Patterns and toiles for the Peacock Dress

I've started drafting patterns and making toiles for my Peacock Dress. There will be several more...

First I sewed the bodice of Gertie's wiggle dress (Butterick B5814). I've said it before; I'm not made for patterns drafted by somebody else. I was right in the middle of the two envelope sizes but went for the smaller one since I know the huge amount of ease the Big 4 uses. I checked the measurements for the finished garment and they were a centimetre smaller than me but still the bodice is way too big, and way too long - the proportions are totally off. And all the drape happens somewhere below the bust. The sight of me in it just isn't something I'm willing to share on the Internet - but you can see my points on my dress form as well.

Next step was playing around with a pleated / draped bodice of my own. That was really fun! I also wanted a version with the draping overlapping each other, as on the Modes Royale pattern.

I used the picture of the pattern pieces and worked on that to understand the design, and although one attempt was better than the four others, I still didn't quite figured it out. To stop me from getting in a really bad mood, I sewed the first bodice - the one I drafted - instead.

This is my first try drafting a pleated / draped bodice (I mean, like ever), and I'm extremely pleased. The fit is amazing if I may say so! But I want more pleats and a sharper v-shape, and also a bit deeper neckline, so I'll continue to work on this.

I made two different backs - one with draping from centre back and one from the side seam.

I had an idea for a third one; like an attached train but decided against it an early stage when I just played around with fabric on the dress form.

Then I made a long list of things I should work on, some small details and some major design ideas. I might give the overlapped draped bodice another go, and I'll try with a godet instead, both in the side seam and centre back seam.

My plan is to have the pattern ready by Easter, along with all material I need. So I have plenty of time and am actually thinking about sewing something in between. A silk blouse? A black skirt? A blue or green dress...?

The (very) simple little black dress

This really is my version of the Background Dress or the Second Look Dress. It's a black fitted dress. 3/4-length sleeves. High neckline in front and in the back. A simple vent. The only embellishment is the bound edges of sleeves and neckline. And I felt like a million dollars wearing it!

As I said, I continued my work on my Ultimate Dress Pattern. I changed the two front darts to four, and continued with split bust darts. I didn't make a toile this time but used the sky blue dress to estimate the fit, changed the pattern, cut the wool, basted all 12 darts (or 16 really - two on the shoulder, two on the sleeves as well) and pinned the rest of the dress - side seams, centre back, shoulders, sleeves... - and tried it on.

It was so good! A little less fabric over the hips, but most changes were needed on the sleeves and armscye - I removed almost all of the ease from the sleeves which surprisingly gave not only really nice fitted sleeves but also more arm movement. I'm a rather bright girl, but sometimes I just don't understand fitting.

Oh and the fabric! It's one of  my most recent buys, from Lisbon. A black wool crêpe, and lined with my favourite mix of acetate and cupro. It's so nice to work with and so nice to wear. The satin bias binding is in rayon.

Centre back is stabilised with twill tape and the zipper is prick stitched by hand. I used a new-to-me technique that I really loved (except that I did it by hand and without drawing on the right side of the fabric) and will be doing a lot more in the future.

Since the crêpe isn't the most stable of fabrics, I used twill tape for the shoulder seams as well, and rayon tape when I put in the sleeves. (Why rayon instead of twill tape? Because there's absolutely no give in the twill tape, but there are some in the rayon tape and I want some movement in the sleeve.) After I sewn all the darts I thought about underlining. Should I have underlined the entire dress in the acetate-cupro instead? Or with silk organza and then lined it as usual? Time will tell!

I cut the neckline and sleeves without seam allowances and bound the edges with bias binding - first one seam by machine and then I prick stitched by hand in the ditch, enclosing both the wool and the lining. The lining is fell stitched to the centre back seam.

I finished the seams in wool with a zigzag, while the lining simply is pinked. Both hems in wool and lining are finished by hand. As you can tell, the construction and sewing were really straight forward, and nothing complicated. (I think the most difficult was taking photos of a black dress in January...)

I could wear this dress more or less every day. Love it.

It's a dress!

I know! And it's not a two-year project that I finally finished; it's a dress from pattern to hemming in just two weeks (and that's rather impressive to be me)!

But most importantly, it's been fun. As you might have sensed during the spring; I haven't sewn, I've had a major wardrobe and style crisis, and also a bit of identity crisis - if I don't sew, what do I do?

