Month: August 2011

Byzantine dreams

Leave a comment

OMG, I can’t believe I’ve just finished not 1, but 2 sewing projects! Granted, both left a bit to be desired in the fitting department. But still, it’s unheard of. Almost.

London weather being dull as ever, no evidence of my minor achievements just yet. Instead you’ll have to make do with part 2 of my Gigli coat quest. Nope, you haven’t heard the end of it yet! :o)

While Gigli attempt no. 1 was hibernating, I stumbled across Folkwear 503 Poiret Cocoon Coat pattern. It’s vaguely Gigliesque. So I thought I’d try a store-bought pattern for a change as my attempts at copying designer garbs have been a bit of the luck of the draw.

The example on the pattern envelope is a bit ugly to be honest. But I thought with a classier fabric it might look glam enough. So I plucked for a gorgeous brown cut velvet with silver-gray satiny lining.

And here’s the result…

Well, the almost-finished result anyway. You see, the trouble is once it’s mostly made up I lost heart. It felt more like a dressing gown for Ladies who Lunch than a Byzantine Princess Coat. So I never put the finishing touch on it. Instead it’s been languishing for years in the TBA pile.

A real shame as I  even added some nicely finished welt pockets with almost perfectly matched pattern. And extra double-welt pockets in the lining as well!

(Why anyone would want to laden such delicate coat with dead weight is beyond me now, but I vaguely recall being obsessed about lack of pocket practicalities in women’s clothing back then.)

Here’s the not so graceful back view. The drapes just look wrong so low down. It reminds me of an oversized diaper: Squarish. Bottom heavy. Not very flattering no matter what shape you are.

Here’s a Poiret illustration for comparison.

And it gets weirder. Here’s the batwing. I feel like a flying squirrel. Or is it the sleeve equivalent of a Hammer pants? 😉

If I were to do it again, I’d go for something a bit more like this:

But given my lack of success with the Gigli coat attempts, I doubt I’ll try this style of coat again. Especially with the advance of middle age spread where my already small frame subcomb to gravity and grow sideways!

Instead I think I’ll look to my old favorite Comme des Garçons for inspiration on refashioning this lovely cut velvet coat.

Comme des Garçons Fall 1996

Probably not another coat though.

Maybe a top like this sketch I drew of a lady in a CdG top at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I love the contrast between the austere muslin and the sumptuous cut velvet.

So maybe I’m not cut out to be a Byzantine Princess. But a Byzantine Peasant wouldn’t be too much to ask for innit?

Taking the scenic route with Gigli wannabe coat

10 Comments

Unlike the Selfish Seamstress and her recent finished-in-less-than-a-day dress, I take the scenic routes with my sewing projects.

V 1159 is simmering along nicely. It only took me like 2-3 weeks to research, trace out & adjust the pattern, order & prep the fabrics, and finally cutting out the pieces. Still need to transfer the markings. And sewing up, that’ll probably take another week or two at 2-3 seams per day. All relatively rabbit-fast to the tortoise that is my Romeo Gigli wannabe coat from ages ago.

Here’s the inspiration…

At $4000+ back in 1989, there was no way I could have bought it. So I vowed to make a copy. Fortunately I was able to examine one in a store (though how good I was in analysing and recreating is a totally different matter). Here’s my rough pattern sketches from back then.

Even more fortunate was a runway report from Paper magazine which had this close up of the embroidery. I was able to trace and enlarge the pattern on a copier. It saved me from having to recreate it freehand.

So the flurry of activity started in 1989. But it took me another 13 years to finish the coat, partly because I got bored of all the hand applique and embroidery, partly because I moved across the pond so the project had to go into hibernation like forever.

Here’s the end result.

Unfortunately, it turn out to be a massive oops.
(That unlucky 13!)

Oop no.1: As usual, I didn’t check the scale and silhouette first. The coat swamped my frame. I eventually gave it to a friend who is taller and fuller than me. Her vivacious personality and socially active lifestyle really brought the coat to life. In my hand, it just languished in the closet. She wore it out, even for grocery shopping, and got compliments after compliments. Once she was in Harvey Nicols (a very posh London department store) and a gentleman asked where she got it. He wanted to get one for his wife. The other time she was at the opera in NYC and another lady also complimented the coat. Made all that effort so worthwhile, even if it wasn’t me wearing it.

