Fashion, fashion, everywhere!

I woke up to the sound of steady rain this morning, and the sun wouldn't show itself the entire day. It would have been the perfect day to stay inside for a marathon sewing session, but I had places to go and people to see.

Notice the cute tape measure tied around Diana's neck!

First, I visited Diana who was volunteering on behalf of ASG at Swap-O-Rama-Rama. It was part of a larger sustainability festival happening this weekend. There was a huge pile of donated clothing available for refashioning, and all the sewing machines were whirring away with kids and adults creating "new" garments.

Next, I went to a fashion show put on by students of Bunka Women's University. Bunka is a fashion school in Tokyo, Japan, and for the past several years they have been holding fashion shows in the US and France. Eleven collections were presented, each with different music and theme. I was really impressed, the details were phenomenal. I have to thank Diana for turning me on to this event, she wasn't able to attend because of her commitment to the Swap-O-Rama. But, Bunka is going to do this again in Seattle, so, next year Diana!

(My photography improved over time as I fiddled with my camera during the course of the show. You can click on any picture for a larger image.)

Black pleather & feathers.

Metallic & futuristic.

Very cool layers - a modern take on traditional Japanese attire.

Everything in this collection was knit and in pastel colors.

Simple dress styles featuring beautiful embroidery.

Expressing your individuality when you've got to wear a school uniform.

I loved these looks - colorful pom pom trim set against bold plaids.

Strong menswear theme.

I wish I had a better picture of this - extremely intricate pleating, poofing; just amazing.

Formalwear, and a bride!

The talented designers.

The show will go on

Everyone, thanks for your helpful, and speedy, comments regarding the BWOF dress. The resounding response has been to continue with this style, which I am especially excited to do now that I've seen TigerFeet's beautiful silk version! I'm going to follow both Katy and Patsijean's suggestion to make the bodice a bit larger.

I've got a couple of fun sewing/fashion related events planned on Sunday; I'll be sure to bring my camera along so I can share with you.

Opinions needed - stat!

Yes, today is September 29 and I'm just starting on my September BWOF project! I guess the delay is that I've been trying to choose a pattern that would work well with a fabric in my stash, but I found something wrong with everything - not enough yardage, stripes too difficult to match, colors that I don't actually want to wear... you know how it goes...





So yesterday I ran over to the Pacific Fabric Outlet and bought some lightweight olive green wool flannel with the intention of making dress 117. I just whipped up the muslin (in muslin fabric) and here it is...

Overall fit is great, I cut a 36 for the bodice and a 38 for the waist and skirt.

However, I'm feeling like the pleats in the bodice are really drawing attention to my bust! In fact, the little point of fabric where the pleat ends is very nipple-like. (Even I was fooled by this, I checked and my bust point is ~1/2" away).

The BWOF dress was made in plaid, maybe the design helps to distract?

So.... I'm not sure if I should proceed. Do you agree that the pleats are saying "look at these!"? If I make this in wool flannel, will the pleat point be a little softer?

I'd like this to be something I could wear to work. Worst case scenario is I make it and it'll be a non-work garment, I guess. Can you think of any easy modifications? Or should I move on to another pattern?

Lisette

The other week when I was at the dressmaker's house, she showed me some of her vintage sewing books very similar to Lutterloh, in which you use your measurements and a special tape measure in order to draft an array of patterns. One was called something like Sunburst, and another was called Lisette. I hit up Ebay with these search terms and to my surprise I found an auction for a 1969 Lisette book! I was the only bidder and it's now in my hot little hands.

You use 2 measurements - your bust and hip - to draft various patterns with the help of a special tape measure. I'm not sure that I'll ever get around to trying this; mainly I just love looking at the late 1960's fashions.

Have any of you ever used Lisette?

Enabler alert: I just checked Ebay and there is another Lisette book available... It seems to be identical to mine, published in 1969.

Tagged

Cidell tagged me to tell you 8 things about myself. Ready or not, here they are:

1- A croissant & cappuccino are my ideal breakfast.

2- I am so intrigued by India and it's culture - the good and the bad - the food, the saris, the wealth and the poverty. One day I will make it over there...