But I do sew!

Anyway, the pattern is my own; the Ultimate Dress Pattern but let's say we're not quite there yet. There's still something about those sleeves. And I didn't make it in the Liberty fabric as planned, since I just couldn't decide on sleeve length, and neckline and lining or no lining and I went crazy with not being able to just do it, so I changed the fabric to this lovely sky blue cotton sateen (cotton satin?) that I bought last time in Paris. I did some project planning and started to cut. Oh well.

Since the last I sewed was the slippery fluid fabric from h*ll (also known as silk charmeuse and an absolutely a dream to wear) I thought it would be nice with a simple cotton. Ha. This was almost as fluid as the silk and didn't want to get cut at all. And for some reason, very difficult to mark. A bit hopeless to sew and press as well, and my, does it wrinkle! The fabric is a bit too drapey for the simple and rather structured design I chose; it would be better in a more stable fabric. I didn't think at all about combining the right pattern with the right fabric; I just thought cotton and summer. So next time. And some tweaks for the sleeves.

To get a really good fit I used double darts on the back and split bust darts as reminded by Did You Make That. The more seams, the better the fit. I finished the seams with rayon seam binding, a favourite of one of my favourite bloggers Laura Mae, but it was not my cup of tea. Perhaps it was more difficult because of the drapey fabric, but the amount of time and thread and it still looks a bit wonky... I didn't have enough seam binding for the inside of the sleeves, so I used one of my own preferred ways to finish a seam, the clean finished seam, also knows as the turned and stitched seam. (It happens to be one of Alison Smith's favourites as well, and she says it's perfect for vintage sewing and is very sturdy, making it suitable for children's clothes.)

But I did like seam binding in the armscyes, but sewed it by hand. I think it went almost as fast as with the machine, no harsh words were uttered and the result turned out so much nicer.

I supported the facings and the entire centre back seam with silk organza, and stabilised both shoulders and neckline (front and back) with twill tape.

The zipper is handpicked; both because I think it's the safest way to insert one(I've never had to insert a zipper more than once when I do it by hand. When I do it on machine there's always some little mess and I have to un-pick at least a bit.) and because I think pick stitches are so fun to sew. So that's what I used to understitch the facings as well.

As you can see above; double darts in the back, and the handpicked zip. When the dress was almost finished - just the hemming left - I remembered that I read about the couture way to sew a facing. I must remember that next time; I really don't like the standard way of sewing right against right side, flip over, notch and understitch. Now I need to remember that for my next dress.

The hem and sleeves are first clean finished and then hemmed by hand. And I even did a little arrowhead tack (or at least, my version of an arrowhead tack...) at the end of the slit with silk buttonhole twist.

I wore it the other day to work the other day and felt really good in it. Perhaps I was a bit generous with the ease, and I should have taken in a centimeter or two in the neckline back; it's gaping a bit. The fabric wrinkles when you wear it, but not as bad as I thought. (And of course I spilled some food - grilled chicken -  on it. I only do that when I wear a new dress. The grease is gone, but there's a light shadow from the water stain. Darn.)

(It's so fun with a tripod and remote to the camera!)

So what's next? I really must give some of my vintage dresses some love so I can wear them a bit more. And I have a baptism coming up in October and what better to wear than a dark blue pencil skirt in lace?

Vintage clothes from the inside

As some of you may know, I am obsessed with the inside of clothes. Vintage, couture and home sewn clothes that is - they are exciting. Modern insides of ready-to-wear is just plain boring. (Evidence of this obsession can be found here - here - here for example - and In the atelier & inside the clothes on Pinterest.) So imagine by delight when my sister told be that there's an exhibition on Landskrona museum with focus on the inside!

So I made a little trip to Landskrona. Had some rather boring lunch near the castle (no duck...) and then went to the exhibition. It was small, but good, with clothes from late 1700's to the 1970's. There were no signs telling me not to photograph, so I did (without flash. Don't worry.). The clothes were either behind glass or netting, making it rather difficult to see the details in the photos, but I'll try to explain.