Oops no.2: Cotton velvet wasn’t the best choice of fabric. It wasn’t as drapy as rayon or silk velvet, so looked bulky and too big on me. And although the coat looked like it should be quite cozy, it was actually not very warm. Again probably the cotton to blame. (Didn’t help that I’m a girl of the Tropics either.)

Oops no.3: I didn’t think through the button-hole choices and went for hand sewn ones. Turned out a bit wonky. Luckily I had some stretch brown cords which I was able to fashion into fancy loops that pretty much covered up the wonky button holes.

Not an Oops: The embroidery I’m quite proud of. The applique was made with China Silk, outlined with green embroidery cords. The embroidered parts were backed by wadding to give the collar and cuffs a bit of body, maybe a tad too much. Here are some close-ups.

Here’s what it looks like inside.

A fittingly Tragic Romantic Ending…

Sadly the coat was too delicate to withstand the fast paced lifestyle of my friend. Buttoned up the bottom is rather narrow. So one day one of the buttons came off, not being able to cope with her grand strides. It tore the fabric where it was attached to. I tried to repair it clumsily with fusible. Of course that didn’t work with velvet. So now you see the outline of the fusible patch where the tear was. My friend decided not to take it back as she felt guilty about the tear.

So like a faded grand dame it has retired back into my closet. But I’m glad it had gotten a good leash on life. Better to have lived and be torn than to be pristine in a sterile ivory tower!

May Day! May Day! Epic Fail!

2 Comments

I must be the only person who’d go fabric shopping on Goldhawk Road and come back feeling a failure. And I blame you lot! Before I started reading all your sewing blogs and forum posts, I was happily oblivious to dirt cheap fabrics. Now I’ve gone the other extreme and am shocked at the prices these shopkeepers want. £3.50 for a meter? Are you kidding!

There’s also the problem of these shops being owned mostly by folks from the Indian sub-continents where haggling might be part of the shopping experience. I can’t haggle. In one of my previous lives I must have been a German or a Japanese – stickler for rules and order. So I managed a meager £1 off 5 meters of fabric. Not enough for an afternoon cuppa.

So backtracking a little bit…The whole reason I went shopping again was to find tricot lining for the Vogue 1159. Of course no one at Goldhawk Road had any idea what tricot is. To be honest, nor do I. So I came home with 5 meters of this drapy synthetic turquoise knit. And now I’m thinking the color’s too nice to hide inside. Besides, it’s not as light-weight as I’d like for lining. So massive Fail!

Back to online shopping it is then.

Speaking of which, after much kerfuffle, my package from Minerva Crafts & Fabrics finally arrived. On the positive sides, the prints actually don’t look too bad.

The snake-skin print is actually see-thru. I mean really scandalously see-thru! So I think I’ll be doubling up or lining it so the print will be more visible and not wasted.

Now the solids, they were a bit of a disappointment. Both were darker than the pictures on the website. The green one was like the evil twin. “Duck Shit” color is how my other half describes it. Thanks honey. And I got 5 meters of it too. It’s only saving grace is it feels rather cushy and velvety. Unlike most of the others, which feel like 70’s polyester.

Of course what I must remember is I got these fabrics to practice on. So it doesn’t matter if they’re not fabulous. And with that I leave you to go shopping again. Fingers crossed that elusive tricot lining wasn’t just a legend.

Rules are meant to be broken right?

Leave a comment

Tacky or Edgy?

Having riled against cheap fabrics what do I then do? Order some potentially tacky snake-skin print jersey over the internet of course! 😀

So the deed is done. In a few days, my stash would have gone up by 6 pieces or 18 meters. Three more and it’ll tip over. (If only the stock market is doing as well!)

