I sewed a little more

[Oh darn: this draft is from some time earlier in the year. Oops, forgot]

I have made a bit more progress on a couple of things. But nothing seems to get done easily, let alone quickly.

Issues with two skirts:

My black and white wool skirt still needs the inside corner of the vent sorted out, I'm not happy that I haven't done that yet. And I thought I was done with my second self-drafted wool skirt, the one in the heathery pinkish-red.  It isn't!  Sneef!

I had blind hemmed the bottom of the wool fabric hem to make sure it would lie flat. Then I hand sewed the lining to it. Well guess what: now the lining pulls at the skirt in plenty of places and I basically have to re-do that.

Or pull the blind hemming back out and I'd have to un-do and re-do at least some of the sewing on the lining for that too. It's not exactly a win-win situation - I'll have to do quite a bit of work either way. I do have the feeling that the blind hemming could continue to be a problem. Bother!

Update: I finally got started on this and it didn't even take long. Does it ever? You just build up this problem in your head and it seems insurmountable!  I put lots of pins into place and released the lining - sewing it back was the work of a half hour at most.

Here is the problem of the black and white skirt:

Folding the hem the wrong way at the back vent looks terrible!  Really amateurish.

Here is the inside:

I did plumb up the open bit a little so it's easier to see in a photo. But the fabric might have done that by inside when wearing so this definitely couldn't stay the way it was.

Another update: I finally got over the "but I've already hand-sewn it on!" feeling and re-did it. Again, it didn't take nearly as long as anticipated.


I don't like the asymetric jersey top in the Brushstrokes pattern, I can't see myself wear it because it doesn't look very nice on me. I am losing weight at the moment because I'm counting calories but it doesn't seem to affect my waist line in the slightest so the problem with this top will continue. Plus I'm bound to put weight back on at some point.

I need to get a photo taken of me wearing this to illustrate the issue:

 

Also: it doesn't help that the lining now turns towards the outside which you can see in the badly fuzzy photo on the left. Grumble.

- - -

I long wanted to make a dress with a waist seam in the shape of an inverted V or chevron. This shape might be called 'swallow wings'.  I didn't have the right sort of pattern and thought I could draw this myself, but I never did.

I found New Look 6183 which has this waist seam but it also has some rouching along the top of the front side panels where they meet the centre front panel. I wasn't keen on those but I tried the original side panel piece when I tried out my toile, and then folded the side panel piece to suppress some of the excessive length so I could sew this other side with less gathering.

I liked the lesser amount better because I feel that it won't show up my big tummy as much as the original rouching would.  Not sure if that's wishful thinking.

 

There are no bust darts: the top pieces are gathered under each bust. This is a style I have not tried before so it'll be interesting to evaluate.

I had set aside a cheap viscose fabric that I got in a closing down sale. This is a fabric that irons wonderfully well and drapes quite well too.  It is a fabric that's quite light though and the flimsiness means that this is slightly difficult to sew: both my overlocking and the straight stitches wrinkle up and make the seams pull.

A good press makes this a bit better but doesn't fix it altogether.  Rough skin on my hands also gets stuck on this fabric and I find that I have to drag it over my ironing board because it clings to it as well. I've never encountered this problem before!

These problems mean that I got rather disenchanted with carrying on with this dress and feel that I need to try the pattern in another fabric. It would be interesting to see if which gathering I prefer in a less light fabric.


So glad I managed to sort out the vent on the black and white skirt, hopefully I'm making progress with other things too. Fingers crossed.

Onwards and upwards!

Book: "Vintage Details" by Jeffrey Mayer and Basia Szkutnicka

My photo isn't terribly great, but this is what it looks like

I have bought and am giving myself a fantastic book as a present. Yay me!

"Vintage Details - A Fashion Sourcebook"  is just wonderful. It is also pretty heavy, a real coffee table book and I would buy it as a paperback again for easier storage. But this book deserves to be so heavy: there is just such a lot in it. And what gorgeousness!

It is chockful of photographs, initially as smaller index card style photos ('Visual Index') so you can quickly leaf through this section to visually identify what you are looking for.  This index tells you what page the larger photographs are on. So useful!

Often one of the pictures later on in the book will show a close-up of a detail, a cuff turned inside out, sleeves laid so you can see the most interesting part, a pocket flap turned back, the inside of a garment, etc.

Just look at this beautiful gusset, courtesy of the sleeve being folded out of the way:

The folded back tab shows an otherwise hidden seam and where the button is relative to the pocket flap:

The book is divided into several chapters: necklines; collars; sleeves; cuffs; pockets; fastenings & buttonholes; hems, darts, stitching & fitting devices; pleats, frills & flounces; embellishment; surface; and construction.

Going through the book feels like you've been to a fabulous vintage clothing exhibition but you didn't have to take your own photos hoping they'll come out well and show the details that caught your eye - instead it is all in here, in a very well presented way.

I love the shaped seam under the inverted pleat

This is in the Construction chapter, showing the inside of the dress

I know I will go through this book again and again: to look for inspiration, to remind myself of something I half remember and just for the sheer pleasure of indulging in this visual delight of what makes vintage clothing so fascinating and absorbing.

I give this book five out of five stars. I can only recommend it warmly: go find it, buy it.

"Vintage Details - A Fashion Sourcebook" by Jeffrey Mayer and Basia Szkutnicka. Laurence King Publishing Ltd, 2016

An interesting vintage pattern

I really like the new blog called Catherine's Patterns.  She is talking about vintage patterns and showing very beautiful examples. She will also introduce some of her own designs in the future. I am looking forward to that.

She showed a really lovely floaty number from the Jazz Age exhibition and a 1920s pattern from her own collection - both dresses have the bodice wrap around towards the back.  A really fascinating detail!

