Monthly Archives: July 2015

I Found the Old McCall Building!

Posted in Great Old Finds by

I spend a good amount of time in my day job as an architectural historian using old photos to help tell the stories of historic buildings and the people who lived, worked or otherwise spent time in them. So one day I took on a personal project and searched for sewing-related images.

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You know what first clued me in to searching for photos of the old McCall Building? I was about to head into Mood when I happened to spot faded “ghost signs” across 37th Street. See them in the photo above? Windows have since been punched into this side wall, but at one time the sign was very hard to miss. Scroll to the very end of this post to see what the building looked like over a century ago.

So, yep, at one time, McCall’s was right in the thick of things in the Garment District!

All photos and captions are from the Museum of the City of New York‘s digital collection. These were taken by the Byron Company in 1913.

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Gathered Butterfly Skirt

Posted in 2015 Sewing, Finished Projects by

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I loved this silk chiffon fabric the second I spotted it at Mood here in the city. Maybe because it was back in cold and snowy January, and this looked happy and springy to me.

Even though I bought two yards (60″ wide), I could’ve easily gotten away with buying just one yard for this gathered skirt. And, honestly, I really only used two-thirds of a yard anyway. Kind of kicking myself now because the fabric was a bit pricey, but maybe I’ll turn the remainder into a dress…

I cut two pieces that were 24″ long and about 28″ wide (including seam allowances). I used the gathered skirt of the Sewaholic Cambie dress as a guide, but I ended up going with 1/2″ seam allowances instead of 5/8″. I feel like gathered skirts can be somewhat tricky for rectangular figures, at least on me. It’s a comfortable design for summer though, so why not?

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