At least none were over £2.99/m, and a couple even £1.99/m. And luckily I found the shop’s own website (www.minervacraftsandfabrics.co.uk) so was able to get free delivery as well. I had originally found the shop on eBay and would have paid at least £15 in postage. But the shop was very helpful. They helped me cancelled my eBay orders so I can order direct and save. Whether they can help me with tacky fabric choices or not is a totally different matter!

Here’s a couple that could be duds or gems:

    

Don’t ask. I always seems to fall for muddy colored fabrics that look interesting in themselves but terrible on me! }:-) I’m hoping these will look more Vivienne Westwood or Jean-Paul Gaultier than, erm, cheap club kids?

Vogue 1159

As for next project, I’ve settled on Vogue 1159 Donna Karan dress. Like a few others I’ve decided to go for a plain knit, but in a mid- to light-tone to better show off the drapes. At the moment I think it’ll be either one of  these new acquisitions:

At £1.99/m, the dress  will cost me a mere £4 if I succeed. Amazing. I’m not sure what to do for skirt lining though. Presumably it needs to be stretchy. But stretch lining come in such limited range of colors. I might try to do without the lining. Need to study other’s attemps more.

And I will definitely do something about the low armhole, see if I can raise it a bit at the pattern stage. Thank goodness for Pattern Review (though website-design-wise I like knitters’ Ravelry much better). I’m also not entirely sure I like the back sleeve view. A bit too sporty looking for me. One to sleep on.

One step forward two steps back

2 Comments

The weight of the next project hangs around my neck. Sigh, sewing shouldn’t be so stressful! So I’ve decided to go fabric shopping. Again!

You see, since I’ve started reading other people’s sewing blogs, I’ve realised the errors of my way. I get my fabric fixes mostly in NYC. So splashing out on expensive fabrics is the norm. In fact, on my last trip the cheapest was $7/yard. And that was for China Silk, good mostly for expensive lining or lingerie. Most are at least 3 times that. Hence my reluctance to make anything, especially as fitting is not my forte.

So I got three options on the table at the moment.

Option 1…

Finish the T-shirt block that’s a bastardization of Burda 2011-06-120. I chickened out with the pattern. Comparing the pattern to my store-bought T-shirts the pattern always won in bagginess, even with the looser-fitting store-bought T-shirts. So I’ve decided to take 4+” off at the hip and waist, 3+” off at the bust, raise the underarm seam / shrink the arm hole, shorten the bodice, and scoop out an U-neckline. So by the end, it bears little resemblance to the Burda original. I’ve got a fabric picked out – actually a tiny scrap I got from someone else. As expected, it curls a bit at the edges and grain isn’t straight. I’ve just got starch to sort out the curling. So it is ready to go. But rather uninspiring.

Option 2…

Perfect a basic sloper with the aid of Connie Crawford’s Patternmaking Made Easy, then figure out what modifications I’d need to make for each of the pattern brands. Once done I imagine I’d be able to churn out projects after projects like a well run Chinese Sweat Shop!

But gosh, it seems like an awful lot of effort to get there, and I’m not sure my web-conditioned attention span could cope.

Options 3…

Do as all you lot do – pick a pattern and just check the fit with really REALLY cheap fabric. That would of course require shopping for more fabrics!

So much for whittling down 191 pieces of fabrics. All of my recent projects bar one failed to diminish that pile. Frugal me managed to use the bare minimum so that I can squeeze yet more projects out of the scraps. So the current count remains. Maybe minus one – it’s awfully hard to keep track of that many pieces!

I’ve got a couple of patterns in mind already. Both Vogue Donna Karan. Both  inspired again by you lot…

So why these two despite everyone saying the patterns are rather difficult to understand, let alone alter? Well, that’s precisely the point. If it’s almost impossible to alter I’ll have no choice but to just make it without fretting about perfecting the fit first. But that of course hinges on using cheap fabric that I won’t regret messing up. Hence the need to go fabric shopping again.

See there is always method to my madness!

So I’m tending towards Option 1 while finalising plan for Option 3.  I’d imagine it’d take me a while to figure out where to get dirt cheap fabric in London / UK that isn’t utterly revolting. (Sorry, I can only go so low, the NYC snob that I am at heart! 😉