Crinkles

You, dear blog reader, are so unfailingly gracious in your comments! On some level, I am aware that my design aesthetic may differ from yours. On this, a day when I am posting a project that may not be your cup of tea, I would like to thank you for never, ever, telling me that my projects are ugly. I appreciate the restraint that at least some of you show when I go off on my more arty tangents.

My favorite store in the world is Takashimaya in New York. You know, in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" when Holly Golightly is describing Tiffany's and she says something like, "Nothing bad could ever happen there"? Well, that's how I feel in Takashimaya. It's very quiet, there's lots of space around the stuff, and the merchandise is gorgeous. I would move in there if I could. It used to be better, though, because they used to have flowers and gardening supplies in the very front as the first thing you saw when you walked in. Now, it's handbags, which is annoyingly like all the other stores. They have the best shopping bags in New York. I got to go there a couple of weeks ago, and saw this great dress made of crinkled sheer silk with silk plaid trim. I probably should have bought it to help the economy, but I really wanted to make it.

One of the fabrics that I stash is silk organza. I buy it at Paron whenever I go there and just keep it around. It's incredibly useful for all kinds of things. I happened to have several yards of this dark blue, which is nice for the holidays.

The original dress that I saw was sleeveless, but after thinking about it a while, I decided to put sleeves on mine. I get cold easily. The dress is a double layer and the sleeves are a single layer.

For the trim, I used a plaid silk taffeta from Mood. I cut it on bias, and seamed it on the bias as well. I catchstitched the raw edge to the dress using silk thread for a fairly flat seam finish. The trim is on the hem, cuffs, and neckline.

After I constructed the dress, I put it in the washer in a mesh bag. When I took it out, I twisted it tightly while it was wet and left it to dry (still twisted). When it was dry, I un-twisted it and now it has the crinkles that give it shape.

I sewed the seams before I cut the fabric. Vertical seams in bias cut garments can be tricky, so I avoided them in this dress. I took the fabric (45" wide or so) and folded it as above, then stitched the selvedges together to make a bias tube.


After stitching the tube, I cut out the dress as above. I cut 2 so it is self-lined. The part at the bottom of the photo is the front, and the part at the top is the back. The pattern is based on a bias-cut top from bwof 8/99 that I have made several times before.


I stitched the top of the neckline and the shoulder seams. At this point, I could not fail to notice the resemblance between my dress and a hefty bag.

Here's the dress on the form. The reason that I took a photo of myself in the dress at the start of the post is that the form does not show the dress in the best light. This dress needs a body in it.


neckline detail

Meeting New Friends

Marji from Fiber Arts Afloat was in New York for a class last week, and she arranged for some of us who are part of the online sewing community to meet! It was so much fun. The conversation was interesting and everyone was just as smart and stylish as I expected. Thanks, Marji, for arranging this!

I ran into NancyK at B&J a couple of hours before we were to meet for dinner. She recognised me by my jacket, which had been pictured on my blog. I felt like a bit of a movie star.

From left to right in the photo are: Carolyn, Robin, Marji, Mardel, me, LindsayT and NancyK.

Me wearing my clothes

There were a couple of comments like this one to my last post:

Karin said...
Very nice skirts. I would love to see the combinations you'd make with your other clothes, by the way. They sound like some cute outfits!

I keep a Flickr album about What I Wore. I was updating it every day for a while, but I'm taking a little break because I've photographed pretty much my entire wardrobe at this point. I did update it today, though.

Here's the link to my album

My Winter Uniform

Sometimes when I'm feeling a bit adrift, it helps to adopt a uniform so I can feel more like myself. I've decided this winter's uniform will be short skirts, tights, and layers on top. To that end, I just made 3 short skirts from the same pattern. It's really fast to sew identical garments. I stacked-and-whacked the linings, then assembled all the linings out of silk twill first. Then I assembled the blue and black skirts using black thread, then the tan one using tan thread. They came out really nicely, and I have worn 2 out of the 3. Actually, I had to take the blue one off my body to photograph it, which is why it is wrinkled. The fabrics were all from a Michael's bundle.

The pattern I used was from BWOF 7/08. I like it for a couple of reasons. I like the yoke, which is comfortable to wear. The pockets are very handy. The slight pegged shape feels current. Also, the pattern is drafted with a wide hem allowance and the instructions call for several layers of topstitching at the hem. One problem with short skirts worn with tights is that they tend to ride up. I think the wide hem and the topstitching will add some weight at the hem, which, combined with the slippery lining, will prevent this from happening.

Reversible Coats

The Christmas card photo. It's enough to strike fear in the heart of every suburban mom. So, of course, I have to make my kids matching clothes so they will look properly coordinated for the annual Christmas card photo competition. Thankfully, my kids like nothing better than dressing alike. I wonder how many more years that will last?

The pattern for this coat came from the latest Ottobre. The recommend that you use a reversible fleece, but I made it a bit more challenging for myself and used 2 home dec fabrics. The pink is, I believe, a cotton-rayon blend. The purple is a very plush purple velvet. I bought both fabrics in London and have been waiting for the right pattern to come along.

It was actually fairly complicated to make the coat reversible. I put together the body of the coat first, then attached the 2 sides together, then put the sleeves on. Perhaps there's an easier way. I did the whole thing by machine, because machine stitching is more durable and I actually want these coats to get worn.



button detail

Digital Photo Question

katherine h said...
. I wanted to ask a question on an older post of yours, where you showed the negative of your black denim jacket. Do you take your photos digitally? If so, can you tell us how you get a "negative" of a digital photograph. Many thanks, Katherine

I think I am quite clever for doing this, so I'm happy to share my methods. I use Photoshop, because I got accustomed to it many years ago when I worked, and the once you go through the steep learning curve with Photoshop, it's hard to think about learning another image editing program. I'm sure you can do this with other, less expensive, software, as well.

Open the photo
Choose Image - Mode - Greyscale
Choose Image - Adjustments - Invert

OK, now that I look at the steps involved, I realize that I'm not really all that clever for figuring this out, but there you have it.

Flower Headdress

I love making Halloween costumes! DD wanted to be a flower this year, so I found some fuchsia cotton and some pink silk to surround her head with petals. I put buckram in the petals for interfacing, and zigzagged florist wire into the seam allowances to hold the petals up. Still, they could stay up a bit better. I think if I do something like this again, I'll make sure to use very lightweight materials. The petals are just too heavy. DD likes it, though, which is the important thing. The headdress buttons onto the hood of the sweatshirt.