Bye bye me mades

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No, this isn’t an announcement of retirement from sewing. But I had to say goodbye to a few me-mades (and a few more RTWs) to make room in my luggage for new fabrics from NYC.

I think I ended up with some 46+ yards of fabrics. And that’s after I gave up on a few more swatches collected but couldn’t locate again when I went back to the store! I could have squashed more into the suitcase, but I was already some 20+ kg over the weight limit. And that’s after ditching almost all of my outbound suitcase content. MR had to come to my rescue. So half of my purchases are currently in Dubai on a business trip. I think one is a lurid turquoise & peach snake-print lycra (from Spandex World). Very professional. Hope his boss will be impressed.

So here are the me-made lovelies that sadly I had to say bye bye to…

The Formerly No Toilet Dress

Self-drafted No Toilet Retro Dress This was a self-drafted silk dress that I never blogged. I’m a bit sad to leaver her in NYC because I’m quite proud of her construction: The bodice underlining & interfacing made the top part look smart without undue stiffness in the skirt, & the whole thing is nicely fully lined.

But the pattern fit just wasn’t right. Initially I couldn’t even go to the loo without having to undress. (So that’s a No to jumsuits then.) I did managed to let out a teensy bit from the skirt SA below hip. (Let that be a lesson to you & mostly me: Too much pencils skirt tapering is only passable in a skirt, not a dress. At least not if you don’t like fussing in the toilet & making other ladies – and little ones – wait longer for a stall.) But it’s still a bit hard to sit in & I wear it in fear of wardrobe malfunction. So that’s bye bye wiggle dress.

The Mono-boob Drape Top

5-style-4 This was a wearable muslin originally for a Knit Top Block, then for Burdastyle 2013-02-113.

While the color looked good on film, I said goodbye to her with less tears because I was never fond of her mono-boob look. Maybe the neckline at CF is too high. Maybe it’s just the wrong detail for my boob shape. Maybe the CF rusching wasn’t dramatic enough.

Anyway, I only ever wore it on a can’t-be-bothered day, and only ever with this pair of RTW jeans which is too loose at the waist. So bye bye unibooby one hit wonder top.

The Reverse Prayer Pose Top

V2686 Back Buttoned Sleeveless Sheath Top Another fitting experiment. This one tested FFRP’s tissue fitting and fit-as-you-sew approach on out-of-print V2686 by Tom and Linda Platt. She wasn’t entirely successful – the back still had that dreaded sway-back-ish drag lines.

But that’s not why I let this go. The real reason is that I’m not as flexible as before. The Reverse Prayer yoga pose needed to button this up at CB simply isn’t in my repertoire anymore. So bye bye contorter top.

That’s it for Me-Made Bye Byes. The rest were RTWs. I know where my loyalty lies 😉 All were donated for recycling at Union Square. I hope the me-mades eventually find a good loving home, as two of them are nice silk shantungs. Would be a real shame if they do a reverse Cinderella.

I’ll leave you with some LOL wacky lycras spotted in Spandex House that did not come home with me:

Hmmm, I think I like my food better in my mouth, and cute puppies better on YouTube! But you little ones, you go right ahead & have fun with these!

First conquest in NYC

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And I hadn’t even check into the hotel yet! We arrived too early for check-in, so waited at Bryant Park. I stopped by Kinokuniya Japanese book store, where I picked up Ryuichiro Shimazaki’s men’s coats book.

I’ve been tempted ever since Peter of Male Pattern Boldness gave us a peak inside. The pea coat he made from the included pattern looked fabulous & oh so professional. But as it’s men’s coats, and I only really do selfish sewing, I stalled.

Then earlier this year, after seeing my me-made trench, my brother joked about getting me to make him a Burberry Wannabe. So I checked out this book in store to see if it’ll help. The detail shots and the photo styling sold it to me. That and the fact that nothing else in the store was calling my name. (Could be jet-laggedness. Or could be that my taste changed. Or maybe Japanese fashion changed. Or all of the above.)

All I have to do next is to learn to read Japanese and figure out how to do transatlantic fittings. Or so I thought.

