to make it with a white broadcloth on the top and this cotton fabric with a yellow/white/grey clamshell pattern for the bottom:

All three Dynasty Divas (Diahann Carroll, Joan Collins and Linda Evans who played Krystle Carrington) had their names on McCall’s patterns in the 1980s.   The pattern makers were capitalizing on the popularity of Dynasty and channelling the characters’ glamour.  

Never leave home without your fur.

I had planned to call the blog post "Diahann Carroll's Clamdiggers" because of the nifty alliteration, not to mention the clever allusion to the shell fabric. But soon, I realized that making this pattern in this fabric (from Wal-Mart no less!) and calling it clamdiggers would be a total abomination, like expecting the Queen of England to wear tie-dye. Once I realized how wrong it would be to even connect the name Diahann Carroll with the word Clamdiggers, I scrapped the Wal-Mart cotton and entertained more luxurious notions.

I had some silky satiny and scary Charmeuse fabric that I had planned to use for this pattern:

I can so see Blanche from the Golden Girls in this jacket, can't you?

Charmeuse has a glossy satin finish on one side, with a duller finish on the other.  Like a Diva, it is beautiful, swishy, often seen at balls or galas, and can be notoriously DIFFICULT to work with.  You could say that, sometimes, sewing charmeuse is a real bitch. 

In fact, I scrapped the plans I had for McCall’s 3167 because right off the bat, the fabric for the jacket back inset puckered and frayed when I tried to insert it, and there was no saving it.  

So I had some jacket fabric left over, in addition to another piece of charmeuse I had planned to use for the dress.   So I bravely switched gears and decided to use the charmeuse for McCall’s 8498.

But first, I had to test run this pattern in order to work out any bugs before starting to sew it in the charmeuse.   Don’t tell Dominique, but I used an old bedsheet as my muslin fabric!

This bedsheet is a green khaki color, and it actually looks pretty good.  There were no fitting issues to work out either. When the test piece comes out well, some call it a “wearable muslin” and into the closet it goes.

Tune in later this week to see McCall’s 8498 in a version that I can only hope will be Diva-worthy!

Hoping? You'll need to do better than that.

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney (1984)

Upon its publication, Salon magazine wrote: “Bright Lights, Big City...succeeds in capturing, in fewer than 200 pages, an entire decade.”

With praise like that, how could I NOT read a book that “defined, and even determined the mood” of New York City in the 1980s (according to Vanity Fair)?  A book that, according to the New York Times Book Review, succeeded in being the “Manhattan novel” of its generation? 

The only mystery here is that it took me so long to pick it up.  As a teenager in the suburbs 35 years ago, I had heard of this book (or at least the 1988 movie of the same title starring Michael J. Fox).  

But I had never managed to read it. Fast forward a few decades and there I was, reading my library copy in the Big City itself. 

Even my non-bookish husband had taken a crack at it back in the day.  When he saw the book on my night-table he nodded and said, “Bolivian Marching Powder.”

What he was referring to was the book’s euphemism for that 80s drug of choice, cocaine.  

Right off the bat, we meet the main character at a NYC nightclub in the wee hours of the morning, yearning for a hit of the white stuff so he doesn’t just keel over.  The author employs an interesting method of bringing the reader close to this young man. He tells his story using “you” instead of in the first or third person, pulling the reader through the downward spiral of this guy’s life:  

“You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head.  The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. All might come clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder.”

And an excerpt from later on in the book:

“Down on the street, you clamp your sunglasses to your face and wonder where to go.  An old question, it seems to come up more and more frequently. You’ve lost whatever bravura you possessed a few minutes ago.  It’s just beginning to sink in that you have lost your job.”

