finished projects

UFO Revisit 2: Faux Shearling Pillbox

Leave a comment

Next up, my Russian hat. Heartless that I am, I’m replacing this long-lost John Lewis faux fur hat with a younger model:

Many a happy moments I had in that warm cozy hat, for it is very handy in damp cold Blighty. And I felt a billion Russian roubles in it! I was heartbroken when I lost it for the second time. (I eventually found it after the first parting. But no such luck second time around.)

I resolved to replace it. And as it’s a simple pillbox, it seems easy enough to make one myself. I had found this faux shearling in the same shade of brown at B&J in NYC. I had the simple oval and rectangle patterns drafted. I went as far as cutting out both pattern pieces. Then I stalled.

Why? Because I was terrified of the fabric.

I’ve never sewn furry fabric before. And while I’ve sewn faux suede before, the faux shearling looked too real and I got it into my head that this one will be unforgiving like real leather and suede. One sewing slip and your project is ruined. So it languished on the UFsO pile.

Circumstances (sloper fiasco & freezing wind) finally forced me to take baby steps with this ridiculously simple project. So here we are.

OK, so it’s more of a Fez than a Pillbox. That’s because I forgot to add ease for the thick hem. Always the ease! Bane of my sewing! But I think it’s still perfectly serviceable. In fact I’ve already worn it a few times out now.

Now of course I wasn’t going to be content with just a faux fur pillbox. It would be an abominable waste of an expensive faux shearling fabric! Actually, I lied, I was going to settle. So in awe of the task of sewing such fabric I thought I better not push my luck. But as luck would have it when I tried it on inside out while deciding what to do with the seam allowances, I fell in love with the shearling side too.

Don’t I look like a pixie in this one? Just needed some pointy ears!

Feathers courtesy of a friend. They must have had a pheasants & friends feast. I got a whole bag of loose assorted feathers. As for feather styling idea, well, time for some Ralph Lauren visual feast from my clipping piles again:

Love this jacket too, though I’m not sure I can carry it off with my non-Glamourzon frame.

Now that’s what I call feathers! Make mine look so puny. Now I got a serious case of Feather Envy.

And for a more everyday wear with my every(Winter)day faux shearling coat (good old John Lewis again)…Oh yes I would. Feathers don’t scare me.

2  down, 4 more to go!

Stay tuned.

UFO Revisit 1: Taffeta Bird & Blossom Pleated Skirt

Leave a comment

After wrestling with the sloper and losing, I decided to put that aside and attack my piles of UFOs instead. That’s UnFinished Objects as Frabjous Couture calls it.

Step up, Ms Rustly No-Breathing Skirt.

Remember this atrocity?

Not only does it strangle my middle and make my torso look matronly, it also itches the hell out of me with its plasticky zipper stops. I made the mistake of not sewing these into the waistband seam allowance. There were also weird tugs and pulls here and there. In short, unwearable.

And after a tweak here a tweak there?

Et voilà, a tad better. Just.

I totally redid the pleats and waistband. The latter is now more like 3/4″ thick. I don’t feel like a Square squatting over a Trapezoid anymore. The pleats are now angled to flare out over my Lager-than-I-thought hip. So there’s the unsightly diagonal drag lines zapped. Sweet.

This last tweak was a big lesson for me – and you too: same technique + different cloth = maybe  not as you thought. Now I so love forgiving potato sack cloth and hate, I repeat, hate stiff unyielding – and unforgiving – taffeta. Buy it at your (and my) peril.

In the process I lost a little bit of length. It moved the irritating zipper stops closer into the seam allowance, but I hacked off the plasticky zipper stop coatings anyway and blanket stitched over the end of the zipper coils with soft embroidery floss. You can never be too paranoid!

And good thing that I did too. For when I tried the skirt on, guess what, it’s still a bit too tight. It seems that (a) I’m in Absolute Denial about my expanding waistline, and (b) I was over-optimistic that 3/8″ ease would be enough, what with layers and layers of pleats and all.

In the end I had to trim off as many layers as I could. Gone the extra layer of stiff waistband interfacing seam allowance. Gone too are the seam allowances of the inner layers of the pleats – they are now left dangling below the waistband. I hoping the Fray Check and tacking them together will be enough to keep the skirt in one piece. We shall see if that again is wishful thinking.

And last but not least to be gone is the hem of the waistband self-facing. Instead of turning up and slip-stitching to the bottom edge of the waistband as I normally do, this time I extended the facing below the waistband and stitched in the ditch. So the facing hem isn’t caught in the waistband.

All this effort did eventually pay off and now I can breathe a sigh of relief. In the skirt. Phew.

And the final flourish

A few more stamens for a few more flowers…

…and few more feathers to send the birdy soaring

And a bit of wacky styling with home-made leopard mini-beret
for that OTT grand coming out party

1  down, 5 more to go!

Stay tuned.

It must be Karma…dress

Leave a comment

Plan B has veered off course as well. I’m feeling very run down and stressed out at work. So I’ve given myself permission to take the tortoise route to the Draft Along.