Well, it turned out I needn’t have worried my pretty little head. My brother was smart enough to know that he could be waiting a long time to get a trench out of me. So he went ahead and save up for the real McCoy. It was just as well since he’s obviously a Burberry snob, and probably wouldn’t have been gratified by my run of the mill trench without all the neat details that goes into a real Burberry. I manage to get some photos of these details. Some of them are actually shown in the book as well.

Burberry Men’s Trench Details!

‘Chin Flap’???
Keep them chin warm!
Funky belt details!
Huh?
I’m not really a vent…
See, not really a vent!
Bog standard pocket
Bog standard pocket
Bog standard pocket

Shimazaki’s men’s coats book Pattern No.1 details

Shimazaki-Mens-Coat-book-pattern-1-detailsFascinating innit! Not sure I’d bother with all of them details myself. But the sewing geek in me just can’t resist peaking.

The Burberry trench itself does look quite good on my brother. I’ve read elsewhere some complaints / concerns about them being a bit too big and baggy. But this one has a smart slim fit. Maybe those complaints apply to trenches from the yore years when baggy was in. As for personalized fit, the only alteration the store could offer was sleeve length. That’s where being able to sew a wannabe might come in handy. There is only so much that RTW could cater for. We’ll see. Maybe someday this book will come in handy. If not for my brother, maybe for MR – if I could ever convince him to dress up outside work!

Hop hop & away

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OK, now I’m back from epic shopping in NYC, I can finally catch the tail end of the Blog Hopping train. Thanks for the nomination, Chris of Make & Wear! 🙂 Let’s see if I can keep this short.

1. Why do I write?

For the same reasons that other sewing bloggers write I think:

  • It’s a creative outlet. (Thank you WWW!)
  • And a way to find other people out there like me. (ET phone home!)
  • And to return the favor as I live vicariously through your sewing blogs! (There’s only so many hours in a day. Plus not everything I like looks good on me. Or suit my lifestyle. Or are achievable with my sewing skills / resources. So I’ll just pretend to be you for the glory moments, bypassing all the sewing PITAs on the way!)

2. How does my blog differ from others in its genre?

Hmm, seems more like a question for marketer bloggers who are trying to make a living out of blogging. I don’t think it’s really relevant to be different. Especially for the purpose of finding Life As I Know It out there! So maybe the question is more like “what’s your tribe”, or “what’s the password”, or “sum up your sewing blog in 5 bullet points”. You know, so your fellow ETs can easily identify you and let you into their Speakeasy. So here are my bullet points. Sort of.

  • Style-wise: I guess I’m more contemporary designer RTW with a dash of street and deconstruction. Well, late 80s onward anyway & always a good few seasons behind the curve. I also like vintage, historical costume, and some couture as well. But they don’t fit my lifestyle that well. And I can’t do serious sporty to save my life.
  • Pattern-wise: I’m veering towards draft-my-own. Because most of my inspirations come from RTW. And my current basic blocks aren’t based on commercial fitting patterns. So draft-my-own seems the quickest way to gratification design & fitting-wise. But I do want to eventually make up some of the commercial patterns I own. Haven’t done any Indie patterns yet. Again, fitting alteration being the stumbling block. And the fact that most styles seems fairly basic, so not warrant the trouble of figuring out fitting alterations needed.
  • Sewing approach: You know the RTW vs ‘Couture’ fight. I’m agnostic. I will try different approaches to see which will give me a good balance between effort & reward. Sometimes machine is better because my hand sewing sucks. Sometimes hand sewing is easier because my machine skill sucks. I don’t need anything that’ll last forever after having suffered through figure changes (and just plain old poor design choices and deficient fitting skills). But I do want to do enough to avoid wardrobe malfunctioning!
  • Writing style: Yeah, sorry about all the in jokes and mongrel lingo & cultural checks, and questionable command of grammar & spelling. I did say this is my creative outlet. So you’ll just have to put up with it if you drop by. Work anal retentiveness also spill over. I put information in buckets for a living. So headings & bullet list galore it is then. And I love my mug shots & ‘improvements’ on the Pattern Review format! I wish more people would do the same! 🙂
  • Plan for World Domination: None. So no tutorials. No sew-alongs. No pattern releases. None of the wonderfully social things that popular sewing bloggers do! I am an introvert after all.

