inspiration

T-shirt Block. Again. (aka Burda 2012-09-123 part 1)

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So while Saffy’s at the sewing machine hospital, I decided to tackle fitting for my upcoming projects…By way of a detour of course!

I needed to get to grip with Burda sizing. So I’m using Burda 2012-09-123 as a basic T-shirt block.

bs-2012-09-123_tech   fabric-gold-lycra-wrongfabric-gold-lycra-right

The plan was originally to use the muted gold lycra from Tissu Fabrics / Tia Knight as muslin. But I’ve since fallen in love with it. Especially after seeing Dolce & Gabbana’s Fall / Winter 2013 collection…


Photo credit: Style.com

I loved Byzantine art when I took art history in college. All that old muted gold. Yum.

So the new plan is to make a proper version of Burda 2012-09-123. After much deliberation, I’ve decided to use the shinier side for the shoulder detail pieces and the darker, more muted side for rest of the body. I want to avoid my trunk from appearing thicker than it is.

Then play with the different tones of gold fabric paint to create mosaic design or Byzantine icon of some sort on the front. Hopefully one of the gold fabric paint will match the shade of the fabric’s shinier side. I might also add a line painting of something like this on the back!

(Machine embroidery design from Urban Threads.)

If I only had an embroidery machine…Though it still wouldn’t help on a stretch fabric like this!

Next up fitting alteration & muslining…

“Perfectionism is a disease, and a form of fear!”

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So said Kenneth D King in a short interview in Threads magazine as advice to the sewing novice.

“When learning the craft of sewing […], you should expect to destroy several acres of fabric before you get good. This is an acquired skill which can only be perfected by means of repetition—practicing over and over, learning from mistakes, learning when you can save something, and when you need to cut your losses and start over.

If you are afraid to make a mistake, afraid to ruin some fabric, or afraid to waste some time, you won’t ever get really good at this craft. It’s the dues you pay for becoming proficient.

However, if you are willing to charge forward, cut into that fabric, try something different, and risk making a mistake, there will come one day when you realize that you’re sewing without that knot of worry in the pit of your stomach, and the process effortlessly glides along.”

How very true! For me anyway. Hence that mammoth stash. But easier said than done. I’m back hammering at the moulage / sloper again. And I’m certainly destroying several acres of gingham. But no cigar yet. Maybe gingham is too flimsy to assess such close-fitting patterns. Maybe I need to lay waste to acres of my more expensive and better quality stash before I’ll have that elusive perfect fit. Oops there it goes again, Perfectionism at work! See what I mean?

And what do you think? Does Mr. King’s words ring true for you too? Do you think the effort to learn the craft is worth it? Or have you managed to leave Perfectionism by the road side and learned to live with “That’s Plenty Good Thank You Very Much!”?

Edited:

BTW, here’s an interesting article about Simmin Sethna, the woman who taught Mr. King the French Couture Pattern Drafting method of Ecole Guerre-Lavigne (now Esmod)

Older But Not Wiser

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Decades ago, when I was a relative sewing novice, I was much more adventurous with my sewing.

Slapdash Pattern Happy!

I thought nothing of my poor techniques, and happily dabbled with making my own patterns. Like this dress…

Apology for the blurry photos. My Mom wasn’t exactly ace with the camera and this was in the days before digital cameras. So you had to wait for the films to be developed to find out that you got some dud photos!

Note the stiff exposed back zipper. The collar probably wasn’t properly interfaced either. But it was my own design, probably inspired by some magazine photos. And then there’s this one…

What was I thinking of? LOL. My head was in the cloud back then. I don’t even remember making this one. (You know I must love you to share such unflattering photos of myself with you! 😉

Designer Love Love Love!!

Many were the attempts at copying designer clothing I liked but couldn’t afford. There was the Romeo Gigli coat wannabe I wrote about a while back. But my main love back then was the Japanese design house COMME des GARÇONS.

Here’s an example, modeled after a skirt from COMME des GARÇONS Spring Summer 1988 collection…


With the twinkly sequins and sparkling tear drop crystals, the lace skirt was like the widowed Scarlett O’Hara on a crisp rainy day. Rain in its romantic glory of course, not London gloomy.

And another inspired by COMME des GARÇONS Autumn Winter 1988-89 collection…

A red flannel pleated skirt with crochet lace embellishment and self-fabric belt.

I love that folklore inspired collection! There were many more ideas that I didn’t get around to try out.

From the next collection – COMME des GARÇONS Spring Summer 1989 – there were at least two more…


A gathered skirt with one panel folded back up at the hem and hand drawn Renaissance style Pierrot characters.

The blouse pattern was rather interesting. The sleeves were cut as one with the bodice, not separate pieces. They were like bat-wings extending up beyond the shoulder seam. Halfway up the armholes they separate from the upper armhole of the bodice, then were gathered and reattached to the upper armhole. You know those Japanese designers, they like their origami! And yes, those are pom-pom faux buttons.

Sometimes I’d take the liberty to “improve” on the original. Like with this Marc Jacobs dress. I made my version reversible.

Bring On Them Tailoring Challenges!!!

I also wasn’t afraid to tackle tailoring. Here’s my first Vogue suits – Vogue Pattern 9199…

The result is a bit conservative for me at the time, so I didn’t wear it much and have no idea what happened to it.

But then under the lens of the right photographer – my university friend in this case – even a plain old suits can look fashionable!