In the meanwhile, to keep you entertained, may I present…

my Karma Gingham Dress?

Karma because it keeps on coming back. I’m on version 3 now. Version 1 was about 2 decades ago. (I can’t believe I’m that old now!) I think I’ll probably still be remaking and revising this pattern until I’m pruny.

Today I’ll just showcase the dress, version 1 & 3. (I have no photos of version 2. It was during my Lost Years.) Please indulge me my pony show: If I keep on making this same dress, you know it must be LOVE…Then again, it can simply be Bad Fitting Skill karma.

Here’s the inspiration:

Another photo from NY Times Sunday fashion magazine
from long long time ago, in a land far far away.

Update: I stand corrected. It was actually a Frency magazine. Might have been Maire Claire bis. And probably S/S 87 or 88. The original dress is by Michel Klein.
Iconic isn’t it?

Version 1…

This must have been early 90’s. Youth and a pattern size 8 made it easier to carry off the shorter bodice and shorter hem without looking too street-walkerish.

About 13 years later, I attempted v2 with the same pattern, but in purple gingham. Maybe it’s the color, maybe it’s my body going south, something just wasn’t right. I felt stocky and exposed wearing v2.

So when it came to v3 I made some changes to the pattern and went back to good old B&W.

Version 3…



It’s as close as I’m going to get to the original inspiration without turning caucasian and taking up smoking and boat rowing. OK, maybe it’s more Bonnie & Clyde than Parisian Chic.

Anyway, I’m generally happy with the modified silhouette. The lowered waistline I think makes the waist look less thick. There isn’t a horizontal line  stretching the waist width-wise, which would have been further aggravated by puffy gathering. Instead this width emphasis is shifted down to my anemic hip, giving me more of a hour-glass shape than I normally have. The lowered hem also help lengthens the silhouette. Overall, more lady-like and befitting a woman of my age.

The Mug Shots

The fit still needs a bit of tweaking. Especially the back skirt silhouette. It makes my bum look droopy (which I’m sure it is, but there’s no need to shout about it).

It was even more twee originally when I had the skirt seams running straight from hip downward. It was bell-shaped and not slimming, I’ll tell you that. I tried narrowing the skirt below the bum. It now looks alright from the front. But the back is obviously still not  right. And now it’s also strangely constricting when I sit down despite the extra ease of the gathering.

So you can be sure there will be Karma Gingham Dress: The Next Generation. And when I finally get the fit right, I’ll be in Nirvana. That is if my shape doesn’t change so much that no amount of fitting will make the dress flattering anymore.

Stayed tuned for next installment: The Innards & The Oops.

I might even try to throw in some simple instructions on how you can draft your own version, that is if you already have a sloper and aren’t afraid of pencil, rulers, scissors, and a bit of cellotape.

Maybe one day I’ll figure out how to draft pattern on the computer and create downloadable patterns to save you the pattern-drafting hassle!

World, meet Crumb Catcher Cape

Leave a comment

As promised, here comes the sun and the show-n-tell…

Styled with suitably retro box handbag & pearls…

Or my beat up John Lewis handbag, held together now with safety pins. But fear not, for I’ve already planned to make a copy with scraps from the cape…some day!

With home-made close-fitting T-shirt (mentioned in previous WIP posts) and pencil skirt (part of a 2-piece dress. More another day.)

Simply posed, befitting a late 50s early 60s style cape.

Or decadently OTT with faux fur / suede WIP stole.

The obligatory mug shots

front side & back

The new double-welt arm slits sit properly at the sides.

One way is not enough!

Optional tie belt comes out of small slits just above the pockets.

The old arm slits are now handy cozy pockets.

Almost edge-to-edge lining keep scratch wool at bay.

Erm, I guess the lining could do with a good ironing.

And the ongoing sewing commentary

Most of the alteration & sewing details have been mentioned in previous posts. Here’s the rest.

  • Attaching the lining was a bit of a pain. I tried to bag it, but had to hand-sew the various slits.
  • And I still haven’t  figured out a good way to sew edge-to-edge lining so it doesn’t peep  at the edges. Inter-corners too were a nightmare.
  • The button holes I attempted with on the Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 830 with one-step buttonhole stitch. I had 5 or 6 to choose from. Lucky me. But in the end I went over again with hand-worked blanket stitches. Because the white interlining was poking through the cut edges. And because I want some practice for future bespoke tailoring projects. Lucky for me I have a men’s tailoring booking (Classic Tailoring Techniques: A Construction Guide for Men’s Wear). Because Claire Shaeffer’s Fabric Sewing Guide doesn’t have very good instruction on hand-sewing button hole. Well, not enough clear pictures anyway.

Finally, the verdict…drum roll please

All in all I’m quite pleased with the results, despite the less than stellar sewing. Hence all the smug shots. Hey, it’s not everyday that I finish a sewing project.

Now if only Old Blighty’s weather would give me a few more days of mild weather to wear my spanking new cape…

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!