I must say that I didn't used to be that keen on vintage patterns because most of them look best on figures that are very different to my measurements so I feel that most vintage garments would not be ideal for me.

What I love about them is that many patterns show details and design features that you can't find in modern patterns. Take the side seam that Catherine wrote about: how lovely is that?  Have you ever seen a sewing pattern with this kind of side seam?  I don't think I have.

The follow-on thing from the above that I like about vintage patterns is that you can find very intriguing design ideas and if it is possible to isolate them from the rest of the pattern, then they might be a fantastic source of inspiration for copying to your own sewing projects.

Reading Catherine's blog made me think about what vintage patterns had found their way into my pattern stash (why does a stash feel like the Star Trek episode with 'The Tribbles'? They seem to multiply when I'm not looking).

And see, I had bought several!  Oh boy.

But most of them have some kind of detail that I really like and hope to use by Frankenpatterning the vintage element with a modern pattern that will fit me.  Not that I have already developed a template block pattern that fits me really well just yet, but I fully intend to get there one beautiful day.

Here is one I just had to get because of the collar, - well, the front view of the collar:

Vogue 9083. I believe this is a reprint so you can still buy this pattern

Just look how gorgeous this looks both as part of the dress and under a jacket too!  I just love it.

It is this kind of structural looking design element that appeals to me.  Having said that, the skirt is not at all bad either.  In fact I really like the pocket placement at the bottom of the side panel seam.  I wonder how difficult that is to sew?  It is probably a good idea to strengthen the corner of the centre front piece with a little bit of interfacing...

Never mind, back to the collar.

It tunrs out that it is not part of the dress.  The dress in fact is shoulder and strap less. The bodice part is a bustier shape with a horizontal seam across under the arms, and parallel to the ground all the way around. Who'd have thought.

The collar then buttons onto that bustier in four places on the front, the back of the collar hangs down and is not attached.

When I looked at the collar before I could study the pattern pieces, I had intended to make the back of the collar a very different shape to this sailor's collar rectangle. Perhaps a gentle curve across, or some more shaping to this curve.

I still want to go with a design change like that but I may have to make a top or dress that does have shoulders.  A collar that's much less high at the centre back could flip up in windy weather.  I am also thinking of sewing this to my top or dress (made from a pattern that fits me well) as if the back of the collar is a back yoke instead.

It would also make it easier to slip into a jacket without getting the back all squashed up.

What do you think of the idea?

Delving into my sewing patterns: V1164

Following on from my previous post on my sewing pattern stash, I had the sudden urge to look at a Vogue pattern with interesting Dolman-style sleeves.  I am not at all convinced that these suit my figure but I wanted a look.

I didn't find it* and got a bit frustrated until I came across another pattern that I bought because it has raglan sleeves and wraps over at the front.  I thought this would make a great pattern to make up in all kinds of different fabrics.  Unfortunately I failed to see that this is for knit fabrics only.  Darn.  That's not what I was after at all.  I don't sew well with stretch fabrics.

V1164

This looks like it could be a really flattering style and I haven't made anything like this before. I won't find out what this will look like on me until I make it up and try it on.

For my muslin, I found a cheap pink stretch fabric left over from another project (that didn't turn out well, damn) and cut it out. And even sewed it up!  I am very pleased with that.

What I learnt from working with this fabric: there is absolutely no point for me to buy cheap and thin jersey fabrics: I hate working with them and they look saggy and cheap. And they don't wear well either because they wrinkle like mad.

I still have some fabrics that are almost as thin (in purple, grey and light pink) but I think they weren't as cheap and hopefully don't wrinkle as much. I'll have to check.  When I bought them I had visions of making long-sleeved T-shirt style tops as wardrobe staples. But if I don't enjoy working with them, nor like wearing them...

I should try those firmer knits instead. But then again I'd rather work with patterns for woven fabrics and erode my humungous stash of those. So there is no Ponte knit fabric shopping in my immediate future.

I did have to buy something for this project unfortunately: the front pieces of this need to be lined - to finish off the edges and to stablise them. I don't want to try a woven lining because I don't think it'll work and I had run out of stretch lining.  The pattern recommended stretch mesh or tricot. So I ordered a meter of light mesh. Who knows when I'll get that and if I'll still be in the mood for carrying on with this project.

The pink muslin showed that the style is promising: the V-neck looks good on me and I'll have to see how a slightly firmer fabric will behave in terms of fit around my middle and near the shoulders.

If I make this with short sleeves again I will want to lengthen the sleeves at the top by at least 1-1.5 inches.  I have enough fabric for long sleeves for the actual project. I just need that lining fabric first.

But even though I've run into this delay: it is really good to know that I made a start with a type of pattern I hadn't used before. That's exactly what I had in mind when I wrote the previous blog post. 

Brush strokes: mainly pink/purple and dark grey

Vogue 1164: View A in grey on the left has some darts near where the closure sits, View B in yellow doesn't. I tried the non-darted version in my cheap pink jersey fabric. The pattern of my project fabric would look a bit weird if darted so I will probably stick with View B (see 'Brush strokes' above).

Both views use the non-darted front pattern piece (2) for the lining.


*: I found the pattern since: it is V1239, Chado Ralph Rucci. This one:

V1239

I now think that this is also not suitable for me, because of the sleeves. Where they connect to the front and to the back is very odd: as far away from under the arm as may be possible to get. Very odd. Possibly an okay style for someone much less busty than me. So I will give this one a miss.

 

I would like to use this pattern to Frankenpattern the neckline part with another blouse pattern though (at least with rounded edges, not corners near the chin) - that line is beautiful.