 “You” is used throughout the entire book, without exception. I’m not sure what to call that literary technique, or even if it is a technique.  It was new to me and it gave the story immediacy and intimacy. It did not feel like a gimmick. And it seemed to be highly effective. It pulled me in so close that I never even saw the emotional gut-punch that, in retrospect, was so obviously coming.  You were (I was?) just trying to get through the story and lost sight of the big picture. You (I?) didn’t see the writing on the wall. Therefore it was very unexpected when you (yes, ME) felt your eyes tearing up while reading the final pages of Bright Lights, Big City on the subway.  

We never even get a name for this young guy who frequently takes the “Bolivian Local” to visit the rarified air of the metaphorical Andes.  But that doesn’t seem to be necessary.

I will stop here so as not to spoil this 80s classic for anyone who may not have read it.  I do recommend it. It’s hard to say if it is generation-defining. I’d be interested to hear others’ take on that.  

You could say that it captures a New York City that doesn’t exist anymore.  The city is, after all, always changing including the nightlife.  

For example, the Limelight was a nightclub famous in the 1980s and 1990s for its debauchery and even murder.  (It was ironically situated in what was a former Episcopalian church on the corner of 6th Avenue and 20th Street.) “Club Kid” Michael Alig, a frequent patron, was convicted in the 90s of the killing and dismemberment of a drug dealer well known in his circle.    

The Limelight closed down several years ago.  It then became a fancy marketplace where tourists could buy expensive chocolate and other high end treats.

Today, even chocolate is too indulgent for the Limelight.  Where lines of coke were once snorted, now people sweat out toxins after doing a wheatgrass shot.  

Here are pictures of “Limelight Fitness” taken by my husband a few months ago on a lovely spring day.  Yes, the Limelight is now a gym:

My guess is that the Bolivian Local does not make stops at the Limelight anymore.

Butterick 3977 (1986): Aqua on White Polka Dot Blouse with Elasticized Waist

Whilst poking around in Mom’s closet, a certain lovely lightweight top caught my attention.  I instantly recognized the 80s-ness of this garment, and brought it out for further explanation (and the vague hope that I could perhaps wrangle it into my own closet).

Turns out the top was made from a 1986 Butterick pattern that Mom had thrifted from her favorite consignment shop.  

Mom is a seamstress of a very high caliber.   While I’m not sure exactly when she first picked up a needle, perhaps her sewing journey truly began when Dad gave her a Singer Touch & Sew machine in 1966 before they even got married.  This machine has seen pretty much constant use from that moment forward. It is the ONLY sewing machine Mom has ever had and it has given her zero problems over the years. She confided that only this year did it need servicing.   

They don’t make things like they used to, do they?

Dad not only bought this machine for Mom...

...he took these pictures!  Thanks, Dad.

As mentioned in my previous post, Mom can sew ANYTHING.  She would have sewn us our house were that possible. Lingerie, bathing suits, bridesmaids dresses, pants, shirts for women and men, curtains, sundresses, hats to go with those sundresses.  Of course she made our prom dresses, thinking nothing of sewing my black strapless gown in satin and chiffon, notoriously “difficult” fabrics. NO PROBLEM.

And don’t get me started on the crafting!  From braided rugs to Ukrainan painted eggs (she is not Ukrainian but learned this wax-resist method of decorating eggs), from floral arranging and Japanese needlepoint….she’s done it and done it well.  And I’m only scratching the surface, here!

Obviously, it is ever so helpful to have a Mom like mine, in so many ways.  Naturally she advises me in my sewing and in my previous post, she styled the photo shoot.  This time, I’m posting about a top she made because it is just so cute and SO 1980s!

Mom told me she was attracted to the neckline of View B.  She also modified the pattern by essentially cropping the top where the black lines are on the line drawing:

She also added a one inch elastic at the bottom.

The fabric is lightweight, breathable, semi-opaque and some kind of cotton or cotton blend. The fabric and elasticized waist moves this garment into the "blouse" category for me. Although it is still a casual piece, it could easily be dressed up with a pencil skirt and heels.

Mom didn’t want to model it, so I did.  But sadly, it went back into HER closet after the photo shoot.  Guess I’ll just have to make my own someday!