3- I like to do logic puzzles.

4- I would love to spend a year living out in the countryside making cheese. If you know of a creamery that needs an extra set of hands...

5- I haven't had a car since I was in high school. I have, though, had a lot of kind friends. My husband has a car so I guess technically I am not entirely car-less now but it's pretty rare that I drive it for my own personal errands. I've always made it a point to live within walking distance of a grocery store and a bus stop.

6- In my next life, I'm going to be a pastry chef.

7- I am a sucker for anything that's vintage and handmade.

8- I am totally into the whole flavored vodka trend.


So now I'll pass the buck on to five more! No pressure, you can take it or leave it:

Dawn of The Secret Pocket
Laura of Laura's Sewing Room
Narcissaqtpie of Sewl Sista
Stephanie of Creative Reveries
Leora of Journey to Couture

Back in action

Okay, so I had a little unplanned leave of absence from the blog and my sewing project due to illness. But as of this weekend I'm recovered! (Wanting coffee in the morning and wine in the evening is indicative of a return to health, right?)

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I made some progress today on the Vogue 8436 jacket. Initially I was going to do the longer version, but after seeing that Rag & Bone jacket, I've decided to go for the shorter view.

I interfaced the entire front and back sections based on various things I've read on jacket construction:

- Laura's post on deconstructing her RTW jacket

- Threads article on Armani jackets

- Fashion Incubator post on interfacing

Actually what I gathered is that, for the back section, only the top portion (as far down as the armholes) needs to be fused, in addition to the hem. I did the entire back piece for simplicity, hopefully this'll be okay.

cut the interfacing a little wonky - oops!

I also interfaced the top of the raglan sleeves. I couldn't really find any info on raglan sleeves in jackets so I don't know what the "right" thing to do is, but I figure it couldn't hurt to give them a little more oomph too. (I hope I don't come to regret this!)

I used pro-tricot fusible interfacing from Sew Exciting.

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Good mail! This week's New Yorker is "The Style Issue"; it includes an article on Donatella Versace which will surely entertain. And so that I could qualify for free shipping, I added Couture Sewing Techniques to a recent Amazon order. No more schlepping to the library for this one.

Other people's craftiness

I spent most of this weekend sleeping and drinking hot tea and napping in order to help my body fight off an illness, so not much sewing news to report. I did redraft the sleeve on Vogue 8436 but I didn't get much farther than that.

My mom sent me a really great package recently, and it included these two things:

A vintage apron from a thrift store. I love the scalloped hem, and whoever made it did a perfect job of applying the binding. The little circle pocket to echo the dotted fabric is adorable. Somehow my mom finds the best aprons at the thrift stores in Colorado Springs, CO; one of these days I'll have to do a post on my mini-collection of vintage aprons.

This chocolate brown knitted bag, it's the Everlasting Bagstopper from the Summer 2007 issue of Knitty. Made with hemp yarn, just like they recommend in the pattern! My mom is a great knitter; I know how to knit but my mom is really the master in our family. She is a patient but fast knitter while I'm exactly the opposite. This is the perfect gift for me as I am such a freak for resusable bags. You'll find fabric bags in nearly every corner of my house, and always one in my purse. I'm happy to have this knitted bag to add to the mix.

In the flesh

Well! I had a very interesting Thursday. Bear with me as I think this may be a long story...

It all started when I was browsing Craigslist and found someone who was selling "thousands of sewing patterns, as far back as the 1930s." I couldn't resist calling to get more info. The woman selling the patterns was a dressmaker and had purchased many of these patterns to study the details; given an upcoming move, she wanted to get rid of a big part of her stash. She mentioned that she has also has a lot of Japanese sewing magazines too. So after the call, I shot out an email to alert Diana of Geek Sewing, who, as you know, has a blog dedicated to Mrs Stylebook and dabblings in other Japanese sewing mags. And she also lives in Seattle.

Fast forward to the evening, I had just arrived at the seller's house and was starting to dig through boxes of patterns. Penny, the seller, got a phone call, and this is her side of the conversation:

"Hello?...Yes....Yeah...Uh huh...Wait, I recognize your voice, do I know you?...This is Penny!...Yeah, your friend is right here." Penny hands the phone to me and it's Diana! It turns out they know each other from a local sewing group a few years back.