This rather simple evening gown is from the 1970's and made by Märthaskolan. (Märthaskolan was a school and fashion house in Stockholm, Sweden between 1927 and 1975, named after princess Märtha and founded by countess Marg von Schwerin. The school educated seamstresses and tailors in high fashion for ladies, and the fashion house was one of few in Sweden sewing couture. They had a French department, sewing original French designs on license from for example Christian Dior, Chanel and Balenciaga.) The dress is underlined with - I presume - silk organza. It's a metal zipper, the seam allowances are wide and overcast by hand. The dress was also fully lined in something thin and white (as you can see in the photo below), with delicate laces along the edges. Very neat!

This is a vintage cocktail dress in pink-brown duchesse. The hem of the skirt is shaped with stiff underlining (some sort of non-woven, non-fusible paper-like thing). It's sewn to the hem, but hanging in straps from the waist to avoid stitches in the skirt. I've never seen anything like it - it seems rather uncomfortable with those straps? Wouldn't it give better support if the whole skirt was underlined with silk organza, and then the very heavy backing could be attached to that? The upper back is supported with what looked like cotton, and then dress shields under the arms to avoid sweat stains.

A very handsome coat for the gentleman from the 1930's. Look at the piping around the edges! I can't even imagine how to do that! The coat was a really heavy wool, and than lined with this lovely silk.

This is a rather simple, unlined coat from the mid-1930's. It's in wool, but you can see silk finishing the sleeves, and that the armscye is bound in silk as well.

The outside was a rather strict suit in dark purple from the 1910's. But on the inside, it's those lovely stripes! I would say that the clothes from early 1900's to 1930's had the most elaborated insides. And of course, there was a huge difference between clothes for the upper class and for the working class and farmers. The latter was a sad - but interesting - story, with patches upon patches to keep the clothes together.

At the same time, the insides were rather like each other through the decades. Rather wobbly straight seams, first sewn by hand and then my machine and almost exclusively hand overcast edges. It was only on some of the finest garments the sewing was straight and neat.

Speaking of exhibitions; before I picked up my new old sewing table I visited Bea Szenfeld's exhibition at Dunkers here in Helsingborg (again. I was at the opening night as well). She really is amazingly creative. I love the bathing suits that weighs several kilos and are too heavy to swim in and the clothes from the white collection (all in paper). Lady Gaga likes it as well.

(It's very popular to put clothes in exhibition behind black netting obviously. I wonder why? It's rather annoying. But sure, there's no reflexion like when you have them behind glass.) Bea held a lecture a couple of months ago as well, and it was fabulous. As usual. For instance, about creativity, she said that it's one big mess spinning around in the head and sometimes some of it comes out and becomes something. She also spoke lovely about craftsmanship - to be able to see the hands behind the work.

What to wear?

My identity crisis in the wardrobe continues. I wrote about it in January, but felt rather confident about my winter clothes and the keywords Tailored - Ladylike - Strong - Luxurious. It proved to be a bit more difficult than I thought.

I haven't sewn as much as I thought/hoped. As I've said before, I find it hard to be creative when I'm creative at work - and I have been. I can't think about sewing after ten hours of project management.

I do have a new exercising habit. At least two times a week, with either a very good PT or a very good Pilates class. It changes the body.

My vintage is falling apart. Literally.

And almost only dresses for winter and fall.

Luckily for my wardrobe crisis, spring and summer has taken forever to arrive. But now it's here and I feel like I have nothing to wear.

I'm not the only one going through changes. Liz of Xtabay Vintage apparently did the same some time ago. She managed to come out on the other side - I have my doubts about me doing the same.

Today I tried on all dresses that are suitable or at least wearable during summer (meaning, wool and heavy silks not included). It took about an hour, felt like an eternity and left me with a mixed feeling of "I really don't have anything to wear" / "who am I and what the h*ll happened" / "I might as well kill myself" / "I hope I can go to dinners and cocktail parties all summer, because that part of the wardrobe is rather nice".

This is what I'm left with. I like the colour scheme. That's good. But then...

There are a couple of "no, not really but I actually have to wear something" - the white with blue roses to the right, the lime with diagonal checks, the white with tiny blue flowers and the blue with white pattern on the left (bought for nothing in India). The white with pale pink roses is a border line case of like and don't like; I need to wear it in real life to be sure. The lilac with feathers, the bright blue and green and the mint green lace are only for dinners or times when I really feel like it. The dark green could be too warm for summer.