3. How does my writing  process work?

Painfully! I have tried to write spontaneously sometimes. But most of those languish in the draft queue then dissipate into thin air. What you end up with are mostly project summaries. Which are tedious because I want to be useful. I tend not to write work in progress posts because they seem harder to use as a reference. Too many red herrings and wild goose chases.

4. What am I working on?

Tote Bag v1.0Next up on my sewing To-Dos must be a new tote bag to replace the one I made almost two years ago. I’ve been using it almost nonstop. Must be my most successful project ever! And I would continue to use it if it weren’t for the garment grade dark brown vinyl I used for the accents. That has worn away in many stress points, like the bag bottom corners. This time I think I will try home furnishing grade fake leather. And maybe use that for the handle as well since the fake suede I used in v1.0 fray like crazy. I’m staying away from real leather. Because leather bags always seem to weigh a ton.

But first I need to catch my breath and rest my feet after days of pounding that NYC pavement. And earn some more £££ to feed my sewing habit, what with the damage to my bank account that this NYC trip must have done.

5. Nominations

This is getting tougher as more and more bloggers have already done the hop. And others I follow seem too professional / business-like to participate in this sort of thing. So here are my victims, who I think all share my contemporary (quality) RTW aesthetic…

Well, it’s sort of a plan…

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I tried. I really did. But I just couldn’t manage a proper SWAP. You know, the type that’s logical & lays the foundation for a capsule wardrobe. And requires too brutal a decisive mind. I simply couldn’t. Too many temptations calling out from the stash.

So here’s what I ended up with…

0moodboard-2

Looks really scary doesn’t it? And this is only for fabrics in my stash. I might add something else to the menu after my NYC shopping trip. I certainly need some basic fitted long-sleeve Ts & cardigans in blacks and browns. Plus there’s also Michelin Man waiting for its nip tuck.

Some of these are actually just me trying out different options for the same fabric, either because I can’t decide or I don’t know whether I’ll have enough fabric. So even if I manage all of these there will only be…29 items!?!?

My, that’s still a lot. And why are summery camisoles in the plan? As I told you, there’s no logic to it. Just bunch of fabric sirens calling out to me, whispering what they feel like becoming. I’d be happy if I manage a quarter of these by Spring :@)

What do you do with a knitting wader?

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k-eddie-mmRemember my Michelin Man sweater? It was suppose to look this glamorous.

Edie from Precious by Kim Hargreaves

Look so soft & chic doesn’t it? But mine, which is knitted with Rowan Kidsilk Aura – equally soft & cuddly – came out more the hand of a sweatshirt knit. It took so long to knit and the result was so catastrophic that I haven’t try knitting after that. But while I was fooling around on my recent projects photo shoot, I thought of a way to maybe salvage poor Michelin Man.

I was trying to see if Michelin Man would look better shorter. And the shape I ended up with reminds me of these cool looking Alexander Wang sweater / sweatshirt editorials I clipped a while back.

 

Wang Wannabe ?
Alexander Wang SS 2014 in You 9/3/2014
Wang Wannabe ?
Alexander Wang SS 2010 in Vogue May 2010
Wang Wannabe ?

I haven’t altered Michelin Man yet. For the photo shoot it was only temporarily altered with safety pins. But what do you think, should I go ahead & permanently alter this to be an Wang Wannabe?

It’s still a difficult shape to wear. Especially without the skyscraper heels that I reserve for photo shoots only. But cool outfits often push the boundary of good taste. Straddling that fine line is probably what makes them so irresistible. Like moth to flame, you’re not sure you can love them but nor can you look away!

If you knit garments, what do you do with a knitting wader? Especially one that can’t be frogged. (I’ve tried. All that mohair fluff won’t part.)