So Diana arrived about half an hour later, and it was the first time we met in person. She is just as sweet as you'd expect, and also a little bit sassy, trying to coerce Penny into giving her a 2005 Mrs Stylebook that she needs to complete her collection. Diana brought her Mrs Stylebook sloper and patterns she had drafted for show-and-tell. The three of us talked about bust points, dealing with knits that curl at the edges, and dressforms. All in all, it was a fun evening!

As for what I purchased, well, the majority of the patterns were from the 1980s and 1990s, lots of great Vogue designer stuff, but I'm just not sure how to adapt these for today. I did get a handful of patterns from the 50s and 60s.

Anyway, small world!

I wish all my mail was like this

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing the boards at Supernaturale (a site I found through one of Stacy's links, I think), and I clicked on the Swap & Trade board. There I found someone who was interested in obtaining some of the Built by Wendy Simplicity patterns, and she was located in Portugal. Well you know what my first thought was... Patrones! So we had a nice little email exchange, and look what was waiting for me in my mailbox today - not only the latest issue of Patrones, but also vintage navy plaid fabric and dotted bias binding!

Isabel, thank you so much for your generous package :)

Why muslins are a good thing

True, the temps are now in the 70s and 80s, but several times already those of us here in Seattle have felt like the summer is over, and I think that's why I can't get this wool coat out of my head. So this weekend I made a muslin of Vogue 8436. I like the simplicity of this coat, plus there are no fussy notched lapels to deal with, so this should be a pretty quick project.

I just noticed that Rag & Bone has a coat that's eerily similar to View A (the red coat). It's called the Glenna coat and it's available at Neiman Marcus for $495.

My "real" coat will be in the purple (aubergine!) wool that I bought last week. For my muslin I'm using a checked cotton, a Goodwill purchase that's been in my stash for too long. It's almost a twill, I guess you could say, I think it's a little more stiff than my wool but a pretty good approximation. I didn't have enough of the checked fabric, so I made the second sleeve in a something that has a little more drape; I was interested to see how this might affect the look of the sleeve.

Well, I put on the jacket, and the first thought that popped into my mind was "CLOWN!". Seriously, the sleees are huge. It may not seem so in the pictures, but when I'm are wearing it, I just feel like I'm surrounded by sleeves.

I feared this might be the case when I was tracing the pattern. For perspective, here's the sleeve pattern piece with the sleeve wrist band right below it. The sleeve pattern piece is more than 2 feet wide.

So, I've got a little redrafting to do in order to make this jacket wearable. I'll take away an inch or two from the sleeve length, and oh, I don't know, close to a foot from the sleeve width.

"What are you going to make?"

Cidell posted a timely query on the Pattern Review message boards recently about pre-treating wool. The suggestions people offered up were:

- get it steam pressed or dry cleaned at the dry cleaners
- steam press it yourself at home
- wash it on the delicate cycle and line dry

I have a few wool garments that I made last year. I didn't pre-treat the fabric, I haven't taken them in for dry cleaning yet, and now I am afraid to because I'm worried they'll shrink. I wouldn't be completely crushed, but still it would be a loss (and a gain for someone shopping at Goodwill, I suppose). So I decided to go on the offensive here and pre-treat the wools I bought earlier this week.

I took two fabrics and swung by my dry cleaners after work yesterday to get them steam pressed. The woman who has been at the counter every time I've been there for the past 4 years was not there. A different woman was working yesterday. So I plopped my fabrics on the counter, and our conversation went something like this:

Me: Hi. I'm going to use this fabric to make some garments, a coat and a dress. Should it be steam pressed first so that it won't shrink when I get the clothes dry cleaned later?

Her: Oh? You are going to sew this? You are so talented! What are you going to make?

Me: A coat and a dress. It's wool. Is dry cleaning going to shrink it if I don't have it steam pressed first?

Her: Oh I don't think so, but I'm not 100% sure. I don't think so. What are you going to make?

Me: A dress and a coat. So it's not going to shrink when it's dry cleaned?