Dresses in numbers:
4 not really, but...
1 perhaps
3 for those special times
5 yes (as long it isn't more than 25 degrees C. And 2 of those are a bit on the fancy side.)

The rest:
2 yes-skirts
1 perhaps-skirt
1 yes blouse (but to wear with what?)

This is the no-no-no-pile. Including the coral one I made for myself a couple of years ago. There is a time for everything and for letting go.

And the alteration pile.

I love the dark silk dress, but the fabric in the sleeves is completely torn. If I remove them I can at least wear the rest for a while. But perhaps that one is too fancy for ordinary days as well? I think I've worn the black-and-red once a week for the past year, but after spending almost 24 hours straight in it after serious problems with the train system, it really needed a wash. So I actually dared to put it in the laundry machine. It shrank a little bit (but that was only good/see exercising above) and some seams and the hem need reinforcement. The blue-grey silk is a favourite of mine; I love the colour and fabric but the fit below the waist is actually awful those days.

Should I hope for a cold summer or take a really long holiday on Iceland (but those dresses aren't made for rain either...)? I've spent a couple of hours the past few days searching for both inspiration and actual dresses. and it made me even more unhappy. If I just stay inside and wear some black jersey...?

The Wardrobe Architect Summer (on Pinterest) is very limited. And I don't even like to be on the beach that much. The Ultimate Dress Pattern is on its way; I'm working on toille number three. The changes between one, two and three are tiny - some more here, a little less there. I'll cut a new set of sleeves before moving on to real fabric; my posture has changed due to all that exercise so my front shoulders (if you understand what I mean) needs a lot more space.

So what do I wear tomorrow?

Spring is flying by

Ouch. Time flies. When I wrote the previous post I had a feeling that I would take a week or maybe two to re-group and get back on track. It's now been four and I don't know if I can say I am on that track.

However, it's not like I've been feeling bad - I've been feeling great! But all my thought, creativity and energy has been used for starting up a rather grand project at (my regular day-to-day) work. I'm simple not capable of being creative with dresses and fabrics after 10 hours at being creative with words and project management - and I do love the beginning of a new project!

But yesterday, I was back at some Stina P-activities, visiting Malmö vintage fair for the last time (you have found me there in 2012 (here and here), 2013 and 2014.) Last time because the organisers says it is their last - but maybe someone else takes over? I do hope so!

It took me about four minutes to decide on my first buy, a lovely vintage fabric. (Yeah, I really need more fabric since I've been sewing so much lately...)

A very pale green (sometimes a pale pink) shimmering satin weave acetate. It will make a lovely dress (of course).

The next trio took a bit more time. I tried it on, thought about it, was able to put it on hold for an hour, thought some more about it, called my sister ("you only regret what you don't buy"), thought for two minutes more and then bought the lot. A black silk faille 3/4-circle skirt that fits perfectly, a dark green and black 60's little number and an AMAZING French black silk faille dress with draping from the 50's and as close to couture that I have ever been.

Black always photographs so bad...

Lovely detail on the boat neck on the black-and-green one (and of course there are lingerie guards in the inside!).

And some details of the silk faille dress. The draping is interlined with silk organza, then the viscose lining and finally a firm cotton to hold the shape. The zipper is put in by hand, there are lovely gussets in the kimono sleeves and I actually don't think it's ever been worn. (Neither has the green one, part of the original tag was left.)

Elyane - Rue de la Paix, Paris. That is one fancy address! I can't find so much information, but it seems like they made lots of hats in the 1950's. And some very nice dresses.

So what else have I been up to these past weeks? Well, looking through my photos; eating a lot.

Chocolate for Easter. The pralines actually cost five times more than the hen...

Roasted sweet potatoes, fillet of pork and home made Bearnaise sauce. And cava. And season three of The Great British Sewing Bee. Neil is amazing - I hope he wins (I have two episodes left, so please, no spoilers!)

Enjoying spring, sun, being outdoors, some shrimp salad and the horizon that I love so much. Some days there is no question at all about why I live in this town... Also, trying to decide on the colour of my bedroom walls (I've only been trying since I moved in. In 2010...)

I think I've made my mind up - this lovely sea green shade actually goes very well with the more yellowish green of my screen.

I do hope that this is the beginning of getting back on my regular track. If not, please have patience with me!