That suits though didn’t make use of proper tailoring. But this Vogue Pattern 1224 one did… Apology about the lack of mug shots. I guess I used to take sewing for granted so didn’t think to document my projects. Anyway, this one had the pad stitching, the hair canvas, the roll line tape  and everything.

Jolly Old Midlife Crisis!?!?!

So what happened? Well this for example:

Note all the drag lines. Fitting has never been my forte. Nor was picking the right proportion and silhouette. The V1224 suit above for example had wide lapels and extended shoulder that doesn’t really flatter my short-waisted figure. I also didn’t think to lower the waist band slightly to create the illusion of a longer torso. I mean a waist goes where your waist naturally is or where the pattern designer intended it to go, right? So naive I was. I simply took instruction and the pattern at face value. I didn’t think to customize it to suit my own figure quarks.

The other thing that happened was aging. Although I wasn’t great at fitting, stuff I made before didn’t look too bad. The T-Shirt above is actually a recent make. Shock Horror – my figure has changed. And in exactly the ways described in Fit For Real People! The rounded upper back, forward shoulder, fuller bust front and narrower back, fuller tummy, sway back and droopy behinds. You name it, I got it. Makes fitting so much more difficult.

Hence my current obsession with making slopers instead of lovely clothing from the Big 4 patterns  and Burda magazines I’ve collected.

What about you? Have you grown wiser with age and sewing experience? Have you ever hit a sewing midlife crisis like me & got over it? Please, please tell me there’s light at the end of the tunnel! 😉

How to do Candy Floss Sweet

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OK, so I’m a bit slow to the game. But Louis Vuitton Spring / Summer 2012 collection’s fashion show video still tickles my fancy. (Watch the video before it’s gone from their website!)

There are some things that seem a bit off from a Sewist’s point of view. Frabjous Couture wasn’t impressed by the poor pattern matching at the center front of Look 4 (the peach dress in the picture above). I find some of the silhouettes potentially lethal. If even the tall skinny models look a bit frumpy in Looks 6 & 11 what chance is there for mere mortals like us?

But the show itself is pure bliss. Cotton Candy Bliss!

And there are details I really like. There’s a graphical element to the designs that keeps them from being sickly sweet.

Like the broiderie anglaise in big graphical pattern. It’s funky, not tacky or matronly like some lace can be.

Same with the pairing of the lace and pastel croc leather.

Or embroidering over otherwise dowdy suiting.

And stiffer organza instead of limpy chiffon.

Plus plastic cut-out flowers that twinkle like little stars! Brilliant if impractical.

American Vogue had one of these twinkle flower dresses in a Mad Men style spread.

I swooned over it, which is why I got on the case and tracked these down so late in the SS 2012 season. But it’s fine by me. A lovely dress is a lovely dress is a lovely dress. My taste has no time table and answer to no Fashion Police! 🙂

Which is just as well. Because I rather like these ludicrous combination of hot pants and 3/4 sleeve tops!

All of these bring me back to sewing. Because I have this pink lace that has been in the stash of what must be 25 years. It was a present from my dad – he liked his women sweet. I had no idea what to do with it – I’m a New Yorker at heart, I don’t do sweet.

Now at least I have precedents to go by, even if this is not quite the right type of lace. I’ve got some cream organza ordered. But don’t hold your breath for results any time soon. These things have to gestate. So maybe another 25 years hence and you’ll see me wearing this lace alongside the lovely ladies at Advanced Style!

UFO Revisit 3: Faux Shearling Stole part 2

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Now where was I? Oh yes, getting crafty with the faux fur stole.

Years ago, I was seduced by this Jean Paul Gaultier loveliness:

Again I plotted to make myself one. Again I failed to find the perfect fabric. Now I’m in the neighborhood, though nowhere rich enough to afford yardages for a full coat, I can at least console myself with a pastiche of this (look above), and this (look below)…


My Chinese Painting skills not being what it should be, I had to settle for the ubiquitous dandelion design so beloved of interior designers (and me too)…

So I experimented with some decade old graphic design markers on a scrap. Added a bit of gold paint I bought for the Bird & Blossom Taffeta Pleated Skirt. I even digged out the chinese seal my parents gave me in time long gone. It may look like just doodles to you, but it’s a door to one of my alternate universes.

So here’s the Double A-Side of the Faux Shearling Stole:

Please note the stray faux crack lines à le manteau Gaultier. The dandelions are simple asterisk type shapes, with small crosses & dots at the edge of the pompoms for that distinctly dandelion look. Ok, the leaves aren’t dandelion leaves – more like spider-plants they are. But like with my crooked pseudo Chinese “calligraphy” who’s going to tell? (That’s pseudo calligraphy, not pseudo Chinese. I may not remember how to write Chinese, but I remember how to look it up on Google.)

(PS The words are from a famous Tang Dynasty Chinese poem I learnt as a child. It seemed vaguely appropriate as it’s about spring and falling flowers. You can find out more about the poem here or listen to it read in Chinese here. I almost went for a children’s spoof version about not bathing in the summer and getting mosquitoes bites everywhere, slaps in the night and wondering how many dead. Maybe I should have. Who would have known in London?)

And there’s the back-side for those walking behind me…

It was good fun. But I haven’t figured out how to style this side yet. This is my best attempt so far:

Hmm…Needs a bit more work.

I might add some thread loops at the side waist so I can tie it at the back for a less bulky look.

Or I might add some thread loops at the bottom edges so I can attached detachable faux rabbit feet à la So En stole I showed you earlier.

Oh yes, every sewing project is a big production. I hope the end results will be worth it!