Her: You are so talented!

I refrained from screaming "WHERE IS THE REGULAR LADY?!" and instead I just smiled, said thanks, picked up my fabric, and left.

Maybe I should have stayed and asked her to steam press the fabric, but I wasn't thinking straight.

Well, I am way too lazy to steam press the fabric myself, so I cut a few 4" x 4" swatches and threw them in the washing machine with a few other delicate cycle garments. I let them line dry overnight, and today I ironed them to get out some wrinkles.




I traced each of the swatches before washing, and you can see that they all shrunk a little bit. The good news is that the look and feel of the fabrics is unchanged. So, I guess I am going to have a little wool-washing party with these fabrics.

When I buy wool in the future, I'd do the swatch test again, because I don't think all wools are going to turn out so nice after washing.

Gearing up for fall sewing

Pacific Fabrics, a local fabric store chain in the Seattle area, often has a sale on holidays like Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and.... Labor Day! This includes the outlet location which already has great prices on past season and remnant fabrics. Silks and wools at the outlet are usually $9.99/yard, so during the 25% off sales they are only $7.50/yard. It's a great time to build up the stash. So that's what I did on Monday.

My focus was on wools for the upcoming cool weather. The dark colors in the picture are navy and aubergine. The camel color is a wool knit, not sure what I'm doing with that yet but it was too good to pass up.

I picked up a few cotton(?)/rayon(?) knits too. (Most of the fashion fabric does not have fiber content available.)

Altogether I got 8.5 yards of wool and 3.5 yards of t-shirt knits for $79.70 after tax. Not bad! Now time to get sewing!

My September BWOF arrived today. I can't wait to devour it.

1960's inspired LBD

Every few months I pull this pattern from my stash and think about making it up. Finally last week I decided to go through with it. It's Simplicity 7170 with a copyright year of 1967.

Likes/dislikes
There's nothing to dislike about this pattern. It's quick to make and easy to wear. It's a great piece for going out for dinner or drinks, and when the weather cools off I'll wear it with tights.

Fabric
Rayon/poly/lycra

Alterations/design changes
I shortened the length and made the sleeves a bit wider for more of a kimono effect. I also widened the neck.

The pattern included facings for the neckline, instead I just finished the neckline like a t-shirt with a 1.5" strip of fabric. Also, the pattern included a facing for finishing the sleeves; instead I opted to just turn the edge under and stitch.

The center front and center back seams provide minimal shaping; if I were to make this again in a print, I'd just cut the front and back pieces on the fold; the front has a bust dart which is what really matters.

I added asymmetric pockets, and that was actually the most time consuming part of the construction.

Conclusion
I'd really love to make this up in a Missoni-style knit, so I'm keeping my eyes peeled for that.

LBB: Little Black Blouse

I missed my goal deadline by a week, but here it is, the 8/2007 BWOF gathered, tie-front blouse.

Likes/dislikes
The front gathering is very flattering, it really accentuates and adds curviness at the waist.

The back doesn't fit me as well as the front; there's a little too much fabric happening in the upper back area. I didn't notice this with my muslin, but that's quite possibly due to the fact that I only eyeballed the SAs when cutting out the muslin. Still, it's good enough to wear to work.

Fabric
Woven cotton with a touch of lycra

Alterations/design changes
Sleeves: As I mentioned before, I altered the sleeves by morphing this blouse with another blouse's sleeve because I'm not into the dropped shoulder look. The end result is okay, but then again I'm terrible at setting in sleeves.

Collar: The instructions indicate that both the top and bottom collar pieces (collar and stand) should be interfaced. In another BWOF blouse I made up, the instructions said specifically "interface top collar only" and this pattern didn't say that. I did a bit of research about collar interfacing and found that usually just one side is interfaced although occasionally both are interfaced. So, I interfaced both top and bottom, which resulted in a very stiff collar. I think it looks okay, but if I were to make this again, I'd just interface the top collar pieces.

Conclusion
I like how the blouse looks with the sleeves rolled up, a little more casual, so I'm going to wear it that way. Overall this blouse was easy to sew, and given it's flattering fit, I'd certainly recommend it.