Hoards

Byzantine dreams

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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?

May Day! May Day! Epic Fail!

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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?

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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

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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! 😉

Catching the Kimono Train

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I was reading about Chanel No. 6’s blue cut velvet kimono the other day, and thought I’d share my 2 cents from my clipping stash (and past obsession with many things Japanese, though mostly pop / modern).

So here’s the lovely kimono she made, with her step-by-step instruction inspired by an authentic kimono she got from a friend.

And here’s how to wear it
if you really must do housework in it…

Keeping Your Sleeves out of the Soup (and Laundry)

I’m glad I found this, for I thought my mind was going. I vaguely recall seeing something like this, but can’t find any evidence in my clipping stash. Must have been some girl’s manga I was into way back when.

I wished I had found it earlier though. I had made this kimono robe a few years ago. But it got little wear because…well, the sleeves was sharing my soup and much more.

It also doesn’t help that it’s a bit immodest in the back – thanks to not enough yardage as it was just another fabric from the stash. And as Channel No. 6 mentioned, you really do need a very soft, drapy fabric. Mine was a bit spongy – soft, but not limp enough. So it feels a bit too boxy for a shorty like me.

Construction-wise…

Mine is a little bit different from the version Channel No. 6 detailed. It also has the open underarm and inner edge of the sleeve flaps, but without the rectangular insert mentioned in her step 6.

I made mine unlined and reversible as I find the peach side more flattering for my skin tone than the lovely iridescent blue side.

Mine was based on a Threads article on kimono from Jan 1991. Unlike the recent Burda 7/2011-124, it’s all rectangular pieces of fabric…

It seems relatively authentic – if you can trust Japanese Jenny doll kimono pattern and instruction to be faithful to the real thing…

Variations & Styling…

I love the extra long sleeves of girl’s / single women’s formal kimono. So decadent! There are some styles that don’t seem to be as well known in the west. Like the middle picture below, which is a Meiji period school girl uniform.

Kimonos from different periods

Interestingly the Japanese versions don’t seem to be drapy. Yet the way they wear it still makes them look slim and elegant. I guess what looks like a padded middle and the resultant high-waisted effect create a vertical column that’s slimming…Unlike my unpadded attempt which by betraying a narrower middle paradoxically ended up exaggerating the width above and below the obi belt (actually a wide scarf ).

And the long sleeves of course further emphasize the graceful vertical lines. Love to catch a breeze in those!

Also note how the collar hangs away from the back of the neck in the most deliciously seductive way. As they say, less is more – just a tiny peak of a graceful long neck is way more enticing than acres of skin.

But can one pull off a Japanese styling if one’s not Japanese? I think I’d feel foolish. Costumy is not an issue, but I’d wouldn’t know how to move in it with conviction. And that, I think, is a key ingredient of style.

My all time favourite western styling of a kimono has to be this one from John Galliano’s Autumn/Winter 1994 collection…

John Galliano Autumn/Winter 1994

Supposedly he was so broke he had to resort to cheaper lining fabrics for this collection. Yet the result is stunning.

A real shame then about his recent disgraceful behaviour. But I’ve never been one to put talented people on pedestal. So the fall in no way affects my appreciation of his designs.